The Psychology of Denial in Dieting

What Is It That You Really Want? 

The great annual day for resolutions that usually don't last until the end of the first week of the New Year is at hand.  I hope you've had a fabulous holiday and truly enjoyed sharing meals and treats with family and friends during this season that can be filled with great joy but also many calories.  If you're like me you've eaten more than you should and gained some weight but had a really good time.  I encouraged you to do so without feeling guilty over the past several weeks.  So now what?

If you've left off following you can decide to jump back on.  If you did follow what I've offered you've been stretching more or less, drinking water and have given some thought to what you eat during each day.  You've been moving, hopefully a bit more each day.  There will be more upcoming on all of that but if you haven't been doing it go back and read some of the blogs on stretching and drinking water and moving.

The reason I encouraged you to eat and enjoy your way through the holidays is because dieting during that time makes you feel denied and few if any lose weight during the holidays.  I also wanted you to enjoy all your favorites because if you make a good decision it's time now to put some of them aside for a bit.

Imagine if you will that you just went to the doctor and they told you that you had an illness and you had to go on some medication.  Because of that medication you could no longer eat some of your favorite foods because the chemical composition of that food would make you ill while you took the medication.  You'd have to give up that food in order to stay well and although you wouldn't like it, chances are if your health hung in the balance you'd do it, right?  That's one way of looking at the opportunity to diet. 

When I made the decision to go on a diet in 2006 I did so because I knew that if I didn't I would soon be taking anti-hypertensive medication and possibly an oral medication for diabetes due to my weight and my general unhealthiness.  Part of the reason I got to my overweight state had to do with the fact that there was always an event/occasion in my life and food/special drinks were part of these occasions.  In January there were Girl Scout Cookies, in February Valentine's Day, in March and April, Easter or Spring Break, in May our family birthdays and anniversaries would start, etc, etc. There was always the weekend in the hot tub with frozen margaritas or the Friday night pizza and beer.  You name it, I could come up with destruction of any dietary gains I made during whatever period of time I had undertaken some form of self restraint. As I reflected on what I could do about it I realized that the only way I could make enough progress to change how I felt and avoid medical intervention for my health I would have to give up some things possibly for as long as six months or a year.  It sounded daunting and overwhelming but the fact was if I could do it, when I finished losing the weight I needed to lose, I would hopefully be able to resume including things I loved in my diet regularly and my health would no longer teeter on the precipice so long as I didn't resume some of my worst habits continuously.  We're talking about a life change here and indeed that is what happened to me.  But what about you?

If you have 10, 20, 30 or more pounds to lose you need to change what you are doing.  Do you realize that if you are maintaining your weight at that overweight level you are eating enough calories every day to keep those extra pounds ON your body?  I asked you to write down what you eat every day so you could take a look at your calorie intake in addition to the types of food you consume.  Most foods have calorie counts on the back of the package. They also have serving size.  So for instance if you eat cereal every day like I used to, I would pour a bowl and add milk.  I didn't measure the amount, I just filled the bowl.  So I was probably eating at least 2 servings of cereal and possibly 3 since each serving is really only about a  half cup.  So I wasn't eating the approximately 200 calories of cereal in a single serving, I was probably eating more like five or six hundred calories of cereal every morning.  Similarly when I filled my plate with dinner, the serving wasn't a deck of cards sized portion of meat which is a single serving but maybe it was a chicken breast that comes in twice that size in the portions I get where I buy my chicken.  So if you are eating 2000 or 2500 calories or more daily you are working to maintain your overweight condition every day and you can make a decision to stop maintaining that intake level.

Weight loss isn't hard to understand.  Regardless of the program you adopt the formula is quite simply calories in versus calories out.  If you take in exactly what you need for fuel and activity your weight will stay roughly about the same.  I generally vary between 1-5 lbs. each week.  When I go beyond that I begin paying attention to what I am putting in my mouth.  If you want to lose weight you can work on exercising and expending more calories and you can also take in less.  Either or both will result in weight loss if you burn more than you take in or eat less than you need for your activity.  The question then becomes what type of calories will you put in.  I'm not a big exerciser so for me it was eating less that accomplished my goal.  The plan for your goal is another blog.

Let's say for now that you want to eat 1200 - 1300 calories/day.  If you love hot fudge sundaes and don't want to give them up then you can eat one every day.  If it has roughly 600 calories then that's about half of your day's intake.  Is that a good decision? No, but can you do it?  Sure.  If you eat only 600 calories of something else the rest of the day you'll still likely lose weight that day but you won't feel very good and you'll probably be hungry for some portion of that day so that's not a good strategy.  What you want to work on is how to eat foods that contain what you need to be healthy and still leave you satisfied enough that you aren't starving.

Another key is deciding what you can tolerate in terms of self denial.  When I started, I promised myself I would try this for one week no matter what.  I also promised myself that at the end of that week if it didn't work or I wasn't satisfied with the outcome I'd quit.  I went through that exercise nearly each week for several months telling myself I could quit if I couldn't take it. What happened to me is that the success was there and I began to feel so much better the decision to continue was easier and easier.  I also added "bonus" rewards.  For instance when I hit milestone weight loss points like a drop in clothing size, I'd buy myself one new article of clothing as the reward for having persevered that long.

I did give up my old ways of eating, some of my favorite foods that I used to make for dinner and fast food isn't something I've eaten in any regular way for a long time. I don't miss it.  We'll talk more about some of all that but the bottom line question you have to ask yourself is are you willing to give up some short term satisfaction associated with that favorite dessert/meal/habit for a long term change or are you committed to maintaining your weight where it is even if it means that later in life your health will be compromised because of it? 

If that doesn't work for you what motivation will?  Do you have an upcoming life event that you want to look fabulous for?  Is there a killer pair of jeans you want or do you really want to be able to try on a bathing suit without feeling like you'd rather have your jaw wired shut for six weeks than stand in front of a dressing room mirror?  Would you like to understand more about food for the sake of yourself and your family?  Would you like to have enough energy to actively play with your children or grandchildren without being short of breath?  All of these things are possible and are within your control.  The decision is yours.

Have your New Year's celebrations and enjoy your drinks/treats one last time.  Come January 1st, you can make a change in your lifestyle that will lead to your enjoyment of next year's holidays looking fabulous and truly guilt free!   

Cheers til next time! HV 13                                      

A Closer Look at Food

So What Ya Eatin?  
If you're like me you're seeing a lot of platters that look like this and are oh, so good!  For our family the goodie season is about to kick in  for real and the baking has begun.  I'm totally guilty of luring my children home for the holidays with promises of homemade lasagna, Swedish pecans, gingerbread and butter cookies... but I can do this now without feeling totally miserable about how I look. A friend of mine went shopping at one of my favorite stores for me and sent me a new Christmas dress and since I only wear one size these days, it fit!  And no it wasn't made by Omar the Tentmaker like days of yore.   

In my past I was guilty of a lot of nutrition mistakes even though I'm a nurse and took college coursework ( and got an A) in Nutrition.  First of all, back then (yes, it was the stone age), there were 4 food groups and one of them was the bread cereal group. So my boys were raised on meals that featured meat, vegetables, fruit and almost every evening something from the Pillsbury Dough Boy was sitting on the table from crescent rolls to biscuits to breadsticks.  When I was a single Mom, working and going to school full time, Tuesdays and Thursdays meant school from 8-4 PM, dash home, pick up the boys from extended day, throw them in the back seat, roar through the drive thru, throw the bags into the back seat with them and play parking lot highway games on the toll road back to campus where they were stabled in more day care and I went to class from 6-9 PM.  I don't even want to think about the garbage in those bags I was feeding the  kids... but not to worry, they're adults and they survived and have corrected a lot of my bad choices in their own lives.  So I'm here to say that you can make the choice to change.

The problem with the picture above, aside from the gazillion calories it represents, is that there isn't a whole food anywhere in sight.  By whole food, I mean something that looks like it did when it was grown or harvested.  Something that hasn't been processed to death and had any variety of chemicals added to it.   Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. I didn't used to like a table laden with things like this...I would be much more likely to gravitate to that plate above.  I've come to love the stuff below and I'd like to help you get there too.  The first part is taking a look at what you're putting on your table, plate and into your mouth for the next couple weeks.  Is it fresh and whole or is it from a package and long beyond the recognition of the grower?  The closer you are to fresh and whole the better off you'll feel and as a side benefit eating real food will help you control your weight.  So take stock and think about it.  Maybe this isn't the best two weeks to do so but give it a thought now and then and we'll talk.  If you're really brave, you're writing down what you're eating and drinking (water!) and you're stretching right????         

    Till next time.  HV 13

Do You Know Your Numbers?

Wow! If you're like me you're excited for an opportunity to sit your rear in a chair for five minutes and play online!  The weeks are doing that flying thing they do during this season and sometimes you just lose track of where the days go but I love all the things that go into preparing for Christmas.  I hope you're paying attention to doing something for you while you're running around doing everything for others on your lists...like moving and drinking water - how many glasses today???? and stretching - anyone remember stretching??

Well in my last post I talked excessively about stretching and recommended a daily routine.  If you've been doing it, you can likely already feel the results of some of the effort you've put in but please if you're not feeling it, don't give up - you will!!  I inadvertently omitted two little tweaks on the leg lifts when I posted.  So  when you're on your back and lifting your leg straight up toward the ceiling, after you've completed the reps on that put your leg back on the bed and bring you knee up toward your chin as far as possible with your knee bent and as close to your body as possible - do that the same amount of times as you lift it to the sky.  After you do the side leg lifts bend your leg at the knee and bring it towards your chin while you're lying on your side.  You should feel the stretch in your posterior thigh at first and your buttock over time.  Do that the same number of reps as you do the side leg lifts to the ceiling.  Sorry I omitted these last time but I've been doing this so long and unconsciously I forgot!

                                                                             

So what numbers are important you? Your age?  The amount of your salary?  The balance in your checkbook?  How many children and grandchildren you have? Maybe right now it's the number of days until you get off for Christmas or the shopping days you have left. I'm going to ask you to begin paying attention to a few more.  My guess is most everyone has heard there's something called "body mass index" but I don't know if you know how to calculate it  or what it means to your health.  So here is a link to a BMI calculator to help you figure yours out if you don't already know it.  Now I'm not into guilt so if you don't want to know what your current BMI is you don't have to put your current weight in the calculator.  You can use it to calculate what weight you need to be at in order to have a healthy BMI.

Try this link:
http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bminojs.htm

While you're there take a look at the page that says "Assessing your weight and health risk".  There is a lot of good information that will explain what BMI can tell you about  your health and why it is great for you to arrive at a healthy number.  While you're enjoying your holidays I'd like you to give some consideration to what you want your goal weight to be and why you want it to be that number.  This is a look at what's realistic which may be different from what you think you want.  If you have any questions, leave them for me in comments.

The party season is in full swing.  While you're partying enjoy and don't feel guilty but during the week please think about what you're eating.  Garbage in, garbage out and eat it today, wear it tomorrow are cliches because there is some truth at their base. Drink your water, move and stretch.  There is a reason for this but it's not weight loss.  I'll tell you on January 1st.

Until next time - stay healthy!
HV13

S-tt-rrr-eeee-ttttt-ccccc-hhhhhh and tone!

How Can You Look Your Best without a crash Holiday Diet????

 

Hey - are you moving?  How much water did you drink today??????   

We all want to get into that outfit that inspires us and makes us feel festive.

I have a way I think will help you look better in whatever you wear and will probably make you FEEL far better than any crash diet.  It's not always about the pounds. Sometimes it's about the fit.  So how can you get a better fit without a crash diet??

Well for starters - be realistic.  If you're a size 14 you're not going to be an 8 by Christmas Eve.  But if you're pants are bulging in places you'd rather they wouldn't and your muffin top is overflowing you can try this.  Like I've said before, "What've you got to lose?"

If you paid any attention in school you may recall that someone somewhere told you that a muscle is designed to do work.  Think about it.  If you put your arm in a cast from your wrist to your elbow for six weeks what do the muscles look like when you take off the cast?  Eeeewwww they're flaccid and wasted looking and your arm is weak and all shrunken right? [No off color comments here but you're free to think what you please!] That is because for the six weeks they were in the cast they weren't doing any work.  Well your body is full of muscles and you're not currently using several of them that you could be.  Just go work out suddenly in a way you haven't for awhile and I promise you pain the next day, right?  So the key is to engage those muscles because they lay underneath your skin and your subcutaneous tissue and if you tone them up as they pull tighter they'll pull some of your body areas into shape that you haven't been seeing lately and voila!  A better fit in your clothing.

Now I'm the first one to tell you that I abhor exercise, am basically lazy and therefore I will not lead you to a land of spandex and torture intentionally.  But if I can make myself do this you can too.  First of all if you're still young you can do this on the floor.  I used to but I'm old now and the floor is too hard - plus we have a dog and there is just way too much dirt and dog hair on that floor for me to lie down on it, sorry.  And yes, we do vacuum and have the carpets shampooed periodically but still.  So no lie, I do this in my bed and it still works!  This is a stretching and toning routine and if you do this between now and Christmas Eve I think your clothes will fit better even if you don't lose weight.  If you decide on your free zone weekends to go way, way over the edge well maybe not but it's kind of like tanned fat.  Tanned fat looks better than white fat, right?  Toned fat looks better than non-toned fat so let's get busy.

DAILY ROUTINE

1) Push the covers off and clear. Lie on your back - you can keep you pillow for now - and lift your left leg straight up in the air to the ceiling and then lower it.  Point your toe. Did it kill you?  If not do it again.  Try to do it 3 times.  Now do it with your right leg. 3 times.
2) Turn on your right side.  Take your left leg and lift it toward the ceiling away from your right leg as close to perpendicular to your body as you can.  Still alive?  Do it again.  Try to do it 3 times.  Turn over onto your left side and do it with your right leg.
3) Get rid of you pillow and lie on your back. Bend your knees so your feet are flat against the bed as close to your rump as possible but not uncomfortable. Lift your hands up past your knees and bring your torso off the bed as you do this.  Yes, these are abdominal crunches.  Do them anyway.  Try 10.  If you can't do that do 5. You'll work up to 10.  Think how nice your turkey neck will look if you do this regularly because guess what it's working that muscle group as well as your abs.
4) Lie flat again. Rest if you have to. Sit straight up in the air and hold your arms out until you touch your toes or get as close to that as you can.  I grab my toes and slowly and carefully stretch my lower back muscles by looking left and then right as far as I can while I hold this position.  If you can't grab your toes just stretch toward them as far as you can and turn your neck slowly left and right.
5) Lie back down and come up and touch your toes and lie back down 5 times.  Yes, you just did 5 sit ups.  It did not kill you.  You may curse freely while you do this if you like.  If you have small children in the room you may have to do it silently.
6) At the end of the last sit up while you're still in that position with your arms extended toward your toes and sitting on your rump, lock your hands and roll left and right on you rear and the backs of your thighs keeping your arms straight out in front of you as much as possible.  You are doing roly polys from Richard Simmons dating back to the 1980's but guess what - they work - they will make your butt and your thighs much flatter and more toned so do them.  Try 10 of these  - they're cake!  Try more.  When you finish these like back and prepare to die.
7) You have to do one of these.  It will hurt.  Be very careful NOT to lift your legs with the muscles
in your low back - it can be done but shouldn't be.  I want you to put your feet together, keep your legs straight and raise them together straight up to the ceiling until they are perpendicular to your back which is lying on the floor/bed.  Then lower your legs as slowly as you can back to the bed.  Use the large muscles of your thighs and more importantly your lower abdominals to do this.  One is enough.  If you can do one be very proud. Most women I know who've had kids or abdominal surgery of any kind have very little strength in their lower abdominals and this is hard.  You can work up to 5 slowly.  If it's no problem do five - you win - you're my new hero!
8) Take your arms and put your hands on the insides of each arm 1/2 way between your elbow and your shoulder and push out against your arm.  You'll feel your pectoral muscles and yes, your boobs move.  Do 20 of these. They're easy.  You're almost done.
9) Do the leg lifts you did at the beginning again now that your muscles are warm.  Do five of each type, single leg, up to ceiling back down to the floor.  Try to control the downward motion smoothly and slowly - use those long muscles in the leg - they burn a ton of calories when they work.
10) While you're lying there rotate your ankles in circles and stretch your toes toward the floor and bring them back all the up to the ceiling without lifting them (dorsiflex your ankles and rotate them as close to 360 degrees as you can ).  Your ankles may pop but stretch them out.  You're DONE!!!!! You DID it !! Great.  If it took you more than 10 minutes I'm shocked.  It probably took less than 5.

When you get up if you want to you can try touching your toes while standing up or do some arm circles - you know the ones - your arms out to the side parallel to the floor and you make forward and backward circle motions.  You can also roll your head around if you like that.  I don't do all that but you can if you like.  This is a stretching and toning routine.  We'll talk about doing some modifications as we go but if you can do this you will feel better and in two weeks you will begin to see some changes and by Christmas Even you may really feel it in your clothes.  Advance as you feel you can.  I try to keep the number of reps the same every day in all the groups as much as possible or I forget how many I'm doing.  I watch TV while I do this.  I do it before I get out of bed, before coffee or consciousness is fully engaged so my mind doesn't know what I'm doing or otherwise it would rebel.  If you're really ambitious you can do it at night too but I'm too exhausted by then so I don't.

So that's a really basic routine and when I do it regularly it really helps my clothes hang better and makes me feel better too.  Between that and walking I usually feel pretty good.  Try it and let me know what you think.  You could be a little sore if you haven't been doing anything but I can usually start this from nothing and do it without any really noticeable soreness.


Drink your water!  Walk somewhere.  You know you want to.  Don't diet tomorrow.  Just eat normally. Enjoy your food, savor it.  'Til next time...
HV13

It's Decision Day!

Holiday Party Season is in full swing this weekend and will continue through New Years. If you've been following you know today's the day when I'm hoping you'll commit to the last successful diet you'll ever follow with the Holiday Preparation Diet. Starting today I'm recommending you do a few things that will lead to a conversion from unsuccessful on again, off again dieting to weight loss followed by a weight management strategy.                                                                                                                                           
To begin with if you think you're going to diet through the parties you'll attend this month you're made of sterner stuff than me.  My guess is though that you'll say no, no to all the yummy stuff you see but then when you're in the comfort of your own home you'll eat more things or worse things than you would at any party. Why be uncomfortable through one of the most fun times of the year?  You know you have weight to lose, you've come up with a plan and if you stick with it you can really enjoy your holidays even if you gain a few more pounds?  What?? How's that?

 

So starting today declare the weekends to be your free zones.  If you're attending a party eat what you'd like.  Politeness alone will likely keep you from eating way too much and if you do it without feeling guilty the food will be better, you'll have more fun and you can just kick your guilty conscience to the curb. If the party happens during the week well same rules apply. Enjoy the food, embrace the goodies and have a great time.  Only while you're doing it remember you're saying goodbye, temporarily at least and possibly for a much longer time, to all that rich gooey food you love so much that it's gotten you to the size you don't enjoy.

 

During the week don't crash diet.  No matter how bad you feel about what you've eaten don't do it.  Eat normally.  If you want to do something differently than consider making your portions smaller.  Another thing you can consider is dividing your meals into several smaller meals instead of 3 big ones.  Can't figure out the portion thing?  Make it easy.  Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate, fill it up but don't have seconds. Have less dessert - you don't have to give it up but go ahead, eat it and enjoy and remember in 31 days you'll being saying goodbye to some of these things.

 

Do you eat cereal and fruit for breakfast?  Eat your cereal with your coffee in the morning and save your fruit for a snack.  Better yet - eat your cereal, maybe a little less and fruit for breakfast and add a slice of low fat cheese for a mid morning snack.  Do you eat a sandwich and sides for lunch?  Eat your sandwich and save your sides for mid afternoon.  Spread your normal food intake out over the day instead of at 3 meals.  Eat your dinner and save your dessert until 9PM or an hour before you go to bed.  Try different combinations until you feel like you're eating constantly but don't eat more than normal.  We'll talk about more things to try as we go through the month.

 

Boost your water!  Did you start by drinking one glass a day - go ahead and work up to two glasses a day or if you're at two work up to four.  Start early in the day.  Have a glass between your cups of coffee.  Have a glass with lunch.  Grab a bottle to drink from in your car while you're at stop lights.  Work it in.  By the end of the month it would be great if you were drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

 

Move!  You don't have to sweat but walk somewhere.  Everyday - up and down the stairs, park your car two spaces further every day until you're in another row. Do something.  Have a pet?  Walk it, if it walks outdoors. Have a neighbor whose poor dog never goes walking?  Ask if you can borrow it every day for a walk to help you get exercise.  If it's cold wear a coat.

 

Know your numbers!  That's a whole other blog post but start with your weight.  When I was on my weight loss plan I weighed myself once a week on Wednesday morning, buck naked.  Pick your day but keep it to once a week. Know that you'll go up and down normally within a five pound range typically. You'll have a pretty good idea after this month what you weigh and then you can plan, sanely, how much you want to lose.  Don't weigh yourself daily and don't obsess about it unless you really aren't serious about making changes come January 1.

 

Be accountable!  While you're out shopping for everyone else and everything else buy yourself a small notebook or take several pieces of notebook or printer paper and cut them into 4's and staple a bunch together until you have a book of 35 or so pages.  You could track on computer but it's too easy to fudge the numbers and erase.  On the first page write your weight and the date in ink!  On the bottom of each page head a section called exercise and leave space to write down what you did for moving that day.  Make a second section called water and write down 8 ones across the bottom and cross one off every time you drink a glass of water.  At the top of the page write breakfast and leave space to list what you ate.  Do the same for lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts.  Don't worry about it but just write it down.  Be honest - if you eat half the cookie dough and bake the rest, write it down. It's not a test and it won't help you if it's not the truth. At the end of the month you'll probably see a pattern of what you eat most often and when.  It will help you plan.

 

There is a strategy I'll share tomorrow that may help you look even better by Christmas Eve than you do right now even as you eat your way through the holidays but you'll have to come by again for that.

I hope you have a really great time! 

 

Till next time - Cheers!

HV13