A Diet That Works

What makes the perfect diet? How about one that doesn't leave you gnawing your knuckles with hunger! And of course it must include all the nutritional bits that your body needs. Oh, yes, you have to lose weight and keep it off. Impossible? Welcome to the Clean and Lean diet from Forever Living Products.

The 'Clean' and the 'Lean' are two separate parts to the diet. In fact the 'Clean' is actually a nine day detox. If that part seems a bit drastic you can omit it and go straight to the 'Lean', a diet lasting 30 days - although you can continue if you haven't reached your target weight.

Forever Living products are the people who sell Aloe Vera. They have sales of nearly £100 million but the products aren't available in shops. You will have heard of aloe vera as something that is added to skincare products, which it is. But there are many other benefits you can get from aloe vera, a quite remarkable plant. You can get more information about the wonders of aloe vera here.

Back to the diet that works. The best kept secret in dieting is to drink a lot of water. Apparently the signal sent to your brain to tell it you are thirsty is much the same as the signal for hunger, so most people snack when in fact they are just thirsty. Water is a natural appetite suppressant and it can also actually help you to lose weight by releasing water that your body is retaining. If you do not drink enough water (and most people don't do so) your body stores some in case of emergency. By drinking the right amount the body says hey, no problem, I'm going to get water when I need it, so I won't bother to store an emergency supply. If you suffer from water retention drink more water! Your body will release the water it was retaining. It sounds daft but it really works.

So why is drinking plenty of water such a secret? Well, most people are severely dehydrated and most diets fail because people want to eat instead of drinking. Of course you aren't going to find any books that tell you how important drinking water is to your body especially when dieting, and the diet industry is happy for you to fail as your weight yo-yos up and down as you try out different diets.

The detox consists of taking bee pollen tablets, garcinia, aloe vera drink, and two helpings of Forever Lite (a nutritional powder that can be used to make a smoothie by adding fruit). Your body can actually last indefinitely just on water, bee pollen and the fibre and nourishment found in the aloe vera. Garcinia is a natural appetite suppressant that, helped by drinking the water, will ensure you do not feel hungry.

After nine days of detox (or from day one if you wish), you switch to the diet. This is not a lot different to the detox except that you can have one low-calorie meal each day. Full details can be found at the diet site, including an article all about water.

Incidentally, this diet isn't suitable for mums who are breast-feeding. Wait until baby is on to solids - anyway, you shouldn't be worrying about your weight when breast-feeding. The diet doesn't seem cheap, but bear in mind that you won't be spending much on food, so the net cost is probably nil. The only expense will be new clothes for your slimmer body!