Weighty Wednesday -- You ARE What You Eat

News Flash, right?

Think about it.

Gary, credit to AllAmericanGuys.com

Jillian Michaels

Those studly bodies that we oogle (male or female), with the clear-cut muscles, well-defined abs and totally toned, are NOT produced when eating copious amounts of refined carbs.

True, many high performance athletes eat numerous high-carb meals for the surge of energy to perform in the Olympics or whatever.

But time to get real here . . . that isn't you by a long shot. Even if you are active and exercise daily, you don't even come into the same class as the high performance athletes. Very few people do. And they don't eat like that every day, only when they have to perform.

Heathandnaturalcure.blogspot.com

 There were so many seriously obese people on Google Images. that I didn't have the heart to use them as an example!
Now look at those pictures of the lumpy, dumpy obese people, with ill-fitting clothes and their own zip codes on their butts. What food group do you think they eat the majority of the time?

Carbs.

Granted, not all carbs are bad. The problem with refined carbs is they make you crave more of them. They are as addictive as nicotine. Once you fall into their doughy grips, it's hard to get a handle on them--they get a handle on you, the original 'love' handles, which then grow larger and larger.

But this blog isn't about carb-bashing, it's about the reality of losing weight.

If you want to lose weight you have to change your habits. You have to make new habits. New habits don't happen with the wave of your wand.

Julie, my Weight Watcher leader, made a comment that resonated with me. This is paraphrased, of course, since my memory is a sieve, but I think this was the gist of her comment. "You can do this program without changing your habits, but you will be consuming about 1/4 of the amount of food you used to consume. You will be hungry. Why do this to yourself? The program is designed to change your poor eating habits into healthy eating habits, along with the side benefit of losing weight."

You have to want this to make it work.

In Weight Watchers, they have points-system based tracking. Depending on your starting weight, you are allotted so many points. You can do whatever you want with those points. You can eat that one point-filled meal, or you can spread your points throughout the day.

BUT word of warning: If you decided to eat a fast food hamburger, french fries and a shake, you will eat up your daily (and maybe some of your weekly points). You will be one very hungry, hungry hippo if you don't find some other way to nosh.

Many fruits and vegetables are considered zero points, eat them with abandon! Add them to every meal. Eat them for snacks. Eventually, your meals will start evolving into well-balanced meals. You will soon see the difference on the scale and with the way your clothes fit.

Will it be easy?

Sorry, no.  The cravings, the headaches, the grouchiness, etc are part of the withdrawal symptoms, but once you are over the hump, it's easier to ignore the white stuff carbs are made of.

Something I need to remember to get back into the 'comfort zone' of my goal weight. I'm still legal, but barely. I'd rather have four pounds of wiggle room instead of 0.4!

The sun is starting to come up, so it's time for me to put on my brand new walking shoes and break them in!

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- You ARE What You Eat

I know this title is a cliché, but clichés are clichés because there is a load of truth to them.

Have you ever had a friend who counts calories, but can’t lose weight? Or someone who doesn’t eat very much and can’t lose weight? Or someone who eats a normal daily calorie count, but it’s all fast food?

Well, I’m a perfect example of the first two scenarios.

Over the last few weeks, I have been walking my rump roast off.

Literally.

Two-a-days. Three days a week for about 9-10 miles. The other days, I would do my normal 4 mile walkies, plus whatever else I do to keep active. A couple of the days, I earned 17 activity points with my ActiveLink.

Even though I’m Lifetime, I want to keep my weight to the low end of my goal weight—more wiggle room when I weigh in.

And I knew for sure that I was going to lose the weight I had gained on vacation two months ago.

I didn’t lose weight, I’ve been gaining . . . very slowly, but gaining none-the-less.

So, what gives?

1. There’s a very good reason Weight Watchers is an advocate of tracking your food.
2. There’s a very good reason Weight Watchers advocates portion control and measuring your portions.
3. There’s a very good reason Weight Watchers advocates their GOOD HEALTH GUIDELINES.
4. There’s a very good reason Weight Watchers advocates a minimum amount of points a person should reach daily.

And I have failed in all four of these departments these last two months.

1. I really don’t like tracking my food, but this week I need to get back to tracking. In one day of tracking, I discovered that I haven’t been getting enough points, or way too many points, daily
2. I would guess the amount I was eating, not measuring. Normally this is less of an issue, except I’ve been attacking the peanut butter with abandonment. Though PB has loads of protein, it also has tons of fat AND sugar (JIF is the worst offender, but tastes the bestest!)
3. I haven’t been eating near enough fruits or vegetables. If I had been eating enough of them, I wouldn’t be grazing on the peanut butter!
4. I’ve been under my daily points numerous days in a row, which puts my body in ‘starvation’ mode. This means it hangs onto all the lovely fat that I have packed away for a rainy day. Not good.

So I’m back to tracking and following the good health guidelines.

I’ll have to let you know if my strategy worked.

Later, Peeps!