172.8 before I took a dump this morning.
So I was going to do a write-up of what I've done to lose weight but decided that it would take too long when I have two midterms to study for.
Instead, I'll just do a run-down of the "rules" I've made and have been following. Now for some background and to contextualize:
I'm Italian and my family is full of eaters and oily foods, yet most are fairly skinny or in shape. I used to be decently in shape and always getting exercise because I had played baseball, football and soccer all of my life, coupled with snowboarding, skateboarding and paintball. Once high school ended, so did most of my physical activity; however, my eating habits of big carb meals did not end as well as late night eating and the introduction of beer consumption. I ended high school being around 175-180lbs and the beginning of this summer, I had made it all the way up 226. Every summer, I get this mentality of "I'll get in to shape soon" but as we all know, that usually doesn't happen.
Fast forward to this summer:
I woke up early to make some pancakes, bacon and eggs before heading off to work. Just as I do every morning, I shower and get ready before making breakfast and usually listen to the news and browse some websites. I was checking out Digg.com and came across this article:
http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/457796
It's a study explaining how eating less means less intake of free radicals, possibly leading to little to no disease and longer life. Seems somewhat questionable, but that was honestly the moment that "you need to lose weight now" clicked in my head. It was like suddenly my whole perspective of health and life came in to balance. I ended up eating only the eggs I made that morning and I've been "dieting" (I don't call it dieting) since.
From there, I started using logic and reason to question why we eat and the point of eating a ton of food in one sitting. I used to go out to eat at LEAST 4-5 times a week and consumer anywhere between 2800-4000 calories in one day. I could not stop thinking about why our mind tells us we're hungry; I started realizing the obvious, in that we need those calories as fuel. I embraced this reality and began eating in relation to how much fuel I actually needed.
I know what some of you are thinking: you're thinking I must've starved myself and went through hell for this. Or that I must've lost tons of water and muscle weight. To be honest, I ignored every single piece of diet advice and "nutritionist" advice I've ever heard. I know my body and I'm fairly certain I've lost little to no muscle at all, and I haven't exercised almost at all, save for a few times I went running. To be honest again though, I was prepared to lose muscle in the process of losing fat; the reason being is that I've tried losing weight in the past by exercising a lot in fear that I'd lose muscle, but always gave up because it was so much work. I said "fuck it", I'll start lifting weights again when I lose all of my weight first. I'm here to tell all of you, that this was the easiest "diet" I've ever done, mainly because it was all in my mind. In fact, I don't refer to it as a diet, because it was a change in food habits that I don't plan on dropping, ever.
I'll give my rules I've lived by in the following portion of this write-up, and examples of what I eat. Keep in mind, this is all mental and I found it the easiest life-changing thing I've ever done. Now, sorry for the rambling and on to my new "food rules":
1. You MUST eat breakfast. Get your daily metabolism going early so that it's prepared to break down everything you consume that day. I am not typically hungry in the morning, so I only eat one thing when I wake; a small cup of 60 calorie yogurt. Not only is it easy to digest, but it's essentially no burden on daily caloric intake and the good bacteria in it is great for your tummy(yes, I said tummy, you faggots).
2. Weigh yourself EVERY morning. There's no excuse to miss this. Most nutritionists recommend only weighing once or twice a week for reasons of it driving you mad or something ridiculous. Since July 13th, I have not missed one morning, in fact, I've looked forward to it every morning to see what progress I've made. Every time you weigh yourself, write down the date and your weight. This serves as motivation and an easy way to keep up with your progress and helps you decide if you need to readjust what you're eating and when. Here's the sheet I've been using:
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/mikehaze_2006/111111.jpg
3. Chew your food a lot. That old saying that every grandparent says is 100% true and helpful. I feel this is one of the tricks that helped me most. I chew each bite so much, that it's basically mush by the time I swallow. The reason for this is twofold: first, you're "pre-digesting" the food and it will flow through you quicker and easier. The second and most important reason will lead us in to the next rule: you'll realize you're not hungry even quicker. Plus, by doing this, you'll develop great tasting skills and appreciate the flavor in food even more then you thought you did.
4. Stop eating when you're not hungry!!! I can't stress this enough. In the past, I would eat anything on my plate even if not hungry anymore. The "chewing" rule above will help you with this. Eat slow enough and keep track of whether or not you're even hungry anymore while you're in the process of eating. I found that I seriously ate 1/4 of the food I used to just by stopping when I wasn't hungry anymore. By doing this, you're body has less to digest and will do so quicker before your next meal. Remember, concentrate on your hunger, even while you're eating! If you go out to eat, you'll find yourself bringing home A LOT of food to eat later on.
5. You can basically eat what you want still, just try to adjust a few things. This is a "multi-point" rule.
-No more "fast-fast food". "Fast-fast food" comes from places like McDonalds and Wendy's. Don't even bother getting their salads, just say no to it all. Instead, I've been getting more simple "fast food". I consider it simple FF if you can see them make it or tell what their ingredients are; i.e. Chipotle, Qdoba, Subway etc.
-No more drinks with calories while you eat. I always drink diet iced or green tea, diet sodas or just water. It sucked at first, but I don't even want regular sodas anymore just because I've gotten used to the low sugar stuff. Once or twice a week, I will drink some regular GOOD ale with a meal or with some friends at a bar, but I will eat lightly when drinking, i.e. eat just a snack.
-If you MUST go out for food, make sure you try to cut down on the unhealthful stuff as much as possible. For instance, when I go to Chipotle, I get a burrito bol, with no rice, double pork(their pork has less calories then their chicken), no rice, and all of the salsa. Mmmmmmmmmmm. I still eat at gluttonous Five Guys on OSU campus every week, but I no longer get the fries, just the regular burger with one patty and it still fills me up.
6. Do NOT eat past dinner-time. I will not eat past 7pm at the latest, even though I'm up until 1am or 2am every morning. There are days where I have to eat my dinner early around 4 or 5 at work, so I will have a small snack of some jerky or trail mix or yogurt later on. This allows your body to finish up digesting everything you had in the day. Don't slip up on this, because you will find yourself getting fucking hungry as hell during this time. However, for some reason, I find that watching the food network at night helps me get through it. Also, when you have that hungry as hell feeling at night, just remember at that very moment your body is burning fat and you are losing weight.
...
And that concludes my rules I've lived by. That was a very quick summary and there are a few other keys to keep in mind. Think of this system as a "checks and balances" system. That is, it allows you to eat a lot of what you want to eat, but it creates other opportunities for you to "make up" for it. For instance, by weighing yourself every day, you see when you messed up or gained a fraction of a pound, so the next day you can balance it out by eating more protein and less carbs. Or, if it's a football gameday and you want to consume mass beer with friends and eat tailgate food, go ahead, just eat less the day before and the day after.
I can honestly say, I don't think I'm starving myself, as the only time I'm really hungry is at night when you shouldn't be eating anyway. I eat so much delicious food that it's kept me sane and happy.
As added motivation, everyone you're around will start noticing you even more. I've noticed that you make more friends and people socialize with you more when you weigh less.
However, I finally made the jump to lose weight when I decided to do it for health reasons and for the long term, and not to do it for looks and anything "fake". Though, you'll notice, all of those things still come with it when you lose weight. Because I was doing it for myself and not others, I did not tell anyone I was losing weight, as I did not care if anyone knew. But, nobody took notice until I lost around 30 lbs when I started getting "Did you lose weight?" a lot. It's actually somewhat annoying to answer all the time now.
On top of that, I have a whole "new" wardrobe now. I was wearing size 40 pants and shorts and now I wear size 32-33. I am wearing all of the clothes I wore in high school which is just weird to me.
The best part about this is the great euphoric feeling you'll get. I only get 6-7 hours of sleep a night because I have so much energy. I'm never tired during the day anymore and I eat less. I've also been saving money since I don't buy nearly as much food and it lasts longer. I am never sick and my metabolism has shot through the roof! The best part of all: I never had to give up my love for cooking and food (my Italian heritage demands it of me)
I know a lot of the above might sound confusing and rambling as I can't do quick write-ups very well. It would take probably an entire 3-400 page book to get it all out and the importance of your attitude and mentality but maybe another time.
If you guys have questions or critiques just let me know.
