Now I’ve had my baby (December 21, 2008!) and I’m ready to lose the baby weight and get strong for the events we have planned for the summer (among them: a 350-mile 5-day bike tour). I ended up having a C-section (not my idea!) so I have been exercise-restricted, but today is my six-week follow up appointment and I expect the doctor will give me the go-ahead.

I’ve started tracking my food with Gyminee, and I’ll be focusing on cycling and also a bit of running and swimming with the goal of finishing a sprint-length triathlon this summer. Also, the good folks at Body Media (the company that makes the bodybugg) have provided me a GoWear Fit unit to review, so I’ll be reporting my experiences with that, too.

Finally, a visitor sent me the following questions:

I’m trying to lose 15 pounds, and was hoping I can get your input.  It’s odd, but I have coincidentally been studying and thinking about trying both Extreme Fat Smash and JUDDD diet and then I ran across your blog which discuss both (I’m also interested in Crack the Fat Loss Code by Wendy Chant).  Can you compare the two from your experience (difficulty, ease in maintaining, quirks, pros/cons, etc…)?

In my experience, the Extreme Fat Smash diet is both more difficult and more effective than JUDDD. I don’t think either one of them is sustainable (though some might be able to stick with JUDDD for a long time, I guess). I see both of them as a kick-start to get the scale needle moving in the right direction—but you have to follow it up with something that will work long-term, or you’ll just undo your progress.

Since you want to lose 15 pounds, I’d probably go with the Extreme Fat Smash and really devote yourself to it for at least three weeks. It’s highly unlikely you’ll lose all 15, but you’ll probably get a good chunk of the way there—it’s a heck of a kick-start. Then you can either do it again or simply follow a reduced-calorie diet for the rest of the loss you’re looking for.

One thing I liked about the Extreme Fat Smash is that I didn’t have to put much thought into what to eat or how much. It took a while to prep the food, but mentally, it was easier than deciding what to eat. I do well when given a specific plan, though, and knowing it was “only for three weeks” kept me motivated when I otherwise would have given in to temptation.

Do you have any suggestions on how to control hunger?  I am really bad at portion control and eating chocolate.  I try so hard, but I often can only go a few days, at most, before I cave.

NutritionData.com has a very cool feature that tells you the “Fullness Factor” of pretty much every food. I’ve found this helpful in reducing hunger—when I’m really in the groove, I have to work to meet minimum calorie guidelines (this usually takes a week or two of being serious before I’m that in tune with my body, though). Figure out what foods give you the most bang for your calorie buck by experimenting a little.

As far as chocolate goes, it’s like any other temptation… it’s too easy to give in if you’re constantly considering it. For me, that means I need to keep chocolate either out of the house altogether or not easily accessible. I use social pressure to my advantage here, too. For instance, I won’t open a sealed bag of chocolate chips to munch because I’d be embarrassed if I got caught. However, when there’s an open bag of chocolate chips, I’ll snag a few every so often… so I have to avoid having open bags around.

I’m also a big fan of bribery. Right now, my husband and I have a deal that if I stay on track with my weight loss goals, I’ll get a GPS computer for my bike in June. So when I’m faced with a delicious-looking piece of cake when I don’t have room for it in the calorie budget (as I was on Monday!), I can ask myself, “Is this piece of cake worth losing that GPS computer?” When put that way, it’s obviously not worth it, and I was able to resist.

For stuff that you really love, though, it’s smart to make room for it in your diet. With that piece of cake, I ate less of other things on Tuesday so that I could have the cake. I have dessert almost every evening, too, because I plan for it. For me, it’s an important component in avoiding that “deprived” feeling.

Does anyone else have some good tips for controlling hunger and avoiding temptation? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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The basic premise is that the modern approach to food (looking at isolated nutrients rather than whole foods, diets, and lifestyles) is considerably less healthful than earlier alternatives. An interesting excerpt:

This brings us to another unexamined assumption: that the whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health. Hippocrates’s famous injunction to ”let food be thy medicine” is ritually invoked to support this notion. I’ll leave the premise alone for now, except to point out that it is not shared by all cultures and that the experience of these other cultures suggests that, paradoxically, viewing food as being about things other than bodily health — like pleasure, say, or socializing — makes people no less healthy; indeed, there’s some reason to believe that it may make them more healthy. This is what we usually have in mind when we speak of the ”French paradox” — the fact that a population that eats all sorts of unhealthful nutrients is in many ways healthier than we Americans are. So there is at least a question as to whether nutritionism is actually any good for you.

You really should read the whole article, but here are the author’s basic recommendations: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

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It’s the creation of Dr. Ian Smith, who seems to be something of a celebrity himself on Celebrity Fit Club, a VH1 show I’ve never seen (not having VH1 being a significant barrier). It’s a fairly standard diet in that it’s made up of different phases and gives specific guidance on what’s okay to eat and what’s not. It’s mostly no-calorie-counting (as long as you stick to the approved foods) and requires exercise, but is not especially specific about what kinds.

During my basic research, I also discovered a variation on the Fat Smash Diet: The Extreme Fat Smash Diet (yeah, I had to put aside my desire to mock the name mercilessly).

The difference? While the Fat Smash Diet is a 12-week program, The “Extreme” version is made up of three extremely specific week-long “rotations” that can be repeated as needed. Where the regular version dictates categories of foods, the “Extreme” lists out exact foods and portions for each day, as well as a specific amount of cardio exercise. Many of the comments on Amazon suggest that it’s a pretty tough diet to follow, but that if you do, you’ll lose way more weight than the average diet.

That’s significant, because the book cover suggests that you’ll lose “up to 12 pounds in three weeks.” That’s much more than most legitimate diet folks would promise (the accepted rule of thumb being two pounds per week), but the Amazon reviews indicate that it’s for real.

As a fun-and-different twist, my husband, Daniel, joined me on this diet. He broke his back in 2003 and it was kind of a turning point for him; afterwards he got very active, took up cycling, and dropped about 50 pounds. He is currently at a pretty healthy weight but wanted to decrease his body fat percentage. He’s never dieted, so it’s been entertaining to see things from a “lay person’s” viewpoint.

We started the diet immediately upon returning from a family visit to Colorado. We ate pretty reasonably there, but wanted to get going right away so we’d be done before Thanksgiving (I know, I know, you’re supposed to only do diets you could conceivably do for the rest of your life… but we’re having company and I sincerely doubt they want 1/2 cup of rice and 2 servings of vegetables for Thanksgiving dinner).

The first thing we did was create a detailed meal plan (the book was a library book) and went shopping. At the time it felt a little overwhelming because most of the stuff on the plan wasn’t stuff we normally eat (not bad stuff, just out of the ordinary for us). Having the meal plan helped a lot, though.

Then there was the actual eating. On this diet, we learned to cook quinoa and barley (two of the approved substitutes for brown rice, which appears almost daily), we discovered a tasty brand of protein drink mix, and realized how much we like salsa, celery, carrots, and other “free” items.

Even though the diet is extremely specific, it is also fairly flexible. Take the brown rice as an example: it shows up frequently, but there are several recommended substitutes. Almost every time fruit appears, you have the option to have a piece of fruit, a cup of berries, or a cup of fresh-squeezed fruit or veggie juice (we used not-from-concentrate prepared juice because we don’t have a juicer, nor do we really want one). Many meals call for “4 ounces chicken, fish, or lean sirloin” which is great for varied tastes; I usually have the chicken and Daniel has the fish.

One of the other features is two optional daily snacks of up to 100 calories each. For me, this means one of the surprisingly tasty Klondike Slim-A-Bear ice cream sandwiches after dinner most nights. It’s amazing how far an ice cream treat goes towards keeping me content.

Similarly, the daily number of cardio minutes is mandatory, but you can do whatever kind of cardio you want, as long as it gets your heart rate up. I did spinning on my road bike, Dance Dance Revolution, and a couple of workout videos. That flexibility is what makes this diet followable for me.

The initial time involved was kind of a shock. I normally eat frozen lunches most days because I’m typically really busy with client work during the day. Cooking everything from scratch is a lot of work! I quickly learned to make large batches.

Also, even though we do a fair amount of exercise, we weren’t used to doing moderate amounts almost every day (we tend to do several hours on weekend days). It eats up a fair amount of time, so between that and the cooking, we felt really busy, but after the first week, it seemed to get easier.

So how did we feel on the diet? The first day we were both hungry. We also felt really hungry the fifth day, and were almost ready to make the following day a free day… but then Daniel weighed in (we weigh in daily) and realized he’d lost four pounds in five days. That did a lot for motivation!

Generally, I’ve felt good, even forgetting to eat until several hours after I could have. Daniel has felt a little weaker, occasionally light-headed, but nothing serious.

And the part I’m sure you’re really wondering about… In three weeks, I lost eight pounds and 4% body fat. Daniel lost 11 pounds and 3% body fat.

What will I do from here? Well, for this week, I’m going to focus on portion sizes and try to avoid a calorie surplus but not worry much beyond that. I’ll do the same the week of Christmas. Other than that, I’m going to keep on with the 500-calorie deficit plan, until I hit my goal weight (about nine pounds to go).

Then I will go back to focusing on portion size, but keep logging my weigh-ins and watch my average. If it goes up more than one pound (and keep in mind that this is a longer-term moving average), then I’ll go back to the diet rules.

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It’s a slow cooker recipe, which is convenient since I have a crock pot that I rarely use (and consequently, I also have unused-kitchen-gadget-guilt!). However, if you don’t have a slow cooker, I expect you could probably convert this to a stove top recipe pretty easily.

Italian Lentil and Barley Soup

1 cup lentils
1/3 cup pearl barley
1 cup carrots (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
1 cup onions (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 1/2 cups broth
2 1/2 cups water
14 1/4 ounces Italian-style tomatoes or regular stewed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar (optional)

1. Sort through lentils to remove debris and shriveled beans, then rinse.
2. Add lentils to crock pot, along with barley, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, dried herbs and bay leaf.
3. Pour in broth, water, and tomatoes.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 12 to 14 hours, or on high heat for 5 to 6 hours.
5. Discard bay leaf and just before serving stir in parsley and vinegar (if using).

Based on some of the previous reviews, I increased the garlic to three very large cloves. I also left out the parsley and cider vinegar, not having either on hand. My food processor made quick work of the veggies, so the active time on this recipe was very reasonable.

The result? Very tasty! Daniel loved it (and loved the fact that we had enough for several leftover lunches) and has declared this recipe a permanent addition to our recipe box.

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I’d never been to Vegas before, but I tried to do my research ahead of time. I booked a room near the convention center so that I could walk, and scoped out the local restaurants on Google Maps to see what was to be seen.

This worked so-so; I found out about many options but some of those that were missing would have been nice to know about (for instance, eGo in the hotel right next to the convention center).

Based on my prior research, I knew there was a McDonald’s about a quarter-mile south of my motel. Now, McDonald’s wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice for healthy eating, but despite (or probably because of) all the bad press about their nutritional choices, there are actually some very good choices.

McDonald’s is also the exception to many restaurants in that they actually post their nutritional information online, and in a location that’s easy to find.

Being the geek that I am, I turned this into a spreadsheet so I could sort it by my preferences (I deleted the items that weren’t appealing to me, and then did some crude math to find the healthiest choices).

I also had the brilliant idea of packing some food to guarantee that I would always have a healthy option, at least for meals where I was close to my motel. I packed some pre-measured bags of oatmeal (having read the observation somewhere that the in-room coffee maker is ideal for such a purpose), a bag of protein drink powder (counting on finding milk at McDonald’s), and two apples for each day I’d be there.

This strategy generally worked well (though you really shouldn’t underestimate the brutality of the baggage handlers; my extremely cushy packing around my apples was no match for acts of luggage violence, apparently, but I mostly just ate around the bruises).

I wasn’t sure what my food options would be at the convention center itself, but I asked a knowledgeable employee and she pointed me to a cafeteria-style restaurant where I was able to build a killer salad. I also carried some PowerBar Harvest snack bars to keep me from plunging into desperate hunger in a pinch.

My general routine was an apple and protein shake in the morning (it turns out my coffee maker was busted, but I’m too much a coffee novice to have figured that out right away; I just thought I was doing something wrong), a salad for lunch, a snack bar during the afternoon, and something reasonable at McDonald’s for dinner.

My bodybugg was a tremendous help. I logged all my foods for four out of the five days I was there, and closely watched my calorie deficit, and ended each day I tracked with my target 1000-calorie deficit. You could definitely do this without the bodybugg, but it sure made it easier.

Honestly, the only hitch in my plan was the parties. There were two big parties, both at night clubs, both at dinner time, both serving a wide array of high-calorie foods.

The first party, the food was actually so “creative” that most of it didn’t appeal to me anyway. They did have a chocolate fountain, though, and that’s a big weakness of mine. Happily, I spotted some fruit that was designed for the fountain, and helped myself to a plate of strawberries and pineapple. This worked great because it satisfied my sweet tooth, and more importantly, gave me something to do with my hands (have I mentioned I’m socially awkward? and that I don’t drink?).

The second party didn’t go quite as well from a diet perspective. It was my last night in Vegas, I’d been spectacularly good on my diet, and I was tired (and tired of apples). So when they offered me such yummy looking fried things, I took them. Not all of them, mind you (I’m still a picky eater, after all!), but probably more than I should have (”fried” being a helpful clue). That was the day I didn’t track my food.

However, when I got home, I had a slight loss, and I can’t say that’s ever happened to me while on vacation before. And I’ve continued to lose at a steady pace since I’ve been home, so I’m definitely counting this a victory.

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Along the same lines, one of the things that regularly frustrated me was my kitchen scale. It wasn’t annoying enough to motivate me to actual action, but it was one of those nagging frustrations, and every time I used it, I made a mental note to replace it.

It’s not that the scale was that bad; it just wasn’t very good. It was an old-school spring loaded beastie that constantly had me questioning its accuracy; consecutive weighings produced wildly different numbers, and trying to “zero” it (or “tare,” as I now know that function is properly called) was counter-intuitive and subject to the same accuracy concerns.

I’d been annoyed by the scale pretty much as long as I’ve had this blog (it didn’t matter before I started using it for dieting!), so when a guy by the name of William Geronimo wrote to me and offered to let me review a new “nutritional scale,” you can bet I jumped at the chance.

I’d heard of nutritional scales before and knew the general premise (it has a built-in database and tells you the nutritional content of the food you weigh) but had never played with one. When the EatSmart Nutritional Scale arrived, I spent quite a bit of time testing out different foods, entering in their codes, and comparing the results to other calorie data (it looks like most everyone uses the USDA database as a starting point).

As it turns out, after several weeks of using the scale, it’s not the food database that I’ve found most helpful, but the general ability to get accurate information easily with just one tool. First, the scale itself seems to be very accurate in that it produces repeatable results and makes it easy to tare (compensate for the weight of the container).

Beyond the accuracy of the scale itself and the nutritional database, it also has several features I find particularly helpful. First, it’s dead easy to switch between grams and ounces. This is great because most foods’ nutritional label show the serving sizes in grams, but for things like beverages, ounces are more common.

Second, it has a built-in calculator feature where you can put in the serving size (as determined by the nutritional label) and then the nutritional label value of the nutrient or measurement you want to know. For instance, if I have a can of apricots, I enter 122 as the serving size (that’s what’s listed on the label, in grams) and then enter 60 (the number of calories in an official serving). If my serving is more or less than 122 grams, the scale tells me how many calories are in my actual serving. This is immensely helpful for the real world where we don’t always follow the exact serving size.

Now in both cases, you could use your computer to do the same thing. A quick Google calculation will convert grams to ounces and vice versa. A basic calculator can help you adjust your numbers for a different-sized serving. But the beauty of it is that you don’t have to use yet another tool; it’s all built in! One of my biggest dieting complaints is that there are so many steps, so many things to keep track of. This scale is both helping me get better information, and it’s simplifying my dieting process. I’m a big fan!

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• A review of a fabulous nutritional kitchen scale
• Thoughts on dieting while vacationing
• A recipe for a tasty lentil & barley soup
• A review of the Extreme Fat Smash diet
• Further observations on protein drink mixes (there’s hope!)
• A review of the bodybugg Digital Display device (yep, I got one!)
• Possibly a recipe for a mushroom & barley soup (depending on how tonight’s dinner turns out )

Stay tuned!

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It’s been about four and a half months since I bought the bodybugg at my local health club. I went through the training sessions (where I got some good info, even though I found the bodybugg site pretty intuitive and didn’t need a lot of help with it). I was motivated by the interesting information and synced my armband several times a day. I faithfully logged my food and saw good results.

At first.

Then, like any other long-term “resolution,” I started being a little less dedicated in my efforts. I only logged my food when it was convenient. I wasn’t as faithful about syncing. And after the included three-month subscription ran out, I let it lapse. (That was partly because I was going on a week-long bike trip and wouldn’t be able to sync, log food, or get real-time feedback, but also because I didn’t want to pay unless I was committed to actually using the service.)

What does that say about the bodybugg? Well, actually, not much except that it’s like any other tool: you have to use it to get any benefit out of it! And I did get some great benefits when I was using it.

From May 22 to early August when I started slacking, my daily average weight dropped from 150 to 139. Not the incredible numbers you’ll see on The Biggest Loser, mind you, but numbers that made me happy, particularly since my end goal is 130.

My current average weight is 143. I have no doubt that if I’d stuck with my faithful bodybugg use, I’d be at my goal by now.

So why didn’t I stick with it? Lack of focus. When I first started with the bodybugg, the novelty aspect helped me stay interested in my health, and encouraged me to make good food and exercise choices so that I could see a positive and accurate picture.

After a while, the novelty wore off, and without paying much attention, I stopped caring whether something was a good choice or not. Last night I missed dinner and ate a lot of dessert, then came home, had dinner, and ate more dessert. If I was logging food, I never would have done that.

So what can you expect with the bodybugg? I’d say it depends on your personality and habits. It’s certainly a useful tool to give anyone a kick in the butt to make a change. The question is whether you’ll be able to stick with it after it’s no longer new and exciting.

If you are the kind of person who can stick with something as long as you get useful feedback, the bodybugg is probably your dream come true.

If you get bored easily and hop from thing to thing (like me!), it will be useful as long as you’re able to remind yourself of the value, but if you don’t have confidence that you’ll be able to do that, you might end up spending a lot of money for short-term results.

(Of course, if you’re like me, you really read this secretly hoping that I would tell you, “It’s a miracle device! Buy one immediately and it will be worth your money a thousand times over!” At least, that’s what I hope people will say when I look for reviews of a product I’m considering…)

If you’re not sure whether the bodybugg is a good investment, I have a kind of wacky suggestion to help you decide:

• Determine the cost per pound/body fat % lost that would make it a good value for you personally. For instance, given a rough $400 price tag for the model I bought (they didn’t have the Digital Display when I purchased), and my solid 11 pound weight loss, that comes to about $36 per pound (or about $89 per body fat percentage point lost, because my body fat went down by 4.5%). How much would you pay to get rid of a pound of fat? If you’re willing to pay $50 per pound (and you don’t get the Digital Display), then you’re talking about losing eight pounds. If it’s only worth $10/pound to you, then you need to lose 40 pounds to make it an acceptable value to you.
• Divide the number of pounds you’d need to lose for it to be a good value by 1.5. A pound and a half is about what most people can count on losing per week if they’re making a serious effort. It’s not a hard and fast number, but it will help you figure out a realistic number of weeks for losing the weight.
• Ask someone who knows you well (and whom you trust), “Do you think I can stick with a diet plan for x number of weeks?” This is the hard one! History doesn’t always predict the future, but if your trustworthy-someone expresses doubt that you can stay committed long enough for you to get your desired value out of the bodybugg, I’d seriously suggest a waiting period before purchase. If you can get them to tell you how long they think you could stick with a diet plan, run the numbers backwards and see how it impacts your price per pound. Would that be acceptable?

Odd? Yeah, a little. But if you’re worried about making an emotional decision that could cost a lot of money, or creating family stress by spending so much on a gadget and not using it, or providing further ammunition in an argument about how you don’t finish what you start, hopefully that analysis will at least help you see it more logically. (If the analysis turns out well, you might also have a good argument to convince your spouse. )

Oh, and by the way, I’ve re-upped my subscription and have all the best intentions to be serious about my tracking from now until the end of November. Then I’ll re-evaluate.

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