Getting Into Results and Out of Stagnation-Part 2

If you've tried to take action towards sustained weight management only to always feel as if you're not getting anywhere, then you're not alone. Real, measurable action is hard to initiate let alone sustain. But as already discussed in the previous Part 1 installation of Getting Into Results and Out of Stagnation, taking action to bring about results is possible. We've already discussed some of the ways taking action can become less daunting, and more doable. Here are a few more suggestions:

-Regardless of what you want to change, focus first on Self-Care and always be kind to yourself though the process.

-Ask for help. Too often we think we can do things alone. When change is scary you must seek and embrace any help you can find from trusted individuals. Know that although action will be required of you to make change happen, focus most on what you want the end result to be ultimately rather than each stage along the way.

-Start making task lists to get you organized on all the things you need. I've found that a simple chalk board placed at a spot which is frequently visited and seen, like near the microwave or next to your bedroom or bathroom mirror or an office desk, works well. A chalk board forces you to get through the tasks because you really need to make more room on the board and the only way to do that is to erase “completed” tasks.

-Focus on holistic approaches to change. If you want to change your body incorporate things which grow your mind and soul.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences,

A Practical and Fun Take on Non-Dieting

As the new year rolls through, I sincerely feel that a greater number of people are opting for more holistic approaches to weight management. Such holistic approaches include clearing the stuff inwardly that is the real source of weight issues, exercising in ways that are enjoyable and pleasing, making peace with food by eating the most wholesome and pure food out there instead of labeling any food as good or bad etc.

Recently I got in my inbox perhaps one of the best examples of why a non-diet approach to weight management is so important, and that lesson comes from a dog! The video is entitled Lessons on Dieting...From a Dog




I feel that this short video brings the point across in a way that words sometimes don't. Well sometimes simplicity is the most effective way to convey a message.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences

A Case For Taking Small Steps in Your Weight Management Efforts

Often many types of changes associated with weight management and nutrition are expected to be extreme in order to bring about any meaningful results. This can make any efforts to achieve and maintain these changes quite stressful and daunting.

However, recently I was reminded how uncomplicated weight management can be if we just allow ourselves to just start with small steps. When a woman from Australia who lost 150 pounds after deciding to walk around the clothes line in her backyard, she proved how simple fitness can be.

It just shows that any exercise plan is only as good as the internal drive and motivation you have to get results. Many factors off course can impact the latter, but the important thing is that you begin somewhere, and a small first step is often a good place to start.

Find out about how the woman I spoke of earlier made long-term weight loss a reality for her.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences

4 Simple Approaches to Getting Off the Yoyo Dieting Ride

Yoyo dieting is often a lifelong issue and generally does not end unless a decision has been made that diets are not an option anymore. Breaking free from the yoyo dieting roller coaster ride is more challenging than just the intention to do so. Giving diets the boot can only be accomplished when we totally open ourselves to do things completely different as far as our weight loss goals are concerned. It certainly requires an open mind.


Four initial approaches to consider are:


1. You are more likely to succeed in both improving your health and attaining permanent weight loss if you recognize that there are no quick fixes and any diet which promises this is deceiving. The main reason why there is the tendency to go from one diet to the next is because the weight loss desired was not achieved or the weight that was loss was regained. Long term weight management requires patience.

2. Distinguish between psychological hunger vs. physical hunger. Psychological hunger is really not hunger at all, but cravings originating from emotions and stress. True hunger stems from our bodies natural hunger cues in response to it’s physiological and definite need for nourishment. It is important to be able to distinguish the two and become fully intuned to when you’re really hunger vs. when you are seeking pacification from food.

3. Stop fighting hunger. Despite what you’ve heard, hunger is not the enemy. It’s your body’s way of communicating with you a basic and primal need-food. Once you fully understand the difference between true hunger and cravings, you know that your hunger is a kind friend rather than a foe. Therefore, honor it and for goodness sake eat something! Ignoring hunger and putting off eating to cut calories will bring about an insistent response from your body that it needs nourishment for its survival. This response could come as cravings and overeating.

4. Open yourself to and find non-diet approaches to weight management. If you were told that you don't have options, then you won't told the whole story. Like everything in life, their are always choices out there. If there weren't there would be no need for advertising. The non-diet weight management options available fill in crucial elements which most diets leave out.

Remember that its never too late to do something differently. Just because you've always done weight loss the dieting way, that doesn't mean you need to continue doing so. Chances are that, like most, you probably haven't been seeing much success anyway. So perhaps it's time to explore your options.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Eight Non-Diet Tips You Can Apply Right Now

When it comes to weight management, so many people get overwhelmed and stressed. It just seems so complicated. When you put diets into the mix, successful weight management may almost seem impossible. So before you even consider yet another diet, consider rethinking this option. Instead, begin with these simple Non-Diet tips which you can utilize right now to help free you from the dieting roller coaster.


When it comes to weight management:

1. Be in it for the long haul. Do not be discouraged by minor shifts of weight in an undesired direction. Be patient.

2. Be Fiber Conscious. Fiber adds bulk and that’s a good thing, because that fills you up faster and longer. Vegetables, fruits, beans etc.

3. Watch your Liquid Calories especially soda calories and some "energy drinks". These really add up because they are so quickly consumed.

4. Avoid Diets which promise Quick Weight Loss

5. Eat several small meals daily because your body will only metabolize a certain amount of food based on it’s needs and the rest is stored as fat. A smaller meal means that more of the food is likely to be burned out and less stored as fat.

6. Take on a daily relaxation practice. Eg. Meditation, going for a walk, reading a good book, playing with a pet, meeting friends etc. or whatever makes you feel uplifted and less stressed.

7. Set your scale to your desired weight and step on it as minimally as possible after that. Place a note on the scale with your desired weight and make that your motivator. Avoid being a prisoner to it daily.

8. Have a support network. Being amongst like-minded people is one of the fastest ways to achieve a goal.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

5 Tips To Make Everyday Gratitude Easy

Having gratitude can often feel like a cliche to many. The first inclination may be to say, "Off course I know that I should be grateful for what I have"-food, clothes, shelter etc. But often times most of us forget to be grateful. Gratitude is much more than a phrase of thanks giving, it is a powerful, easy tool to reduce stress and keep a focus on the things you want to achieve like weight management and other food related goals and other life goals.

It is said that "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others" Cicero.


Five ways to bring in gratitude more often in your daily living include:

1. Be in the moment always. Remember that the only time that you are truly physically living is now, and therefore it is only there that your power lies. Find one thing in that moment to be grateful for. It could as simple as being able to watch your favorite sitcom on TV or use your fingers.

2. Look around you. Often times we walk through our daily routines blindly, engrossed with our own thoughts, worries, and mental To Do Lists etc. It therefore becomes easy to ignore the things of simple beauty around us. For example instead of jogging with debilitating thoughts of the number of miles you need to run today to burn those doughnut calories from the previous day, notice a tree or pond or flowers,a bright sky, your good health etc.

3. Say "Thank You" often. These simple two words have much power, and when we use them often in our interactions with others, our children, our family, etc, that regular act can change our perspective. "Thank You" is the ultimate gratitude proclamation.

4. Write it down. If you feel remembering to be grateful throughout the day is not something you may be able to keep up with, then a good idea is to put it on paper ( at least 5 things). You can do this either in the morning to start your day off good or in the evening before bed. A good way to simplify this process is to choose things to be grateful for in one category in your life at a time eg. five things to be grateful about my home, my family, my city, my wife/husband, my body etc.

5. Say it either mentally or out loud just before going to sleep. Saying a few things you're grateful for just before going to sleep is a good substitute for the usual worry thoughts that may be part of your normal bedtime ritual. It can also set you up for more relaxed sleep and comforting dreams.

Here are two great videos on gratitude. One is from the Gratidudes presenting a great way to show gratitude through the quirky "Gratitude Dance". The other is set to the song "Thankful" by Josh Groban. Enjoy!












To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Change the Way You Look at New Years Resolutions and Dieting

The New Years Resolutions and Dieting ritual relies greatly on willpower and pumped up drive. We are encouraged to approach our resolutions full force, and make them as big and extreme as possible.

Therefore, New Years Diet Resolutions create much passion and enthusiasm in the beginning, both of which usually burn out way before the end goal is achieved. The need to get to our desired end weight is so great that we dive right in often time with little preparation.

In the following article, Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D., author of Eating Moments, proposes that we set no dieting resolutions at all. After briefly explaining the real meaning of the word “resolution”, he goes on to explain in detail why dieting does not work.

You can read the article entitled New Year: No More Resolutions.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

What the Weight Watchers Hungry Monster Does Not Teach Us About Hunger and Cravings

This is the time of year when people begin holding the intention of a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more fit. At this point it has become a tradition, one which half of the world is initially fired up at the beginning of the year to fulfill. Weight Watchers, like most other weight loss programs, is now happily feeding this enthusiasm with an all out inundation of commercials, some of which depict the infamous “Hungry Monster”. This is a fuzzy, orange, big-eyed character who is suppose to represent the pesky rambling in our tummy called hunger which causes us to eat cookies, ice cream and similar foods, totally sabotaging our weight loss goals.

Upon conducting a quick online research of Mr. Hungry Monster, I found him to be quite popular. The first three pages of Google were filled only with raves and praises for this unique puppet. Most people were asking questions of where they could purchase him. One blog post referred to Hungry Monster as representing a "beast inside of them that was controlling what they eat” and that they need to retrain it so that they can eat healthier. The bottom line is that people love this orange, fur ball monster, and most seem to want to take him home as well.

So any criticism of the Hungry Monster concept would seem quite out of place, and could probably be grounds for an all out barrage of insults. But here goes. Although Hungry Monster is marketed as a playful symbol of hunger, he is portrayed as a mischievous and trouble making character which we certainly need to tame. Therefore hunger is something we need to tame. What is sad is that people actually do believe that something as natural as hunger, real physical hunger, is a bad thing.

The body has devised hunger to indicate to us when it is in a real physiological need for food. However when we make hunger the enemy, what we are really doing is confusing hunger with cravings. Cravings most often have nothing to do with physical hunger and are always focused on a specific food. Two types of cravings are emotional cravings and physical cravings.

Emotional cravings or “psychological hunger” occurs when food is used to escape from an undesired feeling, to deal with stress or provide comfort and ‘good feelings”. Physical cravings are often associated with some sort of deficiency the body is experiencing as often happens with structured diets where there is the tendency to exempt many foods. This lack of balanced eating can lead to low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals. The body may crave foods containing the missing carbs and nutrients it is short of.

Dieting is often a major cause of food cravings. When you can’t eat a food, you will want it more. The moment you get the chance "to cheat" and taste that forbidden fruit, you are likely to overdo it, because you know that it may be a long time before you can have that food again.

Other potential sources of food cravings include:

1. Low serotonin levels which may cause cravings for carbohydrates (mostly high sugar choices). Carbohydrates help ensure the body has sufficient tryptophan to allow the brain to produce desirable serotonin levels. Serotonin is a hormone essential for relaxation and sleep.

2. Environmental cues: A fast food commercial on TV or passing near the actual building like McDonald's, Wendy’s etc. could create a craving for fast food items. Certain activities strongly associated with a specific food can trigger a craving for that food, eg. traditional holiday foods during the Christmas season, candy or popcorn and other snack foods while watching television at home.

So if you intend on embarking on a weight management plan for the New Year, a good initial move would be to better understand hunger and cravings, so you can identify them easily when they occur. Ignoring true hunger, as the Weight Watcher’s “Hungry Monster” campaign would suggest, is not necessarily the angle to take.

It is important to take in enough calories and nutrition. It is equally wise to not skip meals or to exempt as many foods as possible as part of a restrictive eating plan, since these practices can cause unnecessary cravings which are the real source of overeating.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,



P.S: To assist you in managing food cravings you might want to take a look at Am I Hungry, a comprehensive, non-diet alternative program consisting of books, workshops, coaching etc.

Effortless Physical Activity and Weight Loss-Dance

Here's a wonderful article from Daily Om on rediscovering dance as a natural source of effortless movement:

Rediscovering Dance: Healing with Movement


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

What is Your Approach to Permanent Weight Loss?

We've already discussed at length some key principles of the having a Non-diet mindset. However here's a quick and fun way to get a general assessment of your approach to eating and weight management. It only takes a couple minutes and is quite revealing. You need not put in your name, just simply begin with the "start quiz" button.

What is Your Approach to Permanent Weight Los… » Quiz Question Maker

Hope this assessment tool gave you some greater insight.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Non-Diet Weight Loss with Effortless Physical Activity

In the previous article we spoke of differentiating between physical activity as a product of everyday natural activities vs. exercise which is much more regimented and planned. Now the question is how does that translate into your real everyday life? How can you make exercise effortless so that it fits into your lifestyle? Well here are a few suggestions to begin. Pick the ones most applicable to you.

• Have regular at-home dance parties. Put on the radio and according to the words of Lady Gaga "Just Dance". Involve the whole family or who ever you live with, or do it yourself. Dance as much as possible. Rhythm is not required. Dance while you are washing the dishes, if you are in front the bedroom mirror, etc. Use this most natural form of movement to your advantage. You could even try the new Just Dance game from Nintendo Wii if you need something more interactive.

• Take up a specific dance like salsa, belly dance, hip hop or any aerobic dance. The thing I like about dance is that it brings the element of good feelings and connection into the physical activity, and you are less likely to feel stressed by something which you have an emotional bond with. So other activities which can work include yoga, karate or kickboxing, tai chi, and alternative dances like the “journey dance”

• Pick up a sports activity or if you’re not so inclined, buy a Wii Activity system which simulates many fun activities including hula hooping, without requiring you to leave your home.

• Get a trampoline in the back yard or a mini-one in the bedroom and get on it as often as possible.

• Enjoy an outdoor swing (make sure it can accommodate you)

• Get a ping pong table or a “ice hockey” table in the game room, family room or in an extra room if you can.

• Roller blade in the backyard, in the park or at the skating ring.

• Go swimming-Water activities make for a wonderful fitness alternative

• Take a trip to a water park

• Walk in the neighborhood

• You’ve heard this one before, but take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. It really is fulfilling.

• If you’ve been thinking about it, adopt a dog. In some places, you can even foster a dog, so that you don't get into an unwanted long-term commitment if you are not ready.

I say a dog, because dogs are very high energy pets who force us to engage physically. We either play with them in the backyard or need to take them out on a walk. Either way both sides are enjoying physical activity.

• Take on a hobby. Although it would be good to adapt a hobby which allows for some physical exertion, it is absolutely not necessary. It could be anything from pottery making to painting. You're more concerned with the mental focus and stress reduction which hobbies often provide. This helps reduce stress-induced emotional eating and unwanted weight gain. If you are looking to lose weight, you won’t need to exercise as much. Also, a hobby is a wonderful way to combat emotional eating.

Often times, the activities we consider to be “child’s play” like the hula hooping and riding on a swing, roller blading and the trampoline, are often the most physically rewarding. Just think about it. Children who play often enjoy natural physically fitness. A sense of playfulness can go a long way towards us being able to naturally fit physical activity into our daily lives, aiding in our non-diet weight loss efforts as well as long-term weight management.

Free your physical health and weight management from restriction and strict, regimented control. Making physical activity more about what you already do than what you need to plan for, causes it be a more fun and sustained part of you life.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,