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If youre like most people, youve done a few diets in your lifetime. Many folks have done dozens.

In fact, many of these diets probably worked for you in the short term8 weeks, 12 weeks, sometimes maybe even six months. Then, at some point, it all came apart. You fell off the wagon, stopped following the diet, and gained back whatever weight you had lost. Often, people gain back more than they had initially lost.

Most people follow this cycle of diet failure for years, or even decades. Its demoralizing.

The diet world would tell you that, ultimately, you failed because of a lack of willpower. That you just didnt have the herculean determination that really fit people have. You know, the diet industry likes to say that kind of crap.

The reality is actually even simpler: If you failed at a diet, you failed because of either a lack of flexibility or a lack of skills. Both of those things can be fixed with practice.

Developing skills and flexibility, in contrast to a diet, can feel like more work in the short term. It takes time and practice to develop skillsif youve done Elements or Mobius, or have learned any movement skill, you know that it takes time.

Eating skills are like that toothey take time and work to develop. Unlike diets though, skills get easier over time. Anything youve ever practiced, youve gotten better at over time. Eating skills are the same. Your initial investment of effort and practice will serve you for a lifetime.

Weve just launched a new coaching experience around building Eating Skills. Registration is open through January 25!

GMB Eating Skills Details

To understand why you probably dont want to diet anymore, paradoxically, it can be useful to look at what worked about the diet initially.

Most diets work for a few simple reasons:

Thats literally it. Thats what they all have in common. And those things can work.

All of the other things youve ever read about one diet versus another diet is the stuff that makes no difference. It doesnt matter if you eat after 7pm; it doesnt matter if you avoided a magic food; you didnt need a magical ratio of macros. Almost all of the differences between diets are the things that you can actually completely disregard.

The things that all diets have in common are generally good ideas. It actually works really well to eat more vegetables. Vegetables are super healthy and theyre really filling. Adding more protein is great for strength and being leaner, and its really satisfying. Both vegetables and protein, besides being healthy, have a huge benefit of having you feel way more full.

Eating whole foods is generally more filling and satisfying than eating processed foods. But thats the only magic: Fullness.

No matter what youve been told about some foods being clean and other foods being dirty, the game really is just that whole foods are more satisfying.

And yes, you should eat some vegetables and fruit because theyre healthy. Thats it. Simple.

Paying attention to portion sizes, in some manner of speaking, makes a difference. Losing weight is the result of eating less food energy, gaining weight is the result of eating more food energy. Thats it.

It has nothing to do with carbs being evil, or time of day (you arent a gremlin), or gluten being terrible, or any of those things youve been sold. The research does not support that any of those things make any difference at all, when protein and calories are matched (see here).

Spare me that thing you heard about what keto did in rat studiesit makes no difference with humans. We have robust randomized controlled trials, conducted in locked metabolic wards, to know that. It may hurt to hear, but there are no magic macronutrients. They were wrong about fat in the 1990s and theyre wrong about carbohydrates now (see here, here, here, here, and here).

Portion sizes matter. The snacks between meals matter.

Limiting options and decision making works because we all want life to be simple. We actually dont want to spend a whole lot of time worrying about food. Unfortunately, if youve ever done a diet before, you know that what feels like it simplifies things in the beginning can become a real bear over time. Most people end up spending more time worrying about food.

It starts to become exhausting trying to fit the diet rules into the ever-changing demands of your life. It becomes impossible when you get into a social or schedule situation where you dont have any options that fit your diet rules.

Of the things weve listed so far that work about diets, this is for sure the one you want to ditch.

Diets dont work for a few simple reasons:

Lets take a look at each of these reasons.

Diets are easier in the beginning because they constrain your choices. It feels good to know exactly what to do, and having so many foods off-limits actually cuts out a lot of crap food that most people eat. Thats why it works so well in the short term.

Unfortunately, those same rigid constraints are why diets fail in the long termat some point youll have a social event, a vacation, a really stressful week, youll get sick, something will come up where you cant follow the rules.

And diets are always black and white, you either follow the rules or you fail. Thats why, with a diet, the longer youre on the diet the bigger your chances of failing are.

Its not a matter of if, but whenwhen you have a life event that doesnt fit in with your diet rules, the diet is going to fail you. There will be a time when your life is too busy to do the food prep and fill all of the Tupperware containers on Sunday. There will be a time when you want to go to a wine tasting. There will be a time when your in-laws come to visit and dont want to eat your diet food. There will be a time when your kids get sick.

Things come up, whether good or bad, that dont fit your diet rules. And then you fail.

And dont get me started on free-days. The cycle of rigid diet restriction and free days can start to look a whole lot like disordered eating, really fast.

The restrictive days keep getting more restrictive. The free days keep getting bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, you feel terrible under-eating all week, then you feel gross massively over-eating on your free day. It doesnt feel good either way. Its an unhealthy relationship to food, both ways. It can give the illusion of flexibility, but its really rigidly too little and rigidly too much, just at different times.

If you think theres something wrong with enjoying a delicious plate of french toast from time to time, thats a good sign diets have negatively impacted your relationship with food.

Diet rules are bad for your well being.

The more you moralize food as good or bad or clean or dirty, the less healthy your relationship to food is. Youre hurting your wellbeing by treating food as a pass/fail system of whether or not you are a good person. Food isnt moral (see here, here, and here).

The question always comes up then, about whether quality of food matters. It matters for your health and it matters for fullness, but the spectrum is much wider than youve been led to believe.

There arent any foods that are always horrifyingly bad or miraculously good. Instead, just know that getting some vegetables once in a while is good for you. Whole wheat bread has a little bit more fiber than white bread. Having a doughnut once in a while is probably fine, even though having a doughnut twice-a-day, every day, might not work for some of your goals.

If a person believes that the world comes crashing down with one meal that isnt the perfect balance of macronutrients, or doesnt include something on the magic good food list, that belief has nothing to do with health or fitness, thats just diet perfectionism. People who are diet perfectionists are people who quit a lot.

Quitting because it wasnt perfect is just an excuse to quit. The guilt that comes with quitting, followed by the rush that comes with starting again next week, is a really unbalanced way to live.

One of the coolest things that comes up in research on eating behavior is that people who do skill-based eating have a better relationship with their bodies than people who use rigid diet rules.

I was pretty surprised the first time I read about this, but it actually makes sense: If you are learning to listen to and trust your body about hunger and fullness, and you can distinguish between hunger and stress, of course youll have a better relationship with your body. Youre getting on the same team with your body. On the flip-side, if you are constantly forcing hard rules onto it, regardless of what it needs, of course you are going to have a permanently adversarial relationship with your body.

Dont get me wrongthis isnt the end-all-be-all of body image, its just a piece. But its an important piece: Diets put you at odds with your body. Skills put you on the same team as your body.

Weve just launched a new coaching experience around building Eating Skills. Registration is open through January 25!

GMB Eating Skills Details

If you do this for a living, thats a totally different ballgame. Most of us dont fall into that category.

The people who do well with diets are usually people who:

Those people TOTALLY exist. You might even know some. Its really cool for them! But if thats not you, then you need to stop trying to do the diets that they do.

The other types of people who do really well at diets are people for whom their professional career depends on it. These people are:

They often have an entire staff and support structure that you probably dont have.

Its important to acknowledge that those people exist. You have to realize, first, that they are out there, and second, that you (if you are reading this) probably arent one of them. They might have won some sort of lottery in terms of how their parents raised them around food, or they picked up eating skills watching someone else. For them its all normal and easy. Thats cool.

We need to stop trying to do what those people do. We arent them. We need something smarter and more advanced than diets.

Alright, now were into the fun part: How to actually do well with your eating, and continue to do well for the long term!

If you have only done diets in the past, you may be wondering what it looks like to not follow rigid rules. Like, what do skills and flexibility look like?

Some skills you could work on would be:

Noticing when full is a lifelong practice, with multiple sub-skills that you could work on, progressively, over weeks and months (like well teach in our upcoming in the Eating Skills program).

Weve just launched a new coaching experience around building Eating Skills. Registration is open through January 25!

GMB Eating Skills Details

The basic idea though is very simple: Pay attention.

At a couple different points within the meal, check in with your stomach. Look at your plate and your food and notice how much you have. Be mindful of all of the flavors you are eating and be present with your food. Try to guess if this will be the right amount of food for you to feel satisfied for the next few hours. If it seems like too little, get more. If it seems like too much, stop eating. Self-check later and hone in your skill.

Distinguishing between stress and hunger is also a dedicated practice, and takes time and lots of repetition.

But it still comes down to checking in with yourself and seeing if you want this food because you are stressed out or if you want it because you are actually hungry. You can pause for a minute and notice whats going on for you: Are you stressed out? Tired? Procrastinating? Sad? Frustrated? Bored? Any of those things might be showing up as wanting food, but distinguishing those feelings from true hunger puts you in the drivers seat.

Some flexible guidelines you could work on could be:

The coolest thing about guidelines is that they are inherently flexible. If youre plating some version of a balanced meal, then thats all you doyou try to get some amount of vegetables, protein, carbohydrates, and fat on your plate, most of the time.

Lets get realif most people just added a little bit of vegetables it would be a huge step up. So get some vegetables when you can, but dont stress too much if you cant. Try to get enough protein to support strength and fitness, but if one meal is a little low, no worries, make it up over other meals throughout the day or week. Get fairly whole food carbohydrates and healthy fats in there.

And if a given meal isnt perfect, thats okay, youre just trying to get as close as possible. Thats actually enough.

Really, just having a good amount of vegetables is more important than 99% of the details youve been sold by the diet industry. Just getting enough protein over the course of the week is enough. Where the Eating Skills program does have (slightly) more directive guidelines, theyre still just guidelines.

Weve just launched a new coaching experience around building Eating Skills. Registration is open through January 25!

GMB Eating Skills Details

Plate more or less whole food. This is one that people get really hung up on, as if every fitness goal they have ever had will explode if they have a serving of pasta instead of a serving of quinoa. Really, get some vegetables in there, and either one is fine. Whole food is, at best, a continuum. At worst, its a made up distinction.

Look, if you eat carbohydrates that are obviously healthy, like whole wheat bread, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and so on, youre fine. That gives you lots of options. But you wont die if you have white bread or pasta, just put that white bread or pasta in a balanced meal with some protein and vegetables. Similarly, its great if you get a lot of your fat from fish or olive oil or almonds or avocado, but the world wont end if you have some bacon sometimes.

Having enough food at meals, and not snacking between meals, can be game-changing for people.

Most of the most processed and unbalanced food people get are snacks. Most of the extra calories they consume when they arent hungry at all are snacks. Research shows that snacking has no impact on how much food people eat at mealsits just extra. So, for many people, the biggest issues arent what they eat at meals, but all of the snacks they eat between meals.

Again, these snacks usually have little to do with hunger, and mostly have to do with being stressed out or bored or tired.

Of course, the exception is if people chronically under-eat at meals. Like, they eat a salad for lunch that has nothing to it, then of course they are hungry in the afternoon, and thats when cant stop themselves from having the candy. Of course they cantthey didnt have anywhere near enough food for lunch. So, it starts with eating enough at meals, and then you have a guideline that you mostly dont snack.

As always, a guideline is not a rule; rather, its a framework to make your skills easier for you. So, if you pause for a moment, check in with yourself, and find that you are truly hungry, you eat a snack. Because its not a rule, its a guideline.

As you can see, its the rigidity of diets that causes people to fail. Diets are too rigid to fit into a real life, so you need a plan that has flexibility built in. Again, its not a free for all with no structureyou still need a plan. You still need skills and guidelines. And you still need to plan and track your skill and guideline practice.

The skills and guidelines above can ebb and flow with your actual life. When you are out at a restaurant, you can order something close to a balanced meal, and you can notice and stop when you are full. When you get busy at work, even if you have to go out to get fast casual food for lunch, you can still work on not snacking between meals. You can use one or more of the skills and guidelines in nearly any situation you are in. You always have some tools to be in the drivers seat with your eating, and thats what autonomy looks like.

You have choices, you are the one making the choices, and you can make smart choices in any situation.

You have multiple things that matter to you in life. Your health as it relates to food and fitness is one of those things, but it isnt the only thing. With all of the different commitments in your life, you need to have some structure (like guidelines and skills), but you need to be able to have that flow with whats actually going on.

The kind of self-directedness you are looking for with your food is about doing what matters to you, inside of the context of all of the things that matter to you. Its about having the right amount of structure.

Having the skills and guidelines you need will put you in the drivers seat with food in your life. The only way to be successful, long term, is to have the skills to manage multiple different kinds of situations, and adapt to the ever changing demands of your life. Diets will never be able to do that. Skills and guidelines are the answer.

Eating Skills is a coaching experience that will help you build sustainable skills around how you eat, giving you a healthy, non-dogmatic approach to food.

GMB Eating Skills Details

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Why Diets Stop Working Long-Term GMB Fitness

By Matthew Cenzon. May 7th 2016

While experts, nutritionists and physicians would advise against them, many people look to crash diets to lose a significant amount of weight in a short period of time. Some do it because they don't have the patience to take up a regular diet and exercise regimen, and they want to see instant results. Others do it because they don't have a large enough time frame to diet and exercise regularly. For instance, someone might need to fit into a particular piece of clothing, like a tuxedo or dress, for an upcoming wedding or formal event. Whatever the reason may be, people are aware of the existence of crash diets that can lead to rapid weight loss, but aren't sure if they actually work. Here is a review of four different crash diets that not only work, but also work fast.

The cabbage soup diet is a crash diet that focuses on eating only cabbage soup for a week, with the addition of select fruits as another food source from time to time. By using cabbage soup as your primary food intake, this crash diet is designed to make you shed 10 pounds within a one week time span with no exercise required. The soup usually consists of:

While there are many variations to the cabbage soup recipe, the primary focus is to maintain a low-calorie diet without losing too many nutrients by allowing fruits and vegetables into the diet.

A juice diet focuses on the consumption of various juices as the primary source of food throughout the entire day. The juice can come from various fruits and vegetables, providing a source of vitamins and nutrients. This diet not only cuts calories, but also carbohydrates to induce rapid weight loss. This type of juice fasting also works as a detox diet, allowing people to slowly wean off of unhealthy habits like overeating, smoking or alcohol. The most common list of juices used for the juice diet includes:

A juice diet is said to cause anywhere between three to four pounds of weight loss per day, slowly averaging to one pound per day as the diet continues. Many people recommend making your own juices by buying fruits and vegetables and processing them through a juicer to gain the most vitamins and nutrients from the juice.

Like the juice diet, the liquid diet focuses on the consumption of liquids to induce weight loss. By replacing solid foods with liquids, you are restricting your calorie intake to low levels. Liquid diets can either be homemade, sold over the counter, or specially made by a health practitioner with added nutrients that promote fat burning. Many liquid diets that are sold over the counter are used as meal supplements, like a diet shake used to replace breakfast, then another shake at lunch, followed by a healthy dinner. However, the true liquid diet allows for no solid foods at all.

Other diets require you to replace your food with a diet supplement, like juice or cabbage soup, but the grapefruit diet allows you to eat most foods, paired with a half piece of grapefruit or grapefruit juice at every meal. One thing the diet does require you to cut out is carbohydrates. You can think of the grapefruit diet as a low-carb, high-protein diet with the addition of grapefruits. The grapefruit is necessary because it is said to have a fat burning enzyme, meaning foods high in protein and high in fat are not an issue, like eggs and meats. Foods like sweet fruits, vegetables, grains and cereals are not allowed during the duration of the grapefruit diet, which typically lasts 10 to 12 days. You must also aim for a reduction of caloric intake, similar to other crash diets, which usually consists of 1200 calories per day.

These crash diets are effective in achieving rapid weight-loss, but are not recommended due to the effects they can have on your body. These diets are low in both calories and nutrients. With a drastic reduction in caloric intake, the body may not be receiving the energy it needs throughout the day. The restrictive diet also reduces the amount of nutrients the body needs to receive on a daily basis. These deficiencies can have lasting repercussions on your body. Here is a list of things to consider before attempting one of these crash diets:

Many recommend losing weight the safe way by eating healthier and exercising more. However, no one can deny the incredible effects of rapid weight-loss through one of these crash diets. If you decide to attempt one of these crash diets, consult a physician and nutritionist beforehand. A crash diet should be done under a doctor's supervision to avoid injury or health complications.

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4 Of The Best Crash Diets That Work Fast

Have you ever tried to lose weight and failed? Started a diet and given up? Tried to stop a bad eating habit or start a new one, only to discover you didnt have the willpower or discipline to sustain the new behavior?

This article is not touting one diet or another. Rather, Id like you to consider why we fail to achieve goals we say are important to us -- using dieting to lose weight as the prime example.

Do a quick internet search of why diets dont work. Youll discover a bounty of evidence pointing to how neurological obstacles, biological responses and false expectations render diets ineffective at best, psychologically and physically detrimental at worst.

But counter this compelling research with successful dieters gracing the covers of magazines, winning TV weight-loss competitions or giving diet-ad testimonials. Arent they proof of mind over matter?

Some of the smartest people I know have failed to achieve their weight-loss goals, despite earnest attempts at one diet after another. Still, their hope springs eternal as they embark on the seemingly next best diet. Ive been fond of saying that any diet works if you stick with it -- the problem is we dont stick with it. But, of course, its more complicated than that.

Missing in the research of the diet naysayers and the attempts by potentially nave dieters is a crucial element of why most diets fail. This vital missing component is at the heart of everything you do -- and everything you dont do that you wish you did. The skill of motivation.

When you master your motivation, you create the choice, connection and competence to generate energy for sticking to your diet or continuing to pursue tiny habits that result in behavior change over time. Consider these scenarios.

You go on the keto diet recommended by your nutritionist. The list of what you cannot eat includes foods and drinks you have been living on for years. The tray of muffins at a company meeting calls to you. You answer, Im on the keto diet, I cant eat that muffin. You have just threatened a psychological need required for thriving (and we all desire to thrive) -- your perception of choice. Your first instinct is to take back your prerogative by eating the muffin. You need choice; you need to feel that youre in control. At this moment, you think its all about that muffin. But its not. Its about your perception of choice.

When you have mastered the skill of motivation, you recognize the real issue and ask yourself, What choices do I have? You can choose to eat the muffin. Or take a bite of the muffin. Or choose to eat the blueberries and yogurt. Sometimes, just recognizing that you have a choice is enough to make the right choice.

Jon Tyson/Unsplash

Understanding your why is a popular refrain these days. But your answer to why do you want to lose weight? may not lead to the psychological need for connection required for optimal motivation. If your why for going on a diet is to impress high school buddies at your high school reunion, release the pressure you feel from your doctor or family members pushing you to lose weight for health reasons, or win the iPad offered by HR for the most pounds lost, then your why isnt going to generate the optimal motivation you need to sustain your efforts.

Your why needs to reflect reasons that are meaningful, values-based, purpose-full, noble or of inherent interest to you.

I have witnessed people unsuccessful at losing weight until they identified a why that created a sense of connection to something or someone more important than the food they had to give up. This could be being more authentic toward the person they want to be, having more energy to pursue meaningful goals or being more present for those they love. When you master your motivation, you create connection by focusing on what you can gain instead of lose. When you diet from a values perspective, your energy shifts from feeling restricted to positive energy fueled by the peace and joy of living a healthy lifestyle.

Creating competence is essential to your optimal motivation. If youre going on the keto diet, understanding the process of ketosis can be energizing. Consider what else you could learn from the experience. When I chose a vegetarian lifestyle almost 40 years ago, I was as energized by learning about nutrition and healthy ways of eating as I was in giving up meat.

When my husband embarked on a new way of eating, we talked about what he was learning. Neither of us knew that red onions have fewer calories than white onions (less sugar content). But he positively beamed describing how he learned he could order a hamburger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun or pay for a full order of French fries instructing them to only fill the carton halfway.

He said, They thought I was crazy, but I learned that it feels good to eat only a few fries. He also learned that he doesnt have to be perfect. If he has a day where he chooses to eat more than he needs, he accepts it and finds himself eager to return to a routine that generates more positive energy.

Diets by their nature tend to undermine the choice, connection and competence needed to succeed. Mastering your motivation could solve the mystery of why diets dont work -- and what does. Create choice, connection and competence, and achieving your most aspirational dreams will become more likely.

Susan Fowler is on a mission to help you learn the skill of motivation. In her latest book, "Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals," she presents an evolutionary idea: motivation is a skill. Providing real-world examples and empirical evidence, Fowler teaches you how to achieve your goals and flourish as you succeed. She is also the author of bylined articles, peer-reviewed research, and eight books, including the best-selling "Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager" with Ken Blanchard and "Why Motivating People Doesn't Work ... And What Does: The New Science of Leading, Engaging, and Energizing." Tens of thousands of people worldwide have learned from her ideas through training programs, such as the Self Leadership and Optimal Motivation product lines. For more information, visitSusanFowler.com.

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Without this, your dreams will die - SmartBrief

Despite the constant noise of fad diets competing for our attention, the biggest trend in nutrition this year may in fact be an anti-diet called "intuitive eating."

Intuitive eating refers to a system of nutritional principles based on physical cues like hunger and satiety. It focuses on how you feel and what your body needs instead of adhering to external goals like calorie-counting or aesthetics.

It's on the rise among younger people, particularly on social media, according to registered dietitian Alyssa Pike, manager of nutrition communications at the International Food Information Council (IFIC).

A recent IFIC survey polled 1,012 Americans on food behaviors and perceptions to predict the biggest trends for 2020. Some 49% percent of people ages 18 to 34 had heard of the term, compared with 27% of people over 50.

A large number of people (more than half of the total surveyed) said they were interested in applying principles of intuitive eating to their own lives including paying close attention to their level of hunger and limiting distractions while they eat.

"People are getting so sick of dieting and now, diets disguised as wellness," said Christy Harrison, registered dietitian and author of "Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating."

"I think we're shifting toward ways to not have our relationship with food complicated by outside noise."

In contrast to diets that focus on aesthetic goals, the number on the scale, or calorie-counting, intuitive eaters stick to 10 basic principles of allowing their individual bodies and experiences to determine their food choices.

Those principles include things like "honor your hunger" and "feel your fullness," meaning intuitive eaters pay attention to the signals their body is sending about what it needs.

People new to intuitive eating may want to test out the limits and indulge in desserts, carbs, or other stigmatized snacks as reassurance that they're permissible. Eventually, as you start tuning into and trusting your body, you might find you're craving a salad, a hearty bean burrito, or a crisp apple, Harrison said.

Food should be enjoyed. d3sign/Getty Images

Harrison said intuitive eating is gaining popularity in part because people have begun to recognize problems with diet culture, including evidence that diets don't work, and the prevalence of dangerous eating disorders.

Intuitive eating also addresses a more insidious form of diet culture that has emerged in the form of "wellness," she said. This includes a fixation with eating "clean," for example, that can lead to its own form of eating disorder known as orthorexia.

Intuitive eating does take healthy eating into account, but only after unpacking the dietary dogma and pressure that often underlies the urge to eat healthily.The eventual goal of intuitive eating is to trust that your body knows what it needs to feel good, and that includes salads as well as sweets, healthy foods as well as indulgences.

"You can't really re-approach nutrition in a kind and gentle way without breaking down those ideas about diet culture. If you don't, that information just tends to get plugged into the existing framework and you still have a black-and-white weight-centric, weight stigmatizing way of thinking about things," she said.

Sometimes you're craving fresh veggies. Crystal Cox/Business Insider

Pike cited research that intuitive eating leads to better self-esteem, emotional well-being, and psychological resilience. It's also been linked to greater motivation to exercise, since it prioritizes enjoyment instead of guilt or shame.Although more research is needed to fully understand the effects of intuitive,some studies have show promising results that intuitive eating may lead to overall healthier habits overall.

Although it's tempting to ask whether intuitive eating can help with weight loss, experts say that's missing the point, since the practice encourages people to consider their relationship with food beyond aesthetics.

"The ultimate goal is to have food become one of many aspects of life that support your well-being, but it doesn't take on this outsized role where you're spending all your time worrying about food and nutrition," Harrison said. "It gives you time to think about other things that matter in your life."

Read more:

The Mediterranean diet is named the best diet for 2020, and keto remains one of the worst

Intermittent fasting may help slow aging and diseases like cancer and diabetes even if you don't lose weight

People eat less when food labels show how much exercise is needed to burn it off, but that could have dangerous consequences

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'Intuitive eating' is on the rise, and experts say it's because people are fed up with diet culture - INSIDER

Thinking about the daily diet of Gwyneth Paltrow, the founder and CEO of lifestyle and wellness brand Goop, conjures images of green juice and detoxifying salads. Since 2008, Goop has been responsible for bringing buzzy and occasionally controversial wellness trends into the zeitgeist.

"I think we feel really proud about the fact we're blazing trails a little bit and that we changed the conversation and that people, you know, seem to follow suit," Paltrow told CNBC's Julie Boorstin on Jan. 6.

When it comes to Paltrow's own diet, she seems to practice what she preaches, because it includes lots of health foods. She also exercises and goes on walks daily, because she told CNBC it's her "time to let the brain disengage from input."

Paltrow detailed her food diary in an interview with Harper's Bazaar posted on YouTube Jan. 7, and revealed some surprising "cheat meals" and unconventional wellness habits.

Each morning as she gets ready, Paltrow "oil pulls," which involves placing raw organic coconut oil in her mouth and swishing it around. She says it's "an ayurvedic way to remove bacteria from the mouth," she told Harper's Bazaar. However, there is no research that suggests oil pulling can prevent cavities or improve oral health, so the American Dental Association doesn't recommend it especially not in place of brushing and flossing your teeth.

Although Paltrow isn't "a big breakfast person" unless she's having a late weekend brunch, she likes to hydrate in the morning. She drinks two large glasses of water, then coffee, while she catches up on email and reads the news with her husband, producer Brad Falchuk, she told Harper's Bazaar. At her workout, she'll also mix two packets of GoopGlow Morning Skin Superpowder, a vitamin C and E blend, into "a big thing of water."

Like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Paltrow likes to work out before she heads to the office. Paltrow told Harper's Bazaar that she goes straight from school drop-off for her kids Apple, 15, and Moses, 13 to the gym. She's been working out with trainer Tracy Anderson for over a decade, and she's an investor in her company.

After working out, Paltrow stops to get an "amazing green smoothie" at her "favorite supermarket," Erewhon, a Los Angeles-based organic grocery store and cafe. She actually showers once she arrives at the Goop offices.

For lunch, Paltrow said she eats "stuff that you would see on the Goop website," such as a "really clean version of a turkey burger" wrapped in lettuce, or tacos using jicama as the shell.

Although Paltrow eats her protein-packed lunch at around noon or 12:30 p.m., she's not immune to the afternoon snack time slump. "At about three or four, I hit the snack cupboard at the Goop office," she said. Her desk snack of choice is cashews, pretzels or "something salty and crunchy," she added. (Snacking at work is wise, because studies show that hunger impacts your ability to make decisions and focus on tasks.)

Paltrow also drinks a cup of green tea in the afternoon "that will hold me through until dinner," she said.

Paltrow sits down for dinner around 6:15 p.m., because going to bed with a full stomach interferes with her sleep, she told Harper's Bazaar. Depending upon her kids' after-school schedules, they usually try to eat together as a family.

For dinner, Paltrow likes to make Asian food, such as noodles, or one-pot dinners from Goop, such as chicken and winter vegetables. "Those are great for weeknights as well," she said.

While Paltrow's diet might seem stringent, she loves to eat French fries and pasta. "French fries are sort of my favorite meal, not that they're a meal, they're technically a side, but I guess I could eat them for a meal," she said.

If "work is tough," Paltrow likes to unwind with a cocktail. Her go-to is a Gibson, which is a vodka martini with cocktail onions, or she'll have Japanese whiskey on the rocks.

"The Japanese make the most amazing whiskey it's very smooth, I love it," she told Into the Gloss in February 2018. Her favorite whisky brands are Nikka and Hibiki, she said.

However, Paltrow said she's "trying not to drink so much on weeknights."

"It's an easy habit to fall into because you've had a stressful day, so it becomes about the ritual of it," Paltrow said. And if she ends up with a hangover the next morning, her go-to cure is an egg sandwich and an IV drip of vitamins and electrolytes. "That's a very good hangover trick," she added.

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Loneliness is hardly a new concept, though its effects are being more closely examinedstudies have shown how people of all life stages and backgrounds experience social isolation, with more than two-thirds of adults of all ages reporting moderate to high levels of loneliness, according to a 2018 study. Additional research has found that loneliness can have the same physical impact as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, physical inactivity, and air pollution. But were also at risk of overextending ourselves, too. Stress from our jobs and interpersonal relationships can cause emotional exhaustion, resulting in irritability, lack of motivation, and even depression. And our online networks arent doing much in the way of social fulfillment either. However, finding the right balance of social connectionand a strategic lack thereofis possible.

Dubbed social nutrition by Jeffrey Hall, a researcher and professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, the idea is that having variety in our daily interactions improves our well-being. To have a fully balanced social diet, we need a little bit of everything: Deep connections, surface-level chats, and alone time, Hall found in a recent study. In examining the everyday social interactions of nearly 400 participants from across the country, he and a co-author found that less lonely people had more frequent interactions with close friends and family. Those with higher senses of well-being and life satisfaction interacted with more people overall. But time spent alone was also important.

Hall said that a healthy social diet wont look exactly the same for everyone. For example, a person who just moved to a new city and doesnt have a ton of nearby connections will need to be more intentional with who they interact with; they might benefit from joining a club to meet new people, or setting aside concrete time for phone calls with friends from home. Someone with deeper ties to their community wont have to act as consciously and can rely on familiar connections to meet their needs. But, in general, here are some tips for social interactions that can help most people achieve a socially nutritious diet.

Social relationships, like healthy diets, require balance. Fill out your social roster with work friends, close friends, and acquaintances you see at the gym, and protect some precious me-time. Rather than putting all of your eggs in a single social basket each day, Hall said, you should aim to have a conversation with a dear friend or family member, a lighthearted chat with a neighbor, and some time to reflect alone.

Maintaining variety in the types of people you interact with is also essential, said Emiliana Simon-Thomas, the science director Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and who was not affiliated with Halls study. There are great benefits from having dialogue with a greater variety of people with respect to expertise, background, and ideology, she said. Having a diverse representation of social connections is valuable to individuals and collective progress, assuming people work in cooperative ways.

Those with the healthiest social diets, according to Hall's research, had more meaningful conversations overall. And meaningful could be anything from a heart-to-heart to joking around, he said. Interactions with those closest to us are mutually beneficial: Chats with family and friends keep loneliness at bay for both conversation partners, Hall said. However, you neednt have these conversations constantly. You dont need every single one of your meals to be a dense, heavy duty meal, Hall said. And I certainly think that we can relate that to the idea that if every conversation was super intense, we would be exhausted.

Just because a social meal is more of a snack doesnt mean it isnt nutrient-dense. Spark small talk with strangers and acquaintancesthese are happiness-promoting, low-stakes opportunities to feel connected to your community. According to Simon-Thomas, even a simple knowing glance can be enough to convey connection. That exchange of a very minor or small smile, look of contentment can be all it takes to convey, in a strange way, the simplest thing, which is trust, she said. In the end, that doesn't feel like an expenditure.

Connecting with others requires energy. In fact, one study found that people actively avoid situations requiring them to feel empathy because it's too emotionally taxing. Because we each have a limited amount of emotional energy, we should be aware of the types of social interactions were having. A good, functioning social energy system is one where we feel a high degree of connection, but not a lot of energy output, Hall said. This means spending more time with people who energize you, and less time with those who leave you feeling drained.

Were all pretty aware of those energy vampires in our livesthe people who constantly depend on our emotional supportHall said, so becoming intentional with our social interactions can help us not only avoid emotional burnout but experience a more enriching social diet.

Though Hall said he cant pinpoint an exact amount of time every individual should be spending alone, he said youll get the most benefits out of time you actually want to spend alone. What really matters when youre alone is you say Im not lonely, I have no need to be with anybody else, and Im quite content, Hall said.

If you find yourself spending a great deal of time in solitude but wishing you werent, thats a problem. In this case, youll need to make a conscious effort to invest in your relationships, Simon-Thomas said. Strengthening the relationships, further solidifying the fact that hey, were friends and this feels nice!, she said, in many regards, that is an act of self-care.

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When the data from those studies was pooled and analyzed, it showed that people decreased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity by an average of seven minutes per day in the years immediately following high school.

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is a particularly perilous one for our waistlines and our general health, as is made clear in two new systematic reviews published this week in the journal Obesity Reviews.

One review found that leaving high school is associated with a significant drop in physical activity, particularly for people who go off to college or university. The second review reports that becoming a parent is linked to a substantial gain of weight for women.

Children have a relatively protected environment, with healthy food and exercise encouraged within schools, but this evidence suggests that the pressures of university, employment and childcare drive changes in behaviour which are likely to be bad for long-term health, said Eleanor Winpenny, the lead author of one of the studies and a behavioral epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, in a released statement.

This is a really important time when people are forming healthy or unhealthy habits that will continue through adult life, she adds. If we can pinpoint the factors in our adult lives which are driving unhealthy behaviours, we can then work to change them.

For the first study, Winpenny and her colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 19 previous studies that had examined how the transition from high school to college or a job affected peoples diet, physical activity and weight. The studies were all conducted in high-income countries (primarily in the United States and Australia), and most had been done within the past 20 years.

Seventeen of the studies looked specifically at changes in physical activity. When the data from those studies was pooled and analyzed, it showed that people decreased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity by an average of seven minutes per day in the years immediately following high school. The drop was larger for men (16.4 minutes per day) than for women (6.7 minutes), and the biggest decrease was among young people who went off to college (11.4 minutes).

Those may seem like small amounts, but even a 6.7-minutes-per-day decline in physical activity adds up to 45 fewer minutes per week. Current physical activity guidelines recommend a minimum of 2.5 hours per week of moderate-intensity activity.

Winpenny and her colleagues found no further change in exercise habits after college, although people tended to get less physical activity once they started a job.

Two of the studies revealed that the quality of peoples diets tends to worsen (due primarily to a lower consumption of fruits and vegetables) after leaving high school and again after leaving college.

Three studies showed an increase in body weight on leaving high school, but there wasnt enough data to determine an average increase.

The transition of leaving high school is an important time to support individuals to prevent decreases in physical activity and gains in body weight, Winpenny and her colleagues conclude.

The second review looked at another transition during young adulthood becoming a parent and its impact on weight, diet and physical activity. Led by University of Cambridge epidemiologist Kirsten Corder, the reviews authors examined data from 11 previous studies from North America, Australia and Europe involving people aged 15 to 35.

The most striking finding came from the researchers meta-analysis of six of the studies ones that followed women through young adulthood for an average of about five years. The change in body mass index (BMI) of the young women who became a parent during these studies was 17 percent higher than that of women who didnt have children.

The researchers calculated that women of average height (5 feet 4 inches) in these studies gained an average of 16.5 pounds during five years, while women who became mothers gained an extra 2.8 pounds for an average total of 19.3 pounds.That was the equivalent of a 3.3 gain in BMI versus a 2.8 gain.

One study looked at how fatherhood affected mens weight. It found no change.

The results regarding physical activity were less clear. Only two of the four studies that compared the exercise habits of new parents and non-parents reported that having a child led to a drop in physical activity. There was also only limited evidence of any kind of dietary differences between parents and non-parents.

Still, the weight gain observed in the meta-analysis among new moms is alarming and underscores the need for obesity prevention for all young women, including mothers, say the studys authors.

Interventions aimed at increasing parents activity levels and improving diet could have benefits all round, says Corder in a released statement. We need to take a look at the messages given to new parents by health practitioners as previous studies have suggested widespread confusion among new mothers about acceptable pregnancy-related weight gain.

FMI: Youll find both studies on the Obesity Reviews website.

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The first month of the new year is almost over, but there is one question I keep sarcastically repeating to myself: How bout those New Years resolutions you havent followed through with yet? Surely, I cant be the only one who hasnt started pursuing my New Year resolution of getting healthier? I spoke with a local life coach, addiction recovery specialist, weight management specialist, and a personal trainer to ask for their professional opinions on how folks like me can stick to their goals and fully commit to bettering their health and wellness this year.

One of the first people I instantly thought to ask was Troy Harris, owner of Traction Body & Mind in High Point. I personally know Troy because he is a Greensboro Roller Derby sponsor and lets us attend his aptly-named Saturday morning Troyture session. This intense workout is only an hour, but it includes running, weight lifting, stretching, core work and a whole lot of sweatand maybe some tears.

Troy is a weight management specialist, which he said encompasses personal training, behavior change and meal-planning. He describes himself as a one-stop-shop for clients who want to build strong habits for the long run. Troys tip for sticking to your resolutions is not to start one-on-one.

Do a slight dress rehearsal the week before, he said. Theres a lot of social pressure with starting on New Years Day. Its OK to start on March 14. This is your new habitthe only way it will work is when you make it a habit.

Troy said those that cant afford a personal trainer could still reach their goals, but they have to be serious in planning and setting up a system of accountability.

Planning draws the map, he said. Accountability holds the maps importance. It helps to have support as well, so reach out to others about your goal if you can. Especially when your self-motivation running low, which is a part of the process.

Troy stressed that people who are serious about setting any goal need to recognize the reason why they want to achieve that goal, in order to be successful in sticking to it.

My biggest advice is find your why, he said. Have something thats going to keep you going when you absolutely dont feel like it. I had to find my why before I opened my gym, and its been important enough to get me up at 4 a.m. throughout each week. Ive experienced de-motivation myself, and thankfully, I had that habit established to keep going. Once you get used to it, thats all you know.

Alisha Wielfaert would strongly agree with Troy, as that was her biggest piece of advice as well. Wielfaert is a Greensboro-based leadership, life and creativity coach, who uses positive psychology to coach others. (Wielfaert owns her own firm called Yoke and Abundance, and she is the host of the podcast, Wise Woman Wednesday.)

If something is really important to you, it is really important to connect to the why behind what you are doing, Wielfaert said. By revealing the true intentions behind the goal that you want to achieve, Wielfaert said it makes it easier to stick to. We have this collective unconscious this time of year, Wielfaert said regarding New Years resolutions. Where it is like, new year, lets make all the changes, and since we are all talking about it, it is at the forefront of our minds. It might be the switch someone needs to start moving forward for what is important to them.

Chris Robinson, owner of Fit-4-Life

She said according to statistics she acquired from her positive psychology certification, of the 46% of Americans who usually make New Years resolutions, only 8% of people are successful in achieving their resolutions.

From a positive psychology perspective, they say that most people fail to make a positive change because the goals that are being set is shotty, she explained. So then, they make a people-problem out of a process-problem.

To set more attainable goals, Wielfaert said for people to carve out time in their schedule and make their resolutions a priority every day. She said for people to dial back and build up instead of jumping head-first into a commitment they may not be able to keep.

Most of the goals we are setting for ourselves means that we are committing to a process, she said. Having that accountability can be really helpful. The other thing is to have a way to celebrate your wins.

I set myself a goal in December of doing something called Marcothon, she continued, sharing one of her recent goal achievements. You run every single day in the month of December, for a minimum of 25 minutes, or a 5K at the very least. There is nothing that happens if you drop out, you just drop out. The only thing you get at the end of Marcothon, is you get to say that you ran every single day in the month of December.

Wielfaert said she had a very strong why to back this goal up.

I wanted to feel healthy in my body, she said. It had personally been a hard year for me, so I wanted to make sure I was getting outside and doing something to get my endorphins up every day in the month of December.

She said there is also a group of people in Greensboro that do Marcothon together every year, and they all stay in touch through a Facebook group. She said after each run, people from the group took a picture of themselves and posted it to the group.

Life coach Alisha Wielfaert, owner of Yoke and Abundance

For some reason, posting to that group to me was highly motivating, like knowing that if I didnt run one day, I would have to tell the group I was out was like social accountability, she said. The days that were really hard, and I didnt want to do it, knowing I would get to post a pic of myself felt really fun. Having a group to build community with, work toward the same goal and hold you accountable for what you are doing is candy for some people who are motivated by that community atmosphere.

She said those who want to achieve their goals this year should think about the pitfalls, not so they hinder success, but so you can build up a plan to deal with them.

That is going to help support the goal you have, Wielfaert said. If drinking more water is someones resolution, one pitfall that could be avoided, she said, is making sure there is a water bottle at home, in your car, at work, etc. She also advised to get a calendar/planner and refer to it weekly to keep organized and focused on goals.

If you skip a day or fall off the wagon, just remember that falling off the wagon can be part of the process, and the important thing is to get on sooner than later, so that shame spiral doesnt get you down.

Chris Robinson, owner of Winston-Salems Fit-4-Life Personal Training Studios and personal trainer for 10 years, would also agree with Wielfaert.

The number one thing to sticking to your resolution is to not be so hard on yourself, he said. The reason why I say this, a lot of people are excited at the beginning of the year to do things different.

For example, Robinson said they might start a diet but stop trying after they mess up once.

They have to understand that the journey to living a healthy lifestyle, the journey to getting into shape isnt easy and it is not something you are going to be perfect doing. If you mess up or have a bad meal or miss one day at the gym, it is OK. Stop being so hard on yourself.

Robinson said for those whose New Year resolution was to lose weight, it is important to note that exercising and a healthy diet are mutually dependent on each other.

You can go to the gym all day, every day and not eat right, and be a person that is a gym addict, but in order to get results, [eating right and exercising] goes hand-in-hand, Robinson said. If you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle, the gym is one aspect of it. Dieting is the other aspect of it.

The most important lesson, Robinson said, for setting attainable goals and following through with them is learning balance. For some people, going to the gym isnt a problem, but eating healthier is, he said. That is a matter of discipline, which is what they lack. Consistency is key. He said even if people arent going to the gym every single day, if they go 70 to 80% of the week, they are still being consistent.

Cristin Whiting, owner of Road 2 Bliss

I have a program that includes Hell Workouts, Robinson explained. They actually are very popular on social media, Ive had different people from different cities, states tune in to watch the Hell Workout. I weigh my clients on a weekly basis. What happens is, if I weigh you on a Wednesday, I give you a weight loss goal to be met by the following Wednesday. If you do not meet the weight loss goal, then you go through a Hell Workout. Hell Workouts are created by me depending on the individual.

One of his most popular Hell Workout is on a Stairmaster, where I have my clients put a 20-pound collar around their necks, and they have to walk on the Stairmaster at a certain speed for a certain amount of time. If they stop, their time starts over. It is a workout all my clients hate, but in order to make it entertaining, it is done on my Facebook live. It is just to irritate them through their workout.

My job to keep them accountable, Robinson added. Most of the time, it takes the client one Hell Workout before they actually realize, let me follow my goals before I am on social media looking like I am about to pass out. It is not to embarrass them; it is to hold them accountable.

For those who may not be able to afford a personal trainer or who may not have time in their schedule, Robinson shared one of his go-to beginner workout routines that he said can be done anywhere.

Jog up an aisle and back down and then do 10 jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches, squats, etc. and repeat. The next set of jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches, squats, etc., decreases by two and repeats.

It touches every area of the body, he said of the beginner workout. It touches cardio, upper body, lower body strength, core strength.

Another resource for those who have limited funds to spare, he said, is YouTube.

There is one thing that all of us can access for free, no matter who you are, and that is YouTube. I tell people all the time that YouTube is your friend. You can find whole workouts on YouTube; you can put it on your phone, tablet, smart T.V.s, etc.

Robinson also said for those on a tight budget, his favorite place to get weight training supplies is the store Five Below.

Five Below is one of my favorite stores. You can go there and get dumbbells for as low as $5; you can get a mat for $5, and you can get ab sliders for $5 just rack up on those things that you can get for very little.

One piece of parting advice Robinson likes to give those who are looking to change their eating habits is to track their calories and their macronutrients.

If people really want to be successful in dieting, they really have to learn how to count their macronutrients, Robinson said. You cannot be successful in dieting without counting your macros.

Some New Years resolutions dont revolve around weightloss, dieting or physical fitness. That is where Cristin Whiting, PsyD., and clinical psychologist specializing in addiction recovery, comes in. Whiting is the owner of the Winston-Salem-based addiction counseling center Road 2 Bliss, and she is trained in three different forms of healing: medical, shamanic and yogic.

We all have maladaptive ways to deal with life and being in the world, Whiting said. We have patterns that dont work with us well. Most generally speaking, I think that is what addiction is a pattern not working well that is harming us. That could be drugs or alcohol, or it could be something else.

Whiting said addiction takes many forms and does not discriminate.

It looks like your minister, your doctor, your kids teacher, the stay-at-home mom you see next door, she said. Addiction is an equal opportunity experience; in that, it doesnt discriminate within class or cultural group or gender; it affects everybody. There are a lot of stereotypes about who addiction affects and what it looks like, but addiction looks like anyone.

She said the stereotypical perception of drug addicts are those who live under a bridge with a needle in their arm, but that is not how all addiction looks like. There are a lot of people who have really nice jobs, nice houses, that should be happy. But they are living a life of desperate anguish inside addiction that isnt obvious to other people. There are a lot of people living a double life.

Luckily, she said, there are just as many paths to recovery, such as those through behavioral health, physical disciplines, medications, 12-step programs and religious counseling.

Overcoming addiction is one of the most challenging things we can do, Whiting said. Addiction overrides all of our higher instincts; it becomes the strongest instinct we have. To really overcome it, people cant do it alone.

Whitings biggest advice for those seeking to overcome an addiction this year is not to do it alone and do not make a lot of changes at once.

I think people get ultra motivated at the start of the year, and they create lists that are impossible to achieve, she said. Take it a day at a time, just one day at a time. When you are new in recovery a day can feel really, really long. If you are used to filling your day with drinking or getting high or whatever the behavior is, and you are not doing that, all of the sudden, there is a lot of free time. Night can feel really, really long, so I would say you could break the day down.

She explained by making smaller goals throughout the day, like I am not going to do this behavior in the morning, it would be easier to meet goals and stick with them.

Go to bed early because if you are up late, that is just like more time for havoc to happen, she said. And besides, your brain needs to heal from addiction; you need sleep. Nutrition is an important part of addiction recovery, and hydrating yourself.

Dont let slips deter you from starting again, she added. On the other hand, remember, it is easier to stay stopped than to start and stop again.

Whiting said if someone isnt having success, they should look within and think about the acronym HOWHonesty, Openness, Willingness. She said for them to ask themselves, Am I being honest with myself?

Am I open to trying something new?

Am I willing to do [this] to get my life together?

She said to those that have cravings to use, look at the acronym HALTHungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.

She said for them to ask themselves, Do I want to use because I am hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?

One common thread that tied all of these interviews together was be kind to yourself. If you are bummed that you arent following through with your New Years resolution, remember there is still time 2020 isnt over yet!

Katie Murawski is the editor-in-chief of YES! Weekly. Her alter egos include The Grimberlyn Reaper, skater/public relations board chair for Greensboro Roller Derby, and Roy Fahrenheit, drag entertainer and self-proclaimed King of Glamp.

Wanna go?

For more information on Alisha Wielfaert, visit http://www.yokeandabundance.com/. Check out Traction Body & Mind on Facebook. Fit-4-Life is located at 111 N. Chestnut St., Suite 105 in Winston-Salem, http://www.fit4lifews.com. On Feb. 16, Whiting will be teaching a special restorative yoga class with live music by Colin Allured at 18 Springs on Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem. The class is from 1-2:30 p.m. and costs $25. To pre-register by email road2blissws@gmail.com.

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New year, new you? How to stick to your New Year resolutions - Yes! Weekly

Forty-three volunteers with high blood pressure completed the one-year trial. To measure the effects, the researchers gave their subjects questionnaires to gauge how well they identified and controlled their emotions as well as tests to assess their ability to pay attention to a task before the program began and again three months, six months and 12 months after it ended. The study also evaluated its subjects physical-activity level, diet, body mass index, perceived stress, alcohol consumption, medication adherence and blood pressure. Those who werent following official guidelines on heart health at the outset all showed improvements when it came to physical activity, diet and alcohol consumption; all participants reported lower stress. On average, a year later, the study participants had lowered their systolic blood pressure by six points and their diastolic pressure by an average of one point, a significant overall improvement.

But the study also illustrates the difficulties inherent in trying to judge the health effects of any psychological intervention. The scientific method, in comparison, is well suited to testing drugs like blood-pressure medications: One group of trial subjects gets the medication, another gets a placebo and neither the researchers nor the participants know who gets what until the clinical trial is over, eliminating the possibility that their expectations about the drugs effectiveness influence the results. In other words, the conditions for each group are exactly the same, except for the chemical makeup of the pill they are ingesting. In theory, then, any difference in health outcomes between the groups must be a result of that difference in chemicals.

It is impossible, though, for persons practicing mindfulness not to know whether or not they are doing it, so how do you create a placebo for a control group? Louckss study compared participants with themselves before and after the mindfulness training, but its impossible to be certain whether the training itself caused the observed changes. It could be that simply meeting in a group for two hours a week (or 10 minutes a week, for that matter) improves health. To find out, you would need to convene such a gathering for the same length of time as the mindfulness training group and then give them something to do, Loucks says. What is that content? taking a health class? and is it messing with our question? To put it another way, can you say what the precise difference is between the mindfulness training and that health class, which is the behavioral equivalent of the chemical difference between a drug and its placebo, that accounts for a difference in outcomes?

That difference, the aspect of mindfulness that impacts health, may become clearer as researchers develop increasingly specific mindfulness-training programs and test them on larger, more diverse groups of people. In Louckss study, as in many mindfulness studies, most of the participants who responded to advertisements seeking volunteers were white, college-educated and by definition interested in trying the practice, so its not clear if the results apply more widely. Loucks is currently running a randomized trial of his mindfulness-based blood-pressure program with 200 volunteers; those in the control group work with a physician to manage their blood pressure and receive a blood-pressure monitor to keep at home along with training on its use, which has been shown to improve how well patients manage their condition. (Not having all the answers yet doesnt mean we shouldnt act; health officials approve many drugs without knowing for whom they will work best, at what dose and why, or what their long-term effects might be, variables that even the most rigorous trials cant always determine.)

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Can Mindfulness Evolve From Wellness Pursuit to Medical Treatment? - The New York Times

Buddy Al-Aydi, a second-year English student, threw his backpack to the side of the Bruin Walk stage and ran up to grab a metal baseball bat. He brought the bat down on a bathroom scale on the stage and the piercing sound of metal colliding rang through Bruin Plaza.

By smashing that scale, it shows that it doesnt matter if the (scale) numbers go down or not, Al-Aydi said after climbing down. Its what youre doing, in terms of how you take care of your body (that matters).

A dozen scales were smashed by over 100 people during I Love My Body Week, which took place from Jan. 13 to Jan. 17. The week was hosted by the Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness Commissions Body Image Task Force.

Other events included a walk-in exhibition on international beauty standards, a dance class taught in high heels, a panel on boosting sexual confidence and a lecture about misconceptions surrounding dieting.

Body Image Task Force co-directors fourth-year sociology and gender studies student Helen Zhong and third-year financial actuarial mathematics student Lorena Palattao planned the week to create an open space to help students feel safe talking about their vulnerabilities and achieve self-love.

I definitely think that a lot of people dismiss body image as a very niche topic, but the truth is we all live in such an intense diet culture, Zhong said. Its really hard to find someone, especially a woman, who doesnt exhibit some kind of disordered eating, and its really relevant to everyone.

To encourage body positivity, many events focused on dispelling the effects of diet culture and weight loss efforts.

Students may feel pressure to diet because of social media or advertising influences, said presenters at a workshop called Debunking Diet Myths, which took place Jan. 14.

At UCLA, there is extra pressure (to diet) because when you walk on campus, there seems to be a lot of people that fit the LA mold that are very concentrated on that little plot of land, said Eve Lahijani, a nutrition therapist who spoke at the event. Even when you look at the ads on UCLA campus, they are all (of) athletes people who are in excellent shape, all have a certain body type, totally athletic.

However, diets perpetuate a cycle of self-hate, as failure to uphold dietary restrictions often leads dieters into guilt, shame and ultimately more binging, Lahijani said.

Instead of restricting certain foods from your diet, prioritizing the addition of healthy foods is more effective in maintaining mental and physical wellness, said Elena Eu, Body Image Task Force research director and fourth-year psychology student.

Eu researched common flaws in popular diets and presented them on poster boards for attendees to browse. For example, many diets teach dieters to ignore hunger, but by ignoring hunger, a dieter also teaches their body to ignore fullness, Lahijani said.

At the end of the day, youre going to eat thousands and thousands of meals in your life, and you dont need to give each one so much weight, Eu said. Its important to know that freedom from obsession with food is possible, and its definitely a journey, but self-educating like this is one way to start.

Dongni Zheng, a second-year public health student who attended the event, said she was surprised to learn that all diets can be bad for ones health.

Before I came, I expected to learn some good diets from this event, but the nutritionist actually talked about why they dont work, Zheng said.

The scale-smashing event, hosted Jan. 15 on Bruin Walk, was intended to help release frustrations associated with dissatisfaction with weight standards. The event was co-hosted by the Body Image Task Force and Southern Smash, a nonprofit that travels to college campuses hoping to redefine self-worth by inviting students to smash scales.

Other events aimed to help students feel more comfortable using their bodies in sexual ways.

At an event called Crafting Confidence in the Bedroom, co-hosted by Sexperts at UCLA and the task force, speakers offered suggestions to overcome doubts and apprehensions about sex.

Students were provided handouts that asked questions such as, What food would be your go-to sexy food? Answers included multiple-choice options such as whipped cream and lollipops, peaches, or other erotically shaped foods.

Third-year political science student Yoyo Wong said she thought that the event helped to destigmatize sex as a topic.

People might feel embarrassed to talk about (sex), but in this open forum it teaches you to be comfortable with talking about something that is really important to know about, Wong said. Its really okay to let go of your worries in the bedroom.

A heels dancing workshop held Jan. 15 also aimed to promote self-confidence. Students strapped on heels and joined instructor Shawna Pops on the dance floor to learn a short choreography that was recorded at the end of the class.

Heels dancing is owning your body and embracing the beauty of it, Palattao said. A lot of people think its provocative, but its not, so we just wanted to have a class where people could use a form of art to embrace who they are and see the beauty of their bodies.

The week finished off with a walk-in gallery in Kerckhoff Hall titled Unfollowing Beauty Standards. The artwork aimed to highlight and contrast the beauty standards of different cultures across the globe.

Awareness of worldwide beauty standards will foster a more accepting student body said Amirah Nathani, a fourth-year psychology student and Body Image Task Force membership co-director.

We tend to fall into what were comfortable with, (which is) often what weve grown up around or what we see most often, Nathani said. I really want people to see that the world is so much more different than what you as an individual know.

Despite the gravity of body image and its effect on mental health, Zhong said she hoped the week could be a joyous celebration of positivity and self-acceptance.

I would want people who come to leave with a newfound appreciation for their bodies and for all that their body does for them, Zhong said. Hopefully, they will learn to not compare themselves to others or social media, to be kind to themselves and to show their bodies compassion, whether thats eating when youre hungry or not going to the gym if youre tired.

Excerpt from:
Weeklong event aims to promote body positivity while taking on diet culture - Daily Bruin

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