The Right Words at the Right Time

Today started with a call from my sister on my way to work. I should preface this story to say that I've felt isolated in my attempts to take care of my health and isolation equals failure to eat well and exercise. So at 8:20 am my little sister mentioned that her friend commented on this blog, something about someone being helped with the right message at the right time. Before looking into the message, I received another little jolt of encouragement from my friend who is also my dentist. She is a beautiful woman (inside and out) who is determined to get the best of her health through exercise. I know she has adapted a routine of walking regularly and has been successful at weight loss (congratulations Dr. M!) Before I left her office today, she instructed me to walk for 30 minutes when I get home. I like a challenge so I halfheartedly mumbled "OK". Then when I was half out the door but still close enough to hear she said, "if you don't you have to do double tomorrow." And -- because I had no other choice -- I replied "deal!"

Here's the fun of that story. I did come home and walk two miles. Without her direction to do so, there was a zero percent chance that I would have exercised. I invited my husband to walk also, and he did. He commented that he has been wanting and needing to get back into the routine of exercising and this was just the push he had been hoping for. So some stranger in Indianapolis, who encouraged my friend Angela to remind me to keep going prompted a discussion with my dentist who challenged me to exercise which involved my husband who in turn prompted me to continue to walk the next day. What a great chain reaction. You never know who you might help or impact. Sometimes the right people are in the right place at the right time saying the right things.

Turning Prediabetes Around through Weight Loss

Last week, I met a young man named David who has recently been diagnosed with Prediabetes. This is a condition marked by glucose levels that are higher than normal, but not high enough to be considered Type 2 Diabetes. It can (not always) lead to Type 2 Diabetes but is often able to be treated before that progression occurs. If a person is over the age of 45, has high blood pressure and/or is African-American, Asian American or Mexican American he/she has a higher risk of developing Diabetes. The American Diabetes Association lists some symptoms that can be early signs of the disease: unusual thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, extreme fatigue, frequent infections, cuts/bruises that are slow to heal, tingling/numbness in the hands/feet, and recurring skin, gum or bladder infections.

If you are diagnosed with Prediabetes, you may very well be able to return your blood glucose levels to a normal range by losing 7% of your body weight and adding moderate exercise for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. I have detailed more specific information on losing weight and curbing hunger in a blog titled “What to Do and How to Do it.”

1) WHAT TO DO: Basically don't consume more calories than you burn. For women, a general rule is about 1200 per day. For men, it's about 1600. Before watching my caloric intake, it wasn't uncommon for me to eat two to three times that amount. Exercise increases that number allowed by adding the number of calories you burn working out to the number of calories you are allowed. I have found www.myfitnesspal.com to be an invaluable tool for measuring these two things.

2) HOW TO DO IT: This is the part that will be a lifelong learning process, adjusted to fit your individual goals and lifestyle. It really means eating the kinds of foods that keep you full, provide the most nutrition and keep you from feeling deprived of the things you like to eat. Look back through other posts from this month to see what kinds of changes I've made and please be sure to leave a comment or email me if you have specific questions or challenges.

After losing about 15 pounds I’ve noticed that I feel much more energetic and am sleeping better. Here is the basic guide I am following:  Eliminate sugar, white flour, potatoes, white rice, pasta and alcohol. Don't panic! It's not forever, just until you get the ball rolling. Start your day with water, eggs, whole oats, Greek yogurt, fruit. I make a lot of omelets with one whole egg plus two egg whites, spinach and mushrooms. Keep fruits, veggies, yogurt, hummus, cheese and nuts close by for a morning snack and afternoon snack. (Cheese and nuts are high in calories but you don't need to eliminate them, just have smaller portions.) Lunch can be a salad loaded with veggies, or a turkey burger with lettuce and tomato. Honestly, I got really bored with salad after a couple of weeks so I have been using romaine leaves as bread in rolling up my favorite healthy filling -- grilled chicken with salsa, tuna, ground turkey. Black beans and white beans are taking the place of the ground beef I used to eat. You can make all kinds of tasty healthy soups with broth, beans and veggies. Also, colored bell peppers are a win-win -- high in flavor and vitamins, low in calories. Use spices like garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili, cinnamon, oregano to flavor your veggies. Check out  the blog “Focus on What You Can Eat”. One last thing, don't throw in the towel if it feels hard the first several days. Days one through three are the hardest, but after the first week you'll start to feel like it's a normal way to eat and after a few weeks you will really see your cravings for junk food change. Really!

Also read the blog on “Taming Hunger is Key.” You’ll find that what you eat – rather than how much you eat – can help you avoid those annoying hunger pains. As hard as it is, learn to be OK with being hungry after you’ve eaten dinner and go to bed hungry. It’s not pleasant sometimes but it is SO worth the sacrifice. You’ll see a much faster payoff for all of your healthy eating during the day.

Back on Track

Thank you for visiting the blog. As you can see, my lack of attention in the goal to be healthy is parallel to the missing blogs for the past few weeks. It's all one big picture, like a puzzle. You know I've talked a lot about accountability. What happens to the best of us, is that we slip out of sight figuratively. While I'm breaking my own rules and secretly reverting back to old "junk food on the couch" habits, I don't want anyone to know or see what's going on. That continues for a while until I finally snap out of it and start over again. So I have started over again this month. Here is the most important thing to remember -- it really FEELS GREAT! It's only been a few days since I got back into my wellness plan and I am feeling happier and sleeping better. It truly changes your overall mood. In my experience, the first three days are killer. So don't get discouraged if you feel like giving in the first few days. Commit to yourself that you will be perfectly disciplined for three days. After that short period, you will begin to feel less sluggish and hopefully experience better rest. Remember that eight hours of sleep is an important rule for weight loss. Check back for daily blogs throughout the summer and please provide feedback...thanks!

Taming Hunger is Key

If I could assign percentages to the difficulty of making significant changes to eating habits, I would give calorie counting a 10% compared to 90% for fighting the temptation of hunger and cravings. Maybe even 5% to 95%. I think it’s because the first part is the mental part where all you have to do is use your brain. I have a pretty analytical side and like things that are structured and regulated. Keeping lists and checking things off is part of who I am. In fact, sometimes I write things down that I’ve already done, just so I can check it off.

The really tough part is the mind over matter part, as I wrote about last week. Here’s the scenario: a protein packed breakfast, fruit for a morning snack, salad for lunch and a dinner of lean meat and veggies. Most calories are accounted for, dinner dishes are washed and then it’s time for me to watch my family continue to snack. I have to smell chicken tenders or look at a piping hot pepperoni pizza. Sometimes it’s brownies or Nestle Toll House cookies. And on a night when I don’t see and smell sugary, greasy food, I have to watch footage of it on TV commercials. A person can only take so much before caving in.

Ask someone who has conquered the weight battle what their secret magic trick is and you’ll learn that it is always some variation of “eat less, exercise more.” But if that’s so simple, why is eating well so hard? The answer is hunger.

In an article by Psych Central on hunger, the author states: “In order to identify hunger, you must first understand what it is. This is not as easy as it seems. Many of you may never have let yourself experience true hunger, only a feeling of discomfort. Not knowing exactly what it was, you may have been eating past hunger for such a long time you can no longer differentiate between hunger and the feeling of anxiety, stress, boredom, or any number of other emotional or circumstantial stimuli. You haven’t allowed yourself to go without eating for a long enough period of time to have felt true hunger; you may not have experienced it since childhood.”

Now the reason it’s a challenge becomes more clear. Our body has a powerful ability to tell our brain that we NEED to eat. Logically, you know at the end of the day that you will not starve to death if you’ve consumed 1200 calories of healthy, nutritious food but your brain will use every trick in the book to convince you that you must eat more between dinner and bedtime. Once you learn that it is beneficial to go to bed “hungry” (remember, this isn’t really feeling hunger as much as unsatisfied) you will truly start to conquer your battle in letting food get the best of you. Visit my blog at www.wellnesschallege2013.com to learn about how eating the right foods can help you feel full all day long.

This week’s challenge: after dinner, stop eating for the night and learn to let yourself move past the feeling of wanting to continue to eat. As with all changes, it will get easier over time and you’ll get a great satisfaction for winning at this.

Muscle Memory

There was a health fair at my work today and one of the wellness experts told me something interesting I didn't know. I mentioned that losing weight seems to take so much concentrated effort. To lose two pounds, takes about five days of strict discipline but I can gain two pounds just by overeating for an hour. He said this is due to muscle memory and that your body gets to a place that it wants to naturally gravitate back to. That makes a lot of sense. For a long time my weight was stuck at about 197, then I had a week of proper food and exercise where I couldn't get past 191 and then 187 and then 181. I'm still at 181 today even though I had reached my February goal of 177 earlier this month. He told me the key is to just keep on going and not let the "ups" bother me. That's the plan. I'll keep going and pay attention to muscle memory.

Make a Fist

 Make a fist and let me know when you're done. All set? I'll explain. Your fist is about the size of your stomach. And I know I've been talking about hunger a lot lately but that's just because I'm always hungry. Just kidding. It's because hunger is no fun and you don't have to be hungry to be healthy.

If filling your stomach is the goal to not feeling hungry, then this visual aid will help you see why the right foods do the trick.

The first photo is 4 tablespoons of blue cheese salad dressing. The total number of calories in this little green bowl is 300. But 4 tablespoons which is 1/4 cup would do very little to fill your belly (30 grams of fat).

Photo number two is 2 ounces of Pepper-Jack cheese with 8 Wheat Thin crackers. Wheat in this case is hardly better than other crackers because this snack still has 20 grams of fat, 300 calories just like the example above.

Plate three was the choice I made for dinner tonight. As you can see, the size of the portion is (was) larger than my fist. This is 3 ounces of grilled asparagus with sea salt and pepper and 5 ounces of Atlantic Salmon with lemon and rosemary. I used an olive oil spritzer to put just a touch of oil on the asparagus to make it crispy. This colorful dinner weighs in at -- you guessed it -- 300 calories. And 10 grams of fat just for the record, but it's Omega 3 fat and it's actually very good for you. It also has a full day's supply of vitamin D. 

If you're reading this thinking "good for you, but foods like that are boring and I'd much rather dip that piece of Jack into the blue cheese with a cracker chaser -- trust me! I used to eat blue cheese dressing by the spoonful and have been known to bring home seven different cheeses in one grocery trip. But I'm gradually changing my tastes for what I like to eat. This week I've been crazily addicted to turkey burgers and asparagus.

The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get

As you can tell by now, I love cliches and analogies. This is one of my favorites. I've worked pretty hard to be healthier this year. From January 1st until today, I've lost 18 pounds. One day last week I actually hit a 20 pound goal but then gained a few pounds back. On the days when I am more strict, I have better results for the morning weigh in. Some people disagree on weighing yourself everyday, but for me it works. For me, weighing myself every morning helps me see immediately what kind of impact the previous day's food choices have had. With few exceptions, I can see that eating 1200 means slight weight decrease, 1300 means no change and more than 1300 equals weight gain. I have also learned that not getting enough water or exercise slows the progress down.

I remember a few years ago feeling jealous of women in my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are women about my age, with kids and jobs, and a size 2 wardrobe. Then, I started to uncover another interesting thing they all had in common -- they all exercise and eat right. Dang! I had been feeling sorry for myself for not getting the genetic favor these ladies had. It turned out that they were working hard to get so lucky!

Definition of Insanity

in·san·i·ty  /inˈsanitē/

:  doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result."

This is the 15th year I've been on a diet. This time, I've broken the cycle of repeating my same old mistakes. Two of my biggest mistakes over the years have been 1) getting confident after some results and letting down my guard (leading to total failure and throwing in the towel) and 2) breaking the pattern of eating well and exercise because of a change in my routine, such as illness or vacation.

Both mistakes almost just happened. I reached the 20-pound weight loss mark last week AND came down with a cold the next day. Three days of no exercise and two nights of binging on junk food followed and -- sure enough -- my 177 success quickly changed back to a 181. So I decided to fight back and reclaim my victory. I know that if I don't get strictly back on track immediately I will lose valuable ground. Yesterday went well and today has to so far. I plan to go to bed early tonight to catch up on some rest and to avoid mindlessly tossing in extra calories.

All is Well that Begins Well

As we entered into a new year, many of us looked forward to the opportunity to begin things with a fresh, clean slate. Starting over allows us to be energized with the hope of finally tackling our hardest challenges. In the way that a new year sets the tone for the weeks and months to follow, a morning routine also stages the foundation of a person’s day.

When we were children, we lived on sugary cereals, breads, pastries and jams before a school day. As adults, our tastes and cravings for these things don’t change, but our metabolism and nutritional needs do. It becomes much more difficult for adults to consume high levels of sugar and baked goods made with processed enriched flour.

Whole grain options have become popular in recent years because health experts tout that true whole grain products are more time-consuming to digest. Because the grain hasn’t been broken down in manufacturing, it is not as readily absorbed into your bloodstream. Instead of machines processing the parts of the grain to make it smoother and more refined, your body has to put in a bit more effort with a whole grain product. That extra time and effort results in decreased sugar spikes, fewer cravings throughout the day, and diminished hunger until the next meal. Avoiding sugar will benefit the body in the same way.

And remember to eat a real breakfast! Breakfast means breaking a fast. When you start your day with breakfast, your body’s natural metabolism kicks into gear and starts to burn fuel. If sitting down to eat is a challenge, a fruit/veggie smoothie can be a good option.

All smoothies are not created equally. Making them yourself will ensure that you’re not getting a lot of extra sugar and processed foods. A basic recipe can include berries, bananas, yogurt, water, ice. It is best to skip the fruit juice. The sugar content in juices is often very high and -- just like the processing of grains -- you’re consuming something that is already broken down. If you like orange juice, try substituting eating an orange instead.

Coffee and teas can be added to your breakfast list, but don’t substitute them for water. Just because they are a liquid, doesn't mean they count in your daily goal of drinking eight full glasses.

Being prepared is the key to making good choices, so be sure to have whole grains, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt on hand the night before. A few other good tips to start your day on the right foot:

• Prepare clothes for work/school the night before

• Make a short list of things to do the night before

• Prepare a lunch or healthy snacks to bring (cut up veggies, nuts, fruit)

• Give yourself enough time to avoid rushing

And the most important part – if you start your day with sugar and starch, you will have an extremely difficult time avoiding it the rest of the day. Trust me, I took my daughter to a Chinese buffet today. I didn’t overeat and mostly ate the veggies and noodles with a small bit of dessert. Nevertheless, I’ve been eating carbs and sugar all day long.

The Food Hospital

Quick update on my weight loss: I got into the 170s today, 179.5 to be exact. I decided yesterday morning to spend the next three days following my 1200 calorie plan very carefully. My husband and daughter are out of town until Monday so I won't have food temptations as much. So far, so good.

One of my favorite channels is The Cooking Channel. Tonight, I was hesitant to turn it on since I've eaten so little the past few days. I worried that seeing all of the beautiful recipes would make me crave food. But it turned out that there is a new show I've never seen before called The Food Hospital, and it has actually helped enforce the better food choices I've made. If you've never seen it, make it a point to check it out. It's been absolutely fascinating to see how these physicians are experimenting with using food as medicine for various diseases and health issues.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”-- Hippocrates

Cheat Days

Here is one area in which I've never heard much disagreement between diet plans: cheat days are fine! Today is Valentine's Day and I am about to have a nice dinner with my family. I plan to eat bread and potatos for the first time in weeks. There are pink frosted cookies in my kitchen and a few chocolates too. I've had a few other occasions in the past few weeks for which I've allowed myself to deviate from the new eating plan. Here are the thoughts around a cheat day.
1) this is not a diet, it's a lifelong change for the way I eat so giving up certain foods forever is simply not practical, nor is it necessary
2) cheat days should be strategically placed, planned -- few and far between, one very important rule is to not let one cheat day spill over to the next day; it's a slippery slope so if you allow a cheat meal or even a cheat day be sure to get right back on track the next day or you'll backslide right back to your old bad habits
3) finally, your cheat day doesn't have to be a 180-degree change from healthy eating; keep in mind that if you've been eating lots of fruits, veggies and low-fat foods, an overdose of grease may make you quite sick to your stomach

"Skinny" at 180 Pounds

Continuing on from yesterday's post, I'm finding it very helpful to keep things in perspective. I weigh 180.5 pounds today which is far from really being thin. But I feel kind of thin. 200 pounds is a not-so-distant past and I still remember very well what my clothes felt like a few weeks ago. So even though I have a lot of work ahead of me, I actually feel (relatively!) thin. The back zipper on my skirt keeps shifting around to the side because the skirt is loose. Alright, it's still a size 16 skirt, but did you hear the part about it being LOOSE? Hallelujah!

This photo is not me, but it shows you what I mean by allowing yourself to celebrate the victories on the way to the goal. I love watching The Biggest Loser because so many people can relate to the struggles and emotions these people feel. And when you see an overweight person who is brave enough to stand up on television and dance in a sports bra at 199 pounds -- because they used to weigh 260 -- what a perspective!

You are What You Eat

This cartoon is so hilarious, I shouldn't even write anything to go with it. But I will. What prompted me to look for a graphic for this post is a memory I have of eating a hot dog and chips for lunch before I started the new eating plan. I drive and walk past this food cart every day and one day, I walked down with my $2 and got a hot dog, chips and a Diet Coke. I went back to my desk to eat and afterward I remember thinking "I feel like a hot dog." The rest of the day I felt sluggish and gross. Since starting this blog, I've been paying close attention to the signals my body gives me when I eat well and when I don't. Healthy food is starting to be my new normal, so when I eat some of my old comfort foods they are a bit of a shock to my system. Many times, if the food is greasy, it actually makes me sick.

Here's something fun I've just started doing, I can now visualize myself as a skinny person. Actually the visualization I have is that I'm athletic, great biceps and quads. I can't wait!

Up, Down and In the Middle

Interesting news story I just saw on television about Olympic athletes. It was in CBS Sunday morning, the day of the Superbowl and the title of the feature was "Winning is Everything." Their contention is that, on the Olympic medal platform, the silver medalist always seems less happy than the bronze medalist. Naturally, winning gold is a life-changing pinnacle of athletic achievement. But the reason they proposed that the silver medalist is less animated than the third place winner, is that they beat themselves up over how close they were to WINNING, the best, the gold. Person number three on the other hand, relates his victory to the rest of the pack and is glad to have made it to the platform at all.

I've carried this analogy into my efforts to be healthy. A daily weight check is something that helps me see how the food and exercise choice I made the day before impacted my goal. Some days, I know that I'll go up in weight, and I have a pretty good idea of why. Other days, I see a numeric affirmation of the previous day's hard work. But then there's the plateau. There is usually not an obvious explanation for these days, which are usually 3-4 days long. My exercise is right on, calories under 1200 and water intake on par. Losing weight makes me proud and I want to keep up the good work. Gaining weight makes me disappointed in myself and I want to work harder. But the leveled off plateau which is part of the process, is something I don't know how to handle. It's like a wash out day...not good, not bad, just part of the waiting game.

So, I need to back up and look at the bigger picture. I have been doing everything right for the past four days but my weight has been stuck at 182. Frustrating! But last month, I had a similar period where weight plateaued at 191. Don't forget to look at the big picture!

Diminishing Law of Returns

Our wonderful country has transformed into one in which many fortunate citizens are overindulged, overstocked and overfed. I see so many kids who have such an air of entitlement. Many of us use money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need. There is this great sense of getting more, needing more, wanting more. Restaurants and fast food chains jump right into the game of giving us what we want. When you look at a commercial for, lets say, a pancake house you can see exactly what I mean. First, they give you the price of something-99 and then you see the combo – stack of pancakes, two kinds of meat, two eggs and a side of home fries. All of this is for one person. This is such a common assortment of food and it is set up to please every part of the palette, that we really don’t stop to realize that the Grand Slam could easily satisfy the hunger of three or four adults. I know that when I am presented with the option of such a meal, I act before I think…I don’t want to do without the potatoes, and the savory, salty, crispy bacon tastes so great; it all goes really well with scrambled eggs and then there is the warm, fluffy texture of melt-in-your-mouth pancakes – a wonderful symphony of food. The truth is, I’ve had MANY weekday breakfasts that consisted of one hard-boiled egg. And that was a sufficient bit of food to hold me over from morning until lunch. But when we have all of this bundled into one fine presentation there are a couple of things that food marketers use to sabotage our senses. First, there is the “value” catch. For $2, I can order one egg but for another $1.50 I can make it a sandwich with cheese and bacon and for a total of $5 bucks, it comes with tater-tots and a small OJ. So I might have only wanted or needed one egg, but I choose the whole lot. Second, there’s the waste factor. Now that I’ve ordered all of this food, at a bargain price, I need to eat it all as to not waste it. I may have realized I’m full after barely starting to consume the meal, but there are only two alternatives once it’s in front of me – throw perfectly good food into the garbage or eat it.

Now back to the title of my blog, “diminishing returns.” Wouldn’t you say that the very first bite of a piece of chocolate cake is the best bite? The second one is pretty good, and maybe the third. By three bites your mouth is very happy and has had a good chance to fully experience the great flavor. The more you eat, the less fabulous the taste. While the flavor is still good, these subsequent bites from number three to clean plate are really somewhat mechanical, you just keep going and going until the food is gone without the ability to savor the dish as you did with bites one through three. If you order a meal at most restaurants, get a carryout container right up front to box half for another meal. You’ll be amazed to see how many double portion meals you get and how full you feel after only eating half.

Mind Over Matter

When my daughter was little, she was terrified of going to the doctor for shots. After the Kindergarten series, she started asking me all throughout the year when she had to go back for more. She would always cry at my answer, even if the next round of shots was years away. She agonized over them, cried and begged me to get her out of it. One doctor appointment stands out very clearly in my mind. As we waited in the outer lobby, she started to get tense. Then, inside the exam room, her temperature rose, body shook and her sobs turned from a whimper to hysteria. The nurse came in to wipe her arm with alcohol and my daughter, sitting in my lap sobbed “tell me when they are going to do it.” She was so worked up and delirious she didn’t realize the shot had already happened. When I told her it was done, she opened one eye in disbelief. Sure enough, the agony and torment she created for herself was more excruciating than the pain of the shot.

How many times do we, as adults, create the same experience for ourselves. I know that in the past I have worried myself sick over something that might happen, and many of those fears never came to pass.

Research has shown that stress and worry can be major contributing factors to heart disease, fatigue, sadness and despair.

Lighten up? It’s easier said than done. But there are practices that you can implement into your weekly schedule that will help alleviate worry and stress.

1) Begin a prayer or gratitude journal. If you begin writing down the people and things you pray for and then go back periodically and re-read them, you’ll see that you’ve made it through to the other side of the trouble and it’s now behind you. By keeping a gratitude journal nightly, you will keep your mind focused on the small things for which you are thankful every day.

2) Exercise. According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise pumps your endorphins. It also improves your mood, provides mental clarity and lowers symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. Exercise also can improve your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress, sadness and anxiety.

3) Volunteer or Pay it Forward. Volunteering is an amazing way to take your focus off yourself and to give to another person or group of people who appreciate your time and talents. Speak to someone who has gone on a mission trip to “serve” and you’ll find that they always feel like they are on the receiving end of the gift. Even something as simple as a Random Act of Kindness can give you such a great feeling of warmth and compassion.

This week’s challenge: choose one or more of the suggestions above and incorporate them into your week.

FAQs

Earlier this week I asked for your questions, and here are a few of them, answered:

How much water should I be drinking each day?

Eight glasses has been a common suggestion, but lately a good rule to follow is half your body weight in ounces. If you weigh 180 pounds, drink 90 ounces of water a day. Eleven 8-ounce glasses could be tedious so you may want to find a nice 16-20 ounce tumbler and fill it up with each meal and keep near you throughout the day.

Do other beverages like coffee and tea count toward my daily water requirement?

Experts disagree on how much other beverages should weigh in on your daily water intake goal but the majority of them say probably not. The reason is that other beverages often contain sugar, sodium and dehydrating agents that are more toxic to your body than cleansing. Pure water regulates body temperature, aids brain and lung function, lubricates joints and strengthens bones. Water metabolizes fat for conversion to energy. The average adult body is made up of about 70% water.

Does exercising at different times throughout the day have the same effect as exercising all at once?

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that you can break your exercise time up into smaller increments and still get the same effect. If you find it difficult to get a 30 minute break in your day to walk, try walking for 15 minutes during a lunch break -- especially if you sit at a desk all day, and 15 minutes after work.

How do I know how much I should weigh?

One way to gauge this is to measure your BMI (Body Mass Index). This simple calculation takes your height into consideration and provides ideal weight ranges. A BMI of 18.5 or less is underweight, normal is 18.5-24.9, overweight is 25-29.5 and obese is 30 or higher. If your BMI is in the obese range or borderline obese, please consult your physician about potential health risks and begin a monitored weight loss program. At my highest weight this past Christmas, my BMI was 32 -- clearly obese. Today it is 28, still in the high overweight category but moving in the right direction.

Questions?

If you are reading this, and have questions on how to get through a specific challenge in eating well or exercising, please post a comment and I'll get an answer back to you.

Everyone has different challenges as well as different strategies that have been successful. I'd love to get feedback from you on what is working and what is not. Click on the box that reads "No Comments" -- or "# of Comments" below any blog post and you can leave a message anonymously. Later this week I'll be addressing some FAQs and posting some very interesting myth busters. Thank you!

Food Got the Best of Me Today

I promised you all truthfulness. Although I may not have totally blown it calorie-wise today, I definitely neglected to follow my rules and let food get the best of me. Last night I skipped a few invitations to Superbowl parties because I knew that if I went, I would eat chicken wings and other fun party food and have a couple of beers. So I opted to stay home, ate a nice 300 calorie dinner and then stopped eating for the night. Only I had a little problem washing dishes. The garbage disposal got clogged and the sink backed up. After dinner I spent a couple of hours off and on trying to plunge the drain, mopping up the water that seeped through the cupboard. Everything under the cupboard was drenched in disposal sewage. The dishwasher was full of standing water too. I ran a couple of errands after work including picking up medicine for my sick daughter. My wallet wasn't in my purse all day so I had to come home to pick it up before going back to the grocery. Only thing, no wallet anywhere to be found. And the clogged drain was sitting there just as I had left it last night, with a few more unwashed dirty dishes added to the pile. A raw steak was on the counter and the charcoal grill which had been lit two hours earlier was burned out. I made my daughter a bite to eat but skipped eating to work on the drain, driving to the drug store twice for different chemicals. The sink project involved me unscrewing a P-trap, spilling chemicals all over my hands and arms, saturating the kitchen floor. I took a few minutes to call my banks and cancel credit cards before eating dinner: a chunk of cheddar cheese, two Oreos, a bottle of Red Hook IPA and a small bag of Lay's potato chips. Here are the rules I know that I broke in a fleeting moment of frustration and despair. Here are the big rules I clearly broke:  don't eat your feelings, don't drink your calories and  don't let yourself get so starving that you'll eat whatever is in sight. It's 8:30 pm now and I'm going to bed because staying up will end up with me getting more overwhelmed and frustrated and I'll likely continue to consume more mindless, empty food and drinks.

Super Spices

Besides coffee, I love tea and one of my favorites is chai. Chai has a combination of spices that are a blast to your palette and offer great health benefits. True confession, I got really excited to remember how much I love spice when I made homemade ravioli with spinach, ricotta and nutmeg tonight. At least the nutmeg was good for me.

Cinnamon - cholesterol, diabetes, inflammation, cognition

Nutmeg - digestion, asthma, memory, anxiety, depression

Cardamom - asthma, bronchitis, digestion, circulation

Anise - cold and flu, laxative, diuretic

Cloves - analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidants, ulcers, indigestion

Black Pepper - digestion, nasal congestion, metabolism, respiration

For most people on a normal diet, spices are a win-win food. They add flavor to otherwise bland foods and have a lot more going for them. Check out this interesting article online that addresses the antioxidant power of spices, promoted by McCormick as their seven super spices [article].

What to Do, How to Do it

Thank you to the people who have written me this week to join the challenge. As you continue to check in on this blog site, you'll learn a lot more about the tools and tips that make losing weight an attainable goal. I will talk a lot about weight loss but ultimately the concurrent goal is to achieve a better state of health. Type two diabetes, hypertension and acid reflux are just a few health issues that can be slowed or even eliminated with better health. Two main things to focus on:

1) WHAT TO DO: Basically don't consume more calories than you burn. For women, a general rule is about 1200 per day. For men, it's about 1600. Before watching my caloric intake, it wasn't uncommon for me to eat two to three times that amount. Exercise increases that number allowed by adding the number of calories you burn working out to the number of calories you are allowed. I have found www.myfitnesspal.com to be an invaluable tool for measuring these two things.

2) HOW TO DO IT: This is the part that will be a lifelong learning process, adjusted to fit your individual goals and lifestyle. It really means eating the kinds of foods that keep you full, provide the most nutrition and keep you from feeling deprived of the things you like to eat. Look back through other posts from this month to see what kinds of changes I've made and please be sure to leave a comment or email me if you have specific questions or challenges.

Here is the very basic guide I'm following. [I've lost 11 pounds since starting on January 1st and I feel much more energetic and am sleeping better.] Eliminate sugar, white flour, potatoes, white rice, pasta and alcohol. Don't panic! It's not forever, just until you get the ball rolling. Start your day with water, eggs, whole oats, Greek yogurt, fruit. I make a lot of omelets with one whole egg plus two egg whites, spinach and mushrooms. Keep fruits, veggies, yogurt, hummus, cheese and nuts close by for a morning snack and afternoon snack. (Cheese and nuts are high in calories but you don't need to eliminate them, just have smaller portions.) Lunch can be a salad loaded with veggies, or a turkey burger with lettuce and tomato. Honestly, I got really bored with salad after a couple of weeks so I have been using romaine leaves as bread in rolling up my favorite healthy filling -- grilled chicken with salsa, tuna, ground turkey. Black beans and white beans are taking the place of the ground beef I used to eat. You can make all kinds of tasty healthy soups with broth, beans and veggies. Also, colored bell peppers are a win-win -- high in flavor and vitamins, low in calories. Use spices like garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili, cinnamon, oregano to flavor your veggies. Check out "Focus on What you Can Eat" from earlier this week. One last thing, don't throw in the towel if it feels hard the first several days. Days one through three are the hardest, but after the first week you'll start to feel like it's a normal way to eat and after a few weeks you will really see your cravings for junk food change. Really!

One Month Recap

Today marks the end of my first month of the wellness challenge. My goal was/is to lose 10 pounds each month for January through May. I am happy to say that I reached the goal for this month, barely, but I made it. I've learned some things this month...eating really, really well has often resulted in a half-pound weight loss in a day. Slightly overeating for a day, can add a pound! It shouldn't, because technically it takes an extra 3500 calories to equal an extra pound of fat. But from my experience, I've found that it really doesn't take much to derail a lot of hard work. It reminds me of college. I had pretty good grades but failed one accounting class. That F did some serious damage to my overall GPA and I had to work very hard to make up for it. The other two things that have impacted my success or lack of success this month are drinking water and exercise. If I eat well, but skip those other two components of the plan, my weight stays stagnant. It takes all three -- the right foods/calories, exercise and water. And finally, I've learned that losing weight, getting healthy, is as much a mental challenge as a physical one. In fact, it's more mental than physical. A person's body would survive for more than a month on just water. But your body will lie to your brain. It will tell you that hunger means "better eat something, we're starving to death, hurry, eat, now!" Don't believe yourself, you can do this! Tomorrow is February 1st and my goal for the month is to go from 187-177. See you tomorrow.

Focus on What You CAN Eat

As promised, here is an expanded narrative on focusing on what you can eat, instead of what you can't. Let me start with an example of how one's day goes on a diet. Let's say there was a family gathering over the weekend and your neighbor's half-eaten chocolate cheesecake was leftover in your fridge. You go to work on Monday with your cooler of veggies and mid-morning you start saying to yourself "I won't eat that cheesecake, I won't eat that cheesecake, I won't eat that cheesecake." After a nice, lunch of spinach salad and berries you start to think of your evening plans and again recite your directive of "I won't eat that cheesecake...and on, and on. Guess what happens when you walk into your kitchen that night! You have practically brainwashed yourself on NEEDING to eat that cheesecake because it has been incessantly imprinted on your brain all day.

Right now, in order to gain better health, I have decided to not eat sugar, flour, potatoes, rice, pasta, fried food, fast food, high-fat food. That said, I cannot eat some of my favorite happy foods: Buffalo wings, pizza, egg rolls, baked Brie, loaded potato skins. (See where the need to change eating habits came from?)

Sounds like there's nothing left to eat if I take away all of my favorite comfort foods. But let's be honest. For the short list of what has to go away as I adjust to some better choices, here are some great things that I can eat: eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, pineapple, bananas, strawberries, oranges, kiwi, apples, blueberries, grapes, pomegranate, pecans, almonds, cashews, wheat tortillas, wheat pita, salsa, hot sauce, marinara sauce, spinach, avocado, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, tuna, turkey, chicken, salmon, ginger, tilapia, shrimp, lobster, filet Mignon.

True story: yesterday I had nothing planned for dinner and started thinking that maybe my kids would like a pizza because when Mama diets the whole family diets. That pizza notion turned into thinking maybe I would make a homemade flatbread pizza with turkey pepperoni. Then I thought maybe a turkey burger instead, no wait, a black bean burger on a bed of lettuce and tomato. By the time I pulled into the drive, I was actually craving a black bean burger and that's what I had for dinner. It was delicious! Lucky for my kids and husband they had all gone out for Mexican before I got home.

My Top 10 Dos and Dont's

As I mentioned yesterday, different things work for different people. Even if you look at the plans laid out by physicians and nutrition experts there are so many varied opinions. Find what works for YOU, and what doesn't. I've slightly surpassed my goal of losing 10 pounds in January and have found the following rules to be helpful for me:

1) Eat breakfast! This jump starts your metabolism like throwing wood into a fire. If you wait until lunch to eat, you've wasted four hours that your body could be burning calories at a higher rate. I know the excuse "if I eat breakfast I am more hungry by lunch than if I don't eat at all." That's because you are not eating the right breakfast. Choose protein, fruit, whole grain.

2) Women, limit your daily calories to 1200. The number should be about 1600 for men, just as a general rule. Do not consistently go over or you will gain weight, do not consistently go way under or you will retain weight.

3) Find the time to move your body. I've been walking 2 miles a day in 40 minutes or less, 5 days a week for the past 6 weeks. When I skip a few days, my weight plateaus. This extra 175 calories I've burned adds that number of calories to my daily allowance.

4) Make your own food. Fast food has to go away for a while. Preferably for good. Even if you look at what may seem to be the healthiest option at a FF restaurant, it's probably not that healthy. If you check out McDonald's Nutrition, oxymoric, you'll find an awful lot of hidden calories and saturated fat.

5) Eat your veggies. Just do it.

6) Don't clean your plate. Especially when you're eating out. Unless you're eating tapas, cut your portion in half and plan on a take out box. PLAN on taking half home and don't eat it just because it's there.

7) No soda or alcohol. At least for a while until you start to see some progress. Once you are on a good pace, I don't think adding wine back, if you drink, is as bad an option of adding soda -- regular or diet. Regular is loaded with sugar and has no nutritional value whatsoever and diet has artificial sweeteners which are said to be carcinogenic.

8) Don't drink your calories. In addition to point #7, watch out for fruit smoothies and fruit juice. Very high in calories (up to 900 per serving!) and much lower in health benefits than the actual fruit. You can make your own smoothies though, very healthy option.

9) Establish a list of food staples. For me, it's oats or eggs in the morning, hummus and wheat pita with veggies for lunch, Greek yogurt, apples and blueberries as snacks and lean protein and non-starch veggies for dinner. I also have small amounts of nuts, cut up fruits and veggies around for in between meal snacks.

10)  Focus on what you CAN eat. This is so huge it gets its own blog tomorrow.

Tell Me What Works

The idea behind this wellness challenge is to make it collaborative, interactive, and a mutually supportive network. Over the past few weeks I've spoken with friends and co-workers about my goal and many people have shared stories of the eating plans that have worked for them. One co-worker and her daughter have had some great success with Weight Watchers. A man I work with swears by eating based on your blood type. I really don't think there is a one-plan-fits-all diet. After all, it's really not a diet but a lifestyle change. We all lead very different lives, varied food tastes (I happen to love everything unfortunately), and have extremely different personalities. For me, tracking things and journaling is a great daily task. It would drive my husband nuts. I could pretty much live without sweets except on rare occasions. Other people would rather have dental surgery than bear the thought of a sugar-free life. Please post your comments on the tips and tricks that have worked best for you.