Читать книгу Absolutely Everyone Needs a Plan - John Schlife - Страница 49

July 2020

Controlling Amounts: Rig the Game

Do you purchase 6 boxes of Thin Mints each year when the annual Girl Scout cookie sale is in your neighborhood, and then put them in your freezer with a commitment to make them last 6 months or at least 6 weeks? Do you then suffer from freezer burn as you stand in front of the open freezer door and consume the entire 6 boxes in 6 days or even 6 hours? How about going to an all­you-can-eat buffet with a commitment to eat light? How about putting extra food on your plate with the hopes of leaving some food on your plate because you have heard someone say that people who avoid overeating know how to avoid feeling compelled to clean their plate? Are you still overeating? Are you still eating food to make sure your plate is clean? Do you eat something simply because it is already on your plate or because you have already paid for it? Do you eat something because it is free (salty nuts and pretzels on the airplane)?

Healthy Foods

There is a tendency for the cynics and the critics to take a look at all the processed foods that are healthy and blame them for our increasing rates of obesity and diseases that are caused either partially or entirely by being overfat: heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, many cancers, etc. There are literally dozens of new nonfat, low-fat, lower-in-fat, no-calorie, or sugar-free foods entering the market every year. These healthy foods are being wrongly blamed for many of the health problems of Americans. For example, a fat-free cookie is considerably less damaging than the same cookie with fat. But the typical cookie can still have a large amount of both fat and sugar and is not a no-calorie or even low­calorie item. Too many cookies, even the nonfat ones, cause obesity. If someone eats a dozen nonfat cookies, it is not the fault of the cookie. The bottom line is simple: 1 nonfat cookie is preferred over 1 regular cookie.

New Research

The new research findings concerning the negative impact of overeating on ideal body composition, thus health, are very dramatic. It is better, significantly better, to be lean. When focusing on changing this condition, getting lean is actually step number 2. The first step is to get rid of extra fat (dropping from obese to normal). This would explain why there are really 3 levels: (1) obesity, a body fat composition that is having an obvious negative impact on daily functioning and health; (2) normal, neither obese nor lean; and (3) lean, a level that, in America, draws comments such as ‘‘too thin,” “skinny,” “sickly,” and ‘‘when are you going to stop losing weight?” but in reality this is the ideal.

Solution: The 2 Components

Although the research says lean is healthy, our first step is to not be obese. This weight control has 2 components.

 First is exercise. The surgeon general has given the first ever report from that office recommending more physical activity. Very simply, it is now a major public health issue. Inactivity is connected to all aspects of health (physical and psychological), longevity, death rates from all causes (not just heart disease), etc.

 Secondly, we eat too much food. We eat too much healthy food. Controlling amounts is the key. When purchasing and preparing food for at-home eating, or when eating out, consider using the following to help control the amount you eat.

Amount-Controlling Behaviors

 Fruit—select an apple, a peach, or a pear rather than a bunch of grapes. People graze on a bunch of grapes.

 Sandwich at the deli—use 1 filling (meat or cheese, not both).

 Sandwich at the deli—order half, even when a whole sandwich is a better buy. Too many half sandwiches that were going to be saved for the next day never make it to the next day.

 Potato—bake it. This is a very filling and exact serving portion. People eat several servings when potatoes are mashed or fried.

 Ice cream—get into the car and drive to the ice cream shop. Purchase 1 serving and stay right there to eat it. This is in contrast to purchasing a gallon, placing it in the home freezer, and then seeing if you can avoid it. One bowl at home will probably be 3 or 4 real servings.

 Pizza at a restaurant—order pizza, and while the pizza is baking, eat a plate of salad (vegetables, not cheese, egg yolks, and macaroni salad) and have a large diet drink.

 Pizza at a restaurant—order personal-size instead of ordering a whole pizza, and then planning to save the extra for the next day. Leftover pizza rarely makes it to the next day.

 Lunch—select items that automatically come in 1-serving sizes such as a bagel, a carton of light yogurt, a bean burrito, and a baked yam.

 TV dinners—now that Healthy Choice is on the market, these are available in a low-fat and acceptable-salt variety, but the main selling point (even with the old high-fat and loaded-with­salt varieties) is the control of the serving size. Heat it up, eat the small portions of 2 or 3 things, and pitch the container. There are no seconds.

 Cups, bowls, plates, etc.—there is a simple bottom line: People eat a bowl of cereal, a bowl of soup, a plate of pasta, a plate of rice, or they have a cup of coffee, etc. Think ahead. Plan for reasonable-sized serving dishes. This is rigging the score, setting yourself up to win, instead of taking too much on a large serving dish and then trying to not clean your plate.