PRISM - Christian Weight Loss Program, 6 weeks

So, my wife, friends, and I are now in our 10th week of the Prism Weight Loss Program, a Christian weight loss program that I have come to love. 

To the right are my 0 and 6 week pictures.  I lost 15 lbs. in that time.  I am actually surprised that I like the program, and it succeeds because of it's multi-faceted approach.  We are starting a second group at our church in the new year, and lots of people have seen our progress and are asking about it.  Here's my review of what I like and don't so far.

1. Christian Humanist Approach

The program uses what I call a "Christian humanist" approach.  As I discussed in Is Man Basically Good or Evil?, we have a dual nature, both divine and fallen, and any approach to reforming or changing us must embrace both, and not merely one or the other, ending up in the incomplete and sometimes damaging approaches of humanism or fundamentalism.  So how does Prism address this?

First, it is not evangelistic, and does not emphasize or even really mention conversion.  However, it does not really use the word 'sin', but it does not shy away from personal responsibility for our 'abuse' of food, and it emphasizes our lack of control and responsibility to admit it.  The workbook talks about God in the daily lesson, and has two 'optional' scripture readings at the end of each lesson.

However, it emphasizes that ridding ourselves of our addictions, bad habits, bad thinking, and unhealthy body and mind is for the purpose of 'becoming the TRUE YOU that God created.'  It emphasizes that each of us are valuable in who we were created to be.  It is also replete with common psychological approaches to addiction, recovery, and codependency that most of us who have read self-help and 12 step books are familiar with.

2. Multi-faceted approach

What really makes it successful is that it's not just about losing weight, or how and what to eat, but it attacks the problem from many avenues, and primarily, it's about making us aware of our INNER reasons for eating poorly.  The many helpful facets include:

• Signing a contract - you sign an agreement with yourself and the group that you will keep the rules exactly for the next 6 weeks.  They also ask you to read your agreement daily.  I found that when I signed my name, I had to ask myself - are you serious, or not?
• Daily lessons - the daily lessons are the core of the system, and they help you change your self talk, your sabotaging patterns, help you become aware of how you respond to stress, your triggers, etc.  It has fair doses of 'affirmations' (including an awful CD with affirmations and sappy background music) to help you change your view of yourself, God, and food.
• Weekly group meeting - the weekly meeting is a great time to share successes and struggles, and the group accountability and encouragement makes it fun. 
• Weekly video - each week you watch a video about nutrition, and then later, you listen to a psychologist talk about things like anger, apathy, etc.  They also start each video with a short testimony.   The information in the videos on good fat / bad fat, sugar, enzymes, etc were really cool.
• Great Recipes - there is a Prism cookbook, and the recipes are delicious and pretty filling.  However, any South Beach recipe will do, pretty much.
• Good food replacements - three food replacements really helped me make it. 

• One was Agave Nectar, which is as sweet as honey, but without the strong taste, and it has about 60 calories per Tsp.
• The second great food replacement I discovered was a salad dressing replacement.  I figured that every restaurant has lemon wedges, and so I just use lemon juice with salt and pepper.  Good enough.  Most salad dressings are high in calories, and even vinaigrettes often have sugar.
• The last one is for dessert - plain yogurt with agave nectar or Smuckers Simply Fruit does the trick.

• No weighing yourself - I'm not sure if this is a fad or based on real psychology, but basically, they want you to be free from the 'tyranny of the scale', and you only measure and weigh at the start and end of each six weeks.  That way, you don't eat improperly based on the scale (I lost weight, so I can eat a little more, I didn't lose weight, so why am I dieting at all, it's not working).

3. Phased, boot camp approach

The first 6 weeks, you go cold turkey on sugar and white flower.  No breads of ANY kind, no white rice, no tortillas, nada.  But what is helpful about this, and probably helped me the most, was how I felt 7 days after I quit sugar and simple carbs.  More mental clarity, no afternoon grogginess.  I will never forget it, and when I do go eat something with sugar, I feel so sick that I remember that it's not worth it.  I have sweeteners I can use, just not that crappy glucose.

It helps to tell yourself "it's just for six weeks, and then it will start to loosen up."  The progressive loosening of strictness allows you to develop self control.

Also, they require that you weigh and measure and RECORD everything you eat, and turn those sheets in weekly.  This was the hardest part to me, I hate minutiae like that, but thanks to myfitnesspal.com, I have a way to track stuff online (there are many other calorie and fitness trackers online like Sparkpeople).  However, this does a LOT to keep you honest with yourself, and helps you realize what the actual caloric value of stuff is.

4. No exercise required, but good nutrition is required

The key, of course, to weight loss, is less calories in than you expend.  With that in mind, men must eat 1300-1500 calories per day, and women 1000-1200 (more if you are obese).  But they do say that you can't just eat protein, and must eat two servings of complex carbs (while wheat cereal, brown rice) per day, so it's not no-carbs or high-protein. 

I actually like the low calorie thing - they recommend exercise, but don't demand it, which is good because I don't have time or the emotional energy to start another discipline.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THE PRISM DIET

There are a few ways that I don't like the program, but most are superficial:

• Geared towards women - although men can easily participate, the tone and approach is very feminine, and I could see a lot of men checking out during some of the discussions.
• Sappy music - the videos have this sappy, syrupy music behind them, which gets annoying during a 50 minute video.
• Low quality videos - many of the the videos of nutrition experts look like they were made more than ten years ago, and with a handicam, not professional equipment.  If they are successful, they should plow some money in to upgrading stuff. I see that they just did this with the workbooks, so maybe they will with the videos too.

Anyway, I am liking it, and for Christians it could be a very effective small group, even an outreach of sorts.  I'll check in at the end of next six weeks.