You Are Never Too Old To Learn To Live Right

I've been dieting lately, and using my new Total Gym, which I LOVE. As of last Saturday I've lost 12 pounds and a total of 8.5". I try hard not to weigh myself more often in order to avoid getting over-anxious, or depressed if it's not moving fast enough. I'll be happy with 2 pounds or so a week, plus some inches off.

What I've learned about my diet is the most valuable thing, however. I've learned that it's not the amount of calories I had been eating. I always thought it was unfair that even though I only ate between 1200 and 1600 calories a day depending on the day, I was still overweight and would gain rather than loose weight, where others seemed to eat as much but were thin as rails. I discovered something I should have learned a long time ago. It's not how much I was eating, but rather, how I was eating it.

In my normal day I would eat nearly all of the calories at my dinner time, around 6 or 7 pm. I usually never ate breakfast, rarely ate lunch, and maybe remembered to get a snack or something around 3 or 4... maybe. Most times I would just pile on everything into dinner.

Quite often during those times I'd awaken in the middle of the night hungry. That didn't make much sense to me, but I wouldn't be able to sleep until I gave in and ate something, even if it was just a piece of bread, or whatever was available and fast.

With my new diet I actually eat 6 to 7--- yes SEVEN times a day!

I eat very healthy and base it on the food pyramid but it's very, very much the same foods I would have eatten before. I have always liked vegetables, and fruits, although I admit I didn't have much fresh fruit around because it is both expensive and hard to keep. But with a little extra effort I have been keeping enough fresh fruit around to include it in my everday meal plan. I usually have low-fat yogurt for a snack which is not somethihng I used to have only because it's a bit pricey, but I have always liked it. Now I make the effort to buy enough to have one or two a day.

When it is all said and done however, it wasn't the foods, or the amounts, it was a matter of breaking it up over a period of time throughout the day. Always having a light breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, dinner, a snack and then if I stay up late enough another snack.

It is still the same amount of calories, and I am NEVER hungry. I do not even wake up in the middle of the night hungry anymore.

The thing is if you eat that often, every 2 or 3 hours, even if it is just a container of yogurt for a snack, it sparks your metabolism and keeps it reving and burning calories.

If you only eat once or twice a day, even three times a day, your metabolism slows down and doesn't burn enough. It starts to 'save' calories. We don't need that now do we?

You never are too old to realize what you've been doing wrong.