The “What The Hell Effect” or the scientific term, counterregulatory eating, is a concept that can be found in the book, Willpower by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. The basic premise of this concept is that you’re doing well on a diet and then you slip up and have something like a cup of ice cream. At that point you figure, “what the hell” you messed up, so you may as well have some more and completely abandon your diet for the rest of the day or possibly longer.

Many years ago I engaged in this type of eating pattern. I would say I wasn’t going to have any sugar. I did well for about a month and then I would slip up and say “what the hell” and then I would be back eating sugary items frequently for some time and then repeat the process.  So how did I solve it and how can you?

First, going on rigid diets will usually fail in the long term, so be realistic and don’t go “on” diets. When you go “on”, you go “off”. Come up with a realistic eating plan that works with your life and supports your goals. My plan, for example, is to eat pretty clean during the week and allow a little leeway (not a binge) on the weekends. That plan may not work for you, so maybe having a little treat in moderation every other day will. The key is to find something that works for you. You can always improve upon the plan over time.

Next, watch your thoughts and feelings. Notice if you’re going into the “what the hell” mindset. You want to make a conscious decision versus an unconscious reaction. Also, watch you’re not strict with your thoughts and saying, “You can’t have that!”. That will usually backfire. Know that you can have it, but it may not support what you really want most: to be healthy and to look good. And remember, just because you have a thought and a feeling doesn’t mean you have to take action.

Finally, plan ahead when life happens. There will be birthday parties, social events, emergencies, business meetings, holidays, vacations and more. They can easily be triggers for the “what the hell effect”. Don’t let these things throw you off track. If you do have an event to go to, have an eating plan before you go.  For example, you can say that you will just have 1 drink and split a dessert or have 2 drinks and a spoonful of a dessert or eat clean for that event.  Find a plan that works for you, but be sure to have a plan. And if you do slip up, no big deal, get back on track as soon as possible.

Many people rely on willpower when it comes to eating, but there are some interesting things you need to know that can help you.

I was reading a book called “The Happiness Advantage” by Shaw Achor and he talks about one of the willpower studies done by researcher Dr. Roy Baumeister. He used college students as subjects and told them not to eat anything for at least 3 hours before the study and broke them into 3 groups.

Group 1 was given a plate of chocolate chip cookies, which they weren’t allowed to eat and a plate of radishes, which they could eat as much as they wanted.

Group 2 was given the same 2 plates, chocolate chip cookies and radishes, but could eat off of either plate.

Group 3 wasn’t given any food.

After making the subjects sit in these situations for a significant amount of time, they were given geometric puzzles to solve. They weren’t aware that the puzzles were unsolvable.

The Results: Groups 2 and 3 lasted the longest trying to solve the puzzles while Group 1 gave up the quickest because they used up their willpower from avoiding the chocolate chip cookies.

Dr. Roy Baumeister is co-author of the book, “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength” where he talks about how willpower acts like a muscle and can be strengthened and fatigued.

Some things that can fatigue your willpower muscle are resisting desires (people spend about 4 hours each day resisting desires), suppressing your emotions, acts of self-control, decision-making, getting a cold, a premenstrual cycle (this may be one of the reasons women find it hard to resist sweets during this time) and low glucose.

He explains that glucose fuels willpower. Glucose is a simple sugar that comes primarily from digesting carbohydrates and provides the body with its primary source of energy (proteins and fats can be converted into glucose if extra is needed such as after intense exercise). When glucose is low, willpower is low.

Here are some suggestions to help you with your goals and to keep your glucose supply steady.

- Don’t diet but make small, gradual changes to your eating plan(restricting too much food means low glucose which means low willpower and you eventually give up)

- Select slow burning foods (low-glycemic index)
or have balanced meals  (proteins, carbohydrates & fats with each meal)

- Eat smaller meals more frequently (e.g. 5 meals per day)

- Don’t skip meals

- Avoid sugar free products (they have no health benefits and they have no impact on glucose levels)

Some other things that can help boost willpower are laughter and positive thinking.

When trying to help my clients get results with eating better or exercising, I commonly hear them say, “I can’t” or “I don’t have the time”.  An example may be that I tell a client to eat 5 meals a day and they say that it’s too hard with their schedule.

That’s when I give them a follow up question:

“If I gave you 1 million dollars for eating 5 meals per day for the next 14 days, then would it be too hard of a task?”

They now obviously view it as the simplest task in the world for a million dollars. So how can something seem so difficult and then within seconds seem so easy? What changed? Your MINDSET!

Then I tell my clients to treat themselves like 1 MILLION DOLLARS. Why wouldn’t you? Aren’t you worth it?

It’s not about being motivated by money, but about the degree to which you value yourself. We all have stress and we all have busy lives. Yes, some more than others, but when you value yourself, you will find ways to get things done. You’ll be solution oriented rather than a victim.

On that theme of 1 million dollars, there is a statistic that says that 70% of all lottery winners will squander all their money in a few years. Well, if you don’t feel you deserve it, you will find a way to give it away.

Think about how that relates to getting in shape for some people. If you don’t feel worthy, no matter how many diets you’re on or how much exercise you do, you will always subconsciously find a way to sabotage your goals and gain the weight back.

When you love something, you take care of it.

When you LOVE a car, you give it regular oil changes, you give it regular maintenance, you wash it, you vacuum it…

When you LOVE a pet, you feed it daily, you spend time with it, you pet it (hence the name)…

When you LOVE yourself, you……………………………

Think about how your life would change and what you could accomplish if you valued yourself like 1 MILLION DOLLARS.

There was a recent study done that suggests that people who kept a daily food diary lost twice as much weight than those who didn’t. The people in the study did have a specified diet to follow, went to weekly group meetings and did moderate exercise 30 minutes a day, but the ones that wrote down their food on a daily basis lost twice as much weight.

So, if you are not happy with your weight, this is an action step that you can take that may help you in your efforts.

We all have cravings and sometimes we give in to them, including myself. The key is to make sure that it happens infrequently. If your nutrition is very good most of the time, it’s not much of an issue. But if it’s not good, you need some tools.

A tool that I use is that I picture how I will feel when I’m done. As an example, I’m at a friend’s house and they have freshly baked chocolate chip cookies out and the aroma hits me. My immediate reaction is to grab one (or more:). But before I do, I think to myself, how will I feel when I’m done? Will I be happier? I know I will be experiencing a lot of pleasure while I’m eating the cookie, but what happens when the experience is over? If I’m trying to reach a physical goal and I just downed 5 cookies, odds are that I will probably feel guilty and beat myself up for a while for giving in to the craving. I would have sacrificed what I wanted most, for what I wanted in the moment; short term pleasure over a long term goal.

Food can only provide short term pleasure and then it’s gone. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy food while you’re eating, it just means that you shouldn’t frequently disregard your health for moments of pleasure. Sometimes we keep eating just to keep the pleasure going, but it will eventually end. So the next time you’re confronted with a craving challenge, remember the short term pleasure concept. When you’re done eating, regardless of how pleasurable the cookies were, you will be in the same boat as before you ate them.
What will you gain…except weight?

We all need limits when it comes to eating. Calories are energy and if you put too much energy into your body and don’t use that energy, well, you store it. Portion control is very important for certain meals. I have never had a client come to me for help saying they eat too many vegetables or too much grilled chicken. I have seen people eat too much bread, pasta, sweets, fried foods and alcohol that get them in trouble. If you are going to have those foods, you need to set a limit on them.

You also need to set physical limits. For example, if you weigh yourself regularly and you see that you are starting to gain weight in an unhealthy way, an alarm should go off and you should take the proper corrective action. The weight limit could be 5 pounds. Once you see that, you should be conscious of how you’re eating or not exercising and make some changes. If you don’t weigh yourself, then your clothes can be the trigger. If your clothes are fitting tighter, rather than buy clothes a size bigger, that same alarm should go off to get you to eat better and move your body. Set limits early so things don’t get out of hand.

We all have cravings for food that may not be the greatest for us.  Yes, even trainers too! In order to reach our physical goals though, we must keep these cravings in check. So, what do we do? Well, first we must realize that all cravings have a life cycle. They start out with some type of trigger. It could be a thought, a smell, something you see or hear, you may have a bad day, etc. Then your thoughts start racing (“I need some chocolate now!”) and you may have certain feelings in your body (you may salivate, your heart may beat faster, you may feel tension in your stomach). The thoughts and feelings will peak and they will ultimately subside. They will subside whether or not you give in to the craving. If you do give in to the craving, you will get a little bit of pleasure and then I’m sure you will feel some guilt and beat yourself up for a longer period of time then the pleasure lasted.

So, here is a new approach. The next time you have a craving, see if you can label the trigger. Then pay attention to your thoughts and feelings without immediately reacting to them. Watch them go up in intensity and then watch them go down. See if you can ride out the life cycle. The more you do this, the less intense the cravings will be. You can even journal the thoughts and feelings. Sometimes getting things on paper can help you observe better. Just because you have certain thoughts and feelings doesn’t mean you need to immediately react to them.

A lot of us go out to eat which presents a problem when trying to reach your fitness goals. So, you need to be conscious and prepare yourself by having a plan. I was a waiter for 5 years, so I know how you can be pushed into poor choices, especially when they bring a dessert tray right in your face.
So, here are where the potential problems lie:

1) Bread on the table
2) Alcohol/Soda
3) Appetizers (fried)
4) Entrees (fried, pasta, high calorie meals)
5) Desserts
6) Coffee (cream & sugar)

Now, do you have a conscious plan when you go out or is it anything goes? If you have a little bread, maybe you shouldn’t order that pasta dish. If you have 2 glasses of wine, maybe you shouldn’t have that dessert. On the other hand, if it’s your plan to eat very clean during the week, maybe you can have some slack on a weekend dinner. How many times do you go out to eat per week? If it’s a lot, then it’s even more important to plan because there is a lot of temptation. If you decide to drink, well then it’s harder because alcohol will inhibit your ability to make better choices. So, don’t waste any more time, write out your plan now for the week and make it correlate to the goals you want to reach!
 

It’s good practice to understand what you are eating by reading food labels and ingredients. Remember, calorie quantity counts but so does calorie quality. Your food may be low in calories but it also may be low in nutrition. “Thin” is not necessarily healthy if your foods do not have any nutrition. Remember, the main purpose of eating is to give your body the right amount and type of fuel so it can function optimally.

Many packaged and processed foods have chemicals and preservatives in them that our bodies cannot use and may be toxic to our cells. They may also be devoid of vitamins and minerals. If you eat something that doesn’t have a food label, then you can go to www.nutritiondata.com and look up the item and it will show you a food label. Along with Calories, pay attention to Fats, Carbohydrates, Protein, Fiber and Sugars along with any other items you may find important on the food label.

The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is basically the amount of energy (calories) used to chew, swallow and digest food. Protein has a high TEF.
I’ve read that it could be as high as 30%. So, that means if you eat 100 calories of chicken, 30% of those calories could be burned by chewing, swallowing and digesting it. That’s one of the reasons that all calories are not created equal. A 100 calorie snack pack of Oreo cookies will not have a high TEF and it will raise your blood sugar. If you eat smaller meals more frequently this will increase your TEF and will also increase calorie burning. Exercise will also increase your TEF. As we get older, our TEF decreases, so these are ways to counteract that.
Here is a general idea of what the TEF is for macronutrients:

Protein: ~25-30%
Cruciferous Vegetables: ~30% (Broccoli, Cauliflower, etc.)
Fruits: ~15%
Fats: ~2-3%
Other carbs: fall somewhere in between Proteins & Fats

This does not mean you should avoid fats and have a high protein diet. All meals should have Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats. The ratios will vary based on your unique makeup. This just means you will get more calorie burn from eating Chicken & Broccoli for dinner then say pizza, even if the calories were equal. So, understanding TEF will help you to make better food choices and burn calories in the process.

Weak links are those foods that we just can’t resist which sabotage our goals. Some    examples are pizza, soda, alcohol, ice cream, chocolate, potato chips & french fries. These are usually high calorie and/or sugary foods that you need to keep in moderation or avoid. I know most of us feel like we are missing out on life if we don’t have these foods. So, to be realistic, you just need to make sure that you keep them to a minimum if you want to reach your goals.

Remember, there is a difference between “cheating” 10% of the time and 50% of the time. The quantity and frequency of these foods needs to be monitored. If you eat 5 meals per day, that’s 35 meals per week. If you cheat 10% of the time, that will equate to 3.5 (3 to 4) meals per week (35 x .10 = 3.5). And by the way, a cheat is not 3 slices of pizza, 2 beers and an apple pie! Keep your cheats reasonable (e.g. 1 glass of wine) and don’t skip meals (that’s a cheat too).

Get a sense of what percentage you’re cheating now and if you’re not reaching your goals, then you can reduce that number. Yes, it would be great to avoid all unhealthy food and alcohol, but you need to start somewhere and work your way up. No matter what eating plan you’re on, if you don’t manage these weak links, you will not reach your goals.

When you skip meals, your body thinks there is a food shortage and your metabolism will slow down. This is especially true when you skip breakfast because you may not have eaten since dinner the previous day. You want to eat soon after you wake up to “break the fast”. This will rev up your metabolism to start the day. Generally, you should eat 4 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day to increase your metabolism. Prepare your snacks and meals ahead of time so you’re not stuck without food and are forced to skip a meal.

Sometimes motivation is a great obstacle to getting in shape. You know what you need to do, you just don’t feel like doing it. Even as a trainer there are days I might not feel like working out. I think the key is:

Don’t wait for your emotions to get you in motion, let your motions change your emotions.

As an example, I was feeling sluggish on a day where I had a planned workout and I could have easily put it off but I pushed through the feeling and 10 minutes into the workout I started to feel more energized. Now that may or may not be the case with everyone, but I can guarantee that you will feel some sense of accomplishment just by completing your workout.

One strategy I use is that I have a Workout A and a Workout B. My Workout A is my planned workout that is challenging and might last 50 minutes. My Workout B is for days when I feel sluggish or I’m limited in time but I want to keep the momentum going with my workouts instead of blowing it off altogether. It might be a quicker 3 or 4 exercise circuit workout that may last 15-20 minutes. By using this strategy, things don’t have to be all or nothing where you either workout or you don’t.

Some other ways to motivate yourself could be:

Write down your workout plan and follow it
Find a workout partner
Workout to energizing music
Join a boot camp (insert shameless plug here
Hire a trainer (…stop the madness!!!)

OK, so not everyone has the issue of working out too much. Some people may actually need some motivation to work out. There are those people though, that may work out too much and overtraining can be a problem. Rest and recovery are equally important and must be planned to allow your body to recover from your workouts.

Cardiovascular activity may not be as much of an issue for overtraining unless it’s very intense work or is very hard on the joints as running may be. Weight training can be an issue if you’re not resting at least 48 hours between workouts. The only exceptions would be if you work your upper body one day and lower the next or if you did a split routine where you worked your pushing muscles one day and then your pulling muscles the next.

Remember, while you’re working out, you’re breaking muscle down and while you’re recovering, your muscles are rebuilding. If you work out too much, you don’t give your muscles enough time to rebuild and they are in a constant state of breaking down. You can run into trouble for example, if you have a trainer, take classes, play tennis and also go running. There may be some overlap there depending on what you do with your trainer and what type of classes they are.

Some signs of overtraining are insomnia, irritability, fatigue, persistent muscle soreness and increased injuries. Different people have different tolerances but everyone needs to build in recovery for their workouts. The best advice I can give is to look at all the activities you’re doing, build in some recovery time and listen to your body.

Interval Training has been shown by numerous studies to shed body fat better than steady state cardio. Interval Training will increase your metabolism after the workout for a period of time. It is also generally shorter but more intense. Here are examples of both using a treadmill:

Steady State:
40 min. at 3.5mph

Interval Training:

                                  Warm-up: 5 min. at 2mph
High intensity: 30 sec. at 5mph
Moderate intensity: 90 sec. at 3mph
(Perform 4 rounds)
Cool Down: 5 min. at 2mph

Now, I just made up numbers to give you an example, but you get the idea. Steady state cardio just means you’re working out at a steady pace for a specified time period. Interval Training has rounds of high intensity followed by moderate intensity or recovery for a specified amount of rounds. The intensity depends on your exercise experience, heart rate and any health issues present. Obviously, check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program. If you’re healthy, then use your judgment or if you or the exercise equipment has a heart rate monitor you can gauge how intense the workout is.
It’s always safer to start things out slow and work yourself up, especially if you aren’t used to it. As an example, you can start out with 4 rounds and work up to more rounds. You can start with 30 seconds at a higher intensity and recover for 60 or 90 seconds. After a while you can increase the higher intensity to 45 seconds (recovery 1:30) or a minute (recovery 2 minutes). You may then reduce the recovery to make it more challenging as your body adapts. Keep in mind, you’re not limited to a treadmill. You can use a bike or elliptical, and you can even do it with Jumping Jacks, Mountain Climbers, Jump Rope, etc.

A lot of people ask me if there is a specific exercise that they can do to get rid of the fat around their stomach, arms or legs. Unfortunately, “spot reduction” is a myth. For example, you can’t get rid of your stomach fat by doing hundreds of crunches every day. You will only build the abdominal muscles underneath the body fat.

The media, with all of its infomercials, will try to fool you with pictures of six pack abs trying to sell you one of their products. Trust me, these models cannot get 6 pack abs unless they eat extremely clean and are on a proper exercise program that includes much more than abdominal training.

Although, I have come across some research on interval training using a treadmill or exercise bike where subjects preferentially lost body fat in their abdominal area and thighs. This would be the only case of so called “spot reduction”. So, if you choose to do abdominal training because they are important muscles to work…fine…otherwise, please don’t “waist” your time.

Most women are afraid to use challenging weights and instead choose the colored neoprene dumbbells, focusing on high reps and lighter weights for “toning”. Now, please don’t misunderstand me, colored dumbbells may be appropriate. It depends on how challenging the weights are. Your body is adaptive, meaning that if a weight is challenging for your body, it will adapt by building muscle to handle the challenge. If the weight is too light, your body wouldn’t have any need to change.

“Toning” is really building the muscle and reducing the body fat. This is where women get scared because they don’t want bulky muscles. Keep in mind, muscle takes up less space than body fat, so body fat is usually the issue. Also, muscle is active tissue, so having more muscle means burning more calories. In order to reduce injury though, I don’t suggest that you go right out and grab heavy weights unless you do a proper warm-up, have correct form and are experienced and ready for the increase in weight.