Welcome

Are you struggling to manage your weight? Read on to see if my knowledge, successes and failures can help you. Please comment and pass along to anyone who you think could benefit from this Blog. Be Healthy!



Monday, April 30, 2012

Pizza followed by an 45min long walk = weight management.

198.0

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Do You Know Why You are Eating?

That's it.  A smiple question.  Why am I eating?  Log your feelings.  Understand your emotions.  Limit your triggers.

I am generally eating for fuel.  :) 199.2

Monday, April 23, 2012

Where to Start?

So you are finally ready to begin your active lifestyle but don't know where or how to start!

The first goal is to be safe and injury free.  If you get hurt, you cannot continue.  If you have any questions about your safety, talk to your doctor.  Go in for your annual visit and see if you are healthy enough to exercise.  If you are unsure about how to use some of the equipment, talk to a fitness professional at a local gym.  Many gyms will give a free orientation of the equipment.

Next, there are 3 principles of exercise to keep in mind; overload, progression and specificity.

Overload is basically as it sounds.  Offer more movement, range of motion, tension, weight, repetitions, time, steps, more something than what you are currently doing.  This higher level of activity communicates to the body that more is being required.  This will produce adaptations.  Maybe more lean tissue or a stronger heart, but your body will change to improve its efficiency and capacity, and in turn health.

Progression is incremental overload.  After a while, your new higher level of activity must be increased again so that you can see more change and improvement.  Progression is done slowly for safetys sake.  Remember that just because everything feels fine during the activity, doesn't mean that you feel fine tomorrow.  With overload, you might feel tight or sore.  However, you shouldn't lose any functionality or have pain.

Lastly, specificity is crucial to getting everything out of your activity time.  For instance, if you want to increase your muscle tissue, you need to lift weights.  There is nothing worse than getting mentally prepared to workout only to have no results.  It actually maybe that you aren't looking at the right area for the results, but either way you want to be efficient.

I hope this helps.  Ask a question and I will be more specific for a personal goal.  199.8

Friday, April 20, 2012

Utilize the Weather

Do you enjoy being outside?  Not everyone, based on allergies and other variables can enjoy the outdoors.  But if you can, it is a good time to take advantage.  Cool spring breezes and the rustle of the budding leaves can be inspiring or at least more inspiring than sweating next to someone on their cell phone at the gym.

Invite your dog or your bicycle for a jaunt around the neighborhood or the park.  Find a mental boost from the fresh air and a distraction in your surroundings! 

back above 200 - 200.6

Thursday, April 19, 2012

I Didn't Mean to Cheat

3 weeks ago I hurt my shoulder and have not done much exercising since.

That being said, I have some personal good news and bad news.  The good news is that I have reached a long term goal of getting to 200 pounds.  I weighed 199.8 this morning.

The bad news is that I cheated to get there.  I didn't mean to, but in analyzing my body, I lost some lean mass in the last 5 weeks.  Not surprisingly, without resistance training, I lost some of my muscle mass.  That means that I haven't lost the amount of fat that I desired.  I now need to get to 195 and add some muscle back.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Don't Get Tripped up by Unrealistic Goals

If I could guarantee you that in 2 years you would lose 50 pounds, would you sign up?  You should.  Unless you have already found success, that is a great deal.

If you are shaking your head, is it because you think that 2 yrs is too long?  Well then you must be new to the world of the plump!  After losing weight and feeling great in college, I gained my weight back when I stopped managing my weight.  I had stopped eating right and working out.  I got kind of cocky; thinking that I could do it again if I needed to.

It has now been 16 years.  The last time I weighed 202 it was on the way up to 268.6.  Why do we get fixated on changing quickly.  Your bad habits were adopted and reinforced in multiple years and it is easier to behave badly.  Why would we think it should or would be different to change now?

Maybe the media has something to due with it.  We tend to think that slow progress towards our goals is failure.  Why?  A 1/2 a pound lost per week is a great goal and in 2 years this healthy process would have you in a great place to maintain as well.

On my current journey of loss, it has been a little over 3 years and I am now down 65+ pounds.  Should I feel bad that I didn't do it quicker?  Why would you?

Monday, April 16, 2012

Time to Pay the Piper

It's tax season.  Some owe and some get a return.

It's not terribly different with the body.  If we continue to pay our due physically, we will never get so unbalanced that there is a large payment due.  The problem is that we tend not to be reverant to our temple and give just work to our own temple.  Instead, we procrastinate and put things off another day.  But then we do it again.  All the while we are creating habits that tend to spiral our health downward.

Find a time to pay your due to your body.  The long term result is that it pays back with healthier and more meaningful years down the road.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Don't Succomb to "Peer" Pressure

Being social can be tough.  It is supposed to be fun and exciting and rewarding.  Social health is important to the overall balance of Wellness.  However, it can be stressful to fit in or to try and pleasing to others.

It's non-sense.  Of course that is easy to say, but doing something or not doing something in order to feel included seems sophmoric.  As an adult, we should be proud of who we are or look to be changing a habit or pattern to be a better or healthier person more aligned with our own beliefs.

So whether you drink or don't drink, why change for others?  Decisions about changing habits, changing behavior patterns are more successful and longer lasting when they are internal.

Discussing alcohol doesn't have to be a moral issue, just a health issue.  Besides what it can do to increase your risk of cancer and CVD, consuming alcohol is difficult for weight management.  So is eating out!

Yesterday, I had plans to meet friends at a restaurant.  Restaurant food can be difficult to navigate for healthier choices.  If nothing else, I controlled my caloric consumption early so that I had room for error during dinner.  It worked; I had grilled salmon and citrus rice and didn't gain weight.

But the social evil of a toxic environment did raise it's head.  There were comments about not drinking and choosing a healthy food.  Nothing major, but I did feel a little pressure to "join in the fun".  Nothing against my social compatriots, but generally, I wonder if pressure comes from a place of guilt.  Be one of us and I don't have to feel bad for my choice?  I don't know, maybe I am totally off track.

201.8

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

To Meat or not to Meat

I heard about an interesting documentary Forks over Knives.  It talks aobut how we eat too much meat.  One question that can arise is whether or not we should be vegan.
My personal opinion is that whatever humans did to survive for the past 5,000 years (besides the last 100) we should do. In my mind, we were given a world in which we could thrive. As hunter gathers, meat was a luxury and not a meal to meal staple. We grazed on what was at hand. Agriculture and domestication changed how we live, but we still tended to build meals the same way.

It is even suggested today that we do a better job of building a meal around whole grains, fruits and veggies and then meat gets the tiny left over area on the plate. I agree that we tend to consume too much animal protein. That by itself can be detrimental. I don't feel that we need to purge animals from the diet however.

That being said, a vegan existance can be healthy. You do have to plan carefully and eat very balanced, as you might lack a particular amino acid. Animal protein does not have that issue. I know some strict vegans that have to supplement Vitamin D and B12 (I think). Also, iron can be more difficult to get without red meat.

It seems then if too much protein is harmful and not enough can make you have to supplement, balance is the key. Myplate recommends 5-6 per day of lean meat (including the cardio protect Omega-3 in fish). It seems that the preserving, processing, and short cuts we take are the real issues.

Lastly, it was interesting that you used the term American (because that is what the doc taught). In most cultures, though I am not sure, meat is a part of the diet. The healthy Mediteraen Diet has poultry and fish, but in limited amounts. The only large culture that I know of that thinks differently is the Indian culture and their boycott of meat is a religious choice that has been established for generations and not based on research.

Let me know what you think, including my Hindu friends. :)  204.8

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Remember What the Goal is!

If you are reading this, it is probably because you want to find success with your own weight management, or I guilted you into it. :)

If it's the former, please remember what your goal is, or should be.  Don't focus on what you can do for the next 4 weeks or so to get into a dress or ready for the summer.  Do what you should have been doing for the last couple of years so that you would even be in this situation.

-Don't be overly aggressive with your weight loss. Too fast, too soon usually means a quick fix and results don't last.

-Don't starve yourself.  Not enough calories can lead to malnutrition and a metabolism that slows down.

-Don't focus only on food.  Most people (by a large margin) that keep their weight off also exercise.

-Don't injure yourself.  If you try to engage in too much exercise too soon, an injury might be looming.

Big picture, if you want a thinner and healthier body with a lower body fat, enroll yourself in the marathon and not the spirit.  A short-term mentality won't lead to life long changes.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

First Quarter Review

How did the first three months of your year go?  Are you on track to reach your goals?  Or do they need to be restructed?

I was talking to one of my clients yesterday and one of her concerns was that she wasn't always in control; that there were times that she ate too much.  I can definitely understand that concern, because of the bigger picture of not regaining control.

But If we look at the positive aspect of that concern, she is always able to regain control and hasn't gained any of her lost weight back.  The fact is, that particular client has a lot of stress, and she is managing it well.  We probably won't find perfection, but she seems to be very successful now.

206.0

Sunday, April 1, 2012

No Foolin'

I know that I whave felt embarassed or maybe even foolish for my past failures.  It doesn't have to be that way.  There is a lot of hard science, as well as social science, that suggests that we can change.

Don't be a fool.  Take charge of your health today.  It is the beginning of the week, the month, it's perfect.  What can you do today or tomorrow to get started.  Read or reread some of this blog or research on your own to help you on your journey.  It doesn't matter if you don't reach your goal as fast as you would like as much as it matters if we don't even choose to start.

Heart attacks, type 2 diabetes and other chronic disease don't happen at fifty-five because of what you did or didn't do at age 54.  The foundation of our health is laid down in our 20's and 30's, and some cases in our adolescence.

207.2