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Archive for the ‘tips’ Category

I love the autumn. The cooler temperatures, the colors, the crisp breezes… All entice us outside during this time of the year. With winter around the corner, it’s a good idea to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible now.

With that in mind, here are some ideas for getting you outdoors, and working in a little exercise to boot.

1. Grab your camera and go for a walk. With a little exploration and patience, you can bring back dozens of great photos.
2. Walk the dog! Put on your walking shoes and take the dog for a long walk this time. It’s cool enough to not have to worry about either of you overheating!
3. Get in a few last bike rides before storing them away for the winter.
4. Plant your spring bulbs. Daffodils, tulips, crocus, etc. can go in the ground right now. Get flower beds cleaned up and ready for spring.
5. If you had a garden, trim the plants back or till them under.
6. Mow one last time, rake leaves, trim shrubs. Get the yard ready for the winter. Don’t forget to take time to play in the leaves!
7. Decorate for Halloween! Create a centerpiece for the yard, stretch cobwebs across the porch, or carve some pumpkins. Enjoy the season.
8. Walk around the house and do a quick before-winter inspection. Caulk and paint windows if needed. Put new weather-stripping around the doors.
9. Clean out the garage and stock up on cold-weather supplies. If you have a generator, test it out. Buy de-icer and store it for the winter.
10. Go nut-gathering. Now is the perfect time to gather all types of nuts; just be sure to ask before gathering on someone else’s property. Our black walnut trees have dropped lots in the back yard!

The holidays are fast approaching, and these are our first after my husband’s diabetes diagnosis. This year, we’ll be working extra hard to stay on track with diet and exercise through the holiday season, and I’ll be writing about that on the blog over the next couple of months.

To kick things off, let’s start with some useful links.

Phil Morris gives some tips on avoiding holiday weight gain. I like his suggestion to show up late. That’s not a bad idea!

Dr. Val is setting up a group to actually lose weight over the holidays.

Kathryn Lively also gives some tips for taking control through the holiday season.

Over at Fuzzy Notions, there’s a great article about motivation and struggling to lose weight. Wow, can I ever relate.

One thing that really speaks to me… she says that junk food in the house is like a “siren song.” Yep, I can practically hear it screaming “Eat me!”

I think a lot of dieters struggle between wanting to lose weight (and keep it off) and wanting to just be “normal” as to eating. I get so tired of watching what I eat, thinking about calories and how much exercise I’m getting (or not getting). I’d like sometimes just to eat and not have to worry about it.

But when I do that, the pounds creep back on.

I do know some things about myself that can help, if I pay attention to them.

1. If I have it around, I’ll eat it. No amount of rationalizing will cover up the fact that I will eat it! So, the key is to not have it around.
2. I’m a snacker. It’s not practical for me to plan not to eat in the afternoons/evenings. If I don’t have something to snack on, then the vending machine will start calling to me around 2 o’clock or so.
3. I’m a stress eater, and chocolate is my drug of choice. I simple feel better when I eat. For someone who doesn’t eat in response to stress, I know that sounds a little crazy, but if you drink, smoke, bite your nails, etc. when you’re stressed, it’s probably a similar response.
4. I don’t like exercise. The only exercise I’ll usually stick with is what I think of as “meaningful” exercise. So, I’ll take a walk through town, but not on the treadmill. I’ll spend an hour doing heavy housework but not fifteen minutes lifting weights.
5. And this one is probably the biggest culprit in helping me gain weight… The more I beat myself up about my weight, the more weight I gain. I think it really boils down to how I feel about myself. If I feel rotten about myself, then I tend to eat more. Paradoxical, I know, but true.

If you’re reading this blog, then you can probably relate on some level to what I’m talking about. I believe that talking about your weight loss issues can help to overcome them. I certainly hope so!

It’s tough to change habits — you already know that. Here’s a tip that’s working well for me. I’m trying to pack my lunch more often. For one thing, it’s cheaper. More importantly, it’s healthier. Still, I have a tough time giving up eating lunch out. I’m not sure why it is, but I somehow feel deprived if I pack my lunch, so it’s been a really tough thing for me to change.

Here’s what I’ve decided to do, and so far it’s working fine. For each day that I pack lunch, I put what I would have spent eating out into my “mad money” stash. You can use a jar, piggy bank, bank account, envelope, whatever. It’s important that you actually pay yourself the money, first off. If you don’t the reward won’t seem real. Go to the ATM if you have to, but make sure that you give yourself the reward.

Also, don’t put it in your regular checking account; it will just get spent. Put it in a separate account, or put the cash somewhere. This should be special money, or “mad money” as I call it. This is guilt-free spending money! You’ve earned it.

Finally, choose something you want to buy with the money, and focus on that when you’re tempted to cheat. For me, it’s buying new carpet for one of our bedrooms. Maybe you want a new laptop, an outfit, or a mini-vacation.

This really brings home how much I spend eating out. I’m putting away almost $10 a day! Whatever habit you’d like to change, this is a technique you might want to try, especially if you’ve had your eye on something for yourself and just don’t have the cash to get it right now.

Just to repeat…I know you’ll be tempted to dip in to your money for something else. Maybe it’ll be an unexpected bill, a gift for someone else, or something equally practical. Try, try, try not to do this! Remember, this money would have been gone had you not been saving it. If you use it for something that you don’t enjoy, you take away the motivation to keep up the saving and risk stopping the habit entirely. Treat yourself! You deserve it.

You’ve probably read about how getting enough sleep can help you lose weight. Along those lines, I wanted to talk about something I’ve been experiencing lately.

Several things have combined to keep me really tired this week. Stress, loss of sleep, etc. have really taken a toll, and I’ve noticed that I’m eating a lot more as a result. In particular, I tend to crave a snack in the afternoons, simply because I’m so tired by then I feel that I need to do something to make it through the rest of the workday.

I’ve been trying to be more aware of what I’m doing. In particular, I’m trying to focus on the fact that I want to eat because I’m tired, not because I’m hungry. I’m also trying to do other things (besides snack) to keep my energy level up. One thing that works for me is taking a short walk. On bad days, I might walk down the hall and back every 30-45 minutes. I’ll also shut the door and stretch or just stand up for a while. Another thing to try is drinking instead of eating. I’ll have coffee or tea (both decaf). I might drink some water too.

Of course, the real solution is getting enough rest! I’m working on that one too.

Read more…

How Sleep can help Weight Loss

Another Sleep/Weight Loss Article

Sleep and Weight Gain 

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.

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.

Over the last few days, we’ve eaten out almost exclusively. That’s enough to wreak havoc for any dieter, especially one who’s watching carbs. Here are a few tips we used to get through it.

Eat from the salad bar. You can easily fill up on vegetables and watch both carbs and calories. Be careful how much cheese, dressing, etc. you add to your salad; those are the real diet breakers.

Choose unbreaded food. Breading is bad for low-carbers and dieters in general. It adds a lot of calories by itself. Since breaded items are almost always fried, it’s even worse.

Choose breakfast. A vegatble omelet is a good choice for any meal. Many restaurants serve breakfast all day. Avoid the fried meats and potatoes, and choose a more healthy side instead.

Avoid sauces and gravies. Foods that are heavily sauced are usually a bad choice. The sauces are often high in sugar and calories, and a bad idea all around. If you must have it, ask for it on the side.

Work in some exercise. If at all possible, take some short walks. This will help you feel more rested when traveling, and it will burn a few calories.

Everyone has experienced a plateau when losing weight. No matter what you do, not a single pound will come off. I’d like you to change the way you think about plateaus. Not only are they not necessarily a bad thing, weight loss plateaus can actually be a good thing.I’m speaking from my own weight loss experience, and I’d be curious to know if you’ve experienced something similar.

I tend to lose weight in bursts, not steadily. For example, I’ve recently lost 8 pounds, but that hasn’t been spread evenly over the last two months. I lost five or six pounds pretty quickly, and then the remainder over the next month. For the last three weeks, I’ve been stuck. I know how frustrating it can be to do everything “right” and still not see any results. There are more positive ways to look at the situation.

First of all, you’re not gaining.

If you’re anything like me, it’s not uncommon to lose weight and see it immediately come back on. At least when you hit a plateau, that isn’t happening.

A plateau can help reset your “normal” weight.

I’m speaking strictly from personal experience, but I think that plateaus are your body’s way of resetting your setpoint. That is, your body learns to recognize a new, lower weight, as normal. Have you noticed that when you gain weight, you tend to quickly bounce right back to where you were when you started? Why is that? I think it’s simply that your body is used to being that weight. If you can get your body accustomed to a new, lower weight, then that’s definitely a positive, don’t you think?

Positive attitude and actions

If you focus on not losing weight, then you’re likely to just increase your level of frustration, which in turn ups your chances for failure. Instead, focus on the positive things the plateau can do for your body. Given time and continued persistence, you’ll break through the plateau and keep on losing.

We’ve been having trouble find a lot of low-carb foods locally, so we’ve started ordering online. If you haven’t already found them, Netrition is a great place to find unusual foods that may be tough to find where you live. Although we buy low-carb foods, they offer a wide range of products.

Even better, they ship quickly and charge only 4.95, regardless of your order size.