I've always been a pretty good rule follower (although my parents might disagree) most of my life. I don't typically like breaking rules as I know I wouldn't enjoy the consequences. Maybe a better way to put it is I like guidelines. I am a great follower if I have a good template.
That being said I have to admit I've really enjoyed the rules/guidelines I've set for myself over the past 14 months. Take the sweet per week guideline, I found that I would eat a sweet at least once a day. For some reason my body thought it needed a donut or swiss cake roll after every meal; even breakfast sometimes! Now that I have my one sweet per week guideline in place I have boundaries for eating. Over the past couple of years I've really gotten to know myself (through the process of putting on 50 pounds during pregnancy and then taking it off). I wouldn't have traded gaining those pounds for anything (it was a lot of fun when I was doing it) because it's helped me gain a new perspective on how I want to finish out my life. I know it sounds drastic and crazy to talk about living a certain way forever (and I am well aware that things change) but I really think I need guidelines like the one sweet per week or one race per month so I can stay the course.
It's always encouraged in my sessions with clients or training classes to keep trying new things if one way doesn't work. I'm well aware of all the different methodologies to lose weight. I think I tried about every single one of them after Jax was born. I just wanted the dang weight off! In time and with sticking the course and moving from one methodology to another, I found a winner. Just for fun, here's all the things I've tried that just didn't work long-term for me. However this list doesn't mean you shouldn't try it, it just means I can't live the rest of my life doing these things. Staying strong with one sweet a week it is for Mandy.
1. Calorie Counting: Although I encourage clients to do this to get the weight off it's not something I visualize (or want to visualize) myself doing for the rest of my life. I think it's a great short term (6 monthish) thing to do in order to get the pounds off quickly and to see success in a short amount of time in order to want to continue the journey of health and fitness.
2. Frozen Meals: While it was a quick and easy thing to do the sodium content is ridiculous. Not to mention they start tasting like cardboard.
3. Cardio Overload: I would run 6 days per week with very little strength training. I thought if it felt like I was killing myself most days I had to be doing great things for my body. I like cardio so don't get me wrong but I can no longer stand running on a treadmill than nails on a chalkboard. Its too BORING. I can't envision myself doing that most days of a week for the rest of my life. I need variety. Besides, it hurts my knees when I do it too often. Not to mention I love the curves intense strength training gives and the feeling of being strong.
4. Not enough Breakfast: I love love my morning shake. I've been drinking it for around 7 years now and can't imagine my life without it. However, I need more than 100 calories in the morning. The shake for breakfast and shake for lunch with a little snack in between just doesn't work for me. At the end of the day I was STARVING. All I seemed to want was a big gigantic pizza or something with at least 2000 calories followed by something sweet. I just can't do the end of the day eating/beginning of the day starvation as I'm too weak at night to follow through. It seems to take a huge amount of will power (none of which I have) to overcome caloric deprivation at night. Now I eat much, much more for breakfast and have an even bigger lunch this way dinner is no biggie for me.
5. "Healthy" Deserts: Oh this was me, I'd buy the smart ones key lime cheesecakes or the chocolate chip sundae and think I was being good. The only catch was one treat wasn't nearly enough (thank goodness they put 2 in the box). So I'd polish off a couple of boxes in a days time. I can't do it, it's my crazy cycle. Honestly I view chocolate and sweets like an alcoholic would view alcohol. I can't even have the first bite without wanting the whole thing and then some. The one sweet a week plan works because I can eat whatever sweet I want (and however big) and I know that's it (remember-I need guidelines). I guess I'm like an alcoholic who can have one drink a week. Not everyone can do the little here, little there approach but it seems to do the trick. I view it as my reward for passing up every other little sweet throughout the week. I can really indulge guilt-free that way.
Those are the 5 main "weight loss" techniques I've played with over the past two years. Although I firmly believe there are two different phases in weight management: 1) weight loss phase (get the dang weight off!) and 2) weight maintenance phase (keep the dang weight off!). The list above aren't bad ways to lose weight but just ones that I couldn't keep up with forever. Therefore I needed to create new ways of maintaining the progress I'd made.
Maybe one sweet a week isn't for you because maybe you aren't a sweet person, maybe it's chips or something salty or maybe it's pop? Whatever the case it seems to be very effective if we can target ONE (not two or three, but just one) of our vices and work it out of our life through a significant period of time (so give it at least 3 or 4 months of success before moving onto another vice).
Always look for new ideas at becoming or staying healthy. Never give up your quest. Most all of the battle is finding what works for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment