My Journey From Pudgy To "Perfect": The Other Hand

Time on current weight loss attempt: 7 days

Programs, books, helpers: Noom Coach for Android, Jorge Cruise 8-Minutes in the Morning, Wii Fit Plus, Power 90, Slim in 6, Flip the Switch Lose the Weight by Dr. Robert Cooper, Buddy Noom on Facebook ( if interested and using Noom, friend them on FB and they’ll add you to a support group), Online Stopwatch

Weight Change Total: 1.9 lbs. lost

Since Last Weigh In: .4 lbs. lost

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According to the scale this morning I lost .4 of a lb.  I’m not complaining one bit especially since the trend has been down lately.  That makes me happy.  I’ve only been moderately hungry and slightly sore.  No pulled muscles, injured shoulders or necks or broken diets yet. My diet, if that’s what you want to call it, consists mainly of eating way more veggies and fruit, less preprocessed stuff (if I can help it), less red meat and more lean chicken, pork or fish.  It is interesting trying to figure out how to make the meat I have fit the vegetables I have available instead of the other way round.  Trying to not fry my foods is another challenge but it’s well worth it.   It takes longer to eat which I think is making me stop eating as many calories sooner – my jaw gets tired and my belly feels full faster. This morning I continued on my 8-Minutes-In-The-Morning kick.  The exercises today were similar to the ones from Saturday, but I chose to do them standing up so I could engage more muscle groups in the endeavor.  Since my cell phone was plugged in I used the stopwatch on the website http://online-stopwatch.com to time my exercises.  For the first 4 minutes I would clear and reset the countdown timer, but then I decided to do the last four minutes without interruption so I set the timer to countdown from 4 minutes instead of just one.

This morning I did the following exercises:

The Glide Hold

Stand up straight with your arms raised out to the side at 90 degree angles to your head, palms down.  Engage your abs and hold this position for up to 60 seconds.  You can also do this from a seated position.

I chose to do this from standing so I was able to engage also my glutes by flexing, squeezing and tucking them under like you would at the top of a squat.  Wow! Talk about full body engagement.  You would think standing with your arms raised out to the side would not be so hard, but it really takes a great amount of effort to maintain your abs and glutes engaged while holding the arms in place.  I like this exercise because it is working my chest, shoulders and back also without hurting my delicate shoulders (holding babies has wrecked them).

The Stir Hold

Stand straight up with your feet shoulder width apart and flex your abs.  Make a fist with one hand and press it in a circular motion over your abs – like you are stirring a cake batter.  This helps you to keep focus on your abs for the full minute. You can also do this from a seated position.

Ab exercise without having to do a crunch – need I say more.

NOOM Coach Advice for Today

NOOM coach offered a suggestion about how to curb your appetite that I had never thought of before – use the other hand.  If you are left handed use your right hand to eat and vice versa.  I tried this and kept forgetting and subconsciously picking up  my utensils with my right hand instead of my left.  I’ll keep trying though.  The article said that using the non dominant hand will make eating take longer so you feel full sooner on less food and also it improves dexterity and improves neural function unlocking places in the brain that were previously unused.  The fact that this act has multiple benefits makes me want to try it even more.