Before I get into the meat and potatoes, let me dispel some common misconceptions:
We eat so poorly, in general, that we're all going to become obese and develop diabetes.This is just not true. As anyone that has gone to more than one high school reunion will attest, people don't become fat and overweight overnight. To bastardize one of my favorite actors (Samuel L. Jackson) in one of my favorite movies (Formula 51): "Fat don't just happen. Fat takes time. Fat takes effort." It's the slow accumulation of excess calories over several years that makes people overweight. You can eat the healthiest food in the world and still become obese. Or you can eat the least healthy food and die of starvation. In this sense, it's not
what you eat, but how
much.
I need to go on a diet to lose weight.This concept is so wrong it's frightening. By stating that you plan to go
on a diet implies that at some point in the future you plan to go
off the diet. What many people have found after trying the latest, greatest fab diet is that they will loose weight for a while, get bored and go off the diet, then rebound and actually end up heavier than they were before starting. After trying this a few times the person will not only have stressed their body, but actually been counter productive to their goal.
From now on when you want to lose weight don't think "diet" think "lifestyle change". I know those words can seem scary. You're probably thinking I'll ask you to eat raw broccoli and fish for the rest of your life, but nothing can be further from the truth. The truth is, you probably eat fairly healthy food right now. For example, I eat hamburgers, steak and potatoes, chicken and rice, tossed salad, some occasional fast food, etc. On the weekends I'll enjoy some alcoholic beverages with my friends and I'll even drink a coke when I can get my hand on one. Yet, most people that see me think I'm super fit and some say I'm too skinny.
So how do I do it? What is the "diet" I'm using to stay lean and mean? What should you eat to lose weight? The answer is simple - eat exactly what you eat right now, just eat less of it. The perfect diet, the diet that doesn't have you making sacrifices, skipping meals, or drinking nasty shakes can be summed up thus:
- After you sit down to dinner and fill your plate with food and before you start eating, take one third of the food on your plate and put it back in the serving dish. Eat what is left.
Tada! Simple, easy to remember, and you still get to eat everything you normally would. After you perform this exercise for a couple months it will become natural to you and you wont even have to think about it. You have just executed a "lifestyle change". I bet you'll find it's less painful that you first thought.
So what's the trick? The trick is that you'll be consuming fewer calories than you expend on day-to-day activity. For every 3,500 extra calories you eat, you'll gain one pound of fat. If you eat 100 calories more than you need every day you will have gained 10 pounds by the end of the year. So what does 100 calories look like?
- Half a glazed doughnut is 100 calories
- A very small handful of Doritos is 100 calories
- About a tablespoon of butter is 100 calories
- Half a glass of whole milk is 100 calories
- An entire head of raw broccoli is 100 calories
- One and a half large eggs are 100 calories
- Half a McDonald's cheeseburger is 100 calories
Cut any one of those things out of your daily routine without changing anything else will remove 10lbs from your frame by the end of the year. Cut any one of those things out of each meal of every day and you'll loose 30lbs a year!