At some point in the weight loss process, you’ve got to move into maintenance mode. Dieting would become a problem if you did not stop and became underweight. If your significant other thinks you’re thin enough now, I would definitely take that into consideration. After all, doesn’t what they find desirable count for something? Also, most people tend to be most critical of themselves. What you see in the mirror may not be what others are seeing. This is one of the ways that anorexics go astray. They see fat in the mirror when in truth they look skeletal. Such perception actually has a name: body dysmorphic disorder. If others are telling you that you’re thin enough already and you’ve got a healthy BMI, consider that maybe they’re right. There’s an article available for calculating ideal weight, if you’d like to check it out. It’s here. The last method is a military method that takes into consideration one’s body measurements.
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Relaxation for weight loss
I found this little tidbit:
A study released by the Georgetown University Medical Center has posited a link between stress and weight gain that is more than just psychological; it seems to be physiological, too. When certain mice were stressed out, they gained far more weight than the control group of calm mice – even when both groups were fed the same amount of calories. After a period of three months the little frazzled guys became twice as obese as their relatively serene little compatriots.
Dr. Zofia Zukowska, who headed up the study, says researchers suspect that this result is due to an enzyme which has been found in especially high amounts in abdominal fat. In other words, the weight gain caused by stress seems to go straight to the belly, the most dangerous place to store fat. So now relaxation therapy is being recommended as a good addition to any weight loss program.
Hypnotherapy is a form of relaxation therapy which can help you with weight control. Not only will it help you reduce stress, but it can also help you correct bad eating habits.
Reference:
Abe K, Kuo L, Zukowska Z. Neuropeptide Y is a mediator of chronic vascular and metabolic maladaptations to stress and hypernutrition. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2010 Oct;235(10):1179-84.
Artificial sweeteners
I got an email from Dr. Al Sears about artificial sweeteners. Here’s part of it:
When your drink contains aspartame, sucralose, or any other artificial sweetener, you over-stimulate your sweetness receptors. It changes the way you think about the way things should taste.
You crave high-intensity sweetness. And naturally sweet foods like fruit don’t taste as good to you. Vegetables lose their appeal, because they’re not sweet.
Your gut has sweetness receptors, too. It’s all ready to absorb nutrients, so you get a surge in hormones, like insulin. But when the calories don’t arrive, your body tells your brain to go out and get them.
Your appetite increases, and you get cravings that cause you to overeat. What’s worse, you turn to high-carbohydrate foods and sweets to make up the calorie void.
But now, the insulin you’ve poured into your blood tells your body to turn whatever you do eat into fat.
I read one study of almost 2,600 people. Those who drank diet sodas had a 47 percent higher body mass index (BMI) than those who didn’t, and their risk of obesity was doubled.
He goes on to recommend fruity solutions as well as honey and raw, whole sugar.
All of that stuff about how the sweetness affects us has me wondering if maybe stevia isn’t such a good idea, either.
References:
Sansom, W. New analysis suggests ‘diet soda paradox’ – less sugar, more weight. Univ Tex SA Health Sci Ctr. June, 2005.
I know why we’re fat.
Q: What do you feed cattle when you want to fatten them?
A: Grains
Q: What is on the bottom of the USDA food pyramid, the stuff we’re supposed to eat the most of?
A: Grains
Q: What type of foods are often sold to us as low-fat?
A: Grain-based foods
Q: What do farmers feed to pigs when they want to fatten them up?
A: Vegetable oils such as corn and soybean
Q: What type of oils did they tell us to eat back in the 70s and 80s?
A: Vegetable oils such as corn and soybean
Q: What type of oils are food manufacturers using in their products?
A: Vegetable oils such as corn and soybean
Are you beginning to get the picture yet? Now try this one:
Q: What do farmers feed to pigs when they want them to be lean?
A: Coconut oil, a saturated fat
Q: What have we been told to avoid for our heart health?
A: Saturated fat
Q: What has been the result of the recommendations to lower our fat intake, particularly saturated fats, and eat a lot of grains?
A: Twice as many Americans are now overweight or obese.
I may have it backwards…
I’m kind of panicking lately because I’m gaining weight again. But if the author of the book I’m reading, The Only Diet There Is by Sondra Ray, is correct, I may be gaining weight because I am panicking! She may be right. I remember when I first began having trouble. I attended a meditation class. In the break area, they have cookies and Red Vines free for the taking. Indeed, having something to eat is one way to feel “in the body” again after a stint of meditation. So here I was, newly skinny, facing trigger foods, and the trigger foods won. Not only that, I found myself craving candy before class the next week, and it just snowballed from there. It became obsessive.
It got so bad that I considered attending Overeaters Anonymous meetings and following their program. Last night, I tried to attend a local meeting, but no one else showed up. Someone directed me to another meeting that was supposedly taking place later that night, but that meeting did not happen, either. Apparently, that group had not been meeting in that location for a while. So today I tried again to go to a meeting at the first location. Again, there was no one there. So I went home.
I was looking through my library and found this book, The Only Diet There Is. I’m fairly certain that I’ve never actually read it before even though I do own it. I started to read. It’s sort of a Law of Attraction book for weight loss. It’s the opposite of the OA approach. After all, the first thing OA has you do is admit that you are powerless over food. Sondra Ray’s approach is more like claiming power. It’s a different mindset. As I read, I realized that I hadn’t connected with the OA meetings because it was the wrong approach for me. The Universe had better ideas. Sondra Ray’s approach resonates better. Besides, I really did panic first.
So now, the work comes down to getting myself to stop panicking so that I will start making better food choices again. Truly, panicking does not inspire in that direction. I’m going to follow Sondra Ray’s program and see what comes of it. To start with, she has you writing affirmations along with the yeah-buts that come up as you write them, and then writing affirmations to counter those, etc. She says that when you feel like eating, write first. That helps reveal what is going on with the beliefs.
Our Lady of Weight Loss
I just received in the mail yesterday the wackiest weight-loss book I have ever seen: Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal by Janice Taylor. She had a weight problem all her life until one day she was sitting in a weight loss class thinking, “I’m never going to make it.” That’s when she heard The Voice. She said, “If you think you’re never going to make it, you never will.” From what I gather, this was a rather unusual experience for Janice. It did not seem from the way she had written this passage that she was in the habit of hearing voices. But she decided later that night to ask The Voice what she could do about her weight problem. The Voice said, “You’re an artist. Make weight loss an art project.” So that is what Janice did. Instead of eating cake, she made art out of it, and she lost weight. The Voice became Our Lady of Weight Loss. The book is illustrated with wacky images of the art she made while she lost the weight. There are also projects that the reader can do. The first is an altar to Our Lady of Weight Loss made out of a macaroni box and decorated with macaroni and glitter glue. There are Motivational Musings, Tasty Tidbits, Righteous Recipes, Weighty Confessions, and Prickly Prayers. Janice’s inspired ideas have the potential for making weight loss a lot of fun. The book is certainly visually appealing. It also includes sound dietary advice. If one is going to be obsessed with food, then making art out of it would certainly be better than eating it.
The 9-Inch “Diet”
I had a few minutes before a meeting last week. As I got off the freeway, I spotted a Barnes and Noble bookstore. I went in and browsed. Since it was January and New Year’s resolution season, diet books were prominently displayed in the middle of the store. One of these caught my eye, The 9-Inch “Diet”: Exposing the Big Conspiracy in America by Alex Bogusky and Chuck Porter. The book was written by a man who bought a lake house built in the 1940s. He was putting things away in the kitchen and discovered that his plates would not fit into the cupboard. He did some research and found out that the average size of a dinner plate in the 1940s was 9 inches. These days, the size of an average dinner plate is closer to 12 inches. Using this fact as his inspiration, he decided to try using 9 inch dinner plates himself. He discovered that he was satisfied with much less food when he ate off of these 9 inch plates. He soon found himself losing weight, and that was the inspiration for the book.
This information about the 9 inch plates is not new to me. Brian Wansink wrote about it in his book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Brian Wansink researches the eating habits of average Americans. His research led to the discovery that people will eat less when food is served in smaller dishes or containers.
We Americans seem to be in love with the idea that bigger is better. Americans eat out more than people in other countries with the exception of Japan. Restaurants have accustomed us to expecting large servings. Our plates have grown over the years, and so have our appetites and waistlines.
Large dishes seem to be a uniquely American phenomenon. I went to a Chinese house goods store in Los Angeles some time ago and noticed that the dishes that they sold were much smaller than I was used to seeing in a typical American store. I don’t often see Chinese people with a weight problem. After seeing their dishes, it’s no wonder why.
I’ve been using smaller dishes more and more myself. I have a large set of Corelle, much of which was purchased open stock. My set includes what they call luncheon plates. I measured them, and discovered that they are just about 9 inches wide. They are perfect for following a 9 inch plate diet. I also have in my set the small 10 ounce bowls. I find that the smaller size is perfect for the smaller portions I prefer. Of course, even the dinner plates in my set aren’t terribly big. They measured 10 ¼ inches across. That is quite a bit smaller than the 12 inches commonly found in stores today. In addition to my Corelle, I also have little sauce dishes. These work well for serving out nuts and dried fruit. I can vouch for the fact that eating from smaller dishes leads to eating less. It’s certainly working out that way for me.
Splenda and depression
Yesterday, I made meringues sweetened with Splenda. Later that night, I noticed that I was feeling a little off and moody. I wondered if there might be a link to my little snack. So today I did a bit of research. Here is what I found:
Link between Splenda and depression? Blog: Psychdata – Dedicated to exposing the fraud of psychiatry.
Depression, anxiety, panic, thoughts of suicide or death, agoraphobia, feelings of hopelessness, feeling alone. Splenda Sickness.
Splenda’s Dangers: One Man’s Personal Story That You Should Know 11/8/03. Mercola.com.
There were other articles about people having problems with Splenda as well. I’m thinking maybe anything with any large amount of Splenda may not be a good idea for me. Those meringues definitely had a lot of the stuff in them.
Dealing with restaurants
No matter what plan you choose, you will likely dine out occasionally. You might not be eating the specific foods on your plan, but it is possible to stay on plan. If you know where you’ll be eating, you can research the menu possibilities ahead of time. A lot of the chains have nutrition facts on their websites. Also, a lot of the information is on http://dietfacts.com. Even if the restaurant you will be eating at does not have information, it’s possible to guess the nutrition facts for items you know are on their menu by looking at similar items at other restaurants. This is how I came up with my set menu choices for the restaurants I frequent most. I was able to come up with selections that fell within my diet guidelines.
An apple or a cookie?
I just got back from hypnotherapy school. I swear, it’s difficult to become wise in 3 hours. Anyway, we had a food related incident. Someone brought in Oreo Double-Stufs. The reaction of the other hypnotherapists was amazing to watch. They couldn’t believe anyone would actually bring something like that. I was holding an apple I had brought for my own snack at the time. My reaction was, “Delicious sweet organic apple. Sugary cookie. Nope, no contest. I want my apple.” Among the hypnotherapists who have been around any length of time, hardly any of them are heavy. Some of them admit to having been heavy before, but apparently hypnosis can work very well for overweight and eating habits.