I Lost Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days With This Simple Diet

Five years ago my lifestyle changed when I took a desk job in an office. With the internet, efax and servers to connect me to everything I needed to perform my job I slowly lost the need to move much more than my fingers. I didn’t notice the weight creeping up until the day came that I was visiting the in-laws and stepped on the bathroom scale. I was appalled to see that, somehow, I had gained twenty pounds.

I had never been on a diet in my life. I had laughed at friends and family who spent time fasting, calculating weight watcher points and ordering pre-portioned meals. I had never even invested in a bathroom scale. So, the search for a diet was an awakening.

Finding a diet proved to be a frustrating process. It’s a burgeoning industry with hundreds of different weight loss programs available and infomercials hawking everything from vibrating machines to hypnosis. I was at a loss to decide the simplest and fastest way to shed those unwanted pounds. ‘Years of research’ was claimed to have gone into every product I investigated, but the one common thread in all of the advertisements was the disclaimer printed small enough that the advertiser hoped I might miss it. ‘Results not typical’. From my observation of anyone on a diet throughout the years, I knew this to be all too true.

I knew that dieting didn’t have to be expensive or difficult. You shouldn’t have to count your carbs or drink grapefruit juice three times a day; so I decided that the first thing I had to do was accept the simple truth. Calories in – calories out would have to be resolved. It’s common sense, but I could never starve my way to a thinner body. So, what did I do?

Set a goal for daily caloric intake and find a way to ‘cheat’ the system.

This is the hard part. It is worse than doing your taxes. No one wants to give up the things they love, but I was surprised to find that I didn’t have to.

The link below is the tool I used to start. To calculate for serious weight loss put in your age and weight. No matter what your present level of exercise choose the sedentary lifestyle option. This calculator will give you three figures; one for weight maintenance, one for weight loss and one for extreme fat loss. The suggested daily intake for extreme fat loss was my target goal

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Once I set the goal I researched foods that are touted as negative calorie foods. These foods I ate in any quantity I chose throughout the day and didn’t add it to my calorie count. I also committed to ensuring that any food intake during the work day (outside of the negative calorie fruits and vegetables) would account for less than 10% of my allowable calories. I know this sounds draconian and impossible to achieve; but it isn’t. I got plenty to eat from the list below. The extra calories allowed during the day were there to enjoy treats. I could grab a doughnut if I wanted, eat a candy bar or, add three or four containers of yogurt and stay within range of my goal

Negative Calorie Vegetables

Asparagus              Cauliflower         Garden Cress        Onion

Beet Root               Celery               Garlic                     Radish

Broccoli                 Chicory              Green Beans          Spinach

Cabbage                Hot Chili             Lettuce                  Zucchini

Negative Calorie Fruits

Apples                   Honeydew         Papaya                  Strawberry

Blueberries             Lemon/Lime      Peach                    Tomato

Cantaloupe             Mango              Pineapple              Tangerine

Cranberry              Orange              Raspberry             Watermelon

Grapefruit

All of the remainder of my calories allowed were reserved for dinner. I didn’t want my family to have to share in the pain of weight loss. Dinner was prepared as a normal meal with normal portions. I ensured my dessert portions were smaller, but that was it.

This diet not only achieved my goals for calorie intake, but surpassed them. I felt that I was eating a healthy diet, but I did add vitamin supplements in case some change I had made caused me to miss out on any essential vitamins or minerals.

After I had come up with my diet plan, I tried to calculate the amount of exercise that I would need to add to ensure I would burn a pound of fat per day. This proved to be an impossible calculation. Every exercise I found would take hours from my day in order to achieve my goal. But the calculators are misleading.  There is one exercise that is so beneficial, in and of itself, that it surpasses any estimates of calories burned.

Repeated studies have shown that one of the primary things we lack in our daily lives is the steps that must be taken to maintain our health. Now that I have lost my weight, I am a firm advocate of walking, because it is the simplest way I have found to shed excess pounds.  I’ve added a link below that details the reasons as simply as any I have run across.

http://www.discoverwalking.com/blog/amish-walking-fitness.php

I committed to working my way up to ten thousand steps a day.  I never achieved my goal and found myself in the range of eight to nine thousand steps, but it was enough.  I lost an average of one pound a day during that month by adding four miles of walking; one mile in the morning, two miles at lunch, and a mile in the evening. This added less than one and one half hours of exercise to my day, but it was worth every minute of it.

Since the weight loss, I have committed to lifestyle changes that have ensured I didn’t gain any of the weight back.  Had I made these changes prior to starting my diet, I believe I would have achieved my goal that much more quickly

Minimize salt intake – Salt has been described as the most ubiquitous condiment on earth. We all know salt plays an essential role in our diet, but the amount of salt the body needs is immensely less than our general intake. If you cut the salt out of the foods that you prepare at home, you will still get more than the average daily requirement suggested through prepackaged foods and dining out.

Cut back on oils used in cooking- Cooking with oil adds unnecessary calories. Vegetables sautéed with water can be just as flavorful. There are many websites available that offer tips on healthy substitutes for oil in baking. Avoid fried foods at any convenient turn.

Make water your drink of choice and drink plenty of it- Soft drinks, whether they are diet or not, are unhealthy. Every diet plan I know suggests a daily intake of 8 glasses of water. I, personally, have never been able to reach that goal; but the benefits of increased water intake are impossible to argue. If you simply cannot stand the thought of water, drink tea; or find a sugar free flavor additive that can help you reach that goal.

Eat more green vegetables and less meat- If dinner usually includes two sides, make it three or four and cut back on the portions of meat. Vegetables, of almost any kind, are healthier than meat; and adding more variety to your meals will make your commitment to maintaining your weight that much more enjoyable.

This is not a miracle weight loss plan, but I don’t believe in miracles.  This is a safe and effective way to begin the process of working your way back to a healthy lifestyle.