Dropping the Fat

• Overcoming bad habits

• We look at the blog of Dr Mike Eades of Protein Power

• Just how to survive the invite to dinner with friends or at a restaurant

Watch Dropping the Fat Episode 3

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Dropping the Fat. In this episode we have a look at a website that’s an unusual choice but nonetheless it’s a good one! For many it may be a breath of fresh air.

We answer the big problem of overcoming bad habits to make your diet more successful, and in our Burning Question feature we cover the best way of handling the situation when you’re invited to eat at friends, or out in a restaurant.

All that, and more to come, in this episode of Dropping the Fat.

Intro

Overcoming bad habits

First of all let’s have a look at overcoming bad habits. Well, I’m sure you’ll agree that in order to get a solution to any problem, we first need to know exactly what the problem is. So what are bad habits as far as dieter’s are concerned? Well if you take a casual poll amongst any group of dieters, at the top of the list of bad habits you’ll find snacking or eating the wrong type of food for the diet. Now for low carbers that might mean eating that left-over slice of toast the kid’s didn’t eat for breakfast; or just having that one potato at Sunday lunch – it can’t hurt after all. I’m sure you get the picture.

Next on the list would be not doing enough physical activity. Now notice I didn’t say “exercise”. Remember, sitting around only makes you get round, and the more you sit around the rounder you’ll get! So not eating properly and not exercising are the two main problems that virtually all the other problems could be listed under. Let me explain a little.

Let’s take the first of those two main categories, not eating the right food. Eating the wrong food can only come from being able to get your hands on it. That means we leave ourselves open to temptation. In this instance, the solution is to take control of the situation as much as we humanly can. Now one of my favourite home-truths is that the diet starts in the store. Just take a moment to follow my logic here. Things we should not eat only end up in the cooler or the cupboard if someone buys them and puts them there. They don’t walk up and jump in on their own, do they?

So if we shouldn’t be eating them, it follows we shouldn’t be buying them in the first place. Now you might say: ‘I only buy them for the kids/or my partner/or whoever’. Maybe that’s true, but if they are not good enough for you, why are they good enough for them? Why not buy something else that you can ALL eat instead? For instance, maybe candy bars are your weakness. Well, just remember that those around you will be just as keen on low carb candy as you are. Now if there’s stuff in your cooler, cupboard, desk drawer or wherever, and you know you shouldn’t be eating it – get rid of it and don’t buy it any more.

That way it’s easy to avoid temptation, just with a little thinking, planning and organising. The next area of temptation that folk find difficult is where they’re among friends, family and work colleagues. It seems wherever we go there’s temptation all around us. For instance, in some companies there is a tradition of buying birthday cream cakes, where the birthday guy or girl has to get the cakes for their workmates. They come round saying: ‘I’m 21 again, have a cake and help me celebrate’, it just seems so churlish to refuse. Well frankly, whatever the situation you find yourself in, no matter how tempting the offers or how rude it may appear to refuse a well-meant treat, we only have ourselves to blame for being in that situation.

‘How can that be?’ I hear you ask. Well, actually, it’s quite simple. Most of the people we like, as a general rule, like us back. Which means that on the whole they want what’s best for us too. Now if they know we’re on a path to better health and fitness, then they are not going to want to be the ones who lead us astray – not if they’re real friends. So the best way to handle all of these situations is to make it known that we’re doing our best to get fit and that we now eat only food that’s good for our health. The thing is, of course, you have to be very tactful. Remember, it’s human nature that if you decide not to eat something because you have learnt they are not good for you, some folk might take that the wrong way, especially if they still eat it. Imagine blurting out on your colleague’s birthday that you don’t eat cakes any more because they’re bad for you – well, they could quite easily jump to the conclusion that you are saying all cakes are bad and they are trying to give bad food to everyone in the office, thus inferring that they are a bad person as well. Well, you don’t want to do that, do you? So whatever you do, use tact and diplomacy. I suggest you use the scientifically based fact that each of us have certain foods that our bodies respond well to and other foods that it doesn’t respond well to. Let’s face it, nowadays most folk will quite happily accommodate someone like a vegetarian without a second thought. So if you bring your change of diet in an informative and non-accusatory way, then the same courtesies as offered to the vegetarians will be offered to you too, and no-one’s feelings will be hurt.

The best time to do this of course is now. Don’t leave it until you’re faced with a situation like someone coming around with a box of cakes to make your new diet known. That could actually be quite disastrous. The solution for this type of situation is to make your dietary preferences known in advance. Simply tell people in a tactful way. Now this advice is as good in the home and with friends as it is in the workplace.

However, sometimes there are situations in which temptation to eat badly just seems far too strong. I know. Thankfully, we have a couple of ways to overcome those situations as well. The first is, if it’s difficult, just don’t go there. Do something else instead. For instance, you may have a regular meeting with friends at, say a pizza or pasta restaurant, where you know there is nothing on the menu you can eat. Well, why not suggest another venue that you know is good for you too? If that doesn’t work, don’t go; but do take time to keep in touch with the people you would have met there, and I’ll bet they’ll appreciate the time you spend with them just as much, if not more, than they would have spent the time as a group. Especially if you get the time to do that one-to-one.

The second thing you can do is to get some moral and practical support. Remember, you’re not alone. There are always folk you can call upon to help, but it’s up to you to find out who and where they are.

Next, the other main area that gives folks problem is that of exercise. First, look at how you behaved before you decided to drop the fat. I’ll bet exercise, or any other slightly physical activity, was something that, if it ever got on the list, was only ever at the bottom, in brackets and only ever written in pencil. Meaning that if you could find a reason not to do it, that was OK. Well, maybe that’s not you, but you know what I’m saying.

To be frank, exercise is something that does not have to be a stand-alone event taking up part of our day. With a little forward thinking and planning, we can integrate physical activity into a lot of what we do. For instance, why not take the stairs instead of the lift? Walk to the store instead of taking the car? Well, I’m sure you get the idea. Take a look back at Episode #1 as I go into doing “Exercise without going to the Gym” in much more detail, so do take time to view that episode.

The bottom line is this – a bad habit can only continue if we continue to provide a habitat or venue for it to happen in. In order to get rid of these bad habits we need to:

1. Take charge of our lives

2. Don’t leave things to chance, you know what is said about idle hands.

3. Plan for those situations we know we find difficult, even if that means doing something else, and

4. Be prepared.

Before you drop off to sleep each night, just take five minutes to think through the coming day, and when you spot a possible problem, briefly work out in your mind the best way to handle it. Honestly, that five minutes of your time could turn out to be the most useful part of your day.

Healthy Click - Mike Eades at protein power

So that’s it – how to overcome bad habits. Now, onto another life changing few minutes, as we take a look at another Healthy Click.

It’s a quick one this time, also it’s an unusual website to recommend. Now I’m sure many of you will have heard of Protein Power by the good Drs Michael and Mary Edes. Well, that’s not the site we are looking at this time, worthy though it might be and just the place if you want to get more info on the protein power diet. However, some of you may not be aware that both Michael and Mary each have a blog that contain a wealth of information on many and diverse subjects; though of course much is on the subject of low carb. Anyway, the thing we are going to have a look at here is Michael’s blog which you can find at www.proteinpower.com/drmike.

Now in amongst the advertising, you’ll find a wealth of interesting articles written by Dr Mike, and to me at least it seems like he’s writing in a far more relaxed way. It’s like you’re getting to see the real man shining through. Now the information there is as you would expect top notch and low carb based, and the quality of links off to other sites is good too. So I do recommend you have a look, not just for the information, but also when you want something that’s as interesting as it is diverse. So there we go, Dr Mike Ede’s blog at www.proteinpower.com/drmike.

Burning Question - Surviving eating out or with friends

Very quickly, let’s move onto our Burning Question. A Low Carb Monthly member writes: “I’ve just started doing low carb and I love eating out, and even more so with friends. Do you have any guidelines that would make this easier, as I don’t want my friends to think I am being difficult.”

Well frankly, eating in a restaurant or any other situation should not be a problem provided you follow some basic guidelines. To begin with, choose a restaurant that you know does food you can eat. Obviously a steak-house would not be a problem, but perhaps a restaurant specialising in pasta would. Next, try and get a peek at the menu beforehand to confirm what dishes are available. Most chains now have many of their menus online and some even have the nutritional values as well, so you can be well aware of what you can eat beforehand. By the way, many smaller restaurants will have a website as well and they often list both the menus as well as their speciality dishes. Alternatively, you could phone up or call by to get the information before your meal out.

Now if none of these are possible, then all is not lost, as even without foreknowledge, you can still choose wisely, leaving off (or just not eating) the things you know you shouldn’t. Remember, you’re the customer and within reason, you’re paying to have what you want to eat. Well frankly a restaurant that didn’t want to please its customers would be a very strange one indeed. So that’s all well and good for eating out, but what about eating with friends?

Well in fact the same rules apply, well almost! The only thing is that eating with friends may require a little extra tact more than anything else. So here are my top tips for the eating with friend’s situation:

Firstly remember that many people have favourite dishes that they like to do on special occasions. If you’re host or hostess has one, and it’s low carb friendly and you like it, why not ring up and request it? That can only really be received as a compliment, and on the night you could explain how lucky you are that your friend’s speciality is something you can eat and really enjoy in your new diet, with no guilt, worry or stress.

Otherwise, find out what’s planned and just let them know well beforehand what you can eat on your new diet. Stress the fact that you don’t want them to do anything special. The fact is that most people can cope with special diets and many will rise to the challenge of finding something tasty that will fit everyone’s needs – even if it’s only making sure they prepare a bigger joint then normal!

In any case, your host will appreciate knowing beforehand, as at least that way they have the opportunity to prepare and they won’t be seen to fail or fall short as a host. An alternative is to offer to take over a low carb dish that will complement the ones that your host is planning to do. If all else fails, you could offer to invite them over to your place. This can sometimes be an easier option as then everything is down to you. The bottom line is, as in all these situations, to take control and make sure it works for everybody. Leaving things to chance might mean you could go hungry or worse still, cause your host anxiety.

Well that’s all we have time for this time. In the next programme we’ll be taking a look at the induction type phases of low carb diets and how you can use them in other ways than just kick-starting a controlled carb diet. There will of course be another Healthy Click and yet another reader’s Burning Question will be answered. Until you join me again, this is Mark Moxom wishing you the very best until the next time on Dropping the Fat.