food replacement/diet shakes and bars  

I have a friend who has followed a diet based on food replacement shakes and bars. She shed some pounds but she wasn´t terribly overweighed. As for myself, I couldn´t possibly do that. I need real food in my diet, I eat with my eyes as much as with my mouth. But I dieted once eating the same food the rest of the people at the house ate, only less. And had some no-nos: mayo, sodas, alcohol, butter. Once a week, I could eat as much as I wished. After a while, you don´t want to eat so much.
I´m on that diet again now because I put on 20 pounds when I quit smoking. I have shed 2 each month now (6 in total). I have 14 to go and I´ll get there.