This is how an Online Dictionary defines the word Diet:

The usual food and drink of a person or animal

And that tells us doesn’t it?  After all whatever we eat … that is our diet – in the treditional sense of the word.   Yet the Diet Industry has taken the word and made it their own, which includes all varieties of definition.

But what do we think of that?  Everywhere we look we find the word … its smacked right there as a product name for one of the nation’s favourite soft drinks, and so on.

Yet if you  have a medical condition diagnosed sometimes you might be ‘put on’ a special pastoral diet to aid your recovery … but this will be a temporary measure …

My (now) elderly mother was put on a special plan back in the eighties and somehow forgot to come off it .  She is old school and if a doctor tells her to do something then they must tell her to do the opposite before she will adhere.  And she became convinced that she was on the plan for life.  In time it caused some complications (and its too near breakfast to go into detail).  The upshot was that another doctor resumed her eating to ‘normal service’ and she hasn’t looked back.

Marc David (the Nutritional Psychologist) recognizes that ‘special eating plans’ be reserved for short bursts of post-illness recovery and the body’s owner (that’s us) should keep an eye out for any signals that we are recovered.  After all we know our own bodies better than any medical health worker.  Or at least we’re meant to.   And sometimes this simply involves ‘tuning in’.

So be aware that next time you hear the word ‘diet’ – you are on one – we all are – but avoiding plans that we take up for ourselves without tuning into our body and mind that is a topic for another day.

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Is Black Pepper the Daddy?

I’m interested in knowing whether black pepper is the antitheses to salt … After all salt’s ‘bad boy’ image has been talked about at length for the last 20+ years, especially in regards to its link with high blood pressure because of its diuretic characteristics.  Of course what’s often overlooked is our need for some salt to survive – 6g/day – which equates to around a quarter of an ounce  … its not that much is it?  And there are arguments to state that if we didn’t add salt at the table we would still ingest enough to cover our daily requirements.

Most of us enjoy food with flavour, you might even say that this is what we pay for when we head to our favourite restaurant for an indulgent evening of good food, wine and conversation.  Flavour lifts any meal and has the capacity to transfer food from the realms of  ordinary into a place of extra-ordinary and much more.  Maybe flavour is to food what accessories are to an outfit.

For me there are a range of ingredients to fit the bill … and among them one of my favourites is Black Pepper …

In addition to the great flavour I wonder what the effects of pepper are on our physiological system … I came across this article – see what you think!

*****

Is black pepper good for you? In truth, there is no simple answer to this question. There have not been enough studies on black pepper to verify if it is overall healthful and beneficial, detrimental, or neither. There are, however, plenty of suggestions as to the benefits (and negatives) associated with black pepper. Here are a few of them:

Possible Benefits of Black Pepper

• Alleviates hemorrhoids
• Alleviates gas
• Alleviates constipation

Improves digestion – just think, by grinding or shaking black pepper onto your meal, you may actually be aiding yourself in the digestion of that meal. How? Black pepper stimulates the taste buds, alerting your stomach to increase its hydrochloric acid secretion which aids in digestion.

• Alleviates loss of appetite – again, black pepper wakes up and stimulates your taste buds.
• Promotes sweating
• Promotes urination
• Anti-bacterial effect
• Anti-oxidant effect
• Stimulates the breakdown of fat cells

Inhaling vapor from black pepper extract may reduce withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting smoking – this theory is still being tested…

Piperine – an alkaloid found in black pepper – could enhance the bioavailability of some nutritional substances and drugs. It also may have anti-carcinogenic properties and anti-convulsant.

Possible Negative Effects of Black Pepper

According to at least one study, black pepper may cause an increase in parietal secretion (of hydrochloric acid – the acid abovementioned as an aid to digestion) and pepsin secretion and a loss in potassium.

Also, there is a chance of mucosal mircrobleeding and even gastric bleeding due black pepper (due, at least in part, to the above-stated secretions).

Piperine may actually be carcinogenic (although some studies show that it is anti-carcinogenic…) and it might even have negative effects on sperm and interfere with reproductive processes.

All in all, it seems that more likely than not, black pepper has positive health benefits. But before you start loading black pepper onto every single meal, realize that there are possible negatives, as well (which can practically be said about most any food!)

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Yesterday I was listening to Scott Tousignant’s interview with Traci Knoppe …

I came across Traci (@TraciKnoppe) in Lynn Terry’s Elite mastermind group (and indeed she’s been a great source of help to me) I met Scott there too.   Scott’s specialty is The Fat Loss Quickie – cheekily named … where his main objective is to get people moving and he provides motivational coaching to get us off our bums (so to speak) encouraging us to simply get on with it (moving that is!).

Scott began by asking Traci about how she came to be online, of itself a pioneering story … But Traci had been invited along primarily to talk about an entirely different subject, that of her experience in undergoing Gastric Bypass Surgery …

Fern Speaks Out

To digress for a moment, this topic was highlighted here, when the speculation grew about the (then) This Morning co-presenter Fern Britton’s weight loss.  She spoke out in June 2008, when she was outed by the press.

I guess the 2-year lapse, before it was revealed, gave her time to adjust.  She held her dignity, made no apologies and didn’t lose face.  Philip Schofield and fellow co-host, stated to the Sun newspaper; “Its no one else’s business that she had a gastric band fitted, despite the public back-lash against her”.  Some defended her right to privacy, such as Observer columnist Barbara Ellen.

I think if we consider the artificiality of those who’ve bought into a Dorian Gray-esque reality where every captured moment has a price tag, I respect Fern Britton all the more.  It can’t have been an easy situation to manage.  What she did say was that she was happy with her procedure but didn’t want to influence others.

In Marked Contrast

Fern Britton comes across as someone with a sunny disposition, she and Philip Schofield often got into fits of the giggles while presenting  their morning show, and this endeared them to the nation.  She also displayed great depth and sensitivity when faced with emotionally charged subjects or interviewees with harrowing stories.

However, Traci Knoppe’s revelations give a stark contrast on what the Gastric Bypass Surgery does comprise …

Traci has a down-to-earth, genuine, mother earth personality.  She has 3-young children (still at home) and another 3 grown with children of their own.  Her husband turned house-dad and Traci (they home school their kids) have recently swapped roles as Traci’s business has really begun to soar in the world of Internet Marketing .. with her Beginner to Blogger package (available as an eCourse and just recently released on DVD) …

Her experience since her surgery, over the last 5-yrs, has been anything but a celebrity-like transformation.

Bottom line

Traci talks candidly about her history with weight from childhood and what led her to take this step. She tells Scott (@FatLossQuickie) about the physiological transformation that takes place when the gut is changed this way … the length of intestine reduced, the pre and post operation experience and the long adjustment period, including the ongoing monitoring, checkups, and inherent challenges.

Fast forward to now and Traci’s physiology has not delivered the ‘normality’ she’d set out to achieve.  And although she can now eat regularly, instead of the 1/meal/day/1600 calories (in order not to gain more weight) that was her pre-op reality, she concludes that she swapped one set of problems for a whole new ball-game.

I urge you to listen to the interview …

Call today to book an appointment and take advantage of an obligation-free 15-min telephone session to decide if its right for you.

*  Folkestone 223233
*  07951 522829
*  jane@abcsimpleas.co.uk

*  http://twitter.com/abcsimpleas
*  http://facebook.com/jane unsworth
*  http://skype.com/jane.unsworth

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I make no apologies for stealing Paul McKenna’s phrase The ‘Clean Plate’ Club …  I took my NLP training with Paul McKenna and Richard Bandler … wonderful both ….

Its a great phrase and many of us relate to it from childhood … we were taught it was ‘rude’ to leave food on the plate and that is why we had to ‘scoff’ the lot.  Of course our parents thought they were doing the right thing, as their aim was to get some decent nutrients into their kids and keep everyone healthy.  After all don’t parents always do the best they can with the tools they have at the time?  I feel sure of it!

I’ll bet most of us have been threatened with ‘the starving children in Africa’ line (ouch!) and how wasteful we were being when there were children in the world who would be more than grateful, and the guilt piled up (just like my plate later in life) it all went into the mix.

Of course our folks did the best they knew how … but it doesn’t have to continue like that does it?

There is no physical way that we can transport any wasted food – from the plate – to any starving people anywhere – instead we might like to explore what’s happening a bit nearer home … how about inside the home.  We know that children need boundaries and here are a few tips, although by no means extensive:

• It makes sense not to eat before mealtimes, such as nibbling while prepping food, so that we are genuinely hungry when the meal is ready
  
• Sitting around a table and having conversation, enables accountability
• Conversation is great, breaking bread with others is one of life’s pleasures and every opportunity should be taken to make some time in the day to do it
  
• It also takes the pressure away from what’s on the plate, for example, the healthy bits that we’re convinced we don’t like, such as vegetables.  By talking about the day it’ll take the big deal out of meal times, encouraging us to eat less consciously (like we need any encouragement) and before we know it we’re enjoying all those lovely ‘greens’
  
• It also means that no-one can slip a fullish plate into the kitchen unseen (if everyone is eating in different rooms or while the TV is on, then attention might be elsewhere)
• With children a psychological approach is better than ‘forcing’ because a battle is ‘the last resort’.  Perhaps a trade-off can be struck, i.e. eating the vegetables, natural fruit, or salad in exchange for a small treat (preferably not edible, otherwise it reinforces ‘out of control’ eating habits – which is something we are striving to avoid).  Instead offer them or (if its you) agree to make the reward something enjoyable around the house.  With children it can be as aspect they particularly enjoy, which often is just time spent as a family, like a board game.  It doesn’t have to be super serious to get kids, in particular, to do something they don’t want to  … humor can play a very large part, and is less stressful for all concerned.  The less resistance there is, the quicker behavioural change occurs
  
• And I’ve done this for myself,  you can always sneak food onto the plate in other guises, i.e. celeriac is a good replacement for potato … we don’t have to have spuds with everything?  Or do we
  

These are just a few thoughts … feel free to add some of your own …

Getting experimental around the kitchen can be just as exciting as in other rooms in the house … oo la la!  Enjoy!

Call today to book an appointment and take advantage of an obligation-free 15-min telephone session to decide if its right for you.

* Folkestone 223233
* 07951 522829
* jane@abcsimpleas.co.uk

* http://twitter.com/abcsimpleas
* http://facebook.com/jane unsworth
* http://skype.com/jane.unsworth

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Is there a flaw with what we might call ‘the usual suspects’ … There’s plenty of scientific information out there to show why they don’t work for us.  In the main … its physiological … when we deprive the body it goes into starvation mode and stores extra fat for when we resume ‘normal’ eating habits and when this happens we can end up larger than we were before we dieted (over time 2-5-years is the estimated time-scale).

Which is all very well!  But what if you’re like me and you love food …   And how can we get away from it … unlike other substances that people stop abusing themselves with, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, we have to eat to live … Dilemma!  And one of the most frustrating aspects of dieting is the time, energy, money and deprivation we invest in it:

• Finding a weight loss program we can live with
• The anticipation that this time will be The One
  
• Having that first weigh-in

Then the hard work commences – where we:

• Struggle to adapt, and convince ourselves its worthwhile while simultaneously telling everyone around us how great it is
• Accommodating the rest of the family on both the taste and budget fronts
  
• Living with the system of counting sins, points, calories etc
• Attending weekly weigh-in’s with their attendant high’s and low’s
• Stretching the will-power to its limit
• And if we’ve managed that miracle we might just achieve TARGET
• And big high five there
• Deal with the overwhelming urge to just EAT – after all – we’ve earned it haven’t we?

And this is where the journey really begins although there is little attention paid to it … yet isn’t a bit like learning to drive a car … Once you pass your test … the learning really begins …  and I was probably worse than most … but now I’m an excellent driver ….  And most of it comes down to trial and error and a steep learning … No longer being able to rely on the instructor telling us what to do next … we have to make the decisions, when we come to the crossroads, one-way systems, new towns and motorways.  Its not that dissimilar … in that we have to learn to navigate our way through the challenges that present themselves and we learn new habits.

However there is some Good News … All along

ITS NOT BEEN YOU!

No seriously … The problem with dieting systems is that they were trying to make changes on a conscious level, and although habit can certainly be changed that way … it takes longer and requires you to consciously engage … so having a dieting plan and trying to cheat it by using the daily points/sins on sweet-tooth goodies (for example) ultimately won’t work …

What I’m going to share are some wonderful quick-change techniques that enable change at the deeper level of the subconscious mind that will enable both parts of the mind to work in unison without having to rely on willpower …

And a solution is at hand …

Get in touch for more information … I’m excited to share these techniques that will get all parts of your mind on-board to fulfill the ambition you’ve craved for so long …  and its going to be a fun day …

You’ll meet other like-minded people who want to make the same impact on their eating …

From one ‘foodie’ to another … and you WON”T HAVE to change your LOVE of FOOD just the way its been treating you!

SPECIAL OFFER until Friday 28 August … only £30.00 (Introductory price) then increases to £45.00

Venue:  St Martin’s Community Centre

Date:  12 September 2009

Times:  10.00 am – 5.00 pm

Cal to book:  Jane – 01303 223233 / 07951 52282

Email:  jane@kickthedietinghabit.com

SPECIAL PRICE

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So to one of my favorite topics … Food …

But this site isn’t necessarily about recipes, or diets.  Instead I want to talk about How to Change Your Relationship with Food and still be able to love it.

Isn’t it that we just got into bad habits.  We became reliant on diets, patches, pills and potions (and drinks) to save us from ourselves.

Question

What is it about the people that have been successful with any ‘dieting’ products found on the market.  Why did they work for them and not for me?

What is that they did that I couldn’t … There seems to be ONE answer and that was they approached it as a long-term plan.  They didn’t just see the ‘diet’ as a quick-fix, where they would manage to reach their target weight, and then go back to their old regime.  The evidence strongly suggests that the people that diets work for (around 5%) instead change their lifestyle.

• Would you like to change your body shape?
• Are you willing to change your mindset?
• Would you like to say goodbye to all diets, patches, potions and pills?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then read on … this site has more information to unveil!

But does change need to involve great sacrifice?  Or is it just about the way we frame it …

Can you think of any other area of life … where you want to make improvements, get ahead and be your best self, i.e. relationships, career, finances, friendship, where you simply expect a short term struggle in exchange for a long-term solution.  Is it that we want the result without putting in the work?

So why do we try to trick ourselves into believing its different with weight or more importantly our relationship with food?

Jane

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This is a blog about:

• Food
• Changing our weight for the better
  
• How much we desire that outcome
  
• How easy it can be – and making your mind up
• Still enjoying food – in a less needy way
• Doing some cooking – if you fancy – its a doddle
• Finding more flavour
• Substituting one sweet for another – ah!
  

We’re initially looking at making the change through some quick-change in quick-time techniques … and then following up with how you re-order your eating habits to accommodate YOUR NEW SELF to ensure you avoid stepping back into old patterns.

I’ll share some easy cooking tips, give some quick demonstrations if you like, it really doesn’t take long …  Which leaves you more time to sit round the table with your nearest and dearest and share your day.

You can have cooked, eaten and be ready for the next part of your day, knowing you’ve got some great nutrients feeding your system, providing you with great energy for the wonderful life you are getting on with instead of nibbling … because there’s a wonderful world of adventure to be had.

And maybe its time for you to step away from the store cupboards and fridge and get on with whatever it is you’ve been putting off, either through boredom, stress, triggers such as TV, lack of confidence or failing to speak up when you wanted to say so much more …

Its great to reward ourselves … but food is not always the best way to do it … of course we HAVE TO HAVE SOME FUN FOOD …  and 10% of the time is more than plenty!!!  The other 90% of your life is what is gong to be shared here …  I mean we all know what fun food looks like for us right – we’re pretty expert at that, ‘nuf said.

That’s it for now …  this site will show the how and the why … the willing is down to us …  As a fellow foodie … I’m excited to show you how you can have a Healthy (sorry it just popped out!) Relationship with Food and yet NOT HAVE to DENY yourself either.    ENJOY!

Jane

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