Fact: It's
never too late to work on your New Year's resolutions. As long as
you address them in the current year, you've addressed them, and you
get to re-evaluate them in January. Research
shows that people who set New Years resolutions are more like
to accomplish their goals. And aside from the research, it's really
just common sense.
One of mine, and research shows is
probably yours—is to figure out how to lose a few pounds.
First, don't write the holidays off as
a bad time to start a weight loss plan. Believe it or not the
holidays can be a great time to start, especially for women.
- If you have children, the activities typically ramp up during the holiday season. Dance recitals, piano recitals, chorus, holiday plays! You'll be out with the kids lots of evenings. You'll be running from school to practice and to the shows. You won't be home. All that means that it's a good opportunity to skip a meal. Even if I take the kids through the drive-through, cause they have to eat--I don't want it. I'd rather wait until I get home and eat food I like and trust. It's the same decision I make when they bring out food on an airplane. I would rather wait a few hours to eat, and get my calories when I land.
- There's the decorating of the house and the holiday cards. It's all fun but time consuming, and if you are doing this on top of your job and Mom or Dad duties you'll be up early (working on cards) and late decorating, running around burning calories like crazy.
- There's the shopping. I am always so into the shopping that I am always out and about shopping for children, nieces, nephews, friends, and teachers. According to this study we can burn up to 500 calories during an afternoon at the mall
During
three hours of shopping in a large shopping mall, an easygoing
shopper may spend about half of their time walking slowly.
That
adds up to about three miles of walking. The other half of the time
is spent standing and looking at merchandise or standing in line to
make purchases.
Using
our estimates above, this adds up to almost 400 calories for the
100-pounder, 750 calories for the 200-pounder, and 1,100 calories for
the 300-pound person. Our shoppers burned more than twice the
calories that they would have lying on the couch.
A
more competitive "super-shopper" may walk up to 5
mall-miles in a three-hour shopping spree. Along with lots of
fidgeting, reaching for merchandise, and waving at friends, calorie
burning can top 500 calories for our 100 pound person and up to 1,000
calories or more for the more substantial 200- to 300-pound shoppers.
This level of shopping should not be attempted without proper
training, or you may find yourself "hitting the mall."
Now, for the jump start of this
resolution, I have decided to mix and match of few of the plans I've
used. Keep in mind I am not trying to lose a lot of weight. I am
trying to get rid of belly fat that annoys me. And when you have
these goals, the devil is really in the details, hence my obsession.
But the truth is regardless of whether you want to lose a lot of
weight or a little weight, the plan you choose has to work for you.
Most of the challenge in finding and sticking to a weight loss plan
is mental—so
if you know that in the beginning, you'll have full freedom to tailor
and refine as it suits you. So, I am going to pull things I have
liked from a few different plans and try to eliminate the parts of
the plan that I don't like. Plans I've used successfully include:
- Low carbohydrate diets in general, but all can be understood by the research collected and presented Gary Taubes
- Fast Five (a diet where you eat what you are going to eat in a day during a 5 hour window)
The good and the bad of these plans:
Re: 1, if I eat only green vegetables
(or pretty much any color vegetables), and proteins, I know I can
lose weight. I love green vegetables and love that I can eat a lot
of them. I like meat just fine, especially bacon :) But I know that
I can't sustain a plan that includes only those foods. So,
though initially I may lose a few pounds, eventually I'll put those
pounds back on because I'll succumb to a few of my weaknesses.
Re:
2, I write things down to know exactly what causes weight
fluctuations. Problem is that I forget to write things down,
especially if I am snacking during the day. It's all too easy to
have a handful of cashews (or two or three) --- not write it down and
in the end, I don't have my formula.
Re:
3, starting in January of this year, I tried Fast
Five and there was a lot I liked about it. I really looked
forward to that time of the day preparing dinner with my family. In
the end, it did not help me accomplish my goal (getting rid of belly
fat). But I think that was more related to #1, in that I ended up
eating too many of the wrong things, during that five hour period.
Solutions:
Re: #1, I thought about and decided
that (for now) if I could have two of my favorite treats I could
stick with a plan. And I am really planning my day because it is not
just about what the indulgences are, but when I have them and what I
have them with. One is with my morning coffee and one is in the
evening, while cooking and eating dinner. First mornings and I blame
my friend Traci Glass, of Whimsical
Cookies and her double
chocolate biscotti for this bad habit. Ten years ago, I became a
huge fan of dipping her biscotti into my morning coffee, and eating a
few bites of it. Thus started a habit I enjoy to this day. And now
I don't limit myself to biscotti but it's still always a few bites.
Now in the rotation are a few bites of a fabulous pound cake that I
found on one of my favorite online recipe sites, Allrecipes.com:
Grandma's
Pound Cake II, (but I use 1 instead of the 3 cups of the sugar it
calls for.) And, during the holiday season, Downeast
Maine Pumpkin Bread, (again w/1 instead of the 3 cups of sugar it
calls for.) My family is so used to baked desserts with half or a
third the sugar they think other desserts are too sweet. I
frequently have an egg or some cheese as well. My second indulgence
is at dinner. I enjoy a few glasses of wine while I am making and
eating dinner (my husband says it is cheaper than therapy) so I am
keeping that.
After breakfast I try to eat very
little other than vegetables or maybe a few nuts before dinner. At
dinner I pour my indulgence and put out a plate of vegetables to
snack on while I cook. Then for dinner, most greens and proteins,
but I certainly don't shy away from fats. That dressing you see on
the vegetable plate is homemade Ranch, and I never worry about butter
or cooking my greens with bacon. Any doubts about fat, see Gary
Taubes, Why
We Get Fat and What To Do About It. Like it not, the man has the
data.
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Re: #2, I am able to measure because I
am having the same carbs at the same time everyday. No more or till I am satisfied I understand my formula.
Re: #3 I am still a fan of Fast Five.
What I did wrong with it the first time was that I was a bit too lax
with the carbs during those five hours. Now that I have defined my
carbs I don't think that I will have that problem.
Been doing this for a month. So far,
gone down ½ an inch and 3 lbs. I am happy with that as I am still
going down albeit slowly. My plan is see how long I continue to
lose, and adjust accordingly.
My message to you is don't worry about
it if you're diet plan has stalled. Anytime is a good time to
re-start a diet, and the holidays are as good or better time than
most. But try something different. Think about what has worked and
in particular what hasn't worked. Figure out how keep the things you
like and eliminate the things you don't like.
