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

Beware of the 100 Calorie Snacks



100 Calorie Snack?!

Beware of the 100 Calorie Snacks

There has been a lot of talk about 100 calorie snacks being the go to amount to look for when picking out a snack. I use the word snack lightly, since most people think of snack as a cookie, or a candy bar, or if trying to eat healthy perhaps some celery and carrot sticks. But, none of these options are going to give you the nutrients that you need to get you through to the next meal (except perhaps the candy bar if they have a lot of nuts!) and help you in your ability to either sustain or lose weight. But, for now let’s focus on how you feel when you eat certain foods rather than the calories.

Use Your Own Body as a Guiney Pig (for a short time period)

I recommend using your body as a Guiney pig for a short time and really find out how your body feels when you are not eating a well-balanced meal or mini-meal (my name for snack). Well-balanced means that you are including dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates and significant portions of each. Write down how you feel right after you eat, an hour after you eat, and then two hours after you eat. Try eating something well-balanced and do the same. How do you feel? Once you realize that you can affect how you feel by what you eat, you will look at food in a completely different way.

Why the desire or need for the 100 calorie snack?

I do not like the word snack, but for this paragraph I will use it. Sometimes you do need a little something to tide you over to the next scheduled meal. Especially if the next meal is a planned one with others or at a specified time dictated by your schedule. While 100 calories seems like a small amount and something to strive for, but as I pointed out in last week’s blog, calories are nothing more than a calculation of the nutrients of dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates, and in and of itself are meaningless. 

Yes, calories in and of themselves are meaningless!

You do not need to eat a snack if you don’t feel like it and you also should not deprive yourself of snack if you need one. I read just yesterday that now the morning snack can lead to overeating during the day…hogwash! If you wake up early in the morning and your next meal is not going to be for 6 hours because you need to eat lunch at noon, you more than likely need a morning snack. But, if you wake up later in the morning and there is less than 4 hours between breakfast and lunch you probably don’t need one. Same applies for the afternoon, if you eat lunch at noon and dinner at 5pm, you are probably fine without an afternoon snack.

But, again it is all about when you feel you need to eat, not when someone else tells you that you need to eat. Track your progress using my journals either online or using the Apps in the Apple or Android Market – Timerdiet and you will learn how much and how often your body needs to eat and remember every day is different!

 

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com/journal

STOP Counting Calories—Please!



STOP Counting Calories

 

Calories Are Deceiving

Did you know that one gram of dietary fat is 9 calories, and one gram of protein or carbohydrates are 4 calories each. So when you are given a certain amount of calories it is this calculation that you are getting. So 100 calories could be 11.11 grams of dietary fat and nothing else. Or it could be 25 grams of carbohydrates or 25 grams of protein. More than likely it will be some combination of the above. So if you were deciding what to eat would you pick something that was 100 calories without even knowing what the grams of dietary fat, protein, and carbs are? I hope not, but many people do. They hear—a calorie is a calorie—from so called experts. Not paying any attention to how they will feel if they are getting all of their calories from carbohydrates, how it will affect their organs if all of their calories come from protein, and how little amount of food you will get if all of the calories come from dietary fat.

Nutritionists Focusing on Calories

I was watching a morning talk show this last Wednesday and a well-known nutritionist with a PhD was telling viewers she would recommend eating two pancakes with syrup instead of two eggs with whole wheat toast and butter, since the pancakes and syrup only had 280 calories!!! What? Eat pancakes with syrup for breakfast instead of eggs and toast (are you kidding me?!) as the preferred choice of a credentialed doctor. This is a classic case of focusing only on the calories and not on the nutrition of the foods you are eating. Perhaps this is how eating foreign substances became a fad for weight loss, the perception that there is no calories associated with them. Which brings up another problem: calories equating to pounds.

Calories do NOT equal pounds

Yes, I am going to go out on a limb here and buck the status quo and pretty soon you will, too. Do you know how much ½ gallon of water weighs? It is about 4 pounds. How many calories does it have? ZERO. How much does a gallon of water weigh? Yep about 8 pounds, again how many calories? Still ZERO. How about 200 gallons of water? 1,600 pounds and yes you are right again, ZERO calories.  DO NOT drink water in excess it can be deadly.

 

Calories Burned Do NOT Matter

I am sure you are certain that you are exercising in an effort to burn calories, please do not think this way. It will keep you from working out for your overall health. Your body needs for you to move it—daily…yes daily, not 3 times a week or every other day. Every single day you need to do something that gets you moving, walking, lifting, just get going!! There is another benefit to exercising every day and that is that your appetite will be much more even. If you think you are working out to burn calories you are going to be sadly disappointed and more than likely you are going to say to yourself, that you will just skip a glass of wine, or latte or that dessert and along with it skip the workout!! No, no, no!!

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com/timer-diet-concepts

 

 

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.

 

Let's Move

My main focus of today’s blog was going to be about the www.facebook.com/letsmove which I LOVE!! We must be vigilant in getting our children out there and moving and we as adults need to as well.

Food Labels Not Really the Problem

 

However, last night the whole food label revamping reared its ugly head again. I must say again how I feel about this. Last month, January 31^st I wrote a blog about the Food Labels change that was being proposed www.timerdiet.com/blog/food-labels-needing-update-really/  

I am going to have to disagree with Mrs. Obama on this one. I see no reason whatsoever to change the food labels that we have. Ok so read the previous blog and make your own conclusion. Let’s Move on to Let’s Move!!

Daily Activity Is Important

Children must have daily activity built into their schedule as young as possible. When my kids were young (around 6 months old) we did “mommy and me” swim sessions at the YMCA. So obviously this was probably more about me at this age, but it carried on as they got a little older. When my girls were around 3 and 4 years old I got them involved in gymnastics at the YMCA and roller skating at the local skating rink. When they were 5 and 6 years old we were skiing. I didn’t go skiing for the first time until I was 20 years old. I honestly hated my first time but, I persevered and now I love it! At 6 and 7 they were in PeeWee cheerleading and from there cheerleading was their love. I guarantee that those girls worked out almost every day as cheerleaders. Those girls never got enough credit for all that they did!! (Ok soap box moment)

So why was this so important to me? Many of you don’t know but I was a teenage mother, and I was always worried that I wouldn’t be good enough. This internal fear propelled me to do whatever I could to give my daughters a “normal” childhood. I was divorced shortly after my youngest was born and child support was minimal and usually non-existent. So everything I did I did so with very modest means. I have to admit my thought process was not so much about physical fitness as it was about my kids having fun and doing things that I thought they would enjoy. Which brings me to my next observation…

 

We Want Our Kids to Have Fun

 

But, our kid’s definition of fun has changed, and not for the good as it pertains to the physical activity of our children. Kids these days define fun as computers, tablets, phones, gaming systems, and other new technology that wasn’t even around when my kids were young. So I can understand how parents are wanting to let their kids do things that are “fun” but, we as parents need to balance technological fun with physical fun. We must include psychical fun in our children’s lives. The easiest way to do this is organized activities. There may be a some fees involved, but I urge you to search out various ways to cover the costs or find locations that are not charging high fees. Here are some ideas to get the costs covered, and not just for your child but for others, too:

 

·         Car Washes

·         Selling of goods promoting the cause

·         Finding a sponsor—Many businesses would be very willing to do this

·         Find church groups that have athletic programs

·         Local YMCA

·         Local public and/or after school program

·         Have your child start a business

o   Growing and selling garden foods

o   Babysitting

o   Mowing Lawns

 

Let’s Not Forget the Obvious

 

Our children look to us as parents when deciding how to live their lives. The alternative is that they look to us as to how not to live their lives. Decide which way you want your children to look at you and their childhood. Do they see parents who care about their physical activity? What they eat, by minimizing junk foods? Get out and walk as a family, go for a hike, maybe get even more adventurous and go skiing, water skiing, gardening, picking up leaves, shoveling snow!! Do it all as a family, and your children will take notice.

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

Diet Accountability Plans May Backfire!

Diet Plans Where You are Accountable to Someone Else May Backfire!

 

We hear about having an accountability partner and be accountable to someone else for your diet plan. Is this really working? I can’t imagine asking my best friend to tell me to my face when they think I am screwing up and being “happy” about them telling me. Let’s even go to a worst case scenario. Your friend is also losing weight and by all accounts is being perfect and losing weight faster than you. Now you have your best friend on your case and losing weight faster than you are. Will this motivate you? Or make you give up and say, “I just don’t want to play this game anymore!”?

So try these new rules for being accountable to you and only YOU:

1.      Do not tell anyone that you are planning on losing weight

2.      Keep a journal of what you ate so you can learn how certain foods affect you

3.      Always do things that you love to do

4.      Never create a reward system for reaching your weight loss goals

5.      Keep a journal of your exercise progress, see how much you are able to increase in time and weight, it is exciting!

Diets and weight loss plans are all over the place right now and it can be a little overwhelming. Just remember that you have the power to lose the weight you want within you! Keep your friends for fun, sad times, and someone to talk with. 

Sherri Sue Fisher

www.timerdiet.com