Challenges

As we finish off another week of social distancing and isolation, I’m blown away by our patients’ commitment to health and wellness during these unprecedented times.  I have spoken to many of you this week.  All of us have been feeling the challenges of stress, boredom, lack of activity, and lack of freedom to go places we’d normally go.  This has been manifesting in emotional eating, lethargy and low mood, for many.  However, creating small, daily goals can help to re-set the mind and body.  Accomplishing tasks gives us a purpose, and having a creative or physical outlet grounds our [...]

Below is a wonderful blog post by my good friend and a brilliant writer Ms. Amy Berger. She has a Master’s degree in Nutrition and has written the book “The Alzheimer’s Solution”. She is one of my best resources for all things nutrition. She may be speaking here in Ottawa in the fall of 2020 depending on the current issue we are experiencing with the coronavirus. She is honest! Honest and insightful into the difficulties she (and I, and many other people) has around food. I loved this post. It speaks to me, and I think speaks to many of [...]

I have taken the quote ‘snacking is an emotional event’ from Dr. Robert Cywes. The reasons are that first off, it’s true. Second, it helps me each and every time I reach for food. I’m not always successful, mind you, but it helps me to remain mindful of why I am reaching for a snack, and it hopefully allows me to put the food down and do something else. Realizing why we are eating helps us to develop resilience in the future when faced with the same temptations. For example, my worst time is mid or end of day when [...]

This is such a common question, yet it is impossible to answer. For decades it was thought that weight loss was a simple mathematical equation based on calories in and calories out, but this equation has never worked and will never work. It is based on the ongoing myth that eating 500 calories less, or exercising 500 calories per day will lead to a deficit of 3500 calories, and eureka one loses 1 pound per week. But it doesn't work. It doesn't work because our metabolisms are very complicated. We have been created to protect fat for times of famine. [...]

I am shamelessly paraphrasing from an excellent article written by Dr. Zoe Harcombe (a PhD nutritionist from Wales). For the complete article you should check her blog: https://www.zoeharcombe.com/blog/ Dr. Harcombe realized early on that all irresistible food had the unnatural combination of high amounts of fat and carbohydrate - a combination that nature rarely provides. Cakes, candies, chips and cookies contain both and we can easily overeat them. She suggests that we could overeat the combination of bread with butter much more so than bread alone or butter alone. So, her first rule is to not eat fats and carbohydrates [...]

There was a great article in the Ottawa Citizen that discussed ways to manage eating while we travel.  Whether you’re staying in a hotel or staying with friends/family, it’s sometimes difficult to stick to any “routine.”  This is the issue that all of us encounter: when structure or routine goes out the window, perceived “willpower” can sometimes follow.  It’s important to have a plan of action before travelling so that you can manage a different schedule and still make healthy choices.  Some of us use travel (especially if it’s vacation) to justify going off track…the most important thing is to [...]

Last night I was scanning the Internet, looking for words or pictures that might be motivating in the context of weight loss or exercise. Unfortunately, none of the words were that motivating; not because they weren't true, I just find most of the quotes unrealistic in the real world of weight loss. Losing weight is not easy at all. Keeping it off is even harder. So, it's important each day that we realize we must work (mentally) to keep ourselves on track as best we can. A short high intensity workout is great for the body, but won't result in [...]

You have had a good week and feel totally in control. Now you are facing the long weekend with dread. Holidays, parties, and special occasions can present a challenge as quite often the focus is on food. The trick is to be prepared, avoid the anxiety that sometimes comes along with dieting and celebrate at the same time. The following are a few suggestions to help you have fun and still control your eating. ? Planning ahead is important. Try to anticipate what foods might be available and have a general idea of what you might eat. ? Try to [...]

We all experience hunger, but we tend to give in to it too quickly. We eat the wrong types of foods (quick carbs), or we eat too quickly allowing too much food into our gastrointestinal tract. When we haven’t eaten for a while our insulin, which tends to be high in most of us carrying extra weight, allows a shifting of glucose into the cells. That creates a sensation of hunger, along with secretion of another hormone from the stomach—ghrelin. Following that slight drop in blood sugar there is an outpouring of counter regulatory hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, glucagon, and growth [...]