Embracing hunger

There are many things that are tough about dieting. Like many people, I have struggled with that empty feeling in my stomach. Skinny people will tell you to embrace hunger. Yea, like I can stop thinking about food when my stomach is growling like a grizzle bear. 

But those skinny people are right? Do you have to embrace it or can you just learn to live with that empty feeling in your gut?

Water has been my saving grace this week. When I am feeling that empty pit in my stomach I have reached for tall glass of water and a piece of sugarless gum.

I will admit that going to bed hungry in a one word, SUCKS, but I have done it plenty of times during my downsizing. Frankly, most nights I when I hit the bed I am so exhausted that I am asleep in just a few minutes.  When I wake up I am so glad that I didn’t give in to my stomach before I went to bed and often in the morning the scale has rewarded me for my efforts.

Many diet plans recommend that you not eat after 7:30 at night or at least 3 hours before you go to bed. The theory is you are doing nothing but sleeping and you burn less calories during the night. Granted you burn a few when you are sleeping but not many, so carbing up for a good nights rest isn’t a good idea. Sorry, no pint of ice cream before nighty night.

Just give me a tall glass of water and I will burn a few calories getting up several times at night. 

Stop with the catalogs. Please!

Dear Mr. Postman,

I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t bring any more larger-sized women’s clothing catalogs to my house. I have called the companies and asked them not to send them any longer. It took 15 calls to Lane Bryant for them to finally stop sending them to me. I must admit that it was the only way that I could buy clothes for decades and they are fine companies but I don’t need their garments any longer and I don’t want their catalogs delivered to my house any longer.

The reality is that I haven’t bought anything from a plus-sized catalog for over 4 years so I am surprised that they waste their money sending them to me. I told a friend about this last week and she asked me why I was so bothered by the junk mail that came my way.

It made me stop and think, and I told her that I didn’t want to know that they still existed. Long ago, I donated all my old clothes so I didn’t have an escape hatch for my diet. I know that you can still buy larger clothes but I have put that idea of that out of my head. I haven’t kept any garment that is more than a two sizes too big unless I am going to workout in it.

95% of diets fail and I don’t want to be a casualty. If I can’t fit into my skinner clothes,  that  is my sign to cut out the sweets and hit the gym. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Thank you Mr. Postman for not delivering any more catalogs.

Disabled List

Once again I have fallen off the horse. Technically, I fell on the ice and re-injured my knee; it is my glass jaw in boxing terms. You know, that spot on your body that is just a mess and it doesn’t take much for it to become a problem. Two years ago, a car hit me when I was riding my bike and my knee went through its taillight. Ouch! So when I fell several weeks ago, I got out the knee brace and it was back on the disabled list for me.

I hate not being able to work out. I enjoy riding my bike in the morning. (Still a bit weird for the former fat girl to think those thoughts, but it is true.)

But injuries happen, and it is important to be proactive and take care of the booboo to make it strong again. So I hobbled along for a week until I felt that the knee was strong enough to walk without the brace. Time does heal all wounds and I have learned to listen to my body.

Being me, I worked out with the brace on.  The bike was off the workout menu but I was able to at least get some good stretching and upper arm work done. But I was itching to get back in the game so I went to a physical therapist to get the knee back to “normal”.

After the car accident, I went to a physical therapist and was amazed how the right exercises can speed up the recovery and can make the joint better. So I am back to doing leg and knee stretches and once again I am on the mend.

Now, it is time to saddle up and get back on my bike. 

What to do about obesity

“May you live all the days of your life.” — Jonathan Swift

Life is too precious to be squandered and therefore your role is not just to preserve life, but to improve your well-being and that of your family members to achieve the most out of what life has to offer.  In so doing you will provide a legacy of good health for future generations to embrace.

In bypassing the precepts of good health, you emotionally and financially burden your friends, loved ones, and society with unbearable costs. It is estimated that between now and the year 2025, over $2,000,000,000,000.00 (that is 2 trillion) will be spent on preventable diseases.  Stacked one-dollar bill upon another dollar bill until the total sum is reached would go from the surface of the earth to the surface of the moon.  I think we can do better than that.  It is time to save a few bucks.

There is a full range of questions need to be answered to solve the problem of obesity!

1. What did humankind eat one million years ago and why does it matter?

2. What influence does agriculture have on our diet and obesity?

3. Does obesity begin in infancy?

4. Are breast-fed babies more or less obese later in life than are bottle-fed?

5. What role in obesity does genetics play?

6. Do parents and relatives contribute to the problem of obesity?

7. Why is obesity dangerous?

8. How is obesity linked to diseases such as breast cancer and Type II Diabetes?

9. Is Type II Diabetes as dangerous as cancer and can it be prevented?

10. Why do most diets fail?

11. How important is exercise in the scheme of losing weight?

12. What is the minimum amount of weekly exercise needed to lose weight?

13. What is the minimum amount of exercise required to maintain weight?

14. Is there a role for medication in the task of losing weight?

15. What is the role of surgery for the extremely obese individual?

16. How can I be successful and losing and keeping weight off?

17. What are my options for exercise in obtaining my goal of losing weight?

18. Is there an effective diet that will help me to achieve my goals?

19. Who will bear the financial burden of obesity related diseases?

20. Should the federal government play a role in the problem of obesity?

21. Should private business be involved in setting standards since they are often involved in the cost of health care plans?

22. Should over-weight individuals pay higher health insurance premiums?

23. Can you beat the problem of obesity once and for all?

24. Will you join me, Lisa, and others on this site in fighting and defeating the problem of obesity?

“The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.” — Abraham Lincoln

Thank you for joining with me in this battle that we will win together!

Dr. Philip

Silence between friends

Just a silly moment when Deb and I lived in Washington. The point of this photo is that Lisa should never get another perm.

So when the emails stop there is usually a reason. I have been in my usual winter funk and I thought it was time to email Deb, my old pal and see what was going on in her life.

Wow, weird. I was JUST thinking about you…and your message pops up!

I can’t write a lot right now. Gotta get some work done, and at lunch I am putting on my sneakers and walking.

Time for me to get ON the horse….get my head in the game, etc. etc.

The month of January was a bust in some ways, but productive in others. I gained and lost the same 5 pounds…sigh…my scale was screaming this morning too.  I walked the dog for 15 minutes this morning and then did a 30 minute exercise tape. Brought healthy whole food.

I have done a lot of soul-searching and thinking this month. I think (once again) I set too many goals at once and didn’t do any of them well in January. 

So February is one thing and one thing only. From now on, I pick one goal per month…do it until it is a habit and then move on to the next thing. This month my only goal is to get the exercise into my daily routine and KEEP IT THERE. I will try and eat healthy, but if nothing else I MUST move my butt. I must set a goal I can stick with…so aside from walking the dog I want to try and do my exercise tapes 5x per week and throw in walks at lunch as much as possible. I even fear 5x per week is too much…but this month the scale has to MOVE…

I would love to be 20 pounds lighter by my birthday in April…but not sure that’s going to work.

I don’t want to set myself up for failure there either. One pound at a time…baby steps.

Gotta run…

My email to Deb.

Truth is that I did a shitty job of sticking with my New Year’s resolutions. I hate winter and I have let it once again sidetrack my efforts. But it is time for me to do the same as you. I need to set my goal for this month. Mine is to stop letting stress rule my life. I am realizing that it is my trigger to over eat. I am taking a new pair of tennis shoes to work and I am going to follow Joy’s advice and walk off my cravings. I am also going to take a yoga matt to work and steal a few minutes a day and stretch out after sitting for several hours. Then if I feel the need the eat something I am going to reach for my water bottle and drink until it feel full. At least, I will burn a few calories by running to the bathroom. You know that is one of the reasons they say that drinking water can speed up your metabolism. You got to burn calories getting rid of it.

Stay tuned to see how we do this month.

 

 

Healthy Cruising with Jon Stanton

I wanted you all to meet my friend Jon Stanton and fellow Joy Fit Club member. Jon has lost over 200 pounds by walking and learning healthier eating habits.

He is 32-year-old communications director from Ovid, Mich., and constantly felt insecure about his appearance and his inability to control his eating habits. It wasn’t long before his weight took a toll on his professional goals as well as his personal ones. “I would often fall short of reaching them because of a physical breakdown, or because they required me to do something that I couldn’t because of my weight,” he said. “Life was busy, but often not very fun — especially once I reached my 30s.”

He is now embracing his new life and the lucky guy just got back from a cruise and he actually lost weight while on the floating smorgasbord.  I asked Jon to tell us about his wonderful trip.

“Healthy Cruising - How I Lost 2 Pounds While Surrounded by Food on the Open Seas”

I confess, I’m a cruise-a-holic. If it weren’t for this lovely thing in my life called “work” or the fact that I am chronically broke, I would cruise year-round. Due to my state of affairs, however, I’m lucky if I can go every other year.

I left the frigid wilderness of Michigan on January 8 - destination: Fort Lauderdale. Ah, Florida - home of horrendous hurricanes, but warm winters. I think we must have been on God’s good side this year, because shortly after I left Michigan, temperatures plummeted to 18 below zero. I was oblivious - enjoying the 80-degree sunshine in Florida.

Our ultimate destination (there were 9 of us “cruisees” this year) was the lovely Independence of the Seas - currently the largest cruise ship in the world. At 188,000 tons, she weighs just a bit more than I did when I was killing myself with food a couple of years ago. Within her “bowels” (why do ships have bowels?) is room for 6,000 people, a theatre that seats 3,000, multiple stores and shops, an ice skating rink, a surf machine, dozens of pools and hot tubs, and pretty much everything else you would expect to find on the strip in Vegas - including a casino.

Alas, also within her belly is enough food to overfeed those 6,000 people for an entire week; twenty-five tons of chicken breasts, 850,000 eggs, enough beer to get a good-sized city drunk, and enough high-calorie desserts to send the passengers that don’t contract the Norovirus into a diabetic coma. How on earth is someone who has lost 229 pounds in the last year and a half supposed to survive that kind of temptation?

Well, I would like to say I have the willpower of chicken working its way out of an egg, or that I am so “supremely fit” that I could eat whatever I want without dire consequences. Neither statement is true, so I had to determine what I was going to do to make sure the ship didn’t end up listing on the side where my room was located. I had the additional motivation of knowing I would be going on the Today Show one week after returning, and I didn’t exactly want my pants to rip or my zipper to pop open on national TV!

Fitness gurus will tell you that when facing a known danger, it’s best to have a plan as to how to avert disaster. All throughout the last year and a half of my weight-loss journey, I have always operated with a philosophy that when it’s time to “celebrate,” it’s best to party like it’s 1999, and when it’s not - be smart about what you eat. However, since this cruise would be an entire WEEK of partying like it’s 1999, my waistline would never survive intact.

So, I determined before leaving that I would eat a smart breakfast. That meant avoiding the buffet line with it’s heaps of fried chicken embryos and pork byproducts, and opting instead for a box of Special K, half a banana, and skim milk. For good measure, I threw in a yogurt. Lunch was salad-time. I’ve learned to love those copious amounts of green leafiness, and I discovered a wonderful low-fat Raspberry vinaigrette onboard that only had 40 calories per two tablespoons (it took me a couple of days to figure this out - I couldn’t find anyone in the kitchen that understood English). In fact, not only was there a GREAT salad bar at the buffet every day, I discovered on day 2 that in the main dining room (think 5-star, Emeril-style food) people in fancy white hats would actually make a salad for you. We would basically stand in a line and bark orders at them as to what to put in a big silver bowl. They would dutifully toss it all together and put it on a big plate at the end of the line.

As for supper…well, after being good for breakfast and lunch, I decided to return to the 1999 party for dinner. I ate whatever I wanted in the main dining room for supper. I did avoid white breads and super-rich desserts (for the most part), but other than that - I ate bountifully.

Everyone always wants to know about the “midnight buffets.” Once again, God was looking out for me, because there was only one of those on this particular cruise (we suspect this is one of the “cut-backs” the cruise companies have made because of financial strains) and I was not star-struck by the food options there. I did eat some cookies and pizza and those kinds of things late at night - something I rarely do at home, but none of it stuck to my body because…

I EXERCISED LIKE A FIEND! Oh yeah - 7:00 am found me in the onboard gym (aptly named “Shipshape Fitness Center) busting a groove with Ryan; a former soccer pro whose newfound calling is whipping chubby Americans into shape while onboard a cruise ship. One morning was aerobics, and the next was strength training, and then it was a morning of ab-work and so on. When I finished with the half hour of hell in the Shipshape Fitness Center, I headed outdoors to the top of the ship, where a walking/running track greeted me. Motivated by my attempts to escape from Ryan as quickly as possible, I would then walk/run for a two to three mile loop. After that, I would return to my room and collapse in a heap on the floor.

Once I regained consciousness, it was off to visit our various ports of call. These were extreme calorie-burning opportunities. In St. Thomas, my best friend and I hiked to the top of the island - including a sprint up several hundred stairs. In St. Marten, we walked 4 miles from the boat, rented wave runners (my butt thanked me for that one) and walked 4 miles back. In San Juan, we wandered the old part of the city looking for cheap jewelry. What I found instead was the local drugstore, where I purchased a box of Diet Coke so I wouldn’t have to pay $2.50 per can for it on the ship.

 

All of my endeavors ultimately contributed to a two-pound weight loss. My fellow cruisees were not amused. While impressed with my physical vigor and amazing stamina, they wanted to commit murder when they found out I lost two pounds. Names shall remain anonymous, but I know at least one of them told me they gained four pounds. Not bad, when you consider that the average cruiser gains anywhere from 7-10 pounds on a week-long cruise. I told them they should be proud it was only four!

 

So - it IS possible to have fun and be healthy. It IS possible to enjoy food and not gain weight! Yes, if I had stuck with only the bark and twigs food selections and had avoided all desserts and other goodies, I probably would have lost even more. Sorry - not going to happen. After all, losing 229 pounds has been because of a lifestyle change - not a diet. Yes, there are some good diet plans out there (like Joy Bauer’s LIFE Diet, which I had an opportunity to “preview” before its release), but unless you’re wanting a body like Paris Hilton’s, trying to diet on a cruise is ridiculous. However - it is possible to be healthy on a cruise boat - I’m living proof! So, go with a plan, exercise like a fiend, take advantage of high-activity excursions while in port, and come back home knowing you had a great time and don’t have to worry about squeezing into those jeans afterwards!

 

 

 

Ground hog says only 6 more weeks of winter

Got to love that hairy creature. I just hope he is right. I need to see the grass. I need to hear the birds singing. I need to get my dog out for a walk. He has cabin fever as bad as I do. 

I try to workout in the winter but I must say that I fall short of a great workout minus the sunshine and fresh air. I put on my ipod and leashed up the dog and went for a walk on Sunday. Not the same thing when you have to go through 18 inches of snow. I am sure it is a workout but not one that I really enjoy.

I should go to the pool and go for a swim but I hate dealing with a wet bathing suit and wet hair when it is freezing out.

OK, enough with the excuses. I am the queen of them after all. To put my fanny in motion, I hired a personal trainer to jumpstart my efforts. She is a walking example of what a well-toned body should look like. I am sure that she is going to kick my butt but that is what I need right now.

I have let too many things get in the way of a great workout and it is time to get back on track. I turn 50 in July and I want to be the best I have ever been. I want to set the tone for what the rest of my life will be like by then. I never want to use a walker and I don’t want to be one of those people that eat pills to stay healthy.

Fabulous and 50 is what I want. The time is now to get back on track and make it happen.

Dieting’s Biggest Taboos and Mistakes

Knowledge is the answer to dealing with any problem and from there you will be able to determine whether or not your recipe for success is appropriate in order to achieve your goals of good health and fitness.  You will discover here as time goes on, that maintaining an exercise program, accompanied by a natural diet will comprise the main ingredients for your success.  But before we go on about how to fix the problem, we first need to fully understand what will not work.  Forgive me if some of these thoughts have already been posted on this site, and if so, a refresher may be helpful regardless.

Beginning a diet by fasting:  This practice is flat-out wrong and will not work.  It indicates a lack of basic knowledge about the problem.  Initially more water is lost than fat during the first week of dieting or fasting so that little benefit is achieved by the use of this self-abusive technique.

Skipping meals:  Healthy eating demands three, if not six, meals per day of varying caloric content spaced throughout our waking hours.  Skipping meals merely results in eating more calories when we do eat or eating when we should not, as during television viewing time.  On the other hand, television viewing should be kept to a minimum since it is one of the main causes contributing to obesity. 

Fad diets:  These come and go like the wind.  The grapefruit diet, the high carb diets, the high protein diets, and others of their ilk are examples of unsustainable diets that will ultimately fail with time.  Failure means you will lose weight but gain back what you lost and often then some.  All diets with only one exception will fail within nine to twelve months.   Which diet will work?   Hmmmm.  You will see if you stick with this column.

Yo-Yo dieting:  This practice implies that brief attempts at dieting for one or two weeks before falling off the wagon will work.  If it did, we would all be trim.  It implies a lack of understanding of the problem, and even worse, a lack of committment.  Obtaining a normal weight and the health that accompanies it will take at least as much time as it took to gain the weight.  There is no quick fix as you have already learned.

Impatience:  The average dieter wants impressive results too quickly and easily becomes discouraged.  Consistency, time in action, and eating the correct foods and amounts will carry the day.

Diet medications:  These fail to work over the long haul, if they work at all.  Most have long term adverse consequences, are expensive, and do not provide for the fitness part of the equation which as you will learn is the most important part of achieving good health and a normal weight and figure.  There are new medications on the horizen, though they will prove to be even more expensive and once again will not provide for all of the health benefits of exercise such as raising good HDL cholesterol, lowering blood sugar, lowering triglycerides, lowering blood pressure, and lowering heart rate, to name a few.

As Josh Billings once said,  “I honestly believe it is better to know nothing than t0 know what ain’t so.”

It is time for all of us to sit up and take notice.  The standard 27 inch casket has jumped to 33 inches.  We now even have up to 57 inches of casket room available to the needy.  Wheelchairs are thirty percent larger.  Car seats require seat-belt extenders and chairs need to support as much as 600 to 1000 pounds to avoid collapsing.  Solving the weight problems we have is an investment in our future.  It is the biggest health issue confronting us today and adds to the health care budget more than any other factor including cigarette smoking.

The next installment will list about twenty questions we need to ask of ourselves to solve the problems of obesity.  I will provide the answers to these questions as time goes on.

Dr. Philip

His blogs are his own opinions and do not reflect those of his current and past employers. 

 

Emily Minor on Emily Minor

Hi. Emily J. Minor here, longtime journalist, South Floridian, mom, wife, sister, Marlins baseball fan, NPR radio commentator and Type I diabetic.

Oh, I forgot the most important part for today’s purposes.

Dysfunctional eater.

This was ridiculously clear one recent weekend when we were planning to go to the movies on a Saturday night and I started thinking about movie popcorn that morning.

Feet on the floor, coffee on, newspaper in. Bam. Movie-popcorn-thing going on inside my head.

I mean, come on. Do skinny girls do this?

As it turns out, I think they might. Skinny girls like popcorn at the movies, too. But they probably don’t torture themselves about it all day, waffling back and forth, listening to the devil within, then the angel, then the devil again.

In the end, I had the popcorn and it was actually tasty - sometimes it isn’t, and that is such a waste - and I was happy. 

But that daylong debate demonstrated, once again, one very simple truth about myself.

As if I needed a reminder.

I have never been able to re-train my brain about food. Ever.

Oh, after taking a year and losing 50 pounds - I did it in 2007 with practically no processed foods, no alcohol, very little salt, exercise and menus that laid it all out - I definitely eat differently now. I want to keep it off. But there is a part of me that is static and unchanged and set in her ways.

It’s the part that got me up to 195 pounds.

I would still prefer the mini-Snickers over the grapes, the french fries over the fresh fruit and the bun over the bare burger. 

That means I have this good-choice, bad-choice argument with myself All The Time. And, believe me, my devilish side can get quite creative. I deserve this. I deserve that.

Sweet potato fries aren’t that bad. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Sometimes the wrangling starts with my morning coffee. Sometimes it doesn’t happen until much later in the day.

And sometimes it never happens at all. I just breeze through my waking hours, eating my Special K and my half a turkey sandwich and my New York strip steak with cauliflower for dinner. (Yum.)

Sometimes it’s easy and I look great and I feel great and I go to the movies with my bottle of water and the one - OK, two - Twizzlers that I score from the husband.

It’s a little boring, frankly. But I still like those days best.

A girl and her cake

Beth Geiger’s dreams of cake

Last night, I was dreaming about cake.  Yes – literally dreaming about cake – a wonderfully light, fluffy yellow cake with thick chocolate frosting. I woke up, the dream still lingering, and trudged into the kitchen to cook my oatmeal.  And as I waited for my breakfast, I started thinking about how the dream probably came from all the post-holiday challenges in “retraining” myself to resist the treats I had gotten used to.

These past weeks have been hard.  Since the start of the New Year, I have found myself daydreaming about food all-too-often.  It’s definitely the worst at work.  We have a small kitchen on the floor of my office.  And during the holidays, whenever I’d go fill up my coffee or water, I would be greeted with one holiday treat after another.  And I would tell everyone that I couldn’t wait for the treats to be gone so that I could get back into a healthy routine, and stop facing temptation.

But the treats are long since gone – and the temptation remains.  In my mind, I still picture those treats on the counter.  So when I turn into the kitchen and see only empty space before me, I get disappointed. It’s almost physical – like it’s my body that’s missing the treats and not my mind.

I’ve heard that it only takes 21 days to “retrain” the brain to new habits.  I’m not sure how that applies to weight control and food cravings, but I do hope that it does.  Obviously, switching someone’s life to a deeply healthy lifestyle is an evolution – a journey made of small, individual steps.   But as Day 21 of the New Year approaches, I hope that the resolutions we’ve formed over the past three weeks are starting to become “habit”…so that it once again becomes easier to enter the kitchen without hopes of cookies, and contain the dreams of cake to the sleeping hours (if at all!).

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