What is PASSWORD THERAPY?

Password therapy is when passwords are goals you're working towards, meaning you need to use the goal every time your computer locks or everytime it's necessary to change your password. 

Using your goals as passwords keeps them current and fresh in your consciousness. It's a constant reminder of what you want.

Passwords like Save20aweek, Walkeveryday, Nosugartoday, Drink8glassesofwater can do wonders towards reaching your goals.

Why are diets so hard to stick to?

A public health researcher at the University of Buffalo recently looked into the question of why follow through on diets is so difficult.

He found that maintaining a diet is a "thinking" event requiring planning, scheming, will power, etc. which are all cognitive skills.

But follow-through on a diet requires good "feelings" in  order to be successful. If one doesn't enjoy the foods in a diet, the diet will fail. A successful diet needs to have a very strong emotional component. If the "thinking" and the "feeling" of a diet are not congruent, the health change will fail.

So the key issue, in designing a new diet, is much more than what's healthiest to eat....but also what are the most enjoyable as well as the healthiest foods to eat. 

Does chewing gum help promote weight loss?

Studies have shown that chewing gum can help promote weight loss.

In a University of Rhode Island research study, gum chewers ate 68 fewer calories at lunch, plus burned 5% more calories than non-gum chewers.

A Louisiana State University (Dr Paula J Geiselman) study, found  that chewing gum helped control appetites and decreased daily intake of food by 40 calories.

Cutting 100 calories a day can result in loosing up to 10 pounds a year.

Reaching for a piece of gum instead of high caloried junk food, can help you loose up to two pounds a year.

What are 10 effects of sleep deprivation?

This is based on a research subject who stayed awake for 11 days without the use of coffee or any medication.  Sleep deprivation is often used as a torture technique. Here's why.

1) Tired brains have to work harder to pump energy into the prefrontal cortex.

2) Simple tasks like dialing a phone number become impossible because of short term memory loss.

3) Long term memory becomes impaired because the brains integrates/stores  memory as experience while sleeping.

4) A tired brain can't focus or keep attention on any one thing; a tired brain is a scattered brain.

5) A tired brain can't plan or make decisions.

6) Automatic systems (habits) become repetitive which is fine if your habits are all good ones, not so good if you are trying to quit smoking or eating junk food.

7) A sleep deprived person takes more risks because a tired brain does not remember consequences or make easy decisions (see # 5)

8) When mice were studied with prolonged sleep deprivation, it showed that they had lost up to 25% of their brain cells.

9) Sleep deprivation can cuase aggression, paranoia, hallucination, mania.

10) Driving while sleep deprived is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated; this is why professional drivers (bus drivers, etc) are banned from working if they have untreated sleep apnea).

How long does it take to form a new habit?

A habit is a new behaviour which becomes automatic or second nature (like brushing teeth before bedtime) over time.

Based on research done by Dr Phillipa Lally on 96 people, a new behaviour takes about 7 weeks to become habit.

The smaller the action chosen, the more likely it is to succeed. The new behaviour must be performed in the same way, same time, same place (ie same context) so that over time the body becomes cued to perform the habit.

Missing a day here and there does not reduce the chance of forming the new habit, and some habits may take longer than 7 weeks. In general, the larger the new habit, the longer it takes.

Generally doctors do not help their patients make change; they just tell their patient to loose weight, or get more sleep, or quit smoking. When faced with any major lifestyle change,  many people give up because a lifestyle change requires the assimilation of many new smaller habits into their new, healthier lifestyle.

If you are needing to develop healthier habits contact Birgit Schinke, health coach & educator, clinical counselor for help with developing your new lifestyle. 

How do successful dieters make weight release permanent?

Recently a new study was presented at the Obesity Society  ( a subset of the National Weight Control Registry ). 3000 people who successfully  managed their weight were asked to answer yearly questionnaires over a 5 year period. These 9 techniques seemed to stand out:

1) Tracked their food intake.
2) Counted calorie or fat grams or used commercial weight-loss programs to track food intake.
3) Ate about 1800 calories a day, and less than 3000 calories a day.
4) Ate breakfast regularly.
5) Ate similar foods regularly and didn't splurge much on holidays or special occasions.
6) Walked about an hour a day or burned the equivalent calories on another activity.
7) Watched fewer than 10 hours of TV a week.
8) Weighed themselves at least once a week.
9) Limited the amount they ate out ( average of only 3 times a week).     

click here for description of Your Wellness Buddy  coaching package designed to help with sustaining change

Why is change so difficult?

This has to do with basic brain physiology. When learning something new we use our "working memory" which requires much energy to function and fatigues easily as it has limited cognitive resources.  Because the "working memory" can easily get overwhelmed, it pushes repetitive  activity into the basal ganglia (or automatic pilot parts of the brain). Once this happens we have a new habit, we can do the new activity without thinking. This frees up cognitive resources for the "working memory" part of the brain.

Forging new brain circuits, as in learning something new, is exhausting. It's like walking through a huge snow bank, rather than
taking the already shovelled trail. We have to go slower, pay more attention, and put in much more effort. Consequently, some people give up learning new things.