Finding a strategy that works for you

I have written before that there are many strategies that can be used to lose (really use) your excess stored body fat but based on my life experience, most of them didn't work for me. Notice that I did not say that they didn't work, only that when I tried to apply them I did not see the results that I expected or I was unable to continue doing them for some reason.

For me, I found that I could start and maintain any diet for about 3-4 weeks. Then I would stop eating like that for a special occasion or just for something different. Once I broke the new pattern of eating, I would try to restart the diet but it was like I lost the initial momentum to continue. The diet went off to die....

When you think about your own experience in trying to lose your excess body fat, lets start by looking at what you have already tried. Why not grab a paper and a pen and do a quick list of what you have already tried. Start with writing down any diet that has a unique diet name (if you need an idea, here is a list of the top diets according to some published studies ( https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition/diet/us-news-best-diet-plans-mediterranean-dash-more/ ). The reason I suggest this is that if it didn't work for you to lose weight, or you lost weight on it but you could not sustain eating that way, you may not want to bother to try it again. Now, with that list in hand, lets try and look for a new strategy for you to try, that might stick for you.


my experience of weight loss this time and how my weight loss strategy evolved...

Thinking about my current approach, I have kind of evolved it over the past year, with an ebb and flow of ideas through that time. I started with the removal of a "food group", alcohol for 30 days. A kind of food detox. At the same time, I decided to restrict foods that where high in simple-carbohydrates that I found myself binging on. That meant I stopped eating most baked goods (breads, buns, croissants with delicious chocolate drizzle) and drinking my food (for me, beyond Alcohol I also stopped drinking Milk products including cream in my coffee). This change in eating is generally grouped into the terms LCHF or Keto.

The removal of booze and foods that I craved to snack on, naturally dropped my daily caloric intake so I lost some weight. That was pretty good. I found that I quickly lost 5 pounds and then slowly lost another 4. After a few months my weight seemed to stabilize at about 7 pounds of total weight loss. I had again started drinking a bit of alcohol (significantly less that before this project started) and had introduced snacking on a higher protein (but calorically dense snack, nuts). After a few months of stable weight, but still needing to lose at least another 20 pounds of my previously stored food, I decided to reconsider what were the triggers that caused me to eat the way I did.

To explore that I needed to put myself in a position where I could ask myself the simple question, "why am I about to eat this?', or more likely it is asked right after I ate something while snacking - "why did I just eat that?" To do that, I decided to explore WHEN I was eating. This is the large topic on intermittent fasting (aka don't eat all the damn time) and if you want to go explore that topic for yourself, start with videos from Dr. Jason Fung. In essence our bodies have evolved to both store energy and use energy from our bodies fat store. To use the energy in the fat store, you need to have first used up all of the food that you recently ate, and then your body can shift over to using the stored energy (the body fat). Jason Fung calls this the two compartment problem.

So, I simply started by intentionally not eating breakfast. I went from three meals a day plus snacking, to three meals a day with no snacking, to two meals a day. Obviously there is an overall caloric reduction, thus there will be some weight loss from that. By not eating breakfast, I was choosing to reduce when I was eating from 18 hours a day to 12 hours a day. More time for my body to not be processing incoming food and if there was a caloric deficit then the body could use some of the stored body fat as fuel.

Having dramatically reduced my consumption of simple carbohydrates, I also found that the food cravings were much, much lower. Kind of like how I didn't crave alcohol as much after a month off of it, I didn't crave certain foods like I used to or maybe it is more accurate to say that I was aware I was craving a particular food and could more easily choose to eat it or not since I was a bit more aware of the why I was eating.

The other think that I worked to change was the habitual consumption of nuts as a "healthy snack" after my evening meal. Months later, I find that I love nuts covered in salt and If I could eat them in a small portion I would, but I cannot seem to. One handful becomes two or three. Likely better than a bowl of ice-cream, but still a lot of extra food energy that I don't need...

So, the point that I am making in this post is that I needed to experiment with different approaches to find if something could work for me and why it does. Then I can continue to successfully use these new sustainable patterns to live the life that I want to.

So, back to you....

You have a lifetime of habits and a belief system that has gotten you to where you are today.

If you are happy there, change nothing and continue to live as you are. That is your right as a self-aware individual.

If you are unhappy there, you will need to figure out what you can change and then give it a try. You can listen to what others have learned for themselves but ultimately this experience of life is your own.

I only share my experience in losing my excess body fat to help you to see that my journey was do-able and to emphasize that I am not an exceptional person, just a regular person like you. I have no weight-loss secrets that are unavailable to you and I have no unusual will-power or other special skills. If I can do it, I am certain that you can to.

So, what will you do?