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Your Perfect Weight: Your Perfect Weight Week 6-10

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Your Perfect Weight Week 6-10

Week 6: Order up water

Exercise goal: Walk five days, two miles per day

It's so simple, and yet so effective in helping you control your appetite.

We're talking about drinking water. "Drinking generous amounts of water is overwhelmingly the number-one way to reduce appetite," says George Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Nutrition/Metabolism Laboratory at the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Reason: A lot of water takes up a lot of room in the stomach. The stomach feels full, and you feel less like eating.

Drinking water is also a good way to head off an urge to overeat. According to Dr. Blackburn, sometimes you misinterpret your body's need for water as a food craving.You grab that chicken leg or that slice of cold pizza, and not until it's down the hatch do you realize: "Hey, that's not what I wanted at all!" More often than you think, your "hunger pangs" are really your body's request for water. So the next time you get an urge to eat and it's not your normal mealtime, try a cup of water instead. You may find that your craving has subsided.

By the way, your body's constant need for liquid replenishment is understandable once you know how all that water is being used.

"Each day we take in about 31/2 cups of water from the foods we eat--vegetables and fruit, for example, are about 90 percent water. The body also makes about 1/2 cup of water as a by-product of metabolism," explains registered dietitian Judy E. Marshel, director of Health Resources of Great Neck, New York. "However, each day we also lose 10 to 12 cups of water through climate, body processes, including perspiration and urination, and other factors."

Don't Forget to Wet Your Whistle

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that there's a critical gap here of about eight cups of water, which is why you're always being told to drink that much water every day--more if you're very active. By drinking a full eight glasses every day you not only keep your body healthy but you also feel more satisfied all day long. Another plus for dieters: Drinking water helps keep your skin smooth and supple as you drop excess weight.

How do you make sure you cover the waterfront?

Sip it slow. Don't gulp down an entire glass at a time as if it were medicine, or you'll never continue, advises Dr. Blackburn. Instead, sip three to four ounces at a time, throughout the day.

Get off to a wet start. "Make sure to drink at least some water just before each meal," urges Marshel. "It's a good way to take the edge off your hunger and keep you from overindulging."

Spike it! To give ordinary tap water some zing, add a couple of ice cubes and a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime.

Don't count caffeine. When you're figuring out how much water you're taking in, resist the temptation to include such caffeinated beverages as coffee, tea or colas in your daily total. "They have a diuretic effect," says Marshel. "Because they make you urinate more frequently, they're actually contributing to your body's water loss."

Turn on the tap. If you think you're staying healthy by sticking to bottled water, remember that not all bottled water is alike, or even that beneficial. "Mineral water, for example, comes from a natural spring, which is good. It means that the mineral content remains constant," says Marshel. "But seltzer water is just filtered tap water with some added carbonation, and club soda is filtered tap water with added carbonation, salt and minerals. So if you're spending a dollar or more for a bottle of club soda, what's the sense? It may be no more pure than your own tap water."

If your tap water isn't that good--say, you have an old house with old pipes putting contaminants like lead into the water--try spring water, well water or mineral water.

Make sure you're recording how much water you drink, today and every day, in addition to the meals and snacks you're consuming.

Has any stress been creeping into your life lately? If so, be sure to review some of the de-stressing activities described in Week 4.

And how's the walking going? Meyers, our walking pro, reminds you to make sure you keep a comfortable, sustainable pace. Never overdo it.

Date:

Weight:

Week 7: Watch your serving sizes!

Exercise goal: Walk five days, two miles per day

Most eating plans ask you to weigh or measure your food, which is about as much fun as balancing a checkbook. That's what's so nice about Your Perfect Weight 52-Week Plan. You don't have to worry about measuring cups and food scales as long as you pay attention to the fat content of the foods you eat, and as long as you have a reasonable sense of what constitutes normal portions. This week you're going to start paying special attention to the portions you eat.

What is a normal portion? If you have a dieting history that ranges from skipping entire meals to eating entire boxes of Chips Ahoy! cookies, then you may not be able to judge serving sizes like folks without a weight problem can. They can eyeball a piece of flounder or a baked potato and know if they're looking at a serving for one or for a small family. If it's too much food, they don't eat it all. A simple concept, yes, but highly effective where it comes to weight control.

Generally, when you cut fat from your diet, you can eat more food. But it is possible to negate your diet efforts if you go haywire on the amounts of low-fat food you consume. If you're accustomed to eating pretzels by the bagful, frozen yogurt by the pint and pasta by the platter, the lists below will help you learn to eat reasonable-sized portions of all your favorites.

And don't forget that you can use the foods we measured here to help you figure out portions of similar foods. For example, the serving size for raisins can be applied to all dried fruits; orange juice is like all fruit juices; and an apple is equal to a pear, tangerine or any other similar-size fruit.

Legumes/Grains/Starch Vegetables

One serving equals:

* A slice of bread

* Two nonfat cookies

* Two rice cakes

* A small pita bread

* A fist-size baked potato

Two servings equal:

* A generous side dish of rice or couscous

* A generous cereal bowl of bran flakes (filled to the brim)

* A cereal bowl of oatmeal

* A whole bagel

* An English muffin

* A generous handful of pretzels

Three servings equal:

* A cereal bowl of low-fat granola (filled to the brim)

* A bowl of bean-based vegetarian chili

Four servings equal:

* A full plate of pasta

* One bag low-fat microwave popcorn

Fruits/Vegetables

One serving equals:

* Four carrot sticks

* A fist-size apple

* A small glass of vegetable juice

* A small glass of orange juice

Two servings equal:

* A side serving of broccoli

* One large banana

* A dessert dish of raspberries

* A generous handful of raisins

Four servings equal:

* An entrée-size salad

Low-fat Dairy/Fish/Poultry/Meat

One serving equals:

* Three egg whites

* A glass of skim milk

* A container of nonfat yogurt

* Two sandwich-size slices of low-fat or nonfat cheese

* A scoop of tuna salad with nonfat mayonnaise

* An extralean ground-meat patty (about 1/2" thick)

* 12 steamed mussels

* Fish fillet about the size of a deck of cards

Two servings equal:

* A dessert dish of nonfat frozen yogurt

* A whole chicken breast (skinless)

Properly portioning your meals at home shouldn't be much of a problem, but eating out, where portions are often bigger than the average woman (and sometimes the average man) usually eats, gets a bit trickier. Still, just because food is placed in front of you doesn't mean you have to eat it all. You're in charge, remember.

Of course, you're keeping up your walking, and writing everything down, too. Tempted to hop on the scale midweek to see how your weight is doing? Resist the urge! You may see weight fluctuations that don't accurately reflect your eating and exercise program. Wait until your officially designated weigh-in day.

Because you've stuck to your program for a full seven weeks, it's time for a nice, little reward for yourself, just as we suggested during Week 2. It can be as simple as a new tape to listen to on your Walkman during your daily walks, a spiffy workout suit, or a semiextravagant night out with your mate or best friend. Whatever it is, let it serve as a tangible symbol of your success, and enjoy it!

Date:

Weight:

Week 8: Set up a reward system

Exercise goal: Walk five days, two miles per day

Remember how wonderful it felt last week to reward yourself for seven weeks' worth of care and attention to your food and fitness program? Well, that delightful little thank-you to yourself for a job well done needn't be a sporadic thing. In fact, a reward system should be built into Your Perfect Weight 52-Week Plan.

Sure, a slim body that comes from a sane and sensible weight-loss program is its own reward--and an excellent one. But even though you have a great reward awaiting you at the end of Your Perfect Weight 52-Week Plan, 52 weeks is frankly too long to wait to collect! We're human beings who crave instant gratification. And so while we learn to live without the immediate (but short-lived) pleasure of a hot fudge sundae, there ought to be something to take its place.

We need small but regular rewards to continually remind us of our success and to keep us motivated to achieve each minigoal along the way to our maxigoal of reaching our desired weight.

Giving Yourself a Boost

We've already established that weight loss is harder to control than behavior, so a reward system should be based on positive behavioral changes, not pounds lost. Therefore, start by making a list of good food and fitness habits you are adding to your life. In order to make them the basis of your reward system, they must be specific and measurable, such as:

* Keeping up your walking program for the next four weeks

* Avoiding all cakes, cookies and pastries for three weeks

* Drinking eight glasses of water daily for two weeks

* Signing up for a low-impact aerobics class and attending the first
four sessions

* Not putting butter on bread or rolls for a full month

* Keeping Your Perfect Weight Success Diary up-to-date for three weeks

Now the fun part comes with making a list of rewards--small yet meaningful gifts you give yourself with the completion of each minigoal. Depending on your own personal preferences, these rewards might include:

* A bouquet of flowers

* A new CD

* Two uninterrupted hours spent reading a novel

* A manicure

* A day at the beach with your favorite person

* A long-distance phone call to your best friend in Arkansas

* A $25 splurge at the store of your choice

* An afternoon locked in the bedroom watching rented videos

* A 90-minute scented bubble bath

* A concert ticket

Remember you can always add to this list--and should, for variety's sake. Rewarding yourself periodically is a tried-and-true way to keep you going to the weight-loss finish line.

Date:

Weight:

Week 9: Go very, very veggie

Exercise goal: Walk five days, 21/2 miles per day

We've been urging you right along to eat your vegetables, just as your mom might. That's because veggies are healthy, delicious, filling and the basis of a lifelong weight-control program.

Current government nutritional guidelines recommend that you have three to five servings per day, and if you've been hitting that mark, great! But you may be one of those folks who finds it hard to squeeze in all the vegetables you should be getting. Maybe that's because you still think of veggies as little more than boring old steamed broccoli or green salad. These quick, creative tricks will give you some new ideas for how to slip extra produce into your program.

Turn on the juice. Drink low-sodium vegetable juice. It's quick, easy, and a four-ounce glass equals one vegetable serving.

Be a cut-up. Keep a supply of cut-up raw veggies in the fridge, so they're always available for snacking. Go beyond the ho-hum carrot and celery sticks. Experiment with raw broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, green and red peppers, even snow peas or fresh peas.

Brown-bag it. Prepare a little extra salad at dinnertime, and pack up the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Sneak in the veggies. Fortify your omelets, pasta dishes, stews, soups and casseroles with your favorite vegetables. Add shredded carrots or zucchini to low-fat muffin, pancake or quick-bread batter. And use pureed, cooked carrots as a soup thickener.

Play 'em up. Have a vegetarian main dish at least once a week. Try a veggie enchilada, lasagna or stir-fry.

Spruce up your spuds. Make your potato special by dressing it up with a steamed or stir-fried veggie combination. Or make a "pizza-potato"--top it with nonfat cottage cheese or nonfat mozzarella and tomato sauce. (One-half cup of tomato sauce is one vegetable serving.)

Is your family starting to enjoy vegetables more than before? Good! Remember, the earlier you get your kids following healthy eating habits, the more it'll become second nature to them and they'll never have to worry about their weight.

And note that you're now up to an impressive 21/2 miles a day. This will be your new walking goal for the next four weeks.

Date:

Weight:

Week 10: Create an at-home
gym for under $150

Exercise goal: Walk five days, 21/2 miles per day

Finding your extra half-mile-per-day walk challenging? That's the way it ought to be. Always keep in mind that you shouldn't push yourself beyond what's fairly comfortable--huffing, puffing and pain are out.

Once again, the key is to simply exercise as regularly as you can manage. And if you occasionally have a tough time getting your body up and out to walk because of bad weather or just a case of the blahs, we have the perfect solution: Stay in and exercise, with an inexpensive, at-home gym you create yourself.

"A home gym is an excellent idea," says Dr. Mollen. "It's so convenient, and it motivates people who live in environments that are not always conducive to outdoor exercise. And it's one way to prevent yourself from coming up with excuses to not exercise!"

If you're thinking you've got to re-create a flashy health club atmosphere in the corner of your bedroom, think again. You can put together a few simple yet extraordinarily effective items for well under $200.

"The first piece of essential equipment is a jump rope, the kind with ball bearings in the handles," says Dr. Mollen. (Cost: $10 to $20.) "I like jump ropes because, in a five- to eight-minute period, you burn up 100 calories--the equivalent of running almost one mile. It's a good way to warm up and get started with your daily exercise routine."

Dr. Mollen calls the stationary bike his favorite piece of home gym equipment. Sure, you can pay up to $2,000 for a model with pulse monitors and other fancy attachments, but he suggests you check out your local newspaper for a perfectly good used stationary bike instead.

"A lot of people have their bikes sitting as coat hangers, so someone might want to sell it and be happy to get $50 for it," he suggests.

Dr. Mollen particularly likes stationary bikes because people tend to stick with them--the fact that you can pedal while you read, watch TV or chat on the phone is a tremendous plus. And, he adds, four miles on your exercise bike burns a solid 100 calories.

You'll also need some gear to help you do your resistance-training work. During Week 5 you were asked to invest in an exercise band. If you haven't already, they're generally under $5. Free weights can cost you little or nothing. You can use anything from a couple of cans of tomatoes or soup already sitting in your kitchen cabinet, to bricks to inexpensive iron weights. (A pair of five-pound weights from the sporting-goods store should run anywhere from $10 to $25.)

If you still haven't bought a good pair of athletic shoes, do it now! They'll set you back $50 to $75. (These can be a lot more expensive.)

Plus, you'll want an exercise mat, which you can get for under $15. Total cost: $140 or less.

Of course, you don't have to purchase these things all at once. It's just that having several pieces of exercise gear readily available serves as a reminder and a motivator. Once you find yourself really getting into your home gym, you can always add new fitness toys to your collection, such as a step platform, a treadmill, a couple of workout videos or a rowing machine.

Enjoying Your Home Gym

Here are a few additional tips for making your home gym even more
effective.

Pick a proper place. Set up your equipment in an area of the house that can ideally be used exclusively for your exercise--a small spare bedroom, say, or a den. And be sure it's well ventilated. Give yourself plenty of room to move around, and keep breakables or furniture with sharp edges out of the room. Soft-wood floors are best, but if you've got a floor covered with rugs or carpeting, make sure they won't slip and slide while you bend and stretch.

Time out to work out. Your exercise time is yours. Try to schedule your workouts when few or no people are at home, to avoid distractions. Unless you're on your stationary bike, leave your phone off the hook or keep your answering machine on.

Pamper yourself. For an added incentive to use your at-home gym, follow up each workout with 20 to 30 minutes of pampering in your at-home spa (translation: bathroom). Enjoy a scented bath or a long, bracing shower while your favorite music plays in the background. After drying off, slather yourself with body lotion or talc, then have a cool glass of water or iced herbal tea.

While some at-home gym equipment is a jim-dandy idea, it's still meant to be a back-up for your regular walking regimen. By the way, ten weeks into the program, you're probably wondering how you ever let entire weeks go by without a brisk walk!

Date:

Weight:

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