How I do the Shangri La Diet

I started with one tablespoon of walnut oil, in two ounces of water. I'd put it on the bathroom counter and when I got up in the middle of the night, I'd drink it down. I did that for a week, did not notice much of a change.

Then I moved up to two tablespoons and checked to make sure I was using a real tablespoon (got a measuring spoon from my pharmacy). Did that for a week, and started to lose weight.

After a couple-three months the weight loss slowed, so I moved to three tablespoons.

Now, I use three tablespoons of oil every night. I get more than an hour before and after without any flavor and the walnut oil helps my Omega 3 balance, which is good for my heart and brain.

If three had not worked, I'd have moved to four.

I know, the rule is "one day at a time" but I adjust the amount of oil I take one week at a time.

So, SLD and OA? Yes!

The numbers are pretty good that SLD with a support group works better than without. OA is everywhere, on-line and in person. It is dirt cheap to belong (you can donate a dollar at a meeting if you want to, but you don't have to). Everyone there will understand what it is like to be compulsive about food and to have emotions and other issues if you don't eat -- and you will probably experience something like that if you go on SLD.

Almost everyone who has weight loss surgery has issues. There is little reason to suspect that SLD won't do that to you too.

Cheap, available, friendly, and if you actually listen to and apply the 12 steps you will be a better person for it.

Just be aware that OA isn't a monolith. Each group is different, some very, very different from each other. If you don't like a group, find another one or create your own.

Here is an introduction:

After years of struggling with your weight and obsessing about food, you have decided to give Overeaters Anonymous a try. You find an OA meeting in your area by checking OA's online meeting locator or by calling or e-mailing the World Service Office (WSO). You've called the contact person to confirm the day, time and location of the meeting to make sure the information hasn't changed.

When you arrive at the meeting, you will find men and women who share a common malady—compulsive eating—and have found a common solution: the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous. You will see anywhere from three to 30 people at the meeting. An average meeting has about 10. You will be warmly welcomed.

The meeting usually opens with the Serenity Prayer, and you may hear a reading called "Our Invitation to You," which describes the disease of compulsive overeating and the Twelve-Step solution. Meeting formats may vary, but all OA groups are the same in that they seek recovery on three levels—physical, emotional and spiritual—through the Twelve Steps, and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

You may hear a speaker open the meeting and speak for 10 to 15 minutes about what life was like before OA, what happened, and what he or she is like now; or someone might read from OA or AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) literature. Other members will share their experience, strength and hope. You will have an opportunity to introduce yourself as a newcomer, if you like. You will find that you are not alone, that there is a way out of your desperation. Because anonymity is a critical principle of the OA program, you are assured that what you share will be held in confidence. This provides the safety you need to share your experiences honestly.

Find an OA Meeting

Difficulties

The difficulty with OA is that no other group has as many splinter groups or as many in leadership positions who seem like they just need to sit through a good al anon meeting.

Also, given the history of pink cloud OAers, no one will take SLD seriously if you haven't been in OA four or five years. Even when they do, they'll remember the carbohydrate wars, and won't be very interested in embracing SLD.

Finally, many in OA think that the chaos and turmoil that lies under compulsive overeating is the cause of compulsive overeating (which it is for some -- though I'd bet carbohydrate addiction and misplaced set points affect more people).

History again

Historically, OA began with three people using methamphetamines (doctor prescribed) to lose weight who got together to start their own twelve step program. True to their OCD streak, they abandoned sitting around a table for one person leading a controlled meeting (like a school room). It rewrote the 12 steps completely, dropping most of the core concepts and merged with Gluttons Anonymous a Texas group that was seeking serenity.
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OA has always been driven by images of physical recovery, a highly compulsive borderline anorexic is completely acceptable as a leader. Someone who has lost 200-300 pounds, but who is still overweight is not acceptable at all.

As a result the group has a heavy dose of highly OCD women in the mainline leadership, leavened with others.

Also, unlike other 12 step groups, OA has had strong exclusionary strains, mostly with groups that exclude men.

The saving grace of OA is sterling literature and a willingness to embrace its splinter groups. As a result, it is easy to create or find a support group for any type of person who wants to learn to live without being driven by, or drowned by, food.

So, what about the Shangri La Diet?

SLD will help any type of compulsive over eater with hunger. The troubled won't be able to deal with their issues without some support if they don't have food. A number of early SLDers dropped out when they realized they were not ready to live without their fat. Annie's is the blog of an SLDer who lost weight and then realized her staying fat was how she had dealt with being sexually assaulted. She had to drop SLD until she was ready to lose weight again.

However, it worked.

Several people have posted that the diet did not seem to be working for them, or that it was working very slowly (there is a "Why am I not losing weight?" thread).

However, the vast majority have indeed reported successful weight loss, at varying rates. (I'll not pull any instances of this for you, as a quick glance at Seth's forums shows this very clearly.) The current "champion" loser, Stephen M or Ethesis, started last year and is currently at -62 pounds. He posts updates here. I'm currently still at -20 pounds, but sure I can lose more, and will post more on my experience at this blog and here on Seth's forum. Folks posting at Seth's forums are in all stages of weight loss, from nada to having lost more weight than I have.

Very interestingly, posters regularly report identical "symptoms" as I and others experienced and documented in this blog back into 2005:

• dramatic, sudden, and new (for us) "control" over what and when to eat
• dramatic reduction or "taming" of appetite
• greatly diminished cravings
• a change in "taste" away from junk, salty, overly-spiced, or other typical "bad" foods

The diet seems to regularly increase people's sense of "detachment"; especially from food, but also from other intakes it seems.

History

Historically, OCD types, control freaks, have often pushed for control on other issues. They came up with definitions of abstinence and other ways to control other people. They have also provoked two major split offs, both over the "carbohydrate controversy" (which came, caused a split, was rediscovered, caused another split). The split offs, fondly referred to as OA Nazis, get results, but they drive the OCD types even crazier, and they coined the return reference "fat acceptance" for those in OA who have not abandoned sugar and flour.

The big push back was driven by deluded OCDers backed up by malpracticing nutritionists who had been misled by incompetent summaries of the research into thinking that the HOW people were going to kill themselves through malnutrition and one too many good steaks. Some actually used force to take "gray sheets" (the anti-carb diet) away from people.

You can get a great view of the science in the following books (pick them up through your library):

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (Hardcover - Sep 25, 2007) - Roughcut Buy new: $27.95 $18.45 48 Used & new from $15.00 Get it by Tuesday, April 29 if you order in the next 21 hours and choose one-day shipping. Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping. (152) Books: See all 9,005 items

2. The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick (Paperback - Jan 1, 2007) Buy new: $16.95 $11.53 23 Used & new from $10.28 Get it by Tuesday, April 29 if you order in the next 21 hours and choose one-day shipping. Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping. (20) Books: See all 9,005 items

3. Carb Wars: Sugar is the New Fat by Judy Barnes Baker (Paperback - April 1, 2007) Buy new: $21.95 $14.93 11 Used & new from $13.22 Get it by Tuesday, April 29 if you order in the next 21 hours and choose one-day shipping. Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping. (18) Books: See all 9,005 items

4. The Diet Delusion: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Loss and Disease by Gary Taubes (Hardcover - Jan 17, 2008) - Import 3 Used & new from $35.09 Books: See all 9,005 items

Types of compulsive eaters

There are a lot of different reasons people are compulsive overeaters (though OA also has groups for anorexics, it is really a group for people who are compulsive about their eating).

The types are:

1. Compulsive OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) types.
2. Carbohydrate addicts.
3. Misplaced coping skills (people who eat to cope).
4. Misplaced set points

Most people when they start OA enter what is called the "pink cloud." Just starting results in a period of weight loss for most people. It isn't until that is over that anything relevant happens.

The OCD types just flip their switches. Instead of eating compulsively, they are compulsive about not eating. Carbohydrate addicts either end up with the Nazi OA or the Fat Acceptance OA (OA-HOW or mainstream OA). The troubled, who eat to cope, will end up at their natural set point (probably displaced by years of abuse). Those whose set points are just off for one reason or another won't make much progress, but they'll be more relaxed about it.