Entries Tagged 'calorie counting' ↓

I didn’t come to my own method of weight loss fully-fledged, with an idea and a method all fleshed out and a path fully mapped.  I don’t believe anyone does. Regardless of what weight watchers, Jenny Craig or any of the other weight loss groups tell you, no one method works for everyone, and no one method works on it’s own for the whole length of your journey.

Imagine a cruise ship. (I’d like to imagine BEING on a cruise ship, but that may have to wait a few decades) Anyway, our cruise ship leaves port with a destination in mind. Let’s say Vanuatu. (My sister is taking a cruise to Vanuatu for her honeymoon. I’m terribly jealous )

Our ship sets sail with the bow pointing straight to it’s destination. After a day or so, the captain takes a reading. Currents, winds, and a plethora of other things have combined to push the ship slightly of course. The bow is pointing 1 degree to the left of Vanuatu. So the captain makes a correction, and the ship is back on course.

Every cruise ship and plane makes a hundred course corrections between the start and finish of their journey. They never go in a completely straight line. Neither does weight loss. Why should it? You start with a goal. You do what you need to do and you’re heading towards your goal quite happily. Then you notice you’re slightly off-course, so you make a correction. You add in a new behaviour, or you get rid of an old one.  You continuously research and try new things. It is unlikely that the behaviours which got you to your first mini goal will get you all the way to your destination on their own.

My first step in my journey was to cut out eating after dinner. I lost 2kgs almost without trying. Then my weight leveled out again - I needed to make a course correction. I took up running 3 times a week doing the C25K program. I began losing again, but SO slowly! So I began planning my meals in advance. That helped a lot, my weightloss picked up a bit. Then it leveled out again, so I stepped up my planning. I began counting my calories more precisely.

My next course correction occured when the PT at my gym tested me for my metabolic rate and recommended I drop down to 1300 calories. AND he started to weigh me in each week, so I became accountable to someone else for my eating. That was a big course correction - I was really powering straight towards port for a while there!

But slowly I wandered off course again. I lost some motivation and was finding it hard to resist little treats and snacks. So I began researching mental techniques to stave off cravings, emotional eating and binging. Putting them into place was yet another course correction.

A lot of this blog is about recognising when I am wandering off course and figuring out what actions will correct my course. Ultimately, it is about realising that to consistently lose weight, I need to consistently research, implement and refine new behaviours and techniques to provide course corrections when I need them.

So if you are beginning your weightloss journey, try not to focus on the entire journey as one big step. Concentrate of each little step and change your behaviours one at a time - you will build up momentum in the end.

When I tell people that I plan every meal and snack for the whole week in advance, I get a lot of resistance. People say things like “Oh, I couldn’t do that, I don’t have time” or: “I wouldn’t like that, I like to be able to eat what I want”  Never mind the fact that I never asked them to try it, they usually feel compelled to tell me that it won’t work for them anyway

The bottom line is, people think menu planning is too hard, too time consuming, and too restrictive. It will stop them being spontaneous, it will take away their freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here are a few things I’ve learned since I started meal planning;

1. It doesn’t take away spontaneity. A meal plan is a GUIDE, not a rule. If I’ve planned chicken and asparagus on Monday, but I get home only wanting eggs on toast, that’s OK. The eggs are less calories than the chicken, and the chicken can be cooked on Wednesday, while Wednesday’s steak can go in the freezer for next week. Whatever. Likewise, if I’m unexpectedly invited out on Thursday night, I will simply make the best choice I can from what is on offer. Having said that, more often than not, if I am at home I will eat what is on the plan, because the ingredients are there and it does not require thinking about.
2. I get more variety with a meal plan.Think about it - how often when you’re wandering round the supermarket looking for something to cook tonight do you think “Oh, I’ll try that new recipe I saw in that magazine!” Not often I’ll bet. But when I’m planning meals I often think, “Oh, I’ll have a look through a cookbook and find something new to do” In fact, I try to make a point of trying at least one new thing each week.
3. It doesn’t take up a lot of time - In fact it’s getting quicker as I go along. I can do up a meal plan in about 20 minutes now.  The reason it’s getting faster is because I’m building up my database of custom foods in my calorie king software, I don’t have to hunt around and add things in so much.
4. It’s not hard to do- I use calorie king software to plan my days, then I jot each day onto a printed grid, which has mon-sun across the top and breakfast, snack, lunch etc down the side. This allows me to see my whole week in a glance.
5. I only count calories once a week, not every day - The best thing about meal planning is that it takes away the stress of continuously obsessing over numbers. The numbers are already added for me at the beginning of the week. If I eat what I planned, I will be under my calories. I generally know how many cals I have planned for the day, so I know if I have extra space for the freddo after lunch. I also know that my lunch was around 400 cals, so if I have a 400 cal subway instead of what I planned, it will still work out. Or i could have a 300 cal salad, and then I know I can have an extra snack when I get home.
6. IT WORKS!!- I have been planning my meals in advance for many months now. Whether I stick to the plan religiously or use it only as a guideline, it is the one thing that has kept me, and my weightloss, on track for so long.

So, what are you waiting for? Give it a go, even if only for a couple of weeks. I dare you!