The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

Weight Watchers ads this year are particularly masterful - they speak truths like “dieting doesn’t work” and show people eating in restaurants and lounging in coffee shops. Their message is eat what you want and still lose weight - and for a lot of people, it works well. However, when you consider the fee, it seems you are simply trading one consumption (eating) for another (spending money). At $17/mo plus the $30 join fee, participants spend a minimum of $235/year. I think it’s possible to reap the benefits Weight Watchers provides without spending a dime and joining the program by making some simple life changes - here’s how.

The lifestyle change - learn portion control.
I personally found the most important lifestyle change I made was portion control - instead of telling my body to eat more because something tasted good, I now listen to my body and stop when it’s full. Food is fuel - when I’ve topped the tank, it’s time to yank the hose. Here’s some strategies I use to help control my portion sizes:

• Drink water during a meal. When you fill up on water, you’re less likely to over-eat.
• Use small plates and start with small portions. You can always get seconds, but you’ll likely eat all your firsts.
• Eat slowly. There’s a slight delay between swallowing and recognizing satiety; slowing down your eating helps you recognize satiety before you over-eat.
• Split your meal in half. When eating out, split your meal in half and have them bag up one half before beginning to eat.

The points system - Learn how to visually recognize caloric values.
Many people succeed with Weight Watchers because it makes counting calories easier with a points system. Some weight-loss programs make counting calories even easier with pre-counted boxed meals. With a little effort, I found I could eyeball the caloric content of most foods by measuring or weighing basic ingredients in 200-calorie segments and remembering what that looked like. Sites like this one demonstrate the basic concept. For example, 200 calories of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards. Remembering how much food equals 200 calories is much easier than measuring caloric content for every meal.

The weekly meetings - Build your “accountability” community.
Eating in our country has become largely emotional - we eat at restaurants to unwind or enjoy family time, we eat as a way to deal with stress and depression, we eat special foods to celebrate holidays. The Weight Watchers program includes weekly meetings, which provides positive emotional support by stressing community and accountability - every week, members weigh-in (accountability) and talk with others struggling with the same weight-loss issues (community). Build your own accountability community by openly talking to your friends and family about your weight changes and weight struggles/accomplishments; start a walking group at work; start a blog and weight changes, struggles and accomplishments - there are many ways to hold yourself accountable to a community without joining Weight Watchers.

How about you - what are your thoughts on running your own Weight Watchers program without paying the fees?

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In March of last year, I wrote an article about Subway’s white and wheat breads, and whether the wheat bread actually is the healthy alternative. It turned out white was healthier. I noticed Subway modified their ingredients listing this month (and, I’m sure, several times between), so I wonder - since Subway still claims to be the healthy fast-food alternative, and people have a perception that anything “wheat” is the healthy alternative, has Subway stopped lying to its customers? Let’s find out.

First, here’s the old and new ingredients list:

Old list, quoted from my post dated 3/20/07:

WHEAT BREAD
Enriched flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, whole wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup, wheat gluten, contains less than 2% of the following: wheat bran, yeast, salt, soybean oil, dough conditioner (acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono-and diglycerides, ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, amylase (enzymes)], cracked wheat, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, caramel color (contains sulfites), dried honey preparation (honey powder, invert sugar, wheat starch, soy bran flour, silicon dioxide [anti-caking]), mineral oil. Contains soy and wheat.

New list, dated 01/2008:

WHEAT BREAD
Enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, whole wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup. Contains less than 2% of the following: yeast, wheat bran, bleached oat hull fiber, vital wheat gluten, salt, soybean oil, dough conditioner, acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, enzymes [amylase]), cracked wheat, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, caramel color (contains sulfites), refiners syrup, dried honey, mineral oil. Contains wheat.

And the caloric information for the two breads, first dated 3/20/07:

And the new chart, taken from Subway’s nutrition information page on 1/4/08:

The only difference I see is wheat bread’s listed dietary fiber - up from 3g to 4g. The wheat bread still has more calories and fat than white bread, and contains high fructose corn syrup and lists a refined wheat as the first ingredient. Sure, there’s not a drastic nutritional difference between Subway’s white and wheat breads, but that’s just the point - not only is there not much difference, the white bread seems slightly nutritionally healthier. Just another reminder - “wheat” doesn’t always equate “healthy.”

I read a great article this morning written by Kathy Gates for Ian’s Messy Desk (found via Lifehack.org). Kathy lists 7 lies we tell ourselves that prevent success in achieving our goals or living our perfect lives. As I read each item on the list, I found myself directly relating it to weight-loss and emotional eating:

Giving up quickly? Check.
I’ll start tomorrow? Check.
Setting unrealistic goals? Check.

This is good stuff! I’ve used her titles and applied them to healthy eating, weight loss and emotional eating. Instead of copying her discussion, I encourage you to read her original list - it’s a great read and applies to life in general.

Lie 1: Expect Quick Results.
When starting out, it’s important to remember and prepare yourself (constantly) you will not have instant gratification. It took months or years of unhealthy eating habits to gain your weight; it will take months or years of practicing new habits and eating healthier before it comes off. Instead of focusing just on the scale, pay attention to other weight loss indicators as well - less fat around high-profile areas like the face and armpits, increased endurance, successfully ending a meal before getting stuffed, dropping clothes sizes. Focusing on all your successes, small or large, helps maintain a positive attitude and feeling of power.

Lie 2: Complaining is OK.
Complaining is addictive and harmful. While it can be comforting to place blame for being overweight on circumstances “out of your control,” it also reinforces a negative attitude and infects your support network like a plague. No matter how resolved and committed you are to losing weight and changing your lifestyle, hard times will come for the rest of your life. Even if you don’t talk to your support group members, sometimes the simple thought of how proud your friend would be with your choice to resist the ice cream cone is enough positive reinforcement. Maintaining focus on your accomplishments and discussing hard times objectively as hurdles to overcome is like Miracle Gro for your support network - everyone feels proud and positive to be a party to your success. Complain about all the crappy stuff you’re eating or doing and your support network will either begin to pull away or will reinforce your negative outlook. Think negatively enough about weight loss, and you may just convince yourself it’s easier and better to just live life the way you want, healthy or not.

Lie 3: Fix It Later.
Tomorrow is the worst day to begin losing weight. Start today, right now, by making small changes - drink 32oz more water a day, leave some food on your plate, and park your car further away from your building at work or use stairs instead of an elevator. By starting with small changes, you begin to practice evaluating your choices based on their impact on your health instead of any satisfaction or emotional comfort you may get. Practice those small changes for a week, and it becomes easier to take the next step. Before you know it, you’re eating salads with no dressing and actually enjoying plain water.

Lie 4: Having an *Idea* Instead of a Plan.
No matter how hard or often you think about eating less and exercising more, it doesn’t become a reality until you formulated a plan and set goals. Thinking about losing weight is daunting and overwhelming - you focus on the total amount of weight and life changes to be made. Formulating plans and setting goals is positive and actionable - by splitting the ultimate goal into small tasks, you establish a concrete plan for success. Working towards an ultimate plan gives you a higher sense of purpose - it’s comforting to know today, tomorrow and next week you have specific tasks planned ahead of time that lead to weight loss and lifestyle change.

Lie 5: Ignoring Your Talents.
Weight loss and lifestyle change isn’t about denying yourself things you love or pushing yourself to limits - it’s about choosing to live a healthy lifestyle, and you’re not going to live the healthy lifestyle if you don’t enjoy living the healthy lifestyle. Incorporate your talents or passions into your healthy lifestyle to make it fun. Enjoy blogging? Join Jason Calacanis’ started the “fatblogging” meme and have fun joining an active weight loss support network. Enjoy surfing the Internet and discovering interesting sites? Sign up for Internet-themed podcasts and listen to them while walking. Learn a new language, listen to an audiobook, find a local dance club. Wherever your passions and talents lie, use them to energize your weight loss.

Lie 6: Elusive Goals Instead of Do-able Goals.
Set yourself up for success - make your goals achievable. Specifically for weight loss, I recommend making three types of goals: a goal weight, daily goals and “dream” goals. Your goal weight should be practical and realistic - best case scenario, you’ll work with your health care provider to establish one. Daily goals should be easily achievable and designed to slowly modify your lifestyle through constant practice - examples could include drinking 64oz of water, walking one mile and maintaining a certain daily caloric intake. “Dream” goals are inspirational and should be activities and events you would love to participate in but never could, like running a 10k race at Walt Disney World (a personal dream goal of mine). I talked more about these types of goals, and setting goals in general, in a previous article.

Lie 7: Adopting a “What I Do Doesn’t Matter” Attitude.
Looking down at the scale and considering the total amount of weight to lose can be daunting and overwhelming - it’s easy to think no matter what you do you still don’t lose weight fast enough, so you may as well stop trying. To prevent being overwhelmed, set small daily goals you can easily measure, surround yourself with positive people, recognize every pound lost slowly is a pound kept off, and concentrate on making healthy lifestyle changes and shifting habits versus dieting the weight off and denying pleasures.

When you live an honest, practical and healthy lifestyle, I can’t promise you’ll never fight the “unhealthy food choice” impulse battle ever again, but you will have won the war.

I graduated from my Optifast program and I thought I was hard-core. I didn’t crave sweets, chocolate, chips, any of that crap I used to unconsciously stuff my face with. I identified my trigger foods (like Chex Mix) and removed them from the house. I practiced being aware of my food choices including what, when and how much. I thought I was hard-core.

And then came yesterday.

I see now, there are going to be times in my life when - no matter what I do, no matter how much awareness I practice, no matter how much I talk to myself, no matter how strongly I have shifted my old behaviors - I am going to stumble. I am going to eat “bad” foods. I am going to mis-gauge portion sizes. I will have channel-surfing days, potato-chip days and second-helping days. And apparently, I will still occasionally seek comfort in food.

Fortunately, just being aware of my emotional eating, even if I don’t stop it, is enough to minimize the impact. When you stumble, the trick is to do it consciously, minimize the impact during the fact, then prevent it from becoming a habit afterward. Here’s 5 tips I used to turn a crisis into a learning experience.

1. Recognize you are responding to an emotional need or impulse.
   Choice is power. You exercise power over a situation by choosing your response instead of allowing something to happen to you. “I can’t believe I just ate that chocolate bar” sets you up for disappointment, shame and embarassment - you are so out-of-control that you couldn’t even make yourself not eat one chocolate bar! “I chose to eat that chocolate bar” removes the emotional hook - it allows you to feel ownership and responsibility without the overwhelming disappointment, and allows you to observe your choice and make changes should you want to choose differently next time. Shed your emotional baggage and empower yourself - recognize the emotional need, make a choice. True success isn’t absolute abstinence - true success is choice.
2. Identify and address the underlying emotional need.
   Of course, we all know - eating comfort food doesn’t help the actual situation. No matter how much fettuccini alfredo you eat, your co-workers will not treat you better and your job won’t be any more satisfying. No matter how many chocolate bars you consume, your teens won’t show you more respect and you won’t win the lottery. Just like alcohol and drugs, any comfort derived from emotional eating is false and temporary. If you choose to indulge in some emotional eating, do some thinking while on your emotional high - identify what is driving you to crave comfort in food, then make a game plan to change or otherwise address that situation.
3. Split your meal into portions.
   Cut your hamburger in half, split your quesedilla into quarters, box half your salad into a to-go box, put half your sushi roll on a separate plate. If you’re still hungry after eating one portion, split the remaining portion in half and eat that. After eating each portion, put your fork down, push the plate away, and pause for a moment. Physically splitting your meal into portions also splits it into choices - each time you eat another portion, you are making a new choice to eat, and with each choice comes the opportunity to access your actual physical hunger.

4. Practice “healthy eating” tips - water, small bites, eat slow, choose healthy foods.
   Use as many “healthy eating” tips as possible to help minimize your caloric intake:

   Cut empty calories - cutting the sour cream, butter, dressing, mayonnaise, free bread/chips/etc and other calorie-filled extras can reduce the overall caloric value of your meal. The sour cream I cut from the burrito I ate yesterday cut 150-ish calories from my meal, and I didn’t miss it. Had I cut the guacamole and chips, I could have cut a further 620 calories without diminishing the emotionally comforting burrito.

   Read the label - reading the exact caloric value and ingredients in the food you’re about to eat can help you find healthier alternatives to the comfort food you’re craving. Today in the grocery store, I figured some Doritos would perfectly complement my mixed-greens salad - makes perfect sense, right? Regular Doritos have 140 calories per 11 chip - and let’s not lie, I’m not going to eat 11 chips, I’ll be lucky to stop at half the bag. I thought the baked ones would be a healthier alternative, but read the ingredients anyway - and put them back when reading MSG figures prominently on the ingredients list. You never know, reading the label may even quash your craving - I walked out with no Doritos.

   Drink water during the meal - this is probably the easiest and best thing you can do to minimize your emotional eating. Ordering water with your meal cuts out beverages with empty calories and helps you reach your daily water intake level. If you take sips during your meal, water will also help you feel full faster and force you to eat slower.

   Eat slowly, take small bites - there’s some lag time after swallowing before your body recognizes fullness, and there’s lag time between your stomach reaching “full” and your mind reaching satiety. Eating slowly and taking small bites helps reduce that lag time, so you feel full and satisfied at the same time you actually are full, so you don’t end up “feeling” full at the end of the meal, but feeling stuffed 20 minutes afterward.

5. Don’t beat yourself up!
   No matter what choices you make or don’t make, no matter what food you eat or how much you consume - don’t beat yourself up over it. Chastising yourself simply invites more emotional baggage, which in turn continues the vicious cycle of emotional eating. Instead, put your energy into identifying and addressing the underlying emotional problem and coming up with a game plan for dealing with the next time you feel the impulse to emotionally eat. Alternatives might be taking a walk, reading a magazine or doing logic problems for 20 minutes, sitting in the grass in a park - something that gives you peace without eating. Each time you decide in favor of your food alternative, you reclaim power over your emotional eating.

Emotional eating doesn’t have to be a falling-off-the-bandwagon event. Rather, view it as an alarm - something in your life is causing enough stress that you crave something physical as satisfaction. Identify and address the underlying stress, and you’ll be one step closer to winning the battle against emotional eating.

Have some tips yourself? I’d love to hear them below.

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