My Week- 5th June- Week 23
Don’t hibernate – rejuvenate this winter
Use the cooler months to step up your weight loss efforts
Use winter to sharpen your resolve, set new goals to see you through and emerge a slimmer, healthier person come spring.
Who you gonna call? Exercise Busters!
Excuse- It’s too cold to exercise
Answer – Exercise will warm me up
- Nothing warms you up faster than getting active. If you don’t want to venture outside, choose activities you can do indoors such as home DVD workouts, gym classes or indoor swimming.
Excuse- I don’t feel like salads
Answer – I can add warm ingredients
- Finding satisfaction in your meals is important. And if it’s comfort food your after, simply tailor the ingredients. Add roast pumpkin and warm chicken to salads, or use the sandwich press for a toasty sandwich
Excuse – I’ll get back on track after winter
Answer – Think about what you’ve achieved so far. Remember, you don’t have to work harder or do anything differently throughout winter, just keep following the program – and always build in variety to your food and activity choices.
5 Fun Winter Ideas
1. Use your weekly Propoints allowance for a warm winter dessert
2. Buy yourself on a new pair of jeans to suit your changing figure
3. Put some warmer highlights through your hair to reward a goal reached
4. Host a dinner party using Weight Watchers Recipes
5. Rug up and read the Weight Watchers blogs, magazines and message boards
Souper- size me
Soups are an excellent way to boost your nutrient intake in the colder months and warm from within. A bowl of soup can make a hearty meal or a satisfying snack and even give your weight loss efforts an edge as long as you choose wisely.
Slurp your way to weight loss
Regularly including a portion controlled soup as a starter before you start your main meal is a smart strategy in winter, when you’re likely to burn less kilojoules in physical activity and reach for the comfort food.
According to Dr Barbara Rolls, research from their Penn State University Eating Laboratory demonstrates that soup should be an automatic inclusion in healthy weight loss plans. In fact, eating a healthy soup before a main meal helps lower the total kilojoule intake at that meal by an average of 400 kilojoules. This kilojoule deficit is just what’s needed to counteract a little hibernation time this winter.
Super Soup Ingredients
Low GI Legumes and whole grains – Chickpeas, split peas, cannellini and red kidney beans along with whole grains, like barley and quinoa, bump up dietary fibre scores to between 3-6g per serve on average
Varied Veges – With 75g vegetables equal to a serve you can certainly slurp your way to five a day. Seasonal winter vegetables include broccoli, pumpkin and squash.
Cheaper meat cut – Due to their slow cooking time, cheaper cuts of meat like lamb shanks will tenderise beautifully and boost the protein, iron and zinc contents of the soups.
Salt reduced stocks – Cut down on salt when cooking soups are home and experiment with pungent herbs and spices and add flavour.
Smart switches – Creamy and condensed soups can clock up around 10g of fat per serve, so check labels when you are shopping. When making your own Asian laksas and soups, use coconut flavoured, light evaporated milk instead of coconut milk.
The benefits of exercise and how to get them
We all know exercise delivers weight loss, health and fitness. But Weight Watchers exercise scientist Martha Lourey – Bird shows you how to achieve this
Ideally your exercise regime should include the following three elements
Cardio Exercise – Makes you huff and puff- eg – walking, jogging, swimming, rowing, cycling etc. Do it moderately (can still talk) 30 minutes, five days a week or do it vigorously (can’t talk) 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week.
Resistance Exercise – Builds strong muscles and bones, increase your metabolism and improve your body shape, posture and tone- eg- Crossfit, Free Weights in the gym and / or try specific resistance exercises such as push ups, squats, lunches. Do 1-3 sets of 8-12 reps of 8-10 exercises at least twice a week.
Flexibility – Helps improve your range of motion, posture and mobility – eg- stretch all the muscles you can- hamstrings, chest, back, calves by holding the stretch still, no bouncing (unless you have done PNF stretching before). There should be mild discomfort, but no pain. Try it 2-3 days/ week for 10-30 seconds and up to 3-4 reps per stretch
However, if you are unable to do this level of activity, you can gain substantial health benefits simply by accumulating 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity (can talk but no sing) on most days of the week.
Third Time Lucky
Weight Watchers Healthy Life Awards finalist Rebecca Bell shares how weight loss success was a case of third time lucky. She has lost 24.9kg
When I look back I think the main reason I didn’t succeed in losing weight in my previous attempts was because I didn’t realise how big I got.
It wasn’t til a friends wedding where I saw a side profile photo of myself. I was horrified. I remember thinking this is it, this time it has to count.
I had tried Weight Watchers in the past with a friend and we always found excuses why we couldn’t stay for the meeting
This time around I stayed for meetings. Towards the end of the week my motivation would be running low and then I’d attend my meeting and be full of new ideas and fresh thoughts. I loved drawing ideas and experiences from other members. To me, they were a tower of support and a wealth of knowledge.
My outlook on food has evolved. I no longer drink a lot of alcohol. I still LOVE WINE and enjoy a glass or two, but I want to feel good the next morning for my exercise class.
If you utilise the Weight Watchers programme you will loose weight, but it will also take you on a complete wellness journey.
My top 5 tips to sticking to the Programme
1. Always attend your weekly meeting
2. Water, water, water. Drink water throughout the day and you’ll find yourself less hungry
3. If you have young kiddies and find that 5pm meal time difficult not to eat their dinner , make a cup of green tea and drink that instead
4. Tracking- it will make your weight loss journey quicker
5. Reward yourself and don’t beat yourself up over little things
Five healthy things we learned this week
1. Keep your weight loss efforts up this week to emerge slim for spring
2. Make a batch of Propoints free soup to keep in the freezer
3. Cheaper cuts of meat like lamb shanks make a perfect addition to soups
4. There are 3 different types of exercise to include in your routine
5. It doesn’t matter if this is your first or third time at Weight Watchers. With persistence you will reach your goal
Courtesy of the WW My Week Brochure
