How I Lost 8 Pounds Without Dieting or Exercising

How I Lost 8 Pounds Without Dieting or Exercising

Today, I have the easiest weight loss tip ever to share with you. I've never been overweight, but now that I'm in my late 30s, the scale has been creeping up year after year and it has seemed impossible to drop even one pound and keep it off. 

Our Alaskan cruise a few years ago really did me in - I jumped from 118 pounds to 124 and never lost an ounce. (Remember my blog post, Eating Our Way Through Alaska? Yeah, I may have gotten carried away. I love meringue!)

There wasn't much in my lifestyle to improve. We don't buy soda. I shop from the produce section more than anywhere else in the store and we eat home-cooked meals almost daily. Fad diets worked as a temporary solution, but the weight would quickly come right back. Lately, my scale has been hitting 130. 130! I haven't gotten any taller since weighing 118 a few years ago. (Wouldn't that be nice?) 

My weight gain was unacceptable but I had no idea how to reverse it. I fell into the solution.

We ran out of cereal.

About two months ago, we ran out of cereal and I didn't buy more. Now, I'm not talking about Trix or Cap'n Crunch or anything that's more sugar than grain. Our pantry was usually stocked with healthy options, like Multigrain Cheerios and Grape Nuts and Shredded Wheat. At least, I'd always thought they were healthy.

Without making any other changes to my diet, the scale began rolling back. 130, 128, 125, and now I am at 122. The only thing I've done differently is cut out cereal for two months. What an easy way to boost weight loss! 

Note that I am not saying that I cut out breakfast entirely. I love breakfast! I don't think I could ever go to work on an empty stomach. Instead of cereal though, I've been having eggs, plain yogurt, and/or oatmeal with berries. (Real oatmeal - not that sugary garbage from the Quaker packets.) If you're not much of a cereal eater, you're probably going to find this diet tip underwhelming. However, if you have a bowl of cereal most mornings and even turn to Kellogg's for an occasional snack, this can be a game-changer.

Research supports this. Here is an excerpt from The New York Times article, 10 Nutrition Myths Experts Wish Would Die, by Sophie Egan.

It’s true that if you consume more calories than you burn, you will probably gain weight. And if you burn more calories than you consume, you will probably lose weight — at least for the short term. But the research does not suggest that eating more will cause sustained weight gain that results in becoming overweight or obese. “Rather, it’s the types of foods we eat that may be the long-term drivers” of those conditions, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a professor of nutrition and medicine at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Ultraprocessed foods — such as refined starchy snacks, cereals, crackers, energy bars, baked goods, sodas and sweets — can be particularly harmful for weight gain, as they are rapidly digested and flood the bloodstream with glucose, fructose and amino acids, which are converted to fat by the liver. Instead, what’s needed for maintaining a healthy weight is a shift from counting calories to prioritizing healthy eating overall — quality over quantity. 

This has been so simple. I don't plan to ever buy cereal again.

Did you know cereal is the devil? Neither did I.

Also, how cute is my little cereal devil? He's all like, "Rawr!"