
Originally Posted by
CitizenBBN
For me at least, and my wife, it's all about the carbs, and really it was about just those kinds of carbs, the occasional ones that really spike things.
I"m back on to losing weight and getting in shape and my keys are:
1. Low carb. Cut out the sugars and carbs hard. I'm not a Nazi about it, but it's more about just changing our whole diet. No sodas, no chips, going with lots of salads, stir-fry, etc. I can go into more detail, but the only real challenge is time to cook, but I can do most meals in 30-40 minutes. Also no fast food, etc.
That's a convenience battle as much as anything else. We both like veggies, etc., but they take more time. We had a dry run that fell apart, I retooled some, and it's working now.
we're taking it as a lifestyle change, not a "diet", and that helps.
2. Teamwork. We're both on it, both committed to it, and that helps. We each feel we'd be letting the other down to break with the plan, and we both want to be healthy for a while and we know we need to start right now. Doing it together really helps, if for no other reason than we can purge that stuff from the house (there's actually some left, but we don't touch it).
I lost about 60 pounds on this the first time, I was at 295 and said I was not going to hit 300. That was about 12 years ago. I put back 10-15 of it over the years but not more than that, despite eating badly.
We started this about 2.5 months ago or so maybe, I don't know for sure, and we're both down 15-20 lbs now. We're going to stick with it for a long haul and try to get from (in my case) obese and not stop at just "not obese" but go for "in shape". That's going to take probably another 50-60 lbs in my case. At 6-10 lbs a month that's as long as 10 more months, so sometime this next spring.
That fwiw is without any directed exercise. We are starting that now, so I should be able to increase that pace somewhat, but I'm only doing about one fast mile and even then it won't be every day. I'd like to get up to 2 a day on the treadmill at about a 8-10 minute mile, but that will be at least a month of building up, as my cardio is truly stunningly bad.
The key is the carbs IMO, at least for me and us. To avoid them I have to basically prepare most all of what we eat, and Keto is now much more popular than 10 years ago so we can get Keto friendly breads which we use sparingly but at least you can have a grilled cheese sandwich once in a while.
So it's actually easier than last time in that regard, but still a challenge to fit into a busy schedule.
FWIW, I had to show my wife the math on the carbs, which is what started this diatribe, i.e. yes that one ice cream bar undoes a week of work lol. Hers was sodas and chips. I showed her the math on one soda, or one meal of chips and cheese, and how that one thing basically blew a week of food discipline, and she bought into it and has done great. The carb cravings do reduce, and the new products help with those, so we're holding in for now.
Once we reach goals you can loosen that up reasonably too. But I won't even look at that until we get to next spring etc.
The real issue is I don't know if we can really vacation with that plan. It is really hard to eat out b/c almost everything is carbs on a menu, or served with them.
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