Small Changes are the Key to Healthy Weight Loss

The Optimal Health magazine that DMBA sends out every month had an article entitled "Small Changes are the Key to Healthy Weight Loss." The article included some interesting statistics:

1. Nine out of ten adults tried to lose weight last year.

2. People who eat breakfast are more likely to lose weight. Breakfast skippers usually eat more calories by the end of the day.

3. Of the people who successfully lost weight, 75 percent weighed themselves at least once a week.

4. People who kept a Food Log lost more weight than the people who didn't.

5. In a national survey, only 45 % of people knew that eating fewer calories is the best way to lose weight. Instead, they said eating less fat or fewer carbohydrates or eating more protein was most important.

6. Nearly 2/3rds of people who successfully lost weight watched 10 hours or less of TV a week. That's 18 fewer hours than the national average.

7. The National Weight Control Registry reports that getting about an hour of exercise a day, usually walking, is a key habit of people who successfully lose weight.

Bottom Line of the Article: Weight loss is not about exercising for hours a day, skipping meals, or avoiding carbohydrates. It's about making small changes in your diet and physical activity level and making them day after day and week after week.

Bottom Line for Me: I need to stop eating while I'm watching TV. (Maybe I can lift weights instead.)

Baby Steps

I've decided I need to take baby steps back to getting on track. I weighed myself and I was up the lbs I'd lost, plus some. Which means I'm now up 10 lbs from where I was a year ago.

My response: I walked on the treadmill 45 minutes Saturday, Monday and today. And I'm determined to walk on the treadmill again tomorrow.

I like some of the things Mom and Dad have implemented, like not eating past 7pm. But what time do you go to bed? I don't even get off work until 10pm and the last two nights I haven't left the building until 11pm--which means I'm not in bed until 12:30am.

But baby steps.

Thoughts from Scott

As Beverly mentioned, we are doing well. I'm down 7 pounds from when I had my operation and down 9 pounds from when when we started our program, which was the day before Suzanne left.

How are we doing it? The same basic things:

1. Exercising. We're walking or doing some serious exercise every morning.
2. Fixing excellent, high-quality, delicious meals so we don't feel deprived.
3. Detoxifying our home. We removed all tempting candy and goodies.
4. Shutting down the kitchen after dinner. As Beverly mentioned, we try not to eat after 7:00 pm. The main thing that's helping is that we both pitch in and clean up the kitchen right after we eat, and then we turn off the lights and leave.

And when we fail, we don't give up.

I just pray that we can keep it going.

Report on Week of August 4-8

I'm quite encouraged with my weight loss because I've now lost 9 lbs and am back at my former all-time high---what I weighed when Scott and I began the weight loss campaign 5 years ago.

That's not to say that I'm satisfied with my present weight, just the direction I'm going.

What's working for me is to not eat anything after dinner. I think I was eating a day's worth of calories AFTER 8:00 pm. I've also given up foods that I know contain Aspartame (diet soda, Crystal Light, and non-fat yogurt). I think that Aspartame causes me to have this constant craving for food. So now, I'm drinking cold water when I feel hungry.

Now the real weight loss work begins.

Checking In

Ok, how's everyone doing? I started this blog and feel like not only have I've neglected it but I've also 'given up'. I hope I'm the only one with this feeling.

On a good note, instead of telling myself "I'll start working out again on Monday" yesterday I got off my bum and got on the treadmill. It's a start. My 10th 'start' in who knows how long. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.

Report for the week of July 28

Last week was mostly good for me, with Sunday being the exception. My question is why Fast Sunday is so hard. You'd think it would be easier to lose weight on a day when you miss two meals. But last night was the family party for August birthdays, and I ate stuff I hadn't eaten all week (cake, chips, candy).

I'm happy to report, however, that I've lost 6 pounds since we got back from St. George. I'm having lunch with my sisters, and I've already decided what I'm going to order so that I don't have any of that yummy, high-calorie cream of broccoli soup.

Checking In

I'm happy to state that I've been pretty much off sweets and candy for a week. Today will be a big test, however, as we're celebrating July/August birthdays at Andrea's. Thank goodness, we're going to make a low-fat/low calorie treat (Strawberry sorbet) for those of us trying to avoid cake. I've put the recipe on Zimfam.

What lowfat "treats" are you eating now?