by OneMoreBite | Apr 25, 2004 | Weight Loss Tips
Everyone gets into the “need result now” mind frame. I’ve been known to decide I’m going to get in better shape and I’m checking for results before 12 hours have passed – LOL. No joke. I review my goals morning and night, and when I do it’s like I’m saying, “Okay, where’s the magic?” “When does the money flow, when does the perfect body appear?” I want it now.
That’s why I think it’s important to make a lifestyle change – that way every waking moment isn’t spent waiting for a result, but rather, the result is a happy by-product, something that simply occurs once you start doing things a little differently. Enjoyable work produces a better income, and enjoyable eating and exercise produces a healthier body and mind.
So, even though you’ve “always been fat” you are no longer that same person. Whenever you start running that pattern in your head, “I’ve always been fat …” stop and say, “Until now. Now, I’m healthier and happier and smarter and prettier, and …” Just start saying nice things to yourself. Do this often enough and you can end the repeating “I’m a fat person” thoughts and change them to “I’m a healthy person,” or whatever is your prefered image.
Many folks who were fat for a large part of their lives have a difficult time seeing themselves differently, so once they lose the weight their unconscious just helps them get back to “who they really are.” You can stop this from happening by doing the above. Change how you perceive yourself (because you have changed) and see what happens.
by OneMoreBite | Apr 6, 2004 | Weight Loss Tips
Today’s headline is trumpeting the idea that maybe you’re just tired? Perhaps if you got more sleep you wouldn’t crave chips and snacks – right. Next we’ll start seeing a lot of ads for the Lose Weight While You Sleep crap – it never fails.
Obviously if you’re over tired you’ll feel less well, but surprise, I felt sluggish and tired and thought I’d never survive arising an hour earlier which was the only way I’d get some exercise done, and then one day I got up at 5:00 instead of 6:00 AM, and it felt great! What a shock, how could this be? An hour less sleep and I felt better? It’s weird, but it’s true. Was I getting too much rest before? Who knows, but I do know I’m obviously a morning person, so for me getting up an hour earlier has been great. I love it, and I plan to keep doing it.
Have I lost weight? No, but I didn’t think I would. Frankly, it’s what you eat and how much you exercise that will determine your weight, not total hours spent sneezing. Get enough rest – people need anywhere from 4 to 9 hours, with about 7 being average.
The trick with exercise too is when you first get started, it may feel you’re too tired, but surprise! The more you exercise the more energy you get. Push through that first week or so if thinking you’re too tired and you’ll blast out to the other side of mega energy! Try it.
by OneMoreBite | Apr 1, 2004 | Weight Loss Tips
Eating idea: Slow down. Why are you in such a hurry? If you love to eat, and you say you do, why then do you rush through it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have something you enjoy so much last a little longer? Why not linger over a good meal, really taste it? Savor it?
Too many questions? Drat, that’s another question. It’s hard to stop asking questions once I get started, just like with a bag of cookies. You try one, and oh, that seemed pretty darn good, so you gulp down a few more, and since you aren’t even bothering to chew, just chomp, chomp, swallow, then a few more seems like a good idea. Then you suddenly realize you’ve eaten them all and yet you fell somehow–empty. “I’m just a bottomless pit,” you say. No you aren’t. You’re just eating so fast you aren’t giving your body a chance to realize it’s being fed. If you watch a starving animal, it will gulp the food down as fast as it can because it’s making sure no other animal takes it away from them, but you probably don’t have to do this. Slow it way down. Even if you live a very fast pace, you can slow down your chewing.
Take a bite of food, and let it sit there for a moment. Use all your senses, taste, smell, and decide is the food sweet or salty? Sour or bitter? Pretend you are going to rate the food on a scale of 1 to 10 – you are a food critic – how would you rate it? Is there an aftertaste? How would you ever know if you just gulped it down and ran out the door?
Slow down – make it last – there’s time, really there is. If you have to rush through a meal, ask yourself why? Could you wait a bit and have it later when there’s more time? What if you must eat in the car between appointments? It is possible to take a bite or two, wrap the food up, and leave it for later. You won’t die of starvation if you wait an hour for food.
Stop eating like it’s your last meal, and start treating yourself with some respect. You deserve better – if you were a guest staying in your own house you’d treat yourself better, right? Pretend you are an honored guest and start to treat yourself as if you’re special. Slow way down. Treat yourself to a massage or a new CD. Think leisure this week.
by OneMoreBite | Dec 9, 2003 | Weight Loss Tips
Do you take the time to periodically chart your eating habits? If you don’t know what you do now, how are you going to change your eating habits?
First, try to write a log of what you regularly eat from memory. Write down what you ate yesterday, for instance. You’ll be able to remember the highlights, but you’ll probably have more trouble remembering the little bits here and there. Yes, chewing gum counts, and so does anything that goes in your mouth. Just list the basic foods, meals, etc., as best you can recall. Put that list aside, and then today write down what you actually eat as soon as possible after you eat it. If you remember what you already had today, write those too, including that tiny nibble of cake as you walked past, and that little grab from the peanut dish. Everything you put in your mouth, including pure water, must be listed.
If you try to remember, you’ll capture the big items, but you’ll forget that taste here, that little lick there. Did you know you can easily eat an extra 250 or more calories just tasting as you cook? Diet tip: Stop licking the spoon! Especially this holiday season. Stop licking the beaters, taking your finger and scraping the bowl, etc. Stop it. If you want to eat some, wait until it is finished, then eat some. Put the spoons immediately under water, or give them to the kids (naturally, that teaches the kids to lick the spoon, but you could include the message that, “This is for you since you’re the kid.”)
Why A Food Diary Helps
The point of a food diary is to capture your regular eating patterns, then choose one thing you can change. Licking the spoon is a thing you can change. It doesn’t cause too much trauma to drop that from your usual habits, and no, since you don’t cook often, it’s not going to cause major weight gain all by itself, but listen, it is all these little things that add up to one big thing, your rear, sitting on the chair.
Kill the Licking the Spoon HabitÂ
Resolve now that you will drop the habit of licking the spoon, or tasting as you cook. Sure, I hear how you won’t know if it’s salty enough etc., unless you taste, but a teensy bit on the tip of a spoon or fork tine, is not the same as a big bite. Licking the entire contents of the chocolate chip bowl is not the same as a teensy taste. Better to just break the habit. Sure, it’s a holdover from when you were a kid. It was a treat to lick the spoon, but you’re not a kid anymore are you? Save that for your kids, or your grand kids, and drop it as a practice for you.
Remember, it’s these little changes that create real results. It’s a trick of those who stay slender. Likewise, when you discover your general eating habits, you can choose one thing to change, cut back, or discard entirely. Sometimes it’s best to just take it slowly as in weaning yourself from whole milk to skim. First try 4% and when that is okay, switch to 2%. After that, switch again to 1% or go straight to skim. Once you get used to it, you’ll think whole milk tastes like pure cream ? it’s much too thick and creamy for me to use now ? of course it tastes good, so do thousands of other things, but you must choose what you’ll regularly eat. Do you want to consume your day’s worth of fat and calories in your milk, or would you rather eat something more substantial with your milk?
What if there were a global energy failure and we no longer had fast food restaurants? Would you die of starvation or would you just learn to eat something else? I’d venture a guess that you’d adapt. I recently got a copy of Restaurant Confidential and if you want to be shocked, get a copy and check out the calorie counts of some of your favorite fast foods, then drop one night a week from the fast food plan – or add one night a week of home cooking. Yes, it means time in the kitchen.
Consider time in the kitchen used to be a pleasurable time. Think of the physical movement we used to get, kneading bread, chopping vegetables, bending over and reaching for the dishes? Get back into the frame of mind of enjoying physical movement for its own sake and you’ll find pleasure in these daily activities once again. It’s the little changes that add up to the big results.
by OneMoreBite | Jun 11, 2003 | Weight Loss Tips
The Dreaded Weight Loss Plateau
We’ve all been there – doing everything “right,” exercising (making an effort anyway), eating more fresh foods, and yet, nothing. No change. We anxiously weigh ourselves hoping for some result, but the needle won’t budge, or worse, it rises! You are on a weight loss plateau. That’s when most people just give up. What’s the use? This doesn’t work. Nothing works. I think I’ll try that new diet … or maybe skip breakfast … or?
Review Your Daily Habits
If your weight loss seems to have stalled, it might be time to reassess your daily habits. I promote the “non dieting” approach, which means you should eat what you really want to eat, when you really want to eat it. In other words, if you are hungry (key word: hungry), then you should eat something, but it doesn’t mean with wild abandon each and every time. You can eat until you’re stuffed but once you learn the real principals of non-dieting, you’ll rarely want to do so. If you give yourself permission to eat, you don’t have the same experience of deprivation and you’re behavior around food with change as well.
But, back to our stalled weight loss efforts. If you are no longer losing, and you still believe you have weight to lose (five, 10, 15 or more pounds), then here is my approach, and it may just work for you. Look closely at your eating habits. Here is an example based on my own life:
When I order at Dairy Queen (once a week habit, now perhaps four times a year), I still order a double-cheese burger with the works, and a family-pack fry. What is a family pack fry you ask? It’s a French fry order they think is big enough for the whole family, but I think is just right for me! My husband who always says he doesn’t want any French fries, then asked for some of mine (hey, I’m eating that!), now gets his own whether he asks for them or not cause I don’t like to share. I’m a bit of a French fry freak, I guess.
So now, I’ve come to the realization that maybe it’s time for me to let go of the belief that I must have a gigantic order of fries. Notice I used the word “maybe” in that last sentence. That tells me I’m not convinced, but I am willing to give it a try, so that is what I choose to work on. Since I just had a Daily Queen, it could be a month or two before I have a chance to see whether this works, but I will report when the time comes.
For now, here is my plan, and you can apply this to yourself by choosing one thing you eat, whether you eat it often doesn’t matter, but choose something you know you could perhaps either cut back on (times a week, quantity when you do have it), and make a small change. I’m not intending to quit eating French fries, but I am intending to become a more normal consumer and order a regular sized order.
I’m going to use EFT on my belief that I must have a huge order of french fries:
“Even though I think I have to have a family pack fry, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Shortened phrase: Family pack fry”
“Even though I can’t imagine not having a family pack fry, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Shortened phrase: “Must have family pack fry” – (said in a robotic voice with outstretched arms for fun)
“Even though I want to order the huge order of fries, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Shortened phrase: “huge fries, love huge fries”
“Even though I always order the huge order of fries, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Shortened phrase: “always get huge fries”
“Even though I’m the French fry queen, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Shortened phrase: “French fry queen”
See how I play with the words? Have fun with it. I’m going to tap, today once an hour on this. Each time evaluating how strongly I believe I would order the family pack fry, if I were standing at the counter making my order. I’ll keep doing the tapping, until my belief is zero.
How is this helpful in a stalled weight loss? Easy, it is your habits that create your current size and shape. This is a habit I’ve kept for a long time, and this one small change, even though I don’t eat it often, will still add up to some weight off. It really works, and there is no pain, no trauma, no giving up my favorites.
by OneMoreBite | Jun 4, 2003 | Exercise, Weight Loss Tips
Q: Five weeks ago, I began an exercise program and so far I have not lost any weight or gained in muscle tone – which is my goal. Regardless, I intend to keep it up, knowing that the results I want will occur if I give it time.
A. That’s so true, yet here is what happens with the majority who begin an exercise program:
- They start out feeling excited, knowing it will be successful in the long run, if they stay with it. (They’ve read the books, they know this stuff works).
- They begin to feel and look better, although the scale shows no difference. (Results take awhile to build, they know this but it gets harder and harder to wait.)
- Their clothes begin to fit looser. People start to notice, asking “What are you doing?” (Things are starting to happen, albeit slowly.)
- They do “all the right things,” such as eating well and getting good rest. (Consistency, a good discipline.)
- Since they’ve been “so good” they decide to step on the scale. (Where’s the evidence? They’re getting impatient.)
- The scale shows a three pound weight gain and they throw their hands up in despair saying, “This doesn’t work!” (The scale doesn’t show us what is going on inside, it only weighs the total package.)
- They dismiss the real evidence (how they feel, how they look, how their clothes fit) and rely instead of the wisdom of the bathroom scale, known for wildly inaccurate results, but nevertheless trusted implicitly. They have likely gained some valuable muscle, active tissue that supports and sustains the body, and creates beautiful curves, but without the result they had in mind, they quit.
Your body is made up of fat, skin, bone, and muscle (not to mention water). When you exercise the goal is to increase muscle and decrease fat. A pound of muscle takes up much less space than a pound of fat, so regardless of what you see on the bathroom scale, if you have been exercising, you are building a better, healthier frame. Give your body a chance to display the results you seek. Instant results take time.
