For many people, diets don’t work because they associate it with deprivation and difficulty. The word invokes images of eating plates of nothing but lettuce and not being allowed to eat their favorite treats.
I confess that I’ve never believed in diets, mostly because they have never worked for me. Removing an entire food group, or being allowed to eat only certain things made me crave the bad things more, and so, I would give up after just a few days.
Surely, many other people who have tried and failed on their diets know exactly what I’m talking about . Lately, however, more and more new programs have stopped saying that you are “not allowed” to eat certain things, but instead, teach you the right way to eat so that you can eat everything. Yes, even dessert.
1. Change your eating habits with Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen.
The Bon Appetit Diet by Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen teaches you how to change your eating habits. Under belletoday.com.ph, you’ll find online services for recipes, shopping lists and encouraging videos from the doctor himself. You will be pleasantly surprised to find yourself shopping for cheese, chocolate and wine. The good thing about this “lifestyle change” is that meals are portioned for the whole family, so everyone you love gets used to healthy eating. The Bon Appetit Diet was originally in French with French recipes but has been adapted recently to the Filipino palate so you won’t need to give up rice or your favorite Pinoy ulam.
Screengrab of The Bon Appetit Diet website.
For those who prefer to have their meals made for them, Nuiu Life Cuisine offers food delivery services and allows you to choose portions depending on your preferred calorie count. For instance, depending on your BMI and what your intention is (weight loss or maintenance), Nuiu Life Cuisine can deliver meals in 1,200-1,800 calorie-per-day portions. Only the portions change and not the food. So, you will still be able to eat your spaghetti and meatballs, silog breakfast meals (brown rice) and non-boring salads with beef or chicken. At first, I felt like the 1,200-calories-per-day portions were on the small side, but with five meals, which include two snacks, it was actually just right.
Screengrab of the NUIU Life Cuisine website.3. Detox with vegetarian food.
If you are a new vegetarian, or one who has no time to cook, or someone who simply wants to eat healthier a few times a week, Edgy Veggy offers vegetarian and vegan meals that will make you forget that you aren’t eating meat. Must-tries are the soba noodle salad, falafels and Japanese tofu steak. They also offer a detox program called Thrive, which was designed to recalibrate bodies that have been abused with too much alcohol, processed food and other junk.
Screengrab of the Edgy Veggy website.Whatever your preference, these programs can help you jumpstart a healthier lifestyle—much better than jumping from one diet to another.
Have a question for Erica? Drop her a line at ericaparedes1@yahoo.com
Erica Paredes has been working in the publishing industry for almost a decade as a fashion and beauty editor, newspaper columnist, stylist and make-up artist. Nowadays she juggles her time between food and fashion, beauty and travel plus mommy duties to her 8 year old daughter.
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