Losing Weight is All About Counting Calories/Carbs and Exercising. Or Is It?
5 Tips to Consider When You Want To Lose Fat Forever.

With two thirds of our population overweight (one third in the obese category), watching our weight is no longer something we are doing to look more appealing, or perhaps thinking about doing. It has become a necessary action to prevent disease and increased health costs.

With physical activities being curtailed in schools and backyards and more opportunity to sit in front of televisions, computers and game boys, even our children are joining the ranks of the sedentary lifestyle which promotes an overweight population. Adult diseases are becoming more prominent in children. Adult onset diabetes has been renamed to accommodate all the children who are being diagnosed with it, some as early as in infancy.

So if you have “given up” because counting and exercising hasn’t worked for you, consider the following five tips. Which ones can help you?

1. Check to see if you are sabotaging yourself in any way. Many of us find very unique ways to sabotage ourselves. Even though they may not be related to food, they can play havoc with our weight. Sabotage happens often when we are not aware of it. Becoming aware of sabotage is important, but it is only the first step. We must also be ready to move past our sabotage. If we ignore the sabotage and continue to try to lose weight . . . well you know the story.

2. Get the right nutrients. It’s not just about the right amount of carbs, fats or protein. A proper balance of the nutrients contained in those carbs, fats and proteins can play a part in whether or not you will lose weight happily and keep it off or if it is just another diet that you must endure to wear a smaller size. A client of mine said it best when she told me she “dieted her way up to morbid obesity”. She started at 106 lbs and after years of dieting peaked out at 255 lbs.

3. Use a balanced approach to lose and maintain your weight. Yes, it is important to watch what you eat. Yes, it is imperative to exercise so you don’t lose lean mass (muscle, bone, organ tissue). It is also important to examine your stress levels and where that stress is coming from. We all must eat. We all must move. We even must have some stress. But what kind of food, exercise and stress and how much we should have of each of them is important. A good balance of each individually and in balance with each other is of major importance in reaching and maintaining our weight goals.

4. Tweak your lifestyle. Lose 20 lbs in 10 days! Look great in your bikini in just 30 days! We are led to believe that weight loss is a quick-fix and anyone can do it. I went to college with a beauty queen who told us she could lose 5 lbs in a couple days when she had an appearance to make. At the time I was impressed. Now I know that we can all do it. All we have to do is quit drinking water and eating food. The food in our digestive system at any one time and the water in our blood and cells can easily weigh 5 lbs. But isn’t weight loss supposed to get rid of fat?

Well, the scale doesn’t know the difference. Success in long-term weight loss comes from understanding that the extra pounds didn’t come on in a few weeks or even a few months. If we are willing to make weight loss/ management a long-term project, we can realize a lifetime of success. By making small, progressive changes in our lifestyle, and having an appropriate support system, we set ourselves up for a happier, healthier journey to our weight goals.

5. Forget about losing weight and strive to be healthy. Have you every met anyone who has dieted for decades and all they got was sporadic success with long-term failure? Then when they finally decide to learn to love themselves as they are (all ??? pounds of themselves), and turn their attention to becoming more healthy. . . the weight starts dropping off! Well our body doesn’t care what we look like but it does care if we are healthy. Our bodies are continually striving for homeostasis (a state of balance).

When our bodies are balanced, we are healthy. When something is out of balance, our organs and cells will work hard to bring it back into balance (no wonder we get tired). When we sabotage (there’s that word again) our bodies by not giving them the nutrients and exercise they require and/or giving them too much or the wrong kind of stress, they can become overworked, resulting in loss of energy, weight gain (or inappropriate loss) and/or disease.

So if you want to look your best and feel energized, you may want to change your thoughts from losing weight to gaining health. Just the fact of changing your thinking patterns from losing to gaining can put you into a more positive mental state and could be the first step on your personal journey to your goals.

© Jan Barosh 2004. Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site so long as the following paragraph is included and contact information is provided to http://www.janbarosh.com

Jan Barosh’s degree is in health and physical education with post- graduate work in exercise science and psychology. She is a licensed corporate wellness coach and a certified teleclass leader and has helped adults and children be more healthy and fit for over 25 years. Jan has developed a unique weight management program called LifeWeight? which is being taught in the US and licensed for distribution in the UK.

What to Do with the Leftovers?

Okay, tell me if you’ve ever done this: It’s Monday late afternoon. You decided yesterday that starting today you were going to 1) eat right, and 2) start to get regular exercise, and 3) give up all your bad habits. So, you’re picking things up around the house and starting to notice all the little bits and pieces of leftovers from the past weekend. Namely, cookies here, and small bits of candy there. In my house today I noticed I had three large shortbread cookies (I’m overly fond of shortbread cookies with icing), several bags of the candy that resemble real rocks which I keep saying I want to put in a jar, but I haven’t found just the right jar (for display, you know), and the leftovers from the latest summer picnic, which in my case is about five pounds of fruit salad - not bad in itself, but I can only eat so much fruit salad.

And Then There’s the Wine

Of course, I had to buy some wine at a tasting on Saturday (I always buy it, don’t know why I think those wine tasting’s are such a great deal - they always entice me to buy), and now there’s an open bottle waiting.

So, my thoughts are, “Do I eat this, or not?” “Do I throw it away and WASTE it?” “Oh, my, dear no. That’s not a good idea,” I think. Oh, I just remembered there is also an entire plate of large cinnamon rolls (Cinnabon style) I made Friday night. They’ll be stale soon. That’s not good. It’d be such a shame to throw them all away, and I only ate one.

And so it goes. Do I talk myself into eating up the last remnants of the weekend, thus going into Tuesday and possibly Wednesday with the taste of weekend indulgence still on my lips, or do I decide, really decide, I’ve had enough? It’s time to eat better, like I just said, last night. Remember last night? It seems so long ago now …

What if We Just Start Tomorrow?

It’s interesting how easily we talk ourselves right out of what we had decided yesterday was such a good idea. So what’s wrong with just starting tomorrow? What’s wrong is that tomorrow never comes. It’s always today, right now. You’ll never reach that elusive tomorrow. Yes, the date on the calendar changes, but you, standing where you are, right here, right now, are still here, in the present. You can’t live in the past, nor can you live in the future. You can only live in the moment.

Decide Right Now: What Do you Want?

So if you want to decide, then decide right now. What do you want, really want for yourself? Do you want to continue to indulge yourself at every turn, or do you want to exercise just a bit more discipline and see if you can get into better shape? It’s not about what you’ll miss out on, it’s about what you will gain. Better health, more energy, endurance. You’ll feel better, you’ll look better. It’s all about what you’ll gain, but in the immediate moment, it’s so easy to think only of right now. Yes, but right now this would taste so good, wouldn’t it, and there’s always tomorrow.

I’ve found that when I make a mental shift, a real shift, not just a decision but a true change in my thinking, then I follow through, and not until then. All the times I try to talk myself into doing things that I don’t really want to do, are not successful. Probably they’re not successful because I don’t really want to do them.

How do you get yourself motivated and stay that way? I start with a list. List all the reasons you want to lose some weight. Think in terms of a mini goal of five or 10 pounds. Make it a one month goal, not a lifetime goal. It’s fine to have long-term goals, but if you really want to learn to change for good, then you need to make it something you can live with. Incorporate real change into your lifestyle and you can indulge at a holiday party without it making any difference; without it throwing you off the deep end. When you go on vacation you’ll come back maybe a couple pounds heavier, but it won’t matter. You’ll have eaten what you wanted, you’ll have had a wonderful time, and not stressed yourself over whether you’re gaining weight.

Why I want to lose Weight

• What’s my first mini-goal? (1 week to 1 month)
• What’s my longer-term goal? (1 month to 1 year)
• How strict must I be for this to work? (Pre-planned or legalized deviations works very well for many people)

Sometimes, especially if you use a plan that incorporates “legalized cheating” then you’ll end up with some leftover food. Get used to getting rid of it. Give it away, throw it away, it really doesn’t matter. You’re not doing yourself any favor by eating all the leftovers. So what if the cinnamon rolls go stale? I ate one didn’t I? I enjoyed it totally too. Others also ate some cinnamon rolls, and even if no one had any, did I make them to eat them all, or did I make them because I was in the mood to make cinnamon rolls? Does eating them all myself make any sense at all?

Sometimes I feel a little guilty making goodies and then giving them away because I think I’m not making it any easier for others to stick to their plans, but then I remember what I do in that situation, and I have to assume others are adult about how they decide to take care of themselves too. If I decide I’m going to eat in a more healthful manner, and someone brings something unexpected, it’s not difficult in most all circumstances to simply say, “No, thanks. I already ate,” or take some on a plate for later.

Since I don’t go on “restrictive” diets, then I can incorporate pretty much anything into my day’s food plan. I just eat it, when I’m hungry. I find it so much easier to base my eating on whether I’m hungry, than on whether something is there. Just because unexpected people show up, doesn’t mean you use them, does it? Honestly, do you think anyone is upset when you leave a bit more for them? I don’t think so.

The Case of the Missing Wedding Cake

When I was a teenager my mother remarried and I offered to buy the wedding cake. I had an ulterior motive though. My favorite bakery, Beaverton Bakery, was where I intended to get the cake, and I knew by ordering far more than would be necessary there’d be lots and lots of leftovers for me to gorge myself silly on after the festivities. Ha.

What happened instead is a blur. I don’t know really what happened to the cake but I do know I not only didn’t get any leftovers, I never even had a piece at the wedding. I tend to get caught up in the people and don’t usually eat at parties, so I paid it no attention, and much to my dismay someone else had bundled it up before I got there to do so. Alas, I was never to taste that cake at all. Such a disappointment - it must have been, I still remember it now and that’s been more than 24 years ago now! LOL.

Food memories stick with me for a very long time. That day is my prime example of how I would not have minded one little bit if more people had said, “No thanks, I just ate,” and passed on the cake. I just wish I’d been a little more alert in setting aside a hunk for later.

Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com

Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.

I can’t do that Until I Lose This Weight!

If you don’t enjoy the life you’ve got because you think you don’t look good in shorts or you can’t bring yourself to wear a bathing suit, you’re doing nothing more than wasting your life for nothing. Maybe you don’t look like a bathing beauty but who does? I’ve heard so many people tell me that they would give anything to be at a weight they once were, but when questioned they almost always say, “Now that I think about it, I thought I was fat back then too,” but guess what? They weren’t. Those same people are sometimes shocked to see photos of themselves as a teenager or young adult; “Why I wasn’t fat at all,” they’ll say.

Where do these fears originate except within our minds, and that makes me wonder - is this another way of the brain to try to keep us from taking the steps necessary to affect change? Remember, your brain will do what it can to keep things the way they are, at least at first, so crazy notions about the future may be clouding your judgment.

It’s unlikely you’ll hear someone on their death bed say, “If only I’d spent more hours at the job,” but more likely they’ll say, “I wish I’d spent more time with my family.” Go ahead and spend that time now, doing what you love, being with people you enjoy. If you like being outdoors, be outdoors. Do you love the water but you haven’t been in a pool for 20 years because you think you look awful in a swimming suit? Who cares? Go swimming, today, tomorrow, or next week. Just go.

It’s Not Always About Us

Think about this: Sally cannot stand to go out because she doesn’t want anyone to see her in a size 22 dress. She’s embarrassed and too self consciousness, so she doesn’t date. On her way to work one day she has to stop and buy some stamps. John passes her on the street on his way to the Post Office, but she didn’t see him because she was looking at her shoes and feeling bad for herself. As John is walking toward the Post Office he’s thinking about how he wants to workout at the gym but he can’t seem to get himself started. After all, “Everyone will notice me and make fun of me.” Mary, the clerk is wearing a dress that no longer fits because she’s lost 25 lbs. yet she can’t bring herself to buy new clothes because of, “What people might think.” She’s lost in her thoughts and almost gives John the wrong change, which he hardly notices because he’s thinking about the gym and the horror of everyone noticing him and pointing.

Neither Sally, John or Mary see anyone but themselves. None of them noticed the other even when they had an opportunity. Surprisingly none of us is the center of attention expect perhaps at your own wedding, and sometimes not even then. Therefore, stop being so self-centered and get yourself out doing what you want to do. Sure there are always people who will make a rude remark, but hey, they do not know you. They don’t know your situation. They don’t know anything about you and probably never will, and guess what? They don’t really care, which is why they have fun being rude to strangers, so why should you?

Show care where you can make a difference. Show care when you are able to help someone without expecting something in return. Life is short. The days go by in an endless stream from one moment to the next and what you do with this life is entirely up to you. It’s not always about food.

Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com

Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.

Some Say I’m Strange. I Prefer to Think of Myself as Resourceful

If you’d like to learn how to obtain quality chocolate, put it in a drawer and forget it’s there, learn to use EFT and NLP techniques to conquer your emotional eating. That’s what I’ve done, and it’s such a freeing thing to be able to feel right with the world, be happy with myself, my shape, and not feel controlled by something like food. I eat what I want, but I do make an effort to make good choices (usually). For example, last night I baked a cake I made on Easter and totally loved (Better than Sex cake). This thing is nothing more than yellow cake, vanilla pudding and tons of whipped cream - not exactly diet fare, but when I can’t get a certain food out of my head, I usually either make it or go and get it, and then totally enjoy it. That’s what I mean when I said I eat what I want. So today, I have an entire cake in my refrigerator.

Did I have a piece of cake for breakfast? No. My husband bought me some fresh local raspberries at the Farmer’s Market yesterday, and I wanted them so I had some on my cereal this morning. The cake sits and waits. When I was in the kitchen I noted the remnants of last night’s grocery shopping. I saw a huge, individually wrapped cinnamon roll on the counter. I just “knew” I was going to want to eat something sweet last night since baking the cake was bound to make me crazy so I’d in anticipation of future hunger I bought the following:

Telling yourself you have to “struggle with this weight issue for the rest of my life,” is as good as telling yourself there’s no point in trying. “Why bother? I’ll just gain it right back. It’s no use. I might as well eat more cake. Poor me. Life is hard. You know the drill. Life’s a beach.

Stop the struggle by stopping the self talk that supports the struggle. You’ve heard it before - what you focus on is what you receive. No where is that more true than in believing it is a struggle to stay healthy. Who would want to be healthy if it’s such a horrible struggle? Yet, you’ve probably seen people who are fit, healthy and happy? You might even know a few. They seem to bounce when they walk. They’re animated, and excited about life, and no, if you asked them, they wouldn’t say it’s a struggle. “What do you mean,” they’d ask? Struggle? Nah, I like it this way,” and they’d mean it.

Forget the notion that you have to struggle and eat celery sticks for dinner. It’s not true. Despite the fact that you’ve lost the weight before and gained it right back too, despite your belief that you can’t even look at food without gaining weight. All of those thoughts are just more beliefs that are keeping you stuck. What you focus on becomes your reality.

What if You Never Got Hungry?

I’m a prime example. I don’t struggle. Some days I eat a lot. Some days not so much. Some days very little. Yesterday I ate my usual breakfast and then, strangely, I just didn’t feel hungry all day. I felt different somehow. Not ill, but I just didn’t want to eat. “What’s up with this?,” I thought to myself, but I decided to just ride it out and see what happened. Well, I’m here to tell you that nothing happened. I lived to tell another story, see another day. Nothing fell from the sky and the world didn’t stop spinning because I didn’t eat much yesterday. It was just another day.

Today I ate a few handfuls of malted milk balls. No big deal to me, but I know many of you are thinking, “I’d never be able to eat just some, I’d have to eat them all,” and that is my point. Telling yourself you can’t eat “some,” or as many as you want, but that you believe you’d be compelled to eat them all, no matter how many there were is a belief that is keeping you stuck. I don’t believe that to be true, and so, for me it is not true.

Changing a Fundamental Belief with EFT

How do you change a fundamental belief? You start with basic EFT using it for everything that comes up, even though it may not seem related. Every worry, fear, doubt, struggle. Use it on everything, and those issues that do make a difference in your eating will start dissolving away. Try it - what have you got to lose but some weight?

What’s EFT? It’s Emotional Freedom Training and it’s taking the world by storm as an easy, self administered practice to help reduce or eliminate the emotional issues that keep us stuck. Free information available at EmoFree.com. I added EFT to my toolkit as soon as I learned it because it’s easy to learn, easy to use, and it’s effective.

Remember those healthy folks I mentioned earlier? They don’t view how they eat or how much they exercise as a struggle at all. They are active because they want to be active, and they eat foods that make them feel great. They probably eat a lot of the same things you eat too - I’m talking about everyday folks who have learned to feel good about themselves. None of them are perfect - despite the common belief that there is some “perfect” body, it’s just not true. Everyone has a wrinkle here, extra skin there. Every single one of us is flawed in some way or another. It’s what makes us unique.

Choose to focus on the benefits, rather than the sacrifice

Everything worthwhile takes effort - having a baby comes to mind. All mothers will likely agree that childbirth has its down side, but the ultimate reward makes it all worth it (yes, some women feel great while pregnant, but I wasn’t one of them). Otherwise, everyone would be a single child. Think about it.

Becoming a professional musician or baseball player comes to many who played Little League and started practicing the piano when they were very small. Tiger Woods was only 3 or 4-years old when his father first taught him to hold a golf club. He also showed him videos of professional golfers when he sat in his high chair eating his dinner (his dad was a little odd, I’d say). Woods started playing golf at such a young age that he literally grew up playing the game. He wanted to play. His father undoubtedly drove him to work harder at it than most children would, but he had to have a strong drive of his own or he never would have made it. But what if he’d hit 6-year’s old and suddenly said to himself, “I don’t want to practice. I hate golf. I wanna play with my friends. I’ll never be any good at his stupid game.”

Maybe things would have turned out differently. The bottom line though is he did what he did because he wanted to (his parents obviously had a lot to do with it too), and the reward? Today he’s considered the most gifted golfer of all time, and to what does he attribute his success? The practice and discipline of his mind. He learned from one of his primary coaches to harness the power of his mind - using NLP and hypnosis techniques (and likely he’s since started to use EFT as well). Learn to use your mind to focus on the results you want - or conversely focus on avoiding what you do not want, and you’ll win your prize, loving the process, instead of dreading it.

How to Get Started

Starting from right now, go get a box of toothpicks or something similar. Match sticks would work too, or marbles, or pencils, small rocks or twigs from the yard. Something small enough you can carry it with you. Whenever you catch yourself starting to say something negative like, “I don’t want to …, or, “I hate …,” or “I’m gonna strangle …” Anything negative you catch yourself saying or beginning to say, whether towards yourself or someone else doesn’t matter.

Start noticing how often you’re feeding yourself negative energy. Then, apply the STOP technique as soon as you realize you are doing it, you yell (to yourself) STOP, and immediately replace what you were saying with something else. Here’s what I mean:

“I hate having to wash the … STOP … it’s nice getting a chance to stretch and bend while the car gets cleaned.”

Yes, it’s stiff and forced, at first. Anytime you attempt to change a behavior it will feel forced. Just allow yourself to learn to change your self talk, and that early discomfort with the process will pass. It will start to be fun to “catch” yourself. As soon as you start doing it, you’ll realize how often you’re been feeding yourself negativity, and you’ll also see how easily you can change that habit.

Positive people tend to be happier people. I’m not suggesting you get a personality change, but I am suggesting, if you ultimately want to drop some weight and never see it again that you change your thinking from how much you’ll have to struggle to how much better you’re going to feel.

Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com

Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.

We’ve entered the Twilight Zone when it comes to the multitude of diets being promoted today. Starting with the Atkins Diet, then the South Beach Diet, now the Hamptons Diet and more. All higher in protein, lower in carbs, but the distinction should be quality of carbs, not singling out one nutrient entirely. If you are on the Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet or any other variation of a high protein/low carb diet simply adjust from eating low quality carbs like refined flour and sugar products (think if it comes in a box, it’s likely low quality) to eating more whole food products like fresh vegetables and fruits - yes fruits.

Apples vs. Apple Jacks - You be the Judge

I know the traditional Atkins Diet doesn’t advocate much fruit (too high sugar) but think about that for one minute. My strong belief is that an apple is a good food, a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal may not be on an equal level. One is highly processed sweetened by added white sugar and corn syrup, and one is natural, plucked from a tree and sweetened by the sun. Which would you choose? Don’t shun fresh fruit for the sake of following your low carb diet to the letter.

Eliminating healthy, wholesome foods is not the best way to learn to eat better, but severely cutting back on the frequency of eating highly processed foods is. I saw a site which called it GM or MM: God Made or Man Made. If you think of those terms when you go to choose your foods, it starts to make more sense. No one says you shouldn’t eat chips, or whatever strikes your fancy, but make them a treat - and eat the GM foods more often.

Common Sense Diet

Common sense will answer the question about what to eat. If you are on Atkins, South Beach or any variation of low carb diet, avoid processed foods, not natural foods. Stop using “instant” breakfast, and cook whole rolled oats for instance. Sure you might have to get up 10 minutes earlier, oh well. You’re worth it!

You can still stay on a higher protein food plan, but this one minor adjustment will allow you to continue with your eating plan for a lifetime, rather than a short-time. I’d go insane if I couldn’t eat my daily apple, banana or other fruit. I love fruit. I think there’s a very good reason humans desire sweet foods - Vitamin C, and other nutrients, including bio-flavnoids.

Can You Be Addicted to Fruit?

I heard someone complain they were “addicted to fruit” and I had to wonder, what do they eat? The person who refuses to eat fruit because they believe it is too high in sugar, probably does eat cookies, crackers and sugary cereals. They might even drink artificially flavored and sweetened drinks, but they refuse to eat a natural food, grown from our earth? That makes no sense, if you think about it. Did our planet develop and thrive based on processed foods? No, of course not. They are very recent in the evolution of our world. Very recent. In fact, we’ve had processed foods less than 200 years while our planet is millions of years old.

With the high incidence of obesity, and our high consumption of processed foods, it’s hard not to draw the conclusion that one causes the other. You won’t hear big industry stating that case because our economy depends on us buying the products being produced by the companies that employ us. You’ll never see it reported that “scientists discovered refined flour kills,” even if it were proven true because it doesn’t support our way of life. We need industry.

Witnessing the epidemic of food illnesses such as Mad Cow, and now Bird Flu, I can envision a society without the mass produced meat industry. It will come to pass - nothing but your local farm will be allowed to sell meat because the big farm industry cannot guarantee safety of the food supply. Meat will become much more expensive because when they can no longer mass produce it, there is nowhere for prices to go but up. So do we whine and cry and moan about our misfortune or do we start to think of meat as something to savor and enjoy like the Sunday roasts we had years ago? We never ate meat every day then - and we weren’t so fat either. We simply didn’t eat as much processed foods. Most of us had moms at home cooking us dinner, making our lunches and even fixing our breakfasts.

Yes, progress marches on, but when it comes to your body, common sense rules the day. The Common Sense Diet! Try it on for size today.

Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com

Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.

When you truly consider the weight-loss process, the battle waged is mostly in your mind. “Should I eat the corn muffin with butter or would it be better for me to have margarine or better yet, have jelly? What am I doing eating this muffin anyway? It’s so caloric and filled with saturated fat. I’m such a pig. I have absolutely zero willpower.” It’s no wonder you’ll eat that muffin with the butter and slather jelly on top to quiet that negative self-talk.

What you need more than a diet is a way to shift those negative self-defeating thoughts to more adaptive, positive self-statements. As with most things worth doing, this requires a bit of practice. First, become aware when you’re using a negative statement, then determine what about that thought is faulty and finally, replace it with a self-defense response or coping thought. In the corn muffin example, instead of listening to “I’m such a pig” which clearly mislabels who you are, respond with “Pigs are animals and I am human. I don’t have to be perfect.”

Many people cannot change their eating habits until they change their thoughts about food, eating and drinking. By shedding “distorted” thoughts and replacing them with productive ones, eating habits can be changed. It is possible to rid yourself from many self-critical thoughts, but like any ingrained habit, it takes vigor and vigilance to change. Here are some other thinking distortions to challenge:

Shoulds. Should statements are more about other people’s values, not ones chosen by the person who wants to lose weight. Additionally, should statements reflect an attempt by the dieter to motivate herself without really believing in the value. Better to determine what works for you. “I will eat up to two Hershey kisses daily and thoroughly enjoy them.”

All-or-Nothing. This kind of reasoning is the foundation for perfectionism. An all-or-nothing individual views the world as black or white. Since there is no allowance for gray areas, the behavior is either perfect or a failure. “I’ve ruined my diet by eating all that pizza. I can’t stay on a diet and I’ll just always be fat.” Maybe the problem does not arise from the behavior? maybe the problem is with the diet that does not allow for pizza. “I do not want to give pizza up for the rest of my life, so what I need is a way to include pizza in my diet without feeling like a failure. Let me try having a salad (dressing on the side) before the pizza to take the edge off my hunger.”

Good Foods/ Bad Foods. If the truth be told, foods do not misbehave. Foods are not good or bad. While it is true that some foods have more nutrients or are more fiber-dense than others, all foods can be enjoyed. How we think about food colors what we eat and how much we eat. If a food is labeled as bad (such as fries), then for many individuals that food is taboo. When one eventually succumbs to eating the forbidden, French fries, bingeing may result. Rather than continue with dichotomous thinking of good food/bad food, shift to allow space for all foods you like without judgement. Instead of “I ate those fries which are so bad for me” to “I really enjoyed that small portion of fries. They really satisfied me.”

Body Distortions. Rather than dwelling on how fat or thin you think your body is, it is extremely helpful to view your body in terms of what it can do for you. For example, when you look in the mirror, instead of zooming in on your stomach which “looks five months pregnant, although your last baby was nine years ago” tell yourself “my body has given life” or “my body enables me to go where I want to and allows me to have fun.”

The conversations that are going on inside your head cannot be stopped. However, what you can do is to be aware of negative self-talk and understand that it has little to do with actual reality. When you believe this, you can respond to the critical voice with a more objective, coping thought. Although negative thoughts may not be stopped entirely, they can be quieted by listening to your compassionate, caring voice. In much the same way you would sympathize and listen to a close friend, listen to yourself. Be your own best friend and chances are you’ll have greater weight loss success.

Helene Haber

Holistic Nutrition Coach

Helene Haber, HHC is a board certified health counselor. She designs personalized wellness solutions for women of all ages looking to enhance their lives, get their bodies back in shape and their health back on track. Email: TopCatHelene@aol.com.

http://www.integrativenutrition.com/graduates/HHaber.aspx

Q: I’ve heard you mention that you don’t need tons of cardio to burn stubborn abdominal fat. Okay, I can live with that, but you’ve also said that it isn’t absolutely necessary to perform direct ab work either. What gives?

A: If you want to build a serious set of abdominals, routinely perform the following exercises and their variations: squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, and standing military presses. These multi-joint movements require a strong contribution from the abdominals to stabilize the core, particularly when heavy loads are used. It is not uncommon to hear clients complain of abdominal soreness a day or two after performing multiple sets with a decent weight of the chin-up or standing military press exercise - the ab prestretch will tap into fibers you never thought existed! And remember, your abdominals act as a natural girdle, or weight belt if you will, when performing all exercises, particularly squats and deadlifts. These muscles act as a bridge between your upper and lower body and are heavily recruited as stabilizers.

Sure, isolation exercises like pullovers, curls, and even triceps pressdowns also require a good degree of core stability; however, the loads used are relatively low compared to the big 4 mentioned above. In fact, according to Siff & Verkhoshansky, isolation becomes virtually impossible if large loads are used, and in many cases, the tension developed in the stabilizers will equal or even exceed that of the prime movers!* So, you see, the abdominals can be trained quite effectively as stabilizers - the physiques of top Olympic weightlifters will attest to that.

*Siff, MC, Verkhoshansky, YV. “Supertraining (4th Edition).” Denver, CO: Supertraining International, 1999. (pg. 241)

Q: I am still very much confused regarding cardio intensity. One book says keep it low intensity (i.e. 60% of MHR) and go for distance; another keep it high intensity (80% or more) and go for as long and hard as you can. The goal is to burn fat. Each book has great arguments for their approach. Which is accurate?

A: The second approach is far more effective for burning fat. Without getting into a huge discussion about this, here’s how things work in a nutshell.

At a lower intensity, your body prefers fat for fuel. Yes, this is true, but two things generally happen:

1. After awhile of doing this type of activity, your body adapts by actually laying down fat (you heard me right) to become more efficient at the given task and this usually occurs in the lower body, and

2. A higher relative amount of fat is burned during low intensity cardio but a greater absolute amount is burned with higher intensity cardio and in less time.

Other things to consider are: a) the EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) is greater for a longer duration following higher intensity work; in other words, you’re metabolism is much higher for a longer period of time post-workout with high intensity cardio, and b) higher lactate levels exist with high intensity cardio. So what you may ask? Well there is a direct correlation with lactate and GH (Growth Hormone) and GH is a potent fat-burner.

Bottom line: with regards to burning fat, do higher intensity work in the form of interval training and you’ll get great results.

John Paul Catanzaro is a certified kinesiologist and professional fitness and lifestyle consultant with a specialized honours Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and Health Science. He owns and operates a private gym in Toronto, Ontario providing training and nutritional consulting services. For additional information, visit his website at www.BodyEssence.ca or call 416-292-4356.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, writing about stressful life events helped reduce symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis in patients with these chronic illnesses. The effects of the writing exercise were still evident four months later and resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in patient symptoms.

Interestingly, studies showed that asthma patients who wrote about their most stressful life events showed a 19-percent improvement in lung function; similarly, rheumatoid arthritis patients had a 28-percent reduction in symptoms.
These findings add to a growing body of evidence that links mental and emotional health to physical well-being.   Although researchers aren’t sure exactly how expressive writing can lead to health improvements, they theorize that writing help people cope with stress, and stress-as well all know-clearly  impacts health.

University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker believes that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes.  He theorizes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.

Louise Moran, a nurse coordinator, has written about a patient who, during a serious illness, sent daily e-mails to friends and family about her illness, a practice the woman believes played a pivotal role in her healing process.  Moran said another patient felt that journaling helped her create a new life after breast cancer.  There have even been studies suggesting that journaling in healthy people actually improves the immune system.

Patti Testerman is content manager at JournalGenie.com, the only online site that analyzes your writing and then gives you instant feedback. Want to discover self-defeating patterns, or find better ways to communicate in a relationship?  Check out our site.

Although every dieter knows that keeping food records is a key to permanent weight loss, few understand the importance of also keeping an “emotional journal.”   In fact, one dieter lost 100 pounds, thanks in part to the insights gained through daily journaling.

Dieting for weight loss can be as simple as keeping that food diary, or (the more challenging) dipping into the dark waters of the psyche.  For example, which  emotions motivate, sabotage, side-track, or inspire?  Which people are supportive, which ones undermine your focus with snide remarks or constant invitations to ice cream? All will be revealed inside your private journal.

Of all the journal exercises for gaining insight, a favorite is the “Letter to My Body.”  In this exercise, the dieter actually pens a letter to self, being as honest as possible.  A sample might be “Dear Fat Body, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.  I hate your rolls of fat on me, I hate that my knees hurt, I hate that you’d rather have a Danish than let me feel good about myself.  I hate that you’ve been good all day and I know that tonight you’ll be a pig.”

What does that type of letter accomplish?  For many-instead of adding to an already huge portion of self-loathing-it provides a powerful way of recognizing and reversing trigger situations.  In this example, when nighttime does come and the journaler heads for the pint of Ben and Jerry’s, there’s a good chance the letter will be remembered.  And, an even better chance that instead of eating a pint, some or none will be chosen.

Journaling to lose weight also involves writing about how your food choices will make you feel tomorrow when you get on the scale, or when you sit down to journal again.  And, as you write these letters to self, you’ll quickly begin to connect the dots, and track the ways in which everyday life impacts your food choices.

Keeping a journal will also help with weight loss because it’s almost impossible to get to know yourself on a deep, intimate level and then continue with self-destructive behavior.  Fortunately, we’re just not made that way.
So tonight, instead of settling in with a pizza and beer, take some time to write a letter to yourself and analyze what your hunger is really about.  I guarantee you, it isn’t food.

Patti Testerman is content manager at http://JournalGenie.com, the only online site that analyzes your writing and then gives you instant feedback. Want to discover self-defeating patterns, or find better ways to communicate in a relationship?  Check out our site.