Half Size Me

Your counterculture alternative to the weight loss establishment.

Guest Post

How to Keep Distractions Out of Your Weight Loss Plan

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Guest Post By LaToya Gay

Whether you’re getting started with a new weight loss plan or you’re nearly to your goal, distractions can easily derail your hard-earned progress in no time at all. Luckily, there are a lot of ways you can manage and minimize distractions to help you stay focused on your goals.

Distractions can come in many guises. For example, taking on an extra project at work, coaching your kids’ soccer team or simple boredom with your current weight loss plan can all distract you from your goal of losing weight. Unfortunately, some distractions seem unavoidable, and so we tend to use them as excuses to ditch our fitness plans.

As we all know, it’s much harder to get back into a routine you’ve abandoned than it is to stay the course and keep moving toward your goal. Here are some great tips for keeping distractions from tempting you out of your weight loss program.

Get a Buddy

As you progress through your fitness plan, it can get easier and easier to talk yourself into cheating a little bit here and there. You tell yourself you’re too tired to hit the gym after work, or you can skip your morning run “just this once,” or it’s okay to ditch your diet for the day because you did so well all week.

Skipping out on workouts and creating unplanned cheat days are the easiest ways to let your weight loss program drift off track. Before you know it, every day will become a cheat day, and you won’t remember the last time you worked out.

One great way to stick with your plan, even in difficult times, is to get an accountability buddy for your fitness plan. Your fitness buddy can be anyone. You can hire a trainer at the gym to help you increase your fitness level, or ask a friend to run with you a few times per week. Either way, it’s much harder to ditch your plan when you know someone else is waiting for you to show up.

If you don’t know anyone you can ask to be your fitness buddy, you can try an app such as FitCliq. It helps to match you with other people looking for a workout partner.

Track Your Progress

If you’re in the middle of a weight loss plan and you’re finding it harder and harder to stay motivated as you move forward, it can be helpful to stay aware of exactly how far you’ve come.

Tracking the changes in your health and fitness can be highly motivating. Try using a program such as My Medical to track all of your health records. Then, at a glance, you can check your medical history and test results and remember how far you’ve come toward your fitness goals.

If you’re nervous about accessing your medical records through an on online app, you can protect your information by using a Virtual Private Network to encrypt your data and ensure it is safe from anyone else who might try to access the information without your consent.

Say “No” More Often

If you’re a person who is constantly volunteering or being asked to help out with things, you probably often find yourself running from one activity to the next, without any “me” time in sight.

All too often when we realize we’ve overcommitted ourselves and find time running short, our health and fitness plans are the first thing to get cut from the schedule. To find success with your weight loss plan, you need to make your fitness commitments to yourself a higher priority than other invitations that come along.

Remember, the word “no” is a complete sentence. If someone asks you to do something, you can say no without offering a lengthy explanation. Your commitment to improving your health is one of the most important commitments in your life. Honor it as such, and don’t allow requests from other people to derail your plan. You deserve to be healthy, and you deserve whatever time you’ve decided to commit to your goal.

Make It Fun

Doing the same workout over and over, similar to eating the same foods repeatedly, can get extremely boring quickly. When you don’t feel motivated to do your normal workout, it’s probably time to try something new. Check out a new workout on a popularYouTube fitness channel. Or drop in on a local fitness class such as Zumba or Pilates. Many places offer a free trial class to new students.

If you’ve fallen into a meal planning rut and you’re tired of eating the same baked chicken and steamed vegetables, consider testing out a meal delivery service. Even if you don’t decide to stick with it long-term, it can provide excellent variety in the short-term and give you some new recipes for your healthy cooking arsenal. Getting your meals delivered can also provide an extra treat that makes cooking something you can look forward to.

Life has a way of creating roadblocks for any goal you set for yourself. The question is, how committed are you to losing the weight and changing your life? If you make the commitment to real change, then no distraction will be able to slow you down.

Leave a reply in the comments to tell us your favorite method of eliminating distractions and staying focused on your goal.

Guest Author Bio: LaToya Gay is a health and fitness enthusiast.

She knows how difficult it is to stay committed to a weight loss plan from personal experience, so she hopes to help those in similar situations with her writing.

You can find more from LaToya at ehealthinformer.com

10 Tips for Weight Loss While Traveling

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Photo credit: ananyah.COM / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Photo credit: ananyah.COM / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The morning of my last business trip, I stepped on the scale and was presented with an awesome number: 169.8.

Having started at 220 pounds 19 months earlier, I crossed the 50-pounds-lost threshold for the first time. I was overjoyed, and slightly apprehensive, because I was about to spend five days in Nashville eating in restaurants, banquets, and receptions.

I was determined to continue on the path to weight loss and not creep back up into the 170s. Here’s how I did it:

1. Plan for Airplane Meals

It’s next to impossible to make healthy choices once you’re actually on an airplane. But before you go to the airport, or even once you’re there, you can set yourself up for success.

For my outbound flight, I stopped at a convenience store and bought foods that would keep me nourished and more likely to turn down in-flight peanuts. I got two hard boiled eggs, a bag of sweet cherries, and an apple.

This mix of protein and fruit got me through until my chance to eat lunch, when I could make a healthy choice at an airport restaurant.  On my return flight, I didn’t bring food with me to the airport, but I scoured the restaurants until I found an option that was protein-packed and reasonable: a 400 calorie salad and a cup of grapes.

2. Pack & Plan for Activity

This was a very work-intensive trip, but I brought my running shoes and workout clothes with the hopes of getting a few workouts in. The conference offered a group Zumba class the first morning we were there, and I convinced some co-workers to join me (we were all first-timers).

I found myself with some extra time on my hands when woke up at 4:45 a.m. for no reason, so I went downstairs to the 24-hour gym and ran a 5K. These were my only workouts during the trip, but they occurred early on and helped me feel like I started out on the right foot.

3. Share Your Goals with Others

 I was traveling with two trusted coworkers, and I told them in the airport security line that I was determined to eat sensibly (and that I would be writing this blog post when I returned)! I noticed them trying to make healthy choices throughout the trip as well.  It was a lot easier to make these choices knowing I wasn’t alone.

4. At Events, Focus On People, Not Food

This particular trip included two evening receptions with a variety of buffet and bar options. Prior to embarking on my weight loss journey, I would have tried everything and had a drink or two. This time, I focused on finding people I wanted to talk to and stayed away from the food.

Out of the 10+ food options between the two evenings, I tried one. When I was given a free drink ticket, I gave it to a friend and chose to drink water or diet soda instead. I had just as much fun as I had at prior reception, and I probably avoided thousands of extra calories.

5. Choose Restaurants with Healthy Options

I work with a group of men that really like to eat at sports bars. After our first meal together when I made the best choice I could (salmon, veggies, corn chowder), I took over restaurant choices. I was able to find locations that offered burgers and fries for the guys, and fresh, creative salads or broiled fish for me.

At breakfast, instead of eating the decadent dishes on the menu, I my own meal from sides (poached eggs, fruit, ham)—and came back two more times to order exactly the same thing.  I’m very proud of the fact that I didn’t eat any fried food on this trip.

6. At Conferences, Choose the Veggie Option

When given the chance to indicate my meal preference at professional conferences, I always choose vegetarian. Nine times out of ten, it will be a lower-calorie entrée than the meat version. Every once in a while you’ll be given a plate of cheese-covered pasta.

That’s when you need to exercise portion control and seek out a healthy snack after the meal.

7. Indulge in Local Specialties That Are Worth It

I found some grits with bacon that were delicious, but they were at a self-serve buffet and I could take a sensible portion. I took one small bite of the pie offered at one lunch and determined it wasn’t worth it. The cheesecake the next day? That was worth it.

The over-cooked grits that preceded the cheesecake? Nope. Over the course of five days I had three desserts and they were all worth it. I never felt deprived, and was able to say no to other local, sugar-covered specialties.

8. Stay Out Of Taxis

Most cities I’ve traveled to on business are walkable, yet I see my colleagues take cabs if it’s hot or we’re running late. I tried to walk everywhere possible, just to get in the extra activity.

9. Continue To Track Your Food

If you track food as part of your weight loss plan, continue to do so when traveling. It can help to snap a picture of your meal and track it later when you have a chance. Even if you go over your daily calorie or PointsPlus goal, you have a record to consult if the scale doesn’t say what you expect when you get home. That will allow you to learn from mistakes and do better next time.

10. Don’t Make Judgments Based On Your Weight When You Land

Flying does some weird things to our bodies. We retain water and get bloated. The morning after I got back from my trip, I weighed 170.2. The next morning I still weighed 170.2, and on the third day I weighed 168.9. That means over the course of seven days I lost .9 pounds, even though I was traveling for five of them. I’d consider that a success any week.

Happy travels!

Voices from the Community: How Small Changes Led to Huge Results

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scale
Photo credit: marsmet546 / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

One of the biggest challenges I have in weight loss is my addiction to fast food.

I’ve established these really unhealthy habits of going through a fast food drive-thru on my way home three-to-four times a week or ordering pizza twice a week. (This is not counting my daily lunch outings to drive-thrus or restaurants).

Sometimes I do this to avoid cooking and the time consuming, boring task of cleaning up afterward. But most of the time, it’s because I was craving it. I knew it was so unhealthy. And I’d hate myself almost immediately after I placed my order, but it was a compulsion.

I would start to diet and avoid fast food and my head would start whining (Yes, I whine in my head. It’s very annoying): “I NEED FRENCH FRIES NOW!”, or “WHO CARES? YOU’RE ALREADY OVERWEIGHT!”, or “YOU CAN START TOMORROW!”

And then, it took less than five minutes to convince myself I needed to eat. And thanks to our food-obsessed society there was always a fast food place nearby.

So there I was with my spicy chicken sandwich, my large fries, an additional small fry, and my large diet coke feeling like a complete, pathetic loser. I filled myself with feelings of defeat and disappointment along with over 1500 calories. It was an unpleasant meal and I’d repeat it again within 24 hours.

I’ve given up on my weight loss so many times because of my fast food addiction. At times, I’ve tried telling myself I could just stay overweight, but I was too unhappy.

Then I joined the Half Size Me Community because I was tired of being overwhelmed about my weight. In the community, there’s an emphasis on small incremental changes which resounded with me. I figured a little something is better than a lot of nothing.

So, my first “small” change was bringing my lunch to work every day. I thought that if I brought my lunch I wouldn’t need to eat out so much. And if I was tempted to eat fast food for dinner at least I wouldn’t eat it twice in one day.

This change worked wonders!

Before I knew it, I was only eating fast food twice a week and ordering pizza once a week, a drastic reduction. Also, I was tracking every meal so I could keep myself accountable.

The second change I made was to modify my orders. Instead of large fries, I’d order medium fries. Or instead of regular crust on a pizza with extra cheese, I’d order a thin crust pizza with veggies.

I knew that giving up my favorite foods would be hard to do all at once, so I made those small changes. I thought this obstacle would be the hardest, but this change had a huge impact. It was such a simple and small change that I didn’t really notice a difference in my satisfaction level.

When I attempted huge, unbearable, unrealistic, inconceivable changes, I lost. But small, reasonable, incremental changes is the only way I’ll win at this weight loss and healthy living game.

And I want to win!

Meal Planning Can Help You Win the Weight Loss Battle

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Meal Planning
Photo credit: Liz / Flickr / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” —Alan Lakein

During my weight loss journey I have come to learn that meal planning has been the deciding factor on whether I succeeded or failed.

How do I know when I can make time for my workouts if I don’t work out my calendar?

How do I assure I have good food in my house without a grocery list?

What happens if I come home starving and nothing is made, but McDonalds is across the street ready to eat?

Planning ahead is a vital weapon in this weight loss battle.

As a chef cooking and meal planning is my forte.  I thought I would share some of my tips that have been helpful for me to assure that I always have healthy options available at all times.

1. First you need a list to know what to get. I am horrible at remembering paper lists so I have an app and I add things during the week as I think of it. Add staple items first: things you know you will need during the week.  Milk, eggs, vegetables, fruit etc. Are there items you are craving or recipes you have been wanting to try out? Add it!  It is so important to make your list and stick to it.

2. Adding to the list step I have to add to make sure you get things you like!  I felt this was so important it had to be its own step. Pack delicious snacks and meals that you will be happy to eat.  When you go to work and are faced with cupcakes, candy and donuts what is in your arsenal to knock out that temptation? I bet most cases a baggy of carrot sticks will not make you feel happy about saying no to those sweets.  Make sure you have items available you truly like to eat. Don’t get things just because you feel it’s what you should be eating.

3. Now the fun part – shopping!  Do your best to stick to your list! Of course some items may have a great sale and it may not be on your list but if it is in your plan then sure, go ahead! I am notorious for buying certain meats/fish because they are on sale even if they aren’t on my list.  Now if chips ahoy is buy one get one free..you may want to skip it.

4. Once you have all your fresh and healthy items home it’s time to decide what to do with it all.  I normally shop on Saturdays and prep everything I need on Sundays. Anything you can possibly chop, portion, cook, prep – do it!  Your future self with thank you.  Just like the quote above –“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” 

We have all had those days that when we get home from work or have been home all day tending to children, pets, spouses etc. the last thing on our mind is having to also cook dinner. Some days it seems so much easier to go get whatever take-out is closest.  Imagine if all that was done for you. You have a hot meal in a crock pot, an already prepped casserole ready to be baked.  It makes life so much easier!  It stops a bad choice in its tracks before it even has time to gain leverage against us.

Here is an example of what my prep looks like

  • Chopping all fruits that can be cut ahead of time without losing quality
  • Pre-cook my proteins (grilling chicken, searing off beef)
  • Cook pastas, rice, grains etc
  • Boil eggs for snacks & salads
  • Pre-portion any snacks to avoid over indulgence (chips, popcorn, pretzels etc)
  • Prep casseroles to be baked later in the week

Cutting vegetables and pre-portioning vegetable dips

5. Now that you have all these meals prepped and snacks packed means that your week should be full of good choices!  When heading off to work pack for your day.  Packing a sandwich and an apple isn’t going to be enough fuel for a 9 hour day. Pack your lunch and snacks to get you through the day (or even to get you through your evening traffic jam).  Having everything at your fingertips makes temptations during your day less tempting.  Assure that any crock pot meals are ready before you walk out the door!

6. Come home after a long day of work and throw in your casserole or serve up a delicious meal waiting in your crock pot.  Now you don’t come home ready to eat everything within your reach.  There is now time for a workout or relaxing family time!

7. Lastly, eating out.  Yep..plan for that too!  Have you been craving pizza?  Or maybe a burger? Plan for it!  I do not feel anything is off limits in moderation.  I am not saying starve yourself to assure you can eat pizza later but certainly count your points or calories for the day and work your day around enjoying what you want to eat, not regretting it tomorrow.

Planning does take some of time out of my weekend and it certainly isn’t easy at first.  Once you make it part of your routine it does get easier and I cannot stress how important planning is for successful weight loss.

For the few hours is takes out of the weekend it makes up for the time gained during the week and takes the guess work out of your daily meals.

 

Do you A.F.F.I.R.M. Your Goals to Achieve Success?

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Photo credit: vfowler / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Photo credit: vfowler / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” —  Pablo Picasso

Throughout my professional life as a project manager, I have worked with goals. In fact, the very nature of project management is to set a goal, break that goal down into tasks and subtasks, set milestones (mini goals along the way) and set time frames for the completion of the project.  Granted this is a bit of an oversimplification, but you get the idea.

Recently I have been doing some work with S.M.A.R.T. goals.  These are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic or relevant and time bound.

In weight loss this might translate to:

“I want to reach a goal weight of 145 lbs by losing 40 pounds within 6 months at a rate of just over 1.5 pounds per week.”

This is certainly specific, measurable, achievable, theoretically realistic and time bound, but is it actually smart?

I can not tell you how many countless times I have gotten out the calendar, calculated how much weight I could lose before a trip, a wedding, a birthday, you name it, only to disappoint myself and not reach that goal.

I would see how many weeks it would take me to get to my goal weight by losing 1 lb per week or 2 lbs per week and then decide that this is what I would do.  This approach NEVER worked for me.

Now SMART goals work in many contexts but when it comes to losing weight, I believe there are just too many variables in the equation.  Weight loss, and ideally fat loss, is just not a linear process and it is not the same for everyone.   The body and the mind just don’t work that way.

So, what can you do differently?

You can set action-oriented goals that allow for flexibility and failure.  You can set goals that A.F.F.I.R.M.  (I couldn’t help myself) who you are and what you are trying to achieve.

These goals are:

Action-oriented.   Focus on the specific actions you can take today, tomorrow, and the next day.   What are the recurring actions that will maximize your chances of reaching your goal(s)?

For example, an action-oriented goal could be to walk 3x a week or maybe just to walk 5 minutes a day.  It could be to plan your meals each night or to track your food for even just one week or day.  Perhaps it is to only eat fast food one day a week, or to simply stop eating the leftovers from your kids’ plate.

During several of the Half Size Me podcasts (Episodes 100 and 108), Heather, talks about changing just one small thing and how the accumulation of those small changes will propel you forward and help you reach your larger goals.

Failure is okay.  Too often failure is viewed as the end.  You say “Oh, I failed” and then quit.  If you set your goals to allow for failure, you give yourself the chance to succeed and to learn from your failures on the way.

For example, I recently quit drinking Diet Pepsi.  I set a goal of giving up Diet Pepsi for the month of March.  Well in 31 days, I had 5 Diet Pepsi’s.  Did I fail?  On those 5 days maybe but as a whole, NO.  Five Diet Pepsi’s is way better than 31 or 62.  Did I learn from my failure on those 5 days?  Absolutely.

Flexible.  Weight loss and fitness goals have to be flexible so that we can respond to the things life throws at us.   Let’s say you set an action-oriented goal to run 3x a week and your working towards a 10K.  However, you sustain an injury.

Did you fail? Do you get mad, frustrated and perhaps head to the fridge to soothe your ego and your frustration?

No, change the goal to walk 3x a week or do the elliptical, or focus on your strength training for a while instead.  The rest of life such as sick kids, work deadlines, or a broken down car, will all interfere at times with your goals.  Be flexible and adapt but just keep going.

Instill new habits.  Weight loss and healthy living are all about habits.  Exercise habits, healthy eating habits, and positive thinking habits.  Shouldn’t our goals help instill new habits or reinforce the positive ones?

James Clear has some great posts on habits, check out his 3 simple steps to actually stick with a good habit. http://jamesclear.com/small-habits.

Recordable.   Think of it as the grown up version of a star chart.  Hey, go get yourself some sparkly stars if you want!  Personally I love glitter.  But, have a chart and a way to track your daily success.   I like the one created by Dr. Kostevski in a blog post on how he uses action-based goals in body-building.

I modified his a bit to better fit my needs of a daily chart that could be used for any month.

Of course, there is always an app for that.  Check out the Lift app for an all-purpose goals app.

Meaningful for YOU.  Lastly, but it’s hugely important, make the goals something that YOU care about, not what you think you should care about, but something that really means something to you.

I recently set a goal of doing a certain number of push-ups.  But once I started working on this goal, I realized I just don’t care and this is not motivating to me. Find what works for you and ditch the rest!

 

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