As for myself, I've broken below 240 -- the scale said 239 this morning, and after hovering around 241 for the past five days, it seems like a major victory.
Was it the pastrami sandwich? The ice cream sunday? The big bowl of popcorn while watching Serenity?
I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess, I'd guess in was a lot of small meals scattered throughout the day, combined with regular exercise. I feel like I'm treading familiar ground. I've been heavy ever since I put on 50 pounds when I was 18, bulking up from my high school weight of 135 to a hefty 185 in a single year, and have done most of the diet and exercise things available.
I did the jogging thing, the swimming thing (that actually worked pretty well, but I had a pool a block from the office and could take long lunches) the weight lifting thing, the membership in the gym and ymca thing, the push up/sit up/deep knee bend thing, the long walk thing.
I did fad diets, lifestyle adjustment diets (giving up sugared coffee was worth 20 pounds), fasting (a ten day fast gives one an interesting perspective on food), high carb diet, low carb diet, low fat diet, high fat diet, reduced calorie diet, calories don't count diet, balanced nutrient diet, vegetarian soup diet, high protein diet, yo-yo diet.
What I found works is taking one from column A and one from column B. Lets face it, folks, it's not an either or proposition, you have to do both.
The good news is, if you do both, you don't have to make major sacrifices to your lifestyle or schedule with either.
My current diet, other than six meals a day, revolves around stuff I like to eat anyway, just smaller portions. With six meals a day, smaller portions is not a problem. I wasn't kidding about the ice cream sunday, the popcorn and the pastrami sandwich.
My current exercise routine is rowing, three times a week, for twenty minutes. I plan to add some weight lifting later on, and will probably wind up alternating weight training or rowing with rest days.
In six weeks I've lost 11 pounds, my blood pressure has dropped to the "Pre-Hypertension" range rather than the "Stage 1" range I was in six weeks ago, and my resting heart rate is in the low 60s instead of the high 60s.
Now for the recipe section:
Well, everything tastes better with little bubbles in it. Sometimes my small meal consists of a protein shake, which is a quarter to a half cup of milk or orange juice, a scoop of protein powder, a teaspoon of ground chocolate powder and a teaspoon of almond butter or peanut butter, all blended together into a big frothy mess. Now, that tastes ok, and it does have some bubbles in it from the blending up stage, but what really puts it over the tasty top is the last step: add half a cup of cold fizzy mineral water!
What's on your minds and bodies today?
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