Posts Tagged ‘healthy choices’
The Enemy of Weight Loss
Sugar is E.V.I.L. It is like a best friend who stabs you in the back. Yes, it is yummy and it is readily available but it truly is very very bad for you, in many different ways. In addition to being empty calories with no nutritional content, sugar burns “hotter” in your system, creating more free radicals that do various types of damage within your system. From wrinkles to cardiovascular disease, excess sugar plays a role.
What types of sugar? All of it (white, brown and even fruit and fruit juices, maple syrup and honey) is converted into triglycerides by the liver and are subject the damage from free radicals. These damaging triglycerides then attack your arteries, which leads to cardiovascular disease. Ready for this? Cancer and tumor cells FEED off of sugar. Need i say more?
Course correction:
- Eat fruit when you crave sugar as it provides antioxidants that also fight against free radicals.
- Limit your intake of sugar in the foods you eat to a very very minimum.
- If you must have sweetness, my favorite is Stevia, a natural sweetner that is very yummy.
- Read your labels (or investigate nutritional content online) and become aware of the added sugars in the food you eat. An easy way to check sugar content is with this super simple formula: Take the total number of carbs from the label. Subtract the amount of fiber. Divide the remainder by 5. Now, you have the number of teaspoons of sugar in that food. For example: if there are 30 grams of carbs on the label and 5 grams of fiber, that means you have 5 teaspoons of sugars in that product. (30 minus 5 = 25. 25 divided by 5 = 5)
To Lose Weight, Think Outside the Lizard
If you look at the sonogram of a fetus newly forming in the womb, you would notice a bean shaped little creature with a tail, a spinal column with a tiny little speck sitting at the top. Over the course of weeks and months, the little creature transforms remarkably into the little baby we love and adore.
The tiny speck sitting atop the spinal cord is, of course, the beginning of the brain which evolves into what is now widely known as the limbic brain and sometimes still called our lizard brain. Thankfully, as the baby grows and evolves in the womb, additional parts of our more sophisticated brain develop and with it our ability to have emotion, solve problems, fall in love and do basic math. Otherwise, we’d all be running around like a chicken with our little lizard brain.
This lizard brain is very primal. It governs our survival behavior and creates very specific chemical reactions that we have zero conscious control over. In addition to being the hard-drive of your basic bodily systems – like breathing, vision and bodily movement, it is hardwired to make sure that we survive as a species on this planet. To accomplish this enormous task, your lizard brain has evolved to the status of a teenager, and is forever hungry, scared, selfish and horny.
Lose Weight, One Choice at a Time
“Just one” your mind says, as you feel your backbone straighten and your willpower kick in. “Just ONE!” you declare to yourself, confidence that this time, you will only eat one, you are certain of it!
Six cookies later, as your blood sugar peaks and plummets, you find yourself in the too familar place of…(you fill in the blank).
Is this you?
One of the most important steps you can take in neutralizing this type of situation is to create a micro-environment of health around you. Simply put…don’t have temptations nearby! Clean out your fridge, your pantry, your office desk and your car. And replace foods and drinks that are not creating health in your life. You already know what they are…just toss them. Better to go into the waste, than on your waist.
And then, begin to pay attention to your choice chain. A choice chain is the chain of events that takes place just prior to making a decision. By examining this chain, you’ll see that your behavior (eating all those cookies) wasn’t caused by a single event, but a series (a chain) of events. Let’s examine the “cookie event.”
A gift, during this season of giving…
December 1st is the day my precious daughter Brennan became an angel. Prior to her death, being thin was easy.
Afterwards, eating became a source of comfort and the yo-yo began….until she ALSO became my inspiration for being fit and healthy.
I find it inspired timing that today, on her Angel Day, I offer a very special gift, a gift I hope will inspire you
(or someone you care for) to be fit and healthy too.
A gift of health during this season of giving.
