Denial

I hear it all the time and I have said it myself, I am stuck why can't I lose weight.

Let's start with the most obvious: denial. 

I swore up and down that I was doing everything right, small healthy meals, 60 minutes of exercise every day. Somehow not only was I not losing, I was gaining!  I gave myself a little slack because of my injury and I was not able to everything exercise wise that I wanted.  When I finally had to buy new fat jeans because my old fat jeans would not fit, I knew it was time to have an honest conversation with myself. 

I started writing down everything I ate (I didn’t really write it down because there is an app for that). My tracking made me realize that I had developed a wicked Starbucks habit. Now mind you I was not drinking venti double mocha with whip or some other giant concoction. But I was drinking grande gingerbreads and grande skinny vanilla lattes telling myself “it was only once a week so it was ok”. In my tracking I discovered my once a week treat was an everyday habit and some days, twice a day.  130 calories x2 per day x5 days week= 1300 extra calories per week.  I am 5'3”. I need 1500 calories a day to maintain where I am, so I don't need 1300 extra calories.  Now Starbucks exists no more in my world.

I continued to tracking and discovered that alcohol was also a big part of my world.  Again, thinking to myself, I only have a glass of wine a night.  Who really has one glass?  It is really two glasses Monday through Thursday unless there are, of course, plans with friends (restaurant food is coming later).

Then there is the weekend where there is more than just two (more like three or four).  125 calories x2 glasses per day x 5 days= 1250 calories.  The other thing about alcohol is that there is ZERO nutritional value in it. Your body processes the sugar in the alcohol and stores it as fat (if you're lucky it is in your belly).

Now that alcohol has been added, good judgment goes out the window.  Oh sure you can order all the steamed, broiled and sautéed dishes you want from any restaurant and it is still not going to be good for you if you are ordering out.  I say this without any facts to back me up but I swear SWEAR that no matter what you order, it is never exactly what you want because the restaurant does not care what your waistline looks like. 

We kid ourselves into thinking it is healthy because it is steamed. Steamed anything, first of all, does not taste great (unless its Chinese dumplings and maybe broccoli but I don’t like broccoli). However, there is nothing better than you cooking for yourself (without butter!).

I am not saying that you can't eat a healthy meal at a restaurant, you can. But if you are trying to lose weight, stay home for a while.

Still tracking, Now exercise.

Was I really doing everything I could during a workout to get the desired results? When I tracked it, the answer was no.  In order to achieve any weight loss effort during exercise you need to burn between 300 - 500 calories per session. I was running on the treadmill but somehow only burning 190-250 during my  hour workout.  NOT GOING TO CUT IT.  250 calories x 3 day week= 750 calories burned. 

At this point, I was already up 2550 calories for the week. You need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1LB.

Something needed to change and something did, me, with most of it documented here in this blog.

Before I started tracking, I was desperate to lose weight and looked at everything I could Google: a magic pill, celebrity diet, new trendy exercise, even a juice cleanse. There had to be something magical out there!  After taking a long hard look at my own behavior (which truth be told was not horrible. No dark secret, bad M&M relationship or snickers habit) I knew it was time.

I am not saying that you have a Starbucks or M&M habit but you need to track your own days and find out what is really going on.

There are a few things you need to consider if you are eating right and exercising and still not losing weight.

If you are under a lot of stress, your cortisol level maybe high. If you can gained weight quickly, you may want to have your thyroid checked.  If you have not done so in a while, it can't hurt to get a physical from your doctor to make sure everything is in proper working order.

Play hard & be honest!

Laura