Here's a great article from Life Fitness, which makes my fave exercise machines at the gym. (The back extension is my current fave -- my lower back has never felt so strong since I've been using it three times a week.)

This post is not sponsored in any way. I just totally agree with this, and since I've been "upgrading" my calories, weight loss has been somewhat easier. As I said some years back, when referring to another weight-loss program, "30 points of nacho cheese rice cakes is not the same as 30 points of healthy, filling, nutritious foods."

I love getting press releases from Steve Siebold's publicist. If you're not familar with Siebold, he wrote a book a few years ago called Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking Between Fat People and Fit People.

 

There's no other way to say it: He's a weight-loss hard ass.

In his world, there is no slippage, corner cutting, no "just this once." And that's hard and it sucks.

That's why I love the press releases. They're like a bucket of cold water, a smack upside the head.

Today, I'm offering his tips for avoiding holiday weight gain. You may not agree with his all-or-nothing methodology, but he offers a no-nonsense approach to just getting it done.

This is from Steve:

• 99% compliance on a diet is failure, even at the holidays! Sounds harsh, but if you’re going to get fit, it’s all or nothing. If you are in a committed relationship you wouldn’t cheat on your significant other just one time, so why would you cheat on something as important as your diet?
• Before you put anything in your mouth, always ask yourself, “How is this food going to impact my health?”
• If you’re on a diet during the holidays, don’t look at dieting as drudgery, but see it as a strategy for a lifetime to keep you healthy, looking good and feeling great.
• Expect challenges such as cravings, and when this happens, have a plan in place to push forward and stay compliant.
• Find happiness in the holidays not from food, but in time spent with friends and family creating a lifetime of memories and new traditions.
• Realize that ultimately being fit and healthy is completely your responsibility, and blaming the holidays for your weight gain is just as bad as blaming other outside factors the rest of the year such as restaurants, the food manufacturers and portion sizes.

Here's a guest post from my friend Cathy Liden Traugot, wife and mom of two.

I used to be one of those girls who could eat Ben and Jerry’s for breakfast and not gain a pound. Age caught up. Officially north of 25 on the BMI index, unable to fit into any shorts this spring and nursing an injury that kept me from the gym, I needed to go on a diet.

I nixed food journaling --too much effort. I won’t be weighed in public. Then a friend mentioned her two weeks on that diet named after a famous beach.

Since there is a dollop of science behind low-carb diets, I ate a Last Supper at an Italian restaurant and then devoted myself to chicken Caesar salads (minus the croutons), low-fat string cheese and lots of eggs and turkey bacon. Two weeks later I’ve lost 6.5 pounds and learned to love green vegetables again. My carb cravings calmed down by Day 7.

But there were aspects of the diet that made me appreciate why nothing really substitutes for eating healthy, non-processed foods. Without bread and crackers in my diet, the salt in turkey bacon and lean turkey cold cuts assaulted my tongue. But as I needed these “convenience” foods to get through the diet, I ate them and tried not to think about those studies linking processed meats to cancer.

Pre-diet I was already a Splendaholic – but mostly to sweeten coffee. Now Splenda was in my coffee, my caffeine-free diet soda, my fake sugar fudgsicles, and faux tiramisu.

Have I really solved any diet problems? Or am I introducing other ones? Guess I’ll find out.