This is what works for me

Last week, I posted the Dunkin’ Donuts flatbread I had while driving down to DC, which inspired the following conversation with my friend. To be honest, I took it a little personally at first. Here I am posting everything I eat, I’ve lost 43 pounds, and someone’s basically still calling me unhealthy? WTF, right?

This morning, I read mday’s post about plateauing, and I offered her a little bit of advice. I was thinking about what I could tell her, and I realized (okay, this may be a duh! moment) that it’s totally different for everyone.

For me, spinach feta wraps and Pump bowls and a lot of exercise works, but for someone else, that still might not be enough to kick up their metabolism. Consider this my disclaimer going forward: what you read on this blog is what I’m doing, what I’m learning and what has worked for me. Feel free to try it. If it works for you, awesome! If not, I guarantee you there’s something else out there that works for you. The one thing I’d say: (and this is coming from a magazine journalist) – don’t put too much stock in what you read in magazines. Bottom line: those clever coverlines are to get you to pick up the magazine.

If you can afford it, get a trainer and a nutritionist. If not, at least ask the floating trainers at you gym what you can do, or take group classes. You don’t belong to a gym? Buy some weights. Download some workouts for your iPod. Run. Just move! You’ll burn more calories working out than not working out. So you can’t run a mile now? That’s okay. Start out walking. You’ll get to running, I promise. Take things one step at a time. I started out with 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill in February. Next weekend, I’m running a half-marathon!

Find a nutritionist’s blog to follow or join some sort of online weight-loss community. Keep yourself accountable. You don’t have to take photos of everything you eat, but record it somehow, somewhere. Online, in your BlackBerry/iPhone, on the back of a receipt.

Ask yourself if your meals are balanced. Did your body really need that [fill in vice here]? Was it worth it? If you “slip up,” just start eating healthy again at the next meal. Don’t think that if you “messed up” once, that the whole day is shot. It will be if you keep eating like that. It won’t be if you get on track next meal.

It’s not a diet, it’s a way of life. Diets fail because you restrict yourself too much. Rather, adopt a healthy lifestyle and occasionally indulge in your favorite treats. I promise, after you’ve been giving eating healthily a solid try for awhile, the cravings for the bad stuff are less frequent. And when you do indulge, the bad stuff really isn’t as good as it used to be.

YOU.CAN.DO.IT!