Health Food Halos

August 17, 2009 in calories, eating out, restaurants, weight loss | 2 comments

When I was in college, nearly every trip to the library was preceded by a trip to the Benson Candy Bins. The Benson Candy Bins were, as the name would lead to assume, candy bins that were in our student center. For the swipe of a student ID card magically linked to the parent funded food account you could walk out with a bag of candy as big as you pleased.

And believe me, I pleased.

Freshmen year, I had two favorites: candy corn and puppy chow. (Or, as us apparently less politically correct Northerners call it, “White Trash.” This is a combination of chex mix, pretzels, peanuts and raisins with melted white chocolate and confectioner’s sugar holding it all together. YEA.) Somewhere in the midst of studying for my Health and Exercise Science major in my second year, I realized that this was probably not a very good habit to have.

So, I switched to trail mix.

Much healthier right? Right. IF I was hiking on a trail. As it turns out, I was not hiking on a trail, I was sitting. For hours on end. Without moving.

And I wondered why I kept gaining weight.

Trail mix is not a bad food, but it’s certainly not a food that one should be consuming one mindless handful after another on a completely sedentary day, especially under the wrongful assumption that it was good for us. But this is true of so many foods – there are so many foods that masquerade as health foods, either by their reputations or their deceptively catchy food label claims. To be good stewards of our own health, it is extremely crucial that we each become aware of what our energy needs are and what type of energy we are supplying ourselves with. Here’s a hint: if you’re not losing weight, it’s because the supply is outweighing the needs!

No one is going to do this for you – at least not yet. Slowly the trend is shifting towards more honest food labeling (restaurants with calories on menus: KUDOS TO YOU!), and even more slowly food labeling becomes more truthful (trans fats on labels, at last.) It is an individual responsibility (or in some cases, a parental responsibility) to educate yourself on what you’re putting into your body.

The other day, someone asked me to help them figure out the calories of the restaurant meal they had had. I started with the basics: “what was in it?”

“Well, I don’t know,” they replied. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

I found this to be a difficult task, given that I was not present when they consumed this food! Moreover, I found this a disturbing (but all too common) comment: I did not know what I just put in my body.

Learn what your body needs and fuel yourself appropriately. While trail mix or granola might be perfect for those days when you decide to pack up the bags and hike the Appalachian, a bag of popcorn or cup of grapes might be more suited for those long library sessions.

Know what you’re putting into your body. Read labels. Start looking up some of those words you don’t recognize.

It’s YOUR body. If you’re not going to figure out what’s going into it, who will?

Decision by Decision

August 4, 2009 in coaching, life coaching, motivation, weight loss | 1 comment

Last week I was coaching one of my favorite clients who I just love for her “a-ha” moments – her eyes light up, and she catches herself saying something that we both know is one of those thoughts that has to be immortalized on paper and looked back on for inspiration at the ready. I was asking her to imagine herself on Oprah 5 years from now, reflecting on her weight loss journey. What lesson would she have taken from this journey? How would she summarize it? Her answer, I could tell, moved both of us.

“I would say it was a journey made decision by decision.”

I LOVE this. I just recently read that we make, on average, 250 decisions a day about food. (Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink, PhD.) 250 decisions! If only we were all so aware as to realize that this journey is made decision by decision.

Today, I was reflecting on the fact that I’ve gotten out of some of my regular habits and I haven’t been feeling my absolute best. The most major change is that since March I’ve been traveling a ton – both for work and for fun – and I haven’t had a really consistent exercise schedule. I realized that I really miss running and lifting on a regular basis. Along with my more erratic exercise schedule, changes in my husband’s schedule as he shifted from medical student to resident have meant that I’m “accountable” to cooking less often and have gotten in a habit of grazing for dinner more often. I’ve never been a huge fan of dinner, but I’m finding that my “eh why bother” attitude has translated to less grocery shopping, thus more eating out and more grabbing whatever is around. (Tonight’s dinner? 2 apples, 1 peach, a bunch of broccoli and a chunk of bread. Eaten over the course of about 3 hours, and I almost didn’t realize I was eating. Result: I’m full but unsatisfied.)

I was out running my dog tonight and the cool night air felt perfect as I slipped through it at a very comfortable running pace. I was enjoying hearing the sound of my feet rhythmically hitting the pavement, and my breath coming in regular, consistent patterns. I thought to myself, “You know, I really need to get back to running regularly. And I should probably get back to my more regular shopping/cooking habits. I need to get back on track. I’ll start tomorrow.”

Heard that quote before? I almost laughed out loud at myself, because I’ve done the “start tomorrow” thing one too many times. Wait a second, COACH? Aren’t you the one who talks about there is no “start” and “stop” or “being good” or “being bad”? Ahh yes, I HAVE uttered those words… just a few hundred times. It’s old programming, and it was easy to fall back into.

There is this pervasive, convoluted thinking that there is a finite “start” and “stop” to the habits that make us the healthy beings we are always striving towards. And I know this because I was there, for a long, long time. And I know this, because I find that if I’m not intentional, that type of thinking worms its way back into my mind and hangs out just begging to be noticed.

I thought of my client. Decision by decision. Here is my next decision: I will run a little bit longer. My next decision? What to pack for lunch. My next decision? When to go to sleep. Decision by decision, I will seek out the healthy behaviors that have, in the past, made me feel my best. The behaviors that are conducive to my best self. There is no start tomorrow, or next week, or after vacation. There is simply “What is my next decision?”

What is your next decision?

Reynolda Farm Market

July 21, 2009 in nutrition, organic or local | 2 comments

When I lived in Capitol Hill, one of my favorite Saturday morning excursions was to Eastern Market. Before green-bags were even remotely adorable and trendy, I would go with all my ugly canvas bags gleaned from 5k races and pharmacy techs and load up on my week’s worth of produce – gorgeous ears of corns, blueberries that still had a little bit of farm dirt on them, and zucchini that would roast to such perfection you could cry. I may or may not have a love affair with vegetables. The cheese vendor – oh the cheese vendor. I could have married him for his sage spiked cheese. (If you are reading this and live in DC, GO NOW and get you a hunk.)

I have always been a Farmer’s Market girl. There’s something that just feels right about handing over your money to the person whose hands may have actually been responsible for planting the seed or turning the soil where your broccoli came forth. Call me a agro-romantic if you will, and I’m sure every Farmer’s Market vendor isn’t the bushel and peck stand I’m picturing but HEY. I like to eat off the land my zip code is remotely close to, what can I say?

Today I took my mom and my sister to Winston’s newest spot for locals who like locals, and I was in produce paradise. I started getting twitchy the moment we walked up and there were just piles of big ol’ honeydews stacked outside.


The Reynolda Farm Market is open in the space that used to be Pink Mink (Reynolda Rd, across from The Children’s Home) right in front of the Krankie’s Airstream. (The airstream should be a pretty good reference point – there aren’t many retro-rv’s-turned-coffee-shops are there?) They just opened this weekend, but the goods were plentiful already.

I walked out with a big bushel of peaches, a bag full of teeny mac apples (I love little apples), and a huge bunch of broccoli. I know my husband is super excited about that last one. They also had tons of bread and granola from Ollie’s Bakery, fresh coffee from Krankie’s, goat cheese and chicken from a nearby farm. And even, get this, 5 cent candy pieces. I mean, come on. Play on my nostaglia a LITTLE more.

I dare you to click on this picture and make it full screen.

Tonight’s dinner menu: 2 mini apples, a hunk of broccoli with cilantro-lime ranch (that I made, not from RFM), a peach and a big chewy slice of olive oil & sea salt bread from Ollie’s Bakery.

Upside Down Days

July 1, 2009 in calorie counting, metabolism, strategies | Leave a comment

I’m a HUUUGE fan of breakfast. You might have noticed – I talk about it a little bit. A few years back, I started upping my breakfast (sometimes having two a day) and gradually cutting back what I ate as the day goes on. I realized that once I stopped eating my biggest meal at the end of the day, I felt better, had more energy, less stomach pain, slept better, AND it helped with my weight loss.

Our culture has dictated that dinner be our biggest meal. Since we’re working or at school during the day, dinner is usually the hour we convene together. That has been the standard for, well, decades and it’s pretty much how all Americans eat. But think about how you expend your energy: for most people, we start moving as soon as we get up and slowly, slowly wind down towards the end of the day.

We refuel our cars at the start of the journey, not when we come home and park it in the garage. I didn’t come up with that analogy, and I wish I could remember where I heard it to give due credit – but nonetheless, it’s such a powerful image that I feel compelled to share it. So think about that: we need more fuel to go, and less as we slow down. It’s marvelously simple, but it takes a little bit of effort – in fact, it requires going completely against the grain of what we’re used to.

Picture an upside down triangle: spreading your calories out so you have more early on and tapering off towards the end of the day. This is the Upside Down Day. Summer is the perfect time to start practicing the Upside Down Day for many reasons. Typically in the winter months, we tend to crave starchier, heavier “comfort foods.” This isn’t so in summer, and many people find they’re satisfied with lighter meals in summer anyways. Also, with the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer, you can make a high VOLUME meal (read: looks really really big on your plate) out of produce with a little bit of protein and it will still be a very light meal, calorically speaking.

Small Plate Dinner

Small Plate Dinner

If you’re cooking for or eating with others, it doesn’t mean you have to make everyone else change their way of eating. Just select smaller portion sizes for yourself – if there are leftovers, then you have lunch ready for tomorrow!

If you eat out, choose a salad and something from the appetizer section. You’ll probably find that that is plenty of food!

One very important key to the Upside Down Day is you MUST eat enough throughout the day. This isn’t going to work if you come home at 5 pm ready to eat anything that isn’t nailed down. The greatest sabotage to eating this way is insufficient calories throughout the day.

If you work, pack a bag the night before with breakfast, lunch and ideally 2-3 snacks. 1 mid-morning, a 2nd if you eat a late lunch, and one to eat right as you’re heading home. Ideal snacks are fruit, vegetables, yogurt, ½ oz nuts or 1/2 Cliff or Odwalla bar. If you’re home during the day, aim for structure: rather than mindlessly grazing throughout the day, aim to eat a mini-meal every 3 hours. Have breakfast be the largest meal, and gradually taper off as you go. (See my video on a breakfast idea.)

And here’s one final hint: if you find yourself raiding the cupboards about 3-4 hours after dinner with a growling tummy: drink a glass of skim or 1% milk, or grab a piece of fruit and then…. Ready for this? GO TO BED. Sleep helps with weight loss too, remember?

I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.

Feed the Hunger

June 22, 2009 in coaching, emotional eating, emotions, life coaching, motivation | Leave a comment

I mentioned Oprah’s Best Life Week in a long ago post and I wanted to talk about a statement she made in her interview on Monday of that week that I keep on thinking about – almost half a year later. As she talked about her own struggles with weight, she said “Anybody who struggles with weight is hungry for something else.”

I’ve been entrenched in the world of weight loss, professionally and personally, for almost a decade. I’ve heard a lot of things said about people who struggle with their weight, most hurtful and a far cry from the truth. Oprah, no big surprise here, knows what she’s talking about. For about 20% of the people I work with, weight loss is merely a matter of understanding how many calories they need and how many calories are in the foods they eat. They get the formula, the book, the log and off they go. For the majority, eating in excess (and a deficit of activity) may indeed be one part lack of knowledge, but is a greater part emotionally driven. It’s not about willpower, about being lazy, about being stupid or all the other things we’ve all heard said (probably most often from none other than Yourself) – it’s about discovering and understanding, as Oprah, said what you’re really hungry for.

It could be as simple as more sleep or as profound as more love. It could be as benign as a cure for boredom or as complex as a cure for low self-worth.

Many people fear being hungry when they’re trying to lose weight, but the fact is that stomach growling hunger is much easier to deal with then love-hunger, security-hunger, self-worth-hunger, companionship-hunger, peace-hunger, calm-hunger, or whatever else you are starving for. Feeding that hunger with food – food that is so readily available and inexpensive in our country – is a learned habit. Can you un-learn a habit? Of course… but not without support, introspection, determination and the choice to build a new habit.

Oprah has bared her hunger and declared herself willing to try and feed it in a way that supports her health. Are you ready to find and feed your hunger?

More articles on emotional eating:
Stress Eating
Cravings

A Healthy Vacay? No Way!?

June 12, 2009 in eating out, strategies, weight loss | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, my hubby and I went on vacation to an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. In exchange for an hour of personal training in the gym, we had an all-access pass to as much sun, sand, seafood buffet and pina coladas we wanted. It was relaxing, peaceful, and way, way overdue. (Thus, the quiet blog these last 2 weeks!)

Sunset in Punta Cana, DR

Sunset in Punta Cana, DR

Interestingly enough, the first question everyone asked me when I got home: “Did you gain any weight?” Okay now, granted, I work day-in and day-out with people trying to lose weight so that’s not that intrusive of a question in my line of work. However it was amusing to me (but not surprising) that for most people that is pretty much a given: Vacation = Weight Gain.

I hated to disappoint those hoping for a little misery loves company, but alas, the only scale I was really worried about was the luggage scale at the US Airways check-in counter. But, I promise you, I still had fun. I still indulged. I still acted as if I was on vacation. Because, I was! And I don’t take a lot of phone unplugged, endless pina coladas, SPF 50 vacations. So trust me, I was on vacation. Yet, I never felt as if my vacation was going to sabotage my healthy lifestyle, which I know, is really a common concern for many. So after I came back, I tried to reflect on what I did that really prevented most of the collateral damage that most vacays do to our weight loss goals. Here are my “vacay philosophies” that help me enjoy vacation without having to come back and do damage control.

1) Eat what you love: Especially true on vacations where food is plentiful, has a great variety and is free – like all-inclusive resorts and cruises. Cruises, especially, can be a weight conscious person’s worst nightmare. Just when you think you’re done eating after a 4 course dinner, they roll out the chocolate buffet at midnight! With food around 24/7, how can you still maintain a semblance of control? The key: portion and discretion. I love food – but I love some food more than others. So when I’m faced with an abundance of choice – like a buffet or a 4-course menu – I try to zone on what I really and truly love, eat those things, and disregard the rest. In case you didn’t pick up on this yet, I love me some coconut flavored, sugar-loaded, rum drinks. What I can live without? Any kind of potato, pasta, bread or rice dish. For me, that’s a no brainer trade. Seek out the foods you really love, and avoid putting calories in your mouth just because they’re there, they’re free and someone else is eating them next to you.
2) On that note, watch the alcohol intake. (And no I don’t mean watch it as the bartender fills up margarita # 5 and marvel at how lovely it looks in your glass with the little salt around the rim.) It’s easy on vacation to get carried away with drinking, because the alarm clock is not going to go off at 5 am, so why not? While I clearly don’t have a problem with spending calories on a mojito or two, I also recognize that too many of them and philosophy #1 goes out the window. Once your inhibitions are lowered, you will eat just because foods there, it’s free and someone else is eating it next to you. Also, know that alcohol is empty calories. It’s calories you consume without any fair trade off to your body – no vitamins, no minerals, no fiber, no omega-3’s… yea, I know red wine has antioxidants in it, but Jose Cuervo does not.
3) Which leads me to my next philosophy: treat your body as kindly as you’re treating your mind. You’re on vacation because you recognize that in order to be a happy, functioning, well-balanced member of society you need a little R&R from time to time. In other words, I assume you’re on vacation because you recognize that relaxing is good for you. Keep that motivation in mind – that you’re taking care of you – when it comes to food choices. Nourish your body with fruit and veggies, with whole wheat choices when available, and by drinking lots and lots of water. Your mind will feel even more refreshed when your body feels good too.
4) And the main reason vacation doesn’t blow my healthy living efforts out the window: this is a lifestyle. I plan to do all the things I do today to keep myself healthy for the rest of my life, God willing. One week, ten days, however long your vacation is – can’t undo everything you have learned and committed to for healthy living. I believe the reason vacation has earned such a Weight Loss Sabotage rep is that people come back from vacation, think “I BLEW IT!!!,” go into crisis mode, and fail to get back on track right away. A week later, you’re still panicking and telling yourself how bad you screwed up and now it feels like an even deeper hole to come out of it. If I had to give you one parting suggestion for how to survive vacation and stay maintain a healthy lifestyle, it would be to be conscious of the idea that no one week can take away any progress you’ve made or can deter you from continuing forward on your weight loss journey if you’ve committed to a lifestyle change. So if you forget strategies #1-3 (forget, ignore, whatever…), commit to #4. The day you arrive home and put down your suitcase, pick up immediately where you left off before going on vacation. Remind yourself that any changes on the scale are due to the change in your routine, and that once you resume your normal healthy lifestyle, the effects will be reversed. In other words: stay calm and get back on track.

Losing weight is not about putting your life on hold until you reach a certain goal. A successful weight loss strategy is one that will survive every event life offers – including, and especially, holidays, celebrations and vacations. With some “mental preparation” you can easily go on vacation and maintain the progress you are making towards your healthy goals.

Chocolate Coconut Mousse ... Definitely Vacation Food!

Chocolate Coconut Mousse ... Definitely Vacation Food!

The Ticket

May 23, 2009 in coaching, fear, life coaching | 3 comments

Every day on my way to work I pass a lottery billboard that says what the current jackpot is. Many days I entertain myself on my drive by going through in my head what I would do if I won the jackpot. I must confess, I am nerdy enough to reduce the jackpot down to my approximate guess at it’s after-tax value, and then the first 3 designations of the jackpot go to the not-insignificant student debt carried by our household. Then the fun begins – often I send my parents and my in laws on various vacations (separately), I shuffle between two or three different cars for my husband, choose candidates for seed money among friends or family members who I know have school and/or business dreams, secretly gift siblings or other deserving friends, and then I usually end my spree with a pair of really fantastic jeans and the hiring of a good financial adviser. Or something along these lines.

This game amuses me, and usually occupies me for at least two-thirds of my commute. However, in nearly 3 years of the commute and the same game, I have yet to buy a lottery ticket. In fact, I’ve never bought one in my life. One more fact? I would have no idea how to buy a lottery ticket and I’m slightly intimidated by all the choices. So despite the rapture that the “how I’d spend my winnings” game brings me, I’ve never once taken pursuit towards the first step that would move me closer to being a jackpot winner.

Why? Until today, I never really thought about it, but when I got right down to it I realized that the reason I’ve never bought a ticket is that I honestly and truly believe that I’d never win the jackpot.

The more I thought about it, I discovered it goes a little deeper than that. I can dig way back into the archives of my memory and remember someone in my family – my dad? – saying “The lottery? That’s a tax on stupidity.”

Is it any wonder I’ve never bought a ticket?

Limiting beliefs are beliefs we hold to be true, without facts or proof, that stop us from taking action. My limiting belief that I’d never win the lottery is exactly what has prevented me from ever buying even a scratch off. While some might argue that my 20 minute rhapsody of “my life, jackpot winner” is nothing more than a whimsical daydream, many people spend three or four times that amount of energy mentally dwelling on what they’d do, who’d they be, where they’d go and how their life would change if they only lost weight. If they had the body they wanted. The energy. The health they dreamed of. If they won the body lottery.

Limiting beliefs exist here too. Just like my lottery fantasy, the daydream bubbles away and it’s back to reality. “Sure, that’d be nice,” I think, as I turn into the parking lot and face the day, “But, I’d never win.” “Sure, that’d be nice,” they say, as the daydream bubbles away and they’re faced with reality. “But, I’ll never weigh that. I’ll never have that body. I’ll never be able to walk up stairs without knee pain. Run a 5k. Get rid of these blood pressure medications. Escape diabetes. Wear the same size I wore before kids. Feel happy in my body.”

Is it any wonder they don’t buy the ticket? The first step towards anything you daydream about is is next to impossible if you don’t truly believe that the outcome is yours for the taking.

Limiting beliefs can hold you back from taking the first step. Here are examples of limiting beliefs I have heard my clients and others say regarding weight loss:
- It’s genetic, I’m just doomed to be overweight. (So why bother?)
- I will regain the weight I lose. (So why bother?)
- I have failed at thousands of diets before. (So I will fail if I try again.)
- Weight loss is so depriving. (So I’m not going to do it.)

Combating a limiting belief is not impossible, but it requires intention. Imagine if you were trying to help a child shake a belief you knew was not true but were steadfast believers. “There are monsters in my closet!!!” How would you do it? You might try to show them proof that their belief was not true. “Look here,” you would say as you held the closet door open wide…”no monsters!” Chances are, it would take a couple times of showing them the proof before the belief would begin to loosen it’s hold.

The same is true for our limiting beliefs. Seek proof that your belief may not be true. Are there people you know who have lost weight, despite having parents or siblings who remain overweight? Are there people you have heard who have lost weight in a way that didn’t sound so depriving? Are there people you know who have done thousands of diets and then found a different way to succeed at weight loss? (I can give you the answer to THAT one!) Yes, you may be able to find plenty of proof that supports your limiting belief. But once you also find proof that your limiting belief is not necessary FACT, you will find relief as a barrier from moving forward dissolves.

So if you’ve found yourself daydreaming of something, but not moving forward, then go and prove yourself wrong. I’ll be over here looking up past lottery winners. I might just even find myself with a ticket in hand.

More Zzz’s, Less Lbs???

May 12, 2009 in health risks, metabolism, research, strategies, weight loss, weight loss tools | 1 comment

If you’ve ever felt guilty for hitting the snooze button and getting an extra 30 minutes of sleep instead of going to the gym, do I have some good news for you! Turns out your instincts for extra sleep may have not been a far cry off the radar for getting healthy. There’s been an increasing body of evidence that have pointed us more and more towards seeing there is a strong link between sufficient REM cycles and fitting into your skinny jeans. Good news for people who love pillow time.

The link is being explored in a number of different ways. The first is obvious: lifestyle choices. Think about the last time you stayed up way too late – maybe it was a late night for your final exams in law school, maybe it was to pick up a family member at the airport from a delayed flight, or maybe it was to catch the latest marathon of House Hunters. (Or yes, you work nights or have a small, helpless, hungry infant in your life who needs you at wee hours of the morning – slightly more legitimate than HGTV marathons.) Tell me, the next day, how raring and ready were you to get a great work out in? What types of foods did you crave? How positive was your mood?

It’s rare the person who thinks clearly, chooses wisely, and focuses well on 2-3 hours sleep less than what they need. Burn the oil til midnight with the alarm clock going off at 5 am, and you might find that pull towards an ooey gooey Cinnamon Crunch Panera bagel is a whole lot stronger than fixing yourself an egg white omelet with salsa and some whole wheat toast. It’s not that you need more carbs, but your sleep-deprived fuzzy brain is confusing it’s lack of energy and sending you on a manhunt for all things quick-boost-energy. Is the HOT NOW sign on, or am I just hallucinating?

We also experience a number of hormonal changes that drive the choices we make and can impede the weight loss we’re working towards. For starters, the hormone Ghrelin, which I like to affectionately refer to as the Gremlin in my tummy, revs up when we’re sleep deprived. A revved up Gremlin means a revved up appetite. Along with the increase of Ghrelin, sleep deprivation leads to an depression of leptin. Leptin’s job is to tell you when enough is enough. In other words, it signals then brain when to stop eating. Imagine, an increased appetite and a decreased signal of fullness. You get the picture!

The final piece of the hormonal puzzle is the increase in the hormone cortisol. I highlighted the role of cortisol here, and guess what folks? Not getting enough sleep provokes that same stressful response as the saber tooth tiger chase back in our caveman days. Yet, according to the National Sleep Foundation, 63% of people are sleep deprived. The normalcy of this behavior downplays the stressful impact it can take on our well-being. In fact, in many circles I’ve traveled in, being sleep deprived is a rite of passage, or even bragging rights! Forgive me for not understanding, but there’s few things that make me happier than not needing a drip line of Dunkin to get me running!

In all fairness, I’ll confess that I have a strong bias for this topic. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love sleep and I’ll go to some pretty great lengths to protect it. (Just ask my softball team where my loyalties lay when we were scheduled for a 10 pm play off game. I showed up only when my 6:15 am appointment the next day called and canceled.) I’ve learned this route the hard way, as a reformed “zombie.” Throughout most of my school years, I’d stay up as late as humanely possible, then wake up at the crack of day to get to the gym. I still look back with shame on the image of my sleeping head on a desk in many of my high school classes. (Most sincere apologies to Senor Balsch, Mr. P, and Mr. Boardman. I assure you it had nothing to do with your teaching style.) Like a reformed smoker, once I knew the errors of my way, I’ve been quick to get on the bullhorn and let the world know about the power and impact of sufficient sleep.

The research is there, and it’s even tapping into some of the hardest hit groups: new mommas. A 2008 study conducted by Kaiser Permanante found that 6 months after delivering, mothers who were sleeping less than 5 hours a day were more likely to be retaining at least 10 pounds of extra body weight than the lucky moms getting 5 or more. (Disclaimer: I don’t have babies, and I have no idea what it takes to get more than 5 hours of sleep as a mom. So don’t shoot the messenger, my blearly eyed mommas readers out there!)

In case you’re wondering, the NSF defines sleep deprivation as getting 8 hours of sleep or less. I tend to believe that we’re all hard-wired differently and most “well rested” people I know average between 6-8 hours a night. (Survey sample: close family and friends. Very scientific.) If you’re not getting that and you think it may be affecting your health, examine your night time habits to figure out how to get a few more REM cycles.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins recommend these other tried and true methods for increasing your Zzz’s:
- Limit caffeine use to before 3 pm and moderate alcohol after dinner. (You’ll fall asleep easier but as the buzz wears off, your sleep is less restful.)
- Avoid rigorous exercise in the late evening hours.
- Try to get up at the same time every morning, even if you go to sleep earlier.
(I don’t full abide by this rule, as most week days mornings I wake up at 4:50 am. On the weekends, I try to get up the first time my body wakes up naturally, whatever time that is.)
- Use your bedroom for bed-only related activities. And no, that does not include catching up on Jeopardy and having some cheese and crackers under the sheets.
- Lose weight. (Yes I know, that’s why we’re here!) Increased weight around the neck and chest can impair oxygen to the brain, a condition known as sleep apnea. As a survival mechanism, you actually wake up periodically throughout the night to jump start respiration. Frequent mini-wakes up can add up to big time sleep deprivation.

So the next time you find your arm snaking towards that snooze button, forget the guilt. Listen to the message from your body. If you truly need more sleep, take more sleep. (Just don’t forget to show up for work, or feed the dogs/children/spouse, meet your trainer, or go to your doctor’s appointment… or come to MY CLASS…whatever it is you’re doing that morning.) If you find that you’re constantly reaching for the snooze, re-evaluate your sleeping patterns on the other end.

An extra hour of sleep a night be the difference of ten pounds a year, according to research using the Nurses Health Study in 2006. Ten pounds? I’ll take it. And the extra sleep.

The Catch

April 25, 2009 in TFA, coaching, emotions, fear, inside out, life coaching | Leave a comment

Shoot, I need to get an oil change. I wonder when I can go. Maybe Thursday? No, definitely not Thursday, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment Thursday and that meeting is on Friday so I better leave some time to prepare for that. I’m so not prepared for that. I need to email Joe and see where the numbers are for that. I wonder if our tax return is ready yet. I need to pay our water bill I think. Crap, I need to get to the grocery store too. I don’t know what I’m cooking for dinner tonight. Maybe I’ll just get pizza. That’s not very healthy though, can’t eat that. But, blech, I’m so sick of chicken. I need to lose some weight. These pants are way too tight. I hate the way they look. I hate the way I LOOK. I need to go to the gym. My knee hurts. I wonder who’s going to get kicked off American Idol tonight. I’m so tired. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late watching TV last night.

What? Don’t tell me you haven’t heard a similar diatribe play in your own head before? I swear, whenever I stop to actually pay attention to the running stream of consciousness in my head, I often find if I’m not monitoring it, it’s like having an email inbox with no spam filters. It’s like a free for all of thoughts, with no limitations on what I actually want there.

There’s a concept in the field of personal development called the law of manifestation (or sometimes called the law of attraction.) The general premise of this law is that “Like Attracts Like,” or that all thoughts have an energetic field to them and whatever thought you’re putting out there creates results around the energy of that thought, whether positive or negative. If you accept that, the next premise – the negative thought attracts negative outcomes – is where I find we tend to get a little stuck. It’s like waking up in the morning, stubbing your toe and thinking “AGGGH. This is going to be a crappy day.” And guess what? It usually is.

We’re all constant thought-machines and playing the bait and switch on your thought processes all day can be overwhelming. I talk about the process of TFA for creating big picture positive thoughts (to create positive emotions) but there’s a game I play with myself on a more minute-by-minute basis to switch myself out of stream of consciousness mode when I’m focused on all the things I “don’t want” – to do lists, worries, frustrations, annoyances, stressors.

I call it “The Catch.” I call it that because the first step is catching yourself in the moment of having a negative thought… or thoughts. For myself, it’s often times a physical cue that I’m getting into negativity mode – an uneasy, tense feeling in the pit of my stomach, or I’ll find my hand has flown up to rub the back of my neck (for me: an immediate signal that my body is going into STRESS MODE, alert the cortisol pumps!!!). Or, of course, an overwhelming desire to turn the car immediately into the Starbucks drive through and get a mocha frappuchino. (Light, with no whip of course, BUT STILL.)

I slam the brakes on my thoughts (and my car) as soon as I catch them and immediately ask myself this question: So, what DO I want?

It’s an easy question to answer, and as soon as I shift my focus away from what I don’t want, what I lack, what I fear, what I worry about to what I hope for, what I have plenty of, what I celebrate, what I am confident in, the mood shift is immediate. My focus shifts to gratitude, optimism, excitement and peace of mind. The knot in my stomach releases, the tension disappears from my neck and my car stays on its due course. When you focus on what you want, you start noticing when you’re getting what you want. When you focus on what you have plenty of, you wallow in gratitude and the feeling of security. When you start celebrating, you find joy in the every day. Focusing on the positive is hardly a concept anyone can argue against for better living; but I often find the challenge is getting yourself to make the switch. It doesn’t have to be so difficult. Just catch, then ask. “What do I want?”

Whether or not you believe “Like Attract Like,” I promise you, you have nothing to lose by focusing on thoughts that generate positive emotions. Start today: Catch. Ask. Shift. Enjoy the benefits.

You don’t crave celery when you’re stressed?!? Oh wait… me either.

April 8, 2009 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

Last Wednesday I came rushing into my office after a long day, with less than an hour before I’d have to leave for another appointment. I threw down all the bags I was carrying, booted up my computer and sat down to catch my breath. After teaching 3 group sessions, I hadn’t yet had lunch and noticed for the first time my ravenously growing stomach. At that exact moment, I spied the Panera box my co-worker had on her desk. Moments later, I was gobbling down a cinnamon crunch bagel and thinking to myself “Boy, I sure do get why people say they eat worse when they’re busy! You just don’t have time to get something healthy some days!”

AHEM. I realized a few seconds later, as I glanced over at the bags I rushed in with, that I had a yogurt, celery sticks and laughing cow, and a Clementine all left in my lunch bag. I knew those were there, but nonetheless, had defaulted to grabbing the bagel. This reaction made me wonder: how much of our busy day eating choices have to do with lack of time to find or prepare healthy food, and how much should more accurately be contributed to the emotional state that our frenzied lifestyle puts us in?

For me, this moment was an insight. My knee jerk reaction to grab the bagel had nothing to do with the fact that I didn’t have TIME to get something healthy – although I had not had my usual lunch hour during the day, I had plenty of time the night before to pack a lunch box FULL of healthy choices and just as much time to reach over and crunch on some celery and LC. My inclination to grab the sugar-y, carb-y choice was clearly a response to my pent-up tension from a day (a week!) that had hit me hard on the stress-o-meter.

There seems to be an epidemic lately of stressed out, busy people. One of my clients’ most common obstacles to their weight loss goals are their “busy lifestyle.” My initial reaction to that is to look at their day-to-day schedule and figure out where exercise can fit in (one less hour of TV? wake up a smidge earlier?) and to develop strategies for cooking fast and healthy (hello, steamfresh veggies!) or finding healthy take out (thank you, Jared.) While these strategies are critical and they address the symptoms of a busy lifestyle, as I sat there wolfing down a bagel that did nothing for me but send me into a sugar coma that stretched well into dinner hour, I realized that the roots of our poor habits/busy lifestyle go way deeper than just “not enough time” to eat healthy or exercise.

It’s well documented that under stress, our bodies start pumping out 2 hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. The body’s reaction to cortisol: GIMMEFOODNOW kind of hunger. This was a great reaction to have in the days when stress meant running from a saber toothed tiger (thanks, Cavemen ancestors for establishing our metabolisms), but not so helpful today when running away from our stress usually involves vegging out in front of the TV with Simon Cowell or having your butt glued to the office chair for hours at a time. Chronic, low-grade stress (the kind of every day stuff we all deal with) can create chronic levels of cortisol.

The result? Your bodies’ craving for quick, concentrated energy. Here’s a hint: it’s not celery sticks and laughing cow.

But wait… there’s more! (That wasn’t enough? REPEAT: Thanks cavemen ancestors.) Not only does cortisol rev up your craving for Panera bagels, but it also makes your body more efficient at storing fat – a protective mechanism when times of stress might also be times of famine. No longer helpful when famine is practically unheard of in most of our lives – in fact, most of us have access to cheap, plentiful, high calorie food at any hour of the day!

Couple these physical reactions with our emotional response to stress – a desire to disconnect from the pain that focusing on our stressors create – and you have what is basically the perfect storm for not-so-healthy choices and weight loss efforts impeded. How to navigate from these treacherous seas?

Use the symptom-treating healthy eating strategies: packing healthy lunches/snacks the night before so you have plenty of good choices on hand, loading up on steamer bag veggies, lean proteins, bagged salads – whatever it takes to quickly throw together a healthy meal, plug exercise sessions into your calendar and treat them with the importance of a doctor’s appointment.

Another strategy: Move. It’s called fight or flight for a reason – sometimes a little flight can go a long way to can go a long way to clear your head and level out your stress hormones.

But, lastly go a little deeper. Recognize when you’re grabbing choices that don’t support your weight loss efforts that it may really be more about the comfort of that food than the “too busy” – I find a heaping dose of honesty with ourselves goes a long way. It’s easy to let yourself off the hook time and time again when you keep saying “I’m too busy to eat healthy” but it’s a big white flag for some work to do when you start saying “I’m eating this to distract myself from the stress of xyz.” Use the strategies I talk about here to work through emotional eating and change your thought process to alter your reactions to stress-inducing situations.