I’ve started a new diet and exercise plan. I heard about the "Mayo Clinic Diet Plan" and so went in search of it. Guess what? It’s not one of those fancy, buy-my-book-cuz-I’m-the-expert type of diets. This is the real kind of diet and exercise plan. What do I mean by "real"? Well, duh, stop eating the fats, the processed foods, and the junk and start stuffing your face with vegetables, fruits and healthy stuff. The exercise portion is "moderate to vigorous exercise 30-60 minutes most days". From the site:
The Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid helps you adopt a healthy, lifelong eating plan. This means no severe restrictions on the foods you eat and no extreme hunger. The base of the pyramid focuses on generous amounts of healthy foods that contain a small number of calories in a large volume of food, particularly fruits and vegetables. Healthy choices in moderate amounts make up the rest of the pyramid, which focuses on whole-grain carbohydrates, lean sources of protein such as legumes, fish and low-fat dairy, and heart-healthy unsaturated fats.
[...]At the most basic level, physical activity means moving — every motion of your body burns calories and is therefore beneficial. Cleaning the house, making the bed, shopping, mowing and gardening are all forms of physical activity. Exercise, on the other hand, is a structured and repetitive form of physical activity that you do on a regular basis. Exercise improves your fitness, as well as helps you lose weight and deal with everyday stress. Whatever activity you choose, the key is to commit to doing it regularly. Aim for 30 to 60 minutes of moderately intense physical activity most days of the week. Moderately intense activity or exercise should increase your heart and breathing rates and possibly lead to a light sweat. Brisk walking and yardwork that entails near constant motion are examples of moderately intense activity.
They have a link to the pyramid that the government has adopted in an effort to make their recommendations more personalized. Enter your gender, age, height and weight and you’re given the total number of calories you should consume a day, exercise recommendations and food choices. They even provide a link to healthy recipes for those of us that aren’t too sure how to cook without the fat and calories. My own pyramid tells me that I should eat no more than 1,200 calories a day, exercise 60 minutes a day, take in 5-7 servings of veggies and 4-5 servings a day of fruits. Also included is the amount of fat and junk I can safely eat everyday and still lose enough weight to get to a healthy level. Very basic and very simple. And there’s really no need to buy the book (there is no real book from the Mayo Clinic!) since you can look at it, download and print it all from the website for free.
The Mayo Clinic has partnered with Microsoft to provide a health manager for users. Of course, I signed up when I saw the link. The health manager tracks more than just your weight loss (which was what I was interested in) but also your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other risk factors that could endanger your life. Then they provide recommendations on how to manage that and lower the risk as well as a graph which shows whether your levels/weight has increased or decreased, giving you an idea of how you’re really progressing (without the doctor’s fees). They also provide you with a "vault" to input your medical history, medications you’re on and doctor’s appointments (among other things). For your doctor’s appointments, they will email you a reminder and will give you a form to print out with all of your medical concerns (which, of course, you input into their system) so that you can bring those to your doctor’s attention and don’t forget something important (which I do all the time). It’s an amazing little system. By the way, you can add all of your family to the system and keep track of them also. Everyone’s in the same system and accessible. If you want to know if your husband is going to fit into that tuxedo in January, start a graph for him and keep track. You’ll see his progress and can more easily nag him into shape. 
Now, privacy could be a concern with the above system, considering the nature of the information involved. If you want to use it, but are concerned that someone could hack your account, just sign up under a pseudonym. The Clinic and/or Microsoft aren’t going to call around asking if that’s really you in the vault. The program is only designed to help you manage your health, not get super secret information. If that’s a major concern for you, just sign up under "Jane Doe" or something equally off-the-wall. The only person that will know any differently is you.
So, I’m beginning my new regimen soon. After my illness, I did drop quite a few pounds, but I’ve been inactive, so it’s slowly coming back as my appetite increases. I want to make sure that I’m not only slimmer, but also healthier. I’ve recently read an article (which I can’t find quite at the moment) that you can be slim but still have the heart of an obese person. How? Dieting without the exercise can leave the fat suffocating your heart and other internal organs. Muscle is needed to burn fat more efficiently for all the body parts you can’t see and that requires exercise. Not to mention your blood flow is increased (necessary for muscle buildup and metabolism as well as healthy bodily functions) when you’re active. Eating 5 calories a day will help you lose weight, but if you’re lying in bed while starving yourself, you’re just not going to win in the long run. And that’s what I’m trying to. I want to have enough strength and energy to fight my disease effectively and be a mom to my little girl. I also want to make sure I don’t end up with heart disease and/or diabetes later on—both diseases which are mostly preventable, but which plague our country (and my family). I’m even more conscious of my health than I’ve ever been so I’m thrilled that I found this site and the tracker. Anything that makes things easier for me to get through this and finally win is a lifesaver (maybe even quite literally).1
- Please note that I am receiving no compensation from either The Mayo Clinic nor Microsoft for my usage and review of the Health Manager. I did stumble on the service while I was looking up “the Mayo Clinic Diet” and do find it incredibly useful. I am sharing my experience with both the “diet” plan and the Health Manager in hopes that you find it just as useful. [↩]
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