"Why do we Eat" and "How did we Gain Weight"?

Next week we are teaching a class on Emotional Eating at our local hospital. To prepare, I have tried to think globally about why we have ended up being a nation where 2/3 of our people are either overweight or obese! I am going to attempt to explain to you why I believe this is so. You will also be able to see why dieting has a long term success rate of 2%.

First question: Why do we eat?

Easy Answer: We are Hungry, right? Sort of right! Most of us eat only 20% of the time because we are actually hungry. The other 80% of the time, we eat for other reasons!

Now you know why diets fail. A diet usually says it is all about food. Change everything you know and love about food and do it this way and you will lose. Well, you box up your "80% reasons" for a time and lose the weight and then when the diet is over, you breath a sigh of relief and go back to your old ways. Voila!
Weight gain again, sometimes to a greater amount than you started at. Diets look at the "What". What are you eating wrong? Count your calories better and you should be successful. Do this by getting rid of carbs, or going low fat or whatever the lastest, greatest diet figures out to redo the calories. Not going to probably work!

Now for the rest of the story! This is your "How" or your "Personal History with Food". Have you ever started a diet and been asked to fill our your food history? I would highly doubt that. It would be like going to the doctor and leaving out your history. You would not get very far. I believe that diets do not work but each person must look at their personal history to find their answers. Most of us gain back the same weight with the same foods on the same days of the week at the same times over and over again! Enough!

What are some of the other 80% reasons that we eat?

Thoughts

All of Nothing Thinking (Perfection or Forget it)

Sabotaging Thoughts (Negative thinking)

Triggers (anything that triggers you to eat)

Biological-hunger, thirst, hormonally influenced cravings

Environmental-seeing or smelling food, food shows or ads

Mental-thinking about food, imagining food and the good and bad memories

Emotional-tension, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, boredom, happiness, excitement,.........

Social-offered food or being around others who are eating

Food-a particular food or type of food is your downfall

Situation

Time

Behavioral pattern

Habits

Mindless Eating

No Planning

Poor Nutrition

Your personal habits add here

Are you overwhelmed yet? Please do not be!

It is all about developing a unique set of great strategies that look at your particular food history and implementing them. Most of us are not doing that many things wrong. Most of us have not woken up today overweight, but have gained it slowly. We are not doing that much wrong. If you overeat by 100 calories per day you will gain 10 pounds this year. Let that go for 10 years and you would be 100 pounds overweight. By identifying your problem areas and cleaning them up, most of us can lose weight and feel better!

Types of Mindless Eaters

I am reading a book called "Eat, Drink, and be Mindful" by Susan Albers. She has classified the many different types of Mindless Eaters into a great list. Check it out. Which eater are you! You can be more than one. Awareness is the first step to making changes!

Multitasking Mindless Eater: You do another activity while eating.

Zoned Out Mindless Eater: You munch on food while watching TV, not really tasting or enjoying the food.

Emotional Mindless Eater: You eat when you feel any emotion, positive or negative.

Restaurant Mindless Eater: You see eating out as a treat and tend to overdo.

Time-Clock Mindless Eater: You eat by the clock, hungry or not.

Clean Plate Mindless Eater: You must always clean your plate.

Good Job Mindless Eater: You use food as a reward or treat.

Free Food Mindless Eater: If it is free, you will eat it, hungry or not, even if you do not like it.

Social Eater: You overeat or mindlessly eat with other people who are mindless eaters or at a party.

Habitual Mindless Eater: You tend to have routines around Mindless Eating, like having a snack when you watch certain TV shows or when you pass certain fast food restaurants.

Snack Grazer: Your meals may be good; but you eat many snacks or bites between meals.

Portion Eater: You feel the urge to eat the entire serving, whether it be a bag, box or bowl. You have trouble stopping before the portion is done.

Desire to Feel Full Eater: You worry about not feeling full and sometimes overeat for fear of not being full.

Multiple Items Eater: You like complex tastes. You are not satisfied with one item.

Second Helping Eater: You tend to automatically go for another serving of whatever you are eating.

Drawn to Certain Foods Eater: You eat healthy but overeat a certain type of food like carbs or sugary foods.

Instant Gratification Eater: You see it and you want it.

The Oh Well Eater: You messed up today so you gave up for the rest of the day.

Secret Eater: You tend to eat in private or in secret. You may eat with others and then later eat again when no one is watching.

Convenience Eater: You grab what is handy or easy to eat rather than preparing healthier options. This often leads to fast food and snacks.

One for Me and One for You Eater: Mindlessly eating your kids leftovers or while feeding them or off your partners plate.

Tandem Eater: You eat the same amount at the same pace as your friends.

Love the Taste Eater: You enjoy the taste of food so much that you want more of it.

What are your Mindless Eating Types?

Mindless Eating vs Mindful Eating

Most of us are Mindless Eaters, that is we grab food without much thought and then we do not remember later that we ate it and wonder why we are gaining weight. Most of us eat whatever we want anyway without thought. So common sense would say that we need to become Mindful Eaters and there are starting to be new diet books written about being Mindful Eaters. At first I thought wow this is it! They get it! The more I think about Mindful Eating though, I just get tired. Is it really possible to plan every single thing that you eat and be so organized and on top of life like that? Can a person really plan their daily calories when being off by only 100 calories per day can add up to 10 pounds of weight gain a year. There is a lot of room for error. I am not sure that most of us can do that! Is there HOPE?

I believe there is great Hope! Mindless Eating seems random but if you are journaling (see Monday's blog) you will begin to see patterns of eating forming. Maybe you are skipping breakfast and hunger is extreme from lunch on. Maybe you hit the break room machines at 3pm every day. Maybe you eat 1000 calories while you fix dinner. There are 1000's of habits that we have that cause us to overeat and I believe many of us make it much more complicated than it is. Also, it is difficult to see these habits and not want to change all of them tomorrow. That is how we are; Perfection or Nothing! All or Nothing Thinking! STOP!

I would encourage everyone to pick three habits at a time only. Work on those habits and when you have mastered one, add a new one. There are a few habits that can make a huge difference though and I will list a few and maybe you can then lose weight without really trying!

1. Downsize your dinnerware. If you eat off of a 10" plate vs a 12" plate, you will eat less. Your brain needs to see a full plate and will be satisfied. The same amount that fills a 10" plate looks like an appetizer on a 12" plate and your brains says "I have been denied" and you fill your plate more. A great place to find 10" plates is at an antique store. Yes, plates used to be that size. Our ancestors actually ate less!
2. Clean up the junk food in your home. Throw it away and do not buy it again! Please stop setting yourself up for failure! If you are trying to eat healthy but you keep your favorite Costco size bag of tortilla chips in the cupboard, you might have a problem! It is a lot easier to pass the chips at the store than your cupboard at night when you had a hard day. Same goes for ice cream, hidden chocolate stashes, cookies......You get it!
3. Do not put your serving dishes on the table or I guarantee you you WILL eat more. This is such a simple thing to do. In our house, I serve everyone at the stove and then put the leftovers away in tupperware containers for lunches the next day. I always have extra salad though. When someone wants seconds I say, "Well, I put the extra in a tupperware for your lunch tomorrow and if you eat more now you are going to have a skimpy lunch" My husband loves leftover lunches and hates sandwiches so he has an extra serving of salad. This is a habit everyone should do. If you leave the food on the table you will all eat more!!!!!
4. Use the half plate rule. This is my favorite. Fill half of your lunch and dinner plate with veggies. Then add one serving of your protein and one serving of your healthy carbohydrate (1/2 a cup is a serving, no tears, you can have more tomorrow.) None of us eat the recommended amounts of fruits and veggies. You should really see this on your journaling. Get creative. Trader Joe's has many salad dressings that are good and not high calorie. Try their balsamic or rasberry vinaigrette and drizzle it on.

There are so many easy tricks to add to your repertoire and I believe as you become saavy you can make up what works for you. Tomorrow I will post a list of some types of mindless overeating habits and you can see the type of eater you are!

Bare Bones Nutrition Week 1

Happy Monday! Each day is a new day. Forget your weekend diet blunders and resolve to make some lifestyle changes in your life this year that could help you lose weight with little effort. I will post a six week guideline to follow for the next six weeks on Mondays. This is a simple guideline that we follow in our classes. It is mostly about being aware in your life and looking for ways to change your habits.

Week 1
Record what you eat in a food journal and make no changes this week. You will use your journal to see your food choices and patterns of eating!!! The more information you can include the better. I would suggest including  time, food eaten, amount, hunger level, calories, where were you, activity (what were you doing), how were you feeling. If you could even do this for three days, it would be helpful. Record every single item that you put into your mouth. A great idea is to take a photo of each food you eat with your cell phone and record it at your convenience. Make sure to note your feelings though! This journal will become your road map to the changes you will need to make in your behavior in the next 6 weeks.

Most of us have no idea how much we eat per day and journaling is the single best way to lose weight. There is no free food out there, like so many of us think. A Costco sample outing will likely cost you around 600 calories. Yes, I actually walked around Costco and tallied this one day! If you sneak in six extra bites, licks or tastes every day, it can add up to 15 extra pounds a year. Journaling also develops an awareness in us as we notice our daily habits, calories, what we really eat (wow no fruits and veggies), triggers, and portion sizes.

I will show how to look at your journal and make some simple changes and substitutions that can save you many calories. You will spot your problem areas, times and see if you are an overeater, snacker, grazer.......In our class we evaluate calories and look for simple ways to save. We can almost always cut calories in half with simple changes and some new strategies that are easy to incorporate.

Remember that it is not as hard as diets want us to think! Happy Monday and Journal away!

About Us

Greetings Everyone! Happy Sunday! I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know why Cindy and I do what we do and a little about us. Then off to watch the Seahawks game!

Cindy and I started our business, Lifestyle Solutions, 3 years ago. We have been friends for many years and have boys that were best friends growing up. I (Kerry) have a degree in Dietetics. My passion and interest is Obesity. I have never believed diets worked because I have never seen long term success in people I know.  In the past 20 years the obesity rates have skyrocketed, and this has saddened me because I believe that the more you know, the more you can eat! People are not really overeating, just eating that extra 100 calories a day that puts on an extra 10 pounds in a year and after 10 years, 100 pounds. Who knew that extra measly 100 calories per day could add up to so much in the long term? I believe with a little bit of education of some smart substitutions, and working on your triggers that most people can get their weight under control. I wanted to help people do this.

Cindy has a masters in counseling and spent many years working as a Social worker, some of which were spent counseling people with eating disorders. She also has a passion to help people struggling with their weight, but more from the emotional end of things. Lets face it, most of us eat for emotional reasons and it is her passion to help people work through these emotions, rather than eating which is only a very temporary fix, and ultimately makes you feel worse as you gain weight. We felt that we both fit together well so started our business.

What we offer is practical tips and common sense ideas to help you be healthy. We hope that you will join us this year as we offer advice and tips to keep your weight down, learn tricks that can help you do this, work on triggers and how to stop them, work on emotional eating, mindless eating and all of the other ways that we can think to eat. We try to be practical, but fun too.

I love to answer questions and I will write on any weight related topic that people are interested in. Send in your ideas!

Now off to watch the Seahawks hopefully defy the odds and win another game!!! Kerry

Review of "10 Habits that Mess Up a Woman's Diet" by Elizabeth Summer

Yesterday, I was reviewing my favorite books for our upcoming Emotional Eating class at Evergreen Hospital. I found some interesting facts in this book, and I will quote her.

• "If you're like most women, you probably rate your eating habits somewhere between "really good" and "pretty good". She then states that 90% of women polled think their diets are reasonably healthy and that almost all of them are delusional!
• 70% of Americans say they are eating "pretty much whatever they want," and the whatever is not the stuff of which healthy, trim bodies are made.
• We're eating more calories and moving less than we did 20 years ago.
• We are currently averaging 158 pounds of sugar eaten per year.
• Most of us eat 11 serving of grains per day, most of them highly refined and lacking nutrients.
• 40% of us are regularly eating fast food weekly.
• We are not eating enough healthy foods like fruits, veggies, and real foods.

Her book then has chapters on Mindless Eating, Your needs, Honesty, Healthy Eating, Planning, Excuses, Moods, Habits, Drinking, and All or Nothing Thinking. I would say that this book is the most practical one that I own for the person that does not want to diet, but wants to make healthy changes to their eating, work on mindless and emotional eating, and also change the way they look at the world. It is my favorite book and she makes it fun and easy to read!

This book is a must buy book for your library! Kerry

Class at Evergreen Hospital on Jan. 26

Greetings everyone. I wanted to let you know that Cindy and I are teaching a class this month at Evergreen Hospital on "Emotional Eating". We will provide some strategies to end emotional eating. For the majority of us emotional eating is an issue for our permanent weight control. Life gets crazy and we eat. We might eat when we are mad, sad, happy, stressed, lonely, anxious, worried..... You get the point. We eat when things are going well and also when life is tough. We try to make our classes fun and very interactive. We look forward to seeing you there!

Class Category is "Healthy Living"
Class Title is "Emotional Eating"
Jan. 26, 7-8:30 $10
https://weblink.healthlines.org/web3/clRs2.do
or www.evergreenhospital.org/classes
or call 425 899-3000 to register M-F 7am to 7pm

Another New Year

Wow Everyone,
It's another New Year and if you are like everyone else you are busy trying to live up to your New Year's resolutions! I saw a great comic where a guy goes into a gym and asks, "Do you have a membership deal that will last me just for the first couple weeks of the New Year, when I've fooled myself into believing that I can stick to my "Get in Shape" Resolution? Does that sound like most of us or what?

Let's make this year count and not be like the guy in the comic. Let's not diet, set unrealistic weight goals for ourselves or try to eat foods that we hate. Let's make some simple lifestyle habit changes that will help us become more healthy. I wanted to start the year going through some of my favorite ways to make some simple changes. I think that these changes basically fall into three categories. Our Habits, Emotional Eating and Food choices/Nutrition.

Our Habits are huge and it is in this area that most of us fail. You might need some changes with habits if you:

1. Eat and Watch television or multi-task
2. Skip breakfast
3. Eat straight from a container or bag
4. Eat at fast food often
5. Snack all day long
6. Eat in your car
7. Put your serving dishes on the table
8. Eat a lot of food that has a bar code on it.
9. Eat a lot of processed food
10. Buy a lot of processed food
11. Eat most of your calories after 6 PM
12. Have poor self talk and thoughts

Basically, you can see that I could keep writing indefinitely because there are so many areas in our lives that we have developed poor habits over time. Each of us is very different and has our own set of problem areas. There is no "one size fits all diet" or "diet advice" that works for everyone. I could make the same never ending list for healthy food choices or for Emotional Eating also, but you get the point. We all have different reasons for having weight problems. 

I want to take the blog and help you get started thinking about ways you can make some simple changes that will help you. Please make this year different by not dieting but by making lasting practical changes that will help you lose weight permanently. It is not rocket science like all of the diet books would like us to believe!

Don't be discouraged. There is much hope!

Kerry

Holiday Eating

Happy Holidays Everyone,

I hope that everyone is enjoying the holiday season. I wanted to give you a few of my personal tips to make it through the holidays without gaining a ton of weight! These are my favorites and they work for me.

1. Do not deny yourself when you go to a party. Denial leads to sneaking later on. I have been to many holiday celebrations this year already and have noticed that I eat more than everyone else. I take a serving of each thing I like, skip the items I can get other times of the year, skip desserts I do not love and eat a generous portion of any fruits and veggies that are at celebrations! My plate is always full and I leave full but not stuffed. I never feel the need to go home and pig out because I've denied myself. I totally enjoy party foods!

2. Keep self-talk under control. When I come home from a party I do not berate myself for indulging in party foods. You must keep your thoughts under control as I believe most overeating starts with poor thoughts of yourself and beating yourself up.

3. Practice healthy eating for meals in between your parties. This is where the difficulty comes in. Yesterday, I went to a ladies brunch with amazing treats and also a pizza party in the evening. Quite a caloric day for me. I noticed this morning that my regular breakfast of Trader Joe's High Fiber cereal did not sound appealing. My brain was telling me that a scone, bran muffin or bread pudding would taste wonderful (my previous day's brunch). I was mulling over what I could eat. I do not have a house with junk food in it. Therefore, my choices were to eat my regular cereal or bake something. I am lazy so ate my cereal. It is very important during the holidays to keep your house clear of foods that call your name. I had to sit myself down this morning and practice some great self-talk about staying within my eating boundaries. I planned out my breakfast and lunch. They will be very healthy to make up for yesterday. 

4. Take something healthy to your holiday celebrations. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, you will have something healthy to eat at the party. I took fresh pineapple and mascarpone cheese to my brunch. Everyone loved it and it was the only healthy food at the brunch. The second reason is that you will bring home healthy leftovers. If I had taken a gooey cinnamon roll creation to my brunch (my second choice), I would have eaten it again today when my brain was rebelling against healthy eating this morning. I will eat my leftover pineapple with a tuna salad for lunch!

5. Keep your home baking under control or bake and give it away. I baked four types of Christmas cookies last week for a party. I had tons of leftovers. I plated them immediately and passed them on to my neighbors. They loved them and I had the cookies out of my house! I will bake a couple of types of cookies right before Christmas but not my usual splurge. I know that if I bake variety, I will not be satisfied with a couple of cookies but will want one of each type. Keep your baking to a minimum!

It is possible to party and keep your weight under control during the holidays! It does take some planning and great self talk though! 

Transparency

Hey Everyone,
Transparency is something that has been on my mind for the last few weeks. I am a leader with a Young Life Capernaum group of young adults. Capernaum works with students and young adults that are differently-abled. Many of them have become some of my very best friends. What I love about them is their insight and that they do not make life complicated, as I often do. It is so refreshing to me! I love their transparency! When they are struggling at work, they'll call and say "Hey, I am struggling at work and yelled at my boss today." When they are worried about their family Christmas party, they might say, "I am so nervous about the drama that revolves around Christmas at my house when the family gets together!" I love this transparency!

Most of us would admit that we are not transparent. The last thing we want to admit is our struggles. I have seen from my friends that facing your struggles and asking for help is not a bad way to live. When problems and struggles come during the holiday season, try reaching out to one of your friends or family and talking it out rather than reaching for food. Food is a temporary way to sooth your hurts and does not work long term. We all know this, yet we still try to eat to satisfy our emotions with food.

Join me during the holidays in practicing transparency with your friends and family. I have seen that most of my problems are not as big as I have made them in mind, when I share them with others. Sometimes a hug from a friend feels a whole lot better than eating lots of tortilla chips (my ultimate love/hate food). No guilt and shame but love and acceptance!

Blessings for the Holiday Season!

Kerry

Lifestyle Changes

Most of us with a weight problem have gained weight slowly over the years. If you gained 10 pounds this year, you have overeaten 100 calories per day. This is not a lot of food. The notion going around is that you must mindfully eat. Such a small error in your eating caused this weight gain so you must count your calories carefully each day. There are many websites set up to help you keep track of every single thing that you eat. You must not diet because we all know that dieting does not work, but somehow magically get all of your habits, emotional eating and overindulging under control. This is exhausting!

What if you looked at your ten pound yearly weight gain in a different light and thought, "I am only overeating 100 calories per day and this is not a lot of food. I do not need to change my entire life and count every single calorie that goes into my mouth." What if you chose 3 areas of your eating and cleaned them up a bit. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating encourages people to do this. Choose three habits or areas in your eating life that you can clean up. You might substitute an Americano for your latte and save over 200 calories a day. You might use light margarine on your toast and save 100 calories per day. If you keep a food journal for a week, you will begin to see many areas where a few changes can be made that will result in many calorie savings.

If you can decrease 500 calories per day, you should lose one pound per week fairly effortlessly! That would be 50 lost pounds in a year. Wow!

A lifestyle change does not mean that you must mindfully eat all of the time. It means that you will clean up a few of your major trouble spots and add more healthy foods in their place. Does it mean you will not ever eat a dessert again. No, but you might cut your quantity in half. Those giant Costco pies are not meant to be cut into eighths but into sixteenths. Relearn your portions, make some simple personal changes daily, and add a few more veggies into your meals. You might be surprised that some simple changes can add up to a huge weight loss with little effort!!!

Easy Tips for Cooking Light on Thanksgiving

I am not in favor of trying to limit what I eat at Thanksgiving but I do not want to gain weight. There are some easy steps to make this meal less caloric and just as enjoyable!

1. Cook a fresh turkey breast

2. Saute the veggies for your dressing in fat free chicken or veggie broth rather than a stick of butter. If you are making corn bread dressing decrease the fat by half in your corn bread.

3. Cook fresh green beans in a tad of olive oil rather than the fried onion green bean casserole.

4. Cook a low starch veggie rather than peas or corn. (Enough starch with the potatoes and dressing).

5. Make a sugar free jello with fresh fruit.

6. Make a fresh fruit salad or a fresh veggie salad.

7. Skip bread

8. Add a bit of neufatel cream cheese to the potatoes rather than gobs of butter.

9. Purchase Costco turkey gravy which is lower calorie than making your own where it is hard to control the fat. Go lightly on the gravy.

10. Make a lower fat pumpkin dessert. You could make a pumpkin mousse or cheesecake in ramekins and ditch the crust which is loaded in calories.

Join me in giving Thanks without feeling a load of guilt. Blessings!

Thanksgiving is Not the Beginning of the Fall

Greetings Everyone,

I know this is a busy day as we prepare for the next 6 weeks of holiday chaos and craziness! First comes Thanksgiving and great food to be thankful for. Then we try to squeeze in as many December parties as we can before Christmas. We finish our splurging with the New Year and perhaps a great Superbowl party. Unfortunately by this time most of us can't squeeze into our pants and are hit with the winter blues! If this cycle sounds familiar, taking a few minutes today can change your outcome. Is there any hope of breaking the cycle and if so what can you do?

1. Remember to stick to the basics and plan. If you are trying to eat 1700 calories a day, stick with your preplanned meals. You know you are going to be eating some extra foods so plan for these. Do not grab hold of the mentality that says "Oh well. I am going to go to a party so I should binge all day. Remember it is about eating right 80% of the time and sane 100% of the time.
2. Try to make your Thanksgiving less about heavy carbs. Add some fresh salads or veggies. Observe the half plate rule that says half of your plate should be salads and veggies. Have the mashed potatoes and dressing but in smaller quantities. Who really needs bread when you have potatoes and dressing so skip bread. Maybe ditch the pre-dinner binge that could be 1000's of calories. You know all of those chips and dip and pistachios you sneak in!
3. Keep eating your regular high fiber breakfast and fruit. It is so easy to go hog wild and add in a cinnamon roll here and there. Try not to do this. They may taste great for a few minutes but the after effects last a long time. They are not worth it. Try making a new egg scramble with fresh veggies or a baked egg casserole with veggies for your special occasions. They are delicious and you will feel a lot better than the weakness brought on by a sugar high.
4. Purchase healthy fruits and veggies for grab and go foods and keep the baking to a minimum. Remember that you can't very easily eat what is not in your cupboard. Cookies are very caloric especially since we tend to grab a couple each time we pass the kitchen. You might actually find you do better having a small piece of pie to satisfy your sweet tooth because you do not crave tons of pie but you crave one of each cookie and since you baked 10 kinds....oops!
5. Do not skip meals. People who eat more meals per day eat less calories by the end of the day. Make sure your meals are very healthy. Most of us do eat more junk food during this time so if you really make your home meals healthy this can help balance out the parties. Keep your processed carbs to a minimum. Go hog wild on veggie soups, chilies, veggies and low fat proteins and skip the dips/chips and the snack foods that are so filled with calories and leave you feeling bloated.
6. The holidays can be a very emotional time for many people. It is important to be aware of times that you are eating for emotional reasons rather than hunger and plan some strategies for eliminating emotional eating. Maybe you can find a friend to call on a regular basis to talk to about your struggles. Food can not fill the hole in your heart that is hurting. As you become more aware of the times you emotionally eat you will be able to avoid those situations or develop other ways to feel better.

Life as a healthy person is about balance. People who are a healthy weight have learned how to add in a few treats and balance that with mostly healthy eating. It starts in your mind first. It is something you must plan for and arrange your life around. Eating is a pleasure and to be enjoyed, so go for it these holidays in a preplanned small way. If you make careful choices you will easily squeeze into your jeans in January. Yeah!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Halloween Tips

Greetings Ladies! It is that time of year again when we begin to plan our holiday eating rituals. We hope that we will not gain any weight!  Lets be proactive this year so we will not begin 2011 in "Scale Shock!" Is there really anything that we can do?

Here are a few tips for Halloween:

1. Do not buy Halloween candy early. It will not last until Halloween. Buy your candy right before Halloween, and do not open it until the first trick or treater arrives. This from someone who has already eaten two bags of candy corn! YIKES!

2. Do not buy your favorite candy. Who can resist Butterfingers, but who is tempted by Twizzlers! Just not the same!

3. Only buy the amount of candy that you will actually need. Do not buy the "Costco bag" if you only have 10 trick or treaters usually.

4. If you have "accidentally" bought too much (right), then throw it away the next day! This is expensive but the expense of gaining weight is greater. Do not send your extra Halloween candy to your adult children, because you can't throw away candy. My mother actually has done this in the past!

5. Hand out candy to your kids, but buy yourself one adult size candy treat that you love. It is better to allow yourself a nice treat like a full size butterfinger than to sneak a few (ok 10) mini butterfingers that add up to many more calories. Know what you eat and plan to include that treat that day. No one is encouraging denial here!

6. Be boring and healthy and hand out a healthy treat. This year I have purchased "100 calorie snack packs of "craisins", which I will be handing out. If there are leftovers that is great. We will use them on our cereal! All of that groaning is my husband and son complaining that we do not have real candy!

Halloween begins the season of open eating. Lets be proactive this year. I heard a quote this year that I love. Eat great 80% of the time and sane 100% of the time. Let's be sane this year people and avoid "Scale Shock" in January!

Diets Do Not Work

Everywhere I go people ask me for "Diet Advice." Diets do not work because they slow your metabolism down and you will most likely gain the weight right back. Making small changes permanently does work. If you can simply cut out 500 calories a day from your diet, you will lose 52 pounds this year. Wouldn't that be amazing! Here is a sample of what you could do to cut out a few hundred calories per day without dieting.

1. Cut out one soda a day and drink water with a lemon or lime slice. (150 calories saved)

2. Use mustard rather than mayo or sauce on your sandwich. (100 or more calories saved)

3. Remove the skin from your chicken for lunch or dinner. (100 or more calories saved)

4. Use a low calorie salad dressing or lemon on your salad. (100 or many more calories saved)

5. Do not put cheese on your lunch sandwich but extra veggies. (150 to 200 calories saved)

6. Skip juice in the morning. (100 calories saved)

7. Exchange regular butter or marg. for light ones. (50 calories per Tablespoon saved)

8. Substitute an Americano for your favorite coffee extravaganza! (200 to 600 calories saved)

Calories can add up quickly if you are not paying attention. Start looking for ways to make some permanent changes and these changes can add up to weight loss. Happy Reducing!