"Some Me of Beauty"

The other day I blogged about how you might feel with success or failure regarding facing holiday temptations and some of your feelings around it. It reminded me of this poem by Carolyn Rogers. Men, this relates to you too even though it's aimed at women in particular.

Sometimes when we are overweight we only look at the the negative exterior and criticize all what we do not like, inside and out, which is hard on your self-esteem. But then as we are losing weight  we may start to really to see our outer beauty as well as what's inside  Don't ever ever forget you have that inner beauty each and every one of you, heavy or thin. Don't let your exterior make you forget what really matters inside of you. 

Some Me of Beauty

 A Poem by Carolyn Rodgers

I took a good long look at myself in a full length mirror
Sometimes it’s good to look in a full length mirror
And what I saw was not some soul sister poetess of the moment
But I saw just a woman
Just a woman feeling
Just a woman human
And what I felt was
What I felt was a spiritual revelation
And what I felt was a root revival of some love coming on
Coming on strong
And I knew then, looking in a full length mirror,
That many things were over
And some me of beauty was about to begin

Holiday Recovery

Well, readers how did you do over Thanksgiving? Are you proud of yourself for a job well done or beating yourself up?

For those of you who did well, fantastic! It takes a lot to be controlled with so much tasty food around. For those of you who were not as successful think of this quote by Thomas Edison: "I never failed once. My invention just happened to be a 2,000 step process." It took Edison that many times to invent the light bulb!

 I found this this wonderful inspiring article by Bill Larson. The crux of his thought is that "Failure is unavoidable and part of the process." He talks about weight loss and other stories of failure and success. He quoted Edison further, "Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out." Think about how we believe we won't have setbacks from time to time. It's just plain unrealistic that we won't have mistakes from time to time, especially at social events.

Larson goes on to say, "No matter what your goals in life, the highest peaks of success follow the lowest valleys of failures." Well put. So you won't always overcome every temptation but if you never give up you'll eventually succeed!

Kick Off Season for Holiday Eating

Happy Thanksgiving! What will your day bring? Below is a list of challenges you may have. Review them and here and now decide how you will deal with any one of them. (Don't forget to use Tuesday's hints.)

-Say “no thank you” to someone who offers me a specially prepared dish.

 -Allow myself to eat a favorite food in moderation.

 -To really enjoy myself whatever I am eating without feeling guilty.

 -Avoid feeling deprived

 -Effectively explain needs and wants to family and friends.

 -Effectively deal with the pressure to eat something I really don’t want.

 -Prepare a holiday meal.

 -Ask support from others

-Other?

So readers, what are your specific challenges and share your strategies!

Thanksgiving Holiday Alert

Thanksgiving alert! This is the traditional time for eating triathlons! Today I'll work on a few little hints you can start practicing now that only take a minute to do. Keep doing them through the months ahead to keep you focused on your weight loss goals, healthy eating or even just maintaining your weight when  food is constantly taunting you!

Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and give yourself a little positive pep talk. This can help you anytime of year because let's face it, there are always social occasions revolving around food anyway.

When you look in the mirror, honestly ask yourself, what is your priority at this time of year with the upcoming events? Do you want to enjoy some extra food and just maintain or do you want to continue to lose? Or how happy would you be gaining?

Just note you will be faced with a lot more temptations than usual and be realistic about what your goal will be. The important thing though is just to truly commit yourself to a real decision here. Maintain or gain? (Or lose?)

Lastly,  how will you feel if you over-do? How will it feel if you maintain? If you can just think about these few things it may be enough to keep you from overdoing any eating event! Think about the long term consequences of your actions.What is it that you really want?

Why Food May Be Addictive

I had been suspecting this for a long time now but the proof seems to be pointing more and more in this direction. According to INR (Institute for Natural Resources, Concord, CA) highly processed foods, especially fast foods, are the ones that are the most "addicting."

They are typically foods that provide the most seductive rewards. In other words they raise the dopamine and serotonin (pleasure seeking hormones) levels in the brain at the highest and fastest rates over other foods. Addictive foods would include refined sugar of any kind, processed carbs made from white flour, along with high amounts of salt, saturated fats and even caffeine, especially when combined together.

So think of the fast food industry in general and all the processed food where they are typically consumed as opposed to whole fresh foods.  And don't forget all the "coffee shakes" (full of sugar, fat and caffeine) popularized throughout our entire current environment. These foods are totally refined, potent in terms of their rewarding ingredient list mentioned above.(And they are cheap which heightens their allure.) This past seminar suggests that in animal studies, the way the ingredients are combined enhances their addictive force. In mice studies, the animals work harder for these types of foods even when not hungry!

So what's the take home message? Eat WHOLE foods as much as possible! It all goes back to the basics by eating real food and not relying on the fast food industry to entice us to the obesity epidemic trap.

Overcome Binge Eating

The other day I discussed the definition of binge eating according to DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria. Staticics show  that 25% to 50% obese people binge.  According to the Institute for Natural Resources a continuing education program for health professionals suggested that people can  recover by utilizing two special tools:

1. Get professional help. They suggest specific counseling utilizing edreferral.com to find someone qualified.
2. Read and utilize the book : Overcoming Binge Eating by Christopher Fairburn. It is an older publication but there have been quite favorable results using it. It is a workbook so it does mean you will be exploring your feelings and emotions.

It was interesting to note too that the success rate using these two things together that the success rate was 63%. Pretty high odds considering most diets fail in the long haul by about 95%.

Binge Eating Defined

The other day I started sharing some information from a recent seminar on "Food Addictions." Today I want to share even more on binge eating really is.

Binge eating is now a formal diagnostic disorder met with specific criteria:

:

1. Recurrent episodes of binge eating, designated by a discrete period of time consuming an amount of food which is definitely larger than most people would consume in similar circumstances along with a definite lack of control during that episode.
2. Binge eating occurs at least 2 days a week, every week for 6 months without intervention of any compensatory behavior.
3. Binge-eating is associated with at least 3 of the following: Eating more rapidly than usual; eating till uncomfortably full; eating extreme amounts of food when not physically hungry; eating alone because of embarrassment by how much is being consumed; feeling disgusted, depressed or guilty after overeating.
4. Marked distress because one is binge eating. 
5.  Note: Although not  a specific criteria, binge foods are typically high in fats and sugar, or often both.

Later this week I’ll share some solutions to this problem.

Seminar Findings on Food Addiction

Recently I attended a continuing education seminar from the Institute for Natural Resources for Health Professionals called “Food Addictions, Overeating and Mood Swings.” What amazed me in that there was so much debate about the fact if a person can be really “addicted” to food.

As a former compulsive eater and having been overweight myself I  thought..... what difference does it really make with over 65% of our population overweight now,   new statistics  suggesting that by the year 2015, 75% of the population will be overweight and that 41% will be obese! But I digress….

Apparently the similarities between a real drug addiction and food addiction were extremely similar, but according to Mark Gold, Chief of Addiction Medicine, McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida, defined a food addiction as:

-Eating too much despite consequences, even with dire consequences to health

-Being preoccupied with food, food preparation and meals

-Trying and failing to cut back on food intake

-Feeling guilty about eating and overeating

Readers please share your thoughts on this with me. I’ll share more interesting findings from this conference later in the month..

Success is an Attitude

This past couple of weeks I have been discussing ways to prepare yourself for the holiday rush ahead so you can still have the time to keep your healthy habits around eating and exercising. This last part is more about how you actually think about success.

Success is directly related to your attitude. If you say from the start, “What’s the use, there is just too much going on...” What do you think will happen? But if you say, “Sure there is a lot of temptation and busyness ahead but if I think and plan ahead now, I can do it!” What kind of result will that give you? I can always tell who will get through the holidays successfully and who won't, just by their general attitude.

Henry Ford once said, "If you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right!"

Prepare Ahead of Time - NOW!

This week I started discussing things about preparing yourself for the holidays and focused on specific problem solving your challenges during the months ahead (remember all these strategies can be useful any time of year too!!!)

Here are some things you can do ahead to be organized so you can actually prioritize more on your weight loss efforts than just the holiday things everyone has to do before hand.

- Start your holiday shopping now. Do it online if it makes things simpler, but just start it especially if it requires mailing packages away to another state or country. At the very least figure out what your gift options are for the people you buy for..

-Wrap your presents.. Avoid waiting until the last minute.

-Start your baking if you must (chew gum while you bake and do it while your will power is strong in the morning rather than in the evening), then wrap and freeze. Better yet buy the goodies pre-packaged to avoid the temptation of eating them.

-Buy, sign and address your holiday cards and get them ready to mail.

-Make any homemade items that you are giving away or consider store bought gifts this year.

-Make some healthier meals ahead of time and freeze them so you have some meals ready to consume during the more chaotic days ahead. Your planning with food has to be even more of a priority now.

- Keep a cooler in your car with healthy snacks especially while you are out shopping.

Readers, any other suggestions?

Getting Ready

Earlier in the week I talked about getting prepared for the upcoming holidays and asked you to start thinking about what they meant to you. 

The first thought starts with actually taking the time to determine your holiday challenges. If there are any of you who struggle and never can get through holidays successfully let us know and we’ll all work together to solve them.

Start with the obvious challenges. Is it when you socialize, shop, travel, party or are you just tempted with more of your favorite foods around? Do you know how to gracefully decline food pushers? Take some time and figure out what your past shortcomings were with pen in hand and strategize some appropriate plans so you can get through them. Get help if you need to but get your game plans set up before they happen!

So readers tell us your success stories around these challenges!

Preparing for the Holidays

Well we’ve made through the first big eating event of the holidays. Now let’s get prepared for Thanksgiving and the month of December celebrations.

Have you ever heard of the Boy Scout motto, “Be prepared!” Well take that same expression into weight loss this holiday season. The more prepared and organized you are in the next few months ahead, the better odds you will have at still losing your weight during this hectic time of year. Many problems occur because there are things we just don’t think of until the last minute. Now is the time to put these things into action!

You need to know three basic things: 1) Determine what your specific holiday challenges are. 2) Have an agenda going to get the seasonal things done early. 3) Have a positive attitude.  If you put these things into place early in the season you’ll have more time to focus and stay on track throughout the months ahead. For now really think about what these 3 things mean to you on a personal level. Later this week I’ll give you my input on them.

Aftermath of a Eating Holiday

So how did you do last weekend? Did you practice moderation or did you get off track? Are you still beating yourself up if you didn't do well? To those of you who did well pat yourself on the back and offer yourself some kind of non-food reward for all your hard work. And the rest of you who did not do as well I have some special words.

Stephen Covey says: " One of the most helpful images to have of yourself in your family is that of a trim tab-the small rudder that moves the big rudder and eventually changes the entire direction of the plan."

What he is basically saying here is that we get caught up in the "shoulds, ought to's, could have's" and so on. But what does it really leave you with? Regrets? Beating yourself up? 

Well today's a new day, right? So stop any negative thinking now and go forward. What did you learn? What will you do next time? We have three  weeks now to plan for Thanksgiving. In-between that we probably have a dozen or more other social events around food. 

So be bold, stop thinking of the past and decide, really decide today that you will  take positive action steps in the weeks ahead. A synonym for the word "decide" is: to "determine, settle, rule, or resolve."  In other words you will take action against making old similar mistakes. Make a game plan and stick to it! Need help, I'm here remember? And, honestly, you actually have all the Diet Mojo you need right in your own head. The answers are there, you just need to decide to find them and then ACT on them!