28 Days on a Liquid Protein Diet

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Some Tips for the Velocity Dieter

I have been on the Velocity Diet twice now, once for 6-8 weeks (it was so successful that I just kept going after the 4-week mark) and now again, roughly a year later. So I have a little experience in the field. Here are a few tips that you might consider if you're thinking of doing the diet yourself.

(1) Like Yoda says, "Do or do not; there is no try." In other words, you really have to commit to doing the diet 100% for a certain period of time, and set aside enough time and mental energy to make it happen. A half-assed approach will not produce "Velocity Diet results." It's all or nothing. (More below...)

One thing I definitely do not recommend is doing some "home grown version" of the Diet where, for example, you have one solid meal a day (instead of one meal a week). Let me tell you, you will end up HUNGRY ALL THE TIME with NO SIGNIFICANT WEIGHT LOSS to show for it. When it comes to the Velocity Diet, "half-assed" = Failure.

(2) Prepare yourself beforehand. Although the Velocity Diet is quite easy to maintain once you're on it, it does require some prep work, and I advise getting all that done BEFORE "Day 1," so that once you're on the Diet, you can focus your mental energy on staying on it, without worrying about, say, running out of protein powder on a Sunday when all the store are closed.

Step one in your preparation should be to read or re-read the original two Velocity Diet posts, found here and here. They will tell you pretty much all you need to know about the Diet. You can do more online research if you wish, but these two articles provide the necessary base.

Then purchase a month's supply of protein powder and all the supplements you're planning to take. It's much, much easier to have a month's supply of everything you will consume in a closet than to have to keep running out and re-stocking.

Then clear as much of the food out of your house as possible. Out of sight, out of mind (hopefully).

(3) Buy one or more hypnosis CDs or MP3s. You may think this is a flakey idea, but it's worked for me, and I think it can work for everyone. The only catch is, you MUST listen to the hypnosis track twice a day, EVERY day, for the entire duration of the Diet, even if you're skeptical or don't notice any effect. (Generally speaking, you will notice an effect after two or three weeks, but the process is cumulative -- like it builds up in your "mental bloodstream" until it reaches a "critical level" and "kicks in" -- so you must keep doing it consistently, even if you feel it's having no effect, in order for it to have an eventual effect.) It's not particularly expensive or time consuming. I suggest buying a book called "You Can Be Thin," which comes with a hypnosis CD. (It's a British import.) I've tried a lot of different hypnosis CDs, and I've found this one to be the best. Read the book first -- it only takes an afternoon, and it's worth it. The hypnosis track is 23 minutes long. I ripped it to my ipod and listen to it in bed at night (I fall asleep to it) and first thing when I get up in the morning (I set my alarm clock for 23 minutes earlier than usual). (Note that when using an ipod, you have to put the hypnosis track on its own individual playlist; otherwise when it ends, the ipod will just play the next track you've got stored.) If you use some peer-to-peer downloading system like BitTorrent or Limewire, you'll be able to find a lot of "weigh loss hypnosis" tracks for free.

(4) Buy a bunch of appetite-suppressing supplements. I was really skeptical of these at the beginning, but I'll tell you, I'm really not hungry on the Velocity Diet, so I assume that something I'm taking is responsible. Here is a list of the appetite suppressants I'm taking (your mileage may vary):

Hoodia
PGX
Pine Nut Oil
Green Tea Extract

In regards to hoodia, I did a fair amount of online research, and it seems like the typical bottle of hoodia that you buy at the store may or may not actually contain any hoodia at all (it's not regulated by the government). The brand I've linked to, Desert Burn, is tested by a third-party lab for actual hoodia content, so as far as I can tell, it's the most "reliable" hoodia brand available. I believe it's only available for sale online.

(5) Arrange for some reinforcement. In other words, have someone around that you can talk to about things. (This is the basis of Weight Watcher's, for example.) In my case, I have my trainer, Eric, who I see three times a week. You might have a workout buddy, or even better, a Velocity Diet buddy. If there's no one in your life that can play this role, sign up for the Velocity Diet Support Group and check out the forums at T-Nation (the original home of the Velocity Diet) and you'll find plenty of "virtual buddies" to connect with.

(6) Have someone take photos of you on a regular basis, if possible. In my case, my trainer takes front and side photos of me every week. You can also do it more often, if you like. Even if you can't see the changes in the mirror, if you stick to the Diet, you'll definitely notice the changes in your photographs.

(7) Start a Velocity Diet Blog. This is something that I did not do the first time I was on the Diet, and I've never blogged before now. But I've found that keeping this blog has been REALLY helpful for, on one hand, just keeping track of everything (i.e, how much I'm consuming, how much I'm exercising), and on the other hand, giving me a place to work out my "Velocity Diet thoughts" in writing. I have no previous connection to this site, Blogger, but I can tell you, it was amazingly simply to set up this blog, and it's equally simple to maintain it.

(8) My last piece of advice is to simply go for it -- stop putting things off (you can read those T-Nation forums FOREVER if you're not careful) and get started on the Velocity Diet RIGHT NOW. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll be glad you did!

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