Dieting 01

Here is a partial SP of the current state of affairs. Clearly a lot of progress has been made, seeing that I was contemplating not fastening the belt 3 months ago and now I am contemplating cutting more holes for future progress.

BUT – clearly a long way to go, in fact I am almost half way, after coming down from 225Lb to 187Lb, with a target of 140Lb.

If I had gone to the gym three months ago and the instructor asked me to pick up an 85Lb weight, I would probably have told him not to be silly. The fact is that I was the one who was silly, as I was carrying that same weight around with me every minute of every day. Was it any wonder that standing up was such an effort, and there was me thinking that it was because I was getting old.

This is not my first diet, but my fourth. Please don’t accuse me of being a ‘yoyo dieter’ as considerable effort was made each time to keep the weight off, well, at least after the first diet, when the lesson was learned. My last diet being some 16 years ago, when I stopped at the weight that I am now, which was a mistake. And it is about mistakes and lessons learned that I want to talk about today, so hopefully you do not have to make them in the future.

Lesson 1 – a diet is for life and not just for Christmas. As stated above, I learned this after my first diet, when I was horrified at the rate at which the weight went back on. I will discuss how you can avoid this problem in a future installment of the series, but don’t get excited, there is no easy magic solution. Everything about dieting requires effort and knowledge, but it is not hard work or rocket science.

Lesson 2 – fad diets do not work, they are unhealthy and in many cases can be dangerous. In addition, they are more boring and tedious than a normal, properly designed diet. I learned this on my first diet. With no internet for research, armed with only a calorie chart, I flicked through and found the item that had the least calories, carrots, and munched them all day, to stave off the hunger pangs, saving my calories for the evening meal.

Within a week, I was so sick of carrots, that I have hated them ever since. I then switched to celery, which is useless without salt. Same thing happened again, except this time I had dangerously overdosed on salt. Next, desperate to find something that I liked, I used pickled beetroot. I could never get sick of this, but then discovered that vinegar, being a form of alcohol, is absolutely packed with calories.

Next I made a bucket of coleslaw, using diet mayonnaise. That stuff is awful and left me with 2 dozen jars of a watery mess, stinking of garlic because I used it raw instead of cooking it first.

Lesson 3 – research is essential. Having failed to find an easy fad solution, I settled down to doing the job properly and paying attention to vitamins and all the rest of it, necessary for a healthy diet. There is no excuse today, with the availability of the internet. Google any food or product and all the information is presented to you, the good and the bad. If you are going to do this properly, you have to become an expert, it doesn’t take very long and is not complicated.

Lesson 4 – scales. The normal kitchen scales are of no use, hardly registering the quantities that you require. Invest in an accurate digital gram scale. Talk to your local hash dealer, he will tell you where to buy. Don’t even think about trying to estimate what two ounces of chicken meat looks like or 100g of pasta. You will always get it wrong and always on the heavy side. If you don’t hit your daily calorie deficit target, you won’t lose any weight and will soon lose enthusiasm, which would be a shame after actually making an effort.

Bathroom scales are important too. This is a lesson that I have learned on my current diet. Not being able to keep track of progress, I have found that I have over compensated and lost more weight than I planned to. This is not healthy, so no pat on the back for me. I have now increased my daily intake to correct.

Bathroom scales serve two purposes; as above, to make sure you are on track, and secondly to keep you enthused, as nothing beats seeing that needle fall. It takes so long to see the difference in looks, that the scale thing is all you have to keep you going. Charts and graphs are good visual stimuli too.

Careful with the scales though. They register different numbers on different floor surfaces. Find a patch of tiled or wooden floor. Place the scales in the same place each time and stand on them the same each time. Leaning to one side to get that extra pound is so pointless, are you so gullible. By all means, fool everyone else, but don’t kid yourself.

At the start of the diet, set the scales so you are happy and then heavily tape over the adjuster. If you don’t, a visitor too your bathroom will do you a favor and adjust them to what they perceive as correct. This alone can destroy your enthusiasm. Even hide the scales away so that no one else can use them.

It is pointless, but if you want to weigh yourself every day or three times a day, go for it. But, be aware that the way the body works is a bit of a mystery. Even though you are doing everything correctly, nothing might register for 3 days, you might even register an increase. Then a pound or two will come off on the fourth day. It is frustrating, but that is the way it works. Have a proper weigh-in once per week. First thing in the morning, naked, after doing the ablutions. This way, there are no variations or excuses, just the pure facts.

Lesson 5 – do not talk diets to family and friends, especially friends. They will ask you how things are going, because they love you and want to be supportive. But, if you start rabbiting on about the calorific content of a pastry crumb, your friends will soon start to avoid you and talk behind your back. The correct response is, “fine thanks, 2Lb this week. Hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, I have a pile of washing to do”. You will be enthused and obsessive if you are anything like me, and desperate to talk about it all. Join a diet club and talk your head off for an hour a week, to get it out of your system. Join a diet forum on the internet, I am sure there are plenty available.

There are more lessons, but I have already written more than I intended. I will make note of the rest and come back to them on future installments. This is not a daily series, so be patient.

Dave