Did you have a calorie-laden weekend like I did? Too many special dinners and celebrations knocked me off course – but I’m ready to hit it hard this week!
If you had too many extras this weekend, don’t despair. Move on. Put it behind you and do what it takes to burn those extra calories off this week. You may not have a weight loss for the week, but if you work hard you can have a zero gain!
First, make sure your home is purged of all leftover junk food, sweets, snacks, cakes, ice cream, etc. You don’t want any temptation food hanging around.
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One thing I often battle with my clients over is keeping a food journal. They don’t want to bother with it. It seems like too much work.
The work isn’t just in writing down what you eat. The work really happens in planning your food and calorie intake. This definitely takes planning and forethought.
When you journal, you can’t eat mindlessly. You’re conscious of every choice, every serving, and every calorie. To stay in your calorie goal and stick to healthy eating, you have to think about your food.
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Many times clients express their wishes to lose weight, but they don’t really want to change their diets. They may say they want to “ease” into it. Maybe they are willing to make a small change like giving up their daily candy bar. But they want to stay pretty comfortable with their food and not feel “deprived.”
Sure, small changes can be good. For some people, this is all they can handle. And at least it’s better than nothing.
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I often hear complaints, such as, “I’m doing so good. I’m not cheating, but my weight is stuck. I don’t know what is wrong!”
Sometimes people truly hit a plateau in their weight loss while the body makes adjustments and resets. This usually ends after two or three weeks.
However, the culprit of stagnant weight loss is more often a little relaxing of the diet.
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Today was definitely an I-don’t-feel-like-exercising day. I was tired and had a headache, and dreary rain was falling outside. When my timer went off for me to get up off the couch and get ready for the gym, I groaned.
I turned the timer off, but seriously considered resetting it and crashing back on the couch. However, if I did that I wouldn’t have been able to get in my full workout. I knew I’d be disappointed with myself and my calorie burn. So I dragged on my exercise clothes and herded my kids out the door.
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Last night after a full day of homeschooling and several hours of personal training, I finally got time to exercise. Getting on the treadmill at 8:00 p.m. was not what I wanted to do either. I wanted to go home for dinner!
My energy was in the basement and I felt a little nauseous. I started at a jog to warm up then took the speed up to run. Over the next 45 minutes I stopped a few times to get a sip of water and let my stomach calm down. It was not my best workout for sure, but I got it done and hit my calorie goal.
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Tonight I was in a rush and emotionally agitated when I grabbed dinner. I wolfed it down trying to hurry and eat as fast as I could. Afterward, I did not feel satisfied or full. So I ate more – outside of my eating plan for the day and over my calorie limit. Ugh!
I realized that I should have waited until I could’ve eaten quietly, peacefully, and slowly. I should have done something relaxing like drink herbal tea or take a shower. If I would’ve calmed down and slowed my pace, I could have eaten and enjoyed my dinner. And my body would’ve realized that I had actually eaten!
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When it comes to weight loss, it’s always the food that reflects on the scale.
Inevitably, when I weigh a client in whose weight has gone up, he or she will say, “But I exercised all week!”
Well, when we’re looking at the scale, I’m not interested in hearing about your exercise. I want to know what you’re doing with your food.
One thing I try to drive home to my clients is: “Weight loss is 80% percent what you eat, 20% how you train.” Food is absolutely, positively, unquestionably the biggest factor in weight loss.
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Nobody wants to weigh-in on Monday. And sometimes not on Tuesday or Wednesday either. They hope by Friday (fingers crossed) their weight will be down.
So many times I hear, “Uhh, can I weigh-in later in the week? I had a bad weekend.”
Then they work hard all week long to get their weight back down to what it was the week before. Do you see a problem with this?
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There are few people I know of who decided to lose weight on their own with no outside support or help – and were successful. There are also few people I know of who lost weight and kept it off for five or more years.
Why? Because weight loss is not a once-and-done thing like buying a pair of shoes. It requires total behavior change: new ways of eating, coping, socializing, relaxing, etc. This requires difficult lifestyle changes.
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Going out to eat can be tough on your healthy diet, but it doesn’t have to be a wipe out. Look online first before you go. Many restaurants have nutritional information on their websites. If they don’t, you can often find information on calorie websites, such as calorieking.com and thedailyplate.com.
If you don’t know the nutritional information, order smart by ordering grilled, steamed, or broiled entrees. Ask for your food to be prepared without added oils and get all dressings/sauces on the side. And skip the bread, appetizers, and desserts!
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Have you seen the “Biggest Loser” show when the contestants are shown their real age versus their biological age? It’s quite shocking to see how old their bodies are compared to how many years they’ve lived.
Of course, at the end of the season, the contestants are retested. An amazing thing has happened. As they transformed their outward appearance through diet and exercise, their bodies also underwent a transformation. They shed years off their real age and medical conditions disappeared.
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I’ve seen many people join a weight loss program or buy a weight loss book expecting it to magically make them lose weight. They think that somehow by signing up to a new program or buying the next greatest book, it will be all they need to lose weight. Then when it doesn’t happen, the program “doesn’t work” or the book “wasn’t any good.”
Let me tell you, if someone really wants to work on their weight, they can take the simplest plan and find success.
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