I am 1000 days into my lifestyle change. A few thoughts...including getting rid of the word "diet"

Last edited Sat Sep 14, 2013, 05:43 PM - Edit history (1)

In January 2011 I weighed 258 pounds - 54 years old, 6 feet tall. Bad knees. After a heart to heart with me by my wife and one of my daughters, the next day started my lifestyle change. Not diet.

today - it is September 2013 - I weigh 205 lbs, and I tend to drift between 196 and 208 over the course of the year. I am not dieting. I am living. I've changed how I've eaten and worked activity into my day since that chat with my wife and daughter in January 2011.

I feel great. Today my breakfast was cereal with blueberries and granola and soy milk, with coffee. I took my daughter to lunch and had hummus and pita, then a corned beef and swill on rye, with fries. We went for ice cream. Tonight I wanted to compensate, so just had dinner - yogurt with granola and blueberries. That's it....in a few hours, I will take the dogs on a long walk.

If I look into my google calendar, I can see what I've eaten every day since mid July 2011. I weigh in weekly. Writing it all down - everything - total honesty - and weighing in weekly keep things on track for me. When I go shopping, I park pretty far away from the store...I take stairs when possible. As many of you know, my main activity is gardening - actively. We bike, kayak, walk, hike. But not at a crazy level.

I have bad knees, but they feel great - and have ever since I got rid of the 50 plus pounds I lost.

How did I do it? My wife agreed to join Weight Watchers with me at the start, and we did that for six months - that got rid of 40 lbs. I joined a gym, increased my activity, and hold my daily calorie intake to between 1500-2000 calories. Ten more pounds vanished when my wife and I did the Whole Foods sponsored Engine 2 Vegan challenge for a month.

The word "diet" means doing something for a short period of time, knowing that eventually one can go back to what they were doing. so it is doomed to fail.

The phrase "lifestyle change" means just that - a change. Whether it is eating healthier, being more active or both, it is a change, and in my mind, there is no going back. I love focusing our meals on grains, vegetables, fruits - with occasional seafood, and even more rarely, meat. We have no food on a "do not ever eat" list - we just either don't buy it, or eat it in small portions.

I fully expect to stay at this weight or less, and eat and live this way or less, for the rest of my life. I can't preach to anyone to do this because XXXX or YYYY. It is a personal choice, and is not easy for most of us. But I love a challenge, I love my wife and daughters and dogs and cats, I love my life. I want to be around as long as I can; doing what I am doing of course offers no guarantees. But it can't hurt.

So, anyway, 1000 days into this, I thought it would be a good time to share and let you know what has worked very well for me.

ask me anything!

Oh yes - I am convinced - fad diets, book diets, anything that sounds like you get something for nothing - they don't - and can't - work. At least I don't think so. Because they are called "diets" and that means temporary.

I told you it was not that easy, but to be truthful, it hasn't been hard - it has been wonderful, challenging, enjoyable, and fun.