Attitudes and Beliefs as Stepping Stones

Your attitudes and beliefs are the core of how you react to your world. For whatever reason as to why you hold to certain beliefs or ways of thinking, it is first and foremost important for you to take responsibility for them and evaluate them honestly. Some attitudes and beliefs are positive and supportive of your efforts, and ultimate goals in life. However your negative attitudes and beliefs become obstacles that all to often block your vision of fulfilling your dream in life. Attitudes and beliefs will either move you forward or backward in regards to fulfilling your dreams.

Make a list of your beliefs, both positive and negative concerning where you are and where you want to be in regards to your weight loss goals. Your positive beliefs about yourself and your situation related to fulfilling your ultimate weight loss goals are your friends and will reinforce your efforts in reaching your goal. Your negative beliefs; your fears, doubts and concerns are your foe and will sabotage your dreams if interjected. Whether it is concerns of money, lack of time, skill or knowledge, determine how you can change a negative belief into a positive friend that will enable you to reach your goals. Interpreting an attitude or belief as “good” or “bad” doesn’t make it good or bad; it’s just an interpretation. If your beliefs are obstacles, they become stones that will trip you up, however if you use your beliefs instead to achieve your dreams, they then become stepping-stones. Will you use your beliefs as obstacles or stepping-stones? How you see them is up to you!

Remember: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?!
~ Robert Schuller

Diets Don't Work!

If you are like most people you have tried literally hundreds of diets. It might have been the grapefruit diet, the cereal diet, the Atkins diet, Protein power diet, or the Sugar Busters diet. The first thing that you should understand about weight loss is that focusing on “dieting” is a waste of time and energy. Commercial diet centers want you to buy their product and will provide you with a sound plan for short-term success. If your new diet is simply a diet supplement, or a product that promises weight loss, will you take this diet product or supplement forever? Interestingly, regarding diet supplements, a study of those who are successful at long term weight loss through the National Weight Control Registry demonstrated that only 3.6% of those who were successful used any kind of diet supplement to reach their healthy body weight and maintain it. Past dieting patterns are often conditioned with “I’ll eat what I want to today and start my diet tomorrow.” So, you binge today and starve yourself tomorrow only to fall back into old eating habits by the third day. Today is the time to start your lifestyle change, the time to select healthy food choices. This journey will be filled with stumbles, challenges, and successes, however by starting to make healthy decisions for good eating now, will be an essential step to living a healthy life.

When you become aware of the unhealthy things that you’re eating, i.e. non-nutritious empty calories, and high fat foods, and focus on cutting out these type of foods for healthy low fat nutritious food choices you will then be taking a step toward a lifestyle change. Without changing your habits and daily activities, you will never realize life long success with your weight and health. It takes time to get rid of the excessive weight that you’ve put on, and it takes time to change your unhealthy habits that have been cultivated for years. In the past you may have dieted just to lose weight, this is why the diet didn’t work or allowed you to lose some weight only to gain it back again when you returned to old eating habits. This time you must plan on changing your lifestyle for a lifetime.

Remember: The time when you need to do something is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can’t be done. ~Mary Frances Berry

Avoiding Weight Gain during the Holidays

Weight gain during the holidays does not need to be inevitable. However to avoid those extra calories you must preplan your meals. When going to a holiday party, plan on filling up with low calorie foods prior to the party. Eating high fiber foods prior to going to the party, such as high fiber cereals and fruit will fill you up and satiate you, so that you’ll be less inclined to overeat at the party. When you arrive at the party, start with calorie free drinks, and progress to low calorie hors d’oeuvres. Then try small bite sizes from two or three items that you really wanted to taste.

When preparing for the large holiday dinner, plan on allocating the majority of your calories to that meal by reducing your breakfast and lunch calories. Start by using a smaller plate. Plan on savoring your meal taking your time to eat and taste the food. This will allow the food you eat to signal receptors in your stomach that will send messages to your brain, telling you you’re getting full. Put those foods that will fill you up, on your plate first then add small portions of those foods that you really find tasty (your favorites).

Lastly, realize that if you have a plan that is carefully laid out, you’ll be more likely to succeed.

Claiming Responsibility for Your Successes

When you realize that your weight loss successes are dependent upon your thinking and ultimately your thoughts pushing you toward positive action, you’ll then realize that your failures are also dependent upon your thinking and negative thoughts regarding your weight loss efforts and goals. The first step to weight loss success is realizing that being overweight is a result of your eating habits and/or lack of consistent exercise. Secondly, you must embrace the understanding that while genetics play a small role in weight control, your family background is not the reason you remain over weight. Thirdly, while there are organizations and programs that are helpful in assisting individuals with the weight loss process, you must understand no one outside yourself, nor any special diet or program is responsible for your weight loss/health and fitness success or failure. Lastly, you must realize your success is not based upon some stroke of luck, nor is being overweight “just your fate in life” and that you have no control over it. If you continue to blame your weight on someone or something other than yourself you will always have difficulty in achieving permanent weight loss success. Plan to take responsibility for both your successes and failures related to achieving permanent weight loss and an improved level of health and fitness.

Remember: Demand the best from yourself, because others will demand the best of you… Successful people don’t simply give a project hard work. They give it their best work.
~ Win Borden

Setting Yourself Up for Success

After making “a no turning back” commitment to a lifestyle change for good health, and to reaching your healthiest body weight, you’ll then need to make your environment conducive to making this a reality. Continuing with the same eating and exercise behaviors will not give you what you want, which is reaching your health and fitness goals. Making sure your environment encourages positive behavioral changes and does not promote the old behavioral patterns is CRITICAL! Several aspects to making this happen are listed below:

Make your home a place, which is safe from tempting old eating behaviors. Make sure you remove unhealthy junk foods that are impulse or binge foods for you. Foods like sugared sodas, crackers, cookies, breads, and pastries, candies, ice cream, and high fat foods should be removed from your home, kitchen, study, or wherever you might be hiding them.

Make your workplace conducive to ongoing progress in reaching your goals. Take healthy foods to work to replace any tempting foods that are brought in by other people.

Go grocery shopping with a goal of buying healthy foods: Make a shopping list before you start and plan on sticking to the list. Put foods in your refrigerator that are compatible with your taste and are also healthy.

Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time: Write out a breakfast, lunch and dinner plan the night before so that you’ll be less likely to eat impulsively or to overeat.

When you go out to eat, plan on visiting restaurants where you know you can make good food choices. Restaurants that have low fat “healthy heart” items on their menu or where you can order healthy “a la carte” dishes should be a priority.

As you make each of your weight loss goals plan on not returning to old behaviors just because you reached your weight goal. Be serious about your lifestyle change for improved health and fitness. Returning to old eating and exercise behaviors will only return you to your previous overweight out-of-shape condition.

As a part of not returning to old behaviors, make a vow to not return to old “big clothes” that are now too large for you. Get rid of these “big clothes” and buy new clothes that show the slimmer you, and personify the “new healthier you”!

Priorities In Life

We hear this word thrown around a lot; phrases like “You need to get your priorities in order.”, or “if you only would put it as a priority in your life,” rings familiar to many of us. In reality there is a hierarchy of priorities that should dictate our daily actions. Usually things like our health, faith, family, relationships, and career are near the top of our list, while things like homes, cars, entertainment, hair, jewelry and clothes, rate near the bottom. When priorities are not in the right order, we often find that other aspects of our life suffer. It’s the trickle down affect! If our health is bad, it can affect our job, family, and relationships. For most people their health rates very near the top of their priority list. While we say that our health is one of the most important aspects of our life and rate it at the top of our list of priorities, often our daily actions do not reflect this priority. We spend so much time tending to menial tasks, washing and waxing cars, renovating homes, fixing our hair, dressing in style, while neglecting the most important priority, our health. We often pay more attention to the type of oil and gas that we put into our cars than the food that we put into our mouths.Stop and think, what are the most important aspects of your life? Sit down and prioritize your life in the order which demonstrates what is the most important to you. Then make your time and actions reflect your list of priorities.

Why Low Glycemic Foods?

All foods can be categorized as either having a low, moderate or high glycemic value. The glycemic index is a value that is given to foods based upon how high they raise the blood glucose levels after eating them. Foods are rated on the glycemic index from 0 -100, with the low glycemic foods (<55),>70. When blood glucose levels are elevated, insulin levels also rise to assist in glucose transport. High insulin levels suppress fat mobilization and facilitate fat storage. Low glycemic foods stabilize blood glucose levels at a lower value and do not spike insulin levels in the same way as high glycemic foods. Low glycemic foods should predominate your food selection. Foods high in protein and fiber are typically low glycemic foods. Typically low glycemic foods are beans and lentils, which are a good source of protein and high in fiber.

Hidden Fats

Hidden fat is fat that is not visually apparent in the foods that you eat. About 60% of the fat we eat cannot be seen because it is contained in the food products, such as meat, cheese, nuts, breads, pies and cakes. The number of fat grams in your diet can add up quickly. One gram of fat has nine calories whereas one gram of carbohydrate or protein has only four calories. One teaspoon of butter or margarine has four grams of fat or 36 calories. Compare the macronutrients in two meals: The first, a MacDonald’s Big Mac and small fries. The second, 4 ounces of Boar’s Head lean roast beef, one baked sweet potato, a serving of steamed broccoli, and an apple. The first meal contained 29 grams of protein, 41 grams of fat, and 3 grams of fiber, for a total of 770 calories. The second meal contained 22 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat, and 12.3 grams of fiber, for a total of 430 calories. The second choice of food allows for 39 less fat grams and 340 less total calories, as well as 7 more fiber grams and only slightly less protein by 4 grams. The second meal is definitely a better choice.Remember: Fat is a concentrated form of energy often hidden in the foods we eat. Know what percent of your food item is fat and stay around 20%. Also remember low fat does not mean low calories. A low fat cookie could be loaded with sugar and calories, which if not burned through activity, will be stored as fat.

Healthy Habits

Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, not making the progress that you deeply desire? Are you caught in a rut not able to push any further toward your goals? Habits are like a stream that wears a rut into the basin as it steadily washes more of the sand with the day to day flow of water. Soon it will become a river forming a deep gorge, with its strong currents it is now very difficult to alter its direction. Like a well- worn path, or a dirt road with deep ruts from wagon wheels, that won’t allow the wheels to alter their direction, so are our habits. Subconsciously they grip us, as we hold tightly to the same patterns throughout life. The way we dress ourselves each morning, brush our teeth, shave or put on our makeup. These are habitual tasks that we perform without even a thought. Habits can make our life run more efficiently, however can wreak havoc when they neglect healthful living. We weave a thread into them every day, and at last they become strong cables that we cannot break.It takes many trips down the same path to develop a firm hold on a certain pattern in life. Whether its scheduling exercise or patterns of eating, you must go down the same road many times, to ensure a successful change in behavior.Realize good health habits will enhance other areas of your life. Understand and identify behaviors that increase productivity, decrease stress, and improve health. Plan to incorporate these helpful habits into your daily regimen. Make a lifestyle change with a lifetime of healthy habits!!Remember: Build a path of habits that will lead to health and fitness, and secure a lifetime of health and happiness.

Fat Intake In Obesity and Disease

The lay literature has been full of controversial articles that sight the benefits of high fat diets, and suggest that increases in fat intake is not unhealthy. While it is true that total caloric intake is the key when achieving weight loss, the necessity of following a healthy macronutrient ratio that optimizes your health and weight loss cannot be overlooked.Currently Americans take in approximately 38-40% of their calories from fat. Worldwide epidemiological studies demonstrate a correlation with an increase in percent fat intake and an increase in the body mass intake (BMI). Increases in dietary fats have been linked with diseases such as, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancers of the stomach, prostate, colon, pancreas, breast, ovary and endometrium. An increase in the production of bile acids, an increase in concentration of fats and phospholipids in tissues, as well as hormonal changes along with the disease promoting effects of certain fats (saturated, omega-6 fatty acids) when taken in a high amounts appears to be the causal factors. Omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats appear to inhibit these effects.Because of the concentration of calories in fat, an increase intake of this macronutrient quickly elevates total energy intakes. When reviewing studies on fat intake, 28 clinical trials that studied the effects of a reduction in the amount of energy from fat in the diet showed that a reduction of 10% in the proportion of energy from fat in the diet was associated with a reduction in 3.5 pounds over a 12 week period. To reduce the prevalence of obesity, there must be an increase in energy expenditure, a reduction in total energy intake, or both. Reducing the amount of fat in the diet can facilitate this goal.Additionally, during a reduced calorie diet used during weight loss programs, increases in fat intake has not been shown to spare the losses in lean body mass. On the other hand increases in protein and carbohydrate intake have demonstrated the ability to inhibit decreases in lean body mass and maintain the balance of nitrogen (protein) in the body. This is very important as a loss of lean body mass reduces the resting metabolic rate (RMR). The resting metabolic rate is the amount of energy that is required to run the basic functions of our body when at rest, (i.e. heart, lungs, brain, kidney and liver function), and requires 60-70% of our daily caloric intake.Remember: Life consists not in holding good cards, but playing those you hold well.

Caloric Restriction

To live forever young, eternal youth, whatever you want to call it, anti-aging or slowing the aging process has been the search of man for centuries. Fortunately there is one formula that has shown time and again to slow down the aging process and increase the maximum life span. There is no controversy about it, for the past 60 years it is the only method known to researchers, that has consistently demonstrated it’s ability to extend the maximum lifespan of a species. In fact in every animal species ever tested, restricting calorie intake has always produced a longer and a more functional life, with less chronic disease.

The idea is simple, just eat enough food to maintain yourself, but never too many calories. Calorie restriction is not the same as malnutrition, fasting or starvation. These dietary practices will accelerate the aging process because macronutrients (essential fatty acids, essential amino acids), and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are deficient. Appropriate caloric restriction should provide enough protein to preserve lean body mass, carbohydrates to maintain glucose levels for adequate brain, and nervous system function, and essential fatty acids for cell formation and hormone function. The key is to know the minimal amount of calories along with appropriate amounts of macronutrient and micronutrients that will allow your body to perform at its optimal level. By reducing caloric intake without diminishing vital nutrients, the body can function at its best, without the overproduction of free radicals, glucose, and insulin, which are the physiological hallmarks of disease and the related aging process.

If caloric restriction is the way to health and longevity, overeating and gluttony is the way to promote disease and decrease lifespan. In fact this is exactly what researchers have found. Those who overeat, leading to obesity, have an increased incidence of coronary heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and diabetes. Indeed those same physiological parameters that were reduced with caloric restriction (free radicals, glucose and insulin) are increased with overeating. If you want to live not only a longer but a higher quality of life you’ll embrace the principles of caloric restriction and put them into practice not only through the course of this weight loss program, but for the rest of your life.

Remember: It’s not the quantity but the quality of the ingredients that give an outstanding product. More is not always the best.

Impulse Foods

Most of us have experienced the fall to tempting foods that we tell ourselves that we’ll only eat a small portion. Impulse foods are those foods we bring home and then cannot control our intakes of them. Whether it is a special kind of ice cream, your favorite cookies, or fresh baked breads and pastries…we tell ourselves that we’ll control our eating, however what too often follows is a disaster. We have a couple of cookies, or a bowl of ice cream, only to return for a few more cookies, another bowl of ice cream, and before we realize it we’ve consumed the whole bag or a half-gallon of ice cream.

These foods stimulate certain “feel good” neurotransmitters that give us a lift and influence us to go back for more. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, and dopamine are stimulated by simple carbohydrates and fats, and are responsible for the good feelings we get when we eat them. No matter how hard we want to resist these impulse foods… if we bring them home we’ll end up eating them in excess. So what’s the solution to this problem? Don’t bring these type of foods home! To bring tempting, impulse foods home is like a recovering alcoholic bringing a six pack of beer home and telling himself that he’ll just drink one beer a day. How ridiculous would that be? That would never happen! Yet people who have food addictions do the same thing on a weekly basis.

First of all get rid of all the junk food in the house. There really is no place for junk food for those who are trying to eat healthy and lose weight.

Remove or replace candy dishes with fruit bowls to cut down on the amount of candy you may eat throughout the day. If you have hidden food to eat in private, remove the food from these hiding places and get rid of it! Do not bring tempting “impulse” foods in the house. Eat these foods occasionally and only while out in places where you can control the quantity you eat. For example, order a one-scoop ice cream cone when you are out rather than having a half-gallon of your favorite ice cream in the freezer.

Change your route to work, or to the store if you’re tempted to stop for something whenever you see a certain food store.

Avoid tempting finger foods at parties. Focus on calorie free beverages, veggie trays, and enjoy the conversation rather than the food.

When you dine out, the portions are often supersize, so choose a healthy appetizer and split an entrée with your spouse. You can order side dishes (a la carte’) consisting of veggies. You can also ask for a half order of a main course (most restaurants will do this, particularly if it's pasta).

Have you ever taken the last piece of apple pie just because it was there? Or “polished off” a dish of sweet potatoe casserole even though it was cold? Most of us have experienced these temptations, and we do so because there are triggers that cause us to overindulge, even when we're no longer hungry. The next time you are tempted by food ask yourself are you really hungry or eating to just indulge?

Nicki's First Blog Test

A calorie is a measure of energy available to the body supplied by the food that we eat. Foods contain carbohydrates (sugars and starches), proteins, and fats, each of which provides calories. The caloric content of the macronutrients vary. There are approximately 9 calories per gram weight of fat, and approximately 4 calories per gram weight of protein and carbohydrate. Fat is a concentrated form of calories and should be limited in your diet.The water, vitamins, and minerals in food provide no calories. The measure of energy in the foodstuff that we eat is given by how many total calories they contain. You can use up the foodstuff by “burning” a certain number of calories through daily activity; similar to the way your car burns gas when you drive it. If the food that you eat is not burned up through activity, it will be stored, primarily in the form of fat. You might not realize how a small increase in additional calories from your food each day can cause such a significant increase in your body weight over the course of years.For example, if you were to add 10 extra calories to what you eat each day over and above what you are expending during activity, you will gain an extra pound in a year. This is an extra 10 pounds each decade. When you expend an extra 10 calories per day, or cut out 10 calories from your food intake, you will lose a pound each year. If you were to multiply that figure by 10 and cut out an extra 100 calories per day, you would lose 10 pounds per year. Researchers suggest that it is a mere 100 calories imbalance over and above what we really need that causes the slow progression of weight gain over the years. A 100 extra calories per day is 10 extra pounds per year…and in five years you’ve added 50 extra pounds to your frame.The key is knowing how many calories you are consuming through your food intakes, and also how many calories you’re expending through exercise and activity. The only way to know and learn this is by tracking your eating and exercise habits each day. Certain activities offer a greater caloric output than others. As an example: a 175 pound person expends approximately 40 calories during 10 minutes of walking at 2 miles per hour (mph), and 72 calories walking for 10 minutes at 4 mph.Its the little things over time that often surprise us, a creek becomes a river and a puddle becomes a pond. Plot your course and consistently stick to your plan and watch the changes take place within a short time.

Caloric Density Is The Key To Weight Loss Success

Choosing foods that are low in caloric density is one of the keys to weight loss success. Studies have shown that people typically eat 2-3 pounds of food per day. Eating less in terms of the actual weight of food will usually leave you hungry, unsatisfied and desiring more to eat. The weight of the food that you take in can either be high or low in calories and the secret is choosing or preparing foods that have a low calorie content per gram weight. Caloric density refers to the number of calories in any particular food divided by its gram weight. An example would be an apple that’s calorie content is 80 calories with a gram weight of 100 grams. The equation 80 calories/100 grams = .8 or a caloric density (CD) of .8. When you compare this to a high calorie food like cheese cake which has the same weight of 100 grams, however has a calorie content of 350 calories, the equation for its caloric density is 350 calories/100 grams = 3.5 or a CD of 3.5.

When researchers compared a pasta and vegetable meal given to women that had either a low, medium or high calorie content, all the women ate a similar gram weight of the meals, however those that ate the high calorie pasta and vegetable meal took in 30 percent more calories than the low calorie pasta. Additionally when researchers studied the effects of giving two groups of college students smoothies that had the same number of calories however differed in the size of the glass only, 30 minutes before lunch, they demonstrated that the group who drank the smoothie in the full glass ate 12% less lunch calories than the group that did not drink from a full glass. Just the appearance of eating more from the full glass made one group eat less total calories for lunch.

When comparing the caloric density of different cultures, the Okinawans partake of foods that have an average caloric density of 1.0, compared to Americans whose foods have an average caloric density of 1.7. When comparing food choices from these two cultures: A typical US diet of a hamburger with cheese with a gram weight of 100 grams has 280 calories and a caloric density of 2.8. While an Okinawan diet of stir-fried vegetables with rice and miso soup at 280 calories and a gram weight of 500 grams has a caloric density of 0.6. Both meals have the same amount of calories but have different gram weights. The hamburger at 100 grams may leave you hungry compared to the 500 grams found in the Okinawan meal. Interestingly, the Okinawans have a body mass index (BMI) that is in the normal/optimal BMI category, while 66% of Americans have a BMI that is above the optimal BMI category. The take home message is to choose foods, which have a low caloric density, ideally close to 1.0. This will allow you to reach your weight loss goals without feeling deprived of food.

A Lifetime of Healthy Living

Why is it that after we have taken steps to lose weight and then achieve a considerable amount of weight loss, we so often gain the weight we lost? This seems so counterproductive, yet it happens countless of times to many of us. We gain back the weight that we lost, because we revert back to our former eating and activity patterns. When we reached our weight loss goals, when we “crossed the finish line”, we thought we were “cured” and that we could be “normal” again. The problem is that our perception of what is “normal” is to revert back to old eating habits, along with less activity and exercise. The mistake is that we do not make a permanent lifestyle change. What we have done is to temporarily adhere to a “diet” with reduced intakes and/or an increase exercise to lose weight, but fail to learn how to live a healthy life for permanent weight loss. The successful approach is changing your whole lifestyle to one of health and fitness.To maintain your weight or continue toward your desired weight, you must keep in mind what motivated you to lose weight initially. Write down a list of those things that motivated you to initiate your healthy lifestyle change. Then clearly recognize those things that motivated you to want to lose weight loss and change your life for the better. It may have been your health, i.e. arthritic knees, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes. You may have wanted to improve your appearance, your energy levels, or it may have been an emotional issue that prompted you, such as a relationship, or your feeling of confidence. You may have lost weight to allow you to be more active in recreational and sports activities that you once enjoyed. Whatever the reasons that caused you to want to start a weight loss program, reflect on those things now and realize that to revert back to old habits will only sabotage your ultimate desires and will lead to unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment in your life.After experiencing a certain measure of success we often feel we’re in control, and feel we can continue by taking several days off, returning to “lazy” days of old and eating patterns that will soon return us to our previous overweight and unhealthy condition. Once we have succeeded with weight loss, or are near enough to our goal weight we might not have the same level of motivation. After you have lost some weight and achieving some weight loss goals, you might feel that there is not the same challenge. You might feel that you are no longer “that uncomfortable” with your weight, and would like to pursue old habits. You need to be ready when that time comes, with your “motivation list” in hand, so you might reflect on why you should continue to stay fit and follow a healthy lifestyle. After all you don’t want to work hard to reach your weight loss goals, enjoying the fruits of your labor for only a short while and then return to old habits and the miserable ways of living that you previously experienced. Plan to enjoy a lifestyle of health and happiness for a lifetime.Remember: It’s the end of progress if you stand still and think of what you’ve done in the past. Keep on! ~ Leslie Caron