Losing Weight Fast: The Consequences of Alcohol

Nothing makes you gain weight like alcohol.
I know that is depressing news to all of us who like a glass of wine (or vodka??) every now and again, but I must tell you the honest truth.

I did some comparisons and basically a cocktail contains more or less the same amount of calories as a nice portion of your favorite ice cream. If you have a glass of wine with your meal, that means you probably should be having salad. And my stomach doesn't work that way. I like having salads during the day, but I also like a small sweet snack or a nice hot dinner. More than I like wine.

Another thing I've noticed for me personally is that I can notice the difference in my weight immediately after I have had a nice weekend with a few glasses of that special something. With other things such as ice cream or cakes I can let myself go from time to time without having to face too much guilt from the scale later on.

Don't ask me for the science behind it, I'm sure there is a good biological explanation for it, but all I know is what I experienced. And my experience says you need to stay far, far away from alcohol. Obviously a cocktail also contains sugar, meaning that pure vodka might be less damaging to your weight, but I find all types of alcohol tend to have a very rapid influence on my weight.

Of course you can allow yourself a small glass every now and again, but this is really the thing you need to try to avoid the most. The first 2-3 weeks I would not allow myself any alcohol, but when I was more advanced in my diet I would allow myself a small glass over the weekend. Just control the amount as well as the type of alcohol.

As much as I love beer, beer is not your friend in this situation. Beer and cocktails are the worst culprits and wine and champagne are your friends. or you just go straight for heavy-duty vodka or other pure alcohols.

Be aware that your tolerance may be less as you not only eat less, but you lost weight. You do not wish to be surprised by this. I know my limits very well, but a diet can completely change this and you should be prepared. I do recall going out with my boyfriend and his friend, getting completely slammered after 3 drinks not knowing what I was doing...not exactly what I was aiming for that night.

The Final Push Round 2 Day 5 of Diet – 4 kg in 2 Weeks

I had a grapefruit for breakfast, but I recommend preparing your fruit in advance...I'm starting to get too much attention while I am cutting my fruit in the kitchen at work. On the other hand you might inspire some colleagues with your good example. Obviously I was hungry again shortly after the grapefruit so I had a Blevita Forest Berry to sustain me until lunch.

For lunch, I had a broccoli soup consisting of broccoli, 1 onion, 1 potato, 1 carrot and a little bouillon and spices. I then had 2 clementines for desert, but had to refill with some more Blevita (this time Gruyere taste) to last me until dinner.

For dinner I had a healthy salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, raw cabbage and some light French dressing) along with a bit of lean ham on the side. In the evening I was hungry again and I shared a honey melon with my boyfriend. I must admit I ate a lot more than my boyfriend...

Still, I am keeping my calorie budget every day and I am now at 61.8 kg. I might go a little softer over the weekend, I think I deserved it.

Select The Final Push Round 2 Day 4 of Diet – 4 kg in 2 Weeks

For breakfast I had two litchi, but we had a brunch organized by work. For once I was happy to have food allergies as it meant that I was not able to eat some of the tempting things that were not compliant to my diet. At the work brunch end ended up having a small fruit salad, which was absolutely delicious. As it was a buffé I could pick and choose what I wanted and it was not noticeable that the fruit salad was all I had, avoiding awkward social situations where you have to refuse kind offers.

I had an appointment at lunch time and forgot to bring my prepared lunch so I had no time to have a proper lunch so I made do with what I had and ate a make-shift lunch at my desk. It consisted of several snacks: a grapefruit, four clementines and a protein bar. I added the protein bar out of desperate hunger.  In the evening I had dinner with a friend who is also dieting. We had a salad consisting of lettuce and avocado, with some nice, lean bresaola on the side.

I'm starting to feel more hungry and suffering more. Motivation is more and more difficult, but I'm still on track. It helps seeing the results, but today I didn't lose anything. I didn't gain neither, but this is no time for slacking.

The Final Push Round 2 Day 3 of Diet – 4 kg in 2 Weeks

I may have felt frustrated yesterday, but when I woke up today it seemed all worth it. My weight this morning was 62,1 kg! This is 0,5 kg less than yesterday. If I keep this up, I can easily attain my goal in my set time. The problem is not only sticking with it, but your body also gets used to it after a while and you lose less fast...better make the most of this beginning and shock that body to shed some weight!

I didn't have time to have any real breakfast today, but I have stashed some Actimel at work (a drink yoghurt supposedly good for your immune system - again, it's my insurance). These are the tiniest little bottles of yoghurt (I think 100 ml) so you'd have to consume a pack of 6 in order to gain weight from them. However, this is also frustrating as it feels like you put nothing in your stomach. However, I had a coffee (without sugar) with that as well as some water and my stomach calmed down for a little while.

I didn't quite make it to lunch though and had a grapefruit before to silence the worst hunger. For lunch I had a simple salad, but I was hungry again after one hour so I had some cheese flavored blevita whole grain crackers.  I went to the gym after work and did 30 minutes of intense cardio. For dinner I had a carrot soup followed by a smaller portion of what I had yesterday; quinoa with mushrooms.

The Final Push Round 2 Day 2 of Diet – 4 kg in 2 Weeks

As little as I was suffering yesterday, my body decided to make up for it today. On the bright side, I weighed in at 62,6 kg this morning. This is a Tuesday and it was quite a change from last Friday's 64,5 kg. But that's the only positive thing I experienced on day two...

I woke up with an all-consuming hunger. My stomach actually hurt from hunger. I had my tea (supposedly slimming) and a drinkable yoghurt, this time not the healty kind. I had a nice stracciatella yoghurt left and did not have the willpower to forgo it this morning. Especially since my boyfriend so sweetly offered it to me before he left for work.

I tried keeping strong and not eating anything before lunch, but finally I had a few litchi. It helped against the noises my stomach was making as well as the worst of the excruciating hunger. As I share my office with another person, the noises were really too shameful to ignore...

For lunch I had a big sallad with the same light dressing from yesterday. A tad repetitive, but it's my favorite... However, I was starving after one hour so I had a mango. Later in the afternoon I had a banana half an hour before going to the gym. When I came home from the gym, which honestly wasn't that high performing, I was starving again so I had a mandarin and a few slices of pinapple. My boyfriend cooked quinoa for dinner and made it with mushrooms and the tiniest bit of chicken mixed through. It was delicious and even more tasty as my boyfriend did the mushrooms especially for me and had to create something else for him.

However, when I logged my meals, I was way, way over my calorie budget. For some reason Noom considered my mushrooms to be worth 580 calories. I guess with fried mushrooms they mean deep-fried in oil, because I can't believe that simply fried mushrooms would be that calorific. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. All in all, it was a bit of a frustrating day.

Day 2 is definitely the worst...you are still used to your old ways and not yet used to the healthy ways. It's a matter surviving.

The Neverending Story and the Diet Cliché

As much as we hate to admit it, clichés often become cliché for a reason; it is common sense and useful.

Most nutritionists and weight loss coaches worldwide will agree on one thing; fruits and vegetables are good for losing some weight. I don't ignore diets like the Atkins diet where one should avoid carbs at all cost, but let's be honest, fruits and vegetables is the key to lose weight the healthy way.

Fruits or vegetables are both loved and hated. Some hate spinach, others don't like kiwis, we all have fruits or vegetables we dislike and cannot stand the sight of. I've tried to force myself in the past and eat the things I know I don't like, but this will never work. Although it may at times feel that way (at least to me), a goal of a diet is not to torture yourself.

Find healthy things you like and incorporate them into your diet. I experimented with different things for a while. Some of us grew up with healthy habits and know our fruits and vegetables very well and therefore also which ones we like or dislike. I on the other hand, started from scratch and found out what worked and what didn't.

I'm not huge on vegetables, but I decided to have some type of salad for lunch every day. However, I don't particularly enjoy snacking on vegetables as it just doesn't seem to hit the spot for me. I'm more into sugar than salt though, so if you like salty snacks vegetables might work better for you. I personally am now addicted to fruit and am able to replace my unhealthy sweets.

As you may already have read in my previous post, I also have food allergies that limit me in my choice. I wanted to eat as much raw food as possible, but I am allergic to many fruits in raw form. All the usual fruits such as apples, pears and plums (etc.) were not available to me as I would have to cook them before eating them. For a while I had mostly bananas and mandarins, sometimes switching it up with an orange or a melon, but it was very boring. That's when I got into more exotic fruits. Some I didn't even know how to eat, but you can ask a friend or search online. I now regularly eat mango, litchi and grapefruit. Normal grapefruit is a bit too bitter for me, but if you get the pink grapefruit it has a lovely sweet/sour/bitter taste which really peps you up.

Aside from being healthy, full of vitamins, and helping you to feel full, fruits are also perfect to replace those sweet snacks you take between meals. Bear in mind that even fruit contains calories, so don't overdo it. However, it's hard to eat the equivalent of the calorie content of a chocolate cookie in fruit; the quantity would be too big to be enjoyable.

Sugar Substitute for the Sugar Addicts - a Spoonful of Sugar Makes theMedicine Go Down

I am a major sugar addict. Not only do I eat tons of sweets and cookies, I also drink soda and even add sugar in my tea and coffee. Therefore, my main priority was to cut down on sugar.

Soda is the most evil thing against your diet. It must be avoided like it's a question of life and death. There are so many calories in these and you don't feel full at all - it is the biggest threat to your diet. At the end of my diet, I decided to replace my soda with the "zero" version, but the best is to drink water.

The cookies and sweets are obvious temptations and need to be cut out completely from your diet. I satisfied my afternoon sweet tooth with a nice fruit such as mango or pinapple. Due to my allergies, I am limited to exotic fruits, but you can mix it up a bit more.

For my coffee and tea, I found a sugar replacement. I am now able to drink both of these without sugar or sugar replacement, making them completely calorie-free, but this is not easy to get used to. For tea, the choice is rather obvious in my eyes: honey. Don't put too much as there are still calories in there, but on the bright side these are calories that are burnt immediately and not stored in your body. For coffee it was more complicated as I found that honey changed the taste too much.

I tried different things, both natural and chemical. I hope I can help you find your alternative through my experiences. I personally shy away from chemical sweeteners, so these did not catch on. On top of that I find that they often have a very bitter aftertaste which I cannot get used to. I also tried Stevia, but I find that too has a strange aftertaste. Finally, I discovered Agave Syrup.

Agave syrup is a natural sugar with very little taste. It still changes the taste of your coffee, but it is minimal and acceptable. Agave syrup is much like honey as it is a natural sugar, but slightly more calorific so pay attention to the quantities. However, like honey, it will not be stored in your body. I also used Agave syrup when I needed a sweetener without any real taste, even in baking, but it might change the consistency a bit as it is a syrup instead of sugar crystals.

During my diet I try to avoid sugar as much as possible at all times, but sometimes things just taste horrible without any sweetening (especially if you are a sugar addict). You know the old saying "a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down". If you go too extreme on your diet, you won't be able to stick to it for very long, so I suggest finding a healthy alternative for your favorite weaknesses.

Losing Weight with your Smartphone

I've tried eating more healthy before, but ît never really seemed to have any impact on my weight. I did some online searches to get help and tips, but none of it really suited me.

Being a technology fanatic, I decided to search for applications that could help me. There are plenty of apps out there, free or paid for both exercise and weight loss. I didn't want to pay for an app that might or might not work, so I was checking only free apps. I'm not promoting any specific app as they all have advantages and disadvantages, but I want to share what I used. Personal preferences and tastes differ, so you might find another which is more helpful to you, but I tested a few and ended up with an app called Noom.

I like Noom because it is very visual and easy to use. Basically what it does is replace those old fashioned food logs and then superpowered it. Most apps have the same basics; you create a profile entering your weight, height and goal weight. The app calculates your BMI for you so you no longer have to do that yourself. You then update the app with your meals as well as your weigth and exercise.

The unique feature in Noom is that depending on your current weight, goal weight and desired speed of weightloss (it asks you how fast you want to go), it gives you a calorie budget - i.e. the amount of calories you should eat per day in order to reach your goal. You then enter your meals and exercise as you go along. You can choose to enter the exact amount of calories in your meals, but I didn't want to start counting every calorie and decided that an approximate measure was good enough. For example if you enter that you had yoghurt, you can choose measures like cups (even 1/2 cup etc), tablespoon or even tennisball for certain products. The app then calculates the calories based on this.

As with any app it is not perfect. While I find it to have one of the most extensive cataolgues, there are always items lacking from the list, but you are always able to find a decent equivalent. The food is also arranged by categories; red, green and yellow. It explains what proportion your should ideally have of each category in order to have a well-balanced diet. Please bear in mind that if you let Noom calculate the calories based on amount, it usually gives a rather high estimate (eg. a cracker for 150 cal when in reality it is 101 cal). The good thing is that when you enter the physical exercise you did that day, your calorie budget increases proportionally. It even has forums where people can exchange ideas and experiences.

This app has been magical to me. I didn't follow it by the letter, but I logged everything very seriously and it helped me realize my weak points. I can't stress enough that you must log very seriously and honestly in order for it to work. I even logged the sugar in my coffee. This will show you even the hidden calories in your daily life.

Being aware of what you eat is the first step to weight loss. With this information, you can improve and create a more balanced diet.