Should I Buy Controlled Servings of Food?

There are many diet programs out there, some – like Weight Watchers teach you the right foods to eat and in the right portions.  There are others that tell you to buy their foods which are pre-packaged to the right serving size.  Aside from commercial diet programs, you can also buy controlled serving sizes of foods as well – but is that the best way to lose weight?

Lets look at a few items that you probably want to buy controlled sizes:

• Chocolate – lets face it, you’re trying to make lifestyle changes.  That doesn’t mean giving up everything you enjoy because if you do you will end up binging.  Chocolate is ideal to purchase in controlled sizes.  You can purchase chocolate bars that are 100 calories and even others that are less than that.  When you’re in the mood for something sweet, grabbing one of the controlled portions is better than a candy bar laced with well over 300 calories.
• Chips/Snack Crackers/Soda – I love chips but buying a bag that can eat 10 and having it yourself is not an option.  I buy those small bags that are under 130 calories and contain anywhere from 10-20 chips in them.  I still get to eat something I like without binging.  The same can be done for snack crackers or soda pop.  If you must have them, buy the small versions and save your waist.

But when it comes to frozen dinners – I’ve got mixed feelings on these items.  While you are getting food that is portion controlled, you are  not learning how to build the correct portion size yourself and are relying on what the food industry is giving you – perhaps the same could be said for chocolate or chips – but in this case you are also taking on a lot of food additives and preservatives.  You have little to no control over salt – something that you need to watch if you are overweight as it can lead to hypertension (or high blood pressure).

When it comes to your main meals, I firmly believe that this is where you need to learn yourself how much is enough.  What you need to learn is portion sizes, it is especially important when it comes to your main meals – lunch and dinner because that’s typically when most of us will end up overeating or binging without even realizing it.

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Sample Walking Program

Losing weight, and maintaining that weight loss is all about making lifestyle changes.

If you eat, and then sit in front of the TV you will gain weight.  There is no doubt about that.  But if you eat, and do a little work before sitting down, you will not only feel better but you’ll not have any guilt that you sat down without doing some level of activity.  The cycle is easy to get into:

• Eat
• Sit on the couch in front of the TV, or on the computer or start playing video games
• Feel guilty and promise yourself you won’t do it tomorrow

Next day…

• Eat
• Sit on the couch in front of the TV, or on the computer or start playing video games
• Feel guilty and promise yourself you won’t do it tomorrow

And it repeats itself.  You need to break this cycle – nobody, not your spouse or significant other, nor your kids can break this cycle.  YOU have to do it yourself for yourself.

This is like binge eating.  You binge on anything you can find, only to feel guilty later on and rather than STOP EATING you keep going because you’ve already started so what the hell…

But once you break the cycle the first time, then the second and third, fourth, fifth… slowly it becomes habit to NOT sit and instead you will force (use the word lightly) yourself to not sit but remain active for about an hour afterwards.

Once you’ve gotten out of that rut – start walking.  Outside.  You DO NOT need a walking program, or plan.  Just walk.  Walk to the corner store and back.  Walk to the grocery store.  Walk around the block.  Walk to the park.  Walk on a trail.  Just walk.  Walking is the least expensive exercise you can do.  It doesn’t cost a lot (a good pair of walking shoes will cost you between $30 and $100) and all you need is some outdoor clothing – track pants, and a light shirt and hat.  You probably have all that at home already.

Walking gets your body moving.  It keeps your mind active.  It helps relax, and refocus.

If you’re a busy professional, walking will allow you to sort out your day and put what has happened into perspective.  Even though you may be thinking about work, it’s in a stress free environment.

You don’t need a walking program.  Just go outside, put one foot in front of the other and see where it takes you.

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Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

If you’ve been following this blog, or my static weight loss site (it’s been around since about 2003) then you know that I did lose 100lbs in about one year and have kept most of that weight off.  Fact is I gained back some of that – about 30lbs.

I’ve been trying, though not very hard, to shed those 30lbs and bring my weight back down to 270lbs to 280lbs – though this is still far from my ideal weight which the doctors, nutritionist and dietician say is around 180lbs it’s been something that I was comfortable with – I was able to get into slimmer suits and my stomach didn’t bulge out as much as it is doing right now plus I could run up the stairs without huffing and puffing, play with my son without breaking a sweat and could handle warm temperatures without looking like I just got out of the shower!

If you go to my weight loss site, you’ll notice the statement that I made on the front page:

Weight Loss Is By Choice, Not By Chance

This means exactly what I say – weight loss is by choice.  YOU have to make the choice that YOU want to lose weight.  Though we go on diets, and make lifestyle changes for many reasons – it needs to be a reason for us – YOU.  Yes you can make the statement that you want to lose weight for “my spouse”, “my family”, “my son/daughter” or any other reason, but unless you are doing it for you – why would you have any motivation to lose the weight?  Seriously, think about it.  If there is no vested interest for you – why do it?

Enough of the lecture.  So what am I doing?

I had given up keeping a food diary, too much work.  But then I bought an iPod Touch about a year ago and downloaded some great applications (I will review the one that I use in an upcoming post) to track what I eat and when.  I’ve been keeping track of my food intake for several months now and discovered a few things:

• I started eating late at night, again (after about 8:00pm)
• I started consuming more sugary drinks than I normally do (like juice, and soda pop)
• I started consuming MORE artificial sweeteners that I normally do (I love my decaf tea)
• I started eating MORE junk food that I’ve done in the past
• I started eating out more often

As you can see, I started many wrong things instead of right things.

So how to break the cycle?  It’s not easy.  You can’t quit cold turkey (no pun intended).  You need to stop bad habits gradually.  So the first thing I started was cutting down the late night romps to the kitchen.  We ate when we ate, and that was it.  If I was hungry before bedtime, I had a glass of warm milk or some fruit.  It took about one week for the new habit to set it, but now when I’m hungry and head downstairs and open the fridge – I think about how hungry I really am and usually grab the milk jug instead of left overs.

Next was the sugary drinks.  I’m don’t particularly like soda pop so cutting this out was easy, I like juices more – dropping that is hard.  Cutting this out was hard, but we found some juice that is lower in sugar – it’s advertised as 25% less sugar and it’s not sweetened with any artificial sweetener.  I avoid stuff like Tang Orange Juice crystals and even drinks like Kool Aid and will look for juice thats either sweetened with natural fruit sugars or is reduced sugar.  I also limit how much I drink in a day to one or two 8oz glasses. 

Eating out is another habit difficult to break, while I generally won’t go to McDonalds, Burger King or any other fast food place that often — there are times when the french fry or onion ring craving hits.  My solution was to stop.  I just won’t go there anymore.  But the other foods that I enjoy are mediterranean style foods, and there is a great place close to work that I like going to.  My solution was to limit how often I go.  I will go there, but generally once per month.  I was going weekly before.  There is also another place I like to eat, but as it’s about one hour away we generally don’t go more than once every few months.

Junk food is a hard habit to break – I love chips, tacos, nachos etc., giving these up was difficult.  So I didn’t.  I count out 12-15 chips and snack on them instead.  Yes a GREAT amount of willpower is needed – but you know what, when you eat regular meals and good snacks you don’t get the cravings (or not as many and as severe) for junk food.

There are other things you should also know – as a general rule, we don’t eat a lot of processed meats at home.  This is where you’ll find a lot of fat, and salt.  Because we don’t eat pork/bacon/ham – this cuts out a lot of the processed meats that we can eat — which is generally limited to items such as chicken or turkey, and even then because of our dietary requirements (halal) I can’t just stop into my local grocery store and buy what’s out — I need to make the effort to drive to the store and buy it.

We also don’t drink alcohol – so no extra calories from there.

We do eat traditional indian foods – such as biryani, curries, and rice not to mention naan/roti — so I need to exercise greater control.  Because of my needs, my wife will normally cook more North American styled foods for me – such as more chicken and fish.

So how are things going?  So far, so good – my pants are starting to feel a little loose on me again and if I’m able to keep this up I should be down those pesky 30lbs in 3 to 6 months time.

Remember – DIETS DO NOT WORK - but lifestyle changes do work.  Why not Let us know how things are going, and any challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve overcome those challenges.

Here is to your health!

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50 Weight Loss Tips – Day 1

50 Weight Loss Tips – Day #1 – Lifestyle Changes to Promote Weight Loss

On Day 1 of 50 Weight Loss Tips we look at what dieting really is.

You’ve probably read Garfield say “Diet is DIE with a T”.  He’s right.  It is.  So why think of it as a diet?  It’s not, really.

It’s more about LIFESTYLE CHANGES.

Consider this – your breakfast consists of fast food at around 1,000 calories.  Lunch is fast food, at minimum 1,200 calories, and dinner is around 2,000 calories.   You snack throughout the day – add atleast 1,000 calories.  For the day you’ve eaten 5,200 calories.

If you weight 300 lbs now, and you want to come down to 200lbs, and assuming that you will add enough exercise to qualify yourself as moderately active this is how many calories you need to eat in order to lose weight:

200 x 16 = 3,200 calories required to be eaten to get down to 200lbs.

Source: http://www.momscape.com/articles/how-many-calories-to-lose-weight.htm

So how will you cut down 2,000 calories?  Dieting?  Nope, because it is not going to work.  You are going to need to make some serious lifestyle changes.

You CAN NOT continue to eat out.  You must learn to cook at home, and make nutritious meals.  Your choices for snacks can’t be cake, cookies, chips or pop.  You need to eat healthy snacks that will promote weight loss.

By making lifestyle changes, you are changing your habits and putting yourself onto a long-term, successful track to lose weight and maintain that weight loss.

Lifestyle changes means making time to eat well, to exercise and to get sleep.

Lack of Sleep Increases Overeating

Researchers from several separate studies ¹ have found a link between sleep and the hormones that influence our eating behavior. Two specific hormones are involved. Ghrelin is responsible for feelings of hunger. Leptin tells the brain when it’s time to stop. When you’re sleep deprived, your ghrelin levels increase at the same time that your leptin levels decrease. The result is an increased craving for food and not feeling full.

Source: http://www.thedietchannel.com/Weight-Loss-and-Sleep.htm

The Dream Diet: Losing Weight While You Sleep

Leptin and ghrelin work in a kind of “checks and balances” system to control feelings of hunger and fullness, explains Michael Breus, PhD, a faculty member of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and director of The Sleep Disorders Centers of Southeastern Lung Care in Atlanta. Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite, while leptin, produced in fat cells, sends a signal to the brain when you are full.

So what’s the connection to sleep? “When you don’t get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which means you don’t feel as satisfied after you eat. Lack of sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you want more food,” Breus tells WebMD.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/solutions/sc/link-sleep-weight-loss/sleep-to-get-thin

What Other Lifestyle Changes Can You Make?  8 Easy Tips!

1. You need to be aware of what you are eating, and you need to count calories.  I don’t mean go NUTS, but be aware that a BIG bag of chips probably has as many calories in it as breakfast and lunch combined (if not more).  http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2002/102_fat.html
2. Drink plenty of water (and keep coffee, bottled beverages, and alcohol to a minimum level).
3. Eat small meals more frequently. Have healthy snacks readily available so that you don’t get that hungry that you have to buy junk from a vending machine.
4. Sit down and eat properly.  Very important, eating on the run will not make you feel satisfied and sub-consciously you will feel that you have not eaten anything.
5. Eat all food groups in each meal. Remember the food pyramid?
6. Eat vegetables with each meal.  Vegetables are great filler foods, and many contain the all important fibre to keep you regular.  Vegetables also contain many essential vitamins and other valuable nutrients that your body needs.
7. Eat whole grains, your body needs fibre.
8. Get active!  Exercise.  Watercise is great.  Walking is easy and cheap.  Bicycling can also be a lot of fun.  Whatever you decide, just do it and do it regularly.

Lifestyle changes are easy to make.  You look at what you’re doing now, and work on one area at a time.  Start with exercise and getting active, as this is one of the easiest and as you progress and do more and more each day you will not feel like stopping.

Exerise can be the easiest thing to add to your day.  If you work, take a short break to walk a bit and stretch – go to the cooler for water.  Get up and walk to the printer to get a document.  At lunch, go out for a walk – or to even get fresh air.

At home – work around the house; or if that’s not your thing – go outside for a walk.

Start easy – 15-30 minutes daily until you can get to 1 hour per day.

As your activity increases, your hunger will decrease naturally — this is when you start tackling your eating habits.  Again, you can start small – cut back on high calorie lunches, and instead buy a salad for lunch along with a soup and crackers.  For dinner, add vegetables to your meal and cut back on gravies and sauces that add alot of hidden calories and fat to your meal.

For your snacks, slip in some carrots and celery with a light dip to keep things lively.

Alternate between different types of snacks, fruit one day, veggies the next.  Why not try baked PITA?  Simply cut pita bread into bite sized chunks, add some seasoning for taste and bake.  You can even try light margarines that are pre-flavoured.

Try some exotic fruits, or make a fruit salad with exotic fruits like mango, papaya, kiwi and even passion fruit.  There are so many types of fruits out there that you can keep things different from day-to-day.

There are many things that you can do to make a BIG impact to your life.  What have you done?  What will you try to do?  I encourage your participation to help you lose weight and to motivate other readers to do the same!

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Here is to Your Health,

Mohamed

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