The Magic Weightloss Pill? Seriously?

Ever notice how ALL diet pills state that they are to be used with a sensible diet and exercise plan? If you started eating better and working out better than you did before you started taking the pills, you would lose weight and get healthier anyway, without the possible side affect of the pill. Think about it.

Now that I am down 11.5 pounds, my weight loss is noticeable to more than just those who haven't seen me in a long time. Because of this I have had several people ask me how I've been doing it. What surprises me the most about their reactions is their disappointment when they find out that I don't have a magic pill. It gets even worse when they realize that the website and app I've been using is just a calorie tracking sight and the other secret to my successes is actual physical effort.

There is no magic pill, like everything worth achieving in life it only comes from hard work and dedication. I know the media, diet pill companies, and other weight loss companies would like you believe that it could be as simple as just take this pill or eat our food or do this simple activity for 5 minutes a day. My favorite claim is  "eat as much as you want and still lose weight" (which by the way is something everyone can do if you just eat certain foods. - I'll have more on this claim on my nutrition blog next week.)

You can play the dieting game  in which you eliminate and entire food group from you diet or only eat certain kinds of foods or foods that don't have a particular ingredient it in, but the long and short of it is, these diets work because they force you to eat healthier lower calorie foods. And all weight loss regardless of which fad diet you follow is based on one simple principle: You lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume. Yes, I know there's all these complicated strategies that say if you eat certain foods it helps you burn more fat because it helps you build more muscle or the types of food you eat some how work with your body chemistry to help you burn more fat for some reason or another, but again, it all comes down to that one simple fact.

The simplest way to make sure you are burning more calories than you consume is to track your caloric intake to be sure you are taking in less than you are burning (I strongly recommend using a calorie tracking website or smartphone app to help keep you on track - it makes calorie tracking quicker and easier) Keep in mind, the nutritional information you see on food labels are based on a 2000 calorie diet. This amount is based on a 5'8" 150lb male. So, if you are not 5'8' or and you don't want to weight 150 lbs and/or you are not male. You're caloric necessities will be different. This is where the benefit of calorie tracking website and apps come in handy. They help determine the appropriate amount of calories for you to consume on a daily basis based on your height, weight, gender, and daily activity level.

The simplest way to burn more calories is to get active. If you want a little boost from muscle make sure your activity includes resitance or weight lifting of some sort.

There it is, that's the real magic to losing weight.

The Dreaded Plateau - What can you do?

In every weightloss journey there are plateaus. Those weeks that go buy when your weight and your measurements just won't budge. The first plateau is always the most discouraging because you go from successfully dropping weight check-in after check-in to losing nothing. There are two facts about plateaus that I have come to find. 1) The more weight you have to lose the longer it may take for you to hit a plateau and 2) the faster you lose weight in the beginning the sooner you will hit a plateau. There's a reason experts recommend setting a goal losing only between 1-2 pounds a week. The reason for this is to prevent your body from going into panic mode. When you lose a whole bunch of weight in a short amount of time it's a shock to your body. Among other things feels threatened because it's emergency storage (your fat cells) are disappearing at what it thinks is an alarming weight, this sudden change to your body also triggers several other changes starting with signals to hormones throghout your body to adjust to try to conserve the it's stored rations that you have been carrying around in the form of fat for a number of years. This is why it is recommended to only lose between 1-2 pounds per week. This rate of weightloss allows your body to slowing adjust to it's new weight and doesn't trigger the panic affect that dramatic weightloss can. I started my most recently weightloss journey on August 3, 2011. Every week with exciting and amazing success I was steadily losing weight. I even dropped 4 pounds in week two of my journey. In the weeks that followed I have been pretty successful at losing between a half to one and a half pounds each week, and on weeks that I didn't lose a whole pound or more I've lost inches... until this week. I lost not a pound nor inches. I have lost a grand total so far of 7.5 lbs. in just 5 weekss. So, what do I do about it? Do I get frustrated and give up because I am still 43lbs away from my overall goal and have already hit a plateau or do I realize that my short term goal is to lose 5lbs a month until my birthday (a grand total of 20lbs by December) and accept the fact that I am still on track to meet both the monthly and short term goals and just keep plugging away. The answer is obvious. Try to make even better food choices and make working out an even higher priority. With the help of MyFitnessPal to help me continue to stay on track with my calorie goals I know I can do it. So can you. Do not go on a drastic diet or drastically reduce caloires to break through this goal. It's frustrating to hit a plateau but it's even more frustrating and upsetting to give up and gain back what you've worked so hard to lose! Keep making better choices and stay focused. Sooner or later you'll break through the plateau and start dropping again.

Just as I finished this blogpost I saw a link for this article on twitter:
12 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight by Julie Davis (Medically Reviewed) on Everyday Health
http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight-pictures/12-reasons-youre-not-losing-weight.aspx?xid=tw_everydayhealth_20110912_main#/slide-1

Something's Got To Give: Changing Priorities as Needed

I just wanted to let everyone know that my posting frequency on all 3 of the ABR blogs is going to decrease significantly due to the fact that I am back to work and I have started my final certification class. It is a graduate level class that is extremely time consuming (mostly because I'm a perfectionist) so I'll only get a chance to post on nights that I'm not doing classwork, research, or studying for a quiz for the next 15 weeks, but once the class is over I should be able to start posting pretty regularly (at least once a week on each blog). Thank you for your continued support an understanding.

Which brings me to tonight's topic. Changing Priorities as Needed

Unless we are really lucky or really boring no ones life is perfectly predictable with a consistent schedule and consistent needs. Often we have to juggle many things at one time and as soon as we get to put down one another is thrown into the mix or we may be handed something else on top of all of our already overwhelming responsibilities. This is when you have to know what you can do without and what you can't. It may mean giving up something you enjoy temporarily for something that is mandatory or necessary. In the past, I always put working out or cooking healthy on hold either skipping workouts altogether to get required work done or choosing fast easy to prepare foods over preparing healthy foods in order to make sure I had time for everything else. For many people this is their story too. Or they try to force themselves to keep doing all the things they have always done which leads to stress, lack of sleep, becoming run down, and generally unhealthy. I have learned that I deserve time to myself, especially if that time is spent doing something for my health, i.e. taking a few more minutes to prepare a healthier meal or time to workout. To avoid other pit falls that come with trying to do everything and be everything for everyone that you are already involved with, remind yourself that priorities often change and just because you are stepping down or stepping back right now doesn't mean you have to completely give it up forever.

We also put a lot of undue pressure on ourselves to continue doing everything we've always done, we or others may try to convince us that we are the only ones who can do what we are doing. That if we step down they won't be able to find someone else to take over. In many cases this is not true. It may be difficult for them to find someone, but not impossible. So, when you are feeling overwhelmed you need to evaluate everything you're involved in. Is there a way to combine activities, is there something you can set aside, or step down from for a while until things change. If you have to make a list of all your obligations and and rank them in order of importance and value. Then determine which of your extracurricular or voluntarily activities you can reasonably step back from.  This will be different for everyone depending on their personalities, values, and lifestyles.