<p>Ugh. Think our trip to The Cheesecake Factory this weekend put me over the edge!</p>
<p>I have been pretty good the last 3 years or so - lost probably 10ish pounds, have been walking about 45 mins daily (got a dog), have taught myself more about what’s going in my mouth, to watch the carb intake, etc. The middle area is the place that usually “tells” me I’ve been indulging too much. </p>
<p>I KNOW what I need to do. I just need some support doing it at the moment!</p>
<p>I know about the weight loss threads here and have participated, so don’t need to be referred there. (but may have to bump up the “dummies” thread) Summer actually seems to be my trouble time of year - kids are home more, so less routine and more “treat” moments. </p>
<p>Feel free to share any other practical tips (not looking for intense exercise program to take care of it, but DO exercise) you have discovered to help with your middle age “middle” bulge. Motivate me to know I can reverse this with a little work.</p>
<p>Or just join along in feeling temporarily miserable along with me. :)</p>
<p>I’m with you, abasket. I can’t seem to lose the bulge, and it’s driving me crazy. Was thin all my life and now look like I have a small inner tube wrapped around my waist and perched on my hips. I eat healthier now than I ever did in the past, but no to avail. I would love to drop 10 pounds and feel good about looking in the mirror.</p>
<p>Do not fall apart, enjoy your time here, life is good and good food is also part of it. I feel as long as I fit in my clothes, I am OK, but I hate shopping. If you like shopping, here is your excuse to stay positive, at least you have a valid reason for another shoppin trip and I kind of envy everybody who still enjoy them, I lost it. When I enter any store, I have a burning desire to leave in 5 min. Please, enjoy while it lasts and 10 lbs is nothing to stress about.</p>
<p>Well I’m not falling apart -yet! For sure, I’m not falling apart… :)</p>
<p>I like my clothes to fit “not tight”. I like to not feel a bulge when I sit and work! I’m very sensitive to those feelings! I have decent control of my food/exercise, but have clearly slipped a few too many times…and just need to keep motivated to get back on track - sooner rather than later, cause I know it will only get worse!</p>
<p>Okay, abasket, you motivated me to get off the computer and go work out in the hotel gym. I have no excuse not to. I totally feel your pain. I know that what I need to do is start some intense workout program, eat right and do it all the time. But…it’s so hard to keep up, because it has to be the top priority in your life. Biodentical hormones really helped me for awhile, along with targeted supplements that stopped sugar cravings. I lost 8 pounds without any lifestyle change. Yet it’s creeping back up, and I fear that now I have to do the work. It would be great to get to the point where it’s enjoyable, and not work, but that’s a long ways off. And aging is the killer for retaining that weight.</p>
<p>On the positive side, next time you go to the Cheesecake Factory, have a greek salad. They are delicious and you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything (that is, as long as you have a flatbread with it).</p>
<p>I don’t see any point in going to Cheesecake Factory if you can’t get the cheesecake, so I generally stay away from it. The entree portions are huge, and it’s just better if I don’t even get started…</p>
<p>abasket- I actually think summer eating is easier because there are more things I enjoy in the fruit/vegetable category. Watermelon is a good treat and satisfies the desire for something sweet. Same with fresh cherries. Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of the middle bulge is to lose pounds, and that requires food intake modification. NOT easy, as we all know. Try to stock up on things you really like and even when the rest of your family is eating something higher in calories than you would want, stick to your own food choices. My downfall is the candy jars around the office. If I eat it standing up or in someone else’s office, it doesn’t count, right?</p>
<p>^^^ This I do know!!! I just need a little jumpstart to get back on track! Tell me how doing these things worked for you - I"m motivated and just need support!</p>
<p>(Core stuff? As in a gym routine??? I don’t do gym in summer - will walk, swim, ride bike)</p>
<p>I know the trifecta. Eat better, eat less, move more. Really it’s simple. I don’t deprive myself, but need to get back on track with substitutions for myself when cooking for my family. For instance, the kids requested homemade mac and cheese tonight - I’ll make a big salad and another vegetable too and then I will have those with just a taste of mac and cheese - I can do it!!! Right?!</p>
<p>My current routine is plain yogurt in the morning with a spoon of organic strawberry preserves on top for sweetness, sliced fruit and about 1/4 cup of a good granola.</p>
<p>Lunch is often leftovers - today it was a 2ish inchh square of TJ spinach pie (didn’t eat all the phyllo) with a 1/2 c. mixture of fetoosh, tabbouli and hummus.</p>
<p>I MUST watch the carbs. I MUST be careful at dinner with the family. I MUST cut down on my late night snack (I’m gonna have it - it’s important to me) a little less. I WILL exercise a little more - an extra walk without the dog and my iPod so I can walk faster, a bike ride on my own in addition to the dog walks - that kind of thing.</p>
<p>(Can you see I’m trying to pump myself up??!!)</p>
<p>I have shared this before, but both my sister and I have done well replacing our evening ice cream/cookies/cake with sugar free jello and cool whip. You can eat a LOT of it with very few calories and it does the trick.</p>
<p>I have had that mid bulge at 90 lbs and I have it 140 lbs. Even when I was skin and bones my only fat was around the middle. What helps somewhat is trying to control the bloating. If I stay away from white carbs I seem to have less of the front bulge.
Funny thing is my D requested homemade mac and cheese for her 18th birthday. It is her absolute favorite meal. This time I made it but also grilled chicken breast and made a salad. My H thought I was nuts but we both liked having the choice of another main course. I skipped the Mac and he had his as a side dish. My D was thrilled because she was able to have lots of leftovers.</p>
<p>I learned more about core exercises I can do at home on the Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread. I’m not fighting a bulge, but I notice these exercises are nice for toning without being too much work. Yay! Anyhow if you decide to mosey over there, that discussion was right around 4/28, or you could ask fresh. :-)</p>
<p>^^That’s a good tip, MOWC ,thank you. I used to do a banana sliced in a bowl, with skim milk and a little squirt of whipped cream - was satisfying.</p>
<p>MAYBE I’ll check out the core exercises… (wink wink)</p>
<p>For me, the diet starts and ends in the grocery store. I know myself. If I buy it, I’m gonna eat it. And probably soon, i.e. all those schemes to just have “a little bit at a time” are just exercises in self-delusion. I have slowly trained myself to just stay out of most of the aisles in the center of the store. The bread aisle, the cereal aisle, the juice aisle, the soda aisle, the chips aisle, and the candy aisle are just off-limits. I’ve made little deals with myself. I can have the crumbled blue cheese and olive oil and croutons on my massive salads, but I can’t have the cannister of Pringles. I can have the bag of pistachios, but I can’t have the Raspberry Snapple. I can have the Fuji apples, but I can’t have the sour gummi worms. I can have the baby back ribs, but I can’t have the pizza.</p>
<p>I just don’t eat out very often. I can cook better stuff, especially when I think about what I could whip up for the price of a $30 entree. And, it’s just too hard to find stuff that fits with the way I want to eat.</p>
<p>I think the hardest thing would be trying to eat against the grain of what the rest of the family eats. My wife and I have had some disagreement because she doesn’t think that the way I eat will work for fat-loss, so we ended up accomodating our own philosophies. For example, she has low-fat sour cream and I have full-fat sour cream and so forth.</p>
<p>Mine has been apples lately. I slice them up in bite size pieces, so it’s like a big plate of candy! It’s not the ideal snack because it’s high in sugar, but in the scheme of things, a fresh apple is a pretty good sugar-fix sweet-tooth alternative. A bowl of fresh berries is even better. The upside of getting off the candy/juice/soda train is that fruit now tastes crazy-sweet to me.</p>
<p>Besides my night time snack and some bad carbs here and there, I’m pretty good nutritionally. I don’t drink -besides water, not much at all - no alcohol, no soda, no juice. Just water, one cup of coffee w/half and half several times a week, and a once a week Arnold Palmer lite. Breakfast is almost as described above or a couple of eggs scrambled with additional protein. I try to steer clear of bread products at breakfast though I do love bread/butter.</p>
<p>While not “the answer,” watching sodium intake can also help shed pounds. But beware of eating at a restaurant. It’s very hard to find items, even on the healthy end, that aren’t ridiculously high in sodium.</p>
<p>Find out what you really enjoy doing, nothing else will work as a long term strategy. In addition, yes, consuption is part of it. My normal weekend routine is 6.5 miles rollerblading + 1.5 miles swimming does not produce any loss, sometime I gain. Apparently, consumption is a bit too much…I do not worry though as long as BP, blood sugar are OK. But I should really lose about 6 lbs as they start bothering my back. I will never give up my chocolate, beer, no way!!! Relax, enjoy, watch some stupid movie…</p>
<p>Miami- Try listening to what the OP is saying for once. She wants to lose or minimize the middle bulge. She doesn’t want to watch a movie or relax. I can attest that it can not be done by exercising alone (at one time I thought it could, but it can’t), even if you roller blade, swim and eat chocolate.</p>
<p>One thing about making the bulge look smaller is to do a little bulking up in the shoulders and chest. Adding the muscle may take off a little from the middle too.</p>
Summer actually seems to be my trouble time of year - kids are home more, so less routine and more “treat” moments. </p>