Oh, you may be asking yourself, “Woah! Kim Siever is on a diet.” That all depends on what you call a diet. Let’s just say in the last eight years or so, I have not had a large weight gain (more than five pounds). So what’s my secret?
- Don’t eat crap. Eat healthy food and a wide variety of it. Sometimes my breakfast consists of an butter-fried egg and mozzarella cheese on two pieces of buttered toast and eaten like a sandwich. Sometimes it’s an apple, grapefruit, orange and banana combined in a blender. Sometimes it’s a bowl of Cheerios. Sometimes it’s all three. I never eat crap like Fruit Loops or Pop Tarts or that sort of thing. And when I do eat something iffy like a cinnamon bun, it’s once or twice a year.
- Don’t sweat it if you do eat crap. Occassionally. Since I eat a wide variety of healthy foods, I don’t feel guilty when I occasionally eat something indulgent (like a Cheesecake Cafe banana split cheesecake). I know that in the long run, occasional treats (high sugar, or high fat or high salt) do not ruin my health as long as I have a mostly healthy and varied diet.
- Rarely stuff yourself. Some of you who know me may be laughing yourself silly at hearing me say this. The truth is though that I rarely stuff myself. When I do, it’s at an all-you-can eat buffet and my Scottish/Dutch background forces me to get my money’s wroth. But it’s only a couple of times per year and doesn’t affect my long-term health.
- Don’t worry about five pounds. If you are five pounds overweight (even ten pounds really), don’t worry about it. Especially, if it’s been that way for a long time. Five pounds will not affect your long term health, and accepting it will improve your self confidence.
Overall, my philosophy is to simply be healthy. I eat what I want, but I eat healthy.
What tips do you have?
:) Yes, but Kim you have a great metabolism and you are a man! But yes, Kim eats healthy!
My advice is to MOVE and drink water. Don’t drink pop or too much juice and don’t drink anything that has added sugar.
I’ve recently lost 60 lbs and still have about 40lbs to go. What’s worked for me? Wise choices. If you want to lose weight you must make choices that earn your weight loss and you must make signifigant ones on a daily basis. You dring water even though you want pop, you munch on carrots rather than chips. Don’t sabotage yourself with unrealistic goals. It’s taken me 18 months to lose 60 lbs… it’s been about new patterns and just doing it.
Oh Nikki, are you serious? But I remember you as slim and trim :) Good for you! It’s hard work, but honestly I can’t even picture you as having ever been 100 lbs overweight. Even 60 lbs! But you did GREAT! That’s a lot of hard work!
Healthy eating and active living is what works! It’s how I lost my 126 lbs that needed to be turfed.
Snacking is what gets me! I try to keep healthy snacks around and in full view. We don’t buy pop/chips except for the kid’s birthday parties. But I do love my chocolate and will eat that in moderate amounts.
Michelle
Dark chocolate is actually healthy to have (milk is not, of course) in small amounts, periodically. So if you eat that, don’t despair. Something I find that helps is buying organic dark chocolate. It is expensive so you can’t buy much and it is satisfying with that rich chocolate taste.
Good point on the water, Nikki. That’s another thing I forgot to mention. I drink about a gallon of water a day.
I do snack during the day too, Michelle, but it’s most often a piece of fruit. Sometimes I eat something salty and crunchy at night though. I don’t eat a lot of sweets, but I do like to snack.
Something that can make a big difference is simply paying attention. I for one, will eat a lot of stuff I’m really not that hungry for if I’m not paying attention. Keeping a food journal makes you look at what you really eat and automatically means less calories consumed.
I don’t believe in denying a craving. But things can be subsituted. Fudgcicles are a much better choice than a chocolate bar for instance. And if it must be real chocolate, eat it and then have lots of veggies the rest of the day.
In my experience I don’t really expect an exercise routine to take off weight, but it does make you feel healthier. I LOVE yoga!
I agree with Kim’s statement about being a few pounds overweight. I’d certainly like to take off another 10 pounds, but in order to do so I have to do all kinds of wacky things and it just becomes too life consuming. Accepting a few extra pounds in exchange for a normal life is the only way to have a life.
…and I was SO close too.
rick’s Diet Tips
1. Don’t eat carp. Man, I hate that fish.
2. Don’t sweat … if you do eat crap. I find that I feel really winded and stuff after I polish off a bag of chips or mini-Mars bars, if I run around or anything.
3. Rarely stuff yourself. This one I have covered…I just eat constantly. A little bit here, a little bit there. It just seems easier that way – and less work.
4. Don’t worry about five pounds. Five, ten, fifty. I just think it’s better to stop thinking about how fat I am and change the channel to something a little more interesting.
>:)
I eat 3 small meals and 2 snacks a day. I record my intake on http://WWW.FITDAY.COM and I don’t eat after dinner. I Started my weight loss 3 years ago at the same time as Mary (although I didn’t have a pregnancy to contend with in that time frame hehe)and 150 pounds later I now walk 4-5 miles at least 3 times a week. I also don’t eat fast food.. well very rarely…I drink a lot of water as well. The biggest change for me was understanding why I ate what I ate and when I ate it. I learnt to differentiate between head hunger and real hunger. Thanks Dr. Phil!
Nermalcat
I am with you, I love yoga too. It’s one of my favourite things to do. That and running.
Smoking works too! (rofling)