The great annual day for resolutions that usually don't last until the end of the first week of the New Year is at hand. I hope you've had a fabulous holiday and truly enjoyed sharing meals and treats with family and friends during this season that can be filled with great joy but also many calories. If you're like me you've eaten more than you should and gained some weight but had a really good time. I encouraged you to do so without feeling guilty over the past several weeks. So now what?
If you've left off following you can decide to jump back on. If you did follow what I've offered you've been stretching more or less, drinking water and have given some thought to what you eat during each day. You've been moving, hopefully a bit more each day. There will be more upcoming on all of that but if you haven't been doing it go back and read some of the blogs on stretching and drinking water and moving.
The reason I encouraged you to eat and enjoy your way through the holidays is because dieting during that time makes you feel denied and few if any lose weight during the holidays. I also wanted you to enjoy all your favorites because if you make a good decision it's time now to put some of them aside for a bit.
Imagine if you will that you just went to the doctor and they told you that you had an illness and you had to go on some medication. Because of that medication you could no longer eat some of your favorite foods because the chemical composition of that food would make you ill while you took the medication. You'd have to give up that food in order to stay well and although you wouldn't like it, chances are if your health hung in the balance you'd do it, right? That's one way of looking at the opportunity to diet.
When I made the decision to go on a diet in 2006 I did so because I knew that if I didn't I would soon be taking anti-hypertensive medication and possibly an oral medication for diabetes due to my weight and my general unhealthiness. Part of the reason I got to my overweight state had to do with the fact that there was always an event/occasion in my life and food/special drinks were part of these occasions. In January there were Girl Scout Cookies, in February Valentine's Day, in March and April, Easter or Spring Break, in May our family birthdays and anniversaries would start, etc, etc. There was always the weekend in the hot tub with frozen margaritas or the Friday night pizza and beer. You name it, I could come up with destruction of any dietary gains I made during whatever period of time I had undertaken some form of self restraint. As I reflected on what I could do about it I realized that the only way I could make enough progress to change how I felt and avoid medical intervention for my health I would have to give up some things possibly for as long as six months or a year. It sounded daunting and overwhelming but the fact was if I could do it, when I finished losing the weight I needed to lose, I would hopefully be able to resume including things I loved in my diet regularly and my health would no longer teeter on the precipice so long as I didn't resume some of my worst habits continuously. We're talking about a life change here and indeed that is what happened to me. But what about you?
If you have 10, 20, 30 or more pounds to lose you need to change what you are doing. Do you realize that if you are maintaining your weight at that overweight level you are eating enough calories every day to keep those extra pounds ON your body? I asked you to write down what you eat every day so you could take a look at your calorie intake in addition to the types of food you consume. Most foods have calorie counts on the back of the package. They also have serving size. So for instance if you eat cereal every day like I used to, I would pour a bowl and add milk. I didn't measure the amount, I just filled the bowl. So I was probably eating at least 2 servings of cereal and possibly 3 since each serving is really only about a half cup. So I wasn't eating the approximately 200 calories of cereal in a single serving, I was probably eating more like five or six hundred calories of cereal every morning. Similarly when I filled my plate with dinner, the serving wasn't a deck of cards sized portion of meat which is a single serving but maybe it was a chicken breast that comes in twice that size in the portions I get where I buy my chicken. So if you are eating 2000 or 2500 calories or more daily you are working to maintain your overweight condition every day and you can make a decision to stop maintaining that intake level.
Weight loss isn't hard to understand. Regardless of the program you adopt the formula is quite simply calories in versus calories out. If you take in exactly what you need for fuel and activity your weight will stay roughly about the same. I generally vary between 1-5 lbs. each week. When I go beyond that I begin paying attention to what I am putting in my mouth. If you want to lose weight you can work on exercising and expending more calories and you can also take in less. Either or both will result in weight loss if you burn more than you take in or eat less than you need for your activity. The question then becomes what type of calories will you put in. I'm not a big exerciser so for me it was eating less that accomplished my goal. The plan for your goal is another blog.
Let's say for now that you want to eat 1200 - 1300 calories/day. If you love hot fudge sundaes and don't want to give them up then you can eat one every day. If it has roughly 600 calories then that's about half of your day's intake. Is that a good decision? No, but can you do it? Sure. If you eat only 600 calories of something else the rest of the day you'll still likely lose weight that day but you won't feel very good and you'll probably be hungry for some portion of that day so that's not a good strategy. What you want to work on is how to eat foods that contain what you need to be healthy and still leave you satisfied enough that you aren't starving.
Another key is deciding what you can tolerate in terms of self denial. When I started, I promised myself I would try this for one week no matter what. I also promised myself that at the end of that week if it didn't work or I wasn't satisfied with the outcome I'd quit. I went through that exercise nearly each week for several months telling myself I could quit if I couldn't take it. What happened to me is that the success was there and I began to feel so much better the decision to continue was easier and easier. I also added "bonus" rewards. For instance when I hit milestone weight loss points like a drop in clothing size, I'd buy myself one new article of clothing as the reward for having persevered that long.
I did give up my old ways of eating, some of my favorite foods that I used to make for dinner and fast food isn't something I've eaten in any regular way for a long time. I don't miss it. We'll talk more about some of all that but the bottom line question you have to ask yourself is are you willing to give up some short term satisfaction associated with that favorite dessert/meal/habit for a long term change or are you committed to maintaining your weight where it is even if it means that later in life your health will be compromised because of it?
If that doesn't work for you what motivation will? Do you have an upcoming life event that you want to look fabulous for? Is there a killer pair of jeans you want or do you really want to be able to try on a bathing suit without feeling like you'd rather have your jaw wired shut for six weeks than stand in front of a dressing room mirror? Would you like to understand more about food for the sake of yourself and your family? Would you like to have enough energy to actively play with your children or grandchildren without being short of breath? All of these things are possible and are within your control. The decision is yours.
Have your New Year's celebrations and enjoy your drinks/treats one last time. Come January 1st, you can make a change in your lifestyle that will lead to your enjoyment of next year's holidays looking fabulous and truly guilt free!
Cheers til next time! HV 13
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