Moliere wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:12 am
7 pounds lost in the first week. That's the easy weight to lose. The real test will be the next 15-20 pounds.
That's an excellent first week!
Every time I commit to losing weight, it helps that being Large McHuge results in a pretty good first week (although I don't know if I've ever lost 7 pounds in one shot like that).
I'm currently on a quest to delargen myself, and I'm about five weeks in (although I didn't begin in earnest until Week 2). I made some changes which have seemed effective:
1) Time Restricted Eating. Everything I eat is between 8 AM and 7 PM, which gives the body 13+ hours to enter fasting mode and to take care of business (allegedly good for you).
2) As much as is humanly possible, only eat whole foods. This restriction ended up almost completely removing processed carbs from my diet (no bread, pasta, or white rice). I occasionally make whole grain brown rice or quinoa but that's no more than one night a week. And I almost entirely cut red meat out of the equation.
I wanted to find a way that could just change how and what I eat, but didn't involve micromanaging points or calories, our writing down every little thing that I eat. I'm very much a creature of routine, so my days are pretty identical:
a) Breakfast: Two eggs scrambled with sauteed mushrooms and spinach. Side of berries (strawberries, blueberries and either blackberries or raspberries).
b) Snack: Two pieces of fruit (usually a banana paired with either some citrus or a honeycrisp apple).
c) Lunch: Normally a salad I make at home that features: baby spinach, cucumbers, campari tomatoes, shredded carrots, blueberries, avocado, legumes, roasted beets, mushrooms, red onion, and if I have any leftover chicken, I will usually cut a small amount of that in there as well. It's incredibly filling. Either olive oil and a golden balsamic vinegar dressing or a light peppercorn and parmesan dressing (one of my few remaining processed foods) to top it off. Altogether, it's a pretty filling salad.
d) Snack: An icelandic skyr-type yogurt (so friggin' good) and a small handful of nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios).
e) Dinner: Some form of chicken and some form of vegetables. Once a week I still make a beef stir-fry, which is the only red meat I still have, and that's the only time I make the brown rice or quinoa.
This week I am trading out the lunch salad for a small bowl of homemade chicken chili, as the grind of making those salads from scratch can wear on you (it takes at least 30 minutes of prep the night before). So this week I'm taking a break and made up a large batch of relatively healthy chili (lean ground chicken, beer, red kidney beans, green/red/orange bell peppers, onion, frozen corn, minced carrots, diced tomatoes, habaneros, seasonings).
Oh, and the only liquid I've had has either been water (a gallon+ per day) or black coffee. Nothing else.
So far the results have been good:
Week 1: -2.1 lbs (wasn't really trying and didn't start the whole foods thing yet)
Week 2: -6.3 lbs (first week of militant discipline)
Week 3: -3.5 lbs
Week 4: -3.3 lbs
Week 5: -2.9 lbs
So we're at -18.1 lbs, we're at a point where good habits have been formed (we've gone out for family dinners, and it's been easy to look for something on the healthier side, without being ridiculous), there haven't been any cravings, and I am almost never hungry. In fact I cannot remember the last time I was hungry. I eat snacks based on the time between meals, not when I'm hungry, so it's not like I'm murdering people between meals. Moreso than any other time I've tried, it's been easy to stick to, as long as you don't hate the prep work.
