One of the aspects of deliberate living I have struggled with is getting healthier. For a long time I gave in to the negative habits I fall back on when stressed, namely stress eating and reading as a means of escape. The end result of this, after years of this behavior, is that I am packing extra poundage and I’m not as strong as I once was.
Deliberate living doesn’t mean I get the easy choices. I am choosing instead to act in a way that will move me towards health, and that means weight loss. I’ve learned some lessons along the way, especially from our late dog.
The Rescue Beagle
We had a rescued beagle. She was my first dog, and she was about four years old when we adopted her. I have always loved beagles, but living with one, I learned the truth of beagles: it is not getting them to eat that is the problem, it is getting them to stop eating. Consequently, a trip to the vet put our dog at 3.5 pounds overweight. That’s a lot for a dog that’s supposed to be 20 pounds. So we put her on a diet.
The diet was very successful. I have boiled it down to a few key points that I am implementing in my own life.
Portion Control Is A Must
In order to lose weight, you have to take in less food than the energy you spend. In the case of a beagle, portion control is an absolute must. She will eat whatever food is in her bowl, regardless of the amount. So we cut down her portion and place it in her bowl.
Human application: learn portion sizes, and put them on your plate. No seconds allowed.
Measure and Track Everything
It was necessary for us to start measuring her food with an actual measuring cup. Eyeballing it meant we would generally put too much food in the bowl. The vet always asked how much we were feeding her, and we had to respond with cups and times per day, giving us the total calorie intake.
Human application: measure everything and track it. There are so many apps out there that make it easy with scanning of food products. Use whatever system you want, but don’t rely on your eyeballs and memory to determine how much you are taking in.
Get More Exercise…
The dog would happily spend her life snoozing in a sun patch. Due to irregular schedules, the dog wasn’t being walked consistently. I started taking the dog for a pre-dawn walk every day. This was the only time I could consistently perform this task, and it ensured we both got some exercise.
Human application: exercise every day. If it means getting up earlier to get consistency, do so.
…But Nothing Outlandish
Exercise is simply getting your heart rate up and burning calories. Many of my friends, whose sole goal is to lose weight, sign up for expensive gyms and workout places. They go for a few times, and then start skipping.
The dog walks. She doesn’t do aerobics, cross training or spin class. She simply walks.
Human application: walk! If all you want to do is burn calories, get out and start moving! You don’t have to join a gym or buy fancy equipment.
Replace Treats…
Since food is such a hit with the dog, we used it for training. However, she had delicate digestion…not that it kept her from eating, but the results were…undesirable… if she ate something that didn’t agree with her. So we fed her high-quality dog biscuits as a reward. And in order to re-train her when we got her, we got in the habit of giving her a biscuit every time she went outside.
We replaced the dog biscuits, at the vet’s suggestion, with baby carrots. She loved them just as much, but there are almost no calories, and no unpleasant side effects.
Human application: replace your treats with low calorie substitutes. Carrots, fresh blueberries, cucumbers, celery and other fresh fruits and veggies have lots of fiber and low calories.
…But Allow Regular Splurges
We didn’t cut out her biscuits completely. She still got one every day, first thing in the morning, and she sulked if we forgot. But her joy and happiness, coupled with a little beagle tap-dancing, at getting a biscuit, showed us she really enjoyed them. (Of course, she acted the same way for the carrots…)
Human application: Allow yourself one small splurge every day. The keys here are one and small. And get excited and truly enjoy them. A treat that you don’t remember eating is hardly a treat.
Results
The trip to the vet after we implemented the above showed a two pound weight loss. We saw a different doctor, whose only comment was, “whatever you are doing, keep it up.”
Human Results: I am exercising every day and have more energy. Although I am still struggling with the treat aspect (it is, after all, Halloween season…), I am working hard to cut back and eat healthier, portion controlled substitutes. I making sure to track my portions and calories, and found that I am actually not eating enough, which was slowing down my metabolism.