Whenever I am in a routine, I am able to lose weight. Whenever anything out of the ordinary is happening, my weight increases.
So, normally - I get up every morning around 6:30, have coffee, go to work, get an egg breakfast at the cafeteria, have a salad from the cafeteria for lunch, come home and have a low-calorie soup (Campbells Select Healthy Request Italian Wedding Soup is my faaavorite!) or a Lean Cuisine. During the day, I will have a fruit or low-calorie jello snack. After dinner, I take my vigorous walk. Easy. I can do that. I can predictably lose weight that way.
Earlier this week, my husband's sister was in town.... one evening we had dinner at my parents' house.... I met with a customer all day one day (not normally in my job routine)..... and I gained 2 pounds.
Luckily, slowly getting back to routine -- and the weekend is good for me too because I've got everything under control -- I took off the two pounds.
My question is -- Do any of you have this type of challenge? If so, have you figured out a coping mechanism to make sure you stay on plan whenever your routine changes?
Many people think routine is boring, but I find it comforting and helpful.
I firmly believe that stress is a significant factor in weight loss. When I am out of my usual routine, I do sometimes stall my weight loss or even gain.
Thus, I try to incorporate some "balance" into my day - regardless of what the day brings.
Really important elements of my day include:
Bible study
Prayer/meditation
Morning Yoga or pilates routine
Centering music (Christian contemporary or classical work best for me)
Afternoon tea
I think keep SOME routine which includes things that calm and soothe really does help me lose weight. I can't prove it scientifically, but empirically - it seems to be true.
Thank you for the advice. Whenever routine changes, it doesn't change everything completely. I need to focus on keeping my routines where I can and just rolling with it sensibly whenever there's a change.
I think I need more planning too. Rather than just giving up and thinking that I have to change everything whenever there's an upset to the routine, I could probably plan to bring things and make things to help me stay on plan.
You don't mention what kind of weight loss plan you're following. Are you counting calories? Following a meal-by-meal menu plan?
If you are counting calories, you'll find after awhile that you'll be able to select better what to eat and what not to eat when you go to a gathering, a restaurant, etc. Things come up all the time, but we don't have to toss the plan out the window every time that happens. Otherwise, well,
I worry that you aren't eating enough on your regular planned day. In my experience, the more "starved" my body is, the easier it is to go off track at an unplanned opportunity. I know the soup is about 200 calories and even estimating generously for 400 for the egg breakfast and the salad and 100 calories for the snack, that really isn't a lot of food.
Other thoughts -
An offplan meal tends to be higher in salt than a planned meal. If you see a 2 lb blip on the scale after one meal with your family or a meal with a customer, you did not eat 7000 extra calories worth of food, you did not gain 2 lbs of fat.
Time to come up for strategies for how to handle offplan encounters (and I truly do understand because this is one of my big obstacles as well).
Restaurants are the easiest - unlike a dinner at your mom's house where it might be insulting to bring your own food or make special requests, let the special orders FLY. In my 4 years of healthy eating, I have found restaurants to be so friendly and accomodating. If the nutrional info is posted online, make your decision BEFORE you get there, don't even open the menu at the restaurant or get tempted by all the great smelling food walking by you. If the restaurant serves bread/chips, move them away from you. Double the vegetables, ask for no butter, get a salad with the dressing on the side, box up half your meal immediately to take home.
Dinner at a person's home - okay that's tough. Depending on your relationship - is it a loved one where you can honestly say something like "I would love your company, but is it okay if I bring my own meal" or someone you don't know as well where you might ask "What do you need me to bring, can I bring a big green salad" (which you would then eat a lot of and a small serving of your host's food.
Alcohol - try to avoid. I love red wine, but when I was actively losing weight, I pretty much cut it out completely. After a couple glasses of wine, I start to make really bad food decisions!
Jay -- My weight loss plan was developed by a nutritionist when I was diagnosed with diabetes. Basically, it is portion control, calorie control, and then making sure I balance fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, fat, and carbohydrates (especially). My biggest enemy is simple carbs.
Sh3l5 -- I'm glad I'm not the only one!
Julie and Glory -- Your comments about sodium are interesting. Most likely water weight rather than actual fat. When I think it through, I do believe I'm getting at least 1,500 calories daily when I flesh it out with crackers to go along with soup and salad, etc., so I don't think my calories are low. But, I guess you're right in figuring that I go somewhere and I feel like I've built up enough equity to dive in on the things I shouldn't be having.
I really do have trouble with having a red wine on a special occasion -- love it, but it wreaks havoc with my blood sugar, so I really have no business having it. None.
I also actually took your advice before I received it this morning at brunch with my son. He came up here to Dallas because he was evacuated from where he goes to college in South Texas because of hurricane Ike. Last night, great dinner with asparagus and salad and no bread (for me) and mushrooms and onions and just a little beef (for me). However -- had the wine.... ugh! Today, I took him to brunch at one of his favorite local places... My typical would be loaded with cheddar and potatoes and biscuits, etc., but I decided beforehand that I would have the vegetarian omelet with a little feta, fruit, and wheat toast. Woo hoo! (My son got the all-out delicious meal that I normally get).
So, yes. I felt very panicky yesterday about everything, but it all seemed to turn out for the best -- except for the wine
Sodium definitely has an effect! I regularly see a 2-3 lb spike the morning after eating Chipotle or sushi!
I've never been a huge fan of scale ups/downs personally (I'm a once a week weigher), but it might be good for you to weigh everyday for a week or so and chart the results with commentary on what you ate the day before/where you are in your cycle.
I also regularly go up 3-4 lbs the week before my period, I'm not a huge fan but it happens consistently and is temporary.
Be sure you are focusing on goals that aren't scale related - since you can do everything "right" and not see the expected results for whatever reason. You can't control the scale, but there are a lot of other factors that you can control and reward yourself for!
I also like routine, but my life doesn't allow for much of it. I find that planning is a good second choice. When I eat out I decide beforehand if I am going to have bread, if this is a night when I will allow a dessert etc. (Sometimes I even look at the menu on the internet in advance.) I find that this way I don't make impulsive decisions...somehow impulsive is always for more calories.
Red wine is wonderful, however one of my friends refers to it as a "sugar delivery system" because it really is all metabolized as glucose really quickly. That mental image (a glass of sugar) has helped me turn it down relatively easily!
I totally feel your pain. I do so good all week long because I have a set routine (and diet) I follow but this weekend it just all fell apart. I couldn't decide on what I should eat. I didn't want to eat what I eat everyday but then I couldn't think of anything good and healthy. So I basically didn't eat anything until I went to Target and my son wanted m&m's. Grrr! So frustrating. I need to figure something out before next weekend - no sense in throwing away all my hard work from the rest of the week.
Last edited by asparagus4sale; 09-15-2008 at 09:20 AM.
Oh yeah, I definitely plan the weekend days like any other day. I often make different things for lunch on the weekends, because I'm at home and can cook more easily than my usual lunches at work.
Question about Routine
