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Apr 24 2010

Can Food Make You “Good”

Posted by admin in health5

Over 95% of people who use restrictive dieting to lose weight, gain it all back within one year. Restrictive dieting alone will never solve your weight problem. In fact, many studies show that dieting actually causes weight problems because it forces you to focus most of your energy on food and your weight. Dieting fosters diet mentality which causes us to call some foods “good” and others “bad”. If you’re dieting your feelings about yourself are often dictated by your food choices.

Here are some common statements you might hear people make when they’re on a diet:

“I was really good today, all I had was rice cakes and a protein shake.”

“Wow! That cheesecake is so good I felt like licking my plate.”

“I wish I could be good like you, look at how bad I’m being.”

Notice how the word “good” is used for the diet food and the high fat food interchangeably. Notice also how dieter’s judge themselves based on the food they put in their mouths. Our words and beliefs have power over our feelings and our actions. If we do something we think is “bad”, we will likely begin to feel bad and even make choices to prove how bad we are. This is called a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, one of the keys to stress-free slimness is to stop judging ourselves based on food choices. Another key is to change our definition of “good” so that it’s consistent and self-affirming. There is no food that’s universally “good” or “bad”. We all have different tastes and we can eat a variety of foods in moderation without gaining weight. However, it is true that some foods contain more nutritional value than others and therefore are good for our bodies. Some foods give our bodies more of what we need. If you must call food “good”, reserve the label for food that’s: high quality, enjoyable and beneficial to your body’s health.

As a dieter, you are in a quandary when you label “good” food: boring. I’ve seen long-time dieter’s roll their eyes at people who are healthy or “good”. They say things like “I’m not good like her” or snicker at the prospect of eating “good” as if it’s somehow uncool or dreary. We must change our mindset if we hope to have long term health and weight maintenance.

If you’re like many dieters you have assimilated numerous low-fat, low-calorie foods into your diet and you call yourself “good” for eating them. Yet these foods are not good in any way. They don’t taste good, they usually aren’t good for you and they don’t necessarily make you feel good after you’ve eaten them. In fact, many dieters will admit that certain diet foods cause a myriad of symptoms such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, headaches and constipation to name a few. I think we can all agree: these side effects are not “good”. So, to help you reframe the concept of “good” food and “bad” food, I’m going to leave you with a mental image you can carry with you so that you are eating more “good” foods and feeling better. If you keep it up, you will probably lose weight too.

Imagine that “good” food is the kind of food that makes your body say “hooray!!” Imagine the food goes down the “conveyor belt” of your throat, to your stomach. When it arrives; your organs, cells and glands all say, “WOW check out all the new nutrients we just got in! There’s tons of good stuff here. Yipee!!” On the flip side, when you eat pre-processed, preservative and chemical-laden foods, your body says, “Oh no, not again. How does she expect me to exist on this? There’s almost nothing I can use here. The whole thing is waste! I’m going to have to spend all my energy processing this worthless foodfor what?”

I hope this mental image will stick with you the next time you’re making a food decision whether it’s at the grocery store, a restaurant or a party. Be good to yourself. You deserve it and your body deserves it.

Sheri O. Zampelli, M.S., CCH is the author of From Sabotage to Success - How to Overcome Self-Defeating Behavior and Reach Your True Potential. She helps people find fun and creative ways to make lifelong change. Listen to the Donate Your Weight.com Podcast or go to http://www.donateyourweight.com for more information.

Tags: Eating, eating disorders, food, health, motivation, nutrients, nutrition, self esteem, weight loss

The Four Keys to Excellent Health

Posted by admin in health4

Your healthy functioning body is the most valuable material asset you possess. It’s the first thing of value given to you when you enter this world and you owe it to yourself to value it and increase its functioning value. Today I will give you 4 keys to progressively creating a healthy body and life for yourself so that you can enjoy life to the fullest.

Key #1 - Think Right: “As your mind flows so your life goes.” Meaning - your life is a product of the thoughts you think, which leads to the actions you do, which then creates the results you see. Someone who is 400 pounds overweight cannot loose 100 pounds per year if they continue to think that they must have a pound of ice-cream every day to be happy. Clearly the key to changing this ingrained habit pattern is to progressively change that way of thinking to one that will produce right habits/actions and thereby producing the desired results.

Key #2 - Eating & drinking Right: Consuming the right foods is also very important. Many people find this hard to do because they’ve long formed improper eating habits that can be very hard to change without assistance. How would you rate your eating habits? Understand that your body is a living organism that uses the food you consume to recreate itself. Before a cell dies it reproduces another cell from the food you are currently consuming. So consider this: If you had the choice would you create your body from the nutrients in the food you are consuming right now?

Key #3 - Resting Right: Rest = Restoration. Makes sense, doesn’t it? While exercise and movement are essential for stimulating circulation and the elimination of toxins, rest and sleep provide an opportunity for the body to cleanse, repair, and rejuvenate on a deep cellular level. Nourishing your body with plenty of healing sleep and rest is essential for becoming whole.

Key #4 - Being Happy every day: Now, some people would consider the possibility of Being Happy every day to be impossible but I’m here to tell you that it is possible. YES IT IS! How? Well for starters I recommend that you smile for at least one minute as soon as you get up each morning. It doesn’t matter if your life is totally upside down - smile anyway. There are many benefits to smiling that I won’t go into here but from a body chemical standpoint it does the body well. Secondly, I recommend that you smile and say HI to as many people as you can throughout the day. Just these 2 tips alone are enough to improve your mood and outcome in life significantly. My main tip to being happy everyday will be included in an article on nutrigoddess.com called “How to be Happy Every Single Day!” Recap: What does it take?

Think right
Eating & drinking Right
Resting Right
Being Happy every day

These 4 components are what it takes to achieve excellent health. Maren D. NutriGoddess www.nutrigoddess.com

There is so much more I want to teach you about creating a healthy life but this article contains just a sample. Visit http://www.nutrigoddess.com for more insightful information including How to be Happy Every Day!

Tags: drinking, Eating, energy, happy, health, nutrigoddess, rest, resting, thinking

When You Must Dine on “Fast Food”

Posted by admin in health3

I am one of the fortunate few who get to work from a home-office most days of the year. Because of the nature of my work, my physical location is not important to the task at hand. As such, I also have the opportunity to better control my food choices and eating habits during the work day. If you are in this category, be thankful that you are because — for most people — it is much more difficult to eat well during the work day.

Sometimes, however, my work requires my physical presence in the office — often for many days at a time. This week was such a week. Yesterday, as lunch time came and went, the pangs of hunger began to gnaw at me and I finally decided to run over to the local McDonalds for some lunch. Since I was very hungry, I reminded myself to order thoughtfully.

When those of us fighting the Battle of the Bulge are visiting a fast food restaurant, there are some really obvious things that we must do to avoid overeating and/or choosing the wrong kinds of food. These “obvious” things include to not order anything that is “deep fat fried” and to not “super-size” any order. It struck me, though, as I sat there “inhaling” my cheeseburger, that there are many other things that we can do that will also help prevent over-consumption of the wrong kinds of foods.

The first thing to consider is what you drink. Most fast food companies will provide “ice water” at no charge when you are making a food purchase. Not only can you save some money, but you can drink more water (please see the www.weeklyweightlosstips.com archives to read more on drinking water), which is something that you already know to do. Many wise fast food restaurants are also selling your favorite brands of bottled water, which can typically be refilled at the beverage kiosk if you are still thirsty when you finish your meal.

Not only is this important when comparing beverage choices (e.g., soda vs. water), but also when you consider the fact that fast food contains much more salt than what we typically would use on our own food at home. If you have been reading these articles for some time now, you have likely read some compelling reasons why we need to limit our sodium intake. Sodium causes us to retain water (which weighs about seven pounds per gallon) and the only way to safely regulate this (sodium and water retention) is to drink more and more water.

The next thing to consider is the condiments. Many fast food restaurants are suggesting salads as a low-calorie option to their traditional offerings. These are a great way to avoid higher fat, lower fiber alternatives, but with salads the dressing must be scrutinized, or else you may end up not saving calories at all. Dieticians suggest choosing the dressing type wisely, as well they recommend using the smallest amount possible.

If you order items other than salads, the same thing is true. Mayonnaise if a very high-fat food that should be avoided. Most restaurants will allow you to “special order” a small amount of your condiments (”light on the mayo, please…”) or just those that are lower in fat and calories. Mustard is a low fat, low calorie condiment, though it may not be suited to everyone’s individual taste.

The last thing that I would recommend that you keep in mind when visiting a “fast food” restaurant is to not get wrapped up in the “speediness” of the environment. One of the worst dining habits is to eat your meals quickly. The very nature of the fast food shop makes it difficult to slow down and enjoy your meal. Make a conscious effort to sit down, relax, and savor every bite. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the surroundings. When you sit down at the table with your food, tell yourself that you are going to eat slowly, savoring your food, or you are likely to eat too quickly and too much.

You may not always be able to avoid eating at a fast food restaurant, so when you must do so, prepare yourself before you get in line to order. Don’t let your hunger cause you to over-order, make wise food and beverage choices, and when you eat, take time to savor your food. Following this advice will keep you on track for a lighter, healthier you!

Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (http://www.weeklyweightlosstips.com) and the Chief Technology Officer for WellnessPartners.com (http://www.WellnessPartners.com), an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), r+ alpha lipoic acid (R+ ALA), and green tea extract.