Winning Weight Loss Tip: It's Not Just About What You Put Into Your Mouth

I have a wait problem. I hate to wait. When I want something, I want it NOW.

My wait problem also applies to my need to lose weight problem.

When I want to lose weight, I want to lose it NOW.

I am happy to report I succeeded at losing weight very quickly -- 10 pounds in 2 months on my five foot three frame!

How?

I not only focused on what I put into my mouth -- but what emerged from my mouth -- wordwise!

I created A NEW VOCABULARY MENU -- where I changed the words I allowed to enter and exit my mouth about my weight and my slim down process.

In other words...I went on a special Word Diet - beginning with banning the word "diet." After all, if you really want to get slim and healthier, you're not "on" a diet -- because this implies going "off" the diet at some point. In fact, the word diet has a lot of negative associations. I hear that word and think: "LOTS OF PAIN AHEAD!"

So I renamed the healthier eating habits I'm now forever doing as my "DO IT PROGRAM" -- not a diet program --and so I'm now really "doing it" - eating healthier for life.

Another word on MY NEW VOCABULARY MENU: "APPRECI-EAT." This word is all about slowing down the eating and thereby tasting food more - so you'll want to eat less. Studies show that if you eat more slowly, you allow your body the needed time to signal to your brain that you are full -- which is usually 20 minutes. So I no longer eat meals and snacks - I appreciEAT them!

More words on my NEW VOCABULARY MENU: "FORWARD" and "BACKWARD." Every food one chooses to eat either moves you forward to your dream weight - or backwards to gaining more weight. So when I look at a food I ask myself: "Is this a forward food - or a backward food?"

Yet more words from MY NEW VOCABULARY MENU: "THE OLD ME" and "THE NEW ME." All your actions come from your identity. If you think: "I always overeat late at night." Guess what? You do. If you think: "I'm the type of person who can resist chocolate -- the new me is great at resisting it -- the new me eats forward foods -- the old me ate backward foods!" Guess what? The new you will be very much going forwards to fab - instead of backwards to flab!

Another word on MY NEW VOCABULARY MENU: "WALLPOWER!" To hell with ordinary mere mortal willpower. When you have WALLPOWER, nothing will be able to break through your wall of commitment!

A new sentence on MY NEW VOCABULARY MENU: "INCREASING MY APPETITE FOR LIFE." If you want to be a slim, healthy person it's essential you swap the pleasure of food with life's multitudinous other delights.

FACT: If you're presently overweight, it's because you're not being hungry enough about pursuing life's other abundant pleasures - and are seeing mostly the pleasure of food.

FACT: If you want to lose weight you must make sure your appetite for life is far bigger than your appetite for mere food.

So... swap chips and salsa for salsa class! Stop eating! Start painting! Recognize the joy of taking photos lasts longer than the joy of ice cream!

Finally, here's an entire sentence of empowering words which very much helped me stay focused on my slim down goal: "NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD AS SLIM AND SEXY FEELS."

Every time I wanted to pig out -- I simply quickly reminded myself how this temporary pleasure of food was a very minor pleasure, compared to the ultimate rewarding pleasure of feeling sim and sexy!

For more weight loss tips, check out the famed ENOUGH DAMMIT book -- which explains how to break bad addictive behaviors for good.

Comments

[rpr]

I just "discovered" Marion Nestle, NYU professor of nutrition, food studies and public health.
Check out http://www.foodpolitics.com/, read http://www.foodpolitics.com/pdf/eatngsimp.pdf (SciAm article from last year) and listen to
http://fora.tv/2008/03/06/Marion_Nestle_Making_Good_Eating_Choices.
The last link is a 1 hour lecture at Stanford. It's all there - adult and child obesity causes and health impacts, nutrition, the supermarket, food industry, politics... And it is funny and disturbing at the same time.
This info needs wider distribution - please spread the news.

[SharonWantsToTalk]

It really is about the tape that is currently looping in your head. I have been on both sides of that loop all my life. I have kept weight off for years only to have that bad loop gradually make its way back into my life and find myself fat again. I want a strategy that stops that fat loop from taking back over. Anyone have any ideas for that? It seems like falling off the wagon to me. But eating unhealthy gradually isn't anywhere near as stark as say drinking again after being sober for years.

[rcpmac]

Why am I recalling the infamous "hunger project"?

[JudeC]

Decent advice, but I gotta say, ALL THOSE CAPS gave me a headache.

[siri2k]

Ms. Salmansohn, GREAT ARTICLE! I'm printing this to use, plus I'm giving a copy to my trainer who will love it and use it with her other clients.
GOOD JOB!
And congratulations on the new you.
Thank you.

[provgrays]

You have found ideas that work for you and they are positive and life affirming without focusing on guilt, self recrimination and denial.

You deserve credit and all the best.

[DarthVector]

ok diet advice. ask me - i have just lost nearly 10kg in 6 weeks, and feeling fantastic. nothing else budged my gut. i eat all the raw fruit, vegetables, nuts and sprouts i want. on this diet, just stay full - of goodness. millions of fantastic recipes. nothing cooked or processed. all living food. i feel better and the weight is falling off. you get plenty protein/calcium etc too, so forget the meat and dairy propaganda.

it works.

"if you want to succeed, ask the people succeeding how they did it".

[Aloisius]

I've been on a restricted calorie uh... meal plan for a little while now. I've lose about 1.5 lbs a week and I eat whatever I want: ice cream, chocolate, pasta, meat, etc. I just eat a lot less of it. I take very small portions, eat them, ignore my immediate hunger and wait 20 minutes before I decide if I'm still actually hungry and if so, eat another small portion. I've found that amounts of food that I thought would never satisfy me just take some time to kick in. I also eat a piece of fruit or a 6 oz yogurt between meals which keeps me from binging at the end of the day.

I do count calories (roughly), so maybe that helps. I also re-adjust the number of calories I intake weekly based on weight change - too much weight loss means I add more calories to my diet so I don't feel like I'm missing out and blow my die... er meal plan, too little and I drop my calorie intake by a little bit.

This probably won't work for everyone. I know the extreme diets of limiting sugar or limiting fat or what not sometimes help people. Personally I find cravings too much to bear.

[peachfuzz]

Some people are sexier heavier.
Not all skinny people are sensual or sexy.
This is one of the myths that is shoved down our throats.

Weight is primarily a HEALTH issue and what people find as
sexy is not the same across the board.

There is no set formula for sex appeal : one size does not fit all.
The idea of sexy has been corrupted by mass marketing to sell diet books,
magazines, movies & processed foods.

We need to eat healthier and exercise to be healthy. Period.
That ought to be enough of a selling point if we value ourselves enough.

If that had been the salient point that we were taught,
there would not be a billion dollar diet industry.

[SolarPowerGuy]

You're right to note that much of what drives the American obsession with body weight amounts to fashion, guilt and vanity.

Having said that, how many of us have developed "metabolic syndrome" -- a body mass index (BMI) exceeding 25, and one or more of the following problems: high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or cardiovascular difficulties?

Lots of us. Many, many more of us than one generation ago. For people in this position, it IS important for them to watch their weight.

[peachfuzz]

Metabolic Syndrome is serious. It will shorten your life
and increase your risk for debilitating illnesses.

Health information needs to be the focus of smart living.

The issues do not need to be contaminated by emotional appeals
to be sexy; how many people thought losing weight was the magic
bullet to "the perfect life"?

Fact is you can lose weight and nothing else changes for the better.
If you start out thinking that your health comes first, you'll be better off.

Health is the key, not promises for something else.

[truth101]

Finally a plan with some divine idea about learning self control. Terrific. I
AM going to begin right now. Thanks. Many foods to avoid. ICE CREAM
SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL.

[jinjinpinti]

Yep. Ice cream ingestion is a much favored suicide method. When I get depressed I have to fight my "Death by ice cream!" compulsion. Whoever can invent an ice cream that is actually a health food and tastes like the real thing would become the richest person in the world very quickly.

[recruitgal]

Nonsense. There is nothing wrong with ice-cream. It's delicious.

The problem is people demolishing an entire tub of the stuff in one sitting.

Everything in moderation.

[fcsakes]

Nonsense....:) The culprit is moist, rich, deeply intoxicating chocolate cake. I have conquered it - almost.

Exactly 1.5 inches X 1.5 inches - eat slow. Lick the plate.

[happycat]

I agree. Life isn't worth living w/o a creamy yummy bowl of real ice cream every now and then.

[phoebusapollo]

Prohibition tends to lead towards cravings. A better approach focus on swapping in some good alternatives and recognising the consequences of our "favourites."

Sure it can help to purge a cupboard and fridge- but the products will always be around the corner at the shops. Much better to simply learn about calories and consequences.

I've managed pretty substantial weight loss (30kg with a heap of muscle added) without giving up ANYTHING. I just eat less of it, less often. And when I do go out, I don't feel guilty and I do have dessert- I just modify what I eat for the rest of that week.

In any case, working out more and eating slightly less (and healthier) is the way to go. Rapidly cutting calories is terrible for the metabolism.

[truth101]

Finally a plan with some divine idea about learning self control. Terrific. I
AM going to begin right now. Thanks.

[grapesofmath]

Weird approach, but I like it.
I think all of us can use a little more discretion with what comes out of our mouths....as well as what goes in.
Nice work.

[alieninvader]

The one I definitely agree with is losing the word "diet". Diet implies temporary. You need to find a way of healthy living that works for you...for the rest of your life.

[sonny088]

Hey whatever works, right? You obviously found something that worked for you, hopefully it will benefit others. Contrary to popular belief, its not appreciably harder to lose weight as you get older, and your metabolism does NOT slow down that much, UNLESS you lose muscle, which as a personal trainer, I see every day. What I see, and I've been a personall trainer for 15 years, is gross overeating and what slows down as people age is movement. What what some people call 'activity' or 'exercise' is often unbelievable to me. Its been shown time and time again that if you have the same muscle mass at 50 as at 20, your resting metabolism will be roughly identical. Keep your muscle by strength training 2 - 3 days a week, and take a half hour brisk walk a day and you're good to go!

Congratulations and keep up the great work! Yes it IS worth it!

[DennyCrane]

People just need to develop good habits. Most of us try to eat right and exercise, but we'd rather not. So we do it until we reach our goals, then stop, and soon discover we're back where we started. Imagine exercising even when you have no weight to lose. Imagine eating healthy just to be healthy, not because you're trying to change your appearance.

[LollieDotCom]

Whoa there Nelly, people just need to develop good habits? It's a tad more complex than that. I've been fighting my weight all my life and it was a gradual, but consistently gaining weight battle until I learned primarily these two things from Dr. Oz.

1. When you eat foods that are so processed they're no longer nutritious (98% of breads, cereals, pastas and foods made with those items) you're going to be hungry until your body is nourished. We're a nation of overfed and undernourished people.

2. High fructose corn syrup which is in practically everything in the grocery store cuts off the lines of communication between your gut and your brain... that message being sent by your gut that you're satisfied now and it's okay to quit eating - your brain doesn't get that message.

I'd be eating weightwatchers brand foods and drinking slimfast.... both of which contain high fructose corn syrup and couldn't understand why I'd feel virtually compelled to binge eat.

After a life time, the binge eating has been stopped. It's over. If I'd followed Dr. Oz when I was 20... wow. God I DESPISE high fructose corn syrup. I attribute a good 80% of the emotional pain in my life to NOT KNOWING how it worked.

It's not legal to add it to anything in Europe. Amazing that we still add it to everything.

[happycat]

You are absolutely right about the high fructose corn syrup. It needs to be banned. It is making us all fatter and unhealthier. I only buy foods for my family that don't have it. Oftentimes extra work is involved like making my own cookies and muffins b/c the stuff at the supermarket that is healthy is usually much more expensive.

[jinjinpinti]

You are so correct about high fructose corn syrup. It is the "Stuff." Now imagine that you were born back in the 40's when women decided breast feeding was animalistic, so you were fed from day 1 on a formula of diluted canned milk and Kayro syrup (corn syrup. My poor body never had a chance.

[CintiBlue]

LollieDotCom:

Love your comments.

I don't know Dr. OZ, but I found my way to be satisfied and nourished and and feel that same sense that IT'S OVER. I'm free.

And, I don't have to willpower my way through life.