Thread by @DoctorTro

THREAD: about making small changes in those who fear drastic changes

I want to talk about advice I gave to a coulleague.

Basically, my colleague is obese and has struggled with weight issues most of her adult life. Her ~12 year old, also obese, has also had struggles.
1/n

In the past have been many attempts to lose weight. Weightwatchers, exercise, low fat, etc. NO results
In the home, the child eats breakfast cereal, pop tarts, granola bars, fruit, fruit juice, oatmeal

Lunch is typical school crap

Dinner is typical

Snack is chips & cookies
2/n

I talked w/my colleague about how & why low carb diets work. She explained that her husband, “has to have juice”, which makes lower or eliminating sugar hard. my colleague said with a toddler, teenager & husband all with different needs she “doesnt know that she could do it”
3/n

So we talked about simple changes. I’ll let you know what they were and the results

4/n

Change #1 BREAKFAST

REMOVE all cereals, oatmeal, bread, fruit, granola bars, pop tarts

REPLACE eggs, ham, bacon, cheese for breakfast. Omelets in days she can cook, hard boiled otherwise.
Low gi berries are fine
Almond flour pancakes or waffles

5/n

Change #2 - SNACKS

This was an issue b/c she felt the children needed options to make it work, so this is what we did

REMOVE all current snacks

REPLACE with quest protein bars, quest protein chips, all variety of nuts: peanuts,macadamia, almonds, pecans, cashews, walnuts
6/n

Change #3 - NO JUICE, NO SODA

Spent a lot of time talking about the fact that nobody in that house needs juice or soda. Given that there are several people struggling with obesity should be removed.

REPLACE with water, unsweetened ice tea, flavored seltzer

7/n

Change #4 - DINNER

No more pizza, unless it’s FATHEAD or Cauliflower crust.

Otherwise dinner should be meat and vegetables

8/n

This is not exactly the typical recommendations I give, but it really has worked for this family. Each of them have lost 10 pounds in two months time and they haven’t restricted the amount they are eating in any way.

9/n

Its difficult to get across over twitter that this family was disenfranchised, & demoralized from failure after failure. They didnt think even slight changes could work. by maintaining convenience & palatability, theyre eating healthy, losing weight & enjoying what they eat
10/10