Tracy Rose's Blog
Posted by Tracy Rose
Winter is a tough time to lose weight. The colder months with fewer hours of daylight keep us inside more and the holidays bring temptations, busy schedules and excuses to get off track from dieting and exercising.
Tips to Stay on Track and Avoid Winter Weight Gain
- Stick to your goals. Write down your weight loss goals and make a pact with yourself to stick to them no matter what.
- Get outside whenever you can. Short walks, skiing, sledding or whatever you can manage to do outdoors in the winter will not only burn calories, but also exposes you to natural sunlight, which improves your mood and helps keep you motivated.
- Make exercise a part of your daily routine. Pencil exercise in on your calendar and treat it like any other appointment that you wouldn't miss. Find ways to boost your exercise during the holidays.
- Eat only a few bites of your favorite holiday treats. Remember you can eat anything in moderation, but calories add up quickly, causing holiday weight gain. There are some holiday foods to avoid because they make it difficult to lose weight.
- Don't overdo it on alcoholic drinks as they contain hundreds of calories and offer no nutritional value. Save your calories for healthy foods that fill you up and help you reach your weight loss goals.
- Have a snack before attending social events. Never go to a holiday party when you are hungry. The temptations at office and social parties during the holidays can sabotage your best weight loss efforts.
- Be forgiving of yourself if you end up eating too much and blowing your diet. Dust yourself off and get right back on track with your weight loss goals.
- Assess your progress from the previous year. Have you lost any weight? What helped you in your weight loss success? What could you have done differently to lose more weight?
- Make a plan for the new year. Set new goals and get a fresh start, no matter where you are on your weight loss journey.
Winter weight gain is avoidable with the right motivation and positive attitude. The key is to not use the winter months or the holidays as an excuse not to exercise or eat right. Think of all the reasons you want to lose weight and keep them in mind through the colder months. Winter weight gain only causes another setback and more weight to burn off in the following months. It's better to maintain your weight during the holidays if you are unable to lose weight.
Posted by Tracy Rose
Lifetime recently aired the pilot for their new show, Drop Dead Diva. This comedic drama centers around the life of a formerly thin girl who is involved in a fatal accident and is sent back to live as a plus size lawyer by Heaven's gatekeeper (who acts as her guardian.)
Thrown into her new life, Jane has to get used to her new body, how to dress, how to handle food issues and how her friends and coworkers react to her. She does it all with a sense of humor. She may be a size 16, but she starts to see that she is well respected in her job and is amazed at her own intelligence. Getting used to her new body is an adjustment though.
Drop Dead Diva is interesting because it does show real life problems of an overweight woman. When she returns to visit her old thin friend, for example, the friend has a hard time accepting her. She is even reluctant to go out with her because she knows she won't get passed through the line at the club. Another example is how hard she has to work to gain respect in her career. Jane dresses professionally and looks put together at work, but getting people to take her seriously is another issue. At one point a coworker sets an entire plate of donuts in front of her as they are meeting with a client to purposely embarrass her.
It's nice to see a show that features a plus size woman as the main character. We've seen the overweight side kick over and over. It's about time a show dealt with the issues of an overweight woman from her perspective.
Posted by Tracy Rose
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the days are getting longer. It’s spring and that means one thing….summer will be here soon! Need a little extra motivation to lose weight? Think of yourself in spring and summer clothes. Can you see your body in shorts? How about a bathing suit?
There is no better time than spring to reevaluate weight loss goals. Go back and reread what your goals are. See how you have progressed. If you have been slacking, it’s time to get back on track and get fired up about your weight loss.
That’s exactly what I intend to do too. It’s been a long, cold winter and it has been too easy to use that as an excuse to hibernate in the house the last few months. I need an extra push to stay motivated and lose weight. Getting outside to walk is a start. Making it fun for the family is even better.
I’ve signed me and my kids up for a Marathon Club at their school as a first step towards getting us moving more. I’ve also decided to start geocaching again. We have had fun finding these buried “treasures” before.
While these activities won’t magically make the weight disappear overnight, it is a step in the right direction. I also know that, aside from losing weight, exercise makes me feel good. This winter has left me feeling sluggish. I’m tired of feeling that way and am excited about recommitting to outdoor exercise.
Posted by Tracy Rose
- Make it fun. If you dread your workout and think you will die if you have to go another day eating dry, tasteless food, you aren’t going to stick to the plan. Instead, make losing weight fun. Try out new activities and menus that keep it exciting and new.
- Stay in the spirit. Many people fall into negative thinking when they don’t see instant results for their weight loss efforts. Stay positive. Remind yourself why you want to lose weight and how good you feel when you eat right and exercise.
- Enlist the help of family and friends. You don’t have to tackle your weight loss journey alone. Whether you choose to mall walk with friends, call them for support in your weak moments, exchange healthy recipes or celebrate with them when you reach your goals, having weight loss buddies is essential to your long-term success.
- Set realistic goals. If your goal is simply to lose weight, it is not specific enough. Break down your big picture goal into smaller, more manageable goals. Create separate categories of goals for diet, motivation, fitness and exercise. Your goals may be to lower your cholesterol by 20 points, lose a size or to accomplish a more strenuous workout. Whatever your goals are, they should be specific personal goals for yourself. Also make sure to revisit your goals to check off what you have achieved, revise goals and set new ones.
Sticking to your New Year's resolution to lose weight isn't impossible. It just takes a little planning. Using these tips will help you stick to your diet and reach your weight loss goals.
Posted by Tracy Rose
Many people who see Bariatric surgery as an option hit a road block when they try to get their insurance companies to cover the cost. What the companies may not realize is that losing weight through Bariatric surgery can actually pay for itself over time because the individual will experience fewer health problems.
Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon Endo-Surgery didision sponsored a study on this topic. They found that health care companies do benefit from investing in weight loss surgery for qualified candidates. Most surgeries can be done for less than $20,000. While that seems like a steep number, consider the alternative.
Overweight people require more health care than people at a healthy weight. They nedd more doctor appointments, prescriptions, tests, treatments and hospital stays that the aveage person. The more they weight, the more likely they are to experience health problems realted to their obesity.
