Interesting article about food diaries

Double Your Weight Loss: the Write Idea

Wouldn't it be nice if there was something you could do to double your weight loss efforts?

According to one of the largest and longest running weight-loss trials ever conducted, there is.

What's this new weight-loss miracle? Is it a drug? A new machine for blasting your abs? A crazy diet where you eat nothing but broccoli?

Double Weight LossNo. It's simply your keyboard. Keeping a food diary -- recording what you eat throughout the day -- can double a person's weight loss efforts, according to a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research. Read more . . .

Another Poem for Plurk

Untitled

I am a baby in my crib
crying
I'm cold, I'm lonely
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me a bottle.

I am a child, locked in my room,
crying
I'm hurt, I'm lonely,
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me cookies.

I am a adolescent, imprisoned in my fears
crying
I'm afraid, I'm lonely,
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me pizza and the TV Guide.

I am a woman, trapped in self
crying
I'm lost, I'm lonely
Hold me, love me . . .
and it's too late.

A Poem About Being Fat

I want to share this with my Plurk friends and this seemed better than making them wade though all the stuff at my page of poetry.

You Think You Have Problems--
There are People Starving. . .

Poor thing,
are you hurt?
Here's some cookies and milk
to make it all better.
Another box of cookies, please,
some more ice cream. . .
anything to
satisfy the gnawing hunger
within;
body overfed
my spirit starves.

Cases of cookies can't fill the
abysmal nothingness
inside
and others' eyes can't see past
fat
to where
the bones are sticking out
in my soul.

Overeating and Sex

I initiated a small discussion over on Plurk about weight, eating and sex. The older I get, and the further I get from real opportunities for satisfying sex, the more aware I become of how I eat more when I am in the mood for sex. I've tried Googling the topic and there seems to be no research on it. It SEEMS like a no brainer to me, but I am a fat woman who has long been aware that her tendency to over indulge extends beyond food.

I would love to get some serious conversations going with other women about their experiences around this.

A Little Dieting Humor

The Importance of Walking

• Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.
• My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60.Now he's 97 years old and we don't know where he is.
• I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
• The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
• I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
• I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.
• Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
• I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
• The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, she looks good doesn't she.'
• If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
• I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years......just getting over the hill.
• We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

AND
Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour bar and by the time I leave, I look just fine.

You could run this over to your friends but why not just e-mail it to them

Theft Problem IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

Theft Problem IMPORTANT MESSAGE:
You've heard about people who have been abducted and had their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves.
My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick. The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal.

Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans. and then the thieves struck again.

My butt was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. but my new butt was attached at least three inches lower
than my original! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush. This was really getting scary - my body was being replaced one section at a time.

What could they do to me next?

When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story. Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee! Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts -stolen from you and me! The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again - was it lifted from you?

THIS IS NOT A HOAX.

This is happening to women everywhere every night.

WARN YOUR FRIENDS!
P.S. Last year I thought someone had stolen my Boobs.

I was lying in bed and they were gone! But, when I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept. Now I keep them hidden in my waistband…

Symptoms: Metabolic Syndrome Is Tied to Diet Soda

Researchers have found a correlation between drinking diet soda and metabolic syndrome — the collection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes that include abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels — and elevated blood pressure.

Read more . . .

Top 6 Myths: About Bottled Water

Bottled water — already a more than $10 billion industry — is the fastest-growing beverage category in the U.S. But is it good for you? Here's the pure truth.

Myth #1: BOTTLED WATER IS BETTER THAN TAP.

Not necessarily. While labels gush about bottled water that "begins as snowflakes" or flows from "deep inside lush green volcanoes," between 25 and 40 percent of bottled water comes from a less exotic source: U.S. municipal water supplies. (Bottling companies buy the water and filter it, and some add minerals.) That's not really a bad thing: The Environmental Protection Agency oversees municipal water quality, while the Food and Drug Administration monitors bottled water; in some cases, EPA codes are more stringent.

Read more at WebMD.

5 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

1. You're Following Bad Advice
2. You Eat Fat-Free Foods
3. You (Still) Don't Eat Breakfast
4. You're Eating Too Much Sugar
5. You Don't Lift Weights

Read the entire article . . .

They didn't add, and I would, you eat too much processed, and by processed I mean anything you didn't pick yourself, food. LOL My goal for next summer is to expand my garden to provide at least 75% of our fresh vegetables . . and to increase our fresh vegetable intake.

Emotional' Eaters Most Likely To Regain Lost Weight

new study led by researchers at The Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center finds that dieters who have the tendency to eat in response to external factors, such as at festive celebrations, have fewer problems with their weight loss than those who eat in response to internal factors such as emotions. The study also found that emotional eating was associated with weight regain in successful losers.

The study is published in the October 2007 issue of Obesity.

“We found that the more people report eating in response to thoughts and feelings, such as, ‘when I feel lonely, I console myself by eating,’ the less weight they lost in a behavioral weight loss program. In addition, amongst successful weight losers, those who report emotional eating are more likely to regain,” says lead author Heather Niemeier, Ph.D.

Read more . . .

I always find this sort of thing interesting and don't know where I fit. I'm likely to not eat if I am upset, to withdraw and allow myself to sick. I usually overeat because I'm "hungry' . . . feel empty or unsatisfied on some level. I usually lose weight when I'm in a new relationship and then regain it when the relationship gets distant.

Monster mash: Squelch all those snack attacks

from the Contra Costa Times

Lots of good suggestions for resisting the snack monster arrived in my in-box after my recent column. Here are the highlights:

"I find that if I floss and brush my teeth, it will keep me from raiding the cupboards." -- Vicki

"One easy solution I use is to drink something low cal when I first get the munchies. I love sparking water (plain or flavored), and caffeine-free diet sodas, especially for the carbonation. A 12- or 16-ounce glass helps to make me feel 'full.' Then, I wait a half-hour before deciding if I am really hungry, because often thirst is masked by hunger.

"Beware of juices and other beverages that pack in the calories, and make sure you leave plenty of time for the liquid to go through you if it's close to bedtime." -- Carol, Clayton

"I have found the best way to resist snack attacks is to schedule the snacks. Mid-morning snack is at 10:30 a.m., about half-way between breakfast and lunch. Mid-afternoon snack is around 3:30 p.m., half way between lunch and dinner.

"I plan to eat something healthy when I schedule the snacks, like fruit or pretzels or a few nuts. If I schedule the snacks, it gives me something to look forward to and helps me resist cravings in between.

"The hardest time for me is after dinner when I am watching TV. I try not to eat after 7:30 p.m. If I get an attack, I drink a glass of skim milk or make a cup of Good Earth Original Sweet & Spicy Tea and Herb blend. Sometimes, I just drink coffee. But that often
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results in too many late night trips to the bathroom." -- Carole, Antioch

"Give in -- but eat foods that are good for you and that will satisfy your appetite. Try low-calorie but filling foods such as plums at 10 calories, peaches at 70 and bananas at 100. Also, I keep a large jar of dill pickles in my fridge because they are only 10 calories per medium size. The cold crunch is really satisfying.

"Snack on peanut butter and crackers. It may sound contradictory because peanut butter has so many calories, but it also has the trait of satisfying your appetite for a long while, thereby keeping you from going back to the snack sooner." -- Dick F.

"Wanting to eat from boredom and habit triggers is a major problem, especially since 'ya can't eat just one' if you start. Two things often work for me.

"Brushing and flossing teeth, the whole bit. Then chewing some xylitol gum (XyliChew is great). I think it's both the reluctance to spoil the clean mouth and the 'good health' mode that makes it work.

"Doing little exercises, like tightening different muscles, stretching gracefully (or imagining it's graceful; nobody's watching), breathing deeply and slowly -- all these things take me to an 'ain't I the healthy, strong, slim one' mood." -- Janet F., Berkeley

"I'm surprised you didn't come up with this suggestion: Needlework.

"When you are doing needlework both hands are busy. You don't want to set it down until you've finished knitting or smocking this row or pattern, or cross stitching that color area, or quilting just one more section. Besides, you don't want to get your hands dirty from food or you will soil whatever you are working on." -- Carol C.

"So, what were you doing with cheesecake in your refrigerator? The first step for conquering that awful snack monster is restraint from buying those goodies at the grocery store." -- Bev

Lobes of Steel

Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain

The Morris water maze is the rodent equivalent of an I.Q. test: mice are placed in a tank filled with water dyed an opaque color. Beneath a small area of the surface is a platform, which the mice can’t see. Despite what you’ve heard about rodents and sinking ships, mice hate water; those that blunder upon the platform climb onto it immediately. Scientists have long agreed that a mouse’s spatial memory can be inferred by how quickly the animal finds its way in subsequent dunkings. A “smart” mouse remembers the platform and swims right to it.

In the late 1990s, one group of mice at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, near San Diego, blew away the others in the Morris maze. The difference between the smart mice and those that floundered? Exercise. The brainy mice had running wheels in their cages, and the others didn’t.

Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain.

This theory emerged from those mouse studies at the Salk Institute. After conducting maze tests, the neuroscientist Fred H. Gage and his colleagues examined brain samples from the mice. Conventional wisdom had long held that animal (and human) brains weren’t malleable: after a brief window early in life, the brain could no longer grow or renew itself. The supply of neurons — the brain cells that enable us to think — was believed to be fixed almost from birth. As the cells died through aging, mental function declined. The damage couldn’t be staved off or repaired.

Read more . . .

Low-Cal Sweets Might Still Make Kids Obese

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Diet foods and drinks meant to help children control their weight may actually spur overeating and obesity, Canadian researchers say.

The study found that animals learn to associate the taste of food with the amount of caloric energy it provides. The researchers speculate that children who eat low-calorie versions of foods that normally have a high calorie content may develop distorted connections between taste and calorie content, resulting in overeating as the children grow up.

"The use of diet food and drinks from an early age into adulthood may induce overeating and gradual weight gain through the taste conditioning process that we have described," lead author and sociologist Dr. David Pierce, of the University of Alberta, said in a prepared statement.

In a series of experiments published Aug. 8 in the journal Obesity, the researchers found that young rats started to overeat when they received low-calorie food and drink. Adolescent rats did not overeat when given low-calorie items.

This may be because, unlike the younger rats, the adolescent rats didn't rely on taste-related cues to assess the caloric energy content of their food, the researchers said.

"Based on what we've learned, it is better for children to eat healthy, well-balanced diets with sufficient calories for their daily activities rather than low-calorie snacks or meals," Pierce said.

[source]

Weight bias may harm obese children

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The stigma that society attaches to obesity can cause children immediate, and possibly lasting, harm, according to a research review.

Overweight children and teens are commonly teased or ostracized by their peers, and sometimes treated differently by teachers and even parents. This, the review shows, can lead to low self-esteem, poor school performance, avoidance of physical activity and, in the most serious cases, depression and suicide.

Research has long demonstrated the weight bias that heavy children face. In a classic 1961 study, 640 subjects between 10 and 11 years old were shown six pictures of other children their age: one child was overweight; one was normal-weight; and four had some form of physical disability.

When the study participants were asked to rank the children in the order of whom they would like to be friends with, they ranked the overweight child last.

Read more . . .

Study Suggests That Sugar Should Not Be Excluded From Slimming Diets

New study challenges conventional thinking that high carbohydrate, low fat slimming plan should contain little or no added sugar (sucrose).

A team of scientists at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh has found that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet (containing sucrose) combined with physical activity achieved the greatest health benefits in overweight subjects. The study, which will be published in the August issue of International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, provides evidence that the exclusion of sucrose, as is normally advocated in a weight loss diet, is not necessary to achieve weight reduction. In fact, the palatability of sucrose may even help dieters stick to their eating plans.

Read more . . .

Obesity link to high blood pressure has weakened

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - It seems that the association between body mass index (BMI) and high blood pressure or hypertension has decreased since 1989, researchers say. The finding suggests that obesity may not have as much of an impact on heart-related disease as previously thought.

"High blood pressure is a leading cause of the global burden of disease," Dr. Pascal Bovet, of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues write in the medical journal Epidemiology. "The prevalence of hypertension, and of several other conditions (including diabetes), is considered to be linked to the worldwide epidemic of obesity."

The researchers examined trends in blood pressure and BMI over a 15-year interval in the Seychelles. Their analysis was based on two independent surveys conducted in 1989 and 2004 using representative samples of the population between the ages of 25 and 64 years.

There was a slight decrease in average blood pressure between 1989 and 2004 in both men and women. The prevalence of high blood pressure changed little during this time -- from 45 to 44 percent in men and from 34 to 36 percent in women.

The percentage of people who were overweight, defined as a BMI of 25 or more, increased from 39 percent to 60 percent between 1989 and 2004.

Read more . . .

Early, Quality Child Care Linked to Less Depression

Children of low income families benefit from quality educational child care as the involvement appears to protect children against the negative effects of their home environments.

The early intervention, for young children from infancy to age 5, appears to make a difference in decreasing symptoms of depression in early adulthood.

The report, from the FPG Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uses data from the Abecedarian Project, a longitudinal study begun in 1972 in which 111 high-risk children were randomly assigned to early educational child care from infancy to age 5 or to a control group that received various other forms of child care.

The study is published in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

Read more . . . .

YAY for my online Food Log

I think this is going to help A LOT in keeping me on track or, rather, keeping me from letting getting off track last longer. I have been sick for the last week and a half. Between horrific menstrual pain and a bout of food poisoning, I just did not do well. And my food log shows it. I didn't keep it correctly, didn't even go back and try to at least guess at what I ate. It was grim.

Now, had this been a paper log, it would be under a couch or bed at this time and I wouldn't have the energy to find it. So I would just lapse back into not paying attention to my diet and how I feel. But because my food log is online, accessible from anywhere I can get on a computer, I have been able to drag myself back to keeping it . . .and to thinking about the consequences of eating bad stuff. (I'm pretty sure the food poisoning was not at all helped by eating junk food last weekend because I was still feeling crappy from my period.)

Anyway, I feel quite hopeful that this is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship that helps me completely change my lifestyle!

Food and Emotion

A poem I wrote many years ago.

I am a baby in my crib
crying
I'm cold, I'm lonely
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me a bottle.

I am a child, locked in my room,
crying
I'm hurt, I'm lonely,
Hold me, love. . .
and you give me cookies.

I am a adolescent, imprisoned in my fears
crying
I'm afraid, I'm lonely,
Hold me, love me. . .
and you give me pizza and the TV Guide.

I am a woman, trapped in self
crying
I'm lost, I'm lonely
Hold me, love me. . .
and it's too late.

Feeding your love hunger

by Joan Dickinson

I'm binge shopping for groceries and cooking up a storm. My daughter is coming home for a visit, so I best be true to our family motto: Food is Love.

Now of course we laugh at that motto, know deep down inside it isn't true. But like many jokes, there is an element of truth. I like to think that my grandmother's and mother's recipes are fun ways of remembering their nourishment of our lives, but is it really necessary to fix the 1,000-calorie caramel cinnamon rolls?

All of this is food for thought.

We're told there is an epidemic of obesity in our nation. Do we eat to nourish our hearts and souls, to nurture and comfort ourselves, to soothe away anxiety? Is this emotional eating, meant to heal our hearts, the wrong cure for the wrong organ? Our stomachs really need small amounts of food. Our hearts and souls need love.

OK. If you buy this idea, how can we feed love to our hearts? Where does nourishing love come from? How can we fill up on high-test love? What's the recipe for just the right amount?

Hmm. There's a lot to ponder here.

Read more . . . .