posted February 13, 2011 12:46 PM            

Right now I am doing Leslie Sanson's Walk Down the pounds DVD. I do 1 mile per day, although it is a 5 mile DVD and I can do the 5 miles in 73 minutes, so I think it's a matter of me getting off my lazy a** and doing it. I'm in my 30s to, 30 to be exact and it is very different now, in my 20s I'd lose weight with no effort!

posted February 13, 2011 12:51 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by pire:
no worries. I haven't got great weight issues, but since a few months or may be a few years, I noticed I didn't loose weight as I used to. I am not huge, so I never really have to do a diet, and so I used to "regulate" myself easily. if i ate too much one day, I would be more careful for a few days later and it used to be enough to be in shape, or sort of. I never had a ripped body either. just normal for someone who is not too much into sport.

but for a little while now, I realised it didn't work anymore. I don't loose wait as I used to.

so I had a look on the web to understand how to loose some weight. and once this achieved, how to keep it like this.

what I understand is that there is a minimum of calories that the body needs. it needs it to function properly. basically, for the lungs, heart and so on to function. for a man it is roughly around 2000 calories, a little less for me. not sure for a woman. but this is the first number that one needs to know to proceed.

whatever you eat above this threshold is going to be stored by the body. and to keep it, the calories are transformed in fat. but calories aren't fat, they are energy. fuel if you prefer. but when they are transformed in fat, they become very "attached" to you. they don't want to let go. the body likes to transform calories in fat, well to a certain extent, until it becomes a problem for it. so when one is loosing weight by cutting calories too much and not respecting the minimal threshold of calories the body needs to function, the danger is that the body will not give up the fat. why would it give up what is protecting him (and protecting you) when is being deprived of newer fuel?

so the bottom line is to eat enough, and to eat a little bit of everything. by everything I mean 3 things.

as far as I understood, there is 3 great categories of nutriments. I don't know their english name, but in french it's lipides, glucides and proteines. or you can call them:

lipides: fat
glucides: sugar
proteines: meat/cereals

the first category, the fat is essential, like the oil in the car, there is a lot of friction in an engine, and heat too, so the oil you put in there helps the engine to work and prevent it to brake down because of rusting metal. fat in the body is the same, it is a sort of lube.
1 gr of fat = 9 calories
the body needs roughly 30% of this for someone who is not doing a diet. so out of the number of calories that the body needs per day to function, 30% should be lipides (again for someone who is not on a strict diet to loose weight but just wants to keep in shape, for someone on a strict diet, I suppose they need a bit less of fat and more proteines I think).

then the glucides, or sugar are like the fuel the car needs to move. no fuel... well, nothing happens. there are different sort of sugar, slow burning and quick burning.
1 gr of glucides = 4 calories
for someone who's not on diet to loose weight, their intake of sugar should be 55%

then, lastly there is the proteines, aka bricks of the body. they are your body. they are the element out of which the body is made. they are the bricks used to build it. you find them in meat, fish, eggs, and cereals. but there is different type of bricks that the body needs. and if the meat and fish and egg can contain all the different type of bricks needed to build a strong body, cereals do not have all of them, except soja which is the only one, as far as I know, that has all different types of proteines. that is why a veg child is, to me, nonsense, because without bricks, the body is sort of limited to become stronger. and I suppose adults always need proteines to regenerate the body becasue an adult who doesn't do a diet needs 15% of proteines in his daily intake.
1gr of proteines = 4 calories.

(for the record, in french, calories are expressed as Kcal, may be in the US too, I don't know.)

so, to loose weight in a definite manner, you need to take food into account. it is not a bad habit to eat, hey, I am french! I love to. and here we eat fat too. in my fridge I have a jar of goose fat to cook some meals. so food is good, and all types are good AND necessary.

this is the first part of the journey, understanding the food. the second, which goes hand in hand, is doing some exercice. from what I have read, there is more benefit to exercice more than 1/2 hour because before this time, the body doesn't burn the existing fat. but being an air sign with a virgo mars (also conjunct jupiter, for good and evil) I need to read more on that aspect of the "journey".

good luck ladies

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Pire,
Very useful info, thank you! You are French? Cool! I read the book Why French Women Don't Get Fat and that also taught me alot about my eating habits, from then on I cooked ALL my food and stopped eating out and try to by the finest ingredients within my budget

posted February 13, 2011 01:33 PM            

it's true that obesity is not YET a big issue in france. I say yet because france, like most western countries, is very influenced by US way of life, we tend to take your habits. but to be honest, in france there is a very strong culture around food. it is part of the culture to eat together in a family. and, except may be in paris which is the biggest city by far, everywhere people still have a this link that make us want to enjoy meals together. I am single and I live alone, so it is different for people like me, but even though, I cook my meals as I have seen my mum do it for as long as I can remember. and when the family comes together, it is always around the table and the meal is systematically a subject of conversation. the recipes are exchanged, the tips on how to do... and on that respect, my family is typical of any french family.

we eat a lot, a typical family gathering usually on sundays can last hours and after eating a lot, you often found families walking to digest on roads. some have another meal together in the evening. this is very common, natural. so food is something that we enjoy, and that we share. and because there is as many specialities as "regions" in france, it is not hard to feel connected to traditions. at least regarding food habits.

the thing why french are so concerned by food is because there are many many local specialities. france is smaller than texas, and still from one area to another, the ingredients and technique of cooking are different and there are literally thousands of local specialities of main dishes, wines, cheese, meats... for exemple now I live in brittany, and one of the big speciality here are pancakes. but "bretons" (the local people from brittany) have developped many subtelties about pancakes. different ingredientd to make different type of pancake that will be used in different ways, I mean with different food. whereas in my region where I was born, the south west of france, we just know pancake with sugar or jam lol. in my region, we do a dish called aligot, among other specialities. it is a sort of mash potatoes with lots of cheese and cream. it is very filling, it used to be a dish that poor people would eat. now it has become very class to eat it. but it is still very traditional in my region and a family reunion is likely to have some. of course there are plenty other local specialities. snails with parsley and garlic, mushrooms, charcuterie like sausages and ham, cheese, for exemple roquefort comes from my region, and it can only be produced 100 km away from the village of roquefort otherwise it cannot be called roquefort. most of regions in france have different cheese specialities which doesn't stop the rest of us to know about them, and enjoy them. but you know, food is kind of the roots that link us to our region and our past. everywhere in france. not just from where I come from.

that is why people are so attached to food here. it is a part of what makes our identity as a breton, an "auvergnat" (centre of france), an alsacien (north east border with germany)...

so for me cooking is essential. I don't always have the time to cook but I have to cook at some point otherwise I feel ... hmmm... cut from myself may be? (my cancer rising with moon in 4th is showing, lol)

and I usually don't do any sophisticated dishes because I just know how to do simple things. my mum used to cook some very basic dishes, like aligot I mentioned above, but it takes time to prepare it, and lots of energy because when you need to stir it at some point the cheese is becoming a "heavy" problem. so this dish used to be only for special occasions. otherwise my mum prepared quiches, soupes, meat in sauces dishes, cakes, all simple stuff that you can keep for several days in the fridge and that perfume the house when you do it.

tonight I will eat some soup (with cabage) that is cooking right now, with some lentils that I prepared 2 days ago, with herbs and a bit of goose fat . nothing fancyful. but simple and good.

I don't have a very good diet. I never really followed this ruled that you talk about and that I heard too. like a lot in the morning, less at lunch and little in the evening. because I never had any issue with food. I am tall 6'4 and until now, I think I always burned all the food I used to eat. but now things are changing. I am 31 and I realise I have to take care of my food habits if I don't want to have a big belly. I don't think I will ever become obese in the american way because here morbidly obese people are sort of stigmatised. well I mean it is not natural here, even though we have a very strong tradition linked to food. may be old women are sometimes, or may be often (lol) overweight and even obese, but then it is not natural for younger people. I don't mean there aren't any obese young persons but really it is not common. the norme here is somewhat to be normal, neither slim nor fat, just standard. but I know the way of life is different. your country is huge, and cities too. so for you cars are essential. well here cities are much smaller, so it absolutely fine to walk a little in the streets. and sizes of food or coke in fast food are smaller I think that what is a regular size in your country. so all in all it is this type of things that meke it easier for americans to become bigger I think.

posted February 13, 2011 05:51 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by pire:
here is what aligot looks like...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxJ2vNghNWc&feature=related

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posted February 13, 2011 08:10 PM            

For lunch and dinner the day before the drop:

Before lunch:
V8
Beef jerky

Lunch: Taco Bell
2 tacos without cheese
3 Pintos and cheese
no drink

After lunch:
2 chocolates

Dinner:
2 chili, refried bean, cheese and olive burritos of my own making