Changing behaviour and ways of thinking is not easy, but it is not impossible either.

We have all heard the saying:

“If you keep on doing what you are doing, you will get more of what you’ve got”

Well, nothing could be truer than this sentence when it is applied to weight loss.

We all know what we need to do to get the body we want. We simply don’t lose weight if we don’t exercise our body or exercise self-discipline over our mad monkey minds and the bad eating habits that prevent us from losing weight.

Behaviors become habits when we do them over and over again. Similarly, thoughts become beliefs when we think them over and over again. Habits and beliefs become so well practiced that we relocate them to the automatic part of our minds and allow them to operate without thinking. Unfortunately, many of our habits and beliefs are what sabotage our weight loss attempts.

Think about it.

How many times have you popped some ‘deadly’, high calorie morsel of food into your mouth before you have even thought about it? And, how many times have you looked in the mirror and automatically said to yourself, “I’m too fat?”

It’s not rocket science; it is cold hard reality. What we think and what we do becomes our reality, especially when we do it over and over again. We become fat because we think we are fat. We then cement the belief in that we are fat by doing the things that make us fat, like eating too much and exercising too little.

There is no magic pill to dissolve fat, and bariatric surgery, while it ensures weight loss does not necessarily teach you to change your behaviour or your beliefs, but certainly reduces your ability to eat an optimal food intake for good nutrition (refer to the blog on pros and cons of bariatric surgery).

The good news is, that with a bit of grit and determination you can change your thoughts and behaviors.

Think of a thoughts or behaviours as setting up neural routes in your brain. If you think a thought once, or do a behaviour once, it is only a track and will grow over and be difficult to find if you don’t walk down this path again. However, if you keep thinking the thought (e.g., “I will never lose weight”) or doing the behaviour (e.g., eating a chocolate from the dispensing machine every afternoon at 3pm) then you start to build a road, making it easier to repeat the thought or behaviour because the pathway is easy to find and travel along.

By repeating these unhelpful thoughts or behaviours we build a superhighway of neurones that entrench us in habits and ways of thinking that stop us from getting what we want. Basically, as we think, and as we do, is what we become!

So, how do we undo these beliefs and habits that don’t help us? How do we pull down these superhighways of automatic thoughts and actions?

We STOP travelling these pathways! What we don’t use falls away, it loses power. All bad habits need attention to be maintained.

So, practise resisting the urge to go to the snack bar and buy a chocolate at 3pm. Either learn to get by with a hot beverage or glass of water or bring a healthy alternative such as a piece of fruit.

Change the pattern! You weaken habits when you do something completely different.

Stop, and think before you act. Automatic thoughts and behaviours are just that; they are knee jerk reactions that usually don’t serve you. Make considered choices. We all have options. For example, we have an option to binge or an option to jump on our exercise bikes and watch half an hour of a favourite show. We all know which option our body would prefer.

The longer you practice NOT DOING the habits that don’t assist you in getting the body you want, the less power those habits will have over you.

And just like you repeatedly trod a path of thoughts and behaviours that turned into negative belief systems and bad habits that didn’t serve you, by treading paths of more positive thoughts and behaviours you will be more likely to get you what you want.

Practice makes permanent so make sure it is positive thoughts and behaviours you are practicing.

To get you started on changing the unhelpful beliefs and habits you have that stop you from getting the body and life you want, identify what needs starving, and what thoughts and habits need feeding. It will be different for each one of you.

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While many diets proclaim to have the “magic” balance of nutrients whether it be low GI, low carbohydrate, low fat or high protein, the facts are that it is the total energy you take in, regardless of the distribution of protein, fat and carbohydrate versus the energy you burn up that determines whether you gain or lose weight or stay the same.

Excess weight is caused by too much food and too little exercise or activity.

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To maintain weight, we need a balance:

ENERGY IN = ENERGY OUT

To lose weight we must eat LESS and exercise MORE.

Even small increases in energy intake and less activity or exercise can lead to large long-term weight gain. For example, eating just 1½ plain sweet biscuits above your energy requirement daily can lead to a 5kg weight gain over a year!

Look at the energy content of the nutrients:

1g PROTEIN 17 kJ or 4 kcal

1g FAT 37 kJ or 9kcal

1g CARBOHYDRATE 16 kJ or 4 kcal

1g ALCOHOL 29 kJ or 7kcal

As you can see, fat is more than twice as “fattening” as protein and carbohydrate. So when trying to lose weight we must check our intake of fatty foods and watch alcohol consumption!

In fact, it is important to watch what we drink because it is easier to drink on body fat, than it is to eat it on. So, even though fruit juice and cordials and soft drinks are nearly half the calories of alcohol, it all adds up rather quickly. Drinking fluids doesn’t make us feel as full as when we eat making it easier to drink more.

We were designed to “eat to live” not “live to eat”, although many of us tend to do more of the latter than the former. Regardless of where our calories or kilojoules come from, the body will deposit any excess energy as fat once it has tended to all its daily energy needs from the food you eat.

Science tells us that to lose ½ kilogram or 1 pound we must burn 3500 kcals or ~ 800 kjs of energy more than we consume as food. Most weight management programs then will cut your calorie or kilojoule intake by 500kcals or 2000kjs a day to enable you to lose ½ kilogram or 1 pound a week, or by 1000kcals or 4000kjs to enable you to lose to lose 1 kg or 2lbs per week.

To lose weight you don’t need to starve yourself. Little changes will assist you with weight loss, for example:

· Eat smaller portions
· Put your food on a plate, not a bowl because it less looks more
· Don’t eat from the takeaway container be it a noodle box, or pizza box
· Skip supper
· Eat one course meals, and especially skip dessert
· Swap higher energy foods with lower energy options, eg cake or pastry when out for coffee have a scone, or have fruit for mid-meals instead of biscuits
· Wait 20 minutes after eating before deciding you are still hungry; it takes time to shut off the feeding centre and turn on the satiety centre after you start eating.

Related posts:

1. Supplementation after Bariatric/Weight Loss Surgery – lapbands, gastric sleeves etc

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Labels on retail packages are required to have:

• product name (and brand name)
  

  Learn to interpret food labels

• premises and lot information (where and when food was made)
• manufacturer details, including address
• mandatory warning and advisory information
• use-by dates
• ingredient lists
• amount/weight of food
• country of origin
• a nutrition information panel, if a nutrition claim is made, such as ‘low-fat’.
• Use-by-Date

The quality of the product is at its best before the use-by-date. After that date, the quality deteriorates and the product maybe unsafe to consume.

A food with a BEST BEFORE date can be sold after that date expires provided it is safe and suitable for consumption. If the manufacturer believes that the food is not suitable for consumption after a certain date the USE BY mark must be adopted. Foods with USE BY cannot be sold after the date shown.

Foods with a shelf life of more than 2 years do not require a use-by date (e.g. canned products)

Reading Labels for Healthier Eating

Food labels can be confusing and hard to understand. To make healthier food choices check:

the ingredient list; and

the nutrition information panel.

So  How do I read the ingredient list?

• All ingredients are listed in descending order by weight
• The first three ingredients listed will be the three major ingredients in the food and so on.

What to look for in the ingredient list?

• Look for foods low in saturated fat.
• High saturated fat ingredients include animal fat, hydrogenated fat, tallow, butter, palm oil, shortening, ghee, lard, dripping, coconut oil, coconut cream, copha and full cream milk solids.
• Fat (usually saturated) can appear on the label as:

• Look for foods low in salt.
• High sodium (salt) ingredients include MSG (monosodium glutamate), sea salt, rock salt, garlic salt, celery salt, vegetable salt, sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrate, stock cubes, baking powder and baking soda.
• Look for foods high in dietary fibre.
• High fibre ingredients include wholegrain, wholewheat, bran, wheatbran, wheatmeal and rolled oats.
• If one of these ingredients is listed in the first three ingredients or if the ingredient list contains several of these ingredients, then the food product is likely to be high in saturated fat, salt or fibre.
• Try to choose foods
• low in saturated fat and salt and high in dietary fibre.
• Look for foods low in sugar.

Do not be confused by different names for similar ingredients on food labels. For example sugar comes in many names:

Sometimes there is more than one type of fat or sugar in a food. If they were all listed under the same terms, fat would appear much higher on the ingredients list.

THE NUTRITIONAL PANEL

Until recently nutrition labelling has only been compulsory where a nutrition claim such as “low salt” has been used. However, because nutrition information was not appearing consistently in terms of content or format new laws have been passed that stated that all manufactured foods will carry a nutrition information panel. The few exceptions are foods in small packages; food like herbs and spices, tea, coffee.

Nutrition panels must show kilojoules (calories), protein, fat & total carbohydrate and sugar contents

These nutrients are usually listed per 100g of the food, per serve size.

If a food product makes a claim about a particular nutrient such as ‘high in dietary fibre’, the sodium content or vitamins and minerals then the amount of fibre, sodium and selected vitamins and minerals must also be listed in the nutrition information panel…

Information is presented per serving size (determined by the manufacturer), per 100g and as a percentage of the Recommended Daily Intake (R.D.I.).

The per 100g figure is useful to compare the nutritional content of similar food products (see example).

Product 1 is the healthier choice because:

• low in saturated fat and sodium and high in fibre than product 2.
• The ingredients list for product 2 lists sugar and salt in the first three ingredients.

Symbols on Food Labels

CERT TM used under license

• The Tick Program is the Heart Foundation’s guide to help you make healthier food choices quickly and easily.
• Foods with the Tick are healthier choices among foods of their type.
• Tick foods are lower in saturated fat, sodium (salt) and where appropriate kilojoules.
• Some are also higher in fibre.
• All foods are independently tested and assessed against strict nutritional guidelines before getting the Tick of approval.

International Diabetes Institute Shop for Gold and Silver

• The International Diabetes Institute (IDI) “Shop for Gold & Silver” Program uses a Gold Dand
• Silver D to help identify foods which meet IDI’s evidence-based Food Selection Criteria.
• Criteria exist for 33 product groups and include recommended levels for Fat, Fibre, Glycemic Index (GI), Sodium and Sugar.
• The “Shop for Gold & Silver” Program takes into account all lifestyle related conditions, including diabetes, and gives consumers the confidence of knowing that the product has been assessed by a credible health organisation.

What does “Gold” and “Silver” mean?

• If a product meets all of the levels recommended for its product group, it is entitled to a Gold D.
• If it meets all but one, it is entitled to a Silver D. In this case, it must meet Fat levels.

Halal Certification Authority Australia

• On uncooked meat products the Halal symbol means that the animals are humanelyslaughtered after stunning under the supervision of the Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service (AQIS) and the Halal Certification Authority Australia.
• Meat slaughtered under the conditions mentioned above will carry the Halal symbol if the product does not contain and has not come into contact with alcohol (ethanol) or any other type of animal ingredients.
• Suitable for Muslims.

Melbourne Kashrut Pty Ltd (Inc. Victoria)

• This symbol indicates the food has been certified as kosher by Melbourne Kashrut.
• Kosher rules include:
• Certain animals may not be eaten at all. This restriction includes the flesh, organs, eggs and milk of the forbidden animals.
• Kosher animals include: sheep, cattle, goats, deer, chicken, ducks, turkeys, fish (fins & Scales)
• Non-kosher meats are: camel, hare, pig, shellfish, reptiles, frogs
• All blood must be drained from the meat or broiled out of it before it is eaten.
• Certain parts of permitted animals may not be eaten e.g. sciatic nerve, and adjoining blood vessels, the fat around the liver
• Meat (the flesh of birds and mammals) cannot be eaten with dairy.
• Fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables and grains can be eaten with either meat or dairy.
• According to some views, fish may not be eaten with meat.
• Utensils that have come into contact with meat may not be used with dairy, and vice versa. Utensils that have come into contact with non-kosher food may not be used with kosher food. This applies only where the contact occurred while the food was hot.
• Grape products made by non-Jews may not be eaten.

Australian Dairy Corporation Dairy Good Symbol

Australian Dairy Mark

Consumer Message

The Australian Dairy Mark enables consumers to quickly and easily recognise that products bearing the symbol are:

(a) Australian

(b) real dairy products and not dairy substitutes

(c) pure and natural

(d) good for you

Coeliac Society of Australia Inc. Gluten Free Symbol

The Coeliac Society of Australia has a program for endorsing foods (and other products e.g. bread machines) to assist our members with food choices.

For a food to be endorsed it must satisfy the food standards code definition of gluten free i.e. no detectable gluten (results must be supplied to the society).

The Glycemic Index (GI) Symbol Program

What the GI symbol means

When you see the GI Symbol on a food package label, you will find the GI value of that food near the nutrition information panel, along with the words ‘high’, ‘medium’ or ‘low’.

.You will also know that the food meets the GI Symbol Program’s nutritional criteria which are different for different food types, but generally mean the food is a good nutritional choice for that food group.

Foods cannot be judged on the basis of their GI alone – other considerations are fibre and fat content, and nutrient density.

Food Additives

A food additive is a substance not normally eaten as a food by itself. An additive is deliberately added to food for a number of purposes including:

• to enhance appearance
• to enhance nutritional quality
• to improve taste
• to enhance texture
• to improve storage or
• to assist in processing

Food additives help keep our food supply safe, wholesome, consistent and available all year round.

Only approved additives can be added to certain, specified foods.

The maximum quantity of additive permitted is also stipulated.

An example of a food additive is an anti-oxidant. Anti-oxidants are used to prevent foods containing fat turning rancid and developing ‘off’ flavours and odours. Anti-oxidants also prevent some foods from going brown.

Numeric codes are used on food ingredient labels to identify these additives. Anti-oxidants are labelled 300 to 322, for instance 302 is calcium ascorbate, a form of vitamin C.

Advertising Claims

Reduced fat or reduced salt: Contain 1/3 less fat or salt than a normal product. Often labelled as “light”.

Low salt: Half the salt content of the normal variety.

Salt free: Neither salt nor any ingredients containing salt have been added.

Low joule: Negligible kilojoules or calories.

Unsweetened: Contain no sugars, mannitol or sorbitol or artificial sweeteners

No Added Sugar: No added sugar such as cane sugar, glucose, fructose, lactose, honey or malt. Usually appears on fruit juice, canned fruits or cereals. However, these products can be sweetened with fruit juice concentrates such as pear juice.

No Cholesterol or Cholesterol Free: This is often used on products of vegetable origin such as vegetable oils or products containing vegetable oils. The label is meaningless considering that cholesterol is only found in products of animal origin. It is more a marketing ploy than nutritional advice.

Related posts:

1. Does eating six small meals a day produce more weight loss than eating three meals a day?

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1. a reduced capacity for food

2. a reduced stomach area for the absorption of nutrients

Being able to eat only much smaller portions means that what you do eat must be of a high nutrient value. To ensure a nutritionally adequate intake a person who has undergone bariatric surgery will need to consume these small nutrient dense meals at frequent intervals.

Unfortunately it is extremely difficult for people who have undergone bariatric surgery to meet their nutrient requirements and many are susceptible to developing suboptimal levels of:

• B-vitamins,
• minerals (especially magnesium and iron), and
• fat soluble vitamins (particularly vitamin D)

As a result of the reduced capacity to consume food, protein intakes are often affected.

People who have had bariatric surgery often also do better with digestive enzyme support.

LifePlus, an American based company, make economically priced, pharmaceutical grade nutritionals that can supplement the nutrition needs of people after their bariatric surgery.

For enzymic support I suggest both:

• Digestive formula and
• Somazyme (taken with meals)

Note, it may take some experimenting to find the optimum combination of these formulas for each person.

OmeGold is a good source of vitamin D, as well as omega-3 fatty acids.

Both Brain Formula and Anti-Stress Formula (Support tabs in the UK/EU) are excellent sources of B-vitamins.

Micromins is the best source of iron, as well as trace minerals.

Triple Protein shake provides the most bioavailable form of magnesium (as well as calcium, potassium, and of course protein). Triple Protein shake is alkaline forming in the body.

Please refer to the table below for a summary of the nutritionals recommended with links to learn more or to order these products.

TO ORDER these products click here.

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Related posts:

1. Gastric Sleeve Surgery – pros, cons, guidelines
2. The Gastric Balloon – the Latest in Bariatric Procedures
3. Gastric Sleeve Surgery – a 2009 Case Study

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Post tags: Bariatric Surgery, Gastric Sleeve, lapband, supplementation after bariatric surgery, supplementation for gastric sleeves, supplementation for lapband, Weight loss surgery

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