This week I’m fasting all sugar, sugar derivatives, and products with sugar. Several of my clients have joined me on this venture too!
What’s been frustrating is finding sugar in everything – light salad dressing, low sugar ketchup, Bisquick, low fat mayo, pretzels, cereal, crackers, bread, etc.
I’m beginning to wonder if there’s anything in a box, bottle, or package that doesn’t contain sugar or high fructose corn syrup.
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After working really hard to lose weight, the last thing you want to do is gain some back. Unfortunately this is easy to do because you get comfortable. So you start getting a little sloppy with your eating and lax on your exercise.
Before you know it 10 or 20 pounds have crept back on.
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Did you know your taste buds are trainable? Over time they adapt and “get used to” the kinds of foods you eat.
For example, think about salt. People who don’t eat salty foods, like someone with heart disease, may eat at a restaurant and say, “This food is so salty.” The next person who consistently adds salt to his/her food may eat at a restaurant and say, “Pass the salt. This food’s too bland.”
Your taste buds will become accustomed to and enjoy what you give them.
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Summer’s here and it’s hot! Ready to cool off with some healthy refreshment?
Try this icy Orange Shake. It’s super easy to make and will cool you down!
1 orange
1/4 cup fat free milk
2 Tbs. Splenda
3-4 ice cubes
Squeeze orange and get as much juice from it as you can. Put orange juice and milk in a blender with Splenda and ice cubes. Blend until mixture is smooth.
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Some people are born thin. Other people have to work to be thin. Some people eat just when they’re hungry. Other people eat all the time, hungry or not. Some people are natural movers and exercises. Other people have to force themselves to move.
For those of us who struggle with our weight, we are the “others.” The ones who have to work so hard be thin, to keep from overeating, and to stay committed to exercising.
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I saw a TV commercial about how one good food choice led to another. In the commercial, the actress began her day with a cereal bar then chose a salad for lunch, skipped brownies in the boardroom, and got steamed veggies and grilled meat for dinner. All of her good food choices were contributed to her eating “the” cereal bar in the morning.
Now, I don’t think a cereal bar for breakfast will automatically make your day go great. But I do believe once you’ve made one good choice, it’s easier to make a second good choice.
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I ran into a past client and walked around the track with him so we could catch up. He told me that after an injury, he couldn’t exercise for awhile and fell off the wagon. He put some weight on, and was feeling pretty miserable about his eating habits and his lack of exercise.
I told him to not be discouraged. “In my career, I have seen people cycle with their weight and exercise. They do well, then they slide down the slippery slope. Then they come back again.”
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I often hear complaints, such as, “I’m doing so good. I’m not cheating, but my weight is stuck. I don’t know what is wrong!”
Sometimes people truly hit a plateau in their weight loss while the body makes adjustments and resets. This usually ends after two or three weeks.
However, the culprit of stagnant weight loss is more often a little relaxing of the diet.
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If your schedule requires you to eat out often, it can be devastating to your weight loss efforts. Even when you think you’re ordering healthy, you’re getting more calories, fat, and sodium than you would cooking at home.
Do the best you can to stay on track with your diet with these 10 eating-out tips: [More]
I’m getting ready to go on a trip for work next week. I’ll be staying in a hotel and will be in meetings all day.
So I’ve been thinking ahead and checking the area out. I want to stay on track with both my eating and exercise. I know this can be tough when traveling, but I want to do well.
For food, I’m packing protein bars, almonds, tea bags, and diet cocoa mix in my suitcase. There is a small store in the hotel where I’m hoping to get fruit and yogurt. (I’ll have a small refrigerator in my room.) This will take care of my snacks.
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I was really frustrated with my weight. Those stubborn pounds just wouldn’t come off. Then I had my physical and the doctor ordered full blood work since it had been five years since it’d been done. The results were encouraging. My numbers were “ideal” the nurse told me. It made all the exercising and food control worthwhile.
You may not be at your ideal body weight. In fact, you may be struggling with your weight right now, feeling like you’ll never reach your goal.
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Though it’s tempting to “let your hair down” on the weekend, two days of overeating can mess up your whole week. It’s pretty easy to eat so many calories over the weekend that you spend the whole next week trying to burn them off. And trying to get your weight back down!
Instead of letting your food control go for the whole weekend, try limiting your splurges to one or two meals. This will help keep your calories consumption from getting out of hand.
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I tell my clients over and over to prepare ahead when it comes to food. Flying by the seat of your pants will end up with you flying right into food failure!
Think about when you’re rushed. Do you have time to prepare a healthy meal? How about when you get home from work late and you’re exhausted? Do you have the energy to prepare healthy food? No!
You have to think your days through. What are you going to eat? What do you need to prepare ahead? What do you need take with you?
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I confess, I had way too many carbs this weekend (plus a slice of chocolate pie). My diet is usually squeaky clean so I’m feeling the effects – sluggish, tired, yucky!
We all have a bad day or two. It could be we choose junky food because we’re stressed or traveling, or maybe because we’re celebrating and eating out. In any case, we fall off course from time to time.
The key is; this has to be an occasional occurrence. Not an everyday thing!
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Who doesn’t love spaghetti! If you don’t love slurping the noodles, you’ve got to love the meatballs…and the cheese. Talk about comfort food. Mmmmm.
It’s a good thing you can replace the white noodles, sugar-laden sauce, and high-fat meatballs with healthier options. And still get that great spaghetti and meatball taste.
First, pick whole grain pasta (my family loves 100% whole wheat Rotini). Check the label to make sure it is actually made from whole grain, not just wheat. Check the fiber content too.
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Tonight I had a little scare. One of my clients started feeling badly toward the end of her workout. She felt weak and light headed. She sat down and dropped her head. She began to sweat and turned pale.
I started asking her questions to rule out a cardiac event. She told me she hadn’t eaten anything since lunchtime, which was six hours past. And then she’d only eaten a salad with chicken.
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I don’t know about you, but I picked up a few pounds over the Christmas break. No, I couldn’t be satisfied with getting presents. I had to eat all that good food too!
Now it’s back on the wagon. It’s hard starting out because I have sugar cravings for a least a week until all that junk clears my system. I know, thankfully, that the cravings will subside and I’ll feel stable again. But until then, it’s hard work!
So what do I do to get back on track? [More]
The New Year is only a few days away. People all over the world will be making resolutions to make changes January 1.
It’s not surprising that losing weight and starting an exercise program are two of the all-time top ten New Year’s resolutions made. There aren’t too many people who don’t want to shed a few pounds and get into better shape.
How about you? Have you thought about what healthy changes you want to make?
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When I started out, I didn’t have a lot of support. It wasn’t that my family didn’t want to be encouraging, but you have to realize how many times I’d been “on a diet” before. This was just one more time and they all shrugged their shoulders as if to say, “Uh-huh, okay, whatever.”
Over the years, we’ve all evolved into healthier people. So, even though my family isn’t as fanatical as I am, they’re pretty health conscious. So hold onto hope because you can be a great influence (it just might take a few years!).
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I see families at work taking martial arts classes together. I see dads jogging on the track with their sons, or showing them how to do pull-ups. I see moms and daughters side-by-side on the treadmills working out together. And families in the pool splashing and swimming together.
There are husbands and wives who decide to lose weight together. They go grocery shopping together, cook together, and choose restaurants with healthy options. They are each other’s greatest encouragers.
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We all know that fish is healthy and we should eat it more. But some people don’t love it – and even for those of us who do enjoy it, fresh fish is quite pricy. It’s not something that always fits into the grocery budget.
The first thing I do is watch for sales on fresh fish like tilapia, cod, salmon, and haddock. Every once in awhile a great sale will roll around and I’ll get some fish fillets for my family. If I can ‘t use the fish fast enough, I’ll freeze it in individual portions.
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I find that I get in trouble with my calories when I don’t plan my food out for the day. Even if I’m choosing healthy foods, it’s so easy to have 50 extra calories here, 70 extra calories there, and so on. Before I know it, I get to dinner and realize I don’t have enough calories left for the rest of the day to remain in my calorie limit.
It’s simply poor planning on my part. When I sketch out my food for the day (before I eat it), I can make adjustments and wiser choices. This allows me to add up my calorie total to make sure I’m within my limit.
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A lot of people don’t realize all the emotional up and downs they’ll have on their weight loss journey. Just like losing weight is a process on the outside, adjusting to a new image is a process on the inside.
I remember when I first lost my weight. I often had “fat days” when I felt big and ugly and unattractive. It didn’t matter the size jeans I put on; I felt fat.
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If your kids are like mine, they love pizza. But restaurant pizza is full of sodium, fat, and cholesterol with refined white dough, full fat cheese, greasy meat, and oil in the pan. One slice of a popular pizza chain’s pepperoni pizza has 260 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 590 mg of sodium. (Not something I want my family eating!)
But you can enjoy pizza at home – and make it fun and healthy too!
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Do you feel like your schedule is spiraling out of control? Work meetings, kid’s activities, laundry piling up, etc.
In hectic times like this, it’s tempting to give up your weight loss efforts. Everyone needs you! You can hardly tear yourself away from your responsibilities. And if you do, you feel guilty for it.
But no matter what is going on in your life, you must hang onto your weight loss efforts. (Even if all you can do is hang on by your toenails.)
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