Once in awhile, the advertisers come up with something funny instead of downright dumb, and this time the Special K cereal has got the post holiday edge that's sure to tickle any funny bone. If you haven't seen the ad, it's worth paying attention to when the commercials come on!
A child is slowly wandering down the stairs and notices a big red robe with some white fuzzy trim on it. In her innocent glee, she cries out “SANTA CLAUS!” The camera angle dramatically shifts to a shot from inside the fireplace, revealing it's not Santa, but Mommy. To paraphrase, the advertiser's line reminds the person about all the holiday cookies she ate, and then kicks into the Special K diet pitch.
Just before New Years' Eve, I was in a health food store picking up a few odds and ends, when I saw this couple that couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old, talking to the person behind the counter. The man was looking to buy a common product some people swear by for fast weight loss: Hydroxycut. It's a junky product and definitely won't solve his long-term goals of being a ripped stud muffin for his lady. Instead, his wallet will be much thinner and he won't be able to afford his girlfriend.
It's also ironic that the FDA fined several of these big name products and/or manufacturers for their false claims just in time for the New Years' resolution rush. The government doesn't always act in a timely manner , but at least this time they got it right. I just wish they had gone further and pulled more junk products off the shelf. These products do work, but what price are you going to pay in terms of your health?
We are naturally lazy creatures who demand fast returns, and the latest and greatest diet products do give us those returns. What's so bad about that? Have you ever seen a ripped guy who starved himself to death? He looks like a floppy chew toy for the family dog; his skin hangs and he will never have any definition.
I'm not a fan of diets at all. I hate them just a little bit more than I hate exercising, but both are necessary evils. Constantly I find myself being lured back into the old mindset and forget those “solutions” were nothing more than temporary fixes. It's easy to be sucked into the slick, sexy ads that show six pack abs and butts so tight you can bounce quarters off them all day long. Who in their right mind wouldn't want that? So with our New Years' resolutions, we run to the stores and buy the vitamins and swear to ourselves, “This year I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna lose the weight!”
The best advice I can give you is to avoid the quick fix route as one fat butt to another: don't diet and move!
“What do you mean, ‘don't diet'? How am I supposed to lose weight?” Here's where the old thinking comes in to trap you and your wallet into making foolish mistakes, and since I've been down this road I'm speaking from experience. My goal is to lose sixty pounds by May 1 st , 2007; will I get there? I hope so, but it's anyone's guess and squarely dependent on my actions.
So often you hear claims about pills or aides that will help you to lose weight, but inevitably it comes back and brings a few “friends” with it. You always get fatter after you go off a diet, so that's why I'm urging you NOT to diet. The other problem no one talks about is how diets slow your metabolism down, which is the last thing you want to have happen. “Staple bologna to my face, but don't slow my metabolism down! Anything but THAT!” A slow metabolism is the kiss of death in every diet out there and results in more frustration with the dreaded diet plateaus. We get frustrated and give up when we can't break through it fast.
Here's a new concept: forget about losing weight...aim to lose fat. “Isn't that the same thing?!” Absolutely not! Weight is an overall measurement, whereas fat is a specific component. You can lose weight on the junky stuff like Hydroxycut, but the actual question you should be asking about this type of product's performance is what kind of weight am I going to lose?
Most weight loss products center on losing water weight and are loaded with diuretic components, which dehydrates your body. How can you pass fat and waste products from cellular activity if you've dehydrated yourself in a short period of time? You can't. The more your body holds onto these waste products, chances are you're self-contaminating yourself.
