I'm not a dieter.  I've watched my wife yo-yo diet for years.  I don't have a lot of faith in fad diets, I feel they usually do more harm than good.  I kind of snicker at people who pound away on treadmills, because I already know that these things burn up more muscle than fat.  When I've needed to control my weight in the past, I've changed my lifestyle.  Over the last few years, I have injured and re-injured my back, forcing a negative lifestyle on me.  I couple of months ago, I had enough.  I was as heavy as I had ever been and felt like crap.  I was in near constant pain.  I went to the doctor and found my cholesterol was 329.  I'm now on Zocor.  I was forced to diet.

I went to a chiropractor for my back.  I usually take his advise with a gain of salt, he and my MD usually disagree with each other and I rarely fully agree with either.  He does have a Nutritionist on staff, however.

My wife and Step-daughter had already been on South Beach Diet.  My Doctor and Chiropractor suggested the Mediterranean Diet.  I started eating meals out of the South Beach cookbook with my family for breakfast and dinner.  Immediately, I felt worst and could not sleep.  I started eating Mediterranean Diet lunches, pasta and beans, salad and beans, beans and beans.  I backed off almost all processed foods, red meats, animal fats.  I'm reading labels.  I'm not a purist.  I still have an occasional pizza.

I ordered the Hibernation Diet book from Amazon.co.uk, not because I had any stock in it.  As a beekeeper the principle amused me.  Eat honey and lose weight while you sleep?  Surely you jest.

Well, the basic diet suggestions in the book, I was already doing. Except for the honey.  For a guy with bees, I really don't eat that much honey myself.  I'm still in the habit of adding sugar to my coffee.  I started eating honey at bedtime and in my morning coffee.  I've boosted my fiber and fructose intake.  I've added whole wheat carbs.  I'm not eating the oily fishes suggested in the diet. (yuck!) I started taking flaxseed oil supplement.  I switched to almost fat free everything.  I'm using olive oil instead.

I'm sleeping better, almost like a coma.  I feel much better in the morning and have more energy over the day.  More surprisingly, the couple of days I skipped the honey yielded an opposite negative result.  I am losing some weight.  I had leveled out on just diet alone.  More interesting, my body shape is changing.  I'm building muscle as fast as I'm losing fat.  I'm losing inches quickly even though the weight has not dropped that quickly.  I can move full 3/4 inch plywood sheets, I could not do that just a couple of months ago.

Results?  I have to try to give the proper credit where it is due.  My Chiropractor relived most of my back pain.  I lost some weight (14 pounds) and have gotten stronger, Hibernation Diet helped there.  My original goal was to lower my cholesterol.  In six weeks it dropped from 329 to 216!  Zocor did not do that alone.  There is something to the Hibernation diet.  I'm still smoking a pack or so a day and my main liquid intake is still coffee.

Jim Hock
Wethersfield,CT.

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