What Ali said!
From what I know, the only person I could see benefiting from the Atkins diet is somebody with a very sedentary lifstyle who absolutely has to get into a certain dress/trouser size in a short space of time. I really can't see it being a 'lifestyle' change, especially when combined with a regular exercise regime. Apart from carbs being needed for energy, surely the body misses out on really good vitamins, minerals and FIBRE that you find in good carbs??
My weight's been up and down over the years (mainly up). I've always considered myself as 'reasonably fit for my size' (ha!), but this year I've been more military about the exercise and diet regimes and I've come down from 16st to 13st in 6 months - or to put it another way, my waist size has come down from 37" to 32". When people have asked me how I lost the weight, I've usually just said "Healthy diet and lots of exercise" (which is basically it) but a few specifics about my own experience would include:
- shopping/cooking habits: there are things that I used to eat very regularly which I just DON'T BUY any more: sausages, bacon, cheese, butter, chocolate, crisps. Yes, I would have had the occasional sausage and mash in the pub, the occasional cheese course with Sunday lunch round my dad's, etc, but the most important thing is that fatty foods were no longer a day-to-day HABIT. Also the way I cook what I do eat, e.g. the old Sunday morning fry-up (bacon, sausages, eggs fried in butter, couple of slices of bread with butter) would now be replaced with kipper or salmon (grilled or roasted with a drizzle of olive oil) and poached eggs.
- eating loads of fresh fruit and veg. Banana in the morning, apple after lunch, mid afternoon orange (something sweet instead of crisps and chocolate), banana an hour before the evening gym... tuna salads for lunch instead of sandwiches and crisps, brown rice and veggie stir-fries with chicken, fish, pork chops, instead of spaghetti carbonara (my ex-favourite evening meal!)
- 'good carbs'. I'd say I eat carbs with nearly every meal and at least 90% would be made up of: wholemeal bread, brown rice, wholegrain cereal (faves include All Bran, Bran Flakes, Shreddies, Shredded Wheat), potatoes.
- exercise: For me, variety is the key to keeping me motivated, combining lots of different cardio exerise with a regular weight training regime (3x/wk). In a typical week I'll do weights, spinning, a bike ride, a jog, a game of tennis and a half hour walk every weekday morning on the way to work.
- 'Everything in moderation', and 'a little bit of what you like won't kill you'. I still drink alcohol, probably 4/5 times a week. Over the 6 months I've probably averaged a curry or a Chinese take-away once a week. I even woke up on Sunday morning with a massive hangover and the taste of doner kebab in my mouth - even though I now realise they're the work of the devil! (Future reference: if I MUST have a kebab in the future I'll go for the sheesh - at least it looks like real meat!)
- research: I've got vaguely obsessive about what's in the food I eat (favourite google search: 'nutrition ') and I know more about nutrition than ever before. So it's on my mind when I buy stuff.
Bottom line: I think you need to make conscious, black-and-white changes to those every-day habits which you know are bad (for me, fatty foods, esp saturated fat) whilst allowing yourself a few treats along the way. And stay active in as many ways as possible for a good all-round work-out.
Oh, one last thing: I do not consider myself to be 'on a diet'. I've genuinely made lifestyle changes. If I thought I was just dieting, this would give me the mindset that I'm undertaking a short-term fix to something that's always going to be a long-term problem. I seriously cannot imagine ever being over 16 stone again in my life. And that thought makes me pretty happy! :D
Post edited at 17:40 on 23-11-2008 by admin
