It finally happened. I finally snapped.
After more than two months of a relatively positive attitude about following the federal Dietary Guidelines and Physical Activity Guidelines, I found myself yelling into the open refrigerator, “This sucks!”
“What’s wrong?” my wife asked from the other room, understandably a bit alarmed.
“I don’t know what to eat anymore!”
I closed the fridge and stomped back upstairs to my office empty-handed.
How did I get here? Let’s rewind.
Accepting Your New Nutrition Rules
During month three of my quest to get my weight (and health) under control, I decided that I would start to incorporate some more rules from the Dietary Guidelines into my plan. Specifically, I wanted to start tracking my intake of saturated fat, added sugar, sodium and trans fat.
Here are the rules according to the federal Dietary Guidelines:
- Consume less than 10 percent of calories per day from saturated fat. For me, that equals 250 calories, or 28 grams (250 calories/9 grams of fat per calorie = 27.7).
- Consume less than 10 percent of calories per day from added sugar. For me, that equals 250 calories, or 62 grams (250 calories/4 grams of carbohydrate per calorie = 62.5).
- Consume less than 2300 mg per day of sodium.
- Limit the intake of trans fats to as low as possible.
(You can learn more about the importance of limiting these elements of your diet in the Executive Summary of the Dietary Guidelines.)
For me, the biggest challenge has been the sodium restriction. The Dietary Guidelines downplay the omnipresence of sodium as follows: “Sodium is found in foods across the food supply.”
Or, as I would scream into the void that is my refrigerator, “I don’t know what to eat anymore!”
The average American currently consumes 3440 mg of sodium daily, about 150 percent of the 2300 mg guideline.
The average American currently consumes 3440 mg of sodium daily, about 150 percent of the 2300 mg guideline. Before I started this project, I averaged 3654 mg per day, above that national average. This is clearly not a matter of me identifying a handful of foods to better manage, but a substantial overhaul of my eating habits — eating habits I had already overhauled just two months prior.
I went day by day through my food log on the MyFitnessPal app to find the culprits.
- No more deli meats. Instead, I cooked batches of boneless, skinless chicken breast for sandwiches.
- No more prepackaged brown rice and quinoa (and I had been so proud of myself for eating that in the first place!). I started making a few days’ worth of brown rice at a time.
- No more prepackaged spice mixes or sauces. And no more soy sauce, even the so-called low-sodium version. I started cooking Asian meals with fresh ginger, minced garlic and Sriracha. Instead of using “taco seasoning,” I started cooking with chili powder and eating more salsa.
I’ll admit that finding ways to cut sodium has been a tremendous and ongoing challenge. What I’ve learned is that cutting sodium from my diet means cutting as many prepackaged foods as possible, and seeking low-sodium options whenever possible. Once thing I noticed was that my caloric intake dropped a bit as I addressed my sodium intake. I realized that I used to eat certain foods because I could. For example, before tackling the sodium rules I was eating a bag of baked sea salt potato chips with lunch most days. I could easily fit the 100-calorie package within my calorie limits without altering my macronutrient ratios. Now that I’m more aware of the 150 mg of sodium in each bag, I’ve stopped eating them and — importantly — have not replaced them with another snack or side dish. It’s simply one less thing I’m eating each day.
Focusing on Fitness: The Other Half of the Equation
The change in my diet is, of course, only half of this project. I also have to adhere to the Physical Activity Guidelines, which present a different set of struggles.
In addition to two full-body resistance-training sessions each week, the guidelines call for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week. My plan at the outset was to complete four, 40-minute cardio sessions weekly.
Moving forward, I wanted to build up the duration of my gym-based cardio sessions from 40 to 50 minutes, which would enable me to reach the 150-minute threshold in only three sessions instead of four. That way, I’d be able to do three cardio sessions interspersed with two strength training sessions, giving me two days off each week.
Related
To put this in perspective, when I first joined the gym about 18 months before beginning this project, I could only perform 8 minutes of exercise on the elliptical machine at a time, so 50 minutes would be a substantial achievement.
Take-home tip: The key to incorporating more cardio into your life is not staring at a timer on the elliptical and wondering if you’ll make it to 50 minutes. It’s finding something that you like doing and prioritizing that in your schedule.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be gym-based either. For example, I really enjoy hiking, so getting enough cardio actually got easier over time, particularly during the spring and summer. Warmer weather meant I was able to get out and hike more, which helped me build up my endurance and hike for longer distances. These extended “workouts” allow me to take another day or two off from performing cardio at the gym.
With more cardio and better endurance under my belt, I was inspired to actually work out more. I never thought I would say that I wanted to work out more than the bare minimum, but after a few months, I decided I was dedicated to stepping up my game when it came to resistance training.
Never Trust the Scale
It’s amazing how much my mood, my motivation and my enthusiasm are influenced by the number on the scale. I know that resistance training is adding lean muscle mass and creating fluctuations in my weight. I know that this project is really about improving my body composition and overall health. I have been reading and writing for years about the importance of having other measures of success when trying to get a handle on your lifestyle.
