Life On The Dean Ornish Diet

Does the Dean Ornish Diet work?
I had a few health problems about 4 years ago and decided after hearing about the Dean Ornish diet that I would give it a try. I had watched a report about Dr. Dean Ornish on the news and saw some testimonials by some of his patients that looked interesting to me. As I read more about the diet I found more and more evidence to support his work.

Once I decided to try his diet the first thing I did was get the book, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease. The diet didn't really focus on counting calories but restricted many foods and limited fat to 10% of the overall diet. I didn't find cutting out the fat and junk food out very difficult but eliminating meat was not easy. It wasn't really the red meat that I missed even though I enjoyed a good hamburger I got use to not eating them. Chicken was not so easy to cut out, I often found myself craving chicken but after about 3 months I was able to cut it out.

When I started the Dean Ornish Diet I weighed 180 pounds, not really over weight considering that I am 6 feet. My main goal was not weight loss but overall heart health. After being on the diet for about 6 months I had dropped to about 165 pounds. I was exercising and doing my meditation for stress reduction as the book recommends. I can't say I felt a whole lot better or worse. I didn't feel weak and hungry or anything though. Once I had been on the diet for about a year my weight dropped even lower to about 155 pounds. I'm not sure this was a bad thing as I think many doctors believe being lean is good for your health long term, but I didn't feel good psychologically. I worried about losing more weight, even though I am not sure I was going to it just began to wear on me and I decided to give it up.

I didn't decide to just start filling my face with junk food and fat but decided to add meat to my diet. Basically I modified the Dean Ornish Diet by adding fish and chicken (white meat). Since than I have added back about 10-15 pounds I am not saying that it is a good thing health wise but I feel more comfortable. I definitely think the Dean Ornish Diet will help anyone lose weight if you can stick to it.

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