Re: the "tire around the middle&am...
Hi Nancy!
Great to see you back! I wish I had some magic bullet to add here about the muscle definition. I don't, and I will "second" the very sound advice you've gotten here from some of our resident experts (and wow, do we have some good ones!) I especially think it's probably a great idea to take a clear-eyed look at how hard you're pushing yourself on your strength training. That suggestion really hit home to me, and I suspect that's part of why I don't find myself making huge gains in muscle definition. I'm sure gonna take a close look at that.
You said "No chart can convince me that this tire around my middle actually belongs there!" Girl, I hear ya. Me too. I recently had my annual physical and had a long talk with my wonderful internist about the 10 pounds that have been trespassing on me, and mostly on my midriff, since I turned 40. All my "chart" measurements were fine -- weight and BMI within my age & height "zone," resting pulse really low, good muscle tone, kudos for all that from the doctor. But that spare tire -- it does NOT belong on the body I've been comfortable with for 40-something years! If you really feel that you have a spare tire you'd like to be rid of, maybe my experience with this will be helpful to you.
My interist said he could see that I was disturbed about that mid-body fat (he called it "normal midlife fat deposits" -- isn't that an awful term?) and so he wanted to help me find a way to tackle it sensibly.
He suggested that I should keep doing what I have been doing workout-wise, and that I should spend a few weeks working on modifying my diet in fairly simplistic, live-for-the-rest-of-my-life ways. He said NOT to rush out and start some program indiscriminately. Rather, I should read and take notes as if I were studying for an exam from several types of books, and treat this research as a self-taught nutrition course of sorts.
In terms of specific diet goals, he said that most of his women patients my age had responded very well, both weight and health-wise, to a basically low-fat, low-carbs, higher-protein plan. For research materials, he said he liked "the common-sense gist" of low-fat high-protein diet plans such as The Zone, SugarBusters, and Protein Power -- NOT Dr. Atkins, which he thinks is a heart disease-promoting fiasco (and I know some doctors disagree, but mine felt really strongly about that). He also highly recommended Dr. Howard Shapiro's "Picture Perfect Weight Loss" (our Honeybunch has always been bullish about this book) for general food-awareness training. He also recommended reading a book focused on the nutritional and other needs of menopausal women -- he recommended Dr. Christiane Northrup's books and Ann Louise Gittleman's books. Last, for me because my cholesterol is also genetically at risk, he also suggested reading "The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure" and focusing on the diet components of that program that were compatible with a low-fat high-protein approach.
From this research, I should then formulate a sensible low-fat, low-carb, high-protein weight loss program, and then a lifetime nutrient and calorie plan, for myself based upon my likes and dislikes and my activity needs, and then I should do some meal planning and shopping planning.
He also strongly recommended that I food-journal while I was researching, and then while I was "dieting." I've been doing that and have found that I was consuming FEWER calories than I thought, FEWER grams of protein than I thought, and MORE fat than I thought. Hmmm.
I left his office that day feeling reassured but also a little annoyed because his advice struck me as sort of generic, nothing I couldn't have figured out myself, and because it placed a lot of work on my shoulders. But as I thought it over and accumulated the reading materials he suggested (some of which I already owned -- don't we all!), I decided that his approach was wise. First of all, I sure could have figured this all out for myself, but up until this point I obviously haven't. And second, I am not overweight at ALL by some measures, and by no measure am I seriously overweight. But I got myself into this condition and I'm an intelligent and educated woman. It is absolutely right that I should shoulder the responsibility of becoming better informed about not only what I SHOULD eat, but about what I DO eat and why, and that I should be responsible for altering my eating habits permanently.
So - that was three weeks ago. I have now read and taken notes on five books, and I have food-journaled and become more food-aware already. I am still working on a meal plan -- not really my forte, I admit -- but I am already finding myself shopping more wisely and cooking and eating more sensibly. And I might add that I really didn't think I was doing any of that in an unhealthy way before, but I've sure found things to change for the better, for myself and for my family. I haven't lost any weight yet but feel, for the first time in a long time, pretty confident that the weight will gradually come off and pretty remarkably undistressed about it -- I just feel like I'm finally getting a handle on all the factors involved, you know?
One last thing -- my doctor suggested taking stock every 3 or 4 pounds -- he thinks that after I've lost 4 to 7 pounds I might well decide I'm fine where I am. I'm not there yet, obviously, but he might well be correct.
That advice reminds me of what some of our wise Forum members have said to you, Nancy -- re-think your own goals periodically, and try to take a fresh look at yourself. Sometimes I think we don't see the forest for the trees. Take care of yourself and be proud of what you have accomplished, as well as ambitious about what's yet to be conquered.
Again, great to have you back with us!
http://www.clicksmilie.de/sammlung/sport/sport003.gif Kathy S.
Please give us an idea of your diet if you want us to help you. If not, you probably already know that is the area in which you are lacking, yes?
