Lose a Pound a Month

Boo, congratulations on your weight loss so far. You are right, it is better to view the path to weight loss as a lifestyle change rather than a diet.



I have a healthy BMI of about 21 and only need to lose a few more pounds to be rid of excess body fat. My onc thinks it's important for me to be as lean as possible; my tumour was 90% hormone positive.



I mainly follow the recommendations in Foods that Fight Cancer, which are very similar to what Dr Oz advocates. I know a fair bit about healthy diet since I consulted with a dietician many years ago. I am also currently participating in a wellness study/program and the principles espoused in that study regarding diet are consistent with what I was already doing.



I wish you ongoing success with your goals.

If I lose a pound a month I should look great in about 3 years!

Hi, ladies!!  Congrats on all of your success so far!  I thought I would just offer my encouragement...I decided to lose 10 pounds a year.  If I hit the 10 pound mark, I would try to maintain that weight until January 1 of the next year and begin again.  That way, I would've maintained the loss...the thing I had never succeeded at before in my life.  After 5 years, I am 50 pounds lighter...and I have no weight fluctuations...:) 

My plan was to eat only food that was in its natural form-no processed food (the more it looked like in nature, the better).  Eat at least 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.  (I actually eat about 14 servings).  It is so nice to have a "diet" that requires me to make sure to get AT LEAST something, rather than LIMIT something.  The food could have NO animal fats.  Plant fats were fine.  Drink LOTS of water.  Write everything down and track calories, but not limit myself.  Just track it.  Track exercise and try to get 180 minutes a week.  That ultimately has become 300.  Record weight daily, but look at the average for the week, only.  If that was down from the previous week's average...success.  The average generally went down by 0.2 or 0.3 pounds each week.  I would consider this success even if the last day of the week was up. 

Most people I encounter talk about wanting to lose weight quickly.  I think that is exactly the wrong plan.  Keep up the awesome work!  Losing it slowly is the best thing I ever did.  I hope you find the same...

Claire

I keep a notebook.  I write down everything I eat.  I estimate calories.  In the beginning, I looked it all up, but then, that was too time consumning.  I count every fruit as 80 calories, even if it is more or less...once I decided that I could do that, I was way more at peace with writing it all down.  Estimates just kept me in the right range.  Precision didn't seem necessary.  I write down the exercise in a little table in the notebook (one page per week), where I have a column for the name of the exercise, a column for total minutes and a column for high intensity exercise. 

A typical day will have (1) cup of blueberries with my unsweetened old fashioned whole rolled oats, (2) an apple at first morning snack, (3) banana at second morning snack, (4 and 5) 2 cups of salad at lunch, (6 and 7) banana and pear with lunch, (8) pineapple for afternoon snack, (9, 10 and 11) 3 cups of salad at dinner, (12 and 13) grilled vegetables--eggplant or zucchini with dinner, (14) dried figs for dessert.

In the winter, I tend to have more servings of veges and during the summer, more servings of fruit.  But about a quarter to a third of my calories come from fruit.  I eat no refined sugar at all except for a square of 90% dark chocolate each night (except for about 4 or 5 times a year when I have a small serving of sweets...like ice cream on vacation or pie at thanksgiving).  I do eat some winter squash and count that as servings of fruit/veges but will use it to replace my starch.  My dinner veges vary a lot...I eat rutabagas and brocolli and all sorts of other veges...  The day I listed there was typical, but I dinner is highly varied.

I think it works for me because I developed and changed it over time to suit me.  I would stop and adjust.  So...if I had any advice, it would be to track it and change one thing every few months as needed to meet your psychological or nutritional needs.  When I began this...I aimed for 7-10 servings of fruits and veges and it just grew from there...

hi Boo, I've lost 24 pounds in 20 months, since I finished chemo in June 2010.  I would like to lose another 10 pounds, and if it takes me a year, so be it.

I've taken to eating organic whenever possible, following a low glycemic index diet (no white flour, white sugar, white rice, or white potatoes), and have recently been avoiding gluten.

Eating higher quality food means the individual items cost more but I get better nutrition and am eating less so am spending the same on groceries.

I walk every day, my goal is 30 minutes of exercise a day and I usually get in an hour. 

Best of luck to us all, I agree that slow and steady is more sustainable in the long run!

I have taken to writing down everything so as to be accountable for what I put into my mouth.  I was a great weight prior to BC but between surgery, reduced body movement and chemo with all the other meds, I rapidly put on 15 pounds +/-.   I am still doing chemo but I am trying to eat focused and lose some of this weight.  I did have a goal of 2 pounds per month but maybe 1 will do it?  

I use a basic diet as a base--  organic or natural as much as possible,  veges all I want,  two fruits and protein (between 60-75 grams per day).  I am thinking the protein is about 30% of my diet.

If I am hungry that day I will first add a fruit (since sweets are my nemesis) and then, add nuts.  

I don't do anything that is fake-- no fake sugar, no fake fat --  and, I have been thinking about the gluten/white issue.  Not sure how I will handle this in the long term but I know I have to address it.  If I totally eliiminate them, I will not be able to maintain it since there are so many emotions (good0 associated with food in my upbringing and I will boomerang.  But managing them with that addictive quality is a challenge.  Any thoughts? 

SAB, I do use myfitnesspal to track my calories.  I have it on my iPad and iPhone and I love it.  What I love the most is that after you enter your calories it lets you know how many you have left for the day.  It does help me.

Tracking was quite an education for me!  Surprise, surprise...

Oh I'm a terrible snacker so I spread my meals out in little pieces throughout the day, always logging first. Lots and lots of water. Like you I pack food with me when I go out. And when I get weak I try to reread a portion of "anticancer: a new way of life." 

Great thread. Tracking without dieting for a week will scare the bejesus out of most of us if we are honest with ourselves.LOL. I started the 17 day diet by Dr. Mareno 10 days ago and I have lost 6 lbs. and I am never hungry. The diet is not really only 17 days long but goes in 17 day sections of retraining you how and what to eat to make your body shed fat. It is really doable but tough on you carboholics because there are very little carbs in the first 17 days but lots of protien and fruits and veggies. I have tried numerous diet programs but this really is the only one that I found simple to follow and does not require signing up for anything or buying special foods. After I eat my breakfast I pack up my snacks, lunch and thermos of green tea and bottle of water for the day and I'm all set til dinner. I found packing myself food for the day keeps me honest and stops me from hitting the convienent store for snacks and coffee. Even though coffee is allowed I only drink it in the AM.

Ladies I am curious if anyone has found a solution to hunger after exercise.  I have been exercising more since the weather got nice but I'm ravenous all the time and feel like I'm undoing the good of the exercise calorie-wise.  This has always been my problem  After my pregnancy I exercised heavily for a year and only lost 3 lbs that year because my appetite increases so much.