Can You Resist This...Forever?

The NY Times article, “Why Even Resolute Dieters Often Fail” is an excellent example of why small changes and the Power of 10 are the keys to long-lasting weight loss.  Going on a “diet” implies something to be done for a period of time and then stopped.  Sure we may lose weight during a period of restriction/control, but have we fundamentally changed our relationship with the food that we eat? If we haven’t, then odds are we will regain that lost weight once our diet is over.

While some moderate restrictions/changes can be good to kickstart our lifestyle change, we must remember that these changes are part of a larger lifestyle change, not just a “diet”.  At the end of the diet, some of these changes need to stick…forever.  They could be changes in how we eat and/or changes in physical activity level.  The key is finding the changes that you can stick to consistently and keep on doing them.  As you are losing weight consider which changes you made that were “easy” and write them down.  Those changes can be the first ones you make permanent and the ones you can later reflect on if/when you have some struggles a number of months down the road.  You can look back and say, “Hey, look what I’ve already accomplished.  Even though I may be at a plateau at the moment, I’m steps ahead of where I was when I started.”  Then look at your current habits with resolve and choose the next couple of easy changes and sure enough you will start getting results again.

Sometimes it is worth sweating the small stuff.  What successful small changes have you made?

Is This Your Lunch?

A recent study out of Cornell University (Go Big Red!), looked at the impact of low-calorie meals on overall daily calorie intake.  People were given access to all-you-can-eat buffets for all meals.  However, part of the time they were asked to eat a small, 200 calorie lunch (i.e. Lean Pocket, Granola Bar) instead of their usual “lunch buffet”. One those low-calorie lunch days, they ate 245 less calories in total, despite consuming about the same number of calories at breakfast and dinner.  In other words, the subjects did not compensate for the smaller lunch with a bigger dinner or breakfast.

But how realistic is it that we are faced with “all you can eat” meal scenarios for all 3 meals? (College campuses!)  Also, were some of the foods offered in the buffet “out of the ordinary” for the participants?  Then they may have been able to choose healthier options (i.e. seafood, grilled chicken) just because they were there rather than having to deal with choosing them in a real-life scenario (everyone else is ordering out for lunch at the pizza place…are you going to get the grilled fish?).  Or do they normally skip breakfast but ate it during the study because “it was there”.  This is always the issue with controlled studies; usually the better the control, the less realistic the study becomes.

I think what is interesting to note is that, despite being low calorie, the 200 calorie lunch is similar to that offered by meal replacement diet plans (bar/shake for breakfast, lunch and a sensible dinner, etc.).  However those plans tend to quickly put someone in a significant calorie restriction situation, which is not ideal for long-term maintenance and metabolism.  But overall it’s better than skipping a meal.

Recently I met someone who lost an impressively significant amount of weight by becoming more active and consuming whole-food based nutrition supplement bars every few hours until dinner time (sensible dinner).  For him, the decision to eat the supplement bars throughout the day allowed him to avoid the “decision making” and emotional processes with food. (Eat a bar every few hours…that’s it.)  But at the same time does it stunt his relationship with food?  Will he ever be able to transition back to a food-based diet or will he slip back into old, unhealthy patterns if he tries?  Or does it matter if he can continue to eat the supplement bars for the rest of his life?

Have you ever used a low-calorie meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) to lose weight?  Was it successful in the long-term? Have you tried using supplement bars to lose weight?  Do you think they can be a long-term solution?  I want your input!

A Clove a Day May Actually Help Keep the Doctor Away

And I’m not talking about artificial sweeteners!  Some of the most flavorful additions to our meals can have zero (or close to zero) calories and zero sodium (put the salt shaker down!).  But many people are intimidated by using spices in their cooking, or even in quick 5 minute dishes; however one piece of garlic or sprig of thyme can make all the difference between Blah and Booyah!  You can add spices to any meal:

Breakfast: Add cinnamon to your oatmeal or any fresh herbs to an omelette

Lunch: Add basil to your sandwich or sprinkle some fresh dill on a salad

Dinner: Add garlic and ginger to any stir-fry or bake some potatoes with rosemary, garlic and olive oil

My article, Spices for Flavor and Health, focuses on three spices in particular: garlic, ginger and cinnamon.  Each spice has a description of their health benefits (did you know that cinnamon can improve insulin sensitivity in Type 2 diabetics and lower blood pressure?) along with a few quick and easy recipes to integrate them into your everyday dishes.  Tasty and easy, a winning combination!

Round 1: Sumo vs. Business

Saw this advertisement in an airline magazine on my way to a wedding in Omaha last weekend.  Take a look at the flat back alignment of the sumo wrestler vs. the hunched-over businessman.  I bet they didn’t even consider it when doing the photo shoot.  Goes to show you can be stable AND mobile

Although I didn’t run an FMS on these guys, odds are the businessman is rounding his back due to either:

1) Tight hip flexors that don’t allow his hips to fully extend back and/or

2) His thoracic spine is not very mobile due to tight chest muscles.

Both of which are symptoms of sitting at a desk all day and/or only doing pushing movements at the gym (i.e. pushups/bench press/shoulder press).  Sound like anyone you know?

Functional Movement Screen Hurdle Step

Just as in any other crime, it is the victim that cries, not the perpetrator. Recent insights into human movement, spearheaded by Gray Cook and Mike Boyle have led to the development of the Joint-by-Joint approach which classifies the body into an alternating series of mobile and stable joints. For example, the ankle should be mobile, the knee stable, the hip mobile, lower back stable and so on. When a mobile joint becomes stable, whether due to an injury (sprained ankle, etc.) or repetitive movement issues (carrying a heavy bag on the same side every day, etc.), the lost movement must be made up by the body somewhere… usually where it is not supposed to. Enter the knee, lower back, etc.

These “stable” joints end up moving more than they should to make sure your body does what it is supposed to…for a while. Eventually the shock absorbers of these joints (cartilage, intervetebral discs, etc.) wear out and then you get the inevitable joint pain. This does not happen over night; it occurs after years of repeated poor movement and poor posture.

Traditional fitness assessments include things like treadmill/cardio tests, flexibility (i.e. sit and reach), muscular endurance (i.e. pushups), etc.  However, movement-based screens and assessments, like the Functional Movement Screen [a short (15-20 minutes), 7-step screen], are designed to identify if you have any major movement patterning issues (do you use your lower back instead of your hips?) or asymmetries (does your right side work harder than your left?). This valuable information paired with traditional fitness assessments, allows you, or your trainer to customize exercise programs that will let you move better, move stronger and gain the fitness results you want….while minimizing injury risk. There’s no point in blasting yourself in intense workouts for 3 months if you always end up with another injury. Put in the time and effort to make sure you can learn to train safely, with intensity, next month, next year and next decade.

If you are interested in learning more about the Functional Movement Screen and corrective exercise training, post a comment, email me, or join the blog!  I’ll be posting more info on this topic periodically!

Mmm...Smoothies.

Below you will find my five favorite smoothie recipes.  A good rule of thumb is about 3 to 4 big leaves of a thick green (i.e. kale, collards, swiss chard), a small bunch of cilantro or parsley, or a big handful of spinach for each piece of fruit.  Add some water and ice, blend to taste.  If you want to get fancy you can add juice, milk, yogurt, peanut butter or spices (i.e. cinnamon, vanilla).  These are technically designed for high-powered blenders like VitaMix or Blendtec, but if you have a decent powered smoothie maker or blender you could always blend it, scrape down the edges a few times and then strain it…or enjoy a few little bits of pulp   Try some out and tweak it as you like!

These are my Fav Five, in no particular order:

1) Cilantro and Grapefruit (just peel with a zester, you can leave the pith on)

2) Kale and Pear

3) Parsley and Apple

4) Spinach, Banana and Handful of Berries

5) Apple, Carrot, Orange and a small piece of Ginger

And a sixth…Swiss Chard and darn near anything…for some reason swiss chard gets frothy and foamy so it’s almost like a green smoothie float!

By the way, if you leave the smoothie on the counter (or fridge) for more than about 5 minutes, it will start to separate.  Do not be alarmed, this is totally natural…just stir with a spoon and you are good to go.  Bon appetit!

My Favorite Breakfast Drink!

Since achieving my 35 pound weight loss journey in 2005 and subsequent foray into graduate school for Applied Physiology and Nutrition, I considered myself a relatively health conscious eater. I ended up trying a number of “diets” in grad school for about a week or so in the name of science…low-carb (Atkins), raw vegan and even a “food stamp” diet (I had to eat for a week only on the amount someone receives on food stamps…about $35 at the time. $5 a day.). Coming out the other end my motto became, “All in moderation…”

And so I lived my life until early 2009 when I started dating someone who had a blender that she said could be the only cooking utensil she needed in her life. Of course, I was intrigued, as I’m the type of person who liked to put fire to most of my foods. As it turns out, the famed blender was the two-horsepower Vitamix, which has been known to puree hammers (do NOT try this at home). After a few dates/uses of the Vitamix, I must admit I was pretty hooked. We were able to take big, tough dark leafy greens like kale and collard greens and blend them with fruit, water and ice to end up with a smooth, tasty concoction. We even made pea soup starting with frozen peas (no precooking required!).

Since moving in together last year…green smoothies have become a morning ritual for me, chock full of new fruit/veggie/greens combinations for me to try! While much of the rest of my day remains the same, injecting these consistent smoothies into my routine resulted in the following (for me):

• Better satiety in the morning with a smaller breakfast (smoothie and usually just a small bowl of whole grain cereal or a slice of whole grain bread + peanut butter)
• Improved my general nutrient intake (I analyzed a 3 day food record with my new habits vs. old habits)
• Amazingly regular trips to the bathroom
• A few pounds of somewhat unintended, but much appreciated weight loss

The longer I have worked with clients in the health/wellness field the more I have come to realize that permanent results come from small, permanent changes. I changed a routine (started drinking green smoothies in the morning) and got a result (see above). While you may not choose to start drinking green smoothies every day (but if you do, contact me for some great recipes), consider a small, permanent change in your life that you can make to gain a permanent, positive result. Remember, small changes done every day can have a huge impact on your life.

The average adult gains about one pound per year and one pound equals about 3500 calories.  3500 calories divided by 365 days a year equals about 10 calories a day.  While one pound does not sound like a lot, that becomes ten pounds a decade.  This means if you are a svelte 180 pounds at 25 years old, you may be facing a hefty 210 pounds at 55 years old.

So…back to the ten calories.  Often we are too focused on our crash diets, multi-hour workout sessions and egregious errors in nutritional (why did I eat that huge piece of cake?) or fitness (I missed my workout today) judgment that we fail to take note of the other, smaller daily decisions (walking vs. driving, elevator vs. stairs, whole vs. low-fat milk) that can have just as much, if not greater, of an impact on our weight.

Our body is usually able to handle and adapt to the big mistakes, because that is what they are…mistakes.  As in, not the norm.  In fact, isn’t it amazing that our bodies, despite all of the crap we do to it, is able to regulate itself to stay within such a narrow weight range?  In other words, sometimes it is worth sweating the small stuff…pun intended.  Because it is the small stuff that ultimately drives how much we weigh 20 years from now.  Not that one big meal you had last night.  Unless you have a big meal every night.

In conclusion, very small changes, done on a daily basis can have a large impact on our long-term weight.  Diets come and go, the latest workout fads will be forgotten faster than you can say “shake weight,” but your body will still need to eat and will still need to move.  If you can take small, sustainable steps to living a healthier lifestyle, then you can harness the power of ten to make sure you are maintaining a healthy weight rather than becoming another “average adult” statistic.

I will be launching an additional area to my blog to promote the Power of 10^™ by focusing on the small changes we can make in our daily activities (Burn10^™) and eating habits (Cut10^™) to prevent the excess ten calories that lead to ten pounds every ten years.  Ideas will also be sent out via my twitter account, @JMachowskyRDFit.

If you would like to share your own ideas, please add your comment here!

Man...and Treadmill at Work!

There are a few silver linings in the upcoming healthcare reform law, one of which is an increase in employee wellness incentives.  As reported by Stone Hearth News, in “2014 employers will be able to offer an incentive of up to 30 percent of an employee’s total healthcare premium (compared to 20% currently), if the employee is doing everything asked to improve his or her health and reduce medical costs”.  And saving hard-earned money can be a very powerful motivator for positive change in many people…and companies.

Overall, this becomes a win-win proposition, as employers pay less health insurance premiums on healthier employees.  Additionally, healthy employees typically have increased productivity and reduced absenteeism.  According to a 2010 review study from Harvard researchers, employers medical costs fall by about $3.27 and absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent on wellness programs.   In fact, over one third of respondents to Lockton Benefit Group’s May 2011 Employer Health Reform Survey found the increased employee wellness incentive to be the most important part of the health reform law.

Of course, determining which wellness programs to offer becomes the next issue.  Are we talking about blood pressure and health screenings or fully-equipped on-site gyms?  Maybe just adding healthier options in the on-site cafeteria?  Provide individual counseling, group counseling or smoking cessation classes?  The opportunities are almost endless and research is being done to determine which are most cost effective.  If you are reading this and are employed somewhere, print this out and show it to them.  They should get the message.  But don’t wait for your employer…start making small changes today!  It’s amazing what moving just a little bit more or eating just a little bit less can do…10 calories a day = 10 pounds a decade!

A Nutrition Professional

Unless you’ve been to a hospital, nursing home or personally know one, you may have never heard of a Registered Dietitian (RD).  But you’ve probably heard of a nutritionist.  When you hear both names, which do you think is more qualified to give you nutrition advice?  My answer is, it depends.

Let me start by saying that I am an RD…and I also consider myself a nutritionist.  However, the key rule to know is: All RD’s are nutritionists, but not all nutritionists are RD’s.  Here’s the required credentialing involved for each:

Registered Dietitian: At least a 4 year Bachelor Degree in nutritional science (often with nutrition counseling included as part of the coursework) followed by a 1200+ hour (9-12 month) internship covering clinical (i.e. hospital, long-term care, etc.), community (i.e. schools, non-profit, WIC, etc.) and food service rotations followed by a commission-regulated certifying examination.  RD’s also have licensing requirements in many states and must complete 75 hours of continuing education every 5 years to maintain the RD credential.

Nutritionist: No requirements.  Often nutritionists take anywhere from weekend workshops to multi-month programs focused on holistic and wellness nutrition counseling and behavior change.  Few, if any, require continuing education.

Consider that most “alternative medicine” doctors are still doctors and are subject to many of the continuing education and certification requirements of traditional doctors.  Even nationally-certified personal trainers require continuing education to maintain their credential.  Many nutritionists may participate in continuing education of their own accord, because they are motivated to learn more to provide better service to their clients.  It’s a good idea to ask about a nutritionists continuing education habits before starting to work with them so you can rest assured that they are staying up-to-date with the latest research and progress in the nutrition, counseling and behavior change field.

This does not mean that all nutritionists are unqualified to provide nutrition advice.  The key is the type of nutrition advice provided.  Nutritionists can legally provide nutrition advice in most cases except for two areas:

1)      Providing recommendations to eat specific foods or nutrients

2)      Providing disease-related nutrition advice (i.e. heart disease, diabetes, etc.)

If a nutritionist provides advice in either of these areas, they are technically beyond the scope of their practice and can be held potentially liable for any injury caused by their advice (i.e. giving carbohydrate advice to a diabetic resulting in life-threatening hypoglycemia or advising a person to eat almonds who happens to be allergic to nuts ).  Because this advice is not in their scope of practice, nutritionists cannot purchase liability insurance to protect against such situations; however RD’s can.

Even though RD’s tend to be primarily trained in the “hard sciences” while nutritionists often focus more on “holistic” wellness and behavior change, many RD’s have chosen to include nutrition counseling as a focal point in their practice, either by taking coursework (i.e. nutrition counseling in college) or going to one of many different nutrition counseling, wellness promotion or behavior change workshops offered across the country.  This allows RD’s to have the ability to work with clients to make effective, long-lasting change while still having a solid scientific foundation to know how certain dietary recommendations can impact the body.  I encourage you to ask an RD what background they have in “nutrition counseling” before starting to work with them.

I have met a number of ineffective RD’s while I have also met, and recommended, many well-trained and experienced nutritionists.  The key to making sure you are choosing the right nutrition professional is to reach out and discuss your goals with them.  Ask them about their approach to solving nutrition-based problems/issues and how they see themselves working with you to solve your concerns and/or achieve your goals.  If their responses make you feel confident in their ability to help you reach your goals, then by all means work with them; no matter whether they are a nutritionist or RD.