Monday, January 31, 2011

My Goal

Okay, lately the health-centered articles have been popping out at me at the grocery store checkout. It's late a night, and I'm too tired to do a big post about them (I'll save that for a few days later), but the bottom line is that they got me thinking more about eating strategies. The two camps seem to be 1)eat this type of food and eat all you want and 2)eat less calories by making them healthy-nutrient packed calories. Strictly speaking, we all know that the bottom line is this:

Weight loss = more calories burned than consumed. Period.

Every other fad or diet, tip or technique, is simply about managing hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of your body.

That being said, I have to say that one thing I've really noticed lately, something that clicks for me even though I've known it all along, is that my body handles calories differently during the day than it does at night. After 5 or 6 at night, my body just starts to shut down, and if I haven't eaten nearly all my calories for the day by then and I put a lot of calories in my stomach after 5 or 6, then the scales are not kind to me. I just can't get that weight to drop off. This past session, and others, I really noticed when I ate my calories early in the day, versus late at night. That's when I dropped weight.

So, my challenge for myself this session is to quit eating by 7pm each night. Man, that's going to be rough, because some nights I hardly get dinner ready by then. But then, that's what I should be working on: adjusting my routine and schedule so that dinner is ready by 5 or 5:30. If I were done eating by 6 each night, I think the pounds would finally start dropping again.

6 comments:

  1. Kudos to you Becky for recognizing that eating after 7:00PM is not good if your trying to losing weight. Great thing about Audrey's challenge is you earn points for abiding by this rule. Your recognition of the value of this rule is a great example of how sometimes we just have to learn by experience and studying it out in our own minds.

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  2. I try to get dinner on the table at 5:30. If I wait much longer, the kids become extremely cranky and whiny. Then after dinner clean up (6:30- 7 pm), I sit down for, oh, maybe 5 minutes and have a cup of something hot and sweet (fruit tea or hot cocoa) and something desserty: one cookie, some chocolate chips or some dry breakfast cereal.

    To make that happen, I have to have a modicum of a plan (the meat out of the fridge to defrost) by no later than 12 noon.

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  3. I needed to hear this! My problem has been eating non stop from 3-5 and then having to get dinner ready which is horrible! I am going to try eating dinner earlier even if it means just sitting and chatting with my family when they eat...

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  4. Sounds like a good goal to me. I'm lucky if dinner is ready by 7.

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  5. Great reminder post, Becky. This seems to be the first rule I break when we are between challenges. The silly thing is, when I eat after dinner I don't sleep well at all. You think I would learn.

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  6. The best way for me to avoid snacking late is to just go to bed. If I stay up much past when the kids go to bed, I totally get the munchies.

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