Weight Loss Dieting Tips Blog

After the last change in diet, I knew after what I learned about refined white flour that the next big item on my regular menu to be consigned to the "no more" list was going to have to be white bread. That was something I was really not looking forward to. I had grown up with the stuff. Sandwiches, buns and all manner of tasty things in breadcrumbs are what kids eat and we keep eating them into adulthood and carry it on into obesity-hood! Therefore, I was putting this one off for a long time and because of that, it stalled my progress quite substantially.

I intended to make the change after four weeks of no pasta, but it dragged on to another eight weeks until I couldn't put it off no more. But as usual, I couldn't go through life knowing I could not eat bread ever again. That was just too severe and I wanted to still be able to enjoy some food, or even most food that I always enjoyed. So I compromised.

Wholegrain Bread

I knew that refined white flour was high on the Glycemic Index scale of carbs and I knew that anything that was high was going to be something that I would have to omit from my diet. But I read that wholegrain bread was lower on the GI scale and because it contains the whole grain, including the all-important bran part of the wheat, it was much healthier to eat than its white, bleached and nutritionally devoid cousin.

Let me fill you in on what I learned here. Wholegrain bread, which is sometimes also called wholemeal or whole wheat bread is high in dietary fiber, which means it is good for your colon in helping your body to eliminate waste more efficiently. This is good, especially considering most Americans have a terrible diet and load up on junk but almost no fiber. Its no wonder so many folks have dietary problems like IBS and get constipated all the time. You need more fiber, man!

It also contains some goodness with vitamins and minerals that are refined out of white flour. It also isn't bleached, which is something I could never understand why they did that with refined flour just to make the product look shiny white and clinically clean.

Well, that was enough to convince me that I could make the switch to wholegrain bread and even though it is still pretty high in calories, if I cut back some, I could still eat sandwiches and not rob myself of that pleasure in life. The first time I ate it, the experience was strange because the texture of the bread was all different to what I was used to. It tasted different too, but it was a nice taste. Sort of more earthy and nutty with a totally different experience to what I had been used to all my life.

I decided I liked it!

Over those eight weeks, as I said the weight loss was stalled some, but I weighed in at 182 pounds, so it was still a net loss of four pounds on the last time I wrote in here. More to do folks!

Categories: diet

I like the title of this post because it makes me feel I really achieved something after I had gotten my work lunches all figured out and then started looking at what else I could find in my radar to blitz! I saw pasta and often thought it was really only a filler and had no real nutritional value of its own. So after doing some research, I discovered I was right! Pasta hasta go!

I read some things that I'm pretty sure loads of folks haven't a clue about and happily carry on stuffing their faces with all the different shapes and sizes of pasta they can cover in some kinda sauce. I know so, cause I used to do it too! Yeah, I loved spaghetti bolognaise like everyone else and would happily ladel huge portions onto my plate, eating it as fast as I could to get it all down me before it went cold. Well, no more!

You know, pasta is made from refined white flour and I learned a thing or two about that very common item in everyone's kitchen pantry. Folks, its empty calories! It rates high on the Glycemic Index for carbohydrates that make your blood sugar level zoom up and then come crashing down an hour or so later. You get a rush of energy, followed by a burst of insulin that grabs the excess sugars in your blood and carries them away to be processed into fat! Yes, FAT!

I couldn't believe what I was reading, but its true enough. It turns out there's a helluva lot of products made with refined white flour and pasta is one of them. I made the decision to cut pasta out of my diet completely thanks to learning this stuff about it. I know there is brown pasta that's made with whole wheat flour and its supposed to be tons better for you, but I tried it and I didn't like it much, so I think its netter to just draw a line under that one and find other things to eat that I can enjoy just as much without them carrying all that calorie and fat baggage.

Well, I didn't do anything different to what I have been doing except I don't eat pasta any more over the last eight weeks. Yeah, I know it’s a long time and its okay, cause I have decided to go at this slowly and steadily after all. But after eight weeks, my weight has dropped a little, but only a little to 186 pounds. That another 6 pounds off and I'm still pretty happy about that cause its going in the right direction.

Categories: diet

Okay, this post looks at the next thing I changed in my diet. it wasn't exactly earth shattering but then, none of my changes were really all that huge. I decided that I was doing this little by little, so it was manageable by me. I know other folks could probably do things faster, but they are other folks and I'm me. So I went at my own pace and that's one of the things that made this work for me.

You see, when you go at your own pace, you call the shots and if something isn't working, you change it. That's how I liked doing this stuff and that's why I am the way I am now and not still the way I was then! So, back to the change and the next one, after the cookies went from my life was another weird upheaval in that old friend, sugar.

Yep, I loved to take sugar in my coffee and as there was no way I was giving up coffee, the sugar part of it had to go. Oh yeah, as a secondary thing, so did the cream. There is a load of logic behind this small but significant change in the way I decided I was gonna like my favorite beverage. I heard that in Europe, especially France and Spain, they drink their coffee black and unsugared. In France you ask for a cafe and you get black coffee. if you want milk you have to specify "cafe au lait". Same thing in Spain. You ask for cafe and you get a tiny cup with a thimbleful of mind-numbingly strong coffee that will take your scalp off. Its called cafe solo, but if you want milk in your coffee, you have to ask for cafe con leche. Don't bother asking for cream, cause they will look at you kinda funny... But what struck me was if you ask for cafe americano, you get a full cup of coffee, black but very drinkable.

So with that in mind, I decided that of it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me. Now, my first cup of black, unsweetened coffee nearly made me throw up. It was horrible! But I persisted cause I was determined to do this. Three cups later, I was actually starting to get used to the taste. A few more cups and I actually liked it and kept it up for that week. But what was really strange was at the end of the week I absent-mindedly made a cup and put sugar in it. That first mouthful nearly made me throw up! I hated it! How does that happen?

Okay, I'm glad it happened cause now I only take my coffee black, unsweetened and I like it that way. the good side is that caffeine makes your metabolism go faster, so you burn more fat, at least when you are more active. I was still pretty sedentary at that point, so I knew that the next changes would have to be made to my activity levels. More on that next post.

Oh yeah, two further weeks on of no cookies, no sugar and milk in my coffee and no soda and my weight had dropped to 201 pounds!

Categories: diet

Well, last post told the story of the bad diet that was leading to obesity city for sure. I got rid of the cookies and the journey sorta began right there. So where did I go next with this amazing transformation?

Well, amazing it certainly was not, at least not to begin with. After a week of no cookies, I decided to try and lose something else that I didn't need. Trouble was, without the mid-morning snack, I was even more hungry by lunch time and couldn't see any way to cut back on the food. But there was one thing I knew I could get rid of cause I'd read about how totally bad it was for you in more ways than you can imagine. The coke!

Yep, all soda is real bad for making you gain weight cause they are empty calories that don't satisfy any hunger, so the body grabs all that sugar and loads it straight into the fat store! I heard that even if you switch to diet soda, the artificial sweeteners in them actually stimulate your hunger so you want to eat more. I also heard some real bad stuff about aspartame, the lead artificial sweetener in most everything these days. Like, it causes cancer! Can you believe that?

I find it hard to believe a caring government would allow that kind of chemical to be put in stuff we eat, drink and give to our kids, but seems they either don't care or they are being deluded by the manufacturers or some kinda back-room stuff that ordinary folks like us are not informed about. Well, I read enough to convince me that no matter what they say and how they try and say it, in my book that stuff is poison!

Anyhow, the coke went off the menu at the hamburger restaurant lunch time and I also stopped drinking all soda totally and switched to unsweetened fruit juice or, heavens to betsy, plain water! I believe that reduced my daily calorie intake by a good amount.

You may notice I didn't really bother too much about knowing the exact calorie count of the stuff I was taking out of my diet cause I was loading in so much it really didn't matter too much to me. Well, after a week of no soda and two weeks of no cookies, what did I weigh in at? Well, I started at 210 pounds and two weeks into the slow change diet, I weighed in at… 206 pounds. Not exactly amazing results, right? But it was a step in the right direction and I was determined to do more to get that total down.

Brian

Categories: diet

Well, here I am back again and I want to get started by talking a little about how I got this thing started and that was with a serious look at my diet. Okay, it stunk! i was eating mostly junk food, drinking four or more cans of soda every day and to round it all off, I had this thing about giant size chocolate chip cookies with every cup of coffee that I drank, which, incidentally was sugared with cream.

What an awful mess! But you know, I just didn't see it at the time. The junk food was mostly hamburgers, fries, chili dogs, pizza, you know all the bad stuff! But it was like I was addicted to it. I would start the day with a pretty average breakfast of eggs, ham, waffles and coffee but then by lunch time I actually craved a hamburger and not just a little itty bitty one. It had to be at least a quarter pounder, sometimes two with king size fries and a king size coke. That was also after I'd already had a mid-morning coffee with a jumbo cookie! By the mid-afternoon I wanted another coffee and cookie and then when I got home in the evening, it would be a take out pizza, king size of course with as many toppings as you can imagine.

Okay, you get the picture. pretty bleak and if it wasn't for the fact that I could visibly see my waistline expanding cause I had to keep buying larger size pants, I probably woulda carried on that way until a heart attack stopped me.

So that's what was wrong. now what did I do that was right?

Well, it started slow, cause at first I didn't believe I could give any of that stuff up, you know. I kinda got myself into the way of thinking, one small thing at a time and work up gradually to the big stuff. The first thing to go was the cookie. Man that was tough! I told myself I didn't need it mid-morning cause lunch was like only an hour or so away and same thing in the afternoon. Two cookies a day might not sound like much, but they were darn big cookies and I guess a couple hundred calories a shot, so yeah, it was a good start.

Once I had gone a full week cookie-less, I guess there was no turning back and I was on my way. More later!

Brian

Categories: diet