Someone named August posted today on the SLD forums that he’d lost 100 pounds:
The scale dipped to 185 a bit unexpectedly this weekend. [He is 6′ 3″.] Well, that was my target. Now what?
100lbs down.
Anticlimatic really. The last three pounds just disappeared overnight.
And I can still stand to lose more, despite having people telling me I shouldn’t lose anymore since last year.
Since he has posted many times, and has been so successful, I think there is a lot to be learned here. Here is some of what he learned along the way.
Are your habits getting in the way?
I had a similar slow start with SLD too. It wasn’t until I realized my habits kept me eating far more than I needed to that I started losing significant amounts of weight.
I used to eat bananas everyday for potassium, but within an hour, I’d be really hungry. One day I brought brisket I cooked overnight and I didn’t want to put it in the fridge, so I had it when I usually had my banana. I didn’t think about food again until it was almost time to go home and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything else!
I drink a lot of coffee, and when I decided to drop the sweeteners and take it black, the temptation to eat wheat products practically disappeared.
I began in a very low key way. I simply started trying sugar water, then different oils, and for a while it didn’t seem like it would work. Then one day Seth linked to the guy who ate protein nose clipped. I decided to get a nose clip and try that for a while. It worked in a borderline way, in other words it was effective enough to keep me doing it, but I wasn’t losing very much weight at the time. Eventually, I ended up taking two tablespoons of walnut oil in the morning everyday.
The AS was enough for me to realize I was always eating more than I needed. I’d dig into something and then realize I didn’t need to finish it. My life was built around food. I love to cook and I live by myself, so that means way too many calories in one place. As I started to recognize this, I began to wonder how to change this.
Then on Good Friday I did a fast. I decided that if I started to feel bad, I’d just take some oil. It worked very well. I realized I could get by with very little food.
Thanks to Heidi.
A couple of posts have highlighted this “I realized I didn’t need to eat so much,” phenomenon. Having something bubble up and happen at that higher-level of decision-making is really interesting.
What is it that’s bubbling up? Where is that actually happening? By “where,” I mean in what neurochemical pathway?
That thing about the banana is good. Replacing a high carb food with a high fat food is always a good thing. I like the thing about sweeteners too. I wish I enjoyed coffee black but I like it sweet and creamy.