I admit, I've been putting off reporting on my weight loss efforts. It's not because I've failed -- I've actually lost 7 lbs.! -- but because my results so far are, well, mixed. If you have read previous postings, then you may recall that I signed up for an online "personal trainer" a little over two months ago. The idea was, for a rather small fee (39.99 for three months), my online personal trainer would give me a daily menu and exercise plan. The exercise plan has been pretty easy to follow. The menu? Not so much.
The personal trainer is actually a software program that calculates my diet and exercise needs based on the information I enter into my profile. I discovered that the system won't generate the next day's plan until I have entered my stats from the previous day. So it should be easy to just click and enter my food and exercise for the day, right? Well, yes and no. For one thing, the program already has a set menu in place for each meal. If I don't like the choices, I can click on "swap" and choose something else from a comparable list. And believe me, being a somewhat picky eater, I have to swap a lot! Why, why, why do all food plans have to include cottage cheese? Not surprisingly, I have found this feature to be time consuming, as I often have to go to the online calorie counter for each item I want to swap and check the calories for each serving size. As you can imagine, it takes a few minutes to enter a meal when you have to document every single item individually. The exercise plan takes less time, if only because there aren't as many options. Nevertheless, by the time I've entered all the information, I have spent upwards of 20 to 30 minutes just entering my meals and exercise plan. Some days I'm okay with that, but too often I have forgotten to do it because I've been too busy. And, as I mentioned earlier, if I miss a day, I have to go back and enter all the information before the system will generate a new diet and exercise plan for the next day. There is a reset feature; I've lost track of how many times I've used it now.
But the bottom line is, it doesn't matter if I'm entering data into a computer program or writing it on a piece of paper -- I simply hate keeping a food diary! Yes, I know -- all the experts tell us that keeping a diary is essential for any weight loss program. I completely agree. But I still find it to be mind-numbingly tedious, whether it's done high-tech or not! For me, an exercise program is easier to follow and to document. I try to make sure I do some form of cardio every day, and I lift weights three times a week. I schedule my strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which makes it easy to remember. And the weather has been so gorgeous the past few weeks, I've been eager to get outside and walk 45 minutes each day. If I have lost weight, it's probably due to the exercise more than the diet.
Still, I have been trying to make healthier food choices. I bought a lot of fruit this past week -- apples and grapes, which I have actually eaten as snacks! One of my students brought me a bagful of home-grown tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. Since I'm the only one in my family who eats raw tomatoes, I was determined not to let them go to waste. So I had tomato slices with my sandwich at lunch several days in a row. And today my weight loss efforts got a huge boost when I discovered that Quiktrip is no longer carrying snack-size packages of almond M&Ms. Neither is Walgreen. That means I'll have to kick the almond M&M habit cold-turkey. I'm told it's the best way.
So . . . 7 lbs. lighter after two and a half months. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. My jeans are a lot looser -- I'm encouraged! I doubt I will re-sign with my personal trainer after my three months are up, but I don't feel that it has been a complete waste of time and money. If nothing else, the online trainer motivated me to think about my food and exercise choices and to consciously make healthier ones. I think I can take it from here. But from now on, I'm going to enter those choices in my food journal the old-fashioned way. I write much faster than I click.
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