Behaviors & Goals – If you bite it you must write it!

January 19, 2009

Have you ever try to ride a bicycle with one flat tire?  You don’t get very far.  Anyone can go “on a diet” for a few weeks to lose weight.  But learning how to change behaviors for good will enhance success. 

Losing weight is not rocket science.  It’s really quite simple:   In order to lose weight, calories in have to be less than calories out.  But what can revolutionize a lifelong struggle with weight management is learning how to take in less calories or expend more calories.  Here’s one tip that can help everyone achieve their weight loss and weight maintenance goals – if you bite it, you must write it!

This is called self-monitoring and it is arguably one of the most effective component of successfully losing and maintaining weight loss.  There are many reasons why it is so effective—here are just a few. 

#1: It teaches portion control

Many don’t understand what an appropriate serving looks like.

In today’s age of ‘Burritos the size of your head,” calories can add up very quickly.    Research has shown that portion sizes have increased over the last several decades to 2-3 times the recommended serving size.    You need to remove “supersize” and “large” from your vocabulary.

When writing it down, though, you will have to measure the serving to get a close count as to how much you’re putting in your body.  Once you actually learn portion control, you’ll quickly get a grasp on just how easy it is to overeat.   

#2. It increases your awareness

All too often, we eat for the activity rather than for physiological hunger.  We eat while we work, while driving, or while doing household tasks.  Too often we combine eating with relaxation such as watching TV, reading, or attending sporting events.  However, research has shown that coupling events with eating increases calorie intake. 

Once distracted, we become unaware of the amount we have consumed and do not feel fuller by eating more. Rather than serving any physiological need for food, eating becomes merely an activity.  Keeping a daily log of your intake, though, increases your awareness and decreases the likelihood of overconsuming calories or eating for other reasons aside from physiological hunger!

#3. It decreases overall calorie intake.

Research suggests that simply recording the foods and beverages consumed naturally decreases the amount of calories we eat.  This benefit is a natural off shoot of the first 2 benefits – when we are more aware of portion sizes, we eat less calories, and when we are more aware of what we are putting in our body, and we naturally eat less.  In fact, data from the National Weight Control Registry, a registry of men and women who have lost at least 30 lbs and maintained that for at least one year, has tracked behaviors of these individuals.  One of the behaviors that is attributed to their success is daily journaling and monitoring of their intake! 

This doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your lifestyle; it’s a simple behavior that can help you reach your goals!  If you bite it, you must write it!

---

Related Links:

Join the National Body Challenge FREE today! 

Keep a journal online through the National Body Challenge Community!

Move More! – Everyday Steps Towards Better Fitness

January 12, 2009

We have become a nation that sits on our butts!  That’s right!  More than half of adults engage in no physical activity at all! That’s disappointing, since more and more data show that regular exercise has been linked to decreased risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  Being physically active can even reduce premature death. 

What is physical activity?

Regular physical activity is defined as participating in moderate intensity activity (gardening, walking briskly as if you are late for the bus) for at least 30 minutes a day on 5 or more days a week  or vigorous activity (such as running, heavy yard work etc.) for at least 20 minutes a day 3 or more days per week. 

This may seem like a lot, especially if you have a lot going on in your life. However, remember that every bit counts.  You don’t have to go to the gym to reap the benefits of physical activity. Don’t overlook the small ways you can be more active every day.  Take more stairs at home or work, park farther away from the office and from the store and get up from your desk frequently throughout the day.  Small changes maintained over the course of the year can add up to be significant improvements in health!

Try a pedometer too.  Pedometers are also known as step counters; they measure the amount of physical activity you do throughout the day.  It is recommended to take a minimum of 10,000 steps per day; this is equivalent to exercising at least 30 minutes per day.  These are a fantastic tool when trying to increase physical activity or for those who are looking to maintain the recommended level of activity each day.   And the feedback is instantaneous – if you haven’t walked 10,000 steps before bedtime, you better get moving!

Healthy Eating – Breaking Through the Myths

January 05, 2009

There are an endless amount of myths surrounding nutrition and general healthy eating.

• Are carbohydrates OK to eat?
• Do I need to eliminate fat?
• Can I drink diet soda?
• How many calories do I really need each day?
• Will fruit make me fat?

It can really make your head spin. Afterall, one day you read coffee is good for you, and the next day, you read it can cause health problems.So what you do you? First, as always, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Second, if the information you hear suggests eliminating any food or an entire food group for healthy eating, it probably is a myth.

Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods from all food groups. The key is to focus on foods that are minimally processed and closest to their natural state. Although some foods and food groups get demonized, keep in mind that most play an important role in health.

Let’s take a look at the basics with the three macronutrients that provide calories:

1. Carbohydrates
2. Protein
3. Fat

Break up with Your Bad Habits

December 29, 2008

We all have unique habits.  Some are fantastic, like being regularly active, while others can truly hurt your health, like smoking.  Habits can start at a young age and the longer we keep doing something, the more likely it is to become a permanent habit.  For instance, those who start smoking at a young age and continue for many years, have a difficult time breaking that habit.  We of course need to keep our positive habits, but work on breaking up with our bad ones.

How to Break up with Your Bad Habits – It Starts with a Plan

You have several options for changing your habits.  One is to stop cold turkey but this is unrealistic for some folks. A simple trigger may tempt you to go back to your old ways. Maybe your trigger is candy – you have a bad habit of eating candy every single day.  The easiest way to make positive strides is to get rid of it.  Keep it out of the house.  Keep food in a coworker’s desk or another location that’s out of site.  In fact, research suggests when food is out of site, like in a desk or file cabinet door, you will eat significantly less than if it isout in clear view. 

Now, sometimes you may find avoiding the trigger is impossible.  All of us would probably prefer to avoid a stressful day, but that is not always within our control.  In these situations, the goal is to acknowledge the urge, and the consequences of giving in. Try this the next time the urge to go back to your old ways comes back:

SUBSTITUTE another activity
•    Stressful day?  Rather than grab the first thing from the vending machine, take a 5 minute break to unwind.   Close your eyes, take several deep breaths, and refocus. Eating is not something that will take the stressor away and will likely add additional stress.  Be careful of using food in an attempt to forget about tension.  Instead, use the opportunity to identify practical solutions to dealing with the stress. 
•    Instead of eating while watching TV, do some calisthenics or stretching exercises.  If you have exercise equipment, use it.

I’ve Lost All Sense of Direction

December 22, 2008

Did you get a GPS system for your car for Christmas? They’re pretty popular and I bet a bunch of you have received them. I’ve had a GPS in my car for the last few years, and I must admit I have lost all sense of direction. When I’m walking in the city or in a car without GPS, I have enormous difficulty figuring how to get around. Don’t ask me which way is North?! And I have irked more than a few passengers when I relied upon the robotic voice in my car rather than theirs in driving them to a destination. Afterall, if the car doesn’t tell me to turn nowadays, I don’t – doesn’t matter if the passenger has traveled a different route successfully numerous times!

I wonder if losing sense of direction is simply the next element of our lives becoming fully automated. Do you remember people’s phone numbers? Or do you simply store them in your phone? If you lost your phone, would you be able to call certain key numbers from memory? And when was the last time you actually did math in your head???

World AIDS Day—There’s Still Work to Be Done

December 01, 2008

December 1 is World AIDS Day. This year’s annual event has special significance given that it is the 20^th World AIDS Day as well as the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS. We have made tremendous progress over the last two decades in fighting HIV/AIDS – the disease has gone from a death sentence to essentially a chronic disease. Think about it – you don’t often hear anymore about people dying of AIDS. Rather, people with AIDS are dying of diseases like heart disease, stroke, and cancer. In a weird way, that represents progress.

Despite these successes, AIDS remains a disease that has significant impact on society. Over 1 million people are living with HIV, and there are over 56,000 new cases a year. By the time you finish reading this posting, someone will be infected with HIV.

Why Take the National Body Challenge?

November 24, 2008

Why? Why should you enter another online weight-loss challenge? I bet that’s what you’re asking yourself and it’s a reasonable question. To answer whether you should participate in the National Body Challenge, I have some questions for you. Do you want to get help in breaking bad habits? Do you want the tools necessary to adopt healthy living? If either of those answers is yes, then our National Body Challenge is for you!

I do want to clarify an important point: National Body Challenge is not about losing weight; rather, it’s about learning to live healthy. Many of you will participate this year in order to lose weight, but others will enter to maintain a healthy weight, and still others will want to tone up. Personally, I’m entering because I need to learn more about the right things to eat. That’s right – I need to learn more about nutrition and exercise. Even though I’m a doctor, we really don’t learn about nutrition or physical activity in medical school. So I’m eager, just like you, to hear from experts about simple ways to break bad habits and learn good ones.

Did you know that exercise has been shown to help prevent heart disease, stroke, heart disease, and even cancer?

Feeling Depressed After A Heart Attack

November 06, 2008

If you have had a heart attack, you may be experiencing depression. Did you realize that your mood can also be affecting your heart health? Depression causes a lot of problems for people with heart disease: more days in bed, more visits to the doctor, more ER visits, less enjoyment of life, more medical complications, and a higher risk of death. Untreated depression can actually double the risk of another cardiac event after a heart attack! How can you tell if you might be depressed? Here are some of the symptoms to look for:

• Do you feel sad, down, or blue most of the time?
• Have you stopped enjoying activates that you used to enjoy?
• Is your energy very low or are you having problems moving at a normal pace?
• Do you have problems concentrating?
• Has your appetite or sleep patterns changed?
• Do you feel worthless or excessively guilty?
• Have you been having thoughts about hurting or killing yourself?

If you have been experiencing these symptoms regularly, you may have depression, and depression is bad for your heart.

That Milkshake Has How Many Calories???!

October 21, 2008

If you’re watching your weight, you might be interested in a new law just passed in California. Starting next year, chain restaurants will have to print the calorie content of their foods in brochures for customers. And beginning in 2011, they’ll have to post calorie counts right on the menu. That means the 500 calories in that fruit smoothie or the 600 calories in a muffin will be staring you in the face when you order.

What’s the point, beyond the shock value? Some people think it’s a bad law. They say the government should stay out of our food choices. Others say we all need better information to make educated choices about our food. You may not know that New York City passed a similar law a few months ago, and guess what? All of a sudden the low-cal choices were so popular, restaurants started running out of them! I have to confess that on a recent trip to NYC, I opted out of the blueberry muffin when I saw how many calories it had as well as its fat content. I opted for a bran muffin instead – and it was actually better than I thought. I probably would not have made that choice if those numbers were not literally in my face!

It’s too soon to know whether New Yorkers have lost weight thanks to their law, or whether Californians will get skinnier thanks to theirs. But here’s why knowing those calories might be good for your diet:

• You might be underestimating the calories in the food you’re served. When asked about restaurant foods like a burger and fries or pasta with cheese sauce, people in one study misjudged by hundreds of calories!
• Fast food often has more calories than the same dishes cooked at home. Extra fat and sugar make foods taste good. And at many restaurant chains, the folks are sometimes more interested in cost and preparation time than in making things low-cal or healthy. In the past, they also were concerned that "healthier" choices would not sell.
• Foods that look healthy aren’t always diet-friendly. A vanilla milkshake (my favorite kind!) at one popular chain restaurant has about the same number of calories as a cheeseburger and fries.

Even if your local restaurants aren’t required to post calories, you might notice that some are getting on board. Yum Brands—the company behind KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s, Taco Bell, and A&W—will put calories on the menu starting this year, not just in California but nationwide.

Of course, if you’re trying to stay healthy, the calorie count isn’t the only thing you need to know. Keep an eye on fat content and try to get plenty of fruits and veggies. Don’t go too low on the calories in a meal, either, or you might wind up so hungry that you’ll overeat later. To get a rough idea of the calories you need each day, try the calorie counter provided by Discovery Health.

Related Links:

About Dr. John Whyte

Join the National Body Challenge FREE!

Watch Video of Expert Advice on Health & Nutrition

Find Healthy (and TASTY!) Recipes

How Safe Are Medical X-rays?

September 02, 2008

A patient recently came in to see me complaining of a headache of several days duration. Given the symptoms and duration in this particular patient, I decided to order a CT scan of the head to make sure he did not have a life-threatening condition. To my surprise, the patient expressed some resistance to the scan. Sometime, patients who are claustrophobic might express some concerns about undergoing the test. This patient, however, remarked, "Dr. Whyte, Do I really need it? Can’t CT scans cause cancer?"

In order to answer this question, it’s helpful to review medical imaging. X-rays allow us to peer inside the body and see everything from broken bones to pneumonia, but x-rays can involve exposure to radiation.

How concerned should you be about x-ray radiation exposure?

To begin, radiation is a type of energy that we are exposed to naturally- there are low levels of radiation in the air we breathe, in the food we eat, and in our own bodies. Because some radiation also comes from space, even living at a higher elevation in places like Denver exposes you to a slightly higher, but still very small, amount of radiation compared to someone at sea level.

An x-ray is a specific kind of radiation that can pass through tissue so that we can see things, such as bones and lungs, by the shadows and silhouettes the x-rays leave on film. Somewhat like taking a photograph, plain x-ray films give us a two-dimensional picture. Taking x-rays films from many different angles enables us to put together a three dimensional image using computers, which is what we call a CT scan, also know as a CAT scan.

Exactly how much radiation exposure is there from x-rays or CT scans?

A common yardstick for radiation exposure is the daily "background radiation" that we naturally are exposed to every day of our lives. Here are some rough comparisons:

• Flying cross-country~ a few days of background radiation
• Chest x-ray to look for pneumonia~ a couple of days of background radiation
• CT of the head to look for a stroke or tumor~ almost a year of background radiation
• CT of the abdomen to see if you have appendicitis~ a few years of background radiation

The important thing to notice is that x-ray and CT imaging have radiation exposure comparable to what we are exposed to day-to-day.

One concern is that large doses of radiation may increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer. However, the low doses of radiation used in x-ray and CT medical imaging carry much smaller risks, and this small risk needs to be weighed against the clear and very significant benefits, such as avoiding an unnecessary surgery, finding a stroke, or finding a broken bone that needs to be splinted.

Related Links:

About Dr. John Whyte

Watch a video demonstration of a CT Scan.