Good Mood Diet Blog

I love being part of a group. I sing in a choir, participate in a daily group exercise program, and ski with friends and family. Grocery shopping is best when my husband is along, and I even take piano lessons with my daughter. Don’t get me wrong, I like my alone time too, but sharing music, exercise, and even shopping with someone else makes it more joyful and less of a “job.” Knowing that someone is going to be expecting me is also a great motivator to show up when I’m feeling like other responsibilities are going to hold me back.

The Good Mood Diet Clubs have grown out of that same idea. Changing lifestyle is an effort. It becomes more enjoyable when shared with someone else. When I ran the first diet club in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the 6 members created their own online support group through e-mail. There was nothing like the exchange of ideas, tips, and even struggles, with others going through a similar process.

There are lots of variations of support groups out there. The difference in The Good Mood Diet Clubs is that they are created out of your own life. Create a club with your spouse, daughter or son, your neighbor, the person you walk your dog with, your book club, your card group, your cubicle partner at work, or whoever you eat lunch with. Keep the group small, no larger than 6 to 8 people. If it gets larger, start a new club. The point is that you don’t have to create a new space in your life to go to the Club, you don’t have to pony up any money, and you don’t have to step on a scale. You are there for each other to offer support; maybe for just 12 weeks, or maybe for a lifetime.

You can set weekly in-person meetings, and you can stay in touch all week by joining the online chat or video groups. You don’t need an outside expert to run your club. Pretend that I’m right there with you. Download my 12-week Discussion Guide to start the conversation and create action plans for the next week. You’ve got the book, you’ve got the Web site, download your daily log sheets and the 12-week discussion guide, join an online group and get in on the conversation. The daily support, along with pointers from others all over the world, will make all the difference in your life.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

It’s that time of year again when so many set New Year’s resolutions. The big four resolutions are losing weight, getting out of debt, quitting smoking and getting organized. Believe it or not, losing weight and getting organized have striking similarities. For starters, the end result of each will make you feel great!

I often compare the two; you go on a diet, you lose weight, you feel great and then you must work to maintain that weight. If you don’t - well, you know what happens. Getting organized is no different. Living an organized lifestyle is a choice. After you’ve made that choice and you’ve worked at eliminating the clutter and chaos in your life, you also must work to maintain the new systems you’ve implemented. Without maintenance, the clutter will come back, just like the weight if you don’t work at it a bit each day.

In my latest book Eliminate Chaos - The 10 Step Process to Organize Your Home & Life, I list the 10 important steps. Step 1 is to “make time.” Just like you spend 20-30 minutes a day exercising, schedule 20-30 minutes a day, to organize parts of your home or office. The feeling of accomplishment will be extremely rewarding. You will feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders and you will feel more “in control” and “less overwhelmed.” Step 10 is to “maintain” what you’ve created, which should just take a few minutes each day.

It's best to start small. A great place to start is with your junk drawer or pantry. It might just be time to clean out some of that food you’re not going to eat, now that you’re taking a closer look at what you eat. Donate it to someone who will eat it. Start now and enjoy all of the benefits of living organized in 2007.

Laura Leist
Business & Residential Organizing
Eliminate Chaos, LLC
www.eliminatechaos.com

I’m in New York City for the start of The Good Mood Diet book tour. So as I was scanning the online news, an article about dieters in New York caught my attention. In the January 2nd edition of washingtonpost.com, there was an article titled “MTA: Fainting Dieters Delay NYC Subways.” I had to keep reading.

“Sick subway passengers, most of them dieters who faint from dizziness, are among the top causes of train delays, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.” It seemed hard to believe, but there it was in black and white, with interviews with MTA medical authorities, and everything.

We are really a society out of touch with how we feel, and desperate to lose weight despite the risks. We are driven by misinformation from the media and false images from Hollywood. I hope that you hear this message loud and clear: fasting for a day or more in order to lose weight not only puts your health at risk; it doesn’t work. You will lose weight through water loss, muscle wasting, and some small amount of fat loss. When the fast is over you will, I hope, rehydrate yourself and regain that weight. The muscle wasting will have lowered your metabolic rate so that when you start to eat again you’ll gain fat easier than before you fasted. What a waste!

I want you to stop focusing on your body for right now. I want you to focus on how you feel. Weight loss, when done right, is a long-term outcome. But feeling good can happen in just a few days, and sometimes overnight. Once you start to feel better you’ll find that you not only want to stick to the diet, but you’ll also want to start other things in your life that you haven’t had the energy for, like maybe even exercise.

Let go of the negative self-talk about poor body image and guilt. When your goal is nourishing your brain, you should always be thinking about what you need to eat. So skipping meals and fasting is out of the question. That can’t be good for your brain.
Think about how you feel, not about what you weigh. Resolve right now to start feeding your brain so that you have more mental energy and focus, and a lighter mood. When you feel better you stick to the diet, and if you stick to the diet, if you need to lose weight you will.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

When people follow the Good Mood Diet and feel more energy in just days, there are any number of reasons why such happy results occur. For me, one of the high-energy factors is working a morning smoothie into my day.

Dr. Kleiner’s menus in the Good Mood Diet book (Chapter 3) point to drinking this yummy pick-me-up at mid-morning. But feel free to mix and match that time to fit your own a.m. cycle. I certainly do.

On some mornings, I drink the smoothie right after an early run or ride on the stationary bike (more about best workouts on an exercise bike in my next blog entry). The protein-carbohydrate-fat mix is perfect to replenish my muscles while providing a filling and satisfying breakfast on the go.

Other mornings when I don’t work out—oh, man, that happened too much during the December holiday rush—I often drink the smoothie as my “first breakfast.” I might sip it while packing lunches for the kids or in a to-go coffee cup as I am driving to catch the ferry that gets me off-island here in the Pacific Northwest.

And, for a third option, I drink the smoothie mid-morning as my “second” breakfast. That works when I have time to grab a Good Mood breakfast at home, such as oatmeal with diced apple and ground flaxseed or my old standby hard-boiled egg, half a whole-wheat English muffin, a cup of unsweetened yogurt and a piece of fruit.

The book has some great ideas for fast breakfasts, along with practical details on how to make your smoothie the best energy booster—and a tasty way to even out the rough spots of your busy mornings. Hint: Isolated whey protein powder is a key ingredient.

Bob
Upcoming blogs from Bob: The best exercise-bike workouts; Thumbs up on coffee; and In the Mood for a Salad.

If you read last Thursday’s blog you know that I’m traveling for the launch of The Good Mood Diet. My days are really hectic, running from one presentation to the next, and doing interviews in between. Today I did a presentation from noon to 1:30 (notice that I wasn’t eating lunch at that time), and then had a meeting from 4:00 to 5:15, another presentation from 7-9, and then a radio show from 10-11.

How did I stay in a good mood? Well, there was no way to eat lunch at lunchtime, or dinner at dinnertime. I started out my day by taking Bob’s advice; I slept in to catch up with my jet lag instead of waking early to work out. I had my usual breakfast that you see in the menu plan in the book. Just before going to my talk I popped some almonds and raisins, and had plenty of water. Then I walked.

At 3:00 I had a quick sushi lunch with miso soup and lots more water from a little take-out cafe. Then at 5:30 I barely had time to get back to my hotel to change and drive to my next presentation, so I stopped by a little fresh foods place near the hotel and had a great skim milk, fruit and whey protein smoothie. While it wasn’t ideal, it was an excellent alternative to fast food, or no dinner at all. I felt refreshed and energized. I went off to talk for 2 hours in one place and 1 hour in another, along with more water, and did just fine.

Back at my hotel at 11 PM, I was hungry and thirsty. It’s late, but I know that I won’t sleep when I’m this hungry. So back to my almonds, raisins, and a reward of a little dark chocolate just because I feel like it. I’ll be awake and working (and blogging) for a while, so everything will settle down in my stomach for a good night’s sleep.

So you see, while not exact, I have been able to fit in almost everything that I need to eat even though I’m on the road and very busy. The key is planning. I always plan ahead for these times and bring food with me. It was lucky that the smoothie place was down the street, but if not I would have found something with milk in it to get the protein and carbohydrates that I need to stay upbeat and on an even keel. Or I may have resorted to the meal replacement bars that I brought for an emergency. But I wouldn’t have been at the mercy of whatever food was available.

Before you travel, plan on what food is easy to pack and carry. It will save your mood every time.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

I’m in Cleveland now for the next leg of the Good Mood Diet book tour, and I have to tell you about Lolita. Lolita was at the front desk of my hotel as I checked in on a very soggy Friday night. As we were laughing about the rain, she asked me what I was doing in Cleveland. I told her about the book and the tour. She got very excited, and quickly said that she had lost 70 pounds.

“Wow, that’s great! How did you do it?” I asked. “I’ve been doing a boot camp exercise program,” she said, with a huge smile on her face. “I really hate to diet.”

“How do you like the exercise?” I asked. “It makes me feel great!” she replied, smiling even more broadly.

I told Lolita that I was going to put her story in my blog, because she had found one of the most important keys to health and weight loss maintenance: an exercise strategy that she really likes. Just as important, she’s tuned in to how it makes her feel.

Now that you’ve started the diet plan, you should start to have the “get up and go” to get up and get moving. What you eat and how you move work like a hand in a glove. On a cold day neither is very successful without the other. But just like I want you to eat what you enjoy, you need to find an activity that’s fun, that’s easily accessible and that makes you feel good. That’s why I love those pedometers. You can walk just about anywhere.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

[Editor's note: If you missed Alice Lockridge's articles on the pedometers, check it out now: Good Moves for a Good Mood.]

Adapted from Lou Schuler’s blog and Web site, Male Pattern Fitness.

I have dubbed January 2nd the National Day of Retonement. It's not listed on calendars yet, but that's more a function of my unfortunate obscurity than any inherent problem with the idea. NDoR is the opposite of a holiday. It's the day you start paying the price for all the holidays you've just celebrated.

I spent most of my NDoR working on my next book, which should be out about this time next year, with a great midday workout designed by the incomparable Alwyn Cosgrove. This is the first book I've written for women. All I'll say is that the workout may be designed for women, but it's sure not for sissies.

Speaking of books, when Time magazine, in its December 18 issue, previewed the top five diet books of Retonement Season (I figure if I keep using the word, someone else will pick up on it, obscurity be darned), it listed The Good Mood Diet.

Having worked with Sue for many years – starting when I was at Men's Fitness – I was surprised to see her recommending a specific macronutrient ratio, especially one as ubiquitous as 40/30/30. Since that's also my favorite ratio, for a variety of reasons (the main ones being that it works and it's easy to use), I asked how she arrived at it.

The Good Mood Diet recommends a dietary formula of 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat, which makes it more effective for weight loss while maintaining its potent mood-elevating properties.

"A diet with less than 40 percent carbs is depressing, literally," she told me. "Forty percent is also better for weight loss. A diet less than 25 to 30 percent fat lowers stress-coping skills and raises anxiety/anger/hostility. The higher healthy-fat intake may also enhance body-fat loss.

"For weight loss, I was looking for about 2 grams of protein per kilogram per day, which in a 1,600-calorie diet for the average overweight person comes out to about 30 percent."

My favorite section of the book is her list of "feel-great foods." You'll find the usual things that appear in just about every book on healthy eating (green tea, nuts, spinach, strawberries), but she also comes up with some surprising choices:

* egg yolks
* lean pork
* garlic and ginger
* low-fat or nonfat dairy
* chocolate
* caffeine

Any book that says good things about pig meat and coffee is all right by me. The fact it's also a well-researched book integrating the latest science on how diet affects mood with the somewhat better understood principles of eating for weight loss makes it a winner three times over. If you ask me – and I'll confess almost no one does – it’s the perfect nutrition book for this season.

Lou

Lou Schuler is an award-winning journalist, author of several fitness and nutrition books, and is certified as a strength and conditioning specialist (C.S.C.S.) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

My family lives an old rural neighborhood that used to be “out in the country” when we moved here 20+ years ago. Now, as the building boom progresses, residential communities have replaced tall trees and blackberry bushes. I pride myself in being a forward thinker who likes change. I knew it wasn’t all bad that the road between my house and the freeway was going to be lined with new houses. I knew the new neighbors would be making less carbon dioxide than we did when we mowed our farm-sized yard. But I did worry about congestion on the roads and in the grocery store.

I’m happy to report that just before the summer was over I realized a very positive trait all this new construction afforded me!

Unlike my old rural neighborhood lined with tall trees, culverts under driveways, water-filled ditches and mossy blacktop edges, the newly built areas all have perfectly flat, smooth sidewalks lining both sides of every street. There are no overhanging wet tree limbs to drip on me as I stroll by. There are no ancient tree roots cracking and tilting up the street surface. There are miles and miles of wonderful new concrete that is waiting for people to briskly walk on! So that’s what I’ve begun to do.

Starting this summer, I found I no longer needed to pack my bike into my car and take it to the bike path 4 miles away. I can now ride down my street to the main road and parallel the intimidating traffic for only one block, take a quick right turn and Voila, I’m in workout heaven! Smooth streets, no traffic, and no animals rabidly protecting their properties from women in workout wear. So I spent more time than usual this summer riding on my new “bike path” disguised as the four new streets near my home that used to be woods.

When fall came and my days became somewhat confined to a desk, I really relished the weekend afternoons to go for a brisk walk to see the daylight and be out in the cool crisp air. Again the new neighborhoods near my home became my workout center. I don’t know where the people are that live in these new houses. But they aren’t in their front yards. Their garages are all closed up, their garbage cans are lined up in neat rows in the driveways and their streets and sidewalks are empty – just waiting for me to work out.

So, if you feel a bit resentful about development in your back yard, take advantage of the new scenery. If you live in or near developments with these workout-perfect sidewalks, use 'em. And if you see me, or someone like me, getting their workout on your neighborhood sidewalk, join in!

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

Upcoming blogs from Alice: Favorite workout music and Fitting exercise into your schedule

A regular exercise habit can make a big impact on Good Mood Dieters for both the weight loss benefits and for your mindset. Remember this advice from Susan Kleiner, my co-author who has worked with pro athletes and family-makers alike: The best exercise is the one you do and keep doing.

My favorite workout is running. I’m one of those ‘run the first half-hour for the body and the second half-hour for the mind’ sort of guys. But, honestly, my running habit ebbs in the winter months.

When I lived in Chicago it was because the cold was too biting to enjoy the run. Here in the Pacific Northwest it stays too dark too long in the morning. I’m either out the door for work meetings or helping get the kids off to school by the time it is light enough to run. I do have to say running into the sunrise is, well, a thrill. Sounds corny, but it’s how I feel.

So during the winter months, I hit the bike — the indoor bike. My preferred machine is a Keiser® cycle used in spinning classes. The Keiser bikes best simulate the ride of a road bike, with a full range of gears and the racing-style handlebars.

I take early a.m. spinning classes when I can, but have lately found it rewarding (especially as a mental lift) to do my own spinning class on a Keiser that the company has loaned me to try out its newest model. I always feel more alert and ready for the day after the morning spin.

Here’s why: My rides follow those that I learned from spinning instructors. I alternate from methodical, steady cycling to intense “climbs” in which I am up off the seat, to all-out sprints. This sort of interval work is a way to build up endurance, especially if your workout needs to be on the short side, say 15 to 20 minutes. Studies show that even four 30-second all-out bursts of effort will significantly improved your fitness level. It’s all about challenging the body, even “surprising” it on a kinetic level.

This kinetic surprise is a staple of Tim Grover’s training programs designed for professional basketball players. Tim trained Michael Jordan for a decade of championship play and now oversees the conditioning of some 30 elite NBA athletes.
For me, I warm up on the cycle with a moderately intensive ride for about three minutes before moving into a hard climb. I monitor my heart rate (count the beats in 10 seconds and multiply by six) to check how hard I am working. I actually look forward to the climbs as a way to efficiently build power in my legs and torso.

But I will be honest. The first time I took a spinning class we went into a climb and I almost fell off my bike trying to stay balanced.

You want to alternate your ride, whether you are on the bike for 15, 20, 30 or 45 minutes. At the less intensive levels, your pedaling revolutions per minute will be 70 to 80 (usually easy to find on any computerized exercise bike). The more intense bursts will be closer to 100 RPM. But be sure to consult a physician before starting any sort of strenuous exercise program. Over a half hour, give yourself five minutes to warm up, 15 minutes of hard riding (seated and standing), about three minutes of a recovery ride with the legs still moving, then one more hard ride of four minutes or so before cooling down. You can decide just how hard you want to go.

If you have access to music, you can even program a tape or iPod playlist so that songs cue you to what’s next: a steady climb, flat-road full sprint or whatever your fancy. You can have some fun selecting playlists. I know I do. I am especially enjoying Los Lonely Boys, Paul Simon and some vintage Jackson Browne, Steely Dan and Al Green in my recent morning workouts.

After that morning spin, I always feel more ready for the day—and in a Good Mood.

Bob

As I’ve been traveling around the country on the book tour, there are a few questions that are asked quite frequently. One of the most common is how to follow The Good Mood Diet as a vegetarian.

If you still eat fish, dairy and eggs, then The Good Mood Diet is really easy to follow. There is no need to eat meat or poultry. Whenever you see lean or very lean protein servings in the menu plan, just substitute fish or plant proteins like beans. I discuss in the book how a half of a cup of beans is equivalent to 1 very lean protein serving plus one starch serving.

If you’ve eliminated fish, dairy and eggs, then there is a little bit of extra effort involved, but you probably already have been noticing that about your diet. Substitute soy foods for the eggs in the menu. They both contain the important phospholipids that are critical for brain health. Just make sure to eat soy foods that contain all the natural fat, like soybeans, edamame, tofu, tempeh, and soy milk or yogurt with the fat still contained in it.

It’s not quite as easy to substitute for dairy. Soy milk is fortified with calcium and vitamins A and D, all very important for brain and body health. But the amino acid profile of soy milk is not the same as cow’s milk. You will not get the tryptophan boost from soy milk. But the trade off for the feeling of emotional well being by following a lifetime philosophy can be worth it. And if you are allergic to milk protein, there is just no choice. You cannot drink milk or use dairy products.

Unfortunately there is no good substitute for fish. Only 5 percent of the type of omega-3 fat from flaxseed and other vegetable sources is converted into the 2 omega-3 fats found in fish. These are the 2 critical fats for brain health and an uplifted mood. While the protein from fish is excellent, you can substitute other proteins for a similar benefit. But nothing that we currently know of will substitute for marine oils.

There is research currently going on in labs trying to create a sea vegetable source of the marine oils. Researchers are trying to incorporate fish oils into marine algae, so that vegans can gain the same benefits as those who eat fish.

If you don’t eat fish because of taste preferences, then use a fish oil supplement. If you are allergic to fish, then you must consult your physician before using a supplement. And some of my vegan clients have decided to use fish oil supplements because it is such an important health issue, and they feel the difference.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

When I was working out today I heard a song that motivated me and keep me on task. I thought you might like occasional recommendations for workout music.

I’ve taught exercise routines, fitness classes and all kinds of workout styles since I graduated from Kansas University with a Master’s of Science degree in Physical Education degree in 1973. You can imagine the records, cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs I have bought, borrowed, used and collected in that 30 or so years. I have thousands of song that are just the right speed for encouraging physical activity of all kinds. Now that modern technology allows me to put all my music into one little electronic player and manage it with my computer, I can put together collections of songs for any and every kind of workout. I have playlists for Aerobic Bench Climbing, Jumbo Exercise Ball Seated Bouncing, Beach walking, Aerobic workout walking, jogging, and even a collection that works well for my original workout: The Rubber Band Hobble Dance Workout.

The song that I suggest to be part of a fun walking workout is by the Proclaimers, called Five Hundred Miles. I think you’ll find it is just the right pace for a brisk stride and it’s got words that are positive enough to be used for most adult workotu situations.

You may recognize the song, officially titled "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)," from the radio in the past few years. If you have RealPlayer and a 56K modem or better, you can listen to the song on The Proclaimers’ official site. It's song #4 on the "Best of the Proclaimers" album. (Warning: it does have one verse that mentions getting drunk and one that mentions “waking up next to you.”)

Here are some of the lyrics, which also may help you recognize the song:

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you
When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you...

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

During the first weeks in January I traveled to New York City, Chicago and Cleveland on the first leg of my book tour and we had balmy spring-like temperatures all the way. I’m back home in Seattle and we’re on our sixth day of below-freezing temperatures and snow day school closures. This weather has come right on the heels of major storms in December that shut down the whole region for a week or more. It’s a topsy-turvy weather cycle, that’s for sure.

One of the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest is that, usually, you can spend time outside year round. By now almost everyone I know is feeling cabin fever, and many of us are a little more stressed-out than usual. When I spoke on the phone this morning to my sister-in-law who lives close by, she told me that she ate sardines for breakfast. We joked that pretty soon we’ll have to start bathing in omega-3 fats to keep our moods high.

It is no joke that the fat in your diet goes a long way in helping you cope with stress. So many of my clients and Good Mood Diet Club members comment on how they deal much better with the stress in their lives now that they are following the plan. The research in the area backs them up.

Not only does the type of fat matter, so does the total amount. Diets with less than 25-30 percent of total calories as fat decrease our coping skills, and increase feelings of anxiety and hostility. And it’s no surprise that when you feed your brain the fats it needs to stay healthy and elevate mood, you just don’t sweat the small stuff. All in all, you can take many more of the bumps in the road of life in stride.

Life will always intervene with your plans. It’s how we cope with the unexpected that can make all the difference in how we get through those times. I know that The Good Mood Diet is a great stress buster. Keep thinking about what you NEED to eat. Those feel-great fats are feeding your brain, and supporting you through the tough times.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

The Winter of 2007 in Seattle is going to go down in history. Following the driest summer in history, we had the wettest November ever. It’s not yet the middle of January and we’ve had two windstorms causing record-breaking damage to the electrical, phone and cable structures and precious old trees. Then today was the season’s second traffic stopping snowstorm. White-outs in the middle of the afternoon in Seattle causes news alerts because we go several years with no snow at all. It was a very stressful, double-long drive home this evening. My husband and I talked by cell phone repeatedly on the drive just to compare notes about how slick and dangerous the roads were and to reassure each other that we both were safe.

But once I got home, I got to do my very favorite lifestyle recreational/workout activity. I raced to change into snowboots and thermal coat so I could frolic with our dog in the woods behind our house. What a stress break and mood changer this was for both of us. Our 84-year old dog (that’s dog years) sprung off his puffy bed and dashed out the back door with me into chest-deep snow covering our backyard. As we ran through the woods that boarder our back fence, he leapt and spun like a teenager! He made me laugh right out loud, which by the way, is almost as good a workout as the trudging through the snow.

When the laughing and frolicking was complete and we had put our paw and boot prints all over the meadow near our house the second part of my favorite workout began. This is when I shoveled snow. The driveway and sidewalks got cleared and I got to lift weights (shovel-loads of wet snow) for about 30 minutes. I can’t expect to make this a regular part of my fitness plan – but it worked as a great reminder that we should always make room for creativity and take advantage of new opportunities. Do your favorite physical activities as much as you can and keep your eyes open for new and fun ways to move to put you in a good mood!

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

One of my favorite parts of the Good Mood Diet is a drink I am enjoying right now: my morning cup of coffee. Well, actually, I prefer two shots of espresso with hot water added. Coffee shops call that Americano style.

I call it necessary.

The book lays out a case for taking some caffeine before noon (two cups or two shots of espresso would be ideal, then switch to green tea and/or water for the afternoon pick-me-up). It’s especially a good idea for any habitual coffee drinkers starting our plan. In moderation, caffeine can boost alertness and provide a jump in your step for the day’s workout.

And a new article published Friday (Jan. 19) in the latest issue of the Journal of Pain adds a splash more Good Mood news to the positive coffee research flow. In a small study conducted at the University of Georgia, researchers found that caffeine consumed an hour before exercising can help reduce post-workout soreness, particularly the delayed-onset pain that we might not feel until 24 to 48 hours after the exertion.

We’ve all experienced the feeling. You do some heavy work, say, on a Saturday afternoon, feel a bit stiff Sunday morning and then almost-can’t-move sore on Monday morning. Exercise researchers and physical therapists have looked for ways to neutralize that soreness, including over-the-counter pain relievers, stretching and massage. Nothing worked consistently.

The Georgia researchers worked with nine young women volunteers. First, to simulate a workout but be consistent among the nine, the researchers used electrical stimulation to produce contractions in the thigh muscles. The next two days, the women reported the expected muscle soreness.

Next, the researchers supplied either a caffeine pill (equal to two cups of coffee) or a placebo pill before the stimulation during two subsequent days. Overall, the women taking caffeine pills reported significantly less pain and soreness than those volunteers taking the placebo.

The researchers theorized the caffeine worked to lessen delayed muscle pain by blocking the production of a chemical called adenosine, which is released as part of the inflammatory response to injury. More research is needed, but drinking coffee before your exercise session appears to be a wise choice.

For me, that means getting some of my morning coffee before I hop on my Keiser spinning cycle or head outside for a sunrise run.

I can live with that. For more about the positive effects of caffeine, check out Chapters 1 and 2 of The Good Mood Diet book.

Bob
Bob Condor is co-author of The Good Mood Diet and managing editor of health at MSN.com

Saturday evening I did a book signing at my favorite bookstore in the world, Island Books. Owner Roger Page makes every customer feel like the store is their home where you can sit and read, schmooze with friends, and eventually find that wonderful gem of a book (or in my case, two or three books) that just fits your mood and needs at the time.

One of the many questions asked during the evening was about caffeine and why it’s in the diet. “Do I need to start to drink coffee to follow the diet?” It’s a great question, and here’s the answer…

If you are not a coffee drinker or do not use caffeinated products in your diet, you certainly do not need to add them to follow the plan or be in a good mood. But for those of you who are caffeine users, there is no need to eliminate it altogether. I am giving you permission to include the equivalent of two caffeinated beverages before noon each day.

In the world of sports nutrition we know that caffeine can enhance performance. It is both a stimulant, picking up your mood and your pace, but it also gives a psychological edge. When taken before exercise, caffeine lessens your sense of how hard you are working. The Rate of Perceived Exertion is a scientifically created scale used to determine how hard we think we are working. On a scale of one to ten, one is barely working; ten is, “I’m going to drop dead if I keep doing this.” Caffeine moves your perception down the scale, so that even though you’re working out at an intensity level of six without caffeine, with caffeine you might call the same intensity a level four. You can workout harder and longer and improve your performance. For someone trying to lose weight, that translates into more calories burned in the same amount of time.

Caffeine in the morning is certainly a pick-me-up. It’s not only the caffeine itself, but often also the ritual that goes along with it. And for many, the taste and smell create a good mood all by itself. There are no risks of disease associated with small amounts of caffeine, so there is no reason to say not to have it. Larger amounts of caffeine, however, can have a rebound effect, making you feel lousy rather than good. If you get your caffeine from soft drinks, make sure they are sugar-free. There are 10 teaspoonfuls of sugar in a can of regular soda. Soda is also acidic. If you are drinking more than 2 cans a day, you may be putting your bone health at risk, especially if you are not consuming the three dairy servings that I recommend each day.

I ask you to consume your caffeine before noon. If, during the afternoon you feel like you need more cups of coffee or diet cola to stay awake and alert, then you need to examine what’s happening in the rest of your life. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you following The Good Mood Diet? Are you getting any exercise? Are you avoiding issues that you should be confronting?

Coffee and colas are acidic, harsh sources of caffeine. Green tea appears to be a gentler source of caffeine that is also rich in antioxidants that are good for your health. Subjects in studies of the weight-loss benefits of green tea often consume the equivalent of 5 cups of tea a day. They do not report the negative side effects often associated with high intakes of coffee.

I do allow for green tea in the afternoon, although you wouldn’t want to drink it close to bedtime. So if you would like something warm and comforting in the afternoon, green teas are a good choice, as are uncaffeinated beverages. Then look forward to your hot cocoa in the evening to help you melt away the cares of the day and sleep well.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

I'd like to share another one of my favorite workout songs! This one’s good for warming up for a walk or for a background song when you are lifting weights. The tempo is great for keeping you moving in a slow controlled pace when doing strength building repetitions.

I have this song programmed as one of the first songs for two reasons. One, it’s the right speed to get me moving as I start to walk; and two, it’s a very positive song about a great father/daughter relationship. (So you can use it as a reminder of your own relationships... or to revise a little history.) I think this song is a great one for men and boys to listen to also. It’s a good model of the way a parent can talk to his child.

I first heard this song when I went to a cartoon movie with a client who is very adventuresome (for a grown-up lady with a job in a corporate office!) The Wild Thornberrys Movie is a cute little animated adventure movie that we loved for several feminist reasons: The hero is a female, her mother is a smart and powerful women, and her father is a smart person that doesn’t have to put down his daughter or wife to make himself feel good. The movie promotes kindness to animals and ecology and the beauty of the African animals and continent. And best of all, this little song written for the movie by Paul Simon, is becoming an anthem for both fathers and daughters and everyone who loves them. So you can see that this song puts me in a good mood and is a great way to combine physical workout and stimulate a good mood.

You can play the song and read the lyrics for free on Paul Simon’s web site. Here's a sample of the lyrics:

Father and Daughter
Paul Simon

If you leap awake
In the mirror of a bad dream
And for a fraction of a second
You can't remember where you are
Just open your window
And follow your memory upstream
To the meadow in the mountain
Where we counted every falling star

I believe the light that shines on you
Will shine on you forever
And though I can't guarantee
There's nothing scary hiding under your bed
I’m gonna stand guard
Like a postcard of a Golden Retriever
And never leave till I leave you
With a sweet dream in your head

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

Dear Readers,

Today's blog comes from an original Good Mood Diet Club member - her thoughts as shared with Dr. Kleiner. We welcome your thoughts as well. You can send your ideas to contact@goodmooddiet.com (even though we may not be able to respond personally to every message) or join the Good Mood Diet Club in the chat room to share your thoughts with other readers.

For me, another great day of eating healthy! And I am making sure on most days to get in my 10,000 steps.

Just some thoughts - I can see that doing well on this diet requires taking care of ourselves and that takes extra time: having the right food in the house, cooking more than usual, and in my case cooking separate meals for myself and different foods for pickier family members. Following through requires spending time on ourselves, and to do that we have to feel that we are worth all that effort. I think that many women fall down when they simply do not value themselves enough, and therefore do not put the necessary effort into themselves.

When dieting, committed athletes seem to be in a different grouping, motivated by big goals that keep them going, goals that take them out of themselves. Perhaps they have been trained to be more disciplined and determined than the average woman. Probably they are less dragged down by the ups and downs of their emotional lives. I, as the "average woman" want to find a way to tap into that same determination and pursuit of goals. Hopefully, I can remember and believe this as I keep going forward: that I am worth spending time on myself. I do feel so excellent when I follow through with the diet plan/exercise and other personal goals important to me.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from new clients goes something like this: They grab some part of their body that is soft and undesirable and ask, “Can you give me an exercise to get rid of this?”

This common question brings up two important topics: body shapes and where your fat is stored and that all-time favorite subject of “spot reducing.” I think of women’s body shapes as represented by three kinds of fruits: pears, apples, and bananas. Today I’m addressing pear-shaped bodies. (Stay tuned for my blogs on “apples,” “bananas” and “spot reducing” because these are some of my pet topics!)

The Pear-Shaped Woman is the typical “hour glass figure” who has a waist smaller than her hips. This most stereotypical body shape for a woman is most people’s definition of female beauty. Pear-shaped women store their subcutaneous (under the skin) fat below their waistline and almost exclusively on the backs and sides of their bodies – on their thighs and hips and buttocks and also on the back of their upper arms.

This is how you think of most of the mature women in your life when you were a child. Most of your grade school teachers, your aunts and the women in the grocery store usually had this shape. Their arms shake when they wave and their rear-ends are wider than their shoulders.

Now for the good news: We all lose fat in the opposite order from how we gained it. When pear-shaped women start to eat and exercise at a level that causes fat loss, they lose the fat behind their necks, upper arms and off their hips. It doesn’t matter which exercise activity they do.

Everyone’s body has a set pattern to determine the order that fat cells will be drained. Doing an exercise that fatigues the waistline (or any body part) doesn’t cause those muscles to suddenly metabolize the fat that is on top of them. Rather, the brain opens up and drains the triglycerides from the “next” fat cell in its pattern with no regard to location. So go ahead and do the exercises that move the most of your body and burns the most calories in the shortest amount of time. These exercises include walking, running, skating, dancing, skipping rope, biking and swimming. The muscles you work will require calories that are stored in fat cells – no matter how close or far away from the exercised muscles.

If you have a pear-shaped body then… Be the best pear you can be by eating right and exercising regularly!

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

When Dr. Kleiner and I first collaborated on a series of Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper columns about the Good Mood Diet, we talked about her career path. She was long identified as a sports nutritionist in the media and her client list — the Seattle Seahawks and Cleveland Browns pro football teams, the Seattle SuperSonics pro basketball team, the Cleveland Indians major league baseball team, and Olympians — reflects her reputation in the world of performance athletes.

“But I came to realize my eating plans were all about boosting energy,” recalled Kleiner. “I was helping athletes feel better and more focused. If they needed to lose weight, the eating plans were helping with that too.”

Soon enough, team executives, neighbors, friends, family and others were asking Kleiner’s diet advice. We all have an inner athlete, right?

OK, no shaking your heads.

What Dr. Kleiner and other pioneering sports nutritionists accomplished was teaching athletes to eat more food throughout the day. For instance, it was not uncommon for pro football players to skip breakfast to make sure they got to practice.

Bad idea. The body needs fuel to get through the day, especially when some 300-pound guy is making himself a nuisance during work hours.

These days, pro teams make breakfast available at their training facilities so players can grab a pre-practice meal or snack. Same goes for lunch as players often spend a whole day on site between practice, film sessions and strategy sessions.

Trust me, there are nutritionists and other team officials hard at work this week to make sure Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts players are getting the right foods at the right time during the hectic week of preparation before next Sunday’s Super Bowl.

A key element for those players—and the rest of us—is not skipping meals and, even when you don’t have an ideal Good Mood day, to still make sure you eat foods from the Feel-Good list, such as drinking the nightly hot cocoa or munching on almonds and dried fruit mid-afternoon after a celebratory lunch.

“It’s all about what fits into your life,” said Kleiner. “Usually when people go on diets, they feel lousy, not mention cranky and starved. My goal for people is to let mood be their guide. The weight they want to lose will come with it. It worked for my athlete clients and it can work for you too.”

Go Bears!
Bob

Have you heard of the latest replacement for trans fats? They are called “interesterified fats.”

Trans fats were created in the laboratory to replace naturally occurring saturated fats that were often found in lard. For baked goods, fried foods and snack foods, trans fats offered flakiness, crispiness and longer shelf lives. On ingredient lists, they are called “partially hydrogenated oils.” It was discovered over 2 decades ago that trans fats were more harmful to heart health than naturally occurring saturated fats. At the time however, the amount of trans fats in the American diet was so small that no alarm was set off regarding public health risks.

Fast forward 20 years and trans fats are found in so large a proportion of our food supply that it triggered a public health outcry. The USDA has required all food manufacturers to include the amounts of trans fats in their foods on the nutritional labels. New York City has even banned trans fats from foods prepared in restaurants, and many other cities are looking to follow suit. So food manufacturers must find an appropriate substitute quickly.

Very early studies of interestified fats, found as “fully hydrogenated oils” on food package list of ingredients, showed that when fed for just one meal, no effect on lipid levels was observed. Last week, the results of a 4-week research study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism showed that interesterified fats may be even worse for your health than trans fats. After 4 weeks of a diet containing 12% of total calories as interesterified fat, bad cholesterols levels increased, good cholesterol levels decreased, fasting blood glucose levels rose, and insulin response decreased. The interesterified fats were even worse than the responses to the trans fats, and absolutely worse compared to saturated fats.

What should you do? Nothing. Don’t change a thing. Keep following The Good Mood Diet plan. Keep your focus on all those great natural fats that you need to eat in your diet: avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, olive oil, canola oil, and all the great nut and seed oils that give your diet variety and zing! If you want a little butter every once in awhile, enjoy it. Savor it. Stick with fats from nature, rather than those created in a test tube, and you’ll be sure to stay healthy and in a good mood!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Susan

One of my favorite songs to walk to is a bossa nova tune that was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s. It’s the first song on my “beach walking play list.” I use this list when we vacation at a sunny get-away-spot.

But today I listened to it as I did my winter weekend walk and it really put me in a good mood! I was glad to be moving – it was one of those “almost like spring” days that can fool you here in the Northwest. I tore myself away from my home office and left my husband working in the yard and took time to do something that’s really good for me and always puts me in a good mood. I went off with my Ipod and walked in the crisp sunshine.

My 90-minute path is saved for weekend days and I get to hear a lot of my favorite music. This song has a great story behind it and a woman that is a national hero in her South American country for being “The Girl.” She was the only woman in the 60s that was famous for her beach walking. As the words of the song tell us – she walked every day on the beach. This is probably the first (and only) popular song about how having a daily activity program makes you beautiful and desirable to those who watch you pass. I like to imagine that someone is singing it about me as I walk past them! That really puts me in a good mood and makes me laugh as I put on my parka and neck scarf.

You can find more than 60 recorded versions of the song on the web. Listen to the version sung by Astrud Gilberto that topped the charts in the 60s. I hope you enjoy it too!

Here are the words to my workout song suggestion…

The Girl from Ipanema
Words and music by Jobim/Gimbel/Demoraes

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah

When she walks, she’s like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle
That when she passes, each one she passes goes - ooh

(ooh) but I watch her so sadly
How can I tell her I love her
Yes I would give my heart gladly
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at me

Tall, (and) tan, (and) young, (and) lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile - but she doesn’t see
(doesn’t see, she just doesn’t see, she never sees me,...)

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

Dear Readers, It’s “guest blogger” Wednesday and I, the editor of the Web site, decided to add my two cents. Usually I edit the entries from Dr. Kleiner, our experts Alice and Bob, and long-time Good Mood dieters. Today, I’m writing to you as a “newbie” Good Mood dieter.

For a few months, since I started working with Dr. Kleiner, I’ve been making sure to add in a few of the key Feel-Great Foods, such as flax seed, an egg a day, and more seafood. But even though I could tell that these small changes helped eliminate mood swings and even though I was impressed with Dr. Kleiner’s smart, “no deprivation” approach, I resisted following the meal plans, and certainly didn’t keep a food and exercise log.

Well, you can’t read other people’s success stories – and you certainly can’t read Bob’s and Alice’s straight-forward and humorous articles and blogs – and stay resistant. So last week I printed 20 copies of the log (from the GMD Club page) and started using them religiously. I have been following the meal plans for the first two weeks.

Wow! It’s true. I feel better. I don’t get tired so early in the evening. I track details better. I keep noticing things that, even though they are discussed in the book, seem so much bigger and better when I experience them myself. So here’s my list of My Favorite Things About The Good Mood Diet:

1. I actually like to fill out the food and exercise log. This surprises me. I find it satisfying to write down the positive things I’ve done each day. And I don’t feel the least bit guilty when I write “a slice of pizza,” or “two cookies.” I observe that I ate something that might not help me toward my goal, and I look at the connection between what I ate, what I hadn’t eaten earlier in the day to help avoid the craving, and how I felt.


2. Real foods taste better. I don’t understand this yet. But I have observed that carrots with peanut butter (even a mere 1 tablespoon of the delicious spread) are scrumptious. Apricots stuffed with almonds: nectar of the gods! Yogurt with berries and ground flax seed: Yum! I love the textures! And those cookies I had the other day? They were only so-so.


3. I feel good. I mean really good. Clean on the inside. Especially when I exercise. I’ve been alternating between yoga, aerobics and strengthening classes. It had been too long since my last class and I started out stiff and unbalanced. But I’m amazed at how quickly my conditioning has improved.


4. I like knowing that I get to relax with a cup of hot cocoa or warm almond milk every day. This is one of those connections I hadn’t made at first. I understood the fact that milk contains L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid that helps you sleep. But didn’t understand the comfort of knowing you get a treat each day, no matter what else you ate. Often, knowing the comfort drink is coming at the end of the day helps me turn down less beneficial treats.


5. I love the tips and support from the smart Good Mood Diet Club members in the chat group. People have been sharing really good ideas and recipes. And it’s helpful to check in when looking for a little motivation. There’s a slew of success stories out there!