This is SCARY!

It's not terrorism that will bring this country down, it's our weight. This chart is from the Gallup Poll folks.

The latest on the streets is that possible legislation is being introduced to protect the obese from being discriminated against in job hirings. This is not right. Our businesses are so overburdened with health care costs, they are unable to compete with overseas companies.

Is anyone as nervous about our country's future as I am?

That bottom number is over 153 BILLION dollars; that's with a B, folks. Billions!

Two Tablespoons of Tomato Paste

There is a big battle going on in Congress over the nutritional value of the two tablespoons of tomato paste that tops the pizzas fed to our children in public schools. The big companies behind the manufacturing of these nasty little discs of pizza dough and cheese grease are actually lobbying for the pizza's nutritional value!!! And Congress is resisting enacting any laws to require that healthy food be served in schools. Why? The lobbyists of course. The cost of providing healthy food to school kids is prohibitive. But, that doesn't matter, not even in the slightest, because it's simply not a battle any worthwhile parent should fight.

Here is my analogy, and I admit a rather bad one, but it makes the point. You are a parent of four children and they have to walk, say, a mile to school. The road that they have to cross is dangerous, and you've been fighting for a crossing light or crossing guard for a long time. Now, let's say one of your children gets hit by a car. Do you get angry at the city for not providing a safe crossing? Do you get angry at the school for not providing a crossing guard? And do you continue to fight for either of those all the while allowing your other three children to continue to walk to school? Or do you do what's best for your children by taking them to school, by never allowing them to cross that dangerous road to begin with?

So, what does that analogy have to do with lunches? Well, rather than fight for nutritious food, prepare your children's lunches every day, and, if you can, deliver those lunches just prior to the lunch period. And I hope this goes with having to write it - NEVER put in processed foods like Lunchables or other equally nasty food. If it's processed, DO NOT feed it to your children, especially before they reach the age of six. Why? By feeding them only wholesome, nutritious food in their early years, you will have created a "taste" for the good stuff, a habit of eating highly nutritious food, and, hopefully, an aversion for the bad stuff.

In the long run, the lack of nutrition is even more dangerous than that road. A lack of proper nutrition prevents the brain from developing, and when the brain doesn't work well, school work becomes difficult, and your child could be labeled as slow. Good food is NOT found on any children's menu in restaurants; in fact, good food is rarely found in restaurants at all. Good food is found in your produce section, NOT in the freezer section. Good food doesn't have ingredients that you can't pronounce, and good food is low in calories and high in nutrition.



Solution vs. Problem



Be part of the solution, folks - NOT part of the problem.

Oh, and you can boycott those large companies that are lobbying for the status quo on school lunches.  During an NPR interview on this topic, I did hear that the contract with Schwann Foods brings in about 45 billion dollars for them. Gee, I guess that makes it okay to ruin the health of our kids...NOT.

Don't bother trying to change the world; change only your world, and begin today.

Fiber! It's time to Have the TALK

Fiber! Everyone needs to know about it; no one wants to talk about it. Well, it's time to have that "talk."

If you don't have a bowel movement at least once per day, you are NOT taking out the garbage. Let's talk in metaphors, okay? When was the last time you put a chicken carcass in the trash? How long did it take to get your attention? Not long! Why? Because of the bacteria associated with rotting food. Have you ever thought about the difference between animal proteins and, say, good, old-fashioned vegetables and fruits? Do you ever get nervous about leaving an apple on the counter all day? What about a package of hamburger meat? Okay, I know I'm rambling, but the point is you need fiber. If you're concerned with "it" sitting on the counter for too long, then what's the difference when "it" sits in your gut too long? The bacteria still builds up, and it's no safer that the bacteria that builds up while "it" sits on the counter!

Fiber: It's safe, it's plentiful, it fills you up, it has more vitamins and minerals associated with the "container" you eat to get it. By "container" I mean the fruit or the vegetable you eat to get it.

Before you get all "anti-vegetarian" on me, I am not promoting veganism. I am promoting fiber. I am promoting daily trash dumping.

Take your garbage out, and do NOT use a laxative to do it. A laxative is like traveling around in a wheelchair. Your muscles will atrophy from lack of use, and eventually you will not be able to "walk" at all. Fiber does so much more than "take the garbage out." It cleans the toxins in the blood: the toxins that can and will lead to all sorts of problems, including cancer, arthritis, and a host of other inflammatory diseases.

It starts with an internal stink - not taking your garbage out - and it could easily end with colon cancer. The choice is yours!

And now for a "plug" for my favorite fiber: Super Seed by Garden of Life. I mix it with cold water, orange juice, or I put it in my morning "green" smoothie. I take my garbage out every day, sometime twice, sometimes more. I don't want rotting garbage in my body.

And I talk about this with ALL my clients. There are no sacred cows when it comes to weight loss. I talk about it ALL.

A Few Tips for Easy Weight Loss

While I was surfing through the Swanson Vitamins website looking for my favorite fiber supplement, I found this succinct, says-it-all advice. My comments are in parenthesis.

A Few Tips for Easier Weight Loss

• Drink water to increase metabolism. One study showed that metabolic rate increased in participants by as much as 30% after drinking approximately 17 ounces of water. (This is especially true if the water is very cold. The body uses energy to warm up the water.)
• Snack on a handful of almonds. They’re filling, healthy and tasty! They aren’t exactly low in calories, though; so don’t eat more than 10 or 15 at one time.  (Just about any protein will help curb hunger, because it takes more energy to digest protein than it does to digest carbohydrates. Not only that, but proteins don't trigger the release of insulin like carbohydrates do. Less insulin, less fat creation. See my blog on Insulin: Both a Life Saver and a Killer, March 27, 2010

• Use mental imagery to boost your willpower. In addition to identifying why you want to lose weight, visualize a picture of the reason in your head and focus on it often throughout the day. (When we visualize what we want, we are more likely to see opportunities to make that vision a reality. When we visualize ourselves thin and healthy, we are more likely to choose healthy and nutritional meals. In our minds, I hope, we believe that thin, healthy people eat this way. We will also see other thin people and begin to pay attention to what they do and what they eat and, hopefully, begin to emulate them.)
• Turn off the TV at dinnertime. Studies show that undistracted eating means you’ll eat less. (Eat consciously! Always pay attention to what you eat, while you eat. An ancient Buddhist saying - chop wood, carry water - means to be present in what you do. If you ever want to eat in front of the TV, which I sometimes do, take only a normal portioned meal or a small portion of your favorite snack, never a whole bag or a large bowl. It will be gone in no time, along with your dream of achieving your ideal weight.)

• Don’t fall for the lure of crash dieting. Losing large amounts of weight all at once causes you to lose muscle, not fat, and the pounds quickly return. Make healthy eating a way of life and the pounds will disappear slowly but steadily. (Anyone who is a serial dieter knows this - calorie restricted diets are no more than quick, short-term fixes. And the more you yo-yo diet, the greater the damage to your body and to your metabolism.)

• Eat foods with plenty of fiber like whole grain breads, beans and fruits with the skin. Be sure to drink them with lots of water, as it makes the fiber swell much like a sponge in water, thus making you feel more full.  (Not only is fiber an essential part of any food, it is critical in the prevention of many cancers and other diet related illnesses. If you are constipated, think about this: all that food is rotting in your gut and in your intestines. It's like not taking out the garbage in your home for weeks. It stinks and the bacteria can be deadly. You should have at least one bowel-movement each day, every day. If you don't, then you are not "taking out your garbage!"

Epigenetics: An Excuse or a Warning? Your Choice!

I just finished reading an article in the January 2010 issue of Time magazine: Why Genes Aren’t Destiny. (Yep, a little behind on my reading.) I’ve understood the concept of epigenetics for a while, which means that we may have the genes for a specific disease, such as obesity, but that gene could remain dormant in the right environment. This article explored the work of Dr. Lars Olov Bygren, who wondered what effects feast and famine had on the offspring of the families that lived in Norrbotten, a remote village in northern Sweden.

When the harvest was bad in Norrbotten, people starved; when the harvest was good, people gorged themselves. Bygren’s research showed that “kids who went from normal eating to gluttony in a single season” produced offspring who lived far shorter lives – approximately six years shorter than those kids who endured a scarce harvest.

Reading those findings reminded me of a book I'd bought years ago: The 120-Year Diet. The premise of this book is based on a diet high in nutrition and low in calories. Dr. Roy Walford's research indicated that we would live much longer by being underweight. The secret, of course, for his premise to work is to consume food that is truly high in nutrition. Because of mass production of our fruits and vegetables, the nutrition content is lower than it’s ever been. It seems then that by attempting to grow more food, we are actually getting less nutrition.

In many ways, we’ve lost sight of what is important for us to live: food, water, and oxygen. We seem to be more focused on our cell phones and the latest flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Not that those things aren’t important, but perhaps we should pay just a little more attention to the nutritional value of what we ingest. Not only do our lives depend on it, but our kids’ lives do too.

Kirstie Alley Proves It!

Kirstie Alley proves what happens when you quit paying attention AND what happens when you use a diet program without dealing with the emotional issues.

Wow! Kirstie Alley's dramatic weight loss
Kirstie Alley | Photo Credits: Michael Buckner/Getty ImagesTV Guide

Kirstie Alley, who has struggled with yo-yo weight gain and loss for years, is showing off a body 10 sizes smaller after a lot of hard work. The 60-year-old actress strutted the runway during New York Fashion Week -- 100 pounds slimmer! – at her designer friend Zang Toi’s show. Inspired by her physically demanding "Dancing With the Stars" stint, Alley has gone from a size 14 to a size 4.

Before her appearance on the show, Alley said she visualized one day fitting in a size 4, and now she does. Today, Alley's confidence is contagious, and she says she feels much more comfortable in her body. "I feel like I'm back in my element," Alley told Entertainment Tonight. "I honestly didn't even realize what I looked like." Her hard-won metamorphosis is not tempting her to take things further. No plastic surgery for the former “Cheers" star. "I haven't had plastic surgery but here's the reason: People do plastic surgery to make you look younger," she said. "I don't think it makes you look younger. I think it can make you look weirder."

Once 228 pounds, Alley saw the scale go up and down a lot and got to the point when she stopped looking at it altogether. After a 15-month hiatus from weighing herself, she finally stepped on a scale. What she saw, she said, was shocking."I started screaming," she told People in 2009. "It said 228 lbs., which is my highest weight ever. I was so much more disgusting than I thought!"  At that point, Alley had already lost 75 pounds during her tenure as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, then gained that weight (and more) back.

Any bets on how long she keeps it off? Anyone?
 

Stop the Presses: Another Study Done!

This breaking news just in from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: U.S. adults not just eating more, but more often.

Over the past 30 years U.S. adults have been eating larger portions and eating more often, according to a new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers.

The findings help illustrate that how Americans are eating contributes to the country’s obesity epidemic.

“First, the food industry started ‘super sizing’ our portions, then snacking occasions increased and we were convinced we needed to drink constantly to be hydrated,” said Barry Popkin, Ph.D., the study’s senior author and W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

“This study shows how this epidemic has crept up on us. The negative changes in diet, activity and obesity continue and are leading to explosions in health-care costs and are leading us to become a less healthy society,” said Popkin, a member of the Carolina Population Center.

The study is believed to be the first to examine the combined contribution of changes in three key factors (portion sizes, food energy density and eating frequency) on people’s total calorie consumption. The findings appear in the June 2011 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.

As if another study is going to cure obesity or change the basic formula - excess calories leads to obesity. It's time to stop studying the issue and begin working on it. When I read this latest study, I had a vision of all these Ph.D. types sitting in a huge auditorium, like during the ancient time when a patient was studied, all staring down at fat people like they were some sort of slide on a microscope. I will admit that the findings are spot on, but there is nothing new or profound here. We eat too much and we snack too often.

We can analyze this until we are blue in the face - I know I was - blue in the face - but that was because I was a Smurf at a Halloween contest. It's time for those suffering from the eat-all-you-can-buffet syndrome to STOP! Think about the consequences, think about the wasted dollars on empty calories, think about the legacy left to the children.

Don't let the smart food industry marketers continue to lead us into temptation! Get back to real normal portions sizes and stay there. Your waist line will thank you!

Why Track Calories?

How many of you hate tracking what you eat? Yeah, my hand is raised, too. The article from John Hopkins Medicine below might change your mind. Think of tracking calories as tracking your money. As much as you don't want to overspend, paying no attention to your purchases could easily sink you deeply in debt. Not paying attention to the amount of calories we consume could easily move us into obesity.

Now, more than ever, we need to track our calorie intake. Why? Because we have become a nation of super-sizers. We no longer "know" what a normal portion really is. We no longer know how many calories we should consume to maintain a healthy weight. The only way to get back on track is to track what we eat and when.

Why track when we eat? Well, that's where we learn our triggers: those emotional times we eat when we're not really hungry.

How Keeping a Food Diary Can Help You Lose Weight

Looking for a powerful set of weight-loss tools? Search no further than the pen and paper in your desk drawer. Writing down everything you eat each day in a food diary can help lead you to weight-loss success.

Tracking the food you eat in a food diary compels you to pay closer attention to your diet, including what foods you choose, portion size, how frequently you eat, the emotions that impact your hunger and cravings and what leads you to stray from your healthy eating plan. And having this information in hand in a food diary can help you spot eating patterns … and reach your weight-loss goals.

The Evidence: Keeping a food diary may nearly double weight loss, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In the study, 1,685 overweight or obese adults (average age 55) who were taking medication for hypertension and/or high cholesterol were asked to keep food diaries as part of a weight-loss program. After six months, the participants lost an average of 13 lbs, but those who kept food diaries six to seven days a week lost nearly twice as much as those who didn't.

How to get started: Select any kind of paper or notebook for your food diary. Index cards work well because they are easy to carry around in your pocket or purse.

In your food diary, designate spaces for the following information for each meal: date, meal, time and place, food and beverages consumed and mood prior to eating. Write in your food diary immediately after eating -- don't rely on your memory.

When you make an entry into your food diary, break it down into its components. For example, if you have a hamburger, enter the patty, bun and any toppings or sauces. Next to each item, include the portion size. Be as specific and accurate as possible, using a food scale, measuring cup or measuring spoons whenever you can. Research has found that when people guess at their portion sizes, they tend to substantially underestimate how much they've eaten. (Not surprisingly, they also tend to overestimate how much exercise they do.) To determine calorie counts, check the food label or consult a calorie guide.

It's crucial to be honest. Nobody else has to see your food diary, and you have nothing to gain (except extra pounds) if you cheat. So don't forget to include BLTs -- bites, licks and tastes. Also remember to write down all of the beverages you drink. A glass of wine, a cafe latte or a can of soda can all contribute significant numbers to daily calorie counts.

After you calculate the amount of calories you consume each day, check it against your ideal calorie intake. Now you know the formula for weight gain. When calories consumed are greater than calories burned, they get stored as fat.

Packing Up the Pounds!

Nothing like a loooong vacation to help a person to relax. It's been awhile since I last wrote, and I wished I could say I was on vacation, but I was not. I've been living in a rather large, two-story house on a little over three acres since 2003. These last two years have been rough; two major surgeries and a few other life-altering events made me realize that it was time to downsize. I've moved a lot in my life - being a military brat prepared me well for packing and moving. But over the years, I've accumulated a lot, mostly because I've been upsizing each home for quite some time.

This time, however, I downsized by over 50% in house size and my yard looks like a postage stamp compared to the envelope I had grown accustomed to. I had a huge vegetable garden, a 400 foot long driveway, well over 100 oak trees, and countless number of mountain laurels. I fed the deer, the birds, the squirrels, and whatever else moved out there. So, I put the house on the market, thinking it would be at least a year before I sold it. I guess the universe knew how tired I was, so it sent buyers in two months. And that's when the "diet-from-hell" began.

Moving from a size 16 house to a size 6 cottage is like trying to fit a size 16 butt into a size 6 corset: very painful. I likened it to having to go on a starvation diet to lose 50 pounds in two months. Doable, but very painful and life-threatening, albeit only emotionally. This move was surely the hardest move I've ever had to endure, but it has been the most cathartic by far. This is what I learned:

• We don't pay attention to what we accumulate as long as we can stuff it somewhere. 
• We no longer "see" the stuff packed away and soon forget we have it.
• We never know how much we've packed on in our lives until something bad happens.

Packing up my house, knowing I would have no place to put a lot of my stuff, made me really, and I mean really, look at why I was hanging on to such things as a pattern for a poet's blouse I'd cut out but never sewed together, which I had for over 15 years, a twelve-place setting for dinnerware - when a six-place set was enough -  a collection of 100 plastic coin cups from Las Vegas - I walked to each and every casino on the strip collecting two cups from each casino - enough plastic plates, cups, forks, spoons, and knives for 75 people, and .... well, you get the picture. Let is suffice to say, I made about $1,200 on the yard sale and still have stuff left over.

What's my point, you ask? Well, I think we pack on body fat in the same manner; we simply don't pay attention to the scales, or the increase in clothing size, or the arthritis, or the loss of interest in physical activity UNTIL something bad happens: diabetes, gout, high-blood pressure, a heart-attack, or even cancer.

Body fat harbors the inflammatory hormone C-Reactive Protein, which is responsible for inflammatory diseases, such as the ones I listed above. And if that's not scary enough, guess what else excess body fat in linked to? Dementia! Yes, a study by the Center for Disease Control found that going into middle age with a body mass index of 25 or higher increases your chance of getting dementia by 35%! And if you go into middle age with a body mass index greater than 29, your chance of getting dementia increases to 74%.

Now is the time to look at what you are accumulating, not just in your home, but around your middle too. I've heard all the excuses for not losing weight. What if you, instead, looked at how you could lose weight? Always focus on the goal - never the obstacles.

"The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right."  Henry Ford

One small change today, can make a huge difference in your tomorrows.

A Root Canal and Wine - Bad Combination

Sometimes our opinions should be kept to ourselves, especially when we do so in person. I found out first hand that some people, probably more than I realize, feel that people should be entitled to health insurance regardless of how they live their lives. I'm not so sure that I agree. And I base my opinion on the fact that our health care costs are killing our small businesses, and they are placing a huge burden on the larger companies, and that the vast majority of those costs are related to life style diseases. That is, diseases that are directly related to how people live their lives. Smoking and its related diseases are the number one killer in the United States. Obesity and its related illnesses are a close second. The two greatest killers are costing this country hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Annually! That's like every year!

So, the person I was sharing my opinion with told me that I was living in a small, compassionless world. Compassionless? Enabling people to continue smoking and eating themselves to death by throwing money at the results of their lifestyles vs. requiring them to take responsibility for themselves, to me, is compassionless. Ah, but he wasn't that mad yet. I guess he thought he had me by insulting me personally. I was okay with that, because that usually means he had no more ammunition for the topic itself. So far, what we had was a difference of opinions.

But...when I likened health insurance to, say, auto insurance or homeowners insurance, and said, "So, do you think that people who continue to have wrecks or drive drunk should keep their auto insurance? Or should homeowners who smoke and cause multiple fires in their home or otherwise cause damage to their homes also keep their policies?" Thinking I'm on a role, I just had to continue, especially after seeing the stunned look on his face. "Wow, so would you be willing to have your auto or home insurance skyrocket, so that these people who take advantage of their policies can continue to keep them?"

Well, I guess that's when I crossed the line. He turned red in the face, and then stood up and said, "I will not sit here and listen to this garbage!" The he left. And so did my friend.

I did feel bad for being so adamant about my position. Even if he was just as adamant about his position, it was not important enough for me to be right, to embarrass him and my friend. Not one to use excuses, but I feel compelled to offer two. One: never drink wine right after a root canal. Yes, silly me. I had just left the dentist's office and went directly to a wine bar to meet a friend. Two: Realize that not everyone is an ideal weight coach and a Smoking and Neural Association (SNAP) Facilitator who researches topics related to cost of lifestyle diseases on a daily basis.

Some people, like this man I argued with, truly care, but they just get overwhelmed by the issues, and throwing money at problems really seems like the easiest thing to do. But! It is the wrong thing to do. We need to make changes to prevent and reverse the problems, not just try to fix the symptoms of those problems.

And that's all I have to say about that for now. I will keep my opinions to my blog. I still feel bad, but I haven't changed my position. As for my friend? I haven't seen her since. No, it wasn't worth arguing the point at all.

Obesity is Contagious!

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, the findings reported that obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus. It said that when a person gains weight, friends tend to gain weight too. This study involved over 12,000 people, and it followed them for 32 years. It went on to report that when a friend (not even a close friend) became obese, the person's chances of also becoming obese increased by 57 percent. When a close friend became obese, the probability rose to over 150%!

Okay, before you put on a mask or avoid all your overweight friends, let me say that it is NOT like a virus, a physical germ. It is more like a bonding thing. When our friends change, we want to continue to identify with them, and that seems to mean, be like them. We eat like them, we go to the same restaurants as them - many of those restaurants are likely to be of the fast food variety - and we begin to look like them. In other words, we validate them. Just as we want to be validated by our friends, we do likewise for them. It's a belongingness thing. We want to belong to this friend and to have him or her belong to us, and to do that, we must in some way be like them. To use an old cliché, Birds of a Feather, Flock Together.

I can attest to the contagion of how my friends eat. When I go out to restaurants with a friend, and he or she orders a high-calorie, high-fat, large meal, I sometimes feel emotionally compelled to do the same. It scares me that I am so easily persuaded, but after reading this article, I realized that the act of my friend ordering the meal gave me permission to do the same, maybe even an incentive. I suppose there was a voice in my head that said, "If you order a small meal, will this person feel bad? Will this person feel like I'm making a statement about what he or she ordered? I don't want to be different, so maybe I should order a similar meal." Then my Dad's voice would boom out from the recesses of my brain, "So, Anna, if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you want to do that too!" Thanks, Dad! No I wouldn't.

The researchers also said that the results may be due to the fact that as the friend gains weight, we no longer see him or her as being obese. The person's size become familiar, acceptable. Once we become comfortable with a new behavior or a new way of thinking or living, we are less apt to resist it. So, if by hanging out with a close friend who is obese you become comfortable with obesity, you are highly likely (more than 150%!) to become obese too. For same sex siblings, the probability of also becoming obese is 50%. To find the article, Google "NY Times Obesity is Contagious."

The good news is that the same effect seemed to occur when a close friend was losing weight. Now, that's a good thing! So, what can you do? Make a pact with your friends to lose weight together. And by the way, I offer group coaching for that very purpose.

Hypnosis for Weight Loss: Does it Work?

I've seen several ads lately about hypnosis, and based on my dismal success with it, I decided to do a little research - I have to confess, I tried hypnosis many years ago because I had gained over twenty pounds in a few short years, and it seemed that no matter what I did, I couldn't get it off . What better place to start than with the Mayo Clinic's website. Here's what Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky reported:

Hypnosis may help you shed a few extra pounds when it's used along with other weight-loss methods, such as diet and exercise. But there isn't enough solid scientific evidence about weight-loss hypnosis to recommend for or against it.

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, usually achieved with the help of a hypnotherapist using verbal repetition and mental images. When you're under hypnosis, your attention is highly focused and you're more responsive to suggestions, including behavior changes that can help you lose weight. After proper instruction, you can also try self-hypnosis for weight loss. Weight-loss hypnosis is often combined with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Through the years, numerous studies have evaluated the use of weight-loss hypnosis. Most found positive but modest weight-loss results, with an average weight loss of about 6 pounds (2.72 kilograms). But the quality of some of these studies has been questioned, making it hard to determine the effectiveness of weight-loss hypnosis.

If you've tried diet and exercise but are still struggling to meet your weight-loss goal, you may want to try weight-loss hypnosis. Just remember that there are no guaranteed results.

I had spent almost $1200 on hypnosis, which included the purchase of audio tapes and this strange pair of glasses that emitted flashing lights while I listened to the audios. I had lost about ten pounds, but it didn't stay off. Without digging deeper to find out what the underlying programming was behind my overeating, hypnosis turned out to be just another "diet" program destined for failure.

What caused me to eat too much? Several factors surfaced, actually. Number one, I had a husband who would put more food on my plate, after I served the amount I wanted - it was almost as if he wanted me to gain weight! In reality, though, he was controlling and needed to be "in charge." (His mother was the same way.) I would have preferred that he be in charge of doing some work around the house, rather than just watch football while I did everything, or maybe take charge of paying the bills, but he seem to take pleasure in simply putting more food on my plate, despite my initially weak protests. I did eventually assert myself and told him in no uncertain terms, "Do NOT put food on my plate, ever." Well, he didn't, but I don't have a husband anymore, either.

Another factor which had lead to overeating was a very long and stressful commute to work - fifty miles each way. As for the commute, I began listening to books on tape and soon found myself looking forward to the drive each day. Arriving home relaxed took a lot of pressure off, and my habit of grabbing a bag of chips as soon as got home began to wane, and it helped not having someone ask as soon as I walked in the door, "What's for dinner?" I discovered that another of my hidden programs was that when someone else was hungry, I ate too, even when I was not.

The number of strategies available for "re-wiring" sabotaging eating habits are as plentiful and varied as Texas wildflowers after a wet winter. Once I learned to re-habit myself, my weight returned to normal, and for the most part, stayed there.

hCG Hormone Diet

I am so confused!!! I just read an article on the hCG diet. Apparently, people are injecting themselves with a pregnancy hormone derived from the urine of pregnant women and expecting the weight to melt off. Here is where I am confused. How many skinny pregnant women have you seen? How many of them complain about the difficulty in losing the "baby-weight"?

Oh, I guess I should have read a bit more of the article. What you have to do is eat only about 500 calories a day, and THEN the weight drops. 500 calories a day, huh? Well, that's equivalent to about a half of a Schlotzsky's sandwich, no potato chips, and unsweetened iced tea. Hey, if you can live on a half-sandwich every day, I say go for it. However, does anyone give any thought to what will happen when the dieter goes back to a regular meal routine, especially after a long period of starving the body? Well, the answer is easy. It will return to the original weight and then some, just like with all calorie restricted diets. If people don't change how they use food, they won't change the number on the scale, not permanently.

I also read where some people are paying up to $1000 for a consult to get on this diet. Fascinating what people will do to lose weight, albeit temporarily, isn't it?

Bariatric Surgery?

While doing research on bariatric surgeries this morning, I found a short video on the WebMD site interviewing several post-operative patients and Julie Schwartz, the registered dietician at the Emory Bariatric Center. I wanted to find out what the mortality rate was for such surgeries and the percent of the patients who actually achieve their ideal weight. I'd read some time back that very few bariatric patients ever achieve normal weight, and I was shocked. I'd also read that the mortality, or death, rate was rather high.

I knew very little about this type of surgery until a close writer friend had it done several years ago. He was probably 150 pounds overweight, and he'd had a lot of trouble walking. His bones just couldn't take the weight. (Read my blog on The Sinking Balcony - May 16, 2010). Anyway, he died within a few days after the surgery, and he was missed terribly. Not long after his death, I decided to become an Ideal Weight Coach.

I'd known for years that diets don't work, because they don't address the real issue behind the food binging - emotional immaturity. What this means is that, for some, there are certain feelings that we desperately need distraction from: feelings that we never became comfortable with, feelings that never matured. For men, it may be feelings of shame. For women, it may be feelings of fear or insecurity. For either sex, it could be feelings of happiness. (Read my blog on Happiness Can Cause Weight Gain - January 30, 2011) Regardless, overindulging in food or drink is almost always a reaction to an uncomfortable feeling.

Many of my clients say, "I just love food!" But when I ask them about what happened right before the binging began, I discovered that there was ALWAYS an uncomfortable situation that they did not know how to deal with. ALWAYS. Yes, I know that there are exceptions to every "rule," but I haven't found an acceptable excuse yet for binging.

So, back to the video, which I found quite enlightening! Every patient interviewed agreed with one premise: the surgery was NOT a magic bullet. Each and every one of them had to make major changes in their behavior. Schwartz even stated that unless people make the necessary behavior changes, they are not likely to lose much weight, if any, with the lap band procedure. With the bypass procedure, patients would lose weight, but, again, without the necessary behavior changes, they would likely gain it all back. With or without surgery, people who want to achieve their ideal weight AND keep it off, MUST make changes to their behaviors.

And that, my friends, led me to this question: If you have to make behavioral changes anyway, why not work on those changes first, before undergoing a $30,000 plus surgery that has a ten percent complication rate and a death rate - within thirty days of surgery - of about one in three-hundred. (I read one article that stated the mortality rate as one in two-hundred and another one as one in four-hundred.)

Coaching works without the surgery - although some of my clients have said that coaching can be painful. Coaching works when the client is willing to look at what's triggering the binging behavior, and that's the painful part. The good news is that once old programming is discovered, new programming can be implemented immediately. Simple? Yes. Easy? No, but with a coach who understands, you can and will achieve your ideal weight.

Kids Need Your Love, Not more Food!

I was fortunate to not have been an overweight child, but based on what I've seen with today's teens, I probably should have been. What I am noticing today, that was prevalent even when I was a teen, is that many teens are just plain lonely. They are turning to cheap, fast food to squelch their hunger for parental attention. I, too, was a lonely child: both parents caught up with work, with me being treated as little more than a pet to be fed.

What is different today? Fast food, microwave ovens, the internet, and much more stress! Teens are still children. Why parents feels that their teens should act like adults is beyond me. It's almost like parents have decided that their parental responsibilities end when their kids enter puberty. The opposite is true. Kids need their parents more than ever to give them love and provide them with guidance.

It's at this time of their lives that they are exploring their boundaries, and this is the time when parents need to be present more than ever.If your child is putting on weight, pay attention! This is a sign that he or she needs your love and attention more than ever. Stop and think about why you had this child. What your teen needs more than anything is your attention and your love. They don't need criticism or shame. His or her future depends on you.

Don't let your children down. Be there for them.

Happiness Can Cause Weight Gain!

Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But in fact, many people who binge-eat do so because they are uncomfortable with the feeling of happiness. In the past, feeling happy may have been closely followed by disappointment or sadness. We may not realize it, but a history of repeated disappointments could have set us up to avoid happiness anytime it surfaced. Binge-eating is one common way to distract ourselves from any feelings that we have subconsciously learned to avoid. For some, the feeling of conflict may be the trigger; for others, it could be anger.

The next time you find yourself eating when you are not hungry, think about the event that happened or the feeling that surfaced right before the binging. Oh, and I define bingeing as eating more than your body needs to maintain your ideal weight (based on the Center for Disease Control’s body mass index) or eating when you are not hungry.

What feeling might you be trying to avoid?

McDonald's Unhappy Meal

As a subscriber to The New York Times online, I was shocked when I read the following article, Not So Happy Meals, from the December 20, 2010 edition.

It's standard marketing: pitch your product to the most easily persuadable. Or as Roy Bergold, a former McDonald's head of advertising, argued once: "Go after kids." McDonald's had done just that with the Happy Meal, a choice of burgers, nuggets, fries and other specialties with a must-have toy.

According to a recent consumer survey, 37 percent of kids rank McDonald's as the top fast-food restaurant. This is nearly four times as many as those favoring the No. 2 chain, Subway. The key is heavy advertising to children - Happy meals account for about 10 percent of McDonald's ad spending - and , of course, the toys.

A Happy Meal of cheeseburger with fries and soda packs 640 calories, more than half the U.S.D.A. daily allowance for a sedentary child aged 4 to 8, as well as about half the allotment of fat. McDonald's has added healthier choices to its menu - things like mild and Apple Dippers with low-fat caramel dip. But a study of 44 McDonald's outlets from the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that French fries were automatically put in the bag 93 percent of the time.

The Happy Meal is up for some well-deserved scrutiny. Last week a mom from Sacramento filed a class-action suit supported by the center to make McDonald's stop using toys as bait to lure children. Last month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a measure requiring that meals sold with toys meet a minimum standard of nutrition.

McDonald's chief executive, Jim Skinner, has pushed back at what he calls the "food police," arguing that these actions seek to deprive families of choice. A company spokesperson told us, "We are proud of our Happy Meals and intend to vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food."

Parents are responsible for their children's diet. And they certainly could do a better job: almost 17 percent of American children are obese, three times as many as in the 1970s. But it would be easier for parents to do their job if they didn't have to push back against the relentless tide of marketing aimed at their children.

Parents, there are many, many creative ways to say "no." The easiest and most efficient way goes like this:

Child: Mom, can we go to McDonald's for dinner?
Mom: No.
Child: But Mom....
Mom: I love you, dear, and that's why I'm saying no. How about Subway? We could split a sandwich, and with the money we save, you could get a new coloring book.

When saying "no," if you offer an option, you're not only changing the subject, you're changing your child's mindset too. And one more thing: never, never attempt to shame your child by saying something stupid. Just say no, and follow your answer with "I love you." When your child writes his or her memoir in twenty or thirty years, you'll be glad you did!

Water, Water Everywhere!!!

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE, AND NARY A DROP I DRINK!

Does this describe your relationship to water? Tsk, tsk, if so. The body’s need for water is second only to air, and food comes in a not-all-that-close third!

More often than we realize, we may eat because we think we’re hungry, but in reality, we could simply be thirsty. With the incredible amount of stress and information overload so many of us are bombarded with, it’s no wonder the brain gets confused. Then again, maybe it gets confused because it’s dehydrated. If we can’t think straight when we get overtired, hungry, or thirsty…and it’s our brain that does our thinking…get the connection yet?

If you are trying to lose weight, water is your very best friend. Actually, it’s your very best friend even if you’re not trying to lose weight. Here’s an analogy: Would you rinse your clean dishes in Diet Coke? How about your car? Better yet, what do you think your clothes would look like if the final rinse was with coffee? Not a pretty sight, is it? Our bodies need rinsing too.

When we burn calories, waste matter is created. We need pure, fresh, water to move those toxins out of our system. And we need to consume one ounce for every two pounds of body weight every day. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need to drink 75 ounces of water. Attempting to rinse with anything but pure, clean water is no different than rinsing your clothes in anything but pure, clean water.

Ever notice the stains in the armpits of white t-shirts? I’ll bet you that person is a heavy coffee or soda drinker! Whatever you eat or drink that does not get “rinsed” out will secrete out of your skin.

BUSTED!!!