Want to live long and prosper? Of course you do! So don’t miss this amazing interview with dietitian and author of not one, but two books that can help save your life and give you an optimal life!

In this interview, Dave Grotto, author of 101 Optimal Life Foods, and I discuss common mistakes dieters make – like having the “good foods, bad foods” list. Dave gives his perspective on where consumers are getting it right (like buying healthy foods) and where they are getting it wrong (forgetting to cook it or overcooking). Finally, you don’t want to miss his three favorite foods he would bring if he was stranded on a desert island and trying to survive (and stay happy) while waiting for help to come.

Listen now, then read on to learn how to get a copy for yourself!

We’re working on a plan for healthy weight management without dieting. If you’re just joining us, you need to catch up. Read the last post, Dieting 101: Getting Started, and make sure this is a journey you want to be on. If you’ve rejected dieting and prepared yourself for changes, it’s time for goals.

Setting realistic goals is so important. You build success upon success. By starting small, you will repeat the easy changes and they add up to big results. So first thing, give yourself permission to set easy goals. Take the struggle out if it!

Goal-Setting Tips

• Think short-term: What is a small change you can do today and repeat tomorrow? Maybe you do no exercise at all. How about measuring how active your lifestyle is with a new, inexpensive pedometer. Wear a pedometer and see how many steps you take. If you have a desk job, I’d be surprised if you get more than 3,000 steps a day and you need 10,000. Does this motivate you to walk 30 minutes at lunch or after dinner?
  

As if you needed another reason to avoid dieting, new research shows that the “cycling” on and off of diets can stress the brain’s system and cause anxiety, overeating, and withdrawal. If you’ve ever been on a diet where you restrict your food intake and avoid specific foods, but allow “cheat days” to release the restrictions, that process can be very dangerous.

Animal studies show that when diet restrictions are lifted, they ate less and their anxiety was lower than when they were required to eat diet food. In addition, the act of cycle dieting raises a stress-related hormone corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) to five times the amount of non-dieters. This hormone is related to stress, anxiety, and fear. The high levels of CRF give the feeling of being “stressed” when sweet foods were avoided. The researchers indicated these mechanisms correspond to the ‘dark side’ of addiction to drugs of abuse or ethanol, supporting the idea that the brain shows addiction-like adaptations to intermittent eating of palatable food.

Guest blogger Rob Cohn is an ACE certified personal trainer from the Los Angeles area. He has many years of personal experience with emotional eating and recovery from a binge eating disorder and is passionate about helping other people deal with their emotional eating with guidance and support. You can read more on Rob from his own personal blog.

I will never forget when I was 13, I was astonished how my uncle stayed so thin and he never finished what was on his plate. I remember saying to him, “How do you know when you are full?” He replied, “I eat until I am satisfied and then stop.” I remember thinking, “What are you talking about?” I have never understood that concept and I still don’t. I am a member of the “Clean Plate Club.” I feel like I have been out of touch with my body for a very long time, about 30 years since I was 13 when my mother passed away.

Have you recently started a weight loss plan, and want to make sure you succeed? Then heed the warning in these ten reasons we typically fail diets. These are the most common pitfalls standing between you and a new pair of skinny jeans, or simply feeling healthier.

1. Not exercising enough — It’s a simple matter of calories in and calories out. If you consume more calories than you burn during the day you’ll have difficulty losing weight and will likely gain weight.

2. Feel metabolism is slowing down — The older you get the harder it becomes to lose weight. That’s why it is very important to start a healthy routine at an early age and maintaining it throughout your life.

3. Splurge too often on favorite foods — It’s OK to have you favorite food every once in a while, but it should be a treat happening once every other week or month rather then every other day.