One of the best parts of being married is that I have doubled my brain capacity. My memory has significantly improved and I am much more attentive to things around me. This is true in spite of the fact that I seem to get more spaced out and flaky with every passing year. It’s as if the brain cells are falling out with my hair. More and more I find myself in a room wondering how and why I was there. Did you ever hear the microwave ding and wonder who’s cooking even though you were the only one in the house. You may wonder how it is possible that I can get stupider by the minute yet still have improved my mental capacity. Simply, my wife remembers and notices things for me. I’m not sure I would ever find my keys,remember to eat, or know our children’s names if I wasn’t married .
So when my wife gave me weight loss advice recently, I paid attention. I was eager to get some new advice or a new perspective on my weight loss education hobby. Perhaps some of my own knowledge had been stored in her cranium. I was also curious to see if she swept up any knowledge of mine that had fallen with my hair onto the bathroom floor. Her advice was so good that I thought I would share it with you. I can guarantee that if you follow these simple pieces of advice, you are guaranteed to lose weight. It certainly worked for her. She used these basic principles (in addition to exercise) to get to her college weight after having her third baby.
- Avoid sweets. See my prior post about toxic sugar to see why this is important.
Stay away from sweets - Chug water regularly. This is important for two reasons. First, the big gulps of fluid will stretch the stomach more than sipping throughout the day. This will help you feel a bit full. Second, when you’re low on fluids your body will trigger both the thirst and hunger mechanisms. We get a significant amount of fluid from food and your body doesn’t care about the extra calories. So you’re hungry even though you don’t need food. By satisfying the thirst, you will decrease this hunger drive.
CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! - No snacks. When she needed a snack, she would chug water. Snacks are such a killer because we tend to eat them mindlessly. This leads to the consumption of an unkown extra calorie load. Since it only takes a couple hundred extra calories a day to make you obese, this could be a serious problem.
Snack time is fat time - Switch to healthy recipes. My wife will frequently scour the web for low calorie high nutrient recipes that are easy to make in little time. With three kids at home there isn’t a lot of time for tinkering. There are tons of amazing websites out there that can guide you. She likes skinnytaste.com. Go to the Chana’s Recipe Picks tab to see some of the ones we like the best.
One Chana’s many awesome favorite recipes - Make lunch your biggest meal of the day. This is common in many cultures with thin people. In overweight America, we make dinner our biggest meal so we can fill our stomachs right before perching our lazy bums on the couch for 3 hours and then going to sleep. By making lunch the biggest meal, you get your calorie load with plenty of time to burn it off doing your daily busy activities.
Don’t be out to lunch when you’re out to lunch! - When you’re hungry, chew sugar free gum. It helps with the boredom cravings and tricks your brain into thinking there’s food in your mouth.
Good for your teeth and your oral fixation
I believe these to all be relatively simple lifestyle changes conceptually. In spite of their simplicity, I think they will make a huge impact on your overall weight and wellbeing. The nice thing is that they don’t require you to do anyting crazy or complicated with your diet.
Please add to the comments section below other suggestions for simple and easy steps that you have found successful for weight loss.
The Weight Loss Counter Revolution 
When I chew gum, it actually makes me more hungry because my stomach is expecting food and it doesn’t come. At least that’s what I think happens. Not sure if that’s just me, but that’s why I never chew gum.
I think chewing gum is good to prevent habit eating, boredom eating, or eating from a Freudian oral fixation. It’s not a good substitute for real hunger. See if changing the times that you go to the gum can make it more effective.
Nice summary on why water is so important when trying to lose weight, that’s always been just something I’ve gone back and forth on. Great tips all around too!
Thanks!
I like drinking water, I think that really helps. But I agree, if your tummy is growling,then it can often be torture to not feed it. So, I tend to go with something like, one Ryvita cracker with a thin layer of cheese which isn’t too many calories but will last me until dinner.
Also, I really like the chewing gum idea, I have tried that before when I am out and about and feeling hungry. Instead of pulling into a convienent store to buy a calorie filled ‘snack’, I have found that chewing gum did the job.
Thanks for the input. This is great how many people have successful tips! I think that there are as many tricks out there as there are people willing to try whatever works for them. Keep spreading the word!
The only one I really don’t agree with is “don’t snack”. If you don’t snack, you can sit down for a meal and be ravenous and overeat. If you eat healthy snacks, such as fruit, yogurt, string cheese, etc, it can prevent you from sitting down to a meal and overeating because you are too hungry.
I hear your point. The key is controlling calorie intake. Since most people when they snack do so mindlessly, they are unable to have a predetermined or pre-measured healthy snack and can lose track very easily.
Agreed, and in addition to that, eating periodically will keep you metabolism moving as well.
What does it mean for one to keep their metabolism moving?
management may be difficult but it is not unnlatiaabte. Therefore, you can lose weight fast if you will. Difficulty of things sometimes only meddle in the beginning, once you’ll beat up the
Cherish your wife and let her know you cherish her! Don’t take it for granted your life with her will be permanent. It won’t be. Give thanks to G-d for the time you have with your wife. Thank you for sharing her wisdom with us. She’s one smart cookie.
Amen! She’s not a smart cookie, though, she a smart veggie burger!
You made an excellent point, Doc. From now on, in my vernacular, I will forgo saying, “one smart cookie”, and opt for, “one smart veggie burger”. You, of course, will get the credit.
These are great ideas! You are lucky to have such a good wife!!!