It is practically an expectation in health and wellness forums to talk about weight loss after the first of the year. New Year’s resolutions being all the rage in January. Perhaps you plan to lose a few pounds this year?
For me, it’s always around the middle where I put on a few pounds. You know, the little beer belly. The muffin top. The love handles. Begone, all of ye!
I was doing so well last fall, eating right, exercising more and so forth. Then winter in Minnesota hit. Now it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. The perpetual ice slick on the sidewalks turn running or walking outside into a potentially bone-shattering experience. I mean, literally, bone-shattering as in broken hips and wrists. It has been so cold outside that your teeth hurt the minute you leave the house.
So I tend to hibernate a bit. Evenings on the couch reading next to a warm fire, although evoking images of Norman Rockwell, are not the way to shed pounds. Especially if I’m eating unhealthy foods all evening and maybe having a glass of wine with my chocolates. Wow that is starting to sound good: warm fire, wine chocolates, a good book . . . ah, but I digress. I’m supposed to be talking about diet and exercise here.
Reminds me of a post I did about the challenges of staying active in northern climates. Check it out here.
To show you the depth of my dedication to the cause of fitness, I included a recent photo of me above. Yup, that’s me all right.
Healthy life choices
So we talked weight loss and healthy livin’ on the show this week.
To help me out, I invited a repeat guest to last Sunday’s Healthy Matters broadcast. Joining me on the radio show was Natalie Ikeman, who is a Physician Assistant HCMC’s Golden Valley Clinic. She runs “The Great Slim Down” weight loss program which you can check out here.
If you missed the show, you can to the podcast by clicking the “Play” arrow here: 
Tips for losing weight and keeping it off
Natalie gave us some great tips from her work with patients trying to lose weight. I’ll review some of them here.
Make goals.
With her patients, Natalie meets monthly to set goals. The good news is that they don’t have to be huge undertakings. The goals can be small changes in your daily lifestyle which you continually adjust, a process which Natalie refers to as “turning up the dial” on your goals.
Just a few examples of achievable goals are:
- Stress management tactics
- Better food choices
- Portion control when eating
- Finding time for daily movement, like taking small walks on your lunch hour
Nothing big, nothing huge, just small changes to your daily routine.
People who are successful at weight loss have some common characteristics:
Natalie’s patients in the Great Slim Down have lost an average of about 16 pounds. That is not only impressive but it is a sustainable amount of loss. She points out a few characteristics of these patients:
- They keep a daily record of their food intake. The simple act of recording what you eat – whether on paper or using one of the many apps for your mobile device – makes a person aware and less likely to fool themselves into thinking they are eating healthier than they really are. People usually eat more calories than they realize!
- They are active often in their daily lives. They find a way to move throughout the day.
- They are striving to meet their own goals, not goals set by someone else.
- They hold themselves accountable by sticking with it.
Pop (soda for those of you not from Minnesota) is not a healthy choice.
The sugar in soft drinks has virtually no nutritional value, and in fact, it probably leads to weight gain. For more on that, see my previous blog post, “Just a spoonful of sugar . . . is really not good for you.”
After Natalie and I suggested that we ought to avoid so much sugary soft drinks, a few listeners asked if diet pop is healthier. In a word, no. Although diet soft drinks are probably better than sugary drinks, they also contain ingredients that lack much nutritional value. Maybe stick to water!
So how about water?
For years, decades really, people have been taught to drink more water. Most of us probably remember the “8 glasses a day” advice. That is, in fact, what I told patients for years. But the reality is that there is not a lot of scientific evidence that otherwise healthy people need to drink more water than they already do. In other words, if you are thirsty you get a drink and if you are not, you don’t.
Photo: Jean Fortunet
So that’s it? Is that all there is to the water story – that it doesn’t matter?
Well, maybe not so fast. . . as we talked about on the radio program, there are some studies from this past year that suggest that there really is a benefit to drinking more water. One study found that more water was associated with less obesity. You can read about that one here. Another study found that drinking more water made people consume fewer calories, – check out this article about that one from the Atlantic.
I should caution that no single study can be used to definitely prove anything. Truth with a capital “T” is hard to come by in medical science! So whenever I refer you to studies like these, I do so to get you thinking about your own situation and not to imply that one study is proof of anything. Replication is the key in scientific studies (the findings of one study must be confirmed with separate studies).
But the water studies are at least thought-provoking. It makes sense to me that if you are focusing your liquid intake on water, you will be less likely to drink soft drinks and fruit juices that are loaded with calories and sugar. That has to be a good thing.
As Natalie said on the show, none of us should be “drinking our meals.” Amen to that.
Move more
One half of the healthy equation is Eat Less. The other half is Move More. But how? Most of us are not about to lace up our running shoes and hit the pavement for a long run. Most of us can’t get to the gym for a run on the treadmill or an exercise class. If you can do those things – great!
But lots of us have physical limitations that prevent vigorous work outs. And gym memberships ain’t cheap! So what can we do?
Let’s turn to Natalie again. As a companion to “The Great Slim Down” program, she has produced a series of short videos to give you ideas for exercise that may be right for you. Some are low intensity, others more vigorous. Some require standing and moving while others can be done by people from a seated position.
Here’s an example of one of Natalie’s videos:
To see the rest of them, go to the HCMC YouTube channel. If the link doesn’t work, simply search online for “HCMC YouTube channel” and click Playlists. You’ll find them there.
Housework is good for you
Listen to the show podcast (the player is above in this post). We talked about housework as a form of exercise. And you know what? It works. One listener to the show moved nearly 10,000 steps in one day simply doing housework. I complained that now I really have no excuse not to vacuum the house. Rats.
The Great Slim Down
I’ll close with one last word about the Great Slim Down. If you are in the Minneapolis area and struggling to lose some weight, maybe you should see Natalie. Simply call 612-873-6963 or check out the Golden Valley Clinic site here. No better time than now!
Thanks for reading. Hope you are all having a good day, a good week, a good winter where ever you are!
David
