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The 1950s Diet

I remember watching The Founder, a film about how McDonald's became the fast food conglomerate it is today. When folks wanted a craving of a McDonald's burger, they would get: one hamburger (or cheeseburger), small fries, and small Coca-Cola. This seems like a kids meal in today's standards but this is a perfectly reasonable portion size for a human adult. 

When trying to lose weight in the past, I would start with extreme measures like not eating only once a day or maybe even choosing a day of the week where I would not eat at all. It definitely worked in the short term but long-term it bit me, and it bit me bad. With my recent weight-loss (which was in 2018-2019) I went from 280 pounds down to 222 pounds; I was looking great and my clothes fit great but deep down I knew that I couldn't maintain this level of extreme dieting much longer. Soon after, the wall crumbled. 

I ballooned back up with my highest weight being up to 292 pounds in January of 2021. I actually felt like I had gained weight from the beginning of this year but when I looked at the Renpho app (tracks your weight and other metrics. Click here for Android download and here for Apple download) I noticed that I lost weight; albeit much, much slower than my past attempts. This made me feel ecstatic because for maybe the first time in my life I had lost weight without trying much. I decided to go "full-time" with the weight loss with this new found motivation and decided that I would not go to extreme measures. Rather, I will start easy with no fried fast food, control my portion sizes, and gauge whether I am actually hungry or if I'm just bored.

I know that this method may take longer but if it will help me to normalize portion sizes then it will pay dividends in the long-term. Since this "diet" is so focused on portion sizes, I labeled it "The 1950s Diet". When I eat something (whether it's a snack or a meal), I try to imagine what the portion size may have been back then eat that portion size. I will also be doing this with fast food (starting with 30 days no fast food and started August 1st 2021) once I complete the 30 day no fast food challenge to help me build my confidence. I'll be sharing my progress and also the things that I eat throughout. It's going to feel good looking back and seeing how far I've come.

Height: 5'10
Weight: 275 lbs

Stay tuned for updates!


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What did I eat today?

 The amount of food that I would stuff before deciding to normalize my portion absolutely astonishes me. I mean, looking back it was just absolutely unacceptable. There would be times where I would ingest 1500+ calories in one sitting. It was tough reducing my portion sizes and also decreasing the times I eat in the beginning of August but ten days into it I'm feeling more in control. I'm also thinking about fast food A LOT  less now so that is a good start. I thought it would be good idea to share what I eat; sort of like a food journal.  Breakfast 1 cup of coffee with no sugar 2 tablespoons of coffee mate creamer 1 peanut butter & jelly sandwich Lunch 1 cucumber Bowl of chicken biryani (standard cereal bowl filled 75%) Dinner 1 pita bread with hummus (no olive oil drizzle) 1 cucumber