By David J. Stewart
In late 2010 I went to buy some new shoes at Pay-Less and couldn't bend down
to tie my shoes. My gut was too big. That was a wake-up call for me, giving
me the motivation to lose some weight. So I read up on the internet about
losing weight. I had weighed 205 pounds at the time. I am going to share
with you what worked for me and what didn't, and tell you HOW I LOST WEIGHT,
and am still losing weight.
I'm no expert, certainly not the only source you should listen to. Please read the many articles online about carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Forget all the losing weight websites that sell pills and gimmicks. Read up and learn how the body processes food and then you'll know how to properly eat and lose weight. I think most people don't eat better because they haven't a clue how the body works, eventually leading to diabetes and heart disease that require amputation of your legs or open heart surgery. If you are in your 30's or 40's, now is the time to start eating better before it's too late. In the state of Mississippi, one-third of the people are obese! That's because of the high carbohydrate meals that we all love. Literally, we are what we eat.
American people are a bunch of fat slobs, because no one cares about anything anymore. People kill their babies, throw away their marriages, buy all sorts of body enhancement products, eat themselves to death, and spend themselves into bankruptcy. It's sickening! As Christians we need to take control of our life.
I have lost 30 pounds in just 2 months, by determination and eating a very small diet. Some of the foods I eat are big salads and catabolic foods (like apples), and it has made a big difference. I am now only 25 lbs overweight, which is better than 55 pounds I was. I want to lose another 25 lbs. to reach the median average of my weight. I feel good about myself having lost 30 pounds so far. I am now at 175 lbs. My goal is 150 to 155 lbs. That's better than 200 lbs. I notice a big difference in my clothes. I feel good about my weight loss, despite my other health problems and constant pain.
Please understand that I am NOT giving anyone medical advice, nor am I encouraging anyone to diet, nor to try what I have done to lose weight. I have to say that because I am not a doctor nor diet specialist. Ok, here goes...
First, I learned quickly that walking and exercising does NOT help me lose weight. It just makes me hungrier. So I end up eating more, which is counter productive. So if I want to walk, I do, but I never walk nor exercise for the purpose of losing weight.
I've cut back on drinking soda pop lately to lose weight. I used to like a Coca Cola with every meal. I've lost 30 lbs over the past 2 months just by maintaining a 1200 calorie per day diet and fasting every other day. On fast days I only eat 500 calories or less. Once I reach my proper weight (145-159 pounds for my height, frame and gender), then I can reward myself by eating 2200 calories per day. The hardest part is losing the weight to get down to my proper weight.
The body normally burns 2200 calories a day (for men) if you do absolutely nothing, and 3000 to 4000 if you're active. Women burn about 1800 calories per day if sedentary. A can of soda is 150 calories. Oatmeal is 100. A slice of raisin bread without butter is 100. One Tablespoon of butter is 120 calories. A small can of 100% orange juice is 80. A snack-sized package of cheddar cheese is about 60. Apples actually cause the body to burn more calories than they contain, so I eat an apple a day. I cut the apple into fours because the slices are easier to eat. Such foods are called catabolic. Lettuce and tomatoes are also catabolic. I've noticed that the more I eat, the more I hunger; and the less I eat, the less appetite I have. The hardest part about dieting is getting past the first week. After that my body got used to eating less food.
I bought a digital extra wide scale from K-mart. I hate the feeling of standing on a standard-sized scale (feeling like it's going to flip over because there's not much room to stand). I also don't like the needle on a non-digital scale because it's not accurate. A digital scale motivates me to lose weight, because I can see my weight change in .2 increments of a pound (3.2 ounce increments). It's good to see your weight go down. My weight didn't just drop, it went down and up, varying about 2-4 pounds throughout the day; but the general trend will be down as long as I don't go over 1200 calories per day. Water retention accounts for most of the fluctuation in my weight.
Secondly, the muscles store glycogen (sugar energy) which accounts for one pound of body weight.
Thirdly, the weight of food itself. A large meal can cause my weight to jump 5 lbs. Albeit, the weight drops over the next 12-hours as the body digests everything. I've noticed that taking natural vitamins caused my body to retain water more, which is fine. I've learned to stick to a 1200 or less calorie diet, regardless of what the scale reads. Sometimes my weight wouldn't drop for 4-5 days, but then I would fast and my weight dropped quickly by a few pounds in just 2-3 days. Sometimes I would feel bad for eating a dinner I planned to skip, but my weight actually dropped by the next morning. At other times I stuck to my fast, not eating anything more than an apple, but my weight rose 2 lbs. anyway. It's the water retention and glycogen energy storage.
It's important not to eat 2 big
meals in a row. If you splurge and eat a 1,000 calories dinner, then be
determined to eat nothing the next day but an apple (catabolic) and maybe a
small can of juice (100 calories), and a pack of plain oat meal (100
calories). Although not eating is is considered UNSAFE by many people, the
Bible teaches fasting, so it's not bad for a personal with normal health.
Ask your doctor if you have any health issues if it's safe to fast. Some
Christians shouldn't fast due to the body's medical and nutritional needs.
However, for healthy people fasting is appropriate, which I will explain
more later.
Egg Whites Are 100% Pure Protein And Great For Dieting
I once met a 66-year-old man named Ben, who looked energetic, happy and reminded me of Jack Lalanne. I told him that and he said he hears that a lot. He told me that he was Mr. Universe in California back in the 1970's and 1980's. I believe him. That 66-year-old man loaded every weight he could find onto the leg press and pressed it. It must have been 700-800 lbs. He had about eight 45 pound plates on each side. He wasn't big and bulky, just lean and in shape.
I took good advantage of the opportunity to inquire about his diet, so I could learn, and boy did he teach me something... Egg whites! Ben told me that he's been eating a carton of egg whites every day for the past 45-years. That's one dozen eggs per day, without the yolks. It's much better to throw the egg yolks into the garbage than to have a heart attack down the road. But Ben said he gives his yolks to the dogs. The yolks are bad for you, each yolk containing 79% of the daily recommended amount of cholesterol. An easy way to remember what contains cholesterol is to think animals. Only products that come from animals, like eggs, meat and milk have cholesterol. The great thing is that egg whites contain ZERO cholesterol. Only the yellow yolk has cholesterol.
The egg whites are the purest form of protein available. Instead of having red meat, boil some eggs. In the first movie of the ROCKY series with Sylvester Stallone, he drinks a cup of mixed raw eggs, yolks and all. I don't recommend doing that unless you want to have the worst intestinal gas imaginable. If you hard-boil the eggs first, and then eat just the eggs whites, there's no gas. Ben taught me to hard-boil a dozen eggs at once and then put them back into the carton and refrigerate them. What a great idea! When you want an egg, just gently break it and roll it back and forth on the table a few times. The shell peels off in 3-4 seconds. When an egg is still warm, it's hard to peel and you'll pull the egg apart with the shells because they stick together. Once refrigerated overnight, the shell comes right off. When dieting, I boil a dozen eggs once a week and try to eat one egg white per day, sometimes two.
The human body needs PROTEIN,
CARBOHYDRATES and FATS. If all three nutrients are abundant in the
diet—carbohydrates and fats will be used primarily for energy while proteins
provide the raw materials for making hormones, muscle, and other essential
biological equipment. Your body needs all three. Proteins are broken down by
the body into amino acids and used as building materials for muscles and
tissues, and for causing chemical reactions to take place in the body. Egg
whites are an excellent substitute for meat, which will lower both your
blood pressure and cholesterol levels if they're elevated.
Less Carbohydrates Will Change Your Life!
In simple and easy to understand terms, both carbohydrates (carbs) and fats are used by the body as energy. The main difference is that carbohydrates can only be stored by the body for 1-2 days at most, whereas fats can be stored with unlimited capacity in the body's fat cells. Carbohydrates (and sugars) are broken down into glucose in the body, which passes through the intestines, liver and then bloodstream to the cells. Given a choice, the body prefers carbohydrates over fatty acids. So of you eat a diet high in carbohydrates (which is what most people do), the body is going to store all that excess glucose in the form of fat.
If you are overweight, your body has a surplus of stored glucose (carbs) and triglycerides (fats). So it's important to CUT YOUR CARBOHYDRATE INTAKE. You can't just eat lower calorie foods to lose weight. That's important too, but the main thing is to eat foods that contain less carbohydrates. Rice, bread and potatoes are bad for a diet, because they are very high in carbohydrates. I learned this from Ben.
Here's something NO ONE likes, but it is the painful truth why so many Americans are obese and sickly with everything from diabetes to heart-disease... a LIST OF REFINED PROCESSED CARBOHYDRATES. These are probably all the foods you ate this month and last and your whole life. This is why Americans are so unhealthy!
When digested, all carbohydrates become sugar. If you eat both carbs and fats, your body will tend to burn the sugar from the carbs and store the fat. If you restrict your carb intake, your body will quickly begin burning fat, which is exactly what you want. So to lose weight, the main idea is to switch your metabolism from burning sugar to burning fat. And you do this by eating low-carbohydrate foods.
How many carbohydrates should we eat per day? The United States Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human services publish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years. They currently suggest that about half your daily calories should come from carbohydrates, so you can determine how many grams of carbohydrates you need base on your calorie intake. So for example if you're eating a 1,200 calories diet, half of that would be 600. There are 4 calories in 1 gram of carbohydrate. So eating 150 grams of carbs equals 600 calories. That is our goal then, to eat no more than 150 grams of carbohydrates per day while dieting. LOW CARB FOODS AND LIST. These are the foods that will help us to lose weight and prevent all the horrible Western Civilization Diseases that are epidemic in America.
Fats in foods are broken down by the body into fatty acids. Excess fatty acids are packaged into bundles (known as triglycerides) and stored in the body's fat cells (you've probably heard that term if you've ever had a blood test). So if your triglycerides are high, it means that you have elevated levels of stored fat. Losing weight can do wonders to correct that. My triglycerides were 328 fifteen years ago and I never had any noticeable problems or effects from it. I weigh much more now and my triglycerides were at 250 in May of 2012.
Beware of doctors who want to put
you on prescription drugs to correct these things without first trying a
proper and effective diet. That's just my opinion. The most important factor
in ANY diet is determination, desire, for without it you're not going to do
what needs to be done to lose weight. There's no magic cure. Ben taught me
that the only true way to lose weight to is decrease the energy input to
your body's output. It's that simple.
Those Wild Cravings
No diet will work if you are a slave to your cravings. I bought some FULL BAR diet snack bars at Vitamin World, which tasted like sugar-coated Styrofoam. Yuk!!! Each bar is 160 calories and is supposed to curb cravings if eaten with an 8 ounce glass of water; but it doesn't help me. You can have a whole Dinty Moore beef stew entrée, which is only 240 calories! In fact, a 24 ounce can of Dinty Moore beef stew, with potatoes and meat, is only 600 calories. That's 1 1/2 pounds of food and only 600 calories! So if you are starving and have to eat something... beef stew!
I've learned that my cravings are actually my body wanting something, like a certain mineral or vitamin. Mostly, the body craves PROTEIN, like red meat or chicken. Hard-boil some eggs and eat the egg whites only (throw way the yolks). Have an 8 or 12 ounce can of V-8 vegetable juice with it. I really don't like apples and never have, but they're are catabolic and great to lose weight.
In addition, apples are high in malic acid, which will burn the cholesterol out of your veins if you eat them regularly. Hence the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Also, some weight lifting that produces soreness in the muscles also helps reduce artery plague, as the lactic acid burns the cholesterol out of the veins.
I wouldn't do this often, but when your diet becomes overwhelming, there are some foods that you can indulge in without ruining your diet. What you want to avoid is greasy foods which are loaded with fattening oils. Each Tablespoon of oil is 120 calories! I got fat on cheese and potato pierogies baptized in olive oil. I can eat 10 pierogies, putting down 1,500 calories in one meal because of all the oil. I love Tombstone pizza, eating the whole thing, which is 1800 calories!
I drink an adequate amount of pure water (about a half gallon throughout each day). I NEVER drink fluoridated tap water. I take 3 natural “Green Source” vitamins from Vitamin World everyday (only with a meal). Another brand I've been taking is ULTRA MAN from Vitamin World. I also take a couple “Triple Omega 3-6-9” Fish Oil pills from Vitamin World a few times weekly. I don't have a preference of stores, but the vitamins and minerals MUST be 100% all natural. Wal-Mart is the worst place to buy vitamins, because it's all synthetic junk. GNC is fine, or some natural health store near you.
That's the only reason I go to Vitamin World, they're close to me. I use to go to GNC, and then a mom and pop store that carried natural products. I always opt for mom and pop stores where available. Chain stores have deteriorated America. Customers use to mean something to companies. The customer is rarely considered right any more; but used to always be right because they kept the businesses' doors open.
I usually eat an apple for breakfast and a package of oatmeal to get my fiber. I'll skip lunch and look forward all day to eating dinner at about 5 or 6 that evening. That's all I eat for the day. This is how I diet. The other night I had 3 scrambled eggs cooked in a little butter, folded over with 4 heaping Tablespoons of sharp cheddar cheese inside (an omelet). It was great and about 400 calories! I also fried a small ribeye steak with it, which was about 200 calories. That's all I ate for the day besides an apple and some oatmeal earlier in the day. The problem with the omelet is that it's high in cholesterol, which is not good. So if you have high cholesterol, eliminate egg yokes from your diet. You can eat all the egg whites you want, which contains no cholesterol.
For lunch I might have a salad with a ripe diced up fresh avocado, and a can of orange-pineapple juice. Lettuce is catabolic. I'm careful not to use much Ranch salad dressing (my favorite) because it is really high in calories. I never use diet salad dressings. BEWARE of foods that advertise only 5 calories and are made of artificial substances!!! Each Tablespoon of salad dressing is 120 calories. All oils are high in calories. Just a 16 ounce bottle of peanut oil is 4000 calories!!! So I just use the salad dressing and oils sparingly.
For dinner I often have a small 1/4 lb ribeye steak (150-200 calories) fried with one grilled onion (80 calories). Here's my steak recipe. I use only one Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (it has that wonderful fruity smell). Just one Tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. DON'T get the processed olive oil because it has no aroma or flavor. I get the extra virgin olive oil bottled by CARBONELL. I also have a fresh dinner roll with some butter (salted or unsalted butter, whichever you prefer. I like either).
If I am extra hungry, I'll eat a little more than usual, but then I know I have to make it up by eating less in the next meal. I know I have to eat something, so I carefully choose a low-calorie diet to make up for the extra calories I had earlier. I've read that drinking a lot of water curbs the appetite, but not for me. I've also read that drinking cold ice water burns more calories because the body has to heat up the water in your stomach; but the only way to lose weight quickly is to drastically reduce your calorie intake.
Something that has really helped curb my cravings is eating one or two hard-boiled egg whites per day and throwing away the yellow yolk inside. Since the egg whites are 100% pure protein, it soothes the body's craving for meat. What you're really wanting is PROTEIN. And forget powdered meal replacement shakes... yuk! Two egg whites will do more for your body than all that powdered unnatural garbage!
If you're hungry you're hungry, and need to put something in your stomach. It's not good to starve yourself, except to fast for a day or so. Starving one's body actually sends it into defensive mode and bad things start to happen chemically that throw off your metabolism (actually slowing the losing weight process). You want to eat foods that will increase your body's metabolism. Eat a few bites at least, BUT not much. The trick is to eat until your stomach doesn't hurt anymore, instead of eating to your belly's delight.
I've learned that I can eat anything I want while dieting, I just can't eat ALL I WANT. I'll make a sandwich when my stomach hurts, but then after a few bites I feel content, and so I save the rest of the sandwich until later that day. This is important to dieting. You need to stop eating when your stomach says it's enough for that moment. If you eat the entire sandwich, then your body has to burn that much more food before it gets to the stored fat in your body. The only way to lose weight is to force your body to burn some of the stored fat each day, a little at a time. As long as you don't go over 1200 calories in a day, you WILL LOSE WEIGHT, but be patient (2 pounds a week is realistic). I lost 3 lbs per week, because I fasted every other day and ate less than 500 calories. I explain this more later.
I love fried foods, but they are
bad because of the greasy oils that clog the arteries. The tastiest foods
are the worst foods for our health.
Learn To Eat Only Half A Meal
I bought a bunch of gallon-sized bags, because I don't want to eat a whole meal. I only eat half of a meal and store the rest in my refrigerator for the evening, or the next day. Do you know why Americans are so obese? One main reason is because restaurants dish out such large proportions. And it's because we have allowed the food companies to decide how much we eat. Reese's peanut butter cups come in packages of 2. What if I only want to eat one? Should I let the other melt in my pocket? If you want to lose weight, then you must stop letting others decide how much you eat and control it yourself. When I go out to eat now, I always order my food to go, so that I can eat half and take the rest with me for dinner later. That is how I am losing weight. Americans are obese largely because we let others decide how much we eat.
I went into a restaurant this week with the intention of only eating half of my food. The sweet waitress brought me a free scoop of chocolate ice cream while I was waiting. Oh boy, doesn't she know that I'm on a diet? I smiled and happily ate the ice-cream, but I silently knew that I couldn't still eat half of my lunch. Fortunately, I found out later that a scoop of ice ream is only 120 calories. Then I got home and listened to a sermon by one of my favorite preachers... Dr. Jeff Owens. In the sermon he mentioned a man by the name of “Brother Bacon.” Oh boy, I love bacon! Doesn't he know that I'm on a diet? I felt convicted brother, let me tell you, I never craved bacon so much.
Then when I was in the checkout line at the grocery store, I looked up and there it was... the biggest Hershey's chocolate candy bar I ever saw in my life. Don't they know I'm trying to lose weight? It looked so tempting and tasty. It was about one foot in length and 8-inches wide. It was a monster bar, let me tell you. I flipped the bar over and read the calorie content in curiosity... the entire candy bar was 1,000 calories!!! No wonder Americans are so fat!!! No, I didn't buy the candy bar, let someone else add 1,000 calories to their fat body. That's one-fourth pound of added body weight (fat)! So beware of the tempters who will dangle all sorts of delicious foods in your face.
I love making and eating fresh tacos, using the original McCormick packet of seasoning. I brown a pound of regular hamburger (1500 calories), drain the fat, add the packet of seasoning (120 calories) and some pure water, then let it simmer down until the water is gone. I use shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 60 calories per taco), diced fresh iceberg lettuce (regular lettuce), and yellow corn tortillas (60 calories each). The whole recipe makes 6 loaded tacos, each containing about 300 calories. I use little meat and cheese and LOTS of fresh cold lettuce. So I eat 2 tacos, which means each time I make a taco meal I have 3 meals of 600 calories each. I made tacos for Christmas, and saved the rest for the next day. I love tacos.
I admit, dieting isn't easy for a
guy who loves food, but I got tired of not being able to tie my shoes
without struggling. That's when I realized I was really gaining weight. And
so I'm off to a great start, and with the Lord's help and determination, I
will lose my gut. When I was younger I used to be able to do 20 pushups at
the drop of a hat, now that's all I can do is drop a hat. I see so many
people nowadays that look like blimps, weighing 300-400 lbs. I want to go
down in my weight, not up.
Fasting is How I Lost Weight Quickly
The last thing you want to do during a diet to lose weight is stop eating and starve your body. That's not healthy and can cause health problems. A “fast” is not starving one's self. There are many different types of fasts. I went on a juice fast (drinking a small can of juice per day, which is 100 calories). I also ate an apple or two per day, which are catabolic (they cause the body to burn more calories than they contain). I also ate one package of plain oatmeal (100 calories). Oatmeal has fiber and contains many minerals for the body. So a can of juice, package of oatmeal, and a couple apples limited my calories to a few hundred calories per day at most. I only do this every 2-3 days. You cannot fast every day, because your body needs new foods and nutrients. I don't take my vitamins on fasting days to avoid stomach pain. If I do, I'll take them with the oatmeal.
You don't need to fast, but this is how I lose weight faster and break through plateaus. When my weight doesn't drop at all for a few days I get upset with myself for eating too much and then go on a strict fast for a day until my weight drops, and it always does. During a fast, eat a hard-boiled egg (just the egg white). Eat ONE BITE of this and ONE BITE of that, being careful. I fast doesn't have to mean starving yourself, but instead just drastically reducing your food consumption for a day. But please note that I don't starve my body during the fast, I eat a pack of oatmeal, an apple and some juice over a 24-hour period. If my body craves a certain food, then I'll eat a LITTLE of it. Again, I am just sharing with you what works for me and how I'm losing weight quickly.
You lose weight by REVERSING the process that made your fat. Eating high carbohydrate meals gets us fat. So eating low carbohydrate meals will help us lose weight if we don't gorge ourselves. Fish, baked chicken, vegetables and a little fruit are all good.
I am not taking any weight-loss products. They are all useless in my opinion. Losing weight requires character and determination. The health store sells some high-fiber tablets that are supposed to curb one's appetite, but all they did was dry out my throat and make me thirsty like a fish. I stopped taking them. Maybe it's because they reacted with my prescription medications. I don't know. You need strong will power and determination to stick to a diet, plain and simple. If you diet, you will be hungry at times and you'll just have to do without the food you crave, and tell your body NO. Once you see your weight steadily dropping on your DIGITAL scale, you'll be happy with yourself. I highly recommend the extra wide digital scale with the extra large read out, because it makes losing weight a lot more fun and real. A skimpy inaccurate scale with a generic needle readout will discourage you... guaranteed. I threw mine in the garbage pail. GO DIGITAL!
Remember, I'm way overweight, so my body has plenty of reserve to burn for fuel. The only way to lose weight is to force the body to burn stored fat. I never fasted for more than a day at a time. I fast about 2 or 3 days a week. So I eat 1200 calories (or less if I'm not hungry); and then I fast 2 or 3 days a week, eating just an apple, some oatmeal, and juice. Again, I'm not saying to do this. I'm just sharing what I did and it is working for me. I'm telling what has already worked for me. I really like fasting a few days a week, because my weight drops much over those days, and breaks away from the plateau weight I was hovering at. Then my weight shoots back up 3 pounds when I eat a normal meal and drink a big bottle of water. That's normal while dieting. You'll have highs and lows on the scale; but after a fast I have always made a new low in my weight when I wake up the next morning (i.e., before drinking any liquids).
I've noticed that while dieting my body sometimes doesn't want any food, and so I eat very little during those times (but I always eat something just to get vitamins and minerals into my body). The body continually processes any food in the stomach, so it's most beneficial to spread out one's daily consumption of food. Like I said, eat a few bites of a sandwich and save the rest until later. That way you eat one sandwich that day instead of 2 sandwiches. Every little bit helps you lose weight. If you continually eat a little more and a little extra, then you won't lose weight. It needs to be the other way around, don't take that extra bite, don't drink the entire milkshake. Americans are obese because of all the super-sized meals that food sellers shove in our faces.
I also noticed at other times while dieting that my body felt like it was starving, being very hungry, and craving wild combinations of food like I was pregnant or something. I am convinced that this is the body's way of asking for particular nutrients, so I ate a little of whatever my body craved. One night I craved a spam sandwich. I sliced a half single-pack of spam and ate it on a dinner role with a little Miracle-Whip. I ate half and stored the rest in a baggie in the refrigerator for the next day. After eating that my body was craving a Goobers peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, so I made a sandwich and again only ate half until my body said enough. I stored the rest in a baggie for the next day.
I didn't eat more than my body wanted. A few bites and the craving was gone. Then I graved one piece of pepperoni. So I ate one slice. I snacked on various foods, a little of each until my body was content. This is how I diet. I give my body what it craves, but I don't eat all I want. I don't stuff myself (which I how I got so fat in the first place). You can eat anything you want while dieting, you just can't eat all you want. People who don't care and just stuff their face will end up with clogged arteries, high-blood-pressure, diabetes, gout, and all sorts of health problems.
I take advantage of the times when my body is not hungry, and only have an apple or a light snack; I do this to make up for the times when I am overwhelmed with hunger and give in a little bit to satisfy my cravings. If you stick to the 1200 calorie a day diet, you WILL LOSE WEIGHT. If you don't fast, and eat just 1200 calories a day, then you should lose about one pound every 4-5 days (about 6-10 pounds per month). But if you fast, then you can lose weight MUCH faster. On fast days I don't go over 500 calories. This is just me.
I noticed that when my weight would drop a few pounds that I would plateau. My weight didn't drop consistently. That is very interesting. I have heard other people say that they encountered the same thing while dieting. The answer is to fast on juices and very light foods until the weight starts to drop again. During your juice fast, you can eat all the catabolic foods you want if you get hungry. Cantaloupe is catabolic. Any dishes made mostly of tomatoes is very low in calories because the tomatoes are catabolic. Strawberries are catabolic. These are foods that you can snack on while fasting if you get hungry, without hurting you diet at all.
Please understand that I listen to my body while dieting. If while fasting my stomach hurts from hunger, I ate anyway, just to get something into my stomach. The important thing is to become familiar with all the foods you are eating and be calorie-conscious of everything that goes into your mouth. I used to just eat when I felt like it, many as a comfort food to overcome depression due to my constant neck pain. That's how I gained so much weight. I eat sometimes when I'm sad to brighten my day. There's nothing like succulent, juicy, seasoned, fried chicken to brighten one's day!!! That's why a lot of people eat so much. But once you get up to 250-300 pounds, or more, then you're very sad because you're so overweight, and feel bad being seen in public, or when you try to bend over to tie your shoes, or look in the mirror sideways.
My weight stopped at 190 and didn't seem to drop anymore; but after a one-day juice and oatmeal fast, I dropped to 188. I ate 1200 calories day, and a week later I was at 187. The mind tricks you into thinking a very long period of time has passed, but it has only been a few days. When dieting a day can seem like a week, and a week a month. The most important factor in successful dieting is CONSISTENCY. If you blow it and hog-out one night on your favorite food, don't fret. It just means you've ruined your diet for ONE DAY. That's it. It's no big deal. I ruined my diet on numerous occasions, feeling guilty for overeating when I had planned to eat very lightly that night or for lunch. I just became even more determined when that happened, making sure to eat only an apple for breakfast the next day, and a bowl of plain oatmeal for lunch, and perhaps a small steak and grilled onion for dinner (which is less than 500 calories).
I'm just sharing with others my dieting experience, because it is working well and I thought worth sharing. Walking and exercising didn't help at all. To stop eating completely doesn't work either, because you'll feel weak, dizzy at times, and perhaps stomach pains if you don't eat enough food. So eat, but know the calorie amount of everything you eat. If you live with others who are not dieting, tell them you are on a diet, and ask them to help you by not feeding you. You'll never lose weight if someone is handing you delicious food to eat all the time.
I avoided most packaged foods, like
beef sticks, beef-jerky, potato chips, Pringles, Doritos, because all that
stuff is fat city. Just one red-hot burrito is 600 calories. A bag of
combination pizza rolls is 1500 calories. One can of spaghetti and meatballs
is 540 calories. One hamburger bun is 120 calories. One Oscar Meyer hotdog
(chicken and pork) is 130 calories. I love Oscar Meyer hotdogs, with steamed
buns... Emmmmm! No toppings, just a good ole hotdog and bun. I grew up in
Chicago, so I know what a great hotdog tastes like. Chicagoans never use
catsup on their hotdogs: only mustard, diced raw onions, relish, pickles,
sometimes a
thin half-moon slice of red tomato, and a small hot pepper. For Polish
hotdogs, you just have mustard and loads of hot grilled onions!!! Em, em,
good! But NO catsup! And if the fries are cut from fresh potatoes and made
correctly, they'll be soft and mushy, lightly salted to perfection, and you
won't want catsup! Catsup is for bad fries.
Back to My Diet
It's a matter of discipline to stick to a 1200 calorie a day diet (which is the recommended safe limit). Going below 1200 calories can cause health problems, so I've read. If you don't eat right and get the nutrients your body needs, your teeth will come loose and fall out over time. But I'm not going to die from a one day fast a couple times a week. Taking vitamins is really important because America's food growers don't replenish the soil with selenium and other needful nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that the human body needs. The vitamins I'm taking now, ULTRA MAN, have 286% of the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of selenium. There's over 5,000% of the RDA of vitamin B12. I like them.
While dieting I eat a variety of foods to give my body different things. When your body craves a particular food, it likely means that your body needs a certain nutrient. Horses that don't get enough copper in their diet will eat everything in the barn. Babies who don't receive proper vitamins will pick things up off the floor and put everything into their mouth, ending up with lead poisoning. Not enough focus is placed in America upon proper nutrition, because like everything else, people don't care anymore. The food companies place profits over people.
The Lord was convicting me about my weight, that a Christian man shouldn't look like a glutton, and so I want to please my Lord in my appearance. I gained a lot of weight after having 2 neck surgeries and was depressed that the surgeries didn't help to alleviate my neck pain at all. I still suffer horribly every day of my life, surviving on 100 mg per day of Oxycontin. I have stabbing pain intermittently radiating into my arms and legs. The toothache-like pain in my neck is constant and debilitating, radiating into my facial area and causing chronic muscle tension 24 hours a day in the back of my neck. God has used this to humble me greatly, and keep me humble. I know pain and suffering.
I kicked the 12 mg. of Dilaudid (drugstore heroine). That was one of the most horrible experiences I ever had. The withdrawal symptoms are terrible, just as they were when I kicked the 60 mg. of Morphine Sulfate I was taking per day (in addition to 8 Percocet 10/325's per day). That's a lot of prescription drugs! I've tried to stop all pain meds, but I cry because the pain is so bad and wish I were dead because my neck hurts so bad. You would too I assure you. I need the pain killers, and thank God so much for them. I am suffering in moderate pain now, because I stopped taking the Dilaudid, but being addicted to opiate based drugs is not healthy nor good. And so I live in between total unbearable pain and total drug addiction, and suffer daily. Please pray for me often.
Getting back to my diet. I'm not giving anyone medical advice, nor am I telling anyone to diet as I am. I'm just sharing with others what I am doing to lose weight, and it's working well. The digital scale is a big boost. When I seem to plateau at a certain weight and get stuck, I know that I'm beginning to eat too much again, and so I cut back the calories until I see the weight start to drop again. Don't try to do too much too fast if you do decide to join me in losing weight. I'm not a doctor and am not telling anyone to do anything, but I think a lot of people would like to lose some weight, so why not share what works for me. It's just my opinion.
By sticking to a 1200 calorie per day diet, that means my body burns at least 1000 calories of body fat daily (especially while sleeping). The body burns about 600 calories just during a night's sleep. I thought that walking and exercising would help, BUT IT DOESN'T. All exercise does is make you that much more hungry for food, which your body will need if you're burning a lot of calories. That's counter productive. So if you do walk or exercise, don't do it to lose weight, do it because you wanted to exercise or go for a walk.
It's also helpful to get a hobby, something that you enjoy doing that preoccupies your mind. Many people eat because they are bored. People should eat to live; not live to eat. It is truly sad how obese American society has become. No wonder nearly half the country has diabetes, high blood-pressure, cancer, gout, gastrointestinal problems, et cetera. The number one way to live a longer life is to EAT LESS. Eating more increases the body's metabolism and leads to a premature death. I hope the Lord takes me home sooner than later, but I want to take care of the health I have until that time comes.
We live in a toxic society in the U.S. Autism is virtually unheard off amongst the Amish, because they do not vaccinate their children with poisonous vaccines which cause autism in millions of U.S. children from the mercury. If you want to hear something very eye-opening, listen to this presentation by a chiropractor about the drug industry and what they're doing to our society. Everybody is being drugged up to increase profits for the Pharmaceutical companies...
Pharmakeia: Sorcery, Witchcraft, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacy | Part 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Again, I am just sharing what I have done, and am doing, and it works for me; but I am not encouraging anyone to do this. It is your decision. I feel good that I am losing weight, and plan to reach my proper weight when it is time. I have not set any goals or dates by which I ought to be at a certain weight. Instead, I'm just watching my digital scale day-by-day. I weigh about 6 times per day, to familiarize myself with how my body processes food and water. I weigh the less and break through new milestones to the downside when I wake up in the morning, and my body is least hydrated. Water weighs 8 lbs per gallon, so drinking a half gallon of water is 4 lbs right there. My body fluctuates by about 2-3 pounds up and down throughout each day, but I continue to progress downward as I stick to my 1200 calorie intake of food. As I said, I see my weight drop about a pound every 3 days because I also fast.
Also, eating an apple helped me to overcome plateaus where my weight seemed to freeze. Apples cause the body to burn more calories than they contain, as does cantaloupe, strawberries and lettuce. I avoid eating much peanuts or cashew nuts, because they are very high in calories. I only eat a small handful of nuts at a time, for energy. When my stomach feels hungry, I'll eat about 10 cashews just to get something into my stomach. It's best to eat many small meals throughout the day rather than one giant meal. If I anticipate a big dinner, than I will eat a banana and some frosted mini wheats for breakfast, and then have an apple for lunch with a piece of raisin bread and some orange juice.
It takes time to gain weight, and likewise to lose weight. If you stop eating and starve yourself, you will give up your diet and not continue. The way to go is to find a diet that works for you, that you enjoy, where you can still have your favorite foods (just not so much of them). If you love pizza, eat less. I can eat an entire Tombstone sausage pizza at one meal. THE WHOLE PIZZA! I rarely leave a slice. That's 1800 calories for one meal! Their pizza sauce is addicting. I'm making myself hungry here. I can't do that while dieting, nor do I plan to do that ever again. The way to avoid that is to eat a big salad first (the lettuce is all catabolic). Then eat 2 or 3 slices instead. Add up the calories, become calorie conscious of everything that goes into your mouth. That is how I am losing weight.
When I go out to eat somewhere, I don't ask how many calories are in a meal. But I have learned what foods contain what. Beef is low in calories. I bought some Hormel prepared dinners. The roast beef, gravy, and mashed potatoes is only 160 calories. The chicken breast, gravy and mashed potatoes is 200 calories. The sliced turkey, gravy, and stuffing is 290 calories. I bought some Kraft macaroni-and-cheese cups, that you just add water and microwave, which are 200 calories each. I don't want to eat prepared foods too much, but have included some into my diet for a quick snack when I'm hungry.
So you see, you can eat quite a bit and still stick with a 1200 calorie per day diet. If you have any health conditions, you should definitely check with your doctor first before dieting. There's a lot of scams on the internet for dieting, but like everything else in life, there are no shortcuts. Don't buy anything to help you lose weight. You have to eat healthier, period. Dieting is about changing your diet, not ceasing from eating. If you eat healthier, you WILL LOSE WEIGHT. When your stomach hurts (located right below your rib cage), you need to eat something. Drinking water isn't going to help. That's where those 200 calories dinners I mentioned come in handy. A can of Stagg chili (good stuff) is about 500 calories. I eat half a can and save the rest until the next day. I don't like Hormel chili at all. I try not to eat much canned foods because of the sodium, but some in a diet is ok. I have a buttered dinner roll with many meals.
I think it is insane for someone to get surgery to curb their appetite. The great thing about catabolic foods is that you can eat much of them and it will actually help you to lose weight. You can eat a half of a head of lettuce for lunch. Make a giant salad and garnish it with tomatoes (which are also catabolic) and maybe an Avocado (which contains many nutrients). I don't eat too much fried food as I used too. I fried up some spam, onions, potatoes and mushrooms for New Years Eve going into 2011. I ate half and saved the rest for New Year's Day. I loaded it with pepper and it was really great with a little ketchup.
As I'm dieting, there are times when I am very hungry and give in a little bit to eat more; but then I notice that I'm not hungry later in the day, so I DON'T EAT A BIG MEAL when I'm not that hungry... I eat an apple for dinner and then go to sleep. It's important in my diet that I don't eat when I'm not hungry. Many people eat as an activity because they are bored or depressed. Eating is certainly something God meant for us to enjoy or else He wouldn't have given us taste-buds. I'm dieting eating foods I like; but then skipping a big meal when I'm not that hungry, eating only some oatmeal and an apple; whereas I used to eat 3 big meals day in between snacks.
The goal is to change one's diet into something that can be maintained once you've lost weight, so you don't gain it all back. You've got to find a way to still eat your favorite foods, just don't stuff yourself, and start eating foods higher in fiber (like beans) and more vegetables. Fruit contains fruit sugar, fructose, so don't eat more than 2 pieces of sweet fruit per day. You can have all the vegetables you want. Different color vegetables contain different types of nutrients, so eat a variety of foods. I really like baby Bok Choy once in a awhile. If you eat healthy all week, then you can splurge one day and eat something more fattening, like deep dish pizza, but this is where it's easy to mess up your diet, so I prefer to stick to my healthy diet. I still eat the foods I like, but only a half or third at a setting. I save the rest for later or the next day.
Obesity is a big problem in America, leading to high blood pressure, diabetes, and all sorts of health problems. Losing weight is the best way to bring high blood sugar, glucose, back down to normal (and drinking plenty of pure water). Whereas my blood pressure was always borderline high, this month my blood pressure was 120/80, which is good. My dieting has lowered my blood pressure back to normal, which used to be 140/100. Also, the malic acid in apples helps burn plaque away from the inside of your arteries that often leads to a stroke and heart-attack.
This is just what I've been doing to take better care of the body God has given me. I'm ready to go to Heaven to be with the Lord, but until that time I don't want to go out limb by limb unless I have to. Diabetes leads to amputations and all sorts of health problems. Poor diet will kill you slowly and painfully as you get older. I'm already suffering in enough pain from bone spurs and nerve damage in my neck. I feel more energetic since I've stopped drinking 2 Cokes a day. I haven't had a soda in 2 months now. I don't drink beer, but I have a soda gut from all the pop. It was reported in the news recently in 2011 that high fructose corn syrup (the main ingredient in soda pop) causes obesity. It has something to do with the way the body processes the artificially processed sugars.
I am speaking about diet fasting in this article, not necessarily spiritual fasting, although they are closely related. Biblical fasting always involves prayer, letting go of the physical to grasp more of the spiritual. I have used my dieting experience as an opportunity to draw closer to God. To learn more please read, The Philosophy Behind Prayer and Fasting.
One of the biggest encouragements I would give to anyone wanting to lose weight is not to become discouraged just because you mess up your diet sometimes by eating too much. That is to be expected. I ruin my diet all the time, but I come back with a vengeance against my appetite by fasting for a day, forcing my weight to drop to a new low. Then I'll eat a very light meal the day after my fast, so I don't undo the progress made. It works for me. I am determined to lose weight! You can dice up a half-head of iceberg lettuce and pour a Tablespoon or two of salad dressing on top. It's a filling meal and very low in calories. It cleans out your body, and the lettuce is catabolic. So eat a big salad on fasting days so at least you've eaten something.
Once you reach your proper weight, then you can reward yourself by eating 2,200 calories a day instead. I plan to lose much more weight, to get down to my proper weight of about 150-155 by the end of 2011, Lord willing.
