{"id":36840,"date":"2014-09-13T23:35:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T23:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owegopennysaver.com\/?p=36840"},"modified":"2014-09-13T23:35:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T23:35:45","slug":"keeping-it-simple-picking-a-diet-thats-maintainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2014\/09\/13\/keeping-it-simple-picking-a-diet-thats-maintainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping it simple: Picking a diet that\u2019s maintainable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not knowing what to do. That\u2019s how I felt for so long as my weight climbed up and up, all the way through the 200s and then the 300s. By then I had started to figure things out, but I still had troubles. My weight climbing all the way into the 400s, I knew I had to do something. I spent so much of my life seeking the magical key to losing weight, that one thing that would make everything else that I was doing work, when it seemed rarely to work for long before.
\nWhy couldn\u2019t I stick with it? I wondered. Something wasn\u2019t right. But I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it. I bought books, I watched TV shows, I read articles and I sought out information on the Internet. I also sought the services of nutritionists, counselors and therapists.
\nI talked to doctors. I didn\u2019t know what to do.
\nIt wasn\u2019t like there wasn\u2019t an abundance of information out there. There was an abundance \u2014 almost too much of an abundance for me to handle and somehow I just couldn\u2019t make it work.
\nIt took having gained 94 pounds over the course of only a few months to finally find out what was missing.
\nHaving previously joined a weight loss group that was rooting for me, I felt like I let them down. I felt like I let my family down and I knew I had let myself down.
\nI knew I had to stage a comeback, but what was it that I needed? I had learned how to lose weight, because before having gained the 94 pounds, I had lost 57 pounds before it. But I hadn\u2019t learned how to stay the course, to finish the race, to overcome my struggles.
\nIt came to me one day, that magical key that I had been looking for.
\nIt was so simple and it was in front of me the whole time but I had failed to see it.
\nThe key is simplicity.
\nThe problem is that up until then I had been complicating the process so much more beyond what it needed to be.
\nI hate it when people say that losing weight will be difficult, especially now.
\nI hated it before when people said that, because I agreed with them. I believed them because it seemed so difficult to lose the weight \u2014 after all I was struggling for years trying to accomplish that very goal.
\nI hate it when people say that now because I finally know that just isn\u2019t true \u2014 at least not for everyone \u2014 and in many cases they don\u2019t even know it.
\nAside from those battling weight problems due to medical complications which go far beyond my understanding, I would say there are probably far too many cases of people struggling to lose weight.
\nIt just doesn\u2019t seem fair \u2014 fair that anyone would have to struggle like that. I know that struggle and I am so glad that I see things so differently than I used to. It\u2019s changed so much about how I am going about losing weight this time around, and I don\u2019t have nearly as much stress as I go about it this time as I did before.
\nI don\u2019t obsess about what to eat any more. I used to obsess to the point of ridiculous proportions.
\nI would walk into a grocery store and almost feel like I was mentally seizing up because I was at a loss about what to put in my grocery cart.
\nToo much nutritional information was stored in my mind. This thing is good and this thing is not. Food seemed evil sometimes \u2014 at least some foods did.
\nWhat food would make me gain weight and which ones would help me to actually lose weight? I obsessed over that.
\nPineapple has bromelaine in it I would think, and that is supposed to be anti-inflammatory and so therefore it should go in my cart.
\nAvocado is supposed to be a healthy fat, even though I had no idea what on earth to do with it, so of course, that should go in my cart, I thought.
\nI chose granola over other cereals because you could actually see the grains, nuts and seeds, as well as the fruit, so it had to be a better choice over other cereals. Into my cart it went.
\nRed meat was supposed to be bad, but turkey was supposed to be good. Turkey goes in the cart. And chicken breasts were supposed to be good, so chicken would also find it\u2019s way into my cart.
\nBlueberries were supposed to be high in antioxidants \u2014 into the cart they went.
\nBananas have potassium, so into the cart they went.
\nMushrooms have selenium, so into the cart they went.
\nTomatoes are supposed to be good for preventing cancer, so into the cart they would go.
\nUnsweetened almond milk certainly had to be a better choice than regular milk since it was only 30 or 40 calories depending on the brand. Into the cart it went.
\nI\u2019ve heard so many singing the praises of the protein in Greek yogurt, so into the cart it went.
\nI didn\u2019t entirely go organic, but often times I would gravitate toward the organic food.
\nI would walk by the pizza aisle and tell myself, keep going Gretchen, that\u2019s not for you.
\nRegular bread, heaven forbid!
\nI mean after all, you can\u2019t see any grains in it!
\nYikes!
\nEvil bread.
\nI\u2019d feel guilty buying cheese and ice cream. I could give up milk, but I couldn\u2019t give up cheese or ice cream \u2014 that was going way too far.
\nIt was a mix of emotions as I went through the aisle of the grocery store. I would stick mostly to the perimeter of the store, after all, that\u2019s what they tell a person to do now.
\nSo many rules, so much to remember.
\nCompleting my trip, I would feel some relief from this stressful shopping event.
\nKeeping things simple
\nNow that I have realized how important it is to keep things simple when trying to lose weight, I don\u2019t worry as much about being the perfect eater, the perfect food consumer.
\nI never did figure out how to use that avocado. I should never have bought it until I figured that thing out. What a waste.
\nOh, what\u2019s that? A rotten cucumber in my fridge? Ew. There goes another good intention into the trash.
\nWhat\u2019s a dieter to do? What\u2019s a dieter to eat?
\nIt\u2019s simply this: choosing a lifestyle that can be maintained. Not a lifestyle that is going to stress one out, and that may be different from one person to another.
\nTrips to the grocery store shouldn\u2019t feel like they\u2019re invoking ulcers.
\nWhat do I eat now?
\nI eat bread. I eat potatoes. I even eat red meat.
\nI still eat cheese and ice cream. I eat cereal that doesn\u2019t have visible grains. I can see the shell-shocked faces now. Oh the horror!
\nNutritional blasphemy!
\nGasp.
\nThat potato you have is white? Oh my.
\nYes, that potato I have is white.
\nPeople have been eating white potatoes for centuries and many of those people had perfectly trim waistlines.
\nThose foods aren\u2019t all I eat though.
\nI eat vegetables and even fruit.
\nI eat nuts sometimes too, maybe a few seeds.
\nI still make healthy choices, but I don\u2019t stress over it the way I did before.
\nWhy?
\nTo maintain a diet, it has to be something that a person can live with for the rest of their life \u2014 and that is why.
\nIf I ever decide to give up white potatoes, or bread, I want it to be because I want to do it, and I am ready to do it, not because I feel pushed into it by an over abundance of nutritional information that just ends up making me feel neurotic about the things that I eat.
\nI feel much more peaceful now and I am losing weight \u2014 despite the potatoes and the bread.
\nYes, I will eat some bread. I will not eat a whole loaf in one sitting. I have done that before and that is why I ended up at 400 pounds, not because I ate bread, but because I ate the whole loaf.
\nBread is not evil. Potatoes are not evil.
\nFood does not have the power to make a person fat. Food is not evil.
\nBad choices, however, can pack on the pounds.
\nEating too much is a bad choice and it can lead to weight gain. Eating too little can slow down one\u2019s metabolism.
\nModeration. That\u2019s key.
\nLife does not have to be either feast or famine. Nor does it have to be about perfection.
\nWhen I was in Germany, I lost weight eating bread and potatoes. I lost about 50 pounds or so without even trying.
\nIt was the lifestyle. Partly, it was active. Partly, it was what I ate.
\nRecently I took to the web and started tracking some calories. I Americanized this German culinary lifestyle I once had.
\nI discovered something about that. I discovered that without trying, while I was in Germany I was getting the recommended amount of macronutrients without even thinking about it.
\nWho knew?
\nI can eat right without stressing about it. What a relief!
\nI could eat bread like I did in Germany and I could eat white potatoes. Holy cow!
\nThen there is the cheese. I didn\u2019t have to stress over eating cheese. That was a relief.
\nI can get a good mix of nutrients without getting brain strain. Why? Well, fruit and vegetables of course enter the mix too.
\nI could eat dessert too \u2014 just not everyday like I had become accustomed to.
\nExcept for the moments when I entered someone\u2019s home as a guest while I was in Germany, because that\u2019s when the cheesecakes would come out, I only ate dessert at most twice a week, unless I tried to sneak in a sweet snack or two.
\nI did do that every now and again, but only occasionally.
\nI was focused on living life and not on food, so sweets were not nearly as important to me then as they have been since I have come back to this country.
\nDessert doesn\u2019t have to happen every day. But it\u2019s not so hard to skip it when you know it will be around twice a week and on special occasions.
\nI know that this is a lifestyle I can maintain. Enjoyable foods paired with good garden vegetables. An occasional treat, that\u2019s OK too and I will do that.
\nBut these are not the only lessons I have learned about food from my experience of living in Germany. I learned what good portion sizes looked like. I learned that seconds don\u2019t have to be avoided if one is truly hungry, but that life doesn\u2019t revolve around eating, and eating seconds should never be a matter of habit.
\nNow my disordered appetite is repairing itself.
\nI listen to my body more. I know what hunger \u2014 true hunger \u2014 feels like and I\u2019m not afraid of it.
\nCravings have subsided. The out-of-control desperation I had for food has gone away.
\nAnd all this has happened without swearing off any foods. All this has happened with so-called imperfect eating.
\nBut I have learned that it is perfectly imperfect.
\nAnd that is freeing.
\nI have lived this lifestyle before. It is not new and I am comfortable with it. I can do this.
\nI have finally found peace with food. We are no longer at battle.
\nI am free to enjoy life more, to enjoy the people around me more because I am not so busy trying to focus on food so much. It no longer runs my life.
\n________
\nIf you want to follow my weight-loss journey, read about it occasionally in my column, \u201cHealthy steps\u201d or you can watch my weight-loss journey unfold and show your support by liking the page https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GretchenGetFit<\/a> on Facebook or following me on Twitter @GretchenGetFit. Contact the writer at gbalshuweit@thedailyreview.com.
\nHealthy steps is written by Gretchen\u00a0Balshuweit, news editor and Health & Wellness page columnist for The Daily Review as she pursues her own journey to health and wellness in hopes of losing a total of 200-250 pounds of excess weight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not knowing what to do. That\u2019s how I felt for so long as my weight climbed up and up, all the way through the 200s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping it simple: Picking a diet that\u2019s maintainable - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2014\/09\/13\/keeping-it-simple-picking-a-diet-thats-maintainable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping it simple: Picking a diet that\u2019s maintainable - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not knowing what to do. 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