Weight Loss in the Real World
By Lauri Porten, ACSM Certified Personal Trainer
Weight Loss in the "Real World"
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As a personal trainer, it's important for me to "walk the talk" by engaging in the same healthy activities and habits that I recommend to my clients. No one wants to work out with an out-of-shape and flabby trainer!
When I talk with clients about eating plans and nutritional goals, they'll often ask me about one or more of the popular diet programs they've read about or heard discussed on Oprah.
I'm not a big fan of most popular diet programs, particularly those that force you to eliminate one or or more food groups or programs that require you to consume primarily one type of food over another.
It's not that all diet programs are inherently bad, sometimes they can be useful for people who need a “kick start” or those who need a way to break out of the bad dietary habits that have lead to weight gain and health issues. Depending on the type of diet, these programs may be a good resource for healthy eating ideas and options.
For many people though, diets can be too restrictive. They often lead to an “all or nothing” mentality where you're either on your diet or you've blown your diet. Sound familiar? How many times have you started on a diet (with the best of intentions!), only to fall off the wagon for a day or two, then decide to scrap the entire thing altogether.
An alternative to this diet-induced madness is to simply focus on healthy, balanced eating and manage your food intake with a tracking tool like mygraphite.com. The benefit of this approach is that you learn to manage your eating in the “Real World”. You're not waking up every day obsessed with following a diet program to the letter of the law.
Instead, you start eating real food, in real situations, in portions and quantities that fit within your calorie budget. Want to enjoy a glass of cabernet for dinner? No problem. Just work the 122 calories into your calorie budget. Need to grab a bite on the run this afternoon? No problem! You've done a bit of work ahead of time and you know 3 places you can stop for a healthy, calorie-friendly lunch option.
Below I have included my food log from earlier this week. The good, the bad and the ugly! It's not perfect meal plan, but it's reasonably well balanced. My choices reflect some of the "Real World" options I alluded to above.
Remember, it's about consistently eating healthy and managing your calorie budget. Perfection is not required!
