The Bev Diet (part 4): Variety? Not as spicy as you might think (or, the virtues of monotony…)

 

I have now been "weight loss journeying" for nearly a year and have lost 

                        over 53 lbs! 

I don’t think I would have believed it, back when I started. Maybe you feel the same way (“It’s impossible!”), so I’m posting these pointers because they’re things I’ve learned and I hope they help you, too! Remember, IF I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN, TOO!

1. Repeat after me: repetition, repetition, repe…you get the point

They say variety is the spice of life, but what do they REALLY know about dieting anyway? Let me put this another way: do you think you eat more than usual, the same as usual, or less than usual when confronted with a buffet? Listen, for a congenital fat ass like me, the answer is obvious.

I think a routine helps me keep to a relatively restricted diet, and I’d advise you to try it, too. For one thing, it’s faster to account for on the health app (I just click on what I had yesterday). It also saves time thinking up what I should eat, and researching how many calories it has. It makes for less temptation, too.

So breakfast is usually

                A toasted whole grain/whole wheat English muffin (110-130 cals)

                2T Philadelphia cream cheese with smoked salmon (70 cals) with 1T wheat bran

                A caffe latte

(This week, I’ve been eating actual lox because we had leftovers at our Mother’s Day brunch).

                                                

Lunch used to be largely Lean Cuisine Chicken Carbonara

                With 1T wheat bran

                1c chopped cooked broccoli

More recently, I found that I was losing weight too slowly, so I ditched the regular carbonara and substituted a large salad with roasted (skinless) chicken (usually breast, but I’ve just done some reading and discovered the calorie difference isn’t substantial, and besides, there is a lot more iron in the leg and thigh!). I also usually fortify this with a cup of Brussel sprouts or broccoli. Sometimes I skip the chicken completely and add some avocado (this meatless salad is also a favourite of mine for supper, too).

The chicken is usually home-made:

                Truss a small bird (just use some string to tie the legs together). Sprinkle with commercial bbq spice (I like to use A LOT!). Bake at 450 F for 45-60 mins (I check it at 45 mins & often turn it over on its tummy if it needs another 10-15 mins).

Yum! And very fast. And I think the recipe comes from the NYT back in the day. 

Supper: usually oatmeal (1/3 cup with ¾ c water, ½ c fat free Greek yogurt., 1T wheat bran. Cooking directions found in earlier post). I now usually consume it with 1/3 c berries.

 

I’ve found I really like eating light at night. I’m convinced it’s really helpful with the weigh-in next morning. This is probably a big change for most people, but I think our ways of eating are pretty messed up. I know mine were. I was often eating meat twice a day. Not necessary and one of the reasons my weight had ballooned to over 225 lbs…I can’t believe I just told you that!

 

2. Exercise: this week, I actually went to my first Zumba class in over 3 years (thank you Joyce!!)! It was really fun, and it actually burns twice as many calories per unit time as walking (according to Samsung).

Usually, though, I’m walking 2 hours a day (about 13k-15k steps). And I’m still doing 1hr on the bike every night. So that’s a lot of time put into exercising, though, to be fair, I’m biking through Netflix (or Amazon Prime, or Crave), so does that even count??

 

3. My Struggle: Chapman’s frozen vanilla yogurt. I sometimes eat way too much. And by way too much, I ate 350 calories of it yesterday, and sometimes as much as 400 calories of it daily! And that’s on a 1200 calorie diet. Yikes! So my tendency to overeat have definitely not been totally defeated. Which is kind of sad to realize after a whole freaking year…

However: I am still losing. I am working on controlling it. I am a work in progress. And you are, too.

So to reiterate:

                If I can do it, you can, too.

                I (and you) have really been eating WAY WAY too much (that’s the definition of being 75lbs overweight).

                The corollary is: you MUST eat much much less to lose weight. If you want to do it slower, you can definitely eat more, but frankly, faster seems better than slower to me.

                Eating the same things over and over has a relaxing zen quality.

                Exercise can be low impact and as easy as walking out the front door. No commute, no cost.