In January of 2015, I woke up, looked in the mirror, and didn’t like what I saw. I wasn’t obese, but I was definitely overweight - a fact that was driven home once I checked out an online BMI calculator and found that I was a hair away from “technically” obese (6’0, 207 pounds, 28.1 BMI). I needed to lose 24 pounds in order to be at the upper limit for my ideal weight.
I decided to go beyond that - I wanted to be at 175, and I wanted to get there before football season started in early September. I figured 32 pounds in 35 weeks would be tough, but not impossible. So I started a spreadsheet, weighed in every single day (barring the times I was away from home), and started eating to survive rather than eating for fun.
Well, I made it down to 172 by the time the NFL season started. I beat my goal by 3 pounds and decided I was never going to allow myself to get above 180 again (hence my flair). So I kept the spreadsheet going, and here we are, 1500 days deep into the experiment. I’ve learned some lessons that might be helpful to anyone who’s overweight-but-not-obese and motivated to shed a few dozen pounds.
I want to stress one big thing right away: I never changed what foods I was eating. Portion control is the key. Everything starts and ends with how much you eat. Back in the day, I would make myself a sandwich for dinner, eat it, and then head back into the kitchen to make another sandwich. The breakfast situation was similar: pour a bowl of cereal, eat it, pour another. Lunch at work was a full sandwich and a container of potato salad from the grocery store deli, or a big plate of fish tacos/beans/rice, or a fast food burger & fries (large fries, naturally). I was shocked at how easy it was to eat less - the first time I went to bed satisfied after eating “only” a single roast beef sandwich for dinner was eye-opening.
Momentum is another big key. Once you get going, it’s relatively easy to stick to your diet. Power through the first few weeks and you’ll be home free, especially when your portion control starts kicking in habitually rather than intentionally. You’ll start eating less because you want to eat less (because your stomach has shrunk a bit, or you’ve found you no longer enjoy eating until you’re full).
Getting exercise is not an excuse to eat more. Don't reward yourself with too much food just because you went for a jog earlier.
You can have a really good day of portion control, food choices, pooping, and exercise… and the scale the next morning might still tell you that you’ve gained weight. Don’t let it get to you. Water weight is a thing.
Get yourself psyched about the prospect of leftovers. This goes along with your overall portion control effort, because American restaurants almost always give you too much food. When you eat out, order dishes that will make for good microwaveable leftovers (pasta dishes, breakfast skillets, etc) or go to restaurants where the entire menu fits the bill (Chinese, Thai, Italian). Tell yourself that you're only going to eat half of your entree, and stick to it. Take the rest home. Now you have rad leftovers for tomorrow, AND you didn't overeat!
Ditch soda, or at least apply portion control to your soda intake by buying the tiny 7.5oz cans instead of the 12oz ones. The novelty and fun of drinking a soda goes away after the first few gulps. This also applies to ice cream, which might be my favorite food in the world, which I now eat one scoop of rather than an entire bowl..
Speaking of ice cream: once you hit your goal weight, set restrictions to keep yourself there. I’ve decided that 173 is my “ice cream weight”, meaning I’m not allowed to buy ice cream at the grocery store unless the scale that morning was under 173. It’s good motivation, and it’s surprisingly easy to stay disciplined in this way.
Don’t cheat too much, but also don’t feel bad about cheating on big occasions. I’m always going to eat more on vacation or during holidays (note the upward spikes on my spreadsheet), so I don’t beat myself up when I hit the scale and see that my number has gone up, because I was expecting it to go up anyway. Then I just get back on the horse until I’m back at my target weight again. Once you’ve hit your goal and are in maintenance mode, it’s surprisingly easy to do this.
Enjoy the fun stuff about losing weight, including but not limited to: your jawline re-asserting itself, your wedding ring feeling looser, people you haven’t seen in 3 years commenting on how great you look, going to sleep every night without fear of heartburn waking you up at 1 in the morning, relatives telling you that you’re “too skinny”, and the food in your fridge/freezer/pantry lasting twice as long as it used to.
Good luck!
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2Sft7P5
No comments:
Post a Comment