I read through The Hacker’s Diet a few months ago. A lot of it really clicked with me, from a logical/engineering/hacking point of view. However, I just haven’t been able to follow through with it. I don’t have the willpower to basically starve myself for months on end to get to my target weight. I did lose about ten pounds rather quickly, but the constant mental barrage of the failure in not limiting my intake as much as I wanted to made it much worse.
An online friend recently started doing The Abs Diet from Men’s Health. I liked what I read about his experience, so I picked up the book to read. Again, I agree with a lot of the fundamentals and get the concept. It’s basically using the right combination of foods to increase natural metabolism and a fairly simple workout to increase muscle mass, with the ultimate goal of toning the stomach/abs. I’m working my way through the book and should be finished by the end of the day tomorrow. My plan is to start on Sunday. This will allow me to start on a non-work day, where I’ve got a bit more control of my schedule.
The biggest downside is that the food is going to be expensive. Healthier foods (natural peanut butter, items without trans fats, etc.) tend to be more expensive. I also need to pick up a good pair of running shoes, a pair of dumbells, and a weight bench, though those expenses aren’t necessarily recurring…other than buying new shoes every so often.
Anyway, I’m going to use my blog as a way of tracking some things…biweekly measurements, some daily meal and exercise tracking, etc…for the next six weeks, so if you’re reading this and not really interested, you’ve been warned. 🙂
Don’t lose the forest from the trees. You can get a lot of out of the Abs Diet just from its principles, not necessarily in how they do it. For example, focusing more on low-fat protein than carbs, getting a lot of dark veges and yogurt, eating 6 times a day instead of 3, etc. You don’t need the $7 jar of peanut butter. The $2 jar works just fine, as long as you aren’t dipping Snickers bars in it. (Except on Tuesdays, you can eat all the wings you want — it’s okay, the diet tells you to!)
Also, the diet says no special exercise the first week (few weeks?) and when you do start that it should be possible to do without buying fancy equipment. Walking or jogging for the aerobics and using things around the house (or your body itself) for the muscle building (pushups, static lunges, etc.)
The Abs Diet is a good book and a decent lifestyle. You can get good things out of it in pieces without committing to the whole thing. Oddly, the same thing is true about David Allen’s Getting Things Done — another book I evangelize.