The Rosedale Diet
When I was 18, thanks to a high school teacher, I started seeing a doctor of alternative medicine. He changed my diet in order to fix my hypoglycemia. My new diet largely consisted of eliminating sugar and refined carbohydrates. I immediately started to see results. I had much more energy and I never experienced mid-afternoon food comas. I also lost a lot of weight. I no longer craved sugary, starchy foods.
Throughout college, I was able to keep it up, but when I started working and spending long days and some weekends at the office, I found it harder to keep up. Still, I tried my best. I managed to limit the weight gain. Then I started graduate school and the s*** really hit the fan. I was constantly studying and worrying. I became so stressed and pressed for time that I started to eat whatever was quickest. The result: I gained about 20 pounds over my first semester. After the first semester, I realized that doing well in school was not really worth killing my health over, so I paid extra attention to what I ate. I stabilized my weight, but was unsuccessful with losing the extra weight I had gained. Happily though, I felt better because I was eating better. After all, you are what you eat.
About 5 months ago, my wonderful alternative medicine doctor recommended I try the Rosedale diet. I've always been very suspicious of fad diets and was a little suspicious about this low-carb diet. But I trusted my doctor of 7 years and I tried it. I started losing weight, albeit very slowly. Still, after a month, I realized that emotionally I felt happier than I'd ever felt my entire adult life. The first day or so, I thought I was just having a good day. But after a week, I started wondering why I felt so consistently happy. This newfound happiness was especially meaningful because it was the month before my Master's thesis was due. I couldn't believe it. All my classmates started panicking, my life descended into chaos, and I couldn't stop smiling! I was ecstatic! The book doesn't mention increased happiness as a side effect, but that's probably because the author is a doctor and let's face it, its really hard to scientifically measure happiness (Although Bhutan sure is trying, they replaced their measure of GDP with a measure of Gross National Happiness).
Now that you're dying of curiosity about this diet, I will reveal to you its main principles. It consists of eliminating sugar and grains from your diet and replacing them with lots and lots of wholesome vegetables. But it also encourages you to increase your intake of good fats (monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids) by eating more of olive oil, olives, nuts, avocado, salmon, sardines, tuna. Another central component of the diet is moderating your intake of protein, because any protein that your body doesn't use to repair or make new cells is mostly broken down into simple sugars (this is why the Atkins diet doesn't work in the long-run). The main goal of this diet plan is to lower your body's leptin levels. What is leptin, you ask? Leptin is the main hormone that regulates appetite and weight loss. It tells you when to eat, how much to eat, and when to stop eating. When your body produces too much leptin, you become leptin resistant (similar to insulin resistance). It takes longer for you to feel satisfied and it triggers a vicious cycle of overeating (which only makes you more and more leptin resistant). I know this diet is probably really difficult to swallow for those accustomed to eating high carbohydrate diets. But think of this diet as an ultra-healthy version of the Mediterranean diet.
On this diet, I have not only lost weight, but I have become a more happy person. I also eat much less, not by restricting myself, but because my appetite is smaller and I now know exactly when I'm full. I never crave foods either, which makes this diet much easier to follow. Next week is my graduation and I am the same weight I was when I started my degree program two years ago. Overall, I've lost about 18 pounds so far. And even though I am graduating with an enormous amount of student loans hanging over my head in the worst job market since the 1970s (Read-I have no job yet), I have not lost my newfound happiness.
P.S. Most of the recipes I will post from now on will be Rosedale diet friendly recipes and they will be tagged with "Rosedale Diet".
Throughout college, I was able to keep it up, but when I started working and spending long days and some weekends at the office, I found it harder to keep up. Still, I tried my best. I managed to limit the weight gain. Then I started graduate school and the s*** really hit the fan. I was constantly studying and worrying. I became so stressed and pressed for time that I started to eat whatever was quickest. The result: I gained about 20 pounds over my first semester. After the first semester, I realized that doing well in school was not really worth killing my health over, so I paid extra attention to what I ate. I stabilized my weight, but was unsuccessful with losing the extra weight I had gained. Happily though, I felt better because I was eating better. After all, you are what you eat.
About 5 months ago, my wonderful alternative medicine doctor recommended I try the Rosedale diet. I've always been very suspicious of fad diets and was a little suspicious about this low-carb diet. But I trusted my doctor of 7 years and I tried it. I started losing weight, albeit very slowly. Still, after a month, I realized that emotionally I felt happier than I'd ever felt my entire adult life. The first day or so, I thought I was just having a good day. But after a week, I started wondering why I felt so consistently happy. This newfound happiness was especially meaningful because it was the month before my Master's thesis was due. I couldn't believe it. All my classmates started panicking, my life descended into chaos, and I couldn't stop smiling! I was ecstatic! The book doesn't mention increased happiness as a side effect, but that's probably because the author is a doctor and let's face it, its really hard to scientifically measure happiness (Although Bhutan sure is trying, they replaced their measure of GDP with a measure of Gross National Happiness).
Now that you're dying of curiosity about this diet, I will reveal to you its main principles. It consists of eliminating sugar and grains from your diet and replacing them with lots and lots of wholesome vegetables. But it also encourages you to increase your intake of good fats (monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids) by eating more of olive oil, olives, nuts, avocado, salmon, sardines, tuna. Another central component of the diet is moderating your intake of protein, because any protein that your body doesn't use to repair or make new cells is mostly broken down into simple sugars (this is why the Atkins diet doesn't work in the long-run). The main goal of this diet plan is to lower your body's leptin levels. What is leptin, you ask? Leptin is the main hormone that regulates appetite and weight loss. It tells you when to eat, how much to eat, and when to stop eating. When your body produces too much leptin, you become leptin resistant (similar to insulin resistance). It takes longer for you to feel satisfied and it triggers a vicious cycle of overeating (which only makes you more and more leptin resistant). I know this diet is probably really difficult to swallow for those accustomed to eating high carbohydrate diets. But think of this diet as an ultra-healthy version of the Mediterranean diet.
On this diet, I have not only lost weight, but I have become a more happy person. I also eat much less, not by restricting myself, but because my appetite is smaller and I now know exactly when I'm full. I never crave foods either, which makes this diet much easier to follow. Next week is my graduation and I am the same weight I was when I started my degree program two years ago. Overall, I've lost about 18 pounds so far. And even though I am graduating with an enormous amount of student loans hanging over my head in the worst job market since the 1970s (Read-I have no job yet), I have not lost my newfound happiness.
P.S. Most of the recipes I will post from now on will be Rosedale diet friendly recipes and they will be tagged with "Rosedale Diet".
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