Tag Archive for rebound binges

Diets Cause Rebound Binges and Slow Metabolisms, and We’re In The Huff Post!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAExciting! Mark and I have been published in the Huff Post! Check out our article and click us a “like” and a “share”:) We’ve been invited to be Regular Bloggers, and asked to write from the perspective of normal working parents who’ve stayed fit and healthy at 49 and 50. We can do that!

Moving on, I’ve got a series of emails, from one reader, who actually answers her own question about Dieting. When I say Dieting, I mean: counting calories, caloric restriction, and using computer programs to determine protein/carb/fat ratios. Even writing that sentence causes me Stress, as it did during all my years of Restricting/Binge Eating.

That’s because Diets Do Cause Stress, in many different ways. One, it’s such an unnatural way to eat, that our body and mind rebels; which is stressful. Two, hunger and deprivation always cause stress. ( Have you heard the saying, “sorry for what I said when I was hungry.”?) Three, plugging numbers into a program to figure out the ratios/percentages/amounts of our protein, carbs, fats, and/or total calories, is a pain in the butt, that’s stressful. Four, caloric restriction slows down our thyroid, which means our cell turnover, cell “house-keeping”, and cell communication is IMPEDED; our metabolism slows down, that’s stressful.  That also guarantees future weight gain.

Diets don’t work long term. Well, maybe for about 1 – 4% of everyone who loses weight. That’s a horrible “success” rate.

Ask yourself, with such an abysmal track record, why is it so easy to be lured back, time after time, for another Diet attempt?

Here’s the email chain I received, I love her reasoning development!  (When she refers to IIFYM, that’s a Diet Program that induces Caloric Deficits by counting your grams and percentages of Fat, Protein, and Carbs and Total Calories.  You can eat ANYTHING YOU WANT, as long as you stay within your numbers.)

Hi Debbie!

I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the IIFYM ( if it fits your macro diet). I was wondering if I could count macros while also eliminating grains/processed food? I just like the structure of IIFYM. Does that make sense?

I only had time for a quick response, here it is:  “Short answer: diets that let you eat crap ( which the IIFYM diet does as long as you stay “in the macro ratios”) keep you craving junk. Period. Always. It’s enough right now to start weaning yourself off grains and processed foods. Just focus on eating Real Whole Foods!!”

Why do I say it’s enough to just wean off the grains and processed foods for now?  Because for most people in 2014, eating Real Whole Foods is so far removed from their Norm, that it’s almost incomprehensible.  I get asked, ALL THE TIME, what I eat if I don’t eat grains.  Pasta, frozen foods, fast foods, and restaurant foods have become so ingrained into the American Culture as NORMAL, that eating Real Whole Foods, feeding the family Real Whole Foods, and sticking to that belief system when traveling and eating out, seems incredibly hard.

Eating Real Whole Foods isn’t a Diet Program (although you will lose weight when you quit eating Sugar, Grains, and processed chemical foods, and quit the snacking); it’s eating 3 decent sized meals a day full of the nutrients our body needs to build, repair, and run (metabolize) well.  When we run well, we get lean and healthy, when we diet, we don’t – again, statistics. Unfortunately, the Diet Industry is a Billion Dollar industry with an amazing Marketing Machine that successfully convinces us, over and over, to give it another try.

Switching from a Diet Mentality after a lifetime of eating Sugar, Grains, and Processed/Chemical Foods, to eating Real Whole Foods every day, takes effort, and a plan.  There’s 2 addictions that have to be overcome to be successful.

One, the addiction to sugar, grains, and chemicals – it’s powerful.  You know what I’m talking about.  It’s well researched.

Two, the addiction to the ease of eating sugar, grains, and chemicals – there’s no effort involved with stopping at McDonalds; picking up a pizza; or boiling water for pasta.  However, this ease of eating pure crap HAS LED TO 70% OVERWEIGHT AND SICK, WITH NUMBERS EXPECTED TO CLIMB.  There’s a common sense element I’m talking about here, right?

Here’s the next email this reader sent me:  “ I have done IIFYM with good weight loss results while eating junk! What I am wondering is if it would be good to do the same macros but not eat the junk and grains.”

No!  That’s just counting calories and percentages, hoping for the magic weight loss formula.  I’m telling you, ditching grains, sugars, and chemical processed foods will take off your weight without the stress of dieting.  As a matter of fact, you can ADD MORE FAT, feel genuinely full, become healthier, and LOOSE WEIGHT.

Here’s her last email ****** LOVE IT!! ******: “Also, just wanted to mention that the reason I stopped doing iifym despite some weight loss was because it was taking up too much space in my head to count macros. I guess I don’t really want to do it again when I think about why I stopped!” 

Exactly!  Diets Make You Crazy and Obsessed and Compulsive about food, eating, restricting, and compensating; and it’s disturbingly Self Perpetuating.  The Diet Craziness just begets more Diet Craziness. Eating Real Whole Food ELIMINATES THAT.

I’m living proof, my husband is living proof, my kids are living proof, there’s so many examples in the Real Whole Food/Paleo/Primal Community who are living proof that this way of life makes you lean and healthy, without the Diet Craziness.

The best part?  You can start today, because this starts with your Mind.  Honest.  The Food isn’t nearly as big a problem as your Mind is.  Remember that the Brain wants to avoid stress, it wants what’s comfortable and familiar.  The Brain doesn’t guide us according to what’s best for us long term.

Thank Goodness the Brain can be Changed.  Your thought patterns, your habits, your “familiars”, they can be changed.  I thought I was so addicted to pizza, ice cream, and protein bars that I would NEVER be able to live without them.  Now, I don’t even eat the “paleo versions” anymore.  I’m OVER IT.  You Can Be Too.

Focus on becoming a Normal, Healthy, Real Whole Food Eater.  Not a Dieter.  Not someone hoping for a gimmick that takes off 10 pounds in 10 days.  Use your common sense; or use Google!  Google: Diets Don’t Work, or Weight Regain After A Diet.  You’ll get MILLIONS and MILLIONS of studies, articles, and posts substantiating those facts.

If you struggle with how to begin, how to change, how to have a life that involves cooking and packing w/o stress, get in touch with me.  It’s all about planning, and sticking to the plan.  Pretty soon, there’s no effort, instead, it’s a habit.  When our life is about habits, stress is gone.  Eating Real Whole Foods means hunger is gone too.

No Stress, No Hunger, a body you’ve always wanted, being a Normal Eater, doesn’t this sound good?

Want To Lose Weight? You’ve Got To Develop Lean Habits.

usEaster This post is in response to some sad emails from those of you who’s head gets turned every time you pass the display counter at Starbucks, or a bag of Stacy’s pita chips, or cave when a bread basket wafts up your nose.  “Good days” and “bad days” are going to be a thing of your past, because you can Change Your Brain Patterns – I promise!  Repeat that to yourself out loud, because your brain believes what your mouth says.  All Dieting has to stop, and healthy beliefs and facts need to be absorbed, if you want a different body.

The data consistently shows that Dieting Causes Weight Gain.  It’s a sure-thing that if you try to restrict calories, there will be rebound binges.

Want a plan?  Here you go:

Focus on changing your habits and thought patterns.  Habits are the ONLY way to a lean, healthy body Habits are what we do day after day after day, with very little effort. We develop healthy habits through planning, practice, and belief. 

( If you believe that you can cancel out crappy food with starvation or heavy exercise, you’ll never keep your weight off.  Ever.  If you believe your body needs nutrient dense food to run well, you’ll be lean and healthy. )

Eat three meals a day.  Don’t snack, at all.  Make sure all your meals are at least moderate in size, bigger if you’re active. (Tiny diet meals cause snacking; let’s change this so you’re not high on blood sugar and insulin all day.)  (Insulin is a “fat storage” hormone.)

Eat plenty of good fats, good proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy if you’re good with that.

Eat on a schedule ( morning, noon, and night).  Skipping a meal because you’re not hungry, maybe trying to “eat intuitively”?….Ugh.  Disaster waiting to happen!  Hunger influences our choices; wait til you’re hungry, and there’s a good chance your choices will be BAD.

Don’t rely on Willpower to get you through the day; willpower is in very finite supply.  Using willpower depletes the glucose stores in your brain and leaves you feeling weak and depleted; what psychologists call, “decision fatigue“.  Disaster waiting to happen – again!  Work on developing new Habits and Thought reducefleshPatterns. 

Quit living by the seat of your pants.  Plan, Plan, Plan, and then sit down and Plan.  If you Fail to Plan, then just Plan to Fail, because changing your thought patterns and your habits isn’t going to happen naturally.

Carry Out Your Plans.  Shop, pack, freeze, cook, keep a running list though the week of meal ideas, lunch ideas, and grocery needs.

You think that you can’t do this because you’re too busy?  Oh please!  Get rid of that  excuse!  Tomorrow I’m posting a Success Story by my friend, Terry Kaye.  She’s a mom of 3 boys, two of which have health issues, she works a few different jobs, she works out, and she cooks every day.

Who do you know who isn’t busy?? And don’t we want to teach our kids how to successfully handle normal, real life?  Plan, Plan, Plan, and Plan.

Delete any thoughts of “making up for this later”,  or starting over tomorrow/Sunday/Monday/the 1st etc.  That’s ” Diet ” thinking, seriously.  Diet thinking means you’re negotiating with yourself that if you eat crappy food now, you’ll starve yourself later; which would work if your body was a Calories In Calories Out system.  It’s not.  It’s a Chemistry Set.  The chemistry you set in motion with lots of crappy carbs and toxic chemicals will NOT be balanced out with Starvation or Excessive Exercise.  Ever.

Delete any thoughts that carby foods made with flour and sugar (muffins, donuts, cookies, etc)  at Wegman’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s are Healthy because you bought them at Wegman’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s.  Products made with grain flour and sugar are still products made with grain flour and sugar.  They’ll spike your blood glucose, your insulin, and your cortisol, and put on belly fat. Junk food is junk food.

If you really want to change the way you habitually think about food, get in touch with me.  The more you understand how your body works, the easier it is to make smart choices.  Habits are the ONLY way to a lean, healthy body.  Habits are what we do day after day after day, with very little thought or effort, and ZERO decision fatigue.  Does it take a few months to change your habits?  Yes.  Looking back though, what’s a few months.  Ask yourself, where do you want to be Next Year on This Date.  Exactly where you are right now, doing the same old habits and patterns; or lean, healthy, and using newly instilled habits?  Ask yourself this: how long have you been using the same old Diet methods to try and change your body? How many years?  What’s the definition of Insanity?   Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

Everyone is capable of change, but doing the same old thing will always bring about the same old results.  Commit to Real Whole Food, and commit to changing your thoughts and habits, you can do this!

Man Post by Mark coming this weekend.  🙂