Stop Eating Yourself Crazy!

Friday

Apr152011

Stop Eating Yourself Crazy!

Diets don’t work — not in the long run. Here’s how to achieve weight loss that lasts.

BY STACY ANSCHULTZ

To borrow a phrase from the realm of religious philosophy: Don’t hate the dieter. Hate the diet.

This isn’t to say that diets don’t work. They do — sometimes spectacularly well. The only problem is that the successful results from ìfadî diets and other short-term eating plans don’t last the long haul. All too often, quick-loss plans give way to nasty rebounds. The pounds come back with a vengeance, and all that effort goes to waste. Sometimes the ìyo-yoî effect can be worse than the original fat gain you were trying to correct in the first place.

The casuse for this are many. Researchers are finding there are a multitude of reasons some people can’t keep weight loss off or achieve it in the first place. Some are based in genetics, others a lack of activity.

No matter what hand nature dealt you, smart eating and an effective exercise program can give you a fighting chance. But it takes more than that. You can’t expect will power alone to change a lifetime of bad habits.

A good start would be to follow the following some of the guidelines below. We hope that these nutrition and exercise rules can help you change the way your perspective on how to achieve your goals. It’s not a diet plan; it’s a way of life.

1) Change Your Relationship to Food. You may have heard some weight-loss experts say this. What it means is that you stop looking at food as a reward or a source of pleasure and comfort. Many do this by reminding themselves that “food is fuel,” meaning that the main function of food is to keep you energized and healthy.

This is really one of the most difficult things to change about yourself. Whatever bad eating habits you have, they’ve been ingrained for years, sometimes decades. They may even be connected to emotional problems or trauma in your past. You can’t change these things overnight, but you can be aware of your habits, pay closer attention to how you think about food, especially if you consume certain fattening foods when you become depressed or stressed out. It’s about being honest with yourself. That’s the first step.

Do this: Try keeping a journal of when and what you eat, and your mood while you’re eating. You may find some eye-opening facts about yourself that lead to more than a change in eating habits.

2) Body Image Is Not a Numbers Game. You’ve probably heard this before: Don’t pay attention to the scale. Unless you’re a prizefighter or a college wrestler, what you weigh isn’t important. It certainly isn’t anything to agonize over. If you’re training hard, eating well and gaining muscle in the gym, your weight may be deceptive to how you actually look.

Do This: Use a mirror and the way your clothes fit as a way to gauge your progress. Nobody knows how much you weigh and nobody cares. Don’t create a problem that doesn’t exist.

3) Don’t fear gaining muscle if you’re a woman. For the millionth time, adding muscle is difficult to do, and weight training is an extremely beneficial activity. Weightlifting adds bone mass, strength and is a great calorie burner. Unless you have a bizarre hormonal system, you are not going to become “bulky” or overly muscular. If by chance you do, it’s easy to hold back and decrease any unwanted mass. Added muscle enhances your curves and natural shape. Changing your proportions with a little extra muscle makes you look slimmer, and helps increase your metabolism.

Do This: Ask a personal trainer in your gym to help you develop a sound weight training routine for your fitness and strength level. Stick with it and enjoy the benefits.

4) Exercise Portion Control. Experts agree: One of the biggest causes behind rising obesity rates is miscalculation of how much we’re really eating. This is often a function of eating out, where you don’t control the portions, as you clean your plate no matter how much you piled on it.

Do This: Again, being aware of the problem is a start. Also, before a meal, drink eight ounces of water, and try the soup option before ordering the main course. You may be surprised at how satisfied it makes you.

5) Move It! You may be busting your hump in the gym after work, but those nine hours sitting at your computer and playing solitaire are going to catch up with you. Researchers at the University of Missouri recently showed that prolonged periods of sitting leads to the body substantially decreasing production of the enzyme lipase, which helps break down fat. Being a desk ornament is something the body is not used to doing. It accommodates by storing fat and becomes very efficient at storing calories. Your metabolism just drops. Any time you can get up, move around, take some stairs, or get out and take a few deep breaths, do it.

Do this: Unless you’re a pilot on a transatlantic flight, get up, get out and get your blood moving on a consistent basis.

6) Be Aware of How Medications May Affect Bodyweight. Many common prescription medications have profound effects on metabolism and hormone fluctuations. Some psychiatric drugs, particularly the SSRIs, are well-known to add weight to the person using them. Prednisone and anti-imflammatories can also add extra pounds. Do a little research and ask your doctor if weight gain may be a side effect.

Do this: If a required medication does add bodyweight, ask your doctor if there’s an alternative that may not have this side effect. If may be something you have to live with, but there may be ways to counteract it. Again, tell your doctor of your concerns. He or she has probably dealt the problem with other patients with similar problems and may have a workable solution.

7) Improve your digestion. Fiber and “good” bacteria in the form of probiotics will help your digestive system break down food and enhance your immune system. Having a clean gut provides a host of benefits, including weight loss. You may also want to do the occasional cleanse to rid yourself of added weight that’s stuck inside your intestines.

Do this: Beneficial bacteria can be found in cultured foods like yogurt, but are also now available in other dairy foods such as cottage cheese. Also, supplementation in tablet, capsule or powder forms, such as acidophilus, are quite common. If the probiotic is being taken for maintenance or preventive purposes, a reasonable dose would be between 1 billion organisms two or three times weekly

8) Avoid processed and deep-fried foods. You’ve heard this over and over again, and you’re about to hear it once more: Stay away from processed and fried foods as much as humanly possible. Stick with the types of food that make up the Mediterranean diet, which continues to impress researchers who study its healthful effects.

Do this: The Mediterranean diet consists of generous amounts of olive oil, fish, unrefined cereals, fruit and vegetables; moderate consumption of dairy in the form of cheese and yogurt; and low amounts of meat products. One reason it works is because these ingredients prepared well can be quite tasty and satisfying.

9) Use Your Social Network and Local Community. You’re not in this alone. Research continues to support the concept of relying on friends and your social network to help you achieve your fitness and health goals. Working out with a friend, getting to know other people at your health club, using the Internet to connect with others on similar weight-loss journeys — all of these things help. Go on your fitness journey with a friend or a group of friends, and you’ll have a much better chance at success. Great health is contagious, just like obesity is.

Do this: Don’t hang around others who negatively affect your self-esteem or tempt you into living an unhealthy lifestyle. A support network is important in changing bad habits. Stick with those who lift you up instead of bringing you down. Keeping a journal of your moods and emotions throughout the day may open your eyes to how certain people may be affecting you in good and bad ways.

10) Don’t do anything extreme. Just because some guy on a couch talking to Oprah sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, beware of any one-trick dieting trick or an extreme eating or lifestyle program. Starvation diets, grapefruit diets, cookie diets: They all disappear as quickly as they show up for one simple reason: They don’t work. If some guy wants to stick you in a sweat lodge for three days to “teach your body how to metabolize your emotional fat,” get away from him. You’re going for a lifestyle here, not a quick fix.

Do this: Give yourself some time to adjust to a new way of eating. And give yourself a break when you deviate from your new eating philosophy. It’s a process. It takes time to ingrain new habits to take the place of old destructive behaviors. You may have three great days, then two bad ones, but don’t let that stop you from sticking to the long-term plan. Once you adjust to a healthy lifestyle, you’ll never go back.

IHRSA | in

Spring/Summer 2011 tagged

New Rules,

Nutrition,

Weight-Loss

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