Following in Layla's footsteps, I'll soon be signing up for the 20/20 program. If you haven't already read her post on it, the 20/20 Lifestyles Program is a comparatively immersive diet and exercise program designed to (1) remove inappropriate foods from our meals, (2) identify foods that cause specific problems for our individual chemistries, and (3) develop a habit of exercise through program tailoring and lots and lots of reinforcement. All of this happens with the scrutiny and support of a gaggle of trained professionals (170 now, and counting) that it fits the way you are, and involves enough supervision and maintenance during the down times that it really does change the way you do things.
Now, I've tried this sort of thing on my own. Thanks largely to Layla's support, I've cut nearly all of the worthless junk out of my diet, and for the last 18 months, I've been getting fairly regular exercise. But I'm also enough of a do-it-yourself type person that I know when doing-it-myself isn't working very well—and despite all of my effort, doing the weight loss thing by myself hasn't been all that much of a success.
So that's why I'm coughing up a bit (not a lot, really) of my own cash to get into this program. And that's also why for the next ten weeks (plus twelve weeks of maintenance) I'll be cutting back on the extra hours I spend at the office and the extra hours I spend on my ass watching those accursed videos from Netflix.
With luck, I won't be cutting back on the time or thought that I spend here at /dev/null—partly because I certainly don't have much of either left to lose.
P.S. 10 bonus points if you can name the moustache and point out why he's relevant to this article.
That's totally a cult. Completely.
Can't name the mustache though.
I name the moustache "Harold."
I think the photo is relevant because the guy is mega creepy, much like fad diets. :-P
So, it's actually a research project. It was founded originally by the Hope Heart Institute as a five-year research program to reduce occurence of major factors that increase the risk of heart disease but has been extended an additional ten years or so to attempt to make the program more effective and address secondary issues (diabetes, fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc.). They've got a completion rate of 98% and a two-year recidivism rate of 52%, and these numbers have been increasing (and err, falling, respectively) as they've tweaked the program—I think most diet center's numbers are in the 30% and 2% ranges. I'm not sure about other "fad" diets.
The fact that it's a cult-like says more about the sad state of American health than it does about the program itself.
Did you have good medical backup like this in Socorro when you were Atkinsing it up and eating nothing but bare hotdogs and steak? Because that shit was hilarious.
Speaking of NM, any chance of you being around during the Dec22-25 timeframe?
Hey, those hotdogs were often on salads. And to be realistic, I dropped something like 30 pounds in a summer—all without even a glance from a dietician. I'm surprised I'm still alive.
And nah, I won't be in town. Reasons to be in New Mexico are getting really rare.
Jon Stossel from 20/20 methinks.
Indeed, and after only four weeks, someone has figured it out!
But do remember, his moustache is named Harold.