Be a winner at Your Super Bowl Party
This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. No matter which team you are rooting for, I’d like you to consider this scenario….
Your team is driving for the end zone with 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The score is tied. They are on the 10 yard line and the camera zooms in on the quarterback’s face. Suddenly, he smiles and turns to his defensive linemen and says, “You know, we’ve done a pretty amazing job this game to get to this point. We overcame a lot of challenges and look at us now. I think we are close enough to our goal, so let’s just relax, leave the ball here, and go celebrate and have some fun.”
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Yet I can’t tell you how often I see a client achieve amazing results. Losing 25, 50, 75 pounds or more, and then stop just 10 or 15 pounds from a healthy weight. Once they have stopped that forward progress and given up short of their goal, it usually means that they are headed back in the other direction.
In life, not just the Super Bowl, it’s about always making forward progress toward our goals. When we stop short of our goals, it’s hard to get back on track!
As you continue with your program, there will be events and celebrations that pop up. If you are prepared for these special functions, you will find it much easier to stick to your program. Here are some tips for you to follow.
1. Call the hostess to find out what foods she will be having and volunteer to bring an appetizer or meal side dish.
2. Remember that alcohol is loaded with calories. Choose club soda or diet pop. Alcohol will also let down your defenses and you will be more apt to fall for temptations.
3. Don’t change your exercise routine the day of the party.
4. Make the occasion a social event and focus on your friends and fun.
5. When the party is at your house, use low calorie and fat free salad dressings for dips. Have plenty of healthy snacks for you.
6. Make a decision about what you are going to eat before you go.
7. Make a decision about what you will say to those who try to push fattening food on you.
8. Have a shake before you go to curb your appetite.
9. Get up during half time and walk outside (weather permitting) or do some stretching.
10. Stand away from the food table and engage in conversation. Use a small plate to put your healthy food items on, and then walk away.
11. Bring a shake or bar with you in case there are not good food choices at the party, especially if you will be there for 3 hours.
12. Help the hostess! Help serve and clean up. Keep busy.
GO RAVENS!
By Joan Mueller and Lori Andersen
Category: Blog, Lori's Weekly Notes
About the Author (Author Profile)
Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen (“Dr. A”) is a board-certified doctor, and the co-founder of Take Shape for Life (TSFL). He serves as the Medical Director of Medifast, and and is the best-selling author of “Dr. A’s Habits of Health”, and “Living a Longer Healthier Life.”
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Thanks, I started the plan yesterday (forgetting that Super bowl is this Sunday). Thanks for the tips !!!!
Dr. A – Thanks so much for all you do.
I know that you recommend a daily dose of aspirin. Are you aware of the below listed studies? After reading these, do you really still think that it is a good idea?
Here’s another excellent reason to avoid aspirin therapy
Email
Little pill, big problems
I don’t like to throw statistics around. They tend to be pretty easy to dismiss — and to fake.
But this one stopped me in my tracks. One half of all Americans over the age of 65 take a daily aspirin to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke. That is 50%! And, about one-in-three middle aged Americans do the same.
That’s appalling. It means that the brainwashing has worked and millions of people are putting their health at risk every day in return for scant protection from cardiac events.
If you know anyone that thinks daily aspirin therapy is harmless (especially your doctor!), you need to make sure they see this.
But here’s the kicker: Also tell them they should NOT abruptly stop taking their aspirin. That might actually make matters worse.
Quite convincingly…
I recently told you about research results that appeared to be excellent news for diabetics. In fact, those results were exactly the opposite of excellent.
In that study, diabetic subjects with a history of heart attack or stroke were 23 percent less likely to have a second heart attack if they took 325 mg of aspirin daily.
Now, keep that dose in mind — 325 mg — while we look at a new study from St George’s University of London.
The UK researchers examined nine studies that compared regular aspirin use to placebo in more than 100,000 subjects who had never had a heart attack or a stroke.
The first part of the results will warm the hearts of medical mainstreamers: Those who regularly used aspirin reduced their risk of any type of cardio event by 10 percent, and reduced their risk of non-fatal heart attack by 20 percent.
But the additional results will give the hearts of those mainstreamers a sudden chill: Regular aspirin use boosted the risk of serious gastrointestinal bleeding 30 percent.
The lead researcher told the New York Times, “We have been able to show quite convincingly that in people without a previous heart attack or stroke, regular use of aspirin may be more harmful than it is beneficial.”
Now let’s go back to that diabetic study where subjects took 325 mg per day, and I think we can safely say that the much higher dose, consumed daily over a long period, is almost certain disaster.
The Times notes that the findings will likely add to the confusion about who should take a regular aspirin and who should not.
Well…no. The findings help SETTLE the confusion and move us closer to banishing the idea of aspirin as cardio therapy.
If there’s any confusion, it’s this: How do you safely pull back from aspirin therapy?
A few years ago I told you about a study that reviewed hundreds of cases of coronary episodes. Researchers found that severe angina and fatal heart attacks appear to be prompted in some patients by the sudden halt of regular aspirin intake.
Patients with a history of heart disease were at particularly high risk, and those are the very patients who are most likely to begin aspirin therapy in the first place.
If you’re taking daily low-dose aspirin, talk to your doctor about these studies before you wean yourself off this “wonder drug.”
Sources:
“Effect of Aspirin on Vascular and Nonvascular Outcomes” Archives of Internal Medicine, Published online ahead of print, 1/9/12, archinte.ama-assn.org
“Daily Aspirin Is Not for Everyone, Study Suggests” Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times, 1/16/12, well.blogs.nytimes.com
“Higher daily dose of aspirin could play key role in preventing heart attacks for those with diabetes” University of Alberta press release, 7/5/11, eurekalert.org
Thanks Judy for your comments.
We are currently doing a literature review
and consultation with Hopkins to see if the referred literature warrants a change in recommendation.
Stay tuned!
IN Health, Dr.A
Thank you Dr. A! I am going to share this very helpful article with my clients with the exception of who you are rooting for
I’m a diehard 49er fan so will be rooting against you only on Sunday afternoon. The rest of the time I’m definitely always with you.
Go Niners!
Thanks Stephanie! -Dr. A.
Hello Dr. A
Agree with all your tips except: Go Niners
docmatin
San Diego, CA
Great ideas, thanks! Just wondering though, why is the defense is on the field with the quarterback during an offensive drive?
Great analogy!