Recently, I succeeded at something that many before me have already attempted. I lost weight! This is not an easy task for anyone, but I was determined.
First, I did my research. I needed a diet plan that wouldn't annoy me too much, and would be easy to remember. This is not an easy task. Elimination diets and calorie counting both leave a sour taste in my mouth. If my diet was going to require too much focus, then it wasn't going to work. Period.
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In the end I turned to Michael Pollan. Michael Pollan isn't a nutritionist or physical trainer, but rather a food anthropologist. He knows more about food, food history, and culinary traditions than most of us. Through his studies, he has made a set of simple recommendations that manages to anger both vegetarians and meat eaters. These recommendations are straightforward and based on his research of how people around the world eat and have eaten through the centuries. Boiled down he is promoting a diet of food that is naturally found in the environment, rather than artificial concoctions. However here is his full recommendation:
"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
Now that's a diet that I can remember and follow! Next in my research was the advice that surrounds hacking the process. I know that there is no easy panacea for weight loss, but I am happy to take every shortcut that I can get. The best shortcuts and aids that I could find came from
this article appropriately titled "40 no-dieting tips to lose weight." Here is a list of my favorite tips from the list that I regularly use.
1. food journaling (yes, everyday)
2. getting an online weight loss buddy (I have 33 of them at the free forum I joined!)
3. get a mantra (mine is "I am hungry for water)
4. sniff a banana when you're hungry (I sniff cinnamon sticks)
5. throw your fat clothes away for good (this occurred during my decluttering)
6. make one social outing this week an active one (Aerial yoga, hikes, paddle boarding)
7. eat 90% of your meals at home
8. If you're going to indulge choose fat releasing foods (Dark chocolate for the win!)
9. try hot sauce, or cajun seasoning
10. eat fruit instead of fruit juice
11. drop your milk type- my mom has had me hooked on skim for awhile now
12. snack on a small handful of nuts
13. get most of your calories before noon
14. close the kitchen for 12 hours
15. put less food out and you'll take less in
Last but not least, I followed the cardinal weight loss advice: Move more and drink more water. I started drinking 8 oz of water as soon as I wake up to perk me up and start me off on the right foot. Then I counted my water intake for the rest of the day. I found that while full on water it's harder to be hungry for food. 64 oz a day is a lot! I felt full! Hence the inspiration for my mantra, "I'm hungry for water."
I also got my butt moving. I created a plan that would be too fun for me to fail. This meant two days of Zumba a week, playing dance games at home and running on the other days. Running is the most boring of the three, for me. However, I had a plan. I would listen to audiobooks ONLY when on the treadmill. That way I wouldn't be bored while I was doing it, and I'd be encouraged to keep going to hear the next parts of the story.
It's quite a large plan, but I wanted to cover my bases. I wanted to succeed. You see, I didn't only attempt this goal to fit into my gorgeous structural Jessica Simpson dress. Losing weight also happens to be a strategy for managing Psuedotumor Cerebrii. Psuedotumor Cerebrii is a mostly innocuous condition that I have, that if untreated can lead to vision loss. I had no choice, I had to lose weight. So, I did.
