So no one wants to be my diet buddy…..hummmm.
I mean, I am serious about this diet. I’m not even putting my name in the hat Tuesday for the free dinner for two with wine that WomanSage is giving away.
Well, actually La Vie en Rose restaurant in Brea is giving it away as a Valentine’s Day special. Or I suppose you could change the evening to suit you.
Everyone who comes to the Tuesday Jan. 8 meeting of WomanSage (see womansage.org) is automatically entered. Except me.
I’m on a diet and a week ago I asked for a buddy and got no one.
OK. I’ve done this alone before. Granted not with long term success.
I was hoping someone would join me in support by phone or e-mail (to this web site) because I think that’s the best way to make sure you stick to a plan. At least in the beginning.
What I hope to do is reduce my calories and increase my exercise.
Now, I know that’s basic. It’s usually basic. A diet plan, that is.
I’ve been trying to do that all week. But so far, the scale seems basically stuck.
My hope is to lose a big 20 or 30 pounds, actually. At least 10 would be helpful.
I know that diet and exercise is a daily grind and I know hoping to lose that much weight will take me several months.
Plus I find out Monday if I need to have surgery on a shoulder that seems frozen with arthritis. It’s the darn arthritis that sets me back on my exercise schedule. There is no point in trying to lift weights or do those types of exercise, the doctor told me, until I figure out what’s really wrong and whether I need surgery.
So if I need surgery that means physical therapy. We know that’s a given. And PT doesn’t necessarily include exercise.
So since none of you are in the mood to buddy with me on this journey, I’ll just have to make it on my own.
Of course, if you change your mind, you can always e-mail me at jghaas@aol.com. Or I’ll just go it alone. Sigh.
WILL YOU BE MY WEIGHT-LOSS BUDDY?
By JANE GLENN HAAS
This sounds like a no-brainer but it’s a topic that gets written about every new year. So why should we be different?
I’m talking about losing weight. Latest article on the perennial subject is in AARP’s magazine issue for January and Febuary.
Is this because the older you get, the chunkier you seem?
“I’m not sure that obesity is tied to aging,” says Gabrielle Redford, editorial projects manager for the magazine. “What it is, probably, is we don’t move like we used to and there is food all over the place, including fast food.
“We eat mindlessly. We need to trick ourselves into eating mindfully.”
Q. How do you trick yourself about food?
A. Use a 9-inch salad plate instead of a 12-inch dinner plate. You will automatically eat less.
Use tall, thin glasses instead of short, wide ones. You will pour almost 30 percent less liquid.
Keep the mains serving dish on the counter or stove. You are less likely to eat seconds. Studies show a decrease of 19 percent less food consumed when this trick is used.
A couple more – store all your snacks in small, single-size bags so you’re not reaching into that big sack of chips, for example. You’ll eat 20 percent less.
Q. You say there are “danger zones”?
A. Yes. Meal stuffing – overeating at meal time; desktop and dashboard “speed eaters”; restaurant indulgers who eat out often and are used to enormous portions; snack grazers who reach for food just because it is there and then eat more than they should.
Q. So how do you change your foodie lifestyle?
A. You have to make your own changes based on what works for you. Write your food intake down on paper as well as your “danger zones.” See how many changes you adhere to.
A lot of diets fail because they ask you to give up too much. Do three small things at a time and slowly change your eating habits.
The article quotes James O. Hill, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He says the trick is to make subtle changes in our environment – changes that cut out 100 to 200 calories a day – so we gradually alter our eating habits and lose weight. After all, the best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on, he sats.
Here are his simple tips:
* Include a fruit and a vegetable with your lunch and dinner.
* Don’t eat white foods at dinner (i.e. baked potato)
* Use the half-plate rule – fill half your plate with veggies.
* Have a sweet or salty afternoon snack only if you eat a piece of fresh fruit.
* Drink one glass of water before every meal or snack.
* Use the Restaurant Rule of Two: Limit yourself to two items other than your entrée.
* Never eat in front of the TV.
* Eat a piece of fruit on the way to work every day.
* Save desserts for weekends.
* Freeze half of what you make and serve the other half.
And if you live alone, find yourself a diet buddy.
Q. A diet buddy? Like someone to call or e-mail every day and admit if you broke down and ate that chocolate grand marnier soufflé (which I did at Christmas dinner.)
A. Everybody needs a buddy.
Okay. I’m good for that.
Big question – who wants to be my buddy?
And maybe we can all buddy-up on this.
I have a new web site, janeglennhaas.com. Check it out and post your regular diet info.
Here’s to a skinnier new you in the new year!
Email Jane at jghaas@cox.net
This sounds like a no-brainer but it’s a topic that gets written about every new year. So why should we be different?
I’m talking about losing weight. Latest article on the perennial subject is in AARP’s magazine issue for January and Febuary.
Is this because the older you get, the chunkier you seem?
“I’m not sure that obesity is tied to aging,” says Gabrielle Redford, editorial projects manager for the magazine. “What it is, probably, is we don’t move like we used to and there is food all over the place, including fast food.
“We eat mindlessly. We need to trick ourselves into eating mindfully.”
Q. How do you trick yourself about food?
A. Use a 9-inch salad plate instead of a 12-inch dinner plate. You will automatically eat less.
Use tall, thin glasses instead of short, wide ones. You will pour almost 30 percent less liquid.
Keep the mains serving dish on the counter or stove. You are less likely to eat seconds. Studies show a decrease of 19 percent less food consumed when this trick is used.
A couple more – store all your snacks in small, single-size bags so you’re not reaching into that big sack of chips, for example. You’ll eat 20 percent less.
Q. You say there are “danger zones”?
A. Yes. Meal stuffing – overeating at meal time; desktop and dashboard “speed eaters”; restaurant indulgers who eat out often and are used to enormous portions; snack grazers who reach for food just because it is there and then eat more than they should.
Q. So how do you change your foodie lifestyle?
A. You have to make your own changes based on what works for you. Write your food intake down on paper as well as your “danger zones.” See how many changes you adhere to.
A lot of diets fail because they ask you to give up too much. Do three small things at a time and slowly change your eating habits.
The article quotes James O. Hill, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He says the trick is to make subtle changes in our environment – changes that cut out 100 to 200 calories a day – so we gradually alter our eating habits and lose weight. After all, the best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on, he sats.
Here are his simple tips:
* Include a fruit and a vegetable with your lunch and dinner.
* Don’t eat white foods at dinner (i.e. baked potato)
* Use the half-plate rule – fill half your plate with veggies.
* Have a sweet or salty afternoon snack only if you eat a piece of fresh fruit.
* Drink one glass of water before every meal or snack.
* Use the Restaurant Rule of Two: Limit yourself to two items other than your entrée.
* Never eat in front of the TV.
* Eat a piece of fruit on the way to work every day.
* Save desserts for weekends.
* Freeze half of what you make and serve the other half.
And if you live alone, find yourself a diet buddy.
Q. A diet buddy? Like someone to call or e-mail every day and admit if you broke down and ate that chocolate grand marnier soufflé (which I did at Christmas dinner.)
A. Everybody needs a buddy.
Okay. I’m good for that.
Big question – who wants to be my buddy?
And maybe we can all buddy-up on this.
I have a new web site, janeglennhaas.com. Check it out and post your regular diet info.
Here’s to a skinnier new you in the new year!
Email Jane at jghaas@cox.net
Let Me Hear From YOU
Dear Reader,
If you're at midlife, you should be feeling fulfilled. Or at least on the edge of being fulfilled.
You tell the world COUNT ME IN! but the response is not always positive.
There are the positives – your family, your health, your wealth.
And the negatives – your family, your health, your wealth.
There is no end to the opportunities ahead. Kids are grown and gone. They don't need you anymore and maybe you don't need your husband? Divorces are said to increase at this age.
You start to feel the tugs of aging: a little arthritis maybe; a little breast cancer at worst.
Join in the conversation here. Ask your questions. Give your opinions. We will do our best to comment on it all.
There is an important lesson --
You are in control of your own life now. Or you should be.
Your Second Adulthood has arrived.
E-mail me here and let’s talk!
Jane
If you're at midlife, you should be feeling fulfilled. Or at least on the edge of being fulfilled.
You tell the world COUNT ME IN! but the response is not always positive.
There are the positives – your family, your health, your wealth.
And the negatives – your family, your health, your wealth.
There is no end to the opportunities ahead. Kids are grown and gone. They don't need you anymore and maybe you don't need your husband? Divorces are said to increase at this age.
You start to feel the tugs of aging: a little arthritis maybe; a little breast cancer at worst.
Join in the conversation here. Ask your questions. Give your opinions. We will do our best to comment on it all.
There is an important lesson --
You are in control of your own life now. Or you should be.
Your Second Adulthood has arrived.
E-mail me here and let’s talk!
Jane
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