Losing Weight and Eating What You Like

Like most women I have tried many diets in my life and kept trying more because for those that worked; I couldn't stick to them or maintain them forever. I tried the low carb, no carb, all carb, low fat, no fat, all fat, I tried them all and found I was either starving when I went to bed or had some unpleasant side effects from the menu of the latest diet craze that I couldn't stand it. I couldn't find a diet that worked and I finally gave up and accepted that my body was always going to be out shape and overweight.

During a very low point in my life, I found myself suffering from a serious case of feeling sorry for myself and not wanting to eat. Given, I am one of those people who skips eating during stress or sadness, I can make myself seriously sick during such times. I knew I had to pay attention and make a point of eating.

I knew that forcing to much food into my stomach at once would result in failure to eat later or even the next day so I came up with a plan. I would start my day with some kind of smoothie and keep light snacks and fruit in the house so I could just eat a little bit here and there and still get some nutrition in my body. I have to admit that the thought of a smoothie or anything else in my stomach first thing in the morning did not seem appealing to me as I did not like to eat in the morning but I forced myself to do it anyway.

I would start my day with a banana, pineapple juice and a scoop of french vanilla Slimfast in the blender. I didn't choose the Slimfast for the nutritional value, this is an item that is loaded with extra vitamins and it's a great choice for anyone who is on a diet or not eating properly to ensure that you do actually get enough nutrients to fuel your body. The first few days this drove me crazy because I had to literally force myself to drink a 16 ounce glass of this smoothie but after a few days, I found I was waking up hungry and heading for the blender before my eyes were even completely open.

Through the day, I would eat handfuls of grapes, bananas, berries, whatever fruit looked good in the grocery store that week as well as the individually packaged cheese sticks as I knew my body would strongly rebel without some kind of protein. On the days I would really get hungry, I would go to McDonald's, Taco Bell or any other fast food place that had high fat and serious grease content for one meal. I usually made the fast food run once a day. I certainly wasn't dieting and as long as I wasn't hungry or feeling physically tired, I didn't think much about what I was eating. Health was not my priority but keeping my strength up was required in order to be able to work everyday.

I had fallen into the habit of grazing all day and eating whatever it was that I wanted without giving it much thought. I didn't own scale and I was still feeling sorry for myself so I was living in sweats. It wasn't until about six weeks into my new eating habits that a friend gave me a dress that no longer fit her and she thought it might look nice on me. I tried on the dress and did a double take in front of the mirror. That was not my body! My body was overweight by about thirty five or forty pounds and it was dumpy. The body in that that dress was slim and actually looked pretty good. How did that happen?

What had happened was very simple. Anyone with a background in nutrition will likely tell you to eat several small meals through the day as your body will adapt to that and start burning calories. The less you eat the more your body will hang on to every fat cell it can find because you have put it into starvation mode and it's fighting for mere survival. Is it any wonder that those who go on starvation diets or very low calorie diets seldom lose weight? I had gone from eating about two thirds of a single meal per day to eating all day long and even more surprising to me was I was eating whatever I wanted! I won't say that if you choose to eat chips all day and nothing else that you will not gain weight, it's likely you will gain weight and very likely send your cholesterol and blood pressure into dangerous levels. Though, there is nothing wrong with eating a bit of junk food here and there as long as you balance it with some kind of real food with real nutrition.

Seeing this new body that I seemed to magically have one day after eating anything I wanted to eat inspired me to make it even better. Not being someone who does well with anything that is too hard when it comes to taking care of myself, I decided to start walking every day and would occasionally do a few sit ups or whatever seemed like a great idea to make my body ache for days to prevent me from staying with the program. Walking turned out to be the one thing that I could do and stick with.

In eight months I went from a size 12-14 to having to shop in the juniors department because depending on the cut of the jeans I was wearing between a size 2 or 4.

My weight leveled out at about 105 LBS and as long as I continue to eat, it doesn't go any lower. Being barely over five foot tall, this is a good and healthy weight for me. When you are feeding your body and not starving it on some fad diet, your body will stop losing weight when you reach your natural weight. This is not a diet that you have to stick to a menu, deny yourself your favorite treats or even weight your food. In fact, this is not even a diet at all, it is simply a healthy way of feeding your body and maintaining it's perfect weight.

I still normally eat at least one full meal per day and most experts will suggest that full meal be breakfast, that simply does not work for me as I still will not eat actual solid food in the morning. For me it is normally my night time meal that I sit down and eat. I prefer the evening meal because I do enjoy food, like everyone I eat to live but I also take great pleasure in good food and I have no interest in scarfing down my lunch while I am on the run all day. I savor my evening meal and yes, on occasion I even eat more than one full meal in a day if my body is telling me that it is hungry.

I don't believe there is any one diet that works exactly the same for everyone, so create a plan to change your relationship with food and give up on diets that will see more failures than success. Adjust your eating as it suits your needs, then sit down with a chocolate bar and enjoy every single bite as you remember you are not cheating on your diet, you are feeding your body and taking your first step to losing weight and keeping it off without ever denying yourself your favorite food.

Furthermore, don't forget to go get the books, articles, tapes and anything else that has all the diets that did not work for you in the past and toss them in the trash.