Water Filters

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!

Refined

Refined Is Not Fine!
"Enriched" sounds like it would be a good thing, right? Well, when it comes to grains, it's not.
Enriching a grain is an attempt to replace some of the nutrients taken out during refining. Refining grains extends their shelf life, but the bran and germ of the grain are removed during the process — and with them, almost all the fiber, vitamins, and minerals found in a whole-grain kernel. The B vitamins — thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid — and the iron that are removed during processing have to be restored to make the product "enriched." Sugars, salt, fats, and chemicals are also added to the finished product (but the heart-healthy fiber that was stripped out is gone forever).
Refined-grain products include white pasta, flour tortillas, white rice, and white bread. Nutritionally, they are mere shadows of healthful whole grains. You can think of refined grains as "fast carbs" — since there's practically no fiber to slow down their absorption, they cause your blood sugar to skyrocket, which leads to a spike in insulin levels. Over time, those repeated spikes can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. In fact, people who eat three servings of whole grains a day have a 30 percent lower risk of diabetes than people who never eat whole grains.
When you're shopping for whole grains, be a savvy consumer. Products that say "whole grain" can still have refined grains in them. In fact, they are only required to be 51 percent whole grain. So that's more like "half grain" — don't buy into it. What to look for? If you see "enriched" as the first word on the ingredient list, put the product back on the shelf. Only if "100 percent whole ___" is the first thing on the list, do you know exactly what you're getting.

Plateaus

Busting Plateaus

There is nothing more discouraging than stepping on the scale after a week of diligent dieting and grueling workouts and not seeing any drop in the number. The plateau is a common problem among dieters and can typically be waited out, but there are measures you can take to keep your metabolism fired up even as you reduce your caloric intake.
The best way to break a plateau is to keep your salt intake below 2,000 milligrams a day and drink lots of water. Make sure you're not eating any processed carbs, period. That's right — no chips, sugar, white flour, and so on. And hit the gym hard! The boost in exercise will make your body swell and hold fluids for a few days, but after a week you should see the benefits on the scale.
You can also try playing around with your caloric intake a bit, varying it from day to day throughout the week while keeping the same weekly total. The body can't slow its metabolism to adjust to a reduced caloric intake if the intake isn't fixed from one day to the next. For instance, to bust my plateau, I might have 1,200 calories on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then eat 1,500 calories on Tuesday, 1,600 on Thursday, 1,400 on Saturday, and 1,700 on Sunday. Get it?
The plateau effect can sometimes simply be a matter of declining resolve. If mixing up your caloric intake just isn't working, make sure you're not slipping up on your diet or slacking off in your workouts. I'm serious; it happens.
As with any program, there will be highs and lows, but stay with it. Your body is trying to adjust to the weight loss. Don't get scared or discouraged. Just be patient and know that you are worth it!

Water Weight

When you start a new diet or exercise program, you'll lose a significant amount of water weight at first, and it's likely that in the first month you will lose more weight than you would ordinarily expect because of the caloric deficits you build up from week to week. By the second month, your system will begin to even itself out, and weight loss will continue at whatever rate is compatible with your caloric intake/deficit ratio. Two pounds a week is a reasonable weight-loss goal.

Sugar

Hidden Sources of Sugar
Let's get something straight — I want you to stay far, far away from high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Seriously, this stuff really puts the "junk" in junk food! It's the most abundant source of calories in a lot of foods out there and it's terrible for you because it boosts your fat-storing hormones. Look at your labels and you'll find HFCS in so many foods that line the shelves in our grocery stores. But just because high-fructose corn syrup is evil doesn't necessarily mean halos are hovering over other sugars. There's more sweet stuff out there that you need to avoid!
We still have far too much of the noncorn variety of sugar in our diets, and it's definitely not doing anything good for our health or our waistlines. The average American eats more than 30 teaspoons of sugar a day — that's more than 114 pounds of sugar a year!
While sugar is everywhere, you must do your best to eat it in extreme moderation. The World Health Organization recommends no more than 12 to 15 teaspoons a day, or 48 to 60 grams. I prefer that you keep the amount as low as possible. Check your food labels — anything with "sugar" should obviously be avoided. However, sugar has many aliases. I'll give you a hint: Anything that ends in "-ose" is a sugar. See what I mean in the list below, and beware of these sweeteners in the foods you eat!
Dextrose
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrates
Galactose
Glucose
Honey
Invert corn syrup
Lactose
Malt
Maltose
Malt syrup
Maple syrup
Molasses
Rice syrup
Sucrose

Sugar in Fruit

Want to avoid wild blood sugar spikes? Eat whole fruits instead of fruit juices. Not only will they help your blood sugar stay in check, you'll also get beneficial fiber from the whole fruits as well. Just be aware that some fruits are high in sugar — even though they're nutritious and relatively low in calories. Some of the highest-sugar fruits are mangoes, pineapples, and bananas. I'm not saying to avoid these. (Trust me, you'd have to eat more fruit than you can imagine for it to be deemed unhealthy.) However, if you've been diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes, it's time to limit your intake. If you want to eat fruits with less sugar, go for berries, tomatoes, and oranges.