I see a lot of searches for weight loss and dieting for my few blog posts. I looked for and found my eating journal (really notepad entries) from last year, and decided I would post what I have in order to help anyone looking for ways to lose weight.
One great side effect of a diet is you have a lot of energy in general. The downside of a diet is you wake up at night, or at least I did from being hungry. After the first few weeks I became used to it, and it became a normal part of the night. Feeling hungry and getting cravings also is part of the process. I also felt pretty poor the first few weeks, and I was told it is not uncommon to feel ill for the first few weeks.
Reasons for feeling ill ranged from going without food to my body using fat that had bad things stored in it that I either ate over time, or breathed in. What the truth is I do not know, but I became ill feeling at any rate.
One of the things most diet programs also do not tell you is what happens to the fat on your body. I have forgotten the specifics, but generally we do not ‘burn’ fat as the commercials tell us we do, other than in a general sense. Our bodies use the fat for calories of course, but we do not burn it up and it is gone. What happens is the fat is used by our bodies and the remains that our body can not use is converted into water and air.
That sounds pretty simple, writing water and air. What that means in reality is dieting will increase your trips to the bathroom, and it will increase your gas output. Not a big deal, but I thought I would mention it. Also it should be mentioned that what your body uses and discards leaves in the liquid for the most part, and what it can not use is generally solids. So you may notice a change in your bathroom routine while dieting.
Instead of sending a list of seven days eating I thought I made a composite list. I ate almost the same foods every day anyway so it made more sense. My diet mainly came from the the book, “The Thirty Day Diabetes Miracle”. It was a diet that I thought I could maintain which is crucial for dieting. If you find any diet ‘severe’ you will not stick to it.
A few last items: First is the reason for the walnut oil. What I ate was almost zero fat, and our bodies need some fat both for maintenance and to burn fat (or so I was told after weight loss stopped). I was told to get a nut oil that was not cooked or heated. It worked well.
FInally, eating this way is cheap! It is a good healthy way to save money. The walking is crucial to speed up the process, so don’t skip it.
Two previous posts you may find helpful:
Weight Loss, Happy Eating, And Celiac Disease
As with any change to your life style, use you own judgment. I am not a health care professional, and have no idea if what I did to lose weight is healthy or safe for you.
Breakfast:
Most days – 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup pinto beans or other beans, 1 cup blueberries, six whole almonds, 2 teaspoons walnut oil.
Once in a while – Two scrambled eggs or Tofu scrambled ‘eggs’ w/ onions, bell pepper, and chili, two slices Ezekial 4:9 bread toasted w/ almond butter.
Lunch:
Most days: 1 cup 3 bean chili, one serving Rosarita corn chips (about 10), salad w/ lowest fat strawberry dressing, and some days some steamed chicken breast.
Once in while: McDonalds Southwest salad grilled although the Asian salad is about the same, only it has higher sodium.
Ezekial bread and soy burger, corn chips, and fruit
Dinner:
Most days: Lentil, vegetable, pea, beef and barley, or other soup, less than, or about 30 carbs, and fruit, lately a whole pear
Some days: Ezekial bread and soy burger; chicken wrap and ice cream from McDonalds; steamed chicken on tortilla and fruit at home, beef or sockeye salmon, and either asparagus, or peas, and one slice Ezekial bread; two fruits
That’s about it. Sometimes I make the lunch chili and chips into an almost frito pie. Occasionally I drink some soy milk with these meals, although I use soy milk for refrigerator made oatmeal. The people who wrote the book [thirty day diabetes miracle] have a cookbook coming out, though they also have a weeks worth of menus, but I am lazy….
I walk twenty minutes at least after each meal, and on my days off I like to take a four or five mile walk about an hour after eating, and then walk after lunch and dinner. My after meal walks are about 1 – 2 miles, usually closer to 1.2 – 1.5 miles.
