News: Common OTC Medications are Making Women Fat!

Research found that some Common OTC drugs can increase Weight Gain

Just like many prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs can increase weight by influencing factors such as appetite and fluid retention, cautions Jana Klauer, M.D.,weightloss and nutrition expert at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital's Obesity Research Center in New York City.

Here are some common OTC drugs that can increase your Weight

Cough syrup = hidden carbs. A single dose of liquid cold formula can contain 19 carb grams. Spoonable cough and cold products can pack a surprising high-carb punch: In one analysis, a leading liquid multisymptom cold remedy was found to contain 19 grams of carbs per dose- just shy of the 20 grams many diets allot for the entire day!

Using such a product even once can shut off your body's ability to burn fat for 24 hours, says Mary Vernon, M.D., a member of the Atkins Physicians Council. Since syrups are top offenders, ask your pharmacist about alternatives that don't contain sugar.

Painkillers = water weight. Pain relievers like ibuprofen and naproxen can blunt the kidney's ability to process fluids, triggering bloat that can rapidly pack on pounds, explains Dr. Klauer. To dodge the risk, consider aspirin. A study of the effects of common OTC painkillers concluded that aspirin didn't hinder kidney function.

Allergy meds = trapped fat. Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine, found in allergy and sleep aids, can mean double trouble. They can fuel overeating by blocking appetite-controlling histamine, warns Dr. Klauer.

Also, they can boost levels of cortisol, which signals the body to produce the fat-storing hormone insulin, says Dr. Klauer. Next time your appetite soars while you're on antihistamines, discuss the options with your doctor. If you're suffering from stuffiness, for example, a decongestant may provide relief without sabotaging weight.

Is your Rx the problem? A research review in Obstetrics & Gynecology has dispelled the fear that the Pill causes major weight gain, but not all meds are off the hook. If you're mysteriously packing on pounds and taking one of the drugs below, which were identified in a Consumer Reports analysis, ask your doctor about a switch.

Medication                                                                 chance of weight gain
Tricyclic antidepressants (Elavil, Norpramin, Norfranil)     > 10%
Diabetes drugs (Diabinese, Glucotrol, Micronase)            > 10%
Corticosteroids (Cortone, Cortef, Deltasone)                   > 10%
SSRI antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft)                    4-10%
Osteoporosis drugs (Evista)

Alert: Plastic Containers can Sabotage Weight Loss!

Plastic Containers can Make you Fat!

Once heated, chemicals in plastic called phathalates and bisphenol A can leach into food. These estrogen-mimicking chemicals can throw hormones off kilter, triggering the storage of fat in the belly and thighs.

How you can avoid this:
To avoid problems, make sure food is cool before placing it in a plastic container (since leaching can start at temperatures as low as 45 degrees farenheight). And take items out of plastic containers before reheating them. Instead, transfer food to a ceramic or glass plate - these don't emit toxins when heated.

Gin and fags

I was out all morning yesterday until 2pm, and had walked - i dunno - but loads! I then invited my two girlfriends over for an impromptu lunch, and it was great. I made them my classic tomato sauce (tomatoes, fried in a little oil for ages, add basil and garlic, dump on pasta - easy!) and we had a nice time together.

They left at about 3:30 and then I cleaned the WHOLE house top to bottom and started cooking again because it was a welcome meal last night - Al's dad has come to visit him for the weekend. He brought with him some lovely wine and port, and beer and we did our best at getting rid of it.

As I knew it was going to be a bit of a soaked fest, I decided on making it a light-ish meal and went for wraps. I won't embarrass myself and say I made fajitas or Mexican because I just throw it together in my 'version' of a spicy chicken mixture and serve it up with sour cream, home made type of guacamole that's lighter on the hips, and some salsa.

It was the messiest dinner ever as the tortilla's we bought were absolutely shockingly bad - they were dry and snapped open as you rolled them! Total rubbish, so we ended up just eating them with knives and forks haha! I usually get the Old el Paso or the Mission ones, but this time I bought Discovery as they looked fine. I wont get them again thats for sure, they were just so brittle and really thin too.

Nevermind, it still tasted darn good!!

I had my daim bar treats too and came in at only 137cals over my limit for the day 

The endless journey

"The Endless Journey" might have been a better choice for my blog name. There are so many twists and turns in trying to figure out the right way to lose weight or even if there is a right way, that this journey is never going to end. It's a lifelong process trying to figure out what works. 

Some people figure out what works for them very quickly in the game, some people give up and never figure it out. Then there are people like me, learning something new every single day, that have some of the answers, but certainly not all of them.

Geneen Roth's book Women, Food and God provides a lot of the answers on what's wrong with me. It works if you follow her guidelines. If you don't, it doesn't work. It's just like every other plan, you can't just read the book, attend a workshop and then forget about it. You have to continue to work at it.

What I'm finding is that it's not easy to feel the pain instead of eating. In fact, it kind of hurts like hell. It's like ripping a band aid off of a wound and the scab sticks to the band aid and now you're in excruciating pain. I'm not sure how I feel about this type of introspection into my psyche. It's not pleasant and some days I'm just not up to it.

On the other hand, I suspect it's the only way I'll ever feel okay about food. I know this is a very slow process, undoing forty plus years of using food for comfort, not facing my reality, and it isn't going to change overnight.

I haven't posted since last Sunday, four days of silence. It was an odd week where I was extremely tired every day. Each night I came home and could barely move. I skipped the gym three days in a row due to pure exhaustion. Wednesday night I went to bed at 7:30pm and woke up at 7:30am Thursday morning, twelve hours of sleep. I guess I was tired.

I have today off from work, for no particular reason. I just felt like I needed a day off. I weighed this morning and I'm 174.6 which is oddly almost exactly the weight in my blog profile. I think that was posted a couple of months ago. Although I'm not gaining weight and I'm eating well (probably a little too well), I'm not losing weight.

I'll be honest, I don't like following Geneen Roth's eating guidelines. It's  a lot harder than it sounds. My least favorite guideline is #3. I find it almost impossible to just sit quietly and eat, without doing anything else. On Geneen's CD that I purchased at her workshop, she said you should try to do this once a day in the beginning, more often if possible, and at the very least a few times a week. It's not easy.

Geneen Roth's Eating Guidelines

1. Eat when you are hungry. (Truly hungry, body hungry not mind hungry)

2. Eat sitting down in a calm environment. This does not include the car.

3.Eat without distractions. Distractions include radio, television, newspaper, books, intense or anxiety producing conversation and music.

4. Eat only what your body wants. (Big difference from what your MIND wants!)

5. Eat until you are satisfied. (This is different than full).

6. Eat (with the intention of being) in full view of others.

7. Eat with enjoyment, gusto and pleasure.
I've decided on a different route to get to my goal weight. It's a hybrid of the above eating guidelines AND Weight Watchers. I realize this doesn't sound possible, but it really is possible. I can still do the above eating guidelines but also attend Weight Watcher meetings and follow their eating plan.
 
My goal is by December 31, 2010, lose ten pounds. That's not a crazy amount of weight in ten weeks, but it is the holidays which makes it a tiny bit harder than normal. I feel more at peace with this idea than just doing it on my own. I also know at my current weight that my weight loss is pretty slow, unless I starve myself. I have no intention of starving myself. Been there, done that and it doesn't work in the long run.
 
The endless journey continues...

Tips on How to Eat Well on the Road

Tips on How to Eat Healthy when you're on a trip or dining out.

1. Always ask for breakfast potatoes to be steamed, not fried.

2. Pack a bag of healthy snacks- fresh fruit, vegetables and brown rice- to curb the desire to stop for a big lunch in the middle of the day.

3. When dining at a breakfast buffet, fill up on fresh fruit and whole-grain cereals rather than pancakes and breakfast meats.

4. Order scrambled egg whites rather than whole eggs.

5. Stay away from fast-food meals.

6. Look for healthy restaurant outside your hotel, especially when the closest and most convenient choices are high-fat oriented.

7. Schedule one cheat meal every two days- not ever day- if you are traveling for one week or more.

8. Eat a grilled chicken breast via room service if you are hungry late at night. Protein trumps carbs as a low-fat, late-night snack.

9. Travel with a jar of organic peanut butter for emergency snacking.

Why You Need a Diet Buddy

Did you know? Research has shown that active friends (with similar goals and athletic interests) support provides the added motivation you need to stick to your routine.

In a recent British study, women who set out on a solo diet had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol than those who dieted in pairs. And that's a problem since cortisol switches the body into fat-storing mode.

If you can, join forces with your friends, have a weight loss buddy. But if you want to go it alone, eat calcium-rich foods such as yogurt, ricotta cheese and spinach. Research links calcium with lower cortisol production, and it has been proven that women who increase their intake lose up to 40% more weight than calcium avoiders.

Obesity and the Brain

Nature Genetics just published a paper that caught my interest (1). Investigators reviewed the studies that have attempted to determine associations between genetic variants and common obesity (as judged by body mass index or BMI). In other words, they looked for "genes" that are suspected to make people fat.

There are a number of gene variants that associate with an increased or decreased risk of obesity. These fall into two categories: rare single-gene mutations that cause dramatic obesity, and common variants that are estimated to have a very small impact on body fatness. The former category cannot account for common obesity because it is far too rare, and the latter probably cannot account for it either because it has too little impact*. Genetics can't explain the fact that there were half as many obese people in the US 40 years ago. Here's a wise quote from the obesity researcher Dr. David L. Katz, quoted from an interview about the study (2):

Let us by all means study our genes, and their associations with our various shapes and sizes... But let's not let it distract us from the fact that our genes have not changed to account for the modern advent of epidemic obesity -- our environments and lifestyles have.

Exactly. So I don't usually pay much attention to "obesity genes", although I do think genetics contributes to how a body reacts to an unnatural diet/lifestyle. However, the first part of his statement is important too. Studying these types of associations can give us insights into the biological mechanisms of obesity when we ask the question "what do these genes do?" The processes these genes participate in should be the same processes that are most important in regulating fat mass.

So, what do the genes do? Of those that have a known function, nearly all of them act in the brain, and most act in known body fat regulation circuits in the hypothalamus (a brain region). The brain is the master regulator of body fat mass. It's also the master regulator of nearly all large-scale homeostatic systems in the body, including the endocrine (hormone) system. Now you know why I study the neurobiology of obesity.


* The authors estimated that "together, the 32 confirmed BMI loci explained 1.45% of the inter-individual variation in BMI." In other words, even if you were unlucky enough to inherit the 'fat' version of all 32 genes, which is exceedingly unlikely, you would only have a slightly higher risk of obesity than the general population.