Advise from our Nutritionist

My husband and I love trying to lose weight with different experiments, even if it’s only for a short while. Last year we lost 15 lbs each in two weeks just from cutting out potatoes, pasta, bread, sodas and sugary things. Once we plateaued, we just kept eating the same way and eventually went back to eating those things and we’ve just stayed at our new weight.

This year we haven’t done anything different. Even being the active people we are, it just seems like our weight is stuck to us.

We spoke to a nutritionist/personal trainer who explained what our bodies are doing in our situation. We don’t eat often or enough (being as busy as we are), so when we do eat that one big meal a day (for us it’s dinner), our bodies store every single bit of it just about. We are a very routine family, so our bodies have grown accustom to this schedule we’re on. The nutritionist said that we need to take one day a week and do erratic excessive exercise, such as running for an hour. It’s random, it’s different and that ONE day will tell the body “oh crap! I can’t store all this fat”, it goes into survivor mode and realizes it needs to be able to be on the go to “escape predators”. Don’t turn it into a schedule because once the body realizes a routine, it will be harder to burn the fat and you’ll fall back into a plateau. He also told us that we don’t need to cut out all of our favorite foods, just to portion them and to eat more often throughout the day. He said even if it’s a handful of nuts or a candy bar or some chips, anything (he suggested healthier snacks would be a better choice, obviously) every couple hours just to keep the metabolism working instead of it working all at one time when we do eat a meal. He said that also keeps you less hungry, so when it is time to eat, you don’t eat as much in one sitting. (You also have to be active too, don’t just sit around and eat all day)

Staying hydrated is another one of our issues. I can drink a pot of coffee a day but I struggle to drink more than three 16oz bottles of water a day. I’ve come across a list of top 10 hydrating foods and their water makeup. We already buy and eat them often, but we’re going to be buying them in more excess. Eating these during the day it will help us fill hunger as a healthy snack food, to boost our metabolism because we’ll be eating throughout the day and also to keep us hydrated. Our favorites are cucumber, celery, and pineapple.

So with all this information in mind. My husband and I are going to follow the advice of the nutritionist and see if we can find some success in it.