by Jacqueline Smith, PFT
Then I go inside to the air conditioning and my appetite returns. Does this sound familiar?
It’s not in your head. We really do tend to eat more when we are cool. So I’m taking advantage of this heat wave here in mid-August before the return of fall and winter.
I promised last month to let you know whether or not my conscious won while on my cruise. The answer is…not really. The bad news is that I did indeed indulge way more than I planned.
The food never left. It stayed there available the whole time. Really good food…everywhere.
The only thing that saved my rate of weight gain was all the stairs on the boat (no elevator for me), and the long hike in Jeneau, Alaska which had its own section of ‘250 steps to the top’ after already completing a two mile uphill trek to view the glacier.
This followed a rough day at sea where my prayer was answered. I did get a bit sea sick.
The good news is that upon my return to earth (home) I discovered that the damage was not as bad as I expected. I attribute this to not only continued physical activity, but more importantly to proper rate of weight loss prior to the trip. Remember when I mentioned that it took me five months to lose six pounds? Turns out that this slow rate of loss ensured that what I did lose was body fat, not just water weight like so many people who lose weight too fast are really losing.
So by staying active, and getting right back to healthy habits upon my return, I dodged this bullet.
So when you see ads that are pushing products or techniques that claim to help you lose up to 10 pounds a week, just know that these claims are not scientifically possible, unless you are willing to accept nothing more than temporary water weight loss.
Proper weight loss rates for most people should be one to two pounds per week. So what if my rate was one to two pounds per month. Now I know it was worth the time.
I plan on taking advantage of the warmer weather we have left for the rest of August and hopefully well into September to take off a few more pounds to ready me for the upcoming winter where we will all have to work a little harder fighting our cravings and looking for indoor physical activities.
