When I tell people I've lost over 50 pounds, and did the bulk of it in about 4 months, I get asked how I managed to do it. Oddly enough when I tell people what I did the immediate response from them is "Well that's not healthy", "That's not how they say to do it" (I've always wondered who "they" were anyway). I basically have people telling me that my method to losing all the weight won't work and can't work despite the fact that it actually did work. Hmmm... weird.
So as I re-enter the dieting lifestyle, I thought I would share with my readers what I did, what I'm trying to do, and what All Powerful and Holy Dieting Rules I broke along the way.
Myth #1- You absolutely must force yourself to eat something for breakfast no matter what because it kick starts your metabolism, brightens your day, causes the sun to shine upon your face and without breakfast you'll be a miserable husk of an individual.
Truth- Some of us out there just simply aren't hungry in the morning, and if you're not hungry you shouldn't eat. My diet is simple: eat 1500 calories a day. So why would I waste some of those precious calories eating something I don't feel like eating? I'd rather slug down a few cups of coffee (very low-cal by the way) and call it a morning.
As for the metabolism business... yes eating in the morning does kick-start your metabolism, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Ask anyone who generally doesn't eat breakfast what happens when they grab a morning bite. 2 hours later they are hungry... crazy hungry... like starving grizzly bear hungry. When your metabolism gets revved up it's like a fire you constantly have to add wood too. That's great if you happen to carry a small supermarket with you, but some of us have lives and need to do that pesky work thing. That brings me to another myth.
Myth #2- You need to eat little bitty tiny meals every couple hours throughout the day. That keeps your metabolism up and will magically somehow burn more calories for you then eating a traditional 2-3 meals per day.
Truth- This is damn near impossible for anyone with a life to do every day. We are busy, we're in meetings, we're on the road, we're getting stuff done. Many of us don't get little snack breaks every couple hours and if we do, we don't have time to prepare some avacado-kale-quail egg wrap that Dr. Oz swears is the latest breakthrough in weight-loss technology.
Every day during the work week I would pack a lunch that was somewhere between 400-600 calories. You would be surprised how much food that can be. A sandwich, a yogurt and a couple pieces of fruit will run you about 500 calories depending on your sandwich fillings. That leaves you 900-1000 calories for a dinner, which is a lot of food... and that's good because by dinner time I'm very hungry. Hmm... weird, I eat a lot of food when I'm actually hungry... how revolutionary. Dinner? A meat of some sort, a potato and some veggies/a salad.
Myth #3- But... but... Dave... potatoes are starches and starches are full of carbs and carbs are the devil so you'll go to Hell and burn for all eternity if you eat potatoes!
Truth- Have you ever looked at the calorie information on a bag of potatoes? Did you know that a whole Russet potato has just 110 calories? Did you know if you slice that potato thin, spray a little olive oil on the slices and throw those slices in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes they come out looking and tasting like french fries? You're welcome America.
The beauty of my diet is the simplicity of it. I only look at the calorie content. Not the fiber, fat, or the poly-moly-unsaturated-sodium-globbules content. Just calories. And a weird thing happens when you do that. I like eating a large amount of food, so I started looking for foods that were low in calories... and guess what? Foods low in calories also pretty much low in everything else bad for you. So make life easy, just focus on one number and let everything else fall into place.
Myth #4- Going to the gym is a great way to lose weight because you run around and sweat and lift heavy things and other people there certainly look skinny to me.
Ah yes, this was a myth I lived by for years. And there I was, a 260 pound lard ass going to the gym every day and wondering why I was still a 260 pound lard ass. When I lost 50 pounds in 4 months do you know how many trips to the gym I made? None. Zippity-doo-dah. Absolute zero. Working out is good for you, it builds muscle tone and the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn. But if you think a workout will counteract that burger, fries and two beers you consumed last night... get used to being a 260 pound lard ass.
I use one of those little FitBit devices. It stays in my pocket and it tracks how many calories I burn throughout the day. How many calories do you think a 1-hour workout burns? 1500? 1000? 800? Try about 500, and that's if a large amount of your time is dedicated to cardio. That's two slices of pizza. That's less than a Big Mac. In short, working out is a good thing, but it shouldn't be the center of your dieting universe.
Myth #5- Weighing yourself every day is stupid because it crushes your spirit, it's incredibly demoralizing and you'll become a sad, pathetic individual with suicidal tendencies if you do it.
Yes I weigh myself every day. Why? A couple reasons actually. For starters, when you begin a diet like this you will tend to lose weight quickly. So weighing yourself every day becomes fun and exciting. Half a pound today, quarter pound tomorrow, maybe a full pound on Tuesday. Every day you see yourself getting a little smaller and it motivates you. You start your day feeling positive, and it drives you to keep doing what you're doing. Plus, knowing you will weigh yourself in the morning tends to curb those late night snacks that send a diet downhill in a hurry. Those of you that weigh yourself weekly, let me ask you: What do you do the night before your weigh in? Is it in the back of your mind during dinner? Dessert? Yeah I thought so.
So there it is folks. Eat 1500 calories of something (truly doesn't matter what) during the day (truly doesn't matter when). Stay as active as possible but don't go running a daily marathon. 60 minutes of mowing your lawn and weeding is just as effective as 60 minutes in the gym. And celebrate your progress no matter how small. Every time you lose a pound, go to the supermarket and pick up a pound of ground beef and realize that is no longer attached to you anymore.
Go ahead. Tell me it won't work.
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