B.S. - Before Scale

How I Lost Weight With the Miami Heart Institute Diet Fraud

2013.03.13

My father recently gave me a diet endorsed by the Miami Heart Institute.  A friend whom he has known for over forty years gave him the diet.  Dad said that a reputable doctor in Ottawa gave his friend the diet to loose weight for hernia treatment.

Dad was really impressed with the results Larry achieved and was thinking about starting the diet soon himself.  When he heard me say I was interested in loosing weight he passed it along.  It’s very popular, you may have heard of it.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Day 1	Black coffee or tea 1/2 Grapefruit 1 Slice of Toast 1 Tbs Peanut Butter	1/2 c Tuna 1 Slice of Toast Black coffee or tea	2 Slices of Meat (3 oz.) 1 c String Beans 1 c Beets 1 Small Apple 1 c Vanilla Ice Cream
Day 2	1 Egg 1/2 Banana 1 Slice of Toast Black Coffee or Tea	1 c Cottage Cheese 1/2 Banana	2 Hot-Dogs 1 c Broccoli 1/2 c Carrots 1/2 Banana 1/2 c Vanilla Ice Cream
Day 3	5 Saltine Crackers 1 Slice Cheddar Cheese 1 Small Apple Black Coffee or Tea	1 Hard Boiled Egg 1 Slice of Toast	1 c Tuna, 1 Cup 1 c Beets, 1 c Cauliflower 1/2 Cantaloupe 1/2 c Vanilla Ice Cream

My wife and I agreed we would really like to loose weight and liked the idea that we could eat these foods for three days, loose up to 10lbs then eat normally for the next four days.   We knew that our results would probably be less then the 10lbs but even a few pounds would be a good start to finally begin working our way down to the size we were only 5 or 6 years ago.

I started the diet a day before Emily was able to and had my half grape fruit (which I remembered hating but it was actually good), toast, and 2tbsp of peanut butter.

Light I thought, but I am going to do this.  It’s time for me to loose weight.  I had the toast and ½ cup of tuna for lunch.  By the time dinner came I was starved.  3oz of meat, 1 cup of string beans and beets (which I remembered hating and found I still do) and half a cup of vanilla ice cream.  I was still starving when I was done so I filled my self with the unrestricted tea that I was allowed to drink.

My sleep that night was terrible because I was starved.  I made it through to the end of day two and never wasn’t hungry.  There was no way I was going to be able to work out that day, part of a new routine I had started with a friend in the quest to be healthier.  I still wanted to stick with it though.  Larry had had success and I too want that.

I started to Google it.  I entered Miami H and the first option was Miami Heart Institute diet.  I was excited.  I found several more diet sites with the same diet and thought that was interesting.  But the fourth or fifth one down was called: Miami Heart Institute Diet: It’s a Fad But  A Fraud.  It was from a newspaper called the Orlando Sentinel.  It was from 1986!  Almost 30 years ago!  ( here is a link http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1986-03-02/news/0200290246_1_diet-heart-institute-miami-heart  )  For those who don’t read the article I want to be clear, the Miami Heart Institute is not at all responsible for this diet fraud, unfortunately they field many calls from people about this diet but they do not endorse it at all.

It was the same diet and the article outlined how it gets around and right down to the look f the hand written copied sheet of paper.  I was surprised (Dad did get the diet from Larry who had gotten it from his hernia doctor whom we all assumed had got it from the Miami health institute), frustrated (we had finally decided to go for it with a diet together and it turns out to be a fraud) and angry.  That’s it.  I am going to have something to eat, because I really am starving but this fraudulent diet will still be the start of our loosing weight.

This will be our documenting what we eat, what we take in on a daily basis, and what exercise we do and what we loose or gain.  This is the beginning of How I Lost Weight With the Miami Heart Institute Diet Fraud

Our plan is to do something similar with a safer caloric intake and less beets (no offence to those who love beets, all the power to you, it just isn’t for me).  The link goes to the article that outlines the problems with the proposed diet.  I made it to the end of the second night and found out shortly after the dinner, my wife was working on hers at the time.  I didn’t tell her until she was done the beets because she had spent so much time telling me that beets were good, she was slow to finish them.  I did then get myself a piece of toast with peanut butter but avoided pounding down a bunch of food as some sort of redemption.  Emotional eating is not the answer.

WE will have to succeed and plan on taking as many pictures as possible to show exactly what we’re eating.  Enjoy the rest.

2013.03.14

Here are some pics of what we have had so far.

Breakfast, 2 soft boiled eggs and 1 toast and a tea.

Snack. Pear

Lunch, home made soup with a little rice in it.

I don’t plan on writing a lot in the future but more some quick comments with pictures

While cleaning up we remarked on how it was nice to have enough to eat but not to be full.  It was also nice not be starving or feeling weak and undernourished.

I should give a little background.  We are parents with two kids, one 3 year old and another about to be 6 months old.  Four days ago I weighed myself and came in a 245lbs.  I knew I was overweight but I didn’t know it was that far over.  I am 6’2”; my medically ideal weight is probably around 180lbs, I would be happy around 200lbs.  245lbs, that’s not me!  At least I didn’t think so…unfortunately it appears it is me.

Over the last few months, before I weighed myself, my wife and I have been making attempts to get healthier.  Watching what we were eating, and trying to exercise in the mornings; a little yoga, some crunches and push-ups. 

We eat food that is mostly from scratch; we never buy premade meals or frozen box dinners.  We don’t drink pop by and large or eat chips etc.  We eat meat, fruit, vegetables, and grains - although we probably aren’t always eating the right portions of those things.  Our biggest problem is that we often make food we really like and are always getting up to have a little more.  It’s not that we eat food that is bad for us but rather we like the food we make so much that we eat until we feel stuffed far to often…ok most of the time.

It is 4:30 and I am a little hungry but not the way I was yesterday, I am not weak with hunger but rather have room for the dinner that is to come.  The next step will be to have our biggest meals become breakfast and lunch rather then supper.  I am sure that having your biggest meal at night, when you are about to be your least active leads to fattening rather than using the energy in your everyday work.

I find we often fly out the door with little for breakfast and then skip lunch or use that break for something else so that by the time you get home from work you’re are very hungry.  You made it through the day but you can’t wait to get home so you can eat properly.  Then you eat, and by the time you get the kids off to bed you are not doing much in the way of activity.  I hope to get to the point that I am turning the normal structure on its head with a big break fast and lunch and a lighter dinner but for today and the near future we are sticking with the regular format, tonight will be fish in a tomato sauce with some vegetables and rice.

I will let you know what happens after speaking to Larry who has had success with this diet, my Dad also still plans on trying it out.   I for one will be happy to continue exercising and keeping a better tally of what I’m eating.  Already today, because I know I have to document it, I have avoided several little snacks throughout the day.  This is one of my biggest Achilles heels.  Next move we buy a scale and document frequently.

Here was dinner, a really nice soup with a little rice in the bottom.  Quite fantastic really.  Usually i would have had at least two bowls but today i had one.  I also did my 100 crunches earlier today.