…So why are the plastic women so disproportionate?
| Average woman | Store mannequin | Barbie | |
| Height | 5′ 4″ | 6′ 0″ | 6′ 0″ |
| Weight | 145 lbs. | Not available | 101 lbs |
| Dress size | 11 -14 | 6 | 4 |
| Bust | 36 – 37″ | 34″ | 39″ |
| Waist | 29 – 31″ | 23″ | 19″ |
| Hips | 40 – 42″ | 34″ | 33″ |
And this is why I cringed when I heard my coworker, oblivious, ask his little girl over the phone, “Did you play with your Barbies today?”
A friend of mine griped the other day about not losing weight despite exercising 4-5 times a week and eating healthier. She acknowledged a loss of inches, but associates success with dropping numbers on the scale.
This is just one of the reasons why I dislike scales and don’t even own one. For those of you who are discouraged and ready to give up your exercising and eating clean efforts simply because you’re not getting lighter, pleeeease don’t!!!!
When someone says, “I’ve lost weight,” what does that mean, really? Is that weight water? Fat? Muscle?
We don’t want to lose muscle weight. Muscle is what burns most calories and boosts your metabolism. Muscle is what gives you that toned and cut look – Exhibit A: MizFit’s arms. Muscles like those don’t magically grow from Twinkie consumption.
Muscle is also heavier, yet denser, than fat. This means muscle takes up less space (yay) but weighs more (potentially discouraging).
A better determination of your progress would be a body fat composition analysis. Many gyms offer this test with skin calipers. Some medical centers or universities offer more accurate (and extensive and pricey) methods through dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) or hydrostatic weighing.
More conveniently, get out the tape measure and measure yourself. Keep a record of your progress. Losing inches can mean a leaner body despite the scale refusing to budge.
Also, how are your clothes fitting? Are they feeling loose these days? That’s a real easy way to gauge your fat blasting progress.
And speaking of feeling, how do you feel? Do you feel leaner, more energetic? Can you exercise longer, go faster, life heavier? If yes, you’re getting fitter, and that’s nothing to get discouraged about! So, even if those pesky numbers on the scale aren’t dropping like you expect, keep exercising, keep working on your eating habits, and don’t ever give up!
Holidays are prime times to eat way more than is necessary with meals that are extremely rich and loaded with calories! It’s fun to visit with family and feast on foods we normally would not allow past our lips, but it’s not fun afterwards when we’re in a food coma and chastising ourselves for overdoing it! It can also be difficult to get back into our regular healthy eating routines the next day after filling our bodies with lots of fat, sugar, and salt!
Severely restricting calories and certain kinds of foods for the next few days isn’t the answer. In fact, that can just set you up for a binge later in the week! We can get back on the healthy eating track in a much gentler way:
1. Eat! Seems almost contradictory to eat after a day of eating! The point here is to feed the body with healthy foods, prevent blood sugar crashes, avoid binges. Focus on eating at regular intervals throughout the day instead of just grazing. Eat light and healthy, but don’t drastically cut calories. Make an effort to take your time and pay attention to what you’re eating too.
2. Include protein. Ah, here’s my new found friend again. Good ol’ protein will help keep you satisfied for a longer period of time, dull sugar cravings, and help your body repair. Good protein sources that will feel good to a bloated tummy are: eggs, tofu, baked or poached chicken breast or turkey breast, or lean fish – all without any added grease, of course! I wouldn’t call a bacon double cheeseburger the best protein option after a day of splurging!
3. Hide the salt shaker. The meals at my family celebrations tend to be a lot higher in sodium than what I eat on a regular basis. The higher sodium consumption is a major factor in sporting the bloated look the next day too. I personally don’t favor this look, not very fashionable for spring. So, the next few days after the splurge, really focus on not using salt in your meals. There are so many other herbs and spices that can flavor your meals extremely well, and even make them tastier than by using salt alone!
4. Fill up – with Water. Big, family dinners are oftentimes accompanied by carbonated, sugary beverages,wine, beer, and coffee. Then there’s the salt your body has to deal with, as well (see #3). Chances are you may be dehydrated from your big meal. My Easter dinner was spent at my cousin’s house where the drink options included about 10 different pops! uh… sodas! Cokes! (Pick your geographic term for carbonated beverage.) I chose ginger ale and only had a little. Of course, I could have discretely filled my plastic blue cup with tap water from the kitchen! But perhaps that’s a lesson learned for next year?
Suffice it to say, water is your best friend after a day of splurging. The next couple of days after the big party, focus on drinking lots of water! Flush your system, stay hydrated, and keep cravings at bay!
5. Eat your veggies and fruits too. Vegetables and fruits are low in calories and high in nutrients and fiber. They will fill you up without filling you out. You will get needed nutrients and be able to feel good about what you’re eating. That’s very important after a day of overeating! You don’t want to linger on feeling guilty! Fruit might also help if you’re craving something sweet too. (I’m still working towards achieving this!)
6. Exercise, lightly. I know I personally want to exercise – a lot – the day after a big holiday meal, but sometimes I just physically don’t feel up to it. My get up and go got up and left once I put a lot of rich foods in my body! But, instead of forgoing any kind of exercise, just decrease the intensity or duration for day. Take a walk. Practice a few yoga positions. Go to the park with your kids and swing on the swings. Get on the treadmill for 20 minutes instead of 40. Or, just do an easy exercise DVD.
And don’t go to the other extreme of beating yourself up and overdoing it on the exercise! You could burnout, or worse, get injured. Just get back to your normal exercise routine as soon as you can without making too much of a fuss over it.
This leads me to my final point…
7. Be kind to yourself. OK, so we ate more than we should have. What’s done is done. Don’t beat yourself up over it because that won’t help you get back on track! It will just continue those feelings of guilt and negativity towards yourself. I tend to be hard on myself if I “mess up.” I’m learning to ease up. I’m learning that beating myself up doesn’t really help at all but instead leads to bad habits (restricting, binges, over exercising, obsessing about weight etc. etc. etc. and so forth).
Now I try to look at splurges and learn from them. Why did I eat the way I did? How could I have done it differently? What will I do the next time? This is helpful. This keeps me mindful of what I eat. This is what will keep me on track at future celebratory meals.
These are just a few tips to get you back on track after a splurge. You probably have ideas of your own, so feel free to share them in the comments section!
OK, now you may have been wondering, “So exactly how did Ms. Susan do this past Easter weekend?” The answer: Not bad! I’m very very pleased to say that! I did try samples of ham, cheesy potato casserole, corn, a roll, a strawberry, whipped cream salad, one chocolate chip cookie (how was that possible?), and one chocolate egg… plus my ginger ale. I didn’t pile the food on my plate, and I even avoided the big Easter cake surrounded by yellow Peeps and the bowl of pastel M&Ms set out for munching as we discussed the latest happenings in our lives. Oh, I was quite pleased with myself.
Yet, when my husband and I returned home from our fun weekend, I noticed 1 Cadbury creme egg sitting in my little Easter chick bowl, it’s red, blue, and yellow wrapper shining in the kitchen light. Yes, I am guilty of liking those hideous Cadbury creme eggs. Yes, I am guilty of eating a few of them this Easter season. But I am happy to announce that this one still sits in it’s little bowl uneaten… at least until later this week!
Here’s the little ‘stinker’…
One of my goals has been to eat for health and not solely for looks.
I must have forgotten this important goal because the other day I was being too critical of the way my body looked – a little bit of tummy pooch; thighs not exactly rock solid. I’m not overweight, but I continued to bash my body and point out what I thought to be less than ideal. I started feeling discouraged. Hmm, are you seeing what’s wrong with this picture?
My husband put my negative thinking to a halt by saying, “You’re beautiful! I think you look hot!” I paused, blinked, turned to him, and asked, “Even if I gain weight?” My husband gave me a funny look, “Of course! You will always be beautiful to me.”
Awww! 50 points to the husband! 
Really, though; I was touched because he was sincere in what he said. In fact, my husband told me not to be so hard on myself! It wasn’t doing me any good.
I also felt ashamed for my body-bashing. My husband loves me as is. I have the freedom to be in my own skin and know that I will be accepted, even if I don’t look like a Hollywood movie star (a lot of that is smoke and mirrors anyway)! I should give that same kind of love and acceptance to my own body.
Instead of focusing on all the imperfections and yearning for that “perfect” body, how about I be a little more thankful for all the blessings I’ve been given? How about I delight in the fact that I have a functioning, energetic, healthy body and take care of it in a loving way?
JoLynn wrote a great post at her blog, The Fit Shack, that reminded me of these things. Why should we wait until we have that “perfect” body before truly living life to the fullest? Live it NOW! Live joyfully, show kindness, have fun, be productive, try something new, focus on health and not outward appearances – NOW!
If you’ll allow me to get deeper, for me, living life to the fullest also means living with a focus on what’s truly most important. And that’s a focus on giving God glory and enjoying my relationship with Him. When all’s said and done, that’s what really matters in my life.
Sure weight loss can be a very good goal, but weight loss shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all.
Phew! Well, OK! I got a little passionate there at the end! Hope you made it through all that! 
Still, thinking on these things does make the little tummy pooch look a lot less important. And frankly, I don’t think anyone cares about it but me!
Did you enjoy the holidays? I relaxed a bit, at least where exercising and watching what I eat are concerned.
The problem is, I can get used to this indulgent, “lazy” lifestyle rather quickly, and I find it difficult returning to the more disciplined routine.
I truly enjoy exercising and eating “clean;” I feel more energetic and healthier. Yet, it’s so much easier just to be lazy – to sleep in, to eat those tantalizing cookies or second helpings of leftover stuffing and cranberry sauce, to sit and play on the computer all day or lounge on the couch wrapped in an afghan, reading a good book. ‘Sigh’ Oh, the conflict!
For me, the hardest part of an exercise and healthy eating routine is forming the routine itself. This is especially apparent come holiday time when visions of chocolate sweets and a homemade turkey dinner dance in my head. Oh, the guilt!
So what to do? I’m learning a couple of things that help me. The first is to be a little more forgiving with myself and accept a “lazy” day or two. Enjoying a holiday dinner and skipping a workout isn’t going to ruin my health or figure. I am learning to just relax and focus on enjoying the holiday, it’s meaning, and the family gathering.
Allowing myself to accept and enjoy temporary “laziness”relieves me of guilt. No guilt helps me avoid the all-or-none mindset – you know, the rationalization, “Oh, I messed up and had 2 cookies; might as well have 5 more and a large piece of cake to wash them down!” And avoiding the all-or-none futility, I can get back into my exercise routine without going overboard.
The second lesson I’m learning is: to get back into the eating and exercise routine, I must be committed to doing so and set a specific and realistic day to start again. If I simply say, “Oh, I’ll start exercising some time Christmas or the new year,” I’m not that committed and my routine will be shaky.
Failed routines also exist if I set unrealistic start dates, such as running 5 miles Christmas night or 5 AM the next day! I know myself. These statements are too lofty for me; I wouldn’t commit to them, and I’d end up feeling guilty.
With my 2 lessons in mind, this year I accepted a few “lazy” days without letting myself feel guilt… at least not a lot of guilt! I set a specific and realistic day to return to my more self-disciplined routine again, and I committed to it. And I accomplished this without too much of an ordeal – quite refreshing!
How I’m doing? Not perfect, but pretty darn well, I’d say. I’m back to the old routine again with an occasional chocolate treat leftover from Christmas. (It would be criminal to throw them out!) 
I enjoyed a temporary “lazy” period, knowing that my usual routine would be waiting for me without condensation after the holidays were just a memory. Hopefully I can remember these lessons during the next major celebration!