Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You may have lucky genetics. If you know exactly what your ancestors ate, and it worked, good for you.
However science works with data. Most preindustrial people ate a lot of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and were much more active than people today are. And most ate smaller portions, mostly due to economic necessity.
BTW, Im under the impression that modern grain fed beef (and lamb?) has different ratios of the various fatty acids than grass fed beef did.
Yep...the milk from them is different too. You HAVE to try a grass fed sharp cheddar. The portion is actually MORE satisfying than regular grain fed. Its odd.
I don't even buy soda, I drink water ALL the time. I don't eat bread and carbs as much as I can.
I also avoid salty snacks which so often have MSG in them. MSG can undermine efforts to avoid sweets or so I have read because of its ingredients. I don't eat things with MSG in them. If I do have salty snacks, its the all natural stuff with no MSG.
If I have something sweet, I try to make sure its a protein like ice cream to keep my blood sugar steady.
I use one of the cookie diet products. I lost 75 lbs on them about 2 years ago and I still start most days eating 1 or 2 for breakfast. That has been my maintenance. I think they help me stay in control and make better food choices throughout the day. There's about 4 different companies and I don't think they are all equal. You may want to do your own research but the ones I use are r&d diet cookies.
* I dont ever take the elevator. I live in a 3rd floor and everytime i go out/i come back i use the stairs. I ve been doing this in every building i lived. I always lived in floors 2/3 or 5. Im going to move to a floor 12 appartment soon. Dont know if im gonna stick to the stairs then.
*I walk EVERYWHERE. I live in a city with great weather to walk (basically warm all year except a few cold days in the 30/40s in winter, but mostly warm even in winter) and one of the most walkable places on earth (meaning theres people walking everywhere at all hours and a lot of people dont own a car.) and even if im coming from work in the subway and the subway is too full of people, i take off 4 stops before mine and i walk the 20 blocks. Whatever thing i have to do, i walk. Of course i dont own a car and i dont wanna own it. It makes me healthy.
*I also go running 3 times a week, even if im tired.
*I try to drink a cup of "caldo" (wish i knew that word in english) before my meals so im not as hungry.
*Everytime i crave for chocolate i eat a pear or a banana. Well, not everytime, sometimes i do eat chocolate but i try to watch it cause i like the thing too much.
*If someone gives me a chocolate (a big bar, as a present, or bombons, is very normal here) i give those to somebody else. If someone gives chocolate as a present to my in-living boyfriend (recently her mom brought him a half a kilo bar of toblerone!) i make him hide it. I have no idea where the toblerone is.
Snack on sunflower seeds in the shell to keep my hands and mouth busy instead of eating other stuff. It takes me a long time to crack open each sunflower seed shell, eat the sunflower seed, spit it out and start again. It is a lot of salt, but sunflower seeds are a super food and packed full on feel good B vitamins. By the time I finish a small bag I don't want cookies, cake, brownies or things like that. The sunflower seeds allow me to snack and fill up on small little seeds that are good for me and boost my mood while giving me the willpower to avoid things like carbs.
I suck on low calorie, low sugar lollipops when I am hungry. I have something in my mouth that keeps my mouth full and busy. I have the lollipop stick in my hand so my hand is busy. This prevents me from reaching for other items. I never bite the lollipop. I only lick and suck it. It takes a long time to get to the gum in a blow pop. I like blow pops because when I reach the gum I chew it and that takes more time away from eating.
I always take the stairs and not the elevator.
Sometimes we feel hungry because we are actually thirsty and/or dehydrated. I drink a big glass of water and wait 20-30 minutes before I eat. If I am really dehydrated and not actually hungry the hunger will go away from the water. Thirst is often felt by our body as hunger instead of thirst. This is why it is a good idea to have a big glass of water and wait to see if the hunger pains really are for hunger or if they are for thirst instead.
I drink a large full size of water with 10 ounces 20 minutes before I eat dinner. The water fills up my stomach and I eat less because I feel full from the water. At around 9 PM I might feel hungry again. I drink another big glass of water and snack on something healthy like cheese, fruit or something like that.
I walk to do errands if they are only 20-30 minutes away. This gives me some exercise. I walk to the pharmacy on the corner. It is 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back. I leave the car at home. It is not necessary to drive to every single place. We can walk to some things. I have met my neighbors I would not normally meet by doing this.
Walk the dog. When I had a dog and took it on long daily walks I was fitter then than I am now that I do not have a dog. Walking the dog every day keeps you thinner and in better shape. The dog wants to go out, has to be exercised anyway...why not use that time to shape up and get fit? It is a time to bond with your dog and get fit at the same time. It lowers stress to spend time with your dog and walk.
I eat very, very slooooowly. It takes 20 minutes for our stomach to tell our brain we are full. That is 20 mins of consuming food and calories that can be avoided by eating slowly. I put my fork down in between bites. I do not eat with my utensils in my hands. I take a bite and put down my utensils. I chew, chew, chew that piece of food very sloooowly and thoroughly before I swallow it. I take time to taste my food and savor it. I do not gulp it down. I sip water in between the bites. I am the slowest eater in my family and weight the least because of it.
Stop as soon as you're full. I always used to try to cram in that last little extra so I felt very full. Big mistake and it makes for a big stomach along with everything else. Now that will make me sick, so it's much easier to stop, but for most people it's a habit you probably have to get yourself into. It's also ok to not clean your plate. This is yet another one my parents brought on me. I'm sure their intentions were well, but it definitely hurt me more than it helped..
Portion control is a something I often struggle with...so, I've switched from using dinner plates to using salad plates for my meals...simple, but it seems to work fine. Fools the eye into thinking I'm getting a large serving--a full plate--but actually, I've cut down by 1/3-1/2.
Another thing I do is to serve a lot of bulk with most meals--a large spinach salad, for example, or a bowl of vegetable soup to start. Often, dessert is a half sliced apple or a piece of other in-season fruit. The more bulk, the fuller I feel.
When I reduced my intake of carbs (not eliminated--reduced), and increased my gym visits, I easily lost 12 pounds over 3-4 months without trying very hard or feeling at all deprived. I hate diets, but love eating this new way as I can sustain it forever.
More vegetables, more fiber, fewer carbs, and more exercise seems to be a magic formula that works without doing anything fadd-ish.
I buy already shelled hard boiled eggs at Costco. For 70 calories a piece (and a long shelf life), they are the perfect snack when hungry.
I agree that they're a good snack, but hard-boiling eggs is so simple and easy to make that I can't image why you'd buy them.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. Dont know if im gonna stick to the stairs then
.
but i try to watch it cause i like the thing too much.
.
