ASOIAF Weight Loss Challenge II

[Seventh Pup]

Lady N that thank you for link I am totally going to try that!

[Tempra]

Here is a an article from the NY times about medical myths that even doctors believe. Here is a link to an interview with the man who actually tracked down where the myth came from.

Three glasses of water a day seem enough for me; it helps curb my appetite and keeps me from getting dehydrated. :)

Both articles suggest that 8 glasses a day is not needed when other fluids (juice, milk, caffeine, etc) are consumed. I think most people try to cut out these type of drinks when they diet. It is really easy to consume 64oz (or more) of water that it seems like a no-brainer.

[lady narcissa]

Thank you very much - will dutifully attempt. The breathing-through-nose thing is going to be interesting; my nose is lop-sided (not broken, it just grew that way), so I can basically only breathe through one nostril, and that not well. We shall see!

I shall ask this week about your situation and see if they have any breathing suggestions. We are complete opposite because I pretty much before this only breathed in and exhaled through my nose. Moving the exhalation to my mouth is challenging.

Well I had pilates yesterday and OMG...I'm walking pretty funny today. Some long dormant inner thighs muscles are totally pissed off that I discovered them again.

Almost forgot it is Monday since its a holiday here but I did my weekly weight check in and I'm down another pound this week. So down a total of 5 pounds since we started which is very nice.

[Tobin]

However I would cation you against drinking to much already packaged, diluted, and sweetened juice. It's really not worth the calories in terms of health benifits. But if you do like them and want to continue to drink them think a bout going with a diet, or sugar free varitiey. Also think about something like Crystal Light, which gives you flavor but not calories.

I can't - I've shown to be allergic (at varying levels) to every artificial sweetner I've tried.

I haven't had any of that new 'Stevia' stuff yet - but I'm gunshy about buying a whole box and then having it sit in the closet if it makes my throat swell up too.

I found some 100% juice cran-pom stuff from another brand I figure I'd try. If I cut it with a lot of water it shouldn't be too bad - and it will get me to drink more (I don't drink enough).

I got in trouble Saturday - I got distracted and forgot to eat dinner, :unsure:

I tried to cook at home, but I still don't think I did that well calorie-wise.

Getting into a routine will probably help, but I never know what I'll be doing on a given night.

I'm breaking in a new pair of heels today, so my stairs might be off the schedule for tonight - I'll have to do some serious wii action when I get home.

[Stego]

Three glasses of water a day seem enough for me; it helps curb my appetite and keeps me from getting dehydrated. :)

It's absolutely not enough. At all. Particularly when trying to lose weight. An increase in water intake speeds up the cleansing process as well as your digestive system. Water is just as, if not more important that fiber for keeping yourself from being backed up.

If your urine is yellow, you are not hydrated. Furthermore, you are overworking your kidneys and liver. You are keeping yourself in a water starvation state that, much like an actual starvation state, will prevent you from losing fat.

8 glasses is too little, not too much.

Water lubricates joints during exercise. It prevents muscle injuries during exercise. It cures headaches. It prevents cramps. It prevents fatigue --Dehydration is the most common reason for daytime fatigue. A slight drop in body water can trigger memory loss, confusion, and trouble with problem solving. Proper hydration increases oxygen levels in the blood. Why this matters is that the body can not metabolize fat without oxygen. Dehydration leaves the immune system weakened.

Water is the best natural appetite suppressant.

I like this thread and I like your motivational speech, Seventh. I'm not trying to attack you in any way. But you are entirely wrong about this. You could not possibly be more wrong. Please reconsider.

[Seventh Pup]

In the middle of my womanly cycle and so am not taking my weight this week. Work pants fit again though so I'm stoked. This weekend we went hiking and kayaking. My arms felt like they wanted to fall off, but it was really beautiful, and I adored being out on the water.

Tempra while dieters are often cautioned off juice, cola and beer, etc. They often eat more moist foods like fruit, vegetables, yogurt, soups, etc. Obviously if you in a hot climate you need more moisture then if your in a temperate climate, if you working out you need more hydration then if you are being sedentary. A man who is a 150 lbs is going to need less water then a man whose 250 lbs.

Water is also good because it puts weight in your stomach and that can make you feel less hungry. Also being thirsty often triggers our desire to eat. If anyone feels they need 8 glasses a day, by george start guzzling. But for most of us we simply don't need that much of it. It's important to listen to you body and figure out what's right for you.

[Seventh Pup]

It's absolutely not enough. At all. Particularly when trying to lose weight. An increase in water intake speeds up the cleansing process as well as your digestive system. Water is just as, if not more important that fiber for keeping yourself from being backed up.

If your urine is yellow, you are not hydrated. Furthermore, you are overworking your kidneys and liver. You are keeping yourself in a water starvation state that, much like an actual starvation state, will prevent you from losing fat.

8 glasses is too little, not too much.

Water lubricates joints during exercise. It prevents muscle injuries during exercise. It cures headaches. It prevents cramps. It prevents fatigue --Dehydration is the most common reason for daytime fatigue. A slight drop in body water can trigger memory loss, confusion, and trouble with problem solving. Proper hydration increases oxygen levels in the blood. Why this matters is that the body can not metabolize fat without oxygen. Dehydration leaves the immune system weakened.

Water is the best natural appetite suppressant.

I like this thread and I like your motivational speech, Seventh. I'm not trying to attack you in any way. But you are entirely wrong about this. You could not possibly be more wrong. Please reconsider.

Stego I don't feel attacked, because you have a different opinion then me. :) I backed up my arguement with articles, Dartmouth School of Medicine is hardly some trashy magizine fitnness "expert". I realize however that the 8 x 8 mentality is really deeply ingrained, and more over if you feel that you need that much water or more you should probably drink it.

[lady narcissa]

Water is also good because it puts weight in your stomach and that can make you feel less hungry.

Can you please talk to my stomach and try to convince it of this fact? Because my stomach is currently starving after breakfast and 5 glasses of water and is not convinced. LOL.

Actually I'm going to track how much liquid I consume in an average day because I'm curious after this discussion. It's way more than 8 glasses a day.

[Nichole]

Haven't weighed myself this week yet and I have no idea how it is going to go. While I didn't eat healthy always all weekend, I was constantly doing something all week end. Not a very relaxing weekend, but I got a lot done around the house.

Anyway, trying to think of a tweak... I might shoot for getting four servings of veggies a day?

[QuietColours]

Drinking water before meals when I'm hungry tends to just make me nauseous. All that water swishing around in an empty stomach is a really unpleasant feeling (plus I don't like the taste of water--it does have one!). I am working on making sure I get enough water over the course of the day, though--I've been feeling dehydrated faster lately, and I'm out of my work habit of keeping big glasses of water near me at all times. When I asked a nutritionist about how much water I should drink a day, I was told for my size about 6-6.5 glasses/day, some of which could come from moist foods or other liquids, plus extra when I exercise. Admittedly, I'm quite short--someone with more mass would need more.

Down 4.5 pounds total as of this week--6 pounds to go. Adding in the cardio last week worked really well--I went running, swimming, hiking (lots of lessons learned!), and just took lots of walks. I also found an adult gymnastics class, which I love! My tweak for this week is adding full body strength training in twice a week. The conditioning at gymnastics counts; class was Tuesday night and I was still really sore on Friday. I can't wait to go back to class tonight! I'd been doing open gyms for the last year, but actually having instruction is awesome.

[Fez]

Was visiting my folks this weekend, and definitely broke nearly all my dietary rules. On the other hand, my time was chock full of hiking, kayaking, sailing, and yard work; so I think it was a bit of a wash.

On water, I don't know how much I drink, its not something I keep track of at all, but its got to be close to the 8 glasses. Not because of any possible health benefits, I just find it incredibly refreshing.

[Tobin]

This was on Yahoo! today - a few nice things to take with us...

1. Drink a second cup of coffee. It might lower your risk of adult-onset diabetes (:shocked:), according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

2. Keep serving dishes off the table. Researchers have found that when people are served individual plates, as opposed to empty plates with a platter of food in the middle of the table, they eat up to 35 percent less!

3. Think before you drink. The average person drinks more than 400 calories a day--double what he or she used to--and alone gets around 10 teaspoons of added sugar every single day from soft drinks. Swap out sweetened teas and sodas for no-cal drinks and you could lose up to 40 pounds in a single year! Many of these drinks contain more than a day's worth of calories, sugar and fat!

4. Practice total recall. British scientists found that people who thought about their last meal before snacking ate 30 percent fewer calories that those who didn't stop to think. The theory: Remembering what you had for lunch might remind you of how satiating the food was, which then makes you less likely to binge on your afternoon snack.

5. Eat protein at every meal. Dieters who eat the most protein tend to lose more weight while feeling less deprived than those who eat the least protein. It appears that protein is the best nutrient for jumpstarting your metabolism, squashing your appetite, and helping you eat less at subsequent meals.

6. Choose whole-grain bread. Eating whole grains (versus refined-grain or white bread) has been linked to lower risks of cancer and heart disease.

7. Think fish. Consuming two 4- to 6-ounce servings of oily fish a week will sharpen your mind. Among the best: salmon, tuna, herring, mackerel, and trout. They're high in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which may reduce your risk of Alzheimer's]. Study participants who had high blood levels of DHA also performed better on noverbal reasoning tests and showed better mental flexibility, working memory, and vocabulary than those with lower levels.

8. Sign up for weight-loss e-mails. Daily e-mails (or tweets) that contain weight-loss advice remind you of your goals and help you drop pounds, researchers from Canada found. We're partial to our own Eat This, Not That! newsletter, and to the instant weight-loss secrets you'll get when you follow me on Twitter here.

9. Cut portions by a quarter. Pennsylvania State University researchers discovered that by simply reducing meal portions 25 percent, people ate 10 percent fewer calories—without feeling any hungrier. Serving yourself? Think about what looks like a reasonable portion, then take at least one-quarter less than that. (By the way, studies show today's restaurant servings are 2 to 5 times bigger than what the government recommends!)

10. Turn off the TV. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts found that people who watch TV during a meal consume, on average, 288 more calories than those who don't eat with the tube on.

11. Put your fork down when you chew. Or take a sip of water between each bite—eating slowly can boost levels of two hormones that make you feel fuller, Greek researchers found.

12. Choose rye (not wheat) bread for breakfast toast. Swedish researchers found that rye eaters were more full 8 hours after breakfast than wheat-bread eaters, thanks to rye's high fiber content and minimal effect on blood sugar. As a result you'll want to snack less and eat less for lunch.

13. Eat a handful of fruit and vegetables a day. In one study, people who ate four or five servings scored higher on cognitive tests than those who consumed less than one serving. (Remember: Salad isn't always the healthy choice, some have lots of stuff on them that is heavy in fat/carbs.)

14. Sip green tea. It might help you build a strong skeleton, say researchers in China, and help protect you from broken bones when you're older. And one study found that it helps fight bad breath, too.

15. Work out before lunch or dinner. Doing so will make the meals you eat right afterward more filling, according to British researchers—meaning you'll eat fewer calories throughout the day.

16. Hung over? Choose asparagus. When South Korean researchers exposed a group of human liver cells to asparagus extract, it suppressed free radicals and more than doubled the activity of two enzymes that metabolize alcohol. That means you'll feel like yourself again twice as quickly.

17. Sleep 8 hours a night. Too much or too little shut-eye can add extra pounds, say Wake Forest University researchers.

18 Discover miso soup. Brown wakame seaweed (used in miso soup) can help lower your blood pressure, especially if your levels are already high, say researchers at the University of North Carolina.

19. Drink two glasses of milk daily. People who drink the most milk have about a 16 percent lower risk of heart disease than people who drink the least. (I recommend nonfat or 1 percent milk.)

20. Take a zinc supplement. Just 15 milligrams of zinc a day (the amount found in a Centrum Ultra multivitamin, for example) will motivate your immune cells to produce more of a protein that fights off bacterial infections.

21. Go ahead, eat your favorite foods. Good eating doesn't need to be about deprivation—it's about making smart choices. Why eat a 1,000-calorie cheeseburger if a 500-calorie burger will satisfy you just the same? The bottom line: Eat foods that you enjoy, just not too much of them.

22. Choose foods with the fewest ingredients. There are now more than 3,000 ingredients on the FDA's list of safe food additives—and any of these preservatives, artificial sweeteners and colorings and flavor enhancers could end up on your plate. Do you really know what these chemicals will do to your waistline or health? Of course not. Here's a rule of thumb: If a 7-year-old can't pronounce it, you don't want to eat it.

23. Snack on popcorn. In a 2009 study, people who ate 1 cup of microwave popcorn 30 minutes before lunch consumed 105 fewer calories at the meal. Just choose the kind without butter.

24. Or snack on walnuts. Eating a handful of walnuts each day may boost your HDL (good) cholesterol fastest, while lowering your LDL (bad) cholesterol.

25. Scramble your breakfast. People who ate eggs in the morning instead of a bagel consumed 264 fewer calories the rest of the day, according to a Saint Louis University study. That's because protein is more filling than carbs.

[cjfshaw]

... I don't like the taste of water--it does have one!)...

I've been telling people this for years!!! No one believe me! Hooray I'm not alone!

In other news I've not been keeping up with my own rules. I stopped the heavy lifting almost two weeks ago b/c I had some SI pain. Gonna try to get back into it sometime this week. Also I am throwing in ab workouts. I have, however, been getting to sleep/work early and eating breakfast almost every day.

[Eurytus]

It's absolutely not enough. At all. Particularly when trying to lose weight. An increase in water intake speeds up the cleansing process as well as your digestive system. Water is just as, if not more important that fiber for keeping yourself from being backed up.

If your urine is yellow, you are not hydrated. Furthermore, you are overworking your kidneys and liver. You are keeping yourself in a water starvation state that, much like an actual starvation state, will prevent you from losing fat.

8 glasses is too little, not too much.

Water lubricates joints during exercise. It prevents muscle injuries during exercise. It cures headaches. It prevents cramps. It prevents fatigue --Dehydration is the most common reason for daytime fatigue. A slight drop in body water can trigger memory loss, confusion, and trouble with problem solving. Proper hydration increases oxygen levels in the blood. Why this matters is that the body can not metabolize fat without oxygen. Dehydration leaves the immune system weakened.

Water is the best natural appetite suppressant.

I like this thread and I like your motivational speech, Seventh. I'm not trying to attack you in any way. But you are entirely wrong about this. You could not possibly be more wrong. Please reconsider.

As has been linked up thread, the 8 glasses of water thing is a myth brought about by people not taking into account the full text of the original advice that was issued. That text included the line "most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods". Something that is readily apparent given the water content of nearly any foodstuff you care to eat, especially fruit and vegetables.

I do not believe there has ever been any research to show that 8 glasses of water in addition to whatever water you consume via other liquids or in foods, is required.

[Zoë Sumra]

Back up to ten stone seven, which is probably fluctuation. Will see what happens. At least I had the weekend away with a friend and did lots (LOTS) of walking therein.

New tweak; do at least one weights session a week instead of three cardio sessions. I was doing this successfully six months ago but have lapsed out of it.

[Seventh Pup]

Can you please talk to my stomach and try to convince it of this fact? Because my stomach is currently starving after breakfast and 5 glasses of water and is not convinced. LOL.

Actually I'm going to track how much liquid I consume in an average day because I'm curious after this discussion. It's way more than 8 glasses a day.

Also try drinking warm tea (I like mint or lemon grass), I find that when I drink water warm I feel more like I'm eating 'something', like very watered down lemon grass soup. But I also find that after my tea, if I'm still hungry a yogurt or string cheese is in order!

I also got some instant oatmeal that I carry around with me. It taste fine and is very filling. But what it works well for is a gauge of hunger. If I don't want to eat the oatmeal, I'm probably not physically hungry; emotionally I just want to eat.

[lady narcissa]

Also try drinking warm tea (I like mint or lemon grass), I find that when I drink water warm I feel more like I'm eating 'something', like very watered down lemon grass soup. But I also find that after my tea, if I'm still hungry a yogurt or string cheese is in order! I also got some instant oatmeal that I carry around with me. It taste fine and is very filling. But what it works well for is a gauge of hunger. If I don't want to eat the oatmeal, I'm probably not physically hungry; emotionally I just want to eat.

I actually have tea, yogurt, and oatmeal for breakfast every morning. It just wasn't cutting it this morning, however. I haven't tried lemon grass tea - I'm going to keep my eye out for that next time I'm tea shopping.

So my tweak this week in light of my ravenous stomach this morning is to try having dinner for lunch and have lunch for dinner. I'm going to see how having a larger meal in the middle of the day curbs the urge to snack and if I'm okay in the evening with the smaller meal.

[Ser Camaris]

I pretty much wrote off last week (and this week) because of surgery and AussieCon, but in the last 8 weeks I have lost about 12.5kg (26lb I think). Dieting and exercise sucks!

[Phoenix]

Time to check in.

Up a bit this week from last week, about 2.5 lbs, probably just natural up and down, plus a but too much beer and chocolate this weekend while camping.

I've really been struggling with a tweak this week, so I think I'm going to call in my one tweakless week and concentrate on rededicating myself to my existing tweaks. And then next week I'll be ready to add on again.

So, mostly for myself to get it written down, my tweaks are:

Bike 3 times a week

yoga/Wii Fit/stretching 1-2 times a week

No chocolate chip cookies/excessive sweets

Portion control: to stop eating before I'm stuffed and realize I do not need to eat everything in front of me

1 outdoor adventure with my husband every week

Breakfast every day, even if it is small

I think that is everything. Thanks to all for your continued support and dedication! :grouphug:

[Datepalm]

Right, back at it. I was on holiday and not paying attention, but despite drinking a ton of sugary drinks (plain water is just not done in Jordan, apparently) I think I lost a bit of weight (Ramadan ftw!) and alltogether have lost about 1-3 kg, I think, though its a bit hard to tell with fluctuations. In any, its bit less than I was hoping for, but encouraging non the less.

Breakfast is still being a bit difficult but i've settled into a good pattern now of having a cup yogurt every morning - initially I was sweetening it, but I'v gradually cut that out and have grown to like the unsweet flavour.

And I've gotten a new bicycle, so now the new tweak is to ride it! I have a vauge ambition of regularly riding all the way to uni (8.5 km, quite hilly) at least a few times a week when that starts in a month, but for now i'll try to get a bit in shape with riding to errands downtown and such.