Friday, October 16, 2009
Mediterranean Diet
It's week four and it looks like we are still doing a good job and plugging away at working out and watching what we eat. There are not many diets and trends that I support since most of them are hard to maintain over a long period of time. I would like to give a thumbs up to the Mediterranean diet. On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the hardest to comply to and 10 being the easiest) for an ability to maintain as an eating lifestyle this diet gets a 7/10. This diet is based on eating large amounts of vegetables, fruits (as in more than five servings a day of both), nuts, whole gains and fish. There is no dairy or red meat in this diet. A four year study was done in Spain on this type of eating. An interesting find was that those who followed this diet had a 30% less chance of Depression. While the study would be more helpful in different populations and a stronger control done, it is helpful information. How this translates to all of us.... a diet high in fruits and vegetables and whole grains is good for you! Ta Da! Ok not a true eye opener but science is catching up with common sense. :) Keep up the good work.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Metabolism
What is metabolism? Basically stated it is the process our bodies use to burn the calories we eat. Everyone wants to know how to increase metabolism. The rate of it is effected by age, hormones, what we eat and what we do in terms of activity. While we cannot change our age, we can work on everything else. If you are concerned about your hormones, talk to your doctor about having them tested first. Otherwise we cam change our eating and our activity to keep the thermal effect up.
Eating lean proteins and eating meals every 3-4 hours will keep your body happy. The best form of lean protein is wild caught fish.
Two types of exercise that help the metabolism are strength training and cardio. The two types of exercise that don't help with metabolism are balance exercises and stretching, while both are very important they do not turn on the furnace. If you have yet to add strength training just know that adding 3-5 pounds of muscle will burn an extra 100-250 calories a day! Your metabolism also increases after cardio and stays increased for a while after, so make sure to take the stairs at work or get up every 45 minutes and move around to get the heart rate up a little, even if it is just to go up and down a flight of stairs, start using bathrooms on different levels in your building if you can.
Want to know if you metabolism is burning right? Test yourself. It is a simple self test, and not 100% accurate but gives you a good idea. First thing upon waking in the morning, don't get up right away stick a thermometer under your arm and test the temperature. It is most accurate if you test for a month so we can take into account the hormones that increase our body temp during our female cycle, but if not 7 days of testing gives you an idea. Your underarm temp upon waking should be 98.6 or higher. If it is off, it lets you know your body is slowing down a little. Again if you think your issues might be hormonally related, please contact your doctor.
Eating lean proteins and eating meals every 3-4 hours will keep your body happy. The best form of lean protein is wild caught fish.
Two types of exercise that help the metabolism are strength training and cardio. The two types of exercise that don't help with metabolism are balance exercises and stretching, while both are very important they do not turn on the furnace. If you have yet to add strength training just know that adding 3-5 pounds of muscle will burn an extra 100-250 calories a day! Your metabolism also increases after cardio and stays increased for a while after, so make sure to take the stairs at work or get up every 45 minutes and move around to get the heart rate up a little, even if it is just to go up and down a flight of stairs, start using bathrooms on different levels in your building if you can.
Want to know if you metabolism is burning right? Test yourself. It is a simple self test, and not 100% accurate but gives you a good idea. First thing upon waking in the morning, don't get up right away stick a thermometer under your arm and test the temperature. It is most accurate if you test for a month so we can take into account the hormones that increase our body temp during our female cycle, but if not 7 days of testing gives you an idea. Your underarm temp upon waking should be 98.6 or higher. If it is off, it lets you know your body is slowing down a little. Again if you think your issues might be hormonally related, please contact your doctor.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Cravings
What does it mean when we have constant cravings for certain foods? There are many answers to that question.
I want to briefly discuss a few places that those cravings come from and any possible ways to address them.
A simple reason for cravings is simply habit. Are we used to having dessert after dinner every night? Is it something you cannot give up? Do you always have a glass of wine with each meal? Think about little habits that have become ingrained. We don't always have to stop them if it will make it hard to stay health focused but rather look at replacing that with some other healthy habit. What if you did have dessert but it was more fruit based and fewer in calories. You could still have your cake and eat it too. Or having smaller portions of what ever it is.
Sometimes a food craving is emotionally based. This is a large discussion area. I would not do it proper justice to just briefly describe it here. There are several great books on emotional eating by Doreen Virtue. You can even read a excerpt on this webstie http://www.innerself.com/Behavior_Modification/Food_Cravings.htm.
Some people have the same food cravings, it is always for one type of food. If you tend to have the one type of food craving ie I can never pass up a soft chocolate chip cookie and I seem to crave it often, don't band yourself from eating them just because you are trying to lose weight. I find that if I allow myself a cookie on the weekend or have it as a reward for losing some weight, I do not break my diet and buy a batch of cookies and eat them in one sitting. Also remember if you do give in to a food craving, try to limit what you eat and get back on the healthy kick. Many dieters prescribe to an all or nothing motto and that is often why they fail. Just go back to the healthy eating the next day.
Also remember to do the work to burn off that cookie or piece of chocolate. There is roughly 50 calories in two Hershey's Kisses milk chocolate and just five minutes on the stair machine will burn that off. Five minutes of work to have two delectable kisses in your mouth... well worth the effort.
Keep up the good work ladies!
I want to briefly discuss a few places that those cravings come from and any possible ways to address them.
A simple reason for cravings is simply habit. Are we used to having dessert after dinner every night? Is it something you cannot give up? Do you always have a glass of wine with each meal? Think about little habits that have become ingrained. We don't always have to stop them if it will make it hard to stay health focused but rather look at replacing that with some other healthy habit. What if you did have dessert but it was more fruit based and fewer in calories. You could still have your cake and eat it too. Or having smaller portions of what ever it is.
Sometimes a food craving is emotionally based. This is a large discussion area. I would not do it proper justice to just briefly describe it here. There are several great books on emotional eating by Doreen Virtue. You can even read a excerpt on this webstie http://www.innerself.com/Behavior_Modification/Food_Cravings.htm.
Some people have the same food cravings, it is always for one type of food. If you tend to have the one type of food craving ie I can never pass up a soft chocolate chip cookie and I seem to crave it often, don't band yourself from eating them just because you are trying to lose weight. I find that if I allow myself a cookie on the weekend or have it as a reward for losing some weight, I do not break my diet and buy a batch of cookies and eat them in one sitting. Also remember if you do give in to a food craving, try to limit what you eat and get back on the healthy kick. Many dieters prescribe to an all or nothing motto and that is often why they fail. Just go back to the healthy eating the next day.
Also remember to do the work to burn off that cookie or piece of chocolate. There is roughly 50 calories in two Hershey's Kisses milk chocolate and just five minutes on the stair machine will burn that off. Five minutes of work to have two delectable kisses in your mouth... well worth the effort.
Keep up the good work ladies!
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