I apologize for not posting sooner. Life has been hectic. My goal is to have one or two posts per week. Today, I want to spotlight my second pillar of weight loss success – FACTS.
Facts don’t lie. Nearly every day since November 2020, I have stepped on my scale. I did so again this morning. The scale gives me a number. The scale doesn’t care about my feelings. The scale doesn’t care if I had a busy weekend. The scale simply gives me a fact. While I recognize there a numerous ways to measure one’s health, I have used the scale to measure my journey. And, according to my scale, I am 70 pounds lighter than my all time high and 64 pounds lighter than November 2020. So before, I write anything more, I am celebrating this.
Like many, I have struggled with weight for most of my life. If I am being honest, I was active and healthy until my family moved to a new house shortly before the start of 2nd grade. A new house in a new neighborhood with a new school was a lot for my 7-year-old mind to process. I had to start over. It wasn’t easy. I most likely used food to feel better. Further, the new neighborhood had fewer kids my age, so I wasn’t as active. I developed poor habits at a young age. Knowing this helped in my journey. I knew I needed to break some habits and create new ones.
A major challenge to weight loss is cutting through the crap. To be successful in weight loss, I knew had find a program that worked for me. Go to a book store and look at the number of books dedicated to weight loss. There are hundreds. I estimate that I have read over a dozen weight loss books over the years. I’ve tried many of them and had some short term success. Ultimately, each diet failed, and I regained the weight (and often a bit more).
For me, the reasons for the failure were the same. First, I never had focus. Second, each of the diets was missing essential nutrients. Third, the diets were based on junk science. Fourth, there was no support.
I found some common ground with all the diets. I have concluded there is a unifying theme with all the diets. At its core, weight loss is simple. Eat fewer calories than your body burns, and you will lose weight. There are all sorts of formulas and/ calculators on the internet to figure out how many calories you burn each day. Most will say you burn between 2500-3000 per day depending on you activity level. Eat less than 2500-3000 calories and you will lose weight.
Yet, with the simplicity of caloric intake formula, there is the complexity on the outside. This includes what kind of food should I eat? How should I cook the food? Can I have sugar? Can I eat meat? Vegetables? Fruits? As will discuss in a future post, the answer is it depends on you. I ate a lot of fruits and vegetables and not very much meat. It worked for me. It might not work for you. We are all made differently.
In my next post, I will discuss the importance of tracking what you eat. It is essential to your success. It is also eye opening. Have a great day!
Sireadh Toileachas 