Dieting. Americans are obsessed with it. Yet it obviously doesn’t work for us since we, as a nation, remain dangerously overweight. A staggering 95 percent of Americans who go on a diet will gain back not only all the weight that they lost, but oftentimes even more. What are we doing wrong?
The truth is simple. Diets don’t work. They are based on deprivation. Yet, if we deprive our body of the nutrients it wants and needs, it actually stops burning calories and stores away the fat for another day. That causes a slow down in the body’s metabolism, which means weight maintenance or gain.
Few of us are lucky enough to have a high metabolism that allows us to eat whatever we want. Some of us, in fact, have notoriously low metabolisms. This means that we can eat like birds and still gain weight. So the question is: Can we jump-start our metabolism to assist in the weight loss process? Thankfully, the answer is yes.
There are any number of eating programs that now exist to help us do just that. Please note that I said “eating program” and not diet. That is deliberate because the change that can help increase metabolism must be long-term in nature and not short-term like a diet. This article is on one such program, with which I am intimately familiar, called “Somersizing.”
A few years back I managed to lose 75 pounds with this program and I loved every minute of the program. I didn’t feel deprived of anything. I loved the delicious food, which I could easily prepare myself. I ate more food than I had eaten in years. Best of all, it didn’t cost me anything except a little more time spent in concentration. I could still eat out in restaurants and I could still enjoy a lot of my favorite foods.
So what is Somersizing? It is not a diet. It is an eating program that gets its name from its promoter, actress Suzanne Somers. Somersizing teaches you how to eat in a healthy way that increases the metabolism and assists in digestion. In level one, which is used for weight-loss, there are three important steps:
- Eliminate negative foods.
- Separate foods into groups.
- Combine foods appropriately.
Somersize has a small list of negative foods that require elimination. These include:
- sugar,
- high-starch foods (like white flour and potatoes),
- caffeine, and
- alcohol.
That’s a pretty small list of things to eliminate in the scheme of things. It leaves a whole world of possibilities still open.
The next step is to separate remaining foods into four food groups:
- Proteins & Fats, which includes meat, poultry, fish, eggs, oil, butter, and cheese;
- Veggies, which encompasses almost every vegetable known to man;
- Carbs like whole grains, pasta, cereal, breads, beans, and nonfat dairy products; and
- Fruits include a huge variety of fresh fruits.
Finally combine foods into exciting meals and snacks that will aid in weight control and digestion.
There are basically seven steps to Somersizing:
- Eliminate all negative foods.
- Eat fruits, alone, on an empty stomach (for best digestion).
- Eat proteins and fats with vegetables.
- Eat carbs with veggies and no fat.
- Keep proteins and fats separate from carbs.
- Wait thee hours between meals if switching from a proteins/fats meal to a carb meal, or vice versa.
- Do not skip meals but eat three meals a day and eat until you are satisfied and full.
The hardest part about Somersizing is learning how to combine or NOT combine foods. However, once the reason behind combinations becomes clear, with practice and time it actually becomes second nature.
In level two, called maintenance, is a continuance of most of the rules set in level one. The difference is that it is possible to reinsert a few of the negative foods – – in moderation – – back into the diet. That means, that it is possible to have an occasional cocktail or piece of dessert without concern of a serious imbalance.
Even minor imbalances in level one meals will likely occur from time to time. The world isn’t going to end should someone accidentally (or on purpose) put a little butter on their bread. However these need to be occasional exceptions and not daily ones in order for the program to work effectively.
Major imbalances, on the other hand, can seriously impede progress. The hardest part for many people is the elimination of things like sandwiches from their diets. Obviously combining meats and fats with carbs by virtue of the bread is a major no-no. I found this particular lesson difficult myself until I discovered Subway’s delicious veggie subs and learned how to make sandwiches with lettuce leaves instead of bread.
Sugar is a major enemy for the Somersize program, which is bad because Americans love sugar. It is estimated that sugar makes up nearly 25 percent of the calories in the average American diet. Sugar is identified as:
- white sugar,
- brown sugar,
- raw sugar,
- corn syrup,
- fructose,
- molasses,
- honey, and
- maple syrup.
Add high starch items like white flour and potatoes then you begin to describe about 50 percent of a typical American diet. These include:
- white or semolina flour,
- pasta or coucous,
- white rice,
- corn (including popcorn), and
- potatoes.
Another group of foods that Suzanne refers to as “funky foods” don’t fit neatly into any food group because they contain both protein or fat and carbohydrates. These include:
- nuts
- olives,
- liver,
- avocados,
- coconuts, and
- low-fat or whole milk, tofu, or soy milk.
Elimination, separation, and combination; those are the simple steps that can lead to a healthier way of eating which can lead to weight loss and/or weight maintenance. As I said, I lost 75 pounds on this program and it was easy and fun. Best of all, Suzanne offers a myriad of recipes for preparing delicious Somersize meals in order to take out all of the guesswork.
It can be a truly liberating experience, knowing that you can eat well without depriving yourself of delicious food. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?
