Weight Loss My Way

The 7 Minute rule

When we were kids my sister and I could often be heard to say - "I'm bored, I'm hungry". Mum would inevitably come up with something to do, rather than something to eat! Why?

David Nordmark's book Losing Weight without Dieting details the "7 Minute rule". Basically if you have hunger pains look at your watch and go and do something else, away from the kitchen, for 7 minutes. He suggests not to watch television as its too passive. If after 7 minutes you still feel hungry have a large glass of water. Then do something else for another 7 minutes, then if you are still hungry eat! (Something healthy of course). 

Its not meant to be a starvation technique, but something when we have nothing to do we somehow turn to food to fill in the gap. Those hunger pains ould be real hunger pains, but its worth testing. Often you will find by doing something else more than seven minutes will pass before you know it!

 

No to the 'low fat' Latte!

When you are on a weight loss process, as opposed to a diet, its not about going to extremes. The reason I gave myself twelve months to lose weight, rather than three weeks, was I never intended to deprive myself of the really good things in life. This is obvious in my post Eat Dessert. I also never intended to become too obsessive about it.

I love a good cup of coffee. Just one in the morning, but a really good one. Never after lunch, because then I can't sleep. But a decent 'kick start' to the day is just the best. To be frank, trying to remember to order a 'low fat' or 'skinny' latte makes me crazy. Nine times out of ten I would forget the golden words 'low fat' and then it would be too late to change it. Alternatively, the batista would ask me a billion questions - did you want low fat, skinny, tall, grande, etc etc. The questions in the morning, without having yet drunk the damn thing, totally confuse me.

So my rule is to simply say 'a medium latte please'. If they start with the questions I reply 'just a medium latte please'. Let them work out how they translate that into thier own unique 'coffee lingo'. Further by sticking to my phrase 'medium latte please' I know I am not getting too much, or too little, and I am not tempted by the allure of those sugary flavours hazelnut, white chocolate or caramel. And in the 'medium latte please', there is just a hint of indulgence as its more than likely I will get full cream milk. And frankly I think I can handle those few extra calories just once a day!

 

'I never get hungry because I focus on my work'

97 year old Japanese surgeon, Dr Shigeaki Hinohara says "I never get hungry because I focus on my work." 

Here is his diet:

For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Olive oil is great for the arteries and keeps my skin healthy. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat.

Not only that but Dr. Hinohara plans his life way in advance so he always has something else to focus himself on. His diary is full until 2014! Not much time to worry about food there!!

You can read more on his whole approach to longevity, diet, weightloss and life here.

Never shop hungry!

So the rule before "not doing the grocery shopping hungry", is not to buy anything at the supermarket you should not eat. Fried foods, potato chips, white chocolate, processed foods, white bread and rice, etc are no longer worthy of your shopping list. Spend more time examining the labels. How much sugar does your regular juice box contain? Buy real maple syrup, not the sugary one.

But the absolute critical thing is DO NOT shop when you are hungry. Not only will you buy yourself an 'easy to eat' snack to have 'on the go' (notoriously chips or chocolate bar) but you will also buy foods which satisfy your hunger pangs. This is dangerous because you will end up with a trolley full of potato chips and 'easy to eat' treats. Once those 'easy to eat' treats (which are almost never healthy) are in your pantry then you will feel you simply have to eat them or its a waste of money. 

So its simple:

1. Don't buy anything you shouldn't eat at the supermarket.

2. Don't shop when you are hungry so you are tempted to buy things you shouldn't eat!

So shop after a main meal, or eat a piece of fruit on the way to keep the hunger dragon at bay!

Oprah says - stop eating by 7pm!

This is a handy trick. Its kind of psychological way of having an ending to your eating day.

Its actually not necessary to eat too much in the evening. Light meals are better - sushi, fruit, a salad, something  vegetarian. Ever tried to sleep after a three course meal? Its never a deep sleep as your body is so busy trying to sort out all those calories and work out where to put them.

But more essentially is not filling your stomach right before you sleep, or snacking your way through the evening. 7.30pm was a more  realistic time of day given my lifestyle, but a cut off nevertheless.

After the cut off you can still drink water and tea; green tea the most recommended of course!

By the way if the Dalai lama is not available for your workout, why not evoke Oprah, she has some good ideas!

Think of Sugar as Cocaine

Stop with the sugar!

Its scientifically proven (http://topnews.net.nz/content/213211-consuming-increasing-amounts-sugar-leads-weight-gain) that sugar equals weight gain.

Stop with the sugar!

Its addictive and its in everything - white bread, ice cream, cookies, milk chocolate, white pasta, junk food, sweets (of course), pancakes, cakes, juice, a lot of yogurts, sauces and syrups, a lot of salad dressings. Like I said these days its in everything.

Stop with the sugar!

Think of it like cocaine - addictive and bad for you. And believe me, when you start trying to wean yourself off it, you will know how addicted you are already.

Stop with the sugar by not putting it in your coffee and tea; not choosing the vanilla, hazelnut or caramel lattes; not eating chocolate, cookies or cakes for a couple of weeks; buying sugar free juice and yogurt (hard to find but available); no ice cream; no white bread or pasta; and stop putting it in your cooking.

Stop with the sugar!

Did you know belly fat is caused by sugar and carbs? If you live in a country where processed foods are all the rage, you should read by Jorge Cruise The Belly Fat Cure: Discover the New Paperback. Jorge helps you identify which products have less of the evil sugar drug!

In my weightloss process the only acceptable sugar was the natural sugar found in fruit.

Sugar is the root of most evils - diabetes, heart disease, and BELLY FAT!!!

Stop with the sugar!! STOP!! STOP!! STOP!!

 

Eating 10,000 miles in the air!

I travel alot. This was a major issue in trying to manage and maintain my weight. With time differences, flights schedules, meetings over meals, and eating on the run it was near impossible to feel I had any control over what went in my mouth. Well if my year of weight loss was going to work I had to take back the control.

How many times have you eaten the food provided by the airline, just because it was given to you, because you think you paid for it or because you had nothing else to do? Did you have much choice about what you were eating? If you have access to an airline lounge in transit, there is the additional responsibility to eat up all those treats because after all they are free!!

Wrong, wrong, wrong. After each trip where I ate mindlessly, I could see the scales shoot up a few kilos and I would have to work harder when i got home to shed those kilos again. So it was time for a culture shift on my travels.

Firstly I stopped eating airline food, especially I short flights. Its not as easy as it sounds - the flight attendants, and other passengers want to insist you take it. One airline always follows up by asking but don't you want tea or coffee? The answer is a flat NO. Always NO. Once you agree to the tea and coffee you get the whole meal tray anyway.

Secondly, eat a healthy meal at home before you leave for the airport. This will fill you with food you have control over, and won't mean you are hunry when you arrive at the airport. So there is less of temptation to eat at a fast food place, a airport lounge or in flight.

Thirdly pack healthy snacks - nuts, dried fruit, museli bars, dark chocolate, even a healthy sandwich if its a longer flight. With your own food on board you know you have access to things within your diet range, and you can eat when you are really hungry again, not on the timetable of the airline.

Fourthly pack your Ipod, CD player or plug into the airline sound system. In other words distract yourself while everyone else is eating. Enjoy the fact that you are doing your own thing on a flight where you more often feel like herded cattle. Get an aisle seat and use the toilet while everyone else is eating (no meal tray to black you in). Or get a window seat, lay against the wall and have a nap.

Fifthly tell the flight attendent up front that you have no intention to eat, as you would prefer to sleep, so you apprecaite not to be disturbed. Some airlines even provide do not disturb stickets for the top of your seat.

And my last hot tip - if you find you have to eat en route seek out the health options - drink green tea, drink lots of water, order sushi over a hamburger, eat fruit over hot dogs!

Airline food has improved over the years, but it is still mass produced and preserved to feed literally thousands of people 10, 000 miles up! Take back control when you are above the clouds! 

For more tips check this article - http://www.lostgirlsworld.com/2011/03/15-tips-for-eating-healthy/

 

 

 

Eat Dessert!

Deben Sharma's book The Greatness Guide: 101 Lessons for Making What's Good at Work and in Life Even Better advises that if you do three big time workouts a week you can have two desserts a week!!

Since I LOVE chocolate mouse, I use a different rule. OK three big time workouts a week, or regular workouts five times a week, then every time chocolate mousse is listed on a menu, you can order it guilt free!!

A great friend of mine taught her kids dessert night was only every second night!! They often are heard to be asking - is it a dessert night? At least they realize early on there are nights which are not!! I think the point is weightloss is not about complete denial, but dessert has to be balanced with serious exercise and healthy eating most of the time!

Beware the humble buffet!

Jerry Seinfeld once explained that he had ended his hit TV show Seinfeld after nine series (rather than ten) because he considered the program like a buffet - people should stop consuming while they are still enjoying it. He explained that it takes just one plate  of food to push over you the fine line between enjoyment and that sickly over-full feeling.

Buffets have been part of our family celebration history. It was always a birthday treat for us to go out to a buffet in some five star hotel with the wonderful notion that we could eat as much as we liked, no holds barred! However Seinfeld was right. We almost always come home feeling bloated and a bit sickly. Afterwards no one sleeps well and sometimes has stomach ache the next day. Initially it is so enjoyable as we survey the array of things we can eat, by the end we can hardly move and feel less lovely than when we arrived.

So we stopped buffets. We started option for boutique restaurants where we might choose our favourite dish ala carte and really savour eating a rack of lamb, or a single but magnificent chocolate mousse, or a steak well done, or a salmon, or bowl of homemade pasta, or a gourmet pizza or whatever! Now we focus on quality not quantity.

The price works out about the same, but we go home savouring flavours and the memory of that particular dish rather than the variety of bits we picked off a table where the food had been sitting for too long anyway!

 

 

Drink more water

We hear it all the time that we need to drink more water.  I have read so many times that we should drink 8 glasses of water a day. During my weightloss process I have found this a good way to set myself a daily goal - 8 glasses a day!

But to be honest I find it a bit tedious drinking so much water, so I tried to make 'drinking more water' a bit more desirable! So here are some tips and tricks I found helped:

• Scandanavians apparently drink a glass of water before they start eating a meal. It means your stomach already has something in it so you don't feel you want to eat as much. It really works. If yo u drink another glass towards the end of your meal it certainly fills you up but also gives you a clean, 'washing down the food' feeling! 3 meals a day x 2 glasses of water is already 6!!
• In the wonderful book "French Women Don't Get Fat" the author explains that different brands of water taste very different. Its indeed true so I spent a few weeks buying different brands to determine which I liked better. And to my pleasant surprise it was not always the more expensive ones which were the most delicious. The taste of the water makes a huge difference to how much you can drink.
• For water I do not like the taste of (like the one delivered to my apartment building) I devised a cunning plan to disguise the taste - add a few drops of lemon to a glass or jug of water OR a few drops of apple cider vinegar which is suppose to ward off cancer cells OR add one of the disolving vitamin tablets into a glass of water. The latter usually come in a range of flavours!
• At work I try to drink two glasses in a day - one in the morning and one at the afternoon. This also means getting up from my desk and walking to the staff room to collect the water. It seems anythin 
  g which has a double weightloss function is a bonus!!
• Finally I often cheat and count a cup of green tea at the end of the day as a glass of water!

Keep on drinking! Its good for you! Water that is!

Chew Gum

Sometimes after a main meal, I have the feeling I want to eat something sweet, but actually I usually do not have the capacity or need to eat anything more!! Chewing gum is the key, sugarless of course!! Now I carry it with me all the time. Its a quick fix to cravings for 'sweet' things and can stall your stomach for a bit when hunger pains kick in. Even better if you chew it after  a meal it assists in digestion. My favourite brand are Mentos chewy because they are little like sweets and they even come in green tea flavour! The only drawback is the disposal, but I think you can handle that! Chew away!

Enlist your friends as allies!!

My friend Fiona lives around the corner from me. I used to pop around for coffee and cake, coffee and chocolate, coffee and baked goods. You get the idea. When I started on this diet, she became one of my best allies. Now she serves me fruit. I didn't want our social time together to end and saying no to her cooking is always hard. But serving fruit and healthy snacks is the sweetest thing a friend can do. No temptations, something to nipple on while we gossip. She even started exploring new healthy recipes like amazing dips to have with celery and carrot. 

But there is an upside for Fiona. I didn't realise until this year how often people give chocolates as a gift. Each time it happens, I ride my bike straight to her house and deposit my milk chocolate gifts with her, to avoid temptation in my own fridge. So maybe I am not much of a friend, but then she is skinny as a rake!!

In the early days of the process I felt very hesitant to share what I was doing with family and friends. Weight loss seems a kind of frivolous thing to share but more than that once yo'let the cat out of the bag' people tend to then comment all the time about what you are eating. So I was careful who I let in on the process - only those who understood how hard it is and who would be encouraging. Over time I discovered others who have struggled with weight loss and we could encourage each other. I am deeply grateful to my 'weight loss champions' (you know who you are) who cheered me on the whole way and never let me give up. I hope I can be there for others as you were for me. The weight loss journey is no joke and practical support as well as lots of positive affirmation makes all the difference.

HOT TIP - Clean your teeth!

Cleaning your teeth is of course good for your dental hygiene and good breath, but it also helps with weightloss. How often have you said 'oh I can't eat that, I just cleaned my teeth!' Clean your teeth soon after you have finished your meal. It's like putting the lid back on the peanut butter, or a full stop at the end of sentence. It says the time for eating is over and sends a psychological message to your body that the grazing is done! Small and simple trick!

 

 

Halve your regular food intake

Some diets involve a complicated system of counting calories, or allocating points for different food items. I tried that once but it did my head in and frankly I have enough to do in a day. Some diets have you write down everything you eat. Awareness is supposed to make us notice the things we are putting into our mouths. That is works for me, except that after a few days I forget to do it and forget what I ate. And again the day just seems to busy to chase my meals about with a notepad! So I applied some of my mother's tried and true wisdom - halve what you eat.

How? Don't change a thing. Prepare or order what you might normally eat, and simply eat half. Package the other half and take it for lunch the next day! If its not the kind of food you can keep overnight, throw it away. Wasteful I know, but after awhile the waste, or your shrinking stomach, will mean you don't need to prepare so much food. It works in almost all scenarios - buy a sandwich for lunch - eat half, save the other half for dinner. Fried rice, noodles, steak, bowl of pasta - simply eat half.

It breaks social conventions in the West to do this, so think like the Chinese - its polite in China to leave food on your plate indicating your satisfied! And besides why let social convention get in the way of a healthier, leaner life!

There is one exception to this rule. If you have a plate of vegetables (exluding roast potatoes or French fries!!) or salad, you are welcome to eat 100%! Its surprising how little we need to address hunger pangs. Research shows that people with the greatest longevity, like the senior citizens of Okinawa Japan, eat small meals. (See  Dan Buettner's Ted Talk on Longevity for more on this)

Forget complicated calorie counts - just eat less!! 

An egg a day, keeps hunger at bay!

A few years ago my friend Gill told me that I should reconsider my morning coffee as breakfast and start cooking myself an egg for breakfast. I figured I was far too busy and important for that, so I smiled sweetly and said "Yes I probably should'! And so here I am to eat humble pie, or eggs at least.

An egg for breakfast is absolutely the best thing you can do to stave off hunger for the entire morning. When I eat cereal or fruit for breakfast I am hungry by 10am, but with the protein in eggs and one slice of wholemeal toast, I can go the distance to lunch!

And its healthy! I was worried about cholesterol for awhile, so occasionally I do like a New Yorker - go the egg white omelette! Its the egg white that holds the protein of course! And if you think eggs get boring - tried them hard or soft boiled, fried in olive oil, poached, scrambled, over easy, sunny side up or as I say as an omelette. (Thanks for the egg tip Gill and sorry I am a slow learner!)

Dark chocolate - guilt free pleasure

I have always been a chocoholic. I think it started in my final years in high school when I developed an comprehensive system of Mars bar rewards! I remember when I went off to university the pure joy of being able to have a Snickers for lunch and not having anyone question me otherwise! In my office it was me who introduced the tradition of bringing back boxes of chocolates, anytime someone travelled abroad. My brother in law and I have bonded over the years debating the virtues of white versus milk chocolate and sharing smaples to prove our points! I even kept a little supply of chocolate in the freezer for 'bad' days which my family knew was not to be touched by anyone but me!

On top of all that history, I have always thought dark chocolate to be one of the most unnecessary, disgusting products available in the world today. I just could not get it. If you could eat white Toblerone or Ferrero Rochers, why on earth would you put dark chocolate in your trolley or your mouth for that matter!

Well obviously any plan to lose weight involves some significant change. So I once again bit the bullet and erradicated all forms of chocolate from my life. Oh the agony of passing the chocolate aisle in the supermarket. Oh the cravings!

Then I read about the virtues of dark chocolate for health and decided I best give it a go. The only dark chocolate I could stomach in the beginning was dark chcolate with mint in it. The mint took the edge off the 'dark'. Then I started to discover other varieties - dark with hazelnuts, fruit and nut, orange (not my preference) and even toffee bits (delicious). Lindt mint chocolate is my favourite but I am enjoying discovering the ever expanding range of dark choc available!

Since dark chocolate is technically 'good' for you, you can eat it everyday guiltfree! AND dark chocolate turns out to be satisfying enough after just a few small pieces. In fact its not the kind of thing you can eat chunks and chunks of anyway! Foa scientific perspective on this press here.

But a word of warning - don't go for the 99% cacao - thats like eating dirt. 70% is good enough! After awhile I discovered that I past the 'cold turkey' stage of milk chocolate and I don't crave it anymore. But you can be sure there is a still a supply of chocolate in my fridge - all dark - all delicious - and its not just for emergencies, but for everyday, guiltfree indulgence! ENJOY!

Green tea is key!

There has been so much press about green tea in the past few years. And I say it is still under rated. I could be the cover girl for green tea. I swear it is one of the best weapons in a weight loss process.

Every single night the last thing I 'consume' is a hot cup of green tea. About 15 - 20 minutes later you can feel it go to work - DETOXING!. You can feel it bubble away in your belly. Its FANTASTIC.

I can not drink it all day. Let's face it, it is not the most delicious drink you can drink. But that one cup at the end of the day, I swear, helps.

I try to keep it simple by using tea bags rather than loose leaves in a teapot as that is way too much work. I found Japanese green tea to be one of the best if you can get it. Health food stores always stock quality green tea and also slimming tea. I tried slimming tea just once and to be frank it was a little too much cleansing for my liking and tasted disgusting. Perhpas it was the brand I tried but just plain green tea was sufficent for my needs!

Don't forget to pack the tea bags when you travel!

Green tea - try it - its key!