I have a few friends that recently joined weight-loss programs. Among these friends, Weight Watchers, South Beach Diet, LA Weight Loss, and Fit for Life/Medifast were all represented. Miracles occurred- well perhaps not miracles, but all my friends lost weight. Some lost HUGE amounts of weight over relatively-short periods of time.
Weight-loss programs WORK. I believe that.
One of the programs some friends are involved in is one of those "business opportunity" situations. I believe the idea is that once you join the program, you'll want to sell the program, and the prepackaged meals, supplements, etc that go along with it. And surely, everyone you sign up will want to sell the program too- thus making you thin and wealthy forever and ever.
Nothing wrong with that, I guess, if that's what you're into. I'm not into that; the whole MLM-thing. I also have very little interest in prepackaged foods. That arrangement looked like a lot of additional expense added to an already bloated food budget (I have two teenaged sons). I am, however, very interested in losing a lot of weight and because, in my mind, it wasn't all the additional food products I ate that was going to thin me down, but rather the PREVENTION of additional food from entering my body.
Run-on sentence aside, I was sure that all I needed to do was eat less and exercise more. I also needed to do some research into what made my friends' programs work and how I could duplicate their success without joining any program or buying special food.
Luckily, there is a boat-load of info on the internet regarding these programs and the multitude variations that exist out there. Amazingly, they are all very similar.
After I began to formulate a plan of my own, I decided to get some testing done and talk to my doctor about what I intended to do and how I thought I was going to go about it. This resulted in a little refinement and off I went; determined to make my plan a success, myself thinner, and avoid the whole pre-packaged MLM thing. And here I am; 51 pounds lighter and still determined.
What's for dinner? That is what I sat down to write about. I mean, what can you eat that is going to provide all your nutritional requirements with a reduced caloric impact and still satisfy your hunger?
The answer took about three weeks to work out. I knew I had to get adequate carbs, protein, fiber, and fats- anyone who has seen the food pyramid knows that. The key is to make the combination of those components jive with your plan. For that you need tools- or, my case, one tool that was effective in planning the food part of my plan- and it had to be free.
I found it. More on that and specific foods next time.
Also, today was a gym day. I did my standard workout for a little longer than usual because my gym partner felt like she needed to catch up on her aerobics. To fight the boredom of waiting, I added a couple more sets at the bench press. It actually felt good.
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