Diet 'YOUR' way!
So you want to be thin? And you've tried every single diet known to man and they DO work but you gain the weight back? Welcome to the majority of overweight people in the world! The old saying 'Diets Don't Work' isn't really fair. Diets DO work, but it's just that people can't stay on them for an extended length of time and eventually gain their weight back. I know because I'm one of them.
I didn't start out as a chubby child. I didn't get that way until my parents divorced and my new stepmother overfed us at every meal. I remember her feeding us endless pieces of cinnamon toast for breakfast and every evening meal contained at least one starchy carbohydrate and gravy was usually included. My body hasn't been the same since unfortunately, and that was when I was only 8 years old - I'm now 52. I started my first 'diet' at 15 which worked but I only did it for about a month and gained the weight back. I just couldn't stand being without the foods I love. I remember being on a diet of only eating cereal for breakfast which was my only meal of the day when I was 17, and then following a home exercise regimen for an hour before bedtime. I managed to drop 30 pounds but of course when I went back to eating normally, all the weight returned.
This cycle happened over and over again. I would lose 30 to 50 and even 80 pounds and every time I would gain back even more than what I started at in the first place. I tried Weight Watchers, Nutri-Systems, Low-fat, etc. and gained the weight back every single time. Then, after having gained 80 pounds with my first pregnancy, that spiraled my weight out of control until I finally reached a whopping 325 pounds at the age of 43. And it didn't help that everyone else in my family was 'stick' thin, including my two sisters. NO ONE was fat but ME! So, after months of research I fearfully decided to put my life on the line and have Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery. I really felt that I was making the right choice because no diet I had ever tried had worked and I had tried them all!
The surgery was a success for the most part and I managed to drop from 325 to 185 in the first year and then down to 155 the second year. Usually people that have this surgery start gaining their weight back at this point. The majority of people either gain half or all of their weight back within five years or more and subsequently have all kinds of health problems to go with the weight that they didn't have before surgery. They permanently suffer with iron deficiency anemia, hypoglycemia, neuropathy, and more recently, symptoms of fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis and heart failure are in the statistics. It's very frightening when a person does the research on the whole issue. And I can only say that I wish I knew then what I know now and I would never have made that life changing choice.
I'll be ten years out from my weight loss surgery this year and have managed to gain and lose through the years, with my average weight staying between 170-175.When I find myself gaining weight, I follow what my body tells me it wants and I start losing weight again. I don't focus on a goal anymore, I focus on health and feeling good physically. I never got to my original goal of 140 but now after all these years, that isn't my objective. I have so many health problems, I just want to eat to be healthy and LIVE! And that reason alone is what brought me down this journey and why I am writing this blog to help others who are wanting to be healthy and lose weight permanently.
This is what I've learned:
Everyone's body is different even though they are basically the same. Everyone's metabolism is different and everyone craves different foods and at different times of the day. But everyone craves food and that's the one thing we have in common. When we diet, we might manage to suffer for a while without the foods we love, and even lose hundreds of pounds, but eventually our bodies give in to the temptation and the whole roller coaster of binging starts all over again. We all want a 'miracle diet' where we can eat what we want, when we want it and IF we must exercise, then it's got to be fun, right??? Well, I'm here to tell you that it IS possible to lose weight the way YOU want to lose it! It's not a 'dream' or 'stupid thinking'. It CAN be done! Let me explain:
Your body is constantly using calories, even in your sleep. It needs fuel to keep going, just like a car. It's just that your body doesn't need 'EXTRA' fuel that we keep feeding it. We have learned to 'hoard' food like people 'hoard' things in their homes. We have gotten into this 'mindset' that we MUST eat everything on our plate RIGHT THEN, during a meal, and Heaven forbid if any morsel is left untouched. But there is a way to eat WHAT you want, just only eat it in small amounts through the day.
For instance, if you have a really bad sweet tooth, then instead of depriving yourself of the donut you want, decide to eat it (JUST ONE) for a meal. Then, when you get hungry later, make the choice to eat something healthy but in a small amount. Your body will burn up the calories whether they come from a donut or a piece of broccoli. The key is to learn to listen to your body because it WILL talk to you! It will tell you when it's hungry. It will tell you when it's satisfied, but learning the difference between 'satisfied' and 'full' is the key to success.
You can eat one item every hour or two no matter what you want, but only eat ONE item. Whether that is a piece of pizza, apple, donut, cooked veggie, meat, or whatever. Just make sure you only eat one thing and make sure that it is the size of the palm of your hand and no larger. I know it seems like a very small amount, but when you tell yourself that you will have something else to eat in an hour, you can do it. And you will be shocked as to how fast an hour goes by! By eating these portions on a regular basis you are accomplishing two things: 1) Your are keeping your metabolism going on a continual basis and your body will continue burning the calories every hour. 2) You are learning to eat in small portions, yet you are eating what you want and not depriving yourself of the foods you love.
Now granted, I would save the donut, pizza, or enchilada as your 'meal' at breakfast, lunch and dinner and then choose something healthier for the other things you eat every hour. This way you are getting your vegetables and fruits in your diet and staying healthy. The goal is to be able to eat what you want so you aren't deprived of the foods you crave, yet you're also including the foods that are good for you to keep you healthy.
As far as exercise, that word should be banned from the dictionary. I hate that word and I know most of you do also. But your body was created to MOVE and when we listen to our body, it will tell us how it wants to do it. Everyone has different things they liked to do as a child or older, whether it was riding a bike, playing basketball, wrestling with their brothers, skipping rope, etc. We have to learn to think about burning calories in a FUN way and not by exercising! I'm not here to tell you which way to do it because that is totally up to you. I'm just here to get to you learn to listen to your body and see how it wants to move. If you are a 'stay at home' mom, you could dance to music in your living room when your kids aren't around. You could wrestle with your kids on the ground, or play with them outside.
There are SO many more options to burning calories than boring exercise! We just have to look within ourselves to find out what WE want to do to burn them! Even if it's just walking around the house and 'marching' by lifting our legs higher than normal, that is burning more calories than just plain walking. Yeah, you might laugh at yourself, but it works!
The key is to MOVE, no matter how you do it. You don't have to go to a gym and sweat until you drop. That isn't realistic. It works for the short term but everyone gets burned out and quits after a month or two. You've got to find what YOU like to do! If you can't think of anything, then, as a woman, just choose to clean one room of your house every day. By the end of the week, all the rooms are clean and you've burned calories doing it.
During the warmer months, choose to enjoy nature and just find different places to walk around. I don't mean speed walking - walk to enjoy what God has created around you. If you pay attention to the things around you, you won't be focusing on the walking itself and before you know it, you've walked further than you had planned.
If you work, make the choice to walk around the office more, and always choose to park far away from the building. (and that goes for shopping also!) If you can't find anything you like to do, then at least find the most enjoyable form of calorie burning activity you can. For me, I like to either dance or jazzercise, but I would never do it with others, so I just dance around the house every other hour or so for about five minutes and by the end of the day I've gotten in an hours worth of calorie burning.
And before I forget, drinking water is nasty I know, because I detest it myself. It's such a chore to drink the stuff instead of tea, cokes etc. But, here's a tip: Go to your nearest health food store or a place that sells natural supplements. Buy a tiny jar of Stevia drops. That is a natural sweetner that won't harm your mind or body. Squirt about a dropper into your water and it tastes wonderful! You can even add food coloring and crushed ice and make it like a flavored slushy. The key to water is that you must drink half of your body weight in ounces in order to keep your body flushed of toxins and flush out the fat. But at least this is one alternative to making it taste better!
You were made unique from everyone else on this earth and your likes and dislikes are different from everyone elses. Learn to listen to your body and do what IT wants to do. It will tell you that it only wants ONE thing to eat and only FIVE minutes of calorie burning at a time. But do it every hour or two of every day. Make it routine and make it a life style change.
Learn to enjoy living this way for the rest of your life. It won't be dieting and exercising - it will be a change for you for LIFE and that is the only way you will be successful and happy! You WILL lose the weight you want but it may not be in 'record' time - but it will stay off for LIFE and THAT is the goal everyone wants to reach. Try it for a week and see what happens! Learn to really 'tune in' to your body and what it's telling you. It will guide you to exactly where you are supposed to be and you'll be able to say you did it YOUR way!
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