PEERtrainer

Weekend Immersion Program With Dr. Fuhrman In Princeton, NJ January 14-16

Click the arrow on the following video to learn more about Dr. Fuhrman's Weekend Immersion Program:

We have been asked about getting a discount for Dr. Joel Furhman's upcoming Weekend Immersion Program January 14-16th in Princeton NJ.

There is a 15% percent off discount available until November 30th.

In addition, Dr. Furhman Online is offering PEERtrainer members a $50 off coupon that is good from October 16th to October 31st.

Simply use the coupon code "PEERTRAINER" at the check out page.

Here is the link to learn more:

http://drfuhrman.com/events/princeton_immersion/princeton_weekend_immersion.aspx

 

Is Coconut Bad For You Because It Contains Saturated Fat?

On the new PEERtrainer Facebook page recently somebody posted something to the effect of "Your vegetable soup recipe is great, but I took out the coconut milk because my friend the cardiologist says that the saturated fat in coconut is bad for you."

We had been thinking about this question for a few days. Then today a box arrived in the mail with 6 books from Dr. Jonny Bowden. He is someone that we have gotten to know recently, and have begun to dig into his work. What we have found so far is someone who has taken all the "health stuff" and made it very understandable.

Anyway, we were flipping through one of the books, titled "The 150 Healthiest Foods On Earth." And one page 107 there was a section on Coconut, that answered this exact question! Bowden writes:

"I really looked forward to writing this section, because I felt that it would give me a chance to right one of the greatest nutritional misconceptions of all time: the idea that coconut, because it contains saturated fat, is bad for you."

Summary of Dr. Jonny Bowden's insights on coconut:

• Coconut and coconut oil are superfoods. Coconut is one of the most healthy, amazing things you can ingest.
• People in Asia and the Pacific Islands whose diets are high in coconut oil have low levels of chronic disease- cancer, heart disease etc. 
• The fat in coconut is actually good for you. The book explains the science in detail, but the basic idea is that the fatty acids in coconut are easier to metabolize, and are different from the fatty acids in other forms of saturated fat. 

These fatty acids are called Medium Chain Triglycerides or MCT's. From Wikipedia:

"Some studies have shown that MCTs can help in the process of excess calorie burning, and thus weight loss. However, close to half of the calories in one's diet would have to be from the MCTs themselves. Therefore, consuming medium-chain triglycerides in a regular diet may or may not be beneficial to weight loss; studies are still being conducted" 

Anyway, the bottom line here is that we now have a greater level of understanding now of WHY our soup recipe has been such a hit. Most of the calories in the soup come from the coconut milk, which might explain why so many people have found that it helped them lose weight.

And we have also found a great book, one that that we will be referring to again and again.  Also- if you are interested in our recipes, please keep reading this post for information on how to be sent new recipes from PEERtrainer that meet our criteria of being easy, tasty, cheap, nutrient dense, fill you up, give you energy....

Here Is One:

Spicy Thai Curry Recipe

 

Calories in Coconut Milk

Do You Feel As If You Are Truly Capable Of Losing Weight?

This is something we emailed out Sunday, May 2nd: We are working on a "mission statement" at PEERtrainer, and in the process trying to hone in on "the thing we do best." It is a tough question to answer because we do a lot of things in response to the needs of different people.

From Habib's perspective the thing we do best is simply foster communication and conversation. Ideally we ask questions in a way that really gets you thinking.

Joshua Wayne is focused on the coaching aspect of PEERtrainer, and his response was very interesting. We had asked him "what is the single thing we do best with the coaching program and what have been the results?"

As an exercise this Sunday, read his response, and then think for a few moments about the question asked in the subject of this email:

"One of the key things we have set out to accomplish, from my perspective, is helping people feel like they are in control of their relationship to food so they can get where they want to go.

Feeling out of control is one of the worst feelings in life. Desperately wanting something, like to lose weight, and not feeling capable of getting there is a terrible feeling. Feeling like you'll always be overwhelmed by your lousy habits and that you'll never really be in control of them. Feeling like no matter how hard you try, and no matter how many times you try, that your negative emotions will ultimately derail you. These feelings build and build and build which leads to hopelessness.

So one of our main goals was to help people get back in control. One of the key ways we do that is to teach them to start being easy on themselves - not beating themselves up endlessly. People add insult to injury when they beat themselves up after they "screw up" on their diet. We see that many people have this "perfectionist"streak and we start to break that up by teaching them to be patient with themselves.

Simultaneously we're giving them REALLY good diet info. Not fad type stuff - in fact exactly the opposite. We help them lay the foundation for healthy, sustainable lifestyle change.

We also really embed this whole program smack dab in the middle of their lives too. This is crucial. We're not forcing them to create an alternate reality in their life where they can get healthy. They have to be able to do it in the middle of the crazy day with job, boss, kids, husband/wife because that's their reality and that's where they live.

If they have to attend to all that stuff, AND THEN have to go and carve out time for 3 elaborate meals per day (plus all the shopping and prep) so they can eat pistacio- crusted tilapia with carmelized onion asparagus consomme for dinner it's just not going to happen. Same with the exercise piece. It has to be centrally located in their life.

Not an alternate reality where they have to now squeeze 5 trips to the gym into their life.

Building on that, they have to be able to deal with: work dinners out, frenemies sabotaging them, the "crappy" food inertia of their family when they go home to visit. All that comes up and you have to have a "tool-kit" to deal with it. We give them that tool-kit.

Lastly, we provide consistent support. We're there for 12 weeks, at least a couple times a week. Sometimes with an email saying hi and a friendly reminder to look at the bright side, sometimes with a video or an article and of course the weekly calls.

Everyone needs consistency to make things happen, whether it's building a business, making a relationship work well or losing weight. We provide that consistent support which helps people internalize this optimism and get back to that place of self-control.

Fostering self-control is the key."

I thought that this was a very helpful observation for us, and a great question to ask everyone. This "Tip Of The Day" list that you are reading right now is designed to communicate with you and get you thinking.

And if you are one of those people looking to get in control, I would highly encourage you to try the first month of the Point Of No Return, and let Joshua work some of his magic. We often find ourselves "soft-selling" his work, but as we go through all the feedback from people who finish the program we see that he is very good at accomplishing his objective.

This isn't the kind of situation where we are promising this crazy quick weight loss. This is the complete opposite of all that. Joshua helps you take a step back, and helps you examine all of your assumptions.

At the core it is really about your relationship to yourself. So often at PEERtrainer we soft pedal what we do. But this is something we are doing well, and for many people it is the most important thing in their life that they can be working on.

When we help people to make better decisions for the rest of their life, the ripple effect that has is powerful. Frankly, if you are struggling with food and then do the work to gain control, there is almost nothing in life you cannot successfully tackle. The belief that you develop in yourself will be the new fuel that you can use in all parts of your life.

-Jackie 

P.S. One more thing I want to add here. Joshua wrote a book about emotional eating based entirely on what he saw in the PEERtrainer community, and we turned it into a downloadable digital guide. We sell it for $27, but we thought it made sense to offer it free to people who have opened this email and read the whole message for the next two days or so. If you are still reading this particular email, we have said something that has resonated with you.

Even if you decide to opt out of the program during the $1 month one trial period, Joshua's guide to emotional eating is yours to keep. The book is 175 pages, so there is a LOT in there to digest. Lots of ideas.

When you sign up via this link for the program, you will be sent the book in three days. There is a lot we throw at you, and we want to make sure you get acclimated.

http://www.peertrainer.com/coaching

Is Your Addiction To Normality Killing You?

Hi There-

This is something Habib has wanted to write for a while.....

One of the most important things to understand from the current health care debate (that political and industry insiders are engaged in among themselves) is that no matter what the eventual outcome, people are going to need to have to take responsibility for their health.

We have come to a point where it is no longer a good idea to improve your eating. It is an absolute requirement.

It does not matter whether it is the government, employers or individuals who end up carrying the load. We have built a food delivery system and consumption habits that lead to the highest rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes in the world.

Diabetes alone is larger than the entire US tech industry. You stack Intel, Microsoft, Cisco and Apple up.

Diabetes is bigger.

What most of us think of as “normal” is killing us.

Not only is it killing us, but it seems that we now think of pain and struggle as somehow “normal”. We get the most incredible emails from people, describing to us the sheer agony of the reality of their lives. People are in pain, they feel hopeless and they have for years. And they are in this pain because they have done what everyone else has done.

This pain hurts, it sucks and is totally preventable.

But the change required to prevent these inevitable outcomes (for most) is hard. If most people are doing things one way, it stands to reason that that it takes a deal of effort to do things differently. We continually see that the people with the greatest willingness to go in a different direction have no idea where to turn.

If you have been around PEERtrainer for a while you know we present people that we get to know. People like Stu Mittleman and Joel Fuhrman are now friends of ours, in the same way that the guys I did keg stands in college with are. They are part of the posse.

And we share their ideas because they help guide people to the behaviors and mindsets that will help avoid the diseases that commonly trap the average American engaged in the relentless pursuit of normality.

So what I am going to do here is bullet out some of the key ideas that Dr. Joel Fuhrman puts forth to help people. I have a copy of Eat For Health open on my desk as I write this, and I am going to list out 25 of the key concepts. In no particular order. My thinking is that it takes a long time to process change. As Jackie says over and over, “repetition is the mother of skill.”

1. Greens are king. Green vegetables get the majority of their calories from protein. You need to eat them every day.
2. When you consume greens in the form of soup you retain the nutrients and you can make them taste any way you want. No excuses here- tasty, easy, cheap etc. (Blend with a Cuisinart Smart Stick to make it super easy)
3. Fresh fruits fight cancer. We have a natural sweet tooth designed to direct us to those foods most critical for our survival.
4. Pasta and bread, while cheap and filling are associated with heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
5. Veggies are great but you have to cook, pulverize or blend to get at the health promoting goodies that is locked inside the cell walls. Blended vegetable soup is better than salad for this reason. You can’t chew every plant cell.
6. Not all foods are created equally. Dr. Fuhrman has built an entire food classification system called MANDI that you can learn more about.
7. True hunger is much different than the hunger we commonly experience. We are hungry because we eat the wrong foods. This is not something that can be solved in any pill. It is solved in your grocery store and your kitchen.
8. When you are no longer hungry all the time you are healthy.
9. Cheese and butter are evil. Tasty, but evil.
10. The more high nutrient food (greens esp) you eat on a daily basis, the higher your quality of life.
11. Binge eating is largely a byproduct of toxic hunger. We are literally “addicted to food.”
12. Eat a bowl of vegetable-bean soup daily
13. Eat a pound of fruit and a pound of vegetables a day. (Stu would dissent on the fruit part- he is of the school that fruit is too high in sugar and raises acid levels in the body)
14. You can change your tastes. Americans in particular have a “brute force palate.” You will appreciate the subtlety of food over time.
15. Healthy food does not taste bad.
16. Heart disease is not the inevitable consepuence of aging.
17. Food addiction is a real thing, and a new mode of eating will solve this problem
18. Frequent small meals do NOT aid weight control long term.
19. It is not your genes. The numbers disprove this common assertion.
20. It takes a lot more than milk and yogurt to build healthy bones. The truth is much more complex.
21. You have to get inside your head to make these changes. A list like this is not enough.
22. 85 Percent of Americans will die from heart disease, cancer or diabetes.
23. 90 Percent will get high blood pressure
24. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for 40 percent of US deaths annually
25. You can prevent most diseases through a high nutrient diet.

Sounds easy enough? The problem that we see is that people have a hard time putting these ideas into practice. They also often lack the ability to map the consequences of their current diet to future risk.

Most of us think we eat better than we do. Much better. So if you have found the motivation to jump right into to a new diet and buck the trend of the relentless disbelief that “normal is killing us” then congrats.

Others of us need a much more specific plan and guidelines in the place of simple suggestions. Recently Joel and his team launched a new program called “The Nutrition Prescription” which is an online version of an office visit with him. After you take this survey, you are presented with the specific odds of getting diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

We have seen that this test “scares people straight” and also has the interesting effect of providing ammunition for the people who are often hellbent on disrupting your desire to change. We see that when people say, “hey I have to order the soup and salad- doctors orders”- this shuts people up. If you are at a party or out to dinner or dealing with your parents or friends and you say “right now the odds of me getting heart disease is 65%”- they have to basically keep quiet.

Of course they are dying to make a snide comment. But because a doctor has spoken, the conversation is over. Many of you have bought copies of Eat For Health and Eat To Live. We highly recommend Joel’s work, and have for years. The response has been powerful and consistent. If you are interested in his new program or you have not yet picked up one of his books, you can check out the following link:

Get A Virtual Office Visit With Dr. Fuhrman, Trial Offer

We could not endorse his work more strongly. This is true health care reform from my perspective.

Habib Wicks, PEERtrainer Co-Founder

Conversation With Matt Hoover, Winner of Biggest Loser Season Two

We had a chance to interview Matt Hoover who many of you know as the winner of season two of "The Biggest Loser." It ended up being a pretty interesting interview, especially from the perspective of keeping weight off, what happens after the weight loss. He talks about his upcoming Iron Man competition in Hawaii and his training for the 2012 Olympics. He was a member of 4 national championship wrestling teams in college, so the guy is a pretty amazing athlete.

We spoke for about an hour, so if you want to listen to the entire interview map out some time ahead of time. This is the link to the interview. It is pretty cool.

Matt mentioned in the call that he uses hypnosis as one of the tools to help keep the weight off. He uses the CDs from Roberta Temes, who we have known for a few years and who has written some articles for PEERtrainer in the past. We asked him to follow up on this subject, something we are increasingly interested in, because it works really well. But it is something that most of us have not tried. Here is his take on it:

"To be honest I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I had used hypnosis when I was competing in wrestling.  It helped me tremendously in sports but wasn't sure what would happen with weight loss. When I got Dr. Roberta CD's I did a session immediately.  

I didn't really feel different, but  I quickly noticed that many of the cravings I had, especially for Taco Bell were gone.  I didn't even think about it anymore. The biggest thing I notice was how rather than crave diet pop, I began to want water.  The sessions helped me to realize that I didn't have to be on a diet, I could program myself to crave healthy foods in moderation. In the past I would eat until I was full, even if it was healthy food.  

Now I eat until I am satisfied and I don't have to "force" myself to remamber to eat.  I just do it. I used the CD's nearly everyday when I first got them, now I use them a couple of times a month to remind myself of the tools I now have. Recently I used them before I left for vacation to help keep myself in the right state of mind to be consistent during a time when many people fall off track.  I use them anytime I am traveling, usually on the plane.  I have found that to be a great time to relax and get myself ready for my upcoming stay, wherever that may be. 

I am really lucky because my wife really supports my use of the program.  She will say when she thinks I need a session.  She has seen tremendous progress since I started the program and knows that it helps me to stay on track. I have lost 30 pounds so far and have reset my goal to get even leaner using Dr. Roberta's CD's. I love the CD's and have recommended them to everyone I know who is dealing with weight issues.  I know that with the success I have had that others will achieve their goals as well with the use of the tools I have learned from Dr. Roberta. These discs truly have helped me to develop a healthy mind set when it comes to my relationship with food and I fully expect to have continued success on my new weight loss journey with the knowledge I have gained from Dr. Roberta Temes."

We were first introduced to Roberta I think in 2006, and we need to circle back with her. We have recommended this product in the Tip Of The Day program, and it is nice to see a "celebrity" endorse something like this. Sort of a nice validation of something we had seen work. You can get the CD set through the Hypnosis Network. 

Btw, I personally use hypnosis for other areas of my life. Different products from different companies, but the bottom line is that these things really work. Be open to it!

"Strength For My Mind And Spirit"

We just got a very profound email from one of the members of the PEERtrainer community, and I thought it would be helpful to share some of the comments. It is an excellent articulation of the value of our Point Of No Return concept, and helps to show that we are able to deliver on the central premise with both our Tip of The Day And Point Of No Return Program:

"The things I am learning from the 'tip of the day' and also the 'point of no return intensive' is what makes me think that this will be the time that matters....the time I can reach my goals. I realize that there will be no more "times" after this because over the past 2.5 months my whole life has started to change."

This is really the whole point. Most of us have been through things like Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, South Beach. We own copies of Dr. Oz's books. We have Oprah Magazine sitting in our bathrooms and living rooms. Yet we don't make the progress we desire and we don't become the person we want to become.

We built the PEERtrainer coaching program with this problem in mind, and engaged with a talented therapist who is familiar with both the mind- and the spirit. And the email contained a great recognition of that, that we help move people to a different way of thinking about themselves which can trigger immense personal change:

"I knew how to get an awesome workout....I knew how to eat to lose weight....what I needed all these years is the strength for my mind and my spirit....all the tips and exercises and thoughts that I am totally addicted to now! Health and weight loss is not just a physical journey and I am so happy that I finally realize this."

This was one of the best emails we have ever received at PEERtrainer, and are very grateful for it.

Diet Fusion- A Practical Approach To Long Term Weight Loss

I got an email last night from a subscriber to our Tip Of The Day weight loss coaching/training newsletter. The person asked for some general tips on what to eat now that they have decided to lose weight. We really refer out to the experts as much as we can, but I introduced her to something we call "Diet Fusion." This is something we talk about in the Point of No Return as well, I think in week three. But here is what I said to her in response to her specific question:

"This gives me a great opportunity to get a little more clear and focused on one of the key "organizing themes" of our overall coaching program.

First of all, you need to see your doctor for specific advice. That is not just boilerplate- we mean that. And you will see some videos coming from a great doctor who will be explaining the role they have in this process, and also what a great doctor should be doing. Not all doctors are great, but finding one is well worth the effort.

 

Now, one of the key themes we talk about in the overall PEERtrainer coaching/training program is an approach I have termed "Diet Fusion". Diet Fusion is customization, finding what works for you, depending on your life stage. If there is one thing we have learned, it is that having only one diet for fitness regimen works for very few people. This is a list of some of the diets we have seen work:

 

-Fat Smash Diet, this is something we see to help kickstart a diet. Very popular, very effective in the short term, very easy to fall off track. But it is a good shock introduction to better nutrition, and does take a page or two from Joel Fuhrman's work.

 

-South Beach Diet- another diet we have seen help people drop a quick 5 pounds. It works well especially if you are in metabolic risk. But this should be done in combination with WW points and a high nutrient diet like Eat To Live.

 

-Weight Watchers- we have seen really help people get a handle on portion control. They have also completely revamped their core diet with the introduction of the Weight Watchers Momentum Program.

 

-Joel Fuhrman's Eat To Live/Eat For Health- The most important idea of his is that intense amounts of greens help you lose weight, and that not all foods are created equal. He has designed a point scoring system to guide you to the best foods. He is probably the primary innovator in weight loss today, with people like Weight Watchers now following his lead.

Again the idea here is really find what works for you. Here is also a list of some very general principles, things we have seen work, and ideas put forth that we have seen help people on PEERtrainer get off the yo-yo cycle.

 

1. Nutrient Density- What this means very generally is eating a diet very high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans with a specific focus on greens. We see this work over and over again when it comes to successfully losing weight.

 

One of the things we continually focus on in our program is tips and ways to practically, cheaply and easily get high amounts of plant based foods in the diet each day. And making them taste good. And uncover the myths we tend to cling to that prevent us from seeing these as easy choices.

 

If you want to learn more about the work of Dr Joel Fuhrman you can read what we have written about his new book "Eat For Health". We tend to reference tips from him, simply because we see the specific effect his ideas have on people in the PEERtrainer community. We also like to link out to specific experts in different fields, to really make sure our readers and clients are exposed to as many ideas as possible. The core idea of Diet Fusion is customization, and the more good ideas you have, the more tools in your toolbox. We want to keep filling up your toolbox with things we see work.

 

There are many other doctors out there as well who are all focusing on the idea of pointing people towards diets that totally rebalance what we assume to be a "proper diet." The reality is that a growing number of people are really challenging our widely held assumptions. Dr. Bradley Willcox for example is another who is focusing on examining the habits of people in Japan who regularly live to 100, do not gain weight when they age and who tend to not get disease at anywhere near the rate Americans do.

 

It is important to point this out because what worked for you when you were 25 and single might not work now that you have a husband who you are eating with every night. Maybe you are a 70 year old man who is still eating with the diet assumptions you had in 1955. If what you are doing is not working you really need to be open to a real examinations of your assumptions. That is Diet Fusion.

 

2. Weight Watchers Points- this is another proven tool in our "Diet Fusion" approach. No matter how well you eat at home- fruit with every breakfast, salad as an entree, low levels of overall "animal protein" intake, spinach at every possible point- you are going to continually get out of your comfort zone. You will go out to restaurants, go to parties, be at the mall, on the road. You will be in situations where the option of nutritional excellence is not available to you. 

 

So you have to be able very easy figure out how many points are in a bagel, and how to eat 10 point meals when you are out. A great way to do this is quickly to google "Weight Watchers Points Calculator" and start learning to add in calories, fat and fiber. Or go to a meeting or brush off your Points if you tried WW in the past and it did not work for you. This is much better than just plain calorie counting because the points system makes you look for high fiber, low calorie foods. Which incidently tend to be plant based. "Fiber" is the stuff in plants. 

 

I have even recorded a short video that explains my own process of how I thought I was making the right choices, until I really mastered portion control.

 

3. Focus On The Transition- this is another very key point in the "Diet Fusion" approach. Restrictive diets fail because they are often all or nothing approaches. You are not going to go from eating cheeseburgers and bacon, egg and cheese bagels to spinach and fruit in a week. It is going to take time and take some work. So give yourself time and realize you cannot fail at this. View each day and each meal as an opportunity to make incremental progress. Something as small as deciding to eat a plate of veggies at a party instead of what the waiters bring around is a win- and should be celebrated.

 

4. Focus On The Volume Of Food When You Have A Chance To Eat Well. We tend to think of dieting as simply limiting calories. This is an incomplete approach for many, especially for the long run. How many times have you started a diet and then fell off?

 

You sort of have to do portion control, which is why Points are so important. But you have to feel full, not feel hungry. A truly healthy diet probably will not leave you cranky and hungry all the time. A large salad, that only has a tablespoon of olive oil in it, some lemon juice and garlic for flavor, with beans to make you feel full, tons of vegetables- can an ideal thing. You get a lot of plant based nutrients, but you also feel full. You can also feel full eating a lot less.

 

This is something that we have seen work and is something that has worked for me. Here is something that I do at home all the time- I take a two dollar bag of frozen organic spinach and a one dollar can of organic black beans. I throw it in a frying pan and heat it up. Maybe a touch of olive oil, throw some garlic in there, maybe some curry spice for flavor. Serve it with some rice. Fast, easy, cheap. I eat it, my husband eats it, my kids eat it. In fact, my husband cooks this so often that our daughter refers to them as "daddy beans". And for guys, the volume aspect is particularly important, if you are familiar with what I call "insane man hunger."   I am using this as an example of how to think about the volume aspect of it.

 

Maybe you are out at the Cheesecake Factory for example. They serve HUGE portions of foods. But they also serve huge salads. Make that work for you. Order the salad, as for dressing on the side. Better yet, ask for 4 lemon wedges. Maybe get some steak or chicken on top of the salad. There are all sorts of options. (Their menu is like a book). Squeeze the lemon wedges on the salad, maybe some pepper (try to avoid the salt), a tiny tiny amount of whatever dressing they have. And wham- you have something that fills you up and will help you lose weight. 

 

And make sure to keep the cheese and butter out of it. Cheese and butter are diet killers because of the hidden calories. Restaurants for some reason put cheese and butter in everything. Get in the habit of asking for butter and cheese free dishes. Interestingly some of the higher end restaurant chains in the US have removed butter from the menu. Seasons 52, a very good restaurant chain in the Southeast US have no butter in their dishes. Each dish is designed to be less than 500 calories as well. So this seems to be a trend.

 

5. Rethink Your Notion Of Hunger. One thing that Dr. Fuhrman teaches, and I just saw this talked about in the PEERtrainer community, is the idea of "true hunger". What this simply means is that real hunger is something you feel in your throat and mouth. It is not a panicky feeling, it is your mouth watering. If you are between meals and feel like you have to snack on something, reach for a piece of fruit, or a Lara bar or Kind bar. Nut bars are great diet tools. Very practical things you can keep with you.

 

Overall, this idea of "Diet Fusion" is really finding what works for you, and making it a practical habit. Diets fail when we feel hungry, they fail when we don't correctly control our portions, and they fail when we feel like we can't do them. How often have you felt that "losing weight is just not possible", or that "gaining weight is just something that happens when we get older." It truly does not have to be this way.

 

So instead of simply restricting calories, focus on a gradual transition to more plant based stuff. And this does not mean that you be a vegetarian- although some people do that for many reasons. I don't. But I keep reading more and more research that indicates that you don't want more than 10% of your diet to be animal based. Again, this is very general and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. You have to find what works for you. 

 

The hardest part of all of this is developing these good habits in the face of overwhelming societal pressure. Maybe you are a mom struggling to feed healthy foods to your kids. Then the grandparents come to town and their version of love is force feeding them cheeseburgers. Maybe you are a guy who works in a stressful environment, job and the only choices seem to be sweets in the vending machine. Or you go to a restaurant and want to make some good habits, only to feel subtle but strong pressure from the waiter or waitress. One thing we focus on in our intensive coaching/training program is literally training you, ingraining in you a set of habits that help you get what you want. We do this with the help of a trained psychotherapist, because it is that hard!!

 

I will close this note with a simple idea- everyone talks about the importance of a "balanced diet". But what if you body is out of balance? Hitting the salads hard, and keeping the fat out of them, might be a great way to get back into balance.

Update: People have loved this basic concept over the years, and have found it "liberating." One thing people have said though is "ok, I get the basic idea. Now tell me exactly what to do." People wanted an eating plan to help put this advice into practice. So we developed a very simple to follow list of foods to focus on and foods to move away from. We call this the "Cheat System." It works incredibly well. It is free to download from this page.

 

Share Your Feedback In The PEERtrainer Community!

Weigh Less By Eating More?

I was just reading a post in the PEERtrainer community, and the subject was diets that work. The discussion was interesting, with some people talking about success with Atkins, some going on a dairy free and gluten free diet.

And then someone posted this comment, which caught my attention:

"My friend is studying chemistry right now, and explained to me that digesting animal protein puts our body into an acidic state. In order to bring the body back into a neutral state it robs our bones of calcium and potassium. The best way to get protein and calcium is to cut out the middle man (cow) and to eat plants.

Everyone does NOT know what healthy eating is, or we wouldn't be seeing threads on Atkins and cottage cheese diets. Atkins is where I started, and yes, eliminating white foods took away my heartburn and yeast infections. I was thrilled. But ultimately I couldn't live with the restrictions, and my research took me in a different direction."

The poster then provided a link to a video of a presentation by T Colin Campbell, who wrote "The China Study" many years ago. The one thing I know about this man is that he is controversial. 

So that was my bias going into watching this video, which has prompted this blog post. Anyway, this whole issue of does animal protein cause cancer, is the main protein in milk the most toxic thing on the planet- those I will leave for another time. (As a meat eater and non vegetarian I definitely am open to those ideas. But mostly I tend to focus on adding high levels of vegetables.)

But the thing that prompted this blog post in the presentation was Campbell's assertion, and this was based on studies with 6000 chinese office workers, was that the average Chinese person consumers 11% more calories than an American but they weigh less. 

This struck me because we hear over and over as stated fact that a persons weight is simply calories in and calories out. And I think this is important for a very practical reason when it comes to actually losing weight. Vegetables help you lose weight, and seem particularly good at it. There may not be total proof that animal protein (not just fat) causes cancer, but there is total proof that vegetables help you lose weight.

This is why I keep focusing on really practical ways of buying them, keeping them, making them taste good, making them cheap and finding ways to make them easily. The fact is, we really know all of this, but it still takes a ton of work to actually do this.

What Do You Think Of This Issue? Discuss In The PEERtrainer Community

5 Things To Focus On In The First Week Of Your Diet

This is an article from the PEERtrainer Weight Loss Framework, which is a guide to some of the best ideas that we have found that address the fundamentals of long term weight loss. The Framework is a page that you can bookmark and it is especially useful for people starting out on a diet or weight loss path.

1. The Goal

We talk a lot in this guide, in our Tip of The Day email program, in our coaching calls the importance of goal setting and planning. It is so fundamental and you have heard this a zillion times, but it is precisely these things that you need to do to succeed. Like on a trip, you need to know where you are going, where your destination is.

Losing weight is no different. Setting a specific goal that is really yours is important. Not what anyone tells you, but what you really want at the core, what is in your heart. I think it was Thoreau who said that "people do not attain what they do not aim for." So no matter what stage you are on in your journey, take a moment and actually take out a pen or pencil and right down a goal you really want. Or better yet, one that you expect to attain.

2. The Why

Using another real life example, to do anything you need a reason to do it. Without a reason you are not going to do it. You are not going to follow through on a diet just because you think you are supposed to, or it is January 1 or whatever. You have to find a reason and is has to be a priority. It has to be something you deeply value and is the top priority. This reason, this burning desire, will help to fuel your motivation. When you get off track, which you will, this goal and this reason becomes this force that you gravitate towards, and that picks you back up.

3. The How

You also need to know how to get where you want to go, and you need a route, a map or some sort of itinerary. You need to know how get from point A to point B. You can do this on your own, but it is so much easier when you do it with others. Imagine going out in the wilderness without a map? Going to a party, you need the same mindset- you need to be prepared beforehand, you need a ruleset that you will stick to. You need to be able to cope with the "food wilderness."

This brings us to support and guidance which is one of our core organizing themes and ideas. Why do millions of people pay each week to travel to a room to weigh themselves and hear a pep talk? Because it works and is valuable. One thing we talk about at PEERtrainer is the idea of "diet fusion", of blending different approaches together. My own "diet fusion" is to use the Weight Watchers Points system and combine it with a very high nutrient diet like the one advocated by Joel Fuhrman. I think on week three of the bootcamp calls I go into this specific idea.

Once you have done the fundamental work of goal setting, expectation setting, finding your reasons you really need to figure out how to stick to it, to get the support to keep you on track. You can join a PEERtrainer group, make sure you are getting the daily emails, or join a coaching program that will help to customize your path for you. There are all sorts of things you can set up for yourself to help bolster your own self motivation and discipline. If you have heard the PEERtrainer bootcamp calls, you know how motivating they can be.

4. The Measurement

Develop a weekly plan to stay accountable. Do you hate the scale? That's fine. Maybe one day you will make friends with it. In the meantime, find a different way to chart your progress. Maybe buy a measuring tape and take your measurements weekly. Maybe you have a pair of jeans that you can try on weekly. Find something that works for you, whether it's an old pair of jeans that you try on once a week, a measuring tape, a scale, your partners eyes, whatever it is and measure your progress.

5. The Follow Through

It's important for you to see progress so that you'll have a reason to stick with your plan. You're not sprinting; you're running a marathon. If you don't see the miles tick off as you get closer to the finish line, how are you going to know that what you're doing is working? Logging your goals, your progress, and your daily habits will show you what is working and most importantly, give you the confidence to keep up your good work. Your first week on PEERtrainer is critical if you have never logged before. Once you develop the habit, other positive and healthy habits will start to happen.

Next: Get A Support System

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Become Friends With Your Body

Joshua Wayne, in week 4 of the weight loss boot camp, asked the following question: 

Are you friends with your body? 

If you don’t like your body, in fact if you don’t love your body, you’re not going to take the best care of it.  You’re not going to be patient with it and do everything you can to make it healthy. 

If you’re not friends with your body you’re going to neglect it.  Think about it…what do you do with people you don’t like?  You avoid and neglect them.  Well, strange as this may sound, you will do the same with your body.   You’ll avoid and neglect it by not taking care of it with good diet and exercise.  It’s the only one you have…you’re stuck with it.  You’re either going to be friends with your body or enemies with it.

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How To Lose 100 Pounds, Safely

We just had a long time PEERtrainer member email us about some comments in a thread in the community. We all need to work to keep them clean, so if you see something, say something. We keep the forums anonymous because people sometimes express some painful or embarrassing things. And we want people to feel like they can express themselves in a positive way.

Interestingly, the thread in question had to do with wondering if one can lose 100 pounds in a year in a healthy way. This is a very interesting question and discussion among people who were on the path to lose 100 pounds. So we had to clean it up a little. But it brought up a very interesting question, something that we are thinking about here internally.

When we started PEERtrainer, we came to this with a "diet neutral" philosophy, meaning we just wanted to provide a place for people to follow through on what they already knew, and were already working on. Over time we started to see different things working, some things not working.

So we started to develop some observations, maybe some opinions. We started to write some articles, basically sharing what we saw working. The Fat Smash Diet was one of these things, we saw people talk about it, form groups and teams about it. We started to see people eat lots of fruits and vegetables, much more than was commonly recommended by the run of the mill nutritionists out there. So we wrote about it and started to feature it on the PEERtrainer site.

And it was helping people lose weight, we were seeing this. We were then introduced to Dr Joel Fuhrman by a business colleague and friend of ours. This person had helped start Oxford Health Plans, and had a real passion for health. And passion in a real way that got our attention. He had served as Chairman of the company during some hard times (ended up engineering a $6 billion deal with United Health Care).

In this role he had a birdseye view of how screwed up our whole health care system is, with a total focus on acute care, and a major lack of focus on prevention. Anyway, he gave us a copy of Eat To Live, and introduced us to Joel. And what we found was a person with a record of excellence in helping people lose major amounts of weight, safely.

If you get a copy of Eat To Live or his newer book, Eat For Health (click here to read our take on it) you will see comments from his friend, Dr Mehmet Oz. So you can see that Joel has made some very good friends over the years of his work.

Which brings me back to the original question. And I think the answer to the question to losing 100 pounds is of course a complex one, but that it involves going on a diet that radically increases vegetables, fruits, raw foods, blended foods. And it involves exploring the ideas that Ian Smith, Joel Fuhrman are putting forth. The greens, veggies etc have to go to 80%. There is also this great clip on YouTube that I will dig up (or somebody please post) of a guy who went on a raw food diet and did a timelapse of himself.

So be open to these new ideas and approaches. And this is also permanent weight loss. When you change your diet- over time- to do mainly plant based foods, you are going to lose weight. There will be no more of this starving yourself and eating 100 calorie snack pack kind of deals. In fact, a sure way to know that you are going to gain the weight back is if you are eating 100 calorie snack packs each day.

Now if you are just beginning the journey, these snack packs are a great way to get portion control under your belt and transition. But over time they have to go, along with all the other fake foods. What our business friend taught us was that people might be thin but they are not healthy eating these foods. 

We tend to shy away from the "health" aspect of weight, because who wants to be lectured. But know that diets advocated by people like Joel also help people massively improve their health profile.

If You Need To Lose 100 Pounds, Where Do You Start?

One thing we like to do on PEERtrainer is focus on different needs. Needing to lose ten pounds for a woman needs a different approach than a guy needing to lose 45 pounds. What I want to do with this article is focus on some steps people can take if they need to lose 100 pounds or more. Here are some ideas and site resources in no order. My only advice is tackle one at a time. 

1. You might want to start thinking about what you gain by being at your weight. This might sound odd, and have published an article on this entitled "What Is Beneath The Weight?"

2. Do a little digging and see how "ready" you are to commit to the weight loss process. PEERtrainer has developed a quick "Coaching Quiz" that will help you understand what your odds are of losing weight based on your current mindset. 

If you want to take some baby steps and have some ideas pushed to you as you get ready, please feel free to join our PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day coaching newsletter. If you go to the page you can learn a little more about this free program. 

3. Talk to your doctor and learn what diets and diet approaches doctors recommend. It also helps to learn what approaches are not recommended and why. But developing a relationship with your doctor, or finding a very compassionate one is an excellent start. If you had a bad experience with doctors, don't be turned off. There are many many doctors out there who care deeply.

 

4. Know that weight loss is possible. Do not get talked into thinking that bypass surgery is the only route for you if you have not made the progress that you want. Fruits and vegetables are very powerful, especially greens. They can be magic.

 

5. Weight Watchers is a great program to learn portion control. No matter what, you need to master the Weight Watchers points system so that you learn to how to make good decisions each day. They also give you three free online assessments which allow you quickly assess if you are ready to lose weight and what some of the specific health risks are.

 

6. PEERtrainer offers a free "Weightloss Bootcamp"- it is a series of 4 free calls that go over some proven approaches.

 

7. Really think about the impact the people around you on a daily basis have, and work over time to build a broad support network. Know that people you never expected are there to help you with an array of services- some free, some paid. But there are fundamental approaches that work, and will change how you think about everything.

Common Questions:

-Can I Lose 100 Pounds In 100 Days?

 

People write about this, and the Biggest Loser mentality has made extreme weight loss fashionable. But those people are under intense medical supervision. You can absolutely lose 100 pounds, but it is going to take a consistent effort and a real focus on the negative influences of those around you.

-What If I Really Don't Want To Lose Weight?

This is very common and one of the things Joshua Wayne talks about in the weight loss bootcamp is the idea of "secondary gain" where you get a benefit of a certain behavior. There are all sorts of situations where fat is actually the solution for people, rather than the problem. This is mental of course, which is why a psychotherapy approach to weight loss is needed along with an MD and a solid diet like Eat For Health or Weight Watchers. This is the focus of the PEERtrainer Coaching/Training Intensive.

What If I Really Like To Eat?

There is really nothing wrong with enjoying food. And you would be surprised how MUCH you can eat of certain foods. This blog post discusses recipes to help you lose weight. They really work!