Originally Posted by
jenrick
A good friend of my is professional sports nutritionist, and he gave me some great advice.
Most people are able to completely change their diet for a week to 2 weeks without any problems. After that it usually falls apart, folks who are significantly above a healthy weight can usually keep it together for a month or 2. Usually until they hit their first plateua, then it seems as though the dieting and deprivation has done all it can, and the diet again falls apart. Changes in eating behavior need to be made in an incremental manner, that allow a gradual permanent change in eating habits. Start with simply choosing a "healthier option," please note that this is not to be confused with a "healthy option." A person who has poor eating habits can make themselves eat green vegetables for a week or two, but life usually intrudes and the double bacon cheeseburger at Wendys is suddenly the choice for lunch again. A "healthier option" is choosing something that is better for you then what you would normally get, it doesn't have to be "healthy" just better then your normal choice.
When I started doing this lunch normally consisted of a Bacon Double Cheeseburger, large fries, large diet drink. The "healthier option" wasn't a salad and yogurt, I'd have managed to do that for a few days before going back to my old habits. The "healthier option" would be a regular bacon cheeseburger and medium fries, or possibly a double cheeseburger with no bacon and medium fries. Go down a combo size, skip the bacon/cheese/mayo on an item, etc. Soon the "healthier option" becomes your normal choice. Now go for the "healthier option" from this new normal, a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a cheeseburger, etc. Eventually you'll eat healthy, and you'll have established a permanent pattern of healthy eating.
Trying to do too much too fast is the biggest problem people have. Gradual long term, but permanent changes are the best option. It might a year or two to go from a Bacon double supersize combo to a grilled chicken breast and fruit. So what? No one wakes up with an extra 200 lbs on their body, so it's unreasonable to expect to drop all the weight in the short term as well. Eat better every day, and eventually the weight will come off and never come back.
-Jenrick
Yep, been doing all this since mid-December, and have lost ~10% of my starting-point body weight.
Eating healthier (it's a very subtle but very effective strategy) has been combined with an increased activity level compared with what was happening before that. I don't feel deprived, and there is still some "bad" food in the mix.
Another trick is to look at the kids' menu... the sizes are proportionally smaller when compared with the adult servings... and cheaper, too.
I am confident of keeping on going and losing ~20% or more of my starting-point body weight because (a) the small adjustments to my food intake will continue, (b) the weight is coming off slowly -- yes, there has even been a plateau that I have progressed through -- and (c) my output or activity is about to ramp up again.