What to do when you’ve lost your groove
I used to say that I have always been a big girl, because that’s what people have told me my whole life. Now that I really AM a big girl, I can look at pictures of myself from high school and realize that I wasn’t all that big at all. Sure I was a size 13, but my body was evenly distributed and I had a great figure. I wish someone had of told me that then, because maybe if I knew for myself that I wasn’t big then I would have been able to control myself a little bit better. But when you already think you are fat and people like you, why not keep eating? Oh so wrong, the blinders that I’ve worn for so long, sheesh.
Anyways. Last year, a week before Thanksgiving, my mom and I started phase one of the Kevin Trudeau diet. The man is crazy, and we knew this going into it. But phase 1 of his plan is such a great lifestyle change….and in my opinion, that’s the key to getting healthy and staying healthy. By April I had lost 60 lbs of the 120 that I wanted to lose. I was feeling great, water was delicious, my favorite treat was melba toast with organic peanut butter and banana, I looked forward to salad for my lunch and holy crap….I was almost into a size 16 down from a 24!! And then something happened.
I started dating my husband in March. We did great for the first month, and I still lost weight. We encouraged eachother. My now-husband is a big man. When I first met him a year and a half ago, he was 380 lbs and I was 280. Over the course of the time I’ve known him, we seperately got motivated and both lost about 60 lbs. I guess when we started dating though it got easier and easier to eat a burger instead of that delicious salad. Brownies and cookies and ice cream were no longer untouchable. Water turned into Mt. Dew and Starbucks Frappacinos. What was once motivated encouragement to help eachother turned into an encouragement towards the opposite direction. He would get on a kick, and I would blame my cravings on a bad day, or my period, or whatever. I would get on a kick, and he would cockily inform me that he was fine with what he was eating and that I didn’t have to eat any.
I am worried about our health. I haven’t had children yet. What am I going to do after I’m pregnant and have the extra weight to deal with while already having been over weight pre-preggers? My husband is young, and overweight…what am I going to do if he gets diabetes or has a heart attack and leaves me a single mother in 10 years because we couldn’t get this under control? That sounds so extreme, I know. But if we don’t get this under control, that is the future that we are headed towards. And I feel for our kids, because children learn from their parents and if this is all we have to teach them it is just going to be a cycle of obesity contributing to the New America that has somehow developed.
Here is the real problem: I can control his portion sizes and food intake just fine. It’s easy for me to tell him to back away from the chips, don’t eat another brownie, buy water instead of an Amp. I pack his lunch, I typically make dinner, and I can control that just fine (as long as he lets me anyway). It’s me that is out of control. How can I expect him to deny the brownie if I can’t? How can I encourage him when I am just as guilty? And where the heck do I get my motivation to say no? I was doing so good, losing so much weight, getting healthy, had a great outlook on my well-being and where I wanted to be physically and all in a matter of 9 months, I lost it. My husband has maintained his weight, he even still loses weight some weeks. I, however, have gained some pounds back. I can’t get back in the groove for the life of me, and my closet is slowly shrinking.
I know it’s about what I put in my pantry and in my freezer. But fast food is so cheap! I want affordibility and health…not bankruptcy and health, and I’m not sure how to tackle that. I will start cooking my meats and veggies with coconut oil like I did before, or do them on the grill. I will eat apples and grapefruit and watermelon and try and swallow those incredibly dry carrots. I will do turkey burgers over a salad with salsa or balsamic vinegar for dinner. It all sounds so easy when I put my words down on paper. It’s the nights when work went horrible, we have somewhere to be at 7, I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer and Italian Joes down the road is so much easier to order from than make dinner. Unfortunately, we have somewhere to be at 7 a lot.
I need quick, easy, and ideas. Grilled cheese and soup kind of easy, but something not involving cheese and bread. I want this so badly. I want to be healthy, I want to be thin and attractive. Attraction is not a problem between my husband and I, despite size. But I’m sure weight loss can increase that attraction among many other things. Help! Please help me become the woman that I want my future children to love and respect and appreciate, not the mother they resent and regret because they too have become victims of obesity.
– Stephanie
Stephanie, I haven’t been in your exact situation, but I totally understand the challenge of trying to stick to a healthy eating plan when life seems hell-bent to make it as hard as possible to do so. I think it does take more effort and planning ahead to eat well, especially when you’re first making changes to your food habits and you’re in that stage of not being totally sure what’s “okay” to eat.
I have a couple suggestions for things that have worked for me personally:
• Weight Watchers. It’s not free, but I really found that the Weight Watchers website was a big help when I was first losing weight. Their formula of calculating “points” for the food you eat is, in my opinion, a very sane approach to eating, and really helped me understand the value of the food that was going in my mouth. It sounds simple — fiber, vegetables, lean proteins = good! Fat, simple carbs = not so good! — but with WW (and their system of earning “activity points” by exercising) I really got it. I started eating a LOT better after doing that program for a couple months, and it became easier and easier to whip up healthy meals without having to put a lot of thought into it.
• Focus on yourself. If your husband’s totally on board with a joint weight loss plan that would be awesome, but if not, turn your attention inward for now and only worry about you. It’s hard enough to stay committed to this effort without taking on the work for another person. I’m guessing that the more you stick to it, the more your husband will want to do so on his own, too.
• Try and be more active. I find it incredibly hard to diet without exercising. Which isn’t to say I find it super easy to exercise, it’s just that if I DO exercise, I have more self-discipline about my eating habits. I’m more likely to want to do what I can to reap the benefits of the (pain in the ass) exercise, you know? I think that once you start moving more often, it all starts falling together in a more positive way: the exercise makes you feel better, you feel more confident, you’re less prone to making bad food choices.
Readers, here’s where I hope you will hit the comments section and hit it hard with some ideas for Stephanie. Different strokes work for different folks, so some varied advice would be great.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Stephanie you have taken the first big step toward improvement because I can tell that you REALLY WANT IT. You realize that your health is at stake, and you know that if you continue on the same food-weight-gain spiral, your kids will go there too.
Reading your story, there are a few things that are also TOTALLY ME. Oh boy do I love breads. If there is bread in my house (cookies, crackers, a bagel, a muffin) I will eat it. And I will eat ALL OF THEM, if I know they’re around I can’t even mete them out to myself gradually. So quit buying the damn brownie mix, don’t even keep sandwich bread at home. Keep some whole wheat tortillas in the fridge (rather than making a sandwich, you can make a wrap, with much less flour going into your mouth). Get rid of the white pasta, buy whole wheat pasta (the corkscrews are pretty good actually). No white rice – brown rice or whole grain only! You can do stir-fry (chicken, onions, peppers, ginger in soy sauce) and have over BROWN rice. Quick!
And don’t try to cram dry carrots or boring grapefruit into your mouth if you’re craving that Italian sub down the street. Keep some more palatable things around. Some jars of marinara sauce, to warm up and pour over that whole wheat pasta… can’t you whip that up as fast as an order-out from the fast food place?
OK now how about whole vegetables that have a lot of fiber but also taste more fattening than they are? Lately I have been on a kick where I bake a whole acorn squash, then scoop the sweet fleshy goodness into a refrigerator container. It’s a 5-minute task to warm up a serving, put a little cinnamon on it, and it tastes like you’re eating a dessert. I also like to warm up applesauce and eat with nutmeg on top, maybe a little skim milk (or fat-free half&half) poured over.
And if you really have to run off to grab fast food – find yourself one of those build-a-burrito places. Go through the line and into your (whole wheat tortilla’d) burrito have them put: (a) brown rice (b) plain black beans – none of those lardy refried ones, and (c) grilled chicken. No cheese! No sour cream! YOU CAN DO IT. If you’re eating that sucker and it seems really dry, that’s when you dump on the salsa!
Also (my gosh this comment is long), don’t wait until you feel starving to eat. When you start feeling a little hungry, stave off the starvation feeling with a little something… some nonfat cottage cheese, a couple tangerines, a couple stalks of celery dipped in hummus. That way when you DO eat you won’t feel like you can’t stop. And once you start eating, DO stop when you’ve had enough not to be hungry anymore. You don’t have to finish your plate. Get it in a takeaway box, then you have another little snack waiting for you for next time.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Hi Stephanie,
Hang in there. You’re not alone. In many ways, I’m in your same shoes. Since I was a child, I’ve always been the heaviest one in my group of friends- the “funny girl with a fantastic personality” or “the pretty face” grrrr. I’m married, but no kids. I have a husband who is thin-ish, but goes up and down. He can lose weight at the drop of a hat though when he puts his mind to it (lucky bastard!). Both sides of our family have a history of heart disease and it scares the hell out of me.
Four years ago, I woke up one day and decided to change my eating habits. I was 32 years old and a size 18-20. I struggled to pour into jeans and hated having to shop in the Women’s Dept. I had a bad attitude and struggled to be that funny, happy girl that everyone expected. At the time, Atkin’s was all the rage and it really worked for me. I lost over 75 pounds and found myself wearing a size 10. I felt great. After a few years of feeling so good about myself, I slowly began losing my motivation and gaining unwanted pounds. I’ve gained back 20 lbs and recently I decided “enough is enough” and I’m working to regain control.
For me, reducing crappy carbs like sugar and flour really helps, but I don’t rule out good carbs or go crazy Atkins-style. Dry carrots aren’t a lot of fun, but check out other veggies that are full of flavor. I love sugar-snap pea pods and stash bags of them at work and home. Think about getting a crockpot (I know, it reminded me of my Mom and Grandma! Old school!). Seriously though, I’ve found a lot of healthy recipes online that I can use with the crockpot. All I have to do is throw together a salad or steam some veggies and dinner is done when I get home. Knowing I have dinner waiting at home means no tempting stops for fast-food. You control the seasonings and ingredients, plus leftovers kick butt.
Whatever exercise you like, try going for it in the morning. I hit the track (wobble/jog/walk) or treadmill. Since I’m a master of finding an excuse to blow off moving my big butt, I have my exercise clothes on my dresser and get it done first-thing in the morning. (I get out there before I’m awake enough to argue myself out of it). By doing a workout in the morning, I immediately feel proud of myself and it’s a good start to the day.
You can do this, you’re not alone and it’s terrific you have such a great marriage. Your husband is a lucky man to have a wife showing such love and concern for his health.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
P.S.
Try buying some fun, new workout gear. Getting into new exercise clothes and strapping on some snazzy new running shoes was a good “carrot” for me. I felt good when I put it on. I also have a pair of 7 for All Mankind jeans in my bathroom that I look at every day and try on once a week. It will be a while before I get into them, but it’s motivation to keep going.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:07 am
In your first few paragraphs you describe a positive, rewarding, and comfortable journey to amazing weight loss; your journey. It sounds like you know what to eat and how to work a regimen that works for you, it’s just a matter of re-establishing the habits that worked for you.
I completely sympathize with where you are at because I tend to be on and off the so-called wagon myself. Usually my “bad” eating is driven by stress or emotions I’m not dealing with. Once I’m off the wagon I also have to repeat the battle with the cravings that refined carbohydrates set up in the body. Overcoming cravings takes about three or four days and it is a pain to go through. Once I’m through those first few days, the rest are pretty effortless.
I think the key to building up motivation is being conscious about your own behaviour; and I don’t mean generalizations but specifics. In the first couple of weeks of change, I suggest journaling your food intake. (Fitday.com is a helpful, easy, free tool for recording food intake). Journaling food consumption may sound like a pain in the ass but it can be an effective way to commit to a new lifestyle. It’s one thing to eat a bag of potato chips and another to have to write down how many and what that means. The act of recording your consumption will trigger new impulses and thought processes. Essentially it’s impossible to mindlessly eat if you’re also writing it down.
Fitday also allows you to track your weight loss and exercise. I’ve used this tool on and off for two years and it’s really been helpful for re-establishing good habits.
The second part is exercise. Exercise is probably the most important thing…even if you keep eating the way you are now, vigorous exercise will change you. Ideally, we should eat right and exercise, but if you can only manage one thing in the beginning, pick exercise…it’s a great kick start and your body will respond.
You’ve had success, you know what to do, you have all the tools. That’s half the battle. You do not have to enlist your partner’s commitment to achieve change in yourself. You can change by yourself. Transfer concerns about your partner’s eating habits to yourself.
Recommended:
http://www.fitday.com to journal your food intake (it calculates calories, protein, carbs for you and offers a huge database of foods) – it’s easy and free.
A book that really helped me was Making The Cut by Jillian Michaels. It sounds like you’ve already experienced an eating plan that worked for you, though. But if you want to try something new, I highly recommend this book.
December 11th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Hi Stephanie,
My advice is to try and find any way to have a “default” exercise everyday if you can, such as riding a bike or walking to work (if possible). By default I mean some activity that doesn’t feel like a chore but really counts as exercise. I have been riding a bike or walking everyday – I enjoy both of these things and it’s my main mode of transportation so I don’t even really think about it but I’m getting good exercise for the day and feeling really energized afterwards. So on days when I am just too exhausted to do a workout video or something at night, at least I know I got my walking in.
Beyond everyday activity I have found that you must love whatever other exercise you choose to add into your life. Forcing yourself to hit the gym won’t be sustainable if you don’t enjoy it. For instance, years ago I started taking karate – it was a great total body workout and was a lot of fun, it literally changed my life in terms of fitness and was a nice alternative to the same old gym routine. I even met my husband there! ; )
I agree with other commenters that exercise will help jump start better eating habits and just help you feel more motivated in general. Also, try some hummus with those dry carrot sticks! Good Luck!
December 11th, 2008 at 7:00 am
“I know it’s about what I put in my fridge and freezer.” Exactly. I’m a carb fiend, and if there is bread or muffins or bagels around, I will inhale them. I’ve started freezing all the foods I want to snack on when I know I shouldn’t be snacking. And let me tell you: it works. It makes you think, “Hmm. It’s frozen. Do I really want it?” Mini-bagels, granola bars, etc. Try it and see if it works for you and hubby.
Don’t buy the bad stuff. Really. It sucks, I know, but it’s much easier to stay motivated during just one grocery run, which tops out at an hour, than it is to stay motivated when you have a box of brownies or a cake mix sitting in your pantry.
I’m sure you already know this, but keep your expectations realistic. Chances are that neither you nor I nor many, many other women will ever truly fall into the “thin and attractive” category as our society defines it. No one, except for the models, is built like the models. Keep your ideas of what you want to look like based on your body, and not one you see in a magazine, or one you see on your friend. (I have to remind myself of this all the time.)
I hope this works out for you. You have the right reason for doing this, and I wish you the best.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Stephanie -
Congratulations and all the best in your pursuit of health. I have constantly battled my weight since a teenager. Including my perception of my weight and size.
I have two suggestions. One – keep small treats around. Sure, this costs more in the long run, but easier on the waistline. For instance, I have “fun size” M&Ms at work. I allow myself one in mid-afternoon. Yes, this involves willpower to not rip open every single package. It is possible. Once I started to see results in how I felt not indulging in so much sugar, not necessarily the physical, it helped.
Second – keep a meal tracker. Be accountable to someone to share it with them. Just as important is giving this person permission to call your bull if you aren’t doing it. The permission frees each person from feeling guilty or resisting hurting any feelings. This takes a *whole* lot of trust.
Best of luck to you!
December 11th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Hi Stephanie,
The first thing I gotta say is be open to the possibility that your husband may – unconsciously – be sabotaging your best intentions. He may be afraid that if you continue to lose weight, other people will recognize you to be the hottie that he knows you are, or that you may leave him for someone “better”. This wouldn’t make him a bad person, just human. If this is a factor, do NOT let it derail you. Like an earlier commenter said, focus on yourself and your own weight-loss goals for now.
Secondly, use your freezer. If all you have is the icebox above your fridge and you have the space and $ for a small chest freezer, GO FOR IT. I highly, highly recommend it. With enough freezer space, you can cook sensible soups and casseroles, freeze individual portions, and defrost/heat them whenever you need them. Easy! So easy!!!! And cost-effective too, in the long run (amortizing the cost of the freezer).
For example, winter is a great time for soups! Green Velvet Soup (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Green-Velvet-Soup/Detail.aspx) is yummy and oh-so-healthy.
I love this barley-vegetable soup: http://www.bigoven.com/19410-Vegetarian-Barley-Vegetable-Soup-recipe.html
This soup (http://eclecta.blogspot.com/2008/07/addictive-soup.html) is AMAZING and incredibly easy to make.
This chickpea gumbo is a little more work but definitely worth it: http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/02/guest-post-by-fatfree-vegan.html (I replace the “liquid smoke flavouring” [ewww ... what IS that?] with a roasted red pepper, skin removed.)
This kale and white bean soup (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/02/rustic-red-kale-and-white-bean-soup.html) is wonderful, but I do recommend making it the day before you plan to eat it, as the soup seems to need a day to sit on things before it becomes truly flavourful.
… and so on. There are lots of really great recipes out there that don’t require any real culinary skill (just chopping vegetables), and with a bit of planning and time management, you can have a freezer full of options. As a single person, I found that if I spent a weekend making and freezing a few different soups, I could keep things going by just cooking one new pot of soup each weekend, and adding it to the rotation. With two of you, you might have to invest a little more time, but your husband can help you!
Good luck and best wishes,
Eclecta
December 11th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I lost a bunch of weight about 5 years ago and gained half of it back. It scares me, so I joined Weight Watchers and started working out. I have already lost 12 pounds. I have come to following realizations, maybe they will help you:
1. I need sweets. I can not give them up, going “cold turkey” has never worked for me– I just ended up bingeing later. So I keep Hostess 100 calories cupcakes, FiberOne Caramel bars and Weight Watchers ice cream in my house. That way I can get my fix, without destroying all the good food I have eaten the rest of the day. I can’t keep junk in my house– I don’t have the self-control not to eat it.
2. I need the accountability of weighing in once a week. I also need the accountability of writing down every single thing that goes in my mouth. I also need to learn real portion control. Weight Watchers has helped me do all these things.
3. I need a real workout and someone that cares if I show up. Before I would go to the gym and walk on the treadmill or do the elliptical — barely burning any calories and it was far too easy to skip. I finally sucked it up and started doing a boot camp. I thought I would die the first week. But, have stuck with it and it has done wonders. And if I don’t show up, someone cares.
Basically, it alls boils down to needing: boundaries and accountability. I can’t do this on my own, I just don’t have the self-control. I know that sounds weak, but I think recognizing my limitations and needs has been a really good things for me.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I can totally relate to the ‘no time for healthy meals’. We have no kids so I get sucked into working until 6 or 7 some nights – then I don’t want to stop by the store on the way home. I get home and am starving – have no motivation to ‘think up a meal’
etc etc Some weeks I’m good and plan meals on Sunday, do the shopping, have the meat thawed – and it makes life so much easier – but it’s tough to be that organized.
Commenters have left some great suggestions thus far! I’m going to reiterate some of them
1. Have your ‘go to’ meals you know are healthy for at home or take out. That way you won’t be tempted to pick up the burger. You can whip up pasta in 10 minutes. For me it’s usually scrambled eggs (1 egg + 2 whites) with sweet peppers – topped with salsa. 5 min to make, 5 min to eat
Restaurants – the burrito suggestion is great. We have a local restaurant that has amazing salads – so when I don’t want to cook we often end up there. Also – crock pots – totally awesome! Throw in some meat, carrots, potatoes, soup mix and a little water and dinner is ready when you get home. Also great is chili!
2. Me – I snack A LOT. I have a desk job and I’m ALWAYS hungry! I buy the snacks for the office so it’s my fault when there’s M&M’s around. JUST DON’T BUY IT! Also I pack LOTS of snacks. Yogurt, Low Fat Cottage Cheese, Apples, Tangerines, Almonds, Low Fat String Cheese, applesauce, hard-boiled eggs (only eat whites). It pretty ridiculous actually – but it ensures when I get those cravings I have healthy snacks.
3. Food Journal. Even if you just have a little notebook you write stuff in. It’ll stop you from eating that mini bag of Cheetos if you have to write it down! FITDAY is even better because it calculates your carbs/fat/protein pie chart. Some things that I ‘thought’ were good snacks weren’t! Or things I lot were ‘not that bad’… haha – they are THAT BAD. Around Halloween I’d eat a handful of Tootsie Rolls – that really killed my Carb intake! Way more than I expected. Just helps you to have more knowledge about what you’re eating
4. For me to see a difference in my body I really need to combine the eating healthy, the cardio, and the weight lifting. Find stuff you enjoy and can fit into your busy schedule.
5. Motivation. Come up with a mantra. Something you can say to yourself in those hard moments. Tape this phrase to your car dashboard so you can see it when you’re driving home and tempted to grab fast food. Think about that favorite outfit that’s size 16 (or the dress your dream about). Cut out a picture and look at it often. Always keep your eye on the prize so to speak so you stay focused
December 11th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I’m going to echo what Sunny said about crockpots. I discovered mine when my husband lost his job, and we had to seriously cut some expenses (like takeout). We eat so much better (and for so much less money!) than we did before I started using it. I double recipes and portion ahead of time–I use those sandwich-sized tupperware containers. Make ten servings, keep half in the fridge for work lunches or fast, brainless dinners in the near future, and put the rest in the freezer to pull out some other week when you haven’t had time to cook. Two or three nights of dedicated cooking each week can keep you in virtuous and varied meals for the whole week. I also tend to edit recipes–adding veggies, subbing low sodium broth for the regular kind, etc.
My husband gives lip service to wanting to be healthier, but often cheats–I just tell myself I’ll worry about his body after I win the battle with mine. For now, I do pretty well with a combination of planning meals well in advance and trying to run every weekday after work. I just started the running last week, and so far, I’ve run exactly three of eight evenings I intended to, but I keep telling myself that every day I go is its own success. Which is much more motivating than “God, I suck for missing five days.”
December 11th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Beginning this year in May I decided that it was time to make a lifestyle change. My father came to visit and he is severely obese and almost could not get up the stairs to the guest room and my step-mother wouldn’t even try. My mother is very small and has always been very thin. Growing up I was like my mom and favored the thin side. Once I got out of school and got a job…and life started happening I gained a lot of weight. I knew I had and I knew that my husband loved me but deep down I knew he looked at me differently then he did when we got married. I had gained 40 pounds since we had gotten married (6 years ago) and seeing my dad struggle with the stairs made me realize that it was time to make a change.
I have no willpower at all. I love salad but if you give me an option of a salad or a burger I will take the burger any day! I needed to have someone to report to, someone that could help me on my weight loss journey. So, I called a nutritionist. I knew what to eat to be healthier and how much to eat but I didn’t have the willpower to do it. My nutritionist has been my savior! I began logging every bit of food I was putting into my body and when I added up the per day calorie intake I was shocked. My nutritionist gave me a very detailed list of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack options and also told me how much I could eat. A major change that I made was giving up regular soda. I started small and drank diet soda each day (I wanted to eat my calories, not drink them), then I started drinking water in place of the soda. On occasion (maybe once a week) I will have a diet soda, other than that I drink water…and I actually like it now. My nutritionist taught me that when you get full you have to stop eating. Many of us grew up in homes where you couldn’t leave the table unless your plate was clean. I was a plate cleaner. No matter how full I would get I would continue to eat. To stop myself I take a dirty napkin and place it over the food on my plate. That way I can’t see it and I won’t want to eat anymore because it has dirty napkin on it. I know it sounds cheesy, but it really has worked for me. I am down almost 35 pounds since May. My husband has even told me that I have more self confidence and that I walk taller now.
Just this week he went to his first appointment with the nutritionist. He only needs to shed about 20 pounds but he has been trying unsuccessfully. He is a big snacker. He gets bored and he eats some chips. In fact, there are nights when he will get up in the middle of the night and I will hear him eating in the kitchen. I have already noticed a difference in him in the last 2 days. He drinks more water and because he was writing down his food intake he too realized how much he was eating in a day.
I have a few more pounds to go and we are now taking the healthy living journey together!
Stephanie, you can do this. The most important thing is to do it for yourself, don’t do it for other people. Make yourself your priority and show everyone what you are made of. Weight loss takes discipline and willpower which I lack…but if you make your accountable for your actions you too can be a success!
Best of luck to you on your weight loss journey.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I am a huge fan of Weight Watchers. My weight has been up and done a lot over the past few years, but I am a big believer in the program.
Keeping track of what you eat is key, but the best part about Weight Watchers is you can eat whatever you want – you just can’t eat a lot of it. That way, you don’t have to deprive yourself if a craving hits, but you can still lose weight. And, when you realize how many “points” that treat costs you, you are less likely to want to indulge.
For me, sticking to the program is the hardest part. But when you start seeing results, it makes it all worth it.
December 11th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thanks so much everyone, I’m already feeling 10 times more motivated than I was before. You guys have some really great ideas and paired with the things that I already know, it’s fool-proof.
I’m still open for more ideas though, there is nothing better than being well prepared! Thanks again!
December 11th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I hear ya Stephanie! I wish health and long life was a motivator for me but I need something more immediate and tangible. Sad, I know.
I’m not a big fast food eater but I don’t have a lot of time to cook either. I think leftovers are a great time saver. Make some casseroles on the weekend and heat them up during your hectic week. Or grill some extra chicken and keep it in the fridge to add to salads throughout the week. Anything to have healthy food accessible and fast when you’re in a crunch.
Good luck and let us know how you’re doing!!!
December 11th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
[...] So my post about weight loss and motivation made it up, http://www.bodiesinmotivation.com/2008/12/what-to-do-when-youve-lost-your-groove/ [...]
December 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
One super quick, low-fat and tasty meal I love is a whole wheat tortilla warmed up in a dry pan on the stove for about a minute. Microwave some refried beans (everyone thinks they’re fattening but they’re less than one gram of fat per serving) and put them on the tortilla with some salsa. I love it. Very filling too, as the beans are high in protein.