Stop drinking sugary soda

A 16 ounce cola has around 190 calories. That’s 190 calories of sugar, which for many people, will only make you hungrier an hour or two later.  If you want to lose weight more easily, this is a simple change.

Can’t stand diet soda? Switch to water instead. It’s even better, and you’ll avoid the artificial sweeteners.

Skip after dinner snacks

If you’re trying to lose weight, snacking in front of the television in the evenings can be a real diet breaker. One ounce of chips has around 150 calories, and lets face it, who can eat only one ounce? That’s a REALLY small serving, and I know that I don’t stick to that when snacking.

Try doing something with your hands while watching television to prevent snacking. Even better, get up and DO something instead of watching t.v.!

Get a little exercise

You don’t have to hit the gym for hours every week in order to lose ten pounds, or any amount of weight. Rather than make drastic lifestyle changes you’re not likely to keep up, try making smaller changes instead. Take the dog for a walk, wear a pedometer, mow the grass yourself instead of hiring someone to do it.

Skip dessert

Desserts can be loaded in extra calories. Try having a special dessert only once or twice a week instead of something sweet daily. A nice dessert at your favorite restaurant will be more enjoyable than a handful of cookies you eat in front of the t.v. As an added bonus, you won’t have the leftovers at home to tempt you.

Say no to second helpings

This is an easy way to lose a few pounds. Eat whatever you want, in your normal serving sizes. By not going back for seconds, you’ll cut your calories without feeling deprived. Take the leftovers for lunch and save money and calories by avoiding the fast food drive through.

Beware of Salads

What? Salads can be a great addition to your diet. They’re nutritious and low calorie, and they can certainly help in your weight loss efforts. However, if you’re topping your salad with diced eggs, shredded cheese, full-calorie dressing, beans, etc., you can be adding hundreds of calories to it that you don’t intend. That salad can end up with as many calories as a burger and fries!

Manage Stress

Stress makes many of us eat more than we should; I know it has that effect on me. Work on dealing with your stress before it contributes to a weight problem. If you’re trying to lose weight, try doing an activity you enjoy that helps you wind down and deal with the stress of your day.

Find Hidden Calories

A tablespoon of mayonnaise has 100 calories. A typical sandwich might have one or two tablespoons on it. Honey mustard has almost 50 calories per ounce. A baked potato is a good choice for lunch, until you add hundreds of calories in butter and sour cream. Adding cream to soups drastically increases their calorie count. Examine the recipes for what you’re eating and cut the extra calories that don’t contribute much to the dish’s flavor.

Be careful in restaurants

If you’re trying to lose weight, eating out can be very problematic. Portion sizes are large, and having a wide selection of food in front of you is tempting. Try ordering your meal instead of eating off the buffet. Most people will eat more from a buffet than they intend to. Order an appetizer instead of an entree, or split an entree with someone. Try drinking water or unsweet tea instead of soda.

Stop obsessing

Paradoxically, being hyper-focused on your weight is one of the worst thing you can do for your weight loss efforts. Instead, focus on eating healthy food, getting some exercise, and taking care of yourself overall. Doing those things and making simple, gradual changes will help you take off that ten pounds!

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I made it for about a week. We did some work over the weekend, and I spent a couple hours pulling up old carpet. That’s definitely exercise, but it also made me really sore and tired. I didn’t exercise for a couple of days, and I fell out of the rhythm of it.

Now, I’m coming down with a cold, so I doubt I’ll get back on track for a few days. It just goes to show how difficult changing your lifestyle can be! I never said I thought I’d have an easy time of it.

After I’m feeling better, I’m going to try to come up with some other method to motivate myself. Ideas?

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The routine has good warmup and cardio. I liked the fact that you can follow beginner, intermediate or advanced exercises all along the routine without picking a particular one and sticking with it. So, you can mix any of the three levels if some exercises are easier or harder for you. The music is good without being annoying or distracting. The instructor is pleasant without having any of the creepy cheerfulness that some aerobics teachers have!

This tape does include some floor exercises for toning, which isn’t something I was really looking for. I want something that’s a bit heavier on cardio and lighter on toning, but it’s a good workout nonetheless. I haven’t made it the whole way through the tape yet, but I think it’s one I’ll use again.

I’m out of shape (who’d have guessed?), but I made it a little more than 15 minutes at the beginner level. I could have gone longer, but I wasn’t in the mood to do the floor exercises. I did some additional cardio instead and called it a night. I’m not sure if I’ll do this one again tomorrow, this time with the floor routine, or look for something heavier on cardio. I guess I’ll just see what mood I’m in.

In case you hadn’t guessed, this was my exercise routine for tonight. After two nights of Wii boxing, my poor arms will not take that again. Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed I’d get so sore so quickly!

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We were out of town the first weekend of May, so I didn’t get started when I planned. After that, well I just procrastinated. I finally started yesterday and have exercised yesterday and today. I’ll keep the blog updated on how it’s going.

Yesterday my husband and I did about 40 minutes of Wii boxing and tennis. If you’re thinking that isn’t really exercise, I’d say that the boxing definitely is. I’m pretty competitive with that, so I work up a sweat.

Today, I did just 10 minutes of boxing. My arms are really sore from yesterday, and I was just tired. I committed to 10 minutes a day, and I also promised myself that I’d let myself off the hook once that was done, if I wanted.

I’m really not an exercise person, so I know doing this for 30 days straight will be a toughie for me. I’ve got some exercise videos to try out on netflix, the wii programs, the bowflex, and all of outdoors. I’m hoping that it will be easier if I try to keep it from getting boring!

Here are some things I’m going to do / try to keep myself on track.

• Variety. I’ve got several different exercises lined up, some of which are really simple to do.  I’m hoping that this will keep me from getting bored, or getting one set of muscles too tired or sore.
• Reward. Like I said, I’m really, really not an exercise person. I plan on buying myself something if I get through the 30 days. I’m going to buy enough nice yarn for a winter sweater.
• Accountability. I’m announcing my goal here, aren’t I? 
  
• Focus on the positive. While Idon’t like exercise, I also realize that it makes me feel better. I feel more energetic when I exercise, so I focus on that rather than how boring the exercise time will be.
• Don’t overdo. I have a tendency to jump right in and burn myself out. I’m resisting that urge by limiting my time and not letting myself get too sore or tired. I’d rather exercise moderately all 30 days that do a few hard sessions and give it up.

And by the way, I’m STILL working on the blog carnival. I was surprised by the number of submissions, and very pleased. As soon as I’ve finished, you’ll be seeing the post.

Anyone else out there doing your own exercise habit? How is it going?

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What I’m doing right

1. No seconds. This has been huge for me, and I credit this one habit with keeping my weight in check through the winter. I don’t even think about it any more; I very rarely go back for seconds.
2. De-stressing. This is another one that I’ve been working a lot on. I’ve started to come to terms with the fact that simply dieting isn’t going to do it for me. Since stress triggers my overeating, then dealing with stress seems to be a logical thing to do.
3. De-cluttering. This one may look weird in a list of how to lose weight. However, I know that clutter adds to my stress, so getting rid of it also makes sense for my weight loss. Bonus, if I’m busy decluttering, I’m not eating.
4. Exercise. I’ve still struggled with this one. However, I have been doing more to tone up, and I’m more active in general than I was this time last year.

What I intend to work on

1. Stress. I know that I need to work harder on this area. The more I deal with stress, the less I’ll eat without even thinking about it.  I have several ideas for how to make this work.
   • Continue working on clutter and organization. Whether it’s the general mess, not being able to find my shoes for a walk, or losing a bill I need to pay, the clutter really adds to my stress level. My husband and I have both been working on dealing with this, and so far, we’ve been doing great.
   • Me time. I’ve been making time to write almost every day. That in itself is a big help. I’m also taking time to knit, relax, do things with my husband on weekends, etc.
   • Deal with immediate stress. One of my triggers for snacking is immediate stress. Whether it’s a phone call, an emergency at work, or something at home, I often deal with it and then turn to junk food to replenish. And that’s exactly what it feels like, as if I need to be replenished afterward. Instead, I try to do something else for a few minutes, like read, take a walk, etc. This is one of the toughest ones for me.
2. Exercise. I really don’t enjoy exercising, so I’m not sure how to go about retraining myself. It’s something that I know I need to work on.
3. Habits.I already know how useful habit forming can be. I want to return to some of the 30-day trials that I did last year and rebuild some good habits.  Maybe exercising daily should be one of the first?
4. Journaling.Every dieter has probably heard that keeping track of your food and exercise is beneficial. I’ve done it for short periods of time in the past, but never for any extended period. The one thing that I’ve noticed is that it does keep me more aware of what I eat, which presumably can help me not eat as much.

So, to kick off my push to get back on track, I’m going to make two changes.

1.  I’ll start tracking what I eat daily. I’m using Google Docs Spreadsheet so I can log in from anywhere and update it.
2. Beginning May 1, I’ll do a 30-day habit building trial. My goal will be to exercise daily in order to build the exercise habit.  Before I can do that, I have a couple of things I need to do.
   • Buy walking shoes
   • Move some things so I can use the bowflex

Of course, I’ll be posting updates to the blog. Anyone care to join me?

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Still, I’m going to work through the rest of the month. Losing two days is no reason to give up entirely.

We got some great news last week. My husband’s a1c is down again; this time it’s 6.8. We were very pleased, obviously.

If you don’t know what an a1c is, or why you should care, read my article on why your a1c matters.  In short, your a1c is a measurement of your overall blood sugar for the last three months (roughly). Diabetics are encouraged to keep it below 7.0.

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• Eating more than I should
• Too much junk
• Not enough exercise

I keep having trouble getting myself back on track. I’ve been trying to rethink what I’m doing and try to figure out why it’s not working for me. Because, obviously, it’s not working.

The good news is that I haven’t really gained much weight — only about 8 pounds or so. That’s not horrible.

One thing that’s been making me rethink what I’m doing is a book review that I’m doing. Steve Pavlina just released his new book, and he offered free copies to bloggers who were willing to review it. I’ll be doing that here in a week or so — as soon as I finish reading the book.

  One thing that reading the book brough to mind was his 30-day trial method of improving habits. Since I’ve been reading his blog, he’s done or discussed doing 30-day trials for going raw food, learning to get up early, going vegan, etc. Basically, you choose one habit and work on building that habit for 30 days.

So, here’s my goal. For the next month, I’m going to work on the exercise habit. There are a lot of things I need to work on, but I think it’s important for me to take one thing at a time. Otherwise, I’m likely to get overwhelmed and not do well with any of them.

So, I’m going to commit to exercising at least 15 minutes per day, and I’ll keep the blog updated so you can track how I’m doing.

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I joined the gym at work. I mentioned a little while back that I was thinking about it, and I did. The price wasn’t bad — $320/year for me and my husband. Now, let’s hope that the new payroll deduction will motivate me to actually use it!

My goal is to use the gym at work two or three times a week. They have a nice variety of machines, so I should be able to do some different things than I’m used to. I’ll keep updating my progress on that front.

It’s been such a hectic few weeks; we’ve been out of town a few times, and that means eating out. I’ve had so much fast food, I’m sick of it. Needless to say, the scale has been moving in the wrong direction! I put on about 10 pounds, but I’ve taken a couple back off again. For me, losing weight isn’t that hard; keeping it off is the hard part.

I’m still using the SlimShots, with pretty good results. I do find that they help my appetite, especially during the afternoons and evenings. The taste isn’t exactly growing on me though, but it’s doable. I’ve found that they tend to work best (for me) if I take them a little while after breakfast, not at the same time. I’m not sure why that is, but that’s what I’ve found to be the case. I’ll keep updating on that too.

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July 1: 10500 steps

July 2: 7500 steps

July 3: 7800 steps

And today, I forgot to put the darn thing on!

Buying a pedometer

I own about a half dozen pedometers: different brands, various prices. However, the best one I own is one my husband found online that has no brand name on it. However, it does have a sensitivy setting, and that’s the key to its being so good.

I’ve bought pedometers that were much too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Others work fine when worn with loose fitting clothes, others work better with tighter clothes. Some make a noticeable ticking noise when you walk, which is quite annoying.

It would be nice if you could try a pedometer first before buying it, but that isn’t possible. So, my advice is simply to make sure your model has a way to adjust its sensitivity.

Testing your pedometer

How do you know how accurate your pedometer is? First off, you should be concerned with its accuracy in counting steps not counting miles.

Put on the pedometer by clipping it to your waistband two or three inches away from center. Make sure it’s set to 0 and walk, counting your steps as you go. Be sure to walk normally. After one or two hundred steps, look at the pedometer reading. It’s okay if it’s a few steps off, but if it’s more than a few, change the sensitivity and try again.

Converting steps to miles (or kilometers)

Many pedometers don’t convert to miles or kilometers (mine doesn’t). But even if yours does, you’ll need to know the length of your stride to convert steps to miles. Here’s an easy trick to measure your stride.

Put on your shoes and go out onto your patio, porch or deck. It should be a solid surface (no grass) and large enough so that you can take several steps at a natural pace.

Wet the bottoms of your shoes and take a few steps, making sure to walk naturally. Measure your wet footprints from back of heel to back of heel (or toe to toe). Repeat this a couple of times and average your measurements to be sure you’re accurate.

Some simple math

There are 5280 feet in a mile. Let’s say your stride is 2.5 feet.  Take 5280 and divide it by your stride length (in this case 2.5). The resulting number is the number of STEPS IN A MILE for you. For me, it’s about 2112.

Many people skip the measurement and math altogether and just guessimate 2000 steps per mile.

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