A Little Motivation

I got to speak with some lovely ladies last night (shout out to my 20/20 ladies!).  We had a great time talking about all the good, the bad, and the ugly about weight loss and weight maintenance.  We even discussed which plastic surgeons are the best to help with “the ugly!”

I was thrilled with the opportunity to share everything I’ve learned—and everything I am still learning!

One of the stories I shared seemed to hit home with many of us last night, and I wanted to share with Blog Land!  It was a moment that I found extremely motivating when I was coming toward the end of my weight loss.  It’s a great perspective on those moments when you make not-so-great decisions or those mornings you get up, step on the scale, and want to freak out over the number you see.

I was in my Body Attack class (hells yeah, Monday nights at the Redmond Gold’s!).  It was toward the end of class so I’m sweating my butt off, and I’m pushing myself hard.  Our normal instructor often challenges us to consider why we’re truly there: “Are you here to get healthy?  To get fit?  Do you just want a great butt?” she’ll yell to us when we must look like we need some motivation.  Of course my snarky brain was all, “I’m here to work off that cupcake I decided to eat at lunch today!”  But then my brain kept going, “I’m killing the calories that I decided to eat today…  And not calories that I ate over 10 years of unhealthy eating.”

It was such a revolutionary thought to me!  I was working off the decisions I made that day.  My past decisions and their consequences were gone!  Every day was a choice: I could choose to do nothing about the decisions I make, or I could choose to drag my butt to Body Attack and pay up!  It was like a huge weight lifted from me (pun intended!); I felt like people who struggle with financial debt must feel when they’re in the black for the first time.

So when you’re beating yourself up for a slip up or for that extra couple pounds on the scale, remember that it’s not the end of your world.  This is not the biggest catastrophe that could happen to you!  Pick yourself up, pin point where you went wrong, and fix it.  It’s in your power to change your own life.

Eat Your Veggies!

Did you know that only 1 out of every 3 adults in the US eat more than three servings of vegetables each day?  The CDC recently published some state numbers on how many servings of fruits and vegetables we’re eating every day.  There’s some fascinating information (and a couple of maps that would make you gasp) under the Health Professionals section here: www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov.

Are you surprised by that number?  I asked around my work to see what others thought, and one coworker replied, “I like vegetables, but I just don’t buy them often.”  This was me not that long ago.  I kept commenting to my nutritionist as I was doing the 20/20 Lifestyles program, “I forgot how much I love veggies and fruit!”

We all have different reasons for not eating the veggies we need daily.  Some of us live in veggie-hostile environments.  My husband refuses to eat anything that grew out of the ground, so I’m the only person in our house who consumes vegetables.  Some people are unsure of what to buy or how to buy produce.  I knew how to buy good carrots and zucchini, but until I moved to Seattle produce like avocadoes and brussel sprouts were foreign territory to me.  And some people just don’t know what to do with the veggies once they have them.  Cooking some veggies takes a little practice, and not everyone loves boring, warmed, unseasoned vegetables.

I’ll chat about some specific veggies in later posts (so let me know if you have any requests!), but here are a few ideas of how we can build more produce into our diet every day:

·         Veggies (unadulterated) are always low-calorie.  You can absolutely include a little in every meal: a hand full of cherry tomatoes with your snack, a salad with your lunch, and grilled veggies with dinner are easy.  The key is to commit to keeping veggies around your house so you can pack them to go and snack on them at home.

·         Consider how you can use veggies to compliment what you’re already eating.  Don’t skip the lettuce and tomato on your burger.  Throw some broccoli in that mac ‘n cheese.  Add eggplant to your lasagna for a little excitement!

·         Consider how you could replace high-carbohydrate or calorie-dense foods with vegetables.  Instead of having bread as an appetizer, get a salad (watch that dressing!).  Instead of pasta, have your chicken or meatballs with asparagus and zucchini (or spaghetti squash as great substitute).  Instead of a bun for your hamburger, try portabella mushrooms or large leaf lettuce.

Do you find it hard to build veggies into your daily diet?  Are there specific days or times that are easier to get your servings of vegetables than others?  How have you found ways to work in fresh produce?

Recipe for Success: Lasting Change

In my last post, we talked about the commitment required to make life change happen.  Just making a commitment will help get you through the weight loss, but a commitment to change alone won’t get you through maintaining that weight for the rest of your life.  You’ll need a commitment to life-long sustainable changes.

This is the biggest reason why I am personally against most diets or dieting aids.  The majority of diets out there (by their own definition) are only temporary changes to eating or lifestyle.  How can you expect to keep the weight off as soon as you stop doing what it is that let you lose the weight in the first place?  I could never find a good reason to diet when I had no intentions of continuing it long term.

I was so attracted to the 20/20 Lifestyles program because they were very up-front that what they were selling was life-long.

As I made specific changes to the way that I ate and lived, I consciously made a determination as to whether that change was something I was willing to change forever.  Some changes were easy: Jared and I discovered that we liked most reduced fat cheeses even better than that regular versions.  Some changes weren’t: I like salt.  A lot.  At first, I ate an amazingly reduced sodium diet (no added salt and low salt foods).  I quickly decided that this was not a sustainable change in my life—so this was a change I chose not to continue.

Make sure the changes in your life are lasting—realistically consider the practicality of each choice.  And consider all angles of compromise as well.  If it’s completely unrealistic to think you’ll rarely go out to eat, then consider changing what you tend to order at restaurants.  There are often ways to make smaller changes if a big change is unlikely.

Have there been any changes you implemented in the past that you’ve been able to maintain?  How have those changes differed from others that weren’t sustainable in your life?

Recipe for Success: Commit

Weight loss (or any big life changes in general) isn’t for the indecisive.  You’ve got to make a commitment.  And I’m not just talking a commitment to eat healthy or get to the gym every other day.  I mean a commitment to change: life-long change.

When you make commitments to lose weight, all you’re doing is setting a goal.  That’s not a commitment.  When you make a commitment to eat healthy or go to the gym regularly, those are also only a couple behaviors out of many behaviors and habits in your life that have lead to your weight gain.  You need to commit to an overhaul of all behaviors—emotional, physical and dietary—that are interfering with your weight loss.

I find that visualization works particularly well for me when making big commitments.  In August 2009, I considered what it would be like to be involved in the 20/20 Lifestyles program, what my life would be like afterward, and all the changes that my decisions would entail.  I imagined what it would be like to change the way I ate, cooked and grocery shopped; the changes it would have on my husband’s life; the way those changes would affect how I spent my time and how I prioritized my values.

Think about a time that you were able to commit to serious life change: going to college, having children, buying a house, etc.  Would you say that you went into your last diet with the same mindset that you went into the above situations?  Probably not if you’re still looking for a way to lose weight.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to gauge your commitment:

• How would I feel if my daily routine completely changed?  What do I like about my routine?  What do I want to change about my routine?
• How do you deal with change in your life?  Are you able to anticipate and plan for your own reactions?
• How do you feel about new benefits resulting from changes?  How about sacrifices?  Are both benefits and sacrifices going to be worth the changes?

A Change in Perspective

I was recently featured in the ProClub’s ProPulse Magazine as their 20/20 LifeStyles success story, and I wanted to share with you:

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I remember sitting in my junior high health class and finding myself on the BMI (body mass index) chart. While it categorized me in the “obesity” range, I was active and without any health issues. So I decided that no matter what anyone told me, I was fine and my weight was just part of who I was.

While we ate a healthy diet at home, we kept a “clean your plate” philosophy. I’ve always struggle with portion control. As I became more independent and moved away from home, I began to stray away from the healthy diet and indulge in whatever food I felt like. Instant gratification tuned food into an addiction. On top of this, I worked in a completely sedentary job, enjoyed sedentary hobbies, and abhorred any kind of exercise. Before I knew it, I was 268 pounds and still telling myself I was fine.

When I began the 20/20 LifeStyles program, I convinced myself that I probably wouldn’t lose much weight. My real motivation for doing the program was to get healthy. However, I’m a competitive person. As I started losing weight and became more fit and toned, I was thrilled by what I was able to accomplish. I found so much joy in simply jogging. I was ecstatic when I did my first “manly” pushups. It was so motivating to realize that I could take the martial arts class I’d always dreamed of, or beat my little brother in a sprint.

While my blood pressure dropped 10 points, along with my bad cholesterol, the most impressive changes weren’t recorded. I could walk up the stairs in my house and not be out of breath. I could hold my friend’s baby for more than 10 minutes and not have a sore arm the next day. I could sit in a small armchair that I’d never been able to fit into before.

With the help of 20/20 LifeStyles, I changed the way I thought about food, exercise, and health. It changed my perspective as I began to see that the changes I was making during the program had become part of my “normal life.” My old lifestyle (and self image) had become an exception to my new self.

Recently, a friend asked me, “What do you think now when you look at people who are overweight?” It’s this – they have no idea what life could be like! Their dreams of running a marathon? They could do it! That dream of going rock climbing can happen. You can do anything you dream of, but you have to be realistic about how you get there. It’s not going to happen overnight and the journey won’t be easy. But once you start seeing those dreams as achievable, it’s worth all the work and sweat.

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Life-Long Maintenance

This past week was crazy as I was officially finishing up my participation in the 20/20 Lifestyles program. I took a final physical assessment (it’s amazing how fit I am!), final measurements, and my “After” photo.

I was taking the opportunity to think back over my mindset while I was losing weight and now as I look ahead. From the beginning, I’ve been putting into place in my life healthy habits and safeguards. I have and still regard these as life-long. This has not been a diet for me. This has been serious change that I envision doing for the rest of my life.

Diets will never work as life-long change! You’ll make severe choices (like cutting out all treats and sweets) by motivating yourself with the thought that it’s only temporary. Then, when you’ve decided you’ve had enough of the severe choices, you go back to the bad habits that got you to the point where you started.

We need to work realistic balance into our lives that we can maintain long term! When you commit to some healthy decision, spend some time imagining yourself making that decision again and again for the rest of your life. My commitment to meal track—I may not need to track every calorie I eat for the rest of my life, but I’ve worked it into my habits and can envision myself tracking all my calories until the day I die. For me, meal tracking is a very realistic commitment.

Think over healthy commitments you’ve made in the past and consider why they are commitments you don’t maintain today. How can you change those choices to make them more realistic and life-long maintenable?

Meal Tracking

You make an omelet for breakfast and nibble on a slice of cheese as you cook. You put together a peanut butter sandwich for your kids and lick the knife off before putting it into the sink. Your coworker gives you a couple M&Ms from the bag he’s eating while you’re visiting at his desk.

These nibbles, licks and bites can add up to hundreds of calories in a day! But if you look back over your day and try to remember what you ate, I’ll bet they don’t make it to your memory.

Meal tracking is simply writing down or recording somehow everything you eat. A meal tracker, or food journal, gives you an awareness around eating you probably didn’t have before. It also gives you the opportunity to look back over what you’ve eaten and analyze your choices and habits. When you don’t have it written down in front of you, it’s easy to reason away what you’ve eaten and why.

So, when you meal track, what do you write down? Everything! If you eat 3 M&Ms, then you record that you ate 3 M&Ms. You write down that lick of peanut butter and the nibble of cheese. After all, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter, a half ounce of cheese and 3 M&Ms add up to 145 calories! And, if we’re truthful, our nibbles, licks and bites are probably bigger than that.

There are online food journals (some free, some for pay), but the easiest way to start is to simply grab a notebook or open up a Word doc. Just start writing down everything you eat. You can even record the time you eat to help when you reflect back on what you’ve written. The important thing is to just start! You’ll find that you begin to build an awareness of every time you make a choice to eat which is a first step to gaining control over your eating habits.

Time Magazine has an interesting article about meal tracking: check it out here. There's some fascinating statistics that may make you grab that journal and start meal tracking today!

The Wedding Dress

In October last year, I was down about 30 pounds when I realized I could probably fit in my wedding dress again! It had been seven and a half years since the big day, and I “grew” out of that sucker pretty quickly. I put it on and it was almost a little big!

I dragged Jared (the husband) to the ProClub to play photographer. The picture is with my doctor, my trainer and my dietician (Dr. Perkins, Heath and Ashley).

I’ve had so much fun wearing my dress again! I wore it while my guild raided Ulduar in World of Warcraft. I wore it to read on the couch (of course my black cat wanted to sit on my lap). I really wanted to go grocery shopping in it, but Jared just rolled his eyes when I suggested it.

Now? It’s falling off me. Sad face! I can almost suck in and have it literally fall off me, but my hips are in the way. I’m getting it taken in so I can wear it again—I’ll post pics when I do!

Live It Out Every Day

Eight months ago, I made a decision that completely changed the course my life had been on.

I decided for the first time in my life that my weight was going to be unhealthy in the long run—though I had no health issues at the time—I decided to do something about it. I’ve been overweight since my pre-teens, but have had an overblown sense of self-esteem. I never felt bad about who I was; so I never felt any need to change. (Photo to the right is August 2009 with my beautiful best-friend, Lauren.)

But my aging grandparents gave me a glimpse of what unhealthy living can do to you. I guess I like my life so much that I wanted to live well as long as possible!

So I signed up for the 20/20 Lifestyles program at the Pro Sports Club in Bellevue, Washington. It’s an intensive weight loss program that involves a lot of education and a lot of exercise. I signed on with pretty low expectations. I was going to get healthy, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up over dreams of being “skinny."

But, from the start, I prepared myself to make these changes stick. These weren’t changes I was going to do for several months and then quit. I was preparing myself to live what I was being taught out for the rest of my life. Every day.

In eight months, I lost 88 pounds.

And I worked hard to do it. There’s no way I’m going to undo that work over a couple of Thin Mints. But Thin Mints are really good… And you can’t avoid Thin Mints forever. They’re there every year. Every March, just calling to you using adorable little girls posted like sentinels at the grocery store entrance. You could try to will-power it through the Girl Scout gauntlet every March—or you could learn how to eat healthy in a way that allows room for a few Thin Mints!

This is what 20/20 taught me: how to enjoy the foods I love in a healthy way!

I’ve been so excited over everything I have learned and continue to learn about food that I want to share it with everyone who has ever eaten a dozen Thin Mints and felt guilty and with everyone who has looked longingly at a Thin Mint but not eaten a single crumb.

I hope you’ll join me as I take what I’ve learned and Live It Out Every Day.