Tag: Refrigerator

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General Weight Loss Tips

Calendar Love

I’m more likely to complete a task when it’s in writing and I give myself the opportunity to check it off. What is it about calendars? Back when I did 14 weeks of Insanity, I felt like I had to do it because there was a calendar with a task and I needed to check it off. It adds pressure and makes me feel like I’m skipping out on myself when I miss an appointment.

My mid-September calendar has been so helpful this week. Granted, it’s only been a couple of days of check-offs, but it’s working in it’s own way. For example, I didn’t finish my Jillian workout until about 8pm last night. I was busy most of the day and really just wanted to settle in for the evening. But, the calendar hanging on the refrigerator was calling to me.  I could not end the day without checking exercise off my list. I’m restarting c25k again today and I’m excited because the weather is perfect. I’m restarting because 1) I want to participate in the 5k in Winston-Salem in December again and 2) I think I’ve been invited to do a 5k in Cincinnati in May. It’s time to prepare!

How do you stay accountable for exercise?

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

The Gift

In the past week and two days, I’ve had something major happen. The desire to overeat, or eat for the wrong reasons is slowly disappearing. This is not the time to be cocky about my actions (I’ve been there), but at the very least thoughtful and aware of them. Fighting the urge to overeat, for me, is a task that has consumed me most of my life.

And yet, when I cut out the food that calls to me, the battle disappears. I know right now that I have a five pound bag of sugar in the pantry. Right next to the flour. I know that I have butter in the refrigerator and muffins in the freezer. It’s not that these things are bad or I think they are to blame. But, it’s nice to know that I can live in harmony with these things in my kitchen.

Knowing that I’m only 10 minutes away from freshly baked cookies or bread, does not consume because I know that I won’t be eating them. Or even making them for that matter. But to say sure, I’ll  have a couple. Which inevidebly turns into, go ahead and have a few. And finally, screw this, I’ll start over tomorrow. All the while wondering if any other human being has ever consumed 12 cookies in one sitting. Or an entire frozen pizza. Or cake or pie or a sweet apple crumble.

It’s nice not to be a contender in the tug of war that is me against whatever it is I’m trying not to overeat. Whatever concoction I can come up with in my kitchen when I just need a little something sweet. Because I’ve been good. Because I’ve had a hard day. Or because gosh darnit I deserve a little dessert.  A mug full of microwave cocoa, butter and sugar. I’ve done it, oh yes I have.  But, it’s never, or I should say rarely a little dessert for me. A little taste. A no thank you “it’s too rich for me”.  I have not tasted, I’ve consumed.

I’ve come to realize that I’ve been trying to lose weight wanting to be that person. Wanting to be the person who already fought and won. Wanting to be the person maintaning. Figuring it out. Having a little something on the weekends, but still watching. I wanted to skip these steps of saying no or realizing that I can in fact live without so much sugar, and so much flour and so many potatoes. I can still find comfort and contentment in roasted vegetables and chicken, Indian curries and sauces, fluffy brown rice, sticky ribs right off the grill or crisp apples dipped in almond butter.

But I know that I need a game plan for the day that I do eat a little sugar or warm bread dipped in olive oil, or a pizza right out of the brick oven. Those days are inevitable. But they don’t have to derail or consume me. Overeating doesn’t always have to be my default. Overeating does not define me. I’m not pretending this day will not come. There is no guilt in the pleasure of food. In savoring and indulging for a special occasion. I’m okay with that day down the road. But I’m so happy to be on this current road.

A road where I don’t have to decide not to have a snack of nuts because they have too many calories. Or a day where I’m not measuring out portions of salad dressing and chicken. Because I know, that these are not foods I punish myself with. When I’ve had enough I simply stop.

I don’t have to be maddening about this at all, and I love that. I love for food, on most days, to be an after thought. I want to be consumed with my work, my latest project, writing, creating intricate jewelry. I want my days to be filled with walks or jogs. I want them to be filled with sweat from dancing. I am excited to have tasted the freedom, the freedom of getting wrapped up in anything and everything that doesn’t revolve around food.

Taking care of myself, I’ve realized, is not sacrifice. It’s a little gift that I give to myself every single day. The gift that used to be food is now replaced with life.

 

 

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

The Basic Diet Plan Mistake


There is a real failure out there with the classic basic diet plan. With so much information available on diet and weight loss, I am still not sure why people fail to lose weight. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but it is the magnitude of the mistake that will determine the success or failure of your weight loss plan.

For example, if you make the small ‘mistake’ of eating one burger a week, it won’t make any significant difference in your body weight. However, if you make the terrible diet mistake I am going to outline in this article, then you have no chance of ever becoming successful at fat loss.

If you’ve ever followed a basic diet plan, this would sound familiar. The process goes thus:

Basic Diet Plan

The Basic Diet Plan Mistake

Basic Diet Plan

1. You pick up a diet plan that is too strict for any average person

2. This diet plan basically deprives you of almost everything that you enjoy: chips, burgers, pastries, white bread, cakes, biscuits, milk, chocolate, soft drinks, etc. So you have no other option but to throw away all those things from your kitchen. You start following the diet program with all good intentions, and promise yourself that you would never quit it until you have lost weight successfully.

3. You lose a few pounds quite rapidly within the first few weeks. You seem to be happy with your progress when suddenly, one day you realize that you are no longer shedding pounds! You have hit a weight loss plateau.

4. You become frustrated with your diet plan and with its restrictions. You find it too hard to control your food cravings so you take a peek at your refrigerator and take one bite of your favorite junk food. You say to yourself ‘one bite won’t do much harm’.

5. Slowly however this binge-eating habit spirals out of your control until you find it quite impossible to stay on your diet. You then start shopping for all those junk foods that you had promised not to eat!

6. You get back to your normal lifestyle, start eating junk foods again as before, and gain back all the pounds you had lost! You are back to square one.

Why a Basic Diet Plan Does Not Work

It all started with just one wrong decision on your part: the decision to lose weight rapidly. That decision ultimately sabotaged your weight loss plan. In your quest for fast weight loss, you chose a diet plan that promised the moon but was in no way suitable for you! You tried to make huge changes in your lifestyle all too fast, and ended up achieving nothing.

In case you haven’t realized it already, the best way to lose weight is by making small changes in your lifestyle! That is because small changes are far more practicable and viable than larger ones.

Make lots of Small Changes Consistently

I have written lots of articles on the blog here that should help you to find these tips I even wrote one about how to lose weight quickly which would be a great place to start.


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