Thoughtful Thursday is all about kindness: kindness in the world, kindness between people, and kindness to ourselves. It is my hope that what I share in here will make you smile and think. I try and make these blogs as organic as possible and share what has come to me weekly on these topics. With that said, I was reading a blog yesterday about Thomas Edison and his mother and I wanted to share this very thoughtful story:
One day, when Thomas Edison was just a boy, he came home after school one day and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.” His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child: “Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers to teach and train him. Please teach him yourself.” Several years later, after Edison’s mother died and he was now one of the greatest inventors of the century, Thomas was looking through some old family things when he came across a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up. On the paper it read: “Your son is addled (mentally ill). We won’t let him come to school anymore. Edison cried and cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century." The thoughtfulness and kindness in this story is unlike any other. What a hero Edison's mother is and was. The next part of Thoughtful Thursday is an awesome fact you may or may have not known about the things in our world: DID YOU KNOW?
Resources: http://www.did-you-knows.com https://goodtimestories.wordpress.com
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Anyone else hate diets? Well, that is what I am discussing today. I hate diets and there is strong research that shows they do not work. When we try to change our weight by restricting calories, it is a mental mind game. I know first hand. I used to be 350 pounds and I lost over a hundred pounds on the Atkins diet as well as daily exercising. It took me well over 3 years to get down to 180 pounds and then I thought I was done. Ha! Was I fooled! I am currently 230 pounds so you can see I gained some weight back. Why you may ask? LIFE and lack of knowledge. If I knew about maintaining my weight I may be 180 still. If I knew that I shouldn't forget about myself in relationships, I could still be close to my goal weight. Diets seem to work for the short-term but definitely fail in the long-term. I want to be at a stable weight for the rest of my life and I do not want to keep going up and down. How do I make this happen??? Well, it seems pretty easy, but far from simple. Here is the number one thing I know works even though some researchers may disagree.
Count Those Calories Some may disagree with this but I am standing strong with this one because it is simple science: Calories in and calories out. Any calorie that is not burned off, will be stored as fat. If we want to lose weight, we need a calorie deficit and if we want to maintain weight you have to burn as much as you are eating. If you want to gain weight, eat more than you are moving. Simple right? Well, there are many arguments that hormones can control your weight but that is another conversation. If you are truly being honest with yourself and you are restricting calories and you are not losing weight, go see your doctor. According to Charlotte Markey, "The mental effort required to count calories soon leads to burnout, fatigue, and resentment, according to research." This made me cringe because I know the feeling of counting calories and how daunting it can be, but I have to disagree from my binge eating self. As a member of Overeaters Anonymous, I know I need a food plan that works for me. I can't just go through my day eating what I want. I have tried Weight Watchers and that does work for me the majority of the time, but then something happens when I am very successful, I always sabotage my weight loss and gain weight back. I feel like I deserve to eat what ever I want. Why is this? Researchers suggest that it could be the "What the hell effect?" When we feel we strayed from our diet, we sometimes convince ourselves that we have blown the whole thing and say WHAT THE HELL? I ALREADY BLEW IT SO I MIGHT AS WELL HAVE 3 PIECES OF CAKE!!! This "What the hell effect?" releases all self-control and we sabotage ourselves with food. Some people are fine around food, but addicts need structure and help from others in their OA group. Weight Watchers has a similar approach. I think we may be onto something about this community thing with food. In an earlier blog, I discussed how food was always a community activity in our hunter-gatherer days. I have seen it work when I am in a community of EATERS. I have worked the steps and they have gotten me on track, but as soon as I thought I was ok, I went down the rabbit hole again. I believe that is the key. We have to know that we cannot do it alone. Health is hard work and it cannot be done alone. We need friends to check in with and to show that we are human and that we have slip ups. We have to stop looking at straying from our food plan as the end of the world. When we are driving down the highway and get a flat we don't pull over and stab the other 4 tires. We change the one and keep going. We have to pick ourselves back up and keep moving forward. I am sick and tired of pulling over and stabbing all my tires. I want to love my body. I am not loving my body by putting all this extra food into it. I will never look perfect and I know this. Some final words on weight loss. Everyone is on a different path and something that works for me doesn't work for another but research is constantly showing the following steps should work if you work them: 1. "Don't deprive yourself: eating very little is hard to sustain, and when you slip up, studies show, you will probably massively overeat as a rebound effect." 2. "Don't cut out entire food groups: As soon as a food is forbidden, cravings for it go through the roof. Dieters who try this strategy end up eating more taboo treats." 3. "Do find a few healthy meals that you like and can cycle through: Creating an enjoyable routine that does not require much thought is a crucial first step on the road to long-term change" 4. "Do make small changes, one at a time: By waiting until a healthy choice feels like a habit before adding another, you can avoid the mental fatigue that dooms most diets." 5. "Do focus on what you like about your body: Research shows that people with a positive body image are more successful at staying fit." I try and make my health a game. Maybe this is bad, but I feel like this could work:
Resources: Markey, Charlotte N. "Don't Diet." Scientific American Mind Sep/Oct. 2015: 46-53. Print. I was going to name Tuesday, Tough Tuesdays, but I feel Transformation Tuesday is a better name for many reasons. First, transformations are not always pleasant and can be very tough. Second, transformations can be very motivating which builds on my Monday blog. Finally, transformations enlighten us and help us see that we can do it. With that said, transformation Tuesday's is born. We all have something that we should transform. It could be the way we treat people. It could be a transformation for our health or it could be a transformation with the way we think. The transformation I would like to discuss is not really about transformation in fact, it is about how much we haven't transformed for thousands of years. I recently read an awesome article in Scientific American called The Exercise Paradox by Herman Pontzer about how many calories we burn today as a species compared to our hunter gatherer ancestors. One would think that our ancestors were more active but research shows that today we burn about the same calories as we did in the past. Here are the findings that I found most interesting and my comments about each quote: "Our data indicate that, contrary to received wisdom, humans tend to burn the same number of calories regardless of how physically active they are." BOOM! Mind blown! "Populations such as the Hadza, one of the last hunter -gatherer populations left in the world, are key to understanding how our bodies evolved and functioned before cows, cars, and computers. Hunting and gathering is cerebral and risky, a high stakes game in which the currency is calories and going bust means death. Men such as Mwasad spends hundreds of calories a day hunting and tracking, a gamble that they hope will pay off in the game. Savvy is just as critical as stamina. Whereas other predators can rely on their speed and strength to obtain prey, humans have to outthink their quarry, considering their behavioral tendencies and scouring the landscape for signs of game. Still, Hazda men land big game like giraffes only about once a month. They would starve if Hazda women were not executing an equally sophisticated, complementary strategy, using their encyclopedia of knowledge of local plant life to bring home a reliable bounty every day. This complex, cooperative foraging is what made humans so incredibly successful and is the core of what makes us unique." Is transformation contingent on collaboration? Do we need each other in order to transform? "Following up on that work, Lara Dugas, also at Loyola, along with Luke and others, analyzed data from 98 studies around the globe and showed that populations coddled by the modern conveniences of the developed world have similar energy expenditures to those in less developed countries, with more physically demanding lives." I am glad they used data from all over the world here. "All the evidence points towards obesity being a disease of gluttony rather than sloth." What about all the research on the endocrine system? Thyroid? I think this is basically saying that those who are overweight, eat more than they move. "Evidence indicates that it is best to think of diet and exercise as different tools with different strengths. Exercise to stay healthy and vital; focus on diet to look after your weight." This is not new to the world of diet and exercise. I have heard weight loss is 80% diet, and 20% exercise. It is interesting to think of them as two separate beasts rather than a combo. "Sharing food is so fundamental to the human experience, the common thread of every barbecue, birthday, bar mitzvah, that we take it for granted, but it is a unique and essential part of our evolutionary inheritance. Other apes do not share. Beyond our nutritional requirements and fixation with fat, perhaps the most profound impact of our increased energy expenditure is this human imperative to work together." Maybe this is why Crossfit and other activities that involve a sense of community have been so powerful in the last 5 years. In a nutshell, if you are looking to transform, get help. You will be more successful if you collaboration. I know I find transforming much easier when I have others to depend on and to share my troubles. When we keep those troubles inside they could cause us to overeat. I know they make me overeat. Be well, and do not be afraid of transformation. If you are interested in reading the whole article I suggest you go to the Scientific American website and search their archives. It does cost money but I think it is worth the knowledge and insights. https://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/2017/02-01/ Motivation may be the hardest thing in life. I have been using an app called Pact for over 3 years that helps motivate me to eat fruits and vegetables, workout, and log my daily diet. Every week I would fulfill my pact I would get paid, if I missed logging anything during the week I would have to pay a predetermined amount of money for every pact I missed (from $5-$50). If I fulfilled my pact I would get paid from all the other people who did not fulfill his or her pact. You can see why this could be motivating.
I found out on Friday that Pact was shutting down and I was super sad. Getting the weekly pay check of an average of $3.00 was nice but it wasn't about the money. It is a habit that is going to stop but I know the key is to replace the habit. There are many apps out there to help with motivation. MyFitnessPal is a great app. Just having an Apple Watch or Fitbit is another great motivational tool. Motivation doesn't just appear, it has to come from within. You have to make the choice to be motivated. Go do a search for motivational apps and see what comes up. Just by making that choice to search motivational apps plants a seed that could grow into a great habit. Give it a try! I promise it will change you. |
AuthorAddiction and Health coach who aims to make recovery possible for struggling addicts. I am a recovering addict myself and have been for more than 20 years. I have struggled with food, sex, and porn addictions and want to give back to others to help with their addictions. Email me with questions, reactions, and concerns. I am here to help and will never judge ArchivesCategories |