Monthly Archives: February 2008

Take care of yourself

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Taking good care of yourself can help you to lose weight, both directly and indirectly.

Have you noticed that when you’re tired you eat more? How about when you’re stressed or not feeling well? You probably eat more and exercise less, right? Here are a few steps you can take to keep yourself feeling well all the time, which can help you avoid bingeing and keep you on track with your exercise.

  • Get plenty of sleep. When I’m overly tired, I tend to compensate by snacking.
  • Stay hydrated.  Often we can mistake being thirsty for being hungry.
  • Take mini-breaks during the day. Get up from your desk, walk down the hall, step outside your office. I’ll take a short 5-10 minute walk, and I feel much better when I return to my desk.
  • Take mental breaks too. Your mind needs to rest as much as your body does. Shut your door and spend a couple minutes relaxing. Chat with a colleague. Read the news online. I like to shut my door and put a little music on. I’ll stand up and stretch, make myself a cup of tea, etc.
  • Don’t let yourself get too hungry. You’ll just feel rotten and then eat something you’d rather not. Keep something healthy handy for snacks. I keep a piece or two of fruit in my office for when I get the munchies.
  • Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. This is one of the best things you can do for your health and well-being. Find ways to sneak them in to your diet if you’re not crazy about them in general.
  • Avoid junk food. The high salt and high fat content will often make you feel worse. These high-calorie foods also don’t fill you up long, so you end up eating again soon.
  • Avoid over-eating in general. Feeling stuffed can make you feel even more tired and exhausted. You know what you feel like after a huge meal; it’s not fun, is it?
  • Get a little exercise. Even a fifteen minute walk can make you feel rejuvenated.
  • Deal with your stress. Stress is a trigger for overeating, but it can also lead to more serious ailments. For me, it’s a huge trigger for overeating, so it’s something I have to deal with.
  • Do something for yourself every day. Our lives are busy, and it seems that there’s never enough time to do what you need to, let alone what you want to. That needs to change. Taking time to do things for yourself is as important as eating right and exercising. It took me a long time to realize that, but I try to practice what I preach.
  • Delegate! Ask for help with household tasks. There’s no law saying you have to do it all alone.
  • Re-evaluate what’s necessary. Look for ways to take shortcuts and save time and energy. For example, you may be able to avoid most laundry by folding your clothes as soon as the dryer stops. Run several errands at once to save time overall. Shop once a week to keep from having to make several trips.

While you are probably trying to lose weight, your bigger goal is likely to be getting healthier. Work on doing some of these small things, and you’ll find that as you feel better, you’ll find yourself reaching for the “wrong” foods and overeating less and less often.

It’s difficult, but over time you can change your habits and improve your health. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can happen. When I think about what my habits were like a year ago as compared to now… well, things have changed quite a bit!

Easy ways to eat better

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First off, Zen Habits has a great article on easy ways to build better eating habits. I have a couple ideas that I’d like to add as well.

No seconds

As I’ve said here before, giving up second helpings is one of the best things I’ve done, and I credit it with my nearly 25 pound weight loss over the last year.

This is simple; stop going back for seconds, ever. When you’re accustomed to that, add to that a small, gradual reduction in portion sizes. The beauty of this technique is that you still get to eat whatever you want, and you’re still cutting back.

Half it

Eat only half of whatever is on your plate. I don’t do this all the time, but I do it a lot with treats and more fattening foods. I was in the mood for a fast food breakfast this morning, so I got one, and ate a little less than half of it. I still got the greasy sandwich and hashbrowns I was in the mood for, but I didn’t have a 600 calorie breakfast.

When you order in a restaurant, consider splitting an entree with your partner. If you’re treating yourself to a dessert, split that. Even better, ask the waitress if they’ll serve you a half portion of dessert, and then split THAT with your partner.

Results

You’d be surprised how quickly these habits take hold and become second nature. I don’t even think about going back for seconds, and I often find that I feel full well before I’ve finished. Since I’m “allowed” to eat pretty much whatever I want, there’s less temptation to binge.

No, I’m not dropping weight as quickly as most dieters, but I am gradually losing weight, and I’m doing it without feeling deprived.

Do you have any weight loss or healthy eating tips you’d like to share? What’s working well for you?

Stop Stress Eating!

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If you’re like me, stressful situations send you to your favorite comfort foods. In my case, stress is often the single biggest factor in causing me to blow my eating plan. You’ve probably heard all sorts of tips for avoiding stress eating, but I have a different approach I’d like to share.

Focus on eliminating the stress, not the stress eating.

I often eat to cope with stressful situations. I may be upset, worried, depressed, whatever…. So I tend to eat to make myself feel better. I could focus on not eating during those times, or doing something else instead, but in the past that hasn’t worked well for me.

If you’re a stress eater, has it worked well for you? I’m going to bet that it hasn’t. It’s hard to give up old habits. Besides stress eating is at least partially rooted in our biology anyway. (The effects of stress on body weight, Stress, Eating and the Reward System.)

I’ve come to think that fighting that response (at least for me) tends to be a bit of a lost cause. Instead, I’m trying to work on my causes of stress instead. It stands to reason that I can reduce my stress eating if I reduce my stress, right?

Here are a few things that I’ve been trying.

  • I take a few minutes of quiet time to calm myself. I’m lucky at work — I have an actual office. I shut the door and take a few minutes of quiet time.  If I’m home and things are hectic, I’ve been known to shut myself in the bathroom to get that bit of quiet, personal space.
  • I get up and move around. I might take a walk down the hall, head upstairs to put in a load of laundry, etc. I don’t mean run out for a two-mile walk (although that would be good too). Sometimes just getting up and moving gives me a different perspective.
  • I try to recognize what’s bothering me. After I focus on what has be upset, then I remind myself that eating isn’t going to help that. Sometimes just taking a minute and allowing myself to be upset helps.
  • I ask myself if I’m really hungry or just stressed. Believe it or not, it can be tough to tell sometimes. If I’m not sure, I’ll have a cup of tea or coffee and see how I feel in half an hour or so.
  • If something is really bothering me, I may try to ask someone else to handle it. This is especially useful if you’re feeling overwhelmed at home; ask for a hand with some of the household chores. At work it can be tougher to ask for help, but consider it if you feel that you’re really carrying more than a fair share or if you’ve been overwhelmed by extra tasks.

What are your tips for dealing with stress? Do you find that stress impacts your eating and exercise habits?

Weight Loss Voyeurism

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I enjoy reading other people’s weight loss stories, tips and challenges. I thought you might enjoy some of these people’s blogs as well.

I think that it can be helpful to watch someone else’s weight loss struggles and successes. Often, I feel that I’m the only person who’s ever gone through it, even though I know that’s ridiculous. It helps to “watch” others work on it too. I hope that some of these blogs are inspirational for you as well.

John is Fit

Losing it, Getting fit 

Fitness for Busy Moms

Plus Size Model Loses Weight

Loving Life with Diabetes

Good for You

Positive thinking linked to weight loss?

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our thinking, whether positive or negative, affects weight.

Last Friday, I had a rough day and wound up the day feeling down. Guess what? Yep, fell off the diet wagon. Why is it we do that?

I think the negative feelings make it harder to stay on track, because somehow, we start to think that we’re not worth any better. Do you ever say those sorts of things to yourself? Do you postpone taking care of yourself, doing things for yourself, because you aren’t the right weight, haven’t exercised enough, don’t look just right?

That’s not a very constructive way to be, is it? You wouldn’t withhold those things from your husband, your kids, your friends, would you? Would you tell your husband to put off buying new clothes for work until he loses his spare tire? No, but we do it to ourselves all the time.

Then, the vicious cycle begins. You already feel bad about yourself because of your weight, then you start denying yourself things you enjoy until you lose weight, get into those jeans, whatever. So, what’s left? When you get stressed, you turn back to food because you haven’t built in any other “comforts,” have you?

So, here’s my challenge to you (and to me). Find some nice things to do for yourself this week and practice self-comforting that doesn’t involve food. If you need to, write down some reminders.  You deserve to look good and feel good right now, now some day.

Positive Thinking Can Bring Good Health 

Avoid Negative Thinking 

Keeping a food diary

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Keeping a food diary, when done well, can help you track your eating and improve your chances of weight loss. However, it’s not as simple or easy as many people make it out to be.

Pros

  • It’s easy to underestimate how much you eat. Tracking it with a diary will allow you to come closer to knowing, instead of just guessing.
  • If your calories (or fat, carbs, etc.) start to creep up, you can make adjustments to your diet before things get out of hand.
  • You have something to show your doctor if you need to talk about your nutrition or weight loss. This is especially useful if you’re sure you’re doing “everything right,” but the weight isn’t coming off.

Cons

  • It’s time consuming. You need to take the time to not only track what you eat, but you’ll need to measure to be sure you’re counting correctly. Of course, you’ll need to look up your foods as well.
  • It can make you hyper-focused on food. It’s all too easy to think too much about what you’re eating and allow that to dominate your life.
  • It has to be correct to be useful. If you’re lax about measuring, writing things down, etc., then the diary gives you a false sense that you’re doing well when you’re not.

How to get started

  • The diary should be accessible all day. Whether you use a notebook or something online (like google docs), don’t do something that requires you to wait all day before writing things down.
  • Write down your foods all day as you eat. If you wait, you’ll forget!
  • Include drinks, snacks, nibbles, bites, all of it! It adds up, really.

How many carbs per day?

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You’re thinking of starting a low carb diet, but you’re not sure what low carb is. How many carbs do you get a day on a low carb diet?

It depends.

The Atkins diet will start you very low, only about 20 g per day. You’ll gradually increase that though. South Beach starts you a little higher. Other low carb diets may allow you even more carbs. What really matters is how you feel and whether you’re able to maintain the diet and lose weight.

  • You have to eat few enough carbs (and calories) to lose weight.
  • The diet can’t be so restrictive that you can’t stick with it.
  • You need to feel good. If you don’t, you won’t stick with it.

One other thing; talk to your doctor and see if a low carb diet is right for you. My doctor recommended it to me. You may have health concerns that would make a low carb diet a bad choice for you.

I’d recommend starting to count your carbs and weigh yourself every day. Even when you start watching your carbs, you’re likely to eat more than you should for the first few days. Write down everything you eat and look up the nutritional info to count calories and carbs.

When cooking, calculate the carbs and calories for the whole dish, and then divide it up by how many servings you’re getting from it. This is easier than trying to guess-timate later.

Measure! Don’t guess that you’ve gotten half a cup, or an ounce, or whatever. You’ll almost invariably underestimate the amounts.

Track your carbs, calories and daily weight. You may be able to lose weight when you eat 80 g carbs a day, or 40 g, or 30 g. You won’t know until you keep track and see how your weight loss goes.

I’ve set an initial goal to get down to 40 g a day, but it will probably take a week or so for me to adjust to the different way of eating.  My first few days I hit around 70-80 g. Today is my best yet at 45 g.

In my experience, it takes a while to adjust to such a drastic reduction in carbs. Give yourself some time and shoot for a small daily reduction rather than a drastic one. If you’re low carbing, how many carbs per day do you normally eat?

Weight loss and exercise update

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Although I keep falling off the wagon, my weight loss is doing better than I expected. Since starting this blog, I’m down 24 pounds. It’s a slow weight loss, but still, it’s loss, and that’s the right direction.

I’m getting back on track with the low carb diet. That’s much easier than getting back in the exercise habit. For this week, my goal is to exercise 15 minutes a day, at least five days a week.

And if I don’t, I’ll spend next Saturday cleaning instead of having fun. Yuck!