My new weight loss program has unfortunately not been progressing as I would have liked, so I have been thinking back what has worked before, and look to duplicate same. In the last few years, I have gotten used to eating the pressed fruit bars (like That’s it, and the Kind pressed fruit, both pictured above), and Neuhaus dark chocolate. Both delicious, and a quick and portable snack, but they all contain sugar — either added for the Neuhaus, or natural in the pressed fruit bars. I have also been eating dried fruit, which concentrates the fruit’s sugar, as compared regular non-dried fruit.

When I was really taking off the pounds, I did not eat such items, and limited my chocolate intake solely to the Lindt 99% bar (also pictured above).  I am concerned that all this sugar intake is throwing off my system, so I am now cutting out these fruit bars, all chocolate besides the Lindt 99% bar, and all dried fruit. We will see in the coming weeks if that helps. It is also important not to eat too late, and unfortunately, I have gotten in a bad habit of having a snack latter in the evening when watching TV. I am working on eliminating those snacks, and eating earlier in the evening.

Lack of sleep, has been identified as a contributor to weight gain, and I have not been sleeping well for years. To address that issue, some people have suggest I take sleep aides, but i refuse to do that, as I have never taken any kind of sleep aides, and believe these drugs are dangerous. I have been noticing that my mattress is too hard, and when I come home from tennis at night, for example, and my legs are sore, sleeping on my bed compounds the soreness. So instead of buying a new mattress, I instead, I just purchased a gel mattress cover which provides a softer surface to sleep on. So far, it seems to be working as I am not getting us as much at night, and waking up later in the morning, which for me is 5:30 am instead of 3:30 am.

I am sharing these tweaks in the hope that readers of this blog may be inspired to make similar small changes in their life that may help them lose weight and feel better. We’ll see how things go a month from now.