Binge Control

All is not lost if you decide to indulge.  All you have to do is learn to freeze the moment.  Even if you don't stop eating, freezing the moment gives you a chance to control how much you eat.

• Instead of polishing off the entire cheesecake, cut a slice and eat it off a dessert plate.  Or, offer your dinner companions some of the Godzilla-sized portion of Fettuccini Alfredo that the restaurant just served you (Olive Garden=1220 calories, 75 g fat)(or ask the waiter for a take home box immediately and divvy it up before you begin eating).
• At the movie theater, you order your usual-size bag of buttered popcorn (you must have forgotten!).  Halfway through the previews, you realize that you've inhaled half of the popcorn unconsciously, and that you're stuffed.  Freeze the moment.  Normally, you'd finish the bag just because it's there.  Instead, stand up, walk to the back of the theater and throw away the remaining popcorn.  After the movie, ask yourself if you really missed it?
• At special dinners.  You're trying to be a gracious host to your mother-in-law on her birthday, so you set the tone by ordering an appetizer, salad, main course and dessert.  Halfway through the main course, you realize you're full.  Freeze the moment.  Rather than finish the meal, put your fork down, place your napkin on your plate and consciously push the plate away to distance yourself from the food.  Then ask the waiter to package the rest in a doggie bag.

The above tips are referenced from: 12 Simple Steps to Permanent Weight Loss, Prevention Magazine, by Rodale Inc., 1998

One last item.  As a society, our eating habits are comprised of many different facets.  This week I watched a segment on the Good Morning America show titled, "Junk Food as Addictive as Drugs," which shows the affect on our brain that certain foods create, similar to the affect of drugs like cocaine and heroine.  We need to understand that our bodies and brains have evolved over the ions to perpetuate the survival of the species: to look for, eat and crave foods high in fat, and calories to sustain our then active bodies.  Our ancestors did not have the bountiful selection we find today in our grocery stores. 

So, with this understanding, we need to use our modern knowledge to make the healthy choices we need now as we naturally move less and have an abundance of foods to eat.  It would be easy to say, "Well, my brain makes me want to eat it," as an excuse.  But it would be better if we just used the information to make better choices and to understand what is really going on in our brains.

Watch the Good Morning America segment, "Junk Food as Addictive as Drugs" click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS-tTaCQAio

Five Keys to Successful Weight Loss

Almost anyone can lose weight.  It's keeping it off that is the challenge and it's almost impossible without physical activity.  Research shows that you have close to a zero chance of keeping the weight off by diet alone.

Most weight loss specialists agree to the basic rule for weight loss: Calories in versus calories out.  If you want to lose weight permanently, you must increase the amount of calories you burn and reduce the amount of calories you take in, on a regular basis. Not just during the weight loss stage, but continually to keep it off.

Research shows that people who lose the weight and keep it off, do the following five things consistently.

1. Exercise or calorie burning activity.
2. Reduce the amount of calories they eat.
3. Eat breakfast.
4. Keep a log:  this keeps you mindful in the process and makes you pay attention and be accountable day to day.  Without logging, the tendency to overestimate your energy expenditure and under estimate your calorie consumption.
5. Take it slow and steady. You cannot view weight loss as a short-term project.  It has to become a long-term lifestyle habit.  Slow and steady wins in the end.  Your goal sould be to adopt lifelong behaviors that will encourage weight loss and weight loss maintenance, good nutrition and overall fitness.

Synopsis of the book "The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want"

Written by: Mike Hernacki - Small book with lots of great brain food!  The following is a synopsis of what I gleaned from this book.  I highly recommend reading it.  Check out http://www.abebooks.com/ for used books.

The Secret: In order to accomplish something, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it.

The Keys: Willingness & Open Mindedness

3 Steps:

1. 
   
   Accept responsibility for having created things the way they are.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Assume responsibility for changing them.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Take Control (a clear idea of what you want, an objective)
   
   
   

Commitment: A firm belief that what you want is so important to you that it will be worth doing whatever you must do to get it. A confident, firm and unwavering belief.

4 Elements are brought into play behind the mechanism of this principle:

1. 
   
   The concept of thoughts as things
   
   
   
2. 
   
   The Law of Attraction
   
   
   
3. 
   
   The phonomenon of accelerating acceleration
   
   
   
4. 
   
   
   
   The power of an open mind
   
   
   

Oatmeal as Food Star

I love a bowl brimming with hot oatmeal. It's one of the best ways to start your day. Slow-burning complex carbohydrates in oatmeal prolong the feeling of fullness and prevent blood sugar from rising wildly. You want to feel fuller longer and the soluble fiber in oatmeal fills you while lowering blood cholesterol. Oatmeal also contains plant protein, essential for building muscle. Oatmeal is one of the few foods rich in silicon, a mineral responsible for building beautiful skin, hair, bones and teeth. Oats also contain phosphorus, essential for brain and nerve growth during youth.
Star Nutrients:

• Soluble fiber


• Protein


• Complex Carbohydrates


• Silicon