Loss 10 pounds in 5 weeks? Don't mind if I do!

Sorry for the lack of updates this past weekend. We're in heavy duty school mode right now, midterms, papers, quizzes, etc. so I'd expect the next 2 weeks to be a little bit slow on the entries. Real life comes first!

I am not really a believer in diets. I believe in eating healthy and exercising. I always joke with my friends that I exercise purely so I can eat as much junk food as I want. It's probably partially true, since I do have a sweet tooth. But a huge chunk of it is also wanting to keep in shape for soccer, keep my heart healthy, and keep my joints strong (soccer does a real number on you, even at 25 I've got way too many sports related injuries/aches/pains for my own good). That being said, I also don't think I need to loose any weight (I know Nick will kill me for this one because I constantly complain about my thighs and how I wish I could fit into my old jeans from right after a bad breakup. Obviously I was depressed and considering I don't think I'll ever be that depressed again, I'm not expecting to fit into any of those pants ever again, but I keep them around...it's a lot of money to waste!).

But all joking aside, most women probably don't need to lose weight and are what I call mind-fat. You're not fat, you just think you are. Women constantly think they need to loose 5-15 pounds. "If I could only drop that last 5, I'd be so much happier." And so they go through drastic steps to do so. Body cleansing, juice diets, and actual starvation. None of those things are healthy. And you do need carbs and fats (the healthy ones--not McDonald's and donuts). It's extremely unhealthy to cut out an entire food group like that. Just Google it for the many reasons why.

I would never endorse a diet, but I think this health plan that MSN has come up with is as close to I'll ever get to that. It's a way to loose a small amount of weight gradually so that you're not going through any drastic changes or pushing yourself too hard. They tell you to re-evaluate your food and activity level in baby steps, doing things week by week until you've made a lifestyle change that you can hopefully keep up with in the long term. I think of it more like 5 weeks to a healthier lifestyle, than 5 weeks to 10 pounds lighter. And I like how it makes you think about things, rather than just saying "cut out all of this or that." Do I use this "diet"? No, but when I start to look around at what I've been eating and how much I've not been moving around, sometimes I do use the steps so that I can get back to being healthy again.

Again, the key is a healthy lifestyle, not a number on a scale.