Well, here it is almost Thanksgiving again! Where does the time go? I hope you all have fun and exciting plans for the holiday.
Thanksgiving is a time that most of us take the time to reflect on what we are grateful for. But I have been trying to create this "attitude of gratitude" for the last couple of months. It is so easy to take for granted what we have in our lives and to complain about what we don't have.
After watching the movie, "The Secret" - which I recommend everyone see at least once - I started keeping a gratitude journal. I simply write down each day what I appreciate in my life. Sometimes it is big things, like unexpected money coming in, and sometimes it is small and simple, like being grateful for my cat.
"The Secre"t tells us that what we focus on is what we get (also known as the Law of Attraction). So if you constantly complain about not losing weight, you will continue to be unable to lose. Focus on the good things in your life (your health, being physically able to exercise, etc.) and you will attract more good things. I can tell you this really works!
This Thanksgiving is a great time to start your own gratitude journal. You will be surprised how positive your outlook on life becomes!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Q: According to Intuitive Eating, I can eat whatever I want as long as I am hungry. Sometimes I want foods that I know will make my stomach hurt or generally don't make me feel very good. If I don't eat them, I will feel like I am restricting and back in "diet-mode". What should I do?
A: With IE you can eat whatever you want, but I divide my choices into three groups. The first group is foods I like. These are all the foods that I enjoy and I eat them whenever I am hungry. I enjoy them and I feel satisfied after eating them. The second group is foods I don't like. I made a promise to myself that I never had to eat these ever again. I don't care if they are super healthy or whatever, I won't eat them. As a child, I was forced to eat many things I couldn't stand, like mayonnaise. Even if it gets put on something on accident (like at a restaurant), I refuse it and get something else, I can't even pretend to be polite about it. OK, third group is foods that don't honor me. These are foods that cause me to not feel good, even if they taste good. Raw onions are in this category for me, I can't eat them without a bad stomachache. Eating a certain amount of sugar is the same thing. I know how much I can eat and beyond that it makes me sick and I feel like I need to lie down and sleep it off.
So the foods that cause your IBS to flare up may be on that do not honor list. By putting them on this list, you are making a choice to not eat them, to honor yourself. This way they aren't a food that you "can't" have, you choose not to.
Have a burning question about intuitive eating, exercise or other health issue? Email your questions and look for answers in upcoming issues of Stop the Weight!
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By Diana Lipson-Burge, RD
You’ve certainly heard several or all of these before. The question is, were you fooled? Don’t feel bad if you were: when it comes to weight management, these are the biggest – and most commonly believed – myths around.
Are you willing to spend hard-earned dollars to maintain or improve your health? If so, you are a prime target for the modern day health and fitness quack. If you’re interested in managing your weight (and how many people can say they aren’t?) you’re even more of a target.
Webster’s dictionary defines “quacks” as those “whom with little or no foundation pretend to have skill or knowledge in a particular field.” Today, quacks are alive, well and thriving in the health industry, eager to take advantage of our natural human tendency to want quick answers. Fraud and abuse now account for $50-$80 billion out of $800 billion spent annually on health care!
When it comes to weight loss, “quick fix” myths are the order of the day for quacks, who can appear in the form of anything from multi-million dollar corporations to well-meaning friends who have been sold a bill of goods by some other well-meaning source.
Here are the top 10 weight management myths that have been pounded into the heads of American consumers. Start un-learning them now, and you’ll do yourself (and your weight) a big favor.
Myth #10 Fat makes you fat.
Fact: The only way a human being scientifically can gain 1 pound of fat (aside from metabolic disorder) is by eating 3500 calories on top of the calories used for their basal metabolic rate (BMR) and daily activities. It is irrelevant whether the calories are from carbohydrate, protein or fat. It can be 3500 calories of pure carbohydrate or pure protein or pure fat: it still adds up to the same thing. 3500 calories is 3500 calories, regardless of the source. Americans are more obese today than they have ever been in history, and we are all eating fat-free.
Myth # 9 We become toxic and gain weight if we combine carbohydrate and protein.
Fact: The idea of food combining has been around for over 100 years. Harvey and Marilyn Diamond popularized it in 1985. Proponents of food combining claim that if you eat carbohydrate and protein together, it will rot in your stomach and thus you will gain weight. If this were true, why are we not all overweight and dead from toxins? We have 3 different metabolic pathways that release different digestive enzymes so all food is digested. The only part of food that isn’t digested is the fiber, and this is excreted into the colon and eliminated.
Myth # 8 Your stomach gets stretched out when you overeat and shrinks when you undereat.
Fact: It is true that your stomach expands when more food is in it, but once digested, your stomach returns to the original size. The reasons you feel your stomach “shrink” when you undereat is because when you are mindful about what you are eating, you become more conscious of the true amount of food you really need to get satiated, which isn’t as much as most of us are conditioned to eat.
Myth # 7 If you eat after 6:00 or 7:00 pm, you will gain weight.
Fact: Once again, you can only gain 1 pound of fat by eating 3500 extra calories. If your total excess calories in a given period of time doesn’t exceed 3500, how can food consumed in the evening be “chosen” to put fat on your body?
Myth #6 While dieting, vitamin and mineral supplements will give you more energy.
Fact: The only component that can give a human being sustained energy is a calorie – and calories are only found in food, and possibly some herbs. Since vitamins and minerals do not contain calories, they cannot give you energy unless you are severely deficient. This is unusual in the United States since most of us overeat. Vitamins and minerals are useful, however, for various health conditions, such as osteoporosis (calcium), anemia (iron), etc.
Myth #5 Sugar or carbohydrates make you gain weight.
Fact: Again, only if your overall caloric intake exceeds your output. But sugar and carbohydrates do burn off very quickly, making you hungrier and potentially leading you to eat more food. If you eat sugar or carbs with a little protein or fat, these will buffer the carbohydrate from burning off so quickly and keep you satiated longer (3-4 hours).
Myth #4 If you eat breakfast, you’ll be hungrier all day and not lose weight.
Fact: Your body is like a furnace if you don’t feed it fuel in the morning, it will never heat up and start burning calories until you eat. By not eating until noon, you have missed burning off 200-300 calories. This is why you could be hungrier on days that you eat breakfast: you are burning more calories.
Myth #3 Vegetables are a “free food”. You can eat unlimited quantities and not gain weight.
Fact: This philosophy promotes many people to binge. While vegetables are low in calories and do not have fat, every food on earth has calories. Many vegetables have a low satiety level, which can lead to eating more quantity (calories) of other foods, and thus cause excess calorie consumption and weight gain. One of the most common binge foods that cause my clients to gain excessive weight is baby carrots.
Myth #2 Fast food is bad for you.
Fact: In this day and age of health and weight consciousness, fast food restaurants are being forced to decrease the fat content and improve the type of fat they’re using by changing to unsaturated fat. They are providing more fruit and salad bars. Now, if we could get all restaurants to decrease the portions they serve us, we might really make progress toward better weight management.
Myth #1 The number one Myth… Restricting foods such as desserts or alcohol will help you lose weight.
Fact: This may be the #1 reason people gain rather than lose weight. It’s been called Diet Deprivation Backlash (from Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, St. Martin’s Press, 1995). This is what happens when we restrict certain foods and then when we do have a cookie, we subconsciously think we’re never going to have one again, so we eat the whole box, planning to “start our diet tomorrow.” We end up gaining weight from all the calories we consumed in our “backlash” thinking – not from eating that cookie!
Diana Lispon-Burge, RD, is owner and found of The Energy Resource is El Segundo, California. She works one-on-one with clients to reach their nutrition goals and also teaches workshops and lectures throughout California. She lectures on weight management to the Motion Picture and Television Fund, on disordered eating to adolescents and their parents, and on sports nutrition to a variety of professional sports teams. She can be reached at (310) 643-9016 or at: dianaburge@verizon.net
Health & Fitness Journal / BENNING’S – March/April 1999
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November 2006
Join me for the Grow Your Business, Not Your Waistline Teleseminar, part of the Business Conversations with Biana Babinsky Teleseminar Series
When: December 12th at 2pm Eastern Time (New York Time).
Do your personal health and fitness ever get relegated to the back burner in favor of your business? What if you could have both, a healthy, vital body and a healthy, vital business? You can! Find out what other successful entrepreneurs know: physical health leads to business wealth.
Ground-breaking new research proves that regular exercise can actually increase your sales! By approaching eating and exercise the way you approach your business, you can achieve both physical and financial health, without working overtime!
You Will Learn:
- How you can save money by exercising consistently.
- How developing your exercise program will help develop your business.
- How to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths (SWOT analysis).
- Creative ways (and reasons) to fit exercise into your schedule.
Click here to register for this FREE event!
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Part One: Cortisol and Weight Gain
“Reduce stubborn belly fat!” These commercials imply that you can lose all your excess weight by taking a pill to control the stress hormone cortisol. Is it true? Let’s find out.
Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by your adrenal glands. Throughout the day, it is released in a predictable cycle, peaking in the morning and dropping during the afternoon and into the evening. This is natural and healthy, and appropriate for most people’s sleep/wake cycles. Cortisol has many functions, but we will focus on its role in handling stress.
You may have heard of the “fight or flight” response. If you are confronted with stress (such as a dangerous situation) the adrenal glands release a high level of hormones, including cortisol. This helps prepare you for fight or flight – your heart rate increases, blood pressure goes up, muscles tense, energy stores are released for use, and other body functions, such as digestion, are slowed. Cortisol takes stored fat, glucose, and blood to the brain, heart, lungs, and muscles for immediate energy. After the stress has passed, cortisol levels remain high for a while longer to stimulate appetite so you can replace the energy stores you used in response to the stress.
The problem is that most of our daily stressors in today’s world last more than a few minutes. We have stress that we are exposed to constantly, whether it is work, family, lack of sleep, or poor nutrition. None of these stressors require an immediate physical response, such as running away, and the stress continues over a long period of time.
Remember that one role of cortisol is to stimulate your appetite so that you will eat and replenish the fuel you used during the fight or flight response. In chronic stress, you continue to feel hungry because of the elevated cortisol, which leads to overeating. In addition, fat cells in the abdominal area are very receptive to cortisol and are very willing to fill up from all the overeating. This is because fat stored in the abdominal area is more accessible to the body when it needs fast fuel. However, with chronic exposure to stress, combined with increased insulin release, the fat cells do not want to release abdominal fat easily. This is how cortisol causes abdominal fat to increase and hang on.
If you think you can go on a diet to counteract the weight gain, think again. Dieting can actually make you gain weight, something you may have experienced yourself. Here’s one reason: levels of cortisol in your body actually increase as the amount of calories you eat decreases. The higher the cortisol levels, the more your appetite will be stimulated. Low carbohydrate diets are just as guilty of increasing cortisol, as they are very stressful on the body.
So, do the miracle pills work? Stay tuned next month to find out the truth behind the pill-maker promises and learn how you can overcome the stress-fat connection to lose weight.
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Let’s face it, we all know we need to exercise. Many of us know how to exercise. How many books and videos do you own? How many gym memberships have you had in your life? You may even be an expert on the perfect exercises for your body. But you’re not doing it! Why? Well the problem isn’t lack of knowledge, it’s lack of motivation. Does this sound familiar?
What can you do? Focus less on gaining more knowledge, and more on getting and staying motivated. As you become more consistent and start seeing results, you will be able to apply all that knowledge. Here are seven secrets to getting and staying motivated:
Secret One: Find Your “Why”
In order to be successful at any endeavor, we must have a good reason for doing it in the first place. Exercise is no exception. What will get you up in the morning on those cold, dark days when you just want to stay in bed? Many people say “because I want to lose weight” or “I want to be fit”. While these are good goals, they are not good enough reasons for long term success. You must dig deeper. What is important to you? What do you value in life? Answer these questions, then see how a regular exercise program can support your values.
Secret Two: Make a Commitment
Once you find your “why”, it’s time to make a commitment. Here is a definition of commitment you may not have heard: a commitment is the ability to carry out a worthy decision, even when the excitement of making that decision has passed. Read that definition again, and really understand it. How many times have you been excited to start an exercise program, only to become bored or distracted by other things? As soon as the excitement passes, so do your exercise plans. Be sure you are ready to commit, and if you are not, then commit to not exercising. That way you can let go of the guilt and commit when you are ready.
Secret Three: Set Daily, Measurable & Realistic Goals
If your only goal is to lose 40 pounds it will be a while before you feel successful. After all, it can take a while to see such results. Rather, set daily measurable, achievable goals that allow you to feel successful every day. Keep a weekly diary and set goals each day for what kind of exercise you will do, how long you will workout, how hard you will exercise, etc.
Secret Four: Keep Track of Your Progress
After you set your goals and write them down, you want to also chart your progress. Be sure to write down your daily achievements to compare to your goals. This will become extremely motivating as you see yourself meeting your goals. With consistent exercise, you will also see your workouts becoming easier and your ability to work harder and longer. This often happens faster than visible results on your body, such as weight loss or definition. Many people become frustrated and quit exercise right before big changes are about to happen, because they don’t see the results on their bodies. Seeing measurable progress on paper will keep you motivated while you work towards the bigger goals you have set for yourself.
Secret Five: Get Objective Feedback
You may know what a good workout feels like - you have that endorphin “high” after exercise, or you have energy to spare all day long. But do you know what an effective workout feels like? It is hard to know how effective your workout is every day without waiting for weeks or months to see the results. What if you could see day after day how many calories you burned, or what your heart rate was each workout? Using a heart rate monitor can tell you if you are working too hard or not hard enough. What about calories? An accelerometer can tell you all day long how many calories you are burning and keep you motivated to move! When you look for ways to add activity to your day it becomes a fun game and you can instantly see the results.
Secret Six: Avoid the “All or Nothing” Mentality
Have you had plans to exercise five times one week and the first day something happened and you didn’t exercise? When this happens, many people give up on the rest of the week This is known as the All or Nothing Mentality. Keep away from this – it doesn’t work. If you approach your exercise and nutrition program in that manner, you set yourself up for failure. Allow for flexibility in your exercise plans and know one missed day is not a setback.
Secret Seven: Be Accountable!
About 95% of all participants in an exercise program will stop exercising. Why? No support. Research has shown that exercisers with some kind of support system have a better chance of continuing exercise. You need someone who will also hold you accountable for your exercise. Working with someone like a personal trainer, a coach or a mentor will give you the support you need and you can work together to identify barriers to keeping your commitment and develop strategies to overcome these obstacles. Most people need far more support, follow up and accountability than they think to start and maintain an exercise program.
In the interest of avoiding the all or nothing mentality, don’t try to implement all these secrets at once. Pick one or two and when you have those working, add another secret. Just like results from exercise, building motivation and consistency will take time. Fitness is not just about reaching a destination, it is a journey where you will learn much about yourself and grow from your experiences. Keep your short term goals in mind, and enjoy the journey to reaching your ultimate goals.
Gillian Hood-Gabrielson, MS, ACSM, is the president of Healthier Outcomes, a nationwide coaching practice specializing in intuitive eating and fitness coaching. For more information and to receive our special report, “6 Simple Steps to Guilt-Free Eating” visit www.HealthierOutcomes.com. Gillian can be reached at gillian@HealthierOutcomes.com or 866-650-6464.
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