How I lost 30 pounds

[rob]

Okay. So, even though I'm a dancer, I didn't start this diet for dancing. I started it to make weight for a competition I was entering. When I first started, I wasn't sure how well it would work. But, I had so much success with it, I thought I would share it.

First off, the results. In a little less than four months, I lost over 30 pounds. I lost six pants sizes (34 to 28).  I lost a huge percentage of my body fat. And I didn't do it with any complicated methods. I only altered how I ate and how I exercised. Here's what I did:
 
* I started eating six times a day.

I heard people say that eating multiple small meals would jump start your metabolism, so that's what I did. I didn't change the things I ate... I just monitored the number of calories that I took in. So, if I ate chocolate. If I ate sweets. If I ate things that are 'bad' for you, I made sure I only ate about 200-300 calories of it at a time. Then I waited until my next meal.

The key insight for me was that a calorie is a calorie. With regards to weight loss, it doesn't matter where it comes from.  As long as calories in was less than calories out, I'd lose weight. Of course, this does not speak to overall nutrition. But, I wasn't looking for that. I supplemented with multi-vitamins and pushed ahead. I just wanted to get to my fighting weight.

* I ate right before bed time

Usually, a small container of tapioca or rice pudding. People say eating before bed is bad. Other people said that having a small meal before bed time helped to keep the metabolism up. The latter argument sounded like it made sense, so I tried it, and it worked.

* I exercised as soon as I woke up, before eating

I did circuit training, 3 sets 5 minutes each. Each exercise, I would do for 40 seconds as hard as possible, then rest 20 seconds. I would alternate exercises, but did things like pushups, situps, crunches, mountain climbers, situp standups, etc. 

I would pick 5 of those exercises, then do each of them 40 seconds, rest 20 seconds. When I finished all five, that would be one set. Then, I'd do it 3 more times. It would only take 15 minutes to finish, but it would completely fatigue me.

* I stuck with it

It wasn't rocket science, but it was hard to follow that diet at first, mainly because the small meals would NOT fill me up. I was feeling hungry all the time. I felt like I was snacking ALL DAY, but never feeling satisfied. So, I ended up playing mad scientist, finding recipes for low calorie foods that made me feel full but didn't break my 200-300 calorie limit per meal.

At first it was difficult. You can only eat stir fry so many times before you want some Krispy Kreme. But now I have tons of great snacks that are completely filling and healthy, so its much easier. I also discovered that what you drink makes a huge difference in how full you feel.

The point being, it wasn't easy at first. I always felt hungry, and it took a while to adjust to that. But after a few weeks, I didn't even notice it. Now, I have no problems at all.

So, that's what I did, and it worked for me. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not recommending you do this yourself. But, when I first started looking around for programs, it was hard for me to find anything that wasn't a sales pitch of some kind.

So, if you are trying to lose weight, best of luck! I know its not easy. But it's possible. And the results are well worth it!  What a great feeling to stop when you get out of the shower and actually like what you see   Good luck!!!

[lori]

Hey there Rob,
So what are some of your low cal snacks that you like? 
:-)
Lori

[Janet]

Rob, when you said "I also discovered that what you drink makes a huge difference in how full you feel," what kind of drinks were you referring to (good and bad)?  I've found it's supremely difficult to find drinks that aren't full of sugar so what did you find that works best for you?

[rob]

Hey there Rob,
So what are some of your low cal snacks that you like? 
:-)
Lori

Since I was only eating 200-300 calories per sitting, it all felt like snacks at first. But, this is some of the more common things that I would eat:

###

Five Minute Stir Fry

* 1 Bag of Ultimate Stir Fry from Nob Hill
* East-West Sizzling Stir Fry Sauce
* Raw Almonds

This was my staple. Stir fry the veggies in a wok for 5 minutes, add the sauce, plate then sprinkle some almonds. Totally filling, and less than 250 calories.

###

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars and a Banana

* Quaker Chewy Granola Bars from Costco
* Banana

The bars are 100 calories each, the bananas depend on size. The bars have some great flavors. I like the Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter ones. All together, 200 calories. Not super filling, but satisfies the sweet tooth.

###

Almond Stuffed Dates

* Raw Almonds  from Trader Joes
* Medjool Dates from Trader Joes

Pit a date, then stuff it with almonds. Surprisingly good! Caloris depend on how many you eat. Make sure you know the serving sizes   Another not filling, but tasty and sweet snack.

###

* Breakfast Pockets and Salsa

Salsa is magic! It has almost no calories and it fills you up. Make a pair of breakfast pockets (Bacon Egg and Cheese), then cut it open and fill it with salsa. Very filling, about 290 calories.

###

* Subway - Toasted Turkey Sandwich on Sourdough. Veggies only. No cheese. No oils or dressing.

The Jared diet works. What can I say? About 300 calories.

###

Rice Pudding and Fruit

* Kozy Shack Rice Pudding
* Raspberries (or other fruit)

I like the blend of tastes and textures here. Nice snack, 200 calories

###



That's  just a few of them. A typical day would be like this:

> Wake Up
* 0900 Breakfast Pockets + Salsa - 290
* 1200 Banana + Granola Bar - 200
* 1400 Subway - 300
* 1600 Almond Stuffed Dates - 200
* 1900 Stir Fry - 250
* 2200 Rice Pudding + Raspberries - 200
> Sleep

Total - 1440

[rob]

Rob, when you said "I also discovered that what you drink makes a huge difference in how full you feel," what kind of drinks were you referring to (good and bad)?  I've found it's supremely difficult to find drinks that aren't full of sugar so what did you find that works best for you?

Hot water and tea.

Sounds silly, but I discovered that cold drinks never satisfied me. But, if I heated them up, I felt full. So, I just started heating my water when I drank it, and then I started making tea. Worked like a charm.

Someone once told me that there is an entire school of thought about why you shouldn't drink cold drinks, but I don't know what it is. All I know is that once I started heating my drinks, I stopped feeling so hungry. Especially at night.

[lori]

Very interesting.  Thanks for the snack/meal suggestions.  My problem is I have become the human garbage disposal for my kids--whatever they don't eat, somehow mysteriously ends up in my mouth.  I just ate a hotdog--it tasted good at the time but now I feel a little sick.  I would never cook myself a hotdog.  Anyway, I like your daily diet suggestions.  You should give us another sample day because I know you can't eat like this everyday.  And what happens when you go out to dinner or lunch?

[rob]

Very interesting.  Thanks for the snack/meal suggestions.  My problem is I have become the human garbage disposal for my kids--whatever they don't eat, somehow mysteriously ends up in my mouth.  I just ate a hotdog--it tasted good at the time but now I feel a little sick.  I would never cook myself a hotdog.  Anyway, I like your daily diet suggestions.  You should give us another sample day because I know you can't eat like this everyday.  And what happens when you go out to dinner or lunch?

Yeah, I had the same problem with my kids. I was raised never to waste food. But, if you are serious about your diet, you have to stick with it. I would just figure out how many calories were in the hot dog, then eat it and wait a few hours until your next meal.

While I was on this diet, I was able to eat whatever I wanted, as long as I controlled when I ate and the number of calories I consumed.

Okay, so other things I like to eat:

* Frosted Flakes (3/4 cup) with 1 cup of 1% Milk  - 220
* 1/2 cup Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Low Fat Frozen Yogurt - 190
* Six Pieces of Brown Rice California Rolls w/ 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce - 285
* 20 Baked Tostitos with Santa Barbara Mild Salsa - 250
* Safeway Signature Tortilla Soup - 300
* Jello and Raspberries - 150

If you ate that in a single day, you'd have about 1395 calories. But, a lot of these snacks are really carby or have lots of sugar, so you'd probably want to mix it up with some higher protein snacks if you were actually eating.

The cool thing about the foods on this list is that they are very satisfying. That tortilla soup will FILL you up completely. And 1/2 cup of Ben and Jerry's? The only thing hard about that is not eating the entire container.

Frosted Flakes... what can I say... they're grrrRRREAT!  And I love salsa, so basically the tostitos my silverware for scooping vast amounts of salsa into my mouth. Browin Rice California Rolls taste great and have some protein in them, so they make a great snack. With the Jello, you could go even lower if you bought the sugar free kind. But I don't like all that artificial sweetener.

So, those are a couple more snacks that I like to eat that taste great, satisfy you, and don't break your diet.

[swazeylover]

those seem like awesome ideas.. i'll take some into consideration!