Want to win $10,000 while getting fit?

This is the quickest post I’ve ever done – I just wanted to tell everyone that Precision Nutrition is doing another promotion.  They love giving away money and helping you get in better shape, which is awesome.

This time the competition is based on the “Scrawny to Brawny Coaching Program” so if that sounds good to you, definitely check it out here and search on “scrawny to brawny”.

General registration begins on Tuesday, June 2nd, with the program itself beginning on Monday, June 7th.  These competitions are only available to a limited number of people and they usually sell out, so act fast if you’re interested.

If you do end up participating, I would LOVE to hear about it.

To your health

Kimberly

Eat More to Weigh Less

That was the title of a seminar I attended while I was on my recent cruise vacation.  Eat More to Weigh Less.  I like the sound of it, so I was curious to see what the speaker had to say (I had a hunch already, but it’s still great to hear a new person’s perspective.)

The speaker was a personal trainer who had quite a bit of nutrition training under his belt too.  Here are a few of the key messages that I got out of it:

1. People these days are eating too little of the right things and too much of the wrong things.

The “wrong things” were explained using the acronym CRAP.  (Sorry if that word offends anyone – I’m just repeating what I heard – it does fit the topic though.)

C – Caffeine

R – Refined Sugar

A – Artificial Sweeteners

P – Preservatives

So, these are the things that many people are having too much of.   This will include all packaged foods, carbonated beverages, desserts, coffee etc.  Essentially, the message here is eat natural foods and watch your caffeine intake!  Natural foods are things that can be pulled out of the ground, plucked off a tree, or were at one time living (if you’re a meat eater.)  I totally agree with this message.  I think eating naturally as much as possible is always a good choice, hence I encourage people to follow a “natural” weight loss plan or diet rather than any other plan.

2. Eat Balanced Meals

The speaker went through the main categories of nutrients that we get from food (i.e. carbs, protein, and fat) and what his opinion was about the best ratio.  He truly believes that 40/30/30 ratio is the best.  This is the ratio that the Zone Diet promotes, if you’ve ever heard of that.  So, 40% of your calories come from carbs and 30% from each of protein and fat.

The Zone Diet is actually a pretty strict way of eating if you follow it correctly.  Whether or not that is really necessary is for each person to decide, but I think it is too hard to follow for the average person.  Not that eating right, losing weight naturally, and being a healthy person should be a breeze, but I think in our modern day, busy lives, we can’t/won’t be able to plan for every meal.  So, we need some flexibility in whatever nutritional regime we are following.

I think it is fine to take something like the Zone Diet as a basis for how you eat, but add some flexibility to it. For example, you don’t need to make every single meal fit the 40/30/30, but just aim to have your full day’s calories split roughly down to that.  And if your typical diet is a little bit off the 40/30/30, don’t stress about it.  I think my diet is more like 50/25/25 and I do okay.  Unless you’re training for a big event or are a professional athlete, you don’t need to follow things so closely – you can still lose weight and be a healthy person.

3. Eat the Right Carbs, Protein, and Fats

Finally, the above nutrients were broken down into “favorable” and “unfavorable” items.  If you eat favorable things within each category, you can eat more at each meal.

Carbs – Favorable items were things with lower GI carbs or complex carbohydrates.  Essentially, these are things that are slower to hit the blood stream, so release energy more slowly to your body.  Unfavorable items were the opposite – so things that give you a quick energy hit (e.g. banana.)  The exception to this is if you are about to do something very physical (gym, football game, physical labor).  In this case, you might want the quick energy from a banana rather than a slow release of energy from something else, maybe an apple.

Protein – Favorable sources of protein were things that walk on two legs or less (chicken, turkey, fish) and plant based protein sources like tofu and lentils.  Unfavorable sources were things that walk on four legs (beef, pork, lamb, etc.)  If you choose an unfavorable source of protein to have with your meal, you should only have a portion the size of the palm of your hand (in diameter and thickness.)  With a favorable source you can have almost double that.

Fats - Favorable fats are plant based, so this includes nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, or other vegetable oils, among other things.  Unfavorable fats are foods high in saturated fat; basically this is man-made fats.  Butter, cheese, and anything with trans fats certainly fall in this category.

Overall, I really enjoyed the seminar and thought there some great bits of wisdom in there.  Even if you already “know” all of these things, it helps to have a reminder and a kick in the butt once in awhile.   You can Eat More to Weigh Less if you’re eating the right things.  Eat natural foods.   Make sure you’re getting carbs, protein and fat in your diet.  Eating right and losing weight doesn’t have to be rocket science, but you’ve got to be sensible and treat your body right.  It will work for you better if you do.

To your health,

Kimberly

Why eat Quinoa?

Quinoa has come to be one of my favorite foods.  I was introduced to it by my grandma about 3 years ago.  I had never heard of it previously, but since then I have enjoyed it many times.  And it has become a super popular food for many people…you can tell because the prices have gone up!  It’s still affordable, though, and worth the money.

Why should you eat Quinoa (keen-wah)?

Quinoa is called a grain, but is actually a member of the same family as spinach. It grows in South America.  It has become well known because of its unique protein content.  Unlike other grains or similar foods, it has all of the essential amino acids to form a complete protein – i.e. it is a good quality source of protein.

Quinoa is also a good source of fiber, has plenty of vitamins and minerals, and is naturally gluten free.

What do you do with it?

Quinoa is cooked in a similar way to rice and ends up with a consistency similar to cous cous.

Try this delicious recipe or create your own variety – anything goes with quinoa!  And it certainly fits with a natural weight loss plan or anybody just wanting to be healthy.

To your health,

Kimberly

What are the least healthy foods?

Well, this is one site’s take on the top 5 worst foods you can eat:

1. Eggs Benedict – the site states that because of the high fat and calories, this is a bad food choice.  If this is a favorite food of yours, just ease off on the hollandaise sauce and either get rid of the bacon, or use a turkey substitute.

2. Cheeseburger – the “bad for you” status of this comes from the high saturated fat, high calories, high sodium, and white bread.  To make it more heart and waistline friendly try a bean burger or vegetable burger instead of the beef burger.  Also, choose a whole wheat bun and only have half.  Or skip the bread altogether!

3. Duck Confit – this has tons of salt, fat, and calories.  I’ve never tried it…I just don’t think it sounds good.  I have no alternatives to offer!

4. Fondue – as this is essentially cheese, you can probably figure out why it’s on this list.  If this is a favorite (I certainly love it!), I can only say to enjoy this once in awhile and try not to eat just this for a meal!  Make a fondue and share it with others and then have a big salad and other healthy side dishes to make the meal complete.

5. Fettuccine Alfredo -Again, this is laden with calories, fat and usually refined starch (white pasta.)  Choose a tomato based sauce and whole wheat pasta to make your meal healthier.

Read here for the full article.

There are hundreds of other items that could be on this list, but most can be modified to be healthier options.  If I had to add anything to the above list, it would be desserts!  The reason I say this is because desserts also have tons of refined sugar – which is not only completely un-nutritious, but also depletes the nutrients from your body. It is a double whammy.

If you’re following a natural weight loss plan, you should be able to enjoy most things in moderation.  Just try to make about 80% of your choices natural food products.

To your health,

Kimberly

Eating fruits and vegetables…

For anyone living in the UK, you probably heard the recent news story about a European study that states that eating 5 portions of fruits and vegetables a day actually doesn’t help prevent cancer, or at least not as much as people originally thought.

When I got the first whiff of this story, it really ticked me off!  Why?  Because no matter what this “study” has shown, fruits and vegetables are still good for us and still provide essential vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients for our bodies.  Fruits and vegetables should still be a staple in our everyday eating habits. Fruits and vegetables still help us look and feel younger than our actual age.  And fruits and vegetables certainly still play a part in a natural weight loss or healthy lifestyle plan.

It is very frustrating that a story like this would be thrown in our faces by the media because I’m sure some people hearing/reading the news will take this as an opportunity to ignore the “5 a day” principle that has become so common now.  Many people will not read the full story outlining some of the other benefits of eating fruit and veg, but just look at the headline and stop there.  I know not everybody will do this, but even if it’s just a few thousand or even a few hundred people, that is bad news for those people.

Please continue to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables!  If you want to read more information about the study and about other benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables check this out.

To your health,

Kimberly

More Benefits of Water

Here is another article confirming the benefits of drinking plenty of water.  In my opinion, if you’re drinking enough water throughout the day, you won’t need to drink water just before your meals, but that is what this article is recommending.  Either way, if you’re trying to lose weight naturally, water has got to play a part in your plan!

To your health,

Kimberly

Article Source: www.realage.com

Lose Weight Faster with This Premeal Habit

Kick your slim-down efforts into high gear by starting each meal with about 16 ounces of water.

In a study of dieters, those who started each meal with a tall glass of water dropped more weight over 12 weeks — and shed it more quickly — compared with the dieters who skipped the water and just dug in.

A Wet Way to Lose More
In fact, the water drinkers lost about 4 1/2 more pounds than the control group. And they dropped the weight about 44 percent faster. So if you’re feeling a little panicked about the teeny tiny bit of time you have left to drop your winter weight before swimsuit season, think about what you drink. In this particular study, the drink-water-lose-more benefit varied by age — it wasn’t a factor for younger adults. But plenty of other research has suggested that drinking more water in general could boost weight loss efforts. 

A Matter of Age
Why the boost for water drinkers? It’s possible that being properly hydrated curbed their hunger, helping them eat less at each meal. And their water habits may have caused them to cut back on high-calorie, fructose-laden drinks. A third possible mechanism? The water drinkers were asked to track their daily water intake, which may have led to more careful monitoring of calorie intake, too. 

Why to drink Water (not Coke)

I got this great email this morning, so I’m sharing it with everyone.  I don’t know the original source of the information so can’t substantiate the facts, but I still think it is interesting. Enjoy!

Water

1. 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
2. In 37 percent of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100 percent of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water is the Number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80 percent of sufferers.
7. A mere 2 percent drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on a computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45 percent, it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79 percent, and one is 50 percent less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Coke

1. In many states in the USA, highway patrol cars carry two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet:  Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the “Real Thing” sit for one hour, then flush it clean.  The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:  Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil that has been dipped in Coke.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals:  Pour a can of Coke over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt:  Applying a cloth soaked in Coke to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham:  Empty a can of Coke into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake.  Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes:  Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run it through a regular cycle.  The Coke will help loosen grease stains.
9. Coke will clean road haze from your windshield.

Other information

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid, which has a pH of 2.8.  Phosphoric acid will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.  It also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate), a commercial trucker must use the hazardous material cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
3. For about 20 years, the distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks.

So, what are you going to choose? If you’re trying to lose weight naturally, keep fit, and just have better general health, water should certainly be a part of your plan each and every day.

To your health,

Kimberly

Is Being Overweight a Mental Illness?

I heard a discussion on Radio 4 last Friday. It was talking about how many people (in the UK specifically) are overweight now and what the trend looks like going forward. In fact, they read one statistic which said that by 2050, something like 60% of men, 40% of women and 25% of children will be obese. Those are huge numbers!

In case you are not familiar with the definition of obese, it usually refers to a person’s BMI (body mass index.) If a person has a BMI of 30 or higher, then they fit into the “obese” category. Having a BMI of 30 means a person is roughly 30 pounds above a “normal weight”.

Referring back to the statistic that the radio program stated, I actually think their numbers could happen a lot sooner than 2050. They probably are already close to that in the US!

Anyway, getting to the point of this post…the program also posed the question about whether or not being overweight is a “mental illness”. They had one person representing each side of the argument, but I have to say I was shocked that this question even came up!

I think being overweight and trying to lose weight is definitely a huge problem and can be one of the hardest things for people to do, but I can’t imagine how it can be classed as a mental illness.

Cravings play a huge part in people overeating, which I guess could possibly fall into an addiction category, but again, I think a mental illness categorisation is just a step too far! We have to stop blaming something…anything…everything and making excuses for our weight problems. Even if you have been overeating, eating the wrong things, overweight, dieting, or trying to lose those last 10 pounds for years, it is still in your control!

I am an example of this. I went through a few years of eating really bad foods, hiding food from my roommates and friends, essentially lying to myself about why I couldn’t lose weight. I dealt with CRAZY sugar and carb cravings, sometimes feeling like I was going to have a breakdown if I couldn’t get that “treat” that I needed.

But, I’ve gotten away from that in a totally natural way. I didn’t have a mental illness, I just had really bad habits that were forcing me into a vicious cycle of craving the exact things that I was trying to avoid.

I’m not saying it is easy to change your habits and start losing weight, but everyone can do it! It is not a mental illness. Don’t fall into that belief, or you will be even further away from achieving your goals.

To your health,
Kimberly

P.S. If you’re interested in a way to kick start your own weight loss or just be a healthier person, download my Free Weight Loss Report that is shown in the top right corner. And feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

Top 10 sources of Protein for Vegans

My husband and I have been talking about trying out the vegan lifestyle.  He is already a vegetarian and I don’t eat much meat, but for various reasons we’ve considered going vegan – or at least doing it for a period of time.

So…I’ve been looking at what the top sources of protein are for non-animal/non-animal product eaters.  For the most part they were pretty much what I would have expected, but a couple were a surprise.

Here are the Top 10 –

1. Tempeh (a soybean based food)

2. Seitan (wheat based, but not starchy, supposedly a good mock meat)

3. Soybeans

4. Other types of beans

5. Tofu

6. Quinoa (this is a grain, but when cooked has a similar consistency to rice or couscous)

7. Peas

8. Peanut butter/almond butter (or just the nuts themselves, seeds are good as well)

9. Brown rice

10. Spinach

I haven’t actually tried either of the first two on the list, but everything else I have.  They all make for delicious meals or snacks.

One thing not to forget is that vegetables are a great source of protein.  Peas and spinach (as listed above) are two of the most protein rich vegetables, but many other vegetables have protein as well.  So, as a vegan (or vegetarian, or even a meat eater), just by including lots of vegetables in your diet, you ARE getting protein.  It is easy to forget this.

I’ll be posting some great recipes using the above ingredients, so make sure to check back with us.

To your health

Kimberly

Coffee or no coffee?

No matter what diet, health, or fitness topic you choose, I bet you can find someone out there who can argue for it and someone who can argue against it.  That is certainly the case when it comes to discussing coffee or just caffeine in general.

How do we really know if we should drink it or not? Well, I was just thinking about it one morning on my way to work this week.  I’m not sure why, but it came to mind.  And then, I had an email from www.precisionnutrition.com mentioning that they had posted an article about this very subject.  They must have heard my thoughts

You can read the article here.  It is very in depth and somewhat technical, but if coffee or caffeine is a part of your life, it is certainly worth it. I really enjoy Precision Nutrition’s message about nutrition and overall health.   I think you will have to sign up for the site to be able to view the article, but they have some great content, so go for it.

To your health,

Kimberly

Next Page »