The Shangri-La Diet

I came across this diet on a few blogs (the wonderful David Pollard and Kathy Sierra) by chance and was fascinated by its simplicity:

leave at least 2 hours between eating food with flavour.  At least one hour after eating take some flavorless food (a glass of sugar water or  a tablespoon of extra light Olive oil is recommended). 

That’s it.  More information on the diet is available in this New York Times article and there is an incredible forum that provides an incredible amount of advise and refinement.  Seth Roberts discovered it.

My VERY simple version of how the diet works is that the brain associates flavour with calories, by ingesting calories without flavour this association is weakened and this reduces cravings. 

I modified the diet a bit because I didn’t like the idea of a tablespoon of Olive oil.  This is what I did:

1. Wake up at 7:00 AM and take 3 capsules of fish oil, 2 of evening primrose oil and 3g of protein tablets
2. Eat breakfast at 10:00
3. At 11:30 take 4 capsules of Flax seed oil and 3g of protein tablets
4. Eat lunch at 13:30
5. At 15:00 take 4 capsules of Fish oil and 3g of protein tablets
6. Each Tea at 16:30
7. At 18:30 take 4 capsules of Fish oil and 3g of protein tablets
8. Eat supper at 20:00

I have drunk a lot more water than usual as well, partly to take all the Tablets!

The effect after only 1 week on the diet has been pretty startling:

1. I no longer feel hungry
2. Cravings have virtually gone completely, I haven’t eaten anything at all between meals and no sweets or treats of any kind have passed my lips
3. I have lost 4 lbs with no effort
4. My concentration has improved dramatically
5. After 30 years of trying to stop biting my fingers, I noticed after 4 days that I had not bitten them once! – this is truly amazing.  When I realized this the craving to bite did come back a little but it seems to be fading again
6. I seem to be sleeping better – no longer waking at 3:00AM

I have just ordered some olive oil capsules so that I can add a few extra calories of flavourless food and perhaps reduce the fish oil.

To follow the diet you don’t need to read the book, just follow the links above, however lots of people say that the book is really interesting because it provides a lot more detail into how Seth Roberts came up with the diet through self experimentation and the science behind it.  If you want to buy the book it’s on Amazon here.

I’ll update this blog post every couple of weeks with progress reports.