Several pregnancies and a bout with anemia gifted me with some unwanted weight over the years. The children are grown up but refused to take back the extra pounds they demanded during their residence within me! Although I tried to be more active and cut back on the 'good aka fat' stuff for snacks, a few extra inches remained stubbornly around my middle. I didn't even DARE glance behind!
I've finally figure it out and it helps with avoiding the bad stuff and doing the good stuff. First of all, I had to come to the realization that is is okay to be hungry between meals. There is no rule that you have to be totally content 24/7. In fact, if you are entirely comfortable, you are spending more time eating than doing!
I watched some talk show one evening and it dealt with a gentleman with much, much greater weight issues, like 500-plus pounds. The recommendation was not an immediate starvation diet but they picked out one indulgence and started there. He enjoyed a large bowl of ice cream every night to the tune of around 400 calories extra an evening. Check the labels! Even the 1/2 fat type of ice cream packs in over 100 calories for HALF a cup of the stuff and who can stop there? They figured out that by omitting just the ice cream, he would be eliminately 2800 calories a week and in the space of a year . . . well, you do the math! It was a relatively easy way to start what would show some immediate results.
I inadvertantly tried this in my life one Lent. I gave up my all-time favorite - cola along with any type of soda for the entire six weeks. At Easter, I decided that with the negative medical viewpoints on soda, I would see how long I could continue without it. It's been almost six years now. After just a year of no soda, I noticed my jeans had 'stretched' out and discovered that I had shrunk one size without any effort except for the lack of soda in my diet. The next Lent, it was my favorite StarBucks and, a year later, another size down. Hey, still heavier than I'd like to be but a reduction! I had now run out of much-craved and enjoyed food items to give up and realized that I'd have to start exercising, too. Always a catch!
My husband and I gave each other an elliptical machine for Christmas one year. You've probably seen the commercials on television for various types. The super slender athletes show you how easy it is to carve out abs with only 30 minutes, three times a week. The first time I tried the elliptical, I managed THREE, LONG, exhausting minutes before I stumbled onto the the sofa for a much-deserved rest. I lost about 5 calories!
The exercise required to work off a substantial amount of calories isn't a minor endeavor. My 15 minutes of elliptical in the morning burns off about 115 calories and only because I have it hiked up high effort. Really makes you start paying attention to what you put into your mouth vs. what you know you can work off in the course of a day.
My visual picture when I head for a snack is this: A gooey, nutty candy bar gives your hips around 250 calories. It would take an hour of hard jogging to burn off 250 calories. When I go for the snack, it doesn't take me long to figure out that an apple with vitamins/fiber at around 50 calories will fill me up just as well as that 250-calorie candy bar and no permanent inches to deal with when I want to get my jeans to zip up.
Choices! It's always choices in life but some give better results than others! Another way to look at it is that if you start today, six weeks from now you can look back and know you have done it. If you procrastinate, six weeks down the road, you will realize how much you could have accomplished . . . if only!
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