Weight Loss -- I gotta get my focus back!!

Did you see Valerie Bertinelli on the cover of People Magazine and her fabulous bikini-body??? She is 48 and she looks amazing! All because of her 47-pound weight loss. I think she is in the low 120's now. Absolutely amazing.

This got me to thinking, if she can do this at 48, I can lose this much weight being a little (!) younger. I was shooting to lose 40 pounds but you know what, why wouldn't I go for the big loss and strive to look as fab as Valerie Bertinelli? She and Marie Osmond both look so content and at peace. Obviously, they do not turn toward food anymore but deal with things on an entirely different level. As a result, they both are experiencing weight loss success.

How did they both do it? Portion control and good quality food. Valerie said it took her almost a year to lose 40ish pounds and Marie said it was about 4 months (she was also exercising a lot with her role on Dancing with the Stars.

If they can do it, we can do it!!

Water is so important to weight loss!!!

My weight has been trending down (which is a good thing). However, I learned a very valuable thing about weight loss. You can do everything right but if you do not drink 8-12 glasses of water per day, you will not see a reflection of your efforts on the scale.

I don't like to drink a lot of water late in the day otherwise I am up several times a night going to the bathroom. I do my best to drink quite a bit before seven so I can go to the bathroom several times prior to going to bed and don't have to wake up as much.

This one activity (no matter what else I do) impacts my weight loss greater than even working out a lot. It also flushes the junk out of my body so, in effect, I am detoxing all of the time. I read something one time that said you should drink one glass of water before, during and after

Weight Loss and Post-holiday Focus!!!

Okay, it is the 13th of January -- is everyone refocused on their weight loss plan and motivation? For the first time ever, I started losing weight in December. I was down 5 pounds going into the holidays. Of course, I gained 4 pounds over the last 2-3 weeks but I am not nearly as dejected as I usually am as this January I am lower than any of the last several years. This gives me so much hope for this year in weight loss.

Will this be the year I lose 40 pounds for good? It sure feels like it. It usually takes me until February to ramp down on my eating. I have already been focused on losing weight for the last several days. In fact, this is the first week in a month that I will actually stay within my Weight Watcher points for the week.

So let me offer up these tips that I am going to work on this week:

- pat yourself on the back, you are on the right track
- weight loss is immediately in front of you -- five pounds will make a huge difference to your motivation
- there is no time like the present to slow down on all the eating
- just think, in eight weeks, you'll be buying some spring looks instead of dreading the clothes that show off more of your body

You can do this -- you can change your body and your life. Losing just 10 pounds means a smaller clothing size. You can make a difference with your very next meal!!

Weight Loss and the Holidays...

A couple of weeks ago it occured to me how to get through the holidays and actually lose weight. Usually from Thanksgiving on it is a feeding frenzy for me and I gain 5-7 pounds. However, the poor quality eating lasts far into January, February and March.

If I can start acting like I am on a super cautious diet between turkey day and New Year's, I'll be able to actually stave off extra pounds and actually lose weight during a time of year that is the worst for everyone's weight loss efforts. I am not denying myself, I am just not eating like a mad woman as I normally do.

As a result, I have lost about 5 pounds over the last 2 weeks. This is all I need to keep me going. My goal is to lose 4 more by Christmas Day. On that day, I'll eat like crazy and then I'll focus again until New Year's. At this rate, I will have lost 10+ pounds through the holidays rather than gain 5ish which is a net weight loss of 15 pounds.

The other great thing is that I will start the new year off with a focus on weight loss rather than dreading how I look in my size larger clothes!!!

This is the first time I have taken this weight loss approach and I love it!

Weight Loss and a Shocking Occurance

After 43 years -- much of which has been spent trying to lose weight -- I again realize that I have to moderate what I eat. If I want to lose weight, I am going to have to make some concessions. You would think I would have had that in my head a lot earlier than now...this is coupled with the fact that my metabolism is slowly decreasing. It is really all working against me!!

So, with this in mind, I need to make some life changes so that I get and keep my weight under control:
- I will not eat chocolate and sweets every day; I will eat these once a week and eventually slow down my sugar intake more
- I will keep my carbs reduced overall and especially at night (I eat about 3 times the recommended quantity)
- I will follow the 90/10 rule -- eating a good quality diet 90% of the time and splurge 10% of the time (currently I do this backwards -- no wonder I have a weight problem)

Making these simple changes will do a lot toward making me get control of my eating and be at a healthy weight. If I can make a few changes, this will do a lot to help me lose weight for good.

Weight Loss -- A Different Approach

My friend (who is my weight loss partner) has suggested for months that I adopt some of Larry North's (fitness guru) suggested weight loss habits. I have started reading one of his books and many of the things he says make perfect sense. Let me see if I can highlight some of the Larry North weight loss suggestions:

- eat every 3-4 hours
- eat lean protein, starchy carbs and fibrous vegetables at most meals
- eat very little fat (including nuts and other good quality fats)
- eat little or no sugar
- avoid getting yourself so hungry that you make bad decisions or eat a lot of food

What he says is very interesting and avoids that starvation and deprivation feeling. You are eating so much good food constantly that you never put yourself in a position to make bad choices. He also talks a lot about when your muscle gets all of the food it needs, the only other place for the excess calories to go is your fat cells -- even if it is good quality food. This has really made me think about what happens when I overindulge.

The other important point that I found about controlling your weight is that if you are constantly satisified, you will find that you are not craving sugar (which gets us into trouble)!

Another note: when I put all the food I eat from the Larry North plan into my points for Weight Watchers, it is fewer points than I need in a day yet I am eating constantly.

Chocolate and Weight Loss

I am getting out of control! I am at my holiday weight where I jump up 5 pounds automatically. Clearly, this is not a way to weight loss.

Chocolate has been the recent problem impacting my weight loss efforts (technically, my weight gain efforts). I know this is crazy. Maybe I need to simply not have chocolate in the house as I just eat it all.

Yesterday I went to Costco and they were sampling this delicious fudge. They were only carrying it through the weekend. It was fabulous. I bought a box for me and one for a gift. Do you know that I ate a whole one pound box yesterday??? I don't even feel bad. It was fresh and delicious. That's bad!!!!

So, that is how I have discovered after years of weight loss trouble that I simply can't have chocolate in the house if I want to lose weight. My friend has this same problem with wine. If she has it with dinner, she doesn't drink too much wine but instead finds that it causes her to not have control over what she eats. As a result, she eats too many calories.

What one thing could you cut out that causes you to over eat? Is there one thing that causes you to lose control and get away from your weight loss efforts? How willing would you be to step away from it for one month?