Chocolate lovers tend to weigh less, study finds - Healthzone.ca

Chocolate lovers tend to weigh less, study finds - Healthzone.ca

CBC.ca | The Morning Edition | Obesity Epidemic - A Medical Blind Spot?

Dr Sharma interview from this morning's CBC Sask morning show.
CBC.ca | The Morning Edition | Obesity Epidemic - A Medical Blind Spot?

My First Winter as an Active Person is Now Over

Winter came and went and I regret it's over. Because it was an unusually mild winter, my kids and I didn't actually get enough of a chance to enjoy it. We could have done a lot more tobogganing.

From the onset of this attempt to reclaim myself from obesity, I dreaded the coming of winter. Even in my previous athletic/dieting periods I slowed down in winter and didn't do much. Having access to my clinic's gym helped this time out. It also helped that its not a regular gym. You make appointments and you feel obliged to keep those appointments. Even when I start to slip off the wagon, my appointment at the gym twice a week keeps me on.

It was a fun winter, much more enjoyable than any I've had--save one where I took up skiing--as an adult. I bicycled with the family on a cool night in November. I trained on a treadmill with the highest incline to get me ready for climbing our large tobogganing hill, then I climbed it. Then it became easier and easier to climb. Hill climbing became my winter exercise and it did wonders for futhering the improvement (fitness level) of  my cardiovascular system.

But the highlight of my winter was when I faced my fears and preconceptions head on by going for a walk in -45 wind chills. It was on my wife's birthday, we had gone out for supper and it was bitterly cold that night. The four of us huddled under covers for an hour just to warm up again. Walking from the car to the house was excruciating.

Yet I came up with the idea later that night to try out my MEC balaclava with my new warm gloves and layers of clothes. It was an amazing experience and I doubt I'll ever forget it. Obviously, it proved I could do anything in any weather, so winter was no longer an obstacle to staying healthy.

It was even enjoyable being out that night. The air, as cold as it was, was fresh and being in nature when it's fierce is still being in nature. My senses were heightened to the max and I loved it. My walk in -25 a few days later seemed like a ho-hum non-event.

Now I'm doing some time on a recumbent bike at the gym twice per week to make sure I'm ready for bicycle season, Chapter 2. Spring snuck up on me but I can't wait to see what this year brings.

Work burnout tied to 'emotional eating' in women

This is right up the alley of our Craving Change class.

During the work day, do you ever find yourself in the office cafeteria or in front of a vending machine, wondering why you’re buying more food? You had a good lunch. You’re not hungry.

But you could be suffering from work burnout, according to a new study.

The study, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, found that women who are fed up with their jobs are more likely to eat for comfort when they’re stressed.

Here's a link to the story in the Globe and Mail.

McDonald's Canada: Switching Healthy Choices to Even Worse

I'm pleased to say I don't go to McDonald's nearly as much as I used to. It's more of an emergency that gets us there now rather than the thought that pleasure would be gained by eating their food.

I was out shopping with my daughter yesterday and we needed some lunch to keep going. I pulled into McDonald's and tried to order one of the very few healthy things on their menu: the chicken fajita, weighing in under 10 grams of fat each.

Well, I was told they are discontinued. A year ago they introduced 800 calorie Angus burgers (50% worse than the gold standard of bad food, the Big Mac.)

Needless to say, McDonald's is not committed to serving healthier foods. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They are concocting even worse foods to get us hooked on a drug-like fat fix.

They're not all that different than Big Tobacco. Or the drug dealer on the corner.

Keeping Certain Foods Out of the House

The philosophy: Don't completely cut out the foods you love.

The reality: Having those foods around leads to over-consumption and unrestrained eating.

I keep most of those bad foods that gave me problems out of my house these days, mostly desserts and take-out pizzas. But something new crept in. I needed to make sure I had snackable foods around so I didn't overeat but one of those snacks was liked too much by me and has become a problem I now have to banish from my kitchen.

It's simple and maybe a little unusual: Wheat Thins crackers and cheddar cheese. They go so well together. It all stems from a night when I was super hungry and I started to combine these two items I found in the kitchen. I really enjoyed it and began looking to recreate that original experience of pleasure. This is a problem because it leads to emotional eating. Emotional eating leads to an over consumption of calories.

I've decided I can't easily beat this problem, so I have to just not buy Wheat Thins crackers. I can keep the cheese for other things, but the combination has been unhelpful.

I Coulda Stayed Home Tonight

Snow has been a rarity this winter around these parts. It's a shame that I take up a winter sport and we have a winterless winter. The sport is tobogganing, in case you're new here.

It started snowing today and, although there were reports of numerous accidents on slippery roads, my son and I went tobogganing at Mount Pleasant (not a real mountain, just an old landfill site but a significant hill for the large person nonetheless.)

The air was still and the temperature mild. It was perfectly still out there on the fresh powder. We had the mountain to ourselves. Wafts of wood smoke from fireplaces filled the air. Everyone else was keeping warm and dry in their homes. To punctuate the magical and surreal atmosphere, we could continually hear coyotes in the distance, not uncommon for our neighbourhood on the edge of town. I guess they were trying to find each other in the falling snow.

I can see why skiers love fresh powder and will pay for a helicopter to go up a mountain to get it. It's so quiet, so peaceful. Cutting into the fresh, virgin snow was a thrill for us on our sleds. You go down in a wavy but unbelievably soft motion, like skipping along the surface of a cloud.

Laying on my back, watching the snow fall from the sky, I noticed a light. My son told me it was the moon shining through the clouds. I didn't have my glasses on.

The lesson is obvious. Get out and enjoy life. Don't let anything stop you. You're missing so much if you stay on that couch. The greater the reasons not to go, the more amazing the experience will be.

Link: Why It’s So Important to Keep Moving

Hoping to learn more about how inactivity affects disease risk, researchers at the University of Missouri recently persuaded a group of healthy, active young adults to stop moving around so much. Scientists have known for some time that sedentary people are at increased risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. But they haven’t fully understood why, in part because studying the effects of sedentary behavior isn’t easy. People who are inactive may also be obese, eat poorly or face other lifestyle or metabolic issues that make it impossible to tease out the specific role that inactivity, on its own, plays in ill health. ...

Link to full article