Updates, two and a half years on the Shangri La Diet

For posts on the diet, click on Shangri-la Diet

The diet still works for me. That is my "after" photograph, taken when I reached 189 pounds. I've been at (or below) that weight for two years now, down from about 245. It still works. The only real lasting change I've made is that I've quit eating sugar with my yogurt. While losing weight, I would eat three cups of non-fat yogurt a day, flavored with sugar -- between half a cup and a cup of sugar a day. After reading Taubes, I suddenly found myself unwilling to eat sugar, so I've been doing without it since. Does not seem to have made a difference, and I've learned to like the flavor of unsweetened yogurt.

I take a couple ounces of water and three or so tablespoons of extra light olive oil once a day. No flavors for an hour before or after I take it. It depresses my set point and my weight and appetite take care of themselves. If I exercise at a high intensity two-three times a week, I drop the oil back to two tablespoons a day. I had some "failures" in taking the oil in the middle of the night, but all of those occurred on vacations. Since then I've discovered that in normal life the middle of the night works as well as any other time. The water just makes it much easier to drink the oil without gagging.

Before SLD (Shangri La Diet) I ate probably three times as much food as I do now and enjoyed it less. Taubes-style eating is low carbohydrate, but not ultra-low carbohydrate (i.e. I'm basically skipping sugar and white flour and replacing it with mixed salads and low glycemic index fruits).

For people who are interested in trying SLD, I recommend that they pick up a large container of extra light (less flavor) olive oil (referred to as ELOO) at Costco or SAMS. Pick up a measuring cup at a pharmacy or find a tablespoon measure at the house. For the first week, pour an ounce of water in a cup and a tablespoon of ELOO. Drink some water before bedtime and when you wake up in the middle of the night, swirl it and then drink it down, go back to sleep. If you start losing weight, you've hit the right dose. If not, in week two add another tablespoon. Keep adding until you start losing weight.

There are lots of other ways to approach it, different oils to try, lots of things that you can do. However, olive oil improves your cholesterol, will help with your triglycerides and has other health benefits. It is also easy to find and reasonable in price and doesn't require any strange gymnastics to drink (people are out there who use fresh pressed flax oil, nose clips and such in order to take it without any flavor -- the same with fish oils, coconut oil, etc. ELOO works well and is good for you).

If you take the slow approach your body will adjust to the ELOO (it takes different enzymes for your body to digest different oils. Just because you have a big mac and french fries every day -- and get more oil than three tablespoons of ELOO, don't think you can switch immediately).

Anyway, that is how the Shangri La Diet is working for me. Pretty much an automated part of the background in my life these days. So if you were wondering if it was like the usual diet people blog about (i.e. lots of excitement, success, and then it fails and they quit talking about it and move on to something else) or if it had just gotten boring (hey, it works, but after a year or two of "it works" and my weight is at a good place, what is there to say), the answer is "it has become normal" so blogging about it almost feels like mentioning that I was breathing today.

Old news. Unless you are trying to lose weight. Then I'd suggest you give it a try. Nothing I've ever done was as simple or as effective -- or worked long term, year after year.

• http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2007/01/comments-on-weight-shangri-la-etc.html
• http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2006/11/shangri-la-diet-after-one-year-and-70.html
• Happy Birthday, SLD

"A McDonald's large order of fries is 30g of fat. Add one of the big sandwiches, such as the Quarter Pounder, or the Big Mac, and you're adding another 25 - 30 grams of fat. So one of these meals is more than twice what you'd get in the 2 T. ELOO you take on SLD. And that doesn't even address the quality of the fat. Tell your mom to relax. Good luck!

T-Vix"