Exercise Tip for Weight Loss Success: Mix It Up

While it is important to find exercise that you enjoy and that feels good for you, it is also important to mix it up.

You want to eat a variety of foods because you can't get all the nutrients your body needs from eating the same thing over and over...besides, eating the same thing every day would get boring.

Similarly, you want to move your body in different ways in order to achieve the best health. You don't have to become a body builder or be able to swim like Michael Phelps...but mixing it up will allow you to be the best all-around YOU possible.

If you like to walk, mix that up by putting on some tunes and dancing. I do it at home with the blinds drawn ;-) but it is pretty amazing how it works our bodies differently. Even though you think you are mostly using the same muscles--your legs--you will find that you are using some different ones, or stretching those muscles a little differently.

If your exercise routine is to ride the stationary bike, you might try a real bike. Not only does it feel different on your legs, you get a different sense of freedom on the road than in the gym.

If you find your workouts are really active, take a class in T'ai chi or one of the other martial arts...or check a DVD out of the library and follow along. Or try yoga...for some good stretching and a different experience.

If you always workout on your own, try something with a workout buddy. Sometimes have a friend to exercise with can be just the ticket. Maybe it is one person or a group...maybe a class...or even a personal trainer...just having someone else there sharing the experience and the health goal can be fun.

Be willing to experiment...will there be exercises that you don't enjoy? You bet! But you might just find something else that you do like. Be creative...it could be jumping rope or swinging a hula hoop. By mixing it up, you will use more muscles which will result in better fitness overall, and help reduce injuries. You'll also prevent boredom!

Make it a goal to try one new form of exercise this week--and let me know what you did!

Exercise Tip for Weight Loss Success: Choose What's Right For You

Continuing on yesterday's theme of the best exercise for losing weight is the one you will do, it is important to try different types of exercise--and pick a couple things that you enjoy.

It doesn't really matter what your high school P.E. teacher told you was the best exercise. It doesn't matter what your siblings, spouse, or friends like to do. What matters is what feels good to YOU.

Some types of exercise are better for building our endurance...these are things that bring your heart rate up for a long period of time. This could be walking, jogging, running, bicycling, swimming, skating, dancing...even cleaning can fall into this category.

Other types of exercise are better for building up our muscles for strength. Weight training does not have to literally mean going to a gym and pumping iron. "Weight training" can be accomplished at home with little or no real exercise equipment. You can use your own body weight and things that you have around the house--like canned goods or bottles of water--instead of weights.

Gaining health doesn't have to take tons of time or money. Find something that you enjoy doing, and start small. Do what feels good for your body right now...realize as you drop weight and get in better shape your tastes might change!

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 for Optimum Brain Function and Weight Loss Success

When we are trying to lose weight we often count calories...not something that I do any more, and I don't suggest it as part of my Refuse To Diet program...but it is still a very common thing for folks to do.

One of the reasons I don't suggest you count calories is because losing weight is not simply a math equation! If it were, then we would definitely be able to count our calories and know we are going to lose weight.

Another reason to not focus on calories alone is because it is important that we have good food in order to function our best. If we only look at the calories, there is no guarantee we will be getting good nutrition for the calories. It can be really tempting to eat some of the pre-packaged "100 calorie" snacks...which are basically empty calories...or to eat "diet" foods which may actually be high in sugar or high in fat (depending on how they are defining "diet") or may have artificial sweeteners which can increase our carbohydrate cravings.

Not eating enough can create low energy, brain fog and actually hinder our weight loss success...not only because we don't feel good, but also because we will more than likely break our diet. In fact, it can lead to a big binge!

In order to lose weight and operate at peak efficiency it is important that we have eat enough calories. Eating enough calories keeps our bodies and brains fueled so we are less apt to go on binges, have big crashes later in the day, or suffer from the brain fog that dieters face.

Eating the CORRECT foods is also important...not just the calories.

Contrary to what a lot of dieters think, it is important to eat fat in order to lose fat. It seems illogical, but it is important to help us feel satisfied, full, get our brains and organs the fats they need...and to help our skin looking and feeling good.

Make sure you eat enough healthy fat...things like avocados, olive oil, walnuts and fish. Limit the saturated animal fats and avoid trans-fats--those hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils which are in so many packaged foods because they extend shelf life, but add absolutely no nutritional value for us. There is evidence that not only do they not provide nutritional value, they can actually be detrimental to our health.

So while I'm not big on putting foods on a "bad" list, trans fats are on the top of it!