Successful Resolutions Start with Real “Resolve”

I love new beginnings, whether it be the start of a new project, the “first day of school”, seeing the “after” in a makeover show, or January first – the beginning of the new year.


The promise that a fresh start is possible – the idea that we really can change something about ourselves – the “new you in the new year” - is the appeal and the fuel for all New Year Resolutions.



Although we sometimes make a laundry list of resolutions, the most important step in having any or all of them be successful and *stick* is to resolve to be resolved. In other words, make the decision to stay committed.



Take quitting smoking. If you have just snubbed out a cigarette, you have quit smoking. If you resolve right now to not light up again, and you take steps to make that happen, you will quit smoking. The tricky part is staying resolved.



Your resolution to lose weight? Well, you have to be resolved to make it your highest priority. You may have to get help in finding out what you have to do to make that happen: change amounts of what you eat, change the types of food you buy, change the amount of exercise you get (or don’t get!); but change begins with making the decision to do it and then sticking with it.



Just do it – resolve to make your self and your health the highest priority of your day every day. My best advice? Have the resolve to change just ONE habit this year – just because you believe you will feel better and be healthier.



Some may think that I’m just talking about will power, but that’s a phrase I really stay away from. To me, “will power’ implies gutting it out, straining against the impossible, getting tough; and that sounds negative to me. But “resolve” - that implies you are in charge of your thoughts, your determination, and your future.



Many years ago, I undertook a habit change with this thought in mind: “if I attempt this every day for a year, I may change – or I may not change; but if I DON’T do it, I am guaranteed NOT to change.” That thought became my biggest motivator; it kept me resolved to stay on track or get back on when I veered off course. I maintained my resolve and reached my goal in 3 months – much less than a year. So my challenge to you is to resolve to be resolved when it comes to making your new year, new you resolution! And best wishes, whatever wellness goal you set for yourself.

Extreme Makeover: Breakfast

Good old Mom was still right when she said "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. To maintain a healthy weight and jump-start your metabolism, breakfast is a 'must do',  so don't think cutting out that meal will help  you cut calories and lose weight faster. Studies have proven that skipping breakfast triggers our bodies to fight "starvation" by holding on to its fat; and really, many us us just overeat later in the day when we skip breakfast.

But, what we choose as our breakfast can make an enormous difference in how we feel and how we lose - or don't lose - weight.

This used to be my typical breakfast:

a small container of yogurt, a banana and orange juice.  I thought I was making good choices; after all I was getting protein, vitamin C, calcium, and potassium, right?

Well, yes. But I was also getting very hungry an hour later, and I felt tired too.
Why? Well my "healthy breakfast" had almost 300 calories - which isn't bad - but the kind of calories I was consuming had no filling or "staying power". Here's why:

Banana = 72 calories, 18 grams carbohydrate ( 10 grams sugar) and 2 grams fiber
Orange Juice = 110 calories, 26 grams carbohydrate (22 grams sugar)
Activia yogurt = 110 calories, 19 grams carbohydrate (17 grams sugar) and 4 grams protein

So my 300 calories served me 63 grams of carbohydrates - nearly 50 of them sugars! Note that the fiber content is a measly 2 grams from the banana.  Basically the meal I chose to start my day - started it all right  - but put me on a fast blood sugar high, that soon plummeted leaving me feeling hungry and tired, and often craving something sweet!

I have spent quite a bit of time as the facilitator of  the diabetes support group and know a little bit about carb counting as a means of keeping blood glucose levels steady, so I realized my high sugar breakfast choices - even though I wasn't adding sugar from the sugar bowl to anything -were probably doing me harm.

I set out to make over my breakfast to give me the results I really wanted.  I wanted more energy, nutrition per calorie, low sugar content and higher fiber. Fiber is a power nutrient for many reasons: it fills you up, it digests slowly, promotes a healthy digestive tract, and can help lower cholesterol and weight! Protein fuels muscles and provides energy.

So now I alternate between two breakfasts:
Some days I have an egg with low-fat cheddar cheese on a whole wheat English muffin.
Other days I eat a very high-fiber cereal like Fiber One with unsweetened Almond Breeze milk.
I may add an orange, apple or raspberries, but I now only have whole fruit instead of juice.

Here's the difference nutritionally:

Egg sandwich + orange day:  258 calories, 36 grams carbohydrate ( 11 sugar), 9 grams protein ( 1 gram saturated fat) and 6 grams fiber
Fiber One and raspberries day:  150 calories,  28 grams carbohydrate ( about 1 gram sugar), 2 grams protein, 16 grams fiber

Quite a change!

My new breakfasts are lower in calories, and could easily be adjusted up to 400 calories - and in fact, I may add a spoonful of low-sugar peanut butter to make sure I get enough protein on the cereal day, but now I am full and feel satisfied for several hours after eating breakfast; I can tell my blood sugar is behaving in a normal way, my weight and waist are easier to maintain and my energy level is better. I usually have a snack mid-morning of either nuts or string cheese, and then I am fine until lunch. 

My old breakfast had foods that are good ones by themselves. But combined, they gave me more sugars at one meal than I normally had in a day.  My "extreme makeover" has worked for me, and my hope is that it will prompt you to take a look at how you are starting your day.

4 Last Minute Holiday Dinner Survival Tips

1. Eat breakfast!
Starting the day with a healthy meal rich in fiber and protein will help "normalize" your appetite for the day. Peanut butter on whole wheat toast with orange slices on the side is a quick easy way to fortify yourself for the busy day ahead. Please don't "starve" yourself in preparation for the main meal of the day. You are more likely to load up on snacks and drinks before dinner if you haven't eaten all day.

2. Take a walk....while the bird is in the oven or after the big dinner - or both! Getting out in the fresh air even for 10 minutes will make you feel like you have "done something healthy" on a day full of indulgences - and you will be right! If you are someone who has a regular exercise daily exercise routine, try to stick to it.

3. Plan in advance!  This is the key to every single wellness success:  plan what choice you will make before you are faced with something that tempts you to veer from your healthy lifestyle program.  Thanksgiving Day Dinner may not be the time or place to try to lose weight, but it can certainly be a time when you follow a strategy for making wise choices: eat small portions of the foods you really love...sit back and relax... and then decide if you really want seconds or can be content to wait for leftovers at the next meal.  Practice saying "no thank you " if you know you will be around someone who may push tempting foods your way.  And finally, plan to go back to "normal" eating the next day because it's very easy to let this first holiday meal turn into a season of binging on high calorie, high fat treats.

4. Enjoy!   Celebrate whatever the day brings to you in terms of family or  friends or solitude -  give thanks for the good things in your life. Conversation, play, sharing, creating memories or reflecting on them - these are the calorie-free things that we can all focus on at Thanksgiving !

Need more ideas?  Click here for more tips for holiday survival from WebMD.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And the Holiday Food Season Begins!

There is no question that the next six weeks will be focused on people's favorite foods more than at any other time of year. It can be a season that destroys the healthy eating plan of even the most conscientious among us.

Ever wonder how many calories are consumed in the traditional Thanksgiving dinner? Well - making allowances for food choices and preferences - more than 2000 is average for Americans. Yes, that's in one meal - not the whole day! And that's with good old "healthy" turkey as the centerpiece of the meal.
 

                                     

Click here to find out how far you'd have to walk to burn off the calories in your Thanksgiving meal - I did and found out my meal of choice weighed in at 2130 calories: requiring about 20 miles of walking to burn it all off! As you can imagine, I am not likely to do that after cooking, and consuming the feast.

Remembering that 2000 calories is the daily recommendation for young healthy weight adults (and 1600-1800 is the recommendation if you are older, a middle aged woman or overweight), the trick is to figure out how to enjoy the flavors and goodies that we love during the holidays without taking in twice the calories, fat, and sugar that we want to.

Simple swaps and changes to lighten up the turkey dinner include:

• Choose white meat instead of dark and save almost 200 calories.
• Make stuffing with whole wheat bread and olive oil instead of butter.
• use fat-free mushroom soup to make your green bean casserole and sauteed onions instead of the canned fried ones.
• Make gravy with canned fat-free broth instead of the drippings from the bird.
• If you are having bread stuffing, skip the dinner rolls.
• For dessert, have a slice of pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie and save 140 calories.
• Watch portion sizes! Having a small serving of  your very favorite dishes instead of heaping your plate with everything offered will leave you  feeling unstuffed, but satisfied at the end of the meal.

MSNBC has even more ideas in this video http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21870864/ns/today-today_holiday_guide

Mom Was Right...Most of the Time

The other day I saw an ad that had a large stalk of broccoli with the phrase "Mom Was Right" printed across it. An effective ad for getting the message across that we need to eat green vegetables!  Moms have always told their kids "Eat Your Vegetables" and sure enough, Mom was right  about that. The FDA, the American Cancer Society, and nearly every other health agency urges us to EAT 5 A DAY  - at least 5 servings of colorful vegetables and fruits for good health.  Can I stress that 5 really should be a minimum? And that because a serving is usually 1/2 to 1 cup , it's really not hard to get more than that in one day.

Benefits of eating more veggies are numerous:  they should be the primary source for most of our vitamins and minerals - especially trace ones - rather than relying on vitamin-fortified juices and packaged foods. Vegetables, especially the dark leafy ones are literally "brain food" - that's how important they are to our development. In addition, most vegetables add valuable fiber to our diets - fiber that keeps our digestive tract operating smoothly.

Now let me get on my fast food soapbox for a minute and stress that the limp piece of iceberg lettuce on your fast food burger, hardly counts as one of your servings of vegetables.  Nor do the french fries. In this blog-o-sphere, french fries ( and yes, I love them too) are a "once in while snack" - like carnival food....not be counted on as a nutrient.

Your "five a day" should be real food munched raw, or cooked with a minimum of alteration: steam, bake or microwave - even stir fry - carrots, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, chard, green beans, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and squash to your heart's content. What you get in return is vitality, weight control, and lowered risk for diabetes and several  forms of cancer.

Now the one "mom-ism" I take exception too is "Clean Your Plate".  After all, this blog is focused on healthy weight. Many of us grew up around dinner tables where starchy foods were piled on our plates and we weren't permitted to leave the table until every bit was gone. (OK, I admit, this is also the reason some people think they don't like vegetables: I remember pushing peas around the rim of my plate for what felt like hours!) However, the best rule for finishing your meal in a healthy way is to pay attention to your hunger cues. Eat slowly and notice when you are starting to feel full. If you are full, you are finished..even if there is still food on the plate. That's the healthy weight way to monitor exercise portion control.

Can We Change the Future?

"In the United States, 1 in 3 people will have Type 2 diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "


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West Virginia is already a "leader" in numbers of adults who have the chronic disease, diabetes mellitus, or type 2 diabetes. Characterized by an the body's inability to properly produce insulin and process sugar in the blood, diabetes can be a "silent killer" like hypertension: you may not know you have it if you are not routinely tested, but it will be there doing its damage.  A simple fasting blood test will give you the number of your blood glucose level. Too high on more than one occasion, and your doctor may tell you that you have joined the growing population of people with type 2 diabetes. Why do you want to avoid this happening? To make it very simple, having diabetes makes your risk for other major illnesses like heart disease and stroke go up dramatically.  Unmanaged, diabetes can cause blood vessel damage to occur all through your body, and that can affect your eyes, your nerves, your feet, and your kidneys. Complications of uncontrolled diabetes can include blindness and amputation. So diabetes is a whole-body, systemic disease.

Adding to the sense of urgency is the fact that younger and younger people are developing diabetes. Whereas we used to call it "adult onset diabetes", that description has been changed - type 2 diabetes now can be found in teenagers.

The rise in cases of diabetes parallels the rise in the numbers of people who are overweight or obese. This has to be a concern to us as parents and community members. For most people - including children - the key to avoiding developing diabetes is : maintain a healthy weight by eating well and being active.

Worried? Want to take steps to avoid being part of this epidemic? We can change this prediction, if we each take responsibility for our own health:

• Lose weight if you are overweight.
• Lose weight safely by staying within a range of 400 calories per meal, with two or three 100-calorie snacks
• Limit saturated fats; limit red meat, hamburgers, fried foods
• Avoid refined carbohydrates - eat whole grains instead
• Avoid vending machines and fast food - eat real food
• Choose water instead of soft drinks or fruit juice; drink fat-free milk
• Learn to cook quick nutritious meals at home; pack your lunch and snacks to control your portion sizes and your hunger
• Eat lots of non-starchy vegetables; choose beans as a protein source at least once a week.
• Make sure you get lots of FIBER in your diet.
• Walk, run , bike, swim, take the stairs, zumba, stretch, lift weights - just keep moving - every day! 

Diabetes is an expensive, lifetime disease that requires daily monitoring. Please do your body a favor and click here to learn how to avoid diabetes if you don't have it, and control it if you do. And by all means, talk to your health care provider if you suspect you are at risk for diabetes or need help controlling your blood glucose levels.

Don't Wait 'til the Holidays to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

Most articles that address ''holiday weight gain" refer to the six weeks from Thanksgiving through New Year's, but I believe the holiday season starts right about now - with the fall festivals, football tailgates and Halloween preparations. Late fall is possibly the most food-focused time of the year.

So it's certainly not too early to investigate the truth about holiday weight gain and make plans to avoid it!

For a long time, health professionals and people themselves thought that the average amount of weight gained by people during the holidays was between five and ten pounds. The good news is that recent studies have found this to be untrue. The National Institutes of Health followed a diverse group of 200 Americans, their diets and weights, and found that although nearly everyone did gain weight during the holiday period, the average weight gain was around one pound, not five or ten. 

The bad news is that most people did not lose that pound during the next year. Or the next. Or the extra pound they gained the next year, and so on.  Further bad news is that people who were already overweight have been found to gain more than the one pound during the holidays. They gain about five, and like the other group, do not usually lose that holiday weight gain. So holiday goodies and over-indulgence can definitely have an effect on our country's obesity problem.

Yet it is possible to enjoy holiday foods and not gain weight! In fact, it is possible to conitune on a weight loss program during the holidays without feeling deprived.

We'll touch on several strategies in the upcoming weeks as we approach the new year, but probably the most important thing to do is begin now to plan for the kind of holiday season you want! We do that now anyway as we make lists : lists of gifts, people to send cards to, a cleaning and decorationg schedule, and so .... this year add YOUR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT GOALS to your other lists.

Remembering that adding 3500 extra calories to your diet over several days can lead to a one pound weight gain in a week, figure out how to budget in the special foods you want to enjoy without making them "extra" calories. This may mean that you skip the mashed potato casserole in order to have the pumpkin pie.  It may mean that your daily walking time becomes 30 minutes instead of 15; or that you add jogging or a step aerobics class to burn even more calories. As always, watch portion sizes! Having a bite or two of a rich dish and really enjoying it can satisfy your sweet or savory tooth as much as a full portion would. It's good to remember that just because the food is there, you don't have to eat it.

What's my personal best trick? I know what my favorite holiday foods are. I plan in advance to enjoy certain foods while giving up fattening "side dishes" that I usually eat just becasue they are "there." I also know what special dishes and desserts I really like, but aren't "holiday essentials" for the rest of my family. And I know that if I make it, I will be the one who will likely overindulge in excess calories until that goodie is gone. So I just don't make those recipes anymore. The old "out of sight, out of mind" ( and mouth) trick. For someone else, it may be deciding not to keep a candy dish stocked all season if you know you are likely to "just have one" everytime you walk past it.  It takes some thought and honesty with yourself to plan ahead to avoid the holiday bulge; but because the alternative is pounds you aren't likely to lose, it's worth it!

Don't Be Afraid to Go Nuts!

Does the idea of snacking on a baggie full of celery stalks for your afternoon snack leave you feeling more than slightly uninterested?

Getting through the stretch of time between light lunch and healthy dinner can be the downfall of anyone's weight loss program. Unless you plan in advance for a snack that you will like and that will satisfy you, you'll probably toss the celery and head for the vending machine.

That's where nuts - a food that combines protein, fiber and healthy fat into one small package- can come to your rescue.

A handful, depending on the size of the hand, can be the ideal snack portion: a quarter cup. You can keep roasted, unsalted mixed nuts on hand or choose any variation of nuts. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pecans, and macadamias make great snack choices - alone or in combination. One of my favorites is the new Planter's Heart Healthy mix:

Canned nut mixes are convenient and tasty, but you can save yourself money, salt, and often calories and fat grams by buying plain unsalted walnuts, almonds, pecans, and even peanuts in bags in the grocery store produce or baking sections.

An average serving of nuts  (1/4 cup roasted almonds, for example) contains: 6.7 grams carbohydrate, 4 grams fiber, 205 calories, 9.5 grams protein, 18 grams fat, 1.4 grams saturated fat. And that's the one thing we have to pay attention to: serving size: a palm-full is not very much, so eat them slowly. The fat and fiber will fill you up faster than you think, but still remember you are just having a snack, not  a meal!

WebMD includes other low-calorie, celery-free snacks in their List of Top Ten Low-Carb Snacks.

 

An added benefit to making a small quantity of nuts part of your daily food intake can be improved cholesterol levels, making nuts a key to a heart-healthy diet, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study revealed that people they followed who consumed 2.4 ounces of nuts per day had better cholesterol levels than people who consumed the same amount of saturated fat, but no nuts. Read more here to learn about these heart-friendly benefits!

Eat This, Not That!

A diet only works when you have control over what, where, and when you are eating, and we don't always have that control. Because it's a fact of life that most of us don't prepare every meal from scratch - at home- with fresh, natural ingredients- we need all the help we can get in making the best choices when eating out or buying packaged foods at the grocery store.

Having access to nutritional labels is one of the ways we've talked about to compare the calories, carbohydrate and fat content of meals that are pre-packaged or sold to us at chain restaurants. But I want to share with you a great little book that is just packed with this information - in other words, the authors have already done the research for you!

Eat This, Not That is written by David Zinczenko with the editor-in-chief of Men's Health Magazine.  It's not a traditional "read-only" diet book; it's really a guidebook to take along to grocery stores and restaurants as a tool to help you make the absolute healthiest choices you can when you are in a place where you can't control the ingredients of your meal.

Different sections highlight common, brand-name foods and meals with the EAT THIS recommendations on one page and the NOT THAT options on the facing page. It's fascinating, entertaining and educational!

By following the recommendations in the book, you can save hundreds of calories and dozens of fat grams at every meal - without doing the math yourself!  For example, I found out why Chick-Fil-A is actually the healthiest fast food place to get a grilled chicken sandwich; that Triscuit reduced-fat crackers are a better choice than Wheat Thins even though both list "whole wheat" as the main ingredient, and how to save 540 calories at Thanksgiving dinner (have mashed potatoes instead of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole instead of stuffing, and pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie).

Eat This,Not That has been such a success that there is also a version just for the supermarket shopping and one devoted to kids' meals!  I found my copy at Wal-Mart, but I have seen it in Krogers, Sam's Club, Amazon.com and stand-alone bookstores too - highly recommended!



Lighter in 100 Days?

The 100 days of Summer 2010 have come to an end - which means it's been 100 days since I started making blog posts about ways to change your eating plans in order to lose weight and live lighter.

I've heard from many of you who have let me know that you have indeed lost weight and become more active. That is real encouragement! I am really proud of you who have altered your buying, cooking and fast food habits - it is not easy! And I have not run out of topics and ideas to help you on your Lighten Up journey.

So - you may have already noticed - we have changed the title of the blog from "Lighten Up in 100 Days" ,which was designed to complement our 100 Miles in 100 Days activity program, to "Lighten Up DHS" and from now on the blog will be updated every Wednesday.

If you are a new reader, you can scan through the archived posts to find some helpful guidance; if you are a regular reader or would like to be, you might like to know that you can sign up as a "follower" with your yahoo or gmail email address - and receive the blogpost notice in your in-box each week.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Next week's post is titled:
Eat This, Not That!

Is Your Salad Sabotaging You?

Maybe it's not your salad that is sabotaging your careful weight management plan, but what you are putting on your salad as "dressing"!

If you are building a salad of lettuce and greens only, your plate or bowlful will only account for about 50 - 70 calories. Leafy greens are mostly water. Aside for the vitamins we get - especially from the dark leafy greens like spinach - a plateful of salad greens keeps us busy chewing and eating for quite awhile -- without a high calorie gain. That's one of our goals ( remember the blog on "Volumetrics"?) in eating to lose.

Once we have our base of greens, what we add to it begins to make a difference, but as long as we add lots of colorful vegetables - green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, mushrooms- we are still adding vitamins, minerals and fiber, rather than a lot of calories.

When we get to the top of the salad, however, we can sometimes add enough calories to equal what we would have had if we had gone to McDonald's and ordered a Big Mac.

How can that be?

Well, a basic garden salad of about 2 cups of vegetables alone and one ounce of a "lite" dressing has about 145 calories.

If we start with the same basic salad and add fattening toppings often found on the salad bar, here's what happens:

Adding 1/2 cup cheddar cheese adds 100 more calories and 10 grams of fat
Adding 1/4 cup bacon bits adds 100 calories and 5 grams of fat
Adding 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds adds 100 calories and 9 grams of fat
Adding  a handful of croutons adds 100 calories and 4 grams of fat.

But the worst offender is what has practically become a separate food group unto itself, the salad dressing - and  specifically Ranch Dressing. Why? Because it is by far the most popular salad dressing on the market. America just loves it. In fact, it isn't even limit to dressing salads anymore. Many of us use it as a dip for chicken and french fries and maybe worst of all, we use it as a lure to get our kids to eat vegetables. Our grocery stores even package it right into the veggie trays they sell.

Now the first basic salad I described had 1 ounce - about 2 tablespoons - of "lite" ranch dressing on it - for an additional 70 calories.

But most people don't like "lite" Ranch, so they choose full-fat ranch which weighs in at 70 calories per tablespoon - making the serving size 140 calories...and 14 grams of fat.

And most people use 4 - 8 tablespoons of ranch dressing on their 50 calorie salad, which means the dressing alone adds from 280 to 560 calories.

Now you can see how the "fully-dressed" salad can be as deadly to your diet as a Big Mac and fries.

What to do?

Best bet is to find a fat-free, low-calorie salad dressing that you like and stick to the recommended 2 tablespoons. Opt for lots of veggies and very little or no added high-calorie toppings. But what if you absolutely, positively have to have the original, full-fat ranch dressing? Two tips: get the small serving in a cup on the side and dip your greens into it...you will see you need far less than you think.  A second option that I use myself is: put a very small amount ( about 1 tablespoon - on your basic salad and top (thin) with vinegar....you will be surprised how good your salad will taste and how much healthier you will be!

Fabulous, Filling FIBER!

So much emphasis is placed on what NOT to eat when we want to lose weight - no sweets, no pop, low-sugar, no-fat - that we can forget there are foods we absolutely should eat every day! Good, filling, nutritious foods that do good things for our waistlines outside and our digestive tract inside!

Those foods are the ones that are high in Fiber!

Fiber is the part of plant foods that that your body doesn't digest and absorb.

There are two basic types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Both are good, so you really don't have to "memorize" which is which; however, insoluble fiber adds bulk to your stool and can help prevent constipation - a great reason to be sure your daily diet is fiber-rich! Vegetables, some fruits, wheat bran, barley, brown rice and other whole grains are good sources of insoluble fiber. 

Soluble fiber may help improve your cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Whole oats, dried beans, and some fruits like apples and oranges, are good sources of soluble fiber. So yes, there is some truth to "an apple (unpeeled) a day keeps the doctor away!

By now you've probably noticed that these are carbohydrate foods! And you're right! These are the "good carbs" that you want to fill 3/4 of your plate with!

In fact, the only problem with fiber is that most of us don't get enough!  Man or woman, make 25 grams or more of all fiber your daily goal. Starting the day with a whole grain cereal will help. The Uncle Sam's brand has almost 10 grams of fiber per serving; that's about as high as you can get in boxed cereals. Then making sure you have vegetables, beans, seeds and whole grains during the rest of the day should help you meet your goal.  You really need to label-read to see if you are getting 25 grams of fiber in your usual day.

Fiber is the friend of anyone who is curbing calories to lose weight because most of the high-fiber foods are not only low in calories, but really help you feel full and satisfied so you don't get hungry so quickly and won't tend to want a "sugar fix".   That's because these high-fiber foods are digested slowly and don't cause a spike and fall in your blood sugar level.

And for those who need more fiber in order to fight a tendency towards constipation, most people can safely take over-the-counter store-brand fiber capsules as a supplement. In fact, fiber supplements can aid in our digestive issues like gas, bloating and diarrhea (that is not illness-based). The usual dosage is up to 6 capsules to start with a full glass of water when you get up in the morning. You can start with 3 and build up to six if you want. Sounds like a lot, but most people find they adapt to the schedule pretty quickly - and appreciate the benefits.

To read more about the benefits of  living the high-fiber life, click here.

Help! I'm Not Hungry; But I'm Eating!

Ever feel like saying that?

Mindless eating is different from boredom or emotional eating....when we snack because we are bored, upset, lonely, stressed or depressed, we usually know why we are moved to move toward the refrigerator. That kind of eating can be tackled with specific behavior techniques.

We know that food is our sustenance  - it keeps the wondrous machines that are our bodies going and functioning. And believe me, I believe in eating 3 meals a day and snacking twice a day...and I want that food to be healthy, nutritious and delicious. We want to eat just enough to satisfy us both physically and emotionally and to fulfill our nutritional needs.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

But we all are subject to triggers or cues to eat even when we are not hungry or even thinking about eating.


Time of Day : Our bodies become trained to expect food at certain times. So hormones are secreted that tell our brains we are hungry and ready to eat.

Sight:  Even if you have just eaten a full lunch, if  you walk into a meeting or store or even see a billboard or tv commercial that has food you like on display, your body may respond automatically in mouth-watering anticipation.

Smell: I'll admit it, when I drive past Burger King and smell the "char-broiling", I want a hamburger! And I don't even eat fast food hamburgers! Scent is one way we cue our bodies that food is near. Once triggered, it induces insulin secretion that makes us think we are hungry.

Temperature: The colder then temperature gets, the more people tend to eat - your metabolism drops when it's time to eat and eating warms you up. Heat is a signal of being satisfied. Now you know why restaurants keep their thermostats set so low!

Alcohol:   Just as too much alcohol can impair judgement about many things, it also alters our perception of appetite and can make it harder to push ourselves away form the table.

And finally, just the variety of food and flavors, can make us eat when we are not hungry.  One reason to steer clear of buffets when you are watching your calories --- especially breakfast bars! Notice how even after a large meal, we still want to and DO make room for dessert? Nutritionists say that's because our desire for sweets has not been satisfied during the meal, so try having some fruit during dinner to see if it will curb this natural sugar craving.

There you have it - six eating triggers that you may not have realized work against your efforts to eat right and light! Always remember, ask yourself "Am I hungry?" before taking that first bite!

Do Cars Make Us Fat?

According to a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health, there is a lower rate of overweight and obesity in countries where most people walk, cycle or use public transportation to get around on a daily basis instead of driving their own cars. This makes sense, but it certainly doesn't mean that cars, themselves, make us fat.

Physical activity is the other side of the weight management balance scale. Weight - for most of us - is a matter of the simple calories in = calories out energy equation. We do use a certain number of calories every day just to maintain our metabolism, our breathing, our body's movement and  processes, and to fuel our brains. But if we take in more calories than we burn off, they get stored as fat.

It's sadly - alarmingly - true that just as we have increased the amount and kinds of fattening foods we eat on a regular basis since 1980, we have also decreased the amount and kinds of regular physical activity we used to get - both as children and adults.

We DO tend to drive places that we once would have walked to. Our children are no longer scheduled into daily physical education classes for the entire school year, every year. Many more jobs are non-active and sedentary than ever before. Modern conveniences like remote controls and cell phones even diminish the time we walk around our own homes.

And then there is screen time.

The average American child spends nearly five hours per day in front of  a tv screen, says the Kaiser Family Foundation, and that doesn't count time in front of a computer monitor. The average home has 4 television sets, and it's not just the kids who are watching them. On average, adults watch four hours of television and then spend another four hours a day with computers, video games, iPods and cell phones. We are "wired" to watch  - and our waistlines are suffering for it.

Alternatives to passive screen use like DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and the Wi Fit game systems make time in front of a tv screen active, fun and calorie-burning, but of course, have an expense.  Good old-fashioned outside play, walking, running and biking, on the other hand, are virtually free.
Click on the Kidnetics link to read about more ways to limit screen time and promote physical activity in your family

So a simple prescription for weight loss is one of the first sentences I wrote in one of the very first blog posts: Eat less ~ Move more!

Why Does America Have an Obesity Epidemic?

If you are or have ever been concerned about your weight - in other words, if you are reading this blog - you have no doubt noticed the abundance of diet and nutrition books and programs on the market . It's an industry that accounts for $40 billion in sales annually. The newest spin-off of our weighty crisis is books that are being written and published to help explain how we got in this fix to begin with.

A recent New Yorker article selected facts from several of these books that may give you some (ahem) food for thought!

"Eric Finkelstein is a health economist at a research institute in North Carolina. In “The Fattening of America”, written with Laurie Zuckerman, he argues that Americans started to put on pounds in the eighties because it made financial sense for them to do so. Relative to other goods and services, food has got cheaper in the past few decades, and fattening foods, in particular, have become a bargain. Between 1983 and 2005, the real cost of fats and oils declined by sixteen per cent. During the same period, the real cost of soft drinks dropped by more than twenty per cent.
“For most people, an ice cold Coca-Cola used to be a treat reserved for special occasions,” Finkelstein observes. Today, soft drinks account for about seven per cent of all the calories ingested in the United States, making them “the number one food consumed in the American diet.” If, instead of sweetened beverages, the average American drank water, Finkelstein calculates, he or she would weigh fifteen pounds less."
 Ordering fast, cheap food at drive-throughs as an alternative to shopping and cooking at home is another example of an action that used to be considered a "special occasion" treat but has now become a daily habit for too many of us. 

In “The End of Overeating” David A. Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration,  explains why this has contributed to our ever-expanding waistlines.
Fat, sugar, and salt are key ingredients in fast foods that are high in calories and are studied by the food industry to "hook" us into wanting more. Ever wonder why the burger, fries, and soda form the basic "meal" at a fast food restaurant? Fat, salt, sugar. We are well-programmed now to want that when we go to a fast food restaurant.

Going back to the days when most families sat down at the table to a home-cooked meal rather than opening the bag and unwrapping the burgers could be one important step in helping halt the growth of our girth. Not easy - but worth it!

The Rule of 4

A simple way to plan a low-calorie meal for lunch and dinner is to follow the rule of "4":

Choose a 9" plate - that's what is sometimes called "luncheon size" - not the over-sized plates often sold as dinner plates these days.

Divide your plate into 4 sections.

In one of the four section, place a whole grain ( brown & wild rice, barley, couscous, whole wheat roll), in the next 1/4 section, place a low-fat protein ( grilled chicken breast, turkey cutlet, Veggie burger, 3-4 ounce lean steak, brown beans). Notice that these portions will be fairly small to fit within the 1/4 sections.

Finally, place low-sugar, high-fiber vegetables - broccoli, spinach, green beans,cabbage, cauliflower, squash, carrots,  in the last two sections.

There you have it! An easy "recipe" for a healthy way to plan your biggest meals of the day.

Are You A Skinny Sipper?

Fruit juices, nutrient-boosted waters, energy drinks, smoothies, protein shakes, Instant Breakfast, and liquid diet meals.....are they ever a good idea when you are trying to lose weight?

Well, sometimes yes, but mostly no. Like everything else in life, though, moderation is the key when getting your nutrients from beverages.

One of the pros for any beverage is that they are easy to measure - so you can pour a standard serving, read the label, and know exactly what you are getting.  And they are usually filling. One of the minuses, is that what you are getting may be high in calories and loaded with sugar and salt.

If you choose to drink juice, make sure you are getting 100% fruit juice - not a "juice drink" and by all means, please check the sugar content. With any bottled or canned beverage, compare the ingredients and the calorie content --- you can often save hundreds - literally -- of calories by eating a piece of fruit than drinking its counterpart in juice. An orange is also less expensive than an 16 - ounce bottle of orange juice.

There's something about chewing food that is much more satisfying than drinking a "meal."  Additionally, the fiber in whole, real food is beneficial to digestion and  helps us feel full - usually longer than a meal replacement drink.

To find out more about what kinds of liquids affect our diets in a positive or negative way, click here to view WebMD's slide show called "Best & Worst Drinks for Weight-Loss".

I just can't sign off without reminding you that pure, simple, cheap water is always a beneficial choice.

Water, Water, Everywhere...

Water is not only the most common substance on earth -- it's also the most common substance in the human body ...making up more than 60% of a person's weight.

The water in our bodies performs all kinds of tasks: transporting nutrients to the cells, keeping eyes, mouth, nose and other membranes moist, flushing toxins and waste out, maintaining temperature, lubricating joints and protecting organs. Yet many of us don't drink enough water daily from all sources to properly hydrate this wonderful system.

Add stress, exercise, or illness to your day, and it is possible to become dehydrated.  Dehydration can be uncomfortable - even causing light-headedness and muscle cramps - at worst, it can become life-threatening---that's just how important water is to our bodies.

How much water should you drink each day? Somewhere in the range of 8 - 10 eight-ounce glasses is just about right. Sounds like a lot -- and I know it is a lot more than some of us get --- but it is possible to get that - and to get it in some surprising ways.  Other liquids besides plain tap water can help you meet that quota - including fluids in watery foods like watermelon, celery and tomatoes. Tea, coffee, juice and even soda ( which I don't recommend!) help meet the 10 glasses a day goal.  But pure water, whether from a tap or bottle is the real thirst-quencher and liquid cleanser your body craves! 

When we are aiming to lose weight, water is a powerful ally!  Did you know that sometimes we think we are hungry - even craving salty foods - when in actuality we are thirsty! So when you start to get a snack, ask yourself: am I thirsty. Even drinking water before eating a snack - or a meal - can help you feel fuller and avoid over-eating.

Whether you like your water plain, or with a twist of lemon or lime: you can indulge in this calorie-free, life enhancing liquid anytime you want!

Don't Drink Your Calories

As you saw in the post about high fructose corn syrup, most soft drinks available for purchase are sweetened with some amount of that sweetener.  So are many fruit based drinks.

It's possible to drink more than 50,000 empty calories per year if you regularly have pop, fruit juice and/or sweet tea.  That converts to a lot of pounds.

I always advise people not to drink their calories Or their fruit. the vitamins and fiber in fruits is not nearly as available to us when the fruit has been processed into juice. Read the label on a carton of orange juice in comparison to the nutritional content of a whole orange and you will see what I mean.

By and large, we should be drinking water. It doesn't matter if it is tap water, spring water or bottled water; I do draw the line at the flavored waters that have a sweetener added and "vitamin" water. To me that is a waste of money, when you can get the vitamins and minerals you need from healthy whole foods.  My philosophy is to consume *real* food...that's one of the reasons I don't like pop as a daily beverage: it's a manufactured, processed product (I can't even call it a food). And did you know that unless your bottled water specifies it is spring water, it is probably purified water from some city's tap.  Doesn't mean it's bad -- just means you can drink your own tap water and save money and plastic.

I know several pediatricians who tell their young parents to only give their infants formula, milk or water. No juice. I applaud them!  Their reasoning is that the juice is basically a sugary drink.  Don't feel that you are depriving your young ones! They don't know what they are missing, and they are much more likely to eat the beneficial fruit itself if their taste buds don't get used to juice.

The Best Life's Bob Green (formerly Oprah's trainer!) has teamed up with Nestle to challenge Americans to replace a sugared drink each day with water.

Here's what he has to say:

Water is a good alternative for your weight management compared to sugared beverages, which may contain up to 160 calories and 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving.

Drinking water is a simple way to keep well-hydrated and as a consequence help maintain concentration and alertness.

Take a water break! Busy days at work, home, or even running errands can keep you from meeting your food and fluid needs. A lack of water can leave you dehydrated; even mild dehydration can drain your energy.
Stay hydrated while working out: Before you begin, drink 8 ounces of water, and then during your workout, drink about 4 to 6 ounces of water (about 5 to 7 gulps) every 15 minutes. After the workout, follow-up with another 8 ounces of water
 
Click here to find out more or to join the more than 32,000 Americans who have taken the Pure Life Challenge to replace their pop with zero-calorie water!

High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Godzilla of Added Sugars?

If you took part in the detective game of looking for sugars on the labels of foods in your kitchen, did you find many foods that listed high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)as an ingredient? And if you did, was it one of the first ingredients on the label?

If so, those are foods I will suggest that you consider crossing off your grocery list and finding a less sweet substitute. High fructose corn syrup has only been around in our food production since the 1970's. It is a cheap, easy to produce, and easy to transport sweetener that helps foods stay moist longer.. Because it is so sweet to our taste buds, manufacturers can use less of it to sweeten a soft drink, for example, than they would if they used old-fashioned sucrose (white sugar), saving money on every can they sell.  That wouldn't be such a bad thing were it not for the consequences that many nutritionists and scientists associate with the rise of HFCS in our diets.

There are many studies in progress testing high fructose corn syrup and its affect on human metabolism and its influence on obesity.  Many scientists are already convinced that HFCS has a leading role in the rise of obesity in America.

HFCS is a corn-based product that is super sweet. Our bodies react differently to HFCS than they do to other sugars, causing problems with our blood glucose levels, insulin resistance and other hormone responses - particularly involving the hormone leptin that signals us that we are "full" or satisfied.

DiabetesHealth.com cites these problems that are believed to be caused by too much HFCS:
It can lead to higher caloric intake


It can lead to an increase in bodyweight


It fools your body into thinking it’s hungry


It increases the amount of processed foods you eat, thereby decreasing your intake of nutrient-dense foods


It may increase insulin resistance and triglycerides

What do I think? I consider HFCS to be to sugar what trans-fat is to regular saturated fat: it makes something we have to be careful about even more dangerous. I think it is interesting that the wide-spread use of HFCS in our foods - even foods that have other sweeteners in them - coincides with the time that obesity rates began to rise dramatically in America.  Where can we find large amounts of HFCS?

That's right....High Fructose Corn Syrup is the ONLY sweetener in all regular soft drinks in America. And how much sweetener are we getting per serving when we drink a can of Coke or Pepsi?

Yep, that's right....the equivalent to 10 teaspoons of sugar in a regular size can.  But don't you find that these days, that middle bottle is what usually comes out of the vending machine? And, if we buy it, we usually drink it.

I once worked with a patient who made only one lifestyle change: he stopped going through a drive-through restaurant on his way to work. His habit was to get a large Dr. Pepper every morning, five mornings a week. This meant he stopped buying his very large cup of regular Dr. Pepper every work day. He just quit doing it. Started drinking coffee and water at work instead. After 9 or 10 months went by, he noticed he had lost 25 pounds.Without trying. Just by eliminating one source of hidden, added sugar. I guess we can say, he defeated the Godzilla of sugars!

To read more about HFCS at DiabetesHealth.com, click here

Is Sugar Hiding from You?

Even when you read a food label, you can be fooled into consuming more sugar than you think you are unless you know what words to look for beyond the obvious one: sugar!
I'd like to challenge you to an exercise right in your own kitchen.

Look at the labels on food packages in your cupboards, pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. Every food label has its ingredients listed right below the nutritional values.

Your mission is to read the ingredients on each food to see if you find any of the words on this list (courtesy of health.msn.com):

Brown sugar
Cane juice and cane syrup.
Confectioners' sugar
Corn sweeteners and corn syrup
Dextrose
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
Granulated white sugar
High fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltose
Malt syrup
Molasses
Sucrose
Syrup
White sugar
Surprised? That's 19 different ways to say "sugar"!
 
If you are like me, you may be amazed that so many foods that we don't even think of as being "sweet" have more than one kind of sugar as an ingredient!
 
It can take a little time to learn which brands have the least amounts of hidden and added sugars, but it will pay off health-wise and weight-wise, to comparison shop for grocery items that are lowest in all kinds of added sweeteners.
 

The "Stop Light" Carbohydrate: Added Sugars

Sugar  is the simplest carbohydrate we have and the biggest boost to our blood glucose levels we can get from food. Need a quick zap of energy: most of us choose a sugary carb-rich food. Some times we don't even know we are doing it!

Many carbohydrate foods have some kind of sugar in them.Even milk! We may think of milk as a protein food - actually it belongs to the dairy food group - but if you read the label on a carton of any kind of cow's milk, you will see each serving has about  12 grams of carbohydrate, and nearly all of those are labelled as sugars in the form of lactose ( simply put, lactose is milk sugar)

You can view the carbohydrate content of each type of cow's milk by re-visiting the blogpost about the 1% or less campaign.

Of course lactose occurs naturally in milk, just as fructose occurs naturally in fruit. The fructose in fruit is why we call fruit a simple carbohydrate...the sugar in most fruit is released to our blood streams quickly.

But what happens when berries or apples are processed into juice or jelly?  If you look at food labels you may find that their natural sweeteners are enhanced by added sugar in the form of sucrose, maltose, honey, corn syrup or - worse yet - high fructose corn syrup.

The same thing happens to many, if not most processed foods: including breads of all kinds, cereals, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, juices and "juice drinks", sauces and spreads like ketchup, salsa and peanut butter, frozen "meals," and yogurt. Most of us can handle the naturally occurring sugars in our carbohydrate foods, but the added sugars have made a big contribution to our nation's weight problem. I am astonished that sugar is sometimes added to foods that are already sweet - or that don't seem to need more sugar at all!

Added sugar provides lots of calories in very little food and virtually all of those calories are empty. That's why the refined sugar carbs earn a "Red Light'!

Refined Carbs:Proceed with Caution

Yesterday we gave the "green light" to complex carbohydrates: the whole grains and colorful vegetables and fruits.  Have you noticed that I always say "vegetables and fruits" instead of "fruits and vegetables"? There's a reason for that.....

Complex carbohydrates like oats, whole wheat, navy and pinto beans and most vegetables are full of FIBER. Fiber is our nutrition and weight loss friend!  These carbs that get absorbed slowly into our systems, avoiding spikes in blood sugar levels. Some fruits are also fiber-rich, especially those whose skins we eat, but some - like bananas - are very sweet.

WEbMD explains the connection between fiber and weight management this way:



Why Fiber in Carbohydrates Counts



Fiber slows down the absorption of other nutrients eaten at the same meal, including carbohydrates
This slowing down may help prevent peaks and valleys in your blood sugar levels, reducing your risk for type 2 diabetes.


Certain types of fiber found in oats, beans, and some fruits can also help lower blood cholesterol.


As an added plus, fiber helps people feel full, adding to satiety.

The problem is that most Americans don't eat a diet high in fiber. We tend to eat lots of carbs....but usually it's lots of refined carbs. What's a refined carbohydrate and why is it so bad? 

Some carbohydrate foods are processed to look or taste a certain way: they are peeled, hulled, milled, bleached and sweetened -- in that refining process, the fiber is stripped away. White flour is probably our guiltiest carb..and if you think about it, many of us eat a muffin or white toast for breakfast, a sandwich or burger on a white bun at lunch and then have white rice or pasta for dinner.  Throw in a couple cookies or snack cake, crackers or pretzels, and you have nothing but a steady stream of fiber-poor, refined carb foods all day long. And these refined carbs can keep your blood sugar level spiking all day.

So those are the foods we want to eat in moderation. They're not green light foods - which may take some adjustment on your part if that carb-scenario sounded familiar to you. The refined, white flour/white sugar foods and the super sweet fruits are yellow, caution-light foods!

Making Sense of Carbs

If you look again at the list of carbohydrate foods in the last post, it can seem overwhelming to sort them out and know which foods it's wiser to eat. You may have heard people say "don't eat any white foods" or that they are going on a low-carb/ high protein diet, or that they are carb-counting. We'll try to apply the KISS principle here, and keep it all a little simpler!

Let's start with the carbohydrates you want to eat the most of: the complex carbs.  This group includes "whole" grains like oats, barley, brown rice and whole wheat. They are complex because they have not been bleached or had their fiber-rich coatings "refined" away.  These are the grains you want to choose when you choose grains.You can be comfortable having one of these complex carb choices at eat meal.

Other complex carbs include vegetables and fruits - great sources of vitamins C, A, calcium, iron and other minerals - and - again! - FIBER!  A point to remember is that the more colorful the vegetable or fruit (red, orange, dark green or dark blue) the more vitamin-packed it is likely to be. Using color as your cue,  it follows that blueberries, greens like spinach, bell peppers, broccoli, raspberries, carrots, yams, and green beans are going to be our fruit and vegetable high-fiber powerhouses. Again, you can choose from this group at every meal.

Notice I didn't list potatoes and corn there? That's because they are vegetables that fall into the starch category.  Starchy veggies are as detrimental to our weight loss program as other high calorie starches like pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies, dinner rolls and some breakfast cereals. So limit them if you are watching your weight.

When you make your shopping list this week, make sure you have included the non-starchy complex carbs we've listed!

The Wide World of Carbs

Do these foods seem alike to you?

Baked potato
Snickers bar
Pineapple juice
Skittles
Sliced peaches
English muffin
Fig Newton
Popcorn
Green beans
Chocolate iced donut
Honey
Fried rice
Cornbread
Cheerios
Spinach
Lentils

As different as they all seem to be from each other; they all belong to the carbohydrate food group. It's the group that accounts for the largest percentage of food most of us eat. It's the group that confuses many of us as we try to create a nutrient-rich, low-calorie, but flavorful eating plan that we can enjoy as we lose weight.

This week we'll take a look at the foods whose main job is to provide our bodies - especially our brains and nervous systems with energy.

Could I Have Diabetes?

In very simple terms, diabetes is a set of health conditions that come about because the body has become unable to process glucose (sugars) properly.  In  a normal, healthy person, the sugars from food sources are broken down and utilized for energy or stored for future use with the aid of the hormone insulin.  A person who has type 1 diabetes is unable to produce insulin.  A person with type 2 diabetes is still able to produce insulin, but his or her cells are unable to respond to it. In both cases too much glucose ( sugar) can build up in the blood and other tissues, and - if untreated - can damage organs and blood vessels.

Like high blood pressure, you can develop type 2 diabetes and not be aware of it.  The sooner you know if you have diabetes, the sooner you can take steps to control it and prevent complications, so it's important that everyone know what to watch out for. 

Yesterday, we talked about the fact that being overweight or obese dramatically increases your risk of diabetes. It is such an important factor, that just reducing your weight by 7 - 10%, if you are overweight, can enable you to avoid developing diabetes.

It's also important how - or rather - where you store your fat.  If you tend to have a big waist and abdomen, rather than big hips and thighs, your risk of developing diabetes is higher.  Lose the ab fat and watch your risk go down.  In women, a waist circumference greater than 35", and in men, greater than 40", increases your health risks.

Other signs and symptoms that may indicate insulin resistance or diabetes include:

• Frequent trips to the bathroom to urinate
• Unquenchable thirst
• Unexplained, unusual fatigue or weakness
• Tingling or numbness of fingers, hands or feet
• Blurred vision
• Dry, itchy skin
• Bruising or cuts that are slow to go away

If you have any or a combination of those symptoms, and have not had a recent blood test for your blood glucose (sugar) level, please ask your health care provider to schedule that simple lab test for you.  Diabetes is one bullet you definitely want to dodge!

The food group most closely associated with diabetes is carbohydrates. Carbs are either loved or loathed by people who want to reach a healthy weight, and it's a complicated food group to decipher. And that's what next week's posts will be about --- all about the world of carbohydrates!

Dodging the Diabetes Bullet

Preventing life-altering chronic illness like type 2 diabetes is one of the best reasons to strive to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

This information comes from Bob Green's Best Life website; it was written by Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., Best Life lead nutritionist


Seven percent of the population has diabetes--that's 21.6 million people! The number jumps to 9.6 percent for people age 20 years old and up, and it strikes a whopping 21 percent of Americans age 60 and above. As we get older, more of us will succumb to the disease. Fortunately, most cases of diabetes can be prevented by good diet and exercise habits. That means that right now is the perfect time to adopt the healthy habits, such as the ones below, that can reduce your diabetes risk.




Get moving. Exercise (both cardio and strength training) makes your muscles' cells more sensitive to insulin, the hormone that removes sugar from the blood. Plus, it helps you lose weight and maintain your weight loss. To lose weight, work up to 60 minutes of cardio six days a week. To reap the benefits from strength training, do at least 12 reps of at least six different exercises two or three times a week.




Switch to whole grains. Whole wheat, corn and wheat bran have been strongly linked to diabetes prevention. But oats and barley also appear to reduce diabetes risk. The less refined the grain, the better (think steel cut oats versus rolled oats) because it takes your body a lot longer to convert coarsely ground grain into blood sugar than it does for refined grains.




Reach/maintain a healthy body mass index. Body mass index, or BMI, is a measurement of height to weight. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy; 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight; and 30 and above is obese. To find out your BMI, use the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute's BMI calculator:
Body Mass Index calculator

Tomorrow:

Could I Have Diabetes?

Super-size the Healthy Way

Summertime and the gardens are full of green, yellow, and red fruits and vegetables!

And there are no better food groups to super-size for nutritional value and filling up on a low calorie eating plan.

That's the idea behind a way of eating called Volumetrics.

Basically, Volumetrics is designed around the idea that people like to eat. Literally. We like the ritual of eating. We like to chew. We like for the process to last a while until we feel satisfied. We don't like the idea of our 400 -calorie meal being about 1 cup of rice and that's it. We don't want to feel deprived.

So nutritionist Barbara Rolls, PhD, designed an eating plan that allows you to eat more, fill up, but not gain a lot of weight. What's the secret?

The hook of Volumetrics is its focus on satiety, the feeling of fullness. Rolls says that people feel full because of the amount of food they eat -- not because of the number of calories or the grams of fat, protein, or carbs. So the trick is to fill up on foods that aren't full of calories.(webmd)

In other words you can pile your plate high with foods that have a high water and fiber content like fruits and vegetables and eat a lot for very few calories, as opposed to the small amount of fattening food you would have on your plate for the same number of calories.

Rolls suggests visualizing it this way:
for the same number of calories, you could have a big bowl of vegetable soup, or 1/6 of a cheeseburger. Which would you be able to spend more time eating? The soup....so, the soup would actually be a more satisfying meal.

So to feel satisfied and lose weight, go ahead and pump up the volume and super-size your servings of fruits and vegetables this summer!

You can learn more about Volumetrics here.

Top Ten Lists

I am a huge fan of any article that lists the TEN BEST or the TEN WORST of anything. I figure it simplifies my life to know these things.

webmd.com, one of my favorite wellness websites, has listed the TEN WORST foods for your weight and health that are probably lurking in your refrigerator right now!

To find our what they are and how to make healthier subsitutions, click here to see the worst foods in your fridge.

Anything surprise you? Probably not, if you have been following our blog. But since it is summer time and the season of salads, please take extra care not to over serve yourself when it comes to salad dressing. Too much ranch dressing and you may end up with the same numberr of calories in your innocent salad as you might have had in a Big Mac.

Just Do It!

When you see those words "Just Do It", what instantly comes to mind?  I am willing to bet you were seeing the Nike "swoosh" before you got to the word "it"!  Why? Our brains are wonderful computers for making associations.

If you think about it a little more, you'll admit you are probably *programmed* to associate many sights, sounds  and smells - as well as words - with FOOD and eating!

Try reading these words:

Movies
Carnival
Thanksgiving
Birthday

Did you instantly visualize:

Popcorn
Corn Dog ( or funnel cake - depending where you live!)
Turkey with all the trimmings
Cake

This instant association of people, places and things to fattening foods can lead to overeating and destruction of a healthy eating plan.
But luckily, we can use the same power of association to program ourselves to do something else instead of eating. Especially at holiday time.

Here is the newest thing to put in your weight loss "tool box":

There's no mistaking what it stands for, is there?

STOP.

Here's how to use this mind - tool. We mentioned self-talk before and what a powerful technique it is just to start thinking of yourself as a healthy-eater. The things you say to yourself are important!

"I don't eat junk food."

"I used to drink real soda, but I don't anymore."

"I only eat small portions."

"I only eat when I am hungry."

Simple thoughts, but if you say them to yourself enough, you begin believing them and seeing yourself as someone who has a completely new, different way of relating to food, and eating. Each time self-talk prevents you form over-eating, you  gain new confidence -- and food isn't as powerful over you as it used to be.

Use the stop sign as an extra image to visualize when you are in a situation that tempts you to steer off course.

Let's say you have had breakfast, a snack, lunch, and a healthy snack like triscuits and string cheese. It's 3 p.m. and a colleague's retirement party is starting - complete with iced cake, nuts, mints, chips and punch. You really aren't hungry and you aren't even really craving sugar, but ...it's there. What do you do? When you are at the party, near the buffet, just visualize

.

You can use it anyway you want -- you might say to yourself, stop - do I really want this enough to blow my eating plan for today?  The stop sign gives you time to re-group and make a decision. Even if the decision is that you will have a small piece of cake and then hit the gym for an hour!

So when it comes to using visualization techniques...just ...

Taming the Hunger Beast

Re-vamping your way of eating in order to eat more healthy foods and to lose weight can leave you feeling hungry for a while until your apostate, metabolism and digestive system adapt. For the first time in a long time, you are probably down-sizing your portions, choosing lighter, less calorie-laden, less greasy, fatty foods and you may be eating less often. If your body is used to being stuffed all the time on 2500 calories or more, you may feel hungry if you suddenly cut that too 1500 calories per day.

Try these strategies to control your appetite.

Eat regularly. A consistent eating schedule can help tame your appetite. Break that 1500 calories up into 6 eating sessions every day.  You will be surprised how quickly your stomach and your brain will adapt to the idea that there will be "just enough" food coming in about every 3 hours.  Make sure most of your meals and snacks include high-fiber foods such as berries, dark green veggies and whole grains (an easy snack is a little single-portion box of shredded wheat -- with or without milk).

Stay hydrated. Drinking at least six cups of water each day can help keep you satisfied with less food. Remember - sometimes we reach for snacks when we are really thirsty! Add lemon or even cucumber slices to quench your thirst.  Craving a sweet drink? The sugar-free "straws" of Crystal Light are a good option.

Use the 10-minute rule. When hunger strikes between meals and snacks, set a timer for 10 minutes, do something distracting, and then reassess whether you're still hungry. This also gives you time to figure out how to have a healthy snack if you decide yep, you are really are hungry.

Check your emotions. Ask yourself if you're hungry or just bored ....or tired....or lonely. In other words, what really needs to be fed and nourished?

The good news is that in time your body - and mind - will adapt to your new way of eating.

Changing for Good

The phrase Changing for Good - in terms of changing your weight - can have a double meaning: one, being that changing your habits so you lose weight is a "good thing", and second, that we hope you are losing weight for good - or permanently!

Helping you understand  how to change so permanent weight loss is possible is one of the goals of this blog, and one of the research models I base much of my teaching strategies on is described in a book that is titled - you guessed it -

Authored by James Prochaska and Carlo DiClimente, with John Norcross in 1994, Changing for Good describes the six-stage process that successful self-changers cycle through on their journey toward  positive lifestyle change.

 

Most diet workshops and programs actually start you out at stage 4 - equipping you with a calorie counter and a shopping list. That's starting with ACTION. And some people are ready to start there, because they have processed the first three stages already - maybe even more than once.

 

Briefly, stage 1 is denial, or Pre-contemplation - you don't want to think, hear, or talk about losing weight. You think of yourself as "big-boned." or healthy just the way you are.

In stage 2, you open the door to the thought that maybe you could stand to lose weight - nothing fits, or your doctor has told you your diabetes is caused by overweight, or you are finding it hard to bend over to tie your shoes. So you start thinking: what should I do? You are in Contemplation The best thing that can happen here is that you start listening and gathering information from reputable sources. Ask people who have lost weight how they did it. Sometimes people stay stuck in the "thinking" stage for years....the classic contemplator will by the magazine with both the headline "Lose 5 Pounds This Weekend" and the picture of a Double Dark Chocolate layer cake on the cover --- eventually deciding to bake the cake and eat it too.

 

Sooner or later, successful self-changers make the decision to move on to the third stage - Preparation. They make a phone call to a doctor or nutritionist or Weight Watchers to get help making a plan to change.  They definitely plan to actively start a new way of life within a month. To  me this is the most important stage of all.  Some of you reading this are in this stage now and some have completed it already - how do you know? The preparation stage is all about PLANNING!

 

Your plan for successful weight loss is going to  include all of these: a short-term and long-term weight goal, an eating plan with your daily calorie range and the kids of foods you will be eating, resources for nutritious recipes and foods that you will actually eat and like; tools like a food diary and the Hunger Scale to help you learn about your own eating patterns; ideas for what to do INSTEAD of eating when you you know you really aren't hungry or when you are dining out or at parties, and a plan for getting regular physical activity.  When you have all these plans in your "tool box" you will be well-equipped for the next stage:

 

Action or Doing It! The action stage is actively "dieting" when you are losing weight...although, like the exercise guru Richard Simmons, I like to call it live-it, not die-it.  A good eating plan for losing weight should be one that you can use as the basis of your everyday eating from now on - not something you go off of so you can return to your former way of eating. Those days are gone. because as we said yesterday, if you keep doing what you always did, you'll get what you always got ( extra pounds!).

 

Stage 5 and 6 provide for the rest of your life -- they are Maintenance and Termination. In the maintenance stage, you enjoy your goal weight and new habits for "good", but you may slide back or relapse from time to time.  Been there before?  It's ok, just recognize it, go back to your basics and start over.

You can read more about what it takes to be successful at changing yourself by visiting this link:

Overcoming Obstacles to Weight Loss

 

Prochaska's stages of change aren't meant to be read as a straight line, from point A to point B, but rather like a spiral. And that's a realistic, forgiving way to look at ourselves and our weight loss journey.