THE E-BOOK ON CONTROLLING WEIGHT

Table of Contents

Remembering on Cue  

Weight Control Jingle

Exercise Jingle 

Fiber Jingle

Combine All Three Jingles 

Stop Craving Jingles

Validity of Healthy Jingles 

Roughage -- Fiber Studies

Eating-Disorders 

References

JINGLES FOR KIDS:

 CONTROLLING WEIGHT 

 CHARACTERISTICS OF JINGLES

          Jingles for capture the meaning and effect of various health guidelines, rules or processes--  and bring them into mind when needed! The jingles presented here serve the user as the 1-2-3 Jingle served the tot to count and the child to learn. Jingles add challenge and fun to weight control. This chapter combines calories, exercise, and fiber, three things that work together to determine who is the loser or the winner. 

          The idea that recalling stories regarding earlier good or bad memories can change what we eat or do has scientific support.  

    This experimental result was reported in an article by Rebecca Sloot.[i] The article reported the results of experiments by Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues.

    The approach taken was to connect statements such as “Strawberry ice cream made me sick” with some likes and dislikes in early childhood, whether the like or dislike was true or not.

    Once the idea was implanted in memory, whenever strawberry ice cream was encountered, the subject rejected eating it. When Loftus published her findings she got calls from people begging her to make them remember hating chocolate ice cream.  

    Loftus concluded that it is not that easy. We agree with this conclusion. As we have demonstrated in this series of E-books featuring Dr. Jingles, likes, dislikes, beliefs, and non-beliefs are not easily manipulated.

          We demonstrate the jingle’s utility by crafting a diet jingle for weight control based on research results at Harvard Medical Schools.[ii] This jingle is first broken down into stanzas to explain the rationale for their inclusion in the good practice and then presented in its entirety for a review exercise. 

          The main purpose of the jingle is to internalize the message through rhyming. One needs to repeat and thus become familiar with the jingle and understand what each key line means in order to fully internalize.

         Failing that, have the jingle readily available in copy form to refresh the memory as soon as the urge to avoid the rules, to eat the wrong food, or to violate any advice or stricture contained in the jingle is encountered. If this is done over time, the jingle will soon become cognitively internalized as a habit.
 

          We will now expend some time and space to explain the rationale for the weight control jingle. When each jingle is read or repeated it should bring forth from memory into consciousness some if not most of the explanatory information outlined in the narrative directly below the jingle.

    This information could easily be put into another jingle for each explanation, but we have not done so for simplicity sake. The entire jingle will be reconstituted at the end for use as a review exercise.

The First Jingle on Weight Control

          The first of the weight control jingles establishes limits on the caloric intake of the human body as summarized in the jingle and expounded upon in the narrative explanations.  The jingle is intended for the child and the narrative explanation is intended for the parent or teacher although both may partake.

                    The Self Control Jingle

                    According to Harvard Medical School,

                    The need for self-control is “No. 1 Rule.”

                    Hold to 1,800 calories most every day,

                    To slim the body–Keep ugly fat away.

     Narrative explanation for first jingle:

•    The reason for this rule is that control of weight is between 80 and 90 percent dieting and 10 to 20 percent exercise. Therefore the emphasis on weight control must rest on dieting.
  

•    The foods to be denied include foods that contain too much fat, too much sugar, and foods that are cooked in, made with or served with the wrong kind of oils.
  

                    Exercise Jingle  on Weight Control

  According to Harvard Medical School

The need for exercise is “No. 2 Rule.”     

Do thirty plus minutes most every day,

To shape the body–Keep death away.   
     

Narrative explanation for:

Second Jingle on Weight Control

    Recommendations vary on the time for daily exercises. Sixty minutes applies to younger people whereas thirty minutes applies to older people.

• The cutoff is generally thought of as age seventy, but it depends upon the individual’s own capabilities. The meaning and effect of this is that research has shown that a fairly rapid pace while walking, and exercise by use of weight machines or other aerobics, can effectively control weight.

• Usually one half hour is to be devoted to each of these exercises for a total of one hour each day. One hour of exercise three to five times per week is needed to keep a person healthy by losing weight or preventing weight gain.

• Calories used from extra exercising may be subtracted from calories ingested through eating but to lose weight the result needs to be below the 1,800 to 2,000 calories advocated by medical authorities.

            The purpose of these exercises is to expend some of the calories accumulated by eating, to build muscle, and strengthen bones by use of the weight machines, to increase the flow of blood throughout the extremities including the brain, and to improve breathing.

            Walking, in addition, by use of the treadmill or similar walking type devices, hiking or jogging two miles per day plus weight training is preferred by those who successfully control weight. Biking or swimming will achieve the same effect. According to most experts, a good exercise program should incorporate stretching/flexibility, strengthening, and endurance.

        The third jingle of the weight control jingle establishes the requirements for fiber with additional discussion below the jingle.

                    The Fiber Jingle on Weight Control

                    According to Harvard Medical School,

                    The need for fiber is No. 3 Rule.

                    Thirty-five to forty grams each day,

                    Makes hard lumps go and stay away.

•  Given poetic license, this advice stems from a recommendation in Harvard Men’s Health Watch, based upon the latest research, as well as upon a time-honored hypothesis.

• Whether bran or other roughage, fiber reduces calorie intake by 18 percent in overweight persons and this leads to subsequent weight loss.

• Obesity is rare in populations that consume a high-fiber diet, and prevalent in populations that consume a low-fiber diet. Fiber aids digestion, helps lower cholesterol, eliminates harmful toxins, and helps control weight by suppressing appetite.By controlling weight and by other means a high-fiber diet staves off heart disease and cancer.

          One problem faced by many while attempting to control weight is excessive focus on just one aspect such as diet, exercise, or bran as individual cure-alls, rather than on all three employed at the same time for the same purpose.

    Use of just one weight control activity will usually become discouraging and the effort put forth toward that end will falter. But one rule that seems to commonly apply is that you will most certainly watch what you eat if you exercise daily.

    The message is to control calories, exercise, and consume fiber. The fourth jingle of the weight control jingle combines the first three into a Golden Rule:

  Combine All Three Jingles 

       According to Harvard Medical School,

          Combine all three for the “Golden Rule.”

          Follow these four rules and you will see,

Narrative explanation for
Combining All Three Jingle

        It is poetic license to say that the multiplier will be three times if all approaches are used. By combining these activities as one, a far greater outcome of weight loss and hence a better and more flexible way of controlling weight can be expected.

          Readers Digest (rd.com, July 2006) developed ten ways to counter cravings. That is, to transition from free food to controlled intake of food. We have converted their narratives to a ten-stanza jingle that should be enough to stop the craving altogether if frequently used and thus internalized so that they approach a good practice status.

    During transition cravings rather than full rejection will occur, so use these Readers Digest ideas about handling craving situations. Their ideas, which were obtained from good medical sources, mean more fun and have a more telling effect when confronted with foods from the old life for which cravings continue to exist for some time.

1.                     Stop Craving Switch Jingle

                    To avoid cravings you should:

                    Switch from what you crave,

                    To better foods that taste good,

                    To make your cravings behave.

2.         Try Nuts Instead Jingle

                    After two glasses of water,

                    Eat an ounce of nuts.

                    This dampens your craving;

                    Keeps you out of the ruts.

3.          Let Stress Go Jingle

                    Craving triggers to avoid:

                    View a tranquilizing scene;

                    Try deep breathing therapy;

                    Muscles relax to redeem.      

4.         Drink Coffee Jingle

                    Jolt yourself with java,

                    Whenever you get a crave,

                    Coffee’s rich warm flavor

                    Will dampen craving’s slave.

5.         Distract Yourself Jingle

                    Cravings last ten minutes,

                    That is not long to wait you see:

                    Divert you mind somehow,

                    A phone call can break you free.

6.          Power Naps Jingle

                    Cravings sneak up like a doggie,

                    When you are tired or run down:

                    Take a power nap to escape, 

                    It’s one way to avoid the hou

7.         Mint Fresh Jingle

                    When cravings come at night,

                    Grab your toothbrush and cup,

                    Freshen your mouth with gargle,

                    Don’t mess your minty mouth up.

8.          Plan to Avoid Jingle

                    Make a plan of travel to avoid,

                    When cravings for donuts arise,

                    Away from or around places,

                    Avoid the unwanted surprise.

9.          Indulge Yourself Jingle

                    Do it small and not often,

                    Stretch out the time between.

                    Bites now and then will not,

                    Keep your body slim and lean.

10.             Destroy Temptations Jingle

                    If you get a big surprise,

                    That’s filled with a Ho-Ho.

                    Cast it in the garbage can,

                    Or destroy it with a No-No.

          Further rationale behind the last of the weight control jingles is that by exercising say 90 minutes during a day, up to 300 calories will be expended thus further limiting the number of calories one needs to cut from the diet. 

     Further, bran will eliminate 18 percent of some other calories, and then 270 additional calories will be saved thus still further limiting the number of calories one needs to lose from about 1,200 to 1,300 down to about 600–700 calories on an 1,800 calorie diet. 

    You will be getting about 1,200 of those calories a day to provide the energy needed to sustain all the other activities undertaken throughout the day, particularly thinking. Blood glucose (sugar) is the brain’s primary source of energy.

    Much of that will come from stored fat, which means losing weight.

          How valid is any one of these jingles? Is it worth familiarizing through usage? Is it worth remembering the underlying meaning each time it or any part of it is cued into awareness?  

        The publications used to support these chapters are published medical letters or bulletins[iii] distributed to those who order and pay for them. They contain valuable and authentic medical advice supported by authoritative medical research backed by the universities’ reputation for outstanding medical practice. Yes, these jingles are worth remembering! 

          All of these authorities do not agree with each other on all health issues, but they support the fundamental concepts outlined in the weight control jingles with some variations.

    For example, one may say “We need sixty minutes of exercise each day,” whereas others may say “We need ninety minutes of exercise three times a week.” This represents a large variation in total minutes of exercise, 420 versus 270 minutes for 60 per day versus 90 minutes three times a week. 

    We have tried them and each rule has its merits. Sixty minutes almost every day can become especially tiresome from a repetitious point of view and allows no time for recovery at first from sore muscles.

    Conversely, ninety minutes, three times per week, allows for a welcome twenty-four hour break for recovery between sessions, but requires greater endurance on the days used.  

          Due to this endurance factor, a ninety-minute session on one day approximates a sixty-minute sessions on two consecutive days in terms of energy (caloric) expenditure.  

          Other jingles are possible that indicate what will happen if one does not do the things suggested in the weight control jingle, but these are reserved for later.

    Better or more catchy jingles than those that we have composed are certainly possible, and it is very advantageous to compose one’s own jingle so it may become more personalized and consequently owned rather than borrowed from someone else as from this book.

    For those who think they can’t write jingle poetry the jingles outlined throughout this book are ready-made.

          Olive oil plays a central role, but it is not alone, according to Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health. "It's among the divine mix of several factors that, when used in combination, help provide strong evidence of something that is very important–eating the proper diet can significantly reduce risk of early death."

    Much of this benefit stems from controlling weight. He and researchers from Greece studied some 22,000 adults, aged 20 to 86, from all regions of that country; most previous studies tracked only older people who were more likely to die during the study.

    The participants answered detailed questionnaires about their eating habits throughout the four-year study. Then they were rated on how closely they followed the key principles of the Mediterranean diet.

          Results of this large study suggest that sticking to the Mediterranean Diet[iv] cut the risk of death from both heart disease and cancer, which ultimately stem from being overweight.

    For every two points higher on this 0-to-9 scale–with top numbers going to those most closely following the Mediterranean diet–the death rate dropped by 25 percent. So what does that mean exactly?

    It means that substantially increasing the intake of monounsaturated fats relative to saturated fats and reducing intake of meat would do the trick. To control weight, these practices need to be tied to a limitation on the number of calories ingested per day.

    Weight Watchers follows this controlled input of foods plus weigh-ins. Many other diets do not.  

          The Oriental Diet[v] is similar to the Mediterranean Diet. The average life expectancy in Okinawa is eighty years due primarily to diet and exercise. Average daily diet consists of:
 

1.     Seven servings of fruits and vegetables,

2.     Seven servings of grains,

3.     Two servings of soy products,

4.     Fish are eaten several times a week.

5.     Red meat, such as beef and pork, is typically eaten only about once a month.

    The roughage hypothesis was at first unproven so it remained just that until more recent research proved it to be valid.[vi] At first the Nurses Study by Harvard Medical School attributed no link between dietary fiber and prevention of colon cancer, and similar results were found in a later study of men.  

    Yet, in a more focused study, dietary fiber was strongly associated with protection against adenomas or pre-cancer growths, and cereals and fruits were shown to provide the greatest protective benefit.

          This European study of 519,978 people living in twenty countries involved people ranging from age twenty-five to seventy who were tracked for six years.  

    Compared to those who ate the least fiber there was a 42 percent reduction in the risk of colon cancer from those who consumed moderate to high fiber. 

    No particular food source of fiber was shown to be more protective than others. The studies showed that the healthiest and longest-living research subjects ate up to 40 grams of bran in their daily diet.  

         As will be shown later, excess fat is often indicated by pre-cancerous growths, so less fat could mean less cancer, and lower rates of heart failure. Accordingly, 35 grams of  bran is recommended for those under age fifty and 40 grams daily for those over age fifty, based on existing research.

    These results have validated the original hypothesis put forth and negated the previous research on the subject. One effect of eating this amount of bran is that the stool becomes shaped better and softer for easier passage out of the digestive tract than if the stool is hard and rough, hence the use of the term, “hard lumps.”

    The stool is included in the jingle for another reason. The make up of stools constitutes a built-in test, or an easy check, to see if one is getting enough bran or other roughage.  

    Bran, fiber, and roughage, as used in this e-book, mean roughly the same as found in whole wheat products including oatmeal and in fruits and vegetables. 

          Warning signs and symptoms of being underweight or overweight are often hidden by those suffering so friends and relatives need to intervene by informing the person and suggesting that he or she see a doctor. Underweight or overweight people, young or old, take on risks that can lead to unpleasant consequences:

    Being underweight sometimes stem from Anorexia nervosa (an irrational fear of being overweight), or from Bulimia nervosa (eating large amounts of food in a short time then using vomiting or laxatives to purge the food). 

    Being overweight may be more obvious because it is signaled by not fitting into clothes you used to wear or experiencing shortness of breath when you exert yourself. 

          Eating disorders requires prompt medical attention. Someone who is undernourished needs to get back to a healthier weight before other aspects of treatment can begin. Medications may be prescribed to reduce bingeing and preoccupation with food.

    A person with severe anorexia may need to be hospitalized immediately in order to re-hydrate the body. Many factors may increase the risk of an eating disorder. For overweight, some issues that you and your doctor might consider include, according to The Mayo Clinic:[vii]

Teenage girls and young women are more likely than teenage boys and young men to develop eating disorders.

   Eating disorders are much more common during the teens and 20s, although they can occur in midlife

Individuals who feel insecure or overly criticized in their family relationships are at higher risk of eating disorders.

·        People with depression, anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder are more likely to have eating disorders.