When the number on your scale won’t budge.

If losing fat were easy then we'd all look like fitness models, right?

Unfortunately, the fat loss game is more frustrating than most care to admit. The scale quickly becomes a dreaded enemy—a constant bearer of bad news.

If the number on your scale won't budge then read on for an explanation:

Possibility #1: You're Not Eating Enough Calories
This only happens in cases of severe calorie restriction, so don't take it as a license to eat whatever you'd like. When you're trying to drop a few pounds by eating next to nothing, it actually counteracts your efforts.

There's a base number of calories that you should be eating in order to maintain your proper bodily functions, including fat loss, so check with a doctor or nutritionist to make sure that you're eating enough.

Possibility #2: You're Eating Too Many Carbs
Processed carbs will promote fat storage quicker than you can say the alphabet backwards. Blood sugar and insulin levels always respond the same to processed carbs – whether those carbs are in the form of a FiberOne bar or a Twinkie.

You're fooling yourself, but not your scale, if you think processed carbs should be included in your fat loss diet.

Possibility #3: You're Doing Too Much Cardio If you're doing hours of steady-state cardio, it's gonna end up working against your fat loss efforts. All that cardio promotes the release of stress hormones in your body, which counteracts your ability to lose fat.


Possibility #4: You're Not Getting Enough Sleep
You may not see the connection between your sleep patterns and the number on your scale, but it's there. Sleep patterns have an impact on your hormone levels, and hormones are a huge factor when it comes to losing fat.

Be sure to get a full eight hours of sleep each night to boost your fitness results.

Possibility #5: Your Snacks Have No Protein
Small, whole foods snacks throughout the day can help maintain your metabolism and encourage fat loss, but it all depends on what you're snacking on. Fruit-only snacks quickly break down to sugar, which causes insulin to be released and potential fat storage to occur, much like when you eat processed carbs. Sure, the fruit will make less of an impact than a candy bar, but you could be snacking smarter.

Only eat snacks that contain more protein than carbs, and also some fat. This will help to stabilize your blood sugar levels while also keeping hunger at bay longer.

Possibility #6: You Eat Diet Foods
I get it, you have a fat loss goal so it's tempting to fall into the trap of purchasing foods that claim to help dieters. The problem lies in the fact that these ‘diet' products have been highly processed and contain potentially harmful chemicals and artificial sweeteners that will confuse your hormones and promote fat storage.

The best diet strategy, when working towards a fitness goal, is to stick with real, fresh, whole foods. Steer clear of anything fake or processed.

The Stress Factor

I didn't forget about the elephant in the room...your stress levels.

Sure, life can be overwhelming and stressful, but understand that mismanaged stress will have a negative impact on your hormones, which can promote fat storage.

Find ways to relax every day, in order to give your body a break from 'fight of flight' mode. Your scale will thank you!

From the Desk of John Hall Studios

What to do when you fall off your diet

Whether you’re dieting to lose weight or maintain weight, everyone falls off their diet from time to time.  Know what your triggers are, and how to deal with a momentary diet lapse.

Your day started out great.  You got up early, did your workout, had your protein shake.  You showered and dressed, packed a healthy lunch and headed into work feeling energized and ready to tackle the day.  As you go through your emails, you find one from your boss asking for the report you promised her – the one you thought was due next week.  Your stress level skyrockets.  And in a panic, you get to work – but not until you’ve grabbed a donut from the break room.

It only takes a moment for your diet to go from terrific to terrible.  You have a bad day and think a bowl of ice cream will make you feel better.  Your movie companion offers you some buttered popcorn and you just can’t resist.  You cook too much food for dinner, but rather than packing it up for tomorrow’s lunch, you just finish it off instead. 

No matter how good your intentions, you can’t expect to follow your diet perfectly every minute of every day.  There will be those times when you have something you shouldn’t – so the trick is figuring out not only what gets you into trouble in the first place, but also how you can talk yourself back down.

If you’ve fallen off your diet – and everyone does – here are some tips to help you get back on track:

Know that lapses happen.

Everyone makes diet mistakes from time to time.  What you don’t want to do is beat yourself up about it, because you’ll feel as if you’ve failed – which could lead you to just give up and lose control completely.  A single event – eating something you shouldn’t, or exceeding your calorie limit for the day – is simply a lapse.  Recognize it for what it is, but don’t let things get out of control.  String enough lapses together, and you’ve got a relapse – and you’re back where you started.

Know what triggers you to eat something you shouldn’t.

Most people can identify what it is that triggers them to eat when they shouldn’t.  Stress, for example, is a big one – when people eat in response to stress it’s because they think a treat will make them feel better.  And it might – at least momentarily.  But then the guilt sets it, which stresses you out, which causes you to eat more … and the cycle continues.   Fatigue, loneliness, frustration, boredom – there’s a whole host of emotions that can trigger you to eat.  Sometimes there are people in your life that are the problem – like the ones who are always urging you to have something ‘just this once’.

Figure out how you can change your response next time.

If emotional eating is a problem for you, you’ll want to work on finding other ways to deal with your emotions that don’t involve food.  It’s been said that people eat to ‘stuff down their emotions’ in order to avoid feeling sad or lonely or frustrated.  But many people also say that it’s really the fear of experiencing the emotion that makes them eat … and that when they simply let the emotion happen – and learn how to deal with it – it’s never as bad as they thought it would be. When your emotions are getting the best of you and food is calling to you, try writing your thoughts down, calling a friend, turning on some soothing music, taking a walk, or having a cup of tea instead.

Talk nicely to yourself.

If you’ve eaten something you haven’t and the little voice in your head is saying, “You’re such a failure, you’ll never lose weight!” you need to be a little nicer to yourself.  Instead, say the same thing to yourself that you’d say to a friend if you were offering support.  “So you got stressed and grabbed a donut – it’s not the end of the world!  Let’s take a walk at lunch to burn off some extra calories and stop for a salad on the way back”.

Wait it out.

Delay tactics can work really well when you’re feeling tempted to eat something you shouldn’t.  If you’re keeping a food diary, take a look at it before you indulge.  Just taking a moment to consider what you’re about to eat – and why – can be enough to stop you in your tracks.  The other thing that often helps is to tell yourself that you’ll wait 10 minutes once the urge strikes, to see if you still feel the need to indulge.  Most of the time, you’ll get busy doing something else and just forget about it.

Get back on track right away.

Don’t let the day get away from you.  A slip is one thing – just don’t let it turn into a fall.   If you ate something you shouldn’t have, just get over it and pick right back up at the next meal.  It’s too late to do anything about the last meal you had – focus instead on the one you plan to have next.

Remind yourself of how much you’ve accomplished.

Sometimes after a slip, it helps to do a little ‘system reset’.  Think about what motivated you to make changes in the first place, about how far you’ve come, and the accomplishments you’ve made.  You have the know-how and the commitment – and you know you can achieve your goals because you’ve been making progress.  And remember that progress is measured in many ways – not only by what the scale says.  Every time you make the best choice in a restaurant, pack a healthy lunch, turn down an offer of food you don’t want – or skip the donut when you’re stressed and take a deep breath instead – you’re making progress.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD.

Bye bye baby-weight: how to regain your figure post-pregnancy

Whether you’re a new mother or not, I bet there is something in today’s article that will help become more fit, gain confidence or just learn a little empathy.

No matter how or why you’ve gained weight, know that it takes as long – if not longer – to lose that weight again.  Pregnancy is a special time and new mothers need to concentrate on their baby but you  may need to reprioritize if you are still blaming a spare-tire on baby weight, three years later!

Dads-to-be often gain baby weight too – if someone around you is eating more then the temptation to join in is hard to refuse. This week, I’m going to share five tips that will help you regain the figure you want.  I’m focusing on how to reclaim your pre-pregnancy body because it’s a message I relate to strongly.

During my last pregnancy I was carrying triplets and, with four months to go, I was put on bed-rest which meant my activity levels plummeted. Over forty weeks I gained 70lbs and I was nearly as wide as I am tall!
Finally welcoming my new babies to the world and introducing them to their big brother and the rest of the family was magical. I think the sole focus for new parents should be enjoying every second with their new little human because they change so quickly.
Since it takes forty weeks to gain baby weight then you should give yourself at least forty weeks to lose the weight too.  When we see airbrushed photos of celebrities who have six-packs within weeks of giving birth, we shouldn’t try and compare ourselves.  A sensible approach – giving yourself plenty of time to be with your baby and learning to balance the diaper changes, feedings, and lack of sleep is much better than looking at yourself in contrast to a pampered celebrity.

Stay safe.  New mothers need to be careful when they first begin exercising. Check with your doctor about when to recommit to exercise: without exception your joints may be weak and your body may be sore.

As soon as I received the all clear to start exercising again, I tried to jump straight into exercising intensely and it was too hard.  I learned that I need to be kind to myself and be patient. Rather than make my mistake of rushing in too quickly – try these weight-loss, figure-regaining tips.

Post pregnancy tip 1:  make time

Trust me, I know that as a new parent you don’t have time but you have to grab a moment when you can. Try to find some time every day – aiming for 10 minutes is a good start. Ask a family member or your partner to make a commitment to give you a break or put it in your schedule during baby naptime. If you’re already back at work, then try to fit in a walk around the block at lunchtime. It’s hard but exercising will ultimately give you more energy.

Post-pregnancy tip 2:  no more excuses

Try to at least walk, stretch or do something that involves moving every day. Exercise naturally boosts your energy levels so don’t hide behind excuses. Knowing you are doing something positive for yourself, when you’re also realizing that your life is no longer all about you, may help you get motivated and better adapt to the new person in your world.

Post-pregnancy tip 3:  be creative

I’ve said it before: any time exercising is better than no time. You need to be resourceful, so try jumping rope, adding in  squats while washing baby bottles, and doing crunches in bed. This might all sound crazy but it’s a workable way to fit in activity. It worked for me: my 10 minute routine in my bedroom each morning and evening was enough to start pushing me back to fitness.

Post-pregnancy tip 4: focus on your core

Work on your posture all day because pregnancy alone can mess with your posture and balance. Lifting a growing baby, bending over a crib, pushing heavy strollers and more … means that your postural muscles may need stretching throughout the day. Holding in and contracting your abdominal muscles will help strengthen them, so pull in your tummy a few times a day – whenever you remember – and each time you’ll be developing your muscles. Go ahead; pull in your tummy right now!

Post-pregnancy tip 5: eat well

Aim for quality nutrition every day. I saved the most important tip for last because immediately post pregnancy is not a time for fad diets that deprive your body of essential nutrients. Starving your body is never a good solution for weight loss. A smart calorie-controlled diet that provides your body with essential carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins and minerals is a much better choice because it is sustainable long term.
Learning how to balance your caloric intake and caloric expenditure will help you to lose weight at sustainable rate. If you are nursing, however, you must check with a health professional to ensure you consume enough calories to produce nutrient-rich milk.

 ***

Make time to play, head outdoors and keep moving. Every step will help you regain control of your figure.

That’s it – I hope that when you read my tips they seem manageable.  I am so passionate about helping people to reclaim their body after a baby because I’ve dealt with the insecurity that come with body changes. I’ve admitted before that I cried, I turned to comfort foods to make me feel better, and I did all the wrong things before I decided to get smart and practice what I preach. I spent a good four years getting my fitness levels back up and at times it was hard but I believe it was worth the effort.
Now I love my post-pregnancy body, it’s stronger than ever and I use it to run around the soccer field with my kids, hug them when they (or I) need comfort and I love to jump and dance to make sure all of us stay smiling.   Being fit has helped me keep my energy levels up and that’s important if you have four rambunctious children running around and demanding attention.  Losing the weight was part of my goal but fully committing to taking part in my life was the best outcome!
Start your journey today with commitment and a smart approach because you may just surprise yourself.

Written by Samantha Clayton, AFAA, ISSA.

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How to put diet advice into practice

You know what you should be eating because you’ve heard most diet advice before – but you just can’t quite figure out how to apply that diet advice to make it part of your daily eating routine.  Here are some tips to help you put your nutrition knowledge into action.

For those of us in the US, mid-April means one thing – it’s tax time.  Many dread it, and put it off to the last minute – in large part because completing your own tax return is difficult,  it’s  complicated, and just so darned…. well, taxing.  But as tough as it may be, it’s apparently not nearly as hard as figuring out how to eat well… in an online survey¹ of more than 1,000 Americans that was released last year, 52% said that it was harder to figure out “what you should and shouldn’t eat to be healthier” than it is to figure out “how to do your own taxes.”

Choosing a healthy diet just shouldn’t be that hard.  And, it’s not for lack of knowledge.  In general, people seem to know what they should be doing – in the same survey, for instance, most people said they were trying to limit their intake of salt, fat and sugar and were trying to eat more fruits and vegetables.  But when you look at  what people say they’re trying to do – and what they’re actually doing – there’s a bit of a disconnect.  We may be able to “talk the talk”, but we don’t seem to be “walking the walk” – the majority of Americans don’t get the recommended number of fruits and veggies every day,  intake of added fats and sugars is at an all-time high, and 44% of Americans eat fast food at least once a week.

So when people say it’s hard to figure out what to eat, the problem isn’t really that they don’t know what to do – it’s more that they just don’t know how.  (Of course, you also have to want  to do it, too…).  But the bottom line is this – all the knowledge in the world isn’t going to do you much good if you can’t figure out how to put it into practice.

How to put diet advice into practice

Diet advice:  Eat more fruits and vegetables

How to:

• Make it convenient to eat them – keep a bowl of fresh fruit on your kitchen counter and keep cut up veggies on a shelf in the refrigerator.  If preparing them is too time-consuming, you might opt for pre-cut fruits and veggies and ready-to-eat salad greens. 
• Frozen fruits and vegetables are nutritious and convenient – you can add frozen fruits to your Herbalife Formula 1 protein shakes, or thaw and stir into yogurt, cottage cheese or hot cereals. 
• Add extra veggies to mixed dishes, soups, stews, omelets –  even to your Chinese takeout. 
• At restaurants, skip the starch and order double veggies for your side dish, and start your meal off with a salad.

Diet advice:  Reduce fat intake

How to:

• Fried foods are a big offender here – so that means that a good place to start would be limiting your intake of things like chips and French fries. 
• Choose low fat dairy products – milk, cottage cheese, yogurt – over the full-fat versions, and opt for fish and poultry more often than fattier red meat. 
• Added fats – sauces, dressings, mayonnaise, butter, margarine – add up quickly, too, so use sparingly or find lower fat alternatives. 
• And watch for “hidden fats” – there’s plenty of fat lurking in foods like desserts, snack foods, breads and pastries.   
• When you’re cooking at home, use fats sparingly when you cook, search out low fat recipes, and give your own high fat recipes a makeover to reduce fat. 

Diet advice:  Reduce added sugar intake

How to:

• A lot of the sugar we take in comes from beverages, so choose calorie-free water or tea as often as possible, and limit your intake of fruit juices. 
• If plain water doesn’t appeal to you, add a slice of lemon or lime, a few pieces of fresh fruit, or a tiny splash of fruit juice to your water for a bit of flavor. 
• Let fruit take the place of dessert, and limit the amount of pre-sweetened foods that you buy.
• Pre-sweetened cereals and yogurt, for example, can have a lot of added sugar – you’ll take in much less if you buy plain yogurt or unsweetened whole grain cereals and sweeten it yourself – preferably with fresh fruit.  Don’t worry about the natural sugars in fruit, milk and dairy products – just focus on reducing the amount of sugar that’s added to everyday foods.

Diet advice:  Eat more fiber

How to:

• See item #1 above -  “eat more fruits and vegetables”.  Fruits and vegetables are great sources of fiber, and when you make a point to eat a fruit or vegetable at every meal or snack, that can go a long way towards meeting your daily fiber goals. 
• Beans and whole grains are also good sources of fiber – try adding some canned beans to soups and salads, or mashed into a hummus dip to eat with raw veggies. 
• Turn to whole grains – like brown rice, barley, quinoa, millet – and whole grain foods (100% whole grain breads, pasta, cereals) rather than the refined “white” versions to boost your fiber intake.

Diet advice:  Watch your sodium intake

How to:

• Most people get much more salt from processed foods than they do from the salt shaker – so a good first step is to eat most of your foods as close as possible to their natural state. 
• If you buy canned foods – like veggies, tuna or soups – look for reduced sodium versions. 
• Cut back on processed meats which are often loaded with sodium (even the so-called low-sodium versions), and lean towards fresh meats and poultry which naturally contain very little.
• You can also ‘dilute’ the sodium in convenience foods by adding extra veggies to canned soups or doubling the amount of grains when you prepare something like a packaged seasoned rice mix (and use brown rice when you do….). 
• And find other ways to season foods rather than always relying on salt.  Herbs, spices, onions, garlic and citrus add flavor without sodium – and you get a nutrition boost, too.

¹International Food Information Council Foundation, “2012 Food and Health Survey:  Consumer Attitudes Towards Food Safety, Nutrition and Health”. 

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD.

How to indulge without ruining your diet

An occasional indulgence isn’t really cheating – especially if you’ve planned for it.

Cheating – on your taxes, on a test, on your partner – is just plain wrong.  And chances are, even if you were to consider cheating, you probably wouldn’t ask for permission from your accountant or your teacher…or your mate.  So why are people always asking me if it’s “okay to cheat” on their diet?  Does it feel “good” to be “bad”? Do they want to place the blame on my shoulders if their cheating doesn’t lead to weight loss?  Or are they simply saying, “I just can’t be this strict with myself every single day – I need a break!”

Let me start by saying that – at least when it comes to dieting -  I don’t like to use the word ‘”cheat”.  And here’s why.  Most of us don’t cheat on our taxes, on tests or on our partners – because we know it’s wrong.  And so, if we did cheat, we’d feel really bad about it.  Following the same logic, if you “cheat” on your diet, it must be wrong – and you’re going to feel bad for having done it.  So let’s just dispense with the word “cheat” right off the bat.
Cheat or treat?
Since “cheat” sounds so negative, let’s call it something more positive instead – I think “treat” sounds a lot better.  There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself once in a while, especially if you’ve banked some calories in advance for your indulgence.  If you’ve saved up some calories all week so you have a few extra to spend on the weekend, is that “cheating”? Sounds more like  “good planning” to me.
Why do you feel the need to cheat?
Before you start planning, you might want to think about why you feel the need to “cheat” in the first place.  Are you being too strict with your eating and cutting back too far? Are your regular meals not satisfying or enjoyable? Are “cheating” and “being bad” your reward for being good all week?  One way to stifle the need to stray from your eating plan is to get to the root of the problem.
Trying to adhere to an overly strict diet is probably one of the most common triggers for “cheating”.  Maybe you manage to hold things together pretty well all week, so you figure you deserve to cut loose and enjoy yourself on the weekend.
But if you’re eating yourself into a stupor every weekend because you “deserve it”, not only are you likely to undo any progress you made during the week, you’re also rewarding your good behavior with high caloriefood.  Over time, you associate your healthy weekday foods with penalty, and your high calorie weekend indulgences with reward – which isn’t likely to foster lifelong healthy eating habits.
The other problem is that if you haven’t figured out the number of extra calories you can safely spend on the weekend, it’s too easy to tell yourself that you’ve been “so good” all week that you can’t possibly overdo it. Trust me – you can.
Planning your pleasure
So there’s a fine line to making this work, and it all depends on proper planning – which involves banking some calories and spending them wisely.
I’m more inclined to advise people to limit their “treat” to one meal rather than taking the whole day off.  There’s a big difference between eating something special that isn’t on your usual meal plan and taking theentire day off to eat whatever you want.  For some people, a whole day without dietary restrictions can be like a train without brakes – and can cause nearly as much damage.
But planning ahead for a “treat meal” is a lot easier to control.  First, consider your allotted calorie intake for the whole week.  Then, determine how many calories you can set aside each day to accumulate what you’ll need to spend on your splurge.  It also helps to be as specific as you can when you plan when, where and how you’re going to spend your calories.  Telling yourself, “I’ve been good all week so I can have a nice steak dinner” may not work as well as, “I’m saving up 400 calories this week because I’m going to Rosie’s Restaurant on Saturday night and they make the best apple pie.”
Treating Isn’t cheating
If you feel that your “cheating” is the result of a too-strict diet, consider this.  Those who naturally maintain their weight manage to have treats from time to time.  It’s part of life – and an important skill to learn.  Eating perfectly all the time probably isn’t reasonable.  But if you eat three regular meals a day and have a “treat” meal once a week, you’re being “good” for 20 meals out of 21 – which is 95% of the time.  And when you’ve planned and saved for your splurge, you can enjoy it guilt-free.  So make it special – put it on a plate, eat it slowly, savor it and enjoy it.  You earned it.
Written by Susan Bowerman

What's the best diet for me?

The best diet is the one that works best with your lifestyle, your budget, your food preferences and how much effort you’re willing to give.

One of the more entertaining aspects of my work is that whenever I meet a new weight loss client, I never know where the conversation will lead.  Usually, I’ll start by getting some history – I want to know what’s the most and the least they’ve ever weighed, what motivates them to eat better and get into shape, and also what’s worked for them in the past and what hasn’t – that sort of thing.  From there, I can start to get a sense for how much effort each particular patient is willing to put forth, and what their expectations are.  And then we come up with a plan. But I can’t just tell someone what they need to do – I need to help them figure out how they’re going to do it, too.  And we work together to figure out what’s going to work best for them.

Does one size fit all?
When it comes down to it, there’s no “one size fits all” diet plan.  Everyone is different, and I need to take into account not just a person’s food likes and dislikes – I also need to know what their day is like, if they like to cook or not, if the cost of food is an issue, what time they exercise, how often they eat out (and where)  – there are a whole host of factors that I have to consider before I can give someone meaningful advice.

Should you take on a lot at once?
And then I have to consider what my clients want – or think they want.  Some people prefer a fairly strict approach – often, in fact, deciding to tackle a lot at once.  I’ve had plenty of clients who’ve decided to simultaneously attempt to lose weight, start exercising and quit smoking.  It’s a lot to take on, but it canwork.  Maybe it’s the idea of  ‘wiping the slate clean’ and making a truly fresh start – sort of a “today is the first day of the rest of your life” attitude.  And sometimes when you’re working on one thing, it can reinforce the other changes you’re trying to make – as in, “if I’m going to exercise, it doesn’t make much sense to keep smoking”.
But when taking on too much doesn’t work, it’s usually because the process becomes overwhelming – there are just too many changes involved and too many adjustments to be made.  And then, people tend to simply give up – and nothing gets accomplished.

Or are you one to take things more slowly?
On the other hand, there are those who take a more cautious approach – they like to dip their toes into the water, and see what feels right.  They might make a few changes to set them on the right course, get those pretty well established into their daily life, and then move on to make a few more.  Slowly, over time, they accumulate a pretty impressive list of diet and lifestyle changes – and since they’ve given themselves a chance to let them settle in, they’re usually in pretty good shape to continue.

Figuring out what works for YOU will help you build a healthy diet and lifestyle plan
The point is this – there are plenty of paths that lead to the same destination.  Some are short and direct, others might meander a bit – and neither one is necessarily better than the other.
Just as I do with my clients, you need to think about what you realistically can do.  If you hate cooking or just don’t have the time, does it make sense to adopt a diet that requires you to home-cook every meal?  If you can’t remember the last time you ate a fruit or a vegetable, is it realistic to think that you’ll suddenly start eating seven servings a day?  Maybe not.
But remember this.  The way you choose to eat, the amount of activity you get, the lifestyle choices you make are yours – you own them.  And you also need to accept that the results you get will be a direct reflection of how much effort you put forth.  The harder you work at it, the better the results.  But that doesn’t mean that slow and steady can’t win the race, too.  Because the best diet isn’t the one someone else tells you to follow – the best diet is the one that works for you.

By Susan Bowerman