Where do i start on a successful weight loss journey?
And I felt that a proper response would both be too long for a comment and also get lost in the shuffle of things. [ed. No, he just wanted to milk a post out of it].
I started the "official" diet on January 1, 2006. That's when I made the formal decision to take control over my weight. I've struggled with my weight my entire life - I've been heavy from the time I was about 4 or 5. I'd gone on and off diets with limited success (read: None) throughout the years, trying diet drinks, rice cakes, grapefruit, carbs, no carbs, Atkins, etc. You name it, I tried it. The pattern was sadly predictable: I'd go on the diet. I'd follow it religiously until I lost the weight I wanted to lose. Then I'd go off the diet and gain it all back.
That changed three years ago. I decided that this time, I wasn't going to go on a diet. I was going to change my diet. I decided to change how I ate, not just what I ate. I started by taking honest notes about my daily caloric intake for about three weeks prior to starting. This means writing down literally every single piece of food or drink that went down my gullet, then researching the caloric content of every item. The three weeks were tallied, and I took the average daily intake (somewhere around 3500 calories on a sedentary lifestyle) and set a target intake of 1,000 calories fewer. Once I got going on the weight loss, I cut that back even further - from 2,500 calories to 2,250 to 2,000. I think I got as low as 1,500 calories a day during the height of my weight loss.
So, how did I do it? It took a lot of doing - basically, I made a lot of very small changes that all added up. When folks asked how I was doing it, I would use the example of my morning coffee to illustrate my thought process. Before the diet, I would have a large cup of coffee with cream and sugar. The coffee itself is almost calorie-free (I think a 20 ounce cup has maybe 15 calories). The sugar (~3 tbsps, or 144 calories) and cream (~ 50 calories in 2 tbsps ½ and ½) brought the total to over 200 calories. Post-diet, I use Splenda (o calories) and non-dairy creamer (~ 30 calories) for about 50 calories. That's a 150 calorie-per-day savings right there.
And there's precious little difference in taste.
That was the critical part - finding substitutions that I could live with. The goal was to find a new way of eating that incorporated healthier choices that are still enjoyable, with the long-term plan of maintaining the same diet only with more intake once the weight was lost. I started taking a healthy wheat wrap with ham and lettuce rather than a bologna and cheese sandwich - tastes just as good (especially with Emeril's spicy horseradish mustard!) and at about half the calories (less, even), a much better choice. Another factor in sustainable weight loss was NOT cutting out going out to eat entirely - what I did do, though, was to eschew any establishment for which I could not find caloric information either on their website or via a quick search. If the food is so fattening that they won't publicize it, I don't need or want it...
You know what the most interesting part is now? I have very little interest in going back to the old way I used to eat. Just as one example, I'd take the kids out for dinner at McDonald's maybe once a month. I'd get them each a Happy Meal, and I would get two double cheeseburgers, a chicken sandwich, and a large order of fries for myself. That alone is more than my daily intake now. The thought of eating a McDonald's burger right now makes my stomach church... I can't eat pizza for the same reason. Oddly enough, I've noticed other changes in my food preferences, like preferring chocolate ice cream to vanilla now (where the converse was true pre-diet). If pressed, I'd say because before I'd layer on chocolate syrup and whipped cream on the vanilla, whereas now I'll have low-fat chocolate by itself.
It's been a very long and difficult road. I've had to learn to pass on many things that, really, I'd like to be eating. It's so totally worth it, though - I've been off blood pressure medication for almost two years, and with the exercises I've been doing I feel better now that I did when I was 17. I'm in the best shape of my life, and have plans on improving that in the following year.
It's well-worth the time and energy, chris; the sacrifices you make now in the interest of losing the weight and keeping it off will come back to you a hundred-fold.
That is all.
6 comments:
The coffee example you gave is similar to the way I switched from mayo to mustard when making sandwiches (and going with one slice of cheese instead of two), and from Coke to seltzer water.
Those changes add up.
I'm still 30 pounds less than what I was just a few years ago.
My exercise tip of the day: Move a birch tree from your neighbor's front yard to your back yard.
As with most things in life, the basic premise is painfully simple: just EAT LESS, and MOVE MORE..... the Devil, however, is closely involved in the details.....
I've been needing to lose weight, and toward the end of 2006 I started getting more exercise and lost about 20lbs. Since then I gained it back...
:(
It's tough, finding the time to exercise - especially since after my daughter was born. Going to the gym works out to about a 1-2 hour task. Walking takes about a similar amount of time.
My diet definitely has to change, and I already drink my coffee black. *lol*
But it's encouraging to know it's possible. Without having to look and sound like Richard Simmons.
Putting some discipline into eating habits is the way to do it.
For me, getting rid of the habit of potato chips or tortillas every night in front of TV, switching from double layer to very thin crust pizzas, and other similar changes, as well as getting back into competitive sports, which for me is much better motivation than just going to gym (and it's 6-8 hours of intensive training each week, which I would never do in gym on my own), took me from 36 jeans being too tight to 34 jeans feeling very loose.
Whenever I'm asked (and, it's a lot) I always say that it's really quite simple if you just think about it. It, like everything else, revolves around simple mathematics: calories in minus calories burned. If you burn less, you'll gain fat. If you burn more, you'll lose fat. So, knowing what to do is simple: the task, which no one really wants to admit, is to harness the sheer will power. Lord knows I prefer chips & salsa to a salad, but I know the result.
There are several other "trade secrets" out there, such as:
1. giving yourself a cheat day no more than once per week. If anyone doubts, e-mail me & I can give you the science. Trying to eat the diet of a fitness model on a continual basis is improbable; challenging yourself for a finite period of time & celebrating success is quite achievable.
2. Put down the f'n alcohol (cept for the cheat day). No one likes beer more than me, but you're drinking calories, folks. Same with soft drinks: the goal is to EAT calories (they fill you up), not drink 'empty' calories.
3. No white at night. white Bread, rice, chips....all bad carbs. Carbs are for energy, so eat your carbs early in the day so you'll burn them. Eating them at night is your way of overfilling your radiator....it's going to go into the reserve (in this case, stored as fat).
4. Don't beat yourself up: if you ate a cheeseburger...okay. Get back on the wagon & suck it up for the rest of the week.
5. It's a lifestyle change, not a diet. You didn't get from your "ideal weight" from way back when to the present day weight within 30 days, so don't expect to lose all those pounds in 30 days. Whenever someone tells me "I've been on the XXXXXX dietn for 45 days and I've already lost 80 pounds!" I know that they're going to gain it right back - and then some - when they get off the XXXXXX diet. Could you put on 30 pounds in a month? Well, don't expect to lose it in a month & keep it off.
and finally, the most important thing of all
DON'T STARVE YOURSELF!!!
Less than three weeks until I'm back on the P90X routine, after my usual Nov/Dec diet-free lifestyle. Can't wait, my pants are getting tight (again).
All good comments. I'm way too big myself, now that I'm no longer in a physically intense job. One of the hardest things about motivation in my life is that I work in an isolated environment a ship) where the average weight of the 22 guys on board is about 40-60lbs over the ideal.
Anyhow, Jay's story has really got me thinking that it's time to get proactive now.
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