10 diet traps

This info-graphic from waitrose.com shows 10 of the top diet traps that people fall into and gives ways to avoid them.  I have fallen into all 10 traps at one point or another.  The first 2 have been key to most of my weight loss so far:  portion control and calorie counting.


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Weigh in February 24

Starting Weight - 217 on January 1st, 2013
Current Weight - 205.4

Weight lost GAINED this week -  0.6 lbs

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No surprise that I gained this week.  While I mostly tried to follow the low-carb approach, I had several moments of giving in and eating everything in sight: a cup of almonds, a whole big chocolate bar, 2 donuts and chocolate muffin.  Ugh.

Today is the start of a new week, so I start again.

Will power

....I have none.

Today was a horrible day for food choices.  Faced with temptation 3 different times, I caved EACH time.  And each time I felt like crap because I was eating crap that I haven't had in a while.  You would think after the first or maybe even the second time that I would have learned.  Nope... hours later I did it again.

I can make fabulous choices when planning, I can say No Thank you to people offering me snacks and treats at the office.  But if I have access to junk food, I simply cave.  

This is going to be my goal for the next while.  To take control of my will power.  To not cave to simple desires that I know are not good for me.

Sleep

I've discovered on my journey to better health and wellness that sleep can be just as important (if not more) than diet and exercise.  Check out this great info-graphic from The Greatist.com for lots of facts about sleep and ideas about improving it.

Get health and fitness tips at Greatist.com

TaeKwon-do

It's been almost a year since I started TaeKwon-Do with Liam.  I aim to go to a 1 hour class three times a week.  It's a great work out and a whole lot of fun, something that I hadn't expected.   An hour of Tae Kwon Do can burn over 900 calories!  I didn't think that I could find a sport, a contact, martial art sport at that, that I would fall in love with in my 40s, but I've fallen in love with this one.

Get Stretched

One of the things I like about Tribesports is that they have these great guides.

This one is an 11.5 minute stretching routing that work all your major muscles. Stretching before and after a workout is so important but something that many people often neglect. Stretching gets your blood flowing and increases your circulation. It can help you build better flexibility by lengthening your muscles. It can help prevent injury by warming up your muscles slowly before you hit them hard with the real workout.

It’s important to remember to stretch properly. It’s easy to fall into the habit of “bouncing” or rushing your stretches. This can do more damage in the long run. Stretching should never hurt. You may feel resistance as you are building your flexibility but if it hurts you’ve pushed yourself too far.

Come on over to Tribesports and join this challenge to Get Stretched!

Weigh In February 17th

Starting Weight - 217 on January 1st, 2013
Current Weight - 204.8

Weight lost this week -  3.1 lbs

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photo credit: Buzzle.com

I am loving the low-Carb approach to things!  I not only lost 3 pounds this week, I did it without ever feeling hungry or deprived.

I averaged 1815 calories each day which is slightly on the high side for what my goal should be.  The average would have been lower, but we splurged on a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day.  I also averaged 93 g net carbs a day (109 g carbs minus 16 g fiber) .  Considering my average before trying this approach was closer to 280 g net carbs a day, I think I've done well.  I don't think I could get as low as 30 g of carbs, which some diets suggest.  Given my weight loss results for the week, I really don't see the need to go that extreme at this point.

It was very interesting to not feel hungry or have any other negative effects from reducing carbs in my diet.  I was worried that I would hangry or head-achy all week, but I wasn't.  I had a good sized breakfast before leaving for work, small snacks throughout the day and a great dinner every night.  I also drank lots of green tea and water all day long, which I'm sure helped me to feel more full.  I did eat a lot more meat than I usually do.  Hilary indulged me by cooking pork chops, chicken, salmon and steak for me.  A meat with 1 or 2 veggies on the side makes for a very satisfying meal.  I also ate eggs, twice!  Hilary made a fabulous spinach frittata, one of the few ways the I enjoy eggs and on Saturday after TaeKwon-Do I even made myself an omelet.

We've decided to try another week of low carb eating.  It was not that difficult (or more expensive) to put together lunches for me to take to work, and Hilary doesn't mind the meat/veg approach to dinner.  The one thing that I am going to try to change up this week is my breakfast.  Instead of having oatmeal/quinoa with greek yogurt, which has 40 g of carbs in it, I'm going to try cooking myself some eggs (and maybe even bacon) for before I leave for work.  A 2 egg omelet has 1/2 the calories of the quinoa dish and only 1 g of carbs.  Win-Win.  Of course, cooking at 6:00 AM might be a challenge!


I owe a big thanks to my SIL for her fabulous suggestion!  If I can keep things up I may actually reach that elusive goal of 199 lbs.