Volume 1
Issue 4
01-28-2010

Dear ,

Hi and Welcome back! 
 
It's been a good and busy week. I found myself thinking often of the many things that I want to write about.  This both excites and overwhelms me because there is so much I want to share with you.
 
One thing I would like to discuss today is the problem of getting back on track. Each week, as I counsel my clients, I am struck by the fact that the issue of the week is the same for each of them. It makes me feel that we are all connected in ways that we don't even realize. Isn't it somehow comforting to know that we share one another's struggles?
 
The resounding issue for this week was everyone's inability to get on track after the holidays.  This, by the way, is not at all a surprise to me.  If you read my first blog, you will know that I believe that the first of the year is a particularly difficult time to get mentally back on track. After a few months of overindulging, you might find that all of those additional fats and sugars that have taken over your body are not willing to roll over so very quickly.  You might find yourself struggling mentally to keep it clean-to eat consciously and healthfully. 
 
My advice? Don't sweat it! That's right. It's normal, and you are not alone.  In time, I hope that you will finally realize that overindulging is not worth the problems it creates later. Furthermore, did you honestly eat a single thing so memorable that eating it was worth feeling the way you do today? Well, the past is the past, and we always have today. So, choose to learn from this, and stop beating yourself up.  How do you get started again, well first you need to stop some of those cravings.  The best way to do that is to cut them out of your diet.  It takes just 3 days to stop craving sugar, I promise!  But it has to be cold turkey and then everything will seem easier.  So take the next 3 days to cut out sugar and salty foods, these are generally the culprits . These might be three hard days, but you will find that at the end of them, you will be a lot clearer and ready to really get started again.
 
So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and just do it. 

Another  good way to get started is to read my blog for the week (and the others if  you haven't  had a chance yet).  It's on a subject that might initially make you uncomfortable, but one that you cannot ignore.     Go to www.justloseit.com/blog to read this weeks lesson:

 

Suppose you and your husband/boyfriend go to your favorite restaurant and you both order the same meal?  Now, the meal is over, and you have both eaten the same amount of food. Assuming he feels satisfied, how do you feel?  Are you satisfied, too? I certainly hope so because you just ate enough food for a person just about twice your size! Compare his body with yours.  How much bigger is he? How much taller? How much more muscle mass has he? The odds are that he is significantly bigger, taller and more muscular!

In the same way, it would be absurd to offer an adult portion of food to a child. Would we do that with our child?  Of course not! That would be too much food! Sure, the child might eat it, but eventually she would become overweight from eating for a much larger person.  So, let's admit it.  We are women, and we are smaller. We should never eat the same amount of food as the men in our lives!

 

                                                          Eat for your size!

Since it is obvious to everyone that children should eat less than adults, restaurants serve children's portions.  Well, I believe it is obvious that women should eat less than men, and I think restaurants should offer three meal sizes: child sized, woman sized, and man sized. So, ladies, until the restaurant industry has the bright idea to reduce portion sizes to suit us, just eat half of that meal and take the rest home.  I assure you that half a portion is more than enough food.
 

Did you know?
 

Did you know that cattle farmers inject cows with growth hormones? It's true.  It's called Bovine Growth Hormone, or  BGH. Why do they do it? Well, simply so that there can be a lot more cow to sell.  More meat.  Really? So, growth hormones make a cow grow more flesh? Well, not at all.  The cows are injected with growth hormone to make them grow fatter. 

 

You can't make the cow meatier, but you can make it fatter. "Well," you might now be thinking, "we can always trim off the fat before cooking, right?"    Unfortunately, it's not that easy because fat doesn't just sit on top of the flesh. It's marbled through and through the flesh. Basically, it hides itself throughout the cow's body.  Don't believe me? Try this experiment: take a package of organic ground beef and a package of regular, even lean ground beef, put them in separate pans and start frying.  The beef with the growth hormones in it will have a lot of run-off saturated fats, but.....the other one, the pan with the organic beef, will have little, if any, run-off fat. Which would be a better food choice?

Here is another thing: did you know that when you eat the meat from the injected cow, you ingest the same level and strength of that bovine growth hormone?  It isn't diluted in the process of butchering or cooking. What does that mean for us? Well, as I said, it makes things fatter. It makes the cows fatter and it makes us fatter.  It stimulates growth.  What other growth might it stimulate?  I don't want to think about that.

 

So, if you are still eating meat, please think about switching to organic. It is readily available and a far healthier choice.  And remember, "all natural" is not organic.