Fitness Food and You

Have you ever heard of Mrs. Dash seasoning?  I always thought Mrs. Dash was the Mrs. Butterworth of seasoning. But no, Mrs. Dash’s low-sodium products stand for something more: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Who knew?

And there’s more: There is actually a DASH diet that is designed to lower blood pressure (http://dashdiet.org/). If followed, this diet works! The key is to reduce sodium in your diet and at the same, to increase potassium. This combo works because potassium helps relax the blood vessels and counterbalances the effects of sodium.

What are good sources of potassium? Well, we all first think of bananas but there are other great sources as well: raisins, prunes, apricots, dates, strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, citrus fruits, beets, greens, spinach tomatoes, mushrooms, peas, beans, avocados, turkey, fish, beef, salmon cod, plain yogurt, skim milk and soy products. Whew.

So, if you’re trying to make dietary changes to decrease blood pressure, don’t only think about sodium reduction–remember to increase potassium!

If you go to any bookstore there will always be a section dedicated to weight loss. There they are—book after book spelling out the best way to lose weight. And most of them work. The problem is that losing weight doesn’t seem to be the issue—maintaining it does. Where’s the “weight maintenance” section?

The statistics for weight maintenance after weight loss are grim. I’ve read many articles and studies on this. It seems that anywhere between 70-80% of people who have lost weight regain it back over time. This is very depressing. Why does this happen?

My take is that after weight loss, we tend to think, “whew……..I’m glad that’s over”, and very slowly return to the bad habits that got us into trouble in the first place. Instead, we have to mentally prepare ourselves that weight maintenance will be just as hard, if not harder than weight loss. Maintenance means that we get to eat a little bit more. Adding back more food or forbidden treats can be extremely triggering for many people. Bad habits have a great way of sneaking up on us.

For successful maintenance, you must continue to do the things that promoted weight loss. For some, it’s keeping track of calories. For others, it’s getting on the scale regularly. Don’t stop the good habits that you worked so hard to develop.

The key is knowing and accepting that you will have to pay attention and stay and vigilant. AND, you have to do this as long as you want to keep the weight off. Never say “whew”.