Category: Brain Health

How to Change Your Defects: Part 1

If you’re a Jesus-follower, you know God is in the defect-correcting business. At least you know it intellectually. Enjoying that experience is often elusive, though, because we aren’t always interested—or determined enough—to cooperate with God in His change process.

Or really believe and grab hold of His promise that He can do it.

 

What does God have to say about defect changing?

One of the most well known Scripture passages that addresses this issue is Romans 12:1-2.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (NIV).

 

I love the way Eugene Peterson said it in The Message:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

 

Let’s turn these passages into defect-changing bullet points.

  • God is merciful.
  • Our bodies are important to Him.
  • Offering our bodies (that includes our mind) to Him is an act of worship.
  • Thoughts determine our feelings, and feelings often determine our actions.
  • We get ourselves into trouble when we allow the world to conform and mold us.
  • Our mind is the problem—if we want change, we need to start there. We often forget that our mind is a part of our body.
  • In order to change, our mind needs renewing.
  • In order for us to know God’s will for our lives, we must have renewed minds. No way around it.

 

Changing your defects sounds so basic, but it’s so difficult. Why?

The world and its forces are powerful. They don’t take kindly to people that push back against the status quo or current thought wave. We war against the principalities of darkness.

And we war against ourselves, our old, defect-laden nature. It’s hard to fight against yourself. It’s always much easier to give in, at least initially. Then it becomes something like feeding and satisfying the beast, and we find ourselves venturing down a road of darkness and perpetual frustration, anger, and sadness.

 

NEXT WEEK, we’re going to delve into the processes we need to go through to rid ourselves of those defects and effectively change. But for this week, I invite you to prepare.

 

Focus on your feelings, how you react emotionally to triggers or life events.

And then note your behavior. What is your autopilot fallback response to those feelings?

Is it anger, yelling, withdrawal, self-harm, eating, avoidance, giving in, shaming or shunning someone?

 

Behavioral psychologists often recommend that you write these feelings and responses down, so you get a better handle on what causes or triggers you to behave the way you do. It’s like writing down an, if this (happens), then that (happens) chart. I suspect you’ll find it eye-opening.

Then we’ll come back together next week to focus on the steps we need to take to change our defective behaviors, one defect at a time!

Until then, do some mind and feeling exploration. No blaming; just noting.

And remember, God is merciful!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

How Do Genes and Gut Bacteria Affect Weight Loss?

My ninety-seven year old mother is decidedly opinionated about seriously overweight people.

“How can they let themselves get like that?” she laments while shaking her head and cruising along with her walker.

 

Sounds terribly judgmental, doesn’t it?

Yet scientists are proving there is an undercurrent of truth to that sentiment. A strong undercurrent.

 

Research indicates that the majority of the obese people in our country—40% of us fall into that category—didn’t get there by having bad or “fat genes.” On the contrary, evidently genes account for only 3% of the differences in people’s sizes.

Most overweight strugglers got that way for a variety of other reasons than genes:

  1. Learning how to and eating the wrong foods. (Family habits.)
  2. Learning how to and eating too much food. (Family habits.)
  3. Not exercising enough.

 

And now scientists know other variables play into the problem. Things like:

  1. Not enough sleep.
  2. Too much stress.
  3. Wrong kind of stress.
  4. Socioeconomic status.
  5. Mental health.
  6. Daily responsibilities at work and home.
  7. The health of your microbiome—your gut bacteria.
  8. Kitchen smarts and comfort—knowing how to cook and being comfortable preparing meals.

 

And I would add another variable:

Spiritual health.

 

So the verdict is in:

Experts agree that genes alone do not explain the rapid rise in obesity we’re seeing today.

 

National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientist, Kevin Hall, laments the fact that scientists still don’t know why weight loss can vary so much from person-to-person when they’re all on the same diet. He says it’s the biggest open question in the field.

 

What if you do have a “fat gene”?

It might seem easy to fall back on the knowledge of having a “fat gene” as a good excuse for not being able to lose and maintain a healthy weight. But John Mathers, a professor of human nutrition at Newcastle University in England sites a study of 9,000 people that found that being a fat gene carrier had no influence on that person’s ability to lose weight. Mathers says,

“Carrying the high-risk form of the gene makes you more likely to be a bit heavier, but it shouldn’t prevent you from losing weight”

(Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Why Your Diet Isn’t Working and What to do What It” The Science of Weight Loss: Special Time Edition, 2019; page 16).

 

What about that microbiome—the gut bacteria?

Researchers for the Personalized Nutrition Project at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have been studying how gut bacteria may play a role in weight loss and maintenance. Their researchis fascinating.

In a nutshell, they found that blood sugar levels vary widely among people after they ate the exact same meal. That finding alone debunks the common and popular idea of everyone responding identically to the same diet recommendations.

And they were able to go further. They developed a mathematical algorithm for every person involved in the test trial, and that algorithm can accurately predict that person’s blood sugar response to a specific food just on the basis of their personal microbiome!

Knowing that could be the next frontier in weight loss prescription—your doctor being able to design a tailor-made diet plan, just for you and your body!

 

Another big contributor to weight gain and weight loss struggles are…

Chemicals.

Yup. Chemicals we’re exposed to in our daily lives. Chemicals like:

  • BPA found in canned goods lining
  • Cash-register receipts
  • Flame retardant material in sofas and mattresses and children’s clothing
  • Pesticide residue on our food
  • Phthalates in plastics (think water bottles and food storage containers) and the makeup we wear

 

What’s wrong with these chemicals and how do they factor into obesity?

These chemicals are able to mimic human hormones. And that leads scientists to believe they can, and are, wreaking havoc on our endocrine systems. They’ve been found in human breast milk. And some doctors believe it’s what contributing to children experiencing puberty at younger ages.

Some doctors are going so far as placing this chemical-endocrine danger as the third lynch pin—along with poor diet and lack of exercise—in the trilogy of weight loss obstructers and obesity epidemic contributors.

 

Case Study—

I’d like to pin my current overweightness (not yet in the obese category) on a lot of things, including my slowing hormones. But when I take an honest look at my current lifestyle, it’s a far cry from what it was even two years ago, when I exercised regularly and paid closer attention to what I ate.

Although I’m eating healthier now than I did then, I’m eating more and burning off less. I had started sitting at my computer too much and stopped going to the gym regularly, all while continuing to consume the same number of calories I did when much more active.

I’d like to blame it on my slowing hormones, too, but first I’m ramping up my exercise again, before rushing off to my doctor for a thyroid test. I want to see if increasing my muscle mass will improve my metabolism to a point where the weight loss is regular and a healthy weight obtainable and manageable.

And because I’m getting older, I know my daily calorie requirements are dropping, so I need to take an honest look at what I’m packing in and when. And I’ve been accumulating sleep data, courtesy of the cool fit watch my younger son gave me for Christmas. From that I’ve determined I do best with 8 ½ hours of sleep. And, surprisingly, I seem to get more and better sleep when I go to bed later and rise a little later than an early bird.

Maybe that’s how my clock is wired, to be a night owl, even though I do on occasion enjoy waking up early enough to see the sunrise. Maybe not on a regular basis, though. So, I adjust to my personal biorhythms. Thankfully, I can do that since I’m self-employed. My poor husband—who definitely leans toward night owlness—doesn’t have that luxury.

Another thing that helps me immensely in getting adequate, restful sleep is shutting down all of the tech appliances well before bedtime. An hour is best, but I’m aiming for longer time between computer/phone/tablet and lights out. I find my sleep switch starts kicking in earlier and gradually ramps up the melatonin production in preparation for bed.

And one last thing I watch is how much food I eat for dinner and what time my last meal is. If my last meal is at 3-4 hours prior to bedtime, I sleep better. And if I consume my last glass of water 3 hours before going to bed, I’m less likely to be awakened by bladder pressure screaming its needs in the middle of a good dream!

 

As the long-living Seventh Day Adventists say, “Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper for dinner. It’s great advice!

NEXT WEEK, we’ll take a closer look at this Keto diet craze and the benefits of food restriction or fasting a couple of days a week.

Until then, take heart! You don’t have to be stuck in your unhealthy weight mode. Perseverance and consistency can get you where you want to be—healthy!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

Is Exercising More or Reducing Calories the Answer to Successful Weight Management? What You Need to Know About the Science of Weight Loss

Which of these statements have you heard?

“To lose weight, all you need to do is eat less and exercise more!”

“Losing weight is all about calories in and calories out.”

“All calories are the same—a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.”

 

For years this is what we were taught in nutrition and exercise physiology classes, and it’s what we told our patients.

Recent research is showing that these statements don’t paint the whole, complex weight loss picture. But before we dig deeper into what we’re learning now, let’s get an overview of the ugly reality of weight and fatness in the United States.

 

The discouraging facts—

  • In 1990, 15% of adults were classified as obese.
  • Now, at least 71% of Americans are considered to be overweight; nearly 40% are clinically obese.
  • Sadder still is that 17% of kids and teens are obese. When I was a kid it was rare to have a fat kid in your class. (I know that blunt statement sounds mean, but we need to start calling it like it is: these kids are in serious danger of having premature health problems and living burdened lives saddled with chronic health issues.)
  • Excess body fat dramatically increases the risk of serious health problems, like:
  1. Type II Diabetes
  2. Heart Disease
  3. Depression
  4. Respiratory problems
  5. Major cancers
  6. Fertility problems
  • Millions and millions and millions of us spend billions on diet pills, special meal plans and group weight loss programs, and gym memberships.
  • The National Institute of Health considers the problem to be so dire that the organization provided 931 million dollars in 2018 to research the problem.

 

What does the recent research show?

So what has all of that money and research shown us? The answer is both complex, and a relief.

Scientists have concluded that a calorie is not always a calorie, and that it’s not as easy as calories in and calories out.

What they have found is: it’s the composition of the food you eat rather than how much of it you can burn off exercising that allows you to sustain, and maintain, weight loss.

And these scientists know something else: the diet that’s best for your friend is probably NOT the best one for you!

Evidently people’s individual responses to diets vary enormously. But what they’re not absolutely sure about is why that’s true.

 

So what’s a dieter to do?

Apply yourself to finding out what works for you! And that may require some trial-and-error time.

 

A story of the dreaded calorie and counting it—

Before WWI, scientists throughout Europe had been focusing on and studying the concept of a calorie being a unit of energy. In college, that concept was hammered into my head, and into my nutrition calculations. We studied bomb calorimeters— wonderful devices you put food into and burned so you could determine just how much energy was released during the destruction process. That gave you the calorie count for that particular food item.

But in WWI, in the midst of a global food shortage, the United States wanted a way to prompt people to reduce their food intake. So the government devised its first-ever “scientific diet” for Americans to follow. At its core was the concept and practice of counting calories.

The following decades saw bone-thin bodies as the ideal body structure, so dieting plans were developed along the idea of eating low-calorie meals. One example of this is the still–popular grapefruit diet, where you consume half a grapefruit at every meal. People believed the grapefruit enzymes were natural fat burners. Then the cabbage-soup-every-day diet appeared. I’m not sure what they thought the cabbage might contribute, except to enhance digestion and whisk the fat away.

Then in the 1960s, a woman named Jean Nidetch and her co-founders became insta-millionaires with their Weight Watchers meetings program. She turned a small, weekly encouragement meeting she held in her living room into a billion dollar (today) business.

Her idea promoted that if you ate less fattening food, then the weight would disappear. That helped propel the late 70s idea that if you just eat less fat, you’ll be less fat. I remember promoting that erroneous idea in the 80s. Based on what I’d learned in school, it seemed to make sense—fat gets stored in the body as fat, so if you consume less of it, then you should wear less of it.

How did that work out?

Not well. Not only did people not lose weight, they actually gained weight!

 

The metabolism factor—

Something else scientists have found contributes to what’s been a frustrating mystery.

When you lose weight, your resting metabolism (the energy your body burns while at rest, just to keep the system going) actually slows down. And when you gain back some of the weight, that metabolism doesn’t speed up. It remains stubbornly entrenched in slow mode. And the number of calories a day it doesn’t burn can be startlingly high.

For some contestants on the reality show The Biggest Loser, their metabolisms registered at burning around 700 fewer calories per day than they did prior to their fat burning journey on the show!

But my question is: could that result be due to the fact that contestants lost a huge amount of weight in a very short period of time, something doctors do not encourage, for a variety of reasons, including heart health.

 

Regardless of the answer, the sad truth is that most people replenish their lost weight at two to four pounds per year.

On the surface, this finding seems to support the idea that the body undermines your efforts to take away what it wants to keep.

 

More of the weight loss story—

Some people—and you probably know one—seem to succeed in losing weight with any diet approach.

Yet there is a bright side to the story.

Take a group of people eating a low-carb diet and compare them to a group following a low-fat plan, and you see almost no overall difference in the weight loss results.

What you do see, however, are three types of people: those who lose a lot of weight on the plan they’re following; those that stay stagnant, with no weight loss; and those that actually gain weight.

Do scientists understand why that happens? Unfortunately, not yet, but they are making inroads to cracking the secret.

 

Rena Wong, a Brown University professor of psychiatry and human behavior has been tracking dieters for 23 years through the National Weight Loss Control Registry (NWCR). What she and her colleagues have found is that most of the people on the list have lost significant amounts of weight—a minimum of 30 pounds—and been able to keep it off for several years by varying means.

The significant finding? Most of these people had to try more than one diet before landing one that worked for them.

 

How did these dieters keep their lost weight off?

It turns out that the most successful dieters have some similar characteristics:

  • Most modified their diet in some way.
  • Most reduced how much food they ate in a day.
  • 94% increased their physical activity.
  • The most popular exercise among them was walking.
  • Most ate breakfast on a daily basis.
  • Most weigh themselves weekly, in order to keep an eye on weight creep.
  • Most watch less than 10 hours of television weekly.
  • Most exercise a minimum of an hour every day.

 

And they also have similar attitudes and behaviors:

  • Most do not consider themselves to be hard-charging, super-performer Type A’s.
  • Most are self-described morning people.
  • Most were motivated by a health scare; a desire to live a longer, healthier life; and to be able to spend more time with their loved ones.
  • And they were highly motivated to find what worked for them and to persevere.

 

Take-home lessons for us:

This information can be disheartening and encouraging.

It tells us that we can lose weight, if we diligently try to find the method that works for us, stay determined and positive, and persevere in best diet practices for our body, at any age.

It’s nice to know that there’s more to the story. It gives many of us a sense of relief and re-invigoration of determination and hope.

And I think it’s important for us to always remember that a loving God fearfully and wonderfully makes all of us. He starts knitting us together in our mother’s womb.

 

I know only too well how easy it is to throw up your hands in frustration when the one-size-fits-all plan fails you. But I invite you to rejoice over your uniqueness, knowing that you will find something that gives you success, if you want it badly enough and are willing to stick with it.

NEXT WEEK: How to find what diet and exercise regimen works for you.

Until then, take heart, you can find success if you know the science of weight loss!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

For more information on this particular research, see the article “Why Tour Diet Isn’t Working and What to Do About It by Alexandra Sifferlin in Time magazine’s special edition publication The Science of Weight Loss, 2019.

19 New Year Prayers for Yourself

Little did I know when I planned this week’s topic that I would find myself in profound need of it!

 

Last Monday, just as I was walking out the door (literally) to drive to Phoenix to attend a 3-day Critical Incident Stress Management program for first responders and chaplains, I tore the outside meniscus in my right knee. At least that’s what the Physicians Assistant thought I did, although I’m unconvinced that’s the only thing I tore.

Anyway, much pain, an icy pack of corn, and two hours later, I was all crutched and braced up and driving up to Phoenix. I know; I’m a stubborn masochist. But the seminar was wonderful, and it was good to escape the distractions of unfinished work at home and be stimulated by learning (one of my favorite things to do).

The swelling subsided a bit, I did get to the point where I could put some weight on it, and I snagged a front-row chair where I could spread out and prop my leg up on a crutch. Sleeping was a bit more challenging, though, since moving around caused pain.

So I definitely felt the need for prayer! I needed a MRI as fast as they could get approval and schedule it (I had it very late last Friday afternoon), and a doctor’s read of it. (As I write this, I’m still awaiting that.)

So, with my big toe bone spur removal still in recovery mode, and this new injury added to that, my year is shaping up to be much different than the one I envisioned. Thankfully, we hadn’t made any specific plans (which is unusual), and most of my next several months is wide open and free to deal with it all.

 

But I really want this knee to heal well, so I can return to Spain to walk more of the Camino and visit my aunt and two uncles this summer and maybe do some hiking around Big Bear, Northern California, and Oregon. Those goals will require a delicate dance between my medical providers and me—in treatment, rehabilitation, patient adherence, and my old body’s healing response. I’ll need to be vigilant and rein in my tendency to overdo and push.

And I’ll need to be praying focused prayers, rather than just looking at the entire event pragmatically.

 

New Year prayers—

You may have already thought of many things you can bring before God in prayer, specifically for this new year; you may have already received specific prayer requests—like the young girl at my former church that was hit by a car after getting of the school bus this past week and is still unconscious; and a dear, older friend in the hospital for heart problems. And another friend’s sister-in-law who fell and hit her head on New Year’s Eve and never regained consciousness. Her husband had to make the decision last Monday to remove life support. Now the family is confronting profound, unexpected grief after the shock.

A lot of things have already gone very, very wrong in this New Year, and, so far, it’s been pretty rough for many people. And you likely feel a burden on your heart to pray for them.

 

Praying for yourself—

Truly, there is much to pray for.

But what about more general prayers, the ones we should probably be praying all of the time?

These would be personal prayers specifically for us, the ones that draw us closer to God, that delve us into seeking His heart, knowing Him better, being more like Him, preparing ourselves for the tough, ugly parts of life that get slung our way. The tough, ugly events that get slung in the way of friends and others.

 

Below you’ll find some ideas for self-prayer. I’ve developed them from Gospel for Asia founder K.P. Yohannan’s praying for yourself material. Hopefully some of them will touch your heart.

 

You could pray for:

  • mercy that you may endure, no matter what the year brings your way;
  • grace to be an encouragement to others;
  • strength to stand for God’s truth and justice in your home, your workplace and the public forum;
  • an extra measure of love so you can demonstrate God’s love and give hope to those around you;
  • help in seeing and loving people as God sees and loves them;
  • help in being an encourager to those despondent in spirit or frightened by the world’s precarious state;
  • help with believing in others’ potential;
  • help in living with an open heart and hand—in being generous as our Heavenly Father is generous to ALL;
  • help in loving others when no one else will;
  • help in knowing how to take care of yourself;
  • help in extending grace to others, as God has extended His grace to you;
  • help in believing in the seemingly impossible;
  • help in expecting God to show up and do great things;
  • help in deepening your prayer life in order to have a better relationship with the Father;
  • help in removing any unbelief or a jaded, cynical spirit;
  • help in self-discipline and holy living;
  • help with trust that God will meet your every need this year;
  • help in being obedient to God’s call and direction in your life;
  • help in developing a more thankful, worshipful heart, in all things.

 

These are just a few ideas. Nineteen of them to be exact. I’m sure you can add to the list.

I invite you to re-write them in prayer form, personalize them, use them as daily devotionals, or focus on the ones you know you really need help with.

 

NEXT WEEK we’ll explore the impact on your life of praying the Scriptures. And I’ll give you an example of what I’m specifically doing this month in that area.

Until then, don’t neglect to pray for yourself as you pray for others. Your relationship with the Father, and depth of it, depends upon it!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

The Science of Weight Loss: Rethinking Your Dieting Programs

Did you see the recent news report about the famous Keto diet, which is the big diet craze right now. While some extol its virtues, others claim it’s dangerous.

So what and who should you believe when it comes to healthful eating and lifestyle?

While anecdotal evidence can be helpful, it’s best to follow what the current research says, as long as the research you’re reading isn’t funded by special interest groups or the chemical or food companies promoting the food or protocol. (Beware, some information you find on “reliable” sites is also tainted by big money.)

 

So what are the recent findings?

Like a breath of fresh air, the recent findings are…(drum roll, please)…

 

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL!!

 

Hallelujah!! The research is validating what most of us have known all along.

Everyone is different, and my diet plan may not look like yours. And it probably shouldn’t.

 

What the recent findings tell us about diet and exercise—

A Time magazine Special Edition* supplement (2019) reports the U.S. weight loss industry to be 66 billion dollars annually. No wonder marketers push so hard for us to buy their new programs!

Some of the ways Americans try to lose weight are through:

  • Coordinated diet programs (Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, etc.)
  • Bariatric surgery
  • Week or more of expensive stays
  • Calorie and step-tracking apps
  • Fad diets (they list Paleo and keto in this category)
  • General high protein diets, like South Beach, etc.
  • Vegan

 

And yet, with all of these diet choices and dollars spent, more than 70% of Americans still tip the scales into the overweight or obese range.

And that’s a problem health-wise and finance-wise, for all of us. Why? Because more than 70 illnesses—like heart disease, Type II diabetes, and some cancers—area the “direct result” of being too fat!

But shouldn’t losing weight be easy, simply a matter of burning off more calories than you take in?

You would think so, and that’s why I was taught several decades ago. In fact, until just recently, that was the belief. Now scientists agree that isn’t the case. Losing weight, and keeping it off, is hard.

And anyone who has tried to lose weight knows it isn’t true. And 80% of us dieters are aware of another discouraging truth: we’ll regain all of the weight we lost and probably a few pounds more in two years. That sad fact is a finding of a UCLA review of 30 studies on the matter.

As Louis Aronne, director for the Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Clinical Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College says,

 

“Obesity is a real disease, with real physiological consequences: when you gain weight, the nerves in your hypothalamus that conduct signals from your fat cells to the rest of your brain become damaged. As a result, your brain doesn’t realize that you’re full, so you keep eating.”

 

If that’s the case, any over-fat person would probably need to stop eating before you get to a point of satiation or fullness.

In short, you probably need to religiously count calories so you don’t risk overeating!

 

But isn’t a calorie a calorie?

 That’s what I was taught in college, and that belief held for years in the scientific community. Now we know that’s not the case. The body handles and digests food differently depending upon the food’s chemical make-up.

One thing I learned 30+ years ago that still holds true, however, is that when you lose an extreme amount of weight—defined as 10% or more of your body weight—your body starts preserving energy by switching specific hormone productions and sending your body into starvation mode. Result? You’ll be walking around feeling constantly famished.

Is that what it comes down to, though, always feeling hungry? Some researchers say yes, while others say there is a better way.

 

What about exercise?

When trying to lose weight, we can’t avoid exercise. It’s is a key component of the weight loss puzzle. But what type is best, aerobics or resistance training?

That answer hasn’t changed in some time.

For optimal health and successful weight loss that you can maintain, you need both.

While aerobic exercise increases the number of calories you burn off, resistance exercise improves your metabolism or metabolic rate. And a higher metabolic rate means your body burns more calories even when you’re in a relaxed state. You could say you “burn hotter.” You get more bang for the buck.

As my son would say, “Sweet!”

 

So what should your overall goal be for good health?

Scientists and doctors say your focus should be an improvement in overall health, not just an aim for a number on a scale, or weight poundage pumped in the gym.

But don’t despair! Researchers do know from their findings that It doesn’t really matter whether you’re on a low-fat or low-carb diet, because the end result for both types of eaters is the same amount of lost weight! That’s the opinion of Caroline Apovian, a weight-loss specialist at the Boston University School of Medicine. She’s also president of the Obesity Society.

Hallie Levine, the author of the chapter “What a Healthy Diet Looks Like” in the Time supplement also quotes Apovian as saying,

 

“I usually encourage patients to eat as much protein, fruits and non-starchy vegetables as they want, while restricting starch intake to one or two servings a day.”

 

Why is that? It’s because protein is essential to growth and healing and muscle mass building. That’s important because it’s the muscle that’s primarily responsible for your metabolism level.

Another critical take-home message is that

 

a lower carb diet (30% or calories from protein and the remainder from low-glycemic foods—the kind that cause your blood sugar to rise quickly) is much easier to stick to because it’s less likely to trigger those nagging hunger pangs.

 

So what would fall into the low-glycemic column? That would be foods like:

  • non-starchy vegetables, like carrots, peas, sweet potatoes
  • nuts
  • beans/legumes, like garbanzo beans, white beans, black-eyed peas and lentils
  • some fruits (Beware: many fruits will spike quickly your blood sugar! And fruit juice almost always will.)
  • eggs, dairy, meat, fish and fish oils

(For more in-depth information on low-glycemic foods, see the American Diabetes Association website.

 

And the Time article mentioned one more important fact:

 

When you do have carbs on your plate, try to eat them last.

 

Eating this way, rather than chowing down all of the hot bread the server delivers to your table to keep you occupied before the meal arrives, helps keeps your blood sugar down and those all-important insulin levels low

So you could eat your bread, if you eat it for dessert!

 

So how much weight loss is enough?

Evidently losing just 5% – 10% of your body weight results in positive health gains. Your risk for diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease can drop. And that’s great news!

So maybe before we make grandiose plans to whittle our tummies and legs into a size 6 jeans, when we’re currently wearing (comfortably!) a size 12 isn’t what we should aim for.

How many pounds lost would that be?

Unfortunately, because clothing manufacturers’ sizes are all over the map, it’s no longer easy to tell. But, in general, the consensus is that you would need to lose 8 -10 pounds to drop one pant size.

For a 150-pound woman, that’s within the 5% – 10% range.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

 

As we go forward, we’ll look at a variety of important findings, like what scientists learned from the reality show The Biggest Loser, why your particular diet may not be working for you, finding your dieting sweet spot for health, weight management and fitness, and what Blue Zone model living can do for your health longevity.

We’ll also delve more into the exercise component.

Exciting stuff!

See you back here next Wednesday with the next installment.

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

(*If you want this information in more detail and in your library, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Special Time Edition The Science of Weight Loss at your local drugstore or bookstore. It’s on sale until April 5, 2019.)