Why Isn't This Working???

I subscribe to Family Circle magazine. It's one of my favorites along with Better Homes and Gardens. I've never been into entertainment and gossip rags, I don't particularly care who's dating who, who's pregnant, who's cheating, what the latest scandal is, or anything else like that. Now, I will admit that an infrequent guilty pleasure is Weekly World News. Is that still being published? I enjoy the hilarious stories about aliens and the like, the writing is quite clever and is littered with puns.

But back to Family Circle...in the August edition I came across a very interesting article: "8 Reasons Your Diet Isn't Working". Here are some excerpts (Be sure to buy the magazine for the full article):

Reason 1:
You follow the plan that worked for your friend.
Forget about the latest fad diet. Even if your best friend swears she found the secret to weight loss, it might not work for you. Truth is, different methods work for different people.

"The trick to losing weight and keeping it off is finding a diet you like - that way you'll be able to stick with it," says Elizabeth Ward, M.D. author of "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the New Food Pyramids".

Reason 2:
You eat a small breakfast.
When it comes to your morning meal, size matters - a lot. A recent study found that eating a substantial breakfast can help you lose some serious weight. Ninety-four women were put on a low-calorie diet. But half the women had a big breakfast (610 calories) and the other half a more modest (290 calories) morning meal. The surprising discovery: in just eight months the larger-breakfast group shed, on average, 40 pounds, while their smaller-breakfast counterparts dropped a mere 10 pounds.

Aim for roughly 500 calories. A breakfast made up of a whole-wheat bagel with a tablespoon of trans-fat free margarine, a scrambled egg and an 8-ounce glass of calcium-fortified O.J., or two slices of whole-wheat toast topped with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a sliced banana fit the bill. Not hungry in the A.M.? It's likely you're eating too much or too late at night. To get your appetite in sync, close your kitchen by 8 P.M.

Reason 3:
You're clueless about calorie counting.
Overeating during meals isn't the only way to pack on weight. Did you know that nibbling on just one extra slice of cheese a day translates to 10 extra pounds a year? Add on that one can of regular soda you treat yourself to every afternoon (just for a quick pick-me-up) and you're up another 15 pounds. Every bite and swallow counts, not just the ones you take when you're sitting down to a meal.

Get a grip on what you're really eating by keeping a food diary. "Food logs are perfect for people who are all-day snackers," says Sari Greaves, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Diabetic Association in New York City. "When you write down what you eat you become much more aware of what you put in your mouth, helping you identify problem areas in your diet." In fact, a 2008 study found that recording what you eat can double the amount of weight you lose.

Reason 4:
You skip meals.
"Many women go without breakfast or lunch because they have a special occasion later or overindulged the night before," says Ward. "Then by 3 P.M. all hell breaks loose." The proof: A USDA Economic Research Service report released earlier this year found that stretching the time between meals from four to five hours causes you to overeat. Waiting six hours makes matters even worse. When you finally do eat, you'll consume substantially more and also choose less healthy options.

"Try to go no more than four hours without having a little something to keep you satisfied," says Elizabeth Smythe, R.D., president of the New York State Dietetic Association. "That way you're not setting yourself up to overdo it at the next meal."

Reason 5:
You load up on superfoods.
Don't be duped. Even good-for-you items like nuts, avocados and dried fruit can undo your diet if you consume too much of them. "To lose weight you must eat fewer calories than you burn," says Greaves. "It's that simple. It's total calories - not the type of calories - that makes or breaks your weight loss efforts.

No matter how carefully you choose your foods, you still must practice portion control.

Reason 6:
You're cancelling out the benefit of your workouts.
Think that hour-long run entitles you to a couple extra slices of pizza? Not so fast. "So many of us rationalize, 'I just did all this exercises, and now I'm entitled to a little splurge,' but it doesn't work that way," says Smythe. The reason? We underestimate how many calories we eat yet overestimate the number we burn exercising. So if you think you've earned a snack after your workout, think again.

If you're genuinely hungry after the gym, by all means go ahead and grab something. The ideal foods for refueling combine protein and carbs, such as 8 ounces of low-fat yogurt with fruit, or 2 tablespoons hummus with 3 whole-grain crackers. "Reward yourself for exercise but not with food," suggests Smythe. Instead, after a certain number of workouts, schedule a manicure or movie marathon Saturday.

Reason 7:
You watch what you eat only Monday to Friday.
"During the week our lives are usually scheduled and organized and so is the way we eat," says Greaves. On Saturday and Sunday that structure goes out the window. And so do our diets, according to a 2008 study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. When researchers tracked dieters' eating habits, they found that people ate the most on Saturday and Sunday (at ate more fat on Saturday than any other day of the week), bringing their weight-loss efforts to a screeching halt.

Make a game plan that allows you to sensibly splurge. Before the weekend starts (say, Thursday night), think about what you'll be doing and where you'll be eating. Then plan where you want to spend your calories and where you want to save. That does not mean skipping some meals. Rather, cut here and there to leave some wiggle room for your favorite weekend indulgences.

Reason 8:
You don't plan for stress.
Even the best diet doesn't account for insane deadlines, fights with your husband or run-ins with your teen. Yet for many of us, eating is the way we unwind at the end of a hard day.

Go ahead and indulge. "The stress of trying to fight it is worse than just giving in," says Ward. Having a small treat like a mini candy bar, single serving container of pudding or low-fat ice cream bar right after dinner can keep you from spending the whole night fighting the urge to splurge. But that's only half the battle. You need other outlets for stress too. Make sure you get some exercise during the day or talk to a friend when you're frazzled - you'll burn off steam and be less likely to want to soothe yourself with snacks.

Criminey! I need to get back on track!!! Talk about a huge eye-opener!

All-or-Nothing Thinking

As I've gotten older, I've come to realize that I suffer from all-or-nothing thinking. A friend of mine once told me that I was a perfectionist, and I laughed until she explained that I was the type of perfectionist who completely gave up trying at all if I couldn't do it perfectly.

What a bondage! Perfection or nothing at all...and so I ended up doing nothing at all, seemingly giving up while anger and frustration seethed deep inside.

This thinking has affected every area of my life, keeping me from trying new things (if I can't do it right the first time, I wasn't going to do it at all), keeping me from being myself with people I didn't know well (hey, if they don't know who I really am, their rejection won't mean as much), keeping the house clean (it didn't stay clean, and I was easily overwhelmed so it was easier to ignore it than to fight what seemed to be a losing battle), and more obviously, this thinking kept me from living a healthy life.

All or nothing...I didn't give myself room to make mistakes, to recover from those mistakes and move on, learning from them. I buried my anger and disappointment in food and an attitude of "why bother?" It wouldn't make a difference anyway.

Over the past few years I've slowly been learning to let go of this and to take those risks and make mistakes. The truth is, I don't have to be perfect to be liked, and even to be loved. I simply need to do my best and give myself grace when I mess up.

Applying this truth to my physical health is giving me the room to live my life and the freedom to make those healthy choices.

I found this article on About.com's Weight Loss Channel. I found it to be extremely helpful and hope it's the same for you :)

5 Steps to Banish All-or-Nothing Thinking
Take the middle ground when it comes to losing weight.
By Jennifer R. Scott, About.com

When you want to lose a significant amount of weight, it's easy to fall into all-or-nothing thinking ...

You rationalize: 1. ) You have to follow a super-strict diet to succeed and/or 2.) If you fall off the wagon and eat junk for a day or two, you've blown it altogether.

This train of thought can be very detrimental to your weight loss efforts, but it's all too easy to fall into. So what's a "loser" to do?

Step One: Loosen Up
The first way to avoid all-or-nothing thinking is to shake the idea that you must follow an extremely restrictive diet to lose weight.

The fact is, most people who successfully maintain weight loss don't diet. They make healthy, permanent lifestyle changes, such as cutting back on calories, practicing portion control, and reigning in emotional eating.

Successful "losers" focus on weight management, not just weight loss.

Step Two: Give In... Just a Little
Severely limiting your food intake or completely cutting out your favorite foods sets you up to binge. Temptation becomes much less powerful when you can have just a taste of something "bad" now and again instead of telling yourself it's off limits for good.

This can be daunting at first. But you will become accustomed to satisfying your craving with a smaller amount of your trigger foods and you'll learn "when to say when".

Step Three: Stop Saying the "D Word"
We "go on" and "go off" diets after every holiday season; we say "I start my Monday." only to be off it by the weekend. Nobody says "I start my new way of life Monday." But that's exactly what we need to do. An effective diet isn't just for Christmas, it's for life.

To find a way-of-eating that works for the long haul, be leery of any plan that restricts entire food groups or that relies on one type of food (e.g. soup, pre-prepared entrees) as its mainstay.

We need variety not only for nutritional reasons, but also to satisfy ourselves. Believe me, because I've been there: Go on a diet that requires you to eat foods you don't like -- or completely omits your favorites -- and you will eventually dread every meal.

Step Four: Forgive Yourself
So ... you've decided to give Step Two a try and allow yourself your favorite treat, chocolate chip cookies. But you don't stop at a couple ... you eat half the package. Then, for breakfast tomorrow morning ... you polish off the other half.

Have you completely blown your diet again? Does that mean it’s time to give up altogether? Do you think, "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this." and go back to old eating habits?

Not allowing yourself to make mistakes is the worst mistake you can make. Seriously.

Here's some food for thought: All-or-nothing thinking is a way to let yourself off the hook. It's an escape route. ("Oh, now I've screwed up. Glad I don't have to bother anymore".).

There's an old saying that goes, "No matter how far along you are down the wrong path, it's never too late to turn back.". So don't think just because you made bad choices today, you can't start over tomorrow.

It sounds trite, but every day truly is a new beginning. You can't erase last night’s binge, but you can aim for a much healthier today!

Step 5: Celebrate Small Victories
Go ahead: Praise yourself for the small challenges you surmount; you won't give up so easily if you do.

Yes, choosing 2-percent over whole milk is a victory. Doing an exercise video on Friday is a triumph, even if it’s the first day you've exercised this week.

Take it easy on yourself as you're learning how to be a new, improved, healthier you. After all, you're only human... a soon-to-be-much-lighter human!

The Importance of Enjoyment

In this journey to living a healthier life, it's important to enjoy it. Changing my eating habits isn't about putting myself into a prison, locking the door, throwing away the keys and then living on bread, water and overcooked vegetables for the rest of my life and being forced to do 5,000 situps a day. It's about finding enjoyment and pleasure in the healthy choices.

Yesterday I started phase 2 of the South Beach diet, and began adding a slice of sprouted whole grain toast to my breakfasts.

I love sprouted whole grain bread because it has a dense, slightly rough texture and a very nutty flavor. Toasting it enhances the nuttiness of the grains, and I eat it slowly, savoring each bite. It also smells really good when it's toasted. It's a wonderful sensory experience.

Another food I really enjoy is cucumber. I slice them into strip and have them as part of my snacks. The crisp cool sweetness is refreshing, and I feel healthier eating it.

It's important when changing your eating habits to choose foods you enjoy. If you're eating food you can't stand, you won't succeed. Make healthy choices and savor them, eating slowly, taking time to enjoy the aromas. Use new seasonings, try new vegetables and fruits, wander the health food section of your favorite grocery store or visit a local natural foods co-op and try something new.

Finding an exercise that you enjoy is also important. Again, if you're forcing yourself to do something that you don't like to do and that feels like hard labor, you'll end up quitting.

I enjoy walking. I love to be outdoors and to see the beautiful homes around my neighborhood. I live in a charming older neighborhood, not expensive, but with lots of cute homes. Seeing the different styles and landscaping is fun, and I also enjoy looking for neighborhood cats sleeping on porches, sitting in little nooks and crannies and lounging in odd little corners observing the world.

Sometimes I meet up with friends and we walk around one of the oldest and prettiest parks in Sacramento - McKinley Park. We laugh and chat, all the while enjoying the green grass, the beautiful trees, other people laughing, jogging, walking, playing tennis, all the things people do at parks. We walk by a beautiful rose garden (the site for many outdoor weddings) as well as a pond surrounding a small lush island where the ducks and geese congregate.

Being able to enjoy the walk keeps me motivated to continue and to stick with it. I look forward to those afternoons with friends, taking in the fresh air and lovely neighborhood.

If you'd prefer to stay inside and work out, join Netflix and try out different workout DVDs until you find one or two you really enjoy, then go buy them...and use them regularly :)

~ His Sweet Gypsy Rose

It's Not a Diet, It's a Life Changing Commitment; Food Journaling

An important thing for me to keep in mind is that this is not a diet, it's a life-changing commitment. It took years to get to this point, and I won't be seeing dramatic results overnight. It's vital that I keep this perspective in mind as I hit plateaus or don't lose as much as I'd expected in any particular week.

I also need to constantly evaluate what I'm eating as well as how much I'm eating and make adjustments as necessary.

One step in making this life change is keeping a food journal. I'd blown that idea off before, but after reading this article (The Single Best Way to Lose Weight) on WebMD.com I'm realizing it's something I need to do.

The article states:

Studies show that a journal doesn't just aid weight loss — it turbo-charges it. When researchers from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research followed more than 2,000 dieters who were encouraged to record meals and snacks, they found that the single best predictor of whether a participant would drop weight was whether the person kept a food diary. It trumped exercise habits, age, and body mass index. The number of pounds people lost was directly related to the number of days they wrote in their log.

If keeping a food journal means a higher possibility of successful weight loss and maintenance, then I am going to do this.

Why this works? Check out these reasons from the above linked article (be sure to go to that article for more information, these are excerpts only)

Here are five more reasons to start a journal today — even if you swore off diaries in middle school.

1. You'll get a reality check about how many calories you consume.
Americans typically underestimate their daily intake by about 25 percent, reports nutritionist Carrie Latt Wiatt, author of Portion Savvy.

2. You'll cut back on between-meal munching.
Make a mental checklist of what you ate yesterday. Sure, you can probably remember breakfast, lunch, and dinner — but what about that mini Snickers you snatched from your coworker's stash? Or that spoonful of mashed potatoes you took off your husband's plate?

It's easy to overlook bites, licks, and tastes (known as "BLTs" to professionals). But that's a huge mistake — there are 25 calories, on average, in each mouthful. Translation: Six little bites a day add up to around 15 extra pounds a year.

3. You'll discover where your diet detours.
"I thought I ate a lot of vegetables — it seemed like I was constantly cooking spinach, broccoli, or Brussels sprouts," says Melissa Smith, a 32-year-old mom from Omaha who's been keeping a food diary for the past 18 months. "But looking back over a few weeks of my journal, I was surprised to realize that I was only eating veggies once or twice a week." So she made salads a regular part of dinner and noticed that it helped her eat less of her entrée. Her analysis and follow-up action paid off: She's lost more than 27 pounds.

A balanced diet is the key to weight loss, says Suzanne Farrell, R.D., who owns Cherry Creek Nutrition in Denver. "Whole grains, low-fat dairy, green vegetables, orange veggies, beans, nuts — science shows that we need to eat these regularly to reach a healthy body weight. So when I flip through my clients' journals, I always look for what I'm not seeing."

4. You'll learn why you pig out.
Experts suggest that, to help break bad habits, you record not only what you eat, but the circumstances that prompt you to eat. For example, maybe you indulge in more sweets at work because you sit close to the vending machine. Maybe you have a milkshake several times a week because you pass Wendy's on the way home. Or maybe every time you worry about money, you retreat into the kitchen for chips.

When you begin to notice these patterns, you can figure out ways to change them.

5. You'll see real results — quickly.
Your food diary can be as revealing as the one you kept in fifth grade. For example, to get a glimpse into how much you've improved your diet, compare the entries in week one (Twinkie-filled) to week four or five (ideally, veggie-filled). You can also discover which decisions translated into pounds lost — for instance, that week you had fish for dinner twice might've helped you lose weight.

How to keep a food journal? The article has some great ideas:

Choose Your Medium
If you're using pen and paper, buy a regular spiral notebook. Or go for a pre-organized book like the DietMinder. Computer addicts should check out online journals, such as myfooddiary.com ($9 per month) and nutrihand.com (free for a basic plan; $10 per month for extras). If you can't live without your PDA, visit weightbydate.com and download the software (starting at $19).

Start Recording
The crucial info to write down: the time you ate, what you ate, and how much you ate. Make a habit of jotting notes right after you eat. "If you wait until the end of the day, it's too easy to leave things out," warns Suzanne Farrell, R.D. Tracking your diet online? Remember to take paper with you to restaurants, so you can write down every ingredient and calculate its nutritional content afterward.

Get Personal
Customize your diary so it reflects the info that's most useful to you. For example, if you're someone who eats whenever food is in front of you, create columns in your journal to rate how hungry you were before and afterward. If you snack your way through hard days, add a column to describe how you were feeling when you ate. Trying to figure out when you're most drawn to junk food? Record where you were when you indulged and what was going on at the time. Also, if you're trying to break a specific habit, like scarfing down ice cream at night, create a column for that, so you can give yourself a star for each day you resist the urge.

Be Honest
Include every single bite, lick, and taste (anything larger than a crumb counts). And don't forget to keep track of your sips. Even the most diligent diarists often forget to include the glass of white wine they had at dinner (120 calories) and their 3 p.m. can of Coke (155 calories).

Find Your Favorites
Counting calories is easier for creatures of habit: If you have a bowl of cereal for breakfast almost every morning or a turkey sandwich three times a week, you won't have to look up the number each time.

Keep Your Diary Close
"I'm forgetful, so I always need to put the journal where I can see it — on my kitchen table, on my desk at work. I carry it a lot in my hand, too, as a reminder," says Melissa Smith, 32, of Omaha, who lost 25 pounds keeping a food diary.

Examine the Evidence
No matter how diligent you are, a food log won't help in the behavior-changing department if you don't analyze it. At night, sit down and calculate how many calories you consumed. Tally up what food groups you're eating, and make adjustments. (A big plus of online tools is that they do a lot of the analysis for you, totaling everything with a click of a button and often giving you charts to show what you can improve.)

Reward Yourself
"I read that it takes 28 days to build a habit," says Mealey. "So when I have a new goal — like eating veggies more often — I do it for a month, then treat myself by shopping or going to a movie with a friend. Rewards give me an incentive to keep going."

I'm convinced :) I am keeping a food journal beginning today. The way it's helping me is to make me stop and think before eating something, because if I do, I have to write it down in my food journal.


~ His Sweet Gypsy Rose

Perseverance Quotes to Ponder

I'm pooped at the moment...last night there was the strangest thunderstorm...I woke up around midnight to nonstop thunder and lightning that went on for well over an hour if not longer. I didn't get good sleep last night.

Earlier this evening I met up with my friend Amy at McKinley Park and we walked around it twice. It was hard tonight. I was so ready to be done once we got back to my car. I think part of that is being so tired. Tomorrow night I'll be walking once around my block.

I decided to look up a few quotes about perseverance and share them here:

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. ~Newt Gingrich

You can't go through life quitting everything. If you're going to achieve anything, you've got to stick with something. ~From the television show Family Matters

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. ~William James

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale

"Never, never, never give up!" ~ Winston Churchill

"Never Quit. "Don't ever, ever quit. Recognize that stopping now, regrouping to try a new approach isn't quitting. If you quit you'll regret it forever." ~ Rudy Ruettiger

"It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get up." ~ Vince Lombardi

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. " ~ Confucius

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit."
~ Unknown

I bolded the parts that really spoke to me. Here is my goal....never quit, rise up whenever I fall, and STICK WITH THIS!


~ His Sweet Gypsy Rose