Just Say No To The Diet Trap!

January 4, 2016May 9, 2017

Today’s article comes from deep within my heart.

It’s a brand new year and for many people a new year means fresh new goals and/or resolutions. If your goal is to lose weight, it can be really tempting to try the latest fad diet that the fitness or diet industry is promoting. It’s a normal human response to be intrigued by all the marketing that these industries roll out in January… especially if you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays.

Before you jump on board and commit to a new diet, it’s important you know that temporary, restrictive diets have a 95% failure rate and can do more harm than good.

Have you ever suffered through the physical and emotional torment of the latest fad diet simply to find yourself unsuccessful and frustrated?

Or, maybe you lost a bunch of weight only to gain it back again. Even worse, you gained back more than you lost.

You are not alone. As a personal trainer I have seen and even personally experienced so much physical and psychological damage from dieting, it makes me want to scream!

Some of the reasons diets fail you are:

They slow down your metabolism
They cause you to store fat, not burn it
They’re unsustainable for most people’s lifestyle
When you stop starving yourself and go back to a normal calorie-consumption, you WILL gain weight
Lack of energy due to being hungry
Some diets ask you to eliminate entire food groups and key nutrients
They can cause binge eating
They can cause stress which is known to cause belly fat due to hormonal changes in the body

Look, I get it. You want to get thinner and you want it now. Most of us do not want to wait the amount of time it takes to lose weight that statistically stays off for life. The diet industry is counting on that and the marketing is very convincing!

Losing weight and keeping it off for good without dieting starts with a change in mindset. The mindset that you are going to switch to healthy eating. Eating for health and dieting to lose weight do not always look the same. Things like portion control, cutting back the foods and or liquids that you know are excessive, avoiding overly processed foods, and meal planning are all considered healthy eating, not starvation diets or skipping meals entirely.

HERE ARE SIX TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIETING

1) You need to eat. It absolutely amazes me that there are still diets out on the market today that recommend dangerously low calorie meal plans when the science says otherwise. Your body will get really good at storing what it doesn’t get enough of. For example, if you eliminate fat from your diet, your body will not want to burn fat. It will want to store fat. Sound nutritional research tells us that you need to eat fat in order to burn fat. I am a firm believer that the low fat and low carb craze has contributed heavily to the obesity crisis in the United States.

Instead of restricting what you eat, you’ll find more success when you focus on a balanced diet that is centered around whole foods. A balanced diet includes carbohydrates, proteins, fruits & vegetables, healthy fats, and water. Any diet that cuts one of these important nutrients out should be avoided.

2) Exercise almost every day. Do your best to exercise six days per week. Try an interval workout 2-3 times per week and alternate with more moderate activity on the rest of the days.

Choose a fun activity on your off day like a moderate hike, cross country skiing, swimming, or taking your kids or your dog to the park.

If exercising six days per week seems overwhelming, start with 20 minutes per day 2-3 days per week . You’ll still get better results than doing nothing at all.

3) Eat in. This is the biggest tip I can give you. Cook at home for the next 30 days and bring your lunch. Use light recipes from sources like EatingWell, Cooking Light, and Health magazine.

4) Cut back on liquid calories. Try substituting alcohol, sodas, and other higher calorie drinks with water. Try adding lemon or cucumber for some variation.

If cutting out liquid calories sounds extreme, take a more moderate approach and cut down to half or even a quarter of what you usually drink. You can always go back to your normal consumption if you want to. This is about figuring out what works for you personally.

5) Cut back on dessert. Desserts are usually loaded with calories. If you have a sweet tooth, try substituting with fruit or one piece of dark chocolate.

6) Be authentically you. It’s really important that you pay close attention to what’s most important to you. Not everyone wants to be or was designed to look like the models on the cover of fitness magazines. If challenging yourself to reach an elite athlete status is fun for you and you can achieve it in a healthy way, then by all means go for it! However, if you know in your heart of hearts you’d just like to live a long healthy life, fit in your jeans, and have the stamina to do the activities you enjoy without a whole lot of restrictions in your life, then general health and fitness is for you so please don’t beat yourself up because you’re not “doing whatever it takes” to look like a fitness model.

I recommend you try my suggestions above for the next 30 days and stay consistent. However, If this all seems a bit overwhelming, pick as many things from above that you can realistically implement right away and stay consistent. Diet and exercise are very personal which is why a canned approach rarely works. We all have different lives, different goals, and different needs. 🙂

To your long term health and fitness!
Jennifer

How To Handle A Food Craving And Avoid Binging!

August 23, 2012August 22, 20121 Comment

Food cravings can lead to binging and sabotage your weight loss efforts! If you haven’t already, read part 1 — Cravings vs. Hunger: How to Tell the Difference The last thing I want is for you to ignore true hunger signals.

Food cravings are normal!

We all experience food cravings from time to time. Don’t worry! It’s normal. You just need to follow some simple steps that will help you handle the craving and avoid the binging.

First off, there is a difference between craving food and experiencing real hunger. Part 1 gives you detailed steps on how to tell the difference.

Have you ever heard that if your body is craving a certain type of food, then “it probably needs it?” This is not always true. If your body is craving a big salad with lots of raw vegetables, that concept is totally reasonable. However, I don’t think there is anyone on the planet that has to eat Chocolate Chip Cookies to survive!

Simple Tips to Stop Food Cravings from Controlling You!

1) Give in! Yes, you read that correctly. Years ago I was taking classes from a well known nutritionist in southern California. Because of her location, many of her clients had eating disorders. She told me a story about a young model who would eat an entire bag of baby carrots in one sitting to keep herself from eating a chocolate chip cookie. She told the nutritionist she was trying to avoid the “bad” food.

Fortunately, she got some health benefits from eating the carrots. But, she consumed more calories with the carrots than if she ate one small cookie.

The point of the story is that when you attempt to eliminate a food from your diet entirely, it can trigger binging. You’ll may redirect the binge to another food. Or once you allow yourself to eat the “forbidden” food, you are at risk of over doing it. Better to have a small amount of the food you are craving than to try avoiding it entirely. For example, if you crave ice cream, find a low calorie flavor you like and measure out a serving. You may even find a half serving will do the trick.

Don’t let food control you! If it’s only certain foods, try keeping them out of the house for awhile until you can practice moderation.

2) Go to bed! When you are in need of rest your body will crave sugar for a pick me up. Go to bed early that night. Your body will thank you for it.

3) Drink some water! Dehydrated bodies can send a hunger signal. If you have eaten a full balanced meal within the last few hours, then try a glass of water before you eat more. If you are still hungry, have a small snack.

4) Redirect! Find yourself digging through the cupboards for no reason? You could be bored. When you find your self mindlessly foraging for food redirect that behavior. Try walking, doing a household chore, meditating, catching up on phone calls or email, or reading. Make a list of replacement activities and keep it posted. Use the list when the craving begins.

5) Avoid using food for comfort! We’ve all heard of “comfort food.” There’s no such thing as comfort food. Food does not offer comfort. We can associate a positive time in our life with certain foods, which is why you may feel warm and fuzzy when you eat them.

With that being said, elevating your serotonin levels does help fight depression. But, turning to the sweets to elevate your serotonin levels is not the best choice. You may feel great for a moment after eating a large piece of cake. However, when your blood sugar drops, you can go right back into the dumps and may experience guilt for sabotaging your weight loss goals.

Choose a balanced meal with complex carbohydrates to elevate the serotonin in your body. If dessert is really your thing, have a small serving that will fit into your daily calorie expenditure.

Just remember we all have food cravings from time to time. It’s how we deal with them that will make or break our weight loss and management goals!

I hope this has been helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions or tips you’d like to share to control food cravings. I love to hear from you!

Blessings!

Jennifer

Why Low Fat Diets Don’t Work!

June 14, 2012June 13, 20121 Comment

Recently I was asked to review a “weight loss camp” for a client and give my opinion. After a review of their website I could not recommend it. While their intentions were good, there were several red flags that concerned me. The website boasted a low fat diet which is one of the main reasons I could not give it my personal thumbs up!

Just like any other fad diet, the low fat craze started in the 70’s and remains controversial to this day. It is the opinion of many of us in the health and wellness field that the low fat craze has contributed to obesity in this country.

Five reasons low fat diets don’t work for you!

You’re too hungry! The research is becoming widely accepted that fat actually satisfies our hunger! Low fat diets, much like low calorie diets, can cause you to graze all day long and consume more calories than normal.
Triggers binging! Remember when the low fat chips came out? Or, the Oreos? Bet you were tempted to eat twice as many! That little voice inside your head said “Go ahead have another. They are low fat after all!” Read your labels and pay attention to serving sizes, even if the package says low fat.
Increases sugar intake! Most low fat foods add sugar to make up for the lack of flavor caused by removing fat. This can cause your blood sugar to fluctuate widely, which can hinder your efforts to lose weight.
Eliminates the good fats! Healthy fats are an essential part of our diet. By consuming healthy fats, you raise the good cholesterol in your body. This in turn helps break down the less healthy cholesterol.
It can affect your mood! One study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders has linked low and abnormal essential fatty acid intake to depressive symptoms. Depression can cause you to avoid exercise and other physical activity which will sabotage your efforts even more!

Here’s what other experts are saying:

“A multitude of studies have shown that consuming a diet with moderate amounts of fat―emphasizing sources of healthful mono- and polyunsaturated fats like nuts, seeds, oils, and avocados―can help reduce risk for heart disease. What’s more, certain vitamins require dietary fat in order for your body to process and benefit from them.” – Cooking Light Magazine.

Now before you going running off to eat a pound of bacon or fast food french fries — let me clarify. Fat is essential to our diet. However, calories are calories — and fat has more calories per gram than carbohydrates and protein. So once again, moderation is key.

You also want to choose your “fats” wisely. The research is pretty concrete that trans fats in packaged foods are causing heart disease and other health issues. Magazines like Cooking Light have great recipes that call for moderate amounts of healthy fat. These recipes also tweak the amount of saturated fats to help cut back on calories and cholesterol without losing flavor and nutritional value.

The proof is at the doctor’s office:

I have been eating moderate amounts of saturated and unsaturated fat for most of my life. I just had a blood test and was told I have a very high level of good cholesterol and a super low level of bad cholesterol.

Please understand, I am not bragging about me. I’m sharing this because after years of watching all of the diet crazes, it all comes back to a very simple concept. Avoid processed food as much as possible, and pay attention to portion sizes and caloric intake. Find out more about portion sizes and calories in my article titled How To Lose Weight Without Feeling Deprived Or Hungry! .

I hope this has been helpful and clarified a few things for you. My goal is to help you succeed and demystify all of the information in the media regarding weight loss. Please comment below and let me know if this has helped you or if you have a low fat story you would like to share!