Not sure how to change eating habits for weight loss
Dr. Wallace: I’m a teen who is about 25 pounds overweight, but due to my family situation and the food that is prepared at home, I’m not likely to change my eating habits drastically over the next few years.
When I turn 18, I realize that I’ll be an adult and can move out at some point and control my own environment, which would include my food and meals, but I kind of already think I’ll be at home until I’m at least 20 years old or so.
Should I just resign myself to my fate for now, or are there any other things I could do in the meantime?
— Need to Drop a Few, via email
Yes, I can give you a few suggestions and you can select the ones you feel you’d like to try.
First, do your best to engage in reasonable portion control with all your meals. This means to not regularly overeat at each meal, and this way even if any particular meal you’re eating is high in calories you can then at least keep the total number of calories you consume somewhat under control.
You can also write out a full list of the foods you regularly eat, and then research online which ones are low in calories. Those that include lean protein, vegetables and so forth will likely fall into this category, so you can plan to eat larger portions of these foods and a bit less of the other higher-calorie foods that you are regularly served.
You should also hydrate and carefully watch and control your beverage intake each day. This means drink lots of water and low-calorie or calorie-free drinks like soda water or unsweetened iced tea. You can even make your own iced tea at home for a low price by brewing a large pot of tea with teabags and then placing the tea into a large pitcher in the refrigerator.
Stay away from sodas, colas, high-calorie energy drinks or even some juices that have high levels of added sugars. You should start regularly reading labels on all kinds of drinks to see exactly what is in
Need To Drop a Few:
them! If you must drink a soda, do so only occasionally and keep your intake to one per day, or even better half a can with lots of ice and pass the rest to another family member to do the same. Than each of you will keep your calories down while you enjoy the occasional treat of a drink like this. Make it a rare treat, not a daily occasion.
Do the same with any desserts. Cut your portions down and even see if you can arrange a few lower-calorie desserts to be rotated into the mix regularly.
Finally, start exercising regularly. Start by walking every day. Begin slowly and go for just a 10-minute walk at first. Create a log or a notebook where you can write how long you walked each day, as this will help your motivation. Over time you should be able to build up your distance, length and speed of your daily walks. Soon you should notice greatly increased stamina, which is always a great sign of improved fitness. Later you can think about doing a bit of sports exercise if there any you enjoy or perhaps just lift a few small free weights very slowly. Start with a small weight, and similarly track your progress and build up the weight gradually over time from there. You can go online to find all kinds of great home workout tips and suggestions.
If you can implement some, most or even all of these suggestions, I trust you’ll not only maintain your existing weight, but you’ll gradually begin losing a few pounds. Once you notice this, track your weight in your notebook as well. All incremental progress should be cherished and make you proud of your efforts, quite deservedly so. It’s amazing what we can all accomplish by making small, steady and gradual changes and then sticking to them. Good luck and know that I’m proud of you for wishing to make meaningful changes in your life and that I’m encouraging you to stick with it so that you can achieve the progress you seek!
Should we be running?
Dr. Wallace: My sister and I like to take what we call “power walks” around our neighborhood. We walk fast, but we don’t run. I’m on the drill team and my sister is in the marching band, so we both like these fast walks to build up our leg muscles and our ability to walk a lot when we perform.
Our older brother is a high school varsity athlete in three sports, and all he ever does is run really fast around our block when he wants to build up his duration stamina. Then when he sometimes runs by us on a weekend when we are out power walking together, he laughs and says, “beep, beep, slowpokes!” when he runs by like he’s some kind of roadrunner from a cartoon.
Are we girls just wasting our time walking? Should we be running or at least jogging around the block like our “roadrunner” older brother?
— Girls Who Power Walk, via email
Girls Who Power Walk: I say stick with your very brisk walking! I’ve seen several studies over the years that pointed out that jogging and brisk walking have virtually the same health benefits and the walking option is much safer. Your chances of injury are much lower than if you jogged each time you went out for your exercise together.
Both jogging and brisk walking build muscle tone, endurance and help you to burn calories effectively. Brisk power walks will definitely help build endurance to more effectively tote an instrument in a marching band and to perform drill team activities as well.
Let your brother be the speedy hero he is, but don’t feel obligated to follow in his running footsteps. He’s not even really jogging as it sounds like he’s truly running fast like a competitive sprinter or medium distance runner. Simply tell him that you girls are happy running your own race and that he should enjoy running his. But remind him to be careful, because in most cartoons the roadrunner eventually runs right into a brick wall!
Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.