March Week 4: Structuring Your Weight Release, Part 2

This last week of March and the last week of our theme of Patience and Persistence, I am going to continue to help you to create a repeatable structure for your meals and exercise in order to stay consistent over time.

Structuring Your Weight Release - Part 2

Last week I talked about my garden and how it took me some time and trial and error to build a garden I love that is very low maintenance. Every once in a while, when the seasons change, I have to get in there and add some things or cut things away, but for the most part, the structure remains year in and out.

The same happened with my weekly exercise structure. Honestly, I have been following the same structure for the most part (except for a few months when I was super pregnant or had just given birth) for years. I definitely have changed up food choices and specific exercises, but the habits that I cultivated and the way I eat and move, the amount of calories I burn and take in, has remained constant over time, allowing me to maintain my weight.

This, of course, is nothing short of a miracle given the fact that in the past, I could gain 20 pounds over the course of a winter break and 40 pounds over a summer.

WEIGHT MASTERS CREATE STRUCTURES

According to the National Weight Registry, a study of people who have taken weight off and kept it off long term, most weight masters eat in a structured way - 3 meals a day and a couple of snacks. They also strive for consistent exercise over the week.   In fact, research shows most masters do some form of exercise or movement daily.

HOW DO WE CREATE A STRUCTURE THAT WORKS??

1. First, you must just commit to making a weekly weight structure. Don’t just try - do it. If it isn’t perfect, don’t fret - the key to success is testing and tweaking.
2. Take time once a week to create your weekly structure. For me, I do this EVERY SUNDAY.
3. Schedule exercise sessions for the whole week like they are the most important appointments of the week.  I strive for 5 sessions. I also have plan B ideas if my plan A exercise doesn’t work out.
   • Example: if I don’t get to the gym at 9 am for my spin class, I will make the new appointment to do the elliptical that night while watching TV or listening to a podcast.
   • Note: I allow housework to be an exercise session—c’mon its hard work—so is gardening.
4. Look at your social schedule. Do I have restaurant meals and social events that I want to allocate more calories to? If so, I think through allocating the extra calories ahead of time - yes I am thinking ahead in advance to how to make my week work for me.
   • NOTE: Over time, I have learned there is ALWAYS one day a week, at least, that I want more calories for.  I have gotten in the habit of shaving 100-150 off each week day’s maintenance calorie budget to bank for the weekend OR I will plan an exercise session.  This works out very well.
5. Make sure to plan to have food for your vulnerable times. This helps a lot.  It’s usually the same foods over again that I reach for that keep me stabilized. My vulnerable time is when I come home in the afternoon or evening.
   • Usually, I make sure I have Greek yogurt on hand. This means making a shopping list and making sure I have it as well as all the foods I need to help me over the week to keep me nourished and stabilized.
6. Make sure to have the foods needed for breakfasts, lunch and dinners: I plan, shop and prepare to have the foods for my daily structure available.
7. Allocate calories to each meal and snack to help you figure out your needs over the day starting with the meal that you need the most calories and food and working backwards: so that you have a structure for your day.

My 1350 week days mostly look like this:

• AM: Plain greek Yogurt and cinnamon. Tea and milk: 250 calories
• 12 noon: almonds (10) and more tea:150 calories
• 3pm Linner (big meal of lunch and dinner protein and veggies and a treat): 600 calories
• 7pm Some veggies sautéed or roasted or a salad with a little bit of Greek yogurt: 200 calories
• 9pm Treat like a Weight Watchers chocolate IC bar: 160 calories

NOTE: On the weekend I add 600 extra calories a day for extra food/drink calories. This works out pretty well.

ALSO: My tastes change as the weather changes so I swap out many seasonal  foods for other new seasonal foods to prevent boredom—this also works very well.

So, that is it - the more you set time aside to create your weekly and daily structures the less time you will need and you will be quickly habituated to this new powerful structure.

HOMEWORK FOR THIS WEEK

Allow the Inner Coach in you to step back and observe the structures and systems that you have without judgment.

1. Observe the structure of how you feed yourself and exercise.
   • Is there a structure already in place?
   • Does any of the structure work for you?
   • What of your structure doesn’t work for you?
   • Do you have a contingency structure, a plan B if plan A doesn’t work out?
2. Where is there a lack of structure in how you feed yourself and plan exercise?
   • Is there a time of day or the week where you lack of structure causes issues?
   • Is there a time during the week (like the weekend) when it all falls apart and you get into trouble?
3. Do you also have systems in place to allow for you to repeat your structure week in and out?

I hope this has been of help to you and I hope that you have a wonderful structured week!