PGX: Life as Spongebob Squarepants

PGX is a weird and wonderful concoction.
You've probably heard about it especially if you are a devotee of programs like The Biggest Loser.
Essentially, PGX is a form of natural fibre. When taken in shakes, capsules or powder forms, it expands in your stomach making you feel full. You can take it as a drink, swallow the caps or sprinkle it into your soups or on your cereal.
It is not a liquid diet and it is all natural, not like diet pills and many of the dangerous supplements out there. It's meant to provide a natural and sensible support for your weight loss or maintenance regime.
This makes good sense. Remember when Oprah Winfrey lost all that weight and smugly carted out a hundred pounds of lard in a wheel barrow? Oprah was at her skinniest when she was on a liquid diet.
Trouble was, once she was exposed to mac and cheese washed down by Moscow Mules she quickly gained back her weight and doubled it.
Healthy people should not be on liquid diets. My mom was on one, but that was because she had a problem with her digestive system and she had to live on both intravenous feedings and Ensure. Ditto, Scott's mom who had ALS.
Liquid diets for these folks are medically-necessary.
For the rest of us, they are unsafe.
God gave us a mouth with teeth to chew things. We need to chew. We need to feel stuff going down into our gullets. Food is at the centre of our lives; it provides a reason for being, just like love and sex.
People who live without food, on drinks and juices, might as well be machines.
But utilizing something like PGX is smart for people who have trouble losing weight.
Taken as a shake or a supplement, it fills the stomach with natural dietary fibre something we all need to keep our motors running.
I took an interest in PGX early after reading the book Hunger Free Forever. I liked the concept that an all natural supplement could be used to curb hunger and shrink our massively indulged guts. I also liked that PGX had been studied for over 15 years at the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospitals in Toronto which are institutions I know and trust.
I must say, however, when I first tried it back in 2007, PGX didn't work for me.
At the time, I was in the midst of massive hormonal swings, part of my perimenopausal hell, and the regime made me feel really unwell. I'm not sure why. I just knew that I had to stop.
But this is 2014, and I'm giving it another try and it's working well.
I take a PGX shake in the morning. This stabilizes my blood sugar for the day and is an excellent product to use before going to the gym. You have to down it quickly because it starts to swell right in the glass and I wouldn't recommend adding a banana, as I did one day because that's just too much swell for the bell.
It made me feel like SpongeBob Squarepants.
In addition to using the PGX, I have given up dairy and wheat products and I feel fantastic and I've lost a dress size in less than two weeks. More importantly, by taking the PGX in the morning, I no longer have any cravings, especially in that horrible time between 3 p.m. and suppertime.
It was interesting on the weekend. I decided to have a cheat day and had two slices of bread with my eggs instead of my usual two egg omelette. I was sick as a dog by mid-afternoon with stomach cramps, so I'm thinking that bread and I are going to have to part ways for a while. I'm also rethinking cheat days.
In any event, the PGX seems to be working and I'm a happy girl.
I know I will have no trouble dropping more weight around the middle, which is my goal.
If it's something you're interested in, I would suggest that you read Hunger Free Forever before buying the product. Also, discuss its use with your doc.
There are some side effects, especially for those people who are not used to a high fibre diet.
Expect a little more action in the bathroom. I also found that my skin broke out a bit.
Otherwise, if you're healthy, you should be good to go. (Pardon the pun.)
It should go without saying that people shouldn't take it if they have medical issues like renal disease or congestive heart failure.
But as Jerry Seinfeld would say, if you have one of those conditions, weight loss may not be your biggest problem.