Diet & Weight Loss Articles: Try this trick to get started on your diet, with a smile.

Contents for this issue:

1) Article - Try this trick to get started on your diet, with a smile.
2) Recipe of the Week: Hoppin' John, from Dr. Dean Ornish
3) A few words of support.

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Try this trick to get started on your diet, with a smile.

I know it's New Year's Eve, so tomorrow many of you will be starting a new diet.

For those of you still hanging on the cusp of commitment, here's something that might help make your diet more effective when you finally get around to it.

I actually used this trick myself, and I've tried explaining it to many
people. Most of them think I'm nuts, and you may, too. But keep a sense of humor, and try it, even if you do think it's silly. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Just before I started on my diet and lost my extra 35 pounds, I was working for a manager who really tries hard to make everyone feel appreciated and special. So she quite often brought us donuts (my downfall) and put them out on a table next to my cubicle for our department to enjoy.

I could smell those donuts all morning until they were gone - and I always helped myself to at least one of them, and usually more. (Which is one of the big reasons why I needed to lose 35 pounds!)

If this, or anything similar, happens to you, and you haven't quite started your diet yet, try this little trick.

Start out in the morning telling yourself that you're going to eat a donut today.

Then when you take your favorite goodie out of the box, tell yourself that you're eating that donut because you really want to know what it's like to weigh 200 (or 250, or 300) pounds!

I'm not being sarcastic - I really did this. And I did it cheerfully, with a good attitude. Why? Because the statement "I want to know what it feels like to weigh (10 pounds more than you already do)" isn't true. And you know it.

But for the last few months you've been telling yourself why it's ok to eat a donut (or your particular favorite, fattening food) - and the excuses you've been making haven't been true either. You just accept the excuse, because it pops into your head. If you thought it, it must be true, right?

What is your usual excuse? That just one wouldn't hurt? Someone's feelings would get hurt if you didn't eat it? You're really hungry and didn't have time for breakfast? Donuts aren't really as fattening as people say they are? I told myself all those things, at one time or another.

See how silly we can be, without even trying?

If you do it my way, you'll be consciously replacing the silly excuse you've been automatically accepting, with something that you can recognize as false.

Neuroscientists know that we all make unconscious decisions, either out of habit or because of instinctive cravings - and then we automatically make up an excuse for it when we catch ourselves doing something that we didn't really want to do.

Some folks call it "denial" and think that it's something that "other" people do. But we all do it. It's the way the human brain is built to work.

By replacing the automatic excuse with a conscious, but equally ridiculous excuse of your own, you become more aware of what you're doing. The habit loses some of it's power, the craving takes on less intensity and gets lost in the silliness of the whole thing.

And you begin to consciously connect the eating of the donut with it's natural consequence. Because it really will make you fat, even though that's not the reason you're eating it.

If you haven't started your New Year's diet yet, try this little trick. Then next week, when you start your diet in earnest, you may discover that half the battle is already won.

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When you know how to "think thin" it makes any diet easier.

Do you get discouraged because you eat fattening food, right after you promised yourself you wouldn't? The problem may be your instincts! Your survival system thinks you need sugar and fat!

Stop fighting your instincts - rise above them instead. No matter what diet you choose, this program will make it easier, and you'll get the results you want.

Take control. Read my new book Weight Loss: How to Keep Your Commitment.
It's a specific, easy-to-follow system that shows you how to reduce your stress and rise above instinctual cravings.

http://womensexercisenetwork.com/keep-your-commitment.html

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This week's great low-cal recipe:
Hoppin' John, by Dr. Dean Ornish

According to Dr. Ornish, one of the most inspirational authors I have ever read, it is "a widely known fact that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings luck throughout the year."

Will your team win the bowl game if you serve black-eyed peas? Maybe - but what I know for sure is that these tender legumes are my favorite, and this recipe will really warm you up on a cold January day.

1 (20-once) bag frozen black-eyed peas
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 3/4 cups Vegetable Broth, homemade or store-bought
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 3/4 cups instant brown rice
1 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely diced
Liquid hot pepper sauce or hot pepper vinegar (optional)

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine peas, onion, celery, garlic, broth, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently 30 minutes.

Uncover, add rice, and stir to combine. When liquid returns to a boil, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Just before serving, add the bell pepper and stir with a fork to fluff the mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve, if desired, with hot pepper sauce or hot pepper vinegar.

Serving size: 1 cup
Calories: 318
Fat: 2.2 g
Cholesterol: 0
Carbohydrate: 66.3 g
Protein: 9.0 g
Sodium: 748.0 mg

This recipe is one of 150 easy, low-fat, high-flavor recipes found in Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish.

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This week's words of support:

The Christmas festivities are over, and tonight's the New Year's Eve party. Tomorrow many of us will be watching football (I'll be curled up with a good book, myself). Then the new year starts in earnest, and this is the time of year when many of us make a new commitment to get healthy and thin.

We all know that a lot of well-meaning folks are going to give up on their spanking new resolution within a few weeks. And one of the biggest reasons is that we all seem to do our diets and our new exercise programs all by ourselves. Thousands of us doing the same thing - all by ourselves.

Getting together as a group, if at all possible, always makes it easier to stick with a diet program. It makes it easier because you know there is always going to be someone who will be there when you're discouraged - and that you'll be enthusiastic and supportive when your friend starts to lag behind, and needs a little help staying with the program. Both giving and receiving encouragement can help you stay on track.

This is the best time of the year to find folks who will go on a diet with you, because almost everyone has the same goal. It's the time of year when we all start thinking about losing some weight. If you have an organizational mind, you might want to pick up the book The Town that Lost a Ton, which shows you the exact plan that one area in the midwest used to create a community of health conscious citizens. Even the McDonald's started selling low-fat food! It's an inspiration, and the program would work great in an office building or plant.

If you want to find an exercise partner, and just can't get your friends off the couch, check out my daughter's web site, at http://www.WomensExerciseNetwork.com, a free forum where you can find people with your interests and skill level to work out with. You get a new body, and a new friend, too. What could be better?

Until next week, yours in good health,
Jonni Good

© 2002 Jonni Good. All rights reserved