Not a diet...but a full blown lifestyle change

broth8438

Hi.

I’m Brad and I am working hard in 2018 to change my life. I want to combine a healthy diet with exercise. I’m a very dedicated guy and will work hard to accomplish my goals. Maybe I can help you and you can help me? I hope to inspire others and find my own inspiration here.

Cheers to a great 2018!

Momepro

It can all be very overwhelming, and trying to do it all at once is a recipe for failure.
I suggest logging for a while, even before making any serious changes to your diet.
Weigh (with a scale is best) everything you eat, and write why you are eating it (i.e, lunchtime, hungry, kind of bored, out with friends, watching tv) and how you are feeling right before, right after and an hour after (hungry, comfortable, normal, full, very full bloated, drowsy).
This gives you a baseline pattern for your normal habits and routine. From there, it's just a matter of experimenting. Are you very full after dinner? Cut back on a few things. Does lunch leave you bloated and gassy after an hour, try less or no mayo, and see if there's something you don't mind dropping each meal (fries, or cheese, or maybe only 2 tacos instead of 3).It's amazing how quickly these small and easily sustainable changes will add up to big calorie cuts. Only cut one or two things at a time, until they become habit instead if trying to do everything at once. That way they become individual habits instead of one big "diet". So when you backslide you won't drop everything at once, just one or two habits, that you can fix again more easily.

broth8438

Thank you for the wise words. I’m a little bit unusual in that I am under doctor’s orders to make some changes. I am working closely with a dietician and a trainer to set a sustainable program. I want to make this a forever change. Not a one or two month thing.

raindawg

You sound like you have the right attitude. I'd caution that wholesale changes in lifestyle all at once can become challenging to maintain over time. I agree with momepro. Small changes done over a period of time have a better chance in resulting in a bigger lasting change. Good Luck.