Ahh, the weekend. For most of us, it's a time when rules and schedules are at least somewhat relaxed, our time is our own and the occasions to overindulge are plentiful. Even the strongest among us find our resolve shaking a bit on the weekend. It's so easy to justify that extra cocktail or a sinfully rich dessert--it's the weekend, after all! What's a "dieter" (for lack of a much better word) to do?
Give in. OK, maybe not entirely. But the idea is, if the weekend is going to tempt you to eat and drink too much of the kinds of food you should avoid, then trying to avoid them completely will almost surely make you feel deprived. And this, my friends, will almost surely lead you far off the bandwagon.
So give in a little bit. Have dessert. Maybe share it with a friend and only take a few bites. Skip the fried appetizer and savor that sweet ending. Looking forward to a couple of beers? By all means, have them! But do try to get some water in as well. Looking forward to a gourmet meal where you'll be doing a lot of tasting? Go for a long hike or run earlier in the day or the next morning to help mitigate the damage.
Get the idea? As long as you keep things relatively in check, you can indulge a bit on the weekend. Assess where you are as you end the week: happy with the scale or ready to throw it out the window? Let that be your guide for your actions on the weekend. Try to balance things out so that you haven't regressed too much. Then, go back to your healthy eating plan refreshed and ready to resume. After all, you're only human, and you deserve a treat every now and then. Just remember to remain in control so you won't have regrets come Monday morning.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Playing the Maintenance Game
Losing weight is hard work--there's no question about that. But I have found that maintaining one's weight loss can be even harder. Let's face it: the odds are against us. Most people who lose weight on a diet typically gain it back (along with a few extra pounds) before long. The yo-yo dieting cycle works against us by making it even more difficult to lose and easier to gain next time around. Therefore, while we may take that weight off and feel like the king of the mountain, it's all too easy to slip down the slope and be at the bottom again. It's like winning the lottery and then figuring out what to do with all that money so you don't find yourself broke again!
Awhile back, I had posted about battling 2-3 unwanted pounds that were keeping me from my fighting weight (my vanity weight, as I call it). I thought I was doing everything I could to take those few pounds off: frequent intense cardio sessions, lots of fruits and veggies, avoiding sweets. But they were stubborn. I'm proud to say that as of TODAY, those pounds are gone, and I had to relearn a weight-loss lesson to make them go away.
You see, when I first started to lose 25 lbs. a couple of years ago, my initial principle of success was simply this: eat less. I took the amount of food I normally ate and shaved off about a third of it. No second helpings. No eating until I was stuffed--instead, I ate until I was satiated (yes, there's a difference). I reasoned (correctly) that if I ate smaller portions of the foods I normally ate, I'd be eating fewer calories and dropping weight. And it worked, for awhile, until I discovered the fruit/veggie/water/fiber connection and it all really started coming together for me. But more recently, that initial principle had gotten a bit lost in the shuffle for me.
So a couple of weeks ago, when I began to reexamine my approach, I realized that I was being "good" all day only to blow it by sneaking in extra bites and too-large portions at dinner. I had that "what can I get away with eating?" mentality, instead of the "what does my body need me to eat?" mentality. I needed to go back to basics. I did so, and voila--the weight is gone. And so continues the maintenance game.
Staying mindful of what we do is so important. A fitness instructor whose classes I adore spoke yesterday about "mindful exercise"--really concentrating on working a particular muscle group in order to get better results with less time commitment. Similarly, we need to be mindful of what and how and how much we are eating in order to maintain our fitness success. I keep relearning the lesson. I'll admit when I've stumbled, but I'm not above bragging a bit when I get back on my feet again.
Whether you've got 5 lbs. to lose or 50, don't let a stubborn scale throw you off track; use it to figure out what you can do differently. And if you've already reached your goal weight and are playing the maintenance game, congratulate yourself, and then reevaluate your strategy in order to keep it off. To your continued success!
Awhile back, I had posted about battling 2-3 unwanted pounds that were keeping me from my fighting weight (my vanity weight, as I call it). I thought I was doing everything I could to take those few pounds off: frequent intense cardio sessions, lots of fruits and veggies, avoiding sweets. But they were stubborn. I'm proud to say that as of TODAY, those pounds are gone, and I had to relearn a weight-loss lesson to make them go away.
You see, when I first started to lose 25 lbs. a couple of years ago, my initial principle of success was simply this: eat less. I took the amount of food I normally ate and shaved off about a third of it. No second helpings. No eating until I was stuffed--instead, I ate until I was satiated (yes, there's a difference). I reasoned (correctly) that if I ate smaller portions of the foods I normally ate, I'd be eating fewer calories and dropping weight. And it worked, for awhile, until I discovered the fruit/veggie/water/fiber connection and it all really started coming together for me. But more recently, that initial principle had gotten a bit lost in the shuffle for me.
So a couple of weeks ago, when I began to reexamine my approach, I realized that I was being "good" all day only to blow it by sneaking in extra bites and too-large portions at dinner. I had that "what can I get away with eating?" mentality, instead of the "what does my body need me to eat?" mentality. I needed to go back to basics. I did so, and voila--the weight is gone. And so continues the maintenance game.
Staying mindful of what we do is so important. A fitness instructor whose classes I adore spoke yesterday about "mindful exercise"--really concentrating on working a particular muscle group in order to get better results with less time commitment. Similarly, we need to be mindful of what and how and how much we are eating in order to maintain our fitness success. I keep relearning the lesson. I'll admit when I've stumbled, but I'm not above bragging a bit when I get back on my feet again.
Whether you've got 5 lbs. to lose or 50, don't let a stubborn scale throw you off track; use it to figure out what you can do differently. And if you've already reached your goal weight and are playing the maintenance game, congratulate yourself, and then reevaluate your strategy in order to keep it off. To your continued success!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Dinner and Beyond: The Final Frontier
Is night-time your downfall? Are you a model diet follower during the day, but when the sun goes down you morph into an out-of-control diet werewolf, as it were? I must admit to having some of this trait myself. I really don't have much trouble being a good girl all day long, but there's something about that dinner table that melts my resolve.
Maybe it's the whole "family comfort" element that does it. Dinner time, in my house, is about the whole family coming together to share their day and share a meal. There are all sorts of feel-good emotions tied up in that meal that simply aren't connected to breakfast or lunch. And when you feel good, you want to celebrate: maybe another small spoonful of casserole or half a roll; it's really a shame to throw away the tiny portion of leftover pasta of meatloaf, so I'll just eat it up as I'm clearing the table.
Wait! Stop! It's this type of thinking that gets us in trouble. It's foolish to believe that if you ingest those extra calories at dinner (or after dinner), they won't count toward your daily total. And because you're eating them at the end of the day, they'll probably show up on the scale the next morning--then how will you feel? Believe me, I know how tempting it is--still is--to be the "clean-up gal" at dinner. But even if no one sees you do it, you're still eating those calories, and your body knows it.
So how to break the night-time overeating habit? Be just as mindful--if not more so--of what you're putting into your mouth at night as you are the rest of the day. Think about the hard work of sticking to your eating plan and exercising. Do you want to throw all that away for another mouthful of lasagna or a few extra bites of garlic bread? NOT WORTH IT!
The same goes for snacking before bed, when you might be tempted to have something sweet or crunchy. It's the winding-down time of the day, so it's natural for the mind to wander to snacking, even if you're not truly hungry. If your kitchen is downstairs and your bedroom is upstairs, try going upstairs right after cleaning up from dinner so you're not tempted to go back in for a bite or two. It's not as tempting if you have to go downstairs and back up again for that snack!
At dinner, perhaps the trick is not to serve foods you can't resist. Or to keep the garbage can next to the dinner table so you can empty the food scraps directly into the trash. Maybe you need a full-length mirror next to your seat. Use whatever behavior-modification methods you need to stop this bad habit in its tracks. You'll be glad you did.
Maybe it's the whole "family comfort" element that does it. Dinner time, in my house, is about the whole family coming together to share their day and share a meal. There are all sorts of feel-good emotions tied up in that meal that simply aren't connected to breakfast or lunch. And when you feel good, you want to celebrate: maybe another small spoonful of casserole or half a roll; it's really a shame to throw away the tiny portion of leftover pasta of meatloaf, so I'll just eat it up as I'm clearing the table.
Wait! Stop! It's this type of thinking that gets us in trouble. It's foolish to believe that if you ingest those extra calories at dinner (or after dinner), they won't count toward your daily total. And because you're eating them at the end of the day, they'll probably show up on the scale the next morning--then how will you feel? Believe me, I know how tempting it is--still is--to be the "clean-up gal" at dinner. But even if no one sees you do it, you're still eating those calories, and your body knows it.
So how to break the night-time overeating habit? Be just as mindful--if not more so--of what you're putting into your mouth at night as you are the rest of the day. Think about the hard work of sticking to your eating plan and exercising. Do you want to throw all that away for another mouthful of lasagna or a few extra bites of garlic bread? NOT WORTH IT!
The same goes for snacking before bed, when you might be tempted to have something sweet or crunchy. It's the winding-down time of the day, so it's natural for the mind to wander to snacking, even if you're not truly hungry. If your kitchen is downstairs and your bedroom is upstairs, try going upstairs right after cleaning up from dinner so you're not tempted to go back in for a bite or two. It's not as tempting if you have to go downstairs and back up again for that snack!
At dinner, perhaps the trick is not to serve foods you can't resist. Or to keep the garbage can next to the dinner table so you can empty the food scraps directly into the trash. Maybe you need a full-length mirror next to your seat. Use whatever behavior-modification methods you need to stop this bad habit in its tracks. You'll be glad you did.
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