300+ … can’t believe it

When I first started in May 2011 I was more strict in my eating than I am now.  And truthfully, I expect I will have to get more strict as I go along - but right now I am so big and it is so much effort to get moving that I have some room for flexibility.  When I will stall out, I will re-examine it, but here is what I am doing now:

Currently:
I use an “eating window”, but I’m not super strict.  I generally eat from noon until 6pm (lunch and dinner) - outside of that time, I try to have 2% milk or whatever satisfying liquid I might want.  This has really helped with my acid reflux and I don’t miss breakfast (milk instead) because I never liked eating it anyway - this just works with my own natural pattern, yours may be different.  I guess this is a type of “Intermittent Fasting”  - eventually, when I stall/plateau I plan to work up to periodic one day liquid fasts to give myself more calories to play with at individual meals, but I’m not doing that now.

I also sort of keep track of calories - I think I am doing about 1800 or so a day, some days less, some days more if I’m hungry.  I limit my carbs to about 100 or so most days, but not every day.  I try to eat at least half of my plate as veggies and fruit.  That’s it really.  I keep reasonable sweets in the house for when ever I feel like a need one (I LOVE all varieties of fudge ice cream bars) and sometimes I make those chocolate pumpkin muffins or banana bread with chocolate chips or a flour-less cookie.  If I want something special  and indulgent I have it - I just split it with somebody and only do it once in a while.

What works for me:

1.  I try to keep my portions to one serving. I know this seems simple, but it took me a while to accept that small amount of food was really what I was supposed to be eating. I sometimes still get angry about it. One thing that I often said (and many severely overweight people will say) was that “I don’t eat that much” because our perspectives have become so skewed over the years.  We really do stop when we feel full (usually) and often most of our foods are pretty good choices (I mean, face it, we’ve been on diets for years, we know what we are supposed to eat). But we are eating more than we need to for our sedentary lifestyles.  Just one plateful can be dinner for one or dinner for three.  Read labels and measure if you have to.

2.  Decide what you can live without and/or cut back on. It’s true that any type of diet can work if you stick with it (I once lost 5 lbs in a week by eating nothing but little debbie snack cakes.)  I’ve lost weight on dozens of very different types of diets, but I always got discouraged, quit and then gained it back because eventually I wanted those things that were “forbidden”.  There are somethings I am willing to eat less of, but when I’m honest with myself - I’m not going give up totally give up.

For me, I have to have a meal plan that includes ample saturated fats (or I don’t feel satisfied and happy) - I crave meat!  I also need real dairy ( I LOVE cheese - can’t get through a day without it!) - I can’t stand most low-fat versions- yuck!  So I have the good stuff, I just watch my portions. I also miss fruit when I can’t have it.  I eat bananas, apples and oranges, grapes and berries when ever I want them- but I skip the drinking the juice - I like the fruit.

What I can give up is most wheat products - I’m sensitive to them and they hurt my stomach.  Now this hasn’t been easy - I love bread! So I didn’t cut it out, but I did cut way back.  I don’t bother with alternate flours and complex recipes anymore - when I gotta have bread I have it - I just know in advance I am gonna have to spend awhile in the restroom later being miserable.  Now since I’m still pretty carb addicted, I make sure to get in about 100 grams a day, I just try to get them from veg (including starchy ones like potatoes) and fruit.

Tips and Tricks:

• instead of salad dressing on your salad, dip the fork in the salad dressing before you scoop up a bit of salad - since its the first thing on the fork, it’s what you taste and you use a lot less.
• Nuts and seeds are healthy and can make a small meal more satisfying.  About 10 almonds is a serving, count them out and have them as a snack with milk.  Or add sunflower seeds to your salad - the healthy oil/fat will make you feel more full.