Two words on: diets

Since I was a kid I have always been thin. But real thin. Then I reached the "teens", the twenties... and kept on being thin. I have been trying to get to 60 kg (I am 1.70 m, with a lot of hope... meaning, I am more 1.68/1.69) because I was playing football (the European kind of it) and I was lighter than a leaf.

Finally at 24 (thanks to the military... !!) I reached 61 kg and my life changed for... about 5 months. Then I comeback to training and down again to 58 kg.

To keep it short, at one point, around my 30ies, I reached 62 kg and stayed there, then 63, 64, 65... and in the last 2 years I have been around 67/68 kg. I bit too much, if I have to say, but still.

Then last August I've been on holidays for 3 weeks, 3 whole weeks in Italy, 10 days at my parent's, 10 days at a friend's house... a Chef friend's house... and his restaurant.

Again, to keep it short. Last day of holidays, I am at my parent's house and we are eating lunch (you know? Mamma's lunch...) and, don't ask me why, I decided to check my weight... 72 or more (yeah, I was dressed up, of course... but it was summer, no more than 2 kg)!!

Shocked, I was shocked. Ok having some fat around the belly, ok looking as a fighter of the oldest of the sports, but... 70!!

Don't worry, I was not thinking: "OH GOSH!! Look how fat am I!!!!" and crying in my bed. I just thought: "I've been living 20 years of my life or so around 60 kg, now I am at 70 kg... it's a bit too much".

So I decided that I had to get back to weight around 63/65. I am doing sports, playing football once a week and training at least 1 hour 2 times a week, I am living in Amsterdam and biking around so it's not that I am not having a healthy life. It's that I am eating too much!

Having thought that, having decided that 70 was too much, I made a plan: 1 month and I'll have to be 65 (5 kg in 30 days). And than I split it more: 1 week and down to 67, than stay there for 1 week, than another week down to 65, and than stay there for 1 week... and it's done! Easy, no?

I know that my body needs energy to work, energy means food, but I also know that, since I am a bit overweight, I have already that energy stored somewhere in me (around the belly, my dear, around the belly...). So, in order to lose weight my body needs to consume the fat instead of consuming the food I ingest. Of course I could have checked the daily need of calories of a man my age and my size and all of that things. But there was an easy way. In the last months I have been gaining weight (not that much, but I did) so I simply had to eat less (assume less calories).

Pasta in the evenings? Great! How much? before it was a full dish, now it will be half of it. Or none.

What I really did was stop eating outside (I was eating in restaurants/pubs twice a week...) and eating an apple any time I was hungry, or a banana, or a kiwi.

Breakfast: some cookies.

Lunch: a sandwich the days I had to play a football match, or else an apple and a banana.

Dinner: some pasta (once or twice a week) or an apple and a banana if I ate something during the day.

When I was hungry? Always. Sometimes, to relieve the hunger, I would have eaten some more fruit (and sometimes a cookie or two... I have to admit!). And once a week I ate out with some friends (normal eating, so like an animal as usual!).

Did it worked? Like charm. I am now 65/66 kg, I was 67 after the first week. It's been 4 weeks since I started, and now I just want to get to 63/64 kg and I am fine, but I'll take it slowly, now.
So, what I meant to say is that: do you want to lose weight? It can be done. Don't trust all of those diets and shits. Simply eat less. How much? It depends on you? Do you want to lose it quickly? A lot less (but still, something, we still need it...). Change some food with fruits, they give you strength, they fill your stomach and so you will not feel the hunger. Keep it up for some weeks, you'll manage it! 

My knees are happy, my ego is happy...

Side note: if anybody reads this and want to do the same... please first check if you really need it! Eyes are not honest... sometimes we seems to be fat to ourselves and it's not true! I knew I was a bit overweight because I've bee weighting 10 kg less for all of my life... be careful...