Goodbye weight, hello carbs

MAT-SU — Frontiersman readers have been trimming to win for two weeks, and for many the motivation to lose weight and get healthy hasn’t waned.

Robin Minard, the newspaper’s marketing and sales director, is this year’s public face of the Frontiersman’s fourth annual Trim to Win community weight loss challenge. Along with modifying her diet and exercise, Minard is blogging and contributing to the public online Trim to Win site at frontiersman.com. And like many weight loss efforts, hers is already evolving.

Minard planned to follow the carb-free Atkins diet for the first month of Trim to Win, but confessed in her most recent blog that maybe a divorce from carbs altogether wasn’t the best idea.

“I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad to say this, but carbs and I have reconciled,” she writes. “After just under two weeks and a six-pound weight loss, I fell off the wagon today. Unfortunately, I did it in a big way. For lunch, I ate a mini Pizza Hut pizza at Target. Bad enough — but for some inexplicable reason I got the lunch combo that also included bread sticks. I guess I must have really been missing those carbs.”

Minard has enjoyed some success, losing six pounds already, and said she’s also learned that maybe going to extremes isn’t the best approach. She’s now on a program she calls “sensible,” where she’ll make good food choices and consume about 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day, along with exercise and a workout regime at AT&T Sports Center, one of the major Trim to Win partners.

“They’re wonderful,” she said of the staff at AT&T. “They’re so nice to me and it’s a fantastic place to go. I’m lucky to go there.”

Leading up to Trim to Win, Minard said she thought just being the public face of the contest would be good motivation, that readers would hold her accountable. While that has been true to a point, Minard said she’s learned that she needs more self-motivation.

“It’s been an interesting challenge,” she said. “I think I relied too much on the public nature of it and not enough on my own motivation. I’ve done well, but I haven’t worked out as much as I should have.”

She’s also more comfortable with blogging about her experiences, and enjoys the feedback from readers and other challenge participants.

“I have gotten some nice, positive feedback and it’s helped in keeping me honest,” she said.

As with many New Year’s resolutions, weight loss plans often start off with a bang, then taper over time. Minard advises persistence, that if you lose your motivation for one aspect, change your routine instead of quitting.

“Don’t give up,” she said. “Just keep trying new things until you find what works for you.”