Food Cures (8 page)

Slow difficult transitions.
Long-standing habits can be difficult to break. Bill is a historian whose morning routine has long included a newspaper and two huge mugs of coffee. His weight loss plateaued when he was still about 15 pounds above his goal weight, all due to his coffee habit. Bill liked his coffee very light and creamy, specifically with about ½ cup of half-and-half in each mug—1 cup of half-and-half per day. It was obviously the source of his extra weight. He fought this last change to his diet, but as it became clear his weight wasn’t going to budge unless he broke this habit, he relented. It was a slow transition. Over the course of six months, Bill transitioned from half-and-half to whole milk…to 2% milk…to 1% reduced-fat milk…to fat-free milk. That saved him 232 calories every day, and enabled him to dropped 12 pounds.
The lesson: You don’t have to make difficult changes all at once. Find intermediate steps that can make the process as painless as possible
.

Make evening hours less threatening.
Busy people sometimes face the “feet-up” diet challenge—the minute they stop running around long enough to put their feet up, they binge. As a senior editor at a publishing company, Jillian doesn’t have a spare private moment in her day. She is always in meetings or on the phone, planning for the next project or solving some problem with a current book. By the time she gets home—often after 9:00 p.m.—she would relax in front of the TV and eat. No matter what she had for dinner or when she finished, Jillian would create a buffet of high-calorie comfort foods—including cookies, cake, ice cream, dry cereal, and crackers. She woke up each morning with the best intentions for the evening, but by the time she reached home, exhausted from the day, her resolve went out the window. Jillian and I drew up a contract: Before starting her nighttime binge, she first had to eat three low-calorie foods that we agreed upon. So before she could spoon out the ice cream, Jillian committed to first eating two handfuls of baby carrots, one container of fat-free flavored yogurt, and one apple. After that, she could eat whatever she wanted. Of course, our strategy worked. She discovered that after she finished her three must-haves, she felt full and in control. Good-bye binges! Even though those snacks added an extra 250 calories to her daily food plan, they saved her from eating thousands of extra calories each night.
The lesson: If you can’t stop yourself from eating at the end of the day (or whenever your particular challenging time is), front-load the binge with three healthy foods. If you vow to eat those three healthy snacks first, it gives your body time to feel satisfied while allowing your psyche the pleasure of eating
.

BONUS POINTS

• Donate your “fat clothes.”
  Losing weight is a major accomplishment. As soon as an item of clothing is too big for you anymore, give it away. Don’t keep it in your closet as part of your “just in case” wardrobe. It is easier to back-slide if you have bigger pants to slide into.
  
• Keep a weight-loss journal.
  Write down your food choices and portions, where you eat, why you eat, how much exercise you do, and anything else that allows you to see your healthy (and unhealthy) patterns. That way, you can spot areas for improvement and make adjustments as you go along. Use the journal to track your progress as you weigh yourself once or twice a week.
  
• Consider the buddy system.
  Some people do better if they have a friend, spouse, therapist,
  someone
  they can talk to about successes or setbacks. Ideally, this person is non-judgmental and unconditionally supportive. If you thrive with a little help from your friends, go ahead and ask for their help and guidance.
  
• Slow your eating.
  Strive to make every mouthful a sensual experience. Taste your food. Savor the texture. Put your fork down between every two bites and sip water during your meal.
  
• When you eat, focus.
  This is not the time for multi-tasking. Make meal time (and snack time) all about the food. Avoid the mindlessness of eating while checking email, watching television, or other distracting activity.
  
• Drink one or two glasses of water before meals.
  Ten minutes before every meal, guzzle two glasses of water. This will help meet your daily fluid quota and remind you to follow through with smart food choices at the upcoming meal. Perhaps it will also fill you up and take the edge off your hunger, but most importantly, it will keep you thinking about your plan! Also, thirst can mimic the feelings of hunger—if you wait ten minutes after drinking water, you may find you don’t want to eat at all.
  
• Keep sugarless gum always on hand.
  Sugarless gum can give you a hit of something sweet, keep your mouth busy (so you’ll be less likely to snack), and clean your teeth when you can’t brush. And, contrary to Internet rumors, sugarless gum won’t stimulate your appetite.
  
• Repackage snacks.
  Before you dig into that mega-sized bag of pretzels, break it down. Divide the large bag into individual portions in snack-sized plastic zipper bags so that you’ll be ready with appropriate servings when you need them. Also, seek out snacks that are in portion-controlled units—a Tootsie Pop, fat-free pudding cups, mini bags of microwave popcorn, or other individual snacks that are 100 calories or less per serving. Just remember to only eat one serving!
  
• Shock your tongue.
  Be liberal with spices—chile peppers, curry, hot salsa, wasabi. Hot and spicy flavors encourage slower eating. Hot (temperature-wise), low-calorie beverages can also help you feel satisfied and hydrated. When you’re bored, it’s possible to nurse a hot cup of skim latte, green or herbal tea, or diet hot cocoa for much longer than it would take to eat a snack.
  
• Be patient with yourself.
  There is a phenomenon well known among weight-loss experts—when people who are dieting slip up and overeat, they often decide that the entire effort is a bust and continue to overeat for days before they collect themselves. By then, all their hard work may have been undone. If you find yourself in this situation, be as kind and understanding with your own mistakes as you would be with a best friend who made a small slipup. All humans make mistakes—it is the nature of our species. Learn to forgive yourself.
  
• Get enough sleep.
  During sleep, our bodies rest and regenerate, so we can be strong and clear-headed the following day—clear-headed enough to make wise food choices. What’s more, sleep deprivation causes an imbalance in certain hormones, including ghrelin (which causes weight gain) and leptin (which decreases appetite). When we don’t get enough sleep, our levels of ghrelin go up (more weight gain) and levels of leptin go down (so we are hungrier). If it were up to me, I would write in a prescription for six to eight hours of sleep each night…but I can’t, so it’s up to you. Don’t think of it as downtime, but as another important facet of your nutrition plan.
  

SUPPLEMENTS

While you are concentrating on the weight-loss part of your program, you may lose sight of your vitamin and mineral needs. As backup, I recommend:

1. Multivitamin.
   There’s no need to go crazy with lots of different pills or megadoses. A single multivitamin that contains 100 percent DV of most vitamins and minerals is fine. If you are a man or a menopausal woman, choose a “senior formula” brand that doesn’t contain iron.
   
2. Calcium with vitamin D
   ₃
   and magnesium.
   Many women trying to lose weight skimp on calcium-rich foods. To protect bone health, I recommend that
   women only
   take a calcium supplement daily. (There is some evidence that too much calcium may increase the risk of prostate cancer. Men should talk with their doctors before taking calcium supplements.) Take 500 to 600 milligrams of calcium twice a day, for a total of 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams daily. (You need to split the dose because the body can only absorb about 600 milligrams of calcium at a time.) Choose a brand that also contains vitamin D
   ₃
   (cholecalciferol, the most potent form of vitamin D) and magnesium. (The amount of vitamin D
   ₃
   and magnesium in each tablet will vary by brand. Aim to get a
   daily total
   of 400 to 800 IU vitamin D
   ₃
   , and 400 milligrams magnesium.) Although
   men
   should not take calcium supplements, they may want to consider taking a total of 400 to 800 IU vitamin D
   ₃
   and 400 milligrams magnesium per day, including what they get from their multivitamin.