A Diet that Works

May 12th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ve read online about all kinds of diets and have seen many people struggle with it but I have a few ideas of my own that have seemed to work really well for me. It is my firm belief that 90% of the people who claim that diets don’t work for them do NOT have medical problems such as thyroid imbalances. I think it has to do with sticking with it and actually adhering to the various plans. I also think that our society perpetuates the idea that you can lose weight by taking a pill and that it doesn’t involve any work on your part, this is simply not the case.

Below i’m going to lay out my diet plan that has allowed me to easily lose 30lbs so far in about 3 months. I could have lost more but I enjoy eating out with friends occasionally and luckily it doesn’t seem to affect weight gain any, it just stops the weight loss and puts me into maintenance.

Calories, Calories, Calories

First of all, I don’t actually count calories at all or worry about it. Why is that? I find it too hard to keep track of every little calorie or weight watchers point etc. Instead, because I am lazy and don’t have a lot of time to cook, I stock up on Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, and Smart Ones meals from Wal-Mart or whatever your local grocery store is. These range in price from about $1.80 to $3.00 or so. I also drink only Gatorade, water, milk, or orange juice. The first thing you must do is cut out all the sodas unless they are diet sodas. I don’t think soda in general is very healthy for your body though, so I generally avoid it altogether.

For breakfast, I stock up on cereal and milk, usually something such as Raisin Bran but I throw in Lucky Charms, Captain Crunch and other not so great for you items to mix it up. The calories from cereal and milk are not that bad (skim milk mind you, not the super fattening stuff). Once you get used to skim milk it does not taste like “water” and eventually you get to the point where anything above 2% tastes too creamy to you. I can barely stand whole milk because it is so thick.

For lunch at work I eat one of my healthy meals and drink G2 (light Gatorade). I don’t actually like the taste of G2 very much which is why at work I drink G2 and at home I drink regular Gatorade. G2 only has 70 calories in a bottle, while regular Gatorade is usually 130 or so.

For dinner, I eat a healthy meal and regular gatorade or water. I also usually have snacks around such as healthy yogurt or bananas that you can eat whenever you feel hungry.

Exercise

This is the part that most diets try to ignore that you absolutely need in order to really burn those pounds off and get in shape. I have a really easy way to stick with it though that i’ll share. First: don’t buy a gym membership. Gym memberships cost money, are not in your comfort zone of home, are full of people who make you look bad, and make you feel obligated to work out since you’re paying for it. This obligation is actually counter productive I think and won’t help you work out you’ll just despise it more.

My method cost me $230 up front. I purchased a Recumbent Exercise bike from Amazon, specifically this Stamina Magnetic Resistance Recumbent Bike (mouse over the link to see an image of it). The bike is nothing fancy but it seems to hold together pretty well and does have a little computer to track your calories burned, miles biked etc. Also, instead of a gym membership, get yourself a Netflix subscription assuming you like movies / TV Shows. If you don’t, then hopefully you like video games (360 or PS3 only, cannot use the Wii for this part!).

When I get home from work, I have a semi-scheduled movie / TV Show / video game time. I have a 50″ DLP tv that the bike is sitting in front of (it is fairly light and easy to roll around and move to a closet when you aren’t using it if you want). I pop in my latest Netflix movie or a video game and then I ride the bike while playing the game or watching the DVD. This is the most effective way i’ve found of actually sticking with exercise. Keep it tied to something you enjoy doing anyway. If you don’t like movies or video games, you can also read a book or even crochet. A recumbent exercise bike means that you are sort of sitting with your legs in front of you so it is very low and it is also very quiet so you can do any number of other activities while working out.

Why do I say semi-scheduled for my exercise time? That is because I don’t get to it every single night if something comes up (trip with friends to go out to eat etc). I also might not do it right when I get home, but later in the evening etc. Don’t fret about the time or if you occasionally have to skip it. I like to think of this as my less stress diet and it’s the only one i’ve been able to stick to.

Every night i’ve been doing 6-9 miles on the bike which takes from 40-60 minutes depending on how fast i’m riding. The average TV show without commercials is 44 minutes or so, so you can see how this fits in well. Riding that distance should burn around 250-400 calories, which almost completely negates the calories from some of the food you’ve eaten. I also exercise before I eat in the evening because exercise increases your metabolism some.

So to Summarize it Up

Reduce calories by eating healthy choice/lean cuisine/smart ones meals - which do actually taste pretty good!
Get yourself a quiet exercise bike of some sort for your home
Exercise while watching TV, playing a video game, reading a book, listening to music or anything else you can do while sitting stationary but with your hands free
Don’t be afraid to indulge yourself. Occasionally I buy snicker’s ice cream bars, no big deal and I don’t even look at how terrible they are. Being too strict is more likely to make you feel like you failed and give up.

I think overall the way I am doing dieting is a lot more sustainable and you will get in better shape at the same time. I started off with strictly the diet during Lent, but added the exercise bit once I got enough money to buy the bike.