Archive for June, 2010

Once you decide on a weight loss goal, you want reach that goal as quickly and painlessly as possible.  It’s just like ordering something online; you want it to arrive within 5 minutes of placing the order!

You’ve heard over and over that permanent weight loss takes time, slow and steady is best, blah, blah, blah.

But then you see start seeing infomercials or magazine ads and you begin to wonder:  do those things really work?  It would be so much easier!  Maybe I really could look like a 19-year-old supermodel by Friday!!

Let’s stop right there and take a look at some of these weight loss methods.

• Fad Diets You know what a balanced diet is and why you should follow it.  Any eating plan that requires you to completely omit an entire food group that you know is part of a healthy diet is obviously not good for you.  You may see weight loss at first but your health will suffer.  And any diet that extremely restricts your calorie intake will backfire on you in the long run.  If you don’t provide enough fuel to run your body, it thinks it is starving and will cling to fat like a drowning person clings to a life preserver!
• Liquid Diets Read the label carefully.  If you are using shakes to replace all of your meals, will they replace 100% of all the nutrients and fiber that your body requires in a day?  Will you feel as if you’re starving because you’re trying to survive on only a few glasses of liquid to get you through your busy day?  A better use of these shakes would be as an occasional meal replacement or supplement to your weight loss plan.
• Surgery Gastric bypass, lap band, liposuction – these are all surgical methods people try in order to lose weight.  Besides being expensive and often dangerous, they don’t provide the results that you want.  I’ve known 3 people who had gastric bypass surgery and 1 who had the lap band procedure and they all had negative results.  At first they lost lots and lots of weight, maybe for the first two years or so.  But then they gradually started to put it back on.  Because of these procedures, they could only eat small amounts at a time, but after a while they felt deprived so they tended to eat small amounts all day long.  Maybe with better nutritional counseling they could have been successful.  But then again, if they had followed sensible weight loss methods in the first place, they wouldn’t have been tempted by the quick fix of surgery!
• Spot Reducing You may be able to tone the muscles in isolated areas, but the only way to lose fat in one spot is to lose fat overall!  No product can single out and burn only belly fat or back fat or big toe fat!  That’s just silly!

To lose weight and maintain your health you need to follow a weight loss program which includes a healthy diet and exercise.  A good, comprehensive program I recommend is Fat Loss Quickie but there are plenty of others to choose from.  You can receive a free copy of the ebook, “7 Secrets of Permanent Fat Loss & Fitness” by providing your name and email address in the box near the top of this page.

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There seems to be a common misconception that, if you have knee pain, you should stay away from any type of strength training such as weight lifting or resistance exercise. But actually, the opposite may be true.

According to Fitness Alert, researchers reviewed the findings of 18 studies involving 3,000 patients who had knee pain due to arthritis.   They discovered that resistance training “reduced pain and improved physical function, walking speed, and balance.”

When the muscles surrounding the knee are weak, it causes instability which stresses the joint. This stress leads to deterioration of the cartilage which cushions the joint.  With the protective cushion damaged, the joint surfaces develop irregularities and the membranes that secrete lubricating fluid don’t work as efficiently.

Strengthening the muscles around the joint helps treat the knee pain by improving the stability of the knee.  Of course, you absolutely must check with your doctor before using strength training or any other type of therapy for knee pain.

What methods have you used to deal with knee pain? Please tell us about it in the comments section below.

Did you know that consuming too much protein increases the loss of calcium?

According to the website, Third Age, when your body digests protein, acid is created.  In order to neutralize the acid and get your body back to its correct PH balance, your bones release calcium.

The RDA for protein for an “average” woman is around 50 grams per day, or .8 grams for every 2.2 pounds of body weight.  Of course that amount increases when you are pregnant or lactating.

If you regularly eat more than twice the RDA of protein, whether it is for building muscle or for any other reason, you could be increasing you calcium needs by up to 250 mg.  Make sure you adjust your diet or supplementation accordingly!

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Do you believe that you have a condition that keeps you from exercising?  Well, think again!  A water aerobics workout may be the perfect solution for you!

People who are overweight or have joint problems often find exercise to be unpleasant and even painful.  But when you are in a pool, the water supports most of your weight, taking the burden off of your bones and joints.

In the last month or two of pregnancy, when your beautiful belly has become cumbersome, let the water support it so you can stretch and flex your arms and legs more easily!

What are some of the benefits of a water aerobics workout?

• Cardio Working your arms and legs continuously against the resistance of the water gets your heart and breathing rates up.
• Resistance Water provides 12 times the resistance of air so all of your movements require your muscles to work harder than they do out of the water.  Although this resistance is obviously not as beneficial as lifting weights, it is a good start for someone just beginning an exercise program or recovering after surgery or an illness.
• Buoyancy People with balance problems find that movements that require them to stand with one foot off the floor are much easier to do with the water stabilizing them.
• Low Impact A water aerobics workout is probably the most low impact workout you can do.  If you are looking for exercise that is easy on the joints, this is the one to pick.
• No Sweating! I know it sounds crazy but I know some people who refuse to exercise because they don’t like being sweaty!  Well, no more excuses – you stay cool and refreshed with water aerobics!

What kind of activities should you do?

Basically, a water aerobics workout is any activity you do in water that gets your heart rate up and keeps it up for at least 20 minutes.  Try making big circles in the water with your arms or swishing them back and forth.  Use your legs to do bicycling or scissors motions.  If you need help staying afloat, use a boogie board or one of those noodles – my kids call those slerms!  Swimming or even just treading water are aerobic activities.

You might want to join a water aerobics class to get some coaching.   Plus, people who workout with others tend to enjoy their workouts more and are more motivated to stick with it.

For more tips on staying fit and healthy, please sign up for my weekly newsletter.  You’ll receive a free ebook when you do!

The day before Father’s Day my sibs and I decided to do a pot luck lunch/dinner of foods that could be served cold.  I had a good vegetarian pasta recipe that is usually served warm and decided to adapt it a bit to make a cold pasta salad.  The results were delicious!  Here’s the recipe I used.

In a large bowl combine:

• Two 14.5 ounce cans Italian style diced tomatoes, drained
• One 14.5 ounce can navy beans, drained and rinsed
• About 5 ounces frozen chopped spinach, cooked (use more or less spinach according to taste preference)
• enough olive oil to sort of bind it all together
• dried or fresh basil to taste
• course ground pepper to taste

Set aside.  Cook 8 ounces of pasta (penne or any shape you choose).  I like to use the Barilla Plus brand because it is made with flaxseed which provides omega-3 fatty acid, plus more protein and fiber than other pasta products.  (No, I don’t sell this!  I just think it’s the healthiest choice if you’re eating pasta!)  Rinse the pasta to cool it.

Combine the pasta and sauce.  You can serve it at this point or chill for later.  If you chill it, set it out to bring it back to room temperature before serving.  Sprinkle with feta cheese.

That’s it – an easy, delicious, pasta salad that even my vegetarian niece loved!

Please tell me what you think of this recipe and share it with your friends and followers!

In my last post, we talked about 5 foods that could improve your mood. Today let’s talk about how these same foods are also good for your body.

• Fruits and Vegetables Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables causes you to feel full so you eat less of the higher fat foods, thus lowering your calorie intake.  Different types of fruits and veggies have various organ protecting properties and strengthen your immune system.  So be sure to consume a variety, not just your same ones every day!
• Fish Many fish, particularly salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids which are important for heart health.  Some studies have also shown that eating fish twice a week can decrease belly fat.  Sounds good to me!
• Cereal Beginning your day with a bowl of whole grain cereal fuels up your metabolism leading to more calorie burning all day.  I know you’ve heard it before but this bears repeating:  people who skip breakfast are way more likely to be overweight than those who don’t.
• Eggs Specifically the yolk of the egg.  Egg whites contain almost no nutrition, except some protein.  Egg yolks contain calcium, iron, zinc, folate, vitamins A,  B6,  B12,  D,  E, and omega-3 fatty acids.  Eat the whole egg!
• Chocolate According to The Journal of Nutrition, indulging in just 2 ounces of dark chocolate per week could decrease your risk of heart disease by 33 percent!  It also contains more antioxidants than red wine, blueberries, or green tea!  Who knew M&Ms were actually a health supplement!

When you eat these foods, you can feel good knowing that you are doing something good for your body and your brain!

Please share this post with your friends and followers – thanks!