Goals

I doubt very much if I’m the only one who deceives myself into allowing the peanut butter snack - “It’s a fat after all”, or the evening potato chips because “I’m going to fast till dinner tomorrow”. These permission thoughts sabotage any efforts at weight loss that I want to achieve. With the holidays coming, these permission thoughts will be pervasive. “It’s the holidays, my time to allow myself to really celebrate with lots of food”. “I’ll certainly be on track by the New Year”. This never works. We stay off track, usually because we have gained weight and are [...]

When we first see you in the office and at each subsequent visit we give you a food diary to record your foods. Why is this? The food diary is the most powerful proven aid for weight management. People who keep a food and exercise diary not only lose more weight, they also tend to keep it off.  Recommitting to recording your foods is a great habit to get into, or to resume. Here are some of the reasons to record your foods: • Recording your eating and exercise habits jolts you into realizing just what you do eat and [...]

I am the last one to be giving advice about sleep, even though I’m aware of the health benefits including improved mood, insulin sensitivity, weight loss, immune function and better cognitive status. I’ve been a poor sleeper since my internship days; constant night calls for the past 40 years have done that. I know what I should be doing, but don’t necessarily follow through. Reading Rob Wolf’s book, “Wired to Eat”, I came upon some great suggestions that we might use. Like eating however, knowing what to do, and doing it, are two different beasts. I will work on these, [...]

In any given moment we justify eating snacks or increased amounts of food, not based on health or our weight, but simply because we desire them.  In that moment, we lose sight of how we want to look or feel tomorrow, or next week, or next year.  We just eat!   Be always mindful, or aware of why you want to eat better or less.  Whether it be today or ten years from now, you want to learn to be resilient, to be able to say no to foods that are not going to improve your health, or how you [...]

Most of us are aware of all the food dangers throughout this long weekend. We know that stuffing, whipped potatoes and pie should be enjoyed in a mindful fashion, or avoided if this is impossible! Hopefully we can navigate around the worst of the culinary culprits. What most of us do forget, however, is to MOVE. It might be difficult to force oneself to do something if you have lots of guests, but it is possible. Innovation is key. Part of the reason I encourage this, is that it will heighten your awareness to be careful with the food. It [...]

Each day begins with the opportunity to inch our way forward into better health, both physically and emotionally.  You or I may have had a yesterday where nothing we perceived went exactly the way we had planned, especially our food choices.  Don’t dwell on yesterday!   Our focus must be on today.  More importantly, we must focus on what health means to each of us.  Without this being a priority, we will give into temptations; we will give into the fatigue and stress of the day, and allow ourselves to make food choices that are directly opposite to the health [...]

All it takes is one bad day, or one bad week of eating and we feel like a failure. The internal dialogue becomes negative. 'I've messed up again' or 'This always happens, there is no way I'm going to lose weight'. Most people I see have been on multiple diets throughout their lifetime. I agree, it feels like a lost cause, but it struck me today when a new client said, "I guess I'm going to have to think about food for the rest of my life". This is true. We cannot develop a healthy lifestyle and then simply forget [...]

Over the past few weeks, numerous people have been off track with their eating and exercise. Many people have been saying things like: “I’m too tired;” “I’m too busy;” “I’m getting home late;” “I’m taking a new course;” “I’m under a lot of stress;” and so on. I always wonder if people think that their feelings are unique to them; the perception that “everyone else” has no stress, or no fatigue. That’s not the case. EVERYONE is busy; most people feel exhausted at the end of their day, and most people carry a lot of stress. So given these feelings, [...]

September brings with it a sense of new beginnings. For most of us, this is the time of year that we want to get a healthy routine going after a less-structured summer. Often we have spent the last few months juggling social events, vacations, and perhaps a more relaxed attitude towards food & exercise. Now is the time to get back on track so that we feel more structured and in control. How do we achieve this? The first step is to GET ORGANISED! Weight management is much easier when you do some preplanning and thinking about weekly menus. Here [...]

I’m listening to a great podcast. The two fellows who run the podcast have had their own metabolic challenges: one has lost over one hundred pounds following a ketogenic diet, and the other has reversed his type two diabetes and has lost at least 60 pounds. What impresses me is their consistency. One has been eating ‘keto’ for 4 years, the other for 2. They aren’t discouraged, they love the way they eat, and even though each are on their own plateau, they aren’t discouraged; they are trying to find out what it is they can do differently to lose [...]