Wait for it...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how instant gratification has ruined my life. That's probably overstating it, but only by a little bit. It's not just me. The entirety of modern society is plagued by see-want-grab disease. I'm not one to harp on what we've lost as a society, but I think patience is something that we should revisit.

Taking the way-back machine to my childhood, I remember claymation specials that aired once in a holiday season and the thrill of getting candy and other special treats just a few times a year. It meant something because the anticipation is just as magical as the actual event. The need to have exactly what we want, as soon as we think of it has led to unsustainable levels of consumption and contributed to both obesity rates and insane personal debt... and for what?

From personal experience, during and after college I managed to accrue a staggering credit card debt that left me dodging phone calls throughout my twenties.

Food was the same. When I got away from the routine of family dinners with the 'rents, I went a little crazy. Doughnuts for dinner? Fabulous idea! I was a grown up, I didn't need to stick to the rigid dinner menus of my youth. I've fixed that now, but it was all for the love of instant gratification. /soapbox

So, patience. One of the first things I learned on this journey is to take my time whilst eating. This has been very hard for me, especially when I'm hungry. But savoring every bite can be a big help in the fight against over eating. Studies show (no I have no references, it's a blog) that it takes about 20 minutes for the food to hit the stomach and turn off the "feed me" signals to the brain. I know that most of us are in a hurry when we eat, but think about why you're in a hurry. What's more important than properly fueling your body?

Finally, make sure what you're feeling is hunger. In our haste we often think any grumble of the tummy is hunger. Not so! Or at least not always so. Our brains frequently confuse thirst for hunger. The first thing I do when I think I'm hungry is drink some water. If you aren't drinking lots of water, and you have any interest in losing weight, I highly recommend you start doing so. Sodas (diet and otherwise), coffee, alcohol will all dehydrate you. Water is the best thirst quencher there is (except Brawndo. It has electrolytes... it's what plants want. j/k Honestly, unless you are a very high performance athlete, steer clear of the "sports drinks").

Parlay

Apparently I have something to say...

I've had quite a few questions about my weight loss. This has been especially true in the past few weeks since being featured on the local news. So I thought I'd parlay that experience into something hopefully helpful for those interested in reading it. Certainly it promises to be something helpful for me to collect these little tidbits of information that are floating around my head.

Where I come from

I used to think, “I’ve always been fat”. It’s not true. I was fat as an adolescent, lost weight before and during college, and then started gaining after college. I think I fell victim to the self fulfilling prophesy. My own poor body image made me fat (ok, not completely accurate, but it was a contributing factor). I didn’t bother. I was already fat (right?) so why should I try to be anything but that. While I wasn’t always fat, I wasn’t ever fit… and didn’t have any idea how to get there, That’s what this is about. Being fit. I’ll never be skinny. I don’t want to be super skinny. But I do want to be fit. I started to get there a few years ago. Four years ago, I dropped 50 pounds and stayed there for a few months before it started creeping back on. I gained about 40 of it back. Then last year (2009) I had a rude awaking. I tried help out a friend by buying life insurance, and was declined for my build. Blood sugar and blood pressure were fine. I had none of the obesity related diseases... but I was still uninsurable. At first, it depressed me a little. Then I got pissed. The fastest way to get me to do something is tell me I can't. I guess I'm just stubborn.

Step One: Decluttering

I restarted my journey in an odd place. My closets. In retrospect, it makes sense, but at the time I found it odd that my depression drove me to literally clean house. I cleared out all the closets in the house and got rid of a lot of clutter. Bags and bags of stuff that was meaningful to me at one time or another needed to go if I wasn't likely to ever use it again. Now I feel like this was a necessary mental step in my journey. There is little difference between the stuff I don't need that takes up space in my house, and the stuff I don't need that takes up space in my body.

Step Two: Insert Nike Marketing Slogan

As I cleaned, I realized that I had all the tools that I needed to make this work. After several failed attempts to lose weight- on a sustainable level- in the past, I finally got what it takes. Diets that restrict any particular food or groups of foods don't work in the long run. If you feel like you can never eat a favorite (or even a marginally liked) food again, you are setting yourself up for failure. I think about my junior year in high school. My parents and I were living in Germany, and we could not get Doritos. I don't really care all that much about Doritos, but when you can't have something, for whatever reason... it takes on a magical quality. A few months into our year, I went to England with my class. The other Americans and I were walking through the Underground when we all stopped, "Do you smell that?" one of them said, "DORITOS!" we shouted... and ran off on a mission to find the source of the ambrosia scent. Point is, if you cut something out, you will think of nothing else until you consume it. When you consume it, you will likely do it greedily. Carbohydrates, protein, and fats are all essential parts of any diet, but moderation is key in anything, and calories matter.

The other part of this is exercise. When I went through this process 4 years ago, I focused on the exercise and other than eating (to much of) healthy foods, didn’t focus on my diet at all. Back then I mostly focused on walking until it stopped working, then I started with resistance training (weight lifting) and yoga. I love yoga. It makes me feel good. But I discovered it can’t be my only exercise. I fell into a “yoga trap”. I thought, “I’m doing tough moves twice a week…this is good enough.”

In the past year, I've become an exerfiend. I do a minimum of 30 minutes of hard cardio (running, elliptical, amt, rowing, bike... drenching sweat inducing) most days. Walking is great, but no longer gets counted as my exercise. I do resistance training twice a week, but am starting to ramp that up to three times a week. The main thing I'm trying to accomplish is keeping my body guessing. If I get too used to any one exercise, it stops being effective. And I get bored. A bored Zanna is a dangerous thing.

But really it comes down to do whatever works for you, but just do it. What works for me may not work for you. The general principle of eat less than you burn should work for anyone.

So who cares

Maybe nobody. That's fine. I have a few more posts in mind over the next few weeks, things that people ask me about diet or running or motivation or whatever. I'm not a personal trainer or a nutrition expert, just someone who has dropped about a hundred pounds in a little over a year. The only thing I'm an expert on is what has worked for me.