Photo by Simon Shek.

It is very hard not to overeat in America.  Just about everything is set up to encourage us to overeat.  What industry or professional organization might benefit if you are healthy and eat nutritiously?  None.
After exports we still have too much food available in this country.  There is 3,900 calories available each [...]

Most diet programs are about the right food, the right amount of calories, or the right amount of carbohydrates.  Sure it leads to success if we are able to keep this up forever, but most of us will only get minimal success if we cannot control our feelings of deprivation.
Here are some behaviors that intensify [...]

Do we know the difference between feeling satisfied and uncomfortably full? As I mentioned in a previous post, our stomach is the size of our fist. Though it might take a while before our brain and stomach registered that we are full, our eyes will always think we can eat more .

Satisfied
Uncomfortably Full

When [...]

The stomach is about the size of our fist. Like a water balloon, the stomach expands when we overeat. It can hold up to 33 oz of food when expanded. The problem is that when we constantly overeat, the stomach believes that the expanded state is the new normal. Obese individuals actually have more storage [...]

I love the “Got Milk?” ads of a celebrity with a milk mustache. I do not know whether these celebrities are regular milk drinkers, but they sure make drinking milk look sexy. And they also reinforce the idea that drinking three glasses of milk a day will lead to weight loss. That is as true as a fairy godmother.

For most of us, our food choices will have the biggest impact on whether or not we will loose weight. In general, we know that daily caloric intake should be our weight multiply by 10. Then you throw in some multipliers such as your activity level plus your age, and voila! You arrive at your [...]

Like children, sometimes what we hear and what we do when it comes to improving our health are two different things.

What we hear:
What we do:

Eat less at night.
Eat nothing at night.

Eat smaller meals.
Eat carrot sticks.

Your caloric needs will eventually decrease with weight loss.
Start counting calories and eat as little as possible as soon as you [...]

I asked a co-worker once how she could be satisfy with a small microwave dinner for lunch every day, approximately 250-300 calories.  She was 53 and I was fresh out of school.  Here I was, wolfing down 400-500 calories every day and still hungry by 3pm.  She said to me : ‘When you get older, [...]

Do you find yourself depressed, moody, erratic, volatile, forgetful, and impulsive when you do not get your sugar fix? Can you say no to a small slice of cake without eating half the cake? You just might be addicted sugar like I am. Sugar addiction is a result of low serotonin and [...]

Memorial Day weekend.  BBQ.  Hot dogs and hamburgers (personally I prefer tri-tip).  Three days to relax.  What is there not to love?
However, beware of the extra calories!  The average person will consume one beer, a hot dog or hamburger, potato salad, chips, cold slaw, and maybe some dessert.  This is more than 1200 calories from [...]

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, when one person increase or decrease their weight, their closest friends and family are likely to do the same. Our social networks define our social norms and behaviors. If we are surrounded by people who are health conscious, then we are likely to do the [...]

This will be the last post for the Eating Smarter Series. I am antsy about moving on to other topics, hence I am combining the Eating Smarter Mexican food and Eating Smarter Greek food into one post. The previous posts for this series can be found here.
We will be discussing what to avoid, the smarter [...]

Fast Food
American Food
Italian Food
Asian Food
Indian Food
Mexican and Greek Food

a2a_linkname=”Make the Smarter Choice Series”;
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Omega-3 fatty acid is “essential” for health. The Mayo Clinic has a great article listing the benefits of omega-3, with a grading system from A -F for its positive benefit correlating with a health conditions.
The three health benefit of omega-3 with the strongest scientific evidence appears to be reductions in high blood [...]

According to Mindless Eating, drinking a broth based soup, a small side salad with non-creamy dressing, or a piece of fruit helps reduce the amount of calories eaten during a meal. These items consist of either fiber or mostly water which helps your stomach detect that satiated feeling to prevent overeating.
In addition, it takes [...]

Last time we discussed the smarter choices when eating at fast food restaurants, American restaurants, Italian restaurants, and Asian restaurants. Here is the fifth post of our making smarter choices when eating out series. We will be discussing what to avoid, the smarter choice to make, and special requests we should be making when we [...]

Last time we discussed the smarter choices when eating at fast food restaurants, American restaurants, and Italian restaurants. Here is the fourth post of our making smarter choices when eating out series. We will be discussing what to avoid, the smarter choice to make, and special requests we should be making when we eat at [...]

Last time we discussed the smarter choices when eating at fast food restaurants and American restaurants. Here is the third post of our making smarter choices when eating out series. We will be discussing what to avoid, the smarter choice to make, and special requests we should be making when we eat at restaurants that [...]

This article on msnbc makes me a little angry. The man is writing in for advice because his wife is getting too fat for him and he thinks it is all her fault. But here is the kicker, he was not particularly physically attracted to her in the first place, but it seemed to bother [...]

Last time we discussed the smarter choices when eating at fast food restaurants. Here is the second post of our making smarter choices when eating out series. We will be discussing what to avoid, the smarter choice to make, and special requests we should be making when we eat at restaurants that serve American [...]

In a perfect world, we would all have a healthy nutritious dinner at home each evening after a hard day. Since we do not always live in a perfect world, the best we can do is make better choices when we eat out. This is the start of a series of posts discussing [...]

Living in this century is all about time or shall I say the lack of time. With both parents working and scheduled activities for our kids, we trim our free time to the minimum and often multitask. We know that meal times can enhance our family and social ties to each other, but we choose [...]

When it comes to a healthier life style people think that once they fall off a bit or something unexpected happens, they need to start over. That is not true! Life crisis happen. We are still ahead if we just pick up where we left off. We are only setting ourselves up for disappointment and [...]

What is your main reason for wanting to loose weight? What is your initial decision as to why you want to loose weight? When we are in our comfort zone, it is hard to stay motivated for long periods of time. We have been overweight for so long, we have forgotten how wonderful it feels [...]

Quite often most people end up undoing all their hard work when exercising by eating too much. Exercise in does not compensate for that bowl of ice cream. But it took me a long time to realize that. I figured that since I was sweating and out of breath, I must have burned it off [...]

Can’t say no when someone insists you eat that extra slice of cake? But you immediately feel guilty after eating it? You might have the disease to please. And it might be sabotaging your goal to loose weight.
Usually if you have this problem, it does not just effect your eating habits. In your desire to [...]

A friend of mine asked me whether or not calorie shifting work. The idea is that calorie shifting is a strategy to reduce the natural slowdown in your metabolism when it thinks it should go on starvation mode when you are trying to loose weight.
Calorie shifting means changing the kinds of food, the components [...]

10 tips on how to stop weight gain at work.

As mentioned in my work environment post, we gain approximately two pounds a year as we age due to the sedentary nature of our lifestyle. What we do at work has an impact on our waistline since we spend so many of our waking hours at [...]

It take an extra 500 calories a day to put on one pound at the end of the week. There is 3,500 calories in a pound of stored fat. Most of us cannot tell that we are storing an extra quarter of a pound. Most scales do not detect that small incremental weight difference. By [...]

A co-worker asked me ‘What is emotional eating? Why does his wife talk about it all the time? Is it just a female thing?’
Emotional eating is when you cannot separate mood from food. Some people eat when they are happy, unhappy, bored, excited, stressed, relaxed, etc. Give me an emotional and there is someone [...]

For those of us that view food as a mechanism for coping with our emotions (ie. loneliness, stress, anxiety, and etc), we need to identify what is causing the behaviors in order to change it. We cannot loose weight when we eat to fill a void in our emotional state when we are not [...]

Interesting article about the benefits of green tea. The article mentioned the “Asian paradox” of Asian smokers with lower levels of heart disease. From my visit to China a few years ago, I hardly saw any fat people in that country. Actually the tour guide made a joke about using the larger doorway in a [...]

The person that has the most influence on a family’s diet is the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is the one that does most of the grocery shopping and the meal preparation. If you want success in your weight loss goal, you should pay more attention to what the gatekeeper is bringing into the house. [...]

Most people are creatures of habit. When we go to the grocery store, we usually buy the same foods each week. There is comfort in the familiar. That is why trying to eat healthy is so scary sometimes because we do not know how to make small changes without overhauling our entire eating habits.
It takes [...]

I had a great vacation even with the tornado warning at Kennedy’s Space Center. If I had follow my advice to have a snack pack with me at all times, then I would not have been starving when we were finally release from the theater at 4pm. I was the next person in line to [...]

I am off to my belated honeymoon. I probably will not be posting regularly again until after 2/18/08. Until then, here are some interesting eating quizzes links.
I love it when magazines show a food item from a restaurant and tell you which one is the better choice. I pay attention this because the next time [...]

I hope that all the pre-planning that I am doing this week will minimize the impact of my vacation on my waistline. I had never return from a trip lighter, but hopefully this time I will at least be able to maintain the status quo.
These are going to be my rules for dining out next [...]

I am going to Orlando for my belated honeymoon next week. I am a little anxious. No matter how good you are doing at home, once you get away from a controlled environment (my home), I am afraid that I will fall back on my old habits of getting “my money’s worth when eating out” [...]

The Super Bowl party turned out really good. I was worried that no one would eat my fruit and veggie trays yesterday, but we finished up the entire fruit tray and most of the veggies tray. I was the only one who brought in anything healthy to the party so I am glad that I [...]

The Super Bowl is tomorrow! We are going to a party at my friend’s house. Each couple is supposed to bring some snacks. On the menu so far are:

Mini pizzas
Cheese poppers
Spaghetti
Spinach dip and chips
BBQ pork
Chips
Mini tacos
Ice Cream
Soda
Beer

What is wrong with this picture? Where are the healthy foods? When I told [...]

As emotionally balanced adults, some of us never came out of the childhood stage with regards to food. As responsible adults, we learn that all actions have consequences. When we were children, we think for the present moment. The food taste good, we put it your mouth.
Stop talking about food as if you are a [...]

It would be nice to know how many calories are in that plate of pasta or sandwich before eating it when you dine out. Knowing the information might not deter you from eating the burger, but at least it would make you think twice about eating the fries. You can try looking up the information [...]

According to a study by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, people pour more into short, wide glasses than tall, skinny glasses. On average, people pour 19% more into short glasses regardless of the type of drink.*
I tried this experiment at home. Since I already know about this theory, I was careful when pouring into [...]

If you haven’t notice by now, whenever I talk about food, it usually revolves around convenience. And one of the most convenient food items available at your local supermarket is the rotisserie chicken.
Getting enough protein in your diet is important when you are trying to loose weight. It takes your body longer to digest protein [...]

Sometimes when you want to eat when you are not hungry, the best thing to do is to distract yourself. However that is not always possible when you are in an office meeting and the box of donuts is just sitting in front of you at the conference table. Unless you love your [...]

It is great to have healthy food at home, but unless you are on house arrest, there will be times when you need to leave the house. You should always have a snack and water with you at environments within your control, such as at work and in the car.
By having these two things [...]

Microwave dinners are a stable in my brown bag lunches. It provides instant portion control and convenience when we do not have any leftovers from the night before for lunch the next day. I prefer microwave dinner to fast food for lunch when I have the option.
Microwave dinners are not the salt pit that it [...]

I just got back from spending a long weekend with my parents. One of my younger sisters, Jen, looks great. I told me that she lost 10 pounds since Christmas. Her secret? She decided to go on an all vegetarian diet, but she still snacks on junk food. Huh? Am I missing something here?
Like Jen, [...]

Restaurant portion sizes are huge these days. I can usually go to a Ruby Tuesdays and have half of my meal for lunch the next day. Sure, I complain about not being able to control my weight, but I have physically remove half of my food from my plate prior to eating enough times last [...]

According to a study done by Rutgers University, premenopausal women need 1000 milligrams or more of calcium daily when dieting to prevent osteoporosis.* That is 2-3 servings of dairy products such a milk or yogurt.
I am guilty of not getting enough calcium even with I am not dieting. I am mildly lactose intolerant (mildly because [...]