My Lunch with Lisa G.

"Lisa G." started out as a colleague at work and now I consider her a friend. She's in her twenties (I'm in my early 40's), wise, strong, funny, and someone I thoroughly enjoy spending any time with.

Over the past 4 years I've heard her talk about her love of food and the pub outings with her friends and b.f., and how running was her way of managing her weight. I always thought she had a figure I would love to have and then at some point this summer, I noticed how much more lean and lithe she was appearing and her clothing was even more complimentary than usual. She had thanked me and said she had lost some weight and touched on a few things that she had done differently.

Since then, I watched what her typical lunches have been; very salad-y and veggie oriented, but she ate happily and watched her indulge in some treats over the holidays at my birthday outing which she graciously organized.

I asked her if we could have lunch together so that I could inquire further about how she reached her svelte physique. These were the points that came out:

• a little over a year ago, she and her bf saw photos taken together that they didn't like and wanted to slim down a bit

• they decided to cut out wine and beer for a month and they committed to 4 workouts a week (without changing her diet, she lost 10lbs in a month this way).

• then they reintroduced wine and beer only on weekends and continued with the 4 workouts a week. Being a runner, she noticed that the change to their alcohol consumption allowed her to feel stronger and began pushing herself a little further on her runs..at first doing about 20km a week...she lost another 5lbs or so

• her friend introduced her to MyFitnessPal.com, which is a free site and free mobile app which syncs with the site and in using the calculators there, determined a caloric goal and tracked everything she ate and all the exercise she did so that she kept close tabs on how she was affecting that weekly calorie deficit you would want to shoot for to lose fat. Once she started changing her nutrition she lost another 10-15lbs and then switched her mobile app to "maintenance mode" so she is still tracking her calories, but ensuring she doesn't lose anymore weight.

• she is still doing her 4 workouts a week, though she turned one of the running days into a strength training day 

• she allows herself to eat whatever she wants on the weekends with the goal of not eating back all the calories in deficit and she makes sure to still track what she's eating as she finds that she will eat less of something if she knows how eating more of it will add up when she goes to track it

I've watched people around her; notably older ladies exclaiming "my goodness, don't lose anymore weight!". She looks very good; not unhealthy thin.

I asked her if she felt like she was "dieting" when she had changed her nutrition. She said that most of the time she did not, until confronted with treats or a big foodcentric event, and ensured that she wasn't depriving herself the entire time (hence the weekend flexibility).

I asked her how she deals with not wanting to go for a run when she gets home. She said that as long as she's doing 4 workouts a week, if she comes home and doesn't want to go for a run and isn't prodded to go by her b.f. (who also runs--they're a great partnership, I look forward to their wedding someday!), she will permit herself to stay home on the condition that she definitely runs on a specific day thereafter. She also knows how tiresome it feels to have to run Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon and tries not to set herself up for 4 consecutive running days.

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Although there's no way in hell I will ever become a runner, it is her outlook and approach that I admire and seek to adopt this year.