Diet tip of the day: If you feel frustrated with a diet, change it up. If you try to force yourself to eat something day in and day out, you're more likely to break your diet completely than if you give yourself a little leniency from time to time. Allow yourself to have that really fatty thing you want, but have it as a side, not the main event of your meal. Plus, 1 cup of lettuce is only 10 calories, and you'll end up more satisfied with a plate full of salad than the tiny sliver of 5 cheese lasagna you'd get for the same amount of calories.
I am going through the moment I dreaded: the time that I realize I cannot and will not eat cereal for 14 of my 21 meals a week. It's funny this should happen exactly 2 weeks after we started the diet, and that they recommend you only do it for 2 weeks. Do you think they planned it that way? "Let's see how long we can get people to eat our cereal for the majority of their meals and then build a diet around it!" Well, I am certainly not complaining. My looser fitting jeans are a testament to how well the program works.
But I know how frustrating diets can be, especially when they are strict or monotonous. I think I was a senior in high school when my family tried Nutrisystem. My mom, my dad, and I would get our huge box of food for the month or two months or whatever it was, and every day we would pick out our meals from those boxes. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert/snack. This wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't kept on running out of my favorites. I'd go to my box and dig for macaroni and cheese. (You saw my last post. It's my weakness.) And what did I find? Let's see... stir fry, stir fry, stir fry, dehydrated burger, dehydrated burger, rubbery chicken, rubbery chicken, stir fry, stir fry, black bean thing that explodes in the microwave every single time, stir fry. By the way, I hate peppers, so stir fry is my enemy.
At the time, I was also taking a medication for my PCOS that causes a lot of nausea. One night, I sat down in front of my box, trying to muster the strength to pick something, and I remember reaching for things, then pulling my arm back, knowing I couldn't do it. I felt absolutely sick to my stomach to even think about eating one of those meals for dinner. I was gaining weight from all the sodium in those prepackaged meals, and I was worse off than where I started. I just started crying right there on the living room floor.
When you feel defeated by a diet, it's the worst feeling. You wonder why you're torturing yourself and not getting results. It breaks you down psychologically when you can't achieve even the smallest of goals. I know what it's like, which is why this time I am refusing to let my confidence by shaken or to be deterred from my weightloss path.
And now for the weigh in. I don't know if I said this in an earlier post, but I was definitely thinking that I didn't lose any weight this week. So, I admit it, I prayed when I stepped on the scale today. Even after eating my big meal of the day (a salad w/ 1/2 slice of turkey, 6 whole wheat crackers, 1 Tbs thous. island dressing, and an apple), I lost weight.
My current weight: 271.6 lbs
Weight lost this week: 2.6 lbs
Weight loss total: 10.4 lbs
Pounds to lose: 96.6 lbs
As one of my roommates pointed out, I'm about one tenth of the way to my goal. I'm really pleased with my weight loss this week. I noticed today that I wasn't hungry when my break came around at work (I actually forgot about it and ended up having to take it 30 min before my shift was up!) and I didn't feel sore or tired after work at all.
My boyfriend and I are going to go for a walk tonight, either once around the block and eat cereal for dinner or a long walk to the center of campus to eat something healthy there.
For my exercise tip, I'm throwing you guys a question. My stomach is a problem area. I have a big ol' saggy belly and a big ol' droopy gut. How do I make sure I target my upper and lower abs? What is your best or favorite ab workout? How do you keep you prevent a tubby tummy?
Showing posts with label nutrisystem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrisystem. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Day 14 - Celebrities and Diet Plans
Diet tip of the day: Keep track of your nibbling. A cracker here, 3 M&M's there, licking peanut butter off the knife, 2 potato chips... it all adds up. Make your nibbling count. If you want that little lick of peanut butter, pair it with 3 celery stalks. You'll remember to keep track of your snack and won't need to nibble later.
There are a lot of diet plans that use celebrities in their commercials. Nutrisystem has used Tori Spelling and Dan Marino. Jenny Craig has had Queen Latifa, Kirstie Alley, and Valerie Bertinelli. Weight Watchers has used Jenny McCarthy, Jennifer Hudson, and Fergie (the Dutchess of York, not the singer). Slim Fast has had Kathy Lee Gifford and Whoopi Goldberg. All of these celebrities, for the most part, have had weight loss success. But they are celebrities. They have assistants who can control what they eat and when they eat it. They have personal trainers to whom they pay tremendous amounts of money to keep them on track.
But we are real people with real priorities and real bills to pay. We can't pay someone to manage our weight loss plan. We have to do it ourselves. So we need to stop looking at those celebrities and saying, "I'm on the same plan, why am I not having the same success?" We can't compare ourselves to celebrities. We tell young girls not to compare themselves to models in magazines, why do we compare ourselves to these celebrities and think that we are no more delusional than they are? Let's be realistic with our goals. Do any of those trend diets work for working people? Instead of looking for a quick fix, we need to make smarter choices. Every day. Long term. We need a change in lifestyle.
The reason I started with a tip about nibbling is because that is one of my biggest dieting problems. But nibbling doesn't have to bad thing, as long as you structure your nibbling into something you can keep track of. Last night, dinner at my boyfriend's parents' house was a spread of meats and cheeses with bread. I made a sandwich with one piece of bread, a slice of turkey and a slice of ham and 3 pickles. My nibbling consisted of a few small pieces of brie, white cheddar, and Stilton. My calorie count was under budget, though most of dinner was an approximation. Feel free to nibble, but don't nibble freely.
And now for your suggested exercise. Everyone hates underarm jiggle. To get rid of those built-in punching bags, sit down on the couch and scoot forward to the edge. Plant your hands on the edge of the couch as you inch your way off the couch, then lower yourself down so that your arms form a right angle. Lift yourself, then lower yourself down 5 to 10 times. This is an easy one to do during commercial breaks. Try to do it twice during each break. If you have very little upper body strength like me, you can start by just supporting your weight with stiff arms and work your way into the 90 degree angle.
Good luck! Thanks so much for the comment, Anonymous. Don't be afraid to make a name for me to remember you by. I'd like to keep track of your progress and advice just like you can keep track of mine.
There are a lot of diet plans that use celebrities in their commercials. Nutrisystem has used Tori Spelling and Dan Marino. Jenny Craig has had Queen Latifa, Kirstie Alley, and Valerie Bertinelli. Weight Watchers has used Jenny McCarthy, Jennifer Hudson, and Fergie (the Dutchess of York, not the singer). Slim Fast has had Kathy Lee Gifford and Whoopi Goldberg. All of these celebrities, for the most part, have had weight loss success. But they are celebrities. They have assistants who can control what they eat and when they eat it. They have personal trainers to whom they pay tremendous amounts of money to keep them on track.
But we are real people with real priorities and real bills to pay. We can't pay someone to manage our weight loss plan. We have to do it ourselves. So we need to stop looking at those celebrities and saying, "I'm on the same plan, why am I not having the same success?" We can't compare ourselves to celebrities. We tell young girls not to compare themselves to models in magazines, why do we compare ourselves to these celebrities and think that we are no more delusional than they are? Let's be realistic with our goals. Do any of those trend diets work for working people? Instead of looking for a quick fix, we need to make smarter choices. Every day. Long term. We need a change in lifestyle.
The reason I started with a tip about nibbling is because that is one of my biggest dieting problems. But nibbling doesn't have to bad thing, as long as you structure your nibbling into something you can keep track of. Last night, dinner at my boyfriend's parents' house was a spread of meats and cheeses with bread. I made a sandwich with one piece of bread, a slice of turkey and a slice of ham and 3 pickles. My nibbling consisted of a few small pieces of brie, white cheddar, and Stilton. My calorie count was under budget, though most of dinner was an approximation. Feel free to nibble, but don't nibble freely.
And now for your suggested exercise. Everyone hates underarm jiggle. To get rid of those built-in punching bags, sit down on the couch and scoot forward to the edge. Plant your hands on the edge of the couch as you inch your way off the couch, then lower yourself down so that your arms form a right angle. Lift yourself, then lower yourself down 5 to 10 times. This is an easy one to do during commercial breaks. Try to do it twice during each break. If you have very little upper body strength like me, you can start by just supporting your weight with stiff arms and work your way into the 90 degree angle.
Good luck! Thanks so much for the comment, Anonymous. Don't be afraid to make a name for me to remember you by. I'd like to keep track of your progress and advice just like you can keep track of mine.
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