Your success in losing weight, dieting, and eating right comes down to your perspective of food. Do you eat for comfort, out of necessity, or to fuel the body?

Comfort Food

Food is a great way to suppress emotions - eating gives a sense of being in control. The reality of emotional eating is that your intake is just the opposite: totally out of control. Step back and ask yourself before you bite into that cookie, “Why am I eating this?” Chances are, it’s for security.

Necessary Food

Food can be consumed out of necessity. You need it to live, right? Well, sometimes we eat because that’s what our bodies require us to do. When we wait too long to eat, or don’t plan our meals properly, if we’re hungry enough, we consume whatever might be in front of us, even when it’s stuff we know is not good for us.

Fuel Food

If you had the attitude that food is used as fuel, how would you eat? Would you be more inclined to make better choices? Would you say “no” to foods that were just a waste of energy?

The attitude or perspective you have toward food is very important! Self-worth, security and comfort levels are not derived from food; those beliefs come from your heart (emotions). Fix your heart and you can fix your attitudes toward food!

For more advice on eating for weight loss, click here now!

Emotional management

So what’s the solution to your poor eating habits? Emotional management! What is “emotional management?” Here is my take on it:

Each day, you have only so much energy, both physically and emotionally. Life will throw things at you from hundreds of directions in unexpected ways and at unwanted times.

If you don’t take care of yourself physically and protect yourself emotionally, your energy will be drained long before your day is over. You have to be mindful of your daily demands and put a lot of thought into how to spend most of your emotional capital.

When your energy cup is being constantly drained by the demands of life and other people, you probably won’t make good choices. This is especially true with food. I believe the biggest reason that people are overweight is the mismanagement of their emotions.

The way to address this is to slow the mind down somehow, some way. Your success in life may be determined not by how much you can physically accomplish, but by how you work to quiet your mind in order to make better decisions.

Busy minds

Busy minds can induce stress. High stress levels encourage eating foods that are tasty, but incredibly unhealthy.

Busy minds can produce lazy thinkers. Lazy thinkers are people who choose to go out of their way to get something to eat for taste instead of taking the time to think of what foods would be tasty and healthy. You make better choices when faced with fewer pressures in life. However, if your mind is always on overload, poor choices abound out of desperation, frustration and lack of preparation.

Quiet times

What is quiet time? In today’s world, you may find a only a minute or two to take a breath and relax a little.  Does that really help, though?

When is the last time you turned off the radio in your car on the way to work? When is the last time you turned off your cell phone in the middle of the day? When is the last time you had a cup of coffee from your very own coffee machine?

Quiet time means quiet time! If you gave yourself as little as 15 minutes a day for peace and quiet, a lot of your eating behaviors and food choice problems would be much easier to handle. They might even disappear. Try it!

Understand that I’m not talking about just being by yourself; I’m talking about allowing your mind to rest. Let it take a vacation for 10 minutes. Daydream about something. Read a book. Think of things other than tasks that have to be finished. Resting your mind can recharge your batteries, giving you the energy to make better decisions.

Want to learn more? Check out the Five P’s of Eating and Losing Weight today!

The number one reason people say they don’t exercise is lack of time. Not long ago, a twenty-year study was completed centering on the theory that, “There isn’t as much time in the day as there used to be.” The study concluded that just the opposite was true. It showed that with all the technology today, we have 1.5 more hours in a day than we did twenty years ago. In other words, with all the gadgets out there to help us communicate and manage our time, we should have an hour and a half more time for ourselves. What is the solution? With a little prioritizing and some time management, we can find the time to exercise!

TIMEFRAMES

As you get closer to reaching your goal, start thinking in the back of your mind of the next goal. You need to establish your next focus point to keep you on track. However, make sure you are convinced that you will reach the present goal in the established time period.

Setting timeframes for your daily workouts is a great motivator. It keeps you focused, you feel more productive, and, in the end, your workouts don’t feel like a big effort.

One of the smartest things I’ve ever decided to do in my career was to put a time limit on how long my workouts should be. Your workouts can feel like a chore if they take a lot of time.

Knowing that I had to finish within a certain time period encourages me to focus on what I need to do. This also creates more intensity or effort in my workouts and I achieve better results. Time limits also help in reducing the chance that your workouts will get boring. I look forward to the next workout, knowing how little time it will take.

CONSISTENCY + VARIETY+ EFFICIENCY= RESULTS, all the time!

We all have different methods of motivating ourselves. Most of us set goals to us give a sense of urgency. When setting goals, two mistakes should be avoided.

REALISTIC GOALS VS. LIFESTYLES

In some circumstances, the demands of life don’t permit the accomplishment of lofty goals. In most cases, time management solves this problem. However, you need to be realistic. Expectations can be set too high and when responsibilities don’t allow you to get there, frustration can be paralyzing. This doesn’t give you a reason to forget setting high goals; you just don’t want to set yourself up for failure.

YEARLY GOALS

One or two main goals a year are as much as one brain and body can handle. If you try to accomplish too many goals at once ,you can become scattered in your focus. You always want to focus on the big picture.

SEASONAL GOALS

Setting three-month incremental goals that line up with the yearly goals sustains motivation throughout the year. People get discouraged and sometimes injuries happen if they continue on the same workout plan over a three-month period.

KEEP THE BALL ROLLING

Of course, many times, people will lose momentum after reaching a certain goal. There may be a let-down in emotions, physical fatigue, or you just want to change things up. The object is to keep the ball rolling.

Suggestions:

In a nutshell:

There is no magic potion, just hard, consistent work. Try to make your programs fun and effective in the shortest possible time you can. Give yourself a little flexibility in your goals and reward yourself for your accomplishments. Keep the big picture in mind. Set yearly goals with incremental ones in between. As you get closer in reaching a goal, establish the next one without losing momentum.

If you want to learn more about how to exercise more efficiently, click here now!

There are some foods that I suggest you watch out for in today’s marketplace. This list doesn’t include all of them, by no means, but these foods do rank high on the list of those to avoid.

Soda Pop/Soft Drinks

Diet or otherwise, it matters not. Soda pop is a Venus flytrap. High complex carbohydrates and fatty foods stick to soda pop like glue. The ability for pop to aid in sugar conversion is very detrimental to you losing weight. If you want to lose a few pounds, lose a few ounces of soda pop. You will be amazed at what will happen.

Preservatives (for a longer shelf life)

The food industry is more interested in the shelf life of the food than if it’s healthy for you. The more natural, the better, I say. If at all possible, lower the amount of foods that have additives or preservatives in your eating plan.

White vs. Wheat

Just as popular as soda are the white flour cravings. White rice, bread, potatoes, or pasta have an easier time converting into sugar in your body and can get you in the end. Try to eliminate or cut down on these types of food as much as possible. Mix them with a glass of wine or sugary soda, and you have a deadly combination.

Non-fat foods

Be careful with non-fat foods. They tend to be full of empty non-nutritious calories. There is nothing wrong with having them, just don’t eat them in large quantities. Remember, less is not always better. They may be filling, but they are not very healthy. And the calories do add up!

Night-time eating

Heavy carbohydrate meals at night put on extra pounds. Watch the high complex carbohydrate foods in the evening hours. Most people don’t need high energy foods at night, anyway. The more food groups on your plate, the more efficiently the foods will work together to burn fat calories.

Less is more – NOT!

Falling into the trap of eating less in order to avoid gaining weight is a big mistake. It may sound right, but it usually backfires. The body goes into a protection mode and even slows your metabolism down. The effects of this can be just as bad as eating too much.

Do not mistake fullness for fatness!

All or nothing

Eventually you will crash! Yes, if you decide that one day you aren’t going to have ice cream again, you will surely fail. Having an “all or nothing” attitude will drive you nuts. You will think about that type of food until you have it. Some bad food once in a while is OK – just discipline yourself to eat small portions when you do have it. Understand perfectionism can be a disease of the mind.

In a nutshell:

Diabetes is at an all-time high. Often, when you wait too long between meals, blood sugar levels drop. This is when you may crave foods you normally don’t eat.

Control your blood sugar levels daily by watching the types, amounts, and times that you eat.  Eating right has a lot to do with how you look at food, how much you eat, and what you eat. Determine whether you have eating patterns. The patterns may be related to lifestyle, emotions, physical concerns, or all the above. Pre-planning meals stops a lot of the poor decision making. Learn to push yourself away from the table.

Want to learn more about better eating habits for weight loss and good health? Click here now!

Gastric bypass surgeries are temporary physical fixes to a long term mental/emotional problem! If you think the surgery is a cure-all, think again. The crazy thing is some people are gaining more weight on purpose so they can qualify to even be considered for the surgery. How sick is that?

My aunt had gastric bypass surgery last year. She was so excited about the new body she was going to have after the surgery. She just couldn’t wait for her new life to begin. This was an answer to her prayers. So she thought!

Up until then, my aunt had not exercised a day in her life. She never followed a sensible eating plan, nor did she want to. By the looks of them, none of my family had ever sacrificed anything in the way of food. The doctors had filled her head with “results” that were only possible, not even probable. Her children were totally delusional about their mom’s weight and had danced around the issue so much that my aunt was in total denial. And guess what? True to form, she gained the weight back in eight months. Why?

The answer: you can’t build a house on a foundation made of sand. If you don’t deal with what is underneath the surface of your emotional behavior toward eating and exercise, you will go right back to the beginning, no matter what you take out or do to your body. Surgery or no surgery, there is no cure-all for being overweight. However, there is a solution — do you want to hear it? Here it is:

1. Decide how you are motivated.
2. Determine your underlying reasons for your eating and exercise behaviors or lack thereof.
3. Develop the best support system to promote your own personal success.
4. Deal with the emotions behind your eating patterns.
5. Dedicate yourself to an exercise program.

Maybe the surgery works in the short run. And maybe that will buy you some time and give you some inspiration to start exercising and eating better. However, surgery is not a means to an end! It doesn’t change your head; it only changes your stomach. If you do decide to have the surgery, please understand that without deep changes in your thought process and exercise habits, the gastric bypass surgery “results” will not stick.

Click here to learn more about the proper diet and exercise advice to lose weight and keep it off.

Studies show that most Americans are fifteen percent fatter today than they were in the early 1990’s. Wouldn’t you think with all the non-fat foods on the store shelves that maybe we would be losing weight verses gaining it? There are two reasons for this: one is physiological and the other is psychological.

The Physiological Contradiction of Empty Calories: I like to use the phrase “empty calories” when it comes to foods engineered to be non-fat. In most cases, in order to label a food “non-fat,” most of the fats in it must be taken out. (of course!) However, the body uses fats as a mechanism to burn more fat. In other words, fat is used as fuel in the body. If certain types of fats are removed from the food, the body loses its efficiency to burn fat overall, slowing down the metabolism. While on the surface, you think that you are doing yourself a favor by eating non-fat foods. However, when a big portion of your daily diet consists of non-fat foods, your body retains more calories instead of burning them away.

Tip: While lowering the amount of fat in your diet is essential, don’t substitute with engineered non-fat foods. Choose fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and healthier fats, like olive or canola oil.

The Psychological Trap: The More Non-Fat Foods, the Better, Right? “Well, these cookies have zero fat in them, so that means I can eat twice as many and not gain weight?” Have you every played that head game with yourself? Most of us have. We justify that if a food has less fat or no fat then we can eat more of it. NOT TRUE – IT STILL HAS CALORIES! Don’t forget the basic principle to keeping your weight down: less calories = a lower weight!

Tip: Just because it says “NO FAT” does not give you permission to eat twice as much. Empty calories can be harder to burn off than good fat calories.

The key to weight loss is balancing good fats with your total daily food intake. And don’t forget to exercise!

In the case of food or exercise, having an unhealthy attitude toward eating certain foods or working out harder can have a more devastating effect on your long-term ability to lose weight than many other factors. Work on your unwanted behaviors first and maybe you won’t look at non-fat foods like they are manna from Heaven.

Want to learn more? Check out The Five P’s to Weight Loss now!

Your success in losing weight comes down to your attitude – if you think you can, you will and if you think you can’t… well, you get what you think.

In most cases, people are overweight due to a conscious or unconscious victim mentality. Usually, and I say usually, people who are opportunistic by nature are not as overweight as those with a victim or entitlement mentality. Which one are you - a victim of your own system or someone who is looking for an opportunity to do something about it? Half-full or half-empty?

If you feel you are entitled to anything, you might as well not even try. You aren’t entitled to good health or anything else in life. Everything is a privilege - even being healthy.

Victim Mentality and Weight Gain

Do you:

• Dwell on what you don’t have?
• Spend most of energy in the past and what you use to look like?
• Make excuses not to exercise?
• Compare your life to others?

Maybe it comes done to gratitude more than anything. Can you be grateful without being complacent? Sure, you can!

If you spend most of your energy on thinking of the past or what you don’t have, you can’t devote any time and energy to the present or future. Psychologists will tell you that your brain doesn’t know the difference between right or wrong, yes or no. It only knows what you tell it and what you believe to be true. If you have convinced yourself that you will not lose weight, well, then, good luck. You’ll only be competing against yourself in the weight-loss game.

Opportunist

I use to dislike people who took advantage of the opportunities in their lives. Really, it was more envy than dislike. Nevertheless, I wasn’t like them, but I wanted to be. People with this type of attitude don’t wait for others to beat them to the punch - they jump on the chance to better themselves from any situation. They really believe they can win! It may be a lot harder to do, but being an opportunist sure is more gratifying.

I’m not trying to sound like a motivational speaker, but there is power in your words and attitude. The biggest hurdle you may have in losing weight is believing that you can. If you have a victim or entitlement mentality, quit complaining - you’re getting what you wish for. Learn to wish good things into your life and then you will wish the weight away.

Do you lack an inner motivation for change? Click here to learn how you can motivate yourself to weight-loss and better health!

Growing older without exercise is like living in a house built on sand – it’s a very unstable future. But it’s not what we can see on the outside about exercise and aging that may be the most important ingredient of all. What’s that target outcome? Confidence!

As you age, exercise gives you hope in a shrinking world. It gives you balance in an unstable environment. It brings you peace during an unforeseen stumble or fall. It instills a sense of confidence that you will have better health and less chance of injury.

Exercise gives us all that, but what I mostly hear is that it’s too hard, too late, too time-consuming. However, if you don’t try it, will be too costly - on you and your family in the long run.

If you consider yourself to be a baby boomer or a senior, here are a few things you may have thought of that would keep you from exercising:

1. Man, I resent getting older. Resentment is a waste of good energy.
2. I don’t ask for directions, why would I ask for help with exercising?  Ego allows us to miss out on many good things in life.
3. I would start but, it’s really too late. Our golden years are supposed to be our best years.
4. Exercising will take up too much time and I don’t have much left What if you could have more?
5. There’s no one to exercise with. Is it the responsibility for your health on your shoulders or someone else’s? Hmmm…

Here are five good reasons to get more exercise as we age:

1. Getting exercise may just prevent you from going into a nursing home someday.  At the very least, it can save you a few years of $40,000 per year in expense.
2. This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: exercise will give you a better quality of life.
3. Exercise can give you the ability to be active with your kids and grandkids.
4. Exercise can decrease your chances of breaking a bone by fifty percent or more.
5. Exercise can decrease the chances of developing diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s disease.

What price would you pay for one of these five reasons to exercise?

We are visual creatures - we don’t tend to believe things unless we can see or touch them.

As a trainer, my job is to get people healthier, whether they like the process or not. Don’t hire me if you don’t want to accept doing the work required. Over the years, I have used almost every motivational technique there is and what I have found is that visual symbolism works. My two favorite props with people are an artificial fishing bait and a pacifier.

Let’s face it - losing weight has a lot to do with psychology, so that’s most of my job. Whatever technique works and gets the point across, so be it.

The Fishing Lure

The Message: Are you going to take the bait of negative or living-in-the-past thinking?

I like to fish for bass and when the fish eat the bait, it’s because they are hungry or mad. They can’t tell you about it, but I have to think those stinkin’ hooks hurt a lot. Losing weight is a lot about overcoming negative thoughts and the focus on being hungry. It’s important to be aware of our negative thoughts in dealing with the  present and past so that we don’t eat the things we shouldn’t. Purchase a fishing lure and look at it the next time someone ticks you off, or when you are tempted to eat foods that are not good for you. Avoid that hook of negativity!

The Pacifier

The Message: Are you a victim, whiner, and/or excuse-maker, or are you a person who rolls with the punches?

It’s a lot easier to be a whiner and find fault in why you’re not losing enough weight or to make excuses not to exercise, so I would suggest you just grab a pacifier and move forward. It doesn’t help to make up stupid reasons not to be healthy; it just really doesn’t. It’s draining and very counterproductive. The next time you find yourself whining, steal the pacifier from your child, shut down the negative talk, and get moving.

The truth is that we all are going to have our good and bad days. We all need motivation. Journals are great, but having a symbol for reference is a very powerful tool. Use pictures of your past, or objects that get your focus back on what your goals are and what matters most.

Click here for more motivational techniques for health and weight-loss success.

Cooked these up this past weekend - DELICIOUS!

Greg’s Favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

canola cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180 °C), Gas Mark 4. Lightly coat a large cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. Onto a piece of waxed paper, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the margarine and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating after each addition.
4. By hand, stir in rolled oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks to cool.

Click here for more nutrition advice from Greg Ryan.