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Tastes like chicken

March 29, 2012
Behavior Change, Food Environment, Scientific Studies
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Or at least it smells like chicken.  A study in the latest issue of Flavour indicates that when foods have stronger aromas people take smaller bites.  The thought is that the strong scent signals our brain that the food we are about to consume is rich and high in calories and we should tread lightly.  Not sure if my genes have developed this signal as I tend to eat beyond fullness if nice aromas are wafting through the air.  Maybe I am just abnormal.

The idea that bite size can be influenced by smell is an interesting one and has intriguing possibilities.  Perhaps a new weight loss tool as Scientific American suggests.  A common line of thinking is that the better a food smells, the more we will eat.  Overall I believe this to be true, if not for the direct nature of the scent, then for the comfort the scents bring thus keeping us at the table longer.  And we all know what happens when we stay at the table longer than we should.

Bite size is interesting and influenced by many factors.  If we could truly reduce our bite sizes AND reduce the number of bites we take then we’d be in good shape.  However, if we are simply reducing bite size and compensating by taking more bites, then we have gained nothing.  Here’s some interesting info on bite size from the aforementioned study:

“Smaller bite sizes are known to elicit weaker food sensations, lower flavor release, and more satiation. Furthermore, bite sizes tend to be smaller for unfamiliar foods and foods that are liked less. Finally, bite sizes become smaller as the consumer becomes satiated. These results suggest that bite size is actively regulated during eating in response to sensory and/or digestive factor.”

In re-reading that quote, we are led to believe that smaller bite sizes, while eliciting weaker food sensations, induces more satiation.  A fancy word for satisfied.  Full.  Not sure if I have been satiated.  If we could truly listen to our bodies when they are full, and if the are becoming perceptually more full when we eat smaller bites, then it is time to get smaller spoons and forks.  Research has shown it is difficult to change our bite size if we are actively aware of the change.  However, if we switch out our utensils and there are no other options, soon you will forget about your oversize cereal eating spoons, and possibly down-regulate your consumption through the use of a smaller one.

This morning I will eat my cereal with a baby spoon.  So glad there is a 6 week old in the house.

Breaking up…

March 27, 2012
Food Descriptives, Food Environment, Scientific Studies
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…may have just become a bit easier.  If you haven’t heard (and the news is in both the New York Times and on NPR this morning) chocolate is good for weight.  When I talk about why we eat to my classes, I always ask if the students if they have “breakup foods.”  The foods they tend to gravitate towards when they are going through tough moments, such as the end of a relationship.  Invariably, many say chocolate (this is not publishable data, I teach at an all women’s university).  (Take a quick glance at these two pieces mentioned above, both commenting on research published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, and you get different pieces of the story.)

When I first read the Times piece, I was skeptical.  How could it be that eating chocolate lowered body weight?  “They didn’t control for exercise,” thought I.  Wrong, they did.  “They didn’t account for total calories,” was next.  Yes they did.  Overall it seems that this was a well designed study.  On my way home from the fitness center I heard a quick blurb on NPR’s Morning Market Report about it, and here is where it gets dicey, the woman said, “It doesn’t matter how much you eat, what really matters is how often you eat it.”  Whoa.  Slow down.  Many people will take that interpretation the wrong way.  On NPR’s website, the story gives an even more nuanced version of the study than does the Times’ piece.  The discussion focuses on what’s in the chocolate and could those compounds, in small doses, impact your metabolism for the better.

The study is pretty clear on the fact that it’s the frequency of the chocolate consumption that is driving the change in body weight and not the amount.  But there is more to the story, from NPR:

“The researchers found that chocolate’s correlation to thinness started to melt away among the participants who consumed the most. They also didn’t suss out whether the type of chocolate — white, milk, or dark, which can have varying amounts of cocoa — made a difference.”

Not that this is a flaw in the study, but could be that people who were consuming chocolate more frequently were eating better chocolate (i.e., darker)?  Just a thought.  Something different unsettles me here and and it’s not the fact that the chocolate type went unaccounted for.  I wonder what would happen if we took the subjects who consumed chocolate at least five times per week from the present study and looked at their craving tendencies. I’ve written of cravings in the past and I think something may be going on here.  Purely a hunch, but my guess is that the people who were frequent consumers of chocolate have more impulse control than do those who only ate it once per week.  (An aside here, could it also be that those not frequently consuming chocolate ate more at one sitting and also fibbed a bit on their dietary recalls?  There was a trend in the current study to those that ate more at one sitting had higher BMIs).

Here is my point:  If I have the ability to eat chocolate in small amounts (I personally don’t have this ability) throughout the week, might I also be engaging in other healthy behaviors?  Even though all the subjects in this study “exercised” the same amount, I wonder if the the leaner subjects, those eating chocolate more often yet maintaining their leanness, are standing more throughout the day, biking or walking to work, are more active with their kids, etc.  More spontaneous activity.  Research has shown that if I display impulse control in one area (i.e. diet) I am more likely to display it in others (i.e. work).  Maybe we are looking too hard here.  Maybe it’s not the polyphenols in the chocolate.  Maybe it’s just that some people have really good willpower in one area and it translates to others.  Wish I had some of that strength.

This study fascinates me.  I’ll go get the original research article and see what I can find.  I have no doubt there are compounds in certain foods that do good things for us, even our waistlines.  However, we may be walking down a tricky path when NPR says “it’s not the amount, it’s the frequency.”  Indulge I say!  Gobble it up!  Hmmmmm.

Spring Break, Day 5

March 23, 2012
Behavior Change, Food Environment, Food Rules
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This morning as I ran I listened to Bill Maher’s Real Time podcast (last Friday’s show).  “It’s spring break time,” he said as he introduced one of his “New Rules.”  “New rule, all college kids on spring break will stand in front of the mirror at 10:00 am, naked, and dance.  That is how stupid you will look at 2:00 am dancing while drunk.”  Made me laugh, although I am not sure if the dance would convince any college going students on spring break not to indulge.  Would that dance work as a weight management tool?  I’ll report back to you.

As I wind down spring break I have been feeling ok about my week with food.  I know I have been eating more than I usually do but I also managed to keep up my exercise, which for me can be tough when out of my routine.  I strode into the gym, stepped on the scale, and wham. 3 pounds up.  As a physiologist I know not to put too much stock in day to day weights, however, as a food addict and someone who is conscientious of his weight, it is very hard for me to ignore the scale. I felt deflated.  As I think about it I had felt good prior to that moment.  Good run.  Great week.  That should be what counts.  Damn scale.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to put a high school classmate, and dear friend, and a couple of her friends through their paces on a VO2max test, bodyfat analysis, etc.  These women are my age and are training together for a half-Ironman.  For the uninitiated that means a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride followed by a 13.1 mile run.  So inspiring.  That’s what counts.  I am equally inspired by my partner who four weeks post partum is already running over 3 miles.  Who needs a scale to tell them what’s important?  And I couldn’t care less how fast my high school classmate does the triathlon or what kind of pace my partner holds in her next mile.  They are doing it and that makes me smile.

Spring break brought me a few challenges.  Some extra snacks, a few beers and NCAA basketball, more sitting than I do at work.  All of these are within my control and I need to be aware that they impact me.  I’ll try not to focus on the scale, but it never hurts to have goals (rationalization alert).

Thanks for indulging me this past week as I navigated spring break.  Next week we’ll get to some more fun studies, like eating strong smelling food from a tube (lowers intake).  Fun, fun.

It is Friday and that means Food Rule time.  Here we go:

Don’t act against your best self interest.  One beer, good.  Two beers, fine.  Three beers, unless you are on spring break and dancing off the calories, don’t be alarmed when the scale goes up.  We can quickly consume lots of calories when we aren’t paying attention.  Be aware of what you are eating and drinking and be able to answer the question “Why am I doing this?”.  Have a good answer. Most of the time.

Happy Friday.

Spring Break, Day 4

March 22, 2012
Behavior Change, Food Environment
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Yesterday was a good spring break day.  Not too much on the schedule, just some playtime and swimming lessons last night.  Our daughters kept us pretty busy and that helped in the daily and ongoing conversation in my head about the Oreos.  My observation for yesterday is this:  There are two times in the day when I really feel the pull to the kitchen, shortly before lunch, say 10:30-11:30 am, and shortly before dinner, 4:30-6:00 pm.  There must be something tied to my psyche about pre-eating (my term).  Maybe my body knows its about to eat and wants to get a head start.  Not sure, but those times are when the battle truly rages in between my ears.  The question becomes why?

As I said on Monday, this week’s blogs are simply a journal of my spring break week.  Nothing scientific this week.  We all need a break.  Thinking of yesterday, and in general when I struggle to “just say no” to food, not only is there a time factor but there also seems to be a fatigue factor.  I look at lunch and dinner as transition periods, especially when I am home.  As if to say “made it through the morning, now I just need to make it through the afternoon.”  (This is said in the most sincere way, I value the time with family, but as we all know, kids can be exhausting.  I am sure I can be exhausting to my partner.  Exhaustion all around.)  As we approach dinner after an afternoon of whatever we did, I think, “made it through the afternoon, now onto the bedtime approach.”  In these periods of transition my mind wanders to food.  Maybe it’s me and the environment I grew up in and became accustomed to.  Maybe I need to force myself to maintain focus in order to re-direct myself from food.  When I find myself tired, especially during those witching hours each day, the Oreos loom larger and larger and in my mind.  There has to be something about the combination of being tired, time of day and transitions, and food focus going on here.  Possibly a study.

When do you struggle with food focus?  Again, my term for food taking over your brain.  Any good strategies you have employed?  Do you “pre-eat.”  Maybe I will come up with a dictionary of terms for those of us that key in on food in its presence.  Pre-eat.  Food focus.  I digress.

I’m not going to wander today.  Ok, that’s a stretch.  I am not going to wander too much today.  I will keep my focus away from food.  At least for a bit.

Spring Break, Day 3

March 21, 2012
Behavior Change, Food Environment
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“It’s exhausting, isn’t it?” asked my partner last night as I finished up dinner (two nights in a row I might add, a new record here.  Mind you, she had started the soup that morning, I was in charge of reheating, baking some cornbread, and putting chips in a bowl, but nonetheless…).  Her question referred to being home, entertaining a four year old, calming a 4 week old, and attending to all the other issues of the day.  My immediate response was a smile (combined with a hug) and a “Yes.” However, there is more to my exhaustion than simply playing an incredibly long game of hopscoth.

My exhaustion is both physical and mental, or more aptly emotional.  Research has shown that we make about 250 choices about food each day, some we are aware of, some we are not.  Yesterday I made 1,547.  Ballpark.  I am a sucker and victim of my environment.  Being at home for spring break puts me within arms reach of food at all times. And there is no junk food here!  Yet when I am in this environment, as opposed to being at work, I find myself battling not to munch, to graze, to hover in the kitchen and look for scraps.  Last night upon finishing the mixing of the cornbread, which I think my daughter equated to cookie dough or cake batter, she looked up at me with a knowing glance, as if to say, “Can I try it?”  She did.  I did.  We both enjoyed it.  We did it again.  That is how much of a victim, or product, of the environment I am.  I was eating cornbread mix because it was there and I allowed my four year old to be party to it.  She has no chance in this big, big food world.

Having to constantly say no to my inner monologue is exhausting and it speaks to the power of the environment.  If our home was littered with cookies and chips and soda and other fun stuff I could easily gain 5 pounds this week.  Although i do get creative in my search for craving satisfiers, the barrier of not having it there prevents me from going too far overboard.  Yesterday I noticed that during some of my searching moments, my inner monologue shifted a bit.  From “Go, go, go find that food,” to “Hold on, what’s going on here?”  On a couple of occasions I gave in and grazed, but for the most part I paused, brought back into my consciousness what was going on, and resisted and redirected.

Take home lesson?  When at home, whether for spring break or because you simply enjoy being there or for any other reason, make it difficult to quickly eat junk food.  Best way to do this, don’t buy it.  I’d rather be a victim of an apple attack than a Oreo attack.

Spring Break, Day 2

March 20, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Children, Exercise
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“Thanks for making dinner,” said my partner as I finished cleaning up the kitchen, “you saved me 200 calories.”  Took me a minute, but then I realized what she meant.  During my meal preparation (that would be an embellishment of what I do) I had grazed.  A few grapes here, a handful of walnuts there.  An easy 200 calories that I definitely didn’t need and for the most part was unaware that I was eating. Another little trick that spring break plays on me.

I live in a world with a partner who is an amazing cook, gardener, creator.  I don’t often prepare the meals, but hey, it’s spring break and I have a few moments.  As I mentioned yesterday, the cues get me when I am at home.  The cue that reeled me in yesterday was that the food was there, and so was I.  And if those two co-exist, one must eat the other.  In my world.

Throughout the day yesterday I did struggle a bit to resist my environment.  I kept busy with my oldest daughter for most of the morning and then took her to dance class.  Early in the afternoon we were off to an appointment for our youngest and then back home.  The witching hour.  An apple, a some grapes.  All while I was thinking about preparing dinner.  When I am not on break the afternoon is tough for me in terms of food, but at least I have to walk a few buildings over to find it.  That usually provides enough of a barrier, enough friction, so that I don’t go tempt myself.  Different story when I am in the same house.

I took a cue from my daughter yesterday.  She seems to say ,”daddy, I’m really hungry,” when she gets bored or has a moment of down time (genetics at play here?.  If we quickly redirect her, she is happy as a lark focusing on the new challenge.  Yesterday i tried to do that for myself.  Imagine this:  picking up, starting some laundry, fixing the bikes, all without being prompted.  Big step for me.  As I look back I found that once I was engaged I wasn’t thinking about food.  Until the task at hand ended.  In scientific parlance this is called spontaneous activity, and it is actually very good for you, and predictive of your health.  Sitting is my natural state and spontaneous activity is something that is not very spontaneous for me.  Rather intentional, actually.  I can work on this, and will continue to do so today.  Lots of bonuses here:  I get to move more, the house may be a bit cleaner (or more picked up), a smiling partner, and less focus on food.  There might be something here.

I did find that I was exhausted by the end of the day.  Imagine how mom feels.  Couldn’t even drag myself out of bed today to work out.  That never happens.  Give me a minute and I will rationalize my decision.

Spring Break, Day 1

March 19, 2012
Behavior Change, Food Descriptives, Food Environment
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‘Tis the season.  Spring Break.  And it is all the better being that it is 80 degrees in Minnesota these days.  Who needs Florida?  Last March we had a foot of snow on the ground, yesterday, as my daughter and I walked around the neighborhood a family was pulling out their kiddie pool.

Spring break can present some interesting food challenges for college students (think beer + burgers + beer + tacos + beer).  However, there can be just as many challenge for those of us that are a bit past our reveling prime.  My challenge is habit.  Rather than taking a look at current research or new this week, I am going to blog my travails of spring break.  Mind you, this journey will not take me out of St. Paul, MN, but a journey it will be.

A few weeks ago I wrote of the book “The Power of Habit,“ and in it  the author, Charles Duhigg, tells us that a vacation is a great place to break a habit as the old environmental cues of routine are absent.  Here’s my conundrum, the habits I need to break are in my home and when a break from teaching means more time at home (always a good thing) it also means I must face my habits head on.  (In the past they have won).  When at work I am “isolated” in my office, and by isolated I mean there is no food within arms reach, I am usually focused on work, or engaged with students and colleagues.  In essence, I am not thinking about food.  However, when I am at home, opportunity knocks on my brain every 30 seconds or so.  “Here Mark, over this way,” says the peanut butter.  “No, no, over here,” say the cashews.  “I am what you want,” scream the lonely bag of chips at the back of the cupboard.”  Food is here, and I know it.

When I am at home all the cues to eat surround me.  Whether it is my daughter having a mid-day snack (my thinking is why can’t I?  I am not that much older than 4). The refrigerator is right there.  I can even argue that I work harder at home than I do at work.  It’s a challenge to parent a 4 year old and a 4 week old, not to mention meeting the expectations of my partner.  I’ll need to teach next week for a break.  All this work will make me hungry and I deserve the cookies!

My point is this:  when I am at home, there are signals for me to eat all the time.  Combine those signals with easy access, and the week could become long in terms of food.  I will do my best to beat back Mr. Habit.  This week’s blogs will hopefully provide myself, and you, with a few strategies that work, and remind us of a few that don’t, so that we can all be successful.

I think I am craving ice cream.  Is it wrong that this is happening at 6:00 am?  Here’s to a wonderful break.

Passion

March 16, 2012
Barriers to Exercise, Behavior Change, Exercise, Food Rules
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If there is something we truly want to engage in, we typically do.  We will get past the barriers, overcome the obstacles, rearrange our schedules, and do what is necessary to participate.  If there is passion, there is a will.  When there is not, the excuse becomes time.  As I’ve written on these pages previously, the time excuse usually masks something else (see the earlier post on hair).

Think of getting a call from a dear friend asking you to dinner and the Guthrie.  You’re immediate reaction is “Yes!”  Your schedule then tells you that you have a meeting that is already slotted for that evening.  My guess is that you reschedule the meeting and accept your friend’s invitation.  Why?  Not because the show at the Guthrie has been reviewed wonderfully, but rather, because you value the friendship.  That’s the why.  Anything that we are passionate about will drive our behavior, and anything we are not passionate about will guide us elsewhere, usually rationalizing through time.

In this morning’s New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds summarizes some new research on statins, or cholesterol lowering, drugs (i.e. Lipitor).  Many Americans take these drugs regularly.  We’ve known for quite some time they have the ability to cause muscle damage in certain segments of the population (10% of the population experiences this side effect).  The research highlighted here points to a new level of detail: that those who engage in exercise experience even more damage to their muscles and greater levels of fatigue (25% of the population on statins and also exercise).  If you are a competitive athlete on statins the damage and fatigue frequency grows mightily (75% of the population). I am not surprised that these drugs do this, and I as I finished the article this morning while on my trusty stationary bike, I fired off an email to my mother asking, “Are you on these?”  A few minutes passed and the reply came, “Yes.”

My mother is approaching 70 with a smile, is active with her grandkids, exercises often, and regularly visits her physician.  Just the other day she mentioned she had scheduled a checkup with her cardiologist.  In the past she has asked me about stiffness and even fatigue.  The thought never crossed my mind that there would be some type of crossover effect between her exercising and those issues.  I am very aware of potential impacts of drugs on muscle, etc., however, it never occurred to me that the statin drugs could play such a prominent role.  Here is the quandry:  my mother (and by definition, me) has a strong family history of heart disease.  She had a stent put in her heart years ago due to severe blockage and has been on statins ever since.  I would hope (but am unsure) that her cardiologist recommends exercise and a healthy diet.  Today she gets an article from me saying that the drugs she is on, combined with her exercise, may be causing muscle damage and fatigue during exercise.  What’s a person to do?

Here’s my point in all of this, and it comes from what I believe is the most telling quote in today’s Times piece:  “Lower energy is linked to less interest in physical activity,” says Dr. Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego.  Wow.  That gets to the why, and my guess is many people mask the decreased interest resulting from fatigue as not having enough time.  If exercise constantly makes me sore and tired, and I have less energy, I will not stay focused on exercise for very long.  If the exercise my mother engages in constantly causes aches and pains, drives down her energy, and crushes interest, I doubt she’d keep it up (this can be offset by having an exercise physiologist for a son who constantly hampers about the benefits of exercise).  If you don’t have a son in the exercise field, would you keep going?

Two things are at play here.  We need to develop a passion about our health, because if exercise is about something bigger than weight we will do it.  If exercise can become about maintaining an active lifestyle so we can be around longer for the grandkids, we’ll do it.  The other item at play is that anything that lowers your interest will become an insurmountable barrier to what we want to accomplish.  And sometimes our lost interest occurs for reasons we may not think about or understand.  We need to keep that interest up.  Time for a chat with my physician.

I now step down from my soapbox.

Friday is Food Rule day, so let’s get back to cravings for a moment.  Here we go:

If you crave something, take a bite.  Just a bite.  One.  Walk away after that one bite.  Force yourself to.  Have your partner physically remove the second bite from your hand if necessary.  It’s ok to crave, and it’s ok to enjoy.  We just need to lower how often we enjoy at any given time.

Happy Friday.

You don’t say?

March 15, 2012
Behavior Change, Food Descriptives, Food Environment, Scientific Studies
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This morning as I was perusing the latest issues of a few journals one particular article caught my eye: “Diet and Food Craving.  A Descriptive, Quasi-Prospective Study.” Gets you excited as well doesn’t it?  Any research that can help me understand why I crave cookie dough as soon as I see it, I want to know more about.

The researchers in this study took 129 women, average age of 41, and observed them for seven days.  There were three groups: those that were dieting to lose weight, those that were watching their diet to avoid weight gain, and non-dieters.  The primary purpose of the study was to determine who craved food more often and with what intensity. And yes, we can actually rate your craving intensity.  (There is no scale that can rate the intensity of my cookie dough craving).

Some other recent research has shown that craving frequency and intensity went unchanged during a six month weight management program.  However, these researchers did note that during successful weight loss programs, the number of times the craved foods were consumed was reduced.  Key point.  We may still crave the food, but for some reason, successful dieters don’t give into temptation. The present study was the first to look at dieting to lose weight and watching their diet to avoid weight gain.

A little aside here that the authors of the current study noted:  mood has stronger links to craving than actual hunger.  Whoa!  You mean my mood influences how much I eat?  Fascinating.

The results of the present study are instructive:  those that were dieting to lose weight had a greater number of craving episodes than those that were watching their diet to avoid weight gain and non-dieters.  However, the number of craving episodes per day decreased as the week went on.  Almost as if all the dieters were growing accustomed to their strategy.

Chocolate was the most craved food followed by savoury (think potato chips, french fries) and sweet foods.  (Note to my female readers:  chocolate was craved more pre-menstrually then other times).

Most of the cravings were experienced at home, with others present, and in the afternoon or evening hours.  56% of the cravings were preceeded by thinking about the food.  A majority of the cravings were satisfied by eating the craved food.

Finally, mood as measured at the end of the day differed according to whether or not a craving took place and by group.  On days when craving was experienced subjects were more anxious, tense, irritable, emotionally vulnerable, and less content.  Those that were watching their diet to avoid weight gain were less anxious and bored that the others.

Maybe most of that isn’t surprising to you, however, think about the why of it all.  Put these results in the context of why you eat.  Do you crave the foods that you have told yourself to avoid?  Those cravings for those specific foods increase when you are avoiding them, and more often than not, you give in.  “Avoidance makes the desire for these foods increase as they become more salient,” say the authors.  Yes!  Once you see those foods you are avoiding, BAM!, you want them.  And you want them now.  Cookie dough battle lost.

In conclusion, the authors state the following:  “Popular accounts of food craving still favor external or situational causal attributions over internal psychological features.”  Translated into english: It’s the environment, the situation you are in, that causes you to eat.  Salient dictates, my friends.

Why do eat?  Do you eat, or more aptly in for today’s discussion, do you crave, at home?  In the evening?  In the presence of others?  Are you focused on food at the time?  What can we do to not give in to those cravings?  Can’t avoid going home, but could you create an environment that supports you?  Have a small amount of something sweet or savoury, but then have some fruit laying around that you can quickly grab.  Hard to avoid thinking about food, I know do, but maybe we can come up with strategies to redirect ourselves.

Underlying this, I feel, is moderation.  And that is something I struggle with.  Don’t avoid the good stuff, just don’t over-enjoy it.  Allow the environment to support you, not hinder you.  Don’t have a stash of chips and chocolate.  Have just one bag of chips and one chocolate bar and take steps to limit how much you consume at a time.  As the present research shows, within a week, craving frequency goes down.  The first step, or the first time you say no, is the most difficult.  Maybe, just maybe, it gets a bit easier from there.  Let’s hope.  Although after nearly 40 years, I still crave cookie dough.

Same same

March 14, 2012
Behavior Change
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“Same same” is a Thai response when an American asks about something in comparison to another.  For example, you just arrived in Bangkok and ask your tuk tuk driver, “Is Bangkok like New York City?”  The driver’s response will most likely be, “Same, same.”  A friend dropped off the latest issue of Runner’s World yesterday as there was an article on a pair of shoes (Newtons) that force you to run differently.  Interesting article.  However, something else caught my eye.  This particular issue of Runner’s World was the “Weight Loss Issue.”  This I had to read.

The cover claimed “50 easy ways to eat right, train smart, and stay lean.”  Anytime a magazine screams at the easiness of weight loss, walk away.  I didn’t follow my own advice and opened up.  Here is a sampling of the 50 easy ways to lose weight:

Run, Run, Run…
Plan ahead
Eat often
Practice, Long, Slow eating
Watch your intake
Exercise today
Crank the Intensity
Don’t drink sugar

Same, same if you ask me.  If you look at the list above is there anything there you haven’t heard before? My guess is no.  It’s the same rehashing we always hear, and I’d bet that if we found last year’s copy of Runner’s World Weight Loss Issue many of the tips are similar.  Was it Einstein that once defined insanity as doing things the same way over and over while expecting different results?

For full disclosure I did cherry pick some of that list above.  There are a couple of good tips, but they are few and far between.  For example, “Be honest” was one, as was, “Keep it away” as in don’t buy junk food.  In reality, i probably could have summed up their entire list of 50 with just one of the items on the list, “Eat real food.”  Thank you, Runner’s World.  I guess minimalists don’t make good journalists, “Eat real food, move more” doesn’t make for good copy.

I’m not trying to filet this issue of the magazine, however, 90% of the presented 50 easy ways to lose weight have nothing to do with why we eat.  I know that I need to run, run, run, and to plan ahead, and to watch my intake.  And try as I might I probably won’t succeed at long, slow eating.  What the author of this piece missed, I believe, is that most people understand this list and accept it to be true, but won’t have success in putting them into play.  The list doesn’t address the why and the barriers to success.

Weight loss and weight management are incredibly difficult.  To claim easiness is to set people up for more failure.  The reason for this is that telling someone not to eat sugar is easy, telling them, and coming to an understanding of why they eat sugar is incredibly challenging.  It goes beyond physiology and crosses into psychology.  It goes beyond self discipline.  And that is what was missing here. In order to challenge our habits of making poor food choices we need to understand why.  Why did I have that cookie yesterday?  Still working on that answer.  I wasn’t hungry, but I did eat it longingly and slowly.  Maybe Runner’s World had a point.

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