I agree that often eating can be an emotional issue for some people. For me if there is an emotional issue it could possibly arise from boredom or perhaps boredom in the past and now it’s just an engrained habit.

To tell you the truth, I think that I just like the taste of yummy food and according to my taste buds most yummy food happens to be bad for me.

I do quite a bit of weight training and find that works best for me. Running on a treadmill just gets really boring, but being able lift for short periods tends to keep my attention and give better physical results. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’re able to burn from it. Likewise if you’re lifting you can concentrate more on a protein based diet and cut out a lot carbs. How people look is typically 70-80% diet.

If you’re eating a lot of rice try to make sure it’s pure brown rice and not enriched. Any carbs you eat make sure on the labeling it says 100% whole grain.

From that angle I just write in a notebook what I eat in a day so that I claim responsibility for what I’m doing. I’m not a fan of looking at my notebook when it says – “Ate four donuts for breakfast.”

Hopefully that helps a bit – I apologize if I’m preaching to the choir.

I also use bodyspace, which is part of the bodybuilding.com site which allows you to track your goals and find inspiration through others.

Either way, best of luck and I look forward to seeing your progress.

Ryan @ Plantingdollars.com
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I have to eat at home more and cook more Western style dishes.

Perhaps in your case it was your eating habits.

Anyhow I’m reading this and I’m thinking OMG Gordie why are you so hard on yourself.

Personally I see nothing wrong with you.

Don’t get me wrong- I’m not discouraging you from wanting to loose weight. I think it’s great that you want to.
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I’ve heard a lot about Spirilina. Found any decent and genuine brands in China? I also take one multi-vitamin tablet per day. I use Centrum.

A vegan doesn’t eat/ wear any product pertaining to a part of an animal, some extremists don’t even eat honey. And quite frankly I love chocolate way too much to not eat dairy!

I don’t actually need to take supplements because I’ve educated myself in a balanced diet, that said, living in China, and travelling in general, has limited this ability somewhat so to cover my bases I take a multi-vitamin and also spiralina, which I can’t recommend more highly!

Since you love your meat stick with it and introduce leaner ways to cook the foods. Loads of seafood and look for ways to reduce the amount of processing your food receives; less processing equals more nutrients.

Kickass mate. You’ve got the guns pointed in the right direction!

I do love meat and I don’t like vegetables very much, but I still eat them.

I think you’re right about limiting the size of portions and eating slowly.

I think it’s great that you can feel energetic on a vegan diet. Ultimately, once I get to a maintenance weight stage, I’d like to cut my meat to once a day.

Do you supplement with Vitamin B12?

Two things I think may help:
1. I read somewhere that the size of our stomach empty is the size of our fist, whether this is true or not I don’t care, the advice suggested to never eat more than your fist-size in any one meal. In doing this you’ll get that first tingling of feeling full. STOP EATING! Wait 20minutes. If you’re still hungry, eat a quarter the size of your fist. STOP EATING! Have patience with the eating experience by making sure the mouthful is completely gone before shoveling in the next round.
2. How much do you love meat? How much meat do you eat per day? Can you limit the intake to once/ twice a week? I am not advocating you become a vego- even though I am one- but I am suggesting it to be an underlying cause of obesity because it forms poor food choices. I stopped eating meat at the age of 14 because I was a tubby tucker and loved my KFC, when I took meat out of the equation I dropped a lot of weight but in the last 14yrs what I’ve noticed is that I have maintained the same weight with relatively no exercise or dietary control. Being vego automatically means I look for the healthy choice options. If I actually swim (totally agree this is great for you- the weightless is amazing in the water!) regularly I tone up heaps and feel a million bucks. I know this is hard to do with Chinese diets but do try to cook more stirfries at home and when eating out try to go for choices not laden with oil or deep frying.

I was gunna say good luck, but you don’t need it, you have our support!

I think exercise does have its place, albeit using walking and cycling more as your form of getting around.

Interesting about the dairy. I think I eat too much cheese.