Fat Smash

Three-and-a-half years ago, the wife and I went on a special diet. This guy’s diet:

The author is Dr. Ian Smith, and you may or may not know him from a reality show called Celebrity Fit Club. Yes, we watched it for a season back then, which is why we picked up the book. Well, after a rough first day or two on the diet, we both wound up losing weight. I lost 7 pounds in the first nine days.

Guess what? Nine days ago I tipped the scales at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my entire life. That’s scary. Mid-life crisis scary. I couldn’t even fit into my fat pants anymore. So, we took one of our B&N gift cards and picked up Ian Smith’s book, and went on the diet.

Results?

Again, I lost 7 pounds in the first nine days.

Hooray! I can now fit into my fat pants again. (FYI, the wife lost 5.5 pounds.)

What’s all this business about “the first nine days”?

Smith’s diet works on three phases. Phase I, which last for nine days, is the detox phase. Your severely limited in the types of food you can eat, but not the quantity. Your allowed a wide range of fruits and vegetables, some oat meal, some brown rice, a tiny bit of cheese, egg whites, and some other odds and ends. No meats, pasta, sugar, or breads. And you’re only allowed water and green tea.

For nine straight days.

It isn’t so bad as it sounds. In fact, your body quickly grows accustomed to the healthy food. The effect is like a man crawling out of the desert to an oasis of cool, refreshing water. Sure, the first day I had a killer headache that would not go away, and two minor headaches later on. It’s the bad stuff coming out of your system. Yes, I had random cravings here and there, mostly for chocolate, but they only last for 30 seconds or so, and each time they pop up they’re weaker in intensity.

Want a concrete example of my change? My standard lunch would be a can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup mixed in with a cup of pasta. That’s something like 1200 calories and 10 or 12 grams of fat! And I’d have this every single day of the week. It was a ritual for me. On the Fat Smash Diet, I now have a giant fruit salad consisting of half an apple and a banana, all chopped up, plus two dozen grapes, two dozen blueberries, and a quarter cup of granola. You know what? It’s actually delicious. I now look forward to it (I have to say that granola’s essential). So now I’m eating about a third of the calories and a fifth of the fat, on a daily basis, and getting so much more in vitamins, nutrients, and fiber.

Phase II lasts for three weeks. This is the foundational phase. We’re allowed to eat skinless, broiled meat, a lot of seafood, some more dairy, and some healthy cereal. This is where you train your body to expect to eat better nutritionally and calorically. Phase III, the construction phase, adds more variety and trains you to work in “treat” foods.

Of course, you’re expected to exercise throughout the program.

So, we’re staying on the program during the holidays. Yes, there will be cheat meals, but we made a pact not to seek them out. If a plate of pasta is laid out in front of us by our hosts, well, we’ll eat it, but not gorge ourselves on it. And then eat extra clean at the next meal.

Nine days ago I was 30 pounds heavier than when I left the hospital in February of 2009, and though that was not a healthy weight for me back then, I’m looking to settle in about 10 pounds heavier than that. All while increasing my cardio and firming up a bit with some free weight exercising.

I heartily recommend Ian Smith’s book.