Does motherhood really cause weight gain? 
Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 03:44 PM - Tips
Chocolate chip waffles and sugary yogurt smoothie for breakfast. Chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch. Veggie chips and juice for snack. Mac and cheese and ice cream sandwiches for dinner. Sounds like a sure way to risk childhood obesity and future health problems. But this may not be just your kid's menu. If you're a mother taking care of the kids, this may sound like your daily diet as well (along with the "adult" food you're already eating). All of these extra calories are eaten because somehow it looks delicious, you don't want the leftovers to go to waste, you're looking for a pick-me-up because you're exhausted, or you're frustrated from being held captive in your car all day going from one activity to the next.

What is one to do? How about out of sight, out of mind? In other words, get your kids to eat the healthy (and serotonin-boosting) foods you want to eat. Not only will you feel less like overeating, but the temptation to overeat will be gone.

I like these tips for healthy eating with your kids from Mom's Life, especially the one about introducing new foods to kids in small amounts at a time and frequently. Kids all over the world acquire a taste for their national dishes (and so far there's no I-only-eat-white-food gene). It may take time, even years, but do persist in your efforts.

Try these foods at home that you can share with your kids: Breakfast egg burritos with a protein powder/plain yogurt/fruit smoothie, low fat chicken salad on celery sticks with a sprinkling of nuts on top for lunch, whole wheat pretzels for snack (add cheese sticks and fruit or veggies for the kids), and chinese stir fry (with chicken for the kids) with rice for dinner. Carry pouches of tuna fish, hard boiled eggs, sliced turkey, cut-up veggies, and whole grain crackers wherever you go taking along a mini cooler lunch bag if you need to. That way at home and on the go you'll all have food on hand. You'll all feel better.

The answer is a definitive no: motherhood does not have to lead to weight gain.
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Too much to do, too much to eat 
Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 02:09 PM - Emotional overeating
"I used to come home after a particularly rough day at work and eat tablespoons of mayonnaise from the jar to calm down," reported one of our clients I'll call Jane. "Sometimes I ate large bags of chips with dip, other days it was an entire large pizza, and, when I had a sweet tooth, I had ice cream with chocolate and butterscotch sauce."

Our client is not the only whose jobs are paying them not only in dollars but in pounds as well. And it's not just in the US. A study from Finland showed that overworked, overstressed employees were more likely to put on weight.

Stress from too much work, or simply too much to do, can lead to overeating. Food is a distraction, and, it can be calming and soothing. We don't hear our clients talk about how they binged on grilled chicken and steamed broccoli, though, for these foods do not cause a surge in serotonin like sweet or starchy carbs do. But bingers beware: too much fat and you can turn into a zombie and the serotonin "burst" is more like a gentle wave. "After my evening eating, all I could do was lie on the couch. I was comatose!" continued Jane. Not mention heavier than she'd ever been.

To better cope with her stress, Jane ate a handful of pretzels, half a bagel, one or two 100-calorie pack snacks, or a package of granola bars just before leaving the office. She no longer needed to eat her way to oblivion in the evenings.

And she lost weight.


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PMS and chocolate 
Monday, March 26, 2007, 03:59 PM - PMS
At a recent dinner party, one of the guests was shocked to learn that we have heard women tell us that they would rather have chocolate than sex, particularly when they have PMS. "You're kidding, right?" he asked. Sadly, no. Chocolate is sought out by women in PMS be it ice cream, bars, candies, cakes, brownies, frosting, cookies, Valentine's candy or whatever holiday it happens to be...you get it. The list goes on.

And while dark chocolate has been in the spotlight for it's healthy anti-oxidant benefits and the arrival the new eco-friendly bars, hot chocolate mixes, ice creams and other desserts containing organic ingredients from the rain forests of Central American, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Chocolate may have it's own mood-enhancing properties, and the fat in most chocolate could be soothing to anyone, but it's the sugar in chocolate that boosts brain serotonin that calms the dramatic mood swings and irritability of PMS and controls the increased appetite that so often increases at this time of the month. It appears that the symptoms are a result of hormonal fluctuations that affect serotonin and it's effect on appetite and mood.

We're not going to tell you you can't enjoy a bite or two of gourmet or full-fat chocolate once in a while. (Try telling that to someone at their PMS worst). And we're not recommending a fat-free diet. What we are trying to tell you is that you can have your cake and eat it too, as long as it's fat free chocolate cake. You won't damage your diet in the process.

We tell our clients who must have chocolate to look for the following:

Chocolate sorbet
No Pudge! Fudge Brownie Mix
Homemade hot chocolate made with fat free milk and dark cocoa (alkali-processed tastes best)
Tootsie rolls
Skinny Cow, Healthy Choice, and other supermarket fat free/low fat frozen desserts
Fat free chocolate breakfast cereals
Popcorn drizzled with fat free chocolate syrup (look for those without high fructose corn syrup)

You can also surf the web for lots of fat free chocolate recipes.

We offer these suggestions for those who cannot live without chocolate and who would otherwise abort their dieting efforts were they required to forgo these treats once in a while.



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Snack or Binge? 
Friday, March 23, 2007, 02:42 AM - Emotional overeating
Many years ago a Boston prize winning marathon runner was asked what he ate each day. In addition to his three large meals, he ate Twinkies, Hostess cupcakes, potato chips, icecream, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and French fries. Every day. The interviewer estimated that he must consume about 9000 calories in snacks alone. That may have been an exaggeration but the runner explained that because he was training most of the day, every day, he had to eat an enormous number of calories to prevent himself from losing weight.

Sigh. Wouldn’t we all like to be in his position except that we would probably have to give up our day jobs to join him. What is so interesting about his description of his daily snack intake is that it sounds so much like a list of binge foods. We have had clients who claim to binge yet could not consume as much food as the marathoner.

There are clinical definitions of a binge and indeed there has been a lot of newspaper coverage of binge eating disorder lately as the latest addition to the list of eating disorders. But for the most of us, a binge is not a psychiatric disorder. Rather, it is a time when we allow ourselves to go a little out of control. We may eat 4 or 5 cookies rather than the one we intended to eat. Or polish off the bag of potato chips when we planned on eating only a handful. The leftover brownies, the almost full quart of ice cream, the half of an apple pie, the broken cookies from a baking session disappear into our mouths without us really intending to eat as much as we do.

Binges happen. Sometimes our emotions just make us lose control and eat more than we intended to and eat the wrong foods. So if it happens, accept it, go back on the diet and when you are feeling calm, see if you can figure out what might have been the trigger. And in the meanwhile, keep eating carbs as we recommend on the Serotonin Power Diet.

Because if you keep eating your carbs every day, there is a good chance the binges will stay away.

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Whom do you want to look like? 
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 04:43 PM - Tips
I (Judy) live part time in a place where the young and the old co-mingle which makes for a strange and varied assortment of body sizes, dress and lifestyle. This morning as I was going through my workout in the health club, I noticed that everyone around me seemed to be in perfect shape. Their bodies were toned, they were neither too fat nor too thin and despite the early hour, looked vigorous and energetic. And for the most part they were in their twenties, thirties and forties. Several hours later, I was giving a talk in front of a group of mostly women who met monthly in a local community center. Their age ranged from the late sixties to the eighties. With one exception, the 25 of so people were at least 40 pounds overweight, had trouble sitting and standing, and indicated when asked that they rarely if ever exercised. Interestingly, though, when I was talking about a local restaurant whose portions were gigantic and therefore a threat to those on diets, several people wanted the name of the place so they could try it out themselves.

On my way home, I realized that when I was in the gym I felt fat and when I was giving my talk, I felt positively thin. And I wondered how much our motivation to lose weight and to exercise might be influenced by the size and fitness of those with whom we spend most of our time. If I feel lazy during my workout and think of quitting early, all I have to do is look at the sweating vigorous people around me and feel shamed into continuing my own exercise. On the other hand, I imagine if I lived or worked with people who were not terribly concerned with what they ate, or weighed, or keeping fit, I might adopt their lifestyle and become less disciplined in my food choices and exercise regimen.

I think this is why it is so hard to lose weight if people with whom you work or those at home don’t understand the importance of your lifestyle changes. In fact, one of the benefits of going to weight loss support groups is that for a few hours each week, others understand what you are going through and applaud your accomplishments. Having a "buddy" go through a weight loss program with you is an enormous help. If there is no one nearby, find a friend or relative who will do it with you long distance. Use e mail and a cell phone or digital camera to track your progress, discuss your problems and rejoice over your success. And be sure to follow our 12 week road map to weight loss because although we can’t be there with you personally, we have been there and understand what you are going through.

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