For the rest of your life?
Special diets.
diets with no fruit.
or no veggies.
or no meat
or no cooking
or no bread.
Yes, there are people who are vegans.
Very few.
Those that do it out of conviction have my respect.
I am talking about people (meaning me)
who go on (or have went on) extreme diets that are 'extra special' to help them lose weight.
You know, the diet that will get all this fat off 'in no time."
I am going to go out on a broad and generalized limb here and say..they don't work.
They may work in the short term...because you are ingesting fewer calories than you are burning off.
So,
Why don't they work long term?
Because,
Are you really going to eat that for the rest of your life?
Will I consume nothing but eggs and cabbage for the remainder of my days?
Or hows about no sugar, or no flour, ever?
probably not.
You can structure your food intake to be primarily healthy....but not taking life into consideration will kung fu you in the end.
You have to be able to maintain your eating.....
YOu are learning how to 'eat thin'.
You are not just trying to 'get the weight off.'
You can get the weight off, but if you did it by eating steak, eggs and grean beans for six months straight, I highly doubt it taught you about
Portion control
what foods are most filling.
How to navigate social functions.
how many calories you will need to maintain your current weight and how much exercise.
Any quick fix mentality is doomed to failure.
Including the "starve myself' diet.
The "stick my fingers down my throat and chuck up that half a cake' diet.
The diet coke and twinky diet.
The over exercise and water diet.
Anything you are going to pick has to include food you enjoy and that are healthy, activities and exercise that you enjoy (or at least not hate and can do with consistency) or you will quit.
Because the diet will start to feel like a prison, not a new way of life.
In fact, in the face of this kind of restriction... attaching the words 'new way of life' to your diet will make you want to shovel ho ho's in your face.
You have to be able to have flexibility.
You can't be constantly hungry.
It needs to be a balanced diet, or losing all that weight will not improve your health.
It will not give you the tools you need to continue to succeed.
So,
No special diets for me.
I subscribe to the Sean Anderson method regarding calories.
I eat what I want...with one exception.
I make myself eat only protein and veggies at dinner on my non treat nights.
Because it's a good way to get my veggies in, and it keeps me fuller longer.
So,
Just sane eating and the occasional treat...good amounts of exercise and all the time God allows.
Calories came in at 1300.
I don't want anymore food so there it will sit.
I did 45 minutes on a stairmaster today and could've done that last 15. I walked two miles.
Total burn 600 calories.
Hope you all are having a great day.
Hugs,
Chris
8 comments:
Chris, I am on the same plan as you. Yes, I think I can do this for the rest of my life. My target is 1,200 calories per day. Some days I'm under 1,000. Some days I'm 1,800. No big deal. The weight is slowly coming off.
I never considered the plans that deliver food to your door every month, but I don't think I could eat out of a box for the rest of my life.
In theory, losing weight is pretty simple, just look at your plan, it's getting to that place that you talked about in your last post that makes the difference. It is the mental side of things that make it so difficult.
Yes, simple it is. But the simplest things are often the hardest because we allow ourselve to make them hard. They say the best things in life are those you have to work hard for.
I am so with you on this. I have struggled though the temptation of the quick fix diet or supplimental diets. I have tried to go there, but something kept telling me I had to do it with real food. I had to learn to control my portions, figure out why I eat emotionally, etc. I had to do the work. I'm still working on it and will probably have to work on it for the rest of my life. But it is sooo worth it!!
Hugs!
To think of all of the stupid diets I went on in the past, in the hope of finding some quick fix. It pains me to think of the damage I did to my body, and the time I wasted...
Really like the music you select for th is blog. I tell myself this all the time---this is for the rest of your life.. and you're right, you can restrict some foods from your diet like processed flour, sugar but to say you're never going to have them is a falsity.
I wish I could be one of those persons who could eat 1200 calories a day but most days, I'm 1400 - 1700 calories. I'm a work in progress and that's okay. I think jenny craig, nutrisystem is a temporary solutin when you need to get the weight off but more than likely, its gonna come back. The real solution is dealing with your relationship with food. The good, bad and the ugly
Great post as always chris.
Love your blog and this post. You are so right. I've been trying to get this through to my mother who has been trying crazy diets all her life (with no success). You must be able to do this the rest of your life - lifestyle change is the best.
Thanks for your comment about the Costco card and your cold hands on my blog - totally cracked me up - and I agree with that also. That would be the day that I would hand it over - lol.
PS - I wanted to tell you how absolutely spectacular you look. A great inspiration to me. I was looking around for somewhere else to tell you this on your blog, but alas, I could not find a place.
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