ARE you kicking off the New Year with a little somethin’ – somethin’ in the way of poundage? Join the club. The weeks of frenzied champagne consumption and snacking on mince pies definitely take their toll. But sometimes, losing a few pounds just takes a few days (or a week) of determined dieting. We tried several different weight-loss plans to see which ones worked – and which ones might require a bit more, um, New Year’s resolution.
CLEANSE IT UP
The plan: Drink Blueprint’s special juice blends for three days.
How it worked: It didn’t. Let me explain. I’d wanted to do the Blueprint Cleanse (blueprintcleanse.com) because it’s the diet du jour – blends of raw foods like cucumber, cayenne, spinach, pineapple and cashew in various permutations. I’d heard that it’s wonderful and so easy – they actually deliver the juices to your apartment and even number the bottles so all you have to remember is that “2” comes after “1” and “3” after “2” and so on. Thing is, after ingesting nothing but the Green Lemon blend, Pineapple/Apple/Mint blend and the Green Apple, that’s no mean feat. By 4 p.m., I was starving. And miserable. I’d just “eaten” my Tart and Spicy Lemonade and I had to get through another Green blend before the Cashew Vanilla nighttime treat. The Greens – Blueprint’s, um, meat and potatoes – is awful. Even now, weeks later, the thought of it makes me grimace. To be fair, Blueprint is a cleanse, not a diet – and a day of bottles is about 1,800 calories (and $65). But to be real, the actual reason any of us outside the ashram cleanse is to lose weight – fast. I think I could have stuck with it if I hadn’t started on a Monday. But I’m one of those people who needs her brain at work, and Blueprint wasn’t enough to keep me going. I didn’t last a full day.
Weight loss: zero
– Katherine Pushkar
LOSE THE BOOZE
The plan: No alcohol for a week.
How it worked: I wasn’t wildly excited about undertaking this diet, especially not during a week
of holiday parties and general bacchanalia.
I know that alcoholic abstinence hardly counts as serious sensory deprivation, but I do like
to have a glass – or three –
of red wine. Still, I was curious
to see if it made any difference.
And it did. I lost 2 pounds pretty much immediately, which was quite a big surprise given that I was simultaneously carbo-loading like it was my job. “This is going to be an interesting diet,” remarked one co-worker when she strolled by my desk to see me tearing into a No. 9 Wendy’s Meal (chicken tenders with BBQ sauce, fries and a Coke the size of my head.) Losing the pounds so effortlessly was great.
Even better: the fact that I slept better,
felt better, and had way more energy throughout the day. And as it turns out,
when you’re not in a bar, you have lots of time to do other stuff – like read, exercise and get your life in order (who knew?!) In the interest of full disclosure, I stopped on the sixth day (it was my office holiday party,
what do you expect?). Still, I’m thinking of trying to go the whole month of January without drinking. Perhaps.
Weight loss: 2 pounds
– Mackenzie Dawson
SCOOP THE SOUP – AND THE YOGURT
The plan: Eat only soup and yogurt for a week.
How it worked: I’ve always wondered whether soup could be a viable diet option, so I created a simple soup-and-yogurt meal plan. Soup for lunch and dinner (much of it was
home-cooked to control sodium and fat content), plus no-fat yogurt for breakfast and snacks. As I found out, yogurt is a pretty satisfying, healthier option to, say, Swedish Fish from the office vending machine. For this diet to work, I had to remind myself that portion control and calories do still matter; even liquified food can pack on pounds. (i.e., you’re not allowed to blend broccoli, grated Parmesan, melted butter and sour cream, heat it and proclaim, “Voila! Broccoli soup!”) But a basic healthy broth with chicken and vegetables – or a more involved spinach and lentil soup – is as filling a meal as one needs. Bonus: getting to have an extra mid-afternoon soup snack and still feel superior to the co-worker devouring three Chipotle soft tacos in the next cubicle. Campbell’s is right; soup is good food . . . especially for
my waistline.
Weight loss: 4 pounds
– Eric Hegedus
DITCH THE CARBS
The plan: No carbs for a week.
How it worked: There’s no way around it; it’s just plain depressing to dive into a diet that requires me to give up bread, cereal, sandwiches, brownies, pasta and everything else served at all five holiday fetes I was to attend. Still, the idea of dropping a few pounds just in time for New Year’s Eve was motivation enough – or so I thought. Days one and two were a breeze. I felt rejuvenated and thin, like a happy rabbit nibbling on dry lettuce. But on day three, the idea of eating another bed of greens seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. Forget thin . . . I wanted brownies! After that, my willpower to fight the force called “craving” not only subsided, but by day four, I was eating everything plus some extra to make up for lost time. As much as I wanted to get into tiptop shape for the New Year’s bash, I wanted food much more. So I found the perfect solution – a baby doll dress.
Weight gain: 2 pounds
– Marina Vataj
WRITE ABOUT IT
The plan: Follow Julia Cameron’s new “The Writing Diet”
How it worked: You know that chick who’s written all those books like “The Artist’s Way,” “The Artist’s Way: All the Stuff I Forgot to Tell You Before,” and “The Artist’s Way: This Time It’s Serious!”? Yeah, well she’s back with “The Writing Diet,” which gently counsels you into counting words instead of calories. All I had to do was follow these key seven steps: 1) Write three stream-of-consciousness pages every morning. 2) Keep a food journal. 3) Walk. 4) Ask four questions every time I wanted to overeat: “Am I hungry?” “Is this what I want to eat?” “Is this what I want to eat now?” and “Is there something I can eat instead?” 5) Have a date with myself where I eat fun food once a week. 6) Practice “HALT”: “Don’t get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired.” And finally, 7) Find a body buddy where I talk about food. Sound kind of time-consuming and annoying? Surprisingly, not really. I could do without the “food journal” part, but the other parts to fight emotional eating were solid, sound advice. Truthfully, this diet is basically a pilfered assortment of good tips from a variety of diets – and ultimately, that’s why it works.
Weight loss: 1 pound
– Mandy Stadtmiller
KEEP THE SLEEP
The plan: Sleep better for a week.
How it worked: People have always talked about the importance of getting eight hours of sleep a night, blah, blah. But now, studies show that not getting enough zzz’s can also stimulate or reduce production of appetite-regulating hormones like ghrelin, insulin and cortisol. This can lead to weight gain. Sleeping more in order to lose weight seems like the perfect sort of diet to me, so I decided to give it a try. And a new book called “Sleep Away the Pounds: Optimize Your Sleep and Reset Your Metabolism for Maximum Weight Loss” by Cherie Calborn recommends hitting the sack at 9 p.m. during the winter. That seemed like crazy talk to me, so I opted for 10 instead – which was fine, since your body does most of its recharging and toxin dumping between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. While I didn’t exactly lose any weight during my one-week trial, being firmly entrenched in the Land of Nod hours before my usual bedtime did leave me feeling refreshed and less sluggish in the morning. This, in turn, gave me no excuses for not getting in an a.m. workout or eating a proper breakfast – both also key for losing weight. This isn’t the ideal plan for someone who’s looking to shed pounds pronto, but it’s definitely a lifestyle change that can lead to an overall healthier existence.
Weight loss: zero (so far)
– Maxine Shen