This week’s loss was pretty good.  I lost 2.8 pounds (1.3kg) and 0.7% body fat.  This puts me at 29.3% body fat; only 5.3% away from “Average”. I’m also happy that I was able to meet my goal of journaling the majority of my dinners before actually eating them.  This helped quite a bit when it came to figuring out what I could eat and when I would eat it. I was able to carry this over a bit into the weekend, but I completely dropped the ball when it came to Sunday.  I didn’t take the time to journal so that I could excuse what I ate.  In essence I fell into an old behavior.  I can’t get too down on myself though because I did make progress.  All I need to do is to move forward and keep pursuing my goal of journaling all my food.

Workout-wise I was able to get in all my days.  I also said goodbye to my old workout and I’ve started in on my new one. I may have not made it clear in Episode 45, but I’m actually starting the routine that Jason wrote in about which focuses on introducing people to Bodybuilding workouts.  The workout is fairly different when compared to my previous ones.  It has about half the amount of exercises, 4 sets instead of 3, varies the weight quite a bit, only includes 3 days of lifting, and it repeats the same exercises each day.  Combine all this with the fact that it has a measurable way to keep track of your gains I’m left feeling pretty excited about the change.  I know I had some apprehension about making the change, but my first workout left me exhausted and famished.

I know I was apprehensive about this exercise routine, but so far I really like it.  It’s about a half hour shorter than my routines and it has about 6 exercises instead of 13.  Also, the fact that it has a built-in way to measure your progress through a five week cycle of increasing your reps really has me excited.  I didn’t build this into my previous routines because I didn’t know any better.  Now that I have a way go judge my success I’m excited to see where it takes me.  I’m already realizing that a large number of the other routines I’ve been finding in books and magazines are build around these same principles and they make a lot more sense than they used to.  I can’t thank Jason enough for the help.  My only hesitation is the ab workout is something I came up with by myself, so I’m going to have to do some research and make sure I made some wise choices.  So far though I think I did a pretty good job of mixing in a decent amount of bodyweight and weighted exercises.  I also kept it at 6 exercises making it reasonable.

I also want to stress something that I saw in the gym the other day.  There is a gentleman who comes in a bit after I do in the mornings and works out.  Now this is great and I hold nothing against him for that.  However, the other day I saw him wrapping his knees and I wondered what he was doing.  He then proceeded to put over 600 pounds on a leg press machine.  Let me explain that this guy is probably 175 pounds and although he is very enthusiastic I’ve noticed he has horrible, horrible form.  He then proceeded to get on the leg press machine and to his credit he pressed the weight, but he maybe bent his legs 4 inches down and back instead of using full range of motion.

First off, let me say that this general behavior is understandable.  When I first came into the gym I was really embarrassed that there were kids half my age lifting more weight than myself on certain exercises.  Then I started to notice their form, how many reps they were doing, how many sets they were doing, and how long they rested in-between.  One thing that I’ve learned is that it’s easy to go into a gym and lift some weight.  It’s a lot harder to do it correctly and in a beneficial manner.  If you’re lifting weights forget about the amount of weight on the bar and worry about your technique.  The increase in muscle and weights will come with time, but it’s better to learn technique first.  Not doing so can result not only in a lack of progress, but serious injury as well.  If you find yourself caught up in the hype of being in the gym, then just take a step back, breathe, and realize that to get the most out of exercising you need to let the ego go.

Can you lose weight by not dieting? I’m not really sure, however an article in Fitness Magazine pointed out to me by my lovely wife has me thinking about how we can modify our behaviors without having to follow a traditional diet.  The word diet when used as a verb means to:

Restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight: “it is difficult to diet in a house full of cupcakes”

Which is why they mostly fail in my opinion.  If you tell someone that they can’t eat something then they’re most likely going to want to eat it.  It’s no different when we do the same thing to ourselves. That’s why more success is found when you change your lifestyle rather than attempting something that’s temporary.  The trick is finding a way to live your life that’s more healthy that you can tolerate; whether it’s restricting how much you eat, keeping track of what you eat, cutting out certain foods, all the above, etc.  But when we forcibly tell someone they can’t do something or eat something, that certain something becomes all that more tantalizing.  This article takes a look at this behavior and a few others and gives examples of how some women fought against their habits and won.

• 
  
• Most people regain all the weight they lose
  
• 
  
  • 
    
  • 2/3 of those people gain back even more
    
  • chronic dieting can cause moodiness or a preoccupation with food.
    
  
  
  
• Jill, 36 had issues with binging on ice cream
  
• 
  
  • 
    
  • She made herself stock 10 pints
    
  • Granted herself to eat it whenever she wanted as long as she stayed fully stocked
    
  • Eventually the ice cream wasn’t special and she no longer wanted it
    
  
  
  
• Habituation
  
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Michelle, 41 was out of control around cookies
    
  • She had to keep her cookie jar full of homemade cookies
    
  • Found she was OK with just three
    
  • Eventually they lost their luster, just like with Jill
    
  
  
  
• Pace Eating
  
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Gabby 29 felt her plate always had to be “clean” and didn’t know when to stop eating.
    
  • She divided her plate in half
    
  • Ate the first half and then sat for 5 minutes and self-evaluated to see if she was still hungry
    
  • She found it strange at first, but discovered that she needed much less food than she thought.
    
  
  
  
• Silent Meal
  
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Amanda 28 “multi-tasked” while eating and found herself dissatisfied and hungry after most meals.
    
  • She couldn’t use any technology
    
  • She had to check in with herself every few minutes
    
  • 
    
    • 
      
    • Put down her fork
      
    • Take a couple of deep breaths
      
    • Notice if she was satisfied or hungry
      
    • Decide if she was going to continue eating
      
    
    
    
  • It felt strange at first
    
  • When she was alone and focused on the food it seemed more flavorful and she could tell when she was satisfied
    
  
  
  
• Eating behaviors that sabotage us happen across all sexes and ages.
  
• Changing these habits will not happen overnight
  
• The following books may be worth looking into:
  
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Women, Food, and God
    
  • Intuitive Eating
    
  • Eating the Moment
    
  
  
  

Source: Fitness Magazine

• 
  
• The website is located at http://www.shakeitoffcast.com
  
• Send me a review in iTunes
  
• I’m on Twitter as @tdhowell
  
• Email me at podcast@shakeitoffcast.com
  
• And on Facebook
  

Please note that all content here is strictly for informational purposes only. This content isn’t a substitute for any medical advice and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your own personal health provider. Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all related health care related questions and issues.

The post Lose Weight Without a Diet – Episode 049 appeared first on Shake it Off Cast!.