I wrote this for everyone looking to lose body fat whether it's 10lb or 100lb. I used to be 235lb. My wife and I have both tried numerous methods of loosing weight; Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Welsh Slim, calorie counting. We've lost weight on all of them but it hasn't stayed off and in fact we've put more on than we lost in the first place.
1. Keep off normal carbs
e.g. grains (oats, wheat, barley etc..), milk (lactose, a form of sugar), fruit including fruit juices (fructose, a natural sugar), starchy foods (potatoes), sugars (sugar, chocolates etc.), soft drinks (cola, lemonade etc.)
Why?
The above foods, including whole grain variety's, will fairly quickly increase the amount of glucose in your blood which triggers the production of insulin. Insulin causes your body to store the excess calories as fat.
2. Eat slow carbs
e.g. pulses, vegetables
Why?
You'll still be getting your all important carbohydrates but they will be digested slower which will mean no glucose spike, no insulin spike, less fat storage.
3. Eat plenty of protein
e.g. Pulses, meat, eggs, fish
Why?
Protein takes longer to digest so you should feel fuller for longer. Your body finds protein difficult to turn into fat and it will help to ensure that you lose fat not muscle from your body.
4. Eat enough fats
e.g. red meat, oils (olive, flaxseed etc.)
Why?
Your body needs enough fat to ensure that it can produce fatty-acids which are vital to your health. As it is energy-dense, it also helps to ensure you get enough energy.
5. No calorie counting or portion control
Just eat until you are full. If you don't, you'll find yourself snacking between meals or your metabolism will slow because of insufficient calorie intake. Stop before you feel 'stuffed'. It helps to eat a bit slower if you find you eat and don't feel stuffed till afterwards.
6. Take one day off each week
Why?
I got this one from 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris (brilliant book by-the-way). By taking a day off and eating whatever you want once a week ensures that your metabolism doesn't slow down from eating too few calories. If you fancy eating something during the week such as a pizza, write it down and have it on your day off. That way you don't feel deprived of certain foods in any way, you just have to wait for them.
7. Drink plenty of water
Why?
I drink between 2 - 4 pints of water a day. This keeps you hydrated and keeps your body functioning properly, enabling you to lose fat easier.
8. Simple meals
Why?
Most of the time I eat the same few meals week-in-week-out, we all do. Try to ensure that you get protein with each meal and a good portion of vegetables.
My meals
Breakfast
3/4 Scrambled eggs fried/microwaved
1 bag of microwavable steamed veg
or
Cooked breakfast: 2 fried eggs, 2 bacon rashers, tinned tomatoes, mushrooms.
Lunch
Bolognese without spaghetti (plenty of veg in this)
or
Beef/pork/turkey mince bean chilli (lots of veg in this too)
or
6oz beef burger without bun or fries with extra bacon, with large salad and french dressing.
Dinner
Bolognese without spaghetti
or
Beef/pork/turkey mince bean chilli
or
Cottage pie with a cauliflower top instead of mashes potatoes.
with steamed vegetables
Drinks
Black tea/coffee
Water
Tips
Be sure to get extra broccoli and other leafy greens as they are a good source of calcium, something you may be lacking because of lack of milk.
Make sure you eat breakfast. The last thing you want to do is be grabbing a sandwich or chocolate bar on the way to work because you didn't have breakfast. Don't have time? Make time. Get up 20 mins earlier to be sure you do.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Aversion Methods
The reason I did the bread thing isn't because I'm masochistic, it's because I like to eat bread.
When you like something and have it every day, it's hard not to eat it. In fact, what you end up doing is seeing it, really wanting it but going 'No, I shouldn't have it' and then saying 'screw it!' and having it anyway. Then you end up feeling guilty that you gave in and so you stop or at least pause your efforts to change what you eat. So, to try and bypass this, I did the nasty bread thing.
Paul McKenna has a thing with visualisations in his book I Can Make You Thin. He gets you to visualise some thing you'd be repulsed to eat, such as hair. Then you visualise the food you crave, smelling, tasting, feeling it and then visualising the craved food covered in hair. Well, this gave me the idea of the bread thing because I thought that actually covering the food in something nasty (but edible of course) might be even better than just visualising it.
I'm working out how I'm going to progress this now. I'm deciding between making myself eat something like a fresh hot chili pepper whenever I eat a fast-carb or making myself put £10 in a jar every time I eat some thing containing wheat, sugar etc. I think I'm siding more with the £10 thing because I can't afford to pay away £10 all the time so I can't in theory afford to eat fast-carbs.
Another method you could use is highlighted by Tim Ferriss in his post Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment. In it he uses a wrist band to stop himself complaining:
As a side note, this is not a no-carb diet its a slow-carb. I don't cut carbs out, I still get them by eating plenty of vegetables and legumes, I just don't take them in quickly absorbed forms.
When you like something and have it every day, it's hard not to eat it. In fact, what you end up doing is seeing it, really wanting it but going 'No, I shouldn't have it' and then saying 'screw it!' and having it anyway. Then you end up feeling guilty that you gave in and so you stop or at least pause your efforts to change what you eat. So, to try and bypass this, I did the nasty bread thing.
Paul McKenna has a thing with visualisations in his book I Can Make You Thin. He gets you to visualise some thing you'd be repulsed to eat, such as hair. Then you visualise the food you crave, smelling, tasting, feeling it and then visualising the craved food covered in hair. Well, this gave me the idea of the bread thing because I thought that actually covering the food in something nasty (but edible of course) might be even better than just visualising it.
I'm working out how I'm going to progress this now. I'm deciding between making myself eat something like a fresh hot chili pepper whenever I eat a fast-carb or making myself put £10 in a jar every time I eat some thing containing wheat, sugar etc. I think I'm siding more with the £10 thing because I can't afford to pay away £10 all the time so I can't in theory afford to eat fast-carbs.
Another method you could use is highlighted by Tim Ferriss in his post Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment. In it he uses a wrist band to stop himself complaining:
Will designed a solution in the form of a simple purple bracelet, which he offered to his congregation with a challenge: go 21 days without complaining. Each time one of them complained, they had to switch the bracelet to their other wrist and start again from day 0. It was simple but effective metacognitive awareness training.I'm sure this could be adapted for changing what you eat if you wanted to.
As a side note, this is not a no-carb diet its a slow-carb. I don't cut carbs out, I still get them by eating plenty of vegetables and legumes, I just don't take them in quickly absorbed forms.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Aversion Therapy
Tim Ferriss' book 4 Hour Body is very good but if you don't have the money to buy it, you can get most of it on his blog.
He has followed a slow-carb way of eating which helped him lose body fat. It works like this: sugar is a carbohydrate. Your body loves it as a fuel in the form of glucose because it is easily made from several sources, such as fruit, wheat and other grains, potatoes. But the thing is that sugar triggers the production of insulin. The role of insulin is to run around your blood stream and mop up the excess calories floating around and store them in fat cells for later use. This would be good if we had to eat like a cave-man, bounty in summer and scarcity in the winter. However, circumstances have changed, that is where the modern idea of diets came in. In our current state of plenty, we are permanently stuck in the frame of eating plenty in the summer but we don't have the scarcity of winter any more which is why we are getting fat. So, as Ferris and others have discovered, if I cut my carb intake so that I only eat foods that are slowly converted to glucose, I won't trigger insulin production so heavily and I don't have all those cal's stored in my porky belly
In an effort to cut my carbs, I did quite well last year, I lost a stone in a month. But for some reason I stopped. I put the weight back on but not more than I lost fortunately. Now I have been weighting myself daily again to monitor my weight while also trying to cut down my quick-carb intake. One of the things I find most difficult with this is that grains are everywhere. What shall I have for breakfast? How about some jam on toast or a bacon sarnie? Lunch? Lets have a ham sandwich or some lasagne or a ciabatta bread with lettuce, cherry tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and topped with some Parma ham. Go to the pub and have a vodka (wheat) or a whisky (barley) and have a kebab on the way home. Wake in the morning, have a hangover breakfast, bacon, sausage (contains rusk = wheat), egg, beans, tomatoes, toast (wheat? well what a surprise!).
So, taking the bull by the horns, I decided to try some aversion therapy thing with bread. The idea was that if I ate bread with horrible tasting things on it, I wouldn't want to eat it so much. So, into the cupboard I went. Tore off a bit of my slice and put hot chilli powder on it. Hmm that's spicy. Next, nutmeg... nasty! Salt... difficult to swallow. Bicarb of soda... nearly threw up but made myself swallow. Next, I put some of all of it on the last piece with the addition of vinegar and cinnamon. Again nearly gagged. Oh, and I made myself properly chew it all too, not just swallow it as soon as possible. In the week and a half since I did this, I have only eaten bread twice. Both times, it didn't sit well in my stomach, Ergo, I think it worked but I may have to do it again soon just to reinforce the associations.
Next, I think I'll try something along the lines of Tim Ferriss in his post Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment.
Have you ever tried any kind of aversion tactics to break any habits?
He has followed a slow-carb way of eating which helped him lose body fat. It works like this: sugar is a carbohydrate. Your body loves it as a fuel in the form of glucose because it is easily made from several sources, such as fruit, wheat and other grains, potatoes. But the thing is that sugar triggers the production of insulin. The role of insulin is to run around your blood stream and mop up the excess calories floating around and store them in fat cells for later use. This would be good if we had to eat like a cave-man, bounty in summer and scarcity in the winter. However, circumstances have changed, that is where the modern idea of diets came in. In our current state of plenty, we are permanently stuck in the frame of eating plenty in the summer but we don't have the scarcity of winter any more which is why we are getting fat. So, as Ferris and others have discovered, if I cut my carb intake so that I only eat foods that are slowly converted to glucose, I won't trigger insulin production so heavily and I don't have all those cal's stored in my porky belly
In an effort to cut my carbs, I did quite well last year, I lost a stone in a month. But for some reason I stopped. I put the weight back on but not more than I lost fortunately. Now I have been weighting myself daily again to monitor my weight while also trying to cut down my quick-carb intake. One of the things I find most difficult with this is that grains are everywhere. What shall I have for breakfast? How about some jam on toast or a bacon sarnie? Lunch? Lets have a ham sandwich or some lasagne or a ciabatta bread with lettuce, cherry tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and topped with some Parma ham. Go to the pub and have a vodka (wheat) or a whisky (barley) and have a kebab on the way home. Wake in the morning, have a hangover breakfast, bacon, sausage (contains rusk = wheat), egg, beans, tomatoes, toast (wheat? well what a surprise!).
So, taking the bull by the horns, I decided to try some aversion therapy thing with bread. The idea was that if I ate bread with horrible tasting things on it, I wouldn't want to eat it so much. So, into the cupboard I went. Tore off a bit of my slice and put hot chilli powder on it. Hmm that's spicy. Next, nutmeg... nasty! Salt... difficult to swallow. Bicarb of soda... nearly threw up but made myself swallow. Next, I put some of all of it on the last piece with the addition of vinegar and cinnamon. Again nearly gagged. Oh, and I made myself properly chew it all too, not just swallow it as soon as possible. In the week and a half since I did this, I have only eaten bread twice. Both times, it didn't sit well in my stomach, Ergo, I think it worked but I may have to do it again soon just to reinforce the associations.
Next, I think I'll try something along the lines of Tim Ferriss in his post Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment.
Have you ever tried any kind of aversion tactics to break any habits?
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