Posts Tagged ‘dieting’

Wow!  It is already Summer 2010 and man are we feeling it!  I don’t think too many of us object to the warmer weather!  Summer is a time that reminds us that life is to be lived ACTIVELY!  During the winter it is much easier to get into an “office” or “house” routine that limits our physical activity.  Unfortunately some of us get into “vacation” mode during the summer with is great…but it sometimes transcends into our fitness and nutritional way of life as well.  “I will start back on my routine when school starts” is a common theme I have heard countless times.  I must be honest, when I say this is frustrating to say the least.  In keeping with our mission to help change your lifestyle I want to devote this blog to that purpose.

 Step #1:  Re-Focus your Lens

 Most of us view fitness and nutrition as a vehicle to deliver us to a short term destination.  What I mean by this is, “I have a Lake Powell trip coming up in two months”, or my personal favorite, “I have a class reunion coming up in three months and I need to drop 40 lbs.”  It’s as though we are only concerned about our health for a specific period of time and for superficial reasons.  The perspective that is essential to have is that of a long term lifestyle change.  You have to start to think in terms of permanency.  Try this today.  Think of what you want to achieve and then imagine maintaining that for the rest of your life…that is exactly what you are going to do.  No more diets, no more funky workout programs that only last for a predetermined amount of time, just a lifestyle where working out is the norms and healthy eating

 Step #2: Adjust your attitude

 There are many activities in our lives that we do not initially enjoy but learn to love later.  Entering into a healthy lifestyle is very similar.  At first you will find the changes hard and challenging but eventually your daily activities will become habit and you will find yourself enjoying your newfound lifestyle.  It helps to look upon your new life as rewarding and enjoyable rather than daunting and repressing.  Attitude goes further than most people realize and this step should not be overlooked.

 Step #3:  Give your new lifestyle a chance (Be consistent and persistent)

 I have seen countless people get very excited and motivated to start an exercise program but then fizzle out later when the going gets tough.  “I get too sore”, “I don’t have the time”, “I don’t know what I am doing” are some of the common excuses employed preceeding the drop-out of that persons exercise and nutritional routine.  The problem stems from the fact that we need a little will power to change our lifestyle but our current “convienant based lifestyle” mentality kicks in to sabatoge our efforts.  Do not ever give up!  Yes it will be a little hard but worth it!  The only way to change your lifestyle is to give it an adequate chance to change…something very few of us ever achieve.

 Step#4:  Schedule your workouts and meals

 This is where you design your battle plan.  Take a few moments at the start of every week and schedule your meals and your workouts.  This is where you are making your lifestyle a priority.  This is a very important step because it forces you to make time for yourself a priority.  The #1 reason that people fail at fitness is because of “lack of time”.  In my opionion this is an absolute load of nonsense because we ALL have the time it is the act of making the time.  This step is worth the 15-20 minutes invested into it.

 Step #5: Stop being LAZY!

 Yes you heard me right!  Laziness has become an American Pastime as it relates to healthy nutrition and fitness.  If you don’t believe me checkout the latest statistics concerning obesity in America.  This means getting our butts off the couch on a consistent basis and following through with your plans.  If you find yourself offended by this suggestion then please refer to step #2 again and apply it again.

 Step #6: Form a new habit!

 Your habits are a sub-conscience function.  Think about it…do you think of your daily routines?  Do you think about whether to take a shower or brush your teeth?  I hope you are answering no at this point J.  My point here is that you need to be so habitual about exercise and nutrition that it becomes second nature to you on a sub-conscience level.  It is at this point that you will not have to worry about regression or relapse.  The only way to get there is to continue on your healthy lifestyle path day after day, month after month, year after year.

 Step #7:  Maintain your lifestyle and ENJOY it!

 Unfortunately those who have truly obtained a Phase IV lifestyle (a good healthy lifestyle) are the minority in America now.  More than half of the American population is either overweight or obese.  I congratulate all of you that have successfully changed your lifestyle and urge you to enjoy it!  Hold your head high and be of good cheer because now all you have to do is maintain it.  I would also encourage you to spread the word!  Fitness is infectious and you will find yourself influencing many people to change their lives for the better.

 Well there you have it my friends.  I realize that many of you are at different steps in your lives and I would encourage you to apply these principles as appropriate. I would encourage you to always remember one thing…life is good!

One thing has always amazed me with the pushers of fad diets.  They all claim to have found a break-through, a real-deal quick fix, or my personal favorite…the ONLY way to lose weight quickly!  If all of these claims are true then we must be idiots to believe them.  That would mean that we would have to blindly accept the facts of any given fad diet and completely disregard all of the sound principles of nutrition science that have been handed to us long ago before any of these non-sense diets ever came into existence.

As you know, I am an avid advocate of long term lifestyle change because I believe that it is the only way to accomplish long-term success.  Don’t believe me?  Well I am excited to share with you some statistics that may change your mind.  My hope in doing so is that you might start to look at these fad diets in a different light than you have in the past.

Definition of Fad Diet:

This is somewhat of a subjective term, but this is an accurate definition.  Fad Diets are aimed at rapid weight loss and disregard where the weight comes from (i.e., muscle, water, fat).  Fad Diets usually have a time line associated with them and are highly restrictive in nature.  They usually focus on the inclusion or exclusion of macronutrients (CHO/Pro/Fat).  Fad Diets are usually hypo-caloric (low calorie) and focus on certain foods that they deem “good” or “bad”.

Statistical Facts:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  estimate that at any given time two-thirds of all American adults are on a diet to either lose weight or prevent weight gain. Of those, 29 percent are men and 44 percent women. Yet only 5 percent of these dieters will be successful at keeping the weight that they lost off.

Guess what that means my friends?  That means that a whopping 95% of fad diets fail in the long run!  That is hardly a formula for success!  Even more discouraging is the fact that the human body thoroughly despises gaining and losing weight in a cyclical fashion!  The body prefers to be in a state of balance or homeostasis, and yo-yo dieting has been proven to pull the body squarely out of that balanced state.  The result is a fluctuation of hormonal levels, cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral balances and so forth.
A staggering 66% of Americans are either overweight or obese…this is after all of the diets having been tried and failed!  I have a simple question for all of us Americans.  When will we learn that weight loss and lifestyle change is NOT found in a pill, surgery, funky and faddish diets, or fat-burning shots? 

A wise man once said, “Anything worth having will require a significant sacrifice of time, hard work, and determination”.  I could not agree more my friends.  You may be asking yourself, “Well how do I know how to spot the fad diets”.  I personally think that common sense will take you a long way in this arena, but in the following will give you some valuable tips that you can use.

Putting your “Diets” under the “Diet Microscope”

1- Does the diet promote rapid weight loss? 

Remember that the American College of Sports Medicine advocates weight loss of 1-2 lbs per week.  The fact that we think this is “too slow” is an indication of our lack of understanding of true and healthy weight loss.

2-Does it exclude one macro-nutrient or promotes the excessive consumption of another?  

In other words, if your diet is telling you to only consume protein and fat then the red flag should be raised.  Remember that the body prefers a balance of carbs, protein, and fat.  A healthy ratio is around 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 20% fat.

3- Does the diet eliminate food groups?

The grapefruit diet is a perfect example of this, only advocating the consumption of grapefruit and other select foods.  Remember that this is no hand and conclusive scientific data to back up any of these silly diets.

4-Are they “lifestyle sustainable”?

If you can’t imagine doing your “diet” for the rest of your life, then run for the hills!  Remember that the ultimate goal of any nutritional regimen should be long-term and enjoyable.  Healthy eating can accomplish weight loss, weight maintenance and healthy weight gain if you are creative and proactive in your approach.

5- Does it advertize weight loss without exercise?

Thank goodness this gimmick is fading a little, but it is still out there.  If you ever hear this rest assured that the diet being advertized is bogus.  The fact that they are advertizing this indicates that the product probably is taking weight loss from either muscle or water with only a minimum amount coming from fat…certainly a recipe for long-term disaster!

6- Does the diet restrict calories less than 1200 for women and 1500 for men?

Remember that muscle is an intricate part of the human metabolism…the more of it present on the human body, the more

7-Does the diet require additional supplements or sponsored company foods or pills?

Typically these companies will try to gain your trust and excitement through emotion-based advertizing.  They want to get as much $ squeezed out of you as possible and if that means selling you expensive (and most of the time worthless) supplements to give you a placebo effect then so be it!  Be vigilant and aware of these gimmicky-like techniques.

My Suggestions

My suggestion is simple.  Stay true to time tested healthy eating principles such as eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and with the correct balance of carbs, protein, and fat.  Be consistent and you will eventually find yourself if a lifestyle sustaining habit that will serve you for the rest of your life.  I know that is simple, and there is more to it, but suffice it to say that if you learn the basics and stay true to them you will make it much further that you ever would with all if the non-sense that is out there.  Trying to re-invent the wheel with fad diets only serves to plunge that wheel deeper and deeper into an unhealthy and cumbersome lifestyle that will ultimately leave you fatter, more out of shape and more discouraged than you started. 

Be good to yourselves and remember that life is good!

1. Severely restrict their caloric intake.  A starvation diet (i.e., reducing your caloric intake to less than 50% of what your body requires) presents a number of problems to people who are trying to lose weight.  First and Foremost it doesn’t work.  Any weight that may have been lost is subsequently regained because most individuals cannot maintain such a restrictive eating plan over the long haul.
2. Have an unduly NARROW perspective of the problem at hand. Too many people view losing weight as simply a matter of cutting back on what they eat.  In reality, it’s an issue of basic physics—balancing energy in with energy out.  As such, if you really want to lose weight (and keep it off), you need to increase your level of physical activity and eat in moderation.
3. Ignore the need to maintain their level of lean body mass.  A common tendency among individuals who exercise is to focus their activity efforts solely on aerobic exercise.  In the process, they lose muscle mass, which is replaced by fat when they inevitably regain whatever weight they lost.  In turn, their metabolic rate as well as the number of calories that they need to maintain their current weight, is diminished.  This adjustment creates a cycle that is counterproductive to sustained weight loss.
4. Misinterpret what some food labels are actually telling them.  It is extremely important for individuals who want to control their weight to be aware of the fact that labels that state that a particular foodstuff is either “no fat” or “no sugar” does not mean “no calories”.
5. Try to lose too much weight too rapidly.  Research shows that a weight-reduction program that involves a slow and steady loss (i.e, approximately 1 lb or less per week for women and 2 lbs or less per week for men) has the best chance for success, particularly when it is combined with an effort to change any inappropriate lifestyle habits.
6. Believe that spot reduction is possible.  The concept of spot reducing is a complete myth.  No exercise will eliminate fat from a specific area of the body, just as no change in your level of caloric intake will guarantee that the fat will melt away in the area of the body you most want to address.  As a rule, the pattern in which you lose body fat is genetically predetermined.
7. Mistake water lost through sweating for actual fat and weight loss.  Your body has millions of sweat glands hat cover your skin, excreting water and electrolytes.  When you exercise, the amount of water (sweat) that is perspired increases in an effort by your body to help keep you cool and regulate your body temperature.  The water you lose for perspiring can mislead you into believing that you’ve lost more fat and body weight than you may have actually lost.  Such water weight is replaced when you subsequently consume fluids.
8. Buy into the “magic beans” theory.  Selling supplements and related pills, powders, and potions that purportedly will somehow facilitate a person’s efforts to lose weight is a multi-billion dollar-a-year industry.  Other than being a waste of money and a purveyor of false hope for individuals who are looking for an easy and quick-fix approach to losing weight, such items also can have negative health consequences.
9. Follow unproven and spurious dieting advice.  The number of unsound diets that target unsuspecting individuals with undocumented claims and unhealthy practices seems to grow exponentially every year.  Truth be known, these diets share at least two traits—they don’t work, and they may actually be harmful (physically and financially) to a person who tries them.
10. Consider a surgical solution to their “weight” problem.  Some individuals consider a surgical option for losing weight.  In this regard, two procedures tend to receive the most attention—liposuction and gastric bypass surgery.  Although guidelines vary, gastric bypass surgery is generally reserved for severely obese individuals.

So there you have it!  When you are setting your goals with your trainer, please keep in mind these myths that pervade the public in general.  I would ask you to pay particular attention to #1, 2 3, 5, and 9.  I would say that 90% of our clients have had or still have some of these flawed beliefs.  Please know that we care for you and hope greatly for your success.  Please allow us to work within our professional realm to help you get the results you have always dreamed of.  Remember life is good when you are physically active! 

Please talk to your trainer about re-committing to your New-Year’s resolutions and we will be happy to help you.

Some of the following is taken from “The New Glucose Revolution The Authoritative  Guide to the Glycemic Index pg XVI.

Myth #1:  Starchy foods are fattening and should be avoided.  Foods like bread and pasta are always cited.

Reality:  Most starchy foods are bulky and nutritious.  This means that they fill you up and keep you satisfied.  Did you know that the term “starch” only means stored carbohydrate?  Just like we store carbohydrate in our muscles for energy, so do veggies!  Just be sure that you check the glycemic index of the food that you are selecting and pay particular attention to your serving size.

Myth #2: Sugar causes diabetes.

Reality:  Today, an absolute agreement exists among reasearchers specializing in diabetes that sugar in food does not cause diabetes.  Type 1 diabetes (formerly known as insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes) is an autoimmune condition triggered by unknown environmental factors.  Type 2 diabetes is largely inherited, BUT lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise or being overweight increase the risk of developing it.  Foods that are high on the glycemic index may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, but sugar has a more moderate effect than may starches, especially refined and highly processed ones.

Myth#3: All starches are slowly digested in the intestine.

Reality:  Nope!  Most starch, especially that in refined-grain products, is digested very quickly causing a faster and more severe increase in blood glucose.  Again, be sure that you are picky at to what types of starches you are consuming.  Low glycemic starches such as a sweet potato is much more nutritious than a plain white baking potato.  The more natural the starch is (i.e. not processed or refined) the lower it will be on the index.

Myth#4: Hunger pangs are inevitable if you want to lose weight.

Reality:  High carbohydrate foods, especially those with a low GI such as rolled oats, or whole grain pasta, can keep you feeling full, often until you’re ready to eat your next meal.

Myth #5:  Foods high in fat are more filling.

Reality:  Studies show that high-fat foods are among the least filling.  That’s why it is so easy to passively overcome high-fat foods like steak or potato chips.

Myth #6:  Diets high in sugar are less nutritious.

Reality:  Studies have shown that diets high in sugar (from GOOD sources such as fruits, and dairy products) often have higher levels of micro-nutrients, including calcium riboflavin, and vitamin C, than low-sugar diets.  Just remember GOOD sources, not refined sources such as pastries.

Myth #7:  Sugar goes hand in hand with dietary fat.

Reality:  Yes, many foods high in fat are also high is sugar-think chocolate, full-fat ice cream, cakes, cookies, and pastries.  But most high-sugar diets are actually low in fat, and vise versa.  The reason:  most sources of fat in our diet are not sweetened (e.g. potato chips, French fries, steak.

So there you have it my Lifelong Fitness friends!  Remember this is all found in lifestyle change…this is not just a simple diet.   Good Luck!