Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I had figured out the reasons in my head why I kept gaining and losing the same 10 pounds for two years, but I still ran into trouble once I was able to get that under control. The second element of the Hidden Plateau was just as difficult for me to find, even though it was right under my nose:

I was lying to myself.

We are at our worst when we lie to ourselves, because we can’t even see it when it happens. I can tell if a diet pill advertising lies to me, but when I lie to myself, there is no one there to point the finger and yell, “Baloney!” Here are a couple of ways that I lied to myself.

Portion Control:

I had stopped measuring. Cereal in the morning was the worst. I had been following the program for over two years, so I thought I knew what 3/4 cup of cereal looked like in my bowl, but when I actually got real with myself and pulled out those measuring cups again, I was shocked at how much I had actually been eating. Sometimes it was twice the serving size, which had doubled my caloric intake. No wonder I was having trouble losing weight.

Risky Restaurants:

I would purposely go to restaurants that didn’t have published nutrition facts so I could estimate the calories for the meals. These estimates turned out to be hilariously less than they should have been. Even I could see through this lie, but it didn’t stop me from continuing the bad habit. For the longest time, my favorite restaurant only had minimal nutrition facts posted on their website. It wasn’t until I downloaded the full list that I found out the the bowl of pasta that I estimated at 350 calories was actually 550 calories. That sort of difference was what was stalling my weight loss.

Shoddy Exercise:

When I started exercising, I wasn’t able to do much without overloading myself. I had gotten into a routine of running the same course on the treadmill (or around the neighborhood) every day. I would “forget” to wear my heart rate monitor, telling myself that I could tell how hard I was working. It wasn’t until I started using my heart rate monitor religiously that I realized that I had been slacking. Exercise that used to be in the high intensity range was really in the moderate or light range now, but I had been counting it as high. Now, I wear my HRM every time I exercise, no matter what. If I’m going to spend time working out, I want it to actually do me some good.

Re-evaluate yourself. Have you been lying to yourself at all? If you are, that might be the reason behind your weight loss plateau. Truly looking at myself with eyes wide open helped me far more than the pat and easy answers that were handed to me by gurus.

It wasn’t so hidden to the rest of the world. I had lost weight. I lost about fifty pounds and then everything stopped… for two freakin’ years. I couldn’t lose more than 10 pounds without having a binge relapse and gaining back the 10 I had just lost. I bounced from 180 to 170 so many times in those two years that I began to think that I couldn’t get lower than 170 pounds. To say I was frustrated was an understatement. The truth of the matter was, I was at my wits end.

The articles and weblog entries that I read in magazines and online were bloody useless. USELESS! They talked about mixing up my calorie intake and starting weight training. I was honest with myself and I knew that the problem wasn’t my body’s fault. I knew that it wasn’t an issue with my body trying to maintain some sort of equilibrium. When I followed the program, I lost weight. It was as simple as that.

The problem was that I couldn’t folow the program for more than a month or two.

That hadn’t been the case when I started. For the first five months after I joined Weight Watchers, I followed the program to the letter. I didn’t feel a sense of deprivation. In fact, I was surprised at how much I could eat and still stay within the bounds of the program. No, it wasn’t Weight Watchers fault that I was bingeing, but I felt helpless against it. I was on a hidden plateau because the reason for it was hidden to me.

Here’s a glimpse into what might help you past something like this if you run into this problem.

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A weight loss plateau can be really discouraging, especially when you are doing everything “right”. The Diet Blog has some ideas to help you get beyond this problem.

• 5 Ways to Break a Weight Loss Plateau

This article lists five ways to get beyond the plateau:

• Zig-Zag Calorie Intake
• Strength Training
• Change Your Exercise Routine
• Alter Macro-nutrient Intake
• Change Meal Frequency

What this article doesn’t talk about is the hidden plateau. You aren’t losing weight and you know exactly why you aren’t. You can’t follow the program that was working before and you don’t know why.

Check Starling Fitness later today to see what you can do to get beyong that hidden plateau.

I am still tweaking my workout, trying to get the best fit for me and my equipment, but I have a basic workout that I have been doing for the last couple of weeks. Here is the workout that I am doing at home to replace the 24 Hour Express Zone Workout that I used to do at the gym:

Abdominals: Stability Ball Crunch

Full Legs: Squats (For safety, I do them with dumbbells instead of barbells.)

Calves: Standing Calf Raises

Quads: Leg Extensions

Hamstrings: Leg Curls

Chest: Barbell Bench Press (Do not do this exercise without a spotter.)

Shoulders: Seated Dumbbell Press

Biceps: Preacher Curl with Dumbbells

Upper Back: Lat Pulldown

Triceps: Pushdowns

I follow this entire routine, quickly going from one exercise to the other with no rest inbetween. I do 15 repetitions of each exercise with enough weight that I can barely do that last two lifts. I go through this circuit twice. It takes me about 30 minutes to complete the workout.

All animated exercises provided by:

Animated Exercise Examples – TheTrainingStationInc.com©- Exercises

I have found this website to be very helpful in finding exercises that I can do with free weights and my weight bench at home.

• Animated Exercise Examples – TheTrainingStationInc.com©- Exercises

I love how the exercises are organized by muscle groups and that they are animated to show good form. They are very simplistic, but they have enough information that I can understand how to perform the exercise.

I also like that they show several different ways to do the same exercise. For example, they have an animation for Leg Extension with a universal machine, a typical machine and with free weights on a bench.

They are all essentially the same workout, but they took the time to animate all three variations so you can understand how to do it on the equipment you have access to.

Give Training Station Inc. a look and create a workout for yourself.

I am still in my honeymoon phase since I got the weight bench and weights to do my workouts at home. I enjoy that I can just go downstairs and do the workout alone. I am doing the same workout as I did at 24 Hour Fitness and it takes me the same amount of time, except I don’t have to get in the car and drive to the gym.

The first few times I did the workout at home, I really over-did it. I used the same amount of weight that I did when I was at the gym, but those machines aren’t as efficient as free weights, so I ended up in severe pain after that workout. I had to lower my weight amounts by at least 15 pounds apiece in order to get a good workout without injuring myself.

I remember when I took weight training in high school. My friend was doing the exercises that her doctor had told her to do for her knees and the Muscle Brains would try to “help” us.

“You know, those machines might be safe, but they’re not as good as free weights. If you really want a good workout, you should be doing squats.”

I remember dismissing their advice because Karen was doing what her doctor told her to do and we were really just biding our time until we could slough this class and go to the Photography Lab. I realize they were just trying to be helpful, but at that time, I just wanted to be as far away from the weight training room as I could be.

Now, that advice is here, reminding me that I can get a good workout with just a bench and some free weights at home.

The Veteran’s Administration is tackling obesity by offering a program called M.O.V.E! Here is a link to the handouts that they will provide the veterans on the program.

• Managing Overweight\Obesity for Veterans Everywhere!

It’s a down-to-earth program of move more, eat less that explains the calories in versus calories out dilemna. Since these handouts are available to everyone online, you can benefit from this program, even if you’re not a veteran.

Via: Happy News – New VA program targets obesity, diabetes – by Associated Press

This entry on Diet Blog about free weight loss programs versus ones that make you pay a weekly fee really got me thinking.

• Diet Blog – Free Versus Expensive Diets

I keep telling you that you can eat healthy and exercise for free, yet I go to Weight Watchers and advocate their meetings. Am I a hypocrite? Am I confused? What am I really trying to tell you?

You CAN do it for free

The truth of the matter is, you CAN lose weight for free. You don’t need expensive dietary supplements, gym memberships or fancy exercise gadgets. All you need is to eat less calories than you burn, and there are a myriad of ways that you can do this within the confines of a healthy diet. You don’t need to pay anyone anything to lose weight.

I wasn’t able to do it for free

I tried for years and years to lose weight before I decided to just love my body the way it was. I had tried every diet and sometimes I lost weight, but mostly I just lost five pounds and then gained back ten after the diet-induced bingeing. When I decided to stop dieting forever and to just love my body the way it was, I gained a few pounds and decided that I was okay with it.

After a few months of accepting myself the way I was, I decided that I wanted to exercise to help keep my heart healthy. That step alone took me from 235 to 190 pounds. Exercise was my first step toward a healthy lifestyle, but after a muscle strain, I started gaining the weight that I had lost back. That’s when I had a realization.

Exercise alone won’t do it. Dieting alone won’t do it. I needed to do both and I REALLY needed help in the eating department because all diets had sent me into binge-mode. When I found out that a close friend and my sister had great success with Weight Watchers, I decided to join. What I learned there changed the way I dealt with food.

Conquering bingeing took more than just learning what is healthy. It has taken a daily focus on keeping myself satisfied both physically and emotionally. It’s such a vast subject that I don’t think I would have ever been able to get past bingeing on my own. That’s why I’m so dedicated to Weight Watchers.

So, should you pay for it?

That’s a question that only you can answer. There are people who have paid their Weight Watcher dues every week without success. There are others, like me, who have completely changed their lives. It all depends on you. Are you ready to do it on your own? Do you need extra support? Give yourself an hour or two and a stack of paper and write it out. That has always been the most helpful way for me to look at things.

Cheryl Koch has a quick list to help you stay within your calorie range to lose weight.

• Yahoo! Health Expert Blogs Eat Right, Stay Fit – Calorie Control for the New You

It really helps to have a refresher like this on the little things that we can do to get and stay healthy with our eating. Here are her suggestions:

• Control your portions

• Use common, everyday reference points to help you recognize a healthy portion size

• Write down everything you eat

• Increase the “hidden” exercise in your daily routines

• Fill up on healthy selections

• Don’t eat right from the package

• Pay attention to labels

All of these ideas have helped me over the years to keep my eating in control. Try adding one of these habits a week to your lifestyle and you will notice results.

Weight Loss That Lasts was published last year and I saw it on the shelves in bookstores, at Amazon and at Weight Watchers. I picked it up because I always like a little extra boost of inspiration. How did this book do? Did it inspire me to live healthier?

What’s Good About This Book:

This book talks about ten myths that hold people back:

• You can’t lose weight and keep it off.
• A few extra pounds don’t matter.
• Willpower is the key to successful weight loss.
• You can lose weight with exercise alone.
• Calories don’t matter – avoid fats or carbs to lose weight successfully.
• You can’t lose weight if you have the wrong metabolism or genes.
• You can boost your metabolism by what, how, and when you eat.
• It doesn’t matter how you take the weight off; you can think about keeping it off later.
• There is only one right approach to losing weight.
• Your weight is your problem and you need to solve it on your own.

Some of these “myths” are a bit of stretch, but I would seriously recommend this book to the fat acceptance people who insist that “Diets Don’t Work” and say that there is no way for them to get thinner than they are. This book has the scientific backup with over 14 pages of sources to the medical studies cited in the book. Unlike some books that spout ideas without proof, this book gives you the actual studies to which it is referring when it states a fact.

What’s Not So Good About This Book:

I think this book overdoes it on the scare tactics. The author is very careful to only state that obesity correlates with disease instead of causing it, but after that, goes on a long tirade about the devastating effects of each disease. It made the book feel a little like a propaganda piece to me. Dr. Rippe is very careful to tell the truth, but then keeps beating you over the head with it until you just want to say, “Okay, shut up about the diseases already!”

Should I Buy This Book?

If you have ever thought that you can’t lose weight because you come from a fat family, you should buy this book. If you have every blamed your inability to follow through on a diet with lack of willpower, you should buy this book. Sure, you’re going to get hit over the head with scare tactics about disease, but that might inspiration enough to get yourself to a healthy weight.