Session 4 on Keys to Eating Healthy

November 30, 2007

Now we're on to Session 4 but make sure you're doing your homework. Did you record your weight and food and drink intake? Did you pick foods that have high fat content and find out how to eat less fat? Well, then on to Session 4.

Regulate the time we eat as this will avoid getting too hungry. This we will have to avoid at all cost because watch out, we will be tempted to eat large portions of the wrong kinds of foods. Slow down and chew your food well. This will have a double benefit in not getting indigestion.

Get smaller portions of what to eat so you will not be tempted to consume more than you need to especially if you're like me. I like to clean my plate thinking of all the hungry people in the world. I don't know if that's just my excuse. I will have to revisit that issue someday and think hard whether that's just my excuse to eat more.

Make sure you eat a well-balanced meal, a variety of them as follows:

1. two or three servings of fish, lean meat or poultry, each serving being two to three ounces

2. Two to three servings of low-fat milk (one serving is one cup) or dairy products (a serving is two to three ounces)

3. Two to four servings of fruits (a serving is 1/2 cup or a small fruit)

4. Three to five servings of vegetables ( a serving is 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked)

5. Up to six servings of grains in the form of bread (1 slice), cereals, rice or pasta (serving is 1/2 cup)

6. A little fat (one serving is a teaspoon of regular fat or if it is reduced fat, one tablespoon will do for a serving)

7. Limited sweets and alcohol (1 beer or four oz of wine or 1/2 oz of alcohol)

Now that's a lot of food to eat in a day. Doesn't that make us feel better? We do not have to starve in order to lose weight; we just have to be careful. Continue keeping track of weight and food and drink consumption. See you at Session 5. Meantime please check this website for more info and the disclaimer:

Want to Know Three Ways to Lose Fat?

Today, we'll deal with Session 3 which is how to eat less fat. But first, let's see if we did our homework. Did we weigh ourselves and record the weight in our notebook? Did we write down all the food and drink we consumed and put down the amount of fat and number of calories we had each day?

Good, so now we're ready to tackle Session 3. By this time, it's good to accept the fact that it's easy to make a mistake in estimating the amount of food we think we are consuming at each meal. Play this little game. Set aside a portion of your favorite food and estimate how much it weighs. Then weigh it and see if you're correct.

I don't know about you but many a time, I make a mistake and think a portion is smaller than what it actually is. The trouble with this is that we may be consuming more fat grams than we think we are. This fact alone will play havoc on our effort to lose weight.

Here are the three ways to eat less fat:

1. Eat foods that are high in fat less frequently. For example, we know that unhealthy fats are abundant in meat and dairy products. So have this type of food just once a week.

2. Eat smaller piece of foods that are high in fat. For example, when you go to a restaurant like Bern's in Tampa and Sam Seltzer's in Clearwater, instead of ordering the 12 oz steak, just order an 8 oz one. Chew it slowly and savor every bite.

3. Use an alternate method of preparing food. Grill instead of fry, steam vegetables instead of sautéing in oil or such similar substitute way of preparing food.

There you have the three ways to eat less fat. We no longer have an excuse not to consume less fat. So on to the homework. Continue keeping a record of the weight and consumption of food and drink. Write three foods you eat that are high in fat. Find a way to consume less fat from the these foods by employing one of the three ways to eat less fat. See you next time!

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How To Become a Fat Detective

We are trying to go through the DPP Lifestyle Change Program. Today, we will deal with Session 2 which is on Becoming a Fat Detective. But first, let's see if we did our homework. Did we write down all the food we ate and all the drink we had? Did you circle the food you think had the most fat? Good. Now we're on to becoming fat detectives.

We will start to monitor our weight regularly. We will do it at least once a week. I weigh myself every day before I eat breakfast. Try to weigh yourself at the same time and record it in a notebook. We are going to try to follow the DPP target for fat and calorie intake depending on our weight at the start of this program. Here's what they recommend:

DPP Daily Amounts for Fat and Calories

Starting Weight	Fat (Grams)	Calories
120-170	33	1200
175-215	42	1500
220-245	50	1800
250-300	55	2000

Find your weight and try to stick to the number of grams of fat and the number of calories for your daily intake. Try to eat every four hours as getting too hungry will just lead to overeating. How will you calculate the number of grams of fat? Read the food labels or use a fat and calorie counter.

The DPP fat and calorie counter can be accessed in the website of the National Diabetes Education Program at ndep.nih.gov or you can buy your own at a bookstore. When reading food labels, make sure you get the serving size, the total fat grams per serving and the calories per serving.

And now for the dreaded homework: Continue weighing yourself at least once or twice a week at the same time of the day and record it. Keep recording everything you eat and drink and the amount of fat and calories you consume. Try to keep within the daily amount recommended above.

Don't panic if you go over the limit. Just figure out which food is the culprit and try to limit its consumption. Next time, after checking the homework, we will deal with the ways to eat less fat. There are at least three ways. Hush! Don't tell anybody else for that will be our secret weapon.

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Diabetes Prevention Program To Change Lifestyle

This lifestyle program is composed of sixteen sessions to be followed by the participants with the help of a lifestyle coach. Let us try to follow these sessions and pretend we have a coach, shall we? It is better than not doing anything at all.

Section 1 is the introduction to the Lifestyle Program. We have to look into ourselves and find our reasons why we want to go through with this program. Why do we want to lose weight? Why do we want to be more active? That is easy enough to answer, isn't it?

Remember what we learned before that the weight loss goal is 7% and for physical activity we will aim for 150 minutes a week. Now weigh yourself and write it down. Say one weighs 200 pounds. Take 7% of that and we will arrive at 14. So one will have to lose 14 pounds.

Think of what this loss will do to you and your family. You will look and feel better and above all, be healthier. We will prevent diabetes and be a good example to everyone around us. Now let us start to monitor what we eat.

This part you will not like but is essential for the success we are trying to achieve. Believe it or not, DPP has a homework for us. Don't worry, the homework is easy. All we have to do is write down everything we eat and drink. Then circle the foods that you think have the highest fat content.

Next time we blog, we will check the homework and see how we did and then proceed to Session 2 which, believe it or not, will help us become fat detectives. Fat detectives? This I've got to see. It's becoming more interesting, isn't it?
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Changing Eating Behavior is Not Easy

Changing eating behavior? It's not easy despite the flood of advertisements purporting the loss of weight in no time at all. I'm sure you've tried to lose weight. We've all been down that road before except for the very privileged few whose metabolism is everyone’s envy.

But let’s not let the above deter us from changing our eating behavior. This is too important not to give up this issue. Our health is at stake. Losing weight is paramount in trying to keep diabetes and its complications at bay. And we can succeed at this as DPP (Diabetes Prevention Program) has shown.

The DPP lifestyle program was tried in more than one thousand people of different background. It shows that people can lose weight and keep it off. There are about three thousand people in the National Weight Control Registry who lost a bare minimum of thirty pounds and kept them off for more than a year.

How did they do it? On average, their diet had calories of about 55% from carbohydrate, 21% from protein, and 24% from fat. They also participated in regular exercise that used up 2500 to 3600 calories each week. What will do this? Well, a daily walk of three and a half to five miles will do it.

The DPP lifestyle program advocates a weight loss that is gradual which translates to one to two pounds a week. This is about less than 500 to 1000 calories below the regular diet for weight maintenance. For this, 25% of calories is from fat.

Exercise is part and parcel of the DPP lifestyle program. The goal for this is set at 150 minutes of exercise or physical activity each week. The physical activity should have a pace just like that of a fast walk. For the next blog, we will go through the DPP program in detail and hopefully we will achieve our weight loss goal.
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Regarding Diets, What is One to Do?

Now that we have covered almost all aspects of dieting, what is one to do? How does one find the weight loss regimen that is best? When one is overweight, there is no time to wait for the results of all the trials to find the best one.

Just remember that the diet that will help in taking in less calories but at the same time maintaining optimum health is the one to keep. It does not matter whether it is low or high in this or that nutrient, if it keeps one healthy while losing weight, it is the ideal diet to keep.

Choose one that matches the need and personality. If it works, continue using it. If it doesn't work, don't consider it a failure. Learn from it and go on to the next one that will work. Don't lose time on what-might-have been for what is important is the diet that will be good for the long term.

When considering the diet to use, keep the following in mind and check to see if it meets these essentials of a healthy diet:

1. The healthy diet should consist of an assortment of foods that contain the protein, carbohydrate, fat, minerals and vitamins the body needs.

2. The healthy diet is one that consists of a balance of carbohydrate, protein and fat.

3. The healthy diet is one that is recommended by a proven and respected professional.

4. The healthy diet is one that is easy to follow whether one is home or on vacation.

5. The healthy diet should not exclude so-called bad foods and instead should center on proper portions.

6. The healthy diet should promote monitoring of both the eating and physical activity.

7. The healthy diet should also include a plan for an exercise program.

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