Category Archives: diets

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?

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

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!

How to Start a Low Carb Diet

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Maybe you’re trying to lose weight or even manage your blood sugar. For whatever reason, you’ve decided to go low carb. Where do you begin?

Get rid of the high carb foods.

Some foods are much higher in carbs, and much harder on your blood sugar, than others. These foods will need to go, and you’ll replace them with lower carb versions.

  • Sugar, honey, syrup, etc. These are absolute no-no’s on a low carb diet. You’ll need to substitute sweeteners like splenda, sugar alcohols, sugar free syrups, etc.
  • White flour and foods made with it. Think those sugar-free cookies are okay? Think again. They are still probably loaded in carbs because they’re made with white flour. Same goes for cake mixes, breads, etc. Substitute foods made with whole grain flours.
  • White flour pasta. This one deserves its own category. Whole grain pasta has less impact on your blood sugar and tastes good too.
  • Potatoes. The starch in potatoes is bad for your blood sugar. Same goes for sweet potatoes. Try using other vegetables instead of potatoes.

After replacing the major culprits, you still have some work to do. Some foods that are perfectly acceptable will impact your blood sugar more than others. You’ll need to read labels and experiment, and track what you eat and what effect it has.

Reading Labels

  1. Check the serving size first. A food may look low carb because the nutrition information is calculated for an absurdly small serving size.
  2. Calculate the net carbs. Total carbs MINUS fiber content MINUS sugar alcohol content. For example, let’s say a slice of bread has 15 grams carbs and 5 grams fiber. Net carbs would be 10 grams.
  3. Know the glycemic impact of the food. Equal amounts of carbs from different kinds of foods can have different effects on your blood sugar. Use a site like this to choose foods lower on the glycemic scale.

Track and Test

Keep track of what you eat and when. I know it can be inconvenient, but it’s not something you’ll have to do forever. Your goal is to learn what foods you tolerate well and which ones have too much of a negative impact on your blood sugar. Often it’s not even the individual foods but the blood sugar impact of the entire meal that you have to be concerned about.

  1. Test your blood sugar before each meal and two hours after.
  2. Note what you ate, how much, and how your blood sugar did after the meal.
  3. Over time, you’ll learn which foods you tolerate best.

Mix high carb foods into your low carb meals

If you want something relatively high carb, you may be better off eating it with a meal than alone. The protein and fat of the meal can mitigate the effect of carbs.

Here’s an example, my husband is able to tolerate potato salad pretty well, even though he’s diabetic. That’s probably because the potatoes (high carb) are mixed with eggs and mayonnaise. The protein and fat slows his digestion, and slows the effects the carbs have on his blood sugar. If he ate the same amount of potatoes as french fries or as a baked potato, he’d likely see a different effect.

Do your research

Read about nutrition and low carb diets. Talk to your doctor about the diet you’re following. Take your food journal to a nutritionist. Changing to a low carb lifestyle isn’t going to happen overnight, but you can make changes that will benefit your health.

For more information on low carb diets, see this site.

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Weight Loss Update

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Wow, it’s been a bad few weeks. Work has been extremely stressful, but I think things are FINALLY winding down a bit. I’ll be traveling next week for work, but I’m actually looking forward to being out of the office for a change.

Unfortunately, the long hours and stress have really taken a toll on my eating and exercise. I’ve put on about seven pounds (yikes!), so I have a bit of work to do to get myself back on track.

That’s the issue with weight loss, isn’t it? It’s all too easy to put it back on when life gets stressful. Given that I’m a stress eater, it’s doubly difficult.

I found that when this happens, it’s even more important to keep a positive attitude. I also try to stick to my eating plan as much as I can, even if I know I’m not doing as well as I should. One danger that I watch out for is simply giving up. Taking the attitude that I might as well eat anything I want because things are already going downhill is the wrong approach, but it’s all too easy to fall into that trap.

How many times have you allowed a diet slip up turn into a diet catastrophe? I’m trying to not let that happen!

Update

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Work has been hectic, so my blogging schedule is way off track. You’ll probably see some shorter posts for the next few days until things slow down again.

Packing lunch daily is going well. I’m experimenting with different stir-fry recipes, so it’s going well so far. I’m getting used to not eating out, so that’s a plus.

Exercising daily isn’t going so well. I’ve spent some time painting, doing yard work, etc. Unfortunately, I’m only exercising about three or four days a week. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for either. I guess that goes to show how hard this will be for me.

How’s the diet and exercise going for everyone else?

Weight Loss Links

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I enjoy reading weight loss blogs, and here are some great articles I’ve run across lately.

Lose the Buddha Belly. You’ve heard over and over how spot-reduction doesn’t work. Here’s another article that says the same, and gives great tips for trimming your middle.

Lose 50 Pounds with Dumb Little Man. He lists some good tips for losing weight. Nothing earth-shattering; you’ve probably read most before, but it’s good solid advice.

5 Steps to Weight loss. Here’s another, solid, common-sense plan for taking off weight sensibly.

If you’ve written a weight-loss related article recently, post the url below, and I’ll link to you.

Weight Loss Update

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I wanted to post my weight loss update.  In three months, I’ve lost fifteen pounds. That’s a healthy rate of weight loss.

What’s working

  1. I still think the most beneficial change has been giving up second helpings. Since working on that habit, I rarely go back for seconds, and I’m sure it’s saving me hundreds of calories a week. If you only do one thing to take off weight, I’d suggest that this be it.
  2. We eat a lot less junk food. Since my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, I just don’t buy much junk food. Other than sugar-free candies, we don’t eat sweets either.
  3. My husband has to follow a low-carb diet, which means that almost all our meals are low-carb. I haven’t been following the diet strictly, so I can’t say that the weight loss is due to that. I try to eat healthy in general, but I do eat some of the things that low-carb diets restrict (fruit, bread, potatoes, etc.).

What could be better

  1. Exercise! I just haven’t been able to stick with an exercise schedule lately. I do try to be active on the weekends, even if it’s lots of shopping! This is somewhere I need to improve!
  2. I’m managing to avoid the vending machines on most days. I’m tempted to hit the vending machines in the afternoons for those treats that we don’t keep at home any more. I’m not doing as well with this as I’d like — I’d like to not treat myself at all!

How is your weight loss going? What works well for you? Post your comments here.