Olive oil could help breast cancer patients lose weight

Keeping your weight down has been seen as a great way to avoid breast cancer in the first place, and when you’ve had breast cancer - like me - keeping the pounds off after diagnosis and treatment are crucial in my efforts to keep the cancer from recurring.

With the obesity epidemic in America, there are potentially too many women who may unknowingly be putting themselves at risk by being significantly overweight - and I was one of them about 20 years ago. I also had breast cancer. Anecdotal to be sure, but a lot of researchers are looking at the possible links.

That’s why I am interested in articles such as the following:

PROVIDENCE, RI – Researchers from The Miriam Hospital have found that olive oil may offer another potential health benefit – it produces greater weight loss in breast cancer survivors compared to a more traditional low-fat diet.

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A drink a day may keep some calories away.

As a woman who is always vigilant about her weight, I’ve felt guilty having that nightly glass of ‘attitude adjustment’. As it turns out, maybe I shouldn’t worry.

According to the University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter - which I’ve subscribed to since it’s inception:

“many diets advise giving up alcoholic beverages because of their high calorie content. But research on whether alcohol increases the risk of becoming overweight has yielded inconsistent findings. In fact, a recent Harvard study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that normal-weight women who had one or two drinks a day gained less weight over a 13-year period than non drinkers. They were also 30% less likely to become overweight or obese. Few women reported drinking heavily, so it’s not known how that would affect weight, but heavy drinking is bad for overall health. The researchers noted that, unlike men, women tend to substitute alcohol for other beverages or food without increasing total calorie intake.”

See, this is what I’ve been saying for years.

Uh, I’ll take that Manhattan now.

Really ready to lose weight? Here's the simplest way possible.

And, not a bit of calorie counting involved.

It’s going to cost you $5.00 plus postage.

You eat normal, real, whole foods.

You eat like Grandma used to.

You eat like they do in France.

Sounds impossible? Not.

Snag yourself a copy of ‘Food Rules’ by Michael Pollan. At a mere $5.00 at Amazon.com, you can’t afford not to get a copy. I downloaded it to my Kindle, but then ordered the paper copy for reference.

‘Food Rules’ is a simple, 70 page manual for how to eat. Simple, easy to follow rules that once learned will forever banish junk food, engineered faux food products, overeating, chemicals and additives from your life and your kitchen. With a bit of daily exercise, this is quite simply all you need.

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It works: Weight Watchers online Momentum Plan

I almost wish I had more than 5 lbs to loose. I’d actually give this a try. Seriously, the good old Weight Watchers, that’s been around forever … who knew it could be so effective, especially for women on the go.

‘On the go’ : that’s code for busier than hell. A job, a family, commuting, grad school. You’re probably the queen of multi-tasking, right? You work in exercise a couple times a week and try to avoid the obvious junk food, but nothing seems to work?

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Exercise: Getting past the drive to be thin

It’s hard to work all day, come home wondering what you’ll throw together for dinner, pay bill, write a blog, clean up dog puke … and remember to exercise daily.

Like a lot of others, particularly women, I use the old stick and carrot approach of keeping my figure slim and trim, but I know - deep down - that the other benefits of exercise can’t be measured on a scale or with a tape measure.

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Still looking for that 'right' diet?

I don’t think I am anymore, since I seem to be able to loose a few pounds now and keep it off without much effort. But there was a time about a year ago that I was stressed out that my weight creep was so inevitable that I’d better just learn to love it - in a completely unhealthy, neurotic way. Before I threw in the towel, however I went to see the local university nutritionists, and the advice they gave me was hard to accept at first, but I now think they were right.

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5 diet tips that everybody can live with

I’ve lost - and kept off - more than 30 pounds for about 10 years now. It isn’t rocket science, but it is about acting like an adult, having some discipline and adhering to routines.

When I go out with friends, I hear them making up all sorts of reasons why they should have the high calorie thing - since they ‘don’t do it every day’, or this is ‘a special occasion’. This is simply justifying what you want. I have, perhaps, three occasions over the course of an entire year that I consider so special that I throw calories and caution to the wind.

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