Archive for the ‘vacation eating’ Category

Early New Years Resolutions Before Christmas.

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Are you making your list of New Years Resolutions?  You probably are not doing it consciously, but how many of you are thinking, oh well I can start after the holidays.  Buy it now, pay later, Eat it now, lose it later.

While that sounds OK, it leaves you with two things.  Extra fat to lose and more debt to pay off.  If you are really serious about getting to your healthy weight, you cannot diet only when it is convenient.  There is no miracle pill or exercise that will take the extra pounds off over night, nor will it keep them off.

I generally do not encourage taking supplements to lose weight.  Truth is, there are some ingredients that do help you lose weight.  The key word here is helps.  It does not take off the extra weight, it merely helps you to take it off while you are changing your life habits.  Zinc and Chromium are two essential minerals that we do not get the minimum daily does of in our daily diet.  These are two ingredients in a lot of supplement.  Zinc and Chromium not only give your body what it needs, but also aides the body to shed the extra weight.

To lose weight and maintain weight you have to change your eating habits, your activity habits, and your thinking habits.  I am not going to list the eating changes as I have listed many of them in other posts.  Basically you have to eat less, eat smarter, and drink water.  You have to move more.  And you have to give yourself a break.  You have to change your attitude or relationship to food.

When you do get ready to make your New Years resolution, when it comes to losing weight I suggest that you make the resolution to improve your attitude about yourself, to increase your activity or exercise through the year, and to work on changing your eating habits.  Make a resolution to get a good nights rest each and every night.  But do not sabotage yourself by making a resolution to diet for three months to take off 50 pounds with the idea that after you reach your goal its over.

Weight maintenance is a way of life.  It becomes more and more important the older you get.  Just as you have to keep your mind active to maintain your mental abilities, you have to keep your body active to maintain your health, strength, movement, and weight.  As your life slows, you have to adjust your eating habits.

Habits are not made in a day, nor are they changed in a day.  We must work on them every day.  In fact, we need to consciously continue to practice our new habits more through the holiday season so that we do not practice our old habits.

I find the holidays are filled with tons to do and not enough time to do it, which leads to grabbing food at the fast food place to save time and because it is convenient.  The same habit that helped me to become overweight.  Food and goodies show up every where as co-workers bring treats to work to share.  Bedtime gets later and later, even though the alarm sounds at the same time every morning.  Exercise routines get tossed aside as I drop in my recliner exhausted from the day.

I cannot afford to wait until New Year’s to continue on my weight loss journey.  I have worked to hard to get this far.  How about you?

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Do I Have to Diet on a Holiday or Vacation?

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Do you have to?  No, dieting is a series of choices.  This is one choice of many choices you will make during your special holiday or vacation trip.

Let’s talk about it a little more.  I am on a trip, with my daughter and family, for the Labor Day weekend.  I am staying in a motel room without a refrigerator or a microwave.  How do I stay on my eating plan?  Most veggies need a refrigerator, especially those for a garden salad.  I like warm food; without a microwave or anything to cook  on, how do I heat any food?

I have some of my choices decided by the motel room I choose to get.  I can choose what to drink in my room.  I can choose diet pop (soda for some of you), water, or a crystal lite, or some other ‘non diet’ drink.  When I go out to eat, I will choose my foods from the menu.  In fact, I will choose where to eat.

Now that we have established that what we eat is a choice and that we don’t HAVE TO diet, let’s remember that to lose or maintain weight we have to change our lifestyle and/or our habits.  If I am changing my life style and habits, I will be choosing healthier meals and snacks.  If I am changing my habits, I will be more likely to automatically choose the foods I would eat on a diet.

If I eat off my eating plan, what happens?  Well, to put it simply, I eat off my diet plan.  Lightning is not going to strike me because I did.  A huge boulder is not going to come crashing down on my head.  I will not have a sign on my shirt or hanging above my head to announce this fact to everyone.  It won’t even be on the evening news!

What really happens is that I make a choice which I either offset by what I eat before or after, or by increasing my activity.  Or I gain weight, or don’t lose weight.  It is not a world changing decision.  If I continue on this path, I will not be moving towards my goal of a healthier, slimmer me.

I feel so much better.  I can eat what I want.  This is the first day of the weekend.  I have made my choices by habit to be on my eating plan.  Since I will be walking most of the next two days, I can have a special meal of something I would not regularly eat while losing weight – and since I am in the habit of eating fewer calories, I will eat smaller portions.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

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