When you're trying to lose weight, there's nothing like the joy of seeing the figure on the bathroom scales go down.
And of course, there's also nothing like the disappointment of being “good” all week, eating healthy food and exercising like mad and seeng the scales not budge at all or (worse) go in the wrong direction.
The problem is that the figure on the scales is subject to a lot of variation and much of that is nothing to do with whether you have been following your weight loss program or not.
Food type (chiefly the presence or absence of salt), weather and hormones all have an effect on how much water you retain and can affect your weight adversely even if you've lost fat. On the other hand you may be falsely celebrating (and so be in for a disappointment next weigh-in) just because your stomach is empty and you're wearing lighter clothes than last time you weighed yourself.
To get over this, if (and only if) you can be dispassionate about the scales and see them as a tool rather than the be all and end all of weight loss, I suggest weighing yourself every day at the same time wearing nothing at all (e.g. just before your morning shower) and plotting your weight on a graph.
Daily your weight will go up and down but on average you should be seeing a downwards path. You can happily look at your average going down from week to week and use that as motivation.
However if you are someone who reacts badly to the figure on the scales either by getting depressed if it goes up or celebrating too much (or rewarding yourself with extra food) if it goes down, then give up weighing yourself more than once a month. Use your clothes to be the judge of whether you are losing weight or not.
You really cant control what the scales say on a day to day basis BUT you can control what they say from month to month and above all you can control your behaviour no matter what the scales say. Weighing yourself won't change your weight. But sticking with your weight loss program will
Continue Reading October 27th, 2008
Ok, I'm joking. But seriously you've got to stop the boom and bust with exercise and just fit more movement and activity into your everyday life.
Because you know what happens when you decide to go on one of your exercise bouts - you go crazy with it and get sore or injured and you just don't feel like doing ANYTHING for a week. Or you put off starting exercise until you're not so busy/tired because it all seems like too much effort. Or even worse, you exercise and then you reward yourself for all that effort by eating or drinking many more calories than you used up.
To lose weight you'll need to either eat less or move more or both. There's no magic diet pill, patch or gimmick no matter what the ads try to tell you. If you move your body more, you'll be able to eat slightly more than you otherwise would and still lose weight.
But we're not talking plates of pasta here - we're talking about an extra apple or yogurt, maybe an occasional cookie.
You walk for 10 minutes, you use about 50 - 60 calories. That's all! And you need to use up 3500 calories to lose a pound of fat. So don't go thinking you can have a bar of chocolate after a walk around the block and still see a result at the end of the week!
If you love exercise and don't feel the need to reward yourself afterwards - go for it! We all need to get exercise for our health. But if you hate it and can't get through a jogging or gym session without the idea that you deserve a treat (and an edible one at that) - go for gentler exercise, a 10 minute walk here, an extra stair climb there, and add some activities which you find fun rather than a trial - tennis or badminton, swimming, skating or golf, dancing or karate. Let the activity itself be the reward.
Continue Reading October 25th, 2008
One of the healthiest changes you can make to your diet if you want to lose weight AND feel better is to eat more vegetables. They are low in calories and high in minerals and fibre and they will fill you up without adding to your fat stores.
I know they are not so much fun to eat like chips and chocolate but they can be delicious if you cook them right.
If you're not fond of veggies you have to be a bit inventive - add them to soups, stews, casseroles and curries or stir fry them with a good sauce for a better flavour. You could roast root vegetables to bring out their sweetness or puree your vegetables along with potato for a great mash. If you prefer them raw, make crudites (vegetable sticks) with a low-fat dip or have them in a huge mixed salad.
And if you tend to buy lots of vegetables at the start of the week with good intentions only to find them rotting in the fridge when it's time to go shopping again, do yourself a favour, spend a little more and buy the ready prepared kind which are easy to serve without effort. You''ll spend more but waste less.
One good tip for weight loss is to start every meal with veggies so that they fill you up BEFORE you get going on the main course. Eat your salad first or a good vegetable soup and then serve yourself a much smaller portion of your main course than you otherwise would.
If you have any good recipes or ideas for eating more vegetables (and less everything else) please feel free to comment below.
Continue Reading October 23rd, 2008
I have just had the most horrendous weekend of non-stop eating which just goes to prove that even weight loss coaches don't eat well all the time.
I have no excuses - I mean we were away on a 7 hour each-way trip from Edinburgh to Longleat to visit the safari park which my youngest has been going on about since it featured in the BBC's “Animal Park”. And of course this entailed eating in tourist cafes and motorway service stations for 3 days. Not to mention nibbling sweets in the car to pass the long journey.
But if I'm honest, I'd have to say there WERE healthier choices and I didn't have to have so much junk.
Still, I have to say that even in a normal weekend I tend to find it more difficult to be disciplined than during the week and my clients often find this too. So here is what I do when I am actually listening to my own advice (which thankfully is most of the time otherwise I would be needing a weight loss coach myself 
- Remember that a weekend of over-eating (and drinking) can put paid to a whole week of effort. Is it really worth giving up all the ground you worked so hard for? And no it's not a reward for a good week if it means it turns into a bad week. You'll only regret it.
- If getting out of your weekday routine means getting out of a routine of eating healthily and taking exercise then you need to plan your weekend ahead of schedule to include these things. On Friday, think ahead about your plans and take the time to think about your meals and how you'll fit exercise into your activities.
- Use your weekends to get EXTRA exercise. Take a hike in the countryside. Play a game of tennis. Have a relaxed (rather than rushed) yoga session. Go dancing. Try and get your friends involved in social activity not just social eating and drinking.
- If you take the time to cook at the weekend then make sure you choose and cook healthy dishes rather than heavy fattening meals.
- If you eat out a lot more at weekends, it's especially important to choose your restaurants and your menu options with care. (Now why did I not remember that one this weekend?)
- Just because your partner and/or kids are indulging in something fattening does not mean you have to follow suit. Beg for a spoonful rather than giving in to having a plateful.
- And if you tend to drink more at the weekends remember that alcohol is pure empty calories designed to go straight from your lips to your fat zones all the while destroying any semblance of willpower you had. Be warned - have a drink if you like but think twice (and three times) about more than one or two.
Above all never go mad at the weekend thinking you'll start your diet again on Monday. That little self-deception has made more people overweight than almost any other idea especially when it turns into a pattern of weekend indulgence followed by Monday abstinence followed by Wednesday's failure to live up to your strict standards followed by giving up until Monday… if that's you, you know how it goes…
Continue Reading October 23rd, 2008
It is very important that we all remain as healthy as we can. Do all the things that you know to do so that we can be healthy. We assume that if we get sick that the doctors or hospitals are going to do everything that they can to make us better. This is not always the case.
When one is sick the first thing that they have to do is take a look at what they are doing. Especially, what one is eating. My grandmother has been sick since February of 2008 and she is now sick again. She has diabetes and congestive heart failure. My mom went to Ohio to take care of her. She had completely changed her diet. She was cooking her meals and helping her get some exercise by having her do a little walking everyday. She was getting better. She took care of my grandmother for 2 months. She had asked my grandmother did she want to come to Michigan and stay with her. She said, “No”. My mom returned home.
Since, my mom left my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital. She is now back in the hospital and my mom is back in Ohio. She wasn’t doing to good and she had a small stroke. My mom was visiting with my grandmother and guess what she was drinking. Pop. Can you believe that? My mom said,”Mom you don’t need to be drinking that?” That’s like giving a cancer patient a cigarette. You would think the hospital would know how to feed people when they are sick. It’s probably not on their priority list. My grandmother has been in and out of the hospital and the rehabilitation center. Last year I went to Ohio with my mom and sisters and we visited her at the rehabilitation center. The food they were feeding her was horrible. If you are sick no way should you be eating that kind of food. Fish sticks and a potatoe salad sandwich. Who has even heard of that?
I really do believe that it is not the agenda of the health care system to make us healthy. With all the technology they have and all the studying they have done on the body they should know by now what is healthy and what is not. No one wants to be on medication for the rest of their lives. (Well, they shouldn’t want to be).
I really hope that my grandmother will get better and I do hope that she will come and stay with my mom because, that would be much better for her. My mom will defintitely take good care of her.
sick, hospitals, food,
Turbo Tagger
Continue Reading October 20th, 2008
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