Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had stomach stapling surgery in 1992 because diets were not working for me. The surgery briefly worked then I regained everything and more. I lost weight on Jenny Craig and Ediets and Weight Watchers but I couldn't make them a lifestyle. Weight Watchers is a great program but I know I will not spend the rest of my life counting "points" or calories let alone measureing and weighing my food. I know that works for lots of people but I find that it makes me obsessed about food. I want to cut the pull of food in my life, to not run my life around food, either in the overeating and craving fulfillment or in the constant thought of "what am I going to eat". The Fast 5 program works for me because I don't have to think about food for all but 3 or 4 hours of the day. (I can eat in a 5 hour window but rarely use the whole 5 hours.) I don't have to spend a fortune on diet food. I don't have to measure or weigh or worry about how many calories exactly are in a resturant entree. I can enjoy my meal then put my focus on the other things that I need to work on to be healthy... exercise and emotional issues. I have incorporated other ideas into the Fast 5 program to be honest. I do focus on eating slowly, taking small bites, chewing well as taught by McKenna and also the Weigh Down Program. Both of these other program focus on eating what you are wanting to eat, not eating anything that doesn't taste good at the time and stepping away from food when "satisfied" instead of "stuffed." From my point of view this is just basic common sense. I have started really craving a soup made of fresh veggies. I find that chips don't taste good anymore. I eat dessert but find myself satisfied with a few bites. I try to "break the fast" with something in the vegetable or fruit category and am discovering that I really love those flavors. The best seasoning for food is hunger. When I am hungry, the food just tastes so much better and now I associate vegetables especially as tasting really good. Problems I have had with Fast 5: When I first started it, I didn't eat healthy during the 5 hour window of time and didn't get good results at first but I did learn how to say "no" to my self when I was hungry and that was an important good start for myself. I was also VERY hungry at times and fell off the wagon with the program more then once. I started out doing the Fast 5 only Monday through Friday and not on the weekend because I couldn't be around my own kitchen without eating and being at worked helped. I am slowly getting better at that. Another huge problem for me on the Fast 5 is how to deal with other people. I started out telling people about this new program I was on. Big mistake. I was lectured right and left that I must eat 6 times a day, must count calories, etc etc. When social events happened during the day related to food, I struggled and still do. If there is a lunch at work during a meeting, I often go ahead and eat rather then call attention to my lack of eating. Fortunately, that doesn't happen all the time. I am still working on the self discipline this program needs especially on a day I am not working, on a stressful day, or when dealing with other people I am around who want to eat lunch or breakfast. But these struggles bring up my emotional issues that are at the heart of my weight problem. This program has forced me to look at those emotional issues in a way that other programs didn't as those other programs had me putting forth so much mental energy on meal planning and logging, etc. This is a program I think I can do for life. It is simple and fits my personality. It is not easy to do at first but it does get easier with time as my cravings are subsiding and my self discipline is stronger.