Binge eating due to stress can always derail your diet plan, while lack of confidence or a negative outlook may prevent you from following through with a weight loss plan or keep you from beginning one at all. To help keep up with your weight loss in New Jersey, here are some tips on avoiding the mental anguish and self-deprecation that can help keep you on track with your weight loss goals.

Focus on the good parts of weight loss. It can be easy to get frustrated or negative about losing weight if you feel you’ve been unsuccessful, but maintaining a positive mental attitude is absolutely crucial in losing weight and keeping it off. If you break your diet in a stress-eating binge, you’re bound to be pessimistic about your chances to slim down, but slip-ups can always be overcome.

Instead of dwelling on it, focus on the positive. Think about why you wanted to change in the first place and the ways in which losing weight will positively impact your life. Remember that everyone makes mistakes, but that losing the weight is both worthwhile and possible. If you stay optimistic, you’re more likely to avoid mistakes in the future and stay on track to a healthier lifestyle.

Allow yourself small indulgences. Saying no to unhealthy foods can be an incredibly difficult thing to do. Though it may be your goal to eliminate them from your diet, eating a small amount of the fattening foods that call out to you can save you from gorging on them later in a moment of weakness. Keep your indulgences within reason, of course, but allowing yourself to satisfy a gnawing craving for a little piece of cake now may keep you from eating the whole thing later.

Keep a food diary. Writing down everything you eat will help you wrap your head around exactly what you’re putting in your body. While you may think you’re following your diet plan exactly, writing all of your food choices down will force you to acknowledge your diet mistakes and put it all in perspective.

Get a couple highlighters and pick one color for wise food choice and another for unwise. Go through your food diary at the end of each week and mark your choices with their corresponding colors, paying close attention to the ratio of wise to unwise. This will help you keep track of your progress and allow you to identify problem foods and factors that may cause you to overindulge.

Identify your trigger emotions. When you get an urge to eat that isn’t caused by physical hunger, try to figure out which emotion it is that may be causing that urge. Anger, fear, sadness and anxiety are common emotional triggers, while even happiness or excitement can cause you to go rushing to the fridge. If you can pin down which emotions are most likely to make you cave to the desire to overeat, you can focus on staying strong any time you feel that emotion. Realize that hunger isn’t always what’s telling you to eat, so it’s important to figure out what is.

On your next trip to the grocery store, make an extra health-conscious decision and read your labels before trying these three health food fads.

Bogus Blueberries

Blueberries amongst other types of berries have become extremely popular lately with their ‘super fruit’ benefits, but beware of imposters at the grocery store. Many food companies are labeling products as “blueberry” when in fact they’re only manufacturing the products to look like real blueberries. Falsely mistaking the imposters for the real nutritious choice could cost you an abundance of sugars, starches, hydrogenates oils and food dyes—not the healthiest ingredients when you’re trying to maintain weight loss.

Look for these phony blueberry warning signs:

• If “blueberry” is far down on the list of the ingredients, it probably doesn’t contain 100 percent blueberry.
• If any red or blue dyes are included on the list of ingredients, true blueberries may not be included.
• If any modifiers such as “crunchlet,” “bit” and “cluster” come before blueberry on the package, it’s a red flag.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Not

Lately, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has been climbing the ladder as yet another top health food craze and mostly for good reasons. This highest grade of olive oil comes from the first press of olives within less than 24 hours after being harvested—meaning it has not been chemically treated with any additives. However, you have to watch out for shams—a study in California found that two-thirds of common brand-name EVOO were actually regular olive, canola or nut oils. This is an expensive little scam considering consumers usually pay twice the money for EVOO—that is when it’s real or in this case, even when it’s not so real.

Confirm olive oil is real EVOO:

• True EVOO has a fruity smell much like fresh olives, so do the sniff test!
• Look to see if it’s packaged in a darker bottle than other olive oils.
• Make sure there is only one country of origin listed.
• Look for the USDA Organic stamp somewhere on the bottle.

Not-so Buzz Worthy Honey

Honey has becomes super popular amongst health food addicts looking for the next craze. Honey is known to have several health benefits—it’s nature’s energy booster, a great immunity system builder and a natural remedy for certain ailments. The key to its buzz-worthy benefits is pollen. Pollen is a great, natural source of antioxidants; however, most honey on the market is ultra-filtered and therefore has little to no pollen.

Get all of honey’s health benefits:

• When scanning your label, make sure honey is the only ingredient—this means no sugar, corn or rice syrups.
• Look for an organic honey to make sure you’re getting all of the added pollen benefits of pure honey.
• Get it straight from the hive to the jar instead—many local natural food stores or farmers markets in Denville and Hackensack sell honey.

When you’re trying to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle, it is okay to be curious about the latest health food trends, but it’s also important to be knowledgeable. Do your research before trying new fads and make sure to always read the labels of the products you buy to ensure quality. If you still have questions about which health foods are right for you, don’t hesitate to ask Dr. Chhabra.

Stretching

Half of a ten-minute workout routine should involve stretching. This will help to increase your metabolism before breakfast and prepare your body for strength training. All it takes is a few yoga poses.

Start by standing with feet together and arms at the sides. Lift the arms out from the sides until they meet over the head. Point the fingers upward so the entire body is stretched from heel to fingers. Next, move the left leg back and bend the right knee so the left leg stretches as far back as possible. Hold this for about 20 seconds and then return to the standing pose. Next, stretch the right leg back and bend the left knee, holding for another 20 seconds. Return to the standing position, and then bend over as far as possible at the hips, grasping each elbow with the opposite hand. Stand in this relaxing pose for 30 seconds.

Lie flat facing down with hands beside the chest and arms bent. Arch the back and push until the arms are extended, thus stretching the arms and back. Hold this pose for about 20 seconds before pushing up with the arms and back with the hips so the top of the head is between the arms and pointing toward the floor, the buttocks are in the air and the legs are extended at an angle, and hold for another twenty seconds.

When you are stretching, may close attention not to pulse your muscles. This can add additional and unnecessary stress to your muscles, and put you at an increased risk for injury.

Strength

For the next five minutes it is time to focus on strength training. It is easy to keep a strength training routine simple by using your body weight to your own advantage. Lying down on the floor, start your workout with two and a half minutes of push-ups. Count to see how many you can do in that time frame! Then, finish strong with another two and a half minutes of sit-ups. As sit-ups become easier increase the intensity by stretching out your arms and legs as you crunch.

You have the power to push away the negativity. As the world begins to weigh down upon you, take a moment to appreciate the smaller things in life. If you are upset after an argument with your boss, take a moment to look out the window. Simply appreciating a flower swaying in the wind, or a seagull that is flying by can alter your outlook on the world.

Focusing on small joys can be an oversimplification of the on-going activity in the brain. Brain scientists report that a person’s thoughts, whether positive or negative, program their neurons to think in certain ways. In other words, once an individual focuses on a subject, he tends to continue to think about that topic in the same way, which eventually colors his overall view of life. So, by thinking about things that make you happy, you may very well be able to make yourself feel happier!

More specifically, researchers found that higher baseline levels of vitamin D predicted a greater loss of abdominal fat, which is an area of fat build up that many people struggle to get rid of. Researchers are unsure if the vitamin D deficiency may be causing obesity or if excess weight may prompt a decrease in vitamin D levels. However, if you are trying to lose weight through a medical weight loss program, these findings do indicate that it may be worth the effort to ensure that you do have proper levels of vitamin D, as well as all other essential nutrients.

One reason that sufficient vitamin D levels may be linked to weight loss is the way that the body is able to gain vitamin D—sunshine. The body is able to process vitamin D while being outside as it absorbs rays. Individuals who spend more time outdoors in the sun are often taking part in activity, which enhances weight loss efforts. Those who are deficient in vitamin D may be less inclined to spend time outside in the sun, and may be less likely to participate in physical activity at all.

While more research will need to be completed in order to be conclusive, this study does indicate that it may be worth speaking to your physician about adding vitamin D supplements to your diet.

• Find your Grit. Each person has a reserve of energy called grit. It kicks in when they do what they love. Success is about focusing on this amazing inner force instead of feeling guilty or just not good enough.
• Take charge. Not everyone can financially afford to become their own boss, but if you can make that work then go for it. There is nothing more motivating than realizing that you are in complete control of your own schedule, your own contact and your own voice. If you cannot make that sort of jump, then consider other areas of your life in which you could manage to take a bit more control and don’t take no for an answer.
• Find a quote. We have all had moments in which life is tough and we stumble upon a simple quote that puts everything back into perspective. Finding a quote that fits you can help you to cope when things become a bit too stressful. Having trouble working out every day? How about adopting the quote “Just do it!”

Researchers found that dieters who at a healthy breakfast and then did not eat again until lunch lost an average of 11% of their body weight over the course of 12 months. Women in the study who did consume a mid-morning snack only lost an average of 7% of their bodyweight.

The results of this study may be quite shocking. Many researchers have found that eating small portions throughout the day can enhance weight loss efforts. This study does not contradict that however. Rather than dismissing all snacks, researchers wanted to point out the small time interval between breakfast and lunch, often only a lapse of three hours. By eating a sustainable breakfast, it is not difficult to withhold from food for the three hour time period.

In fact, researchers in this study believed that smart snacking can actually be beneficial to a diet plan, as it can help prevent dieters from becoming too hungry. When you are trying to lose weight, remember to think about the snacks that you are consuming, both in regards to their health value and also the timing of the snack. If you are not hungry, then it may be best to just wait until lunch!

When attempting weight loss in New Jersey, don’t expect other people to do everything possible to aid you in your journey, and don’t picture yourself as being a victim that can’t do anything to make your life better. Instead, turn your story into a better version of the Cinderella story, in which you stand up for your rights and put yourself first so that you are able to survive and overcome the difficulties that you face when trying to lose weight. If you seek the help of someone else from time to time, make sure you don’t give them control over your life.

No matter what problems you are facing, do not just act like Cinderella and wait for someone to come along and get you out of trouble. Realize that you are in charge of your own life and you can take steps to improve your situation, no matter how small or difficult these steps may seem. Instead of thinking of yourself as someone who needs to be rescued, think of yourself as the person in charge, as the King or Queen or even as a benevolent dictator, making decisions that are best for you.

1. Go to bed. A lack of sleep increases the stress hormone cortisol, which is directly associated with weight gain and binge eating. Plus, a lack of sleep can also lead to more stored fat.
2. Brush your teeth. Not only will your smile shine, but brushing your teeth also signals the brain that mealtime is over.
3. Carry snacks with you. Running errands all day? Keep healthy snacks in your bag for when hunger pains strike.
4. No time to make dinner at night? Make and freeze meals in advance on the weekends, so all you need to do is pop then in the oven when you get home.
5. Resist the urge to hibernate. Sure, it gets cold in the winter. But resist the urge to stay indoors snacking in front of the TV. Instead, on a sunny day, bundle up for a neighborhood walk. Snowbound in the house? Stock up on exercise DVDs or have an impromptu dance party with the kids.

Studies have further found that calorie counts in sit-in restaurants tended to be more off due to the individual preparation of meals versus the standardized size and ingredients of meals at fast food restaurants.

Eating out can continue to be a fun and time saving activity without necessarily spelling out weight gain. As restaurants work on developing more accurate ways to measure calories, the best way to keep healthy and maintain weight loss when enjoying restaurant cuisine is to make sensible meal and snack choices. Make sure to watch portion sizes and be wary of calorie rich toppings like salad dressings which you can ask for on the side. Ultimately, calorie counts can be helpful but they should be considered with caution and should serve as a general guideline rather than an absolute measure for long term weight loss goals.