Philadelphia Medicine Winter-Spring 2021 - 30

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feature continued
exacerbated by the pandemic. Buy only
healthful foods and not items with
empty calories such as chips, cake and
items with sugar. When you are eating,
devote yourself only to that activity,
eat slowly and savor each bite. Do not
watch television during your meal time.
* Record the amount and type of
exercise you engage in each day and
determine calories burned. Walk, run
or bicycle outside, or exercise inside
with stretching, weights or use an
exercise bicycle. You may use a website
such as Diettool on WebMD.com to
calculate daily calories burned. To lose
weight, calories burned during a day
must exceed caloric intake. You may
want to invest in a Fitbit or an Apple
Watch and use the health section to
determine your caloric intake versus
output. Analyzing your caloric data
will provide a concrete measure of your
progress.
* Don't overconsume calories or underconsume protein. Protein plays a key
role in the creation and maintenance
of every cell of your body, and because
the body does not store protein, it is
important to consume it every day.
To meet basic protein requirements,
the DRI (Dietary Reference Intake)
recommends 0.36 grams of protein
per pound (0.8 grams per kg) of body
weight. This amounts to 56 grams
per day for the average sedentary man
and 46 grams per day for the average
sedentary woman. There is also an
App entitlde ProteinTracker which can
simplify your calculations.
* Drink water. It is important to be
hydrated to regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, prevent
infections, deliver nutrients to cells and
keep organs functioning properly. Being well-hydrated also improves sleep,
cognition, and mood. (Read " The
Importance of Hydration, " Harvard
University, 09/28/2017).
Your daily water intake by ounce
should be equal to your weight in pounds
multiplied by two-third (or 67%) to determine the amount of water to drink daily.
For example, if you weigh 175 pounds,
you would multiply 175 by 2/3 and learn
you should be drinking about 117 ounces
of water every day. You can also meet
some of your daily water requirements by
consuming fruits and vegetables such as
30 Philadelphia Medicine : Winter-Spring 2021

tomatoes, watermelon, lettuce, etc.
Also, drink 2 cups (16 ounces) of water
before every meal. Often, when you feel
hungry, it is because your body simply
needs water. Science has proven that
drinking 2 cups of water before every meal
helps you to eat less during meal time and
lose weight. If you do this three times daily
- at breakfast, lunch, and dinner - you
have already consumed 48 ounces of water.
* Keep track of your progress. In addition to keeping and analyzing your
food journal, weigh yourself once or
twice a week. Do not weigh yourself
every day, as you will not see any results on a day-to-day basis, but once a
week gives your body time to regulate
and show progress.
Always calibrate/zero your scale before
each use, and weigh yourself at the same
time of the day (preferably after you first
wake up in the morning) while wearing
the same type of clothing. Keep a record of
your weight in your journal to track your
progress. Do not panic if the scale indicates you gained one, two or three pounds,
because your weight can fluctuate because
of glycogen storage, sodium retention,
human bias, reporting or recall errors, and
home scales can have a plus- or minus-3pound margin of error.
Look at your weight trend over time.
You may prefer buying a scale that indicates both weight and body mass index:
the measure of body fat based on one's
gender, height and weight.
* Celebrate and reward yourself with
non-food items. A healthful fitness
and diet regime requires energy and
dedication, so if you are able to follow
a healthful routine, reward yourself
with non-food rewards for your good
choices and new habits as an incentive
to maintain your healthy behavior.
* Don't buy it if you can't stop eating it.
The biggest decision you make is when
you decide what you are going to buy.
Don't lie to yourself in the store that
you will only eat one at a time. Only
buy what you can afford to binge eat if
you can't stop yourself from eating any
particular type of food.
* Have someone hide the food you can't
resist. You can't eat what you can't find.
If you can't avoid having irresistible
food around, ask another adult to hide
the food from you.

* Learn what harm foods can cause in
your body. Read about the effects high
blood sugar and high blood pressure
can cause in your body. Find out
which foods boost your immune
system. Demonize the bad foods in
your mind. Make up your mind before
you go into the store that you are going
to read food labels and find the best
quality food with the lowest amount of
sugar or saturated fat. Appreciate the
flavor of vegetables and fruit. Gaining
weight will suppress your immune
system and make you more susceptible
to COVID-19.
* Treat sugar like it is an addictive drug.
You can't have just one. If you reduce
your craving for sugar by slowly reducing your intake of sugar, you will find
that you don't crave sugar any more.
This won't be easy, but once it is done,
you will be preventing many of the ravages that sugar takes on your body over
time. But, you can't have one piece of
pie because the craving will come back.
It may be more likely that you find
that piece of pie too sweet.
* Other ideas: Buy a gift for yourself:
new clothes, makeup, a plant or
flowers, home décor, running shoes,
exercise clothes, fitness tracker (a Fitbit
or Apple watch), water bottle, book,
movie or network subscription or treat
yourself to online lessons for painting,
music, etc.
* Adopt a dog, donate food to a shelter
or food bank.
* Organize and declutter your home,
since staying busy will give you a reason not to eat. In nice weather, enjoy
the outdoors. Go on walks, run or bike,
or garden.
We are all worried about getting
COVID-19. Preventing COVID-15
will go a long way to boosting your immune system to help protect you from
COVID-19. *
Richard W. Cohen, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist with a private practice in
center city Philadelphia. Nancy S. Cohen,
M.B.A., has a master's degree in health care
administration and is a freelance writer.
https://philamedsoc.org/ http://www.WebMD.com
Philadelphia Medicine Winter-Spring 2021

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