Lose 8 Pounds in 2 Weeks with Mayo Clinic: Diet or Life Change?

The Mayo clinic is publishing their first diet book in which they claim you can lose 8 pounds in 2 weeks (average figures).

Of course Mayo does suggest that this isn't really a diet but a guide for healthy living. They break the program into 2 parts Lose It and Live It.

So what's in the Lose It plan?

For two weeks you make a total of 15 changes:

• Add 5 healthy habits
• Break 5 unhealthy habits
• Adopt 5 bonus habits

For example, you might eat breakfast every day...that's a healthy habit just in case you were wondering ;-) You can read some of my past posts about the importance of eating breakfast

Of course one of the unhealthy habits you can dump is drinking soda--whether it is regular or sugar free this is one habit that should be at the top of your list to discard--you can read some of my thoughts on soda consumption -- and this is coming from a recovered soda drinker--I used to drink a 6 pack a day (of the diet stuff...baaaad habit.)

In the Live It phase you apply lessons you've learned from the Lose It portion to your life permanently.

One of the tips that I think is helpful if you have trouble with portion control is using visual cues to help remember what a real portion is. I've seen this before with a deck of cards or your palm for a portion of meat, but they offered other tips like a tennis ball as a visual reference for a piece of fruit (think small apple, not jumbo!)

If you want a jump start and can stick to 15 changes for 2 weeks this may be a good book for you.

For me, I'll stick to small changes one or two at a time...because those I know I'll be able to keep! 15 changes to remember and stick to all at once sounds like a diet to me, even if they are good ideas.

Bob Greene's Best Life Plan Highlights--Foods to Eat and Eliminate

Bob Greene's Best Life program continues with tips on what to eat--and what to avoid.

Of course it is critical to eat a healthy breakfast. I wrote about this, too, including some of the science about WHY it is important.

Bob agrees that we should make small changes in our diet. Specifically he says cut only 100-200 calories per day out. This is to keep your body from thinking it is going into a famine.

Then Bob continues with a list of 6 foods to cut out for the first month or two of your program. The foods are:

1. alcohol
2. soda pop (because of the sugar and empty calories and the havoc it creates in your body)
3. trans fats
4. fried foods
5. white bread (refined carbs)
6. high fat milk & yogurt

While I believe there are no "forbidden foods" because by saying a food is off limits entirely it tends to make us want it more (supply and demand?) I can support what Bob is saying here.

However, if going off completely for 1 month will cause you to binge once the month is over, try for a week! Then when you have success, try for 2 weeks and so on.

It is the small changes that matter. One of Bob's points was making a commitment to yourself and keeping that commitment. Better to make a shorter commitment and keep it than to set a longer commitment and break it!

Remember--both Bob and Laurie say Put Yourself First...or as Oprah says, Put Yourself Back on the List!

How Big Should Breakfast Be

This is a follow up to yesterday's post about the importance of having a big breakfast--how big is big?

According to a study authored by Daniela Jakubowicz, the best breakfast for is actually around 600 calories! In this study, the women who at this large breakfast with a daily total caloric intake of over 1250 calories lost more weight, faster and reported less hunger and cravings as compared to the other women in the study who ate under 1100 calories all day with a more traditional breakfast of around 300 calories.

Wow!

Researchers at St. Louis University found in their study that overweight women who ate a big breakfast of 2 eggs and 2 slices of toast (with jam!) ate almost 300 calories fewer during the rest of the day.

Combine that with the body's burning of calories being in overdrive in the morning and you have a formula for success.

And here is another tip from Dr. Jakubowicz--have a piece of chocolate with your breakfast! It can help satisfy your sweet tooth--and because your serotonin levels are already high it can help reduce cravings!

Eating Breakfast Is Important for Losing Weight

My mother always told me that I had to eat breakfast. Your mother probably did too.

So why do so many adults think they can skip breakfast? Is breakfast less important for adults than it is for kids?

The answer is emphatically NO! Breakfast is crucial for all of us--including adults--and even more crucial if you want to lose weight!

Recent studies indicate that a big (and I mean BIG) breakfast can help us shed pounds. Something about eating breakfast seems to stimulate the body to use calories. You truly are "breaking the fast" and taking your body into a mode of knowing there is abundance and so it doesn't have to hold on to the food you ate yesterday. Metabolism, serotonin, adrenaline and cortisol levels are all at their highest first thing in the morning--right when we get up.

What are the best foods to eat for breakfast? Lean protein and complex carbohydrates are the best, and include a small amount of good fat. They help reduce cravings and hunger throughout the day. The energy source (breakfast) allows your brain to eat when it needs to and gives it what it needs--without that good breakfast you will start to pull calories from your muscles. Not a good thing.

Don't eat breakfast--or eat the wrong foods--and your serotonin level drops which results in cravings for sweets. That's why so many people reach for the doughnuts mid morning.

This is really an important thing to keep in mind, especially if you have a lot of weight to lose.