Changing the way I think.

The first thing I needed to do was change my way of thinking.  Initially my goal was to make it to my son’s high school graduation. That meant I had 3 months to be on this diet. After that I would kind of wing it and try to maintain. (I have since realized with this new path I have chosen, I can easily maintain my new weight the rest of my life)  I looked at every aspect of my diet and eliminated anything causing me to consume unnecessary calories.  I followed these rules:

The Don'ts - 

• No more soda or any sugar drinks. (I did not eliminate sugar from my diet, just sugar that had little to no nutrition value. I eat a lot of fruit and drink Orange Juice which some will say is a no-no).  This first one was easy. I would typically drink at least one soda per day. If I went to a restaurant I would drink 3 or 4 depending on the refills.
• No dessert for the first couple of months. I love to cook and I would make a dessert 2-3 times per week. For at least the first couple of months, No dessert. I have since started eating “sensible desserts” and been able to continue my weight loss. (More details on this in a separate post)
•  No snack food. I also would go to the vending machine at work and get Cheetos or potato chips. Or if I ate a sandwich at home I would have chips with it. ( I will have pretzels on occasion now but not at work)
• No extras – Another bad habit I had was eating bread with an already complete meal. I did not cut out all bread, just bread that was on top of everything else I was eating. I would also snack while making dinner, not good.
• No fast food – Enough said ( I have had Chic-Fil-A once in the last three months, I survived)

These were my negative rules for the first 2 weeks during which I lost 10 lbs. With the list of “Dont’s,” I also had some “Do’s”

The Do's -

• Drink lots of water – More on this in a later post as to how much. But water is essential to your body. Nothing replaces it. Tea, coffee, nothing. A good rule of thumb is 1 oz per kg of weight per day (1kg = 2.2 lb)
• Exercise – find what works for you. I have a stationary bike I use and do some resitance training on the Total Gym. I also walk and hike. My wife and used to spend hours in bed watching TV, now we make a point of walking 3-4 times per week and hiking on the weekends.
• Eat less (duh!) – Don’t eat as much as you think you need to eat.
• Be willing to throw food away – Growing up I was told, “clean my plate, there are starving people in China.”  I have no idea how finishing all the food on my plate would help anyone in China but I know now it was making me fat. This is still an area where I struggle, I feel guilty when I throw food away. Don’t feel guilty. Toss it before you can change your mind.
• It’s ok to be hungry when you go to bed. Don’t starve yourself but if you are going to be eating less calories than you use, your body is going want to eat more. It does not like using fat storage.

As I progressed in my diet I started calorie counting. As strange as it seems it made things easier. I knew exactly what I was putting into my body.

These are my guidelines; everyone needs to figure out what works for them and use common sense. If it is so restrictive you can’t follow it, then it won’t work. I also understand there are many factors in choosing the food we eat: convenience, cost, taste, allergies, ethnicity, etc.  It’s really all about making good choices or not allowing yourself to make the bad choice. Every meal, we choose what we will eat and how much we eat. Following these rules and planning meals ahead of time has helped me make good decisions.