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A New Start

Weekly Goals and Plan
This week we aim to:
1. Record our food/calories in our separate food journals.

2. Go jogging 3 times according to our Couch to 5K program

3. Go grocery shopping and replenish our fresh foods.

4. Stick to our pre-planned Dinner Plan

5. Have a great Thanksgiving dinner

6. Re-start reading the Beck Diet solution book - both of us.

This is important to us because we need to renew our motivation and willingness to get fit and healthy. Too many things have got in the way of this and it's time to start again.

Persistence - not perfection !!!

Avoiding the plateau and shaking things up

My weight loss is slowing down. In three weeks, I lost 7 pounds. I know I'm getting my Lady Troubles any day as I can feel my body adjusting for it. I'm hoping that's what has caused the slow down.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on diet, nutrition and metabolism. It is true that if you don't eat enough, your body goes into starvation mode to preserve the little energy it is getting. This means your body stops burning energy from your fat stores - which is where I want it to get fuel from (sometimes I feel like I don't have fat stores so much as fat warehouses).

I've been reading about how people train their bodies to keep pace and continue to lose weight instead of plateauing. I'd like to avoid the plateau if I could. It seems like a waste of time. A lot of bloggers I've come across seem to have managed by upping their workouts thus increasing the difference between energy in and energy out. And then some have talked about changing it up altogether by alternating workouts to keep your body guessing.

I've been on a moderately strict low cal diet eating around 1300 calories p/day. The online calculator I used asked me how much weight I wanted to lose, and 3 weeks ago I said 2 lbs p/week. I've since recognised that this is too rigorous for my body to cope with long term. So after my initial loss, I'm changing it up. I am aiming to lose 1 lb a week in order to get to my healthy BMI zone. This may take a while.

Apparently 1lb is the equivalent of 3500 calories so over a week that is a 500 calorie deficit per day (instead of the 1000 I was doing). My new goal is to create a 3500 calorie deficit per week. This will be an average of around 1700 calories per day. I'm going to observe the Zig Zag effect (cycling calories) whereby some days I'll eat under and other days I'll eat over. This should keep open lines of communication with my body rather than it shutting itself off and going into starvation mode.

Zig zagging or alternate day calorie fasting is not something I'd heard about until recently. By recommending eating more calories on alternate days with fewer on others it seems to go against most diet conventions. I like being a rebel so I'm keen to try it out.

A lot of successful dieters might not even realise they do it. They refer to cheat meals or having a day off once a week. The real challenge is maintaining appropriate balances of nutrients; not over-doing the protein/carb/fat balance; getting adequate exercise to maintain a healthy level of fitness; and ensuring the average doesn't go over.

So after eating really well for three weeks I feel ready to try this out. I've been eating better than ever before, if considerably less than what is recommended. I can't recall getting so much pleasure from salads, or not feeling deprived when I say No to the Timbits offered at work. And it will mean that I continue counting calories every day (even on the off days) to ensure when I go over it's not more than I can afford. But I REALLY enjoyed making pancakes this morning. Blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries on the side. Delicioussssssss. And now on my off days I'll be able to indulge in them.

Take a seat

I've been reading a new book on dieting, but this one is different. It's about your brain and how you think about dieting and weight loss, and staying positive when you plateau. It's based on cognitive therapy - something I'm familiar with. However I'd never thought to apply it to dieting. It's called The Beck Diet Solution by Judith S. Beck MD.

I've been on and off diets for years, some semi-successful, some fad and some plain stupid. But after a few months off it, I usually end up heavier than I started. I know the facts and figures and the rules of basic weight loss - eat less, exercise more. Avoid temptation foods but don't rule them out completely, as when you need to break the rules, you'll blow them up instead.

Simple stuff and after years of dieting I've heard it all and tried most of it.

This book though is something new to me. Each day there are mental exercises to do involving writing down positive responses to negative thoughts and behaviours. After 6 weeks you are meant to be a new person and better able to respond to self destructive patterns.

I'm on day 5 or so and feeling proud of myself (yesterday's task was to give your self credit for good behaviour). It's an interesting process and worth looking at for people like me who've been trying to lose weight for years.

The weirdest exercise so far is sitting down to eat for every morsel of food you eat. I thought I already did this. Then I realise I'm snacking while i'm making dinner, or buying lattes on the run and not always recording this in my food log. Hmmmm. Maybe she's on to something.

So I've been sitting down and eating mindfully for every thing I consume. My senses seem more in tune to the texture and taste of what I'm eating. I could pick out the extra yoghurt and less milk in my Green Monster this morning - thicker, creamier, yet more tart. I'm getting excited about food and cooking again. This weekend I'm going to show Jorge what kale is.

Bacon Doesn't Rhyme with Ham

I can cook a total of one, two, three—maybe four things without a recipe. Ordering out, stopping at some fast-crap-food restaurant, this is just what I do. I am too busy to eat anything remotely resembling a proper meal. Carbs and grease and fat, MSG, food ingredients that require a chemistry degree to pronounce—this—is how I have eaten and lived for years. This, is slowly turning my arteries into stringy cheese. That sharp pain you feel? that’s your heart struggling push gelatinous clots of fat through your left ventricle.

This is my future in waiting. Or it would be if i hadn't decided to change everything. And so now I have to know what kale is. It's not lemon peel or rind, it's lemon zest! flambe, saucier, sorbet--those words all rhyme! Bacon doesn't rhyme with grease or fry! I'm learning and in the end that's the most important thing.

Incase you are wondering, that exclamation point after zest! is required. If the word zest! is used while walking a small skip or hop is preferred. A dancing twirl is optional.

Posted via email from Jorge Adot

Green Monster

This morning I joined the Green Monster Movement. I was dubious at first, disgusted when I saw it, but delighted with the outcome. My concoction included 2 cups baby spinach, 1 banana, 1/2 cup blueberries (i love these so much) and 1 cup milk. It came out tasting like banana and I can barely taste the spinach. I'm impressed.

And with the health benefits of eating vegetables at every meal, I might be hooked.