PEERtrainer

A Simple Tip To Improve The Quality Of Your Life

People often say that thoughts become things- but questions are what help determine our thoughts.

Successful people simply ask better questions. If you ask better questions, you get better answers. When you have better answers, you make better decisions. Better decisions lead to better results.

The quality of your life improves.

Now, you may be thinking, "ok that makes sense, but how do I do this?" We will tell you!

You have often heard the suggestion or saying "ask and ye shall receive." It's true.

Think for a second about something you want and what you are willing to do to get that.

Maybe ask a question that will put you in a better mood in an instant- what are you happy, proud, grateful, excited about? 

Once you are in a better mood you can then really start to focus on what you want.

An Exercise/Process To Help You Ask Better Questions:

• Set out to ask four questions about that thing that you want.
• What is in your way?
• How are you limiting yourself?
• What can get you to that goal?
• Who can help you?

Asking questions can get you anything you want. When you ask the right questions, and write them down you then have a plan. When you have a plan, you have instantly increased the odds that you will get what you what. Or at a minimum you will have increased your belief in your ability to get what you want.

We do a lot work at PEERtrainer to help people increase their belief in their ability to gain control of their health and energy for the long term. Our focus is to help you gain hope, increase your optimism. What is interesting about this focus is that you can get to this point, and start nurturing this, without sticking to a stringent plan.

Someone yesterday posted this comment on our Facebook Wall:

"I'm on Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. But I can't stay on the program. It seems... I keep nibbling at night and sometimes I want to binge eat."

Our whole point, and something that we keep coming back to over and over and over is that for many people when they can't "stay on the program" it leads to some very destructive behaviors. We tell people to think in terms of "tools" and not "programs."

You want to gather as big a set of tools as you can, you want to think long term, and you MUST go easy on yourself.

To use an academic term, our "thesis" is to think about your path to health and energy in terms of a journey. Step one is to simply commit to being on it. You don't need to achieve total mastery right out of the gate. That's nuts!

In this journey you also want to have an objective. We use the term "Point Of No Return" because it is so helpful to have some sort of objective. To us, the objective of this term is to get to a place where you are in a lot more control.

It is GREAT place to be, and WORTH the work it takes to get there.

People have responded to this concept, and really embraced it. If you think about it, so many traditional diet approaches are akin to pushing a beach ball under water. Obviously the ball will bounce right back up.

But when you think in terms of the journey, you break it down into a small series of adjustments. This changes your whole mindset. Maybe an email comes to you with an article with an idea, just like this one, and you get back on track. Or you try a new adjustment. But you enjoy it.

For those of you who are just "following along at home" you can nurture this same sense of of hope and belief. Even if you do just one thing a day or a week, you will remain on the journey.

Introducing The PEERtrainer Success Index:

Want to measure your success? Take this simple quiz right now. When you do, success tips will follow, over time:

http://success.peertrainer.com   <====CLICK HERE TO TAKE QUIZ

You will get there. We promise!

 

PS, If you found this post inspiring or helpful, this article is related and can help you build upon this idea.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the link to learn more:

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

 

Is 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

"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.

Gotta Love Emails Like This: "I'm Doing Great!"

Hi Jackie,

I'm doing great! My good friend and I are buddies in a group I created, and
we're having a great time encouraging each other. I also am part of the
Weekly Weigh In, Daily Accountability team, which gives me a broader sense
of how and what others are doing. Your weekly emails are also helpful. I am
logging everything, which has really opened my eyes to my eating habits and
has also made me feel accomplished in regard to my workouts. Plus, I've lost
6 pounds since the beginning of the year!

Thanks for providing such excellent, encouraging free services.

- Lauren

If you want to join the Weekly Weigh in, Daily Accountability team, I've provided the link directly to join above.  It's 1928 members and growing daily.  It's a great active team.

Jackie

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Common Questions:

-Can I Lose 100 Pounds In 100 Days?

 

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

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

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

What If I Really Like To Eat?

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

Interesting New Groups and Teams

Every now and then I try and highlight some new groups and teams. Teams have unlimited members, and groups are limited to 4. However, public group members are dropped automatically after a week of inactivity. This keeps the small groups full of active members.

New Teams:

Desperate Housewives, Abilene Edition

This is a place for women in the Abilene, Texas area to get together and support each other in our weight loss journey...

Weight Watchers Active Team

Weight Watchers groups are always popular on PT and get big quickly. So from time to time new ones need to get started.

Active Accountants

If you are crunching numbers all day, this is your place.

Eating In The Light Of The Moon

Have you read "Eating in the Light of the Moon" by Anita Johnston? This book uses imagery and storytelling to explain and rewrite food relationships and women. If you have read this book, I would love to discuss how this book changed your thinking in this team.

Christian Women's Weight Loss Group

This is a weight loss group for Christian women over the age of 35. Makes for a nice focused and also mature group of people. 

Weight Loss Group For People Who Need To Lose 100 Pounds Or More

New Groups:

Anchorage Alaska Weight Loss