Tools to Stay on Track

I have found a few things that help me stay on track, pay attention, and stay motivated when I am trying to lose weight. 

First, I love my Withings scale.  I have an older model, but it tracks your weight, body fat and BMI and connects to wi-fi.  So you don't have to write it down - and it tracks it over time.  I weigh every morning before I shower.  I can see trends over time, and it helps me remember to think about weight and diet and exercise.  And I love it when I can consistently move that number down, even if only a teeny bit, when I'm trying to.

Second, I really think LoseIt! is a fantastic app.  It's free. I have it on my phone and ipad and computer.  You can log food and exercise.  You can scan most foods or add manually.  If you bother to enter your food you will get nutritional and calorie info and also see how your calories in compare to your exercise.  LoseIt! is a GREAT way to become more conscious about what you eat.  I don't use it all the time (I should) but when I do, it helps me make better choices and be calorie conscious.

Third, I recently discovered DietBet, where you pay into a pool with others and "bet" you can lose 4% of your bodyweight in 30 days, or more over 6 months. It helps you stay motivated AND you can get rewarded for meeting your goals.  It also helps with accountability - you are weighing in regularly. 

Obviously there are a ton of other good apps for tracking runs, walks, bike rides, etc.  I haven't wanted to spend money on any of the "fitness monitoring" devices and I can't be bothered with a pedometer (though I do find a lap counter super helpful swimming, see the Swimming Tips post for other ideas).

My Favorite "Kick Start" Diet

Like most people, I suck at diets.  I don't like getting together a bunch of ingredients I might not otherwise have on hand, measuring portions, and sticking to a plan that likely has nothing to do with what I like to eat.  However, a few years ago a friend told me about a very old diet, the Scarsdale Medical Diet, from the 1970's.  You don't have to buy the book (though it's usually less than $2 used on Amazon.com) - there's a great support website for this diet here.  Read the diet:  it's easy.

Basically - try it for a minimum of 7 days and follow it with NO cheating.  Breakfast every day is 1/2 a grapefruit and a piece of dry toast - I hate the toast dry.  At first I used a spray "I can't believe it's not butter" and a fake brown sugar/splenda product to make the toast edible.  But it still sucked, so I ended up skipping the toast and going with grapefruit only.

Lunch is always lean meat or salad (no oil or fat in the dressing - I use spray on zero calorie Wish Bone dressings).  The amounts are not limited it is WHAT you eat that matters.  Dinner is usually meat and veggies.  No oil or fat.  No beans.  Very low carb. No sugar (including in soda). No alcohol.

Your body goes into ketoisis on this diet and you burn fat without being hungry.  If you weigh yourself every day you will see that you do lose a bit nearly every day.  You can only do it 14 days at a time.  If you do not cheat by adding in sugar, far, oil or anything not on the plan, you keep burning fat.  When I first did this diet I got some ketone strips from the local pharmacy (made for diabetics I think).  You pee on the strips and can see if your body is/is not in ketosis.  This is good feedback - you know it's working - and you stay motivated.  But after you try this diet a few times, you know it absolutely works and it's easy.  They have a vegetarian version but I can't bring myself to do it, the options have no appeal to me.

The reasons I like this diet so very much:
1.  It kicks you off losing weight and that helps me get motivated and stay motivated - after losing 10lbs you want to keep going don't you?
2.  It always works if you follow it - always
3.  It's healthy - no weird supplements, no bad foods, all wholesome
4.  No measuring/portion control necessary
5.  I like lean meats and salads and fruit so I can stay on this.  Hell yes, I miss bread and pasta and butter and oil - but it's worth it, and I'm not trying to gag down stuff I hate.
6.  You can even eat out if you do so carefully (I recommend avoiding it but if you have to dine out with a client, etc you can find a way to stay on this one usually)
7.  Knowing my body is in ketoisis and I don't want to kick it out keeps me from cheating - no rationalizing that "one bite" of something will be ok - it's not!

Just try it for one week - it's a great jumpstart - and I bet you do 2 weeks.  Then eat a healthy diet that isn't Scarsdale for a couple weeks and go back on it.

Swimming for Fitness Tips

I never swam in school, and I am not a good swimmer.  I hate to put my face in the water.  It's hard to find decent plus size swimsuits.  I hate to exercise.  There are tons of reasons I hate swimming - but I have selected swimming as my personal best cardio exercise.  Here are some of the reasons why it works best for me, in case some of these reasons might apply to you too:

WHY SWIM?
1.  I hate sweating.  In a pool, you don't notice
2.  The pool doesn't depend on weather - you have less excuses not to swim than not to walk or run
3.  You can swim with injuries, like plantar facitis (which I struggled with for a year) or a knee injury (which I have been struggling with 6 months or more).  Since it is not weight bearing, you can swim with a lot of injuries that you can't do other cardio with and not harm yourself further.  Of course, check with your doctor before embarking, etc.
4.  When starting on an exercise plan, it's easier to work out in the pool - no one can really see you, so you can avoid some of the self-consciousness that comes with trying to get on the treadmill, etc.
5. You burn calories not only with swimming itself, but keeping warm as you swim - your body has to work hard to maintain temp
6.  It is a great overall body workout and helps you raise your heartrate and get a cardio workout - and cardio is key - you need cardio, not just strength training or walking, for fat burning

HOW TO GET STARTED
1. Get a swimsuit - don't worry about looks - get one you can fit into.  I prefer one piece suits as they are easier to do laps in
2.  Find a pool that has enough lengths for you to swim laps for exercise (not like a short hotel pool) and decent hours so you can actually get there.
3.  Start with a minimum of 2 laps - do more if you can, but if you can't you can't.  Do 2.
4.  Swim a minimum of 3x per week and more if you possibly can
5.  Each time you swim, either add a lap, or try to beat your time - don't compare your progress to others, compare it to your own past performance
6.  Measure the length of your pool and set a goal - swimming 1/4 of a mile or a mile or whatever - work towards that goal
7.  You can do any stroke - vary it with a different stroke per lap, or pick the one you are best at.  I do backstroke.  For a mile.  Yeah.  A variety of reasons but for me, that's what works best.  I'm sure freestyle is better exercise but I can't bear putting my face in the water.  Do whatever stroke you need to do to get it done.
8.  Consider a hot tub and/or sauna after swimming as a healthy "reward" for finishing your laps
9.  You may experience cramps, especially foot cramps, when you start swimming for any length of time.  You can swim through them - but they are really painful, so it's better to avoid getting them!  I have found that calf stretches are the key:  if I do them, I can swim a mile with no cramps.  If I don't, I usually can't!  Here are some good pre-swim stretches.

THINGS THAT MAKE IT EASIER TO SWIM LAPS REGULARLY
1.  A good swimsuit!  You will find when you get up to swimming a certain number of laps, the repetitive motion can cause some chafing.  Some tips to overcome that: a) vary your suit so you wear a different one each time not the same one every day, like have 2-5 suits you rotate; b) use Desitin (a diaper rash salve that's water resistant) on the chafing - it helps heal it and prevent more and resists water.  My favorite lap suit at the moment (and it comes in plus sizes) is from L.L.Bean, the BeanSport Tank Suit.
2.  A lap counter - helps you track laps without trying to keep track in your head. 
3.  A good swim cap that doesn't pull your hair is a big help.
4.  Get an underwater ipod and some good underwater headphones.  This helps sooooo much.  Try getting an upbeat, fast playlist to help you keep up a good pace while swimming - or listen to podcasts or other things to help kill off the boredom of doing laps
5.  Get some good googles - I got a 3 pack at Costco for a good price.
6.  Sandals so you don't have to walk from the locker room to pool on wet surfaces barefoot
7.  A big beach towel for coverage and drying off
8.  A sarong for coverage - I wear this in the sauna or as a skirt after getting out of the pool
9.  A combination lock for your locker
10.  I have a knee injury and my knee hurts when swimming so I use a neoprene knee brace that really helps

Consider taking a few swim lessons to improve your form or learn new strokes. 

Obviously, these tips are for beginner swimmers - not former swim team people or people already fit.  I'm here to encourage the plus size, overweight, non-exercising folks out there to get in the pool!  Many women I know love water aerobics but I can't stand group activities, and it's not cardio, so I prefer laps.  For better or worse, I have made this work.  I swim about an hour a day and a minimum of 33 laps (backstroke) which is a mile in my pool - then one cool-down lap of elementary backstroke.  My reward is a few minutes in the hot tub and/or sauna. 

A Status Report - After a Long Hiatus

For the past several months I have been training up for a trip.  At the moment I am swimming a mile a day.  It took me awhile to work up to a mile, and then I quit swimming for a couple of years - when I re-started, I found that it didn't take too long to get back up to a mile.  Swimming, I have lots of time (an hour a day) to think about things, and I decided I'd like to get back to this blog and share some ideas and some tips for making progress.  I still have a ways to go before I get to my goal weight - there have been lots of months I didn't focus on health or exercise, and lots of fluctuations over the last few years - but I have also learned a lot in the process.  Maybe some of the tackles I have faced can help other people who are struggling with the same issues.