How I lost 56 plus pounds

There is a new blog by a young woman, Amy who is very brave and sharing her weight loss saga with the world. I left this on as a comment because she asked what to expect on her blog. I did not come across much about how dieting really feels, and what happens. These are highlights that I jotted down as I typed. I have modified a few sentences from my comments to here.

If you are thinking about dieting, but scared of starting this may be a blog entry for you. If I can do it, so can you.

Between last Christmas and last May I dropped 56 pounds. I learned a couple of things along the way I am happy to share with you.

Eating less of the same food(s) does not work!

For the first two to three weeks I was feeling poorly. I have a friend who’s wife is a dietician, and he told me that is normal to feel fairly ill the first couple of weeks.

For the next weeks, I was teetering between hungry and very hungry. It goes with the territory. I wanted to lose weight at an optimum rate, so I chose to be very hungry. After about three weeks of very hungry it does not bother you any longer. It is like having a sore toe, you get used to it.

I woke up a some nights because I was hungry. I also needed less sleep because I was hungry. Hunger must make us want to go and find food to eat. You get used to it.

I also went through different types of cravings. Calcium, salt, vitamin C, etc. I imagine it was my body adjusting to new foods and not getting vitamins and minerals from junk food. This too does pass.

Over the months, even when I felt really ill in the first few weeks, I remained consistent, both in my eating and my exercise which was twenty to thirty miles of walking each week. Three times a day after eating I hit the pavement for anywhere from a mile to a six mile slow walk depending on how much time I had free.

I can honestly say, that other than the first few weeks when I felt like I was going to fall over from a puff of air, I never ran out of energy walking. I think I may have tanked out from running, but at walking speed my body was able to convert fast enough that I always had enough energy.

If you plateau, it may be you are not getting enough good fat in your body. I had to increase my extra fat intake to two teaspoons of walnut oil a day, up from a little less than one teaspoon to keep the weight loss going.

I find now that many foods I used to love, look and taste terrible! That is a good thing, although I know from experience you can make yourself like them, but the pounds will sneak back on.

Find a diet you can live with, and forget about the word ‘diet’. Think instead, New Lifestyle. Find a plan you can eat/live with/on the rest of your life. There is no going back to the way you used to eat, once you arrive on the other side, so make sure your choice is enjoyable, easy, and simple. Be creative when eating out, a few sides and some mixing makes a good meal too!

I picked the 30 Day Diabetes Miracle Diet, which is a plant based diet. I lost between 2.5 to 3.5 pounds a week. I like it because I like oatmeal, beans, and vegetables, and you can get them anywhere. It is cheap and healthy eating. I enjoy eating these foods even now, and will mostly eat this way the rest of my life, with some meat in the mix now and then.

McDonalds salads and wraps are good choices when you need to eat and are away from home. Salad bars are as bad as burger joints if you do not watch what you are eating – they hide fat and too many calories in soups and bread stuff.

Once you start losing weight, dieting experts will come out of the woodwork and tell you how you are doing it all wrong. Stick to your plan, and politely tell them you are happy with what you are doing. A doctor and a dietician argued against my diet, even though they could not argue with the results, or find anything lacking in it.

Fat breaks down to water and air, so get comfortable to the idea that there will be more output liquid than input.

Mar 06, 2009: I posted a recent entry on diet and weight loss that may be of interest to you if you found this post worthwhile.

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