AlanBarber.Org
Monday, May 31, 2004
My Dietary Changes
Ok, I promised I’d do a post about my dietary changes so I guess I better get to it.
Along with the exercise routine I made some dietary changes. Now I didn’t go on a “diet” like so many people do. Instead I decided to just make permanent adjustments to my eating style. Personally, I think diets are a crock. All those 30 day diets, liquid diets, atkins, south beach, weight watchers, etc are just a waste of time in my opinion.
People go on diets to loose weight. However, for probably 90% of them once they loose the weight they go off the diet. They return to their old style of eating and as a result just put the pounds right back on. It’s becomes an endless cycle of gain and loss.
This is why I refuse to go on a “diet.” From the very beginning I understood the problem was very simple, I needed to eat less! However, it’s not just about eating less, it’s about eating less of the so called “bad” foods and more of the “good” foods. Notice I said LESS of the “bad” and MORE of the “good.” I didn’t say I was cutting out anything! I wasn’t going to just do a short term change of my eating pattern but make permanent changes.
This is the fundamental idea you need to keep in your brain. Sure you could spend two or three weeks eating nothing but carrot stick and water and you’ll loose the weight. However, soon as you loose your willpower once you are lost. You spend an evening eating an entire box of Oreos or Ben and Jerry’s and you admit defeat and give up.
Instead, what you want to do is cut back on the “bad” foods but still allow yourself to eat them. When you keep the cravings at bay by allowing yourself to have the “bad” foods from time to time you will find that it’s easier to stay the overall course and keep on your new improved diet.
So what are the “bad” foods? The “bad” foods are those that have so called empty calories. For me that means all your junk foods (cookies, candies, chips), sodas (all sodas even so called diet sodas), caffeine, alcohol and everyone’s favorite new “bad” food, high carb foods!
Basically, for me I’ve cut down on junk foods but not got rid of them. For me I know follow very closely the serving size of a snack. If the box says 2 cookies than that’s all I’ll eat now. I’ve cut out sodas completely. Yes even the diet sodas. I’ve managed to loose probably 15-20 pounds just from not drinking soda. Ok, I do occasionally break down and have a soda but I average maybe one a week instead of 4 or 5 a day. In similar light to sodas I’ve cut back on anything with caffeine or alcohol. Caffeine and alcohol have so many side effects I could write a whole paper on them so I won’t. Suffice to say that cutting back can do a lot to improving your overall quality of health.
Now for the big guy, carbs! I’ve cut down on my intake of carbs but not completely. Simple put, I try not to eat potatoes, white bread, etc and stick with whole grain breads, rice, etc.
As for the “good” foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, nuts, high fiber foods, etc.
Along with my food changes I’ve also started taking some vitamin and supplements.
(500mg) oyster shell calcium
(50mg) zinc
(500mg) Vitamin C
(1000mg) Fish oil
(400iu) Vitamin E
1 pill of Osteo Bi-Flex - this is special supplement that claims to help maintain your joints.
Honestly, I don’t know how much good they do but they claim they help. If you take the time to research the claimed benefits of all these things it sure sounds like a good idea to take them?
Remember that above all you have to start exercising too! By changing your diet you can help to remove excess calories but it takes exercise to raise your bodies metabolism so that it also uses the remaining calories more efficiently so you can loose weight.
on 05/31/2004 at 04:26 PM