How I am turning my health around...tips and advice on getting healthier
I just turned 44 and I feel physically better than at any other time in my life. There are a few reasons, probably one of the biggest is I now use CPAP. Unlike even when I was younger I now wake up in the morning feeling completely wide awake. Even before showering. I used to feel pretty groggy until I showered, then I'd feel 95% good to go. Now I have 100% clarity upon waking up before I do anything.
My doctor still wants me to lose weight and I've gone down every crazy diet path in the world. I'm experienced enough to know that diets simply don't work. Eliminating (fill in food/drink) completely does not work. Moderation is the key. So with that in mind here are the things I've done that have resulted in me losing about 15-20 pounds since Christmas. There are two parts, the eating/drinking part and the psychological part.
The eating/drinking part:
1. Cut down fast food from 3 or 4 times per week to 1 time per week. This one is the easiest (although initially it's the hardest) thing to do to start dropping weight.
2. Cut down dining out at regular restaurants from 2 or 3 times per 1 time per week. This will also save you a ton of money. Yes it's great going out to eat but we as Americans do it too often I think.
3. I've quit drinking pop regularly. Instead of drinking pop all the time like I used to I now usually have 1 glass with dinner. This has been a long process for me as pop is quite addictive. I now regularly drink water, flavored with lemon or lime and unsweetened iced tea. I try to avoid aspartame religiously as I think it's a big part of the problem with weight loss so I try to find pops without any aspartame for when I do drink pop.
4. I have quit drinking alcohol except on special occasions. Anyone who knows me knows I've typically drank on Fridays, and sometimes Saturdays, usually a lot. In my 20's it just became the norm for me to "unwind" on Fridays by drinking a massive amount of beer. Well my body doesn't like beer as much as I like beer anymore. So I've now cut this down to special occasions, such as birthdays or maybe a Buckeye game. This too is saving me a ton of money.
5. One or two days per week I eat vegetarian and abstain from meat of any kind. I'm not in agreement with vegans that meat is bad for you..however I do think myself and most of American society eats entirely too much meat. So one or two days a week, mostly one for now, LOL, I just eat for the entire day without any meat at all, no chicken, no beef, no seafood, nada. Right now it's sort of tough for me to do two days per week but I'm working on it, I am definitely doing at least one though.
6. I now eat a huge breakfast, eat a moderate lunch and eat a moderate/small dinner and then don't eat for the rest of the night. Studies have shown that those who eat in this way are most efficient for their metabolism. It makes sense if you think about it, if you're going on a long trip you fill up your gas tank and as you get closer to your destination you have less and less gas so why shouldn't your body work in the similar fashion since food is basically what fuels us?
Now I know some of you out there don't eat breakfast and think you don't like eating breakfast. Let me tell you it takes about a week or two before your body adjusts but after that you will wake up wanting breakfast badly...trust me on this.
7. I simply eat less. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Simply slow down when you eat and stop when you get full. This does take some self control but after you learn to appreciate how you don't feel so damned stuffed and bloated it gets much easier. Don't ever feel Thanksgiving-type full again, you will be more comfortable and your body will appreciate you for it.
Here are some psychological/non-eating tips I use...
1. I never let myself get famished/super hungry. This is really bad because this is when you overeat. I try to eat at regular intervals and always keep some sort of nuts or healthy snack on hand so I don't get to that point.
2. I weigh myself every week, even if I've done poorly. Ignorance is not bliss in weight loss. You really may be surprised too when you think you're going to do really bad and do really, well not-too-bad. Like my birthday weekend I ate deep dish pizza, drank alcohol and ate fast food so I was expecting to gain about 3 to 5 pounds...stepped on the scale and I was even steven..
3. If I screw up I refuse to beat myself up or even dwell on it. I simply look at it as "tomorrow is a new day" and put it out of my mind.
4. I trick myself psychologically into giving myself super extra credit for minor victories and I downplay my losses. This is vital to the psychology of losing weight I think. For example, if I lose 2 pounds then I congratulate myself and think to myself, that's a really great job Shaun.. But if I gain 2 pounds then I simply tell myself "well that's water weight". Now obviously you can take this too far if you let it but keep it in perspective and this works quite well.
5. I am not on a diet, I'm practicing habits that I will use the rest of my life. Repeat after me, DIETS DON'T WORK. If I change my eating habits or what I eat I plan to make that a permanent change. Otherwise when I change back to the old way my weight is affected in a negative weight. This is why diet's don't work!
6. Moderate-moderate-moderate is the key. There is nothing wrong with having a cheeseburger. But do you really need a double cheeseburger with extra mayo? How about a single cheeseburger with no mayo and instead ketchup and mustard? Ok you want the mayo? Fine, but eat it and be satisfied and don't let yourself eat another cheeseburger for a while. I think the reason people fail most often is that you deny yourself and then deny yourself some more and then at some point, we being humans, tend to rebel and say screw it, I'm doing what I want.
So when you hear that little voice in your head demanding chocolate, don't ignore it, it will grow louder and louder and eventually it will win. Instead negotiate with it as you would a petulant child. Tell yourself, ok I'll eat 1/3 of a dark chocolate bar and that'll be that. And then stick to your "bargain with yourself" no matter what. This is about discipline. However you don't want to resent yourself and eventually cave in so you need to learn to compromise with yourself, or moderate. Just be wary you're not doing it too often and/or giving in too much when you do...
7. Instead of focusing on what foods you must avoid, focus on what foods you enjoy that are healthy. This is a massive aspect to me. Instead of thinking how much I miss snacking on potato chips for example, which I do miss quite a bit, I focus on how much I love eating raw tomatoes. I buy a tomato and just sliced it up and add a dash of salt and snack on that. I love, love, love raw tomatoes that are rip and juicy but I've always thought of them as a food you put on burgers. This brings me to the next item..
8. Start thinking about foods differently. As I said above, quit thinking a tomato is a burger accessory. Make a tomato an outright snack if you enjoy eating it. Stop thinking about cucumbers as being "part of a salad". If you enjoy eating raw cucumber then buy one, cut it up and eat the hell out of that thing. This is difficult at first because as a young child you're told not to eat foods in this type of manner typically.
For example if you're helping to prepare dinner and dicing up a cucumber and your mom or dad sees you eating cucumber they yell at you to stop as that's "for the salad"...so what happens is you start thinking of cucumber as being "for something else" and you quit seeing the cucumber as what it is, a healthy food that can be consumed in any fashion. So the next time you're doing something with food and you hear that little voice saying what the role of the food is, stop and question it. And if you're dicing up a cucumber for a salad, feel free to eat some of it raw, right then if you like!
9. When you first stop eating sweets like donuts eat fruits. Hell eat as much fruit as you want. People will tell you "oh fruit has sugar" but guess what, it's not processed sugar..." and yes eventually you will want to not go too crazy with the fruit but if it gets you away from eating sweets then it's worth it. So eat an orange, and if you want another in a bit, go eat another orange. It's better than eating 2 donuts.
10. Last but not least, related to number nine, try to see the upside of what you do in every aspect of eating and healthy habits. If you're eating pepperoni pizza because family or friends ordered it, eat 2 pieces of it. Instead of feeling bad about eating pizza though, congratulate yourself on only eating 2 pieces whereas before you would eat 5 pieces.
The biggest battle of weight loss is in the mind and you must find a way to turn your thoughts positive and get away from negative thinking about yourself. If you only take one thing from all that I wrote this is what to take. Reward and congratulate yourself on successes!
Be positive, you can do it!
My doctor still wants me to lose weight and I've gone down every crazy diet path in the world. I'm experienced enough to know that diets simply don't work. Eliminating (fill in food/drink) completely does not work. Moderation is the key. So with that in mind here are the things I've done that have resulted in me losing about 15-20 pounds since Christmas. There are two parts, the eating/drinking part and the psychological part.
The eating/drinking part:
1. Cut down fast food from 3 or 4 times per week to 1 time per week. This one is the easiest (although initially it's the hardest) thing to do to start dropping weight.
2. Cut down dining out at regular restaurants from 2 or 3 times per 1 time per week. This will also save you a ton of money. Yes it's great going out to eat but we as Americans do it too often I think.
3. I've quit drinking pop regularly. Instead of drinking pop all the time like I used to I now usually have 1 glass with dinner. This has been a long process for me as pop is quite addictive. I now regularly drink water, flavored with lemon or lime and unsweetened iced tea. I try to avoid aspartame religiously as I think it's a big part of the problem with weight loss so I try to find pops without any aspartame for when I do drink pop.
4. I have quit drinking alcohol except on special occasions. Anyone who knows me knows I've typically drank on Fridays, and sometimes Saturdays, usually a lot. In my 20's it just became the norm for me to "unwind" on Fridays by drinking a massive amount of beer. Well my body doesn't like beer as much as I like beer anymore. So I've now cut this down to special occasions, such as birthdays or maybe a Buckeye game. This too is saving me a ton of money.
5. One or two days per week I eat vegetarian and abstain from meat of any kind. I'm not in agreement with vegans that meat is bad for you..however I do think myself and most of American society eats entirely too much meat. So one or two days a week, mostly one for now, LOL, I just eat for the entire day without any meat at all, no chicken, no beef, no seafood, nada. Right now it's sort of tough for me to do two days per week but I'm working on it, I am definitely doing at least one though.
6. I now eat a huge breakfast, eat a moderate lunch and eat a moderate/small dinner and then don't eat for the rest of the night. Studies have shown that those who eat in this way are most efficient for their metabolism. It makes sense if you think about it, if you're going on a long trip you fill up your gas tank and as you get closer to your destination you have less and less gas so why shouldn't your body work in the similar fashion since food is basically what fuels us?
Now I know some of you out there don't eat breakfast and think you don't like eating breakfast. Let me tell you it takes about a week or two before your body adjusts but after that you will wake up wanting breakfast badly...trust me on this.
7. I simply eat less. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Simply slow down when you eat and stop when you get full. This does take some self control but after you learn to appreciate how you don't feel so damned stuffed and bloated it gets much easier. Don't ever feel Thanksgiving-type full again, you will be more comfortable and your body will appreciate you for it.
Here are some psychological/non-eating tips I use...
1. I never let myself get famished/super hungry. This is really bad because this is when you overeat. I try to eat at regular intervals and always keep some sort of nuts or healthy snack on hand so I don't get to that point.
2. I weigh myself every week, even if I've done poorly. Ignorance is not bliss in weight loss. You really may be surprised too when you think you're going to do really bad and do really, well not-too-bad. Like my birthday weekend I ate deep dish pizza, drank alcohol and ate fast food so I was expecting to gain about 3 to 5 pounds...stepped on the scale and I was even steven..
3. If I screw up I refuse to beat myself up or even dwell on it. I simply look at it as "tomorrow is a new day" and put it out of my mind.
4. I trick myself psychologically into giving myself super extra credit for minor victories and I downplay my losses. This is vital to the psychology of losing weight I think. For example, if I lose 2 pounds then I congratulate myself and think to myself, that's a really great job Shaun.. But if I gain 2 pounds then I simply tell myself "well that's water weight". Now obviously you can take this too far if you let it but keep it in perspective and this works quite well.
5. I am not on a diet, I'm practicing habits that I will use the rest of my life. Repeat after me, DIETS DON'T WORK. If I change my eating habits or what I eat I plan to make that a permanent change. Otherwise when I change back to the old way my weight is affected in a negative weight. This is why diet's don't work!
6. Moderate-moderate-moderate is the key. There is nothing wrong with having a cheeseburger. But do you really need a double cheeseburger with extra mayo? How about a single cheeseburger with no mayo and instead ketchup and mustard? Ok you want the mayo? Fine, but eat it and be satisfied and don't let yourself eat another cheeseburger for a while. I think the reason people fail most often is that you deny yourself and then deny yourself some more and then at some point, we being humans, tend to rebel and say screw it, I'm doing what I want.
So when you hear that little voice in your head demanding chocolate, don't ignore it, it will grow louder and louder and eventually it will win. Instead negotiate with it as you would a petulant child. Tell yourself, ok I'll eat 1/3 of a dark chocolate bar and that'll be that. And then stick to your "bargain with yourself" no matter what. This is about discipline. However you don't want to resent yourself and eventually cave in so you need to learn to compromise with yourself, or moderate. Just be wary you're not doing it too often and/or giving in too much when you do...
7. Instead of focusing on what foods you must avoid, focus on what foods you enjoy that are healthy. This is a massive aspect to me. Instead of thinking how much I miss snacking on potato chips for example, which I do miss quite a bit, I focus on how much I love eating raw tomatoes. I buy a tomato and just sliced it up and add a dash of salt and snack on that. I love, love, love raw tomatoes that are rip and juicy but I've always thought of them as a food you put on burgers. This brings me to the next item..
8. Start thinking about foods differently. As I said above, quit thinking a tomato is a burger accessory. Make a tomato an outright snack if you enjoy eating it. Stop thinking about cucumbers as being "part of a salad". If you enjoy eating raw cucumber then buy one, cut it up and eat the hell out of that thing. This is difficult at first because as a young child you're told not to eat foods in this type of manner typically.
For example if you're helping to prepare dinner and dicing up a cucumber and your mom or dad sees you eating cucumber they yell at you to stop as that's "for the salad"...so what happens is you start thinking of cucumber as being "for something else" and you quit seeing the cucumber as what it is, a healthy food that can be consumed in any fashion. So the next time you're doing something with food and you hear that little voice saying what the role of the food is, stop and question it. And if you're dicing up a cucumber for a salad, feel free to eat some of it raw, right then if you like!
9. When you first stop eating sweets like donuts eat fruits. Hell eat as much fruit as you want. People will tell you "oh fruit has sugar" but guess what, it's not processed sugar..." and yes eventually you will want to not go too crazy with the fruit but if it gets you away from eating sweets then it's worth it. So eat an orange, and if you want another in a bit, go eat another orange. It's better than eating 2 donuts.
10. Last but not least, related to number nine, try to see the upside of what you do in every aspect of eating and healthy habits. If you're eating pepperoni pizza because family or friends ordered it, eat 2 pieces of it. Instead of feeling bad about eating pizza though, congratulate yourself on only eating 2 pieces whereas before you would eat 5 pieces.
The biggest battle of weight loss is in the mind and you must find a way to turn your thoughts positive and get away from negative thinking about yourself. If you only take one thing from all that I wrote this is what to take. Reward and congratulate yourself on successes!
Be positive, you can do it!
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