APPLE VINAIGRETTE DRESSING (HCG) APPROVED

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Apple Cider vinegar

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons dried thyme

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

1⁄4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon dried basil

1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder

Add all ingredients in a blender and mix well.  Makes 8 Servings.

ARE YOU AN EVENING EATER? TRY THIS EXERCISE TO FIND OUT.

Track 3-5 typical days of eating. Print each day's results and use your records to answer the following questions:

1. How many meals and snacks did you eat after 5:00 pm?
2. How many meals and snacks did you eat during the day?
3. How many total calories did you consume after 5:00 pm?
4. How many total calories did you consume for the day?
5. What activities occurred while you ate after 5:00 pm?

You may have a problem with evening eating if:

• More than one-third of your meals and snacks are eaten after 5:00 pm.
• More than one-third of your total calories are consumed after 5:00 pm
• Evening eating constantly occurs with another activity.

You should be eating three meals daily and 1-2 planned snacks (on Phase 3 of HCG, the Lifestyle Phase), keeping in mind your total calorie range. Plan to eat about the same number of calories at each meal throughout the day. The total should be within your calorie range.

THE ROLE OF SLEEP AND YOUR WEIGHT

For most people, the evening is "down-time," used to relax, watch television, and unwind from the stresses of the day. Others view this as a time to multi-task and catch up on household chores, bills, homework, and other responsibilities.

Whether you're winding down or checking off your to-do list, unconscious eating can accompany your routine and result in a massive calorie intake. Devouring a bag of chips, a sleeve of cookies, or a pint of ice cream can occur when your mind is somewhere else.

Consuming a large amount of food before bedtime can also result in indigestion and sleep problems, which can trigger you to eat more during the proceeding days. A growing body of research suggests a connection between obesity and lack of adequate sleep. Since the 1960's, sleep duration for American adults has dropped by as much as two hours a night, while obesity has drastically increased.

Sleep is a regulator of two hormones that effect appetite, leptin and ghrelin. Leptin helps suppress food intake and stimulate energy expenditure, while ghrelin stimulates appetite, fat production, and body growth. When one is sleep deprived, the level of leptin drops and the level of ghrelin increases. The result is a drastic increase in hunger. One study reported a 24% increase in hunger, with excessive, uncontrollable cravings for calorie and carbohydrate packed foods such as cookies, candy and cake. It can all add up to a vicious cycle of late night binges, lack of adequate sleep, uncontrolled snacking, late night binges, and so on.

GET THE FULLNESS MESSAGE

Changing the way you go about eating can make it easier to eat less without feeling deprived. It takes 15 or more minutes for your brain to get the message that you've been fed. Eating slowly will help you feel satisfied. Eating lots of vegetables and fruits can make you feel fuller. Another trick is to use smaller plates so that moderate portions do not appear too small. Changing your eating schedule, or setting one, can be helpful, especially if you tend to skip, or delay, meals and overeat later.

NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS

Shaping is a behavioral technique in which you select a series of short-term goals that get closer and closer to the ultimate goal (e.g., an initial reduction of fat intake from 40 percent of calories to 35 percent of calories, and later to 30 percent). It is based on the concept that "nothing succeeds like success." Shaping uses two important behavioral principles: (1) consecutive goals that move you ahead in small steps are the best way to reach a distant point; and (2) consecutive rewards keep the overall effort invigorated.

REWARD SUCCESS (BUT NOT WITH FOOD)

An effective reward is something that is desirable, timely, and dependent on meeting your goal. The rewards you choose may be material (e.g., a movie or music CD, or a payment toward buying a more costly item) or an act of self-kindness (e.g., an afternoon off from work or just an hour of quiet time away from family). Frequent small rewards, earned for meeting smaller goals, are more effective than bigger rewards that require a long, difficult effort.

BENEFITS OF KEEPING A FOOD DIARY

Multiple studies show that people who track the foods they eat lose more weight and keep it off for the long haul. In fact, the National Weight Control Registry, which tracks more than 3,000 people who have lost an average of 50 pounds and kept it off successfully for five years, has found that logging foods is one way to stay on track well after they have lost the weight. In another study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who used a food diary while dieting lost twice as much weight as those who didn't.

Allows you to monitor your caloric intake. Losing weight is a simple equation, take in fewer calories than you expend. Monitoring your caloric intake is the first step in lowering it. Encourages you to focus on your food choices. More often than not we overeat because we are focusing on something other than what we are eating. Writing down what you eat in a food diary forces you to focus on what you are doing. Provides a record you can share with your health care provider. Your health care provider can look at your food diary and provide insight and information on what you can do to eat healthier. Also, what you are eating may be impacting your health in other ways. Helps you control the urge to binge. Knowing you are going to have to write down what you eat can stop you from reaching for the second helping of potato chips. Allows you to track your progress. A food diary can serve as evidence of how far you have come in this journey. It also feels great to look back and see you are eating better today than you did days, weeks or years ago. Encourages mindful eating. Writing down what you eat encourages you to think about what you are eating. The more you think, the less and better you eat. Creates a means of evaluating the connection between what you eat and how you feel. You can use a food diary to examine the circumstances and feelings which trigger overeating. Once you identify the causes you can begin doing something about them. Helps you be sure you are getting enough of each food group. It is important to eat a balanced diet. A food diary can provide clues as to what foods you have been neglecting and need to add to your diet. Assists you in acknowledging the reality of how much you eat. Keeping a food diary will help you confront the truth about how much you eat. Once you stop kidding yourself about how much you eat, you can begin making the necessary changes. Reinforces your commitment to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Each time you make an entry in your food diary you are expressing your intention and desire to do what needs to be done in order to live well.

SET THE RIGHT GOALS

Setting the right goals is an important first step. Most people trying to lose weight focus on just that one goal: weight loss. However, the most productive areas to focus on are the dietary and physical activity changes that will lead to long-term weight change. Successful weight managers are those who select two or three goals at a time that are manageable.

Useful goals should be (1) specific; (2) attainable (doable); and (3) forgiving (less than perfect). "Exercise more" is a great goal, but it's not specific. "Walk 5 miles every day" is specific and measurable, but is it doable if you're just starting out? "Walk 30 minutes every day" is more attainable, but what happens if you're held up at work one day and there's a thunderstorm during your walking time another day? "Walk 30 minutes, 5 days each week" is specific, doable, and forgiving. In short, a great goal!

HOW MUCH WATER IS ENOUGH?

On the average in Arizona, a person should drink three (3) quarts every day. However, the overweight person needs an additional glass for every 25 pounds of excess weight. The amount you drink also should be increased if you exercise briskly.  Water should preferably be cold. It is absorbed into the system more quickly than water at room temperature. And some evidence suggests that drinking cold water can actually help burn calories.

WHAT IS A HEALTHY BMI?

Less than half of the adults in the United States have a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index). For adults, an ideal range is between 18.5 and 24.9; a person with a BMI over 24.9 is considered overweight, and a person with a BMI under 18.5 is considered underweight.

BMI is a tool that can be used to indirectly measure body fat. Because the calculation requires only height and weight, it is inexpensive and easy for healthcare providers and the general public to use as a method of screening for weight categories that may lead to health problems. Check your BMI here.

HCG ELITE® … WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT

In 1994, a messaging protein, Leptin, was discovered as the body’s regulator of fat storage.  Leptin is a sort of  “on/off” switch for your fat cells, which means that we now have the ability to control your brain’s appetite signal. The process is called Thermogenesis, and it is important to you because internally your body can now “hear” the proper messages.

High Leptin levels were important to our ancestors to retain fat for survival in times of frequent famines. In the absence of food scarcity, high Leptin levels contribute to many health problems relating to the storage of fat around your waist, hips and thighs.  These extra pounds of fat also give off excess inflammatory signals that, combined, significantly contribute to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and accelerated aging.

If you are eating the typical American diet that is high in sugar, starches and processed foods, as sugar gets metabolized into fat cells, fat releases surges in Leptin. Over time, if your body is exposed to too much Leptin, it will become Leptin resistant. Leptin resistance is the body’s inability to properly respond to Leptin’s signals that your body has enough fat stored, and your fat cells continue to fill with fuel. It is like auto pilot fat filling. Your body can no longer “hear” the message telling it to stop eating and burn fat, so you remain hungry and store more fat.

Leptin Resistance also causes an increase in your visceral fat creating a vicious cycle of hunger, fat storage, and an increase risk in heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune disease and accelerated aging itself.

Correct the faulty messaging and it is much easier to control and maintain your weight.

LepiTrimElite^® is a revolutionary and research-based oral fat reducing product. It lowers and balances your Leptin levels and has been clinically proven to convert stored fat into energy.  Daily use will maintain proper Leptin levels so the brain and body tissues can respond and continuously reduce fat and reshape the body independent of dietary intake

Kerisma Centre for Medical Weight Loss highly recommends implementing LepiTrimElite^®  along with our medical grade HCG for superior fat burning results. The decrease in inflammation and the improvement in your nutritional status means that you will no longer have to worry about chronic dieting ever again. LepiTrimElite^® is available at our office.