I have a name!!! I've been wanting to read You on a Diet, by Dr. OZ for ages. Maybe it was even a divine prompting. I'm not sure, but I think it's really going to help. I knew the book tracked exactly what happens in your body when you eat something. I thought that was important--because I have real trouble believing that "just" one cookie or whatever really makes a difference because I don't see the bad results immediately.
But it DOES make a difference---anytime you eat anything, your body has to deal with it. Insulin and a host of other chemicals are produced, and if the food isn't good for you, it really does hurt your body.
One big culprit is High Frutose Corn Syrup. In the 1960's people ate ZERO of this stuff. Now each person averages 60 pounds a year!!! This is a real problem, because your body does not recognize HFCS as food, so it doesn't turn off hunger signals in response. A BIG place HFCS is found is in fat free foods and salad dressings.
Anyway, I knew about Leptin (the chemical that makes you feel full) and Grehlin (the chemical that makes you feel hungry). But I didn't know that the problem with so many foods---white flour, HFCS, junk food, trans fats etc was not just that they were empty calories, but that they made you even hungrier by eating them. THIS makes me want to make some changes. It also reminds me of the one time I was super successful without trying---when I was pregnant. My hormones went wild and I suddenly lost all desire for flour, sugar and salt--I dropped a TON of weight (scared the doctors, but I was fine).
Sometimes people who are super obese have a real genetic Leptin deficiency. But most of us have leptin levels that are just fine, but we're Leptin-resistant. That's me. Being leptin-resistant means that my brain sends the "I'm full" message just fine, but my body/mind doesn't like that message---I want more pizza, so I deliberately override the message and ask for more cookies. I think everybody overrides that message sometimes, but I do it habitually. PLUS, I'm always eating stuff that makes me even hungrier.
In the end--all this amounts to is the same old advice as always---lots of fruits and veggies, easy on the refined stuff. But knowing that certain foods are in a way anti-foods, I think will help. After all, I pretty much gave up fast foods when I realized that I giant meal at Arby's didn't even fill me up. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Losing weight in spite of myself.
I began this blog in February 2011 as a way to help me not quit trying to lose weight, and to learn a few things. It's been an interesting and powerful experience. It certainly confirms what I've long suspected--that although I am a genuinely happy cheery person in the main, I am NOT a happy cheery dieter. I DETEST losing weight. I resent being overweight in the first place and I am a virtuoso in the art of self-sabotage. And YET--I'm doing it! I'm fighting and kicking and EATING all the way down, but the weight is finally going down. The plan I was following in February was a half-baked one largely based on wishful thinking. I gained a little weight and decided to get real. I knew I couldn't just join weightwatchers or count calories or do any one plan and expect to be successful. I decided if I was going to bother to make the effort to lose weight I was going to throw everything I could think of at the problem. And so I do. My real "Day One" for this blog is April 1, 2011. I joined weight watchers, I joined caloriecount.com (awesome website), I read the blog losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com religiously, I keep this blog faithfully, I joined the health programs sponsored by my insurance, I use the principles from overeater's anonymous, I use my church's 12 step program as well, I subscribe--and use--Healthy Cooking Magazine.
The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.
The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.
There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.
Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!
The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.
The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.
There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.
Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!
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