Hi Everyone,
I am sorry it has been so long since I updated you on the
weight loss challenge. I have been really busy with all of my work here. Plus,
I wanted to wait to update you because, as expected, Semana Santa (Easter Week)
was a disaster! A lot of the participants gained weight during the two week
festivities of Semana Santa. In the Dominican Republic, Semana Santa is a time
when all the family members come home to the campo, everyone goes to the beach,
everyone drinks, and eats habichuelas con dulce (Dominican treat- sweet beans).
Anyways, I looked up the calorie content of habichuelas con dulce because I was
curious to see if the treat was really the problem or if it was just the all
around feasting/party attitude. I am sure that it was a little of both, but I
thought that I had prepared them really well going into the week. I found out
that a 12 oz cup of habichuelas con dulce averages about 500 calories, although
recipes vary a little. Now the problem with this is that they don’t just eat
one cup… each family makes a giant vat and drinks it all day every day.
Anyways, we had a few bad weight loss weeks (but really fun on the other hand).
I was really nervous that after a few participants gained weight they would be
discouraged and quit the program so we did a lot of motivational activities,
and I made some of the stronger group members be mentors to some of the weaker
group members. It worked really well, and we had no drop outs after Semana
Santa!!!! We did have two drop outs for other reasons (moving and sick family
member), but none due to weight gain or discouragement. In fact, we even had a
few more people join the group. We now have 21 participants, and I have closed
the group off for the time being. I would like to let everyone join who wants to,
but it is way too difficult for me to have individual meetings with the 21 I
have right now (plus all of my other work!).
Review of Month 1:
The first month of the weight loss challenge has been a
success. Like I said we had a few rough weeks, but overall all of the
participants have lost weight, gained confidence, learned a lot, and made
healthy lifestyle changes. I think the most important change I have seen is the
boost in confidence. A majority of the participants are women, and in a lot of
their homes the men have all of the control (or so they think). I have seen the
women really step up and take control of their diet and exercise, and I have
seen a huge difference in their attitudes, especially in the individual
meetings. I think they are enjoying the realization that this is one aspect of
their life in which they have total control. Plus, the boost in energy and
confidence that comes along with living a healthy lifestyle and loosing weight
never hurt anyone!
We continued the whole first month following the same format
of two meetings a week per participant. One individual meeting where we get the
personal stats (weight, % body fat, blood pressure, blood glucose, body
measurements etc. ), talk about the ups and downs of the week, review their
food and exercise journal, and make a plan for the next week. We then have one
meeting as a group. The group meeting is set up like a support group. We spend
time sharing success and failure stories and celebrate the people who lost
weight (the person who loses the most according to % pounds lost gets a healthy
prize).
In the group meetings we also have a small lecture every
week. This month we discussed the emotional, spiritual, and physical aspects of
weight loss, how to change negative thoughts into positive thoughts, how to eat
healthy during parties and holidays, choosing healthy snacks over high carb
high sodium snacks, how to substitute with vegetables, the importance of
exercise, different exercise methods and how they affect your body, how to take
your pulse, your heart rate and what it means, how to make small daily changes
that will result in long term results, the importance of moral support, what
does “metabolism” mean, how to we increase our metabolism via exercise and
diet, etc. I think the most exciting mini-lecture for me was the one about how
to take your pulse and what your heart rate means. I can never exercise in this
country without someone telling me to rest because my heart will explode. I just
always say okay and kept going… but when I started encountering this with my
women during exercise classes it started to bother me. In the beginning we
would speed walk for 2 minutes to warm up, and people would be telling me that
they needed to rest so their heart didn’t explode or so they didn’t start
sweating (ps I did medical histories with everyone and nobody has any condition
that should inhibit them from walking for 2 mins FYI). Anyways, we calculated
each persons Max heart rate, and they all know what it is and how to do it. I
love it because when people tell me they need to rest after doing basically
nothing we just take their pulse together and keep on going. Later on in the
workout when we are actually working hard I have to let them rest, but at least
I don’t have people pooping out after the warm up anymore.
The last thing we do in the group meeting is exercise!
Depending on how long the meeting lasts we do anywhere between 30 minutes and
an hour of exercise. The participants really enjoy doing circuit style training
so we have been doing that a lot. We go to the park and I split them up into
groups of two. I usually have about 5 stations set up, and they rotate through
the stations in 2 minute intervals (this changes weekly depending on the types
of exercises). It has been going really well, and the women actually work hard
now! They sweat and everything! I think the “heart rate lecture” and the “how
many calories do you burn in each type of exercise” lecture really convinced
them that they need to work harder J
One of the largest hurdles for the group has been water
intake. There is a place in their food and exercise journal to circle a
number every time they drink a glass of water. In the beginning I was noticing
they were only drinking an average of 3 glasses of water a day (and we live in
the Caribbean!!!). In the individual meetings we discussed reasons why they
were not drinking more water and why it is important do drink a lot of water. A
lot of them asked me how I managed to drink so much water and I explained to
them that I always carry my Nalgene with me. A lot of them started carrying
around disposable plastic bottles with water to try to up their water intake.
Anyways, I decided to buy them all reusable plastic water bottles so they can
bring them to the exercise classes and hopefully carry them around so they
drink more water.
Below are the group stats from month 1. If anyone is
interested in individual stats let me know. I have them all in an excel
spreadsheet so I can easily send them out (without names of course). I also
have more body measurements (chest, arm, hips etc) , BP and blood glucose. I am
just giving you the most important stats below J
Month 1 Group Stats:
Pounds lost: 106
Average pounds lost per participant per week: 1.5
% body fat lost: 24.6%
Average % body fat lost per participant: 1.64%
Average inches lost in waist per participant: 1.13
**Note: Not all stats include all participants due to the
fact that some of them just recently started.
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I finally got them to run!!!!!!!!!!
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| Working out in rolos. |
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| These are the water bottles everyone received. |
