MORE ON WEIGHT LOSS LIMITS….And Eating Sanely
January 27th, 2012While we’re still thinking about “The Fat Trap” and how hard it is to lose (see 1/13/12, below), let’s return to the “What can you do?” question. The blog ends with a few key ingredients that lead to better weight, despite the built-in challenges discussed. More or less, they consist of:
*know what you’re up against
*make the habit changes you can
*exercise
*be kind to yourself
*address emotional overeating
*do all you can to keep it up
These ingredients have also formed my working definition of sane eating for the past several years. You’ll find this in the Eat Sanely workbook’s first pages:
We must find a way to eat that maintains a healthy enough weight,
without worry or guilt,
that we can more or less stick with forever,
not just for the course of a diet.
And the steps then outlined for eating more sanely:
1. Know This Problem is Overdetermined (it’s not just you)
2. Start With an Understanding of How You Change
3. Know What Kind of Eating Plan Works for You (what’s to eat?)
4. Obstacles Will Occur and Must be Understood and Resolved
5. Movement Has to Happen
6. Keep it Up and Get Help Where Needed The components this definition and plan mesh with the “what can you do about it” conclusions. It may well prove, for example, that many overweight and chronic dieters will lose weight only slowly and with difficulty. Realistic weight loss goals, though, improve chances of success. Focus on what’s achievable, and you’re more likely to relax and feel good about progress. You’ll less likely give up in frustration. You’ll be building the kind of consistency that leads to change that can finally last. Read the rest of this entry »
How Much Weight Can You Really Lose?….And what can you do?
January 13th, 2012Here is a recent post from my Psychology Today blog (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thin-within) These recent studies confirm the wisdom of a sane eating approach….
Just as we all start resolving to lose, we’re hit with the news that it may never work. If you’ve been overweight for a while, if you’ve dieted only to keep regaining, the problem may well exceed willpower.
In this season of “20 Lbs in 20 Days!” other headlines ask “Do You Have to be Superhuman to Lose Weight?” Or, “Are We Programmed to Pack on Pounds?” Unpopular questions, for sure, but ones to which science increasingly answers “probably”.
Research from around the world concurs. Once we’ve carried the weight, our bodies seem to adjust to that new “normal”. Our chemistry then seems to fiercely defend the larger body size. We’ll experience this as relentless hunger as well as painfully slow losses and discouragingly quick regain. The ramped-up hunger, the sluggish metabolism, the rapid accumulation of fat: all of these are hormonally driven, arising from the extra weight itself. Losing weight, then, becomes at the very least a mighty struggle against biology. Read the rest of this entry »
NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS THAT STICK….AND TEN SMALL CHANGES THAT COUNT
January 2nd, 2012It’s a fresh start….it feels great….but I’m afraid I won’t keep it up…. I’ve heard these words, or something like them, a lot this week. So, I start this new year with thoughts on our resolutions to eat well, lose weight, or otherwise improve our diet habits.
New Year’s diet resolutions usually fizzle quickly. The goals we set may be too broad and sweeping, too out of touch with reality to last. They don’t factor in the inevitable complications and challenges. They don’t consider whether or not we’re really prepared or ready. Grand resolutions—say, to eat every day in a way that keeps weight down, for good, forever, period—require understanding and preparation. I’ll return to those in my next blog. Here, I offer some ideas for smaller resolutions.
Those who follow my blogs will know that I believe in the power of small changes (related blogs listed below). Changing one or two specific habits may or may not lead immediately to lost pounds. They open the door to other and bigger changes, though. And they usually have value in themselves, however they affect the scale in the short run. Perhaps most important now, they’re likely to stick. They’re less likely to fizzle out in two weeks. So they’ll leave you feeling confident about your ability to make future changes. Read the rest of this entry »
MORE ON KIDS AND WEIGHT
December 22nd, 2011A version of “Talking to Kids About Weight” appeared on the Psychology Today blog Thin From Within (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thin-within)
One commentor sent information on a DVD, tip cards, discussion strategies, etc. available for parents to talk to kids on a host of health-related subjects. This includes weight, eating disorders, and other topics that parents may feel at a loss to tackle. In some cases, as with weight, parents may even fear that talking will worsen things–”if I mention weight, she’ll feel bad….”, for instance. As I stressed in my last blog, this need not be true. However, what a help to have some concrete guidance. Parents can indeed help kids care for themselves. And they can help guide them toward healthier choosing. Check out these resources at http://www.wordscanwork.com
Good luck to all parents, kids, and families working to eat–and live–more sanely!
TALKING TO KIDS ABOUT WEIGHT
December 16th, 2011“But it’s so yummy, mummy…” begins an article by Eleanor Mills on the daunting task of steering kids toward healthy food and weight. Mills explores, in the London Sunday Times and on her Fat Kittens blog (http://www.fattkittens.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/), how best to “tame your child’s weight.” We’re pressed lately to halt the obesity epidemic among children, yet there’s little practical guidance on what parents can actually do in real life with kids.
On the one hand, we know mothers who’ll militate against birthday cupcakes in school. At the same time, we still see an awful lot of Doritos and Sponge Bob Roll-Ups in the lunch kits. Sometimes, you’re reluctant to admit that your kids refuse any whole wheat version of anything. Other times, you feel rigid and bossy saying “no” to more cookies. You don’t want to damage your child’s self-esteem by mentioning the chubbiness. Yet you don’t want health or social problems to result. What’s a parent to do? Read the rest of this entry »
IF WOMEN STOPPED HATING THEIR BODIES
December 8th, 2011Here’s a radical question: “What do you think would happen if women stopped hating their bodies?!” The revamped Overcoming Overeating website (www.overcomingovereating.com) asks just that. OO follows the work of authors Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter, who see compulsive overeating as a “dieting disorder”. While they offer some solid answers of their own, my thoughts run to sane eating, and how much easier that is, when we’re not hating ourselves and trying to whip ourselves into shape.
So eating sanely: learning to eat the foods and amounts that support healthy weight. That nourish the body and keep it strong. That don’t cause suffering and worry and loss of control. All that becomes much more possible when we’re not fighting ourselves. Revisiting the OO materials, I think of the work on self-compassion and diet that I wrote about earlier this year (4/8/11, 4/11/11), as several new books on that topic emerged. Change happens more easily when we’re calm and accepting. And it’s hard to tolerate abuse of the body—which overeating and weird diets both do—when we’re caring about it.
We’re so immersed in the culture of craziness around food and body size, especially for women, that can be hard to imagine getting comfortable with a less-than-perfect-physique. Fighting it doesn’t work, though. Paradoxically, we can care for ourselves better when we accept where we’re starting from. Easier said than done, yes. But not impossible—and there’s help, too, as more people recognize the craziness for what it is.
THE JOYS OF “JUST MAINTAINING”
November 22nd, 2011I reprint a post here that suits the season….
As a therapist, you tend to see less joy and fun this time of year than worry and strain. Yes, it’s a biased outlook, but the stresses of the season are certainly real. People trying to keep their health and weight in check, especially, face a daunting array of triggers and challenges. Many simply say, “Forget it!” and let go of goals and good self-care for weeks.
If you’ve followed this blog, you’ll know that I don’t think “forgetting about it” makes sense—for a lot of reasons. On the other hand, neither does striving for perfection. One idea I’ve discussed with many clients this season is that of “just maintaining”. That is, if you’re working to lose weight, and/or to change your habits for the better, this may not be the best time for full-steam ahead progress. After all, most of us will confront some potent combination of parties, extra tasks and running around, family pressures, and of course all those cookies, candies, special drinks, etc.
If you aim to “just maintain”, though, you won’t need to view this stretch in all-or-nothing terms. In other words, you’ll discern something in between the extremes of resisting everything vs. letting go of all your hopes and progress. This will most likely mean picking and choosing the events you attend, the foods you go for, the types of things you cook or contribute. It might mean carving out exercise time even while life and schedule get crazy. Read the rest of this entry »
WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY Part 2: Paving the Way for Long-Term Success
November 16th, 2011Paying attention. Learning to choose wisely. Planning. Coping with stress. Not eating when sad or mad or lonely. Exercising. Picking yourself up after slipping. Sticking with it. It sounds like a plan for weight loss, right? It’s also how to avoid gaining weight, and a good map for self-care overall. It is, finally, the path to long-term success after weight loss surgery, too.
Weight loss surgery, as Dr Oz’ book You, On a Diet says, is not “the easy way out”. Nor does it mean “you never have to worry about dieting again”. Losing weight (and not gaining it, for that matter), requires just about everyone in today’s world to pay attention to what and how they’re eating. If you have weight to lose, it’s going to take a lot of attention, and the often uncomfortable work of making lasting habit change. That’s really the only way.
That said, the effort it takes to reach and maintain a healthy weight rewards you. Better health, more energy, a longer life: these are among the rewards. And for some—especially those facing the most difficulty–bariatric surgery offers a viable way to lose weight. The surgical change prevents overeating for a time. However, people can and do eventually regain (at least some) lost weight unless new habits are firmly rooted. The best way to think of surgery, then, is as a tool to help weight off relatively quickly, while you learn and practice and reinforce the habits that will keep it off for good. Read the rest of this entry »
WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY Part 1: Neither Nightmare nor Magic Wand
November 8th, 2011Mention weight loss surgery, and you’ll get some strong reactions. “Surgery!?” , some will exclaim, as if you’ve suggested amputation for a scraped knee. People just have to eat less, or deal with their emotional problems, is usually the thinking here. At the opposite extreme, there are those who believe their lap bands will finally free them from diet struggles. “At last I’ll be like everyone else, not always thinking about food.” Both of these surprisingly common views distort reality and don’t support real solutions.
Recent statistics suggest that about two thirds of American adults qualify as obese (with children’s rates catching up). Nearly 250,000 people had bariatric (weight loss) surgery last year alone. Increasingly, the overweight turn to surgery as procedures become safer, insurance-covered, and effective against illnesses like diabetes. Given these facts, a discussion of sane eating, and how to achieve it in life, must make room for these realities. To fit them into the discussion, we first must confront those harmful misconceptions. Read the rest of this entry »
Why You Should Cook More to Weigh Less
November 2nd, 2011Look for Dr. Katz’ articles, and more on staying fit, at http://www.hivehealthmedia.com Check out the front page, guest posts, and weight loss entries.
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