Posted on 06/03/2009 12:36:48 PM PDT by fellowgeek
Well the first thing to do is if that “60 pounds” number came from the BMI chart ignore it completely. The BMI is the result of the same 19th century pseudo-science that gave us phrenology, it’s intent was to prove poor people are poor because of genetics, when it comes to figuring out if you’re healthy it’s crap. Now if they got your body fat percentage, that’s useful data.
Portion control is at least as much of the picture as the stuff we’re “supposed” to eat. I’ve burned off 70 pounds in recent years, and there’s 2 bags of Doritos in the cupboard. Reduce everything, eliminate nothing was my motto, so I still get my soda and beer and chips and Italian sausage, just not as much. Eat smart and exercise will take care of the waste line, HDL and LDL.
I get most of exercise in at lunch, I eat leftovers brought from home then go to the gym at lunch. This gives me the enjoyment of getting out of the office at lunch, plus the exercise time that doesn’t eat into non-work hours, helps with portion control, and saves money (even if you only eat dirt cheap fastfood at $5 a meal buying workday lunches in an expensive habit, I guarantee you can find something more entertaining to do with $100 a month that eat 20 bigmacs).
On portion control it’s important to remember you’re eating LESS, not STARVING. If you eat too little you throw your body into a panic mode where it starts to digest your organs muscles and bones, which is at least as unhealthy as it sounds, your body will also drop your metabolism so you burn less calories. A lot of people who under eat will have a binge weekend and find they lost a bunch of weight, because they finally ate enough to get their body out of panic mode.
The absolute biggest thing though is to not think it’s temporary. If you want to get the pounds off and keep them that way it has to be a permanent change. If you get to your goal and go back to “normal” you’ll be exactly like you are now before you know it. Over eating and under exercising is a permanent problem, it cannot be addressed with a temporary solution. It has to be a new you. The new me can have two bags of Doritos in the cupboard and they last so long they actually start to get stale, the only way two bags of Doritos would survive more than 48 hours in the old me’s cupboard was if I wasn’t home. And that’s how it has to be, you’ve got to rewrite who you are, almost like a religious conversion. Or not. If you’re happy don’t sweat it. There’s too many people in the world trying to lose weight because somebody else wants them to, it never works and it just makes people miserable for no reason.
Diet: Mediterranean
Exercise: Power 90 then P90X
Easy!
Move to North Korea.
Just stop putting food in your mouth......
Cocaine and beer. Nothing else.
Kidding!
What’s wrong with phrenology? When I worked in a prison I could tell by the bumps on a con’s head that they had messed with the wrong guard.
My husband lost 30 pounds in three months by writing down everything he ate and keeping under 1800 calories and eating a balanced diet.
He said writing down everything gave him a shock as to how much he was actually eating.
It has been nine months now and he has been able to keep the 30 pounds off.
Great cereal and bars.
Did you purchase a scale?
Is it healthy to weigh youself daily/weekly or just judge by how (loosely) your clothes fit?
Watch your portions, eat your larger meal ideally at breakfast, or even lunch, but not dinner.
Don’t snack after dinner.
Cut out sodas. If you can’t do without, find a diet variety you can tolerate.
Cut way back on carbs (bread, white starchy foods)
Work fresh garlic into your diet.
Move around more. Any activity burns calories.
Get outside, sweat a little. Get some sun, just walk around your yard or your neighborhood. Make a habit of it, you’ll be surprised how helpful this is, and you’ll begin to look forward to it.
I do a lot of bike riding. The only real problem with bike riding is there’s no impact (exercise impact that is). Impact is your friend, it encourages your body to throw nutrients at your bones which helps keep away osteoporosis (yes we guys need to worry about that too, not as much as women but it’s still a threat). So you’ve got to make sure you’re getting some impact, even if it’s just walking and hour or so a week.
I live in Tucson so winter tends to actually be a better time to ride than summer.
I just read through your post, and find it amazing that I did just about the exact same thing, only I counted calories. You’re are so correct about not skipping meals and watching the portion size.
I’ve found it especially helpful to come up with about three choices for breakfast (1 cup of cereal/ fruit/ milk; 2 eggs/ two dry toast; or a McMuffin- yes!), three or so choices for lunch (sandwich and apple; small hamburger and soup or salad; or a lean cuisine meal), a 4 PM snack everyday (100 cal popcorn) and one reasonable portion of whatever the family’s having for dinner. If I stick to the plan, I don’t really have to count calories.
When I eat at a restaurant, I ask for a take out box when the meal’s served, or just use an extra plate to put the excess food on, leaving only a proper portion on my plate. In fact, my whole family does this now. We also like that all the leftovers are “clean”, meaning there’s no kid spit on them. LOL.
That way I don’t really have to think much about food, which is half the battle.
Simple: Output > Input.
1. Stop drinking soda or “juice”; move to water
2. Stop drinking beer & alcohol (a glass of red wine/wk is can be very good; Chilean reds are typically laced with good stuff)
3. Reduce sugar
4. Reduce caffeine (tough I know, start with going 1/2 caf, 1/2 decaf)
5. Get moving somehow...the best excercise (IMO) is..
6. Ride a bike. If your kids aren’t old enough, invest in a good child seat (you may have to order it, but they make the kind that bolt right close to you instead of hanging off the back). If your kids are old enough, get them riding with you. If you can’t get out and ride, get a stationary or invest in a trainer which you can fasten your bike to and ride. (Running is good too, but if your too heavy, this will ruin your knees and fast. The bike is so much better).
7. Do some simple core/ab building excercises
8. Get some hi-tech help - I don’t know what kind of mobile phone you have, but iPhone and (I think) Blackberry have calorie budget app that can be very helpful. iPhone has several and the best one is also one of the cheapest (Free) and it’s called “LoseIt”. You enter in current weight, target weight, and how much you want to lose per week. Enter your intake and keep it under your budget, you’ll lose weight (it’s math really).
Note: You can do this the low tech way too. But the application have a database of so many foods that you absolutely should be able to enter what you ate.
Good luck and good health.
It can be useful for figuring out people’s past ;)
I have been about 20- 30lbs overweight for several years now. I’m 48 next month. Last year I joined a gym and got pretty strong, but did not change my eating habits and got no thinner. In March, I started a new eating plan. For a guy, you probably need to take in more calories. My place has me taking in about 1750 calories a day. I limit artificial sweeteners, but I do have some. I have lost, since March 25, 16 lbs, gained muscle mass, and lost fat mass. I recommend Bob Harpers’ Biggest Loser book - and start watching Biggest Loser next time it’s on. Also recommend Ellie Krieger’s books; she has a great energy bar that she makes herself. Since you don’t want to leave the house for the gym, get a WII. I love my gym - but realize it’s not for everyone.
Here’s my typical meal plan:
coffee with soy milk, sometimes OJ. I use vanilla soy so don’t need sugar in the coffee.
one egg
one Kashi waffle - try it with no syrup, or only a little.
Fruit - cut strawberries or mangos .5 to 1 cup
Snack - Chobani yogurt with flax or stir in a weetabix - good! Don’t bother with the light whips or anything. Get the greek stuff. It’s thicker and creamier. CHOBANI!
Lunch - raw veggies, protein (chicken) with green beans and a carb - a fistful size of rice or .5 baked potato
snack - banana with PB - 1 TBSP only - with no sugar or a rice cake with PB
dinner - same idea as lunch
snack - Skinny cow ice cream sandwich
good luck!
That’s actually a really good piece of advice. On some level we do know what’s good and what’s not. I started my change with two weeks of just “watching” (paying close attention to what I was eating and doing, no writing things down I’m too lazy for that), but no changing. It’s very important during your self observation period to not change anything, because then you start lying to yourself by not doing stuff you normally would. After two weeks of cold hard really depressing self evaluation my diet path was pretty obvious: less soda, less snack, healthier snacks when snacking much be done, stop being a plate cleaner and couch potato.
I recently got Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred to supplement my Power 90 cardio. It’s tough and it’s only a 20 minute workout.
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