Many of tend to put on weight during the summer, when the living is easy. While added weight is sometimes a plus for women with very small frames, for most of us it’s a burden, encouraging a sedentary lifestyle that’s simply not good for bone health. From easy ways to fit exercise into your hectic schedule to tasty, healthy treats, we’ll help you get back in shape.
1) Approach weight loss gradually. Quite a few years ago, I climbed Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, the Northeast’s highest peak. By Western standards, it’s not a towering mountain; rising just 6,288’ above sea level, it doesn’t approach, say, California’s Mt. Whitney, which is more than twice as high, checking in at 14,494’. But Mt. Whitney has 97 switchbacks; Mt. Washington goes straight up. Climbing Mt. Washington is daunting.
As we began our trek, one of my climbing companions offered me some advice: “Don’t look up at the top of the mountain; look at the next bend in the path.” And she was right. Had I continually kept my eye on the faraway summit of the mountain, I would have given up. But trying to reach a point 100 yards away – ah, that’s do-able.
It’s the same with weight loss. You want to lose 20 pounds? Great! But don’t think of it in those terms. Say to yourself, “I want to lose 1 pound this week.” Do everything you can to shed that 1 pound. Then do it again the next week. Twenty weeks later – success! Weight shed slowly is much more likely to stay off.
2) Keep a food diary. Write down everything you eat and drink. This is the guilt factor at work. If you’re going to have to get out your pen and note in your food diary that you just ate a handful of M & Ms, or drank not one but TWO margaritas (at about 250 calories apiece), you’re much more likely to pause and reconsider. It’s called mindful eating; practice it.
3) Eat a frozen dinner for lunch. This is one of my favorite strategies. I often find myself too busy to stop for lunch; too busy to make lunch in the morning, and too cheap to go out or order takeout.
Fast, easy, tasty, and the calories, carbs, fat, etc. are all printed on the side of the box.
The solution? Frozen dinners. Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and Weight Watchers Smart Ones are all relatively inexpensive, healthy, low-calorie choices. I check supermarket flyers on the weekend, and see which store has one of these brands on sale that week; my goal is to pay $2 or less per dinner/lunch, and I regularly achieve that goal.
Each day, I bring a frozen dinner to work and stick it in the fridge in the break room. It’s fast and easy to heat it in the microwave come lunchtime. Plus – aside from one fork, and rinsing the plastic dish it comes in for recycling – no cleanup!
4) Walk, walk, walk… If you can’t handle formal exercise – it doesn’t fit into your schedule, costs too much, or simply doesn’t float your boat – then walk. Put the dog on his leash and head out. Doing errands? Park in one spot, and walk from post office to bank to the dry cleaner’s, rather than driving. Take a walk around the block after supper. Walk to your car (which you’ve deliberately parked at the far end of the parking lot)… Bottom line, get up and move – however and wherever you can.
