So, you want to know how to lose weight without dieting. OK. I’ll tell you how I did it most recently. Hopefully I’ll even keep it off, because I don’t ever really keep it off. I have no self-control, or maybe the self-control of a two-year-old and at some point I will start bingeing on crap and put weight back on.
But. I digress. You can lose weight without dieting, as I have most recently discovered by cutting out your coffee. (Ducks and runs for cover). No really. I kind of put 2 and 2 together a couple of weeks ago and processed the following bits of information:
1) Cortisol makes the body store fat because it is stressed (under attack or famine)
2) Caffeine stimulates cortisol production in the body.
What do I do with that? Well, when I’ve already given up aspartame and sodas, fruit juice, sweet tea, or any other bottled beverage, but I drink coffee (black) like its mana from heaven (oh dear Lord it is, it is), and I’m gaining weight even though I’m watching what I eat, then I suck it up and stop drinking the fucking coffee. Dammit.
The first four days were miserable. I partly replaced coffee with green tea, unsweetened, so I didn’t have huge withdrawal headaches. Good things started to happen.
1) My weight started to go down immediately.
2) My food cravings diminished some.
3) My fatigue started to get better.
I was in a serious spiral of self-medicating through caffeine. I know it’s a spiral because I repeat it periodically throughout the year. It starts off with a harmless 2 cups a day, then four, then six, then six in the morning and two in the afternoon…Until I’m feeling ill from all the coffee then I taper back and get back on a two cup a day regime.
Well, no more. It’s a treat for me now, that’s it. I’ve an addictive personality and coffee is just another vice I use to manipulate myself instead of taking care of myself.
It’s been a couple of weeks and I’m down about 10ish pounds and my pants are looser. Part of it is coffee, and part of it is because I’m eating less. Cortisol makes you crave starchy crap and hold on to fat. Not good things in our modern lives.
I actually got rid of my scale because I got on it, about a week-and-a-half after I stopped the coffee, and it said I was down about 15 pounds. Ooohhh, I was feeling sassy! I wiggled by butt, even. Then I did the double-check. Big mistake. Huge. Ten pound difference. The scale went in the shit can. So, I don’t know what my actual weight loss is at the moment, but I’m venturing to say in the 7-10 pound range based on how my pants feel. Boo-yah!
I’ll continue to drink green tea and occasionally have coffee as a treat. And I try to honor my body’s request for rest when it asks. Because not enough rest makes the body produce cortisol, too. That’s why my downward coffee spiral always causes me to lose weight: I push through fatigue with grit and coffee, but not gritty coffee. Unless it’s Turkish coffee. Yummo! Honestly, I’m feeling so much better, it makes it easy to miss the coffee. Luckily, I like green tea.
So, 10ish (I’ll call it 10ish, it makes me feel good and I don’t have a scale to contradict it) pounds down, and about 50 to go, or about 4 pant sizes. Who knows?
So tell me, what have you done to take better care of you? How much coffee do you drink in a day? Would you consider giving it up?
theincompetenthausfrau 
Oh man…I’ve done the back and forth thing with coffee but I LOVE it so so much. I have 4 kids and didn’t drink it while I went through my pregnancies because I had suffered some miscarriages so I basically cut out anything that could be harmful and stuck to it! I also did not drink it while I breast fed any of the little people, but once I was done with my last baby, I went back in full force. Now I can not go a day without it. PLus…I’m one of those that like cream in my coffee, so it’s extra bad! I have been thinking I want to try and cut it out again, but I really enjoy it. I would definitely enjoy losing 10 pounds though! Congratulations on the loose pants….That makes it worth it for sure. 🙂
You are amazing. I never did give up coffee entirely during pregnancy or breastfeeding. I couldn’t find any supportive reasons not to give it up altogether, but I did cut back on the overall amount and the caffeine.
Losing weight and feeling better does make it worth it. 🙂
I actually have a post written up addressing these things! I just have to get it typed up and posted at a time folks might actually read it (e.g., not the weekend). I went paleo and, wow, has it made a difference. I held on to coffee for the first week or so until I had a comparable revelation. Now I am without it and do not miss it at all.
Way to go, Deb! 🙂