If you're a wife and mother, you will have heard those words a million times. I know I have.
Now that I'm more conscious of the importance of diet, I'm more restricted in some ways, with what the answer might be. I know sausages and chips will get a positive response, but I'm careful about too much fat in the diet, and the importance of getting enough fibre, so that is not the best thing for tea very often.
I've had more success with mini pizzas, made with English muffins and topped with whatever is in the fridge that seems suitable. Capsicum, mushrooms, onions, cold meats, BBQ sauce, cheese are usual suspects in our mini pizzas, and we all enjoy them. Fibre from the vegetables (extra if you use wholemeal muffins), vitamins, protein. It's all good.
I'm thinking about home made burgers for tea - we have a bit of mince, and lots of carrots - I'll grate the carrots and mix them up with the mince, an egg, some sweet chilli sauce and whatever takes my attention closer to tea time - probably balsamic vinegar.
I'll have to go and get some hamburger rolls from the shop, and I'll grill the burgers and serve with cheese and lettuce, with BBQ sauce.
Yummalicious!
This is me in 2009
Happy, healthy, size ten jeans!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Being a good wife!
Encouraging others to get to the weight they want to get to can be a thankless task. Others would much rather whinge and whine about their weight problem, than do anything useful about it.
For women married to chubby chaps, you usually have the opportunity to cook healthy low fat, low cal meals. But so many times you do that, your loved one acts like you're starving them, and say they want what they used to eat.
What to do? Sometimes you have to become secretive, and sneak in healthy bits and pieces instead of the usual high cal foods your spouse is accustomed to. If you are the one who does the shopping, just don't buy the usual nuts and chips that are snacked on mindlessly by others in the household.
Another way of reducing fat in meals is to bake rather than fry, and to cook things in a little water that you used to saute with oil.
Try to have plenty of fresh or dried fruit options instead of the bad old ones. Dates are very satisfying, and breakfast cereal, especially a low fat, low cal one can fill the need for chips quite well.
You can encourage romantic walks in the moonlight - lots of fun to take the kids along too. Visits to the beach, no matter the season, can be a fun way to get a bit of extra exercise too.
If you have a dog, there are no excuses for not doing any exercise - the average canine companion is always ready to go for a stroll, any time, any weather.
One very important thing to remember, is to praise good behaviour. If your man snacks on fruit instead of having a beer, make sure you tell him he's done a good thing. Men can take a lot longer than women to grow up, and they're like kids in this regard. Praise, and find healthy rewards.
For women married to chubby chaps, you usually have the opportunity to cook healthy low fat, low cal meals. But so many times you do that, your loved one acts like you're starving them, and say they want what they used to eat.
What to do? Sometimes you have to become secretive, and sneak in healthy bits and pieces instead of the usual high cal foods your spouse is accustomed to. If you are the one who does the shopping, just don't buy the usual nuts and chips that are snacked on mindlessly by others in the household.
Another way of reducing fat in meals is to bake rather than fry, and to cook things in a little water that you used to saute with oil.
Try to have plenty of fresh or dried fruit options instead of the bad old ones. Dates are very satisfying, and breakfast cereal, especially a low fat, low cal one can fill the need for chips quite well.
You can encourage romantic walks in the moonlight - lots of fun to take the kids along too. Visits to the beach, no matter the season, can be a fun way to get a bit of extra exercise too.
If you have a dog, there are no excuses for not doing any exercise - the average canine companion is always ready to go for a stroll, any time, any weather.
One very important thing to remember, is to praise good behaviour. If your man snacks on fruit instead of having a beer, make sure you tell him he's done a good thing. Men can take a lot longer than women to grow up, and they're like kids in this regard. Praise, and find healthy rewards.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Talk to your body!
If you want to lose weight, it is important to do one thing. You have to talk to your body.
Your body gives you messages all the time. It tells you when you are tired, it tells you when it hurts. One thing most people don't realise is that their body probably does not tell them when it's hungry.
You may think your body is telling you you are hungry when you are bored, or upset, or when the clock is telling you it is dinner time. If you live in relatively good conditions in a Western country, your body is probably not the one telling you you are hungry.
The one who tells you that you are hungry most of the time is your head. Boredom, needing comfort food, being a slave to 'what you're meant to do', are all tools your head uses to convince you about your hunger. Your body doesn't have as loud a voice as your head does, so your head gets in there first and convinces you to eat, when your body knows you are not hungry.
This is the most important factor to accept as truth - Your head tells you lies! Your body is far more truthful than your head. If you can accept this truth, you will be well on the way to achieving your ideal weight.
Try it for a couple of days. Only eat when your body tells you about hunger, ignore that liar head of yours! Stop eating as soon as your body tells you the hunger has stopped. It doesn't matter if there is still food on your plate, stop eating.
If you can do this, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT!
Your body gives you messages all the time. It tells you when you are tired, it tells you when it hurts. One thing most people don't realise is that their body probably does not tell them when it's hungry.
You may think your body is telling you you are hungry when you are bored, or upset, or when the clock is telling you it is dinner time. If you live in relatively good conditions in a Western country, your body is probably not the one telling you you are hungry.
The one who tells you that you are hungry most of the time is your head. Boredom, needing comfort food, being a slave to 'what you're meant to do', are all tools your head uses to convince you about your hunger. Your body doesn't have as loud a voice as your head does, so your head gets in there first and convinces you to eat, when your body knows you are not hungry.
This is the most important factor to accept as truth - Your head tells you lies! Your body is far more truthful than your head. If you can accept this truth, you will be well on the way to achieving your ideal weight.
Try it for a couple of days. Only eat when your body tells you about hunger, ignore that liar head of yours! Stop eating as soon as your body tells you the hunger has stopped. It doesn't matter if there is still food on your plate, stop eating.
If you can do this, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
More about how I lost weight
I realised where I was going wrong. The answer was not the greatest new whizz-bang diet. The answer was to stop looking at diets and to start looking at lifestyle change. Since I made that realisation, I haven’t ‘gone a diet’ again, and I probably never will. Going on a diet leads to going off a diet, and that’s where the trouble starts – You might have been good as gold with your diet, and lose the weight you wanted to, but the diet ends and old habits fill the spot the diet had filled.
After the birth of my son, I stacked the kilograms on, and couldn’t lose any weight no matter what I tried. I’m only 152 cm tall, and at my maximum weight of 65 kg, I was size 14-16 and very uncomfortable.
Now, my dress size is 10, and I’m the slimmest and healthiest feeling I’ve been since I was twelve years old. It’s taken me a while to get to 50kg, but I know I can stay at that weight by using the knowledge I now have. Don’t go on a diet, change your lifestyle! It worked for me, it can work for you, too.
Tried to Lose Weight but failed?
It happens to most of us at times through our lives. The pressure is on to be thin, thin, thin.
And the pressure is on to buy, buy, buy. We buy the food that's being promoted to us daily, and it makes us fat. Then we buy the most recent weight loss method, maybe lose some weight, then go back to our normal life, and the weight goes straight back on.
It isn’t easy to lose weight, as almost everybody knows. Some people go on and off a new diet almost every week without attaining the ideal weight they hope to achieve. I’ve been on just about every diet since my teenage years myself, but hadn’t ever felt satisfied with the results. I did lose some weight, many times, but I always put the weight back on, and often some extra weight as well.
Then I had one of those epiphanies. I realised the problem with going on a diet was that at the end, you go off the diet.
As soon as you go off the diet, old habits come back, and so does the weight. The answer for me was to Change my Lifestyle, Not my Diet.
That was about a year and a half ago. I was unhappy with my weight, feeling fat and frumpy when I realised what the answer might be, and I decided to change my lifestyle. I have attained my ideal weight, and it doesn't look like I will ever be fat and frumpy ever again.
I didn't have an enormous weight loss, because I didn't have an enormous amount of weight to lose. I just knew that my ideal weight was not the 65 kilos I was back in 2007, it was more like 54 kilos. So that was my aim. I would use my knowledge about losing weight and good nutrition, and focus on getting to my target of 54 kilos.
I got there in 2008, and it feels so good to fit into jeans the size I could fit into when I was a twelve year old, and thought I would never fit into again.
Now, in 2009, I weight 50 kilos, and feel completely in control of my body and my life. Losing weight, in the way I did it, has empowered me, and I want to help others to be and remain the weight they know they should be, and they want to be.
And the pressure is on to buy, buy, buy. We buy the food that's being promoted to us daily, and it makes us fat. Then we buy the most recent weight loss method, maybe lose some weight, then go back to our normal life, and the weight goes straight back on.
It isn’t easy to lose weight, as almost everybody knows. Some people go on and off a new diet almost every week without attaining the ideal weight they hope to achieve. I’ve been on just about every diet since my teenage years myself, but hadn’t ever felt satisfied with the results. I did lose some weight, many times, but I always put the weight back on, and often some extra weight as well.
Then I had one of those epiphanies. I realised the problem with going on a diet was that at the end, you go off the diet.
As soon as you go off the diet, old habits come back, and so does the weight. The answer for me was to Change my Lifestyle, Not my Diet.
That was about a year and a half ago. I was unhappy with my weight, feeling fat and frumpy when I realised what the answer might be, and I decided to change my lifestyle. I have attained my ideal weight, and it doesn't look like I will ever be fat and frumpy ever again.
I didn't have an enormous weight loss, because I didn't have an enormous amount of weight to lose. I just knew that my ideal weight was not the 65 kilos I was back in 2007, it was more like 54 kilos. So that was my aim. I would use my knowledge about losing weight and good nutrition, and focus on getting to my target of 54 kilos.
I got there in 2008, and it feels so good to fit into jeans the size I could fit into when I was a twelve year old, and thought I would never fit into again.
Now, in 2009, I weight 50 kilos, and feel completely in control of my body and my life. Losing weight, in the way I did it, has empowered me, and I want to help others to be and remain the weight they know they should be, and they want to be.
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