How I lost 10 kg and never put it back again (Part 2)

    Last week I was telling you about an article on losing weight that I found fascinating because it explained how exercising a lot won’t help you lose too much weight, and sometimes not at all. This is something that I experienced on my own body and now the study confirmed my opinion. Exercise with no diet is unlikely to succeed, but diet with no exercise will surely do. True, the best option would be diet combined with any kind of exercise, from just climbing up the stairs every day, to walking for 30 minutes, dancing, going to the gym, swimming and other intense workout.

    As I was telling you, 13 years ago I lost 10 kg in a smart way. Before becoming smart about it, I tried lots of diets that promised great results in 1 – 2 weeks but after those 2 weeks I gained all the weight back fast and sometimes even more. During that period I saw a movie about Karen Carpenter, the lead singer of The Carpenters, the Grammy-winning band she’d formed with her brother. This girl died on Feb. 4, in 1983, of heart failure related to her years-long struggle with anorexia. She was 32. That was the moment I realized I was doing it all wrong, and I will eventually get sick and there won’t be anyone to blame except for myself. I was 18, I had a life I wanted to live beautifully so I decided right then and there that I will lose that weight but I will do it naturally, I will give it time and I will never starve my body again.

    Why I wanted to lose that weight?

    I’m 160 cm tall, 10 kg more or 10 kg less counts and most importantly I wasn’t feeling ok, as in I felt heavy, my digestion wasn’t working properly and I lacked the energy I was supposed to have at 18 and after 4 years on playing tennis 3 times/week. I figured that it had to do with what I was eating, which obvious also consisted in sweets, sodas, junk food, bread, etc. (I was 18!!! so don’t blame me for eating junk)

    How I did it…

    Before I began to do anything I tried to discover as many things as I could about how to lose weight in a healthy way (back then I didn’t have internet at my fingertip) and found out about the Michel Montignac “diet”.  I read the book – Eat Yourself Slim (RO: Mananc deci slabesc) and understood the concept.

    This time wasn’t about eating almost nothing, it was about eating smart, mixing the right type of foods. I won’t debate more about the diet because I’m sure you’ll find lots of info about the Montignac method, but I will tell you this: it works.

    I didn’t follow the method completely, but I applied the main rules and cheated only on some aspects, like coffee, which I really didn’t want to give up, a little bit of mayonnaise in my salad and a few others.  Though not respecting it completely, I did lost the kg I wanted, and this is why:

    1. I changed the way I was thinking: “I’m not dieting, I’m changing my life forever, getting healthier”. If you change the way you think about dieting and not consider it a diet anymore, but a healthy way of living, it makes you not think about the after diet period and it makes you understand that it is not a punishment, it’s a gift you offer yourself.
    2. I changed the way I thought about food: “I eat with pleasure and not for pleasure“. There’s a big difference about it and it changes you too. Food is like gas for a car, we need it to function properly, but we can find pleasure in so many other things. Even the car has a limited gas tank.
    3. I changed the quantity. We all know that most of the time we eat more than we need, and we continue eating long after our body says enough, I’m full. Why? Because it tastes so damn good and because we can. Then, we have a big belly and hate to look in the mirror. It’s just food, and yes, while we eat until we feel like rolling instead of walking, others don’t eat in a day not half of what we eat during one meal. We are lucky and keep forgetting it.
    4. stopped drinking sodas and became addicted to lemonade. I’m still not a fan of still water, but I drink it because I know it’s the best option, but if you add a slice of lemon it makes it a lot more bearable. 🙂
    5. No sweets for 1 year, not even a slice from my birthday cake. I know it’s almost impossible, and believe me this no sweets rule hurts the most. No one says that this changing your life, making yourself healthier won’t be a hard exercise of strength, ambition and determination. But if you really want to do it, no cake should stop you 🙂 (PS. now I do eat sweets, every day, but with measure). Plus, the hard part it’s only at the beginning, than you get used to it.
    6. One second on my lips, forever on my hips” 🙂 As funny as it might sound, every time you feel the rush to have a love moment with a piece of  milk chocolate with caramel, think of that and for another second if it’s worth it, and I guarantee that it will change your mind. Remember your purpose, remember why you want to lose weight, remember that feeling you have when you lost another kg, and the rush will go away… or just drink some more water 🙂
    7. only ate bread when it was absolutely necessary and usually integral/wholemeal bread.
    8. ate more often but less quantity. I ate at the proper hours. I made lunch my most important meal of the day, because I can’t eat so much in the morning.
    9. Vegetables became by best friends and salads were on my table every day.

    I know I cheated on some aspects and maybe it took longer to lose weight than if I would have respected the method exactly as it was given, but I did that so I wouldn’t feel I was losing too much, and it made everything more natural and easy to apply. I just followed the main rules, I ate a little bit less, I gave up the most dangerous foods and that was it.  After you lose the kg you want to lose, the best thing about it is that it’s not so hard to keep control of your weight because your body is now changed.

    With every kg lost I felt physically and mentally better, happier, energized, lighter and guess what, my digestion came back to normal, with no meds.

    The 3rd part of this article will be about how I managed to keep my weight under control for the last 13 years, with no restrictions, not even the sweet ones.

    See you soon,

    Gia

    Photo source: here

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