10 Pounds in 10 Days: Can I do it? Day 8

By Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2012 12 AM PT

(Editor’s note: Writer Mary MacVean tried out trainer Jackie Warner’s diet and exercise plan from her new book “10 Pounds in 10 Days.” Here’s her experience. Read about her previous days, too.)

Day 8

Jackie Warner could advertise her program as the no-TV plan. At least for most of us, watching television from the couch after dinner is exactly the death time for healthful eating. Ice cream, popcorn, chips … let me count the ways I can sabotage 15 hours of whole grains and vegetables with just one episode of “Law & Order.”

Warner’s after-dinner “snack” is a cup of decaf green tea, with a bag of herbal fruit tea added. Not the sort of treat I’m running to the kitchen for.

One night I watched the HBO documentary series about the obesity epidemic, “Weight of the Nation,” and that was a pretty effective appetite suppressant. But otherwise?

Tonight I take my tea and get in bed early with a book. Another night I just didn’t sit. I watched TV on my feet. Not only did that keep me from snacking, I’m sure I used an additional six or seven calories.

Tomorrow: why I run

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Mary MacVean

Mary MacVean is the former Mind & Body editor at the Los Angeles Times. She’s a runner and a cook, and has worked at The Times as morning assignment editor, web liaison, food writer and copy editor. She was a national editor and writer focusing on food at the Associated Press and a features editor and a columnist in Moscow, where she also ran a children’s cooking school. She left The Times in 2015.

10 Pounds in 10 Days: Can I do it? Day 8

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