2009 Resolutions

So I’m flipping through my notebook and I found my 2007 New Year’s Resolutions. They are as follows:

1. Get Certification
2. Join Weight Watchers, Lose 20lbs
3. No Candy or Soda except for Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas and New Years Eve
4. Retake Swimming Lessons
5. Take up Cycling

I’ve only been able to manage #2 – No Candy/Soda.

I’m flipping through the same notebook and I can not find my 2008 New Year’s Resolutions. Probably because I never stuck to any of them except for the candy/soda thing. I think I had something about not buying any alcohol. No eating at restaurants that had a drive-thru window. Lose weight, Blah, Blah, Blah. I don’t know where I posted that stuff. It’s a moot point because I know I didn’t stick to any of it.

So like everyone else, now I’m trying to come up with 2009 New Year’s Resolutions.

Here are the obvious ones.
1 – No Candy, Soda or Fruit snacks except on the following days: Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas and New Years Eve.
I call these dates my Candy Binge Days. I added fruit snacks this year because I like eating fruit snacks and let’s face it – fruit snacks are candy. I want to add stuff like no cookies, donuts or cakes. But I’ve tried that just for Lent and I end up finding some substitute like Apple Jacks Cereal or Graham Crackers w/ Honey and Whip Cream. Plus I love the 100 calorie cookie packs. If only I can limit myself to one a day that would be great.

2 – Lose 20lbs.
It’s like a yearly tradition. One year I’ll actually figure out how to accomplish this. I’m content in the fact that I haven’t really gained a lot of weight, but losing it seems to be the real challenge.

3 – Take up cycling.
I think this is the right step towards doing a triathlon; buy a bike and get into cycling. I started bike shopping this year. I’m hoping to actually get a bike for my birthday (February) and start cycling by the spring.

Now for the new stuff that I think I can manage.
4 – Limit alcohol purchase to 2 bottles a month.
You should know that I am a big fan of wine. I like sampling different wines. But I’ve been known to finish off a bottle on my own within 2-3 days. So that’s like 4-5 bottles of wine a month and that can get kind of expensive. I’m in the process of stocking up before the first, but after that I’m limiting myself to 2 bottles a month.

5- Take a real vacation.
This year all of my trips were really short ones (usually the over the weekend) that had something to do with a running a marathon or visiting family. I really want to take another cruise or go away to some place nice for a week and not have to run a marathon or visit family.

Now for the hard ones…
6 – Eat 2-3 servings of fruits and veggies each day.
This is tough because I may not have 2-3 servings of fruits or veggies available for consumption. This is a new thing that will require more planning on my part. I’m not a fan of grocery shopping and fruits and vegetables don’t last long.

No Personal Growth
As you can see, ALL of my resolutions are related to either a diet, health or fitness goal. You look at other people’s blogs and they’ll have things like… “read the bible”, “be a better mother, wife, sister, girlfriend, etc.”, “spend more time with friends and family”, “stick to a budget”, “get promoted at work”, “reduce carbon footprint”, “learn French, the guitar and non-linear mathematics”.

Resolutions like these are all about personal growth. I guess I have no ambition to grow personally, spiritually or environmentally until I’ve achieved my outstanding physical health goals. That alone is plenty to work on in one year. I’d love to add more resolutions, but if this year is any indication of what can happen in life, I don’t want to overcommit my time to several accomplishments instead of focusing on a specific few.

Week 1 – Not Bad, Not Good

Last week was my first official week on the 3-Hour Diet. I really like eating on a schedule. My schedule, in case you’re wondering, is as follows:

5:30am – Snack (before my workout)
8:30am – Breakfast
11:30am – Snack
2:30pm – Lunch
5:30pm – Snack
8:30pm – Dinner

I managed to stick to this schedule for the most part. I never felt hungry and I didn’t overeat. Unfortunately, my eating schedule went south when my mom checked into the hospital Wednesday night with a terrible virus and severe dehydration. I ended up staying with her for the entire weekend. I’m not a fan of hospital food and I found myself eating off schedule and eating take-out food which usually doesn’t focus on whole grains, lean protein and fresh vegetables. Even worse I didn’t get any exercise since Wednesday. As a person who is use to daily exercise, sitting around eating (even if I did stay on track) will not help with my overall weight loss. In the end I didn’t gain any weight and I didn’t lose any. I’m still at my top weight of 173lbs.

I’m hoping to get back on track this week now that my mom is doing better. (Side note: Emergency Rooms are the worst place on earth. Completely understaffed and unconcerned. If me and my sister-in-law weren’t there, I doubt if anyone would have attended to my mom.) Today I got off to a good start by attending Boot Camp, but I got caught up in some stuff at work and missed my 11:30 snack. Instead of a snack I ended up having soup and croûtons at 12:30 along with a slice of apple cake the someone brought in. After that, the rest of my day was messed up. I wasn’t hungry at 2:30, my scheduled lunch time. I munched on chips and pretzels twice between 1:30 and 4:30 which is when I finally ate the salad I brought for lunch. So, I wasn’t hungry again at my 5:30 snack time. I’m going to skip my snack this evening and just have dinner at 8:30.

Tomorrow is our office holiday party at 11:30. I know I’m going to over eat, but if I get in a decent run in the morning it won’t be a problem.

I Cooked!!!

I love the 3-Hour Diet Cookbook. In 3 days I’ve already prepared three of the recipes in the book. My favorite so far is this Tortilla Pizza. But I changed it to a Broccoli Pizza.  The recipe is really easy.

Ingredients:

10-inch Whole Wheat Tortilla
Olive Oil
Broccoli
Broccoli Slaw
Shredded Carrots
Diced Onions
Shredded Parmesan
Pizza or Spaghetti Sauce
Basil and Oregano Seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place tortilla on foil and bake directly on oven rack.
2. Bake until slightly crisp. 5-6 minutes.
3. Coat saute pan with olive oil.
4. Saute Broccoli, Broccoli Slaw, Shredded Carrots and Diced Onions until tender. Use as much as you’d like to add for your topping.
5. Transfer foil with tortilla to a baking sheet.
6. Spread pizza sauce evenly on tortilla.
7. Sprinkle a little shredded Parmesan cheese over sauce.
8. Spread sauteed veggies over cheese.
9. Sprinkle a little more Parmesan cheese on top of veggies.
10. Sprinkle basil and oregano seasoning on top.
11. Bake at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted.

Bon Appetite

The 3-Hour Diet

Why Fat People Don’t Cook
OK. I’ve already change my mind about the Eat-Clean Diet. I was all for it until a co-worker loaned me a copy of the Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook. The problem I have with many diets and their meal plans are that they assume overweight folks like myself like to cook. I’m not a big fan of cooking. I don’t have fancy kitchen stuff like a food processor or a slow cooker. I also don’t want to buy fancy ingredients that I end up using once. I don’t want to come home after the gym around 8:00pm and spend 30 minutes in the kitchen cooking dinner and another 30 minutes cleaning up afterwards. I’m also not good at planning meals and going to the grocery store. Bottom Line — I’m lazy and I don’t have the time.

The Year of Failed Attempts
If I had the time and patience for cooking, I probably would have lost weight a long time ago. That was my down fall with Weight Watchers. I did great at first. The program taught me how to read labels, control my portions and eat healthier. But after the first 30lbs I plateaued and became frustrated with always having to think about food and go to meetings where all they do is talk about food. Which is why I liked the Core Plan, but it restricted even the healthiest whole grain breads and absolutely no sweets. Then I found the Abs Diet, which enlightened me about the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Partially Hydrogenated Oils. It also introduced me to the fruit smoothie. But unfortunately I didn’t really see any changes, mainly because I never committed to any type of meal plan. Then there is the Fat 2 Fit Radio Show. An informative little podcast full of diet and health information. Their motto is “Eat like the thin person that you want to become.” Not really sure how to do that. I see thin people eating fattening food all the time. Then I tried the Daily Plate where I’m suppose to enter all foods I eat and track my exercise. It was fun at first but I stuck with it for a few months and never saw a consistent change in my weight no matter how many calories I logged into The Plate. Plus it gets hard trying to uncover the amount of calories in everything you eat and it’s not an exact science.

What Next?
I am lucky that I’m not a yo-yo dieter. If it wasn’t for all the exercise and my generally good eating habits, I probably would be over 200 pounds again. So now what? I’m glad you asked.

The 3-hour Diet
I found yet another cookbook at the library last night. It’s called the 3-hour Diet cookbook. It caught my attention because all the recipes were quick and easy. They didn’t require a lot of ingredients or a lot of fancy cooking skills. The recipes incorporate a lot of pre-packaged foods like cooked chicken, frozen veggie burgers, microwave vegetables, store bought dressing and sauces. There are a lot of recipes for pizzas made using whole wheat tortilla as a crust. And whole grain bread and low cal sweets are not restricted! Everything in the book looks so good and tasty. But what struck me as odd is that none of the recipes had any nutritional info. No listing of calories, fat, carbs, fiber, etc. This guy’s philosophy is that in order to lose weight we should eat every 3 hours by eating healthy foods and snacks in moderate servings. Oh and drink lots of water. Ok, this diet isn’t revolutionary. I’ve seen this before in many other diets.  But I’m going to try this one because the foods he’s suggesting are easy to prepare and there’s are a lot of recipes that I want to try. Also if I combine what I’ve learned from the Abs Diet and Weight Watchers, I can tweak his recipes to make them even healthier. I’ve already made the Penne Pasta w/ Chicken and Mixed Veggies. It was OK. But I need to use better veggies next time.

I’m going to try one of the pizzas tonight before hockey. Hopefully, I can get through a few weeks on this 3-hour diet plan before the end of the year.

Eat Clean

Ok. The 10 Commandments worked for a while. I excelled at things like avoiding fast food and no Starbucks except on days when I workout 1 hour or more. But I’ve failed miserably at things like keeping a food diary, no alcohol and limiting snacks. So, I’m still at the same weight that I was a over month ago. The scale has gone up and it’s gone down, but I’ve managed to maintain my weight around 173lbs. Which sucks because I’ve been maintaining all year. I really want to lose weight, but I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Working out is not the problem. I workout at least 3 times a week. I’ve trained and completed two marathons this year. I attend Boot Camp twice a week. I mentor runners in my running club on Saturday morning. I occasionally play floor hockey. I do yoga. But I also eat a lot. That’s my biggest problem.

I really need to commit to the following:

- Stop eating high calories foods/snacks late in the evening.
- Stop drinking wine every evening.
- Stop snacking on free food during the day.
- Stop being lazy in the morning.
- Stop adding artificial sweetener to everything.
- Drink more water.

I was PMSing yesterday which made me think about my father passing away, my mom’s Alzheimer’s, her increasing bills and decreasing bank account, her vacant house that needs to be sold and my tight clothes. The only thing on that list that I can control is the tight clothes. So, I went to the library last night to check out some diet books. I disregarded ones that were way too scientific. I also avoided checking out any books that wanted me to completely eliminate sugar. (I’m willing to cut back, but I’m not ready to eliminate it all together.) I passed on books that emphasized exercised. Lack of exercise is not my problem.

I ended up with two books. The first is the Eat Clean Diet. It’s probably just the general public version of the Weight Watcher’s Core diet plan. Emphasizing fruits, vegetables, lean protein, etc. I haven’t finished reading it, but so far it does not seem that restrictive. My only turn off so far is that she encourages eating egg whites only because the yolks have too much fat. I paid for the yolks so I’m going to eat them, but I’ll limit my self to one egg per day.

I’ll finish the book hopefully by this weekend and formulate a plan for next week.

The second book is the Perfect Body Diet. I haven’t really got into this one yet. But it looks like the typical diet book complete with daily eating plan and exercise guide. It’s published by Women’s Health and they have a very common sense approach to nutrition and weight loss.

My homework for this week is to finish the book(s) and get my act together before New Years.

The 10 Commandments

So it’s been a few months since I’ve updated this blog and the scale has been going all over the place. I’m never on a consistent downward path and I’m never on a consistent upward path. But for the most part I’ve managed to fluctuate between the same 3-4lbs range. Well, this past week for what ever reason I’ve gone outside of that range and I can’t accept it. My pants are feeling tighter, my thighs are touching and I’m not happy about this. I really don’t want to be one of those people that lost a ton of weight just to gain it all back and then some.

So, like I promised. If I didn’t start seeing a positive trend then I vowed to do something drastic. OK, I’m not going the vegetarian route, but I am going to implement stricter goals. For the next few weeks until November 16th (the day after the Richmond Marathon) which is approximately one month away, I am going to do my best to stick to the following 10 rules. So here they are.

1. Limit snacks. In the evening, I tend to eat more than my share of deserts after dinner. Unfortunately, I cannot survive without snacks. That would be considered deprivation. So, I picked my top 5 low cal treats and will limit myself to no more than 2 per day + 1 Sugar Free item optional.

- Trader Joe’s 100 Cal Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Trader Joe’s Fruit Bars
- 100 Cal Hostess Cup Cakes
- Sugar Free Applesauce (Optional)
- Sugar Free Pudding Cup (Optional)

2. No Alcohol. I don’t know when I became a fan of wine w/ dinner, but I usually drink more than the respectable 6-8 ounces. And the calories are starting to add up.

3. No eating after 10pm. I’m usually good at this one, but when I eat after 10pm it’s usually never because I’m hungry.

4. Two servings of fruit/veggies each day. I’m also trying to force more healthy foods into my diet. I think this is a feasible start.

5. No Starbucks except on days when I workout 1 hour or more. I just came up with this one while trying to think of my other bad eating habits.

6. Avoid fast foods. This means I cannot eat at any establishment that has a drive-thru window. If I do, I can only order from the salad menu. Not sure why in the last few weeks I’ve been pulling up to these high fat windows, but I’m putting a stop to it right now.

7. No added cheese. While I’m at it, if cheese is an option on anything I order when I eat out then I’m going to leave it off.

8. Limit Carbs to whole grain or high fiber. I haven’t really figured out what this means. But I’m going to avoid things like chips and crackers which I think I covered under #1, but I just want to reinforce it here.

9. Keep a food diary. This will probably be the toughest goal. I like the Daily Plate, but I can enter calories until the cows come home and not lose a pound. I usually end up going over, anyway. Stressing over calories and what to eat, makes me want to eat more. This food diary concept will not involve counting calories. I’m going to start with just documenting what I’m eating and make notes on my good days and bad days.

10. Workout 5 times a week. To qualify, a workout must last for at least 1 hour. This isn’t hard for me since I like working out. But with the winter coming, it won’t be easy. We’ll see what happens.

That’s it for now. I have established a radical new set of goals, which I’ll refer to as the Ten Commandments. My intention is to follow these rules until November 16th at which time I will party like a rock start. My only other cheat day will be October 31st, Candy Binge Day. I only allow myself to eat candy on 3 preselected days each year and Halloween is of those days.

Unofficial start weight: 174.4lbs

This is what I weighed on Monday. I will report back after the 16th to let you know how everything went.

Wish me luck.

Seriously?

Hello Everyone. It’s time for my weekly update.

This Weekend (6/21-6/22)

Pros: Ran 10 miles, Did not Pig out at the Wedding
Cons: Did not track Calories, Did not Pig out at the Wedding

OK. This weekend went pretty well. I got up on Saturday morning and ran 10 miles with ARRC. It was a nice run from Rosslyn, across the river through G’Town, past the Kennedy Center, along the Mall, around the back of the Capitol and back to Rosslyn via the Memorial Bridge and Iwo Jima Memorial. The great thing about runs like these is that I get to see all the monuments that I, being born and raised in Washington, never visit. Afterwards boyfriend and I drove to a little town in Maryland called Chestertown for a friends wedding. Since I failed to eat after running, we grabbed a quick sandwich at the local Italian restaurant when we arrived. Lucky for me that I had eaten before the wedding, because I didn’t eat much at the wedding reception except for the deserts. Unfortunately, the wedding started two and a half hours late and the food got cold by the time we sat down to eat. Yick. I had a few bites and just ate deserts for the rest of the night. I didn’t even dance because it was a very late wedding and I had been up since 3:45 that morning. Boyfriend was also pretty tired. So, we left around 11:30 and went back to the hotel.

The next day I enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at the hotel and really didn’t eat too much during the day. We stopped at the Queenstown Outlets on the way home and I had a Subway sandwich for lunch. But later that evening I had pizza, some deserts (cookies, ice cream, etc.) and I opened a bottle of wine and had 2 full glasses. So, this was probably the most I ate in one sitting all weekend. No self control. Plus I wasn’t planning on tracking anything this weekend, so I have no idea how much I really ate that night.

This Week (6/23-Present)

Pros: Stuck to most of my goals (see below), Didn’t gain any weight
Cons: Didn’t lose any weight, My hockey team is 0-5

Here’s how I did this week according to the goals I established last week.

1. Drink at least 32oz of water a day. Passed. That was a no brainer. I included it because I knew I could accomplish that. I’m usually drinking water or some form of sugar-free/caffeine-free beverage morning, noon and night.

2. No alcohol. Failed. I had two glasses on Wednesday night, because I was way within my calorie limit and I wanted to finish the bottle. It was a sparkling red wine that I opened Sunday and I didn’t want it to get too flat sitting in the fridge.

3. No fast food. Passed. As far a I remember I did not dine at any establishment that had a drive-thru window.

4. No eating after 10pm. Failed. I’m not 100% sure but I think I ate late on Monday after finishing a long phone call with my sister-in-law. But since I’m not sure I’m going to assume I did anyway even if it wasn’t on Monday.

5. Track everything in DP. Passed. I was able to enter everything I’ve eaten since Monday in DP.

6. Exercise every day w/ at least 1 double workout day. Failed. Although I did do a double workout on Wednesday, I did not workout Friday. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I slept-in knowing that I had to get up early Saturday morning to go running.

So, for my official weigh-in, I hopped on the scale Monday morning after returning from Boot Camp and I haven’t lost a pound!!!

Seriously? What’s going on? I’m working my ass off with Boot Camp, Step Class, Running, Hockey, Strength Training, Yoga, etc. And the scale doesn’t move. So, I regulate myself to a 1400 cal/day diet. Granted I have not met this goal every day, but for the majority of the time I managed to stay within the 1400 cal limit mostly because I workout so much. Feel free to check out My Food Diary on Daily Plate.

But it’s like it doesn’t matter how far or how fast I run or how many sit-ups or push-ups I can do, if I eat a donut or have an ice cream or 2 slices of wedding cake then all my efforts are negated. It’s like being that football team that went undefeated all year then lost the Super Bowl game. It’s like all the hard work fails because I make a few bad choices. I suppose if I don’t eat any sweets ever again, I’m guaranteed to lose weight, but I’m not there yet. I’m going to try harder at sticking to the 1400 cal/day for another week or so and then try a new tactic.

Looking forward….
I’m going to try and hit the three goals that I failed.
1. No alcohol. As long as I don’t open any new bottles of wine I think I’ll be able to do this. Except on Friday/Saturday it’s 4th of July weekend.
2. No eating after 10pm. Depending on if I get home before 9pm I think I can do this as well.
3. Exercise every day w/ at least 1 double workout day. Friday is the tough day because I run on Saturday and don’t want to do anything too strenous on Friday.

Additional Goals…
4. Track everything in DP. I’m going to track my eating over the weekend. The last 2 weekends I was not at home and didn’t have the means to get online. But I’m going to try this weekend to get an idea of what I’m eating when I’m not at work.
5. Do not exceed 1400 cal limit. This is new. I think at the rate I’m going I’m just maintaining my weight. I need to focus on staying within that limit and not be OK with being over by one or two hundred calories each day.

Ok. That’s it for now. If I don’t chime in before Friday then have a Happy Fourth of July.

My Scale is Crap

Hey Everyone

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m determined to keep you updated on a weekly basis at the very least.

The Weekend (6/14 – 6/15)
Pros: Ran 9 Miles w/ ARRC
Cons: Did not Track Calories, Consumed Alcohol, Did not Stick to Goals

I didn’t do well this weekend. My highlight for the weekend was that I ran 9 miles Saturday morning with ARRC, but I did not do any exercise for the rest of the weekend. Since I ran 9 miles I did indulge in a post-run fast food breakfast from Chick-Fil-A followed by a cupcake from a bakery called Cake Love. Then I didn’t eat for hours after that. Despite the fact that I attended a Wedding Shower, all I was able to grab was one fried chicken wing and a small slice of cornbread. My next meal was really late in the evening well past 10pm. This was the moment I finally broke my 6 day ban on alcohol and drank 1-1/2 bottles of B&J.

Sunday, was no better. I didn’t really eat too badly, but I know I consumed more calories than I burned because I did not exercise at all on Sunday.

This Week So Far (6/16 – Present)
Pros: Exercised Everyday, Tracked 90% of Calories
Cons: Did not set any Weekly/Daily Goals, Official weigh-in shows weight gain

So I weighed in on Tuesday Morning since Monday morning I was not at my home (*wink, wink*). I got on the scale and I was up 1.4lbs. I was a little shocked, but not surprised or disappointed, because I think my scale is a piece of crap. I took it to the kitchen and weighted in, suddenly I’m only up 1 lb. I go to Boot Camp, come back and weight-in… Ta-Da, I haven’t gained any weight at all. I could step on and off that scale 4 times in a row and I guarantee I won’t weight the same each time. Plus I can get all these other measurements like body fat, % muscle, BMI, bra size, blood alcohol level, credit score, etc. and it’s never consistent. I should get a new scale, but I just got this one. I don’t think anyone needs to know their weight down to the 10th of a pound. That’s the difference between using the bathroom and not using the bathroom before you hop on the scale. Hopefully I will start seeing a consistent downward trend. But I weight in every day and it fluctuates within a 1.5 pound range.

I have been entering my food into DP, except for Tuesday (or Monday) night when I fell asleep and didn’t go back and enter food the next morning. I actually went grocery shopping and haven’t eaten out all week. I’ve actually cooked (or heated up) something for dinner every night. Tuesday was the only day I went over because we had a birthday in the office and our director baked a carrot cake. It was so good I had 1-1/2 pieces (480 calories).

I’m going to set my daily goals now for next week starting Monday, since I’m attending an out of town wedding on Saturday and I’m not interested in tracking anything that day or for .Sunday. But I’ll do my best to make smart food choices. So here are my goals…

1. Drink at least 32oz of water a day. I’m actually able to do this w/o setting a goal but I’ll add it because it’s and easy one to do.

2. No alcohol. See how long I can go this time.

3. No fast food. I only eat it after running because I need quick protein replenishment and I’m usually not interested in going home to cook.

4. No eating after 10pm. I’m trying this again because I slipped on this one a lot this past week.

5. Track everythign in DP. It’s very important for me to track what I eat. Knowing how many calories I’ve eaten helps me avoid snacking too much.

6. Exercise every day w/ at least 1 double workout day. I’ve been pretty good at this one. But maybe I’ll be able to manage a double workout (i.e. one AM and one PM workout on the same day).

That’s a lot of goals. But I’m hoping I can manage it. I’ll keep you posted.

Later.

“The Plan! The Plan!”

OK Kids

Here’s the latest news. I have managed to stick to my eating plan these paste few days. In case you forgot let’s revisit them.

1. Drink at least 32 oz plain water each day
2. Track all my calories in the Daily Plate
3. No eating after 10pm (I usually get home between 8:30 -9:00)
4. Only whole grain, veggies and lean protein for dinner
5. Avoid drinking alcohol

I violated #3 when I was in CPR class until 10PM on Wednesday so I had to eat something after 10. BTW, I passed the test. I am now CPR certified. So I can maintain my mentor status on ARRC. Woo Hoo.

I’m tracking everything in the Daily Plate and I’m averaging about 1900 cals/day in calories consumed. When I include calories burned as a result of exercise, I’m averaging 1200 cals/day. So, at this rate I’m still maintaining. I’ll know for sure at my next official weigh in on Monday.

As for exercise…

I’ve managed to workout every day. But because I had to take CPR class this week, I haven’t been able to do any dual workouts where I exercise both before and after work. I didn’t run this morning because… I don’t know, I’m lazy. But I did play hockey this evening. I had to, I’m the only girl on the co-ed team. Although I really wasn’t into the game this evening. So, we lost again. But we tried really, really hard which is all that matters. (*sarcasm detected*)

As a punishment for not getting up this morning, I’m going to get up tomorrow morning and go running or go to boot camp. I don’t know yet. But so, far I’m glad I’ve been able to do some type of exercise each day.

OK. It’s almost 11pm. No sign of boyfriend. I’m going to bed soon. I’ll report back sometime this weekend.

Later

I’m So Screwed

So, I’m sitting around at work staring at the computer thinking that something amazing will happened. But it never does. So, I opened my feed reader and stumbled across this article called Fad Diets Don’t Work on MSN.com. It a Q&A directed at diet experts who have uncovered the real secrets to weight loss.

The actual article was published in Allure magazine. A magazine that I’ve seen my entire life but never had the desire to purchase it let alone skim through it at the checkout. But after I read through this article on Weight Loss, I’m guessing they cater to readers who must be completely void of optimism and hope.

I recommend you read the entire article to form your own conclusions, but these are some of the highlights that I found interesting.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from successful dieters?
…The weight-loss stage lasts an average of three to six months. We use 10 percent as a reasonable first goal. After six months, if you get there, you’re a success story. If you haven’t lost all the weight you want to lose in that time, you’re probably not going to do it…

Translation:
“Hey Fatty, it’s been 6 months – give it up already.”

Does exercise help?
Exercise has many health and emotional benefits, but it doesn’t make a huge difference when it comes to weight loss. You can restrict your food intake by 500 to 1,000 calories starting tomorrow, but you have to work out for a long time, or at a very high intensity, to burn as many calories.

Reaction:
Why exercise when you can eat less? Because I like to eat and I’d sooner run 5 miles than skip a meal.

Why is it so hard to lose weight just by exercising?
Unless you’re a serious athlete, you just don’t burn that many calories. Most people overestimate the amount they’ve burned during a workout.

Reaction:
So, anyone who is not training for the Olympic Decathlon team can just stop now. You’re meager efforts are in vain.

Doesn’t strength training build muscle and therefore increase your resting metabolic rate?
That’s actually a myth. You’d have to be totally ripped — like, bodybuilder ripped — to get a noticeable bump in your metabolism. Most people burn about one calorie per kilogram of body weight per minute, whereas a bodybuilder burns about 1.2.

Reaction:
I was actually torn on this one because if the question was “Doesn’t strength training build muscle and therefore increase rate at which you burn calories?” Then that’s not a myth. Does it increase your resting metabolism…who knows? But the way it’s written implies that strength training is a waste of time unless you’re trying out for the cover of Muscle Builder magazine.

Don’t you enter a fat-burning zone when you exercise at lower intensities?
The idea of a fat-burning zone is b.s. …

Reaction:
That’s the sound of thousands of aerobic fitness DVDs cracking.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about dieting?
That you can be any weight you want… Usually the lowest weight you were as an adult is a good indication of your low point. Getting below that is very difficult, but with a healthy, low-calorie diet, you can stay in the low end of your range.

Reaction:
Hmmmmm…So if my lowest weigh as an adult was 185lbs, I should have just stopped there.

Why is it so easy to gain weight, but so difficult to lose it and maintain that loss?
As you lose body fat, levels of certain hormones, including leptin, drop. The signaling pathway that tells you you’re satisfied doesn’t work when leptin levels are too low. You don’t feel full, which makes you eat more than you should. A drop in leptin also slows your metabolism, so someone who goes from 150 to 130 pounds will have a slower metabolism than someone who consistently weighs 130 pounds.

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So, the more weight you lose the slower your metabolism becomes? I’m so screwed.