Monday, April 23, 2007

More Health/Food Stuff

I'm stoopidly proud of my weight loss, and feel like sharing my secrets with the world. Keep in mind that I'm not a small guy (6' tall, broad chest, heavy bones, big legs, big ass). When I weighed in at 210 in 1995, I looked skinny.

Flash-forward to early 2005: I weighed 270. I was about to turn 35, looked at the way I ate (poorly), how much exercize I got (none), and how I felt (old and tired all the time). Then I saw "Supersize Me" and realized just how messed up it all could be: diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart problems run in my family.

Now I weigh 227 lbs. I work out 3 times a week (fast-rep free weights at home, mostly, and I walk as much as possible). So here are my dieting/weight loss secrets:

GET DIVORCED. Nothing drives people to drink, gain weight, lose sleep, or do bad things than being in a relationship that isn't working. Food has always been my comfort drug.

DIETS DON'T WORK. Think substitutions, making small changes - not cutting stuff out.

MAKE SMALL CHANGES FIRST. The first thing I did was to cut back my soda intake to 2 cans/day. I was up to 6 or more. The immediate effect this had was to improve my mood and stamina, and I lost about 5 lbs. right away. Eventually I switched to coffee.

DON'T SWITCH TO DIET/NO-FAT/SUGAR-FREE STUFF. You need fat in your diet. It helps you feel full and adds flavor. Sugar-free stuff in my opinion actually makes your body crave sweets more.

WALK.

KEEP A FULLY STOCKED FRIDGE. If you stock your fridge you'll be tempted to eat out less and cook more. Plus overeating sometimes compensates for feelings of deprivation - don't add to them.

I HAVE NO WILLPOWER. I can't stop eating pretzels, ice cream, chocolate stuff, and sweets, so I don't have them in the house - but I don't stop myself from eating them if I'm out with a friend.

SUBSTITUTION WORKS BETTER THAN CUTTING STUFF OUT. If you can find a tasty food that's a little healthier than what you're used to eating, that's much better than simply cutting something out of your diet altogether. I now eat raisins and carrots instead of sweets. I eat soy and chicken instead of beef.

FIGURE OUT YOUR RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate). This is how many calories you consume each day just sitting around and breathing. If you want to lose weight this should be your target caloric intake. If you can exercize just a touch and/or eat JUST a little less than your RMR, you will lose weight (very slowly, but that's good).

LOSE WEIGHT SLOWLY. It took two years to get to the point where I now feel I can take my shirt off on the beach.

EXPECT SETBACKS AND FORGIVE YOURSELF.

IT'S REALLY OKAY TO EAT DESERT SOMETIMES.

So what did I substitute:

Instead OfI Eat
BeefSoy, Chicken
Ice CreamSoy Ice Cream (seldom)
White BreadPitas (wheat/white)
SweetsRaisins, carrots
SnacksYogurt
SodaIce coffee, seltzer, V8
Ordering InCooking More
No breakfastCereal
MilkSoy Milk

Okay, there you go.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, WEIGHT DOES NOT EQUAL BEAUTY OR SOUL. Cliched point but knowing this helped me get through some tough times when I couldn't drop any weight at all.

1 Comments:

Blogger filmfemme said...

Congrats on your weight loss! But I can't go there with you on soy ice cream. That shit is nasty!

9:40 PM  

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