I think it is a matter of focusing on the big picture as well as the details. We often get lost in the details. A life span is one way of looking at the big picture. I am 57 and have been obese for most of my life. I have lost serious weight three times in my life, and gained it again. Why did I lose it and why did I gain it again. That is the million dollar question. I lost it when I reduced sugar, fat, and salt to a minimum, drank lots of water, became a vegetarian, did hours of walking. I regained it when I reversed to my old ways.
I am currently overweight and losing weight. You will never hear me say it is easy. My dietician tells me that I belong to a small group of people, who have lost 50 lbs. and kept it off for more than 2 years. So what did I do differently this time?
I decided to aim at buying bulk only to avoid the added salt and sugar that the producers have put in most products to sell more. For instance, pure oat flakes, not touched by human hand. I reduced "the whites", the starchy things (such as potatoes, pasta, rice, corn, yam) to a once a month kind of thing because they are sugar. The only difference between the glucose in these whites and pure sugar is that they have more molecules and are absorbed in the body more slowly. I can get the fibers from other healthier veg sources, for instance dark leaved vegs. I limit the number of fruit I eat to 2 a day, because the sugar highjacks the brain. I don't eat a piece of fruit without eating a protein at the same time, for instance a teaspoon of peanutbutter or a teaspoon of chia seeds. I put "sinful eating" into system, so that once a month, I can have my favorite 400 calories cake. Once a month, I can have a really good bottle of wine. Once a day, I can put sinful half and half in my coffee, etc. (I have now replaced it with a low calorie soy creamer) So I put in some "spacers" between the "sinful things". I decided that if I say No, No, No all the time, it is not going to last in the long run. Replacement is key. For everything you say No to, you need to find an alternative. When it comes to food, I have the mind of a 2-year old. You'll notice that a 2 year-old screams bloody murder, if you take away a dangerous toy and leave it with nothing else. You have to divert the attention from a dangerous toy to a safe toy. Translated to food, planning is key. I have an arsenal of canned cooked beets ready for when I need sugar. They taste sweet, but they only have 40 calories. The water in the can tastes great. For a salty crave, I buy nutritional yeast in bulk in Wholefoods, but it does not contain salt. Avocadoes and walnuts, I limit to once a week or less because they contain a lot of fat. I can only have half a banana a day, because the sugar content is so high. I never allow myself to get overly hungry because that will make me lose control. Planning is everything. I save time, by eating most of my vegs raw. My meals take less than 30 seconds to prepare, because I buy my vegs in bags ready-cut. That's a lot faster than preparing meat.
It made a big difference, when the doctors began to call obesity by its right name: a disease. Even if, I should reach the point of having a "normal" BMI, not overweight and not obese, I will still have the disease. Being able to control the disease is key. There is no end of the rainbow place, only hard work. So I make sure to have some here-and-now fun, no matter what size I am. Self-acceptance is key.
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