by Mary Rose-Sellers

Created on: December 18, 2009   Last Updated: November 06, 2010

It is very hard to lose weight without exercising.  Especially if you are over 40 years old.  As we age, our metabolism slows down, thus slowing down the burning process of calories taken in.  In order to lose weight without exercising one has to monitor every little morsel that he/she puts into her mouth.  It’s not as easy to lose weight as we age as it was when we were in ourr 20’s. 

From my experiences with weight loss and yo-yo diets, I came to realize that in order to lose weight you have to skip a meal.  Growing up in Greece on a Mediterranean diet, it is very easy to go back to your eating roots.  However, living in the States and not finding foods that are as fresh as in Greece, can become a difficult task and very disappointing at times, when it comes to losing weight. 

Over the years, I went back to Greece and noticed that every time I came back I’d be a few pounds thinner.  I didn’t exercise there.  But the Greeks have established a two meal a day plan.  They would eat a very late, but also light, breakfast around 11:00am, and have an early supper around 4:00 or 5:00pm.  Their meals would consist of fresh vegetables with very little meat, if not at all, and fresh fruit.  The fresh bread was abundant but that also helped, thus filling you up and not eating any more than you are supposed to.  At night, if they felt hungry, they would either munch on some fruit, plain yogurt, or a slice of bread with some feta cheese.  While I was there and had this type of diet I would lose a pound a week and I didn’t have to kill myself exercising.  There is a lot to be said about going to bed on an empty stomach and getting up hungry. 

Living in the States though, makes it a bit more difficult.  We don’t have the luxury of doing our grocery shopping every day to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.  We end up eating meat every day, if not twice a day, which contributes to weight gain.  And to top it all off, we kill ourselves exercising, which makes us hungrier, thus eating more than we burn.  Recent studies show that the more we exercise the hungrier we become.  We are burning more calories, thus our bodies need more fuel.  And the more we eat, the more we exercise, and then we eat again, thus end up gaining weight instead of losing.  It’s a vicious circle. 

Nevertheless, to get back to the subject

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