If you're one of those guys that just has to grab a sausage and egg muffin from the fast food drive through on your way to work, all I can say is you have to change your ways my friend.
Dinner is one of those meals where you're really going to have to have a look at what you're eating and maybe make some changes. For starters, take-away pizza should pretty much be avoided as far as possible. You know that dark patch you see on the cardboard box when you take the slices out? That's oil. Not good for losing weight. Most take-away pizza is loaded up with oil, and you just shouldn't be eating it. There are oils that are OK in moderation, (olive oil for example) but pizza oil is bad. The other thing you've probably heard about is carbohydrates. The dietician world is pretty divided on these things. Some say you can have them while others tell you to avoid them. Doctor Atkins, a dietician who wrote a very popular book on weight loss, said that carbohydrates turn into stored body fat faster than consumed fat turns into stored body fat. So probably it's a good idea to reduce the amount of carbohydrates you're consuming. The kinds of foods that are high in carbohydrates are pasta, rice, potatoes and bread. Bread's probably ok because it contains fibre, which is good (as long as you're buying good healthy bread), but as for the pasta, rice and spuds, pass up on that second helping and see if you can reduce that first helping as much as possible.
Lean meat is good (lean means it doesn't contain much fat), and if you're going to the gym you're going to need the protein from meat if you want to build some muscle. Vegetarians are fine with most of the stuff they eat, so long as they watch the carbohydrates and are careful about the dairy component (some vegetarians eat a lot of cheese and this doesn't exactly help with the weight loss program). Fish is pretty fantastic for losing weight (you don't see a hell of a lot of fat fish do you?), and it contains Omega 3 oil which is the latest miracle cure-all that everyone's raving about these days. One of the easiest fish to have for dinner is tuna . comes in a can right? Easy to prepare, no cooking necessary, chuck it on a sandwich, add a healthy green salad and there's your healthy weight-loss dinner. If you're having fish though, avoid having it deep-fried.
. If possible, just don't have any of the kinds of foods you like to snack on in the house.
. When you need to snack, have a glass of water instead
. When you need to snack, go take a walk instead (this is fantastic because it takes you away from the temptation, and burns fat at the same time)
. If other people are snacking around you and you're feeling yourself weakening, leave. Don't hang around and torture yourself.
. If there's a part of your day where you usually like to snack (eg; lying on the couch after dinner, watching TV and eating ice cream or potato chips)
change your schedule so that you're doing something else more active at that time (like walking).
If you break
There's going to be times when the temptation gets too great. You're at a party and everyone's eating potato chips, or it's someone's birthday at work and out comes the cake. Hey, you're only human. Everyone breaks. Just try not to do it too much. And if you do break, try and be extra good the next day. You WILL be where you want to be if you can just keep on going.
Maintaining the new size
This is the phase that I've just entered. What I've read is that a lot of the lifestyle changes that accompanied my weight loss will have to remain. Foremost among these is the exercise. After 6 months of exercise I actually like it now and don't want to stop. Exercise is a lot easier now because I'm fitter and so it's a lot less hard work and consequently a lot more enjoyable.
I'm still guzzling down the water and that's something that isn't going to stop, and I'm pretty much over greasy fast foods. A few of these weight-loss lifestyle changes get stuck into your psyche and you can't easily shake them . which is probably ok because most of them are pretty healthy. The main difference between the previous phase and the current phase is that the level of discipline about what/when/how much I will let myself eat has been relaxed a little. It's still there, I'm a lot more conscious about making healthy choices than I used to be, but if there's a fantastic desert on the menu I'll let myself have one.
Your turn
That's about everything I know about losing weight. It's not much really, mainly just a lot of common sense. But the main thing I wanted to communicate is that it REALLY IS POSSIBLE. It is hard, but it's not so hard that you can't do it yourself. If, you're like I was and have this part of yourself that you are unhappy about, that bugs you deep down inside and that just won't go away, then my message is you can do something about it. All it takes is a decision and a little self-discipline. You CAN do it if you want to.
GOOD LUCK !!
