You’ve seen the list of the most stressful situations in life.
Experts add losing weight to that list.
Team Lisa recorded its most dismal weigh-in yet this month — only 2 pounds lost by six of us — an expected letdown after a six-month assessment that left many of us, including me, discouraged and defeated.
As a team, we’re mired in a mental funk.
We’ve lost that honeymoon feeling, the excitement of the first couple of months when motivation ran high and the pounds began melting off.
Nothing unusual in that, our medical adviser, Shadrach Smith, told us at this month’s meeting.
“You’re sitting here frustrated, being normal,” said Smith, medical director of the Hospital Hill Medical Pavilion at Truman Medical Centers and a well-known clinician in bariatric medicine.
He warned that most people set impossible weight-loss goals for themselves.
I think he was talking about me.
My goal was to lose 100 pounds in one calendar year, February to February.
Seven months down the road I’m stuck at 35 pounds lost — losing inches, but not so much pounds right now.
And I’m certain that I won’t be losing 65 more pounds by February, not with the holidays standing in my way.
(And vacation on the East Coast next week. Gimme some Maryland crab cakes!)
Smith has his patients set weight-related and non-weight-related goals, such as decreasing the number of medications they take and getting into smaller clothes.
I could see the lightbulbs go off over my teammates’ heads when he said: “Weight loss is a strategy to get something else that you want.”
When I told him that my non-weight-related goals were to avoid high blood pressure and diabetes, which runs in my family, he quizzed me.
His raised eyebrows said to me: “Then, aren’t you meeting that goal?”
Patients have better luck meeting the goals that don’t have anything to do with pounds, Smith said.
So I’ve challenged my teammates to revisit and revise their original goals for this project.
I’ll keep you posted on how we do.
Meanwhile, a few weeks back I asked Team Lisa followers to suggest ideas for healthy foods to reach for in times of stress.
A kickboxing classmate told me to keep hummus and blue corn chips at my desk.
·Whole-grain cold cereals, without the milk, instead of Cheetos.
Not really crunchy, but kind of sweet and easy to eat.
For a real hunger pang, have them with fat-free cottage cheese, one woman suggested.
They come in plastic tubs at Hen House and other stores around town.
Or try Heavenly Desserts, small meringue cookies in a box.
They come in chocolate, vanilla, lemon, cappuccino and strawberry; one reader found them at Hy-Vee.
But limit yourself to 1/4 cup or less.
Put only that amount on your desk and the rest in a drawer so you’re not tempted to keep eating, another reader cautioned.
Peanuts in the shell are good because you have to work harder to get them out.
·Trail mix, cheese sticks, pickles and whole grain pretzels.
Find a trail mix with some type of yogurt bits to ease the sweet craving; unsalted mix is ideal.
Separate items into smaller snack-sized bags so you can keep track of what you’ve already eaten.
In a dessert dish, mix two tablespoons or more of cocoa (Dutch process is superior, but any will do) with a little hot water, enough to make a sauce.
Spoon over a small scoop of light vanilla ice cream.
For crunch, top with a couple of crushed pretzels.
(Pretzels are great over yogurt, too, especially if you add a tablespoon of fat-free Cool Whip.)
A Roeland Park woman keeps a stash in her desk drawer; the kind with the hard shell gives a satisfyingly crunchy first bite.
If she pops one in her mouth when she gets the urge to raid the machines, she almost always forgets that she wanted a snack.
·Small, 8-ounce cans of vegetables and fruits, the ones with the pop-top lids.
Said one reader: “I like the ones from Aldi’s, $1.69 for 10 Millville Chewy Granola Bars Peanut Butter/ Chocolate Chunk, 110 calories.”
Divide into little baggies of 48 pretzels each.
-Adam
| Eyes on the prize, not your thighs Kansas City Star, MO - Ask yourself why you want to lose weight (Health? Energy?) and focus on that goal. By LISA GUTIERREZ. You’ve seen the list of the … |
