First of all losing weight is not as difficult as giving up smoking, in fact I found it easy after the first six weeks. During those first six weeks the body is adjusting itself and getting used to having less food to digest. I continued to drink beer during my diet, although I did cut down on the number of pints I was drinking. I was used to drinking about 7 pints a night for 4 nights a week. I cut the amount of beer down to 4 pints a night and also I cut the number of nights I was drinking dow to 3 nights a week. I stayed at this level of beer drinking for about 10 weeks and gradually increased the amount I was drinking up to 5 pints a night, then after I seen I was losing weight while still drinking I went to 4 nights a week in the pub drinking 5 pints of beer. You don't have to give up the gargle when on a diet.

Let me start off by saying I'm a man of 52 years old and was over 16 stone. My height is 6ft . Like most Irish men who drink I wasn't getting much exercise The job I was doing wasn't physical, in fact I was sitting most of the day.  I heard that my ideal weight should have been 13 stone so I set about aiming to reach 13 stone. I didn't actually get down to that weight but lost 3 stone which leaves me at 13 stone 4 pounds and that's a weight I'm quiet happy to stay at. It's three stone less than I was and the big belly is gone. My body has got used to having less food and I can still enjoy my few pints of beer. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, in fact it only took about 4 months to loose the three stone.

So Why Did I Want To Loose Weight ?

Because I was fat , and that's the simple fact of the matter. My clothes were no longer fitting me. I felt sluggish all the time just lazing around the house lying on the couch, eating junk food at home even after having a good dinner. I was totally unfit also, I sweated during the summer months after walking a short distance and the weight was still going up gradually month by month. So one day while taking a rest on a park bench I noticed the same people who always came to that park to walk, but I also notices that they were always walking at a brisk pace, much faster than me and were most likely trying to either keep fit or loose weight, I say how over time these walkers were getting slimmer by the month. That's when I decided I should give it a go. I never had been on a diet before so it was all new to me. This thing about counting calories and getting exercise was what other people did. So I said to the wife I'm going to do what they are doing, I'm going to loose this fat belly. I'm sure she didn't believe me but encouraged me anyway. So the very next day I started on my quest to loose the fat so called beer belly and get a bit fitter.

Walking Is As Good As Any Form Of Exercise.

I starting of walking in the month of June. June is usually a warm month in Ireland, I found that walking while it's warm outside helps loose weight much quicker as you sweat a lot which burns loads of calories, well at least it helped me. I usually went to a park to walk and walked briskly for about three quarters of an hour each day. If I had time in the evenings I'd go out for an extra 20 minutes. Every little helps. I never wore a track suit in my life so all my walking in the first 2 months was in normal clothes such as jeans and shirts, I'm not the track suit kind of person but I should have at least wore a track suit trousers as jeans will make the inside of your legs soar from friction and sweat after long periods of walking. During the daily walk I was burning about 300 to 400 calories depending how arm the day was and how much I was sweating. When trying to loose the fat there's no need to go to a gym or use any other kind of fitness equipment, going to a gym costs money and walking is free. It's amazing how the body gets used to physical exercise and and how quick you'll loose the pounds and stones. I kept the walking up for 6 months doing it 7 days a week for 45 mins. a day. When I reached my goal of getting down to 13 stone I reduced the walking to 20 mins. a day, so you see i doesn't last for ever but you must walk at least 5 days a week for 20 mins. just to keep the weight down when you reach your target, what ever that may be as everybody is different and everybody's body is different.

So What Were The Foods That Were Making Me Fat

It wasn't long before I discovered which foods were keeping the weight on and when I stopped eating those foods I started losing the pounds big time. I'll name three kinds of food here that I considered were all high fat. The first were potatoes which most Irish people eat at least 4 times a week. But it's not just eating the spuds that puts the weight on it's the dob of butter that ads to the calories also. I used to go through about a tub of this spread a week but I now use less than a half pound a week. That alone makes a huge difference in calories. The second was white bread which again every Irish person eats every day, it's what we were brought up on. The third was cheese, I love cheese and would eat it most days of the week. Whether it was sliced, hard or processed cheese I ate it. As soon as I gave up these three foods I seen a big difference in my weight. I was keeping a log of my weight. I weighed myself every day from the start. I know all these weight watcher programmes say you shouldn't weigh yourself daily but I wanted to see what food was keeping the weight on and by not eating that food I could then tell which were the fattening foods to avoid eating. Well it worked for me so I kept a note of what weight I was every day, in the morning time. As I said the pints of beer were now cut down to 12 pints a week and I was still able to get rid of a few pounds a week. Some weeks I'd loose 2 puunds some weeks I'd loose over 3 pounds.

Other Foods I Cut Down On Or Cut Out Altogether

The only time I ate cereals before I started the diet was in hospital or if I had too much beer the night before. I found all these cereals to be mostly tasteless junk. Instead for breakfast I'd have rashers, sausages and an egg along with bread, sometimes toasted and sometimes brown bread. I also cut out the ''Irish Fry'' and started to embrace the dreaded cereal. It worked ! Most morning now I have a bowl of Rice Krispies with a topping of some kind of fruity flakes with nuts just to give it a bit of taste. About 3 times a week I'd eat chips and perhaps a burger, I also eat a pizza once a week, they too were now off the menu for now.

I loved eating crisps, I'd eat a couple of packs every day and maybe pea nuts, especially dry roasted peanuts. Well when I heard they were very high in calories I cut tem out. So gone were my little snacks. In place of them I eat a lot of fruit, I even made smoothies which are full of good stuff. Included in the smoothies was, orange juice, berries that included black and blue berries, banana.

The Hardest Part Of My Diet

Looking back now over eight months after I started the first 6 weeks were the hardest part. The body was well used to getting all this grub every day and suddenly it was deprived. So it gave out hunger noises telling me to feed it. I did feed it but not the food it was used to getting. I'd feed it fruit or have a few of those low fat crackers with a bit of sliced ham or tuna. After the first six weeks the hunger pangs went away, I had beaten the craving for high fat food.

So What Foods Did I Eat ?

I ate 4 times a day starting with a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a banana along with 2 cups of tea. Tea is not fattening. Other mornings I'd have a boiled egg with real brown bread, 2 slices with a low fat spread. I usually eat the breakfast between 8 and 9 in the mornings. I'd go for my 45 min. walk and return and have lunch around 1pm which consisted of a wrap filled with sliced ham, lettuce, tomato, onion with a small amount of low fat butter. My kind of low fat spread was Flora Pro Active spread very light on the wrap.

Another day I'd have 2 low fat crackers with tuna. Other days I'd mix around and have a cup of soup and 2 slices of brown bread. Not the brown bread that comes like a white sliced pan but real brown bread.

For dinner which I had around 4pm I'd usually have a plate of mixed vegetables and meat. With the veg. which was bought frozen I'd have carrots, green beans, broccoli and cauliflower. During the cooking I'd place a veg stock cube, usually the Knorr made ones as they are tasty. When the veg. were cooked and on the plate I'd ad some gravy to make it extra tasty. Along with these I'd have whatever kind of meat I wanted that day. Meat in general isn't fattening as I found out. Lambe and chicken are the  least fattening. Remember to cut off the fat from the meat and the skin from the chicken as they aren't good for you. If you stick with the veg. and lean meat every day with a bit of fresh fish some days you'll soon notice the pounds falling off the belly.

You can eat almost any food with veg. The Irish love their pork chops which are generally not fattening when you remove all the fat and grill them. I use a George Forman Grill which removes a lot of fat when cooking.

Chicken Curry is not high in calories. This surprised me a little, but when you think about it it's basically chicken rice and onions with a bit of curry powder and water. I eat this once a week and notice after weighing myself the day after that I lost some weight. You can either boil a few pieces of chicken in water or grill them, when they are just about cooked start getting the curry sauce ready, then when the chicken is cooked cut it into small bite sized bits and place them into the curry sauce. This is a welcome break from the vegetable dinners which you'll get tired of after a few weeks. Allow yourself a treat once a week, mine was chips and sausages and fried eggs.

For tea which I have between 6 and 7 pm I'll have either a wrap with tuna or a wrap with a small amount of coleslaw, some sliced ham, tomato and onion. Or some real brown bread and a light spread of Flora Pro Active with a piece of chicken or turkey which again is very low in fat content. In between meals I'll eat a bit of fruit.

This all sounds rather boring but after a few months you really do get used to it and the cravings will be gone.

In the list of days on the right of this page you'll see how much I was losing each day and week. You'll notice at the weekend I didn't lose much at all and even gained a bit, but this slight gain soon went away over the next week and over all I was still losing 2 to 3 pounds a week even when drinking beer.

Waist Size

My waist size before I started this diet was 47 inches. Your waist size is around your belly, the fattest part and not your belt size. I got this down to a size 40 after the 4 months were up.  I now eat a little bit more because all I want to do is keep the weight off. I don't mind if I loose a few pounds more just as long as I don't start to put it back on again. So I weight myself about twice a week just to keep an eye on my weight in case it slowly starts going up again.

So how much beer am I now drinking.

Well about 5 or six pints for 4 nights a week. This is more than is recommended by the so called experts. But I'm Irish and we tend not to follow rules very strictly. After all it's not the amount of years in your life but the amount of life in your years.

All In All

Everything I ate I basically knew how much fat and calories I was consuming. I read the lables on the food wrappers. I asked people who knew about this stuff. I didn't join any club. It's all pretty basic stuff when you know what's good and what's bad for you. As someone once said, keep everything in moderation. The benefits to losing weight are huge. You'll feel better within yourself. You'll be fitter and walking will become enjoyable. You'll be able to wear whatever you like. And most of all that fat belly will be gone and you'll be healthier from all those vegetables you have eaten any maybe save a few euro in the process as you wont be spending as much on food. There are loads of web sites around that will tell you how many calories in every kind of food you can think of. If you follow the information here you wont go far wrong. Remember eat lots of veg as they are a great filler, meat is not very fattening, either is fish, without the added batter. Another tip is if you are going to eat a white bread roll is to remove the dough, simply scrape it all out with your fingers until all that's left is the outer crust, that's a trick slimmers use. You'll be grand after the initial 6 weeks are over, that's the hard part.