What Am I Doing Wrong?

This blog posts stems from a reader question I received several weeks ago. I thought my response could be useful and insightful for many of the Patch.com readers. 

Question: 

What am I doing wrong? Mornings I eat Special K oats cereal with skim milk. Mid-morning a few whole wheat crackers, if not a luna bar. Lunch: brown rice and tuna w/lemon and olive oil w/a bit of salt for taste, or sandwich (whole grain) with low sodium ham/low fat cheese, water or PowerZero (OK a few chips) ... mid-afternoon a fruit or again another luna bar. Home and do 30-40 min cardio and than a bowl of cereal ... done for the day ... so why am I having trouble losing my pouch? I'm 5-feet, 107-pounds.

Answer:

Avoid everything that has the words wheat or flour in the ingredients. Until you do this, you will constantly be spinning your wheels in an attempt to change your body. You already have a low amount of total body weight so it becomes even harder to lose the last five pounds or whatever shifts you are trying to make.    

You should try eating dinner for breakfast instead of the traditional breakfast foods.  Replace your Special K oats cereal and skim milk with chicken or red meat and have a mixed green salad with nuts in it. If this is too time consuming, prepare the chicken or meat the night before and make a greens smoothie in the morning.  Throw a quarter cup of quinoa in the smoothie in addition to your favorite green vegetables. Add a cup of blueberries as well to improve the taste. 

If you want to keep the breakfast foods in breakfast, learn to love omelets and pack them with vegetables and eat a serving of oatmeal or quinoa with almond milk. 

To fix your lunch, you should drop the sandwich and PowerZero and switch the rice to wild. Have a salad with nuts and chicken and a side of wild rice. Only drink the PowerZero 15 minutes prior to working out or after. Don’t drink it besides those times. If you can live without it, I’d definitely recommend dropping it all together.

Drop the cereal and have an actual dinner. You will definitely do best by dropping every single breakfast food from your diet.

You’re also doing too much cardio. Three days a week you should swap out your 30-40 minutes of cardio with 30-40 minutes of full-body weight training and keep those other two days a week your cardio days. 

The only carbohydrates you should be eating are quinoa, oatmeal, potatoes, white/wild rice (not brown), vegetables and fruit. I guarantee you lose "the pouch" when you avoid the wheat and stick to those recommended sources of carbohydrates. You won't feel as bloated and tired throughout the day.

Please email me any questions you guys have! I am more than happy to answer them in my columns.