Any tips for those trying to break the addictive grip of carbs and sweets? I'm sold on the advantages but implementing it has been years of failure.
Best of luck to you.
Don't eat snacks between meals.
Read an article about the benefits before going to the grocery store.
Put a sticker on your credit card as a reminder before you purchase something.
Go through your house and throw out everything that doesn't fit your goals.
-2 iceberg lettuces
-1 cucumber
-1 red bell pepper
-2 red onions
-some frozen spinach and peas (melted in microwave)
-1 steamed broccoli
-8 hard-boiled eggs
-3 packets of strong feta cheese
-Good bunch of cashew nuts
Seasoning
-a bit of sea-salt (goes a long way with salad)
-black pepper, lemon pepper
-dried basil (pour on tomatoes if you add them)
-quality extra-virgin olive oil (Filos, Memmas Knossos)
-Parmigiano Reggiano (finely grated, chopped doesn't taste as strong. PR is a match made in heaven with practically all salads.)
I usually pair the salad with steak made from minced chicken since it's not red meat and it's low-fat. Seasoned with chicken seasoning, curry, Garam Masala, black and white pepper, garlic powder, a bit of oregano.
I could eat this for the rest of my life. That's the first thing you want: a sustainable habit.
Carbs are not unhealthy, but high-glycemic index foods will make your blood sugar spike and the drop will make you hangry. That's something you'll want to avoid. You'll also want some soluble fiber so a good option is stuff like rye bread and rye porridge. I hear in US it's hard to buy bread that isn't as sweet as pastries are here in Finland. So you might have to learn to bake your own.
As for breaking the addiction, I get accustomed to porridge without sugar in about two weeks. I usually add decreasing amount of frozen blueberries during the "transitioning period". It's bland, but once the sugar dependency eases, it'll start tasting again, but this time in a pleasant, salty-kind of way.
Best of luck with the next attempt!
1kg of fat is 7,700 kcals. To lose 2kg a week for 8 weeks you need to find a deficit of 2,200 kcals per day the entire time. A large inactive man will have roughly a basal metabolic rate of ~2,200 kcals per day, so you need a deficit of your BMR per day to be losing this level of weight. This is very very hard to do.
Do not try this at home. Do not try this on your own.
It is one of the reasons it hooks people.
Two months of weight loss is a different ballpark.
Also fix sleep: poor sleep messes with hormones and increases carb cravings.
I found that when I did the diet right, the sugar cravings largely went away. It takes some time and effort to get there so once you are, dig in and don’t let people tempt you with sugar. There is free food everywhere and it’s almost all sugar; You get what you pay for.