Your Perfect Weight Week 27-30

Exercise goal: Walk seven days, three miles
per day in 45 minutes

By now you're slashing fat from your diet like a skilled swordsman! If you've been using the "Fat Budget," on page 23, as a guide, you know precisely what your fat-gram limit is so you can keep fat to no more than 25 percent of your daily calories. (If you haven't been using this handy guide, this week is a good time to familiarize yourself with it.)

Did you know that there are even more ways to reduce the fat in your diet while still letting you splurge every now and again on goodies like pizza, brownies and oatmeal cookies?

While you're paying close attention to your fat intake, be sure to also write down your meals and snacks in Your Perfect Weight Success Diary every day. Don't neglect your water intake, either. Those eight glasses a day keep you feeling satisfied.

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Week 28: Vary your workout pace

Exercise goal: Walk seven days, three miles
per day in 45 minutes

Want to really maximize your fitness and give your weight loss--and your commitment level--a boost? Then introduce the concept of interval training to your walking (or running or cycling) workout. That means alternating higher-intensity spurts with low-intensity cool-down intervals.

"Interval training means you're burning more calories per minute, and you're going to maintain a higher metabolic rate throughout the exercise," says Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D., YMCA national strength-training consultant, and strength consultant to the National Academy of Sports Medicine. And it's going to ignite the afterburn effect, too. That means you'll continue to burn fat at a higher rate even after you stop exercising.

"The more intense the exercise, the greater the afterburn effect," says Bryant Stamford, Ph.D., exercise physiologist and director of the Health Promotion Center at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. With moderate exercise like walking, the afterburn bonus is minimal. But upping the intensity with interval training or engaging in other intense aerobic activities can make the afterburn linger for hours after your workout. (And preliminary research suggests that resistance training might produce a slight afterburn effect, too.)

Here's how interval training works: Let's say you're doing your daily walk. First warm up for ten minutes by walking at a moderate rate. Then pick up the pace till you're breathing harder (but not all out), for about a minute, or however long you feel comfortable. Slow down to a speed that lets you catch your breath--probably slower than your warm-up speed--for another minute. Then pick up the pace again, for another minute. Continue to alternate as long as you can, leaving time for a five-minute cooldown. (Make sure the time you allow for recovery is equal to the time you spent at higher intensity.)

Try this every now and then to give an added punch to your usual walk. But you still want to make sure that your bigger goal is to slowly improve your walking time each week until you reach your three-mile, 45-minute goal.

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Week 29: Dress thin until you get thin

Exercise goal: Walk seven days, three miles
per day in 45 minutes

You'll hear a lot of dieters insisting, "I'm not going to buy any new clothes until I'm thin!" Maybe you're even one of them. Why, you wonder, should I shell out good money for a size-X dress when I can have the thrill of buying one a couple of sizes smaller in a few weeks?

That kind of thinking is a real mistake, on two counts insists Beryl Meyer, former Harper's Bazaar fashion writer and co-author of Style: Developing the Real You. "Buying some clothes to create a 'transitional wardrobe' will not only help you look your best right now but will also keep you motivated to keep going until you reach your goal weight," she says.

Meyer points out that "transitional" dressing usually refers to clothes that can be worn from one season to the next, but it can just as well refer to changing from one size to another. Buy one or two key pieces that will look good now and as you slim down even further in weeks to come, she urges.

Her own favorite transitional item: stirrup pants. "I love them because they're more comfortable than jeans, they bend and stretch with me and they make me look thinner than jeans, which have a tendency of standing away from the body and adding bulk." In fact, she says, although jeans are found in most people's wardrobes, they frequently end up being a fashion "don't."

"Overweight people think they have to squeeze into either very tight jeans, which emphasize every bump and lump and make you look like a stuffed sausage and are painful to wear, or baggy jeans, which make you look heavier," says Meyers. "But stirrup pants are flattering to most figures."

Here are a few more of Meyer's do's and don'ts for selecting clothes to make you look slimmer and more svelte right now.

Wear dark colors. Black, charcoal gray, navy, chocolate brown and hunter green are great for areas you wish to play down; wear bright tones in areas where you're already slim. So, if hips and thighs are trouble spots but you're fine above the waist, stick to deeper shades for pants and skirts and more vibrant hues for blouses, shirts, sweaters and vests.

Consider monochromatic dressing. This is another great way to look like you're thinner than you are. A top and bottom in the same or similar tone create a single slimming line of color, which tends to make you look taller and skinnier.

Watch that silhouette. Choose clothes that help give your body definition. It's a common misconception among overweight people that loose-fitting, baggy clothes disguise pounds, but visually they can tack on even more weight. So, opt for leggings or stirrup pants, which skim the trouble spots of your lower body while showing that you do have legs under there. Or, if you want to wear, say, a long, loose skirt in spring or summer, pair
it with a waist-nipping jacket--again, to give some hint of definition to your body.

Don't pad yourself. Avoid clothes with unnecessary bulk--thick knitted sweaters, very nubby fabrics, or anything quilted or with popcorn or cable stitching. All that heavy material will only make you look heavier.

Indulge in a little syn. Synthetics, that is. Unlike the tacky polyester you probably remember from the Saturday Night Fever disco era, many of the clothes made from modern "miracle" fabrics boast the kinds of finishes you'll also see in luxury fabrics. As a result, they look expensive while retaining polyester's big plus: easy care. A big advantage of the new synthetics is control power. The new stretch fabrics have the controlling power of a traditional girdle, but are much more comfortable to wear. More and more top designers are using these fabrics to create clothes that are chic, sleek and often very slimming.

Focus on the vertical. Look for clothes that help create a visual vertical line. Good choices include pants with pleats (for men and women), slits in skirts (for women with great legs), V-neck blouses or sweaters, shoes with a bit of a heel and subtle vertical stripes. "You don't want to look like a barber pole," warns Meyer.

Accessorize wisely. Avoid details and accessories that call attention to trouble spots. If you've got an ample derriere, for example, what you don't want to wear are pants with back pockets (and certainly none with a designer's name on them). Nor would you choose a wide, chunky belt or one with a Frisbee-size buckle if it's going to encircle a wide, chunky waist. Use accessories to play up your best features--big, bold earrings, for instance, if you have a long, lovely neck, or eye-catching rings and bracelets if you've got pretty hands and arms.

Dressing well while you're still losing weight isn't mere vanity. It will go a very long way in keeping you motivated to the weight-loss finish line.

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Week 30: Bouncing back from a binge

Exercise goal: Walk seven days, three miles
per day in 45 minutes

It's hard to keep up your discipline week after week. An occasional slip-up is inevitable. Now is a good time to look at how to handle it when you goof. You know the scene (probably all too well). Your cravings, or your emotions, get the best of you, and before you know it you're polishing off an entire ______________(fill in the blank) of that incredibly fattening ______________(fill in the blank).

Okay, these things happen--that's the first rule to keep in mind. You're only human, not a weight-loss machine, and every now and then you're going to overdo it. But if you think this is the beginning of the end, think again.

You're not on a diet anymore. You've got a whole new lifestyle, and lifestyles accommodate blips and binges in a way ordinary diets can't. So accept what you did, and move on by following this simple, step-by-step plan for bouncing back from a binge.

Stop eating! Quit while you're behind. Don't compound the problem by continuing to eat. One brief episode of bingeing probably won't do much harm to your weight-loss program, but letting it go on for hours or days will.

Forgive yourself. Errors in judgment happen. You can't eat perfectly at every meal, every day of your life. Be gentle with yourself when you slip up. Watch your self-talk. Avoid thoughts like, "How could I have been so stupid?" and, "I blew it; I'm awful." And certainly, don't punish yourself further by getting on the scale immediately. The gain, if any, probably won't have registered by then, but if it has, it won't make you feel better about yourself.

Have a glass of water. Or brush and floss your teeth. Rinsing the taste of the food from your mouth sort of says "Okay, now, playtime's over" to your brain.

Record what happened. This is one entry you're not going to enjoy making in Your Perfect Weight Success Diary, but make it you must. Not only will writing about your slip-up discourage you from doing it again but it also will help put things into perspective. You may not have binged as badly as you initially thought.

Reread past diary entries. How did you handle eating urges during other stressful moments? What were the strategies that worked for you then? What made this time different? Make a vow to review these passages before your next binge. (Maybe you can head it off at the pass.)

Immediately resume normal eating. Don't try to compensate by skipping the next meal or two, or by having just a celery stalk and black coffee for dinner. You'll only get hungry and may overeat again. Instead, have a normal meal and maybe go a bit easier than usual on portions. Your meals and your appetite will be back on track in no time.

Exercise. Here's one good way to compensate for the binge--with a little extra fat busting. If you've only walked six days this week, walk a seventh, or add 30 minutes on your stationary bike or in the pool. You'll be helping to burn a couple of hundred of those unwanted calories.

Reward yourself. Rewards aren't just for doing good things, they're also for avoiding bad things, like uncontrolled eating. Every time you successfully avoid a major binge by doing those tried-and-true activities--drinking water, doing de-stressing exercises, jotting down your feelings, going for a walk, calling a friend--you deserve a little extra reward for your efforts. Pretty soon, binge busting will be second nature to you.

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