Hoping to find a diet that really can become a lifestyle.

Still losing weight, but more slowly now because I'm not keeping to the lowest calorie count any more, aiming to find the calorie level I could possibly go on living with after I've lost the weight.

Keep seeing ads and articles about this or that diet plan, the latest being the 17-day diet. Read some reviews at Amazon. Really, there's no point in trying a specific diet plan. I can get some ideas from some of them but I don't do well with prescribed detailed recipes. The reason you -- or at least I -- gain back the weight lost on a diet plan is because you can't live with the foods required on the plan. I have to eat what I like. Many diet plans claim you can do this on their scheme, but when you really get into it, no, you can't.

I know I have to cut carbs and I know I have to cut calories. Within those requirements I want food I enjoy eating. I took a Metabolism Type Test on one of these diet plans recently (turns out there are many different versions of this test out there but they all get at the same basic concept) and found out I'm a Protein Type rather than a Carb Type and according to them we are to gear our eating to our type. This makes sense to me up to a point. The "Power Cookie" that is breakfast on the 17-day Diet, for instance, does not appeal to me AT ALL. I love carbs of course but I think we're all different in WHAT carbs we favor and the Metabolic Test seems to recognize that. Carbs are not my first choice for breakfast, I'd much rather have bacon and eggs. Of course I don't mind the hash browns with that, but I've realized that part has to go or at least be cut back to a minimum. Anyway I don't particularly like pancakes or cereal or muffins or cake -- much prefer fruity and creamy pastries but I don't need to eat them very often -- and the Power Cookie sounds too much like a muffin, just a crumbly dry sweet thing. A Carb Type could probably do very well with that sort of breakfast, but it won't work for me.

What DOES make some sense on the 17-day Diet to my mind is the idea of sticking fairly closely to the same foods for a while -- 17 days according to that particular plan -- and then switching to different foods in an effort to stave off the famous Plateau effect which is understood to be caused by your body's adapting to a particular style of eating. It seems worth a try anyway.

I hope that means a simple switch from beef to chicken or fish, or from one kind of veggie to another, so I could do steak and salad for a couple of weeks and then chicken or fish and a different vegie for another two weeks. And I WILL eat the crispy chicken skin, sorry, that's not going away. I'm convinced that high cholesterol is not caused by fat, and some diet plans agree with me about that. My cholesterol has never been very high and I love fat. If there were a Fat Type I'm sure I'd be in that type rather than the Protein Type. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration (but not a big exaggeration -- Bacon, oh yes tons of it I COULD eat, eggs too -- all that yummy fatty yolk, butter of course -- and Hollandaise sauce which is nothing but yolks and butter and lemon has always been a favorite of mine -- heavy cream in coffee for sure, sour cream by the tub -- tangy sour cream dips for instance, the fattiest nuts -- cashews and macadamias -- also avocadoes, and of course the spicy crispy chicken skin etc. etc. etc. I also like the sweet versions of fat, the Haagen Dazs, the cream puffs, the rich chocolatey things etc, but since those raise blood sugars I'm now sticking with the spicy versions instead).

Anyway, this Atkins type of eating I can do quite easily and I don't get bored with it either. I can do a meat-and-veggies dinner almost indefinitely - it's food I love, but it does create carb cravings after a while so I have to be sure I'm getting enough carbs when I do this. So far so good. A piece of toast here, a quarter cup of pasta there, or half a small potato with butter - and not with every meal either. It works, it really does. Just add up the calories and stay close to the allotted number.

Another thing I love is Mexican Salad -- just spicy browned hamburger meat over a pile of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, onion etc., and sometimes grated cheese and/or sour cream --carefully measured of course. But I can't cut the salad dressing down to a couple of teaspoons, sorry just can't. It's GOOD salad dressing too, EV olive oil with wine vinegar, minced garlic and herbs, sometimes a dollop of dijon mustard, good stuff. Three tablespoons on a very big raw vegie salad is about the minimum. Again, just add the calories into the total for the day.

I LOVE bacon and eggs but I've found that only one egg and one strip of bacon is surprisingly satisfying. Add a sliced half tomato with salad dressing and a spoonful of cottage cheese OR a piece of buttered toast and that makes a good breakfast for me and only about 250 calories. Just add up the calories and the carbs and check the blood sugar monitor an hour or so later if toast is on the menu. Some days it may be two eggs and two strips of bacon. Way it goes. Just add up the calories.

Of course I'm getting into a routine, even a rut, with these things, and if switching foods is the thing to do to keep up the weight loss I'm going to have to come up with a new routine soon.

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April 12: Gotta report that I'm continuing to lose even though I haven't yet switched my routine. Counting calories is the way to go, eating what I LIKE to eat -- that's crucial. You HAVE to eat what you like or you'll never make this a lifetime habit, and it does keep down the hunger pangs when you do. Now it seems I might even be losing too fast and need to up my daily calorie intake a bit. But it's only about a pound a week on average. OK, that's probably not too fast.