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5 Cognitive Behavioral Strategies for Losing Weight that Work
When we think of weight loss, we often think about what we eat. The questions we ask ourselves tend to revolve around how much fat, protein and carbs to eat, or whether beets help take off the pounds.
Diets touted in the media as optimal for weight loss abound, yet we remain a nation with an obesity problem.
What we tend to ignore, when we think of weight loss, is how we are approaching and managing the process of change. As important as it is to focus on what you eat to lose weight and keep it off, it is equally crucial to consider physical activity and maintaining lifestyle changes over time.
How to make behavioral changes, what strategies we use to adhere to new ways of eating and increasing physical activity cannot be ignored.
The problem is that making changes to your lifestyle is hard. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic in this country, nor would estimated health care costs for physical inactivity have been $76.6 billion in 2000 (admittedly an older statistic, but unlikely to have improved significantly in recent years).
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses on changing how you think about yourself, how you act, and circumstances that surround how you act, is an effective treatment for a wide range of problems, including weight loss. Key to it is its focus on making changes and sticking to them.
So, what CBT strategies help people to lose weight and change lifestyle behavior?
1. Goal setting.
If you want to meet the goals you set, consider the following three factors:
- the more specific a goal, the more likely you are to achieve it;
- ambitious goals are good, but overly ambitious goals can be discouraging;
- regular feedback on progress improves outcomes.
When it comes to weight loss, then, a goal to eat fruit for dessert, rather than cake, is specific and can be clearly tracked. Specific goals around exercise or types of food you will eat — behaviors you have control over — are better than goals to improve cholesterol or glucose levels, which may fluctuate for reasons outside your immediate control.
2. Self-monitoring.
Self-monitoring requires that rather than beating yourself up for not attaining a goal, you attend to your own individual experiences. When you self-monitor, you begin to notice barriers, pay attention to physical cues and identify challenges to changing your behavior. Too often we rely on negative self-judgment to stay motivated and, in so doing, fail to recognize and plan for real barriers.
You can think of yourself as a scientist when you self-monitor. You may want to keep a log of your food intake or exercise routines, for example. Doing so will help you to problem-solve when life has gotten busy or you get off track. With greater awareness of your own experience, you are better able to find ways to maintain new behaviors when initial motivation is waning.
3. Feedback and reinforcement.
It can be helpful to get feedback from outside sources. Having a health care provider regularly check in with you can provide an external measuring stick. Feedback about your diet or exercise routine can provide motivation or help you adjust your behavior. Outside feedback also can help you keep your expectations ambitious but realistic.
4. Boosting the belief that you can do it.
When you go into any situation with the attitude that you will surely fail, you greatly reduce your odds of succeeding. It is essential to focus not just on behavior, but also on your perception of your ability to make the changes you want.
The best way to improve your belief in your ability to succeed is actually to have some success. Setting concrete and achievable goals, such as eating fruit at breakfast or replacing an after-dinner TV show with a walk, can build your confidence to set more ambitious goals.
If you’re looking to improve your sense that you can do it, it also can help to look for people in similar circumstances who have made the difficult changes you are trying to make and to surround yourself with people who will encourage your efforts.
5. Incentives.
The use of incentives to support change in behavior has been extensively studied and the concept is now being applied to regaining and maintaining physical health. Examples include companies that offer lower-priced onsite fitness facilities as an incentive to exercise, offering cash incentives and gift cards, providing free health coaching and offering insurance premium discounts to those who meet certain standards.
Adopting a healthier lifestyle isn’t simply a matter of changing the foods in your cupboards. Lifestyle changes take sustained efforts over time and whether we achieve our goals depends on how we make them, our mindset and what we put in place to maintain motivation.
References
Rosamond, W., Flegal, K., Furie, K., Go, A., Greenlund, K., Haase, N., … Hong, Y. (2008). American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Heart disease and stroke statistics — 2008 update: a report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. 117:e25–e146.
Strecher, V.J., Seijts, G.H., Kok, G.J., Latham, G.P., Glasgow, R., DeVellis, B., … Bulger, DW. (1995). Goal setting as a strategy for health behavior change. Health Educ Q. 22:190–200.
Alternative Ways To Beat Cancer
NOTE: Snopes has posted that this is a false story and John Hopkins Hospital never said this. I thought it was still good info so I am leaving it up.
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING
PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY …
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.
3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to STARVE the cancer cells by not feeding it with foods it needs to multiple.
What cancer cells feed on:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Note: Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells will starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes t o nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.
To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water–best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines will become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.
Anger, unforgiving and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
Posted by premaseem on December 19, 2012 in Health and Fitness, Life
How to Mindfully Eat!
I recently spent a week at Dhanakosa, a Buddhist retreat center in the Scottish highlands, where we shared three meals a day with the community. As a nutrition coach, I took special note of the eating patterns that I found helpful to continue after the retreat:
1. Eat Vegetarian Foods
Following the Buddhist precept of non-violence to all creatures, our meals were all vegetarian. We didn’t have any meat, dairy or eggs. We did have lots of lentils, beans, soups, salads, and vegetable dishes. It’s chilly in Scotland in October, so our food was hearty and warming.
2. Follow a Daily Schedule
We followed a set routine each day: breakfast at 8:45, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 6pm.
Having a predictable daily schedule allowed us to plan our day and regulate the appetite. Dinner was early, and there was a long stretch of fasting from the evening meal until breakfast the next day, but my body quickly adjusted to the rhythm.
3. No Snacking
A cook was preparing our meals, and we didn’t have access to the kitchen between meals. There were bowls of fresh fruit set out for a snack, and there was also plenty of tea available at all times. Other than that–no snacking at all.
4. No Sneaking
Along the same lines, since all of our meals were shared together and there was no vending machine or secret stash of chocolate, everything we ate was visible to others. I see so many clients who sneak food (after the kids go to bed, for example), and I feel it’s healthy to eat in the presence of others.
5. Save Dessert for a Special Occasion
During the entire week, we had rice pudding twice after dinner, and homemade oat bars after we did cleaning chores on the last day of the retreat. Sugar and sweets were very limited.
Dessert was not a daily occurrence, it was a special occasion. I didn’t even miss dessert – my palette adjusted and I appreciated my meals more and found that the taste of fruits and vegetables became more vibrant.
6. Enjoy Home Cooked Meals
Every single meal was home cooked, including fresh-baked bread, soups and casseroles. As a result, there was not too much salt, no preservatives, and the flavors were fresh.
I always encourage clients to slowly increase their number of home-cooked meals, because it’s so much easier to eat healthy if you have more control over how your food is prepared. Start with breakfast, and work your way up from there.
7. Eat after Meditation
In our schedule at the monastery, we meditated before breakfast, lunch and dinner. This meant that we were in a calm, relaxed state before meals–a good thing, because eating when you’re calm aids digestion.
Most of us are not meditating three times a day outside of a retreat atmosphere, but it’s still good to take a few deep breaths, have a moment of gratitude for your meal, and eat in an unhurried and calm state.
8. Eat in Silence
We always ate without the distraction of radio, television, or newspapers. And we also took several of our meals in complete silence.
I especially loved having silence during breakfast, because the morning is a more reflective time and it was nice to start the day quietly, without chatter. If you’ve never shared a meal in silence, you should try this, it’s a powerful practice.
9. Have Porridge for Breakfast
Every day we had the same breakfast, which was porridge with toppings (cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, raisins, muesli). Lunch and dinner varied.
This caught my attention because I often encourage busy clients to systemize their meals. I tell them to find one thing they like for breakfast, and then stick with it. It makes your busy mornings flow more smoothly and allows your body to get into rhythm.
10. Help with the Meals
Even though there was a cook in charge of the meals, we each had daily chores and had to help with either preparing or cleaning up from the meals.
This helped us all to be involved in the meal, and I know it helped me to feel more grateful for all of the effort that went into feeding the group.
**
If these ideas resonate with you, I encourage you to take one or two to start with an incorporate them into your daily life. Please share which you find most helpful!
To learn more about plant-based nutrition or meditation, check out The Ultimate Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition With Rich Roll and The Essential Guide To Meditation With Charlie Knoles.
How to Lose Weight When The World is Working Against You
Yes, the world is working against you in your quest to lose weight. For example, scientists are cooking up foods especially designed to appeal to your taste buds, cheap, and addictive so you crave more.
How about TV ads? Who doesn’t get hungry looking at mouth-watering foods on a commercial.
How about the grocery store? If you are on a diet or trying to stay at optimum health then 95% of the store is off limits.
Your body is working with biology. It wants you to pack on the pounds….famine might be coming…and once you achieve a max weight, your body does everything it can to keep you at that weight. Are you craving fattening foods when you are trying to lose weight?
This site is to help each other achieve the body and health that you would like to look like and feel. All people who would like to submit a blog about their weight loss journey or struggle are invited to submit at admin@slimhealthysexy.com.
D5 Creation