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Introduction Text Over the years I have tried all the standard diets with some luck from time to time. But as with most everyone else the weight soon came back. The diets that have worked for me I know were not healthy. The "cabbage soup diet” seems to come to mind right now. Sure I lost weight, about 80lbs, but my hair was falling out and I had a "rash" that covered most of my body. I know now that it was from the lack of protein. I started tracking my food on SparkPeople on March 26, 2008 at that time I weighed 285. I decided to turn off the meal plans. I have never been good at following plans especially ones that some one else has made. This is why most diets I have tried in the past have failed. It didn’t take long for me to start seeing where my problems were. I would sometimes binge on certain foods mostly ones that were high in salt & fat, like potato chips and if had one candy I would normally finish the package and maybe have another package too. And in the evenings I would often have a few beers. Growing up in a family with 4 brothers (none of them small) I think may have also distorted my concept of portion control. I would often eat what everyone else was eating (way too much) I knew I was doing some things right. I have always love fruits & veggies and I eat lots of them I have no problem getting in the required amounts. I know drinking water is important I now drink about 4 liters of water a day (about 16 cups). I bought a book called “The portion teller plan” by Lisa R. Young, Ph.D., and RD. It has helped me a lot to get the size of my portions under control. I searched the house for smaller size bowls plates & cups. I even found some toy bowls (they hold ¼ cup). I measured all the food containers and serving spoons I have in my kitchen. I recorded the size of different containers in a book I keep in my kitchen. Knowing the amounts the containers hold takes a lot of the measuring out of my meals and when you put a tiny amount in a little dish it looks like a whole lot more. I bought a second set of measuring cups & spoons this way I couldn’t use the excuse that the measuring cup was dirty and just guess the amount I was eating. Then I started reading food labels I have found some brands are much better than others. I started conquering meals one at a time getting each one under control. Dinner was the hardest. This was the meal I was eating with everyone else and I am not in to making two meals. I assessed what I was eating and realized I could eat pretty much what everyone else was eating if I made a few adjustments. I would have larger portions of veggies (non-starchy type) and smaller portions of the other stuff. I limited the amounts of processed foods and meats. I found meat substitutes that were a lot less calories than the meats they replaced when you compare a burger, some as many as 500 calories to a veggie burger 110 calories it just makes sense. I still have the real meats sometimes just not everyday. I also created some stand by meals. For when everyone else is having the deep fried heart attack special or when I am in too much of a rush to spend a ½ hour or more cooking. One of my favorites is instant noodles, a portion of salmon and a couple cups of frozen veggies. I also started a fitness plan that I could live with. My days are so different from each other it is hard for me to follow one plan all the time. So I have set up several plans to use on different days. I selected several songs of different speeds and made them in to a play list on my IPOD. I start with a slower but long song as my warm up song and end with a stretching song. The play list is 40 minutes long now but when I first started I had a tough time getting through the first song. I also have a pedometer and I keep track of how far I walk in a day. Before I got the pedometer I measured off a mile in the car and walked to see how fast I was walking. I found I was taking about 20 minutes to walk a mile. So now if I am walking in another area I can estimate how far I am walking by how long it takes me. For strength training I have grouped together several sets of exercises that I can do at different times. Having several knee surgery’s has caused some limitations for me so I searched the resource center looking at the demos for the different exercises to find ones that I could do (some of them I had to modify some). One set is simple exercises I can do while pumping gas or waiting in line some where. Other sets are for specific body areas. One set is with using the resistance bands and one is lying exercises I can do on my bed. Getting up & down on the floor is still a challenge for me with my size & past injuries. I am eating regular meals 3 times a day and snacks about 2 or 3 a day and I am not hungry. I try to get in at least 30 minutes of cardio exercise a day and do some form of strength training each day. I still have the occasional day when I get off track, but I now know that I will reach my goal it is just a mater of time.









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