Tag: overweight

Thanksgiving: How Not to Pig Out

People often wonder how to make it through Thanksgiving without pigging out on sweets and quickie carbs and going into sugar shock.
They don’t want to wake up having gained weight, feeling fuzzy-headed and moody.
Just think: Wouldn’t it be nice to feel happy and self assured that you didn’t cave into those candied yams, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes?
So today’s Tip of the Week will offer you three simple tactics to put into action at your Thanksgiving meal:
1. Imagine What If… Just think about how you’ll feel the day after Thanksgiving if you allowed yourself to have some “treats. Would you feel angry and disappointed at yourself? Would you lose self-respect? Would you feel discouraged that you couldn’t control yourself? My clients say that all of the above emotions would hit them—and hard. So before you put those Thanksgiving “goodies” into your mouth, just “Imagine What If…”

Doctors Group Gets Intimate With Coke

Have you heard yet that the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) — which is dedicated to helping everyone attain "optimal health" […]

CLA May Speed Reduce Stubborn Fat Around the Middle

CLA Frequently, clients ask me what they can do to reduce reduce stubborn fat around their mid-section other than quit sugar and refined carbs and regularly exercise.
My friend Jonny Bowden — one of the most knowledgeable nutritionists in America today — just wrote a fascinating post on his blog that touts the virtues of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), noting its effectiveness in losing body fat, especially around the tummy.
While “losing pounds is CLA’s most notable claim to fame,” Jonny points out, its benefits also have been known to also include “slowing the spread of cancer cells, help stop bone loss in postmenopausal women and interestingly, calming of inflammation linked to asthma and a host of other things.”
Jonny writes about CLA, because a study in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that CLA is effective at reducing body mass index (BMI) and total fat tissue without altering lean body mass among obese, postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes.

Halloween Tricks Kids Into Sugar Overload: Op Ed Piece

Are you re planning on passing out sugar-filled candies for Halloween tomorrow night?
If so, you should know that every time you hand out candies, you’re tricking kids into sugar overload.
Halloween isn’t just one night. It paves the way for bad eating habits year-round.
Read more about this in our opinion piece in today’s Newark Star-Ledger.

New York-Area Residents: Break Free of Sugar this January at the New York Open Center

New York-area residents, would you like to release unwanted pounds?
Would you like to feel liberated from your sugar habit?
Would you like to boost your energy so you’re consistently full of verve and spunk?
Kicking or at cutting back on sugar and refined can quickly enable you to all of the above — and more.
Save the dates now!
You can catch a free introductory program on Tuesday, January 5 at the New York Open Center, which recently moved to cool new offices.
Then, learn how to begin Breaking Free of Your Sugar Habit by taking my four-week course, which runs Tuesday, Jan 12 at the pm EST when I speak at the New York Open Center.
Your seminars will be tasty, too. On all nights of my class, you’ll get a chance to taste sugar-free goodies from my friend Alicia O’Connell Cohen, founder of Kate’s Cookie Jar.
At my introductory talk and in my four-week course, you’ll:
* Learn how to begin to escape from the sugar influence.
* Find out about how your sugar habit can cut your life short and lead to diseases galore
* Enjoy participatory adventurcises™ (adventures that are exercises)
* Start to understand why you’ve been “using” sweets and how you can use that failure as a stepping stone to success
* Begin to confront your sugar truth
* Find out this is a great time to be in New York as you’re phasing out the sugar. (You’ll learn about the brilliant, new “Are you pouring on the pounds?” campaign from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
* Have a chance to take a fun, but serious SUGAR SHOCK! Quiz, that will reveal the extent of your reliance on sweets.
* Bond with other like-minded sugar addicts.
Readers of this SUGAR SHOCK! Blog who show up at my January 5 talk at the New York Open Center and sign up for the class will receive a special gift from me.
I invite you now to sign up for my four-week course at the New York Open Center, beginning January 12.

The Soul-Searching Food Journal™ — Forms to Keep Track So Your Weight Disappears

Did you know that research shows that if you keep a food journal, you stand a greater chance of losing weight and achieving better health?
Indeed, people who’ve happily peeled off the weight — “Highly Successful Losers™,” as I call them — report that one of their Smart Diet Habits™ is to “Keep Track Like a Lab Rat™.” (In other words, watch yourself as if you were a scientist conducting an experiment or monitor yourself as if you were your beloved pet.)
When you Keep Track, you don’t mindlessly shove nutrient-lacking non-food in your face. You think first, because you know you have to write it down — and possibly share it with an accountability partner.
To help you out, I’m sharing a food journal that I’ve created.
Feel free to share The Ultimate, Soul-Searching Food Diary™ with friends, co-workers, gym buddies, bosses, hairdressers, fitness trainers, loved ones and even frustrating frenemies. In short, spread the link love, as some like to say. (Of course, please provide the proper credit though, as indicated below.)
The Soul-Searching Food Diary™ — From Connie Bennett, Author, SUGAR SHOCK!
Name ________________________________________
Date _________________________________________
What did I eat and drink?
(Any sugary foods or drinks? Any refined carbs? Any artificial sweeteners? Any foods with gluten? How much salt? How did I I feel? Was I physically or emotionally hungry? (On the 1st line, state what you ate. On the 2nd line, jot down how you felt — tired, famished, angry, edgy, frustrated, furious, stressed out, etc.)
7 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
7 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
8 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
8 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
9 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
9 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
10 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
10 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
11 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
11 a.m. _______________________________________________________________
12 noon _______________________________________________________________
12 noon _______________________________________________________________

New York Area Sugar Addicts: Catch My Talk Thursday, Sept. 10 at the New York Open Center’s Open House

Would you like to become liberated from your sugar habit?
Would you like to feel energy on a consistent basis?
Would you like to release unwanted pounds?
And would you like to get along better with your loved ones?
Kicking or at least cutting back on sugar and refined can be a fast, effective way to achieve all of the above — and more.
Learn how you can be “reborn” by Breaking Free of Your Sugar Habit on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 pm EST when I speak at the New York Open Center, which is having an open house at its new facilities that evening. I am one of 9 speakers featured.
At my talk, you’ll:
* Learn how to begin to escape from the sugar influence.
* Find out about how your sugar habit can cut your life short and lead to diseases galore
* Enjoy participatory adventurcises™ (adventures that are exercises)
* Start to understand why you’ve been “using” sweets and how you can use that failure as a stepping stone to success
* Start confronting your sugar truth
* Have a chance to take a fun, but serious SUGAR SHOCK! Quiz, that will reveal the extent of your reliance on sweets.
* Bond with other like-minded sugar addicts.
Readers of this SUGAR SHOCK! Blog who show up at my talk at the New York Open Center and sign up for the class will receive a special gift from me.
Please note that Thursday’s talk is a free introduction to my four-week course at the New York Open Center, beginning January 12.
If you can’t make my talk on Sept. 10, you also can attend a free introductory program on Jan. 5.
Again, if you sign up for my Breaking Free of Your Sugar Habit course at the New York Open Center as a result of reading this blog post, please let me know at the open house, and I’ll give you a special gift.
Plan now to attend the New York Open Center’s open house on Sept. 10. I look forward to meeting you.

Are You Drinking Yourself Fat? New Yorkers Urged to Quit “Pouring on the Pounds”

The next time you think of grabbing a soda, sports drink, fruit-flavored beverage, lemonade, punch, Snapple or other sugary drink, just imagine lards of fat spewing out.
If “Yuck!” is your response to this disgusting, fatty image, then the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will have accomplished its mission.
Indeed, thanks to a brilliant, new “Are you pouring on the pounds?” campaign from the city’s health department, many subway riders are being confronted via posters (some 1,500 in all), which alert them to the consequences of their sugary beverage consumption.
I’m thrilled by this bold move to shock New Yorkers — especially overweight and obese ones — to action by spreading the message, “Don’t drink yourself fat.”
As more and more New Yorkers are becoming obese, a hard-hitting, in-your face approach is exactly what’s needed to wake people up to sugar’s dangers.
“Just trying to be positive and encouraging doesn’t always get people’s attention,” New York Associate Commissioner Geoff Cowley told the Daily News. “If you get in people’s faces a bit, that does get people’s attention.”
It’s also smart, I believe, for York health leaders to state what’s so patently obvious to those of us who are sugar experts.

Reader Admits That Her Sugar Addiction Story is Embarrassing, Too: What Do You Think?

Frequently, I hear from readers of SUGAR SHOCK! In fact, of the hundreds of emails I receive daily, those from readers are the most heart warming.
Here are some comments that came in yesterday in response to my email, in which I invited people to take a sneak peek of my book, get my shocking definition of sugar shock; learn my rather embarrassing story and how I used to act quite undignified when consuming sugar; and discover startling information about how millions are harmed by their excessive sugar consumption.
Kim [I changed her name to protect her privacy] from Michigan wrote:
“Embarrassing [sugar] story? It’s exactly like my own life! Talk about humiliation. I’ve spent years in hiding, afraid that someone would find out. Yesterday, I received my copy of ‘Sugar Shock’ in the mail and I promise to do those things that freed you from a life of shame. My husband will reap all the benefits of having a much happier wife. We have been right at the door of divorce for almost 19 yrs. [He] has tried everything to get rid of this dark cloud of depression! Thank you, Connie for being our answer to prayer. Sincerely, [name], a trampled housewife, in Michigan”
Don’t those remarks just bring tears to your eyes — or at least choke you up?
If you’re a reader of SUGAR SHOCK!, please feel write to me. I’m always eager to hear your thoughts, no matter what they are.
Share your thoughts now.
Would you like help to kick your sugar habit so you can lose weight, get more energy, enjoy better relationships and become happier? Learn how to break free now. (Next program begins tomorrow.)