Hilarious "Dieting" idea from the past, does anyone remember this? Please share yours too.
Barbs2222
Posts: 433 Member
I don't know what made me remember this but it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share. It was 1973 and I was 13 years old. What we did was put food color in Everything. So for instance if you where having mashed potatoes for dinner you'd color them blue. The premise being if something looked wrong or awful you'd eat less of it. But you have to picture it. My mom's one of those stay at home mom's who cooked dinner for us every night, (picture June Cleaver here) So I go to the dinner table and fill up my plate with food, go back to the kitchen and color everything so it's all just wrong, and return to the table. My family is like, "What the H*ll!" I can't believe they let me eat with them for the next few days. Everyone at my Jr. high was doing this including some of the teachers. Does anyone remember this fad or was it just my odd school?
I hope someone else has one of these odd stories to share. I feel like laughing today
I'll check back in a few minutes to see if anyone else has a story. Right now I have to go wrap myself in Saran Wrap.
I hope someone else has one of these odd stories to share. I feel like laughing today
I'll check back in a few minutes to see if anyone else has a story. Right now I have to go wrap myself in Saran Wrap.
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When I first started "eating healthy", long before counting calories, I thought veggie shakes and home made food were the key, regardless of what was in it. In my mind, it was as simple as: "Take out, bad. Cook at home, good".
I love to cook, so I couldn't figure out why I continued to balloon.
Then I started counting calories - that homemade pad thai I loved? 1100 calories per serving. I was going back for seconds... *Smacks forehead*
Those shakes? Yes, they had spinach in them, but it was still sugar-filled yogurt, and high sugar/calorie fruits. I should've taken the hint when I started thinking "Adding rum would be a fun way to have these healthy shakes!"
Oh, young rand486, you were so naive...24 -
The only crazy one I really remember is the Chicken Diet. You could have 1 slice of bread, 1 potato, 2 chicken breasts, all the fruits/veggies you want, and 1 glass of orange juice. That's it. For the whole day. As a teenager, I didn't like fruits/veggies, so my breakfast was OJ, lunch was chicken and 1/2 a slice of bread, repeat for dinner, with a potato.
I think me and my mom were able to stick with it for about a week before we binged on brownies and ice cream.7 -
Oh, there was the time that I tried Slim-Fast. I made it and thought, you know what would make this taste better? Ice cream. So I made a SF milkshake. Defeated the entire purpose of SF. And it still didn't taste all that good.23
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One diet fad I remember reading about in the 70s was that models would soak cotton balls in Jell-O and eat them. Like, for dinner. Guess it filled you up even if it wasn't pretty coming out.
Then there was the 'single food' diet.. that if you ate just one thing your body wouldn't get confused and would therefore lose weight (head smack). So you could eat one of anything for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, even if it was say brownies or ice cream cones. STOOPID! I think I tried this with oatmeal creme pies and got to about day four before I got literally sick and tired of them.9 -
Oh yeah, and the infamous 'Cabbage Soup' diet that still makes an appearance on January 1 and which is usually done by January 7 since nobody can stand the gas
OP, I've never heard of the food color diet, but it kind of sounds like it could be kind of fun (remember Heinz trying out purple ketchup?? kind of like that)11 -
I remember this stupid diet where the first two days you could have nothing but apples, the next 2 were nothing but cheese, next 2 were chicken, next 2 were salad. Rinse and repeat.
I'm pretty sure that after days 1 to 6, you didn't poop for a week
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When I first started "eating healthy", long before counting calories, I thought veggie shakes and home made food were the key, regardless of what was in it. In my mind, it was as simple as: "Take out, bad. Cook at home, good".
I love to cook, so I couldn't figure out why I continued to balloon.
Then I started counting calories - that homemade pad thai I loved? 1100 calories per serving. I was going back for seconds... *Smacks forehead*
Those shakes? Yes, they had spinach in them, but it was still sugar-filled yogurt, and high sugar/calorie fruits. I should've taken the hint when I started thinking "Adding rum would be a fun way to have these healthy shakes!"
Oh, young rand486, you were so naive...
Ahahaha! Too funny. This made me laugh!1 -
tekkiechikk please stop!!! I can't... I can't... I just can't stop the tears!! Cotton balls!!3
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In high school it was the cold carb diet. Cold baked potatoes, cold plain pasta, cold white rice. I believe the thought behind it was that the carbs would fill you up but you wouldn't eat much cause everything was gross cold.6
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Do you remember those Ayds candies from the 70s? One of my friend's mom had some in the pantry. We always tried to sneak a couple when she wasn't looking.6
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There was a diet pill a few years back, and may still be available, called the 24-hour diet. Essentially it said you can eat anything you want today, but tomorrow all you get is water and these weight loss supplements (fiber pills). So yeah, naturally, most people would lose weight on the plan - because they had cut their calorie count by 50%. Duh!3
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They were caramels!FenTiger89 wrote: »Do you remember those Ayds candies from the 70s? One of my friend's mom had some in the pantry. We always tried to sneak a couple when she wasn't looking.
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I did a diet coke and Macintosh apple diet in high school. Lost weight too, but MAN did it come back on fast again when I ate normal meals! LOL
There was also a low fat diet that was circulating in my high school years. Basically as long as it had no fat you could eat it. I remember it was a hard cover book that listed every food you could imagine with just the fat content, can't remember the name of the diet though... I ate a LOT of "fat free" bread and jam and couldn't figure out why I wasn't losing... hahaha5 -
OMG you guy's thanks so much for making me laugh. I always thought Ayds candies were something to relieve constipation so that's why they worked. I did do the only one food diet too. Mine was V8. Two big bottles, 560 cals, salt off the charts but after a couple days of course I was down. For a couple weeks once all I ate all day was one Whopper Jr. with cheese from Burger King, 420 cals, and as much beer as I wanted (I was in my early 20's)
The cold carb diet, I've never heard of but ew. I could see how that would work.1 -
Susan Powter and her fat-free "Stop the insanity" nonsense from the 90's. Dry baked potatoes, grilled chicken... Fat was your worst enemy. People everywhere were getting skinny and stupid from long term fat-free dieting. I'm so glad that's behind us.10
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I'm sorry, I actually wrote that as a joke, because it was pretty huge in the 70's or 80's. I think Fran from The Nanny did it. But if it works, I'd give it a try.
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I can remember my mom telling me that in the 70s, part of the plan for Weight Watchers required you to eat liver at least once a week. I just googled and found the plan here.
The fish! My grandma also talks about having to eat nauseating amounts of canned tuna because she lived in Iowa and there wasn't an abundance of fresh fish there. 3 -
I'm sorry, I actually wrote that as a joke, because it was pretty huge in the 70's or 80's. I think Fran from The Nanny did it. But if it works, I'd give it a try.
WOW! I just laughed so hard at myself! People are probably thinking I'm an idiot that I didn't realize that was a joke, but it's really popular! There called homeade skinny wraps. Helps you lose inches and helps with strech marks!
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By far the jell-o cotton balls is the most hilarious! !!1
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Lol. That's a new one for me!
I never did anything too extreme, and never dieted growing up (thank God for my teen metabolism!) although when I was poor and in college I remember thinking "ramen" was a good go-to. I'd spend my precious money on ramen, and end up starving.1 -
Actually, all it does is dehydrate you. It's not worth doing, tbh.
I'm sorry, I actually wrote that as a joke, because it was pretty huge in the 70's or 80's. I think Fran from The Nanny did it. But if it works, I'd give it a try.
WOW! I just laughed so hard at myself! People are probably thinking I'm an idiot that I didn't realize that was a joke, but it's really popular! There called homeade skinny wraps. Helps you lose inches and helps with strech marks!
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tekkiechikk wrote: »One diet fad I remember reading about in the 70s was that models would soak cotton balls in Jell-O and eat them. Like, for dinner. Guess it filled you up even if it wasn't pretty coming out.
This makes me think of Will Ferrell eating cotton balls in the doctor's office on Elf. LOL
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LOL, my story is so pathetic, its funny. Because I knew I was supposed to drink lots of water to lose weight, I decided to fill an empty jug full of water and guzzle it down so I would not have to remember to drink the water throughout the day. Oh boy, was I sorry. I thought I was going to die! I just laid on the sofa trying to think what to do next.. Yeah, uh don't try to drink a gallon of water at one time. You will be sorry...12
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Check out these old Weight Watchers recipe cards that go with that crazy plan posted above. My favorite is Fluffy Mackerel Pudding. Do read the commentary but not with a mouth full of water or if you have to pee. Lol
http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html11 -
Well, there was the Cambridge diet, the Cabbage Soup diet, Sugar Busters diet, Mayo clinic diet (you know....to prep you for heart surgery), the Master Cleanse (maple syrup, lemon juice and cayanne added to water), the three day diet and my fav- The HCG diet!4
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Those square candies, Ayds, I remember eating those.
The "liquid protein" diet...vile stuff. Three capfuls a day...4
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