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Beauty |Plus Size Fashion | Plus Size Fitness | Weight Loss
Have you ever been guilty of saying “I don’t have time to workout?” Yeah, me too.
One of my 90 Day Challenge goals is to get in at least 1 hour of exercise 5 days a week. This week I’m going to shoot for 1 hour of exercise 6 days a week. When I realize that 1 hour is only 4% of my day, it puts it into perspective. I can do this!
Who wants to join me in committing to exercise 1 hour a day this week?
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Ok….so I have to tell you I am absolutely loving the Body by Vi Challenge. I’m 3 days in and I’ve already lost 5 pounds.
Since I’ve been consistently gaining weight for the last 3 months, I’m thrilled to see the scale finally moving in the opposite direction.
I’ve been having 2 shakes a day, 1 meal, and 1 not-so-healthy snack. I’m planning on getting better about the not-so-healthy snacks, but for some reason when the weather is warm, all I want to do is eat those chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches which have a zillion calories and grams of fat. Oh well, I’ve eaten 2 this week and I’ve still lost weight. Quite miraculous!
I need to start experimenting a little more with shakes. I’ve pretty much been having my shake mix in almond milk with either frozen peaches or frozen strawberries. I finally went out and bought a bag of ice last night so I can try some other varieties. I’m planning on making an orange creamsicle shake for lunch today.
I can’t wait to get even further along in the challenge. I’m pretty sure that once I get back to some hard core exercising I’ll see some major results!
It’s not too late to join the challenge. You can start at anytime, but the sooner the start, the sooner you’ll be looking your best!
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For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been researching and writing about diets. And while you’d think that would make me rethink my eating habits, it’s just made me want to eat donuts (and I’ve eaten a few).
I’m so frustrated with all the weight I’ve gained since I haven’t been able to work out. And if you’re anything like me, you know that when you don’t feel good, you just want to eat junk.
When I started researching diet plans, I was pretty sure I knew which diet I’d end up choosing. I was completely surprised though when I came across the Body by Vi 90 Day Challenge. The more I researched it, the more I became convinced this plan was just what I needed.
It’s simple. It’s inexpensive. The people who are using it are seeing amazing body transformations. And best of all, people who have used the products have had major improvement in their autoimmune disease symptoms.
Finding a plan that would help my lupus while helping me lose weight is what I consider a total win-win!
So as of today, I am starting the Body by Vi 90 Day Challenge. The Body by Vi program allows you to customize a plan for your success. You can choose 1 shake a day if you’re looking to improve your nutrition or choose 2 shakes a day if you’re looking to lose weight. There are also products to help you gain lean muscle.
One of the really impressive parts of the program is the amount of nutrition you get in each shake.
I chose 2 shakes a day and it cost $99 per month. Plus, if I can find 3 more people to take the challenge with me, I’ll get my shakes each month for free.
What’s even better is that by joining the 90 Days Challenge and committing to make healthy changes, I can actually win cool prizes. I’m all about a little healthy competition.
So here’s my plan…
During the week, I’ll eat the shakes for breakfast and lunch and then eat a reasonable dinner with my family each night. On weekends, I’ll play it by ear. On Sundays, we always go out for lunch, so I’ll most likely opt for shakes for breakfast and dinner and I’ll eat out with the rest of the fam.
I’m going to take some before pictures this afternoon, so I’ll have something to compare myself to and I plan update them regularly so I can see my progress. I’m also taking measurements and I’ve already weighed myself.
So, now that we’ve talked about lots of diets and I’ve told you what I’m choosing, I’d love to hear from you.
What’s your plan for getting healthier and losing weight before summer?
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The Volumetrics Eating Plan
Unlike diets that are based on deprivation, the Volumetrics diet doesn’t try to fight this natural preference. Its creator, nutritionist Barbara Rolls, PhD, argues that limiting your diet is not sustainable; you will just wind up hungry and unhappy and revert back to your original eating habits.
Let’s take a look at the basics of the Volumetrics Eating Plan
The approach Dr. Rolls takes is to help people find food they can eat lots of while still losing weight. The diet revolves around the feeling of fullness, or satiety. The theory is that people feel full based on the amount of food they eat, not the number of calories or nutrient density.
The trick is to fill up on foods that aren’t full of calories, which allows the dieter to stick to the main principle of calorie restriction. Dr. Rolls claims that in some cases, following a Volumetrics diet will allow you to eat more than you do now, while still slimming down.
Dr. Rolls has excellent credentials. She a professor of nutrition and director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at Penn State University. She is also the author of more than 200 research articles. Volumetrics is based, in large part, on the work done in her laboratory.
What You Can Eat on the Volumetrics Diet
Since the diet doesn’t revolve around differences in body types or “good” foods and “bad” foods, Dr. Rolls doesn’t ban food types as part of the Volumetrics diet. She does, however, urge people to evaluate foods based on their energy density which is a critical concept for the diet.
Energy density is the number of calories in a specified amount of food. Some foods are more energy dense than others, like fats, which have a lot of calories packed into a small size. Water, on the other hand, has an energy density of zero.
Basically, this diet is a game to see how you can eat more food while eating fewer calories. Here is a short break down to give you some idea of what Volumetrics is all about.
Very low-density foods include:
Non-starchy vegetables
Nonfat milk
Soup broths
Very high-density foods include:
Crackers
Chips
Cookies
Chocolate and Candies
Nuts
Butter and Oils
Since water is the ultimate zero-density food, Volumetrics relies heavily on foods with a high water content, such as many vegetables and fruits, which are 80 to 95 percent water. These will fill you up without adding a lot of calories. Dr. Rolls also suggests eating lots of foods with filling fiber, along with adequate portions of lean protein and healthy fats from fish and other sources. Of course, energy-dense foods, like sweets, fats, and alcohol, are still allowed, but only in moderation.
Anyone who loves lots and lots of food will enjoy the Volumetrics diet. You will still have to do some simple math to calculate the energy density of foods, but at least you don’t have to track calories or deny yourself a small bite of that delicious chocolate mousse. If endless bowls of soup and piles of veggies and fruit appeal to you, dig into Volumetrics and watch the weight come off.
While there are lots of pros to the way of eating, you do need to be aware that if you lack self control and aren’t a big fan of fruits and veggies, this probably isn’t the diet plan for you!
Have you tried Volumetrics? We’d love for you to share your thoughts!
Not sure this is the diet plan for you? Check out other diet plans in my Explanations of Popular Diet Plans series.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Policy for more information.
The Nutrisystem Diet Plan is quite different from most other diets. While most other diets require you to either eat less, or cut out carbohydrates or fat, the Nutrisystem Diet does neither. In fact, for most people it would probably be the easiest diet to follow – except for one small thing:the price. Success in the program relies heavily on purchasing pre-packaged meals from Nutrisystem.
The Nutrisystem Diet was designed around the GI, or glycemic index – which relates to how your body reacts to specific carbohydrates. The faster the sugar is released (high GI), the more insulin your body produces in reaction to it – making you feel hungry again sooner. This is why people like me who have a major sweet tooth find themselves feeling hungry and irritable and constantly nibbling.
The concept of Nutrisystem is simple: add foods to every meal that will lower the GI of your meal in total, and as such reduce the insulin response form your body. By doing so you will be less likely to eat unnecessarily in between, and eventually eat less in total – not because you have to, but because you will feel like it.
What you have to keep in mind is that – while your body reacts to most proteins, fibers and other nutrients in a similar fashion, it does differentiate between different types of sugars and carbohydrates.
Some types of sugar – like sucrose and glucose (commonly encountered in sweets and desserts) tend to cause a spike in blood sugar, and as a result it causes a spike in your body’s reaction (insulin production) to it. Other forms of sugar like dextrose (fruit sugar) takes longer to break down, and does not create the “spike effect”.
Exercise is – unlike other “normal” diet plans – not deemed to be necessary. If you feel like indulging in it, it will help, but the system works just fine without it. There are, however, a few recommendations about switching to low-fat milk, and adding salads and fruit to every meal.
The biggest stumbling block with the Nutrisystem Diet is the effect it’s likely to have on your pocket. Ready-made meals and groceries can be ordered from the supplier’s website – and these are necessary in order to achieve success. Unfortunately, it does not come cheap, and it can be out of reach for many people who really want to lose weight.
Additionally, if you want your family to adopt your new, healthier eating habits, it could end up costing you a pretty penny every month to feed everyone.
For those who can afford it and who are in search of an easy option, the Nutrisystem Diet offers a viable alternative to other diet systems.
Have you ever tried Nutrisystem? We’d love to hear the pros and cons!
Not sure this is the diet plan for you? Check out other diet plans in my Explanations of Popular Diet Plans series.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Policy for more information.
