The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

A Simple Way to Stop Snacking

One of the biggest obstacles to losing weight is snacking. Maybe you're feeling depressed and you eat for comfort. Or maybe you're bored and you eat for something to do.

Whatever the cause is, you get the "munchies" and end up eating way more than you should. And, unfortunately, our English language helps us to justify our behavior. "It was just a snack," you say.

Snack. The word is so short and clean and crisp. It sounds like a word for "just a little bit." Yet it can mean "a whole, whole lot."

I believe you can lose weight much more quickly if you can stop some of your snacking. Some people will tell you to eat throughout the day. And I think that's good advice as long as you can control how much you eat.

But if you lack control, you first need to gain control. And if you can stop snacking, you will have taken a huge leap forward in your ability to control yourself.

So here's my simple technique to help you stop snacking: Brush your teeth immediately following a meal.

I find that doing this prevents me from snacking between meals for three reasons. One, whatever I eat after brushing my teeth will most likely taste bad. Two, I don't want to go to the trouble of brushing my teeth again. And three, I don't want to mess up that fresh feeling in my mouth by eating junk food.

If you can't (or won't) brush your teeth after a meal, then try chewing a stick of gum instead. I find this works almost as well. When you have the opportunity to eat something you shouldn't, just say, "No, I can't eat that. I'm chewing gum."

These ideas are deceptively simple, but exceedingly powerful. When you get the chance, let me know if either of them works for you.

Fat Thinking

Robert Ringer has written a great article just published in Early to Rise, Message #1372. In it, he offers his three top rules for making money (they're not what you expect), and then provides some insight into what he calls "fat thinking" and how to overcome it. First, his top rules for making money:

In a radio interview some years ago, the host started out by asking me, "In order of importance, what would you say are the three most essential rules when it comes to making money?" Without hesitation, I blurted out: "Rule No. 1: Stay alive. Rule No. 2: Stay healthy. Rule No. 3: Stop losing money."

The first two rules are so basic, yet so often overlooked. Money without health is practically meaningless.

Some people persevere despite their lack of health. For instance, Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Seabiscuit. But ask her whether she'd choose the money she now has or the opportunity to get her health back. I'm willing to bet she'd want her health back. (Laura says, "Chronic fatigue syndrome is far, far worse than most people can even imagine.")

Another way to look at it: good health enables you to work harder and achieve success faster. Who has the advantage? The guy with poor eating habits who can't seem to wake up in the morning, or the guy with good eating habits who has enough energy to wake up every morning at 5 AM and work a few extra hours?

After introducing his subject matter through the three top rules for making money, Robert begins to talk about obesity... because it kills so many people every year and because Robert suffered from obesity for many years. He says:

I thought like a fat person. Meaning that even if I wasn't hungry, I would eat, because that's what a fat person is supposed to do. It was a self-image thing.

The reason I wanted to share this with you is that in the event you are one of the millions of people in this country who are overweight, I suggest you attack the problem with your mind. A responsible-behavior mindset is a hundred times more effective than the greatest diet book ever written.

This advice is priceless. In my struggles with other issues (not weight), I've discovered it all comes down to how I think. If I can change the way I think, I can change the way I act. And if I can change the way I act, I can achieve the results I desire.

It's the same for you. You're fat because you think fat. Think thin instead.

Hydrolyzed Soy Protein

Seth Godin, who will be releasing a new book on May 23 called All Marketer's Are Liars, writes about fake soy sauce made primarily from "hydrolyzed soy protein."

Just for the record, "hyrdolyzed soy protein" is one of the secret phrases used to cover up the presence of MSG—monosodium glutamate—in food products.

Next time you think about adding a little "soy sauce" to your Chinese food, check the label. You just might be signing yourself up for a MSG-induced migraine.

Richard Koch on Health

I just finished reading The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, and in the final pages of the book, Koch mentions his perspective on healthcare and how 80/20 Thinking can cure some of its ills.

“Two decades ago, the U.S. surgeon general very sensibly tried to attribute the causes of illness and concluded that only 10 percent of it was attributable to medical care or its absence and fully 50 percent was related to personal behavior. Yet U.S. budgets, under both Republicans and Democrats, have allocated 20 times more spending to corrective medical care than to all the programs encouraging better nutrition, health education, self-care medication, and personal fitness.” (p. 255)

Koch goes on to suggest that the government ought to reverse its allocation of dollars so that educational health programs receive far more funding than corrective medical care because the greatest payback would come from altering the personal behavior that causes 50 percent of all illnesses.

In addition to what I’ve quoted above, Koch makes two additional statements I found myself in agreement with.

“In the case of healthcare, as in most areas, prevention is better and a great deal cheaper than stopping it later; and creating habits of healthy living among the young, habits that are likely to endure through a long lifetime, will do more good than almost any other form of social expenditure.” (p. 255)

And finally:

“We probably need fewer hospitals, fewer doctors, and fewer nurses and more voluntary and home-based health workers, more nutritionists, more gyms, more fitness equipment, more parks, more cycle lanes, and high taxes on unhealthy food.” (p. 255)

With the exception of his comment about taxing unhealthy foods, I agree with what he’s saying: we need to encourage preventive healthcare and discourage people from making poor health decisions. Maybe, in a small way, The Health Blog is doing just that.

Wonder Bread Wonders

Reading Bottom Line Personal, I came across this interesting tidbit about the maker of Wonder Bread:

"Some companies, such as Interstate Bakeries, maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies, blame their poor profit growth on the low-carb trend. In fact, the company's products weren't selling well even before the craze took off."

May I suggest that poor sales of Wonder Bread may be due to their customers' defection to higher quality, healthier products?

Frankly, I've always been amazed by Wonder Bread's claims that it "builds strong bodies 12 ways." Oh, so you process everything out of the bread—strip it of all nutritional value—then pump some vitamins and minerals back in... as if you (Wonder Bread) could do a better job at manufacturing healthy foods than nature can.

Another thought: after eating organic foods, I find that processed foods lack flavor. Seriously. If you eat organic whole grain bread for a few months and then go back to whatever brand of processed bread you were eating before, I'll bet you find it quite bland and unappetizing.

And Wonder Bread wonders why their customers are defecting! If only they'd read a little bit more or take a look at long-term diet trends, they wouldn't wonder so much at their company's poor sales.

The pH Miracle

I finished reading The pH Miracle almost three months ago, but my copy has only yesterday come back into my possession. I am now ready to tell you what The pH Miracle is all about.

Robert O. Young, Ph.D., and his wife Shelley Redford Young put forth a simple idea in their book: that the pH of your blood is the most significant single indicator of your overall health.

Based on his research and analysis of thousands of live blood tests, Robert believes the ideal pH for blood is 7.365, or slightly alkaline. (By the way, the pH scale starts at 1 and goes to 14. Low numbers indicate acid and high numbers indicate base. Seven, the center of the scale, is neither acidic or basic.)

When your body is acidic, as most Americans are, then you are prone to develop diseases and symptoms that reflect your body’s overly acidic state. Here’s what Robert and Shelley say.

“We’re starting from the premise that of all the balances the human body strives to maintain, the most crucial is the one between acid and base (or alkaline). The body will go to great lengths to maintain the appropriate, slightly basic, nature of its blood. But it is all too easy and far too common for body tissues to become acidic. Such an imbalance sets the stage for chaos, opening the door to sickness and disease. Overacidification of body fluids and tissues underlies all disease, and general “dis-ease” as well. For one thing, it is only when it is acidic that the body is vulnerable to germs—in healthy base balance, germs can’t get a foothold. Furthermore, acids are the expression of all sickness and disease. In short, good health requires a body in proper acid/base balance. Proper diet (like the one laid out in this book) is the only way to ensure that.” (p. 13)

When your body becomes too acidic, your lymphatic (immune) system will try to do whatever it can to neutralize and eliminate the excess acids in your body. While your body exhausts itself trying to dispose of the acids, you may experience some unpleasant side effects.

“This imbalance in the blood pH leads to irritation and inflammation and sets the stage for sickness. Acute or recurrent illnesses result from either the body trying to mobilize mineral reserves to prevent cellular breakdown or emergency attempts to detoxify the body. For example, the body may throw off acids through the skin, producing symptoms such as eczema, acne, boils, headaches, muscle cramps, soreness, swelling, irritation, inflammation, and general aches and pains. Chronic symptoms show up when all possibilities of neutralizing or eliminating acids have been exhausted.” (p. 15)

So what’s the solution? How do we prevent our bodies from acid overload? The Youngs say the answer lies primarily in what we eat.

There are many foods that cause the blood to become alkaline. The Youngs say we should eat far more of these than we currently do. Unfortunately, most of the foods in the American diet are acid-forming. The Youngs say we should eliminate the consumption of these foods whenever and wherever possible.

Something interesting that the Youngs point out: just because a food is acidic does not mean it will cause your blood to be acidic. For instance, lemons, limes, and grapefruit are acidic foods, but they cause your blood to become alkaline.

In The pH Miracle, you’ll find charts of many foods with their corresponding pH levels. Reviewing these charts will open your eyes to how much acid-forming food you’re consuming. As I looked everything over, I found myself pleasantly surprised that some of the foods I like to eat are on the alkaline side of the scale… but I was also somewhat disappointed to find some of my favorite foods on the acid side. You’ll likely have the same experience.

The pH Miracle is a very practical book. The first 198 pages discuss the diet and why it’s important. The latter 130 pages are chock full of recipes and resources you can use to put a healthy diet together.

If you have the time, I highly recommend this book. It’s the most common sense, scientifically-supported book I’ve read on the subject of diet and health.

Buy The pH Miracle at Amazon.com.

Weight Loss Blog

I like to repay kindness with kindness. And so I'm going to tell you about Mark Askey's weight loss blog that he's titled "Weightless."

Mark was one of the first guy's to link to my site without me asking him to do so. And I really appreciate that.

Mark's blog is unique among health blogs. It focuses on his personal journey to lose 42 pounds before summer arrives. And he's making good progress!

While I tend to blog about a variety of health topics, you'll find Mark is very focused on weight loss and recipes that help him do it. (By the way, Mark is following the Weight Watchers plan.)

One of the best parts about Mark's blog is that his sense of humor comes through in his posts. He gives helpful information in a way that's enjoyable to read.

PS - If you're interested in the retail sales business, you'll also enjoy Mark's primary blog, "Just Looking."

80/20 Health

I'm reading The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch and find it very fascinating. Probably the most interesting non-fiction I've read in the last four months. Basically...

"The 80/20 Principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards. Taken literally, this means that, for example, 80 percent of what you achieve in your job comes from 20 percent of the time spent. Thus for all practical purposes, four-fifths of the effort—a dominant part of it—is largely irrelevant. This is contrary to what people normally expect." (p. 4)

Now, what would happen if we applied the 80/20 Principle to our own health? We'd likely find that 20% of the foods we eat are responsible for 80% of our health and energy. Similarly, we'd likely find that 20% of the foods we eat are responsible for 80% of our illness and fatigue.

So what's the 20 percent?

On the healthy side of the equation, you've got vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and berries, etc. On the unhealthy side of the equation, you've got ice cream, cookies, and all manner of desserts.

Here's a simple way, then, to improve your health: eliminate the 20% of foods that are causing you illness and fatigue and increase your consumption of the 20% of foods that are improving your health and energy.

Ignore the other 80 percent. You will receive very little payback from attending to this 80 percent, and your efforts will be distracted from where they should really be focused.

The Last 5 Books I've Read

I just finished Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting this morning. (I mailed out my final assignment yesterday!)

Anyway, I added the course to The Last 5 Books I've Read—the list you can see in the left-hand column of this page. And the TypePad software tried to pull in a book cover that's totally unrelated. Now I can't get the cover to disappear. Oh, well.

The course is not available through Amazon.com. But it is available at The Writer's Life.

Fidget to Lose Weight

Fidget to lose weight? Yes...

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found that people who fidget can burn an extra 350 calories per day... enough to produce a weight loss of 30 to 40 pounds in a year.

When I read this, I began to wonder if my ability to maintain my weight comes from my natural tendency to fidget. Right now, I'm tapping my right foot. In meetings at work, I find myself rocking continuously (the chairs lean back)... sometimes for up to three or four hours straight. If I'm at a table, I'll often drum my fingers to the rhythms in my head. (There are many!)

If you haven't figured it out already, I'm the guy who tends to be oblivious that he's annoying others when he's drumming his fingers, tapping his foot, etc. Although I've gotten better at being sensitive to the "annoyance levels" of the people around me.  :-)

The Week magazine reports:

In their study, the researchers outfitted lean and obese people with sensors that monitored their tiniest movements. all were given the same diets, and engaged in no formal exercise. The obese people, the researchers found, spent at least two hours more each day sitting still than the lean people, who tended to pace, fidget, and stand up more often. Even when the obese people became thinner through dieting, they still shunned activity, and spent most of their time as motionless as possible.

So if you want to lose weight, try fidgeting. It's simple. And it's cheaper than Weight Watchers.