It’s a quiet Sunday morning in Southlake, Texas. The birds are chirping, the sun is rising, we are on our way to another 100+ degrees day and I am reading the Dallas Morning News. As I come across Parade Magazine I notice a few women—Amanda, Amy and Zora. Each of them is featured in “before and after” pictures, and each of them “lost a bunch of weight with NutriSystem.”
Over the years I have had friends and family who have been on Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and of course the highly publicized Atkins Diet. Most of them lost weight but unfortunately a few moths later, they put it right back on.
Like most people entering their late 30’s and early 40’s, I put on an extra 3 pounds a year. Finally after a number of years I found myself the heaviest I had ever been—195 pounds! Yes, my pants were very tight and my suits didn’t fit. The only good news was that getting dressed in the morning was very easy since I didn’t have a ton of choices in the “larger clothing” section of my closet. I thought about going on a number of different diet programs but decided that they wouldn’t work for me.
Finally I made a decision while I was on a business trip with a colleague, Tim Antoniewicz. I remember like it was yesterday. The date was June 22, 2004, and we were in between sales appointments and were a little hungry. With not a lot of time on our hands, we ran into a Mobil gas station and walked out with a soda, a Slim Jim and a bag of chips—a real healthy lunch! Since I am not a coffee drinker I would have no less than 8 regular sodas a day. A typical dinner for me was a soda and my favorite microwave popcorn Pop Secret Homestyle while I was watching the Red Sox games late at night.
So instead of the South Beach Diet, Suzanne Somers Diet, Grapefruit Diet, The Warrior Diet or the other 300 diets that are listed on Google I decided to create my own.
Since June 22, 2004, I changed three things:
| 1. | I have limited my consumption to 1 (yes I said 1) Coke a day in the afternoon. |  |
| 2. | I drink tons of water—probably 100 ounces a day |  |
| 3. | I try not to eat after 8:00 PM |  |
At first I was very concerned about giving up soda. For about three or four days, I did have migraine headaches. Aside from that, the only real change I noticed was the need to go to the restroom much more often. Otherwise, there were no big changes in my life. I am not working out that much more, and rest assured if you haven’t had lunch with me, I have a healthy appetite.
For me, the results have worked. Over the next 26 months I lost 21 pounds and have kept it off. In fact I lost 20 pounds in the first 5 months.
No my diet doesn’t have a name (that I know of). Maybe it should be “The I was in Baltimore with Tim and didn’t feel good” diet. This change worked for me. Since New Years resolutions are right around the corner, maybe this or something like it can work for you.
Please let us know your thoughts.
Ed Sugar says:
The old saying “You are what eat” is very true. Good to see you have scaled back your soda consumption and increased your H2o. Not eating after 8 PM is a smart rule, but only if you eat a regular breakfast, full of protein and complex carbs. It shocks me how many people start their first 5 to 6 hours of the day with out any nutrients. Keep up the good work Merrill!
Ace says:
Merrill, it should be easy for you to keep the weight off now.
Have fun with the “I now have THREE kids to keep me hopping diet” !!
Congrats on your beautiful new daughter Morgan. Ace
Ann says:
I live in Baltimore and am trying the online Weight Watchers to just keep track of stuff. Glad we could help, I guess!
Peggy Moore says:
I have tried just about every diet there is, and with each diet I have GAINED weight when I went off the diet. I did lose the most on Weight Watchers a couple of years ago, but put it all back on again. My problem is lack of exercise, and I do know this would help, BUT….I have arthritis in my knees. I can’t win!!!! The older you get the harder it is to lose. I know…excuses..excuses.
What they need to come out with is a mircle pill. If you hear of one please let me know. Thanks Merrill for all the pleasure you have given me reading all of your blogs.
Tim says:
I like the name to your diet – it certainly has a ring to it. While the diet I was on a few months ago worked very well, now that I came off of it I have added most of the weight back on. This definitely brings back memories. Thanks. I will add one of my favorite – standing on the fifty yard line of Lincoln Financial Field. Good times.
[...] Around 8:00 PM I went to work out. Let me define my workout. It consists of running/walking on the treadmill for about 35 minutes and saying good-bye to about 375 calories. I look forward to working out because besides burning off 100 or so more calories than the one coke I drink during the day, I can catch up on my reading, watch a little TV and frankly enjoy a little quiet time. [...]
[...] One night I went to work out; it was around 8:00 PM. Let me define my workout. It consists of running/walking on the treadmill for about 35 minutes and saying good-bye to about 375 calories. I look forward to working out because besides burning off 100 or so more calories than the one coke I drink during the day, I can catch up on my reading, watch a little TV and frankly enjoy a little quiet time. [...]
Janet Savoie says:
I too had gained 9 lbs over the past few of years and all my “medium” sized clothes were getting tight. Refusing to move into “large clothes” I made a decision to stop the madness. But I needed to get my husband on board since he’s the cook and had added a few pounds himself. I chose Weight Watchers. They have 2 different plans and my husband and I each chose a different one. Luckily a core plan person can coexist with a flex plan person in the same house. 9 weeks later I had lost 20 lbs and my husband had lost 50! We now look like we did when we got married 9 years ago! I did continue to exercise daily and my husband got back into it, so that really helped. I believe weight loss and weight maintenance requires that perfect combination of sensible eating and exercise, and the challenge now is to make the changes I made in my eating into lifetime habits.