You Gotta Have a Plan

Lose 10 pounds in five weeks. Make a plan.

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

Can you really do it this time?

If you have a weight problem, it can feel hopeless. The heavier you get and the longer that you’ve been overweight, the more impossible it seems to be able to drop weight and keep it off. It’s hard to believe that this time, it will work. But it can.

Even if you have biological tendencies that make it easy to gain and hard to lose weight, you can be leaner and fitter than you are now.

If you are overweight, there’s a good chance you could be making smarter lifestyle choices. To lose weight, you’ll have to train yourself to substitute poor choices with ones that will help you drop pounds.

Now is the time to take stock of your behaviors. This first step—a reality check of the eating and exercise choices you make most of the time—may be the most challenging part of making a change. But it’s crucial for achieving lasting success.

So, to get yourself ready to follow the Lose 10 Pounds in 5 Weeks plan, here’s what you need to do first:

Step 1. Take three days of this week to write down everything you eat. This will help you identify your specific eating patterns and spot areas where you can improve. This will be your Baseline Diet Diary. You can track your diet and eating habits at My Wellness Center.

Step 2. Learn to improve your diet. Read through these Eat Smart tips (first week diet tips) to get started.

Step 3. One of the simplest ways to squeeze fitness into your life is to walk more. Start the Walk-the-Fat-Off plan; each week has a designated walking program.

If you follow the Lose 10 Pounds in Five Weeks plan, not only can you start to get in the best shape of your life, you’ll feel happier and more optimistic. Eating better will fuel you and give your body the nutrients it needs. Your daily walks will lift your mood and your self-confidence.

Welcome to the beginning of the rest of your healthy life!

This diet and exercise program should not be followed without first consulting a health-care professional. If you have any special health conditions requiring attention, you should consult regularly with your health-care professional regarding possible modification of this program.

Start the Weight Loss Challenge

Are you ready to lose 10 pounds in five weeks? Then start now.

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

The plan for Week 1:

Figure out in advance what you will eat for each day’s meal and snack. Write out a daily menu, spreading your caloric intake evenly between your meals and snacks. On this plan, you will need to knock off 500 calories daily from your normal eating habits, as detailed in your Baseline Diet Diary (if you haven’t kept a baseline diet diary, do this first). You can also track your eating and exercise habits on My Wellness Center. This week’s focus is to improve your diet by eating more nutritious and lower-calorie foods. Reduce calories in small ways—choosing lower-fat items, substituting lower-calorie spread and dressings, cutting out the liquid calories, and so on. For more ideas, read this week’s Eat Smart tips. Log your meals and snacks in a Daily Diet Diary (download .pdf forms). Keep a running calorie total to ensure that you’re within your target range.

Walk the fat off. Follow a daily walking routine. No matter what, fit in some exercise every day. But if a workout feels too strenuous, back off slightly. (See “Walk the Fat Off” to the right.)

Notice what feels easy and what’s tough. Changing your diet and activity level may seem relatively easy this week, when you’re off to a fresh start. But to stick to a plan, it’s important to recognize trouble spots early on and find ways around them. If you’re hooked on sodas, for example, you may find it hard to stay away from them. Instead of just giving up sodas, you should find a satisfying substitute that has fewer calories. That means experimenting with different diet flavors, trying various brands of bottled water, or bringing your own unsweetened iced tea to work so you won’t be tempted by the vending machines. Whatever your weakness, try to think of similar strategies that will ensure you won’t deviate from your path to weight loss.

Change Course to Stay on Course

How to not succumb to diet fatigue.

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

It’s time to start changing course to stay on course. Figure out which new habits, foods or workout times are feeling too rigid to realistically keep up. And start modifying those diet and exercise behaviors so that you can stick with the program.

The plan for Week 2:

Focus on high-fiber plant foods. You might not always be able to whip up your special low-fat menus. Or you may find yourself out with friends or colleagues—and margaritas and chicken wings. This week’sEat Smart tips focus is to improve your diet by adding more fruits and veggies to all your meals and snacks. You can also track your diet at My Wellness Center.

Walk more (or figure out workout alternatives). When you start easing off the strict calorie control, you can make up the difference by burning more calories through exercise. It’s important to stay with the Walk-the-Fat-Off plan and increase the length and intensity of your workouts. The Walk-the-Fat-Off Plan provides intensity recommendations by the minute so you can follow the routine doing other aerobic activities besides walking. It’s always better to do something than put off exercise altogether. If body aches are slowing you down (after consulting with a health professional) see if there are movement options that don’t aggravate your problem areas. (See “Walk the Fat Off” to the right.)

Spot your successes. Your weight loss may be minimal at this point, so don’t focus on fat or scale weight. But that doesn’t mean you’re not already achieving success. These are all signs of success: If your stamina is improving; you’ve found a new tasty, nutritious food; your thighs or butt feel a wee bit firmer; it’s easier than you thought to stop overeating; you feel energetic and have a post-exercise glow; and living a healthier lifestyle is easier than you expected. Congrats!

Bump Up the Calorie Burn

How to lose weight by being more active.

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

This week you’re going to help your weight loss along by increasing your overall energy expenditure.

The plan for Week 3:

Eat six meals or snacks every day. If you are on a strict diet and/or you eat infrequently, you’re not maximizing what is known as the thermic effect of food. The process of eating, breaking down and absorbing nutrients in food usually accounts for 8 percent to 10 percent of your daily energy expenditure, or about 200 to 400 calories for the average active person. Eating too little or waiting long periods between meals can minimize the effect. Some experts speculate that eating small, frequent meals has the potential to speed up your metabolism.

Keep in mind that eating protein with carbohydrates seems to induce a greater thermic effect—getting sufficient protein along with eating more “good” carbs tends to make you feel satiated, so you’ll eat less and still feel full. And the greater amounts of fiber in the less-processed carbs crowd out extra calories. That helps your body burn more stored energy, and you’ll therefore lose more weight. Continue to log everything you eat this week and how many times you eat. Make sure to meet a quota of six times per day. Read this week’s Eat Smart tips; you can also track your eating habits on My Wellness Center.

Be more active all day. You can eat more if you move more. But to avoid gaining weight, you’ll have to eat less if you don’t move much. So the key to avoiding the starving-yourself feeling of deprivation that you get on many diets is to be more active. If you’re more active, you can eat and feel satisfied, but still control your weight.

Burn more calories by walking. Exercising at higher intensities increases your burn rate, which is one reason why the Walk-the-Fat-Off routines include intervals of walking faster or more vigorously. And exercising harder provides another payoff: After a longer, high-intensity workout, your body stays revved up, burning extra calories even after you’ve gotten off the treadmill. A post-cardio afterburn could mean a loss of anywhere from 15 to 50 extra calories on top of what you burned while exercising.

This week’s routines include more high-intensity intervals. Push yourself to work as hard as you comfortably can. Simply walking fast may be intense enough if you’re new to exercise. If you’re a seasoned walker, slipping in a few seconds of jogging or stair climbing may give you the boost you need. Challenge yourself a little more this week. (See “Walk the Fat Off” to the right.)

Keep from Slipping Up

Slip-ups can be an inspiration to persevere.

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

When you experience a slip-up in your diet and exercise plan, don’t use it as an excuse to quit. See it for what it is—a bump in your road to better health and a healthier body weight. A little indulgence or laziness every now and then isn’t what makes you fat and out of shape. It’s the pattern of always indulging and being lazy that keeps you overweight. This week, I’ll help you find positive ways to prevent and respond to slip-ups and stay on a healthy course.

The Plan for Week 4:

Snack smart. Keeping your snacking patterns in mind, this week focus on eating snacks that you enjoy and that are nutritious and filling. If you frequently find yourself away from home when it’s time for a snack, make sure you have good choices on hand. Fruit—fresh, canned and drained, or dried—is always a good idea. Also, try yogurt, string cheese, instant oatmeal, meal-replacement bars and shakes, trail mix, healthful energy bars, and peanut butter on low-fat crackers. And nuts—the perfect snack for any occasion. They’re filling, nutritious, convenient—and not as fattening as you might think! See this week’sEat Smart tips to learn more about nuts. Track your portion sizes, calories and other eating habits at My Wellness Center.

Find ways to de-stress. Eating is a common way to deal with stress or emotional ups and downs. That’s because eating favorite foods, especially those that are high in fat and sugar, produces pleasure reactions in the brain—the same responses as other coping methods like drinking alcohol or taking drugs. If you are an emotional eater, find healthier ways to deal with stress. Some activities that can make you feel good, have fun and relax include getting a massage; taking a nap; meditating; doing creative activities like painting or playing music; knitting; taking a dance lesson; or calling a friend.

Go the extra mile. Use workouts to counterbalance those days when you eat more than you should. If you know you’ll be going to a party or dinner where you’re likely overeat, make that day’s walk or other cardio workout a little longer or a little harder. If you binged and didn’t anticipate it, try to make up for it during the next few days by adding more minutes and higher-intensity intervals to your workouts. Extra steps will help balance out excesses elsewhere. (See “Walk the Fat Off” to the right.)

Lose More Long Term

Now that you’ve lost some weight, how do you keep it off—and lose some more?

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

To lose weight—or keep it off—long term, continue to write down what you eat, make good food choices and stay active every day. But you also need to start planning how you’ll continue this healthier lifestyle into your future.

The plan for Week 5—and beyond:

Assess your ‘before’ and ‘after.’ Go back and review your original Baseline Diet Diary, where you tracked your previous eating and activity patterns. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Has your new lifestyle dramatically changed? If so, will it be impossible to keep it up?
• Does this new lifestyle look similar to your previous lifestyle, with tweaks that improve eating habits and raise activity level? If so, have these lifestyle changes produced satisfactory results?
• When you look back on what you used to eat, does it entice you back? Or do you feel a little repulsed by all the fried foods and the enormous portions?
• Is exercise becoming a regular part of your day?
• Is it easier for you to make time for fitness sessions?

Noticing and assessing the changes you’ve made—and determining how easy (or not) it will be to maintain them—will help you shape your lifestyle going forward. You’ll be able to know which approaches to better eating and regular exercise are effective for you. Read this week’s Eat Smart tips.

Keep on tracking. Don’t expect to eat perfectly and exercise intensely every day for the rest of your life. You’ll have some days where you slack off on workouts, or eat or drink too much. Just don’t allow a slip-up to mess you up for good. Be consistent. Track your eating and exercise habits on My Wellness Center.

Move every day and try new forms of exercise. For most people, the only way to keep the weight off is to exercise almost every day of the week. Devise strategies so you enjoy it and can stick with it! It’s natural for your motivation to wax and wane over time. So go with the flow. (See “Walk the Fat Off” to the right.) If walking or your gym routine suddenly feels tedious, find something else to do. You may surprise yourself and discover a new obsession, like biking or a rock-climbing gym. The past weeks have been the kickoff to the rest of your life. You know what it takes to feel better and look better. The challenge is not only doing it, but staying motivated. So find ways to stay inspired and on track. You can do it!