Fat Girl: Lessons along the Road to Health

2009

2009-01-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

January is when most people resolve to have better habits and meet their goals. January is also when most people lose their resolve (though it is usually toward the end of January that this happens). The best way to reach your goals is to write them down. The best way to make something a habit is by taking baby steps and being consistent. And if you really want to reach your goals... share them with everyone you meet (I think I may have already shared this with you on a previous blog... but it never hurts to hear it again).

This is the first year that I am taking my New Year's resolutions seriously. Don't get me wrong... I've made plenty a New Year's resolution in the past, but I never took them seriously which is why I never reached any of those goals I set. This year, I have spent about a week on my resolutions. Planning, writing it down, editing, planning some more, and making some more edits to my plan. It's taken a lot of brain power, but I have it all worked out.

This year I will get to my goal weight.
This year I will pay off half my credit card.

This year I will put $150 into my savings each month.

Now for the plan portion of our presentation...

My goal weight... I'm not really sure what it is, but I'll know it when I get to it. Because of this I have decided to set my weight loss goals for 2009 in 10 pound increments (this is also easy since I am currently at 170). So, here's the breakdown for goal #1

· Set in 10 pound increments
· Expected loss of ~1.5 pounds per week or 10 pounds per 7 weeks
· Weigh in every Saturday
· Change mini goal deadlines as needed (160 by Feb 21, 150 by April 11th, and 140 by May 30th)

On to my next goal (and I know this has nothing to do with weight loss, but the same principles apply which is another one of my Fat Girl Lessons for ya). My credit card has a beast of a balance, and it's time I tamed it! I would love to tame her in one year, but it's just not financially possible (need to be realistic when setting your goals). So, It will take me two years. Now, I'm not going to share all the numbers with you here, but I will tell you that I am going to be putting what amounts to 15% of my gross monthly income toward my credit card each month. She's a BIG beast!

For my final goal, I have a 5 year plan to save up $10,000... though I will definitely be able to put more than $150 per month into savings once I have paid off my credit card. But for now, here's how the savings plan looks.

So, there you have it. My 2009 resolutions, planned, in writing, broken down, and shared with others.

PS- I did a little math and calculated how much money I would be able to save if after I'm done paying off my credit card I put that money towards my savings... and if I do that, at the end of 5 years I could have $27,413.47 in my savings! That just makes me giddy!

Lesson 10: Resetting Your Threshold

2008-11-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

For everyone who has ever attempted to lose weight there is a threshold they reach which prompts them to think about losing that weight. That threshold can be a number on the scale, the size label in their jeans, or simply not fitting into their clothes the way they like. Whatever the telltale sign is, for those of us who have tried to lose weight we have that threshold.

What happens most times is that we lose the weight and keep it off for a little bit, but then somehow we end up right back where we started, or perhaps even heavier! Why? Well, because we didn’t reset our threshold. Our internal trigger to straighten up and fly right is still set way up at the top of the scale!

We know that we can’t constantly be living on salad and fruit, so we indulge ourselves every now and again. But then, we forget that we used to be fat and how we got that way, and we have a few more snacks. When we gain weight, we rationalize by telling ourselves that we’re still smaller than we once were, so it’s no big deal and we can always go back to rabbit food and lose the weight again. No big deal. Then one day we wake up and we’re back in our fat pants again or perhaps even shopping for new fat pants.

Time to reset your threshold! You may remember from my first blog that my old threshold was 200 pounds. I have now lost 30 pounds and am trying to maintain my weight through the holidays before setting another weight loss goal. In order to maintain my current weight loss and not slip back into my size 14 jeans I have reset my threshold to 174 pounds. If I step on the scale and I am at or near 174 then it’s time to take the dogs on a walk, or skip desert for the next two nights. Time to do something… anything to make sure I don’t undo all my hard work.

What’s your new threshold?

Lesson 9: Take a Break and Maintain

2008-11-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

The road to Healthy is a long one. Every now and again you need a break from all the hard work you’ve been doing to get to Healthy. Now, this isn’t license to eat whatever you want and to stop taking care of yourself. Remember, this is a new lifestyle.

What I mean by taking a break, is taking a break from your weight loss. Instead of trying to go full speed ahead until you’ve reached your goal weight, try taking some time to maintain the weight loss you’ve already accomplished. We all need weekends to recuperate from a long week at work, and the same is true for weight loss. We need periods of rest from constantly trying to make that scale move. Taking a break from weight loss, will also help you to practice your new permanent healthy habits and see if you have them all down, or if there are a few you need to work on.

While on your weight loss break, still weigh yourself every so often to make sure you stay within a few pounds of the weight you were at when you started your break. Keep an eye on your water intake, food intake, and exercise, to make sure you are keeping up with your healthy habits, though you don’t have to track everything as stringently as you would if you were trying to lose weight. If the scale moves too far in the wrong direction, simply try harder the next day to get in some extra exercise, or fewer calories, or more water.

Taking a break to maintain can be helpful especially during the holidays when there tends to be more food around. When you’re trying to lose weight, you have to have a calorie deficit. But, if you’re trying to maintain your weight, you are bale to eat a little more without feeling guilty that the scale may not have moved by your next weigh in. So, take a moment to review your new healthy habits and commit them to your memory, and then set them aside for a while and take a break to maintain. The road to Healthy will still be there when you’re ready to continue on your trip.

Lesson 8: Strength Training

2008-11-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you’re a woman you’ve probably heard how you should be strength training to help prevent osteoporosis, and it’s true. However, I’ll bet that you’re still not strength training, and it’s probably because you think you may bulk up and look like the hulk. Well, let me allay your fears. You’re not going to bulk up… you don’t have the hormones. The bulkiest you could possibly get is like Madonna, and that’s still pretty bulky for a woman!

On top of preventing osteoporosis strength training can help you burn more calories. I’m sure you’ve also heard that muscle burns more calories than fat, and it’s true. A pound of muscle burns about three times more calories per day than a pound of fat. Now, while that may sound impressive, the actual numbers are 6 and 2 calories burned per day for a pound of muscle and fat respectively. So don’t go eating a Twinkie and expect your muscles to automatically burn those calories for you.

But seriously… strength training overall is good for you. Muscles are what support your body, helps you sit and stand upright, and helps you complete your day to day activities like making your bed! If you didn’t have muscles you’d be a big puddle of internal organs, bones, fat, and skin!

Here are some basics on strength training:

Rest between strength workouts. Strength training actually creates little tears in your muscles. When these tears repair themselves your body is building up more muscle. So give your body time to repair it self. You shouldn’t train the same muscle group two days in a row.
You should be lifting enough weight to actually challenge yourself. If you can do 30 repetitions of the same exercise and feel like you could just keep on going… you’re not lifting enough weight to actually be effective! You should only be able to do 8-12 repetitions before you feel like you couldn’t possible do another repetition with good form. This is called temporary muscle fatigue. You should do 8-12 reps then rest for a few minutes before doing 8-12 more. Each 8-12 reps is called a set, and you should be doing 2-3 sets of each exercise.
Make sure you are keeping your workout balanced. If you work only your abs, you’re going to feel a bit off balance and that is because you are. Work opposing muscles. If you work your back, make sure to build your chest and abs too, biceps and triceps… you get the point!

Now, I know that this all sounds really complicated. But it’s really not. You only have to strength train 2-3 days per week to reap the full benefits of strength training, and you only have to do about 6 different exercises each workout. So pick an exercise for your arms, shoulders, chest, back, core, and legs, and you’re set! That’s it, that’s all there is to it. Just be sure to change your workout every few weeks so you don’t get bored!

One last point… strength training combined with proper eating and a bit of cardio can really help to give you that toned and tightened look. Drop just one of these variables, and you can probably still look slim and trim… but all three of these combined can give you that body you’ve always wanted!

Lesson 7: More than Food

2008-10-26T08:55:00.001-07:00

Your body needs more than just great nutrition. It also needs plenty of water. I was at dinner with a friend of mine the other day and it came up in conversation that the iced tea she was drinking was the only thing she had had to drink since her morning coffee! It got me wondering how many others don’t get enough water either, or perhaps aren’t even aware of how important water is to your body. Let me share about water’s importance.

Your body is made up of 55-60 percent water (there are differences depending on sex and age). Your body is also unable to store water, and so your body’s water content must be refueled each day. Without enough water each day, your insides become sludge! Well, maybe not exactly sludge, but your body needs a way to clear itself of toxins. Water is the way that our body cleans up any toxins present that we don’t need. Try washing your car without water… you wouldn’t be very successful would you.

Most people’s bodies tell them that they are thirsty and to drink some water. However, a lot of people mistake thirst for hunger and eat instead. Think about that for a moment… If your body is thirsty and you eat instead, your giving your body a small amount of water (you get some of your water from food), but not exactly what it is asking for. If your body thinks the only way to get an adequate supply of water is through food, it’s going to ask you to eat a lot more food that you actually need. That leads to excess calories which lead to excess fat, and fat is made up of 14 percent water… so your body will end up needing MORE water than it did before. See the endless cycle?

Back to water in food… Yes, your body gets some of its water from food. The better quality the food, the more water it contains. Obviously, a fresh salad is going to have way more water in it than a taco salad from some fast food restaurant! So, while you may have changed your diet to include more healthy foods, it’s not enough. In order to beat the cycle of eating too much and gaining weight, you need to drink water too.

Most people need about 8 cups of water per day to replenish their body’s supply. That’s actually not as much water as you may think. The 8 cups are actual measuring cups sized, and the glasses that most of us use at home hold two cups. So, get out your measuring cups that you purchased last week and see how many cups your favorite glass holds. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to get your 8 cups per day, and to keep your body healthy, (relatively) toxin free, and not screaming at you to eat more food than you actually need.

Lesson 6: (Serving) Size Matters

2008-10-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

If you’re fat like me, chances are you don’t know what an actual service size of anything looks like. You probably eat your cereal out of a soup bowl and fill it up to the rim just like I used to do, and then top it off with as much milk will fit. Did you know that that one bowl is most likely two servings of cereal, and two or three servings of milk? For even the lowest calories cereal and milk that amounts to 500 calories!

Serving size matters, especially if you want to lose the weight and keep it off for good. Your homework this week is to purchase a set of measuring cups/spoons and a food scale, and then use them for every meal. Also, it’s not enough to read the side of the box for the number of calories if you don’t pay attention to the serving size, or the number of servings per package. Did you know that some candy bar manufactures list one candy bar as two servings? Well, they do. And they do this so that the people who pay attention to calories and completely skip over the serving size will be fooled into thinking they’re not eating too many calories.

So, time to start really paying attention to what you’re putting into your mouth. I know that counting calories and measuring everything is a lot of work… I’ve been there. But you don’t need to do it forever. You only need to do it long enough to get familiar enough with what serving sizes should look like to eyeball them without the measuring cups and scale. Once you are comfortable enough with serving sized you can try to eyeball things without measuring, and if you discover that you have stopped losing weight, you can go back to measuring to make sure you haven’t forgotten what serving sizes look like.

You’ll need measuring cups and spoons for things like milk, cereal, butter, sugar, vegetables, cheese, pasta etc, and you’ll need the food scale for fish, beef, poultry, and some vegetables etc. So, go to the store today or tomorrow, and get yourself the tools you need to lose the weight. Don’t procrastinate… each day you procrastinate is a day you are missing out on being thin.

Lesson 5: When to Eat

2008-10-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

You’re already aware that food is your body’s fuel, and just like a car, your body needs to be refueled at regular intervals. Think about it like your weekly commute and gas bill. You know that your commute is the same length every day, just like your BMR is the same every day. You also know that after so many days commuting you’ll need to put more fuel in your car to keep it going. You probably have a set routine for the days that you refuel your car. Your body needs the same type of routine.

Before we talk more about when you eat, let’s talk about the number of meals and which meals you need to eat. A lot of people skip breakfast with the excuse that they’re just not hungry. Let me tell you why you’re not hungry. You’ve just gotten out of bed after sleeping for 6 or 8 hours.

When you sleep, your body slows its metabolism and goes into a resting state knowing that it will not be getting any food for at least the next 6-8 hours while you are sleeping. While you are sleeping, you are essentially fasting, and your body compensates for this fast in order to conserve calories and make sure that there are enough calories to maintain your basic bodily functions. Hunger is the signal your body sends you when it is running out of calories and needs more. If your body is in a resting state and conserving fuel, you won’t get a hunger signal for quite a while. When you wake up, your body is still in a resting state.

The signal for your body to come out of this resting state is breakfast, as it tells your body that the fast is over. So, in order to jump start your metabolism for the day, you need to eat breakfast. The longer you wait to eat after waking, the more time your body spends in this resting state not burning very many calories. So, get up and eat breakfast, and don’t skimp on the calories... this is the first fuel of the day and you have a whole day of fuel burning to come!

Now that you’ve gotten your breakfast in, you’ll need to space out your meals to keep your body fed. You’ll need more fuel at the beginning and middle of the day (when you’re working and using all that fuel), and less fuel towards the end of the day (when you’re winding down from the day and getting ready for bed). So, plan your meals accordingly. Here’s what my day usually looks like for my calorie requirements (your calorie requirements will be different):

6:45am Wake up
7:30am Breakfast 330 calories
12:00pm Lunch 300 calories
4:30pm Dinner 500 calories
9:00pm Snack 145 calories
11:00pm Bedtime

As you can see, I eat about every four and a half hours. I wouldn’t recommend eating any fewer meals than the 4 that I eat, and you can certainly eat more meals and refuel your body more often if you like. I’ve heard of people eating 6 meals a day. You’ll have to figure out what works best for your body. Once you get a plan in place, pay attention to your body. If you start to get hungry way before you’re due to eat your next meal, your body may require fuel more often that what you have planned. Try eating more meals with shorter intervals.

Lesson 4: Creating a Calorie Deficit

2008-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

In order to lose weight, you’ll need to create a deficit between the number of calories your body is using (your DM calories) and the number of calories you are consuming. One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. So, for each pound you want to lose in a week, you need to have a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories for the week or 500 calories per day. So, if you want to lose 2 pounds in a week, you’ll have to have a calorie deficit of 1,000 per day. But before you go eating 1,000 fewer calories per day, let’s take a look at the numbers.

Let’s take my DM calories and use it as the example. I need 1,896.9 calories per day just to have enough energy to do my basic activities (this is my BMR multiplied by 1.2). If I were to try and eat 1,000 fewer calories each day so that I could lose 2 pounds in a week, I would only be eating 896.9 calories per day. That’s way too few calories! I would be sending the signal to my body to go into starvation mode and my body would start storing all kinds of fat! Women need to eat no fewer than 1,200 calories, and men no fewer than 1,500 calories each day in order to keep their body from going into starvation mode.

What other alternative do I have, you ask? Exercise. Wait! Before you go and click away from this article… I have good news. Exercise isn’t a dirty word, or at least it doesn’t have to be. Exercise simply means that you need to do more physical activity than you are currently doing. That’s it; it can be any type of physical activity, anything more than what you are doing now counts as exercise!

So, how much exercise do you need? Let’s go back to our calories. My DM is 1896.9 calories or 1897 rounded up. If I can’t go below 1200 calories eaten per day, then I need to find another way to cut 303 calories (1897-1200=697, 1000-697=303) each day to get my 1,000 calorie deficit per day. I’ll need to exercise away 303 calories per day. I can do that by gardening for 70 minutes, doing some heavy house cleaning for 50 minutes, or taking a 45 minute walk with the dog. There are lots of other ways to burn calories, here’s a list from the Mayo Clinic to get you started: Exercise for Weight Loss

So, now you know the two most important keys to weight loss, calories in (food) and calories out (exercise). Next week we’ll talk about when you eat.

Lesson 3: More Food

2008-09-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I talked about the kind of food you should be eating (home cooked vs. fast food) and this week I want to talk to you about how much food you should be eating. Your body uses food as fuel which I’m sure you’ve heard before. You need to be sure that you are giving your body enough fuel to do its job. Even if you were to stay in bed all day, your body is using fuel just to perform basic body functions such as breathing and pumping blood through your veins. The calories your body uses just to sustain basic bodily functions is called the basal metabolic rate or BMR.

The formula to figure out your BMR is pretty long:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

If you’re interested in an easier way, there are countless BMR calculators on the internet that will do the math for you. Here’s one to get you started: BMR Calculator.

So, now that you have the number of calories you need in order for you basic bodily functions, you also need to figure in the amount of calories your body needs just to do your basic daily activities such as getting out of bed and going to work (or sitting on the couch watching TV). If you’re like most people these days, you probably work a desk job and the only physical activity you get is walking to the bathroom, and maybe the water cooler. If this is the case, you’ll need to multiply your BMR by 1.2. This is the number of calories you will need to eat each day just to give your body enough fuel to work on and sustain your current weight. Let’s call this number your daily maintenance calories or DM calories.

So, if you’re happy with your current weight, you now have the number of calories (your DM calories) you need to eat each day in order to maintain your current weight. However, if you’re like me and you’re trying to lose weight, you’re going to have to cut that number a bit. I’ll tell you all about it next week.

Lesson 2: Food

2008-09-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

There is a lot to know about food, from eating enough (yes you read that right), eating the right kind of food, and when you eat it.

Let’s start with the kind of food. Sure you can eat fast food for every meal, one meal, or any combination in between. But let’s take a look at exactly what that means. We all know that we should only eat a certain amount of calories per day, and later I’ll tell you how to figure that out, but for this example, I’ll use my recommended caloric intake for when I’m losing weight and say that our daily calories intake should be 1500 calories for the day.

If you eat fast food for every meal and stay within 1500 calories for the day, here is what your daily food intake will look like:

Breakfast
Egg McMuffin 300 calories

Lunch
Premium Asian Salad with Crispy Chicken 410 calories

Dinner
Filet-O-Fish 380 calories
Small French Fries 230 calories
Ketchup Packet 15 calories

Desert
Chocolate Chip Cookie 160 calories

Daily total: 1495

(The items I picked are all relatively low in calories compared to other items on McDonald’s menu.)

So, it is possible to stay at 1500 calories per day eating only McDonalds. But let’s take a look at some other nutritional information for this day’s food. Specifically, let’s look at fat content. The McDiet above has 68 grams of fat and, that’s 12g of fat more than the recommended daily intake of 32-56g of fat.

Now, let’s take a look at what your meals would look like if you prepared them all at home:

Breakfast
1.2 cup blueberries 41 calories
1 Yoplait yogurt cup 100 calories
2 Kellogg’s Lowfat Nutri-Grain waffles 142
1 tablespoon pancake syrup 59 calories

Lunch
2 cups Romaine lettuce 16 calories
1/2 chicken breast 104 calories
1 tablespoon salad dressing 26 calories
2/3 cup croutons 122 calories

Dinner
1/2 red bell pepper 22 calories
5oz ground turkey 200 calories
1 cup spaghetti 208 calories
4 slices onions 21 calories
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce 71 calories
3 tablespoons parmesan chest 68 calories

Desert
1 peach 42 calories
1/2 bagel 73 calories
1/2 tablespoon jam 28 calories
2 Oreo cookies 130 calories

Daily total: 1475 calories

Now, take a look at the home cooked list of daily food compared to the McDiet list and think about the volume of food for each. There’s a lot more food in the home cooked day. Now, let’s take a look at fat content. With the home cooked day, I would only consume 37 grams of fat, well within the daily recommended range. So, more food (and a couple less calories) and less fat. I don’t know about you, but I’m all for more food, and if I can do it while eating less fat (which will help lose weight), then even better!

So, the lesson is… while you can eat McDonalds for every meal and still stay within a reasonable calorie range, at the end of the day you may not feel very full, and will have consumed way too much fat. I’ve seen a lot of people write that they can eat whatever they want and lose weight as long as they stay within their calorie range, and while that may be true for some, others will have to work harder to burn off those extra grams of fat, and will most likely still be hungry when they go to bed. So, do yourself and your body a favor, eat fast food only occasionally and cook more. Your body and your stomach will thank you!

Lesson 1: Diets Don’t Work

2008-09-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

I know you’ve probably heard that line before, but it’s true and let me tell you why. Restricting the type of foods you heat, relying on shakes, relying on prepackaged food, and any other type of diet in which the thinking is done for you, just don’t work.

You’ve got to learn and do some thinking in order to live healthy, and a healthy lifestyle includes all types of foods including fast food, with of course the disclaimer that fast foods should be in moderation. If you’re restricting your intake, you’re going to feel deprived. If you rely on prepackaged food, you’ll never be able to maintain your weight once you need to start cooking on your own (and trust me, you’ll need to cook for yourself eventually since those packaged meals aren’t palatable forever). Whatever method you use for losing the weight is what you'll have to do for the rest of your life to maintain it. You can't live on packaged foods, pills, or shakes for the rest of your life just to maintain your weight... that's not even living!

So, the bottom line is this: You have to learn about food, keep track of what you’re putting in your mouth, and stay away from all diets!

Surprise! You’re Fat

2008-09-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

I, like most people, have made countless new years resolutions… and broken them all. Then one day, I got serious. Before I begin the story of how, why, and when I got serious, let me give you a little background on my life before that.

I didn’t really live too unhealthy of a life, I certainly didn’t exercise regularly or anything, but I wasn’t too far off track. I rarely ever ate fast food, most meals were cooked at home and cooked from scratch, and I had long since been a non-smoker. I even hopped on the elliptical machine in my garage every now and again.

Then one day, while I was standing on the scale in my doctor’s office, it hit me… I was fat! I weighed in that day at 200 pounds even, on the dot, and right at FAT. That’s when I decided to get serious about my weight. I hadn’t even realized I was fat. Sure, I knew how much I weighed, but when I looked in the mirror I didn’t see a fat girl, I just saw me. Everyone has their upper limit for their weight, a point at which they realize that they need to do something, and my limit was 200. I had finally seen the real me in the mirror, and I didn’t like what I was seeing.

On April 27, 2008 I took the first step on the road to health. I’ve learned a lot in a short amount of time, and I want to share what I’ve learned. Getting healthy isn’t all that hard. There are plenty of resources to help you get to where you want to be. Getting healthy is simply a commitment. It’s a commitment to yourself, your loved ones, and to change the way you are living your life.

Here are the lessons I have learned along the way to Healthy.