Losing Weight 2! (17)

You might find this that I posted on the @weightmanagement group helpful.

You need to be self-disciplined and determined to change your lifestyle and eating habits. The key is the word 'habit'; we all get too comfortable doing the same things, eating the same crap that we know is bad for us. Changing those habits makes it happen.

Good luck!

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
"You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk dancing." - Sir Arnold Bax

"Ladies and Gentlemen, To those among you, Who are easily frightened, We suggest you turn away now, To those of you, Who think you can take it, we say Welcome to the Mad House"

A key part of sticking to a healthy diet long term is to not wind up feeling starving hungry and cheat. So that's why you shouldn't skip breakfast, because if you do, your brain will focus on finding high calorie foods to make up the perceived deficit. Calorie for calorie, protein rich foods will stave off peckishness and hunger for longer than carb rich cereals (which is the real reason behind the success some have on Atkins)(And a point in favour of bacon and eggs, which is a bonus to me). Liquidising a meal and water, and eating it as a soup will keep you feeling full for longer than eating the same meal and drinking the water, because the liquid will stay in your stomach longer. A 90 minute spell of exercise will cause your body to keep burning fats for a full 24 hours afterwards (but four thirty second bursts of really intense exercise with rest between will deliver as much benefit to your hear and lungs if you can't fit in 90 mins. Three or four sessions of exercise a week will deliver most of the cardiovascular benefits of exercise every day, for a lower risk of injury. The small increases in exercise, such as standing instead of sitting, getting off the bus a stop early coming home, can tip the long term balance from slow weight gain to steady weight loss. Oh and your brain looks for a plate full of food, but will be as satisfied with a small full plate as a large one, so buy smaller plates. There was more.

The moral is, that the scientific understanding of weight and health is progressing in leaps and bounds, but most of the advice you get comes from people who have a good idea and never test it.

For myself, when I want to get things under control, I tend to start with exercise, because feeling a little fitter and more toned can improve your shape faster than weight loss, and make you feel more positive about yourself, which means that changes to your diet are more likely to be successful and stuck to.

Oh and I'm told an X-Box with Kinect beats exercise DVD's hands down when it comes to making exercise fun.

From Great Britain to Little Britain in one generation: Ozymandias was right.

So I play badminton regularly - wayyyyy more fun than exercise for exercise sake, and I used to cycle into work (6.5miles each way). Though at first I had to build up to it with only going half-way a couple of times a week, then all the way, then more days a week. This also saves loads of money unless you regularly spend lots on accessories and new parts for the bike. Maybe you work too far to cycle or walk the whole distance, but could you leave your car further afield or cycle/walk to the station.

As said earlier, practical/fun exercise is way more worthwhile and makes you feel better than other types. Oh, and is usually cheaper (badminton/squash/other physical sports aren't usually expensive to join a club, or find friends - maybe at work, to go play with). If you don't know of any clubs, google or try advertising for others/hunting on craigslist or gumtree in your town, or meetup.com has many groups in bigger towns for all sorts of activities.

I don't expect over night results. But hoping none are that severe that I will slip and give up. As I am still single and unattached, its only self to motivate me right now.

I wish anyone else with the same ambition all the best too.

There does seem to be a pretty worldwide consensus that people need a balanced diet with regular meals which are not processed foods and which contain enough protein but some particularly rough or brown carbohydrate but not in the massive quantities you see. At Christmas I think everyone in my family was amazed at the huge portions of carb served out at a relative's lunch. In the US we've ordered room service and the quantity has been for one enough for three. It's as if people lost a realistic view of what is a normal sized meal. I also think a lot of women don't eat enough protein and far too much refined carbohydrate.

I would never have imagined my taste buds could change but they did just through getting used to eating different foods.

xxRavenxx wrote: Lost another 1lb this week, coming off slowly and heading in the right direction