Don't believe everything you read.

Today my wife left a weight loss magazine laying around, I picked it up and started reading, I really couldn't believe what I was reading.
I am no expert, I am not a dietician, I am not a life coach I am not a nutritionist, I am a normal guy who stepped on the scales 6 months ago was confronted by a weight of 240lbs, I knew I had to do something.
If I had read the magazine back then I would have given up food, started on a pill and shake diet and probably given up 4 weeks later (adverts in the back of the magazine)
I could of course followed the advise and recipe's at the front of the magazine in which case I would have been eating a thimble full of lard sandwiches (white bread)  and sitting on the sofa watching exercise programs on the television.
Thankfully I didn't read the magazine!! I worked out the very simple fact that the only way to lose weight is eat less and move more.
By eat less I mean eat less calories, if calories in is less than calories burned you will lose weight period.
you don't need a pill, you don't need a shake, you just need good food and exercise.
I quickly worked out that processed foods were a mine field of hidden calories, mainly in the form of sugar, since I enjoy cooking it was easy to make the switch to single ingredient foods, this covers fruits and vegetables, meats and grains etc. As far as meat goes, chicken and fish are good and prime cuts of pork and beef are ok, the trick here is to see how much fat drips out of the meat during cooking, processed beef burgers give up almost 50% of their weight in fat.

I also worked out that one meal won't make you fat, having a cheat day works for me, although after a while, even cheat days aren't cheating, when we go out for a meal my favourite meal used to be a mixed grill and plate of fries, my current meal is a chicken breast burger a jacket potato and a side salad, not because I don't want to eat fat but because that's what my body is telling me it wants.

Move more, this was easy even walking to the kitchen to make a cuppa was moving more than I did. so getting out and enjoying the fresh air was a vast improvement.

By far the biggest challenge was staying motivated, I was lucky I have a fantastic support network around me and every time I had a moment of weakness I had someone nearby to get me back on track.

The point of this post is Don't believe everything you read, every ones path is different, what works for you won't work for your best friend.

To prove a point, I had a roast dinner today, I had a thai curry yesterday, I had spaghetti bolognaise the night before, I have never had a shake in my life and in 6 months I have gained a 6 pack lost almost 60 lb, can cycle 10 times the distance I could at the start, I have given up smoking, lowered my blood pressure, and still have time for my wife, my kids and a full time job.

 I sure won't be reading her magazines again.