Do you follow Dr. Mary Claire Haver, author of The Galveston Diet? She is an OBGYN in Galveston who specializes in menopause. I love what she is doing to promote awareness of what really happens to women during the menopause transition. She is a breath of fresh air on social media where she frequently posts reaction videos to young male trainers touting their advice to women in menopause. Dr. Haver is smart, likeable, and very good at promoting her message. I haven’t yet read The Galveston Diet, but I plan to, even though I absolutely hate the word “diet”. (I’m sure her publisher pushed for that word to be in her title to sell more books.) Dr. Haver is currently offering the 28-Day Spring Belly Fat Challenge to her followers. Since I know many of my clients follow her and would be interested in this, I downloaded the challenge to see what it was all about. Here are the basic guidelines:
All of these are great things to do! My main problem with this challenge (and challenges in general) is that this is a LOT of change to tackle all at once. Some of you will make all 5 of these changes and endure this lifestyle for the entire 28 days. And probably more of you will last a week or two, or not even start. It’s not because you’re a failure. It’s because this challenge requires you to make several new habits and give up old ones, all at the same time. As a former challenge-runner myself. I saw people lose a lot of weight quickly. Unfortunately, it very rarely stayed off because it was too much, too fast. I have since learned that long-term behavior change happens best when we try to change one habit at a time. To make this challenge realistic and do-able, I would recommend starting with #1. Try to eat more than 25 grams of fiber per day for 28 days. It’s usually easier to add more food than to subtract it. And maybe after 28 days, by eating all that fiber, you will feel fuller and less likely to crave sugary foods. Then, #2 will be easier to tackle. Maybe your food intake is already on pointe, but you’re not exercising. Try her suggestion of 30-45 minute cardio sessions, 4-5 times a week. If you get that going, after a while you may find that the exercise reduces your stress. (Although in my experience, during a very stressful time in life, focusing on strength training and minimizing the cardio works better for most. And takes less time - you only need to strength train twice a week to see the benefits.) And what about those who immediately balk at this because you can’t have alcohol? Many will think, “Well, I can’t do this challenge because I’m going on vacation next week, then it’s my birthday, then it’s girls weekend, then it’s… etc, etc.” There’s a large swath of people who will not even start practicing the other healthy habits because they don’t want to give up alcohol right now. That’s why starting with one habit and getting it to stick is so important before moving on. (Of course, an argument could be made that if you’re afraid of giving up alcohol, that might be the one you need to start with. No judgment here.) I know my alternative method to this challenge isn’t sexy. It won’t burn your belly fat off in 28 days. But if you make healthy incremental changes that you can live with (and still enjoy life!) then you can reduce your belly fat over time and keep it off, all without suffering.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorPaige Balius - a personal trainer in Austin, Texas, helping women live their best lives! Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|