What Diet Turned Your Life Around?

I’m curious what diet did it for you. What set you on the road to fitness and health?

Six years ago, I was a fat lard at 205 pounds and 5’6". I had never done an exercise program or followed a diet plan.

I came across TAP (the Testosterone Advantage Plan) from Men’s Health, and have never looked back. I’ve since moved to other diets for variety (Precision Nutrition, Cheat to Lose, etc.), but TAP was the turning point for me.

I don’t know how much was due to the diet itself, and how much was driven by my readiness for change but I’m just glad that it happened in my life.

So what diet was the catalyst for you?

The one where I at less and stopped rationalizing bad choices. I didn’t need a specific diet, just a phoenix theory moment of self loathing.

When I realized that “diet” was a term to refer to what I eat regardless of my weight goal. Going on a fad diet is useless.

I’m not a fan of “diets”, since they’re usually short term. Of course the “shut up and eat” diet is working well for me :smiley:

Don’t get hung up by the term “diet”…I was more referring to an overall nutrition plan.

From the responses so far, it sounds like most people just decided to live more healthy without having a particular program to follow at that point.

I’m sure someone somewhere has “invented” the following diet, but I really discovered it for myself.

I call it the “supermarket perimeter” diet (or, to put it scientifically, the “stop eating shit that makes you look like shit” diet)

When I shop, I buy items ONLY from produce, meat, seafood and bulk sections (nuts, seeds, etc). I go to the frozen section for frozen berries. That’s it. I never venture into the aisles in the center, because that’s where most of the crap is kept.

I look and feel 100x better than before. My blood pressure is ideal. My bloodwork came back recently…not a single thing out of range.

I’d have to say the Precision Nutrition guide did it for me. It got me leaner than I had even been before.

I know the V-Diet gets shat on a LOT, but that was what started it all for me. Fat loss with minimal muscle loss.

Before you all hate on me, I’ll point out I followed the diet to the letter and then got straight into a clean bulk.

[quote]1morerep wrote:
I’d have to say the Precision Nutrition guide did it for me. It got me learner than I had even been before. [/quote]

This is has been what’s given my clients the best results as well (even had the winning person in a Biggest Loser contest at the gym out of 30 participants).

Before, I got decent results with people, but this is what has really taken my training (IMO) to the next level as far as results with body fat go.

I like precision nutrition as well. Basically protein, veggies, fruits, natural fats throughout the day. Starchy/sugary/grain carbs after workouts. Thats basically the plan in 2 sentences.

The “see-food” diet.

Another vote for PN.

The “Ice Cream Is Not A Food Group and Get Up Off Your Fat Ass and Lift” diet has worked very well for me.

High carb, low fat (and consequently low protein). The standard 90s thing. I pretty much just ate bread and apples. It worked too well. Went from a fat teenager to a very skinny one. Rebounded slightly as all that kind of diet did was make me want to binge on junk food, but in truth it was more the exercise side of things that turned me around…

Started training with weights around the same time I started eating like a bird and that is what really changed my life. In my quest to build muscle I progressed from reading things like Mens Health to T-Nation (Berardi made the biggest POSITIVE influence on my diet bar none), elitefts.com etc and have never looked back…

Buying a blender and faithfully beginning every morning with ~800 kcals worth of milk, bananas, yogurt, peanut butter, raw oats, frozen berries, Grow! etc is what really got me going.

I read “spartan health regime”. Suddenly I wondered what the hell I was doing to myself with all of the crap I was ingesting. Maybe not the optimal diet, but it opened a world of nutrition and training that I’d heard of, but never engaged in.

The T-Dawg Diet was a turning point for me.

[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:
I’m sure someone somewhere has “invented” the following diet, but I really discovered it for myself.

I call it the “supermarket perimeter” diet (or, to put it scientifically, the “stop eating shit that makes you look like shit” diet)

When I shop, I buy items ONLY from produce, meat, seafood and bulk sections (nuts, seeds, etc). I go to the frozen section for frozen berries. That’s it. I never venture into the aisles in the center, because that’s where most of the crap is kept.

I look and feel 100x better than before. My blood pressure is ideal. My bloodwork came back recently…not a single thing out of range.
[/quote]

That is my technique too. I don’t have the inclination to weigh my food nor deprive myself of any macronutrient. I just want good food in the house and then eat whatever the hell I want from that.

The diet that started it all for me was one from M&F back around 1990. It wasn’t really a diet but the concept of eating 6x/day. Before then, I just ate when I was hungry. Of course being only 20 yrs old, I bought way too many tubs of Weider’s MegaMass 2000 (thankfully the MM 4000 hadn’t hit the market yet). I remember eating a huge plate of pasta/meat along with one of those shakes for breakfast everyday for month. I still eat 5-6x/day, I just make way better choices.

PN for me too. I’ve dropped 45 lbs. of useless fat, and I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. I started out with just Berardi’s 7 habits article, and eventually bought the whole package. I’m pretty much hooked for life.