At Odds with Dr. Oz and Lazy Girls Weight Loss

Most of the time I applaude everything Dr. Oz has on his show.   I tape his shows and breeze thru quickly when I'm taking a break from studying or having a quiet evening at home.  I always have a notepad when I watch the show and I'm as open to learning and trying new things as anyone.

However he had two shows last month that I screamed NO NO NO at the TV. 

One show was "The Lazy Girls Guide to Getting Healthy".  I'm sure that title was done for commercial value - all the lazy people would tune in to hear how they could continue their lazy ass ways and yet tell themselves they were on a health kick.  (My OWN advice follows after my rant.)

So I'm gonna lecture Dr. Oz here.  Do NOT perpetuate the lazy attitudes and mind sets out there.  I have zero humor about this.  There is nothing cutesy about being lazy when it comes to your health.  Look at your audience for Godsake!  Great sampling of the obesity trend!  The Lazy Girls Guide should be to drop the lazy altogether, ramp up their metabolism with exercise and good food choices.  Every one of the women he had as "assistants" were extremely over weight and nothing he told these women to do would have made an ounce worth of difference, despite his little charts exclaiming "doing this would mean you would loose 7 lbs in one year."  Sorry Oz.  Make it 70 lbs. and it will make a difference.  And if they are lazy, they probably won't do it anyway!  Very little mention of getting off those large butts and exercising - seriously?  Lazy isn't healthy - period! 

The other show that got me screaming was "hearing the truth, once and for all, about Aspartame".  He has another doctor on explaining the safety of aspartame.  Don't know who might have PAID her to say what she said, or if she is just oblivious to the serious side effects of aspartame.  For Oz to say "Now we know the truth." is just wrong!  It is an opinion, not a truth.  There is far too much scientific proof that aspartame is the equivalent of a toxic poison for you to declare the "truth" of its safety.

Rather than saying "Hey Lazy people, you only have to do one little thing" here are several simple shifts toward healthier living.  Do them ALL.  Dr. Oz may pat you on head, I'm more into whoop ass.

Eat more beans!  Packed with fiber, beans have  a powerful range of health benefits, which includes helping to control blood sugar.  Different beans have different benefits - black beans are high in antioxidants, soybeans (eat only organic) host the phytochemical family of isoflavones, white beans are potassium-laden, and adzuki beans pack in some carotenoids.  Best of all beans are cheap and provide protein.

Eat within an hour of waking and every 3-4 hours throughout the day.  Each "meal" must include a little fat and a little protein. Dieters think I'm nuts when I tell them this.  This eating plan will up your metabolism, promote stable blood sugar and eliminate brain fogs.  The bonus is, yes this is true, you will lose more weight this way - as long as you are doing some EXERCISE daily, even 20 min. of brisk walking at a minimum.  So if you were confessing to being one of those lazy girls Dr. Oz was talking to, sorry honey, move it to lose it!  To my knowledge, nobody has successfully lost weight or ramped up their health by just thinking about it.

Eat more nuts and seeds, preferably raw.  Raw walnuts, almonds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds.  Sprinkle them on your foods, or just have 10 walnuts as a snack.  They have fat, yes, but it is the good fat your brain needs.  Count em!  No eating the whole bag.

Swap veggies for grains whenever you can.  Instead of pita bread with the humus, use carrots, cukes, broccoli - instead of eating nut butters on toast, put it on apples, bananas.  I bought a cool little tool that slices up a zucchini into long strips which I use in lieu of pasta.  Just saute the zucchini "noodles" in a bit of coconut or olive oil and top it with Parmesan and pine nuts - yummmm.  Use lettuce leaves for bread when making sandwiches.  (These tricks can be used for a week of no grains to see if you feel better without the gluten - I do this not because I'm gluten intolerant but I do have more energy without breads and pastas - but I do miss them!  I allow an occasional piece of bread - it is now a treat, not an everyday consumption.)

Drink more water!  Green and white teas will provide an antioxidant boost.  (Save your money and do not buy vitamin waters or enhanced water.)

Walk more.  Dance more.  Stretch more.  (Stretching is THE MOST helpful thing you can do for your body and it helps with those aches and pains, which could be due to NOT moving enough.  Stretch everything daily.)

Laugh more.  Smile more.

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p.s. to Dr. Oz - I really DO appreciate you are trying to make getting healthy an ok thing and you really are making a difference for some folks out there!