How I Lost 20 Pounds

I've gained four pounds, and I have to lose it before it becomes ten. I see keeping my weight down as the single most important thing I can do to stay healthy for the rest of my life. To help me plan for this minor loss, and in case this is helpful to others, I've written this article about how I lost almost 20 pounds back in 2000. I made these changes one at a time, and it became natural and easy to build on each change by going on to another.

Walked or biked to work (2.75 miles each way, over a hill).

Worked out at the Y three or more times a week (I'd been doing this for two years already).

Gave up Coke for sparkling water.

Ate fruit at work every day in mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Had healthy frozen meals for lunch or dinner (from a brand that makes frozen Indian and Thai dishes) most days; other staples were lowfat tuna salad, cheeseless turkey sandwiches, and fresh or smoked salmon with a few crackers and steamed spinach.

Avoided hamburgers, pizza, ice cream, potato chips, cheese, and lattes altogether (again, making one small change at a time).

Ate slightly fewer peanut-butter sandwiches (i.e., less often than once a day).

Counted calories by recording my foods and exercise in NutriBase software; this included recording my own recipes for my tuna salad, cereal with milk, sandwiches, and so on, measuring ingredients for each one so the recipe and tracking would be accurate.

Went to bed slightly hungry every night.

Some people don't agree with the need to count calories, but unless you're someone who loses weight easily, I don't see how you can lose weight without counting calories. Gaining or losing weight depends on whether you burn more calories than you eat. If you're gaining weight, you must be eating more than you're burning. Counting accurately is hard to do for a lot of reasons; it's difficult and tedious to measure portion sizes and ingredient quantities, and you don't always know the ingredients of everything you eat, especially in a restaurant.

It still amazes me that I was able to lose my extra weight. It seemed impossible, and it took a frustratingly long time to figure out how to do it. I started working out at the Y in January 1998 and yet, to my despair, continued to gain weight for the next eighteen months. The obstacle that remained between me and weight loss, once I had started going to the Y, was learning how to eat. That was the hardest part. It had to be a permanent (though flexible) change, not a "diet." My seemingly impossible requirements: I'd have to enjoy everything I ate; I'd have to feel comfortable throughout the day, not naggingly hungry; and it could not require spending more time preparing food than I'd always spent. I don't cook. I'll make any food that takes less than fifteen minutes. This had always meant a lot of peanut-butter sandwiches, buttery popcorn, delivered pizza, and Mexican diner food.

It wasn't until late 1999 when my favorite aunt told me she had osteoporosis that I felt a powerful desire to change my diet. I realized urgently that as I was still in my 30s, I could prevent osteoporosis, and that if I didn't prevent it, I would surely have it in another thirty years. Suddenly old age didn't seem so far off.

The first dietary change I made was to give up Coke for sparkling water. I had read that if you're not eating enough calcium in the first place, caffeine and other chemicals in pop can leach calcium out of your bones. Soon after that, I started taking a calcium supplement (Tums) and eating more spinach and fish. Fish and vegetables were easy to make, it turned out, especially if the fish was canned tuna or smoked salmon. I'd steam spinach by putting it in a saute pan with a little water until it wilted. I made tuna salad using a six-ounce can and only adding lowfat canola mayo, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and occasionally raisins or sunflower seeds, or another spice. Nonperishables were key to my convenience requirement.

Next, I started allowing myself the 55 minutes it took to walk to work. I started eating fruit twice a day as a snack. Then came the healthy frozen meals instead of deli or peanut-butter sandwiches. Having a good eating record during the week made it easier to avoid pizza, ice cream, and pop on the weekends; I didn't want to set myself back.

I decided not to weigh myself for two weeks while I stuck to my new foods and healthy snacks. I read that it can be pointlessly discouraging to weigh every day. I went to the gym as usual but didn't get on the scale. In mid-February, I stepped onto it and immediately looked at the staff guy behind the front desk. "Does this need to be calibrated?" I asked. "No, it's accurate," he answered. I had lost four pounds. I had never felt so gratified! By July I had lost ten, and by the January 2001 I was back down to 125, my 25-year-old weight.

I now see why this was so difficult and why it took such a long time. It was a three-part project that involved research, attention to detail, and discipline: I had to re-learn how to eat; learn how many calories I was actually eating; and stick to my plan even if it meant a special trip to the store because I was out of fruit. I was so proud of myself. I knew I could keep the weight off because I love to exercise and because I enjoyed my new way of eating; I had no intention of going back to pizza, cookies, and so on.

Because of the intense boxing workout I've been doing since late 2001, I've gotten a little too lenient about eating junk food on weekends. So what can I do now to lose four or five pounds? Once again I have to learn to gauge accurately how many calories I'm eating and burning. I'll cut out the really heavy weekend foods and go back to the way I was eating in early 2000, including more fruit and less peanut butter. If I need to, I'll start using NutriBase again. I could choose to walk part of the way that I ride the bus on the last leg of the commute home from my temp job. It's uphill, would be good exercise, and could be worth the extra time.

I'm glad I learned how to lose weight without going on an unsustainable, miserable diet. It gives me reason to hope my painless strategy will work for me again so that I can stay at a light, healthy weight for the rest of my life. It's not supposed to involve willpower and deprivation, but responsible daily choices that let the results take care of themselves.

©2002 by Fran Mason