Well, it works. In the first three weeks I lost nine pounds and did not feel hungry. The method forces you to follow specific steps that change your habits and the way you approach eating. You don't need to stop eating all the things you like, you just need to make some small changes and substitutions. You don't sacrifice flavor, and it allows for snacks as long as you stay aware of what you are eating.
I also have been using MyFitnessPal.com, which allows me to track my calorie intake easily and quickly, as well as tracking exercise and water consumption. I highly recommend signing up if you plan to do any kind of diet.
So, here is my specific method using a typical day's meals and snacks as an example:
Breakfast
The key to breakfast is making sure it is your largest meal of the day, is high in protein and is eaten within an hour of waking up. Eating so close to waking primes your metabolism for the entire day, keeping it higher even when at rest.
For me, a typical breakfast consists of:
- Two whole eggs or just the whites (cutting out some(not all!) the cholesterol is never a bad thing)
- Two slices of white-bread toast with Shed's Spread Country Crock with Calcium)
- One tablespoon of Texas Pete's Buffalo Wing Sauce (I like it spicy)
- Twenty ounces of coffee with fat-free half-and-half
Snacks
Snacking is actually very important, because it helps to knock out enough of your appetite to keep you from binging at lunch time and dinner time, as well as before bed (my worst time). I recommend a snack around 10:30 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and no less than one hour before bed. My snacks consist of either a small container of Greek yogurt with honey (six ounces, I think) or a piece of fruit. Bananas are awesome because of the massive load of potassium, and I either do that or two Mandarin oranges. You want to keep a snack to around 100 calories but not over 200, especially if you are in fat-loss mode rather than weight-control mode. Right now my target is 1,700 calories per day, and it is working great -- especially if I let myself go over once in a while. More on that in a bit.
Lunch
Lunches vary more than breakfast for me. At work I usually will eat a large salad with chicken -- Ceasar, Chef or Southwest for me, but any salad will do. One thing I recommend, if you are buying your salad, is to use your own dressing. For one, it guarantees that you will have one you like, and it also allows you to choose beforehand if you will eat regular, lite or fat-free. I personally do not like fat-free dressings because of the texture, but I do go for lite/light dressings all the time.
My other common option for lunch is a sandwich. The key here is the ingredients: you want some fat in your diet, so you don't have to skip the cheese! My sandwich usually consists of:
- Two slices of whole-grain bread, usually Pepperidge Farm or Arnold brands
- Six slices of a combination of Oscar Meyer Deli-fresh Ultra-thin Turkey or Ham, and Hard or Genoa Salami (keep the salamis to no more than two slices, as they are high in fat and sodium)
- One slice of cheese (I prefer cheddar or provolone)
- Pickles (NO CALORIES!)
- My special honey mustard (two teaspoons of Gulden's spicy brown mustard, one teaspoon of honey and two teaspoons of (secret ingredient here) plain Greek yogurt, blended together
Dinner
Dinners give the widest variety, of course. Don't worry so much about what you eat here, but rather how much. Obviously, eating Hamburger Helper or bratwurst each night is not a good idea, so be smart. But don't feel like you have to eat a bowl of bean sprouts, either. Be smart about what you eat, and you can still enjoy yourself.
Night-time Snack
I like to switch this up from my daytime snacks. I will usually either have a smoothie (this is a great time to add a shot of protein to your diet, though; just mix some whey protein into your smoothie) or I will have tortilla chips and salsa. Although the chips contain a little fat, the salsa (as long as it isn't one of the über-Goliath brands like Pace or Chi-Chi's, because they are loaded with sodium) is a great way to load upon a serving of vegetables. If you choose a variety like Black-Bean or Mango, you can also add a helping of either protein or fruit. And, despite the fat, the corn chips are also very healthy.
Cheating is not just allowed, it's encouraged!
This is probably the biggest key of all to sticking with a diet: give yourself a day every week or two to eat what you want. You still need to pay attention to the portion size, but eat what makes you happy on these days. If you don't build in opportunities to intentionally break away from your diet, you will eventually gain the weight back. You will find that, as your habits and approach to eating change over time, you will take advantage of these days less and less. That's because losing weight is less about inherited traits (although metabolic rates and other factors are hereditary; I am not discounting this part) and more about the habits you have developed since childhood. If you have obese parents, your chances of being overweight are higher not primarily because of your genes, but because the habits you learned as a child are likely the same ones that got your parents to that point, too.
If you have a genetic disposition toward being overweight, changing your habits is even more critical, because you will have to fight twice as hard. So the biggest part of all is most definitely your self-discipline. How badly you want to lose weight will ultimately be your key to success.
Exercise
Exercise all the way at the bottom? What gives?
Well, it's a critical part of your health. But it's not a critical part of weight loss. Studies show that 75 percent of changes in your metabolism are caused by the food you eat, not the amount of exercise you do each day. But remember, your weight-loss efforts will be 25 percent less effective if you don't exercise, so the choice is yours. Remember this, too: exercise is less about your weight than it is your general health. You can be 5'3" and 110 pounds with a slammin' figure, and still have one butt-cheek on your death-bed. So, while it's not critical to weight loss, it is critical to having a long, healthy life.
For people like me, with significant back problems (I, for one, have a herniated disc in my low back and had one on the verge of herniating in my neck), running is out of the question. It's high-impact and is laegely the reason why the one in my low back herniated to begin with -- or at least what pushed an already-bad disc over the edge. So, I bought a bike. You don't have to go as expensive as I did, buying a mid-range mountain bike with a dual-suspension, primed and ready for going off-road once my back can handle it, but it's a great option whether you spend $90 or $900. Other basic exercises like push-ups, sit-ups and free weights are excellent options as well.
If you attack this will all you've got, you will see quick results. But don't expect to sustain a rate of two to three pounds per week. As your body begins to shed fat it had packed on from a willpower-free diet and you start to exercise more, it will begin to rebuild some lost muscle. Since muscle weighs five times as much as fat, you will need to lose fat at a rate five times greater than your body adds muscle just to break even. So rely less on a simple measurement like weight and more on things like body mass index (BMI) and how much better your clothes begin to fit. I have already shed at least an inch and a half off my waist and probably more, most of that in the last three weeks in which my weight has come down by a single pound, even though I had lost nine in the first three weeks.
One final note: one of the biggest failures of most diets is that they are don for a set amount of time, and then the dieter goes back to old habits. Th only diet that will work is one that is permanent. That's why I have harped on changing your eating habits. It's about seeing what you eat differently and understanding that you are full long before you feel stuffed. Is it okay now and then? Hey, I'll forgive you if you go overboard at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. It happens. But as long as that is the exception rather than the rule, you are well on your way to getting your weight under control.
In the near future I willbegin adding some of my recipes, like a Chipotlé egg salad and other tasty dishes that will prove that you don't need to hate your food to lose weight. Good luck and, if you choose to use this method, keep me up to date. Share your progress here so others can be encouraged by what you are doing.
Links
Eat This, Not That! tips at MensHealth.com
Eat This, Noth That! at WomensHealthMag.com
Follow Eat This, Not That! on Twitter for more tips!
*Disclaimer: I am, in absolutely no way, affiliated with the Eat This, Not That! program or books. I bought the book myself one night at Wal-Mart and gave it a read. I have since modeled my own diet on the principles outlined in the book. I am not a dietitian and my advice should not be considered entirely correct. Please, please consult your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise program. I cannot be held responsible for any injury, illness or other disorder you develop as a result, directly or otherwise, as a result of using any or all of my advice. This information is simply here to help you to start forming your own plan with the assistance of your doctor or other medical professional.
Consider yourself warned. And me protected.
No comments:
Post a Comment