So, I now qualify for the National Weight Control registry (keeping more than 30 pounds off for more than a year). Apparently, this gives me the authority to pontificate about how people can lose weight
Before I go to my advice, my stats:
I have lost almost 70 pounds of non-preggo related weight and I have kept 60 of it off since January of 2010. It took me a full 3 years to lose it and I don't have any plans to actually join the weight-loss registry.
So, here it goes, in somewhat random order:
1) Don't tell any woman you love that you think they are fat. EVER. Even if they are family, even if they are at risk for dire health consequences. The problem is that our society has all this crap with beauty and weight and self-esteem. Only rarely did someone point out my BMI to me when I was overweight, and all it did was make me reach for the cookie jar. Leave the BMI quotations up to the medical professionals. I lost weight when it was time for me to lose weight. Other people's opinions didn't make much difference.
2) If you are really concerned about the health risks of your friend/lover/wife/mother/sister's weight, make them feel good about themselves with flowers, chocolates, tickets to the football game, whatever makes them happy. Even if they don't lose weight, they will appreciate that you actually care about them.
3) For the weight-losing folk out there, buy cute clothes. I have no sense of fashion so I do not know what these clothes look like. However, I know that attractive, well fitted clothes come in all sizes for men and women and some of the most attractive people I know are overweight, happy and well-dressed.
4) Eat lots of those multi-colored things that come out of the ground or grow on trees. They fill you up, they make you regular and they have vitamins. Whenever I stop eating them, I gain weight, whenever I start eating them again I lose weight.
5) Drink the clear stuff that comes out of the tap. I do not do this and as a result, my weight fluctuates 3-4 pounds every day depending on how dehydrated I am. I am trying to drink water I swear, it will happen eventually.
6) Any movement is awesome, but don't kid yourself into thinking that taking the stair up to the second floor of your office building made up for the Big Mac you had at lunch.
7) It is amazing how much crud we can stuff into our stomachs without knowing it, so I keep a diary (like most of the National Weight-Loss Registry folk) of everything that goes in my mouth. Sometimes the diary says 4000 calories, sometimes it says 1500 calories, but I am a firm believer that I would have had 7,000 on the 4000 day and 3000 on the 1500 day, without tracking.
8) If it takes more than three normal bites to finish the cake, cookie or pastry, it is more than 300 calories.(this rule only goes for tasty pastries, there are some diet pastry-like items that have fewer calories, which gets me to my next point)
9) Never feel like crap about gaining a couple of pounds or eating something horrible for you(as long as it tasted GOOD). I have found that feeling like crap generally just leads to eating crap (This is the corollary to "you are what you eat")
10) It is perfectly acceptable to gain a few pounds during an overseas trip, a vegas weekend, finals, while studying for the bar exam.....etc..... If you are doing something super cool, forget about your weight and have fun. If you are doing something super stressful, worry about the stressful activity, not your weight. (And if people comment about the weight gain....just make an off hand comment about their ugliest feature. e.g, "I know, I totally need to lose a couple of pounds. Maybe we could make a pact and I could lose the weight while you look into plastic surgery for your crook nose")
11) Finally, the most important tip is the Ryan diet plan. It is simple, effective and almost impossible for most of us to follow: "Eat less, move more" Until the people who decide these things come up with a magical way to lose weight that does not involve eating less than your body burns, the 2/3 of the american population that is overweight or obese should probably take that phrase to heart.
12) As was noted in an earlier post, or a few earlier posts, I do not eat well. I move more than I take in, but I still have a long, long way to go before I could claim that I eat well. Food and movement are two of the main activities in our lives and we need to think about them in terms of more than what will lead to the best looking abs or what will provide the greatest satisfaction.
cool! enjoyed reading.
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