Good on you Warnie for making a conscious effort in improving your wellbeing. I'm in the same camp and wanting to get my weight down to a slim level of just under 80kgs. I'm now 80.9kgs and peaked as high as 94kgs 2 years back. Hight is 176cms.
Getting down from 94 to 86 was easy by not eating the takeaway lunch I was enjoying most weekdays, such as Hungry Jacks, KFC, etc (the meals with fries!!) and drinking only in moderation. So for the last 2 years my weight since has stopped at 86kgs, which was frustrating as I thought I was being a good boy by not having lunch most days, just eating up to 3 fruits during the day, but also my mandatory muesli bar, my coffee and milks during the day (no sugar).
So even though I thought I was doing the right thing, it wasn't enough for weight loss. My evening dinners were largish and, of course, I'd also be looking for snacks later into the night.
My first step was reading someone's post here about getting a digital scale and monitoring my weight - watching what puts on weight, and note what makes weight come off. That has been the best approach so far, as I now have incentive to really make a difference. Noting that my weight is at its lowest about 1 hour after waking up helps for my reference.
So I thought that, if I'm eating sensibly and still carrying more weight than desired, then I must be eating too much - derr! So the first real big challenge for me was to totally ignore my hunger pains and eat almost nothing. Starting weight was 83.4 and finished up only consuming a few sugarless coffees with milk, 1 orange and 2 cough lollies - for the whole day. It was tough doing so, but my greatest session of hunger was at noon, but within 1/2 an hour the craving went down to a very manageable level. In the afternoon I was thinking I'd need to cook pasta when I got home (my mind was yielding to the hunger) - but by evening I was cruising and kept on going without. I was a little hungry at bed time, but slept all the way through. Waking up - I felt normal, just like every other morning. Starting weight - 82.3kgs; my plan worked, which was to go into negative territory where my food intake was less than what my energy consumption was for the day. In other words, my body began to consume its stored energy reserves.
This week I've pretty much done that twice with no issues. My peak weight is lower, my lowest weight is lower; my average is weight is lower. Is hunger a need to eat to stay alive, of course it is. But that hunger will remain even when it needs to be switched off as overeating will lead to numerous diseases and an early death.
If it's okay for someone that's had their stomach stapled to eat less, then it should be okay for my original stomach to receive less food than it wants.
So my approach is to average out with less food over the week, but I'll still have the luxury of eating that dinner when going out (I had a Guinness pie the other night and still achived my lowest weight 2 days later) which won't impact my average weight as in the past.
Now that it's the weekend I'll return to normal eating without being silly. Come Monday (or Tuesday) I'll tell my stomach and mind who's boss once more.
