Naima asks: How can I lose weight quickly, when my mother wants me to keep eating for my health, and eat fattening food?
Hi Naima –
Great question, and there is a trick to it. Lots of times grownups want their kids to eat a lot, with the idea that eating big amounts makes them healthy. While the kid might want to eat less, to lose weight, in order to look better. Now as we all know, eating way too much or way too little can be really harmful. So your mother might be right, to the degree that she wants you to eat enough to be strong and healthy – but you’re right, to the degree that you don’t want a lot of fattening foods.
The solution is for you to make certain demands about what foods you eat, and then you won’t have to worry so much about how much you eat.
Vegetables and fruits are really the key here. Lots of people just have them on the side of their meals – say they eat a big slab of meat with a big potato or load of pasta, and a little salad on the side. Or for breakfast they’ll have eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, toast… and a tiny glass of orange juice. These diets are pretty certain to put more weight on you than you want to have.
But if, instead, you had only a little meat, and/or a little starch (bread, potatoes, etc.), per meal, but you really filled up on fresh fruit or vegetables… suddenly you’re eating extremely healthily, but with a pretty low-fat, low-carb diet. If you can do that, and exercise regularly, you’re going to be healthier than your mom even imagined, while keeping your figure in the level you want.
And of course, this extends to outside the main meals too. If you have a great dinner like I describe, but then drink two cokes with it and have a big hot fudge sundae afterwards, you’re not being healthy or losing weight. Try to keep even your between-meal snacks down to fruits and vegetables, as much as possible.
Of course, I’m not saying you should never have pizza or ice cream or candy. But if you can keep those down to being as small a portion of your overall eating as possible… you’ll have a really excellent setup.
Okay. I have absolutely no idea how I’ve managed to write all that and keep my sanity. But somehow I did, and now I’m going to FLIP OUT!!! Meat! Potatoes! Sausage! Pancakes! Ice Cream! Pizza! Oh I’m so excited I’m running in circles and getting dizzy! Good luck with your diet, Naima, and be appreciative of your mother wanting you to be healthy, just like I am of Handsome feeding me boring dog food every day when what I really want is… OH YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
Cheers,
Shirelle