If there is anything I am getting good at it is “dieting.” I have had been losing weight for decades, as if I have been defying gravity, weighing more today than ever.
How did this happen to me? I was desperate to gain weight in high school, a 155 lb. piece of straw being pummeled by pulling guards. I spent every day eating steak and potatoes and milk shakes, to no avail. In college, I fared no better, barely weighing 170 when I graduated despite a rather consistent diet of chocolate rolls for breakfast, and beer for dinner.
It all began in 1982, at MFA, Inc., as I religiously devoured Zingers and a lethal European coffee syrup compound for breakfast. I can’t even blame marriage for the first explosion of weight as I entered the mid 80’s weighing in the mid 80’s. I began to run 10K three times a week, and all it did was succeed at sustaining me at about 185 pounds.
I think age and bad knees conspired to cause my next level of weight, as I entered the 90’s weighing into the 90’s, followed by the millienial leap into the 200 range. No longer running, but still loving chocolate donuts, I evolved into the middle-age lumpster that I had vowed I would never be when I was in my 20’s. I was disgusted with myself and it is due to that I am now “successfully” dieting.
I started seriously dieting in the 90’s because I saw my friends were transforming themselves through this phenomenon called the Atkins Diet. I tried it out and, as advertised, I lost a lot of weight while not really having to starve myself to death. I modified the diet later to cope with my next plunge into wideness, and today I have chosen my own blend of herbs and spices to help me lose weight once again.
What is the secret to dieting? Is there a working formula that does not have to cause so much suffering and pain? One of the things that was so appealing about the Atkins Diet was that it allowed a guy like me to eat plenty of meat and, heaven forbid, fat. I discovered that a diet did not have to mean a culinary self-flagellation. Yet it was also obvious that a diet, as a strict formula, was not the best thing for my body.
Firs principle, the reason you are fat is the also the same reason you can lose weight — it is your lifestyle.
Second principle, as you age your body changes. So does your diet if you hope to lose weight or stay weighing the same. For that reason, there is no magic dieting formula. What is essential is that you have the mindset that observes when you gain weight and is willing to experiment with diets. What will change over the years is that what works for a 30-something man is not the same as for a 50-something old dude. The obvious difference is that our metabolism changes, evidenced in the fact that at 55 I am not running cross-patterns in flag football games, or making diving catches in the outfield ( unless I am stumbling over myself ).
Third principle, listen to your doctor. Thankfully, I have progressed through life without serious defect. But if you have high blood pressure and high bad-cholesterol readings, then your diet will evolve around resolving those issues. It is also one reason why a radical commitment to a diet plan is not always best for you, and a medical professional can often bring things to light that might help you balance your diet.
Fourth principle is that diets often work well at first, then level off, and most likely enable a very gradual weight loss. Why is that? Simple — you changed your pattern of eating. That change, more than the diet itself, may explain the weight loss. The examples below may illustrate this point.
Things I have tried that work?
1) Drop the donuts. The killer-bee for most diets is to dramatically reduce your intake of bread products, most particularly pastries that are well endowed with sugar and fat.
2) Eat whole wheat — but in very small measure. I eat bread with almost every meal, but when combined with the other pointers, it results in a very modest amount. The radical Atkins approach of eliminating all bread drives me crazy. Bread is a good thing, but not as a main component of our diet.
3) Drop potatoes — at least for the most part. French fries or a baked potato once a week is not all that bad, but anyone who has taken the Atkins Diet will confess that the most surprising thing for us to eliminate from our diet are potatoes. I was stunned when I first did it, recalling with amazement how often I ate potato products. I’d figure it would be the donuts or the ice cream that would leave me groaning every night, but it was the lack of potatoes that proved the most difficult item to remove from my diet.
4) Eat half the entree when you eat out. Think about it. With the exception of Thanksgiving, how often do you feed yourself as much food as you get on your plate at a restaurant? Restaurants, at least in Juneau, have gone way overboard on the amount of food they serve. In some cases, I end up getting three meals from one plate!
5) Eat one serving. And don’t cheat by piling on a ridiculous amount of food.
6) Significantly reduce sugary drinks. If you drink sweetened drinks, see if you can find something that is sweetened the ol’ fashion way using sugar rather than corn syrup.
7) Save the beer for that special moment — and if possible, have while eating a meal, not before you go to bed. I love beer. But a six pack can last me up to two or three weeks because I don’t drink it recreationally. I savor it for those moments when I come from being outdoors for several hours and I can feel it going all the way down my throat into my stomach. Only drink one and near a mealtime.
8) Eat fish and seafood — there is nothing better. Try going to a sushi bar for lunch and only order a six-piece plate — nothing else. Drink it with hot tea. If you don’t like raw fish, try something similar that is simple and of modest portions.
9) “Exercise” — I put this in quotes because people often have the wrong idea about exercise. The rule I apply is exercise in a manner that pushes your body a bit beyond where it is now. When I was 35, it was running from 5 K to 10 K. But today, a brisk walk up trails or cross-country is fine for me. With my bad legs, I can no longer run but I can work out on the stationary bicycle. Whatever you choose do something that clearly indicates you are having to work at it. A casual walk in the park is not a bad thing, but it will probably do little to address the physical plight of the average American unless it challenges you to improve your physical condition.
10) Dramatically reduce snacking — when you need to snack, eat a modest amount of fruit or nuts. No breads. No chips. No beer.
What’s interesting about the above mentioned tips is that you may have noticed that it all revolves around how we live, not what we eat. It may appear that I focus on what we eat by reducing bread and potatoes and sugar drinks, but when you think about it you can easily see that those items are the foundation of our day-to-day lifestyles. We eat deserts frequently, made mostly of breads, fat and sugar. We snack often, usually bread and potato products. We think we have to eat all the food on our plate, without realizing that a plate full of food can easily turn into two or three meals. We eat too much at one time because we eat out too much.
Another thing you may notice is that you spend less money. There is no requirement to purchase special foods, unless you count fish and shrimp as “special.” Weight Watchers is not required.
Finally, the word is “calorie” is strangely missing from this discussion. Sure, I look at the labels and notice calories, but I have never in my life counted calories. When you eliminate bread, potatoes and sugar from your diet, reduce the volume of food you eat and simply eat smarter you will discover that the calories take care of themselves. And anyone who has run 10 K can tell you, it is not the amount of calories that matter, but how calorie intake compares to the energy you burn. In all likelihood, my calorie intake at the age of 55 is probably less than it was when I was 25, but it’s effect is more dramatic because an older body simply does not burn as much energy.
Probably the two most visible dieting illustrations in our day and age is Jered (the Subway guy) and the movie “Super Size Me.” The key element in both of these examples is that a person’s weight was a function of their lifestyle. Simply eating at Subway, for example, helped someone like Jered. For me, it is lunch at the sushi bar. On the opposite extreme, choosing to eat at McDonalds, while not bad in itself, can cause extreme weight increase if you choose to eat the fatty foods they offer rather than the Southwest salad.
