I think it can be tempting to equate healthy foods with automatic weight loss. I believe that’s a myth. Just because you are eating foods that are good for you, not overly processed, and as close to nature as possible, doesn’t automatically mean you will lose weight.

Agree or disagree?

Foods that are better for your body undoubtedly have a positive impact on your health. Avoiding sodium, added sugars, and all the chemicals processed foods contain is a good idea. I know I still feel like my nutritional status is a work in progress. It has evolved and changed over the years. But while you are watching all those things I previously mentioned it’s really important to not forget one thing:

PORTIONS

Portion control has been one of the three keys to weight maintenance for me. I am always aware of my portion sizes, whether I’m eating a piece of birthday cake or a piece of grilled chicken and vegetables. It’s very easy to overeat either, but most of us realize that eating too much cake isn’t a great idea while trying to lose weight whereas eating chicken is good. And it is good to eat lean protein, you just can’t eat too much of it!

I’ve been out to dinner with friends who boast that they are picking a healthy entree. But when the entree comes out and there is enough food on the plate for three people, I am always interested to see what they will do. Most of the time they eat the entire thing. I’ve seen it happen not only in restaurants, but in my own house. We will have someone over for dinner and I’ll make a healthy meal as usual. Even if my friend is trying to lose weight she will load up her plate and eat it all.

It’s almost like the healthy food trap. I think it’s important to remember that portion control is for 99% of the foods we eat. As you are working through your journey there may be a time where you find the scale stalling. You know you are eating healthy foods, you are exercising, and are annoyed! The first thing I’d look at if I were you is your portions. It’s so easy to let extra food creep into our diets – believe me I know!

Question: Are you always aware of your portion sizes no matter what food you are eating?  Have you ever noticed the tendency to let extra healthy food creep in?  Diane

I was talking with some friends the other day who were asking for some weight loss advice. I told them some basic things and then they asked me if there are some foods that I just can’t live without.

It was an interesting question and one that I hadn’t really thought about too much. I realized that there are some foods that I do enjoy eating and would in fact be sad to see them go completely. I suppose if I needed to I could live without them, but I wouldn’t choose to. I thought it would be interesting for me to share my three favorite food/groups and then see what foods you wouldn’t want to have to live without.

Here are my top 3:

1. chocolate (I know this is bad, but I would miss it!)

2. Greek yogurt (this is a relatively new love of mine)

3.  fruits, apples, blueberries, and strawberries in particular

Looking at my list I see that I have a definite sweet tooth. My tendency is to gravitate towards the sweeter things and I suppose that’s alright as long as I’m balancing the sweet things with the healthier things in life.

Here’s a great site, The World’s Healthiest Foods, which has some great nutritional information for you to read up on. Even though I’ve maintained my weight for a long time, I am always looking for better ways to enhance my health.

So what are three foods you wouldn’t want to live without?  Diane

There are a lot of suggestions on ways that you can increase your weight loss success. One study recently published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that if an obese woman’s calcium consumption is low, then increasing her calcium intake while cutting calories can result in a much higher weight loss.  In the study,  women who were deficient in calcium consumption were given 1200 mg of calcium a day or a placebo.  The women who were given the calcium lost an average of 13.3 pounds, as opposed to the placebo group, who only lost 6.2 pounds.  (See study here)

When I read this I wondered if we will ever really know all aspects of weight loss and maintenance.  Over the years there have been so many different theories, medication possibilities and studies concerning weight loss.  Thousands of studies are ongoing as you read this.  For me, I enjoy finding our new information about diet and weight loss.  I also know from personal experience that the only sure fire way to lose weight naturally is to cut the amount of calories you consume and increase the amount of physical exercise you do. But I also know it’s important to stay on top of those things that may help us get to our destination in a healthy way.

Here are some good sources of calcium:

• Milk (whole for children under 2, and reduced fat or skim for everyone else) 
• Yogurt, a lot of cheeses, and buttermilk
• Green vegetables like broccoli, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, and bok choy or Chinese cabbage are good sources of calcium.
• Salmon and sardines canned with their soft bones.
• Shellfish, almonds, Brazil nuts, and dried beans are also sources of calcium.
• You can also find calcium enriched breads and orange juices, which can be helpful if you don’t eat a lot of calcium rich foods.

When I lost 150 pounds using my Fit to the Finish plan, I was careful to take a good multivitamin every day, along with a calcium supplement.  I realized since my calorie consumption was reduced during that time, it would be wise to take a multivitamin.  I never took any kind of diet pill – ever, and I hope you don’t either. Additionally, calcium is not only for bone and teeth strength, but key organs and bodily functions, such as your heart and metabolism, need calcium to operate at their best. 

As you are going on your journey to a healthier you, I hope that you are keeping the overall nutritional health of your body in mind.  Sure, you can lose weight by cutting calories, but I think it’s important to be mindful of what kinds of foods you are eating.  A chocolate chip cookie and a fat free yogurt have about the same number of calories, but the yogurt’s nutritional value far exceeds that of the cookie, especially if it’s Greek yogurt.  As you are making choices throughout your weight loss journey, never lose sight of your ultimate goal.  Your final goal should incorporate not just a lower number on the scale, but a healthier you!  Diane

To read more about the benefits of calcium in your diet, check out this site .

According to Websters, diet is most commonly defined in four ways:

a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed

b : habitual nourishment

c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason

d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight

In our blog world, we mostly focus on the last one. We go on a particular regimen of eating to try and reduce our weight with the long term goal of improving our health and fitness. What if we took that definition out of our vocabularies and focused instead on the first definition. Our diet is food we regularly consume for nutrition (and sometimes fun.) How does changing our definition of diet help us in moving from the “diet mentality” to the diet mentality.

I believe it gets us off the diet merry-go-round. Instead of whirling around trying to find some perfect idea for weight loss, we can focus on a healthy diet for our bodies. We can focus on a healthy diet for our families. And we can be part of a growing grass roots movement committed to helping reduce childhood/adult obesity. By removing the last definition from our minds, we are able to learn to eat a diet that is good for us and one that we can follow for a lifetime.

There was a sweet woman I knew back in Florida who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. They removed the cancer, but it quickly returned. The doctor’s couldn’t even find the source of it, but told her she only had a few months to live due to the extensive nature of it. She went through the cancer treatments and tried to prepare the best she could. Along with the medical treatments she completely changed her diet. (The first definition.) She cut out most white sugars and flours. Ate whole foods and vegetables, reduced the amount of meat she ate, and cut out the majority of processed foods from her diet. To the doctor’s amazement and her family’s joy, she seemed to get stronger rather than weaker. Year one passed, year two, year three. No one could believe it. She often told me it was her faith in God, and the change in her eating habits. She said she realized that everything she put in her mouth could help or hurt her. She told me, I’m not dieting, I’m eating a diet that’s good for me.

In the end, she survived six years longer than the doctors told her. Now I’m not saying the food made all the difference, because we will never know that. But my point is that she wasn’t eating that way to lose weight but rather to stay alive. And that’s what we need to do when we think of our diets. Our food is the fuel for our bodies. What kind of fuel are your putting in it, and is that fuel appropriate for your health in the long term?

Are you learning how to plan your diet for life, and not just diet for now. What changes have you made to get off the merry-go-round, or are you still circling one day at a time?  Diane

1.   1.  The food had to be really good
2.   2.  The food had to be on top of the can
3.    3. The food had to be freshly disposed of

I laughed along with them, but I was thinking – “What!! You have got to be kidding me! Food from the trash?” The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had been guilty of doing the same thing. Not by eating food from the trash can, but by eating trashy food. What nutritional value did I get from inhaling large amounts of chocolate before 10:00 a.m. Wasn’t the over processed, fried food bad for my heart and health? Candy bars in twos and double dinners were trashy for my body. The food didn’t come from the trash, but it may as well have for all the good it did for my health and my weight.

How are you doing these days with your food choices? Is the food you are choosing to eat healthy and nutritious for your body, or are you filling yourself up with trash? The more weight I lost the more I developed the desire to eat foods that were healthy and satisfying. I still loved food, but my love for certain foods shifted. There are a lot of sites with lists of healthy foods, but here is a nice list I found at the World’s Healthiest Foods website. In reviewing their list I realized that when I changed my eating habits I added in a lot of foods from this list, just by gaining an awareness of the nutritional value of the foods I was eating, and the foods I was serving my family.

Weight loss can be achieved by following a low calorie, nutritionally poor diet, but losing pounds that way isn’t the way to long term improvement in your health and well-being. Years ago, when I was in high school some of my family and I tried one of those diets where you have shakes twice a day and then a “healthy dinner.” We all lost some weight doing that, but the minute we started eating food again, we promptly regained our weight. Don’t settle for losing pounds and your health at the same time. While losing weight try and focus not just on the amount of food you are eating but on the health of the food you are eating. You will be glad you did! Diane