Well, it's been over a month... and I'm pretty dang impressed. As I mentioned before, I decided to use the Men's Health Personal Trainer online service to kick my diet into gear. This program gives me daily workouts, as well as meal plans each day that do all the work for me.

The result? I started at 226 lbs, and this morning I weighed in at 209 lbs. That's 17 pounds lost in a month. Not bad at all! Plus, I have noticed a big change in my energy, and I'm starting to look dang good!

I'm going to continue on the program and will keep updating. I wanted to share a few things about the program that Men's Health online offers. First off, for the price (about $2.50 a week, and your first month is free) I think it is well worth the investment. There's no excuse for not being able to come up with a couple bucks a week for better health.

I will say that the system has limits and some flaws, and some bugs that they are working out. The shopping list is hard to understand, and can be overwhelming, and the work out plans can have glitches while switching between phases. The good thing is that customer support is very helpful, and there are many forums to discuss questions with coaches and other participants.

My suggestion, do it. You have to make some concessions... I have completely cut soda and coffee out of my diet (no caffeine at all)... but you do get a day off each week to eat what you want. The exercises are not at all overwhelming, and even someone new to the gym or working out at home will do well!

Turn on your TV and you'll be bombarded with commercials for weight loss pills, fad diets, and every guru with a hip hop exercise program that promises rapid weight loss. You spam mail box is full of ads for diet programs, and wonder pills for every condition. Wanna know a secret? People in the old days weren't obese like we are today, people throughout history haven't had the problems with heart disease that we do today, and they didn't have wonder pills, hip hop abs, or the Atkins Diet. What they did have was exercise, better nutrition, and a lack of fast food and video games.

Coincidence?

Nope.

Today I want to debunk some claims from some of the most popular fad diets, and explain why they don't work.

Let's start with one that was huge for quite a few years, the Atkins Diet.

Here's the gist of how it works:

The Atkins System was the pioneer of Low Carb Diets. A low carb diet is a dietary program that restrict carbohydrate consumption primarily for weight control. Foods high in digestible carbohydrates are limited or replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of proteins and fats.

The Good.

The basis of the system is fundamentally good. It teaches you to recognize what foods contain high carbs, and some alternatives to them that can be supplemented into the diet.

The Bad.

The original program reduced or removed carbs from a persons diet too drastically. People would see rapid weigh loss, but their bodies would suffer greatly because many of the foods they removed from their diet also contained other essential nutrients that were not replaced. Also, the program didn't initially include any type of exercise plan, and since people saw the huge initial weight loss, they didn't feel the need to exercise.

The Ugly.

In some cases, there were life threatening complications that resulted from the Atkins Diet. The high protein diet can put the bodies systems out of whack.

To be noted:

The Adkins group has done an overhaul of their program, from including vitamins and monitoring your urine for abnormalities, to adding lifestyle changes and exercise programs to their website. I applaud them for making changes when they saw the challenges that their program was creating. While it's still not a program that I think is healthy for a person, I do believe that it can be a part of helping to create a healthy lifestyle. As always, talk with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise routine.

In this blog we will talk about the original "Alternative Medicine", Vitamins.