For Weight Loss Success Ditch the Soda

I’ve written about this before, but a lot of people don’t believe me that a key to weight loss success is to stop drinking diet soda.

No, I’m not telling you to load up on the sugary stuff--it isn’t good for you either:

• Drinking soda is shown to increase the amount of fat on your organs, which is a bigger threat to your health than the fat on your hips.
• Sodas (and some sports drinks) contain lots of chemicals that can cause nerve disorders, memory loss and skin problems.
• Sodas contain GMO ingredients—high-fructose corn syrup is bad for our health for many reasons, but there are unknown risks that we face when we drink it (most sodas are sweetened with this man-made poison.) GMOs are a new addition to our diet, only appearing in the 1990s, and the long-term effects are still unknown, but recent studies are suggesting they may contribute to disease, premature aging, and infertility.

Read more: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/3-shocking-soda-facts

Don’t switch to diet soda—there are plenty of studies that show the artificial sweeteners are even worse!

Of course, moderation is the best course. If the thought of going without a soda entirely is going to send you on a binge, then allow yourself a little now and then.

For your weight loss success (and overall health) stop drinking soda (or at least start weaning yourself off) and you can easily drop weight—or you can eat more, either way, you win!

Grocery Store Tips for Weight Loss Success

The grocery store can be our best friend for weight loss success and it can also be our biggest weight loss challenge, providing us with healthy food at reasonable prices.

Here are 3 of my top simple tips to help the grocery store lean in the BFF direction rather than foe!

1. Don't go to the store hungry.
I know, I know, you've heard it a gazillion times already. Well, you've heard it a gazillion times because it is true! When we are hungry we are more apt to grab a "quick something" and that generally is not an apple! Nope, we're apt to grab a candy bar or bag of chips while standing in the checkout line. And that's on top of the other stuff that wasn't on your list that found its way into your cart because...yep, you're hungry. When we are hungry our resistance is down and EVERYTHING sounds good! By eating a healthy snack before we go shopping we help control our cravings and are much more able to make healthy, conscious food choices that support our goals.

2. Make a list and buy what is on the list.
OK, this could have been 2 separate tips but really, what good is a list if you don't use it? So make a list, bring it to the store with you (how many times have I left my list on the counter and then wracked my menopausal brain trying to remember what was on it?) and then buy off the list! I'm not militant about it...at least not entirely...if you see something that you forgot to add to the list, fine. Something's on sale for a super price that is healthy that you KNOW you will eat, okay. Sounds/looks/smells good--no way! So if you really want to have cookies or ice cream, then they have to be on the list. Sometimes writing it down is enough to convince yourself you don't really want it! Making yourself shop with a list also stops the "I'll just pop in for a few things on the way home" shopping...that's when a lot of high-fat/sugar/salt items make it into the cart (on their own without any help from me, I swear!)

3. Pay with Cash
According to the Journal of Consumer Research if you buy your groceries with cash your cart will tend to hold less junk food! If you want the immediate gratification of junk food then decide you must have the immediate cash to pay for it, otherwise your delayed payment will come due and you will have the extra weight on the hips, too. Take this one step further and roughly calculate how much money you will need for your groceries and bring only that amount of cash. Then when you are tempted to add that box of cookies and you are faced with having to return either your milk or the cookies you just might decide to keep the milk!

You'll notice these 3 tips all help us to make conscious choices. We always have a choice about the food we eat--what we put into our body and how much of it. By following these tips we help ourselves to make the small changes in food buying that will result in big changes in our health, including our waistline. As an added benefit we'll save money, too!

Lose Weight Successfully: Get Enough Sleep, Be Less Hungry

This is part 2 of a series on the effect not getting enough sleep has on our efforts to lose weight successfully.

There is increasing evidence that insufficient sleep is directly linked to obesity and ailments such as diabetes. There has also been a lot of publicity about the direct relationship between obesity and diabetes, so even though I don't directly talk about diabetes much it is an important reason for us to achieve a healthy weight. Type 2 diabetes (formerly known as "adult onset diabetes") is much more common in people who are carrying too much body fat--no matter their age--then people in the "normal" weight range.

In addition to the diabetes connection, lack of sleep is also connected to heart disease, stroke and cardio-vascular issues. Bottom line is we have got to get enough sleep to be healthy! I know it seems obvious, but we tend to push ourselves thinking that giving up on sleep is our only option...that if we just get a little less sleep we will get more done, provide a better life for our families, make more money, etc. Truth is, if we become ill we will be LESS benefit to our family, COST them money and we will have LESS TIME with them--certainly less QUALITY time and possibly be LOST TO THEM FOREVER.

If that isn't enough, how about this: lack of sleep makes us hungrier!

Sleeping is actually a way for our body to regulate our appetite via hormones. When we don't get enough sleep the hormone that helps us feel satiated (leptin) is depressed. At the same time the hormone that stimulates our appetite (ghrelin) is increased.

Missing an hour or two once in a while is probably not going to make you obese. But chronically shorting yourself on sleep can. What's even scarier to me is that just 2 nights of shorting yourself of sleep can have this effect. I remember pulling all-nighters (often) and getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night for years, punctuated with nights of 10-12 hours sleep, but those short nights set me up for major health problems. Of course I didn't know that at the time, I felt I had to get the project done--whether it was for school or work--and feeling a bit tired was a small price to pay for the rewards I would receive.

Boy, was I wrong! I don't think anyone ever built a monument to someone because they missed sleep to get a project done on time.

A third hormone is also at play--adiponectin also helps regulate our body fat. When this hormone level falls (which happens with sleep deprivation, especially in Caucasian women) our blood sugar gets out of whack, our metabolism slows, and our cholesterol and blood pressure levels get out of balance.

Finally, the hormone melatonin is also affected by lack of sleep. This is especially important to those of us on a weight loss journey since studies have already demonstrated that healthy melatonin levels help us maintain a healthy weight.

Numerous studies are now showing that getting ample sleep on a regular basis is essential for our reaching and maintaining a healthy weight.

Truth is, sleep is something that benefits our brains, our bodies and our emotions. When we are exhausted we don't feel good, we are less apt to believe we can positively impact our lives. Because our body's chemistry is out of whack it is harder for us to maintain the positive mental attitude we need to lose weight and we will reach for foods and drinks that give us artificial energy. Unfortunately that backfires on us in the long-run and we feel even more tired, so we grab more stimulants in the form of sugar or caffeine which just gets us even more out of balance and more prone to being overweight.

So put your health first and get some sleep.

If you aren't getting restorative sleep because of some other issues like insomnia or sleep apnea, if you feel tired even though you regularly are "asleep" for 8 or more hours a night--see your doctor. There are therapies that can help. Sometimes a medical condition can keep us from sleeping and that condition may be made worse by being overweight--or may be actually cured by losing weight, but we may need some help to break the cycle enough to get the sleep we need so we can have healthy hormone levels and body and brain chemistry that will aide us in getting a positive mindset about losing weight.

Weight Loss Success Tip: Temptation Assistance is at Hand

Yesterday I wrote about how hard it is to break unhealthy habits and that one solution can be putting space between you and temptation. Sometimes we can do that by avoiding stores when we are hungry, not buying junk food treats that trip our trigger, or even putting tempting foods somewhere that we can't readily see or reach them.

I read about a new study that reveals we have another tool right at hand. Literally. When you are facing your temptation, whether that is chips or candy in the vending machine at work or something in the store or your own home, according to this study if you clench your fist it will help.

It isn't something that works long-term...but it can be an immediate boost for you when face-to-face with temptation.

Fists aren't the only things that work either--although it is harder to reach for that pint of Ben & Jerry's without the use of fingers! You can clench any muscles for the same effect. So if your hands are otherwise occupied squeeze you buttocks. Then you get a little isometric exercising it at the same time!


Study published by the Journal of Consumer Research

Weight Loss Challenge: Immediate Pleasure vs I Know Better

I've mentioned recently how I think setting New Year's resolutions sucks, we'll now I actually have some science to back up my beliefs. Love it when that happens!

Strike one against our efforts to lose weight...big surprise: we like sweets! Turns out humans are genetically built to prefer sweeter tasting foods than bitter ones. This was good for procreation and safety as more bitter tasting foods were poisonous than sweet ones. Survival of the fittest (or sweetest) at work--those who didn't eat the poison survived.

We also get a hit of dopamine when we eat foods that we enjoy...dopamine is a pleasure-sensing hormone and it reinforces the pleasure aspect of eating those foods. So every time we eat something that tastes super yummy we get a hit of dopamine and so we want it even more.

So we like sweets and then foods that taste really good give us a brain buzz.

This double whammy makes it really hard to break a habit. We may have really good intentions (like setting a resolution) but this dopamine hit is more than just a bad habit...it actually hard-wires us to want the substance, even when we have a better reward in the future. So much for willpower!

So it is a showdown between our intellect and our biology. Dr Nora Volkow is an authority on the brain's pleasure sensing pathway and she says this is why unhealthy actions become habits and why they are so hard to break.

Not only are habits hard to break, for some reason we think we will be able to handle temptation better than we really can.

Loran Norgren is a psychologist at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and in their studies they have documented that people who put more obstacles between themselves and the temptation have a much better success rate at not giving in. They have also shown that people tend to overestimate their ability to withstand the temptation...and that leads to their downfall.

Lessons from this?

Immediate pleasure is a powerful thing--and certainly not all bad (that procreation thing, remember But in our effort to lose weight, sometimes we need to put a little distance between ourselves and our food temptation. At least until we can unwire our brains.

Another thing we can do to help us overcome the pull of that immediate pleasure is to be very aware of when we eat and why. Reducing emotional reasons and environmental stimulation really helps. Don't go to the grocery store hungry for one. And don't stock up on your favorite treats to test yourself...studies show odds are you will "not be the biggest loser" if you get my drift.

As far as I am concerned learning to really love ourselves is one of the biggest weapons we have against the pull of immediate pleasure. When we love ourselves we naturally want to take care of our bodies and eat healthier foods. It doesn't mean that we will never want a treat, it does mean that we will be less inclined to have to binge over it. And if we do binge, we will be better able to forgive ourselves and move on.

In the meantime, loving ourselves might just mean putting some distance between a food we love and the bodies we love, at least temporarily!

Aging, Weight Loss and Mental Sharpness

Yesterday I talked about how important getting sufficient protein every day is to our health, our appearance and for weight loss success.

Today I'm going to talk, quite unscientifically, about something that I've observed that I believe is at least partially attributable to NOT getting enough protein on a regular basis.

First, imagine you get up and you wait hours before eating. Maybe you have a cup of coffee or tea. Then perhaps you have some cereal or toast...or something sweeter perhaps. How are feeling about 10:30 or11am? Probably feeling a bit sluggish and a bit foggy mentally. You may even feel that earlier in the day.

What do you do at that point? If you are like most folks you grab some sugar and maybe some (more) caffeine thinking that will solve the problem. And your blood sugar spikes and you do get some energy. Temporarily.

Problem is you are only addressing symptoms, not the real cause.

The cause is that you haven't really fueled your body with the most important thing it needs--protein!

This might not be a big problem if you do this once in a while...but over time what happens is your body loses lean body mass as we talked about yesterday.

I contend that this affects our brain as much as it does the rest of our body. We lose our mental abilities...we become more and more foggy.

My evidence? Well, not a scientific study to be sure, but I have seen it in my own family. Right now I am seeing the results in my mother who is 80 years old...(I wish I could say 80 years "young"...but can't.)

While I recognize we are blessed that she is pretty healthy and doesn't suffer from Alzheimer's or Dementia...I also see this once super-intelligent woman reduced to being in a fog much of the time. What concerns me even more is that on the one hand she recognizes this reduction in her abilities and yet she is not willing or able to help herself do anything about it.

My mother has only rarely been overweight in her life. And when she deemed herself to be "fat" she rigidly dieted. For her it was a "simple" matter of pushing herself away from the table while still hungry. (I inherited neither her metabolism nor her diet discipline.)

Well, my mother has dropped lots of weight over the last couple of years.

The science is that typically for every decade past our 40th year we lose 8% of our lean body mass. That would mean my mom would have 32% less lean body mass than she used to...so if her entire 40 year old 140 pound body was lean body mass (which of course, it wouldn't have been) and we took away 32% of that she would be about 120 pounds today...all things being equal.

Mom is currently about 110 pounds...when a healthy weight for her would be closer to 130-140. It seems as her body gets smaller and smaller so does her mental capacity. So, the notion that one can "never be too thin" is pure fiction...dangerous fiction at that!

My conclusion, as unscientific as it may be, is that she has definitely lost too much weight, especially lean body mass, and that this loss has affected her mental ability...and therefore I for one am going to be doubly sure to eat sufficient protein multiple times a day every day.

Anti-Aging and Weight Loss Success Secret Weapon

One of the biggest secrets to losing weight successfully and for looking younger is quite simple...protein.

We hear all the time that Americans eat too much protein. But that may not be really accurate.

While it is true we don't need a lot of protein at any one sitting, we DO need to eat protein regularly...several times every day. Research from the University of Texas backs this up and states that the most important factor for maintaining our lean body mass is eating protein regularly through out the day. You see, our bodies don't store protein...at least not as protein. If we eat too much protein it is converted and stored as--fat! That means saving it all up for dinner won't cut it in terms of looking youthful or being healthy.

The trick is, if we don't eat enough protein then our body will actually start to "eat" our own lean body mass...we will tear down our "less important" tissues in an effort to protect our most vital organs (like our heart.)

What exactly is lean body mass? It is most of the parts of our body that we love (read "not our fat")...including our bones, skin, muscles and parts of our essential organs. And once we get over the 40 year hump we start to lose that lean body mass. Figures indicate on average we lose 8 % every decade.

Less lean body mass could mean that our metabolism slows down (ever heard that it is harder to lose weight once you hit 40?) This is because muscles burn more calories than fat. So, that is enough all by itself to make me want to be sure I get enough protein in every day.

But that's not all...losing lean body mass affects our bones, making us more susceptible to breaks, our skin becomes more easily damaged and all of our organs are adversely affected. Think about it...pretty much all the signs of aging could be linked to loss of lean body mass!

So whether you are trying to drop excess fat or keep your body looking younger, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to eat small servings of protein several times a day.

Don't think this means you have to be eating meat three times a day...mix it up with wild salmon (avoid "Atlantic" salmon as that means it is farm-raised and less healthy) or other fish, nuts and seeds, chicken and other poultry, dairy, eggs, and off course beans and legumes.

Add nuts and seeds to your morning yogurt or oatmeal, or a little Feta and Quinoa to a salad and you've got meals with protein that won't raise your cholesterol either!

New Diet Pill Safe and Effective for Weight Loss Success?

The Associated Press released an announcement that an experimental diet pill has helped people lose weight--about half the people who tried it lost "some" weight and were able to keep it off for a year. This new pill theoretically does not cause the heart problems that earlier pills such as fen-phen did, even though it acts on the same pathways.

Most diet pills are either not safe at all or can only be taken safely short-term. Is this one really any different?

Before people get too excited about this pill, realize it is still in the experimental phase and it helped people lose "at least 5 percent of their body weight over a year"...

Let's look at that and see if that really amounts to weight loss success.

If you weight 300 pounds and lose 5% of your body weight that is 15 pounds. That's right a whopping 15 pounds!

Until they PROVE that there are no side effects...like irreversible heart damage, problems with digestion and bowel leakage, problems that have shown up AFTER clinical trials were done and diet pills deemed safe in the past...then I'd say this is not worth the risk in my book!

The bigger question really is, do diet pills address the REAL problem? I know when I was 300 pounds I longed for a pill that would magically melt the fat away...allowing me to not have to face my feelings or why I was over eating or retaining weight in the first place.

It may not be the fastest route in the short-term, but by learning to deal with my emotions I have a much healthier body and I dropped a lot of weight (over 125 pounds) in a bout a year...and that turned out to be a lot faster than ANY diet or pill ever would have done!

Bottom line...for true weight loss success, start with your mind...not with a diet or a pill.

Fast Food Spoils Weight Loss Success

OK, you may have seen the movie Super Size Me...one man's quest to demonstrate how fast food restaurants contribute to obesity and overall poor health in this county.

Well, recently a study was done in Sweden that seems to confirm the findings. In this month-long study, thin young adults ate two of their daily meals at a fast-food restaurant.

At the end of the month, these Swedes weighed in at, on average, 12-15 pounds more than when they started!

Weight gain was not the only health issue, the subjects also became more insulin resistant. This could mean that they are heading towards diabetes.

Admittedly, the participants also reduced the amount of exercise they did for that month, so it is not just eating the fast-food that did it, but it certainly was a part of the equation. And don't think that ordering a salad is the solution--many of the fast-food salads have as much fat, calories and salt as a burger and fries.

Just imagine if these thin people gained 15 pounds in a month...if you have a fast-food habit, think what you could lose!

The best bet for weight loss success--limit, not eliminate--fast-food meals if you like them. Eating more fresh produce, fewer fried foods, and dropping the soda (regular or diet) habit will help you to achieve your health goals.

It isn't about putting fast-food off limits...it is about being aware of what we are eating and making conscious choices about what we put in our bodies. Reaching for foods that fuel our bodies in the best ways...allowing our brains to think and our muscles to be strong. Having a burger and fries once in a while isn't going to make you fat...but it appears eating this way on a regular basis can.

Exercise Tip for Weight Loss Success: Start Small

The best exercise for weight loss is the one you will do.

Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it is true. You will lose more weight doing 5 minutes of something you love to do then you will pledging to workout for an hour every day.

Start small.

I subscribe to the "one jumping jack theory" which is based on a fitness study done years ago. It actually tracked the results of two groups of people. The first group committed to doing a single jumping jack every day. The second group committed to a daily one hour work out.

Guess who lost more weight over the period of the study? Yep...those jumpers!

A lot of the people who made the big commitment just couldn't keep it. Hmmm...that sounds familiar...but that would be another blog entirely. So rather than doing a partial workout, they just didn't do any workout at all. Kind of the "go big or go home" mentality.

On the other hand, it was pretty easy to get in a jumping jack. You don't even have to put on any workout clothes if you don't want to. And after doing one, what's another one...and another...and how about a push up or two.

Interesting, isn't it?

So start small. Commit to something that you absolutely, positively can do. And then do it.

Once you have built that small activity into your life, you can bump it up just a little bit more.

Is this going to give you 6 pack abs overnight? Heck no! But it just might keep you off the weight loss roller coaster ride of up and down the same 10 or 20 pounds!

Weight Loss Success, a Big Sweet Tooth, Depression and Cravings

I had to write more about the recent study I read that showed a link between a preference for sweet tastes and depression and/or alcoholism. (If you haven't read yesterday's post, then you might want to read that before you read this one.)

This study really struck a chord with me...I know that one of the reasons I packed on pounds was because I chose to eat rather than face and express my emotions. And I know I am not alone in that department.

I've also been learning about how important it is to keep our brain chemistry balanced in order to function at our best. By keeping our hormones balanced we are less apt to go into depression...and, is it ironic that we also suffer from fewer cravings?

One of the reasons we eat sugars...whether that is actually sugar in the form of sweets, ice creams, cookies, candy, or sugars in the form of simple carbohydrates like pasta, bread and the like...is because they make us feel good. At least in the short-term. Generally when we grab that feel-good food we don't think about--or don't care--about the consequences...that we are going to have the sugar crash later. Some of us just keep eating the sugars so we never have to feel the crash.

I don't know if I reached for treats to soothe my feelings because from early on I recognized that it felt good...or if there was some genetic switch that got triggered that caused me to crave them more and more. Which came first? Did one cause the other?

What I do know is that relying on foods to help me get "high" did not help me in the long run. Not only did I not learn how to deal with my emotions, I also got fat...and on top of THAT, I had the privilege of feeling bad about myself because I thought I had no willpower...that I was weak.

I do not believe that this study indicates that some kids are destined to become fat, or alcoholic, or depressed. I believe that we have so much more power over our lives than that. Does it mean that we might have some challenges that other people don't face. Sure...but that does not to limit us, nor does it have to identify us.

Perhaps we can use a preference for sweets as a flag...if I want something sweet, is it possible that I have waited too long to eat healthy foods and therefore my brain is simply sending out a signal that it needs sugar? If I prefer to eat something sweet when I am sad, this could be an indication that I need to get more serotonin, or dopamine or endorphins...the "feel good" chemicals our bodies love and create...so what are other ways to get those chemicals? Exercise is one way.

We can't just stop eating...we have to eat in order to live...but we don't have to live to eat....on the other hand we don't have to constantly deprive ourselves to be thin--cuz that is no life!

If we have a mindset that we are predestined to be fat, or that we always crave sugar, or that we have a problem with food...or whatever message we have gotten about food and our bodies...as long as we have that mindset, we will have a real challenge to losing weight.

So don't beat yourself up for liking sweets...don't chastise yourself if you have a dessert (and Heaven forbid, you actually enjoy it!)...instead, shift your mindset. Learn to think like a naturally thin person. Start to believe that you can eat and be healthy. Know that you can be aware of what you eat and when you eat...and that you can consciously make a decision about whether you want to make that choice today, this minute.

Dieting is hard because it only addresses the food...the calories in and out. Changing our eating habits is more about our mindset than the actual food. And changing those eating habits is much easier to do when we change our thinking first!

Decide that you CAN eat healthily...and that you deserve health. Know that you FEEL so much better when you fuel your body with healthy foods...foods that nourish you. Come from that perspective and you will find a big reduction in your sugar cravings and a big reduction in your waistline, too!

Having a Big Sweet Tooth is a Big Weight Loss Challenge

Having a big sweet tooth is a big weight loss challenge. We know that eating sweets isn't in our best interests...but they taste soooo good. We are constantly being bombarded with the message that we have to not eat sweets if we are going to lose weight successfully. So why is it that everything that tastes good seems to be bad for us?

What a lot of people don't realize is that it is completely natural for human beings to like things that taste sweet. This is something that is part of our evolutionary makeup.

You see, one of the ways people used to know if it was safe to eat foods was by taste. Things that taste sweet were generally safe to eat. It seems our bodies had a built in defense mechanism against toxic foods--that tasted bad.

We don't need to rely on taste buds for our safety in that way any more--thank goodness. And it seems that some of us prefer sweets more than others. I wondered why that might be. After all, not everyone is a chocoholic.

A study done recently by the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia links a preference for sweetness with depression and alcoholism. The study is not suggesting that because a child likes sweets they will become depressed or an alcoholic as an adult. It just showed a correlation between children who exhibit symptoms of depression and/or have an alcoholic family member and a preference for very sweet tastes.

Nothing was conclusive and raised many questions in my mind. For example, is the preference for sweet tastes something we have from birth? And if it is, is it because of the "food" we got during the gestation process? Is the preference for sweet tastes due to hormonal imbalances? Do we put our bodies into a hormonal imbalance if we eat more sweets, or do we eat more sweets because of an existing imbalance.

Interesting food for thought...none of it is to say that we are victims here. We do have control, we make the choices...but what if learning the causes for these preferences helped us to feel like we were "okay"...or if it helped parents with their kids so we had fewer obese/depressed/alcoholic children and future adults out there?

Can we have a little sweetness in our lives...without feeling destined to be fat for the rest of our lives? And can we enjoy a sweet tastes without becoming depressed? After all, a "little spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"...

Maybe it just depends on the size of the spoon! (Save the shovel for yard work!)

Losing Weight Successfully Is Not To Be Taken Lightly

Losing weight successfully is not something to be taken lightly...er...it is something to be taken seriously, but you should have some fun, too!

But it is a challenge...and for many people getting support is an important part of the weight loss success equation.

A recent study by Amy Gorin, assistant professor of psychology at University of Connecticut found that it is more than just cutting calories and exercising more. The success equation includes making small changes that support your health goals.

One of the changes in Gorin's study included eating meals on smaller plates. We've talked about that before--how our plates today are so much larger than "in the olden days"...in fact our current plates won't even fit in antique cupboards!

Another change is watching less television. Why? Because, well, 1. it is sedentary...you don't burn many calories parked in front of the tube, and 2. we frequently eat when we watch television.

A third change is to enlist help and support from friends and family. This can work, but you have to be clear what kind of support you want. Don't leave it up to your friends or family members to guess what kind of help you are looking for. And certainly do not expect them to know what you need. You have to figure out what you want and then be willing to ask for it.

In some cases, the best support may be for them to just leave you alone. Our loved ones usually have our best interests at heart, but that doesn't mean that we want them watching every morsel we eat.

If announcing to the world (or even just your family) that you want to drop a few pounds is stressful for you, then that might just not be the right answer for you. It is my experience that until I was ready to make changes in my life, and doing what is right for my health--for ME, not for anyone else, then it didn't really matter who I told my goals to...or how many people I told. The only thing it did was force my eating to go underground. Ice cream eaten in secret is still ice cream eaten.

So get support--that's great--be willing to ask for it, and for exactly what you want. Do you want someone to help remind you that the food at the party is loaded with calories? Or do you want someone to walk with you? Or, do you want someone you can call when you have a craving? Or, do you want all those things? It is possible to enlist the help of a variety of people and have them each help you in a unique way.

I love having someone I can walk with...someone who will help me to remember to get away from my desk, enjoy some fresh air. Otherwise I could work all day and night. I also like having someone who encourages me to express my feelings so I don't feel the need to push them down with food. But I definitely don't want to feel like someone is watching every bite of food I eat, and I don't want someone who is going to count calories/carbs or fat grams. I want people around me who are positive, who help me keep a positive mindset...but who allow me to be me and don't expect me to be "perfect" or deprive myself and never have desserts!

What kind of support do you want? Let me know what kind of help you appreciate and what "help" you'd rather not be offered.

Eat Fat to Lose Weight and Beat the Blues

Do you eat because you feel depressed?

Even having lost 125 pounds and fought off the demon of depression, I still have strong urges to grab a pint of comfort when stressed or depressed...in my case the pint is usually Ben & Jerry's.

I know from personal experience that eating all that sugar only temporarily helps the feeling of depression.

Well a study done in Spain indicates we can actually eat foods to help prevent depression in the first place!

The famous "Mediterranean diet" appears to be the answer--eating an abundance of fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats is olive oil, nuts and fish.

It may be the fats that have the biggest benefit--olive oil has oleic acid, and omega-3 fatty acids from fish give our serotonin levels a boost. Serotonin is the feel-good hormone, and is what many anti-depressants target.

This is another important reason why we shouldn't just eliminate or drastically cut back on all fats. Keeping some good, healthy fats in our diet is important for our moods, our mental abilities...and it also helps your insides stay regulated and your skin feeling smooth.

Eat healthy fats as part of your plan for losing or maintaining weight. It is a healthy part of any successful, permanent weight loss program.

Diet Drinks Destroy Kidneys: Don't Drink Them to Achieve Health and Weight Loss Goals

I've said it before, "diet" drinks are not the best choice for us when we are trying to lose weight or achieve health goals.

New evidence is showing that consuming diet drinks can damage your kidneys!

Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston conducted a study over 11 years involving more than 3000 women. They analyzed what beverages these women drank over the time. Turns out women who drank2 or more (just 2!) diet sodas a day (that's 24+ oz) have twice the chance of their kidney function decline at a more rapid rate when compared to women who drank less than one can a month.

With age our kidney function naturally decreases. Speeding up the decrease in function can increase our risk of kidney failure. When you kidneys fail you end up on dialysis...I've known a couple people in that situation and it is no fun! 3 days each and every week they are hooked up to a machine that does what our healthy kidneys do. They are lucky there are such machines, without the machines they would die...

Besides all that, it has been shown that the fake sweeteners that are in the diet sodas actually increase our hunger levels and cravings for carbs!

So do yourself a favor, ditch the diet drinks! You don't need them to achieve your healthy, energetic, slender body!

Fun with Fido Follow Up: More Weight Loss Success Tips

Yesterday I mentioned that a recent study in Great Britain showed that people who have dogs...well, people who WALK their dogs...get more exercise than people who workout at a gym, or on their own.

OK, no big surprise I guess...after all, Fido has to pee and last I checked, is not too keen on the subject of toilet training. My dogs thought of the toilet as a giant water dish, nothing more.

Of course if you have a fenced yard, you can let Rover roam there and do his business...but still getting out with him and moving both your bodies is a fantastic experience. Whether it is running, walking, or playing frisbee...as long as you aren't just standing in one place you will be getting exercise and fresh air. A good combo.

Well one of the things that makes exercising with Spot, well spot-on, is that it is fun and short! You don't have to make a huge time commitment out of it which is a HUGE lesson for exercise-phobics and fans alike. Throw on your shoes, grab the leash and take a quick spin around the block a couple times a day and you're good.

Whether you have a dog or not, we can all take this advice to heart. Instead of thinking we have to set aside an hour and have a big routine...break it up. Get 15 minutes in...heck, if you need to, get in 5 minutes several times a day. Every minute that you are moving is a minute that you are getting healthier, fitter...and it all adds up for weight loss success!

The big lessons here for losing weight--small bits of activity are just fine...and have fun--bring some joy into your life when you exercise and you are apt to do it, even if you are pressed for time.

Oh--and if you don't have King to get you moving, you can always "borrow" one...check out your local animal shelter...many of them will have a program where you can help give their animals some love and exercise. OK, that may take a bit more time than the quick trip around the block, but it is a way to get fit, get some love, and give back all at the same time!

Have Fun, Get Fit, Weight Loss Success Tip

Walking is one of the best exercises you can do. It is easy, available to just about everyone, and cheap.

Make sure you have good walking shoes and dress for the weather...this time of year it is cold in Colorado so I wear earmuffs and mittens along with my layers of sweatshirt and light coat. I like to dress in layers so if I want to peel one off, or just unzip a bit I have that option.

I love walking outdoors...I find places that give me a lot of pleasure...I like looking at ponds and wildlife, peoples' gardens, although this time of year that is not as exciting as it will be in another couple of months. I enjoy seeing the clear blue sky, the snow capped mountains, hearing the geese as they honk and fly overhead. I thrill at the romping dogs or kids playing in the park or school grounds.

Find a couple routes that give you pleasure.

And speaking of dogs...if you have one, take him or her along...it will give both of you exercise and a lot of pleasure. If you don't have one...well...maybe this isn't a good enough reason all by itself to get a dog, but a study conducted in Great Britain indicates that dog owners happily get more exercise in--just from walking their dogs than people who use a gym or workout on their own!

So if the main reason you are not getting a dog is financial, maybe you should save the gym fees and get a four-legged exercise buddy! I guarantee you'll get a lot more love from your canine companion than the gym!

Back to the study...they showed that dog owners actually got in up to 6 hours more exercise every week than the gym goers. Interesting...why is that? Because they were having fun!

Here's the bottom line, if you are forcing yourself to exercise because you "should," then you probably aren't having a lot of fun with it. Remember being a kid and you had recess? You ran and played and had loads of fun...and got lots of exercise from that playing.

The best exercise for losing weight is one where you have fun! Whether that is by walking your dog, playing with the kids, dancing to music, or just enjoying being out in nature be sure to include some fun in your exercise routine and you will be more apt to keep at it!

Is Your Weight Loss Success Hindered by Junk Food Addiction?

I heard for years that it takes will power to lose weight. My mother was an advocate of the "Push yourself away from the table hungry" diet...talk about needing will power!!!

I hear over and over people who say they can't lose weight because they just don't have the will power. Some people joke that they have "will power" it is "won't power" they need. Well, losing weight is not a matter of will power (or won't power, either.)

Trying to make losing weight a matter of will power puts the person who is making the effort into a power-LESS position instead of a power-FULL one. It implies that we are weak when diets fail us...and they DO fail us!

Food is a drug...it is probably the most commonly used and abused drug there is. It is legal, easy to get, relatively inexpensive, and comparatively a socially acceptable drug. But drug it is.

I've joked in the past about being a "chocoholic" and we've all known people who say they are addicted to sugar...

Put the jokes aside! Sugar can be addictive...not just a bad habit that can be broken by sheer will power. A new study suggests that junk food may actually be as addictive as cocaine or heroine!

The study was conducted at Scripps Research Institute. Researchers gave rats unlimited high-fat, high-calorie foods that we would call "junk food"...items readily available at the corner store or gas station. The rats became compulsive overeaters, and became obese, just as people do. What the scientists showed was the rats' brains became less and less responsive to the pleasure received from the junk food...so the rats had to eat more of it for the same thrill.

The rats used their foot to get the good. When the scientists gave the rats a slight shock to that foot, the rats still went for it.

Both the need to eat more for the same pleasure, and eating despite the shock, are indicators of addiction.

In addition, after having had unlimited amounts of junk food for 40 days, the junk food was replaced with a nutritious food. With no junk food available to them, the rats chose to starve rather than eat the healthy food provided.

"Not only did we find that the animals' brain reward circuits became less responsive as they continued to overeat and become obese, but that decrease in responsiveness was similar to what our laboratory has seen previously in rats as they become addicted to cocaine or heroin."
--Paul Kenny, associate professor of molecular therapeutics

So eating junk food can be addictive...but that doesn't mean that it is impossible to lose weight. It does mean that "will power" is not the answer.

Be gentle with yourself when/if you are drawn to eat junk food...beating yourself up for your addiction is not going to serve you...you will have lots of opportunities to eat junk food--it is all around you. So don't expect to be "perfect" in your eating. Make small changes gradually rather than trying to go "cold turkey"

Have other plans for handling the situations when you want to eat...to help break the cycle.

And since our pleasure centers may be a bit depressed, we must give ourselves other rewards...stimulate the pleasure center in our brain through means other than food.

We can have weight loss success, by changing our mindset. We have to first believe we can lose weight and also that we deserve to lose weight. This is the beginning to losing weight, permanently, safely, and naturally.

Will Yoga Make Me Skinny?

Does yoga help you become thin and lean? Or do people who tend to be lean gravitate towards yoga?

Interesting question.

I'm always fascinated by people who claim their type of exercise will help people have longer, leaner muscles. Since I have short extremities relative to my torso, that has appealed to me. I was always envious of the girls who had delicate builds, looked like they never worked out, and yet were extremely powerful.

I have known these types of girls and women...and they have done a variety of exercises. Some did yoga, some preferred pilates, some swam, and others lifted weights. So I don't believe there is any one "magic" exercise.

Can the exercises we do influence how our muscles appear? Sure, but most women do not need to worry about "bulking up" with just a 15-30 minute routine every day...so take one worry off your mind and focus on finding what you enjoy doing.

Try yoga. It has lots of health benefits besides exercise. There are lots of different types of yoga so be willing to look at a variety before you decide if you like it or not. If you are overweight then yoga can pose some challenges (is that a groan I hear???) but with proper guidance you may be able to participate and gain some strength, flexibility and balance while being gentle on your joints.

If you are significantly overweight then you may be able to modify some of the yoga routines and get some benefit. If getting up and down is difficult, work with someone who will help you adapt yoga to your current abilities...even if it means you start with limited positions and work on your bed or a couch.

What I like about yoga is the calmness, the meditative quality. But for me, yoga is best when I am with a group. I actually get too impatient with it by myself. Plus right now I don't want to take the time...I like my daily 15 minutes instead. But that's just me--it doesn't make it wrong or right.

Here is one theory behind why people who practice yoga tend to be thinner...a current study suggest that these folks are more in touch with their bodies and that carries over to eating.

Whether you decide you enjoy yoga or not, being in touch with our bodies is an important lesson that we all deserve to learn. I often talk about eating consciously...and that is what this is really all about. Eating consciously, really thinking about what we eat, when, why and how much we eat is a huge shift for most overweight people.

Will yoga help you to be eat more consciously? I don't believe the study really addresses that...there really is still the chicken or the egg question...are people who practice yoga more inclined to eat consciously because of yoga or are they drawn to yoga because they are already more in touch with their bodies?

What I found more valuable in the study is that it showed that people who are more conscious about their eating weigh less...have a lower BMI (body mass index.)

This makes sense and is what I talk about often...and was the biggest shift in my mindset that enabled me to successfully drop 125lbs. When you eat, focus on eating...work on changing your mindset...become aware of the food that is going into your mouth. Stop the habit of mindlessly eating...whether that is chewing gum, munching on carrots sticks or downing Oreos. Bring your awareness to what you are doing and you will be surprised at how you can easily eat less.

It starts with being aware. For a week, use a food journal to track what you eat and drink. Don't try to change your intake...just write it down so you really know what you are currently doing. That is the first step.

Will yoga make you thin? I doubt it. It didn't make me thin. But it does cause you to slow down, get some deep breaths in, stretch and builds muscles. None of those are bad things. So give it a try. But remember, it is what you are doing in your mind that is going to make the biggest difference. Combine mindful eating with moving more and you have the 3 Ms of weight loss success: mindset, movement and mouth. That's the real secret to achieving a healthy body, permanently!

Lose Weight without Dieting Tip: Calcium Counts!

Studies have now proven that getting enough calcium helps us to process and eliminate fat from our bodies!

In fact, getting enough calcium can help you process up to 6-1/2 pounds MORE fat in a year than you would without it! 6-1/2 pounds!!! That's an easy way to lose weight without dieting!!!

To be effective, you need to get 1gm - 1200mg of calcium every day...that is WAY more than most of us get...or can get by eating foods today.

Rather than trying to force more spinach down...leafy greens are one of the best sources of calcium--you don't have to take in more dairy--most of us should take calcium supplements.

When choosing supplements you want to be sure that you combine calcium with magnesium...about 600-800 mg. Don't know what else magnesium does for you, but combining it with your calcium will help keep you, ahem, "regular"...as calcium can create kind of a roadblock...if you get my drift!

Check out your supplements carefully...supplements aren't regulated and so a lot of companies don't do much in the way of quality control.

I suggest you talk to my friend and health advisor, Dr. Linda...she can tell you more about supplements and things to look for...check out her blog and her website. Dr Linda has really helped me with a lot of my health questions and helped guide me during my 120 lb weight loss!