Body by Felicia

As some of you may know I am the vice president of our local T*girl group (http://www.masquerade.ca). As such I write a column for the newsletter every month. The ones I really think are good I will post here as well. This particular column appeared in the February 2010 edition of Lipstick & Lace.

Xs & Os

Fels

---

2010 is here and although we all hate to think about it summer is just around the corner and unless you swim in a corset it's time to start working on your body. With it being so cold outside, exercising outdoors isn't really an option so dieting is your best bet. Here are a few tips to help shed the pounds.

It's not a diet, it's a change in lifestyle. Absolutely nothing else will help if you don't accept this fact. Diets require willpower, and tend to break down once you have a pint of Ben & Jerry's after a particularly horrible day at the office. Lifestyle says that the Cherry Garcia was a one time thing and tomorrow it's back to the carrots. Lifestyle also allows you to make small adjustments over time which you will be required to do.

Rest is a must. One of the indicators that people suffer from sleep apnea is that they are
obese. Granted, they are an extreme case, but the same process holds for everyone. If you do not get enough sleep, the body wants energy which makes you want to eat to get that boost. You get the boost, but you also get the extra calories with it that you don't need. Getting a good night's rest makes a huge difference.

The coffee, it is bad! Actually, the coffee isn't the worst part - the stuff you put in it is. A teaspoon of white sugar has about 4 grams of carbohydrates. Now think of how many tablespoons of sugar you put in your java and multiply that by the number of cups you have in a day. Yep. Not so good. The cream has a lot of fat in it as well and the coup de grace is that the caffeine is an addictive substance which gets your body used to a certain level of energy, which feeds back into #2. Try changing to herbal tea, or if you can't stand tea, switch to using sugar twin and powdered creamer.

Understand yourself. Everyone's body is different and you must treat it as a type of experiment. Understand what foods make you gain weight, and which ones help you lose it. Myself, I stay away from foods with a lot of carbs (I try to keep all my foods under 10% of the daily recommended intake) but I pay no heed to fat content whatsoever. Salt I avoid like the plague but I make sure I eat a lot of protein. Salt makes the body retain a lot of water (in general) and since I do a lot of biking protein is a must to maintain and build leg muscle.

If you take away anything from this article, it's that this is a process. You will fail time to time. You will have ice cream. You will have too much pizza. Accept it as a fact and that tomorrow you will return to making yourself the best you can be!