I DID IT!: Acquire Skills to Change Your Life and Body

by Salam S. Hachem RD NCSF AFAA

Overview

You have heard it; you need to change your mind to change your life: all-around you will feel better and do better. I have collected a slew of simple, practical strategies to safeguard healthy behavior. The strategies can be applied anytime, anywhere and in any situation.

Learning, understanding, and practicing will be key to your success.

The strategies offered in this book will assist you to recognize behaviors and raise awareness that will be conducive to your overall success. Strategies are not limited to dietary habits and formulating a meal plan. You will be able to relate the strategies to the different parts of your life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504349253
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	04/21/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	139 KB

Read an Excerpt

I Did It!

Acquire Skills to Change Your Life and Body

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By Salam S. Hachem

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2016 Salam S. Hachem
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5043-4924-6

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CHAPTER 1

About You

It seems as if there is a new weight-loss plan or program every day that promises to help shed pounds fast and easy. How many diets have you attempted? Some overweight people seem to have spent 85 percent of their lives on diets, and may always be hunting for the next fad diet. Yes, they are the victims of diet offers and weight-loss come-ons. The "new you" promises are so misleading that victims believe that the same technology that has repeatedly failed now will work.

Many books, magazines, and newspaper articles offer different formulas for success, providing the how-to based on the knowledge, beliefs, and experiences of professionals and nonprofessionals. If you read social media posts about food, supplements, or programs that claim to be the final answer to weight loss, you'll notice the numerous diets, supplements, and programs available.

How many diets have you attempted? One? Three? Five? Too many to count? How long did you keep the weight off? Did you feel healthy? Day to day, did it work for you or against you?

Here are just a few weight-loss diets that people have claimed worked for them — and you may have attempted yourself:

• Atkins

• Ornish (consists of fruits, vegetables, and grains)

• McDonald Diet

• Subway Diet

• Low-carb, low-glycemic, high-protein

• Cabbage Soup Diet

• Master Cleanse Diet

• Caveman Diet

• Alkaline Diet

• 3-Hour Diet

• Blood Type Diet

• Grapefruit Diet

There's even the Cookie Diet. So what is the best "diet" for you? The best diet for anyone is one that is doable for short and long term. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• How long can I stick to this "diet"?

• How many days can I go without carbs?

• How long can I go without eating any fats?

• How much protein can I take in without abusing my body's organs?

• How long can I only eat fat and zero carbohydrates (similar to Atkins)?

• Can I manage this diet with my lifestyle, or will it interfere?

If you have any doubt regarding your responses, the diet is not doable, and definitely not for you. It is only a short-term fix if it does not address the issues that lead you to the negative behavior behind your eating habits. It is a diet, not a regimen.

Diets are a short-term fix, and once you stop the diet, you will go back to whatever you were doing before you started. Temporarily, a diet may help you shed the weight off. However, it does not change your life because most diets will not change your lifestyle. When the diet is over, you still have the same habits and daily routines that initially caused the weight gain. Unless you have a medical ailment, the word diet should not be part of your vocabulary. Rather, consider behavior modification and lifestyle change.

How do you view yourself? Are you happy with yourself? Although you may be happy, how is your mental and physical health? Do you want to feel mentally healthy as well as physically healthy? If you don't start today, where do you see yourself in the next couple of months? Are you gaining, maintaining or losing weight? If your response is gaining or maintaining weight and your goal is to lose, then there is no better time to start than now.

Don't assume past weight losses and gains hinder your present or future attempts. It does not matter how many times you've lost and regained the weight; shedding pounds is good for your health and total well-being any time. In fact, your body will be prepared to handle the healthier change quickly.

Many people encounter barriers — personal, social, or environmental factors that vary from person to person — to maintaining their commitment to new, healthy behavioral changes. Did you lose weight and gain it back? Why did you regain the weight? Which factors contributed to the weight gain? For the most part, it may be that you reverted to old habits. People become complacent and less aware of the habits that assisted them in becoming healthy. On the other hand, if you become mindless about some strategies but maintain others, you more than likely will not get frustrated; you will be able and willing to channel your energy back into the positive behavior and get back on track.

List three reasons why you feel the need to get healthy and fit. Be specific.

1.

2.

3.

Whenever you go astray from your commitments and goals, review your reasons and analyze the importance of your new health plan.

CHAPTER 2

Defining a Successful Dieter

Defining your success by the number on the scale is not reasonable or practical. I recommend you weigh yourself every two weeks, and do so in the morning before eating and working out. Getting on the scale daily may deter you, as it does not show your physical and mental improvement.

There are several reasons your scale may not move in your favor. For example, your weight may fluctuate due to water retention or constipation, consumption of extra salt, or insufficient water intake (dehydration).

Perseverance is the key during a setback, and the scale may create a setback if it does not show weight loss. Why assume you are not getting results, despite your hard work, if the scale does not pop up the number you were aiming to achieve. Instead, a measuring tape, body mass index, body fat analyzer, or blood work is a good way to monitor and record your progress.

For your fitness level, you can measure heart rate by doing a pulse check or using a heart-rate monitor. Heart-rate monitors are inexpensive, user-friendly, and great tracking devices. Also, time and distance can be used to measure improvement for your cardiovascular conditioning. Account for every extra minute you walk, run or use a cardiovascular equipment. Increasing your cardio time or distance is an indication you are increasing your endurance and stamina. These methods can cost close to nothing and can be done at home or gym.

Success is not only defined by achieving your ideal body weight (IBW) or goal weight (GW). During every nutritional consultation, I ask the question, "What is your goal weight?" I am never surprised by the response, "I used to weigh _________" You will achieve success when you opt for and routinely practice healthier choices — at which point it will become part of your lifestyle and will be an ongoing process. Naturally, you will make healthier choices without having to think about it.

Temporary changes in eating create temporary weight-loss results. The assumption is that we should remove old habits, rather than replacing them with better habits. For example, many of us do very well during the week, but on the weekend we eat out and blow the so-called diet. For many of us, it may not feasible to stop eating out, so a better approach is to make better choices in restaurants that cater to our new healthy well-being. Do a little research before dining out. Most chains list nutrition information online. A little homework will help you make healthy decisions that complement your new healthy lifestyle.

Find healthy foods you enjoy. Try new foods. If you did not grow up loving fruits or vegetables, there is still hope. Continue to try the food and eventually you may lose the aversion to it. Nevertheless, if Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or celery is not on top of your list, try a different green.

What makes some people successful at losing weight and keeping it off while others are unsuccessful? Successful dieters adhere to a lifestyle that includes a meal plan that is not restrictive but is part of their daily regimen. Consciously or subconsciously, the successful person answered the question of why he or she wanted to be healthy, fit, and lose weight, and finally, that person decided to commit to the goals and results he or she sought. Fit and healthy outweigh the plate of pasta or the ganache cake.

Doing the smallest thing that is good for your mind and body will help you stay on track. This will provide you with confidence and encouragement to persist in this lifelong journey. Motivation drives success. What is your motivation?

The successful dieter stays on point with a positive attitude and a can-do mind-set. Focus on the outcome and not the challenges along the way. For example, you may like to travel but not the time spent flying. For me to travel home is about a fourteen-hour flight. If I focused on the actual flight, layover, delays, finding my luggage, and anything that might go wrong, I would never take the trip. Therefore, I focus on the outcome. I envision landing at the airport and the happy faces waiting for their loved one. It helps me to get through the flight with flying colors.

After a rigorous workout, which you thought you would never finish, you say I did it!

Saying no to your favorite pizza or ice cream gives you a feeling of control — I said no! I did it! Similarly, when you feel exhausted yet convince yourself to go to the gym, you may end up with one of the best workouts you have ever had. Afterward, you again have the feeling of I did it!

CHAPTER 3

How to Use This Book

I have collected a slew of simple, practical strategies to safeguard healthy behavior. They can be applied at any time, anywhere, and in any situation. Take every opportunity to implement these strategies into your daily life, and practice them, even if it does not pertain to food.

Consider these strategies as a pick-and-choose list. And whatever you do, don't give up! How many times did you attempt to ride a bicycle? When you fell, you got up and tried again, and every attempt became easier. Treat your past unsuccessful experiences as an experiment. By assuming they were failures, you are setting yourself up for another one. Do not allow past failures to define the person you can and will become. Embrace the opportunity to grow, learn, and move forward.

Understanding, learning, and practicing will be key to your success. Practice does not make you perfect; perfecting your practice at any level will make you perfect.

Take your time to respond to the questions asked in this book. Be objective and, most important, be fair to yourself. Like many situations, getting emotional will keep you farther from results and your genuine intentions.

CHAPTER 4

Your Action, Your Change

The smallest action that leads to change may be a challenge, yet will help you to achieve results and your desired outcome. On the other hand, what you ingest could stall your progress, whether "bad" or possibly "good" food. If overindulging in good food causes you to feel guilty and puts negative thoughts in your head, those guilty feelings may stop you from reaching your intended goal. You need to possess a desire to change and act on it. You need to genuinely feel and verbalize you are ready to be fit and healthy. If your actions, which are your choices, are contrary, positive change will not occur.

Just because your spouse, children, family, or friends would like you to make a change is not enough. No change will be made if you don't believe, feel the need, and want to change. You need to want results. You achieve results from positive action and then positive change will happen. As challenging as it may be, do not give up. Consistently remind yourself you are doing great. The strategies are intended to improve your actions, even in a moment of despair. Do not put yourself down because of one or two negative actions you took. Rather, reinforce the small positive steps you took to prevent a full-blown mishap. Acknowledging the misstep is s positive action, which can lead to future positive and permanent change.

So many people have done it before you. The young, the old, the healthy, and the not so healthy. Consider yourself next in line.

No matter how miniscule the change is, it matters, and it will give you the motivation to make changes that are significant.

Change your mind, and your life will change!

What are three actions you will take to move toward a successful you?

1.

2.

3.

Once you take action, what will the outcome be?

1.

2.

3

CHAPTER 5

The ABCs of Behavior

As you proceed with your journey, you will learn ways to strategize behavior to be mindfully healthy. You may become careless or mindless in one or more strategies, but continue to adhere to others that will assist you. We will use the ABC approach. ABC stands for antecedents, behavior, and consequences. These usually occur together in a series of steps called the "behavioral chain."

Antecedents are feelings and situations that occur before any event. For example, how do you feel emotionally and physically before eating or working out?

Behavior refers to related events and feelings. In reference to eating, think about speed of eating, rate of chewing, taste of food, feeling satisfied or extremely full, or any event during the process. In respect to working out, consider the time, intensity, and the type of workout. What are some sabotage strategies you use in order not to workout? What behavior will you take to prevent this from happening? For example, after work it gets difficult to convince yourself to go home and then hit the gym. A reasonable behavior would be to take your workout clothes with you and not go home but straight to the gym.

Consequences are feelings and attitude that follow an event. Evaluating the aftermath of your actions and awareness of the antecedent that led to the behavior are factors that can help determine if change must be made for improvement to occur. For example, after a long, hard day at work, you get home and ravage the pantry or refrigerator. You do this without being fully aware of your action. When you become thoughtless, you do not realize the type and amount of food you consume. In that moment, stop to recognize if you are emotionally or physically hungry. Those actions are your antecedents. Losing your thought of what and how much goes in your mouth is your negative behavior. On the other hand, stopping the all-out marathon on how much you are eating is your positive behavior. Once you become mindful, guilt sets in for indulging — that's the negative consequence. However, if you stop when you felt that you could have continued, is your positive consequence.

What if you are mindful and aware of what you do once you are home? You take a couple of minutes to unwind. You don't do anything that may add stress, like opening mail or reading your e-mail. Your antecedent is acknowledging your tired feelings will not go away by irrational eating or drinking. What if you took off your work clothes and changed into something that makes you feel fresh, comfortable, and just plain good? What if you did some stretches, brushed your teeth, went for a brisk walk, watered your plants, or walked the dog. Taking time to prepare your meal and not adding eight hundred calories to your evening via food tasting is your behavior. Feeling great about what and how you took care of yourself by staying in tune with your body by using the ABCs is the great feeling of consequences.

What are three things you can do to unwind before eating?

1.

2.

3.

Reflect how great you feel when you are in control, not only of what you eat but staying away from what you chose not to eat.

Listen to your body. Practice, and see for yourself what an amazing feeling it is to be in control of your actions that will invoke your change. Every time you practice this skill, it becomes easier to walk away from the table or food that may jeopardize your result. Think about the antecedents that occur before eating. Are you feeling stressed? Are you emotionally hungry? Are you happy or sad?

When these feelings occur prior to eating, how does it affect your overall eating pattern? Which emotion causes you to eat more or eat less?

• Stressed — I eat more or less?

• Hungry — I eat more or less?

• Happy — I eat more or less?

• Sad — I eat more or less?

Stress has been associated with emotional eating. To comfort ourselves, we turn to food. Afterward, the original emotional issue remains, yet we also feel worse for using food as relief. We need to realize the situations that caused our stress will not diminish by eating or drinking. On the contrary, it will only increase our stress levels and decrease confidence.

There is a difference between physical and emotional hunger. Physical hunger allows you to recognize when you are satisfied, at which point you stop eating. If you continue to eat beyond satisfaction, it is emotional hunger, and you are ignoring the antecedent.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from I Did It! by Salam S. Hachem. Copyright © 2016 Salam S. Hachem. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Preface, xi,
Acknowledgments, xv,
Introduction, xvii,
1. About You, 1,
2. Defining a Successful Dieter, 5,
3. How to Use This Book, 9,
4. Your Action, Your Change, 11,
5. The ABCs of Behavior, 13,
6. Strategies, 19,
7. Nutrition 101, 55,
8. Checklist, 61,
9. Helpful Hints, 63,
10. Meal Plans, 67,
11. Recipes, 69,