2003-01-22 - 11:42 p.m.

Nearly as good as the real thing

Yesterday morning Lily was getting ready for her first class of the day, bustling around the apartment. The TV was on in the background and she wasn't paying it much mind until something happened to catch her eye. It was an infomercial for some diet plan, but the people talking looked familiar.

It took her a minute to realize that it was the authors of Protein Power, the diet book that Lily and I have been trying to follow since we got back from China. I first talked about it here.

The authors seemed to be pushing some sort of weight loss powder, as well as some sort of herbal metabolic booster. The powder is pretty expensive - it costs $80 for one tin, a month's supply. The details are on their website, here.

You know, I was under the impression that these people were scientists, but this little bit of commercialism appears to bring then down to the level of the innumerable weight-loss snake oil salesmen that seem to be everywhere. It's a little disappointing. But then again, Americans are so fat and desperate that I suppose it's hard to resist parting them from their money. Look on the bright side: every dollar spent on protein powder is one less dollar spent on donuts!

I suppose I don't have any right to mock: there are at least two Susan Powter books in my library somewhere.

The thing is, the diet actually seems to be working. People have been shaking their fingers at me for all the fat and protein I have been eating, but the fact is that it's keeping my blood sugar down and it's keeping the weight off. I lost a few pounds in China because I was so nervous about the food there, but I've even lost a couple pounds since I've come back. Lily has been commenting on how much thinner (and hotter) I look. Even I can see the difference when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

Since I was at my peak weight in early 1995, I've lost nearly 100 pounds - I think I'm at 96 or 97 right now. The weight loss has been slow, but I seem to be keeping it off, which is good. I'm a still a fair distance from my ideal weight, but I think I'm 2/3 of the way there now. So who knows? Maybe the illusion of control is almost as good as the real thing.