Seven Tips for Losing – and Keeping Off — Weight

Years ago, I gained 40 pounds.  The story behind that will have to take up a whole ‘nother post — and likely a drink or two and perhaps a modicum of Irish keening.  The point, my dear reader, is that through hard work and smart choices, I lost the weight.  Methinks it’s wandering around on someone else’s body.

But that’s not the best part.  The best part is that, for the most part, I have happily and easily kept the weight off for more than eight years. The picture above is me with my dad a few years ago: in it, I’m about 140 pounds.  (I’m nearly 5’9.)  I weigh a little less than that today: not supermodel-skinny, but slender in the right places and still very healthy and shapely.

This is something I can maintain for the rest of my life, and I want you to know that if you’re struggling with your weight, you can do it, too.

Friends who’ve known me since Buddha(belly) sometimes ask how I’ve accomplished this, especially as I adore food and am not shy about it.

This is a subject that can’t be fully explored in one short post, but here is part of the answer.  I’ll be doing an ongoing series on this.  If you have specific questions, please feel free to send them my way!

Start with the Quality and Type of Food You Ingest

I don’t like diets, even when they’re wrapped up in pretty packages and finished off with shimmery ribbons called “raw” or “high-protein” or “Atkins” or “vegan” or whatnot.  They might help you create a focused mindset, as in “I will not mix proteins and carbs, and I will only eat raw fish, none cooked!”  The focused mindset keeps you away from the Twinkies, which is good.  But these diets give you a false sense of control, emphasizing exclusion rather than moderation.  They treat the symptom of overeating, not the underlying cause.  In the end, these diets — and they are all diets –are about wiping out whole categories or macronutrients in the name of “health.”

Excluding real food from your diet doesn’t make you healthy; eating real food makes you healthy. And by real food, I mean the kind I’ll describe below.  Focusing on a balanced diet returns us to what humans have evolved to eat: vegetables.  Meats.  Nuts.  Seeds.  Fruits.  Grains.  Dairy.  The occasional treat.  Vino.  It’s all good.

Eating real food that’s been raised right will satisfy you.  When you’re satisfied, you’ll be inclined to eat less.

So let’s start with the quality, and then we’ll get to the quantity in further posts.  And note that this post is being submitted to Real Food Wednesday, hosted today over at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

1) Eat food, not foodless foods.

“Protein bars” are candy bars masquerading as health food.  Eat eggs.  Plastic-wrapped diet dinners that you rip open and nuke are about as nutritious as a stiletto.  I’ll eat rice, not puffed-up, denatured cereal or overly processed white bread.  Eggs, not EggBeaters.  Meat, not meat substitutes.  (If you’re a vegetarian, then go for beans and real tofu or tempeh, not overly processed vanilla soy milk or fake meats.)   I eat tons of vegetables, not just supplements.  Honey, not aspartame.

2) Eat food that does not need packaging.

A banana has its own packaging.  So does fish.  Does your meal contain a “just-add-water” mix or come in a box or can?  Make that the accessory to your diet, not the main focus.

3) Focus on the quality of your food.

The higher up the food chain you go, the more important it is to choose organic/pastured/wild, etc. As I say in my book, Healthy Eats Here!, you can peel the carrot, but you can’t wash the pesticides off the pork chop.

This is about health, not just weight.  There’s no use being slender and fit if you’re in the hospital with a tumor.

Drumroll: if you eat out at all and are conscious of your weight and/or health, Healthy Eats Here! is an essential investment.  Yes, I wrote the thing, but I wrote it because I myself needed to find restaurants that would keep me healthy and energetic and help me maintain and even lose weight.  Go HERE to find out more.  I think it’s one of the best purchases you can make for your health.

4) Pay more for your food.

This accomplishes two goals:  it means you’ll be seeking out the highest-quality meats, cheeses, vegetables and grains you can find, and that benefits your overall long-term health.  And if you’re paying more, you’ll eat less of overall.  We not only get what we pay for; we respect what we pay for.

5) Eat food that your ancestors have been eating for centuries and even millenia, not products that have been out for decades or days.

That means real butter, not margarine or even Earth Balance.  (I’m looking at you, vegans.  Read the label on that thing.)  That means traditional fats such as lard (which is still used widely in China today, a country until now not known for obesity) as opposed to cottonseed oil and those containing Trans Fats.

Eat the quinoa, not the burger bun. Eat a salad with rotisserie chicken; it’s just as fast as a microwaved meal but lacks the 37 different multi-syllabic laboratory ingredients.  Drink water and tea or even coffee, not Red Bull.

The Romans ate all sorts of fish, fowl, meats, vegetables, grains, fermented foods, traditional breads, cheeses and olive oil.  The Ming Dynasty folks were not standing in line at Mingy D’s.

Ask yourself if your ancestors would recognize what you’re about to put in your mouth.  If they wouldn’t, then reconsider eating it.

6) Cut the sugar.

If you scale back on prepackaged foods, you’ll make great strides towards cutting down on sugar.  And when I say sugar, I mean all forms: high-fructose corn syrup, prevalent in most packaged foods (including breads, which often contain their own form of sugar — white flour).  Eschew sugar substitutes, which have been shown to cause cravings for sugar.  When choosing fruit, notice whether you’re consistently reaching for the high-sugar ones (such as ripe bananas) or for the low-sugar ones (such as berries).  Either way, try fruit for dessert; that’s what the Italians and Greeks have been doing for centuries.

Fruit for dessert works.  This is my Italian mother:

7)  Eat in season.

Your food will taste better if it’s local and in season.  A summer tomato or a perfectly ripe, juicy, succulent peach will never taste the same when imported from 3,000 miles away in January.  When you eat food at is peak, you get more nutritional and taste bang for your buck.  You’ll need less to stay satisfied.  And you’ll be eating more fruits and vegetables, as, let’s face it: packaged foods that won’t expire until your grandson has dentures don’t really have seasons.

The best way to eat in season?  Shop at a farmer’s market. You’ll likely save money, too.  (Put it towards your new wardrobe fund.)

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Next in this series: weight-loss and maintenance tips to take to the kitchen, as well as to the table.  We’ll be covering HOW to eat as much as what to eat, and many of the tips are pretty painless.

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