Diets Make you Fat!

I have a great support team in my office.  We challenge each other for different exercises and health goals.  A couple of them are trying to quit smoking and walk more, while I have been focusing on trying to lose weight.  While our actual goals are not identical, we each have something we are working on together.

The other day one of these ladies presented us with this “Military diet” that she had downloaded from the internet. You know the type of diet I am talking about, this one claims to help you lose 20 lbs. in 2 weeks if you only eat certain food combinations for the next xyz days.    I have already fallen into that trap more than once so I opted to pass and keep with what I am doing.  I heard both gals complaining yesterday, one hadn’t lost any weight at all, in fact she was up three pounds by following the guidelines, the other had been losing weight and this diet made her hit a plateau.   They hit day four of the diet which is the day to eat your normal foods, and both of them ended up binging.

So what happened?  Why didn’t the crash program work for them?

Well let’s start off with what it had them eating…  

1.       Both ladies had to go to the store to buy the special foods for this diet, nothing on it was stuff they would normally eat.  

2.       Both of them tweeted/Facebooked complaints at their meals about how much they hated what they were being forced to eat, it was bland, it was a hated food etc….

3.       This pre-programmed diet was not designed to meet their individual needs. In both of these cases the amount of food was way off from their normal consumption, so their metabolism reacted accordingly.  In this case they went into starvation mode and once the food was available then their appetites turned back on, which prompted the binge.

Next let’s look at the routine:

1.       They denied themselves staples that their mind and body had come to expect.. This triggered the psychological response to want to focus on what you can’t have instead of what you can have.

2.       They took their systems out of their normal routine, which can throw off your rhythms; in this case it impacted their metabolism.

3.       They were on a program/routine that they had to “go off of”.  

Anytime you work on something that has a set end date, instead of working on lifestyle changes, you set yourself up to the mindset of “I only have to do this for …. longer.”  Once you go off a diet you slowly start to slip back into old habits which got you to the situation you are in now.  Only this time your body has just been through what it thinks is a “famine” and it sends out the signals to prep you for the next famine.  That is why so many dieters gain back not only the weight that they lost, but more.  Each time you crash diet your system sends the wrong message to your brain. So the more you crash diet, the more weight you gain after you end the diet.  It becomes a vicious cycle!

Remember you will never successfully keep the weight off from any program you have to go “off” of.  To truly lose weight and keep it off, you have to make lifestyle changes that you can maintain for the long term.

One Year To A New You!

Habits are a fact of life; so much of our life is spent on automatic pilot thanks to the establishment our routines.  The routines you control your life by are directed by habits, cultural and situational need.  When habits become routine they run the risk of becoming addictions. 

Not all habits are negative; they become bad when they completely take control of your life and turn into addictions.  The best way to change a bad habit is not to stop it, but to replace it with something else that gives you an equal reward.  For example, I had a HUGE soda habit.  In fact I was to the point where I could not get through the day without my large “refillable” cup from the deli; a cup that I would refill at least 3 times during the day just to keep me going.  I knew I had to break this habit, but going cold-turkey left me overly stressed, snippy, and with a major migraine as I went through the caffeine withdrawal, and inevitably, I would fall off the wagon and end right back into my soda habit again.  This time to transition me out of drinking sodas, I switched it with flavored loose-leaf teas (for the caffeine), and flavored packets to add to my water.  While I have not completely given up sodas, I no longer need them to function, and I am now drinking more water, which is better for me.

The point of Transitions is to slowly transition into a lifestyle I can live with.  Will I be at my goal weight by the end of 1 year?  Probably not,  at this point I am only 20 lbs. into the 140 I need to lose.  But by the end of this year, I will be in a position to actually see that goal is feasible!!

Transitioning to a healthier lifestyle is more than numbers on a scale.  It is about setting realistic goals for real life changes.  This isn't about making a list of what I can't have any more.  It is about making a list of what I need to do to make things better for me.   For example, if I want to have less TV time in my life, instead of having a goal of watch less TV, I can set a goal of go to the gym 4 times a week, or "find a volunteer project for every Wednesday night."  Simply by doing these steps, I have decreased my TV time, without leaving myself open to the temptation of sitting on the couch trying to figure out what to do with my time during my regular shows.  As I slowly replace the unhealthy habits in my life, with healthier ones, then the scale ends up reflecting the loss without me having to focus on trying to lose the weight.

The trick to figuring out how to set goals is to figure out where you want to be by a certain time.   Then work it backwards to where you are now. Make a list of what your better life looks like.  Then look at what is in your life now that is holding you back from where you want to be.  That is how you determine what goals you will set for the next year. 

For this week, figure out what your “Major” goal is.  Can it be broken down into 12 steps?   Can each of those steps be accomplished in 1 month?  If not then figure out how many steps you have to break your goal into, then break it down further into monthly and weekly steps… this way you have a road map of what you are working on. Then most importantly... PUBLISH your goals.  If you put it in writing and share it, then you have the accountability to others to push you/ encourage you as you work towards a better you.

Transitions: Road map to now

I am not a doctor, or even in the medical profession. So what makes me an "expert" about weight loss.  My knowledge is not based on "book theory" but based on actual experience.  Anyone who has ever struggled with weight knows that there is an over abundance of conflicting information available about why obesity is becoming epidemic, and not just in the United States, but around the world. 

Studies have shown that people with weight problems tend to fall into common categories. 

1. They tend to be lower income.  debates are going on about cause and effect, with this factor.  Families who function on lower budgets know and recognize how expensive fruits,  veggies and other "non processed" foods tend to be.  While this issue is legit, what isn't being addressed is the time and training that is normally not available to this group about HOW to prepare a healthy family meal.  I know that as a single mom,  who worked two and three jobs to try to make ends meet, on top of going to school, I  found it cheaper and easier to pop frozen fish sticks or chicken nuggets into the microwave than it was to cut and cook veggies.

2. High stress:  Studies show that not only does stress increase cortisol levels, but it also increases the cravings for high carb/ high fat foods.  Most adults have never consciously developed stress coping strategies to help combat/ward off stress gain.  Stress cones in many forms, and in a lot of cases can cause major upheaval in your lifestyle and/or quality of life. 

3. Health issues: Take someone who had an active lifestyle, suddenly develop a chronic or serious illness.  Normal exercise routines are cut, and not replaced with comparable calorie burning options, yet the eating habits of the more active lifestyle is not adjusted. This becomes a case of the chicken vs the egg.  One health issue can cause the start of the weight gain which can lead to other health issues, which leads ultimate to a downward spiral into chronic and/or morbid obesity.

The thing about gaining weight is that you don’t wake up one morning and look in the mirror in shock wondering “why am I suddenly twice the person I was yesterday?”  Excessive Weight gain happens over a matter of years, with periods of weight maintenance then sizable jumps that we never overcome.  By making a map of your weight from the time you hit puberty to current date, you can see a pattern. 

In my case, the only time I have been a size 4 was back in 7^th grade.   In the 8^th and 9^th grade my body started changing and by the time I was in High School  I had settled into a size 10/12 at 145 lbs.   Move forward 4 years and I gained the freshman 15, but then yo-yo’ d between 5 and 10 lb. loss which kept me somewhere between 150 and 155.  In my 20’s I joined the Army and maintained that weight until my first pregnancy where due to health issues, I had to stop exercising and gained 100 lbs. during the pregnancy.  Afterwards I lost all but 15 which brought me to 175.  Three years later my second pregnancy didn’t go much better, with the weight gain, but this time I kept more of the weight afterwards and found myself floundering around the 210/220 mark.  I started a full time job and went back to school and ended up gaining another 40 lbs.  So at the suggestion of my Doctor, I signed up for a medical weight loss/liquid diet. where I lost about 75 lbs.  Once I was off that program I gained the 75 lbs back Plus another 15 now I was skirting 275 lbs.  In my 30's I got a divorce and lost 50 lbs, but gained 25 of them back after my hysterectomy. I gained another 15 after I started a new job.  Then when I started a combination of medications to treat for anxiety, depression,  hypothyroidism and asthma, the side effects caused me to max out the scales at 298 lbs.

This  pattern did not develop over a few days, but happened over a few decades.  Keeping that in mind, the weight is not going to come off overnight.  In fact  losing weight too fast can trigger a reaction in the body that once you quit the diet can cause you to gain that weight and more back.   The longer your body stays at a weight the more it becomes accustomed to that weight being the norm.  drastic variations can trigger a feast/famine response in your system.  This response is what causes people to gain so much weight back when they go off a diet.  Your body is now signalling that the famine is over and tries to get you back to your "normal" weight again, as well as a little cushion for next famine. 

The Transition program will prevent that because the body is never deprived, and the weight loss is a slower process so it doesn't set off your body's defenses which can cause you to gain the weight back, plus more. 

Transitions - The beginning

About a year ago I stepped on the scale in my Doctor's office and watched with tears in my eyes as the numbers barely skirted 300 lbs.   While I didn't actually hit that number I was close enough for the numbers to have been rounded up.  I had been complaining for some time about something being wrong, the amount of medication I was on, the mixture, something had turned my appetite to the permanently on position.  My doctor looked at me and gave me the typical answer of "Eat less, move more."  That is when I decided I wasn't going to get help from that quarter and took things into my own hands.
I assessed the meds I was on and 75% of them claimed a possible side effect of weight gain.  I figured the only way I could get anyone to listen to me is if I took drastic measures.  So without permission or knowledge from my doctor, I stopped taking ALL my medications.  Now as an asthmatic with tendencies towards depression and anxiety that was not the best move.  After about a month of not taking any of my medications, my appetite balanced out and I could actually get to the point where I felt full again, and even started to lose some of the weight. I changed doctors and went in for a physical.  Told the new doctor what I had done, and after she picked her jaw up off the floor we began an assessment of my medications and what could have contributed to a 70 lb. gain in less than 8 months.  Slowly we re-introduced the medications that I truly needed and have monitored my health to ensure that I do not go back to where I was.  We talked about diets and I was reminded of something that I was told several years ago when I was living in Panama.   The reason why diets fail is because once you get to your goal weight, you quit the diet.  The trick to successfully losing weight and keeping it off is to make permanent changes that you can live with.
The truth of the matter is, while I have not always been overweight... I have always BELIEVED I was overweight.  I looked at magazines and models and compared myself to them and always found myself falling short.  I wore baggy clothes that made me look several sizes larger than I actually was.  Slowly my body turned into what my mind believed my body image to be.  The truth is, I didn't gain the weight overnight. Like every other person who struggles with their weight, I have gained it in incremental jumps, then found it hard to get the weight back off.
I am learning as I get older, that our society has changed its definition of what the human body shape should be that not even the fashion models can meet the criteria. In the 1950's and 1960's Marilyn Monroe defined the ideal body shape and measurements of 36-24-36.  She was curvy, and a size 14.  Jump forward to 2012, Kate Upton is being trashed for having the same measurements.  Today a model that is over a size 6 is classified as "Plus size" The body image goals that the fashion and entertainment industry have created for us today are impossible for real people to maintain.  The average woman today is somewhere between a size 12 and 16, there is a huge disconnect between reality and the fiction of the fashion world.  Designers who try to design for the real woman are criticized for encouraging obesity. Yet their definition of obese does not match the medical definition.  As I began to look over those facts, I realized that I was letting a group of people with a fictional view of the world determine my body image. 
To date I have lost 20 lbs. and am slowly gaining my health and life back. I have done this by documenting and making myself aware of where my weight gain pattern is, and have realized that if I am truly going to lose the weight, then I have to look back on the road map that got me here in the first place.