Vtrim Community Blog      Vtrim Online

As the first week of school begins this Fall for most people, whether you are in school or are responsible for someone who is, a new routine, a new schedule and a new set of habits quickly form.  It’s important at this time to take a minute to set some new goals at this time too.  If you’ll take five minutes to write down five healthy goals, you’ll find that you will be more likely to achieve your healthy goals even in the midst of a new chaotic schedule.

When setting goals to help you “Fall” into healthy habits, keep these tips in mind:

1. Set SMARTeR goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely, & Rewarded

2.  When evaluating whether a goal is realistic or not, be sure to challenge yourself but at the same time set yourself up for success.

For example, on the first week or two of school, you may not feel like you can commit to your usual 30-60 minutes of exercise, so instead try writing a goal such as, “During the first two weeks of school, I will exercise five days a week for a minimum of 15 minutes per day.  I will exercise in the morning at 6am.  At the end of the first two weeks of school, when I’ve achieved my exercise goal, I will reward myself by buying a new cookbook that will help me prepare healthy meals on the go!”

3.  Prepare for the next day the night before or even the weekend before. Preparation does take time and effort but can be quick also. If done properly it can TRULY help you succeed during the week. Try tips such as:

-Go to the grocery store before the weekend is over and when you get home, package veggies and fruits into “snack size” bags.  Keep your healthy snacks in a plastic box or shoe box that is visible when you open the refrigerator.  Think through what you want to pack in a lunch and make sure to have a cooler or lunch bag ready to go.

-Cook enough meat for the week. Using a slow cooker or in the oven, try baking a handful of chicken breasts that you can then use for various meals.  The options are endless, however some examples include:

——-Rice Bowl: Brown rice (or quinoa)  + Chicken +  Teriyaki + Frozen Veggies;

——-Salad: Chicken + Mixed Greens + Cut up Tomato or Cut up Berries;

——-Fajitas: Chicken + High Fiber, Low Cal Tortilla + Sliced Peppers & Avocado;

——-Fried Rice: Chicken + Brown Rice + Mixed Veggies + Scrambled Egg (stir fry in pan on stove top)

-Pack your exercise clothes and walking shoes for the week.  On Sunday night, pack a gym bag with enough clothes for the week. Include also some recycled grocery bags to put your used clothes in to bring home for the wash.  This way there is never an excuse that you “forgot your workout clothes!”

As schedules change and new habits begin to form, be sure to make “fall”ing into healthy habits as a priority too!

Want the perspective of a trained facilitator on the Vtrim Online experience? Check out our guest blog post by certified Vtrim facilitator Hope Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE, BC-ADM. You can also follow Hope’s blog at http://www.hopewarshaw.com/blog.     

What’s vtrim and what have I experienced first-hand?

Vtrim is a researched-based weight management program that’s home-grown on the campus of University of Vermont (my alma mater). The vtrim researchers have been obtaining NIH research grants for nearly a decade and have slowly accumulated the research which makes the case that online chat-based weight management can be successful. The research continues, but now vtrim is available to anyone in the world wide community who wants to lose pounds and change their lifestyle for good.

Two years ago I heard about vtrim. About a year ago I became a trained facilitator (health care professionals with weight control coaching skills). I admit I was a doubting Thomas but I ventured in because I was curious and know we need cost effective and easily accessible ways to help people succeed at lifestyle change. But I wondered, how could a weekly online chat for an hour (no phone connection),  a weekly journal review and comments, and e-mails, create a community in which people could find success?

In November I began my first vtrim group. Food and exercise guidelines and goals as well as online journaling are core program elements. On the weekly chats we’d debrief about the week, focus in on a topic surrounding behavior change and offer lots of support.  Twenty-four weeks later, mid April, my first group ended. All I can say is WOW and YES!

After a few short weeks my group came together as a community. Sure we lost a few members along the way (that’s true for in-person programs).  Weight losses ranged from less than 10 pounds to greater than 30, but we didn’t focus on pounds lost on chats at all.  Suffice to say participants who really “worked the program”; managed their food intake by cutting calories and fat, ate more fruits and vegetables, etc; upped their calorie burn with exercise, religiously (or almost) kept journals; did very well. Others struggled initially but during the middle of the program began to “get it” – this was about making long term permanant lifestyle changes.

Insights shared during our weekly chat were inspiring to all. Support was contagious. And I was relentless with my missives about what’s entailed in long term weight management and it that it WILL be a long term battle. Vtrim is not a diet, it’s about creating and cementing new healthy behaviors -  permanent lifestyle changes.

Bottomline: Research shows us that the people who do best in weight management programs take advantage of the tools and community aspects of programs (whether live or online). As well, research shows us the longer the program and the longer people are engaged the more weight they will lose. And if we are going to help the millions of people who are overweight or obese and at risk or with weight-related health issues, we’re going to have to use and maximize the technologies at our fingertips. Vtrim is just one solution.

Yes, I’m sold and I’ll be facilitating more groups. Hear more from two women blogging about their vtrim weight loss journeys: healthylosergal.com and puff2buff.com.

Our March inperson classes on the UVM campus are just around the corner. And to get you all excited, we interviewed our inperson facilitator Sally Ross Nolan for you all to get to know her better and learn what she loves about Vtrim. We think you’ll all love Sally’s down to earth personality and way of telling it like it is!

Facilitator Name: Sally Ross Nolan

Education/background: M.S. from St. Michael’s College in VT.  I worked for years in several counseling/education positions at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.  My day job for the past 11 years or so is at The Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at UVM doing research studies.  I’ve been a Vtrim facilitator since 2006.

Years experience in health area: 30ish years (where’d the time go?!)

Favorite form of exercise: snow shoeing in the winter, tennis in warm weather

Favorite meal or snack: tamari almonds

My top 5 favorite foods: Chocolate-need you ask?, Tofu-there’s so much you can do with it and it can be put together quickly,  my mother’s chicken salad- pure comfort food,  turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving (and don’t tell, but I use white bread this one time).

What do you enjoy about facilitating Vtrim weight management groups? It’s a privilege for me to witness people taking hold of their life and making positive changes.  And it’s fun-we laugh a lot!

If you had a day to do whatever you wanted, how would you spend it? Working with a documentary film crew

What is one of the most common hurdles you see people face in changing behaviors and what are 1-2 things you find helpful for overcoming that hurdle? Negative self talk can keep people stuck..  It takes awareness and then conscious practice to change an attiude/belief AND it can be done.  Replace negative thoughts with a positive ones.  And if you’re not there yet-”fake it till you make it”.

One thing you would love to do in the future/personal goal for the future: Spend more time doing photography

Any favorite tip you love to share about behavior change: Just keep learning from each challenge and keep getting “back on the horse”.

Interested in one of Sally’s classes? She’ll be teaching on Tuesdays beginning later this month. Check out our schedule at http://www.uvm.edu/vtrim/register/

Vtrim Online and the YMCA are the perfect combination for losing weight and getting healthier.  YMCAs are committed to serving health seekers through their Activate America initiative in an effort to combat the obesity and lifestyle crisis we face as a nation.  What are health seekers, you ask?  Health seekers are individuals who want to be active and healthy but continually start and stop the process and, therefore, have been unable to sustain a commitment to healthy living.  That is where Vtrim comes into play.  Vtrim paves the way to sustainable weight management in an evidence-based, systematic, 12 week online program.  It is not intimidating and is very doable.   Did I mention it is backed by 18 years of scientific study at the University of Vermont?

Most importantly we teach the way to sustainable lifestyle change since ultimately that is how you keep the weight off and get healthier long-term.  The YMCA supports your Vtrim efforts by providing the exercise infrastructure to meet your weekly exercise goals.  Plus, the face to face interaction at the Y is a nice complement to the online aspect of Vtrim.  These two programs together provide the momentum needed to make consistent, healthier choices and to finally learn a new way of living. 

Read more about this exciting initiative, currently through the Greater Burlington YMCA, YMCA of Greater Boston and YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh.  We are starting 2 Vtrim @ the Y classes in February.  The classes are open to members and non-members and you do not need to live in  Burlington, Boston or Pittsburgh to participate.   Sign up today!

Hi everyone!  Thanks for checking in today.  As you can see in today’s post, Vtrim went to the 4th annual Dragon Boat Festival this past weekend in Burlington, Vermont!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Dragon Boat Festival, it is a huge summer event where teams dress up in crazy costumes and race boats on Lake Champlain as a way to fund raise for cancer efforts.

Despite the gloomy weather forecast, thousands of dedicated spectators showed up bright and early to the event. The 75 teams made up of businesses, families, and organizations throughout the community came ready to race their hearts out. Even as the storm clouds came through, the racers pushed on with energy and excitement up until the festival was inevitably cut short. More details about the festival can be found at http://www.ridethedragon.org/.

This year, Vtrim sponsored the athletes village, the area where each team could set up a tent and use a staging area, stretching space, and where other sponsors set up shop. As a sponsor, we were also featured on all of the pendants throughout the village.

Let us just say that in a nutshell, the energy and excitement that was in the air that Sunday was inspiring!  It was truly amazing to see so many people supporting cancer survivors, cancer research and most of all Camp Te Kum Ta (half of this years profits went to the camp http://www.takumta.org/).  Vtrim was  honored to be a featured sponsor at this event, which emphasized fitness, fun, and philanthropy all at the same time.  Check out our photos and let us know if you were there!  We would love to hear about your experience.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/vtrim/

A recent study at Purdue University found that obesity contributes to
longer hospital stays. In the study, researchers found that hospital
stays for obese patients were on average 1.5 days longer than hospital
stays for patients of normal weight. Why? The researchers found the
greatest association with rates of disease in obese patients compared
to normal weight patients.

Obese patients had more incidence of diseases like hypertension, heart
disease, and diabetes, all of which can complicate health and needed
medical care. The study also showed that those patients who had been
obese the longest also had the longest hospital stays.

What does this mean for you? Now is the time to improve your health
risks through weight loss. Remember, a reduction of even 5-10% of
starting body weight yields significant reductions on disease risks.
Moving from an obese body mass index (BMI) to the overweight BMI range,
or from overweight BMI to normal BMI range can result in great health
savings. The sooner the better!

Check out our schedule of upcoming Vtrim classes if you are ready to improve your health.

www.uvm.edu/vtrim

Do you tend to eat on a regular schedule each day or do you find yourself grazing your way through the day, eating at different times each day? A research study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared the effects of a normal eating schedule with a random, grazing style of eating. The women in the study who ate at fixed, routine times each day burned more calories after each meal than women who ate unscheduled meals randomly throughout the day. Additionally, the women who ate regularly had lower peaks in insulin levels after meals, suggesting the possibility of better insulin control when eating regularly.

While it was a small study, it raises some thoughts about the benefits of an eating routine or schedule. Random eating times and grazing can set you up to consume more calories through mindless eating. Having a routine makes it easier to plan ahead and be prepared with healthier options to eat.

Need another reason to implement an eating schedule or routine? Having a plan in place for eating behaviors helps facilitate greater weight management success. Afterall, healthy habits don’t just happen–they take effort and planning.

At Vtrim, we distinguish programmed exercise from lifestyle exercise very clearly.  However, both play an important role in lifelong weight management.  Programmed exercise is exercise you do specifically for weight control.  You plan it into your day and you take time to burn calories.  That calorie burn, along with a reduced-calorie intake, creates the calorie deficit necessary for weight loss.  Regular exercise is critical to keeping weight off.  People in Vtrim build up slowly to burning 2000 calories per week (20 miles of walking) through programmed exercise.  Think walking, biking, swimming…

But what about lifestyle exercise?  What is it and how does it fit into  a weight management program? Lifestyle exercise represents the choices you make to be more active on a daily basis.  Think, stairs instead of elevator, parking farther away, raking leaves, walking to the store instead of driving.  All of these choices add up to burning more calories than if you had chosen their sedentary counterpart, elevator instead of stairs, park in the closest spot, pay the neighbor to rake your leaves, drive .25 mile to the store.

Think of lifestyle exercise as insurance.  You will NEVER be 100% accurate in calculating exactly how many calories you are eating and how many you are burning through exercise.  But just the act of recording in a food journal gets you closer to your actuals.  Lifestyle exercise covers this margin of error.  By moving more on a daily basis you are making up for the inevitable errors of journaling.  It is a fact that people underestimate what they eat and typically overestimate the calories burned through exercise.

Take stock of your daily routine.  Do you value “efficiency” over moving more?  This can be deceiving.  You’ll typically beat people waiting for the elevator when you take the stairs to the lower floors.  It is always a good feeling to make it to your destination at the same time as those who rode up but you burned a few extra calories to boot.

Don’t underestimate the importance of lifestyle exercise and get creative with new ways to move more throughout the day.  We like creative out of the box ideas.  Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is tried and true.  But, do you have any unique suggestions you’d like to share?

Did you know that March is a more popular “dieting” month than January?  Research shows that more people vow to get their weight under control in March than at the beginning of the New Year.  It makes sense when you think about it…  Summer is approaching fast, shorts and bathing suits are on the brain and the opportunity for outdoor exercise is greater.   Vtrim will teach you how to manage your behaviors around eating and exercise so that long-term weight management is possible.  At Vtrim, we teach you to set SMART goals so that you can measure your progress and success.

S = Specific: Set specific goals.  Specific goals have detail and state exactly what you are working on.  For example, “I want to lose 10 pounds by June 1st” instead of “I want to lose weight.”

M = Measurable: Measurable goals include the “how much” and “how often” details of the goal you have set above.  “I will exercise more” is not enough.  “I will walk 3 miles on Monday, Wednesday and Friday” is more like it.  You can measure your success.

A = Achievable: Your goal should be achievable.  Losing 10 pounds in 3 months is achievable.  Losing 50 in 3 months is not.

R = Realistic: Do you believe you can accomplish the goal you have set out to achieve?  If yes, your goal is realistic.  Meeting realistic goals and reevaluating when you get there is more rewarding than shooting for the moon and always missing.

T = Time-limited: Goals need to have a time-frame.  A time frame gives you the framework to monitor your progress and evaluate how you are doing.  If what you are doing is working and you are getting closer to your stated goal, great!  If not, how can you adjust so you still meet your goal in your stated time-frame?

If your motivation is high and changing your lifestyle to manage your weight sounds like a worthy goal, then go with that train of thought and get on board with Vtrim.  Check out our schedule of March classes and let Vtrim show you the way to lasting weight control!

Vtrim was recently mentioned in a Diabetic Living article called Log On To Take It Off by Hope Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE a nationally recognized dietitian and diabetes educator.  The article does a great job of breaking down online options for weight loss from “fee to free”, as Hope writes.  All websites are not created equal and just because a program is online does not mean it will be inexpensive to participate.  It is important to realize what you are buying when you sign up for any online program.  You will find similar weight loss tools on practically every site but that may be where the similarities end.

Many sites are inexpensive and that is because they are self-help programs.  It is up to you to take advantage of what is offered and to keep your motivation high.  Weight loss is difficult and keeping it off is even harder, so for many people a self-help program is not enough.  However, there are certainly success stories that come out of these programs and they are usually front and center on the homepage with a disclaimer that says, “results not typical”.

The Vtrim program is online and we utilize a website to deliver our program, however we are much more than a weight loss website.  We know how difficult behavior change is for weight loss and our program is considered the gold-standard treatment for obesity in the research world.  The word treatment gives respect to the weight loss process.  In order to lose weight and have the best chance of keeping it off, you need a plan, a systematic approach.  Relying on willpower alone is usually a set up for failure.  Changing behaviors takes time and support.  All websites have something to offer but remember they are not all created equal.  Know yourslef, know what you need to succeed and seek out a site that will deliver for you.  If you need expert feedback, accountability and peer support, a structured program, like Vtrim, is a good option.

Download the Article Here