Chocolate is often thought of as a sinful treat, when the right kind of chocolate can actually be good for you.  Dark chocolate has been proven to have health benefits including protection against free radicals which age and harm the body. Milk chocolate isn’t the best choice, because it’s high in saturated fat, but even little treats on occasion are OK.  Like I said, sometimes you gotta have some chocolate.

Unfortunately, the problem with chocolate, however, is that innocent bite after a hard day can lead to more and more chocolate.  Why?  Sugar cravings.

Sugar is an addictive devil.  Sugar empties into your bloodstream quickly, giving you a quick burst of energy, but is soon used up.  Once that sugar is gone, your body screams for more energy, quick, in the form of a sugar craving.  It’s hard to break that cycle.

The people at beFull get it, and have developed a snack that will calm your chocolate craving, but fill you up so you don’t keep going back for more.

Truffulls, the newest addition to the beFull line, encourage you not to fight your cravings, but to embrace them in a healthy way.  The chewy chocolates come in two flavors- Chocolate Mint and Chocolate Caramel, and weigh in at 120 and 100 calories, respectively.

So how does this work?  Truffulls do contain sugar, about 8 grams, which will do nothing for cutting your sugar habit, but they contain 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber (that’s a whopping 20% of your daily need) which will help keep you full, and make it easier to resist going back for more.

The company claims that the ’specially formulated treat is designed to fill up the top portion of the stomach so that at mealtime less food is required to feel full, thus promoting portion control and weight management.’

I received Truffulls to try, and they actually tasted pretty good.  The mint Truffulls weren’t as sweet as the caramel, but they were both quite good.  The texture was nice and creamy, much like I have tried in the past and overall thought they were a pretty good little treat.

As far as filling me up, the effect wasn’t as apparent to me as when I tried the Fullbars and Fullbites.  I didn’t notice an immediate fullness, but I didn’t crave more when I was through, as I do with normal chocolate.

Nothing beats a good chunk of Hershey’s Dark, but when it really comes down to it, Truffulls are a better choice to curb a sweet tooth. They have the nutrition, and they have the taste down pat.

Cosmetic surgery may seem harmless to most, but surgery is a big deal.  There are life threatening dangers and complications that are not to be taken lightly.

But what if that elective surgery was to potentially save your life?  Would the risks be worth it?

The popularity of weight loss surgery has exploded in the past few years. People keep getting fatter, and lazier, and want quick results.  Some are so morbidly obese that their weight will inevitably kill them- it’s just a matter of time.

Getting the weight off as quickly as possible is the only solution for some, but for many, they have the time to lose the weight quickly and safely, surgery just seems like an easier, more permanent measure.  They, however, bypass (excuse pun) one important factor: their health.

Health? Who cares? This is about losing weight!

A healthy weight is a natural side effect of being healthy- which takes exercise and proper nutrition. Most people put the cart before the horse and make the goal about weight- which is fine, if it leads you to a clean diet and exercise, but for most people it sends them straight to a doctor’s office.

Taking the easy way out is selling yourself short, dangerous, and only tackling part of the problem.

Gastric Bypass and the Lap Band surgery are the most popular surgical weight loss methods. Gastric Bypass surgery is where a chunk of the stomach is surgically removed, making it smaller, and unable to hold much food.  It’s expensive, invasive, dangerous (1 in 350 people die) and irreversible. It’s forced starvation, yet many people gain the weight back because they still don’t know how to eat properly and over time stretch the remaining portion back out.  Vomiting is also very common as most people are unable to decipher hunger cues and over fill the stomach.

The Lap Band surgery is the same principle, blocking off part of the stomach, except a rubber band is placed around the stomach. The band often slips, and has to be fixed with more surgery. Your tiny tummy doesn’t allow you to eat more than a few bites of food at a time, which makes getting a well balanced diet nearly impossible, and causes many vitamin and mineral deficiencies (but who cares if you’re thin, right!?) Because of the shrunken stomach, patients must follow a strict diet to reduce complications and to not damage the stomach after surgery.  If you have to follow a strict diet anyway, why not just follow a healthy one to lose weight, and leave surgery out of it?

Liposuction is a cosmetic surgery where fat is sucked directly from the body. People often look to lipo as a miracle cure, but lipo is meant to be a spot treatment, to lipo multiple areas of the body can be very traumatic and a horribly painful recovery. Fat and blood clots can occur and travel to the lungs causing death. Nerves and skin can be damaged causing intense pain and a puckered, bruised, wrinkly appearance.

And you thought making it into the gym was painful.

Approximately 1/3 of people who have weight loss surgery need a followup surgery to fix complications.

You need to learn how to eat healthily to make a lifelong change. Something got you over weight in the first place, and until you start taking care of yourself the right way, and not the easy way, that weight will come right back on- even after a major surgery.

Besides, if you didn’t work for it, will you ever really be proud of it?

Photo via freshnews.in

The GoLite TraveLite Tote Bag giveaway has come to an end, and it’s time to announce the winners!

Each winner will receive one red TraveLite tote bag — the perfect all-purpose, earth-friendly tote bag made of all recycled materials.

And the winners are…

Lauren

Mara

Katy Lin

Chris S

Sagan

Congratulations winners! Check your email for further instructions.

Everyone else, check out the Free Stuff page for more great giveaways every week, including one that started this morning!

Skin MD Natural is medicated natural, eco-friendly product designed to help repair dry skin, and protect you from harsh irritants and chemicals. Its also dermatologist-recommended and hypo-allergenic, manufactured using green renewable energy.  In addition, the feel-good lotion is hypoallergenic, cruelty free and a vegan product.

What sets Skin MD Natural apart is that it is a shielding lotion, working with your skin to naturally moisturize and heal. According to Skin MD Natural, “most conventional, artificial moisturizers only add moisture to the surface of the skin, but do little to repair the skin’s natural barrier against moisture robbing irritants. Skin MD Natural breaks the dry skin cycle by
working to help restore skin’s natural protective abilities by bonding to the outer layer of skin, strengthening skins natural barrier against toxins and irritants that can dry the skin, while locking in the skin’s natural oils.”

But lotion is lotion, right?

I opened the pamphlet I was sent, and almost lost my lunch at the pictures of rashes and eczema I was assaulted with.  Once recovered, I read further to find that the lotion not only promised to health dry cracked skin, but to actually help eliminate the effects of these conditions.

While I don’t have any skin eating rashes, I do, however, get pretty gnarly calluses on my hands from lifting weights because I refuse to wear lifting gloves, even though I probably need them.  They are a little too ”look at me! I lift weights and I think they are really heavy!” for my taste. There was a women than used to wear them on the elliptical (the elliptical!!) at my old gym and it used to drive me crazy.  What, was she scared she’d fall off and needed an iron grip?  Wait, no fitness talk today.

I also use Neutrogena’s Proactive-esque 3 step cleanser, and while it does wonders for keeping my skin clear, it dries it up like nobody’s business, causing visible flakes.  The lotion I used to use to fix the dryness felt so heavy and oily that I felt like I was just clogging my pores right back up.

I also use the lotion on my hands, and has softened my calluses and improved the skin around my nails.

It has a watery feel, instead of oily, so I wasn’t nervous about breakouts or an oily sheen.  Despite the watery texture, however, it moisturized quickly and lasted all night- when I woke in the morning, there was no tightness or dryness to be found.

This lotion is for everyone, from run of the mill moisturizers to those in serious dry skin hell.  The best part is, a little goes a long way, so I will be using this lotion for a long time to come.

Case and point: “I can eat ice cream now because it is healthy!”

Remember, “healthy” and “healthier-than-the-alternative” are two entirely different things.

Healthy to me means providing nutrients without anything bad. Like fruits. And vegetables. And whole grains. Basically, nothing that comes from a factory and is vacuum sealed. Also, I’m not going to choke down a cardboard version of an unhealthy food so I can tell myself I had a “treat” without any guilt. I’d rather have a delicious juicy apple than a bland, poor excuse for a cookie.

All that to say, when I was sent some of Michael Season’s Baked Snacks to review, I was less than thrilled to say the least. Another bag of baked chips and cheese doodles from a company expecting me to be thankful that I can have chips guilt free?

No thanks. Where’s my apple?

Nevertheless, I needed to review the chips, so I started by checking the labels first to see what I would actually be eating. Gluten-free. I promptly called to my gluten-intolerant dog, Pork Chop, prepared to give him the remaining snacks I surely wouldn’t finish.

I read on. In addition to being gluten-free, these single-serving, 100-calorie packs of Original MultiGrain Chips, Cheddar Cheese Puffs, Sweet BBQ Chips and Cheddar Cheese Curls began to impress. Wheat-free, low fat, organic ingredients, 1-3 grams fiber, no trans fat — I’m a health nut, I know what to look for. I searched, trying to find something unhealthy, or some ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. Nope. No such luck. They started to grow on me.

Yeah, but how do they taste?

The Cheddar Cheese Puffs and Cheddar Cheese Curls tasted like they had been rolled in the powdered cheese from a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (to which my boyfriend yelled, “Yum!” and snatched the bag away from me so he could eat the rest.) That was fine with me. No one messes with my cheese, and if it isn’t the good stuff, I’m not eating it. The boyfriend, however, loved them, which is a compliment because he won’t touch anything considered a health food.

When I do eat chips, I usually eat the baked variety, which are widely offered now in response to the call for healthier alternatives in places like vending machines and restaurants like Subway. I actually enjoy the crunchy, and un-oily taste of baked chips to the regular version, so I was curious to see how the other two flavors stacked up.

The Original MultiGrain Chips were great — real crunch, light salt, and almost a dead-on taste to their less-healthy competition, MultiGrain SunChips (which contain wheat, more fat and calories and less fiber).

The Sweet BBQ Chips are a lot like my fave, Baked Lays KC Masterpiece BBQ chips, which contain 9.75 grams more fat and and 3 more grams of saturated fat.  Same taste, way less fat. Sign me up.

I’m still not going to eat chips everyday and pat myself on the back for making a healthy decision, but for kid’s lunches, an occasional treat, or for the gluten-intolerant, Michael Season’s would be my pick above anything else.

I should go out and pick some up though, because poor Pork Chop didn’t get to taste a single one.

Photo via Michael Seasons

While I agree that over eating will definitely keep you from losing weight, even if you exercise, my issue with the article was that it blamed exercise directly, not the exerciser who made the decision to eat.  Muffins, I believe was the author’s example.  Exercising makes you hungry, so you eat a high calorie, high fat muffin.  Exercise doesn’t let you choose a healthy, low calorie snack.  Exercise steals your free will.

It got me upset because I could almost hear exercise loathers around the world latch onto the excuse and shout, “I don’t have to exercise!  It won’t work!”

Sorry to burst your sedentary bubble, but everyone has to exercise.  EVERYONE.  Exercise is prevents diseases like cancer, increases bone density, prevents injury, evens out muscle and flexibility imbalances, relieves stress, improves sleep and gives you kick ass muscles to keep you looking firm and toned.

I do agree, however, that exercise alone will not get the weight off.  There are no freebies when it comes to weight loss. You have to have some self control.  Exercise does not give you license to eat whatever you want, and cutting calories does not mean you don’t have to work out.  Despite the calories in, calories out relationship between the two, they are not opposites, they work together.  Exercise is not mean to to undo the food you eat, calories are fuel to get you through your workout.

You cannot out exercise a bad diet.

Most people overestimate how many calories they burn (you can’t trust machines unless you entered in your height, age, weight gender, and it read your heart rate the entire time- and even then, it’s iffy) and underestimate how many calories they eat.

A good 30 minute cardio session will burn around 250 calories.

There are 250 calories in a granola bar. Or a small light smoothie at Jamba Juice.  And those are healthier options than most people pick.  Eat one of those because you think you deserve it after a workout, and bam, calorie burn gone.  You can have these, just not in addition to your everyday food because “you worked out hard.”

Does this mean there is no point in exercising?

No.

This means you have to watch your diet, too.

This means working out does not entitle you to extra snacks if your goal is weight loss.

This means you should focus on the health benefits of exercise instead of how many calories you burn.

This means “I’ll burn it off tomorrow” isn’t an excuse.

If you don’t quite consider yourself a morning person, you may want to shell out the 99 cents for the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app for your iPhone.

Developed by LexWare Labs AB, The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock works using the iPhone’s accelerometer to analyze your movement through the night. It detects your sleep cycles as you sleep and can, after a couple nights of data collecting, fully determine what your sleep cycles are.

Most people don’t even know what a sleep cycle is, so I will elaborate.

The average, healthy human goes through a few sleep cycles a night. These sleep cycles consist of four different stages:

Stage 1: Drowsiness – This lasts about five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, muscle activity slows down, and you are easily awakened.

Stage 2: Light Sleep – Heart rate slows, eye movement stops, and body temperature decreases.

Stages 3: Deep Sleep – You are difficult to awaken, and if you are, you feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes. Deep sleep allows the brain to restore the energy used while we are awake. Blood flow decreases to the brain, and is redirected toward the muscles, restoring physical energy. Immune functions also increase.

Stage 4: REM sleep or Dream Sleep – This occurs at about 70 to 90 minutes into the sleep cycle. The average person usually has about three to five REM episodes per night. This stage is where learning and memories are solidified, stress is released and emotions are processed. Breathing is rapid and shallow, eyes dart under eyelids, heart rate increases, and blood pressure rises.

These stages are why most experts recommend never ever using your snooze button. Since it takes about an hour to reach the stages where real rest occurs, stopping short only to be woken up again by a blaring alarm is going to leave you more tired than if you just got up in the first place. Easier said than done, of course. I found this out a while ago, and am still having trouble leaving my snooze button alone.

The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock takes the snooze ban a step further and actually determines, based on your movements, which part of your cycle you are in and, thus, the best time to wake you up. Don’t worry about it letting you sleep through that morning meeting, though. You set your alarm, and in the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, the app analyzes your movements and wakes you up at the best point in your sleep cycle, so you rise fresh as a daisy, instead of a coffee-crazed commute hazard.

It doesn’t take the place of a good night’s sleep, but it will make waking up a little easier by simply shifting your alarm a few minutes ahead or behind your set time. Some may grumble they don’t want to wake up any earlier, but if your felt more refreshed and ready for the day, those extra minutes don’t really matter, right? And that’s precisely the point.

Photo via Source

But for a growing few, fitting in their workouts isn’t just not a problem, it’s non-negotiable. Waking up early to fit in a run before work, hitting the gym on their lunch break, and then catching a fitness class before bed isn’t a good day, it’s every day, without exception.

There is a lot of talk of eating disorders and eating issues, and when they go from being a healthy consciousness of the food we eat to an unhealthy obsession, but what about exercise? When does getting in your workouts go from a healthy habit to a dangerous body-pounding punishment?

Fitness Magazine published an article in their March issue called Confessions of a Cardioholic, in which they explored this very question.

Author Jessica Girdwain shared her own obsession, as well as other women’s, who were racking up anywhere from 3-6 hours of exercise per day between the gym, classes, walks to and from work and in their home.

“It’s the superwoman syndrome,” Angela Liddon, 26, was quoted as saying of her exercise addiction that stemmed from training for a half marathon. Soon Liddon was running daily, followed by exercise DVDs and nightly yoga sessions. “I felt like I had to do it all to perform well.”

Surprisingly, most of those found to have some form of an exercise addiction weren’t concerned with losing weight. Over-exercisers are a different breed from exercise bulimics, who workout constantly to burn as many calories as possible, often starving themselves, as well. It all may have started with the simple goal to lose weight or shape up, but the compulsion that keeps over-exercisers exercising multiple times a day, or for extended periods of time, has more to do with a feeling of accomplishment and the physical feeling exercise provides than to purge every calorie from their body.

Over-exercisers tend to be type A personalities, that is very goal oriented. Exercise is a way to push themselves to their limit, constantly setting physical goals to go farther, faster or longer. Their payoff? The exercise high: that rush of endorphins that makes you feel like you can go forever. The only way to reach that point, however, is to push your body farther and farther, and soon that runner’s high is more like a drug than an extra little bonus.

As a fitness blogger and certified personal trainer, I have the unique opportunity to allow readers to ask me their fitness questions and give them answers to the best of my professional ability. One would think I would be over run with questions about how to start an exercise habit, or how to make more time to fit in a workout in a buy day, but that’s not the case. Granted, those who have made fitness a big part of their life are more likely to be searching fitness blogs than those who don’t know where to begin, but the degree of commitment and worry in the questioner’s words is alarming. Frequently, the questions I receive include phrases like “never enough,” “anxious,” and “need to do more” appear sprinkled around a frighteningly-detailed description of intricate, timed workouts that occur seven days a week, sometimes multiple times a day.

More often than not, my specific advice about their workouts are overshadowed by my concern over the frequency and intensity of their training, and the control and rigidity of it all.

I get a lot of flack for working out so often (about four times a week) and making it a big priority in my life. I am very aware, and have committed my career, to teaching others the importance of exercise, but I find that a healthy balance is also important. Once the habit is formed, and as long a you are working up a sweat, you are ahead of the game. Just like with healthy eating, your motivation is key, and what can turn a healthy habit into an unhealthy need is what compels you to continue, like fear or anxiety, and if you are having negative physical effects, like injuries, constant fatigue and loss of menstruation.

The Fitness article lists these warning sign to help you decide if you are a committed exerciser, or letting exercise rule your life:

• You feel a constant obligation to workout.

• You feel guilty or ashamed when you can’t workout.

• You compromise your safety to get in a workout (ex. exercise at night alone because you “have to” or you workout with an injury because you don’t want to take time off.)

• You exercise when you are sick or fatigued.

• You experience irregular or an absent period.

• You put exercise before work, family, friends or prior engagements.

• Your family and friends express concern over you exercise habit.

If you think you may have an exercise addiction, talk to your doctor about how to get help.

GoLite is a company founded under the principle that less is more: less gimmicks, less footprints, less waste. GoLite is the perfect company for anyone who like to go camping, back packing, hiking or just likes to experience nature on their own terms.

While GoLite offers a wide variety of backpacking and camping gear, their casual, light weight clothing and practical accessories are the perfect fit for anyone.

This week, we are giving away five of Go Lite’s TraveLite Tote made of all recycled materials.  It makes a perfect gym bag, grocery bag, lunch bag, diaper bag, or everyday tote. 

Five lucky winners will recieve their very own red Go Lite TraveLite tote.

Here are a few ways to enter:

• Leave a comment telling us why you want this tote
• Follow Twirlit.com on Twitter
• Tweet this giveaway on your own Twitter
• Link back to this giveaway on your blog

The more you enter, the more chances you have to win!

Note: Please use a valid e-mail address.  Open to US and Canadian residents only.

The lucky winners will be chosen randomly. Giveaway ends Wednesday, March17, 2010. The winner will be reached by email, and announced on the blog 3/17/10.

Good luck!

The violations vary, including labels for Gorton’s Fish Fillets and Dreyer’s Dibs and vanilla fudge Drumsticks (that boast no trans fat, yet they contain high levels of saturated fat). POM pomegranate juice also got knocked for claims that their juice can cure diseases like hypertension, and Gerber baby food was warned about making invalid health claims on nutrients as dietary guidelines for those nutrients have not been set for children under two years old.

Most of these companies claim that they were in compliance with FDA regulations, but still have vowed to cooperate.

The change is refreshing. For those who know how to read nutrition labels, it’s easy to forget that many people don’t know how to see past those bogus or inflated claims. The Dreyer Dib are a perfect example. No trans fat is all well and good, and may cause someone to buy those over other ice cream treats, but one serving of Dibs bite sized ice cream contains 17 grams of saturated fat: the recommended limit of saturated fat per day is 20 grams, so you almost reach your limit in one snack.

I wrote a review for POM juice a while back, and while many people love the juice and think it’s great for your health, the claims they make, backed by “research,” are some of the most vague and convoluted statistics I have ever heard, performed by their own professionals, mind you. Here’s a snippet:

“Drinking 8 oz. of POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice per day for two weeks lowered the incidence of LDL oxidation, believed to be a key factor in arterial plaque formation. The pilot study included 13 patients.”

Wait, what? Lowered the incidence by how much? 1%? 100%? How many people saw this effect? One? All 13? More importantly, how can you conduct a study with only 13 people? There aren’t even numbers in that stat — which means it’s not actually a stat, right?

I looked at other health (health!) bloggers that reviewed the juice and they, too, were shouting its health praises and quoting these stats. Point being, everyone can get caught up in these misleading claims, even informed customers.

While the FDA is meant to help protect the public’s health, they can only do so much. As such, it is on each individual person to educate themselves on what, exactly, they’re putting into their bodies.

Photo via FDA.gov

Jennie-O Turkey Store has developed a wellness website, WellnessDaily.com, which works as a one-stop shop for help achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The online community is full of the latest news, healthy-living blogs, expert opinions, and nutritious recipes, plus tons of videos on topics including weight loss, healthy eating, exercise and mental well-being.

To celebrate, Jennie-O is offering a full product rebate (up to $5.00) for the first 25,000 users who sign up. (So hurry!)

Even more exciting, Jennie-O is offering users who help spread the word about WellnessDaily.com on their Twitter the chance to win a prize package, including coupons for a year-long supply of Jennie-O Turkey Store products and a one-year gym membership, valued at $1,250.

The website is easy to navigate, full of tons of motivating tips and information, and can even be customized to your specific interests. If you have a unique, healthy insight, or a great story to tell, you can also apply to blog for them.

In the end, getting healthy doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite foods. With Jennie-O, you can still eat your favorite meals, she just helps make them healthier! And now with their new website it’s easier than ever to overhaul the rest of your habits as well.

To sign up and experience the site, visit www.WellnessDaily.com. For additional information on the Jennie-O Turkey Store visit www.JennieO.com.

Photo via JenniO

Just, please, not at the same time.

And that lucky winner is:

Susan Margaret!

Congrats! Check your email for more information on claiming your prize.

Everyone else, check out the Free Stuff page for another great giveaway that started this morning!

“If I do tons of cardio, all the time, I will lose weight and be thin like the movie stars! I will be svelte and toned and thin, thin, thin! If I spend hours on the treadmill/elliptical, then stretch and so some crunches I will have the body I’ve always craved.”

Are you the gym goer that has never stepped foot into the free-weight room? Do you have your designated cardio machine, and don’t leave it until you reach a certain amount of minutes or burn a certain number of calories? If you do use dumbbells, are they pink, and smaller than your fists?

You’re wasting your time.

Cardio is important, but it’s not everything. All cardio is meant to do is raise your heart rate for an extended period of time to improve cardiovascular efficiency and blast calories. This is all well and good, but the same effect can be achieved with strength training, in less time. Further, you would also be building toned, sleek muscles, which is the desired look most women want anyway.

Most women (sorry, it’s just a fact, men’s goals usually aren’t to be thin) have this notion that cardio is what will melt the fat off and leave them with the thin, toned body they crave.

While it will burn calories, which results in weight loss, it will do nothing to change the shape of your body. You will be smaller, but just as soft, which isn’t the goal.

What will give you that body? Strength training. No, you will not bulk up, and no, you are not too intimidated to lift weights. You might be right now, but shake it off because to get the results you are looking for, you are going to have to enter the man’s world: the weight room.

What weights will do is get your heart rate up higher than any conventional cardio machine, and simultaneously build muscle to give you a firm, toned look. Like I said, if you burn off fat, with nothing firm underneath it, you are still going to be squishy.

It is also important to remember that weight and burning calories are a side effect of being physically fit. It’s a nice bonus, but shouldn’t be the only goal. You are only attacking part of the issue. Exercise is to improve your health and prevent disease, so in order to be that properly, strength training in a must.

So how do you do it? Get a heart rate monitor. Make sure your heart rate stays at approximately 65%-85% of your maximum heart rate (220 – your age). You can keep it up by moving quickly from one exercise to the other, doing compound exercises (working your upper and lower body at the same time–which will also cut down on the length of your workout) and really pushing yourself with heavy weights or high reps.

Quit spinning your wheels. Get off the treadmill. Exercise and weight loss doesn’t have to feel like you are a rat on a wheel, and you definitely don’t need to workout hours a day. The more you challenge your body, the better it will respond, so branch out and try something new.

Photo via Source

In a recent study, scientists found that when a group of subjects were given the same serving of ice cream on different occasions, the subjects who ate it in 30 minutes released more “feeling full” hormones than those who ate the ice cream in five minutes. (Why ice cream, though? Wouldn’t it melt after 30 minutes?)

The scientists took blood samples and measured hormones before, during and after the subjects savored their ice cream. They found that the two hormones that cause you to feel full — glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY — were more pronounced when food was eaten slowly.

This falls in line with a 2008 study published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association that reported subjects consumed roughly 10 percent fewer calories when they ate slower.

So, if you eat slower, you are going to eat less. I think we knew this one already — it’s sage dieting advice that it takes 20 minutes for your belly to tell your brain you are full, but now you have some scientific jargon to solidify it for you.

But, again, I don’t think that most people actually stop eating when they are full, and getting full isn’t really anything America needs help with; we are pretty good at stuffing ourselves.  Even if people did eat slower and consume 10% fewer calories, with the way America eats, 10% isn’t going to do much in terms of weight loss and health.

My cutting calorie advice? Don’t go out to eat every day, don’t hit drive-thrus and cut out the junk.

But then again, I’m no scientist.

Photo via istock

Developed by entrepreneurs James Park and Eric Friedman, the souped-up pedometer not only tracks your steps, but when you are most and least active, calories burned and even the quality of your sleep.

For $99, the FitBit is a sleek, wireless device that uploads your data to the Web when you walk by the included wireless station, encouraging you to move more and set goals to increase your activity each day.

Much like the Wii Fit, FitBit turns exercise into a game, but with the added advantage of being able to take it with you all day. You can wear it loose in your pocket, hooked to your waistband or your bra, or on a wristband when sleeping.

As an ex-pedometer addict myself, I have to say that this thing gets me a little excited. I’m a big numbers person, and I love to use them to set daily goals. (My boyfriend still makes fun of me for all the times he caught me marching in place while watching TV to try and hit my goal). The problem with pedometers, however, is that they are bulky, unreliable and don’t give you any additional information, let alone let you track your totals from day to day. On a superficial note, pedometers are bulky and hard to hide too, whereas the FitBit can be hidden easily anywhere since it doesn’t have to be in any particular position.

The FitBit is in high demand and, as of February 25, is on back order. If popularity is any indication, the FitBit may just be the next big thing America needs to get them up and moving.

Photo via Fitbit.com

British department store Debenhams has debuted new mannequins that reflect real women’s body types, and even more refreshing is that they aren’t to model a plus sized line. The new displays are a size 14 (US size 16) compared to the usual size 10 (8 US)  mannequin, and feature signs that read, “I’m a size 16. Do you want to see more of me?”

Debenhams spokesman Mark Stevens says of their new mannequins:

“We are proud to offer a broad and varied choice for women of all ages, shapes and sizes in store, so we thought we should reflect this in our window displays. If it’s popular with customers we would love to roll it out.”

The mannequins allow consumers to see what the clothes would actually look like on them, as the average UK size is 14 or 16.

Wonder when this will catch on in the US?

One of my biggest peeves is when I enter a store and the smallest clothing size has to actually be pinned together in the back because the waists of the plastic models are so impossibly (quite literally) tiny.

I don’t care what the clothes look like wrapped around a flag pole. I want to know what they would look like on me. I am often drawn to the displays in Torrid’s windows, a trendy clothing store for plus-sized girls. Even though I am not plus-sized, the mannequins draw my attention because they look like normal people, and I can see how those clothes would look on me, a normal person.

Mannequins, to me, are not runway models. Runway models (for now, at least) are meant to walk clothes down the runway without showing them up, which means disappearing inside of them. Mannequins are meant to make me buy, which means showing me how the article of clothing will look on me. If I walk around the back and see that the only way a shirt looks good is if I am so emaciated that an extra small has to be stapled to me to stay on, I’m going to pass.  I don’t need any mannequins telling me it’s my fault a shirt doesn’t look good on me.

The show that pits unhealthy, overweight contestants against each other to see who can lose the most weight the fastest is being called unhealthy itself for encouraging dangerous levels of weight loss and injury-causing workouts.

Experts recommend losing 1-2 pounds per week for safe weight loss. The Biggest Loser, however, prides itself on weekly double-digit weight loss, with some contestants losing 100 pounds in seven weeks, and leaving others disappointed, and sent packing with a seven or eight pound loss.

Those same experts warn that such rapid weight loss is not only a sure fire way into yo-yo dieting, but can be unhealthy and dangerous as well. Patients who lose weight quickly run the risk of gallstones, mineral deficiencies, loss of muscle tissue and reduced bone density. In addition, such grueling workouts are a recipe for injury, as the show often shows us.

My favorite, and by favorite, I mean most frightening example, was Season 8, where resident evil-game player Tracy collapsed on the first day after pushing herself too hard during a mile run. She fell to the sand, eyes rolling back into her head, not responding to anyone, yet her teammates drug her across the finish line because she “would have been disappointed in herself if she didn’t finish.” Tracy was then rushed to the hospital where she remained for days. She didn’t need to finish a race too difficult for her fitness level, she needed an ambulance, immediately. During that same run, another contestant was hospitalized

Season 9 opened with a 26.2 mile race on stationary bikes. One contestant was taken off her bike after suffering from severe leg cramps. I work out almost daily and am not confident I would be able to bike 26.2 miles in one sitting, but that may be because I am aware when I am overworking myself and have the good sense to stop before I cramp, pull something, or have to be hospitalized.

These people, in most cases, haven’t worked out in years and don’t know what normal exercise discomfort is, and they miss their bodies’ warning signs that they are pushing too far, especially when they have trainers and teammates screaming in their faces to keep going. Most contestants by the end of the season are wrapped, fractured, broken, pulled, strained or restricted from activity due to injuries.

I have quite a few clients over 300 pounds, and I would never dream of ever asking them to try the exercises these contestants do. When you live at over 300 pounds, your body pays the price every day. There is knee pain, back pain, joint issues, cardiovascular limitations and often times many medications that effect the bodies signs of activity, like heart rate and blood pressure. Immediately forcing a body that is already broken to perform at peak levels for extended periods of time is going to breed disaster.

This isn’t a game. This is life. We like to see people push their bodies to the limit, and see perseverance and determination triumph over all, but more often than not–especially in the case of severely de-conditioned and obese individuals–it results in pain, illness and injury. We like to see the smiling faces and slimmed down bodies at the end of a short period of time, but the same results can be achieved at a slower pace, increasing the likelihood of permanent weight loss with no injuries. Competition is one thing, but unrealistic dangerous expectations are an entirely different ball of wax, and to push people as far as they can go, and sometimes beyond, will ultimately do more harm than good. Even if it does pull in the ratings.

Photo via NBC

Read any weight loss book out there and they will tell you that veggie-filled, broth-based soups are the staple of a successful plan–but who has time to make their own, and all that sodium in prepared soups is hardly healthy, right? Progresso soup has this all covered though with their Progresso Light and 100 Calorie soups. With several flavors, such as French Onion, Chicken & Barely and Manhattan Clam Chowder, Progresso soups are a delicious choice to fill you up and provide you with a full serving of vegetables for a 100 calories per serving or less.

To celebrate your decision to take care of your health, Progresso is holding the “Souper You Debut” contest for the chance to win a complete makeover in New York City.

Three grand prize winners will be awarded a trip for two to New York City from May 21-23. The prize includes round trip airfare, a two-night stay in a NYC hotel, a full makeover, a $1,000 wardrobe shopping spree and personal consultation at a New York department store. In order to qualify you must enter before March 15, 2010. Visit www.Progresso.com/SouperYou for more details.

As a part of this contest, this week we are offering one lucky reader a Progresso gift pack to further their healthy lifestyle.

We are giving away:

• two cans of the Progresso Light soups

• a Progresso digital jump rope that keeps track of jumps and calories burned

• a Progresso soup mug

Here’s how to enter:

The more times you enter, the more chances you have to win!

Note: Please use a valid email address. US and Canadian residents only.

One winner will be chosen randomly. Giveaway ends Wednesday, March 3, 2010. Winners will be reached by email, and announced on the blog on the same day.

Good luck!!

Progresso Soup, gift pack, information and giveaway have all been provided by Progresso

That winner will receive:

Mahdia Mandy Tank, in Dusty Rose

Mahdia Prima Pant, in Dusty Rose

Printed Double Headband, in Lilac Geo

E.C.O. Yoga Mat, in Wisteria Lilac

Yoga Mat Holder, in Pewter

And the lucky yogi winner is …

Ashlei!

Congrats!

Check your email for further instructions.

Everyone else, check out the Free Stuff page for another great giveaway, starting this very morning!

The unsportsmanlike tirade Williams unleashed on a lines judge, where she threatened to shove a ball down her throat when she disagreed with the officials’ call, ended with Williams’ being slapped with a record $92,500 fine.

Williams, in a brilliant reputation saving move, has just announced her 92K Mission, a plan to raise the same amount for schools.

Of her decision to start her mission, Williams stated on her website, “This experience has educated me beyond belief, so I would also like to take the opportunity to educate women.”

While this may just seem like one more desperate PR stunt in a string of fallen sports role models’ cries for forgiveness, it’s hard to call Williams’ charity work transparent. Williams has been involved in many charities before her recent in-game tantrum, including work with UNICEF and opening a girl’s school in Matooni, Kenya, along with another school in Senegal currently in the works.

The good thing about charity is that no matter what the motivation behind the money raising event, the money still goes to a good cause, and in this case, that’s children’s education. Learned her lesson or not, Williams is making the best out of a bad situation and helping others in the process, to which I say bravo.

Photo via LA Progressive

Commonly listed negative calorie foods are water rich fruits and vegetables like apples, carrots, celery, cabbage, lettuce, strawberries, zucchini and oranges.

Many diets use the same idea and claim that there are “free foods” that can be consumed as often as the eater would like.  Weight Watchers is one of the most widely known and respected diet programs, where eaters are given a certain number of point allowance for food a day.  Weight Watchers awards most fruits and veggies zero points, and there are even some vegetable heavy soups that get the zero point rating.

But is this for real?

Yes and no.

NegativeCalorieFoods.com clears it up a bit, saying, “No food actually has a negative amount of calories, because all foods have some caloric value. But the overall effect of these particular foods balances out as negative because the energy we use to digest them is greater than the energy (or calories) than we consume in eating them.”

While this technically is true, don’t expect to be able to burn off a piece of chocolate cake with a few apples.  The difference is almost negligible, and won’t result in measurable weight loss, especially if you do not eat healthy otherwise, or do not exercise.

As a personal trainer, I would do a happy dance on my desk if people told me they were cramming as many fruits and veggies into their bodies as they could, but for different reasons.  Eating fruits and veggies because they are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and water is awesome- eating them because you can gorge guilt-free and think it will help you lose weight isn’t any way to eat.  The goal when losing weight, or even just being healthy, for that matter, is to learn to listen to your body and eat intuitively.  Even though you are scarfing healthy foods, finding a loophole that allows you to eat copious amounts of food is not a healthy lifestyle or mind frame.

You know another source of negative calories?  Exercise.  A walk, run or a few crunches will scrotch more calories than digesting a belly full of celery, and will also do wonders to increase you mood, energy level and prevent disease.

Skewer me if you want. Quite frankly, the fact that people would get mad and call me stupid because I ask them to do a little unbiased research on the ingredients of products that are notoriously dangerous before ingesting them blindly–just because a celebrity is on the label–makes me weep a bit for society. But go ahead. I’m a big girl, I can take it.

I find it scary, but it happens everyday. People used to take Hydroxycut, which was released and touted as safe! And effective! Then, it was yanked for causing liver injuries.

Many people that criticized my post quoted her Facebook message to her haters, but I prefer to hear a product is safe from somewhere other than the spokesperson herself–especially from a blog on a social networking site. Even more so because her pills contain citrus aurantium, which is known to cause high blood pressure & serious cardiac problems in certain individuals.

I was a little peeved that she released the line in the first place, after being such a pillar of health-and-fitness-is-a-lifestyle in the industry. It would seem she has sold out for the “Lose weight quicker! Faster!” movement (a tag line on her website says “America’s TOUGHEST trainer makes losing weight SIMPLE!”) that has people throwing their money at store clerks in search of slimmer thighs through tablets and less work. I feel pills cheapen her message, but that’s neither here nor there.

Jillian Michaels line of diet pills have stirred up controversy, but more than that, it has resulted in not one, but three lawsuits, claiming her line is ineffective and dangerous.

Photo via JillianMichaels.com

Despite what you may think, Crystal Renn, whose beautiful, womanly curves and dark features are enough to make any man melt and women seethe with jealously, was not always the picture of femininity she is today. Renn was discovered as a teen by a talent scout at her etiquette class, and told that she could have a very successful modeling career, but only if she shed some weight from her 5′9″ 165 pound frame. Crystal starved and exercised herself down to 95 pounds in just a few month and at 16 years old, moved to New York to sign with a big agency who was thrilled with her “progress.”

Renn does not name the agency or the agent who praised her weight loss and continued to send her on more castings despite the fact she was getting no work due to her lack of personality and vacant look. Renn herself looks at old pictures and notes how horrible they are. Which makes sense, it’s hard to convey strength and beauty when you are constantly sick and hate yourself inside and out.

Despite losing her hair, suffering from heart palpitations and doing irreparable hip damage from over-exercising, Renn continued to live off of lettuce and Diet Snapple, the only foods she was comfortable consuming. Eventually, despite her manic efforts, her body rebelled and she began to gain weight. A normal part of growing up for most, these extra pounds meant failure and panic for Renn. As her weight crept up to 130 pounds her agency let her know that she would either need to lose weight, or move on.

Renn was not ready to give up her ambitions of editorial modeling work–which emphasizes rail thin bodies, as opposed to catalog or commercial work which is a bit more accepting of larger bodies–but it was obvious that no matter how hard she tried to force it into submission, her body was not meant to be a size zero. She was tired and sick, but still wanted to model. Renn asked about plus-size work, and the agency put her in touch with Ford Models, her agency today.

Renn was the pioneer, and quite frankly, is still alone as a successful editorial plus-size model. She has had successful work with Dolce & Gabana, Vogue, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lane Bryant and, probably her most famous ad, the Breast Cancer Research Association, in which she appeared wrapped in a red, silk sheet, back bared.

Renn’s book is not about eating whatever you want despite what other people think. It’s about eating healthy and intuitively and letting your body settle at its happy weight. She explains that some models are rail thin naturally, and you can tell them by their lack of protruding bones and veins because they are not malnourished, but that designers and agents don’t care either way as long as they sell. Renn, on the other hand, claims that the only reason her modeling career took off was because as she gained weight, she gained self respect and a love for herself, which she can now convey through the lens.

While sometimes it reads like a thank you letter to every single photographer and designer she has ever worked with, Renn’s book is an insightful, sometimes shocking look at the pressure of the modeling industry and the triumph of overcoming it with wild success. No matter your size or aspirations, Renn’s story is an inspiration for anyone who had ever been told that they’d never be able to do it.

Photo via Amazon.

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED***

Attention Yogis!

Yoga is a mindful exercise meant to help you clear your mind of stress and push your body to the limits, but who doesn’t want to look fantastic while doing it?

PrAna, one of our favorite fitness apparel companies, is helping us give away one stocked yoga kit, full of new Spring products that both novice and expert yoga enthusiasts need to get a great workout.

The PrAna Yoga Kit includes:

Mahdia Mandy Tank, in Dusty Rose, worth $50

Mahdia Prima Pant, in Dusty Rose, worth $70

Printed Double Headband, in Lilac Geo, worth $10

E.C.O. Yoga Mat, in Wisteria Lilac, worth $44

Yoga Mat Holder, in Pewter, worth $25.00

Total worth: $199.00

Here’s how to enter for this awesome prize:

The more times you enter, the more chances you have to win!

Note: Please use a valid e-mail address. US and Canada residents only.

One winner will be chosen randomly. Giveaway ends Wednesday, February 24, 2010. Winners will be reached by email, and announced on the blog on the same day.

Good luck!!

As any celebrity would do, he took to his Twitter account to tell the world of the great injustice.

“I broke no regulation, offered no ’safety risk,’ (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?),” he Tweeted. “I’m way fat… But I’m not THERE just yet.”

The airline eventually apologized and put him on another flight with $100 voucher for his trouble.  He claims to have refused the voucher, but did indeed take the flight.  However, all was not forgotten.

“Dear @SouthwestAir, I’m on another one of your planes, safely seated & buckled-in again, waiting to be dragged off in front of the normies,” he continued to Tweet.

Smith then posted a picture of himself settled into his new seat with his cheeks puffed, exclaiming “Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!”

Southwest, surprisingly tech savvy for an airline, sent him some apologetic Tweets after they saw the outrage at his story and support he received on Twitter for his embarrassing experience.

There now has been a Twitter war between the airline and Smith and Smith followers, and the man who plays Silent Bob refuses to stay silent.

Southwest struck back via the Internet with a post on their blog about the situation.  In it, they explain that Kevin Smith originally bought 2 seats, which they claim he always does when he flies, but decided to take an earlier flight, which only had one seat available for him.  The airline claims he could not fit and was encroaching on the safety and comfort of the passengers next to him.  (Personally, I love me some Kevin Smith, and would kill to be crammed into a plane seat next to him.)

“Southwest instituted our Customer of Size policy more than 25 years ago. The policy requires passengers that can not fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional seat while traveling,”  says Southwest.

Kevin Tweeted that even though he usually buys two seats, he comfortably fits into one, and put down the arms rests.

What do you think?  Was Smith discriminated against because of his size, or is Southwest justified in enacting their policy, even the customer happens to be famous with a penchant for Twitter?

Photo via Entertainment Weekly