If this is the first time you’re reading Jaylene’s Weight Loss Journey, here are the earlier posts:
Jaylene:
I did walk two times this week… early in the week. Okay coach, what I might need is a reward/consequence system asap.
I KNOW that I will have a tough time with calorie counting. I just can’t add another thing on my plate right now. For me, I am still “stress” eating.
Which do you think is most important to work on first? Exercising or calorie counting/menu planning, if you had to choose?
I will commit to one change this week. Which one do you want me to commit to??
Matt:
Your goals for the week were:
Eat 3 servings of veggies/day
Have 1 protein shake/day, preferably for dinner
Exercise for 30 minutes each day
Keep track of your total calorie intake for 3 days this week.
Move all “off-limits” foods into one area of the kitchen, i.e. on cabinet.
Tell one family member or co-worker about your main goal and ask them for support.
Looks like you’ve exercised only 2 out of 5 days. I chose this as a goal because in Part 3 you said it was something you wanted to do. I really think this will go hand-in-hand with the stress eating. You can use exercise to help battle stress mostly because going for a walk is getting you away from your sources of stress. I’ll be honest, I thought this goals was a sure thing. The protein shake and veggie goals were carry-overs from last week, so these should have been relatively easy. The moving foods and family member conversation goals were both 1-off activities, maybe 10 minutes each.
Let’s think of it this way. There are 120 hours in 5 days. If you walked twice, 30 minutes each, you spent 1 hour of that 120 on your fitness goals.
To your question, meal planning/calorie counting is far more likely to garner results than exercise. If you had an extra 20 minutes, all other things being equal, spend that 20 minutes planning meals or doing something food related. “I just can’t add another thing on my plate right now.” Pun intended? 🙂 Why not spend 30 minutes one day preparing/measuring foods for the next few days. Things like, cottage cheese, protein shakes, meat and cheese roll-ups – portable and easy to count calories. Limit yourself to 5 meals/food combinations and repeat those throughout the weeks. This eliminates options, which should help eliminate stress eating. You can’t eat what’s not on the plan. This isn’t a long-term strategy, of course, but it will get the ball rolling.
To the question about a reward/consequence system. I know what you mean, but I just don’t understand these. To me it seems clear; reward – lose weight, consequence – gain weight or stay the same. Also, only you truly have the power to enforce the reward/consequence system. If you have the power to punish yourself, you have the power to just do the stuff you set out to do in the first place. We can work on one of these, but it needs to be a conversation, so we’ll have to talk on the phone. Let me know when to call or just give me a call, okay?
Okay, enough babbling on from this guy 🙂 Here are your goals for the week:
Plan 7 days worth of eating using only a few food combinations. This goals should literally take no longer than 30 minutes.
Follow the plan in step 1 to the letter, no matter what pops up.
That’s it. Jaylene, you can do this. It’s going to take some time commitment on your part. You have to allow yourself some time for… yourself. (Austin Powers reference, sort of)