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.

1. Blueberries contain more antioxidants than other fruit

Because of their antioxidants, blueberries score highly on the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) scale, but scientists are finding foods that are even higher – including dark chocolate! Even if blueberries top the scale, they are only rich in one family of anti-oxidants, anthocyanin, which is found in other fruits, like grapes. All I heard was that I should eat dark chocolate instead of fruit. I’m in!

2. Low-fat foods help you lose weight

Okay, I knew this one. Just because a food is low in fat doesn’t mean it’s healthy! Watch out for extra sugar and calories.

3. Eating at night makes you fat

Calories are calories, whenever you consume them. If you mindlessly snack in front of the TV every night, you’re bound to gain weight. But if you’re consuming a healthy total amount of calories, it’s fine to eat at night.

4. Eggs raise cholesterol levels

Although eggs contain cholesterol, our body varies the amount it produces, so simply makes less if we eat an egg. Research by the University of Surrey found that, after eating a two-egg-a-day diet for 12 weeks, none of the test subjects had raised cholesterol levels. And one egg is only 75 calories!

5. Coffee dehydrates your body

Many people believe that coffee is a diuretic (a substance which causes the body to lose fluid by making the kidneys produce more urine) – but it’s just not true. Nutritionist Angela Dowden says, ‘New converts could be taking more trips to the loo. But your body gets used to it and coffee counts towards your daily fluid intake.”

6. Eating margarine is bad for your heart

Now that margarine no longer contains trans fats, it’s healthier than butter.

7. Decaf coffee won’t affect your energy levels

Decaffeinated coffee actually does contain caffeine – although only a tiny 5mg compared with the normal 90mg or more in a filter coffee. But research has shown it may make you sleepier than no coffee. Dr Crystal Haskell, of Northumbria University, found levels of caffeine less than 10mg actually made people feel more tired, with weaker memory skills. Weird!

8. Always keep fruits and veggies in the fridge

Scientists in Oklahoma in the U.S discovered that a watermelon left at room temperature had double the levels of beta-carotene and 20 per cent more lycopene – both antioxidants – after two weeks than one stored in the fridge. Bananas and peaches are also more nutritious when kept warmer. Time to buy a cute fruit bowl from Anthropologie!

9. Your body needs eight glasses of water a day

When doctors at the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. examined the benefits of drinking this much water, they found no evidence that it led to clearer skin, boosted weight loss or helped the body to detox. Instead, gauge your water intake by your urine color: it should be straw-colored or lighter.

10. When slimming, eat little and often

Australian scientist Dr Michelle Palmer compared weight loss in people eating big meals and small meals and found they lost the same amount. The only difference was the six-mini-meal group was more likely to put the weight back on. If you’re eating mini-meals, you may pack too many calories.

11. Raw vegetables are better

We’ve always been taught that cooking vegetables makes them lose nutrients. But that’s not always true: when carrots are cooked, the damage to the cells means three times as much betacarotene is released – an anti-oxidant thought to help protect skin.

12. White meat is lower in fat than red meat

This may have been true many years ago, but now white meat and red meat generally have the same fat content. A lean sirloin steak has as little as 5g of fat per 100g, while chicken thighs may have up to 9g per 100g.

13. Pale vegetables have fewer nutrients

Dark veggies are indeed healthy, but don’t discount the lighter ones. White cabbage is full of vitamins A, B, C and K, along with calcium, iron and fiber, while cauliflower is a great source of anti-oxidants, vitamin C and folate.

Photo: Jim Clark via Wikimedia Commons

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

Tropical Macaroons

• 1 c. old fashioned oats
• 1 c. unsweetened dried coconut
• 1/4 c. apricots, chopped
• 1/4 c. almonds, chopped
• 1/2 t. coconut extract
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. almond butter
• 1/2 c. agave
• 1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put oats and coconut on a cookie sheet and oven toast for 5 -7 minutes, turning several times until golden brown.

In a large bowl combine remaining ingredients and toasted oats/coconut mixture. Mix well and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.

Scoop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet using a melon baller, mini ice cream scoop or tablespoon measuring spoon.

Bake cookies for 10 -12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for one minute before removing from sheet and then compress balls while transferring to a cooling rack.

The more you weigh, the more you’ll lose One study found that daily weighers dropped twice as much weight as those getting on the scale weekly. (Amazing.)

Cheap is best Skip the fancy body fat measurements — they’re hard to understand, can fluctuate wildly, and can make it easier to lose focus. All you really need is a scale that tells you your weight, rounded to the nearest 1/2 or 1/8 pound.

5 lbs overnight is okay It’s normal for your weight to fluctuate as much as 5 lbs over a 24 hour period based on where you’re at in your monthly cycle or what you ate over the day and hours before. Get the most consistent reading by weighing yourself at the same time every day (i.e. first thing in the morning).

You can lose sizes without losing weight Muscle is denser and weighs more than fat, so if you’re strength training you’re probably replacing fat with muscle, which means you’ll be physically smaller without actually weighing less.

Where you put the scale affects the results Scales need a flat, firm surface to give an accurate reading so most bathroom floors will work just fine. Uneven tile shifts and distributes the weight unpredictably while thick rugs can absorb some of the weight and be off by as much 20 pounds.

(Photo courtesy of nubuck on stock.xchng)

In her new memoir, Lonely, White attempts to give loneliness—a state, as she puts it, of “frightened isolation”—its proper place among other diagnosed conditions. Suffering from chronic loneliness as she does, White wants this “stigmatized” experience to be not only officially recognized by the world at large, but to be honored as an affliction worthy of extensive research and given its very own category in the next DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the fifth version of which is due out in 2013.

The manual is getting longer and longer, with the fourth version including “caffeine-induced anxiety disorder” and “nicotine dependence” among its afflictions. You might remember my article about orthorexia (obsessive healthy eating), which is another candidate for inclusion in the book. It seems ridiculous to include so many “conditions,” but the danger of exclusion is that therapists and psychiatrists might brush symptoms aside as part of the human condition or confuse them with the symptoms of other disorders.

In the book, White herself struggles to distinguish chronic loneliness from depression. Although she admits to suffering from both, she believes depression has been given more than enough press and is now understood by the culture at large to be a legitimate illness, worthy of empathy and care, while loneliness continues to be misperceived as a “light, minor, and occasional problem.” White’s book also includes research from “loneliness researchers” from Arizona to Scotland and responses from “about 20″ other sufferers she found via Craigslist and her blog.

Photo: LonelyTheBook.com

That’s exactly the kind of thinking that could be sabotaging your diet. Research shows that the majority of people eat more on the weekends than they do on weekdays, whether they’re dieting during the week or not. The average person eats 400 calories per day extra on the weekends, and it’s significantly higher for “dieters on break.” All that extra indulging can result in 12 plus pounds per year or more, which means that even if you’re really strict about dieting during the week, you might still end up breaking even, or even gain weight, if you’re over-indulging on the weekends.

So what’s a girl to do if she doesn’t have the willpower of steel? It’s important to let yourself indulge in your favorite foods every now and then (so you don’t burn out on the diet altogether), but instead of giving yourself a total weekend pass, have your favorites in controlled amounts and make a point to find fun ways to boost exercise (like playing sports, taking the dog to the park, or meeting a friend for a jog) to help burn the extra calories.

(Via QualityC on stock.xchng)

As of now, Simpson wears XXXXXXXL dresses, eats excessively, and tries to move as little as possible. (It is VERY hard for me not to think of the actual Simpsons episode in which Homer tries to gain weight on purpose to qualify to work from home.)

Simpson already holds the world record for world’s heaviest mother, when she gave birth to her daughter in 2007 via a high-risk Caesarean delivery. To reach her goal, she will have to consume 12,000 calories a day. For some perspective, women between the ages 19-30 should consume about 2,000 calories a day, with that amount dropping to 1,800 for women ages 31-50.

It costs about $750 a week for Donna to eat at this staggering caloric level. Guess how she earns that income? She runs a website where food and fat fetishists pay to watch her eat junk food.

Donna clearly developed her attitudes toward nutrition during her childhood:

“Food was (our mother’s) way of showing she loved us, she wanted us to eat, and she was very protective of us. She wouldn’t let anyone say anything bad to us about our weight. She would argue with doctors who said it was dangerous.”

A quick set of facts on obesity:

Obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, and certain forms of cancer, and the complications can range from osteoarthritis to depression to premature death.

All of this can be rather alarming when you remind yourself that Simpson has a child to take care of. Is her daughter inheriting some warped ideas about food and well-being, along with her mother’s potentially staggering medical bills?

Photo via James Ambler/Barcroft

Today, as I write, I feel disgusted with the choices I’ve made and have thus sunk into a mild form of diet depression. I drank excessively while friends were in town, and now that the party dust has settled, I feel horrible. My body is sluggish today as it recovers from a week-long bender with my best friend. And while it’s not like me to sulk, I really feel like a total idiot today.

Where is my will power? If writing about dieting for the world to read isn’t enough to keep me in line, what will it take?

But the Type-A personality inside me knows I need to find a solution. I alluded to it in week four, but I’m doing it now: The Master Cleanse.

After this week of partying, I feel like my body needs a cleanse. Luckily for me, I have a supportive husband who is willing to undertake the cleanse with me. We are starting on Wednesday, March 17 and are going to do the cleanse for six consecutive days. The first three days will involve easing into the cleanse (the lemon drink along with fruits and veggies) and the final three days will include nothing but lemon-red pepper-syrup water.

I feel like the cleanse is the jump start I need and should have done prior to starting the diet. I didn’t mentally prepare for the diet prior to starting, and now that I’ve hit an emotional low for letting myself, my readers, and my supporters down, this is my re-commitment to healthy eating.

My insides need a bath and I feel like any weight loss from doing the cleanse is just an added bonus. I also feel the need to prove to myself that I can overcome the psychological need to eat, which is what tends to guide my eating rather than the physical need.

I need to prove to myself that I can make a plan and stick with it — even if that means an extreme fast like The Master Cleanse.

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

I remember my first visit to Jamba Juice, as I excitedly ordered what was essentially an extra large chocolate peanut butter milkshake, disguised as “health food:” the Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Moo’d Smoothie.  With 700 calories and 108 grams of sugar, there’s nothing healthy about it.  And though the drink contains, non-dairy milk (vegan, obviously), it also contains frozen yogurt that is made from regular milk.  Seriously, Jamba Juice, what’s the point?  Go dairy or go vegan, but don’t do both.

At our house, we’ve come up with our own Peanut Butter Smoothie with it’s own secret ingredient.  Fortunately, this hidden suprise has iron, calcium and vitamin K.  You may spot it on the ingredient list, but you won’t spot it in flavor!

• 1 frozen banana
• 2 T. cocoa powder
• 1 T. peanut butter
• 1 c. vanilla soy or almond milk
• 1 c. spinach
• agave or stevia to taste, if desired

Combine all ingredients in a blender until thick and frothy.  Serve in a glass and drink up!  Use care not to spill on your hot new jeans.

Photo via BusyVegan

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.

In recent studies, researchers concluded that some risk factors for childhood obesity exist even before birth. Further, they’ve found, obese 3-year-olds already show the signs of inflammation that is linked to heart disease in adults.

The notion that a person’s lifelong weight trajectory might be programmed early in life is startling — and potentially revolutionary, says Dr. Nicolas Stettler, an associate professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. “If we can identify a short period of time where an intervention can have a long-lasting effect, that could be very promising,” he says.

Michelle Obama’s anti-childhood obesity program “Let’s Move“ is a positive one – but the fight against obesity should begin with mothers and prevention. Mothers can keep their babies off the obesity path by fighting against obesity themselves. Almost half of U.S. women today begin pregnancy overweight or obese, automatically increasing the likelihood that their babies will be born either too small or too large, both of which increase the risk of obesity for the child later in life.

How much weight is gained during pregnancy is also important. The odds of being overweight at age 7 were 48% higher for children of women who gained more weight than recommended during pregnancy compared with women who met weight guidelines.

“What we find is that these things set up children for a lifelong risk of obesity,” says Asheley Cockrell Skinner, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “These factors don’t just make them overweight; they become barriers to helping them change when they get older. It becomes the story that never ends.”

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

Surprised? I’m not really, clearly the stereotypes are out of date. Of course women today still want families, but we also want to have fun and go to college and build careers. We’re not in any rush to have kids because, for a woman, having a baby too soon means some of that stuff doesn’t happen. Men, on the other hand, can make a baby and still do whatever they want. For a guy, “doing the right thing” doesn’t necessarily mean marriage like it used to, plus of course they’re not the ones who have to be pregnant for 9 months, or even live with the baby after it’s born (depending on circumstances). I think for modern men getting a girl pregnant doesn’t come with the same repercussions it used to and it could even be a little like getting a new toy.

What do you think?

(Photo courtesy of simmbarb on stock.xchng)

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.

I know, your mind is blown! The findings, reported this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 19,220 United States women aged 39 or older who, at the start of the study, fell into the “normal weight” category based on their body mass index. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston tracked the women’s drinking habits over 13 years. About 60 percent of the women were light or regular drinkers, while about 40 percent reported drinking no alcohol.

Over the course of the study, 41 percent of the women became overweight or obese. Although alcohol is definitely high in calories (a six-ounce glass of wine packs 150), the nondrinkers in the study actually gained more weight over time: nine pounds, on average, compared with an average gain of about three pounds among regular moderate drinkers. The risk of becoming overweight was almost 30 percent lower for women who consumed one or two alcohol beverages a day, compared with nondrinkers.

Honestly, studies about the benefits and risks of alcohol are often contradictory. Although moderate drinking is associated with better heart health, regular drinking also increases breast cancer risk. So what should we do? Like in most things, it seems the key is moderation.

Interestingly, the findings don’t translate to guys. A 2003 study of British men showed that regular drinkers gained more weight than nondrinkers. It could be due to eating habits; while men typically add alcohol to their daily caloric intake, women are more likely to substitute alcohol for food. In the Archives study, women who drank alcohol reported fewer calories from food sources, particularly carbohydrates.

In addition, there may be differences in how men and women metabolize alcohol. Metabolic studies show that after men drink alcohol, they experience little if any metabolic change. But alcohol appears to slightly speed up a woman’s metabolism.

The link between consumption of red wine and less weight gain was particularly pronounced in the Archives study. Some studies have suggested that resveratrol, a compound present in grapes and red wine, appears to inhibit the development of fat cells and to have other anti-obesity properties. Where’s my Malbec?

Photo via NYTimes

Energize with color

Bright colors like red, orange and yellow can stimulate adrenaline and give your system a rush of energy. Put a splash of color somewhere where you’ll see it right when you wake, like on your pillow, bathrobe, or bathroom wall.

See (and smell) the roses

A study out of Harvard found that women who woke up to see a flower bouquet reported increased energy and a better mood for the entire day. Now you have a no-guilt excuse to indulge in one of those cheap (but pretty!) supermarket bouquets every so often.

Stop hitting the snooze

Your brain knows the alarm is going off again so it doesn’t go back into any real stages of sleep. The result? You’re more tired than you would have been if you’d just gotten up right away.

Hydrate!

Our bodies are mostly water and every single body process requires water to work — stay hydrated and you’ll stay energized and happy.

Let the sunshine in

Take the extra time to open a window or step outside while getting ready for work and let the sunshine in — you’ll feel more energized and get a mood boost versus rushing around in the dark only to head off to a windowless office.

(Photo courtesy of adripoveda on stock.xchng)

]]> http://www.twirlit.com/2010/03/09/not-a-morning-person-how-to-wake-up-happier/feed/ 0 http://cache.static.tsavo.com/wordpress/uploads/2010/03/morning-person-sm.jpg http://www.twirlit.com/2010/03/09/10-reasons-to-get-a-stainless-steel-water-bottle/ http://www.twirlit.com/2010/03/09/10-reasons-to-get-a-stainless-steel-water-bottle/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:00:25 +0000 Rigel Celeste http://www.twirlit.com/?p=39565 Looking for an excuse to drop some cash on a cute new reusable water bottle? There are a lot of plastic options out there but stainless steel is the way to go and here are 10 good reasons why.

• Less bacteria. Stainless steel is naturally more bacteria-resistant than plastic or other materials.
• Better insulated. Stainless steel bottles are some of the best insulated options out there — meaning your ice water will stay icy.
• Long lasting. Stainless steel is tough, and when dropped or crushed it might dent a little but it won’t crack.
• Better flavor. Plastic and aluminum bottles can leave water with a weird aftertaste, but stainless steel leaves water tasting clean and fresh.
• You control the water. It’s confusing these days trying to figure out which water is safe to buy and which comes from sketchy or contaminated sources. With a reusable bottle you control what you fill it with.
• Less chemicals. Plastic bottles are known to leech chemicals into the water, plus they might absorb the colors and flavors of the liquids you fill them with.
• Functionality. These days you can find a stainless steel style to fit your lifestyle, whether it’s for sports or travel or just a busy day running errands.
• Good for the environment. Keep plastic bottles out of the landfill by investing in a cute stainless steel one instead: it’s recyclable and lasts longer than plastic.
• Great style statement. Stainless steel bottles come in every color, shape, and pattern imaginable so you can express yourself however you want.
• Saves money. Switching to any reusable bottle will save you money over buying disposable bottles every day, but investing in stainless steel is even better because of the durability and long life.

You can’t make simple decisions. When you’re tired your brain is less able to tell the difference between important information and the stuff that doesn’t matter. Planning a lunch meeting (where to eat? who to invite?) suddenly becomes a source of stress.

You just can’t stop eating. Sleep deprivation disrupts blood sugar levels and triggers the production of extra ghrelin, a hormone that induces hunger. Plus tired people tend to prefer comfort foods over healthier choices, which doesn’t help.

You’ve almost always got a cold. Sleep boosts your immune system, and so not getting enough can cause the opposite effect and leave you feeling run down and susceptible to every little bug that comes your way.

You’re really emotional. If you find yourself tearing up over commercials or flying off the handle for no good reason it could mean your brain isn’t able to temper your emotions the way it normally would because you’re too tired.

You’ve become a klutz. Studies have shown that sleepy people have less precise motor skills and slower reflexes, all of which add up to spilled coffee and tripping on the curb (or in my case it’s usually tripping over nothing but flat carpet).

(Photo courtesy of tizwas01 on stock.xchng)

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

It’s that relationship between STDs and alcohol that Derek Bower chose to focus on when he created his latest safe sex campaign, geared toward young people in the UK. He came up with a disturbing, hilarious, and slightly-nauseating combination of alcohol labels and common STDs like chlamydia, herpes, and HIV/AIDS that are being displayed on billboards throughout the UK along with startling statistics about risky behavior, unprotected sex and disease transmission.

Ugh, I hate it and I love it. I hate that I now have the words “pubic lice” burned into my mind (YUCK!) but I love the fact that it’s so effective — I’m not sure I’ll ever look at a Jack Daniels bottle the same way again.

What do you think, necessary and effective or over-the-top sensationalism?

Photo via Source

But you can’t go throughout life never being near a computer, going into a hot tub, or walking on carpet again, right? What you can do, though, is avoid bromine in certain food items. For example, you might notice the ingredient “dough conditioner” on some processed-bread nutritional labels. If so, run from it! Not just in the grocery store, but at fast food restaurants too, this time in the form of hamburger and hot dog buns. 

From Dr. Joseph Mercola, “The use of potassium bromate as an additive to commercial breads and baked goods has been a huge contributor to bromide overload in Western cultures.”

Even guiltier on Mercola’s list, however, is Mountain Dew and its BVO of which he says, Mountain Dew, one of the worst beverages you can drink, uses brominated vegetable oil (BVO) as an emulsifier. Not only that, it contains high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, more than 55 mg of caffeine per 12 ounce can, and Yellow Dye #5 (tartrazine, which has been banned in Norway, Austria and Germany.) — A weapon of mass destruction — in a can.”

I pretty much will never drink another Mountain Dew after researching this. There’s vegetable oil in a soda drink!? Oh wait, brominated vegetable oil is also in Gatorade, Fanta, and Fresca — basically other highly-processed drinks that are citrus flavored. For the record, BVO has not been banned by the FDA (yet), but it has been in India.

Two good bets:

1. Stay away from dough conditioners by buying fresher, tastier organic bread. Or you can go the DIY route and make your own loaf. You will be delighted when that lump of yeast, flour, salt and water turns into hot bread. Sure it takes effort, but it’s your accomplishment and you get to have the first delicious slice. Further, Baker Jim Lahey has written a book about not even needing to knead the dough, so now you have no excuses!

2. Just say no to more citrus-flavored, mass-produced fizzy drinks or sports drinks. Instead, have some actual orange juice! Whoa, it comes from a fruit? Why yes, yes it does. Get thee to a farmer’s market, immediately!

Photo via MountainDew.com

When I was offered the chance to check out Shmirshky by E, I was excited. Now that I’m coming up on the big change, I want to read every book I can get my hands on about menopause. The unfortunate thing is that I’m not a doctor, so a lot of the terminology goes right over my head. Shmirshky is much simpler. E is not a doctor or an expert, but she is a woman who’s gone through menopause.

One of E’s goals with the book was to reach out and encourage women to admit they are not fine. As women we have a tendency to shrug things off, even when it feels like we’re spiraling out of control because we don’t like being anything less than 100%. How true is that? Personally, I hate getting sick because it cuts into my productivity time, so often I ignore illness and signs that something might be wrong. Through allowing ourselves to admit we are vulnerable, E says we become fearless because we educate ourselves and know what to expect.

There is an abundance of advice, well-researched and chock full of easy-to-understand terminology, in this book. E’s taken the liberty of adding footnotes to explain unfamiliar terms at the bottom of every page, so you don’t have to skip to the back of the book to find out what she’s talking about. She’s also added a healthy dose of humble humor about her own hellish journey through menopause.

So, what’s a Shmirshky? The opposite of an Erlick, of course. I’m a Shmirshky, and chances are if you’re reading this, you’re a Shmirshky too. To find out what it really means, I recommend you read the book. Just knowing that every woman out there will eventually go through this in her own way is a comfort. Shmirshky encourages us to embrace the knowledge out there and prepare ourselves, something our mothers and grandmothers weren’t taught to do. In fact, many of them were told to hide what they were going through because issues of femininity and sexuality were best left in the cavern of hidden mystery.

Shmirskhy is an easy, but informative read. In fact, I sat down and read it through in about an hour, but I will definitely be going back to it again and again, and I think you will too.

And check out this video of E:

“FDA approval is like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, only much more so,” said says Daniel Carpenter, professor of government at Harvard University and author of the soon-to-be published book Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA. ”Sellers try to take advantage of that reputation.”

Don’t be fooled. The words “FDA approved” or “FDA registered” don’t mean as much as consumers often assume. “FDA certification of a product is never a guarantee of safety or effectiveness of anything,” Carpenter says.

All products that make health-related claims need some kind of clearance by the FDA. Cosmetics don’t (unless they claim to treat specific problems such as dandruff or acne). Consumers trying to sort out marketing claims should understand that the FDA has different standards for different products.

The FDA only “approves” drugs and serious high-tech medical devices. Other products may be “listed” or “registered” with the agency, but that’s a big step down from actual approval. The FDA doesn’t regulate vitamins, herbs or other dietary supplements – so if those products are making claims about the FDA, be suspicious!

Photo: tips4hairloss.com