Don't Put Me On A Pedestal! (and book reviews)

Everything has been going along fine here. The weather has been much warmer than normal and combined with recent rains, everything is blooming and greening up outside!
I've been increasing my 'role' as co-leader of the weight loss support group at the local senior center. By the way, our "senior center" is not where old folks go to sit and vegetate. It is almost like a country club! There is a fantastic gym, a heated pool, a cooler lap pool, and classes for everything from exercise, to crafting, to dance, to driver improvement and more. There are day trips and overnight trips to all kinds of interesting places too. It is also VERY affordable!

Anyway, I help out as I can with the weight loss support group. I like helping folks but worry about being put up on a pedestal. I am not perfect!
I still struggle with eating right. I struggle with cigarettes off and on. I sometimes don't feel like exercising. I really have all the same issues that anyone can come up against when losing weight.
Looking at the others in our classes and seeing them looking back at me, is daunting. They ask questions that I hope I answer correctly. I can only answer them though, from MY point of view. I hope they also hear me say that.

One point I try to get across is to not believe everything you read or see on TV. There is a ton of money to be made by people touting their spin on the latest and greatest weight loss methods or ideas. Information is backed by "scientific" data, they'll say. The thing is, you can almost find a study to back what you are touting! I try to get across the thought that you need to be a skeptic about such things. I don't know if I am getting through to them yet though.

Speaking of being a skeptic, I've browsed several books lately. Most of their ideas will work for weight loss. Some will work for a long time, many will work for a short time. The thing is, you cannot lose weight and keep it off unless YOU change your lifestyle. If you "get on a program" that insinuates that you will one day get off the program. Then the weight comes back on and you get back on that same program again, or try the newest one out there. This is classical yo-yo dieting.

The first book I recently took a look at was The Primal Blueprint. There has been a lot of things that recently point to eating more like our ancestors did. The Paleo Diet is another one of them.
There are some good points in these books. I would have to agree that all the processed foods we have access to are not doing us a lot of good out there. I do believe that the closer we get to eating food that we could pick ourselves, or shoot ourselves, or pull out of the ground ourselves, the better.

I feel that The Primal Blueprint is saying that. I don't agree with all that is said in the book though. I read that our ancestors did not eat grains or most legumes, for example. I don't buy that. This is just my personal opinion though. Would you lose weight if you followed this book's plan? Probably. Is it realistic for most of us? Probably not. Still though, it makes for an interesting read, although it was a bit dry for my taste.

The next book I have been looking at is Deep Nutrition. There is a LOT more information than I have the patience to read. This one too, has some good ideas. One of its biggest no-nos is sugar. They say that we should cut out all sugars that are not naturally found in foods such as fruits. We should not add plant based sugars to our foods either. I wonder though, did our ancestors not use honey? Isn't that a sugar?
There was so much information in this book, that I lost interest in it too. I don't know if I buy their thoughts that our genes, our DNA, is affected by the food we eat. I probably misunderstood their thought that you can change your DNA, and that of your offspring, by changing the foods you eat. I thought that the DNA you have is the DNA you live with all your life?

I still stand by the Fat 2 Fit guys train of thought. They say to "Eat like the thinner person you want to be." This is just plain common sense! Russ and Jeff are the guys who do the podcast. Every time I hear of some new diet or plan or method, it can't stand up like the guys' method of eating as if you already weighed what you want to weigh. It is all so easy!

Look, it really boils down to this: Eat as healthy as you can; educate yourself on what foods are good for you and bad for you; learn what a true portion is of something; commit to some type of exercise regimen; and the weight will come off. Do not buy into everything you read, without investigating it. Do not go buy what the TV tells you to buy, until you have checked it out more.

A quick aside here...the other day I was in Whole Foods and was looking for something that I had heard about on a recent TV show. They had had a run on that product because a TV doctor said it would help folks lose weight. In the conversation I had with the person, they said every time there was the newest latest greatest product mentioned on certain shows, they would surely run out of it within a few days.

We are all looking for that magic pill. It does not exist.

TIPS AND TRICKS:

1. If you need to slow down your eating, try using your left hand if you are right-handed or your right hand if you are left-handed.
2. If you reach a plateau, don't think of it as a plateau, think of it as your metabolism doing a readjustment or recalibration. Your brain and body need time to figure out if what you are doing is going to hurt. This switch can take time to be reset. Isn't the body an amazing thing?!

RECIPE:

I have been playing around with yogurt based foods. I make a mean yogurt cheese now, that is sooooooooooo good. Yogurt cheese is when you remove some of the whey. It can get to the consistency of cream cheese and as a spread on banana bread, it is mmm-mmm good! It is easy to make. I personally use Greek yogurt. I put a coffee filter into a wire basket strainer and put the yogurt in that. I set it over a bowl or large glass mixing cup. I put wax paper on top to keep the yogurt from drying out and put the whole thing in the fridge for a few days. The whey drips through and can be saved and used to cook with. I have saved my whey by freezing it until I learn how to cook with it.

Oh! I DID say I had a recipe, didn't I? Here it is:

*6oz cup of Greek Yogurt plain (I use fat free Fage)
*3 tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed seems better to me)
*1/4 tsp seasoning of your choice (I have used black pepper, seasoned salt, and onion powder but really like finely ground California seasoning best)
*2 chopped green onions, both the white and green parts

Mix together and refrigerate at least six hours, but overnight is better.
This makes a great vegetable dip or a decadent salad dressing! Play around with the spices to suit your personal tastes. Even add a pinch of sugar if you want. The calories are just a modicum more than whatever the yogurt's calories are.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Be not afraid of growing slowly;
be afraid only of standing still.
Chinese Proverb