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 As you probably noticed - I didn't get a newsletter sent around last weekend... Well, the problem is that I spent a few weeks _totally_ unorganized. I felt like I was running around at full speed but I never seemed to get anything done. Usually that's not a problem, in fact most of us don't even _realize_ that we are doing it - but I found out is IS a problem! How so? Besides feeling like I was never getting enough sleep, and constantly _doing_ things that never seemed to get done, I noticed it made a difference in my diet also. When you are unorganized it is much easier to just throw it away and do things you know you shouldn't do. It's easier to say yes to a WHOLE dessert when you don't have a working _plan_ in your mind, it's easier to GAIN weight!

So, for the last week I've taken control of my life, and things have come _easier_ for me... I am sticking to my eating plan, even when we go out! I have found it easy to stay under my allotted 2000 calories per day, and for some reason I don't seem as frantically hungry as I have when I WAS so unorganized. It only takes a few minutes each morning to come up with a 'gang-plan' a plot to lead you through the day. You may not know EVERYDAY what you are going to have for breakfast or lunch or dinner - and those days you may just have to 'wing' it, but on days when you DO have a general idea of what those meals will consist of you will find that _making_ a plan and sticking to it as closely as you can - IS going to make a difference. Five minutes of my time in the morning, going over what I need to do, what HAS to be done, what can be put off _safely_ and even my meal plan, saves me an infinite amount of time through the whole day... It saves MUCH more then just those five minutes I spend thinking about it.

It's easy to do, it saves you time in the long run, and it makes those instances when you have something unexpected come up EASIER to deal with! It shows in your eating, it shows in your demeanor, and not just you, but everyone around you is going to notice just how well you've got it all together! *lol* Think of the serene duck, calmly swimming in the pond... He looks quiet and together - no one has to know that under the surface you are paddling like crazy - and having a plan to face the day makes that paddling just a little bit easier!

Tired of dieting? Some new research just might interest you! The concept behind the study was to see if eating like a non-dieter could help shed those extra pounds. How? The difference is all in the way people react to food and eating something high calorie. A normal eater goes to a party, eats whatever they want and then doesn't eat for the rest of the night. Someone who has spent years as a dieter can do the same thing - but when they get home they decide that the diet is already blown and eat MORE! Meanwhile, the normal eater, still full from the night before, has a light breakfast and goes about the day. The dieter - feeling that they have failed, could end up on a two-week period of overeating because of the emotional reaction to their 'self labeled' failing.

The study found that dieters or 'perfect eaters' who were more likely to chart their consumption of food and restrict calories rigidly, don't allow for an occasional slice of birthday cake or a backyard barbecue. The inevitable result is a break in 'willpower' and a resulting binge. Normal eaters often zigzag between over-eating days and under-eating days.

What can you do? Accept that you are going to over-eat sometimes, it's normal and inevitable! Realize that over-eating can be incorporated into your life as long as you work at under-eating and exercise for the days following the over-eating episode. It's not an easy task for those of us who have spent so many years frantically worrying over every single calorie - and the switch (for those committed to doing this) can take 6 months to a year, sometimes several years... How can you start?

Begin by making gradual food changes. Go from celery stick and carrot sticks (unless of course you LIKE them!) and allow those 'forbidden foods' to resurface in your life.

Control portion size instead of counting calories. Instead of filling a plate with tons of vegetables and low calories things, have a small portion of that chicken cordon blue that you _really_ want.

Learn to shift your food consumption, spread it out over the day more evenly. This is a great strategy for people who tend to eat too little during the day and then set themselves up for over eating at night.

KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL! :-) I swear this is in the study and not something _I_ put in here! It makes it easier to pinpoint emotional eating patterns as well as keeping track of those days when you eat TOO much and the 'correcting' pattern of eating less to make up for the over-eating!

Forget about bad food... There is no good food and there is no bad food - food is FOOD! Forget the shame and guilt over eating a brownie, guilt is the number one factor in binges! Instead of focusing on avoiding 'bad' food and counting calories, focus on eating WELL 80 percent of the time and allow 20 percent of the time to enjoy the things you really like. It's not going to have that much of an impact on your overall diet as long as that 80 percent of the time you are doing the right things.

The key to losing weight for good lies in rediscovering your hunger. Some people get a bit sick to the stomach when they are hungry, some people get a headache, some people get really irritable, and some get pangs in their stomachs. Begin tracking THOSE feelings in your food journal as well. It will help you realize if you are truly hungry or if you are just eating because it's lunchtime, or because you are depressed. When you sit down to eat - before you take that first mouthful stop and make a note of how and what you are feeling. Then make sure you STAY aware of how you are feeling and _stop_ eating when you aren't hungry anymore!

Give yourself permission to eat without guilt. This is a really hard step for a lot of career dieters... If you think to yourself, I want a brownie - but I can't have it, you could end up eating THREE and then feeling guilty and convinced you've failed. This train of though often leads to "Oh, I can have another because I've _already_ blown it!" Short-circuit that destructive pattern by repeating to yourself "I can have those brownies." Give yourself _permission_ and remove the guilt. Get it over right then and there instead of setting yourself up for a three week brownie fest! If you choose it and allow yourself to have it - remembering that you can always have another - it takes away the NEED to have ALL the brownies! Tell yourself, I ate three brownies at 300 calories each, now I will cut three hundred calories out of my diet over the next three days - see it suddenly becomes NOT such a big deal!

We're human right? Oh so human, and humans are not perfect (as much as we like to THINK we are) and sooner or later it's going to catch you... You know what I am talking about - THE BINGE!

A rare binge won't hurt your progress much on your eating plan, it may set you back a few hundred calories, that pound may take an extra week to lose - but it's not going to effect your work _that_ much. On the other hand if you find yourself 'pigging out' often, not only aren't you doing your body any good - you will have wasted a lot of time and effort. This is another instance where pre-planning can bail you out... Here are some handy tips for heading off and controlling a binge - and one thing - remember that it's much easier to get fat than it is to get thin! If all these tips fail and you can't stop a binge or control it once you find yourself IN one - then get right back to work, get over the guilt and start making up for it! Remember, the only way FAT is going to win is if YOU quit!

Heading Off A Binge

Avoid temptation! Binges are usually triggered by one food - so avoid it. Don't buy it, don't walk past it in the store, and if you can in ANY way not think about it then DO IT! If you know those Kit Kat bars are going to be calling to you - don't even buy them for the kids - and if you DO have to buy something like that for the children then maybe they can eat it someplace YOU don't have to see it!

Think About It

Where are you feeling that hunger? In your stomach or in your head, mouth and eyes. Remember that old saying about your eyes being bigger then your stomach? Well seeing does a lot - so DON'T have it there TO see! If you are feeling that hunger anywhere but your stomach - now is the time to find something else to do! Try and head it off for as long as you can, and maybe, just maybe - you'll forget about it or the 'craving' will pass... If all else fails, find a friend to call to help 'lead' you out of harms way - you might set something up with a network of friends who are trying to lose weight, a sort of 'rescue line'. Forcing yourself to wait for a while before you give in will give you a chance to stop before you start. Remember, the difference between losing and gaining is giving in.

Stretch Your Imagination

Imagine those honey roasted peanuts that you have your eye on covered in little globs of cold, hard FAT! That chocolate bar? Think of this, the government ALLOWS maggots, worms and BUGS in chocolate - was that a tiny roach leg you saw in the surface of that chocolate bar? Chips your downfall? This is absolutely true of REAL potato chips - hold one up to the light and look for large bubbles in the surface of the chip. Now, look closely while you rock that chip back and forth... See that liquid in there gently swishing around? You know what that is? FAT!!! Oil - and oil is 100% pure D fat! You want to eat that??? I don't think so - skip it and get an apple or some raw veggie sticks instead! Use that imagination and find something to gross you out - use it to push off that binge.

Distract Yourself

Again, don't give into it! Hop in the car and go to the mall. Go for a walk, sort through the laundry, do something that is going to take your mind off of your obsession! If you find yourself heading in the general direction of that cabinet housing whatever it is you are wanting - yell "STOP" out loud. People may think you are crazy, but you would do the same to your kids if THEY were going to do something you didn't want them to do - and you _don't_ want to give into a binge do you? Scold yourself, you ARE bigger then those Oreo's! You can over power them! Then sit down and THINK about how you are going to look 10 pounds, 20 pounds, _50 pounds_ thinner! Think about all you have to lose - and then BE A LOSER by not eating that food!

Ops, Too Late - You Just Realize You Can't Avoid The Binge...

Make Yourself Sit Down At The Table

Get out your least attractive plate, use plastic utensils or some unmatched, scratched and yucky silverware, and serve yourself generously. Don't take too little which will result in going back for more in a moment. Think about what you are doing as you are eating and keep the thought in your mind that you CAN stop at any point. Start by eating just a little bit, TRY and stop before you have eaten it all, do the best that you can.

See If Substitutions Will Work

A crunchy pickle, some raw vegetables, find something lower in calories that is LIKE what it is you want to binge on. You can try staving off hunger with a can of vegetables (this is my favorite thing to do!) A 14 1/2 ounce can of asparagus has only 74 calories - IN THE WHOLE THING! That Danish pastry you have your eye on has about 274! Look for something you LIKE but will be lower in calories and then 'save' yourself! If you are craving a piece of chocolate cream pie - spread two tablespoons of fat free chocolate pudding on a graham cracker, top with two tablespoons of fat free non-diary whipped topping - and have you pie! Your impromptu pie has around 140 calories - that slice of 'real' chocolate cream pie has about 400!

Maintain Some Discipline

Okay, you have given in to your binge food... You can STILL be in control if YOU don't eat the whole thing! Count out a number of chips (and while you are at it - hold one up to the light and check out that pure fat I was telling you about :-) Instead of a BAG of cookies, count out a few. LIMIT yourself - it will make the bounce back tomorrow even easier!

Force Yourself To Put Down Your Fork

Put it down and walk away from the table - out of the room. A binge IS controllable - when YOU stop it's over.

Trying to keep that 4 o'clock snack monster at bay? First of all relax, hunger pains in the late afternoon are perfectly normal for most people. Researchers have found that most often these snack attacks are triggered by small dips in the body's blood sugar. Your blood sugar drops because the food you ate earlier has been fully digested and has been used up by the body as energy. Blood sugar rises and falls through the day, but most of us feel it most at mid-morning and then again in the afternoon. Some people are more sensitive to the blood sugar drop then others, but technically you don't need to eat the minute that you start noticing the signs of lowering blood sugar, because for the most part the body will start taking care of the deficit by using up stored energy reserves (fat!) and the desire for food will usually pass within 15 to 20 minutes. When you are tempted to snack, ask yourself - are you truly hungry? Some people confuse hunger with thirst, so try drinking a glass of water before giving into that snack monster. Sometimes boredom plays a part in hunger, sometimes stress does the same thing - so instead of reaching for something to eat FIRST - try diverting your attention to something relaxing to get your mind off of things. If you are truly hungry then reach for a healthy snack - researchers suggest a healthy snack looks like a mini meal. A combination of 50 to 55 percent carbohydrates, 15 to 20 percent protein, and 30 percent fat (I'm sorry - I think that's high, but _I'm_ not a researcher.)

Don't forget to give yourself a break, if you want a candy bar then by all means have one! When you are craving a candy bar, chocolate flavored rice cakes are not a reasonable substitute and you can end up eating several rice cakes and _then_ the candy bar! Research shows that in most fat free foods there is a small difference in calories between the fat free and the full fat variety. Fat is a flavor carrier, and when you take it out, you have to make up for the loss of flavor by adding sugar and lots of calories. Give yourself the real thing and you'll probably end up eating less because you will be satisfied and you won't be going from food to food to food hoping to get that candy bar out of your mind.

Want to outsmart your sweet-tooth? First off - lose the guilt!!!! Did you know that the desire for sweets was a survival tool thousands of years ago when we were hunters and gatherers? The sweetness you find in fruits, berries, and vegetables - and even grains meant that the food was edible and had enough calories in it to sustain a body through times of famine. So it's not YOU - it's what your body was _programmed_ to do!

You can tame your taste buds by retraining them to appreciate smaller amounts of sugar, just try a few of these suggestions and see if you can curb your desire for sweets and cut down on a few calories!

At breakfast, mix equal parts of your favorite sugary cereal with some high fiber brand cereal. Instead of a cinnamon roll dripping in icing, try a small bran muffin spread with a little jam.

Cut back on the sugar you use in your coffee or tea by 1/4 of a teaspoon (1/2 a packet) every three days until you reduce your sugar need by half.

Slash the number of soft drinks you drink (this is not a bad idea even if you _aren't_ addicted to sweets!) by half. If it's the carbonation you crave try mixing equal parts sparkling water or seltzer with orange or cranberry juice.

Learn to appreciate things naturally, freeze grapes or bananas and blueberries and throw them in a blender and to grate them up. Now add some plain unsweetened low fat yogurt and make a luscious smoothie! Dried fruit is even sweeter then fresh, apricots, raisins, and dates are wonderful in cereal and yogurt as a sweet snack!

Think HALF! Don't deny yourself, but _half_ a dessert is just as satisfying as ALL of the dessert - share with someone and satisfy that craving AND save yourself half the calories!

Don't turn to artificial sweeteners. Sugar substitutes will just keep your sugar thermostat on high, so you'll keep on craving sweets. Gently try and reduce the NEED for sweets in your body and you'll be better off.

Guys, I really have to do this - for my sanity and my health... The Road Test is going to have to become a monthly installment in the Slim Pickin's Weekly. I simply cannot keep subjecting myself to a week of something new and different every single week. I was starting to dread the newsletter and I _don't_ want to do that - SO... I am going to have to do this monthly and give myself time to rest between bouts of NEW and exciting things. :-)

Please feel free to suggest things for me to Road Test, or give your particular experience with a certain diet or exercise enhancer (video or contraption!) I will LOVE it! Thanks for your understanding - and be sure to catch the next Road Test coming in August!

Julie is currently on vacation - she will be back next week in her usual spot with tons of news and thoughts that only Julie can give you. I do have to share with you a bit of news - she was at the doctors (it's been three months) and she has lost 22 pounds!!!! I know she's going to want to tell you herself - but I couldn't keep it to myself, I am very proud of her!  She's worked hard just like a lot of you have - and you guys are seeing such great results! Keep up the awesome work - and CONGRATULATIONS!!

1/2 cup fat-free Italian dressing
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley (or 1 teaspoon dried parsley)
1 teaspoon dried whole basil
2 medium yellow squash, cut in 1-inch slices
8 small boiling onions
8 cherry tomatoes
8 medium fresh mushrooms

Mix dressing, parsley, and basil in a small bowl; refrigerate. Place vegetables in an alternating sequence on eight skewers. Apply nonstick cooking spray to grill rack. Position kabobs on rack; grill over medium heat until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Baste with dressing mixture and turn frequently.

Makes 4 servings

173 calories, 1.8 grams fat, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 38.5 grams carbohydrates, 8.7 grams fiber, 6.6 grams protein, 476 milligrams sodium.

(This site is chosen by me - not because I get royalties or any special privileges by recommending it to you - but because I genuinely feel this is a _good_ site for helping us along the way to fitness and a healthy weight.)

 DISCLAIMER: The opinions and statements in Slim Pickin's Weekly are not intended as medical advice. Its intent is solely for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes. If you are interested in pursuing or trying any of the dietary changes, or following up any of the advice in this newsletter then it is suggested that you contact a health professional before doing so..

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