The Difference Between a Diet and a Dietary Lifestyles

I'm not really looking for a diet. I've experienced most of the fads and a few of the fashions but they all lack sustainability or they fall short on results. What I'm looking for is a dietary lifestyle, as in a way of living that fits with the modern environment and within a certain budget.

Diets don't work unless you adjust your life to meet the restrictions of the diet and that's more than most can stand for too long. But, for the sake of argument, let's run down the most popular diets and illustrate some weaknesses and be honest about their strengths and see if they might apply to the experiment

Any diet that sells pre-packaged food is out. The food is too expensive and usually is bland and tasteless. The epitome of the diet as opposed to the dietary lifestyle.

Any diet that involves a lot of numbers and points and counting is out. I don't want to have to count to live. I am an artist. That side of my brain does not work very well. I would starve to death. It works for some people, I must admit but I don't think its sustainable.

Any diet that uses pills is out. Way out. As in don't do it, don't think about, don't consider it even for a second in your weakest moment while standing in front of a full length mirror, blubber a-jiggling. Weight loss drugs are not well tested and do not work.

Any diet that requires an inordinate amount of time be spent in a health food store is out. Way to expensive and too experimental. I want food. Good food. And fried beetle shit from the backside of the planet that some hippie says is going to cure all my ills is not food. The trends come and go too quickly to be of any relavence. One week it's wheat germ, next acai berries, then herbal enemas and then come to find out that none of its working because your colon isn't clean enough. The snake oil salesmen of the old west live and breath in the modern health food store.

Now some diets do work but they to have some faults. Any of the varieties of low-carb could be an option but few follow the program into the maintenance phase after the initial weight loss. I doubt many even finished the books and realize that you return to a normal diet after you hit your target weight, slowly adding in carbs until you discover your level of tolerance. Most get so excited about the initial weight loss that they stay on meat and cheese way longer than any of the programs recommend. Then they burn out and quit.

I'll tell you now, this experiment involves a low carb element but we'll get into details later.

And there are of course, established dietary lifestyles that bear mentioning. I lived as a vegatarian for about three years and I must say that I miss it a bit sometimes. It was clean living and philosophically sound but I personally had hell finding enough protein in plant form for my nutritional needs especially with a mild allergy to anything soy. And I can't even imagine living as a vegan and truly respect anyone who can and does.
The list goes on and on of course and can never be exhaustive since a new fad is born every day. So let's get away from fads and trends and infomercials that promise the impossible for $19.95 and get back to eating what our bodies need and avoiding what our bodies don't.
It really just might be as simple as that...