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What Thin People Do by Terry Ryan
I consider myself an casual observer of life and people. If I had to do it over again, I would have become a modern day Margaret Mead, the famous social anthropologist. One of my latest personal studies is how thin people eat to keep themselves thin vs. how heavy people eat to keep themselves, well, heavy.
Heavy people will kid themselves with saying-I don’t eat that much. I have a slow metabolism. It’s my genes. Nope, sorry, I have dis-proven the above excuses. What overweight people should be saying is-I eat too many calories. It really comes down to calories in and calories burned. Simple as that.
Yes, your metabolic rate will slow down as we age so we should compensate by eating less. Of course eating less means you should eat only low calorie and high in nutritional value foods. As you get older, you do not have the option of wasting calories to unhealthy food, or eating healthy all day and throwing an extra 500 calorie dessert in at the end of the day. The experts say, 3500 calories intake equal a pound.
I knew a man who changed jobs and at his new place of work there was a vending machine (danger!) full of unhealthy snacks. He would go to the snack machine twice a day and buy a sugary cinnamon bun. I figured that each one contained about 400 calories, so that was an extra 800 calories per day. An average man with average physical activity is supposed to consume around 2200 calories a day. He was of normal weight when he started and he put on 40 pounds in a matter of few months. Let’s do the math. 800 Calories X 7 days is 5600 cals extra per week. That means he was gaining an average of 1.5 pound per week. At that rate in 5.5 months he could easily have gained the 40 pounds. It’s that simple.
It could also go the other way. You want to lose 40 pounds by 5.5 months so you reduce your daily caloric intake by 800 calories. Yes, you can also include in the formula-if I consume 400 calories less per day and work off an extra 400 calories, that will also work. But, do you know how hard it is to work off extra calories? Have you gone to the gym and walked on a tread mill for 30 minutes and when you look at how many calories you just burned, hey, you just walked off a single cookie. You can’t outrun the fork. I think it is better for the masses to put down the fork than to try to become a workout fanatic. Yes, it is great to be a gym regular but who has the time? I’d rather work around my house or walk around the block than try to fit in a gym schedule. Oh, and I have seen my friends buy lots of home workout equipment and use it for a short period of time before they start hanging clothes on them. Save your money.
How did the guy who gained the 40 pounds by eating cinnamon rolls lose weight? He bought a jetski, the kind that you stand up on and went out on the ocean everyday and hit the waves and overtime he pounded the weight off himself. And he managed to keep it off, and I thought it was an interesting example how a simple change in a diet can quickly put on weight.
So, I observed and interviewed thin women. They all seem to do the same thing to stay slim: They eat very little. There you have it. The big secret has been revealed. You need about 1200 calories for a woman to survive. That’s all and that is not very much. Here is an example of a 1200 calorie day meal plan.
-
BREAKFAST
- 1 Cup Skim Milk
- 1 Orange, medium
- 1 Cup Cheerios Cereal
-
MORNING SNACK
- 1 Cup Cantaloupe Melon
-
LUNCH
- 1 Whole-Wheat Pita Bread, small
- 1 Cup Skim Milk
- 1 Fudgsicle, no sugar added
-
AFTERNOON SNACK
- 2 Tablespoons Prepared Hummus
- 3 Ounces Celery Sticks
-
DINNER
- 1/2 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
- 1/2 Banana, small
Realize how everything is measure out. 3 Ounces of celery sticks. 2 Tablespoons of Hummus. Yes, everything in your mouth counts. Grab a handful of nuts….100 calories. Eat a 1/4 cup of ice cream is 350 calories. It all adds up.
Thin women also plan their meals. They like to pack their lunch so they know what they will be eating. They do not have candy bars hidden in the pantry. They know the calorie count of just about everything they put in their mouths. Thin women know that one Dunkin’ Donut Boston Kreme Donut has 310 calories! They won’t eat it. They also know how to control their hunger. I went to an island picnic with some friends. We the heavier ladies dived into the barbecue of hotdogs and potato salad. We were all starving. But my thin friend said to me and I quote, “I don’t eat that kind of stuff.” Yea, you don’t eat that kind of stuff but wasn’t she as starving as the rest of of? Thin women would rather stay hungry than eat bad food. They do not succumb to their hunger. That’s somebody who is serious about being thin. I observe and learn.
They also keep sweet things out of the house, special treats are allowed on special occasions, and they stay away from activities that focus on food.
For the most part, they are much healthier than overweight people as far as lab testing goes. They have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and fewer health problems.
If you want to see more 1200 calorie diet plans, go to http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/weight_loss_diet_plans/diet_meal_plans/7_day_diet_meal_plan_to_lose_weight_1200_calories
And go on the Internet and plan ahead. If you want to eat a Steak N’ Shake chocolate covered strawberry milkshake…just know that it will be 1050 calories. Yikes!
Terry Ryan is a health blogger for Slimhealthysexy.com and a social media expert.
Lose Weight And Keep It Off
I had pleasure of meeting with William Anderson at his office in Sarasota, FL on 4/21/2014. His space is small and cozy and the furniture is definitely from an old home in Massachusetts, where he is from. After our preliminary meet and greet he told me he was more interested in having me as a client than having me interview him for my health blog. After going back and forth on this subject I finally agreed to go through the “process” of finding out if I wanted to be a new client. “Okay,” I relinquished. There was of course paperwork to fill out-name, DOB, married or single, what stress do you have? He left the room saying he had to run an errand and I filled out the paperwork and had time to scan the framed diplomas in his office. MA in the Arts and his LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor) from an online division from University of Mass, and also a certificate in hypnotherapy.
How I had found out about Mr. Anderson was through my endocrinologist who had written the forward to his book The Anderson Method. I was intrigued and wanted to meet him, hence, why I am in his office now. After he returned he looked over my paperwork then he proceeded to tell me his duty to what he can keep confidential and what he can’t. Then he told me about his childhood as an obese child. He is 64 so a heavy Babyboomer in school would have been an unusual sight; at least in my school where we were all scrawny. Our parents didn’t give us many in between meal snacks and soda was not a staple in the pantry. Plus we were all active and our TV viewing was at a minimum. He must have had an overindulgent parent and when he talks about his childhood-“I was the fattest kid in school and it was horrible!”- you can still see the hurt in his eyes.
The more we talked I uncovered one of his main points. Food is to be handled as an addiction. Bingo! That made perfect sense. His plan includes weekly counseling sessions, homework, calorie counting, excuse debunking, cognitive behavioral therapy,etc. just to give you an idea of how he reprograms people’s view of eating.
People interested in more info should read The Anderson Method.
Mr Anderson also writes for the Huffington Post. Here is one of his articles.
(Article from Huffington Post 3/11/2014 By William Anderson MA, LMHC, Sarasota, FL)
I’m asked all the time, “What finally made you decide to solve your weight problem?” as if it didn’t bother me being overweight for 25 years. The truth is that I sincerely wanted to solve my problem when I was 12! But I wasn’t successful until 20 years later. It took me that long to learn what I needed in order to be successful.
Wanting, even with all your heart, to lose weight does not make it happen, as anyone with a stubborn weight problem knows. Hopefully, it won’t take you 20 years to learn what I learned. You can learn it from me!
For my first 30 years, I was overweight and out of control, more than 300 pounds as an adult. Only in my early 30s was I finally able to succeed, losing 140 pounds and becoming my ideal body weight. I’ve maintained it handily since. Now I help other people and I wrote a book about what I eventually learned that made me successful. Here are a few of the most important things, five key requirements to make 2014 the year you solve your weight problem for good:
1) You must make it the priority in your life. You need to decide that being healthy in body, mind and spirit is more important than anything else and that your weight problem must be solved. Losing weight must become your No. 1 one concern. More important than your job. More important than your relationships, family, friends, favorite pastimes, clubs, hobbies or comforts. You must become like a religious zealot who forsakes all else, a soldier in the field facing life and death where losing this battle means losing everything. Nothing else can stand in the way of doing what you need in your effort to solve your weight problem.
Some may criticize this as being unreasonable and off-centered. I understand their criticism, but for most of us, this is one of those things where you will not make it unless you are totally devoted. Approach it as if it’s life and death. To enjoy all of those other things you cherish, you’ve got to get this right. Nothing less than total dedication will do. It’s like wanting to make it to the top in a music, sports or business career. Nothing else can get in the way of doing what you need to do to succeed. It cannot take a back seat to anything else, cast aside when something else “comes up” as if it were more important. Controlling your weight is more important.
2) You must respect the science that tells us that we need to eat fewer calories than we burn to lose weight. We must accept the fact that we need to develop habits where we consistently eat within our caloric “budget” to keep it off.
There is no mystery to the science of weight control. It has not changed in eons. Eat too many calories and you get fat. Eat fewer than you burn and you burn it off. Accepting this reality does not by itself solve the problem, but there is no hope until you do. Hoping for a way around this fact will prevent you from ever succeeding. There is no way around this, no magic pill or surgery that will relieve you of having to limit your caloric intake. Fight this reality and you’ll never succeed. Accept it, and you’re on the path to success. In over 20 years, I have never had a client not lose weight when they eat the way I teach them.
3) You must learn how to train your mind to program yourself and master your habits, desires, impulses and feelings. The idea that your behavior and feelings are a matter of just making up your mind or wanting it badly enough is a fallacy. We are not born with well-developed “will power” and conscious control over the things that go on in our mind and body. In fact, most of what goes on is unconscious and a product of conditioning and programming that we were not even aware of. Habits and impulses were not chosen and they can seem to have a life of their own beyond your control. However, you can learn the programming and conditioning techniques discovered in behavioral and cognitive psychology as well as the ideo-dynamic phenomena that hypnotherapies use. The techniques I teach in my method are not unknown to science and behavioral medicine, but we are not born knowing them. They must be learned.
4) Make your goal the development of new permanent habits, rather than weight loss. Don’t focus so much on pounds but rather on the way you are living.
The most common approach to weight loss is doing something out of the ordinary for a while, like eating a special diet or going on an exercise crusade, and then going back to “normal” after a while. This is self-defeating. Even if we lose the weight we want, the “normal” that we have learned is what makes people fat, so we’ll just put it back on.
We are suckers for these diets and schemes because usually, we don’t want to change our habits. We are fond of doing the things we do, snacking the way we do, enjoying our favorite foods and restaurants and not having to think about it. We don’t want to give those things up. We’ve tried and we couldn’t do it or it was so miserable we gave up the idea.
However, we don’t have to give up enjoying food. In fact, one of the keys of reprogramming is that the new behavior must be satisfying. I enjoy food now more than I did when I was overweight. But just wanting and “willing” yourself to change habits is not the way it’s done. There are reprogramming techniques you need to use. The first step is to realize that our goal needs to be a change in our habitual behavior. When that happens, the weight comes off automatically. Focusing on weight loss instead of a change in yourself and your habits will not work.
5) You must be honest and sincere. I used to say things like “no matter what I do, I can’t lose weight.” That’s crazy of course. If I somehow got myself to eat very little, I’d lose weight. If I kept it up long enough, I’d starve to death. People who don’t have food in the Sudan are not fat. I was telling myself nonsense, lying to myself.
I used to say, “This won’t matter” if I cheated or “I just don’t care anymore” when my self-control flagged. Neither was really true. Everything counts. When I got discouraged and caved, I cried “uncle” and gave up in that moment, but I never stopped caring. I never stopped hating obesity and wanting something better. I still cared. Saying, “It doesn’t matter” was a lie.
Behavioral science teaches us that what we say to ourselves affects how we feel and how we act in an almost magical or mystical way. When we tell ourselves this nonsense, we are literally programming ourselves to overeat and become overweight, just as if we were using hypnotherapy to gain weight. When we say, “I just can’t lose weight,” we are using cognitive therapy techniques to make ourselves feel hopeless and depressed and self-hypnosis to unconsciously sabotage any efforts to succeed.
I used to engage in foolish talk, like a child, unwilling to get serious. We need to stop being childish and foolish in our thinking. Changing the way we think and talk is essential to reversing obesity. Getting honest and serious, truly sincere about what we want, is one of the most important keys.
So, what do you think? Can you say, “yes” to these five key requirements? If you can’t, and you are a person who has been overweight and unable to fix it, you now know where you need to start to make changes. We are not going to solve this problem by accident. We need to be very intentional and meet these requirements.
If you think back to your younger days or prior attempts, you’ll recall you may not have met these requirements. If you meet them now, you are on the path to success. That’s progress! Keep going.
William Anderson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who specializes in weight loss, eating disorders and addictions. He is the creator of “Therapeutic Psychogenics”, which helped him lose 140 pounds permanently thirty years ago after years of obesity and dieting failure. He has written a book about it, The Anderson Method, and he is teaching these techniques to individuals and therapists all over the country.
Amazing Turmeric
Turmeric has been a main spice ingredient in Indian food and I may have purchased the orange colored spice once in my life and left it in the spice cabinet for years where it hardened and I threw it in the trash. To tell you the truth I never knew what to do with it. But now that I am reaching Master Juicer title (self named) I have been researching the different herbs and vegetables to super-size my juice recipes turning me and my followers into SUPER HUMANS!!! Da da da TA! So here is what I found out about turmeric.
Turmeric has a peppery, warm and bitter flavor and a mild fragrance slightly reminiscent of orange and ginger, and while it is best known as one of the ingredients used to make curry, it also gives ballpark mustard its bright yellow color.
A Potent, Yet Safe Anti-Inflammatory
The volatile oil fraction of turmeric has demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory activity in a variety of experimental models. Even more potent than its volatile oil is the yellow or orange pigment of turmeric, which is called curcumin. Curcumin is thought to be the primary pharmacological agent in turmeric. In numerous studies, curcumin’s anti-inflammatory effects have been shown to be comparable to the potent drugs hydrocortisone and phenylbutazone as well as over-the-counter anti-inflammatory agents such as Motrin. Unlike the drugs, which are associated with significant toxic effects (ulcer formation, decreased white blood cell count, intestinal bleeding), curcumin produces no toxicity.
“Curcumin may provide an inexpensive, well-tolerated, and effective treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, recent research suggests.”
Relief for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Clinical studies have substantiated that curcumin also exerts very powerful antioxidant effects. As an antioxidant, curcumin is able to neutralize free radicals, chemicals that can travel through the body and cause great amounts of damage to healthy cells and cell membranes. This is important in many diseases, such as arthritis, where free radicals are responsible for the painful joint inflammation and eventual damage to the joints. Turmeric’s combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects explains why many people with joint disease find relief when they use the spice regularly. In a recent study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, curcumin was compared to phenylbutazone and produced comparable improvements in shortened duration of morning stiffness, lengthened walking time, and reduced joint swelling.
Cancer Prevention
Curcumin’s antioxidant actions enable it to protect the colon cells from free radicals that can damage cellular DNA—a significant benefit particularly in the colon where cell turnover is quite rapid, occurring approximately every three days. Because of their frequent replication, mutations in the DNA of colon cells can result in the formation of cancerous cells much more quickly. Curcumin also helps the body to destroy mutated cancer cells, so they cannot spread through the body and cause more harm. A primary way in which curcumin does so is by enhancing liver function. Additionally, other suggested mechanisms by which it may protect against cancer development include inhibiting the synthesis of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation and preventing the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth.
Turmeric and Onions May Help Prevent Colon Cancer
Curcumin, a phytonutrient found in the curry spice turmeric, and quercitin, an antioxidant in onions, reduce both the size and number of precancerous lesions in the human intestinal tract, shows research published in the August 2006 issue of Clinical Gasteroenterology and Hepatology.
Five patients with an inherited form of precancerous polyps in the lower bowel known as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) were treated with regular doses of curcumin and quercetin over an average of six months. The average number of polyps dropped 60.4%, and the average size of the polyps that did develop dropped by 50.9%.
FAP runs in families and is characterized by the development of hundreds of polyps (colorectal adenomas) and, eventually, colon cancer. Recently, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen) have been used to treat some patients with this condition, but these drugs often produce significant side effects, including gastrointestinal ulcerations and bleeding, according to lead researcher Francis M. Giardiello, M.D., at the Division of Gastroenterology, Johns Hopkins University.
Previous observational studies in populations that consume large amounts of curry, as well as animal research, have strongly suggested that curcumin, one of the main ingredients in Asian curries, might be effective in preventing and/or treating cancer in the lower intestine. Similarly, quercetin, an anti-oxidant flavonoid found in a variety of foods including onions, green tea and red wine, has been shown to inhibit growth of colon cancer cell lines in humans and abnormal colorectal cells in animals.
In this study, a decrease in polyp number was observed in four of five patients at three months and four of four patients at six months.
Each patient received curcumin (480 mg) and quercetin (20 mg) orally 3 times a day for 6 months. Although the amount of quercetin was similar to what many people consume daily, the curcumin consumed was more than would be provided in a typical diet because turmeric only contains on average 3-5 % curcumin by weight.
While simply consuming curry and onions may not have as dramatic an effect as was produced in this study, this research clearly demonstrates that liberal use of turmeric and onions can play a protective role against the development of colorectal cancer. And turmeric doesn’t have to only be used in curries. This spice is delicious on healthy sautéed apples, and healthy steamed cauliflower and/or green beans and onions. Or, for a flavor-rich, low-calorie dip, try adding some turmeric and dried onion to creamy yogurt.
(Source: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78)
So, there you have it. I, for the first time, added some fresh turmeric to my juice today. Wow! It was one spice combo. Here is my recipe for today: (everything OF COURSE organic)
- Apple
- Pear
- Celery
- Carrots
- Sunflower sprouts
- Slice of tumeric
- Knob of ginger
- Cucumber
I made about 16 ounces and shared with my husband. I’m trying to convert him and I think he is coming around.
Happy juicing!
Terry Ryan is a blogger and health enthusiast.
The Wonderful Benefits of Celery
Celery, and it must be organic, is one of my favorite vegetables to juice. I love the fresh taste, the ease of pushing it through the juicer, and the smell of fresh celery just being juiced. I find it so refreshing. I just lowered my blood pressure and I believe I owe it all to celery juice.
Celery is also claimed to have a calming effect on the body. If you are feeling stressed, don’t grab a chocolate bar, juice some celery instead and mix in a little apple and WOW do you have a healthy tonic.
A juice fast with celery is know to help the body eliminate toxins. Toxins ofter accumulate in the gallbladder, liver, and kidneys thereby reducing the toxins and possibility of the development of stones. (Ouch!)
There are a lot of other claims about the benefit of celery:
- Stops tumor growth
- Cures asthma
- Gout
- Weight problems
- Menstrual problems
- Treat inflammation
- Relieve headaches
- Nervousness
- Has vitamin A for your eyes
- Reduces your cholesterol
- It replenishes electrolytes
- Curbs sugar cravings
- It is a great snack and fill you up
That should convince you that celery is an incredible vegetable to juice and I try to use it everyday. It is considered one of the worse vegetables to eat non-organic so make sure you purchase it ORGANIC. Eat a lot of it everyday and it will keep you Slim, Healthy, Sexy!
Celery contains a lot of potassium, good sodium, vitamin A and C. Plus it is so inexpensive you should have a pile in it in your refrigerator at all times. Hungry? Munch on some celery. Want a snack? Put some almond butter on a stick of celery. Working out? Replenish with a couple sticks of celery or carry some freshly made celery juice with you. Think ahead!
Juicing For Slim Healthy Sexy
I have a buzz going on in my body but it is not from an overdose from coffee. Heaven’s no! It’s from the juice I just drank in the sun by my pool. I started the day off with hot water and lemon and I love the combo very much. I. goodbye coffee breath, 2. Bye brown teeth, 2. Hello liver cleanse, 4. How ya doing alkaline body!
What a glorious way to start your day! Please join me in juicing. You will be amazed at how much your health will improve. How has it helped me?
- No colds this year
- Better digestive health
- Glowing skin
- More energy
- Excellent memory.
- No need for reading glasses.
- Reduction in my thyroid meds
- Better and deeper sleep
:Last Saturday I went to Jessica’s Organic Farm in Sarasota. It is practically hidden in the middle of Sarasota County and even with my GPS I made a few wrong turns, but I did find it. There were acres of veggies growing and the humble stand was full of produce, and organic produce at that. In fact there was only one item that wasn’t organic; coconuts from Thailand.
At the entrance is a large display of different edible grasses and sprouts. I recognized wheat grass but the rest was foreign to me. I saw a man with long dreadlocks and thought he looked like a juicer but when I asked him he answered in a very thick accent and I really couldn’t understand him except that part that he was not a juicer. The prices were reasonable and a lot of variety that is mostly grown at the farm. The hours are limited: Friday, Saturday and Sunday only and closed June, July and August.
I selected beets, dandelions, parsley, kale, 2 gorgeous artichokes, cucumber, and English peas. The entire bill came to $22.00.
Today’s recipe was:
- Dandelion
- Parsley
- Cucumber
- Lemon
- Celery
- Apple
I am still using my garage sale find, a juice extractor I call Old Faithful.
If you want to be slim, healthy, and sexy at any age, I recommend juicing and signing up with my blog for updates and tips.
Happy juicing!
.