Side Effects of Weight Loss

For some of us, losing weight is a challenge and once we’ve lost the weight it is a challenge to maintain that weight loss. This happens to the best of them – if you have ever watched The Biggest Loser on television you will know that several former contestants and winners gained back their weight (and they had a team of professionals helping them).

Don’t feel guilty if you gain some weight back, instead use what you have learned to fine tune your diet and get back on track.

But this post isn’t about how to maintain your weight loss, or how to fine tune your eating it is about the side effects of losing weight.

Your clothes fit, right.

Yes that is a benefit of losing weight, your clothes fit. You do not bulge over or hang out. You begin to have a shape, other than round or square.

Clothes are less expensive.

Another great benefit of weight loss. Over the last few months I have lost another 10 – 15 lbs so went from a 58 waist (and pants in the $100.00+ range) down to a 52. Cost of pants, shirts and other items also fell (in addition to the clothes). Yes I have more to go, but if I can trim my professional clothes budget by 10% every few months it adds up to significant savings over the course of a year.

Health improves, and you have more energy.

At one time, when my 7-year old (slim, fit and healthy) son would want me to race him up the stairs, my mind would think about the huffing and puffing, sweating and my weak and sore joints.

Only 3% of weight loss has allowed me to race him to the top of the stairs. I am still huffing, but no weak or sore joints.

Also I wake up fresh every morning. I am not as tired by 8:00pm and can function at 110% at work even on regular 10 hour days (I am a workaholic).

The only side effect of weight loss that I don’t like? I feel cold more often, but then that has to do with not having to lug around extra weight (and insulation).

As I work towards the last 100lbs, I do not mind feeling cold and quite enjoy wearing the latest styles and designs of clothes, suits and sports jackets. Working in a senior management position where I meet with other senior managers, you need to look good – being overweight just does not cut it. That is not to say there are not overweight executives, but they are much fewer.

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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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4 Proven Tricks To Eat Less Food

I found these 4 tricks (that are proven to help people eat less food and overall calories) while reading a fascinating book recently called 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman. I think you’ll find these very helpful if you’re looking to control your caloric intake and reduce your body fat.

These tricks were tested in scientific studies and are quick and easy to implement. I thought these were VERY interesting…

Trick #1 to Eat Less — Several studies prove that the size of the bowl, plate, or spoon that you use can directly influence how much food and calories you consume.

Richard Wiseman, in the book 59 Seconds, talks about one study conducted where party guests were randomly given either 17 or 34-ounce bowls and 2 or 3 ounce spoons, and allowed to help themselves to ice cream. It was found that the party guests given the large spoons and large bowls had eaten 14% and 31% more ice cream respectively, than the people using the smaller spoons or smaller bowls. Interesting huh!

Another study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania used a bowl of M&Ms that were left in the hallway of an apartment building. A sign next to the bowl told people to help themselves to the M&Ms. Some days a tablespoon sized scoop was used in the M&Ms and on other days, a larger scoop was used in the bowl. The researchers found that the larger scoop caused people to take TWICE the amount of M&Ms on average compared to the people that had used the smaller scoop.

I’ve also seen studies referenced in the past that showed that people who used larger plates consumed more calories than those using smaller plates.

The lesson — Use smaller plates, bowls, and silverware and you may inadvertently reduce your calorie intake. This also means saying NO to seconds and thirds!

Trick #2 to Eat Less — You’ve probably heard before that eating slower can help you to eat less because it gives time for the fullness signal to reach your brain and thereby shut off your appetite before you’ve eaten too much.

However, this study below found a twist on this!

According to Mr. Wiseman in the book 59 Seconds, a study at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center had overweight participants eat a meal at 3 different speeds:

a) their normal rate
b) half their normal rate
c) their normal rate at first, followed by half their normal rate (normal-slow combo)

The results were interesting… Eating at the slower rate caused the men to eat less, but not the women (that’s weird!). However, the 3rd group that combined the normal pace at first with the slower rate after that caused both the men and women to have a large reduction in their appetite and eat less. The normal-slow combo was found to be more effective than just the slow-only group. Why? I have no idea, but those are interesting results!

Mr Wiseman stated that the lesson here to eat less is “to start at your normal speed but then savor each and every mouthful”.

Trick #3 to Eat Less — According to the book 59 Seconds, a series of experiments conducted in offices compared putting chocolates right on people’s desks vs placing the chocolates six feet away. In another experiment, the chocolates were put inside either transparent or opaque jars. When the chocolates were placed on the person’s desk instead of 6 feet away, people ate on average 6 more chocolates per day per person. Also, the chocolates in the transparent jars were eaten 46% more quickly than the opaque jars.

Just shows… out of sight, out of mind! As you may already know, I recommend never even having junk food around your house at all…that way, you’re never tempted by it and you’re forced to only eat healthy foods… but then you can use your weekly cheat meals to eat junk food out at a restaurant. That way the junk food is never in your house to begin with!

Trick #4 to Eat Less — Studies have found that people eat significantly more when they are distracted by TV, movies, games, or other distractions. In one experiment mentioned in the book 59 Seconds, people who were more absorbed by a movie ate significantly larger amounts of popcorn compared to those that were paying less attention to the movie.

In another experiment, people who actively listened to a detective story during lunch (being distracted by the story), ate 15% more food than those who sat in silence during their lunch.

The lesson — ditch the TV and other distractions and focus on your food! Enjoy every bite of your food and you will naturally consume less calories while enjoying your food more.

Interesting stuff in these 4 tricks huh! Feel free to share this webpage with your Facebook friends or on your blogs/forums… or email the link to this page to your friends and family.

Best regards,

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Author – The Truth About Six Pack Abs

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Kraft Dinner Crackers Original

I love to snack – well sort of, I like snacking but tend to crave carbohydrates more than more sensible items like fruit or veggies.  At Wal-Mart the other day I saw Kraft Dinner Crackers on the shelf and 2 for $5.00 (CDN) thought it was a good deal so I picked up two boxes.

Nutrition Facts

27 grackers or about 20 grams contains 100 calories, 4.5g of fat of which 1.0g is saturated and 5mg of cholesterol.  There is a lot of salt, 180mg and 12g of carbs with 1g coming form sugars and 2g of protein.

Very little calcium (2%) and Iron (6%) but no other vitamins as shown on the package.

Overall I thought that the taste was OK – definately not like the Macaroni and Cheese but a lot like those fish shaped crackers some kids like to eat.

Because of the salt, you may feel thirsty after having a few of these – which is good, just down it with water and not something else.

Don’t ask me about texture since I don’t pay a lot of attention to that but they do like macaroni as in KD Mac and Cheese.

The problem with these is that counting out 27 and sticking to it might be hard – they are filling and it is a good snack but may not be enough to hold you back from devouring the entire box!  You may want to pick-up the individual serving sized packages – that way you get the feeling you’re having a lot when in fact you are having just the right amount.

Something else that I liked about these crackers is that there is no after-taste — as I sometimes find with other crackers.

An alternative to these might be regular crackers with light cream cheese on them or any other type of light cheese.  In fact you could make a mini-tray out of some simple ingredients:

• Whole wheat or other high fibre crackers
• Lite cheddar cheese
• Mixed pickled vegetables
• Turkey slices

Eventhough 27 crackers may not be all that satisfying the fat content is relatively low and calories are low to make this a great snack.

You can read more about this Kraft product by visiting the page for this item at http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/Products/J-L/KraftDinnerCrackers.aspx.

Here is the spot that they ran for the crackers, courtesy of YouTube.

 

Enjoy!

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: healthy foods, kd crackers, kraft dinner crackers, lose weight, low calorie foods, negative calorie foods, Weight Loss Foods, weight loss foods to eat, weight loss snacks

Weight Loss Information From Around The Web

Here is some weight loss information gathered from around the web.  I am hoping to make this into a weekly post to bring you relavent news and information about weight loss.  I’ll present each post with a small snippet from the article.

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1189956/Why-crash-dieting-DOES-work-Surprise-evidence-suggests-best-way-slim.html“Here’s a sobering thought: beach weather is nearly here, and the diet you’ve been meaning to embark on since January remains in the planning phases.

  You really don’t want to expose those extra pounds to the world, but you do want to put on your swimsuit and feel OK about it. A crash diet seems to be your only option, but aren’t crash diets unhealthy – not to mention ineffective – after the first week? Not if you approach them correctly.

  Despite what many nutritionists have preached for years, low-calorie diets can be healthy if you do them right, and can work wonders on pounds and inches in just a few weeks.”

• http://www.canada.com/health/Weight+loss+lifestyle/1628412/story.html

  “Losing weight is all about choices, whether it’s food choices or lifestyle choices,” says Rick Sgabellone, an Ottawa father of two who has struggled for years to keep his weight under control.

• http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/151985.php

  The twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes will continue to fuel an explosion in heart failure, already the world’s most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease, according to John McMurray, professor of cardiology at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and President of the Heart Failure Association. He reported that around one-third of patients with heart failure have evidence of diabetes, and for them the outlook is very serious. For doctors, he added, effective treatment is “very difficult”.

Here is to your health!

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: diet, lose weight, Weight Loss, weight loss articles, weight loss information

Eat Food – Lose Weight!

When I first started dieting – years, and years ago, I thought that the best way to lose weight was to starve yourself.  So I’d skip meals – breakfast, maybe lunch but then would really sabotage myself as dinner would be HUGE and since it was such a large meal, I’d feel tired after eating and rather than exercise I would plop down on the couch and sleep or watch TV.

This went on for years, until I tried some other programs – which succeeded in helping me loose weight – but I promptly put the weight back on after I left the program.

Then FINALLY my doctor said “do or die” and I made complete lifestyle changes.  No diets!

I started eating regular meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And I snacked, and snacked, and snacked until I was so full that I couldn’t eat anymore!  Snacks consisted of crackers and cheese, carrots, cucumber, fruits like strawberries, melons, kiwi, oranges, apples and grapes.  But I didn’t limit myself to the same boring stuff day after day.  I’d try mixing it up and adding stuff like bran buds or yogourt.  I’d also have cereal as a snack.

Variety is what really helped me lose 100lbs in one year.  And now that I am back to a variety of foods, I’ve lost about 15lbs in around 4 months.  Not to shabby!

On top of eating less food, more often I also started drinking a lot more water.  I found the water more refreshing that having a soda pop.  In fact there were times when I would be craving a soda and may give into that craving only to find that I still had that craving.  I drank some water, and found that the craving was not for soda, but for water or rather something cold and refreshing.

The soda pop just slows you down – makes you sluggish; but the water is really refreshing!  Even now, I tend to drink 8-10 glasses of water each day.

Regular meals, that are part of a lifestyle change will do more than any fad diet will ever do.  Although I always hated it, I did count calories.  For example, a donut and coffee for breakfast?  Probably about 600 calories.  How about cereal with milk, fruit and tea?  Probably around the same BUT I’ll feel full longer!

I had three main meals, then would snack between meals.  I found that this was the best way to keep me on track.

Here is to your health!

Mohamed

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50 Weight Loss Tips – Tip 5

 

It’s great reading about someone elses weight loss  it helps to inspire and give you something to work towards.

I’m always envious of those front-page stories I see while in the grocery store “Mom of 15 looses 250lbs, drops 10 dress sizes all in one week!” — I am exagerating of course, but still you see the story and wish you could do the same.

You know what, you can.  BUT don’t compare yourself to that person.  When magazines publish these stores, these individuals are the exception to the rule.  For example, my dad does not gain weight.  He’s weighed around 110lbs most of his life.  His body just works that way.

My sons weight is appropriate to his age – he is 6.  He doesn’t gain weight either, and he’s not overly active but does participate in some sports.

Everyones body is different, and everyone will loose weight differently.

The key – keep your goals in sight and work towards them.  Take baby steps – if you expect to lose 15lbs in three days because you must get into a suit or dress, well it is not going to happen, unless of course you do something drastic – and do you want to go that far in trying to lose weight?  Hopefully not!

Another reason why you don’t want to compare yourself – you are setting yourself up for failure because you will become discouraged when you don’t loose the weight as fast as you want and you will quit.

I’ve read that 1 or 2 lbs per week is the ideal amount of weight to loose without harming your body, of course you should check with your doctor before you go on any weight loss program since you may need to take precautions.

When I started an exercise program, my doctor wanted me to take a stress test (for my heart) and EKG to ensure that I would be able to do some exercise.  He gave me some guidelines to follow, but most of all he said “listen to your body” – he’s right.  Your body will know when enough is enough.

If you have something to add to Tip #5 – please do so!  I always enjoy hearing from my readers!

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: 50 weight loss tips, lose weight, Weight Loss

50 Weight Loss Tips – Day 3

Overview

• On Day 0, I introduced the topic of 50 Weight Loss Tips
• On Day 1, I introduce the first topic of 50 which was making lifestyle changes to promote weight loss.  The fact is that without lifestyle changes, you will not loose weight.  Loosing weight is more than diets – you need to promote weight loss on a daily basis for the long-term if you want to keep the weight off.  That is where lifestyle changes help you reach that goal.
• On Day 2, I asked you to Break Up With Ronnie, Leave the King And Ditch Those That Are Making Fast Moves On You!  What was it that I was really asking?  Simply to ditch the fast food to start your lifestyle changes, and work your way towards a healthy, maintainable weight.  Fast food contains a lot of calories, in addition there is enough sodium (salt) in one meal to meet your needs for the entire day!  Besides salt, look at the amount of fats contained in most fast food meals and you will see why eliminating this is a must if you want to get your weight down to something that is manageable.

Today is Day 3 of our series, 50 Weight Loss Tips and we will go over effective ways to satisfy your cravings without binging.

Effective Ways to Satisfy Cravings, Without Binging

What is Binge Eating?

I think we’ve all been there.  We get so disappointed with our weight, or the fact that we are not loosing weight that we loose all will power for a brief second… or hour and we eat anything and everything in sight. 

There is binge eating, and something called binge eating disorder.

Binge eating may happen occasionally – however if you find yourself gorging on food regularly, usually in secret you may have bing eating disorder.

According to the Mayo Clinic – when you have binge-eating disorder, you may be deeply embarrassed about gorging and vow to stop.  But you feel such a compulsion that you can’t resist the urges and continue binge eating.

How can you tell if you’re binge-eating versus having a binge-eating disorder?  They are both very similar in nature.  For instance, when most individuals start gorging they will tend to eat 10,000 to 20,000 calories worth of food!  Contrast that to a normal diet consisting of between 1,500 and 3,000 calories in one day.  You can see where the term binge-eating comes from.

Here are some common symptoms of binge-eating:

• Eating even when you’re full
• Eating rapidly during binge episodes
• Feeling that your eating behavior is out of control
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Frequent dieting without weight loss
• Frequently eating alone
• Hoarding food
• Hiding empty food containers
• Feeling depressed, disgusted or upset about your eating

There is some great information at Mayo Clinic on binge-eating disorder, you can view this information at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/binge-eating-disorder/DS00608.

What has been the extent of your binge-eating?  Mine has typically been a soda pop or two, and perhaps a bag of chips.

Binge-eating, no matter what type is bad for you.

So how do you satisfy those cravings?

First off – understand what is a craving and what is habit.  For example if you’ve grown accustomed to eating a bag of chips 5x per day at set times then stop, chances are at those set times your body will want the food.  This is habit – but will lead to the craving which could lead you to binge-eating.

You don’t want that.

The answer to how to satisfy those cravings is simple.  Eat the food.  In moderation.

I enjoy potatoe chips, nachos etc., but what I did early on was to really control and try to substitute the crunchy, salty snack with something similar.  The result was baked pita.  Add a little light margarine to a pita, some spices and cut it up into bite sized bits then bake.  The result is great!

But pita doesn’t always cut it – so I would buy chips, but count out one serving.  This would be my treat, and it helped me control and restrict binge-eating.

Here are 5 Great Ways to Control Your Cravings:

1. When you feel a craving, try drinking water.  Water is too plain?  Crystal Light is great!
2. Have some soup.
3. Munch on vegetables, green is great but orange works as well (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots etc.,).
4. Fruit is good for your health – apples, bannanas work wonder to control appetite.
5. Pickles!!!  I take 3-5 pickles along with  1/4 cup of mixed veggies (pickled veggies) and some cheddar cheese.  Makes a GREAT snack and cures cravings!

Want more?  How about 10 MORE Ways to Control Your Cravings?  Check them out over at Readers Digest – http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/10-ways-to-control-your-cravings/article27417.html

Here are a few more tips from other readers:

• 50-100mL of 100% pure, not from concentrate, Cranberry juice mixed with 32 ounces of water. Maybe a little bit of lemon juice if you like.
• Peanut Butter and Celery. Saltine crackers, white rice. I remember reading that drinking one glass of water will fill you up because most people don’t realize that they’re actually thirsty vs. hungry.
• A banana and water always does the trick for me. If not a quick a PB sandwhich.
• Distraction is the key for me. When I’m bored I eat. When I’m stimulated and engaged with whatever the task at hand is, I can’t be bothered to eat. Mind you I have found it’s helpful to have some bits and pieces on hand, like nuts, dried fruit or whatever, to stem the low blood-sugar shakes. Given that my doctor (and my wife) keep nagging me about my weight, I guess it says quite a lot about the stimulation levels in my life over the last few years!
• Eat 3-5 smaller meals per day.Chewing gum.

What other tricks have you used to curb your cravings?

If you’re in Canada, you must remember the PARTICIPACTION commercials – well this blog works the same way.  If you get involved and post comments – it entices others to share their experiences which in turn helps everyone else lose weight and learn to keep it off.

I moderate all posts to eliminate the thousands of spam that I get

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!

If you found this post valuable, please consider DIGGing it, STUMBLEing it or promoting it through other social media that you may be using.

Here is to Your Health,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: binge eating disorder, binge-eating, lose weight, Weight Loss