For decades now, the conventional advice from trainers and weight loss specialists has been this:

"Eat three meals a day plus two snacks."

The big question is whether or not it's true.

And the answer (drum roll and envelope please) is ...... sometimes. But not always. ...

Many people do absolutely great on three meals a day with no snacks, and sometimes, on some days -- (gasp) -- even two.

See, the conventional advice was built upon the "truth" that "grazing" is always a better eating strategy for weight loss than eating three (or, god forbid, two) "solid" meals a day. Eating three meals and two snacks was supposed to keep your blood sugar even throughout the day, keeping cravings at bay.

Well, maybe.
But the truth of the matter is that people are far more variable and individual than we often acknowledge. And there's a downside to the "five meals a day" theory, a downside which may affect some people more than others.

For one thing, eating every two hours guarantees that your insulin is going to go up five times a day instead of, say, three. For many people, that means more hunger, not less.

Insulin is not only the fat storage hormone, it's also the hunger hormone. In fact, the whole "Carbohydrate Addicts Diet" got started when one of its creators, a (then) very-overweight Rachel Heller, found that she experienced a lot less hunger on one particularly busy day when she "forgot" to eat.

Three meals a day -- each with a beginning and an end -- is making a comeback as a weight-loss strategy, snacking be damned. Celebrity nutritionist JJ Virgin now advocates eating three meals a day, the first meal within an hour of waking up and the last meal at least three hours before bed. And recent research has demonstrated-- at least in rats -- that "intermittent fasting" actually has some major health benefits.

The point here is not that the old information was wrong and the new information is right.

The point is ....
that there are huge individual differences in how we respond to food, and no one strategy -- including the "five meals a day" strategy -- works for everyone.

We need to stop blindly following conventional wisdom and start paying attention to our individual differences when it comes to weight loss. (In fact, that's not a bad strategy to follow for everything, but that's another column.)

Ellen Langner, the Harvard psychologist, puts it brilliantly in her book "Mindfulness," when she says that "certainty" is the enemy of mindfulness. When we blindly follow a strategy, for weight loss or for anything else, we often stop paying attention to the individual cues that tell us whether it's the right thing to do in our particular situation.

 "Certainty is a cruel mindset," she wrote.
"It is uncertainty that we need to embrace, particularly about our health.
If we do so, the payoff is that we create choices
and the opportunity to exercise control over our lives."

So if three meals and two snacks per day works for you, great. Keep it up and carry on! But if it's not working, don't assume it's because there's something wrong with you. It just might be that you need to try a different strategy.

And three meals a day -- each with a beginning and an end point, and with no "snacking" in between -- might be one technique worth trying.

I find that concentrating on what I can’t do,
tends to limit my choices.
Concentrating on what I can do
tends to expand my choices.

 There’s no law that a person has to exercise
for at least 20 minutes or more to get even the slightest benefit;
or that one must do high intensity exercise;
or that strength training requires the use
of more than one’s own body weight.

In fact, small bouts of fitness add up.
Something is always better than nothing.

Dieting is another thing I can’t do perfectly.
What I can do is make my food choices better quality,
and I can eat smaller food portions of everything I choose to eat.
I can choose to mostly eat foods that make me less hungry,
like those containing more protein or fiber and less sugar.
My goal is to do well, not to be perfect.
I can’t be perfect, but I can do well.

It is easy to get a very black and white view of fit living.
Either you are dieting and exercising or you’re not. 
 There’s another way….a rainbow view.
We can see all sorts of colors and shades in between.
Adopting a “fit” lifestyle is very individualized
and it often includes more than a specific diet and exercise.
What makes one person fit may never work for another.
It could be genetics, environment, health, or just because
our lives run in completely different directions.

There is no on-or-off of the fit living issue.
We are just on the road.

It’s a winding road with mountains, bridges,
detours, vacation spots and a million other things.
We can be positive drivers and enjoy the scenery, 
sing with the radio, have fun with our passengers,
and find ways around the obstacles of the road.
It’s even okay to stop at the vacation spots here and there.

  We can choose not to give away our freedom
by saying: "I can’t."  There are far more choices with "I can."
When we hit a roadblock, we don’t have to say…

"I can’t go on until this clears away.”

Instead" we can say

"What can I do from here, right where I am now?

Today's video is one of the "Ask Grandma" series made specifically for YouTube,
if you are interested, you can see it by clicking the link here 
which is located under RESOURCES, Videos, Ask Grandma.

Attitude is a feeling about a person or thing.
It is a tendency or orientation of the mind.

I frequently address the issue of Attitude
because I've found it to be extremely important in my own life.
Whether my own attitude is positive or negative
makes a big difference in how I feel, and what I accomplish.

I don't see any purpose in feeling bad about myself,
if feeling good about myself is possible,
so I continually work toward that goal.
I also work to feel good about others,
and about the things and events in my life. 

I use the term "work" because that is exactly what it is.
I wasn't born with a "pollyanna" personality,
or taught as a child to focus on the positive.

This is a skill I've had to learn,
and for me, it is a deliberate choice
...one that takes conscious effort...
to sustain an attitude that is primarily positive.

                                
                       Happy 4th of July

  
Dieting is a common practice among those
who want to remove excess pounds from their bodies.

The term "Dieting" means:

to eat sparingly
or
to eat according to prescribed rules.

There are many different weight-loss Diets in existence,
and many people adopt a weight-loss Diet
without really understanding the methodology behind it. 

Many popular Diets allow people to indulge in their favorite foods at least once a week,
and incorparate structured periods of unrestricted eating
calling them  "cheat" meals or "exception" days

The logic behind this is that if people completely avoid their favorite foods,
the temptation to have them would prove irresistible and lead to binge eating.
The belief here is that it is better for a person to indulge one day a week 
than to jeopardize their entire dieting regimen.

Some people also consider their weekend indulgence
to be a treat or reward for following their diets throughout the week.
In any case, most dieters who indulge in weekend binges
...or unrestricted eating... believe that it does them no harm.

  Whatever Diet each of us may choose to follow is an individual choice.

Some bodies appear to thrive on larger amounts of carbohydrates than others.
We, also, don't all have the same biological clocks.  
Some of us are "morning" people, others are not.
Some of us do best when eating small amounts frequently,
Others do best when eating one to three large meals daily.

One purpose of dieting is to get one's body used to a daily pattern of low food intake,
and making that low food intake pattern into a lifelong habit,
and many dieting experts believe that weekend binges tend to defeat this purpose.

Unfortunately,.....despite the specific Diet chosen.......
Dieting is a 24/7 commitment, with no off days.
Every calore consumed counts, irrespective of the day of the week.

While the specific Diet or food plan chosen can contribute to one's weight-loss;
what is important is one's commitment to a daily eating pattern
which results in an overall reduced food intake over long periods of time,
as that food intake is averaged out over weeks and months
including weekends, and vacations, and holidays,
and other special or stressful occasions.

 A contribution and a commitment are not the same thing.
A contribution means "to play a significant part in bringing about a result".
A commitment means "to carry into action deliberately".

One example of contribution vs. commitment is:
although genetic factors make a contribution to my weight and weight-loss issues,
the process of weight management requires a lifelong commitment from me,
a commitment that involves my personal eating behavior. 

There are days when  I seem to lack inspiration.
Today my plan is to address the issues of Habitual Behavior,
in order to carry out the theme of my Words of Wisdom video,
and I'm just not in the mood.

 My HABIT, however, is to write here each morning,
so I'm working to follow through with my plan,
Perhaps in a "reduced capacity"
but as much as I find it possible at the moment.

Those of you who are familiar with the No S Diet principles
are also very familiar with the concept of Habit,
but I think the Habit concept is still worthy of additional thought.

A Habit is simply an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed
until it has become almost involuntary, or automatic.

Features of an automatic behavior can include:
efficiency, lack of awareness, unintentionality, and uncontrollability.

A "bad" habit is a negative behavior pattern,
and a "good" habit is a positive behavior pattern.
Ultimately Good and Bad are personal  value Judgments,
even when one is talking about Habits.

So...we don't ALL agree on whether a Habit is good or bad
....allthough, as a society in general, many people who 
have values differing from what is considered the norm,
tend to "pretend" they possess those "shared" values in order to "fit in",
and thereby make their lives less confrontational.

Most of life is habitual.
Each of us tends to do the same things we did yesterday,
the day before, and every day for the past month.
It is estimated that out of every 11,000 signals we receive
from our senses, our brains only process about 40.

 Habits, good or bad, make us who we are.
The key is in controlling them.
If we know how to change our habits,
then even a small effort can create big changes.

But before making such an effort,
each of us needs to determine for ourselves
if a change is REALLY something WE want,
or if it is something we think we SHOULD want.

Here is where our personal morality or ethics comes into play.
What makes a Habit good?
Will it really benefit me in a positive way?
And how will it do that?

It is unlikely that we will be successful in either
implementing or overturning Habits 
in order to accomplish things like an overhaul of our diet,
cutting down on TV viewing, or exercising regularly,
unless we truly believe it will result in an improved quality of life.

Re the Question: "How Do I Form A Good Habit?"
The answer is the same for both good and bad habits.
Making a good habit is the same as making a bad habit.
The brain is amoral when it comes to habits.
It does not care if it is good or bad.  All it knows is that
the habit action is routinely performed so it would benefit
from an improved neurological pathway for more efficient processing.

Creating a habit is actually easy.
All you need do to form a habit is to repeat the activity.
With enough repetitions it becomes a habit.
The more you do it after the habit is formed,
the more reinforcement you give to that habit.
and the stronger it becomes.

Scientists have come up with the following reasons
why humans stick to bad habits....
Among these reasons are:

• Innate human defiance
• Need for social acceptance
• Inability to truly understand the nature of risk
• Individualistic view of the world
• The ability to rationalize unhealthy habits
• Genetic predisposition to addiction.
  

 However....remember...
it is important to determine WHO is defining the habit as bad...or unhealthy.
Frequently it the person defining the habit is NOT the human WITH the "bad" habit.
Which, of course, IS an important issue which is often overlooked.

I've found that the less committed I am to the VALUE of a particular behavior
the less likely it is that I will ever be successful in making that behavior into a habit,
or in eliminating it as a habit. It all starts with: 
DO I REALLY WANT TO DO ... (OR NOT DO) ... THIS SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR.