Motivation Monday

So where have I been?  Well, I wrote some time ago about falling off the deep end... and I guess I wasn't done yet.  I have definitely had a bit of a backslide as far as my weight loss goes, and I wanted to get myself under control before I started to post again.

I have been using MyFitness Pal, which has an online and iPhone app.  I hear this app is one of the best weight loss tools out there, and it is free!  That number below used to say 15... it is funny how easy it is to get my weight on, and how much work it is to get it off!

I thought I would add a little badge to my site in order to help me track my weight loss.

MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools

This past week, I have worked out almost every day, and have been doing quite well staying within my calorie range on MyFitness Pal. So my little gem of advice for this week?  I have two that I learned from my dietician. I think I talked about the three "E's" before... but they bear repeating!

The three "E's" when thinking about helping yourself loose weight.  "E" stands for:

• Exercise- the dietician told me to aim for burning 2000 calories with exercise per week.  Which, for me means exercising pretty much everyday.  But she also said that every little bit helps, so on the days I don't feel like going to the gym, just try to do something.
• Environment- I have talked about Environment before I know... set my environment up for success.  Lately I have been having trouble staying away from sweets... so I stopped buying them.  I have been buying crystal light packets and throwing it in the blender with ice in order to make a slushy.  A perfect 0 calorie sweet treat!
• Everyday- relates to the "every little bit helps" idea... do something everyday... and if you make a mistake at one meal, that doesn't mean you have to sabotage your whole day! Make every day count!

My second piece of information has to do with Protein.  I have been seeing a lot about increasing your protein in fitness magazines lately, so this is timely advice.  There have been studies that show that increasing protein in your diet specifically helps you to loose that dangerous belly fat.  The study looked at people who ate the same amount of calories-- but within those calories, those who ate higher levels of protein lost more weight around their middle than those who ate low fat/a little higher carb diets.  Comparing persons who ate the same number of calories really has me thinking about food choices!  Beware of manipulating your diet to continue eating that yummy processed food and sugar instead of foods that are going to help you be healthy and actually loose weight.

So how much protein should we be aiming for? The formula I learned was 0.8 grams of Protein per kg of body weight.

How do you figure out how many kg of body weight you have?  Just divide your weight by 2.2.
So... a person that weighs 150 lbs would figure 150/2.2= ~68.  And 68 x 0.8= 54.4 grams of protein per day.

I hope this helps, and thanks for reading!