Every time you turn around someone is telling you that you will lose weight if (fill in the blank).
We all know this. I’m actually having this bad mood at a time that I’m losing weight, so I’m not responding as a frustrated dieter. The simple solution is that you eat less and move more. Finding something you can stick to is probably the hardest part. Today, what set me off is another so-called expert telling people what they should do to lose weight. The first thing of course was that your last eating time should be at least two hours before you go to sleep. Don’t get me wrong, some of the advice was good, and as weight loss columns hers seems a little more reasonable than some.
I just feel that this is a woman who has never lay in bed, her body screaming ‘hungry, hungry, hungry’ in her head. Yes, I know, a lot of the eating I’ve done over the decades has been from boredom, or out of habit. However, whenever I’m trying to lose weight it’s those late evenings that eventually do me in. I can exercise in the afternoon when I’m feeling pangs of hunger. I can go work on the computer, or find a number of things to keep me occupied. However, losing weight requires that you take in less calories than your body needs to keep up your current weight. That means no matter how well you stagger your meals, count your calories, whatever - there will be times when it tries to force you to eat.
Looking at Amazon.com today (just because it’s convenient), I found the following:
- 18,360 books under Diets & Weightloss
- 23,741 books under Nutrition
- 28,958 books under Fitness & Exercise
Now, to be fair, there is probably lots of overlap between them. Even so, let’s say there are at least 25,000 books to help people lose weight. What a joke. Everyone out there is looking for a quick fix. Sorry to say but there isn’t one. Find an eating plan you can stick with. If you’re like me (with still probably 200 pounds to go) throw out the fad diets, frozen dinners, and learn to cook for yourself. I don’t eat diet meals. Yesterday I bought chicken thighs (higher in cals than breasts, but less likely to dry out in cooking) and today I’m making a curry sauce. These will make 10 homemade frozen dinners (5 meals for 2 people). Thawing the meat and sauce out overnight and cook them in the oven. This time I’m going to freeze them separately. Sometimes I freeze meals fully cooked. My dinner from this will be:
7oz chicken, sauce, 2 cups broccoli, 1 tsp butter, salad, homemade (no oil) salad dressing - 472 calories - or -
7oz chicken, sauce, rice (1/3 cup raw for 2 people), 1 cup mixed veg, salad, homemade (no oil) salad dressing - 602 calories
These are not small meals. These don’t cut out carb. Even the meal with the broccoli still has 35carbs in it. Both fit well into my 1900-2100 calorie plan. And you know something, within reason, I should be able to stay around that range once I’m at my goal weight. Doing no exercise, I should be able to maintain 125lbs eating 1900 calories. I know this because my mother does (and she eats candy that puts her over that number). Yes, at some point I will likely have to lower what I’m eating to get there. I’ve found a way of eating that I believe I can maintain for the rest of my life.
That’s the secret.
I personally cannot have one chocolate out of the box. Or one candy out of the bag. Or one potato chip out of that Pringles can (oh my, they were on sale this week… advertising new flavours). Not now, maybe never. Even my <120lb mother finished her two half pound boxes of chocolate in about a week. The most they would have lasted with me would be a day or two. Okay, a day. Maybe I’ll reach a point in my life where I can eat these things reasonably, but maybe not. I’d be fooling myself if I even tried to include them in my diet right now. I see so many people counting calories and half of their calories are coming from cookies, candy, pre-made food. Can you eat that way the rest of your life? Are you approaching this as a diet, or a new way of eating? If you’re approaching it as a diet, most likely you’ll fail. You’re really only controlling what you eat, but once you’re at your goal you can’t wait to go back to eating real food. Well, when that happens, you’re back on the road to where you were.
I know, I know, talk to the world when you’ve actually lost the rest of the weight.
I’m ranting a little, but really quite serious. Invest in yourself. Learn to cook, teach your kids, make your husband pull his weight in the kitchen. Whatever it takes. Aren’t you worth it? You really can make wonderful, tasty meals, that will help you lose weight. For the non-dieter all you generally need to do is give them a larger portion, or add a little bread or potato to their meal. Don’t be the mom cooking one meal for yourself and another for the family.
That’s it for now. I hope everyone said something along the lines of ’she’s full of it’ at least once when reading the above. That’s assuming you even read it. I think I’m just trying to convince myself that I’ve found the answer - for me at least. I really am having a good week (post TOM) being more than 4 pounds down from last Monday. We’ll see how that holds over tomorrow at weigh-in. Now, everybody go do something that doesn’t involve raiding the kitchen!
Oh, and by the way, I’m down just over 30 pounds from December 7th and you know something….
I eat approximately 25% of my daily calories between the hours of 9pm and 11pm at night. It’s a generally balanced mix of fruit, protein (shake), sometimes a biscotti, and something crunchy (pita chips are the recent craze, or cheese spread on rice crisps). And you know something, it works for me.
So stop waiting for the so-called experts to tell you what to do. Even if they’ve lost weight in the past, all it really means is that they’ve found something that works for them. Find out what works for you.
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