I KNOW you have an opinion!

yevasdottir

I KNOW you have an opinion! Go on, please: share it with me.

The frequently repeated message on here is that we don't need diets, we need lifestyle changes.
How am I to change my lifestyle? All suggestions considered (even the silly ones!)

Here's a typical week
Every day, morning and evening, I do 5 minutes of exercises my physiotherapist gave me.

Monday: walk 50 minutes to a regular appointment down a steep hill and UP the other side: walk ten minutes afterwards to bus-stop or, if weather excellent and motivation high – walk back home. This uses up my entire morning.

Tuesday: I go outcrop/indoor wall climbing in the evening

Wednesday: a choice – Pilates/weights/DVD-calisthenics/trail-run – about 30 minutes

Thursday: I volunteer at an Outdoor Education Centre so I could be – running around site, chasing my tail to get equipment ready; loading mountain-bikes on a trailer (and later in the day, unloading them, then re-loading them, then finally unloading them); loading canoes on trailer (and later, as for bikes, see above); river-canoeing; hiking, average four hours (with 50litre leader's rucksack); instructing rock-climbing.

Friday: just a 30-minutes' walk, to keep loose: or trail-run
Saturday/Sunday: as for Friday, trail-run or walk, or as for Wednesday
Sunday/Saturday: hill hiking – average 12 miles, with day rucksack

As for eating – I am entirely in control of what, when and how much I eat on Mondays, Wednesdays and whichever day of the weekend I'm out hiking.

On Tuesdays, because of being out from about 5pm to 11pm, it's really difficult to get a balanced intake of good food from mid-afternoon onwards.

On Thursdays, we have the option of a full, cooked breakfast at the Centre (I opt for juice, one egg on toast); our packed lunches are always a sandwich-roll (I pick ham or egg) and fresh fruit and homemade cookies and various commercial chocolate covered snackbars – I stop at the fresh fruit and take several pieces. By the end of the day, I am quite tired (sort of) and not very interested in cooking a meal so tend to go for something easy. At least I've weaned myself off (a) ready meals I would pick up on the way home and (b) something pasta-based and easy.

Fridays and Saturdays are good, until the evening, when I share the meal with my SignificantOther who burns off loads more calories than I do and needs loads more food. I try, I try to be moderate but what gets to the table is often too tempting . . . yes, this is a question of will-power, which I seem not to have.

There are always people on here with good ideas so I look forward to your suggestions with regard to HOW I can change my lifestyle to get rid of, and keep off, the remaining nine pounds that are mostly hanging around my hips.


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aaleigha1

I think it could help you on the days you are tired and find it hard to cook
to have a home cooked ready meal - so on the days you do cook why not cook yourself an extra portion and freeze it
I have several home cooked frozen meals and I was so glad when I went into hospital that I did as the food was awful for vegetarians so I got dh to bring me in fruit and a home cooked meal daily that the nursing staff were only to happy to nuke for me

girlypop

it's hard to say if this is a good life style change. Only time will really tell. When people talk of life style change they mean a change that lasts for the rest of your life. So I guess we'll know if you made any life style change at the end of your life.... Right now it's just too soon to tell.

Now when I said good life style change that becomes a little debatable. I think the easiest way to judge your life style change is by weight loss, if you are actually overweight. So the tendency is to say good life style change when you have made your life style more healthy for the rest of your life. Now if you are overweight it would be healthy to lose weight. However if you're losing weight too quickly than that's not healthy either. Consider if you lose more than 1-2lbs a week if al your changes are healthy and consider if you can easily keep these changes for the rest of your life.