American Heart Association No-Fad Diet

American Heart Association No-Fad Diet

Introduction

Welcome to a No-Fad Way of Life

Our mission at the American Heart Association is to help you learn and live. We have designed this book to help you learn to make wise decisions about your weight and live well. If you’re looking for a long-term, livable way to lose weight and keep it off, we’re here to help.

You may have tried several times before to lose weight, but without much long-term success. There’s no point in feeling bad about yourself, because the truth is, losing weight is not easy. No magic formula will trim away extra pounds and keep them off. Gimmicks and get-thin-quick schemes don’t work. That’s why, over the long haul, the fads—the grapefruit diet, the very low fat diet, the low-carb diet—are not the answer.

We aren’t offering any magic, either—quite the opposite. Instead, we offer you the right tools you need to personalize a weight-loss plan to fit your lifestyle. You can design your own approach using three key concepts:

• Think smart
• Eat well
• Move more

We think of these concepts as interlocking circles: the Circles of Success (see page xii). Each component is an essential part of the plan that will lead to no-fad and lifelong weight control.

No matter what else may change as different fads come into vogue, the bottom line is still the same:

To keep your weight from rising, you must balance the food calories coming into your body with the calories your body uses up. We call this Energy Balance, or Calories In/Calories Out.

Like our colleagues at many other major health organizations, we want to help you achieve a healthful lifestyle based on a positive attitude about food, activity, and body image. Your efforts to lose weight should not endanger your long-term health, no matter how enticing the promises of a quick and easy fix may be. In these times of conflicting and confusing messages about diet, exercise, and health, you can turn to this book with confidence. Our recommendations reflect the opinion of many experts—physicians, nutritionists, and specialists in physical activity and behavior modification—not a celebrity or just one physician. Our panel of scientists has reviewed the research and come to a consensus for you. Our message is backed by the science community of the American Heart Association.

We know it isn’t easy to lose weight, but we offer you a simple approach that can bring you success—now and for your future. Fads come and go, just like the weight loss they promise. Instead, we will help you create your own workable plan to reach a healthful weight and maintain it. It’s time to try our no-fad approach to a lifetime of good health!

The Three Circles of Success

If you’re reading this book, most likely your immediate goal is to be thinner. That idea is a good place to start, but the question is how to really achieve lasting success. To make a real difference, direct your attention inward, to the specific things you can control. You need to embrace all of who you are—heart, mind, body, and soul—not focus just on the extra pounds you see when you look in the mirror.

To lose weight effectively, you need realistic goals and a personal action plan. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we offer you a menu of choices. Your planning should focus on you, your commitment to yourself, and the three essential circles in our plan—thinking, eating, and moving. What kind of attitude do you bring to the process of losing weight? How much weight do you want to lose and at what rate? How do you want to tailor your activity plan? You make these choices to fit your environment, individual needs, and comfort level. Keep in mind that your plan needs to work for you. You need a plan that will inspire the same commitment you make to other important areas in your life. Are you ready to commit to a healthier you and develop that plan?

If your answer is yes, consider the three key Circles of Success. Each circle plays an important part in your personal action plan and they will overlap as you work toward your goals. You will need to include all three circles to achieve successful weight control for life. To address each circle, you have several options to choose from. Because your choices reflect your individual needs, the actions you take will become part of your new life. It may not happen overnight, but if you follow through, it will happen!


Circle 1: Think Smart!

Making good choices is the cornerstone of success. If negative thinking is affecting your choices, we want to help you learn to change the way you think. The power of thought works both ways. Just as you can talk yourself into having that extra piece of pie, you can also talk yourself into a new attitude and ultimately new behavior that will lead to successful weight loss. Chapter 1, “Think Smart: Find a New Start,” will give you different strategies to rework your current mind-set so you can recognize and change the thought patterns that lead you away from your goals.

When you start to think of yourself as a thinner, healthier person, you will help yourself become one. You will think about and make the choices that support that image. For instance, instead of ordering a soft drink, you’ll order something else you like—perhaps unsweetened iced tea or sparkling water—not because you are depriving yourself but because you are making smart substitutions and see yourself as a person who chooses wisely.


Circle 2: Eat Well!

You already know that if you take in fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight. The amount of food you eat each day is the Calories In side of Energy Balance. But as you reduce calories, you also need to pay attention to the essentials of good nutrition. Remember: Quality first, then quantity. Chapter 2, “Eat Well: A Personal Approach to a Healthful Weight,” gives you tools to assess your current eating habits and how they contribute to your current weight. The first step in your action plan is to understand how all the facets of your eating patterns work together to cause you to eat the way you do. We offer three different strategies for eating well to lose weight. We will help you decide which strategy will work best for you.


Circle 3: Move More!

You may think that physical activity is just too much trouble to fit into your hectic life. It’s true that calorie reduction is the key to weight loss, but to keep off the pounds for good, you have to get moving and keep moving. Physical activity is the Calories Out side of Energy Balance and is an essential part of maintaining weight loss and good health.

In Chapter 3, “Move More: More Fit and Less Fat,” we outline three practical ways to live a more active life and maintain your weight loss for the long term. We will help you choose which strategy will help you live a more active lifestyle, even if you rarely walk farther than your office parking garage. As you work toward your weight-loss goal, we suggest you start by including at least 10 minutes of activity, such as walking, in your daily routine. Chapter 3 explains how to