The 20/20 Diet (27 page)

Coconut Chicken and Spinach Pasta

Cut 3 ounces roasted skinless, boneless chicken breast into cubes.

Sauté 1 cup spinach* in 2 teaspoons coconut oil* and mix with

cubed chicken and 1/3 cup cooked whole-grain penne. If desired,

season with minced garlic and cracked black pepper.

Pitfal s to Weight Management

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Remember those pitfalls I briefly mentioned earlier in this chapter?

Well, here they are, and here’s what you can do to avoid them.

Self-Sabotage Masquerading as Celebration:
The first pitfall to avoid has to do with how you react to the excitement of reaching your goal.

Go back and review the healthy rewards you wrote down in chapter 8,

and make sure you are rewarding y
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ourself for this achievement in a

nonfood, healthy and positive manner. In other words, don’t sabotage

yourself and your weight loss by running out to eat, drink, and be merry until you’re busting at the seams! You can experience the same euphoric

payoff of a celebration without bingeing on food or alcohol. This is true going forward too—anytime you’re seeking a reward (e.g., after a long

day of work, a promotion, or just a fun weekend), make sure you’re not

actual y punishing yourself.

“Fixed Fat” BeliSTREET

efs:
Once you’ve lost a significant amount of weight,

other people might take notice and pay you compliments. If you hear

what they’re saying, but every time you look in the mirror you still see a fat person staring back at you, it could be that you’ve got some “fixed fat” beliefs about yourself.

These beliefs are dangerous because they limit you psychologically

an
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d keep you from accepting your own success. They can ultimately

set you up for gaining the weight back. Combat these beliefs by get-

ting comfortable looking in the mirror and getting used to your new

appearance, forcing yourself to do things that once made you uneasy

(such as wearing a bathing suit or attending parties you’d usually skip), and exercising even more to improve your body image. The goal is to

The Management Phase | 173

Guilt Gets You Nowhere

In this plan, I’m not asking you to strive for perfection—I’m asking

you to strive for excellence. You are going to be less than perfect,

and that’s OK because what we’re looking for is a pattern across

time. It’s not what you do on any given day; it’s what yo
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u do on

most
days. There’s nothing you can do today to lose all of the weight, and there’s nothing you can do today to keep you from losing al

of it. So if you deviate, or maybe inadvertently eat something that

you thought was healthy but turned out to be loaded with sugar, for

example, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll bounce back.

But if you mess up and then let yourself feel consumed with guilt

over it, you’ll endanger your success. As we say in Texas, guilt is like rocking in a rocking chair—it’s something to do, but it doesn’t get

you anywhere. You don’t need guilt o
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n this diet, because this diet

is driven by programming, not emotion. So, if you skip a workout

or eat a doughnut one day, do not fall into the guilt trap and risk

returning to the same emotion-fueled behavior that got you here.

Get up, dust yourself off, and carry on. Remember how getting off

track makes you feel so that you don’t repeat the behavior tomorrow.

replace any self-defeating thoughts with positive, realistic affirmations and alternatives.

Remember whe
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n you came up with your 20/20 vision of the future?

Well, that future is now your present if you’ve reached your weight loss goals or you’re getting close. So what’s stopping you from appreciating

the vision you know you deserve and have worked so hard to achieve?

Failure to Self-Monitor:
You need to stay in the habit of keeping tabs o
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n your weight and measurements to make sure you’re remain-

ing within a healthy range. Monitor yourself regularly to ensure that

you’re still applying positive meaning to your meals, following the

sensible splurge rules, and maintaining your no-fail environments.

Don’t relax your efforts so much that you lose sight of your goals and

let your weight creep back up.

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Acute Stress or Crisis:
You can’t predict when life will throw you a curveball, but you can decide now that when tragedy strikes or something triggers an acute stress response, you will still put yourself and your goals first by not allowing emotions to drastically change your

eating and exercise behavior. We’ve talked about how you will no

longer use food to solve any problems other than genuine hunger, so

when stressful times hit, that’s no time to let go of tha
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t pact you’ve

made with yourself. That may have been your old way of coping, but

that doesn’t work for the new you. You know it doesn’t help the situa-

tion. In fact, it will probably make it worse. Talk about this with one

or several of your supporters now so that they can remind you and

help strengthen you when the time comes.

Stealthy Saboteurs:
Continue to keep your guard up against sabo-

teurs. They sometimes seem to come out of the woodwork, and you

might be surprised how vicious even a close friend can be when they’re

overcome with jealousy. Your succes
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s makes them feel like more of a

failure. Beware of friends or family members who try to get you off

track. You know what’s right for you. If they’re pushing cake, pizza, or ice cream in your direction, politely decline. Turn to your supporters,

and don’t let the stealthy saboteurs get under your skin.

Are You Stressed from Overscheduling?

Especially if you’
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re a parent, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of

overscheduling and spreading yourself too thin. If you hit the ground

running every morning and feel like you can’t take a breath until bed-

time, you could be putting your weight management in jeopardy. If

you don’t put yourself first, you could very easily fall back into the old hab
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its that made you gain the weight in the first place. Use these tips

to get your hectic life back under control:

Examine Your Motivation:
Are you trying to be all things to all

people, often playing the role of “hero” or “martyr”? Make sure your

motivations are healthy ones that allow you to take care of yourself

first and foremost so you can be there fully for others.

The Management Phase | 175

Get OK with Delegating:
The old adage “if you want it done right, do it yourself” just doesn’t work across the board. You’ve got to con-serve your time and energy by delegating tasks to others. And if your

husband doesn’t fold the laundry as perfectly as you do, is that really

going to matter in the grand scheme of things?

“No” Is Not a Bad Word:
Identify the responsibilities you’ve taken on, and if any of them can go by the wayside to creat
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e more time

in your schedule, then they need to go. And when new demands on

your time arise, don’t be afraid to politely say, “I have enough on my

plate right now, so I’m going to pass on this opportunity.” If you keep

giving of yourself and never saying “no,” others will continue to take

from you. Refusing to jeopardize your personal goals in exchange for

doing everything asked of you does not make you a bad person.

Schedule “Me” Time:
If you can’t remember the last time you spent an hour doing something
you
want to do, then you need to pull out the calendar and schedule time that i
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s yours and yours alone. This

needs to become a part of your weekly routine in order to maintain

your mental, physical, and emotional health.

You now have the tools you need to create and enjoy meals,

whether at home or at a restaurant, that will support your weight loss

goals. You also have a three-phase plan that you can repeat until you

have achieved your ideal, healthy weight, and a management system

that will help you s
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ustain this weight for the rest of your life.

In the next chapter, I’m going to show you some of the incredible

ways that the inner workings of your body can be transformed by

losing weight in this healthy manner. I hope it will open your eyes to

the power you have to change your destiny with the adjustments you

are making to your lifestyle. The future is not yet written, and the pen is i
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n your hand. By making the bold decision to change the way you

treat your body, you are writing a new, healthier, and longer future for your life.

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13

YOUR RETURN

TO HEALTH

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you,
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pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

—
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Riddle: What’s the world’s most dangerous weapon? Answer: the

fork.

It’s true! The fork destroys mor
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e lives, creates more disease, and

takes more years off people’s lives than all the typical weapons you

might be picturing combined. Eating the wrong foods can seriously

endanger your health, but the opposite is also true—eating the
right
foods, the ones we’ve been talking about, can improve your health.

I want to talk to you about all the ways in which losing weight on

this plan can protect and preserve your health.

In chapter 4, I asked you to think about all of the ways your

weight has been s
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tanding in the way of what you want. In our survey,

we asked about people’s motivation for losing weight, and found that

48.6%—just about half of the respondents—rated “health concerns”

as a 10 out of 10. It was their
top
motivation for wanting to lose weight.

Another question in the survey asked whether a medical doctor had

reco
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mmended that they lose weight, to which 62.7 percent answered

“yes.” Now, that’s serious.

On some level, you know your health has been jeopardized by

your weight problem. But I want to offer you hope by showing you

that you can help improve your health through healthy eating and

exercise.

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Do You Have a High-Mileage Heart?

The average person’s heart pumps blood through 60,000 miles

of blood vessels every single day. Yes, you read that right! Since

your heart is working as much as 30 percent harder to pump blood

throughout your body if you’re significantly overweigh
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t, you can

just tack on an extra 18,000 miles of blood vessels through which

your heart is pumping blood per 24-hour period.

Think of it this way: it’s 24,000 miles around the entire Earth,

so if you’re overweight, your heart is pumping blood the equiva-

lent of three-quarters of the way around the whole planet every

single
day
. You’re asking a lot of your heart. But reaching a healthy weight through eating right and exercise can help your health,

including the health of your heart.

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Health Changes

Let’s look together at some of the positive health changes that scien-

tists have attributed to weight loss. A healthy diet and exercise can

help make you healthier overall, though any specific changes to your

health are based on complex factors, such as your genetics. I wanted

you to be aware o
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f potential positive health changes to help motivate

you to take charge of your health, but you should discuss any specific

health concerns with your doctor to determine the best plan of action

for you.

1. Smaller Waistline:
In the survey, I asked a question about which bod
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y part you most want to change. A whopping 93.7 percent of people

chose “belly.” No one likes having extra jiggle around their midsection, but there are clear-cut reasons why belly fat endangers your health. That fat beneath your abdominal wall can increase inflammation throughout

your body, raise your blood pressure, slow your metabolism, and lower

your immunity.

178 | The 20/20 Diet

2. Lower Resting Heart Rate:
Your heart is a pump. At its most basic level, it is a pump whose job it is to circulate blood throughout your

body. Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute while you’re at complete rest. This is an important indication

of your heart’s health because if it’s working overtime even when you’re sitting around, you can imagine how hard it’s pumping when you’re

active and moving. If you’re overweight or obese, your he
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art rate may

be higher than average. Losing weight through healthy diet and exercise

may help you lower your heart rate.

3. Breathing Easier:
If you’ve felt out of breath going up one flight of stairs or you’ve had to take a break just walking to your car from the

grocery store, then you know the effects that your weight and physical

fitness have on your lungs. But as you lose the weight and get in shape, you may notice that you are able to breathe a little easier and do not