Eating

Food.

A long, long time ago I made the choice to eat LESS. Then that spiraled out of control and soon I was eating NONE. Then I lost many, many pounds; very, very fast. Then, still without control, I was eating ALL. All the pounds came back and brought their friends with them.

In those periods of NONE and ALL, I felt terribly sick, achy, shaky, depressed, mentally slow & dumb, etc.

But in the times of LESS, I felt comparatively more energized, more focused, more mentally stable. And, because of the consistency and quality of what I did eat, I lost more weight.

Here is an example of a day of LESS for me:

Breakfast: 1/3 cup oatmeal & 4 Tablespoons oat bran cooked. 1 cup milk. Sometimes a few berries. (250-275 calories)
1 Calcium Citrate tablet
1 Emergen-C drink packet, good for vitamin C and B vitamins (usually 25 calories)


Lunch: 200-400 calories of food, like a sandwich or a cup of soup or a meal bar or a small portion of leftovers, with salad or carrots and low-cal fruit.
1 Multivitamin tablet with 18mg iron

Dinner: up to 400 calories of food, usually a protein and vegetable dish - go easy on the pasta/grains.
(optional) 1 Calcium Citrate tablet

Snack: only if strongly craving, at the end of the day have something sweet, up to 210 calories.

Drinks: Emergen-C drink, several glasses of water, herbal teas, diet soda (sparingly) and other calorie free drinks.

Extras: Gum, hard candies, mints.

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This is what works for me. Granted, I have had periods of time where nothing is within my control (either gaining nonstop or losing way fast) and then I have highly controlled times when I still manage to fail to lose weight. It is not as though I am anywhere near skinny yet, so no telling how good this advice really is... All I know is I'm lost a solid 14 pounds and though it's been slow (3 months for 14 lbs), it has stayed off, and in the meantime I haven't become a dizzy imp, with a starved brain. So I guess it's worth it.