Challenges

Imagine for a second that your mind and body are sitting on one side of a teeter-totter. On your side is your desire to make healthy choices; you ‘want' to eat well, do regular exercise and become more thin and fit. On the other side however sits the unhealthy environment that we must overcome. Tilting away from you is the food environment which includes an abundance of foods, snacking, convenience stores, vending machines, processed foods, less cooking, eating out more, large portions, fast food choices, value meals, food courts and all you can eat buffets. Tilting away from your exercise [...]

These important words express the main rule of achieving success in weight control. Remember, no one is perfect. We must pre-plan our shopping, meals and exercise, but we will obviously not always carry out these plans perfectly. All is not lost when this occurs. Always focus your attention on the positive aspects of your behaviour. Don't use negative aspects for self-reproach; use them as a learning experience to inspire you to pursue productive and imaginative steps to achieve the goal of a lifestyle that leads to long-term weight control. GET RIGHT BACK ON TRACK means that every choice counts. A [...]

The following is a newsletter provides some more good tips on how to avoid weight gain during the busy holiday period. With the stress that comes at this time of year, the best thing we can do for ourselves is be mindful of our environment and triggers. Avoid falling into the trap of guilt, frustration and self-loathing...if you eat something that "wasn't on program," get right back to healthy food at the very next meal or snack. Realize that we should never forbid ourselves of treats or special occasions. Instead, if we can always balance these situations out with healthy [...]

Feeling discouraged is something we all experience at certain times in our life. It can be discouragement about family, friends, a job or living space, but more often than not it comes down to discouragement we feel within and towards ourselves. We are constantly at battle with our own minds. We think and think to the point where we feel mentally exhausted, and the battle between negative and positive still rages on. I've spoken with a few people lately who are feeling discouraged. Whether they are coming in for the first time or have re-gained some of the weight they've [...]

This is always a difficult time of year! We wake in the dark and go home in the dark. It feels like there are less opportunities, or a lack of desire to go for a walk in the evening time. I always hear about more snacking from patients, during the day, but especially in the evening. Today I met a woman, who says that “potato chips are my kryptonite”. She was at an event where they kept filling the bowl on her table with chips. Throughout the evening however, she kept talking to herself. She asked herself “do you want [...]

A lot of times, keeping a healthy lifestyle is not easy. I know most of us don't even want to think about what we should eat, or what exercise we should do. We get caught up in life's daily demands, work and family and simply forget to focus on ourselves. These thoughts however lead me to wonder how athletes get so good at what they do; or how some students simply seem to excel in their exams. Take a runner or swimmer for example. The formula is pretty simple. They show up at the track or pool and do the [...]

It is difficult to plan for each and every situation that we have to deal with in life. While planning is extremely important when it comes to mindful eating, sometimes we can’t foresee the obstacles we will be facing or the choices we will have to make. It is for this reason that we must always be READY to make thoughtful decisions, rather than doing things impulsively that we may regret later. By repeating positive, confident thoughts to yourself about how you will approach a situation before even getting into it, you’ll have a much better chance of avoiding impulse [...]

We are sometimes under the perception that food gives us companionship, comfort, reassurance, a sense of warmth and well-being that we do not get at work or at home. This ‘comfort’ may be lifelong or it may be more recent, based on life events. For example, with the death of a parent we experience loneliness, and we attempt to soothe that loneliness with food. There is a void when we perceive a lack of fun, pleasure or good feelings; a sense of something missing, so we search for anything (usually food) to fill that emptiness. Often we are not consciously [...]

I am reading a book by Dr. Satchin Panda titled ‘The Circadian Code’. I listened to a podcast as he was being interviewed by Max Lugavere (https://www.maxlugavere.com/podcast-1/). Dr. Panda has spent his scientific life researching the circadian rhythms of plants and humans, fascinating stuff. As we learn more about our circadian rhythms, one realizes how complicated we are. More importantly, we need to understand the importance of following those rhythms for optimal health. One chapter is devoted to ‘time restricted eating’. This means that we likely need to eat over a certain time during the day, and nothing after. From [...]