Refuse To Regain

Wanted: Outlaw Foods

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

I recently asked my Lynn’s Weigh readers on Facebook this question: When you make a day trip, do you figure you’ll find food along the way or do you pack your own?

Most responded that they do. One person said she doesn’t want any food to be “bad” food and so eats what’s available in smaller portions.

I wanted to pose the same question to maintainers and to ask how have your food choices changed, if at all, since you started losing weight?

My food choices continue to evolve. Five years ago when I joined Weight Watchers, there were only a few outlaw foods on my list (i.e. baked Doritos and Teddy Grahams), namely because if I had one bite, I’d want 50 more.

Moving along in my weight journey, more foods were added to my outlaw list, and not always because I feared lack of self control. Some foods I lost a taste for and some were outlawed because they weren’t very healthy. I started paying close attention to what was in certain foods and slowly moved down the path of “real” food – those with only few ingredients.

I also began eating out less frequently, mostly because I live in a very small town and find that most local restaurant fare is either salted, sauced or boiled to death. Sometimes all three. There are a few restaurants I can count on for real greens in their salads, but I’ve yet to find a place that offers any vegetarian fare that doesn’t involve pasta or copious amounts of cheese.

Usually when I travel by car, I don’t count on there being a sufficient choice of non-outlaw foods along the way, so I pack a cooler of salad fixings, fresh fruit and other Lynn Approved foods.

Another part to this metamorphosis is that the older I get, the more sensitive I am to certain foods. I love Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower, but they aren’t as easy to digest as they used to be. I don’t have the abs of a 20-year-old and apparently I don’t have the gut of one, either! They aren’t on my outlaw food list, but I’ve added Culturelle to my diet to help out.

What I love about this topic of how, in maintenance, we choose to eat is that our answers really shine a light on how individual we are in what works for us. While I completely respect my reader’s view that for her no food is “bad” food, I’d be willing to bet that if I asked the same question a year from now that at least a few of you might have different answers than the ones you give today.

So write to us! Tell us if you have outlaw foods and if you pack or trust there will be something you’re willing to eat when you travel. Leave us a comment or send us an email at refusetoregain@gmail.com.

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“Lost”….and What Else We Might Lose

By Barbara Berkeley

My daughter and her friends have been posting excited messages on Facebook for weeks. “Lost”, ABC’s blockbuster mystery-on-an-island, is back for its final season! This is an occasion for special t-shirts, viewing parties and intense discussion. For fans of faux-terror, “24” is also back. “American Idol” has returned fueling speculation about its life without Paula and about who will replace Simon. Television takes up time. A lot of time. The SuperBowl is coming up. There’s a war going on for late night supremacy. And if you live in Cleveland, as I do, there are weekly hours of obligate viewing as LeBron, Shaq, and the Cavaliers continue their domination of the NBA.

Believe it or not, I am actually able to remember a time when television DID NOT EXIST! My father had a friend who owned a local furniture and appliance store and as a result was able to get one of the first TVs on the block. Most of the time there was a test pattern on the screen when you turned it on. Later, there was Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Ding Dong School. Not much else. As time passed, the broadcast schedule grew and television watching became a family activity. This seemed to culminate in my preteen years when the whole family gathered to watch shows like Man from Uncle, The Defenders and Dr. Kildare. But television was still not primary in our lives. School activities, playing out in the street in front of our house and congregating on the stoop took up a lot more time and were a lot more fun.

When I first moved to Cleveland over 20 years ago, I remember being invited on a house tour that included some of the fanciest homes in the neighborhood. I remember being shocked by one house in particular which had TVs in just about every room and not a single book. Now, my own house has multiple TVs in many of the rooms and that includes one of those big flat screen babies…the better to watch every detail of every Cavs game.

So the question is: is all this TV good for us? In January, a study from Australia announced some sobering findings. Researchers studied 8,800 adults for a median time of 6½ years while looking at things like exercise, smoking, weight and television viewing time. Amazingly, each daily hour of television was associated with an 18% increase in death from heart disease and an 11% increase in death from all causes. This translated to a whopping difference between those who watched less than two hours of TV per day and those who watched over four. In fact, the big time viewers were 80% more likely to die of heart disease and 46% more likely to die of anything than those who showed viewing restraint! (By the way, a person’s weight was not a factor in this study.) The study authors postulated that this significant risk came from sitting still for prolonged periods. That interpretation is certainly possible, but is it necessarily true?

When we read the results of studies as reported in the news, it’s tempting to accept them at face value. But it is important to understand that epidemiologic studies like this one can prove association only…not causation. In other words, we can see that TV viewing and shortened life exist together, but not that one caused the other. Nevertheless, we must be intrigued by the relationship. It would have been interesting to look at those people who watched TV while on a treadmill or at those who frequently jumped around while watching (like certain basketball fans!). This might shed some light on whether it’s the sedentary behavior that causes the problem or something inherently unhealthy about living life vicariously through little images on a screen. Do Ph.D. candidates who spend hours in the library live shorter lives? Are some sedentary activities – say, writing poetry or meditating for extended periods – more conducive to health than others? We simply don’t know.

In the meantime, I doubt that this study will stop anyone from turning on the tube. For those of us of a certain age, though, its results remind us poignantly that there once was a world where playing on the street and sitting on the stoop seemed far preferable to parking yourself in front of an electronic gadget.

Shields Up! The Hunger Advantage

By Barbara Berkeley

What if you could cloak yourself in a defensive shield that warded off disease and extended your life? Would you do it? Would you take a pill that could do it for you? Many of us are already trying to, by swallowing tablets of antioxidants and resveratrol, swigging acai and pomegranate juice and downing loads of vitamins of uncertain benefit. But a growing body of research suggests that the solution may be as seamless and elegant as nature itself. It’s possible that we can activate just such a defensive shield this very moment...simply by eating less.

As readers of this site know, I am especially interested in the role of food choice in life extension. I am also deeply convinced that the hormone insulin is the central “superhormone” which mediates fat storage, obesity, inflammation and longevity. Whenever you read any research about overweight and its related conditions, you will find the fingerprints of insulin all over it. I also believe that a broken or poorly functioning insulin system is the reason that the vast majority of us develop modern disease. We don’t need to have diabetes or even elevated blood sugar to have a struggling insulin system. Defects in insulin signaling can be going on for years before we can detect them. This doesn’t mean that our bodies are not suffering.

Now, in a paper that is due to be published in Nature, German scientists have shown that we have a second defensive system which acts independently of our classic immune system. When we go without food for awhile, this system switches on. Surprise, surprise…the hormone which is responsible for flipping the switch is insulin. Once the system is activated, cells produce proteins which are capable of destroying harmful microbes and defending us against invasion from the outside. According to the the study director, “This happens every minute every day. What is fascinating about this is that a function of the immune system directly depends on how much and what we eat.” In other words, slightly stress your cells by making them hungry and your shields will go up.

This, and other research studies, provides a great deal of non-caloric food for thought. We know that obesity and the diseases it spawns lead to increased inflammation in the body and can result in reduced life span. We also know that uncontrolled inflammation is bad. Might it be that the habit of affluent societies to eat continually results in a chronically lowered defense system? If more invaders are able to penetrate our outer barrier, we would likely respond with aggressive inner defenses, in other words: inflammation!

One of the strategies for weight maintenance that I suggest in my book and that I continue to suggest to patients is that we spend parts of each day in the non-eating state. This allows insulin levels to fall. We now know that these lower levels can active the FOXO transcription factor; the messaging system which turns on defense genes.

So put up those shields and rethink that grazing habit. As those of us who are maintaining weight know, the body does best on small amounts of highly nutritious foods. Our miraculous physical plant is finely tuned and we may be best off if we stop trying to second guess it with pills, potions and manipulations. More and more, we are coming to know that a return to simple basics and a realignment with our genetic priorities is the only way to put nature to work for us.

No Winter Maintenance: Travel At Your Own Risk

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

Some of you know from my post, “Four Little Words: A SAD Remedy,” at Lynn’s Weigh that I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and that this year’s been killer.

Winter weight maintenance is more difficult with SAD. While my food intake is relatively stable (except for the worse than usual carb cravings), there are days you can’t pay me to exercise. Yesterday, for instance, after one – just one! – set of four back strengthening exercises, I quit. And nothing – no meditating, coaxing, promise of reward – was getting me on that elliptical, either. I just didn’t have the mental mettle.

Within this deep emotional hollow, I could do little more than stare at my computer and come up with excuses not to go to the birthday dinner Larry and I were invited to that evening. I knew I’d feel worse if I didn’t go, but you know how you get so emotionally drained with depression that you don’t know what the hell to think? For hours I vacillated between “You promised to be there! You can’t let your friends down!” and “How can you fake happy for three or four hours? You’ll be the most dismal person there!”

I had a hair appointment at 3:00. Cut and color, the anticipation of which usually perks me up. Instead, I hemmed and hawed until finally at 2:30 I washed my face, brushed my teeth and put on normal clothes (I was still sitting around in my under-utilized workout clothes). After throwing on some extra moisturizer (the cold is brutal on the skin, isn’t it?), that little voice in the back of my head said, “Put on some makeup. You’ll feel better and you’ll be glad you did.” Ugh. I can never seem to shut that thing up. But I put on makeup and I went to my appointment. Two hours later, I felt a little less sad and a little more capable of being a sociable human being and one who wouldn’t plunge head first into wine and birthday cake.

The party, like most anticipations, wasn’t as difficult as I imagined. In fact, it was a lot of fun. I reconnected with old friends and I met a new one – a woman who is maintaining a 25-pound weight loss! Thing is, we didn’t talk about weight. We talked about SAD, among other things. She – as well as our hosts – understood SAD. They deal with it every year. My new friend told me about a passage from “The Book of Disquiet” by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessao, a quote she said doesn’t evoke who she is, but resonates with her. That’s what SAD is: not who we are, but merely a part of our experience.

No winter maintenance. I’m determined to not let this be my mantra.

The sun was out today – a rare occurrence in winter in western Pennsylvania. It was 36 degrees, and after a full workout, I went hiking with my husband in one of the most peaceful places I know, Cook Forest. The hemlocks, the running water of Tom's Run, along with the air and sun cleared my head, and another day of SAD was laid to rest.

I’ll leave you with Pessao’s quote. Like my friend, it doesn’t define me, but it explains a part of me.

“The mere thought of having to enter into contact with someone else makes me nervous. A simple invitation to have dinner with a friend produces an anguish in me that’s hard to define. The idea of any social obligation whatsoever – attending a funeral, dealing with someone about an office matter, going to the station to wait for someone I know or don’t know – the very idea disturbs my thoughts for an entire day, and sometimes I even start worrying the night before, so that I sleep badly. When it takes place, the dreaded encounter is utterly insignificant, justifying none of my anxiety, but the next time is no different: I never learn to learn.”

Overweight Top Doc: Yes or No

By Barbara Berkeley

Well, what say we start off the New Year with a really contentious topic? Is it OK to have a surgeon general who is overweight?

President Obama recently named a new top doc, Dr. Regina Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin is an obviously dedicated, talented family practitioner who has been a voice for the underserved population in her home state of Alabama. She has provided an enormous amount of free care and has been a staunch advocate for her patients. Furthermore, she focuses on preventable illness. For more on her background, click here.

But Dr. Benjamin, who is 52, is overweight. By her own admission, multiple members of her family have died from preventable illness including HIV, lung cancer, diabetes and hypertension. The New York Times’ Well Blog recently solicited comments about Dr. Benjamin’s weight as it relates to her status as chief physician.

I found the comments to be both fascinating and instructive. I didn’t agree with most of them and I wondered what your take might be. We have a unique population on this website so I am very interested about your opinion. In case you don’t feel like scanning all the comments, they fell into a couple of broad categories:

1. How dare we use weight to judge someone’s fitness for a job.
2. Criticisms about weight would never be leveled at a man.
3. Dr. Benjamin is preferable to someone who looks like a bikini model. She can understand what we’re going through.
4. Dr. Benjamin’s weight “enhances her credibility.”

You will read my comment below, but before you do, I would like to add that I doubt that male wellness advocates like Dr. Oz would be taken very seriously if they were overweight. I do believe that he would be looked at critically if that were the case, just as Dr. Phil was when he suggested he was an expert in weight loss.

Here was my response to the Times:

“It’s hard to address this without sounding petty, but this issue is not as simple as it might seem.

"Obesity and the costs generated by its related medical conditions are the crux of our current national struggle with health. As we go into the future, the battle with obesity is certain to intensify. Johns Hopkins University, for example, has predicted that 86% of Americans will be overweight by the year 2030. Our health care system cannot survive the onslaught of diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart disease and the like which will be generated by such figures.

"While it may be comforting for people to see a physician who looks like other Americans, Dr. Benjamin’s weight suggests that she herself has not found a good answer to the obesity dilemma. At this particular moment, we need someone who can be inspiring on this issue. We need a leader who doesn’t just struggle with the problem, but who has figured it out.

"Many of the comments above proclaim that size is predetermined. It is not. Our size comes from the interaction of a genetic predisposition with an unhealthy food environment. There are thousands of people who have been able to work this equation out, have lost weight, and have kept it off. A doctor who has made such a change and has been able to sustain it would have been the perfect candidate for surgeon general at this particular time. Over the years, scores of patients in my weight loss practice have complained that they have been unable to seriously consider lifestyle advice from doctors who smoke or are overweight themselves. While commenters above suggest that they can be more open, real life experience tells me that Dr.

"Benjamin’s solutions for weight loss will be a hard sell. At this critical juncture – and as far as obesity is concerned – we need an inspiring medical leader, not necessarily an understanding friend who looks like we do.

"I was also troubled by something Dr. Benjamin said in the appended video. When asked what she would do to curtail smoking, she spoke of getting individuals to quit. She was then pressed as to whether she would take on the tobacco folks. Here she backed off, leaving most of the responsibility for control to smokers themselves. I hope that this does not foreshadow her approach toward obesity. We have put far too much responsiblity and blame on those who are overweight and have done far, far too little to control the overstimulatory environment and uncontrolled food production which is causing the problem."

I’m curious as to what you think. Feel free to let me have it if you disagree.

Emotional Transformation and The Skinny Girl

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

In her last blog (Transformational Thriller), Barbara wrote about the physical transformation from obese to thin and how thrilling it is to be “noticed” and in essence rewarded by the accolades of others (and ourselves) for the ways in which our bodies have changed. For some, there is a subsequent let down when people get used to seeing us as we now are, and therefore their comments end and we’re left wondering, What’s next?

I enjoyed the compliments for the most part as I was losing weight, but I admit I was pretty happy when the hubbub died down and I could be just Lynn again and not That-Woman-Who-Lost-All-That-Weight. What has the potential to trip me up once in awhile is not so much the physical transformation as the emotional transformation. I’ve said many times since reaching goal that I finally feel like the outside me and the inside me finally match, but the longer I maintain, the more I think that descriptor may be a bit premature. In many ways, my inside is still catching up.

The emotional transformation from obese me to maintaining me is perhaps even more astounding than the physical transformation. It’s just not as apparent. The transformation began the moment weight loss “clicked” five years ago. Most people who successfully lose AND maintain their weight had an “aha!” moment – that realization that things are different “this time” as opposed to all the other times they tried to lose weight and failed. For me, that moment was followed by an avalanche of changes, not just in the way I ate – that was the easy part – but in the way I related to food and, even more important, how I related to myself. I began to demand from myself respect, forgiveness, and understanding – three things I rarely asked of myself or others. I often hid in my fat or other emotional insecurities and believed I didn’t deserve to be treated fairly.

Physical transformation is, for the most part, finite. We can sculpt our bodies through weight training and surgery, but if we remain the same weight, we pretty much look the same. Emotional transformation is infinite, an evolutionary journey.

I know many of you don’t like the word “lifestyle” to describe the way we live life as maintainers. But lifestyle is a choice, and I choose maintenance as a way of life, just as I choose to be a writer and I chose to become a mother. It’s living within this choice where the emotional transformation evolves, and that has had the biggest impact on my relationship with myself and with other people.

Because I no longer put myself or my needs last, my relationship with my husband has improved – not because I’m thin, but because I am more confident, which in turn has made me a better partner. My relationship with my children is stronger because I’m a better communicator. Sure, Passive-Aggressive Lynn comes out now and then, but like I said, this is an evolutionary process.

Where I see this process jammed up a bit is in my relationship to people I’m not related to. For instance, life before 300 pounds, I was the queen of parties. Threw them, went to them, loved them. Not surprisingly, I became somewhat of a hermit when I got to the top of the scale. What is surprising, to me at least, is that I’m still a hermit. This is the thing I meditate on the most, the part of my emotional transformation that has me the most confused right now.

Is it because I really don’t like large gatherings that I don’t go out much, or is it because I’m tired of defending my “lifestyle” and prefer the company of like-minded people? More times than I can remember I’ve been at a party or out to dinner and have heard, “What’s one meal? Eat!” (Heck, I even get that from strangers on my blog!) To me that’s like telling an alcoholic, “What’s one drink?” or an ex-smoker, “What’s one cigarette?” What most non-maintainers don’t get is that one meal of food I no longer choose to eat would not only cause me great gastrointestinal distress, but it would take me a good week or two to get it off the scale. Say that to food pushers and I’m suddenly Debbie Downer. I’ve tried the “I don’t care what you eat. Why do you care what I eat?” approach, but that usually doesn’t work, either.

Food is perhaps not a good example. Emotional transformation is an attitude that goes way beyond food choices. I’m still learning how to respect myself and my boundaries, both in terms of food and the way I am comfortable moving within and thinking about the world. Things I said yes to before I say no to now, and vice versa. Things I tolerated before I no longer tolerate. I’ve met some incredible people since getting to goal three years ago, largely because I’m no longer afraid (or at least entirely afraid) of what they might think of me. Some friendships have deepened and some have fallen away. But for the most part I don’t sit in regret, not like I used to when I was in the habit of gaining and losing and gaining and losing, not understanding the permanent change that must take place in order to reach and maintain a goal, any goal.

My outside is pretty much where I want it. I’m confident the inside will catch up in time. As long as I stay outside the cycle of self-abuse, self-loathing and delusion and live in a state of emotional transformation, I’ll continue to be more self-respectful and, hopefully, not social inept.

Transformational Thriller

By Barbara Berkeley

Television’s roster of reality shows seems to be increasing with every season. For networks, these shows have been a godsend; cheap to produce and enduringly popular. Like most everyone else, I have my favorites. As a frustrated dancer, I can’t get enough of the vicarious thrills provided by Dancing With the Stars. My daughters love Top Chef and Project Runway. And of course, American Idol.

Reality shows can take many forms, but they seem to be anchored by common themes: adversity, emotional upheaval, competition, and most of all…transformation. Think about it:

America’s Top Model: Ordinary pretty person becomes celebrity glam queen
Top Chef: Unknown cook becomes the next Bobby Flay
Survivor: Regular people become lean, mean survival experts
Dancing With the Stars: Uncoordinated celebrities lose tons of weight and become ballroom dancers
American Idol: The high school kid next door morphs into Carrie Underwood
The Biggest Loser: The caterpillar emerges as the butterfly

Human beings love transformation. We are fascinated by it. We all love the moment when the guy on Extreme Home Makeover yells, “Move the bus!” and reveals that the shack is now a palace.

Transformational themes have been part of our cumulative psyche since Hans Christian Anderson turned a duckling into a swan and Cinderella went from ashes to the ball. Transformation is thrilling and offers us hope about the human condition. Nothing is fated. We have a hand in our own destiny. We can remake ourselves.

In the past several months, I had a small taste of personal transformation and discovered a bit about its heady power. My own mini-change occurred when Karen, my long-suffering hair stylist, announced that she could tame my ultra frizzy hair with a process that irons on keratin. I don’t want to get into my whole hair story, but suffice it to say that I spent the younger years of my life trying to iron, roll, and chemically brow-beat my hair into submission. After years of this, I had reached a point in life where I accepted that I had a lot of hair and most of it had a mind of its own. My frizz became something of a personal emblem. I even enjoyed it, except on days when things got so out of hand that my daughters would tactfully remind me that I had “Bozo hair” and should try a little gel or something. Despite the fact that maturity had included making peace with my follicular challenges, Karen’s offer awoke old dreams. Why not try it? I thought.

On the big day, I had to devote three hours to the process which involved getting a lot of chemical gunk brushed onto every hair strand, lots of waiting time and a prolonged period of heating each section with a flat iron. At the end of it all, I left with stick straight hair that felt almost plasticized. It was as if I had grown a head of doll’s hair overnight. Karen carefully instructed me not to wash or wet my hair for three full days. She needn’t have worried. For the first time in my life, I had hair that wasn’t going to do anything but lie there like an obedient, shiny blanket. I wasn’t messing with it.

On the way home, I continually checked my car mirror to see if I knew who I was. The change was remarkable, even to me. As soon as I got in my house, I realized that my clothes no longer fit my hair. I started to try on things in my closet by combining them in novel ways. Sure enough, I found that the pieces looked completely different on the “new” me. It was as if I’d suddenly inherited a whole new wardrobe. Drunk with the power of transformation, I had the ultimate thought. What if I stopped wearing my glasses? I had an old pair of contact lenses in my bathroom drawer. I somehow got them into my eyes and stepped back to survey the result. The first reaction was horror. There was my whole face, no longer camouflaged by metal rims and tinted glass, with the lines and bags that I’d avoided confronting. What the heck? I was so intoxicated that I didn’t care. I raided my daughter’s dresser and pulled out a pair of glamour sunglasses – the kind I’d never been able to wear because of my own glasses – and went out.

The baristas in my local Starbucks, who see me every day and know my life story as well as my rather complex coffee order, failed to recognize me. What a hoot! The women I play doubles with thought I was a new member of the tennis club and several actually came over to introduce themselves. I was due to give a presentation to the senior hospital staff later that day. When I arrived, literally no one knew who I was. I met my mother-in-law at the mall and she didn’t recognize me until I got within 10 feet. Even better, most people said that I looked younger. For about a month, I had a ball going out every day. My transformation had made me the center of attention – a hot topic – and everyone wanted to discuss it.

But inevitably, reality set in. After several weeks, everyone I knew had seen me in my new incarnation. One morning, I woke to find that my doll’s hair was looking a little fluffy, a bit frizzy. Bozo was beginning to battle the chemicals. Although I determined to stay with my new style, I saw that it would take some doing. That was ok, but what nagged at me was a sad sense of let-down. I felt mournful, like someone who had discovered that the guy they had big crush on was just another human being. In short, dear friends, the thrill was gone.

You can probably see where I’m going with this.

Weight loss in America is a transformation game. Many of the successful dieters I’ve met over the years started to fall apart as soon as the change got old. The let down allowed them to become uncertain. Was the whole thing really worth it? Were they really going to have to do this forever?

The period of transformational high after weight loss and its subsequent let down can be destructive. It reminds me of a tennis analogy. When I hit a really good shot that gets my opponent on the run, I have the tendency to stand and watch. The shot seems so good that I believe the ball will never be coming back. My husband calls this “Admiring the ball” and it drives him crazy when I do it. “This is where you get beat,” he tells me. The moment you hit the good shot, you need to run in and take an offensive position so you can anticipate the next ball. If you stand around, an unexpected return will rocket right by you. In tennis, this is so true. And it’s true also for weight loss. At the end of a diet, we stand around and admire the ball way too much. We do this at the very moment we need to be preparing to go on offense.

As we approach the New Year, tens of millions of people will be resolving to get thinner. Although the vast majority will never act on their resolution, some will succeed and will be rewarded with that sublime moment when they become someone they no longer recognize; someone new. For awhile, the skinny clothes will fit, the jealous glances will come their way, and everything will be magic. But after awhile, their new persona will become just them and life will go on. For most, the cycle will repeat itself. If the thrill comes only with transformation, we can only get it by starting all over again. That means regain.

Those of you who are keeping weight at bay have discovered another kind of pleasure and you’re not falling prey to the transformation cycle. You’ve figured out that the thrill that lies there will break your heart. Perhaps you’ve traded in that big, addictive jolt for the quieter joy of continual, small transformations. Successful people seem always to be adding to their personal portfolio. Did they do pilates? Now they’ve started learning yoga. Did they figure out how to lose weight? Now they’re running a weight loss group. Did they start walking? Suddenly they’re running a 5K. This is better known as personal growth.

Take it from me, there’s nothing wrong with the big thrill. I enjoyed it for a moment. But the slow steady pleasure of adding to our biggest accomplishments? Now that’s a thrill we all! can live with.

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NOTE: On December 21, Barbara was a guest on "Good Company" on WKYC in Cleveland. Click here to view.

All Or Nothing…Or Something In Between

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

Here’s how I wake up most days: Sit up, move the neck in a circle (crack, crunch), twist the lower back side to side (crack, crunch), stretch my feet (cramp!), stretch my arms over my head (oh THAT’S where that rotator cuff tear is!), and ask, “How do I feel today?”

My workout clothes are usually laid out on the dresser – optimistic leftovers from the night before. I gather them and my Blackberry – which laid obediently on my nightstand all night – and walk downstairs to the office and turn on my computer.

I sit down at my desk and think about my workout intention for the day. I have a plan. I always have a plan. It’s carefully laid out, minute by minute, on an Excel spreadsheet. But my plan doesn’t take into account a swollen knee or tendonitis that sprouted up overnight, or the plain old restlessness of busy mind, which is the worst for my exercise plans. I can’t take Advil to relieve restlessness.

There are countless times I’ve felt some pinch of pain and decided not to do a work out, or have gotten on the elliptical only to be 10 minutes into my workout and unable to continue because my mind says, “You MUST do this or that or the other thing you planned!” Sometimes these are legitimate excuses, but I confess that many times they are not.

Sure there are days when the physical takes precedence over the need to exercise. Pain and inflammation is real and I take it seriously. But in every instance I have to honestly assess if it’s real pain or my head making excuses for not wanting to work out. Damn arthritis. It’s a double-edged sword. There are days, no doubt, when arthritis pain SHOULD prevent us from working out. But there are many more days, I would argue, when moving (within moderation) would be of more benefit than the heating pad.

Most days, when I move I feel better. Trying to convince my brain of that before a workout is 99 percent of the battle, however. So I’ve developed a new strategy: instead of doing all or nothing of what I’ve planned on my nifty spreadsheet, I do a little. I try five minutes at a slow, easy pace. If that feels good, then I up it a bit. Staying mindful, I adjust accordingly. What a change from the days of, “My schedule says I HAVE to do 30 minutes at high intensity today!” and when I couldn’t, I’d feel guilty. Now, I do whatever intensity my body says I can do on any given day, despite what the spreadsheet says.

The same is true with restlessness, only with a twist. When I’m restless, there’s no “excuse” to not do a full workout. My new strategy with restlessness is that instead of seeing it as an enemy, I try to be friendly and compassionate. I can only concentrate for 10 minutes on the cardio? No problem. After 10 minutes, I do a strength training circuit then return to the cardio for another five or 10 minutes. What I’ve found is that not only does this break up the workout, it demands more concentration, thus disrupting that restlessness, at least for an hour or so.

In many ways I’m still an all or nothing kind of person. But I realized there is middle ground between pain/restlessness and doing nothing and doing everything just because it’s part of the plan. Just one more thing that amazes me in this world of maintenance.

The Big Gift

By Barbara Berkeley

At this time of the year I’m always searching for motivating tips that will help my patients get through the holidays. I often remind people that their new eating habits are a gift they are giving themselves. “If you are going to give yourself that gift,” I say, “then DO it! Don’t pull it back at the last moment just because of the Christmas cookies!”

I think that maintainers understand more about this gift than dieters do. This is because we have to experience a period of prolonged maintenance to “get it”; to feel the true benefits of changed eating. While staying at a lower weight is part of that benefit, it is often a smaller part than we might have expected. The gift we receive is a feeling of being in healthy harmony. This harmony allows us to enjoy powers of energy, a new smoothness of mood, a feeling of strength, and a body that stays well when other bodies fail. Escaping from the daily fear of illness – that’s probably the ultimate maintenance gift.

We know that maintenance makes us feel better. But could the gift be even greater? Could maintenance be helping us to live longer?

Recent research in the field of caloric restriction continues to be intriguing. As most readers know, cutting calories leads to longer life and slower aging in most species. But how does that happen? A study from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, looked at this question and came up with the following answer: “It may not be about counting calories or cutting out specific nutrients, but how a reduction in dietary intake impacts the glucose metabolism, which contributes to oxidative stress.” (Dr. Charles Mobbs, principle investigator).

Oxidative stress is the damage done by substances called “free radicals” which are created as a byproduct of certain body processes. You can think of these free radicals as rogue particles which shoot through cells causing injury. When we take “anti-oxidant” vitamins, we are attempting to sop up these free radicals and thus get rid of them. A better approach would be to generate fewer free radicals (and less damage) in the first place. As it turns out, overeating – the great American pastime – appears to increase free radical damage. Restricting calories means less oxidative stress and healthier cells.

The Mt. Sinai team discovered that caloric restriction increased body levels of a substance called CREB binding protein, or CBP. High levels of CBP were associated with longer and healthier lives in worms and mice. In mammals, Dr. Mobbs believes that an equivalent effect might be seen at about a 30% reduction in calories.

If CBP levels are known to be high in mice who eat less, what would they look like in mice with sugar problems – in other words diabetic mice? Mobbs’ team discovered that CBP was low in these animals, predisposing them to accelerated aging and disease. It seemed that CBP might work by blocking glucose (sugar) processing in the cells. Higher CBP might mean less glucose metabolism and less free radical damage. Most intriguing, Mobbs found that CBP levels were quite fluid and responded to changes in blood sugar within hours of feeding. Calorie restriction elevated CBP for as long as restriction was maintained.

This research is another small piece of evidence that points to the wisdom of primary diet (eating as anciently as possible). It is intriguing on two levels. First is the issue of optimal meal frequency. Paleo diet afficianados have become interested in figuring out how often our ancient ancestors ate. It appears that many tribal peoples ate one large meal per day. This means that we may be optimally adapted to spending longer amounts of time in the non-eating state. The SAD encourages us to eat constantly and in large quantity. If Mobbs’ data translates to humans, overeaters would theoretically have a low level CBP and a higher incidence of aging and disease. Maintainers generally eat many fewer calories per day than their free-eating counterparts.

The second important issue raised by this study is the suggestion that cell aging and glucose metabolism are linked. If aging and age related disease can be lessened by reducing glucose metabolism, does this mean that we can create the same effect by lowering our S Food consumption? As we know, ancient diets were low in starches and sugars (carbohydrates). Our body design seems to reflect this by having difficulty dealing with large amounts of these substances.

Might eating anciently raise CBP levels? We won’t know until studies target humans. For now, most research is geared toward finding drugs that can mimic the effects of caloric restriction. But here’s the problem. Drugs take years to develop and, once developed, have the pesky habit of manifesting unpleasant side effects. If CBP turns out to be a real marker for the pace of aging wouldn’t it be great to have a portable CBP monitor? Perhaps someday, people will carry an “age-meter” instead of a glucometer. If you could painlessly monitor your longevity factor and aim to keep it over a certain level, wouldn’t it be easier to wait another hour for dinner or pass up pasta in favor of salmon and salad? In the meantime, I strongly believe that the gift of longer and healthier life is there for the taking. Keep starches and sugars low, eat with less frequency and in smaller quantities and use your scale as your longevity tester. If you are maintaining weight, chances are you have things in the right balance. Enjoy the holidays with the knowledge that your heart, your eyes, your kidneys, your liver, and your blood vessels – right down to your tiniest capillaries – are sending you grateful messages of thanks.

“I” is for “Indulgence”

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

On Sunday, I wrote a blog on Lynn’s Weigh about what I ate versus what I’d planned to eat on Thanksgiving – two not totally different things, but far enough apart to make me take notice of what motivated my choices. I received a few comments from points of view that I’d like to address here to hopefully open up a conversation about one word: indulgence. I’d like to know what it means to you, and as a maintainer, how and if you engage in it. 

One reader wrote: “Get a grip, one feast day is not going to undo all the good work you’ve done. You are allowed to celebrate occasionally. You could have eaten A LOT more than you did and it wouldn't have made a dent, because with your steely determination you would have drawn a line under it instantly and been back to your, dare I say it, rigid program the very next day. Let yourself have some moments of indulgence now and then. It’s okay!”

Another wrote: “I think you should let yourself have days where you don’t plan and measure (and let’s be honest, stress about) every single bite you put in your mouth. From the outside it seems just as disordered as binge/overeating. …(T)he fact that you make your family food with “unhealthy” ingredients etc., shows that you understand the social/cultural aspects [of food], and you know one traditional one-day-a-year meal of indulgences will not kill you. To not let yourself share in that indulgence (when you obviously would like to) sends a message to the little eyes around the table as well.

I appreciate this kind of feedback because it helps me better understand food culture and invites me to look closer at my food issues. We all need to engage in that kind of mental housecleaning once in awhile.

So here’s what I know – as of today – about me and food. (Of course this is subject to change the further I prod along this path.)

Planning my food intake is essential. It is my safety net. So, too, is mindful eating. Mindless eating got me obese. Mindless eating fed my emotional issues and kept them suppressed.

So it’s safe to say that I am not one who can indulge mindlessly, and on Thanksgiving, that’s exactly what I did. (Not because of any emotional issues. The stuff was just darn tasty.) And so the problem with T-day wasn’t that I felt I couldn’t indulge, but that I didn’t think about what I was eating.

I was drawn to food that, when mindful, I know makes me feel physically ill. Within an hour of those few bites of stuffing and few bites of potatoes and more than a few bites of apple cake, my stomach really hurt. Granted it was a milder stomach ache than I regularly subjected myself to when I weighed 300 pounds and ate every meal mindlessly, but it was reminiscent enough of those old days to remind me of the promise I made when I began this journey nearly 5 years ago: to never again feel like hell after eating.

I don’t feel guilty for what I ate on Thanksgiving and I’m certainly not beating myself up. T-day was a wonderful learning opportunity, a chance to fine tune the way I engage with and relate to food.

Some folks can indulge without thinking about it and bounce right back. I need to plan my indulgences, and when I do, I indulge on food I know won’t make me sick. I had a plan on T-day that I strayed from. Mindless eating took over and my poor stomach paid the price. So while an occasional indulgence won’t kill me, without planning, it will certainly make me miserable.

Yes I know to some my eating regimen seems rigid. But it keeps me sufficiently fed physically and emotionally. Our food choices and plans are as unique as our fingerprints. My hope is that you all find or have found what works for you.

So tell me, does your plan include indulgences?