Don't Go Too Low

In the efforts to ‘get the weight off’ as quickly as possible, it’s important not to drop your calories too low. As I discuss in the blog entry listed here, “Determine Your Daily Calories,” there are healthy calorie calculators that indicate, for your particular height and desired weight, the proper number of calories to take in each day. Dropping the calories too low will backfire because the body is apt to go into starvation mode, shutting down its metabolism, resulting in NO weight loss at all. And even if you can get away with lower calories for awhile, eventually your cravings will kick in and you’ll end up standing in the pantry or in front of the refrigerator in an out of control binging frenzy, not to mention that hardly eating anything is just dead boring! What kind of life is that?

One to two pounds a week is a good healthy weight loss. I’m talking long term, steady, consistent. I know that’s frustrating when you wake up one morning and decide you really want to do this, have the motivation, the desire. You want the weight gone – now! But slashing your caloric intake or, Heaven forbid, going for one of these advertised plans that claim you’ll lose 20-pounds in 1-2 weeks, are not only ridiculous - they would be dangerous if they really worked. And trust me, they don’t. Think of it, if they did, none of us would be overweight.

So go slow and steady. You didn’t put on the weight overnight - don’t expect to take it off that way. As baby boomers, the days of extreme dieting to fit into that dress for the prom is over. Those of us who are still going for the cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, Hollywood liquid diet plans, are just fooling ourselves, -because with that kind of dieting, if you lose it, the weight always comes back – sometimes twice as much.

No, this is a lifestyle change. It’s weight loss for the purpose of good healthy maintenance so we feel good about ourselves and don’t have weight-associated health issues like heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. Be smart. Be sensible. Look great!

Why Bother?

When in the midst of trying to lose weight, there comes a time when we're not seeing the scale move, when we feel hungry, when we're angry because we can't have the size slice of cake we want to have, that we are tempted to throw up our arms in disgust and ask, "Why bother?" We look at our overweight friends and family and use them as an excuse to say to ourselves, "They aren't doing anything about their weight and they don't look like they're doing too badly." The truth is, we don't know the inner thoughts of our friends and family, we don't know what motivates them, what is truly important to them, what their will power is like, or whether they even have the will power. Besides, wouldn't you like to show your friends and family that you do have the will power to make positive changes in your life? That you can succeed? And maybe your success will motivate them?

Still, here is one of the most important reasons I know to "bother" with losing weight: our children. Our children are learning from us how to live. We teach them through our examples. And right now, their weight gain and their battles with adult forms of conditions and disease like diabetes and high cholesterol at ages that they shouldn't even know how to spell such words, is showing we're not doing a very good job. The rate of childhood obesity in this country is staggering. With half or more adult Americans now overweight, America's children are following suit by making poor nutritional choices resulting in more than 30% of them in the overweight or obese category. When I was in elementary school, nearly 40-years ago, I can remember only one child in our class who was overweight. One!

It's not enough to tell our children they shouldn't eat junk food when we're holding a bag of Oreos in our hands. Your lifestyle changes: making better low-calorie choices, being mindful of food portions, and healthier snacking, will allow your children and even grandchildren to see not only that it can be done, but that they are important enough, and valuable enough, to make similar changes in their own lives. Hopefully, they won't grow up fighting the same food battles we have. Let's help them see and solve this problem now by showing them we can do it!