Today’s Guest Tipster is Michael White, webmaster of Saphrym.com, who has lost over 70 lbs:

Starting a diet… Wait… Let’s start that over. Changing your eating lifestyle is tough. Nobody likes to change such an important part of their life. But you know you need to especially if you’re obese. Here are some tips to help:

• Realize You Need To Lose Weight - Don’t just look in the mirror and say “I hate myself for being so fat.” That doesn’t help. That just depresses you and makes you feel even worse about yourself and then you start eating to make yourself feel better. Find a GOOD reason to lose weight. If you’re overweight, there’s a good chance you have some health problems. Go to the doctor. They’ll tell you if there’s anything wrong with you. Any number of things could kill you quicker. Think about your family, your spouse, your children, your friends, and then think about how they would feel if you dropped dead tomorrow. That’s a pretty good motivator to losing weight. It definitely worked for me.
• Start Small - Don’t immediately cut out all of your favorite foods and start eating only salad. You’re not going to like it and you’re going to end up quitting it. What you do want to do is start with small changes. Instead of that slice of cake, have a peanut butter sandwich. Instead of that bag of cookies, grab a bag of cheese puffs. That may sound just as bad, but as long as the new food is better for you than the old food, then you’re making progress.
• Drink Water - I hate water. It has no flavor. But I drink five 16 oz. glasses of water every single day. Why? It cleanses out the system, makes you feel more full, and is just plain healthy for you. My secret to dealing with the taste is drinking it with food. Every bite I take, I take a sip of water. The food flavors the water for me as it goes down. And if you absolutely must have something with flavor, try the Diet Rite Pure Zero drinks. They taste good because they use Splenda and the important part is they have no sodium. That’s right, a diet drink with no sodium. Can’t get much better than that except for water.
• Eat More Often - You’ve probably heard it before, but I’m saying it again. I eat five times a day. Some others who lose weight eat six times a day. Limit your portions, drink your water, and your metabolic rate will start to skyrocket. The higher it is, the more calories you burn. As I’ve said before, your stomach is like a log fire. You have to keep the logs on for it to keep burning the calories away. Imagine losing weight while sleeping. That’s what happens.
• Limit Something - If you have a hard time understanding portion control, then limit something. When you go to the doctor ask what problems you have. If they say you are diabetic or close to it, limit your carbs. Ask them for good amounts. I’m limited to 60-45-60-45-60. That means that I have three meals a day under 60 grams of carbs. I also have two snacks a day under 45 grams of carbs. If you have high cholesterol, you want to limit your intake of fat, especially saturated and trans fats. Ask your doctor what you can limit, and then read the packages carefully.
• Eat What You Want - If you’ve made it this far, then you have something to limit your meals by. So now you want to keep that diet going. Well, then, eat what you want. Whatever you’re craving, eat it. The downside to this is you need to keep whatever it is below your limits. I eat desserts, candy, etc. on quite a few occasions. However, I keep it under my carb limits. A slice of cheesecake normally only has like 20 grams of carbs. So if I limit my carbs for the rest of a meal to 40 grams, then I get a slice of cheesecake.
• Get Up And Move - I don’t exercise on a regular basis. I’ve lost over 70 pounds basically with just a diet change. However, I do move around more often. I don’t watch television as much. I do house work because I can. I pace when on the phone (don’t let someone tell you this aggravates them because you’re moving and that’s what counts). I pace when I’m thinking. Whenever I want to write an article on my blog, I go outside and pace on the front porch while I’m thinking of it. This isn’t “official exercise,” but it’s movement.
• Add Protein To Your Diet - I added some protein powder to my oatmeal in the morning, and wow. It made a huge difference. I started dropping pounds like crazy. The protein adds muscle to your body. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn doing ANYTHING. That’s right. If you have more muscle mass, even standing up burns two to three times as many calories. Protein equals muscle equals calorie burning equals weight loss.
• Eat Oatmeal - I love my morning and evening oatmeal. I can make it taste any way I want and add just about anything to it that I feel I need. Since I don’t drink milk anymore (because it’s loaded with carbs), I don’t really have anything to add those diet shake powders or protein powders to. But now I do. I just stick them in my oatmeal. Adds flavor and makes it easy. And if you’re diabetic or close to it, add some cinnamon to every bowl. Cinnamon helps your body metabolize sugar faster and therefore lowers your blood sugar. And it goes great in oatmeal. This is my “secret weapon” food.
• Lastly Realize That While You’re Doing All Of This Work… - to change your eating habits, you deserve it. You deserve to be healthy and thinner. You deserve to look on the outside the way you feel on the inside. You deserve to be able to sit on an airplane comfortably. You deserve to be comfortable in the movie theater seats. But these places aren’t going to change for you. You have to lose the weight because you deserve to lose the weight. One of my favorite series of novels (the Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth series) has a very empowering quote in it: “Deserve victory.”

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