Over the past few years our family holiday dinners have provided more left-overs because we're eating less.
What hasn't changed is the anticipation of getting together, and the warm-fuzzy feeling you get with family hugs.
There is such a strong association with overeating during the holidays that many feel like the quality of family gatherings might be threatened if the multi-plate eat-a-thon is abandoned for sensible eating.
This is where we can conflate the legitimate importance of compassion with the perceived need to overeat. It's easy to miss the mindfulness step and feel overwhelmed by tradition and perhaps even indoctrination, and not make the connection that those lovely hugs and happy reminiscing moments are not made better by eating too much, and are strong enough to be enjoyed on their own merit.
Here's a thought that might help.
There are a few acute responses to really big meals:
Acid reflux
Poor sleep
Constipation
mmm.. Good 'ol constipation. Serve me up some of that!
What's maybe a little weird is that we normalize these side effects and actually pervert them into being accomplishments. Having to unbuckle your belt and succumbing to moving with expediency of a sloth are seen as podium worthy. We assign a reward association to something that harms us. Why? Because thats how the reward centres in our brain conspire with our learned habits to allow us to feel justified in behavior that isn't exactly all that rewarding in the long term, but is in the short term.
No doubt about it, many of us have experienced the reward of munching down a few plates of colon-stuffing holiday food, relishing every bite.
But with so many of the population suffering from weight gain, and with the acute displeasure of the above mentioned esophagus-burning etc, maybe it's time to retire this idea, and just go for the family bonding, while enjoying sensible servings of our favorites.
Cris LaBossiere
Strength training and mountain biking. My two favorites
Showing posts with label holiday eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday eating. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Don't eat the whole turkey! Avoiding gorging during the holidays
For many of us the holiday season offers cherished moments with family and friends celebrated with the joy of giving and food, lot's and lot's of food.
Though smiling on the outside, the holiday season is actually very stressful for a lot of the population. Many get anxious and are worried about over eating and gaining weight. Most won't talk about their concern because they don't want to be seen as a Christmas killjoy.
We can have a good time without over eating. Here are a few tips:
Avoid prompting others to over eat, and If someone says they're done at one plate, then so be it, enjoy their company and try not to cajole them into eating more.
Don't do the no eating thing during the day to save up over eating points for dinner. This usually backfires because you're so hungry by the time dinner comes around you eat far more than you would have had you ate breakfast and lunch.
Although it's tempting to load the plate to make it look like the great pyramids, serve a normal sized plate. You'll still enjoy all the food and you'll avoid the uncomfortable bloat that inevitably follows.
If you're set on going back for seconds then plan ahead.. Make your first plate smaller, then go back for less than half a plate of things you like the most.
Don't trick yourself with the "it's only one time" excuse to over eat.. in reality most of us have already over ate at the office party, have more than one family dinner to attend, will be eating left-overs for days, then we're hit New Years over eating. Additionally it's likely that we've been over eating all year anyway so there is no way it can really be a one-time thing.
Enjoy your friends and family because of their human value, because of your history with them.. we don't need to pig out in order to enjoy the company of friends.
Besides, we all know that we regret over eating afterwards. Why spend any time during the holidays regretting over eating? Simply skip the over eating to begin with. I promise you you'll still enjoy the celebration.
Click here to read what Heart and Stroke has to say about holiday eating
Sunday, December 23, 2012
95% Fail to lose weight. What are the 5% doing?
You'd think the person with the answer to this question would be heralded as modern societies saviour, the person who solved the mystery of why we gain weight and can't seem to lose it. Or perhaps at least this person would be rich in finding a way to capitalize on such a discovery.
There are indeed many who have become wealthy in selling their solution to the weight loss problem but in doing so another mystery arises; if all these people with the solution to weight loss do have the answer, why is it the population of the entire planet continues to become more overweight every year?
When humanity learned how to eradicate smallpox it was the end of smallpox. We have the antidote for excessive weight gain, but don't use it.
More of the population is overweight. This seems a logical explanation for why more weight loss clinics classes, blogs, news stories, and apparently novel weight loss concepts would materialize.
It's a question of supply and demand.
Interesting that the more this problem spreads the more full-proof solutions are propagated and sold.
Maybe at some point sock makers would sell so many socks that all the worlds people would have socks so no more socks would be needed. Too simplified. The population grows, socks wear out, and maybe people want to upgrade from $5.00 socks to $10.00 socks and so on.
Is fat loss the same way? Does one weight loss strategy wear-out requiring another strategy to continue weight loss? Is the more costly fat loss option more effective?
This can't be true because fat loss is about eating fewer calories than expended. There isn't another strategy. It is that simple, but complexities arrise in achieving that simplicity.
The National Weight Loss Registry, an ongoing study of what people who successfully lose weight and keep it off actually do has found the following:
To register people must have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for one or more years.
Registry members have lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off for more than 5 years.
The study is open to US residents and has published it's findings to date.
Here is what those who have lost weight and kept it off have in common:
45% lost weight on their own and 55% lost weight with the help of some kind of program
94% increased their physical activity with walking being the most common exercise, and one hour of exercise daily being average frequency and duration.
98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.
78% eat breakfast every day
75% weigh themselves at least once per week
62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week
The increase in physical activity increases calories out and the modification of food intake decreases calories in.
I'm writing this during the Christmas holiday season, but what I'm saying is relevant anytime of the year.
A common strategy that people tell me about when they are about to enter a social feeding frenzy, be it a birthday, an after the game or after the whatever chow-down, is this:
Since we're going to overeat anyway, why bother trying to mess with that since it won't work. Why not simply concentrate our efforts on what to do after we're finished the overeating celebration?
Makes sense. Christmas dinners? I've already bought the ticket to that train and I'm going to ride it out. Plus; why ruin Christmas (or whatever)?
"I just want to have a good type two diabetes with my family". Crap. Freudian.
What I meant to say sarcastically is, "I just want to have a good time feeling bloated and regretful for overdoing it and gaining even more weight". Whoops, I did it again.
The flaw in this strategy is that it is completely denial based and is merely used as an excuse to justify more overeating. Hardly anyone is actually going to follow through with the "I'll deal with it later" self afflicted con-job.
What is the expected outcome of never preventing overeating and always thinking about what to do after overeating?
Most will tell you the expected outcome is successful weight loss.
Crazy-talk.
We are crazy about overeating, even when we know better.
Like I've said before in previous ramblings, the current consensus is that decisions surrounding eating are largely bound to seeking gratification. Not just any gratification, but the kind that has greatest power to amputate our better judgment.
Instant gratification.
This is ultimately what the 5% of the population are tapping into when they successfully lose weight and keep it off; understand the source of instant gratification and doing something about it.
They modify their behaviors and feelings about food and eating to such an extent that they no longer fall prey to their self-generated compulsion to overeat. Indeed the compulsion itself is greatly diminished down to a realistically manageable state.
Everyone who loses fat does it the same way. They consume fewer calories than expended.
The 5% who keep it off do so not by short term dietary and exercise habit changes, but rather over very long periods of lifestyle management.
The success is in realizing that overeating is just not worth the trouble.
We can all follow the habits of the the study subjects in the National Weight Control Registry.
If we did we would all permanently lose weight and keep it off. It's the "permanently" part that get most people (95%), as within mere weeks of implementing these proven habits, most people will feel like they are missing their doses of instant gratification. Most will feel compelled to fall back into the habits and social practices that promote and celebrate overeating.
When you surly love overeating there is nothing in the world that will break that love.
Wait.. There is one thing. It's the relationship killer.
Cheating.
No, I'm not talking about "cheat days" where you overindulge to cool your heals during a diet phase.
I'm talking about your love partner cheating on you. I'm talking about overeating stabbing you in the arteries while making love to your tastebuds and that part of the brain that allows you interpret the sensation of "wow, this is really good".
I'm talking about the epiphany the 5% get when they realize that the way they are living is not really making things better, but worse.
The hardest part about changing to healthy living habits is letting go the reward association with overeating and inactivity and making new reward associations with healthy eating and exercise.
If you don't fall for healthy living like falling in love you will forever be chained to the old relationship. The abusive relationship where you beg for those few moments of feeling good only to be burdened with lethargy, weight gain, and health issues surrounding unhealthy living.
Call me preachy if you like. I'm just telling it like it is and have no intentions of being a lifestyle judge and jury or diet zealot / guru.
I only write what I feel and what I have learned through reading research. My delivery is what it is.
Implement what I say though and you won't be doing what I say, but rather doing what research suggests we can do to escape one of the greatest societal plagues ever: the love and celebration of chronic overeating.
There are indeed many who have become wealthy in selling their solution to the weight loss problem but in doing so another mystery arises; if all these people with the solution to weight loss do have the answer, why is it the population of the entire planet continues to become more overweight every year?
When humanity learned how to eradicate smallpox it was the end of smallpox. We have the antidote for excessive weight gain, but don't use it.
More of the population is overweight. This seems a logical explanation for why more weight loss clinics classes, blogs, news stories, and apparently novel weight loss concepts would materialize.
It's a question of supply and demand.
Interesting that the more this problem spreads the more full-proof solutions are propagated and sold.
Maybe at some point sock makers would sell so many socks that all the worlds people would have socks so no more socks would be needed. Too simplified. The population grows, socks wear out, and maybe people want to upgrade from $5.00 socks to $10.00 socks and so on.
Is fat loss the same way? Does one weight loss strategy wear-out requiring another strategy to continue weight loss? Is the more costly fat loss option more effective?
This can't be true because fat loss is about eating fewer calories than expended. There isn't another strategy. It is that simple, but complexities arrise in achieving that simplicity.
The National Weight Loss Registry, an ongoing study of what people who successfully lose weight and keep it off actually do has found the following:
To register people must have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for one or more years.
Registry members have lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off for more than 5 years.
The study is open to US residents and has published it's findings to date.
Here is what those who have lost weight and kept it off have in common:
45% lost weight on their own and 55% lost weight with the help of some kind of program
94% increased their physical activity with walking being the most common exercise, and one hour of exercise daily being average frequency and duration.
98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.
78% eat breakfast every day
75% weigh themselves at least once per week
62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week
The increase in physical activity increases calories out and the modification of food intake decreases calories in.
I'm writing this during the Christmas holiday season, but what I'm saying is relevant anytime of the year.
A common strategy that people tell me about when they are about to enter a social feeding frenzy, be it a birthday, an after the game or after the whatever chow-down, is this:
Since we're going to overeat anyway, why bother trying to mess with that since it won't work. Why not simply concentrate our efforts on what to do after we're finished the overeating celebration?
Makes sense. Christmas dinners? I've already bought the ticket to that train and I'm going to ride it out. Plus; why ruin Christmas (or whatever)?
"I just want to have a good type two diabetes with my family". Crap. Freudian.
What I meant to say sarcastically is, "I just want to have a good time feeling bloated and regretful for overdoing it and gaining even more weight". Whoops, I did it again.
The flaw in this strategy is that it is completely denial based and is merely used as an excuse to justify more overeating. Hardly anyone is actually going to follow through with the "I'll deal with it later" self afflicted con-job.
What is the expected outcome of never preventing overeating and always thinking about what to do after overeating?
Most will tell you the expected outcome is successful weight loss.
Crazy-talk.
We are crazy about overeating, even when we know better.
Like I've said before in previous ramblings, the current consensus is that decisions surrounding eating are largely bound to seeking gratification. Not just any gratification, but the kind that has greatest power to amputate our better judgment.
Instant gratification.
This is ultimately what the 5% of the population are tapping into when they successfully lose weight and keep it off; understand the source of instant gratification and doing something about it.
They modify their behaviors and feelings about food and eating to such an extent that they no longer fall prey to their self-generated compulsion to overeat. Indeed the compulsion itself is greatly diminished down to a realistically manageable state.
Everyone who loses fat does it the same way. They consume fewer calories than expended.
The 5% who keep it off do so not by short term dietary and exercise habit changes, but rather over very long periods of lifestyle management.
The success is in realizing that overeating is just not worth the trouble.
We can all follow the habits of the the study subjects in the National Weight Control Registry.
If we did we would all permanently lose weight and keep it off. It's the "permanently" part that get most people (95%), as within mere weeks of implementing these proven habits, most people will feel like they are missing their doses of instant gratification. Most will feel compelled to fall back into the habits and social practices that promote and celebrate overeating.
When you surly love overeating there is nothing in the world that will break that love.
Wait.. There is one thing. It's the relationship killer.
Cheating.
No, I'm not talking about "cheat days" where you overindulge to cool your heals during a diet phase.
I'm talking about your love partner cheating on you. I'm talking about overeating stabbing you in the arteries while making love to your tastebuds and that part of the brain that allows you interpret the sensation of "wow, this is really good".
I'm talking about the epiphany the 5% get when they realize that the way they are living is not really making things better, but worse.
The hardest part about changing to healthy living habits is letting go the reward association with overeating and inactivity and making new reward associations with healthy eating and exercise.
If you don't fall for healthy living like falling in love you will forever be chained to the old relationship. The abusive relationship where you beg for those few moments of feeling good only to be burdened with lethargy, weight gain, and health issues surrounding unhealthy living.
Call me preachy if you like. I'm just telling it like it is and have no intentions of being a lifestyle judge and jury or diet zealot / guru.
I only write what I feel and what I have learned through reading research. My delivery is what it is.
Implement what I say though and you won't be doing what I say, but rather doing what research suggests we can do to escape one of the greatest societal plagues ever: the love and celebration of chronic overeating.
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