Second Week Of My Weight Loss Challenge And It Is Already A Holiday!


Okay. So this was not exactly the optimum of circumstances. It was really important for me to have success in this challenge to lose 40 pounds by the age of 40 early on so that I can build on positive results. Now I was facing a holiday weekend away from my treadmill and visiting family who would keep us entertained by taking us to see the many sites of the city in which we are gathering. I love holidays and I love to see the sites of an unfamiliar city. I was afraid that this last weekend might have really blown the beginning of my challenge.

When faced with such adversity, the best advice that I can give is to stick with the things that you know works. Limit volume of food eaten. Drink lots of water, stay away from the pop. I’ll explain more in the Let’s Talk About Food section following. Don’t forget to keep that body moving. Even when you are out of town and have no access to a gym, there are many ways you can exercise.

Let's Talk About Food:

Today I want to talk about one of the most important things that you can do to help yourself lose weight. If you are a pop drinker, you need to nix the pop entirely while you are trying to lose weight. It doesn’t matter if you are drinking regular or diet pop, you need to stop drinking any pop. I understand how strong of an addiction that a person can have to pop. I too was a diet coke addict. Until a little more than five years ago, I wouldn’t drink anything else, not even water. I almost never drank water before then. It is an addiction that I have broken.

I have my own theory about why pop causes weight gain. My theory has a different focus than what the experts suggest is the problem. I am not discounting the experts. I believe that they know what they are talking about. At the same time, I do believe that they may not be thinking about the entirety of the problem with pop. I believe that, outside of the sugar in pop, the real problem has to do with the carbonation in the drink. My theory about why people who drink pop gain weight regardless of whether it is diet or not has to do with how the stomach is most likely affected by the carbonation in pop. Think about what happens when you blow air into a balloon. The balloon expands to accommodate the air. The stomach is kind of like a balloon. When it fills with gas, it expands. The carbonation, bubbles, in pop is a gas forced into a liquid. We get the bubbles in pop when the gas is trying to escape the liquid. I theorize that when we drink pop, the gas that is in the liquid escapes into the stomach and expands the stomach. The gas leaves the stomach after expanding the stomach. When the stomach is expanded, we want to eat more food to have that feeling of fullness. When we eat more, our stomach expands. This expansion of the stomach from eating tends to linger and the stomach doesn’t automatically shrink back to its previous size. Over time, we end up eating more and more in order to feel full as our stomach expands. If you have ever been sick long enough for your stomach to shrink a bit you should be able to relate to how the stomach can shrink and expand. When you started to eat again you couldn’t eat very much before you felt the feeling of fullness. Each meal, you can eat a little more because your stomach has expanded a little more until you finally can eat as much or more than you did before you were sick. The catalyst of all of this expansion was the pop, or rather the carbonation in the pop. When I removed pop from my diet, I stopped gaining weight and then started losing weight. I found myself needing to eat less to feel full. When I reintroduced the occasional pop back into my diet, I stopped losing. Do yourself a favor and remove the pop from your diet for a month. Do not over indulge in foods. Eat normally and slowly and see what happens. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Our Favorite Subject: Exercise :-(

I am happy to report the results of my test endurance run on a 0 incline. I started my test with a 3 minute warm up, steadily increasing my pace to a jog and ended my test with a 3 minute cool down, steadily decreasing my pace to a gentle walk. My total test time on the treadmill was 31 minutes. I was able to run for 25 minutes nearly 1.75 miles. I probably could have run farther but I really needed to go to the bathroom from the time shortly after I began running. Note to self, use the restroom before starting to run. Oh well. I am really proud of myself. My husband told me that was nearly one tenth of the distance of a marathon. At first I thought geesh, that run was only one tenth of a marathon. After a few days I realized that I should be looking at this as I can already run one tenth of a marathon. In less than a couple of months, I went from being clumsy just walking on a treadmill to jogging straight and steady for 25 minutes. What a difference. I really didn’t expect that good of a result. My experience has taught me that a shorter run with variable speed and incline is a great way to build endurance even for much longer runs.

My exercise on this holiday weekend was limited but I made the best of it. I walked as much as I could when we were out and about. I even found opportunity to climb up and down 45 steps to the top of a tower at the Liberty Memorial in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri. It was probably a good time for me to take a break from running. I was sore for a couple of days from the test endurance run and I was able to heal before returning to the treadmill following the holidays. If you find yourself in a situation which interrupts your routine, find a way to keep your body moving. Go for a walk. Take a hike. Tour a museum. Go shopping. There are countless ways that you can get some form of exercise to keep your body moving.

That’s A Wrap: No, I Am Not Talking About Food.

Remember that drinking pop is counterproductive to attempts at weight loss. I theorize that pop expands the stomach and causes you to eat more in order to feel full. Water is the best drink for your body and studies show that water can help improve your metabolism. Switch away from pop and add more water to your diet.

Boost your metabolism by keeping your body moving. Even when you are out of town, you can find ways to exercise your body. It can be a simple as going shopping or taking a walk. Just find a way to do something besides sitting around.