This is the 2nd part of my musings on my struggles with weight. Part one is available here.
The turning point came about 3 years ago, when my husband decided, out of the blue, that he was going to try the "Body for Life" challenge. At first I was skeptical, but after looking into the program, it seemed to be based on sound nutritional principles and reasonable fitness activities. So, I decided to follow the plan, too. The "challenge" is a 12-week program, during which you follow the dietary plan (mostly pretty common sense types of things, nothing drastic) and do short (i.e. about 30 min. or less) but intense work-outs 6 days a week, alternating cardio-vascular workouts with strength training days. The 7th day is a "free" day where you don't have to work out and you can eat anything (ANYTHING) you want.
This plan ended up working much better for my husband, who lost a ton of weight, than for me. I stuck with the program religiously for about 18 weeks and continued to follow most of the principles for months later. I lost maybe 5 pounds, which was very disappointing, especially when my husband was losing so much more doing the same things and getting all kinds of compliments. While I didn't lose much weight on BFL, I did get some other very important things out of the experience:
1) I learned that working out 5 or 6 days a week wasn't as hard as I thought. Under the Body for Life plan, you work out 6 days a week, but you only have to devote about half an hour each day. They generally use interval training, where you alternate short periods of intense activity with recovery periods of low-key activity. cardio workouts are only 20 minutes long, and strength training usually took no more than 40 minutes. Although I didn't lose much weight with the BFL program, it did get me going to the gym regularly. Through it I was able to find a way that I could comfortably make it part of my routine.
2) I learned to incorporate strength training into my workouts. Before BFL, I had always done a lot of cardio workouts, but they never seemed to make an impact on my weight. I learned how important building muscle mass can be to losing weight. Maintaining muscle takes calories. The suggested BFL weight training workouts didn't require hours at the gym.
3) I was already pretty convinced it wasn't a good idea to make drastic changes I wouldn't be able to maintain in order to make short term gains (or this case, losses!). Most diet or weight loss plans will work in the short term. The question is what happens in the long term. Doing this plan confirmed for me the importance of only making a change if it was something I could reasonably do permanently, or at least come back to frequently.
4) Plan to succeed, or you are planning to fail! Planning is absolutely key. If you don't plan your meals ahead and make sure you have the ingredients on hand, you will probably grab something handy that isn't going to help you reach your goals. If you don't plan to have meals, you'll probably wait until you are super-hungry and then end up eating more than you need. If you don't think ahead how you are going to handle things when you attend the party this weekend with the big buffet, you'll probably pig out. If you don't figure out in advance how you are going to fit even a short workout into a busy day, you'll probably just skip it. Sometimes planning is a lot of work, e.g. meal planning, shopping, and preparation, but sometimes it's just a matter of thinking ahead a little. For example, going to a big party where there will be a lot of food can be a diet-buster, but I found that if I actually just planned ahead -- prepared myself mentally for the fact that there was going to be a lot of food, most of which I didn't want to be eating -- it was a lot easier to make good choices. It worked even better if I made sure to NOT show up at the event already hungry (eat something healthy beforehand) and/or to promise myself a small indulgence afterwards (e.g. a piece of dark chocolate) if I succeeded in avoiding the major pitfalls at the party.
5) That leads me into my final point, which was that it was important not to feel deprived. Many nutritionists and diet plans now advise eating several small meals per day, and I found that helped me to avoid feeling deprived. I could eat less at one meal if I knew that I'd be eating again in just a couple of hours. If I knew I was getting a piece of chocolate later, it was easier to pass up the cake and ice cream now. The BFL plan's concept of a "free day" is similar -- it is easier to be strict about making healthy choices all week if you know you can have anything you want on the 7th day (there's only so much damage you can do in one day, and by the time the day rolls around, you find that you don't necessarily want all the things you thought you were craving earlier in the week, anyway).
But if all that didn't work, what did? Well in the end, it took a bigger commitment to change than I was ready to make when I started BFL. More on that in part 3 next week.
As we move into Spring (at least in theory -- never mind the fact that we are expected to get several inches of snow this week), our thoughts turn to visions of summer frolics. From there we are reminded that such frolics often involve skimpy summer clothing, and then we recall with chagrin our indulgences on holiday treats, accompanied by a side of promises to get in shape by the time the shorts and tank tops come out. Like most people in this country, I've had my share of weight struggles. Thankfully, I've gotten the upper hand on the fight for now, but like any wily opponent, you can never really turn your back on weight gain once it has you in its scopes. Constant vigilence is required, and just when you think you've gotten comfortable with your routine, you find it sneaking up on you from an unexpected corner, or sometimes even waltzing down a well-worn pathway you've neglected to guard because you've grown too complacent.
I was Inspired by my friend's brother, who decided to blog his weight loss efforts at Triple Extra Large. I probably won't write regularly on this subject (well to be honest, do I actually write regularly about anything on this thing?), but I thought I'd muse a bit on my own efforts. Over the course of about a year and a half, I was successful in losing around 35 lbs, and I've kept it off for over two years now.
Those who are looking at losing 50 or 100 or more pounds may not think my situation was that big a deal, and I certainly don't want to make it sound like my problem was as grave or my success was as heroic as those who have lost more. I hadn't developed any serious health issues (though I'm sure the extra weight wasn't helping my knee problems), and I wasn't what they call "morbidly obese" (what a depressing term!), but it was definitely affecting my attitude and my quality of life. And no matter whether you are 20 lbs overweight or 200, it's not easy to lose it, certainly not for good. It may be small in the grand scheme of things, but for me, this achievement was huge.
Here's the basic background: I was a skinny child growing up. Although I had other issues fitting in at school, etc., I wasn't anxious about my weight and had pretty positive body image. I could (and did) eat whatever I wanted. Luckily, I was always active and my parents cooked healthy food and taught me pretty good eating habits, so my weight stayed at healthy levels as long as I lived at home.
Problems first began to surface during my senior year of college. I was working on my senior thesis and dealing with the accompanying stress. One of my favorite procrastination techniques was to dawdle in the dining hall, extending meals (especially dinner) much longer than necessary. Things got exponentially worse when I went to grad school a few years later. I was under tremendous stress dealing with a near full-time job that had a high learning curve on top of being a full-time graduate student. By time I finished two years later, I was at least 25 lbs overweight. This was despite having added regular trips to the gym into my routine and being much more careful about what I ate.
Despite the changes I was making, I continued to slowly gain weight over the next 8 to 10 years. I believe I topped out around 180 (and I am only about 5'2"), but I don't actually know, because after I passed 165, I stopped weighing myself. I told myself it was no use. I wasn't interested in pills, fad diets. I didn't think there was much more I could realistically do. I was frustrated. I was depressed.
Check back next week for part 2.