The Jaymeister Diet

A couple of years ago, I lost a fair amount of weight. I don't know what my exact weight was at the beginning, but it was in the 205-210lb range. Within about four months I was down to 174, and I've been able to stay close to that weight ever since. I fluctuate a little bit here and there, especially as the seasons change, but last week I weighed myself at 175. I'm will now share the secret of my success. Although I'm not a nutritionist, I can safely advise you not to try this at home.

The funny thing about it was that at the beginning, I wasn't really looking to lose a lot of weight so quickly. I was concerned about my weight but didn't really have the discipline to stick to a formal diet plan. Fortunately I've always been fairly active, or else my weight would have been even worse than it was because I liked to eat in quantity. Then, one day, it was lunch time at work, but I didn't have a lot of time on that particular day. There's a Chinese restaurant across the street from where I work that I am a frequent patron of, and on that day I got a half portion of noodles and spicy chicken because I didn't have time to eat the full portion. Lo and behold, my appetite was quite satisfied with that smaller portion, and from that point on I have made a point of never getting overstuffed.

Once I got used to smaller portions, I was determined to cut bad foods out of my diet totally. I swore off fried foods. I elimintated fast food excepting salads and Subway. Hardest of all for me, I did not eat any sweets at all for a good four months, except for one soft ice cream at the company barbecue, one ice cream bar at SARS-stock, and the occasional Werther's candy from the reception desk at work. Soon after giving up these foods was when I started to press the boundaries. I became calorie-conscious. I counted the calories of practically everything I ate. I became a voracious reader of nutritional information labels, and didn't eat foods that I felt had lower-calorie alternatives. I wasn't on a low-carb diet by any means, but I did not eat any superfluous carbs - ie. no potatoes, minimal rice and almost no bread. I was too dumb to realize that you can subtract fibre from the carb count in whole wheat bread, so I didn't eat that either except in subs. I also limited the amount of fruit I ate.

I recently saw an article titled 14 Ways to Speed Up Your Metabloism. It is addressed to women, but most of the tips would apply to men as well (except maybe for step 12 which is "Sweat out your PMS"). Having read those tips, it really is a wonder that I lost any weight at all. For one thing, I've never been a breakfast eater. Looking back, that was a big mistake. Since your body's metabolism doesn't speed up from its sleeping rate until you eat, skipping breakfast is actually counterproductive if your aim is to lose weight. Skipping any meal is really a bad idea, because the body will act like you are starving and your metabolism will slow down as if you're in survival mode. I've recently made more of an effort to eat something in the morning, but it would have been helpful back then. Another tip was not to overdo calorie-cutting, because your body is accustomed to a certain calorie intake and you metabloism will slow down, again as if in survival mode, if you're not feeding it what it's used to. I estimate that when I was losing weight, I was consuming between 1000 and 1200 calories in a typical weekday, and probably about 2000 on weekend days.

So, what was I eating? On a typical workday I would usually have at mid-morning a light hot chocolate which I know is exactly 45 calories. (At that time I thought the 90 calories in the regular hot chocolate was grossly excessive.) For lunch I would have a frozen No-Name entree, either the spaghetti at 238 calories or, if I was really feeling decadent, the lasagna at 280 calories. In the summer I might supplement that with a cob of corn, which is about 100 calories according to Calorie-Count.com. For dessert I'd have a fruit. By the late afternoon I'd be pretty hungry, and obsessed with getting home for dinner. For dinner I would usually have bagged salad, with a bit of light dressing and sprinkled with sunflower seeds for protein. I still frequently have that as a meal, because it's actually quite filling, but back then it was practically every day. At first I wasn't even sprinkling on the seeds, and so on some occasions I would eat a whole bag of salad in one night. When I wasn't eating salad, I'd have frozen chicken filets. For a treat I would have 15 calorie sugar-free popsicles, and maybe indulge in another fruit. That was pretty much it. On weekends I allowed myself to have some chicken and, on extremely rare occasions, red meat. And each weekend I'd have a turkey sub or a Wendy's salad.

Looking back on it, it was an insane way to lose weight. I was hungry a lot of the time, I was distracted at work by obsession with food, my energy levels were often low, and I lost a lot of distance on my golf shots the rest of that year. But I realized at the time that I was riding an improbable wave of discipline that I'd likely never have again, so I needed to strike while the iron was hot. Indeed, I couldn't see myself being able to pull something like that off again. But because of that experience, I know I won't have to. After that ordeal in losing the weight, making the required lifestyle changes to keep the weight off are a piece of cake! (Mmmmmm. Cake.) I still don't eat fast food or fried foods (two servings of french fries in two years), and I still avoid superfluous carbs. I do eat more whole wheat bread now, and I do indulge in dessert more often than I care to admit - you can only suppress a sweet tooth for so long. I also eat a whole lot of fruit.

I don't advocate that anybody follow this method. The point of all this is to emphasize the fact that successful weight maintenance is about lifestyle change. Anybody can follow a fancy diet plan and lose a bunch of weight, but they tend to forget that reaching their weight goal is not the end of the process but just another beginning. At some point you come to the realization that your health is much more rewarding than a Quarter Pounder with cheese, and you can't forget that once you've posted an arbitrary number. And you can't always rely on others to remind you of that after they've already collected your money to follow their plan. My experience was that the inspiration to lose weight came from within, as did the means toward that end. The result is that I'm as healthy as ever, my energy levels are great, and the golf ball is flying again. If only there were a diet that could keep the ball straight.