CALORIES COUNT…EVEN WHEN WE DON’T

November 20, 2008

Ok, lesson number 747 learned (re-learned).

November is shaping up to be yet another disappointing month in pursuit of our weight goals. Gayle and I avoid the scale during the month—-saving the surprise till “official weigh in day” on the first of each new month; but….the body knows.

We are improving slightly in the measurement category.  Exercise really does make a difference.  This newly discovered love/hate relationship with the treadmill is starting to pay off in the lower torso, inch department.

Since health is of equal concern to weight control, we’ve made strides toward better eating.  My kidneys have been protesting lately; and I attributed the discomfort to the life time habit of drinking coffee from sunup till mid afternoon. So I switched from coffee to cranberry juice.  What could be healthier, you might ask?

My smugness was quickly replaced when I read the stats for this delicious, healthy drink and discovered a 130 calorie PER GLASS price tag. So I’m back to my coffee routine for a few days till I accept the wisdom of plain water.

Healthy snacking also seemed to offer great promise.  Except for the fact that I tend to eat LOTS of grapes and apples in the course of the day.  More calories.  Many more than I need.

It’s a few more days till weigh in…..and there’s a turkey (with fixin’s) between now and then.

Lesson number 748:  Talking about the Strip That Fat diet program is one thing.  Actually living it takes a little more thought than we have been giving it.

The interesting thing to both Gayle and me is that even with our so-far limited “success”, we are well in to our third month; and still impressed with the overall package.  Things are bound to improve as we continue learning from each new episode. We’ll continue post the pictures till we can start bragging about them. 

Till next time,

Fred and Gayle

November 19, 2008

What’s wrong with this picture?

 

 

You probably have one just like it on your refrigerator or on your bathroom mirror. There’s probably one at work. It greets you first thing each morning and then continues to harass you all day long.

You’ve given it such titles as “WEIGHT LOSS GRAPH”, or, “MY GOAL”. But think about that for a minute.

If you are in business, or work for someone who is, and such a graph gets posted on the wall for all to see, you’d better start looking for another job…because what such a graph indicates is that things are not going very well for your company.

That chart, as presented, indicates that something is very, very WRONG. Sales may be DOWN, production could be DOWN, or profits are going DOWN. Your chance of getting a raise anytime soon are WAY, WAY DOWN.

Call it mere semantics if you wish; but look at the instructions that you are giving yourself with your personal, so called, “progress chart”.  It literally screams, “GET DOWN BY LOSING”.

“DOWN” and/or “LOSE” don’t generally inspire a lot of enthusiasm. In fact, either one could be considered to be a real mood dampener.

If you are feeling “DOWN”, you probably aren’t smiling.
If your favorite team went “DOWN” in defeat, you are no longer cheering.
When the stock market goes “DOWN”, very few are happy about it.
“DOWN” and out is a phrase often attached to the homeless and destitute.
Which do you prefer to be experiencing when you hear about life’s UPS and “DOWNS”.

Given a choice would you prefer to go “DOWN” in defeat or up to victory?

If you “LOSE” your way, your job, your money, your health or your mind; you’re in trouble.

The list could go on and on;  but for the sake of this exercise, why not come up with a few examples of your own.  Go ahead.  Take a few minutes and explore the terms DOWN and LOSE. What images and feelings come to your mind?

See what I mean?

So why should achieving a weight goal be any different?

Up to victory…or DOWN in defeat?  The choice is yours.

Why complicate the process by giving yourself the wrong instructions?

Your goal may be a slim, trim and healthy you.  “DOWN” and “LOSE” will short circuit that goal as surely as heading due East when you want to go West.

Losers Can’t Win

November 17, 2008

Diets are doomed.

And who could be surprised?

Don’t ever hold any hope for a project that begins with the expressed thought,

“I WANT to LOSE…10 pounds”,

“I NEED to LOSE…20 pounds”, or

“My GOAL is to LOSE…100 pounds”

All noble and achievable goals.

Unfortunately what the mind hears is “I’m gonna LOSE”.  And 99 times out of a hundred that is exactly what happens.

You LOSE; your wasteline GAINS…following your instructions exactly.

Most of us “career dieters” are already on our 5th, 10th or 55th attempt to achieve that ideal weight.

But no matter the activity or your skill level, if you keep repeating mentally and verbally that you want to LOSE…YOU WILL!

It doesn’t matter if the activity is golf, grade point average, or baking a cake. A desire to LOSE soon becomes a reality.

Dieting is a mental activity as much as a physical one.

In fact, all human activity involves the mind first, whether it is to achieve that ideal weight or to put a person on the moon.

First the idea is born…then the mind and body go to work to make the idea a reality. Over the last half century we have seen innumerable “impossibilities” come into existence and become parts of our daily lives:

How about the computer you are currently using; or

Fed Ex—overnight delivery anywhere in the world; or

Microwave cooking?

The list goes on and on.

And they all began as an idea; and you can be sure that none of the minds behind these seeming “miracles” ever pursued their dreams with an “I want to LOSE” attitude.

The obstacles, challenges, and set backs became stepping stones, learning experiences, and eventual progress toward the goal.

It’s been the WINNERS not the LOSERS who have made the biggest difference in the world; and in their own personal lives.

Back to the original premise of this article: If you’ve begun your current diet program to LOSE, you already have.

You probably have, somewhere in your house, a chart that lists your current weight in the UPPER left hand corner, with your goal weight listed in the BOTTOM right hand corner.

That chart literally screams out at you, “If you LOSE enough, you will get DOWN to your goal”. LOSE…DOWN…LOSE…DOWN–hardly an inspiring campaign slogan.

It’s not completely our fault.  There are over twenty-nine million diet and diet related pages on the Internet. Most of those pages probably revolve around this “LOSE…DOWN” idea.

Everything from the lowly cabbage soup to the star-studded commercials for Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or NutriSystem all tout LOSING as a desirable goal.

Forget LOSING. We really don’t want to be LOSERS…we’re WINNERS by nature.

Instead of LOSING WEIGHT, why not ACHIEVE A WEIGHT GOAL?

For a start, turn your weigh-in chart UPSIDE DOWN.  List your current weight on the BOTTOM left;  and your goal weight on the UPPER right.  Feels better already, doesn’t it?

Now, ask yourself if you’d prefer being “DOWN AFTER A LOSS” or “UP AFTER AN ACHIEVEMENT”.

Instead of “going on ANOTHER diet” (another one that is almost definitely destined to fail), why not simply IMPROVE your current eating habits?

Instead of SACRIFICING your favorite foods, how about listing all the foods you ENJOY and then picking from that long list the foods most likely to help you ACHIEVE your WEIGHT GOAL?

You are much more likely to continue an activity that is fun and easy, effective, and that fits into your lifestyle without turning you into a food fanatic.

Weight Loss By Walletectomy

Weight Loss By Walletectomy

Am I Getting Thinner Or Is My Wallet Anorexic?

A recent Bankrate.com article, highlighted the cost of losing 30 pounds by indulging the services of some the nation’s most popular weight-loss providers.

A word of warning here, the results might make you lose your appetite.

Jenny Craig:  $399 ($359 if you pay upfront)–not including the cost of food which ranges from $84-$126 per week.  And assuming you lose a pound a week, the total cost for food will be an additional $3,000.

NutriSystems:   $1,174.88 including food.

WeightWatchers:  $214 to $288 depending upon your location or $97 online.  This does not include the price of food.

The Zone Diet:  Approximately, $3,869 to $5,158 which includes the price of food.

Make no mistake about it, losing weight in the U.S. can be expensive.  Granted, in cases of morbid obesity, such programs may make a ton of sense–at least initially.  But for most Americans, the best bet is still walking 45 minutes on most, if not all, days of the week and eating smaller portions at each meal.

The rest of the article is available here:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/weight_loss_programs_a2.asp

DIETERS ARE LOSERS!

November 16, 2008

DIETERS are LOSERS,

And that’s not a good thing.

Think about it. Olympic swimmer, Mark Phelps, will be remembered forever.  The people who finished second, the “losers”, have already been forgotten.

No matter the time of year, some sports playoffs are beginning somewhere.  The “winners” get to stay and play. “Losers” get to go home and re-live their mistakes.

When Winter approaches here in South Carolina, the competition for the few remaining seeds and berries in our back yard gets serious.  The “winners” spend their days, and nights, with full bellies.  The “losers” make do with whatever scraps fall to the ground. (Always a less than satisfying diet)

Losing is NOT a good thing. Mind and body very actively resist loss…in any form.

DIETING “losers”, when visiting a smorgasbord buffet, will see all the things that they “can’t have”; then pull out their calorie counting books and calculators to determine what, if anything, is “allowed” by their usually less than two week old “new, miracle DIET’s” restrictions.  They walk away feeling miserably deprived and hungry.

Two weeks of feeling deprived is about all the mind and body will allow.  Enter: The binge stage.  Miracle DIET is out the window. Within a few days, any weight “lost” will be regained–probably with a couple extra “insurance pounds”. That’s why they are called “CRASH” DIETS, and “YO-YO” DIETS.

Winning dieters approach the same bountiful table and, if they are at all hungry, know that the diet they have been on since birth “allows”–actually encourages,  “a little of this…and a little of that”. Hunger satisfied, they move on to some other pleasantness, feeling fully satisfied.

The intermittent CAPITALIZATION in this writing is intentional.

DIET refers to some artificially imposed “system for weight loss”. The various DIETS are for “losers”.

A diet, used in it’s original meaning, is simply “the sum total of what we eat”. By making a few, pleasant adjustments to a diet and lifestyle, it’s actually pretty easy to achieve (WIN) whatever weight goal is set–even if that goal is to gain weight.

Gaining weight is simply not a problem for most of the world’s population–over half of whom are currently overweight.  So you see, we are not alone. Most of the people in the world could benefit from making those few, pleasant adjustments to their current diet and lifestyle.

Why and how do I keep emphasizing “few” and “pleasant” “adjustments”?

Easy. Gayle and I have been making those adjustments for nearly a month now; and they keep getting fewer and better and easier. You see, we are among the half of the world’s population who will never be striving to GAIN weight.

Our web site is all the evidence we need. We recently posted pictures and statistics; and will continue to do so the first of each month. Talk about a humbling experience!

Gayle is only overweight; but I’ve been in the “morbidly obese” category for a number of years. Between the two of us, there’s an extra 125 pounds.

And that’s AFTER an endless series of attempts to slim down.  You name a DIET, and we have tried it: Everything from Nutrisystem to cabbage soup, Weight Watchers to Atkins, low fat and no fat, low carbs and high fiber, etc.to etc.

Turning the DIET world upside DOWN is turning our world right side UP.

No more LOSING for us.  We already feel like WINNERS: and we are, ever so gradually, reaching the goals we have set.

Updates to follow. First of each month. More often when justified.

STRIP THAT FAT?

November 15, 2008

Strip That Fat

At first reading, Strip That Fat seemed like a pretty silly name.  Now, two months into the program we realize that it is totally appropriate for a process that does exactly that.

Working together, and we can’t recommend the “buddy system” highly enough, Gayle and I have “stripped” nearly 20 pounds of useless fat.

She started out merely overweight. I, on the other hand, fit into the “morbidly obese” category. Between the two of us we had, at the beginning, a total of 125 pounds to “strip”.

We knew from past experience (many, many, experiences) that we never lasted long enough on any of the highly restrictive (low carb, no carb, low fat, no fat, cabbage soup only, etc) diets to achieve any significant or lasting results.

Determined to someday achieve our rather ambitious weight goals, we kept looking and looking for the “magic diet plan”.

We tried the teas, the pills, the Atkins, the South, North, East and West-sides, even the colon assaulting powders–all to no avail. If you can imagine a 422 pound yo-yo…that’s been us for years. Somehow we always missed, or chose to ignore, the fine print on the sales page of every new diet plan. You know what we’re talking about: the line that reads “These teas, pills, and potions are effective when used with a program of eating less and exercising more.”

Regardless of any carb, fat, fruit, or cabbage soup intake, EATING LESS…AND EXERCISING MORE will have a desired effect on a weight problem. Of course, we knew that; and so do you.

So why keep searching for the easy and instant?  In our case at least, it was a combination of laziness, impatience and frustration. You can fill in your own motivations; but the bottom line is that after all those unsuccessful attempts, each January first when we vowed to make this our year to achieve a healthy weight, we found that we were heavier than the previous January… when we had made the exact same vow. Sound familiar?

So, we’re excited. For the first time in years, our January resolution (yep, same one) will be  starting at a much IMPROVED level. And we are getting there by EATING MORE (often) and EXERCISING (within our comfort level).  We are two months “in” instead of the usual “two weeks and out”. And the results are beginning to show.

Just last week our “ever-style-conscious” teen age grand daughter commented: “Gee Poppy and GG, your new diet seems to be working! How much have you lost?”

Just try explaining to an ultra thin teen-ager that we’re not “on a diet”–just a simple and pleasant “lifestyle change”; that we’re not “working” as much as “learning”; and that we haven’t “lost” a thing. Bottom line is that we have “gained” so very much.

Updates to follow.

All the best,

Fred and Gayle

WE’RE BACK—BETTER THAN EVER!

Hi Guys,
And thanks for all the emails inquiring as to my health. I can’t even use that as an excuse for our recent absence……Everything is fine here on the home front—except my computer skills.
Last week, in an attempt to come up with a “new and improved” version of the blog, I inadvertently deleted everything. Yep, the entire BeSoThin.com/blog wiped clear off the Net; and all with the simple click of one wrong link at the wrong time.
The website itself, http://besothin.com , was unaffected—so far!
So this is the week to completely rebuild. I did manage to salvage a couple of the more popular posts and will be re-installing them. Yet today, I hope.
Barring any more unforeseen screw ups, we should be a blog again shortly.
Thanks for your patience.
Fred the klutz