Your Need To Know

This is the fourth installment from 25 Tips For A Better Life in 2009.  I have combined the next two tips because I will be covering them both in this article.

TIP #4 - Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less foods that are made in plants.

TIP #5 - Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli and almonds.

First, Some Quick Facts

Why Drink Green Tea and Plenty of Water?
Green tea, a great source of antioxidants, can help lower your cholesterol level and reduce your risk of cancer.  The compound ECGC in green tea has been found to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells. An American Heart Association study found that people who drank 2 cups of tea (black or green) a day were 25% less likely to die of heart disease compared to those who did not.  This is because the Flavenoids in the tea not only improve the blood vessels ability to relax, but also thins the blood reducing clotting.

Drinking plenty of water not only lowers your risk of heart disease by up to 60%, but also helps to curb your appetite.

Why Eat Berries, Salmon, Broccoli and Almonds?
Raspberries, strawberries and blueberries are all loaded with salicylic acid - the same heart disease fighter found in aspirin. The also contain antioxidants, fiber and Vitamin C.

Omega-3 fats in salmon, sardines, tuna and other fish help strengthen heart muscle, lower blood pressure, prevent clotting and reduce inflammation levels in the body. Recently it has been found that Omega-3 actually spurs your body’s metabolism and and helps it to burn fat more efficiently. Fish is also a great source of lean protein.

Broccoli contains a compound indole-3-carbinol, which has been shown to fight various forms of cancer.

Almonds and other nuts are a great source of protein, monounsaturated fats, Vitamin E, fiber and phosphorus. They will keep you feeling “fuller” longer and help suppress your appetite.

What Does This Really Have to Do with Losing Weight?

I won’t spend a lot of time telling you why being overweight is bad for you.  We already know all that.  We already know that the risk or heart disease is 60% higher for obese people, and that the risk of cancer is 33% higher.  We know that the World Health Organization estimates that up to 1/3 of all colon, kidney and digestive tract cancers are caused by being overweight or inactive.  We also know that about 15 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes. This is not from eating too much sugar, but from years of eating high-carbohydrate foods that are easily converted into sugar. Fat is to blame.  Not to mention sleep apnea, asthma, gastroesophogeal reflux, respiratory problems, and insomnia.

How Did I get So Fat Anyway?

Most of us learned our poor eating and health habits from our parents. Now, we know more than they did about eating right, but as I said, we learned our “habits” and habits are hard to break.  We grew up with the odds against us. When growing up should have been playing outside instead of playing video games.  We ate fast food instead of smart food.  We stuffed our faces with doughnuts, ice cream and candy bars.  Worst of all - McDonald’s!

Now, we are looking for that one great “miracle diet” or “magic pill” that will make it all go away.  Well friends, it ain’t gonna happen!  It’s all marketing and hype. It has always been true and it will always be true that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to burn more calories than you take in.  Wait, don’t leave yet.  There are still some shortcuts..

Whether you want to lose weight to improve your health, your looks, your athletic ability or your sex appeal, you need to change your “diet.” Not to be confused with “going on a diet.” I don’t “go” on diets and neither should you. Most diets are about eating less food or being severely restricted about the foods you eat.  When you “diet”, as in eating drastically less food, your body responds by burning muscle and storing fat.  So, you’ll lose some muscle (muscle requires the most energy to maintain) and then you’ll lose some fat.  Yeah!  But guess what.  As soon as you go off your restriction of calories, you’ll start gaining weight again: right away.  Only you won’t be gaining back any muscle, only fat. Not so good.  And it only gets harder to lose the new-found fat during the next “diet.”

Don’t Go On a “Diet” and Don’t Count All The Calories You Eat
Don’t drastically change your life or drastically reduce calories.  Just reduce your daily “intake” of calories by about 20% to slowly lose pounds and keep them off forever!  You can eat the same AMOUNT of food, or sometimes EVEN MORE food than you are eating now. You won’t feel like you are dieting at all.

How Many Calories Do I Need
If you are not gaining weight, you can estimate your daily intake of calories:

• If you don’t exercise at all - multiply your weight by 13
• If you get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise (walking) 3 times a week - multiply your weight by 14
• If you get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 times a week - multiply your weight by 15
• If you get more than 30 minutes of exercise almost every day - multiply your weight by 17

Gina weighs 140 pounds and gets moderate exercise about 3 times a week.  She multiplies 140 by 14 for a total of 1960.  An intake of 1960 calories will maintain her present weight. Multiplying this number by 0.2 gives her 392.  If Gina reduces her calorie intake by 392, she will likely lose at least 3 pounds in the first month.

The link below gives some examples of how easy it is for Gina to cut 392 calories from her meals every day! CLICK HERE to view the Calorie Chart.

Try to eat more often.  Not more food, just eat 6 or more times a day instead of the traditional 3.  Have a snack between your traditional meals to increase and keep your metabolism up. Replace a few higher calorie foods with healthier ones.  We all know what they are.  Don’t worry too much about the amount of fat, or the amount of carbs, or the amount of sugar in what your eating.  Just be concerned with cutting the calories for now.  After all, you can lose weight eating nothing but ice cream - as long as you consume 20% less calories than you are now!

To Be Continued…..

Gina

Technorati Tags:Weight Loss, Losing Weight

I read a very interesting article yesterday in WebMD magazine (July/August issue).  The title of the article is Painful Conversation.

What made this article so interesting to me is the fact that the medical profession is giving more credence to the power of the human mind in dealing with pain.  While I have read other articles on mind and medicine, and Mind-Body Therapies for treating pain,  I was happy to see this article in a mainstream magazine read by so many.

This article is written in a question and answer format, with answers given by Scott M. Fishman, MD.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

Q: What new treatments are you particularly excited about?

A: One has to do with teaching patients how to overcome their pain.  We know that the human mind can create pain but that it also has enormous power to take it away; we can teach people skills that were known to Buddhists hundreds of thousands of years ago.  It’s the same focusing technique athletes use to help them improve their performance.  Take Lance Armstrong on that last hill of the Tour De France.  Even though his legs are burning, he can divert his attention from the pain to the goal of performance.  And you can do this with many different techniques.  In this case, he’s used a cognitive technique to change the internal message, “I’m hurting, I better stop” to “I better keep going but perform differently.”  A pain psychologist teaches these techniques.  What I tell my patients is that pain psychologists are really coaches.  They’re not there to diagnose an illness, but to help you learn techniques to use your brain better – just like you would go to a physical therapist to learn techniques to use your body better.  It’s the same thing.

Q: You’re describing the mind/body connection.

A: Yes.  You can’t have pain without a mind so it’s all connected.  My patients are always afraid I’m going to think their pain is all in their head, that they have a mental illness rather than a physical illness, and ignore the real problem.  I try to counsel them that it’s quite the opposite, that any pain requires a mind and you can’t  have pain without a head; so recognizing that opens up all sorts of opportunities to help cope and reduce suffering.

I think of the mind/body approaches as techniques that tap into the body’s own pharmacy.  Things like mindfulness and biofeedback and cognitive behavioral retraining, or guided imagery, even self-hypnosis.  Things like acupuncture and massage.  We don’t know how these things work, but we’re certain they’re helpful.

Scott M. Fishman, MD, American Pain Foundation president and chairman, is Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and professor of anesthesiology at the University of California, Davis.  He wrote The War on Pain: How Breakthroughs in the New Field of Pain Medicine Are Turning the Tide Against Suffering.  A University of Massachusetts Medical School graduate, he is board certified in internal medicine, psychiatry, and pain and palliative medicine.

Click the logo to read more on Mind-Body Therapies at WebMD:

Gina

Technorati Tags:Mind-Body Connection, Health, Pain Management

Having some stress in your life is a good thing.  It keeps your mind and body active and more alert.  It only becomes harmful when you have too much of it.  Too much = more than you can cope with.  

Everyone has experienced stress at some point and we all know when we are experiencing it.  Our jobs and family life can be stressful when conflict arises and agreements aren’t easily reached. Stress can make us feel irritable, upset our stomachs, and interrupt our sleep.

Even though we intuitively know what stress is, and despite the obvious signs, defining stress can be difficult. 

Stress is defined as the psychological and physiological conditions a person experiences when they perceive a situation as threatening, harmful or demanding. 

Whether we feel stress or not depends on how we perceive these situations we are facing.  What is stressful for one person may not be for another, and there are many factors that influence how we interpret these situations.  Such as:

• Who you are
• Your personality
• Your overall attitudes
• Your skills
• Other events in your life
• Other people in your life

When you are experiencing stress, you may have some or many of the following symptoms.  You may:

• Become irritable
• Eat poorly
• Develop stomachaches or heartburn
• Have problems sleeping
• Develop tense muscles
• Become ill more often
• Feel like you have too much to do and not enough time to do it
• Feel tired or have a noticeable lack of energy
• Not enjoy your usual pleasures
• Abuse or overuse drugs or alcohol

Once you recognize you have stress and the symptoms that go along with it, you need to choose a way to deal with it.  Here are some ways you can deal with stress:

1. Eat well-balanced meals and get enough sleep
2. Stop worrying about things you can’t change
3. Talk with a trusted friend, family member or counselor
4. Meditate
5. Try to look at change as a positive thing and not as a threat
6. Work to resolve conflicts with other people
7. Do more things that you don’t find stressful, such as sports, social events or hobbies

Develop a stress reduction plan. Once you put a couple of methods in place, you can begin to reduce the stress you are experiencing.  When you have a plan, stress becomes much easier to break down and deal with.  You can break it down piece by piece until it is gone – or at least greatly reduced.

Gina