This blog is about how I lost 25 lbs. and have kept it off for over a year. Now, for me, 25 lbs. is a lot of weight. I'm a small person--only 4 ft. 11 in. tall--so even losing 5 lbs. required a major effort. Yet once I started eating the way I now do, the weight started to come off easily and steadily.
One of the first things I did was to cut my portion sizes. I finally made the connection between quantity of food and calories, which is something that many of us don't want to admit. But think about it: When you take a second helping, you're DOUBLING the calories you're ingesting of that particular food. It finally clicked for me that if I just ate LESS of what I normally eat, I'd be taking in fewer calories and therefore creating a deficit that would cause weight loss. Simple and obvious, but not something we want to think about. So, I stopped filling my cereal bowl to the brim and only filled it halfway. I used a tiny 2-oz. juice glass for my morning orange juice instead of an 8-oz. one. One slice of bread instead of two. Etc., etc. You get the picture. At first, I didn't change anything else about my eating habits except the amounts. And you know what? The weight began to come off. In fact, just by doing this, I lost 5 lbs. in the first few weeks. I also discovered that I wasn't any hungrier than before, and it was more important for me to see the results of my efforts than to get gratification from food. That was a huge revelation for me. It could be for you, too.
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So I have heard (several times now) about some research studies that show (at least in rats) that a lower caloric intake is directly related to a longer life.
ReplyDeleteYou said that you found you weren't any more hungry by cutting the
ReplyDeleteportion sizes than you were before. Really? Think back to the
beginning. You've been doing it for so long now, but way back then,
were you really not hungry? I don't necessarily eat because of hunger,
but more out of habit, liking the item, or whatever. But, I know that
if I'm truly hungry, I'm going to have more no matter what.
If you're truly hungry, you should eat! It's a matter of what and how much, though. Obviously I did more than just cut my portion sizes. When I was hungry, I ate fruit, veggies, nuts, yogurt, hummus on whole-grain crackers--things that were good for me, with fiber, that packed nutrition instead of empty calories. I
ReplyDeletealso made sure I drank enough water--so often, we think we're hungry when we're really thirsty, and water fills you up in such a way that you feel more satisfied with less food. Now don't get me wrong; water is no substitute for food, but it does help when you're trying to fill up with fewer calories. You should never go hungry; it's a matter of shifting your intake away from less-nutrious foods toward more healthful, more satisfying foods that will keep you away from mindless eating and get you results. As I post more, you'll see what I'm getting at.