The first simple step to losing weight:
First of all, you need to identify what is causing your weight to be out of it's natural balance. All you need is a compact notepad and a pen.
For 2 weeks, carry your notepad with you and write down every single thing you eat. Good or bad, calories or no calories. Every glass of water and cup of tea. If you have a sore throat and you eat a lozenge, write it down. When it comes to larger meals, write down a description including any ingredients you can identify.
A single day's list may look like this:
- Multi vitamin capsule
- Large bowl of cereal with full cream milk
- 2 pieces of peanut butter toast with margarine
- Strong black coffee with 2 sugars
- Breath mint
- Bag of potato chips
- Can of cola
- Turkey, lettuce, avocado and cranberry sauce sandwich on white bread with butter, salt and pepper
- Cappucino in a mug with 2 sugars
- Breath mint
- 1 litre of water throughout day
- Chocolate chip cookie
- Steamed vegetables (brocolli, peas, carrots), mashed potato with butter and cream, chicken fried in vegetable oil, salt and pepper
- 3 glasses of white wine
- Vanilla icecream
Keep this list with you, but don't worry about studying it or agonising over what you're eating. At this point in time you don't know what it all means so just keep doing what you do while keeping track of what you eat.
The next fun step to losing weight:
Now it's time to face reality and find out how many calories you're consuming.
After 2 weeks, carry your notepad over to your computer and take a seat. You're going to go through your list of daily foods and find out how many calories are in each meal. You can read the labels on the food packaging, or do it online. There are lots of web sites that makes this easy for you (here are a few that I used):
http://health.ninemsn.com.au/tools/caloriecounter.aspx
http://www.calorie-count.com
http://www.thecaloriecounter.com
So now you know that a tall Starbucks caffe latte has 180 calories, a bowl of Special K (2 cups) has 234 calories, and a steamed carrot with salt has 16 calories.
You might be surprised when you start playing around. 1 standard glass of white wine has 70 calories, a standard glass of red wine has 74 calories, but a bottle of beer has 117 calories. (Keep in mind that most people pour themselves significantly more than a standard glass of wine.)
Have a look at how many calories you should be eating, but don't get hung up about it, just focus on eating less calories whereever you can.
The active step to losing weight:
You are now an informed consumer with something to think about and some choices to make.
You know how many calories are in the foods you eat on a daily basis. When you go to the supermarket, use your new knowledge to your advantage. If you have choices between brands, have a look at the label and see if you can lose a few calories out of your diet by simply changing brands.
The passive step to losing weight:
As soon as you start writing down what you eat you'll start to notice that you probably snack more than you need to. When you've had a look at the calories in your food, you'll have a change of heart and you'll simply find yourself eating better without even trying.
This is a really passive mental switch that takes place, because you have taken a huge leap in facing the reality of what you're eating. Does this sound familar "I don't know why I am fatter than I used to be, I eat the same foods it must be my metabolism"?
Those were my words exactly. My husband pointed out that my most overweight friend had said the same thing and that got me thinking. So I started writing down what I ate and I immediately started losing weight. When I checked out the calories, I immediately replaced my fattening snacks with healthier choices. Why wouldn't I if I could??? With the help of some simple toning and aerobic exercise (walking on the beach) I am now the exact weight that I want to be. It was that simple.
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