Psychology of Eating | Rock Solid Over 50

Archive for Psychology of Eating

Think Your Way To Health and Weight Success; and Cholesterol Facts

October 31, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

I’ve had an unusual number of cholesterol questions in the past week, and I just gave a talk on cholesterol yesterday, so it’s “on the brain”. There’s just so much MISinformation out there about cholesterol, most of it perpetuated by pharmaceutical companies ( statins bring in 29 BILLION a YEAR), and many doctors, who’ve been taught to believe that total cholesterol is very important, and that all LDL is bad.

In the words of Wheatbelly doctor, William Davis, that would be fine if it were 1963. But it’s 2013, and science has shown us that total cholesterol is a HORRIBLE predictor of heart disease. In 2013, MUCH better predictors of your heart health are (1) your triglyceride/HDL ratio (should be less than 3.5 for men, and less than 2.5 for women), (2) your blood sugar level/insulin level (excess glucose and excess insulin damage arteries and organs like the heart), (3) your A1C, which shows an average of your past 90 days of blood sugar, and is indicative of heart disease, diabetes, and possible neurological problems (think Alzheimers and Dementia). There’s other risk factors, like the amount of chemicals you ingest, slather on, or breath in, and the amount of trans fat you eat, but those are hard to measure.

Why shouldn’t you worry about cholesterol? Because you’d DIE without it – it’s that necessary. The body uses cholesterol to make all our adrenal hormones and sex hormones, Vitamin D, bile salts, myelin sheaths, cell membranes, and includes it in “healing patches” when damage occurs. As a matter of fact, if you takes steps to lower it with statins, you’re putting yourself at risk for diabetes (statins cause blood sugar levels to rise and muscle cells to become insulin resistant), muscle pains, impotence, dementia, cataracts, kidney and liver problems, cancer, and weight gain (thanks to the insulin resistance and blood sugar rise).

Instead of falling for the party line, if your total cholesterol or LDL has come back high, think of WHY that might be. Did you just have an illness, or a stressful event? Because if you did, your liver made MORE cholesterol so your body could ramp up it’s immune system ( cholesterol is an ANTIOXIDANT and HEALING MOLECULE); stress would have induced the adrenals to produce more cortisol and other “fight or flight” hormones, which are made from cholesterol. Or maybe your body is trying to heal you with Vitamin D ( made from cholesterol). There’s a lot of reasons your body makes cholesterol. It’s NORMAL. Damaged cholesterol is what’s dangerous.

Here’s something most people don’t know: LDL and HDL do NOT equal Cholesterol. Cholesterol is a fatty substance, and lipoproteins are lipoproteins; lipoproteins CARRY cholesterol inside of them. Low density Lipoproteins (LDLs) also carry triglycerides, steroids, fat soluble vitamins, and anything else that’s fat soluble, through the blood, to wherever they need to go.

All LDL is NOT bad. If we need more cholesterol to make more hormones, more vitamin D, more myelin shealths in the brain so our brains cells can communicate, LDL is going to get it there. However, OXIDIZED, DAMAGED LDL is bad. How does it get damaged? Glucose/blood sugar, toxins(cigarettes, chemicals in foods,..), and trans fats.

Please, learn about cholesterol. Learn how to make your Heart Healthy – for real. There’s so much information and if you learn it, you’ll be able to go to your doctor and comfortably assert that no, you’re not going to get on a statin just because your total cholesterol is 201, or 220. Read Cholesterol Clarity, Grain Brain, or Cholesterol Myths. Get on sites by forward thinking doctors and scientists who are practicing according to 2013 facts. (here’s one) . Listen to podcasts, like this one by Dr. Cate Shanahan on The Truth about Statins and Cholesterol. Become your own best health advocate. You can do this!

And that leads me to my title today, think your way to health and weight success. I’ve heard too many times now, “oh, I just can’t give up bread” ” I could never give up pasta” I HAVE to have desserts/sweets every day” ” I could NEVER give up my wine”, etc etc etc. Oh my gosh. If your kids tell you “I can’t learn to read”, “I can’t get my times tables”, “I’ll never understand Algebra 1/Geometry/Algebra 2”, “this class is too hard, I’ll never get higher than a D” waa waa waa. You’d never accept that, because you know it’s not true. Why don’t you apply that same logic to yourself? Lot’s of people don’t eat bread or pasta or dessert or drink wine. Lots of people shop, plan, pack, and cook. Normal, regular , busy people.

Henry Ford has one of my favorite quotes ever: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right”. He said that decades ago, but wow, was he ahead of his time. Neuroscience has advanced to a degree where technology has made it possible to actually SEE how our thoughts change our brain, instantly. Our thoughts affect our neurotransmitters (serotonin, gaba, dopamine..), and we CAN control our thoughts if we practice. A lot.

Instead of “preparing” to blow it because “it’s the weekend”, or “you’re traveling”, or “you’ve had a hard week”, or “there’s no time to cook”, figure out the action steps and then plan to succeed. No time to cook? Go to the store and buy already prepared meats and vegetables, then cook up at home. Become a whiz with your crockpot; make giant batches and freeze. Traveling? Bring food in coolers, or baggies (nuts, fruits, seeds, they all travel well). Weekend binges ? They can take 3 or 4 days to atone for – trust me, I did that for years. It’s miserable. Learn to de-stress after a hard week with a hike, yoga, movies, books, naps, things that actually make you feel better when they’re over instead of worse.

Here’s another favorite quote, from the Paleo Mom, “it’s only effort until it becomes habit”. You can change your patterns and make new patterns. Other people do, you can too, I promise.

Back to cholesterol levels and heart disease! Here’s a ONE minute video by Dr. Malcolm Kendrink who in ONE minute, debunks the whole “cholesterol/heart disease” paradigm. Please watch this – it’s very eye opening.

Category: Fats, Psychology of Eating / Tags: brain power, cholesterol, cholesterol clarity, dr malcolm kendrick, dr. cate shanahan, grain brain, the great cholesterol myth

Consistency and Mindset are the Keys; and Tips

September 5, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

Here’s an email I think several will relate to:

” Dear Debbie,

I can’t seem to stick to a Real Whole Foods Diet for more than 5 days, I just get so hungry, and my favorite foods aren’t the Real Whole Foods you talk about. I don’t want to eat raw eggs and cream also grosses me out. But I need to lose weight and I’ve tried several other diets. I just got diagnosed as Pre-Diabetic, and because of your blog, I know enough to be worried. Any advice?”

YES I have advice!!! It’s all about your Mindset, and your Mindset allows you to either be Consistent (no matter what), or “be good”/”be bad” ( the Diet Rollercoaster – because you’ll make up for what you ate later…..).

When consistency is difficult, work on your MIND. Fill it with facts and information about Biology Based Nutrition: excess carbs ALWAYS get turned into Triglycerides; fried foods from restaurants use RANCID oils that cause disease and weight gain; people who drink Skim Milk are HEAVIER than people who drink Whole; Insulin from carbohydrates and Trans Fats from junk food and restaurant food DESTROY arteries and my body has to build plaque to fix it; excess glucose and insulin have Mood Destroying Effects; if I eat ________, I’ll have gas/bloat/refulx – and that’s not normal and it’s causing damage to my gut; if I stop at Starbucks and get the candy coffee and the sweet (lowfat?) treat, I’m causing a MAJOR glucose/insulin rise. If I add MORE good FATS to my meal, I’ll stay Fuller LONGER and have more willpower to skip the snacks. ETC ETC ETC.

Here’s a good one to meditate on: there’s NO fixing a day or two of damage that happens every single week or worse, every few days. You Have to get off the Diet Rollercoaster, and you can only do that by working on the Mindset that gives you permission to put junk in your body (because you’re going to atone for it later) and learning to be scared/leery/wary/anxious about the HEALTH effects of processed/refined sugar/flour/chemical foods.

Worrying about your Weight is NEVER EVER enough to keep you on the straight and narrow, ever. If it was, 95-99% of all people who lose weight on a “diet”, wouldn’t GAIN IT ALL BACK. Focus on what happens to your body from the food you put in your mouth, and if you have kids, think about what their food is doing to their body.

Our Mood, our weight, our health, they’re all the result of the ACCUMULATION of actions we do every single day. Being “pretty good” half the week or most of the week can lead to “pretty bad” health, weight, and moods. Next time you drink that diet coke, eat the McDonalds french fries, have half the box of carby cereal, run through the list of what those foods/chemicals/carbs/trans fats are doing to your body; it’s not a pretty picture.

Focus on Real Whole Foods: clean meats, healthy fats, tons of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, some beans, some good dairy (if you tolerate it). Practice going hours between meals to allow Insulin to cease (fat storing hormone), and Glucagon to work (fat burning hormone). Recognize food for the power that it holds over you, and the power that it has to change you.

And to the person who wrote this email: you’re on the Right Track – because you’ve made the connection between the Diet Roller Coaster, your pre-diabetes, and eating Real Whole Food for more than 5 days!! That’s a GOOD thing – so don’t be upset with yourself! The mindset that will get you health and at a good weight sounds like it’s developing. Be patient with yourself and just keep working on it. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you want PERMANENT change here, right?

Here’s where I’d focus: keep reading this blog and links to other blogs that talk about the BIOLOGY of your food and your body. Stay away from Diet/Low Cal/Exercise a Ton examples of weight loss, as a matter of fact, TRY TO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS, just focus on your health and your mood. Put sticky notes with positive reminders (‘my health matters’ ‘I want to feel good all the time’ ‘consistency matters’ ..) all over the place (mirror, bedside lamp, computer, car, desk,…) . What are your favorite foods? Find the corresponding REAL whole food recipes (PaleoOMG, CivilizedCavemanCooking, StupidEasyPaleo) and PLAN a time to shop/chop/cook/pack (after it becomes Normal, it’s not an Effort). Write a list of your health conditions (include mood) and what foods can help improve them. Commit to your Health, and Weight Loss will be a SideEffect – I promise.

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Food Additives, Psychology of Eating, RWF /

Eat for Health, Weight Loss is a Side-Effect

August 29, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

I received an email that I think expresses how a lot of people feel when they read my posts:

Hi Debbie,

I understand that you’re saying that there’s some nutritional benefits to eating Real Whole Foods, even if they contain fats, but if I do, I’m afraid I’ll gain weight, and I need to lose weight.

There’s more, but you get the point. Folks, we get fat from excess carbohydrates, vegetable oils and trans fats, artificial sweeteners, toxins/chemicals in our water, food, personal care products and the drugs we take, alcohol (excess carbs), and stress (cortisol compels glucose and insulin into the blood stream). We don’t get fat from Real Whole Foods I PROMISE!!! The whole Calories/Fat/Cholesterol/Diet Foods Stuff – it’s all wrong. We can just look around and see that Diets Don’t Work; about 50 million Americans go on a diet each year, many lose weight, between 1 and 4% keep if off. Weight: skyrocketing – we’re up to 70% overweight as a country now. Heart disease, Cancer, Stroke, Auto-Immune conditions, Mood Disorders, GERD/reflux, Migraines/Headaches: skyrocketing.

What causes all these health disorders? Excess carbohydrates, vegetable oils and trans fats, artificial sweeteners, toxins and chemicals in our water/ food/ personal care products and the drugs we take, alcohol (excess carbs and hard on liver), and stress (cortisol/glucose/insulin). These things impede our livers, cause inflammation throughout the body, and stimulate addictive pathways in our brain.

When you eat Real Whole Food for your health, the weight comes off – forever. We’re not made to be sick and overweight, that’s a state we create by our daily choices and habits. We have such power to change this. Eat for Health and the weight comes off.

Do you believe me, but have a hard time eating well consistently? Beef up your knowledge. Read the blogs, listen to the podcasts, buy the books, fill your head with nutrition facts that make making the right choice easier and more natural, less effort. Know what I mean? The Wheatbelly Doctor (Dr. William Davis) was on livinlavidalowcarb yesterday. Before he was the Wheatbelly Dr., he was the Track Your Plaque Cardiologist. He’s amazing. He’s talking about Cholesterol and Heart Disease here :http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/8510/718-cholesterol-clarity-interview-with-cardiologist-dr-william-davis/. Take the time to listen in your car, in your kitchen, or while you’re walking/running. Fill your mind with ammunition!

Time to say Adios. I’ve got coconut milk with chocolate mint leaves steaming on the stove, and then I’m off to teach two classes this morning: Booty Camp and Centergy – I still love group fitness after 26 years:). The coconut milk/chocolate mint is for this ice creamhttp://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/mint-chip-ice-cream-against-all-grain-book-review/. I’m changing the recipe slightly, using only coconut milk and cream, no almond milk, adding raw eggs, and a whole avocado instead of a third. Do I think this is a junk food? Absolutely Not! These are nutrient dense ingredients – foods like these make my family healthier, don’t stimulate addictive behaviors, and leave us all feeling very satiated. Choose Real Whole Foods-

Category: Carbs, Fats, Psychology of Eating /

Success Stories

July 30, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

Want to change your life, your health, your weight? It’s all about the food! Honestly, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, digestive issues, blood sugar problems, allergies, mood disorders, headaches, … it’s all about the food. You have the power to make enormous changes. Other people have.

Here’s some success stories to inspire you:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/i-am-in-the-best-health-and-shape-of-my-life/#axzz2aY7HVZiu

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-beginning-of-a-new-life/#axzz2aY7HVZiu

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/i-have-never-felt-better-in-my-life/#axzz2aY7HVZiu

Category: Psychology of Eating, RWF /

The Power of a Mom

July 28, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

Okay Moms, this Post is to you. Why? Because statistically speaking, whether you work outside the home or not, you buy most of the groceries, and make most of the meals. The control we have over what our kids eat – even our big kids – is pretty profound.

This is a Power NOT to be wasted; and definitely a Power we need to recognize and acknowledge, …… and use.

Kids today are the first generation of U.S. children EVER predicted to have LESS lifespan than their parents. Here’s some other facts – read them, and be scared into action.

1. By the year 2020 – 7 years from now! – HALF of ALL Americans will have Diabetes, HALF. Type 2 is COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE AND REVERSIBLE. COMPLETELY. It’s also deadly and debilitating. If your child’s normal diet is cereals, breads, crackers, sweets, sodas, and Standard American Crap, then your child’s risk of developing diabetes (whether they’re overweight or not) is VERY high. The scariest stat is that YOUR child’s risk of developing this disease – AS A CHILD – has skyrocketed, especially if you’re ANY minority at all, but the increase is still across the board. Here’s a link to current statistics

2. Cancer is skyrocketing, still. Despite Mainstream Health/Govt Advice. If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that I often highlight different chemcials used in junk foods and “Looks Healthy But Isn’t” foods that are CANCER CAUSING. Our own FDA has given “GRAS/generally recognized as safe” approval to chemicals (flavor enhancers, emulsifiers, preservatives etc) that their own lab tests show are unsafe; they’ve given full approval to chemicals that other countries have banned as unsafe. If there’s a chemical in your kids foods, it’s probably damaging their body. Here’s a link with some pretty scary statistics on 17 different cancers and their projected rise from 2010 to 2020.

3. Behavior/Mood disorders: this is so broad, and spans so many types of behaviors and moods that it’s hard to condense this topic. Suffice to say that every year for the past couple of decades, more kids are being diagnosed and medicated than ever before.

4. Allergies: OMGosh. Food allergies, food sensitivities, airborne allergies – EXPLODING. Here’s a GREAT post from Mercola here.

5. Auto-Immune Diseases – ON THE RISE, all of them.

Moms, FOOD IS AN ENORMOUS PART OF WHY ALL THESE CONDITIONS ARE INCREASING AND EITHER ARE OR COULD AFFECT YOUR CHILDREN. The foods I listed in the Diabetes paragraph: cereals, crackers, sweets, sodas and Standard American Crap, those “foods” will develop and sustain every single condition I just listed.

We’ve been brought up in an age where women are either encouraged to leave the home and work, or spend their time schlepping multiple children to numerous activities, or both, – every day and night of the week. Cooking, packing, and preparing food as part of the average woman’s daily life is generally pretty low on the priority list.

Big Food and Big Advertising have jumped right on this situation and convinced us that “they’ve got our backs”. Don’t worry, you’re busy, so stop by the store and buy a frozen Marie Calendars lasagna, or a big bucket of Kentucky Fried and 2 vegetables with biscuits, or just feed them Hot Pockets or Toaster Strudels or Lunchables, and everything will be okay. IT’S NOT OKAY. It’s all been a Big Advertising Lie, with devastating consequences. Have you read Sugar, Salt and Fat, by Michael Moss? The Food Giants recognized 100 years ago that women would be anxious for short cuts to feed their family, and an Industry was born.

All those cereals with the American Heart Association Seal of Approval? Have you looked at the ingredient list and the carbohydrate content? What about the ingredients in Baby Formula? The ingredients and carb count in snack food? THIS STUFF IS POISON FOR OUR KIDS. Seriously. It’s not a mystery that the Human Condition is falling apart, mentally and physically. It’s the food – and we have the Power to step up and change that.

Want to rid your house of junk food and cereal and crap, but afraid of the backlash? Because a backlash will happen. These foods cause (1) addiction, and (2) a mentality that encourages immediate gratification as a norm. Backlash hurts, but there are ways to handle it: (1) Cook more, so there’s a “good side” and (2) start saying ” you just had a snack /or your meal, dinner/lunch is in an hour or two, you can wait.” Really, practicing and learning delayed gratification is a PRICELESS skill. Teaching delayed gratification is one of our jobs.

Think it’s going to be too hard to revamp your kitchen and family eating habits? It could be. Is that a reason not to? When your kids tell you that learning to read is too hard, or math is too hard, or biology is too hard, what do you tell them? You tell them they can do it, and they better do it. Well, you can clean up your families eating, and you can stick to those decisions.

When I made the decision that NO MORE JUNK/SNACKIE/MUNCHIE foods were going to live in my house, my family was furious. My oldest was probably 10th/11th grade, and then the other 3 were 9th, 7th, and 4th. I had to endure MONTHS of fury, whining, griping, and anger, from them and my husband. It wasn’t cute, or funny, or easy. I stuck to my guns. It wasn’t about my weight any more, I truly came to believe that that crap was toxic for my kids. Every month, the negativity from them lessened a little, until it completely, totally stopped. Now, my kids would literally fall over if they saw a box of crackers or cereal in the pantry. And they WOULDN’T eat it, because they’ve pretty much lost their taste for “food products”. Three of my older kids have gone to college and made really good decisions about food; and they know how to cook:)

Moms, we have the Power to really really change the direction of the Health Crisis and Epidemic that’s sweeping the country. We can make decisions for our family, take steps, that could possibly change the course of their life, and even their children’s lives (ever heard of Epigenetics). Let’s take hold of that power, make a plan, and stick to the plan. Choose Real Whole Foods for the health of our children.

Category: Psychology of Eating /

How to make “Good Eating Days” your Norm.

July 25, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

This is going to be a rah-rah/what to eat to lose weight post. Fair warning.

Had a good email the other day from a beautiful woman who says that blue moods cause her to eat all day. I can relate to that,… I’ve been there. I used to eat all day because: I had some time alone (unusual w/ job and 4 kids), felt happy, felt tired, wanted to read and eat, had great food in the pantry/fridge, and… the opportunity presented itself. It made sense, since I was usually hungry from my small to moderate sized “mini-meals” of protein and carbs. I actually used to watch the clock, and worry that the “time” to eat my next “meal” could be somehow compromised by another person or an obligation and Oh No, how was I going to squeeze it in? Really though, due to my “insufficient” diet ( high on some nutrients, like protein, carbs, but COMPLETELY lacking good fats in the right amounts), and my Brain Training of eating every couple of hours, I just got used to always eating. The eating led to the desire to keep eating, despite the amounts of food I’d take in. That was always followed by guilt, self-recrimination, and a plan to eat really really well starting tomorrow.

It’s the perfect way to make yourself crazy – ever tried it?

I can’t remember the last time this happened and I had a “bad day” – honestly. If you experience bad days frequently, and can’t imagine normal life free of bad days, KEEP READING THIS BLOG, because I want EVERYONE to be free of bad days!

Here’s the drumbeat again: If you want to get off the Diet Rollercoaster – and just have NORMAL days, you’ve got to let go of old, failed, FALSE ideas that low fat/low cal and tons of exercise are the Keys to Weightloss Success, because they’re not. That old dinosaur paradigm screws up your thyroid, insulin, cortisol, and your sex hormones. Low fat / low cal eats away at your muscle tissue. Low/fat low/cal really messes with your metabolism – in a very long term way. Low fat/low cal messes with your mind(emotionally and structurally). Between 95 and almost 100% of ALL dieters GAIN THEIR WEIGHT BACK.

Change the way you think and just try something new. Give up the notion that Fat makes you Fat. Give up the notion that Saturated Fat, from healthy animal sources or coconut, creates plaque in the arteries or high cholesterol, because scientifically – that’s NEVER been proven. When you see headlines like “Meat causes heart disease/diabetes T2/etc”, go look at the foods included in the study. You will ALWAYS see pizza(including crust), burgers (including bun), and lunch meats (loaded with who knows what plus nitrates and chemicals) classified as “meat”.

Want to read a little more about it? Try here, and here.

Fats fill you up. Fats are used by the body to do hundreds or thousands of jobs, from literally making up the membrane of EVERY SINGLE CELL IN YOUR BODY, to assisting fat-soluble vitamins to their rightful places, to building EVERY SINGLE SEX HORMONE, to feeding your heart (the heart muscle loves fatty acids!), to building brain neurons (the brain is 60% fat), etc etc etc.
When you skimp on fat, your body and mind rebels. They will get what they want. Those cravings you can’t deny? That weird desire to keep eating even though you’ve had plenty of food? That’s a cry for NOURISHMENT, and fatty acids are INCREDIBLY nourishing.

If you’re afraid of gaining weight on a diet that includes more fat and less carbs, put that fear aside and try it. Give up the crackers, bread, pasta, pretzels, beer, and sweets, and replace it with more protein, more vegetables and a LOT more fat. Drizzle olive/avocado oil on your salads, saute meats and vegetables in coconut oil or grass-fed butter (kerrygold’s a good one), eat REGULAR fat/unadulterated dairy products if you digest them well, roast your chicken with the skin ON, add a whole avocado to your salads, make a treat out of coconut butter or nuts. Go for it.

And ask yourself, are you really afraid of fat, or are you sad at the thought of giving up the low fat/low cal munchie foods that allow you to indulge in your food desires while convincing yourself you’re eating health food? Because I think that’s often the reason. CHANGE YOUR DESIRES. Sitting in front of the TV after dinner with a bowl of popcorn, potato chips or ice cream? Change that desire. Love to stop at your favorite coffee shop for a sweet drink and a sweet treat? Change your desire. Love your big bowls of pasta? Change that desire. Think cereal is from heaven? Change that desire. Work on creating another line in your brain that focuses on something else. Maybe you need to watch tv in another room, or go to bed and read; drive a different way home from work or listen to a podcast to distract you. Start thinking that all your sauces would taste great on zucchini or eggplant or spaghetti squash. Become appalled at the amount of carbs on your cereal box label. Work on your thoughts, and satisfy your body with foods that provide that nutrients that it needs.

Here’s a little ammunition, a Looks Healthy But Isn’t, actually, a few LHBI: Ruffles Light Potato Chips (which contain Olestra/might cause leakage stuff), 10 chips are 17 grams of carbs/0 fat; Quaker Oats Natural Granola, 1/2 cup has 38 grams of carbs; and a slice of Starbucks Reduced Fat Berry Coffee cake has 54 grams of carbohydrate!! These are weight disasters waiting to happen, and Health disasters waiting to happen.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Want your life to be a string of “good eating days”? Ditch the empty refined, processed carby foods, and any thoughts of “mini meals”, and fill your plate and body with Real Whole Foods: good fats, good proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, some dairy. Feed your body what it needs and the self-sabotage will end.

Category: Carbs, Fats, Psychology of Eating /

Raw Eggs and Raw Milk Haven’t Killed Me:)

July 20, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

I’ve been eating raw eggs in my smoothie now a little while, along with my year and a half of raw milk or raw cream every day – and I feel better than ever.

I’ve also consumed more fat in the past year and a half than I think I have cumulatively in my whole life – and not gained weight.

Check out my What I Eat page.

Mainstream Advice is full of fallacies! Check out the Weston A Price Foundation website

http://www.westonaprice.org/, and click on Health Topics – be prepared to be blown away with information – honestly. There’s also several great Blogs links to scientists who do research on fat, eggs, raw milk, feeding children, etc.

Want to improve your health and your weight ( if you need to)? Fill your head with the facts, not the Media Advertising Lines.

Category: Psychology of Eating /

Eliminate the Misery of Dieting; and Donut Facts

July 17, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

How’s the summer eating going? Did you begin the summer with an effort to lose a few pounds, so that you’d look good at the beach? Is that momentum still alive? Or have you been way-laid by vacations, bbq’s, parties, and the craziness of the “summer schedule”?

If your answer is “yes, I’ve been way-laid”, then let’s work on the way you think about food!

If you think of food, your weight, and your health in terms of calories, or dieting,…… you’re doomed. Your ability to lose weight, get healthy, and keep the weight off forever won’t happen. This is because dieting doesn’t work – ever. Every study ever done shows that between 95 and 99% of everyone who loses weight on a diet eventually gains it back.

Your brain is only capable of so much willpower; trying not to eat foods you really, really want exhausts that willpower pretty quickly. YOU NEED TO CHANGE WHAT YOU WANT. Start looking at food in terms of it’s ingredients, and their effects on you, and WEIGHT LOSS WILL BE A SIDE EFFECT, I promise.

I had a great conversation with a friend today who thinks I’m funny because I said donuts were cancer in a box. She said how could one donut possibly hurt you. Let’s look at the ingredients in a Dunkin Donuts Chocolate Cake Donut: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Enzyme, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Palm Oil, Skim Milk, Sugar, Water, Soybean Oil, Egg Yolks, Contains less than 2% of the following: Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate), Salt, Defatted Soy Flour, Soy Flour, Soy Lecithin, Wheat Starch, Konjac Flour, Wheat Germ, Carrageenan, Dextrose, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Enzyme Modified Egg Yolks, Gelatinized Wheat Starch, Colored with (Tumeric and Annatto Extracts and Beta Carotene), Defatted Wheat Germ; Chocolate Icing: Sugar, Water, Cocoa, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Soybean Oil, Corn Syrup, Contains 2% or less of: Maltodextrin, Dextrose, Corn Starch, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Salt, Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Propionate (Preservatives), Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Artificial Flavor, Agar

Wow. I bet your eyes glazed over. There’s more than 50 ingredients, and 45 grams of carbohydrate. This is a sugar, chemical, hydrogenated oil bomb. This was Created In A Lab – not a kitchen. The dump truck load of simple refined sugars and flours will go right thru your small intestine, into the blood stream and cause an unbelievably fast blood glucose spike, your pancreas will have to spit out a TON of insulin to deal with this. 45 grams of carbs is 11 teaspoons of glucose – your body can only use a COUPLE at a time, the rest will need to be converted to triglycerides. The Carrageenan is a known stomach irritator; there’s phyto-estrogenic- thyroid disrupting soy; there’s high fructose corn syrup to mess up your liver; there’s hydrogenated oils and omega 6 oils that your body will use with bad consequences to make the membranes of your cells; there’s preservatives and emulsifiers and artificial flavors and colors; all of these ingredients have damaging effects on your brain, your liver, your digestive system, your nervous system, your arteries, and your immune system in addition to stimulating areas of the brain that create excitement and addiction.

When you look at a donut and just see the damage that it does to your body, your mind, your moods and energy, the STRESS of resisting is lessened, or eliminated. Your don’t need your willpower because you find it gross – even scary. Does this make sense?

Here’s the Take-Away: Diets Don’t Work because using willpower to resist foods you want exhausts your brain. Resisting actually creates desire. You’ll always have some type of rebound where you just give-in or give-up. Always. Study after study proves this. But if you eat for your health, and avoid foods that you believe cause sickness and disease, you don’t use willpower. There’s no anxiety, remorse, sadness, or that gleeful anticipation of “indulging” (i.e. over-indulging) on a permitted day.

It truly goes back to how we think. Train yourself to LOVE Real Whole Foods: meats and vegetables covered with delicious butter or healthy oils and good cheeses, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, some dairy; foods that trigger satiety hormones, foods that nourish you. Eliminate the distress and misery of dieting. Eat Real Whole Foods.

Category: Psychology of Eating, RWF /

Exercise in a Hotel, and Twinkies make a Comeback!

July 16, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

Nutritional Therapy Workshop Weekend is over, here’s the workout I did on Saturday:

10 1-minute rounds on the eliptical/precor, level 9

10 rounds of burpees

10 rounds of squats with dumbbells – 15s, 20s, and 25s

10 rounds of shoulder press 15 and 20s

50 crunches on stability ball

30 minutes, very sweaty:)

I took Sunday off, because I usually take Sundays off from exercising.

This weekend was a LOT of sitting, short workouts, hotel living from Thursday morning thru Sunday evening, eating in my room except for one meal at Whole Foods, consuming TONS of fat (purposely – because it’s good for the brain), protein, and vegetables, a little chocolate and fruit, and I came out weighing the same as when I went in. Check out my What I Eat page, because I updated everyday.

Weekends and vacations don’t have to be a Weight Disaster! There’s a post coming on that tomorrow, promise.

For now though, have you heard that Twinkies are coming back, and that along with their “improved, longer shelf-life”, they’re increasing distribution to convenience stores, and marketing to “Bros”? (seriously – that’s what they said in an interview to Time Business) (That’s young males in their 20s for us non-marketing types.) Has anyone read the book “the Deconstruction of the Twinkie”? I did. The author, Steve Ettlinger, doesn’t go into the scary side effects of the ingredients, so much as he explains where they come from. Petroleum, waste products, and mines are heavily used to make synthetic vitamins, emulsifiers, preservatives, and additives. There’s nothing good there. It’s cancer/disease in an attractive package. Train your kids, and work on your self, to eat Real Whole Foods. Focus on your Health, and Weight Loss will be a side-effect.

Category: Psychology of Eating, RWF /

Brain Ammunition and a Looks Healthy But Isn’t

July 10, 2013 / Debbie / Comments Off

I’m adjusted to being home – because I love my home – but I miss the beach! Here’s a pic of all the girls in our beach house, 3 are my daughters (1 daughter couldn’t make it) , 2 are friends. That’s Erin, daughter #4 Shelby, me, SaraRose, daughter #1 Megan, daughter #3 Macy.

In case you’re wondering, even when we’re on vacation, we don’t buy chips, crackers, cookies, or any kind of snackie/munchie junk foods to keep in the house “for the kids”. I don’t buy them cigarettes either. It’s all poison.

I have some brain ammunition for you today. Hopefully, this helps cement the notion that food, weight, and health ISN’T about calories; it’s about the nutrients and ingredients in food and the hormonal and systemic effects they have on your body. If you keep thinking that food is just about calories, saying no to Bad Foods that call you is almost impossible. You can always reason with yourself that you’ll somehow make-up for it later. You can’t, because every bite has an effect. Every nutrient or every chemical has an effect. Sugar, flour, bad oils, chemicals, they have negative effects EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU EAT THEM. There is no starving away, or exercising away their effects.

Interesting article in The Telegraph that says that even though Britons are eating 600 calories less a day than in 1980, they’re heavier than ever. It goes on to say they’re eating less red meat, more cereal, and more skim milk than ever, yet weight rises.

I did a post a while ago on Americans that said essentially the same thing.

Folks, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE CALORIES!! It’s about the foods and the hormones. High carb foods, like sugars and grains (even Healthy Whole Grains), stimulate the release of Insulin, which is an ANABOLIC hormone; that means it stores and builds. It’s main job it to shuttle glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells of the muscles and liver. Unfortunately, our body only wants to store a few TEASPOONS of glucose, so anything over that gets turned into TRIGLYCERIDES and stored in fat cells.

Foods loaded with chemicals, like every processed, refined, restaurant/gas station food out there, STIMULATE your hunger. They’re CREATED – in laboratories – to make you want more. As if that weren’t bad enough, these chemicals have various and sundry health destroying effects.

If you eat a diet high in fat and protein, and low in sugars and grains, you won’t have a lot of insulin in the bloodstream, sweeping up excess glucose and making triglycerides. Fat (from animal sources, avocados, olives, nuts, etc) doesn’t stimulate Inuslin production. Protein stimulates very little insulin production (unless you’re diabetic, which changes everything.). Nutrients get used – for thousands of jobs – and Fat gets burned. Both Fat and Protein trigger Satiety hormones.

Let’s look at a couple “Looks Healthy But Isn’t”, 🙂

Skim Milk: When the Fat was separated off, so were the fat-soluble nutrients (vit A,D,E and K), ONLY synthetic A and D were added back in. W/o fat, they’re mostly UNABSORBABLE (hence the term “fat-soluble”). W/o the fat, it’s an odd blueish color, so Skim Milk Powder, full of OXIDIZED CHOLESTEROL, is added to make it look more appealing (even Organic does this); there’s 12.3 grams of carbs, O grams of fat, 8 grams of protein, and just 80 calories per cup. If low fat/low cal were good for us, we’d have a winner.

But study after study DOESN’T show an association with low fat/low cal and low weight/good health. In fact, it’s the opposite. The Harvard School of Public Health studied over 12,000 kids between 9 and 14 and found a correlation between those who drank skim milk and weight GAIN, not weight loss or healthy weight. Researchers at UVa posted a similar study with similar results just last week.

Fat SLOWS the absorption of milk sugar (lactose) from the gut to the bloodstream, and allows for LESS insulin to be called for. Fat ALSO signals SATIETY hormones. We all want Satiety Hormones triggered, or we’ll just keep eating.

How bout low fat ice cream, as in Breyers Fat Free Chocolate?

SKIM MILK, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, POLYDEXTROSE, MALTODEXTRIN, COCOA* (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOESTERS, CAROB BEAN GUM, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CELLULOSE GUM, GUAR GUM, CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL FLAVOR, ICE STRUCTURING PROTEIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE.*

Honestly, does that look remotely like food to you? A half cup has 90 calories, 0 fat, and 22 grams of carbs. BTW, those mono and diglycerides are partially hydrogenated fatty acids, but the company who patented them had them classified as EMULSIFIERS, not fat. Brillant move on their part. The “ice structuring proteins” are a fermented yeast product. Weird. And the Polydextrose and Maltodextrin are sugar alcohols – known and labeled as potentially causing “stomach distress”. (This definitely happens to me and I stay away from any artificial sugars now – good bye stomach bloat!) Anyway, here again, no fat to signal satiety hormones or slow the absorption of the sugars into the bloodstream = Weight Gain. Loads of ingredients that actually STIMULATE hunger and desire for more. This won’t in any way help you lose weight or get healthy, just the opposite actually.

If you’re struggling with your weight and/or your health, that means you need to try something different than what you’re doing. Honestly, if you’re “dieting”, you’ve already struck out. Low calorie, small portions, high carb-chemicalized foods actually INDUCE you to keep eating and become fat-making machines. There was an article in the June 25th Wall Street Journal about the American Diabetes Association stopping a planned 13 year study early because the low fat/low cal diet they had obese diabetics on was actually CONTRIBUTING to heart disease. Read that sentence again. Here’s another nail in that coffin: after 9 years of these obese diabetics living on an average of 1200 calories a day (high carb, low fat), the average weight loss was just 13 pounds. Nine Years, 1200 daily calories, 13 pounds lost. A lot of food misery for very little benefit.

Ditch the belief system that tells you to starve yourself and over-exercise to lose weight and fight disease. It’s not true. You need fats, proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy. You need to space out your meals and not eat all day. You need foods that supply the nutrients your body uses, and you need to stay away from the sugars, grains, bad oils, and chemicals that cause weight gain and disease. You need to eat Real Whole Foods, and so do your kids.

Category: Looks Healthy But Isn't, Psychology of Eating /

« Older Entries Recent Entries »

Archive for Psychology of Eating

Think Your Way To Health and Weight Success; and Cholesterol Facts

Consistency and Mindset are the Keys; and Tips

Eat for Health, Weight Loss is a Side-Effect

Success Stories

The Power of a Mom

How to make “Good Eating Days” your Norm.

Raw Eggs and Raw Milk Haven’t Killed Me:)

Eliminate the Misery of Dieting; and Donut Facts

Exercise in a Hotel, and Twinkies make a Comeback!

Brain Ammunition and a Looks Healthy But Isn’t

Join as a Subscriber

Search

Archives

Categories

Recent Posts