monkey!

January 2, 2008

Going into the ring with Diet and beating it

It’s the new year, and for many their new years resolution is to lose weight. It’s hard to lose weight for a lot of people, and it takes a lot of dedication and commitment, but it can be done without too much hassle.

About 2 years ago, I lost 50 pounds in about half a year. I initially lost it really fast because I went on a very strict diet, but it slowed down and I finally evened out at a now healthy 160 pounds. It wasn’t easy initially, but once I got into it, it felt like normal.

With this new year, Miranda wants to go on a diet and lose some weight. She had the idea in about December but it’s pointless to begin a diet during Christmas, even I ate a ton of sugar! We’ve decided to both go on a Yeast-free diet, which are very good post-Christmas due to all the sugar/cookies/cakes you had which has built up in your system.

Miranda’s goal is to lose 20 pounds by February 20th, in which I will get a nipple ring for her if she does (I am an idiot, I know). My goal is to simply stay on the diet, and help her out. I will be cooking most of the meals and trying my best to keep her full and happy without sugar, bread, milk and all those other goodies.

With that in mind, here’s some tips I learned from my own weight loss a few years ago that I found helpful (Some are probably common sense!)

• Help is the number one motivator you can get. If you have someone with you doing the diet, then you will feel much better. When I was on my diet, I lived with my parents and my mom did a lot of work to research foods I could eat and cook me delicious meals. It’s how I discovered the joy of Sushi.
• A diet need not be bland. When I was dieting, I had no sugar (Except Brown only later on) for about 6 months. Not a single teaspoon. However, after I dropped the initial cravings it was no problem. I learned of all new kinds of delicious foods like Sushi, Sweet Potato, Risotto, and all sorts of things.
• Never be hungry. You may feel hungry initially if you’re used to snacking all the time but if you provide yourself with big wholesome meals and snack on some fruit and/or veggies throughout the day you are golden. You do not want to be going to bed starving.
• Get in a routine and follow it. I had Sushi every friday, it was way more calories then I needed but it was filling and I loved it. I would go out once a week for some nice restaurant food (After my initial detox). It’s slightly expensive to go out every week, but it was nice and I could afford it.
• If you’re not enjoying it, adjust your diet so you can. This is a diet you will have for the rest of your life. You need to follow something that you don’t mind keeping. For me, I have dropped Bread and Dairy from my diet and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t need them, I don’t crave them. If you can drop Pop from your diet, that’s already a big step.

Hopefully those few tips helped. I love helping people with diets and working things out so drop me a line if you’d like some help. I’m now off to the grocery market to buy about a weeks worth of delicious meats, veggies and fruits for us.