<p>I’m tired of the extra 15 pounds that I’ve been carrying around since DS2 was born. As I hit my late 40’s, I seem to eat less and less just to stay the same. Has anyone found a diet that really works? I’ve tried the low-carb thing, which does seem to work, but then I revert back to normal eating after a week or two. Anything really great that you’ve tried? Preferably painless and including chocolate and wine, if possible!</p>
<p>Eat less, exercise more. 
Diets generally don’t work, or rather they do in the short term, but then the weight (and more) often comes right back. Better to try and permanently alter your eating habits, eating less of the things that are bad for you and more veggies, fruit, lean meat, etc. You can have wine and chocolate in reasonable amounts - dark chocolate (the darker the better) and red wine are both good for you. The key is to find healthy foods that you actually enjoy eating, so you don’t feel deprived. And don’t keep junk food in the house!</p>
<p>Reduced carb diets work. Period. You don’t have to give them up entirely (except for the first few weeks, as you reset your body chemistry). Pick up a copy of “Protein Power” --a very poorly-named book, but the best medical explanation of how your body works that I’ve seen. Yes, you do need to exercise, but you don’t have to train like an Olympian. I agree that “diets don’t work” if you view them as a temporary expedients after which you revert to your old behavior of sitting around on the couch eating junk food. It’s a committment to a lifestyle change if you want to lose weight and stay in shape. Your “diet” is what you eat, not a temporary plan.</p>
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<p>Yes, but few can maintain a low level of carbs for the long term, particularly if, like me, you’re not a big meat eater.</p>
<p>Yeah, eat a normal diet. Cardio exercise is the key…it’s hard to drastically change eating habits if you’ve already cut down a lot to maintain your shape. Sjmom, try running every other day, and doing yoga a couple times a week. Running is easy–you don’t need fancy equipment. You don’t have to go for ages, either. Start out slow. 30-45 min of running a day keeps me in shape. I’m terrible at athletics and hate exercise, but I found that once I started to run every night at exactly 9:45, I just had to do it every day so as not to break the schedule. Doing it regularly on a schedule makes it tons easier. And it really motivates you.
The most important thing is to keep it up. Good luck!</p>
<p>sj~</p>
<p>I have always used Booklady’s approach, and I have lost TONS of weight over the years <em>lol</em>, as I’ve had to lose the baby weight after each of six pregnancies. </p>
<p>As a matter of fact, I put on a few over the summer and am now back on track to lose it. I eat a diet very high in complex carbs, also having high-grade protein and small amounts of the “good” fats. I splurge once a week on a HUGE Saturday night dinner, complete with Tiramisu or some other yummy dessert. This approach has worked each time I’ve had to lose weight, and I’ve always lost it QUICKLY, usually about 2-3 lbs. a week.</p>
<p>We invested nearly two years ago in a gym-quality elliptical…a PRECOR. It is in our living room! <em>lol</em> And next to it sits a Bowflex that we bought brand new for 50% off as someone had purchased it and never used it. Those constitute our “home gym.”</p>
<p>I am <em>not</em> a fan of the low carb approach. Not only is it harder to sustain in the long run, but you are sacrificing many of the EXTREMELY nutritional complex carbs. IMHO, no one <em>needs</em> that much protein, and from the extensive reading I’ve done on the subject, long-term use of those diets can basically trash your body’s ability to handle carbs, hence the weight gain that people observe when they go OFF of those diets.</p>
<p>I’m not a nutritionist, but I am an avid reader on the subject, and IMHO, the best approach is in some ways the easiest and in other ways the hardest. Easy because you do not have to strictly adhere to ANYTHING, and you CAN splurge once a week (at least it works for me). Hard because it requires THOUGHT and dedication and MODERATION, something with which I truly struggle.</p>
<p>At any rate, whichever approach you use, BEST of LUCK!! And girl, PM me if you need a kick in the butt…and I’ll do the same, o.k.??</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I do exercise – an elliptical and weights at the gym, two or three days a week. I have arthritis, which eliminates any heavy-impact activities, like running. In the past, I’ve always been able to just give up sweets for a few weeks, and the weight would come off pretty easily. But as I get older, it just doesn’t seem to work that way. I guess I’m looking for success stories, so I appreciate yours!</p>
<p>Well, if it’s not working for you, similar sucess stories won’t magically make your routine any more effective…I recommend doing a food log for a week and seeing how much extraneous food you eat…set a max calorie range for the day and stick to it. You’ll be surprised how much you can fit in if you are careful!</p>
<p>I’m a fan of the food log, too. It’s usually my first step to halt the damage and get the ship steered the other way.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t try the Atkins kind of low-carb, but lots of doctors I talk to are in agreement that the South Beach style good-carb, good-fat vs bad carb, bad fat diet works pretty well. I followed it correctly once; I don’t now, but I internalized a lot of good habits which have followed through–being very wary of simple carbs, for instance, lots of veggies, good, lowfat protein. These are things I knew intellectually, but following SB for a while helped me retrain my inner cravings. And I eat vegetarian the majoritiy of the time, so it hasn’t made me eat a lot of meat. What it has done is made donuts, cookies, pastries in general pretty much totally missing from my diet. I don’t even much want them anymore.</p>
<p>(Now, a nice bowl of ice cream…:))</p>
<p>I also recently got a step-counter (not to be too trendy) and just wearing that every day has me moving way more to keep the numbers up.</p>
<p>Besides, walking, I bike and kayak when I can (not enough, though.)</p>
<p>I agree with booklady, too. When I lost weight (10-15 lbs) and kept it off it was when I cut back on portion size. I don’t eat fast food anymore (does not agree with me) either. I eat pretty much what I want, just not overdoing it. I eat dessert maybe once a week, if that. I do have a sweet tooth, but I have to be careful. </p>
<p>I think when you deprive yourself, it makes you crave it more. When I want chocolate, I buy the small Dove bar that has four sections in it. Each section is 50 calories and is so delicious and rich you just eat one. I put the rest in the freezer for another day.</p>
<p>A good book to read is by Michael Roizen and Memhet Oz called “You the Owners Manual” . It is not a diet book, but will help you improve your overall health. It changed mine following some of the advice.</p>
<p>A few things I’ve adapted from what I learned at WeightWatchers:</p>
<p>– “Write it before you bite it.” Keep track of what you eat and drink, every last thing, physically WRITE IT DOWN at least for a few weeks. It’s… eye-opening.</p>
<p>– Drink water. Lots and lots of water. For me, it’s gotta be ice water, but some folks don’t care for cold water. Sometimes when you think you’re hungry, you’re actually thirsty.</p>
<p>– Don’t deprive yourself. There’s nothing that will throw you “off the diet” faster than wanting something “forbidden”. Eat what you want. But that doesn’t mean eating as MUCH of anything as you want! Section out a small portion of that desired food and put the rest away. Savor the small treat you’ve given yourself. (Then go drink more ice water. )</p>
<p>– Exercise as much as you can. Being from an arthritic family, I can empathize with the difficulty of this sometimes, but every little bit helps, even just parking a little farther away at work.</p>
<p>– Keep fewer unhealthy treats around. Notice I didn’t say “eat only healthy things”: that would be disingenuous. 
Gradually stop purchasing the unhealthy things you know will trigger you to inhale the whole bag if you open it, and keep around other munchy things that aren’t bad for you. (I’ve found pretzel sticks (rationed in appropriate portion size) and bowls of crunchy raw red cabbage or cauliflower-ettes or cherry tomatoes work for me.)</p>
<p>– Use smaller plates. Sounds silly, but it’s a sure-fire way to get yourself to cut down naturally on portion size.</p>
<p>And last but not least… </p>
<p>– Think of it as a lifestyle, and not a diet. :)</p>
<p>Mootmom: hi to a fellow WeightWatcher. If you find a good group leader, it’s great. Lifetime member here, have kept off about 15 pounds (well at the moment more like 13 
) for a year and a half. </p>
<p>Following the Weight Watchers program works, pure and simple. Go to meetings once a week and hang in there. You can also get free email tips once a week if you subscribe (free I think).</p>
<p>When you buy vegetables at the store, come home, peel/cut/etc. so that they are ready to eat in your fridge whenever you get the urge to snack. </p>
<p>It is okay to feel hungry. In fact, after a while, it feels good.</p>
<p>Keeping only healthy food around is the real secret. Buying fruits in bulk at Costco is marvelous–peaches go by really fast, as do strawberries. Bananas are also a boon–they are edible plain when they are a bit green, and when they go all yellow they are just right for fruit smoothies.
Other than fruit, hot tea is magic. As is fat free chicken broth…10 cals a cup and perfect for lunch with some veggies and some fruit on the side.
Avoid white breads like the plague!!! My family eats pasta, french bread, and rice very often, so it’s difficult to keep the weight off since I don’t have the option of eating my own food!</p>
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Whatever method you choose, that’s the key. Same with whatever method of exercise you choose–it’s something you just do, like brushing your teeth or fastening your seatbelt.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good tips! :)</p>
<p>I work in a bookstore and “The Sonoma Diet” has been popular among those who usually don’t jump on the diet book bandwagon.</p>
<p>Advice someone gave me that cuts down on happy hour fun, but can cut an amazing amount of calories: Don’t drink calories. So put down that frappucino, martini and soda!</p>
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<p>Ooooooooooh, yeah…ITA. Don’t get me wrong–I am a frap freak, but when I diet, I prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them!!</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I have lost a bit of weight lately and here are a few things that helped me out:</p>
<p>I drink tea all morning, delaying the start time of my eating for the day, because I like tea and I am busy, this works pretty well for me</p>
<p>I aim for a 12 hour eating window…whatever time I begin eating in the morning, I stop 12 hours later…since I am a night time snacker, this is mentally painful but really helps weed out extra calories.</p>
<p>I try to do things throughout the day that keep my metabolism perky…get up from my desk and walk around, walk the dog (or cat or anything that can be walked); I read of research on weight gain showing that fidgeting can be very calorie-burning, so I am trying to fidget more!</p>
<p>I try to evaluate each food item to decide if it is really worth it, trying to get in the “zone” of being in touch with my body’ do I really want that item or am I just bored? </p>
<p>Avoid polite eating, if the family is eating dinner and you are not huingry, skip it!</p>
<p>Small plates and the resulting small portions are great, our culture has reaslly grown the portions to an extreme and it is helpful to see what can really be satisfying.</p>
<p>Write it down, every bite, every taste, every snack.</p>
<p>Try a fruit smoothie midday instead of a snack, filling and healthy.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>PS: yes, dump the caloric drinks, what a waste!! food is more satisfying!</p>
<p>If you are addicted to soda, go buy diet soda. I know some people who just have to have it! As for coffee…I recently saw one of my friends who was trying to lose weight by drinking a Starbucks coffee and eating a protein bar every day instead of a conventional lunch. Guess what, that coffee had 300 calories even without whipped cream, and the bar had 150…for my lunch I had had a nice filling lean deli meat sandwich and a piece of fruit that were definitely lower in fat and were definitely more satisfying. No need to go to extremes to diet!
I for one can’t eat sugary or fruity foods when I’m hungry. I need real food, so vegetable soups are my best friend. If you’re like me, keep fruit around for afternoon snacking…it’s best for when you’re not terribly hungry but just won’t do for major meal substitutions.</p>
<p>I lost 35 pounds a few years ago and kept most of it off. Mostly I reduced portion size and ate more vegetables. This is what I ate:</p>
<p>weekdays</p>
<p>breakfast
2 eggs and one cup of fruit
coffee with milk
or
1 cup fruit
1/2 cup of yogurt
sprinkling of granola or cereal</p>
<p>lunch
3 oz of meat or 1 oz of cheese
6 oz of cooked veg
6 oz of raw veg (big salad) with 1 Tb of dressing</p>
<p>dinner
same as lunch</p>
<p>Dessert
One Hershey’s kiss or one cookie</p>
<p>Weekends
I tried to be mindful, but I ate what I wanted including dh’s waffles on Saturday morning.</p>
<p>I also made a point of getting enough exercise.</p>