My first point of attack was to wean myself off soda. I knew those incredibly tasty little cans of fizzy sweet joyousness were heavy contributors to my expanding waistline. They had to go.
I took no prisoners. Soda was banned.
Cold turkey was tough. I couldn't walk past a vending machine without getting severe withdrawal symptoms and my guts would get tied up in knots. It was tough, but I endured the soul destroying sound of ring-pulls being popped by friends and strangers alike.
Each sudden and unexpected "POP! FIZZ!" sent shards of frozen carbonated colored liquid through my eyeballs and into my brain.
TV ads for all the popular brands made me cry unstoppable tears of anguish to the extent I contemplated throwing the TV out the window (on many occasions).
OK, you get the idea. It was a tough call but I made it. I stuck to it. I won.
Next on the list was junk food. I loved hamburgers, pizza, hot dogs, donuts, pretzels... the list is pretty long so I won't bore you (or make myself feel bad) by reeling them all off here. They all had to go.
They all went. By the way of the dodo. Extinct in my now barren, junk-free life.
Wait. So what did I eat instead, then?
Aha... That's a big part of the trick I used to fool my body into burning its store of fat!
I discovered that there is a process the body goes through called digestion and that while it's busy doing that, it's not doing much else. Like:
Repairing damaged tissue
Healing diseased cells
Renewing stuff that's worn out...
Or burning stored fat!
There's another process that starts up after digestion has shut down that does all of the above. The part I was most interested in was a little thing called ketosis.
This is a process where the body starts taking its energy from fat cells when all of its ready supply of glucose has been used up. The fat is converted into ketone bodies and the body uses these as an energy source instead of glucose.
Who would've guessed this amazing body of ours could do that?
What? No glucose and I can still feel energetic and do stuff instead of falling into a deep coma through lack of sweet, sweet sugar?
It's true!
I wanted to try that for myself. The only problem is to get the body into ketosis, it must stop digesting all food. That minor occurrence takes like over half a day after eating the last bit of food before it cuts in.
Whoa! It means I can't eat anything for like 14-16 hours?
That's impossible!
I'll starve to death!
Noooooooooo!
After I got over it (there's no short cut here, folks, you got to get over it), I gave it a shot. A friend that was already doing this trick told me how he did it:
The best way was to eat my last food at around 6pm and make it a small, fast digesting meal like a salad with no carbs (bread or pasta)
Drink water and go to bed early
Next morning, drink more water but no breakfast.
Take the opportunity to go workout or run or whatever exercise I liked to do.
Fight the urge to eat something through the morning. Drink water to stave off hunger (it works)
By 12 o'clock a full 18 hours will have passed and the body will have been in ketosis for 2-4 hours (depending on the individual). In that time it is doing the good work of burning fat.
You know what? I made it to midday and even though I did feel hungry, I stuck to the plan and didn't eat until then. I had a small, light late breakfast of oatmeal with a bunch of healthy stuff added, like crushed walnuts, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and blueberries and a little honey on top to sweeten it (I was not ready for total cold turkey just yet).
Oatmeal makes you feel full for a surprisingly long time. I didn't bother eating all afternoon and waited until 6pm for my last meal of the day. Again. A piece of chicken breast and some steamed broccoli, carrot and kale plus light salad side. No bread or other refined carb.
Repeated the 18 hour no-food gap before eating again next day at midday.
By the way, this process is called Intermittent Fasting (if you were wondering).
I learned this was the way to a healthier, lighter body.
It does what the body wants to do. Not what corporate America wants your body to do.
I'll elaborate on the above statement in a separate article. It is a real eye opener.
Aside from the intermittent fasting, what diet did I follow? Well, the truth of that is I didn't really follow any kind of strict diet.
My diet is more about what I cut out of it rather than what I kept in.
This is what I removed from my regular diet:
Refined carbs
Sugar (all foods containing added sugar)
Soda (all sweetened drinks)
Junk food (processed food)
This is what I still eat and enjoy:
Lean, grass-fed meat
Fresh-caught fish and some seafood occasionally (shrimp, clams, etc)
All fresh vegetables (in their natural state, ie whole food)
Brown rice, quinoa
Sweet potato and regular potato (baked or boiled/mashed)
Mushrooms
Fruit (again, only fresh fruits like for example apple, pear, peach, pineapple, banana, mango)
Berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)
Nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachio, coconut)
Seeds (sesame, chia, pumpkin, sunflower, flax (ground)
Fresh herbs and spices
I also allow myself some occasional treats like a square of dark chocolate (I hear it is good for you in small amounts). I cook stir-fry with olive oil or coconut oil and never vegetable oil!
So my diet is not what you might call terribly restrictive aside from the missing processed junk food that I used to eat or sweet stuff and refined carbs like bread and pasta. It has been tough reducing my sugar intake to almost nothing (I let slip now and again) and I sometimes miss eating nice crusty bread rolls or bagels, but even though I do allow the odd treat, I keep pretty well refined carb-free.
Did I hit my weight loss goal?
Sure I did! And I did it well inside my target time frame.
I still keep up the intermittent fasting for health reasons (it comes with a massive health boost). I also allow myself odd treats every so often without any adverse effects because I believe my body has gotten so used to being at the right weight.
