Stop trying to be Skinny...

We have been on this journey for about 33 weeks if my count is correct if it is not it should be close.  When I started this journey I had a goal of weight loss, as I continue down this path my goals are changing.  If you have been following along I tend to “refocus” quite often.  Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily as long as my goals are still going in the right direction.  I was struggling a bit on what to write about this week when I heard some AWESOME news.  I won’t mention names but this person told me that since starting to exercise and making healthier choices that they have dropped their cholesterol 100pts!!!! The more I think about this the more great I think it is.  You have to be extremely proud of yourself I know I am proud of you.  So with that story I knew this was the right topic.

If you read last weeks article you may remember the quote “Stop trying to be skinny and start trying to be healthy” this is an excellent quote for this week.  We all have the super model image in our mind that we are trying so desperately to fill. My question is Why? Why do we have to look like that? Is that really what is going to make us happy?  Probably not, if the truth were known you could even ask the super models if they are happy with their body and most likely they are just like us and can pick out a feature that they would like to change.  My image of skinny seems to always change the closer I get to my goal. So why not work for the feeling instead of the size 0?  After all I am pretty sure my bones are not a size 0. So what’s the point?

I have always struggled with my weight in fact stepping on the scale in the morning used to predict how my day would go.  That makes total sense right? It used to, to me, but now that is the craziest thing I have heard.  Why does that matter on my journey to a healthier lifestyle?  Before you stop reading think of it this way.  If I am capable of performing my life with ease or at least without struggling why does it matter what size my pants are or what the number on the scales reads?  Now the scale is a common and easy measurement of progress but it is not necessarily the best and it is the worst to get wrapped up in, especially when it sets the tone of your whole day.  Now you may be thinking back to the beginning of this journey the No Excuses motto.  You are absolutely right this could easily become an excuse and lead me back to where I started.  I am not aiming this for an excuse and I am going to be sure to watch myself so that it does not become one.  I am just changing my focus to enhance my journey.  I am focusing on the food I consume and the output or activity.  I want my organs and muscles to be in great shape and I feel that as I progress to that “my” perfect body shape will follow.  I will still weigh myself, of course, because it is the most convenient measurement but I won’t let it rule my journey.  I am starting to realize that it is about so much more than being skinny, 150 pounds or a size 5.  And I will say that this realization isn’t the same as when I would say it so that I could just accept that I will never be “skinny”.  This realization comes with the fact that your perfect body size and shape and my perfect size and shape do not have to be the same.  There are so many other measurements of health that tell me if I am on the right path.  So if you have lowered your dose of diabetic meds or dropped your cholesterol 100 pts but the scales only read a few pounds less…so what, you have made amazing accomplishments.  Keep going on your journey your weight will follow suite!

Stick with it!

So we have been on this journey for quite some time now.  I hope you are doing well and are noticing the effects of your lifestyle changes.  There has been a lot of talk around here about the changes.  It is very gratifying to me to listen to these successes even though you are the ones sweating it out.  We have started a new class, 4-week calorie blast, and I must say the progress I see in this group, as with a lot of my members, from when they started is absolutely amazing!

This week my message is to anyone who is just starting or might be feeling a bit discouraged like you are not getting anywhere.  Stick with it because you may not see it but you are making some pretty huge changes and if you keep making positive changes the weight loss will come.  A quote I saw today said “Stop trying to be skinny and start trying to be healthy” Your weight will probably take care of itself if you do.  And I have become a huge believer of that.  Several times people who haven’t known me forever will think that this comes natural to me and that I have always been this way. I will admit myself that this is the first time I have stuck to an exercise routine for this long.  Don’t get me wrong I have always had some exercise in my life.  Although I was just like a lot of people and I would be really, really good for a while then I would get comfortable, or for me lazy might be a better term, and I would fall off my routine until I was right back to where I started.  Honestly I never really got very far because my lapses got closer and closer together.  My heaviest weight (without being pregnant) was close to 200 pounds I wish I could say for my height that is not that terrible but I am not that tall.  After opening Your Life Fitness I have actually really noticed the changes not only in size but also in my abilities and my self-confidence.  Before I would do exercise videos and feel like I was going to die.  I did get to the point that I could get through them and to where I was completing all sections but never really got to the point that I felt I needed to kick it up to get a workout.  Now I have gone back and not only completed some of the videos but even felt like I could do more.  I will admit with it being my job to workout it does make it a bit easier to stick with it…I don’t have a choice people are counting on me but if you stick with it I promise you will see the changes too and you are so worth it.  It is not going to happen overnight, I am a year and a half in and I still have room to improve.  Permanent changes take time, effort and hard work.  Another quote I see often is “If you want maximum results use maximum effort.”

A big thing I have to keep reminding myself is “I am worth it and I deserve to feel good and be healthy.”   Often times, (I would almost venture to say always) we are the only ones who get in our way of our dreams.   When I was working on my business plan for the fitness center I was talking some things over with a friend and at one point she looked at me and said “Quit sabotaging yourself!”  I had never thought about anything like that before and she was absolutely right.  I still hear her saying that to me anytime I find myself doubting my ability.

So quit sabotaging yourself and stick with your changes you are worth it!

Chocolate – Good for you?

Everyone likes chocolate, ok well the vast majority I am sure as soon as you say everyone someone will not agree.  Anyway my guess is that you have heard the recent studies that say chocolate is good for you, right?  And if you are like me that is when you stopped listening to the report. All I need to know is that it is good for me. J

Ok well that really isn’t all you should know.  According to an article on about.com written by Mark Stibich, Ph.D, dark chocolate is where the health benefits flourish.  He states that chocolate is made from plants and contains many of the health benefits of dark vegetables.  By now you probably know that the darker the vegetable the better.  The benefits come from flavonoids which act as antioxidants.  Dark chocolate contains nearly 8 times the number of antioxidants found in strawberries!  Are you thinking what I am thinking…. strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, win win!

Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure and lower LDL cholesterol by up to 10%.  Other benefits of dark chocolate include: it tastes good, it gives a feeling of pleasure, it contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant, and it contains caffeine, which is a stimulant.

Now you may also be aware that chocolate contains a lot of fat.  Here is some more good news.  Mark Stibich states that the fats in chocolate are 1/3 of each, oleic acid, stearic acid and palmitic acid.  Palmitic is the only one, which raises cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.  Oleic acid is also found in olive oil (healthy fat) and stearic acid is saturated but seems to have a neutral effect on cholesterol.

This is the part where we tend to stop listening.  Although dark chocolate is good for you it still contains calories.  One bar of dark chocolate contains about 400 calories. If you would eat half of that for 200 calories you need to be sure that you exchange something else so that you still remain in check for total daily calorie count.  While dark chocolate has claim to health benefits milk or white chocolate do not.  To be dark chocolate it must have 65% or higher cocoa content.

So just remember these few tips and enjoy dark chocolate everyday!

1.      Go for the dark chocolate

2.      Skip the caramel and nougat they just add sugar and fat and defeat your purpose.

3.      Avoid washing it down with milk.  It is said that a glass of milk could prevent your body from absorbing the antioxidants.

4.      And probably the most important to avoid hampering your journey…balance your calories.  Be sure to make the exchange not add to you daily balance.

So grab some dark chocolate and forget the guilt!

Ignore the product label and head straight for the ingredients list!

Ok so this series of “How bad is it?” has been interesting and a little frustrating for me.  You can find just about anything on the Internet, including just what ever it is you want to hear.  This week I decided to research whole grains, triggered by my search on good carbs, bad carbs.  I used to think that complex meant good and simple meant bad, well if you read my article last week you found that both categories have both good and bad.  So how in the heck do you make your grocery list and keep your sanity without spending hours and hours at the store?  Ignore the front labels and looking at the back.  The nutrition label is helpful but the real test is the ingredients. 

The less ingredients the better if you are looking at something like bread.  You hear a lot about whole wheat bread, so I switched to whole wheat bread.  Then that wasn’t the right stuff it needed to be 100% whole wheat. Now I am finding even that is not truly the best.  Here are some examples:

This is ingredient list on a package of 100% Whole Wheat bread

“Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Gluten, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast, Cracked Wheat, Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Molasses, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Ethoxylated Mono-And Diglycerides Calcium Propionate (Preservative), Honey, Soy Lecithin.”

Remember a couple weeks ago we talked about the partially hydrogenated and we hear about fructose corn syrup all the time and these are towards the beginning of the list meaning they have a greater proportion in the mix.  If you are unaware of ingredient lists here is a little tip.  The ingredients are listed in order of proportion so whole wheat flour has the largest measurement of all the ingredients listed and soy lecithin has the least.

So another option, this loaf of bread said Natural 100% Whole Wheat:

“Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Reduced Iron, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Folic Acid], Water, Cracked Wheat, Whole Wheat Flour, Yeast, Barley, Honey, Fructose, Wheat Gluten, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Wheat Bran, Malt, Ethoxylated Mono-And Diglycerides, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Calcium Propionate (Preservative), Caramel Color, Whey, Soy Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Soy Lecithin, Nonfat Milk.”

Here is the third example:

Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Salt, Calcium Propionate

Catch the differences? I bet you did. They both have partially hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup...junk.  But if you didn’t notice the second option says unbleached enriched wheat flour, this is borderline fake whole wheat bread.  The difference with this and white bread is probably one process, which removes the color.  I don’t know that for a fact I did not research the process.  The third example is the best for three reasons that come to my mind immediately.  There is only 5 ingredients, I know what they are and how to pronounce them and it does not include the partially hydrogenated and fructose.  Had we just looked at the product label we likely would have migrated towards the Natural 100% Whole Wheat, right?

Next time you go to the store check out the ingredients…if you don’t know what they are your body doesn’t either.

Good carbs, bad carbs, no carbs…

The world of carbohydrates is so confusing! There’s good carbs, bad carbs, complex carbs, simple carbs….Agh.  Lets see if we can clear this up by figuring out just what they are, what they do and where they come from.

What are they and what is their purpose? Carbohydrates are a simple union of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  There that clears that up. Just kidding.  Actually the definition of carbohydrate is just that.  That does nothing for me so lets discover the purpose.  Carbohydrates are broke down to two groups simple and complex.  Simple carbohydrates are found in things like refined sugar, candy, fruit and milk.  Complex carbohydrates are found in grain products such as breads, crackers, pasta and rice.  Both groups have some not so great choices and better choices.  Fruit and milk are obviously better choices than candy and unrefined grains, such as wheat flour, are better choices than refined grains such as white flour and white rice.  The refining or processing removes nutrients and fibers so if they are unrefined they still contain these vitamins and minerals.  Unrefined grains are rich in fiber, which helps your digestive system work well.

When you eat carbs your body breaks them down to simple sugars, which are absorbed in the bloodstream.  So why not just eat them as simple sugars?  As the sugar levels rise in the body the pancreas releases a hormone, insulin.  Insulin is needed to move the sugar from the blood to the cells where the sugars can be used as energy.  With simple sugars this process goes fast, with complex carbs this is a slower process.   When this process occurs fast you are more likely to feel hungry again sooner, when it goes slow you feel full longer.

So why the low carb/no carb diets?  Cutting carbs restricts so many of the foods that are normally accompanied by fat that dieters often end up cutting their total calorie intake.  The body draining glycogen stores for energy causes the initial rapid weight loss.  Each glycogen gram used releases 3 grams of water with the result being almost immediate weight loss due to increased urination.  After about 2 weeks increased urination ends and so does the rapid weight loss phase.

Fats

This weeks topic in “I know it is bad for me but just how bad is it” is fat.  The minute we think about a “diet” or eating healthy we think eliminate fat or fat-free.  Let’s look a little deeper into fat.

You can hear fat talked about with different names such as saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat, lipids, trans fat, etc. There are 4 main categories of fats; I will break it down for you in hopefully more common terms.

Saturated Fats – These are the biggest dietary cause of high bad cholesterol or LDL levels.  This is the fat you want to avoid or limit to 10% of your calories.  These fats are found in animal products such as butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, cream and fatty meats.  Some vegetable oils such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils also contain saturated fats. Most other oils contain unsaturated fats and are healthy. Saturated fats are considered “bad fats”

Unsaturated fats – When used in place of saturated fats, these fats actually help to lower blood cholesterol.  However they still have a lot of calories so you still have to limit consumption.  Most liquid vegetable oils are unsaturated.  The exceptions were listed above. There are two types of unsaturated fats: Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated. Some examples of mono include olive and canola oils, poly examples include fish, safflower, sunflower, corn and soybean oils.  Unsaturated fats are considered “good fats”.

Trans fatty acids – These fats form when vegetable oil hardens in a process called hydrogenation and can raise LDL or bad cholesterol levels.  They can also lower HDL or good cholesterol levels.  Trans fatty acids are often found in processed foods, fried foods, commercial baked goods and margarines.  Good news is this fat has gotten such a bad rap that it is being eliminated in processing.  This is where you see a lot of products labeled “No trans fat”.  Not to be confused with fat free but it is at least taking out the worst of it.

Hydrogenated and Partially hydrogenated fats - This refers to the process listed above in Trans fatty acids.  This includes products such as butter and margarine. Foods made with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils should be avoided because they contain high levels of trans fatty acids, which are linked heart disease.  You will find this in the list of ingredients the above three are listed in the nutrition label although it is not always separated.

That gives you a little bit of background on types of fats.  Fats actually have a function in your diet.  Fat is one of the three nutrients, along with protein and carbohydrates, which supply the body with calories and is essential for proper functioning of the body. Essential fatty acids are not made by the body therefore must be obtained from food.  There are supplements such as fish oil that can be added to help you with getting enough good fatty acids.  However anytime you use a supplement you should use it as just that to supplement your diet not to take place of it.  So just what does the fatty acids do for us?  They help in controlling inflammation, blood clotting, and brain development.  But that is not all…they also help maintain healthy skin and hair and move vitamins A, D, E and K through the blood stream.

So cutting fat is a little more involved than just switching to fat free.  This does not mean you want to look for higher fats because they are essential.  The typical American diet has plenty of fat the trick is to minimize and move towards the good fats.  This is something to keep in mind…If the fat is in liquid form when it is cool it is better for you than if it hardens when cool (saturated).  Butter and animal fats harden when cooled use them sparingly, olive oil or vegetable oil stay at a liquid state so they are better for you.  This doesn’t mean you can use them freely they still have calories and plenty of them so you still need to cut them to a responsible amount.  Another thing to think of reduced fat or fat free is not always best, it depends on what it is and this will take some time to figure out.  One which comes to my mind is peanut butter, reduced fat peanut butter is stripped of the good fats you are better off using a natural blend.  How is that for a little food for thought?  Watch your food labels it is very interesting.

Soda...

This week I am going to kick off a series "I know its not good for me but just how bad is it?"

Let's start with soda, we all know it is not good for us and we still drink it.  I myself find it sometimes easier to avoid things more often if I understand more about what it is doing to me.  I don't tend to drink a lot of soda anymore but I do get on a kick once in a while where it seems that I drink one everyday.  And I find most often it is the carbonation I crave not so much the taste of the soda.  So I did some research on the effects of soda and then some suggestions on what to replace it with.  Bad news first, some of these I knew but some of it I didn't.

1.  A well-known effect is increased risk of diabetes and obesity.  This is what we hear most about.  Each soda increases your risk by 1.6 times.  That is quite a bit for a single can of soda.

2.  Soda has high counts of phosphorus and little to no calcium.  Not a shock but here comes the part that was new to me...If you get high levels of phosphorus and low levels of calcium in your blood, your body will resort to taking calcium from your bones. This is a major factor contributing to osteoporosis.  And children who drink soda have a higher risk of breaking bones.

3. The sugar in one can of soda damages the white blood cells ability to ingest and kill gonococcal bacteria.  What is that you may ask. (I did)It is the bacteria that cause gonorrhea. Further information on gonorrhea....well that is a whole new topic we won't go into that.

4. Soda has the same ph level as vinegar! If vinegar and soda were both put on metal they would both cause it to rust.  You have probably heard "to clean battery cables use Coke" it really works imagine what it does to our insides.

5.  Large amounts of aspartame can lead to brain tumors.  Now I did not do much research into this as to what levels are considered large and such but if you have concerns about this I would suggest digging a little deeper.

6. The acid in soda dissolves tooth enamel.  You would often think that it would be the sugar but it is the acid.  So which soda is the worst?  You would think it would be Coke after the battery cable cleaning but it is...MOUNTAIN DEW! Followed by Arizona Iced Tea, Sprite and Ginger ale. These were 2-4 times as corrosive as the colas.  A&W Root Beer showed no damage. Hmmm..Root beer floats any one! Okay scratch that last thought.

These findings left me thinking... So how much is a safe level to consume?  Obviously to completely eliminate would be best but I like the idea of all things in moderation.  What I found is a can a day is probably not going to kill you but your safest bet is to minimize it to occasional consumption.  So what are some healthier alternatives? Here is a list:

Green Tea, Jeltzer (mix 1 part your favorite fruit juice with 3 parts Seltzer), Stevia, Tonic & Lime with a sprig of fresh mint (I would guess you should probably leave out the Gin on a regular basis), Red Wine is fine in moderation (4oz a day for Women, 2 drinks for men), Low sodium vegetable juice, soy milk, tea infuser or coffee without cream and sugar.  The jeltzer thing caught my eye because as I stated before I tend to crave the carbonation more than anything and when that is the case vegetable juice just is not going to cut it. Should have wrote this before I went grocery shopping. So think twice next time you pop a top on another soda.  See what you can come up with for alternatives it just might give you the boost you needed.