Okay, you want to do it… but it is too hard… I agree! But, it was time to do it – so I took the bull by the horns and did it - well I am 30 pounds into my 50 pound goal. So, what did I do? Let me tell you and maybe it can help you too…
1. First, examine your current medications. Bet you didn’t expect this? No one puts this on the list but this was HUGE for me! I didn’t know I was on meds that cause weight gain!! If you do NOTHING, you gain weight just from taking these meds! So look at all your medications and their side effects – is weight gain a side effect? If it is, is there an alternative medication you can take? Sometimes YOU have to do the research here – doctors don’t always know all the options. I took it upon myself to look at my meds and find replacements and then went to my doctor.
2. Can you TAKE a medication that encourages weight loss? Some meds such as Topamax and Wellbutrin can help people lose weight – will your doctor let you try one or both of these (or something else) in the short term while you try to lose weight?
3. Step on the scale – first thing in the morning without any clothes on – you will only weigh yourself this way each time you weigh yourself, you can’t compare your weight at different times of day, with and without clothes, and on different scales – ONE scale, ONE time of day, NO clothes. Write down your weight.
4. Now, the hard part – go into your pantry and throw away any snacks you love to eat. Find out what the rest of your family likes that you don’t really like that much and start only buying those snacks – if you need to buy something to lock up snacks and only let others in the family have the combination – now for YOU – you will not be going without… you may have some goodies – you need to write down what you like and the serving size and the number of calories of what you like. Select 4 snacks that have the largest serving size with the smallest calories – or something that you can eat in small bites – like hersey kisses – but you have to be able to stop yourself at just 1 or 2 – it is just going to be a taste. Low carb ice cream is great! Buy some with some frozen fruit for on top. You can have a half cup of that with fruit or Sunmaid Chocolate Covered Raisins – a quarter cup is a lot and only 120 calories! Great treat and tastes like pure chocolate!
5. Next, figure out breakfast. You need to eat breakfast (it is a MUST) and it must be 110-150 calories. Something like a bowl of cereal is good or maybe some yummy flavored oatmeal. Once in a while you can have an Egg Mcmuffin from McDonalds and even once every other week, you can have a couple pancakes. If you eat more calories for breakfast, though, you need to eat less later or no treats that day. Figure it out, make a plan – KNOW the calories, you have to COUNT your calories every day in the beginning or this WILL NOT WORK. After a while, you can guess and you will just know how to stay under but not a first. Plan on 110-150 calories for breakfast, everyday.
6. You are free to have healthy (read veggies or fruit here) snacks when you need them, you should not really need a snack between breakfast and lunch but if you do, go for some fruit or something. Now lunch – here you can plan on having a normal lunch – just watch the portion control and check the calories. You can NO LONGER EAT ANY FAST FOOD! No french fries (EVER), no McDonalds, or Arby’s but feel free to get a small Subway or half a sandwhich at Boston Market, even a small portion (read SMALL here) of Nachos with Chicken (heavy on the chicken, light on the chips). At home, you can make yourself a sandwhich or even a small bowl of pasta (yes, you can eat pasta, just keep it small – it is better to put a hearty meat sauce on it so you can go light on the noodles and get filled up). You need to count your lunch calories. Use the computer (Loseit.com or other sites) to estimate the calories. Check before you put it in your mouth.
7. Before dinner, if you are hungry get a small snack of no more than 100 calories – eat whatever you want – just keep it to 100 calories – they have bags of 100 calorie cookies, so eat away if you like cookies.
8. Dinner -Now add up what you have eaten for the day so you know what you have left to “spend” on dinner. Use a site that can estimate how many calories you need for your height and weight and then you will subtract about 500 to lose weight from that. Choose sedentary exercise because face it, most of us are not exercising much. Different sites will say different things, so take an average or better yet, go with the lowest to be safe. I had to stay with 1500 but I tried to go under when I could. As you lose weight, you will need to decrease that number so it won’t stay at the value you started at. Dinner should be a meat, veggie, and if you like a SMALL starch. Although it doesn’t have to be if you prefer more veggies and such but try to eat more meat and veggies and not a lot of starches at dinner. If you want carbs, have them at your lunch. Once a week (or less), you can have a special all carb dinner (like pasta) but not on regular basis, it will be too many calories. Find out your number and determine your calorie count. You will estimate servings, it doesn’t have to be an exact science. I don’t worry about counting too many calories for meat and veggies – just the other stuff. Don’t make this into “counting” is too hard so I don’t want to do it – use a website and just estimate. It is easier than you think. You get 1 helping, not 2 helpings. You take small portions of the “bad” stuff like mashed potatoes.
9. Now it is the end of the day, you know what your ballpark number is, if you were careful, you saved some room for an after dinner treat or a bonus to your weight. You choose – you can either have that after dinner treat (which we talked about – it must keep you under your max number of calories and you CANNOT go back for more) or you can choose to lose weight faster by foregoing the treat that night, knowing it will be there as an option the next night.
DRINKS: No calories allowed in drinks AT ALL! EVER!
Here is a typical day for me:
Breakfast: Bowl of Special K with Berries 110 calories (I don’t like milk, eat it dry)
Lunch: Half Boston Market Sandwich: 480 calories
Snack: Chocolate Sunmaid Raisins (1/4 cup): 120 calories
Dinner: Chicken, Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes: 600 calories
Total : 1310 calories >> Choose either 1/2 cup Low Carb Ice Cream with raspberries to finish off my calories or skip and get the Bonus
Weight Loss: Expect about 1 pound per week
However: There is a good chance you will lose more than that in the beginning. I lost 6 pounds a month in the beginning and now am averaging 4-5 per month
You may hit a plateau… there is a way to deal with that… but that is for another day…
Once you get the ball rolling and start seeing the weight go down, you will be more motivated to continue – plus you get used to it. Also, this assumes NO EXERCISE. If you add exercise, it will increase the weight loss. Try it for 2 weeks. In 2 weeks, if you can stick to it and go down (hopefully) 2 pounds per week – you always lose more when you first start – and can drop 4 pounds, you should know that you CAN do it. You WILL get used to it. You can “take time off” and put yourself in a “holding pattern” when needed. I did this at Christmas – for 2 weeks I ate “poorly” – put on some pounds but then jumped back on and short term weight comes RIGHT OFF like magic! It is wonderful. As long as you don’t leave it on there… then it is harder…