Physician Assisted Weight Loss

Sabotage

2012-03-13T08:35:00.002-04:00

Identifying and Addressing Saboteurs
You've identified your weight-loss goals. You've declared them to others. You've talked the talk, and now you're walking the walk by exercising regularly and making healthy changes to your diet. Your efforts are starting to pay off — you've lost some pounds, feel energized, and are committed to staying the course.
Why then, does your loved one not seem as excited about your self-improvement as you? Maybe he or she is always trying to persuade you to skip a workout or always suggests pizza when it's his or her turn to cook. Is your partner subtly sabotaging you on your journey to total health?
If you feel this might be the case, ask yourself why. It doesn't mean that the person doesn't care about you. It could be that he or she is feeling insecure and threatened at the prospect of your transformation for the better. Your partner might be worried that if you lose weight and get healthy, you'll leave and find someone better. More likely than not, this person has no idea that he or she is undermining your resolve. Sit down together and assure him or her of your love and then talk about what's going on. Give examples of behavior he or she's exhibited that has sabotaged you in the past. Keep reassuring this person of his or her value and importance in your life.

Insulin

2012-03-07T09:18:00.002-05:00

How Insulin Plays A Critical Role

One of the endocrine system's most important hormones is insulin, which plays a critical role in how your body uses food. When you eat, your digestive system breaks food down into glucose, and the glucose circulates in your bloodstream (where it's often referred to as blood sugar). In response to the rise in glucose after a meal, the pancreas releases surges of insulin, whose job is to clean the glucose from the blood. Insulin directs some of the glucose to the body's cells, which use it for energy. Some of the glucose is diverted to the liver, where it's converted into glycogen (stored glucose) for later use by the muscles. Insulin then helps turn any leftover glucose into fatty acids and stores them in fat cells, where they can be tapped later for fuel.
Problems arise when your body starts creating too much insulin, which can happen for several reasons. One of the most common is that you ate too many highly processed, refined carbs, such as white bread or pasta. Such carbs increase blood sugar dramatically, requiring a rush of insulin to clear the blood. If your blood sugar surge is really dramatic (as it would be if you ate those refined carbs on an empty stomach), insulin overreacts and works twice as hard to clean the sugar from the blood. This overefficient removal of sugar means that your blood sugar concentration drops, with the result that you feel hungry again and crave (and probably eat) more carbs. That's the postsugar "crash and binge" cycle, the root of sugar addiction. In addition, when your muscles are still fueled from your last snack, the insulin converts those extra calories into fat. And as long as large amounts of insulin remain in the bloodstream, your body won't have a chance to tap into your fat stores for fuel — so you won't burn any fat, either.
This cycle can eventually lead to insulin resistance, a condition in which your body produces insulin but the cells become insensitive to it — as a result, the insulin can't do its job to lower the glucose concentration in the blood. Insulin resistance is a precursor of type 2 diabetes and is common among overweight people. Elevated levels of glucose in your blood is a surefire sign of it.
There is hope for preventing the problem. The key is to maintain low levels of insulin by eating whole foods, pairing carbs with protein, and avoiding highly processed carbs. When your insulin-release mechanism works the right way, it helps keep your weight in check. When it's not working, you're in trouble. If you can take control of your insulin's ups and downs, you'll be primed to lose weight and restore your body's hormone power!

Muscle Helps, Too!

Every pound of muscle burns three times more calories than does a pound of fat. Muscles scoop up blood sugar and enhance your body's insulin sensitivity — the more muscle you have, the more cells are available to absorb glucose, and you won't have to produce as much insulin after meals. Your muscle cells will be more efficient at using glucose for fuel, so your body won't have to store as much food as fat.

Intense Exercise

2012-02-29T07:47:00.000-05:00

Intense Exercise and Your Growth Hormone

After you work out, do you have the feeling that you can do anything? Well, you're not alone. That "runner's high" (which is actually triggered by any form of exercise, not just running) comes about because exercise floods your body with endorphins. These helpful biochemicals lift your mood and stimulate the release of another important hormone that affects your metabolism: human growth hormone (sometimes called HGH). This hormone is something we all want, and lots of it. It builds muscle, burns fat, helps you resist heart disease, protects your bones, and increases your overall health. To be clear, I'm NOT talking about the HGH that you've probably heard about in the news, in reference to doped-up athletes — that's the injected kind and it's definitely something you do NOT want. I'm talking about the natural kind that your body produces with exercise.

The key to turning your body into a growth hormone factory is to exercise at a high intensity level. During intense exercise, growth hormone spurs the body to use fat as fuel instead of glucose. So you burn more fat as you exercise, and you're keeping your blood glucose levels stable, which gives you more energy to keep going. On the other hand, lack of exercise makes your muscles insulin-resistant and suppresses growth hormone. So make sure you are getting that high-quality, intense exercise to work up those growth hormone levels — it's the healthiest way to reverse aging and make yourself stronger.

Get Your Zs!

Of all the less-than-smart things we do to mess up our hormone balance, depriving ourselves of good-quality sleep is probably the dumbest. Growth hormone is released in adults in an average of five pulses throughout each day. The largest of these pulses happens during our deepest stage of sleep, stage 4. A University of Chicago study found that when people are deprived of this stage of sleep, their daily growth hormone levels fell 23 percent.

Fear Of Change

2012-02-24T08:21:00.002-05:00

Fear of Change

Fear of change can keep you in a soul-crushing job, a bad relationship, or a physically destructive lifestyle. Ask yourself: Is the devil-you-know approach really good enough for you? Is your life making you happy? If you answered no to either of those questions, WHAT do you have to lose by embracing change?

The truth is, things should be changing — your body is changing, your habits are changing, your attitude is changing. This might be the point where, because of so much change, you're starting to freak out a little bit. You might be asking yourself, What will all this change mean — to my life's direction, my relationships, my identity?

I can't stress enough how important it is to resist any pressure you may be feeling from others to stop improving your habits or to remain a certain size. And don't worry if your spouse, family members, or friends aren't on board with your plans. You can't control them. They'll change if and when they want to change. Take care of yourself first.

Maybe you're afraid you won't know how to love yourself if you're not a certain size. Many people are buried in their weight, not knowing who they would be without it. This is especially a risk if you've never identified yourself as "skinny." Don't be afraid of what you'll be like when you're thinner. Feel the fear and do it anyway! And don't sabotage your efforts because you don't deem yourself worthy — you are SO deserving of achieving your weight-loss goal! Let's dig deep, get our hands dirty, and do this. What is there to be afraid of when you're healthy — besides living the life you're supposed to lead? When you're overweight and uncomfortable, there is so much less you can do, and you always live with the threat of having a stroke, developing type 2 diabetes, or getting cancer. Obviously, a lot more risks are involved if you give up and stay stuck instead of making changes.

The only thing that's holding you back from achieving your dreams is YOU. Believe in yourself, and stop letting your excuses keep you from living. Screw surviving — it's time to thrive!

Sticking With the Status Quo

Here's a really common manifestation of the fear of change, one I hear about all the time: You're afraid your partner won't love you if your size changes. And your partner is fearful that if you change, you might outgrow the relationship and leave. As a result, you or your partner — or you and your partner — might be trying to sabotage your weight loss so you can stick with the status quo. That's the wrong way to go, buddy. You are trying to change your life, but that doesn't mean your partner shouldn't or won't love you for doing just that.

Turning a Problem Into An Opportunity

2012-02-22T08:39:00.000-05:00

How To Turn A Problem Into An Opportunity

Sure, it's tough to pinpoint the root of your problems. However, if you've been examining your emotional eating habits, you should be seeing some behavioral shifts. Are you checking to see if you're actually hungry versus just looking to feed your emotions? Do you have go-to non-food outlets to help you express your emotions? Whether it's grabbing your journal and getting your feelings out on paper or getting together with a friend for a hike or manicure and some feel-good bonding, you CAN make sure you get on (and stay on!) a healthy path.

There's one final aspect of emotional eating you need to address — what to do when you can't resolve an issue or a situation at the exact moment when it is triggering you to behave self-destructively. Certain obstacles can sometimes seem insurmountable, and the next time you encounter one, I want you to ask yourself the following question:

How can I turn this problem into an opportunity?

Instead of allowing this event or emotion to cause permanent damage to your self-esteem, try looking at it in a different light. If you've recently gone through a breakup, for example, realize that the end of one relationship simply means that you are free to find someone better for you. Allow yourself to feel sad, but try to stay positive and find meaning in the pain rather than numbing it with food and indulging in other destructive habits. You will grow from it in amazing ways, I promise.

Stick With It

Having the means to cope with emotional eating is a huge step toward ending this form of self-sabotage. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but you can use the insights and self-knowledge you've gained through these exercises to make real changes. You will be amazed at how simple it can be to break out of the negativity and self-doubt. The more you focus on understanding the situations and emotions that trigger this destructive habit, the easier it will be to eliminate emotional eating from your life.

Dining Out Tips

2012-02-20T16:53:00.000-05:00

Dining Out Tips

Going out for dinner and want to stick to your healthy eating plan? It's not as hard as you think. If you want to stick to your diet when dining out, get comfortable with asking your server to help you meet your needs. There are several ways to modify dishes when eating out. Here are my top three dining-out tactics:

Educate yourself. Don't be afraid to ask your server lots of questions about the restaurant's food so that you can make healthy choices. Ask what's used in the preparation, how large the portion is, what comes on the side — these are all things you want to know now that you are eating right.

Make substitutions. I'm always ordering chicken fajitas, but instead of the Mexican rice and refried beans, I ask for a salad on the side. Ask for grilled vegetables instead of a baked potato or french fries, sliced tomatoes instead of hash browns. You get the idea — this stuff will take a little extra thought at first, but in no time it will become second nature.

Make modifications. If you have scoured the menu and there are no healthy options, you can usually create your own by requesting a few modifications to the preparation of your food. Ask if you can have your fish grilled instead of breaded; ask if you can have Dijon mustard sauce on the chicken instead of cream sauce; request salad dressing on the side; ask for the chef to use just a small amount of olive oil.

Bon appetite!
No Shame!

Don't be embarrassed or afraid to stick to your diet when eating out, even if it means bringing your own condiments along so that you are never stuck with what's available. Let go of the guilt you've been conditioned to feel if you leave food on your plate. Stop eating if you are full. And, since restaurant portions are often twice what they should be, ask the server to bring a to-go container along with your dish, so you can immediately remove half your entrée from the plate

Sleep

2012-02-16T08:49:00.000-05:00

Are You Getting Too Much Sleep?

Are you one of those people who likes to brag that you get by on very little sleep? Or do you love to sleep the day away? I've told you before that too little sleep can mess up your weigh-loss efforts, but did you also know that sleeping too much can also negatively affect your metabolism as well?

If you sleep 10 hours a night, you might face some of the same hormonal risks as those who sleep too little. A recent Canadian study found that people who sleep fewer than seven hours or more than nine hours weigh an average of four more pounds (and had wider waists) than people who sleep eight hours every night. Researchers believe that having too much or too little sleep interferes with your ability to control your appetite, because it simultaneously increases the hunger hormone, ghrelin, while it decreases the satisfaction hormone, leptin.

Want to be sure you are getting all the benefits of a good night sleep? Get your rest! Shoot for a consistent eight hours of sleep and stick with the same bed time and wake-up time each day — even on the weekends!

Perhaps one of the biggest causes and symptoms of the hormonal shutdown from stress is when people start to cut into their hours of quality sleep. The percentage of young adults sleeping eight to nine hours per night has almost been cut in half in the past 50 years, from 40 percent in 1960 to 23 percent in 2002. During the same time period, the incidence of obesity has nearly doubled. Coincidence?

Emotional Eating

2012-02-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

Nice Piece by Jilian Micheals

Q: I'm an emotional eater. I know I crave food when I'm feeling insecure or down, but I don't know how to say no to the cravings when I'm feeling that low. Do you have any strategies for beating emotional cravings?

I get this question ALL the time. Okay, it doesn't take a genius to know you need to eat less and move more to lose weight, so why do so many of us continue to struggle with our weight year after year? It has everything to do with how we feel when we eat, and why we choose to eat what and when we do. It's important that we understand how our emotions and behaviors affect our weight and eating habits so we can then learn how to motivate ourselves toward positive change.
I dedicated pages and pages to this subject in my first book, and it would be hard to address all the how's and why's here. But there are many techniques for combating 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 emotionally 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. Throw out the leftover birthday cake in the fridge. Skip 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 or 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. Join a weight-loss group. Go to an OA 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 is 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'll be far less likely to turn to food when you're feeling good.
Write it down. Start a journal — and not just to write down what you eat. Take an inventory of what you're feeling, and write it down. It'll help you see what's really bothering you, which allows 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 it was a fight with a friend, take a few deep breaths and try communicating with her, or simply give each other 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. Focus on really changing those habits and you'll break the cycle.

Slow Metabolism?

2012-02-07T11:15:00.002-05:00

The Truth About Your Slow Metabolism

You probably know someone who can eat everything in sight, but still struggles to keep weight on. I don't know about you, but I can't do that. My metabolism certainly doesn't allow it — and I am guessing yours doesn't either. So where does a slowpoke metabolism come from and how do you change it? You probably want to blame bad genes for your metabolism. Sure, blame your parents! That's the easy way out. Genes are only a piece of the picture — it's the choices you make every day that are to blame. Wise up and take the responsibility yourself!

When we starve ourselves on yo-yo diets, eat processed foods, surround ourselves with toxins, work beyond the point of exhaustion, all these choices influence the way our metabolism processes food, burns calories, and regulates weight. To learn how to manipulate our biochemistry to our benefit, we have to understand how our hormones have already been manipulated to our detriment. Here are some of the ways.

Too many lazy years: You've spent a lot of time on the couch. Don't blame your lagging metabolism just because you never exercised.

Too many yo-yo diets: Instead of maintaining a stable weight, you've developed a frustrating up-and-down weight-loss pattern. You know the drill: You've repeatedly gone on extreme diets and lost weight, then you've slipped back into your old ways of eating and regained that weight.

Too many of the same foods, all processed: You've consumed frankenfoods that your body doesn't recognize as real food — because they're not!

Too many pesticides in our food: Some farmers spray harmful pesticides on our food, and you've chosen those over organic foods.

Too many toxins in our environment: More than 100,000 synthetic chemicals have been registered for commercial use — with 2,000 more added each year — but very few of them have been tested adequately for toxicity. You've been exposed to many synthetic chemicals in products in and around your home.

Too many bad bugs — and not enough good ones: You've tried to rid yourselves of pests with an onslaught of antibacterial products, which is pointless and not beneficial for the healthy functioning of your immune system.

Too many hours at work — and not enough in bed: You've let yourself get stressed out. Stress is like kryptonite for your hormones — even just a bit of it can throw them entirely out of whack.

Too many pharmaceuticals — even in our water: You've taken prescriptions dashed off by your doctor and haven't always checked out how they might interact with certain herbs, vitamins, or other supplements or prescriptions. All these pharmaceuticals could have a serious impact on your hormonal health.

Too many cigarettes: You've ignored all the medical findings on the damage smoking can cause. Smoking negatively impacts endocrine glands, which produce hormones, in addition to pretty much every cell in your body.

Basically too much, period! Yes, there is no denying that we are struggling with an environment that conspires to make and keep us fat. But you have the power to do something about it! You need to realize that your metabolism and hormones can start working for you again — just clean up your act with a healthy home and healthy eating, and you'll be able to tip the balance toward staying naturally skinny.

Triggers

2012-02-03T12:53:00.002-05:00

Let Go of the Trigger

Okay, go grab a notebook or use your online journal. It's time to start getting real about your emotional eating. Sure, it can be a vicious cycle if you allow it to progress, but I'm going to show you a quick little trick to help you understand your behaviors and break the destructive pattern. Let's go.

Below are two questions. For a week, before you eat anything, whether it's dinner or a small snack, I want you to answer these two questions in your journal. Sound easy? Well, you might be surprised. By doing this, you'll be able to quickly tell if you've got real hunger or if your emotions are what's causing you to reach for a bunch of junk you know you don't need — or even really want.

1. Are you hungry?

Are you experiencing any physiological conditions that are signaling to you that you are hungry? Is your stomach growling? Do you feel weak or tired? Has it been longer than three or four hours since you last ate? If you concentrate on answering these questions, it will be very easy to determine whether you are genuinely, physically hungry or whether you are eating for a different reason. If you've determined that you are hungry, then it's time to eat. If not, it's time for the next question.

2. Are you depressed or anxious?

Did you just get into a fight? Are you anxious about a work-related deadline? Whatever it might be, write down what you're feeling and why you think you're feeling it. Getting in touch with your emotions here is critical. If you can't, you're going to have an incredibly difficult time reaching your weight loss goals. Dig deep, and get it in writing.

No Explanation Necessary

Here's the problem with keeping a paper journal: In order for it to work, you need to carry it with you everywhere. Unless you're a reporter or a novelist, your friends might be wondering why you're scribbling away in a restaurant or at a birthday party. If you don't feel comfortable offering an explanation, don't. You are doing this for yourself and no one else. Do what you need to do to write, even if it means excusing yourself and going into a more private room, the hallway, your car, or even a bathroom.

Fine Print

2012-01-29T17:55:00.002-05:00

Read the Fine Print on Labels

Ever been told to "read the fine print" before signing a contract? It's a warning to check for loop holes and problematic terms before committing to something, right?

Well, it's a crummy fact of life but many things don't come as advertised. Packaged foods are no exception. Many items that are billed as healthy on the front label, reveal another story when you check out the ingredients on the back.

Don't be fooled by advertising. Avoid bad choices and be on the alert for these common food label traps:

Fat Free: Fat-free foods can be higher in carbs than their regular counterparts and may have almost as many calories. Fat-free cookies are a perfect example. Fat-free is not necessarily a better choice. Read your labels carefully.

Serving Size: If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. You cannot use half a bottle of butter spray and still think you're getting zero calories and zero grams of fat! It's true that per serving it's just that, but spray your entire bowl of popcorn and you've got way more calories and fat than you intended.

Trans fats: While you're being smart looking at the packaging that says "trans fat-free," check the ingredient list to see if it contains partially hydrogenated oil. You may think your meal is in the clear because of the outside packaging, and while it's technically true if you only eat one-serving, you'd be eating the nasty trans fat too if you're going for more than one serving — something you're supposed to avoid at all costs!

Be cautious and keep yourself informed!

rball

2012-01-26T09:16:00.000-05:00

Rick Rogers has lost 50 pounds. We played raquetball last night for exercise - great calorie burner. We are always trying to recruit new players - anyone interested?

Portion Sizes

2012-01-25T15:46:00.000-05:00

Make the Portion and Calorie Cut

Americans have completely skewed ideas about portion size. No other country on earth offers portions as enormous as the ones here. Honestly, go anywhere else in the world and order a meal. You'll see the difference.

We're conditioned to believe that more equals better. Just look at the endless marketing of fast food; we're constantly encouraged to eat more in order to take advantage of a "bargain." But what kind of a bargain are you getting if you're eating 100 french fries in one sitting just to save a quarter you wouldn't have spent in the first place? And the reality is that Americans are paying for this illogical thinking with their health and their lives.

Here are a few techniques you can use to keep your portions under control.

If you're at home, use smaller plates. This creates the illusion of eating a bigger serving.

If you're at a restaurant and you know the portions are going to be huge, ask the server to put half your meal in a doggie bag before it even hits the table. This saves you money as well as unnecessary calorie overload.

Share an entrée with your dining partner.

Make a new rule for yourself: Always leave something on your plate. This reminds you that you are in control of the food, not the other way around. A little bit of empowerment can go a long way!

Emotional Eating

2012-01-24T08:49:00.002-05:00

Emotional Triggers Behind Eating

You just got into a knockdown-dragout fight with your spouse. Or your kid. Or your mom. Or the guy behind you in the checkout line. Your reaction is to head for the kitchen to soothe yourself with something smooth, fattening, creamy, sugary, salty, or crunchy — pick your poison.

Sound familiar? If so, you're an emotional eater. But you've probably figured that out already. You've probably also figured out that unhealthy overeating leads not only to weight gain but to a destructive pattern of anxiety and self-loathing that's tough to break on your own. Want to break the cycle? I'm here to help.

You've got to start by facing the fact that there will never be a totally stress-free time in your life. There. That's as bad as it gets. Now on to the good news: You can stop emotional eating. The key is to identify the things that make you feel pressured, sad, angry, or anxious. Once you understand your triggers, you can break the cycle and start regaining control of when, why, and how you eat.

The best way to identify your emotional triggers is through self-examination. Face your issues. Bring them out of your subconscious and into your conscious reality. This is the most empowering thing you can do for yourself.

Let Go!

To change the present, you have to let go of your past. Forget about the times when you binged because you were upset, hurt, angry, or depressed. The past does not define you; the present does. Having a crystal clear vision of the future affects your behavior now. Let your daily actions be governed by your game plan for a new you. Keep that game plan in the forefront of your mind by writing about it and letting it become real. There's no deadline. Just commit to the process and take it day by day.

Writing

2012-01-23T12:18:00.000-05:00

Write Away!

Don't panic over what I'm about to tell you: You have some writing homework. Now, I'm not sending you back to fifth grade with this one, but I do want you to get comfortable putting your thoughts and emotions on paper. You may be skeptical about this, but journaling on a regular basis will play a key role in helping you meet your weight-loss goals.

Let me explain. Your journal is a place for you to write everything down, to see it in front of you, and to work through your problems and toward your goals. Without a journal, it's too easy to avoid your hang-ups and stay in neutral.

Writing about your goals will also help you think them through: Do you want to be healthy, confident, physically and mentally strong? Are there clothes you want to wear that you can't now? Do you want to see and feel yourself in your ultimate body, living a new life, playing with your kids, going on a date, getting compliments from friends or coworkers? Whatever your ultimate goals, physical and emotional, write them down in as much detail as you can, and refer back to them often. They will help you stay motivated on your journey.

If you have easy access to your computer every day, take advantage of an online Fitness Diary — commit for one week to recording an entry a day in your diary. It's easy — do it when you log in to get your daily workout, or use it to organize your thoughts before you hop on the Boards. And it's a great place to record what's going on with you where food is concerned, too!

Plain Paper?

For those times that your aren't in front of you computer, choose anything from a simple lined notebook or a leather-bound blank diary. Besides writing down how you feel, you can include photos of yourself to chart your progress, pictures of clothes you'd like to wear, new recipes you'd like to try, and more. The sky's the limit! The most important thing is to find a journal that suits you.

Calming Hunger

2011-12-29T13:23:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-30T09:11:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-27T17:32:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-24T08:42:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-15T09:53:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-07T12:35:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-03T10:25:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-19T17:06:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-10T12:37:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-06T08:38:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-05T15:31:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-29T08:45:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-28T08:44:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-26T12:42:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-22T10:40:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-20T09:57:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-15T08:33:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-13T08:41:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-11T08:40:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-05T21:08:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-03T13:19:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-26T13:23:00.002-04:00

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

2011-08-24T08:41:00.002-04:00

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

2011-08-23T12:39:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-22T12:37:00.000-04:00

Fill Up on Fiber

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?

2011-08-17T11:23:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-16T09:45:00.002-04:00

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

2011-08-12T12:03:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-10T09:40:00.002-04:00

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?

2011-08-07T21:19:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-04T09:02:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-02T06:55:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-28T08:41:00.002-04:00

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?

2011-07-26T09:41:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-25T12:25:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-21T12:27:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-19T11:09:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-17T10:42:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-14T09:11:00.000-04:00

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?

2011-07-13T08:41:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-11T12:07:00.000-04:00

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.

Exercise

2011-07-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

Exercise: Good for the Body, Good for the Mind

It may come as a surprise to you that I don't love to exercise. Sometimes I actually hate it. But I do it anyway, because the rewards far outweigh whatever discomfort I feel during a workout. Regular exercise leads to better health, more energy, a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes, and a longer life. But it isn't just the physical benefits of exercise that push me — it's what it does for my mental health.

The mental-health benefits start right after you exercise. Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you complete a workout? That you feel relaxed, or even euphoric? That mood lift, often called "runner's high," comes courtesy of natural morphine-like chemicals called endorphins. Exercise floods the brain with endorphins, which help to relieve pain, enhance your mood, and relieve stress.

But the feel-good effects don't stop after the endorphin rush subsides. Over time, exercise provides a major boost to your confidence. As you start working out and getting stronger, your sense of strength in other aspects of your life will naturally flourish as well. To put it another way, if you can survive my workouts, you can do anything — and when you feel that sense of empowerment, nothing will be able to stand between you and the life you want to live.

A Natural Antidepressant

Not convinced that those dead lifts can lift your mood? Check this out: A growing body of research suggests that exercise can relieve symptoms of depression, including sadness, irritability, stress, fatigue, anger, self-doubt, and hopelessness. It's unclear exactly why, but researchers think that exercise's effect on endorphins and other mood-lifting neurotransmitters may be at play. Exercise also lowers your levels of the stress hormone cortisol and helps you to sleep better. Okay, I think that's enough reasons to work out — now get to the gym and start feeling better!

How Much Exercise?

2011-07-07T08:22:00.002-04:00

How Much to Exercise Each Day

You may have heard the U.S. Surgeon General's recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week (and that breaks down to just 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week). What's important to understand is that this is intended for people who want to maintain the most basic level of fitness — but not for people who want to lose weight. But if you want to drop those pounds, you're going to have to be prepared for a bit more work.

I much prefer the World Health Organization's recommendation of 60 minutes at a time as a starting point for my clients — an hour is ideal to get the most out of your workout and see significant results. Your 60-minute workout sessions should always include a 5-minute warm-up, followed by 50 minutes of your primary cardio or strength-training exercises, followed by at least 5 minutes of cooling down and stretching.

Of course, putting in more time will get you more results — but there's a limit. Excessive intense physical activity releases stress hormones, such as cortisol, into the body. This can actually inhibit weight loss, causing your body to react by storing fat and retaining water out of self-protection. So, to reach your goal, I recommend limiting intense exercise to no more than two hours a session.

Interval Cardio

One of the most effective aspects of my program is the mix of resistance exercises with cardio bursts. Cardio intervals will keep your heart rate up while you use weights, which enables you to get results in a shorter amount of time. Butt kicks are a typical interval cardio move: Stand with your feet hip-width apart and jog in place, bringing your heels up to your buttocks as you lift your feet. Keep your pace as fast as possible and really try to kick yourself in the butt.

Healthy Lifestyle Prevents Sudden Death

2011-07-06T09:11:00.000-04:00

Healthy Lifestyle Makes Women Less Likely to Die Suddenly

By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: July 05, 2011

Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Video Source: JAMA

Women who adhered to a healthy lifestyle had as much as a 90% reduction in the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) as compared with those with a high-risk profile, data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) showed.

Compared with women with none of the low-risk attributes, the risk of SCD declined linearly as the number of these attributes increased, ranging from a 46% reduction for a woman who had one to 92% for those who had all four.

About 80% of attributable risk for SCD was associated with the four lifestyle factors included in the analysis: smoking, overweight, inactivity, and poor diet, according to an article in the July 6 issue of JAMA.

Action Points

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■Explain that adherence to a healthier lifestyle was significantly associated with a lower risk of sudden cardiac death in an analysis from the Nurses' Health Study.

■Note that the low-risk lifestyle factors included no smoking, BMI <25, daily physical activity of at least 30 minutes, and consumption of a Mediterranean-type diet.

"In this cohort of female nurses, adherence to an overall healthy lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of SCD and may be an effective strategy for the prevention of SCD," Stephanie E. Chiuve, ScD, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and co-authors wrote in conclusion.

"Because SCD accounts for more than 50% of CHD mortality, widespread adoption of a healthy lifestyle in the population may make a substantial impact on reaching the American Heart Association's 2020 Impact Goal of further lowering cardiovascular disease mortality."

While most episodes of SCD occur in people who have underlying coronary heart disease (CHD), SCD is the first manifestation of CHD in the majority of people, especially women, the authors wrote in their introduction.

Primary prevention of SCD has focused on use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction, but only a minority of SCD events occur in this high-risk group. Prevention strategies are needed to reduce SCD incidence in lower-risk populations, the authors continued.

Because several modifiable lifestyle factors are associated with SCD, Chiuve and colleagues examined the individual and cumulative impact of these factors on SCD risk in the NHS.

The analysis included 81,722 women ages 30 to 55 at enrollment and followed from June 1984 to June 2010. NHS participants completed lifestyle questionnaires every two to four years, beginning in 1984.

Investigators defined a low-risk lifestyle as no smoking, BMI <25, at least 30 minutes of exercise daily, and top 40% of the alternate Mediterranean diet score. The diet emphasizes consumption of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and fish, and moderate alcohol consumption.

The authors found that 321 SCD events occurred during the 26 years of follow-up, involving women whose median age was 72 at the time of SCD.

Each of the four low-risk lifestyle factors had an independent, statistically significant association with a lower risk of SCD (P<0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that the magnitude of the risk reduction increased with the number of low-risk factors, as compared with women who had none of the traits:

•46% for one low-risk factor

•59% for two

•67% for three

•92% for all four

The authors determined that 81% of attributable SCD risk was related to smoking, inactivity, overweight, and poor diet. After exclusion of women with clinically diagnosed CHD, the attributable risk declined only slightly to 79%.

Women are 50% less likely compared with men to have severe left ventricular dysfunction and 66% less likely to have a CHD diagnosis prior to SCD, the authors noted in their commentary. Consequently, women are substantially less likely to meet current guidelines for use of preventive therapies, including ICDs.

"Prevention efforts that can be applied across broader populations, such as healthy lifestyle practices, are crucial to prevent SCD, particularly among women," they wrote.

But the authors noted a number of limitations to their study, most of which can be traced back to their use of population attributable risk. Population attributable risk, they wrote, assumes a causal relationship between lifestyle and risk of SCD, an assumption the authors characterized as "large."

They also noted that their population was mainly white health professionals.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

Co-author Teresa Fung disclosed a relationship with UNO's restaurant.

PMS

2011-07-05T14:56:00.002-04:00

Five Tips for Taming PMS

Here's a statement I don't think too many women will disagree with: Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a little slice of hell on earth. In the five to seven days before their period, up to 75 percent of women experience at least one unpleasant symptom in the constellation that PMS can cause — from the stereotypical cramps and moodiness to insomnia, fatigue, and nausea. One in 20 women experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a serious and often disabling condition that can cause persistent depression, marked anger or irritability, and severe aches and pains.

The good news is that there are ways to tame PMS naturally. Try these five tips:

Exercise! You may not want to, but get in your workout anyway. The endorphin rush will help relieve cramps and raise your levels of serotonin, a mood-lifting neurotransmitter.

Get some R&R. Adequate sleep and less stress will put you in a better hormonal position to handle the physiological imbalance that PMS brings.

Cut out most alcohol, caffeine, and salt. Alcohol can exacerbate feelings of depression, so steer clear. Reducing caffeine may minimize breast tenderness and irritability, and cutting salt can reduce bloat.

Minimize simple sugars. Ideally, you're doing this all the time, but it's especially important before your period. Simple sugars may increase inflammation, making cramps feel worse. Eating regular meals and snacks with fiber and protein will help keep your blood sugar stable, which is a lot better for those raw nerves than blood-sugar swings.

Consider supplements. Calcium may reduce symptoms of PMS, so shoot for at least 1,200 mg a day. Magnesium is also helpful, as are B complex vitamins. To reduce the inflammation of cramps and breast tenderness, try a primrose-oil supplement; it's a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory that may work in ways similar to ibuprofen

Sleep

2011-07-04T08:29:00.000-04:00

Why You Should Get Seven Hours of Shut-eye

A full night's sleep is not a luxury — it's a basic necessity for healthy hormone balance. Once you dip below seven hours a night, you are increasing your risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, depression, and obesity.

Some researchers believe that slow-wave sleep — the deep, dreamless sleep that you ideally sink into about three or four times a night — may actually regulate your metabolism. Sleep researchers break down sleep into five stages. Stage 4 slow-wave sleep, which begins about an hour after we fall asleep, is when we release our greatest pulses of growth hormone, the hormone that prompts the body to burn stored fat. When we're young, we spend about 20 percent of our time asleep in slow-wave stages 3 and 4. But as we get older, we may only spend about 10 or even 5 percent there.

Sadly, just two nights of bad sleep will cut your satiety hormone leptin by 20 percent and increase your hunger hormone ghrelin by 30 percent. That one-two punch makes you much more likely to snack on high-carb treats, which couldn't come at a worse time for your insulin levels. In a recent study, University of Chicago researchers found that just three nights of poor sleep made the bodies of young, healthy test subjects 25 percent less sensitive to insulin. This level of insulin resistance is comparable to that brought on by carrying 20 to 30 extra pounds.

In order to block fat-storage hormones and allow the full release of fat-burning hormones, you need to get at least seven hours of sleep a night!

No Carbs Before Bed

To slip into stage 3 or 4 sleep, you need to have a high level of ghrelin before bedtime. Carbs depress ghrelin faster than any other nutrient, so eating anything, especially carbs, before bed can delay your entry into deeper sleep for several hours. If you don't get enough restful sleep, you're likely to be hungrier and eat more. So to help you sleep well and deeply, let the hormones do their thing and don't eat after 9 p.m.!

Huge Appetite

2011-06-27T06:16:00.000-04:00

How to Deal With a Huge Appetite

Q: I have a huge appetite. It's not emotional or mental hunger. I've tried every gimmick out there (including the grapefruit diet!), but nothing has helped. If you have any insights into appetite control, please share them!

A: Stop trying to do something "magical," like eating only grapefruit — that stuff never works. It is possible that you aren't eating the right combination of foods for your metabolic type, which could leave you feeling less satiated. For example, if you are a fast oxidizer but you are eating fruit for breakfast and salad for lunch, you will be constantly starving. Try eating scrambled eggs and two pieces of nitrate-free turkey bacon for breakfast — you should feel a difference in your mornings.
Beyond that, here are a few tricks that will help you 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!

Setback?

2011-06-24T07:16:00.000-04:00

Overcoming a Setback

It happens — you miss a few workouts and you feel like you've fallen off the weight-loss wagon. It's tempting to mentally slap yourself around, right? (Or head for the fridge.) Before you start, I want to remind you of something: Being hard on yourself is the Old You.

The New You knows how to deal with setbacks and get back on the wagon. And after all, there are no mistakes, just learning experiences. Weight loss is a process — it takes time. You will encounter small failures — everyone does — but every pound you gain can be lost.

And if you miss a workout, it's not the end of the world! Get to the gym the next day and continue to focus on your short-term goals. Just because you made bad choices today doesn't mean you can't start over tomorrow. New day? New beginning. And don't you forget it!

Rescue Me

When life throws you curveballs, you can dodge them or let them hit you right between the eyes. Sometimes, though, you don't get a choice. For the moments when you can't avoid them, create a "Rescue Me" list. What kinds of healthy activities make you feel better? How about enjoying a bubble bath, taking a walk, or getting a massage? The next time you're staring down a crisis, reach for the "Rescue Me" list, not a bag of chips.

Belly Fat?

2011-06-22T10:15:00.000-04:00

More Reasons to Whittle Your Middle
I think we can all agree that "muffin tops" — the fat hanging over the waist of a too tight pair of pants — and beer bellies aren't attractive. Still, when it comes to excess belly fat, the situation is more serious than how you look. Excess belly fat has been linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers and stress.
When you have stress, your body releases certain "fight-or-flight" stress hormones that are produced in the adrenal glands: cortisol, norepinephrine and epinephrine. When you first get stressed, these hormones kick into gear. Norepinephrine tells your body to stop producing insulin so that you can have plenty of fast-acting blood glucose ready. Epinephrine will relax the muscles in your stomach and intestines and decrease blood flow to these organs. Once the stressor has passed, cortisol tells the body to stop producing these hormones and to go back to digesting regularly. It's normal for your cortisol levels to go up and down throughout the day, but when you are chronically stressed your cortisol level goes up — and stays there.
When your stress and cortisol levels are high, the body actually resists weight loss. Your body thinks times are hard and you might starve, so it hoards the fat you eat or have present on your body. Cortisol tends to take fat from healthier areas, like your butt and hips, and move it to your abdomen which has more cortisol receptors. Hello ab flab! In the process, it turns once–healthy peripheral fat into unhealthy visceral fat (the fat in your abdomen that surrounds your organs) that increases inflammation and insulin resistance in the body. This belly fat then leads to more cortisol because it has higher concentrations of an enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol. The more belly fat you have, the more active cortisol will be converted by these enzymes — yet another vicious cycle created by visceral fat.
So what if you have belly fat? Lose weight by following the best nutrition and lifestyle strategies that support you in times of stress, like the ones in my program. When you limit your caffeine to 200 milligrams a day, avoid simple carbs, processed foods, and refined grains, and get plenty of high-quality protein, in addition to de-stressing yourself, you'll automatically help your body keep your stress hormones, especially cortisol, lower. It's a day by day choice you'll have to make, but the results will be worth. Think how good it will be when you are as healthy on the inside as you look on the outside.

Make Your Belly Fat Flat

Want to reduce your belly fat? Don't just drop and give me 20 crunches. Rather than doing strength training abdominal exercises, concentrate on your diet and doing cardio to reduce your overall body fat instead. Try to decrease your daily sodium intake — try to keep it to 1,500 mg or less — boost your water intake, and cut out all the greasy, fattening foods that helped build that bulge in the first place.

Toxins in Meat

2011-06-21T15:10:00.002-04:00

Why To Avoid Dioxins and PCBs

Some metabolism-wrecking toxins, such as processed foods, hydrogenated fats, and high-fructose corn syrup, are easy to avoid because they're listed on food labels. But some — polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins, for example — aren't. These pollutants, by-products of manufacturing, found their way into our lakes and streams long ago, with the result that they've now entered our food supply through animal products.

Despite being outlawed for more than 30 years, PCBs have managed to stay in the food supply thanks to landfill leaks and other sources. They're often found in farm-raised salmon and many types of freshwater fish. A study found that women who regularly ate fish caught in Lake Ontario, which is known to have high levels of PCBs, had significantly more of the toxin in their breast milk than women who didn't eat fish from the lake. It's not just Lake Ontario, either — all across the United States, state health services periodically issue fish-consumption advisories because of PCBs. Long-term consumption of these chemicals may raise the risk of cancer and reproductive, immune system, and neurological problems.

Dioxins are a by-product of incineration and other industrial processes. Livestock absorb industrial pollution from incinerators, and dioxins build up in the animals' fatty tissues. So if you eat a high-fat diet, you are more likely to consume dioxins, which have been linked to cancer and developmental, endocrine, and immune system damage.

How can you avoid dioxins and PCBs? Always buy wild-caught salmon and pay attention to state fish-consumption advisories. Use the Natural Resources Defense Council's Sustainable Seafood Guide and the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Guide to find the safest types of seafood in your area. Always look for organic meats and dairy products, buy products with the lowest fat content possible, and remove visible fat and skin from meats. Start protecting yourself from these poisons now!

Thoughts

2011-06-19T21:00:00.002-04:00

How To Improve Your Attitude

Do you have what it takes to reach your weight-loss goals? If you think it's all about diet and exercise, you're wrong.

It sounds crazy, I know. Exercise and a proper diet are crucial to all weight-loss and fitness programs. But to reach any long-term goal — especially one that requires a major lifestyle change — you need to improve your attitude too. You can have all the external support in the world, but if your self-esteem is in the toilet, you'll never have long-term success.

Having the right attitude is so important because thought is behavior. The power of the mind is total — the way you think about yourself manifests as your reality. We all know how easily negative thoughts can lead to lack of confidence, hopelessness, and depression. You've heard about self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Well, if you tell yourself that you'll always be fat or you'll never find happiness, chances are you'll end up fat and unhappy. Hey, it makes sense.

Okay then, let's turn that scenario around. Tell yourself that you can get fit and you will be happy. It's that simple. You can master your own fate with positive thinking!

Test Yourself

To see whether your thoughts are predominantly positive or negative, test yourself. It sounds extreme, but you only need to do it once: Carry a small notebook around for an entire day. Each time a thought about yourself pops into your head, write it down and assess whether it's positive or negative. At the end of the day, tally your positive and negative thoughts. Even if you already suspect you lean toward the negative, seeing those thoughts on paper might give you the kick you need! When you change your attitude, you'll change your life.

Plateau Prevention

2011-06-16T11:55:00.000-04:00

Taking Your Workout to the Next Level

Ever hear the expression "Nothing changes if nothing changes"? If you do the same resistance routine the same way week after week, the day will come when your body will have adapted to that particular workload. In terms of weight loss, that's not a good thing. If your body isn't challenged beyond its comfort zone, you won't see continual results.

Mixing things up to prevent plateaus doesn't take much. Varying the number of reps and sets will constantly surprise the body, which is one way to make sure your workout continues to push you forward.

Apart from changing the number of sets and reps per exercise, you can also change the way you perform a rep. During a weight-lifting exercise, your muscles contract in three distinctly different ways:

When you lift the weight, your muscles contract positively, or concentrically.

At the midpoint of the exercise, when you stop moving the weight but you're still holding it, your muscles contract statically, or isometrically.

When you lower the weight, your muscles contract negatively, or eccentrically.

You can adjust the way you do your reps by shifting the emphasis among the three forms of muscle contraction, which provide you with three ways to do almost anything in the weight room — and endless ways to switch around your routine to keep it fresh and motivating.

Good for the Body, Good for the Mind

We all know that change is good — and that holds true for fitness too! After all, challenging your muscles will help you reach your fitness goals. Varying your routine is also good for your mind! Doing the same thing over and over can get stale and dampen enthusiasm. A change in focus — however slight — will keep you coming back for more.

Muscle Boosting Foods

2011-06-15T08:44:00.000-04:00

Foods That Boost Muscle Growth

Whether you're a girl or a guy, if you're trying to get fit, you're in the testosterone-boosting business. (Unless you have polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, in which case your body produces too much testosterone.) Testosterone gives us energy, builds muscle, and heightens our libido. It also helps protect our bones and brains — all good stuff. Some foods can help increase this helpful hormone — here's how you can take advantage of them.

Add some garlic and onions to your meals. A study conducted with rats found that garlic coupled with a high-protein diet increased testosterone levels. Allicin, a phytochemical found in garlic and onions, may also inhibit cortisol, which can compete with testosterone and interfere with its normal function.

Get more niacin in your diet. Niacin, a B vitamin, has been shown to boost HDL cholesterol (the "good" kind), high levels of which have been associated with high levels of testosterone. Niacin is found in many foods, including dairy products, lean meats, poultry, fish, nuts, and eggs.

Choose healthy vegetable fats. Vegetable fat intake has been shown to increase dihydrotestosterone, a form of testosterone responsible for the growth of body hair. Just take it easy on the soybean, corn, safflower, and sunflower oils — instead get your vegetable fats from heart-healthy canola and olive oils.

Eat zinc-rich foods. These include oysters, Dungeness crab, beef, pork, dark-meat chicken and turkey, yogurt, cheddar cheese, cashews, almonds, baked beans, and chickpeas. One study found that restricting zinc in healthy young men led to a 75 percent reduction in their testosterone, while supplementing zinc-deficient older men doubled their testosterone.

Steer Clear of These Testosterone Reducers

Just as some foods can raise your testosterone level, others can bring it down. Studies have show that alcohol reduces testosterone levels in men, and one study revealed an increase in testosterone levels among alcoholics who became sober. Just one more reason to hold yourself to one drink a day, tops. Not getting enough fat or protein can also cause testosterone to take a hit — so make sure your diet is balanced.

Antibiotics

2011-06-14T08:46:00.002-04:00

The Issue With Antibiotics

Americans are totally addicted to antibiotics. In our quest to kill anything around us that seems bothersome or threatening, we try to rid ourselves of every last germ with an arsenal of antibacterial products, we pump our livestock full of antibiotics — heck, we pump ourselves full of antibiotics.

Here's the deal: Not only is trying to eliminate most bacteria practically pointless but it can also be really counterproductive. Yes, there are lots of bad bacteria out there, and they can make us very sick. But there are also lots of good bacteria too. For example, beneficial bugs known as probiotics live in our stomachs and are integral to the healthy functioning of our immune and digestive systems. There's even some evidence that certain probiotics play a role in determining how many calories our bodies absorb from food and send to fat cells.

When you take antibiotics to wipe out the bad bacteria, you end up taking out probiotics, your best defense, at the same time. In addition, overuse of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance — that is, the drugs become less effective over time because the bad bugs figure out how to adapt so they can survive. The best steps we can take to keep our immune systems strong and to maintain a healthy microbial balance are to eat the kinds of foods that replenish and feed our beneficial bacteria (like organic low-fat yogurt) and to choose organic meat and dairy products from animals that have been raised without the use of antibiotics. We also need to lose the habit of taking antibiotics every time we so much as sniffle.

Vacation

2011-06-13T06:21:00.000-04:00

How To Stay on Track During Vacation

Q: I've been really good about doing my workouts and eating right, but I'm about to go on vacation with my family. I want to have fun and not be too strict, but I don't want to fall off the wagon completely! What do you recommend?

A: Here's what I suggest — EXERCISE! Even if you overindulge a little, you'll stave off weight gain by exercising daily. Second, I would say that you should eat the foods you want, but in moderation. Have a bite of cheesecake, for example, but don't eat the whole slice. Be smart about your indulgences too — don't waste your calories. Instead of having a poolside margarita, say, opt for a white-wine spritzer or a light beer. Frozen margaritas have a whopping 700 calories. Think of your calories as an allowance: Save on calories where you can, and spend them on things that are really worth it, like pasta!

Summer Cardio

The great thing about summer vacation is that you can bring your cardio workout with you! Walking, jogging, and running can all be taken outdoors at your leisure. Just be sure to get your heart rate up. Swimming is another fun cardio activity that's usually easy to engage in during the summer — plus, it's kinder to your body than land-based exercise because your buoyancy in water helps you avoid the jarring impacts that can cause injuries. To mix things up and target different muscles, be sure to use a variety of strokes during your swim, including the breaststroke, the butterfly, and the backstroke. But hey, it's your vacation — don't forget to have fun!

Seven Percent

2011-06-09T09:12:00.000-04:00

If you are overweight and over the age of thirty, there is a very good chance that you are insulin resistant. Losing 7 percent of your body weight, and walking for 2.5 hours weekly, will cut your risk of developing adult onset diabetes by 58%.

If you are a 200 pound female, 7% is only 14 pounds. The message to me is clear. Even losing small amounts of weight have a big impact on your health, and your pocketbook! So take that as encouragement to eat right and be physically active. It is worth the effort that you put into it.

Costs

2011-06-07T08:43:00.000-04:00

Healthcare costs in this country have been a subject of great debate in recent times. So I have a question. How much of the American medical costs for chronic diseases is attributed to poor nutrition?

The American Heart Association estimates that each year, more than $33 billion in medical costs (and $9 billion in lost productivity) resulting from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes are attributed to poor diet.

Are we killing ourselves with a dinner fork?

Berries

2011-06-06T06:32:00.002-04:00

Pick a Power Food This Weekend!

Not only are berries beautiful to look at, but their colors signify health-protecting qualities. They are rich in polyphenols, the same antioxidants that give wine and chocolate their healthy qualities. Of course, unlike chocolate and wine, berries are low in calories, and they contain no alcohol or caffeine. So you can enjoy them free of guilt and know you're doing something good for your body!

Berries are colorful because they contain anthocyanins — these are a type of polyphenol that might nudge our fat-burning genes in the right direction. A Japanese researcher found that anthocyanins stop individual fat cells from getting larger and encourage fat cells to release adiponectin, a hormone that helps to reduce inflammation, lower blood sugar, and reverse resistance to leptin and insulin. Another study found that anthocyanins can reduce blood glucose levels after starch-rich meals, preventing insulin spikes that could eventually lead to insulin resistance. Black raspberries have an extremely high concentration of anthocyanins and other antioxidants and can often be found growing wild, so look out for them!

Certain polyphenols found in raspberries and strawberries block the digestive enzyme activity of specific starches and fats, reducing your body's ability to absorb them. Combine this trait with the soluble fiber in berries, and you have a sweet treat that works hard to help you lose weight and keep your blood sugar low.

Berries are starting to come into season now (the season varies depending on the type of berry and where you live), so my advice is to head to your local farmers' market and buy an entire flat. Take the berries home and gently wash them and let them dry. Place them on a cookie sheet and freeze them, then transfer them to a freezer-safe bag. This way you can keep your berries, with their nutrients intact, for up to two years — and you can enjoy them year-round!

Vacation Days

2011-06-05T10:58:00.002-04:00

Take Your Vacation Days!

Ah, vacation...that precious time away from the hectic pace of life and the stress of work. Have you taken a vacation lately? If not, why not?! With all the travel deals available these days, you can put together a pretty amazing trip on the cheap. And if you don't have a lot of extra cash right now, there's always the good old "staycation," in which you can just relax at home. If you're the type who feels guilty taking days off, let me tell you — taking your vacation time is important to your health!

Sadly, overtime has become the norm in the American workplace. While the overtime might get you a promotion, research shows it definitely doesn't help your peace of mind. Researchers have found higher rates of anxiety and depression in men and women who work overtime, compared with people who work 40 hours a week or less.

Even if you aren't working overtime, chances are you're working too much. It's estimated that one out of every three workers doesn't take his or her allocated vacation time. Your bosses may appreciate all that hard work (at least, they'd better!), but your heart certainly doesn't. One study suggested that an annual vacation was a lifesaver for middle-aged men at risk of coronary heart disease. At-risk men who got away once a year were 32 percent less likely to die from heart disease than were those who never took a vacation. Another study found that when compared with women who vacationed twice a year or more, women who seldom took vacations — once every six years — were eight times as likely to develop coronary heart disease. Don't make yourself a sitting duck for a heart attack. You earned that vacation — take it!

Behaviors

2011-06-01T08:49:00.002-04:00

Exorcise Those Demons

What kind of emotional demons are lurking in your closet (or refrigerator)? Not sure? Well, it's time to find out, and to exorcise them once and for all. To succeed where you have failed, sometimes you have to take three steps back to take that first step forward. In terms of reaching your goal weight, "stepping back" means reviewing past and current self-defeating behaviors to identify where you got stuck, discouraged, or overwhelmed.

Here are several of the most common causes of overeating. I want you to list in your journal all the excuses that are familiar to you.

Emotion

Do you overeat as a coping mechanism, to numb suffering, allay fears, combat loneliness, and so on?

Reward

Do you indulge in eating to reward yourself when you've done a good job on something?

Seeking acceptance

Do you overeat because you're seeking social acceptance? Do you eat fattening foods at parties so as not to offend the host? If you're out with friends, do you feel the need to have a drink just to fit in?

Add to your list any other situations that have derailed your success.

What's the Point?

By doing this exercise, you can isolate specific problems and work on finding solutions for them. Find out (and conquer) what has locked you into self-defeating habits, and develop healthy, affirming behaviors instead. Whatever your downfalls might have been in the past, there is a way to deal with them in the present. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but if you hang in there with me, you will succeed!

Aging

2011-05-31T18:01:00.002-04:00

Stop Playing the Blame Game

If you've been blaming your belly fat on the fact that you're growing older, now's the time to stop believing that weight gain is an inevitable part of aging! Yes, as we get older our hormone balance shifts in ways that encourage weight gain. For example, testosterone and DHEA levels decline in men, and women's insulin-regulating hormones become less effective. These changes can decrease muscle mass and energy while increasing belly fat and insulin resistance. But there's no reason we can't stay healthy and keep our hormones balanced as we age. Ongoing research suggests that age-related muscle decline is largely under our control. The more we eat clean, live clean, and work out, the better our hormone balance will be, and the healthier our metabolisms will remain.

I can't tell you how many people just let exercise slide as they get older; then they turn around and blame their lagging metabolism on their hormones. I'll be honest — I don't like to exercise. But the reality is, we have to do it. Your body needs exercise the way it needs oxygen and water. It's crucial to maintain muscle mass as you age: A pound of muscle burns three times more calories than a pound of fat does, and muscles scoop up blood sugar and enhance your body's insulin sensitivity.

More Intensity

2011-05-28T14:43:00.002-04:00

Get Intense

Ever notice the color-coded exercise "zones" listed on cardio machines? There's a "fat burning" zone, an "endurance training" zone, and so forth. The colors look nice, but how many times have you chosen the "fat burning" zone and watched as your fat stayed put? That's because fat-burning programs keep you at a lower intensity level, when to lose weight you really need to burn big calories. That only happens when you exercise at a higher-intensity level.

Let's look at the math. In a half hour of low-intensity exercise, you might burn 100 calories. Of those 100 calories, roughly 80 percent will be fat calories, meaning that you've burned 80 fat calories. In a half hour of high-intensity exercise, you might burn 300 calories. Of those 300 calories, roughly 33 percent will be fat calories, meaning that you've burned around 100 fat calories.

Get it? Even though the percentage of fat calories burned is higher during a low-intensity workout, you're burning so many more total calories during a high-intensity workout that, percentages aside, you are still burning more fat calories — not to mention the 200 additional carb calories.

Slow and Steady

2011-05-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare? The hare got off to a zippy pace and seemed sure to win. But he didn't, did he? The tortoise, while naturally much slower than the hare, kept moving steadily toward the finish line and was able to cross first.

What's the take-home message of this fable? Slow and steady wins the race. To reach your weight-loss goals, you need to switch from the hare's mind-set to that of the tortoise. In other words, you must break the "all or nothing" mentality.

Do you start diets with superhuman resolve — determined to eschew temptation and work out seven days a week — only to fall off the wagon and give up hope?

Such an approach to anything — especially to your health — can be very appealing, even motivating. But I'm telling you right now that overreaching the most dangerous way to set out. Human beings are imperfect. When you do skip a workout or give in to temptation (something we all do), you're more likely to throw in the towel.

So start thinking like a tortoise. Pace yourself. Have a slice of pizza and take a day off now and then, but don't stray too far from the path that will lead you to your goals.

If You Don't Like the Daily Weigh

When you're just starting out, the road to losing 20 pounds or more seems to stretch out forever. Checking for incremental signs of progress along the way — like weighing yourself every day, looking for ounces lost — isn't going to make that road seem any shorter. Instead of measuring your journey in feet, set your sights on mileposts. Weigh yourself just once a week. You'll see steady progress over time, not discouraging daily ups and downs.

Fat Burning Food?

2011-05-23T12:13:00.002-04:00

Are There Foods That Burn Fat?

Q: Are there really foods that burn fat? If so, what are they?

A: Not really, but there are foods that contain fewer calories than the body uses to digest them. Therefore, when you eat these foods (cruciferous veggies, leafy greens, and so forth), you're helping create a calorie deficit.

That said, there are also certain foods that will crank up your metabolism by releasing the right hormones. Protein will release more human growth hormone. Foods with selenium and zinc will support a healthy thyroid. You can boost your metabolic rate by eating clean, whole, fresh foods and avoiding processed foods and chemicals. But there is no food that will magically burn off fat. For that, you have to get off your butt and get moving!

Free Food!

Well, some food is virtually calorie free. Even if you're just opening an occasional can of healthy soup or making a salad, definitely include some chopped cruciferous veggies with your meal! Cabbage, kale, and rutabaga all offer more volume to keep you full longer and have practically zero calories — and you get all the good phytochemicals that come with them.

Colors on Your Plate

2011-05-22T07:56:00.000-04:00

What Colors Are on Your Plate?

Pick a color, any color. If you want to improve your health one serving at a time, choose vegetables and fruits of varying colors. Vibrant-colored fruits and veggies give you a range of phytonutrients, each with its own health-promoting strengths. Colorful plant foods happen to be incredible sources of soluble and insoluble fiber — both of which are essential for hormone balance and impossible to get from animal products.

Everyone knows that green veggies are great for you, but you don't always have to think green — explore your options. The UCLA Center for Human Nutrition has developed a system for grouping fruits and vegetables by color for easier selection. I've adapted this system into four categories, and I recommend aiming for one fruit or vegetable from each color group (including the greens!) every day.

Orange: Carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, and mangoes are high in beta-carotene, which may help cells communicate with one another a bit more frequently, therefore increasing the body's ability to avoid cancer. Beta-carotene also plays an important role in the production of progesterone, which contributes to a smooth pregnancy.

Yellow: Research suggests that the vitamin C in citrus foods can be a stress-buster. A German study tested this theory by subjecting people to a high-stress situation (they had to do math problem in front of a bunch of other people — I'd say that's stressful!). Half of those studied were given 1,000 mg of vitamin C and half were not. The people who did not get the vitamin C had elevated levels of cortisol and high blood pressure — surefire signs of stress. Those who'd taken vitamin C felt less stressed. (However, why supplement? Get the real thing and eat your vitamin C!) Foods in the Yellow group include oranges, tangerines (I know that sounds odd, but nutritionally oranges and tangerines are "yellow"), yellow grapefruit, lemons, peaches, and nectarines.

Purple: Berries are powerhouse foods that can help you lose weight and keep your blood sugar low, so definitely include them in your diet. Look out for other purple fruits and vegetables too, including plums, prunes, grapes, and eggplant, which all boast numerous vitamins and minerals.

Red: Red fruits and veggies contain the phytochemical lycopene, a powerful cancer-fighting antioxidant. Studies showed that men with high blood levels of lycopene had the lowest risk of developing prostate cancer. Tomatoes are one of the richest sources of lycopene. Plus, one cup of tomatoes gives you almost 60 percent of your daily value of vitamin C and almost 8 percent of your daily fiber needs. You can get the health benefits from organic pasta sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup — just make sure there's no high-fructose corn syrup in the products you buy!

To Cook or Not to Cook?

The powerful lycopene and antioxidant activity of tomatoes is concentrated by 50 percent if they are cooked for 1 minute, and by 150 percent if they are cooked for 30 minutes. However, some colorful veggies lose their potency with cooking. Data from the University of California at Davis revealed that when cooked, fresh spinach loses 64 percent of its vitamin C, while canned peas and carrots lose 85 to 95 percent. Eat a combination of raw and cooked vegetables to cover all bases.

The Real Benefit of Exercise

2011-05-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

Stress and Metabolism

2011-05-17T07:56:00.000-04:00

Stress Got Your Metabolism Down?

I'm sure you've heard of the fight-or-flight response, and you probably know that it's the way your body reacts to danger or stress. But do you know what the fight-or-flight response is? You guessed it: It has to do with hormones.

When you're faced with a danger, your adrenal glands release three hormones: norepinephrine, epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), and cortisol. Norepinephrine and epinephrine cause several changes to help you survive the danger, including a pause in insulin release so you have lots of blood sugar available for energy, an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, and a suspension of your appetite. After the danger has passed, cortisol tells the body to stop producing norepinephrine and epinephrine and stimulates your appetite again.

This response evolved to help people deal with short-term survival situations, like an attack by a predator. The trouble is, it occurs in response to all stressors, including the deadlines pummeling you at work and the traffic that drives you crazy. When stress is always present, your body can't get rid of the excess cortisol built up in the blood. That cortisol just hangs around, causing lots of trouble: It turns young fat cells into mature fat cells that stick with you forever, and increases your cravings for high-fat, high-carb foods.

When you give in to those cravings, your body releases a cascade of rewarding brain chemicals that can set up an addictive relationship with food — you stress, you eat. If you don't consciously control the pattern, you can become physically and psychologically dependent on that release to manage stress. In fact, people who self-medicate with food tend have hair-trigger epinephrine reactions and chronic high levels of cortisol.

You can help yourself keep cortisol in check by limiting caffeine intake to 200 milligrams a day; avoiding simple carbs, processed foods, and refined grains; and getting plenty of high-quality protein. It's also crucial that you find stress-relief techniques that work for you. If you can tame your stress response and lower cortisol levels, you'll have a much easier time losing weight.

Ways to De-stress

When I'm stressed out at night and can't sleep, I get up and write down all the things that are bothering me and how I might fix them. This gets the problems off my mind and calms me down because I know I have a game plan. Some other ways to de-stress include learning to meditate, getting a massage, taking a vacation, and most important, exercising! Whatever you do, please do not take any over-the-counter "adrenal support" supplements — you could actually do more harm than good. De-stress naturally instead!

Buffet

2011-05-16T07:03:00.000-04:00

Please avoid buffets. There is nothing good for dieters in this setting.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

2011-05-10T08:44:00.002-04:00

Dump the Most Evil Sweetener of All

In the late seventies, less than 15 percent of Americans were obese. Thirty years later, 32 percent of us are obese. What happened between then and now? First, the idea became popular that fat was evil and "low fat" diets were best. Whenever possible, fat was removed from processed foods and replaced with sugars and other carbs. At the same time, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) got really cheap and became food manufacturers' go-to sweetener.

Since the days of the low-fat diet craze, we've learned not only that fat doesn't make you fat but that refined carbohydrates like sugar and HFCS do. Oops! A lot of damage has been done, but we can work with our hormones to teach our bodies to react to food the way they did before we overwhelmed our insulin response systems.

A good place to start is to get rid of HFCS. This evil sweetener is incredibly damaging to your metabolism, and it's everywhere. Researchers at Tufts University report that Americans consume more calories from soda and other sweet drinks (which invariably contain tons of HFCS) than from any other source.

You may have seen a commercial run by the Corn Refiners Association that tries to convince you that people who think HFCS is bad for you are paranoid; it suggests that most people can't even say why HFCS is bad for you. Well, here's your answer (tell your friends!): HFCS boosts your fat-storing hormones and makes you fat. Glucose (what table sugar is turned into in your body) is metabolized by all your cells, but fructose (the "F" in HFCS) must be metabolized in the liver. Because of this, HFCS somehow tricks the body into not releasing insulin and leptin, two essential hormones that are usually released after you eat. Without insulin, your body can't use those HFCS calories for energy, and without leptin, your body doesn't know it's full. Plus, unlike table sugar, HFCS doesn't stop levels of ghrelin, your hunger hormone, from rising. If you eat or drink HFCS, you'll actually continue to consume more calories, even 24 hours later, than you would had you just eaten plain table sugar. HFCS also increases triglycerides (a type of blood lipid), which prevent leptin from signaling the brain to stop eating.

I have zero tolerance for HFCS. For me, it's a code word for poison, so toss it!

Where HFCS Hides

HFCS is one of the cheapest ingredients in our food supply, so companies that make processed food have managed to put it in practically everything we eat! Even something like lunch meat can have HFCS in it, so check your labels. Here are just a few other examples of foods that can contain HFCS: breakfast cereal, canned baked beans, cereal bars, crackers, cookies, English muffins, hot dog and hamburger buns, jams and jellies, peanut butter, pickles, protein bars, and salad dressings. Even some organic foods have it (using organic corn), so you can never really be safe unless you look at the ingredients list. Buying whole, unprocessed foods will help you eliminate the problem!

Plateaus

2011-05-09T06:55:00.002-04:00

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 flagging 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

Common Sense

2011-05-08T16:55:00.002-04:00

Avoid Dangerous Situations

The key to success on any fitness program is having a game plan for every situation that might throw you off course. It isn't brain surgery — it's common sense. Think of yourself as being on a mission: If you take the time to think ahead, you can come up with ways to combat every situation. Here are a few surefire strategies:

Go through your kitchen and throw out all the junk food and processed garbage immediately. (Hey, you can't eat it if it's not there!) Don't buy these foods anymore — just eliminate them from your kitchen entirely. Even if you have to put up with a little whining from the kids or your spouse, they're better off not eating that crap (tell them I said so!). Reacquaint yourself with your local supermarket, find the healthy sections, and try to avoid the foods that make you feel powerless.

If you run into trouble at the office, make an effort to avoid the high-voltage areas. If there is a vending machine in the kitchen or if the cafeteria features frightfully fattening foods, stay away from these places. Bring healthy snacks and meals from home to stash in your desk. Do whatever you can to steer clear of anything that might throw you off course and hamper your success.

Out of Sight, out of Mind

We're often so wrapped up in our problems that we can't see how simple it can be to solve them. For example, think about your daily routine. Does your commute to work include driving by the local doughnut shop or walking past those greasy food carts? Do you routinely walk by the vending machine on your way to the bathroom? The solution? Take a different route to work or make the trek to the bathroom on the other side of the office. By finding ways of altering your environment, you can control which temptations you come into contact with and, in the end, become stronger at resisting.

Alcohol

2011-05-05T08:49:00.000-04:00

Someone sent me this email about alcohol. I thought it was pretty good.

Help With Happy Hour

Q: How can I responsibly fit alcohol into my diet? I enjoy having a cocktail or a glass of wine at the end of the day, but I don't want to blow my calorie allotment out of the water. Are certain kinds of alcohol "better" than others?

A: There are several answers to these questions. Unfortunately, when you're trying to lose weight, alcohol is the enemy for a number of reasons:

Alcohol is really just a ton of empty calories.

It releases estrogen into your bloodstream, promotes fat storage, and decreases muscle growth.

It weakens your willpower and inhibition — one minute you're at happy hour, the next you're at the all-night diner ordering the bacon cheeseburger with fries and a vanilla shake. I mean, who does that sober? Certainly not you! (At least, not on my watch!)

Now, don't get me wrong — I LOVE my red wine, and I can knock back tequila shots with the best of them. But those things should be enjoyed once you're in maintenance mode, not while you're trying to lose weight. If you must give in to temptation, do so with extreme caution.

If you are going to drink, my recommendation is wine. Although alcohol poses a breast cancer risk, one study showed that women who had an occasional glass of wine (one or less a day) increased their risk by only 7 percent. When you consider that moderate consumption of red wine is also associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, that increased risk might not seem so bad. However, if you have a family history of breast cancer, or other risk factors, talk to your doctor about what's best for you.

Also, try to find organic wine, produced without pesticides or preservatives, such as added sulfites. All wines contain a small amount of naturally occurring sulfites, but many wine manufacturers add more to increase wines' shelf life. Check labels for added sulfites. Once you've started drinking wines without them, you'll never go back — you'll taste the difference right away.

If wine isn't your thing, you might occasionally go with clear alcohols. They're not as good a choice as wine, but I'd rather you choose them than dark-colored alcohols. Have a vodka and soda water with lime, or a tequila shot (careful, don't go nuts with these!). Be creative. But ladies: BEWARE the fruity Barbie drinks! Piña coladas, frozen margaritas, apple-pineapple-strawberry-mango-whatevertinis, and so on. They can add up to 1,000 calories each — and only pansies drink that stuff, anyway.

Whatever you do, remember the golden rule: Watch your calories. Count the alcohol you consume in your daily calorie allowance, and try not to have more than one drink a day or four drinks a week.

Body Fat

2011-05-04T08:41:00.002-04:00

Body Fat: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

You know that junk you have in the trunk — that extra padding you hate on your hips and butt? You may not like the way it looks, but it's not necessarily bad for you. The fat surrounding your gut, though, is a different story — in fact, it can be deadly.

Let's start with the "good" fat — the fatty layer just beneath your skin in the lower half of your body. It's called subcutaneous fat, and it's not necessarily the worst thing to have. Subcutaneous fat gives rise to two beneficial metabolic hormones: leptin, the hormone that tells your body to hang onto or let go of weight, and adiponectin, a hormone that lowers your blood sugar. A Harvard study found that subcutaneous fat might help improve sensitivity to insulin and prevent diabetes.

The fat in your stomach area, on the other hand, is bad news. Known as visceral fat, it's hidden deep down, so even if you don't have a protruding belly (a signal for some that they have it), you could still harbor this "bad" kind of fat. Visceral fat lies far beneath your skin, where it surrounds your organs and sets off a harmful hormonal firestorm. Having this metabolically horrific fat slows your metabolism, lowers growth hormone, raises cortisol, creates insulin resistance, and increases your risk of all kinds of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease.

You increase your risk of having visceral fat when you're overweight, so how can you lose it? Diet and exercise! Taking care of yourself will reduce visceral fat and lower your risk of all the health problems associated with it

Think Positive

2011-05-02T06:16:00.002-04:00

Retrain Yourself to Think Positive

A key element of changing your attitude is changing your self-talk, or internal monologue. Your self-talk is that chattering conversation you have with yourself all day long, whether you are aware of it or not. It's the voice in your head that says, "I'm too fat" or "I'm not good enough." I don't need to go on, do I? You know what I'm talking about!

It's this kind of useless negativity that keeps you from being the best that you can be. Well, it's time to turn it around once and for all. You need to retrain yourself to think positive!

Imagine what would happen if you changed the dialogue so that it sounded more like this: "I can lose weight and be healthy, exercise to the best of my ability, and get stronger and better at it every time I do it." Your self-talk can make the difference between happiness and despair, success and failure. I can promise you that if you start making your self-talk more positive and affirming — and less defeatist and self-depreciating — your whole life will change for the better

Ups and Downs of Insulin

2011-04-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

Get a Grip on Insulin's Ups and Downs

One of the endocrine system's most important hormones is insulin, which plays a critical role in how your body uses food. When you eat, your digestive system breaks food down into glucose, and the glucose circulates in your bloodstream (where it's often referred to as blood sugar). In response to the rise in glucose after a meal, the pancreas releases surges of insulin, whose job is to clean the glucose from the blood. Insulin directs some of the glucose to the body's cells, which use it for energy. Some of the glucose is diverted to the liver, where it's converted into glycogen (stored glucose) for later use by the muscles. Insulin then helps turn any leftover glucose into fatty acids and stores them in fat cells, where they can be tapped later for fuel.

Problems arise when your body starts creating too much insulin, which can happen for several reasons. One of the most common is that you ate too many highly processed, refined carbs, such as white bread or pasta. Such carbs increase blood sugar dramatically, requiring a rush of insulin to clear the blood. If your blood sugar surge is really dramatic (as it would be if you ate those refined carbs on an empty stomach), insulin overreacts and works twice as hard to clean the sugar from the blood. This overefficient removal of sugar means that your blood sugar concentration drops, with the result that you feel hungry again and crave (and probably eat) more carbs. That's the postsugar "crash and binge" cycle, the root of sugar addiction. In addition, when your muscles are still fueled from your last snack, the insulin converts those extra calories into fat. And as long as large amounts of insulin remain in the bloodstream, your body won't have a chance to tap into your fat stores for fuel — so you won't burn any fat, either.

This cycle can eventually lead to insulin resistance, a condition in which your body produces insulin but the cells become insensitive to it — as a result, the insulin can't do its job to lower the glucose concentration in the blood. Insulin resistance is a precursor of type 2 diabetes and is common among overweight people. Elevated levels of glucose in your blood is a surefire sign of it.

There is hope for preventing the problem. The key is to maintain low levels of insulin by eating whole foods, pairing carbs with protein, and avoiding highly processed carbs. When your insulin-release mechanism works the right way, it helps keep your weight in check. When it's not working, you're in trouble. If you can take control of your insulin's ups and downs, you'll be primed to lose weight and restore your body's hormone power!

Muscle Helps, Too!

Every pound of muscle burns three times more calories than does a pound of fat. Muscles scoop up blood sugar and enhance your body's insulin sensitivity — the more muscle you have, the more cells are available to absorb glucose, and you won't have to produce as much insulin after meals. Your muscle cells will be more efficient at using glucose for fuel, so your body won't have to store as much food as fat.

Eggs

2011-04-27T14:33:00.002-04:00

One Incredible Food

Remember all those television commercials in the 90's for the incredible, edible egg? Well, it turns out to be a worthy title! Not only are eggs a fantastic source of lean protein and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, but they contain some pretty important nutrients. L-arginine, an amino acid found in eggs, are critical to the body's production of protein and the release of growth hormone. Another amino acid found in eggs, leucine, also helps the body produce growth hormone as well as regulate blood sugar levels. With all the amazing things going on inside that delicate shell, eggs are a nearly perfect food. Pair it with a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice and you'll get the one thing that's missing — vitamin C.

PMS?

2011-04-26T09:20:00.000-04:00

Five Tips for Taming PMS
Here's a statement I don't think too many women will disagree with: Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a little slice of hell on earth. In the five to seven days before their periods, up to 75 percent of women experience at least one ailment in the constellation of symptoms that PMS can cause — from the stereotypical cramps and moodiness to insomnia, fatigue, and nausea. One in 20 women experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a serious and often disabling condition that can cause persistent depression, marked anger or irritability, and severe aches and pains.
The good news is that there are ways to tame PMS naturally. Try these five tips:
Exercise! You may not want to, but get in your workout anyway. The endorphin rush will help relieve cramps and raise your levels of serotonin, a mood-lifting neurotransmitter.
Get some R&R. Adequate sleep and less stress will put you in a better hormonal position to handle the physiological imbalance that PMS brings.
Cut out most alcohol, caffeine, and salt. Alcohol can exacerbate feelings of depression, so steer clear. Reducing caffeine may minimize breast tenderness and irritability, and cutting salt can reduce bloat.
Minimize simple sugars. Ideally, you're doing this all the time, but it's especially important before your period. Simple sugars may increase inflammation, making cramps worse. Eating regular meals and snacks with fiber and protein will help keep your blood sugar stable, which is a lot better for those raw nerves than blood-sugar swings.
Consider supplements. Calcium may reduce symptoms of PMS, so shoot for at least 1,200 mg a day. Magnesium is also helpful, as are B complex vitamins. To reduce the inflammation of cramps and breast tenderness, try a primrose-oil supplement; it's a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory that may work in ways similar to ibuprofen.

Is It a Thyroid Problem?

If you have chronic PMS, you might consider asking your doctor for a blood test to rule out any issues with your thyroid. Thyroid disorders and PMS share many of the same symptoms, including fatigue, sluggishness, and depression. Thyroid disorders are known to cause problems from menstrual irregularities to weight gain, so if you find out you have a thyroid disorder, treating it may kill two (or more) birds with one stone.

Easter Update

2011-04-23T08:44:00.000-04:00

Alright folks, tommorow is easter Sunday, and this whole weekend is the "holiday weekend." Do not fall into the trap that the purpose of this weekend is a celebration of various kinds of food and drink. For every "event" you go to, have a plan on how you will eat or drink. Do not decide to eat or drink based on only your tastebuds. Always think it through first.

If you do mess up, forgive yourself quickly and get started again immediately. In restarting, always set up a regimine to follow, and pre-plan, pre-plan, pre-plan!

More on Afterburn

2011-04-20T12:33:00.000-04:00

So what is interval training? It is short intervals of time during your exercise that you really turn up the intensity. For example, if you are running on a treadmill, and your speed is 5mph (or 5.0), you might jack it up to 7mph for 1 minute intervals. So 1 minute of high intensity and 3 minutes of a normal pace (5.0). If you ran for 40 minutes total that would be 10 intervals of 1 minute each.

If you just ran for 40 minutes at 5.0, that would still be good but you would not get the afterburn effect of interval training (see yesterdays post).

More on EPOC

2011-04-19T08:49:00.000-04:00

Alright - you now have the idea about EPOC or "after-burn." So which form of exercise causes the longest period of "after-burn?" Straight cardio gives you about 2-6 hours of afterburn. Studies show that interval training gives you an after-burn of 12-38 hours! Interval training is a great way to improve cardio-respiratory fitness, and a great way to drop body fat and weight quicker. Tune in tommorow and I will explain what interval training is. In the meantime, remember that failure to plan is planning to fail. Prepare for tommorow's eating today. Never go into any day without a concrete battle plan. If you do this, you will lose weight faster, and save more money on food.

EPOC

2011-04-18T07:35:00.000-04:00

What is EPOC? It stands for "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption." In a sedentary state your body conumes a baseline amount of oxygen - or cells consume oxygen at a certain rate. This is essentially your metabolic rate. After exercise, your cells consume oxygen at a higher rate than this baseline rate for a certain number of hours. This is the EPOC. Maybe a better way to put it is "afterburn." Some forms of exercise like circuit training cause a very long afterburn. Some other forms like straight cardio cause a much shorter afterburn.

I am often asked, "when is the best time of day to exercise?" My answer is morning and evening - yes, that's right, twice daily. When you look at individuals who exercise for 1 hour in the morning versus individuals who exercise 30 minuites in the morning and evening, the latter group loses more weight. Why? The answer is the EPOC. The latter group creates 2 afterburn periods in a 24 hour period. The total time of their afterburn is greater than the once daily exercisers.

This is something to think about this spring as you plan for bathing suit season. The days are longer - it is getting dark later. Think it over. Might be worth your effort.

Right Carbs?

2011-04-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

Are You Eating the Right Carbs?

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. 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.

Glycemic Load Isn't Perfect

Becoming familiar with the GL values of common foods will help you identify and avoid the carbs that cause rapid blood sugar elevation and trigger cravings. You should not base your diet solely on GL, however. Some foods with a low GL score are high in fat and calories. The fat in these foods slows your body's absorption of carbs, which gives the the foods the low GL scores, but the foods themselves aren't good for your waistline in large amounts. Always keep your daily caloric allowance in mind and stick to it.