July 29th, 2008 — calories, detox, diet, exercise, fad diets, goals, healthy eating
When it comes to losing weight, chances are if you're trying fad diets and special detox programs, you're pretty fed up that the results never seem to last. Why is this? Well, most of us can only keep up with an extreme diet for so long. Once we've reached our goal weight, we can't wait to start eating "normally" again. The problem is, that "normal" eating is what caused all that weight gain in the first place. As soon as you go back to eating the same way you used to, those pounds come marching back on.
In order to successfully lose weight and keep it off, you're going to have to address your entire lifestyle. This means looking at what you eat, why you eat it and how much you exercise. Let's look at what you eat first. While there is nothing wrong with the occasional treat or cheat, most of us get into the habit of overindulging in the food we like, and making bad choices when it comes to picking foods.
We're naturally wired towards wanting foods that taste good and too often this means fast food, pizza and things that can be really bad for our health and our waist lines. In order to start making lifestyle changes, you've got to identity what you're eating and how you could be eating differently. The best way to do this is to keep a food diary for an entire week. Add up all of your calories when you're done and you'll probably be amazed at just how bad your diet really is.
Next, you'll need to address why you eat these things. Is it simply because they taste good? Healthy food can taste good too, but you'll need to find the recipes that appeal to you. Is it because you need comfort? It's best to find comfort in things that don't cause your weight to go up. For example, instead of indulging in an entire pizza because you've had a bad day, go do an activity that you get a lot of enjoyment out of, go shopping or go get a massage. By targeting the reasons behind your eating problem, you can start to make changes that will redirect all of that energy into a more healthy direction.
Lastly, you need to address how much exercise you actually get. Most of us really don't get enough and let's face it, few find exercise to be truly enjoyable. You need to rewire your thinking process and find exercises that you actually do enjoy. If you hate aerobics, don't torture yourself! Find exercises like walking or swimming that actually appeal to you. Set aside time every day and really apply yourself.
The results that you get will get you hooked and once you get past that initial stage of the agony and the inconvenience, chances are you're going to find that exercise really isn't that bad. With these kinds of changes, you can make a new life for yourself that you can enjoy for years to come.
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June 13th, 2008 — Book Review
The main focus of this book is getting healthy over the long term, so right off the bat it moved to the front of our book shelves. Too many diet books promise readers the moon and deliver only yet another fad diet that doesn't work or leaves the reader open to future weight gain since it doesn't address the need to make whole changes to your life. Thankfully, the Gold Coast Cure was a refreshing read that hit all of the right notes when it comes to getting healthy.
The main point of the book is that by eating a healthy diet and getting the right amount of exercise you can undo the damage you've caused to your body by eating all of the wrong foods for too many years. You can turn back the clock when it comes to unclogging your arteries, getting rid of a fatty liver and restoring your body's natural rhythm. The good news is that this book makes it fairly easy to reach those goals.
The exercise component of the diet is very reasonable and requires only three days a week for a half hour each time. Even beginning dieters should be able to meet that commitment and those just starting out won't be as apt to get discouraged and quit. However, you may need to add more time or more days if you find that you've plateaued and stopped losing weight.
The book does a great job of addressing how you need to change your lifestyle in order to get thinner and healthier. Instead of hanging you out to dry and leaving you to your own devices once you've reached your goal weight, sticking to this diet will leave you incredibly healthy over the long term and you'll be able to keep that weight off. In order to really lose weight the healthy way, you've got to be ready to make that kind of a commitment. It's not always easy, but over the long term, there is no better way to lose weight.
The main emphasis is on learning how to make better choices when it comes to food. By presenting alternatives and assisting readers in learning more about why bad foods are so injurious to your health, it becomes a lot easier to stick to the plan and learn how to make these choices on your own. Not all diets will hold your hand like this and the book does a great job of making it easy to stick to your new diet plan.
Overall, we highly recommend this book since it fills all of our necessary requirements for a healthy weight loss plan: The right amount of exercise, the right kind of training to make better choices, and a sensible meal plan that should be easy to stick too. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, this is a great book to start with. Just remember, it will take time to get your results, but the process will be well worth the effort.
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June 6th, 2008 — about, activities, injury, motivation, tendon, weigh in, weight loss
After 7 weeks on the medically assisted weightless program JumpStart medicine with Dr. Sean Bourke, I have lost 47 pounds in 52 days. This week I lost 0.6 pounds and achieved only 11.1% of my weekly goal. I highly recommed Jumpstart. I have a special offer for anyone in wanting to try Jumpstart in Redwood City or Mountain View: $25 off your first visit (just print it and bring it to your appointment).
Here is a graph of my weight loss (if you are reading this in the future this graph will have updated for future weigh ins as well)... Clicking the image will open to a larger image.
What happened? Oh boy is this a long story (to be told over multiple blog posts)... I played full court basketball for the first time this week. Great! What a workout! My week was going great full court on Saturday, more basketball on Monday, and playing volleyball on Tuesday when it happened...
My teammate passed the ball to the setter and I was backing up to position for the approach for the spike... When I changed directions (not even a very athletic move) there was loud pop and I thought who just throw a rock at the ground at my foot. I stopped playing and spent the rest of the week figuring out what had just happened... But this being the post about my weigh in I will stop there...
And I ate a little too much the night before the weigh-in and I did not exercise for the remainder of the week after the incident at volleyball...
I am sticking to the diet, but I am reducing my expectations (4.8 pound goal for next week aka end at the same goal weight as last week) given that I will not be able to work out at the same intensity...
So with less chance to work out my new plan is to continue to stick to the diet and to look for opportunities to work out... Given that I am currently non weight bearing and on crutches I am hoping that crutches alone will be good exercise....
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May 18th, 2008 — exercise, healthy eating, wellness
Thank you Weight Master for including Weight Ladder in the weight management and fitness forum.
Best posts from the Fitness Health Network blogs for the week:
- Most of us have been there; down to those last few pounds to reach our goal weight. Sometimes when we're there it's frustrating because we can't seem to lose them. Well stress no more over at Get Fit Slowly we learn just how to accomplish Losing Those Last Few Pounds. For instance, eating grapefruit will help you regulate your insulin levels.
- What Are Probiotics? Journal of Healthy Living explains that one probiotics is Lactid Acid Bacteria used to keep food from spoiling and to help out our digestive tract. So eat more yogurt!
- This week at Lazy Man and Health we learn how to Keep Walking Programs Interesting simply by changing our scenery. So take a walk while you run an errand.
- Weight Ladder this week talks about the risk factors, warning signs, and treatment of sudden cardiac arrest in I am at Risk, Are You? Know the Facts on Heart Attacks.
- Many people love to golf, myself included. No Calories Needed talks about golf stretches in Going To Play Golf this week. Try them and see if they improve your game.
- Healthy Weight and Fitness Blog says Health Magazines Sorta Suck. In this video blog learn how to weed the true articles from the advertisements that look like articles.
Best posts from other wellness blogs that I read throughout the week:
- What are the Three Steps You Need to Achieve Your Goals? Nutrition Fitness Life responds with: desire, commitment, and knowledge.
- Watch Out For Ghrelin! Starling Fitness warns us that it can it make you eat more than you would otherwise by instilling more hunger in you. Protect yourself.
- Weight Master presents Wedding Exercise this week at his blog. Who knew dancing at wedding receptions could keep you in shape?
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April 15th, 2008 — about, goals, motivation, weigh in
Well nothing like tax day to make you take the plunge... Recently I bid on and "won" the first month of a medically supervised weightloss program called Jumpstart Medicine with Dr Sean Bourke. It turns out that I did receive a substantial discount by purchasing through the charity auction. I am committed to this medical food based program until I reach my goal weight. This time will be different. This time I have help. I highly recommed Jumpstart. I have a special offer for anyone in wanting to try Jumpstart in Redwood City or Mountain View: $25 off your first visit (just print it and bring it to your appointment).
Anyway, today was my first appointment and it represents new beginnings for this blog... I intend to follow my journey through this medically assisted weight loss program and into a completely new healthy lifestyle...
First of all here is the bad news... I was up to 390.41 lbs with a Body Mass Index of 40.8 (normal is 18.5-25) and a Percent Body Fat of 39.0% (normal is 10-20). Clearly I am currently obese.
They had a fancy scale that provided a variety of various other statistics and perhaps I will look into writing about them as I figure out what they mean.
I will go into far more details in the coming posts, but to start here is the basics...
Weekly doctor visits until goal weight reached.
The Diet: ~1200 calories that breaks down very much like weight watchers only with fewer carbs. For 1 day, I get 14 proteins (~1oz lean/very lean protein, 6 carbs (vegetables and fruit, plain salad is unlimited), 1 dairy, 120 oz of water.
The Exercise: At least 60 minutes of rigorous walking 5-7 days a week. Don't overdue the exercise (no marathons) until the effects of the medicine and the diet have stabilized. 9 holes of golf walking and carrying my bag counts. !!!
The Medicine: Weekly MIC Injection (Methionine, Inositol, and Choline), daily Phentermine, daily Chromium, daily Multivitamin, and optional weekly B12 shots. There are 2 other medicines for women which I will not be taken: Calcium and B6.
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