Intake: The real battle.

 So we're all fighting the battle of the bulge, and loads of people think that they can hit the gym or start running and the weight will just fall off. Whilst exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, and it will help with weight loss and toning, the largest part of this battle is food. Like 80-90% of it.
When it really comes down to it, we gained the weight by putting a bunch of food we didn't need into our bodies, and being the wonderful little biofactories that they are, they did their jobs perfectly and stored the excess as fat for when the starvation time comes. The problem is that in most of the world these days, the starvation time never happens and the abundance of fat and sugar filled foods is shortening our lives.
It takes a fuckload of willpower, focus and determination to do the massive weight loss thing without surgeries or medications. I myself have turned to Duromine as a short term kick start when my weight plateau'd (more on this in another post which I'll dedicate to just Duromine) and it works very effectively to curb appetite and make the not-eating easier. When I'm off meds and just doing this thing with sheer determination, I need to be extra vigilant in not undoing the things I was able to train my body to do when I had that tool in place. Basically, getting by, having the motivation and energy to exercise while eating much, much less food without burning the whole world down in a fit of sugar craving rage.
The formula is different for everyone. For me, I've found that allowing myself to still have the things that I love to eat (I have a crazy bad sweet tooth) in very small amounts is very helpful to staying on the right track. Completely restrictive eating cannot be sustained long term, and we need to be working towards training our bodies to accept healthy intake on a daily basis for the rest of our lives. Losing weight and keeping it off forever requires a commitment FOREVER.
So...when I say I still have sweet treats, what does that mean? Well, it really doesn't just apply to sweet treats. I still occasionally will have fish and chips, or my boyfriend will make me my favourite comfort food, which involves pasta, bacon and a fucktonne of cheese. The key is in watching your portions and only having these things rarely. For example, I had a slice of amazing yummy cake from the cheesecake shop and the aforementioned artery clogging dish on my birthday. About half the size I would usually have had before I started really getting serious about losing weight, and I was careful about what I ate for the rest of that day. I had fish and chips with my kids a couple of weeks ago and just chose to have a piece of flake and skipped the chips. It really is just about educating yourself when it comes to calorie content and being a bit sensible about how much you put into your body.

This picture is the meal I cooked for valentines day. It's duck breast with a simple green pea risotto. I was careful to render all of the fat from under the duck skin, and portioned accordingly with the white arborio rice that I used in the risotto. The great thing about being already on my journey is that small portions satisfy my hunger now, which really helps when it comes to cutting portion sizes in order to have something special once in a while.
A great way to bulk up a meal without sending your calorie intake sky high is vegetables. You're gonna need to learn to get really comfortable with veggies. I love the steam fresh packages. They're like 23 calories for a whole serving and it's enough to fill me up for a couple of hours. You still need to have other things to complete your nutritional requirements, but essentially, if you snacked on a bag of veggies 5 times a day in the beginning of your journey, it'd be fine. We really are looking to cut the snack habit, though, so take it easy and reduce it as much as possible.
Other things that suck in the beginning are the hunger pains and sugar withdrawal. When you're used to eating a lot throughout the day, your body will give you hunger cues at regular intervals when it really doesn't actually need to eat. Actual hunger is accompanied by physical symptoms. Rumbling stomach, sometimes pains, sometimes headache. "Hunger" is characterized by thoughts of "I'm hungry, it's time to eat" without any real physical signs. Our bodies also get a bit confused sometimes and mistake dehydration for hunger, so I always try to drink a glass of water when I feel hungry, and when it's time for food, to get my fluid intake up and to negate any mixed feeling my body might have about what it needs. Sugar withdrawal is another hurdle. It's fucking awful. The headaches, mood swings and sometimes more severe symptoms like depressed feelings, etc can make it feel like it's just not worth the pain and suffering involved in losing weight. My advice on sugar withdrawal is to ride out the first few days in any way you can. Be kind to yourself, rest as much as possible, drink lots of water, treat symptoms as they appear and hold on for dear life, because once you're through the first few days, you will feel so much better. At that point, you can retrain your body not to expect sugar all the time, and eat fruits, etc when you're really craving. Natural sugars found in fruits, dairy products (unless you have an intolerance) and lots of other things are really good for us when we eat them in their natural state, in reasonable amounts. Going "sugar free" is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Most people who do this don't know that most foods contain some kind of "sugar". If they said "I'm cutting out refined sugars and only having the naturally occurring stuff", I'd be far more satisfied. In a healthy human body (without complications such as diabetes or food intolerances) sugar and carbs (which our little biofactories turn into sugars) are the basic energy products that our bodies use to function. We need them. They are important nutrients, and as such are required for normal healthy function. The key to healthy living, making and maintaining a healthy body is to find a BALANCED way of eating and fueling our system.
Below I'll list some of the fun, awesome and really massively helpful educative tools I've used. I highly recommend that everyone take a course or do some research into exactly how human bodies work on a basic biological level. With education, we can make better decisions for ourselves.

Open2study Food nutrition and health course is a free online course that lasts a month. You can study at your own pace and it takes a couple of hours a week to watch the videos and do the tests. I did this exact course and it helped me so much I can't even express my gratitude.
I also use a couple of apps to help me keep track of stuff.
My Fitness Pal  is a great way to track your intake. It even has a barcode scanner!
Monitor Your Weight is the best app I've found for tracking weight and body measurements. I'm really loving it, and I wish I'd started using it waaaaaaay earlier.

None of the above websites even know I exist. It's important to me that you all know I'm just giving my opinions on things I've tried and that work for me and none of my content is sponsored.