Ways to Lose Weight - A Baker’s Dozen

We welcome our guest blogger, Sandi Thompson, a nutritional therapy practitioner and certified wellness coach who is here today sharing her tips about how to lose weight:

There was an article in the Los Angeles Times about the grim data on U.S. obesity. There's only one state with an obesity rate under 20% - Colorado squeaked in at 19.8. Compare that to Mississippi with a rate of 34.4%. That means over a third of their population is not just overweight but downright FAT.

What can you to do? Here are 13 simple tips to take the bathroom scale in the other direction:

Slow down and chew your food. Quit inhaling it. Give your stomach time to signal your brain that you are full. This takes about 20 minutes. Have you lost the pleasure of dining and exchanged it for gulping?

Put your fork down between bites. This really slows down your eating, allowing you to savor your food.

Eat fruit between meals instead of grabbing a latte and a cookie. Your mid-morning and mid-afternoon hunger can be healthy - some nuts, a piece of fruit, maybe some crunchy carrots and a piece of cheese. A stroll at this time of day helps get your blood circulation going and that’s good if you have a desk job.

Stop drinking anything about 20 minutes before a meal. This creates a better environment in your stomach for digestion. If you have to drink with your meal, take small sips. Better digestion means more nutrients are absorbed. You may experience fewer cravings.

Go for a walk after dinner. This doesn’t have to be a race. A 20 minutes family walk after loading the dishwasher can take pounds of the scale and inches off your waist. It’s okay to stop and smell your neighbor’s flowers, but keep going.

Step up your exercise gradually. Start by parking further away at the grocery store or the office. Go for the parking place that allows you to stretch your legs a bit, not the one right beside the door. Over time, this little change pays off.

Leave temptation on the shelf at the store. If you want a treat make it healthy like a piece of fruit. Keep the ice cream, cookies, candies, cake, chips and crackers out of your home and you will have a better chance of losing weight.

Open your mind to new ways to celebrate success. Instead of a big night out and a huge meal to congratulate yourself, how about tickets to a concert, a play, an overnight trip, a sports event or something else that doesn’t center on food. How about a new pair of shoes? That makes me happy!

Scan the buffet line BEFORE filling your plate. It is easier to make better choices that way.

Aim for feeling full instead of stuffed when you get up from the table. One way to do this is concentrate on eating greens like salad or cooked vegetables along with protein and pass on the starches like potatoes, rice and bread.

Keep yourself hydrated. We often mistake thirst for being hungry. Try this for a week: instead of grabbing coffee in the morning when you get up have 8-16 ounces of water. Sip water throughout the day and aim for 8 glasses. Dehydration can sometimes be diagnosed as dementia in the elderly.

Read labels and make good choices. Keep the grams of sugar in packaged foods to 7 grams or less per serving. It’s often the sugar in our food that keeps us fat, not just high fat foods. Sugar seems to fuel our appetite for even more sweet foods. Wean yourself off sweets and you’ll see the pounds disappear.

Lose the soda. There is nothing good about soda. It’s loaded with calories if it’s regular soda and loaded with artificial sweeteners if it’s diet soda. Either way, it’s loaded with chemicals and it doesn’t hydrate you the way water does. Plus, diet soda can actually make you crave more calories and sugary foods.

Thanks for your wise and practical advice, Sandi. And if you want to learn more about Sandi and what she does, log on to her website, Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Are Your Kids Hooked on TV?

The latest Nielsen figures indicate that children are watching more television than ever - those aged 2 to 5 are watching more than 32 hours a week while for those 6 to 11, it drops slightly, probably due to school hours, to more than 28 hours a week. That's still, on the average, more than 4 hours a day. These numbers include VCR and game console usage but not time on the computer or playing hand-held video games.

Are you concerned about these numbers? Children's healthcare advocates certainly are. They have warned that this increased television watching may be linked to two childhood issues: obesity and delayed language skills.

For the past decade, parents had thought that Baby Einstein videos would help their infants develop language skills but actually studies have found that infants who watch these kind of videos actually learn fewer vocabulary words than those who don't. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends only an hour or two of TV for children older than 2 years, none for those below that age.

What can you do, as a parent, to wean your children from excess hours spent on television, videos and video games? It's not a simple process, but you can start by talking with your kids about why you believe it is important to reduce their electronic screen time. Help them see that it is not a punishment, but rather an important part of their growth. Here are some suggestions to get you started as you craft a plan that works for your family.

If you are a Sandwiched Boomer, single parent, or working mother, you are likely already stressed by your responsibilities and tempted to use television as a baby sitter. Instead, encourage your children to help you while you are doing things around the house - bring them into the kitchen to help make dinner, let them fold their own laundry, make it a game to see who can straighten up faster. Talk with your kids while you are getting your own chores done and make them a part of the process.

Set aside time for them to play outside with their friends. Learn more about after school activities in which your kids can participate - at school, in your local community center, at the park.

Encourage your children to read instead of watching television. Think about how you can make reading more interactive and interesting for them. Have a good book of your own handy so that you can sit down with them and read together.

Be a good role model. Don't leave the TV on as a background. Watch only the shows you specifically choose.

Include your children in planning which shows they will watch and when. Remind them that they need to limit their screen time to only what they have chosen. Set the amount of time they can play video games, hand-held or on the TV. You may decide on specific days or times for this activity. Make up a chart so they can plan for the week and let them fill in the times they have watched.

Set family rules about what is and is not acceptable in terms of TV and video games usage. Let your kids know that you are consistent in enforcing them. You can even purchase and use a TV/video game time management tool. These allow you to implement the time limits you have set with your children.

You may find that, as in any dramatic change, it takes many baby steps to alter your kids' television viewing habits. When you feel overwhelmed at the thought of prying your children's eyes off the TV, you can find some tips to get started at our website, www.HerMentorCenter.com. Click on the post title above to read an article giving you some suggestions about how to begin: Sandwiched Boomers: 7 Tips on Fighting Inertia.

Listen up, Sandwiched Boomers. For the first time since the influenza epidemic of 1918, life expectancy is falling for 1 in 5 American women. The downward trend, more evident in rural and lower income areas, seems to be driven by an increase in deaths related to high blood pressure, smoking and weight. More than 30% of the U.S. population is obese and 60% is overweight - which is often asociated with diabetes and heart disease.

There is some speculation that stress also plays a part in these new statistics. And who would know that better than women of the Sandwich Generation, who are handling increasing responsibilities with parents growing older and children growing up. So notice your behaviors that can be modified, such as smoking, poor diet or lack of exercise. It may not be easy, but make a commitment to take better care of your health - for your own sake and the benefit of your family.