The Shangri-La diet has been mentioned a few times around here, and each time I came across it I went "Hmm, that's cool, I'll have to do it some time". Last week I realized that this was in large part due to the fact that all discussions of it say something along the lines of "Sugar water is listed as one of the options, but you should really do one of the less pleasant alternatives". And this was sufficient to make me file it away as something I should do "some time".

I'm not in any population which is especially more strongly disposed to getting diabetes than average, I already drink a soda every other day or so, drinking sugar water is something I would consider quite pleasant, and I'm around 40 lbs over my target weight, so I decided that getting whatever benefit there was to be had from the sugar water was a better outcome than deciding on a less pleasant method and failing to actually get started yet again.

Over the first few days I saw a slight drop in my weight (though still more than the "MORE WILLPOWER!" method had accomplished over the same interval the last time I tried that), and some appetite reduction which may have just been imagined. Unfortunately, I ran out of sugar 4 days in, and wasn't able to buy more for a couple days. By the time I did, my weight had risen to above where I started. So I have no idea whether this is a success or not, but I'm still proud that I managed to get past the whole "But it's not optimal!" roadblock and try a cheap (in terms of willpower) test.