Prince William and Kate on their first royal tour as a married couple, visiting Ottawa for Canada Day celebrations. This is Kate after her apparent Dukan diet attempt.
Happy Diet Season! It’s no secret that one of the most common, if not the most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. In fact, the diet/weight loss industry is a 60 billion dollar industry in the United States. People are always looking for new ways to drop a few pounds and in return, the diet industry is readily available with new weight loss strategies and techniques.
It can be difficult to keep up with all the weight loss trends and to know which ones really work. So, in response, I have taken the liberty of doing some research to find a few new diet trends that “really work, “and have taken Hollywood by storm.
The first is the Paleo Diet, also called the Caveman Diet. On this diet you eat a lot of animal protein and natural carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and a variety of nuts. Megan Fox is rumored to have followed the so-called diet of our ancestors to lose her baby weight. This diet may be easier to stick to than other trendy diets because it is less restrictive the longer you are on it, so you actually have something to look forward to.
The second trendy Hollywood diet is known as the Dukan Diet. Created by Dr. Pierre Dukan, it is also referred to as the “French Atkins Diet.” Gisele Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez are two celebrities who are fans of this particular diet. Kate Middleton and her mother were also rumored to use the Dukan Diet to slim down for the royal wedding. This diet works because it is CRAZY, you will lose weight because you will be starving. There are three phases to this diet. In the first phase, known as the attack phase, you are only allowed to eat small portions of lean protein each day. Also, so that you do not pass out, you are required to drink half your body weight in ounces of water a day. In the second phase, also called the cruise phase, vegetables are allowed back into your diet, just not starchy ones like potatoes. Finally, in the consolidation phase, or phase three, you are allowed to incorporate fruits, grains and dairy into your diet.
The third super trendy Hollywood diet is the Raw- Food diet. The Raw-Food diet is precisely that; you eat raw food. Demi Moore, Amanda Seyfried and Uma Thurman are all supposed celeb fans of this diet. Nothing you eat on this diet can be cooked higher than 118 degrees Fahrenheit. So, the majority of this diet consists of fruits, vegetables, uncooked soups and smoothies. If you are committed enough, this is actually a very healthy way to live, because the majority of food items contain the most nutrients before it is cooked.
Hollywood loves these diets because, if followed correctly, you will lose weight. However, the reason you will lose weight is because these diets are extremely restrictive. If your experience is anything like mine, you will lose 10 to 15 pounds in 2 to 3 weeks, just to gain it all back, if not more, a few weeks later. Not to mention the anxiety you will feel every time you have to attend anything where there will be food. On a side note, our bodies actually need carbs and dairy, both of which are restricted in these diets. Carbs give us energy and help contain moodiness-because carbs are delicious and delicious food generally makes people happy, and dairy—which contains Vitamin D—is how most people get calcium.
My suggestion on losing weight this year is balance- which is easier said than done. Try the 80/20 rule. Eat healthy 80 percent of the week, and the other 20 percent of each week allow yourself to enjoy the foods you don’t eat every day. Let’s make it a resolution to change the way we think about food and the word diet this year. Food is meant to give us energy and life, and just like life is meant to be enjoyed, food is meant to be enjoyed.
