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Beat the Holiday Bulge Weight Management Program

Questions?  Email Betty.Blanton@ttu.edu or click on the contact button at the bottom of the www.beattheholidaybulge.com website screen.  Answers to the questions that I receive will be posted below as well as a list of activities that might be of interest.

A few reminders:
You must check off each task for a week to move to the next week.  There are always some tasks which require you to read some material.  You may choose to print off this material and read it at another time.  Please remember to click the Close button (that will check off the box).
Even if you complete all of the tasks on day 1 of your week, you must wait 7 days to get to advance to the next week.  This insures that the program will last the entire 12 weeks.  If you get behind, the program will advance you to the next week once you have caught up so don’t despair if you have one busy week—you can check of the tasks and move forward.
You are able to print off the information that pops up in boxes (such as the My Meal Planner in Week 1 or the Get the facts on Food Labels in Week 2).  You could make a folder of this information.

The Useful Tools on the right hand side of the webpage will make the program easier once you start logging food and activities. These will be explained to you in week 2. 

The Learn More, however, will link you to other website for more information.  Please feel free to explore these at any time.

Hints for using the food log:
Once you enter a food in your food log, you can fin it in the Recent Foods Drop down box. It will be quicker to relocate this food  in your recent food drop down Box if you are reentering it on another day. Once you get to the drop down box, type in the first letter of the food and your cursor will go to that letter.

If you have a food that is not in the database, you can create a food.  For instance, I eat a turkey/cheese sandwich everyday so I created a food.
Choose create a custom new food. 
Fill in the amount:            (probably 1)
Unit:                                      (I chose whole for my sandwich but there are lots of options)
Calories:                               You must either know the calories or have a good guess.
2 slices of bread                = 140 calories
3 oz of turkey                    =  90 calories
1 oz low fat cheese        =  50 calories
Mustard                        =    0 calories
Lettuce                          = 10 calories
Tomato                          = 10 calories
Total                              = 300 calories

Click on the other nutrients box If you know other nutrients and fill in what you know.  You probably will not use this unless you have the label of the food you are eating.

So instead of having to look for all of the foods listed above, the next time I have a turkey/cheese sandwich, I just have to look in my custom foods and it all will be there.

Week 1 notes:
You may not know all of your HRA data (such as your cholesterol numbers, blood pressure).  The program will allow you to check off the HRA even if you do not have this information.  The program will better be able to identify areas for improvement if you have this data.
No data (HRA information, weight, blood pressure, etc) will be sent to anyone at the university—it will be encrypted and only the 3rd party provider will have access to the information.

Week 2 notes:
You must choose a meal plan. It will give you suggested meals to follow.  You are not required to follow their suggestions. In several of the meal plans, quantities of food items are broken down into 2 separate portions.  For example, the meal plan recommends 2 cups of oatmeal but is broken down into a 1 ¼ cup portion and a 2/3 cup portion - just add any 2 repeating food items together to get the total amount recommended (in this instance, 2 cups of oatmeal).
As for the calorie ranges, all meal plans are created to fall within a specific range.  However, the exact number of calories can vary from day to day.  In a 3000 calorie meal plan, for example, you will find that some days will provide less than 3000 calories, while other days will provide more than 3000 calories.  The meal plans are not designed to meet an exact caloric number.  If your caloric consumption is greater than 3000 which is the program limit you may want to add a small snack or an additional food item to a meal within his meal plan. 
You can track your water consumption in two different ways:  You can use the task box or you can add it to your food log.
You must also choose a cardio and strength exercise program.  Again, you can adapt those to your own workout.  Research has shown that changes are better attained when one has to write down the behavior.  This may seem tedious at first, but I encourage you to persevere.  This will become easier as you become familiar with the program.