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Well, here I am one-and-a-half weeks into my new diet plan. I celebrated a six-pound loss when I did my weekly weigh in a couple of days ago, which has given me such a great boost in motivation to keep going. Last night I was feeling inspired and started writing about the weight loss tips I think everyone can really use. These weight loss tips are what help me and I know they can help anyone else trying to lose weight too. Deciding to lose weight can be exciting at first. You envision what you think your outcome will be, and you can’t wait to get started. That’s what gets most of us through the beginning of a diet plan; but then reality sets in. Unfortunately, watching what you eat isn’t always an easy thing to do, and neither is starting an exercise routine. Not only that, but many diets leave people feeling hungry and irritable. Instead of waiting for that to kick in, or to salvage an effort you’ve already started, it is important to have some good weight loss tips to get you through when you feel as if you are going to give up.  "Stinkin' Fat Gene" One of the best weight loss tips is to set a date for when you are going to start your diet. Though losing weight is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions, this is probably one of the worst times to start. The reason is because once someone experiences a fallback on their diet, it’s easy to simply give up and assume that the entire diet is blown and that you can wait until the next January 1st to try again. This means a lot of lost time and a feeling of total defeat. The same can be said for the decision to start your plan “next Monday”. If you are set on a diet, start it that day or the very next morning, don’t wait. The reason for this is very simple. If you decide on Tuesday that you are going to start a diet the next Monday, you are going to load up on the foods you think you are going to miss the most, and you could overeat in anticipation of not having them for a while. That means you could add five pounds to your weight before you even begin. Furthermore, you need to strike while the iron is hot. You have to begin your diet when you are most motivated and enthusiastic about it. One of the weight loss tips that you should never ignore is the one that suggests you should have support in your endeavor. That does not mean you have to go to meetings, but you can if you think that would help. Make sure your friends and family know what you are doing. If it means keeping your trigger foods out of the house, so be it. You can also go online to find diet support groups that give you a boost when you need it, and these can also help answer any questions you may have along the way. Beyond those tips, there are some smaller weight loss tips that can actually make a huge difference. One would be to drink a lot of water. Many times, we feel hungry and want to eat when in fact we are dehydrated – water takes care of that. Another would be to have healthy snacks in the house or with you when you go out. That lowers the chances of eating the wrong thing when hunger strikes. Perhaps the most important of all weight loss tips is to never give up. If you eat the wrong thing, pick yourself up and keep going. I was relaxing after a long day yesterday with my husband. Both with our feet up, I was telling him about my aches and pains from working out over the past two days and how I curse my co-workers when they bring donuts to work… the usual stuff these days. As I was relaying the events of my day, he quietly nodded at the appropriate moments while polishing off a bowl of popcorn (not the light stuff either). I love my husband to death, but at that moment I had a shiver of resentment run down my spine. Why is it that he never seems to worry about his weight? I mean, he’s overweight too, so why do I struggle and think about losing weight all the time and he doesn’t think about it at all?
 This is a funny cartoon I had saved some time ago. I'm sorry that I don't remember the source otherwise I would post that info. I think it is safe to say that body image and corresponding weight loss efforts are very different between men and women. I’m sure there are people who are exceptions to this generalization, but for the most part I think men have a different view of their body image compared to women and their lack of interest in weight loss corresponds to this. So, what is perpetuating the differences between body images of men and women? Media? Society? Culture? A difference in our psychology? Whatever it may be, there is strong evidence all around us that there are different standards for “acceptable” body weight between men and women. And then there is the whole issue of weight loss and body image. How many weight loss advertisements have you seen that only have a woman in it? Almost all of them, right? And it makes sense because there is a much larger percentage of women trying to lose weight. Body image aside, there are a lot of good reasons to lose weight other than just looking better. Pay attention here guys. If you are overweight, losing weight can help to reduce your risk of developing dangerous health problems such as diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and heart disease. So even though the male ego may not warrant weight loss, living a long, healthy life should. Drum Roll Please….
My current weight is 231 lbs It’s official, after one week of sticking with my diet plan, working out 5 times and not cheating once I have lost a grand total of 6 lbs. Woo Hoo! I’m very happy with this result. I’ve lost about that in one week before, but it’s still really great. I find that I lose the most weight in the first week. Week two is always tougher to get through and I don’t lose as much. Dieting is always hardest when you don’t see big results and your motivation starts to dwindle. I’m really going to try to stay on track this time. I have to right? If I don’t everyone here will know. I can’t let that happen. This train of thought brings about an important part of weight loss that is easily overlooked – accountability. It is so easy to place blame on other people and circumstances when our weight loss efforts start to head south. The truth is though, that it is up to us, the ones trying to lose weight, to keep going through thick and thin and it is no ones fault but our own if our diet fails. Of course, the silver lining is that it is no ones doing but our own when we succeed and that experience can be very gratifying. Woo Hoo, it’s the weekend! I am always so grateful for these blessed mornings when I don’t have to jump out of bed before the sun rises.
 Of course there's always an exception, such as this perfect sunrise I took a picture of from my palapa at a stunning place we rented in Mexico just outside of Puerto Vallarta last year. This place, Villa Estrella, is a hidden jewel and is by far the nicest place I have ever visited. Click on the image to go to Villa Estrella's website. For breakfast this morning I had half a grapefruit and a small bowl of Cheerios with skim milk. Whenever I’m dieting I always keep a good supply of grapefruit around. Not only do I love to eat grapefruit (just plain, no sugar), but this tasty citrus has also been found to help with weight loss. There have been a number of published studies regarding grapefruit and weight loss. The most famous of these studies was published by Dr. Fujioka, principal researcher at the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic. In his twelve-week study with 100 men, he found that participants who ate half a grapefruit with each meal lost an average of 3.6 pounds and participants who drank a serving of grapefruit juice three times a day lost an average of 3.3 pounds. So why does eating grapefruit and weight loss go hand-in-hand? To begin with, grapefruit is a high fiber food. When you eat foods high in fiber they make you feel full faster and longer. For this reason, eating a half or whole grapefruit with a meal can help to suppress your appetite and curb your hunger. Secondly, grapefruit has a low glycemic load. What this means is that the carbohydrates in grapefruit have a low impact on blood sugar levels. By keeping blood sugar levels more constant, eating grapefruit results in better appetite control and a smaller spike in insulin, which helps the body to more efficiently process food for use as energy and less is stored as body fat. If you’re not crazy about grapefruits, then oranges are the next best thing. Both of these citrus fruits are high in vitamins and minerals that improve your health and they can help you to lose weight too. You can’t go wrong with adding these fruits to your diet. I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday because I was busy with meetings from the wee hours in the morning. I haven’t given up…don’t worry, I’m still here plodding along towards a thinner me.
Last evening as I relaxed and thought about my weight loss progress I had a breakthrough I must share. I was thinking about what to prepare for lunch the next day and I found myself dreading the mid-day salad, which is a staple in my diet. Now, usually I would force myself to keep eating those salads. I would eat them until I just can’t stomach salad anymore and then I would start cheating on my diet. The pattern was so obvious I can’t believe I never realized it before. Recognizing the pattern that diet boredom leads to diet failure is critical for me. It emphasises the importance of keeping your diet interesting so that you don’t lose interest in eating healthy. There are so many great low-calorie, low-carbohydrate meals out there that limiting yourself to just a few foods or meals is a recipe for disaster, at least it is for me. Feeling impressed that I could be so in tune with myself, I then explored the question – If I don’t eat a salad at lunch, what is the alternative. Here are a few healthy lunch options I came up with:
I tell ya, I’m feeling much better about my diet plan now, knowing that I don’t have to torture myself with eating a huge salad at lunch every day. Next week I’ll plan to try some or all of these easy lunches. Here’s to beating the mundane and staying on track!! By the way, I would love some new ideas for healthy lunches if anyone has some they would like to share. Well, I’m half way through day three of my new weight loss plan and so far it’s been going quite well. I’m writing this post as I munch on my large salad that I find I can barely get through in one meal.
My salads for lunch consist of the following basics: 4 cups of mixed salad greens To keep it interesting I will also usually add either half a can of tuna, a chopped hard-boiled egg, grapefruit wedges, or a few other vegetables. Mmmm, good. Here’s a picture of todays salad. Mixed greens with apple slices topped with chopped, toasted almonds, all dressed with a honey and balsamic vinaigrette… DELICIOUS!
I was chatting with one of my co-workers around the water cooler this morning and I was telling her about how I’m on a diet. She’s a bit of a skinny minny… one of those people who is always thin and doesn’t seem to gain a pound (mind you I’ve never seen her eat anything either). Anyway, she said to me, “Oh, I just hate diets because you can’t eat anything and your always so hungry.” I agreed with her, probably just to shorten the conversation, but when I got back to my desk I regretted not correcting her. The assumption that dieting means being hungry all the time is a common one, but I have found from my own experiences that this isn’t necessarily true. The way I see dieting is that I have to reduce the number of calories I eat each day, but this doesn’t mean I have to eat less and in some cases I will actually eat more. Take for instance my salad, which I am starting to struggle finishing because I’m getting full. On average my salad at lunch contains between 400 and 500 calories. This is equivalent to a McDonalds cheeseburger, a couple slices of pizza, or a KFC chicken breast (all things I shamefully admit to eating during my last “diet”). But I tell you, none of these meals would fill me up. I’d be starving before I was even finished eating. But this salad, my god, it’s never ending. The basic diet concept of all this is called Volumetrics. This just goes to show that dieting doesn’t mean you have to go hungry, just make smarter food choices. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, I want to start off by letting everyone know that I made it through the first day of my diet yesterday and I DIDN’T CHEAT ONCE! I stuck to my meal plan for the day and went to the gym for an hour – did a brisk walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes and did some light weights for 15 minutes.
This morning I got up the courage to do my first Weigh In (I’ve decided to weigh myself once a week). Now it’s time for the truth… the moment I’ve been dreading… how far have I really let myself slide… 237 lbs
Gaaaa! I can’t help feeling pretty embarassed about my weight right now. But posting it here in the blog feels a little therapeutic somehow. OK, time to move on and stay focused. Today has been another good day. Had a breakfast of grapefruit and a small bowl of oatmeal. Lunch is a salad with tuna fish sprinkled in it for protein. Then it’s back to the gym after work. I can do this, I need to do this! Well, I didn’t really see it coming… the day I abandoned my diet and went completely into turtle mode about my weight, but the day came about two months ago and I have been struggling to get back on the wagon ever since. I keep trying to go right back into the routine of dieting and exercising, but I just keep failing. I was at a loss about how to break this pattern, but I had to do something so last night I decided the best thing I can do is MAKE A PLAN FOR WEIGHT LOSS!!!
Last night I sat down and wrote out exactly what I had to do. This included my low-cal, high fruit and vegetable meal plan for the next two weeks and a detailed grocery list of exactly what I need to buy. The second thing I wrote out was a time table of my daily schedule that included one hour of exercise five days a week. I made two copies of this schedule – one for me and one to post on the refrigerator so that my family knows what I have to do and can support me in that. The third, and probably most important phase of making my weight loss plan was setting a weight loss goal for myself, which is 30 pounds in three months, and then visualizing how I will look and feel at the end of three months. I wrote down all the things that I visualized:
Today when I woke up I took a number of minutes visualizing myself 30 pounds thinner and experiencing all the benefits on my list. I feel so inspired. So far I’m off on the right foot. A light breakfast at home and a healthy lunch is packed for work. I will go to the gym after work for an hour. This is my plan for weight loss – a new part of my life starts today. Over this past Christmas vacation I spent a number of hours surfing the web looking for new weight loss products in the hope of finding something that I could order to kick start my new year’s resolution to lose more weight. Needless to say there are so many weight loss products out there now. There seems to be a pill or dietary supplement that can treat any type of physical ailment and weight loss is one of the biggest markets.
While searching through all the new fad weight loss products I stumbled upon two products that I felt deserved an honorary mention in my blog. By no means do I promote these products, in fact quite the opposite. I don’t think either one will help you lose weight, but you will burn calories laughing at the advertising for these crazy weight loss products. Kenko Diet Plum I don’t even remember how I stumbled across Kenko Diet Plum, but here it is at the top of my new weight loss products to avoid list. From the official website the advertising reads, “Constipation cause big tummy and over weight”. The whole premise behind Kenko Diet Plums is that they will help you to become regular and by doing that you will lose all the weight in feces that your body has inside. My goodness, I don’t need to tell you how ridiculous this is. Weight loss is about losing fat not feces, but who knows…if you’re really backed up you may lose a few pounds right away. What are Kenko Diet Plums? They are just dried golden plums aren’t they? Well, when I read the official ingredients list I was amazed. According to the official website, Kenko Diet Plums also contain Ashitaba, Garcinia Cambogia and a few other ingredients. What on earth! How did these other ingredients, that are not related to the golden plum at all, find their way into these plums? Weird science, or perhaps a strange genetic cross, who knows. My guess would be that these other ingredients aren’t present at all in Kenko Diet Plums, but are listed as just a marketing ploy to get some poor sucker to buy. The bottom line is that the company doing the advertising for Kenko Diet Plum is full of sh*t, just like they want you to believe you are and at $58US for a box of 30 Kenko Diet Plums that will last you about one week you’d be way better off buying yourself a bottle of Metamucil. Anyway, the website is a funny read and can be found here kenkodietplums.com Power Pops For all of us with a sweet tooth, now we can suck our fat away quite literally. Power pops, a new fad weight loss product that has been featured on Extra TV are weight loss suckers that are advertised to help suppress your appetite and give you a boost of energy. The official website states that Power Pops contain Hoodia, Citrimax, L-Tyrosine, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and Guarana. These are quite common herbal diet pill ingredients and none of them are really all that effective for weight loss. Unfortunately, there is not any information provided that tells us how much of these ingredients are contained in each Power Pop. Without this information it is impossible to say whether Power Pops contain enough of each ingredient to be effective weight loss products. Power Pops can be purchased online from a number of sites. The average price for one bag that contains 30 pops is about $27US, which will give you a 10-day supply. At just under $3 a day, this new weight loss product will lighten your wallet, but not your gut. |
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