A staple of my low carb diet is hard boiled eggs – and there is a lot of debate about how to best boil an egg. I believe this is the best method and it never fails.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Cover eggs in a saucepan by about a 1/2 inch with cold water.  Salt the water and heat uncovered on high until water boils.  Cover and remove from heat. let stand for 10-12 minutes and cool eggs down with cold water once done.  Peel, and you will notice the yolks bright yellow, no icky green and they are incredibly easy to peel.

Use Your Hand to Estimate Your Portions

How Can I Tell If My Diet and Exercise Routine Is Actually Working?

Dear Lifehacker,
In an attempt to lose some fat and get fit, I’ve started a new diet and exercise routine. It’s been a few weeks and, although I do feel better, I haven’t seen any physical signs of progress. Is there a better way to tell if I’m making any real progress or if need to work harder?

Sincerely,
Running in Circles?

Photo by SeDmi (Shutterstock).

Dear RiC,

First of all, it’s awesome that you’re making the effort to get healthy. Even if you’re not seeing any progress, if you are eating healthy and getting a little physical activity each day you’re at least making minor improvements—whether you can see them or not. The problem with gauging progress with your eyes is that you’re rarely going to see that progress. If you’re looking at your stomach, for example, being bloated could mislead you into thinking you’ve actually gained fat or simply made no progress at all. The look of your stomach is also significantly modified by its contents. If you just ate, you’ll look a bit different from when you’re hungry. The same goes for your weight. Not only can what you ate mislead you, but, as personal trainer Will Barton points out, your weight can increase as a result of building new muscle mass:

Another reason not to weigh yourself too often has to do with muscle mass. When someone first starts an exercise program they have the tendency to gain muscle faster than they lose fat. Since muscle is much heavier than fat, this could really look bad on the scale and cause people to feel like they are failing.

This is why you can’t trust these methods too much, or at least too often. If you’re stuck with just your eyes and a scale, Charla McMillan, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and creator of Fitboot, suggests you only check for progress every few weeks:

Individuals should expect to feel stronger and more capable after only a few short weeks of proper diet and consistent exercise, but they should not be looking for visible changes in the mirror until they’ve been at it (again, consistently) for probably two to three months. Best to plan on checking in about every three weeks (not daily weigh-ins or mirror checks—the incremental improvements will simply be too small to be encouraging).

The thing to remember is that these tools will not provide accurate measurements of your progress, so if they’re all you have then you have to use them sparingly. If you’re looking for something that will provide a little more accuracy, however, read on.

Photo by Jo Christian Oterhals.

Get More Accurate Measurements of Your Progress

With any tool, constant measurement is only capable of showing incremental progress. That said, there are options that can provide you with more accurate results.

The Withings Scale tracks more than just your weight. It is capable of measuring your fat and muscle, and it can calculate your body-mass index (BMI). While this won’t give you a complete picture of your progress, it’ll offer up far more relevant information than a simple weight scale.

More accurate measurements start to get a bit more expensive from here. Tim Ferris recommends, in his book The 4-Hour Body, a number of more accurate ways to measure body fat. One of the better (albeit, more expensive) options is the BodyMetrix personal ultrasound device because it can provide information about body fat in very specific areas. He also recommends the Accu-measure body fat calipers, BodPod (air displacement weighing), and a few others. An important note he makes is that none of these methods are 100% accurate, and some have a larger margin of error than others. That is why it is very important to use a consistent method when measuring your progress.

Set Realistic Expectations

What’s probably most important, however, is setting realistic expectations. If you start your diet and exercise with the belief that you’re going to see significant progress in a couple of weeks you’re misleading yourself. The advice of most personal trainers and fitness experts agrees that it generally takes a couple of months before real progress is visible. This will depend on where you’re starting and how far you’re attempting to go. Nobody has the same body and some people may take more or less time to see the progress they want to achieve. That said, if you don’t expect too much and don’t constantly check yourself for changes, you should have a much easier time believing that you’re making progress.

Love,
Lifehacker

This weeks total was 2.5 lbs. and I was hoping for three – I’ve been to the gym enough….but I also did a bit more eating/drinking this week so it’s to be expected. And when it comes down to it, I want to lose weight at a pace that will allow me to actually make some life changes and build a new ‘base weight’ so that when I invariably stop going to the gym as much (i do plan on continuing long term, probably just not five days a week like last week) I won’t automatically gain all the weight back.

So yay for small steps and staying on track to be totally hot by summer.

The major place I’m seeing changes is in the pool however. Because its an endless pool, you can’t really count laps or distance so I’ve been counting number of strokes taken. When I started, at a fast pace (freestyle)I had to stop at about 20 strokes and at a moderate pace, around 60. Today, at the fast pace I did 4 sets of 25 strokes at the highest current and at the moderate level, made it to a 150 without stopping.

My breaststroke has gotten better as well. I even figured out how I can get the kick in effectively.

Overall, I’m happy with my progress and thank whatever’s out there for muscle memory.

But this time is different. We are halfway into week three and I have been to the gym three times. And, other than that pizza I ate watching the train wreck that was the last Republican Debate in Florida on Monday, I’ve done exceedingly well at staying under my calorie limit every day.

So while I only lost 1.5 lbs last week, half what I lost the week before, I am not frustrated. I understand my body is revolting a little and am prepared to have a really good week next week.

Goal #1: 20 lbs lost
Total weight lost thus far: 4.5 lbs

I decided that this week would be sober week, one because I haven’t done one in awhile, and two I’m trying to save on calories and jumpstart my weight loss. that is the best part about sober week. The calories you save.  I was 200 calories under my budget yesterday AND I had two desserts. That’s because I didn’t have any alcohol calories which is typically 300-500 calories a day for me.  OH, and the money you save. So that got me to thinking… What about a sober February? Come to find out it’s actually a thing. So who in the HBS crew is with me on this? Courtney gets an exemption as I’m sending her a box of Franzia to the hospital for after she delivers.  But for the rest of us? I bet we lose an extra few pounds because of it.  And also, February is the shortest month.

I’ve been watching a marathon of Downton Abbey and for brunch on Sunday in Philadelphia at an English restaurant I had scones.  Made me want to make them. After the jump I show you how.  Each scone is 310 calories according to Lose it App recipe I made.

Simple Scone Recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
• 1/2 cup raisins (or dried currants)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 large egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt in a large bowl.  Recipe I found then had you grate a stick of frozen butter on a box grater.  That was a mess. Next time, if you have a food processor use the shredder  blade and do it that way. I guarantee you its easier than grating it by hand, but it does need to be grated.  combine the butter in the flour mixture with your hands until it is like coarse meal.  Add raisins Whisk sour cream and egg together and pour into batter, using a fork combine, it will feel like there’s not enough liquid, but there will be, at some point start using your hands to bring the ball of dough together. Put it out on a floured surface. shape the dough into an 8 inch disk about 3/4 inch high. cut into 8 triangles.  arrange them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes. let cool and serve warm or room temp. with jam.

I know. This is not diet food. but if you’re counting calories you can eat one, and still be okay for the day.

This is totally what Social Media is right?

1. Share your success….

In two hours tonight, which for my age group is off-peak for Facebook use, I had 37 people “like” my post saying that I had lost 40 lbs and 3/4″ in neck size. Each one of those likes is someone congratulating you for the hard work you did.

If I  had not shared that on Facebook, on Twitter, on your own blog….or with…*gasp* a real live human being, people wouldn’t know that I had been doing anything at all or wouldn’t know why I had suddenly dropped that weight. By sharing your experience with them, you open the door for  your hard work to be discussed instead of having people wonder.

2. …And Share Your Setbacks.

Being social about things you are confused about, unhappy with, or could use some advice from will garner you some great support and likely some good advice too.

But, again, you can’t be shy about it. If you don’t talk about your setbacks, then you might be missing out on some crucial advice to get past the setbacks.

3.  Social = Honest

Lying to yourself is easy. Lying to people you know is hard…even over the interwebs.

Since Day 1 (and really the impetus that started my weight loss) was using Fitocracy.  I have to put in what I’m doing for workouts and I get points for every activity. The points add up and with enough points you get to the next level. By doing this, I am effectively “competing” against my other friends on Fitocracy.  And if I’m competing with them, I want to be honest. It’s just harder to cheat with people I know paying attention. This also may be Midwestern Guilt but still.

Next Goal...Hair Like that

There are other programs and other ways to track this but Fitocracy is the one that worked for   me. I get badges, do quests, and level up. I am essentially playing a fitness RPG and the end goal is beating the final boss or getting a better weapon, but getting an awesome me.

Five Five Ways to Push Past a Plateau

2012 January 13

by Jess

I hit a bit of a writing block today, so I headed to my Facebook wall to find out your fitness questions.

Ellie wrote that she wants to know how to get past a plateau. Without having more information about her specific plateau, here are five things you can do to push past a plateau.

1. Mix up your diet.


When was the last time you tried a new vegetable or had millet instead of brown rice? While I’m not a registered dietician, I do believe that our bodies need nutrients from different sources. I also know that when I eat the same foods all the time I tend to eat more of those foods at each sitting.

2. Challenge yourself.



Are you lifting heavy enough weights when strength training? Are you working as hard as you can during your cardio sessions at least twice a week (other cardio doesn’t have to be all out)? If the answer is “yes” then what are you waiting for??
3. Hire a professional.

A health coach, personal trainer or registered dietician can work with you to help you get passed your plateau.

4. Write it down for one week.

Keeping a food and exercise journal can reveal where you need to make some tweaks.

5. Change your workouts.

Either you’ve been doing the same workouts for too long or you’ve been doing to many different types of workouts and need a focus. Doing the same workouts all the time will pretty much ensure a plateau at some point. On the flip side if you are always mixing up your workouts and never mastering one thing, your fitness level may not progress the way you want it to. You need to try doing one style of workout long enough to master the moves and see results. (that doesn’t mean only doing one workout that means maybe sticking with running and barre classes or some kind of similar combo)