Category Archives: Weight Loss and Maintenance

Change

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I’ve had this cartoon since my early working days in cube-land, and I’ve kept it because as far as change goes, this truly sums it up. If you want to live a healthy life, some things may need to change. YOU may need to change. Over the past 25 years, here are some changes I have made – or am working towards making – on my quest for a healthy life.

  • Big breakfast, moderate lunch, small dinner. Bodies need less fuel as the day goes on.
  • ️Don’t keep unhealthy food in the house. It’s a lot easier to say no once while you’re at the store, than have to fight about it with yourself all week.
  • Loosely plan my meals. Breakfast is routine, lunch is fairly routine, dinners are the wild card. Each Sunday I spend 15 minutes talking with my husband about dinners for the week, and Monday is grocery day so it’s great to go there with the plan in mind.
  • ️Always have backup dinner/ “chaos meals” on hand. Pasta, olive oil and cooked frozen broccoli always come through in a pinch for us. We also generally have an easy protein like chicken sausage, or cooked frozen chicken breast available to add. 
  • ️Morning workouts for me. I just do it, so I don’t have to think about it, and if the day gets too busy, at least my workout is done! I get my clothes out the night before, I wake up in time to have coffee and a small snack (lots of research shows women should NOT do fasted workouts) and then it’s GO TIME. I never, ever regret it, even on 27° mornings where it’s dark at the track like this past Tuesday at track. [Note, I run with a group – stay safe, don’t run alone in the dark!]
  • ️Constantly assess the snacking, with curiosity, NOT judgment. If I am snacking a lot, that’s a sign I need more substantial meals. If I see more sugar in my snacks, that’s a sign I am tired. I aim for whole, healthy foods as snacks, i.e. bananas, nuts, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, fruit, beef jerky, veggies with hummus or guacamole, olives, and sometimes cheese. I love all these things.
  • Avoid eating after 8 p.m. I can’t always do that, sometimes dinner is late, but this goes back to our bodies needing less fuel as the day goes on. 
  • ️Limit alcohol. I may have 2-3 drinks per week, but now that I am training that looks like 0-1. As I have gotten older, alcohol affects me more, and in general I feel better not drinking as much, nor as often. Not to say I won’t have days or dinners where I consume more than a couple drinks, but those occasions are rare for me, now.
  • ️Limit sugar. I have cut back on sugar a LOT. I don’t drink it in any form, and I aim to only eat it if I will burn it off in a workout within the next hour. (Even that is rare, my pre-workout fuel is usually a banana or half-serving of Grape Nuts.) I do use gels and other quick carbs on my runs/rides if they are over an hour. I do enjoy a small square of 72% dark chocolate most days. I love ice cream and brownies and [very good] cake, and I’ve met only a few cookies I don’t like, but those things truly are special treats that I try to enjoy only rarely. I now find that most cakes and desserts are actually too sweet for me – fruits or flavored Greek yogurt will do the trick if I want something sweet. 
  • Make little changes you can live with forever. All these things work for me, and I really can live with them forever!

Little by little, a little becomes a lot.

I think it’s important to share that I didn’t make these changes overnight, but as I made them in small parts, they stuck, and that’s what helped me get to and stay at a healthy weight and a place where my body feels good overall. I gradually cut my alcohol consumption back from once a day, to not drinking on Tuesdays, to not drinking every other day, etc. I gradually cut my sugar back from having something sweet every night in the same way. Don’t climb the mountain all at once, make a small change and see if it sticks, then adapt. If you really have to fight a change, that’s a sign that it’s not the right thing to change, or you tried to change too quickly or drastically, so pick something else or take a smaller step towards the same change. Find what works for you. And embrace the changes you make! You’re building a healthier you, enjoy that journey and make it one you never want to end. 

💞

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For practical help with making change manageable, I highly recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Beyond the Struggle

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Someone dear to me shared they were proud of themselves for doing the hard work to lose weight, and sent me a vacation photo in which they are wearing only a swimsuit with no t-shirt or towel to cover up, for the first time in about 40 years. Along with the photo they typed “I don’t show that to anyone, but I know how you have had the struggles with weight like me. I could put it back on in a second if I’m not careful {Crying emoji}.”

Their last sentence is true for me, too, but without the tears. I am aware how easy it is to gain weight if I don’t maintain my healthy habits, so I make it a point to ENJOY those. Here’s how I do it.

  • Track my food. Easy to do, and I love the freedom it gives me to make good decisions about what to enjoy. I use the free MyFitnessPal app, but there are several options out there, even writing it down in a small notebook if I am offline helps keep the awareness of what I consume. I am NOT an intuitive eater, for me tracking is a simple and effective way to monitor what I eat. Related, if I don’t enjoy it, I don’t eat it.
  • Get 30 minutes (or more) of movement every day. I LOVE moving my body in many ways, and I usually exceed 30 minutes by a lot! At a minimum, I walk the Dober Love for 30 minutes every day, but I usually add strength training, bike rides, runs, yoga or hikes to that total.
  • Minimize added sugar. I don’t drink sweetened beverages and I eat mostly whole foods. I get most of my sweet fixes from fruit, or a square of very good dark chocolate. I love desserts, but have them only rarely. I do really enjoy them once in a while. We don’t keep sugary foods in our house. I don’t bake as much as I used to, and when I do, I typically cut the sugar in the recipe, and I give a lot of whatever I made away.
  • Minimize alcohol. I gradually cut back from one drink per day to a drink once or twice per week. I also don’t drink at all the month before a big race. I am not sure I will ever be alcohol-free, but I am surprised that decreasing consumption wasn’t a hard change to make or continue. I do love craft breweries and it is dark beer season, so I typically get half-pours or 5 oz. tasters when we go out. If I want a cocktail, I make myself a ‘Baby Manhattan’ with one shot of bourbon and a half-shot of vermouth or cherry whiskey. It is the perfect amount for me.
  • Prioritize rest. I get enough sleep, and I make sure one day a week is a very low-intensity exercise day where I just walk the dog or do relaxing yoga.
  • Strength train regularly. I love Caroline Girvan’s online workouts, she has a lot of free series on her YouTube channel. When I’m not training for a race, I follow one of her programs (I just finished her Iron Series) and that means I am lifting 5x per week. When I am training for a race, I back that down to 2-3 sessions per week. Now I love strength training, I hired a personal trainer years ago and it was maybe the best money I ever spent on myself. Strength training, when done correctly will improve mobility, increase muscle mass, and change your body composition for the better. It can dramatically change how you look, improve your athletic performance and help you stay injury-free. As with anything else, you have to keep doing it to keep enjoying the results. I have no problem keeping this up as I love the activity and I love the results.
  • Take care of my mind and spirit. Every week I attend either a church or a yoga class, and the weeks I miss doing that, IT SHOWS. I can’t explain why there is a difference, but I can say with 100% certainty that my weeks go better when I spend one hour communing with the divine. And I remember that thoughts are not facts! I pay attention to how I talk to myself and do my best to keep that dialogue positive. I have enlisted professional help to deal with some of the big stuff in my past and my present. I have benefitted greatly from the wisdom of counselors and professionals who are trained to help us humans handle our own humanity. I actively work on my mental health in addition to my physical health.
  • HAVE FUN. This goes along with taking care of my mind and spirit, but seriously, we plan in our fun. These days that looks like a 3-hour birthday hike, a nice long bike ride to look at the fall colors, training for a race together or with friends, exploring a new trail… but it also includes going to parties and weddings, going out to dinner with friends, taking a drive to a new town, watching a good movie, or saddling up at the bar of our favorite restaurant for a casual meal together. Life is a gift and it’s up to us to enjoy it, so we make sure to include fun in our lives.

All this to say, the reason I feel like I no longer “struggle” with maintaining a healthy weight is because I changed how I live my life. And I really love how we’re living, so I want to keep it going. Our lifestyle does take effort, there is work to do, always, but being able to enjoy life with good health is so worth it. Make your life and your own healthy habits a journey you never want to end, and stay adaptable! You may need to change the approach, but not the goal of living a long, healthy life.