renee wrote:

of course it requires motivation. how do you expect people to deliberately start doing something differently without motivation

Sorry, I meant to use a different term - Will Power...

Regards,
Jon

I think it's great Andrew that you're doing this and a very courageous thing to do too Have fun losing weight!

Hey Matt,
I hear you on the burger joint thing and kids! It's terrible!

My Au pair couldn't believe her ears a few weeks ago when we were pressed for time and I suggested we buy McDonald's for dinner and my kids shouted out 'NO!' at the same time!
She said no one would ever believe her!

That's what happens when you teach them right! I also had them watch the movie 'Super Size Me' which really grossed them out.

Way to go Andrew! I'll be rooting for you on your weight loss quest!

Wish I could do the same but for me it's not the food that's a problem...it's more injuries and lack of time! Food would be easier to fix! (for me)

Be healthy!
Isabelle

Isabelle_Aubé wrote:

That's what happens when you teach them right! I also had them watch the movie 'Super Size Me' which really grossed them out.

Isabelle

Isabelle, I do honestly believe that it's a good thing that your children aren't excited by the offer of McDonalds food. I am also curious to know how this means that you have taught them right. Burgers of any kind are not inherently bad or wrong and 'Supersize Me' showed that you couldn't live on an exclusive diet of McDonalds, not that you couldn't eat them at all. In fact, its message was about any processed food being unhealthy if it is a significant part of your diet.

It's a bit like Andy and his cream cakes. If he ate them daily then they won't be doing him much good. A few a month? Not so bad. That's still a lot more than me but I wouldn't consider it to be wrong.

That said, well done for helping them be able to make informed choices. I hope I'm helping my children do the same, though they are far too young to watch 'Supersize Me'.

All the best,

Stuart

Hi Stuart,
Nutrition is a huge part of my profession. We eat organic as much as we can and I do my best to keep meals as balanced as possible.

Don't get me wrong! I serve burgers in my home! But they are oven baked with oatmeal, red peppers and spice! And usually from lean meat.
With my aboriginal origins, meat is a huge part of my diet. I try to eat as much wild meat as I can get my hands on!

The way that I have taught my children from a young age is to differentiate what is good for their health, from what tastes good but isn't good for their health. I don't completely deprive them of 'bad' things. But I do tell them, we are only having one of these because it is good for the taste but not good for your health.

They automatically start to differentiate the healthy from the unhealthy and always ask the question. They also know what protein, carbs and fats are. It's like a game to know what category it is. Obviously they are often wrong in the beginning but we're getting there. They understand how sugar depresses the immune system (not in those words) as I have helped them realize the difference in their state of well-being after eating too much (Easter).

Food is a HUGE factor in our state of health. We truly are what we eat. It always astounds me when people tell me of their ailments and are shocked to hear me say they need to change their food!

*Stepping* *off* *of* SOAPBOX* *now*!

Eat well!

Isabelle

Isabelle,

Get back on your soap box and get yourself a megaphone!

In the UK a few months ago we had a story hit the media when 2 brothers owned a Labrador dog that became 69.8 kg (11 Stone!) in weight. For me this highlighted a rather crazy situation. Having a malnourished dog/child would result in criminal prosecution but only if they were underweight. Being obese and malnourished is not deemed worthy of prosecution.

"MacDonalds is the Anti-Christ" - Bill Hicks

harragan wrote:

"Isabelle, I do honestly believe that it's a good thing that your children aren't excited by the offer of McDonalds food. I am also curious to know how this means that you have taught them right. Burgers of any kind are not inherently bad or wrong and 'Supersize Me' showed that you couldn't live on an exclusive diet of McDonalds, not that you couldn't eat them at all. In fact, its message was about any processed food being unhealthy if it is a significant part of your diet."

Hmmm. Well, that's theoretically true, but in practice, places like MacDonalds tend to be a whole program deal, and the sugary effect of junk food is addictive for the brain, which runs largely on glucose - it's a bit like the 'turkish delight' in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' - so 'processed' foods aren't really just 'another kind' of food - they're more like drugs as far as our well-being is concerned. They should be treated with extreme caution and responsibility and generally avoided as they always bring a taint to the body of some kind.

"It's a bit like Andy and his cream cakes. If he ate them daily then they won't be doing him much good. A few a month? Not so bad. That's still a lot more than me but I wouldn't consider it to be wrong."

'Right' and 'wrong' are moral values that are difficult to ascribe around food - 'good' for your system or 'not so good' for it are the values I tend to operate out of. 'Wrong' would be trying to eat something totally alien to the body like bitumen or stainless steel for example...

"That said, well done for helping them be able to make informed choices. I hope I'm helping my children do the same, though they are far too young to watch 'Supersize Me'."

Forgive me, but if they're old enough to watch television at all, then they're already probably being subjected to Ronald MacDonald's brainwashing programs (sorry, adverts) at a very susceptible age - I'd be showing them the counterpoint at the same time so they can make an informed choice, personally. Prevention is always better than cure, especially when it comes to obesity and diet-issues...

One of the things I keep coming up against in folk I talk to about weight and diet is that the programming we take in as children dictates our future attitude towards body and food.
E.g. We tell kids, 'clear your plate' 'eat up' - which is entirely appropriate when a body is growing rapidly as in the case of kids - then, when we are adults and need less calories, we find ourselves unable to bear leaving food and/or throwing it away. We eat for comfort, because deep down we associate that with 'rightness' (parental approval). That is the power of programming. Macdonalds and co know this, they have teams of psychologists (probably NLPers as well) helping them write their next advertising campaigns. Recently they repainted all their restaurants green and earthy colours, presumably to 'associate' themselves with ethical-eco concepts, to move away from their image as representing the destruction of all things wholesome and good. Don't be fooled, their new healthy salad options were shown to be just as laden with salt and sugar (via the dressing) as any junk food they previously pedalled...
Macdonalds know the power of addiction and programming - I respect them about as much as I respect my local crack dealer. They play serious hard-ball and the only way to play with them is play them at their own game, or ban them from playing. Morgan Spurlock has very successfully played them at their own game, look at their response: junk salad and a total change of image.

Evil never quits - it just gets sneaky...

If it were up to me, all Macdonalds Restaurants would be painted a combination of black, red and luminous green to represent 'Warning! Poisonous and Dangerous - do not eat!' as nature does with poisonous things.. Also, they would always be located at number 666 on any streets they traded on...

Rant over - resume civilized discussion...

:cool:

As far as i am concerned & IMHO & According to my map...etc.

The only good place you will find lettuce is in a Big Mac !

But i may be wrong ?

Cheers,

Mark

I don't know if it's the same in the UK but they do have what they call 'healthy options' here in McD's.

However from what I have observed, people don't go there to get a healthy option! I don't see many salads being sold. I tried one once and it just didn't taste right to me!

It's scary for me as a Trainer and a parent to see what information people are being fed through marketing. I constantly hear how they are eating healthy yet when I ask them to specify most of it is crap!

'But on the box it says....'

Paul Chek, someone I have a lot of respect for says "If you can't pronounce the ingredient, don't eat it!"

I think that's a good guideline!

Be healthy!
Isabelle

It's scary for me as a Trainer and a parent to see what information people are being fed through marketing. I constantly hear how they are eating healthy yet when I ask them to specify most of it is crap! Isabelle

All the more business coming your way eh?

Yes Jon, I have tons of business and all kinds of people coming to me for help. I am grateful for my success.

At the same time I don't take it lightly. I wish health for everyone.

I don't enjoy hearing about others' health problems when they can be avoided or healed.

I do quite enjoy seeing them get better though! It's a double edged sword.

Today I helped an equestrian athlete with bummed knees. I used some of Ron's techniques...the little he showed me in Mexico and she felt much better! *THAT* is what I live for! She was telling others I gave her a 'magic treatment' LOL! How's that for a credible professional service!

*smile* If I start speaking about health and well-being I'll never shut up!

So...what were we discussing?

Well I used to do a LOT of cycling but I ended up selling my bike to get money in... plus it hurts my arms too much to cycle nowadays, I love cycling though, gives a real sense of freedom... breathing deeply and steadily I recall allowed me to go 10% faster without noticing more fatigue the key to excercise weightloss is enjoyment

I think it may also help if you keep it fun. Ofcourse different people have different approaches which work differently for them which is cool and a lot of people who I know who want to loose weight do not approach it from a fun angle. Some women I know say "I have to have a size 36 (european sizes) like you and then I'll feel good". It kinda takes all the fun juice out of it and then they get all these feelings of guilt, feeling bad and postponing feeling good untill they reach size X or an x amount of kilo's. This process doesn't sound like a lot of fun at all.

I'm not really an expert because I've always been pretty happy with my body but to me it makes sense to treat my body well.

Treating your body with respect and giving it good food, good excercise and staying relaxed to me is a lot of fun and that changes everything. It means that I'll eat stuff like apples and veg beacuse it makes me feel good and I enjoy it.

I'd say it would be well worth a try to see in what ways you can make losing weight fun. It will probably make you feel more relaxed more resourcefull and that will help to keep motivated. Just shifting your entire frame towards "losing weight is fun" just out of curiosity to see what new information it can offer you and if that may be worth trying out for you.

When I teach yoga one of the key things is fun. If it's fun then that just makes it more fun and it's easier to remain disciplined when there's an element of fun involved.

Has any weightloss diets been specifically built around foods that taste nice?

Shhh... only the ones that actually work that don't make any money for slimming magazines or gurus...

Really I guess it depends how you define 'nice' - I consider things like seeds, fruit, steamed or raw vegetables 'nice'.
A MacD addict considers a bunch of chemicals that stave off the withdrawal symptoms 'nice'.
Both are acquired tastes that bring their results over time...
It's up to you what tastes you acquire I guess!

:cool:

I'm surprise that the diet industry hasn't developed a highly addictive, filling low calorie product.

Isabelle, it seems like we're doing similar things to help our children around food. I get the feeling mine are a bit younger than yours and I'm interested to find out how they develop.

Stuart

southnick wrote:

I'm surprise that the diet industry hasn't developed a highly addictive, filling low calorie product.

The whole point is to keep people on the merry-go-round, so you might actually lose customers long-term that way! Anyway, the whole 'reduce calories, increase exercise' spiel doesn't pan out long-term in practice because it doesn't address psychological issues - that's where NLP comes in - and the unconscious always wins in the end. Dieting just creates dilemma for most people - guilt, anxiety, anger, self-hate/punishment - all prime markers to comfort eat.
The 'nice' part of junk is the sugar-rush and/or comfort of carb intake - this increases serotonin levels in the brain. Aspartame etc doesn't do that and it may be carcinogenic (although loads of sugar is indirectly anyway and nobody's trying to ban that...!)
Actually thinking about it, 'diet' coke is probably a good example of the kind of product you're talking about...

Be that as it may, and I agree the food industry is a strange place and the information provided even from the government at least here in holland is lacking . The thing is it's still your choice what you eat, unless you're saying that you magically just eat things without the foggiest what they may be .Coca cola may say their cool but really think about it they use cola at car crashes to wash away blood stains on the street, lovely

I'd say the main point is that you decide what you eat. You decide what kind of foods you put in your body. You decide how much excercise you get. You can blame cola till your blue in the face but it doesn't change anything.

I've noticed that when people start changing their diet to healthier things intitially it's like going through detox. Your body may have sugar low's becuase the intake of sugar in our society is just astonishingly high. Sugar is just thrown in a lot of food. That may demotivate people .However there are loads of ways in which to ease these effects and the results of eating healhty are worth it becuase it will give you more energy .

Personally I think a lot of the diet 'problem' is the language that is used. Lose weight and give up fattening foods. I don't know about other people, I was often told never give up and do not lose things.