Why Portion Size Really Matters…

One day at lunch time I had gone into a grocery store to get a milk. This wasn't my usual routine; I usually packed leftovers for lunch and ate at my desk while reading. But there I was standing in front of maybe ten or 15-feet of “milk section,” scanning for an 8-ounce carton of milk. Remember those? The size they used to serve with school lunch? I wasn’t finding it, when a middle-aged gentleman asked, “what are you looking for?” I looked at him and said, “I wanted an 8-ounce milk, but they don’t seem to have it.” He looked at the shelves, pointed to the smallest carton, and said, “here it is.” The carton he pointed to however was a pint (16-ounces/2 cups). I said, “no, I want one cup, that’s two.” The gentleman got a confused look on his face, glanced back at the container then back at me, and said, “that’s a cup.”

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Manage Yourself to Success!

Would you choose to invest in a company that didn’t bother with the necessary bookkeeping to keep track of their sales, expenditures, and other related business data necessary create and maintain a thriving venture? Not likely!

Similarly "self-monitoring" the key behaviors necessary for weight loss, has long been shown to correlate with successful weight loss (and maintenance).

Weight loss (or more precisely, transitioning to the healthy lifestyle that results in weight loss) is a substantial and challenging project to manage. “Self-monitoring” or “record keeping” is the tracking of your diet and physical activity so you can use that information to problem-solve and manage your project effectively.

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Can You Spot a Sham Weight Loss Diet?

While a sham diet will likely deliver on some early weight loss it won’t be because of the reasons claimed in the diets’ marketing literature or book cover. The real disservice to you however is the misinformation that you’re fed that actually ends up being an impediment to any long-term success with weight control.

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Do your supporters outnumber the saboteurs in your life?

Because you live in a culture that’s unfavorable toward weight control, the people you live and work with are very important to the success of your weight management efforts. There are three roles they’ll play:

1. A positive influence—supportive
2. A negative influence—a saboteur (either consciously, or not)
3. A neutral influence—not actively supportive, but also not a saboteur

The purpose of developing a support network is to ensure that you have more people on the positive side of the ledger than on the negative side. Weight Loss Mastery Skill #5 is Support. The people most likely to sustain new behaviors (in this case healthy eating and an active lifestyle) are the ones who have social support in doing them.

I’ll be posting a more detailed discussion on 1) how to create your support network, 2) using support to prevent lapses from becoming relapse, and 3) sabotage, and handling saboteurs.

Stay tuned!

If you don't have a plan, the world has a plan for you... and it's high in fat and calories!

What you eat and how much you eat is largely a function of what is available in your environment. When is it more difficult to avoid eating cookies? When there's a plate of fresh baked cookies on your kitchen counter? Or, when the nearest cookie is at the bakery two miles from the comfort of your living room?

Most people have a simple relationship with food, the "see food, eat food" relationship! If you don't have a plan, the world has a plan for you! And the world's plan is high in fat and calories, and low in physical activity--a guaranteed recipe for weight gain. Successful weight control in modern America has never been more challenging.

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