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Losing weight required me to make some major changes. After 28 years of eating whatever I wanted
and ignoring the consequences, those changes weren't easy. I realized that I was pretty ignorant about
nutrition in general, so the first step I made was to learn; I spent many hours
reading web sites on weight loss and nutrition.
I used to think that the fat content of the food you ate was
the most important statistic to look it, but I was wrong. Fat has received a bad rap over the years via
food products' marketing, advertising low fat alternatives as a more healthy
choice. The same thing seems to be
happening with carbohydrates now with the popularity of the Atkins diet. I learned that the amount of calories, not
fat or carbs, in the food you eat was the most important thing for you to watch
and control in order to lose weight.
The Importance of Tracking
Calories
 The science of losing weight is amazingly simple. You burn calories every day to fuel your
body. You eat food every day, which
gives you a source for that energy. If
you take in more calories than you burn, you gain weight. The opposite is also true; in order to lose
weight, you eat at a restriction of 500-1000 calories.
To facilitate this, it is very helpful to keep track of what
you eat. I came across multiple
recommendations for a free online calorie tracker called FitDay during my quest
for nutrition knowledge. Downloading and
starting to track my eating was probably the one thing that made my weight loss
possible. I started entering everything
I ate into FitDay at the beginning of June 2009. Through tracking, I learned that many meals
that I considered "healthy" were absolutely loaded with calories.
Choosing a Healthier
Diet is the Key to Losing Weight
Cutting portions, while lowering my calorie intake, wasn't
enough to make my weight loss possible.
I had to start eating better, healthier foods. I started by setting some basic rules for
myself:
1. Drink more water. I read that you should drink half your weight
in ounces of water daily. (This was a LOT of water when I weighed 335 pounds!)
2. Don't drink pop, excessive amounts of milk,
or other calorie-filled drinks. (I always thought skim milk was super
healthy to drink because it was fat free, but when you're drinking almost a
gallon a day, the sugars in it add up to a lot of calories.)
3. Skip dessert.
4. No. More. Fast. Food. This one is huge. If you eat out a lot, chances are you're
eating terribly. Avoid fast food chains
like the plague and try to limit the amount of meals you eat out. When you do go out for dinner, make healthier
choices!
5. Eat more fruits and vegetables. If you just cut portions of calorie-rich
food, you're going to end up hungry. If
you eat healthier foods, such as vegetables, you can eat a lot more.
By just making these "small" changes, I began to shed weight
quickly. I lost over 30 pounds through
diet alone during the first two months. Although I hesitate to call what I've
done a "diet" as that word typically has the connotation of being a temporary
measure; if you resume your old habits, you will gain back any weight you
lose. With this in mind, I prefer to
think of it as a "lifestyle change." I
don't ever want to be that heavy again.
All You Need is
Motivation
The most difficult part of making the change to a healthier
lifestyle is getting up the motivation to actually do it. For me, motivation came in the form of aches
and pains, shortness of breath, and heartburn.
If I had been smarter, I never would have let it get to that point.
I used to think that losing weight was an impossible task,
but it's not. Eating healthier food and
passing on your favorites is difficult at first, but once you begin to see the
results on the scale and in the mirror, you'll have all the motivation you'll
need to continue.
History
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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Re: Becoming “Half the Man I Used to Be” (Part 2)
