Young adult Thumper thumping his foot from Bambi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On July 1, I gave up beef, chicken and pork (giving up rabbit and venison was easy since I never had a hankering to eat Bambi or Thumper). Yes, I have become a Birkenstock wearing, make-up free vegetarian. My friends are very happy that I haven’t given up wearing a bra! I am not a hardcore vegan, someone who foregoes milk, eggs, cheese and butter. I am more the soft-core type (no, not a reference to my belly), which is technically called a lacto-ovo-vegetarian, which means I still eat dairy and free-range eggs and I might occasionally be tempted by fish. Why would I, at the height of BBQ season, give up hamburgers and steaks? Firstly, I’d like to lose weight and get healthier. Secondly, I have read a bit about how inhumanly cows, pigs and chickens are often treated and frankly, I no longer want to support the industry. Thirdly, it gets me out of eating mum’s dry roast beef and dad’s charred steaks. Bonus! On the losing weight front, becoming a vegetarian is one more step on a journey that began three months ago. In May, I started to make incremental changes to my eating habits. My first new habit was to eat a healthy breakfast. Most mornings, I opt for oatmeal with cinnamon and walnuts. In June, I stopped keeping junk food in the house. This doesn’t mean I don’t eat junk food, it just means ice cream, chips, and cookies can’t be chalk-a-block in my pantry. It also means the double stuff Oreos no longer call “LISA!” at all hours of the day and night. My diet makeover for July is no more meat. This will obviously force me to eat more fruits, vegs, grains and legumes. I’ll even have to give tofu a whirl. The idea of changing my eating habits at the glacial speed of one tweak a month springs from the book Weight Lose Prescription: a doctors’ plan for permanent weight reduction and better health for life, by Canadian author Ali Zentner, MD (@alizentner). She is a specialist in internal medicine and obesity and has treated over 5000 morbidly obese patients. What makes her book most interesting: she is more than a practitioner, she is a self described weight lose survivor. In 2000, she weighed 322 pounds. Her current weight is 148 pounds. Dr. Zentner maintains we are more likely to stick to healthier eating patterns if we introduce them one at a time rather than going cold turkey (mmm…turkey) as most diets dictate. When we a start ______________(insert name of new diet here) we are all in. We purge our house of all ‘bad’ foods, stock our shelves with ‘good’ foods and overnight, BLAM! we start eating a brand new way. At first, we’re pumped and super motivated. The tumbling numbers on the scale give us gusto. However, when we hit a weight lose plateau, it becomes more and more difficult to stick to the diet. We find ourselves slipping back in to our old eating patterns. By slowly, introducing one new eating habit a month, transforming our disordered eating becomes a slow, but doable task. It doesn’t overwhelm us. Dr. Zentner writes, “Much of what I do everyday is try to cement patterns of new behaviour so they stick.” For me, the gradual purging of my poor food choices is working. I have lost 12 pounds in three months. Slow, but steady. Yes, at times my good intentions have been flushed and my eating has gone haywire. To get back on track, I start over with my oatmeal for breakfast, no junk food in the house and now the new wrinkle no more meat. This gradual approach has ended my ‘all or nothing’ thinking. When on a diet, if I cheated, the entire day was a write off and I started eating everything in my path. (The skinny people are thinking, “What the heck? This gal is nuts.” Those with weight issues are nodding their heads muttering “Yep, I hear ya, girl.”) Dr. Zentner’s writes about establishing a new normal, or rather establishing certain patterns of behaviour that become our new normal. “Breath. Take one step at a time and establish a new normal. Set small goals or yourself and then get to them. Rejoice in the process that is helping you reset your life.” The final piece of advise in the book is that most people find it easier to lose weight when they are accountable to someone. “A large-scale weight lose trial took participants and randomized them into groups that either had one-on-one monthly contact with a physician or had self-accountability, meaning they just did things on their own. Here’s a shocker the group that checked in with someone regularly lost 20 percent more weight and kept if off for the length of the study compared to the do-it- yourself group. Furthermore, studies show that accountability is more successful when it is accompanied by positive reinforcement and when people feel encouraged by those around them.” So, kind readers, you have all been co-opted to be my cheerleaders. So, lets hear it: Give me an “L!” Give me and “I!” Give me and “S” and an “A” What does it spell?…ah, you know the rest. I’ll be checking in with you periodically to keep you posted on my journey towards healthier eating. As well, for my dear friends, if you see me tempted by a juicy cheeseburger or chicken stir fry, feel free to tsk, tsk me or slap me across the back of the head. Your choice. You can follow me on twitter @lisaadutton QUESTION: IF YOU HAVE STRUGGLED TO LOSE WEIGHT, WHAT IS YOUR TOP WEIGHT LOSE SECRET?
Reinvent Me! 2013 