Hyper-fixating on something keeps me away from the kitchen, for better or worse. Same with sleep ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Stress helped me lose 20 pounds in three months last year ^.^

I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you’re finding it hard to get started, totally strict exclusions can force you to start actually thinking about what you’re putting in your mouth. Even if you don’t particularly care about veganism from a moral/ethical viewpoint, try following the diet for a while. You’d be surprised how much snack food contains milk powder, or other animal products. Strictly following the rules eliminates mindless consumption, then after a while you find yourself thinking whether or not something is worth consuming, rather than just sticking it in your mouth because it’s there.

Saw dad lose a cannonball of a beer belly. He had run into an old friend and was embarrassed by how fat he had become in comparison. Asking his friend how he lost it, John replied:

“Easy Bob, I just brainwashed myself into thinking being hungry was a good thing.”

Worked for me as well.

You’re not telling yourself food is bad, that way lies eating disorders. You’re simply telling yourself that being low-key hungry is a normal state of affairs for a homo sapien. Because it is a normal state of affairs. Stop horking down pork rinds every time a little hunger pings you. Fucking ignore it, go on. That behavior can become a habit.

People see my skinny ass eat like a hog and marvel at my “metabolism”. No, hard no. I only put calories in my face two, maybe three times a day. Zero snacks, zero soft drinks. (OK, time to fess up. Many calories from beer. There, I said it.)

Drinking much more water instead of diet soda all the time. I’ve never felt so hydrated and sated in all my life.

You have to figure out a diet you can comfortably maintain forever, eat for your target weight. It’s no use just losing weight, you have to stay at a healthy weight.

So it’s going to be individual. For me, increased activity is the only factor, apparently I eat the same all the time. So walking everywhere or adding extra exercise works better.

I had a friend who lost weight by just reduced portions - she literally just took 1/3 less of everything. Like left more space on her plate. And another who ate popcorn for supper. Regular breakfast, regular lunch, then in the evening just popcorn. So again was eating 2/3 of what she had been. But then you have to keep it that way to maintain the weight.

Removing the second “t” off the word “diett” will reduce its weight by 20%.

Ice cubes peppermint gum. To chew when others are having dessert. I’ve eaten, I don’t need empty calories, but my teeth are still hungry. Gum gives them something to do, and the little crunch of Xylitol helps it feel more like eating than other sugarless gums.

Keeping track of calories while also cutting out all snacking during the day, so that at night I know what sweets I can afford to eat.

Reading the labels on junk I’m tempted by helps me. That much sugar, really? How many calories?!? Palm oil, ugh. And wtf is pentasodium triphosphate?

Also, when I buy a bag of carrots, I peel them and put them in the fridge, so when I feel snacky I can munch a crispy carrot.

I’ve tried a dozen ways.

All diets work, if you stick to them.

Try a few and go with the one you find easiest to stick with.

Long term you’ll have to figure out how to change your habits if you don’t want to stick on the diet forever. Or you’ll regain it again.

I’m working on losing a few kgs for playing sports, so I’m trying to make changes that are sustainable for the rest of my life. E.g. quark and granola instead of bread for breakfast, and no more snacks in between meals (RIP stroopwafels).

That way I only need to change habits once instead of multiple times like when you’re dieting, and the effect is slow but noticeable.

Step One. Count all of the calories you eat in a day. Check that nutritional info, do the math, add it up, see what you’re eating without leaving anything out.

Step Two. Try to minimize sugar, carbs, and bad fat, while maximizing protein and fiber. My go-to daily meal plan is steel cut oatmeal in the morning, sweetened with baking splenda, pinch of salt, and cinnamon. Intermittent fast through lunch with coffee. Dinner is open face (so only 1 slice of bread) turkey sandwiches, Black bean soup spiked with tobasco and extra black beans. For dessert, make a big ol bowl of banana cream or vanilla pudding with skim milk. Find a meal plan that works for you, you don’t have to eat the same thing everyday, but have that back-up meal plan ready to go in case you don’t feel like making something different.

Step Three. Don’t inhale your food. It takes your body 20 minutes between attaining a “full” stomach, and your stomach alerting your brain to that fact. Thus, pacing your food is important. How to do that? PUT THE FOOD DOWN. If you pick up your sandwich, eat half, then put it back down, take a drink of water, then you can finish it. Have a big ass glass of water with every meal. I also buy baby carrots, you can get a nice 1 lb bag, and in between dinner items, eat a handful of baby carrots. They’re crunchy, full of water, and help you pace yourself through dinner.

Step Four. Go for a walk after you eat. A little bit of exercise, even a walk around the neighborhood for a few minutes, is enough to to tell your body that you want it to take all that energy you just took in, and use it immediately. You’re telling your body “Hey, don’t put all that energy into long term (fatty) storage, make it available, and of use right now.”

Step Five. Add in Exercise at your own pace. Start with something manageable, achievable, and then make it routine. Whether that means walking your dog instead of just letting them out into the yard, start small, build at your own pace. Make it a daily habit. (Pro-tip, whenever you feel like skipping a day, tell yourself all you have to do is get dressed for the exercise and do it for five minutes. if you do that much and still feel off, you’re allowed to take a rest day. The majority of the time, once you get started, you start to feel better and end up doing it. the key is getting dressed and putting yourself into the position to do it, even if you allow yourself to stop. just keep putting yourself into position to succeed with your new habit.) This also works as an effective daily anti-depressant.

Step Six. Reward yourself for achievements. When you start these things, your body will respond, and you will feel better, more confident, sexier in your own skin. Celebrate with some new clothes that let you show it off. Feel good about it, it’s something you earned!

Step Seven. Allow for cheat days. This you can do every week, every two weeks, whenever you decide. If you find yourself going hard-core on the diet and then crashing into a food frenzy, it’s because your going too hard, and need to allow for a cheat day. Be kind to yourself if you break your diet on a miserable day, and use that as information to consult when scheduling your next cheat day. The long term goal is to reorganize your thoughts around food, and having specific times when you let yourself go whole hog on a bag of Oreos or whatever, lets you recognize that behavior as a reward, or special circumstance, and not a daily activity.

Congrats, you’re now feeling better, looking better, and those two facts will reverberate through the rest of your life like ripples through a pond, making you happier and healthier.

I went vegan and bitch is skinnnay now, although it’s not why I did it. Also low fat high carb, NOT keto, but just paying attention to your carb intake, and having a diet high in healthy fats will keep you full. Keto is for specific genetic epilepsy syndromes and not good for anything else no matter what people tell you.

Diet Hacks!

Want to lower your LDL? (you shouldn’t want to do this)

• Seed oils! (corn oil, canola oil, any veggie oil)

Want to lower your uric acid? (you shouldn’t want to do this)

• Allulose 20g a day reduces uric acid levels by 50% in some people in 6 weeks

Want to dramatically improve your HBA1C before a blood draw?

• Donate blood 2 weeks ahead of time (new blood cells created to replace the donated blood wont be glycated, lowering your HbA1C)

Want to reduce your blood glucose levels dramatically? (do this)

• Don’t eat any sugar or carbohydrates

Food Dietary Advice:

If your not in a rush, any whole food diet (no factory food), will work for most people

If you want to reverse a problem, a ketogenic diet (no sugar, no carbohydrates) will help you claw your way back to normal in steady consistent steps

If you have no time to waste and need to drop fat now… Go full carnivore

Diet Tips:

• Eat fat to lose fat
• Eat two eggs before you allow yourself any snack
• Eat butter as a snack - Not hungry enough to eat butter? Then your not actually hungry
• Sometimes hunger is actually electrolyte cravings, take salt/potassium to reduce urges
• A CGM (continuous glucose monitor) is an AMAZING tool, immediate food feedback, can have a accountability friend watch you and coach you. This is the best tool to stay on a good eating pattern.