Quitter Needs Goals
By Emily
Diets I have quit:
1. Weight Watchers – I have quit Weight Watchers numerous times. At least five, I would say. I tried both online and meetings. Various excuses were used, I’m sure. Ranging from “I don’t want to pay the fees” to “It takes too much work.”
2. The ABS Diet – I’ve read this book a few times, got all excited about the diet and lasted a day or two.
3. South Beach – I am ashamed to say that I didn’t learn my lesson on this the first time. Low carb diets give me headaches. You would think just once through this diet would have taught me that, but no I tried South Beach four or five times. The longest try lasted ten days, though one night for sure I got up in the middle of the night to scarf down a saltine.
4. Best Life Diet – Okay, I didn’t actually do this one for any number of days. But I did buy the book.
5. Jillian Michael’s diet website – I didn’t really like the way the website operated, so I quit.
6. Eat Clean – I spent a ton of money of on groceries for this one. Again, just a few days in I quit.
7. Brown Rice Cleanse – This diet consists of eating brown rice, fruits, and vegetables only for a week. I made it through about 12 hours. Then I realized I had only eaten about 500 calories for the whole day. Look, I want to lose weight, but I’m not going to starve myself.
I’m sure there are other gimmicks, plans, etc. that I have tried and they were so short-lived I’ve just forgotten (oooh, like Slim-Fast, I just remembered that one!).
Last week, I set my own rules. Then I didn’t follow them.
So, what to do? In no way do I feel the urge to go back to one of the diets listed above. Following my own rules seems great, except I really don’t want to cut out ALL dairy. I love to cook and that sets a big limit on what new recipes I can try.
Calories in and calories out…. count calories. I mean, this is the bottom line, is it not? All those diets, in theory, were cutting down on calories (the brown rice fiasco cutting them down too dramatically).
Using the internet today, I signed up for Sparkpeople.com. I put in my goal of losing 50 pounds. At two pounds a week, the website calculated a goal date of 2/2/2011. I can eat 1200-1550 calories a days (I’m pretty sure I’ll have to figure out exactly where in the range will actually work for me) and need to burn at least 750 calories a week exercising.
And, mostly, I do not want to put another post up here that doesn’t say “Hey! I stuck to my plan. I lost some weight!” It’s Bodies in Motivation, so my body needs to get motivated.
I’m setting three goals here, for all to see. Then I’ll let you all know how I did. Accountability, people.
1. Walk at least 30 minutes a day.
2. Do Pilates three times this week.
3. STICK TO THE CALORIE COUNTING PLAN!
Anyone else want to set a few goals for the week? Put ‘em in the comments!
August 11th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
My problem is that I get 5 pounds away from my goal and then figure that’s “good enough” and fall off my plan. I’ve been using the Livestrong Daily Plate for calorie counting, mostly because the iPhone app is something I can handle.
As for diets, I tend to read a lot of the books (yay, library!) and then piece together my own advice. I try to (try!) limit carbs to whole-grain ones, do intervals on the treadmill, but try to use weight-based DVDs (I like Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones) to get a little strength training in. I don’t feel guilty eating healthy fats, but at the heart of it all, I know I need to meet my calorie goals at the end of the week. I also read the Female Body Breakthrough and held on to the 90% tip: stick to your plan 90% of the time and don’t feel guilty about the 10% splurges. She says this comes out to 2-3 meals per week you can splurge on.
Good luck!
August 11th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
I hear you on all the weight loss programs. The only one I ever felt was actually worth it was the Fat Flush, and that was more based on the detox aspect and not the weight loss. Calories in/calories out is how my husband lost his weight, and he lost all of it (26 pounds) in 3 months. Sometimes I am super jealous of how much easier weight loss seems to work with men.
I have a free app on my phone called Lose It that is a life saver for keeping track of my calorie intake and also the calories I burned. My goal is 1200 calories a day right now, and walking 30 mins every day (my poor dog is also needing some weight loss), as well as working out 3 times a week. Good luck with yours, can’t wait to hear how it goes!!
August 12th, 2010 at 6:09 am
CUT OUT THE CHEMICALS!
Nothing processed, lady. If nature made it that way, eat it and eat as much of it as you want, but don’t eat anything processed. Allow a little wiggle room for organic processed stuff (granola bars, bread, etc.), so at least when you cheat, you’ll cheat well. You will be AMAZED at how quickly you’ll drop weight and at how satisfied you’ll be.
I find this works better than counting points/calories. Because really, I could eat 1400 cals worth of Oreos every day. That defeats the point, right? Train yourself to see garbage as poison, and stay away from it. Your body will love you for it.
August 12th, 2010 at 6:25 am
It happens to the best of us. The important thing is that you haven’t stopped trying
Although I’m guilty of a processed treat every now and then, and I’m a total Diet Dr. Pepper addict. I do my best to stay away, and I don’t have near the remorse from eating home cooked meals from scratch that I would after gorging on some of my favorite fast food, chips, cookies, the list goes on…
Good luck this week!
August 12th, 2010 at 6:34 am
I was also going to suggest the Female Body Breakthrough plan of 90% compliance. That gives you 2-3 meals a week to splurge. Also, eat the best quality food you can afford. No “diet” food or fat-free anything.
As for your calorie range, start at 1,550 because there’s no point in starving yourself if you don’t have to. 1,200 is really, really low.
August 12th, 2010 at 6:40 am
It truly wasn’t until I stopped dieting and obsessing and counting and Pointing and freaking out about numbers and Points and Flex and OMG I’m out of CALORIES for the day that I finally got it.
Everyone is different. What works for one may not work for the other, but I truly believe that if you have it set that you want to do something, somehow, someway you’ll get there.
August 12th, 2010 at 8:47 am
One of my girlfriends used a spreadsheet for tracking calories, that way she could see what she was eating. She found the amount of calories she should be eating at this website:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
Then she used this website to get calorie amounts in food:
http://www.calorieking.com/
You just plug in your daily goal and then total it for the week. That way you can eat more one day, less one day etc as long as you meet your weekly goal. I dunno if it would work for you but it did wonders for her and another girl in my office, I told her she should start her own weight loss website – lol
August 12th, 2010 at 10:34 am
You know, LiveStrong has a website, that is easy to use and free that allows you to track what you eat (and the calories and fat if that’s what you are after.)
Regardless of what diet you do or don’t decide to use, it makes it easier to see what you put in your body. I found when it was all written out there, I would make better choices.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Oh man, I am so with you on all of the above, Except I never did the eat clean one. But that’s about it. For me the main problem is maintaining motivation. Oh, what’s that you say? Me and…everyone else? Dang, and I thought my problems were so unique. It’s funny but one thing that helps me a lot is just the act of writing down what food I ate…not even the calories, just what I ate. I think knowing I’m recording it causes me to eat less, and also healthier things, so I’ll feel proud of my list. As though someone is grading it. I may have some issues. Anyway, that’s one thing that helps me, writing it down…also I find that it’s more helpful for me to keep it in a little notebook than on a tracking system, because I live in 1980.
August 15th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
I’m with Courtney 100%. Ditch he chemicals and the processed foods. Even if you don’t go organic bc of price, stick with fresh foods. It’s about so much more than calories. They are just another number to obsess about, as far as I’m concerned. Eat real food, focus on figuring out your stress eating triggers, don’t have bad food in your cupboards and just STICK WITH IT. It’s hard, I know. But you can do this.