Diet Schmiet

Diet Schmiet

Who wants to go on a diet? No one? I agree! Diets have in them one fatal flaw—there comes a time you need to stop. That is when all the hard work can be undone. The way you eat, needs to be a way of life.

Places to Eat

When you are out and about and hungry do you know the places you will go to get food? When you are hungry is not the time to decide that eating French fries and a double/double cheese burger is not a good idea. Make your menus ahead of time. Know what places have the best options and which of those options you have decided are in your best interest. Almost every restaurant (even fast food) have options that are well-balanced and perhaps by eating only a portion are great choices. The thing is that you cannot guess. You really must go to the website and find out what the nutritional values are.

Eat Well-balanced Meals

Eating well-balanced meals all the time is the easiest way to lose weight and keep the weight off. This means eating approximately the same amount of grams of dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Unfortunately, we do not know what nutrient values food has unless we look them up. We are told, this is bad, this is good, but we don’t really know the nutritional value unless we look them up. Take fruits and vegetables for example. They are considered, good for you. However, fruits and vegetables are primarily carbohydrates, so you must add dietary fat and protein to your fruits and vegetables in order for them to be well-balanced.

How Much to Eat?

That is the question isn’t it? You need to begin to learn to listen to your body and when it starts to feel satisfied. If you feel full, you ate too much. It is a little trial and error at first. Once you get the right feeling you should be able to go anywhere from 2-4 hours without food. If you feel you need to eat sooner than 2 hours then perhaps you did not include enough dietary fat. If you can go longer than 4 hours, perhaps you ate too much dietary fat. If you feel dizzy, you probably had too much in carbohydrates and not enough protein.

Write It Down

Writing down what you ate and when and how you feel is the best way to learn to listen to your body. So go to my website www.timerdiet.com/journal and print out the journals for FREE to track your progress. You will be glad you have the historical information to see how far you have come.

Congratulate yourself along the way. Avoid rewards (they may backfire), but be sure to say to yourself, “Way to go!” when you see some progress.

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet and TimerOrganizer

Food for Depression

Food for Depression

It is with great sadness that this is the topic of today’s blog. Most of us have been touched in some way or another by the passing of Robin Williams and specifically by his admission of his ongoing depression. On the outset of this blog by no means am I saying that depression can be cured by changing your diet. I am saying that your diet and exercise are important in light of the possibility that it can aggravate or affect your moods and should be your first defense in daily health and well-being.  

Always Seek Medical Advice

If you feel you are venturing into being depressed seek a doctor and don’t let them dismiss you. If you don’t feel you are being taken seriously, continue to seek help.  I myself was concerned many years ago when I spent two days in bed for no apparent reason. When I told the on-call doctor she told me, “Well, if you told me you spent two weeks then I would be concerned, but two days I am not concerned.” Personally I felt she was very dismissive and since she wasn’t my general doctor I decided to just leave and I went home and got on the internet and looked up everything I could including diet and made some changes that helped me.  If you feel a doctor is not taking you seriously seek out another doctor or consider a psychologist that specializes in the area of concern that you have. 

And of course if it is critical call the Suicide Hotline 1-800-273-8255 or go to www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org 

What I Learned About Food and Drinks

Probably the most important thing I learned when I went online was that alcohol and caffeine create a cycle of ups and downs. While many people are able to have both alcohol and caffeine without this side effect creating a more severe cycle of ups and down, it is why we usually drink caffeine (to bring us up) and alcohol (to bring us down). But both can work in reverse and against each other. So if you are sensing that your moods are being affected by either of these it is best to stop for a while and assess the situation without either of them in your system. AGAIN ALWAYS SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE FIRST!

I also learned that foods play a major role in my moods, one food in particular that seems to make me feel better is pistachios. I don’t know if it is taking the time to crack them open or the protein and dietary fat or what, but pistachios have been known to create calmness. Eating foods that are found in nature are your best bet when changing your diet to affect your mood in a positive way. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, and fishes high in Omega 3. Don’t forget to include some dairy into your daily diet and protein rich and dietary fat foods like eggs and beef. In other words eating basic foods will make you feel better than eating processed foods.

Sugar

If anyone has read my book, TimerDiet you know I am against all artificial, superficial sweeteners. Raw sugar is all I keep around for others to use in their tea and coffee. I keep white cane sugar around for baking and that is about it. If you think you are not affecting your blood sugar by using artificial sweeteners you may be mistaken. My brother-in-law just had a battery of blood tests and specific diagnosing for his blood sugar, they found that when he used artificial sweeteners (his sugar of choice) that his blood sugar went up significantly more than when he used regular sugar…I tried to tell him. But at least now he has scientific proof for him that artificial sweeteners are not ok for him.

Daily Exercise

Even a daily walk for 30 minutes can positively affect your mood. I believe when you exercise it should always be about your health and well-being—NOT about losing weight. If you exercise only to lose weight you will easily talk yourself out of exercising on a routine basis. Set aside 15 minutes every day at first and then increase it to anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes a day. Have a goal in mind as to what you want to accomplish. More stamina to keep up with the kids or grandkids? Get rid of the triceps flab? Show off some biceps? Or do a walk/run 5k for your favorite charity.

There is NO One Cure ALL

When it comes to depression there is not one cure all method or drug or reason or symptom. So I hope my point is made that you must be vigilant in your daily diet and exercise and be aware of your moods based on what you put into your body and if your moods are not consistent with your expectations—seek help!

If you are not sure if what you are feeling is depression there are various websites that provide valuable information and ask you questions to help you decide if you need more help. 

My go to website is www.webmd.com do not hesitate to check out your symptoms.

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet and TimerOrganizer

Don't Let Anyone...

Don’t Let Anyone…

Don’t let anyone decide for you what to eat, when to eat, or how much to eat. So many times we look to someone else to give us the “magic” formula as to what, when, and how much to eat so that we will lose weight. But it doesn’t really work that way, “Why?” you may ask…because you need to learn what is best for you in all cases, at all times. Otherwise you will never have lasting results when it comes to your weight loss. And isn’t weight maintenance the final and ultimate goal?

What Do You Do?

Learn to listen to your body and learn based on trial and error. Learn to listen to your body when you eat and realize when you are close to being full…STOP before then! You want to feel satisfied, NOT FULL. You want to try stopping earlier than you usually do and see how long it takes for you to be hungry again. Be sure to write down what you ate and when you ate. At first you will want to also write down whether you felt you ate too much, too little, or just the right amount. Go to www.timerdiet.com/journal and you can download for free (but it’s copyrighted so don’t sell it!) the daily journals to keep track of what and when you are eating. Remember: Write down your daily eating as a way to educate yourself about you, not as a way to be accountable.

Do NOT Be Accountable to Anyone!

You do not need to be accountable to anyone, doing so will backfire and make you want to just quit. Don’t even be accountable to yourself, you may just feel disappointed. Instead when you are hungry look to what you last ate and when and learn from your notes. Did you not pick the right amount of foods, did you not eat enough, or maybe more time has passed than you thought and it makes perfect sense that you are hungry now! Writing down when and what you ate is for your education not to be accountable.

What to Eat?

Enjoy what you eat at all times, that being said learn the nutrients of all the foods that you love and want to incorporate into your daily diet. Oh by the way the word “Diet” has as its 2^nd definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary—daily nourishment. I love that definition of diet, we all need daily nourishment. On page 47 of TimerDiet I discuss, Explaining the Ratios, in great detail. For now I will give you the quick and easy way to look at foods. Forget everything you have ever been told about grams equaling calories and how dietary fat has different values from protein and carbohydrates…this is all too complicated! Consider each gram of equal status and then try to keep to this motto: No more than double, no less than half. So if you have 10 grams of dietary fat you would want to have no more than 20 grams of protein and/or carbohydrates. Alternatively, no less than half—so no less than 5 grams of protein and/or carbohydrates. Which gives you a lot of leeway for getting the ratios using the TimerDiet method!

Give it a try and see and write down how you feel!!

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet and recently released TimerOrganizer

www.timerdiet.com/journal

www.timerorganizer.com

    

The One Thing

The One Thing

Daily Exercise

I get asked this question often, “What is the ‘One Thing’ that you need to do to lose weight. I used to dread this question since there isn’t just “One Thing.”  But I know people want to know the gist of what my book is about and I get that.

I used to be vague

I would say it is more about a lifestyle change to which I got a little bit of “I don’t think so” looks. No one really wants to change their lifestyle, especially if they can’t visualize what it will look like.

So then I tried being more specific

I decided to give them the premise in a few short sentences: “Well, you want to eat a well-balanced diet that consists of dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates at each and every meal so you don’t over eat. And be sure to exercise every day in order to keep your appetite steady. Then I would feel bad that I didn’t tell them to eat eggs for breakfast whenever possible and cheese and crackers before bed if they are hungry and everything else that is in the 250 pages of my book that will help them achieve success. But their eyes were already glazed over with the ‘too much information’ look.

But, then I would think…

Drink plenty of water

Why don’t they just read the book? There are so many diet books out there and I don’t blame someone if they feel oh this is just another book telling me I have to change my entire way of living and eat bean sprouts and wheat grass, stop drinking wine and eating white bread (I don’t have any of those restrictions or ideas in my book, by the way) But, I get it, how do you know for sure? You don’t. Until you read the entire book from beginning to end you won’t know all there is to losing the weight and keeping it off. The mindset and thought process along the way are key in losing weight, yet cannot be explained in coffee banter.

Get plenty of sleep

I hope you try it

Really the only way to explain it is to read it and try it. It will change the way you look at food and exercise and how to enjoy your life. So to those who read the entire book and understand now all that goes into really losing weight on your own terms making your own rules and keeping the weight off once you have figured out your best weight for you—Thank you!

Thank you for believing in me that I would give you great advice that you could use and more importantly want to use.

And to those who are not ready and yet want to know the “One Thing”

So you still want to know the “One Thing” to do to lose weight, I would say this, “be sure to stop eating at the point you are no longer hungry—if you need to eat again because you got hungry again, go for it!” Learn to NOT like the feeling of being full and embrace satisfied. It is all about trial and error and listening to your body.

Bon appétit

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

Available in Hardback, paperback, e-book, and audio book

www.timerdiet.com

Dietary Restrictions

Dietary Restrictions Affect Many

 

While working on the 2^nd Edition of the Ebook TimerDIET it became apparent to me that a lot of people have dietary restrictions and while I come from a place of inclusion in my book TimerDIET, I understand the specific needs some people have due to dietary restrictions whether due to allergies, medical recommendations or doctor’s orders or even lifestyle decisions and religious reasons. What I have noticed when there is a dietary restriction is that the focus is on the restriction rather the inclusion.

 

Be Mindful of the Restriction, but Focus on the Inclusion

While you must be mindful of the restriction, you must focus on the inclusion!! Whether your restriction is by choice or necessity focusing on it may create an imbalanced approach to your diet. The 2^nd definition of diet in the Merriam Webster dictionary is my favorite, “habitual nourishment”¹ When you think about eating dairy free for instance you begin to think about all of the things that you cannot eat and decide that you can eat “everything” else. But, this is not the case. You still need to have a well-balanced “diet” i.e. habitual nourishment for so many reasons beyond keeping your weight in check.

                                                         

Decide What You Can and Should Include in Your Diet 

Make a list of all the foods that you like and are not on your restriction list. Be sure that when combined into one meal or mini-meal that you are including dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Do not assume that you know the nutrients of the foods that you love. Go to the USDA Nutrient Database at www.ndb.nal.usda.gov if you are not sure of the nutrient values. You may find that you have too much of one nutrient and not enough of the others. If this is the case, then search the internet for the type of dietary restriction you have and the nutrient you want to find more of. For example, Gluten free diet protein sources and there you will find ideas of foods you may not have thought of that will help you have a more well-balanced diet.

 

Whatever You do to Lose the Weight You MUST do to Keep the Weight OFF

I cannot stress this enough! I was speaking with someone at a conference this last weekend and she said that she was drinking a diet shake of some sort for breakfast and another one at night, with a meal for lunch to lose weight. I asked her, are you OK with drinking two shakes a day for the rest of your life? She looked at me with a look of horror and questioning, and said, “NO!” But, if what you are doing to lose the weight you are not willing to do for the rest of your life, you will not be keeping the weight off for too long. Of course, there will be some minor adjustments that you will need to make when maintaining, but changing from a two-thirds daily liquid diet to a virtually zero daily liquid diet is a big change.

 

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com

¹"Diet." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.