Smart food buying habits

We have the power of choice to decide which foods to buy at the grocery store. The key to success is planning ahead. 

Planning ahead can improve your food choices. Healthy decisions start at home. 

Start by streamlining your food shopping to one or two days each week. Fewer trips to supermarket mean fewer opportunities to buy the wrong types of food.

I do it once a week on weekend when I am not hungry or rushed for time. I plan what food I need to buy and stick to my shopping list. By taking the hurry and unpredictability out of food shopping I buy and stock up foods that are building block for healthy meals. 

Healthy choices can make a healthy you.

Eating healthy when away from home is possible

While eating healthy when away from home could be difficult, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Two days ago I was hungry after a few hours of driving and almost went to fast food restaurant near the hotel.

Found motivation to go to the supermarket, bought vegetables and turkey breast and came back to the hotel.

Felt good. I needed positive experience, because it doesn’t always end up that way for me when I travel. I found it that it was possible. When I was weak and contemplating eating at the fast food restaurant I asked myself what was more important to me.  

Eating healthy does not mean eating foods that you do not like

For me eating healthy means eating natural, unprocessed foods. Eating real foods, not food products.

Many people mistakenly think that foods that are healthy must necessarily be unsatisfying or taste bad. Of course, that isn’t so. 

To lose weight and keep it off, it is important to change your perception that healthy foods will not satisfy you as much as your favorite dishes.

Eating healthy does not mean eating foods that you do not like. It is about getting away from fake foods and embracing real ones. 

It means giving your body what it needs to thrive. 

Eliminating or at least limiting processed foods is an important element of healthy eating.

Eating healthy will also ensure that you stay healthy while using weight.

Made Better Choice Today

Real example of making better choice while eating out. Two photos are from the same place. 

I am posting them to show what worked for me at lunch time today. See the difference? 

The person I had lunch with made the choice in the upper photo and drank soda. 

I made the choice in the lower photo and drank water. We both were happy with our choices.

Remembering why we want to lose weight or maintain it, if you are already there, helps when ordering in restaurants. 

Planning what to eat and where makes it easier for me.

Guest Post: Life Style Changes to Feel Good for Life

Failure is everywhere. People are sick and in pain. This is not necessary. Let's learn how to be successful in our health. People have lost 50, 75, 100 pounds with minimal effort. They feel so good, they would never go back to old habits.

Myths: 

If I stop eating, I'll lose weight.

I have to be hungry to lose weight.

I'll never be able to have a piece of cheesecake (substitute your favorite) again.

I'll feel deprived.

I'll have to exercise 2 hours every day.

Diabetes runs in the family.

Foods are either Carbohydrates, Proteins, or Fats. Meals should have 50% Protein, 25% good carbs, and 25% fats. Monosaturated are the best.

Carbohydates:  Which are good, which are not? Rule of thumb. Don't eat the white stuff.  Also known as processed. Eat fruits and vegetables for your carbs. Avoid white flour, white sugar, white potatoes, white rice, white pasta, and white bread. Substitute whole grains, sweet potatoes, brown rice, couscous, quinoa, pasta made of spinach, bell peppers, whole wheat. Bread made of whole grains. No enriched white flour.

Why?

The white stuff is highly processed. This means it gets into your blood stream as sugar way too fast. Your blood sugar spikes. Your pancreas has to quickly release insulin to get your blood sugar back down. It goes too far down. Now you are famished!!  Quick, eat something with sugar or highly processed to get your blood sugar back up. This roller coaster is bad for your whole body- every cell. Insulin is our fat storage hormone. Spike blood sugar, release insulin, hold onto fat like a sponge holds water. This happens when we eat high Glycemic foods.

Eat Protein, good fats, and unprocessed carbohydrates.

Your blood sugar stays within a nice normal even range. Your pancreas now releases Glucagon. Glucagon   is our Fat Releasing Hormone. Your blood sugar stays in the good range. No hunger, no shakiness, no foggy thinking, and Release Fat!! This happens when we eat low Glycemic foods.

Jump Start with low Glycemic foods for five days. Sugar cravings will go away. Drink 1/2 your weight in ounces of water. Flavor the water with fruits and herbs so it's not boring. Walk 30 minutes 3 times a week. Eat low Glycemic foods every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Nibble a little dark chocolate as a reward.

Focus on what you want, not what you don't want.

Our brains will believe whatever we tell it over and over. Say everything in the positive.

Picture yourself as your new You. Tell yourself how good you look, and how great you feel. 

     

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Guest post provided by Janice Moranz, MD.  Janice runs Albuquerque Health and Fitness MeetUp Group. The group has over 400 members. You can contact Janice at janicemoranz@comcast.net

http://www.meetup.com/Albuquerque-Health-Fitness/

Nation of Fat People?

Almost everyone seems to be on some kind of diet these days. 

Most of us want to live healthier lives, lose a little bit (or a lot) of weight, and generally feel better about the food we put into our bodies. 

After decades of portion control and counting calories we still consume lots of empty calories and are becoming a nation of fat people. 

If we don’t seriously and effectively confront it, we may become a nation of inert, unhealthy, unproductive fat people by the middle of the 21st century.

One does not need a degree in science to understand why it happens. Diet fatigue and diet failure happen for a reason. If you restrict how much we can eat you are likely to end up with the following pattern. You take a break, and start again later, take another break, start again later and so on. 

Even if lose weight, you will regain your weight or more, when you jump right back to eating “normal” (pre-diet) size meals.

Exercise is excellent for health but not that important for weight loss

While the exercise myth for weight loss still appears in high-profile initiatives like the first lady's Let's Move! Campaign, more and more individuals learn and experience that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated. 

Message that exercise is not important in helping people lose weight is getting more support in research and in media. 

I always pointed out that exercise was good for your health. At the same time I also dared to say that exercise wasn't necessarily helping us lose weight. My simple truth that that you don’t have to exercise to lose weight was not getting me many new online friends. 

This statement was considered too controversial on some weight loss forums. It even got me banned from a website that declares that it “helps facilitate honest conversation about weight loss”. 

Can you lose weight without exercising? Of course you can. Physical activity is a minor component to the economy of weight loss. The critical component is what you eat.

We always have a choice

I did not post for a few months. It was not because I stopped caring about weight loss and healthy eating. I moved South West from jungle of tall buildings in Manhattan to a beautiful state of New Mexico.  

I want to thank all of you who contacted me to ask for help with weight loss. I want to thank you for trust and for sharing with me your challenges and successes. I know that losing weight is difficult. As soon as we stop doing what works for us, we start regaining weight.

To everybody who lost weight by using my method, I hope you remain strong and continue to live your new live style. I am proud of all of you made an effort. I am glad that I could help a little. I want to thank you for allowing me to show you that weight loss is possible without feeling hungry, without exercise, and most important without paying for any products or services.

I know that it is not popular message, because there is a huge weigh loss industry that profits from misery of people who are overweight or obese. The industry that pays bloggers and others to maintain opinion that weight loss is difficult and that one must buy products or pay for services to lose weight.

Keep doing what you are doing if it works for you. Situations and circumstances are different for all of us, but we all have something in common. Something powerful that nobody can take away from us.

We all have and always will have a choice. Choice of what we eat.  And that is the most important factor for those who have struggled or continue to struggle with weight issues.

Weight loss blog credibility

I read healthy eating and weight loss blogs every day. While some of the posts are based on personal experience or on new research, I see many that appear to be designed to generate buzz, sell products, and keep consumers “tuned in.”

Bloggers who accept ads participate in marketing. Many of those who successfully lost weight and initially started blogging to share what worked for them, choose to monetize their blogs by advertising weight loss products and services.

Most likely the ads are for the products that pay best publishing rates, not necessarily the ones that had been used by the blog owners.

How important is it for you that the person who renders weight-loss advice to you is struggling with or used to struggle with weigh issue himself?

Do you consider this factor when you assess his credibility and value of the advice received?

Food labels are confusing for a lot of people

Food manufactures and the food marketing industry are in business of enticing you into buying their products. 

They will use jargon to make you think their products are good for you. For example, a food might be fat-free, but the rest of the product might consist of ingredients that are bad for you. 

Look at the back of the product. The front contains the marketing; the back (the label) contains the facts. Food labels are confusing for a lot of people. I know that labels can be tricky, but the label is where you will learn which products are good for you and which contain ingredients you should avoid. You should be concerned with saturated and trans fats, syrups and added sugar.

Reading the labels arms you with information to make smart choices about what you eat. 

Announcing your weight loss goals

Research confirms that most people who decide to make a lifestyle change will tell at least a few others about their intentions. Others, will have more success with keeping their intentions to lose weight to themselves.

The first group believes that telling others about their weight loss efforts will keep them accountable. The second group might be concerned that co-workers, friends, and even family member may sabotage their efforts at times, even unintentionally.

Studies confirmed that if you announce your goals to others, you are less likely to make them happen because you lose motivation. Really? Yes, really. This is thought to happen because announcing goals satisfies a person’s self-identity just enough to prevent them performing the hard work to achieve those goals.

I think it is a personal preference and everyone must do what works best for them.

What do you think? Is sharing your weight loss goals with a loved one more likely to keep you accountable, or are you afraid they might sabotage your efforts?

Do you tell anyone at all, or just let them figure it out for themselves?

Weigh yourself on a digital scale daily

Your scale can be a top tool in losing weight. Use the number on the scale as a guide to decide whether you should keep doing what you are doing or make some changes.

Weighing yourself more often could mean losing more pounds. According to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics people who step on the scale daily lose about three times as much weight as those who do so less often.

When I saw the numbers on the scale going down every single day, I got excited and wanted to stick with my method. Fast results kept me motivated. The more weight I lost, the more I realized how doable and relatively easy it was, and the more I wanted to share it with others.

Invest in a digital scale, weigh yourself on a scale daily and track the results.  It’s usually best to weigh yourself the first thing in the morning, after getting out of bed. Weighing yourself every day keeps the focus on how quickly you are losing weight.

Elements of well-being

The 5 elements of well-being are:

• Positive Emotion - the pleasant life.
• Engagement - flow.
• Meaning - found in serving something bigger than self.
• Positive Relationships - other people are the best antidote of the downs of life and the single most reliable up.
• Accomplishment - subjective achievement.

Personal well-being is not the same for everyone. What are your 5 elements of well-being? 

Power of planning

Planning is what makes eating real, healthy food possible. Take 15 minutes to plan for a successful healthy week ahead. Use this time to plan what and where you will eat next week.

Also, plan your grocery trip by making your grocery list. Make a list every time you go to the grocery store. Never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. If you do you will be more likely to make impulse purchases.

Always keep a stash of healthy food at home and healthy snacks at work. It will make it easier to make healthy choices, and it will prevent you from going too long without eating.

Thinking ahead, planning what and where you will eat as meals, and grocery shopping based on the Eat like Me approach are the keys to healthy eating and losing weight. 

Gained weight on vacation

I just spent two glorious weeks on vacation in Florida. I relaxed, I read, I ran, and I cherished and enjoyed every moment spent with my wife. I also violated my eating right  life style rules by buying and consuming food that is not healthy.

Everyone has that one food that sends them off track, that they just can’t eat in moderation. For me, there are a few. Ice cream is one of them. I knew I couldn’t eat ice cream in moderation, yet I still bough and eat it. Lots of ice cream. I think it was because I knew it would be temporary. In NYC I don’t buy ice cream.

I also learned that one meal doesn’t have to ruin your whole day. If you stray away from your plan at one meal, you can still get back on track with the next one.

Now I am back home and I am transitioning back to reality. When I stepped on the scale at home my honest accountability partner showed that I gained eight pounds.

I am resuming healthy eating most of the time. The Eat Like Me eating approach that helped me lose weight in the past. Posted picture represents my healthy choice in a mall-like environment this afternoon. Will keep my efforts to stay in healthy habit mode (until next vacation, he he).

Vacation is a time to relax and enjoy life

Vacation offers free-time to spend with family and loved ones, and gives us an opportunity to engage in enjoyable activities. Vacation provides an unparalleled bonding experience.   

Sharing new and exciting experiences with my family connects me in a way that few other events allow.  The activities and the meals are moments that I will always cherish. 

I realized that since day one of my vacation, I do not comply with some of the healthy lifestyle rules I encourage others to follow.  While in some situations I have limited choices or no healthy alternatives at all, there are also situations that I do have a choice but I choose poorly.

For the last several days I don’t use all tools and routines that had led me to weight loss, and later to effective maintenance of healthy weight. I don’t do much of the planning of where (what) I will eat. I also skip some of the healthy routines that work so well for me when I am home or at work.

My justification is that a few days of less than full compliance with healthy eating is not going to be a big deal. Plus, I am on vacation and vacation is a time to relax and enjoy life. Pretty hypocritical, isn’t it?

It will all end and go back to norm after the second week is over, but it struck me how easy it is for me just to ignore my unhealthy imperfections.