It took me 13 weeks to lose the 32 pounds. I lost over 10 of those pounds in the first three weeks. The next 10 pounds took four more weeks, and the last 12 pounds took six more weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is really simple to understand why WW works. It works because it forces you to start tracking your eating and thus, paying attention to what you eat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a simple principle for life in general:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to see progress in an area, find a way to start measuring it and tracking the progress.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In WW, you are of course tracking weight, but you are also tracking your diet because every food counts as points against a daily and weekly allowance. Over time, you figure out how to keep your points lower, which is forcing you to eat healthier (and less). <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is another big reason why WW worked for me though: it did not ruin my life. It did not force me to eat things I did not want to eat or do exercises I did not want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is some information about what I ate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I happen to love fruit, and fruit does not even count as points in WW. So, I decided I would have all the fruit I wanted, regardless of the cost. For example, I love raspberries, and I have eaten a ton of raspberries over the last few months. I made sure we were stocked up on all the fruits I love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting plenty of protein is important to maintain muscle mass so that was another focus for me. Chicken breast is almost all protein and I ate a ton of it. I did not really skimp on any meat though I tended to choose leaner cuts of steak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I also ate a lot of greek yogurt because I love it, and it is a great source of protein. I ate a lot of vegetables and a lot of eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I pretty much cut out bread from my diet and almost all processed foods such as chips and baked goods. I have not had a sugared soft drink in three months though I will admit I drink a Coke Zero from time to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, the diet changes just did not feel like much of a sacrifice. Marla and I kept our weekly habit of a date night on Wednesday night at a nice restaurant and I made sure we kept our tradition of having at least one fast food meal with the family on weekends. Granted I had to make some changes in what I ordered, but it did not ruin the experience by any means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Marla and I like to go to a particular Italian restaurant on Wednesdays. Before I started dieting, on a typical night there, I would drink a sangria and maybe three Cokes. I would split an appetizer, split a loaf of bread (that you dip in oil), eat a salad with ranch dressing, and an entre with a side of fettuccine alfredo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On WW in diet mode, I got around 25 points a day to spend on food. That meal I just listed is around 100 points. Truthfully, I should have been 400 lbs. Or, I should have been dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We did not stop going to that restaurant after starting the diet. I still got the same entre (15 points), ordered a vegetable instead of fettuccine alfredo (0 points), drank only water (0 points), split a salad (5 points), and ate half as much bread (4 points). That is still 24 points, which meant I either needed to use some weekly points or eat lean (almost all fruits and vegetables) the rest of the day. Either option worked fine and I enjoyed those meals about as much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have learned that eating a smaller portion slowly and savoring the taste is at least as good as gulping down a large portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In regards to exercise, I am not a guy that likes to exercise. I do however like to walk. I was already walking 45 minutes a day, and at first, I decided to double that. I did that for a while but eventually went back to walking 45 minutes a day and also doing a 30-minute resistance workout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, between the increased exercise and the reduced calories, the weight came off. It was not the easiest thing I have ever done but is far from the hardest. Looking back, there was nothing special about my plan. It is just a grind where you try to work off 1-3 pounds every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going forward, I am maintaining my weight by being much more conscious of what I eat. However, make no mistake about it: in general, I eat what I want, even if I need to adjust the serving size. I had Five Guys over the weekend (a single cheeseburger rather than a double). I ate ice cream yesterday (about half a bowl rather than a full one). In my opinion, if you try to do this in such a way that deprives you too much, you are destined to fail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of exercise now that I am in maintenance mode, I am doing maybe half as many resistance workouts, but more walking. (I love walking a ton–I listen to a book a week while walking.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, I also bought a standing desk a few months ago and very quickly learned to love that. If you have not used one, you probably hate the idea, but I will tell you that you very quickly get used to standing at a desk, and it will feel perfectly comfortable after a few weeks. If you get really tired, you can sit for a while. But standing during the day is healthier than sitting and may burn up to 400 extra calories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So those are my two big recommendations: if you want\/need to diet, first, find a system that forces you to measure and track progress, not just with weight but other factors as well. And secondly, do it in such a way that you can still eat and exercise in ways you find enjoyable at least some of the time. In other words, don’t try to do something that is going to ruin your enjoyment of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in early January, I stood on a scale and gazed down with a sinking feeling: 202 lbs! I am 5′ 10″ tall and the BMI formula tells me I should be in the 170 lb range. That makes sense: I was around 170 during college and for several years after college. Slowly, over about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-well"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/meditatum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/7026d2af3d466a56f6e2ccb64ed5a652.png\")
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