Why didn't I do this before?!
#1
04-20-05, 03:37 AM
Why didn't I do this before?!
Hi!
Just had to share this with someone, because this seems like the most sensible, adverticed public secret out there, that nobody really wants to heed because it sounds so very hard, but in reality its surpricingly easy.
For at least a year I've been planning on losing the now approximately 10 kg of extra weight I've got around my waist, but somehow never got up to it... Untill last week, when I got the final kick in the butt needed: I found out that I had high colesterol. With a family history of men from my mother's side dying before 60 from various coronary problems, I thought that I might want to break this trend... I'm 29 now, so no great damage done yet. (I hope!)
So right after hearing this news, something clicked right in my head
. I suddenly found myself highly motivated to make a change. So I read up on things on the internet, and changed my diet immediately and radically. Out with the greasy stuff (with extra dose of unhealthiness) that I ate on the basis that it was cheap/fast/tasty, and in with the new diet consisting mostly of vegetables and fruit.
Now, after the change, a typical day's food for me would be something like:
For breakfast, a fruit and some müsli with low fat yogurt - then during the day some fruit every time I feel hungy, and for lunch I keep to low calorie healthy stuff like chicken or tuna salads. In the evening I have some rye bread with low-fat ham and some vegetables on top (tomato, cucumber or red peppers) along with green tea.
And alongside with this total dietary change, I've added a lot of exercise - now I devote at least an hour a day for some sort of exercise.
I've kept this up for a week now, and surpricingly, with no dificulty!
If you described my daily diet to me a few weeks ago, I would have thought "never in a million years"; furthermore, I would have thought that I couldn't possibly keep it up without succumbing to some temptation and failing... probably the day after I started.
But what I didn't count on was that the benefits of this change would be so dramatic and fast, and that they would actually make this quite easy: I now have experienced what feels like a 500% increase in overall energy I have during the day. Where I used to come home at night dead tired, feeling like not wanting to do anything but falll on the couch and turn the TV on, I now am 100% alert and awake from the moment I've had my breakfast to the time I go to bed, and don't want to sit or lie around just lounging... I'm just feeling too energetic for that. I'm craving to do something active! And I feel like
!
And the thing is that I don't have to suffer from hunger either - if I feel hungry I eat an apple, or an orange, and that takes care of it.
I've found that previously, when I've tried to diet by doing it half way, instead of a radical change like this, the energy-benefit didn't appear, and I was constantly craving for all sorts of stuff I was denying myself. And I always gave in eventually, and abandoned the effort.
Now I've got no cravings for the stuff I used to eat - and I find it amazing. I think that my unhealthy diet actually made me tired and energy depleted, which made it an inordinate task to get myself to do some exercise... a vicious circle.
So now it appears to me that what all the doctors and health professionals are saying actually works. I recommend to anyone to try and make this sort of a TOTAL change to your diet, and add a little exercise... you might find that within days of the change, you'll be feeling like a million bucks, and actually craving to exercise more, instead of craving that burger or dougnut.
And one important thing to note is that if you do this sort of a change, it doesn't mean that you can never have another pizza or <insert favourite unhealthy food here>, it just means that you can't have one whenever. So you can still eat like you used to (if you want!) on special occasions, but keep to the healthy habits for the great majority of days. I think that helps in keeping cravings down.
Talking about cravings, I think it's time for an apple for me!
-MightyTiny
Just had to share this with someone, because this seems like the most sensible, adverticed public secret out there, that nobody really wants to heed because it sounds so very hard, but in reality its surpricingly easy.
For at least a year I've been planning on losing the now approximately 10 kg of extra weight I've got around my waist, but somehow never got up to it... Untill last week, when I got the final kick in the butt needed: I found out that I had high colesterol. With a family history of men from my mother's side dying before 60 from various coronary problems, I thought that I might want to break this trend... I'm 29 now, so no great damage done yet. (I hope!)
So right after hearing this news, something clicked right in my head
. I suddenly found myself highly motivated to make a change. So I read up on things on the internet, and changed my diet immediately and radically. Out with the greasy stuff (with extra dose of unhealthiness) that I ate on the basis that it was cheap/fast/tasty, and in with the new diet consisting mostly of vegetables and fruit. Now, after the change, a typical day's food for me would be something like:
For breakfast, a fruit and some müsli with low fat yogurt - then during the day some fruit every time I feel hungy, and for lunch I keep to low calorie healthy stuff like chicken or tuna salads. In the evening I have some rye bread with low-fat ham and some vegetables on top (tomato, cucumber or red peppers) along with green tea.
And alongside with this total dietary change, I've added a lot of exercise - now I devote at least an hour a day for some sort of exercise.
I've kept this up for a week now, and surpricingly, with no dificulty!
If you described my daily diet to me a few weeks ago, I would have thought "never in a million years"; furthermore, I would have thought that I couldn't possibly keep it up without succumbing to some temptation and failing... probably the day after I started.
But what I didn't count on was that the benefits of this change would be so dramatic and fast, and that they would actually make this quite easy: I now have experienced what feels like a 500% increase in overall energy I have during the day. Where I used to come home at night dead tired, feeling like not wanting to do anything but falll on the couch and turn the TV on, I now am 100% alert and awake from the moment I've had my breakfast to the time I go to bed, and don't want to sit or lie around just lounging... I'm just feeling too energetic for that. I'm craving to do something active! And I feel like
! And the thing is that I don't have to suffer from hunger either - if I feel hungry I eat an apple, or an orange, and that takes care of it.
I've found that previously, when I've tried to diet by doing it half way, instead of a radical change like this, the energy-benefit didn't appear, and I was constantly craving for all sorts of stuff I was denying myself. And I always gave in eventually, and abandoned the effort.
Now I've got no cravings for the stuff I used to eat - and I find it amazing. I think that my unhealthy diet actually made me tired and energy depleted, which made it an inordinate task to get myself to do some exercise... a vicious circle.
So now it appears to me that what all the doctors and health professionals are saying actually works. I recommend to anyone to try and make this sort of a TOTAL change to your diet, and add a little exercise... you might find that within days of the change, you'll be feeling like a million bucks, and actually craving to exercise more, instead of craving that burger or dougnut.
And one important thing to note is that if you do this sort of a change, it doesn't mean that you can never have another pizza or <insert favourite unhealthy food here>, it just means that you can't have one whenever. So you can still eat like you used to (if you want!) on special occasions, but keep to the healthy habits for the great majority of days. I think that helps in keeping cravings down.
Talking about cravings, I think it's time for an apple for me!
-MightyTiny
