Those sweet words...
I have never really been overweight, but I have always gained kilos very quickly and always felt bloated for some reason. I have always been active, but there were times when I stopped because of traveling or injuries and then I noticed that I immediately eat more and consequently gain weight very quickly. After 50 I knew that I cannot slip up on my eating habits and exercise, so I had to make a drastic change in my eating habits. I did and the results are amazing. I always say that nothing tastes as sweet as a good compliment on your looks and suddenly I am hearing it again.
I am a serial binge eater, I love gassy drinks, love potato chips and will kill for chocolate. I used to drink 8 cups of coffee a day and was always walking around looking for something sweet. Bread is probably my worst enemy and with a wife that bakes our bread it is even harder to resist. One morning I woke up and decided enough is enough. I went on a drastic diet, but I don't want to call it a diet. I have changed my eating habits as part of an experiment to see what I will miss first and if I could have the determination to keep going. After nearly six weeks and 5 kilograms lighter I feel I have earned the right to write about my change. Here is what I did.
1) I stopped drinking everything except water. From 8 cups of coffee to "no thank you, I'll have water" has become the norm. Yes, I still smell the great smell of coffee and long for a cup now and then, but I had a sip the other day from my wife's cup and wondered why I drank so much coffee in my life. I can actually survive without that first cup in the morning.
2) I reduced my bread intake from half a loaf a day to one slice in the morning and one slice when the bread comes out of the oven. My wife does not bake every day, so I break my one-slice-a-day rule only every third day or so. Nowadays I take a fruit when I get hungry in between meals, instead of bread.
3) I reduced my breakfast from 2-3 slices of bread and 2-3 eggs, plus bacon every now and then, to only 1 slice of bread and one fried egg. Believe me, I appreciate my breakfast more than what I used to. Cereals are out and I don't like porridge anyway, so no sacrifice there. No cereal and no coffee also means that I don't use milk anymore. Dumping all dairy products came much easier than I expected because I love yogurt, ice-cream and who doesn't like a milkshake every now and then.
4) Lunch is still a challenge because I have to make lunch for the kids and it usually includes bread. My wife is kind enough to make soup which I heat up. Sometimes I might eat leftovers from the previous evening, but one thing I make sure of is that the helping is very small. I will rather have another fruit later on in the afternoon than stuff myself during lunch. Our main meal is usually in the evening, so I patiently wait for that.
5) One thing that saved me is the crusty nut cookies that my wife bakes. Filled with seeds and nuts it really helps when I start craving for something sweet. She reduced the butter and sugar in the recipe but it tastes just as good. So no guilt there. I eat about 2 or 3 of these snacks during the day.
6) In the evenings we eat a proper healthy balanced meal. My wife is an excellent cook and she prefers a healthy lifestyle herself. It is easy for me to get my food prepared in a healthy and tasty way. I am a huge meat lover, but that has changed too. I now eat a third of the meat portions I used to and double my vegetable portions. I still don't leave the table hungry, but I leave the table feeling less depressed and bloated. I believe that I get all the necessary nutrients that is needed for the body during the evening meals, I just changed the ratio of meat to vegetables.
The above I guess is the easy part. The hard part is saying no to all the things I love, chocolate, cold drink, coffee, beer, ice-cream, cake, sweets, chips (fries), bacon. This however is the "changing my eating habits" part. I still occasionally drink a beer (one beer a week), have ice-cream (one small portion a week), eat chocolate (one square block a week), etc, but I have it in very limited amounts. Really limited amounts. The good part of seeing how I lost weight motivates me to say no to all these things I used to devour on a daily basis.
I am not saying that this will change or work for everyone. You really have to be in the right state of mind in order to change your eating habits so drastically. What I have learned however is that I don't really need all the stuff I used to eat to feel good or energized. I actually feel great at the moment and I look great. I also don't feel guilty for tasting a small piece of chocolate because I have deserved the right to taste it and I actually appreciate the taste now. I am convinced now that you don't have to eat a whole slab to appreciate the taste.
The Xmas holiday season is ahead of us and I know it is going to be hard to resist all the sweet temptations, but I know now what it feels like to be healthy and to eat less. And as I said earlier, nothing tastes as sweet as those word...
Update!
It has now been 10 weeks on diet and I have lost 8 kg and reached my target weight which is 75. The diet was the easy part I would say, keeping me on 75 might be more difficult, especially with Xmas upon us. One thing I can honestly say is that I have really changed my eating habits and I am never hungry. I used to sit and think about food 20 minutes after a meal, now I never think about food anymore. I still eat enough, but I eat healthy. I have really made a whole mind shift about food and treats and I feel great. I have had so many compliments over the last couple of weeks, some even told me not to lose any more. I don't want to lose more, I just want to stay healthy. I sit with one problem however....all my clothes are falling off me!
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