For most of us we are just trying to lose weight and get back to our former selves. Maybe it's because as we've gotten older our metabolism has slowed. Or we've just had a baby and are wanting to shed the extra pounds. Or maybe we're just trying to look better on the beach. For others it may be a matter of wanting to drop a little more than just those vanity pounds.
Most of us are aware of the foods we are supposed to eat whether we want to lose 10 pounds or a hundred, right?
We have all heard that we should watch our carbs, eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and quit the sodas. So for most of us the real challenge isn't knowing which foods we should be eating. The real challenge is being able to change our habits.
Sal Paradiso did just that. He changed his habits and changed his life forever. There is hope for those of us wanting to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Sal is proof.
The reason Sal Paradiso doesn't know exactly the amount of weight he lost is because there wasn't a scale that would go high enough for an accurate measurement.
Below are some excerpts from WebMD which recently wrote about Sal and his extraordinary feat.
WebMD Article Reviewed by Hansa D. Bhargava, MD on March 24, 2017
He estimates it was close to 700 pounds, a weight that made everything difficult, says Paradiso, now 35. “Putting on my shoes was a struggle. Taking a shower every day was a struggle. I was basically under house arrest [since] it was such an ordeal to go out.”
His father died from a massive heart attack at 42, and Paradiso realized he was on the same path unless he made a big change. “I said to myself, 'I need to take a drastic U-turn in my life if I'm going to make it to age 40,'” he recalls.
“Early on it was a big adjustment,” he says. “My body was so used to eating how I had been eating that it was rebelling at first. It was a rough first few weeks.” He'd crave more food at night, but no matter how miserable he felt, he wouldn't let himself raid the fridge. “I'd tell myself, 'I'm not working this hard to sabotage myself,'” he recalls.
Instead of giving into a craving for unhealthy food, he'd look up recipes for lighter, healthier alternatives. “That would be enough to cure my craving without blowing my calorie budget for the day,” he explains. Instead of ordering a pizza, for example, he'd top a low-carb pita with tomato sauce and some cheese.
Working out also became a challenge. Due to the excess weight he carried, his joints had degenerated. He started light walks at first. Choosing to work out in the pool to capitalize on the buoyancy of the water. Slowly increasing his workouts from 1 hour to 1.5 hours and adding additional exercises to his routine.
After receiving a surgery called vertical sleeve gastrectomy, he has managed to drop most of the weight on his own. Getting down to 309 on March 22 2017, he says he never could have imagined the success he would have when he originally decided to lose the weight.
For anyone else with 100 or more pounds to lose, here are a few tips he's learned along the way.
1. Find a support system. Sal's friends and family provided plenty of encouragement. He has a few longtime friends whom he'd reach out to on a daily basis for support, as well as a good friend he met in a weight loss group on Facebook. And his mom has been “a rock” in her support from the start, he says.
2. Fight for every pound. Weight loss surgery isn't an easy way out,” Paradiso says. “It's a tool; not a magic pill. You have to work at it, whether you're doing it on your own or through surgery.” Stay strong, make good decisions, track what you eat, and the scale will follow suit, he says.
3. Break up your ultimate goal into small segments. No doubt it's daunting to imagine shedding 400 pounds. What helped Paradiso was breaking it into smaller steps, like losing 50 pounds at a time instead of 400 all at once. “That makes it a lot easier to think, 'I've lost 30 of 50 pounds,' rather than 'I've only lost 30 of 400 pounds,'” Paradiso says.
Most will agree. We eat what we want to eat. For some its a badge of sorts when we pack it away and everybody marvels at the appetite we have. No one holds us accountable throughout the day when it comes to eating. There needs to be formal processes in place to obtain the results we want.
An article from the Harvard Health Blog by Julie Corliss seems to confirm this thinking.
The late Dr. George L. Blackburn, who directed the Center for Nutrition Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, treated countless overweight and obese people over his 40-plus-year career. The following are five proven strategies that many of his patients have found helpful toward their goal of lasting weight loss:
1. Make time to prepare healthy meals. Home-cooked food tends to be far lower in calories, fat, salt, and sugar than restaurant food and most processed food. But it takes time and effort to choose recipes, go to the store, and cook. Take a close look at your weekly schedule to see if you can carve out a few hours to devote to meal planning and shopping, which is more than half the battle. It could be on Sunday afternoon or in 15- to 30-minute increments throughout the week.
To save time in the kitchen, take advantage of pre-cut vegetables and cooked whole grains (like brown rice) from the salad bar or freezer case. And stock up on easy, wholesome snacks like fruit, nuts, and low-fat cheese sticks.
2. Eat slowly. The next time you sit down for a meal, set a timer (maybe the one on your kitchen stove or smartphone) for 20 minutes. That’s about how long it takes the “I’m full” message sent by the gut hormones and stretch receptors in your stomach to reach your brain. If you can spend a full 20 minutes between your first bite and your last, you’ll feel satisfied but not stuffed. Eat too quickly and you’re more likely to overeat. Tips for stretching out your mealtime include chewing each bite a little longer than usual, setting down your fork between each bite, and taking frequent sips of water during your meal.
3. Eat evenly sized meals, beginning with breakfast. Most people tend to eat a small breakfast (or none at all), a medium-sized lunch, and a large dinner. But you may be better off spreading out your calories more evenly throughout the day. For one thing, a small or nonexistent breakfast can leave you ravenous by lunchtime, which may lead you to overeat. A morning meal also helps rev up your metabolism for the day, stimulating enzymes that help you burn fat. What’s more, eating at least 450 calories per meal can help you avoid hunger between meals. If you eat a light supper (and avoid grazing late into the night; see tip 4), you may eat fewer calories overall — and actually be hungry for breakfast.
4. Don’t skimp on sleep. When you burn the midnight oil, you’re probably not also burning calories, but instead consuming too many. Many studies have linked shorter sleep duration with a higher risk of being overweight or obese. A recent review article suggests why: people who sleep fewer than six hours a night tend to have irregular eating habits — including more frequent, smaller, energy-dense, and highly palatable snacks (read: fatty, sugary foods like chips, cookies, and ice cream).
5. Weigh yourself often. If you don’t already have one, get a digital scale. Hang a calendar and pen above it, right at eye level, as a reminder to record your weight every day. Doing so only takes a few seconds and will keep you heading in the right direction. Most people find it difficult or tedious to track their calories, both from the foods they eat and those they burn via exercise. But a daily weigh-in tells you all you need to know — and the scale doesn’t lie. Also, research shows that people who weigh themselves often are more likely to lose weight and keep it off.
For most of us it's just a matter of commitment and follow through. The science backs this up. Change your behaviors and change your outcomes. If what you are doing isn't working, check for these tips and see which ones you can incorporate in your life today.
Source Here: Man Loses Almost 400 LBS
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