PEERtrainer

"Jenny's" Palm Beach Luncheon, Results Of The Fiber Survey, New JJ Video

Something fun to share with you- "Jenny" (not her real name) has a luncheon to attend next week at Donald Trump's Palm Beach Mansion.

 

There are always lots of events at this place, and lots of people usually attend. Often these events result in even more money flowing into the Donald's pockets. But everyone has a good time.

 

"Jenny" has known about this particular event for a while. A couple weeks ago she was convinced by a close mutual friend of ours to start the Cleanse.

 

She told our friend last night that she is now down 5 pounds since she started. And most importantly she can now fit into the dress that she wanted to wear.

 

It would be great to get a picture of her in her dress, at the mansion.

That would be fun and we will work on getting that.

 

Two Things We Learned From Yesterdays Fiber Survey:

 

Yesterday we sent out a short survey, asking people how much fiber

they were getting. We broke the question into two parts, asking

people how much fiber they got from both processed, and non-

processed food.

 

Processed food tends to be high in sugar, while fiber from non-

processed food tends to be very in the "micronutrients" that we

all need to get more of.

 

There are a lot of benefits to fiber, most important of which is hunger.

 

People who have high fiber diets tend to be less hungry and feel

satiated. Those who have lower levels of fiber tend to be

hungry and constipated.

 

There isn't a health expert out there who doesn't talk about the

importance of fiber. But often it is a very vague, general thing

and people really don't have a number to focus on.

 

One important thing we have learned from JJ in developing the 

Cleanse is that a daily target of 50 grams of fiber is something

to shoot for.

 

In her view you get to this number by any means necessary.

(Although please try to avoid Metamucil because of the sugar

and additives)

 

1000 people responded to the survey,  and we saw 2 things that

stuck out. 

 

First is that 1/3 of people don't have any idea how much fiber

they are consuming each day.  Additionally only 10 percent

of people get more than 30 grams of total fiber per day.

 

Given these numbers, JJ's relentless focus on the subject of

fiber in the PEERtrainer Cleanse makes a ton of sense. 

 

It is fairly simple- do you want to be part of the 90 percent or

part of the 10 percent?  

 

This is such a mundane subject, but we hope that we have really

shown you a good reason why we continue to focus on the cleanse

and all the different components of it.

 

New JJ Video: Lasting Change

 

We just posted a new video, about 5 minutes long. One of the

interesting parts of the video is where she talks about how a

cleanse leads to lasting change.

 

It is fun to talk about someone quickly fitting into the dress

for a party. But all the work that goes into that is meaningless

unless you can keep that off.

 

Watch The Video

 

 

-Jackie

 

From the inbox this morning:

"Hi Jackie,

It's not an exaggeration when I say the day I stumbled upon Peertrainer was a day that changed my life. I've always struggled with my weight, always thought I was eating healthy (a thought that was encouraged by nutritionists I saw who encouraged the idea that pasta, chicken and dairy are "health" foods...), and could never understand why I kept gaining weight despite being relatively disciplined.

The daily tips fixed some major holes in my nutritional strategy - for example, the first tip I received from you is to focus on the one thing that trips me up. I knew that I was generally good at portion control (or so I thought), but whenever I cook a fresh pot of something, about twice a week, I keep nibbling on it for a while after I finish my meal. I decided to focus on that, and discovered that when I don't nibble, the pot suddenly produces around 8 meals instead of the usual 6 - I was actually "nibbling" two extra meals twice a week!

Next, the Cheat System provided me with a simple and easy strategy to lose weight. I didn't really have to give up anything, just limit whatever is on the right column to a 1000 calories per day, and more importantly increase the amount of vegetables and legumes in my diet. I cooked sweet potatoes and chickpeas, and bought a bunch of bags of peeled mini-carrots, and I was good to go. I lost 14 lbs in a little over 3 months. Not only that, but I felt healthier and more energized than I ever felt even when I was 18 (I'm 34 now). Even my eyesight, that was starting to deteriorate, all of the sudden became perfect again. Probably saved me a lot of money on getting prescription glasses..."

2 Reasons This Email Is Important

The email keeps going but we want to keep this post short and simply point out that this is a GREAT email because it outlines very clearly the power of getting out of "conventional diet food" mindset. We hammer away at this idea because it is so embedded in people's minds that they eat "diet foods." We have a controversial suggestion- if you are eating anything that is labeled low calorie or 100 calorie snack pack stuff- that is a strong indicator that you are going to struggle.

For whatever reason, people are resistant to making this shift, but when they do things change.

It also shows how the (free) PEERtrainer Cheat System helps to provide a simple way to eat a plant strong, nutrient dense diet.

We are also posting this to show people that if they follow the Cheat System, good things can happen.  

Additionally, it is a great example of the power of the free resources at PEERtrainer. Good advice and help is the best support you can get!

Hint: It's not the weekly 7 - 20 pound loss you see on reality television!

We tend to see the same thing over and over at PEERtrainer: people can actually be on a successful weight loss track, but because they don't KNOW what a successful track looks like, they think they are failing.

Once they believe they have screwed up, then they say "screw it" and really screw up. If only they knew how well they were doing! While success does depend on your specific goals, starting point, body type and regimen, there are a few things that are consistent across the board. Once you measure your weekly weigh in against this checklist, you'll know if you're on the right track.

1. Weight loss does NOT come in the form of losing 2 pounds every week until you reach your goal, no matter how well you've stuck to your food and exercise plan.

When you were gaining, you didn't gain 2 pounds every single week in a measured fashion. You're not going to lose it in a measured fashion no matter how well you stick to your plan.  You might lose 2 pounds one week.  You might even lose three pounds in a week.  Then, you might lose 1 pound the next week.

Some weeks you might lose zero and there are weeks you even gain.  These weeks are the most frustrating and we all have these kinds of weeks where we feel like we're doing everything right and the scale doesn't give us what we want.

Keep track of the weekly weigh-ins but take a look at the month and see the overall trend. You might have gained a 1/2 pound one of the weeks but take note if you lost 4 pounds overall for the month. If the month is trending downwards, you are in the right place.  

2. Nobody is perfect 100% of the time.

Sure, there are a few people that are perfect.  I haven't seen them but I'm sure they're out there.  There are also a few people who can eat 3000 calories a day and have a perfect figure and that's just the way it goes. Just because you went out drinking and ate all the bread, stuffed your face with pasta, and had 2 desserts, and then woke up and had a cheese omelet the next day does not mean you have failed.

Everyone does this.

We all make a committment and we all slip up.  Just like Vince Lombardi says, it's not if you fall, it's if you get back up. You fell. So what? Learn what will work for you to get back on track. You can fall and still be on a successful weight loss track by simply making the decision to get back there.

3. You've been doing everything right and you're not losing anything. (aka The Dreaded Plateau)

We rarely see members who don't hit a plateau in the weight loss process. Some can last for a few weeks. I was on one for an entire year!

It's so easy to say to yourself, "I'm doing everything right so this is where my weight should be."  That might be true, but it might not be true. It wasn't for me. Once I changed my approach and made the decision to be thinner, no matter how long that would take, I dropped the weight. I increased the nutrients. I changed my exercise approach. I kept the principles of optimism by Martin Seligman in mind. Plateaus do not mean you are done. They are usually a sign that you need to make a change. Do you have the courage to figure it out and keep on going?

Keep in mind that a real weight loss track of ordinary fluctuations are boring to watch. The double digit weekly losses you see have to be created somehow, which is why it's television. Sometimes the loss is real and lasting. Many times, the weight loss results are usually over once the 6 week "sprint" has come to an end.

Real life is more like a marathon, some miles are effortless, some are excruciating and the only way you really fail is if you quit.

Jackie

I saw this question the other day in the Point Of No Return team and it's one I see over and over so I'm sharing the answer.  I hope you find it as helpful as I did when I fully understood the concept.

"I'm thinking I don't have the willpower to allow myself any "points" after dinner. Any ideas how I can hold myself accountable? I don't have anyone in the house on a regular basis to help me out. Forget the 3 bite rule- I currently only do "devour everything in sight". My cravings do not go away in a couple of minutes. I hold on to them for days, then attack."

Here is the answer:

The secret is this:  It doesn't take willpower at all.  The answer is that you are simply not full. If you are hungry after dinner, your body isn't getting enough nutrients. Discipline, such as the 3 bite rule, works when you're happy and you have a specific goal like a date or a reunion but the second you've had a stressful day or you've worked out, discipline goes out the window. 

That's why the Weight Watchers Points System is a great way to understand portion control but it's only 33% of it. You've got to fill up on nutrients, aka vegetables.

Yummy vegetable soups are a great way to fill up on vegetables. You have it in the fridge, you grab a bowl before you go out, or have instant nutrients with lunch or dinner. Have you made the PT energy soup?  Sometimes just one recipe can help you think of new ideas about how to make vegetables you like and want to eat every day.

I remember meeting with a client who was so frustrated by her lack of discipline with snacking at night.  "I run a business, I run my family and I'm successful at it all!  Why don't I have control over this??"

I had to help her find a food she loved that would also be full of nutrients and keep her full.  We uncovered her long lost love of gazpacho. 

I asked, "If both a brownie and and gazpacho were sitting eye-level in the refrigerator, would you have gazpacho or the brownie?"  She answered, "I want to eat healthy and I love gazpacho.  I would choose the gazpacho every time."

This is the key concept:  High nutrient foods are the only way to feel full.  Find some high nutrient soups or salads you love and you have unlocked the secret to lasting weight loss.  Because there will be no more hunger.  No more discipline.  You will feel full.  You will lose the weight because you will no longer be "great all day" while you mess up at night.

Salads, greens and vegetables.  I can't emphasize this enough.  At a certain age, only high nutrient foods will make you feel full.   You can spend your time lamenting over why you can't stop at one slice of pizza anymore or you can step up your vegetables.   This is how I do it.  Want to come over for dinner?? :) 

Jackie

We were recently sent the following question:

"I feel like I'm always apologizing for everything. I apologize when I order a salad instead of a cheeseburger by always saying, well I have a big event coming up, so I really need to watch what I’m eating".

I see other people do this as well. They "apologize" for their order with this: "I'm ordering a salad with grilled chicken because you should see what I ate last night! Margaritas, chips and salsa - I must have eaten three bowls of chips alone!" Why say anything?

It's everyone's dream to live without apology but no matter how many quotes we see, we take a step in that direction and we get hit so hard with a snarky comment that we go back to making excuses and "living with apology". How do you start to have the confidence - what is the first step to living life without apology?"

Joshua Wayne has created a detailed response to this question. Here is his answer:

http://www.peertrainer.com/how_to_live_without_apology.aspx

This is a VERY short video where I show you the containers that I keep in my fridge, and what I keep in the containers. For me it is an ideal way to make sure I have EASY access to food during my very busy week. I have started to soak and cook my own beans. It is cheaper and a lot tastier. Just soak them over night and then cook them in the morning while you are getting ready for work, kids to school or whatever. 

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

Hi There-

 

We have been sharing some older articles from Joshua Wayne recently where he shares some of his "mind secrets." Please keep the feedback coming- we know we are really connecting with this.

 

Today we pleased to tell you about a new article that we have from him that we just published on the site. We hope you enjoy it:

 

http://www.peertrainer.com/why_you_are_not_losing_weight.aspx

 

 

We also just uploaded a new video from the series I did with Dr. Joel Fuhrman. In this video he starts to answer the question: "is is better to eat raw or cooked vegetables?"

 

This is an increasingly common question, and as usual Dr. Fuhrman has a unique insight into this subject because of the deep amount of research and study he has done in the field of nutrition.

 

Just below the video is part of an article he wrote where he goes into much greater depth about the raw vs cooked debate. Very interesting:

 

http://blog.peertrainer.com/health/2010/03/is-it-better-to-eat-raw-vegetables-or-cooked-vegetables-dr-joel-fuhrman-gives-his-perspective.html

 

 

-Jackie

 

 PS- we continue to get a lot of feedback and insight from the articles we have been focusing on. This blog post contains an email we got from a reader with a very good tip on how to indentify and fight the foods that sabotage your efforts:

 

http://blog.peertrainer.com/tip_of_the_day/2010/03/interesting-strategy-to-combat-weight-loss-sabotaging-foods.html

 

 

 

This email came in this morning:

"I appreciate all of your articles. I just wanted to share with you a valuable point that I learned from your site. You recommended the book Slow Burn a while back. It had great information in it. I am a critical care nurse for 30 years. I pride myself on knowing how the body works, but mostly in crisis situations and in multi-system organ failure states. 

One of these states is metabolic acidosis. (Link to Wikipedia definition)

The patients will not respond to any treatment until the acidosis is fixed. I have also been into health and fitness especially for the last 5 years. I was going through perimenopause, which threw me for a loop as it seemed no matter what I did, I could not lose the weight. I worked out with a trainer who worked me hard. She saw that despite vigorous heavy weight/strength training, my body was not building muscle.

I was desperately trying to lose weight. I would spend 2-3 hours a day at the gym between cardio/weights/pilates/spin/yoga. My trainer told me that too much was not good, but she could not tell me why. So for over 3 years, I overtrained with little results, and I would come home with purple fingers and toes and mottling over my extremities, and felt lousy.

 It took reading the book Slow Burn to find out that I was becoming acidotic--like my sick patients--thus releasing free radicals in my bloodstream, and actually causing more harm than good. And I see this behavior all the time at my gym now. I hope to spread the message that too much is very harmful. Now I limit my workouts to no more than an hour, and see more results. I really do appreciate all of your updates, as I pass this info on to my friends, nurses, and trainers."

Thank you for the insight!!

If this blog post was emailed to you, you can sign up for our list by clicking here

One of the things I love the most about what we have done with PEERtrainer is turning so much of it into a conversation. I was reading a comment in the PONR coaching team to Habib, showing him someone's response to a comment I had made. He grabbed the camera and had me sit down and read the discussion to the camera so everyone can see it. One thing we are doing here is continuing to share what we are learning from the PONR with as many people as possible. Whether you are in the program or not, we hope that you gain by being included in the discussion!

 

Learn More About The PEERtrainer Point Of No Return Program

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

We got a lot of great feedback to our vegetable soup video by readers of the Tip Of The Day. And we were asked for more! This is a video we quickly made that shows the step by step process of making Carrot Ginger soup. This is a very tasty, zesty and slightly spicy recipe. It is also vegan friendly in that there is no dairy of any kind. 

Most importantly- this soup TURNS MY HUNGER OFF! No idea why. When I eat a bowl I don't want to eat anything else. I think the combination of intense nutrients, plus a small amount of fat helps me feel satiated. Very interested to see how you all react to this recipe. And please leave comments on this blog post if you can. 

I just came back from having a great time with friends and family this summer. This summer was different in one big way- I did not come back with extra weight to lose. The following article discusses the 5 things I did differently this summer. They are easy and you can do them too:

http://www.peertrainer.com/How_To_Vacation_Without_Gaining_Weight.aspx

We also want to hear your "5 things." Please leave them in the comments section of this blog post!

We have just published a new article/guide/challenge on the site that discusses on important thought on the overall journey we are guiding people through here. We throw a lot at you in the Tip Of The Day and especially in our Point Of No Return training program. But sometimes it helps to just bring some real focus to the moment at hand. Forget the impending stuff, or the external stuff.

Take a deep breath and just shut out the outside influences. All that matters is this moment....and the next one...

How To Make Weight Loss Simple

And please make sure to give your feedback on the question posed at the end of the article.

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!

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.

In the PEERtrainer Tip of The Day email (sign up here, it's free), I often ask, what is the one thing that "trips you up"?  Meaning, what is one thing you could give up for the next seven days that you KNOW will help you towards weight loss and get you on the right track? 

Two responses I've received in the last week were great examples of "bite-sized" goals that are doable and a great step in the right direction;

1.  Jackie:

There is a vending machine at work with snacks for sale. I have to walk
past it to get a coffee, tea or glass of water. Most days I will stop
and look at what is available. More often that not I will buy something
and this can be twice daily.

 It is my intention to focus beyond this machine without stopping or
purchasing.

2.   Jackie,

One of the things that has been tripping me up is eating chocolate.....buying the
dark chocolate and thinking it is healthy and allowing myself to nibble on that way
too much.? I need to realize I'm kidding myself.? I shouldn't even go there because
I can't control it.? So I am going to concentrate on saying "No" to chocolate
because it really adds up.? No to buying and No to eating chocolate!

Thanks!

These are good focused goals that are achievable without being overwhelming.  We talk more about goals and how to finally believe weight loss is possible in our coaching program as well.

Other good examples include "skip the bread basket at lunch every time I eat out this week" or "no donuts at work!"  The very first thing I did was give up my bacon egg and cheese sandwiches in the morning.  Hard but worth it;  from there I went on to habit after habit until I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  Let me know what you commit to this week!

Jackie

 

Our new Tip Of The Day email coaching program has opened up a great feedback loop with our subscribers and members. I have been blogging about the big changes at Weight Watchers, and now am getting some great feedback. One bit of feedback surprisingly was from my own mom!

My mom has been a Weight Watchers member for most of her life. In fact, it was watching her measure her food and count her points growing up that helped me come up with the idea for PEERtrainer almost 5 years ago now. I knew that accounting for your food, writing it down, and getting support was one of those things you just had to do to lose weight.

So we were talking and I mentioned to her that we had been interested in the new Weight Watchers Momentum system and we were in the process of getting feedback from our users. She said to me "I will give you some feedback- because I re-joined one month ago!"

I tend to listen to her about stuff like this. She gave me strong encouragement to start PEERtrainer and has given me very honest and pointed feedback throughout the process. The first thing she said was that when she rejoined Weight Watchers she was "shocked at how good the recipes are."

She made a comment to the effect of "they must have actually hired good people and paid them well because the recipes used to be so bad." She said that now there are hundreds of recipes to choose from that look good and that she wants to make.

Recipes To Help You Lose Weight

I asked her what made her go back to the meetings. She mentioned that she went out of control for the last 6 months and needed the extra push to have to go in person to the meeting. She knew she needed to have to get on the scale and to have to sit through a "boring" lecture from the Weight Watchers leader because she knew it would just work for her. She was trying to assess the damage she had done using some tools on their website, and that triggered her decision to make the trek back to her local meeting in the DC area.

 

Feedback and Review Of The New Momentum Program

She also mentioned that she thought Momentum was really exciting - gave you lots of choices and ideas

for making healthy foods taste good. She said she was "excited" about the way Weight Watchers has "grown" and changed. 

What I found interesting from her comments and feedback was that it was consistent with what Weight Watchers was saying about their new program on their website.

Another Review Of Momentum Plan 

I also got an email from a Tip Of The Day subscriber and a long time PEERtrainer user and member. It is a big email and I am adding some headers to help people read it better. Here it is:

"It's almost like magic, it's like a commitment I have history with ww.  I've been successful.  for me, just the humiliation of having to walk back in and listen to someone who was good or bad or whatever she is, the leader, I'm stuck listening to her stuff. Something about it, RIGHT NOW, I'm reversing the pattern.  Something has changed.

The biggest thing I love about rejoining and going back is it's a big program.  Physicial program.  Learn the whole new pattern.  Everything about the new points, study the books.  I like the fact that I'm taking my life into control now.

Big Focus On Recipes To Start You Off

First of all,they give you a bunch of recipes in the starter book.  They give you two or three of their best - right now, you know, I could do this, this looks good.  The leader pointed out the best one so you can

make a good dinner right away.  

 

Healthy Recipes That Fill You Up

People Who Rejoin Weight Watchers Need To Sit In For An Extra 1/2 Hour Class

 

As a new returner, you have to sit in for an extra 1/2 hour class because there is a new system. There's always a new system, because they're always learning new things and refining their system.  

Keeping The Points System And Merging Flex and Core Into Momentum

This time they merged core and flex into the new system momentum. No one ever wants to give up points, because points are such a comfortable system because you can eat anything, you can have pizza, you can have liquor, any damn thing you want as long as you count points. 

Not only do you get a lot of points on weight watchers, you get 35 extra points for the week.  People love extra points because extra points means splurging, cookies, cake, an extra glass of wine, some butter on their vegetables or butter on their eggs, so you love your splurge points and you have 35 of them! 

Some Point Values Have Changed And Different Foods Are Now Emphasized 

You want to learn the new points of every food because you forget the points when you're going back and sometimes the points changes, and sometimes they just invent new things that you can have, like last time maybe they thought avocado was ridiculous, but this time they're kind of pushing avocado.

You can't wait to learn all the new points because you're designing your three meals a day.  You're designing your day. You're designing how filling your day can be.  LIke I do 5, 5 and 10.  5, break, 5 lunch, 10 for dinner.  Right away, you get your points, your book and you're designing your filling breakfast.  

New Program Helps You Eat A Lot Of Food And Not Feel Hungry

So right away you can see you're going to be able to eat a lot of food, so you're very happy, up and optimistic. Because basically, you want to eat a lot of food and now you know you can. Oh, I can do, this, this is wonderful.  You always forget how great weight watchers is, because you forget how much food you get.  Because as time goes on, you want to stay thin, and you eat less and less to maintain

and you start to. 

Very surprised to see this time how little I need to change my diet, because basically, I am always doing the weight watchers diet but when it comes down to it, I was eating all the extras. What happens is, just because you've made the commitment, you're suddenly not going to have all the extras, because you're thinking 5, 5, 10.

Helping Her Stay On Track Because She Doesn't Feel The Need To Snack On The Extras Anymore

Now, you're on the program, you're in the right direction, and you don't seem to need the extras anymore.  It's kind of strange, I don't even know why.  And let me tell you, I ate like an idiot last night, but it's ok, because I'm on weight watchers, and I know I'm on it.  It's psychological. Once you're on it, you know your weight is going down.

Looked at the points, and realized, wow, what I've been eating, oatmeal and blueberries is only 3 points, so I was kind of starving myself and didn't know it.  I can have a whole cup of blueberries and still stay under 3 points.  And now, I get two more points at lunch.

Getting Comfortable With Points Helps To Feel Comfortable With Choices

But what's interesting, when I have egg and avocado for breakfast, that turns out to be exactly 5 points, which is what I've always done, and now I find out that it is 5 points.  Because I actually know the points value, I feel comfortable with my choices.

The difference is, when you're on WW, because you have to count the points, you just stop eating the extras.

They Give You This Great Little Slider At The Meetings To Count Points

One of the things I love is the fact that you have that little weight watchers slider, you can take anything you eat and put the fiber,fat and calories and figure out right away how to figure out your day.  For

instance, I found out a luna bar, on the spot was 3 points so I could have a huge apple and that you can eat so much hummus!  

Really Great New Approach To Dieting

When you're counting points, you can eat so much more than when you're not counting and on the program.  You tend to starve yourself when you're not on the program because you're not really counting.  You always think you're overeating.  What it does is starves your body and your body hangs

on to the weight.  When you're eating the right amount, it boosts your metabolism and you start losing the weight."

Conclusion And Ways To Get Started On The New Weight Watchers Momentum Program

I will keep posting feedback like this. One thing that really seems to have changed is the focus on recipes and tailoring them to your tastes. This makes for a better product and is also smart from a business standpoint. It is no longer just about counting some points which you can really do on your own. You really now need to pay your $40 or whatever it is to get started and learn their new stuff.

People ask the best way to get started and I always come back to the readiness part of it. They have some tools on their site which help you with that. Here are some ways to get started:

1.  If you are thinking about joining Weight Watchers, do what my mom did and start with their online tools. You can measure your BMI, find out how much health damage you have done with your weight and also take an interesting quiz to gauge your psychological readiness to lose weight.

2.  If you want to find out pricing or just want to see if there is a meeting near you and the schedule you can look it up on their website by entering in your zip. There are a TON of meetings out there. And if you have feedback or experience on any diet, please let me know!

3.  If you are a guy maybe you have some questions about Weight Watchers overall- we are covering in another post titled Weight Watchers Momentum For Men- How This Compares To Atkins or South Beach.

Next: Recipe To Help You Lose Weight: Warm Applewood Bacon Soup



 

Readers of the PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day, this blog, listeners to our coaching programs know that we are fans of Weight Watchers, and generally advocate it as part of a broad toolset of stuff that just works. It is important though to not get into this mindset of "I am on this diet" or "I am on that diet". Just try and be open to mixing and matching what works for you. Because we have a deep and focused community on the site, we have accumulated lots of interesting bits of information.

This post will serve as a central place where we will gather important information about the program, as an "FAQ" for the program. It will be updated and if you see something, please feel free to post it in the comments section.

The Weight Watchers Momentum Program

This is the latest update of the program. Old concepts of Core and Flex are renamed although ideas stay the same. The Filling Foods List has some healthier versions and the general tone seems to be towards healthy foods. The basics of counting points, staying accountable and getting support at meetings remains the same. You need to sign up to get the details of this new program.

Here are some relevant discussions from our community:

What Do You Learn At A Weight Watchers Meeting?

This was the best response from that thread so far:

"You can learn a lot.

- How to estimate portions when you can't measure

- How to plan for specially occasions

- How to choose more healthy options

- How not to deprive yourself, but instead control yourself

- Great recipes

- Tips for cooking lighter

- Strategies for changing your behaviors to be more healthy

Most of all, you'll learn how to plan and make better choices that you can live with instead f depriving yourself of everything you love."

Weight Watchers, To Join Or Not To Join?

Here is one great comment from that thread:

"I just joined. So far i really am liking the plan. You are held accountable and you do weigh in every week (only one person sees it) and when you attain certain small goals the group recognizes those and asks you what worked for you and if anything you do may help the group to achieve their goals. I have found this part pretty motivational.

Also, I guess you could eat junk if you wanted to but if you did you certainly wouldnt be able to eat too much of it and still stay within their "diet" However I do enjoy the point system because I can eat healhty and eat a lot of food, but I can also have a SMALL treat and it is still ok and i am still on the plan and it does not make me discouraged."

Can Someone Explain Weight Watchers Activity Points?

"I've been using WW points for a long time and here is how I calculate the activity points: I weigh about 180 at the moment ...

if I'm working hard and sweating - I earn a point for every 15-20 minutes or 100- 150 calories if the machine I'm using calculates calories.

So if I work out on the elliptical for 30 minutes - 1 pt ... 45 minutes - 2 pts ... 60-75 minutes 3 pts

If I'm being active but not necessarily working up a big sweat - I calculate 1 pt per half-full hour. So if I'm out walking with my kids for half an hour - 1 pt but if I go out for the day with them and walk all over a park or an event with them for hours on end - I calculate 1 pt per hour I was out and on my feet. "

How Do You Calculate The Weight Watchers Points You Need:

"Thought this was helpful - new way to calculate your points for weight watachers.

Weight Watchers Updated: Your personal daily points target- use this formula

1. Are you

female?- score 2

Male?- score 8

A nursing mom?- score 12

2. How old are you?

17-26- score 4

27-37- score 3

38-47- score 2

48-58- score 1

over 58- score 0

3.What do you weigh?

Enter the first two digits of your weight in pounds.

(for example, if you weight 199, you will add 19 to your score)

4. How tall are you?

Under 5’1- score 0

5’1-5’10- score 1

Over 5’10- score 2

5. How do you spend most of your day?

Sitting down? score 0

Occasionally sitting? score 2

Walking most of the time? score 4

Doing physically hard work most of the time? score 6

Now add them all together and that’s your daily total. It might be higher for some. My WW coordinator said if this is the case, take the difference between your new and old and divide it in half and then add that much to your previous total." 

I would note that this is a very very rough guide and they have changed the program so much (for the better from the looks of it) that you really need to go to the meetings or join online. It is not longer just a thing of counting some points and learning some values. There is much more to it. We have more here on the recent changes.

Can Someone Explain The Pros and Cons Of The Weight Watchers Points System?

Tips For Success In Weight Watchers

This thread has a nice balance of reviews and experiences- some great, some not so great.

The Cost Of Weight Watchers

You can save 25% if you sign up for 3 months and you need to go to their site to get the current prices. This banner takes you to pricing for the new Momentum Program

One of the things we have found that really works for people to help them get started on a diet is to just focus on the one thing that they know will trip them up. Because people respond so powerfully to this, we have made this the very first tip in our PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day email coaching and training program.

I also ask people to think about that one thing for them, write it down and then email me back with it!! I read and reply to every one of these and they are all so great, so specific and so real.

We all are looking for the big ideas and the magic bullets, but we see that people who are successful really focus on these little details, and do the work one step at a time. Here is a list of recent responses:

Chocolate:

"i was thinking about the one thing that always trips me up 

and i have to admit in the end its always chocolate....

i know i have to work on this and maybe the next seven days will help..."

Finding Time To Work Out:

"The one big, big, big thing that trips me up, is making time for myself and my work

out. I can have the best intentions, but if someone else needs something, then my

workout gets put on hold. I know. I know. I should work out in the morning before

everyone is out of bed. But THAT feels like I am punishing myself. I take no joy in

that.

So, over the Christmas break, I will try to find even a 30 minute block each day

that is just for me."

Night Eating:

"Today and this week I will be thinking about how I tend to eat after dinner, right

up until bed time.

 

I need to eat more salad and vegetables during the day and at dinner, and not leave

myself open to hunger (or emotional hunger or whatever) after dinner.  It's a habit

that I've taken on in the last year or so, so it'll take awhile to work on."

Sweets:

"it is sweets. cookies cake, candy. everyday i ben saying i'm not having any

sweets.."

Eating More Slowly:

"The one thing I would like to focus on this week is eating more slowly.  I think I

eat too fast and don't allow my body enough time to feel full so I continue to eat

until I am stuffed.  I don't like how that makes me feel."

Fast Food:

Don't go to McDonald's!

Coffee:

"My seven day first step would have to be my coffee intake.  Even when I

don't need caffeine and/or I am just thirsty, I always go for the coffee

instead of water.  So for my first 7 days I will try to drink water instead

of coffee."

Reading The Labels:

"the idea i will be focusing on is to eat in moderation...limiting myself 

to the serving recommended on the box/bag/calorie counting book..."

Cookies And Candy Sitting Around The Office:

"we also have a couple of candy bowls setting

around the office.  My goal for the next seven days is to pass them up."

I hope this list might have triggered some ideas of the one thing you can focus on in your first week. You also might want to listen to week one of the PEERtrainer Weight Loss Bootcamp. It is a free program we have put together and people love it. Just click the link and you can get the first call sent to your email box.

If you want to share your one thing, or one that that you did, we have a discussion going on things you can do the first week of a diet.

We got permission to post this comment from the Eat To Live/Eat For Health Challenge team. It is important because it helps to illustrate one of the key components of our "Diet Fusion" framework. No matter what diet you are on, you need to do portion control. With so many people now adopting plant based diets, many of us are tempted to think that we can eat whatever we want. We see Dr. Oz on TV giving people huge piles of fruits and vegetables and they lose weight. But you really have to be careful with the oil, nuts and fats.....

"Other than my slip this past week, I thought I had been doing fairly well, but I lay awake early early this morning really thinking about what I am eating and why I'm not losing a little faster. And I think I am sabotaging myself in a couple different areas. I think somehow when starting to follow the E2L guidelines as well as using some McDougall recipes, I sort of adopted the idea that now I was eating for nutrition I could eat as much as I wanted - being careful of course not to ever stuff myself. While I do measure my flax meal, nuts & avocado, I also usually go back for seconds of whatever I have made for dinner. And my salads at lunch are huge. Even though I make my own dressings and count the fruit and nuts I use in them towards my daily totals, it's still a lot of calories for someone who wants to lose weight.

So today I am going to really pay attention, and start cutting back on quantities - because my activity is a little limited and I can probably eat less and still be satisfied. Maybe I needed to work my way towards this, maybe I needed to learn I don't have to restrict what I am eating - that I can eat tons of healthy food and not gain. And having learned that, maybe now I can trust in the quality of the food and accept that I don't need to eat quite as much since it is all so nutritionally dense. Speaking of which, that's the second thing I thought of. I've been using up the vegenaise that made it's way into the house over Thanksgiving, and those are empty calories. I think that's the last of the holiday extras and the house is once more a safe place."

Discuss this post in the PEERtrainer Community!

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!

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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When you start on your diet it's easy to think, ugh, now I'm going to have to eat dull tasting food.  How can anything possibly taste good without cheese?  How can a baked potato taste good without butter and sour cream? 

It's hard to stick to something if you don't like the alternatives and a great way to make things taste good without all the fat.  Here are the two that are ALWAYS in my kitchen:

Red Pepper Flakes: a few shakes of these can make any ordinary dish of whole wheat pasta with very little olive oil oil taste amazing.   Broccoli, spinach, plain salad dressings all become fantastic. 

Spicy Asian Chicken Soup looks like a good red pepper flake recipe from the community. (Disclaimer:  I haven't made it!  But if you do, let us all know.  I'd use a little less brown sugar.)

Think of red pepper flakes as your parmesan cheese.

Whole Foods Muchi Curry Powder:  A perfect combination of spices for Indian Food.  The best you can get to come close to making it on your own.  Unfortunately, this is not available everywhere but it is a wonder spice. 

Whole Foods is the only place I've found that carries it, but it is worth the effort.  If you don't have one near you, make it a wish list item.  It's $4.99 and one bottle will last you for a couple of months. 

Sprinkle this in beans, rice, even a compliment to tomato sauce and you have an authentic Indian dish.   I give these as presents and people just love it.

I have more that I use  but they take a little prep time, including fresh garlic, fresh ginger, red chili peppers.  I'll be posting videos of these combinations and how to make "staple" spice mixes to add to your fish or vegetables.  Please post any of your "must have" spices in the meantime!

Jackie

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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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We just reworked the welcome email that we send out to new users of the site. I want to share this with you because it reflects our own mission with PEERtrainer, and how we see it best used. We got a great email from a member of the PT family yesterday, and that prompted a reworking of what we are communicating to people new to using the site for daily logging and group support.

Welcome to PEERtrainer, We Look Forward To Working With You

Our core mission here is to make sure you have the tools, support, guidance and information you need to be successful in losing weight and improving your health. Please take a couple minutes and be sure to follow these steps. Maybe print this page out or save it in a folder on your computer.

1. The first thing you want to do is make sure you are signed up for our free Tip Of The Day weight loss coaching newsletter if you have not already:

http://www.peertrainer.com/tip_of_the_day.aspx

If you go to the page you can read more about it, but basically this serves as a virtual coach to keep you on track each day. Users love it and the structure it provides. You can also reply to the messages and ask us questions directly. Our objective is to build as personal a relationship as possible with you. This is an internet company run by real people, and we care deeply about helping you. We want to hear from you and we want to help you.

2. Join Groups and Teams. If you don't find one you like- Start One. The act of writing down your food each day is proven to help you lose weight, and the support of a group is also proven to help you. It is important for us to set the expectation that this is not always easy. Be patient, join and start several groups and teams. If you email us directly we can also help you with this important process.

3. We have just rolled out a free 4 week "Weight Loss Bootcamp." This is a series of 4 calls that are sent to you each week that will help you get into the proper mindset of successful, long term weight loss. They also give you a set of rules to follow in situations like parties and eating out. Users are finding that the combination of the daily logging, groups and teams, daily tips and weekly calls provide a powerful system and program.

http://www.peertrainer.com/weekly_online_meetings.aspx

4. Develop the Logging Habit. Daily logging is the cornerstone of effective weight loss, and engages you in a process called "self-monitoring." This is basically a conversation with yourself each day. If there is one thing to focus on in the first few days on PT, it is this.

5. If you are new to logging, only focus on that for the first few days. It takes a while to develop a new habit, and you want to start this process by breaking them down into easy, achievable goals.

6. Find active groups and teams. This is the SINGLE most important factor in the success of a group. Yes, you might want to find people with similar interests, geography, backgrounds etc-- but first and foremost find active members.

7. If you want to jump into things, visit and bookmark our "PEERtrainer Weight Loss And Site Guide". This is another resource to help you.

More Tips On Success With PEERtrainer and Weight Loss

8. Start slow. Find achievable, short term goals. Whether you want to lose 50 pounds or train for a marathon, it is going to take time. Take your time. It will make it easier, you'll be more successful, and you'll have more fun.

9. Want some tips on how to lose weight? Read this article, bookmark it and re-read it. The people giving that advice are some of the people you will be interacting with on PEERtrainer!

10. The PEERtrainer "Aha Moment." The other members of your group or team can see and read your logs, and you see what you are eating. The first week on PEERtrainer is an eye opener for most people.

11. You can join as many groups as you want, our users suggest that three is a good number to be part of. The only thing we ask is to be positive and active in your groups.

12. You can invite friends directly into your group, through an "Invite a Friend" feature. Put in their email address, and they will be sent an invitation right to your group. When they sign up, they will be automatically placed in your group.

13. Watch A Video Of PEERtrainer on NBC!!! This is a 2 minute video clip of a PEERtrainer user describing how it works to an NBC TV Show. It is pretty slick.



14. Please Please visit the PEERtrainer Community This is a great place to ask questions, see what others are talking about. We do ask that you be as positive and supportive as possible. There is a very short list of rules that we ask you follow.

The PEERtrainer success formula-- log consistently, comment actively, commit to your group...you'll most likely meet your diet and fitness goals. Once you get comfortable with logging and the small group interaction, you'll be hooked, and most likely find PEERtrainer to be highly effective.

This is another key component to the basics of long term weight loss, how one gets and sustains the motivation to lose weight. Joshua Wayne continues his series of clips on some of these very basic and elemental things. Just so you know, I work to add a very practical layer to his clinical layer and we find the two very effective. These blogs, videos are all part of the free PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day weight loss coaching program.

When I first started taking losing weight seriously, I actually thought I was dieting. I was passing up on cheesecake but not losing weight. And if you are not losing weight, you need more information.

Weight Watchers is excellent for portion control. When I learned the points system, what I saw I was eating about twice what I needed to lose weight. Helps to reset my mind of what a portion really is. Once you learn the points system, you just know it. Becomes something very natural. They have also just released an important update on their program called the Weight Watchers Momentum Program and I highly recommend you take a look at what we have written and learned so far.

You can also apply it to other diets like Fat Smash, The Zone, South Beach or Eat for Health.

This is a video I put together on emotional eating and some strategies and tips that I use to combat some of the everyday stresses or challenges that come up. This clip covers something I have written about previously on emotional eating on the PEERtrainer site. 

For those of you who want to dive a little deeper into this subject, we have also written an article that explores a very sound, scientific strategy of working to put space between stimulus and response. Here is a section of that article that people have found both helpful and challenging:

"Our lives are a function of the decisions that we make. We as humans have the ability to control our responses to stimulus, which in our world often comes in the form of negative human interaction. Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. Some of us are born with a very large space, and some with a small space. But it is the use of that space that is important and with focus and self-awareness we can work to enlarge it.

As one works on this idea over time they can become more of function of their decisions rather than their conditions. The reality however, is that this can be difficult. A common cultural narrative illustrates how imbedded conditioning is in our psyche. It is often asked if we are a product of "nature or nurture"? According to Covey, this "very question itself is based on a false dichotomy. We are a product of neither nature or nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response." 

A Man Who Lost 14 Pounds in 3 Months Using The PEERtrainer Cheat System

From the inbox this morning:

"Hi Jackie,

It's not an exaggeration when I say the day I stumbled upon Peertrainer was a day that changed my life. I've always struggled with my weight, always thought I was eating healthy (a thought that was encouraged by nutritionists I saw who encouraged the idea that pasta, chicken and dairy are "health" foods...), and could never understand why I kept gaining weight despite being relatively disciplined.

The daily tips fixed some major holes in my nutritional strategy - for example, the first tip I received from you is to focus on the one thing that trips me up. I knew that I was generally good at portion control (or so I thought), but whenever I cook a fresh pot of something, about twice a week, I keep nibbling on it for a while after I finish my meal. I decided to focus on that, and discovered that when I don't nibble, the pot suddenly produces around 8 meals instead of the usual 6 - I was actually "nibbling" two extra meals twice a week!

Next, the Cheat System provided me with a simple and easy strategy to lose weight. I didn't really have to give up anything, just limit whatever is on the right column to a 1000 calories per day, and more importantly increase the amount of vegetables and legumes in my diet. I cooked sweet potatoes and chickpeas, and bought a bunch of bags of peeled mini-carrots, and I was good to go. I lost 14 lbs in a little over 3 months. Not only that, but I felt healthier and more energized than I ever felt even when I was 18 (I'm 34 now). Even my eyesight, that was starting to deteriorate, all of the sudden became perfect again. Probably saved me a lot of money on getting prescription glasses..."

2 Reasons This Email Is Important

The email keeps going but we want to keep this post short and simply point out that this is a GREAT email because it outlines very clearly the power of getting out of "conventional diet food" mindset. We hammer away at this idea because it is so embedded in people's minds that they eat "diet foods." We have a controversial suggestion- if you are eating anything that is labeled low calorie or 100 calorie snack pack stuff- that is a strong indicator that you are going to struggle.

For whatever reason, people are resistant to making this shift, but when they do things change.

It also shows how the (free) PEERtrainer Cheat System helps to provide a simple way to eat a plant strong, nutrient dense diet.

We are also posting this to show people that if they follow the Cheat System, good things can happen.  

Additionally, it is a great example of the power of the free resources at PEERtrainer. Good advice and help is the best support you can get!

What Successful Weight Loss REALLY Looks Like

Hint: It's not the weekly 7 - 20 pound loss you see on reality television!

We tend to see the same thing over and over at PEERtrainer: people can actually be on a successful weight loss track, but because they don't KNOW what a successful track looks like, they think they are failing.

Once they believe they have screwed up, then they say "screw it" and really screw up. If only they knew how well they were doing! While success does depend on your specific goals, starting point, body type and regimen, there are a few things that are consistent across the board. Once you measure your weekly weigh in against this checklist, you'll know if you're on the right track.

1. Weight loss does NOT come in the form of losing 2 pounds every week until you reach your goal, no matter how well you've stuck to your food and exercise plan.

When you were gaining, you didn't gain 2 pounds every single week in a measured fashion. You're not going to lose it in a measured fashion no matter how well you stick to your plan.  You might lose 2 pounds one week.  You might even lose three pounds in a week.  Then, you might lose 1 pound the next week.

Some weeks you might lose zero and there are weeks you even gain.  These weeks are the most frustrating and we all have these kinds of weeks where we feel like we're doing everything right and the scale doesn't give us what we want.

Keep track of the weekly weigh-ins but take a look at the month and see the overall trend. You might have gained a 1/2 pound one of the weeks but take note if you lost 4 pounds overall for the month. If the month is trending downwards, you are in the right place.  

2. Nobody is perfect 100% of the time.

Sure, there are a few people that are perfect.  I haven't seen them but I'm sure they're out there.  There are also a few people who can eat 3000 calories a day and have a perfect figure and that's just the way it goes. Just because you went out drinking and ate all the bread, stuffed your face with pasta, and had 2 desserts, and then woke up and had a cheese omelet the next day does not mean you have failed.

Everyone does this.

We all make a committment and we all slip up.  Just like Vince Lombardi says, it's not if you fall, it's if you get back up. You fell. So what? Learn what will work for you to get back on track. You can fall and still be on a successful weight loss track by simply making the decision to get back there.

3. You've been doing everything right and you're not losing anything. (aka The Dreaded Plateau)

We rarely see members who don't hit a plateau in the weight loss process. Some can last for a few weeks. I was on one for an entire year!

It's so easy to say to yourself, "I'm doing everything right so this is where my weight should be."  That might be true, but it might not be true. It wasn't for me. Once I changed my approach and made the decision to be thinner, no matter how long that would take, I dropped the weight. I increased the nutrients. I changed my exercise approach. I kept the principles of optimism by Martin Seligman in mind. Plateaus do not mean you are done. They are usually a sign that you need to make a change. Do you have the courage to figure it out and keep on going?

Keep in mind that a real weight loss track of ordinary fluctuations are boring to watch. The double digit weekly losses you see have to be created somehow, which is why it's television. Sometimes the loss is real and lasting. Many times, the weight loss results are usually over once the 6 week "sprint" has come to an end.

Real life is more like a marathon, some miles are effortless, some are excruciating and the only way you really fail is if you quit.

Jackie

How To Have the Willpower To Stop Eating After Dinner

I saw this question the other day in the Point Of No Return team and it's one I see over and over so I'm sharing the answer.  I hope you find it as helpful as I did when I fully understood the concept.

"I'm thinking I don't have the willpower to allow myself any "points" after dinner. Any ideas how I can hold myself accountable? I don't have anyone in the house on a regular basis to help me out. Forget the 3 bite rule- I currently only do "devour everything in sight". My cravings do not go away in a couple of minutes. I hold on to them for days, then attack."

Here is the answer:

The secret is this:  It doesn't take willpower at all.  The answer is that you are simply not full. If you are hungry after dinner, your body isn't getting enough nutrients. Discipline, such as the 3 bite rule, works when you're happy and you have a specific goal like a date or a reunion but the second you've had a stressful day or you've worked out, discipline goes out the window. 

That's why the Weight Watchers Points System is a great way to understand portion control but it's only 33% of it. You've got to fill up on nutrients, aka vegetables.

Yummy vegetable soups are a great way to fill up on vegetables. You have it in the fridge, you grab a bowl before you go out, or have instant nutrients with lunch or dinner. Have you made the PT energy soup?  Sometimes just one recipe can help you think of new ideas about how to make vegetables you like and want to eat every day.

I remember meeting with a client who was so frustrated by her lack of discipline with snacking at night.  "I run a business, I run my family and I'm successful at it all!  Why don't I have control over this??"

I had to help her find a food she loved that would also be full of nutrients and keep her full.  We uncovered her long lost love of gazpacho. 

I asked, "If both a brownie and and gazpacho were sitting eye-level in the refrigerator, would you have gazpacho or the brownie?"  She answered, "I want to eat healthy and I love gazpacho.  I would choose the gazpacho every time."

This is the key concept:  High nutrient foods are the only way to feel full.  Find some high nutrient soups or salads you love and you have unlocked the secret to lasting weight loss.  Because there will be no more hunger.  No more discipline.  You will feel full.  You will lose the weight because you will no longer be "great all day" while you mess up at night.

Salads, greens and vegetables.  I can't emphasize this enough.  At a certain age, only high nutrient foods will make you feel full.   You can spend your time lamenting over why you can't stop at one slice of pizza anymore or you can step up your vegetables.   This is how I do it.  Want to come over for dinner?? :) 

Jackie

How To Be More Powerfully In Control Of Your Choices By Living Without Apology

We were recently sent the following question:

"I feel like I'm always apologizing for everything. I apologize when I order a salad instead of a cheeseburger by always saying, well I have a big event coming up, so I really need to watch what I’m eating".

I see other people do this as well. They "apologize" for their order with this: "I'm ordering a salad with grilled chicken because you should see what I ate last night! Margaritas, chips and salsa - I must have eaten three bowls of chips alone!" Why say anything?

It's everyone's dream to live without apology but no matter how many quotes we see, we take a step in that direction and we get hit so hard with a snarky comment that we go back to making excuses and "living with apology". How do you start to have the confidence - what is the first step to living life without apology?"

Joshua Wayne has created a detailed response to this question. Here is his answer:

http://www.peertrainer.com/how_to_live_without_apology.aspx

Easy Way To Eat Healthy: How To Prepare A Filling Healthy Meal In 2 Minutes

This is a VERY short video where I show you the containers that I keep in my fridge, and what I keep in the containers. For me it is an ideal way to make sure I have EASY access to food during my very busy week. I have started to soak and cook my own beans. It is cheaper and a lot tastier. Just soak them over night and then cook them in the morning while you are getting ready for work, kids to school or whatever. 

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

"Why Am I Not Losing Weight??"

Hi There-

 

We have been sharing some older articles from Joshua Wayne recently where he shares some of his "mind secrets." Please keep the feedback coming- we know we are really connecting with this.

 

Today we pleased to tell you about a new article that we have from him that we just published on the site. We hope you enjoy it:

 

http://www.peertrainer.com/why_you_are_not_losing_weight.aspx

 

 

We also just uploaded a new video from the series I did with Dr. Joel Fuhrman. In this video he starts to answer the question: "is is better to eat raw or cooked vegetables?"

 

This is an increasingly common question, and as usual Dr. Fuhrman has a unique insight into this subject because of the deep amount of research and study he has done in the field of nutrition.

 

Just below the video is part of an article he wrote where he goes into much greater depth about the raw vs cooked debate. Very interesting:

 

http://blog.peertrainer.com/health/2010/03/is-it-better-to-eat-raw-vegetables-or-cooked-vegetables-dr-joel-fuhrman-gives-his-perspective.html

 

 

-Jackie

 

 PS- we continue to get a lot of feedback and insight from the articles we have been focusing on. This blog post contains an email we got from a reader with a very good tip on how to indentify and fight the foods that sabotage your efforts:

 

http://blog.peertrainer.com/tip_of_the_day/2010/03/interesting-strategy-to-combat-weight-loss-sabotaging-foods.html

 

 

 

Interesting Insight From a Critical Care Nurse on Slow Burn, Stu Mittleman, and Losing Weight

This email came in this morning:

"I appreciate all of your articles. I just wanted to share with you a valuable point that I learned from your site. You recommended the book Slow Burn a while back. It had great information in it. I am a critical care nurse for 30 years. I pride myself on knowing how the body works, but mostly in crisis situations and in multi-system organ failure states. 

One of these states is metabolic acidosis. (Link to Wikipedia definition)

The patients will not respond to any treatment until the acidosis is fixed. I have also been into health and fitness especially for the last 5 years. I was going through perimenopause, which threw me for a loop as it seemed no matter what I did, I could not lose the weight. I worked out with a trainer who worked me hard. She saw that despite vigorous heavy weight/strength training, my body was not building muscle.

I was desperately trying to lose weight. I would spend 2-3 hours a day at the gym between cardio/weights/pilates/spin/yoga. My trainer told me that too much was not good, but she could not tell me why. So for over 3 years, I overtrained with little results, and I would come home with purple fingers and toes and mottling over my extremities, and felt lousy.

 It took reading the book Slow Burn to find out that I was becoming acidotic--like my sick patients--thus releasing free radicals in my bloodstream, and actually causing more harm than good. And I see this behavior all the time at my gym now. I hope to spread the message that too much is very harmful. Now I limit my workouts to no more than an hour, and see more results. I really do appreciate all of your updates, as I pass this info on to my friends, nurses, and trainers."

Thank you for the insight!!

If this blog post was emailed to you, you can sign up for our list by clicking here

A Response To A Question About Diet Fusion

One of the things I love the most about what we have done with PEERtrainer is turning so much of it into a conversation. I was reading a comment in the PONR coaching team to Habib, showing him someone's response to a comment I had made. He grabbed the camera and had me sit down and read the discussion to the camera so everyone can see it. One thing we are doing here is continuing to share what we are learning from the PONR with as many people as possible. Whether you are in the program or not, we hope that you gain by being included in the discussion!

 

Learn More About The PEERtrainer Point Of No Return Program

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

How To Make Carrot Ginger Soup- A Video Demonstration

We got a lot of great feedback to our vegetable soup video by readers of the Tip Of The Day. And we were asked for more! This is a video we quickly made that shows the step by step process of making Carrot Ginger soup. This is a very tasty, zesty and slightly spicy recipe. It is also vegan friendly in that there is no dairy of any kind. 

Most importantly- this soup TURNS MY HUNGER OFF! No idea why. When I eat a bowl I don't want to eat anything else. I think the combination of intense nutrients, plus a small amount of fat helps me feel satiated. Very interested to see how you all react to this recipe. And please leave comments on this blog post if you can. 

How I Managed To Not Gain Weight On Summer Vacation

I just came back from having a great time with friends and family this summer. This summer was different in one big way- I did not come back with extra weight to lose. The following article discusses the 5 things I did differently this summer. They are easy and you can do them too:

http://www.peertrainer.com/How_To_Vacation_Without_Gaining_Weight.aspx

We also want to hear your "5 things." Please leave them in the comments section of this blog post!

Simplifying Weight Loss: One Idea Help Fight The Overwhelm

We have just published a new article/guide/challenge on the site that discusses on important thought on the overall journey we are guiding people through here. We throw a lot at you in the Tip Of The Day and especially in our Point Of No Return training program. But sometimes it helps to just bring some real focus to the moment at hand. Forget the impending stuff, or the external stuff.

Take a deep breath and just shut out the outside influences. All that matters is this moment....and the next one...

How To Make Weight Loss Simple

And please make sure to give your feedback on the question posed at the end of the article.

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.

A Great, Focused Goal As A First Step Towards Weight Loss

In the PEERtrainer Tip of The Day email (sign up here, it's free), I often ask, what is the one thing that "trips you up"?  Meaning, what is one thing you could give up for the next seven days that you KNOW will help you towards weight loss and get you on the right track? 

Two responses I've received in the last week were great examples of "bite-sized" goals that are doable and a great step in the right direction;

1.  Jackie:

There is a vending machine at work with snacks for sale. I have to walk
past it to get a coffee, tea or glass of water. Most days I will stop
and look at what is available. More often that not I will buy something
and this can be twice daily.

 It is my intention to focus beyond this machine without stopping or
purchasing.

2.   Jackie,

One of the things that has been tripping me up is eating chocolate.....buying the
dark chocolate and thinking it is healthy and allowing myself to nibble on that way
too much.? I need to realize I'm kidding myself.? I shouldn't even go there because
I can't control it.? So I am going to concentrate on saying "No" to chocolate
because it really adds up.? No to buying and No to eating chocolate!

Thanks!

These are good focused goals that are achievable without being overwhelming.  We talk more about goals and how to finally believe weight loss is possible in our coaching program as well.

Other good examples include "skip the bread basket at lunch every time I eat out this week" or "no donuts at work!"  The very first thing I did was give up my bacon egg and cheese sandwiches in the morning.  Hard but worth it;  from there I went on to habit after habit until I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  Let me know what you commit to this week!

Jackie

Feedback And Review Of The New Weight Watchers Momentum Plan: Great Recipes, Lots Of Choices Make For A Great Reason To Join Or Rejoin

 

Our new Tip Of The Day email coaching program has opened up a great feedback loop with our subscribers and members. I have been blogging about the big changes at Weight Watchers, and now am getting some great feedback. One bit of feedback surprisingly was from my own mom!

My mom has been a Weight Watchers member for most of her life. In fact, it was watching her measure her food and count her points growing up that helped me come up with the idea for PEERtrainer almost 5 years ago now. I knew that accounting for your food, writing it down, and getting support was one of those things you just had to do to lose weight.

So we were talking and I mentioned to her that we had been interested in the new Weight Watchers Momentum system and we were in the process of getting feedback from our users. She said to me "I will give you some feedback- because I re-joined one month ago!"

I tend to listen to her about stuff like this. She gave me strong encouragement to start PEERtrainer and has given me very honest and pointed feedback throughout the process. The first thing she said was that when she rejoined Weight Watchers she was "shocked at how good the recipes are."

She made a comment to the effect of "they must have actually hired good people and paid them well because the recipes used to be so bad." She said that now there are hundreds of recipes to choose from that look good and that she wants to make.

Recipes To Help You Lose Weight

I asked her what made her go back to the meetings. She mentioned that she went out of control for the last 6 months and needed the extra push to have to go in person to the meeting. She knew she needed to have to get on the scale and to have to sit through a "boring" lecture from the Weight Watchers leader because she knew it would just work for her. She was trying to assess the damage she had done using some tools on their website, and that triggered her decision to make the trek back to her local meeting in the DC area.

 

Feedback and Review Of The New Momentum Program

She also mentioned that she thought Momentum was really exciting - gave you lots of choices and ideas

for making healthy foods taste good. She said she was "excited" about the way Weight Watchers has "grown" and changed. 

What I found interesting from her comments and feedback was that it was consistent with what Weight Watchers was saying about their new program on their website.

Another Review Of Momentum Plan 

I also got an email from a Tip Of The Day subscriber and a long time PEERtrainer user and member. It is a big email and I am adding some headers to help people read it better. Here it is:

"It's almost like magic, it's like a commitment I have history with ww.  I've been successful.  for me, just the humiliation of having to walk back in and listen to someone who was good or bad or whatever she is, the leader, I'm stuck listening to her stuff. Something about it, RIGHT NOW, I'm reversing the pattern.  Something has changed.

The biggest thing I love about rejoining and going back is it's a big program.  Physicial program.  Learn the whole new pattern.  Everything about the new points, study the books.  I like the fact that I'm taking my life into control now.

Big Focus On Recipes To Start You Off

First of all,they give you a bunch of recipes in the starter book.  They give you two or three of their best - right now, you know, I could do this, this looks good.  The leader pointed out the best one so you can

make a good dinner right away.  

 

Healthy Recipes That Fill You Up

People Who Rejoin Weight Watchers Need To Sit In For An Extra 1/2 Hour Class

 

As a new returner, you have to sit in for an extra 1/2 hour class because there is a new system. There's always a new system, because they're always learning new things and refining their system.  

Keeping The Points System And Merging Flex and Core Into Momentum

This time they merged core and flex into the new system momentum. No one ever wants to give up points, because points are such a comfortable system because you can eat anything, you can have pizza, you can have liquor, any damn thing you want as long as you count points. 

Not only do you get a lot of points on weight watchers, you get 35 extra points for the week.  People love extra points because extra points means splurging, cookies, cake, an extra glass of wine, some butter on their vegetables or butter on their eggs, so you love your splurge points and you have 35 of them! 

Some Point Values Have Changed And Different Foods Are Now Emphasized 

You want to learn the new points of every food because you forget the points when you're going back and sometimes the points changes, and sometimes they just invent new things that you can have, like last time maybe they thought avocado was ridiculous, but this time they're kind of pushing avocado.

You can't wait to learn all the new points because you're designing your three meals a day.  You're designing your day. You're designing how filling your day can be.  LIke I do 5, 5 and 10.  5, break, 5 lunch, 10 for dinner.  Right away, you get your points, your book and you're designing your filling breakfast.  

New Program Helps You Eat A Lot Of Food And Not Feel Hungry

So right away you can see you're going to be able to eat a lot of food, so you're very happy, up and optimistic. Because basically, you want to eat a lot of food and now you know you can. Oh, I can do, this, this is wonderful.  You always forget how great weight watchers is, because you forget how much food you get.  Because as time goes on, you want to stay thin, and you eat less and less to maintain

and you start to. 

Very surprised to see this time how little I need to change my diet, because basically, I am always doing the weight watchers diet but when it comes down to it, I was eating all the extras. What happens is, just because you've made the commitment, you're suddenly not going to have all the extras, because you're thinking 5, 5, 10.

Helping Her Stay On Track Because She Doesn't Feel The Need To Snack On The Extras Anymore

Now, you're on the program, you're in the right direction, and you don't seem to need the extras anymore.  It's kind of strange, I don't even know why.  And let me tell you, I ate like an idiot last night, but it's ok, because I'm on weight watchers, and I know I'm on it.  It's psychological. Once you're on it, you know your weight is going down.

Looked at the points, and realized, wow, what I've been eating, oatmeal and blueberries is only 3 points, so I was kind of starving myself and didn't know it.  I can have a whole cup of blueberries and still stay under 3 points.  And now, I get two more points at lunch.

Getting Comfortable With Points Helps To Feel Comfortable With Choices

But what's interesting, when I have egg and avocado for breakfast, that turns out to be exactly 5 points, which is what I've always done, and now I find out that it is 5 points.  Because I actually know the points value, I feel comfortable with my choices.

The difference is, when you're on WW, because you have to count the points, you just stop eating the extras.

They Give You This Great Little Slider At The Meetings To Count Points

One of the things I love is the fact that you have that little weight watchers slider, you can take anything you eat and put the fiber,fat and calories and figure out right away how to figure out your day.  For

instance, I found out a luna bar, on the spot was 3 points so I could have a huge apple and that you can eat so much hummus!  

Really Great New Approach To Dieting

When you're counting points, you can eat so much more than when you're not counting and on the program.  You tend to starve yourself when you're not on the program because you're not really counting.  You always think you're overeating.  What it does is starves your body and your body hangs

on to the weight.  When you're eating the right amount, it boosts your metabolism and you start losing the weight."

Conclusion And Ways To Get Started On The New Weight Watchers Momentum Program

I will keep posting feedback like this. One thing that really seems to have changed is the focus on recipes and tailoring them to your tastes. This makes for a better product and is also smart from a business standpoint. It is no longer just about counting some points which you can really do on your own. You really now need to pay your $40 or whatever it is to get started and learn their new stuff.

People ask the best way to get started and I always come back to the readiness part of it. They have some tools on their site which help you with that. Here are some ways to get started:

1.  If you are thinking about joining Weight Watchers, do what my mom did and start with their online tools. You can measure your BMI, find out how much health damage you have done with your weight and also take an interesting quiz to gauge your psychological readiness to lose weight.

2.  If you want to find out pricing or just want to see if there is a meeting near you and the schedule you can look it up on their website by entering in your zip. There are a TON of meetings out there. And if you have feedback or experience on any diet, please let me know!

3.  If you are a guy maybe you have some questions about Weight Watchers overall- we are covering in another post titled Weight Watchers Momentum For Men- How This Compares To Atkins or South Beach.

Next: Recipe To Help You Lose Weight: Warm Applewood Bacon Soup



 

Everything You Need To Know About Weight Watchers

Readers of the PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day, this blog, listeners to our coaching programs know that we are fans of Weight Watchers, and generally advocate it as part of a broad toolset of stuff that just works. It is important though to not get into this mindset of "I am on this diet" or "I am on that diet". Just try and be open to mixing and matching what works for you. Because we have a deep and focused community on the site, we have accumulated lots of interesting bits of information.

This post will serve as a central place where we will gather important information about the program, as an "FAQ" for the program. It will be updated and if you see something, please feel free to post it in the comments section.

The Weight Watchers Momentum Program

This is the latest update of the program. Old concepts of Core and Flex are renamed although ideas stay the same. The Filling Foods List has some healthier versions and the general tone seems to be towards healthy foods. The basics of counting points, staying accountable and getting support at meetings remains the same. You need to sign up to get the details of this new program.

Here are some relevant discussions from our community:

What Do You Learn At A Weight Watchers Meeting?

This was the best response from that thread so far:

"You can learn a lot.

- How to estimate portions when you can't measure

- How to plan for specially occasions

- How to choose more healthy options

- How not to deprive yourself, but instead control yourself

- Great recipes

- Tips for cooking lighter

- Strategies for changing your behaviors to be more healthy

Most of all, you'll learn how to plan and make better choices that you can live with instead f depriving yourself of everything you love."

Weight Watchers, To Join Or Not To Join?

Here is one great comment from that thread:

"I just joined. So far i really am liking the plan. You are held accountable and you do weigh in every week (only one person sees it) and when you attain certain small goals the group recognizes those and asks you what worked for you and if anything you do may help the group to achieve their goals. I have found this part pretty motivational.

Also, I guess you could eat junk if you wanted to but if you did you certainly wouldnt be able to eat too much of it and still stay within their "diet" However I do enjoy the point system because I can eat healhty and eat a lot of food, but I can also have a SMALL treat and it is still ok and i am still on the plan and it does not make me discouraged."

Can Someone Explain Weight Watchers Activity Points?

"I've been using WW points for a long time and here is how I calculate the activity points: I weigh about 180 at the moment ...

if I'm working hard and sweating - I earn a point for every 15-20 minutes or 100- 150 calories if the machine I'm using calculates calories.

So if I work out on the elliptical for 30 minutes - 1 pt ... 45 minutes - 2 pts ... 60-75 minutes 3 pts

If I'm being active but not necessarily working up a big sweat - I calculate 1 pt per half-full hour. So if I'm out walking with my kids for half an hour - 1 pt but if I go out for the day with them and walk all over a park or an event with them for hours on end - I calculate 1 pt per hour I was out and on my feet. "

How Do You Calculate The Weight Watchers Points You Need:

"Thought this was helpful - new way to calculate your points for weight watachers.

Weight Watchers Updated: Your personal daily points target- use this formula

1. Are you

female?- score 2

Male?- score 8

A nursing mom?- score 12

2. How old are you?

17-26- score 4

27-37- score 3

38-47- score 2

48-58- score 1

over 58- score 0

3.What do you weigh?

Enter the first two digits of your weight in pounds.

(for example, if you weight 199, you will add 19 to your score)

4. How tall are you?

Under 5’1- score 0

5’1-5’10- score 1

Over 5’10- score 2

5. How do you spend most of your day?

Sitting down? score 0

Occasionally sitting? score 2

Walking most of the time? score 4

Doing physically hard work most of the time? score 6

Now add them all together and that’s your daily total. It might be higher for some. My WW coordinator said if this is the case, take the difference between your new and old and divide it in half and then add that much to your previous total." 

I would note that this is a very very rough guide and they have changed the program so much (for the better from the looks of it) that you really need to go to the meetings or join online. It is not longer just a thing of counting some points and learning some values. There is much more to it. We have more here on the recent changes.

Can Someone Explain The Pros and Cons Of The Weight Watchers Points System?

Tips For Success In Weight Watchers

This thread has a nice balance of reviews and experiences- some great, some not so great.

The Cost Of Weight Watchers

You can save 25% if you sign up for 3 months and you need to go to their site to get the current prices. This banner takes you to pricing for the new Momentum Program

Ideas For Things To Focus On In The First Week Of A New Diet

One of the things we have found that really works for people to help them get started on a diet is to just focus on the one thing that they know will trip them up. Because people respond so powerfully to this, we have made this the very first tip in our PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day email coaching and training program.

I also ask people to think about that one thing for them, write it down and then email me back with it!! I read and reply to every one of these and they are all so great, so specific and so real.

We all are looking for the big ideas and the magic bullets, but we see that people who are successful really focus on these little details, and do the work one step at a time. Here is a list of recent responses:

Chocolate:

"i was thinking about the one thing that always trips me up 

and i have to admit in the end its always chocolate....

i know i have to work on this and maybe the next seven days will help..."

Finding Time To Work Out:

"The one big, big, big thing that trips me up, is making time for myself and my work

out. I can have the best intentions, but if someone else needs something, then my

workout gets put on hold. I know. I know. I should work out in the morning before

everyone is out of bed. But THAT feels like I am punishing myself. I take no joy in

that.

So, over the Christmas break, I will try to find even a 30 minute block each day

that is just for me."

Night Eating:

"Today and this week I will be thinking about how I tend to eat after dinner, right

up until bed time.

 

I need to eat more salad and vegetables during the day and at dinner, and not leave

myself open to hunger (or emotional hunger or whatever) after dinner.  It's a habit

that I've taken on in the last year or so, so it'll take awhile to work on."

Sweets:

"it is sweets. cookies cake, candy. everyday i ben saying i'm not having any

sweets.."

Eating More Slowly:

"The one thing I would like to focus on this week is eating more slowly.  I think I

eat too fast and don't allow my body enough time to feel full so I continue to eat

until I am stuffed.  I don't like how that makes me feel."

Fast Food:

Don't go to McDonald's!

Coffee:

"My seven day first step would have to be my coffee intake.  Even when I

don't need caffeine and/or I am just thirsty, I always go for the coffee

instead of water.  So for my first 7 days I will try to drink water instead

of coffee."

Reading The Labels:

"the idea i will be focusing on is to eat in moderation...limiting myself 

to the serving recommended on the box/bag/calorie counting book..."

Cookies And Candy Sitting Around The Office:

"we also have a couple of candy bowls setting

around the office.  My goal for the next seven days is to pass them up."

I hope this list might have triggered some ideas of the one thing you can focus on in your first week. You also might want to listen to week one of the PEERtrainer Weight Loss Bootcamp. It is a free program we have put together and people love it. Just click the link and you can get the first call sent to your email box.

If you want to share your one thing, or one that that you did, we have a discussion going on things you can do the first week of a diet.

Portion Control Is Key To Success With Any Diet Plan

We got permission to post this comment from the Eat To Live/Eat For Health Challenge team. It is important because it helps to illustrate one of the key components of our "Diet Fusion" framework. No matter what diet you are on, you need to do portion control. With so many people now adopting plant based diets, many of us are tempted to think that we can eat whatever we want. We see Dr. Oz on TV giving people huge piles of fruits and vegetables and they lose weight. But you really have to be careful with the oil, nuts and fats.....

"Other than my slip this past week, I thought I had been doing fairly well, but I lay awake early early this morning really thinking about what I am eating and why I'm not losing a little faster. And I think I am sabotaging myself in a couple different areas. I think somehow when starting to follow the E2L guidelines as well as using some McDougall recipes, I sort of adopted the idea that now I was eating for nutrition I could eat as much as I wanted - being careful of course not to ever stuff myself. While I do measure my flax meal, nuts & avocado, I also usually go back for seconds of whatever I have made for dinner. And my salads at lunch are huge. Even though I make my own dressings and count the fruit and nuts I use in them towards my daily totals, it's still a lot of calories for someone who wants to lose weight.

So today I am going to really pay attention, and start cutting back on quantities - because my activity is a little limited and I can probably eat less and still be satisfied. Maybe I needed to work my way towards this, maybe I needed to learn I don't have to restrict what I am eating - that I can eat tons of healthy food and not gain. And having learned that, maybe now I can trust in the quality of the food and accept that I don't need to eat quite as much since it is all so nutritionally dense. Speaking of which, that's the second thing I thought of. I've been using up the vegenaise that made it's way into the house over Thanksgiving, and those are empty calories. I think that's the last of the holiday extras and the house is once more a safe place."

Discuss this post in the PEERtrainer Community!

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.

 

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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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Replace The Fat With Red Pepper Flakes

When you start on your diet it's easy to think, ugh, now I'm going to have to eat dull tasting food.  How can anything possibly taste good without cheese?  How can a baked potato taste good without butter and sour cream? 

It's hard to stick to something if you don't like the alternatives and a great way to make things taste good without all the fat.  Here are the two that are ALWAYS in my kitchen:

Red Pepper Flakes: a few shakes of these can make any ordinary dish of whole wheat pasta with very little olive oil oil taste amazing.   Broccoli, spinach, plain salad dressings all become fantastic. 

Spicy Asian Chicken Soup looks like a good red pepper flake recipe from the community. (Disclaimer:  I haven't made it!  But if you do, let us all know.  I'd use a little less brown sugar.)

Think of red pepper flakes as your parmesan cheese.

Whole Foods Muchi Curry Powder:  A perfect combination of spices for Indian Food.  The best you can get to come close to making it on your own.  Unfortunately, this is not available everywhere but it is a wonder spice. 

Whole Foods is the only place I've found that carries it, but it is worth the effort.  If you don't have one near you, make it a wish list item.  It's $4.99 and one bottle will last you for a couple of months. 

Sprinkle this in beans, rice, even a compliment to tomato sauce and you have an authentic Indian dish.   I give these as presents and people just love it.

I have more that I use  but they take a little prep time, including fresh garlic, fresh ginger, red chili peppers.  I'll be posting videos of these combinations and how to make "staple" spice mixes to add to your fish or vegetables.  Please post any of your "must have" spices in the meantime!

Jackie

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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 Make The Most Of PEERtrainer

We just reworked the welcome email that we send out to new users of the site. I want to share this with you because it reflects our own mission with PEERtrainer, and how we see it best used. We got a great email from a member of the PT family yesterday, and that prompted a reworking of what we are communicating to people new to using the site for daily logging and group support.

Welcome to PEERtrainer, We Look Forward To Working With You

Our core mission here is to make sure you have the tools, support, guidance and information you need to be successful in losing weight and improving your health. Please take a couple minutes and be sure to follow these steps. Maybe print this page out or save it in a folder on your computer.

1. The first thing you want to do is make sure you are signed up for our free Tip Of The Day weight loss coaching newsletter if you have not already:

http://www.peertrainer.com/tip_of_the_day.aspx

If you go to the page you can read more about it, but basically this serves as a virtual coach to keep you on track each day. Users love it and the structure it provides. You can also reply to the messages and ask us questions directly. Our objective is to build as personal a relationship as possible with you. This is an internet company run by real people, and we care deeply about helping you. We want to hear from you and we want to help you.

2. Join Groups and Teams. If you don't find one you like- Start One. The act of writing down your food each day is proven to help you lose weight, and the support of a group is also proven to help you. It is important for us to set the expectation that this is not always easy. Be patient, join and start several groups and teams. If you email us directly we can also help you with this important process.

3. We have just rolled out a free 4 week "Weight Loss Bootcamp." This is a series of 4 calls that are sent to you each week that will help you get into the proper mindset of successful, long term weight loss. They also give you a set of rules to follow in situations like parties and eating out. Users are finding that the combination of the daily logging, groups and teams, daily tips and weekly calls provide a powerful system and program.

http://www.peertrainer.com/weekly_online_meetings.aspx

4. Develop the Logging Habit. Daily logging is the cornerstone of effective weight loss, and engages you in a process called "self-monitoring." This is basically a conversation with yourself each day. If there is one thing to focus on in the first few days on PT, it is this.

5. If you are new to logging, only focus on that for the first few days. It takes a while to develop a new habit, and you want to start this process by breaking them down into easy, achievable goals.

6. Find active groups and teams. This is the SINGLE most important factor in the success of a group. Yes, you might want to find people with similar interests, geography, backgrounds etc-- but first and foremost find active members.

7. If you want to jump into things, visit and bookmark our "PEERtrainer Weight Loss And Site Guide". This is another resource to help you.

More Tips On Success With PEERtrainer and Weight Loss

8. Start slow. Find achievable, short term goals. Whether you want to lose 50 pounds or train for a marathon, it is going to take time. Take your time. It will make it easier, you'll be more successful, and you'll have more fun.

9. Want some tips on how to lose weight? Read this article, bookmark it and re-read it. The people giving that advice are some of the people you will be interacting with on PEERtrainer!

10. The PEERtrainer "Aha Moment." The other members of your group or team can see and read your logs, and you see what you are eating. The first week on PEERtrainer is an eye opener for most people.

11. You can join as many groups as you want, our users suggest that three is a good number to be part of. The only thing we ask is to be positive and active in your groups.

12. You can invite friends directly into your group, through an "Invite a Friend" feature. Put in their email address, and they will be sent an invitation right to your group. When they sign up, they will be automatically placed in your group.

13. Watch A Video Of PEERtrainer on NBC!!! This is a 2 minute video clip of a PEERtrainer user describing how it works to an NBC TV Show. It is pretty slick.



14. Please Please visit the PEERtrainer Community This is a great place to ask questions, see what others are talking about. We do ask that you be as positive and supportive as possible. There is a very short list of rules that we ask you follow.

The PEERtrainer success formula-- log consistently, comment actively, commit to your group...you'll most likely meet your diet and fitness goals. Once you get comfortable with logging and the small group interaction, you'll be hooked, and most likely find PEERtrainer to be highly effective.

Getting Motivated To Lose Weight

This is another key component to the basics of long term weight loss, how one gets and sustains the motivation to lose weight. Joshua Wayne continues his series of clips on some of these very basic and elemental things. Just so you know, I work to add a very practical layer to his clinical layer and we find the two very effective. These blogs, videos are all part of the free PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day weight loss coaching program.

We Live Up To Our Expectations Not Our Desires

Why I Love Weight Watchers

When I first started taking losing weight seriously, I actually thought I was dieting. I was passing up on cheesecake but not losing weight. And if you are not losing weight, you need more information.

Weight Watchers is excellent for portion control. When I learned the points system, what I saw I was eating about twice what I needed to lose weight. Helps to reset my mind of what a portion really is. Once you learn the points system, you just know it. Becomes something very natural. They have also just released an important update on their program called the Weight Watchers Momentum Program and I highly recommend you take a look at what we have written and learned so far.

You can also apply it to other diets like Fat Smash, The Zone, South Beach or Eat for Health.

Tips On Combating Emotional Eating

This is a video I put together on emotional eating and some strategies and tips that I use to combat some of the everyday stresses or challenges that come up. This clip covers something I have written about previously on emotional eating on the PEERtrainer site. 

For those of you who want to dive a little deeper into this subject, we have also written an article that explores a very sound, scientific strategy of working to put space between stimulus and response. Here is a section of that article that people have found both helpful and challenging:

"Our lives are a function of the decisions that we make. We as humans have the ability to control our responses to stimulus, which in our world often comes in the form of negative human interaction. Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. Some of us are born with a very large space, and some with a small space. But it is the use of that space that is important and with focus and self-awareness we can work to enlarge it.

As one works on this idea over time they can become more of function of their decisions rather than their conditions. The reality however, is that this can be difficult. A common cultural narrative illustrates how imbedded conditioning is in our psyche. It is often asked if we are a product of "nature or nurture"? According to Covey, this "very question itself is based on a false dichotomy. We are a product of neither nature or nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response."