For healthy nutrition eat carbohydrates. Minimize or avoid foods with processed, refined sugars such as table sugar, candy and pastries, as well as processed white starches such as pasta, rice and bread. Maximize exposure to unprocessed starches as well as fruits and vegetables. Choose smaller portions to avoid overeating the good choices at meals. Stress hormones peak early in the morning usually between 6 and 8 a.m. This is when we are most energetic and able to concentrate. Mid-morning stress hormones slowly decline, and by mid-afternoon there is a drop in energy and mental concentration. Stress hormones are the lowest levels during sleep to allow full relaxation. Overeating in the late afternoon and evening is one of the biggest culprits behind stress-induced weight gain in women over 40. From 3 p.m. to midnight the stress hormone levels plummet. Mindless, unfocused, stress-driven eating dominates guaranteeing weight gain especially in women over 40. Carpooling, project deadlines, business travel, help with kids homework and endless domestic errands fill the mid-afternoon phase of the day. By dinnertime many women feel like rewarding themselves for surviving yet another day. The only real time they have to themselves may be after the rest of the family has retired to sleep. Late-night, after-dinner eating is a common habit of exhausted and over burdened women. Many seek peace and solace of enjoying a momentary pleasure and relief of their favorite anesthetic — food.

Learn to successfully navigate the daily routine around the temptations of food. Arm yourself with daily eating plans as well as ways to blow off stress. Know what to eat for mid-afternoon snack and dinner. Keep the plan easy and simple. Stress eaters seek food as pleasure to help neutralize mental pain of stress they must continue to endure. Stock up on low-stress foods such as tofu, fresh fruits, vegetables, low-fat canned soups, pita bread, cottage cheese, low-fat cheeses, rice cakes, low-fat tortillas, canned tuna, chicken or salmon, high-protein cereal, oatmeal, string cheese, frozen fruit sorbet, reduced-sugar canned fruit or veggie burgers. Consume at least 65 percent of the daily carbohydrates before 5 p.m. Breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch and mid-afternoon snack should constitute the majority of the calorie intake for the day.

Enjoy the benefits of protein by eating fish, beans, peas, chicken, eggs and peanuts. Protein is necessary for the growth and repair of body tissues such as muscles, blood, bones, hair, skin, and nails. Soybeans and soy-based products are rich source of phytoestrogens, which are the weak estrogens found in plants. These phytoestrogens protect against breast cancer in perimenopausal women. Additional sources are soymilk, tofu, soy flour, soy protein powders, soy energy bars, chickpeas, lentils, clover, onions and apples.

Adapt to this sample daily routine. Have a healthy breakfast no later than 9 a.m. Have a small, mid-morning snack of fruit, low-fat yogurt or a piece of string cheese. Eat lunch no later than 1:30. Include a healthy balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. Mid-afternoon snack is for energy. Choose protein and carbohydrates such as low-fat yogurt, or cottage cheese and fruit. Dinner should be eaten between 6 and 7:30 p.m. Good choices are soup, salad, poultry, fish, legumes, veggie burgers and mixed fruit. Have dinner over by 8 p.m. Remember if you have dinner after 8 you gain a lot of weight. Also drink 64 ounces of water per day. Many times when we think we are hungry we are actually thirsty. Water has many functions in the body. It transports nutrients to the cells, regulates body temperatures, lubricates joints and provides moisture to the skin. The lower estrogen levels during perimenopause make water intake even more critical.

Perimenopausal Symptoms and Solutions:

Fatigue — iron-rich foods such as meats and poultry
Irritability, memory loss, depression — vitamin B complex
Indigestion — small, frequent meals, low-fat foods. Avoid fried foods, lunchmeats
Hot flashes — soy products, vitamin E, wheat germ, whole grains
Sweating — Soy products
Water Retention – Consume majority of calories and carbohydrates before dinner
Headaches — Magnesium, nuts, tofu, leafy green vegetables, wheat germ
Constipation – High-fiber foods (whole grains, vegetables, beans, peas), plenty of water, exercise

After the age of 40 the female body experiences changes in metabolism, bone structure, skin, hair and appetite. The appetite is closely linked to culture. Food is loving, nurturing and a pleasurable substance. Just the smell of something warm and familiar can trigger all sorts of pleasant memories. Think of turkey basting in the oven on Thanksgiving Day. Imagine the smell of hot cinnamon-laced cider on a snowy Christmas day. Smells that waft over us can trigger pleasant associations. The key to enjoying food is not to let it be in control. Make peace with food. It is not the enemy. Keep the eating process simple. There will be less mental stress about eating when other areas in life are in control.

Feelings of sadness, worry and anxiety will suffocate thoughts of self-care. The stress cycle snowballs when food is routinely used as comfort. Plan ahead to make time for yourself. Realize that you deserve joy just as much as the people you continue to serve and please. Women over 40 need all the solace they can get. Incorporate a variety of stress-reducing physical activities into the daily routine. Plan to escape and take a walk whenever you can. An immediate improvement of energy will be seen in addition to the stress reduction. Create a support system. Enlist the help of a buddy to help keep each other encouraged. Enjoy a laughter workout at least 10 minutes a day. Laughter will reduce stress hormones and boost the immune system. Another great tool for improved mental health is journaling. Writing your thoughts down daily is a great way to express emotions and get to know your inner self better. Find some private space to relax and record your thoughts. Write freely and note what you were feeling that day.

Getting fit and healthy after 40 is not a destination but a journey filled with trials that test our abilities to live healthfully. Planning and determination will give a sense of control. Learn to enjoy this season of life to the fullest

Middle-age hormones begin to flood the body unpredictably resulting in mood swings, muscle fatigue and intense food cravings. The physical and emotional changes that result in long-term stress can cause self-destructive eating behaviors. This stress can make us frazzled and overweight. How we respond to stress determines appetite, body composition and overall fitness level.

Stress releases ravenous brain chemicals to help the body handle its responsibilities and also triggers the appetite. Food has easily become our anesthesia to numb the pain of chronic stress. Fat that accumulates around the waist is the result of stress. This stress makes us more vulnerable to colds, flu, infections and fatigue. Women with a thick middle section (35 inches or larger) are at higher risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

Perimenopausal weight gains in women over 40 result from not burning calories as effectively as we did a decade ago. Hormones change as we lose muscle mass and become more sedentary. Steps can be taken to turn the process around. Develop a stress-resilient lifestyle to take off fat and stop overeating at the kitchen counter. Make a few simple changes that will result in a healthy lifestyle. First realize we cannot eat the way we did when we were 20. Learn how your over-40 body operates and why your metabolism hormones are different now than at any other time in your life. Make yourself more important than food. Learn how to eat again. Savor and taste the food rather than over-consuming to overcome the day’s stress. Curb the guilt and anxiety about paying attention to yourself. A beautiful body emanates from a healthy mind. Rebalance your mind and body. No longer allow eating to be a stressful torment but a nurturing pleasure. Use your body to neutralize the stress of the day. Trade unsatisfying rewards of stress eating for rewards that are more fulfilling. Make positive, lasting changes in your relationships, careers, etc., and finally come to peace with your body. Achieve a balanced state of mind and body through regular physical movement and appropriate eating. Allow yourself to enjoy the rich and rewarding experiences of the second half of your life.

Balance physical and mental fitness. Develop a stress resilient personality. Take the time to care for yourself. Create peaceful times to relax. Learn to keep stress hormones in check. Navigate food choices around the most dangerous time of the day, which is mid-afternoon to evening. Some women anesthetizing pain confess to eating until they are physically sick. Stress overeaters never feel completely full. When reward systems are not operating correctly, the response is inappropriate eating. Bingeing quenches the need for reward and fulfillment, yet never brings a feeling of total satisfaction. Food numbs the pain. A stress-driven appetite is imbalanced and can lead to addictions to cigarettes, alcohol and other self-destructive behaviors.

Sometimes just getting on the scale can ruin a perfectly good day. Nothing can boost a women’s confidence or send her self-esteem plummeting like the numbers on the scale or a glance in the mirror. Concern about body image is a real anxiety among women. Many equate having the perfect body with having the perfect life. By age 40 most women’s closets resemble department-store retail racks with sizes ranging from small to large. We go through perimenopause with elastic waistbands that have replaced belts. It is not really about losing 20 pounds for a special event or squeezing into a size six. It is about negotiating through the maze of everyday challenges. Sadness, worry and anxiety suffocate the feelings of self-care. Learning to control stress hormones will reduce the tendency toward self-destruction and ultimately improve the quality of life. This means doing the best we can working through the daily hassles without mindless eating. No more standing in front of the fridge in a trance ready to stuff all the problems down with food. Calories are not the answer.

to be continued…

You take care of your soul when you journal. When you choose to eat right, you take care of your physical body. By combining journaling and weight loss, you are taking care of your whole being.

From making a decision to take care of your body, through the process of losing weight, to your final result of better health, looks and self-esteem, your records can keep you motivated. You will be able to keep your perspective on your goal if you have been writing down your experience.

Try journaling in conjunction with dieting for a holistic approach to well-being.

Many dieters think that when they put on paper their daily feelings, cravings, troubles, and sins, it helps to lose weight even without calorie restriction.

Reducing weight is at least one New Year’s Resolution for millions around the world. Whatever weight-loss program you use, it should let you KEEP the weight off, instead of experiencing the yo-yo effect. We have some additional suggestions to not only lose weight, but to keep it off.

28. Choose high-fiber foods, like brown rice, nuts, legumes, seeds, fruits, vegetables and whole grain bread. Fiber fills you up, and has been shown to prevent or minimize heart disease as well as provide protective effects against cancer.

29. If you feel hungry a lot, your metabolic rate is slowing your body’s ability to burn calories. So each time you eat, your body things it’s in starvation mode and stores the energy you consume as fat instead of releasing it to your muscles and brain. To counteract this effect, try eating five or six small meals a day instead of one or two large ones. It will get your body to start believing it is NOT in starvation mode.

30. Have a snack, some fruit, yogurt or cottage cheese, about 90 minutes before your usual mealtime. This prevents you from overeating or putting too much on your plate during your meal.

31. Did you know one gram of alcohol has nine calories? Keep your alcohol consumption low; alcohol is an appetite stimulant.

32. How much fish, nuts, seeds and whole grains have you been eating lately? Essential fatty acids are not bad fats; they help to increase your metabolic rate so you use up more fat that you’ve stored in your body when you move about.

33. Learn to control stress now. Stress increases the amount of cortisol circulating in your system; this makes you put on weight. Chronic stress sufferers have poorer health and stronger PMS and menopause symptoms. Try yoga, meditation, even deep breathing to get focused and take stress out of your body.

34. If you’re used to stuffing yourself, controlling the portions or servings you eat can seem an impossible task. To get around this dieting hiccup, eat foods that are bursting with flavor. If you prevent monotonous eating, you prevent cravings from becoming too insistent.

35. High flavors means you have to chew and savor each mouthful slowly; you end up putting less on your plate and feel like you’ve eaten more! Great deal, huh? Try citrus juices and rinds, chilies, garlic, herbs, spices, soy sauce, wasabi, curries and other flavorings. These ‘unnecessary’ additions have been shown to promote digestion and give some anti-cancer and brain-boosting effects.

More tips for those social gatherings

36. Hold your drink in your dominant hand. If you rely on your “weak” hand to reach for eats, you’ll cut back on calories through lack of coordination.

37. Skip anything you eat with your fingers. This eliminates fatty finger food like cheese puffs, chicken wings and so on. But the exceptions to this ‘rule’ are: Baby veggies and shrimp.

38. Look at the entire buffet table instead of just what’s right beneath your nose. Browse before you start helping yourself so you only load up on the most nutritious and filling items on the buffet table.

39. Skip the chips. You can get chips any time of the year. Why not try goat cheese if you seldom buy it for your own kitchen? Make your eats special.

40. Let yourself have ONE of whatever you crave. Everyone needs a treat; it’s not all an uphill war in weight-loss. If you indulge a little now (just ONE, remember), it will prevent you from bingeing later.

41. Be last in line to the buffet table. If you hit the table after everyone else has already been to it, chances are most of the fat-laden stuff will already be gone. And so will your temptation for them.

42. Make tradeoffs. Do you want beer? Or marshmallow cake? Don’t have both treats, have one or the other. And remember to reward your discipline with a facial or a day at the spa.

43. Don’t stray too far from your usual routine of exercise and regular eating habits. You wouldn’t pig out at any other time, so why choose parties to break your discipline?

44. Sip a glass of tomato or parsley juice before heading to the party. They’re satieting and tasty. These appetite-reducers will stop you from sprinting to the buffet table when you step through the door.

Most diet programs tell you what foods to eat, and how much of them to eat, and when to eat it. You get very little flexibility and your diet is pretty much the same as the person sitting next to you, even though your needs and desired are very different. The emphasis of almost all diet programs is to lose weight. For Hair to Toes nutrition, our emphasis is on managing your weight.

What’s the difference?
The real problem in dieting is keeping the weight off. To accomplish this goal, we offer lifestyle management tips and changes in eating behaviour instead of focusing on losing weight. It’s not unitl the weight is lost that you start working on your eating habits…that’s why over 95 percent of diets fail.

Those who have successfully lost weight focus on developing a permanent lifestyle change. They don’t even worry about losing weight. By gradually changing their eating habits, they take small, easily had steps towards healthier lifestyles. This nutritional approach results in feeling better, sleeping better, having nicer skin, hair and nails as well as sharpening your mind. These people lose weight and keep it off.

More importantly, they are able to maintain their new goalweight because they make a committment to three goals:

1. They eat healthily.

2. They move their bodies more.

3. They do both for the rest of their lives.

Check out the fat-filled and indulgence diet of our model, Kate Wingfield in her interviews with us. She follows all three goals, and still enjoys all her meals.

Adolescence and teen years are the best time to start and continue these goals. The eating and exercise habits we develop at this time of our life will continue for the years to come. Teens come into hospitals experiencing heart problems, diabetes and bone fractures due to poor eating and exercise habits. These are some of our tips to start you off in the right direction.

Three simple changes for a healthier diet.

1. Never eat alone; eating with a friend encourages you to share the portion on your plate and encourage each other to eat healthier.

2. Use a smaller plate and put your eating utensil down while you’re chewing each mouthful. It prevents you from stuffing yourself because…

3. It takes the average person just seven minutes to eat,but 20 minutes for the message to get to our brain and back to our stomach that we’re full. Take your time; you’ll eat less and feel fuller!

The order of foods you eat is very important.

4. Try drinking a glass of water or a small bowl of soup before sitting down for the main course of the meal. Water helps you feel fuller while promoting better intestinal action.

5. Eat at least one meal with raw foods each day. This helps to regulate your hunger, instead of letting it control you.

6. Every time you feel the urge to go to a vending machine or to a convenience store for junk food, take 20 minutes. Ask yourself, “Do I really want to eat? What do I want to eat? Do I need to eat? How much do I want to eat? How much is enough?”

While you’re asking yourself these questions, take a drink of water, juice or eat a fruit. Sometimes hunger pangs are just signs of thirst in disguise. If after 20 minutes you’re still hungry, opt for a healthy food, smoothie or energy bar.

What to do when you’re out at a party

7. Pan gatherings around activities other than food, such as Internet chats, board games or yard games. Try to include physical activity.

8. Offer to bring a low-fat appetizer to a party and be your own best customer.

9. Never sit near the snack table at a party.

10. Be like Scarlett O’Hara: eat something before going to a party. Don’t go hungry!

11. Decide which treats are really important to you, then plan the times you will let yourself eat them.

12. Start your party food off with a liquid like soup, some fruit or salad. These provide high-volume, usually low number of calories and makes you feel full longer.

Keep low-fat, low-calorie foods on hand and on your plate so that you don’t go back to the snack table for junk food.

13. Use a smaller plate.

14. Put on your plate the amount you usually would eat, then remove half and store it for another meal at least one hour later.

15. Share your serving with another person

Put your eating utensil down between bites; don’t pick it up until you’ve chewed your mouthful 15 times.

What to do food is just too tempting

16. Eat only at scheduled times. This helps manage your blood sugar.

17. If you’re tempted to buy a high-calorie food at the supermarket, carry home a five-ound bag of sugar instead.

18. Separate stress and other emotional issues from eating. Keep a diary of the times you automatically walk to the fridge, store or cupboard for food. What are you thinking and feeling during those times?

19. Cut your food into smaller pieces. It’s a trick restaurants use to make patrons think they’re eating more. Even if there’s lots of food around, you’ll feel too full to indulge.

20. Keep foods on hand that require preparation–no convenience foods. This stops the reflexive urge to get food to eat during commercials.

21. Write down 20 non-diet goals on small pieces of paper and put them in a jar. When you start thinking about food outside of the mealtimes you schedule for yourself, pull out one of these slips of paper. Thinking about these will get your mind off food.

22. Also with the same jar, write down an activity you’ve been meaning to do, something new you’ve wanted to learn. Get up and out of the house, and do them!

23. New words in the jar. Write down interesting new words you come across and place them in the jar. If you randomly pull it out, you can think about the meaning of the word and where you learned it from instead of food.

24. Arrange your household activities so that you don’t have to go to the kitchen very often.

25. When you see a food or drink commercial that makes you crave foods, stand up and do stretching or other aerobic exercise. You can even leave the room during the food commercials, but avoid the kitchen.

26. Find non-food ways to reward yourself…think of some and put them in the jar.

27. Ask people not to give you food as gifts.

to be  continued…

A future event: Think of a future event, such as a wedding, reunion, or even a vacation. This works best if going to the event at your present weight would embarrass you. Putting on a bathing suit when you’re fat is mortifying, so I book a stay at a beach resort.

Weight loss contest: Losing is never fun (unless I’m losing weight). The contest should have someone you’re motivated to compete against (e.g. someone you don’t like or who is competitive themselves). If only friends are involved, I won’t take it seriously, consuming secret cookies to defeat the purpose.

Clothes to Motivate: You pick out a dream outfit to motivate you. Put it in a prominent place, like near your scale or exercise machines. Imagine yourself wearing it. Change up the outfit occasionally to keep it fresh. What is initially motivating can start to blend into the background if you’re not careful.

Contrast with old outfits: There’s no better way to see how far you’ve come than to see where you once were. Your new size becomes your new normal. Some of the sizes I used to wear look like kiddie clothes when compared with my current size. Put them on and say “I wore this once, and there’s no reason I can’t wear it again”.

Charts and Graphs: Nothing beats an informative chart. A good spreadsheet program like Excel can create a graph that tracks your progress day by day, pound by pound. That way you can track your progress. You’ll also see that it’s normal to occasionally gain weight before continuing the downward trend. It makes the inevitable difficulties you’ll face easier to tough out. I also keep a calendar with scheduled workouts near the weight loss graph. This lets me see the direct effort of my exercise routine on my weight.

Reasons for wanting to lose: Create a list with every reason you want to drop the pounds. No reason is stupid; you’d be surprised at how important a seemingly stupid reason might be. Wanting to look like a swimsuit model is certainly a laudable goal, but simply not standing out is probably more achievable in the short term.

Think of someone who would be jealous of your success: Trying to inspire jealousy in an ex can be an amazing motivational tool for certain people. This works even if you don’t intend to see him or her again. Just keep thinking about how they’ll regret getting rid of you when they see you again. Conversely, you can think of it as showing him or her what a pain it must have been to be with the fatter you. Anyone who bothers you will suffice. This works especially well if they’re also trying to lose weight. Imagine how you’ll feel when you outdo their efforts.

I hope some of the ideas I’ve shared will help you succeed. Remember that this is an achievable goal, with each day’s effort bringing you closer to your goal. Now go make your nemesis jealous!

Did You Know that every word on a food label has a specific meaning. The word “healthy” means that a food has no more than 480 mg. sodium and 60 mg. cholesterol. “Fresh” means that a food contains no preservatives and hasn’t been previously frozen or heated. “High in” means that 1 serving supplies 20% or more of the Daily Value for a nutrient. “Lean’ means a serving has fewer than 10 g. fat and 90 mg. cholesterol.

Think of food labels as road signs on the highway to good health. When you read the ingredient labels and nutrition information on the backs of cans and packages, you’ll know if the food is going to keep you on that highway. It requires just a few seconds of your time to get all of the essential information you need to ensure a healthy balanced diet.

You won’t find labels on fresh fruits and vegetables, because these foods don’t have hidden surprises. They’re always good for your health. The labels on packaged foods, however, provide essential information. Start by checking the fat content. Eating less fat is essential for preventing heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other health problems. Your intake of fat shouldn’t exceed 30 percent of total calories-for most of us, that’s about 50 g. a day.

Check the amount of dietary fiber. Your total fiber intake should be 25 to 30 g. daily to help lower cholesterol, prevent constipation, and improve blood sugar levels. Getting more dietary fiber is also among the best dietary ways to reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke. If your doctor has advised you to cut back on salt, check the amount of sodium, the lower it is, the better. Doctors advise getting no more than 2,400 mg. of sodium daily, but that’s the upper limit.

Food labels provide a remarkable amount of information. So much information, in fact, that you may not want to read it all. You don’t have to look at every line. If you’re like most people, you probably have a few health issues that you’re most concerned about. Maybe you’re trying to increase the amount of fiber in your diet and want to ensure that the foods you buy will help you get the recommended amount. Or, maybe you want to increase your intake of certain nutrients or decrease the amount of fat or sodium. You can use food labels to find exactly what you need to know in just a few seconds.