I hate dieting! Any experienced dieters here?

WIY,

A few thoughts I have that I work on in my own life, and hopefully may be helpful to you:

1.) Don’t diet – the popular conception of dieting in the U.S. is taking a hatchet to our intake and suffering until some goal is reached. Like in “Garfield” comics where the cat eats everything in sight, and then for one week, Jon feeds him nothing but a carrot for supper. That’s a recipe for failure, since the underlying habits are not being changed, and the diet is unsustainable for the long term. As soon as the diet is over, the bad stuff comes right back. Realistic lifestyle changes, not dieting, is needed.

2.) Fill your space with good choices – all of us tend to take the path of least resistance and eat what is easily available to us. So remove junk food from your pantry and replace it with healthy, ready-to-eat foods such as carrot sticks, apples, grapes, celery, yogurt, whole grain crackers, bananas, etc. You can’t cheat with something that’s not there, and healthy snacks can satisfy hunger without guilt.

3.) Don’t get over-hungry – When we get really hungry, we tend to make poorer food choices. Plan ahead, have a healthy snack, and keep yourself from getting to the point of “I need a bite NOW!” before you even start making supper.

4.) If you drink soda – stop. Sodas add toxic amounts of sugar to our diets. It’s like a blitz on the pancreas. Water has no calories and is what our bodies are really after anyway when thirsty. If you did nothing but remove soda from your diet, then you have accomplished a big step. Diet sodas may not have sugar, but the artificial junk isn’t good for you either.

5.) This is my biggest challenge personally – control portion sizes and eat slowly. I am a fast eater by nature, and can finish off a third helping by the time my wife is done with her first. Fast eating results in overeating – the stomach can’t even register fullness before too much has gone down the hatch. Focus on chewing thoroughly and enjoying the food. It may help to decide in advance what and how much you plan to eat, and to arrange it on your plate so that you know when you are finished. Then get up from the table. Many times I continue eating without even thinking about what I’m doing!

6.) When you do eat something “bad”, don’t feel guilty. Nobody becomes obese from one piece of cake. If we tell ourselves that we can never eat this or that, then internal resentment and a sense that this is all too hard starts to build up. Instead of eliminating the desserts we love completely, set a realistic limit. That way, instead of thinking “Poor me, I can’t eat this”, we think “ok, I can eat this now instead of the brownie later…is it worth it?” Decide, enjoy (or enjoy something else later), and move on.

7.) Exercise is key to health. This is a big challenge for me because I have a sedentary office job. Take walks, sit on the floor, stretch your muscles, start small and slowly build up. The times I was most successful exercising have been when I was able to make it a part of the daily routine. I would walk to the next nearest subway stop – adding just 15 minutes to my commute, but 15 minutes of exercise. Park farther away, take a walk when coming or going, it doesn’t have to be an interruption.

Have a great Shabbos!

The main thing to keep in mind is to stay away from the people who think dieting should be done in a healthy way. Seriously. A tiny bit of logic aught to help you. People who eat healthy don’t lose weight. If they did people would just disappear into nothingness by eating healthy. But they don’t. Healthy people stay the same weight. If you want to lose weight you have to do something unhealthy.

Make sure to have a healthy breakfast in the morning every day. It doesn’t have to be a lot of food, but breakfast should be non-negotiable. Have a light snack between breakfast and lunch, say an apple and non-fat yogurt for example. Or any fruit and a serving of nuts etc. If you’re going away for a couple of hours, take something light along with you so that you won’t feel like you want to eat everything in sight when you come back.

Eat a big salad as part of lunch as well as dinner.

Increasing physical activity cannot be stressed enough. Exercise goes a long way for weight loss and overall health. If you can’t hit the gym, or have time constraints or whatever, try to walk as much as you could.

Drink 2 glasses of water with every meal. Drink only water between meals.

Going to sleep at a decent hour every night is very important. When your body is tired and needs energy the brain sends mixed messages and you end up overeating. (We all know that sleep is important. Not just for weight loss.)

WIY, what does “dolty” mean?

WIY

and you have identified yourself as someone to stay away from. I dont even know you but clearly you have a few pounds to lose

Maxi health makes a dieting vitamin to take before meals. Its expensive though. And also I am not so motivated because even though I know my weight is an issue. And I know I eat to much junk, my doctor did not say anything about it at my last appointment and I did not want to point it out because I didn’t want to hear her mussar, which is usually about jow I just need to stop drinking soda which according to her, the amount I drink is relatively harmless and I excercise plenty. I try to drink like two to three liters of liquid a day mostly water. Also fruit is important to eat as well as vegetables. When I go to nice restaurants, I try to get salad and soup.

WIY – Make yourself accountable. Either have someone weigh you on a regular basis or find a partner to go through this with. You can be accountable to each other. When you know that you’re going to have to answer for the “crimes” you did, it puts things in perspective and the short term pleasures lose their luster. Are there any support groups for men in your area? Even OA – even though I’m not an advocate of them and it may be too serious for you, but you would benefit from having the support of other people. It helps to have ideas how to handle the situation you describe plus you will be deterred from “cheating” since others will find out. Hatzlacha!

Keep a log on what you eat. Biggest deterrent ever, you really won’t find yourself cheating. I have used myfitnesspal dot com. They have tons of food in their data base so they keep track of your calories, fats, sugars… And my best part is that at the end of the day you can see how much you will weigh in 5 weeks if “if everyday was like today” in regard to what and how much you ate.

It is totally free, and they have apps for both iPhone and Androids.