Battle of the Bulge.....continued (ad infinitum)

And ad nauseum!
I'm so tired of my everlasting, never-ending obsession with weight, and I know that I'm not alone. If you're female, you probably have the same nagging voice that won't go away, saying that you just don't live up to our cultural norms for slenderness and beauty.
It's insane, but I am a prisoner of the skinny-girl ideal -- at my age! (Suffice to say, I'm way past the age when this really should matter.)
But this rant is probably just a rebellion against my current self-imposed two-week, write-it-down diet. I've made it almost through week #1, and most of the time I've been sick with a virus that's either a bad cold or a mild case of flu. I've been eating about 1500 calories a day, on average, and have lost a pound or two.
Pardon my kvetching....you really don't want to read a page of complaints.

Do I have anything useful to impart today, something that might help a reader who's also stuck in this weight-loss loop and sincerely wants to be healthier and slimmer, while also enjoying life -- and enjoying food?

(After all, the theme of my blog is: we CAN do both -- be fit and healthy while being out-and-out foodies, too.)

1. Eat lots of soup this time of year. It's comforting, warm food, and if you avoid cream-based concoctions, it's healthy.
2. Snack on tropical fruits -- such as papayas (if you can find them), mangoes, pineapple and kiwi, which are in season now. Like all fruits, they're loaded with vitamins and fiber, and they also happen to be delicious.
3. While you're at it, chow down on citrus fruits--also at the peak of their season. Little clementines are super easy to peel and eat, and they have almost zero calories.
4. Get up and move around -- I mean, on top of any actual exercise you do in a day. Walk up and down a flight of stairs, sweep the kitchen floor, empty your trash cans -- anything but sit still, which is about the worst thing for us.
5. Avoid eating anything that looks like this....or you'll look like this GUY!

Diet Day 3 -- Strategies and Tactics

I'm not sure whether these tips are strategies or tactics, but for dropping a few pounds, I try to adhere to these concepts:

1. Keep a food diary, including a rough estimate of each meal/snack's calorie count. You can find calorie counters online, for instance here at My Fitness Pal. Even if you don't want to bother with figuring out how many calories are in your meals, plenty of evidence supports the idea that writing down what you eat provides an effective tool for keeping us on the straight and narrow.
2. Limit bread to once a day. A couple of days a week, I'll bring a sandwich to work, so that's my bread for the day. Otherwise, I might have toast for breakfast OR a piece of multi-grain French bread with dinner -- but never both.

3. Limit liquid calories. I try to do this anyway, but on a weight-loss regimen I'm especially conscious of how "empty" the drink calories can be. For me, this mostly means cutting way back on alcoholic beverages, but others may have to eliminate fruit juices and sugar-sweetened sodas -- two things that aren't in my diet in any case.

Heeding my own advice (and others')

It's most of the way through January and I've not shed any holiday weight.

Write down what you eat!

This is annoying!
So here I write all this good advice about weight control but I'm not really heeding it.
The #1 best thing you (I) can do to lose weight and/or maintain a desired level of poundage is to keep a food diary. Scroll down a few posts and you'll read that sterling piece of advice from yours truly earlier this month.
But I've been lazy and in denial about doing that which I know will make my morning weigh-ins a lot happier.
OK, for real: starting tomorrow, I'm keeping a food diary -- with a goal of consuming about 1500 calories per day -- for the next two weeks. Saturdays off. That by itself should get me back to where I want to be. Not hard!
I have no excuses for going this far into the New Year without heeding my own advice -- not to mention this same advice from many other health experts.
This is it!

Keeping it off

The older you get, the harder it is to keep the pounds from creeping on.
You may not ever have had a significant "weight problem," but as the decades go by, that can change--for the worst. Your metabolism slows down, muscle tone deteriorates, and it's much harder than it used to be to recover from a holiday eating/drinking binge (for example).
I've come to accept my size, which is on the high end of "normal" according to most charts -- just a couple of  pounds below "overweight." It's just too much trouble and effort to drop any pounds.
But I remain ever vigilant about pound creep, which could easily put me in an unacceptable size.
So here's a link to some websites (or blogs) that focus on MAINTAINING your weight. Some sites focus on recipes for health, others on fitting exercise into your routine, and others bring the input and output parts together.
I'm sure you'll find some useful tips!

Gaining weight (oops) -- what to do?

Doggone it -- a couple of pounds have crept up on me. When I hit a certain number on the scale, it's time to get things under better control. Otherwise, 2-3 pounds becomes 5 pounds or more, and that much weight is a lot harder to lose, at least for anyone over 40.
What strategy works best for battling a slight weight gain?
Increasing my exercise significantly is not an option -- I'm already close to maxed out with daily cardio and 3x week concentrated strength work. Besides, most recent research verifies that exercise isn't what makes people drop weight, although it's necessary for keeping the pounds off once you have lost them. (And exercise has so many other health benefits that it's a no-brainer to do it as much as possible for the rest of your life!)
So my strategy is all about calories in, and the first thing that has to go is alcohol. I love wine and cocktails, and giving them up temporarily is no easy thing, but it's an easier sacrifice for me than near-starvation would be.
Otherwise, I try to eliminate foods that I know are empty calories (most sweets) and/or calorie-dense foods that aren't filling or satisfying but just taste good. (I don't have to list those, do I?)
As everyone who struggles with weight control knows, it's so easy to gain and so hard to lose. Wow, those few pounds came on quickly but (also wow) they will not come off anything like as fast.
WHAT'S YOUR STRATEGY FOR DROPPING A FEW POUNDS? PLEASE COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR IDEAS WITH OTHER HEALTHY FOODIES.

Getting fat on Spring Break

(Sorry about this empty post, with nothing but a headline for a couple of days! I was trying to post from my Smart Phone but it wasn't all that smart, cause I couldn't figure out how to do it....Well, maybe it's me who isn't so smart?)

All I wanted to say is that even though I try to eat relatively healthfully on vacation, it still is my worst track record. I got home this morning and will have to go back to regular eating and exercise for a couple of days before I dare get on a scale.

But the beach was beautiful, and I'll get back on track!
(The photo is from an entirely different beach vacation -- northern California a couple of summers ago, as opposed to the Gulf Coast this past weekend.)

Weight Loss Strategy: 6 Easy Steps

Good advice from a favorite magazine, Eating Well.
Follow these steps and losing 5, 10 or more pounds we've packed on during cold weather won't be so very hard.
1. Set goals, and be realistic
2. Keep track of what you consume each day (this is so important, and so helpful)
3. Plan your meals
4. Pay attention to portion size
5. Move more! (It doesn't have to be official "exercise," just don't sit on your duff for large portions of the day. Even that makes a difference.)
6. Get support, however and wherever you can find it.

Click here for the full info.

Eat this, lose weight

Forget starvation -- you will just keep yo-yoing. To lose weight, you have to eat. But eating the right foods is the ticket. Here's a list of 11 foods that will fill your tummy, be good to your heart, and help those pounds melt away.

1. Yogurt (buy plain nonfat or lowfat and add your own flavors, such as vanilla extract and Splenda)


2. Eggs


3. Pistachios (all nuts are the healthy foodie's friend!)


4. Grapefruit (in season now, and delicious)


5. Avocado (healthy fats!)


6. Mushrooms


7. Olive oil (the foundation of the Mediterranean diet)


8. Whole grains (buy whole wheat bread)


9. Red pepper (we're talking cayenne here -- heat up your soups with a dash)


10. Fava beans (again, any beans are our friends)


11. Brown rice (yes it's a whole grain, but an especially good one; buy it frozen in microwave bags that cook in 3 minutes)

Losing Thanksgiving Pounds

It's only a couple of pounds, but they are being stubborn about going away.

Two pounds may sound trivial but my philosophy has always been to nip these things in the bud before two turns into five turns into ten.... and so on.

Also the older I get, the harder it is to drop even a couple of pounds. This week I've been pretty good -- no alcohol, one of the first tactics I turn to when trying to lose a little weight. No extra treats such as cookies. Only healthy snacks. Really diligent on the exercise. And thus far, my bathroom scale shows just one-half pound less than on Monday morning.

Guess I'll have to redouble my efforts...........doggone it!

Keeping holiday pounds off

Today's Cincinnati Enquirer has a comprehensive story in the Health & Fitness section (a couple of pages, really, but a good addition to the Thursday newspaper nonetheless) about how to avoid packing on weight over the holidays.

Here are a few highlights, or click on the newspaper name above to read the whole article.

1. Don't go to holiday parties hungry

2. Drink plenty of water and other caffeine-free, alcohol-free beverages

3. Substitute healthier ingredients in favorite holiday recipes

4. Wear form-fitting clothes (especially around the waist) to holiday parties to help discourage over-indulgence

5. Eat a healthy breakfast every day, no exceptions

6. Exercise!

Sweet snack that helps us stay slim

Craving a sweet treat? Of course, we know we should reach for fruit instead of candy or ice cream, and that's easier than ever in summer because so many yummy fruits are in season. But here's a sweet bite you probably haven't thought about. It's portable, not perishable, and available year round. Yes, I'm talking about the humble prune. The docs at Real Age remind us that with their high fiber content, prunes help us to feel full and make it less likely we'll overeat at mealtime. Here's some of what they have to say about the benefits of prunes, aka dried plums.

Hunger Be Gone
When researchers gave 45 volunteers a midmorning nibble of white bread and low-fat cheese, adding prunes to the snack produced some significant findings. The snackers reported feeling less hungry after the prune-infused nosh -- and they ate 6 percent fewer calories at lunch compared with when they had snacked on just bread and cheese. (Did you know? Prunes are great for your heart and bones, too.)

The Fiber Factor
So what gives prunes the advantage in edging out hunger? It's the fiber. Even though each test snack had roughly the same amount of protein, calories, carbs, and fat, the prune snack packed more than twice the fiber. That chewy fiber makes you eat more slowly, allowing your brain to realize when you've had enough to eat. And the roughage sits in your stomach for a long time, slowing down digestion. The fiber also reduces the rate at which sugar is soaked up into your bloodstream -- good for keeping insulin levels on an even keel and reducing between-meal hunger pangs.

10 Eating Secrets That Keep You Slim

Here's another guest healthy-foodie post -- from Shannon Wills, whose credentials and contact info are at the bottom of the article. Thanks, Shannon!

I’m sure most people would consider it an irony that we can use the words “eat” and “slim” in the same sentence and in relevance to each other, but the secret to staying slim is to eat – eat the right kinds of foods, in the right amounts, at the right times. It’s a question of what, how much and when, so if you’re looking for answers to your weight loss queries and hoping to become slim and fit, here’s what you need to know about eating and eating right.

· Never starve or deprive your body of food: When you don’t fuel up, your body goes into starvation mode and clings on to every bit of fat that it has in preparation for the famine that it thinks is coming, so don’t skip meals or think that starving helps you lose weight.

· Never skip breakfast: This is the most important meal of the day; it provides you with energy for the entire day ahead, it kick-starts your metabolism and it keeps you from putting on weight.

· Eat small meals: Don’t eat till you feel like bursting after every meal; rather, limit your portions and fill up on liquids (that are sugar-free) if you still feel hungry.

· Eat six or seven times a day: Instead of eating just three large meals a day, break your daily calorific requirement into six or seven small meals – breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, tea, an early dinner, and a light snack before you go to bed. This boosts your metabolism and you feel energetic rather than lethargic after your meals.

· Don’t avoid any food group: Fad diets may seem like they’re helping you lose weight, but you’re depriving your body of essential nutrients when you avoid carbohydrates and fats altogether. So while it’s ok to restrict certain meals to protein alone, don’t make it your entire diet.

· Don’t let your body crave food: When you deny your body the occasional treat and completely eschew all the foods you love because they’re not healthy, you put yourself at risk for binge eating. Instead, allow yourself to eat small portions of the food you enjoy from time to time – half a piece of cake, a small tub of ice cream shared with your friend, or a small pizza when your pals come over to watch a game.

· Don’t diet: The problem with diets is that they’re very hard to adhere to in the long run and you end up going back to your unhealthy ways of eating whatever you want whenever you want sooner or later. Instead of dieting, adopt a pattern of eating that is easy to follow, not just today, tomorrow and for a week, but day in and day out for the rest of your life. Make it a mix of both healthy food choices and foods that you love so that you don’t feel tempted to binge and you get the most nutrients from your diet.

· Limit eating out: When you eat out on a regular basis, you lose track of how many calories you’re consuming and your nutrition and health efforts go out the window. Besides, it’s more hygienic to cook your own food rather than eat at restaurants.

· Eat more fruits and vegetables: This one’s a no-brainer; everyone knows by now that fruits and veggies are the key to good health – they’re both delicious and nutritious.

· Drink lots of water: And finally, drink lots and lots of pure water even as you limit the amount of caffeine from tea, coffee and colas. Also steer clear of sugary drinks because they’re loaded with calories and provide zero nutrition most of the time.

So there you have it, 10 simple eating secrets that are bound to help you stay slim!

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Shannon Wills, she writes on the topic of physical therapy assistant schools . She welcomes your comments at her email id: shannonwills23@gmail.com.

Avoiding weekend (and holiday weekend) weight gain

The battle of the bulge only gets tougher on weekends, holidays and vacations. I can be pretty darn good during the week, when I'm cooking at home, exercising routinely, and drinking alcohol very lightly if at all. Then Friday rolls around, the social calendar fills up, and all bets are off. If I can get on the scale Monday morning and have no change from Friday morning, I consider it a victory.
Problem is, I gained a couple pounds on a recent vacation and need to be losing, not staying the same. What's the answer?
Here's a tip from the folks at Real Age. I think their best advice is that we should keep a food diary on weekends -- write it down. That might be hard at a July 4th cookout party, but I'm betting that the payoff will be significant. Shall we try it this weekend?

Q: Why is it that when I go on a healthy weight loss plan, I lose barely a pound a week, but after the weekend, I've gained back more than a pound! It feels like I can't go out and have a glass of wine and dessert occasionally because it will take me a month to undo the damage.
-- Isi Paraparaumu, Wellington, NZ

A: You're a victim of the "weekend effect": extra pounds that suddenly appear on Monday morning and take weeks to lose. But it's not the glass of wine or occasional dessert that's creating those love handles you hate. On weekends, you're probably taking in way more calories than you realize. A 2008 study at Washington University School of Medicine found that dieters consistently gained weight on the weekends while losing weight during the week because they ate more on weekends. When you're kicking back, a few more chips and another margarita or a second slice of pizza-with-the-works seems okay because you were "good all week." You probably also eat out more on weekends, and at many restaurants, "single" portions are big enough to feed a family of three (seriously) yet find their way into your body of one.

So here's our action plan for all weekends, not just one: Don't drop your guard on Friday night and pick it up again Monday morning. Walk more. (Try this walking workout at home). Try to lose a little on most weekends. And keep a food diary: Writing down what you eat, especially on weekends, will help you have that glass of wine with no regrets.

Mealtime strategy to keep the pounds off

Eating more slowly can make a whale of a difference in staying slim, because the faster we eat, the more likely we are to overeat.

According to Real Age............

To avoid eating too much -- and earning a bigger pants size -- try this mealtime trick: Spend at least 30 minutes enjoying your food.

Research shows that scarfing down food as if every meal were your last actually reduces levels of key appetite-controlling hormones -- the ones that normally keep you feeling full and satisfied and tell you when to put down that fork.

Slower = Slimmer
In the study, lucky volunteers were served about 2 1/2 scoops of ice cream -- twice. On one day, they wolfed down the treat in 5 minutes flat. Then, on another day, they lingered over the bowl for a full half hour. Blood tests showed that slow eating increased levels of two appetite-lowering chemicals (peptide YY and glucagon-like peptide-1) by 25 to 30 percent. And these satisfaction hormones stayed high for the next 2 1/2 hours.

Satisfaction Secrets
"I'm full" hormones are released by special cells in your gastrointestinal tract. Eating stimulates them, but scientists aren't yet sure why a leisurely meal boosts output and a quick meal stunts it. And you shouldn't wait for the answer. Start harnessing your satisfaction levels now with a lazy, leisurely approach to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here are a few more tips on eating less but feeling more satisfied:

• Veggie-cize your meals. Adding veggies adds bulk but few calories. Watch this video to find out how generous portions of delicious vegetables let you eat more but weigh less.
• Focus on your food. Paying attention to every bit helps you eat less. Here's how to use mindful eating and make the most of every mouthful.
• Treat yourself to an appetizer. A healthy pre-meal nosh helps turn hunger off.

Good news/bad news on exercise (mostly bad?)

I think most people would greet with dismay the newest "conventional wisdom" about how much exercise we need each day to keep from getting fatter as we age. For a normal weight woman to avoid middle-age spread, she needs 60 minutes every day of moderate cardio-type exercise. If you start your journey into middle age with a few extra pounds, you'll have to diet it off as well as do even more daily exercise. Here's what the Real Age doctors say about these findings, along with links about how to make this daunting task easier.

In a long-term study, middle-aged women who averaged about 60 minutes' worth of moderate-intensity exercise like walking on a daily basis experienced almost no weight gain during a 13-year period.

Pound Pusher
If you struggle with your weight already, you might need a little more than a daily 60. The overweight or obese women in the study weren't able to halt weight gain with the same level of exercise that worked for their healthy-weight peers. For a truly effective weight loss plan, try our online version of the best-selling book YOU: On a Diet. This online version combines daily walking with an easy-to-follow, proven-to-work eating plan that has helped hundreds of RealAge members lose weight. Find out more with this quick 99-second version of the diet.

The Fitness Factor
The really great news about the exercise study? Moderate-intensity exercise helped the healthy-weight women avoid weight gain even while they continued to eat as they normally would. No special diet was needed. Having trouble keeping yourself moving? Here are three strategies for overcoming common excuses:

• No time? Here's the exercise advice the RealAge docs have for busy people.
• No cute shoes? Check out this video for tips on picking the best walking shoes.
• Don't know where to start? Learn the keys to walking for weight loss.

Ways to control appetite (& weight) -- from Berkeley Wellness Letter

Here are some useful tips about keeping off the pounds. Have tips like this sent to your in-box by signing up for Berkeley Wellness Alerts.

If you’re trying to lose weight and calorie counting hasn’t worked, making changes in your environment and behavior may help keep your appetite in check. Here’s a look at what drives overeating and how you can gain control.

• The volume of a meal. We tend to eat about the same amount of food regardless of its calories. Thus, many weight-loss plans stress foods that have a lot of volume relative to their calories (that is, bulky foods with more water and fiber and less fat, such as fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, and cooked whole grains), in place of low-volume, calorie-dense foods (such as cheese and crackers).

• Specific food components. There’s some evidence that, for many people, foods high in protein increase satiety more than high-carb foods. For example, an egg breakfast may keep you full longer than a bagel breakfast.

• Palatability. Most people find foods high in fat and sugar more pleasurable. It’s theorized that sugar and fat activate the brain’s “reward system” and blunt the body’s normal response to satiety signals, thus making it easier to overeat.

• Portion size and visual cues. Many people eat to “clean their plates,” relying on visual cues rather than hunger to tell them when they are done. In a “bottomless bowl” experiment, people who ate from soup bowls that automatically refilled (without them realizing it) consumed 73% more soup.

• Distraction. Eating while watching TV, working, or engaging in other tasks can make you eat more. When distracted, you 
are more likely to use visual cues rather than hunger/satiety signals to tell you when to stop eating.

• Variety. The greater the variety of foods, the more people tend to eat. Eating the same food dulls the palate, and you become satiated sooner. Introduce a food with different sensory qualities, however, and appetite returns, which may be why there’s often “room for dessert.”

• Emotions and social circumstances. People often eat for reasons other than hunger—when they are stressed, depressed, angry, lonely, even happy and excited. And they often eat because of social pressures, such as at parties, or simply because it is mealtime.

Putting it into practice

Use small plates, bowls, and cups; buy single-serving snacks, or portion out servings in small bowls or plastic bags; avoid all-you-can-eat buffets; and don’t eat in front of the TV or computer, or while reading or driving. Perhaps most important, practice mindful eating. This includes eating slowly, taking pleasure from each bite, and being aware of your surroundings—and eating only when you are hungry.

URL for the TIme Magazine weight/exercise story

Go here: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly

"The Myth about Exercise" and weight -- new info

Time Magazine had a very interesting cover story last week (dated 8/17/09) about new research questioning whether exercise actually helps with weight loss or even weight control. We've all thought that burning calories at the gym or playing sports as well as doing strength training will help us drop pounds--or at least not gain weight as we age.

The Time article blows some holes in those notions. Researchers are finding that when we do blast some calories through exercise, we end up hungrier than if we hadn't exercised, and can easily eat as much (or more) after our exertion than we would have otherwise. Moreover, other researchers have documented that people who exercise vigorously will go home and slug out, versus those who divide their activity levels more evenly across the day and evening.

My summary doesn't do justice to the article, so I encourage you to seek it out, if interested. The author does stress that exercise is still important for many other benefits besides weight control--one of the main reasons I am an exercise fanatic is that it helps me sleep better, for instance. But it is rather eye-opening and sobering to think that exercise and weight may not be all that closely tied.