I have headed to a fitness center in the same week with my husband and signed up for few sessions of personal training as I knew I wouldn't do it on regular basis unless I have a reason. Not just the money I paid for the sessions ( I have been a member of the same fitness center for 9 months paying monthly fee but have hardly been there for less than 5 times), it is the accountability (as the fitness professionals would call) on someone who you can depend on for making you work for your end result. I see it as a tutor helping you achieve good acedemic standing. I followed everything (almost) my personal trainier advised. She was the wonderful lady I have ever met.
Finally after little less than 3 months I am back to my usual weight with lesser body fat than I used to have. How hard is it? Well, the answer depends on what you measure it with.
Time wise - Faster than gaining weight. It took 12 months for me to put on 10 lbs and took less than 12 weeks to loose it.
Money wise - Fairly expensive, but much better than paying medical bills if you had a health complication because of obesity.Here comes the important one.
Personality wise - Very hard.
Reason for the last measure being so hard is we are so used to the routines that we have build ourselves and stuck to them. Pulling us out of those routines and changing them for a good cause is very hard.Let me explain this further.Many people are under different misconceptions and misunderstandings about health and weight loss. I have read and implemented many(except for the medical procedures:) ). But without understanding the basic structure and function of our body it is very rude on our part to use our body as a testing substance to all available methods. This is one of the main reasons I wanted to post my experience on this blog.
My Reasons for gaining 10 lbs:
- Eating Quiznos Regular size Veggie sandwich for lunch 5 days a week, Adding Warm chocolate chip cookie occasionally(once in one or 2 weeks).
- Eating out for dinner 3-4 times a week, mostly sticking to salads- No Snacking - Starving between meals- Cooking large quantities of delicious, rich, traditional culinary recipes for entertaining.
- Desserts - MY BIGGEST WEAKNESS - Ice cream, Tiramisu, Donuts, Pastries, Chocolates you name it. But not more than one type of dessert a day.
- Working out atleast 2 days a week.
Now let me explain how each of these have contributed to my wealth in pounds.
EATING OUT - Lunchs & Dinners:
Quiznos Veggie sandwich - all it has is Wheat bread, lettuce, tomatoes, Onions, Cheese, Guacamole and Italian dressing. Do you think you can eat healthier sandwich than that? I didn't. But have you ever looked at its nutritional chart? Have you seen the nutritional information on any food you ate for that matter? 960 calories! Yes, a plain veggie sandwich can have 960 calories and 47 gms of fat calories.What makes up those calories? Bread, Cheese, guacamole pretty much everything it has. But it didn't keep me full for longer time. Similarly, even though I ate out 3-4 times a week for dinner, I sticked to what I thought were lighter foods like salads, soups, sauted vegetables. But salads could have more calories than a burger because of the dressings and toppings. Can you believe some of dinner sized salads can have more than 1000 calories??? I was shocked to know that. Next time you go to an eatary, pay attention to how Sauted veggies are made if possible. No doubt they are steamed, but they are sauted in oil/ butter at the very least. 1 tbsp of oil has 110 calories (may be not so bad) and 14 gms of fat (Veryyyy Bad!!) So by choosing a side of sauted veggies you might add a couple of hundred calories than with a side of steamed veggies.
NO SNACKING :
Isn't it a good, not munching extra calories? Absolutely not. It is bad to make yourself feel hungry for longer time. This reduces your metabolism, the rate at which your body burns calories.So when you eat after few hours, you would burn the calories at much lower rate than you would if you had a snack between meals. But it is also important what you snack on. Potato chips are not the ideal snack :)Its always nice to entertain, prepare nice dishes for guests and get complements from them for being a great host. But what happens afterwards? We are left with lots of left overs, which will be used as lunches and dinners and more often desserts during the week. Instead I could opt for simple, less strenious meals that are healthy and light for my family and guests. Making and serving such foods won't make you a bad host. You will still talk, entertain and show your love and concern towards your guests. One or two rich foods in the menu don't hurt. Another option is to pack some of that delicious food for your guests to take home.
DESSERTS.......
I told you right, they are my biggest WEAKNESS!! But I realized what buying and eating fancy desserts could do to me. So I have limited my cravings to low calorie versions.
WORKING OUT:
How in the world does working out add up to gaining pounds? This is what you are thinking, aren't you? Well its not the Working out part, but the number of times per week that contributes to the lbs wealth. Yes, I worked out 2 days per week, but how long? 30 minutes. How many calories did I burn? 200 may be. Eating more than 2000 calories per day and burning 400-500 calories per week does not help at all. Every 3500 unburnt calories add to 1 lb of your weight. Sure we burn calories by everything we do, walking, cooking, cleaning, sitting, even sleeping. But the rate at which we burn calories differ with what we do and how long we do. If you measure how many calories you ate in a day and compare to how many calories you might have burnt with the activities you did that day, you'll know what I am talking about.You can get approximate calculators for day to day activities if you search online. Here are a couple
ONE TWO
Healthy Eating
&
Burn atleast 500 more calories a day than you eat
That's all I did with a little help from professionals to get me started and a lot of support from my sweet husband. NOW HERE I AM BACK TO MY ORIGINAL WEIGHT and maintaining it from past 3 months.
I do occasionally splurge with fancy treats, but stay focussed to compensate them with healthy meals in the following days.
Planning to cut down few more pounds in coming months :)
I wanted to share my experience with as many people as possible hoping they get the right knowledge from my experience. That is the whole intension of this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment