Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Body 2

OK I have a few minutes. Other things I learned at my nutrition class to help with plateaus, (Information obtained from a handout)

1.) Avoid foods that cause you to retain water. The first thing to evaluate is your salt intake. Also foods such as beans & dairy for some can be hard to digest. Avoid foods that give you a bloated feeling.

2.) Drink more water!!!

3.) Drop useless calories. If you are eating refined carbohydrates such as cake, candy, cookies, pretzels or chips or drinking sugary soda pop on a daily basis you are not helping yourself. These foods are packed with calories and very little nutrition.

4.) Don't avoid carbs, just shift them. You don't need to eliminate them from your diet. Aim to eat complex carbs such as whole wheat breads, pastas, potatoes, corn grains and cereals by lunchtime and then sift away from carbs after lunch and focus on eating vegetables and lean meats.

5.) Avoid night time eating. Aim to stop eating 3 hours before bedtime and you will start to see results in a short period of time.


6.) Zig-Zag Calorie Intake. Zig-zagging or calorie cycling is the process of varying daily calorie intake, while maintaining the same weekly intake. Instead of consuming precisely 1800 calories each day, you can mix it up. Eat 1500 calories one day and 2100 calories the next. Just keep your body guessing.

7.) Strength training. If you are not doing this as part of your program or lifestyle, then it's time to start. Working your muscles will help to strengthen bone tissue, increase lean mass, and ultimately boost metabolic rate.

8.) Change your exercise routine. So you walk a lot? Then try jogging or swimming or cycling ~ anything that will change the way your body is working. If you are doing low intensity cardio work, then try some high intensity exercise.

9.) Alter Macro-nutrient Intake. The idea is to change what you are eating. For example, if you are eating a moderate diet that is higher in cards, - then try eating less carbs and more protein. There is no need to get super technical over the whole thing. If you have a carbohydrate snack every day at the morning tea time, change it to a protein snack. Whatever you are doing consistently - try mixing it up a bit.

10.) Change Meal Frequency. If you are eating three square meals a day - start adding snacks in between (which may mean reducing the portion size of the main meals). Eating often is an old and common style of eating - once again, you are trying to boost your metabolic rate.

I hope this helps. I will be applying these things to see if I can get jump started on more weight loss. I know I'm losing inches, my clothes are getting loose again!! YEAH!! The scale is just not moving!  Well it's moving....just at a slow pace. I want to REV IT UP!!

How are you doing?

Stay focused!!!

4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing - this is just what I needed to read lately! Working through my first plateau, definitely need a bit of a change.

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  2. Thanks for sharing this! My scale is moving slowly too, which is what got me so frustrated the last few weeks. I will definitely be trying some of these to shake it up!

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  3. Thanks for sharing all this info! Some things are great reminders and some I've never heard of before. I'm just getting back at it, but I feel stronger this time - the scale is going to move!

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  4. Thanks for sharing these tips - I'm going to have to give these a try!

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