‹ chat status(This post is a continuation of one that posted last week dealing with healthy eating and exercise habits.) Being overweight is much more detrimental to a person than simply self image. I think we all know that. However, for most of us, it is the self image that is the main impetus behind wishing we were lighter. There are many other kinds of other ailments, some of which can kill a person if left unchecked, that are directly related to being overweight. Diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, premature deterioration of the weight-joints (hips, knees, ankles) and chronic back pain, can all be related to weight. (And they, in most cases, can be "cured" or at least greatly reduced by weight loss and exercise.) Diabetes is on the rise in this country. Obesity is an epidemic in the US among adults and children. I remember as a kid having one fat kid in the neighborhood. One. That’s certainly not true any longer. Look into any classroom in the country. You will see that at least 50 percent of these kids are overweight, and at least 25 percent are obese! (Why? Who knows? Television? Computers? Video games? The fact that adults make it so difficult for children to go outside and play now-a-days with all the precautions and protective gear that they must don first.) We adults are the same way. We eat HUGE portions, eat out frequently, eat poorly (I’ll bet Starbucks sells a lot more caramel frappachinos than they do black coffees with no sugar), and, for the most part, we are couch potatoes. Even when we become "health conscious, most of us still look for the easy way out. We believe those commercials on TV for the hoodia pills. We believe Fergie when she’s trying to push Weight Watchers on us. We believe that we will get washboard abs by using, for only five minutes daily and NO DIETING, that little device that folds up and can be stored under our bed. We believe anybody when they tell us that we can get into shape without expending any energy or changing our eating habits and life styles. We believe all that garbage because we desperately want to believe it. People selling these things on TV, radio, magazines and the internet are this era’s snake oil salesmen. What these people want is your money that’s all. They’re products do not work! And this stuff is expensive! There was an ad in the Sunday paper featuring Marie Osmond. She has just lost forty pounds on the brand new Nutri-System pre-packaged meal plan. (The disclaimer at the bottom in 3 font tells us that Marie’s weight loss success is not typical.) The meals on this plan cost a mere ten dollars a day. (That’s $3,650 a year. And that doesn’t include fruits, veggies, dairy, or drinks.) When you end the plan after you’ve reached your goal weight, chances are excellent that, within a few months, you will have put back every pound that you lost and then some. Why? Because plans like this do not teach you how to eat right or how to exercise. The pills, diets, plans just don’t work! Trust me on this. I’ve been there! In order for you to lose weight, you’ve got to know how to eat properly and exercise correctly. And it’s not expensive, and you don’t have to join to a gym. As I said in a previous post, I’ve over thirty pounds since I got a bad blood work report in early December. My blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure were all elevated at that point. It was then that I began to get serious. Dr. Kristin told me that she could put me on medications for all of these problems, but she would prefer that I handled them naturally. By naturally, she meant eating properly and exercising. So that’s what I did, and the results of my latest blood work taken a few weeks ago were fantastic! How did I do it? I’m going to tell you what I did right now, but please understand that we are all different, and what works wonderfully for one may be detrimental to another. Therefore, before embarking on a weight loss regimen yourself, please talk to your doctor first. Got that? Okay, here’s what I did. First of all, I started out with a mind set that what I was doing was not a diet. It’s not. Diets have an ending. What I’m doing is going to continue for the rest of my life. It’s a life style change. I cut down on sugar and carbohydrates. (Carbs metabolize in your system if they are not exercised out of it, and they turn into sugar.) So, I cut way back on potatoes, breads, pastas, and rice. When I eat pasta, it is pasta made out of whole grains. When I eat rice, it is long grain, brown or wild rice. (NO Rice-A-Roni, or Uncle Ben’s Rice Recipes that are dripping butter and cheese.) When I eat breads, it is whole grain bread. (Be careful with this. If the package doesn’t have the word" whole" on it, it’s not whole grain. For example, you want to eat Whole Wheat Bread, and not Wheat Bread. Wheat Bread does not have any of the cholesterol reducing bran in it.) I avoid fruits. (Fruits are high in fructose, which is sugar. I don’t CARE that it is natural sugar. Even when the package says, "No added sugar", be aware that the word added means that there is sugar in there somewhere. And, whether it’s natural sugar or added sugar, sugar is sugar is sugar!) For breakfast, I have a half cup of some Kachi Heart Smart Cereal, of Cheerios (They are made from whole grain oats) or oatmeal. I have the cereal with a cup of 2% milk. At lunch I have a HUGE salad with lettuce, hot peppers, green peppers, broccoli, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I have it with light or no-fat dressing. Around three in the afternoon, I have a cup of light yogurt with a half teaspoon of cinnamon or flax seed mixed in. (Both cinnamon and flax seed are great for reducing cholesterol.) At dinner, Mary cooks fish twice a week. Other nights during the week, we have chicken, pork and beef. All in moderate portions. Along with the meat or fish, we have rice and tons of vegetables, (but no corn, or peas, and very limited carrots.(All three of those vegetables are high in sugar.) Then, later on in the evening, I’ll have another bowl of cereal like I had for breakfast. I eat like that for five days a week. On the weekends, I eat whatever I want for two days, including sweets. I run for thirty minutes five days a week. I’ve got a pulse monitor that I strap on, and then get my pulse to between 120 and 145 for thirty minutes. (If it’s a crappy day outside, I use my old treadmill and do the same thing.) I usually exercise first thing in the morning to get it out of the way, and to enjoy the sunrise. (If I wait until after work, I am usually tired, and there is a better chance that I won’t do it!) The idea of signing up with a gym for strength training has never appealed to me. Getting involved with a gym involves major time commitment. You have to pack your bag for the gym with a towel, soap, shampoo and change of clothes. You have to drive there. You have to sign up for machines. After you work out, you should shower there. And then you have to drive home. The whole thing takes up about two hours of your day. I’ve got a Bowflex in the basement, and five days a week, I can work out whenever I want I and it takes literally ten minutes, five days a week. (That’s all. I do weight training only ten minutes a day. And, if I do say so myself, I’ve achieved some pretty good results.) I work every muscle group in the course of a week on this machine except for my legs. I figure my legs get their exercise when I run. That’s basically how I did it so far, and it’s how I intend to continue to do it. Everything is in five-day periods. Exercising and eating right is everything., and I do it all by myself without relying on programs or gyms or pills. 2 – 3 pounds a week. And without spending a fortune in dollars or time. Simple as that.
I also do fifty push-ups and one hundred stomach crunches five days a week.
posted on Apr 7, 2008 8:02 AM ()
You're doing great! With Mary's help, you can do anything!
congrats!
You are partially correct when you state that weight loss depends upon caloric intake and expenditure. Exercising increases a body's metabolism, which, in turn makes it burn more calories. WHEN you eat and WHAT you eat can also have an effect on your metabolism rate. For example, if you fast all day and only eat at night, your brain thinks that you are starving, and slows your metabolism so that you do not burn fat reserves (calories) as quickly. It is an innate survival mechanism. However, if you eat 4 or 5 smaller meals throughout the course of a day, your metabolism remains constant while the body is at rest and increases with exertion (exercise), thus allowing more fat reserves to be burned off. And you're right, as long as this regimen is working for me and my blood work numbers are down, (The losing weight thing is really a side effect. My main concern was those damned numbers!), I'm very happy. Thanks for your imput, my friend!
Everyone has different biochemistry and metabolisms. I, too, have lost close to 45 pounds, thanks to discovering what works for me, which is based on a high protein food plan to manage my low blood sugar. The best tip I can offer for everybody is to eat real, simple, natural whole foods, using local purveyors as much as possible, and bag fast and prepackaged/convenience products. God only knows where those ingredients come from — the USDA and FDA sure don't! Also, periodic gentle fasting can be very helpful, too.
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Now I definitely know the whole grapefruit thing is a myth-never proven to be factual.
As far as hot peppers go I don't know whether they increase the metabolism or just make you breath harder and faster but I eat jalapenos and they make no difference regarding weight loss.
Now I can't disagree with about exercise because I don't do any--maybe, just maybe, if I had I would have lost my weight faster (but I knocked off 100+ pounds in 7 months so I am not complaining--and of course I was younger than