Taking Charge : Part 2

My friend Kerri sent me a link to a very interesting website: coachcalorie. It’s full of good advice on healthy eating and exercise.  Here’s a list of things from one of their posts that should help me on my weight loss journey.

Control Portion Sizes

In our super-sized food culture, portion sizes have gotten out of control. Eating portions the size of your fist is a good start towards controlling your food intake. Also, don’t feel like you always need to finish off all the food on your plate. Leaving a couple bites will teach you self-control.

Be Consistent

No one is perfect. We are all going to make mistakes. However, successful people are consistently living a healthy lifestyle. Over a period of time, they are eating healthy 90% of the time, and they are exercising several times a week.  Make exercise and healthy eating part of your everyday routine and soon it will be as second nature as brushing your teeth.

Plan

A healthy lifestyle takes planning. Most mistakes occur from a lack of a plan. Plan your meals in advance so you know what to buy every week at the grocery store. Only buy what you plan on eating, and try to cook your meals ahead of time. The simple nature of reheat and eat makes it much more likely that you’ll stay on track.

Get Active

Nearly everyone who lost over 50 pounds added in some form of physical activity. Even if it was just a little bit, the fact that they were more active helped them lose the weight. The trick is to find an activity you enjoy. Not everyone likes the same exercise. Find an activity you love to do, and then push yourself out of your comfort zone. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up

You’re going to mess up. We all do. Successful people don’t beat themselves up over it. They get right back on track. They don’t wait until tomorrow to do so either. Their healthy lifestyle and weight loss continues to move forward and make progress because they allow themselves to make mistakes, learn from them, and then end up stronger as a result.

Surround Yourself With Positive People

We are highly influenced by the people close to us. Many successful people had to move forward with their lives and leave old friends and lifestyles behind. It was a hard decision to make, but they understood how important it was to surround themselves with people who believed in their dreams.

Stop Making Excuses

Successful people made the shift and realized that the reasons for why they weren’t reaching their weight loss goals were actually just excuses. It was a hard idea to accept, but once they were honest with themselves, they spent less time making excuses, and more time finding ways to accomplish their goals.

Stay Positive

Negative thoughts lead to negative results. You are the result of what you think. Keeping a positive outtake on your weight loss journey increases the odds of your success. You will learn a lot about yourself during your lifestyle transition. There will be many challenges and difficulties, but it’s important to understand that even though it might not be easy, it will be worth it.

Don’t Try to Be Perfect

If your goal is to be perfect, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. No one is perfect. Even the people who seem to have the most perfect bodies didn’t get there by being perfect. Perfection is something many strive for, but ultimately something they will never achieve. Do your best!

Never Give Up

Weight loss happens the moment you don’t give up. Many people don’t realize how close they were to achieving success. There comes a time when things just click, but that doesn’t happen until you’re ready to throw in the towel and call it quits. The longer you stick with it, the higher your odds of success. Keep moving forward, and don’t ever give up!

Hanging on to the Bandwagon

I trust and respect myself and deserve to satisfy my inner needs!

(Thank you to Clemma for this cute pic that made my day)

The last couple of weeks have been interesting, between going to the DRC for work, getting ill and eating big doses of antibiotics (dear Augmentin manufacturer, please make your pills smaller so that they are easier to swallow), and starting my first project managing role.

I have managed to lose some more weight and cms since my last weigh in 3 weeks ago, so I’m definitely getting my carb / protein ratio right. I will not pretend that it has been easy. Being ill made it even harder to be disciplined. The last thing I’ve wanted to do is cook. I did manage to make myself some soup for lunches last week, but suppers have been opportunistic and far from being a healthy choice at the best of times. I’ve also not been to gym for 2 weeks and I’m craving it! My lungs are finally clearing up so I should be able to slowly get going again.

I realise that I need to make a bigger effort to have home-cooked supper meals readily available. As my housemate is only home 2 or 3 nights a week, cooking for one is rather tricky. And I’m utterly not in the mood for cooking these days. There are some unidentified frozen dishes lurking in the freezer. I think it’s time to investigate them. Toss out what shouldn’t even be in the fridge. The sad thing is that there seems to me more condiments in that fridge than anything else (mostly my housemate’s. Do we really need that many? There are many variations on the chilli theme. I think she forgets she has that stuff and I don’t go near it, I like my taste buds). Once I’ve done that I need to be really prepared and disciplined.

It’s very hard to do this solo. Last year I did a challenge with Sean and it worked well until he bailed out on me. I need to find someone who is determined to get healthy, who will not sabotage the process, and who will rise to the challenge.

On the positive side of things, I am making more time for me. I have stopped accepting every invite that is being sent out. I am getting back in contact with my dear friends with whom I feel I have not been communicating enough. I’ve realised how much I miss them. I’m watching less TV, reading more and spending time in my garden. I’m also trying to look after my skin better: no more skipping on cleansing my face at night; I make sure that I treat my nails and cuticles every night; applying hand cream after every time I wash my hands; moisturising! This is all part of the Looking After Gerlinde Plan: pampering (without breaking the bank) and giving me some much needed love.

So here is the plan for the coming weeks:

1.       Find a health and fitness buddy who will not bail out on me.

2.       Make more time to see close friends.

3.       Sort out the fridge and toss anything unhealthy / old and manky / mysterious.

4.       BE DISCIPLINED AND PREPARED!

5.       Plan weekly meals.

6.       Get back to gym (at least 3 times a week) and start training for the 15km 702 Walk the Talk.

7.       Eat out not more than once a week, preferably not more than twice a month (my finances will be grateful too).

8.       No take-outs or convenience meals (happy waist and wallet).

9.       NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER SURRENDER!

Getting Started

With a new year come resolutions and these are generally adhered to for a few weeks and then get ignored for the rest of the year. Last year I did pretty well but this year I intend to excel!

I started on Weigh-Less just over a week ago and I shed 2kg, even though I was away on site visits and there were a few birthdays I attended. I feel that is a fantastic motivator to continue!

But to feel better here are 7 simple rules to get you kickstarted. They don't involve a detox because detox diets out there are more likeley to do you harm than good. And they are quite simple methinks.

1.       Cut coffee down to 1 a day and drink more herbal tea.

2.       Drink ginger tea. It’s really easy to make at work and you can drink it all day, it’s a lovely metabolism booster and body cleanser. Or make your own ice tea without sugar (if you need the sweet use xylitol or stevia).

3.       Cut out all junk food (that includes soft drinks). You can do it! It’s actually quite awful stuff. Mostly made of cardboard with seasoning and oil.

4.       Buy fresh ingredients and make your own salads and veggie dishes. You can add some lean protein on the side. And eat fruit twice a day.

5.       Leave out the carbs at supper time (or keep them to an absolute minimum, like a crumbed chicken breast or crumbed fish). It’s simple: you just don’t need an energy injection a couple of hours before you lie down to sleep.

6.       Try not to drink alcohol during the week and do some exercise. These go hand in hand for me. I always feel so great after I’ve had a spot of jump-up-and-down, I don’t feel like drinking... most of the time. And on weekends when you want some alcohol stick to a light white wine. A pinot noir is a very nice option. There’s a gorgeous one from Simonsig (available at Woolworths only) that will not make your wallet cringe.

7.       Water water water! Still or sparkling. Don’t go for flavoured as it’s full of sugar and other nasties. You can add mint, lemon verbena or lemon to your water for a refreshing flavour. And avoid fruit juices as they’re sugar traps. Get yourself a 750ml bottle for work and make sure you drink 2 of those while at work. Have a few large glugs every time you think you’re hungry. You’ll find that you probably only thirsty.

It’s all about breaking the habit. Try the 21 day rule. If you can break it in 21 days, you’ve done it. And then stick to it for the rest of the year!

Ginger Tea

This makes 2 cups

2cm fresh ginger

2 wedges of lemon

Peel the ginger and chop it into thin slices. Place the ginger and lemon into a container and fill with just boiled water. Let it steep for five minutes before drinking. You can make a large jug and keep it in the fridge once it has cooled, but make sure to make a fresh one each day.

Weight Loss & Fitness Challenge: Week 1

So I'm one week into the challenge and so far so good. I've managed to shed the 3kg that crept on during the holiday, which makes me very happy. I’m down to 96 this morning.

I've also been to gym 3 times and had my pilates session. I was talking with my next door neighbour (KM) and she informed me that the Planet Fitness next to home has NIA classes on a Thursday afternoon. I love dancing and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I can’t wait to try it out. KM and I are also planning on walking twice a week. My other friend Bee also wants to get back on track with Weigh-Less so once a week we’ll meet up for a weigh-in and healthy lunch.

I think doing this challenge with friends will help me stay on track. That has been the hardest part in the past. I’m also mentally in the right space to be doing this. I think trying to be healthy when one is depressed does not work.

Funnily enough I haven't got any chocolate cravings...yet. That's a good sign. The hardest part was giving up coffee. One more week and I can have my morning cuppa again. Rooibos just does not have the same effect as a good cup of coffee.

On the not so great part. I went to have blood tests done. My fasting glucose levels are fine and good. My cholesterol on the other hand, not so much. They’re sitting at 6.9mmol/l. They should be less than 5. So I've been told to take lots of Omega3 and eat healthy and exercise. Funny how that's just what I've started doing. In 6 weeks time I need to go back and if the levels are still high then we know it's genetic and I'll have to take meds. Keep fingers crossed that my health regime will be the cure!