How to Win the Weight Loss Game by Focusing on What You CAN Eat vs What You Can't

A debate with a friend turned heated recently.  He is trying to lose weight and get in "fighting shape".  He is incorporating a low calorie weight loss plan that is, frankly, bland and boring.  He also laments the fact that he can't have beer, breads, ice cream, the chips he loves, blah blah blah blah. 

Ice cream chocolate chip sandwich/Courtesy: Bon Appetite

I countered with two points: First, you CAN have those things once in a while as a part of a well-balanced diet.  He thought he had to eliminate them completely.  Wrong.  Think once a week, not twice a day.

Then I presented him with this: "look at the great food you CAN have.  Think fish, chicken, lean steak, sweet potatoes, greens of all sorts, peppers, fresh berries, red wine (HELLO), dark chocolate, blah blah blah blah." 

He couldn't get over the fact that he CAN'T have certain food items.  I maintain that if you focus on what you CAN have while you're trying to drop weight or stay within a healthy range, it will make the sometimes taxing mental process of trying to win the weight loss game more bearable.

Does this sound familiar: "Crap, no 4pm cookie, no afterwork beers, no pretzels during the Rangers game!  This sucks!!!!"

Yeah, it does suck.  The thought of what you can't consume can consume you so much so that you end stuffing your face with all the stuff you swore off eating.

The best, healthiest smoothie ever.

Instead, approach your day this way:

• "This oatmeal with apples and peanut butter for breakfast is so much food!"  
• "Spinach and raspberries are so fresh right now they will go well with the chicken/tuna/ I am having for lunch."  
• "This smoothie full of bananas, berries and kale tastes like fresh gelato!" (it really does) 
• "This corn is so ripe, it's going to be a perfect side dish for my Mediterranean halibut recipe."

That's not some pollyanna way of thinking.  It works.  Succeeding at eating a healthy diet is as much about mental execution as it is the physical.  We know the right foods to eat.  It's just hard to do it.  Get your mind focused on what you CAN eat instead of what you CAN'T and you WILL succeed.

Promise. 

Looking for a great way to eat a bounty of fresh produce, wine, chocolate, nuts and more, try the Mediterranean "diet".  I hate using the word "diet" because it's much more of an approach to eating that is wonderfully balanced and so inclusive you won't feel like you're depriving yourself of anything.

A Weight Loss Guide: It's About Calorie Intake, Right? Sorta

It's simple: burn more calories than you consume.  This is a tried and true formula, yes?

Yes, but.....

Many times those calorie estimates are inaccurate.  You could also miscalculate the serving size you consume (I only had one handful of M&M's, okay three).   Basically calories in vs calories out is akin to being good on paper but bad in bed.

courtesy: mass.gov

The Mayo Clinic has an OUTSTANDING website that tackles all sorts of health issues, including the calorie conundrum.  Read this excerpt from their Nutrition Wise blog in a post titled "Calories Reconsidered: Old Assumptions Questioned":

Food As Medicine? It's Definitely a Form of Prevention.

"Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food." -Hippocrates.

From acai to mangosteen you have probably seen superfood claims.  The LA Times had an interesting examination in the theory of food as medicine recently.

Mediterranean Diet Recipe: Halibut with Roasted Tomatoes and Balsamic Glaze

Now that we know the Mediterranean diet is quite possibly the best, tastiest and healthiest diet  ever, how about a recipe that you can master in all of about 20 minutes?

The Mediterranean Diet: Possibly the Tastiest and Healthiest Diet Ever (Wine and Chocolate Included!)

This is a diet you have heard about time and again. It's nothing new. In fact, it's thousands of years old. 

IT is the Mediterranean diet. A simple approach to eating that has been for millenia. It also recently landed on top of U.S. News and World Report's "Best Diets of 2019" list as the Best Diet Overall.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Spain's University of Barcelona examined the diet's effect on heart disease. The New England Journal of Medicine determined "the Mediterranean diet as the most likely dietary model to provide protection against coronary heart disease." The study says eating this way reduces risk of cardiovascular disease up to 30%.

The results were so overwhelmingly positive that the study ended early because, according to the New York Times, "it was considered unethical to continue."