Motivate Me!

Did you know that 6lbs of body fat takes up nearly a gallon of space? Neither did I, until I read it in “Protein Power: the high protein, low carbohydrate way to lose weight, feel fit and boost your health” By Dr Michael R. Eades and Dr Mary Dan Eades. Read it for yourself – page 133. I’ll even lend you my book if you like....And no I don't get any money for endorsing the book or the regime - I just thought it was an interesting fact.

It’s no wonder having lost about 8lbs of body fat since changing my gym in January that I am smaller than I was. Granted it’s subtle changes, like my jaw line is more prominent (no more double chin!) and my shoulders are smaller but my butt and stomach still need some work.

Which is why yesterday I started the next phase of my health and fitness journey. Yesterday I cut out – most of the refined carbs out of my diet. I did have a couple of teaspoons of rice mid afternoon – which came courtesy of a californian sushi hand roll, and a tsp of plain flour which helped to make the sauce that I had with dinner.

Along with removal of breads, rice and pasta are noodles, starchy vegetables (carrots aren’t as bad as I thought they were) and fruit such as apples, pears and bananas – far too much fructose (simple fruit sugars which converts straight to sugar in the body and spikes the insulin). So until I have gotten my insulin back under control – and no I am not a diabetic, but I know I have had a nasty habit of spiking my insulin, then these foods will have to go for a while.

If you get hungry very soon after eating a meal based on carbohydrates,
If you feel tired and sleepy not long after eating carbs
If you crave junk food – namely chocolate or potato crisps

Then you have spiked your insulin levels, the body has had to dump massive amounts of insulin into the blood stream to combat the rush of sugars you’ve just pumped into your body, and the insulin is racing through your blood stream capturing as much sugar as it can and stuffing it into your fat cells, making your body react.

If you don’t want to remove the refined carbs from your diet completely (and lets face it who really does - apart from body builders that is) then you are going to have to make sure that you do not eat carbs on their own. Have an apple with some nuts or cheese. Make a sandwich using good quality protein – eggs, meat, fish.

And wait 2 and a half to 3 hours before you eat anything else. If you find yourself getting hungry before then – drink lots of water and get busy. It’s very rare to be hungry when you are thinking about something else.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey of 2004 -2005 certainly gives one pause for thought...

"they" say:
62% of men and 45% of women are either obese or overweight
71% of men and 54% of women drink alcohol at a high-risk level
23% of adults are smokers and
77% of the adult population have at least one long-term medical condition

There was a television programme on SBS last Friday night - forgot it was on in the heat of the post conference wind down - that showed 60 million chinese people are obese. That's the entire population of France. The question is why are so many people putting themselves at risk of dying by eating too much?

Is it because food is so readily available today? Is it because we don't have to cook anymore. Everything is pre-packaged and pre-cooked. Fast food is cheap and calorie dense - have you seen how many calories are in the average burger or piece of fried chicken? It doesn't bear thinking about...and that is part of the problem. It is easy to over eat because we don't know how much we are consuming, because we don't have to fetch it from the supermarket, nor have to spend time in the kitchen cooking it. Instant gratification has become the norm. The give it to me now mentality has replaced the social aspect of cooking and eating together.

And of course it is not just the food that we consume that has contributed to the problem of obesity and wideness in our society. The light bulb (and of course electricity) has meant that we can circumvent the body's natural rhythms and cycles. We can stay up all night and watch the world cup being played half way around the world whilst consuming vast quantities of food to keep us awake. We don't clean our own homes or mow our own lawns (I do the former but not the latter). We have people who "do" because we tell ourselves that we don't have the time to do it ourselves. In my case I don't own a lawn mower, and have no intention of buying one. You see the problem as I see it, is this...we always find time to do what we want to do.

No I really am, sick and tired. My body is fighting a cold at the moment, and I am not sure who or what is winning!! After weeks of unrelenting stress and pressure to deliver a 3 day conference to a 100 people, I think my body has decided it needs to rest...and who can blame it.

As is always the case, it makes me wonder if better prevention would have offset the need for a "cure".

In the lead up to the conference my "diet" changed. I sat for far longer, forgoing my daily walk for another hour spent in air-conditioning in front of the computer. I drank more caffeinated beverages and when the stress levels became too great I opted for higher levels of sugar....refined sugars including sweets and chocolate (don't tell Mike!!) and sandwiches over salad and fresh fruit. And home time was no better. Whilst I do cook proper foods nine times out of ten, there were occassions when I did succumb to the "chippy"...yes more carbohydrates that my body couldn't burn in the time that it was allocated. Even my gym time was impacted especially during the running of the event.

Do you experience times during your day when your body craves food? What do you reach for? Is it the nice crunchy apple or the biggest bag of refined, over-processed junk that you reach for? Given our recent conversations I would hazard a guess - that you, like most of the rest of the population reach for the latter. The question is why?

Well if you are restricting your calorie intake each day, your body may think it is starving - so will self sabotage your efforts to lose weight. If you think that missing meals is the way to go, your blood sugar will hit rock bottom and you will need to hit yourself with rather large doses of "sugar" to raise it again. The problem with doing that is the body then reacts by injecting large doses of insulin to counter the sugar increase and so the cycle begins again.

Eat foods that release the sugars slowly into your bloodstream. For instance - eat some nuts or cheese with an apple. The protein and fat found in the nuts/cheese will slow down the absorption of the fructose contained in the apple - the blood sugar doesn't spike and your insulin can breath a sigh of relief.

You should also aim to eat some form of protein/fat/carbohydrate every 2-3 hours. Small "meals" more regularly will ensure you have more than enough energy to get you through the day. And if you can restrict those occassions when you hit the munch moods (ie., don't have a beer with your dinner) then you can stop the late night snack attacks. Note - if you can't burn off the carbs it will be stuffed into your fat cells - and you'll probably have trouble sleeping too, it makes me wonder why we continue to put ourselves in the situations. Control your munch moods and you are more likely to control your weight.

Yes I've reached that point, where I have to question why? why do we "bother" - the tape measure, whilst a better measure than the bathroom scale does not accurately reflect the actual changes that are going on in our bodies. Last Friday evening (a week ago) I asked one of the trainers to "do me a favour" and to take a couple of skin fold measurements - to see if the caliper was more accurate than the tape. But I found out even that is subjective - dependent on the operator. There had been significant changes to the start measures - but was warned that they might not be "correct" as she may have squeezed either too hard or not hard enough...needing to pinch the fat not the muscle.

So how can you measure progress if all the measures aren't accurate? My scales indicate "weight" - muscle weighs heavier than fat, but you can look slimmer. The tape measure checks size - but if you are retaining fluid then you will be "bigger" and the skin fold tests - well even that isn't entirely accurate as just mentioned.

People advise to "throw the bathroom scales away" and to go by the clothes you wear - but like the tape measure, can be difficult to judge.

Never rely on a single measure to "measure" your progress. It can be hard to keep going when all the figures say "no change" "no change" "no change" - but now is the time to do things just a little differently. We all experience plateaus in our lives, when we decide we really didn't want to get to the top of the mountain after all. you know the view is pretty good where you are, so you sit down and wait a while. The trouble is - once you have decided that you are not going to put on your walking shoes and start moving again, it's quite easy to slide a little bit further down the mountainside without really noticing the changes - at least in the beginning. And then what happens - by the time you have noticed the view has changed, you are stuck into a whole new regime of bad habits.

So is the answer to grit it out and keep on doing the same thing? Well if you are climbing a mountain - then it is a good idea - after all you do need to put one foot in front of the other. But you don't have to stay on the same route you were on of course. So change your view, get a different perspective, change the routine, eat breakfast at tea time, cycle instead of run, write a book backwards chapter by chapter.

Because the old adage is true - if you do what you've always done, then you'll keep on getting the same results.

After weeks of no change on the scale or tape measure I have to admit that I was getting a little despondent with the whole dieting and exercising thing.

But a comment from a friend the other day prompted me to have another look at what I was doing. And what I noticed was interesting.

As the challenge has progressed I noticed that I am actually doing far less cardio than before. I might run three times a week - but before the challenge I was also adding cardio to the end of my weights programme. Now my muscles are totally spent, there is no way I can do much in the way of additional cardio. But there is an added dimension and one that I must admit floored me for a while.

So what is the added dimension? Well I am not eating the right foods at the right time. I am eating the right kinds of foods most of the time, just not consistently. So the muscle stores have actually run out - oops.

The recommended intake of food is every 2.5 hours, with the breakdown being some form of protein, some form of carbohydrate and some form of fat. (Cheese and tomato sandwich, apple and handful of nuts etc).

So I re-evaluated what was going into my mouth and therefore into my body - and I noticed that the carbohydrate component had slowly creeped up, with the protein component reducing slightly. It's hardly rocket science, yet I got it wrong again.

I also noticed in my re-evaluation that I had forgotten the magic ingredient. Ah - I can "see" the raised eyebrows from here - I thought there was no magic ingredient to the weight loss, are we talking pills and potions here?

Water - we are composed so much of the darn stuff we actually slosh when we walk. No I am just kidding. But it does make up a significant portion of every cell in our bodies. It is so essential that sometimes we think we are getting enough from the foods that we eat, and the endless cups of tea and coffee that we drink. How wrong can we be.

We reach a plateau and think that we're doing all that we can - when it is so easy to slide back into old habits - eating two slices of bread instead of one, not drinking enough water. Doing a little less at the gym than we did a few days ago.

One other thing that I have noticed is that - the challenge is a challenge because the support system is not in place. The other magic ingredient in achieveing goals is to ensure that your support system is in place. Mine is sadly lacking at the moment - and it is hard to be your own cheer leader - all the time.

So what can you do? Well there are another couple of suggestions to help you stay on track. One is to get your old photos out - and you will see how far you've travelled. How many words are now on the computer? How many walls have you painted? How many weeds have you pulled out of your own garden. One comment from a colleague at work sums it up nicely - How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Did you know that it takes eating an excess of 7,700 calories to make one kilogram of fat? How much is that really? Well consider that one bottle of red wine (sorry didn't check for white) is approximately 500 calories, and it doesn't take much in the way of brain power to work out that 15 bottles of wine = 1 kilogram of fat.

According to the book I am looking at (Allan Borushek's Pocket Calorie and Fat counter) says that the average 80 kilo male needs between 2,300 - 3,050 calories per day (age dependent) it is not hard to see that a couple of evenings of moderate drinking can stack on the weight. Or if you are not a wine drinker - beer averages about 140 calories per 375ml can/bottle it would take less than a carton of beer to give you the caloric excess we spoke about.

Given that weight loss is a simple maths equation - consume too much energy (food) than your body can utilise (burn) and you will gain weight, therefore to lose weight, you need to either eat less or exercise more than you currently are. Sounds simple doesn't it, and it is, which makes me wonder why I can never remember it.

So as a simple exercise to find out if you are consuming too much - write down everything that you eat/consume today and then work out the calorie content. It's a very interesting exercise. Go on put down that glass of wine and find that dusty copy of the calorie counter you have sitting on your book shelves. Go on I dare ya.

I seem to have every diet book ever written, and you know what - they all contradict each other in one way or another.

Eat protein, don't eat protein;
Eat as much cheese and eggs as you want - but don''t touch the carbs;
Low fat = low body fat

And it's all backed up by countless study, medical research and lots of glowing testimonials. Fact is, most diets work in the short term, but over the life-term, if boredome doesn't set in I can almost guarantee the weight will creep back on as you stop watching the portion sizes, you forget to look at the labels and "maintenace" becomes "i've put on 5 kilos - when did that happen?"

In the main most "diets" are a from of calorie restriction. Removal of one or more of the major food groups - hence weight loss. However, there does seem to be a common factor or two:
1. Eat less, exercise more;
2. Avoid sugar;
3. Avoid added sugars (hidden sugars in processed foods);
4. Avoid white flour, fried foods and hydrogenated oils.
All seem to be the first things most diet books insist you take out of your eating patterns. So - no cakes, biscsuits, pastry, sweets, chocolate, chips, crisps, takeaway and soft drinks.

Are you allowed to eat cheese or milk, should we switch to soy? What about alcohol and caffeine?

I personally feel that is we take out all those thiings every diet and health professional tells us we shouldn't be eating anyway, therest pretty much takes care of itself - with a qualifier - if you eat more than your body needs or can use in a day, you will gain weight. So if you have honestly taken out all the "bad" stuff and you're still not losing weight - then it's time to check the portion sizes and the ingredients a little more closely.

One of the things I have found is that like most things if you make it yourself you know what goes in it. But inside the pre-packaged mass produced foods that fill the supermarket aisles, preservatives, additives, colours and flavour enhancer are added to base ingredients and high on the ingredient lists are sugar and salt.

So what do you do? Well that's up to you - but one of the things that I try and incorporate into my life is moderation. If I am going to eat sugary, salt laden fried food one day, it's important to eat lots of fruit and veggies the next. But I do need to do more exercise...I still have way to much body fat stored for the next famine to be truly healthy.

Are your children larger than they should be? According to research being conducted by the Universtiy of Western Australia, Childhood obesity has risen by an alarming 60-70%, the gains being attributed to children living a far more sedentary lifestyle. However, before you rush out and buy bikes for the kids for Christmas, it appears inactivity is not the only factor we need to be concerned with.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA), Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) and the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research are looking into the Biopsychosocial factors and childhood obesity. The study looks at the role parent’s play in determining the size and weight of their offspring, and we are not just talking genetics. The study involves three groups of children (a community sample of overweight/obese children, a community sample of healthy weight children, and a treatment-seeking sample of obese children) and their parents.
It has been noted that a staggering 80% of the children accepted in to the research groups had at least one overweight parent, usually the mother. Children are susceptible, they see parents doing something and they quite naturally assume that it is OK for them to do the same.

The Health of Australia's Workforce is a cause for concern, the 2005 report by Medibank Private found that:
- 28% of people are clinically obese
- An additional 34% are overweight
- 21% smoke daily
- 46% have a high-fat diet
- 62% do less than the minimum recommended amount of exercise
- 29% suffer back, neck or spinal prolems
- 12% suffer from depression
and 53% reported feeling overwhelmed with pressure and stress a significant amount of time

Do you eat when you are truly hungry or do you eat to satisfy some other craving, such as a desire for sugar, boredom or some emotional reason? I’m sure if we are all honest with ourselves we have all eaten too much, too often and in response to other stimuli rather than hunger.

By the way do you know what genuine hunger feels like? I liken it to a feeling of gnawing pain, that can lead me to feel sick. I can’t ever remember being sick as a result of hunger, you understand, just feeling slightly nauseous. Is this one of the main reasons why I never let myself get to the point of genuine hunger very often?

But it’s also interesting that when I am totally engrossed with what I am doing, it can be hours (and I mean 5 or 6 hours) before my stomach reminds my head that it hasn’t been fed in a while.

So is that one of the main factors in safe and effective weight loss? Eat only when you are genuinely hungry, and make sure you are totally absorbed in whatever it is you are doing so you don’t have time to think about eating.

It sounds plausible doesn’t it? But how many days in a normal week can you honestly say you’ve lost track of time when you were doing something? Hmm – not many.

So is the first key to successful weight loss and hunger management, not eating less per se, rather getting absorbed in some task, so that you genuinely forget to eat. I know that when I am “dieting” the only thing I tend to think about is food. What I can eat, what I can’t and when the next official meal time is. Weird really. When I am not “dieting” the thoughts never cross my mind.

However there has to be more to the dieting lark, weight loss and hunger management than getting absorbed in a task so you don’t eat to satisfy something other than genuine hunger. I mean if that was the case, then all the slimming clinics, weight loss consultants and diet book writers the world over would be out of work now wouldn’t they?

Well as I mentioned earlier sometimes I eat and I am not conscious of what I am eating. I am doing other things at the same time. Eating on the run, trying to multi task, trying to cram more into every day. We eat, but we don’t stop to eat. We don’t stop and enjoy the process of feeding our bodies. You would think that we would take pride in feeding this incredible machine that we have been given with the best possible foods. But no. We choose the quickest thing we can lay our hands on. Is it any wonder that the biggest money making conglomerates are the ones that try and satisfy modern man’s need and desire for cheap food very quickly? Well not to me at any rate.

I’m sure if we stopped long enough to realise what it was we were stuffing into our mouths and bodies we would actually think three times (let alone twice) before doing it. I mean we all know that fried foods are bad for us. We know that some form of protein with every meal is essential if we want to feel full longer. We know that if we spike our blood sugar levels by eating refined carbohydrates, we will want more carbohydrates sooner rather than later so that we can satisfy our blood sugar requirements. Is it any wonder that the rise in diabetes and diet related diseases has increased at the same time as the amount of cheap, pre-packaged convenience foods? Well if you were in any doubt before, then let me dispel the myth – they go hand in hand. How many times have we been told that we should eat 5 veg and 2 fruits every day? How many times have we been told not to eat too much sugar, drink too much alcohol, eat fast food once a year (if that) and not to eat deep fried anything if we want to live a healthy life? How many times a day do you go against the medical advice? Yes it’s a free country – except we’re paying for it in many different ways. The health system is sick from trying to cope with the many health related diseases that are totally preventable. Our bank balances would be much bigger if we didn’t buy so much take away food. And our clothes would be several sizes smaller too.

So the second key to weight loss and hunger management is to stop what you are doing and actually taste the food that you are eating. I mean stop and savour the different flavours and textures. Do you enjoy what you are eating? Can you taste the different flavours? Then you need to ask yourself whether or not you are willing to continue to eat the hidden fats and sugars that are added to the foods to give them taste.

Slowing down our eating process actually gives another benefit. You can actually tell when you feel full. If you eat when you are genuinely hungry, stop whatever you are doing and eat your food and enjoy whatever it is you are currently eating (eating mindfully), you will notice your body telling you when it has had enough.

Do you remember the last time you ate everything on your plate, then sat back and felt horribly fat and bloated? Making you wish you hadn’t eaten those last couple of mouth fulls? Well if truth be known, you could have probably stopped eating much sooner had you noticed what you were eating and recognised the signs that your stomach was actually full.

Yes it does. Since following the plan/advice/suggestions for a couple of weeks now, my stomach is much less bloated than it was. As I weight train though I am maintaining my weight. I am “thinner” but don’t weigh less on the scale. Muscle does weigh heavier than fat, but takes up less than half the space. But then when you can get into a size 12 – does it matter what it actually says on the scale?

Myth number 1: the word “diet” is incorrect. We are all on a “diet”. The food that we eat every day makes up our individual dietary requirements. Therefore if we want to lose size, we need to modify them, dietary requirements that is. In other words we need to change what we are eating from foods that have allowed us to gain weight, to foods that allow us to lose weight. Losing weight is a simple equation – eat less than your body needs to use as fuel and you will lose weight. In very simple terms – eat less and exercise more by modifying your daily dietary requirements.

Myth number 2: When you lose weight you are not just losing “fat. Your body is made up of many things including hair, bones, tendons, muscles, organs, water and fat, and you can lose weight from each and every part of your body. "Diets" that claim to help you lose 10lbs of fat in 10 days is also a myth, it is also false advertising. Calorie restricted diets that make these kinds of claims, also advise you not to exercise, epecially exercise that involves lifting weights. Why? Well muscle weighs heavier than fat, so you are unlikely to lose weight if you are also weight training, at least in the first instance. So what are you losing when you are going on this kid of "diet" - the answer is water and most likely muscle tissue.

Do you want to know why you always gain weight again, and a few more kilos after you've stopped following theircalorie restricted "diet"? Well the muscle tissue that you lost during your dieting phase is actually your engine, it is the fat burning equipment your body uses and needs to get rid of the fat that we have stored in our bodies. As mentioned - when most people "diet" they don't lose "Fat" they lose weight from all over their bodies, and because muscle tissue is the easiest to break down it is the thing that goes first. Lose muscle tissue and you lose the body's ability to burn fat efficiently. In real terms your body now needs less calories to maintain its BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. Which is why a lot of people claim they eat hardly anything and still gain weight. Well now you know why. In order to burn fat, you need to exercise, specifically weight train in order to gain muscle mass. Do more exercise and you will lose weight.

In order to modify your daily dietary requirements, you need to understand where you are getting your energy from , so take a day or so and make a simple food diary of what you have eaten during the day. Do not cheat, you are only fooling yourself – if you put something into your mouth, write it in your food diary. To do this properly you need to write down the food that you eat over the weekend as well.

Once you have the information in front of you, it will be very easy to see where you can start modifying your “diet”.

If you are anything like me, you will have one or two diet books on your shelf. Please choose one that has sound scientific principles behind it, and read it. If you don’t have one at home, then borrow one from your local library or from someone who does have one or two books gathering dust on their shelves.

What do I mean by sound scientific principles? Well a lot of diets are fads – nothing more: eat fish, don’t eat fish, eat eggs, don’t eat eggs, eat lots of protein, don’t eat any carbs, yes those kind of fad diets. I have to confess that I am an impulse buyer when it comes to the latest diet and exercise books. Yes I really was hoping for the miracle cure. When in reality all I had to do was follow the suggestions given in one or two of the books that I already had, for as long as I needed to in order to lose the size that I wanted.

So, once you have read through your choice of book, completely once, I would suggest you read it again. This time read with a pen and paper next to you.

Write down the steps the authors recommend, and do them. Follow the steps as outlined and you will lose weight. Where most people fail is they skip ahead, or they don’t do what the author tells them to do. Personally when i am looking to lose fat I look at those people who have made lean bodies a business - the body sculptors, the body builders. Now you don not have to become a body builder to benefit from their techniques - besides as a woman it is virtuallly impossible to look like them - because we do not have the right amounts of testosterone in our bodies needed to create that kind of muscle mass. So don't panic.

Are you drinking enough water?
Are you eating the correct food or are you modifying the diet as you go alone?
Do you know what you are eating?
Are you eating too much for the amount of exercise you are doing?
Are you doing any exercise?

Remember, it has taken you this long to get to the size and shape that you are. Do not expect to lose all your excess weight or size in a few days.

Remember the choices that you make today, will impact on how you look tomorrow.

Are you making the right choices?

I'm supposed to be losing weight - Trying - is a good and a bad word. I know that sometimes I am not "trying" as hard as I can, some days I conveniently forget I am supposed to be on a health plan and eat anything that isn't nailed down. Then I get the attack of the remorses and vow to "try" harder the next day. And sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't.

Take last night for instance. I was going to have an early night, until I remembered the Oscars were on. And instead of going to bed at my pre-determined bed time I sat up and watched a couple of hours of television. One question - how can these people sit for so long without needing a pit stop? But anyway. Not only did I forgo writing my book for mindless television, I also found a half bottle of wine in the fridge and half an hour later had an attack of the munchies.... oops now I am going to get in trouble.

What can I say - I am only human, and all humans have failings don't they? I can also blame the fact that I've been trying to get over an illness all last week, but neither of the excuses are actually valid. I know I am totally responsible for what I do, say and therefore achieve. All I can promise is that today I am "trying" harder to be good. And each tiny decision that I make is giving me another set of choices and options for the next decsions that I have to tackle. So don't despair if you can't get it right all the time, neither can I. But we can promise that if we make the next 5 minutes better than the last, we won't let a single wrong decision turn into an avalanche of despair and in my case - comfort eating.

Today's been like that. My energy is going down with the sun. Thank goodness for 4 days off.

Is to acknowledge that the choices you have made towards the foods that you put into your mouth and therefore your body was yours to make. Once you acknowledge that, you have regained the power you will need to make better, more informed choices next time you are presented with some food substance.

The only thing you really need to remember is this - food is energy. If you eat more than your body can safely use in a day, then you are more likely to be gaining weight. Conversely if you eat less than your body requires for fuel, you will lose weight. However there are some caveats. Never starve yourself. You should know how many calories you should be eating for your age/height and current exercise pattern. Check in with your medical practitioner, and/or a calorie controlled diet book/counter for this information. Then once you know these facts, you can make adjustments. Remember though, this cannot be an overnight fix, you cannot hope to lose excess weight quickly and hope to keep it off over the long term.

Remember also, that you are not going on a diet, you are going on a changed lifestyle plan. if you cut out foods in order to lose weight, and then go back to what you were doing before you went on a diet, you will soon gain weight again....and then some.

If you reduce your muscle mass, you lose your fat burning engine, so you should also remember that you need to do some exercise. Preferably weight bearing exercise. As in - you need to think about going to the gym. This keeps the muscle tight, and the skin does't sag and droop as you lose the fat that sits between the two layers. Of course you can do any kind of exercise, lift the kids, curl tins of beans, what you do doesn't matter, just move it if you want to lose it more quickly.

Oh and the last thing to remember is that - time is important. How long did it take you to reach your current weight/size? Then you need to consider it takes about half as long again to shift it.

If you close your eyes when you bite through the skin of an apple, and focus on the entire sensation and process of eating - you will automatically slow down the pace of eating, and as a result will eat less because you are enjoying it more. As more and more of us are eating on the run is it any wonder a lot of us are getting wider round the girth?

I have always thought it important to never remove anything from the diet I have, that way my brain cannot go into whinge mode. What I do try and do however, is to eat a little bit and put the rest away for another time. One of the best ones I've found that works for me is chocolate. I don't buy the "milk" chocolate anymore. Rather the 70-85% cocoa stuff...instant hit and you only need a tiny bit to get the effect (high).

Now I'm not saying that will work for everyone. For some it is bootcamp style - remove anything even vaguely tempting from the house - that way you can't eat it. For others - pre-packaged diet meals, and others prefer the liquid diets that proliferate the dieting market these days. But we can all benefit I think from slowing down the eating process. Enjoy what you are eating - after all food is one of life's greatest pleasures (IMHO).

Do You Eat Until You Feel Yourself Becoming Full? It May Cause Obesity! - TeamCircle

Imagine waking up on Monday morning with the thought you were going to do something about shifting those 20 stubborn kilos you’ve been meaning to do something about.

Can you imagine getting to the end of day 1 on week 1 and thinking this is too hard and giving up before you’ve even begun to set a new habit.

Next week after losing your 1 kilo (bear in mind it may look like you’ve lost more than 1 kilo – but that may just be water loss as opposed to fat loss), then start work on the next 1 kilo.

Remember the lessons though. What worked, what didn’t! Then repeat the successes and forget about those things that didn’t.

Focussing on just 1 week and 1 kilo you can achieve your weight loss easily.

There comes a point for everyone who considers themselves to be "overweight" "fat" or "obese" to make a decision to lose weight. So what happens? Well, you:

If you are like most people, if you haven't kept up some sort of weight training (resistance training) your muscles will have been used first and foremost to fuel your body's energy requirements - muscle is easier to burn than fat and is always called upon first in times of stress (ie diet)....weight training can help to prevent this from happening....so you re-gain the weight you have lost and then a bit more.

You then get discouraged so you either continue to eat "normally" or you start the whole process again - usually at a much higher weight than you were before.

As I work through the next 97 days of my own 100 day challenge I will keep you informed of the progress, the pitfalls. I will tell you what works and what isn't. I will document my daily struggles and the triumphs and I will put my body on the line so you can see for yourself what is possible.

During my childhood and teenage years I was never still, I would always be outside "playing", riding my bike, I was in the junior school cross country team and for a short period of time the mixed soccer (football) team as well. As I moved into High School (Middle School) I did a lot of gymnastics, played in the netball team and because we weren't on a direct bus route, or had a car, cycled to and from the home games, played hockey and did a lot of track and field. Through senior school, track and field, tennis, badminton, volleyball during lunch breaks and a million other kinds of sport. If I could have a go I did. And then came work - things were a little different once organised sport was no longer part of my daily life I had to find ways to stay fit. Tennis was the main way of course, cleaning house and doing the gardening and then I took up aerobics - which was OK until I tore the cartilage in my left knee - an operation to remove part of the damage came next and the damage was done. Now I wasn't exercising very much, eating the same amount and then I added a part-time degree to the mix - culminating in falling pregnant during the final year (which I did part-time for 5 years).

I have spent years in various gyms across the state where I live but not getting very far and every time the fall off the wagon was even more spectacular than the last.

Then I decided to talk to the experts and so began a course of study that culminated in a distinction in a Diploma in Personal Nutrition.

This study also coincided with a return to my early childhood / teen habit of walking everywhere I possibly could.

For me as I mentioned, injury, operations, child bearing and a sit down job have all contributed to my previous yo-yo lifestyle. But now I have the tools I need.

If you need inspiration to lose weight, start a weight loss plan, then these 8 people will prove to you - that if they can, so can you.

This is an interesting program about the need for protein - You have to wade your way through quite a bit of stuff on locusts / crickets first ... but the modeling is very interesting and explains why we gain weight :-) http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2010/10/26/3047587.htm

I am sure the $3 million deal with weight watchers also helped, but it was her own desire to slim down.

Well you might be interested to know that according to Dietitians Association Australia, 95 per cent of people who lose weight actually regain the weight - and more - within two years.

Well if the answer isn't dieting, then what is? Well, the answer isn't really surprising. You need to change your exercise levels and of course sustained lifestyle changes to make the biggest difference to your body shape. And let's face it, if we looked fantastic, would we care what the numbers on the scale said.

To be fair my trainer has been saying this for years - but it is interesting nonetheless. The article also recommends cutting out foods across the 4 food groups not just one. He also says to subtract 500 calories from your maintenance calories. (This is where you neither gain or lose weight)

When it comes to losing weight, there are some obvious things we need to remove from our diets. Processed food and fast food are two of the most obvious culprits, but did you know that alcohol has almost as many calories / g as fat?

Believe it or not alcohol has 7 kcal / g while fat has 9 kcal / g. I am not saying we shouldn't enjoy a glass or two of wine (or other beverage of choice), but if you are trying to lose weight and you are not seeing much of a shift on the scales, you might want to look at your alcohol consumption as part of your overall calorie cut down. Once you have worked out your total calorie requirement / day you need to consume to lose weight, you may decide that the second glass of wine isn't worth the calories.

Interesting video from Business Insider showing what 2,000 calories looks like (2,000 calories being the average calorie intake for adult females, male average calorie intake is 2,500 and children's calorie intake is 1,800)... and yes individual requirements do vary.

I saw this when I was out walking today. At first I was mildly amused, but then it hit me ...

There are many diets on the market. Every where you turn someone is touting a dnew diet book and ways to lose weight. Having completed a Diploma in Personal Nutrition that looked at every fad diet in detail and the only real ways to lose weight and keep it off - it never ceases to surprise me that people still fall for the "magic bullet" approach to dieting and weight loss.

The following article appeared recently in the Sydney Morning Herald - you may agree or disagree with their findings. I know what works and I will be releasing some information in the near future. And you are probably not going to like what I have to tell you - not if you want a quick fix. BTW there is no such thing. But more of that another day.

The good news is that people are accepting the fact that they're not going to be the catwalk size model. Fit is the new skinny and people are just getting on with life.

The bad news (and not necessarily for us) is the dieting and weight loss industry are losing - big time.

There are healthy numbers we should be taking into consideration. Blood pressure, cholesterol, iron and vitamin D levels for instance. But the number on the label of the clothes we buy isn't as important these days it seems. Read more ...

With Easter (or any holiday revolving around food) our motivation to diet and lose weight suffers. I know my dieting motivation goes out of the window when I see other people indulge. So my question for you - did you over indulge this weekend in the chocolate stakes? Did you get on the scales this morning and notice a scale creep, OK landslide of gigantic easter egg proportions? Isn't it amazing, when you are trying to lose weight the scale never seems to move, even when you seem to have gone without EVERYTHING for days and weeks on end. But you give up for one lousy day and the scale shoots back up to the starting point with no trouble at all.

Diets are not about a short term fix for a long term problem. Lets face it, if you've been overweight for some time, chances are going to be good it's going to take you a while to get rid of it. So make sure the "diet" you choose can sustain you for a life time, not a long time. Balance is always good. Contrary to myth, you do need to eat certain fats, they are the building blocks for every cell. Just avoid the saturated kinds and the trans fats - these are the hydrolyzed versions that tend to be added to every cake, pie and biscuit manufactured today. So cutting out these "foods" if you can call them that will also assist you reduce your waist line. And you do need carbohydrates, these are the instant energy boosters our body needs to get going. The trouble is we tend to eat enough to sustain an olympic marathon runner rather than the more sedentary lifestyles we actually lead. And of course we need protein in our diets. Protein helps to re-build muscles after sustained exercise. Protein also fills you up for longer, which means of course you're not craving those other foods that spike the blood sugar (carbs).

So don't despair if the scales are not being kind to you this morning. Go back to basics and remember - it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle thing.

I have read a number of diet books over the years, OK make that dozens of diet books over the years. What I have found is that the basic premise is the same in all of them. Cut out "junk" food, drink more water and exercise if you want to move weight more quickly. What do they all mean by "junk" food? Well in almost every book, junk includes:

Biscuits
Cake
Chips
Crisps
Soda (Fizzy drink)
Alcohol
Mixers
Sweets and Lollies
Chocolate
Fast food
White flour
Sugar
Margarine
White rice
White pasta

Which lets face it has become the norm for a lot of people in so called civilised society. Yes there are variations, the mediterranean diet - red wine and olive oil, the eskimo's traditional diet of whale meat, the japanese and chinese diets of rice based dishes. BUt it has also been interesting to know that as western diets have inflitrated the traditional diets, so have the waist lines of consumers. Along with all the same medical conditions and ailments. (lots of scientific facts - too many to list in this forum, but read the small print of any of the nutrition books out there and you will see for yourself what I mean).

I know that personally as I have modified my diet over the years, I have removed some or all of the above components from my diet and have noticed a dramatic improvement, but as I have allowed myself to become "bored" with fresh fruit and veggies, lean protein and healthy fibre based food stuffs, that the weight creeps back up and then some.

Now I know that I should not eat bread, rice, pasta and potatoes - my body simply cannot process them properly, but do you think I remember when I am eating fresh bread dripping with butter? Of course not, I am only human, and a female at that. But - and here is the thing. If I want to lose weight and keep it off - forever, I am going to have to remove these items from my diet, almost completely.

4 days back into the altered way of eating - and the bloating I had experienced over the last goodness knows how long has all but disappeared. And there has been weight loss on the scale for the first time in months. Yes I might exercise for hours each week, but without the removal of those things I know I shouldn't eat (and please see a medical practitioner before embarking on any kind of health plan) because my body can't process them, I've shrunk but not lost weight.

Do you constantly do things you know you shouldn't and then hope you get a different outcome? Me too. But not any more. I have what i think are all the facts i need to move forwards, i don't need to do any more research. Now i just need to keep repeating the positive behaviours and eliminate one by one those things that I know have held me back.

I know I've told you about my life long battle with my food addiction. What I haven't told you is that I "think" I've found the answer. The answer came to me as a gift from something I subscribe to. The final key in the "me" personal puzzle. Remember no two people, no two people's problems, no two motivators are the same - FOR ANYONE. What works for me, may not work for you. I am always quick to point out that this site is not a one size fits no-one strategy. Take what works for you and apply it to your life. Then keep on applying it to your life and you will get what you say that you want.

I don't have any problem with that philosophy except when it comes down to food. I am not my mother's daughter for nothing. I know that I am totally responsible for what goes into my mouth and therefore my body, I knew that I needed to eat less than I was burning off. My problem was many fold - how many calories should I be eating (and lets face it - it still comes down to calories in vs. calories burned). How many calories should I need to be exercising off again. What are the best foods for weight loss? And in particular fat loss?

So - thanks to the universe (or whatever higher power you may be believe in) this document came my way. And it offered me several insights into my own particular journey.

Eat something every 2 hours. Drink water every hour (that way you don't forget). But break your calorie requirements into the number of "meals" you are going to be eating at each 2 hour slot. In my case about 200-250 calories. What constitutes a meal? Protein, carbohydrate and a fat source.

Given that you also need to ensure that you eat your greens, there's not much room for refined carbs in amongst that lot. But how do you work out your calorie requirements? Well you need to work out your Basal Metabolic Rate - BMR. The rough calculation is Body weight in pounds x 10cal/lb. To lose weight effectively you just need to keep below that magic figure. And beyond that - is purely mind over matter - in more ways than one.

BTW - a piece of protein should not be bigger than the palm of your hand. As many salad and other veggies you can eat (with the exception of the usual culprits - beans, corn, spuds) and a dash of a fat source to make it palatble. Measure it, weigh it and do not rely on your "eye" to gauge whether you have it right or not. Believe me when I say it is easy to over gauge one's requirements if you don't have a measureable gauge to go against.

BTW - I'm not blaming maccas for my size - just giving you a very real world example of how easy it has become to over eat in today's modern society.

Week 9 of the challenge concludes today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of rest, ah - who has the chance of resting these days, I've got weeds to pull out and mulch to put on the garden. Not to mention all the other jobs I haven't had time to do during the week. And I would have to say most people reading this are exactly the same. Rest - I don't think so.

So how have you been? I hope you have been enjoying the daily dose of motivational medicine e-zine this week. We've covered some interesting topics and I have gotten to pry into the lives of many different people this week. But I haven't updated you on my progress to date have I, so here we go.

The challenge has been a challenge. I told you a while back that the lack of support has been a major issue for me. And I am convinced more than ever, that a good support network is vital to your success. The people who set up the challenge have not checked up to see if I am still going, nor have they told me who else is on the challenge, so I can't even ask them how they're doing. I get one email once a fortnight outlining the next round of training, and that's it. Disappointed - you bet I am.

But there are some positives. A comment from a friend who is also a regular gym go-er told me "I was half the woman he used to know" and I can run for reasonable distances on the treadmill without it hurting the knees too much. The latter is a good thing because I intend to run the city to surf half marathon next August. And I do mean run - not jog. Now all I have to do is get over the boredom factor and I should be ok. I am fortunate though - it's my birthday next week and I am hoping the birthday fairy will give me the means to buy an MP3 player so I don't have to listen to myself puff and pant !! I am just kidding. But not about the MP3 player - the music they play in the gym is a bit dire sometimes.

But why set myself another challenge? When I haven't completed this one yet? Well they way I see goal setting is this, it is essential that once you have completed one task item that is on your goal lists it is important that you reassess your goals and see what else you can do in order to reach the winning post. To be able to run a half marathon has always been on my to do before I die list. Do you have that kind of list? You should - the reason for being "life" list - personal challenges that can't be completed in a few short weeks, but take time, planning and the motivation to do them. Why do I want to run a half marathon - because I want to prove to myself that I can. And so it is with this challenge - I could have chucked it in, in fact I had thought about it more than once. But this challenge is just another stepping stone to where i really want to be. Fit, healthy and a damn sight smaller that I currently am.

So - what life challenges have you set for yourself? And what are you doing in order to reach them?

For me it came down to weight. Overweight and unhappy. Overweight and unfit, overweight and unmotivated to do anything about it, or anything else for that matter. You see the problem as I see it, is that if you procrastinate over one MAJOR thing, then you will procrastinate over all the minor things too.

Now I have reduced my size, I have regained my confidence, and most things seem possible. I say most, because I am not sure what is in the future, so therefore cannot predict how I will handle it. Will I handle it well, or just to the level of my current ability?

Current ability is an interesting phrase if you stop and think about it. As we learn new skills and gain better understanding of ourselves and our skills, our "current ability" changes too. We redefine the tern "normal" each time we act and react to situations and circumstances.

Our current ability is directly influenced by our thoughts. If you think you won't be able to do something, then you won't even bother to attempt it. If you say you are trying to lose weight, then you are giving yourself permission to fail. As Yoda says "do or do not, there is no try".

And he was right, give it all you've got, and more likely than not you will succeed. I'm not saying that it is going to be easy all of the time. You may stumble, you may feel like finding a nice brick wall and planting your forehead onto it. But determination and perseverence will win over "i'll try" anytime.

Myth number 1: the word “diet” is incorrect. We are all on a “diet”. The food that we eat every day makes up our individual dietary requirements. Therefore if we want to lose size, we need to modify them. In other words we need to change what we are eating from foods that have allowed us to gain weight, to foods that allow us to use that food stuff more effeciently and therefore lose weight. Losing weight is a simple equation – eat less than your body needs to use as fuel and you will lose weight. In very simple terms – eat less and exercise more by modifying your daily dietary requirements.

Myth number 2: When you lose weight you are not just losing “fat. Your body is made up of many things including hair, bones, tendons, muscles, organs, water and fat, and you can lose weight from each and every part of your body.

Once you have the information in front of you, it will be very easy to see where you can start modifying your “diet”.

I have to confess that I am an impulse buyer when it comes to the latest diet and exercise books. Yes I really was hoping for the miracle cure. When in reality all I had to do was follow the suggestions given in one or two of the books that I already had, for as long as I needed to in order to lose the size that I wanted.

So, once you have read through your choice of book, completely once, I would suggest you read it again. This time read with a pen and paper next to you.

“Diets” bore me to tears, which is why I am the perfect impulse buyer when it comes to books. Or should say – WAS the perfect impulse buyer. I know all the theory, now I need to put it into action.

Once I had determined my MOTIVE the ACTION became easier, and I had my own MOTIVATION to keep me going past all those bars of chocolate and packs of biscuits on the supermarket shelf.

So does it matter which diet you follow, as long as you are persistent and consistent?

Remember, it has taken you this long to get to the size and shape that you are. Do not expect to lose all your excess weight or size in a few days.

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