COOKING TO EAT MORE SANELY
October 21st, 2011Yes, it would be great to adopt all those habits that lead to better weight loss and health. But here’s one to tackle that you might underestimate in your search for diet solutions. Simply put: Cook more often.
Cooking can check weight and improve health even if you’re no expert low-cal chef. When we cook at home, we can avoid the added salt, sugar, and fats contained in take-out, fast-food, or restaurant fare. We can control portions better. We can up the vegetables, shrink the starches, make more of those foods we don’t gorge on. We can make extras for dinner to bring for lunch and thereby avoid the cafeteria. We can get used to, and develop preferences for, real fresh foods that are good for us and our waistlines.
Two myths can stand in the way of our cooking more, however: Read the rest of this entry »
DIET: You’ve Got to Exercise the Willpower Muscle, Too
October 7th, 2011On self-control, again….
http://www.hivehealthmedia.com/diet-exercise-willpower-muscle/
IF SELF-CONTROL’S A MUSCLE, WHY CAN’T I EXERCISE IT?
September 9th, 2011A new book on willpower asserts that it’s a muscle. That is, you can strengthen it with practice, and you can exhaust it with stress and overuse. This makes sense, and years of research back the idea. For those trying to eat differently—to lose weight or simply to choose more wisely—the strength of this muscle can determine whether change occurs or not. As with physical exercise, many of us struggle to start and stick with it. However, even those who can flex the muscle in other situations can find it too weak to budge when it comes to food. So if self-control’s a muscle, why can’t you exercise it here, too?
The book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, draws on Baumeister’s work on self-control. The benefits of self-control have been documented for decades. And studies have established that practice indeed bolsters self-control (even if people vary genetically in that trait). Baumeister’s work goes farther, finding that self-control can fizzle out—when people’s minds are taxed and fatigued, when they’ve been struggling at self-control for too long a stretch at once. Here is more solid evidence against restrictive dieting. And here is support for the idea that small, persistent efforts will become habits. That’s all good news, and helpful for those working to lose weight.
It can be hard to see, though, how this applies to those who say “It feels like a force comes over me”, as they head for the ice cream. Or: “I just wasn’t thinking,” as they pull into KFC. “I knew I was doing it but didn’t care,” as they attack the brownies.
And what’s going on when a person’s done well for months, then suddenly finds herself slipping into old ways, regaining every lost pound? These are the stories of many, maybe most, overeaters. Read the rest of this entry »
FALL CHANGES
August 29th, 2011Sometimes I think we should make resolutions in September instead of January. After all, this is when we’re shifting anyway—returning to work or school, getting kids ready for new routines, adjusting to cooler weather and shorter days. It’s a time of transition, usually to busier days that are nevertheless more structured and predictable than in the looser summer months.
By resolutions, I’m not referring to grand declarations of sweeping change once and for all. I’m thinking more of those smaller, much more realistic adjustments–changes or additions to a routine, say– that may not sound dramatic but lead to solid results that tend to last over time. These are the kinds of changes that can join your new, or reestablished, fall routines without too much pain.
For example, we often return to more predictable mealtimes in the fall—even if schedules vary from day to day with kids’ activities or work meetings. Busy as we may be, we can at least look at the week ahead and know where we’ll be when. Healthy weight maintenance and sane dealings with food relate directly to how we approach mealtimes. To move closer to those goals, pick one mealtime to improve on a regular basis. Try the change for a week, fine-tune and problem-solve as you go along, then try it a second week. If you veer off your plan for any reason, resume as soon as you can and go from there. Read the rest of this entry »
HE’LL LEAVE YOU IF YOU GET FAT? Really?
July 29th, 2011Here is another article recently posted at http://www.yourtango.com/tereseweinsteinkatz
As the Huffington Post said, “It’s been a rough year for women struggling with their weight.” That followed a new survey where half of men polled said they’d leave a mate who got fat. Wait a minute, though….it’s really not that simple.
We already know a few discouraging facts. It’s well established, for example, that overweight women have more trouble being hired. Their weight also biases the care the health care they receive. And, there are the increased health risks. There’s the hassle of finding nice clothes. What’s more, while all married people, statistically speaking, gain more weight over time than singles, women gain more than men—and partly for biological reasons. Now this latest. Read the rest of this entry »
Deprivation is Not Good
July 28th, 2011This article recently appeared at http://www.yourtango.com/tereseweinsteinkatz
Isn’t deprivation a built-in part of losing weight?
Maybe. Yet people report feelings of deprivation as a primary reason for abandoning weight loss efforts. Often these feelings lead to overindulging in sweets, high-fat, and junk foods and in binge eating. To lose weight, to make changes for the better, does require eating less of such things. Is feeling deprived, then, inevitable? I think to make changes that last, that become part of us, the answer has to be “no”.
Part of what has to happen, I think, is a change in perception, in how you think about and conceive of these foods in your life. People who come to successfully manage their weight start to recognize the role of choice. Their inner dialogue will tend to some form of: “Yes, of course I can have that slab of mud pie…but do I really want all that goes with it—feeling stuffed, guilty, and then struggling forever after with the weight?” Taking care of themselves, then, is doing what leaves them feeling more peaceful and on track with longer-term goals, not what immediately pleases the senses.
This change in perception doesn’t happen overnight. Many only come to it after years of struggling with diet. It can help, though, to consider the following. Read the rest of this entry »
INTUITIVE EATING: A plan can help you get there
July 15th, 2011This recent post appeared at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thin-within
Eat when you’re hungry; stop when you’re full. The perfect prescription for weight management. Well, maybe. As with much related to food, it gets complicated.
“Intuitive eating” is the popular term for attending to inner hunger and fullness cues, and eating accordingly. The idea of intuitive eating appeals to those who know that we overeat for emotional reasons, and that diets make it worse. If you tune into your body, trust it, and eat what it’s asking for, you won’t get caught up in diets. You’ll separate emotional hunger from true physical hunger.
Studies indeed corroborate that those who follow inner satiety cues manage weight more successfully than those who diet. Many people fail instantly, however, on trying to do this. It’s not their fault. Years of overeating, years of dieting, and years of binge-worthy food all confuse the inner appetite meter. Paradoxically, planned, rather than intuitive eating, can help bring it back to work. Read the rest of this entry »
MORE HELP FOR SANE EATING
June 27th, 2011Regular visitors will notice some streamlining in the EatSanely website (and later this week: a new easy-to-access format for the monthly newsletter). These tools are meant to help you succeed in eating more sanely. This journey, as I often say, usually requires trial-and-error. It doesn’t necessarily proceed in a straight line. What works for one person may not work for the next. And the world we live in isn’t always helpful. As you review the tools available to you, look again at the working definition of “sane eating” first offered here:
Sane eatingis eating in a way that maintains a healthy-enough weight, for good, without constant worry or guilt. In other words, without short-term or extreme diets that cause frustration and regain. This doesn’t mean one way of eating fits all. It also doesn’t mean that this is easy, or that it happens all at once. Given the world we live in, though, it does mean that we each have to find some way of reaching that sane eating path—because our food world isn’t going to change overnight. Finding your own path to sanity can take trial and error, and time and attention, given that we live in a world of fast food, fake food, 300,000 diet books, and 1,400 calorie hamburgers.
To eat in a way that keeps your weight where you want it, and makes you feel good, you may need to tackle how you think about food, how you deal with stress and relationships, and how you take care of yourself generally. I hope the tools offered here lead to solutions that will work—and keep on working for years—for you.
“I WANT WHAT I WANT”: Taking Responsibility and Weight Management
May 31st, 2011I’m reprinting here a recent post from my Psychology Today blog:
Recently, a reader posted this question: “Why is there such a lack of ownership when it comes to food?”
This reader noted that people express such unhappiness with their bodies, yet don’t necessarily do much to “learn about food”. The outpouring of weight loss books and shows might suggest otherwise. And yet….we know that many face medical crises, live with poor self-esteem and worse, while remaining loyal to “I want what I want.”
To some extent, this is the air we breathe. We go to the market, we buy what’s there. What’s there often contributes to weight gain. We then go on diets with no real shifts in how we live our lives and think about food. Almost always, diets don’t work for long. Understandably, many people stop trying, even if they gear up for another diet on occasion. Thinking about “diet”, too, in the sense of something to be endured for a time, leads to feelings of deprivation that no one likes to live with.
Much of my writing has focused on how to eat more sanely in a “food crazy” world—which includes this no-win diet cycle. Recently I posted a 3-part blog on the subject. But what does this shift from food craziness to sane eating look like in real life? I can tell when someone’s reached that better place when: They report choosing healthier foods more often and more consistently. They notice they’ve bypassed something once irresistible, and not only because they’re “dieting”. They feel more capable of using conscious coping strategies to stay on track when stressed. They deal with anger or sadness or fear without food. Also, they realize “I want what I want” doesn’t necessarily make sense anymore. Read the rest of this entry »
Sane Eating – Part 3: A Road Map
May 11th, 2011Many thousands of entries pop up when you enter “diet” on amazon.com or any search engine. At the very least, this confirms the fact that what works for one person may not work for the next. But if you’re asking yourself how to manage weight and eat more sanely, you can come up with a few rules of thumb to follow, no matter who you are.
To start with, keep in mind that any eating issues exist in a complicated social, biological, and psychological environment. If you’ve reached a point of discouragement because of repeated weight loss failures, this will hopefully feel at least a little freeing to you. It’s not your fault, and you can learn some new ways.
So, first, you must figure out what is the best way for you to eat. Many healthy diets exist (and of course the books to explain them). Each and every one of us must learn what foods, in what quantities, contribute to our maintaining a healthy weight. This must be a pattern of eating and food choice that you can live with forever, period. Anything that is short-term will likely lead to regain and a return to diet craziness. Furthermore, diets that require special foodstuffs and odd concoctions won’t last for the long run.
Finding a diet pattern you can live with usually takes some trial-and-error, paying attention to how you feel physically, whether or not you feel satisfied, how the plan fits with your lifestyle and preferences. Many people need help with this part of their plan—for example, from a coach, nutritionist, or doctor. On the other hand, many, maybe most, former dieters know what works for them and feel that what they really need are better skills for sticking with it.
Then, you get started, with the intention of creating a path and a chain of habits that can survive a lifetime. How do you prepare yourself to get started? Do you start all-at-once or in baby steps? Understanding how change happens, and what helps you to change, can help. Read the rest of this entry »
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