I’ve been dieting. But now I’m not dieting. I have a “diet”, which is just a list of foods that I keep on hand at my house. More importantly, there is a list of foods that I don’t need to buy and aren’t welcome at my house. The list below summarizes most of my choices.

YES!	OH, HELL NO!
Chicken	Sugars
Grass Fed Beef	Bread
Wild Salmon	Candy
Eggs	Beer
Hard Cheeses	Wine
Spinach	All the booze
Carrots	Tortillas
Waterloo Seltzer Water	Jelly
Almonds, Peanuts	Buns, rolls
Chili	Margarine
Butter	Soda (pop)
Coffee with ½ & ½	Fruit
Low sugar protein drink	Fruit juices
Peanut butter	Dessert
Avocado	Ice cream
Green & Herbal tea	Pasta
Rice (sparingly)	Sauces with sugar
Sugar Free Greek Yogurt	Cereal
EVOO/Avocado oil	Chips & pretzels
So much water	Seed oils

I’ve read about the carnivore diet quite a bit, so I don’t think I quite meet the standard of steak, eggs, and butter only, but I do think I have incorporated many of the principles of carnivore. I went through a phase where I had a dinner salad every day, but have dropped that because it was inefficient, especially out of season for fresh veggies.

The removal of almost all processed food has been a primary key to success. Shopping now is easy, and the label reading really amounts to making sure there aren’t additives in any food with a label, especially all of the many forms of added sugar and engineered sugars. I have a general understanding of the nutritional values and portions sizes of the foods I am choosing, so I don’t have to repeatedly count calories or do the math. I meal prep chicken and beef so that if I am hungry, my snack will be a few ounces of chicken and water. The simplicity of this process has removed almost all “eating due to boredom”.

I have been following @fitfounder (Dan Go on X), who regularly posts reminders in a nicely condensed form. An example:

A simple formula to lose belly fat

Get 8 hours of sleep
Walk 10k steps daily
Drink primarily water
Lift weights 3x a week
Eat single ingredient nutrient dense foods in a caloric deficit

To quantify success, I have a couple weigh-ins a month. Weight loss has averaged about 4.5 pounds per month. As of Feb 10, I am 30 pounds lighter than mid Summer 2023. I am pretty sure I can lose 5-10 more pounds on the same schedule. Then I will re-evaluate next steps for the nicer weather season, with a fresh set of fitness goals to take advantage of being lighter, whether that be cycling or running.

I’ve stopped calling this a diet; it is now just my healthy lifestyle.