Just in time for your resolutions: The "Key" to Losing Weight (and Keeping It Off)

ExurbanLeague.com ^ | Dec. 31, 2008 | Jon

[wintertime]

Sitting here laughing! :-)

[basil]

Well—that, too! LOL!

[444Flyer]

LOL!:)

[basil]

Hey--let's keep it going! Very cheap way to lose weight and enjoy better health:

EAT LESS, MOVE MORE!

[ShandaLear]

The key is permanent change. You have to face the fact that once you start a new routine, you can never go back to how it was before. That’s extremely hard to face up to for those of us who struggle with weight issues.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

However, I'm still hungry a good deal of the time. I want to stay thin more than I want to be not hungry.

The weird thing is, even if you gained that 110 back, you would still be hungry. It seems that food isn't giving us the satiety (the state of being satisfactorily full) that we need. We should be able to eat, feel satisfied, and end our meal. But we keep eating and eating and never reach that level of satisfaction. Why is it that some of us are always hungry? Why can't we just finish our meal, be satisfied, and be done? I don't get it.

I'm beginning to think that maybe a slight feeling of hunger is the natural state for some of us. And some of us react a bit more strongly to the feeling of hunger than others. On the opposite end, I have a friend who never seems to eat; he says he's never hungry, and he doesn't have a feeling of hunger. That's the other extreme from those of us who are hungry all the time. There's some biochemical reason for all of this. I wish I knew what it was.

[Ditter]

LOL I don't think I have ever eaten a Funyun, there is probably a reason for that. I am sure I read the label.

I could probably have gone on for the rest of my life having an occasional can of Cambell’s Noodle Soup and not have a problem with it, at least not enough of a problem for me to notice it. But after eating Jenny Craig 3 times a day for a month and feeling like crap, my system rebelled and I thought I was having a heart attack. It wasn't a heart attack just a rebellion.

[mysterio]

I'm beginning to think that maybe a slight feeling of hunger is the natural state for some of us.

You are correct. The common state of humans in most areas of the world is feast and famine. During times when food is plentiful, it makes sense for humans to gorge themselves endlessly to store fat for famine. The more efficient your metabolism, the better. Hence, humans evolved a preference for high calorie food and a near-endless hunger for food when it is available. Food has only been endlessly available year round (for the average person) for the past couple centuries. And the average person used to burn 4,000 plus calories a day at an agricultural job. Now that number is closer to 2,000. So we have an epidemic of obesity, and it's not totally the fault of fat people.

But if you want to look like a BC human without doing agricultural work, you're going to be hungry a lot of the time.

[Excellence]

Here is how I lost 40 pounds:
I taped a piece of notebook paper to the refrigerator daily, and wrote down everything I ate as well as the calorie and fat values. After a while, I realized I could eat one slice of bread or an entire can of peas. And guess which one kept me satisfied longer. So it went, discovering what made sense to eat and what didn't. If I stayed under my calorie limit, I got a treat at the end of the day; a piece of sourdough bread with mayo and hamburger pickle chips. (My last meal if I'm ever executed.) From Labor day to Easter I lost 40 pounds.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

I really do think you should reevaluate your attitude about your bosses and your work.

Sounds to me like he has stupid jerks for bosses, so his attitude towards them is probably justified. Going up and down the stairs / riding a bike wearing biking attire to/from work is "unprofessional"?? Well, how professional is a fat person wearing a shirt and tie with their guts hanging out all over the place??

I would be more inclined to believe they discourage taking the stairs / riding the bike to and from work for reasons of a fear of litigation in case someone has a heart attack walking up the stairs or gets hit by a car riding their bike in the parking lot on company property and they or their family sues the company.

Although constantly referring to his bosses as dumb jerks (or the equivalent) is probably a sign of carrying around too much baggage from work.

What he does need to do I would guess is to learn to be more low key and keep his mouth shut. Let those willing to stay ignorant and fat and lazy stay that way in peace, and just do it without bragging about how hard-core you are.

Also, if I may make a suggestion, it's best to just let it go, and not keep mentally going over what the jerks at work said, and not to hang on to the negative thoughts from experiences with the jerks at work stay with you much after you are out of work. Focus on improving yourself and positive thoughts instead.

This does bring up an interesting point that some people may get miffed at you if you try to improve yourself - Instead of seeing it as an encouragement for them to improve themselves also, they see it as a challenge to them and that you are saying you are better than them - that you trying to improve yourself is a slap in the face to them.

So apparently it is possible that one aspect of changing your lifestyle to be healthier is that other people (boss, co-workers, family) instead of cheering you on may start attacking / criticizing you for your efforts.

[CORedneck]

On a more positive note, I had some good managers and I am the kind of person who would almost do anything for them. For the bad ones, I won't give them my respect and I won't hide it.

On a fat person wearing a tie with blubber hanging over the place being unprofessional, agreed. Also I want to add, the dress slacks that are so short that half the bare leg shows which I think is tacky. To go off tangent, I worked at one place where it was known that blue jeans were NOT acceptable even on Friday. Yet, there was one gentleman who wore a yellowed out white polyester shirt and brown polyester pants (color of poo) and he didn't look that good. But a person with a nice button shirt and a nice pair of blue jeans looks good but yet it was not considered acceptable where as polyester was.

On keeping my mouth shut, I have a hard time doing that.... But when I do give my opinion, I do it as respectfully and with tact when interacting with other people. I was talking with someone else when I was mentioning about McD's being bad, the conversation didn't involve him and he decided to invite himself in which I didn't appreciate and I made it known.

On letting it go, agreed.... A lot of times, I try to convey my experience to others and telling my stories of it is in my opinion the best way. Maybe a better way is as a "3rd person".

I remember an old saying, mediocrity hates excellence. In relation to those who want to improves themselves and getting shot down and its relation to health. I have to admit, I looked at going vegetarian not for the ethical reason but health reason. I know a family who were the first people I met when I moved to Colorado but due to the husband's job situation, he left for California back in 2001. Coming from redneck Indiana, I was against vegetarianism but that was 1995. Today, I am older and I am thinking of my health especially the quality of life. I would consider doing some vegetarianism where I would eat some meat like fish and chicken but stay away from beef and even pork and do a lot more veggies especially beans. My friends in CA, his wife fixes good vegetarian food but they are conservative in politics and are believers.

Although constantly referring to his bosses as dumb jerks (or the equivalent) is probably a sign of carrying around too much baggage from work.

Well, how professional is a fat person wearing a shirt and tie with their guts hanging out all over the place??

What he does need to do I would guess is to learn to be more low key and keep his mouth shut. Let those willing to stay ignorant and fat and lazy stay that way in peace, and just do it without bragging about how hard-core you are.

lso, if I may make a suggestion, it's best to just let it go, and not keep mentally going over what the jerks at work said, and not to hang on to the negative thoughts from experiences with the jerks at work stay with you much after you are out of work. Focus on improving yourself and positive thoughts instead.

This does bring up an interesting point that some people may get miffed at you if you try to improve yourself - Instead of seeing it as an encouragement for them to improve themselves also, they see it as a challenge to them and that you are saying you are better than them - that you trying to improve yourself is a slap in the face to them.

So apparently it is possible that one aspect of changing your lifestyle to be healthier is that other people (boss, co-workers, family) instead of cheering you on may start attacking / criticizing you for your efforts.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

...mediocrity hates excellence...

That's a great saying! So true...

I wish you the best!

[geege]

Yea sure.....I’d love to see you not eat for a week.....:-)

[angcat]

I’m eating right now!

[meowmeow]

Easy - eat like a conservative instead of a liberal.

Liberals feel - e.g., "I still feel hungry so I am going to eat some more."

Conservatives think - e.g., "I still feel hungry, but I know that I have eaten enough so I'm not going to eat any more."

[SamAdams76]

In 2003, I dropped over 100 pounds, going from 304 pounds to 197 pounds (I'm 6'3"). Over the next few years, I gradually put weight back on, reaching a peak of 248 at the beginning of this year. After the new year (inspired in part by this post), I went back to my regimen of 2003 and I'm back down to 218 (looking to go all the way down to about 190).

After 6 years of experimenting with various combinations of diet and exercise and mostly having success at it, I feel I am well qualified to speak on the subject.

First of all, fad diets don't work over the long haul. What is needed is a total rejection of "junk" foods and a wide variety of "whole" foods. Foods like nuts, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, raisins, fish, olive oil, yogurt, eggs, whole milk (raw if you can get it), etc.

Secondly, you must get off your butt and exercise. And not that "20-minutes-a-day-three-days-a-week" crap either. I'm talking 2-3 solid hours of brisk walking a day. Strap a pedometer to your belt every morning and don't stop for the day until at least 15,000 to 20,000 steps have been run off (approx. 7.5 to 10 miles of walking a day).

I know, many of you just tuned me out saying that you could not possibly find that much time for walking in your busy schedule. But you would be wrong. I get up at 5AM every weekday and I have 8,000 steps done before I even go to work in the morning. At work, I have a quick lunch (packed from home) and walk at least another 4,000 steps. Then a good walk when I get home. In between, I walk as much as possible. I park at the back end of the parking lot. When doing errands in town, I park in one central place and walk everywhere I need to go. If it's close to bedtime and for whatever reason, I don't have my 20,000 steps, I go out walking again (and find I have no issue whatsoever falling into a deep sleep and waking up at 5AM well rested and ready to go).

Get a dog. Not a toy dog like a poodle or basset hound but a real walking companion, like a collie, a shepard, or a retriever. This is because these dogs HAVE to walk and they will get you out of the house even on days when you aren't feeling up to it. I have a border collie and thus long walks in the morning and evening are mandatory!

Don't be bored walking. Get an iPod. Load it up with not just music but podcasts (free) and audiobooks. I am listening to a biography of Dwight Eisenhower right now. Last week, I listened to the unabridged version of "The Godfather".

But many times, I'm content just to walk with the dog and see all that is around me and notice the changing of the seasons and the cloud formations in the deep, blue skies.

Back to the food. When I started putting the weight back on after 2003, it wasn't because I exercised less but because I slowly started going back to the wrong kind of foods. I started getting lazy. Instead of putting together a quality dinner, I started buying frozen pizza, burritos and things like that. Now I got all this stuff from places like Whole Foods and Trader Joes. But junk food is junk food, whether it's made from all-natural ingredients or not.

In 2003 (and most of 2004), I ate almost nothing but natural foods but I restricted my diet to a fairly narrow range of foods. That is, I ate the same things over and over again. That got old and as I began re-introducing other foods, the weight slowly started coming back on. Even though my exercise program never abated. (I've walked at least 10,000 steps a day outdoors, in every kind of weather, every single day since April 1, 2003 and usually more than 20,000).

What I did different after January 1 of this year is that I drastically increased my variety of foods. I am constantly trying new types of produce and incorporating them into my diet. Every night, I make my "super salad" which is a little bit different every night. Tonight it was salad greens, an ounce of aged gouda cheese, a sliced tomato, some garbanzo beans, a few dried soybeans, sunflower seeds, pepitas, bean sprouts, a sliced hard-boiled egg, drizzled with olive oil. Dinner was a small fillet of wild salmon with broccoli and summer squash. I find that having a salad before the meal always results in the meal being much smaller than it would have been.

Every morning I have a decent 400-600 calorie breakfast that ranges from oatmeal w/flax seeds, cream-top yogurt, all different types of berries, whole-grain cereal with whole milk, etc. My biggest mistake early on was skipping breakfast or just having a very light one. As that always resulted in a huge appetite by end of day. The larger breakfasts definitely make it easier to keep calorie intake in the 2,000 range for the day. Lunch is usually a banana or apple, or a tin or sardines over salad, or a couple of hard-boiled eggs (the perfect food).

I eat red meats sparingly but keep it high quality. I find that an 8-oz cut of prime rib or filet mignon is more satisfying than a much larger cut of lesser beef. I also like poultry (dark meat) and pork from time to time. But I try to have fish at least 3-4 times a week.

And yes, I will have a glass or two of fine wine or beer as well. And plenty of good coffee and/or tea.

Anyway, the bottom line is a large variety of high-quality "natural" food and plenty of exercise.