Lose Weight But Don't Deprive Yourself

by Joan
(Noosa, Australia)

I am not fat, but I am not skinny. I wanted to lose weight so I could remain in my clothes and not have to buy the next size up. I thought about all the fad diets out there. I didn’t want to do that. It’s too much thinking.

What did I do? I went with the low-calorie diet. You think this one has too much thinking? It depends how you go about it. You can be very strict and count every calorie to the decimal places. But, that’s not me. That would drive me crazy. I went with the ballpark figures. It’s not “Oh, that’s 100 calories” when it’s really 130. Many things I ate I checked the calories and did my best to remember them. After a while I knew the basic calorie range for what I most liked to eat.

Through this I learned what I can and can’t have. I never said I couldn’t have something because of what it was, but it was all based on what I had already eaten or planned on eating that day. I didn’t deprive myself of going to a restaurant. I didn’t deprive myself of sweets. It’s all about portion control. You don’t get a double scoop ice cream cone. You don’t get an ice cream cone if you’ve already had a slice of cake or cookies that day. You don’t eat a huge three course dinner. You don’t get the appetizer at the restaurant. You really look at the portion control. You don’t eat to eat.

The most important thing is not to deprive yourself. Depriving can lead to binging. Binging is bad. Having one or two cookies as part of your plan is better than saying no with a constant craving.

On top of all this, you have to exercise. That’s another key ingredient to success. You burn more calories this way. I exercise by riding an exercise bike. I do it for about an hour. Most of the time I get bored so I break it up into chunks. That’s the best way if you have the time to do so. Then, if you something comes up you have at least done something and that’s important. What I’ve done is start at 10 minutes on the bike and every week I added another minute. Eventually, I came to 56 minutes, which is where I am at now. This will build up endurance so you’re not absolutely hating your workout and skipping it. Sometimes while working out I watch TV, read a book, or listen to music. You have to do something like this or else you will be bored to tears and not want to do it.

I’m not fat, but this would be good for anyone’s body type. I was 130 lbs and I lost 6 lbs. I went on vacation and gained a few pounds. I came home, returned to my diet and exercise plan and lost that few pounds. Before I started this I didn’t lose those pounds when I came home. That’s how over one summer I went from 115 to 125. It’s not fast like you see on TV, but it lasts and it’s easy to repeat.