Weight Loss Issues

Hi Robbiesmom---Your body type is your body type and it is going to stay that way no matter how much you work out. You cannot spot train a certain area to lose more weight in one spot. Having said that, I have a couple of questions.

Have you considered weight training? Having fit muscles helps to lose inches as well. Keep in mind that muscle takes up less room than fat, so at first, it may seem like you are gaining weight. The best way to track weight loss and improved muscle tone is by how your clothes fit. Toned muscles burn more calories just sitting in a chair than do untrained muscles. Keep walking, maybe try running for a minute periodically during your walk (intervals) and then increase the amount of time you run while decreasing walking time. So, walk 3 minutes for warm-up, run 1 minutes, walk 3, run 1, walk 3, etc. After a couple of weeks, walk 3, run 1 1/2 min, etc.

As for your diet, focus on plants. Eat mostly fresh fruits, veggies (chose all the colors of the rainbow for maximum antioxidant protection), whole grains, beans/legumes, nuts and seeds. Minimize animal protein, as it contains mostly saturated fat and calories. Use it sparingly, like a condiment or flavoring for soups or stews. Eliminate dairy, see www.strongbones.org, www.pcrm.org and www.notmilk.com. There is nothing in animals that can't be consumed from plants. Eating mostly plants gets you lots of fiber, which fills you up. Count fiber, not calories, aim for at least 50 grams per day.

Don't have sweets in the house, if you do, they will call your name from the kitchen and you will eat them. Treats are ok, but be mindful of what is a treat and what is health providing foods. Go out for that treat but don't bring them in the house. I will bake cookies when I am going someplace, eat a couple there and leave the rest.

I am learning these tools from a series of wellness classes taught by a Naturopath who has her PhD in Nutrition. I would be honored to share more of what I am learning. My specialty is taking existing recipes and making them healthier through substitutions. I love to eat, so I cook and I have found great recipes for vegetarian meals. There is a vegetarian starter kit pdf within the pcrm website. I recommend you check it out.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I'm honored to help. Good luck...just remember, when you pick up some food, ask yourself, will this build me up or tear me down? Eat those veggies, they are energy. Be well, D.

I gave up diet soda...what a DIFFERENCE! The fake sugar just made me crave salt and fatty foods. Once I figured that out the rest seemed so much easier to stay on course.

Now I have MAYBE one soda and that's when I'm eating. Otherwise I probably drank 4-6 sodas a day.

Adding fiber also helps. I was VERY leery at first but have seen a difference in how I feel. I buy the CHEAP fiber at Wal Mart and mix it in with my water. There is NO TASTE at all and all the benefits of fiber!

You may just have that sort of body type, with a small waist and larger hips. In which case, I'm SOOO jealous because I have big hips and NO waist!

Don't berate yourself for having a figure that's not in fashion.

May I suggest that for a week or two you journal your eating, writing down every bite that goes into your mouth (what it is and how much of it)? Then borrow a nutrition book from the library, or find a nutritional website, and figure out how many carbs you're taking in, how much protein, how much fat.

Everybody need all of those things (even the fats - a little!). You need to eat enough protein because you have your children to keep up with and a lot of other work to do! That might help your energy level. If you build snacks into your own day, giving yourself a protein or fresh fruit snack, it might make you feel better as well. Keep journaling as you make these changes, and see if it helps your figure as well as your stamina.

To lose weight you need to put out more calories than you take in, and the easiest way to do that is to move more! I'm just a natural-born sitter, so I have to make myself be active - not only with "official" exercise like walking and jogging and strength-training (I belong to a gym) but also with unofficial exercise like going up and down stairs more often, parking at the far end of the lot, standing more instead of sitting. I've turned the TV off more often at my house and put music on, and sometimes I dance to it; anybody looking in the window would wonder what drug I'm on, but I'm using up a calorie or two! I've heard some people talk about keeping track of how many steps they take during a day. I've never done that, but just thinking about it gets me off my chair (um, when I finish this).

Adjusting your nutrition and moving more should help you. Take your time with this - train yourself into good habits and the results will be more lasting. You might also check with your doctor for other advice. You're an important person with an important job, and your family needs you to be healthy and happy.

The best thing you could do is give up white sugar and white flour. It sounds like you're on the right track with not eating many sweets, but take a look at the flour you use. Choose whole grain bread over white, brown rice over white, old fashioned oats over instant, and just say no to pasta.
Best of luck!

hi there
walking is great at first and will help you "maintain" weight.. BUT if you are still trying to lose weight as you have indicated, then walking isn't always enough.. you need to change it up a bit.. perhaps walk hills or steeper inclines... Additionally, consider truly keeping track of what you eat.. BITES, LICKS AND TASTES.. or BLTs as Weight Watchers refers to them really do add up...
Are you getting enough PURE water in your diet? when you are even 1% dehydrated your metabolism will slow down... it's VERY important to get that water not to mention, when you do lose weight, you want to help get the waste out of your system as fat holds a lot of junk...
try adding more water to your diet to begin with and adding 20 more minutes of more vigorous walking to your routine and that will probably help for the first couple of weeks (until your body adjusts again)
Lastly.. what about weights? you know, the more muscle you have the more fat you burn. I am not talking about bulking up either, I am talking about just a bit more muscles. Get some 3 to 5 lbs weights.. even 7 lbs..
what's important is not the weight but how you do the rep... it should be done SLOWLY and methodically... you can get more info on that via the net..
I definitely think IF you did the things listed about , you'd see more results..
best of luck to you!!

I have the same shape - my husband loves it and I hate it. Walking never seemed to help me. I recently read a good article about this figure type and how it responds to diet and exercise (doctor's office recent issue of Womans' World or Ladies home journal or something like that). Anyway, it was a very good article that noted the importance of high impact aerobic exercise because these fat storage deposits were particularly difficult to burn off. So, you can walk, but every 5-8 minutes it recommended adding 3-5 minutes of a jog. It also said not to eat either 45 minutes before or after exercising. Food consumed during this time is what would be converted to energy and not the stored fat. There was a bunch of other good stuff that I can't remember, but those were the things that really stood out. It is just hard to find the energy to get the ball rolling.
Good luck,
C.

I am hoping to buy a Zumba workout DVD to help me with my "trouble spots" that drive me crazy. I've heard great things about it through friends. I think they have a 30-day money back guarantee, so I'll return it if I don't like it. Also, I know of a great supplement that has helped a ton of people when it comes to losing weight. Let me know if you'd like more info. Good luck!