Weight Loss Challenge: One Month Down

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. 

I finally got them to run!!!!!!!!!!

Working out in rolos.

These are the water bottles everyone received.