Are you ready to combat Super Bowl diet temptations?

You don't need a reminder to tell you the Super Bowl is coming soon. Now what's that going to do to your diet?

That's simple. Super Bowl and snack time go together. And for most people that means all the rules you've set for yourself are "Out the Window".

But you don't need go out of bounds just because your Super Bowl party has chips, dips, beer and other party beverages.
Guess what you can eat and still join in the fun of the party? You can eat and drink plenty. It just takes some planning ahead.

Just like with most planning, winning at your diet game is mostly a mental exercise. Like Yogi Berra used to say, "80% of the game is 90% mental".

It's not a process requiring trips to the health food store or picking a batch of extra watercress. You can host a party or go to your friends party and still have fun, enjoy the refreshments and stay close to your diet program. During this "party period" you may not lose weight but you won't gain any substantial weight either.

Keep it simple. Go for the low fat and low fat snacks. Try pretzels. Most parties have them. That doesn't mean you can keep dipping your hand continuously into the pretzel bowl. If you can make a snack bag for yourself you can put a measured amount of pretzels (100 to 200 calories worth) and ration them for the length of the game.

If you divide your "authorized snack" into two bags you can save one for the second half. You'll be surprised how having your own bag of an "authorized snack" will give you the will power to withstand eating too much or eating the wrong food or even eating at inappropriate times.

It's like setting any other kind of goal. In this case goal is making one snack pack last for an entire half. For your party beverages choose no-cal soda or water.

And you can yell and scream and cheer your team like everyone. Best of all water does the same thing as beer. It makes you go to the bathroom a-lot. You can get bottled with a hint of a variety of flavors and some even come with vitamins. The real physical specimens, the workout freaks, the muscle guys drink water with vitamins. Why would you want to drink anything else? Of course if you're a fan of diet cola or other diet soft drinks they work too.

So don't choose the chips, the french Fry's and those high fat sour cream dips. Sure pretzels have lots of salt. But if you can handle that they can be a low fat alternative to all the other things you might choose.

If you have a double chin now you don't need to try for a triple one just because of the Super Bowl. If you already have a beer belly you don't need to try for a double one at the tail gate party.

These are a few tips you can use to prepare yourself for the upcoming super-bowl parties.

Pass these tips out to your friends. Send us some of your own tips. Erwin Posner, R.Ph.

BrownBagDiet.Blogspot.com

Winning in the Losing Game of Weight Loss

Everyone is talking about winning. They want to win the Superbowl, the hockey game, the basketball game and the lottery. But who is talking about losing?

Better yet, IS THERE ANYONE TALKING ABOUT LOSING (WEIGHT THAT IS) WHO ISN'T TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING? I'm not selling anything. Not even my book on weight loss. I'm giving it to you FREE, chapter by chapter, on this blog.
Maybe that's what makes the Brown Bag Diet different. I'm interested in motivating you to WIN at this game of losing weight. That's why I created the watchword/slogan system for the Brown Bag Diet.

Our last watchword slogan was Portion Control.

Now let's look into how this watchword can help you.

Portion control and awareness are probably the two most important practices for successful weight loss programs. After all, you can eat all the right foods but still not have healthy habits. When you eat the proper foods but you eat them in greater quantities than allowed by your plan your body reacts accordingly. The extra protein that your body doesn't need, the extra fat and sweets, the extra cereals and even the extra fruits get stored in your body. And these extra items will be stored as fat.

Calories from sweets and fat pile up fat fastest. There are limits to everything, IE The food pyramid recommends six servings of bread on a normal non-weight loss diet. Adding each extra slice of bread adds to the calorie stores you carry. And these stores eventually become fat.

The best way to learn what portions are proper for you is to select a diet program together with your doctor, dietitian or nutritionist. Then determine what your daily calorie intake should be. Your dietitian can design meals to meet these goals. Your doctor may give you the values of each food to help you pick out the quantity of foods from each food group you need.

In my next post I'll show you how to right size the portions you choose. In the meantime enjoy the games of sport, of chance and start winning at the game of losing weight.

Got friends who need an extra boost to get into shape? Why not help them with what the advertising people call viral advertising. Pass our blog address on to them.

You can help save the world from tipping over due to all those people you know who are overweight just by passing them our blog address. Then they can sign on for tips and clues for dieters just like you do.

After all, even those who don't need to lose weight have friends and relatives that could benefit.

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.
Brownbagdiet.blogspot.com

Don't blame your mother if you're fat- You can lose weight regardless of your genes.

Don't blame your mother if you're fat- You can lose weight regardless of your genes. And don't blame your father, uncles, aunts going all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Yes your DNA controls much of the way you look but it doesn't control everything. That means whatever you've got you can look BETTER, and if you're overweight you can be SLIMMER.

YOU CAN BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE

and you can start now by getting on a diet program. Once you get on a program you can use the watchwords I post to help you stay with it. The last watchword/slogan was AWARENESS. Our next watchword/slogan is PORTION CONTROL

Sure lots of girls don't have the basic body type that every lets them be a petite super model and most of us guys don't have a body builder's build like the Governor of California. But we need to we can lose 10, 20 40 or more pounds that will make us better looking, more healthy and more confident.

I'll talk about how to beat the comfort food habit later. For now lets be AWARE and watch our portions.

I'll develop the portion control concept in the next post and you will see how you can harness the power of this concept to help you succeed. But now I want to respond to several requests.

Many have asked for a sample menu. They wanted something to give them an idea of what they have to do in order to get going towards their goal. So I searched the government sources and found a neat sample you can use and I'm posting it below. For fun I chose a Southern Style menu. It is for a 1600 calorie daily diet. You might prefer the 1200 calorie daily diet. They can both be found at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/southern.htm

You've gotten a start and that was the hard part. For those of you who are just joining us please read the old posts. They'll help you get started on your way to successful dieting. And you can season you diet with comments to us.

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.

BrownBagDiet.blogspot.com

Breakfast

Oatmeal, prepared with 1% milk, low fat 1/2 cup
Milk 1%, low fat 1/2 cup
English Muffin 1 medium
Cream Cheese, light, 18% fat T
Orange Juice 3/4 cup
Coffee 1 cup
Milk 1%, low fat 1 oz

Lunch
Baked Chicken, without skin 2 oz
Vegetable Oil 1 tsp
Salad:
Lettuce 1/2 cup
Tomato 1/2 cup
Cucumber 1/2 cup
Oil and Vinegar Dressing 2 tsp
White Rice, seasoned with margarine, diet 1/3 cup
Baking Powder Biscuit, prepared with vegetable oil 1 small
Margarine 1/2 tsp
Water 1 cup

Dinner
Lean Roast Beef 3 oz
Onion 1/4 cup
Beef Gravy, water-based 1 T
Turnip Greens, seasoned with 1/2 cup
margarine, diet 1/2 tsp
Sweet Potato, baked 1 small
Margarine, diet 1/2 tsp
Ground Cinnamon 1 tsp
Brown Sugar 1 tsp
Cornbread prepared with margarine, diet 1/2 medium slice
Honeydew Melon 1/4 medium
Iced Tea, sweetened with sugar 1 cup

Snack

Saltine Crackers, unsalted tops 4 crackers
Mozzarella Cheese, part-skim, low-sodium 1 oz

Calories: 1,653
Total Carb, % kcals:53
Total Fat, % kcals:28
*Sodium, mg:1,231
SFA, % kcals:8
Cholesterol, mg:172
Protein, % kcals:20

1,600: 100% RDA met for all nutrients except: Vit E 97%, Magnesium 98%, Iron 78%, Zinc 90%1,200: 100% RDA met for all nutrients except: Vit E 82%, Vit B1 & B2 95%, Vit B3 99%, Vit B6 88%, Magnesium 83%, Iron 56%, Zinc 70%* No salt added in recipe preparation or as seasoning. Consume at least 32 oz. water.

Your Mayor Wants You and everyone who is overweight in his City To Lose 1 Million Pounds. Did you find your Mayor and Your City?

Your Mayor Wants You and everyone who is overweight in his City To Lose 1 Million Pounds. Did you find your Mayor and Your City? Did you find your city and your Mayor in the links posted previously? If you didn't find your Mayor, call his or her office and tell them about the Mayor's Weight loss Challenge. Your city can get in the game like all the other great Cities are.

Here are the links that I posted earlier.

More than 2,600 people registered in Oklahoma City mayor's weight loss campaign. See links below.
New Haven
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Mayor/ReadMore.asp?ID=%7BBA85BF46-2BA7-4BA5-AF32-F1AC5299715A%7D

Greensboro, NC

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/NEWSREC0101/702020303/-1/NEWSREC0201

New Haven, CT

http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Mayor/ReadMore.asp?ID=%7BBA85BF46-2BA7-4BA5-AF32-F1AC5299715A%7D

Springfield, OR

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6155250/Mayor-advertises-weight-loss-program.html#abstract

Des Moines, IO

http://www.mayorswellnesscampaign.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=135&Itemid=121

Mobile, AL

http://wkrg.com/medical/article/mayor_wants_city_to_lose_1_million_pounds/8734/
Savannah, GA

http://www.besthealthnews.com/albany-savannah-mayors-to-challenge-weight-loss-walb-news-10

Scarsdale, NY

http://co.westchester.ny.us/health/FitKids/MayorsChallenge/Scarsdale.htm

Get your City with the program. You're on it so get your cousins, your neighbors, and everyone in town into the game. This is the game where everyone can be a winner

Join now. Be a brown bag dieter. BE A PROUD BROWN BAG DIETER.

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.

brownbagdiet.blogspot.com

Special to Truckers and others. Find the Mayor of your city with a diet program

Special to Truckers who wish to diet for better health, strength and looks
Also:
Find the Mayor of your City and see if he or she is sponsoring a weight loss program.

This may surprise most of you because truckers, especially long haul truckers, have a macho image of being fit, trim and athletic. Indeed, truckers are all of those things but as time goes on many get out of shape. Lots of factors enter into it amongst which are stress, long lonely hours behind the wheel, stops where food choices aren't the healthiest and being tired after a strenuous long day of driving and delivering heavy loads.

That's why I have been preparing a special Trucker's Edition of "The Brown Bag Diet - " Tips & Clues from the Pharmacist's Notebook". I will put that edition on a special blog for truckers only if I receive enough interest for me to work on another blog.

If you are interested or if a friend or family member is a trucker and would benefit from this material please have them contact me by email at Brownbagdiet@gmail.com and let me know that they would like to have a special trucker's edition for the blog.

Remember, there is no charge to sign in and learn the techniques of the Brown Bag Diet. If there are enough requests I'll be glad to oblige.

Other news: A search of the internet reveals that the Mayors of many cities have also joined us in challenging their constituents to join a weight loss program and get into better shape physically. Some of them began their challenges before Jan 1 this year and others just signed on. You might like to see if the mayor of your city is one of them. If not, contact them and let them know that they can recommend our blog as a free site where their constituents can get tips and clues to help then achieve weight loss.

Some of the links to challenge programs recommended by many mayors are below.

More than 2,600 people registered in Oklahoma City mayor's weight loss campaign. See links below.

http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Mayor/ReadMore.asp?ID=%7BBA85BF46-2BA7-4BA5-AF32-F1AC5299715A%7D

Greensboro, NC
http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/NEWSREC0101/702020303/-1/NEWSREC0201

New Haven, CT
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Mayor/ReadMore.asp?ID=%7BBA85BF46-2BA7-4BA5-AF32-F1AC5299715A%7D

Springfield, OR
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6155250/Mayor-advertises-weight-loss-program.html#abstract

Des Moines, IO
http://www.mayorswellnesscampaign.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=135&Itemid=121

Mobile, AL
http://wkrg.com/medical/article/mayor_wants_city_to_lose_1_million_pounds/8734/

Savannah, GA
http://www.besthealthnews.com/albany-savannah-mayors-to-challenge-weight-loss-walb-news-10

Scarsdale, NY
http://co.westchester.ny.us/health/FitKids/MayorsChallenge/Scarsdale.htm

New information from the Weight Control Information Network

Have you started the Brown Bag Diet method without choosing a diet plan yet? If so I recommend you read the following information from the NIH (Weight Control Information Network -WIN).

Choosing a weight-loss program may be a difficult task. You may not know what to look for in a weight-loss program or what questions to ask. This fact sheet can help you talk to your health care professional about weight loss and get the best information before choosing a program.

Talk With Your Health Care Professional

If your health care provider tells you that you should lose weight and you want to find a weight-loss program to help you, look for one that is based on regular physical activity and an eating plan that is balanced, healthy, and easy to follow.

You may want to talk with your doctor or other health care professional about controlling your weight before you decide on a weight-loss program. Even if you feel uncomfortable talking about your weight with your doctor, remember that he or she is there to help you improve your health.

Here are some tips:

Tell your provider that you would like to talk about your weight. Share your concerns about any medical conditions you have or medicines you are taking.
Write down your questions in advance.
Bring pen and paper to take notes.
Bring a friend or family member along for support if this will make you feel more comfortable.

Make sure you understand what your health care provider is saying. Ask questions if there is something you do not understand.
Ask for other sources of information like brochures or websites.
If you want more support, ask for a referral to a registered dietitian, a support group, or a commercial weight-loss program.
Call your provider after your visit if you have more questions or need help.

Ask Questions
Find out as much as you can about your health needs before joining a weight-loss program. Here are some questions you might want to ask your health care provider:
About Your Weight

1. Do I need to lose weight? Or should I just avoid gaining more?
2. Is my weight affecting my health?
3. Could my excess weight be caused by a medical condition such as hypothyroidism or by a medicine I am taking? (Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone, a condition that can slow your metabolism—how your body creates and uses energy.)

About Weight Loss
1. What should my weight-loss goal be?
2. How will losing weight help me? About Nutrition and Physical Activity
3. How should I change my eating habits?
4. What kinds of physical activity can I do?
5. How much physical activity do I need? About Treatment
6. Should I take weight-loss medicine?
7. What about weight-loss surgery?
8. Could a weight-loss program help me?

A Responsible and Safe Weight-loss Program

Weight-loss programs should encourage healthy behaviors that help you lose weight and that you can stick with every day. Safe and effective weight-loss programs should include:
Healthy eating plans that reduce calories but do not forbid specific foods or food groups.

Tips to increase moderate-intensity physical activity.
Tips on healthy behavior changes that also keep your cultural needs in mind.
Slow and steady weight loss. Depending on your starting weight, experts recommend losing weight at a rate of 1/2 to 2 lbs per week. Weight loss may be faster at the start of a program.

Medical care if you are planning to lose weight by following a special formula diet, such as a very low-calorie diet.
A plan to keep the weight off after you have lost it.

Get Familiar With the Program
Gather as much information as you can before deciding to join a program.
Professionals working for weight-loss programs should be able to answer the questions listed below.

1. What does the weight-loss program consist of?
2. Does the program offer one-on-one counseling or group classes?
3. Do you have to follow a specific meal plan or keep food records?
4. Do you have to purchase special food, drugs, or supplements?
5. Does the program help you be more physically active, follow a specific physical activity plan, or provide exercise instruction?
6. Does the program teach you to make positive and healthy behavior changes?
7. Is the program sensitive to your lifestyle and cultural needs? What are the staff qualifications?
8. Who supervises the program?
9. What type of weight management training, experience, education, and certifications do the staff have? Does the product or program carry any risks?
10.Could the program hurt you?
11.Could the recommended drugs or supplements harm your health?
12.Do participants talk with a doctor?
13.Does a doctor run the program?
14.Will the program’s doctors work with your personal doctor if you have a medical condition such as high blood presure or are taking prescribed drugs?
15.How much does the program cost?
16.What is the total cost of the program?
17.Are there other costs, such as weekly attendance fees, food and supplement purchases, etc.?
18.Are there fees for a follow-up program after you lose weight?
19.Are there other fees for medical tests? What results do participants typically have?
20.How much weight does an average participant lose and how long does he or she keep the weight off?
21.Does the program offer publications or materials that describe what results participants typically have?

If you are interested in finding a weight-loss program near you, ask your health care provider for a referral or contact your local hospital.For additional, general information, contact:
Weight-control Information Network (WIN)1 WIN WayBethesda, MD 20892-3665Phone: (202) 828-1025Toll-free number: 1-877-946-4627FAX: (202) 828-1028Email: WIN@info.niddk.nih.gov

Additional Resources
Federal Trade CommissionConsumer Response Center600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20580Phone: (202) FTC-HELP (382-4357)Toll-free number: 1-877-382-4357Internet: www.ftc.gov/index.html

For the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publication Weight Loss: Finding a Weight Loss Program that Works for You, go to http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/health/wgtloss.pdf.

For the FTC publication Weighing the Evidence in Diet Ads, go to www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/health/evidence.htm.

International Food Information Council Foundation1100 Connecticut Avenue, NWSuite 430Washington, DC 20036Phone: (202) 296-6540Internet: http://www.ific.org/

Weight-control Information Network
1 WIN WAYBethesda, MD 20892-3665Phone: (202) 828-1025Toll-free number: 1-877-946-4627FAX: (202) 828-1028Email: WIN@info.niddk.nih.govInternet: http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/

The Weight-control Information Network (WIN) is a national information service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the Federal Government’s lead agency responsible for biomedical research on nutrition and obesity. Authorized by Congress (Public Law 103-43), WIN provides the general public, health professionals, the media, and Congress with up-to-date, science-based health information on weight control, obesity, physical activity, and related nutritional issues. Publications produced by WIN are reviewed by both NIDDK scientists and outside experts. This fact sheet was also reviewed by Susan Z. Yanovski, M.D., Director, Obesity and Eating Disorders Program and Co-Director, Office of Obesity Research, NIDDK.
This publication is not copyrighted. WIN encourages users of this fact sheet to duplicate and distribute as many copies as desired.

NIH Publication No. 03-3700May 2003Revised February 2006

Contact Us
Toll free: 1-877-946-4627 Fax: (202) 828-1028 E-mail: win@info.niddk.nih.govWeight-control Information Network, 1 WIN Way, Bethesda, MD 20892-3665nformation from

Next post will have special information for truckers on fitness and fit weight. Tell your trucker friends to watch for it.
Erwin Posner, R.Ph.
brownbagdiet.blogspot.com