DIET MYTHOLOGY

Myth Buster #7

Myth: You can spot-reduce to lose weight.

Fact: On the contrary, the way to achieve sleeker legs or a flatter stomach, if that's where you're carrying your body fat, is to increase your lean muscle tissue throughout your body. By working all your muscles, you increase your metabolism. Up your metabolism and watch your eating, and you'll start looking the way you want to.

This was one of the "Fitness Myths" on a website I clicked on today. Though the idea was to "bust" the myth - I think they have just proven that anyone can get their body to "look the way you want to" is the biggest lie yet. No matter how hard I ever worked, my body never   looked the way I wanted it to because I wanted to have slim thighs and a small butt!

In my day bootylicious was not the ideal - I had a body like Beyonce and was considered fat.  No one asked me to dance in the clubs, they asked my skinny friends with hips like little boys. 

 No amount of diet and exercise was going to make me look like Farrah! 

The reality is that ideal body types come and go, just like fashion. To some degree JLo, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian have made the girls who are have womanly curves acceptable to society in a way we weren't for many years.

They are proof that women don't have to look like boys with boobs to be attractive and that is great - except for the girls who look like boys with boobs who now wish they had "junk in their trunks" and are padding themselves up or going in for dangerous cosmetic procedures to make their bodies look  "the way they want to look."

We come in all sizes and shapes and no amount of diet and exercise is going to make us look the same - or look like something we are not genetically made to be. 

So - Diet Myth # 7 isn't about looking like we want to look - it is about looking the best we can  - whether it is in style or not.

BUILDING A ROUTINE

I finally updated my statistics to show my yo-yo activity of the past few months.  I hated putting a gain for December because I had started off so strong and had been losing until the end of the month when it all reversed! 

Working 5 days a week is really helping me stay on track.  I have breakfast and a good sized lunch and then pack my dinner to take with me to work at 3.  This keeps me out of the kitchen during the hours I am most likely to snack and otherwise run my calories up.  I have gotten past feeling hungry when I get home after 11 by breaking my dinner into 2 parts and having the second part around 8 pm.  Then when I get home a cup of tea is enough to help me relax before bed. 

Lately I have been relying on the "protein pretzels" from Lifestyle for part of my dinner.  I can dip them into hummus or eat them with some string cheese or Laughing Cow soft cheese.  I have a couple of carrots and celery sticks and a little tomato and I am full.  My second dinner break favorite has been 1/2 cup each of strawberries and vanilla Greek yogurt -   kind of like a dessert.

I have been managing my calories at 1200-1350, and I am back to losing 2 pounds a week.  Next step is to up the exercise intensity and hope my knees continue to feel strong.

Plus, 2 more days and I get a manicure!

CHECK THE TOES

Next carrot is a manicure - I hardly ever go in for those so it would be a real treat.  I am saving my pennies and calories for that.  One week on plan plus 5 gym visits and my cuticles will be as happy as my toes.

CARROTS

Even with good news on the job front, I am not out of the grip of all the stress.  I am still having a good day or two and then lapsing back into "carb loading" which is just another way of saying stress eating.  So now I am hanging out the carrots - you know, the carrots in front of the nose of the donkey to make the stubborn ole thing get a move on?  Those carrots.

I have been wanting to get a pedicure for a couple of weeks.  I have put aside the mere $20.00 I need to do it.  I  have made a deal with myself that I will go as soon as I manage 3 days in a row on plan including 2 days of exercise.

The stress is not going away.  At least not any time soon.  I have to find ways to manage it without overeating/eating the wrong foods. I am hoping that these carrot driven deals will help.  (Otherwise my toenails are going to poke hole through all my socks!*)

I have a really big carrot in mind when I go a month straight - I am going to use a housecleaning service!


*And yes, I know I can trim my own toenails...

A NEW START

What is it about being given a new chance, a change, that gets us all revved up and making resolutions?  I have not been posting because I have been  living in such a misery of financial issues and  the stress of job hunting, interviewing, waiting, worrying.  Letting myself down by overeating and not exercising even though I know it is counterproductive.

I finally got a job offer - or at least a "two week trial" for a full time position.  The uncertainty of it and our financial need made it clear I would keep the weekend job - so I would be commuting to the one position 5 days a week, keeping me away from home from 7 am until 5:45 pm.  and then working 3-11 on Saturday and Sunday. 

This weekend I had committed to work from noon until 11 to help a coworker.  I was a bit sorry when I saw that the weather was supposed to be (and was) beautiful and warm - but when I added that to having worked at the new job and going back out on Monday morning at 7 am I was worried about being at my best.

But when I came to work at the hotel I was offered a full time job - someone had given notice!  While there are some pluses to the other job - the commute is such a huge negative (and the fact that it shuts me out from working with my sister in the staging business for extra income,) really makes it no contest.  So I am going to be able to finally have a full time job with benefits with time to do other things, like go to the gym and see people and have flexibility.

So I am looking out at the lovely day  and thinking of all the things I will be able to do in the days to come - promising that I will actually do them and not get caught up in misery and depression and let time go by - not let time be wasted.