My Struggle for Weight Loses

A popped button sent a sobering message to this aspiring dietician-flight attendant – shape up or burst out of your pant seams.

One morning in June 2008, Jamaima was leaning over to tie her laces when I felt the button on my waistband give away. It was a moment of clarity: My jeans could not hold in my 42-inch girth any longer. I realized I had never been taken seriously as a nutritionist if I could not follow my own advice on how to weight lose.

Jamaima decided that before she addressed the extra pound, she needed to put a healthy lifestyle in place, because I knew, only then would the results last.

Four evenings a week saw her at the park, clocking 5 rounds (6k) of the perimeter in one hour. Every day I tried of walk faster and faster whilst maintaining the 1 hour duration weight lose exercises. Initially my muscles, unused to exercise, cried out in protest, says Jamaima. She persevered. Friends, understanding that this was important, obligingly arranged to meet before or after her sweet session.

A few weeks later, with improved stamina, she joined an aerobic and body sculpting class. 3 days a week of heart-pumping step workouts and stretches hiked her endurance and flexibility. These were alternated with 2 days of light weight resistance exercise to tone muscles.

Progress came in increments. Trousers and blouse sleeves loosened, I lost my double chin and a tyre or two from my middle. Over one and half years she loses weightnearly 12 kg. In 2009 however she was forced to give up the exercise class as job hunting gained priority. But she did not stop working out. She cajoled her dad to invest in a treadmill, on which to date, she religiously sweats it out for 45 minutes, 4 days a week. Initially I was doing a 7.5-KPH trot at 0⁰ incline. Now it’s 1010KPH at 1 per cent grad. I keep varying the speed and adjusting the incline to prevent my body from adapting to the exercise for weight loses.

A pair of adjustable dumbbells with weight plates toting up to 20 lbs completes at home exercise to lose weight. With these I do squats, lunges, step-ups etc. for the lower body and presses, curls and rows to tone my upper body. By January 2010 another 8 extra kilos dropped off her frame. Jamaima’s newly trim physique landed her the post of flight attendant, which made weight maintenance all the more critical. So too, strength training as I am constantly on my feet for 7 to 8 hour stretches, toting heavy trays, manipulating loaded trolleys. All this calls for a lot of squatting, lunging, negotiating narrow gangway. I need to be fighting fit.

Tough love is a phrase that can best describe Jamaima’s refurbished diet. Starting 2008 she allowed herself small meals that contained all my favorites but shunned second helpings. She also gave up colas and snacking between meals.

When these habits became second nature, she trained her sights on cutting down serving sizes and carb intake in the night. So it was rice for lunch and chapatti for dinner. At a do I may pile my plate with veggies, have meat/chicken (without the gravy), pulse and top it with a simple chapatti diet for weight lose. You can not be a saint and keep saying no.

Because these measures were not drastic and did not take me too far from my normal intake, I could maintain them, says Jamaima. Fruit and yogurt served as mid-meal snacks. These were the most difficult sacrifices, but because it has been a slow and steady process, I have kind of psyched my body to adjust to the changes without suffering withdrawal pangs. Sugar, oil and salt were reduced/ eliminated in a similar fashion, being mindful of the twin threats of hypertension and diabetes.

THE RESULT

30 kg weight loses over 30 months. Jamaima has been maintaining her 65-kilo frame for the past 2years.

THE REWARDS

Every time I look in the mirror and see my brand new image or slip into a pair of figure hugging jeans that now sit so well on my body, it gives me a high and that makes me work out harder and willingly sacrifice goodies. It is a self perpetuating cycle weight loses.

To cut calories without feeling starved, try eating soup before meals, weight lose diet. Volunteers in a recent study, published in the scientific journal appetite, reduced their total calorie intake at lunch by an average of 20 per cent when they started with a first course of low calorie vegetable soup.

In that study, 60 people ate lunch in a university laboratory once a week for five weeks. Researchers served a pre-lunch soup on some days and no soup on other days and then allowed the volunteers to eat as much as they desired of a pasta dish. The researchers weighed portions before and after the meals to measure food intake to within one-tenth of a gram, enabling precise calorie counting.

On soup days, volunteers consistently ate less of the main course, so that the meal’s total calories dropped by an average of about 135. On no soup days, the participants compensated by eating more of the pasta dish.

Researchers prepared the same ingredients four ways to see whether chunky or pureed soups cut appetite mote than a clear broth style did. They found that the recipe had no significant effect on total calorie intake. Several previous studies similarly found that eating soup can help people weight losing diets.

The soup strategy is worth trying as long as you avoid heavy, cream-based or cheese laden versions that could easily increase total calories. Choose broth-based vegetable soups with about 150 calories per serving. And since canned and packaged soups tend to be loaded with salt, look for low-sodium varieties or better yet, make your own.