Find Your Formula To Lose Weight And Keep It off By Including Your Comfort Foods

All of us veteran dieters know that in the long run, it's not so much about losing weight as it is about finding a formula to keep it off for the long run.  Which is why I am a bit obsessed with mental tips and tricks (e.g., build up your mental infrastructure part 1 and part 2 and 5 tips to kickstart your diet when you are in a slump).  My New Year's resolutions always include tweaking my diet (e.g., what ELSE do I need to give up to move closer to my goal?)  For 2013 I decided to try something a little different and focused on what I wanted keep in my diet versus what to give up.

The goal was to establish my "formula", then scrutinize it, so I could understand the effect of adding or subtracting foods to and from my diet.   While defining my formula, I honed in on a few foods I could give up, that I really didn't want to give up.  I'll call them comfort foods.  I knew the odds of defining a successful formula would increase if I was not completely abstemious.  I kept two of these foods that were associated w/important times of the day for me.  One that I have in the morning w/my coffee, and one in the evening.  Other than that my formula includes low carb items.

Truth: when you really think seriously about what your comfort foods are it might be a small list, and a small amount of the food might be enough to satisfy.  Probably those impulse snacks you grab and eat w/out thinking, or eat just because they are in front of you, won't be on that list.  Focusing on what you really don't want to give up puts things in perspective.  

After you define your formula, stick with it for a few weeks to see if it moves you closer to or away from your goals.  If not, make some adjustments.  Since January I've made 3 adjustments (but still have the comfort foods).

A really helpful tool to scrutinize your formula is called sparkpeople.com  When I started using this tool I was surprised to see the carb count on a few things I was eating (see the numbers in the second column).  Using this tool, the higher carb foods really jump out.  In the screenshot below you see that 1/4 cup of cashews has 11 carbs, and I think I used to eat closer to 1/2 cup during the day before I saw this.  After I cut back on nuts I was able to make some more progress.  I was also surprised by a few other things.  For example, I was surprised to see how certain sugar free candies affected my formula.  I wrongly assumed no sugar=no worries.  There was thing called net carbs which I knew little about.  But I learned enough to know that if the sweetener is malitol, it acted like real carbs on me.  Reading a little bit about malitol helped me understand why.

I love having a formula.  I love that I can scrutinize and measure it, and that it's moving me closer to my goals.

Jump Start Your 2012 New Years Resolutions by Mixing & Matching

OK, the holidays are coming. We all know that once Halloween hits, the proverbial treadmill we are all on ramps up to eleven and doesn't stop until January 2^nd. The year is well into its last quarter, so it's time to re-visit one of my 2012 New Years resolutions.

Fact: It's never too late to work on your New Year's resolutions. As long as you address them in the current year, you've addressed them, and you get to re-evaluate them in January. Research shows that people who set New Years resolutions are more like to accomplish their goals. And aside from the research, it's really just common sense.

One of mine, and research shows is probably yours—is to figure out how to lose a few pounds.

First, don't write the holidays off as a bad time to start a weight loss plan. Believe it or not the holidays can be a great time to start, especially for women.

1. If you have children, the activities typically ramp up during the holiday season. Dance recitals, piano recitals, chorus, holiday plays! You'll be out with the kids lots of evenings. You'll be running from school to practice and to the shows. You won't be home. All that means that it's a good opportunity to skip a meal. Even if I take the kids through the drive-through, cause they have to eat--I don't want it. I'd rather wait until I get home and eat food I like and trust. It's the same decision I make when they bring out food on an airplane. I would rather wait a few hours to eat, and get my calories when I land. 
   
   
   
2. There's the decorating of the house and the holiday cards. It's all fun but time consuming, and if you are doing this on top of your job and Mom or Dad duties you'll be up early (working on cards) and late decorating, running around burning calories like crazy. 
   
   
   
3. There's the shopping. I am always so into the shopping that I am always out and about shopping for children, nieces, nephews, friends, and teachers. According to this study we can burn up to 500 calories during an afternoon at the mall

During three hours of shopping in a large shopping mall, an easygoing shopper may spend about half of their time walking slowly.

That adds up to about three miles of walking. The other half of the time is spent standing and looking at merchandise or standing in line to make purchases.

Using our estimates above, this adds up to almost 400 calories for the 100-pounder, 750 calories for the 200-pounder, and 1,100 calories for the 300-pound person. Our shoppers burned more than twice the calories that they would have lying on the couch.

A more competitive "super-shopper" may walk up to 5 mall-miles in a three-hour shopping spree. Along with lots of fidgeting, reaching for merchandise, and waving at friends, calorie burning can top 500 calories for our 100 pound person and up to 1,000 calories or more for the more substantial 200- to 300-pound shoppers. This level of shopping should not be attempted without proper training, or you may find yourself "hitting the mall."

Now, for the jump start of this resolution, I have decided to mix and match of few of the plans I've used. Keep in mind I am not trying to lose a lot of weight. I am trying to get rid of belly fat that annoys me. And when you have these goals, the devil is really in the details, hence my obsession. But the truth is regardless of whether you want to lose a lot of weight or a little weight, the plan you choose has to work for you. Most of the challenge in finding and sticking to a weight loss plan is mental—so if you know that in the beginning, you'll have full freedom to tailor and refine as it suits you. So, I am going to pull things I have liked from a few different plans and try to eliminate the parts of the plan that I don't like. Plans I've used successfully include:

1. Low carbohydrate diets in general, but all can be understood by the research collected and presented Gary Taubes
2. Track what you eat by writing it down
3. Fast Five (a diet where you eat what you are going to eat in a day during a 5 hour window)

The good and the bad of these plans:

Re: 1, if I eat only green vegetables (or pretty much any color vegetables), and proteins, I know I can lose weight. I love green vegetables and love that I can eat a lot of them. I like meat just fine, especially bacon :) But I know that I can't sustain a plan that includes only those foods. So, though initially I may lose a few pounds, eventually I'll put those pounds back on because I'll succumb to a few of my weaknesses.

Re: 2, I write things down to know exactly what causes weight fluctuations. Problem is that I forget to write things down, especially if I am snacking during the day. It's all too easy to have a handful of cashews (or two or three) --- not write it down and in the end, I don't have my formula.

Re: 3, starting in January of this year, I tried Fast Five and there was a lot I liked about it. I really looked forward to that time of the day preparing dinner with my family. In the end, it did not help me accomplish my goal (getting rid of belly fat). But I think that was more related to #1, in that I ended up eating too many of the wrong things, during that five hour period.

Solutions:

Re: #1, I thought about and decided that (for now) if I could have two of my favorite treats I could stick with a plan. And I am really planning my day because it is not just about what the indulgences are, but when I have them and what I have them with. One is with my morning coffee and one is in the evening, while cooking and eating dinner. First mornings and I blame my friend Traci Glass, of Whimsical Cookies and her double chocolate biscotti for this bad habit. Ten years ago, I became a huge fan of dipping her biscotti into my morning coffee, and eating a few bites of it. Thus started a habit I enjoy to this day. And now I don't limit myself to biscotti but it's still always a few bites. Now in the rotation are a few bites of a fabulous pound cake that I found on one of my favorite online recipe sites, Allrecipes.com: Grandma's Pound Cake II, (but I use 1 instead of the 3 cups of the sugar it calls for.) And, during the holiday season, Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread, (again w/1 instead of the 3 cups of sugar it calls for.) My family is so used to baked desserts with half or a third the sugar they think other desserts are too sweet. I frequently have an egg or some cheese as well. My second indulgence is at dinner. I enjoy a few glasses of wine while I am making and eating dinner (my husband says it is cheaper than therapy) so I am keeping that.

After breakfast I try to eat very little other than vegetables or maybe a few nuts before dinner. At dinner I pour my indulgence and put out a plate of vegetables to snack on while I cook. Then for dinner, most greens and proteins, but I certainly don't shy away from fats. That dressing you see on the vegetable plate is homemade Ranch, and I never worry about butter or cooking my greens with bacon. Any doubts about fat, see Gary Taubes, Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It. Like it not, the man has the data.

Re: #2, I am able to measure because I am having the same carbs at the same time everyday. No more or till I am satisfied I understand my formula.

Re: #3 I am still a fan of Fast Five. What I did wrong with it the first time was that I was a bit too lax with the carbs during those five hours. Now that I have defined my carbs I don't think that I will have that problem.

Been doing this for a month. So far, gone down ½ an inch and 3 lbs. I am happy with that as I am still going down albeit slowly. My plan is see how long I continue to lose, and adjust accordingly.

My message to you is don't worry about it if you're diet plan has stalled. Anytime is a good time to re-start a diet, and the holidays are as good or better time than most. But try something different. Think about what has worked and in particular what hasn't worked. Figure out how keep the things you like and eliminate the things you don't like.

Diet or Exercise to Combat Fat? It Depends on Your Goals

When I run with my friend we frequently discuss weight loss and diet strategies.  Once she shared with me that she had eaten at The Outback Steakhouse the night before. She explained that although she had substituted broccoli for a potato, she and a friend had also split an order of those yummilicious OutBack cheese fries. While running, and without the help of the internet, we laughed about how long one would have to run to burn off THOSE calories.  I confessed that I had finally concluded that only way for me to lose a few pounds is to eat less; specifically eat fewer carbohydrates.  My friend countered that life's too short.  She does not want to give up the Outback splurges, and I get that.  When I got home I found this menu which estimates the small order of cheese fries at 1300 calories, so 650 if you split it.  Supposedly someone my size burns around 75 calories every ten minutes running, so running for 85 minutes would burn off the appetizer portion of the meal.  I have several friends who have chosen not to alter their diet, but to exercise in order to maintain or lose weight.  They say they will exercise regularly, and let the calories land where they may.  All of them are accumulating more fat instead of losing it. 

 

To diet or exercise for weight loss? Of course the easy answer is "yes".  But after 30 years of exercising regularly and watching my weight I have learned a few things about what exercise does and does not do for me.  I am 100 percent confident that exercise has a positive impact on my mental health.  When you are focused on breathing, you can't worry about other things.  It's a good break. I am 80 percent confident exercise helps me sleep better.  I am 50 percent confident it helps me to improve muscle definition, however if muscles are covered by fat it is hard to see the definition.  I am also 100% confident that exercise, at least the way I exercise now, does not help me to lose weight.  Even when I was running longer distances I was a little surprised to find that I still could not eat what I wanted to eat and maintain the weight I wanted.  There *was* a time, when I was traveling for business much of the year, and when I was out of town my time was my own.  During that period I ran in the morning and took aerobics classes at night.  I lost weight then, but the truthfully, I was still eating pretty carefully. 

I have also learned that there will always be times in my life when it will be hard to exercise either due to injury or time constraints.  My friend, for example, was frustrated because as a nurse working 12 hours shifts, she found herself struggling to train for a triathlon, which is something she has always enjoyed. But, to compete in the triathlon, she will have to find enough time to train. It is one thing to exercise on your day off, but it is another to spend three quarters of the days you have off training.  I have come to accept that I do not exercise for the month of December.  One can argue that this is exactly the month that I should exercise, with Christmas treats so prevalent. But a few years ago I found that I wanted to get my Christmas cards done way more than I wanted to run in the morning, so I did.  Conscious of the fact that I wasn't exercising, I watched what I ate a little more carefully.  I was surprised to find that even without morning runs I did not gain weight. After a second year with a similar December, I decided to face the fact that I would largely abandon my exercise routine in December.  That was the beginning of my realization that I had way better luck controlling my weight with what and how much I eat than how much I exercise.   

 

Gary Taubes, a science journalist, came onto the diet scene in 2002, with an article in the New York Times, titled, "What if it's All Been a Big Fat Lie?  It coincided with some success I had had using the South Beach diet to battle post pregnancy belly fat.  He followed that article with a dense, research-filled book published in 2007 called Good Calories, Bad Calories loaded with data to support his somewhat controversial assertions.  His follow-up and easier to digest book, Why We Get Fat, and What To Do About It,  retained the controversial assertions. The assertions relevant to this post are:

1.  The calories in/calories out model for weight loss has been very damaging to understanding what makes us fat.  You won't get rid of fat strictly by counting calories and trying to use more than you consume.  

2. We don't get fat because we overeat.  We overeat because we are getting fat.  

3. Bacon and lard are not the enemies of good health that we've been hearing about constantly (since the sixties); carbs are 

4. There is not sufficient evidence to make the claim that exercise is linked to weight loss.  

Taubes certainly has nay-saysers.  He has had fairly well publicized disagreements with Dr. Oz and Jillian Michaels (The Biggest Loser). John Horgan in an editorial in Scientific American, says he is not convinced.  This 2010 article in the NYT summarizes the controversy well. 

To be clear, Taubes does not suffer from lack of data or science.  He writes well and convincingly or he wouldn't be in the spotlight.  His biggest problem is that he is going against what has been seen as common wisdom since the 1960s, and lots of people's minds are set, including most in the medical profession.  From Taubes in an interview:

The fat/cholesterol dogma is so well established that it's hard to imagine it ever going away. One thing dogmas do very well is perpetuate themselves, not through any explicit conspiracies, but because so many people are so invested in one point of view that they will always, when given the chance, act in a way that supports that view.

His other biggest problem is the "gross" factor.  People have been trained to see fat,  as in bacon fat and lard, as something that equals the rolls on our belly.  Gross.  Never mind that there is not data to show that it causes us to be fat.  Finally he is fighting the sense of moral superiority we have been taught to believe we are entitled to when we exercise and watch what we eat.  In today's world of anorexic super models, and movie stars (each with their own personal trainers) on the cover of every magazine, there is little doubt in our minds that thin is the goal, and if you are not actively demonstrating that you are trying to become thin, you are lazy.  It's really become a moral issue rather than the physical issue is actually is.  

 

Likewise, Taubes assertion that exercise will not reduce unwanted fat goes against years of "common wisdom".  Most health professionals advise their patients to include exercise as a part of their weight loss plan.  Here are just a few links on the MayoClinic.com

Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health

For heart health: Add at least 10 minutes of moderately intense physical activity to what you do every day.

Cutting calories through dietary changes seems to promote weight loss more effectively than does exercise and physical activity. But physical activity also is important in weight control.

How can you lose weight? With diet and exercise. 

There seems to be at least more well publicized acceptance of Taubes claims regarding exercise than his diet. In summary, these links about exercise point out:

There is not sufficient evidence to claim that exercise will make you thin

It's making orthopedic doctors rich

It's powers have been oversold

I love my time on the StairMaster but there's no way I could spend enough time on it to burn off the kinds of foods I would love to eat. In order to battle my very very highly unwanted belly fat, I am going to cut back on carbohydrates and keep a food diary. There is about a month before I put on a swim suit, so I guess I'll soon see exactly how unwanted it really is :)