The skinny on.... Microwave Meals

So how about those microwave meals? What could be better than a meal that's quick, easy, and already cooked??

With names like Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, Smart Ones, and Lean Gourmet, what could be bad about them?

Let's look at the cons
- Microwaves can take away the vital nutrients of food, the radiation can cause cancer (in extremely prolonged usage), and a lot of people say they are high in preservatives and sodium.

The Pros - for weight loss, I still believe these entrees can be useful towards reaching a weight goal.

Also, many of these products today use no preservatives or have low sodium

Lastly, no one ever said you had to use the microwave to cook them! Many of these meals provide instructions for heating them using a toaster oven or conventional oven.

So you don't have to go fill up your cart with these convenience meals, but you can at least reconsider them as one of your options! :)

Simple Steps to Boost Your Metabolism All Day Long!

Another interesting article from Beachbody...

By Ben Kallen

When you want to create a lean, firm body, the best way to accomplish it is with an effective workout program and a healthy eating plan. But that's not the end of the story . . . . Because no matter how much you're putting into your exercise sessions, practicing a range of healthy habits the rest of the time can give your metabolism an even bigger kick.

So here's a full day's worth of metabolism boosters. Any one of them may have a relatively minor effect, but when put together, they're bound to help your body burn fat more efficiently. Add these tips to your weight loss arsenal, and you'll get the results you want as quickly as possible.

Morning

1. Get some sun. A little outdoor time in the morning can help you slim down in three ways. First, bright light helps regulate your body clock, so you'll be more energetic during the day and sleep better at night. Second, during the winter months, sunshine helps ward off SAD (seasonal affective disorder), a condition that can lead to uncontrolled food cravings. And third, sunlight on your skin increases your levels of vitamin D, which are associated with a higher metabolism and a lower risk of obesity. (While sunscreen cuts down on your natural vitamin D production, experts warn that you shouldn't spend much time outside without it. You can also get more D by taking multivitamins, drinking fortified milk, and eating fatty fish.)

2. Eat a good breakfast. Research has shown that a filling breakfast that includes both lean protein and complex carbohydrates helps you burn fat all day (and keeps you satisfied longer, too). In a study presented to the Endocrine Society, dieters who ate hearty breakfasts stuck to their food plans and ended up losing more weight than those who didn't, despite the fact that their daily caloric intake was actually slightly higher.

3. Add some grapefruit. There's a reason grapefruit diets have never gone out of fashion. In a recent study in the journal Diabetes, mice on a high-fat diet that were given naringenin—a flavonoid chemical that gives grapefruit its slightly bitter taste—didn't gain weight, while others on the same diet did. And a study conducted at the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic found that half a grapefruit before each meal helped obese people drop more than 3 pounds over 12 weeks. (Consult your doctor if you're taking any medications—large amounts of grapefruit can change the way they're metabolized by your body.)

4. Have a hot beverage. As you've surely heard by now, regular consumption of green or oolong tea can raise your metabolism by as much as 5 percent. But plain old java gives your fat-burning ability a boost too. Green coffee beans have been found to boost your metabolism through the combination of caffeine and something called chlorogenic acid. While roasting lowers the amount of this chemical, according to the Coffee Science Information Centre, a light roast retains more than a dark roast.

Whatever you drink, don't overdo it, and keep the additives to a minimum—the calories in cream and sugar, or a coffeehouse latte, can far outweigh any fat-burning benefits.

Coach's Note: Drinking a hot beverage during the hot summer months also regulates body temperature so you won't be so hot! :)

Midday

1. Take the stairs. Your daily workout will do more than anything else to burn fat and build lean muscle. But that doesn't mean you should be a slug the rest of the time. A highly publicized British study found that kids who were very active during physical education classes were that much less active throughout the day, which suggests that you may need to make a conscious effort to move your body when you're not working out, including taking such simple steps as walking everywhere you can and using stairs rather than elevators. Even relatively brief periods of exercise will help keep your metabolism revving at a higher level.

2. Snack on nuts. All nuts (including peanuts, which aren't technically nuts, but whatever) are fairly high in calories, but they're also full of nutrients, especially protein and healthful fats. In a study at Purdue University, when people added 500 calories of peanuts to their daily diets, they ate less during meals and increased their resting metabolic rates by 11 percent. You don't need to eat so many, though. Just an ounce at a time will go a long way toward boosting your metabolism and keeping you satisfied.

3. Shop in the outer aisles of the grocery store. Most supermarkets are laid out in similar ways: produce, meats, fish, dairy products, and other fresh, whole foods are along the outside edges, while processed, boxed, and canned foods are in the inner aisles. Shop on the perimeter first, and you'll end up with nutritious ingredients that will fuel your muscles while keeping you full—and because they're higher in fiber and protein and lower in starch, you can eat more of them and still lose weight.

4. Take time to relax. Stress can take a toll on your metabolism. When scientists at Georgetown University fed two groups of mice a high-fat, high-sugar diet, the ones under stress gained more than twice as much weight as the low-stress group. If your job (or any other part of your life) leaves you feeling like a mouse in a cage, try to find ways of cutting down on stress. At some point during the day, take a break for meditation, yoga, or just sitting in a peaceful place and thinking about something pleasant.

Nighttime

1. Watch your eating. If you're like most people, your activity level slows down at night, and so does your metabolism. And yet there's also a tendency to eat a lot at this time, either by having a big dinner or snacking in front of the TV, or both. If you're overeating due to stress or boredom, the evening is a good time to concentrate on healthful dietary habits.

2. Hold the hooch. Your body loves alcohol—so much so, in fact, that it'll burn its byproducts as fuel before anything else. That means that while you're processing alcohol, you're not burning fat. Of course, alcoholic beverages also have calories, virtually none of which are good for anything other than helping you gain weight.

3. Turn off your screens. At least 2 hours before bedtime, dim the lights, put away your computer, and turn off your video games. Bright lights, including those from computer screens, can interfere with your body's production of melatonin, an antioxidant hormone that builds up in the evening and helps you sleep. Research has shown that higher levels of melatonin are associated with lower levels of body fat.

4. Catch your z's. While you're asleep, your body is hard at work producing hormones responsible for weight loss, muscle gain, and glucose metabolism. Studies have found that consistently getting less than the optimal 8 or so hours per night leads to a lower metabolism and a higher body mass. If you find yourself getting sleepy during the day, going to bed just an hour earlier could make a significant difference in your waistline.

ZigZag Dieting....A new way to talk to your body

Can Zigzag Dieting Work for You?
By Steve Edwards

One of the most effective dieting techniques we've found is zigzagging. Not to be confused with yo-yo dieting, zigzag is a technique that should be used anytime you want to increase or decrease your daily caloric intake, and can be used to find out what your caloric intake should be. Instead of moving straight to a new daily caloric number, you move in smaller increments on a staggered schedule. You hear the phase "listen to your body" all the time. This technique can actually teach your body how to have a conversation with you.

Here's an example of how it works:

Say you're eating 1,500 calories a day and have been for a period of time during which you've lost weight. Now your weight loss has stagnated. This is a common scenario because the new, fitter you has a different body composition than the former you. You have more muscle and a higher basal metabolic rate (BMR). In order to continue your weight loss, you need to eat more, because 1,500 calories isn't enough—even though it once was—and now your body is reacting by slowing its metabolism and releasing cortisol in a protective response (often called starvation mode because this is how your body would respond to being starved).

It's possible this could be a lot more calories, depending on one's size. A large person who should be eating, say, 2,500 calories to maintain his or her optimal weight could lose weight by massively undereating when he or she is deconditioned. As this person's body composition changes, he or she will need more calories to continue to lose weight. So let's say this individual figures to need 2,500 calories a day.

Weight times 10, plus 10 percent to 30 percent for daily activity depending on how active you are, plus the estimated caloric burn of your exercise (or you can use one of many caloric calculators that will determine this number for you)

You don't want to jump straight to 2,500 calories. First, it would create a shock to your system, and second, it may be wrong, as those calculators only give ballpark figures. The most effective thing to do is to zigzag your caloric intake. In this instance, I would recommend eating 2,000 calories per day for 3 to 4 days a week and 1,500 calories on the other days. Then, you note how your body responds, which I would expect to be positively on the higher caloric days and by feeling famished on the low-cal days.

You want to be energized but not hungry, so after a week or two of this, I would bump up to around 2,200 calories a day for 4 or 5 days, and 1,500 calories a day for 2 days for maybe one week. If you're still starving on the low days, try bumping them up to 2,000 calories a day and see how you respond. Use this tactic until you regulate, which means that you're energized but not hungry, and also not full. You can tell when you're eating too many calories because you'll begin to feel full, you won't digest your food between meals, and you'll feel more lethargic at the beginning of workouts.

Zigzag dieting works whether you need to reduce or increase your caloric intake, and whether you need a subtle change or a dramatic change. There is no numbers formula except to increase/decrease in small increments between 200 and 500 calories a day, and to zigzag your caloric intake 2 to 4 times per week. Then, you just listen and let your body tell you how much you should eat.

Coach's Note: For me, personally, when I was into ZigZag dieting, I would do three days a week at 1600, 2 days a week at 1400, and 2 days a week at 1200 (usually my rest days). It really depends on the average amount of calories you burn from activity every day. My numbers would now be alternating 1800, 1600, and 1400, just because I'm burning 400-650 cals a day through exercise. If you would like to try ZigZag dieting, email me at tnorquest@yahoo.com and I can help you figure out a plan!

Finding the balance

So as some of you may know, I recently lost about 5 pounds, bringing me down to 137.5, the lowest I've been since I started college in fall of 2001!

I truly believe that this substantial drop came from a) finding exercise that I love to do and b) finding a true balance between calories consumed and calories burned. And by calories burned, I mean naturally, at rest.

I read something in one of Chris Freytag's books that made a lot of ideas and diet myths make a lot more sense. I've never been a fan of the "six small meals a day" group due to the fact that I don't think our bodies were meant to constantly be processing food. I do have a light morning and light afternoon snack in between my well-balanced breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, but that's as far as I go. Anyway, Chris's idea went something like this:

AYou should strive to keep your caloric intake in balance and in rhythm with your caloric output as much as possible

The theory I adapted from this perspective goes like this: The average person burns 100 calories at rest, so eat a "meal" that will be burned off as much as possible in time for your next meal So for instance, I eat a 300-calorie breakfast at 7:30. Between 10 and 10:30, I have a 200-calorie snack, 12:30 lunch, 3-4pm: snack, 5:30-7: dinner (depending on if I work out in the morning or afternoon), and then 10:30-11 bedtime. Without adding in exercise, this plan worked wonders for me because it was so easy and manageable, plus the math really makes it easy to keep track of your calories.

Now, if you add in exercise, this automatically creates a deficit, so then I just rearrange the numbers and add more calories and the same plan works. It's been a real eye-opener.

How To Fire Your Coach

And no, I'm not talking about your personal trainer or fitness coach. I'm talking about that pesky 5am coach (or the coach who appears whenever your alarm clock goes off). That piece of mind that comes about and tells you a million reasons (when of course you know you just need one good one!) why you don't need to get out of bed and exercise. The 5am coach may say things like the following:

"You're not really feeling like bringing it, are you?"
"Listen to your body. It says to take a rest day."
"Ok, it won't be a rest day. You can just work out later this evening and make it up"
"You look great already. You don't need to work out. One day off won't kill you. You can make it up later."
"It's gonna be cold when you get up and you're not gonna like it. You should just stay in here under the covers"

Sound familiar? If so, you need to take steps to get rid of your 5am coach. So here's how.

1) Plan for the morning at night Lay out your clothes, get your snacks/food/drinks together for the morning. Charge your personal electronics when you get home from work so you can put them away for the morning before you go to bed. Decide what you're going to have for breakfast so you know how much time you need to make it.

2) Decide firmly what time you want to wake up
DO NOT account for how much time you'd like to push snooze. I'm talking about what time you want to get out of bed and put your feet on the floor and go work out. Once you've decided, set your alarm on whatever PDA you use. If you do not use a PDA and use an alarm clock, find a PDA and use it to set your alarm. You can set your alarm clock as well but set your PDA (i.e. cell phone) 5 minutes later.

3) Sleep in your workout clothes The trick is to limit the amount of fumbling around in the wee hours of the morning. And I'll make a deal with you - if you sleep in your workout clothes, you can set your alarm for 5 minutes later :)

4) Put your PDA across the room or in another room The trick is so that you have to get up out of bed to turn it off. I put mine in my bathroom. It worked. I also turned the volume way up so that I actually woke up 5 minutes early and was afraid of it going off. I also didn't want to feel guilty about waking Joe up.

5) Envision your goals Sometimes you don't only need a physical push, you need a mental push as well to get you out of that bed. Now that you're awake, take a few seconds to envision your new body, what your goals look like. For me, I know I'm down to my last 10-15 pounds so I always envision myself at the beach in July and how I made a promise to myself to be 10 pounds lighter than I was last year (I've got 7 pounds to go). If you're working out just to work out, think of how great you feel post-workout or at the very least, how many extra calories you can eat during the day (I mean...burn ;)

6) Start slow Pull the covers off gently and slide your legs slowly out of bed. When your feet touch the carpet, slowly pull yourself up to a sitting position, then stand. Take a minute or two to get the full effect. You don't literally have to "jump" out of bed

7) Take a breather That's right...take a breather before you even start. Visit the bathroom, get a sip of water or juice to kinda wake you up, walk around a little, take the stairs, get the blood flowing. A few minutes will help you adjust to being awake instead of jumping right into your workout. For me, my morning sequence is to go to the bathroom, weigh myself, grab my workout clothes, and go upstairs. While the video is starting up, I get dressed and take my breather so when the workout is ready to begin, so am I.

8) Add cold water A nice trick I sometimes use is to splash cold water on my face when I wake up. It happens faster this way, I believe.

9) Repeat, repeat, repeat Most activities become a habit if you do them for 30 days. At some point, your 5am coach will stop giving you its non-pep talk and your subconscious will take over. You'll just find yourself doing it.

So good luck!!

Why do we pick up pounds in the winter even when we're working out?

It seems that no matter how hard we are working out or eating right, many of us tend to gain or maintain weight during the winter and find it's so much easier to lose weight in the warmer months. True, there are more options for activities when its nice and sunny outside than when its cold and dreary, but that's not all there is to it. The reason for this frustrating phenomena may lie in the fact that when it's cold, our bodies burn fewer calories (unless you're freezing - i.e. shivering) than in the heat.

According to Dr. Mirkin, "The hotter it is, the more extra work your heart has to do to prevent you from overheating. More than 70 percent of the energy produced by your muscles during exercise is lost as heat. So the harder you exercise, the hotter your muscles become. In hot weather, not only must your heart pump extra blood to bring oxygen to your muscles, it must also pump hot blood from your heated muscles to your skin where heat can be dissipated.

On the other hand, in cold weather, your heart only has to pump blood to your muscles and very little extra blood to your skin to dissipate heat. Your muscles produce so much heat during exercise that your body does not need to produce more heat to keep you warm. So your heart works harder and you burn more calories in hot weather. This information should not discourage you from exercising when it’s cold, because staying in shape is a year-round proposition."

Another specialist, Dr. Sugar, offers the following perspective; "It is true that different temperatures can affect your metabolism and lead to changes in calories burned. This effect is most dramatic at very cold temperatures when we shiver. Shivering alone can actually burn up to a few hundred calories an hour, but this effect of cold temperatures on metabolism is only significant if you’re actually shivering. It would have to be very cold to shiver while jogging, because so much body heat is generated from your exercising muscles. You will notice that sometimes you sweat less when jogging in the cold because the ambient temperature is keeping you cool.

Very hot environments, like saunas, can slightly increase your body’s baseline rate of calories burned, but it’s not dramatic. As discussed in this LA Times article, researchers have found that sitting in a hot tub burns slightly more calories than sitting on the couch, and we can extrapolate that a sauna would be similar to a hot tub. It is estimated that someone would burn 34 calories sitting in a hot tub for 20 minutes versus burning 23 calories sitting on the couch for the same amount of time. This is not a significant number of calories when you consider that walking for 20 minutes burns 100 calories. The long and short of it is that temperature extremes can affect calories burned, but not dramatically unless you are shivering for long periods of time. More articles can be found here on Dr. Sugar's site Also, along the right hand side are great exercise tips and articles!

Why the scale may always lie (even when you hope its telling the truth!)

When Scales Lie: Normal Weight but Still at Risk?

People Considered Average Weight May Still Be 'Normal Weight Obese'

By ANGELA ELLIS

Jan. 27, 2010—

Monika Sumpter did what many women dream of -- she set a goal to lose weight and dropped 50 pounds.

Despite losing all of that weight, her ratio of fat to muscle was around 25 percent, 5 percent from where she started and dangerously close to what some researchers say is an unhealthy situation.

"I was just shocked. I thought that it was a lot lower, and I thought that I was healthy," Sumpter said.

There are others like Sumpter. As many as 30 million Americans who are considered average weight may actually have what scientists call normal weight obesity, according to a recent study by the Mayo Clinic.

Are you a healthy weight? Click here to measure your body mass index.

The study, which followed 6,171 Americans over nine years, found 20 percent to 30 percent of people considered normal weight still have an alarmingly high percentage of body fat.

The Mayo Clinic says that generally, women should have a body fat percentage below 30 percent, while men should have a fat to muscle ratio of less than 20 percent to 25 percent.

Sumpter, a 34-year-old mother of one, is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 140 pounds, which is in the normal weight range for her height.

However, if 42 of those pounds -- or 30 percent of her weight -- are made up of fat, Sumpter would actually be considered normal weight obese.

That diagnosis means a higher risk of obesity-related diseases, such diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer of women.

"Women with normal weight obesity, meaning those who have high fat and a normal weight have a two times increased risk for death or dying from heart problems or a stroke," said Dr. Francisco Lopez Jimenez, who led the Mayo Clinic study.

Sumpter changed her workout routine, adding more weight-bearing exercises to build lean muscle mass instead of only doing calorie-burning cardio.

"Resistance training is the key," said Sumpter, who is now certified as a personal trainer and works at Equinox in New York. "There are three key components to a healthy lifestyle, which is healthy eating habits, resistance training to build muscle and of course cardio to burn calories and for a healthy heart, but it's a combination of all three."

Today she weighs 20 pounds more than her lowest weight, but her body fat percentage is down to 14 percent.

Doctors Suggest Looking at Your Waistline

Inspired by Sumpter's story, ABC News' Juju Chang asked researchers at the Human Body Composition Laboratory at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City to measure her body fat.

Chang's body mass index measured between normal and overweight but was far from obese.

According to the World Health Organization, 23 to 35 percentage of body fat for a woman her age is acceptable. But she measured 37 percent, putting her at risk.

"So on some level this study points to people like me who need to be aware of their body fat," Chang said. "I didn't need a full body scan to know that I'm out of shape and I need to exercise."

Doctors said they do not recommend people getting their body fat tested because of this study. Instead they ask that people look at their waistline.

Because belly fat is considered more dangerous than fat in the butt or thighs, doctors say if you have fat around the waist or love handles, that is an indication that you could be over your normal, healthy weight.

The Hype of Ratios

Hello all,

I've been reading a lot about ratios for carbs, fat, and protein intake. Some people swear by the Zone Diet (40% Carbs, 30% Protein, and 30% Fat). Some people swear by 40% Carbs, 40% Protein, and 20% Fat). Another popular one is 50% Carbs, 30% Fat, and 20% Protein. And there are thousands of combinations of this. Depending on your goals (to lose fat, to build muscle, to maintain weight, to gain weight), there is likely "the perfect ratio" out there being prescribed for you and I'm sure there's research to support it. There are even diets where you might have a combination of different ratios and interchange them throughout the week to "confuse" or "trick" your system and thus sustain the fat burning/muscle building.

I won't lie, I used to buy into the hype. I used to very meticulously plan out my food journal so that my pie chart would be exactly a 40/30/30 ratio. It wasn't too hard, but it did take some forethought and planning.

I am much more relaxed about it now. I might recommend the Zone Diet for those starting out with weight loss and food journaling just so you can get the hang of foods that fall into the carbs/fat/protein categories. But once you learn the ropes, keeping a perfect ratio is more of a guideline. Sure, its good to make sure you don't go overboard on carbs one day or have too much fat in your diet, but its not an absolute necessity in order to lose weight. Which brings me to my next point.

I've lost weight using several of these combinations. I've lost weight without using ANY of these combinations back in the days before I did food journaling and all of that. And from what I've read, dietary professionals have had clients lose weight on a combination of all these "ideal" numbers. There is not just one rule that applies to everyone.

But you're not off the hook yet! There is a rule that fits almost everyone and that is the rule of caloric intake. CALORIES!! Find a calorie calculator, get your number, and don't go over it! This probably works so well because no matter what you eat, if you can only eat 1300 calories, its pretty limiting as to how much trouble you can get into. So if nothing else, foodjournal based on calories and you should see some results as long as you're trying to eat better (taking a step in the right direction - you don't have to change everything overnight) and doing your workouts (at least 30 mins a day), you should see results!!

Being good is not that bad

So as part of my resolution, I returned to working out and eating healthy. Joe, who can eat whatever he chooses without gaining a thing, turned up his nose at the idea of me going grocery shopping for my list of healthy foods and snacks. I said "I promise its not that bad, you will like what I make". Sure enough, we are now 4 days into it and I have yet to hear a complaint.

To give people some meal ideas, here are my meals

Dessert: Pan Seared Bananas (with 1 tbsp of brown sugar) with 1 scoop of low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt

Breakfasts: Scramble with egg whites/eggs, 1 turkey sausage pattie, and veggies
Eggo Nutrigrain waffles/pancakes with sugar free syrup
1 Thomas 100% whole wheat mini bagel with cream cheese
4 oz of oatmeal with 1 tbsp brown sugar (and fresh berries if you'd like)
Ricotta cheese with cinnamon/brown sugar or fruit
Goat cheese/tomato/spinach/part skim mozz scramble

Lunches/Dinners: Salad with veggies, roasted chicken, a little cheese and balsamic vinaigrette
Wrap with chicken/turkey, low fat cheese, and hummus or mustard
Grilled fish
Sauteed/stir fry meat with veggies
Veggie burger/lean ground beef burger/turkey burger

Snacks: Sweet potato with low fat butter and brown sugar
Almonds
Raw veggies with low fat Italian dressing/vinaigrette
Baked potato chips (half a snack bag)
Fruit

If I go to Fast Food:

Taco Bell Fresco menu
Chick Fil-A
Subway
Chicken sandwich (grilled) from pretty much anywhere
Salads

To eat healthy and better for you, you don't need to eat tofu or beans all the time. You can take regular food, change it a little, and make it work for you. I never say that I'm on a diet...it tends to get a bad rap. Truth be told, I'm not a "health nut" in that I still like to shop at regular places, I still like to eat out, and I try not to make my meals too gourmet and off-market. I just try to do better than what is marketed for the average American. I eat my whole grains, I eat my veggies (albeit in creative ways), and I try to eat light. The point is to get creative! You don't have to eat boring to eat healthy. There are plenty of sauces, seasonings (like Mrs. Dash), and cooking ways (grilling, baking, sauteeing, broiling) that you should never HAVE TO eat bland meal.

So, going back to my original point, being GOOD is not that BAD!!

Resolutions

This is my New Year's Resolution

1. To get in shape - and let this be the last year I have to use this as my resolution
2. To use my new cooking skills and kitchen gadgets to make healthy, lean meals since you are what you eat, inevitably
3. To get back at it first thing in the morning because I've learned that with a child especially, u never know what will come up
4. To get back to blogging and keeping myself accountable
5. To be the best me that I can be... I've got the tools I just need to use them!

Even though there are 5 pieces to this resolution, they all go together to form my resolution which is to live a fit lifestyle during 2010. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard is not to live like you're trying to achieve your goals, but to live like you've already achieved them. I need to live like a fit person who is confidently in charge of their diet and exercise habits. I have never felt so good about my life as I did when I was putting in the work and yielding results. My knee has healed - getting back to it with no more excuses!! Let's do this!!