Weight Loss Blog: calories diet meal plan personal training weight weight loss
by fitfamily
leave a comment
“Almost mindless”
weight loss blog
In week two, our blogger A discovers some important secrets to great, lasting weight loss: plan, plan and plan some more. Leaving your next meal to chance makes it much more likely you will choose unhealthy foods.
Weight: 152 lb Height: 5′ 3″
Day Seven — 1/20th of the way down the road to my new fit body and I’ve lost a total of……negative three pounds! What!? I’ve tried to be good, I really have! Kind of. There was last week’s birthday bash with way too much rich food, wine and tequila. And there was the subsequent hangover junk-food day. And cheat night at my sister’s house. And I skipped the gym one day and two at-home workouts…but really, I’ve tried to be good!
I’m proud to say I feel ready to get back on track though. I had a great workout today at the gym, and have been paying a lot more attention to what I eat and when and why. It took me a while to realize how often I eat out of boredom. I often find myself at home around 10pm — too fatigued from the day to start any activity of sorts, but still too wired to go to bed. When books and TV don’t hold my attention I find myself wandering to the kitchen to kill some time. Another trigger for me is when I’m hungry and I haven’t had enough water throughout the day. I start to feel frantic, and I’m reaching for the closest thing edible to snack on while my pre-planned meal is heating. I’m learning to recognize this and reach for a glass of water instead, which works instantly to calm me down.
Today I realized how important it is to know which fast-food choices to make. I grabbed a Wheat ‘n Carrot muffin from Tim Horton’s thinking it was probably the best choice for an on-the-run breakfast. WRONG! When I checked their website later, I found out that the innocent-seeming pastry had 400 calories, 19 grams of fat and over 5 teaspoons of sugar. I spent less than five minutes on their website to find three options with less fat and sugar, and more filling protein — now these are on my “safe” foods list for the next time I’m running late in the morning.
I try to spend a few minutes each day doing calorie counts for my favourite meals and snacks. This way, the next time I know I have only a certain number of calories left for the day, I can check my home-made recipe cards to find something yummy that won’t put me over the top. It also means that I don’t have to do the math everytime I make a turkey sandwich for lunch. Along with portion-controlled frozen meals, and lots of fresh fruit and veggies in the fridge, it makes it almost mindless to stay within my calorie-range.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see the dramatic change on the scale that you were hoping for. When you look back on your week and realize you weren’t quite as virtuous as you meant to be, it’s easy to understand why you haven’t lost any weight yet. Regroup and recognize your pitfalls, then PLAN to avoid them. If you lay your ingredients or meals out for yourself or prepare ahead of time by using frozen meals and recipes to help guide you, the willpower to stick with your plan is the only thing you’ll need!
Weight Loss Blog: dieting diets exercise fat loss personal trainer personal training weight loss workouts
by fitfamily
1 comment
“What did I sign on for?”
weight loss blog
In the first installment of the Fit Family Weight Loss Blog, our intrepid blogger, A, wavers between excitement and self-doubt as she kicks off her new exercise program.
Weight: 149 lbs Height: 5′ 3″
Bust: 38″ Waist: 32″Hips: 40″
Thigh: 23.5″
Arm: 12.5″
Today is day two of my 20-week, 20-pound commitment. Yesterday’s 20 minute treadmill jog felt really good — I didn’t think I’d make it past about ten minutes, but I found a comfortable pace and just kept going. Now that I know I can run at least that long, I have no excuse to do any less. Next gym day I’ll add two more minutes. The strength-training portion of my workout was a little more frustrating — I felt weak doing my push ups, unstable doing my lunges, and just plain fat doing crunches. I left the gym feeling a mix of endorphin-driven energy and “oh my god, do I really have to do this five times a week from now on, what did I sign on for and what the heck was I thinking” terror.
This morning when I woke up I instantly starting thinking about how much I did not want to do my at-home workout. Feeling sore from yesterday’s workout, I started bargaining with myself, trying to think of some other activity I could substitute; yoga dvd? an extra half hour walk? housecleaning? Right about then I got a motivational text-message from my Fit Family personal trainer. I grumbled out of bed, put my sneakers on, and after only a few minutes of stalling, put a great CD on and started my routine. The warm up just about killed me.
I admit, I did only two of the four sets I was supposed to of push ups, tricep dips, crunches and stair lunges. And I felt guilty for it, so I added an extra 8 blocks onto my jog/walk. Today I did ‘jog two, walk two’ block intervals for the first half, and jog-one, walk-one for the second half of my almost-hour long route. By the time I got to my finish line (Starbucks), I was hot, sweaty, out of breath, and felt amazing.
Great work, A. Not every workout will be perfect. To lose weight, you must be active for at least an hour on most days of the week and, so far, you’re two for two! Keep that as your focus and the days will fly by until your exercise routine becomes a part of your new life.
…next week on the weight loss blog: eating for weight loss.
