Many people assume that if a past experience produced a certain result, there is nothing they can do to change that experience in order to produce a different result. "I've tried every diet there is. I know what I should do; I just can't do it."

Please understand that you can make the choice not to repeat old patterns of eating, non-exercise, and negative thinking. You have the ability to choose the emotions you have. If you don't like feeling guilty, frustrated, or doubtful, you can choose not to. You, and no one else, must decide what is comfortable for you. In order to become successful at making healthy choices, you must avoid negative self-talk and start practicing positive thinking.

Positive or negative self-talk plays a big part in your decisions. Be on the "look-out for negative self-talk and notice how it influences your choices; notice how it can negatively affect your efforts to change. For example, perhaps you've just returned from a week's vacation where you took a break from exercise and low-fat eating. You tell yourself, "I feel so fat. I'm back where I started." You feel guilty and frustrated. "I don't have enough will-power to start all over again. Maybe I'm just meant to be overweight." Feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, you give up.

First, reflect on the feelings you had before you decided to give up. You basically told yourself that the healthy habits you learned before your vacation were all for nothing and that you have to start over. Ask yourself if these feelings are reasonable. Are you really back to ground zero? Of course not. You accepted change and developed a new way of living; these skills are yours forever. The vacation might even have done you some good: everyone needs a break sometimes. Otherwise, you might have felt deprived and not really enjoyed yourself. It's time now to tell yourself: "It felt good eating whatever I wanted and taking a break from exercising; I had a great time. But now I'm going to focus back on the low-fat, active lifestyle I was enjoying before vacation. There is no reason to beat myself up; I'll just take it one day at a time." Now you can rethink your previous decision and take action that will move you forward towards more positive change.

As you begin to understand your reasons for negative self-talk, you'll find yourself recognizing it more and more quickly after it occurs. Eventually, as you practice, you'll be able to recognize and stop negative self-talk before it interferes with your decisions.

It is very important to practice positive thinking and to remind yourself that you're a worthwhile person whatever you do. Try to consistently acknowledge that you are making positive changes to improve your health. You should be proud of yourself. Visualize yourself as capable, happy, and confident. These positive feelings will help the process of change. Remember, there are bound to be times when you're feeling frustrated or depressed. Positive thinkers know that these feelings are valid, and they don't try to ignore them. Positive thinkers acknowledge and try to understand them, but they don't blame themselves for the conditions that lead to these feelings. Good luck, stay positive, and enjoy all the wonderful benefits of a healthy lifestyle!

Copyright permission by Global Health & Fitness

You bet there is! For creatures that have to move about the earth for food and sustenance, fat is the greatest thing ever invented. You see, all living things, even plants, have to store a certain amount of food for the times when they can't find or make food. So they store calories either as carbohydrate or as fat. But carbohydrate is a very bulky, heavy form of calories, too cumbersome for mobile creatures. Plants, which don't need to move, store only carbohydrate, while animals store most of their calories in the form of fat.

Fat is a rich source of energy; most people know that fat contains about twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrate. But there is another, more important reason for animals to store energy in the form of fat. When carbohydrate is stored in cells in the body, it is stored as glycogen. Glycogen can occupy only about 15 percent of the space inside a cell. The rest of the space must be left for other functions, most of which require a watery medium.

Fat cells, on the other hand, can contain 85 percent fat, leaving only 15 percent of the space for the cell's water-based life functions. This means that not only is fat twice as caloric as carbohydrate, but that much more of it can be packed into a small space.

The result is that body fat, being 85 percent pure fat, and highly caloric, contains about 3500 calories per pound. Contrast this with the liver, which stores carbohydrate as glycogen at only 250 calories per pound.

Since fat is such a neat bundle of calories, higher animals have evolved many ways of making it. (So if you are fat, you may derive some consolation by telling your friends that you are unusually high on the evolutionary scale!) The body can make fat out of protein; the body can make fat out of carbohydrate; and the body can make fat out of fats in the diet -- plant seeds or dairy products or meats. In other words, almost everything you eat, if it can be digested at all, can be converted to fat. That's where the problem comes from. And fat people are particularly efficient at converting food to fat.

You must realize that the ability to store food in any form is a great advantage to a living creature. It is like having money in the bank, because it increases your options in life. You should consider stored fat as a safety mechanism.

It has been postulated that one of the reasons fatness is a problem today is that we have inherited the ability to deposit fat very easily. The theory is that our caveman ancestors often had to go days between meals. Those who survived were probably the ones whose bodies were able to adapt to the harsh conditions. And one way of adapting was to carry a little extra fat that the body could live on. Naturally, these primitive people didn’t look fat. They were much too active. But they passed on the ability to store extra fat. The body you have today is still watching out for that possible famine and carefully tucking away a few calories out of every meal as fat.

The bottom line here is that, yes, fat is important. Our bodies learned to store fat a LONG time ago –- and for a darn good reason. We can’t expect to change that in a few years’ time. The goal is to be smart about the amount of fat that you consume so that you don’t store more fat than is healthy. And to exercise so that you body has a way to ship the fat out.

Adapted from The New Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey. Copyright 1977, 1978, 1991 by Covert Bailey, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Makes:
6 servings

Ingredients:

• 5 new potatoes, cut into small chunks
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 1 tablespoon tarragon, chopped
• 6 cups broccoli, chopped
• 1 cup cooked chick-peas
• 1/2 cup red onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup non/low fat yogurt
• 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoon spicy mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic, minced

Directions:

• Steam the potatoes until they are tender. Mix with white wine and tarragon.
• Steam the broccoli until tender. Stir with chick-peas, onions, yogurt, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, mustard, and garlic.
• Combine the potatoes and vegetable mixture. Stir gently to mix thoroughly.

Nutritional Information:

• Serving size: 1 cup  Weight Watcher Points  3
• Calories: 165
• Fat: 1.5 g
• Cholesterol: 0.5 mg
• Protein: 3 g
• Fiber: 2 g
• Sodium: 670 mg