Losing weight

If you are trying to lose weight, you have three choices; go on the latest greatest diet, exercise more, or make longterm lifestyle solutions! Conventional wisdom says that it is all about calories in and calories out. Get them under control and weight control will result. That is what the USDA suggests in their new dietary guidelines. Research is showing there may be more involved. Chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and other additives might be interfering with your endrocrine system and actually changing how your body deals with calories, as well as your metabolism, and possibly your fat cell number. Scientists still do not have all of the answers!

What can you do if this is true? My recommendations would be to implement lifestyle solutions like:

• Adopt the half plate rule but use smaller plates. Mounding a large plate, even following the half plate rule, will probably add weight. Remember half of your plate should be fruits and veggies. Aim for more veggies than fruits because they are less caloric.
• Adopt light recipes for your favorites. Most recipes can be just as delicious with reduced calories.
• Adopt the Meatless Monday idea. Have a meatless meal at least one day of the week.
• Make sure you are keeping your starches under control. Remember they are to fill only 1/4 of your plate. One serving of a grain is only 1/2 a cup, which is quite small.
• Eliminate processed foods from your diet as much as possible. Eat real foods. If it comes in a box, bag, or package, it is not real food. If it needs an ingredient list, it is not real food.
• Buy organic meats without antibiotics, or hormones and grass fed or free range. If cattle are given hormones to increase their growth, you are eating the very same hormones. Could these hormones be increasing your weight also? Find a great source of organic meat.
• Buy organic fruits and veggies at least for the most contaminated produce called the dirty dozen. Once again, eating pesticides could be interfering with your endocrine system and causing weight gain.
• Learn correct portions of meat, starches, and fruits, but eat unlimited veggies!
• Limit chemicals in your home. Use green products whenever possible.
• Exercise daily even if it is just brisk walking. Add more steps daily!
• Eat set meals and snacks (mini meals) and end mindless eating.

These are just a few things to think about when you are making lifestyle solutions. The way to personalize your plan is to keep a food journal for a couple of weeks. Evaluate your journal and clean up your problem areas. It is difficult but doable. Unless you want to fight this battle for the rest of your life, it is easier to make a few permanent lifestyle solutions that promote healthy eating and keep your weight under control!

New Day

Holiday weekends are not known for being diet friendly! The extra holiday day just seems to turn our heads to mush and we eat foods that we normally resist, and portions that are large scale! Many of us started out today with renewed thoughts of finally getting this weight game under control!

Today, I watched the first installment of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. I usually do not like these shows because they are not real life. Most of us do not have an army to back our weight loss. This show was different. There will be eight chosen clients, who will strive to lose half of their weight in a year. Each show is about a separate client and their year long process. So you get it, the year is over. They are not competing with anyone. This weight loss is for them. They are doing it for them. They have help in the beginning for one week, because they must learn what they need to do, and then they are on their own for the next year. They are reweighed every three months and their progress is registered. If they lose half of their weight by the end of the year, then they qualify for skin surgery to take off all of the hanging skin from their weight loss. Seems like a great deal!

Last nights show was about Rachel, a PE teacher. She was 220 pounds overweight. She had been the homecoming queen in high school, as well as valedictorian, an overachiever in other words. She was tired of being disappointed in herself. She started out at 369 pounds.

I do not want to give the show away. It is worth watching. What I loved about it is:

• I liked that they showed Rachel as so vulnerable. She said of her weight, "This is all about the mistakes I have made and all the things that I have done to myself"
• They showed how difficult weight loss is and how family often brings you down. Her family was behind her, but not supporting her in their actions. They left all kind of junk food out and around and did not buy healthy foods. It took a few months and tears for them to come around completely!
• Rachel only met her first goal completely. She almost met her second goal, but was 5 pounds off. She only lost 3 pounds from 6 months to 9 months but was still given the weight loss surgery. She ended up losing to 208 pounds and looked amazing. She was still 23 pounds above her original goal to lose half of her weight.

Even though Rachel did not meet all of her goals, and one time only lost 3 pounds in a three month period, she was honest and dealt with it. Together they solved her problems honestly, and gave her more training in nutrition. I loved that. The show was real. Most of us are not machines. We are real people. Weight loss is complex, but do able. It is about figuring yourself out. Practicing honesty with yourself. Even though Rachel did not make every single one of her goals, she pressed on, and she was rewarded for her persistence and looked wonderful. I loved that. Do not give up when you feel like it!

Long term weight loss

Most of the people who diet, gain their weight back. The national weight loss registry reports that only 5% of people keep the weight off long term. Here is a list of the qualities found in people who did keep the weight off long term:

• They expect failure and keep trying.
• Do not deny themselves; they eat some for taste but not to get full.
• Weigh themselves often.
• Exercise for 1 hour a day. One out of four people walks briskly.
• They add extra bits of physical activity into their daily routine.
• A high carbohydrate/low fat diet works best for most of the people in the registry.
• Eat five small meals per day.

If you have lost weight and do not want to gain it back these are some ideas that have worked for successful people who have kept their weight off long term!