Determined To Succeed

You guys know me and my fave beverage of choice – an ice-cold Coca-Cola. However I am not sure if I’ve ever told you guys about my extreme dislike for Diet Coke. Yes, as much as I love “regular” I can’t stand the taste of “unleaded.” I am also one of those people who will only drink certain diet sodas because of the crappy after taste. On my list of decent diet drinks: Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale, TAB and Diet A&W Root Beer. Other than those few I’d rather drink motor oil (well, OK, I wouldn’t but you get the picture).

As we start having warmer days and want to get our bodies in shape for summer (mine included), my thoughts turn to diet soft drinks. So many people I know love – LOVE – diet drinks, especially Diet Coke. But as today’s temperatures climb to almost 90-degrees here in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area I am wondering exactly how (and if) diet drinks will actually help someone lose weight? Well, more and more studies show they aren’t helping. They also show they even hurt.

Some food (or drink) for thought today before you “hit the road:”

Diet soda isn’t the silver bullet to weight loss it’s often made out to be. Nor does it prevent weight gain. In fact, drinking diet soda is strongly correlated with obesity. When people drink sweet diet sodas our bodies get the message that sweet, high-calorie foods are coming to nourish it. However, when no sweets and/or calories follow the body gets confused: where are the promised calories we need? This may then stimulate your hunger for other high-calorie, sweet foods and drinks (sweeter cereals, snacks, breads and desserts) which may, in turn, lead to weight gain. Also, by getting ourselves used to so much artificial, higher-concentrated sweet, normal sweet flavors such as fruit become bland and so do other healthful foods such as grains and vegetables, thus reducing our willingness to consume them and ultimately the quality of our diet is affected

Further, some health experts speculate that, while diet soda doesn’t cause obesity, people who are starting to put on weight think choosing diet soda alone will stop the process. Meaning, you can’t go into a fast-food restaurant, eat a high-calorie, fatty meal and say, ‘Oh, it’s OK, because I had diet soda.’ If you don’t do anything else but switch to a diet soft drink, you are not going to lose weight. Also, drinking multiple cans of diet soda every day squeezes out from our diets the healthful beverages – juices, water and teas – that can best benefit and truly hydrate our bodies.

Finally, there is still some suspicion – not confirmed – that aspartame, the low-calorie chemical used to sweeten diet sodas, may have some bad health effects. Some animal studies have linked consumption of high quantities of the chemical to brain tumors and lymphoma in rodents. The Food and Drug Administration has certified the sweetener’s safety, but reported side effects include dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, memory loss and mood changes.

Eeeeeewwwwww! He said diarrhea….

A diet soda study, conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center, studied data on 1,550 Americans ages 25 to 64. The participants were studied for 7 to 8 years. Results showed that total soft drink consumption was tied to increased rates of obesity, but – perhaps surprisingly – participants drinking only diet soda faced the highest obesity rate of all, even greater than that of participants drinking both regular and diet drinks. What exactly is the obesity risk for diet pop (as we say in Chicago and the Midwest) drinkers? The study found an obesity risk of 37.5% for those drinking 1/2 to 1 can of diet soda daily, 54.5% risk of obesity for those drinking 1 to 2 cans daily, and a whopping 57.1% risk for those drinking more than 2 diet pops per day.

Wow!

With so much to do today remember healthier choices abound. Start your day with a small glass of 100 percent fruit juice. Drink skim milk with meals. Sip water throughout the day. For variety, try sparkling water or add a squirt of lemon or cranberry juice to your water. Save diet soda for an occasional treat if you want to have it because, like anything and everything else, taken in moderation it’s OK.

Just not as OK as you might think (or drink).

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Good morning, my friends. And what a chilly morning it is.

Living in southern New Jersey the temperatures here are a bit warmer than they are in Chicago (my awesome hometown). That is due to the more temperate weather conditions brought on by the ocean, as opposed to the frigid temperatures in the Midwest brought down from the arctic (think THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW but with now big weather cyclone of death).

Anyway, while no where near as cold here as it is at home it’s pretty nippy. The wind chill factor will make it feel like the high teens or early twenties today which is enough to make anyone think twice about braving the cold to get a workout in.

But I’m here to tell you not to let the cold stop you. Cold is one thing and being cold is another, but seeing that number on your electronic scale drop lower and lower is an amazing thing and brings you a warmth no matter what time of year.

Here we are in the throes of winter – the perfect time to kick your feet up, get a good book and cozy up on the couch staying warm. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is what we don’t want to do especially working out.

You’ve heard me say before, there’s a quote in the “Star Wars” movies for everything. This is no exception. In “The Empire Strikes Back,” Luke is preparing to face Darth Vader with only minimal training as a Jedi Knight. Obi Wan, his mentor and friend, warns Luke that while he can feel the Force he can’t control it, saying to Luke, ”This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the Dark Side of the Force.”

He couldn’t be more right.

This is the time of year when we are not only tempted to stay indoors and keep warm but attend holiday parties and functions filled with the intoxicating smells of the tasty catered hors devours – delicious warm mini quiches, pasta buffets, sample platters, hoagies, pigs in blankets, bread and cheese trays, dips, chips, salsas and more.  My mouth’s watering just thinking and writing about it all.

No matter the temperature outside or the time of year and all the parties it brings, it’s up to each of us to control what we eat and to remain committed to exercise. Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean we should slack off and wait until it’s warmer to get reacquainted with our exercise routines.

I’m human, just like you. I like watching a great flick on my couch and hunkering down all warm, but this weight loss journey is a constant thing we’re doing no matter how frightful the weather is outside our windows. There are consequences to what we eat and how much (or how little) we exercise. For me, eating better and exercising is a part of my every day if I want toget back to and stay at 225lbs.

And what continues to motivate me – the pride of my mom, friends and loved ones as well as my goal to have a 36-inch waist instead of the 58-inch waist I used to have – will help me live a hopefully long and healthier life so that I can enjoy, every now and then, the warmth of my couch and a cup of nice hot chocolate.

Until then, time to bundle up and head to the gym. That elliptical is waiting…

Wow! Did we get hit with snow.

Anyone who knows me and knows that I’m from Chicago knows that I’m not afraid of snow. No one from the Midwest is. It’s a part of life. It’s even a way of life. So we just suck it up, grab a shovel and push on through.

Living in Jersey on the other hand adds some interesting flavor to the mix. Because the east is more temperate because of the oceans snow like we got yesterday and into this morning is rare. At least rarer than a snowfall like this would be in Chicago. So how it’s dealt with is different. The Chicago boy in me gets downright mad sometimes that the basic infrastructure doesn’t seem to exist here to handle when two or more feet of snow are dumped on the area.

To me, it’s simple. When the first flakes hit the ground, mobilize the salt trucks and lay down a time-buying layer of salt that will help melt at least the first wave. Then, as snow builds, the plows come to work the major arteries, then throughways/secondary streets, then side and residential streets. And I have vastly over-simplified this. I know that but thanks to the Chicago blizzard of 79 we look at this now as more of a science – something down-pat, tried-and-true and something that (for the most part) works.

A weight loss goal and extra pounds are the same way. You’ve heard me the past few days talk about my stupid Taylor scale. How that brand let me down twice. And while that is very true I have no one to blame but my internal infrastructure breaking down as the reason I gained back almost 15 lbs. I let the pounds (snow) accumulate and didn’t do anything about that (like working out more and eating less and drinking less Cokes) so that my streets were clear (and I didn’t gain weight).

See. The Chicago boy in me is mad as hell because I should have seen this coming. I didn’t need a new scale. I just needed some good old-fashioned common sense.

So the Chicago boy in me is going to get to work. Not necessarily outside but I’m going to work. I’ve already done 100 sit-ups and will do 100 more by day’s end. I am also going to do 20 reps up and down my stairs. So as the plows are SLOOOOOOLY digging us out I am beginning to dig myself out or the heap of extra snow I have accumulated. This way it doesn’t turn into a blizzard.

Time for me to accept that weight loss is the path I have chosen. This is my new way of life. Time for me to grab a shovel, suck it up and push on through. I will lose this weight again. And my streets will be clear…

…especially as I fight southern Jerseyans for the last whole grain bread and non-fat milk in the stores.