Goals

1. Lower your expectations on how quickly weight loss will occur. We are all different metabolically, socially, medically. It will be slow for some, faster for others. Be patient. 2. Motivation. None of us wake up motivated to eat better or exercise more. It’s an effort. Realize the effort is worth it. Start some sort of exercise. Don’t expect yourself to “want to do it”. Just do it, and you will feel better afterwards. 3. Be willing to change. No one ‘diet’ is necessarily going to work for everyone. You need to find out what works for you. Be willing [...]

I am always interested (or perhaps baffled and impressed!) by how well most people do with their weight when they are away on holiday. I should clarify this statement by excluding holidays on cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts! Usually I hear how ‘much’ people ate at the main meals, or how many carbohydrates they allowed themselves, yet weight loss still occurred. My suspicions as to the mechanism of this unexpected weight loss are multi-fold. We forget how much less stress there is on holiday compared to home, with work load and family demands. The impact of low-grade cortisol elevations certainly [...]

I realized that it has been a couple of weeks since I have written a new motivational letter and I have two choices: 1. I can feel badly, perhaps even guilty for not applying myself and putting off a task I deeply enjoy doing until the last minute to accomplish. OR 2. I can accept that I may have slipped on my normal Thursday night routine and get back at it with no emotion or guilt. I can simply accept the choices I have made and move on; be proactive. I choose 2! I like the other 6 billion plus [...]

We try to encourage people not to be perfectionistic. None of us can eat ‘perfectly' 100% of the time. However, perfectionism remains a trap for many of us. Once a person has perceived they have eaten poorly, they simply continue eating poorly and essentially give up. Once again we are empowering food, not ourselves. You and you alone have control over what foods you eat. It takes work. It takes practice. You will make mistakes, but this is good. Making mistakes, then learning to get back on track without beating yourself up, leads to long term success! Remember this: imperatives [...]

We complicate our thoughts way too often. If we could follow some basic rules, and over time refine them, then we wouldn’t become so easily discouraged. From a health perspective, the first rule is to avoid simple sugars. Anything with fructose in it is especially harmful. Cakes, cookies, chips, candies - yes, all those things that taste so good. However, they are directly inflammatory to just about every system in our body and are probably the main mechanism leading to inflammation of our arteries, which results in build-up of plaque. Processed food. Most food in a box is highly processed [...]

I'm not sure I believe in waiting for January 1st to set new goals and make new resolutions. When it comes to making goals and changing lifestyle habits, it's important to aim for daily re-assessment of what we want to change. (Or at least, the attempt should occur on a daily basis). Personally, I'm not always successful at this, but at least it keeps my awareness of what I want to accomplish front and center. Recently, as I came off a long journey of training and competition, my desire to exercise waned as did my vigilance of food. Weight has [...]

Movement is lacking for most of us. We are told to exercise, but we feel compromised by time. Worse, we limit our movement because of ‘fatigue’. Doing something is much much better than nothing! 1. Buy an exercise ball on Amazon and sit on it for one TV program (it will force you to stabilize your core as it works on your balance). 2. During commercials stand up and do 10 or 15 simple squats (not deep-don’t hurt your knees). 3. In the kitchen, place your hands on the counter (while waiting for something to boil or cook), put your [...]

As I continue with my own attempts at improving percent body fat (this is health related, not appearance), I am frustrated with my own lack of progress. Having said that, I am aware of what I am doing wrong, but I admit I have been unwilling to change. I was eating very little most of the day (pseudo fasting) but allowing myself inappropriate foods (excess carbohydrates) in the evening. I was allowing permission thoughts to enter; meaning, I felt because I had fasted all day long, it was ok to have extra snacks in the evening. Well, nothing happened of [...]

“Don’t eat for winter” is the title of a book by Cian Foley, that I came upon while listening to a ‘Fat Emperor’ podcast with Ivor Cummins. My interest grew the more I listened, a disclaimer - I haven’t yet read the book, but I will. The reason I became so fascinated, is that each year at this time of year, I see many patients struggling with their eating habits and choice of food. I have blamed it on the weather and lack of sunlight, and even gave a nod to possible shifting of our metabolisms for winter (this is [...]

Now, I'm about to begin writing about a topic I don't (yet) practice myself; but I plan to start. We are bombarded daily with stress and demands. This stress not only raises cortisol and decreases our ability to lose fat, but it increases our desire for soothing (carbohydrate) foods and snacks. Of all the things we face in the office that sabotage people's efforts to lose weight, stress, fatigue and pain are top of the list. I've always looked at ways to reduce stress and for myself, I've always used exercise. However, as you know, I'm a regular listener of [...]