You put into words exactly what has put me off the ND - I've spent the last 3 years eating minimally processed food with as few added ingredients as possible, so reading the contents of the Optifast shakes (we can buy them in pharmacies in Australia) absolutely turned my stomach. I've also put a lot of effort into my elimination diet to heal my digestion (still a work in progress), so messing it up with all those processed chemicals and fake vitamins really scares me. So for now I'm sticking to intermittent fasting and calorie controlled to try and reach my PFT. I'm so envious of the fast weight loss you NDers manage to achieve though.
On reflection I can't in all honesty claim to be following the ND stringently. I'm following my own interpretation which is very much a VLCD, I'm hungry almost all the time. I have a shake every few days in the morning (for nutrients, I like the idea of calling it medicine
@Pipp) but have home made smoothies or salad during the day. I eat more protein than on ND but virtually no carbohydrate and drink lots of water. The first few days were tricky and I didn't excercise for over a week as I felt quite strange. However, the weight is now dropping, I feel amazingly healthy and fit and have so much energy. Best of all my BG readings have dropped into normal ranges which feels like a real achievement. I love the feeling of taking control of my body, wish I had been this motivated a long time ago. This has been a wake up call for me, my mind has focussed and I feel very positive going forward. My downfall is definitely carbohydrate and I've always known it makes me feel less than brilliant to overeat and I'm cross with myself that it has taken this to shock me into action.
Your healthy diet
@Indy51 is, I think the way to go forward, you say it's a work in progress, I think it has to become a new way of life. When I look at unhealthy food I now think about how much better I'm feeling without it. I know I'm going to lapse but hopefully keeping low BG is going to remain my top priority.