Archive for January, 2010

FOOD RULES

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Food rules usually lead to blown diets and regained weight.  Rigid rule-based diets don’t teach how to eat moderately, and mostly healthfully, so weight doesn’t stay in check.  Think about your own, or your friends’, experiences with carb-free or other strict-rule diets, and you’ll probably agree.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed “food rules” offered in a different spirit.  In other words, not your usual “eat these things, never those things, and you’ll lose weight fast and forever”.  The rules I’m talking about might be called “guidelines” or “guiding frameworks” instead.  Overall, they steer you to “better”, not necessarily “perfect.”   Therefore, they certainly meet the goals of eating sanely, as well as, for most people, managing weight over time.

First, there is food journalist Michael Pollan’s new book Food Rules.  Distilled from his prior book  In Defense of Food, this new little guidebook pulls together the ideas he’s worked hard to promote around what he’s called our “national eating disorder.”  Ideas like “Eat Food” – meaning real, not fake or overly processed items – “Mostly Plants” – “Not Too Much” have appeared in many recent interviews with Pollan.  His Rules book elaborates on and fine-tunes these ideas.  I like how he emphasizes enjoyment and the social aspect of eating.  I also like the idea of spending more money on better food, but buying less overall.  That makes a lot of sense to me, again, for sane eating, weight management, and even political reasons. (more…)

Tags: food rules, Healthy Foods, Weight Loss
Posted in General, Weight Loss | No Comments »

WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

“Lose weight quick!” …..“drop pounds now!”….. “special miracle diet!” You may not expect to find those words here……focus as we do on keeping weight off, avoiding yo-yo diets and fads, nurturing healthy eating habits. Yes, most of us share these important food and diet concerns. And yet…..we still itch to lose those pounds, and preferably to lose them now. We want those pounds off! Often with good reason, too. So, in this season of starting fresh, let’s look at some weight loss tips and how they can help. (more…)

Tags: quick tips, Weight Loss
Posted in General, Weight Loss | No Comments »

ONE SMALL THING

Monday, January 4th, 2010

January: Now for the new gym schedule, the diet that’s going to work, the “whole body action plan”, to name a few ideas from this month’s press. It does feel great to start out fresh in the New Year. If you get discouraged, though, by the fizzling out that tends to happen (within weeks, usually), or if you feel overwhelmed by the size of the task, consider an alternative. A cousin of “just maintaining”–the subject of last week’s blog–the idea is to change “one small thing” in your eating or exercise routine.

Setting out to change one small thing doesn’t rule out making larger changes if you wish. The small change by itself, though, has more power than you might think. Why? Well, first of all, you’re much more likely to succeed in making and sticking with one small change. That builds your confidence and reinforces your belief in yourself, however subtly.

Next, the change itself will have some benefits. Even if these are small, they count. Also, once a change has become a habit, adding another small change, and then maybe another, becomes easier. Before you know it, you might have trouble even remembering your older ways. If you’ve ever switched from whole milk to lowfat, to take one example, you may note how your tastes did indeed change over time. (more…)

Tags: Habit Changes, resolutions, Weight Loss
Posted in Addictions, General, Habit Changes, Weight Loss | No Comments »

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