I wrote about my weight loss journey in Bright Line Eating back in September 2019 (www.bit.ly/MYBLE) and January of this year (www.bit.ly/MYBLE2) and it continues.
Tony Wade: The Last Laugh
I started May 17, 2019, when I weighed 381 pounds. As of May 1, 2020, I weigh 234 pounds 147 pounds gone forever. I wore a size 4XL shirt last year; I can now wear a medium. I started out wearing a 52-waist pants; I now wear 36-waist pants. I started out with a size 14 shoe; well, I still have those.
Blood sugar? Cholesterol? Blood pressure? All normal and they were not before.
I feel wonderful physically, but I also have clarity of mind and a newfound confidence. In BLE we celebrate non-scale victories and here are a few Ive experienced:
I can easily and comfortably cross my legs now. I can and do take walks three times a week for more than an hour where I sustain a very brisk pace. I can no longer shop at the Big and Tall and Overpriced store in Vacaville . . . because their clothing sizes start at ones that are too big for me.
In the first BLE column I wrote I included this paragraph: I havent hit my goal weight yet and the obvious thing would have been to just wait until I do and maintain it to write this column, but heres why I wrote this today when I am in-between my before and after pictures: I am completely, and I mean 100%, sure I will get there and I have never felt that way before in my life.
Well, I am now in maintenance and have absolutely no doubt I will be able to stay within a range that I am comfortable with.
I switched to a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet Feb. 17 after watching several documentaries about the health benefits and reading the book The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health by Thomas Campbell.
Now, I did it for me, but I was startled by how many people suddenly acted as if I was a fanatical carnivore hater. Not at all. Its just my choice for me.
You know, I never knew the differences between vegans, vegetarians and people who eat plant-based whole food. I mean, theres a ton of stuff designated vegan that I would never eat. I didnt know that junk-food vegan was a thing.
I prefer the term plant-powered. Its opened up a whole new world for me. The only vegetables I used to eat were those snap pea crisps. Since I started, Ive redefined what a meal is and I love it.
The good news is that BLE works for Norwegian vegans, Bulgarian vegetarians and Baltimore omnivores.
If theres a weakness to BLE, its that it is very nuanced and doesnt lend itself easily to a succinct definition. I always recommended people read the book Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin and Free by Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson.
Look, you can Google the four Bright Lines (no sugar, no flour, three meals a day, weighed/measured meals), but, like a nonfiction book, BLE is not defined by what it is not.
While it is not a 12-step program, I now refer to BLE as a one-day-at-a-time food recovery program. It has helped me put food in its proper place. Meals are times for me to refuel, not a trip to Disneyland. If you have never considered yourself addicted to food, this may make no sense at all to you and thats OK. It works for me.
I dont eat special food or anything, and I certainly am not interested in desperately trying to make what I eat now somehow resemble the things I used to eat. I tried that more than 20 years ago with Atkins and it just led me back to those things and gaining all the weight Id lost and then some.
I enjoy my food more now than ever and it really is pretty simple stuff that I eat. But that is the point. I dont have the incessant food chatter bouncing around my brain anymore. My food is not boring; its clear, measured and succinct.
The concept is best summed up in a saying I often hear Bright Line Eating Engagement Specialist Sonja Johansen Waters say: I eat in black and white so I can live in color.
Reach Fairfield writer Tony Wade at [emailprotected].
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The Last Laugh: Another update on my Bright Line Eating weight loss journey - Fairfield Daily Republic
