I've spent a lot of the past few days trying to figure out how to approach my own weight loss, on a budget. I'm 4 pounds over my highest weight last year, and due to check back with the dr soon about my blood pressure. I've got to do something, but I'm going to try and solve the problem with my wits, rather than just throwing money at it. No Weight Watchers, no magic $27 diet4idiots.com, no expensive gym membership.
I've kind of settled on these approaches:
--Keep a food diary in a notebook, like I did last year. I'm not counting calories right now, just keeping honest.
--Do some kind of advance food prep each and every day so I always have some healthy food ready to eat. When I'm hungry I want to eat NOW and grab whatever's handy, or stop for take-out. I forget who all have been cooking up a storm, but people have mentioned making pancakes ahead, freezing lasagna and so forth. That's been quite inspirational; glad you posted about it.
--Portion control. Have come across some novel approaches. I've put in an ILL for a book called the New American Plate, where they have you divide your plate into 3/4 plant based foods, 1/4 meat. Also read about The Pocket Diet, where your meal can be anything that fits into a 6-inch pita pocket! Not surprisingly, invented by a pita manufacturer.
--Exercise. (I finally managed my planned 2x a week, the end of last week).
--Keep to the same grocery budget I've stuck to the past 8 weeks. Produce and cottage cheese really aren't that expensive if I get them at Aldi's. And if I'm eating a bit less, you'd think that would balance out buying slightly more expensive items. We shall see.
I've been doing a lot of reading online, and found several interesting studies where they're trying to explain why lower income=obesity. People living in dangerous neighborhoods go outside less and hence get less exercise. A group of low-income people in Great Britain were given access to cheaper, more plentiful produce on the assumption they weren't eating it because of the price. But their eating habits didn't actually change. Finally, while 10 or 20 years ago there was a strong correlation between low income and obesity, currently the rate is about 30% of the population in all income groups. Things that make you say hmmm...
Weight still on my mind
January 23rd, 2006 at 12:57 am
April 20th, 2006 at 12:44 am 1145490259