Which Diet Plan
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After you have attained emotional control, the question is: What diet plan is going to work the best for me? We will start with the food program. There is not any reason to randomly choose something that has the potential of dramatically affecting your physiology and psychology without first evaluating the science and research of what you are going to choose.

Back in the seventies when the low fat craze began to hit, there was not a bit of scientific evidence that proved what was being sold was accurate and of course we now know it was not. Today is much different. There is reasonably good science behind everything we eat and drink. I say reasonably good because you always need to look at the parameters of scientific tests and who conducts them.I believe it is important to have the same kind of science behind your food and fitness program that you have behind your MIND/FITNESS program. The problem with everything I look at is that no one seems to start at the beginning. As you may have noticed, I like to start at the beginning.

The beginning for any diet plan is to eliminate the foods or ingredients to foods that cause the most damage to your body and will impede your success with any food program you choose.

Killing the Sugar Habit

This is the single, most habit forming and destructive food you will have to contend with. Atkins is considered the pioneer in the area of eliminating high sugar producing foods for weight loss. I tried Atkins in the late 70s and it was way too radical for me at that time. The major flaw in Atkins was that there was no differentiation between fats. Milk based products like cheese, butter and of course whole milk is not tightly regulated on this diet.

As of late more studies have been done on high protein, low carb diets, and there is a tremendous number of studies and information on the effects of eliminating grain from your diet.

The Glycemic Index concept was originally developed by a team of scientists lead by Dr. David Jenkins at the University of Toronto in 1981. The Glycemic Index of a food is the measure of the rise in the level of glucose that occurs in your bloodstream, after that food is ingested. This is important because when you eat foods with a high glycemic index, your blood sugar levels increase to a point of causing a significant physiological change. The rise in blood sugar causes your pancreas to secrete insulin, which is your body's way of getting your blood sugar level back to normal.

This excessive secretion of insulin will:

• Cause your body to store excess sugar as fat.
• Inhibits the "burning" of previously stored fat, and
• Signals our liver to make cholesterol!
• Causes an eventual insulin resistance that can lead to type II diabetes.
  As foods with a low glycemic index (G.I.) are absorbed more slowly, the calories from the food you eat are more likely to be burned throughout the day as energy, rather than stored as fat. Studies have shown that even when calorie intake is the same, you can lose more weight eating low G.I. foods rather than high G.I. foods. Jenkins found that foods such as potatoes traditionally defined as a complex carbohydrate actually led to a rapid rise in blood sugar. Some foods high in simple carbohydrates appeared to digest more slowly, leading to a gradual elevation in blood sugar.