Thursday, December 20, 2007

Why We Gain Weight

I've been contemplating my poor week and found this article Weight Loss: Why We Gain Weight? It points to three factors that cause us to gain weight.
1. Our genetic make up~in other words, if your family is overweight you are more likely to be overweight as well.
2. The environment in which we live~our exercise habits, our workplace environment and the ease at which we can find convenient foods.
3. Our lifestyle~this is the biggest change we can make towards losing weight.

We don't have much control over our genetics and our environment is tough to ignore, but our lifestyle is the one thing that we can change to help in our weight loss journey. When looking back at the past year, I can't believe how much my lifestyle has changed. I used to come home from work and lay on the couch all night getting up occasionally to grab a snack. I would plan my snack and eat it after the kids went to bed. Now, I rarely lay down and I'm not sitting down for more than a half an hour at a time before getting up to walk. Snacks are still scheduled, but they sure have changed. No more chips, salty snacks instead I'm eating veggies WW ice cream or popcorn. I still like my scheduled evening snack, but I'm sure I was consuming the "500 calories a day more" than my body requirement more often than not. It's a wonder I wasn't heavier than I was.

3 comments:

Moby Dick said...

The only thing stopping us from living a great life is science. Once they figure out how to put exercise in a pill and to eliminate calories from all but the most fattening foods, I can look forward to spending life sitting in front of the couch watching television. There are literally millions of hours that I have had to sacrifice due to work, fitness, family, and other obligations. Science is the solution.

Kathy said...

You would have been heavier after a few more years of that lifestyle. The weight would have continued to pile on and you would have been going down that road to the disease of the new millennium...Metabolic Syndrome. Thank your lucky stars you decided to do something when you did...and you're setting a good example for your kids...not to mention your fellow bloggers, GoaD's, and many others that you probably aren't even aware of. Good for you!

Anonymous said...

Yah for great changes! You're doing wonderfully! I felt so good today - my pedometer got a workout and so did I. It's 7:30 pm and my pedometer says (drum roll please) 13,078 (4908 aerobic steps). Yah, yah! D