Weight a minute!

Spring is exploding around us. That means summer is around the corner, time for tank tops, sun dresses, shorts, bikinis, in general, nice sunny days and lighter clothing. With the warm season comes a chance to evaluate our weight. In the depths of winter, for me it is easier to have an extra helping of something warm and comforting as we snuggle in our fuzzy and total coverage pjs and the wind and snow whip around outside. Body awareness may actually decrease! Maybe not for all, but I think mine does. Some people seem like they easily manage their weight throughout life, while others feel like they are on a roller-coaster that they are not driving. What is the key? Honestly I believe it boils down to one simple (but challenging to follow) sentence: You will lose weight if you eat less than you burn.

A few years ago my sister shared a pretty cool web page with me. Kinda a geeky approach to weight loss. It's very well done though, and addresses the fact that losing weight is hard, you will feel hungry, cold, maybe even angry and upset as you give up calories and your stomach growls up at you. But it offers a lot of great scientifically driven points. One is that exercise is good for you, but it's not the key to weight loss. I agree. The calories you burn for the time it takes are not going to save you if you are eating that tasty donut or burger extra. However, exercise will boost your metabolism and mood, so I recommend it of course.

The Hacker's Diet. By John Walker
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/

I like the idea behind his key snacks if you are hungry and must eat (and are trying to LOSE weight). Pickles, bouillon in water, you get the idea. Sounds icky but it's TRUE. Very low calorie, but filling. You could drink water, eat celery, eat lettuce, find low calorie and space taking stuff. I have lost about 25-30 pounds since college and have kept it off. How? Eating less bad stuff and more good stuff and less in general, moving more, but also making sure to listen to when I am actually hungry, which I totally was not doing in college when I gained the weight. Was it hard to lose that weight? Yes. Sometimes I am still amazed that I carried the equivalent of a large sack of rice around on me constantly. Thank God it is gone!!

I was hungry at times, but I lost it over about 4 years so that's only a pound every couple months, not as hard if you stretch it out. I would actually recommend 1 pound every week or two over less time but whatever works for you is what is best. Some of my own personal thoughts were roadblocks like, if you are hungry your body will just store everything as fat. No! Not true! I was hungry sometimes and lost 25 pounds. So if you can find the edge of your hunger, embrace that. For me, food actually tastes much better when I'm a little hungry. Don't worry, you will not starve! Or another thought to stop me, it's more natural to gain weight in the winter. I'm still battling that one!

This blog post came about because I would like to lose 5 pounds. I know I'm close to my personal ideal weight, but just above it and gained a pound or two over the last six months. Doesn't sound like a lot but if I do that for 10 or 15 years, I'll be back at 150 and I'm not going there! Five pounds is not a lot, but maybe it's harder to lose weight as you get closer? Maybe that's just another mental roadblock. I already monitor my weight and have done so for years on a chart, so I recommend doing that to help manage your weight and simply bring awareness to it. If you do record it, be sure to look at trends, rather than highs and lows. The human body is mostly water and in losing the weight it was not a regular daily decline. Some days up, some down, overall the moving average became lower. Also, it's a good idea to get a scale with body fat percentage as well. That way if you do work out or retain fluid, the weight might not change as much as the % but you will have two sets of data to help you figure out if what you are doing is effective.

In conclusion, my goal is to be healthy and feel good. This is a different place and weight for different people, but in general if we are at an typical weight or a little below, we will live longer, have less health problems, and probably feel better. Carrying around extra mass is tiring! I wish you all the best of luck and energy with your own weight goals. Please feel free to share anything you would like to share here!

Namaste,
Kat