1) Practice "mindfulness," that is, observing my thoughts without judging. I want to become of aware of my automatic negative thoughts about myself and change them to positive messages. I want to practice compassion and loving kindness to myself, especially when I fall down. At first I'll just be pretending, but if I do it enough, it will become real. The same goes with having a positive attitude--you just practice it enough, it becomes your way of thinking. I'm reading this book, "Wherever you go, there you are" by Jon Kabat-Zin, about meditation. My motivation is for other reasons than food, but I think it applies here too.
2) Try not to get obsessed about food. It doesn't help that I have this blog and participate in the Fuhrman forums. Beyond that, I need to live my life to the fullest and think about food only when necessary for planning and preparing and enjoying.
3) Practice scenarios ahead of time. Practice what I will say when someone kindly offers me a vegan cupcake that they made from scratch just for me! Pretend I have a lot of self-esteem when I do this since in real life I don't. The answer is different when you have a lot of self-esteem. But that is the right answer. So you practice that one. For example: "Thank you so much but I am avoiding baked goods for health reasons. I'm really sorry you went to all that trouble for me." Remind myself in various situations why I want to not partake. For example, for me, processed flour and sugar feels yucky for a few days, not just a few hours. So that is the reason to say no to the muffins and cookies and cupcakes when the temptation is there. Same goes for salt. It causes an unpleasant physical reaction that lasts for a day or so--too long to be worth it! With oil, I don't have any physical reactions that I notice. However, I love the fact that I have more aerobic capacity than people 20 years younger than me at the gym--mainly because I'm usually the weakest one when it comes to the weight-bearing exercise, so it's so fun to surprise them when we do stuff like climbing stairs. So remembering that is enough motivation to avoid the oil. Plus nuts and avocado taste sooooo much better than oil!
And the physical things are easy:
4) Do bright light therapy every day--20 minutes under a bright light or in sunshine every morning. I don't generally do this because I ride my bike every day, but on cloudy days I really should. Take my DHA, gentle care vitamins, and vitamin D.
5) Follow Fuhrman's program. It's very simple: lots of leafy green vegetables, lots of other vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts and seeds (1-3 oz per day). And avoid oils, salt, processed grains and sugar.
6) exercise, which I'm addicted to, so no problem there. check out my biking blog...
7 comments:
Barb,
Have you read "Feeling Good" by David Burns? I suffer from periodic anxiety/depression episodes and have found this book to be very helpful. He deals with handling negative thoughts. The first 3-4 chapters are especially good. www.feelinggood.com
I am wondering whether nuts/seeds and avocados will help with mood stabilization. I didn't do that well on a low fat diet. But, in addition to helping with arryhthmias (I think) maybe the great diet with the healthy oils added will help with moods.
I haven't done my New Year's Resolutions yet. Fuhrman sure made 2008 better though.
Happy New Year!
Hi Howard, Thanks for that book tip, I had not heard of it. I'll look into it.
I think the healthy fats and DHA are supposed to help with depression/anxiety, as is the bright light therapy. Is there such a thing as a healthy oil? oh, unless you mean DHA.
Happy New Year to you too!
-barb
I am not sure about healthy oil? I haven't found any research that convinces me that lots of nuts/seeds are good. I take Joel on faith on that one.
oh, I see. I refer to nuts and seeds as "healthy fats", rather than oils. I think they are healthy. They seem to keep my heart beating regular.
I agree about nuts and seeds. They do seem to help the heart, but my question is how much is too much? I tend to overeat on nuts/seeds. That is subjective. My weight is stable, but does eating 40-50% of calories from the fat in nuts and seeds pose a risk for cardiac disease. Esselstyn and McDougall say any fat over 15% of calories is potentially harmful. Fuhrman disputes this. I think and hope that Joel is correct. Joel says too much fat from nuts/seeds is only harmful if eating nuts/seeds crowds other nutrient rich foods out of the diet. So, I guess if we don't gain weight and we keep our diet balanced and highly nutritious we shouldn't be concerned about fat %.
I see your point, that you are hoping Fuhrman is right given the other recommendations. Well, I tried Esselstyn's plan for about a week and got a lot of skipped heartbeats, so I know no nuts is not good for me. Fuhrman has said that if you are active, 40-50% fat from nuts and seeds isn't a problem, as long as you are getting enough of the healthy greens and veggies in. I find if i overeat the nuts and seeds I do gain weight, so it seems that 3 oz a day is the right amount for me. Even that is quite a bit calorie-wise, and probably gets me up to 30-40% fat calories. I recall Fuhrman saying somewhere that the reason Esselstyn cautions against nuts and seeds is that people tend to overeat them, and Fuhrman doesn't want to make that decision for people. Also, Esselstyn is treating people who are overweight with serious heart disease. You don't need so many nuts and seeds when you are losing a bunch of fat because you body is burning your body fat.
I am trying to ration my consumption of nuts and seeds. Currently I average about 4-5 ounces per day. No weight gain, but I am going to reduce to 3-4.
I'd like to lose more weight.
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