jbo
New member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2010
I lost 40 pounds about a year ago and haven't put it back on. I thought I'd post what I did to change that might help somebody. I never thought I could have lost 40 pounds, because I always felt I was thinner than most people and thought if I lost 40 pounds I would look sick, but I feel better and I think I actually look better.
I never really changed my workout schedule as I always have. I lift weights 3 days a week and do cardio twice a week. I actually only workout for about 30 minutes, but I've always lifted weight really heavy my entire life.
The things I changed were pretty simple. I used to eat eggs for breakfast everyday, which I actually think eggs are good. But eggs by themselves don't taste that great until the salt and cheese is added to my scrambled eggs. I really don't know about the health benefits of having cheese and salt every morning, so I started to make a protein shake in the morning.
I make the common breakfast smoothie you see everywhere, which is similar to this one:
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/health-library/recipes/breakfast-smoothie.html
The only difference is that I don't add any sugar or honey and I use optimum nutrition all natural protein powder, which uses stevia instead of sugar or an alternative. I drink this 4-5 days a week for breakfast, since I can make it in 5 minutes or less. On the weekends I have eggs for breakfast many days.
I used to drink one can of diet soda a day. The thought was, it's diet soda so no calories and I wouldn't mind a little caffeine to pick me up. Well after seeing so many articles about how diet soda can actually make you fatter than regular soda I cut it out completely. This might have been the biggest factor in my weight loss. Instead I would drink only water or unsweet ice tea. So on a daily bases I mostly drinking green tea in the morning, water for lunch and dry red wine for dinner.
I used to be a big coffee drinker, but gave up coffee for green tea and oolong tea on the weekends. Mostly green tea, but just recently started to drink oolong tea. There's a few studies on weight loss with green and oolong tea, so that might have helped a little bit. The coffee I drank was always black, so I can't blame sugar or milk.
I didn't want to do a yo-yo diet, which I've done before with low carb, then off of it, so I did what my one of my friends who is in great shape does. Only eat things you wouldn't normally eat on the weekend. Chances are you'll go a week or two not eating anything bad if you only eat bad things on weekends. So coworkers bring in candy, brownies or any crap and I never even try them. I'll only eat junk if it's on the weekend, which means it's less day and not often. I found when I went on diets I would deprive myself so much that I would be too stricked and then not care, so it was a horrible yo-yo diet. Now I do a weekday diet and if I want to eat pizza or have a beer or ice cream it's only on the weekend.
I also used to drink beer every now and then. I still enjoy beer, but I've switched to drinking a glass of wine almost every night. Ironic as it is I've lost even more weight when I started to drink one glass of wine a night and I really only have a beer once a month with friends.
Changing life style made the most difference than dieting. I wanted to do something I could do the rest of my life, not diet, pigg out, diet, pigg out.
I do eat out lunch 4-5 days a week, but go to the same places and get similar meals. I eat at chipotle once a week, korean once a week and vietnamese once a week. The true asian resturants seem to give you portions that aren't over sized.
If anybody is interested I can post my workout routine, but I never changed it. I used to change my routine often to shock my muscles, but I haven't done that in years.
I never really changed my workout schedule as I always have. I lift weights 3 days a week and do cardio twice a week. I actually only workout for about 30 minutes, but I've always lifted weight really heavy my entire life.
The things I changed were pretty simple. I used to eat eggs for breakfast everyday, which I actually think eggs are good. But eggs by themselves don't taste that great until the salt and cheese is added to my scrambled eggs. I really don't know about the health benefits of having cheese and salt every morning, so I started to make a protein shake in the morning.
I make the common breakfast smoothie you see everywhere, which is similar to this one:
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/health-library/recipes/breakfast-smoothie.html
The only difference is that I don't add any sugar or honey and I use optimum nutrition all natural protein powder, which uses stevia instead of sugar or an alternative. I drink this 4-5 days a week for breakfast, since I can make it in 5 minutes or less. On the weekends I have eggs for breakfast many days.
I used to drink one can of diet soda a day. The thought was, it's diet soda so no calories and I wouldn't mind a little caffeine to pick me up. Well after seeing so many articles about how diet soda can actually make you fatter than regular soda I cut it out completely. This might have been the biggest factor in my weight loss. Instead I would drink only water or unsweet ice tea. So on a daily bases I mostly drinking green tea in the morning, water for lunch and dry red wine for dinner.
I used to be a big coffee drinker, but gave up coffee for green tea and oolong tea on the weekends. Mostly green tea, but just recently started to drink oolong tea. There's a few studies on weight loss with green and oolong tea, so that might have helped a little bit. The coffee I drank was always black, so I can't blame sugar or milk.
I didn't want to do a yo-yo diet, which I've done before with low carb, then off of it, so I did what my one of my friends who is in great shape does. Only eat things you wouldn't normally eat on the weekend. Chances are you'll go a week or two not eating anything bad if you only eat bad things on weekends. So coworkers bring in candy, brownies or any crap and I never even try them. I'll only eat junk if it's on the weekend, which means it's less day and not often. I found when I went on diets I would deprive myself so much that I would be too stricked and then not care, so it was a horrible yo-yo diet. Now I do a weekday diet and if I want to eat pizza or have a beer or ice cream it's only on the weekend.
I also used to drink beer every now and then. I still enjoy beer, but I've switched to drinking a glass of wine almost every night. Ironic as it is I've lost even more weight when I started to drink one glass of wine a night and I really only have a beer once a month with friends.
Changing life style made the most difference than dieting. I wanted to do something I could do the rest of my life, not diet, pigg out, diet, pigg out.
I do eat out lunch 4-5 days a week, but go to the same places and get similar meals. I eat at chipotle once a week, korean once a week and vietnamese once a week. The true asian resturants seem to give you portions that aren't over sized.
If anybody is interested I can post my workout routine, but I never changed it. I used to change my routine often to shock my muscles, but I haven't done that in years.
