FAT : It's just too hard to watch everything I eat and count calories, I don't think I can do it.
dB : No doubt - at the rate you probably shovel it in now it's probably barely visible to the naked eye. Seriously though folks...I really have to, again, point you to the use of food-tracking software or websites to help you out with this. A lot of them allow you to save "favorites" so that foods you eat over and over again can be easily added to the tracker. Really beats having to write it down. And if counting specific calories or fat grams or whatever bums you out, the Weight Watchers point system is a really great simplification of this.
FAT : I'd really love to go on a diet but it seems I'll have to deny myself so many things it hardly seems worthwhile.
dB : So don't deny yourself!! I still eat chocolate every day, I still have cheese and alcohol and Mexican food and pizza and all that stuff. Keep reading my food journal and you'll see I'm not lying, I haven't even changed the composition of what I eat all that much since I started losing weight - in fact for breakfast most days I eat the exact same thing. You just learn to make substitutions for stuff that's bad for you, or eat far less of it if you can't. We'll get into this in more detail in the next couple days I promise.
FAT : Aren't you hungry? I'd love to change my diet but I'm just so worried about being hungry all the time...
dB : Seems like there'd be a whole lot better things to worry about, but...alright. If that's really your worry, then go for a version of the Wolverine Diet where you sleep 8 hours a night and eat something every 3 hours for the remaining 16 that you're awake. I usually space out my meals/snacks to be every 2-4 hours and I swear there's plenty of times where I wind up eating and I'm not even all that hungry - but rather than waiting until I'm starving and make a really bad decision, I opt for the healthier choice.
FAT : I hear too many conflicting things from friends or experts or on the internet, I'm so confused by it all I don't know what's good and what isn't.
dB : Screw those idiots then. Most of em either don't know what they're talking about or are deeply compromised because they're trying to sell you something at the same time. There is no guaranteed one-way ticket to happiness here, folks. Losing weight is a long-term process that results from a healthy lifestyle of eating less and exercising more, not some sort of mad race to the finish whilst fasting. If you're doing it right, you are not on a diet, you're changing your life for good. I may have lost a lot of weight fairly quickly, but it's because I've dedicated myself to fundamental change and then stuck to my guns. Diets end. Lifestyles don't. Repeat that one, I like that.
FAT : It just doesn't seem possible, what with food portion sizes growing all the time and restaurants putting so much fat and salt in stuff like that...
dB : Do you REALLY need me to answer this...? I think the answer's pretty obvious - stop eating so much at restaurants. Restaurants are not in the business of keeping you healthy, they're in the business of making food taste better by adding more sugar, butter, salt, cheese, sour cream, mayo, etc. And they're in the business of making portion sizes appear to be a good value, so quite often what you get is far more than you should be eating. Even when you're ordering from one of the better places like Subway or your neighborhood deli, it's up to you to make the right choices on what to eat and what not to eat. This is not to say that you can't go eat at a restaurant once in a while, but understand that the more you do this, the slower your results will come. One decent rule I have heard is that if you wind up eating at these places on business a lot or because of friend/family commitments, then ask for a box before they even bring your food, stick half of what they give you in the box, and take it home for another day (thanks Ness). Or bring lunch with you to work if there's no places around to get healthy choices. This is up to you and your level of discipline.
FAT : Thanksgiving/Xmas/my birthday/my friend's party/whatever is coming up, I'll just ruin my diet then so why bother.
dB : Believe me, whatever special occasion you come up with for this excuse, there's going to be another one right around the corner so this needs to be addressed. And there is some cause to worry about this, because getting started with a good diet is all about forming routine, and nothing breaks up a routine faster than special events. Well I can't tell you to avoid your family and friends like I did with restaurants, so what I can tell you is - control your surroundings as much as you can. Make plans ahead of time as to what you will and won't eat, or how many drinks you'll have, etc., plan your entire day's menu around it, then stick to the plan. If you happen to go a little overboard, that's ok, it happens. Your job is to make sure you get back on the horse the next day and continue right on with a healthy life. There will always be parties and holidays, but you're not going to see very many more of them if you keep blowing up like a balloon. And another thing - you're going to give up THAT easy? I mean, crap, if I threw in the towel every time I screwed up and ate too much since March then I'd still be a major heifer. So you screwed up, so what. I ate a PB&J tonight I wasn't originally planning on because my stomach was growling like mad. Take a look at what I do tomorrow for exercise though, you'll see.
FAT : I'm too busy and stressed out to be worrying about this right now, I'll get to it later.
dB : Look, if I come off as grouchy or uncaring at times as regards the plight of the poor poor downtrodden miserable put-upon FAT people...then this is exactly why. I look back on the 15-20 years I spent as a FAT person and I'm disgusted with myself for letting it go on as long as I did. Not only for the health problems that I'm having to fight against now, but for the fact that I spent the vast portion of my prime years - my 20's and 30's - as an out-of-shape blimp. I mean, I have still had a really great life by all means - great kids, wonderful girlfriend, good friends, good music, good job, I own my own house, etc. etc. But believe me when I tell you, that every moment that you waste making excuses now is another moment you'll absolutely regret later. Do not waste that time, start living better NOW.
It's late, imply the deep-linking on your own or leave me some in comments :) Then come back here tomorrow for Part 2 about exercise.
Diet for Saturday 9/5/09:
Breakfast
- Fiber One Original 1 serving with 1/2 cup fat-free milk
- 4 oz. orange juice w/vitamins
- one big cup of coffee
- Two slices of wheat bread with yogurt spread
Lunch
- Turkey sandwich (dry) - wheat bread, 4 slices deli turkey, 1 slice fat-free cheese
- 3 large carrots, raw but peeled
- one 4 oz cup of Safeway applesauce, sweetened
Snack
- Synder's fat-free mini pretzels, 20 pieces
Dinner
- one 5-6 oz grilled salmon filet w/honey-mustard glaze
- One cup of cooked asparagus w/yogurt butter and garlic salt
- One baked potato with fat-free sour cream and low-fat shredded cheese
- one glass red wine
Dessert
- 1 cup Breyer's low-fat chocolate chocolate chip ice cream
Late-night (I was really hungry)
- one PB&J sandwich on wheat bread
Exercise for Saturday 9/5/09:
- 60 minutes of "soccer training" with the kids at a local school's soccer field - my oldest daughter starts soccer next week and I wanted to give her (and her younger sister) a crash course to get her ready; included running, kicking, dribbling the ball, corralling two little girls who didn't want to leave to go home and eat dinner
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