Quick, Easy, Fast. . .

. . .rapid, simple, effortless. These are words that should not be used to describe weight loss. Yet, the last time that I was trying to chose a magazine, these are the exact words that were used to advertise diet and exercise.

"Simple new foods to get rapid weight loss results!"

"Quick 10 minute workouts to see the results you want."

"The simple way to lose 10 pounds in two weeks!"

"Easy exercise tips to get six pack abs."

The only way that getting a six pack would be considered easy was if you were to use this little contraption.

source

Being that everyone and their brother are trying to lose weight, it only makes sense that retailers are trying to cash in on this growing fitness industry. And since we tend to be obsessed with instant gratification, it's no surprise that weight loss is advertised as quick and painless. But whether an individual is trying to lose 200 pounds, or that last 5 pounds, weight loss should never be disguised as easy. If it were easy, quick or fast, we would not have such a high rising obesity rate.

Losing weight the proper way is not easy or fast. It's very, very hard and frustrating, and discouraging. And if you have a good amount of weight to lose, there will come a time when you will want to give up because you won't feel like anything is working. When you have reached a point of desperation, you are willing to believe anything. And against your better judgement, you find yourself thinking that using the shake weight for 6 minutes is going to work. Exercise is not meant meant to be quick. A real workout should never be 10 minutes or less. It's called a workout for a reason. You have to put the hard work in to get the hot body that you desire. I have learned to embrace fitness and hard work, but when I started I had no idea just how hard I would have to work.

In the beginning, I had visions of my weight just pouring off. I thought I would be losing at least 5 pounds a week, if not more. I blame this vision solely on society and the false advertising that is done for weight loss. Luckily there was a voice inside telling me to keep working hard but I think a common reason for weight loss failure is unrealistic expectations when it comes to beginning a diet and exercise routine. If you set out thinking that something is going to be easy, and then find out that it's not so easy, chances are you are going to fail and eventually quit.
 

Workout equipment like this provides unrealistic expectations of real exercise.

Spending only 6 minutes a day working out is not going to get you buff.

source

And when is the last time you heard someone say, "oh yeah, I actually lost 50 pounds by using the shake weight for 6 minutes a day!"

Now don't get me wrong, I am sure the shake weight could provide some great benefits when added into a daily workout regimen, coupled with a healthy diet. However, the advertising leads us to believe that 6 minutes of simply holding a moving object is all it's going to take to get big, bulging muscles. This ad makes it look like the girl and guy both only used it for 6 minutes a day, yet by some miracle he was able to get muscles triple her size. It's magic really.

Equally there are many crash diets on the market that I think purposefully set people up for failure. The more that people crash diet, the more money they are going to spend on products like the shake weight and the ab lounger. It's a vicious cycle.

"Conduct this 7 day cleanse, and you will lose 10 pounds." 

"Use this relaxing body wrap and watch the inches melt off of your waist!"

A diet in which you have to cleanse starve your body for a week is not going to provide you with real, sustainable results. You are not going to maintain that 10 pound weight loss. You have simply deprived your body and lost some water weight. This is a quick fix; a temporary solution. Participating in a cleanse for 4 nonconsecutive weeks is not going to result in a total of 40 pounds gone. Similarly, taking an all natural diet supplement is not going to cause you to drop 30 pounds if you are still stuffing your face with a Big Mac, and considering adjusting yourself on the couch to be exercise.

Though some diet supplements may aid in weight loss, they usually only work when added to an already healthy diet, and exercise. When my weight loss plateaued, I had considered taking a diet supplement, but I stopped and asked myself, "do I want to take this supplement for the rest of my life?" My answer was no. So now I ask myself this very question every time I consider buying a supplement. And if my answer is no, which it usually is, then I typically won't start taking that specific supplement. I believe that if you are going to maintain weight loss, you need to find a diet that you will be able to sustain for the rest of your life. I have heard that maintaining weight loss can sometimes be harder than actually losing it. So why not start with the hard stuff, make it a lifestyle and then live that way forever?

So when you find yourself debating buying that trendy piece of workout equipment or participating in a fad diet, ask yourself "am I going to be able to keep this up forever?" "Is this an actual lifestyle change or just a quick fix?" Weight loss and a healthy lifestyle should never be a fad or a trend. And if you find yourself overwhelmed at the thought of never getting to eat a large bowl of ice cream ever again, ask yourself "can I do it just for today?" Because chances are you can. You are stronger than you think. And then 'just for today' quickly becomes a month, which quickly becomes 6 months, and before you know it, you no longer feel chained to ice cream or junk food in general. 

You are strong. And you can do this. 

Break your weight loss journey into more manageable chunks. If you love bread, brownies and french fries (I am guilty of this), you don't need to stop eating all of them at once. But you also don't need to have all of them in the same week. Moderation is good. Crash dieting is bad. 

source

Note to Self: Kale Doesn't Blend Well

Do not put kale into a protein shake. I repeat, do NOT put kale into a blended protein shake! This may sound like common sense to those of you who are not adventurous in your eating. However, last night I thought this sounded like a great idea. I have previously blended spinach into a protein shake, and it turned out just fine. Other than the green tint, I couldn't even tell that there was spinach in my yummy chocolate protein shake. So last night, when making my protein shake I thought kale would blend up just as nicely. Wrong. I was so horribly and utterly wrong.

Because kale is a little more structured and rigid than spinach, I ended up with a cup full of what I am calling 'kale flecks.' After taking my first sip, I felt as though someone had put a handful grass clippings into my cup. It tasted just fine, but the texture was all wrong. With every sip I had a mouth full of hard kale flecks. Gross. But since I am not a quitter or a waster, I pressed on and drank the entire cup. Half way through I started washing down every sip of the concoction with a large gulp of water. This helped, but by no means did I get used to the texture. Never again will I be foolish enough to add kale to a blended drink. Never. Again.

Drunk Snacking and Hungover Binging!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about drinking alcohol while on a diet, but another factor that doesn't bode well for my diet is the food that I consume while under the influence. Unfortunately for me, a weekend of bar hopping and drink mixing usually means a late night drunken feast. Most of the time my drunken snacking doesn't even include foods that I would normally eat. I once bought a doughnut, ate half and then realized that I don't even like doughnuts! Who does that? Me, apparently. And it usually doesn't stop there. The next morning, if I wake up with a hangover, I always want a large amount of fatty foods. I almost always want a burrito, a heaping plate of greasy hash browns, or ice cream. Just like drinking on a diet, I have been able to find some healthy loopholes to drunk eating but, by no means do I believe that alcohol is a healthy substance.

So here are some tips that I currently use and so far have proven to be effective to help with drunk eating and hungover binging:

1) Budget your points/calories on preplanned drinking days.  On days when I am planning to go out for a happy hour or night filled with drinks, I will try to budget my Weight Watcher points accordingly. With WW a typical cocktail or beer is an average of 5 points. So knowing that I am not going to just have 1 beer and that I will probably be eating when I get home, I will try to eat meals throughout the day that have a low point value, leaving more points for me to consume later in the day. Now does this mean that I am starving myself throughout the day? No, starving myself before going out drinking would typically make me a light weight and would result in me hugging the toilet at the end of the night. Although throwing up might not be all bad, I would rid myself of all the crap that I consumed. 

2) Plan snacks ahead of time. I have started putting out snacks before I head out to the bar. I will chose things like an apple, pretzels, strawberries or carrots and peanut butter. This way when I get home from the bar, I will tend to eat the snacks that are already on the counter, rather than digging through the pantry for tortillas and cheese to make a quesadilla. And lowered inhibitions coupled with a hot stove is probably not the brightest idea anyway.

3) Substitute health food for junk food. As I mentioned, if I wake up with a hangover, 9 times out of 10, I will want a burrito from Chipotle. And eating Chipotle is an idea that I have started to embrace and actually don't feel guilty about eating. This could be due to the fact that I have managed to make my burrito bowl much lower in points. 6 months ago when I went to Chipotle, I was ordering a burrito that was a whopping 27 points (I am only allowed 34 for the day) but now I have managed to get my burrito bowl down to 12 points by cutting out the tortilla, rice, cheese and only getting a small drizzle of sour cream. This may sound like a boring burrito bowl but you just have to suck it up, no one said dieting was easy. You have to learn to love the healthier options.

Another health food swap that I have started doing is making hash browns at home. I used to suggest going out for breakfast and I would get a heaping pile of greasy hash browns. But now when I am craving hash browns, I use non fat cooking spray, and add a ton of vegetables to bulk up my plate. And on those mornings that I am craving ice cream I try to opt for frozen blended bananas or frozen yogurt. Yum! I have a new found addiction with frozen yogurt.

4) Alter your cravings. Since adopting a healthier lifestyle, I have started to enjoy and crave vegetables. This could be because with WW, vegetables are zero points, so when I was hungry I forced myself to eat them and now I have tricked myself into thinking that I like them. And when you eat something enough, you oddly start to crave it. Or at least I do. This happened with kale. I tend to crave savory over sweet, so making kale chips is a good way to satisfy my cravings. Because I eat kale so frequently I have now begun to crave kale when I am hungover. I never thought that I would be putting the words 'kale' and 'crave' into a sentence, man how times have changed.

5) Make a smart decision before you go out. Now I am well aware that once you start drinking it's not always easy to make smart choices. Been there, done that. However, I find that before I go out, if I remind myself that I don't want to drink a lot, I find that I am less likely to go over board and consume 10 cocktails. . . in an hour. Don't worry mom, this has never actually happened. Or at least not that I remember. Same goes for drunk eating, if I tell myself prior to going out that I do not want to make a drunken stop at Super America, chances are I will be strong and say no to the peer pressure of buying chips and an egg salad sandwich at the gas station. Yes, these are actual purchases that I have made while under the influence. I am a model of health, I tell ya.

So now that I have written all about drunk eating while on a diet, excuse me while I head off to a happy hour with co-workers! Wish me luck!

My Plank Pledge

This post is not going to feature an aha moment, but rather a personal pledge to myself. I hate doing ab work. I hate working on my core and I suck at it too. I am not good at crunches, scissors kicks, bicycles crunches, but most of all I am just awful at doing a plank of any kind. I really feel like I have excelled in many areas of my fitness but I still struggle and dread doing any sort of ab exercises. I always use the excuse that I still have a lot of belly fat to lose, so it would be pointless to try and tone my core. As I type that I realize just how ridiculous it sounds. Strengthening my core will benefit me in many ways, so I just have to suck it up, and do it!

So in an attempt to push myself to the point of discomfort, I am pledging to work on my core. I am pledging to perform more planks! Side plank, front plank, you name, I am going to try it! And I am making a goal to be able to hold myself in any sort of plank for 1 whole minute by the end of summer! That sounds rough, since I currently can barely hold a plank for 15 seconds but I am going to try and not let my mind or body give up!

Where Does Willpower Come From?

I have mentioned before that weight loss is a journey and not a sprint. It doesn't happen overnight, and a good diet and exercise needs to become a way of life, rather than a temporary fix. I started this journey over 8 months ago and throughout that time I have dramatically altered my diet, my lifestyle and my outlook on health. But with every passing day, my diet, my lifestyle and my outlook on health changes. I am constantly learning new exercise routines, a wider variety of health foods, and I am also learning what works the best for my body. What works for me, may not work for someone else and what works for someone else, may not work for me. My metabolism is different, my diet is different and my workouts are different, so therefore my motivation and willpower is different. Even though I have embraced a healthier lifestyle, I still simultaneously hate and envy those people who can eat fast food, lay on the couch all day and remain skinny. If you happen to be one of those people, please don't take it personally, but I do hate you.

I have lived my 22 years of life without any sort of willpower. I have conducted myself as though I was one of those naturally skinny people. If I wanted a heaping plate of french fries, I order them and ate them all. If I wanted an ice cream shake alongside of my heaping plate of fries, I ordered that too. Somehow I was able to justify having fries and ice cream for dinner, because I wasn't eating it everyday. However I was having pizza in the same week. And I was having a burrito in the same week. It finally caught up with me, and I no longer act like I am naturally thin. I have more willpower and dedication than I have ever had in my entire life. And you may be thinking, "where did this willpower suddenly come from?" That's a good question, and I have had a really tough time coming up with an answer that is more concrete than "umm, I don't know." 

So finally I had an aha moment that could perfectly sum up the willpower that I now experience. My favorite junk food is chips. I love them. A lot. I used to get a giddy feeling when I was at the store picking out a bag of chips. Ridiculous, I know. But now, if you were to put a bag of jalapeno cheddar kettle chips (my mouth is watering just typing that) in front of me, I wouldn't eat them. I wouldn't eat them because that giddy feeling that I used to get when I was picking out chips has now been replaced with a giddy feeling that I get every time I step on the scale and my weight has gone down. I have finally started to see the bigger picture, which is the only logical way that I can think to describe willpower and dedication. And if it still seems confusing, I have come up with a highly complicated equation to illustrate what goes through my head when faced with a decision to eat poorly or eat healthy: a well balanced diet - junk food + working out = looking good while naked.

Now don't get me wrong, I still love chips, and I will still eat them but just not as frequently. I have now learned that there is a time and a place for indulging in the junk food that I really love. Because I have learned that there is a time and a place, I have really decreased the amount of times each week that I go out to a restaurant. Since most restaurants don't list their nutrition facts, I find that it is easier for me to avoid going out altogether. Again, this must be the willpower at play, because 8 short months ago, I couldn't have cared less what the nutritional value was in any entree. 

Now the idea of going out to a restaurant has actually started causing me anxiety because I am afraid I will order something that has a high amount of calories and regret it later. So when picking a place to eat, I will frequently recommend a restaurant that has their nutrition facts listed online or a staff that is knowledgeable about low cal options. Additionally, I will avoid places that have a buffet, bottomless plate, or large portions. I have willpower when it comes to saying no to junk, but if I have started eating something, I cannot stop myself. And I eat as though I am starving to death. It's not a pretty sight. But at least I have identified my dieting weaknesses, and avoid places that I know will cause me trouble and regret. So if you are struggling to find your willpower, just remember: a well balanced diet - junk food + working out = looking good while naked.