Please welcome our Guest Blogger (she’s been a young military wife while her husband has served in the Armed Forces) and read on as she shares a true success story…this is what she wrote in to me…
“A year and a half ago my husband asked me to help him lose a little weight. He was active and got regular exercise, however his waist was a couple of inches larger than he wanted it to be. He also wanted a food style plan that would be easy and “painless” (he didn’t want to be eating only leafy, green salads).
I told him that it would probably take some months, but that the extra pounds would come off and the changes he would make in his food style could be permanent. I also reassured him that some cupcakes, brownies, cookies and ice cream could still be a part of his life.
Will this approach work for everyone? Maybe not. But this is the approach that helped him drop 20 excess lbs, and got him back to a comfortable 32″ waist. This approach has allowed him to easily hold that waist size and maintain a desirable weight for over a year without being hungry all the time and without having to constantly count calories.”
“First I should mention to you that my husband did get regular exercise as part of his life style. He worked out for 30 min of interval training on the elliptical machine faithfully 4 times a week. Additionally, we also usually took a couple of walks together (each walk lasting 30 min to an hour) every week. Exercise during weight loss is very important to maintain muscle mass.
Ok, now on to the small changes that added up to success!
Previously, my husband didn’t eat breakfast. This meant he went from roughly 6PM at night one day until noon the next day without ever eating. Going 18 hours without eating made his body go into a “fasting” state, because his body thought that it needed to hold onto any calorie put into it. That eating style also meant that for him, lunch time was typically a really BIG meal, because he literally felt like he was starving so he ate whatever was in sight!
The first small step I had him take was to be sure that he ate some breakfast each and every day.
The second small step I had him take was to add a snack after dinner, maybe a couple to several hours before he went to bed (so the snack was typically around 8PM–since he usually went to bed about 10-11PM).
The first change he noticed and commented on to me wasn’t about a change in the reading on the scale, it was about how he felt at about 9AM in the morning. He noticed that now he had energy again in the morning; later he was hungry when he got to lunch time, but did not feel as if he was ravished anymore (the way he felt prior to making some small changes in his food style plan).
After a couple of weeks of doing this, my husband had settled into a new routine and was eating three meals a day plus a snack. He said he felt like he was doing pretty well.
The next small step he took was to carry a trail mix snack to work each day. I told him that even if he was going to leave work in half an hour, but felt hungry at that point in the afternoon, he was to access that trail mix snack and have some of it so that he could take the edge off that hunger sensation and that then it would subside.
Trail mix is something my husband likes, but he won’t eat it mindlessly–he’ll just eat a little and feel satisfied and satiated. It is a mix of tiny unsalted pretzel pieces, plain raisins, unsalted plain peanuts and a very small amount of chocolate bits. At first he was pretty hesitant about trying this trail mix snacking approach, but after trying it, he noticed he that he wasn’t as hungry at dinner time, so he was fine with eating a smaller dinner. He knew later on he could have a small snack in the evening, so there was no need to eat beyond a comfortable smaller dinner.
Although he was not initially convinced the approach would work, my husband had adjusted his food style and became accustomed to eating 3 regular, but smaller meals and 2 comfortable smaller snacks a day. He told me he didn’t mind that his meals were smaller than before because he found that he felt full more easily now. And after a month of following this approach, he suddenly noticed that the scale had moved down about 5 pounds. But even more important to him than that, his pants then felt looser, and a pair of pants he couldn’t even get on before, suddenly now he could easily zip. Those pants were still feeling a bit tight, but they actually went on.
During this gradual process of changing his food style, my husband still got one small dessert a day (or occasionally two small ones). Whenever I baked, I portioned the desserts so that each dessert came in at around 200 calories or less. Some of these desserts were one cupcake, two small cookies, a brownie, or occasionally even a scoop of homemade ice cream. I had promised him that he would still be able to eat some goodies, and many of his friends at work were a little confused and jealous that his “diet” included such nice, tasty, flavorful homemade sweets, be each in moderation.
This gradual process of acclimating to a new food style continued for 2,3, then 4, then 5 months and guess what happened? After some 4 or 5 months, my husband noticed that he had gradually lost 20 pounds and 3 inches from his waist. Yes, during that time there were a couple of weeks where he hit a plateau, but then shortly after that a little more weight would come off, then a little more, until finally his body settled in at a nice healthy weight and he could fit comfortably into the pants that he couldn’t even get into before. For him, reaching that 32″ waist measurement was a desired, reasonable goal, and he was super pleased when he attained it.
For the last year now, he’s maintained both the waist measurement and the weight level, continued to have a good energy level in the mornings, doesn’t get the previous uncomfortable starving feeling at lunch time that he used to get with his old approach to eating, and genuinely is enjoying be able to eat flavorful food every single day and not having to constantly count calories.
He’s living proof that eating sensible portion sizes spaced out across the course of a day can help some people lose excess fat weight and really feel better!”