#1
Posted: 11/27/07 at 9:27am
Happy Holidays my BWW friends.
I want to share with you ladies and gents my tips for dropping a nifty 50 pounds in 5-6 months. Before I start I want all of you to know that it's not easy and you gotta want it! I had been out of work for over a year and when I was ready to go back none of my uniform pieces fit. I decided to give myself two months to start losing some weight before I ordered bigger pants and jackets.
The first thing I did was to cut evening snacks. How many of us go to bed with a full belly? I know I did. I would eat/snack every night and then go to bed while chewing my last bite. It wasn't easy and there were more than a few nights that I woke up at two in the morning and grabbed any food I could find, eat it and then go right back to bed.
The important thing is to identify the "triggers" that stimulate the "overeating." For me it was evening TV watching. I stopped watching TV after eight in the evening. I DVR'd everything I liked and saw it while having breakfast the next day.
Breakfast. That was also a trigger for me. The bigger the breakfast, the hungrier I was for the rest of the day. I used portion control for my breakfast meal. Usually a Wasa(TM) cracker with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a banana, coffee, grapefruit juice(which I like) and 2-3 glasses of water.
For lunch and dinner I had a large salad w/ a little bit of dressing and some sort of protein. Canned tuna, salmon, chicken or Tilapia. Dinner always included a veggie (broccoli, spinach or brussel sprouts) and half a sweet potato or yam.
Finally, I did eliminate most of my comfort food. Now to be very clear, comfort food for me was punishment food. It was stuff I would put in my body that I knew was bad for me and that's the purpose it served. If I was down and I wanted to stay depressed, I'd buy a couple of pints(?) of Ben & Jerry ice cream and a bag of Utz chips. I eliminated all of it. My evening snack was water and a diet Pepsi.
That takes care of my diet. The second part of my weight loss involved exercise. I had gained so much weight and been so sedentary that I had forgotten how to walk. Oh sure I could walk around the house but when I went for my first exercise walk I felt like an 80 year old man. My walking wasn't an easy stride. I felt every step and every part of my lower body bothered me. But i continued to walk. Every day for as long as I could and by the end of the first month I was walking 30-45 minutes a day.
The process was slow but I did see results little by little.
I feel great. Not always of course but now it's not because of my weight or my lack of energy.
And the reason all of this benefited my BWW family...I have less time to contribute badly written, unapologetic and less than contrite posts.
Happy Holidays again and know that I love being here with you and chatting about the folks who live on the hill.
I want to share with you ladies and gents my tips for dropping a nifty 50 pounds in 5-6 months. Before I start I want all of you to know that it's not easy and you gotta want it! I had been out of work for over a year and when I was ready to go back none of my uniform pieces fit. I decided to give myself two months to start losing some weight before I ordered bigger pants and jackets.
The first thing I did was to cut evening snacks. How many of us go to bed with a full belly? I know I did. I would eat/snack every night and then go to bed while chewing my last bite. It wasn't easy and there were more than a few nights that I woke up at two in the morning and grabbed any food I could find, eat it and then go right back to bed.
The important thing is to identify the "triggers" that stimulate the "overeating." For me it was evening TV watching. I stopped watching TV after eight in the evening. I DVR'd everything I liked and saw it while having breakfast the next day.
Breakfast. That was also a trigger for me. The bigger the breakfast, the hungrier I was for the rest of the day. I used portion control for my breakfast meal. Usually a Wasa(TM) cracker with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a banana, coffee, grapefruit juice(which I like) and 2-3 glasses of water.
For lunch and dinner I had a large salad w/ a little bit of dressing and some sort of protein. Canned tuna, salmon, chicken or Tilapia. Dinner always included a veggie (broccoli, spinach or brussel sprouts) and half a sweet potato or yam.
Finally, I did eliminate most of my comfort food. Now to be very clear, comfort food for me was punishment food. It was stuff I would put in my body that I knew was bad for me and that's the purpose it served. If I was down and I wanted to stay depressed, I'd buy a couple of pints(?) of Ben & Jerry ice cream and a bag of Utz chips. I eliminated all of it. My evening snack was water and a diet Pepsi.
That takes care of my diet. The second part of my weight loss involved exercise. I had gained so much weight and been so sedentary that I had forgotten how to walk. Oh sure I could walk around the house but when I went for my first exercise walk I felt like an 80 year old man. My walking wasn't an easy stride. I felt every step and every part of my lower body bothered me. But i continued to walk. Every day for as long as I could and by the end of the first month I was walking 30-45 minutes a day.
The process was slow but I did see results little by little.
I feel great. Not always of course but now it's not because of my weight or my lack of energy.
And the reason all of this benefited my BWW family...I have less time to contribute badly written, unapologetic and less than contrite posts.
Happy Holidays again and know that I love being here with you and chatting about the folks who live on the hill.
Click on my profile and watch Chita Rivera "Put On A Happy Face"
Updated On: 11/27/07 at 09:27 AM
