Hello, and welcome to Vern’s secret lifehack for losing about 32 lbs. of weight without hardly trying.

I call this weight loss lifehack “Thai Style”, but only because I was in Thailand at the time. I’m not sure what the Thai food has to do with it, and I think other things can be substituted in place of what I ate if you can’t find it.

I’ve never written anything in my life about losing weight. I’d never before felt like I needed to lose any weight.

I’m not selling fatburners or rubber waist twisties or anything like that either.

I just noticed that I lost some weight recently and I wanted to share this lifehack about losing weight to see if it helps anyone and see if anyone can duplicate it. For me it was almost effortless. I’ve now started to eat more because I lost too much for my comfort-zone.

When this happened I was in Thailand. That probably doesn’t have anything to do with it – except that I was eating certain foods, but you can eat these same foods in any large city in the USA or Europe with a visit to your asian grocery.

I made this half-hearted decision to lose some weight a few months ago. In a matter of four months I lost about 32 pounds… but I didn’t even notice because it was so gradual. I now know a secret lifehack for losing weight. I guess you could lose as much weight as you desire, but I can’t say that for sure because I didn’t lose 100 lbs, only 32.

I don’t know what happened biologically over the course of a couple months but I went from 184 lbs down to a low of 152. Losing weight was something that I didn’t think I’d EVER have to even think about before my late 30’s. I’d been a soccer player, runner, bicyclist, and triathlete up through my mid-thirties. I never weighed more than maybe an extra 5 -10 lbs over my own idea of my “ideal weight”.

About 6 months ago a friend had taken a photo of me sitting without a shirt – sitting shirtless on a bench outside and when I saw that picture I realized – holy YIKES man, you got FAT over the last few years. I’m 5′11″ in height and at 180+ I was (in my eyes) flabby. I could pinch about 2 inches of fat in my stomach and, dare I say it? My “love handles“… It was the heaviest I’ve been in my life by far.

So, I saw this photo and realized something maybe should be done before I blimp up like a typical American or something. Vern needed to lose some weight. It seemed like I was sort of at that critical point where the pot belly would be growing out of me if something wasn’t done.

I’ve always run a few times per month, but it looked like something happened on the other 25 days in the month when I wasn’t running. I thought to myself, “Vern, you should be a little more conscious of what you’re eating.”

That’s it. That’s what I said to myself.

I didn’t think I was eating too much. I wasn’t gaining much each month, maybe 1-2 lbs. The trick is, once you reach what you consider your ideal weight – not to gain or lose any. It’s kind of tricky to stay exactly the same weight over the years, no wonder we have problems. Add to that our metabolism changing as we get older and things can get hairy scary.

My girlfriend consistently eats MORE than me and she clocks in at about 95 lbs. She doesn’t exercise at all. Nothing! She has a great metabolism though, one which I know millions of people would PAY big money to have.

Typical Consumption before “Secret Thai Style Losing Weight Lifehack”:

Breakfast
I would have “gwit diao moo” which is a simple pork broth noodle soup with vegetables and sometimes meatball type things. I’d estimate 1 1/2 cups of noodles. I also had some instant coffee with milk.

Lunch
In the afternoon – always something with rice – gai pad king (chicken with ginger) over rice or kowl pad moo (pork fried rice).

Dinner
In the evening my friend would cook and she’d make these big AWESOME Thai food meals for just two of us. I’d typically have 3+ cups of rice and eat until I was so full I couldn’t move. I ate so much most nights that it was a chore to get my butt away from the computer and play some badminton with her in the street later if I wasn’t glued to the chair at the computer.

Typical food Consumption after I started to implement the “Secret Thai Style Losing Weight Lifehack”:

Breakfast
I continued to eat my same morning breakfast. Yes, that is a lot of noodles. You should have seen the veggies in that bowl too. The bowl was enormous and held a cup of “too-uh ngoh” (raw bean sprouts) as well as some “Koon Chai” (leafy greens), or “pak boong” (morning glory). In addition there were many spices. There were small pieces of salted pickled radishes. Garlic pieces, black pepper, salt, a bit of fish sauce, and I always added a mega-dose of dried red peppers to make it so hot & spicy that every morning at 7:20 am as I drove to work on the motorcycle I was sweating. I continued to have a large glass of instant coffee with a quarter cup of milk. Sometimes it was whole milk, sometimes skim, sometimes low-fat.

Lunch
Sometimes for lunch I’d have just 2 medium-sized dragonfruits (Pitaya) and a cup of coffee. Sometimes over the couple weeks of first starting this new lunch meal I needed to eat something else around 3 pm – a couple cookies or something. I ate them if I needed it. I hate to be hungry at all. That’s the thing, if I was hungry – I ate something else. It’s not about having the discipline to never give yourself something if you’re hungry. WHO can do that? Not many of us. Not me!

Dinner
For dinner I cut down slowly on what I ate. I did it so gradually that I hardly noticed. Actually, the way it started out – I didn’t even know I was going to lose any weight. I just kind of resolved in my mind that I wouldn’t eat until I was stuffed anymore. At first I had just 2 1/2 cups of rice because I felt full at that point… then after a week or 2 I was down to 2 cups, then in another 2 weeks 1 1/2 cup… then after 2 weeks 1 cup of rice with dinner Sometimes there was so much of the food that goes over the rice that I’d have no rice at all. We had many different things to eat for dinner. Thai food has such variety, it’s an amazing cuisine. We ate everything at dinner, squid, fish, noodles, bamboo, coconut milk curries, tom yum, everything and everything. Oh, I did pretty much eliminate pork at dinner where usually that was a staple 4 out of 7 times per week.

Something that probably bears mentioning is that I ate SPICY food as much as possible. It started with a heaping tablespoon of dried chili pepper dust at breakfast, and it didn’t end there. If I was eating rice at lunch – I was eating rice with the entire small bowl of sliced chili peppers in fish sauce. If I could eat everyone else’s I would do that too. Depending on the company at lunch.

Fish sauce is salty and slightly oily. The small bowl they give with the fried rice and other dishes has a bit of lemon juice and cut garlic slices. Dinner was usually served on fire with spice. We ate Isaan style food – which is the Northeast part of Thailand – it is where they are known for the hottest food and the most spice. I loved the spices, eating it 6 out of 7 days each week for dinner on average.

What I was basically doing as I ate – and I think this is one of the BIG keys about eating right – is that I was just eating until I could feel the food heavy in my stomach – not stuffing myself past that point. I think that most of us were brought up as kids to eat until we’re full. Not just full, but jam-packed with food. I guess I was. I didn’t noticed it until I started to be mindful about it.

If your stomach is used to being overflowing with food – then that is “normal” eating for you. Anything less and you think you’re hungry. But, I think Americans in general maybe – have this distorted view of what a full stomach really feels like. If you pay attention to your stomach as you eat you will notice something.

There is a point where you can feel the food sitting in your stomach. You can tell it’s there. It’s heavy a little bit. If you reach that point, THAT’S it. Stop eating. You’ll be fine, really. In a few minutes you’ll feel more full if you just stop right there. Most of us eat so fast that our stomachs need to catch up. It takes about 20 minutes before our minds “feel” the fullness that our stomach is at. It’s like a slow response gas tank indicator. Our gas tank is full, yet, the dumb lever on the dashboard is slowly rising over the course of 20 minutes from the time we start eating. When the gas level indicator reads “full” – we have already been full but now the mind knows it and feels it too.

I didn’t always have the same dinners, but lunch was pretty much just what I said. My dinners would change a bit… Sometimes I’d have 2 BIG corn on the cobs and I was so full I couldn’t eat anything else. The woman at the market dipped the corn cobs in some salty water – and that was enough flavor since the corn was sweet. Sometimes I’d still put some butter on it – maybe one out of every 3 times. No worries though. This is a diet of moderation. Not extremes. I think it’s not good for us to set up in our minds that we CAN’T. When we say c-a-n-’t then there is this auto-reaction that pushes us towards, w-a-n-t-i-n-g what we can’t have.

That is, what I think is behind our cravings for ice-cream, buttered popcorn, pizza with extra-extra cheese on top and cheese in the crust. I think it’s behind our buying candy bars to eat when we’re alone – and scarfing them down before anyone sees us. We want food we can’t have. So, I don’t tell myself, “You can’t have it”. I can have anything – and do. I eat Swenson’s ice-cream once per month on average and I really enjoy it. I love ice-cream, but since the “can’t” isn’t in my mind, there’s no need to eat it more than that.

Other times for dinner I’d have a plate of Kanoon (jackfruit). Sometimes I’d eat some dragonfruit. Sometimes I’d have just eat a plate full of whatever my friend made, but without rice. Sometimes I’d have BBQ chicken (gai yang) and some fruit. Sometimes a big fish (bpla Nin) – a grilled Tilapia. If I did eat meat, I always peeled away the fat. I never ate the skin on the chicken, but if the chicken was dry, I ate some skin. It was always – just take some if you want it, kill the craving for it and move on. I didn’t beat myself up over it. If I thought I ate a lot of something that wasn’t low-calorie I would think – I’ll walk a little extra that day.

I started to drink some water with my food instead of waiting until I was finished with the meal before eating. Then before long, a month I think, I was drinking a full glass of water with my meal. I noticed I ate less when I did this – as water takes up a lot of the stomach and is heavy – filling the stomach up more quickly and making me feel like the stomach is quite full with food.

I started to walk every other day no matter what – rain or shine. I’d go walking… and usually after 10 minutes of seeing everyone passing by me that was running – I HAD to be running too. I’d run until I felt tired and walk some. In Thailand one need not run a couple miles continuously to get some respect. Some Thais run… walk… run….walk… If you get too tired, just walk for a while. There’s no shame! Don’t let this stop you from going out in America either! Just by being outside walking you’re a one-percenter. If you’re running you are 1 out of 500 in the general population (my estimates). It’s OK to “just” be a one-percenter. Really!

So I made these simple changes to my diet… and you know what? Over a couple months I lost a bunch of weight. None of my pants fit, I can see veins in my arms, stomach, legs, and forehead. Not that veins are a good thing mind you. But a good thing is that now my stomach is ripped like a school boy gymnast! The killer was seeing myself in the mirror when I smiled and saw my smile had wrinkles!

I got down too low before I even realized what was happening. I remember stepping on a scale after wondering – did I lose weight – because so many people were telling me I had lost a lot. When the scale told me I weighed 156 lbs. I thought, “that scale is broken, let’s try another one”. When the next one showed lower, “152″ lbs., I realized – I lost 32 pounds without hardly trying. Trips to other scales confirmed, 152 lbs.

I felt good.

No, I felt awesome!

Running has never felt better, I am so light and I have so much energy it’s a lot of fun to run.

Now, here’s the thing… My stomach has shrunk to the point where I can’t eat enough to gain back some weight! It’s been a long road trying to gain something (3 months) but I’m finally starting to eat more and I must have gained back 8-10 pounds by now, though I’m afraid to get on the scale because maybe it’s not that much. It is difficult because I really came to like the feeling of not being bloated after I ate. Now, if I don’t feel bloated – I didn’t eat enough to gain something…

The trick once I hit the perfect weight for me – about 162 lbs., is to STAY THERE!

OK, I’m off to grab some of my favorite Haagen Dazs… coffee…. chocolate chip… pistachio!

Anyone with me?

If you have a story to share about some way that you lost weight without hardly trying I’d love to hear it. So many times we hear of these crazy diets that are so extreme, and they work for a while before people go back to their old ways because they can’t assimilate the new way to eat into their regular lifestyle. Or, it’s dangerous to eat on the diet for too long, or it’s meant for short term weight loss only.

I’d love to hear a story if you have one!

Best of Life!

If you lived in Hawaii you could probably swing this same diet by getting your food from Chinatown market and restaurants there.