How I Lost 20 lbs in 2 Months (and you can too!) Part II

Part II

For what healthy eating has done for me in the past 2 months, please see Part I

Healthy Eating – The Story So Far

I’ve tried “health eating” many times (far too many times) before.

Before now, the concept has never worked.

Often I get too busy, too stressed, too hungry, too anything.

The plan soon cracks, and falls apart.

And I soon return to my regular “bad” eating habits.

Why I Have Failed in the Past

My healthy eating usually falls apart as soon as one of my healthy eating “rules” impede things that are important on a daily basis.

Every time I ate, I had to think through and balance about 10 different things including budget, quality, and convenience.

Often, when I didn’t have a “healthy” choice (or the time to make one), I felt guilty and skipped meals (sometimes more than twice a day).

The end result was that by having to think about food throughout the day, food was always on my mind.

By the time I was a few weeks into a healthy eating trial, I had conditioned myself to see healthy food as a negative and junk food as a reward!

My New Results

As a summary:

I’ve lost 20 lbs and I feel great

For more detail on what this change has done for me, see Part I of this post

How I Did It

I changed my thinking

Instead of setting “hard” rules, I set “soft” priorities

The result is that my system hasn’t fallen apart.

I end up eating the right foods 80% of the time for a longer period of time, instead of eating the right foods 100% of the time for a few weeks, then 20% of the time when my eating plan interrupted my lifestyle.

Here’s how it works:

I have abandoned meal scheduling, budgeting, and menu plans.

Instead of trying to decide what to eat every meal, I’ve set a list of priorities.

When I need to make a decision about food, I follow the priority list.

It goes like this:

Priority 1: Eat Something

My one rule, is that 3 times a day, every day, I have to eat something.

It doesn’t matter if all that is accessible is two cups of raw sugar, something that somehow resembles food has to go into my body.

Priority 2: Eat Something Convenient

Once Priority 1 is satisfied, and I’m committed to eating something, the next priority is convenience.

Anything that is inconvenient for that time (ie if I’m short on time, a large cooked meal) is ruled out.

Priority 3: Eat Something Healthy

Once I am set on something that is relatively convenient for that time, healthy is the next priority.

This doesn’t mean “diet” or “light” – it is healthy.

By Healthy, I mean mostly whole foods, and if processed, with ingredients you can pronounce.

Priority 4: Eat Something that Tastes Good

After all other priorities have been satisfied, the next thing I decide on is taste.

Priority 5: Eat Something Inexpensive

At the last (but not least) spot is cost.

Price still matters – but only after the other requirements are satisfied

The End Result

Ensuring that I eat something and still opt for convenience at the top of the list has been the biggest reason why this process has worked for me – if I need to eat lunch out, I go to Subway or a Pita or Juice place instead of getting a greasy hamburger.

When I’m deciding on food, I no longer go through a drawn out thinking process – I just go ahead and get something and get back to my life.

Reducing the amount of thinking I do about food has made this shift easier – I can now focus on what’s important to me.