Week Seventeen: What Price Beauty?

This week’s post is starting off with another HUGE Thank You to everyone for your continued support. It truly does mean the world to me, and I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far without all of you in my corner, cheering me on and giving me so much encouragement!

I’m excited to be able to finally report some progress this past week! Another 2.4 pounds lost! I’m not sure whether I’ve fully escaped the doldrums yet—we’ll see what next week’s weigh-in brings. It’s very tempting to weigh myself every day. If I’m honest, I do sometimes sneak onto the scales mid-week, and it’s usually a disappointment. But willpower only stretches so far, you know?

Last week a friend commented on my blog that my version of diet and exercise is “keeping it real.” That statement got me to thinking about different weight loss and exercise plans and the lengths to which we go to stay thin, or in shape, or both.

Seems like no matter where we look—movies, magazines, television, the internet—“slim and trim, young and beautiful” is being shoved down our throats like some bad-tasting medicine. It’s no wonder so many of us look in the mirror and just want to puke. The pressure for perfection has reached biblical proportions.

In 2009, Americans spent a staggering $45 billion on diets. That’s a hell of a lot of money for lettuce and carrot sticks. While evidence continues to show that weight loss from exercise and healthier eating can increase longevity and decrease medical issues, if you add another $10 billion a year for plastic surgery, $1.2 billion for liposuction, $1.1 billion for breast augmentation, and $8 billion for cosmetics, it’s easy to see our obsession with looks goes far beyond simply maintaining a healthy weight.

How many times have you looked at a glamorous movie star or fashion model and thought “Man, why can’t I look like that?” I know—me, too. But did you ever wonder how far they go to maintain that size and shape?

I found an article at celebrity-diets.org that claimed to have the inside skinny (I love a good pun, don’t you?!) on how the rich and famous maintain their sleek physiques. For instance, it said Renee Zellweger maintains her 7st (7 stone) figure on tuna, cold meats, dressing-free salad and raw vegetables, for a total of 773 calories a day.

OK, I had to Google to find out how much 7st is in the first place. Imagine my shock and horror when I found out it’s only 98 pounds. The calories I can appreciate because I stay anywhere between 750 and 1000 per day, but 98 pounds? At 5’4”? I remember being 108 pounds at an even 5’; I could fit into a size 1, and every time I saw my grandma she was on my case for being too thin. What size must Renee be—00?

The article goes on to give the typical daily intake of actress Liz Hurley—a paltry 449 calories—which I’m pretty sure is less than that of most people in third world countries. As if her micro-diet isn’t enough, she takes regular pilates classes which burn around 300 calories per session. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer’s typical daily intake was listed at 537 calories.

Spice Girl Victoria Beckham was reported to have been on a strawberry diet before the birth of her third child, eating a bowl of strawberries for breakfast and little else for the rest of the day, except for liters of mineral water.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how this sort of eating is either reasonable or healthy. I wonder what sort of medical issues these girls will have in, say, 25 years or so. While I’m not condoning a diet like what the article listed for Kelly Osbourne—over 2000 calories’ worth of cheeseburgers, fries, shakes, and colas—it has been scientifically proven that there are minimum calorie requirements to maintain healthy body functions. And I would bet none of these ladies comes nowhere close to meeting that standard. After all, what good is having a knockout body when it’s going to conk out on you before you’re 50?

It would be nice if we could all have our own private chef to cook only sensible meals for us and a personal trainer to see that we get the proper amount of the right kind of exercise. Maybe in some parallel universe where watching TV is good exercise and chocolate is one of the five food groups.

The fact is the majority of us are just regular people with regular lives and regular jobs. Which means we must resort to regular means of eating healthy and staying fit. Can’t afford a membership to the gym, much less a personal trainer? Not a problem. Walking doesn’t cost a dime. Neither do many other types of exercise. All you have to do is a little research and find what works best for you. Make Google your best good friend. Don’t have a computer? That’s not a problem, either. Your local library is a great resource for books and magazines, and many of them also have computers with internet access available for patrons’ use. And while you’re there, check out some cookbooks and magazines for healthy, easy-to-prepare recipes you can fix yourself at home.

Trust me, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with a recipe for success. A pinch of research, a dab of determination, and drop of perseverance will take you a long way. And, as always, make sure you consult your health care professional before starting any diet or exercise program.

Good luck!

Week Sixteen: Repeating Myself

I hate to have to report it, but this past week was fraught with dieting pitfalls, and Yours Truly fell off the wagon big time—two nights of eating out (and I’m not talking about stopping off for a Jared sandwich) plus a birthday party with cake and ice cream. Gah! With temptations like this, it’s no wonder I lost less than a pound. But, despite my shameful lack of willpower, I still managed to not gain—which is a good thing! Maybe I should just consider it more research toward weight maintenance.

I’ve said these words before, but I think they bear repeating. Portion Control!

Now, more than ever, I’m convinced it’s not so much what you eat as how much. For example: On one of the nights we went out I ate salad, BBQ pork ribs, and baked sweet potato. This meal can play out two completely different ways, depending on how you order: Salad—Diet friendly in its own right, except for the dressing. Instead of letting the kitchen pile on a couple hundred extra calories for you, ask for low-fat dressing on the side. Pork Ribs—By smoking the meat, you’re not adding any extra fat or calories. Great start! Now you can take it one step further by ordering dry ribs so you can also cut the calories and sugars found in barbecue sauce. Baked sweet potato—While this isn’t exactly a carb friendly food, if you’ve just gotta have it, try skipping the brown sugar and order the butter on the side so you can control how many calories and fat are added.

In the end, my meal consisted of about 1-1/2 cups of the salad, 3 rib bones, and a quarter of (being honest here) what was a pretty good-sized sweet potato. Much better than the old days, when I would have eaten the whole salad, at least 6 bones of ribs, and probably half (or more) of the sweet potato. I think it helps to know that I won’t need to give up foods I love once I reach my goal weight, just as long as I don’t eat myself stupid.

As for the birthday cake and ice cream, I ate about a one inch square piece of cake with about half a scoop of ice cream. Bad, I know, but the damage could have been much worse had I let it!

Since my weigh in on Wednesday, I’ve been extra-diligent about exercise and not straying into forbidden foods territory. Hopefully, I’ll have some good progress to report next week!



The Dieter’s Psalm

Strict is my diet. I must not want.
It maketh me to lie down at night hungry.
It leadeth me past the confectioners.
It trieth my willpower.
It leadeth me in the paths of alteration
      for my figure's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the aisles
      of the pastry department, I will
      buy no sweetrolls for they are
      fattening.
The cakes and the pies, they tempt me.
Before me is a table set with green beans
      and lettuce.
I filleth my stomach with liquids,
My day's quota runneth over.
      Surely calorie and weight charts will
follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the fear of scales forever.

Week Fifteen: A Visit with Mssrs. Merriam and Webster

intestinal fortitude noun: courage, stamina

focus verb: to concentrate attention or effort

These days it seems I’m having a really hard time drumming up enough of the former to be able to do the latter. I came off the weight loss blocks at a dead run, eating nothing I wasn’t supposed to, exercising at least five times a week, and dropping pounds like a dog sheds hair in the spring.

Now, almost four months later, I find my willpower quotient is hibernating deep in the basement somewhere, while my loathing for my elliptical—once my best good friend—has launched straight through the roof. Am I just being lazy, or have I maybe burned myself out? Perhaps I started out at sprinter speed, when I really should have been pacing myself for a marathon. The big question is: How do I get back on track so I can finish the race?

It’s not that my progress has ground to a complete halt. In the past four weeks I’ve lost about four pounds and a total of 3 ¼ inches from my bust, waist, hips, and thighs. Better than gaining pounds or inches, right? Way better! I knew before I even started this so-called diet that weight loss is more rapid in the beginning weeks and slows down as you lose. I just didn’t think it would be this sucky when it happened, ya know?

Knowing my plight is not a solitary one, I let my fingers walk me back to Google, where I found a short, concise article that nicely summed up exactly what I’m going through right now. Written by Carol Sorgen for WebMD Weight Loss Clinic, it give tips on how to stay psyched for the long term; it talks about motivation and the “dreaded plateau”; it tells you how to get creative so you can avoid burnout. I bookmarked this one, so I can refer back to it whenever I need a little pick-me-up. Click here to read the article.

If this big ol’ funk ball of a cloud that is hanging over my head right now has a silver lining, it would be that my diet doldrums have given me a possible glimpse at what maintenance may be like once I reach my goal. And that is the really important/scary part of any diet, isn’t it—being able to maintain your new lower weight once you’ve shed all the excess. Because keeping the weight off isn’t a short-term plan, it’s a lifestyle alteration. And like an old pair of jeans that don’t fit, it’ll hang in the back of the closet and never see daylight again.



Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall
Do you have to tell it all?
Where do you get the glaring right
To make my clothes look just too tight?
I think I'm fine but I can see
you won't cooperate with me;
The way you let the shadows play
You'd think my hair was getting gray
What's that, you say? A double chin?
No, that's the way the light comes in;
If you persist in peering so
You'll confiscate my facial glow,
And then if you're not hanging straight
You'll tell me next I'm gaining weight;
I'm really quite upset with you
For giving this distorted view;
I hate you being smug and wise -
O, look what's happened to my thighs!
I warn you now, O mirrored wall,
Since we're not on speaking terms at all,
If I look like this in my new jeans
You'll find yourself in smithereens!

Author Unknown

Week Fourteen: Checking In

I hated to go three weeks without posting, so I’m posting this short update tonight. But there’s not really much to report, unless you want to count a severe case of the dieting doldrums. I haven’t made much progress the last couple weeks…less than a pound.

The cause of this plateau is undetermined. I’m sure there’s some scientific term for it if I Google hard enough. My goal for the next few days is to poke around online and see what I can find on the subject and what others have done to kick start the weight loss again. If any readers have encountered similar issues, I would love to know what you did to get past it!

Anyhow, I know my plight is not an uncommon one. I also know I need to recalculate my daily caloric requirements, since they no doubt have changed after losing 25 pounds.

So, it looks like I have some serious work cut out for me in the coming weeks. But hopefully I’ll have some good news to report the next time I check in!



That's me on the right...