An Actual, Real Life Letter From A Blog Reader!!!

I actually received this letter today. I'm stoked!

The Cry For Help:

Dear Fitwife:
I have a question I am hoping you can answer. I am getting very frustrated with working out and not seeing any results! I mean, come on, it's been 2 1/2 months and my jelly roll is still in place. Am I missing something?
Sincerely,
Baffled, discouraged, and chunky in Oregon
:)

My Very Logical and Humanitarian Answer:

Dear Baffled, discouraged, and chunky in Oregon,
First of all – I barely know what I’m doing, so I’m not sure I should be giving advice. But since you’re my sister, I mean blog follower, you probably won’t sue me in the event that my advice goes terribly wrong.

With that said, I know who you are, and I’ve seen what you eat. Congratulations! You provide the most shockingly constant and steady stream of sugar to your blood stream that I have ever witnessed, and yet still remain relatively tiny. Where I gain 5 pounds and take copious amounts of naps when I hang out with you for a weekend, you remain small and jittery.

Your diet consists primarily of white bread/white pasta/white rice/sugar/fruit juice and caffeine. You do eat some salads, fruits and vegetables, although not nearly enough (condiments do not count toward fruits and vegetables, fyi).

I would not recommend that you make any drastic changes because I don’t want you to get discouraged and give up. Also, I don’t know how your body would react to a drop in it’s current sugar levels, but it makes me nervous to think about it. My advice is to keep up the exercise and make these small changes:

1) Go ahead and have your bagel with cream cheese or your sourdough toast for breakfast. But please have a piece of fruit with it. I’ve seen your attempt to eat whole wheat. We like (need) you to be happy in the morning – don’t sweat it if you really love your bagel and sourdough.
2) If you choose to have the starchy stuff in the morning however, do not then have a sandwich at lunch. For now we’re going to limit the starchy stuff to two meals a day, eventually one….maybe. Stick to soup and salad, or the insides of a burrito, or order Chinese take-out with no rice (broccoli beef is a good choice). If you KNOW that you’re going to have pasta or a sandwich for lunch, then you should acquire a taste for yogurt, because you must stop with the starchy stuff three times a day. This brings me to my next piece of advice.
3) I know that you will be having more pasta/rice/bread at dinner, just try to reduce the portion of pasta and bread slightly and load up your plate with more salad/vegetables. Keep your meats lean. You should have more green stuff on your plate than the pasta/meat. French bread should be an occasional treat, it’s nothing but a butter soaked delivery system for more starch….you don’t need it.
4) Fruit juices – Stop….It! You may as well mainline sugar. Save the calories for the real fruit. It breaks down more slowly on account of the fiber and junk in it. If you must have the sugary taste of fruit juice, try Crystal Light On The Go Flavor Packets in water. They have lots of great flavors (raspberry green tea and berry are my favorites). You’ll still get the sugar fruit taste but with none of the calories or sugar.
5) Eat more fruit – it’s “nature’s candy”. Berries are the way to go. Your beloved banana has lots of potassium, vitamin C and fiber, but the other fruits are loaded with anti-oxidants.

Thank you for writing and good luck!

Fitwife