You can’t change diet saboteurs. You can only change how you react to them.

Are you a passive communicator?

Passive communicators have a difficult time letting others know how they feel. They may be uncomfortable speaking out. They avoid all possible conflict. They let others come first. The message they are sending is “I don’t really count”. If you are a passive communicator it is imperative that you develop strategies for dealing with diet saboteurs.

Strategies:

Just say No - when offered food that doesn’t fit into your weight loss plan, simply say “no thanks”. No explanation is needed. You don’t need to feel guilty about not accepting.

Keep a Journal – look for patterns or situations that trigger you to eat unwanted food. Develop strategies for dealing with the person or situation. Keep a list of strategies in your journal or daily planner.

Leave it sit or throw it away – In my own life, I have plenty of saboteurs.   “Have a piece of cake, it will make you feel better”.  I must be strong enough and confident in my decision to either let the cake sit or throw it in the trash. I tell them right up front – No.  But if they insist and leave the cake in front of me, I throw it away. And I don’t feel guilty – No means no in my world.

Surround yourself with a positive support system – it’s a proven fact that if you surround yourself with a positive support system you will have more success in dealing with the situations and people who sabotage your plans. Your support system will assist you in developing strategies and rally around your efforts. Do you have a positive support system?

Control your environment - Usually our environment will dictate what we eat. Make a conscious effort to have a plan in place before stepping into that particular environment. You know what I’m talking about: The office, a party, your in-laws house, a bar-b-q. Write out a plan of action before you go. Share your plan of action with your strongest supporters and then report back to let them know the outcome.

Remember:

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels. And if you fall off the wagon and succumb to your food weaknesses: pick yourself up, dust yourself off, grab a carrot and start over. Do it now, don’t wait until tomorrow.

Diana Young is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator who uses a science-based approach to weight management and diabetes. Diana has helped thousands of people reach their weight goals.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin

Meal Planning seems an easy enough task, but if you ask people if they plan their meals in advance for the week, the majority of them will say “No”.  Why not?  Why isn’t meal planning a priority?  Some people say they don’t know what they will “feel like eating” on a certain day, others say they like to be spontaneous, others simply admit that they are not organized enough.

What happens when we DON’T plan out our week in advance?

• We skip breakfast and stall our metabolism
• We buy lunch because we forget to bring it or don’t have time to make it
• We find we are missing certain ingredients when we go to make a meal
• We are tired at the end of the day and, when dinner is not planned, it can lead to grabbing the first thing we see or ordering in or picking up Fast Food or making poor choices
• We don’t eat a balanced diet with enough servings of fruits and vegetables
• We spend more money than we should on food
• We feel guilty about not being more organized
• We fail to meet our weight loss and health goals
• We are more stressed

What happens when we DO plan out our week in advance?

• We eat breakfast and rev up our metabolism
• We bring a healthy lunch to work
• We have all the ingredients we need to make our meals because they were on our shopping list
• We make dinner quickly and easily because everything is ready to throw together
• We save money
• You will eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables
• We feel proud of ourselves for being so organized
• We are closer to meeting our weight loss and health goals
• We are less stressed

Making out a menu with a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners allows you to make an accurate shopping list to make sure you have everything you need to prepare each of these meals.  This will relieve a great deal of stress.

All you need to do is:

• Make a weekly calendar and plan out your meals.
• Make a shopping list based on that menu.
• Check your cupboards and fridge to see what you have and what you need.
• Get your shopping done quickly and easily by sticking to the list
• Organize your food for the week
• Prepare lunches in advance
• Chop any vegetables that you will need for meals during the week
• Put snacks in individual containers
• Season or marinate foods, if required

By succeeding at preparing, you are preparing to succeed

Linda Miner

Registered Nutritional Counselor

RNC, CHN, RSNA, CMTA, BA

This past Christmas a bunch of friends were attending a Christmas party that was about an hour away so we had to drive.  I agreed to be the designated driver.  At first I was bummed out that I didn’t get to drink and join in the fun.  But as the evening progressed, while sipping my San Pellegrino, I noticed how my friends were turning into idiots the more they drink.  It actually became quite entertaining to watch them say and do foolish things.  It made me wonder if I behaved that way when I drink.  I witnessed that the more people drank, the more they ate.   I also noticed that since I was drinking sparkling water, my appetite was surprisingly diminished.  In the end, this was a very pleasurable party for me because I didn’t feel disgusted at the end of the evening from drinking and eating too much, I learned a lot about social behavior while drinking, and I didn’t suffer the next day.

As you think about attending parties this summer, why not offer to be the designated driver and see if you experience the same thing that I did.  I can tell you that after doing this once, I now regularly offer to be the designated driver because the end result was so much more pleasurable for me.  Here are some other tips to help you through the party season.

1. Go for the Veggie Plate with Dip and load up on that before starting in on the other offerings.  The fiber in raw vegetables will help you to fill up quickly and the antioxidants will help undo some of the damage from the other choices.  Celery is an excellent natural diuretic.
2. Try to eat some protein before you start or while drinking alcohol.  Since alcohol is comprised of carbohydrates and can elevate blood sugar levels quite quickly, the protein will help slow down the digestion and stabilize blood sugar levels.
3. Avoid anything that isn’t “Special”.  Potato chips, for example, are NOT special, you can have them anytime!!!
4. For every alcoholic drink you consume, match it with a full glass of water.  Dehydration is the main cause of hangovers.  This will also help keep you full and prevent overindulging.
5. If you are baking goodies, try adding ¼ – ½ cup of ground flax seed to your recipe.  You don’t have to add any extra liquid because the Omega 3 fats in the flax provide enough extra moisture.  Your goodies will taste better, nuttier, have more fiber and not spike your blood sugar as much.
6. Don’t fall into the “oh, just one bite won’t hurt” trap.  You already know that one bite will lead to 10 or more.

Have a safe and healthy summer.  And remember, DON’T Drink and Drive – Arrive Alive!!!!

• Messaging
• Tracking member success (of which there are many)
• Inputing tracker information
• Program curriculum to focus on weekly topics (this week is stress and eating)

More on the updates here.  Take a look and let us know what you think.

iChangers — Get 5 Friends to join iChange before the end of the first day of summer

We just received a new shipment of iChange T-Shirts.  They come in two cuts: the standard T-Shirt cut (shown) and a fitted, shorter sleeve cut.

Earn one for yourself by recruiting 5 of your friends to join iChange before the end of the first day of summer (midnight on June 21).

After your friends have signed up, just send us their names or iChange user names, your T-Shirt size, and your address to jen@ichange.com.

One of her first questions was interesting:  ”What do all of your successful members have in common?”

The answer is that nearly every one of our members that has seen success — whether it is losing weight, lowering blood pressure, or simply feeling better — has built a strong personal connection with someone else on the site.  Those that are trying to manage themselves without help, have been limited in their success.

The fact that people are more likely to lose weight when they are accountable to someone else isn’t surprising. Weight Watchers built a large business off of the same idea.  But the fact that online relationships with people whom you will never meet in person leads to the same type of success (or even higher level of success) is exciting.  It shows that Facebook-type relationships can extend into areas that can help people make important life changes.  Online relationships will become a critical part of how we manage our health and well being in the future.

Susanne had some great suggestions about how to better encourage relationships in the online environment, touching on how she has helped train and connect Lululemon employees around the US and Canada.  Thanks Susanne!

With  the reported health benefits associated with wine, it’s easy to justify a glass or two with dinner.  But wine contains a lot of sugar and alcohol, which equals calories.  A lot of them.

Depending on the wine, a single 5 oz serving will contain anywhere from 100 to 250 calories.  If your serving size is bigger, which is likely if you are using the larger glasses that have become popular in recent years, then your calorie intake is going to be that much more.  My belly-slapping friend, who was sipping a Cabernet out of a large Riedel glass, probably only had two glasses at dinner that evening.  Even though the glass looked less than 1/2 full, each glass probably contained at least 7 oz.  In total, he consumed anywhere between 350 and 550 calories on top of his normal food intake for the day.   At that rate, several times a week, it won’t take long before he’s packing on pounds.  From a calorie standpoint, he might as well be eating an extra Big Mac after dinner every night.

I love wine with dinner and am a big believer in not only the health benefits, but the social benefits that come from sharing a bottle of wine with friends.  But if you are trying to lose weight, wine may be your enemy.

If you want to learn more about how wine, and alcohol in general can fit into a weight loss plan, you can always ask our nutrition specialists on iChange.  It’s free.

The Weight Loss Stone Age (before 1960).  Prior to the founding of Weight Watchers and the emergence of many of the popular diet programs we know today, the concept of dieting and weight loss was at best, unsophisticated, and at worst, absurd.  If you needed to lose weight, you were pretty much on your own, or in extreme cases, you would receive help from the family doctor.  There were a few “fad” diets that started as early in the 1800’s, many of which are laughable today (although many of today’s diets are still laughable).  Some favorites:

• Alcohol Diet.  References to diets go as far back as 1087, when French Royal William the Conqueror found himself so obese he couldn’t mount a horse.  His solution?  Lock himself in his room with only alcohol to consume.  He was able to remount his horse but reportedly later died of abdominal injuries when he slipped from his saddle.
• Vinegar Diet.  Popularized by British poet Lord Byron in 1820, the soaking-food-in-vinegar diet helped him lose a reported 60 pounds.
• Cigarette Diet.  In 1925, Lucky Strikes cigarettes launched a campaign for smokers to “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.”
• Tapeworm Diet. In the 1950’s there were reports of a pill that contained a tapeworm, with the idea being that you can eat as much as you want as long as you let your personal tapeworm digest your food for you.  One reported dieter, opera singer Maria Callas, lost 65 pounds on the diet.

Support Systems  (Started with Weight Watchers in 1961). In the 1940’s and 1950’s the concept of group counseling and support emerged as a highly effective means of helping individuals with health-related issues.  The Mayo Clinic began using group therapy for patients and Alcoholics Anonymous emerged as a gold standard for addiction recovery.  Weight Watchers adapted the support system model into their group weight loss programs in the 1960’s.  Since then, millions of people have participated in Weight Watchers groups, and it continues to be a $1 billion/year business for the company.

Popular  Diet Books (starting in late 1960’s). The 1960’s saw the emergence of diets that look familiar to us today.  The low-carb dieting fad became popular with the Stillman Diet (published in 1967), and followed up  in 1972 with Dr. Robert Atkins’ book,  Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution. While moderately popular at the time, Dr. Atkins’ book was roundly criticized in the medical community for a lack of scientific evidence.  Of course, many doctors embraced his theories several decades later.  Other popular diets included the Scarsdale Diet (1978) and The Cambridge Diet (1980s).

Self-Managed Web Programs (starting in late 1990’s).  Over the last 10-12 years we’ve seen amazing growth in online programs that make dieting a more convenient exercise.  Many programs offer online meal plans as well as online trackers to record and monitor progress.  Some have migrated to mobile devices giving people the ability to track progress on the run.  Although Weight Watchers was founded on the principal of group interaction, their popular Weight Watchers Online has focused on giving individuals tools to manage themselves.

The Next Generation:  Virtual Support Systems (today). We believe the next big wave in weight loss, and health management in general, will be to use technology to help people connect with practitioners, counselors, and support groups to get the help they need to be successful.  Weight Watchers revolutionized the offline version of group support for weight loss in the 1960’s which continues to be effective to this day.  But having to go to a remote strip mall every Tuesday at 7pm for your weigh-in and group meeting seems out-of-date in an age where technology can help bring the support to you.   Our belief is that as individuals have become more comfortable socializing with others online, it only makes sense that they will quickly evolve to the point that receiving advice and support for health-related issues will become second nature.  We hope that iChange will be a leader in this next phase of evolution.

Who needs bread?

KFC just launched the TurDucken* of fast food sandwiches — the KFC Double Down.  I was light headed just reading through the ingredients:  ”two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!”.

It never occurred to me to bookend my bacon and cheese sandwich in fried chicken.  It makes me question whether bread has a role in any of my future sandwiches.

According to the KFC website, the basic sandwich is 540 calories, 29 g fat, and a whopping 1380 g sodium, over 1/2 the daily recommended maximum.  Combine it with a side of KFC potato wedges and you’ll be right at the daily limit.

Here’s what I want to know:  can we tax the Double Down to help pay for the increased cost in healthcare that will directly result from eating this sandwich?

*TurDucken is a small deboned chicken stuffed in a duck which is stuffed in a turkey.   A flavorful Thanksgiving alternative to a boring old fashioned turkey.