Yesterday's post, DON'T LISTEN TO LOSERS, LISTEN TO MAINTAINERS! was a good reminder of what ensures successful and permanent weight-loss. I couldn't agree more with the experts. I am a person who never, ever, ate breakfast, not unless you count Saturday mornings where I was sure to make up for the entire week with my insane-stack of panckakes, double eggs, and a pound of breakfast meat. Somehow there were no reported benefits from that meal.
I now eat breakfast everyday. It sometimes comes a bit later in the morning as I still struggle to get an early start, but I make sure that my first meal of the day resembles breakfast and not dinner. I lived a lifetime of rolling out of bed, heading off to school or work, and not seeing a morsel of food until lunch, and most days, not until dinner. I never understood why I was fat despite going almost an entire day without a single calorie. It took me getting here to learn how valuable a morning meal is.
REPEAT AFTER ME: "STARVATION NEVER EQUALS WEIGHT LOSS!"
Anyone who doubts this is welcome to take a look at my pics as posted in DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!
Attempting weight-loss without exercise is futile! Banish the thought! I am telling you, I have tried it every which way. Trying to lose weight, maintain weight, or have a body you are even just semi-proud of, is an impossibility without exercise. Period! In fact, I will take it one step further and say, not just exercise, but also weight training! While weight training did not get a mention yesterday, there is plenty of research to support the notion. Did you ever see those fat skinny people?! They do not exercise or weight train! They may smoke. They may be light eaters. They may have great genetics and metabolism, but they are fat-skinny for a reason!
The changes in diet are a must as well. Even chronic exercise, as I've done that too, will not get you all the way there without proper diet and portion control. I find the more you exercise and weight train, the more lead-way you have with diet and portion control. It seems fairly proportionate.
Finally the advice to remove barriers, plan, track, and monitor progress is equally important. If everyone spent as much time figuring out how they COULD do something, as they spend complaining about how they CAN'T, we'd all be in better shape. I have a close friend who reminds me of that every single time I produce an objection. He says ever so calmly, "Jennifer, let's talk about how we CAN make this happen, not how we can't!" For that one phrase alone I will be indebted.
As for my monitoring practices, I weight myself daily. I know that can be a bit obsessive and also damaging if you are not mentally equipped to deal with the day-to-day fluctuations, but I also have gained five pounds in a day before. Until my weight becomes more stable, I will keep a close watch. I check measurements monthly and have a body fat scale that you will be hearing more about in the future.
As for calorie counting and food journals I find it useful, but impractical in terms of time. I have a pretty good head for calorie counts. Years of dieting and being overweight has given me a built-in calculator. When I am adding something new to my diet or engaging in a luxury item I may be forced to check, but otherwise I naturally know my limits. As for the extra small plates, I've been known to stack food when necessary, so unless I want food spilling over the sides onto my clean surfaces I stick with the standard size and just make sure that I can see some white on my porcelain dinner plate. If you don't know what color plate you're eating off, you are having too much food!! I use food journals when I get too far off track. Old habits die hard. When the amount of food and frequency of eating is creeping up, I whip out the food journal just to anchor myself.
I will continue with this discussion and actually get to my own personal techniques next post. Thanks for your patience!
“To lengthen your life, shorten your meals.” ~Proverb
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