Calming Hunger

5 Ways to Calm Hunger Pangs


Do you start getting hunger pangs at 11:50 a.m. in anticipation of lunch? We've all been there. The cause is the hormone ghrelin; released when the stomach is empty, it sets off a chain reaction in the body to make you hungry. In general, you want to keep levels of ghrelin low during the day so you can keep hunger in check. Apart from an empty stomach, there are several factors that can raise ghrelin levels, including drinking alcohol, eating too few calories, and eating greasy, fatty foods. Here are some strategies that will help you manage these triggers and keep your ghrelin levels from rising:

Have a substantial breakfast. One study showed that people who ate a higher-calorie breakfast produced 33 percent less ghrelin throughout the day and felt satisfied for a longer period of time. Try a whole-wheat English muffin with organic peanut butter, a cup of strawberries, and some low-fat yogurt.

Choose complex carbs and get more fiber. Insulin and ghrelin go hand in hand. When insulin goes up after you eat, ghrelin goes down. If you eat the wrong kind of carbohydrates — refined carbs such as white bread and pasta — your blood sugar rises dramatically. In response, your body releases a surge of insulin to clear that sugar from the bloodstream. The insulin does its job very efficiently, and the resulting low blood sugar causes hunger sooner. These constant blood sugar ups and downs can wreak havoc on your metabolism, so it's best to eat complex carbs and fiber, which delay the release of sugar into the bloodstream so that insulin levels are kept stable and you feel full longer.

Eat on a schedule. Research has found that ghrelin levels rise and fall at your usual mealtimes, so eating on a schedule prevents spikes in ghrelin. If you're running errands and are away from the kitchen at one of your typical mealtimes, carry a small bag of almonds or other nuts with you — you can eat a little something to keep your stomach satisfied until you can get home and have a real meal.

Emphasize high-volume, low-calorie foods. Levels of ghrelin remain high until food stretches the walls of your stomach, making you feel full. High-volume, low-calorie foods, such as salads and soups, reduce ghrelin levels long before you've overeaten. All green veggies and any foods with a high water content count as high-volume, low-calorie foods.

Eat protein. Protein-rich foods can also suppress ghrelin levels — they help create a long-lasting feeling of fullness. Try adding whey protein to a low-calorie smoothie. (If you're sensitive to gluten, just be sure to check the ingredients list; some whey protein products contain gluten.) One study found that whey brought about a prolonged suppression of ghrelin.

Sit Down and Eat!

Turn it off and put it down! When you're watching television or reading, it's hard to gauge how much you are eating or how full you are. Get old school at mealtimes — set the table, sit down, and enjoy!

Sabotage

Stop Food-Pushers For Good


Many people struggle with this common problem — their moms, dads, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives always push food on them. I tell them exactly what I'm telling you: Acknowledge these behaviors. Recognize the problems, sit the people in question down, and let them know that you are trying to lose weight and be healthy. Tell them how they can help and support you. Chances are they'll want to help and will be willing to learn new recipes so that they can cook for you without threatening your health and happiness.

We count on the people closest to us to support us through thick and thin. The fact that a loved one may be sabotaging your efforts to get in shape, whether they are conscious of their behavior or not, can be tough to swallow and address. Take a good look at your current significant relationships to see how they affect your life both on a day-to-day level and on a larger scale. Is anyone in your circle a food-pusher?

Sure, it seems innocent enough. These people may not realize what they are doing, or they may think they are doing it out of love. The bottom line is that their way of loving you is through food. It's time to stop it for good.

Pushing Back

Confronting someone you love isn't always easy. Sometimes people will hear you and be able to change their behavior, but often their behavior has more to do with their own need for approval than with your need for support. No matter what the response, you need to be firm and hold your ground. At the end of the day, your health is your responsibility. Some relationships may not remain intact during big life transitions, but you will form healthier ones that reflect your new lifestyle.

Eating Habits

Eating Until You're Full, Not Stuffed


Here's the deal: Food can be a good thing when consumed in the right quantity and of the right quality. Food is your fuel and should be your medicine. When you eat healthy, fresh, whole foods until you're full, you will find that your calories tend to fall within a perfect range. If you're a woman, your caloric needs tend to fall within the 1,200 to 1,800 bracket. (The range in calorie allowance has to do with age, size, and activity level.) If you're a man, you're looking at anywhere from 1,800 to 3,000. Using these numbers as a guideline, if you've been eating too little and falling short, it's time to step it up. If you've been overdoing it, it's time to cut back.

Nutrient-dense, high-fiber/high-water-content foods will help you fill up without any fear of overdoing your calorie allowance. You'll feel full faster and stay full longer. When you give your body the food it recognizes, it easily absorbs the critical nutrients needed for optimal health and metabolic function.

Focus on spreading out your calories evenly over the course of the day by eating every 4 hours — 3 meals and one snack. Here's another great tip: Using salad plates instead of dinner plates can fool your mind. You'll feel more satisfied with less food, and once you finish, you'll be less likely to make a conscious decision to fill up that plate again.

Remember, after all is said and done, your calorie intake, along with exercise, is a proven component in the weight-loss and weight-maintenance equation. Know your range and stick close to it.

Thanksgiving

I was checking out my bible this am. I can't find anywhere in there where people thank God by glutinous acts. Think this over - ponder it, before you approach the festivities of the next 4 days. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

More than Just Looking Good

It's Not Just About Looking Good


Who doesn't want to look totally hot? If you asked 100 people who were starting to exercise for the first time (or returning to regular workouts after a long time off) what their main motivation was, the majority of them would say something like, "I want to look good," or "I want to fit into a size __ again." And hey, whatever gets you on track initially is good enough for me. But when that scale hasn't budged in a few weeks, it's time to remind yourself that there are lots of other reasons to make exercise a habit.

Research has clearly linked coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer to lifestyle. Apart from aiding in weight loss, physical activity offers a positive, healthy way to release anxieties and alleviate tension, which can help reduce your risk of many lifestyle-related diseases. Exercise also supports mental well-being: Physical activity actually changes your brain chemistry, which directly influences your mood and frame of mind for the better. Among other things, physical activity triggers the release of endorphins, which act on the brain as natural tranquilizers.

In addition, exercise will boost your confidence. As you start working out and getting stronger, your sense of strength in other aspects of your life will naturally flourish. Bottom line: The more physically fit you are, the longer you'll live and the better your quality of life will be.

Choices When Eating Out

Healthy Choices on Every Menu


Now, I know you can't always prepare and eat your meals at home. You can, however, make a point to always head to a restaurant prepared so you won't blow your calorie allowance for the day on an impulsive menu selection. If you're going out for a bite to eat, use this as your guide and don't let your diet dampen your enjoyment of sharing a meal with friends or family. Whether you're craving Asian, Italian, or standard American fare, there's always something healthy on the menu if you take the time to look.

Mexican: Choose chicken, beef, or shrimp fajitas with black beans or salad on the side instead of rice; carne asada (steak with onions and peppers); shrimp diablo (this is grilled with garlic butter — ask that the cook either go easy on it or just leave it off); grilled fish tacos (with corn tortillas rather than flour); taco and tostada salads with chicken, beef, or shrimp for protein (don't eat the taco-shell bowl). Order everything à la carte. Skip the rice and ask for black beans, not refried beans.

Chinese: Look for dishes with meats that aren't breaded and deep-fried. Also, avoid noodles, and get brown rice on the side. Try to steer clear of sweet-and-sour sauce and other sugary items. Opt for beef and broccoli dishes, shrimp and snow peas, garlic chicken, Mongolian beefsteak, or dishes that have meat and a vegetable, and ask that they be steamed, with sauces served on the side. You can also ask that the chef go easy on the cooking oil.

Thai: Choose any satay dishes (chicken, shrimp, or beef); any protein or vegetable stir-fry; or steamed fish, chicken, or beef lettuce rolls. Avoid fatty coconut milk curries, noodles, and rice.

American: You can order hamburgers (without bread or on a whole-grain bun), turkey dogs, meat chili, vegetable soups, kosher turkey bacon, white-meat chicken, and egg whites. A green salad is also a great option, but never with bacon, cheese, or croutons; look for salads that are full of vegetables, and ask for the dressing to be served on the side.

Indian: Choose chicken, lamb, beef, or shrimp tikka (grilled marinated meat skewers) or chicken or beef tandoori; any vegetable dish, such as bhagan bharta (whipped eggplant), aloo gobi (marinated steamed cauliflower), or vegetable jalfrezi (mixed vegetables). Avoid curries, rice, and naan bread.

Sushi: Stick to sashimi. Order your favorite rolls as hand rolls with no rice. You can do this with almost any roll.

Italian: Order any chicken or fish dish, beef carpaccio, or any salad (always with the dressing on the side). Avoid heavy, creamy, or sugary sauces, and don't get pasta.

French: Choose any steak, chicken, or fish dish, or any salad (always with the dressing on the side). Avoid rich, creamy, or sugary sauces, and don't get potatoes.

Breakfast: Order any egg dish to be made with egg whites, if possible. Go for low-fat cottage cheese, Greek yogurt with berries, turkey bacon, or smoked salmon. Avoid waffles, pancakes, bagels, muffins, doughnuts, and other pastries.

 Dealing With Dessert

That dessert menu is tempting, isn't it? If you simply must have something sweet at the end of your meal, opt for a fruit plate or an herbal tea. If you really can't resist ordering a dessert, lessen the caloric blow by splitting one with your dining companion. Remember to have all sauces and toppings served on the side — you'll thank me in the morning.

Slow Down

Learn to Slow Down


Are you so busy that you barely have time to eat? Well, scarfing down meals won't help you meet your weight-loss goals. Eating too quickly is one of the leading causes of overeating. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to register the food you eat and send the "I'm full" message to your brain. If you are barreling through your meals in 15 minutes, you are probably eating more than is necessary to satisfy your hunger. Force yourself to slow down. Good, healthy food is one of the true pleasures in our lives — savor and enjoy!

To slow down when eating, keep these tricks in mind:

If you're right-handed, eat with your left hand, and vice versa.

Cut your food into small pieces, and eat your meal one morsel at a time.

Make yourself put your silverware down in between bites.

Take a sip of a beverage in between bites. Water is always best.

I know these hints may sound silly, but they work. If you slow it down, you'll find that you won't need that second helping.

Sit Down and Eat!

Turn it off and put it down! When you're watching television, working on the computer, or reading, it's hard to gauge how much you are eating or how full you are. Get old school at mealtimes — set the table, sit down, and enjoy!

Move it and Lose It

Move It to Lose It


Know someone who's getting amazing results from an insanely low-calorie diet? It may be tempting to severely restrict your calories in hopes of a drastic weight loss, but don't even think about it! Truth is, very few people can maintain one of those crazy kinds of diets for more than a couple weeks. And to make things worse, most people on near-starvation diets gain back all the weight (and more) just a few months later.

In weight-loss terms, fat is energy and the best way to lose it is to use it. You have to do it with diet and exercise. If you diet without exercise, the majority of your weight loss will be from muscle. The minute you stray from your diet, the weight will come right back on.

The only way to lose it for good is to get moving! Exercise not only helps you burn calories, it also helps build, strengthen, and maintain lean muscle. Exercise has another benefit called afterburn. A great cardio routine keeps burning fat not just during your workout but for hours afterward. Not bad, eh?

The rule of the game is increasing your intensity. The exercise afterburn is also referred to as "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption." It represents the calories used up to return the body back to its pre-exercise state, or resting level, which can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours, depending on the intensity and duration of the workout.
Doing any type of physical activity is healthier than sitting on the couch downing a bag of chips. And activities like bowling and golf do burn calories — but not enough. To see dramatic weight loss, you must do heart-pumping cardio. Cardio is any activity that is rhythmic, continuous, requires the movement of large muscles, and raises your heart rate. While bowling and golf get you moving, the action is stop-and-go. There's no reason to give up those activities, just be aware that you must still put in time on the treadmill (or doing some other cardio activity) as well.

Not Seeing Results?

People are inherently different, and that's why some respond to a workout regimen more quickly than others. However you respond, it's important to keep your head up and your butt in gear. Stick with it, and your clothes should be fitting differently by the end of the week. In another week you could see dramatic changes in your physique, and the week after, you'll be feeling more confident, strong, and fit than you ever have before. The key is to keep it up!

Portion Sizes

Making Sense of Portion Sizes


Q: What's the best way to keep track of what I'm eating — portion sizes, calories, etc.?

A: I'm so glad you asked. If you really want to get those "calories out," you need to know exactly what you're putting in. That's where eating the right portions and counting calories comes in.

Using your Food Journal, start keeping a written record of absolutely everything you eat through­out your day — and be detailed! For example, don't just write down chicken. Write down how it was prepared and how much you ate.

At first you should measure and weigh your food to figure out exactly how many calories you're consuming. It is important to make sure you are always measuring raw; when food is cooked, it is more dense and has more calories. I know measur­ing everything can be tedious, but it won't take long for you to know by heart what a cup of milk looks like or how many ounces of chicken are in a small breast. Before you know it, you'll be eyeballing your portions like a pro.

At the end of every day, use a calorie-counter book to add up the calories you have consumed. By using these simple methods, you can make sure you are eating the right amount of calories to achieve your weight-loss goals.

When You're On the Go...

If you're eating out, here are some useful tips for assessing portion sizes using your hand.

The size of your fist is roughly equal to a cup-size serving of cereal, wild rice, black beans, etc.

The size of your thumb is roughly equal to an ounce-size serving of cheese.

The tip of your thumb is roughly equal to a teaspoon of olive oil or butter.

The center of the palm of your hand, without fingers, is roughly equal to a 3-ounce serving of fish, chicken, beef, etc.

Recipe

A Healthy Dose of Whole Grains


Are you making a conscious effort to make the healthy switch to whole grains? Whole grains are full of nutrients with lots of vitamin B and E, iron, and magnesium, — offering much more nutritional value than refined grains. The best part is that they're becoming more readily available. You can substitute brown rice for white rice at most restaurants and grocery stores across the country are carrying more and more whole grain options. This weekend, include some whole grains on your menu with this satisfying wild rice dish that you can complement with a delicious salad of leafy greens.

Wild Rice and Almonds With Chili Chicken Breasts

Ingredients

3/4 cup wild rice

1 bay leaf

4 chicken breast halves, boned and skinned

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon canola oil

1/2 cup green onions, sliced, with top

1 tablespoon lemon peel, grated

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1/2 cup organic almond slivers

Preparation

In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring rice, 1 1/2 cups water and bay leaf to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer about 40 minutes until rice is tender and water is absorbed.

Rub chicken with lemon juice and sprinkle with chili powder (about 1/8 teaspoon per side). Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, sauté 3 minutes, then turn over chicken and cover skillet. Cook 8 to 10 minutes until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with knife point.

When rice is cooked, reduce heat to medium-low. Mix in onions, almonds, and lemon peel to heat through; mix in salt. Divide rice and chicken among four plates. Serve with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 servings



Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 55 mins

Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins



Nutrition Facts

Number of Servings: 4

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 342

Total Fat: 2 g

Saturated Fat: 1.6 g

Cholesterol: 84 mg

Sodium: 380 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 29 g

Dietary Fiber: 2 g

Protein: 35 g



Recipes Source: California Almond Board

Add A Nutritious Crunch To Your Meal

Like many nuts and seeds, organic almonds contain lots of antioxidants, fiber, protein, and other power nutrients. They also make a great snacking option when you need a small bite to hold you over until the next time you eat. Just remember to enjoy in moderation since nuts are high in calories — and be sure to buy ONLY organic almonds as they're free of harmful pesticides. Adding organic almonds to a salad, appetizer, or entrée will give it a delicious, light, and nutty flavor — try it tonight with this wild rice and chicken meal!

Increase Intensity

Working It All Out


It's totally normal to be a little sore when you're just starting to work out. But as you progress, you need to pay attention to the way in which your body is reacting to what you're doing. If you do 20 lunges after not having done them in months, you'll be sore the next day — that's how you know the lunges worked those dormant muscles, just as you intended. If you keep doing 20 lunges every day, after a while you'll stop feeling the soreness, and that means the move is not productive anymore. It's important to keep yourself challenged in order to get results.

When it comes to intensity, you'll learn to use your own judgment. If your effort feels too easy, it probably is. Stop slacking and increase the intensity! If it feels too difficult or your form is compromised, decrease the intensity. You'll find your abilities change as you move forward. If you stop seeing the number on the scale drop, chances are you're coasting on your workout. Rev it up, baby!

Good Carbs

Carbs Are Nature's Disease Fighters



Without carbs, we'd be sitting ducks for cancer, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, chronic inflammation, and digestive problems. Carbs are the source for many of nature's disease fighters, thanks to the phytochemicals they contain. These compounds are produced by plants and are therefore present in almost all vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes — all foods that contain carbs. Also, eating fiber, a carbohydrate we can get only from plant sources, is one of the few ways we can help our bodies flush out the toxins that have built up in our tissues and messed with our endocrine systems for years.

Emotional Eating

Let's go over a few of your options for beating an emotional craving when it strikes:


Remove the temptation. You can't binge on food that isn't there. Clear your cupboards of all the things you reach for when you're feeling down. Have your hubby hide the kids' Oreos so you don't know where to find them (or better yet, toss them!). Throw out the leftover birthday cake in the fridge. Avoid the chip aisle the next time you go grocery shopping. If it's not available, you can't eat it — simple as that.

Build a support system. Positive support from friends and family is crucial. The next time you find yourself mindlessly staring into the fridge, call a friend or a workout buddy and have him or her talk you off that ledge. Go to the Message Boards and chat with people who are going through the same trials you are. Join a weight-loss group. Go to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting — ANYTHING to keep you from slipping back into old, bad habits.

Spend your time wisely. Find a way to relieve stress and boost your mood that's positive and life affirming rather than self-destructive. Take a bubble bath. Create a new workout playlist for your MP3 player. Plan a summer vacation (maybe at the beach, so you'll have a little motivation to slim down for your two-piece!). Go for a bike ride, walk the dog, pop in a workout video, get a manicure, or splurge on a massage — anything that makes you feel beautiful and healthy. You're far less likely to turn to food when you feel good.

Write it down. Start a journal — and not just to note what you eat. Take an inventory and write about what you're feeling. It'll help you see what's really bothering you, which will allow you to work on a solution instead of trying to find a distraction. If work has you stressed, buckle down for an all-nighter to get that project off your desk. If you had a fight with a friend, take a few deep breaths and try communicating with her, or simply give the two of you time to cool down, and have faith in the fact that this, too, shall pass.

Things sometimes suck. That's an unfortunate fact of life. We're sometimes thrown a sudden curveball, and when that happens it's important to attend to yourself in positive ways. Bingeing on food, smoking, drinking, or any other indulgent habit may be a temporary relief, but you will only feel worse in the long run. Keep a peristent focus on really changing those habits and you'll break the cycle.

Pets

Protect Your Pets (and Yourself!)


So, you're avoiding the toxins found in nasty processed foods, personal care products, and even the tools you use to cook. Think your job is done? What about your pets? You may not have considered it, but your four-legged friends can introduce a whole new range of chemicals into your life. Protect them — and yourself — by making a few conscious choices about their care.

Plastics: Remember, the fewer plastics in your life, the better. The same goes for your pets. Plastic pet toys and bowls can contain bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that's harmful to your health and that of your animals. Chose toys made with organic fabrics, and glass, ceramic, or stainless steel bowls for your animals to eat and drink from instead. The same goes for canned pet foods — many cans have BPA in their linings, which can leak into your pet's food. Some small pet food cans are BPA-free, but the only way to know for sure is to call and ask the manufacturer.

Food: Don't just assume that a pet food labeled "natural" will provide your pet with fresh cuts of meat and grains. Processed foods — and the same goes for processed pet foods — don't come from nature; they come from factories. Corporations make large profits by spending less on the ingredients they put in your pet's food. The safest choice for your pet is organic pet food, which has no artificial flavorings, growth hormones, or preservatives. It can be pricey, though, so if nothing else, read the labels and do your research to find the best brands for your pet and the best values for your wallet.

Shampoo: Studies have linked pyrethrin pest-control shampoo and phthalates with autism. Opt instead for pet shampoos that contain natural ingredients.

Make sure your pets get exercise and regular checkups, and try your best to remove the toxins from their lives. Bottom line: When you get rid of the poison, not only will you have a healthier and happier pet but you'll be a healthier and happier you.

Pets Are Good for Your Health

If you have high blood pressure, eating right and working out are definitely the keys to keeping it under control. But research shows that adding a dog or a cat to the mix could help you lower blood pressure even more. In a study of hypertensive stockbrokers, the group whose members were given a dog or cat experienced significantly more stable blood pressure while under stress than the other, equally stressed group who were not given a pet. Have a high-stressed job yourself? You might want to look into getting your own furry friend.

Fats

Good and Bad Fats


Think back on all those past dieting failures. Did you try to completely eliminate fat in one of those diets? Didn't last long on that one, did you? If being ravenous within an hour of eating a plate of steamed veggies didn't do you in, then surely the lack of energy and the fuzzy thinking did.

Let's talk about why you need fat in your diet. Animal and vegetable fats provide valuable, concentrated energy; they also provide the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormonelike substances. Fats slow the absorption of nutrients into your system, so you can go longer without feeling hungry, and they aid in the metabolism of sugar and insulin, which helps you lose weight. In addition, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins, aid in the absorption of vital minerals, and help facilitate a host of other important functions in the body.

Convinced? Good! I know your next question is, How do I know if a food that contains fat is good to eat or not? It all boils down to what kind of fat the food contains. The fats considered to be healthiest come from plants. They are called unsaturated fats, and they raise HDL cholesterol (the "good" kind). The saturated fats found in animal products, coconut oil, and other sources like avocados are good in moderation; they raise HDL cholesterol but also elevate LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind). You always want to avoid trans fats, which are found in processed baked goods, processed snack foods, and stick margarines — among other bad effects, they lower HDL cholesterol and raise LDL cholesterol, a double whammy that can increase your risk for heart disease.

Reward Yourself

The healthiest fats of all are the omega-3 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fat that can both raise HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart disease. Omega-3s may also reduce inflammation and have shown promise in helping relieve symptoms of a host of other conditions, including diabetes and bipolar disorder. Sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish like salmon, fish-oil supplements, and flaxseeds.

Negative Thoughts

Fixing the Negative Self-Talk


Is your inner voice a trash-talker? If you've tried and failed to reach your fitness goals in the past, negative thoughts might have held you back. Want to succeed this time? Get a journal. It's time to get some of those thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you have a negative self-image?

Do you constantly say things like "I'm fat" or "I'm ugly"? Do you pick yourself apart and beat yourself up when you look in the mirror?

Do you lack self-confidence?

Do you doubt your ability to achieve your goals, weight related or otherwise? Do you dwell on your perceived limits or fears? Do you doubt your ability to accomplish the things you want to accomplish?

Do you feel powerless?

Do you feel as if you have no control over your life, or do you rely on excuses like "I'm genetically predisposed to being overweight"?

Do you label yourself in self-deprecating ways?

Do you think and talk about your failure to lose weight as a foregone conclusion? Do you refer to yourself mockingly (or not!) as a stereotype — the happy/funny fat person in the room? Is your e-mail address "fatso@blank.com"?

Now think about your responses to these questions. How would you describe their tone? Are they affirming and constructive, or downbeat and destructive? If you want to turn your thinking around, ask yourself one more question:

How is this negativity serving you? Answering this question will help you understand why you have been perpetuating these destructive thoughts and behaviors so that you can cut them out at the root. Is what you say about yourself really the truth? Or is it a defense mechanism? And if so, against what? Are you just making complicated excuses? How does this kind of negativity help you achieve your goals?

Here's the last step: Go back and answer the above questions again, and force yourself to use only positive terms. It can be hard to let go of negative thought patterns. Often, they're the result of years of self-loathing and your internalizing of the negative opinions and judgments of others, but you can do it. Remember, knowledge is power. The next time one of these negative thoughts crops up, you'll have the awareness to cut it down.

Having Fans Never Hurts

Once you turn your negatives into positives, you might just become your own biggest fan! But having a network of people who genuinely want to see you happy and successful is also essential. The key is to find people who are supportive without being asked. Whether it's your mom, your kids, or your best friend, an encouraging and steady presence in your life can bring strength and courage when you need it most.

Carbs

Confused About Carbs


Q: I went on the Atkins diet once and lost weight fairly easily and quickly. (Later, I gained it all back.) On your plan, I'm a slow oxidizer, and I'm afraid that I will lose weight very slowly — or worse, gain weight! — with the amount of carbs I'm eating. Am I off base?

A: Yup. WAY off base, killer. When you cut all the carbs out of your diet, you lose a lot of water weight right off the bat, but that isn't necessarily a good thing. The real question is, why didn't the weight stay off? And how did you feel on Atkins? As a slow oxidizer, you require foods with a higher percentage of carbohydrates to best serve your metabolism and energize you both physically and mentally — so I'm betting you must have felt pretty crappy on Atkins.

Weight loss is about calories — it's that simple. You can eat carbs and lose weight as long as you stick to your calorie allowance. Because you are a slow oxidizer, eating HEALTHY CARBS will improve your energy level, thus helping you to work out longer and harder to burn more calories.

What I don't want you eating are unhealthy, processed carbs like white bread, white rice, and packaged junk food. Such foods will ultimately make you overeat because they mess up your blood sugar balance and your metabolic hormones. I am sure you've heard the terms "sugar crash" and "craving carbs." These conditions result from eating crap, so stick to your calorie allowance and make healthier carb choices — whole-grain bread instead of white bread, air-popped popcorn instead of Doritos, brown rice instead of white rice — and you will be A-OK, I promise!

Pair Carbs With Protein

One reason whole grains are so much better for you than refined grains is that they still have their fiber, and that fiber helps slow the rate at which the body breaks down the grains' carbohydrates. The overall effects of that slowdown are that your blood glucose levels don't spike severely and you feel satisfied longer. Pairing carbs with protein has a similar effect. Because protein is metabolized more slowly than carbohydrates, it helps stabilize blood sugar and keeps you feeling full longer. Always look for high-fiber carbs, and pair them with a protein source like lean meat or low-fat Greek yogurt.

Labels

Decoding Label Lingo


You've seen the fine print at the bottom of contracts and applications, but have you ever actually read it? While it might seem insignificant, it can contain all sorts of loopholes. The same goes for food labels, and you should think of them as the "fine print" on your dinner.

It's a crummy fact of life, but many things don't come as advertised. Packaged foods are no exception. Don't be fooled by the glaring orange "Healthy" sticker on the front of a package of food. Turn the item over and look for these common food-label traps:

"Sugar-free" — Many people assume this means "carb-free," but it does not. Compare the total carbohydrate content of a sugar-free food with that of the standard product. If there is a big difference, the sugar-free version might be worth buying IF it is made with a nontoxic sweetener like stevia or xylitol — steer clear of artificial sweeteners like aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) and sucralose (Splenda). If there is little or no difference in the carb content, choose the option with the most natural ingredients.

"No sugar added" — This simply means that sugar wasn't added during processing or packaging. That doesn't mean the food is sugar-free. Check the label carefully because the food may still be high in sugar and carbs.

"Fat-free" — Fat-free foods can be higher in carbs than the full-fat versions and can contain almost as many calories. Fat-free cookies are a perfect example. Repeat after me: Fat-free foods are not necessarily a better choice.

Read your labels carefully, and remember this rule of thumb: The shorter the list of ingredients, the more natural the food is likely to be.

Keep an Eye on It

When you change your eating habits, you'll spend a lot of time reading labels at first. Once you become accustomed to the fine print on your favorite foods, however, it gets a lot easier. That said, don't assume that the products you buy every week will remain good choices. Companies can change their product formulas and serving sizes at any time without alerting the media — or you. If the packaging on your favorite tortillas or string cheese suddenly has a new look, read the back extra carefully.

Try Different Modes of Exercise

Try Different Modes of Exercise


Need to take your workout to the next level? Try a different modality. What's a "modality"? It's really just a fancy word for your particular form of exercise. In addition to intensity, weight load, and number of sets and reps you do, you can alternate between different exercises that work the same muscles, thereby changing your "mode" of exercise.

For example, if your routine includes the seated row machine, which works the midback, biceps, and forearms, you can alternate it with another machine or activity that works the same muscles — try to choose one that provides a change of position from the seated row, as well as a different pace. In addition to spicing up your routine, alternating your exercises trains your muscles through different ranges of motion, allowing you to target them with greater accuracy.

There are plenty of options to choose from to keep your program challenging, fun, and as effective as possible. You are learning this stuff so you can take the reins, so be honest with yourself about what your body is getting out of your workouts. You won't make progress unless you constantly challenge yourself. That's right — it's never going to get easier, just better. Keep demanding new things from your muscles, and you'll continue to see the results every time you look in the mirror.

Taking It Up a Notch

No matter what type of resistance you're using, even if it's your own body weight, there are many ways to increase or decrease the resistance level of your exercise. For example, if your routine includes 1 set of lunges for 20 reps using just your body weight as resistance, change it up by doing 2 sets of 10 reps each, with a 15-pound dumbbell in each hand for added difficulty.

Restore Missing Nutrients

Restoring Missing Nutrients With Power Foods


When you consider what we Americans typically put into our bodies each day — all the junk food, refined and enriched grains, and other sources of empty calories — it's not surprising that more than 80 percent of us don't meet the daily recommendations for key nutrients. Many vitamins and other micronutrients are necessary for hormone production, which means that to maintain a healthy metabolism, we need to pay attention to our nutrient intake.

Here are just a few key nutrients you probably need to restore to your diet. The daily nutrient intakes listed are recommendations of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, a world-renowned research center on the science of micronutrients.

Pantothenic acid (5 milligrams a day): All steroid hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, can be produced only when you have enough pantothenic acid, or vitamin B5.

Food sources: 8 ounces yogurt (1.35 mg); ½ cup sweet potato (0.88 mg)

Potassium (4.7 grams a day): Potassium is both a mineral and an electrolyte that regulates as much as 40 percent of our resting metabolic rate.

Food sources: 1 medium baked potato (926 mg); 6 ounces tomato juice (417 mg)

Vitamin B6 (2 milligrams a day): This vitamin helps the body release glucose from stored glycogen. It also binds to the receptors for steroid hormones, preventing the uptake of excessive hormones and thus possibly helping to reduce the risk of breast and prostate cancer.

Food sources: 3 ounces chicken (0.51 mg); 1 medium banana (0.43 mg)

Zinc (15 milligrams a day): Zinc levels are linked to levels of leptin, the hormone that helps us feel satisfied after eating.

Food sources: 6 medium oysters (76 mg); 3 ounces dark-meat turkey (3.8 mg); 1/2 cup baked beans (1.8 mg)

Cover Your Bases With a Multivitamin

Ideally, all of our nutrients would come from the foods we eat. But given changes in farming methods, the sad state of our soil, and the lack of biodiversity in this country, even our whole foods are not nearly as nutritious as they once were. Taking a high-quality multivitamin can help ensure that you're getting the nutrients you need. Look for a multi with all the ingredients listed above plus biotin, folic acid, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, copper, magnesium, selenium, chromium, calcium, and vitamins A, B12, C, D, E, and K. Premenopausal women should choose a multivitamin that also contains iron.

Calories

Calorie Countdown


Reading food labels can help you make smart food choices that'll contribute to your healthy diet, but are you sure you know how to calculate the calories in the portions you're eating?

Start by checking the Nutrition Facts label for the serving size and the number of servings in a package. Serving sizes are standardized and measured into units such as cups (and sometimes pieces), which makes it easier to assess the nutritional information.

Remember that calories are usually listed per serving, NOT per container. Be sure to read the fine print, because marketing folks can really be crafty. For instance, the label on a pint of ice cream may trumpet the fact that the product has fewer calories than its competitor, which might make you think you're getting a low-calorie food. But when you turn the container around, you might discover that there are roughly 300 calories per serving and four servings per container, meaning that this pint contains a whopping total of 1,200 calories. For many people, that's enough calories for a whole day!

Checking nutritional information can be frustrating and confusing at first, but now that you know how to do it, you will never miscount calories again. You'll also be able to make changes and adjustments so that you stay within the guidelines of your personal caloric intake. Don't let misleading packaging screw with your diet. Fight back by educating yourself and actually reading the labels!

Toning

What Does "Toning" Really Mean?

All of us want to "tone" our muscles to achieve a cut, fit look. But what exactly is "toning"? Let me clarify a little: The word "toning" has nothing to do with the size of a particular muscle; it refers rather to making a muscle lean by burning intramuscular fat, and conditioning the muscle for better performance.

You can't actually build muscle mass unless you're eating more calories than you're burning, but you can tone a muscle to make it leaner. To tone your muscles, you should weight-train four days a week, working each muscle group twice a week. After you work a particular muscle group, you should give it two days of rest before you focus on it again.

Here's a sample toning program that works each muscle group without overdoing it:

Monday: Work the chest, shoulders, triceps, quads, upper abs, obliques.

Tuesday: Work the back, biceps, hamstrings, glutes, lower abs.

Wednesday: Rest.

Thursday: Work the chest, shoulders, triceps, quads, upper abs, obliques.

Friday: Work the back, biceps, hamstrings, glutes, lower abs.

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: Do a cardio-only workout.

Remember: Exercise is the architect, but recovery is the builder. You have to give your body adequate recovery time to heal itself and grow stronger. If you work out too often without resting, you'll just break your muscles down.

Afraid of Bulk?

Women always tell me that they feel hesitant about toning exercises that require weights because they're afraid of building bulky muscles. Hear me out, ladies: It's extremely difficult for women to gain muscle mass simply by doing toning exercises — we don't have the testosterone that guys do that lets them build mass. Using weights to tone your muscles will make you look trim and terrific, not big and bulky.

Breaking Habits

How to Break Bad Habits

Old habits die hard, but the good news is that they do die. Don't lose hope or beat yourself up over it if you're having trouble breaking bad habits. It's not that easy to change your ways. Just keep plugging away.

Start by replacing old habits with new ones. The key is to learn how to take care of yourself and pamper yourself in ways that are life affirming rather than self-destructive. Learn how to deal with sabotaging emotions by establishing some healthy patterns of behavior and investing in your physical and emotional well-being.

If you judge yourself every time you're in front of a mirror, try focusing on the things you love about yourself. When was the last time you looked in the mirror and told yourself how great your features are and how beautiful you look?

If you're constantly looking to the media for stories about celebrity diets and weight loss, try finding more realistic role models — everyday people who've lost weight or achieved other goals similar to yours. They will be the most inspiring. Start paying attention to people you know.

If you tend to blow off your workouts until your vacation rolls around — or there's some other event, like a wedding, lighting a fire under you — ease yourself back into your daily workouts. Without commitment, you won't be able to achieve the goals you truly desire. Put your life in perspective. Everything is a choice — from how you feel when you wake up in the morning to whether or not you floss your teeth at night. To make the right choices, you need to ask the right questions: What is my true goal, and how are the choices I'm making going to help me achieve that goal?

Be Proud Now

Don't wait until you reach your ultimate goal to pat yourself on the back — be proud now! Just taking the first step — signing up for this program and reaching out for help — is something to be proud of. And every achievement along the way should be rewarded. You deserve it!

Feel Fuller

Eat lower-calorie foods that are high in fiber to help fill you up. Fiber-rich foods are high in volume, so high-fiber foods can make you feel fuller longer without adding too many extra calories. Fill up on high-fiber foods such as whole-grain cereals, berries, and black beans and you can lose weight without feeling deprived and hungry.

Drink lots of water and include water-rich foods. When you feel as if you are starving, pound a quart of water and see if that helps kill the urge to eat. You can also eat foods that have a high water content, which will help you feel full — these include soup, fruit, and vegetables. For example, sometimes I use two bags of lettuce to make my salads. Or I have three veggie sides at dinner — steamed spaghetti squash, grilled eggplant, AND mashed cauliflower.

Get some sleep! While doctors have long known that many hormones are affected by sleep, it wasn't until fairly recently that appetite entered the picture. Research has shown that leptin and ghrelin, two hormones that regulate appetite, are both directly affected by how much sleep we get. Have you ever experienced a sleepless night followed by a day when, no matter what you ate, you never felt full or satisfied? That's because of leptin and ghrelin; together, these hormones work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness. Ghrelin stimulates appetite, while leptin sends a signal to the brain when you are full. When sleep is restricted, leptin levels go down and ghrelin levels go up. Lack of sleep can also trigger the release of cortisol, a nasty stress hormone that is responsible for storing abdominal fat. So it becomes apparent that anyway you look at it, lack of sleep can set the stage for overeating and weight gain.

Don't panic. You can and will lose weight. Even if you are eating more than your daily calorie allowance, you can still lose — it just might take a little longer. Exercise is key: Working out harder and more often will help burn the extra calories you might take in if you have a bad day. I know that when I indulge one day, I work out extra hard the next.

Don't Give In to Emotional Eating

The next time you are really hungry, or at least think you're really hungry, stop yourself from heading to the fridge and ask yourself the following questions: When was the last time I ate? Was it more than three to four hours ago? Is my stomach growling? Am I light-headed? If the answer to these questions is no, then you aren't hungry at all; you are engaging in emotional eating. Time to go for a walk or figure out some other nonfood activity!

Binge Eating

How to Beat Binge Eating


If you're inclined to binge, the most important thing you can do for yourself is to examine the emotional reasons for it. I know that processing such emotions is hard and takes time, but there are some good techniques that can help you modify your behavior and combat binge eating while you work on the underlying issues.

Banish binge foods from your environment. Don't buy or let into your house whatever you're prone to bingeing on — whether it's cookies, chips, or ice cream. After all, you can't eat what's not there.

Decorate your fridge with images that motivate you. I have two pictures on mine: One is a photo of my cellulite, and the other is of Olympic swimmer Dara Torres. Let me tell ya, there is nothing that will turn you off to eating too much like pictures of cottage cheese on your butt.

Call a friend. The next time you want to stuff your face, reach out for support and try talking through your feelings instead of anesthetizing them by bingeing.

Try taking up a hobby. Keep yourself occupied so that rather than medicating yourself with food, you'll distract yourself with something productive.

Do something to screw up your binge. In other words, pamper yourself with something that's positive rather than self-destructive. Get a mani-pedi. Take a relaxing bath. Go to the gym. There are many places to go and activities to take part in that'll also lead you away from the temptation of food.

It takes time to break a bad habit, so it's good to have some techniques to fall back on when life gets the better of you! Remember to take it one day at a time. If you do end up bingeing, work out a little harder the next day. Every day is a new one — got it?

Eat Right

When I tell you to eat right, I'm not just talking about eating the right foods. I also want you to sit down and eat your meals properly. Don't eat while standing up, in the car, or when you're on the go. If you sit down at the table, take your time, and relax while you eat, you'll be less likely to snack on a bunch of junk between meals.

Fiber

Fill Up on Fiber

We've all heard about the benefits of fiber for digestive health, but did you know it's also good for your metabolism? Soluble dietary fiber traps carbohydrates to slow their digestion, checks the rise of glucose after meals, and keeps insulin levels low. It can also help lower cortisol levels and aid in the body's natural disposal of excess estrogen. As if all those positive effects weren't enough, soluble fiber's sticky quality helps drag cholesterol out of the digestive tract, lowering your LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind).

Another bonus is that most sources of soluble fiber also provide insoluble fiber — the kind that keeps things moving in our digestive tract. How do you know if you're getting enough fiber in your diet? Well, there are a couple of pretty obvious symptoms if you're not:

You're constipated. You should be having at least three bowel movements a week. If not, keep your chin up and try adding more fiber-filled foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, to your diet — see if that doesn't fix the plumbing!

You're often hungry. You could be hungry for a number of reasons, including emotional ones, but lack of fiber is a likely suspect. Fiber helps you feel full, and if you're not getting that warm, fuzzy, fullness feeling, it may be because you need to eat more — you guessed it! — fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

So fiber can help keep you regular and make you feel full. The FDA also considers it to be a powerful fighter against cancer, diabetes, and heart disease as well as digestive disorders and obesity.

As a general rule, you should eat as many organic veggies and as much salad as you possibly can (dressing on the side, please!). This will help make you feel full and keep you from overeating other, more calorie-dense foods. Fill up!

Finding Fiber

Sure, eating more fiber sounds like a great idea, but how do you realistically work it in to your day? First, always choose whole-grain products like whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, and grains like bulgur and quinoa instead of white rice, white bread, and other refined-grain products. Also, follow these tips:

Start the day with whole-grain cereal.

When appropriate, eat vegetables raw, because cooking can reduce fiber content.

Avoid peeling fruits and vegetables when you can, because the skin contains a lot of fiber. (Just be sure to buy organic fruit so you can avoid nasty pesticides.)

Add beans to soups, stews, and salads.

Keep fresh fruit on hand for snacks.

Calming Hunger

5 Ways to Calm Hunger Pangs

Do you start getting hunger pangs at 11:50 a.m. in anticipation of lunch? We've all been there. The cause is the hormone ghrelin; released when the stomach is empty, it sets off a chain reaction in the body to make you hungry. In general, you want to keep levels of ghrelin low during the day so you can keep hunger in check. Apart from an empty stomach, there are several factors that can raise ghrelin levels, including drinking alcohol, eating too few calories, and eating greasy, fatty foods. Here are some strategies that will help you manage these triggers and keep your ghrelin levels from rising:

Have a substantial breakfast. One study showed that people who ate a higher-calorie breakfast produced 33 percent less ghrelin throughout the day and felt satisfied for a longer period of time. Try a whole-wheat English muffin with organic peanut butter, a cup of strawberries, and some low-fat yogurt.

Choose complex carbs and get more fiber. Insulin and ghrelin go hand in hand. When insulin goes up after you eat, ghrelin goes down. If you eat the wrong kind of carbohydrates — refined carbs such as white bread and pasta — your blood sugar rises dramatically. In response, your body releases a surge of insulin to clear that sugar from the bloodstream. The insulin does its job very efficiently, and the resulting low blood sugar causes hunger sooner. These constant blood sugar ups and downs can wreak havoc on your metabolism, so it's best to eat complex carbs and fiber, which delay the release of sugar into the bloodstream so that insulin levels are kept stable and you feel full longer.

Eat on a schedule. Research has found that ghrelin levels rise and fall at your usual mealtimes, so eating on a schedule prevents spikes in ghrelin. If you're running errands and are away from the kitchen at one of your typical mealtimes, carry a small bag of almonds or other nuts with you — you can eat a little something to keep your stomach satisfied until you can get home and have a real meal.

Emphasize high-volume, low-calorie foods. Levels of ghrelin remain high until food stretches the walls of your stomach, making you feel full. High-volume, low-calorie foods, such as salads and soups, reduce ghrelin levels long before you've overeaten. All green veggies and any foods with a high water content count as high-volume, low-calorie foods.

Eat protein. Protein-rich foods can also suppress ghrelin levels — they help create a long-lasting feeling of fullness. Try adding whey protein to a low-calorie smoothie. (If you're sensitive to gluten, just be sure to check the ingredients list; some whey protein products contain gluten.) One study found that whey brought about a prolonged suppression of ghrelin.

No Food Before Bed

For most of your day, the object is to keep ghrelin levels low — you don't need any extra diet-endangering hunger! But at night, you do want ghrelin levels to rise. Your body requires ghrelin to move effectively through all the necessary phases of sleep. Without the proper progression, you won't get to stage 4 sleep — the phase of deep sleep, during which you get a big pulse of growth hormone — or to the REM sleep that helps protect levels of leptin, the hormone that tells your brain you're full. To keep ghrelin levels up at night, don't eat after 9 p.m. Close down that kitchen after dinner and get restful sleep!

Fiber

Fill Up on Fiber

We've all heard about the benefits of fiber for digestive health, but did you know it's also good for your metabolism? Soluble dietary fiber traps carbohydrates to slow their digestion, checks the rise of glucose after meals, and keeps insulin levels low. It can also help lower cortisol levels and aid in the body's natural disposal of excess estrogen. As if all those positive effects weren't enough, soluble fiber's sticky quality helps drag cholesterol out of the digestive tract, lowering your LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind).

Another bonus is that most sources of soluble fiber also provide insoluble fiber — the kind that keeps things moving in our digestive tract. How do you know if you're getting enough fiber in your diet? Well, there are a couple of pretty obvious symptoms if you're not:

You're constipated. You should be having at least three bowel movements a week. If not, keep your chin up and try adding more fiber-filled foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, to your diet — see if that doesn't fix the plumbing!

You're often hungry. You could be hungry for a number of reasons, including emotional ones, but lack of fiber is a likely suspect. Fiber helps you feel full, and if you're not getting that warm, fuzzy, fullness feeling, it may be because you need to eat more — you guessed it! — fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

So fiber can help keep you regular and make you feel full. The FDA also considers it to be a powerful fighter against cancer, diabetes, and heart disease as well as digestive disorders and obesity.

As a general rule, you should eat as many organic veggies and as much salad as you possibly can (dressing on the side, please!). This will help make you feel full and keep you from overeating other, more calorie-dense foods. Fill up!

Finding Fiber

Sure, eating more fiber sounds like a great idea, but how do you realistically work it in to your day? First, always choose whole-grain products like whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, and grains like bulgur and quinoa instead of white rice, white bread, and other refined-grain products. Also, follow these tips:

Start the day with whole-grain cereal.

When appropriate, eat vegetables raw, because cooking can reduce fiber content.

Avoid peeling fruits and vegetables when you can, because the skin contains a lot of fiber. (Just be sure to buy organic fruit so you can avoid nasty pesticides.)

Add beans to soups, stews, and salads.

Keep fresh fruit on hand for snacks.

Arm Flab?

Fight Flabby Arms With These Moves


In this August heat, I bet you want to wear less to stay cool. I'm not talking about exhibitionism but about revealing your arms in tank tops and sleeveless dresses! Not ready to bare them quite yet? Well, it's time to sculpt some sexy arms that you'll want to flaunt!

First, a brief anatomy lesson: Your biceps are the prominent muscles in the front of your upper arms, and your triceps are the horseshoe-shaped muscles located in the back of your upper arms. Biceps help you bend your arms, and they assist the muscles of your upper back in pulling and carrying. The triceps muscle's primary function is to extend the elbow and straighten your arm, but the triceps also assist the chest and shoulder muscles in throwing and pushing.

Two great exercises for working these muscles of the upper arm are dumbbell biceps curls and triceps kickbacks. Check them out:

Dumbbell Biceps Curls


Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing your sides. Exhale, and keeping your elbows locked against your rib cage, curl both arms three-quarters of the way up to your shoulders, rotating your wrists as you lift, so your palms end up facing your shoulders.

Hold for a beat, focusing on squeezing your biceps. Inhale, and slowly lower your arms to the starting position; repeat.

Triceps Kickbacks

Hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing your sides, and stand with your feet hip-width apart, with a slight bend in your knees. Bend forward from the waist so that your torso is nearly parallel with the floor. Bend both elbows so that your upper arms are locked at your sides and parallel to the floor (your forearms should be perpendicular to the floor).

Keeping your upper arms still, straighten your forearms behind you until the ends of the dumbbells are pointing toward the floor. Hold for a beat, then inhale and slowly lower your arms to the starting position; repeat.

Overcoming Genetics

Sometimes genetics hands us down problem areas. If you inherited Aunt Sue's flabby arms, don't despair — you can get them trim and toned, but it's going to take some work. In addition to doing strength-training exercises that target your biceps, triceps, and forearms, try participating in activities like kickboxing, skiing, swimming, and tennis — they require you to use your arm muscles in varied ways while also giving you a chance to have fun. Can't beat that!

Sodium

Beat the Bloat: Sodium 101


You know sodium best as table salt, but salt and sodium are hidden in all kinds of products, including processed foods, frozen and canned foods, fast foods, condiments, and more. You've probably heard that excess sodium can raise your blood pressure, but you may not realize it has negative effects on weight loss too.

When you eat something salty, any excess sodium is deposited just beneath the skin, where it attracts water, which is retained by your cells. Not only can this leave you feeling puffy and bloated, but it can hamper your ability to lose weight. Your body needs a steady flow of water in and out to effectively metabolize fat, and if the water gets dammed up in your cells, your ability to burn fat slows.

Now, don't make yourself crazy over sodium intake, because there is sodium in everything — you can't avoid it completely. And you wouldn't want to — sodium plays an important role in the body, and we need it to survive. Just be conscious of how much you're eating, and minimize it where you can. Here are some tips to get you started:

Read labels to check the sodium content of the foods you're eating. I recommend that you aim for around 1,000 milligrams a day to maximize your body's fat-burning potential and lower your blood pressure; 1,500 mg a day, however, is probably more realistic.

Replace processed foods with fresh foods.

Avoid packaged and canned foods.

Be wary of sodium-laden condiments (soy sauce, mustard, table salt).

Cut down on processed meats (hot dogs, jerky, bologna, corned beef).

Use miso and canned or smoked seafood with caution.

Steer clear of anything pickled (including capers, sauerkraut, and relish).

Consider salt-free flavoring alternatives, like garlic, lemon, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper, and spices.

Water Consumption

As I'm sure you know, water aids in every aspect of body function. Particularly as a facilitator of the fat-burning process, it is a vital part of any diet and exercise program. As a general rule, men should consume 120 ounces of water a day, and women should consume 80 ounces. I recommend distilled water because it's sodium free, but other forms of noncarbonated water are also fine, as long as they have no sodium. Again, read your labels.

Tips for Appetite Control

7 Tips for Controlling Your Appetite

Don't skip meals. You should be eating three square meals a day, plus one snack, and spacing your meals throughout the day so that you don't go longer than four hours without eating. This will keep your blood sugar levels and hunger hormones stable.

Drink tons of water. When you feel as if you're starving, pour yourself a huge glass of water or grab a bottle of seltzer — it will help quell the urge to snack.

Sleep! Two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, regulate our appetite, and both are directly affected by how much sleep we get. These hormones work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness. Getting eight hours of shut-eye each night helps the hormones work properly, which in turn will help curb your appetite.

Examine your hunger. The next time you feel hungry between meals, consider the last time you ate. If it was less than three to four hours earlier, your stomach isn't growling, and you're not weak or tired, you're probably emotionally unsatisfied in some way rather than genuinely physically hungry.

Think about what, besides eating, soothes you. Steer yourself toward positive feelings of self-worth and you'll choose activities and behaviors that inherently contradict self-loathing and self-destructiveness.

Don't panic. You can and will lose weight. Even if you're eating a little more than the meal plan calorie allowance, you can still lose — it just might take a little longer. Exercise is also crucial. Working out harder and more often will help burn the extra calories you might take in if you have a bad day.

Do not beat yourself up! Sometimes we slip up, and that's okay — healthy living is not an all-or-nothing proposition. I'm here for you, and I know you can do this. Believe in yourself and try to incorporate my suggestions into your life, and let's see how you do.

If food commercials on television make you feel hungry and drive you to snack uncontrollably, record your shows so you can skip the commercials. Or keep a few magazines close by so you have something to zone out with until the commercials are over. Or, you can always drop to the floor and do a few stretches or sit-ups to regain control and remind yourself why you're doing my program — I'm not joking!

The Right Stuff

Get the Right Tools for the Job


So you've cleared your cupboards of hormone-disrupting processed foods and stocked up on fresh vegetables and fruits, organic meats, low-fat organic dairy products, and whole grains. Excellent. You've replaced high-calorie cooking methods like frying with low-calorie methods like baking, roasting, and steaming. Awesome! Now let's take a closer look at another aspect of healthy cooking: your cookware.

Believe it or not, the pots and pans you cook your food in can have an impact on your metabolism. Some choices are better than others, and I'll start with the good ones:

Cast iron. This classic material conducts heat well and can even add a little iron, an essential nutrient, to your food. Cooking experts recommend seasoning cast-iron pans with vegetable oil so foods won't stick to them.

Porcelain-coated cookware. Pots and pans coated with porcelain are naturally low-stick and easy to clean.

Stainless steel. An alloy of iron and other metals, stainless steel is nontoxic and doesn't react with acidic foods.

Glass. Glass cookware is great for baking and roasting and has the advantage of being microwave safe.

What I'm not so crazy about are pans with chemical nonstick coatings like Teflon. For years, nonstick pans had a great rap because they made cleanup easier and required less butter and oil for lubrication. But in recent years, organizations like the Environmental Working Group have spoken out against Teflon because it contains the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which may be released when Teflon is heated. The Environmental Protection Agency has labeled PFOA a likely human carcinogen, and some research has linked it to abnormal levels of thyroid hormone, liver inflammation, and elevated cholesterol. The maker of Teflon has committed to phasing out PFOA by 2015, but until then you're better off using healthy alternatives.

Spouse Issues?

Getting Your Spouse to Live Healthy


Q: I'm trying to make healthy changes in my life — with what I eat and with exercise — and my husband isn't helping. He continues to live a very unhealthy lifestyle, and I can't get him to join me. What do you suggest?

A: It's sad how many times I've answered this question. In fact, the number one reason people cite for quitting any type of weight-loss or health regimen is their responsibilities to their spouse.

At the beginning of a relationship, we often enter into a silent agreement with our partner about how things will be and what roles we will play. If one person starts to make changes — positive OR negative — it can be very threatening to the one who doesn't want to change. That usually just means that he or she feels insecure at the prospect of your transformation in general. Such a transformation can be very scary to the other person, who may worry that you will outgrow the relationship and leave him or her for someone or something else.

Most likely, your husband has no idea that this attitude is undermining your resolve. Sit down with him and talk about how you feel about what is going on — and be sure to reassure him of your love. Give examples of how his behavior has sabotaged your efforts. If he reacts defensively, which is a distinct possibility, give him time and be reassuring.

I know this stuff is easier said than done. It's much easier to avoid this type of confrontation for fear of judgment, rejection, or abandonment, but you have to be brave and remember what is at stake. The bottom line is this: Do not let anyone or anything get in the way of your leading the happiest, healthiest life possible!

Are You Making Excuses?

It's also important to be honest with yourself about how much your partner is really affecting your attempts to lead a healthier life. Many people blame their partner when they themselves should take on more responsibility. It's easy to blame someone else when you don't make it to the gym in the morning, but is it really that person's fault? If you have a clear goal, your motivation and determination must come from within — not from an outside source. The support of your loved ones is invaluable, but those who always lean on someone else to motivate them will never succeed.

Belly Buldge

How to Get Rid of Belly Bulge


Q: What is the best way to get rid of belly bulge?

A: Contrary to what you might think, getting rid of belly bulge is all about diet and cardio rather than strength-training exercises that target the abdominals. This is because belly bulge results from excess body fat, not lack of muscle. The best way to reduce the bulge, therefore, is to reduce your body fat, and we all know what that requires — eating right and exercising, baby!

It is possible to carry extra water weight in your tummy. To get rid of this, try cutting your sodium intake to 1,500 mg a day and increasing your water intake. This will help you reduce water retention and lessen a bit the spongy appearance of belly fat.

But really, it comes down to healthy eating and consistent exercise. Stick with it, kid — it'll come off. Just keep at it and be patient with yourself.

Another Thing to Look for on Labels

I know you're probably very aware of the fat and calories on your nutrition labels, but how about sodium? Sodium can not only raise your blood pressure and slow your metabolism but also bloat you up. You know sodium best as table salt, but it's hidden in all kinds of products, including packaged foods, fast foods, frozen foods, canned foods, and condiments. When you eat sodium, any excess is deposited just beneath your skin, where it attracts water, which is retained in your cells. This makes you look puffy and feel bloated. You don't have to make yourself crazy over sodium — it's in everything, and you do need it to survive. Just be conscious of how much you're getting, and cut back where you can.

Micheals on Carbs

Are You Eating the Right Carbs?

From Jilian Micheals

Humans simply cannot function without carbs. Carbs give us energy; without them, we couldn't think, walk, dance, drive, or do anything. We need them to live. That said, some carb sources — such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans — are healthy and nourishing. Others — such as refined grains and added sugars — are pure evil. It's important to know the difference between good carbs and bad carbs so you can get the nutrients you need while keeping your blood sugar levels stable.

One tool that some dieters use to evaluate the quality of carbs is the glycemic index (GI), which ranks foods according to how quickly their carbohydrates break down and release glucose into your blood. Foods with a low GI value are deemed "good," while those with a high GI value are "bad." The problem with the GI is that it paints only part of the picture; it doesn't take into account the amount of carbs you'd actually eat.

The carrot is a perfect illustration of how the GI can give a good food a bad name. The form of carbohydrate in a carrot turns into blood sugar very quickly, giving carrots a high GI value. But if you step back to get a fuller picture, you see that the total quantity of carbs in a typical serving of carrots is low, so their effect on your blood sugar isn't that dramatic.

A better way to judge a food's carb content is to look at its glycemic load (GL), a measurement that takes into account both its glycemic index value and serving size. My site has a handy chart of the serving sizes and GL values of common foods, and you can also check out the Glycemic Index Web site to find the GI and GL values for just about any food.

Good carbs — the ones that have a GL value of 10 or below — take a long time to digest, creating less of a need for immediate insulin release in the bloodstream and thus helping stabilize your blood sugar level. These foods, which include leafy green vegetables, some types of beans, many whole fruits, and nuts, also contain important vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are essential for good health. These are the kinds of carbs that our bodies are designed to consume. Remember, though, that carbs are just one component of a healthy diet, and that balance is key. My advice is to include some fat, protein, and carbs in each meal.

Squats

The gluteals — your butt muscles — are the largest and strongest muscles in the body. Their function is hip extension, or driving the upper legs backward. I cannot overstate how important it is to make sure these muscles are getting their workout. Activities that engage this muscle group include walking, running, jumping, and climbing. Lunges, leg lifts, and squats are all great for exercising the glutes. Here's the lowdown on some of my favorite squats.

Traditional squat (good if you're a newbie): Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your weight on your heels. Keep your abs tight and your shoulders squarely over your hips. Sit back and down as if you were going to sit on a bench. Keep your back straight. Then stand up, straightening your legs, and repeat.

Sumo squat (good if you're a little more advanced): Place your feet as wide apart as you can and point your toes outward. Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Hold for a beat, then exhale and press back up to the starting position. Repeat. This squat modification places a greater emphasis on the inner and outer thigh muscles.

One-legged squat (good if you're a hard-core exerciser): Stand with your weight balanced on your right leg. Lift your left foot an inch or so off the ground. Keep your head up, and don't lean forward; abs stay tight, and the right heel stays on the ground. Don't let the knee extend over the toe. Slowly lower yourself as far as you can comfortably go. Exhale and stand up straight, still balancing on the right leg. Continue for a full set on the right leg, then switch to the left leg and repeat. This modification requires tremendous balance and allows you to strengthen each leg. 

Squat Right

Don't let good form slip when you're busting your squats. Be mindful of the following:

Keep your eyes focused forward.

Don't lean forward or let your heels come off the ground.

Don't let your knees travel forward over your toes or turn inward as you lower or rise.

Keep your belly button sucked in toward your spine as you stand back up, being careful not to arch your back.

Can You Drink and Lose Weight?

Whether it's cocktails on ladies' night out, a beer at the bar, or a glass of wine with dinner, most of us enjoy a drink (or two!) every now and again. But remember what I've been teaching you: In addition to being aware of the foods that are good for you, you need to know which ones are not so great. And let's face it — alcohol is in the latter camp.

Simply, alcohol can sabotage your weight-loss efforts. It releases estrogen into your bloodstream, promotes fat storage, and decreases muscle growth. As soon as you have a drink, your body eats up all the glycogen (stored glucose) in your liver, makes you hungry, and reduces your inhibitions, so you're more likely to grab that chicken wing or stuffed potato skin at happy hour. Plus, alcoholic drinks contain many more calories than most people think — a 20-ounce serving of beer can pack 250 calories, a 6-ounce glass of wine contains 120, and a 1.5-ounce shot of liquor contains about 100. And that's without any sugary mixers.

If you're serious about losing weight, it's best to put alcohol aside until you're in maintenance mode. If you are going to have a drink, choose wine, which may protect the heart and help lower inflammation, or a drink with clear alcohol and no sugary mixers, such as a vodka and club soda or a Patron on the rocks with lime. One drink a day probably maxes out the benefits, though, so keep a cork in your alcohol consumption.

Water Intake

How Much Water Should I Drink?

Q: How much water should I drink each day? I hear all kinds of answers, including 1 ounce of water for every pound of body weight, and six to eight 8-ounce glasses. Which is right?

A: Water is a vital part of any diet and exercise program — not to mention life in general — because it aids every aspect of bodily function. Water is a huge component of muscle and is important for energy production, so if you want to make the most of your workout, make sure you're well hydrated.

There is no real one-size-fits-all approach to water consumption. As a general rule of thumb, men should consume 128 ounces of water daily, and women should consume 88 ounces, but this doesn't mean you need to drink this amount of water every day. Other beverages, as well as the moisture content of foods, also count toward your water intake. The following factors affect how much water you should consume:

Exercise: If you exercise or engage in any activity that makes you sweat, you need to drink extra water to compensate for that fluid loss. Drink 12 ounces of water two hours before a workout, and another 12 ounces 30 minutes before you begin. While you are exercising, you should drink 4 to 8 ounces every 15 minutes. You should consume an additional 12 ounces within 30 minutes of the end of your workout. During intense exercise involving significant sweating — say, during a marathon — you may need a sports drink rather than plain water, to replace the sodium lost in sweat.

Environment: In hot or humid weather, you need to drink additional water to help lower your body temperature and to replace what you lose through sweating. You also need additional water in cold weather if you sweat while wearing insulated clothing. Heated indoor air can cause your skin to lose moisture, increasing your daily fluid requirement. Additionally, altitudes higher than 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) can affect how much water your body needs — higher altitudes may trigger increased urination and more rapid breathing, which use up more of your fluid reserves.

Beat the Heat

5 Tips for Beating the Heat


Summer is in full swing and the mercury is rising. When you're exercising or playing outdoors, it's important that you take care to keep yourself cool. My fitness plan is tough enough — you don't need to add heatstroke to the equation! Follow these tips to make sure you stay safe in hot or humid weather.

Time it right. The hottest part of the day usually falls between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Do your workout early in the morning or in the evening, when the sun isn't directly overhead and the temperature is a little cooler.

Dress for the weather. Your body cools itself in part by perspiring. You'll help the process if you wear lightweight, somewhat loose-fitting clothing that allows the sweat to evaporate from your skin. Choose lighter colors because they won't absorb as much heat from the sun, and consider a hat or a visor to keep the sun out of your eyes.

Wear sunscreen. The last thing you want is a sunburn — it'll keep your skin from cooling off and sap precious fluids. Choose a sunscreen free of oxybenzone, a chemical that has been linked to hormone disruption. Use Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group's cosmetics database, to see if your sunscreen is safe, and apply it at least 30 minutes before you head outside.

Drink lots of water. Sweating can dehydrate you very quickly, so it's important to keep drinking water. Drink 4 to 8 ounces every 15 minutes while you work out. If you exercise for more than an hour, you may need a sports drink or a snack to replace the salt and other electrolytes you lose as you sweat.

Watch your heart rate. In reaction to heat, your body increases blood flow to your skin in an effort to cool you off. The result is less blood for your muscles and an elevated heart rate. If you're not used to working out in the heat, you might find that you'll reach your target heart rate with less intense exercise than usual. Take it slow at first, and gradually increase your intensity.

Know the Warning Signs


What can happen if you get too dehydrated or exert yourself in the heat too long? Here are some possibilities, from the least to the most severe:

Heat cramps — muscle pain or spasms

Heat exhaustion — a state of elevated body temperature that's a precursor to heatstroke

Heatstroke — a life-threatening condition in which your body temperature rises above 106°F

If you experience muscle cramping, dizziness, fast and shallow breathing, cold and clammy skin, or nausea or vomiting, get out of the heat immediately and get some water. Heat-related illnesses are no joke, so don't take any chances!

HGH

The Hormone You Always Want More Of


Growth hormone (sometimes referred to as HGH, for "human growth hormone") is something we all want more of. It builds muscle, burns fat, helps you resist heart disease, and protects your bones — among many other health benefits. By increasing your muscle mass, growth hormone raises your resting metabolic rate and gives you more power for your workouts. It also helps you tap into your fat stores for fuel and discourages your fat cells from absorbing or holding on to any fat floating around in your bloodstream.

In addition to these amazing feats, growth hormone helps your liver synthesize glucose, and it promotes gluconeogenesis, a really cool process that allows your body to create carbs out of protein. This helps you lose fat faster while providing your brain and other tissues with the energy they need.

As with so many other beneficial hormones, production of growth hormone declines with age, and many things we do speed the decline:

1. We deprive ourselves of good-quality sleep. Growth hormone is released in adults in an average of five pulses throughout the day, the largest of which happens during deep sleep. Shortchange yourself on sleep and you'll shortchange yourself on growth hormone.

2. We eat too many low-quality carbs. Refined carbs, such as those in white bread and white rice, keep our blood sugar and insulin levels high, which suppresses the release of growth hormone. Protein, on the other hand, can facilitate the release of higher levels of growth hormone.

3. We don't exercise enough. When you don't exercise and your muscles become insulin-resistant, you increase your level of circulating insulin, which further suppresses growth hormone. We need to get off our butts and capitalize on this incredibly healthy hormone! One surefire way we can turn our bodies into growth hormone factories is with intense exercise. During intense exercise, and especially during interval training, growth hormone encourages the body to use fat as its fuel instead of glucose. Not only does this help you burn fat while you exercise, but it stabilizes your blood glucose level so that you have the energy to keep exercising.

Enhance Growth Hormone Naturally

You may have heard about HGH injections, but whatever you do, don't get HGH shots just yet. Taking HGH is controversial and risky, and it may even cause insulin resistance. You should try to change the behaviors that reduce your production of growth hormone before you ever consider injections!

Natural Sweetener

Looking for a Natural Sweetener?


If you've been reading this newsletter, you may already know how I feel about synthetic sugar substitutes. To put it mildly, I really, really don't like them because they confuse your body and mess up your metabolism. If you find yourself reaching for one of those blue, pink, or yellow packets to sweeten your coffee or tea, I want you to stop and try a natural alternative rather than putting chemicals into your body.

Sugar, of course, is natural, but its calories add up. Sugar is also murder on your dental health — the more you consume, the higher your risk of cavities. That's why I want you to try crystalline xylitol or stevia as a sugar substitute. Both are produced from natural sources rather than being chemically engineered: Stevia is made from the stevia plant, and xylitol is a sugar alcohol derived from the fibers of many fruits and vegetables. Xylitol does have a few calories, but it has less of an effect on insulin levels than sugar does. I prefer the taste of xylitol to stevia, but they're both good choices.

A possible benefit of xylitol is that it may help prevent cavities. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Washington gave teething babies and toddlers xylitol syrup and found that it prevented tooth decay. It's theorized that xylitol inhibits the growth of bacteria that can cause cavities to form, and for this reason the sweetener is used in many toothpastes and gums. Like other sugar alcohols, xylitol may cause mild gastrointestinal trouble if you consume a lot of it, but I've never had this problem.

If you like your coffee or tea unsweetened, more power to you! But if you need that little kick of sweetness, don't put your hormonal health at risk with artificial crap. Also, if you chew gum or use breath mints, be sure to choose products that contain xylitol or stevia (which may be listed as rebiana) rather than nasty artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

Outdoor Workouts

Burn Those Cardio Calories Outdoors!


Does doing the same cardio routine at the gym make you feel like a hamster on a wheel? If so, why not go outside and get a change of scenery? Exercising outdoors can be a hit-or-miss proposition depending on where you live and the season, but when the weather is decent, there should be nothing stopping you. Take advantage of summertime to enjoy the fresh air! Here are some great alfresco cardio options to get you out of the gym.

Hiking: This is an awesome workout that I happen to love. It allows you to spend time in nature and discover your surroundings. Also, because of irregular terrain, you'll work your core muscles more than you would on a treadmill.

Running: Getting off the treadmill and running outside might help you burn even more calories. Try performing intervals by running or jogging in quarter-mile bursts. You can also work different muscles in your legs by doing intervals in which you run backward.

Swimming: Cool off, tone muscles, and get your cardio in. If you're just beginning to exercise, the pool is a great place to get started. Water provides more resistance than air, so it can make your muscles expend more energy than they would on land. Use a kickboard if you have one: Hold on to the board and use your legs to power you across the pool. Run or walk across the pool, tread water, or hold on to the side of the pool and just do kick drills for as long as you can.

Biking: Why not ride your bike to work instead of driving? You can commute and burn calories (not to mention save gas money)! Biking is an excellent means of exploring and a good calorie burner. It can be a great option if you're dealing with an injury, because it's low impact, causing less strain. But remember, a road bike is a totally different animal from a stationary or recumbent bike, so take it nice and slow at first until you get used to being on the open road.

Don't forget your everyday sports either — basketball, soccer, and the like are fun activities that allow you to get together with friends, get a cardio workout in, and enjoy the great outdoors.

Not Sure Where to Go?

Yes, the machines at the gym make it easy to track your cardio workouts by telling you exactly how far you're "traveling." But it's also a snap to plan outdoor runs and bike rides of whatever distance you want. You can log on to Mapmyrun.com or Mapmyride.com beforehand to find a great route. To get an accurate reading of calories burned, use a heart rate monitor. This goes for outdoor and indoor workouts — the calorie-burn readouts on gym machines are almost never accurate, so you don't want to rely on them.

clean water?

Are You Drinking Clean H20?


Want an easy way to be good to your body? Stay hydrated by guzzling down more water throughout the day. Water has zero calories, so it doesn't add to your waistline. Plus, it aids in just about every bodily function, including fat burning and energy production.

Unfortunately, the water that comes out of your tap may not be free of flaws. Water authorities do not yet regulate many endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and conventional water-treatment methods weren't designed to remove them. Studies have found trace amounts of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other substances in municipal water supplies.

Don't be worried thirsty, though. You can get clean water by using water filters religiously. First, go to EPA's Web site to learn about your local water quality and the substances you're dealing with. Then, consider the following three types of filters. Each has its pros and cons, but combining two kinds of filters should get good results.

Reverse-osmosis unit: Using a semipermeable membrane (which allows some molecules to pass through but not others), this type of filter removes particles and molecules of dissolved contaminants. Reverse osmosis can remove heavy metals, bacteria, and viruses, and it may remove some pharmaceuticals. However, it isn't effective for removing pesticides.

Distillation unit: This type of filtration system brings water to a boil, then collects the steam and condenses it back into water, leaving impurities (which need higher temperatures to boil) behind. Distillers can remove heavy metals, bacteria, and viruses, but they can't remove pesticides or pharmaceuticals.

Activated carbon filter: This type is the easiest to find and use. It's available in faucet-mounted models, under-the-sink units, and pitchers. Water flows through a carbon filter that attracts and traps many impurities. The types of contaminants filtered vary by brand, but all activated carbon filters remove chlorine, improve taste, and reduce sediment. Most remove heavy metals and disinfection by-products, and some remove parasites, pesticides, radon, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Bottled Water Isn't the Answer

The fewer plastics in your life the better, I say. However, I know you can't lug around water filters all day. Instead, when you're away from home, carry along a stainless-steel or ceramic-lined drinking bottle filled with filtered water. Avoid hard-plastic drinking bottles; many of these are made of polycarbonate, a type of plastic that contains an endocrine disruptor called bisphenol-A (or BPA). Also, don't be duped into buying "organic" water either — when it comes to water, that term doesn't mean anything!

Veggies

How to Get the Most Nutrition From Your Veggies


I have some good news and some bad news about vegetables. The good news: They're packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and other good-for-you, cancer-preventing nutrients. The bad news: By the time those veggies hit your plate, a substantial amount of those nutrients can be lost. Vitamins are sensitive to heat and air exposure, and some are water-soluble, meaning water will absorb them and carry them away. As a result, some cooking methods are better at preserving nutrients than others. To get the biggest bang for your vegetable buck, try these tips:

Put your microwave to good use. Microwaving helps to retain a vegetable's nutrients because it exposes it to very little water. Wash and chop your vegetables, then put them into a glass or ceramic microwave-safe dish with a lid. (Don't use plastic containers, which can leach chemicals into your food when heated.) Add a few tablespoons of water to the dish and place the lid over it, leaving it slightly ajar. Microwave until the vegetables are tender but still crisp — for roughly four to ten minutes, depending on the vegetable and the strength of your microwave. (Tougher, more fibrous vegetables will take longer to cook.) Check them periodically so you don't overcook them.

Learn to blanch. Blanching is a method of boiling cut vegetables for a very short period of time — two minutes, tops — and then plunging them into cold water to stop the cooking process. You may lose more nutrients with blanching than with microwaving, but far less than you would with boiling. This is a great option for people who don't like raw veggies because it makes the vegetable slightly more tender and removes some of the raw taste. Try blanching some asparagus or broccoli and then tossing it into a salad.


Buy Fresh, Buy Organic

Vegetables start losing their nutrients from the moment they're harvested, so you want to buy the freshest produce available. Your best bet is your local farmers' market, where it's likely that your produce was picked that very morning (as opposed to trucked across the country for days and days). Buying organic helps too. Organic produce is more nutritious than conventional because organic farming methods don't deplete nutrients from the soil.