January is a great time to lose weight.

I started my interval training and I found my food journal(of course now I have to write in it.) I am going to lose those pesky extra pounds I gained over the holidays. Time is everything and now is the time. Monday morning and I begin.

Most Americans gain four to five pounds over the holidays. Some of my clients have reported gaining as much as ten pounds. The time has come to drop them. If there is a collective unconscious January energy encourages weight loss. We are not alone. We can lose what we have gained using the tools that are available. Take it one step at a time but take the steps and by March maybe it will be ten pounds.

The Step by Step Weight Control Plan

Take weight control one step at a time


Eat 3 meals and a snack daily. Or eat 6 small meals daily.

Eat breakfast every morning.

Eat lean protein at every meal. Protein metabolizes slowly so you won’t get as hungry.

Eat vegetables or fruit at every meal. Fill ½ your dinner plate with vegetables.

Drink enough fluid. Choose water, sparkling water, and unsweetened iced green, black or herb teas. Add lemon, lime or a bit of berry juice for flavor. Enjoy a cup or two of coffee or tea with low-fat milk. Avoid sweet drinks of all kinds, including juice and sports drinks.

Avoid processed foods made with white grains and white sugar. For a sweet tooth have a piece of dark chocolate and a few nuts. Choose chocolate with 70% or more cocoa butter.

Benefit from red wine or other alcohol by drinking it with meals. Daily recommendation: One 5 oz glass for women and two 5 oz glasses for men.

Take your supplements everyday.

Journal. Keep food records and lose weight.

Exercise 5-6 days a week. Start slow…

Join a weight loss group or start one with friends.

obesity in America

As I have been saying...
The obesity rate in the US continues to rise. Beware- because if things continue as they are by 2030, 86% of Americans will be overweight. Read the latest research with grief.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/07/americans-are-fat-and-getting-fatter-according-to-a-new-report-that-finds-adults-and-children-in-the-us-continue-to-pack-o.html

Beware diet drugs

Federal drug regulators warned consumers Friday to stop using the popular Hydroxycut line of weight-loss products. There has been a report of a death due to liver failure. There are also other instances of serious health problems. The FDA reported 23 reports of illess resulting from this supplement. Natasha Singer writes about it in an article in the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/business/02fda.html?_r=1&hpw

Sleep and lose weight

The minimum amount of sleep you need for weight loss is seven and a half hours a night, experts say. But the closer you can get to your ideal sleep time the better it will be.
Not getting enough sleep can increase your appetite and and weight gain.
Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite.
Leptin, produced in fat cells, sends a signal to the brain when you are full.

When sleep deprived, leptin level drop, which means we don't feel as satisfied after we eat.
Less sleep causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means the appetite is stimulated, so we want more food.
The two combined set the stage for overeating, which in turn leads to weight gain.

How food affects sleepCombating insomnia through nutrition is about eating the right combination of foods in the evening, and knowing what foods to avoid.

Want to sleep more? Cut down on these.
Caffeine
Alcohol
Large meals close to bedtime
Stop liquids 90 minutes prior to bed

Eat more of these foods.
Setrotonin producing bedtime snacks
§ Among the best natural sedatives is tryptophan, an amino acid component of many plant and animal proteins. Tryptophan is one of the ingredients necessary for the body to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter best known for creating feelings of calm, and for making you sleepy. How sleepy? A 2005 study of people with chronic insomnia found that diet made a big difference. After three weeks, those who ate foods with high amounts of tryptophan with carbohydrates, or who took pharmaceutical grade tryptophan supplements had improvements on all measures of sleep … and food sources worked just as well as the supplements.
§ The trick is to combine foods that have some tryptophan with ample carbohydrate. This helps tryptophan make its way to the brain. Unfortunately, all amino acids compete for transport to the brain. Added carbohydratess cause the release of insulin, which takes the competing amino acids and incorporates them into muscle … but leaves tryptophan alone, so it can make its way to the brain and cause sleepiness.

Bedtime snack examples (each 100 to 200 calories)
Yogurt and fruit sprinkled with nuts
Cinnamon Oatmeal: 1/2 cup dry oatmeal prepared with 1/2 cup skim milk and 1/2 cup water and sprinkled with cinnamon (optional one teaspoon sugar or honey).
1 slice whole wheat toast topped with sliced tomato and one slice of turkey.
One cup skim milk with one cup grapes.
Low-fat berry sorbet
1/2 cup low-fat vanilla pudding or tapioca
Sliced apple with 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter

The Goals of Volumetric Eating

The Goal of Volumetrics
When you are trying to cut down on calories but fear hunger pangs eat this way to stay full but eat well and low calorie.
Focus on fiber-rich foods with a high moisture content. These foods include fruits (mostly fresh), vegetables (mostly those with high water content; e.g. tomatoes, broccoli, greens) whole grain pasta, rice, breads and cereals; soups, salads; low-fat poultry, seafood, meats and dairy.
Limit the amount of dry foods (crackers, popcorn, pretzels, etc.) due to their high caloric value and low satiety index.

The Four Energy Density Categories of Commonly eaten foods:
Category 1- Very Low Energy Density non starchy fruits/vegetables, nonfat milk, broth type soups
Category 2-Low Energy Density Starchy fruits/vegetables, grains, chili, spaghetti
Category 3-Medium Energy Density Meats, cheese, pizza, salad dressings, pretzels, ice cream
Category 4-High Energy Density Crackers, chips, chocolate, cookies, candy, butter and oils.

Weight gain or weight loss?

Despite the endless diets and weight loss programs Americans try we continue to gain weight and trends suggest further growth. Results from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), show that 67 percent of Americans were overweight or obese and 5.9 percent are extremely obese in 2005-2006. By 2030, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determined that as many as 86 percent of Americans will be obese or overweight. This leads us to the wonder; will everyone in American be obese or overweight at some point in the future?

Today with our abundant food supply and sedentary ways it is hard to stay slim. Food cues, food choices and endless variety overwhelm us daily. This may be good for the food industry but it is not good for our waistlines. Human beings are triggered to eat by seeing and smelling food. We believe our eyes not our stomachs, so if we see it, we eat it and most of us will “clean the plate.” TV commercials, food ads, fast food restaurants, buffets and super sized portions all encourage an unconscious and unmistakable increase in consumption. Our stomachs can’t count and unless we weigh, measure and record most of us naturally overeat.

But there is hope. Since we all underestimate what we eat maintaining a food record helps us keep track and stay accountable. Research shows when supported in a weight loss effort people lose more weight and keep it off longer.

So clear your kitchen of food cues, turn off the TV, find a group and keep exercising. Let’s reverse this trend.

How much added sugar should we eat?

The recommendation for added sugar, not naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices is below 10% of calories. So if you eat 1600 calories a day, 160 calories from sugar equals about 40 grams a day.
We, in the United States lead the world in obesity and the government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans advise only that sugar should be used in moderation. The Institute of Medicine, part of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, recommended in September that sugar could make up to 25% of calories.
But the newest study recommends 10%. The report was commissioned by two U.N. agencies, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, and compiled by a panel of 30 international experts. The food industry was quick to respond decrying the document, insisting more exercise is the key to ending obesity.
Yet sugar, despite its sweet taste offers no nutritional value except calories and Americans get plenty of these. Cutting sugar is an easy way to cut calories. So, try counting your sugar grams to determine how much you eat. It will be, if nothing else, very informative.

Ask the nutritionist?

Ask the
Nutritionist?

Q: Remember the headline about obesity being contagious? What does that mean exactly?

A: Eating and activities are social. We do what our friends do and eat what our friends eat, so if we focus on doing it well-wellness and weight loss result.
The study, the first to ever look at obesity as "socially contagious,"was coauthoured byNicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of UC San Diego and published in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study showed that obesity spreads from person to person in a social network. If one person becomes obese, those close to them have a greater chance of becoming obese as well. Surprisingly, the greatest effect was among friends.
Accordingly, if your friend becomes obese, the researchers found, your own chances of becoming obese go up 57 percent. Among mutual friends, the effect is even stronger, with chances increasing 171 percent.
But of course, this can go the other way. As you lose weight and become more active so will your friends. Fitness and wellness are socially contagious too.

The Diet Study and Keeping It OFF

So, in the end, after studying the largest group of dieters ever from Boston to Baton Rouge, the diet itself is of no consequence. Cut calories, no matter what type protein, carbs, fat or alcohol, and lose weight. I thought so. And as we continue to research nutrition and weight loss we unravel things that make good sense, things perhaps our grandmothers knew or ideas presented in grammar school. I still vividly recall the tenets of the 4 food groups and the call in the 60's and 70's for a balanced diet and variety. I feel gratified to see the headline in the NYT's, statistics and all. See Parker-Popes piece in Health.http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/no-winner-in-major-diet-study/
Remember the headline about obesity being contagious? In fact we do what our friends do and eat what our friends eat ,so if we focus on doing it well-wellness and weight loss result.
Checking in with someone who supports our weight loss effort helps too.
Weight counseling wins the prize for best support for sustainable weight loss. Imagine that? http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/after-the-diet-counseling-helps-keep-pounds-off/

one day at a time

Weight control and eating well are things many of us must do for the rest of our lives one day at a time.

Keeping track of what you eat

How do we track what we eat? Our old brains calculate, but we miss things. We ignore anything we drink and we give extra credit to what we chew. We eat to survive and have gotten this far evolutionary because our ancestors had excellent appetites. The weak eaters did not survive. Yet in our wealthy, wonderful America food is plentiful and much of it is full of empty calories. These foods, white and sugary and salty and sweet, trigger our appetites but offer little in return and are best avoided. Generally processed and full of cheap fats, they line the inner aisle of any grocery store and they are easy to eat.
Yet even if we avoid processed foods we often still eat too much. How do we control ourselves? One very successful way is to set goals and track intake by recording in a food journal. Self monitoring allows us to compare actual behaviors to ideal behaviors. We are very motivated to live up to our ideal behaviors particulary if someone is checking on our progress. That is why I love small group work and support groups offer. So set your goals, track your progress and share your progress with someone else. It works.

The Weight Debate

Research now supports a theory long debunked by doctors and dietitians. What we eat versus what we expend does not result in the same weight loss for every person. The idea that burning 3,500 calories equals one pound lost no longer rings true. Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity expert at Rockefeller University believes that balancing our weight is more difficult that we think.

Mathematically, shouldn't it work out that if I walk 20 minutes a day and burn 100 calories, I will lose a pound in 35 days? Science says no. It is very hard to calculate calorie input and output every day since most calorie guides and portion control techniques are estimates. But as we learn about the brain we see how much control it exerts over appetite and intake as well. There are also hormonal and other physiological mechanisms that keep us from losing weight. When we force out bodies to lose weight nature reacts in an attempt to protect us from it. This desire for stability enables us to skip a meal or fast for a while without losing weight. If we burn an extra 100 calories a day we end up making up for it by eating a little more the next day without even knowing it. We resist weight loss as a protective mechanism and Dr. Friedman believes this system, “operates with 99.6 percent precision.”

What do we do? Well, the first step is to understand that willpower alone can not help you lose weight and keep it off. Secondly since we commonly underestimate what we eat keeping a food journal keeps you honest. Finally, find support. You are not alone in this. The rise in overweight and obese adults in the United States rose to 66%. There is good news, however. Once you lose weight and if you continue to monitor it, your body will relax and stay there for a while.

Mindless Eating

Mindless Eating

We all do it and according to Brian Wansink, a food psychology professor at Cornell University, we eat with our eyes and not with our stomach. In his book Mindless Eating, he explains that this unconscious eating even of only 100-200 calories a day, a handful of chips here or an extra serving there, causes us to gain pound after pound, year after year. Instead of heeding our internal cues we unconsciously overeat because of external cues that trigger our appetite. Wansink and his graduate students experimented with this idea by giving movie theater patrons either a medium or large bucket of very stale popcorn. Even though some of them had just had lunch, people who were given the big buckets ate an average of 53 % more than those given the medium buckets.

He writes, …the cues around us -- like the size of a popcorn bucket -- can provide subtle but powerful suggestions about how much one should eat. These cues can short-circuit a person's hunger and taste signals, leading them to eat even if they're not hungry and even if the food doesn't taste very good.”

This can work to our advantage, however, when we are trying to eat more vegetables for instance. Pile them on your plate and guess what, you will eat them.

Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is the opposite of dieting.
It involves eating in response to your body’s needs, rather than counting calories and following rules. Supporters of intuitive eating suggest that eating in response to internal hunger and fullness cues; allow us to eat all foods. This helps us reach our “natural" weights, the weight range genetically predetermined.
Some research supports the idea that dieting undermines our internal eating cues and natural appetite. When we eat using an all-or-none type system, built around eating rules rather than internal hunger/satiety cues, it is referred to as restraint eating. This type of eating can make some of us more likely to over eat because once we break one rule, we break them all.
When disconnected from our internal satiety cues, we are more susceptible to external eating cues. External cues are triggered by emotions, “time", the sight or smell of food, and personal or cultural rules of eating.
Getting in touch with internal eating cues takes some time and attention. Small groups are an effective way to work on this while learning about the external cues that influence us. In our complicated world of food it helps to have a strong nutrition framework while exploring the forces encouraging us to over eat.

Walk, rest, eat but not too much

Lose 15 lbs Fast-No Hunger Ever, A Gorgeous New You; Instant Pain Cures; Stop Cancer; A Flat Belly in 10 minutes; snacks that boost Metabolism, Best ways to melt stress; Complete plan for Lasting Weight Loss and 159 new fat-burning secrets. A headline page for Health Magazine promising the world of health in just 123 pages of pictures and blurbs. I like the push. We take it in with gusto although some people literally hate the whole thing.

I wish the hints beneath the cover were new information, interesting, easy to do changes worthy of passing on to clients. But ya know, its all a haze. Nothing so simple, no plans so easy, some intersting info, but not for me. Save your cash and take some really simple advise. Walk, rest, meditate, eat well but not too much and smile. Be well.

Weight loss and keeping it off

At this time of year the common resolution I hear is to eat better and lose weight. It makes sense since generally we all have eaten thousands of extra calories and drank many more during the holidays. Holidays bring out the appetite in people and most people gain about 4 pounds from Halloween through New Years Day. What seems to be changing is not that people gain weight during this season but that in our sedentary society it is getting harder and harder to lose the weight we gain. Tara Pope Parker wrote a piece today in the NYTs highlighting great websites offering diet help. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/keeping-that-diet-resolution/
It is worth a read. I am interested in the site called 3Fatchicks.com written by 3 sisters that shares stories of real people's weight loss struggles.

I am also struck by the study in the April 2008 article in the British Journal of Nutrition. They looked at success rates of lifetime Weight Watchers members and found that a year after reaching goal weight, 80 percent of participants maintained only 5 percent of the weight loss. By one year only 27 percent of the dieters were below their goal weight. Despite that most people regained their weight, ww offers more success than most commercial diet plans.

I find the maintenance the key and with this I continue to recommend small weekly, weight loss support groups. They are easy to set up and work.