The Best Part of a Diet

I dieted from December 31st to January 9th. 10 days. I also exercised every one of those days (fine, I missed one day...can't I pretend I actually made it all the way to the end?). I felt SOOO good while I did this diet, that I'm convinced that it's the right way to do it. Exercise was essential, but eating the right foods for my 1200-1300 calories per day was important, too.

My diet basically looked like this:

- Food (examples): whole wheat English muffins, tofu, low fat cottage cheese, veggies, low-sodium turkey, low fat, low sodium soups, etc. Low fat, low carb, low sodium are all things to remember. High protein stuff helps. 1200-1300 calories per day total.

- Frequency: I ate about every 3 hours and actually counted calories the first couple of days to get the hang of how to estimate my caloric intake more accurately.

- Simple Eliminations: I eliminated sugar and cream from my coffee and learned to enjoy it black. No sugar in my tea, either (it's funny how much more you can taste of the tea and coffee flavors when they aren't masked). I didn't put a tablespoon of butter on my English muffin when I ate it, and it was fine (who knew it could be).

My exercise was all indoors because it's winter in Colorado and many days this season have been well below freezing and snowy. I used 10 Days to a Better Body, a DVD that I bought on Amazon for about $9 plus shipping. It has 2 separate workouts, one for upper body and one for lower body. You are supposed to alternate the exercises every day.

This DVD rocked. I'll continue to use this. The best thing about doing these exercises is that my waist is slimmer than it was before, so it pulls in and gives me more of an hourglass shape.

Now that I'm done with the strict part of the diet/exercise process, you know what I'm thinking? It's time for a classic Smashburger with jalapenos.

I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed my dieting/exercising phase and have decided to incorporate a lot of the things that I learned into my long term regular diet.

How to eat smaller portions

I've never been good at any form of dieting. To be honest, I don't really believe in dieting...you eat what you eat. If a diet is temporary instead of a permanent change to your way of eating, then any loss you may accomplish will most likely be lost when you resume your normal diet.

However, that being said, I'm trying to change how I eat. I need to add more green vegetables into my diet and I need to stop going back for seconds!

Today, I managed to eat the right amount of food at lunch. The trick? I measured out what I wanted to eat this morning (while I still had all sorts of noble ideas stuck in my sleep-riddled head) and took my lunch to work.

And ya know what? When you have no other food to go grab from the fridge...you stop eating. It's weird, but works. :)

But seriously, it was a relief to bring my own lunch to work, in the right portions, heavy with green veggies. I ate like a pig (always do), but in the end, hadn't sabotaged my inner self's desire to flatten, smooth and firm up particular body parts.

Green tea as a diet aid?

I like to drink green tea, but I usually don't drink it in large quantities. But after reading a post on Craigslist, I decided to try out consuming more to see if I "got the burn!"

So, I drank one more very large cup than I usually would (probably around 5-6 cups total) and I can't believe how hot I got! It woke me up last night and I had to open my sliding door for air.

Also, this morning, I started with one cup of green tea and it warmed me up so much I was the only parent dropping my kid off at school who wasn't cold.

I was guessing that it must have increased my metabolism, but I wanted to know more after experiencing such immediate results. So, I googled green tea and weight loss and found this article...it was a study done by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/70/6/1040

It showed that green tea consumption (not just caffeine, but green tea) increased the body's natural energy expenditure during the day and promotes fat oxidation.

Awesome!

So, I'm going to keep it up and see how much of a difference I see in the next few weeks.

Gotta shed a few pounds

I've decided that I need to get back into the swing of things and lose a few pounds. Or, more specifically, inches.

I'd like to trim my tummy down and lose a little overall so that my arms, thighs, butt is slimmer in general.

So, I've been reading different things about how to lose weight. Of course, there are as many diets out there as there are dieters, so it's a hard thing to figure out exactly what to do. I've decided, that in addition to bicycling 3x week, I need to start walking on the other days, at least 30 minutes of hard walking. I also want to start some tummy exercises, but I find the ones I've tried too challenging for a beginner, so I'm going to try some dance-exercise stuff to strengthen up before trying the harder stuff.

But the hardest part will be the diet. I know that I should be eating loads of fruits and veggies...but when I'm choosing between an extra helping of broccoli and another serving of pasta with cheese, broccoli loses! I think that I need to find more exciting ways to prepare fruits and veggies. I also need to find more ways to make them convenient, so that it's easier to eat a banana than reheat my rich chicken leftovers from the night before.

I also need to start incorporating some of those key snacking staples...nuts, water, green tea, high fiber granola, peanut butter, cheese, etc., in healthy portions.

I should weigh/measure myself now and track my loss. Maybe that's what I'll do today!