The Economists' Diet

The Economists' Diet, The Surprising Formula for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off, by Christopher Payne, PhD., and Rob Barnett, Touchstone 2018

Ha ha - what could economist geeks weighing in at 570 pounds combined possibly offer in terms of a "new" approach among the hundreds of diet nutrition fads -  the Atkins, the Scarsdale, the water,  the grapefruit diet books?  Well, surprisingly, this is more than a diet book - its a personal story, complete with scary before and after photos, that takes us through the story of how two super smart economists found their way to healthier lives.  I can identify with this, as I am sure many of you out there will also.

For me, after counting calories - useless, because I found one could consume 1200 calories a day in pure sugar and butter and still not lose weight, and then adding more gym to my life -  the wake-up call came with breast cancer.  Although the surgeon warned me that fat, particularly fat around the middle, is what creates estrogen in women of a certain age, and estrogen fuels cancer, her message came at the wrong time, right around the diagnosis stage, and blew right by me.  But later, my cancer counselor handed me the Dukan book and it was easy.  The pounds just slipped away.  But along the way, just as these two economists discovered, we developed some new attitudes about food - food and work, food and snacks, food as a muscle builder.  Its a very different approach.

 So looking at The Economists' Diet I found many similarities to the way we eat now.  Like Payne and Barnett, we weigh ourselves daily.  And when we travel, we are challenged to avoid fat fast foots.  And we are more conscious of protein, because Dukan is about high protein, low carbs and low sugar.  And we know that the gym is no substitute for the body consuming excess fat.  The gym is important for metabolism, but it won't work without good nutrition habits.  

One hundred twenty-five combined lost pounds later, the two economists reveal their answers to what they call an obesity epidemic in their 26 key microhabits, including:

* identify meals as either square, light, or a splurge, and manage your daily intake accordingly

*  limit your consumption of bread, pasta, pizzy and sugar - who eats pizza now anywho?

*  use a scale to experiment with your diet, keep a food diary if it helps

*  don't drink your calories -  ha ha don't you love that one?

*  prepare to spend about eighteen months to lose fifty pounds

*  forego sugar and artificial sweeteners in your tea and coffee

*  take a salad or leftovers with you for lunch at work

Because this is the authors' personal story, readers will identify with the difficulty of making such big life-style changes.  But they are not urging that we all switch to seared meat and water diets, forever abandoning our favorite foods and our favorite restaurants.  Instead, they urge us to keep the good parts of eating out as occasional special treats, and be prepared to eat a lot less forever.  

It's about time we had a real life-plan nutrition book from two real people.  When you see the fabulous before and after photos, and read how much happier and positive these two guys are feeling about their turnaround, you will be proud!  Go for it!  What have you got to lose?