The Writing Diet: Did I just Lose Four Pounds from Writing about My Break Up?

The Scale Doesn’t Lie

I’m totally serious. I weighed myself on Sunday and on Tuesday I was 4 lbs lighter. Does writing magically cause weight loss?

Just wow. I’ve been going about things all wrong. Until now.

Skeptics will say it’s just coincidence.

If it were one or two pounds I’d agree — maybe. But four? Four is more than just a coincidence. I am not sure about the statistical significance but I’m going to say it is SIGNIFICANT to me.

A skeptic might ask “Haven’t you been working on weight loss?”

To which I will give you a complete answer.

Sure, but I’ve not had such success — ever.

For the record, I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers (WW) and lost 22 lbs when I was 22. I kept it off for 30 years until I was attacked by the change of life — MENOPAUSE.

Every month I gained 2–3 pounds while following my WW and exercise regimen. We were all baffled. My doctor was not. Much younger than me, she looked at my blood test, with a lack of hormones, and simply said “it’s perimenopause. You should try keto. We have a program here.”

Well, well. My new enemy has a name and it’s MENOPAUSE.

Determined, I did not buy the fancy doctor’s keto package, but I went to a holistic doctor and started on keto.

Can I tell you that keto ranks right up there with menopause!? Not really an enemy, but definitely a time-sucking frenemy.

I’m not a bacon eater. I am a lover of vegetables and occasionally sushi or seafood. A pescatarian.

Keto doesn’t like the carbs that vegetables have. Yes veggies contain a lot of carbs! Ughhhhhh. My app was going nuts while trying to stay at 25 carbs/day.

I tried. I really did. I approached keto like everything else but with added motivation to get rid of my growing paunch.

I shopped special ingredients, cooked in advance and well, epic fail. Keto was like a second job and I was exhausted. So after 4 months, I didn’t gain but I didn’t lose, either. I gave up on keto.

I didn’t exactly go back to Weight Watchers. I am now doing what you might call the Meditareanen diet and Intermittent Fasting.

Most importantly, I started a Writing Diet.

It’s been miraculous. Now I’m 5 lbs down and they say the first 5 are the hardest.

If you’re trying to lose weight, I highly recommend the writing diet. Dig into your trauma and let it out. Add in some intermittent fasting and boom!

Success!

This is all the “proof” I need.

If you’d like to read about the article that made me lose 4 pounds, here it is:

Here are others:

Alayne Unterberger lives in Tampa FL with her miniature poodle Giovanni and newly adopted peekapoo Charlie Chan. She is an anthropologist, researcher, Hurricane Irma survivor, non-profit executive, adjunct professor, and life-long learner who loves to travel. Follow me @Dr Alayne.

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