Are you in a stalemate with the scale? You've been walking the straight and narrow -counting calories - working out - and yet you are not dropping pounds. What's up with that? The answer may be hiding in the random things you do over the course of an average day - those little habits that seemingly have no connection to weight loss, but may be sabotaging your best get-fit efforts. Ask yourself these questions and if you answer yes to any or all of them, you may have found an opportunity for a small modification that can help to get you back on track.
Do you always eat "healthy"? According to a report from Yale University, a funny thing happens when you focus on making careful diet decisions. If you just "think" of your meal as a light choice, it can cause your brain to make more of the hormone ghrelin and more ghrelin makes you feel less full and signals your metabolism to slow down. To keep your ghrelin balanced, focus on the more indulgent parts of your meal - like the nuts and cheese on your salad, rather than the lettuce. It also helps to pick foods that are both healthy and seem like a treat, like a warm bowl of soup with crusty whole-grain bread. Here's a good spot to share one of my favorite snacks when you want something sweet. Lightly toast a 100% whole grain english muffin; drizzle with honey; sprinkle cinnamon on top. This treat gives you the taste sensations of some of those decadent cinnamon bun treats, but without all the fats, sugars, and dense calories.
Do you pay with plastic? Carrying cash may feel a little last century, but people who use a credit card when grocery shopping buy significantly more unhealthy, calorie dense food than people who pay cash according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Do you think about exercise a lot? There's a downside to that says a new French study. Simply thinking about exercise can cause you to eat 50 percent more. Why? People assume that the upcoming workout gives them license to snack. Avoid excessive munching with a pre-gym snack of no more than 150 calories. Try two slices of turkey with whole grain crackers.
Are you laser-focused at work? Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that if you sit for just a few hours your body stops making a fat-inhibiting enzyme called lipase. Stand and stretch every hour and you'll boost your metabolism by about 13 percent. Or, fidget all day (tap your feet or bounce in your chair) and increase your calorie burn by 54 percent.
Do you sleep too little? "Not enough shut-eye puts your body into a carb and fat-craving survival mode," says Micael Breus, PhD, author of The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan. A study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that women who slept fewer than four hours ate 300 more calories and 21 more grams of fat the next day. Try this to gauge your sleep needs: For a week, go to bed seven and a half hours before you need to get up. If you awaken before the alarm, you can get by with less sleep. But if you hit snooze, you may need eight, even nine, hours a night to wake up refreshed, recharged, and ready to burn some fat.
For me, one of the consistent messages we can learn from this is that we need to make simple, sustainable changes to eating healthfully and staying active as a habitual way of life. Too much thinking about it can sabotage our efforts.
Email me or visit my website:
gettingfitwithbj@gmail.com
barbarajlaird.zumba.com
