Last week I received a question in a comment from Sandee on my post How “YOU On A Diet” Influenced Me to Change. She wanted to know if I had ever followed the diet plan offered in the book, and if so, how I liked it.

I haven’t ever followed their diet plan, even though I highly recommend the book. The reason I recommend it and have written a couple of posts about it (another one here) is because it motivated me to get moving and get back to healthy eating and exercising. Even so, I thought I’d take a closer look at the diet plan offered in the book and review it for you today.

The diet is appropriately named “The YOU Diet”. Below I have outlined the main concepts, followed with my comments after each, many of which compare the YOU diet to the Six Week Body Makeover (the plan I have experience with):

1. Work smarter, not harder. – Something I learned from the 6WBMO (to eat more and exercise less).
2. Make your eating plan automatic by reprogramming your body so that you will automatically make better choices. – This sounds like my experience with getting off sugar: once you eliminate it from your daily diet, you automatically make better choices because you don’t crave the sweets anymore.
3. Focus more on your waist size rather than on the scale. – I am all for focusing more on how your clothes fit than on any number on the scale.
4. Understand your body, your internal organs (the book is excellent for that!). – This is one of the main reasons I wrote about this book in the first place. I find it to be very motivating.
5. You must eat to lose weight. – I learned this with the Six Week Body Makeover. If you do not eat, your body goes into starvation mode so that when you do end up eating, whatever you eat gets stored as fat. Not eating just shuts down your metabolism.
6. Get support: a friend, family member, or online support group. – Support is vitally important. I find that the free online support is one of the best features of the 6WBMO. There is also an online community for YOU On A Diet where you can find a support buddy who is following the YOU On A Diet diet and exercise plan.
7. Know that it’s OK to make mistakes (learn to make a YOU-Turn). – I love this concept. You go into this with the understanding that you are going to face obstacles, and maybe even slip up sometimes. Since you know this ahead of time, realize that one slip up is OK and the object is to make a YOU-Turn and get back on track as soon as possible. You don’t need to beat yourself up for a slip with a cookie by then eating everything in site! 😉

I really like these ideas, no matter what eating plan you are following. It is also stressed to read the ingredients labels before you buy (not just the wonderful wording on the front 😉 ), and remember that the healthier, natural foods generally don’t require labels. The fewer labels (and ingredients), the better the food.

Beyond these overall concepts, the YOU Diet begins with 14 days of reprogramming yourself to get on a healthy track and detox your body. It includes walking 30 minutes each day and eating 5 times a day. The eating plan does include whole grain products such as whole wheat pasta, pitas, and tortillas, dairy, nuts, salt, and oils. You also eat lean proteins, rice, potatoes, fruits, and plenty of vegetables.

This plan is not completely sugar-free. It states to keep it below 4 grams per serving and to verify that sugar is not one of the first 5 ingredients in an item you purchase. If you don’t have a problem with sugar (like I do) and are able to moderate it, then this could work for you. I don’t know if it would work well for me because I’ve learned that I do the best (and have peace of mind) when I eliminate all refined sugar.

What I would suggest is picking up the book and looking at the details of the types of foods that you would eat. If you like these foods and you don’t think that you would feel like you were dieting (I’m against short-term dieting to lose weight, but all for making lifestyle changes that you can live with), then go for it. It’s important that you only eat foods that you like, however at the same time I’ll say this: once you detox your body by eating whole foods, your tastes do change and you will come to crave those healthy foods. Therefore, in the beginning you might not like what you’re eating as much as the sugared processed foods you’d been eating, but given time, you will truly notice a change in yourself.

If you are currently living the YOU Diet plan, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear how you like it. Or, if this is your first time hearing about the book, I truly do suggest getting a copy for the excellent information it contains. Even putting the diet plan aside, I’ve found the book to be very interesting, entertaining, and motivating all at the same time.