One Day at a Time, One Meal a Day (ODAT-OMAD)
Abm4n
Posts: 529 Member
Hi Guys,
I am starting this thread to keep a record of how I go on the OMAD diet plan.
2015 was the year I decided to improve my health and fitness, primarily through diet, but also through exercise. Some background about me - I love to eat!!!
I used to think that I had a hard start in life because I suffered from chronic food deprivation at boarding schools from the age of 5-18. This made me into what I call an opportunist eater. You know, the sort or person who would have to eat extra if there was an open buffet at a work function or training event or a wedding banquet. After all you never know when you might get the chance to eat again - right? That's how chronic malnourishment as a child can make you think.
Well, those days are becoming a thing of the past now and I am getting close to my goal weight.
Then why would I bother with one meal a day? That is a good question. Perhaps I am just curious. But I also I like the simplicity and the elegance of it. You know I don't want any solution to a problem, I want the BEST solution that provides me with EFFORTLESS WEIGHT CONTROL and MAINTENANCE.
I also want a solution that allows me to share food and good times with my friends so that I don't have to say to them, "Sorry I can't join you because I only eat vegan" or "I don't eat this or that (e.g. gluten, pork, carbs etc)" or, "Sorry I can't join you because I'm fasting today." I don't mean to knock other people's choices but I want to be able to share my love of food with others even while I stick to my own plan. So it's an inclusive, fully optioned [not only but also solution] that I am after.
Maybe the feature I'm after is COMPATIBILITY. Compatibility with my life, and my values and compatibility with other peoples life and values so that we can share fun times dining out together.
Of course it also has to be sustainable because I am almost into weight maintenance right now.
Naturally, it has to be a healthy way of eating so that I can have heaps of energy and have a healthy brain - we want to reduce the risk of dementia and other brain conditions as we age.
And I want it to be delicious because, as I said before, I love eating!!
And lastly and not least of all, I want it to be economical OK, let's be real I mean cheap!!
Haha! I am looking for Ockham's Razor here. I am looking for the most healthy, elegant, socially inclusive and cheap way of eating. By cheap I also mean least cost not only in money spent but also least cost in terms of time spent shopping, cooking and cleaning up! I don't want much do I?
So...let the fun and games begin!
I am starting this thread to keep a record of how I go on the OMAD diet plan.
2015 was the year I decided to improve my health and fitness, primarily through diet, but also through exercise. Some background about me - I love to eat!!!
I used to think that I had a hard start in life because I suffered from chronic food deprivation at boarding schools from the age of 5-18. This made me into what I call an opportunist eater. You know, the sort or person who would have to eat extra if there was an open buffet at a work function or training event or a wedding banquet. After all you never know when you might get the chance to eat again - right? That's how chronic malnourishment as a child can make you think.
Well, those days are becoming a thing of the past now and I am getting close to my goal weight.
Then why would I bother with one meal a day? That is a good question. Perhaps I am just curious. But I also I like the simplicity and the elegance of it. You know I don't want any solution to a problem, I want the BEST solution that provides me with EFFORTLESS WEIGHT CONTROL and MAINTENANCE.
I also want a solution that allows me to share food and good times with my friends so that I don't have to say to them, "Sorry I can't join you because I only eat vegan" or "I don't eat this or that (e.g. gluten, pork, carbs etc)" or, "Sorry I can't join you because I'm fasting today." I don't mean to knock other people's choices but I want to be able to share my love of food with others even while I stick to my own plan. So it's an inclusive, fully optioned [not only but also solution] that I am after.
Maybe the feature I'm after is COMPATIBILITY. Compatibility with my life, and my values and compatibility with other peoples life and values so that we can share fun times dining out together.
Of course it also has to be sustainable because I am almost into weight maintenance right now.
Naturally, it has to be a healthy way of eating so that I can have heaps of energy and have a healthy brain - we want to reduce the risk of dementia and other brain conditions as we age.
And I want it to be delicious because, as I said before, I love eating!!
And lastly and not least of all, I want it to be economical OK, let's be real I mean cheap!!
Haha! I am looking for Ockham's Razor here. I am looking for the most healthy, elegant, socially inclusive and cheap way of eating. By cheap I also mean least cost not only in money spent but also least cost in terms of time spent shopping, cooking and cleaning up! I don't want much do I?
So...let the fun and games begin!
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Replies
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Good luck. Iv'e only been doing this for 11 weeks but have lost 29 lbs.
I eat lunch with co-workers about once a week to be social. Other special occasions I will do the same. I also like eating whatever with the family. Saturdays are optional for me but have eaten I think 3 times during that day, twice on scout activities and once before a long hike.
I'm saving a lot buy not buying lunches or after lunch snacks.
It is easy. My only food planning is I take protein and viamin suppliments and make a fruit-yoghurt smoothie almost every day. I find if I do that and eat tell full, I can make it through the next day without getting very hungry and I hope to have good health and not loose muscle.0 -
That's a great start to your weight loss journey. Also I'm glad to hear that you can accommodate lunch with workmates into your regimen. I just love the flexibility of this way of eating. I have previously had my main meal (well, only meal) in the evening around 6.00 pm pm but also in the middle of the day around noon. Today it was 3.00 pm so somewhere in between.
I love not having to buy snacks from over-priced convenience stores and takeaways. This sort of out of pocket expense adds up in Oz and I am not working now so try to keep costs down while always buying the best fresh ingredients whenever I can. Shopping is so much easier now and I never get the urge to rush out and buy a lot of food when the fridge starts to look empty because there are always things like bacon and eggs in the fridge.
Today I munched my way through two kangaroo burgers so I am ready to hop around for the next 23 hours.
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Today I ended up with a massive calorie deficit of 1,600 calories despite eating more than 1,000 calories for my main meal. I am not sure if that big calorie deficit is necessarily good or bad but it all interesting to me.
I want to get to the point where I just know intuitively how much to eat to maintain a healthy weight. It sounds like a big deficit but I am not feeling all that hungry at the moment. I also want to use the discipline of just eating one plate of food, no second helpings. I am almost there but have gone back for second helpings on several occasions recently. This habit of having second and third helpings always used to be my Achilles heel.0 -
What is you current weight, goal weight, and starting weight?0
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At the start of this year I was slightly over 90 kg and my pattern was that I had been gaining weight for 30 years at a rate of about 1kg per year. I went from 60kg in my mid-late 20s to over 90kg in my mid-late fifties.
Right now I am something over 80 kg which means I've lost 10 kg this year already. I feel like I have turned back the body clock about ten years! Looking back on 2015 I have tried about three or four eating regimes that included skipping breakfast and juicing, generally eating more fruit and vegetables, reducing sugar, LCHF, LCHF + IF.
My diet is always evolving as I look for the best way to allow me to control my weight while still doing what I love - eating and socialising. I want to get my BMI down to the healthy range so as a 5' 10" guy I still need to lose a one or two kg. The last two kg seem to take forever.
This may not sound dramatic but it a massive change in mindset for me because I was forever thinking about food and snacking so now I feel like I am making good progress in controlling my urge to eat.
My end goal would be to get to 79 kg. or a BMI of 25.
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In round figures:
Starting weight 200 lbs
Current Weight 180 lbs
Target Weight 175 lbs0 -
Thanks, Abm4n, for sharing that bit about your past. I was once a minister, going back far enough, and although those beliefs no longer define me, I was put in touch with a lot of poverty situations. One family we ended up making arrangements to adopt. The kids were starving, foraging for food in the couch cushions. It took years for them to believe they were getting meals at normal intervals, and one kid developed an eating disorder as you described from that fear. Sad indeed.
But getting past those things are where big life progress is made.1 -
I think once your in maintenence, you might need a bigger window to get your calories. I haven't got there yet but I'm thinking when I do, I might try to do a 16:8 schedule 5 days of the week and omad two days of the week. Kind of a modified 5:2 plan.
I think there are benefits to fasting (besides loosing weight) and I want to keep getting those benifts after I reach my goal weight.0 -
Thanks guys; I am touched by your heartfelt support and suggestions.
In my case I started out on this journey my examining the problem of global obesity through the lens of social justice and started out examining how malnutrition had affected so many disadvantaged communities and was now taking hold in former third world countries. As their population became more wealthy the people started to move out of food deprivation into other forms of malnutrition with symptoms of obesity and diabetes etc.
Re:my eating patterns - When I ate, I always used to eat too fast, shovelling the food in like there was no tomorrow! I think that we have to find a middle ground where we are properly nourished but not overfed.
@ blambo: I like your approach and would like to know what you decide to do. Today, Sunday, being the end of the week, I gave myself a break with a delicious bacon and smiley face egg breakfast. Happy days!
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You naturally have a very analytical approach as an integral part of your worldview. I love it!
And that looks wicked yummy, btw!0 -
Re: Target weight of 79.2 kg. or 175 lbs = BMI of 25
Finally made my target weight of 79.2 kg this morning!
On to my new maintenance regime now. I am still looking for ways to incorporate 0MAD and intermittent fasting into my diet but have not yet settled into a permanent routine. Still trying things out!
Thanks to Joe and others for your encouragement. Woohooo!0 -
Hey dude, just keep going and drop about another ten. You want some leeway for a little gaining and losing, which will happen very cyclically. Keep to your desired weight a minimum of four months and your body will keep you there without effort. There is something about that number that means stability for your body.
Always prepare (and practice) cycling on and off more and less eating, which you will do as you gain and lose. That playing around can be scary at first, but don't worry since you will soon know how to stay in control.0 -
Congrats!0
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AM I REALLY HUNGRY OR JUST BORED, ANXIOUS, OR LONELY?
I am trying to refine my sense of hunger. So if I feel like snacking, I ask myself:
"If there was a piece of roast pork in the fridge would I feel like eating a proper meal?"
If the answer is yes, then I am hungry and should eat. If the answer is no, then I am just bored and want to graze to amuse myself or to distract myself.
I think that one of the ways to control our unconscious eating is to simplify our diet. Butter Bob Briggs talks about this on one of his Yt videos. That way we can begin to distinguish between eating because we are hungry and eating because we are bored or lonely and want some entertainment, comfort or variety in our day.
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OTHER PEOPLE AS ROLE MODELS
I met this new friend a couple of days ago and spent time with him. He is two inches taller than me and weighs about four kilos or ten pounds less than me. He just looks like he is right within the middle of the "healthy" range to me in terms of BMI. So it is easy for me to now imagine how I would look if I was to lose another ten lbs.
Most of my other friends are way overweight and this guy is the only one I know who is within the healthy range. The others also have a wide range of health problems. You might say that we shouldn't compare ourselves with others but I also think that comparing is a natural behaviour. It gives us a sense of where we are vis a vis where we want to be.0 -
CLEANING OUT THE FRIDGE
There is a lot less "stuff" in the fridge these days. I have a whole shelf just for bottled water and have simplified everything to the point where there is almost no wasted food. Just another benefit to this simple way of eating.0 -
THE ONE PLATE OF FOOD RULE
This was one of the harder habits for me to learn because I was in the habit of going back for seconds and thirds. In fact, I am still learning to make it a regular eating habit. Even though I am still learning to fully endorse this habit, I know that when I conform it helps me to "eat with my eyes" as well as my belly, an important part of developing conscious eating habits.
Also taking a minute or two to photograph of my meal before I eat has given me the sense of "saying grace" and appreciating what I am about to eat before I eat it. It's all part of feeling satisfied, grateful and happy with what I have, rather than this sense of always "wanting more".0 -
It's therapeutic to muse like that, aye?
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WHAT DOES HUNGER REALLY FEEL LIKE?
I am in the process of re-educating myself so that I can recognise what real hunger feels like.
Sometimes I have felt the impulse to graze, snack or nibble but when I ask myself if I am hungry the answer has been no you are not hungry. Then the feeling goes away in a few seconds and I carry on with my day.0 -
WHERE I'M AT RIGHT NOW
Previously on ODAT-OMAD....
Height 5' 10"
Starting weight 200 lbs
Current Weight 180 lbs
Initial Target Wt. 175 lbs
Now that I have reset my goals:
Starting weight 200 lbs
Current Weight 173 lbs
New Target Wt. 167 lbs0 -
FOOD I LIKE TO EAT
Lamb Stroganoff
BBQ lamb ribs with spinach
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MY TWO FAVOURITE FOODS
When I open the fridge, my two favourite foods stare back at me:
1) Water.
2) Pork. Roasted and cut into 300g (2/3 lb) portions.
Here's the plan - if I feel thirsty I drink; if I'm hungry I eat.
Gazing at a piece of fatty meat like this seems to clarify the options = eat or drink. It is surprising how often I think I am hungry when in fact I am really just a bit bored and want to be distracted. So I close the fridge again and say, "I don't feel hungry so I don't need to eat right now!" Dinner can wait!
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You got it..sometimes it is just boredom and how our society has taught us to eat to gratify boredom.
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And ohhh are your food choices smokin!0 -
Looks great!0
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Great job sir, I appreciate the thread!0
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ishasharma0704 wrote: »
Nice!
I've recently left the fat/obese catagory at about 220lbs. 200 will get me to the fit catagory. That is my next goal. Your where I hope to be in a couple more months. Good job!0 -
A GREAT DAY ON OMAD
Today was the first day in a few days that I actually managed to go OMAD. I had my main meal for lunch after a 24 fast. I enjoyed a delicious lunch of sweet and sour pork, using up some leftovers from a roast dinner. It was enough to keep me going all day and to sustain me through an long session of tennis without having snacks.
They always put fruit and cake out for the tennis players but I did not take any of the tempting fruit snacks or biscuits or chocolate brownies dusted with sugar icing. This was the first time that I didn't have any snacks. It just didn't occur tome to eat!
Also today was the first time in a while that I managed to stick to my one plate rule. In the past I have been tempted to go back for seconds, but not today.
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Can't go wrong with s&s pork!0
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BOXING DAY UPDATE - LOWEST WEIGHT EVER AFTER FEASTING YESTERDAY
I didn't want to weigh myself this morning after yesterday seeing as how I "let myself go" yesterday and permitted myself to eat anything I wanted provided I kept to a simple rule - one meal only. Usually I would eat a full breakfast on Christmas Day; this year I held off from eating until lunch at 1.00 pm.
Then I dug into roast turkey and roast pork with crackling, two massively rich desserts including chocolate ice cream cake and chocolate pavlova with cream and cherries. It was a feast for sure. This morning, the day after, I just weighed myself, and the verdict? I needn't have worried, in fact I actually lost weight!! OMG it is unbelievable and yet this has happened to me so many times I know that it is not a freak event.
Sometimes you just have to let yourself go mad - provided there are guidelines. I ate essentially for 1 hour so it was a 23:1 diet, almost. The only cheat was that I had some Christmas cake with custard as a light supper about six hours after the main meal. Even so, it was a good day eating almost "on plan" in terms of keeping within my feeding window and sticking to lower-moderate carbs. Fact is that I ate freely but within time limits.
So now I am my lowest weight in a long, long time and feeling great. I have proven to myself that after a while the body will re-set itself to a new set point and slight variances in input will become accommodated by your body's internal weight-stabilising mechanism.0
