Real 4 Week Diet: Week 1

Changing your fitness lifestyle can seem pretty daunting. This is because many of us feel we need to do it all at once. We think we have to cut our calorie intake in half, dump the sugar, eliminate fat, and start eating salads for every meal while at the same time working out two hours a day at the gym.

Actually, small changes sustained over an extended period of time can make a big difference. Consider this: A 32 oz "Big Gulp" of regular soda contains about 400 calories. Just switching to diet soda saves you 2800 calories a week. Considering that a net reduction of about 3200 calories will produce a 1 pound weight loss, just making this one small change will cause you to lose 2-3 pounds a month.

One researcher noted that just taking a 10 minute walk in the morning before work, walking 10 minutes at lunch time and walking 10 minutes after work will produce a 2-3 pound weight loss in a month assuming you are not doing this already.

So, to get started you need to begin making one or two small changes at a time, get used to them and then add to them as you go along. In this way, you will not feel terribly deprived or uncomfortable. So, here's a plan for getting started.

Week One

Starting this week, eat as you feel like eating and do your normal level of exercise or more if you feel like it, but do just one thing differently: Keep a food and exercise journal. Using the journal forms found on the previous link keep track of your food intake and the exercise you already do.

This will do two things. The first thing is that you will gain insight into your eating and exercise patterns. For instance, if you notice you exercise after you eat a lot, you might try exercising before eating. The increased metabolic rate following exercise will burn your calories more efficiently according to researchers. You might notice that your highest sweet intake is while watching TV at night. Given that eating pattern you could either keep fruit or sugar free snacks available for those hours or simply reduce your eating earlier in the day to accommodate this habit.

The second thing journaling does is it makes you think about what you eat. My Dad (who didn't gain a pound from the day he got married until the day he went to be with the Lord) used to say my Mom and I ate more accidentally than he did on purpose. It was actually pretty true. We were likely throughout the day to pick up this little snack or that out of the refrigerator whereas he only ate at meal times or scheduled snack times. Journaling makes you aware of all the things you eat during the day which you actually don't want to eat, but are just eating them to kill time. Journaling helps you ask the question: "Do I really want to eat this?" Right now, if the answer is "yes," then go ahead and eat it. But if it is "no," leave it in the fridge.

So, that's all you do during week one.