The Instinct Diet

For a while I've been worried about my pants. They were shrinking, you see. Getting tighter at the waist. Maybe I was washing them wrong?

I went out and bought new pants, an inch bigger around the waist, but they were slowly getting a bit tighter, too.

Incidentally, as my pants were getting tighter I noticed that I weighed about 5-10% more than I used to. Perhaps the problem was not my washing machine after all.

Devoted readers of this blog - both of you - may remember that I discovered The Daily Beast during the 2008 election. Well, I've continued to read The Daily Beast since then, which is why I happened to read a column from April about the Instinct Diet.

It sounded interesting. I flipped through the book at my local bookstore, and then actually went so far as to purchase the book in question.

During the same time period the book's primary author, Susan B. Roberts, began contributing columns to The Daily Beast.

With book in hand and columns online and - most importantly - with the support of my intended I actually began the Instinct Diet a week ago. So far I've lost 3.5 pounds which, the book says, is about as much as you should possibly expect to lose in a week.

Basically I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and I'm eating a lot less bread and white rice. Shocking, I know.

It's probably slightly more complicated than that, but not by much.

I'm also just eating less, in terms of sheer volume.

Oh, and I have planned snacks each day instead of cravings I satisfy out of a vending machine.

Speaking of which, it's time for my morning snack: An apple and 4 pecan halves.

I'm not a fan of pecans, but I can eat them with other things, it turns out. I don't even have to cover them with chocolate.

Speaking of covering things with chocolate: The Instinct Diet lets you do that, too. Of course, the thing you're covering with chocolate is a small serving of All Bran cereal. And you're covering it with just an ounce of dark chocolate. But served with just a bit of milk (or with some low-fat yogurt and some raspberries) it's surprisingly satisfying.

This is a snack I've indulged in almost daily in the past week, and it does not appear to be inhibiting my progress.

On the flip side, every 3 days I'm supposed to have half a grapefruit. I did this once a week ago, on the first day.

Here's the thing: I really, really don't like grapefruit. Accompanied by a couple of slices of high-fiber bread thinly coated with a meager amount of low-fat cream cheese I was able to choke it down, but I'm going to be substituting some other fruit for the grapefruit, I've decided. So far I've been substituting melon chunks, but that's mostly because we had a lot of melon to work our way through.

I've sent an inquiry to Dr. Roberts through instinctdiet.com requesting recommendations as to alternative fruits. If you're interested I'll let you know her response.

It's an interesting experience. I've never really tried making major changes to my eating habits before. I mean, I've tried to eat less. And I've switched to diet drinks. (These days I pretty much drink tea and water.) But I've never really cut - or mostly cut - sweets out of my diet before. Or pizza.

What makes it possible is that when following the Instinct Diet I'm not focusing on what I'm not eating. I'm following a meal plan. When I'm hungry there's already a specific plan for what I will eat.

That's probably the way a lot of diets work, but this is new for me, so bear with me.

Also, the plan has variation in it. What I'm eating today is not what I ate yesterday, and what I'm going to eat tomorrow is different, still.

(With the possible exception of the chocolate-covered bran snack, which is an extra I can add to the daily plans within reason.)

I'm excited with my progress so far, and I'll keep you - both of you - updated.