Good News and Bad News

“Successful people form the habit of doing what failures don’t like to do.  They like the results they get by doing what they don’t necessarily enjoy.”  Earl Nightingale

Life is just a series of habits.  The trick is to form the right ones.  Here is some good news and some bad news on habits.

Good news!  You can quit eating those rice cakes.  In the midst of the low-fat craze my sister-in- law said, “It only makes sense that eating fat will make you fat and you cannot get enough fat out of your diet”.  That made sense to me at the time but it was not true. Someone else said, “Eating fat won’t make you fat any more than eating money will make you rich”.  That is closer to the truth.  Skip foods marketed as low-fat or fat-free. Typically, they save you only a few calories and, in doing so, they replace harmless fats with low-performing carbohydrates that digest quickly—causing a sugar rush and, immediately afterward, rebound hunger.

Good news! By reading this, you’re already forming habits that can help you shed pounds. I had difficulty breast feeding.  It was unusually painful for me but when my second baby was born I was determined to do it.  I made it through those first months by reading books on breastfeeding while I nursed the baby.  I rarely learned anything new but reading kept my resolve.  The same thing can work for your weight loss life style changes.  When Canadian researchers sent diet and exercise advice to more than 1,000 people, they found that the recipients began eating smarter and working more physical activity into their daily routines. Not surprisingly, the habits of the non-recipients didn’t budge.

Good news!  You have a good excuse to go to bed rather than work on that project, just don’t sleep too late!  According to Wake Forest researchers, dieters who sleep five hours or less put on 2½ times more belly fat, while those who sleep more than eight hours pack on only slightly less than that. Shoot for an average of six to seven hours of sleep per night—the optimal amount for weight control.  If you are working out hard or maintaining a lot of muscle you might need a little more.

Bad news!  Nothing is free.  We were at a restaurant in Belgium once where they brought you a complimentary basket of steamed snails and a straight pin to get the snails out of the shell.  In the United States that complimentary basket is going to be loaded with breadsticks, biscuits, or chips. These are empty calories and though they may be complimentary that doesn’t mean you won’t pay for them. Every time you eat one of Olive Garden’s free breadsticks or Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits, you’re adding an additional 150 calories to your meal. Eat three over the course of dinner and that’s 450 calories. That’s also roughly the number of calories you can expect for every basket of tortilla chips you get at your local Mexican restaurant. What’s worse, none of these calories comes paired with any redeeming nutritional value. Consider them junk food on steroids.

Bad news!  Diet drinks make you fat. The average American guzzles nearly a full gallon of soda every week. Why is that so bad? Studies repeatedly find that drinking one to two sodas per day increases your chances of being overweight or obese by 33 to 50 percent (depending on the study).  Diet soda is no better. When researchers inSan Antoniotracked a group of elderly subjects for nearly a decade, they found that compared to nondrinkers, those who drank two or more diet sodas a day watched their waistlines increase five times faster. Five times!

Good news!  Eating is the solution to weight loss.  In a 2011 national survey from the Calorie Control Council, 17 percent of Americans admitted to skipping meals to lose weight. The problem is, skipping meals actually increases your odds of obesity, especially when it comes to breakfast. A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who cut out the morning meal were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. Why? Skipping meals slows your metabolism and boosts your hunger. That puts your body in prime fat-storage mode and increases your odds of overeating at the next meal.

Good news!  There is nothing good on TV anyway.  A  University of Vermont study found that overweight participants who reduced their TV time by just 50 percent burned an additional 119 calories a day on average. That’s an automatic 12-pound annual loss! Maximize those results by multitasking while you watch—even light household tasks will further bump up your caloric burn. Plus, if your hands are occupied with dishes or laundry, you’ll be less likely to mindlessly snack—the other main occupational hazard associated with tube time.

Good news!  Water is free.  Adequate water intake is essential for all your body’s functions, and the more you drink, the better your chances of staying thin. In one University of Utah study, dieting participants who were instructed to drink two cups of water before each meal lost 30 percent more weight than their thirsty peers. And you can magnify the effect by adding ice. German researchers found that six cups of cold water a day could prompt a metabolic boost that incinerates 50 daily calories. That’s enough to shed five pounds a year!

Bad news!  Your friends may be making you fat.  Research from the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that when a friend becomes obese, it ups your chance of obesity by 57 percent. This probably has to do with the social norms that you’re exposed to. Rather than ditch a friend who starts to put on a few extra pounds though, suggest healthy activities that you can do together, and avoid letting him or her dictate the meal.  I like to pass around some dark chocolate after a meal with friends so everyone is less likely to order dessert.

“Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.”  Viktor Frankl