When it comes to "magic" weight loss, the news is filled with tricks and definitely NO treats. There were two separate news articles yesterday that caught my attention and neither was good news for anyone looking for an easy answer to losing weight.
The first article was alarming, actually. Apparently there are a number of patients of a California plastic surgeon who have elected to have a patch surgically applied to their tongue. The purpose, according to the physician, is to "make chewing solid foods very difficult and painful, limiting the patient to a liquid diet." I read that and thought, "you have GOT to be kidding me" . . . except I knew it wasn't a joke. The article included concerns from other physicians about the risk of infection and other potential complications from this procedure. Apparently the tongue patch is intended to be kept in place for only 30 days before being removed, but this is certainly not a wise approach, even on a short-term basis.
The other article announced that federal health regulators have decided not to approve an experimental diet pill which had been touted by some experts as the most promising weight-loss drug in over a decade. The FDA has asked for more study results and additional information on the drug's possible health risks, including major cardiovascular events and risks for women of childbearing age. The article went on to say that research continues in an effort to find an answer to America's obesity crisis.
In my humble opinion, the answer to America's obesity crisis will never be found in a surgical procedure, any surgical procedure, and it won't be found in a pill, either. These are all attempts to treat the symptoms and don't address the cause.
I'm not a psychologist and I'm not trying to paint everyone with the same brush, but I know that I didn't double my weight between my early 30's and my early/mid 50's because I was (am) a good cook and enjoy food. I spent a lot of time in denial to be sure, but even in my denial I understood that I was doing a lot of emotional eating. No surgery and no drug could fix that . . .
It wasn't until I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast that I finally began the work of addressing my emotional eating issues. What prompted me to do that were two things: first of all, I couldn't justify the cost of doing this program unless I was actually DOING the program. I knew it would only be cost-neutral if I was staying on plan. Secondly, when the weight started coming off, I was afraid to mess up what was finally clearly working and working well, so I was motivated to stay on plan. Both of these compelling reasons to stay on plan forced me to begin to deal with the stuff of life without running to food to stuff my feelings. At the time I made the decision to stay on plan, I certainly didn't think about the emotional ramifications of that decision, but learning how to deal with stress, boredom, etc. without running to chocolate (my drug of choice) made all of the difference for me.
As I've shared before, part of my story is that I learned that food couldn't fix the issues and I learned to turn in a deeper way to the true Source of my comfort - my Heavenly Father. He was and is faithful in meeting my every need!
Take Shape for Life/Medifast isn't a bag of tricks - it's a solid, proven program that works. If you make the choice to work the program, you will not only lose weight, but you just might experience personal growth in the process. How's that for an added treat?
It all begins with the choices you make. Choose wisely :-)
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Change: Another Perspective
Yesterday's blog stated that no change = no change. A friend of mine sent me an e-mail to let me know that he disagreed with what I'd written. Here's what he wrote:
You know what? I agree with him :-) Our bodies are constantly changing, whether or not we're aware of the change. It's not possible to remain static - frozen in time. If we aren't taking action, we may think that nothing is changing, but over time the changes taking place inside our bodies will become evident.
We don't see the change, good or not, on a day-to-day basis. I've heard Take Shape for Life/Medifast's medical director, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, say that it doesn't matter today if you eat a cheeseburger or not, but it matters over time. We don't see the immediate results/consequences of the choices we make today, but we shouldn't fool ourselves and think that not seeing them means there aren't results/consequences.
Staying on plan today might not reward you with a drop on the scale tomorrow, but over time your choice WILL make a difference because you WILL reach your goal. While you're staying on plan, you are also improving your health because you are positively impacting your cholesterol, blood pressure, managing your blood sugar, and reducing inflammation. These improvements will make a big difference in your health in the long run.
My friend is right. Our bodies WILL change over time and all we can do is choose the path that change will take. Which path do you want? Choose wisely :-)
I must disagree with your blog today. No Change = No Change is not true. We are always changing. We cannot alter the fact that we are changing we can only direct the path of change by our choices. We are in a constant path of change. Our choices only direct us down which path of change we move. The easiest path is the path of poor eating habits resulting in poor health. If we are on this path and we refuse to make choices that move us into a different direction our body will continue to change but in ways that are dangerous to our well being. If we choose to make wiser eating and health choices we move to the other path of change, change in a healthier direction.
We can't stop the fact that our bodies are changing. To choose to stay on the same path will result in arriving at the destination of being unhealthy. To choose to turn around ('repent') and choose a newer healthier path will take us to a destination of optimal health. But we will always have some of change in our life it is just which path of change we will choose.
You know what? I agree with him :-) Our bodies are constantly changing, whether or not we're aware of the change. It's not possible to remain static - frozen in time. If we aren't taking action, we may think that nothing is changing, but over time the changes taking place inside our bodies will become evident.
We don't see the change, good or not, on a day-to-day basis. I've heard Take Shape for Life/Medifast's medical director, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, say that it doesn't matter today if you eat a cheeseburger or not, but it matters over time. We don't see the immediate results/consequences of the choices we make today, but we shouldn't fool ourselves and think that not seeing them means there aren't results/consequences.
Staying on plan today might not reward you with a drop on the scale tomorrow, but over time your choice WILL make a difference because you WILL reach your goal. While you're staying on plan, you are also improving your health because you are positively impacting your cholesterol, blood pressure, managing your blood sugar, and reducing inflammation. These improvements will make a big difference in your health in the long run.
My friend is right. Our bodies WILL change over time and all we can do is choose the path that change will take. Which path do you want? Choose wisely :-)
Friday, October 29, 2010
Still Thinking About Change
Yesterday I blogged about the fact that not changing is really choosing to stay where we are. I'd like to expand on that thought a bit today. Basically, another way to say this is: no change = no change.
That pretty much says it. If what we are doing and the way we are thinking isn't producing the results we're seeking, then there's only one thing to do: CHANGE!
For me, I spent years in the no change = no change rut. I made repeated attempts to lose weight (name a diet and I probably tried it at one time or another), but I was only kind of sort of trying to change the outside without really being willing and ready to fundamentally change how I thought and emotionally related to food. I wanted to change the outside without being willing to change the inside, and it never worked.
The reason why I know I wasn't ready to change how I thought and emotionally related to food is because I was always trying to outsmart the program I was on. I was never ready and willing to just follow the program (and given some of the crazy programs I tried, lack of compliance was probably a GOOD thing in those instances). Regardless of what program I was on, whatever level of compliance I had was limited to my mood, stress level, etc. If things in my life were less than ideal, it was too easy to decide that it wasn't going to be a "good diet day." This went on for two frustrating decades. The only change I experienced was an increase in my weight and a decline in my health. Not exactly the change I was looking for!
For change to begin or continue in your life, you have to be ready to change - not just your outside, but your inside. Are you ready? If so, your willingness to change will be reflected in the choices you make today. Different choices WILL equal change, so choose wisely :-)
That pretty much says it. If what we are doing and the way we are thinking isn't producing the results we're seeking, then there's only one thing to do: CHANGE!
For me, I spent years in the no change = no change rut. I made repeated attempts to lose weight (name a diet and I probably tried it at one time or another), but I was only kind of sort of trying to change the outside without really being willing and ready to fundamentally change how I thought and emotionally related to food. I wanted to change the outside without being willing to change the inside, and it never worked.
The reason why I know I wasn't ready to change how I thought and emotionally related to food is because I was always trying to outsmart the program I was on. I was never ready and willing to just follow the program (and given some of the crazy programs I tried, lack of compliance was probably a GOOD thing in those instances). Regardless of what program I was on, whatever level of compliance I had was limited to my mood, stress level, etc. If things in my life were less than ideal, it was too easy to decide that it wasn't going to be a "good diet day." This went on for two frustrating decades. The only change I experienced was an increase in my weight and a decline in my health. Not exactly the change I was looking for!
For change to begin or continue in your life, you have to be ready to change - not just your outside, but your inside. Are you ready? If so, your willingness to change will be reflected in the choices you make today. Different choices WILL equal change, so choose wisely :-)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Choosing Change or Choosing Status Quo
Here's a quote to ponder a while: "Whatever you are not changing . . . you are choosing." What do you think?
I had to think about that for a bit, but it makes sense. There are certainly some things in our lives that we CAN'T change, but we have the ability to change a lot more than we often think we can . . . IF we choose. When there are things in our lives that we wish were different and we have the ability to change them, inaction really boils down to our decision to choose the status quo.
That certainly is true when it comes to our weight - the issue that brought all of us here :-). It doesn't matter what we think our genetics are, it doesn't matter if we've never been at a healthy weight in our lives, it doesn't matter how old we are or anything else. We can change our weight and begin or continue on a path to a healthy weight if we choose. If we aren't making progress and losing weight, if we aren't taking control of our weight, then it's because we're choosing to stay at an unhealthy weight.
Nobody can do this program for us. Conversely, nobody can make us go off plan. The only exception to the last sentence would be if someone tied us to a chair, pried our mouth open and force-fed us. I doubt that's happened to anybody lately!
I'm not saying that staying on plan is easy, because it's not. I also fully understand the struggle with emotional eating as I was a long-time emotional eater. However, it's still our choice - every time. The reality is that if we decide to change, really decide, we will make the choices we need to make that change happen. We may not do this perfectly, but over time our choices will more and more align with our decision to implement change.
So what are you choosing today? Are you choosing to change, or are you making the choice to stay where you are? The secondary choices you make today will support what it is that you really want. Choose wisely :-)
I had to think about that for a bit, but it makes sense. There are certainly some things in our lives that we CAN'T change, but we have the ability to change a lot more than we often think we can . . . IF we choose. When there are things in our lives that we wish were different and we have the ability to change them, inaction really boils down to our decision to choose the status quo.
That certainly is true when it comes to our weight - the issue that brought all of us here :-). It doesn't matter what we think our genetics are, it doesn't matter if we've never been at a healthy weight in our lives, it doesn't matter how old we are or anything else. We can change our weight and begin or continue on a path to a healthy weight if we choose. If we aren't making progress and losing weight, if we aren't taking control of our weight, then it's because we're choosing to stay at an unhealthy weight.
Nobody can do this program for us. Conversely, nobody can make us go off plan. The only exception to the last sentence would be if someone tied us to a chair, pried our mouth open and force-fed us. I doubt that's happened to anybody lately!
I'm not saying that staying on plan is easy, because it's not. I also fully understand the struggle with emotional eating as I was a long-time emotional eater. However, it's still our choice - every time. The reality is that if we decide to change, really decide, we will make the choices we need to make that change happen. We may not do this perfectly, but over time our choices will more and more align with our decision to implement change.
So what are you choosing today? Are you choosing to change, or are you making the choice to stay where you are? The secondary choices you make today will support what it is that you really want. Choose wisely :-)
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Holiday Surviving AND Thriving!
Every month we have a get-together for individuals in the area who are on (or who have been on) 5&1. Last night was one of our get-togethers and we talked about how to survive the holidays. With Thanksgiving a month away and Christmas less than two months from now, it really IS time to start thinking about how to successfully navigate the holidays. I'm pretty passionate about this because I've seen far too many people fall off program around the holidays and struggle terribly to get back on plan. Sadly some of them find it almost impossible to restart once they're off.
Three years ago I faced the upcoming holiday season and knew I needed a survival strategy - and fast! I didn't have the option of sitting out the holidays because the entire family gathers at my house for our holiday meals. We had 26 people at our house for Thanksgiving dinner that year and 23 for Christmas. We also hosted family member and friends for both a Christmas Eve supper and a New Year's Eve dinner party. Because I had been on plan since June 24 of that year and had lost a lot of weight by early November, I really didn't want to mess up what was clearly a good thing. I felt great and was seeing consistent results and was really afraid to go off plan. At the same time, I knew I wouldn't be happy eating a simple lean and green (or worse, sipping a Take Shape for Life/Medifast shake) while everyone else was enjoying a traditional holiday meal.
One of my friends who is very creative with recipes put together some great "legal" holiday recipes. Her efforts resulted in a great - and legal - recipe for stuffing, a couple of different recipes for pumpkin pie, as well as recipes for mock mashed potatoes and green bean casserole! These recipes enabled me to have the flavors of a traditional holiday meal and my plate looked a lot like everyone else's plate, but I stayed on plan and my total calories on Thanksgiving Day 2007 were right around 900. Best of all, that year I lost 18 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day!
By making the decision today to stay on program through the holidays, you will be making a choice that will keep you moving toward your goal. Once the decision is made, planning now what you're going to do is key. You'll never regret making the choice to stay on plan and this choice will, Lord willing, enable you to enjoy countless holiday seasons in the years to come - healthy and looking and feeling fabulous! The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)
*****
If you would like the holiday recipes, I have posted the recipe collection as a note on my Facebook page. If you do a search for "justpraisin" you will find my page :-)
Three years ago I faced the upcoming holiday season and knew I needed a survival strategy - and fast! I didn't have the option of sitting out the holidays because the entire family gathers at my house for our holiday meals. We had 26 people at our house for Thanksgiving dinner that year and 23 for Christmas. We also hosted family member and friends for both a Christmas Eve supper and a New Year's Eve dinner party. Because I had been on plan since June 24 of that year and had lost a lot of weight by early November, I really didn't want to mess up what was clearly a good thing. I felt great and was seeing consistent results and was really afraid to go off plan. At the same time, I knew I wouldn't be happy eating a simple lean and green (or worse, sipping a Take Shape for Life/Medifast shake) while everyone else was enjoying a traditional holiday meal.
One of my friends who is very creative with recipes put together some great "legal" holiday recipes. Her efforts resulted in a great - and legal - recipe for stuffing, a couple of different recipes for pumpkin pie, as well as recipes for mock mashed potatoes and green bean casserole! These recipes enabled me to have the flavors of a traditional holiday meal and my plate looked a lot like everyone else's plate, but I stayed on plan and my total calories on Thanksgiving Day 2007 were right around 900. Best of all, that year I lost 18 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day!
By making the decision today to stay on program through the holidays, you will be making a choice that will keep you moving toward your goal. Once the decision is made, planning now what you're going to do is key. You'll never regret making the choice to stay on plan and this choice will, Lord willing, enable you to enjoy countless holiday seasons in the years to come - healthy and looking and feeling fabulous! The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)
*****
If you would like the holiday recipes, I have posted the recipe collection as a note on my Facebook page. If you do a search for "justpraisin" you will find my page :-)
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Getting Healthier - Body and Mind
I had a fun conversation yesterday morning with a friend of mine who's lost 26 pounds in the past six weeks on our program. Naturally she's excited about her progress, and she's also happy that she's sleeping better and no longer having problems with gastric reflux.
What was most interesting to me was her comment that she was really excited because her "mind is getting healthy." She explained that her thinking is changing and she is embracing this program as a permanent, healthy lifestyle change. Wow! She really gets it, and I'm so excited for her. Because her mind is getting healthy, she isn't viewing this program as a diet (because it's NOT a diet!).
I've said for a long time that the food part of this program is the easy part - the hard part is the head and heart part. Changing how we think and how we emotionally relate to food is essential if we're going to not only reach our goal, but have the healthy habits we need to maintain our weight loss and continue. These changes don't happen overnight, but they do happen over time IF we make the decision to truly change our lives.
In my opinion, one of the best tools available to guide us in making those changes is "Dr. A's Habits of Health," the book written by Take Shape for Life/Medifast's medical director and Take Shape for Life co-founder, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen. This is a comprehensive guide to helping us make permanent changes in our lives. Dr. A spends a lot of time talking about how to change our orientation and move from focusing on solving a problem (like being overweight) to creating something you want in your life.
I'm happy for my friend and also for others who realize that their minds are getting healthier right along with their bodies. There are so many tangible ways to measure our success on this program: the scale, the tape measure, what size we're in, etc. Measuring other, intangible improvements is more difficult, but the change is still happening and it makes all of the difference in the long run.
Getting healthy in both our bodies and our minds happens one day and one choice at a time. Choose wisely :-)
What was most interesting to me was her comment that she was really excited because her "mind is getting healthy." She explained that her thinking is changing and she is embracing this program as a permanent, healthy lifestyle change. Wow! She really gets it, and I'm so excited for her. Because her mind is getting healthy, she isn't viewing this program as a diet (because it's NOT a diet!).
I've said for a long time that the food part of this program is the easy part - the hard part is the head and heart part. Changing how we think and how we emotionally relate to food is essential if we're going to not only reach our goal, but have the healthy habits we need to maintain our weight loss and continue. These changes don't happen overnight, but they do happen over time IF we make the decision to truly change our lives.
In my opinion, one of the best tools available to guide us in making those changes is "Dr. A's Habits of Health," the book written by Take Shape for Life/Medifast's medical director and Take Shape for Life co-founder, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen. This is a comprehensive guide to helping us make permanent changes in our lives. Dr. A spends a lot of time talking about how to change our orientation and move from focusing on solving a problem (like being overweight) to creating something you want in your life.
I'm happy for my friend and also for others who realize that their minds are getting healthier right along with their bodies. There are so many tangible ways to measure our success on this program: the scale, the tape measure, what size we're in, etc. Measuring other, intangible improvements is more difficult, but the change is still happening and it makes all of the difference in the long run.
Getting healthy in both our bodies and our minds happens one day and one choice at a time. Choose wisely :-)
Monday, October 25, 2010
Making Choices
We made a last-minute decision last Friday to drive to Indiana and visit some friends for the weekend. Our visit included a couple of meals at a restaurant. Because I went on 5&1 last Tuesday and have made the decision to take off a few pounds, my menu options at the restaurants were a bit more limited. Funny thing was - I was OK with that. I'd made the decision to go back on the program for a couple of weeks, so the other menu choices weren't particularly tempting. Our friends ordered what they wanted and my husband and I did the same, sticking with salad, veggie, and, as it turned out, salmon for both meals (one Saturday night and one Sunday afternoon).
It's amazing how quickly things in my brain "clicked" once I made the decision and went back on program. I know what I want and am very focused on my goal, so being around off-plan food really isn't an issue anymore.
It wasn't that way when I first went on 5&1 and early on I definitely struggled at times with feeling deprived and looking at all of the things that I "couldn't have." However, over time I began to embrace the reality that I COULD have those things - if I wanted to and chose to have them. I was a grown-up and free to make those choices. I also understood that there was something I wanted more than the food - I wanted to get to my goal and have a thin, healthy body. Because I wanted that, and I really did want that, I made the choice to not eat certain things. I've written a lot about the need to make secondary choices to support our primary choice, and I keep going back to this because it is SO important!
If you have a mindset that thinks of this program as being all about deprivation - can't have that and can't have this - your journey will be a lot more of a struggle. None of us likes to feel deprived. We are hardwired to take care of ourselves and feeling deprived for very long often leads to resentment and anger. Those feelings are hard to carry with us for weeks or months at a time and staying in a deprivation mindset often leads to eventually going off plan because we feel almost driven to "be good to ourselves."
However, if we've made the primary choice to get healthy, then we will view the secondary choices we make - including staying on program - from a different perspective. We will understand that these choices are steps on a ladder, with each choice bringing us that much closer to what we really want. We will embrace these choices are just that - the choices we are choosing to make. When I was on 5&1, I adopted the mindset of "I can have anything I want any time I want, but I am choosing to eat 5&1 instead of that because 5&1 will get me where I want to go and that won't." That thinking kept me out of feeling deprived all the time and it was one of the things that helped keep me focused and relatively cheerful all the way to my goal (I said relatively . . . !).
You don't have to stay on plan and you don't have to reach your goal. You really don't! The choice is yours, and if you've made the choice to stay on plan and get to your goal (and I hope you have!), then embrace this as your choice, then continue to choose wisely :-)
It's amazing how quickly things in my brain "clicked" once I made the decision and went back on program. I know what I want and am very focused on my goal, so being around off-plan food really isn't an issue anymore.
It wasn't that way when I first went on 5&1 and early on I definitely struggled at times with feeling deprived and looking at all of the things that I "couldn't have." However, over time I began to embrace the reality that I COULD have those things - if I wanted to and chose to have them. I was a grown-up and free to make those choices. I also understood that there was something I wanted more than the food - I wanted to get to my goal and have a thin, healthy body. Because I wanted that, and I really did want that, I made the choice to not eat certain things. I've written a lot about the need to make secondary choices to support our primary choice, and I keep going back to this because it is SO important!
If you have a mindset that thinks of this program as being all about deprivation - can't have that and can't have this - your journey will be a lot more of a struggle. None of us likes to feel deprived. We are hardwired to take care of ourselves and feeling deprived for very long often leads to resentment and anger. Those feelings are hard to carry with us for weeks or months at a time and staying in a deprivation mindset often leads to eventually going off plan because we feel almost driven to "be good to ourselves."
However, if we've made the primary choice to get healthy, then we will view the secondary choices we make - including staying on program - from a different perspective. We will understand that these choices are steps on a ladder, with each choice bringing us that much closer to what we really want. We will embrace these choices are just that - the choices we are choosing to make. When I was on 5&1, I adopted the mindset of "I can have anything I want any time I want, but I am choosing to eat 5&1 instead of that because 5&1 will get me where I want to go and that won't." That thinking kept me out of feeling deprived all the time and it was one of the things that helped keep me focused and relatively cheerful all the way to my goal (I said relatively . . . !).
You don't have to stay on plan and you don't have to reach your goal. You really don't! The choice is yours, and if you've made the choice to stay on plan and get to your goal (and I hope you have!), then embrace this as your choice, then continue to choose wisely :-)
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