Danna Demetre: Dialing Back Your Diet
As we look forward to the Christmas holidays, we don’t have to look forward to gaining extra pounds. Danna says the trick to keeping weight off is to think in terms of a total life change in how we think about food. A lifestyle change is something that you can do most days of your life without too much effort or deprivation. Everything else is just a diet.
Key Changes:
1) Change your thinking. Get in tune with your self-talk. Replace lies with truth about yourself.
2) Change your attitude. Get rid of the old diet mentality that legalizes all foods. Give yourself permission to enjoy your favorite foods without feeling guilty. Chances are your cravings will diminish and your willpower will increase.
3) Increase your energy. The higher your energy, the less likely you will overeat. There are several important factors that will energize you, such as stabilizing your blood sugar by including a good source of protein in meals or snacks; avoiding highly processed or sugary foods, and de-stressing your life. Stress releases hormones and sugar into your blood. Sleep until you are rested. Well-rested people have higher mental, emotional, and physical reserves. Be sure to exercise for maximum energy.
4) Burn more calories. The bottom line to all weight management is simple: Calories in vs. calories out. If you only eat ten calories more than you burn each day, you’ll gain an extra pound of fat every year. It’s the small stuff that adds up over time. Just a little improvement can make a huge difference.
Danna says the average woman gains about 25 pounds between the ages of 20 and 50. How many calories does she need to eat for this to happen? It’s only about five calories more a day. That’s the equivalent of one breath mint a day. This sounds like bad news, but the opposite is true as well. If you burn five calories more a day than you eat, you’ll lose 25 pounds over 30 years.
Danna offers 25 ways to cut calories every day. A sampling of these tips includes the following:
- Try frozen grapes or blueberries for a fun snack.
- When you dip veggies or other snacks, dip sparingly. It adds up fast.
- Hard candy or mints are low in calories and satisfy the sweet tooth. They also take about 3-4 minutes to eat.
- Leave the cheese off your sandwiches and save at least 100 calories.
- Never eat regular mayonnaise. Cut low-fat mayo with Dijon mustard to decrease calories and increase flavor.
- Reduce the frequency of red meat in your diet and increase the frequency of fish -- your brain and heart will love you
- Low-fat frozen yogurt and fruit sorbet with berries have fewer calories than most ice creams
- Avoid the guacamole and stick with low-calorie salsa. If you can’t resist the avocado, mix it with generous amounts of salsa and fresh vegetables.
- Croissants contain about 300 calories from fat. They’re not worth it. Stick with your favorite fresh bread.
- Substitute ground turkey for beef. Brown and rinse with hot water in a colander to remove excess fat.
- Add an extra two cups of beans to your turkey or chicken chili to increase fiber and decrease calories
- Bake a big, fluffy potato and stuff with low-fat cottage cheese and chives and top with a little sharp cheddar. It is very satisfying.
Bulimic No More
Danna came to her knowledge of food the hard way, but says that the change was part of the journey. Danna battled self-image problems when she was younger. “As a young woman, I saw myself inaccurately,” she says. Danna got trapped in the world’s view of what was beautiful, and as a result, she had a skewed body image. Never more than 20 pounds overweight, Danna was bulimic for 16 years. She says she was out of control in college and used to purge three to five times a day. “I was in bondage to food,” she says.
She had ferocious panic attacks, which led her to the Lord. These outrageous panic attacks were fueled by diet pills, anxiety, and pressures she put on herself. She thought she was dying. In her early 20s, Danna cried out to the Lord to help her, and He did.
But her victory over food took a long path of learning God’s Word. “He renewed my mind first,” she says, citing
as a key Scripture (“…be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”). With her mind renewed, Danna could accept God’s truth about her – that she was fearfully and wonderfully made and that God loved her.Today Danna teaches other women what she has learned, and that they, too, can be healthy in spirit, soul, and body. She says the image problem is even more prevalent today, reaching down to even younger girls and boys.
