The power of paying attention

I was working at the computer the other day, and overheard an interview on a local news station with an inspiring woman who lost a substantial amount of weight - I believe she was in her 60's, and had gotten into dancing. The reason she decided to try and lose weight was because some of the dance moves she was learning required her partner to lift her up in the air - she felt bad for her poor partner, so made some changes so that she would be lighter.


The thing she did that struck me the most was this - she started paying attention to her hunger. She said that sometimes her life was so busy that she simply ate because it seemed like the thing to do - she learned that if she would simply check in with herself before eating (take a breath, focus, calm the chaos a bit, have a little water), she discovered that more often than not, she wasn't even hungry!

Here is an inspiring video to promote a new book by Dr. Michelle May, who runs a business called Am I Hungry? (amihungry.com). Dr. May is all about intuitive eating, and I am looking forward to reading (and probably wholeheartedly recommending!) her new book. It is a reminder of the power of simply paying attention to what you eat, and making sure that you enjoy it!

Get off the diet rollercoaster, Oprah!

There's a lot of talk in the media lately about Oprah - it seems she has gained her weight back. She's done some interviews about it that I've half listened to - in one, she reveals that she "fell off her diet", and as an example, found herself devouring a pound of cookies in bed. This is how I know she is still firmly in the diet mentality. People who have broken out of (or never fell into) the diet mentality don't eat a whole pound of cookies in bed at one time, because they simply don't want to. Cookies are just - cookies. Yummy, yes; magical, no.

I think it's interesting that Oprah's best friend, Gayle King, seems to live with the non-diet approach. She loves food, and will even go on trips for the show in search of the country's best pizza or cake. But, she doesn't seem to feel guilty about it, and she also doesn't seem to struggle with her weight. This doesn't mean that she never works out or never tries to eat healthy - living the non-diet approach does not mean you don't try to take care of yourself. But, sometimes taking care of yourself means going in search of the world's best pizza.

Making it through the holidays

One of the main reasons we gain weight over the holidays is due to all of the dang food available. I have a knack for the obvious, right? Stay with me -

If you are concerned about gaining weight over the holidays, I challenge you to concentrate on just one thing: eat only what you really like, and if you really like it, pay attention while you are eating so that you can actually enjoy it!

There are so many mindless eating (and drinking!) opportunities during the holidays: the candy sitting out at the receptionist desk, cookies brought in by co-workers, fruit cake delivered to your door (maybe this is a lost tradition - I've never actually had this happen, but I hear that it used to happen to everyone), uncomfortable parties where you need to keep busy by eating and drinking, and so on.

This is a great month to practice these steps - before you eat anything, ask yourself if you actually want it. If not, take a pass. You can always come back to it later. After you start eating something, ask yourself if you really like it. If it doesn't taste great, why waste the calories? Save them for something fantastic.

And of course, we come to the question - what about nutrition? "If I eat only what I like, I'll only eat brownies" - if this is you, then think of this as baby step number one out of the diet mentality - you may want to read my earlier posts on the diet mentality.

Now that we are all eating only what we like, is anyone actually going to eat fruit cake?

The Health Halo effect

I came across this interesting article describing the health halo effect, and the author is suggesting that this effect is part of the reason for the American Paradox (being, that we Americans are paying more and more attention to nutrition and healthy eating but still getting fatter; it's a sad counterpart to the French Paradox, where the French seemingly eat butter, wine, and chocolate all day long and still fit into their skinny jeans).

They did an experiment in New York, where they showed a picture of a restaurant entree to people and asked them to estimate the calories. Then, they went to another group and showed them the same entree, but added a side of crackers that were labeled "trans fat free!". This group thought that the meal had LESS calories, presumably because of the suggestion of healthy given by those crackers.

In another experiment, researchers found that people eating Subway meals were more likely to underestimate how many calories were in a meal AND were more likely to add on calories in the form of regular soda or cookies, than people eating McDonald's. As one expert put it, “People who eat at McDonald’s know their sins, but people at Subway think that a 1,000-calorie sandwich has only 500 calories".

I really like the end of this article, in which the expert breaks this down into our (American's) unhealthy obsession with healthy food: “Europeans obsess less about nutrition but know what a reasonable portion size is and when they have had too much food, so they’re not as biased by food and diet fads and are healthier. Too many Americans believe that to lose weight, what you eat matters more than how much you eat. It’s the country where people are the best informed about food and enjoy it the least."

Just another example of the diet mentality at work - the health halo.

I'm back!

I've fallen off the blog wagon for a bit, here - busy, busy, busy!

Here's a clip from a news segment I was interviewed for on the Suddenly Slimmer Lemonmade diet, which is a new version of the old Master Cleanse diet - my bottom line: this will ultimately make you gain weight.

Just say no to shake diets!

A dear friend mentioned to me that she is seeing a new doctor (a PA, actually) about his weight loss plan. The plan involves some sort of shake and $200 a month. That's all my friend knew, but she was on board. After all, he's a doctor!

Now. My friend is indeed overweight. She's also 70 years old, and has tried more than her share of "diets". My heart breaks at the thought of her jumping into another one - it's like watching someone drive off into the intersection, not seeing what you see - a big truck speeding right towards them!

It also makes me very frustrated - why is she so willing to put so much time, money, and energy into something that will not work in the long run? Here is what is going to happen: she will go on the diet, feel great about herself for a little while, lose a little weight, start thinking about real food, start dreaming about real food, start obsessing about real food, binge on real food, feel terrible about herself, yadda, yadda, yadda, end up gaining the weight back plus a few extra pounds for good measure. Who needs this insanity??

Here is my wish for my friend: enjoy your life. This means that you take gentle care of yourself by finding some sort of daily activity that makes your heart work a little harder and challenges your muscles a bit. This means choosing good-tasting food that you enjoy, and enjoying healthy food because you feel good nourishing your body. This means taking an interest in life, which by the way - takes your mind off of dieting and off of food. This means learning to like yourself as you are, because you are a fabulous person and you are not your weight.

The magic of concentrating on these things is the by-product - living this way ultimately makes you healthier, without you needing to do some silly "Doctor approved shake diet". There are steps you can take every day to get closer to taking care of yourself, and guess what? These steps will probably get you closer to skinnier and farther from caring about it.

Perception becomes reality?

In the July 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, there is a fascinating study that looked at teens over time. They tracked 1,728 normal weight teens over about a year, to try to figure out why some of those normal weight kids crossed over into the overweight category. In other words, they were trying to figure out what typically predicts that a teenager will become overweight.

Do you know what they found? The strongest predictors for the teens to become overweight were their self perception that they were overweight (that is, even when they were not overweight, they thought they were fat), and their attempts to diet, even when they were at a normal weight.

Folks, this is huge. This the diet mentality at work - a normal weight teen feels fat, decides to do something about it, falls into the diet mentality, and a real weight problem now begins. For some of them, they will continue to cycle like this (crash dieting, losing a little weight, then going off the diet and gaining everything plus a few pounds back). On top of it all, their relationship with food and their body will begin to take up way too much of their time and attention.

Of course, further studies need to be done - I would like to learn more about why some normal weight kids think they are fat, while others don't. I have a few suspicions, as you probably do, too. I know that studies have shown that kids model dieting behavior learned in the home - little girls as young as 8 have been heard complaining about their weight, usually because they hear their mom complain about her weight. Maybe the teens that feel fat (even though they are not fat), simply hear their mom or other relative talk about being fat a lot. Maybe they have even been warned not to eat too much because they could become fat.

This is what worries me so much about all of the attention we give to childhood obesity - yes, it is a problem, but is all of our blabber about it creating more of a problem? Are kids feeling fat because we're talking about them being fat so much? What can we do to convince normal weight kids that they are not fat and they will only make the problem worse if they try to go on a diet?

Annoying nutrition advice

You know, the reason I became a dietitian in the first place is because I was deeply entrenched in the diet mentality, trying to figure out the magic formula to being skinny. I was game for anything, including starvation (although never slipping into a full-blown eating disorder, I definitely dwelled in disordered eating).

So, I spent a lot of time pouring over magazines looking for "diet tricks". Here are some of the most annoying of all time:

1. If you are craving potato chips, try munching on carrot sticks (uhh, not even close)
2. Keep a log on your refrigerator, and log how often you open the refrigerator (why?)
3. Keep a scale by your refrigerator - check to see your weight before you dive into food (hello - that's what your hunger pangs afer for!)
4. Never eat past Xpm at night (how random!)
5. If you are hungry past Xpm at night, brush your teeth instead (mmmm, toothpaste)
6. Put a picture of a celebrity you admire on your refrigerator, to inspire you (will that bring their personal chef, personal trainer, and bank account into my life, too?)
7. Chew each bite 100 times (let's bore that weight off)
8. When you order out at a restaurant, ask the waiter to bag half of your entree before they even serve it to you (or, how to tick off your waiter)
9. When you're craving ice cream, ask for a sample at an ice cream shop, then leave (or, how to tick off the local ice cream shop)
10. To feel decadent when you're dieting, bathe in cream (yes, I read this once as diet advice)

Do you have any annoying diet advice you'd like to share?

Are you in the diet mentality?

I toss around this term diet mentality a lot, and it occurred to me that I'd better define it.

But, it's kind of hard to define. So, here goes:

Do you think in terms of "good" foods and "bad" foods?
Do you feel good when you eat "good" foods and bad when you eat "bad" foods?
Do you ever feel disgusted with yourself over what you just ate?
Do you tend to think of yourself as either on a diet or off a diet (and eat accordingly?)
Do you try to trick your food cravings?
Do you feel guilty when you give in and eat what you are craving?
Do you celebrate by ordering "something fattening"?
Do you spend a lot of time thinking about food?
Do you often find yourself trying to calculate calories, or carbs, or fat grams?
Do you think that life will be better once you reach a certain weight?
Does your scale tend to dictate whether you feel happy or not?
Do you live by certain eating rules, such as not eating white foods, or not eating after 6pm?
Does eating healthy feel like a chore to you?



These are all indicators that you are living in the diet mentality; One of the reasons the diet mentality does not work is that you put all of your energy into external rules (good foods, bad foods, best time to eat, appropriate serving size, etc), and very little energy into your own internal cues (how hungry are you? what do you feel like eating? what is your body craving?) You are simply not listening to your body anymore when you are trying to go by a scripted "diet". And your body will always refuse to be ignored - your cravings will get more intense, your emotions more on the cranky side, you will be less satisfied with the food, etc.

Food is food and nothing more. A Twinkie is not evil and it does not make you a bad person if you eat one. Broccoli does not make you a better person when you eat it. Sure, nutrition plays a role in health, but there are many facets to health - a person eating a virtuous diet but not enjoying their life is not healthy, in my book. I'd also like to propose that a person surviving by eating only junk food is also obviously not healthy, for reasons other than just the food they are putting in their system. When you have a healthy self-esteem, you simply don't want to eat only junk food. A person who only wants the so-called "bad" foods is beating themself up from the inside out, for reasons known only to them.

Let's get off of the diet rollercoaster, and out of the diet mentality, so we can get on with the business of nourishing ourselves with food and life.