When it comes to weight loss, everyone has an opinion on how the latest diet will help you. To their surprise, these diets don’t work for all people. For lasting weight loss it’s time to go back to the drawing board and learn the basics.

Let’s start with how many calories you need to eat on a daily basis. For women, a healthy daily caloric intake is 1,800 calories. For men, the number is slightly higher at 2,200 calories. For either group, ingesting less than 1,000 calories per day is considered dangerous. The body needs at least that many calories for daily maintenance activities.

Most of us ingest more calories than that in a day. The deciding factor in any diet is the number of calories being eaten on a daily basis. The facts are still the facts. To burn one pound of fat, 3,500 calories need to be lost. Dieticians say that a healthy weight-loss program will have you losing no more than two to three pounds a week. That doesn’t seem like much, but it will add up to 104 pounds in a year!

Losing weight is a numbers game. Taking fewer calories in means more weight lost. To lose that weight, a lower calorie diet is combined with some form of physical activity to move fat from your body’s stores and have it be used as fuel for your activities.

If you are active in sports, go to the gym or walk on a daily basis then you have half of the battle started. However, all of this is for naught without a proper eating plan. For that you don’t have to go to the bookstore or turn on the television to learn about the latest fads. Simply school yourself on the basics of nutrition and then formulate your own balanced plan.

One thing that you need to know about fad diets: They are not healthy and won’t lead to permanent weight loss. The infomercials say that they take all of the guesswork out of dieting but they are taking away your right to know the science behind it. There needs to be guesswork, that is part of
the learning process. Learning how your body reacts to certain foods, if you need a higher protein or a little higher carb diet, these are all things unique to your body. Science and others can only tell us how the average person should eat, but there is always a trial and error period.

If you don’t learn anything else, know that all foods are not equal. There are always alternatives to unhealthy foods that you can create. For instance, white bread is made from processed white flour which is not the healthiest for you. Whole grains (foods contain the endosperm, germ and bran) are not processed and contain a lot of fiber which regulates the digestive system. Eating that bread increases your fiber intake and fills you up without raising your blood sugar.

Eating fruits and vegetables in their natural state provides more nutrients and fewer calories. Eat an apple instead of a glass of apple juice. Juice has 100 calories as opposed to 40 calories for an apple. The apple contains fiber which will hold off hunger longer.

Get yourself a good nutrition guide and read it cover to cover. Armed with how food works in the body and which foods give you more bang for the calorie, you can design a weight-loss meal plan within your calorie limits but filled with great tasting foods and no hunger pains.

The new year brings resolutions right? Or is it goals? Oh heck, what’s the difference anyway?

Websters dictionary defines a goal as “the end toward which effort is directed”.  Where a resolution is best defined I think by the definition of resolve itself “to reach a firm decision”.

This year I’m going against everything I’ve ever believed in and was trained to do. I’m not setting any personal goals. I am going to set a resolution this year.

Why in the world would I do that?

I mean what’s the point right? A resolution is nothing more than a statement.  There’s no steps to see an end result.

Your right. But when there is no clear end result to state, then there really aren’t specific steps I need to be taking. Huh? Did I just make that clear as mud for you?  Let me be specific and it will probably help.

My resolution is to do something specifically for myself every day. It may be making a healthy choice for a meal, exercising, going to a movie with friends, anything that is directly related to me and making me emotionally or physically healthier. This does not however include having a glass of wine or treating myself to a meal. Yes, I did say it needed to be a healthy option.

Can you see how this really can’t be set as a goal? I am not going to map out my week with exactly how I’m going to treat myself each day. That wouldn’t be a treat anymore, that would make it more of a chore and defeat the purpose. lol

Where did this idea come from? I mean it sounds so selfish. Yes and no. I and the family were really happy when I did this years ago. I went on weekends away with my girlfriends 2-4 times a year. I was at the gym 4-6 times a week and there were no excuses. I was eating only healthy foods.  Sure weight loss came along with all of it which is a definite plus, but I really felt good about myself. It’s time to put some of that back into every day again.

I’ve been sick for a few days so this is a perfect time to start implementing it. I started this morning off with a massage and then promptly fell asleep when I got home. See, told you I was sick. The massages have been making me feel so much better. My health issues have been ganging up on me again and pain is starting. The massages help keep that pain at bay so it’s really preventative along with being something I can enjoy. Ok, some days if my back is really tweaked it’s not as enjoyable. lol

I’m trying to think ahead to tomorrow and the rest of the week. This week has a pretty busy evening schedule for my daughter’s wrestling so it will be a big test of finding the time.

I won’t be posting all the time on how I’m doing with this resolution, but I will try and check in weekly or monthly about it. Since it can be something little or big I feel good about being able to keep this New Years resolution.

No, I’m not getting as many workouts in as I’d like. In fact last week I really slacked. It’s such a crazy time of year and I’ve had a lot of business stuff to work on in the last couple of weeks. Look at all those excuses piling up fast lol

It’s wrestling season and this means the kids dropping weight. The youngest’s season is over already, but the oldest has just really gotten going. She’s at a little standstill right now with the weight loss so that means she wants to go to the gym to workout after practices or on Sundays. There is just no way I can ever say no to driving her to the gym. So that means me getting there on some days I wouldn’t have and I’m thankful for it. Even if I do barely anything and mostly play on my phone, it was more calories than I would have used up at home.

I’ll be honest that the eating right now is not on target. I need to work on being a little better so I can maintain that 10 pound weight loss I had.

workouts 12/16

• bike 12 min, 2.2 mile, 60 calorie
• elliptical 15 min, 1.25 mile, 143 calorie
• total 27 min, 3.45 mile, 203 calorie

workouts 12/18

• bike 40 min, 7.17 mile, 188 calorie

Been a while I know, but I’ve been working out quite well thank you very much! The last 3 days not included lol

I stopped doing the super strict diet. For a few reasons, but the biggest reason was I was seeing myself binge too often. The food items were too strict. I was totally doing the yo-yo dieting. One day I’d be super good, the next day I’d be binging on all sorts of food I wasn’t “allowed” to eat.  I was feeling deprived and it wasn’t doing well for my mindset.

Then I also am prepared to do a half marathon this spring. Prepared as in I have been looking forward to running and running a lot. I couldn’t do that on the strict diet.

Since it’s wrestling season here the food had to change dramatically that is allowed in the house. While we still have too much junk around here in my opinion, we also have a ton of lean meat and veggies.  I’m working on maintaining the 10 pounds I lost and in January I’ll go back on the strict diet again if necessary.  I really do want this 20 pounds off by my birthday.

So I’m behind on listing my workouts but I’m so proud of myself that I’ll catch up with them all right now.

11/19

• jogged 2.5 miles outside

11/20

• elliptical 30 min, 2.43 miles, 314 calories
• walk on treadmill 12 min, .63 miles, 50 calories
• total 42 min, 3.06 miles, 364 calories

Sadly a majority of US doctors are symptom fixers instead of preventative. Pharmaceutical companies just don’t make as much from us if we work hard at warding off issues before they happen. But this isn’t a political rant post. I want to talk about how you can take some control and be proactive.

First is to have insurance. As a small business owner I realize that it can be expensive, but it really should be up at the top of your list for things to afford. Do a search and talk to different health care companies to see what your actual needs are and what company would be a good fit. There are many places that you can get a quote online to get you started on your research.

Now why after just talking about pills and such am I telling you insurance is important? Well someone does need to run the tests for you so you can keep an eye on your numbers. Knowing your baseline for cholesterol, blood pressure and different vitamins and minerals is important. This year my doctor found my vitamin D to be dangerously low, but I wouldn’t have known without having my yearly check up. I have felt amazing since getting my numbers up and keeping them up.

Being proactive means doing your own research for things before and after visiting the doctor. I don’t mean being a hypochondriac, I just mean knowing everything you can about any issues you are already diagnosed with and looking up new problems as they arise. It’s really important to have good communication with your doctor.

We know how important fitness is as a preventative measure. It helps keep your blood sugar steady, it uses up excess calories you may have consumed and it improves your cardio vascular system.

Diet as well is good preventative medicine. Getting a well balanced diet with different vitamins and minerals it key. If you are always eating the same foods then you will miss out on important nutrients.

Knowing your diet and any possible limitations you have for foods makes it important to take appropriate vitamins. As I said above, by getting my blood work done routinely we found I need to take vitamin D. I can not have dairy so I take a calcium supplement as well. Seeing as how it’s pretty impossible to eat enough to get every daily allowance of vitamins and minerals without overeating my daily calories I take a general supplement as well.

Because of personal health issues I consider chiropractic preventative medicine as well. If I get adjustments regularly with the occasional massage, I don’t end up being out for the count with a back that keeps me from enjoying life. Back pain can be very debilitating and I have gone into bouts of depression from the pain at times. I really enjoy keeping it at bay as much as possible.

There are other forms of preventative medicine depending on your circumstances, but these are things that you can work on right away and some of them are free or cost very little. In the scheme of things, all of them are better and cheaper than having severe health problems down the road because you didn’t take care of your health.

Yesterday I needed to take the little dog to the groomers. I could pretty easily find something to do for an hour in town or even sit and talk to them while they are grooming since they are friends of mine. But instead I chose to park at the trail and jog. Figured I’d give it a try and see how I feel while I’m still on this low cal diet.

I felt great! I jogged for 25 minutes straight. I have no idea how far it was, but I can drive it another day and see approximately. It is a really straight section of trail and I’m not a fan of that. It really can feel like it takes too long when you just see forever and ever down the way. I’m big on setting little goals while I jog. I’ll just go to the next block, I’ll go to that last house, I can make it to the stop sign, etc. Mind games  I had to pull it out far to set these jogging goals.

One thing to mention is it was 37 degrees while I was jogging. 37 DEGREES! I bundled up and didn’t use it as an excuse. I have some new goals and it has to start somewhere and today, not someday. So I used my time wisely and still got to go back and hang out with my friends when I picked the dog up.

New goal is actually an old goal. You may remember it from way back. I never did get that half marathon ran. I got pneumonia and then I got lazy after that. I just searched out and bookmarked some half marathons to sign up for. I have to get the calendar out to see what will work best with our schedule, but I’m signing up for one before the end of the year. Then we’ll also do the Sound to Narrows again this year and I’m sure I can get friends to do both with me/us.

It’s been a while. It’s been a super long while. Bleh. But my commitment is to not beat myself up over things. Then I just self sabotage as I focus on how crappy I’ve done. Moving forward from here is important.

I’m just starting week 3 of a really strict diet.  I mean really strict. But I’m going to touch on that in another post. I’m down 10.8 pounds and 19.5 inches. The inches are the really nice part. Being comfortable in your clothes is so nice.

With the new found weightloss and seeing a waist again I’ve had the bug to workout. I don’t want my butt to get flabby. So yesterday I went to the gym and hit it. Attempted to do my old jean butt workout. I did as much as I could, but I definitely haven’t done any weight work in a long time. It’s ok, I’ll start slowly from here. It just felt nice to feel motivated to do it.

I’m not supposed to be working out because of the strict caloric intake. But I upped my protein during the day and did it anyway. My hubby and youngest were at the gym and I never got dizzy so it was just fine. I’ll pay attention to any signs, the last thing I want to do is cause an injury or make myself sick.

As I wrote my workout down yesterday I had another couple that didn’t make it into a blog post yet. So here are three different days workouts. It’s good to keep track because I can see that I have only worked out 3 times this month now. But again, two weeks of that I’m actually not supposed to be exerting high energy.

Workout for 11/3

• elliptical 10 minutes, .75 miles, 88 calories
• bike 18 minutes, 2.36 miles, 57 calories
• bike 25 minutes, 3 miles, 70 calories
• total 53 minutes, 6.11 miles, 215 calories

You’ve probably heard about or tried to lose weight on one of those high fiber or high protein fad diets, only to find that once you quit the diet, you gain the weight you lost right back, or even worse, you gain more. Eating healthy, losing weight and keeping it off is only going to work if you truly make a lifestyle change. And making lifestyle changes such as this requires that it’s fun and enjoyable. Here are some fun and enjoyable things you can do to help keep you motivated and kick fat to the curb for good!

photo courtesy johnnyberg

I knew I was going to be doing paperwork today so I stopped by the gym before going home. I know once I’m home it’s all over.

• elliptical 23min, 1.79miles, 230calories
• seniors class

I’m catching up and just want to combine things here.  I had a new dvd to review for a company and I really liked it. I haven’t done yoga in 6 years. If you are looking for a really good dvd I recommend More Daily Energy: Vinyasa Flow Yoga
. You can see my review and even enter to win a copy at Two Classy Chics.

workout 10/6

• 60 minute yoga