Are You Really Hungry?

I just read a letter in Shape magazine. The author’s 3-year old son was half way done with his dinner and said he was full and pushed away his plate. What a novel idea! End of story. Why don’t we do that any more? We don’t listen to our hunger. We eat for all the wrong reasons – boredom, stress, “fill in the blank”. I love the saying, “If the problem isn’t hunger, the answer isn’t food”. So let’s get back to basics. Fruits, veggies, protein and healthy grains are a way to nourish our bodies. Food is not a reward or a punishment. It’s fuel, which we need! Make the healthiest choices possible and everything in moderation. When we eat healthy and delicious foods we have the energy to tackle all our responsibilities, which in turn, make us feel better, which prevents us from turning to food for all the wrong reasons. Circle of life? Something like that, but you know what I mean. If we fill up on the healthy stuff, we don’t crave or have room for all the junk. Be kind to your body. It deserves it!

Why Are They Successful?

It's difficult for me to know who will be successful when he or she walks through the door. I believe EVERY person has the ability to reach his or her health and fitness goals. But why do some complete the transformation and others don't? Everyone thinks it is the big, grand changes that really matter. I can tell you this, the decision to make a change is huge, but the success lies in the very small actions and decisions, done over and over again. Those small steps can seem easy at times and near impossible the next. But each positive action towards reaching your goals, will make it easier to face each obstacle as it comes.

The defintion of success can be different at different time in a lifetime. I know, when it comes to eating healthy, whether for weight loss or weight maintenance, and exercising, even the most successful members have a "season". Of course for most of us Thanksgiving to February is difficult. Living in New England doesn't help. However, I don't throw caution to the wind and become a couch potatoes during the holidays. I just don't expect to be at my fighting race weight or setting any race PRs. I set realistic expectations. Goals that are different. I'm not saying you CAN'T lose weight at that time, I actually did last year, but you should be realistic. The fall is my best time and I raise the bar high. You can't be at full steam 100% of the time. But you never want to get so far back that recovery seems impossible.

So, what makes a successful member? The person who looks at each decision, at that moment, and decides which one will bring him or her closer to the goal. So, when a member can go to bed, or make her lunch first, she makes lunch. The difference, a few minutes, but a huge investment in tomorrow and another victory over the voices that want you to take the easy way out. She orders fish for dinner without butter, but when it's served, it's swimming in it. She sends it back, ignoring the groans of her friends. She eats a few minutes later, but another victory.

Each time you fight to make the right decision, you feel stronger. Every time the world doesn't fall apart because you leave your family to go for a 30 minute walk, you prove to yourself you can do it. Over time those decisions will come more naturally. I have a few routines that I've been doing for years. I don't go anywhere without food and often get a few stares, but everyone always wants a bite of what I have! Most of my days start off with a run. Rain, cold, or heat. Some days it's only 45 minutes. Most days not more than 60. That's because I don't waste time deciding if I should go for a run. Before I go to bed, my clothes are out and I know how far I will be running. A few minutes of mental rehearsing and there will be no struggle in the morning. I don't have to be an Olympic athlete to win my own race to stay healthy.

So, what makes my successful members so, well successful? The little things. All the things you can do, day in and day out, too. It doesn't hurt to see the scale going down, the clothes fitting better and the doctor giving you Kudos. Success breeds success. Next time you are faced with a little decision - should I measure how much cereal I'm eating - just do it! Do you want to be moving closer or away from you goals. Small steps make a big difference.

Right Now

I meet most of my members because of some last straw moment - being told they need to go on medication, realizing none of their clothes fit, or not being able to chase after their toddler. That moment is their PRESENT reality. They can't escape it. They want to change. They need to change.

After they get the program information, they may get excited for a healthy future, or depressed by all the wrong decisions they made in the past that affected their health and weight. Their good or bad feeling are about the past and the future, not about RIGHT NOW (does this sound like "A Christmas Carol"?). Having a goal and a plan is important. You don't know if you got there, if you don't know where you are going. But so many members spend time worrying about a vacation coming up in 2 months or why didn't they keep going to meetings last time so they wouldn't have gained so much weight back. What's done is done. Learn from it, but move on. Decide on what the best plan of action is for the day and for the week. The best use of your time right now may be planning for the future, like making dinners for the week. But don't starve today, because you have a party at the end of the week. Yes, you can save your weekly Points allowance for the weekend, but don't under eat (and torture yourself) for something that hasn't happened yet.

I know this from experience. I would go back and forth from being on a diet one day and eating everything in sight another. I would go from trying to lose weight to eating too much because I was on vacation (which would be why I lost weight before the vacation). I wouldn't appreciate where I was right now. I wouldn't make food decisions on what felt good for today. That's why members are afraid of maintenance. What happens when I am no longer trying to lose weight to get to goal in the future? Can I keep the weight off, since I didn't in the past?

If you think of what you eat as food you need to get all your nutrition in, plus some fun foods and a little less of both if you want to safely lose weight, you live in the present. If you quiet those past and future stories and listen to what your body wants at this moment, you'd be surprised at what you hear. When it wants dessert, I listen. When it wants some protein to rebuild, I listen. If the scale says I am gaining weight, I may have to tell my body a thing or two, like lets put the food on the scale to make sure it's not too much, I do it. If I have to eat a snack that I don't love, but it's something that will give me energy and not melt in the car, I bring it. Life isn't just about the food. But if I feel lousy, because I didn't have good fuel, that will effect how I feel in the present.

So, start your day off with your daily Points target and plan to fill it with the best nutritious, filling foods. Live in this moment. Don't worry about your goal weight, or what you ate for breakfast when you weighed in last week. Think about making the best choice in front of you. Understand there are rules (check your Pocket Guide)to losing weight, but enjoy the journey. If you don't, the destination won't matter.

Why Exercise?

One of my WW members is a nurse, so she definitely knows more about health and nutrition than I do! So when she wanted to tell me about the latest research concerning cardiac rehab patients, I was all ears.

She told me something that you may have already heard. Just adding exercise to your lifestyle does not mean you will lose weight. So I ran out and gave all my running stuff to Goodwill! No, only kidding. She then went on to say that though weight loss is important for cardiac patients with heart disease, the benefits of exercise were important, too. They were stress relief, lower blood pressure, more HDL and more energy to improve their quality of life. She mentioned some more health improvements, but I need to go to medical school to understand them.

The words I want you to take away from the last paragraph are "quality of life". I know that losing extra weight does improve our quality of life. Try carrying a 5 pound bag of sugar with you all day and you will get tired. But if the changes you make, such as eating less, eating better quality foods and moving more are just a means to an end, you will eventually give up. Your mind, body and habits must change. If you stick with WW, as time goes on, you will become a different person and not just on the outside.

If you are the old you, only temporarily doing different things, then you will always want to go back to behaving like the old you. So you may not like exercise at first and you may not like fruits and veggies that much, but as your body, mind and energy improve, you will. When you finish a workout, you won't think, "How many calories did I burn?" you will think, "My body can do amazing things, I have lots of energy and I look better than ever!" If you stick with the program long enough, you will realize your new, healthy way of living is so much better. You may not even recognize the person you used to be.

You don't wear your weight on your forehead. But everyone can see the spring in your step, the smile on your face and the strength you have now that you are a healthy person. The weight will come off. If it isn't, we can go back to the basic formula of calories in, calories out and make the right adjustments.

I believe you can't have a strong mind without a strong body. That makes for a great "quality of life." Inside and out.