Dieting, from my own perspective
First off, I am by no means a diet expert. I'm just your average Joe who lives a semi average life.
I have been reflecting on my diet (if one can truly call it that) since I started back on June 9th, 2012.
The last time I tried to diet was when I was doing Power 90 (aka P90, the precursor for P90X). During that time I followed their diet ideas and such and spent a god awful amount of time attempting to follow it.
I was on the fence. I liked it but I didn't. I was honestly not happy and miserable a lot of the time. Needless to say I ended up gaining more weight over time. Until it became a whopping 206lbs...
After having blood work done for my age (yah, I'm old) I was told I had a high amount of cholesterol. I was offered to take pills to deal with it. I asked myself, do I really want to be dependent on such things? That weekend (June 9th) I decided it was time to see if I could change that.
I reflected on my previous 'dieting', as mentioned above. That didn't work. I was miserable because I didn't want to do that but I liked the idea of taking pills even less.
Interestingly enough I took a different plan of approach to it: portion control and choice selections. Kind of like a "Eat This Not That" view.
August 9th will mark 2 months that I've been doing portion control and choice selections.
Instead of having a Subway Club with cheese, I changed to a Subway Turkey/Ham with no cheese. Instead of having southwest dressing (chipotle?) on the sub, I opted for Spicy Brown Mustard.
1) Footlong Subway Club with Provolone cheese and SW sauce
- 900 Calories
- 10g Saturated Fat
- 37g Total Fat
- 115mg Cholesterol
- 2440mg Sodium
2) Footlong Subway Turkey/Ham with no cheese and Spicy Brown Mustard
- 550 Calories
- 2g Saturated Fat
- 9g Total Fat
- 40mg Cholesterol
- 1880mg Sodium
See the difference a few little choices can make? Switching to the second sandwich, I cut this much from the change:
- 350 Calories
- 8g Saturated Fat
- 28g Total Fat
- 75mg Cholesterol
- 560mg Sodium
All that cut out from just one sandwich...
I took this under portion control as I was use to eat footlongs all the time. I worked slowly down to eating half that at a time and then coming back 3-4 hours later and finishing the last half. It took a bit of mind work but I got use to it. Now? I can still eat that footlong but my stomach will complain if I do. :P
I order footlongs all the time still. I eat half and save the half for later, essentially spreading out my calorie intake total for the day.
But this made me compare this way of dieting to my old way. In the old diet I hated it, suffered, and was feeling blah all the time. Diets should be enjoyable, not a chore (that's just my view and opinion).
I have housemates I live with who are bigger than me and they eat a lot. Their lifestyle isn't the best. To make matters worse they are diet yo-yoers. Meaning that they diet really hard by starving themselves and eating salads for the duration then go right back to what they were doing after its over... regaining all that lost weight and then some. This is especially true of one of my roommates who does that stupid "no/low carb diet". It's great because yah... he loses weight while doing it. Then he regains it all very quickly the minute he stops doing the diet.
So I have to say this... portion control yourselves. Don't start and crash/yoyo diet like so many do. You'll fail. Why? Because most only look at the diet as a temporary thing. Do it for a few weeks or a few months and then back to their normal eating habits. Flush goes all that work.
Think of it this way: Is all the food you're eating while on your diet going to stay with you after you diet? Will you continue to eat that way for the rest of your life? If not, then you shouldn't be doing it because you will only keep yoyo-ing your weight up and down.
I plan to keep my weight to a set standard. This is why I went this way during this current phase. Do I plan to keep eating as I do after all this? Hell yah! The trick again is portion control. Will I always eat this way? Nope. As I've stated in previous blogs, I still do AYCE days, I still gorge past 2200 calories during happy hours, and I still drink beer/alcohol.
The thing is, I do all of those things in moderation. I still enjoy all the foods I use to, but I don't partake as much as I use to. If that makes sense.
I'm happy in my life. I'm eating what I want (within reason) and enjoying it as I go.
These results were not easy. I still struggle with temptations. I live in a house hold that eats huge. They eat all manner of stuff that I really use to enjoy but can't as much as I use to.
There are times I'm hungry late night and want to eat. I have in fact eaten a few times late at night, but again it was choices I made that effect such. Instead of making a late night run to Carls Jr or a donut shop, I ate a bowl of multi-grain cheerios. :P
I'm still working hard at reaching my goal of 185lbs even with all this. I hope others someday read this and become inspired to make small changes to their life/lifestyle instead of doing crash yo/yo diets like seems to be the fad.
I have been reflecting on my diet (if one can truly call it that) since I started back on June 9th, 2012.
The last time I tried to diet was when I was doing Power 90 (aka P90, the precursor for P90X). During that time I followed their diet ideas and such and spent a god awful amount of time attempting to follow it.
I was on the fence. I liked it but I didn't. I was honestly not happy and miserable a lot of the time. Needless to say I ended up gaining more weight over time. Until it became a whopping 206lbs...
After having blood work done for my age (yah, I'm old) I was told I had a high amount of cholesterol. I was offered to take pills to deal with it. I asked myself, do I really want to be dependent on such things? That weekend (June 9th) I decided it was time to see if I could change that.
I reflected on my previous 'dieting', as mentioned above. That didn't work. I was miserable because I didn't want to do that but I liked the idea of taking pills even less.
Interestingly enough I took a different plan of approach to it: portion control and choice selections. Kind of like a "Eat This Not That" view.
August 9th will mark 2 months that I've been doing portion control and choice selections.
Instead of having a Subway Club with cheese, I changed to a Subway Turkey/Ham with no cheese. Instead of having southwest dressing (chipotle?) on the sub, I opted for Spicy Brown Mustard.
1) Footlong Subway Club with Provolone cheese and SW sauce
- 900 Calories
- 10g Saturated Fat
- 37g Total Fat
- 115mg Cholesterol
- 2440mg Sodium
2) Footlong Subway Turkey/Ham with no cheese and Spicy Brown Mustard
- 550 Calories
- 2g Saturated Fat
- 9g Total Fat
- 40mg Cholesterol
- 1880mg Sodium
See the difference a few little choices can make? Switching to the second sandwich, I cut this much from the change:
- 350 Calories
- 8g Saturated Fat
- 28g Total Fat
- 75mg Cholesterol
- 560mg Sodium
All that cut out from just one sandwich...
I took this under portion control as I was use to eat footlongs all the time. I worked slowly down to eating half that at a time and then coming back 3-4 hours later and finishing the last half. It took a bit of mind work but I got use to it. Now? I can still eat that footlong but my stomach will complain if I do. :P
I order footlongs all the time still. I eat half and save the half for later, essentially spreading out my calorie intake total for the day.
But this made me compare this way of dieting to my old way. In the old diet I hated it, suffered, and was feeling blah all the time. Diets should be enjoyable, not a chore (that's just my view and opinion).
I have housemates I live with who are bigger than me and they eat a lot. Their lifestyle isn't the best. To make matters worse they are diet yo-yoers. Meaning that they diet really hard by starving themselves and eating salads for the duration then go right back to what they were doing after its over... regaining all that lost weight and then some. This is especially true of one of my roommates who does that stupid "no/low carb diet". It's great because yah... he loses weight while doing it. Then he regains it all very quickly the minute he stops doing the diet.
So I have to say this... portion control yourselves. Don't start and crash/yoyo diet like so many do. You'll fail. Why? Because most only look at the diet as a temporary thing. Do it for a few weeks or a few months and then back to their normal eating habits. Flush goes all that work.
Think of it this way: Is all the food you're eating while on your diet going to stay with you after you diet? Will you continue to eat that way for the rest of your life? If not, then you shouldn't be doing it because you will only keep yoyo-ing your weight up and down.
I plan to keep my weight to a set standard. This is why I went this way during this current phase. Do I plan to keep eating as I do after all this? Hell yah! The trick again is portion control. Will I always eat this way? Nope. As I've stated in previous blogs, I still do AYCE days, I still gorge past 2200 calories during happy hours, and I still drink beer/alcohol.
The thing is, I do all of those things in moderation. I still enjoy all the foods I use to, but I don't partake as much as I use to. If that makes sense.
I'm happy in my life. I'm eating what I want (within reason) and enjoying it as I go.
These results were not easy. I still struggle with temptations. I live in a house hold that eats huge. They eat all manner of stuff that I really use to enjoy but can't as much as I use to.
There are times I'm hungry late night and want to eat. I have in fact eaten a few times late at night, but again it was choices I made that effect such. Instead of making a late night run to Carls Jr or a donut shop, I ate a bowl of multi-grain cheerios. :P
I'm still working hard at reaching my goal of 185lbs even with all this. I hope others someday read this and become inspired to make small changes to their life/lifestyle instead of doing crash yo/yo diets like seems to be the fad.