Posted by JohnK on April 5, 2002, at 16:56:56
In reply to The Antidepressant Survival Program, posted by LyndaK on April 4, 2002, at 23:56:31
I started this program somewhat stepwise in the fall of 2000. The program consists of three main components: exercise, nutrition, and spirituality.
I was already exercising aerobically, which had made me better off regarding my depression, while I had been able to lower the dosage of the SSRI medication I was using.
As for the nutrition, it is similar to the diet recommended by "the Zone" (written by Barry Sears) and has you start thinking about the proportions of carbohydrates and proteins in your meals. It also asks you to quit (or at least drastically reduce) sugar, white flour, caffeine, and alcohol.
I followed the nutrition plan pretty seriously (except the caffeine part--I need it to counteract the somnolence I get from SSRIs). Without any kind of starvation, or increase in the amount of exercise I was doing, I lost 10 kgs (22 pounds) in three months. That way I reached my perfect weight (that is, the weight at which I like how my body looks) of 72 kgs, which is what I was weighing before joining the SSRI business.
I also got much more energetic, and I stopped having energy slumps for hours after lunch and other meals.Three months after I started the nutrition part, I joined a meditation class in a Buddhist center in my city. I started meditating at least 20 minutes almost every morning, and that has simply made me another person--much calmer, but also more productive.
I am so incredibly satisfied with my life these days that it's hard to believe it when I remember how I was doing 1.5 years ago.
I hope you will find the program helpful too.
/John
PS: I don't know the author of the book, I don't receive any commission on its sales, and I don't think this program is the only way to reach nirvana. ;-)
poster:JohnK
thread:101910
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020402/msgs/102038.html