Tag: calories

Lose those “Easy First Five Pounds”

I can hear the gears grinding already. The “Easy First Five Pounds”? Be serious. You are laughing now and saying, “There are no easy pounds to lose”. Oh, but you can lose weight without dieting and without changing your life style very much. Did you get that? Not very much. But, you have to do something.

Now for all you doubters I want to provide a little disclaimer and a peek into how I look at life. First, this plan is based on eating what I believe are good foods. I am not a dietician or doctor but I try to cover the four food groups and eat sensibly. I try to listen to my body and eat what I’m craving as long as they fall into the “good category”. I rarely eat candy bars anymore but I do eat protein bars that are often chocolate and peanut butter flavor, fill my need for protein and satisfy my desire for something sweet. I try to think outside of my normal diet for things that can be good for me but still satisfy. Mixing chocolate protein powder with skim milk in a blender makes a high protein meal and a dessert all in one. Try it. It is delicious.

The other thing I want to emphasize is that I don’t diet. I adapt my lifestyle to help me feel good and get to where I want to be. Sure I am cutting back on calories, but what I really have done is change the way I live on a permanent basis. I have cut way back on salad dressing and butter for example. They contain lots of empty calories and a little goes a long way. I am always looking for ways to change my lifestyle for the better instead of looking for something temporary. Finally, I am a creature of habit. It is just the way I am hardwired. I often eat the same things every day for days on end. I believe repetition helps regulate my cravings for bad foods, but you might need more variety than me. That is fine. We each should be able to adapt our lifestyle for our own best use.

Here’s how I got started.

First I First I identified my vices. Everybody has a vice or two. Some of us have been known to have more than a few. To take the bad edge off, let’s call them bad habits. My bad habits have been candy bars, snack cakes, ice cream, fast food and beer. There might be others but these five are all I’m admitting right now. I have found by experience that one

From the book: “Fifty Tips to Better Living

This article would cover 5 pages on the standard 6 x9 format I used for “The Twins”

Lose those “Easy First Five Pounds”

I can hear the gears grinding already. The “Easy First Five Pounds”? Be serious. You are laughing now and saying, “There are no easy pounds to lose”. Oh, but you can lose weight without dieting and without changing your life style very much. Did you get that? Not very much. But, you have to do something.

Now for all you doubters I want to provide a little disclaimer and a peek into how I look at life. First, this plan is based on eating what I believe are good foods. I am not a dietician or doctor but I try to cover the four food groups and eat sensibly. I try to listen to my body and eat what I’m craving as long as they fall into the “good category”. I rarely eat candy bars anymore but I do eat protein bars that are often chocolate and peanut butter flavor, fill my need for protein and satisfy my desire for something sweet. I try to think outside of my normal diet for things that can be good for me but still satisfy. Mixing chocolate protein powder with skim milk in a blender makes a high protein meal and a dessert all in one. Try it. It is delicious.

The other thing I want to emphasize is that I don’t diet. I adapt my lifestyle to help me feel good and get to where I want to be. Sure I am cutting back on calories, but what I really have done is change the way I live on a permanent basis. I have cut way back on salad dressing and butter for example. They contain lots of empty calories and a little goes a long way. I am always looking for ways to change my lifestyle for the better instead of looking for something temporary. Finally, I am a creature of habit. It is just the way I am hardwired. I often eat the same things are day for days on end. I believe repetition helps regulate my cravings for bad foods, but you might need more variety than me. That is fine. We each should be able to adapt our lifestyle for our own best use.

Here’s how I got started.

First I identified my vices. Everybody has a vice or two. Some of us have been known to have more than a few. To take the bad edge off, let’s call them bad habits. My bad habits have been candy bars, snack cakes, ice cream, fast food and beer. There might be others but these five are all I’m admitting right now. I have found by experience that one

You Can Choose


Perhaps twenty years ago I became addicted to reading food packaging labels.  I guess it is really not an addiction but I am seriously devoted to knowing what I am eating.   One of the first things I noticed was how many calories were in salad dressing. I have been active and healthy my whole life but I find during times of stress and business my weight will rise. I strive to keep my weight under the 25 BMI marker, and counting calories is something that woks for me.  For such a small quantity, salad dressing seemed like something I could live with less.  

I began to reduce my intake of salad dressing by measuring how much I was putting on my food.  Within a short time I began making a conscious choice to eat salad without any dressing. Once, I remember wondering why I even started to put it on salad.  I guess iit was always available and I just did what everybody else was doing.

What happened over the years since I began to avoid dressing is just a small example of what happens when you make a choice.  First, I began to really enjoy salad without any dressing. Plain and simple I love salad just plain. For me, dressing covers up the flavors of the fresh vegetables.  Second, I have come to eat fruits and veggies of all kinds raw and without oils and dressings. All these fruits and vegetables are great for my health and I truly love my eating choices.  Friends ask me why I deny myself and I respond honestly that there is no denial going on. This is how I love to eat. Sometimes they just stare at me.  

Why am I writing about this?  Because we all sometimes forget that we have a great deal of choice in our lives.  We hold the power to choose what we want to eat and what we don’t want to eat. And sometimes the things we add or take away turn out to be the things we prefer.

Is there anything wrong with salad dressing, or bacon or red meat?  I don’t have a problem with any of those, I just simply made a choice to not eat those on any regular basis.  Do I eat dressing, bacon and red meat? Yes, but I eat so little of those three that you might think I do not.

Why do I make this choice?   Because salad dressing has a lot of empty calories, bacon is heavy in fat and nitrates and red meat is heavy, makes me sleepy and some research shows it may be related to heart disease.  So I choose not to eat them. In the case of red meat sometimes I crave a good cheeseburger so I’ll eat one. One every two or three months probably isn;t going to do me great harm. Bacon used to be a standard in my house but over the past few years I have just lost interest in it.  

So, I am not telling you what to eat.  I try, not always successfully, to avoid giving advice.  I simply want to show what has worked for me. What has worked wonders for me is to make a positive choice and do my best to stick with it.    Maybe my example will be something that works for you.