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Tips For Successful Weight Loss

2006-08-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Throughout my childhood and teenage years I watched as my mother tried every fad diet under the sun. I recall one time she ate boiled cabbage and nothing else for a whole week. I felt my mothers' frustration and misery, however I could not understand why it was so difficult for her to lose weight and keep it off - until that is I became a weight management coach.

For the past two years I have been assisting people to achieve their ideal weight and in this time I have experienced what contributes to a successful weight loss story.

Getting serious - It all starts with you and how serious you are about losing weight. The key to successful weight loss is partly dependent on your level of commitment. How would you rate your seriousness on a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being deadly serious)?

No quick fix - If you have made the commitment to get serious about losing weight then you need to make the commitment to do it safely and effectively. One piece of invaluable advice my own family doctor passed onto me is that slow and steady is always the best option. The longer it takes you to lose weight the less likely you are to put it back on.

Staying motivated - Always keep the end in mind! Write down all of the reasons why you are motivated to lose weight now. Record these reasons on a piece of card that can be kept in your wallet or purse. Each morning and before going to bed remind yourself by reading aloud why you are motivated to lose weight.

Facing challenges - Every day you are likely to face challenges, which can disrupt your focus and get in the way of your weight loss goals. Write down all of the challenges that you know have made losing weight hard for you in the past. This will help you to develop a better strategy this time. Three common challenges are lack of results, boredom and lack of support from spouse, family and friends.

Choosing a weight control program - I recommend choosing a diet / weight control program that offers all of the following for best results:

* Provides a balanced nutritious program that is safe and effective
* Support system and regular progress follow-up
* Teaches you better eating habits
* Teaches you how to maintain your weight once you have reached your goal weight

For two years Annette Croft has been assisting people reach their ideal weight with the aid of a nutritious, simple and convenient weight management program.

Drink Beer AND Lose Weight

2006-07-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Want to shed that beer belly? Why not try the low-carbohydrate approach? Following the philosophy of today's most popular low-carbohydrate books, dieters gradually increase the early restrictions of their daily carbohydrate intake while excess weight continues to come off, once again enjoying starchy foods like potatoes, rice and pasta ... in moderation, of course.

But what about beer? Is it possible to include moderate amounts of regular brewed beer in a low-carbohydrate diet? One stumbling block that some beer drinkers find when trying to shed weight on a low-carbohydrate regime is the reliance on light beer with its minimal carbohydrate content (and some might say taste). Is it possible to move beyond the restrictions of light beer and on to one of your full-bodied favorites?

Don't bother looking for the answer to this beer drinker's quandary in the many low-carbohydrate diet books that can be found on store shelves today. Not one of these books addresses the possibility of moving on from light beers to regular brewed beers while the pounds continue to melt away.

Why not? If you're a beer drinker, the answer might be obvious. There are no carbohydrate listings on the cans or bottles of regular brewed beer because the government feels that "... nutrition information on labels [of regular beers] is unnecessary and unwarranted." Brewers of light beers, however, have to not only prove that their products are lower in carbohydrates and calories than their big brothers by listing the carbohydrate and calorie count on beer containers, they must also include the nutritional values of the lighter brew.

Is it right to know the carbohydrate and calorie content of what's in your Twinkie but not in that bottle of Czechvar imported beer sitting in front of you? Not if you're a beer drinker on a low-carbohydrate diet!

For the benefit of anyone who's considering using the low-carbohydrate approach to shedding unwanted pounds, here's a list of some popular beers with their carbohydrate contents. All carb values are for twelve-ounce servings:

Anchor Steam 16.00,
Bitburger Pils 9.05,
Boston Beer Summer Ale 15.85,
Budejovicky Budwar (Czechvar) 13.49,
Cooper's Genuine Draught 7.02,
Coors Blue Moon Belgian White 12.87,
Corona Extra 13.99,
Grant's Scottish Ale 12.70,
Harpoon IPA 12.00,
Leinenkugel Original 13.90,
New Belgium Fat Tire 13.66,
Pete's Strawberry Blonde 13.70,
Pilsner Urquell 14.70,
Warsteiner Premium Fresh 12.78,
Spoetzl's Shiner Summer Stock 10.50.

For more information on the carbohydrate count of more than 350 worldwide brands of beer, go to www.drinkbeergetthindiet.com.

Bob Skilnik is a Chicagoland freelance writer who has written for the Chicago Tribune, the Collector Magazine, the American Breweriana Association's Journal and the National Association Breweriana Advertising's Breweriana Collector on the subjects of beer, brewery history and breweriana. He is a 1991 graduate of the Chicago-based Siebel Institute of Technology, the oldest brewing school in the United States, with a degree in Brewing Technology.

His interests in beer and brewing were cultivated while serving as a German translator in West Germany for the United States Army. Skilnik is the Associate Editor for the ABA Journal and The Tap newspaper, and a member of the Society of Midland Authors and the Culinary Historians of Chicago. He has appeared in the Chicagoland area on Media One's television program, The Buzz, WTTW's Chicago Tonight with Bob Sirott and Phil Ponce, Chicago's Public Radio station, WBEZ , Springfield, IL's WUIS Radio and the WOR Morning Show with Ed Walsh in New York. Skilnik's national television appearances have been on the Cold Pizza morning show on ESPN2 and Fox News Live.

Approaches to the Treatment of Obesity and A Free Weight Loss Formula

2006-07-08T02:27:00.000-07:00

The general approach for treatment of obesity is to suggest a low calorie diet and increased physical activity. Ther are many weight loss programmes in the market. Some over-the-counter wellness products are also very popular these days as they claim to produce the results fast. But many of these products are not researched properly and medical community has expressed doubts about their effectiveness in long term.

Many weight loss programmes are based on low carbohydrate diet although its long term effect is not very much different than that of low calorie carbohydrate rich diet, according to a recent research. Low carbohydrate diet produces ketosis which causes low cholesterol levels and reduced body weight. However, there are differences of opinion in medical community as to whether the low carb diet is safe in long run.

Other systems of medicine like Ayurveda and Homeopathy also have their own approach for treatment of obesity. According to Ayurveda, obesity is recognized as a disease called "Medoroga". Meda means fat and it is one of the seven Dhatu's that are sequentially produced from food in the human body. Obesity is considered as a nutritional disorder mainly produced due to sedentary life style. Ayurveda puts more emphasis on prevention of the disease and adopting a healthy life style. The medicines for the treatment of obesity contain the substance known as Guggulu which is responsibe for reducing weight. Ayurveda uses natural products in the preparation of medicines and these medicines are generally safer than chemical based medicines and drugs. Also, the Ayurvedic medicines have a long history of use and hence, are more reliable.

Homeopathy has its own approach. It treats the patient, not the disease. It takes into account the constitution of a person for treatment of diseases. The constitution is the physical, emotional and intellectual make up of the person. Hence there are no ready made prescriptions for obesity which can produce uniform results. The patient should have enough patience to take Homeopathic medication otherwise no significant results can be produced.

Another approach that can help in curing obesity is that of Yoga. Yoga advocates a healthy life style with its specific techniques to clean the body from toxins and improve emotional and intellectual balance. It covers a broad spectrum of life. Besides physical aspects, it also covers emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects of life which are mostly ignored by modern science when treating a patient. Certain types of pranayama (breathing techniques) greatly help in the cure of obesity. Meditation can reduce mental stress which is also a cause for tendency of over-eating.

A person should be kept motivated and focused on the goals in order to implement a particular weight loss programme. Hence behavioral therapy is also popular these days which suggests to set specific goals and have a reward other than food for achieving those goals. Regular recording of weight and activities is also important to track the progress.

An integrated approach is required which can address the issue more appropriately. A good weight loss plan should be based on a synthesis of different approaches for treatment of obesity. A weight loss formula is available at http://www.free-weight-loss-formula.com that incorporates the following steps:

Step1 - A Meditation technique to eliminate mental causes of obesity

Step2 - A simple but powerful fat burning exercise

Step3 - Pranayam (breathing techniques)

step4 - Balanced diet

It provides a step by step method which anyone can follow to reduce weight and get a perfect body shape. It incorporates the traditional wisdom about healthy life style. It is based on an integrated approach which addresses multiple causes of obesity. You are not required to purchase any expensive wellness product to implement it. In this way, you save money which you would otherwise have to spend on the treatment of obesity related problems.

An Incredible New Weight Loss Product - Your Brain

2006-06-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

I would like to introduce you to an incredible new weight loss product: Your brain?

I discovered this technique for weight loss many, many years ago from a great New Thought teacher. When I posted it on a business forum last year, a member publicly thanked me for her weight loss a short time later.

I hope some of you will accept this and give it a try also.

To lose weight, here is a technique to use. As you drop off to sleep, repeat over and over again to your subconscious mind, your ideal weight (or your goal weight). For example, just repeat as you fall asleep, when your mind is most receptive to suggestion: 140 pounds?140 pounds?140 pounds. In the waking state, an affirmation might be: "I weigh 140 pounds in divine order" or something similar. You will be conditioning your subconscious mind to accept your goal weight and it will compulsively guide you to do everything necessary to accomplish that result.

Am I qualified to make such a claim about this technique? I will let you decide. The photos you see of me that appear on my website were taken within the past couple of years and with some fluctuation, I have maintained this body for most of my life. I am healthy, trim, fit and look 20 years younger than my years. However, I come from a "fat" family. My mother wasn't overweight...she was obese, and when she died in the 80s, she was just a few years older than I am now. I won't give details about my younger sister - she's gone, too. And don't think I can't gain weight easily. Oh, yes I can, but my mind won't let me. It has been conditioned too well to keep me fit and healthy. I don't think about what I have to do to maintain that, it does it for me - I lift weights, I eat healthy foods and can indulge in fattening foods sporadically without repercussion. Automatic pilot. Will this technique work for you? I say?what have you got to LOSE? Body back guarantee.

The whole point of the subconscious conditioning is to bring our consciousness to the point of acceptance that we already are where we want to be. Then the subconscious is compulsive and will intuitively guide us to the right foods, exercise, whatever it takes to fulfill that vision. But we must give the mind the right message.

The subconscious mind technique does not "replace" your healthy eating habits. It creates them! That's the whole idea. The subconscious is the seat of habit. And of intuition. With the right mindset, your healthy eating habits will become just that - healthy "habits" - instead of the compulsively unhealthy ones.

"When the imagination and the will are in conflict, the imagination always wins." - Emile Coue

This is not a diet. This is the natural way we are created to use our minds - constructively and in alignment with Universal laws.

So again, we use our minds to accept the idea, thought and picture of a fit, healthy person at his/her ideal weight. Once that idea is instilled in the mind, you will automatically be guided and directed to all that is necessary for you to fulfill that idea. You will just intuitively want the right foods and pass on the wrong ones. You will adopt the proper exercise habits. You will be guided to the right coach or nutritional information to manifest your subconscious idea. It must happen because that is the law - the nature of mind. Mind will always create according to the seed thought.

Speaking of exercise?in my opinion, one of the greatest exercises in the world for getting the metabolism in gear is putting on good cushiony running shoes, going outside and just walking fast -- a couple of miles of fast walking. Weight lifting is fantastic for replacing fat with muscle, and for heart and bones, especially for women. But I understand not everyone is into or ready to lift weights. And we still need that aerobic workout. So get outside and start walking. That's an addiction you will love to have. When you start releasing those endorphins, the whole world looks better.

Important Footnote:

If you have a lot of weight to lose, your subconscious mind may not be able to accept that you can be your ideal weight all at once. The important thing here is to not set up resistance or an argument in the subconscious. So the following is a good method to use to prevent this.

Pick a weight that you feel that you can accept at this time, one that feels believable. For example, if you now weight 180 pounds and your ideal weight is120, that's a very big leap of faith to accept. So you might use 150 pounds as the target number that you suggest to your subconscious mind as you fall asleep. That is more believable at this point in time and will be more readily accepted by the mind. When you do reach your goal of 150 pounds, you can then change your input to 120 pounds. You may also do this if you have to lose a lesser amount of weight.

The important thing to remember is that the information that is most believable will produce the fastest and greatest results. This same idea also applies to financial prosperity, but I will save that for another time. By the way, I have learned many of these things through brilliant new thought teachers, far ahead of their time. It is time for valuable esoteric knowledge to become mainstream. You can become your own case study in the meantime.

How's this for a marketing idea: Mental weight loss clinics called "Brain Watchers International." :)

Negative Calorie Foods & Weight Loss

2006-06-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

You gain weight when your calorie intake is more than your calorie expenditure. But if this calorie equation is reversed, then it results in "negative calorie" balance in your body. In this negative calorie case, you expand more calories than you take in, resulting in a decrease in the stored calories in the form of body fat, and you experience a weight loss. About 10% of daily caloric intake is used to process foods in the body. You can expand more by doing physical activities.

There are certain foods that show negative calorie effect because the body has to expand more energy to extract calories from these foods. The negative calorie foods need more calories to break down the foods and digest than the calories the foods actually contain. The extra calories are taken up from the stored fat in the body. Thus the negative calorie foods (may also be called as minus calorie foods or fat burning foods) are ideal for reducing the body fat and for losing weight.

Let us take an example. A piece of dessert consisting of 300 calories may require only 150 calories to be digested by our body, resulting in a net gain of 150 calories which is added to our body fat! So if you eat 100 calories of a food that requires 150 calories to digest, then you have burnt an additional 50 calories simply by eating that food. These 50 calories are used up from the stored fat in your body!

These foods are widely available in nature. Some of the foods from the list of negative calorie foods (about 100 in number) are: asparagus, broccoli, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, carrot, garlic, papaya, spinach, turnip, zucchini, apples, oranges, lettuce, grapefruit, pineapples, strawberries, and raspberries.

It is a great idea to eat these negative calorie food items to your full satisfaction without counting calories. Include these foods in your daily diet and plan your diet according to food pyramid. You will be amazed to see the fast weight loss results. You can follow a negative calorie diet plan for safe and permanent weight loss.

20 Ways to Lose Weight

2006-06-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

20 WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT

1. Take it one step at a time

Start by paying attention to what you eat. Cut back on fat and sweets and add more fruit and vegetables. After you have that under control, add exercise. If you hate to exercise try it for only 15 minutes a day at first, then a 1/2-hour. Keep in mind that while you are exercising you are burning calories and not eating. Also, it will be easier if you chose an activity that you enjoy.

2. Find a friend

It is always good to have support when you are trying to lose weight. Find a friend who wants to lose weight and compare notes, weigh-in together and maybe even have a contest.

3. Use weights

Working out weights will build muscle and raise your metabolism so you will burn more calories. Also, muscle takes up less space than fat so you will be smaller ( but probably weigh more).

4. Eat fewer carbs

Don't eat as much bread and pasta and you will see a difference.

5. Set a goal

Set a deadline to lose the weight and write it down. For example, ' By Dec 14/04 I will weigh 150 lbs or less'. Put it somewhere you will see it daily.

6. Give up soda

If you drink a soda or 2 a day you are adding empty calories. If you find it hard to stop completely, cut back at first and drink water instead.

7. Grill or boil

Avoid fried meat, grill and use lots of spices. You will get used to it and probably enjoy it more.

8. Don't buy junk food

When you go shopping, don't go on an empty stomach and you will be less likely to buy junk food. Keep your home 'junk food free' so you won't be tempted to indulge.

9. Eat breakfast

Consume most of your calories early in the day and always eat breakfast. Don't eat after 8pm and not only will you avoid those added calories but you will sleep better.

10. Give yourself a treat

When you tell yourself that you can't have something you want it more. Give yourself a treat once a day ( ie. half a cookie) and you won't feel you are missing out.

11. Use smaller plates

Trick yourself into believing that you are eating more by using a smaller plate.

12. Drink lots of water

Drink water when you are feeling hungry and you will get that 'full' feeling.

13. Don't eat everything on your plate

Many times we eat just because it's there. Pay attention to when you have had enough.

14. Eat five or six meals a day

Eating more frequently will keep you from getting too hungry.

15. Plan your workout sessions

Write your workout sessions in your journal or planner.

16. Stay away from fad diets

Fad diets don't work. If you lose weight fast chances are that you will gain it back ( and more) just as fast. It takes time to put it on and time to take it off.

17. Do several workouts a day

While you are watching TV do crunches and leg lifts.

18. Measure your food

If you decide to have junk food for a snack - be sure to measure and control what you eat.

19. Keep pre-cut vegetables

...and ward off those cravings.

20. Create Good Habits

It is a known fact that when we do something twenty-one times it becomes a habit. Create good eating habits.

Turn Off the Fat Genes - A Book Review

2006-06-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Once in a while a good title comes along and "Turn Off the Fat Genes" is one of those titles that just have to be written about. If you are not familiar with Dr. Neal Barnard's work, he has been writing about how to lose weight on a high carbohydrate diet for at least a decade now.

I'm amazed, as you might be, that his work is not better known. There are a number of advantages to using a high carb diet and as many disadvantages to the low carb/ high protein diets.

There is some great research in his books that document the ability to lose weight on a high carbohydrate diet, which may also be healthier in the long run than the ever-popular low carbohydrate diets.

You might think it surprising, as I do, that more people are not using high carb diets to lose weight. You might also conclude that this is solely due to a lack of awareness on the part of the public.

Turn of the Fat Genes, written by Dr. Neal Barnard features over 150 pages of menus and recipes. The recipe and menu section is very comprehensive and you can definitely find recipes that will delight you out of such a large compilation.

Dr. Bernard discusses the concept that some of the genes that shape and influence us as human beings are themselves subject to influence. The genes that affect taste, appetite and metabolism are subject to the influence of the foods that we eat.

Not only are they subject to influence, the proper use of foods can mean that you don't have to sacrifice and starve yourself of decent nutrition. You can modify your diet, eat perhaps even more frequently and still enjoy weight loss. Does that sound incredible? It is real. You might feel incredulous because the masses of people out there have been told that low carb is the way to go.

I have been following some of the suggestions in one of Dr. Barnard's books and I can tell you that a high carb diet can help you lose weight. Using his suggestions, I can eat a lot of food frequently and I still seem to stay thin.

To give you an idea of what kind of information "Turn Off the Fat Genes" can provide you with, here is a list of some of the Chapter titles:

Taste Genes: Broccoli and Chocolate

Appetite and the Leptin Gene

The Fat-Building Gene

Fat-Burning: Turning the Flame Higher

How Genes Influence Your Exercise

Children and the Fat Genes

Food Choices for Optimal Weight Control

Dr. Barnard writes, "Contrary to popular opinion, scientific research reveals that genes are not dictators; they are committees. They do not give orders. They make suggestions. Genes are not rogue tyrants exerting despotic control over your waistline. Rather, they work in groups, often with subtle effects, and you can nudge them in the direction you want them to go. You can counteract the fat genes and boost your thin genes."

In ancient times, Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." Of course we aren't really talking about healing as much as we are discussing losing weight, but the principle applies.

One thing I learned from another of Dr. Barnard's books is that carbohydrates don't make people fat. It is fat that makes people fat. And it makes sense. Carbohydrates pack around 4 calories per gram and fats have about 9 calories per gram.

By the way, even though it is correct terminology, the fact is that the calories discussed here are actually 'thousands of calories'. In nutrition they decided to make a calorie equal to 1,000 real life calories as measured for energy.

Anyway I don't want to confuse anyone, because the RDA is based on nutrition calories, also known as Calories, but no one capitalizes the C as should be done. You can just keep thinking of calories as calories and don't worry about the technicalities.

Back to the story. Dr. Barnard's books on high carb diets are great reading and may inform you about healthier weight loss than you are currently use to. Did I mention the recipe list?

This article is for information purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. If you have or think you have a health condition or even just want to diet, please consult your physician.

Turn Off the Fat Genes - A Book Review

2006-06-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

The Most Under-Rated Aspect of Weightloss

2006-06-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

If I were asked, "what is the most difficult thing many people find to do when they start a weight-loss program?", I would have to say right near the top of the list is this - they don't drink enough water!

Few people realize at first just how essential water is to the success of their weight-loss program. In fact, the essential place of water in our diet extends to everyone - whether they want to lose weight, gain weight or stay the same weight! We all know we can't live without water, but just why is it so important? Well there are many reasons. Read on and discover why water can help your loss weight and why it is your essential life-force.

Apart from 60-70% of your body being composed of water, water has an extensive range of functions essential to life.

. Assists digestion, absorption and assimilation of food. If you don't drink enough water you can't get the full benefit of nutrients in the food you eat.

. Assists excretion of waste from bowel and kidneys. If you don't drink enough water you get constipated and put your kidneys under stress.

. Regulates body temperature. If you don't drink enough water you compromise the evaporation process you skin uses to keep you cool.

. Your blood is 92% water. This is your body's transport system distributing nutrients around the body.

. Body secretions and digestive juices are almost entirely water.

Why should you drink water when you want to lose weight?

Water is a natural appetite suppressant. Do NOT underestimate the power of this statement. Lack of water can lead to over eating. You brain does not differentiate between hunger and thirst. So, when you think you are feeling hungry, your body may in fact be signaling to you that you are thirsty! If you are not consuming enough water each day and you feel hunger pains, chances are, your body really is crying out for water. In many instances people will find what they thought were hunger pangs were in fact, satisfied by water. Try it! You have nothing to lose, except some weight.

How do you know whether you are drinking enough water each day? Well the answer is not difficult. The average person needs around 6-8 large glasses every day.

Well then, how should you drink the 6-8 glasses per day? The aim is to drink water consistently. If you drink too much all at once or too fast, it will simply pass through you, with little or no benefit to your body.

If you are someone who enjoys the 'taste' of water, then perhaps you could fill a 1 litre empty soft drink container with water the drink through it twice during the day. Room temperature or cold water, even warm as some people like - whatever you prefer. Place it on the desk at work in front of you as a constant reminder to sip continuously throughout the day.

Other people find they need a water 'diet' to help them keep on track. So for you, here is a program easily followed to ensure you are well hydrated every single day.

. When you wake up you will often be thirsty because your body loses water while you are sleeping through breathing and perspiration. Drink a large glass of water with a slice of lemon for zing.

. Drink another glass of water with breakfast or a cup of herbal tea before setting off the day.

. Mid morning - snack on a piece of juicy fruit such as orange, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew. Have a glass of water and perhaps try a dash of herbal aloe juice which is wonderfully soothing to the digestive system.

. Lunch - think of soup or have a glass of water before your meal, or perhaps a herbal tea.

. Mid afternoon - While you are preparing your evening meal, drink a glass of water and snack on some crunchy fresh vegetables.

. Evening - Sip a glass of water before your meal with a dash of your favourite fruit juice for flavour.

. After dinner - before bedtime drink your final glass of water and sleep well!

A few changes will happen when you start out with your water program. Obviously you may find that you need to 'spend a penny' more often. Why? Because you body isn't used to being well hydrated.

There is absolutely is no doubt about it. When you start drinking enough water regularly, there are great benefits. You may notice your skin significantly improve and even tired muscles will thank you. Many people find their energy is increased and constipation and headaches are reduced, as well as hunger pains.

Now here's the really exciting part?many people notice a reduction in weight and centimetres, as their body's water store become redundant and so decrease. If your diet has been one that did not provide you with adequate water, your body will have developed a pattern of storing water. It's part of the body's in-built survival mechanism - to store up the essential nutrients in short supply?just in case they aren't available in the future. So if you don't drink enough water, you are 'conditioning' your body to store water. And water is bulk and unwanted centimetres.

It's so simple...drink water! 6-8 large glasses a day.

How do you know if you are not getting enough water each day? This is a really important question because so many of us have deprived ourselves of water for years that we have become accustomed to doing without the full amount of water our body requires and we don't recognise the symptoms of thirst.

. The most common symptom is headaches. A major function of water is to flush toxins from the body. Your brain is 75% water, so even being slightly dehydrated can cause headaches.

. Poor concentration/fatigue. If you body can't get rid of the toxins it will struggle and you will feel less energetic as your body diverts energy to deal with the toxins.

. Constipation. Your body will divert water to more essential functions and as a result your stools will be harder and more difficult to expel.

. Reduced urine output or dark urine. Did you know that up to 200 litres of water is passed through your kidneys daily? Without a fresh supply of water for the kidneys to filter waste products out of the blood, your urine will become darker.

. Furry tongue or bad breath. If you don't have enough water passing through the mouth to wash away food particles, bacteria can proliferate and result in that 'furry' feeling or bad breath.

. Skin. Your skin should feel elastic. When you pinch the skin on the back of your hand it should snap back instantly.

Final thoughts. Caffeinated drinks cause the body to lose water. They are what's known as diuretics as they cause your body to dehydrate. You will do your body an enormous favour by cutting back. For every cup of coffee you drink you will need to drink another TWO glasses of water to counter the diuretic effect. Explore the world of herbal teas instead, you may be pleasantly surprised!

Healthy Diet Answers: Want Fries With That Mister ?

2006-06-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, my healthy diet has at times suffered at the hands of fast food, I admit it - I am addicted to fast food - it makes me feel good, it makes us all feel good, that's why its everywhere and thats why the fast food chains make millions.

But let's face it, it's not that simple to be disciplined and no one's going to go to a restaurant with friends and tell the restaurant that they can't eat that rice because its white rice and it'll send my blood sugar levels sky high and release insulin into my body, can I have basmati instead ? - well, maybe just the hardcore diet enthusiasts.

So what to do about fast food nutrition - well, I am going to give you my five most important principles for choosing food generally, but also quick things to look for when you're out in order to complement your healthy diet:

1. Find Out How The Food Was Cooked. It's not the actual food that matters, it's the way it was cooked. Little things like this can make a world of difference.

2. Drink Lots Of Water When you're out, have a water bottle close by - you'd be surprised what a difference it makes.

3. If it doesn't look natural, then it probably won't do your diet much good Generally the more processed a food is, the more likely that it will be absorbed into your body very quickly and will not give you sustained energy. If it looks like it's gone through a lot of processes before reaching you, then give it a miss.

4. Steer away from unhealthy fats and highly processed carbs when you eat out This is nothing new, don't eat those fries with that burger. But I have two very good reasons for saying this. If you successfully navigate your way away from these two - you will be doing a lot for keeping bad cholesterol levels at bay and staving off accidental over-consumption of calories.

5. Go for raw There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that the food you've just eaten is burning calories even as you sit at the café talking with friends. It's even confidence building to know that you have a healthy diet. The food that will do this is quite often raw and are adorned with fat burning principles because they have low energy density.

So step back from those fries, and consider that there are plenty of satisfying, tasty and healthy alternatives when snacking or dining out. Instituting these healthy diet principles will mean that your social life and weight loss goals are not an either / or situation.

References:

Elizabeth A Bell and Barbara J Rolls Energy density of foods affects energy intake across multiple levels of fat content in lean and obese women Am J Clin Nutr 73: 1010-1018.

Prentice AM, Jebb SA. Fast foods, energy density and obesity: a possible mechanistic link. Obes Rev. 2003 Nov;4(4):187-94.

Weil, A., (2000) Eating Well for Optimum Health p. 77-78

Why Diets Are A Waste Of Time & Money - What You Can Do Instead

2006-06-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

A 'diet' is always seen as a temporary measure. An unpleasant episode that must be endured in order to reach some weight target, often in time for a major event such as a wedding, your own or your children's. Afterwards, with a big sigh of relief that its over, we get back to normal eating. In what seems no time at all, especially if a holiday is involved, the weight is back where it was, and you wonder; was it worth it?

The truth about diets is that they train us to "live on less" so normal food is now far too much. Many people have managed to get to their chosen weight and then find that they cannot come off the diet without putting the weight back on. They are trapped in a regime of half starvation and misery. Their life revolves around how much can they eat and when they eventually break, which they always do, they eat like it was an Olympic event.

The answer is simple - just eat slightly less for all of the time. It may be slower than you would like but it works, and its forever not just for Christmas or weddings.

If you reduce the fat content of your 'normal' food you can eat an enormous amount of other stuff, so you won't feel hungry. You will actually eat less calories without eating less food. Avoiding fat is easy. Obvious targets are dairy fats and margarines. Spread butter or margarine thinly, or buy fat-reduced spreads, or even better, try without. It works for sandwiches with lettuce and tomato to provide some moisture but I'd rather have some spread on my toast than just jam. Trim the fat off your meat and bacon before cooking.

Try semi-skimmed milk and then progress to the fully skimmed. Ignore the slightly grey colour and enjoy its increased calcium and vitamins compared to the greasy un- skimmed product. Vegetarians should also be aware that many vegetable-based products could be as heavy in fat as those that are meat based. Biscuits are generally very high in fat, typically around 25% but much higher again if chocolate coated. The problem with biscuits is that you can easily take in a substantial part of your daily calories without feeling as though you have eaten anything but a few mouthfuls. If you need a snack have some fruit instead or low fat yoghurt.

Three Sure-Fire Ways To Lose Weight Get Healthier & Feel Great Without Dieting

2006-06-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

--ONE--

Learn how to reduce the fat, sugar and salt content of your food and to enjoy fruit and vegetables. Use the nutrition guides on pre-packaged food to decide whether or not that product is best for you or your family. Cooking fresh food puts you in control of what you eat. Yes, it probably takes longer than heating processed food, but what else were you going to do with that time - watch TV? Perhaps the thought that fresh food is cheaper than you think may encourage you to give it a try.

--TWO--

Stop being a couch potato and get out and use your body. Remember the saying "Use it or lose it!" Exercise increases your base metabolic rate, which enables you to burn calories at a faster rate all day - not just when you exercise. Exercise makes you feel good about yourself and that "can't be bothered, dragging yourself around" mood rapidly disappears.

--THREE--

Don't try to change your lifestyle too quickly. Its better to make steady, permanent changes than it is to cause yourself distress only to fail through demotivation. You can't change the habits of a lifetime in a few days so don't try to and don't wait to change your lifestyle until the last minute, because that's too late. Finally, medical advances mean that we live longer than before, even with a poor lifestyle, but what's the point if most of that "extra time" is ruined by poor health?

Fourteen Reasons Why Dieting Is Bad For Your Health

2006-06-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

1. The lower the calories eaten per day, the harder it is for you to get your daily requirements of proteins and vitamins.

2. Dieting makes your body believe it is starving so it starts to save fat, as this is its best way to store energy.

3. Losing weight means digesting your own body tissues instead of food and unfortunately, dieting does not tell your body what parts it needs to digest or which parts to save.

4. Severe dieting causes muscle loss and if you are unlucky the loss may be from your heart with severe consequences.

5. Dieting will make you difficult to live with and your family may want to kill you.

6. Dieting changes your body chemistry and one effect may be bad breath.

7. If you're a smoker you may smoke even more to dull the hunger pangs.

8. Binge eating, generally with very unsuitable foods often follows dieting.

9. Dieting makes you food obsessed.

10. Breaking a diet often results in guilt, poor self esteem and despair often followed by comfort eating.

11. Dieting emphasises food as a reward or compensation - so called 'comfort eating' where food is used to cheer us up or because it's raining we are somehow entitled to eat lots of sweets or cakes.

12. Dieting lowers the base metabolic rate which means you can live on less food, so when you return to your normal food intake which was already too high, you put on weight even faster than before and will probably end up heavier than before the diet.

13. Dieting does nothing to teach you to eat healthily. Healthy eating does not mean going hungry.

14. Dieting often causes constipation and this concentrates toxins and carcinogens within the bowels and they are present for a longer period. Fruit and vegetables have a positively beneficial effect on the smooth running of your digestive system.

Attention! Read This Before Wasting Hundreds, Possibly Thousands On Expensive Online Fitness Programmes, "Wonder-Cures", Fad Diets Or Potentially Dangerous Low-Carb Experiments...

You Can Lose Weight on a High Carbohydrate Diet

2006-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

A startling fact is that carbohydrates are not responsible for making people fat. Don't feel too badly though, you are not the only person who was sold on the idea that a high protein, low carb diet was the only way to lose weight.

Here is a simple way to demonstrate this fact. Think about the vegetarians you know, are there any overweight problems among them? The high protein diets rely on a lot of animal fats and proteins, but these vegetarians don't eat them. Startling indeed, isn't it?

Maybe you don't know any vegetarians. They certainly are hard to find, especially in the Midwest, where I live.

You may wonder about the science involved here. After all, many of those folks promoting the low carb diets are well educated, aren't they? Being well educated doesn't mean that you are infallible. Besides, the same science that supports the low carb diet also supports the high carb diet. They didn't get it wrong, they just didn't consider the whole story.

That might sound like a contradiction, but it isn't. I'm going to explain why in just a moment. Fist, let me give you the science on this. You most likely are not a biochemist or a physiologist and neither am I. But I have studied the subjects a bit. Don't focus on the technical jargon in the next paragraph,just try to grasp the overall point. You don't need to be a scientist to use common sense and basic reasoning skills. Ready?

Consider this bit of biochemistry. Malonyl -CoA exists in high amounts when there is plenty of metabolic fuel present. Thus,carnitine acyltransferase is inhibited and this in turn prevents acyl-CoA from crossing into the cell's mitochondria. Another enzyme is inhibited by the presence of NADH and Thiolase is also inhibited by the presence of Acetyl-COA. In short, when a lot of glucose is present, fatty acid metabolism is inhibited.

It is the last sentence that clues us in here. Basically, a cell will not convert fat into energy if there is glucose present. When the cell has carbs and sugar to work on, it will not convert the fat to energy, thus the fat gets stored.

This is why the low carb diets work, with little to zero carbohydrates and subsequently glucose to work on, the fat will be used for energy. This is exactly why the high carb diet works too. When no or little fat is present, it won't be stored as fat.

In addition to this, it is important to realize that it costs the body quite a bit of energy to take carbs and store them as fat. This alone is actually a positive. There really needs to be some form of fat present to make it easier.

This should help you understand that whatever your diet consistsof, if you want to remain or get thin, you need to avoid mixing fats and carbs together. A fat consists of a fatty acid head and a carbohydrate tail. This means when you mix your fat andcarbs together you are asking for trouble, assuming you care about weight, that is.

So now it should be clear why so many people in North America have a weight problem as the NIH was happy to point out a few weeks ago. Think about the typical American diet.It generally consists of lots of combinations of fat and carbs.

As Dr. Neal Barnard points out in his book, "Foods That Cause You To Lose Weight", It is fat that makes people fat.

Don't want to be a vegetarian? I don't blame you. Really, you don't have to be one. Just quit mixing your proteins/fats and carbohydrates together.

Don't overlook the obvious, there is ton of candy and desserts out there that are a mixture of fat and sugar. Meat and potatoes - perhaps this classic is a serious blunder in seperating fats and carbs. Armed with this knowledge,you can probably come up with dozens of examples of potentially fattening mixtures of food on your own.

This article is for information only. It is not intended to prescribe, treat or diagnose any health problem. Consult your physician before changing your diet.

Is Losing Weight The Same As Losing Fat ?

2006-06-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

Contrary to common belief, your weight is not really the indicator of a weight problem - the actual percentage of body fat is the true indicator. You need to know what percent of you is actually FAT. How are you going to monitor your weight loss if you do not know what percent of your body is fat, before you begin your program?

Let me give you an example on measuring body fat, this is important in understanding weight loss, or should I say FAT LOSS. This is actually what we are trying to lose, right? FAT!

Lets say someone weighs 200 pounds and when we measure their body fat we find out there body fat is 40%

This means that 40% of the members body is made of fat (80 lbs). The other 120 lbs is muscle, bones, organs, water, etc. (everything but fat).

Now any true weight loss program should include some form of strength training customized to their personal abilities (Another reason you need someone who truly understands the whole body and how it works). Because if you can gain some of that muscle mass that we lose with age, our bodies will burn more calories and therefore burn more FAT!

Now it's a few weeks into the program and this person steps on the scale and they now weigh 198 lbs. They are a little disappointed because they thought they were doing better. Their clothes fit better, they have more energy, and they are feeling better.

But they are still depressed because they only lost a lousy 2 pounds! Right? Are we sure???

We now check their body fat and it is now 36% not 40%. Let's do a little math.

200 lbs at 40% body fat means that 40% of them is fat, which equals 80 lbs of FAT, and 120 lbs are muscles and everything else (called the lean body mass).

198 lbs at 36% body fat means that 36% of them is fat which equals 71 lbs of FAT, and 125 lbs of lean body mass.

This person actually lost 9 pounds of FAT (the stuff we are trying to lose) and gained 5 pounds of lean body mass (mostly muscle mass, which is a good thing because this will allow their body to burn more calories!)

You need to measure and focus on PERCENT OF BODY FAT, AND NOT WEIGHT!

But don't worry, when your body fat goes down, as your body fat decreases so will the numbers on the scale!

Can Eating Certain Foods Help You to Lose Weight?

2006-06-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

The best way to lose weight is by consuming fewer calories than you expend or conversely, by expending more calories than you consume.

Experts have discovered that certain foods can actually help you to lose weight without the stress of dieting or exercise. The down side is that many of us have a tendency to dress these foods up with cheese, sour cream, butter or other calorie-laden flavor enhancers. This causes the weight loss effect to be lost. It may be difficult to not add extra calories to these foods but with a strong will power it can be done.

A negative calorie food can be defined as a food that results in a slimming effect for the body. In other words a carrot (without anything else) will cause your body to use an increased amount of energy when digesting it and other foods, this can lead to an overall reducing effect on the body. This is partly from the amount of energy it takes to digest the carrot or other negative calorie food and partly from the elevation in metabolism that these foods naturally create. The overall effect is a net loss of energy, which is measured in calories. It should be understood that 'negative calorie' doesn't mean that the food has zero calories in it, nor does it have an anti-calorie or a negative calorie.

Here is a partial list of negative calorie foods: apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemon mango, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, asparagus, beets, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, hot Chile peppers, cucumbers, endives, garden cress, garlic, green beans, lettuce, onion, papaya, radishes, spinach, turnips and zucchini. There are more and you can learn about them from a medical doctor's very popular book.

In his book, Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight, Dr. Neal Barnard explains the effects these foods have on the body. A quote from Dr. Barnard's book reveals some startling facts, "They found that those who ate foods that were very low in fat and high in carbohydrates, lost weight steadily, without limiting how much they ate. But those on high-fat diets could not effectively lose weight even if they ate skimpy portions." Dr. Barnard is referring to the published results of an experiment conducted at Cornell University and published in the May 1991 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A book reviewer posted on a website how he lost 30 lbs. utilizing the information from Dr Barnard's book. It is important to exercise caution when dieting because there are certain things that your body needs to remain healthy including proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are necessary for the body to function at its optimum level. You cannot remain optimally healthy by eating the negative calorie foods alone.

This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. Please consult a doctor before dieting.

10 Surefire Ways To Survive Eating Out

2006-06-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

I personally lost 60 pounds in 2003. Here are some tactics I used to lose the weight:

1) Steamed instead of fried

2) Brown rice instead of white rice

3) Wheat bread instead of white bread

4) Sauce and dressing on the side. Dip your fork into the sauce first then into the food.

5) At dinner exchange the potato or other carbohydrates with extra veggies

6) No oil

7) Do not feel like you need to eat the entire meal. Plan on bringing a doggie bag home.

8) Drink two glasses of what before your meal and another 2-3 during your meal

9) No soda

10) Hold the mayo and cheese

Speed up Metabolism

2006-05-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

Metabolism is essentially the speed at which our body's motor is running. The speed at which our body burns calories is called the metabolic rate. It's how fast your "motor" is running when you're still in a reclined position or sleeping. About 60-75% of energy is expended by the body at rest in such activities.

The metabolism is based on the number of calories we burn throughout the day. Our body constantly burns calories to keep us going whether we are eating, sleeping, cleaning etc. People with a lower percentage of body fat (i.e. muscular) have a higher metabolism than others that are less muscular because muscle uses more calories to maintain itself than fat. Some people have a slower metabolic rate and have a harder time staying slim. Younger persons have higher (faster) metabolism because of the increased activity of cells. A slow metabolism actually causes to store fat. The slower the metabolic rate, the greater the weight gains. How to build muscles to improve metabolism? What type of exercise is ideal that speed up metabolism so that you burn calories even at rest or sleep? There are simple exercises that speed up the metabolism.

Causes for Low Metabolism

* Fasting
* A low calorie diet
* Snacking throughout the day on high sugared foods (candy, colas, cakes, gum).
* Eating or drinking too much sugar containing foods.
* Lack of physical activity.
* Underactive thyroid.

Metabolism Boosters

There are some natural metabolism boosters (natural foods) that improves your metabolism. Do not take over the counter pills containing animal thyroid extract that claim to boost up metabolism. These products may have side effects as diarrhea, increased heart rate, excessive sweating, nervousness, tremors, bulging eyes, etc.

How to Improve (Speed up) Metabolism

*

Do not skip any meals

*

Exercise daily

*

Build your muscles

*

Avoid alcohol, sugar, and fastings

*

Drink 8-10 glasses of water daily.

*

Eat foods with high nutrition values

Speed up Metabolism

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Anorexia - a Game of Control!

2006-05-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

Low self-esteem produces a game of control. It causes a person to suffer in silence - suffering that can lead to anorexia.

Do you struggle with painful feelings about yourself, as a person? We can have so much in our western world, but lack the one thing we most desire - acceptance and a feeling of self worth!

Tania was a beautiful teenage girl. She was given compliments, but felt unable to accept them. Her distorted image of her body led her to become anorexic. This article is not primarily about the signs and symptoms of anorexia. It's purpose is to help the reader discover what lies behind the eating disorder called anorexia nervosa.

First of all, we need to understand how low self-esteem and anorexia are related.

The Link Between Low Self-esteem and Anorexia

A sense of low self-esteem can be caused through inadequate nurturing as a result of emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a child. Abuse is when a person uses their power or position to force another person to perform in order to meet their needs.

Emotional abuse is the subtlest form of abuse. Most of us at some time or other, whether to a greater or lesser degree, have been victims of emotional abuse. It could come from anyone who has a position of authority who requires you to perform in order to have his or her needs met.

Tania was a victim of emotional abuse. Her self-rejection grew as her parents were not able to meet her emotional needs even though she lacked nothing materially.

Emotional abuse usually begins as a generational problem. Tania's parents did not know how to meet her needs as they themselves had unmet needs. They were what we call an 'adult child', searching for someone to nurture them and fulfil their needs.

Tania sensed these needs and subconsciously sought to fulfil them by 'being there' for her parents. As opposed to the adults 'being there' to meet her emotional needs! Tania listened as her parents shared their challenges but neither of them were able to spend quality time with her to allow her to open up and share her concerns. Tania had a false sense of security because she felt needed, but lacked someone to care for her own needs. This left her feeling abandoned and abused because she was not being affirmed.

As Tania did not have her own emotional needs met she was left with feelings of low self-worth, emptiness, loneliness, self-hate and depression. To compensate for her feelings of low self-worth she grew up putting more emphasis on `doing' rather than being'. This set the scene for Tania to become anorexic!

Can you relate to Tania in some way? Do you feel empty inside wishing someone would meet your inner needs? Keep reading and you will discover how you can become all you can be.

Low Self-Esteem Is the Root of All Addictions- including Anorexia Nervosa

It has been said that addictions are an attempt to hide the real 'me' from the outside world. Addictions can come in many forms to help you feel better, change your mood and avoid painful feelings. In an attempt to avoid pain one can subtly be led into deception, lies and denial. Anorexia Nervosa was Tania's way of changing her perception of herself - her intense, irrational fear of being fat kept her in a cycle of deception and control. Let's look at how this cycle works.

Low Self-Esteem produces a Game of Control

Those with low self-worth often convey a sense of control. To avoid others seeing the real person, and in fear of falling victim again, they may either control others by being assertive, or control themselves by being non-assertive.

Tania's mother's commented to me that from her perspective she felt Tania used her eating disorder to control and manipulate her. It was like Tania was, consciously or subconsciously, trying to control both herself and her mother.

The non-assertive approach of control

The person with a non-assertive approach sees self-worth as being based on what people think about himself/herself: it is important at any cost to gain the approval of others. Sufferers of anorexia go to extreme lengths to achieve their goal of acceptance.

It is important to note that in endeavouring to deal with low self-worth, a person can swing from being non-assertive to assertive, or visa versa. One can start out as an assertive achiever, as we will discuss in the next section, and swing to become a non-assertive, non-achiever or "loser".

The non-assertive approach produces a cycle, which begins with denial and a desire to please because of fear of rejection. These people become resentful and angry with themselves and others when their goal is not achieved, which leads to depression and increased feelings of rejection of self or others. Then in order to feel better about themselves, they begin the cycle of control again.

The assertive approach of control

The person with an assertive approach strives to feel good about himself/herself by meeting certain standards. Feelings of never doing well enough or being good enough can create a fear of failure, which results in both a drive for perfectionism and control of self and others.

Life becomes a problem to be solved for anorexia nervosa sufferers. They are constantly caught up in 'doing' rather than 'being' content, restful and enjoying life. If you have feelings of never doing well enough or being good enough you will know what I mean!

The perfectionist has inflexible rules on how people should act or think. Deep down, it is felt that self-value is only obtained through achievement; therefore new challenges or other people's opinions are threatening, as the perfectionist feels that mistakes are to be avoided at any cost to prevent shame.

The assertive approach also produces a cycle, which begins with denial and a desire to control self and others through fear of failure. To achieve this goal the assertive person is legalistic and critical of self and others. These people become defensive and angry when their goal is not achieved, which leads to feelings of loneliness and depression. To feel better about themselves they begin the cycle of control again to achieve their goal.

Life becomes a game of control! How do we get out of this cycle we get ourselves into through low self-worth?

Doctor, Why Cant I Loose Weight and by the Way Why Do I Feel Sick?

2006-05-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

Doctor, Why Can't I Loose Weight and by the Way Why Do I Feel Sick?

This the number one question heard in my office and in physicians' offices throughout America. There is a strong relationship between weight gain, difficulty in loosing weight and feeling sick. Candida Albicans, an opportunistic fungus, is often the link between weight gain, feeling ill and the difficulties people have with loosing weight. Focusing on removing Candida Albicans from the body rewards the dieter with a feeling of well being and weight loss that is steady, sustainable and healthy.

Americans are embracing the low carbohydrate diet for its ability to reduce their waist size and weight even when other diets have failed. The more important benefits of a low carbohydrate diet are usually lost in our obsession with weight. Low Carbohydrate diets have been used by nutritionists and holistic physicians for decades to control Candida Albicans. The weight loss and feeling of well being that accompanies a low carbohydrate diet is mostly associated with controlling this serious, but often over looked health condition.

I often see patients in my office who want to lose weight and have tried every diet and pill on the market with little success. During their history they often reveal a list of symptoms and complaints that they feel have no relationship to their weight problem. These patients do not realize that their weight problem and their other complaints are symptomatic of a more serious health condition known as systemic Candida Albicans. By concentrating on treating the underlying Candida Albicans my patients are able to loose weight and improve their overall health.

Betty F. . . was consulting with me for continued weight gain. She was finding it difficult to stick to a diet and exercise, partly since she saw such limited results. During her consult she admitted to gas, indigestion and fatigue. Her history included birth control pills, antibiotic use and several yeast infections. Her treatment plan included a low carbohydrate diet, nutritional supplements, and anti fungal herbals. She returned is 4 weeks, she had been able to stick to the diet with much greater ease, she felt more energetic and had no more gas. She was even happier that she had been able to loose 9 lbs. She reached her goal of a total weight loss of 22 lbs over the course of 3 months and has been able to keep it off. She now sticks to a sound diet and only takes a multi nutrient with herbals.

Candida Albicans is opportunistic yeast that often over whelms the body after antibiotic, may be passed from person to person with the exchange of body fluids, and from direct contact. It may be found in the reproductive tract, the mouth, the GI tract and in the blood. There are several common signs of Candida Albicans including vaginal yeast infections, thrush, jock itch and athlete's foot. Candida Albicans has been linked to a number of health conditions including; asthma, depression, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, hypoglycemia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), learning disabilities, menstrual problems, Migraines, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCSS), Prostatitis, sinus problems, and Urinary Tract Infections (UTI).

One of the major secondary problems associated with Candida Albicans is weight gain. A number of the problems associated with loosing weight and staying with a diet are doing to Candida Albicans. A person with systemic Candida Albicans will often crave sugar and simple carbohydrates because this is the main source of nutrients for yeast. Mood swings and depression are often associated with the rapid change in blood sugar levels caused by the yeast. Patients often complain of gas and bloating caused by the fermentation of foods in their intestines by the yeast which naturally release gas, just like in Champaign and beer. The fermentation of foods in the intestine may also lead to alcohol production that is absorbed through the gut and may lead to symptoms of confusion, altered behavior, and difficulty concentrating. Determining whether you have a Candida Albicans can make a big difference on how easy you will be able to lose weight and keep your weight loss off.

Questions to determine if you may have Candida Albicans:

1. Have you used antibiotics in the last 2 years?

2. Do you have gas or bloating?

3. Do you have sugar cravings?

4. Do you have low blood sugar?

5. Do you have history of yeast infections, vaginal, oral, athletes foot, or jock itch?

6. Does your partner have a history of yeast infections, vaginal, oral, athletes foot, or jock itch?

7. Are you sensitive to smells?

8. Are you sensitive to alcohol?

9. Do you suffer from symptoms that your doctor cannot explain like; headaches, migraines, depression, diarrhea, dizziness, IBS, menstrual or sinus problems?

10. Do you feel fatigued all the time?

11. Do you have a hard time concentrating?

12. Do you just not feel right?

Candia Albicans can be diagnosed by a blood analysis by your physician, though many traditional physicians do not regularly order this test. A major problem with treating Candida Albicans is the low regard most physicians place on controlling it spread. A recent study showed that 27% of nurses and 33% of doctors have Candida Albicans on their hands in a hospital. You can get a reasonable idea if you have problems with Candida Albicans by answering the questions in the box above. A yes answers to 6 or more questions above, associated with any of the signs or symptoms listed above, is a good indicator that you may have a Candida Albicans problem. Dr. Mark Leder, a chiropractor and nutritionist in NYC, states " I have treated thousands of women for weight loss and I find that over 75% of them are suffering from Candida Albicans. I tell them, you want to loose weight,? You want to be healthy? Deal with the Candida problem and everything else will follow." A low carbohydrate diet is the first step to dealing with Candida Albicans, but an herbal anti fungal is just as important.

When Candida Albicans presents itself as a vaginal yeast infection or athletes foot will often be treated with medication. Medications may be oral or topical and can be in prescription or over the counter strength. The problems with medications is that they are often short term and or do not get to the root of the problem. To properly reduce the amount of Candida Albicans in the body a low carbohydrate diet is the first step. Nutritional and herbal supplements are also key components. Regular intake of natural anti fungal supplements gives the body a chance to gentle and slowly reduce the amount of Candida Albicans in the body. There are a number of natural anti fungal herbals and products available on the market, but quality and effectiveness vary greatly. One of the best products available, through physicians offices only, is called RxBotanicals Diet Enhancer which contains powerful anti fungal and natural herbal relaxants. The combination of anti fungal and natural herbal relaxants found in RxBotanicals Diet Enhancer gentle lowers the amount of Candida Albicans in the body while making the dieting experience easier and more successful.

America will continue to focus on the weight loss associated with low carbohydrate diets. Nutritionists and physicians will continue to embrace the multitude of health benefits associated with a low carbohydrate diets with herbal remedies and its relationship to reducing Candida Albicans in the body.

Your Eight Hormones and Weight Loss

2006-05-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

If you find this article helpful, please forward it to friends and relatives. There are many physical, mental, and physiological benefits to regular exercise. One category of benefits is the impact that exercise has on many of your body's hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers within your body that affect almost all aspects of human function:
1. Growth Hormone
- Stimulates protein synthesis (muscle tone/development), and strength of bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage.
- Decreases use of glucose and increases use of fat as a fuel during exercise. This helps to reduce body fat and to keep blood glucose at a normal level which helps you to exercise for a longer period of time. Release of growth hormone from the pituitary gland in the brain is increased with increasing aerobic exercise time, especially more intense exercise such as interval training. To receive an article on interval training, send email to: Intervals@Landry.com
2. Endorphins
- An endogenous opioid from the pituitary gland that blocks pain, decreases appetite, creates a feeling of euphoria (the exercise high), and reduces tension and anxiety. Blood levels of endorphins increase up to five times resting levels during longer duration (greater than 30 minutes) aerobic exercise at moderate to intense levels and also during interval training. Also, after several months of regular exercise, you develop an increased sensitivity to endorphins (a higher high from the same level of endorphins), and endorphins that are produced tend to stay in your blood for a longer period of time. This makes longer duration exercise easier (you're feeling no pain) and it causes your exercise high to last for a longer period of time after exercise.
3. Testosterone
- An important hormone in both males and females for maintaining muscle tone/volume/strength, increasing basal metabolic rate (metabolism), decreasing body fat, and feeling self-confident. It's produced by the ovaries in females and by the testes in males.
- Females have only about one tenth the amount of testosterone that males do, but even at that level in females it also plays a role in libido and intensity of org*sms. Production of testosterone in females begins to decline as a woman begins to approach menopause and in males it begins to decline in his forties. Blood levels of testosterone increase with exercise in both males and females beginning about 20 minutes into an exercise session, and blood levels may remain elevated for one to three hours after exercise.
4. Estrogen
- The most biologically active estrogen, 17 beta estradiol, increases fat breakdown from body fat stores so that it can be used and fuel, increases basal metabolic rate (metabolism), elevates your mood, and increases libido. This hormone is at much higher blood levels in females, but the ovaries begin to produce less of it as a woman begins to approach menopause. The amount of 17 beta estradiol secreted by the ovaries increases with exercise, and blood levels may remain elevated for one to four hours after exercise.
5. Thyroxine (T4)
- A hormone produced by the thyroid gland, Thyroxine riases the metabolic rate ("metabolism") of almost all cells in the body. This increase in "metabolism" helps you to feel more energetic and also causes you to expend more calories, and thus is important in weight loss. Blood levels of thyroxine increase by about 30% during exercise and remain elevated for several hours afterward - this period of time is increased by an increase in intensity and/or duration of exercise. Regular exercise also increase thyroxine levels at rest.
6. Epinephrine
- A hormone produced primarily by the adrenal medulla that increases the amount of blood the heart pumps and directs blood flow to where it's needed.
- Stimulates breakdown of glycogen (stored carbohydrate) in the active muscles and liver to use as fuel. It also stimulates the breakdown of fat (in stored fat and in active muscles) to use as fuel. The amount of epinephrine released from the adrenal medulla is proportional to the intensity and duration of exercise.
7. Insulin An important hormone in regulating (decreasing) blood levels of glucose ("blood sugar") and in directing glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids into the cells. Insulin secretion by the pancreas is increased in response to a rise in blood sugar as is often the case after a meal. Typically, the larger the meal, or the greater the quantity of simple sugars consumed, the larger the insulin response. This is another reason that it's good to eat small frequent meals and to limit consumption of sugar and of processed bread, pasta and rice. The whole grain (non-processed) versions of those products are a much healthier choice. Blood levels of insulin begin to decrease about 10 minutes into an aerobic exercise session and continue to decrease through about 70 minutes of exercise. Regular exercise also increases a cell's sensitivity to insulin at rest, so that less is needed.
8. Glucagon A hormone that is also secreted by the pancreas, but it's job is to raise blood levels of glucose ("blood sugar"). When blood sugar levels get too low, glucagon is secreted and causes stored carbohydrate (glycogen) in the liver to be released into the blood stream to raise blood sugar to a normal level. It also causes the breakdown of fat so that it can be used as fuel. Glucagon typically begins to be secreted beyond 30 minutes of exercise when blood glucose levels may begin to decrease. So, next time you're exercising, think about all the wonderful things that are happening to your hormones. It might even make you want to do more exercise!

Top 10 Weight Loss and Fitness Myths

2006-05-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Don't weight train until after you've lost weight! No, no, no, no, pleeeeease don't believe that headline! That's one of the many myths associated with weight loss and fitness. If you're interested in losing weight and getting fit as quickly as possible, don't let these myths throw you off track;
Myth #1 - Some fancy exercise machine-of-the-month burns more calories than any other exercise.
FACT - One thing that many people seem to be confused about is how many calories are expended during different types of exercise. For example, I receive lots of questions regarding how many calories are burned with fancy exercise machines or certain unusual exercises that are supposed to burn lots of calories.Don't be fooled by this stuff! Here'sthe bottom line - caloric expenditure is directly related to the amount of effort an activity requires. In general, the more difficult it feels, the more calories you burn. The easier it feels the fewer calories you burn. That's it! I don't care how fancy or expensive the equipment is, the harder you work the more calories you burn.
Myth #2 - Weight training with free weights is much more effective than with machines.
FACT - For the purposes of general fitness, muscle toning, and weight loss, it doesn't matter. My suggestion is to do whichever you are most comfortable with and are most likely to do on a regular basis.
Myth #3 - Low intensity exercise puts you in the "fat burning zone" and is ideal for weight loss.
FACT - The "fat burning zone" doesn't matter. Here's how it got started. Your body is always "burning" a mixture of carbohydrates and fat for fuel. This mixture tends to contain a little more fat during lower intensity exercise. Somebody took this to mean that a lower intensity workout was best for losing weight.. not so! It all comes from the same "pot". It doesn't matter if you're burning a little more fat or a little more carbohydrate at any particular time in your fuel mix. It all comes from the same calorie pool. The bottom line is, how many calories are you burning.
Myth #4 - Exercising for 30 minutes two to three times per week is sufficient for weight loss.
FACT - That's better than doing nothing but it's not optimal. I firmly believe that God designed our bodies to be active daily. When we exercise daily we are healthier, leaner, more energetic, and the list goes on and on. Also, daily exercise boosts your metabolism like nothing else can. I recommend working up to 30 to 60 minutes of daily aerobic exercise and three days of weight training per week.
Myth #5 - You can lose fat from a specific part of your body by doing an exercise for that part of your body. For example, abdominal crunches will remove fat from your abdominal area.
FACT - You can't spot reduce! You cannot control where fat is removed from your body.
Myth #6 - You can't lose weight.
FACT - You CAN lose weight but it usually happens much slower than you'd like it to.Believing that you CAN lose weight is critical to making it happen. Realize that if you are consistently doing the right things, it will happen. Don't get side-tracked by every new crazy diet or exercise gizmo. Keep plugging away at healthy eating habits and daily exercise - it will happen!
Myth #7 - You shouldn't start weight training until you've lost most of the weight you want to lose because it will slow down your fat loss, or trap your fat in the muscle, or who knows what else.
FACT - Weight training is VITAL to a weight loss program because it turns up the metabolic fires that burn calories - and it tones your muscles. You should start weight training immediately.
Myth #8 - You burn more fat if you exercise on an empty stomach.
FACT - Exercising on an empty stomach does not affect how you lose weight. In fact, it may hinder it if you don't have the energy to exercise. You should at least drink a glass of juice prior to your workout if you're exercising in the morning.
Myth #9 - You should always do your weight training just before your aerobic exercise session because you burn more fat that way. I've even heard that you should weight train, eat two raw carrots, and then do your aerobic exercise.
FACT - The order in which you exercise does not affect how you lose weight. I always recommend weight training just after your aerobic exercise (such as walking) simply because your muscles are warm and supple and much less prone to injuries.
Myth #10 - You'll burn more calories jogging a mile than walking a mile.
FACT - Caloric expenditure is 62 calories per 100 pounds body weight per mile traveled (walked or jogged). For example, if you weight 150 pounds, you expend 93 calories per mile walked or jogged (62 x 1.5). Of course, if you're jogging, you'll cover the distance in less time than if you're walking. Thus, you'll burn more calories in a given period of time if you're jogging. Get movin'!

Overweight - Answering Your Critics

2006-05-23T17:43:00.000-07:00

There are those that walk amongst us who have followed all the advice, diligently dieted and exercised with genuine effort for long periods of time, yet still fail to lose their excess weight.

Even more heartbreaking for those of us who genuinely struggle with obesity are the accusations of sloth and laziness from those thin people who eat junk all day long and show no physical sign of their own gluttony. "Why can't you just be like everyone else?", they demand. "It must be all your own fault."

"After all," they say in derisory voice, "Losing weight is easy. Just eat less and exercise more. If you don't lose weight, you are just weak willed."

Every person who has never had a real problem thinks they know all the easy answers. All those underlying unwarranted generalisations we face from others just about every day of our lives is a little recognised yet very real and severe form of discrimination, based on the same types of wrong thinking as prejudice against race, skin color, creed, gender, and other well recognised forms of hatred.

In fact, life experience has taught me that the less a person actually knows about obesity and weight loss, the more they think they know.

I spent time a few years ago under the care of some of the most distinguished and knowledgable internationally renowned Professors researching weight loss and obesity from the University of Sydney and the Royal Prince Albert Hospital's Obesity Clinic in Sydney, Australia. I will always remember what Professor Ian Caterson told me one day:

"The more we learn about obesity, the more we realise how little we really understand and how much more there is to discover."

Would any of those permanently thin critics care to explain a man with whom I shared many physiotherapy and hydrotherapy sessions during my time on the program at the Obesity Clinic? He was normal down the left side of his body, though obese down the right side of his body only.

Next time someone verbally berates you for carrying excess body weight and tries to tell you how easy it is to be lean & trim, try asking them what they would recommend to that man that some of the top obesity researchers in the world don't yet know.

Then, while your critic is looking dumbfounded and fumbling for some feeble explanation, hit them with a few more questions, such as:
# Why do large birth weight babies have a dramatically higher rate of obesity than normal birth weight babies?
# And, given the above, just what control do you think I've got over my birth weight?
# Do you know what your metabolic rate is? If not, why do you presume to think you know mine?
# Do you think everyone has identical norepinephrine levels? Oh, you don't even know what norepinephrine is, huh?
# Why do some people gain weight during stressful times while other people loss weight, irrespective of their eating patterns?
# How do you expect an overweight person to even be capable of greater physical activity than a normal weight person?
# Name me five minerals (not vitamins) that are vital for hormonal function, and explain which of these hormones has a different effect on brain signals related to appetite and metabolism.
# Tell me what you know about Insulin Resistance Syndrome, what causes it, what its symptoms are, and how to treat it.
# What has the least nutrient value to the human body - (a) 100 calories of pure fat, (b) 100 calories of pure protein, or (c) 100 calories of pure carbohydrate? (By the way - Your critic will probably answer Fat. The correct answer is C. The human body actually requires fats and proteins for various metabolic and physiological functions. Pure carbohydrate has no known unique use in the human body as the body can convert either fats or proteins as required into blood glucose, as it does with carbohydrate.)
# Some of the most successful business people, scientists, philosophers and artists in the course of human history have struggled with obesity. Why do you think such successful and influential people who have changed the course of the world as we know it today are "weak willed"?

When you see the jaw of your critic drop to the floor, as they turn pale and look like they've been hit by a runaway train, when their silence shows that their ignorance and prejudice has been thoroughly exposed, just calmly walk away.

At this point, both of you now know that, even though you may carrying excessive body weight, it is your critic who has the bigger problem.

The Jiggle Effect on Faster Weight Loss

2006-05-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Exercise Physiologists who study the effects of exercise on weight loss, have determined that the "jiggling" or shaking of excess body fat when someone walks fast or jogs, in combination with the muscle contractions invlovled in that activity, causes weight loss. I call it the "jiggle effect". :) This effect is caused by chemical messengers in the body - in response to the "jiggle" and muscle contractions - they say, "hey body, this person needs to be able to move more efficiently, let's get rid of some of this fat". So, above and beyond the normal caloric expenditure of that activity, these chemical messengers cause fat loss to happen more easily. So, how can you take advantage of the "jiggle" effect? The more you "jiggle", and the more intense the muscle contractions, the more pronounced the effect. Thus, faster walking is better than slower walking, and a slow jog is better than a fast walk. A good way to incorporate this into your aerobic exercise is to use "intervals". As you may know, I believe in making "intervals" a major part of your aerobic exercise sessions. I've received lots of encouraging feedback from my subscribers who have been very successful with interval training. Here are a few of the messages.. "Greg, Thanks for all your help. I took your advice and started using intervals in my walking sessions. Woooooo! The results have been dramatic. First of all in the way I feel. I have never really felt good after exercise, but now I think I'm getting that "high" thing. I feel fantastic. I am so much more energetic all day long now. I had been struggling at a weight loss plateau but this got me over it and I'm consistently losing two to three pounds a week. Thanks for turning me on to this." "Hello Greg, I read on your site about intervals and decided to give it a try. I really can't believe how different my exercise is now. I have much more muscle tone, and I know this sounds crazy, but some weeks my weight loss just seems to take off. I love this!" "Greg, About three months ago I started doing intervals as you suggested and I actually look forward to exercise now. It makes the time pass quickly and I really feel pumped when I finish. Thanks for the ecommendation." I receive a few messages similar to these every week. Are you ready to give "intervals" a try? Here's how to get started.. Intervals are brief periods (about one minute) of more intense exercise mixed into your regular aerobic exercise sessions. For example, if you're walking, you would do a one minute interval of faster walking about every five minutes throughout your exercise session. Here's how it will look.. you'll start with your normal three to five minute warm-up and then five minutes into your workout you do your first interval, one minute of faster walking (or perhaps jogging). At the end of that minute you should be "winded" and ready to slow down. You'll slow down to your normal exercising speed for the next four minutes and then your fifth minute is another one minute interval.
This pattern continues throughout your exercise session. You'll derive several benefits from intervals..
1. Intervals can help you to get past a weight loss plateau.
2. Intervals increase your aerobic fitness level by "pushing the envelope". While doing your interval you cross the anaerobic threshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcing your body to become conditioned to more intense exercise.
3. Your increased level of fitness means that a given level of exercise will feel easier and that you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity which "burns" more calories.
4. Your increased level of fitness also means that you will be less fatigued from daily activities and you'll have more "energy" throughout the day.
5. Intervals increase your basal metabolic rate (BMR), causing you to burn more calories 24 hours-a-day.
6. Intervals cause you to "burn" more calories during your exercise session and for several hours afterwards.
7. Intervals will tone the involved muscles to a greater degree than your regular aerobic exercise would.
8. Intervals can make your exercise less monotonous and help the time pass more quickly.
9. Intervals will energize you!
10. Intervals will activate the "jiggle affect" If you'd like to put a little excitement into your exercise, and you're looking for better results, give intervals, and "jiggling" a try!

Have You Given Up on Weight Loss ?

2006-05-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

Have You Given Up on Weight Loss? by Greg Landry, M.S I receive several email messages every day from people who have given up on weight loss. They are at wits end and they don't know what to do. They've "tried it all" and they believe it's impossible for them to lose weight. Many of them have lost weight and gained it all back, and more. Some of them have struggled with losing weight all their lives and have never been successful with it. One lady from Alabama wrote to me last spring, "I have been trying to lose about sixty pounds for over 23 years. I quit! I'm resolved to the fact that I will be fat for the rest of my life" How saddening that comment is. but I'm happy to tell you this lady, with a little guidance, is now 65 pounds lighter than she was one year ago.. and she has some muscle tone. Needless to say, she no longer believes that she'll be fat for the rest of her life. I tell you this simply to illustrate the fact that you don't have to give up on weight loss. YOU can lose weight, but you have to be willing to do what it takes.. and here's what it takes! If we look at people who have been successful at weight loss *and* maintaining that loss, a couple of things are very apparent. These two factors are present in the lives of most of them..
1. They do some form of aerobic exercise 5 to 7 days per week. These people aren't exercise wimps! They know how critically important this is to their weight loss/ maintenance and they get out and do it! They average 45 minutes per day with the range being 30 to 90 minutes per day. This not only burns lots of calories, but, perhaps more importantly, it elevates their basal metabolic rate.
2. They do some type of weight training 2 to
3 days per week. This has a tremendous affect on basal metabolic rate and muscle tone. Success at maintaining a weight loss is much higher in people who have weight trained while they were losing weight versus those who haven't. Now, obviously, healthy eating habits are also very important. However, most of these people say that their exercise habits seem to dictate their eating habits.. meaning that if they can be consistent with exercise, their eating habits seem to fall into place. I've had many clients tell me that their daily exercise puts them in a "healthy" frame of mind and helps them to make better food choices. Bottom line; when they are exercising consistently, their eating habits are better. I firmly believe that a major factor in most peoples frustration with weight loss is that they haven't been told the truth about exercise. You see, twenty minutes, three days per week isn't going to cut it for weight loss. If you're serious about weight loss, then you have to get serious about exercise.
-It's all about changing your basal metabolism through exercise.
-It's about looking at exercise as a part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth.
-It's about viewing exercise as something you're doing to get healthy and feel great! "If you *vigorously* pursue fitness and health, weight loss will happen"(tm)

Faster Fat Loss Thats Healthy

2006-05-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

I received a telephone call from a lady last week. Her first word was "heeeelp"! She was on a weight loss program and only losing about one half pound per week.She wanted to speed things up but didn't want to do anything that was unhealthy. Here's what I told her: If you're interested in losing fat, you're objective is to create a daily caloric deficit. For example, If you're consuming 1700 calories per day, and expending 2000 calories per day, your caloric deficit is 300 calories. So, if you'd like to increase your daily caloric deficit, you have two options; to decrease your caloric intake by eating fewer calories, or increase your caloric expenditure via more activity / exercise. However, you cannot decrease your daily caloric intake much lower than 1200 to 1500 or so without potentially creating health and metabolism problems. So, the remaining factor in the deficit equation is caloric expenditure through increased activity / exercise.The good news is that you can substantially increase your caloric expenditure. For example, if you're exercising for 30 minutes three days per week, over a period of several weeks you can increase your exercise to 60 to 90 minutes per day, six to seven days per week. An example of this would be 60 minutes of aerobic exercise, six to seven days per week and 30 minutes of weight training three days per week. So, in this example, you would increase your monthly exercise minutes from about 360 to 1800. Plus, in addition to the calories that you're expending during exercise, you would also substantially increase the number of calories you're burning 24 hours-a-day, yes, you'll even burn more calories while you're sleeping. You can't beat that, can you? So, if you want to speed-up your fat loss, here's your game plan.
1. Tone your muscles with weight training three days per week. Toned muscles supercharge your metabolism! This should be done just after your aerobic exercise session.
2. Do some type of aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming, stationary cycling, aerobic dancing, etc.) on a DAILY basis (preferably in the morning) for 30 to 60 minutes! Note: If you haven't been exercising, be sure to gradually increase your exercise time.
3. Do an additional 15 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise in the evening, five days per week. Some people like to do this just before their dinner meal to decrease their appetite, but after dinner is fine too. In the interest of injury prevention and not getting bored with your exercise, try to alternate the type of exercise you do. For example, walking in the morning and aerobic dance in the evening.
4. Incorporate "intervals" into most of your aerobic sessions. Intervals are a powerful tool to help boost your metabolism. They are explained in detail in my article, "Intervals for Weight Loss."
5. Develop a more active lifestyle. Look for the "hard" way to do things - the way that requires the most energy expenditure. Put this plan into action and you'll like the results - you'll look better, feel better, have less body fat and more muscle tone! Get movin'!

Top 10 Points of Encouragement for Weight Loss

2006-05-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

On the road to weight loss, fitness, and health, you can easily become discouraged. In act, discouragement is what leads many people to give-up when they may have been near a point of significant progress and encouragement in their program. I've put together my "top 10" points of encouragement to help keep your spirits high on your road to weight loss, fitness, and health..
1. It does get better - and often very quickly! Many people that are significantly overweight or that have been sedentary for a long time, find any activity, even walking a few hundred feet, to be very difficult and uncomfortable. Be encouraged, many physiological changes happen very quickly once you start moving. Walking, for example, starts getting easier and more comfortable within a couple of weeks. Keep moving - every day will be a little better! Be encouraged!
2. I love this lady's story. It just makes you want to cheer for her while sitting at your computer. Margie from Madison, Wisconsin weighed 296 pounds when she started walking in her neighborhood. She says she started by walking about half a block twice a day and that it was incredibly difficult at first. After the second day she had decided to quit but a neighbor encouraged her to continue. Every day she walked the same route but added a little distance each week. She says there were many days when she wanted to quit, but she wanted very badly to lose weight and be healthy.After several months the people in her neighborhood started noticing her consistency and her progress and started giving her compliments and words of encouragement. She said that after afew months of walking, it went from painful to enjoyable.About ten months into her walking program,she began her morning walk as usual, butshe noticed people out in their yards. As she passed each yard they were clapping and cheering for her, "go Margie", "we're proud of you Margie", ongratulations Margie!" She said tears of happiness flowed through her entire walk that morning as over a hundred people cheered her on all along her route! Be encouraged!
3. The visible signs of progress in a weight loss program are often very slow to come. Healthy weight loss takes time, but that can be very discouraging. Be encouraged to know that for each day that you exercise and eat healthy foods in moderate quantities, you have made progress. It might not be measurable that day, but you have made progress and it will be measurable over a period of weeks and months. Be encouraged!
4. Katherine was 43 years-old and had been sedentary for 20 years. The scale had not changed in those 20 years - she still weighed 136 pounds, but she knew she had lost muscle and gained fat. Her waist was bigger and she couldn't fit into the same size clothes that she did 20 years earlier. What bothered her most was that she was always tired and never had energy.She decided to start walking and weight training but quit after a week. She said, "it's too uncomfortable, I can't keep doing this." I encouraged her to continue and told her that it would get better. She "quit" three times during the next two weeks. We talked frequently. Six weeks later she started to notice some muscle tone and she noticed that her endurance and energy level had increased dramatically. She said, "I'm very encouraged!" Eight months later she had gained two pounds on the scale but lost three inches in her waist - and she walked a marathon! Yeeeeeeesss! Be encouraged!
5. The whole idea behind physical training is that you push your body to do a little more than it's comfortable with and it responds by making physical and physiological changes. These changes make you capable of doing a little more with less discomfort. Be encouraged!
6. Gerald in New Orleans, Louisiana lost 85 pounds after he started walking and weight training. Once he had lost the weight, he decided to do something that would allow him to fully appreciate his weight loss. For an entire day, he carried around a sack that contained 85 pounds of metal weights.Getting around during that day was a struggle and very tiring. At the end of the day he was exhausted! Life without the weight is great! Be encouraged!
7. Keep records of your progress. Every day write down the positive changes you've noticed and also keep a record of the exercise you do every day. Write down what you did, how long you did it, and any thoughts about your exercise that day. Keep a running total of your minutes. You can look back at what you've done with a great sense of accomplishment and you'll be motivated to do more. Be encouraged!
8. Daily exercise will change your life! I believe God designed humans to be active on a daily basis. Why? because when you are, lots of good things happen..- you are healthier - you feel better and have more energy - you are less likely to develop cancer, heart isease, stroke, etc.
- you sleep better
- you have a better outlook on life
- your relationships with people are enhanced
- your skin looks healthier
- you are sick less often
- your immune system is stronger
- you lose fat
- you gain toned, lean muscle
- you look healthier
Be encouraged!
9. Betty Jo in Tuscaloosa, Alabama wrote to me.. "Greg, After 24 years of being married to a grouchy, pessimistic man who didn't enjoy life, I saw all that change over a period of about a year. Harold was the classic 70 pound overweight couch potato when he was
scared into exercising and healthier eating habits by the death of his 46 year-old friend."Harold's doctor recommended that he start walking every morning and after a couple of weeks Harold told Betty Jo that he wanted to start eating better. Harold really took-off with this "health thing" and lost 72 pounds and become a new man - inside and out. In Betty Jo's words, "I have a new husband. He walks for an hour every morning and he is a joy to be around. His enthusiasm for life makes our marriage fun." Be encouraged!
10. Progress and improvement generate encouragement. YOU can progress and improve and be encouraged to do more. Tomorrow morning, put on your walking shoes and take a walk, even if it's just a few minutes. The next day, do it again - progress and improve.

Oxygen Therapy For Weight Loss ?

2006-05-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

The chemistry sounds very straightforward. Human body fat is a combination of three elements - hydrogen, carbon and oxygen molecules (plus other substances that are stored within the fat cells).

Add extra oxygen to the body fat, and in theory it should break down into two well known substances:
# Hydrogen & oxygen molecules (H2O - water, which enters the blood stream, goes through the kidneys and is then excreted via urination); &
# Carbon & oxygen molecules (CO2 - carbon dioxide, which is excreted via respiration).

Oxygen or Ozone Therapies are used by a number of alternative medicine practitioners around the world. It is more popular in Europe than in the USA. Practitioners are also found in Canada and Mexico.

Despite being banned in some countries and certainly debunked by large sections of the "conventional" medical profession, there is plenty of evidence that oxygen therapy produces health benefits for many conditions far cheaper, much faster and without the side effects of patent drugs.

Oxygen therapy is usually administered in one of two ways:
# A facial mask attached to an oxygen tank, so that the patient breaths in oxygen for many hours of the day; or
# Daily sessions of diluted hydrogen peroxide administered via an intravenous drip.

Given the straightforward chemical composition of body fat discussed above, does Oxygen Therapy actually work for weight loss? I decided to contact a number of practitioners in various parts of the world and ask them if, when treating patients for other ailments using oxygen therapies, weight loss was ever seen as a side-effect of their treatment.

All the doctors who replied responded that no such weight loss factor has ever been observed that they could credit to the oxygen therapy itself, and not the condition they were treating.

It seems that empirical evidence to support the theory that oxygen therapy could reduce body fat into the easily excreted H2O and CO2 is lacking.

Still, not everyone is convinced. The chemistry appears fine on paper, so something is missing in the implementation. Finding that missing factor could be crucial in the battle of the bulge, the quest for weight loss, and conquering obesity.

Books have been written promoting special breathing techniques for weight loss. Although there are sceptics, there are also many people around the world who swear by the success they have achieved in losing weight via these breathing techniques.

The theory behind these breathing techniques is not merely due to the intake of the oxygen, but that the human body's metabolic process expels waste matter, including carbon dioxide, when we breath out. Our air intake is higher in oxygen than what we expire, and we breath out more carbon dioxide than we breath in.

The breathing technique therefore seeks to encourage and maximize the expulsion of carbon dioxide from our bodies - carbon dioxide that is the waste matter created when the oxygen dissolves body fat.

Personally, I must admit to being impressed though not thoroughly convinced. It is quite reasonable to assume that the people who are disciplined enough to follow this breathing technique diligently for several weeks or months are probably motivated enough to also be doing other things (dietary, psychologically, etc.) that will be causing the weight loss.

Still, it fits the basic (unproven) theory that adding oxygen to body fat should result in weight loss. Furthermore, it is harmless, so long as adequate dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins and minerals are being consumed. Whether the actual results are from the technique itself or of a more psychosomatic nature is immaterial if it works, is free and available to all, and has no adverse side effects.

By all means, add these deep breathing exercises to your overall toolbox of synergistic weight loss treatments.

Still, there is one more form of oxygen therapy (not usually recognized as such) that even the sceptics would have trouble disputing.

It is more commonly called exercise. More accurately, aerobic exercise. (Aerobic simply means "air breathing".) It is exercise that makes you huff and puff, deepening your breathing. It is and always has been one of the most fundamental parts of any successful weight loss program.

Top 15 Reasons to Avoid Low Carb Diets

2006-05-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Low carb (carbohydrate), high protein diets are the latest dieting craze. However, before you jump on the band wagon, you may want to consider a few things:
1. Low carb (ketogenic) diets deplete the healthy glycogen (the storage form of glucose) stores in your muscles and liver. When you deplete glycogen stores, you also dehydrate, often causing the scale to drop significantly in the first week or two of the diet. This is usually interpreted as fat loss when it's actually mostly from dehydration and muscle loss. By the way, this is one of the reasons that low carb diets are so popular at the moment - there is a quick initial, but deceptive drop in scale weight.
Glycogenesis (formation of glycogen) occurs in the liver and muscles when adequate quantities of carbohydrates are consumed - very little of this happens on a low carb diet.
Glycogenolysis (breakdown of glycogen) occurs when glycogen is broken down to form glucose for use as fuel.

2. Depletion of muscle glycogen causes you to fatigue easily, and makes exercise and movement uncomfortable. Research indicates that muscle fatigue increases in almost direct proportion to the rate of depletion of muscle glycogen. Bottom line is that you don't feel energetic and you exercise and move less (often without realizing it) which is not good for caloric expenditure and basal metabolic rate (metabolism).

3. Depletion of muscle glycogen leads to muscle atrophy (loss of muscle). This happens because muscle glycogen (broken down to glucose) is the fuel of choice for the muscle during movement. There is always a fuel mix, but without muscle glycogen, the muscle fibers that contract, even at rest to maintain muscle tone, contract less when glycogen is not immediately available in the muscle. Depletion of muscle glycogen also causes you to exercise and move less than normal which leads to muscle loss and the inability to maintain adequate muscle tone.
Also, in the absence of adequate carbohydrate for fuel, the body initially uses protein (muscle) and fat. the initial phase of muscle depletion is rapid, caused by the use of easily accessed muscle protein for direct metabolism or for conversion to glucose (gluconeogenesis) for fuel. Eating excess protein does not prevent this because there is a caloric deficit. When insulin levels are chronically too low as they may be in very low carb diets, catabolism (breakdown) of muscle protein increases, and protein synthesis stops.

4. Loss of muscle causes a decrease in your basal metabolic
rate (metabolism). Metabolism happens in the muscle. Less muscle and muscle tone means a slower metabolism which means fewer calories burned 24 hours-a-day.

5. Your muscles and skin lack tone and are saggy. Saggy muscles don't look good, cause saggy skin, and cause you to lose a healthy, vibrant look (even if you've also lost fat).

6. Some proponents of low carb diets recommend avoiding carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, potatoes, carrots, etc. because of they are high on the glycemic index - a using a sharp rise in insulin. Certain carbohydrates have always been, and will always be the bad guys: candy, cookies, baked goods with added sugar, sugared drinks, processed / refined white breads, pastas, and rice, and any foods with added sugar. These are not good for health or weight loss. However, carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grain breads and pastas, and brown rice are good for health and weight loss. Just like with proteins and fats, these carbohydrates should be eaten in moderation. Large volumes of any proteins, fats or carbohydrates are not conducive to weight loss and health. The effect of high glycemic foods is often exaggerated. It's does matter, but to a smaller degree than is often portrayed. Also, the total glycemic effect of foods is influenced by the quantity of that food that you eat at a sitting. Smaller meals have a lower overall glycemic effect. Also, we usually eat several types of food at the same time, thereby reducing the average glycemic index of the meal, if higher glycemic foods are eaten. Also, glycemic index values can be misleading because they are based on a standard 50 grams of carbohydrate consumed. It wouldn't take much candy bar to get that, but it would take
four cups of carrots. Do you usually eat four cups of carrots at a meal? Regular exercisers and active people also are less effected by higher glycemic foods because much of the carbohydrate comsumed is immediately used to replenish glycogen stores in the liver and muscle. By the way, if you're interested in lowering insulin levels, there is a great way to do that - exercise and activity.

7. Much of the weight loss on a low carb, high protein diet, especially in the first few weeks, is actually because of dehydration and muscle loss.

8. The percentage of people that re-gain the weight they've lost with most methods of weight loss is high, but it's even higher with low carb, high protein diets. This is primarily due to three factors:

A. You have lost muscle. With that comes a slower metabolism which means fewer calories are burned 24 hours-a-day. A loss of muscle during the process of losing weight is almost a guarantee for re-gaining the lost weight, and more.

B. You re-gain the healthy fluid lost because of glycogen depletion.

C. It's difficult to maintain that type of diet long-term.

D. You have not made a change to a long-term healthy lifestyle.

9. Eating too much fat is just not healthy. I know you've heard of people whose blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides have decreased while on a low carb, high protein diet. This often happens with weight loss, but it doesn't continue when you're on a diet high in fat. There are literally reams of research over decades that clearly indicates that an increase in consumption of animal products and/or saturated fat leads to increased incidence of heart disease, strokes, gall stones, kidney stones, arthritic symptoms, certain cancers, etc. For example, in comparing countries with varying levels of meat consumption, there is a direct relationship between the volume of meat consumption in a country and the incidence of digestive cancers (stomach, intestines, rectal, etc.).
Fat is certainly necessary, and desirable in your diet, but they should be mostly healthy fats and in moderation. Manufactured / synthetic "low fat" foods with lots of added

sugar are not the answer. Neither are manufactured / synthetic "low carb" foods with artificial sweeteners or added fat. By the way, use of artificial sweeteners has never been shown to aid in weight loss and they may pose health problems. According to Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, "In my experience, unless you're willing to throw out decades of research, you cannot ignore that diets chronically high in saturated fats are linked to heart disease," Dr. Ayoob is also a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association and says that low carb, high protein diets are an attempt at a quick fix and not a long-term lifestyle change. 10. As someone recently told me, "it must work – people are losing weight". People that are truly losing at on low carb, high protein diets, are doing so because they are eating fewer calories - that's the bottom line. There is no magic - the same can be done on a healthy diet.

11. Low carb diets are lacking in fiber. Every plant-based food has some fiber. All animal products have no fiber. A lack of fiber increases your risk for cancers of the digestive track (because transit time is lengthened) and cardiovascular disease (because of fibers effect on fat and cholesterol). It also puts you at a higher risk for constipation and other bowel disorders.

12. Low carb diets lack sufficient quantities of the the many nutrients / phytonutrients / antioxidants found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, necessary for health and aiding in prevention of cancer and heart disease. In fact, you need these nutrients even more so when you're consuming too much fat as is often the case on a low carb high protein diet.

13. Amercans already consume more than twice the amount of protein needed. Add to that a high protein diet and you have far too much protein consumption. By the way, most people don't realize that all fruits, all vegetables, all whole grains, and all legumes also contain protein. Animal products contain larger quantities of protein, but that may not be a good thing. Excess dietary protein puts you at a higher risk for many health problems: gout (painful joints from high purine foods which are usually high protein foods), kidney disease, kidney stones, osteoporosis (excess dietary protein causes leeching of calcium from the bones). By the way, countries with lower, healthier intakes of protein also have a decreased incidence of osteoporosis.

14. Low carb, high protein diets cause an unhealthy physiological state called ketosis, a type of metabolic acidosis. You may have heard the phrase, "fat burns in the flame of carbohydrate". Excess acetyl CoA cannot enter the Krebs Cycle (you remember the old Krebs Cycle) due to insufficient OAA. In other words, for fat to burn efficiently and without production of excess toxic ketones, sufficient carbohydrate must be available. Ketosis can lead to many health problems and can be very serious at it's extreme.

15. Bad breath. Often called "keto breath" or "acetone breath", it's caused by production of acetones in a state of ketosis. So why the low carb, high protein craze? I believe there are several reasons.
A. Weight loss (mostly muscle and muscle fluid) is often rapid during the first few weeks. This causes people to think they're losing fat rapidly.

B. It gives you "permission" to eat the "bad foods": bacon, eggs, burgers, steak, cheese, etc., and lots of fat.
C. Many see it as the new "magic" they've been looking for, although it's been around, in various forms, since the 1960's.
The good news is that there is a very healthy way to lose weight, feel energetic, and to greatly increase your chances of keeping it off. But that's another article.

References:

- Brooks, G, Fahey, T: Exercise Physiology - Human Bioenergetics and its Applications. John Wiley and Sons, 1984.
- Cheatham, B, Kahn, CR: Insulin Action and Insulin Signaling Network. Endocrine Review 16:117, 1995
- Fain, JN: Insulin Secretion and Action. Metabolism 33:672, 1984.
- Fitts, RH: Cellular Mechanisms of Muscle Fatigue. Physiological Review 74:49, 1994
- Griffin, James, Ojeda, Sergio: Textbook of Endocrine Physiology. Oxford University Press, 2000
- Guyton, A, Hall, J: Textbook of Medical Physiology. W.B.
Saunders Company, 2000.
- Herzog, W: Muscle Function in Movement and Sports. American Journal of Sports Medicine 24:S14, 1996
- Hoffman, JF, Jamieson, JD: Handbook of Physiology: Cell Physiology. Bethesda: American Physiological Society, 1997
- Kimball, SR, Vary, TC, Jefferson, LS: Regulation of Protein Synthesis by Insulin. Annual Review Physiology 56:321, 1994.
- McArdle, William, Katch, Frank, Katch, Victor: Exercise Physiology - Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance. Lea and Febiger, 1981.
- Mcdougall, MD, John: The Mcdougall Plan. New Century Publishers, 1983.
- Simopoulos, AP, Pavlou, KN: Nutrition and Fitness. Basel: Karger, 1997

Four Big Weight Loss No-Nos

2006-05-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

I've worked with hundreds of people who
were interested in losing weight. Over
the years I've noticed four areas that
I believe are particular hindrances
to weight loss. If your goal is to be
successful at losing weight and keeping
it off, avoid the "big 4" no-nos.

#1 Big No-No: Not exercising on a daily
basis. Daily exercise sends your metabolism
through the roof! I have seen VERY FEW people
who are not very regular exercisers, lose
weight AND keep it off.

Losing weight and maintaining that loss
can be very difficult. However, both can
be made considerably easier with regular
exercise, preferably in the morning.

If you're interested in losing fat, you're
objective is to create a daily caloric
deficit. For example, If you're consuming
1700 calories per day, and expending 2000
calories per day, your caloric deficit is
300 calories. Losing a pound of fat requires
a deficit of 3500 calories. So, to lose
two pounds per week would require a daily
deficit of 1000 calories.

So, if you'd like to increase your daily
caloric deficit, you have two options;
1. To decrease your caloric intake by eating
fewer calories, or..
2. To increase your caloric expenditure via
more activity / exercise.
However, you cannot decrease your daily
caloric intake much lower than 1200 to
1500 or so without potentially creating
health and metabolism problems.

In fact, many people's metabolism (basal
metabolic rate) is so slow from years of
inactivity and dieting, that they are only
burning fewer than 1500 calories per day.
Without exercise, they would have to
decrease their daily caloric intake to
unhealthy levels to lose weight. And, a
caloric intake that's too low only creates
more metabolism problems and a vicious
cycle of more weight gain.

So, the only remaining factor in the deficit
equation is caloric expenditure through
increased activity / exercise.

The good news is that you can substantially
increase your caloric expenditure. For
example, if you're currently walking for
30 minutes two days per week, over a period of
several weeks you can increase your walking
to 60 minutes per day, six to seven days
per week and begin weight training for 30
minutes three days per week.

So, in this example, you would increase your
monthly exercise minutes from about 240 to
1530. Plus, in addition to the calories that
you're expending during exercise, you would
also substantially increase the number of
calories you're burning 24 hours-a-day, yes,
you'll even burn more calories while you're
sleeping because you've fired-up your basal
metabolic rate. You can't beat that, can you?

Here's another VERY important reason
to exercise while you're restricting
calories and trying to lose weight. you tend
to lose muscle tissue from any muscle that
you're not using while you're restricting
calories. You've heard it - use it or lose it.
And, there are three main consequences to
losing muscle;
1. Your metabolism (basal metabolic rate)
decreases causing you to burn *fewer* calories
24 hours-a-day and causing the maintenance
of your weight loss to be very difficult.
2. Your muscles get flabby and mushy.
3. Your are weaker and become fatigued
more easily.

#2 Big No-No: Not deciding to make a drastic
change. I've seen this over and over again
with hundreds of people. Unless someone
decides that they are ready to get really
serious about losing weight and ready to
make drastic changes, their chances of losing
weight and keeping it off are not good.

Research continues to indicate that
Americans are becoming more sedentary..
and fatter every year. This move toward
inactivity and an increase in body fat
is even more pronounced in children, who
don't get out and play anymore. Instead,
they sit in front of a TV or computer
(perhaps like their parents) for many of
their waking hours.

We know that there is a very direct,
inverse relationship between a person's
level of activity and the percentage of
their weight that is fat. less activity
equals more fat, and more activity equals
lees fat.

I received an email message recently
that I'd like to share with you. It's a
weight loss and fitness success story
that makes you want to start exercising
while you're reading it.

It's from a 48 year-old lady, Elizabeth,
who lives in Lexington, Kentucky. She
is living proof that less activity
equals more fat, and more activity
equals less fat. Here's her letter:

"Greg, I'm writing to thank you for your
inspiring articles and to tell you about
my journey (a rough one) to fitness. I
was at a healthy weight in my early
twenties and had my first child at age
26. I remained about 30 pounds overweight
after she was born."

"I managed to gain 15 more pounds during
the next four years, mostly because of
several diets I tried. After the birth
of my second child at age 31, I was 60
pounds overweight and very frustrated.
Over the next 15 years I tried numerous
diets (even eating just rice) that
ultimate led to me being 120 pounds
overweight."

"I started reading your articles two years
ago and it finally began to sink in. I
finally realized that exercise wasn't
just about the calories I was burning
during exercise. I finally realized
that I would never lose the weight and
keep it off without some real exercise
in my life."

"I reached a point in my life where my
weight was ruining my life. I got to the
point where everything was a struggle,
none of my fat clothes fit, I didn't
want to see anyone because of the way I
looked, and even walking made me
breathless. I decided that I would either
make a drastic change at that point or
I would give up. I chose to make a drastic
change."

"I knew that exercise needed to be a
priority and so I changed several things
in my daily schedule to make that happen.
I started with very little but I was very
consistent. I worked up to 45 minutes of
aerobic exercise in the morning and 30 to
45 minutes in the evening. On Saturdays,
I take a less intense, but longer walk
throughout my area of town enjoying all
the sights. I'm up to 8 to 10 miles on
my Saturday walk. I also weight train
three days a week. Please don't get the
impression that this was easy. I went
through MANY difficult struggles but
it definitely got easier as I progressed."

"I'm now 12 pounds from my goal weight. Greg,
I can't begin to explain how my life has
changed. Everything is different. Even
the way people talk to me. It's almost
like people didn't even see the person
under all that fat. Probably best of all
is that I have energy to function now.
I'm not constantly tired like I used to
be."

"Obviously, my perception of exercise has
changed now. I enjoy it and look forward
to it. I'm planning on doing a half
marathon (13.1 miles) walk in the fall.
Thanks again for your words of
encouragement."

Elizabeth
Lexington, Kentucky

Wow! This lady is unstoppable. Notice that
she first realized the true benefits of
exercise and then decided to do *whatever*
she had to for exercise to become a
consistent part of her life.

Exercise radically changes how your body
handles fat! when you're sedentary, all
the physiological signals tell your body
to hang on to the fat and dump the
metabolism boosting muscle. When you're
exercising on a daily basis, all the
physiological signals tell your body to
dump the fat and increase the metabolism
boosting muscle. Which signals do you want?

#3 Big No-No: Not taking the time to plan
and prepare your eating. Healthy eating for
weight loss won't just happen, you have to
spend time on it.

Not being prepared is a major factor that
leads to overeating and unhealthy eating.
Take time to plan your shopping and eating
for the week. Take time to prepare your
lunch to take to work, and your meal for
the evening, etc. Plan for healthy snacks
to have at home, in your car, at work, etc.
Our weight loss programs specifically
discuss how to set up an effective snacking
system.

4. Not including intervals in your aerobic
exercise. Intervals are brief periods (about one
minute) of more intense exercise mixed into your
regular aerobic exercise sessions. For
example, if you're walking, you would do a
one minute interval of faster walking once
every five minutes throughout your exercise
session.

Here's how it will look.. you'll start with
your normal three to five minute warm-up and
then five minutes into your workout you do
your first interval, one minute of faster
walking (or perhaps jogging). At the end of
that minute you should be "winded" and ready
to slow down. You'll slow down to your normal
exercising speed for the next four minutes
and then your fifth minute is another one
minute interval. This pattern continues
throughout your exercise session.

You'll derive several benefits from intervals..

1. Intervals can help you to get past a
weight loss plateau.

2. Intervals increase your aerobic fitness
level by "pushing the envelope". While doing
your interval you cross the anaerobic
threshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcing
your body to become conditioned to more
intense exercise.

3. Your increased level of fitness means that
a given level of exercise will feel easier
and that you will be able to exercise at a
higher intensity which "burns" more calories.

4. Your increased level of fitness also means
that you will be less fatigued from daily
activities and you'll have more "energy"
throughout the day.

5. Intervals increase your basal metabolic
rate (BMR), causing you to burn more calories
24 hours-a-day.

6. Intervals cause you to "burn" more calories
during your exercise session and for several
hours afterwards.

7. Intervals will tone the involved muscles
to a greater degree than your regular aerobic
exercise would.

8. Intervals can make your exercise less
monotonous and help the time pass more
quickly.

9. Intervals will energize you!

If you'd like to put a little excitement into
your exercise, and you're looking for better
results, give intervals a try.

Avoid these four "no-nos" and your weight loss
efforts are much more likely to be successful.

Calcium - The Key To Quick Weight Loss

2006-05-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

Are you dieting your way to bone loss?

Are you aware that the diet you follow may be depleting your bones of essential nutrients and increasing your chances of developing osteoporosis? Popular diets may promise quick weight loss, but calcium and other important nutrients are often missing from the menu, which can lead to bone loss.

And women who consistently limit what they eat to avoid gaining weight may undermine the health of their bones, according to a study by ARS researchers in California. (1)

The study looked at the eating behavior of women between the ages of 18 and 50 and found that those classified as "restrained eaters" had significantly lower bone mineral density and bone mineral content (key indicators of overall bone strength and health) than women who said they weren't concerned about what they ate.

"Exercise and eating a well-balanced diet with adequate calcium, are two of the best ways to keep your bones strong and healthy." advise the researchers.

Calcium is not only good for your bones but can help you maintain a healthy, low fat diet too. There has been increasing media coverage about numerous studies showing that a diet rich in calcium helps reduce body fat.

Why is calcium important in weight loss?

Calcium is a fat burner. High-calcium diets seem to favor burning rather than storing fat. Researchers say this is because calcium stored in fat cells plays an important role in fat storage and breakdown.

Calcium changes the efficiency of weight loss . In fact, study after study has shown that the people with the highest calcium intake overall weighed the least, and the people with the lowest calcium intake had the highest percentage of body fat. (2,3,4)

When overall calorie consumption is accounted for, calcium not only helps keep weight in check, but can be associated specifically with decreases in body fat. A low daily calcium intake is associated with greater tendency to gain weight, particularly in women. (5)

Researchers found that adolescent girls who consumed more calcium weighed less and had less body fat than girls who consumed the same amount of calories from other sources. (6)

Previous studies have shown that a higher calcium intake can block body fat production in adults and preschool children (7), but this was one of the first studies to show that it might have the same effect in body-conscious preteen and teenage girls.

But aren't dairy products fattening?

Some dieters consider dairy products to be fattening, but the evidence suggests the opposite is true.

Consumption of calcium-rich dairy foods can actually help to reduce and prevent obesity. Over 20 recent studies show that milk products actually contribute to weight loss.

A new study in obese adults, presented at the First Annual Nutrition Week Conference, showed that increasing calcium intake by the equivalent of two dairy servings per day could reduce the risk of obesity by as much as 70 percent. (8)

The study provided clinching evidence that calcium in low-fat dairy products can help adjust your body's fat-burning machinery and help keep your weight under control.

In another study, obese subjects placed on a high-calcium diet, with yogurt as the calcium source, showed markedly greater fat loss than those on a low-calcium diet. (9)

Numerous studies have shown that dairy calcium is more effective in reducing body fat than other forms of calcium. (10)

Why does diary calcium work so well?

Researchers believe that other nutrients found in milk products act in synergy with calcium to reduce fat more efficiently.

Glycomacropeptides (found in whey proteins derived from milk) in particular, are known to create feelings of satiety and fullness and decrease food intake. (11,12,13)

Foods that are a good source of calcium include cheese, milk, ice cream, baked beans and other dried legumes, dried figs, broccoli, most dark-green leafy vegetables, and soft fish bones like those in canned salmon.

Disclaimer: If you are under 18, pregnant, nursing or have health problems, consult your physician before starting any weight loss plan. The information here is not provided by medical professionals and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your physician before beginning any course of treatment.

References:

1. April 1999; Agricultural Research magazine
2. Zemel MB et al. [2000. FASEB J 14:1132-1138.]
3. Zemel MB. 2002. [J Am Coll Nutr 21: 146S-151S.]
4. Shi H et al. [2001. FASEB J 5:291-293.]
5. Jacqmain M et al. [2003. Am J Clin Nutr 77:1448-1452.]
6. Novotny R et al. [2003. Poster Presentation, Experimental Biology Meeting, April, San Diego, CA.]
7. Carruth BR and Skinner JD. [2001. T Int J Obesity Relat Metab Disord 25:559-566.]
8. Zemel MB et al. [Obes Res. 2004 Apr;12(4):582-90.]
9. Zemel MB et al. [2003. FASEB J A1088:679.3]
10. Heaney, R.P., Davies, K.M., Barger-Lux, M.J. [Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 21(2), 2002, pages 152S-155S.]
11. Gibbs J, Young RC, Smith GP.J Comp [Physiol Psychol 1973 Sep;84(3):488-95]
12. Della-Fera MA, Baile CA, Schneider BS, Grinker JA. [Science 1981 May 8;212(4495):687-9]
13. Della-Fera MA, Baile CA. [Physiol Behav 1981 Jun;26(6):979-83]

Losing Weight is All About Counting Calories/Carbs and Exercising. Or Is It ?

2006-05-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Losing Weight is All About Counting Calories/Carbs and Exercising. Or Is It?
5 Tips to Consider When You Want To Lose Fat Forever.

With two thirds of our population overweight (one third in the obese category), watching our weight is no longer something we are doing to look more appealing, or perhaps thinking about doing. It has become a necessary action to prevent disease and increased health costs.

With physical activities being curtailed in schools and backyards and more opportunity to sit in front of televisions, computers and game boys, even our children are joining the ranks of the sedentary lifestyle which promotes an overweight population. Adult diseases are becoming more prominent in children. Adult onset diabetes has been renamed to accommodate all the children who are being diagnosed with it, some as early as in infancy.

So if you have "given up" because counting and exercising hasn't worked for you, consider the following five tips. Which ones can help you?

1. Check to see if you are sabotaging yourself in any way. Many of us find very unique ways to sabotage ourselves. Even though they may not be related to food, they can play havoc with our weight. Sabotage happens often when we are not aware of it. Becoming aware of sabotage is important, but it is only the first step. We must also be ready to move past our sabotage. If we ignore the sabotage and continue to try to lose weight . . . well you know the story.

2. Get the right nutrients. It's not just about the right amount of carbs, fats or protein. A proper balance of the nutrients contained in those carbs, fats and proteins can play a part in whether or not you will lose weight happily and keep it off or if it is just another diet that you must endure to wear a smaller size. A client of mine said it best when she told me she "dieted her way up to morbid obesity". She started at 106 lbs and after years of dieting peaked out at 255 lbs.

3. Use a balanced approach to lose and maintain your weight. Yes, it is important to watch what you eat. Yes, it is imperative to exercise so you don't lose lean mass (muscle, bone, organ tissue). It is also important to examine your stress levels and where that stress is coming from. We all must eat. We all must move. We even must have some stress. But what kind of food, exercise and stress and how much we should have of each of them is important. A good balance of each individually and in balance with each other is of major importance in reaching and maintaining our weight goals.

4. Tweak your lifestyle. Lose 20 lbs in 10 days! Look great in your bikini in just 30 days! We are led to believe that weight loss is a quick-fix and anyone can do it. I went to college with a beauty queen who told us she could lose 5 lbs in a couple days when she had an appearance to make. At the time I was impressed. Now I know that we can all do it. All we have to do is quit drinking water and eating food. The food in our digestive system at any one time and the water in our blood and cells can easily weigh 5 lbs. But isn't weight loss supposed to get rid of fat?

Well, the scale doesn't know the difference. Success in long-term weight loss comes from understanding that the extra pounds didn't come on in a few weeks or even a few months. If we are willing to make weight loss/ management a long-term project, we can realize a lifetime of success. By making small, progressive changes in our lifestyle, and having an appropriate support system, we set ourselves up for a happier, healthier journey to our weight goals.

5. Forget about losing weight and strive to be healthy. Have you every met anyone who has dieted for decades and all they got was sporadic success with long-term failure? Then when they finally decide to learn to love themselves as they are (all ??? pounds of themselves), and turn their attention to becoming more healthy. . . the weight starts dropping off! Well our body doesn't care what we look like but it does care if we are healthy. Our bodies are continually striving for homeostasis (a state of balance).

When our bodies are balanced, we are healthy. When something is out of balance, our organs and cells will work hard to bring it back into balance (no wonder we get tired). When we sabotage (there's that word again) our bodies by not giving them the nutrients and exercise they require and/or giving them too much or the wrong kind of stress, they can become overworked, resulting in loss of energy, weight gain (or inappropriate loss) and/or disease.

So if you want to look your best and feel energized, you may want to change your thoughts from losing weight to gaining health. Just the fact of changing your thinking patterns from losing to gaining can put you into a more positive mental state and could be the first step on your personal journey to your goals.

Action Plan to Take the Weight Off This Year

2006-05-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

Addicted to Restaurants

Are you addicted to restaurants? So are lots of Americans. What used to be a "treat," going out for dinner, has become more common that cooking at home, and we think we're better off? Think again. Restaurant eating, fast foods and highly processed foods are turning us into a nation of tubby's. It's time to take back control of our waistlines.

You choose where you eat, and you choose what you eat. Here are some suggestions to begin to make better choices.

Restaurants Exist to Make a Profit

The bottom line is restaurants exist to make a profit. They pile on the extra butter and rich cream sauces, carmelized sugar toppings, cheese sauce, double-deluxe, new improved, and whatever they can do to make the food so enticing, so delicious, we just cannot resist. Fine for an occasional splurge, but not everyday fare, and herein lies the problem.

Extra Value Meals

McDonalds started the trend by offering slightly larger portions for a bit more money, and every other food establishment quickly followed suit. Extra value they called it. Who wouldn't order a bit more for only pennies? Today nearly every restaurant, fast food or sit down dining, serves gigantic quantities that boggle the mind. There is usually enough food served for two, sometimes three meals.

Reading in Restaurant Confidential (get a copy of this book and read it until it sinks in), the calorie count in the typical restaurant meal is so staggering it ends the surprise of why obesity is rampant and on the rise. Cheese fries with Ranch dressing are listed at having over 3,000 calories and 217 grams of fat (91 of them saturated). That's an entire day's worth of food, and it's considered an appetizer. Most people don't just eat the cheese fries either, so add in the rest of your day's calories and you end up with far more than you may realize.

Anyone who eats out regularly (at least once a day) is likely consuming closer to 5,000 calories a day, which easily explains their being overweight.

Getting the Calories Out of Restaurant Food

Unless you mentally make it okay to pay good money for very plain foods, you're not likely to solve this puzzle. Here are a couple of painless ideas you can put into action at restaurants:

1. Just say NO to super sizing. The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you'll save money (see How to Save Money and Lose Weight).

2. Skip the bread and rolls served with most meals. Most family restaurants still serve a bread basket with your meal. Unless it's a fresh baked loaf, or some special bread, just skip it. You don't need to fill up on ordinary bread when you're paying good money for a meal - just push it away - it's not that good. You can do it, if you want to - it's not that hard to simply choose not to put a roll on your plate. Try it, just once and see if you don't walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.

If you can't skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That's right. Eat it plain. Bread all by itself is good enough.

3. Stop ordering drinks with your meals. I stopped buying the soft drinks many years ago when I realized they are a huge cash cow for the fast food restaurants. For pennies, they sell you a squirt of syrup and soda water and act like they're doing you a big favor by only charging you $1.29 for a giant 64 oz. soda. Start saving those dollars. If you take the meal home, just don't get a drink, and if you're eating it there, ask for water, or at least switch to diet drinks. Never drink "fat pop."

5. Trim visible fat and skin. You really love the skin - of course it tastes good, it should, it's pure fat. Do you want to get leaner, or do you want to eat fat? You choose. I never eat chicken skin, and never eat the visible fat hanging off a steak, good taste or no. You have to decide what you want more, the second's worth of pleasure of a yummy taste, or a lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 lbs?

6. Ask for a doggie bag at the beginning of the meal. When the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Some restaurants always serve too much. Do this at those establishments to get used to the idea.

7. Get a copy of Restaurant Confidential and start checking out how much you're eating. Yes, I mentioned this twice. It's important. If you think eating out isn't causing part of the problem, I say, you're fooling yourself. This little book can help you realize what's been going on, and then you may find it easier to choose other dishes, split the meal into two, or skip some extras.

8. Order one dinner and ask for an extra plate. Many restaurants will do this for $1.00 or $1.50 extra and it's well worth it. Then share the meal with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle.

Turn Eating Out Back into a Treat

If you really want to get a handle on your weight problem, then first look at where you eat, second what you eat, and third how much you eat. If you absolutely cannot give up going to restaurants or fast food places every day, then you must start ordering plain, unadorned foods. I you can't do that (which I can't) then just go out less often. Turn it back into a treat, a special occasion type thing, and then eat whatever you want. Find what works for you, and then do it.

Train your Eye to Accept Less Food

Start training your eye to accept less food on the plate. We've taught ourselves to expect heaps of food, but your body doesn't need such huge quantities. Frankly, it takes a very tiny amount of food to supply our needed nutrients.

If they developed a pill which contained all the calories and nutrients our bodies required, no one would want to take it. We like to eat. Eating is pleasurable, it's part of the makeup and experience of being human. Take back control of that most basic of human needs. Cook at home for friends and bring joy back into your life through food.

If I Ate Out More Often I'd Gain Weight - it's That Simple

I know I maintain my weight with an average of about 2,200 calories a day. That's more than most dieters strive for, so how do I get away with eating that much -- I make better choices.

If I started eating out at restaurants more often, I'd suddenly be eating nearly double what I eat now (calorie wise), without even trying. Double the calories and guess what? Weight gain won't be far behind.

Trying to radically change your approach to food or exercise is rarely successful. More people that are successful at losing weight and keeping it off do so by making changes and incorporating them into their lifestyle. Start now. Choose one habit (such as eating out every day) or regular food you eat, and decide to cut back on how often, or the quantity. Set a plan, and do it.

Make a deal with yourself and keep it. If you find you cannot - that you set yourself too strict a cutback, then modify it and do it again. Keep at it and you'll be successful.

If you eat out every day during the week for lunch, here's a plan to make a small change. Carry your lunch one day a week, or save the extra from dinner out on Sunday night for lunch on Monday. Get together with your coworkers for a walking lunch every Wednesday. If there's a gym of fitness club in the vicinity of your work, join along with your coworkers and make an agreement to work out together three days a week, at lunch time. Take brown bag foods you can eat at your desk those days.

These small changes add up to big results. Try a couple in your daily life and see what happens.

Managing Cravings with EFT

2006-05-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

There are several ways to manage cravings. You can:

* Attempt to stop eating the food you crave entirely (out of sight out of mind).
* Modify your eating habits around a particular food, i.e. cut back on the quantity or how often you indulge.
* Use EFT to end the attachment you have to this particular food.

1. Stop Eating the Food you Crave
Eliminating the offending food entirely is rarely successful. We can only limit ourselves for so long before we go crazy, eating everything in sight to make up for the deprivation. This also introduces deprivation and control issues, which many have trouble with leftover from childhood. Would it be better to learn to enjoy your favorites without losing control around them?

2. Modify your Eating Habits
Modifying your behavior can be successful, but it can also be difficult because even though we want to change, it seems that despite our best efforts, we still find ourselves craving the same things, day after day. It is the "how" that stops us. How can we change a behavior that is a habitual response? How can we stop doing what we don't want to do? There are literally thousands of diet and weight loss books and most offer nothing more useful than the "eat less, exercise more" advice. If it were simply a matter of doing what we know we should do, there would be no obesity epidemic, but it's not that simple. We need to know HOW.

3. Use EFT to end the Attachment to a Particular Food
EFT is often helpful to diminish or demolish the cravings. It can be your HOW. How to change habits that you want to be rid of, how to create new, better habits, that support what you want, instead of what you don't. EFT is simple to learn, and effective.

If you don't yet know how to do EFT, read this brief explanation, then download and print the worksheets, instructions and reminders all in one convenient PDF packet.

4. Stop Talking Yourself Into It

You've said you are going to stop nighttime snacking, and then the voices start, "I've been good all day, I deserve a treat, just one won't hurt..." You're basically talking yourself into it, and then you're off and running to the kitchen. Most of us find that once we say yes to that voice, there's no holding ourselves back.

As soon as you realize you are doing the "talk myself into it" routine, start using EFT immediately. Catching yourself in the act is difficult at first, but if you keep an open mind, you will start to notice. No matter where you are or what you are doing, you can instantly perform an EFT procedure on yourself, and get quick results. You don't need to wait until later, until the atmosphere is just right, or until you are alone or somewhere you can relax. You can do it while driving, you can do it in a crowd standing on the corner.

Examples of EFT for Ending Cravings

The first round you might notice the craving is somewhat reduced (or it could disappear entirely), but it will likely be lessened. Once you have done one round, re-rate your desire for the food, and if it is still high (more than a six), do another round of EFT right then:

Set-up: "Even though I still want to eat _________, I'm fine just the way I am."

Reminder: "Still want to eat _________."

While I'm doing the EFT round, I might find myself thinking things such as, "It's not that I want to eat them all, it's just that once I start I can't stop."

So, for the next round I'll use that statement:

Set-up: "Even though I can't stop eating cookies once I get started, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway."

Say the "even though" part with gusto, you really mean it! You are okay, just the way you are.

Reminder: "Can't stop"

This round might lead to, "That's not true, I can decide how much I want, I just don't want to limit myself," so the next round might be:

Set-up: "Even though I hate to limit myself, I deeply and completely..." or "Even though I don't want to limit myself," or whatever words fit your situation.

Reminder: "No limits"

Make this process yours and let your personal thoughts guide you. Doing this will help you unearth core issues and beliefs you may not have realized were there.

More often than not what happens with these simple and effective techniques is you will stop using them. Not because they don't work, but because they do. You will stop because you aren't ready to give up your eating habits - you like the food, you enjoy the taste, the pleasure you gain from the eating is greater than the pleasure you anticipate by making a change in your habits. It's as if you say to yourself, "Screw it, I don't care. I want it now, and I'm going to have it." Much like a small child, you are simply feeding your instant desire, and that's okay too.

Be gentle with yourself. Realize you will do this on occasion, and accept it. It doesn't make you a failure, it simply proves you are human. Accept yourself as you are. If you make a commitment to do the EFT exercises, even though you don't want to, you will reach success.

In my work reluctance to do something that will work explains why people continue to seek something new. They read new books, they try new diets (witness Atkins, now South Beach Diet), they ask each other (usually their overweight friends) what they are doing (why not ask someone without a weight problem instead?). The answer is they don't really want to make a change for the better, they just want the easy fix. Give me a pill, a simple food plan, make it easy for me, and I'll do it. I can keep on any plan for the short-term, lose some weight, then as I'm gaining it back I can just blame myself. It's my fault for stopping the diet. It's my fault, for not staying on the plan.

This is not a healthy way to live. Take back your power. You decide what you will or won't do every day. Stop giving that power to others - stop blaming yourself for not staying on someone else's plan, and make your own plan.

This is the single most important thing in anyone's change process: Realizing what you want for your health, your body, your life, is more important than what you get by the instant gratification.

Eating Food Just to Be Rid of It

2006-05-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

What to Do with the Leftovers?

Okay, tell me if you've ever done this: It's Monday late afternoon. You decided yesterday that starting today you were going to 1) eat right, and 2) start to get regular exercise, and 3) give up all your bad habits. So, you're picking things up around the house and starting to notice all the little bits and pieces of leftovers from the past weekend. Namely, cookies here, and small bits of candy there. In my house today I noticed I had three large shortbread cookies (I'm overly fond of shortbread cookies with icing), several bags of the candy that resemble real rocks which I keep saying I want to put in a jar, but I haven't found just the right jar (for display, you know), and the leftovers from the latest summer picnic, which in my case is about five pounds of fruit salad - not bad in itself, but I can only eat so much fruit salad.

And Then There's the Wine

Of course, I had to buy some wine at a tasting on Saturday (I always buy it, don't know why I think those wine tasting's are such a great deal - they always entice me to buy), and now there's an open bottle waiting.

So, my thoughts are, "Do I eat this, or not?" "Do I throw it away and WASTE it?" "Oh, my, dear no. That's not a good idea," I think. Oh, I just remembered there is also an entire plate of large cinnamon rolls (Cinnabon style) I made Friday night. They'll be stale soon. That's not good. It'd be such a shame to throw them all away, and I only ate one.

And so it goes. Do I talk myself into eating up the last remnants of the weekend, thus going into Tuesday and possibly Wednesday with the taste of weekend indulgence still on my lips, or do I decide, really decide, I've had enough? It's time to eat better, like I just said, last night. Remember last night? It seems so long ago now ...

What if We Just Start Tomorrow?

It's interesting how easily we talk ourselves right out of what we had decided yesterday was such a good idea. So what's wrong with just starting tomorrow? What's wrong is that tomorrow never comes. It's always today, right now. You'll never reach that elusive tomorrow. Yes, the date on the calendar changes, but you, standing where you are, right here, right now, are still here, in the present. You can't live in the past, nor can you live in the future. You can only live in the moment.

Decide Right Now: What Do you Want?

So if you want to decide, then decide right now. What do you want, really want for yourself? Do you want to continue to indulge yourself at every turn, or do you want to exercise just a bit more discipline and see if you can get into better shape? It's not about what you'll miss out on, it's about what you will gain. Better health, more energy, endurance. You'll feel better, you'll look better. It's all about what you'll gain, but in the immediate moment, it's so easy to think only of right now. Yes, but right now this would taste so good, wouldn't it, and there's always tomorrow.

I've found that when I make a mental shift, a real shift, not just a decision but a true change in my thinking, then I follow through, and not until then. All the times I try to talk myself into doing things that I don't really want to do, are not successful. Probably they're not successful because I don't really want to do them.

How do you get yourself motivated and stay that way? I start with a list. List all the reasons you want to lose some weight. Think in terms of a mini goal of five or 10 pounds. Make it a one month goal, not a lifetime goal. It's fine to have long-term goals, but if you really want to learn to change for good, then you need to make it something you can live with. Incorporate real change into your lifestyle and you can indulge at a holiday party without it making any difference; without it throwing you off the deep end. When you go on vacation you'll come back maybe a couple pounds heavier, but it won't matter. You'll have eaten what you wanted, you'll have had a wonderful time, and not stressed yourself over whether you're gaining weight.

Why I want to lose Weight

* What's my first mini-goal? (1 week to 1 month)
* What's my longer-term goal? (1 month to 1 year)
* How strict must I be for this to work? (Pre-planned or legalized deviations works very well for many people)

Sometimes, especially if you use a plan that incorporates "legalized cheating" then you'll end up with some leftover food. Get used to getting rid of it. Give it away, throw it away, it really doesn't matter. You're not doing yourself any favor by eating all the leftovers. So what if the cinnamon rolls go stale? I ate one didn't I? I enjoyed it totally too. Others also ate some cinnamon rolls, and even if no one had any, did I make them to eat them all, or did I make them because I was in the mood to make cinnamon rolls? Does eating them all myself make any sense at all?

Sometimes I feel a little guilty making goodies and then giving them away because I think I'm not making it any easier for others to stick to their plans, but then I remember what I do in that situation, and I have to assume others are adult about how they decide to take care of themselves too. If I decide I'm going to eat in a more healthful manner, and someone brings something unexpected, it's not difficult in most all circumstances to simply say, "No, thanks. I already ate," or take some on a plate for later.

Since I don't go on "restrictive" diets, then I can incorporate pretty much anything into my day's food plan. I just eat it, when I'm hungry. I find it so much easier to base my eating on whether I'm hungry, than on whether something is there. Just because unexpected people show up, doesn't mean you use them, does it? Honestly, do you think anyone is upset when you leave a bit more for them? I don't think so.

The Case of the Missing Wedding Cake

When I was a teenager my mother remarried and I offered to buy the wedding cake. I had an ulterior motive though. My favorite bakery, Beaverton Bakery, was where I intended to get the cake, and I knew by ordering far more than would be necessary there'd be lots and lots of leftovers for me to gorge myself silly on after the festivities. Ha.

What happened instead is a blur. I don't know really what happened to the cake but I do know I not only didn't get any leftovers, I never even had a piece at the wedding. I tend to get caught up in the people and don't usually eat at parties, so I paid it no attention, and much to my dismay someone else had bundled it up before I got there to do so. Alas, I was never to taste that cake at all. Such a disappointment - it must have been, I still remember it now and that's been more than 24 years ago now! LOL.

Food memories stick with me for a very long time. That day is my prime example of how I would not have minded one little bit if more people had said, "No thanks, I just ate," and passed on the cake. I just wish I'd been a little more alert in setting aside a hunk for later.

Putting it Off Until Im Thinner

2006-05-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

I can't do that Until I Lose This Weight!

If you don't enjoy the life you've got because you think you don't look good in shorts or you can't bring yourself to wear a bathing suit, you're doing nothing more than wasting your life for nothing. Maybe you don't look like a bathing beauty but who does? I've heard so many people tell me that they would give anything to be at a weight they once were, but when questioned they almost always say, "Now that I think about it, I thought I was fat back then too," but guess what? They weren't. Those same people are sometimes shocked to see photos of themselves as a teenager or young adult; "Why I wasn't fat at all," they'll say.

Where do these fears originate except within our minds, and that makes me wonder - is this another way of the brain to try to keep us from taking the steps necessary to affect change? Remember, your brain will do what it can to keep things the way they are, at least at first, so crazy notions about the future may be clouding your judgment.

It's unlikely you'll hear someone on their death bed say, "If only I'd spent more hours at the job," but more likely they'll say, "I wish I'd spent more time with my family." Go ahead and spend that time now, doing what you love, being with people you enjoy. If you like being outdoors, be outdoors. Do you love the water but you haven't been in a pool for 20 years because you think you look awful in a swimming suit? Who cares? Go swimming, today, tomorrow, or next week. Just go.

It's Not Always About Us

Think about this: Sally cannot stand to go out because she doesn't want anyone to see her in a size 22 dress. She's embarrassed and too self consciousness, so she doesn't date. On her way to work one day she has to stop and buy some stamps. John passes her on the street on his way to the Post Office, but she didn't see him because she was looking at her shoes and feeling bad for herself. As John is walking toward the Post Office he's thinking about how he wants to workout at the gym but he can't seem to get himself started. After all, "Everyone will notice me and make fun of me." Mary, the clerk is wearing a dress that no longer fits because she's lost 25 lbs. yet she can't bring herself to buy new clothes because of, "What people might think." She's lost in her thoughts and almost gives John the wrong change, which he hardly notices because he's thinking about the gym and the horror of everyone noticing him and pointing.

Neither Sally, John or Mary see anyone but themselves. None of them noticed the other even when they had an opportunity. Surprisingly none of us is the center of attention expect perhaps at your own wedding, and sometimes not even then. Therefore, stop being so self-centered and get yourself out doing what you want to do. Sure there are always people who will make a rude remark, but hey, they do not know you. They don't know your situation. They don't know anything about you and probably never will, and guess what? They don't really care, which is why they have fun being rude to strangers, so why should you?

Show care where you can make a difference. Show care when you are able to help someone without expecting something in return. Life is short. The days go by in an endless stream from one moment to the next and what you do with this life is entirely up to you. It's not always about food.

How to Buy Chocolate Then Forget to Eat It

2006-05-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Some Say I'm Strange. I Prefer to Think of Myself as Resourceful

If you'd like to learn how to obtain quality chocolate, put it in a drawer and forget it's there, learn to use EFT and NLP techniques to conquer your emotional eating. That's what I've done, and it's such a freeing thing to be able to feel right with the world, be happy with myself, my shape, and not feel controlled by something like food. I eat what I want, but I do make an effort to make good choices (usually). For example, last night I baked a cake I made on Easter and totally loved (Better than Sex cake). This thing is nothing more than yellow cake, vanilla pudding and tons of whipped cream - not exactly diet fare, but when I can't get a certain food out of my head, I usually either make it or go and get it, and then totally enjoy it. That's what I mean when I said I eat what I want. So today, I have an entire cake in my refrigerator.

Did I have a piece of cake for breakfast? No. My husband bought me some fresh local raspberries at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and I wanted them so I had some on my cereal this morning. The cake sits and waits. When I was in the kitchen I noted the remnants of last night's grocery shopping. I saw a huge, individually wrapped cinnamon roll on the counter. I just "knew" I was going to want to eat something sweet last night since baking the cake was bound to make me crazy so I'd in anticipation of future hunger I bought the following:
# One Giant cinnamon roll from Sarah's Bakery. (Oops, I weighed this bad boy and it's 15.5 Oz! Almost a pound of dough and sugar - oh my).
# Small container of Scharffen Berger chocolates. This little clear box comes with 12 squares equalling 2.1 Oz. Individually wrapped. I put them in the drawer.
# A dozen of my favorite shortbread cookies which I put in a drawer in the kitchen. My husband will eat them if he sees them, so unless he says something about "wanting something sweet" I wait to let him know they are there.

While watching a movie last night (Friday night ritual) I did start to get sort of hungry so I thought about what to do about it. I recalled how I'm feeling much better lately, getting back to a regular routine of exercise, and I just didn't feel like eating a lot of cookies. Yes, they were there, but I just wasn't in the mood to eat them. I had a pang of hunger, but I wasn't really hungry, it was nearly midnight for crying out loud!

So, I ate one of those chocolate squares - remember, they're pretty small right? Well I ate it in four bites, letting the chocolate melt in my mouth. I take my time with chocolates and they satisfy me so much more than just popping it in my mouth, chewing twice and swallowing. I'm not in a hurry to get it over with.

Discovering Lost Candy

This morning I checked my body fat and it just happens I keep my Omron Body Fat Analyzer in the closet on top of a leftover chocolates box from last Christmas. I decided to look inside the box since I thought there was one of those chocolates still leftover and I was surprised to find two of those Christmas chocolates in there (Joseph Schmidt truffles - some of my favorites) and about eight squares of that very same chocolate I bought yesterday (Scharffen Berger). I forgot they were there.

So, you see, I handle my cravings by buying the foods I want, then putting them away and maybe eating them, maybe not. For me it's the need to know I can have what I want - and keeping something nearby in case of emergencies. I also know if I leave things out where I'll see them, I'm much more likely to decide to have some, so I put them away. For you it may be different. Some of you won't want anything tempting in the house. That's okay too. We're all different. The only way you'll discover how you are is to tackle those emotional issues - the reasons you think you can't stop eating after a handful or two; the reasons you feel like it's out of your control, or not your decision how much you eat, when you eat or what you eat.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to buy your favorite food and leave it in a drawer long enough to forget it's even there? That's what it's like to not have an eating problem, and that comes from giving yourself permission to enjoy food. You are worthy, you do deserve to be happy.

My methods can help - I know because they've worked for me, and I truly have had a sweet tooth since I was a kid. I used to eat bag after bag of candy - I once had 11 cavities in one dentist visit!

Nothing More Powerful Than Your Words

2006-05-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Telling yourself you have to "struggle with this weight issue for the rest of my life," is as good as telling yourself there's no point in trying. "Why bother? I'll just gain it right back. It's no use. I might as well eat more cake. Poor me. Life is hard. You know the drill. Life's a beach.

Stop the struggle by stopping the self talk that supports the struggle. You've heard it before - what you focus on is what you receive. No where is that more true than in believing it is a struggle to stay healthy. Who would want to be healthy if it's such a horrible struggle? Yet, you've probably seen people who are fit, healthy and happy? You might even know a few. They seem to bounce when they walk. They're animated, and excited about life, and no, if you asked them, they wouldn't say it's a struggle. "What do you mean," they'd ask? Struggle? Nah, I like it this way," and they'd mean it.

Forget the notion that you have to struggle and eat celery sticks for dinner. It's not true. Despite the fact that you've lost the weight before and gained it right back too, despite your belief that you can't even look at food without gaining weight. All of those thoughts are just more beliefs that are keeping you stuck. What you focus on becomes your reality.

What if You Never Got Hungry?

I'm a prime example. I don't struggle. Some days I eat a lot. Some days not so much. Some days very little. Yesterday I ate my usual breakfast and then, strangely, I just didn't feel hungry all day. I felt different somehow. Not ill, but I just didn't want to eat. "What's up with this?," I thought to myself, but I decided to just ride it out and see what happened. Well, I'm here to tell you that nothing happened. I lived to tell another story, see another day. Nothing fell from the sky and the world didn't stop spinning because I didn't eat much yesterday. It was just another day.

Today I ate a few handfuls of malted milk balls. No big deal to me, but I know many of you are thinking, "I'd never be able to eat just some, I'd have to eat them all," and that is my point. Telling yourself you can't eat "some," or as many as you want, but that you believe you'd be compelled to eat them all, no matter how many there were is a belief that is keeping you stuck. I don't believe that to be true, and so, for me it is not true.

Changing a Fundamental Belief with EFT

How do you change a fundamental belief? You start with basic EFT using it for everything that comes up, even though it may not seem related. Every worry, fear, doubt, struggle. Use it on everything, and those issues that do make a difference in your eating will start dissolving away. Try it - what have you got to lose but some weight?

What's EFT? It's Emotional Freedom Training and it's taking the world by storm as an easy, self administered practice to help reduce or eliminate the emotional issues that keep us stuck. Free information available at EmoFree.com. I added EFT to my toolkit as soon as I learned it because it's easy to learn, easy to use, and it's effective.

Remember those healthy folks I mentioned earlier? They don't view how they eat or how much they exercise as a struggle at all. They are active because they want to be active, and they eat foods that make them feel great. They probably eat a lot of the same things you eat too - I'm talking about everyday folks who have learned to feel good about themselves. None of them are perfect - despite the common belief that there is some "perfect" body, it's just not true. Everyone has a wrinkle here, extra skin there. Every single one of us is flawed in some way or another. It's what makes us unique.

Choose to focus on the benefits, rather than the sacrifice

Everything worthwhile takes effort - having a baby comes to mind. All mothers will likely agree that childbirth has its down side, but the ultimate reward makes it all worth it (yes, some women feel great while pregnant, but I wasn't one of them). Otherwise, everyone would be a single child. ;-) Think about it.

Becoming a professional musician or baseball player comes to many who played Little League and started practicing the piano when they were very small. Tiger Woods was only 3 or 4-years old when his father first taught him to hold a golf club. He also showed him videos of professional golfers when he sat in his high chair eating his dinner (his dad was a little odd, I'd say). Woods started playing golf at such a young age that he literally grew up playing the game. He wanted to play. His father undoubtedly drove him to work harder at it than most children would, but he had to have a strong drive of his own or he never would have made it. But what if he'd hit 6-year's old and suddenly said to himself, "I don't want to practice. I hate golf. I wanna play with my friends. I'll never be any good at his stupid game."

Maybe things would have turned out differently. The bottom line though is he did what he did because he wanted to (his parents obviously had a lot to do with it too), and the reward? Today he's considered the most gifted golfer of all time, and to what does he attribute his success? The practice and discipline of his mind. He learned from one of his primary coaches to harness the power of his mind - using NLP and hypnosis techniques (and likely he's since started to use EFT as well). Learn to use your mind to focus on the results you want - or conversely focus on avoiding what you do not want, and you'll win your prize, loving the process, instead of dreading it.

How to Get Started

Starting from right now, go get a box of toothpicks or something similar. Match sticks would work too, or marbles, or pencils, small rocks or twigs from the yard. Something small enough you can carry it with you. Whenever you catch yourself starting to say something negative like, "I don't want to ..., or, "I hate ...," or "I'm gonna strangle ..." Anything negative you catch yourself saying or beginning to say, whether towards yourself or someone else doesn't matter.

Start noticing how often you're feeding yourself negative energy. Then, apply the STOP technique as soon as you realize you are doing it, you yell (to yourself) STOP, and immediately replace what you were saying with something else. Here's what I mean:

"I hate having to wash the ... STOP ... it's nice getting a chance to stretch and bend while the car gets cleaned."

Yes, it's stiff and forced, at first. Anytime you attempt to change a behavior it will feel forced. Just allow yourself to learn to change your self talk, and that early discomfort with the process will pass. It will start to be fun to "catch" yourself. As soon as you start doing it, you'll realize how often you're been feeding yourself negativity, and you'll also see how easily you can change that habit.

Positive people tend to be happier people. I'm not suggesting you get a personality change, but I am suggesting, if you ultimately want to drop some weight and never see it again that you change your thinking from how much you'll have to struggle to how much better you're going to feel.

Good Food/Bad Food Whats Left to Eat ?

2006-05-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

We've entered the Twilight Zone when it comes to the multitude of diets being promoted today. Starting with the Atkins Diet, then the South Beach Diet, now the Hamptons Diet and more. All higher in protein, lower in carbs, but the distinction should be quality of carbs, not singling out one nutrient entirely. If you are on the Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet or any other variation of a high protein/low carb diet simply adjust from eating low quality carbs like refined flour and sugar products (think if it comes in a box, it's likely low quality) to eating more whole food products like fresh vegetables and fruits - yes fruits.

Apples vs. Apple Jacks - You be the Judge

I know the traditional Atkins Diet doesn't advocate much fruit (too high sugar) but think about that for one minute. My strong belief is that an apple is a good food, a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal may not be on an equal level. One is highly processed sweetened by added white sugar and corn syrup, and one is natural, plucked from a tree and sweetened by the sun. Which would you choose? Don't shun fresh fruit for the sake of following your low carb diet to the letter.

Eliminating healthy, wholesome foods is not the best way to learn to eat better, but severely cutting back on the frequency of eating highly processed foods is. I saw a site which called it GM or MM: God Made or Man Made. If you think of those terms when you go to choose your foods, it starts to make more sense. No one says you shouldn't eat chips, or whatever strikes your fancy, but make them a treat - and eat the GM foods more often.

Common Sense Diet

Common sense will answer the question about what to eat. If you are on Atkins, South Beach or any variation of low carb diet, avoid processed foods, not natural foods. Stop using "instant" breakfast, and cook whole rolled oats for instance. Sure you might have to get up 10 minutes earlier, oh well. You're worth it!

You can still stay on a higher protein food plan, but this one minor adjustment will allow you to continue with your eating plan for a lifetime, rather than a short-time. I'd go insane if I couldn't eat my daily apple, banana or other fruit. I love fruit. I think there's a very good reason humans desire sweet foods - Vitamin C, and other nutrients, including bio-flavnoids.

Can You Be Addicted to Fruit?

I heard someone complain they were "addicted to fruit" and I had to wonder, what do they eat? The person who refuses to eat fruit because they believe it is too high in sugar, probably does eat cookies, crackers and sugary cereals. They might even drink artificially flavored and sweetened drinks, but they refuse to eat a natural food, grown from our earth? That makes no sense, if you think about it. Did our planet develop and thrive based on processed foods? No, of course not. They are very recent in the evolution of our world. Very recent. In fact, we've had processed foods less than 200 years while our planet is millions of years old.

With the high incidence of obesity, and our high consumption of processed foods, it's hard not to draw the conclusion that one causes the other. You won't hear big industry stating that case because our economy depends on us buying the products being produced by the companies that employ us. You'll never see it reported that "scientists discovered refined flour kills," even if it were proven true because it doesn't support our way of life. We need industry.

Witnessing the epidemic of food illnesses such as Mad Cow, and now Bird Flu, I can envision a society without the mass produced meat industry. It will come to pass - nothing but your local farm will be allowed to sell meat because the big farm industry cannot guarantee safety of the food supply. Meat will become much more expensive because when they can no longer mass produce it, there is nowhere for prices to go but up. So do we whine and cry and moan about our misfortune or do we start to think of meat as something to savor and enjoy like the Sunday roasts we had years ago? We never ate meat every day then - and we weren't so fat either. We simply didn't eat as much processed foods. Most of us had moms at home cooking us dinner, making our lunches and even fixing our breakfasts.

Yes, progress marches on, but when it comes to your body, common sense rules the day. The Common Sense Diet! Try it on for size today.

If Youre Eating High Protein Be Informed about Mad Cow

2006-05-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Finding Mad Cow in Oregon puts a new wrinkle in the high protein diet, doesn't it? What's a person to do that wants to eat more meat, not less?

Are you Eating Less Meat Due to Mad Cow Disease?

Not the people I've spoken with. Most are saying, "Yipee, beef's on sale!" The food industry has done a great job of convincing us they are providing a safe food supply and we've been lulled into a false sense of security. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In July 1988, a ban was introduced in the UK which prohibited the use of the remains of sheep in cattle feed. BSE is thought to have spread to cattle from feed including meat and bone meal made from sheep suffering from a similar brain disease, called scrapie.

Ban Not Properly Enforced

Unfortunately the ban was not enforced properly for many years and remained a paper exercise (exactly as it has been in the US ever since).

Francis Anthony, a Herefordshire veterinary surgeon, and the British Veterinary Association's spokesman on BSE said, "If the ban had been enforced properly from the start, I have no hesitation in saying categorically that we should be seeing only a few cases today. But that contaminated feed was being given to animals until at least 1995, and possibly a year later."

The false sense of security for us in the US came from it being widely reported that the practice had been banned. They failed to make it clear that this was a "voluntary ban." Even I falsly believed they had long ago ended this practice until the recent news reports that it is still being done. Despite there being a clear connection between feeding rendered animals to animals causing Mad Cow disease, the meat and dairy industry continues the practice to this day. Why? Corporate greed, plain and simple. It is a cheap source of "protein" and makes cows and other animals fatten faster. A fatter animals weighs more, and they are sold by weight.

I have no doubt that people in the US aren't getting excited about the threat or beginning to avoid beef simply because no people have been reported with the disease. After all, this was a sick cow, not a human. Hence, people do not consider it a direct threat. Amazingly they don't consider those with CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) a varient of Mad Cow as being related when clearly it is.

The Costs of Clean Meat Supply

The meat and dairy industry will now begin a campaign to make the higher cost of clean meat seem a ridiculous indulgence rather than a possibly life saving measure. It does cost more to have a clean food supply. I and my family are worth it, are you and yours?

For excellent reference materials read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, The Crazy Makers by Carol Simontacchi, and Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher who Won't Eat Meat by Howard F. Lyman. Be informed then make the choice for you and your family.

Food politics aside, I'm interested in my and my families health and well being, and I'm not interested in supporting an industry that doesn't care about the quality of their products or whether those products are potentially dangerous or even deadly.

What You Can Do to Avoid Dangerous Meat

* Buy all your meat from the local butcher. He gets the animals from local farmers, and can tell you which Farms, if you ask.
* Buy all your meat from local stores that certify it is grain fed. Visit sites such as EatWild.com
* Cut back on your consumption of all meat in general, substituting beans for instance for protein.
* Eat a "special occasion" steak at the best restaurants such as Ruth Chris' Steak House. Now that's a steak!

Weight Loss - Its in Your Head

2006-04-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

When you truly consider the weight-loss process, the battle waged is mostly in your mind. "Should I eat the corn muffin with butter or would it be better for me to have margarine or better yet, have jelly? What am I doing eating this muffin anyway? It's so caloric and filled with saturated fat. I'm such a pig. I have absolutely zero willpower." It's no wonder you'll eat that muffin with the butter and slather jelly on top to quiet that negative self-talk.

What you need more than a diet is a way to shift those negative self-defeating thoughts to more adaptive, positive self-statements. As with most things worth doing, this requires a bit of practice. First, become aware when you're using a negative statement, then determine what about that thought is faulty and finally, replace it with a self-defense response or coping thought. In the corn muffin example, instead of listening to "I'm such a pig" which clearly mislabels who you are, respond with "Pigs are animals and I am human. I don't have to be perfect."

Many people cannot change their eating habits until they change their thoughts about food, eating and drinking. By shedding "distorted" thoughts and replacing them with productive ones, eating habits can be changed. It is possible to rid yourself from many self-critical thoughts, but like any ingrained habit, it takes vigor and vigilance to change. Here are some other thinking distortions to challenge:

Shoulds. Should statements are more about other people's values, not ones chosen by the person who wants to lose weight. Additionally, should statements reflect an attempt by the dieter to motivate herself without really believing in the value. Better to determine what works for you. "I will eat up to two Hershey kisses daily and thoroughly enjoy them."

All-or-Nothing. This kind of reasoning is the foundation for perfectionism. An all-or-nothing individual views the world as black or white. Since there is no allowance for gray areas, the behavior is either perfect or a failure. "I've ruined my diet by eating all that pizza. I can't stay on a diet and I'll just always be fat." Maybe the problem does not arise from the behavior? maybe the problem is with the diet that does not allow for pizza. "I do not want to give pizza up for the rest of my life, so what I need is a way to include pizza in my diet without feeling like a failure. Let me try having a salad (dressing on the side) before the pizza to take the edge off my hunger."

Good Foods/ Bad Foods. If the truth be told, foods do not misbehave. Foods are not good or bad. While it is true that some foods have more nutrients or are more fiber-dense than others, all foods can be enjoyed. How we think about food colors what we eat and how much we eat. If a food is labeled as bad (such as fries), then for many individuals that food is taboo. When one eventually succumbs to eating the forbidden, French fries, bingeing may result. Rather than continue with dichotomous thinking of good food/bad food, shift to allow space for all foods you like without judgement. Instead of "I ate those fries which are so bad for me" to "I really enjoyed that small portion of fries. They really satisfied me."

Body Distortions. Rather than dwelling on how fat or thin you think your body is, it is extremely helpful to view your body in terms of what it can do for you. For example, when you look in the mirror, instead of zooming in on your stomach which "looks five months pregnant, although your last baby was nine years ago" tell yourself "my body has given life" or "my body enables me to go where I want to and allows me to have fun."

The conversations that are going on inside your head cannot be stopped. However, what you can do is to be aware of negative self-talk and understand that it has little to do with actual reality. When you believe this, you can respond to the critical voice with a more objective, coping thought. Although negative thoughts may not be stopped entirely, they can be quieted by listening to your compassionate, caring voice. In much the same way you would sympathize and listen to a close friend, listen to yourself. Be your own best friend and chances are you'll have greater weight loss success.

Ten Important Things to Know Before You Join a Weight Loss Program

2006-04-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

1. What is my BMI and how do I calculate it?

BMI means Body Mass Index.
The value is associated with body fat and health risks.

Healthy weight is defined as a BMI equal to or greater
than 19 and less than 25 among all people aged 20
or over. Between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight;
more than 30 is considered obese.

To determine body mass index:
[Weight in pounds ÷ Height in inches ÷ Height in inches] x 703.

Fractions and ounces must be entered as decimal values.

The metric formula is: BMI= Body Weight(kg)/height(m)2.
Remember that: 2.2 lbs.=1 kg and 39.4 ins.=1m.

For example, if you are 1.75 M tall and weigh 80 kg. , your
BMI will be = 80/1.75X1.75 = 26.122, i.e. slightly overweight
(Always keep in mind that "obesity" is defined as a BMI greater
than 30)

2. What are carbs, proteins, fats?

Carbohydrates provide your body with its basic fuel, very
much like a car engine and gasoline. Glucose goes directly
into the cells, which convert it into the energy they need.

There are two types of carbohydrates:

Simple carbohydrates (also called "sugars" on food
package labels): glucose etc.

Complex carbohydrates ("starches"), made up of chains
of glucose molecules, which is simply a way plants store
glucose.

Starches can be found in great quantities in most
grains (wheat, corn, oats, rice) and things like potatoes
and plantains.

Your digestive system breaks a starch back down into
its component glucose molecules so that the glucose
can enter your bloodstream.

Carbohydrates provide cells with energy, proteins
provide cells with the building material they need to
grow and maintain their structure.

Protein can be found in both animal and vegetable foods.
Most animal sources (meat, milk, eggs) provide "complete
protein": they contain all of the essential amino acids.

Fats are also an important part of our diet. Many foods
contain fat in different amounts. High-fat foods include
dairy products like butter and cream as well as mayonnaise
and oils.

There are two kinds of fats: saturated and unsaturated.

Fat is necessary because: the only way to get certain
fat-soluble vitamins is to eat fat, your body has no way to
make certain essential fats, so you must get them in your
food.

Another reason is that fat is a good source of energy,
in fact it contains twice as many calories per gram as
do carbohydrates or proteins. Your body can burn fat as
fuel when necessary

3. What else does my body need?

Mainly vitamins and minerals. These can be found in various
foods, fruits, etc..It seems the "Standard Western Diet" is
deficient in vitamins and minerals. This has led to the
creation of vitamin and mineral supplements.

4. What are the dangers of being overweight (too fat)?

When it gets to a certain level, overweight becomes "obesity",
which has been described as "a serious, chronic disease
that is known to reduce life span, increase disability and
lead to many serious illnesses including diabetes, heart
disease and stroke, cancer, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea,
gall bladder disease, gout."

5. What exactly is Atkins diet?

Dr. Atkins diet, first introduced in 1972, is strictly
focused on limiting carbohydrate consumption.

That is why it is called a low-carb, high-protein diet or
sometimes simply a low-carb diet, together with other
diets such as South Beach Diet, Protein Power Diet etc...

Questioning Cardio for Weight Loss ?

2006-04-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Q: I've heard you mention that you don't need tons of cardio to burn stubborn abdominal fat. Okay, I can live with that, but you've also said that it isn't absolutely necessary to perform direct ab work either. What gives?

A: If you want to build a serious set of abdominals, routinely perform the following exercises and their variations: squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, and standing military presses. These multi-joint movements require a strong contribution from the abdominals to stabilize the core, particularly when heavy loads are used. It is not uncommon to hear clients complain of abdominal soreness a day or two after performing multiple sets with a decent weight of the chin-up or standing military press exercise - the ab prestretch will tap into fibers you never thought existed! And remember, your abdominals act as a natural girdle, or weight belt if you will, when performing all exercises, particularly squats and deadlifts. These muscles act as a bridge between your upper and lower body and are heavily recruited as stabilizers.

Sure, isolation exercises like pullovers, curls, and even triceps pressdowns also require a good degree of core stability; however, the loads used are relatively low compared to the big 4 mentioned above. In fact, according to Siff & Verkhoshansky, isolation becomes virtually impossible if large loads are used, and in many cases, the tension developed in the stabilizers will equal or even exceed that of the prime movers!* So, you see, the abdominals can be trained quite effectively as stabilizers - the physiques of top Olympic weightlifters will attest to that.

*Siff, MC, Verkhoshansky, YV. "Supertraining (4th Edition)." Denver, CO: Supertraining International, 1999. (pg. 241)

Q: I am still very much confused regarding cardio intensity. One book says keep it low intensity (i.e. 60% of MHR) and go for distance; another keep it high intensity (80% or more) and go for as long and hard as you can. The goal is to burn fat. Each book has great arguments for their approach. Which is accurate?

A: The second approach is far more effective for burning fat. Without getting into a huge discussion about this, here's how things work in a nutshell.

At a lower intensity, your body prefers fat for fuel. Yes, this is true, but two things generally happen:

1. After awhile of doing this type of activity, your body adapts by actually laying down fat (you heard me right) to become more efficient at the given task and this usually occurs in the lower body, and

2. A higher relative amount of fat is burned during low intensity cardio but a greater absolute amount is burned with higher intensity cardio and in less time.

Other things to consider are: a) the EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) is greater for a longer duration following higher intensity work; in other words, you're metabolism is much higher for a longer period of time post-workout with high intensity cardio, and b) higher lactate levels exist with high intensity cardio. So what you may ask? Well there is a direct correlation with lactate and GH (Growth Hormone) and GH is a potent fat-burner.

Bottom line: with regards to burning fat, do higher intensity work in the form of interval training and you'll get great results.

Can Writing Actually Improve Your Health ?

2006-04-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, writing about stressful life events helped reduce symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis in patients with these chronic illnesses. The effects of the writing exercise were still evident four months later and resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in patient symptoms.

Interestingly, studies showed that asthma patients who wrote about their most stressful life events showed a 19-percent improvement in lung function; similarly, rheumatoid arthritis patients had a 28-percent reduction in symptoms.

These findings add to a growing body of evidence that links mental and emotional health to physical well-being. Although researchers aren't sure exactly how expressive writing can lead to health improvements, they theorize that writing help people cope with stress, and stress-as well all know-clearly impacts health.

University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker believes that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. He theorizes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.

Louise Moran, a nurse coordinator, has written about a patient who, during a serious illness, sent daily e-mails to friends and family about her illness, a practice the woman believes played a pivotal role in her healing process. Moran said another patient felt that journaling helped her create a new life after breast cancer. There have even been studies suggesting that journaling in healthy people actually improves the immune system.

Patti Testerman is content manager at JournalGenie.com, the only online site that analyzes your writing and then gives you instant feedback. Want to discover self-defeating patterns, or find better ways to communicate in a relationship?

Pick Up Your Pen and Lose Weight!

2006-04-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

Although every dieter knows that keeping food records is a key to permanent weight loss, few understand the importance of also keeping an "emotional journal." In fact, one dieter lost 100 pounds, thanks in part to the insights gained through daily journaling.

Dieting for weight loss can be as simple as keeping that food diary, or (the more challenging) dipping into the dark waters of the psyche. For example, which emotions motivate, sabotage, side-track, or inspire? Which people are supportive, which ones undermine your focus with snide remarks or constant invitations to ice cream? All will be revealed inside your private journal.

Of all the journal exercises for gaining insight, a favorite is the "Letter to My Body." In this exercise, the dieter actually pens a letter to self, being as honest as possible. A sample might be "Dear Fat Body, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I hate your rolls of fat on me, I hate that my knees hurt, I hate that you'd rather have a Danish than let me feel good about myself. I hate that you've been good all day and I know that tonight you'll be a pig."

What does that type of letter accomplish? For many-instead of adding to an already huge portion of self-loathing-it provides a powerful way of recognizing and reversing trigger situations. In this example, when nighttime does come and the journaler heads for the pint of Ben and Jerry's, there's a good chance the letter will be remembered. And, an even better chance that instead of eating a pint, some or none will be chosen.

Journaling to lose weight also involves writing about how your food choices will make you feel tomorrow when you get on the scale, or when you sit down to journal again. And, as you write these letters to self, you'll quickly begin to connect the dots, and track the ways in which everyday life impacts your food choices.

Keeping a journal will also help with weight loss because it's almost impossible to get to know yourself on a deep, intimate level and then continue with self-destructive behavior. Fortunately, we're just not made that way.
So tonight, instead of settling in with a pizza and beer, take some time to write a letter to yourself and analyze what your hunger is really about. I guarantee you, it isn't food.

Real Weight Loss Begins Today...With Cliff Kuhn, M.D.s Fun Factor Diet!

2006-04-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

Weight Loss is something that many Americans struggle with. In this article, Cliff Kuhn, M.D. will teach you why your weight loss techniques so far have been unsuccessful, and how to correctly lose weight - and keep it off!

P.T. Barnum, who dedicated his life to entertaining the masses, often relied on size-related adjectives to sell his attractions. His posters and announcements were peppered with words like mammoth, extraordinary, colossal, and gargantuan.

Unfortunately, if you're like most of us those words might be used to describe you as well. Americans have an obsession with weight loss and with good reason; the percentage of overweight people in the United States is doubling every ten years - from 1 in 200 in 1986, to 1 in 50 in 2000. Without some weight loss, pretty soon there won't be enough room for us all on this continent!

We've identified a curious paradox: Americans are obsessed with weight loss and spend billions on it each year, yet 140 million of us are overweight or obese - and that number grows (pun intended) each year. With all that energy and money thrown at it, why can't we experience more weight loss and why do we pack it on in the first place?

Why Do We Gain Weight...and Where is the Weight Loss We Crave?

Let's quickly move beyond simple, though true, solutions. We intellectually "know" that there are only three things necessary for weight loss (outside of a medical condition): eating the correct foods, eating less, and getting more exercise. We "know" these things are true, yet why don't we do them?

The answer is simple and, luckily for you, so is the solution. As you learn the following diet you will realize that with a little willingness and discipline you need never worry about weight loss again. You will come to believe, in short order, that you will have as much weight loss as you desire and you will never gain it back because you will understand how logical and powerful my diet is!

Let's just be honest about it - we love food! Eating is an enjoyable ritual and we commonly use food to reward ourselves because it feels good to eat. Whenever we feel unfulfilled or frustrated (when we need affirmation or esteem) we are naturally drawn to fill that void with food. When we're lacking pleasure in our lives we rely on the eating ritual to make up the difference.

And this formula works; overfilling ourselves with food does fill our emptiness. It works so well that, just like any addict, we become gluttons - regularly overstuffing ourselves and/or eating too much "comfort" food to fill our emotional void. The end result, despite our best intentions, is a constant, steady weight gain because we're using food for a purpose it is not intended - support.

The Solution to Your Weight Loss Problems

The healthful solution I've created to fill your emptiness exists already inside you because you were born with it. Unlike food, this solution fills your void while also fostering lasting and sustainable health, vitality, energy, and fitness. Instead of food, what you need is the natural medicine of humor because humor and fun are the most accessible and constant sources of energy and support known.

Because it is an energy, fun is readily and abundantly in you and around you. Once you learn to find more fun in your relationships, your work, and your home life I guarantee you will quickly do away with those excess pounds - and they'll never return. And the best news is...I will teach you exactly how to do this using my Fun Factor Diet.

My Fun Factor Diet is based upon my unique prescription, The Fun Factor, because The Fun Factor delivers you to new heights of health, wellness, and success. Years ago a terminally ill patient, Lisa, taught me about the incredibly powerful natural medicine of humor. I used Lisa's lessons to create my Fun Commandments, eventually molding them into my unique prescription, The Fun Factor, capable of producing health, energy, and vitality that others will envy.

My Fun Factor Diet works because it is based on my Fun Commandments and, thus, enables you to unleash your powerful humor nature on every aspect of your life. As you learn to have more fun in your relationships, your work, and your home life, you will rely less and less on food to meet your emotional needs. With the Fun Factor Diet the urge to overeat melts away, along with the excess pounds because you will be using food for its natural purpose - sustenance.

And, as a bonus, since my Fun Factor Diet is based on fun, you will laugh more frequently. Laughter is an excellent form of aerobic exercise; a hearty, belly laugh produces the same physical response as thirty minutes on the Stairmaster. When you laugh it gives your heart and lungs a good work out so...you are burning additional calories just by practicing my unique diet!

The Fun Factor Diet

Step One: Go the Extra Smile

The first strategy of my Fun Factor Diet is to Always Go the Extra Smile. Smiling is a deliberate and controllable behavior that almost always calms inner stress and attracts outward fun. Smiling unleashes the natural medicine of humor anytime and anywhere because it has a profound physical and emotional impact.

The key is to increase your conscious effort to smile constantly, especially when there is nothing in particular to smile about. Before you begin an activity, you remind yourself to smile first; before each conversation, you remind yourself to smile. You'll soon be wearing a genuine smile on your face everywhere you go because the good results you experience will create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And here is the beautifully powerful weight loss secret behind the first Fun Factor Diet strategy: your internal physiology is fooled by your smile. Whether spontaneous or forced, your body thinks you're having fun when you smile, whether you are or not, because smiling activates the pleasure centers of your brain. By smiling you literally become more physically relaxed and enjoy a greater sense of fulfillment and enjoyment.

The amazing benefit of this Fun Factor Diet tactic is that the lessening of your internal agitation decreases your cravings to eat when you're not really hungry. And, as a bonus, your smile attracts more social attention - leaving you less time to stuff yourself because people are mysteriously attracted to you without quite knowing why. By Going the Extra Smile you're well on your way to weight loss by filling your emotional void with fun rather than food!

Step Two: Be Willing to Laugh with Yourself

Step two in my Fun Factor Diet is to Be Willing to Laugh with Yourself. This is not a step of humiliation or self-denigration because those things are definitely not fun; it is a strategy of being willing to take yourself lightly. Easing your harsh expectations you impose on yourself, relaxing some of your self-administered pressure, sets the stage for astounding personal gains (or in your case personal "losses")

At this stage of my Fun Factor Diet, you will make a deliberate effort to take yourself and your expectations less seriously. You will adopt a kindlier stance toward your fears and inconsistencies because you have been much too hard on yourself. The results will be a dramatic lightness (both figuratively and literally) of mind, body, and spirit.

Freed from the tyranny of your unrealistic expectations, you will be able to relax and have more fun. Things you have dreaded doing in the past will become enjoyable activities because you won't have expectations of perfection. Combined with your commitment to Go the Extra Smile, you will find your use of food to calm and comfort yourself almost extinguished because taking yourself lightly helps you see yourself as, literally, less "heavy."

Step Three: Stay Focused, yet Flexible

The third step in my Fun Factor Diet makes the most dramatic difference in your actual eating habits and provides the mechanics of your weight loss. The employment of my Fun Commandment, Stay Focused, yet Flexible, keeps you grounded in the moment, the here and now, because it challenges you to give 100% attention to what you are doing right now. Staying Focused, yet Flexible provides the dramatic weight loss breakthrough you've been waiting for because your entire paradigm of eating is about to change!

On the Fun Factor Diet you Stay Focused, yet Flexible by not engaging in any other activity while you are eating. Activities that have commonly accompanied your eating are to be shunned while putting food in your mouth - including reading, watching television, or socializing at get-togethers. With the exception of reasonable table conversation, eating becomes a focused activity for you, not connected with any other behavior because you are about to halt the underlying cause of your weight gain.

Once you begin disciplining yourself to separate eating from all the pleasurable and stressful activities with which you have associated it, you will discover a disturbing fact: you will be shocked by how much you've been using food as both a stress reliever and a pleasure enhancer. Your weight loss can be dramatic when you change your use of food from pleasure enhancement and stress relief to simple nourishment. You're ready for this change because, with the first two steps in my diet, you've already begun to fill your emotional and spiritual void with fun rather than food.

This step of my Fun Factor Diet has two primary benefits: you become more acutely aware of your opportunities for fun away from food, which allows you to become even more effective at satisfying your emotional needs with fun, and by eating with full focus you increase the enjoyment and appreciation for your food, which allows you to use food as nourishment rather than pleasure. When you combine having fun apart from food with getting greater enjoyment from the food you are eating, you experience weight loss because you are no longer using it in a contrived and artificial fashion!

Step Four: Practice Wanting What You Have, Rather than Getting What You Want

The final step in my Fun Factor Diet will make your weight loss permanent because it centers you in the unique paradigm of lasting success. My Fun Commandment, Practice Wanting What You Have, Rather Then Getting What You Want, increases your awareness of gratitude because it stops the merry-go-round of always needing "more" to feel satisfied. Ongoing gratitude for what you have has the amazing benefit of making it possible to get and keep more of what you want.

We all make the mistake of taking for granted the things we truly value and focus, instead, on all the things we want that we do not yet possess. This focus makes us desperate and puts conditions on our happiness, because our success never satisfies us and we only wind up needing more. If you ever want to have more fun in your life (as you're going to be doing on my Fun Factor Diet), you begin by counting the blessings you already have because that will make your weight loss, and other achievements, lasting and real.

Becoming adept at this portion of my Fun Factor Diet does two things: it continually reminds you of the many gifts you've already been given and it decreases your appetite for those things you think you want will. Realizing that you have everything you need to be happy today eases the stress of not having everything you want because all the pressure is gone - you're already a success! The end result of this strategy is that you will not feel as empty, resulting in greater weight loss from a lowered desire to fill your void with food.

Filling yourself up with gratitude is not a platitude, so to speak, because it works in real practice. You eat in excess to fill an emotional and/or spiritual void, not because you are hungry; you eat too much to provide yourself with emotional comfort, fulfillment, and reassurance. The strategy of Practicing Wanting What you Have, Rather than Getting What you Want, actually fills this emptiness in a meaningful, lasting manner because your emotional appetite is satisfied by the things that really sustain it!

Smiling fools your body and attracts socially fun attention, Taking Yourself Lightly releases you from the tyranny of your unrealistic expectations, Staying Focused, yet Flexible teaches you to use food for nourishment rather than fun, and Wanting What you Have allows you to fill your emotional void with fun and gratitude rather than food. There you have it... weight loss from the natural medicine of humor and my Fun Factor Diet!

Welcome to a Life Free from Weight Worries...Start Right Now!

Here are some simple, easy steps you can take right now to prepare yourself for permanent, painless weight loss.

Subscribe to my Fun Times newsletter. The Fun Times is all about using your natural power of humor to increase the quality of your life - including your physical appearance. The Fun Times is 100% free, and is delivered instantly, every week, to your email inbox. If you sign up now, I'll also throw in a copy of my "Stop Your Seriousness" Ecourse and my book, Ten Ways You Can Be Happier...Right Now! which will show you how you can use my Fun Factor prescription in your life to increase your success!

Check out The Fun Factor. This prescription has changed so many lives for the better - it would be a shame if you passed it up. Check it out here if you're sick of being overweight and are ready for weight loss once and for all!

By the way, in one of his museums, P.T. Barnum found that he was having trouble getting the crowds to leave once they had seen all the attractions. So he devised a clever sign, elaborately lettered to draw as much attention as possible, which read "This Way to the Egress"

Most of the patrons expected to see some bizarre animal that Barnum had collected from one of the far corners of the earth when they followed the sign through the door. What they didn't realize, however, was that "Egress" is simply another word for "Exit." Funny...and true.

Today you begin your "egress" from excess weight and from all your worries surrounding it. Start using my Fun Factor Diet right now!

The Beginners Guide to Losing Weight

2006-04-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

So you've decided that you're going to do it.

You're sick and tired of being sick and tired and are once and for all hell bent on losing weight.

Well, let me be the first to warn you of a very grim fact:

Millions have tried before you and most of them have failed miserably at reaching their weight loss and diet goals.

Therefore, I've put together a little beginner's guide to help make sure that you are one of the few that actually ends up being successful at this.

# Get an accurate picture of where you are now

Many people just go and hop on a diet or weight loss program without knowing exactly where they are from the start. This is dangerous because along the way there WILL be numerous times where you will be tempted to simply quit altogether. Without knowing where you started, you won't be able to accurately gauge your progress. Not being able too see that progress put you at an extremely high risk of quitting down the road when the going gets tough.

# Set specific, realistic goals for your weight loss, and WRITE THEM DOWN.

This is one of the most ill-executed steps in the entire process of losing weight. Most people will passively quote some random amount of weight that they "hope" to lose.

"I need to lose 30 lbs." "I'm trying to get back down to a size X" "If I can just fit back into Y, I'll be fine"

That is the exact WRONG way to go about your weight loss. All above the above are hopes. Wishes. Desires. And none does a thinner body make.

What you need are detailed, definite goals that are written and time bound (e.g. "over the next 3 months") to hold yourself accountable to doing what you said you were going to do by the time you said you were going to do it.

# Adopt a step-by-step course of action to get you there

In order for this to work there needs to be a concrete method to your weight loss madness. To this end, you need to chose a weight loss plan that will lead you step-by-step through what to eat (and what not to eat), how and when to exercise, and every other imaginable aspect of losing weight. The reason for this is that goals have a much better chance of becoming reality when they are being attained as a result of a plan or system of action.

# Get started IMMEDIATELY

Most flunkies know how to study. Most broke people know how wealth is generated. Most overweight people how to lose weight. However, what separates all of these very knowledgeable, yet unsuccessful people from the results they desire is action. Don't let that be your fate.

Once you have written specific goals and chosen a plan of action, don't delay in getting right on track to weight loss. The cheesecake, burgers, chocolate, and pastries aren't going anywhere. You can snack on them moderately once you've achieved your goals. Don't get caught into the trap of holding off having Your Best Body any longer. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll be done.

# Be Prepared for the emotional roller coaster

Nearly everyone who has tried to lose weight has had some level of success at one time or another. For those who have not been able to sustain desirable results, being knocked out by the emotional roller coaster is most likely to blame.

Look, losing weight is very simple, but not easy. If it were, there wouldn't be so many people trying to get it right. The #1 skill that you will need to develop in order to make it through is surviving the roller coaster of emotions. One day you'll feel as if you're getting great results. A week later, you may actually feel that you are moving backwards. Either way, just know that as long as you consistently follow the weight loss principles, you will ALWAYS move forward, even if it does not feel like it.

# Don't stop until your goal is reached, no matter WHAT

So many times people come to a screeching halt in their efforts to lose weight and diet because they get discouraged a portion of the way through OR after they reach a certain benchmark they allow themselves to be satisfied and quit the program even though their goal has not been reached.

DON'T DO IT.

There was a specific reason that you set your initial goal. Do not sell yourself short by settling for anything less. Stick it out until the very end, and your sense of accomplishment will be irreplaceable.

# Once you've reached your goal, never, EVER let yourself blow up again

This is the last and final barrier to ultimate success in your efforts to lose weight.

Make sure not to allow yourself to relapse while you are in maintenance mode. I recommend sticking to the same general principles that helped you lose the weight and then occasionally indulging in some of the foods that you love. This balance is the best way to keep the body that you've worked for and not feel over-restricted.

Make this the first and last time that you ever have to go through a weight loss program. Remember that if you can just get it right one good time, you can literally maintain it forever with little effort.

Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach,

2006-04-17T00:33:00.000-07:00

3 Ways Going with the Flow Will Make You Fat - And What To Do About It !

Wanna know the truth? If you're going to be slim, you're going to have to swim against the current. You're going to have to take charge of your body and make your own decisions?cause if you go with the flow today, I guarantee that you're going to be fat.

Here are 3 reasons why:

#1) Rampant Portion Sizes

'Supersize it', 'Biggie Fries', 'Value Meal', 'Super Big Gulp' - phrases that we use so commonly, it's hard to believe that we'd have to explain what they mean to someone from another era.

Restaurants have blown their portion sizes so big in the name of providing 'value' that one meal could feed a small soccer team.

Considering that your stomach is roughly the size of your fist (but thank goodness it stretches!), the portion sizes you get today in the average restaurant could probably fill 5 or more stomachs.

But we're told to get our money's worth right? So go ahead and eat up. That way you can spend your money going to the doctor for obesity related health problems later. That's truly getting your money's worth!

#2) Diet as Religion

Diets boast a stellar 2-5% success rate (that's a 98% FAILURE rate by the way). And yet if an alien landed in North America, he (or she) would be convinced that our society must be built on the value of dieting.

Billboards, magazines, books, television shows, ads, even restaurant menus?everywhere you look you're inundated with the latest diet, diet food or diet plan. Diets are touted as the ONLY solution to weight loss.

We have more diets on the market now than ever before. We have more people on a diet now than ever before - and yet we continue to get fatter?is there ANY POSSIBLE connection here?

#3) Escalator Generation

Go with the flow and you'll enjoy a multitude of worldly conveniences. You can microwave your dinner in 5 minutes, load your dishwasher in 2 and pay the dog walker in 1. You don't have to walk to the store - just hop in the car. Your kids don't have to go swimming - they've got a new Xbox game. Don't bother taking the stairs because there's an elevator.

You can sit at a desk for long hours without even getting up from your chair. And when you do come home from work - you have the luxury of flopping on the couch and watching 'Friends' while eating takeout.

Go with the flow my friend and you'll expend less energy while eating more. Oh - and you'll also be told that taking a pill is the only way to solve the problem of your ever-increasing waistline.

One of the best photographs I ever saw was of the front of a gym. There was a staircase leading up to the gym with an escalator beside it. And you guessed it - people were taking the escalator UP to the gym! The only guy on the stairs was walking DOWN them. That pretty much sums up the problem.

Unfortunately, if you go with the flow in our world today, chances are very high that you're going to get fat. BUT by knowing what you're up against, you can take steps to go against the flow. By taking a stand, taking charge and making positive choices for your body - you can live slim and healthy in a world skewed towards weight gain.

2006-04-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

8 Proven Weight Loss Tips

There are a lot of "crash" diets out there that promise that you'll drop a considerable amount of weight in days or a week.

I have tried a few of these, and in my experience the weight always comes back on, just as quickly since the weight loss tips given are not something that will work with your body.

One thing you don't want to do if you are actually serious about losing weight is to follow these fad diets and their ridiculous weight loss tips.

After their ineffectiveness has been proven time and again, people will start to wise up to that particular diet, and will head off in search of a new craze.

Lets be honest, people are always searching for new weight loss tips because they want to lose pounds and they want immediate results, but this is just wishful thinking.

To lose weight permanently and effectively it will be a rather slow progress, all depending on your metabolic rate and how much you need to lose.

There are however some proven tried and true weight loss tips for aiding in the weight loss process, and I can make you familiar with them.

Weight Loss Tip 1
Don't skip breakfast. Whatever you do follow this advice, because otherwise you are much more likely in fact prone to binge later in the day.

Weight Loss Tip 2
Don't eat anything for at least an hour before going to bed.

Weight Loss Tip 3
Don't snack while watching TV. It's acceptable to eat a meal while watching television, but never is snacking at this time acceptable.

Weight Loss Tip 4
Substitute fruits like; bananas, watermelon, plums, peaches, and oranges for sugary treats like; cookies and candy.

Weight Loss Tip 5
Substitute honey for sugar, and carob powder for chocolate in all recipes. These taste just as good if not better when used properly.

Weight Loss Tip 6
Eat more vegetables. This can even be enjoyable if you have a good cookbook like Good housekeeping's latest edition.

Weight Loss Tip 7
Avoid unnecessary high calorie foods. Instead of a high calorie salad dressing for instance try cottage cheese or yogurt to improve the salads taste and peel of the pounds.

Weight Loss Tip 8
Exercise at least a half hour each day for five days out of the week. Biking on a stationery bike while reading is a great form of exercise to slim legs.

In conclusion there is nothing stopping you from losing weight except yourself. Get off the "I can't do anything about my weight problem" bandwagon and start dropping pounds today!

2006-04-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

(But What You Need to Know if You Want to Get Fit!)

10) No, you won't end up looking like the latest hot young model/singer/actress!

Let's face it: your body is your body. It's the only one you've got. Can you still look great? Sure! But there are some things you can't change. You can't make your legs longer or your feet smaller. You can't grow five inches or elongate your torso. You have what you have, so work with it! Concentrate on making a healthy and fit you instead of wishing you looked like someone else. You don't have to be perfect to be attractive. A strong, fit body as well as the self-confidence it brings can make any person attractive!

9) It's better to be muscular and weigh more than to be flabby and weigh less.

I've said it so many times: I'd much rather be 135lbs and muscular than 120lbs and flabby. I've been both, and 135lbs with a lower percent of body fat was definitely better! I was smaller, stronger and had much more energy. So, don't always seek that magical number on the scale, but look at your total body composition instead.

8) You can't get fit in a week.

Okay, well, you can, but only if you're one week away from being in peak condition and you keep working out. Otherwise, forget about it! If you want to look good for that class reunion or because you'll be in a bikini soon, then get moving way before that. Or better yet, get moving for your own health and not for "things" like reunions and bikinis.

7) You need to put some effort into it.

You want to get fit? You have to work at it. You have to plan it, you have to schedule it, and, most importantly, you have to do it. No excuses. Sitting on the couch, telling yourself you should be doing something will not burn up a lot of calories. If nothing else, get out there and start walking. And while you're out there walking think about a plan of action for a healthier you and get started on it today - not tomorrow!

6) You need to exercise.

Can you lose weight just by diet alone? Sure, you can! But if you want to get fit, you need to exercise those muscles, including your heart. And that heart won't get any exercise if you're sitting on the couch, eating broccoli. Lose the weight that you need to lose and you'll just end up with a thin, but flabby, body. Get moving! Weight training is ideal, but if you're really not into weight training, find an activity you like to do that work all your major muscle groups.

5) You need to eat properly.

Putting aside any low carb/low fat/high protein controversies, the simple fact is, if you want a fit body, you need to nourish it. Protein, carbs and fat are important, but vitamins and minerals are key elements that your body needs, too. No matter what way of eating you're following make sure you're getting enough vitamins and minerals. Add a variety of fresh vegetables and fruit to your diet. The next time you go grocery shopping, linger around the produce section and not only pick out some old favorites, but experiment a little by trying something new!

4) You can't lose weight overnight.

You didn't gain it overnight -- or in two months -- and you're not going to lose it overnight -- or in two months. Think of getting fit as a train leaving the station: you start off slow, gather speed and then off you go! Patience is the key here. Look for consistent trends. If you're really not losing fat and getting stronger after a couple of months, then you need to sit down and honestly analyze what you're doing. Keep a journal to help you know how you're really eating and exercising.

3) You can't spot reduce.

Genetics will decide where the fat will come off. Doing 1000 crunches won't reduce your belly fat. Nor will 1000 leg lifts get rid of the fat on your inner thighs. Your body does not burn the fat it needs from the body part that you're exercising. Your body will burn fat much like an onion is peeled, a layer at a time, if you will. So, don't overdo it on the exercise for one specific body part and look to getting your whole body in shape.

2) There are no quick fixes.

That's right, you heard me. There are no quick fixes. None. Put all those pills, potions, contraptions and miracle diets in the garbage where they belong. Learn the basics about how your body gains muscle and loses fat, so you won't get sucked in by another scam again.

1) Fitness is a lifelong commitment!

So, you faithfully work out and eat properly and you've reached your goals. Now what? Well, now you've got to keep doing it for the rest of your life, that's what! You can't just work your way to being fit and then stop, because you'll end up exactly like you were before. Fitness is a lifelong commitment. And, you want to know a secret? It isn't easy! And anyone who says it is easy is trying to sell you something. Make fitness a lifelong ambition and you'll reap the rewards of a long and healthy life, filled with energy, strength and an overall sense of well being.

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