Welcome to the Tuesday Morning edition of WHEE!!
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Today is the third in my series of book reviews for the books that have been most helpful to me.
Today, I review the GI Diet by Rick Gallop. I'm grateful to Wee Mama (WHEE Mama?) for yesterday's diary on the Glycemic Index - it will be good reading for today. Thanks - you saved me a lot of writing this morning!
Like almost everyone on this forum, I've tried - and failed - many diets. Rick Gallop's version of the GI Diet has stuck with me. I learned of it when a personal trainer suggested it. I don't formally follow the diet today, but its approach to eating has wormed itself into my brain somehow to generate positive long-term change.
The GI diet is based upon the Glycemic Index. If you haven't already, please read Wee Mama's WHEE diary on the subject yesterday.
Gallop takes the GI Index and turns it into a sustainable eating plan. He divides foods into RED - high GI, high fat, YELLOW - moderate (or low GI but high fat), and GREEN - low fat, low GI and healthy fats. This sounds gimmicky, but it works amazing well as a teaching tool to help someone learn which foods support healthy blood sugar and which ones don't.
Recipes are almost mandatory with a diet book. He's consulted with a chef to assist him with that. The recipes are a good balance of simple and delicious. I think we only had one or two that we didn't like and we still make several of the dishes three years later.
Gallop has a whole series of supporting books, and I have all but the last one, the GI Diet Clinic. There is necessarily some repetition but they have enough differences to make them all worth owning.
The main weakness is that some people will probably find the Red - Yellow - Green to be just a little too much. He also doesn't make any suggestions about portion size, which is fine if you want to be healthier but not if you actually want to lose weight. Finally, my husband and I found that if you only eat GREEN foods, it's not satisfying. A little bit of YELLOW and RED foods go a long way towards promoting sustainability.
WHEE stuff:
Aug 4
Tues AM - Kascade Kat
Tues PM - Brimi
Aug 5
Wed AM - Edward Spurlock
Wed PM - rdluu
Aug 6
Thurs AM Darthstar
Thurs PM Albatross
Aug 7
Fri AM NC Dem
Fri PM ???
Aug 8
Sat AM ???
Sat PM ???
You can be a diarist too! Let us know if you want one of the open slots! Please post right under the tip jar and I'll update in a few hours.