Now this is a fun one. Imagine a diet which lets you enjoy coffee & cream, bread & butter, red wine and chocolate!
The premise of these French-style eating plans (The Fat Fallacy, The French Don't Get Fat, Chic & Slim, etc.), is that the French eat all the things we don't allow ourselves to eat, and yet manage to stay slim. Several Americans, when they spent time in France, found that they ate richly and lost weight in the process.
There are several factors to this phenomenon:
- The French have passed down through their generations some balanced eating habits & maxims, including: don't eat too much red meat--it has bad fat in it; it's okay to eat dairy fats and olive oil--they are the good fats; eat slowly and savor every bite--enjoy your meal to the fullest; eat small portions; have a variety of all kinds of foods; accompany your meal with a little red wine & coffee, don't eat any chemicals in your foods, but enjoy all-natural, whole-grain foods, etc.
- The French, in their culture and surroundings, basically walk all the time. Many of their apartment buildings don't have elevators, so they use the stairs all the time. Their towns are set up for walking. So, without consciously exercising, they get plenty of exercise every day.
- The French enjoy three things with their meals which contribute to feelings of fullness and eating less: coffee, wine and cigarettes.
I tried the Fat Fallacy diet guidelines, and lost weight while on it. The problem I had was with the eating slowly part. As long as I was concentrating at every meal, I was able to eat slowly, and consequently, eat less, and lose weight. But as life went on, I could never remember to eat slowly. I've been eating fast my whole life--my natural pace is a fast one. So I gained the weight back again. After trying and trying, I finally gave up at ever learning to eat super slowly at every meal. But I sure enjoyed having cream products again, and the red wine, and the coffee & chocolate! And ever since this diet I have cut way back on the red meats.