STIMULATE YOUR DETERMINATION: SHE LOST 120 POUNDS ON HER OWN TERMS
After failing at a dozen different weight-loss plans, Lisa Douglass decided to create her own.
“I just couldn’t have someone telling me what I could or couldn’t eat. I wanted to be responsible for my choices,” she says. “I wanted absolute control.”
Lisa, a computer analyst in Randallstown, Maryland, bought a dozen exercise-and-nutrition videos. She studied books on food. She planned her workouts, meals, and shopping trips. She kept a journal in which she noted how certain foods affected her weight and even her moods.
The plan she eventually created was healthy, sensible, and geared to her eating habits and exercise interests. She decreased the amount of fat and sodium in her diet by preparing meals featuring lots of vegetables but very little red meat as well as by avoiding salty snacks and fast food. “Because I was choosing foods that were healthier and lower in calories, I didn’t really have to limit my portion sizes,” she notes. She also started working out on a treadmill, gradually working her way up to 1 -hour runs, 5 or 6 days a week.
Her plan worked. Over a 2-year period, Lisa dropped from 280 to 160 pounds.
“I’m 5 foot 7, so I carry my weight well. People tell me I look good,” she says. “Still, I’d like to drop another 10 to 15 pounds.”
Lisa, now age 29, believes she needs a new plan to take off those last few stubborn pounds. She’s experimenting with changes in her diet and exercise routines, but concedes that it has been a battle to stay focused.
“Sometimes I make good choices, sometimes I make bad choice,” she says. “But I like the fact that I’m the one making the choices. That’s important to me.”
WINNING ACTION
Design the perfect plan for you. No one weight-loss plan fits all. The best is a hand-picked hodgepodge of personal secrets and strategies. To make your own, expose yourself to a variety of sources: books, classes, groups like Weight Watchers or TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), even nutritionists and personal trainers. Take the best from each and stick with what works for you
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Tags: Weight Loss