Breakfast is Under Attack

Breakfast Is Under Attack

Or is it? So there was a new study that came out and said that eating breakfast (unknown what they ate for breakfast) did not provide any meaningful data for weight loss. Another day, another study. But, what were the parameters of the study were they allowed to eat anything they wanted for breakfast? Pancakes and syrup? Waffles and whipped cream? Dry sugar coated cereal? When you are told you can eat or not eat and there is no direction there is also no control group.

Let’s Assume

So maybe the group was given a set of choices for breakfast (benefit of the doubt that they were well-balanced) and the other group did not have breakfast. Do we know if the non-breakfast eaters were allowed a mid-morning snack when they were hungry? Or forced to wait it out till lunch? And what were their choices of foods during the rest of day. The same as everyone else or just allowed to eat what they wanted? So much data that is needed to know the background of the study. Also, what were they told about the study? Mindset is as important to weight loss as anything. Did they know what the anticipated results were? Did they know the Doctor conducting the study didn’t like breakfast and was tired of being told to eat breakfast?

Is It All About Losing Weight?

When it comes down to it is breakfast all about losing weight? I eat breakfast every day and I haven’t needed to lose weight for over 5 years.  So I never said that eating breakfast will make you lose weight. Otherwise I would continue to keep losing weight until I was nothing…eating breakfast makes me feel better and I think helps me make better choices throughout the day. I don’t eat a big breakfast usually. Most times it is an egg with some Canadian bacon and a little fruit or veggies in the egg. I also never deprived myself throughout the day just to see if I can lose more weight. Eating is about making you productive during the each day, giving you the ability to think and focus and the energy to do what you need to do and the ability go to sleep at night and start all over again.

Remember that Breakfast is breaking the fast; so no matter what time you do it and no matter what you eat, you need Breakfast!!

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet and TimerOrganizer

www.timerdiet.com

www.timerorganizer.com

Conferences

Choices!!!

Conferences

Do you have any conferences coming up? It seems like summer is the time for conferences so you can combine some fun with some education. Sounds like a great idea! But if you don’t think about what you are eating, need to eat, and options available to you it can spell disaster for your waistline!

What to Bring to a Conference

Beef jerky and individual packages of shelled nuts are easy to bring and snack on if needed and will last all day long. But, what about your beverages? Water, water, and more water!!! Coffee in the morning is fine, but once you are ready to move on to something cooler, it needs to be water and even more water. Conferences are long and can be tiring, keeping hydrated will not only be good for your body it will also help keep you alert. Whereas if you are drinking sugary drinks (or even sugar substitutes) you will feel sluggish.

If You Don’t Believe Me

Take one day and drink your normal sugary drinks (only if this is what you normally do) and then once an hour write down how you feel during the afternoon. Then on a completely different day do not have any sugary drinks and then around NOON change over to water for the afternoon and also keep track of how you feel every hour for the afternoon. (See I told you!!)

Make Wise Food Choices

Sometimes when you are at a conference you are responsible for buying lunch from food vendors and other times lunch is provided. More than likely there will be well-balanced options if you look hard enough. Even when the lunch is provided, you don’t have to eat all the mashed potatoes, bread rolls, AND dessert. You can either have a little of each or a normal amount of one, and then be sure to get some dietary fat and protein into your meal!

You can do it!!!

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Say NO to the Reward System

Give yourself gifts often

Say NO to the Reward System

Say NO to the reward system when losing weight! It is counterproductive and could sabotage your weight loss efforts. We have read or seen weight loss experts that promote rewarding yourself for your weight loss efforts such as the dangling carrot method as a way to lose weight. But, this dangling carrot could cause you to make decisions that you would not otherwise make and to your detriment!

Reward Is Not Really Worth It?

 

What if the reward that you decided you would get if you made your weekly goal is just not worth it. Maybe it was a massage and you really don’t have time for a massage anyway. So this becomes an anti-reward system. You are no longer motivated by the initial reward you said would motivate you, so now what is your motivation to not go for the second helping of chicken and dumplings? Nothing!

You Need the Reward No Matter What!

So you said if you made your goal you would buy a suit to wear when you go on that interview next week. The problem is that you need that new suit no matter what. It doesn’t matter if you meet your goal or not you still need to go on the job interview and you don’t have a suit that fits. So this becomes a tricky reward in that you may try hard to meet your reward but not all goals are achieved (at least not in the original time frame desired) so if you still give yourself the reward even though you didn’t meet your goal you are no longer going to believe yourself that the reward system is real, so now you have lost credibility with yourself.

 

You Can’t Reward Yourself the Way You Want

A lot of other people will use the reward system and they may buy themselves some extravagant “rewards”. This is fine if they want to, I don’t want to judge. But, what if you can’t afford to buy as expensive “rewards” as your friends? Then you will be sad, instead you should be ecstatic that you made your goal. Which is why I do not believe in rewards. Be happy that you made your goal! Write down “You did it!”, “Great job!”, “Way to go!” jump up and down, get a big smile!! But, don’t give yourself a reward.

Do Things You Like All the Time

 

You want to be sure that you are doing things and giving yourself things often and as needed. If you need some relaxation then go ahead and get a massage, if you need a suit for an interview be sure to get a suit (maybe from a discount store since you will be losing more weight), and if you want to do something fun—go do it!

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com

Eggs

Any kind of eggs add value to your daily diet!

Eggs were the most searched for calories in 2013 according to Google

My guess is that most people were surprised to find out that on average the egg has only 70 calories. As you may or may not know, in my book TimerDiet, I do NOT count calories, however, I do find calories interesting for comparison and contrast. What I find most interesting about the egg is that (Egg·land’s Best®-Large egg) one egg has 4g of dietary fat and 6g of protein and no carbohydrates! That makes the egg an amazing food—to me anyway! Dietary fat is important to include in your daily intake of food. The fact that there are no carbohydrates in an egg means you can add a slice of toast and a small amount of fruit and you will have a well-balanced meal.

Eggs have been beaten up in the past

I can only guess why the egg was the most searched for food in 2013 and that would be that eggs have been given a hard time in the past and blamed for the woes of many a physical condition. But, then the egg was once again praised for its qualities like having Lutein and Omega 3 fatty acids. So it is no wonder that people are confused and want to see what this food is all about. When I was a child we used to get crates of eggs and go through them in about a week’s time. We did not have a large family and there was no obesity in our family either. We used eggs to bake our bread, have for breakfast, and hard-boiled as a snack!

Somehow we have decided it takes too long to cook

In our fast paced, give it to me now world we tend to feel that taking a couple of minutes to cook in the morning will slow us down. I would like to challenge this perception, especially when you compare eating out at a restaurant to cooking at home. I love going out to a restaurant as well, but cooking at home is a very close second. It is important to pass on the knowledge or acquire it ourselves and then pass it on to the next generation. In fact I would say it is imperative. The ability to make meals for oneself and others is not a gender specific issue. When I was in middle school we had to take home economics and everyone was required to take it. Now I don’t even know if such a course exists! We are all about cutting what are deemed to be unimportant curriculum in the classroom. But, isn’t learning how to feed yourself once you get out into the real world important?

Teach the next generation

If you have children I encourage you to have them learn how to cook, how to read a recipe (the difference between a large egg and an extra-large egg), how to properly crack an egg (in a separate bowl…), how to use the oven and the stove. Have them make breakfast for the family on the weekend!! Make a homemade quiche or frittata. Show them how to boil eggs!  Learning the value, flexibility, and usefulness of the egg is a great way to start.

 

Bon appétit mon ami!!! 

 

By Sherri Sue Fisher

author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com/timer-diet-concepts

 

"Google Trends - Top Charts." Google Trends - Top Charts. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014

100 Days Until Memorial Day

Valentine’s Day is Over

With Valentine’s Day being over, the Olympics are wrapping up in a week, and summer is really just around the corner, how do you want to look on Memorial Day? We are not talking about looking like a Sports Illustrated model; that would be nice, but for most of us not probable—me included!! I personally would love to have a sunny glow; but I know unless it comes from a bottle that is not going to happen. I do know that my body is going to pretty much look like it did last summer and that is not a bad thing. Since I have maintained my weight for several years, my main dread of the summer is the beauty upkeep that comes with having to show off all that skin! Yikes!

You Have 100 Days from Today until Memorial Day

How do you want to start your summer this year? Do you want more muscle? Maybe, to be ready to take on some summer activities you have always thought about? Or maybe you would like to lose a few unwanted lbs? All of the above achievements are within your control!! I am not a proponent of fast weight loss—I prefer steady as you go—weight loss. So to say that you could lose 15 pounds is not an over estimation. It is very doable. However, you want to make sure that the way you lose weight is sustainable for the long-haul and incorporates daily activity that you can also maintain. Deciding you are going to start your weight loss by drinking green shakes every day and a high intensity work out for an hour a day is a recipe not only for disaster, it is a recipe for failure.

Define Your Goals and Make a Solid Plan

In TimerDiet, Chapter 4—Before You Start; the focus is on all of the things you need to address before you begin your weight loss journey. Waking up one morning and deciding today is the day I am going to drop 25 pounds normally does not work. You want to think about how much you really want to lose, what size you will be, what foods you should and should not have in your home, what types of foods you like, what foods go together to make tasty meals that you won’t feel like you are “dieting”, and so much more. If you look at the table of contents you will see that the chapter about what you need to do Before You Start is almost as long as the following chapter How to Do It!

I Don’t Mean to Tease You!

There really is so much that goes into what you need to do before you lose weight that there is no way to go through it in the blog and be sure I have covered everything successfully. However, I can tell you that when I began my journey 5 years ago today. I did everything I go through in two weeks and was ready to begin my weight loss journey on March 1, 2009. I lost 20 pounds by my birthday on June 23^rd 2009; and I have never looked back. The day after Valentine’s Day back in 2009, I said to myself enough is enough and I wanted a different me by summer and that is exactly what I did; I created a new me!

You can, too!!

Sherri Sue Fisher

www.timerdiet.com

 

Breakfast--Think Outside the Box

Think Outside the Box—Not Just the Cereal Box

When you think of breakfast you most likely think of cereal, I used to as well. Then I realized I felt so much better when I ate a more balanced breakfast that included dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates. It wasn’t until much later that I actually looked at the labels of the cereal box (with a little more knowledge of what the label meant only to find out that the carbohydrate ratio was completely out of whack with the dietary fat and protein. In fact my favorite cereal had virtually no dietary fat and minimal protein, meaning that I was eating carbs for breakfast!

Carbs are Not Bad—BUT!!

Carbohydrates are not bad, but really they must be part of a well-balanced diet. They are not the diet. Somehow in our quest to eat “healthy” we have traded cereal for fruit. Which is what? Right! Carbohydrates. Do not forget the nutrients of the foods you are eating. They are made of either dietary fat, protein, and/or carbohydrates. There is no way around it. They are one of or some combination of these three nutrients. That simple knowledge will bode you well when you think about what to eat.

Eggs for Breakfast is Good—BUT!!

I want you to think even more outside the box!! Eggs for breakfast is an easy switch and I do have them about 75% of the time for breakfast. But, sometimes I just eat whatever for breakfast. Like left over fish, steak, chicken, enchiladas.  Really!! If I know I am not going to be around to eat my leftovers for lunch or dinner, and I am in the mood I will have grilled grouper with cilantro couscous from the night before. Or maby steak with potatoes au gratin. Or even a salad with leftover grilled chicken. Anything that is well-balanced makes a great choice for breakfast.  So if your mainstay is a bagel and cream cheese; add some salmon, and capers and now you have a well-balanced breakfast!!

Above all Enjoy Breakfast!

I hope these ideas help you in making better choices for breakfast. Not every day will be a bacon and eggs day, but do what you can to avoid the overdone carb breakfast!! Always remember to eat just until satisfied and not one bite more. You will feel so much better!!

 Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com

 

 

 

 

Food Labels Needing an Update – Really?

Food Labels May Be Undergoing an Update-But Why?

The New Food Labels are possibly going to be revamped; or are they? The main proposed changes are:

·         Make the calories more prominent.

o   Aren’t they already prominent?! Do you really not notice the calories when you look at the label?

·         Distinguish between natural sugar and (I guess) non-natural sugars.

o   Isn’t this going to just be a reason to eat foods with sugars in them if they are able to label them as natural? Don’t we just need to stop eating sugars as much as possible? Besides the most natural sugars such as fruits and vegetables that are fresh don’t have a food label.

·         More realistic serving sizes.

o   Really? Do I even need to comment? OK, I will. This is no reason whatsoever to increase the serving sizes. NONE!!

Are We Reading the Food Labels We Have?

First of all, the food labels we have are fine we just don’t use them. A recent study conducted says that less than half of us use them. The assumption is that the reason people do not use them more is because they are confusing. I don’t think so. People normally don’t do something because they just don’t want to. Who wants to take the time to read a label for something you have already decided ahead of time that you are going to buy no matter what? It is not until we can educate in a manner that speaks to the heart of the problem and the heart of those buying how different choices do make a difference.

Diets Push Fresh Foods-So We Don’t Need to Read a Label?

The push to eat fruits and vegetables has really turned people off from “dieting” and rightly so. Not everyone wants to be a vegan. I know I don’t! When I wrote my first book TimerDiet, the main (if not only) criticism I received was that people could not understand how I could promote eating foods, like steak, bacon, cheese, and drinks like wine and champagne. I started out eating this way because I knew I felt better when I ate all three dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates.

TimerDiet Thoughts on Labels

Of the three items that are proposed as changes the natural sugars vs. the non-natural sugars would be interesting. However, I am reading that this is the most problematic to the food companies.

This food label tells me all I need to know. The ratio of grams to grams (TimerDiet does not do ratios by calories) is completely out-of-whack. No more than double no less than half, is the motto of the ratio of dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates. There is NO ROOM for Transfats in the TimerDiet. So this label tells me I certainly would not buy this. I do not care that it only has 200 calories, I actually do not even know what this label is for. I just know I would not eat it!

Maybe we should just learn how to read the labels we have…

Sherri Sue Fisher

www.timerdiet.com