Thursday, January 19, 2006

‘Tis That Time Of Year

Yep, time to trot out the ever-present goal to take off what I staunchly define as menopausal gainage. (See, that’s the problem with having a blog. I can pretty much click on any month in the archive and find a post about dieting and/or exercise. And the commitment to do both.)

Blogs suck sometimes.

Oh, well. So here we are again. THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT!!!!

This time, SCREW the diet experts.

FORGET counting carbs.

It’s so simple, really. And so mathematically clean. A pound equals 3500 calories. The average woman (and, trust me, I’m SO VERY average) who burns more than 500 calories than she consumes each day will lose a pound a week. To arrive at that 500 calorie deficit, you starve yourself and/or go through the torture routine at the gym.

Okay, so I GET all that, and here’s my plan:

I cut out breakfast.

How’s that for thumbing my nose at the experts? Everyone “KNOWS” breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Everyone “KNOWS” that when you go without eating, your metabolism slows down and gets all f’d up.

You “KNOW” what? I don’t care.

I’ve never liked eating first thing in the morning. Number one, because things like cereal and eggs don’t bear any resemblance to tortilla chips. Number two, because once I eat, I figure why not continue the pleasant experience ALL DAY LONG? And, number three, I hate knowing I’ve already wasted valuable calories on food I don’t even like.

Nope. I’m saving those stupid breakfast calories for dinnertime. A Diet Coke at 9 a.m. suits me just fine, thankyouverymuch.

For lunch, it’s still a Lean Cuisine…but, here’s a news flash: They have these new things called Pannini’s. Mmmmmmm….YUM! Just like a nice, hot, sandwich at Denny’s. A real score!

Dinner is where I get my treats. No matter what I have—salad, sandwich, whatever—I accompany it with those cool, new 100-calorie packages of Cheese-Its. There are others (potato chips, snack mix, etc.) but the Cheese-Its are my favorites. So what if you only get about 20 in a package? I NEED my salty snacks!! And, as the experts will tell you, any successful diet’s gotta have stuff you love.

So, there you have it: the food part of my dieting equation.

Tomorrow, I’ll reveal my exercise plan. Stay tuned.

3 comments:

John said...

It isn't tomorrow that counts, it's this time next year. How much Randy do you still want to have next year?

Anonymous said...

Not that you asked... but

Personally I don't think it's as easy as 3500 cals = a pound so that if you skip 500 cals a day you'll lose a pound in exactly one week.
I think it's your metabolism(rate of burning fat) that matters. You need muscle weight to burn fat and you must make sure that what you're burning is indeed fat, not muscle. the average human body burns (consumes) 2-3 grams of protein basally just to keep healthy. The body isn't particular as to where that protein comes from. So. If those grams come from your heart muscle because you're not eating enough lean, you're screwed in two to five years. Plus once you go off the diet you'll gain more fat because your muscle weight has decreased.

I say, Eat all you want, making sure that at least 15 gram of it is protein. For snack try light butter microwave popcorn. Or chomp on it as you drive to work. it fills you up and absorbs fat that's not yet digested in your stomach. It eliminates excess water and keeps you regular too! (no purging necessary, lol)

For me, dieting only makes me irritable. When I want to lose, I simple don't eat after six pm. If I get home late, I'll have all the chicken broth my stomach can hold instead of a heavy meal.

And when I binge I do it in a 24 hour period only. Since there's no way the body can process and absorb all the calories, most of it gets eliminated. After 24 hrs though, the body adjusts to your "new" eating habit.

Besides what the hell's wrong with your body? I'm about your size (I think) these days and I like it as much as DH does. Used to be a solid-muscled size 5 (Canadian) before childbirth. But now that I have boobs and hips, I'm not giving them up. No way! I get whistled at now--not that it should matter. (LOL)

Have a great day

Mercy
(rambling and giving unsolicited advice when I'm supposed to be working. forgive?)

Randy said...

LOL...I'll take diet advice anywhere I can get it...even on my blog.

I'm one of those people who's gone up and down by about 10 lbs. all my life. Most of the time, when that 10 lbs. has crept back on, I haven't used any kind of system to lose it...i.e., I didn't one day say, "I'm going on a diet." Instead, I changed my routine in some way and it just "happened." One time, it was similar to something you said: I ate all I wanted of anything I wanted, but didn't eat after 4p.m. The only time I ever really "went on a diet," was when I went to Nutri-Systems, and that worked well for me.

In my mid to late forties, I kept my weight down to its "low." Then, geesh. I don't know if it's pre-menopause, regular menopause, or what!?!?!? 10 lbs went on in 2004 and another 7-8 in 2005. That's why I'm at that point of saying, "STOP THE MADNESS!" LOL (y'all remember her? Susan Powder?) So...I just wanna kickstart myself by getting used to a different routine. Won't do it forever. And I understand fully that the critical part of this is exercising. If you do regular aerobic exericse in your target zone and add weight training to the mix, I think you avoid the risk of burning muscle instead of fat.

Maybe I'll post more about my belief in the science of calories later.....