How do I do it.

Cue Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guy voice..."So people always ask me, Mike, how are you managing to get so thin and sexy after being a 'bit thick' all these years? And I say, well, funny you should ask, so I will tell you"

I was asked what is it exactly that I eat now because frankly it does seem to work. Just about 45 pounds lost since February 15th. I have many more to go but it is happening. So here is(are) my secret(s).

First up is what I don't eat, or eat very little of. Processed foods- none. Out of a can or box or package- NOPE -with a few exceptions that will be listed. No meat, no breads or starches, no white rice, no butter, no beer, no sugar, no pie, cake or candy, no carbs, no sodium/salt. Heh, no nothing.

This is what I eat.

Fresh vegetables. I am a big fan of bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, squash, carrots, sugar peas and such. Basically anything in your produce department is perfect.

Fruit. Well I do need to keep my sugars down a bit so I have to go easy on the grapes or the bananas, as they are high in sugars but any fruit is good.

Non-fat greek yogurt. This will save your life. Do you like sour cream? Me too. Substitute non-fat greek yogurt and I guarantee you will not be able to tell the difference. Use it to make a creamy dressing for your salad. Add a bit of mustard or some good vinegar and mix well.

Note on spices. Use them, love them, caress them and make them your friend. Might I suggest Penzy's as the most awesome spice store ever. YMMV but if you have one near by, it is worth a look.

Meat. nope just skip it- I have had meat 3 times in 4 months. I miss it horribly and cannot wait for the next special occasion when I do have it.

Chicken- boneless and skinless. That doesn't mean cooking it with the skin on and then taking it off. Buy it naked.

Fish. Learn to love it. I do not. Right now I am eating Tuna, cooked or raw and Halibut. I gotta find more but it is definitely a work in progress.

Get a butter substitute. Country Crock is pretty ok and it tastes really good. It does help with say sautéing mushrooms.

Need soy sauce (one of the worst things you can put in your body)? Go here: BraggThese guys make their Amino Acids that is a great substitute for soy, and they also make a whole array of sauces, dressings etc that are pretty darn good and good, well better, for you.

And that is basically it. Sadly. So now after all that, what DO I eat. Ok I do cheat a little at breakfast with some Kashi cereal often with a banana. I have finally begun to like carrots as a snack. Drink water. Oh and Coke Zero is pretty good but LIMITE it- that junk is not good for you.

My chicken salad- grill the chicken, cut it up, toss in apples, celery, walnuts and make a dressing with yogurt, hot mustard, lots of paprika, curry if you like and tons of spices and mix it up. Enjoy.

Other things I have found. Soy hot dogs are really not bad. Soy chorizo is really really good- dump some in some egg beaters with some mushrooms and onions and cook it all up. Add a bit of sour cream, er non-fat Greek yogurt to the side, and you will feel like you are cheating.

Dreamhouse Pasta. 5 grams of digestible carbs. YAY I can eat pasta again.
This soy meatless hamburger stuff they sell at Costco- mix with some soy chorizo, sauté some onions and add a bunch of taco seasoning (see spices ARE your friend) and you have a healthy taco mix. They sell some great low fat corn tortillas at Trader Joes, and again toss in some tomatoes, onions and some cheating sour cream (yogurt) and bingo, 2 of those, you are full, you have minimal carbs and they are 100 times more healthy than hamburger meat, and you can trust me when I say, you cannot tell that you are not eating meat.

Last tip- spaghetti sauce. Onions, mushrooms, (anything else you like) and sauté in some of that country crock and a tad of veggie heart oil, toss in a bunch of fresh tomatoes.

(note on tomatoes - GET GOOD ONES. Not the stinky just turned red junk they sell at Safeway...go to a good store and pay a bit more- you deserve it and you will be much happier- plus your food bills will go WAY down eating like this so be sure to get the best fruits and veggies you can)

Then add a jar of Trader Joes brand Pomodoro spaghetti sauce. 40 calories, low carb, very low sodium (yeah it is a bit of cheating but hey) Toss that in, with a bag of the soy meat and let it simmer for an hour. Use that on top of the Dreamhouse Pasta and you have a low carb, low salt, non-meat good for you meal that will fill you up and make you happy.

So there you go. This is what I eat. I have lost 45 pounds in 4 months. I have 30 to go and I will do it. I have started my exercising- about 3 miles most days on the hills on my bike. It is absolutely necessary to exercise.

Is it hard? Yes, it is the hardest thing I have ever done. Is it hard? Haaa no, not at all. Just make up your mind like I did and it is easy. Just say no. If you do go out, have a salad, drink water, no dessert, eat fruit and don't be annoying to other people about their food. Unless they ask, then give them the lecture. :)

And last but not least, feel free to cheat. Make Saturday night your cheat night. Eat a steak, have a baked potato, eat some dessert, but JUST DON'T EAT ALL OF THAT-PICK ONE. If you gorge, well, just don't.

Seriously once you see your weight on the scale going down every single week, it gets easier because you will see the change.

Which brings up my last 2 things. Get a good scale and weigh yourself EVERY day. Yes, EVERY day. Secondly, use your phone. Grab MyFitnessPal and use it to see how many calories you take in every day. I also have WeightRecord. I input my weight every Friday and look at the graph and see my progress.

I just tried on a shirt I bought on my honeymoon 14 years ago. It fit. It hasn't fit in 10 years but I kept it. THAT is why I am sticking to this.

Ok now that you have stopped reading about 10 paragraphs ago, I shall stop typing.

I broke it

217. Looks like 2 1/2 miles on the bike 5 days a week (just started) had started to work. Yay. It is all downhill from here.

Guild Wars 2 beta code...got it!

Kings Game 3 tonite...watching!

I think I broke the 220 barrier

More on this later.

Plus...HOLY SHIT THE KINGS ARE NOW 2 GAMES FROM WINNING THE FRIGGING STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So

I am kinda stuck at 220 right now. About 10 days and it worries me a bit. The past few days I have drastically decreased my caloric intake and I am hoping to be south of that number tomorrow.

I stared riding my bike again...lol I am weak, and I mean weak. I get 15 minutes of hills and I am beat. I am hoping that by the end of the summer to be able to do 45 minutes of so of hills at a good clip. That said, German Chocolate cake with French Vanilla ice cream sounds really good.

Salad with snap peas is what I get...yeah baby.

ON the other fronts- HELL YES GO KINGS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously think we are gonna win the Stanley Cup. I know we can anyway.

Playing my Druid in WoW. Good fun there. To appease Marcin, I do have Guild Wars 2 AND Torchlight 2 pre-ordered. Looking forward to both, whenever they come out.

Stay tuned for more exciting news.

Miss me?

Probably not.

Ok working on hitting 220...that will be a 40+ pound drop since starting this stupid new life changing diet of mine. Yay carrots!

Colonscopy...no pics but I have them. Plus sitting in a recovery room with 10 farting old people...priceless and noisy.

So yeah just waiting on Guild Wars. Slogging through WoW but sadly as of late, the servers are pretty dead. Diablo 3 has killed population for the foreseeable future. Not sure what everyone sees in massive amounts of clicking a mouse. But hey...

Ha!

So life is funny. I am driving to work, blasting The Go-Gos, obviously in mid-life crisis mode, thinking about my colonscopy on Friday and wondering where time has gone. I have basically become a vegetarian, I am about to hit 35 pounds lost and I am feeling better than I have in years...haaa so I cranked the volume up to 11 and went on my merry way.

Plus, the Kings are 4 wins away from the Stanley Cup finals...go Kings go!

hah

I am in the 220's for the first time in 10 years. Technically, 228 but hey. And my new smaller pants are now getting lose too. I don't think I am quite ready to go down another size but soon.

http://www.weighthacker.com/

Good site, soon to be good book...I already put my order in for the hardback. And yeah, I tried ALMOND CHEESE this weekend. Better than fat free but still not sure about the whole non-dairy cheese thing. Might be better just to skip it completely. I dunno. More testing is required.

Bah, I wish they would hurry up and announce a release date for Guild Wars 2.