If it’s true for the older folks, why wait till you are 70 to cut back?

Here is the article that got me reading on this:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57376486-10391704/overeating-may-double-odds-of-memory-loss-in-elderly/ 

This article is Eat Less to Keep Your Brain in Better Shape! from Gottaloseweight.com

My Favorite Online Resource for Dealing with Sugar Cravings

I found a very useful resource online for guidance on how to stop eating sugar. It includes an idea you may not be familiar with, that there are also foods that ACT LIKE sugar when we eat them. We have to cut them out for a while too… Click on the image to go to the site of Scott Olson where you can find out more. There is a free program, and an inexpensive one as well. I am currently doing this program myself.

My Seven Top Tips on How to Stop Eating Sugar

1. Get clear about your intentions. Do you want to lose weight and then resume eating sugar? Do you want, as I do, to get your consumption of sugar down to almost nothing for the rest of your life? Think about this for a while, because the clearer you are about your intention, the easier it will be to go for it. Hey, even if all you can do is create the intention to stop eating sugar for a week, that is a good start and you will learn from doing it.

2. One time that sugar cravings come up is when our blood sugar gets out of whack. To avoid the cravings that come with low blood sugar, eat frequent small meals throughout the day. This could be breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a healthy and high protein snack in between, or it could be a series of little meals, whatever you call them. Be sure to have some protein at breakfast. Don’t let yourself get so hungry that you want to grab anything in sight and eat it.

3. Eat lots of vegetables. How much is lots? Big servings! Also eat a lot of protein.

4. Keep a written log of when you crave sweets. You can learn a lot by also keeping a written log of what you eat and at what times, combined with the cravings log. But if that is too much, just do the cravings logs.

5. Exercise! Think of how our prehistoric ancestors must have listed, and even most people in historic times, and you’ll be reminded that sitting for long hours in front of a computer is a not a natural way of life. I started rebounding for weight loss and have now found it is helping with sciatica and other things too. Whatever exercise you like, do some! You can also exercise when you feel a craving… go outside for a walk to get away from tempation for a while, or just put on some music and dance. See my page Is Walking Good for Weight Loss?

6. Go cold turkey on cutting sugars out of your diet. This means white sugar, brown sugar, honey, agave syrup, molasses, high fructose corn syrup, etc. (Agave syrup has been widely promoted as good for you but it has more fructose than high fructose corn syrup. Not good.) This won’t be fun at first, but hang in there, and see the 30 Sugar Free Days section above. To avoid sugars thoroughly, you will have to read food labels.

7. If you blow it, start over.

More Thoughts

Now this isn’t just about losing weight; there are numerous reasons why eating sugar is bad for your body. Here’s a list of 143 of these reasons. So what I am going for now, knowing full well that there may be some ups and downs on this road, is to completely remove white sugar from what I normally eat. I do not intend to replace it with chemical sweeteners, though I am open to xylitol, stevia, and other natural sweeteners.

I have to admit that I was shocked when I did some research around the internet on this subject. Some examples of what surprised me:

• A lot of sites, including some of the main ones, recommend eating just a little sugar and then stopping, for example,  taking one piece of chocolate from a bar rather than eating the whole bar. I can’t do that! I can not eat any chocolate, but if I do get started, I find it hard to stop!
• Another thing that surprised me was seeing advice to use artificial sweeteners. I would have to say that I go with Doctor Mercola in saying that those things are worse than sugar; see this article on his site.
• I was also surprised to see quite a few recommendations for keeping dried fruit in the house. This one can be dangerous, and you have to know yourself. I can keep golden raisins (my favorite dried fruit) in the house now without pigging out, but when I was doing Phase 1 of the South Beach diet, and dried fruit wasn’t permitted for a couple of weeks, I had my husband hide them outside the house, out in his shop.

Another Good Website

This quote is from one of the most enjoyable  pages I found after a lot of websurfing. Clicking on the link takes you to the April 2009 archives, when  David Gillespie wrote 4 articles on how to give up sugar. He has a great way of putting things! Start at the bottom of the page for the first article, and work your way up. If this speaks to you, he has a membership site too.

Doing this article on how to stop eating sugar has gotten me excited about really beating the sugar addiction; I hope you get to that frame of mind too!

This article is How to Stop Eating Sugar from Gottaloseweight.com

What is Xylitol?

It is a naturally occurring substance which is derived from a variety of plants. It is falls into a category of sugar substitutes which includes sorbitol, mannitol, glycerol, maltitol, and erythritol — all words ending in ol, mostly ending in -itol. It’s too bad that the word “xylitol” sounds so chemical, when it is a natural substance!

It is sold in a form that resembles sugar, but it  has fewer calories: sugar has 15 calories in a teaspoon, while the xyitol calories in a teaspoon are 10. It is used in a wide variety of foods, including candies, and also in vitamins and medicines.

To find out more about what xylitol is and what it is used for, visit the FAQs at xylitol.org — by the way, this looks like an industry-sponsored website but I didn’t see who does it. Still, a lot of info there.

Xylitol Benefits

Here are some of the benefits of xylitol, compared to other sweeteners. As I was starting on a list, I found an excellent article listing ten xylitol benefits, with  references to other sites that were their resources so you can read the clinical evidence if you wish. Here are just the headings  of their list; click the link below to read the whole article; each benefit is explained clearly. I had no idea about some of the benefits, like helping to prevent ear infections.

Since that article covers the general health benefits of xylitol more that the weight loss benefits, I’ll just add that having fewer calories is significant over time, and that it  works well in low-carb diets.

Xylitol Side Effects

The only side effect I have read about is this: because xylitol and the others listed above are not digested completely in our bodies, some people may experience some diarrhea; bloating or flatulence can also occur. If this should happen to you, eat less of it and there is a good chance that will solve the problem. And over time, evidently we can build up a tolerance for more of it.

Suggested maximum amounts per day are varied. I researched a number of websites and couldn’t find agreement among them. It seems that the amount commonly used for dental benefits, under 8 grams or about 1/4 of an ounce a day is unlikely to cause diarrhea, but if you cook with it, and use over 40 grams (about 1.5 ounces), you might have a digestive reaction at first.

These amounts are for adults. For kids, use way less and monitor their reactions.

So basically, the side effects of xylitol are quite minimal, for humans. But it is terrible for dogs…

Xylitol is Harmful, Even Fatal, for Dogs

Xylitol and dogs is a very bad combination. Dogs absorb it much faster than we do and so consuming it can lead to a lot of symptoms, including liver damage and even death. If you think your dog might have consumed some, it’s time for an immediate visit to the veterinarian. And don’t give your pet any human food that might contain it.

Many human over-the-counter and prescription meds, for example, now contain xylitol. Quite a few of these have commonly been used with dogs, but now you need to be very diligent about asking and reading labels.

Xylitol vs Stevia

Stevia has no calories; xylitol has about 10 per teaspoon. Xylitol has dental benefits that stevia doesn’t. Xylitol has a blander taste than some forms of stevia, which can have something of a bitter after-taste. These two are in my mind the two healthiest sugar substitutes, or natural sweeeners, and I use them both.

Baking with Xylitol

Xylitol can be substituted for sugar in almost any baking recipe. Because it kills microorganisms, though, you can’t use it in yeast recipes because the yeast will not rise properly. Also, xylitol can absorb more moisture than sugar, so if you make something and it turns out a bit dry, next time try increasing the water or other liquid.

Here’s a recipe for some cookies. They are called “sugar cookies” but they only have Xylitol. I would use a whole-grain flour myself, as white flour is just empty calories. With all that oil, these are not going to be very low calorie, but coconut oil is good for you in small amounts.

There are more xylitol recipes on the same page:

Almond Sugar Cookies

2 c coconut oil

1 ½ c xylitol

1 tsp maple extract

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp almond extract

4 c all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tarter

Cream coconut oil and xylitol. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in extracts. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to creamed mixture. Drop by tablespoonfuls two inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Flatten with a glass dipped in xylitol. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

From www.epicdental.com (share this quote)

There is a xylitol cookbook at Amazonc; click on the image to find out about it.

If you don’t eat wheat or other flours with gluten in them, you can probably take any gluten-free recipe and substitute the xylitol for the sugar.

Where to Buy Xylitol

You can find it locally at health food stores and probably increasingly in regular grocery stores. Online, Amazon has a lot of xylitol products. Xylitol is used in mints, candy, chocolate, nasal sprays, and many other products. It’s particularly used in dental products, since it reduces bacteria.

Here are some links to Amazon xylitol categories:

Xylitol toothpaste

Xylitol candy

Xylitol nasal spray

Xylitol chocolate

… Guess I’ll leave it at that!

This article is Xylitol: Benefits, Uses, and a Few Side Effects from Gottaloseweight.com

I’m listing mercola.com in the FREE section of my website because it is so full of free information, but you can also buy nutritional supplements and other items there. Sometimes I do get supplements there. But mainly I like to read some of his articles. Of course, I form my own opinions but I think he does a real service in pointing out things that deserve discussion and evaluation. You can subscribe to the newsletter from his website by giving your email address.

Who Is Doctor Mercola?

Dr. Joseph Mercola  has a page about his education and background on his site at http://www.mercola.com/forms/background.htm With the permission of the site, I am quoting a selection from it:

And so, my qualifications: first and foremost, I am an osteopathic physician, also known as a DO. DOs are licensed physicians who, similar to MDs, can prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. DOs and MDs have similar training requiring four years of study in the basic and clinical sciences, and the successful completion of licensing exams. But DOs bring something extra to the practice of medicine. Osteopathic physicians practice a “whole person” approach, treating the entire person rather than just symptoms. Focusing on preventive health care, DOs help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don’t just fight illness, but help prevent it, too.I am also board-certified in family medicine and served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for five years. I am trained in both traditional and natural medicine.In November 2009, I was named the top Ultimate Wellness Game Changer by the Huffington Post, an honor that celebrates “100 innovators, visionaries, and leaders in 10 categories who are harnessing the power of new media to reshape their fields and change the world.” HuffPost readers voted me to the top to receive this special award…I also authored two New York Times Bestsellers, The Great Bird Flu Hoax and The No Grain Diet.

From www.mercola.com (share this quote)

For balance, here is the beginning of a somewhat unfriendly article about him at Wikipedia. You can click on the link to read the rest:

How popular is mercola.com? Here is an image from his site (the link takes you to it) that shows where it falls in the rankings as calculated by Alexa. By the way, if you go to that link, you can click on live links to a lot of other top health-related sites.

So if you like to read on  a variety of health topics, with plenty on weight loss, do check out Doctor Mercola!

This article is Doctor Mercola and His Informative Website from Gottaloseweight.com

10 Tips

[1] Plan on mostly eating lunches that you prepare at home and then either eat there or take to work or wherever you will be at lunch time. This way, you will have better portion control, will more easily avoid preservatives, and know you will be getting something you like to eat!

[2] If you do eat out sometimes, keep a strong plastic bag in your purse or pocket–I like the kind you can zip across–so that you can easily take leftovers with you without making a big deal about asking for a container. Then eat slowly, so you will be more likely to notice when you have had enough. Eating slowly while carrying on lively conversation with friends can be done, but it may take you a while to get the hang of it.

[3] Usually prepare your lunches the night before at home, so you don’t run out of time in the morning. Of course, you may want to add some lettuce in the morning since it could be pretty wilted if you added it to other foods the night before!

[4] Stay ahead on your grocery shopping, so you have healthy snacks and ingredients on hand.  Packaged string cheese is low-fat, for example.

[5] Have a salad for lunch, with some lean meat or hard-boiled eggs added for protein. This is my favorite lunch, day in and day out.

[6] What about leftovers from last night? Maybe in a pita pocket bread.

[7] Consider healthy smoothies for lunch.

[8] Good ol’ low-fat cottage cheese can be the basis of a lot of quick meals.

[9] So can hard-boiled eggs.

[1o] Avoid much in the way of carbs at lunch, if they make you more tired at all.

And Some Recipes

This tabouli salad is just one of a lot of quick lunch recipes at the site listed in the link at the end of the quote. I have no idea what Lebanese style bread is but you can do without any bread when you have tabouli, because it has plenty of wheat in it. This is great for lunches because it keeps well for a few days in the fridge. It’s good for brown bag lunches where you don’t have a fridge to put it in during the morning, too.

You can take any recipe like this and simplify it easily. For example, you do need the bulgur wheat and the tomatoes in the following recipe, but in my experience with making tabouli you could substitute what you had on hand for the other things: vinegar instead of lemon juice, skipping the parsley, mint, or onion if you didn’t have them or care for them. Olive oil is one of the healthiest, and the main one I use, but you could use another kind. for a more low calorie version, you could try half oil and half water.

Click on the link to check out the other recipes. (By the way, I only link to sites I like, and this one had quite a few other interesting weight loss articles.)

Here’s another group of recipe ideas, quick and easy. Click through to see the rest of the week, By the way, this is from a British site and over there they say courgette where we Americans say zuccini.

Monday

Spicy chicken and roasted vegetable tortilla wrap

The night before: pop chopped courgette, pepper, mushrooms and strips of chicken breast into a roasting tin.

Lightly brush with olive oil, paprika and ground chilli and put in the oven on a low heat until the chicken is well cooked and veg is tender.

In the morning: pack into a plastic container and take to work with a tortilla wrap and a handful of ready-washed salad leaves.

For just-made freshness, assemble your wrap at lunchtime.

Tuesday

Couscous mixed with chopped vegetables and fresh herbs

Low-fat yogurt

Couscous is as versatile as pasta and takes just five minutes to cook.

Try it with a variety of raw or cooked vegetables, chopped avocado, walnuts or beans and stir in plenty of fresh herbs.

From www.netdoctor.co.uk (share this quote)

So I hope these healthy lunch ideas for weight loss give you some great meals!

This article is Healthy Lunch Ideas for Weight Loss from Gottaloseweight.com

What about you, are you here with the same issue? I have ideas for both of us…

[1] Evaluate what you have been doing so far and how it has been going. In many cases, you have really been perfectly good.  Well, I have gotten more casual about how I follow the plan I had decided on. I know that the South Beach diet works, but I have been a little  too lazy, just cooking my usual recipes with more veggies thrown in, instead of trying any South Beach recipes. So evaluating what you have been doing–and NOT doing–is a great first step. Best done on paper!

[2] That leads into the next suggestion. Write down what you eat. Count calories or anything else only if you want to, but just keep a log going. Notice your snacking particularly. I got this idea from a blogger who does it faithfully; you can read about her in my article Keep Pounds Off Permanently.

[3] Think about whether you are dieting or are creating a healthy way of eating for the low term. If you have gotten tired of dieting, maybe you just need to take a short break before resuming more vigorously.

[4] Exercise! How are you doing on that? It becomes more important as you get further along in your weight loss process.

What is a Weight Loss Plateau?

Here is a bit from the Mayo Clinic which explains it:

This is a tiny part of an excellent two-page article. Click  on the Mayo Clinic link above to read the rest of it.

In my case, I wondered if my metabolism had dropped in the way that this article  from a fitness website describes:

But I kinda doubt that’s my problem, as my weight loss has been quite slow, on purpose to avoid this. Also, I can pinpoint some changes I need–more careful eating, more exercise. I’ll blog later about how it goes.

What about you? What weight loss plateau breaker will you try?

This article is Need a Weight Loss Plateau Breaker? from Gottaloseweight.com

It seems that this could be happening.. For one thing, something called H. pylori is normally resident but taking a course of antibotics will  cut it out or way down. That can result in the stomach not secreting a hormone that tells us we are full and so we keep eating.

Here is a snippet from an article in the New York Times that explains this further:

You can read the rest of the article by clicking on the link.

So what is the take-away for us as we do our best with our meals and our health? Go easy on the antiobiotics when you can, eat yogurt, maybe take probiotics to encourage the helpful bacteria. Those are my best guesses, but I’m glad the research continues!

This article is Widespread Antibiotic Use May Lead to Obesity from Gottaloseweight.com

Walking isn’t the only thing you might do with your dogs. Throwing a ball will exercise the dog more than it will burn your calories, but if you have one of the breeds–like a Border Collie–the dog will need a lot of exercise! You could set up a little agility course. If your dog is smaller, you could exercise indoors to music while doing something with the dog too, like rolling a ball for the dog to chase.

Here’s a bit from a good article at the New York Times.

Several studies now show that dogs can be powerful motivators to get people moving. Not only are dog owners more likely to take regular walks, but new research shows that dog walkers are more active over all than people who don’t have dogs.

One study even found that older people are more likely to take regular walks if the walking companion is canine rather than human.

“You need to walk, and so does your dog,” said Rebecca A. Johnson, director of the human-animal interaction research center at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. “It’s good for both ends of the leash.”

From well.blogs.nytimes.com (share this quote)

The article goes on to say a lot of interesting things about who loses weight.

 

A Book on How to Lose Weight with Your Dog

With obesity increasing, over 2/3 of Americans and about half of all dogs are overweight or obese. This book is written to help dog lovers of all ages to get fit with their dogs. It’s written by a veterinarian and a nurse who is a researcher and is full of ideas to help you and your dog lose weight.

Don’t have a dog? Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound: How You and Your Dog Can Lose Weight, Stay Fit, and Have Fun Together also touches on  how to adopt a dog from a shelter.

 

 

 Another Good Article on Weight Loss with Your Dog

 

Clipped from: lifehealth101.com (share this clip)

 

This article is Lose Weight with Your Dog from Gottaloseweight.com

As I have been reading widely on weight loss maintenance as well as on all aspects of healthy weight loss, I have been reflecting a lot on how I am going to go about preventing weight gain when I reach my goal this time. I have not been dramatically successful at keeping weight off previously, but this time I really intend to keep those pounds off and stay at my ideal weight! So both these articles were timely.

How to maintain a good weight? By healthy eating, combining both diet and exercise into a plan that works. Physical activity is clearly important in staying at a goal weight, along with eating consciously and slowly. See below for more tips and tricks on staying slim once you get there.

First, here’s the news:

The Australian study was reported in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine:

Clipped from: www.nejm.org (share this clip)

You would have to subscribe or pay a fee to read the whole article, but you can read the summary on that page. (Actually, the link at the quote higher up on this page explains it more clearly.) In a nutshell, the researchers studied 50 overweight or obese people who did not have diabetes, and they found that hormonal changes persist for at least a year after people lose weight–changes that would make them more likely to eat more. This was useful in prehistoric times. Not now!

The National Weight Control Registry (link in the quote below) is an American organization of people who have successfully kept the pounds off. Here is a bit from their site about how the success has come:

There is variety in how NWCR members keep the weight off. Most report continuing to maintain a low calorie, low fat diet and doing high levels of activity.

78% eat breakfast every day.

75% weigh themselves at least once a week.

62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.

90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

From www.nwcr.ws (share this quote)

I have read several places around the web the encouraging news that many people actually find it easier to keep the weight off than to lose it in the first place.

This article is Keeping the Weight Off: Problems and Solutions from the News from Gottaloseweight.com

Ask a friend for help.

Now this is not quite as easy as it sounds. You want a friend or family member to help you but the reality is that most of your friends, and most of your relatives, wouldn’t be good for the task. Who could you find? Let’s see…

First, rule out everyone you know who is overweight or obese and isn’t doing anything about it. They are more likely to drag you down than to give you a hand. Have you ever gone to a family gathering (Thanksgiving is the worst) where your relatives sighed about not losing weight? Or if you had lost some weight, nobody gave you any encouragement? Bummer.

Then think of the people you know who are in the process of losing weight. There are some good candidates here. But if they are totally devoted to the weight loss plan they are using, you might have to use the same diet or workout to get their genuine support. That might be fine, might not be; think about it. Still, make a list of possible friends here.

Next would be people who tend to be helpful souls but aren’t actually all that aware of the issues involved in losing weight. They are probably relatively normal in weight but might still be a good help.  Add these people to your list.

How can your friend help you?

There are a variety of ways. Here are a few:

• They could be a sounding board for ideas for how you are going to count calories, eat more protein, add an exercise program, join or even become a fat burning furnace! In other words, someone who likes to think about possibilities. They could help you decide between Weight Watchers, ediets.com, the South Beach Diet, and other programs, for example.
• They could be someone to turn to when you need a pep talk.
• They could exercise with you. Maybe you could go for walks together and talk about your weigh loss plan.

How can you help your friend?

With everyone being so busy, it’s only fair that you offer your friend something in exchange for the weight loss support you want. It could be giving them a hand with a project they are doing. If they are also losing weight, make sure that you give as much support as you get.

It may be something completely different. What are you good at that is your gift? We all have a few things like this.

Asking Your Friend

We Americans do not always find it easy to ask for help! Choose a good time, and go for it, whether by phone, email, or in person. Maybe they will say yes, or maybe you will have to give them time to think. Ultimately you might need to ask someone else. Tell them how much time you think it would take, and see what they say.

So  getting help from a friend is one good and free way to lose weight.

This article is A Free Way to Lose Weight: Get a Friend’s Help from Gottaloseweight.com