Things That Hinder Weight Loss

- sleep
- caffeine
- hormones
- certain foods
- health conditions
- mental health issues (i.e. depression and stress)
- metabolism
- too much exercise
- weather
- artificial sweeteners
- sodium
- eating at certain times of the day
- medications
- not eating enough

This is a list of all the things that come up when you search the term ‘things that hinder weight loss’. It is an overwhelming list. I have heard of everything on this list as being a problem when you are trying to lose weight, however, I have never seen a comprehensive explanation in one place that explains how each of these things can stop or prevent you from losing weight.
For my own information I want to know everything that I am doing wrong. So, I did my research.

Let me begin that medical professionals and those in the fitness and health industries will tell you that losing weight is simple. It is about using more calories than you take in.

If that were true I would be a size 8. Honestly, I spent two months tracking every calorie I ate and every calorie I burned. I was burning 5000 or more calories than I was eating every week. That is about 1.5 pounds (3500 calories equals a pound). In 2 months I should have lost 12 pounds at least according to the medical explanation.

Do you want to know what I lost? Nothing. In fact I gained 5 pounds.

It became obvious to me that losing weight is not about calories in and calories out. That is a load of crap.

Furthermore, all calories are not equal. A calorie of sugar reacts different in your body than a calorie of carrot. I know that is not a good explanation but you see where I am going.

It shouldn’t be a shocker that over half of adults in this country are overweight or obese. Nobody has a damn clue what they really need to do to lose weight. “Helpful” advice about eating healthy and getting exercise is not going to cut it. People need real information that they can use.

Not only do we need to know what to eat, but we need to know what things we eat that are stopping weight loss and how our daily lifestyle habits hurt our weight loss efforts. We need complete information.

I am sick and tired of all these highly educated professionals feeding us a line of bull. I am ready to get to the truth and I want to share it with you.

I have spent a large amount of time on the internet trying to find reliable sources of information. I have googled just about everything weight loss related you can think of. I have tried to answer every question I have about why these pounds won’t come off no matter what I do. I think the information I have come up with may finally help me to understand my body and how to get the pounds to come off for good.

Now I want to share these things with you. To avoid a huge post I am breaking things up. This is the first part and each part after will focus on some of the things I listed in the beginning of the article. Hopefully by the time I am done we will all understand why Susy Small Pants can eat nothing but fast food, sit on her butt all day every day and not gain a pound when we can follow a strict calorie counting diet and exercise until we think we may die and still have trouble losing a pound.

Went Shopping

I went out to spend all my money today. Big shopping day. We started out at about 10am and I got home at about 6pm. Long day -lol.

I had to buy some new workout stuff. I liked the whole structure thing with the 30 Day Shred so I decided to stick with that and I got the Biggest Loser Cardio and Strength workouts. They are set up for a 12 week period which will be fun. I also got a jump rope exercise kit. It says you can burn 1000 calories in the hour long exercise. Interesting stuff.

So, I will be trying them out. I am excited. The jump rope workout has an audio cd so I am going to rip it to my computer and put it on my MP3 player so I can do it outside when (or if) it ever gets warm again. I have high ceilings in my house so until then I can do it inside.

I can not wait to get going with all the new exercise stuff. I needed a little kick in butt since I have been such a slacker lately.

Level 2

Officially we did 7 days at level 2 and I am fine with that. We did it today and while it was still tough I feel I can go to level 3 and be fine. We kind of have to move quick because Amy will be unable to workout from the beginning of March to around the end of April. We are going to be hitting it hard in February, so watch for my recap of what we do. Amy being unable to workout has put a kink in our plans we had previously laid out, so I will be on my own for a little bit and able to focus hard on some things.

I am going shopping tomorrow and have a couple goals. I need to find more step workouts and I want to find more challenge workouts like the Shred. Wish me luck!

A Dilemma

I have an issue that has me stressed out, caused skipped workouts and just drives me crazy. When I workout I like to break a sweat. This can be a problem, though, because if I sweat I have to shower after. I also like to shower before getting dressed for the day.

I have been running into the problem where I have something to do in the morning so I shower and get dressed, but I have not worked out. That means I have to shower again later in the day. This habit costs me big time in water bills.

I am trying to figure out what to do. I can not keep skipping workouts because I am afraid of large water bills, but I also can not afford large water bills.

Most people workout at the gym so they shower there, but I do all home workouts. Not sure what to do. Any advice would be great, if you have anything to share.

Slacker much?

I am a slacker. I feel like a slacker. I am just horrible. I do not know how I plan on losing weight and getting in shape if I put off working out. I called off the morning workout because my upper body and back are so sore from shoveling snow I felt that I needed a break. I also had to go do laundry and the kids had a 2 hour delay. So, the morning was all messed up.

I did not end up doing the treadmill last night either. I really must do it tonight and I promise I will.

As for tomorrow, I was planning on a morning workout but I forgot I have a meeting in the morning and can not. I will have to move it to the afternoon. Amy is going to be rather mad about that, but I guess she will have to get over it. I am just hoping this winter weather stops soon so I can get back into a normal routine and all this slacking is done with.

FYI

45 minutes of snow shoveling burns more than 300 calories. At least for me according to calculations. So, if one good thing comes from snow it is a good calorie burn. Just had to share for all you snow shoveling fools out there.

UGH

Another day of nasty snow and cold in Ohio. It sucks!!!! I can not wait for spring. I just spent half my day shoveling snow. My little car was literally encompassed in snow. Thank goodness for friends who keep their cars in the garage and can come along and pick you up and take you to the store so you do not starve.

This week has sucked royally. I was broke with my money hitting the bank today so even though I knew it was going to get bad there was not a thing I could do. I had to wait until today. I at least got to go to the store, but laundry is on hold yet again. Soon we will be naked because everything will be dirty.

I hate, hate, hate winter. I do not find any beauty in it. Maybe it is the internal pessimist in me, but snow sucks and the day it is beautiful to me is the day hell freezes over. I have been saying for years that I need to move south, but this year is really testing me.

I am not sure why I hate it this year more than ever. Perhaps it is because I have a small car this year that barely can handle an inch of snow - let's not talk about a foot of snow. Maybe it is because before I had kind neighbors that would plow drives and there was no hour long shoveling sessions. I don't know, but I hate winter more this year than I have in my entire life.

I shoveled forever today and I am still not positive that my car will get out. Now I am sore again and feel like my shoulders and arms are going to fall off. It even hurts to type.

Needless to say, I am taking the day off from working out. I will do the treadmill tonight, but no 30 day shred.