If you’ve ever started a diet, you know how hard those first few weeks can be. However, what if the plan called for you to not lose any weight for the first eight weeks? They’d probably get your attention, right? Well, a recent article in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology says the key to successful weight loss may be spending several weeks actually not trying to lose weight.

Michaela Kiernan, PhD. was the lead author in this new study. Psych Central reported that she and the researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine took an approach to weight loss that involved asking women in a study to not lose weight for the first eight weeks of a 28-week study. Instead they spent that time working on mastering the skills of weight maintenance. The concept was posed that if one could learn to maintain weight before they lost it, they might stand a better chance of avoiding a yo-yoing, where they’d regain several pounds once they completed the diet.

The researchers contrasted these women with a group who worked on the the 20-week weight loss portion of the program first and then moved into maintenance skills for the final eight weeks. The women were then released for the remainder of the year to navigate their lives with the skills they learned. When all the women returned at the end of the year, those in the maintenance-first group had regained the least amount of weight. The maintenance-first group only regained three pounds on average where the immediate dieters regained an average of seven pounds.
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Vanessa, 26, of Upstate New York was overweight her whole life. When she graduated from high school she weighed close to 250 pounds and was a size 24. Reflecting back on her childhood, Vanessa never recalls being a skinny person. Despite trying many diets like Weight Watchers and committing to various fitness routines, she’d lose weight for a time but it always came back.

When she tragically lost her mother to cancer in October 2010, she continued to struggle with her weight in the midst of such a difficult season.

“In 2009, I found out that my mom had cancer. She never told us and I found out on accident,” recalls Vanessa. “I carry guilt with that because I knew and I never told her. She started chemo on May 23 and she passed away on Halloween 2010.”

After her mother’s death Vanessa carried a lot of guilt and pain which led to emotional eating. “I would come home and eat a bag of Dove chocolate. As a result I gained 40 pounds that fall,” she said. “I was in a size 26 pant size, but it didn’t even register. I thought to myself ‘Enough is enough. I can’t do this anymore. My mom wouldn’t have wanted this for me.’”

In that moment Vanessa made a change that stuck. She started working out three days a week for 40 minutes. Now she’s up to 4-5 times a week and doing an hour of cardio plus weight training. To track her calories she started using the Lose It smart phone app, and believes she wouldn’t have been quite as successful without it.
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Last Halloween, Judah Hansen didn’t have much to show for all of his trick or treating except for $22 in cash. It’s an annual tradition for the Kansas nine-year-old. He and his parents visit a dentist’s office the morning after Halloween to sell his candy. The dentist offers a dollar per pound of candy to keep the sugary treats out of his patients’ mouths. “I’d rather get money and have some candy instead of having a bunch of candy and not being able to eat it all,” Judah told us.

According to a new survey from the American Dental Association (ADA) and Popcap Games, the average child receives 90 pieces of candy during Trick or Treating. I know that my own daughter, Judah, and their peers don’t need all of that.

The ADA survey points out that Judah’s mom and I are not alone. Seventy percent of parents surveyed agreed they’d like their kids to receive less candy. The most shocking stat – 89 percent of kids said they would still like Halloween if they didn’t focus as much on the candy and did more so on the other fun activities and traditions.

“Even when Judah was a toddler, we ended up with a ridiculous amount of candy after Halloween,” Judah’s mom Lacy told us. We didn’t want it around the house for that long as it posed several weeks of temptation for us and he was constantly asking, ‘Can I have some candy?’ When buyback became an option, we jumped on it.”

So if parents don’t want the kids to have it, and the kids don’t care either way – why do we keep buying it? Marketing, of course. Since the candy manufacturers aren’t about to let us off the hook, neither are our dentists, it’s kind of a perfect match.

Candy buy back programs have grown in popularity over the last few years. Starting November 1, you’re bound to find at least one dentist in your community trading cash, toys, or prizes for candy.

Dr. Mitchell D. Scheier in Havertown, Pennsylvania is buying back candy for $1 per pound. It’s the fifth year for Dr. Scheier & Associates’ Halloween buy back program, paying out to 100 people last year. They donate the candy they collect to the troops.

“We do this one, to help limit the amount of sugar our young patients consume during a holiday surrounded by candy and two, to offer our soldiers a sweet reminder of home during this time of year,” said Dr. Scheier.
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While this week has already been frightful enough for our friends in New York and along the East Coast, and we’re grateful for their safety, we can’t help but hope that everyone everywhere gets a chance to partake in the fun side of scary with Halloween tomorrow. It’s got to be one of the silliest holidays of the year with as much opportunity for indulgence as any other, but also plenty of opportunity for healthifying the heck out of it!

At the very least we knew we had 31 reasons to love this spooky holiday, because, you know, it falls on October 31. First on our list is a Halloween full moon. The official full moon for October was last night, but there is sure to still be plenty of eery glow to light your trick or treat path. Second is all the walking the entire family gets by trekking from house to house.

Why else do we like Halloween? Let us count the other 29 ways…

Pumpkin Workouts

Homemade Caramel Apples

Vegan Pumpkin Spiced Latte

Fitness-Inspired Halloween Costumes

The Trick or Treat Goodies
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There’s another “miracle” weight loss supplement on the market and some are claiming it may be the new solution to our nation’s obesity epidemic. It’s called Moringa Extract and has been sold in other forms such as Moringa Oleifera, and it’s derived from the Moringa tree that’s grown in remote areas in Kenya, Ethiopia and the Hemilayas. This natural supplement is being praised by many for its amazing weight loss results without side effects.

Moringa is beneficial for humans because it stands heads and shoulders above the competition when compared to other dietary supplements. Some even claim it has the ability to help prevent more than 300 health conditions as it contains an extremely high amount of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

According to a news release at PR Web, it contains seven times the amount of vitamin C in oranges, four times the amount of calcium in milk, four times the amount of vitamin A in carrots, and two times the protein in yogurt. Dr. Oz even featured Moringa Oleifera on his show earlier this year saying it contains three times more iron than spinach and helped naturally boost energy.

Moringa is also thought to cause weight loss as it’s been found to slow the rate at which sugar is released into the bloodstream. This is beneficial because excess sugar turns into fat in the body which can lead to weight gain. In this way Moringa is able to naturally boost energy levels while simultaneously burning fat and promoting weight loss.
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