How did I end up changing the way I ate? I could say that it started a couple of years ago, when I became obsessed with the idea that we eat is making us sick (no, I hadn't read any of the literature, just a feeling that I had). I heard from a friend of a friend, that someone lost a great deal of weight just by only eating, "Food that was food 100 years ago."
It got me to thinking about what has changed in 100 years. Our food delivery system has changed, what we primarily eat has changed, and we have all gotten fatter and sicker than we were 100 years ago. Only the intervention of advanced medicine has (so far) forestalled the inevitable decline in our average life expectancy.
Housekeeping time:
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This cause me to launch what I will call, Phase I. In the first phase of my food revamp I systematically removed two items from my diet; high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. This took a bit of time and it is never 1000 percent, but for all intents and purposes, I was successful. My diet almost completely excluded these items for nearly two years. I felt better, but I hadn't lost any weight. I had sort of assumed that in changing my diet, weight loss might be a side effect, I was a little disappointed, but weight loss wasn't the point, so I wasn't devastated.
Then, last July, I bought a pair of Tommy Hilfiger size 16 bootcut jeans. I have been wearing size 16 since 2002, so shopping, even over the internet was a cinch. When they got to the house, I ripped them out of the package and threw them on...well...dragged them on...forced them on...laid down on the bed and grunted until they were on, shimmying like a worm. Being 5'2" and wearing a size 16 is no laughing matter. Petite sizes don't go much past 14, so for every 50 size 14 outfits, there will be 2 in size 16. It really reduces your options. Now, to not fit into a size 16 was shocking, infuriating, and something had to be done.
I have never been a successful dieter. The only time I have ever managed to lose any measurable weight and keep it off for any measurable amount of time was when I took Phen Fen, a Phentermyne, Fenfluramine combination that removes the appetite. It is now banned in the U.S., due to significant complications causing people to have heart attacks.
Okay, so no Phen/Fen. I started researching and reading and finally it came down to one thing. There is no quick fix, no instant diet, no magical combination. Losing weight is a simple mathmatical equation. If you eat less than you burn, you lose weight. Simple, but not easy.
Thus began my sometimes tedious, calorie counting, portion measuring, food logging journey. So far I have lost 14 pounds (a stone) and come into the scales at 168 pounds. I am excited that the charts now only show me as "moderately overweight" and those pants...I have worn those suckers every single week, from the blood stopping beginning. Now they are so loose that I have ordered the exact same pants one size smaller. Soon I will be shimmying, wriggling and packing my ass into those bad boys, until they too start to get loose.
Now for the sharing. If you so choose, can you share, what was the breaking point for you? What caused you to say, "This time I am serious and I am going to do this."
Second bonus question is, what keeps you going every day? I don't feel hungry all the time, but temptation is always out there, waiting for a weak moment. What keeps makes it easy for you to turn down the birthday cake in the office or the bosses' bowl filled with itty bitty snickers bars?