As the 21st Olympics enthrall the world, I find myself once again amazed by the grace, beauty and achievement of the world’s finest athletes.
This year, perhaps because I’m a bit more reflective about life these days, the games have reminded me of all the Olympics I’ve watched through the years. Beyond the athletic achievement, competition and “overcoming the odds” stories guarantee drama.
One of the reasons I think the games appeal to us is that we live cathartically through them. After all, most of us will never achieve a triple axle jump, even without the ice skates. I know I hesitate to jump off a fence, much less a mountain on skis. And I bet I can’t find one of my dear readers rushing out to luge down a frozen tube at 90 mph!
But, there is not one of us who can’t be an Olympian when it comes to permanent weight loss. I’m convinced of that. In order to compete on the world class stage, seek to develop these elements that Olympians master:
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This blog post is inspired by my fabulous twitter buddy, Shannon. She asked for input on a particular diet on twitter. Since I wanted to say more than my initial “under 140 characters” reply (“DON’T DO IT!”), I decided to share it here.
The diet program that caught Shannon’s eye was first popular about 12-14 years ago, right in the middle of my 4-year weight loss period.
I had lost about 65 lbs when I entered a 9 month training program. At that point, I didn’t think of my weight loss as tenuous and I was committed to the idea of permanence, but I still experienced lots of anxiety about it.
During our training, we had a lunchtime speaker come in and talk about fitness. “Oh, this will be interesting,” I thought. The man brought the book “Body for Life” by Bill Phillips and talked about how great it was. I rolled my eyes (kinda like this):
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I just had my heart ripped out by a new client. Janet* came to me because she is tired of losing and gaining weight. Her latest experience was with a diet doctor who was fixated on dietary fat. He gave her a very low fat diet and, feeling desperate, she began to eradicate fat from her diet. Janet is an all-or-nothing kind of gal. She made every attempt to be “perfect” on the diet. When her weight loss slowed, she’d cut fat further. Most reasonable, healthy diets suggest approximately 30% of our daily food intake should be fat. Janet wound up making 10% of her weekly diet fat.
She lost weight. She was elated. She lost 80 lbs in 6 months. When I heard her say this, I held my breath. I knew what was coming.
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Successful weight management requires a lifestyle change that includes healthy eating patterns and lots of activity. Making far-reaching changes may be even more challenging if you are involved in relationships that promote or support an unhealthy approach to eating and exercise.
For example, does your best friend agree to go to the gym with you but, once there, grumble and complain the entire time? After an hour with a whiner, who wouldn’t avoid the activity again?
Does your mother tell you that you need to lose weight but constantly push fattening food at you when you visit?
Common saboteurs to a healthy lifestyle are the relationships around you. After all, change can be frightening or threatening within a relationship.
Take the spouse or partner who becomes nervous or argumentative when you being to lose weight. This partner may have his/her own weight problems or simply feel more comfortable when you are lacking self-esteem. When one partner begins to actively work on lifestyle issues and loses a few pounds, the saboteur may accept an invitation to a lavish party, or bring home chocolates, or simply insist on restaurants that lack healthy food choices.
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In response to my last post, hotmother asked me to address the cost of healthy food.
It doesn’t have to cost more. In fact, most of my clients find they spend a lot less once they start to eat healthy food. Not only does real food have more nutrients, it fills you up faster and keeps you satisfied longer. This is especially true when you put the emphasis on lean or low-fat protein in your diet.
For example, the next time you tuck into a large pasta dish with a side of garlic bread, notice how quickly you’re hungry again. Add dessert to that meal and you’ll be hungry before you get home from the Olive Garden!
Most processed snack foods are actually simple carbs layered with a lot of fat and offer little nutrition and lots of calories. Chips, crackers, snack bars, cookies, cakes, etc. will “pad” your grocery bill and your waist. Have you ever noticed that an entire bag of chips doesn’t seem to fill the stomach, but an apple will satisfy hunger at less cost and a whole lot fewer calories?
I’ve seen many a client lose weight by addressing the protein imbalance in their diet. They find two eggs will give them energy until noon whereas a big serving of cereal with fruit and toast had them gnawing at the computer mouse at 10 a.m.!
So, don’t assume it will cost more to eat fresh, healthy food.
In fact, the biggest money saver…
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I love the debate over diets I see on Twitter every day. Do weight watchers. Buy Jenny Craig. Follow Biggest Loser. Shred with PX-90. Beach body fads. Invest in a body bugg.
In a way, it’s all a smokescreen, isn’t it? None of these programs is going to bring the permanent change on the scale we all want. Only WE can do that.
Research shows people who achieve permanent weight loss, even if they start out on a diet, leave it behind pretty quickly in order to create a unique, personal lifestyle change. They begin to change their own individual behaviors that impact their weight, instead of focusing on food.
A lifestyle change goes a lot deeper than a diet. It takes a little longer. It’s not quite so simple. But you get to keep it!!! That’s why I invested the time and effort to make permanent change back in 1996. My objective from the beginning was permanent weight loss. I wanted all along to be here, in 2010, celebrating 10 years of sustained weight loss.
Here are 5 behavior changes that have huge impact on weight loss:
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It’s the middle of January and, in one form or another, many of us are fighting with our food.
As New Year’s Resolutions fade and sputter and maybe even get thrown to the wind, it’s easy to fall into a real struggle with food. Most diets set us up for struggle. They make some foods “good” (which doesn’t line up with what our mind says is “good”), and some “bad.”
But even an old pro like me has a momentary brain fart around food.
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Last week, I posted a notice about this story to twitter and facebook. V Magazine had had the audacity to use plus sized models (size 12, not very plus to the average size 14 American woman) in a sexy fashion story! Whoa! Stop the presses! What are they doing?
Well, most people responded favorably. Not surprisingly, women were thrilled.
Today, I was at the gym and, when I looked up from the treadmill, one of the entertainment shows featured a string of commentators who had negative reactions to the magazine layout.
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