"Mark’s comments are pretty much spot on—eliminate all processed/fried foods—this is your biggest enemy. If it’s possible—particularly from a time perspective—make your meals at home from scratch with the best ingredients you can muster. These will be the biggest initial hurdles.
Mark’s claims about carbohydrates are accurate. Despite what “experts” claim and the claims of carbo-heavy FDA food pyramid—carbs are what will kill you weight-wise as it catalyzes into sugar and eventually leaves you hungry. One aspect Mark doesn’t discuss is eating proper proteins. You need fat to satisfy your hunger—otherwise it will be more challenging to lose weight sustainably. If you are eating high-quality meats, fishes, and poultry this should fulfil your hunger, and prevent you from snacking between meals. Even consuming low-fat yogurt, drinking skim milk, eating no butter—has the opposite effect in my opinion. You’ll be hungry in a few hours time.
If you are eating the proper proteins and fats, it should keep you from being delirious by 3pm. A diet of denial is difficult to sustain. Eating smartly is. And you should be able to keep the weight off sustainably with this type of balanced approach.
I do disagree strongly on his claim for potatoes. Potatoes –buy quality if you can (i.e organic)-- have Vitamin C and B complex, as well as potassium, calcium, and iron. The skin is full of fiber as well, and the potato itself has chloragenic acid which some believe has anti-cancer properties. It is true, in some people like diabetics, potatoes induce blood-sugar levels to rise, but the pros outweigh the cons IMO and you better served to forgo white rice, white bread, etc.
My best to you and your family for 2012—the Year of the Dragon. Tell anyone who is coming to Singapore to look me up.
Last thought on the diet discussion: exercise is important but it's secondary in importance to a proper diet, A proper diet will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you."
