You're exercising, eating well, and steadily losing pounds. Then all of a sudden... BAM! The scale seems stuck, week after week. Yes, the dreaded plateau. Don't think you're the only person this happens to (although most people DO believe this only happens to them) - nearly everyone trying to lose weight experiences a phase when the scale won't budge and there's still 5, 10, 15 pounds to go. So, when this happens, you've got a choice to make. You can either call your diet a success, or keep plugging away. If you've lost quite a bit of weight - even though you still have that last 10 pounds to go - and you're sleeping better, feeling good about yourself, have lots more energy, feeling good about how you look, then maybe you've already achieved your goal. But, if you REALLY have some more pounds to go, here are ten strategies you can use - try one or any combination - to melt the last 10 pounds.
1. JOURNAL, JOURNAL, JOURNAL
This is one of the most powerful tools to help you stay on track or get back on track. Your journal can help you see where you are perhaps going over or under on your number of points for the day, or aren't getting in the Guidelines for Healthy Living requirements. Use your journal as a detective tool: Had a good week? Look over it at the end of the week and try and see what you think contributed to that success. Had a not so good week? Again, look over your journal to see what may have contributed to you playing a little looser with the program. Look at last week's journal for clues too, sometimes it takes a full week before the effects of a blown week show up. Using the journal on a consistent basis is the best way to make sure that you're really eating the amount of food that you think you're eating, which can be two different things sometimes.
2. Eating By the Numbers (Or are you getting in too many carbs? Protein? Not enough fat?)
Look at your food choices, are you really getting a wide variety of foods in? Remember, your body needs nutrients from lots of different sources and if you're eating the same things all the time or too much of one type of food, you're probably not getting the proper nutrition your body needs. How is your protein to carb ratio? |
3. Weigh and measure portions
Too many times our portions have gotten bigger without us realizing it, using measuring cups and spoons and weighing out our portions can give us a better idea if our portions have suddenly grown bigger than we're counting. Remember, portion size does matter.
4. Read labels carefully
Are you counting your calories right for the product that you're eating? I remind everyone of my jumbo dinner frank story where the serving size was half a frank! Who eats half a frank? I was counting ½ the calories. If you're eating a bigger serving size than the one listed on the label you're probably eating more than you calculated.
5. Remember, zero multiplied is not zero (okay, not when it comes to food points)
If you're eating one serving of fat free sugar free gelatin for 10 calories, okay, that's zero points, but if you're now eating 4 servings plus 2 tbsp of fat free whipped topping, you've got yourself one point! Beware of those hidden extras where we multiply portions, and beware of BLT's: Bites, Licks, and Tastes that never seem to get counted on any journal. These add up. Also, remember that if a food like high fiber cereal or bread, comes out to zero points according to the PointsFinder, you have to count one point! Trying to rationalize eating a whole box of cereal and saying that you consumed NO points is falling in that diet mentality where certain foods don't count.
6. Too many refined carbs?
Are you eating too many sources of simple and refined carbohydrates, the stuff that's heavily processed and no longer looks like its natural food source. Think of it as the difference between whole grain bread and processed white bread, brown rice vs. white rice, popcorn cakes vs. corn on the cob. Try to include more of the natural sources of carbohydrates in your diet stuff like beans, yams, potatoes, brown rice, and whole wheat anything rather than so many crackers, pretzels, and chips (even low fat chips). This is not to say you can't have any refined carbs, just try to limit the amount of them if you're having trouble losing weight.
7. Not enough fat?
Okay, this sounds counterintuitive, but according to the Eating by the Numbers chart and for good nutrition you should be actively adding in about 2-3 points of fat per day. This is stuff like vegetable oils, margarine, butter, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) salad dressing, avocados, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) mayonnaise, olives, and peanut or soy butter. I have personally met a number of people now who weren't losing and when I suggested they start actively adding in 2-3 points of fat per day they started losing again. Our bodies need enough fat in order to properly function. You think there's enough fat in my food already, right? Not when you're limiting your number of points in order to lose weight. We are often making much lower fat choices than we normally would have, and as a consequence our consumption of fat falls far below the recommended guidelines according to lots of nutrition experts of 30% of your total calories in fat per day. If you are limiting your fat intake to only the fat that's naturally in food and even then you're probably taking the skin off the chicken and drinking skim or 1% milk, then you might only be getting around 10% of your calories in fat per day, not enough for your body. So, the reason our bodies need enough fat in our diets each day as opposed to just feeding off of our body's fat stores is because fat contains an essential fatty acid: linoleic acid, that our body can't produce on its own. That fat is needed for proper metabolic and digestive function. Fat provides essential nutrients our bodies need, it transports fat soluble vitamins that our bodies need, it is needed for proper digestion and metabolic function, it helps us keep fuller longer, keeps our hair and skin nice, and is crucial for proper gallbladder function. If you're on a super low fat diet you can develop gallstones that are no fun and super painful.
8. Drink half your body weight in water each day
According to Barbara Levine, R.D., Ph.D., the Director of the Nutrition Information Center at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and reported in the June 1999 issue of Weight Watchers magazine, she says that overweight people need more water than the typical 8 cups a day rule. "Overweight people tend to need more water, because fat cells hold more water than other fat cells in the body. To determine the number of ounces of water you need per day, divide your weight by two. For example, a person who weighs 140 pounds should consume 70 ounces, or about 9 cups. Of course, this is an estimate. The best way to gauge whether you are getting enough water is to monitor the color of your urine. If you're drinking enough, it should be the color of pale straw. If it is a deeper yellow, you're not getting enough fluids" (page 16, June 1999). Lots of times we misinterpret thirst for hunger, try water first, wait 20 minutes, real hunger will not go away.
9. Make sure you're getting five servings of fruits and vegetables per day
Eating the zero point veggies can often help us to fill up so that we're not eating the other higher points foods instead. If you're hungry, try non-starchy veggies first.. Try a glass of V8 juice before a meal during the summer when soup sounds too hot. Variety is good here too, try a new fruit or veggie each month to expand your repertoire.
10. Increase the frequency or intensity of your physical activity
Are you exercising? If not, know that you'll be much more successful at losing the weight and keeping it off if you are also physically active. Find something that you enjoy doing and just do it! Start with a five minute walk out of your door, look at your watch after five minutes start heading back, just like that you've done 10 minutes! Next week start adding in a couple of extra minutes, try walking for 7 minutes out of your door, and 7 minutes back, you've now done 14 minutes. Keep adding until you're up to at least 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back.
If you're already active, are you exercising at enough intensity? If you can easily carry on a conversation while exercising (you should be able to speak, but it should take a bit of effort) you're not challenging your body enough. Your body becomes really efficient at adjusting to the amount of physical activity you're doing, so you regularly have to adjust either the intensity of your workouts or the frequency in order to continue to reap the maximum benefit from physical activity.
Try strength training in order to build lean muscle tissue. As we get older we lose lean muscle tissue, which depresses your metabolism; in addition severely restrictive diets where we eat too few calories can cause us to lose weight but lots of it is lean muscle, which also depresses our metabolism. If we build muscle tissue this can help us to reverse that process and to make us trimmer and stronger.
11. Move the furniture around
Do you always have your biggest meal at dinner? Try eating your biggest meal for lunch or even for breakfast, with smaller meals for the remaining meals. If you regularly eat most of your points at one meal your body converts the rest of the food into stored energy...fat...so that if you balance your points out throughout the day better you can actually give your metabolism a boost by keeping it revving throughout the day instead of only one spike at dinner. Food actually helps to boost our metabolism, that's why it's important never to skip meals. There's a saying that you could help to lose weight by eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. This gives us the majority of our points early in the day when our bodies can use them because we're active instead of right before bed if we eat them at dinner.
12. Take your measurements and look for other non-scale signs of progress
Often even when the scale isn't moving, we're still improving our health and our bodies, which will show up in other ways other than the scale. Have your measurements gone down? How are your clothes fitting? Can you climb a flight of stairs without being winded? Has your cholesterol gone down? Can you walk now for 20 minutes when before you were huffing and puffing at 5 minutes? How do you feel? Have you reached your 10% goal? Hold that keychain in your hands as a measure of your success.
13. Are you on an attitude plateau?
Are you just tired of feeling like you're going to be doing this forever? Does that translate into that right now your desire to lose weight is equal to your desire for freedom from counting and having to think about points and healthy food choices? If so, then that mental attitude might be the culprit in that you're following a more relaxed adherence to the program but you think you're still doing it to the letter. Remind yourself of why you started this process, look at how far you've come. Is your goal still the same? Is it that you're scared of success, are okay with how you look right now, have you become complacent? Ask yourself these kind of questions honestly. If you're tired of the weight loss routine or have become complacent, try spicing up your food plan by trying more interesting meals and snacks, adding new foods, trying new recipes or new restaurants. Set new goals, setting a new goal can continue to challenge yourself. Pretend like it's your first week on program all over again, try to recapture that enthusiasm that you had in the beginning! You can do it as long as you don't give up!
14. Consider maintenance
A plateau that lasts a long time can be the practice to show you that you can maintain your weight. Sustaining weight loss is a challenge in itself. Consider doing the maintenance process so as to take a break from weight loss. Taking a break from weight loss and focusing on keeping the weight off can be the best thing to do, especially if a vacation or stressful situation is what is keeping you from continuing on your weight loss journey. It's better to gain some ground, then hold it, then go back and gain more ground than to give up because then you lose all of the ground you've gained (lost!).
Passport to Health and Fitness
Don't Let A Friend Fly Solo
Collect Your Gifts: When we receive your referrals, we'll send you a thank you gift to let you know how much we sincerly appreciate the trust you have placed in us by referring a friend, associate or family member. With every referral you will also be entered into a drawing for our Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly travel get away prizes.
Simply click here or log on to www.ftpassport.com to enter your friends and family members to receive a complimentary introductory session and free gift wehn they com in for their session. Passports are also available in the studio, for you convenience.
Fatigue: Tips To Help You Recharge
Your Batteries
Re-energizing your dead batteries will help you put fatigue to rest for good.
A little effort and a positive attitude will perk you up in a flash. These simple energizing tips will give you new life.
1. Eat properly. Nutritious meals are number one in the battle against fatigue.
Make sure to eat high-protein foods, such as meat, cheese, eggs and whole-grain breads with each meal. Munch on fruit when you need a snack. Avoid too much caffeine.
You may want to try perking yourself up with a high potency vitamin B complex.
Cayenne pepper is another natural stimulant. You can mix a teaspoon in hot water or take it in capsule form.
2. Get your proper rest. If you are not getting enough at night, take a break and nap during the day. Or perhaps before you head out at night if you’re a late night partygoer.
3. Keep in shape with exercise. A good daily walk will get those tired muscles moving.
4. Meditate. Any form of meditation can be a real, natural healer. Just sit quietly, breathe deeply, and let your mind forget your daily hassles. Think of pleasant things.
Above all, you can fight fatigue best by keeping a positive mental attitude. Try the tips mentioned, and pamper yourself; take a break when you need it.
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Recipe Of The Week!
Grilled Chicken Ratatouille
We gave this classic Provençal dish a taste of summer by grilling the vegetables traditionally used in ratatouille (bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, tomato). Topped with grilled chicken, it makes an easy main course for summer entertaining. We like fresh marjoram and basil to complement the flavors, but any fresh herb will work. Serve with polenta and a glass of Pinot Noir.
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram
1 teaspoon salt
Canola or olive oil cooking spray
1 red bell pepper, halved lengthwise, stemmed and seeded
1 small eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise
4 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 medium red onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 pounds), trimmed and tenders removed
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
Directions: 1. Preheat grill to medium-high.
2. Combine oil, basil, marjoram and salt in a small bowl and reserve 1 tablespoon of the mixture in another small bowl; set aside.
3. Coat both sides of bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, tomato and onion pieces with cooking spray. Grill the vegetables, turning once, until soft and charred in spots, about 5 minutes per side for the pepper, 4 minutes per side for the eggplant and zucchini and 3 minutes per side for the tomatoes and onion.
As the vegetables finish cooking, place them in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
4. Rub the tablespoon of reserved herb mixture on both sides of chicken and sprinkle with pepper. Grill the chicken until cooked through and no longer pink in the center, 4 to 5 minutes per side.
5. Meanwhile, transfer the grilled vegetables to a cutting board and chop into 1-inch pieces.
Return to the bowl and toss with vinegar and the remaining herb mixture. Serve the grilled chicken with the ratatouille.
Exercise Your Stress Away Chronic stress can have negative, physical consequences.
While human intellect has developed rapidly since our species first walked upright, the physiological mechanisms that maintain our survival have evolved comparatively little. Unfortunately, the body's traditional fight-or-flight response to stressful situations seldom offers the best way to deal with the problems we encounter daily.
The bulk of today's stress is cognitive--not physical--in origin. Yet the body is still reacting as it was millennia ago when physical attack was high on the list of concerns. When the stress response overstays its welcome--as it often does with our work-related worries that never seem to go away--unhealthy and often chronic stress results.
The physical and emotional manifestations of the stress response, such as increased heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and muscle tension are designed to dissipate when an immediate physical threat is over. When stress stays on because of the complex set of our worries, they can turn against the body. Over time, the hormones causing these responses may wind up causing heart disease, hypertension, suppressed immunity, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and even depression.
In a life-threatening situation, the body shuts down all non-vital functioning to better mobilize its fight-or-flee response. This includes digestion, which during prolonged periods of stress can lead to gastrointestinal disorders. The reason stress causes ulcers, for example, is that the body has ceased producing the mucus that protects the stomach during digestion, when hydrochloric acid is secreted to help break down food.
The body knows that we won't be stopping for a meal during a fight or a narrow escape from a predator. But the sources of stress today do not cause us to actually fight or flee, and so we find ourselves stressed, but nevertheless eating. This results in the production of digestive acid without the protective mucus. An ulcer results. Our bodies cannot distinguish between life threats and more common sources of stress such as traffic jams and marital spats.
There is a sound scientific basis, then, for the effectiveness of regular exercise on stress relief. Since the fight-or-flight response is designed for physical action, exercise is a great way of dissipating the physical manifestations of stress hormones in the body. Exercise, even regular stretching, can relieve tension in the muscles. While fight-or-flight mode often taxes the immune system by preparing it for physiological warfare against an outside force, studies show that moderate physical activity can bolster the immune response.
Exercise can also counteract the anxiety that stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol may cause when in the bloodstream for prolonged periods. Exercise also uses up the excess adrenaline, and has been shown to blunt cortisol production. But another way it achieves this is by releasing serotonin, a neurotransmitter that stimulates the brain's "happy centers." This occurs most dramatically within the first 30 minutes of physical activity, then tapers off. Exercise also induces the release of endorphins, which block pain messages. The result is mood enhancement.
Finally, there are peripheral benefits to physical activity. The self-confidence that comes with weight loss and improved body image affects our outlook, and so our interactions with others, which in turn further improve our mood. American Running Association, empowering adults to get America's youth moving. For more information or to join ARA, please visit www.americanrunning.org.
Quote of the Week
"Victory isn't defined by wins or losses. It is defined by effort. If you can truthfully say, 'I did the best I could, I gave everything I had, 'then you're a winner."
- Wolfgang Schadler
Sincerely,
The Staff At Fitness Together
Brookfield, Delafield, Wauwatosa and Woodbury, MN
