I have another friend that had success with the Abs Diet from Men's Health Magazine. I bought the book according to her recommendation and I too had success. The book is a quick read, especially if you skip the testimonials and it will give you a short, quick understanding of why some foods are good and some are bad without overwhelming you. I didn't lose 25 pounds in 6 weeks following all of their recipes and plans like the claims in the testimonials but I did lose about 15 pounds. I realized early on that eating all organic can be a little expensive and not everything they offered suited my tastes. The biggest things I took from there were:
A. Oatmeal - It's a great way to start your day, especially with a little brown sugar and cinnamon. With a solid foundation of oatmeal to start, I never felt like I was "starving". I never ate oatmeal prior to reading this book and now I eat it almost everyday.
B. Eating every 2-3 hours - At first I had to make myself eat every couple of hours to get into the habit but small "meals" every couple of hours also guaranteed I was never "starving". It didn't take long before I (or my body) found the schedule that worked for me.
C. Smoothies - These are great mid-day snacks between lunch and dinner. It's something fun and sweet to help finish the work day. The book has lots of recipes for every taste. I make batches ahead of time and freeze them, then let them thaw at my desk until I'm ready to drink it.
D. Frozen Dinners - The right frozen dinner offers a healthy meal but especially, the right portion size for dinner. I heard elsewhere that your meals should progress from large to small with dinner being your smallest meal of the day. Using the frozen dinner to follow that rule had an impact on my weight loss as well as my pocket book (since they are cheap).
They mention it in the book but I do want to make it clear here that you shouldn't be looking for a "diet" as in, "I'm going on a diet until I lose 10 pounds". You should be looking to change your "diet" as in, "my change to a diet of healthy foods has me feeling better than when my diet consisted of cheeseburgers." Changing the way you eat will improve your life more than just being able to fit into clothes you wore last year. There's a lot to be said about generally feeling good and having more energy. Food is the fuel that runs your body. Bad fuel causes your body to operate poorly. Good fuel allows your body to function properly. You will notice the difference.
Once you've changed the way you eat, you will also want to exercise. Light weight lifting is valuable as you will see in the book. Muscle burns fat all day long. The more muscle you build, the more fat you will burn. You don't need to lift like a linebacker to build the muscle you need to be successful. I did push ups and used some dumbbells to help me achieve this. You can get a pretty good workout in your own home this way. The book has some good exercises.
Finally, what pushed me over the top was my change in cardio exercises. I said before I walked until I could jog. I used to jog around a track and I added a lap every few days. I finally got to 4 miles on the track which was 16 laps of really boring running. I have a friend who does triathalons and I asked him for some advice. Basically he said I should have one long jog a week that could be as much as a 1/3 of the total distance I would jog that week. So basically I did 4 days a week, I started doing jogs of distances like 2-3-4-2 and I added another 10% of the total distance each week so maybe I did 2.5-3-4-2.5 the second week.
Also, he suggested alternating up and down on the long jog day. The long jogs would go something like 4-5-4-5-6-5-6-7-6-7. Doing interval or speed training during one of my shorter jogs and then alternating my long jog like this really seemed to put the fat burning process into overdrive. This really supercharged my weight loss 6 months in to help me get to the 50 pound mark. Varying your workout is also important in weights just like jogging. Your body can get used to a routine and then not burn as many calories so make sure to change things every 6 weeks or so.
Commit, stick with it, remember that doing a little is better than doing nothing and you will be as successful as you want to be.
I enjoyed talking health so I will probably incorporate some more posts on this topic moving forward. Good Luck with those resolutions.
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