Epic American Collapse at Ryder Cup!

I have to admit I don't really care that the Americans got beat - this is golf, after all, not something important, but it is funny that the Americans went into the day with a commanding lead - 10-6 - and lost their first 5 matches.

Including Phil Mickelson, who hit a bad shot and lost on the final, 18th hole.

But if you watched the Ryder Cup, you saw - if the cameras deigned to show it, both choking, and stone cold nerves under pressure.

And that's something you can learn from for your real life needs.

If you watch each golfer, they all have their pre-shot routines. Keegan Bradley's is the most fun to watch. He'll stand away from his ball, start toward it, back away, start toward it, back away, start toward it...and finally continue on...and then hit the ball.

He does it the same way every time - it's just "his way."

Other golfers have a pre-shot routine also, though most of the do not go to Keegan's extreme.

But the thing is - that's how you win. By doing the same thing the same way every time.

It's the same when you're trying to lose weight.

Create a menu of 10 dinners you like to eat (or less, if you're not an adventurous eater) and those are what you eat each day.  The same thing with your breakfasts and lunch. If you eat the same things (of 10 things, surely enough variety) you know how many calories that is and you don't have to obsess over it.

(And if you feel the need for a half of a milk shake on a weekend, that's ok because that's not going to impact your "calorie deficit" that you need to maintain to lose weight. A half a milk shake every day is another story - that you cannot do!

Whatever happened to "playing it as it lays?"

Just watched TIger "get relief" from the cart path...so he gets to movie it onto the grass.

That's not right!

You play it where it lies, whether it's on a sprinkler head, jammed up against a building, or up in a tree!

There should be none of this "relief" crap!

Bowling continues to ... vex... me

I'm regressing. Bowled today with my regular Saturday friend... he averaged 150 per game, I couldn't even break 100. It's so frustrating.

 Each of two previous times I end well, think I've "got it", then go back the next time and nothing that worked the prior time works again.

Today was worse than ever. I'm trying to not move my wrist or my fingers, but I must be doing so... so frustrating.

They do sell wrist guards that prevent your wrist from moving, but I am not going to use that crutch. I'm going to do it on my own. (Though, I suppose I could try the wrist guard and see if it improves my score, which would prove that it is me moving my wrist that is the problem...)

Now I'm back at home, watching the Americans destroy the Europeans in the Ryder Cup.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend...and have found a sport less frustrating than bowling to play!

My bowling saga continues

I received my new bowling ball (a Monsters Inc ball with Mike's one eye on one side, and the Monster's Inc characters on the other. An 8 pounder, very light. I had the pro shop at the Bowling Alley drill it, and for some reason the nimbul drilled it so the eye is not on one side, looking really cool as the ball rolls down the lane, but so the eye rolls vertically - you only see it half the time.

I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt that there was something about the makeup of the ball that forced him to have to do it that way, but I don't knw...

Anyway..I'm still having trouble getting the darn ball to go straight. it's my wrist...you're not supposed to "break it" but occasionally I do. So I've got to practice not doing that.

I went bowling 2 days ago - 95, then 125 and finally 129.

I know how to do it...the idea is just to keep that darn wrist from breaking.

And that's the same thing you have to do with any project, including losing weight.

You have to practice until you improve all the skills sets that you need to improve.

What skill sets are needed for losing weight?
1) Patience

2) Willpower. The willpower to have 1/4th of a bowl of ice cream rather than a whole bowl, half a candy bar rather than a whole one...

3) Common sense. You're cutting back your portions of everything in a reasonable way. Don't cut out all carbohydrates, all fat, etc. Totally not necessary and detrimental to your health. But you do need to eat a good selection of fruits, veggies, dairy, meat, etc. (You read about athletes doing this - weight trainers mostly - but you are not a weight trainer and you don't need to go to that extreme)

4. Your life-long sport - whether it's walking, biking, bowling - something you enjoy doing and will do at least three times a week if not more.

5. Weight training - easy weight lifting just to tone your muscles. Again, three times a week for this.

6. Resuming after you've missed a week or two.

Many folks will lift weights for a week, or even two. Then they miss a week and decide to give up. No...just get back right on the horse and start weight training again. Depending on how long you've missed, you'll drop your weights or repetitions to a beginning level, but you will do the exercises. And remember, practice makes perfect.

Exercising to Lose Weight: Is Less Actually More?

From Men's Ftitness:  Exercising to Lose Weight: Is Less Actually More?

If you hit the trail or treadmill hard for an hour every day hoping to shed unwanted pounds, you might be sadly disappointed by the results. It turns out that exercising too much or too hard can come back to bite you…especially when you eat more to make up for all those burned calories.
In a new study in the American Journal of Physiology, researchers found that shorter, less intense workouts were more successful for weight loss. So if you're looking to lose some flab, keep these tips in mind as you make the necessary lifestyle changes:

• Find the exercise sweet spot. In the study, sedentary people who did 30 minutes of moderate exercise lost more weight (7 pounds over 13 weeks) than those who kicked it up a notch for 60 minutes a day (5 pounds).
• Build gradually. If you’ve been a couch potato for a while, don’t overreach. Give your body time to adapt to its new activity level. Start small,and build gradually—maybe 10 minutes for a few days, 20 minutes the next week, and so on.
• Stay active all day. The 30-minute exercisers were more active throughout the rest of the day (and burned more calories!), probably because they had higher energy levels. In addition, many studies point toward the health benefits of regular physical activity, even if it’s climbing stairs to a meeting or walking the dog.
• Strike a balance between diet and exercise. People who exercised 60 minutes in the study ate more at meals and snack time. To lose weight, you need to keep your eating under control. Being more mindful when you eat or keeping a food diary can help you avoid exercise-induced overeating.

 

Bob Newhart from the 70s

Even as I type...there's a Bob Newhart episode on in which this psychiatrist has been told he needs to lose weight. And it's late at night - when everyone has gained weight because of a day spent eating - and he's standing on the scale saying he's gained an eighth of a pound in 5 hours.

I hate it when they demean Bob's character like this. He would know that you don't obsess over gaining an eighth of a pound in 5 hours.

Meantime, this morning, I was at my local Walmart. I looked at, I think, a People magazine. On the cover were photos of some actresses who looked like skin and bones - namely LeAnn Rimes and Jennifer Connolly.

And I thought - how hypocritical of this magazine. If any of these actresses were five pounds overweight, their writers and photogs would pounce on it and say, "She's gotten fat." "Why has she gotten fat." ya da ya da. But now they're pretending all this concern for these anorexic women... although there was also a photo of Mathew McConahay looking too skinny as well...and what is going on with Sean Murray - he's so gaunt now it's scary.

The media needs to take a long, hard look at the role they play in these actors and actresses downfall.

Taken a break? Get right back to your regimen

One of my clients, who had been doing quite well for the first four weeks of the program, had hit a plateau. (Remember I'd posted about plateaus a couple of weeks ago?)

She'd lost five pounds...then spent another week working out and eating smaller portions - no weight loss.

After 7 days of stepping on the scale - I always tell people to step on a scale once a week but every single one of them finds it necessary to do it every day! - and seeing no weight loss, she got depressed and "gave up."

She skipped 3 weight training sessions - Mon, Wed and Fri, and didn't do her daily biking, either.

Fortunately, she did not pig out over the course of this week, but she did eat more last thing at night then she should. Not ice cream, thank goodness, but apparently she's got a thing for hot buttered toast.

After a week of not stepping on the scale - (she eats too much and doesn't work out, and now she won't step on the scale every day?) she stepped on the scale and found to her surprise that she had not gained any weight.

This discovery has re-motivated her, and today she rededicated herself to her regimen, doing her weight training (and apparently able to do same weight and repetitions that she'd been able to do prior to her "break") and went out for a bike ride.

And she has promised me the late night hot buttered toast is a thing of the past. At least until she gets into her maintenance phase.

Remember, the more muscular you are, the more calories you burn "at rest." (Which doesn't mean that you can stop exercising and eat all you want. If you don't work out, muscles weaken and the less muscle you have, the less calories you burn.

[Note also that you are not working with heavy weights, because you are not trying to hyper-build your muscles like a weight lifter does. You are working with low weights - a 20 pound barbell, perhaps, 10 pound dumbbells at the most. Only on your leg exercises do you want to use 50 pounds or so - because your legs are so much stronger than your arms.  Remember you are toning your muscles, not building them to a gigantic size!

(Not that, as a woman, you can get your muscles to a gigantic size without drinking things like whey shakes and taking various supplements and working out 3 hours a day instead of 20 minutes!)

So, if you've skipped your weight training for a week...or if you have been eating too much ice cream recently or what have you...do not despair. Simply re-dedicate yourself to your goal, start now, and carry on from here.

Clarification on the Eat All You Want post

A couple of days ago, I posted a blog entry from someone who pointed out that if you were trying to lose weight, you should eat more.

I've gotten a few questions about it, so let me clarify.

If you want to lose weight, you've got to burn more calories than you consume.

The best way to do this is to eat less than you currently eat and exercise more.

What you musn't do is try to starve yourself. It's unnecessary, unhealthy -  and will cause you to take longer to lose weight because your body will go into starvation mode and slow down your metabolism.

So you don't want to eat more than you're currently eating and just add in the weight training and the walk/jog/biking.

You can eat the same as you're currently eating and add in the weight training et al, but that will increase the time it takes you to lose weight...and if you miss a couple of days, all will go for nought.

By eating less - at least 300 calories less than you currently eat (achieved just by choosing smaller portions - you don't really have to count calories obsessively) and doing the work out and the aerobics, you will - after two weeks -lose weight steadily.

And if something happens such that you miss a weight training day or a jogging/biking day, it won't set back your caloric imbalance bt a couple of days.

Patience and all things in moderation.

Pay yourself first

You've heard the advice from money management experts - it's necessary to build up a nest egg for retirement, so each time you get a paycheck, and every time you get a raise, "pay yourself first" - take a percentage of money out of that paycheck and stick it right into savings. No exceptions.

The same should be true for your exercise regime.

You need to set up a specific time each Monday, Wednesday and Friday (or whatever every-other-day period you select) to do your weight training. And you need to set up a specific time every day to go for a long walk or bike ride, etc.

And you mustn't miss a single day.

Which means if a girl friend rolls into town - invite her to your workout or to come on a walk with you...don't say, "well, I'll skip it for today."

You want to have the mind set that your time - your weight training time and your aerobic exercise time are sacrosanct.

Now,  having said that, there are times when you just must miss the time - but these must be exceptions, not the rule. Have to take your mom to a doctors appointment that you foolishly scheduled during your weight training time instead of later in the day? (which happened to me yesterday - to no avail as we still had to wait 30 minutes for the doctor to get to us)?

Well, try to get in your weight training later on in the day, for just that one day only. (Although to tell the truth, I blew it off ocmpletely. But then, I'm fit, and maintaining, not trying to lose weight.  ; )    )

But if you've got a husband, and/or kids, or a boyfriend, whatever, impress upon them the importance of your time. Don't sacrifice your time to cater to their whims.

Ever wonder why all female athletes on TV are beautiful?

It's because plain girls don't become athletes - they don't want to face the snarky comments of guys - and gals - if they come into the public eye - where they'll be criticized for their looks and their weight and god knows what else.

Case in point: Taylor Townsend

A black female junior tennis player who is tall and powerful...and wins. But weighs too much to please the USTF so they don't want her attending any tournaments, regardless of whether she could win them or not. "If you're too fat, you can't play."

Seems to me Townsend's parents should sue the pants off those idiots. And I hope she doesn't lose a single pound. If she can win with her weight at whatever point it is, t hen why should she lose weight?

From the Atlantic: Serena Williams Defends Taylor Townsend: 'Everyone Deserves to Play'

Reuters

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Alexander Abad-Santos 710 Views 6:15 PM ET

During this U.S. Open, we found out that The United States Tennis Association cut the funding to America's brightest junior tennis star not because she was bad, or that she was losing, but because they thought she was overweight. And now this mistake has caught the eye of one of America's current tennis stars: Serena Williams. "If that happened, that's obviously a tragedy, because everyone deserves to play. ... Women athletes come in all different sizes and shapes and colors and everything. I think you can see that more than anywhere on the tennis tour," Williams said in report by ESPN posted last night.
Taylor Townsend, 16, is the world's top-ranked junior tennis player and the most exciting American tennis prospect since the Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport, but as The Wall Street Journal's Tom Perrotta first reported on September 8, the USTA wasn't impressed by her physique.

... unbeknownst to everyone outside her inner circle, the USTA wasn't happy to see Townsend in New York. Her coaches declined to pay her travel expenses to attend the Open and told her this summer that they wouldn't finance any tournament appearances until she makes sufficient progress in one area: slimming down and getting into better shape.

It's a good thing Townsend didn't listen to their advice. Townsend is blessed with an electric serve-and-volley game won the U.S. Open girls' doubles title this past weekend and rode her attacking style to be one of the last eight standing at the Open's girls' singles event.
But, just in case you were wondering, there is no weight limit in tennis. If, say, a member of any one of TLC's exploitation side shows television shows were good enough to beat Andy Murray or wipe the floor with a Williams sister, officials would totally let them play. But when you're a junior, like Townsend is, your entry into professional events like the U.S. Open and funding to go to international tournaments is largely determined by governing bodies like the USTA.
"Our concern is her long-term health, number one, and her long-term development as a player," Patrick McEnroe, the general manager of the USTA's player development program (and a tennis commentator) told Perrotta and the WSJ. "We have one goal in mind: For her to be playing in [Arthur Ashe Stadium] in the main draw and competing for major titles when it's time. That's how we make every decision, based on that." McEnroe's comments seem harmless enough, but he doesn't outright deny that the USTA told Townsend to slim down. And apparently, the directions given to Townsend weren't very clear either.
"I didn't get any definite answer on why they didn't want me to play they just told me that they felt I should focus on my fitness," said Townsend in an interview Good Morning America over the weekend. And she explained the gravity of being the No.1 junior player in the world to USA Today, "Pretty much all the other federations, if they had a No. 1 junior in the world, they would kind of break their backs to bring them to whatever they needed to go to... I'm not going to sit here and say I'm the fastest person or the most agile, because I'm not."
Now, anyone that's watched tennis coverage throughout the years can attest that the physical appearance of athletes often turns into a talking point (hey, matches get really long and there's only so much you can say about forehands...we guess). "His gut resembled the kind of swollen thing you'd see at the O'Hare food court," a Sports Illustrated writer once wrote about Argentinian player David Nalbandian. And writers and analysts been just as unkind to the female players like Serena, Lindsay Davenport, former number-one Dinara Safina, and top 10-player Marion Bartoli. They've even chastised one player for being too skinny.
But those are commentators. And yes, it's a completely depressing thought that that type of body-snarking and judgment is what awaits Townsend should she turn pro, it's a completely different thing to have an organization like the USTA which holds the fate of your tennis career judge someone based by the shape of their body. Mind you, that shape that Townsend was good enough to win the 2012 junior Australian Open this year, as well as three junior grand slam doubles titles.
"No one tournament is bigger than a player's career, especially when the player is 16. Taylor continues to be one of our best prospects, and our goal is her long-term development," McEnroe said in a statement picked up by ABC, sounding a bit more remorseful than he did when talking about her "health." And the USTA has since reversed their decision and said they will reimburse Townsend and her mother for their trip to the U.S. Open this year.
"I think it will pass, because I think we all have a common goal here, that I want to do well," said Townsend in response--sounding like a true professional. She adds in The New York Times:

I want to be in a place where I can have a free mind and don’t have to worry about any drama or anything," she said, chuckling, "and just go out and kind of have fun on the court, and work really hard and get everything I possibly can out of it every single day."

Townsend's mother told ABC News that Taylor stands at 5'6" and weighs you know what, who cares?  And it doesn't take a tennis expert to see that Townsend she isn't built like Anna Kournikova ... Venus Williams... or Steffi Graf ... or Maria Sharapova. But if she's winning, we'd argue, she doesn't need to be.

 

Eating more frequently helps you lose weight

NOTE THE KEY IN THE ARTICLE BELOW IS TO EXERCISE AND WORK OUT TO BUILD A FRAMEWORK OF MUSCLE TO BURN THE CALORIES THAT ONE CONSUMES!!!

From The Post Game: Why Eating More Helps You Lose Weight

Do you have a lot of discipline but still can't lose weight? Do you get frustrated when your results don't match your willpower?

Maybe the answer is to eat more. It's counter-intuitive, I know, but there's plenty of logic and evidence to show that it works.
I've tried every diet under the sun. I fasted for 15 days. I ran a marathon. I gave up soda. And while I did manage to go from 287 pounds to 187 pounds., I found my way back to 240 and fought every step of the way.
I finally figured out that the secret is to eat more. And eat more frequently.
I didn't buy it either at first. After lots of research and understanding the why behind it, I made my way below 200 pounds again and, even better, get to enjoy that unrestricted feeling of eating as much as I want.
Here are the 5 reasons to eat more:
1. Eating more ramps up your metabolism
Jon Gabriel, author of the bestselling "The Gabriel Method" who lost 220 pounds without dieting, says, "When you go on a diet and start eating less, your brain sends a signal to your body that you're in starvation mode.
The body responds as it would if you're in a famine and stores fat." It doesn't seem fair -- until you realize that eating more and more frequently -- is what speeds up your metabolism.
2. Eating more allows you to build lean muscle mass which helps burn fat
Muscles are hungry and burn fat. The two ways to get them are by eating protein and doing resistant training (weight-lifting, push-ups, power yoga, etc.). According to Todd Durkin, C.S.C.S., and author of "The Impact! Body Plan," "muscle is a metabolically active tissue, which means it burns energy just to maintain itself. The less muscle mass you have, the less calories you burn."

3. Eating more gives your body the fuel to want to exercise
When you diet and eat less, you don't have any energy. You may understand the benefits of exercise, but it's
impossible to get off the couch without food. That's why eating more will give you the fuel you need to work-out and add lean muscle mass.
4. Eating more (and more frequently) makes you feel full
Most of us can stay on a strict diet for a few days or maybe even a few weeks, but we eventually give in to cravings and binge. It's not that we're undisciplined; it's because we're frickin' starving! According to Dr. Mark Hyman, author of "The Blood Sugar Solution" said, "When you eat regularly throughout the day, you get a slow, steady burn effect from the food." Plus when you eat more you lose the urge to binge and avoid junk.
5. Eating more provides the nutrients your body needs and the fiber to eliminate
If you've been waiting for the catch, the only one is that you must give your body the right kind of fuel. Yes, that means lots of vegetables, fruits and lean proteins. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live, suggests eating two pounds of vegetables and four servings of fruit per day. These foods are packed with nutrients so you actually feel satiated and your body has everything it needs to be healthy. They are also full of fiber, which helps you eliminate toxins. It's a win-win.
Diets don't work. Eating less is not only a drag, but it's also unsustainable. The beauty of eating more is that you don't have to give up anything. Yes, you will naturally "crowd out" a lot of the junk because you feel full, but even when you do indulge, your ramped-up metabolism will be able to burn it off.
So if you're ready to lose weight, skip the diet and grab a fork.
-- Greg Dinkin is a Certified Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and the author of three books including The Poker MBA. He explains in his TED talk how he used the power of both mind and body to lose 100 pounds.

Well...dang

Looks like my ambition to make a living on the senior circuit of a Bowling tourney is not going to materialize...

Played today and did not do well at all.

113 first game, 114 second game, 93 third game.

The ball just would  not go straight... it would curve either right or left.  Except on those occasions when I *wanted* it to curve right or left and *then* it would go straight!

Nothing is more annoying - or heartbreaking-  then getting a total of 3 pins in the next frame *after* you bowled a strike!

I know you can get these wrist thingies to keep your wrist from "breaking" but I shall not employ them. It's me, the ball and the pins... and did I but have some slidey shoes... (I've looked at the bottoms of my  new shoes...there's a white "slidey" surface on the balls of the feet, which after 6 games total (3 Wed, 3 today) is already getting grey - which tells me the area of the bowling lane where you make your approach is not that clean...which must be what stops me from sliding. (But then again, the guy I was playing with had no problem, he shot a 164 in our final game).

Don't get me wrong...it's still fun. The challenge is to figure out what I'm doing wrong...since I try every time to do everything the same way and I concentrate on rolling the ball with my wrist straight because I don't want it to curve, normally...but I'm doing something wrong.

I ordered a Monsters Inc ball on ebay about a week ago, hopefully it will arrive Monday. Foolishly, I don't even know what weight it is. I assumed it'd be 6 pounds or so - a kid's ball that I could wield easily, but in checking the internet - as opposed to Ebay - I think they made these things in a variety of weights. It is not drilled, so I'll have to take it into the ProShop at the bowling alley to do that. Supposedly a ball drilled to the specifications of your hand are a lot better than the "one size fits all" balls that you get at the bowling alley.

More reports as they develop. When that ball arrives and I take it to be drilled, I'll just have to play 3 games with it then to see if it improves my score!

The Saga of Tiger Woods

I've blogged about Tiger Woods in the past - how I watch golf just to see him lose. Unfortunately, this year he's been doing well and has won three times!

However, despite the fact that I dislike him, his story is an interesting one for folks working on a weight-loss program.

If you don't know the story of Tiger Woods, after a bit of a family scandal he took a year off from golf. At least - from playing at professional tournaments - he probably still practiced every day.

But in addition to not playing, he had some knee surgery, and he also switched his swing coach - and had to adopt an entirely new swing.

When he came back to playing in professional tournaments, he expected to win first crack out of the box. Didn't happen. And indeed in a couple of tournaments he dropped out - he said because he tweaked something - his detractors said it was because he was losing and didn't want to lose as bad as he was losing.

So at the beginning of this year, pundits were saying Tiger was done, would never win another major, etc.

But Tiger, who had spent his whole life playing golf, knew what was going on with his own body and his own skill set, and he kept working on his new swing (which apparently put less strain on his surgically operated on knee) and his puts and this and that.

Upshot, this year - 3 wins.

Now, you can take somewhat of the same lesson away from this.

Tiger didn't give up after his first year returning to the tournament scene, when he was doing so badly. He did not change what he was doing, he kept on with it. (Pace the two tournaments he dropped out of because he was "in pain.!") And in the end, because he had so much experience and knew what he was doing would pay dividends, he kept at it and ignored the critics.

The same philosophy can be used for weight loss - and later, weight maintenance. Pay no attention to the fads that come and go - the "eat only grape fruit" or "give up all carbs."  Common sense should tell you those don't work - and if you've tried them you know they don't work.

Tried and true and proven methods are the best. Eat less. Exercise more.

"Eat less" does not mean "cut out all your favorite foods completely."

"Eat less" does not mean "feel guilty" when you eat a whole brownie - or go to a restaurant and eat an entire plate of pasta loaded with tons of butter.  (I was reading one of those "Do Not Eat These 10 Foods" articles yesterday - I think it was on Yahoo.com).

Bushwa. Eat what you want. If you want to have a Blooming Onion at Chilis, have one. (Although, according to the article I read yesterday, you can't get a Blooming Onion at Chilis anymore. Bummer.)

Thing is...if you get a Blooming Onion - if you can find one - you eat one cluster complete with that delicious blooming onion sauce for an appetizer, and bring some of it home, and you have it once every two weeks or once a month as a treat. There's no reason not to ever have it again!

But the food police are determined to make sure that you will no longer have access to the foods you love. (Ever look in the cheese aisle? You used to have lots of real cheese, and the "low fat" and ""low calorie" crap occupied one row. Now it's the other way around!)

Everything in moderation - from food to exercise. The only thing that you need an excess of is patience. And you can cultivate that, just like a muscle.

Well...damn

I got my bowling shoes today...and immediately went to the bowling alley to check them out.

They don't slide either.

The box says "long sliders" so I know they're supposed to slide... so it's got to be whatever the alley itself does to the floors of the lanes.

Very annoying.

So, here's a summary of my scoring.

8/25/12.  My first day bowling in probably 10 years
9/1/12 - Bowled with 2 other guys
9/5/12 - bowled all on my own for 3 games. First two games sucked as I kept trying to get the damn shoes to slide. Third game...not sure if that was luck or not. Will find out Saturday!

8/25/12: 75 - 108 - 109
9/1/12:  102-102-87
9/5/12: 72 - 94 - 125

I got 1 strike and 4 spares in this last game.

(In game 1 today...I got two strikes, but my subsequent 2 balls were 1 and 2 on the first occasion, and 4 and 3 on the 2nd.  I also started out with 3 points each on the first two rounds - I'd get 3 then miss the rest as I struggled to figure out the shoe/non-slidey lane paradigm.

Still, it was fun. It's a challenge. I will figure it out, and I will improve!

Plateaus happen

Let's say that you're two weeks into the losing weight status of your weight loss program.

By that I mean...you've spent two weeks getting you body into a caloric imbalance state, and you're working out with light weights and biking or jogging to help the process along. Then, once that first pound came off, you've gone two more weeks, and lost a couple more pounds... probably about a quarter pound a day or something of that nature.

So you step on the scale on the Sunday of the third week (because I advocate stepping on the scale only once a week) and you haven't lost any weight!

You haven't gained any - but you haven't lost any.

Do not despair.

Plateaus happen, as your body strives to get used to each new weight. All you need to do is continue doing exactly what you're doing  - eating reduced portions, exercising and so on. Once your body gets used to the new weight, and maintains that caloric imbalance, the weight will start coming off again by the next week.

It's just one of those things that makes losing weight so fun.  ;)

But it is also what's going to help you when you achieve the weight you want to stay at. As long as you don't go hog wild the day after you achieve that weight, but rather just increase portions a little at a time, you will be able to maintain your new weight  - ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT MAINTAINING your new weight is much more difficult than losing it to begin with!

For most people - those not following my program! -  they start eating "normally" - the way they always used to eat - right away, and the body remembers back to that old weight it had and wants it back, and starts doing its best to get back to that weight. (Yes, I'm anthropromorphizing, but it does really happen.)

But because you've lost weight so gradually under my program, and your body thus has had a chance to get used to each new weight loss, you will not be seized with un-resistable cravings when it comes time for you to maintain.

Smart Post sucks

Well, it's Wednesday. If I'm lucky, I'll get my bowling shoes tomorrow, Thursday. But hopefully no later than Friday.

I don't know what this "Smart Post" is. I'd ordered the shoes from someone who sent them Fed Ex, except when they arrive at their destination they are then sent out by mail.

So the shoes arrived in Denver, which is I guess the closest Fed Ex hub to Cheyenne. From there, they were sent on a truck to Cheyenne, and were in limbo over the LAbor Day holidays

According to the tracking number, they just arrived at the Cheyenne post office THIS MORNING, and now I have to wait "one or two days" for them to arrive at my house.

Ridiculous.

I've been "dry bowling."  I don't know if that's the right term for it, but I"ve been practicing holding an imaginary bowling ball, going through my "address", and then taking three strides and throwing it. I had wanted those shoes early so I could go to the lanes and practice for 3 games, before Saturday, when I'll be bowling with my Scrabble club members and want to be throwing strikes!

Ah, well, like weight loss, skill in any endeavor takes practice, and in this case, lots and lots of patience!

Patience...Patience....Patience

I've got a client who was 100 pounds overweight three weeks ago. She is now 90-91 pounds overweight (depending on what time of the day she measures herself. (I've yet to convince her to only measure herself once a week, every Sunday for choice.)

So she's lost 10 pounds, but she looks at her body and sees no difference, and she's in despair about it.

I told her that even though she can't see the difference - there is a difference. If she had a pair of slacks a size smaller than what she normally wears - she could get into them now. (I didn't want to suggest that she go out and buy such a pair, as in another month or so they'll be too big for her too!)

I also told her that in another month, when she was only 80 pounds overweight, instead of 90, she would be able to see the difference.

If you buy boxes of butter from Sam's Club, you can see how much volume a pound takes up - a couple of sticks of butter - and you can see how much 10 pounds takes up.  And the equivalent of that volume is coming off your body - all over your body...a little from the legs, a little from the belly, a little from the breasts, a little from your face.

So do not despair that you have months and months to go in order to have an easily viewable weight loss. Just know that it is  happening, and will continue to happen!

Bowling pt 2

Went bowling again today with 2 friends from my Scrabble club.

The shoes this time were even worse than last time - they would not slide.

My left upper thigh is sore, not because I had had such a grueling workout, but just because I come down on that foot soo awkwardly when it doesn't slide. (I'm left-handed.)

I'd ordered new bowling shoes from Ebay. For some reason they were sent Fed Ex rather than by mail...and since you have to pay extra for Saturday delivery...I won't see them til after Labor Day.

(I was beat by the two guys who seemed to have no-problem with non-slidey shoes....I guess it's what you're used to...)

Right next to us was a family of bowlers - mom and dad, girl about 10 or 12 I suppose, boy about 5 who scored 125 - more than me! - because they had the bumpers up...so his ball would bounce off them and hit the pins.

But the girl, who looked like she should have been athletic, just could not get the hang of it. I suspect it was because she was trying to throw a ball that was too heavy, and because she had no idea how to do it..and I guess couldn't learn simply by watching the example of her parents (not that they were that good...)  She'd walk up to the foul line and then just swing her arm and roll the ball - into the gutter.

I doubt if she'll ever go bowling again...which makes me think it's important for folks - especially kids - to have someone who knows what they're doing show them how to play. Otherwise, regardless of the sport - the girl - or boy, will just blame themselves and never want to play again!