The Seven-Day Shakeup
There’s no shortage of articles containing weight-loss tips, but the premise of this article intrigued me.
Forget dieting. A new study reveals that just changing one old habit a day can help you shift pounds effortlessly. Best of all, this proven weight-loss method involves no calorie counting. Instead, you have to do something different each day. Whether it’s tuning into a different radio station or giving up a favourite drink, you’ll stop living on auto-pilot.
And they don’t mean changing one food habit, either. One suggestion is to say something you’d normally keep to yourself. One is to go to a different supermarket, and leave your list at home. Unorthodox, but interesting.
The original post and comments.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: BFD Classic, Weight Loss
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I’m 100% behind the idea of not living on auto-pilot, but the opening paragraph is ridiculous. To say that a “very successful” marathon runner stays slim because she does not deprive herself of sweet treats makes me want to smack somebody. How many calories does she burn, training to run an effing marathon, do you think? Stop dieting, start running 3 hours every day — and lose weight! The mind boggles!
…but everyone of the behavioral changes suggested is suggested because it produces more activity or stops you eating something you’d normally eat habitually – so yeah: get more exercise,eat healthy food and eat less bad food – totally radical message.
I have mixed feelings on this. My immediate reaction was “oh shut the hell up” because I am sick to death of people saying that all I have to do is make a small change in order to lose weight. Granted, most of those people recommend a change to diet or exercise, which imply that I haven’t already made those changes (and therefore the only reason I am still fat is because I am sitting on a couch stuffing my face).
Then I thought about it for a bit and came to the conclusion that it might not be as far off base as it seems. I notice that I tend to gain weight when I’m doing my regular routine. Mainly because I tend to snack when bored or not otherwise engaged in some activity (not necessarily physical either). Even if I make a change, such as a new radio station (as given as an example above), I become more engrossed in that and am less likely to do the unconscious “hand to mouth” feeding.
Having said all that, I must add that any weight loss would probably be temporary, no matter what change I made. I always have an initial weight loss when making a change in diet or exercise pattern, but my body quickly re-adjusts itself and I usually end up sticking close to my “normal” weight of 220. Quite frustrating actually.
I guess the key is to try something new every single week in order to keep “fooling” my metabolic rate and hope that I don’t run out of ideas until I’m down to 130-140 (and my body starts to train itself to stay at that weight)?!?!?!
this proven weight-loss method
O RLY?
That’s all.
My immediate reaction was “oh shut the hell up” because I am sick to death of people saying that all I have to do is make a small change in order to lose weight.
Personally, I’m sick to death of people thinking that I’ll only recognize something as a good idea if I can be convinced that it causes weight loss.
Shaking up your routine is good. Keeps your synapses firing. Keeps you from getting in a rut. Why in god’s name is that not ENOUGH? Why do I have to be gulled into thinking it will make me skinny in order to recognize its value?
(Mental) Health At Every Size, people.
That’s a really novel idea, and I can imagine actually doing it – how hard is it to change up one thing everything week or so? Next week I change my work schedule, so I’m all set for that. I’m assuming not being at work at 10 pm will get rid of that late-night snack thing, and maybe I’ll drop some pounds then.
I already do this. Have done it since childhood. Fart in their general direction.
Meowser: LOL @ the Monty Python reference :-)
I am with you Fillyjonk! Shaking up a routine is good- it gets us all out of ruts and exposes us to different ways of looking at life and being. Weight loss is not anything I am in pursuit of, or would I worry about.
But just try to pry the caffeine out of my hands! I cannot fly thru my day without it (I have 4 kids- ages 8, 5, 2, and 3 mos) as I am only getting an average of 4-6 hours of sleep/night. NO MATTER how I try to rearrange my sleep, someone is always up (two of the 4 have night terrors and the baby only gets thru the night sometimes at this point).
And now you all know why some of my ramblings are hard to follow sometimes…
It’s amazing that they were still finding ways to reprint that idea three years after the first time I read a similar article.
I completely changed the way I ate and exercised by changing one thing at time. I’m still following the modern wisdom of “drink plenty of water; eat mostly fruit and veg, whole grains, and lean proteins; and exercise daily,” because of the changes I made in small steps.
How much weight did I lose? NONE.
The flip-side to that is that I’ve discovered all kinds of food I didn’t know I’d enjoy, have more energy, and don’t often get bored. It isn’t bad avice just because it doesn’t do what they say it will. It’s just presented in a false package.
The package should also come with a warning because some people think that following good advice means applying it to EVERYTHING in life. However, there are routines that can be vital. It’s a good idea for most people to have a bedtime routine to signal the close of a day. However, an insomniac who changes or breaks that ritual risks messing their sleep cycle for days or even weeks. I learned that the hard way.
“The package should also come with a warning because some people think that following good advice means applying it to EVERYTHING in life. However, there are routines that can be vital. It’s a good idea for most people to have a bedtime routine to signal the close of a day. However, an insomniac who changes or breaks that ritual risks messing their sleep cycle for days or even weeks.”
Gosh darn, twilightriver, why’d you have to pull that whole LOGIC thing out and make people feel bad?
Hee.
Whether it’s tuning into a different radio station or giving up a favourite drink, you’ll stop living on auto-pilot.
….I really don’t think it’s a good idea for me to give up water. :P