Like Pratik, many people would love to kick their metabolisms into high gear, but some think it’s a losing battle.  They feel like their metabolisms are working against them because they believe they are doing everything right, such as eating healthy and exercising on a regular basis.  So, the goal of today’s show is to give some ways to boost your metabolism.

References used while researching this show are WebMD and kidshealth.org.

Photo by Danilo Rizzuti via freedigitalphotos.net

Pamela was not looking forward to heading back to the office after Thanksgiving.  It wasn’t the work or the coworkers.  She loved them.  It was the 10 pounds that she was convinced she gained last year from eating the holiday treats at the office.  She had always had problems with sweets and her weight.  This year she had finally lost 25 pounds.  It was an amazing accomplishment for her and she was afraid that the holidays treats at the office woukd get the best of her again. She had worked so hard to lose each and every pound.  The last thing she wanted was to gain any of them back.

Like Pamela, many people find it challenging to stick to a healthy eating plan when co-workers or clients are constantly bringing holiday treats.  Don’t fear though because even though holiday treats like chocolates, cookies, candies and cakes might tempt you, there are some tricks to help you resist.

How can I resist the holiday treats?
Here are 4 things you can do to take control of the holiday treat situation:

1. Plan ahead: Bring healthy snacks to work, such as fresh fruit or veggies and eat them when you get hungry. You will be less likely to binge on unhealthy treats when you are not hungry.
2. Start a healthy trend: Bring fruit or hummus with veggies to the office instead of baked goods. You would be surprised how many people find the opportunity to eat something healthier refreshing.  Other people might even follow suit and bring healthy treats to work as well.
3. Out of site, out of mind: If you can, place the holiday treats out of your sight.  If you don’t see them, you will be less tempted by them.
4. Say no to food pushers: No matter how hard your co-workers try to make you feel guilty for not eating the sweets they brought, stay strong.  Don’t let them tempt you or make you feel guilty about eating healthy.  Just politely say “No, thank you,” and walk away from the situation.

The bottom line:
You should not let the holidays destroy the healthy diet you have worked so hard to maintain. With a little planning you can eat healthy this season.  And remember it is okay to indulge in a treat, occasionally.  You don’t let the holidays make you lose control.  Moderation is the key during the holidays, just as it is all year round.

Photo by lululemon athletica via Flickr

Last year Tracy’s doctor told her that she needed to lose some weight, especially in her midsection (visceral fat).  He said it was an important step towards decreasing her risk of serious health conditions, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, both of which her family had a history.
He had been concerned because she had gained 30 pounds between doctor’s appointments, with most of it in her midsection.  Taking his advice to heart, Tracy started working out at least 30 minutes a day, 5-6 times a week, and changed her diet to a much healthier one. A year later, she was back to a healthy weight and feeling good about her accomplishments. Now she had to maintain her weight loss, but wasn’t sure how much time she needed to dedicate to exercise to prevent the return of the harmful visceral fat.

A study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Human Studies may have the answer for Tracy.

Study:
Scientists from the University of Alabama looked at how exercise affects the regain of harmful visceral fat a year after weight loss.  In the study, 45 European-American and 52 African-American women, were randomly placed into 3 different groups: aerobic training, resistance training or no exercise.  All participants were placed on an 800 calorie-a-day diet* and lost an average of 24 pounds.  Researchers then measured total fat, abdominal subcutaneous fat and visceral fat for each participant.  Afterward, participants in the two exercise groups were asked to continue exercising 40 minutes a day, twice a week for a year.  At the end of the study, the researchers found that the individuals that continued to exercise, even though they had regained some weight, had not regained any visceral fat.  The ones who stopped exercising or weren’t put on any exercise program, regained, on average, about 33 percent of the lost visceral fat.

So what does that mean?
That means that even after you achieve your weight loss goal, you can’t stop exercising.  Even a small amount of exercise can be beneficial in preventing the return of visceral fat.  In this study, exercising a minimum of 80 minutes a week, either aerobic or resistance, was all that was needed to prevent regains.  That is important because excess visceral fat increases risk of both heart disease and diabetes.  But if the goal is not just preventing the return of visceral fat, but also maintaining the other weight loss, exercise longer than 80 minutes weekly is probably necessary.

*BeingHealthy.tv recommends against starvation diets and is only reporting on this study for the purpose of detailing the importance of exercising in order to prevent the return of unhealthy visceral fat. Weight loss should be done in a slower, healthier manner than that undertaken in this study.

Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham (2009, October 29) (via ScienceDaily)

So, since most people enjoy eating out, but struggle to be healthy while doing it, I’m dedicating not only this show, but 12 more shows to what foods to choose and what foods to avoid when dining out at certain types of restaurants. A new “Being Healthy While Eating Out” show will come out monthly for a year.  Each episode will be released on the 4th Sunday of each month. This episode will focus on general tips that will help you to eat healthy no matter what cuisine you will be enjoying.

Announcement: Being Healthy for Busy People, my audio show, is a Podcast Awards finalist!  Daily voting will run till November 30th.  If you have time, please go and vote for my podcast under Health/Fitness as many days as you can!  Thank you!

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe through iTunes.

References used while researching this show are The New Wellness Encylopedia, American Heart Association and NPD Group.

If you’re not exactly sure what moderate exercise intensity is supposed to feel like, you’re not alone.  Many people don’t truly understand how exercise intensity is measured.  Today, I’ll remedy that by teaching you why it is important to exercise at a certain intensity and how to measure it, so that you can get the most out of your workouts.

Here is the Karvonen formula as I promised: (MHR-RHR)*intensity)+ RHR = Target Heart Rate

Announcement: Being Healthy for Busy People, my audio show, is a Podcast Awards finalist! Thank you to everyone who nominated my show.  I am very excited about being a finalist!  Daily voting will begin on November 13th and will run till November 30th.  If you have time, please go and vote for my podcast under Health/Fitness as many days as you can!  Thank you!

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe through iTunes.

References used while researching this show are sparkpeople.com, Mayo Clinic, and about.com.

Photo by mysza831 via Flickr

Today I am bringing you another Q&A show.  Since the last two have been so well received, I’m going to continue putting out one of these Q & A shows every month or two, as long as I keep getting lots of questions. Answering them in a podcast seems like the best way to go because if one person has a question, there are probably at least a few more with the same question that didn’t ask.  This way all of them get the answer all at once.

In this show, we will answer questions about what the perfect running form is and about gaining weight when beginning exercise. And we also have a comment about the struggle to be healthy when others are trying to sabotage you.

The 2009 Nominations for the Podcast Awards are open! If you like this show, please head on over to podcastawards.com and nominate it under the “Health/Fitness” category:

Podcast Name: Being Healthy for Busy People
Podcast URL: http://www.beinghealthy.tv/media/podcast/

Being a finalist will help bring more awareness to my podcast. I greatly appreciate your time and nomination!

Some references I used while researching this show are Runner’s World and about.com.

The video podcast for this week is:

1. Apple vs. Pear Shaped

The blog posts for this week are:

1. October Is Also National Physical Therapy Month!
2. Healthy Halloween Treats Are Tricky!

If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review.  It’s a great way to give me some good exposure and can help me get more listeners.  Thanks for listening, everyone!

Podcast Name: Being Healthy TV
Podcast URL: http://www.beinghealthy.tv/media/videopodcast/

If you can spread the word about our podcast to others and they would like to nominate us as well, that would be even more appreciated.  Nominations close on October 18th.  Thanks for helping us make our dream a reality.  I greatly appreciate your time and nominations! Let’s get on with today’s show.

Do you have an apple or a pear shaped body?  Is it worse to be an apple or a pear?  Does body shape even matter?  What am I talking about?  Those are all wonderful questions.  Today, I’ll address all of those questions and give you some tips on how you can improve your health in regards to your body shape.

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe through iTunes.

References used while researching this show are The New Wellness Encyclopedia, wisegeek.com and WebMD.

Photo by Swami Stream via Flickr

I received a lot of feedback about the First Q&A show 7 weeks ago.  Since it was so well received, I’m bringing you another one today.  I’m planning to continue putting out one of these Q&A shows every month or two, as long as I keep getting lots of excellent questions.  I love answering the questions and by putting the answers into a special episode, rather than an email, everyone can benefit from them.

In this episode, we have questions about how many calories to consume when training for a marathon, sleep deprivation, coconut oil and loose skin after weight loss.

Here are the links that I promised: “Running: The Gold Standard of Exercise” and “Drive Safe, Not Drowsy.”

Some references I used while researching this show are runners world, WebMD and Mayo Clinic.

The video podcast for this week is:

1. Putting the Plan Back In Weight Loss

The blog posts for this week are:

1. Extra Protein, Extra Large Muscles?
2. Eggs: Can I Eat Them?

If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review.  It’s a great way to give me some good exposure and can help me get more listeners.  Thanks for listening, everyone!

Many people talk about their weight loss plan and all the weight that they are going to lose.  The problem is that they focus on the “weight loss” and forgot about “the plan.” Without proper planning and preparation, most endeavors fail.  Weight loss is the same.  That is why this episode is dedicated to giving you tips and strategies to successfully lose weight.  So, sit back and enjoy the show!

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe through iTunes.

That is why I’m dedicating this show to convincing the 25% of adults who skip breakfast, that it is an important meal that should not be missed.  I am going to go over why it is important to break your fast (yep that is where the word breakfast comes from) and why you should eat a “healthy, nutritious” breakfast, not a sugary, sweet one. So, sit back and enjoy the show!

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe through iTunes.

Photo by Kanko* via Flickr

Laura decided to swear off desserts for what seemed like the 100th time.  She had struggled to beat her weakness for sweets for years. Unfortunately, whenever she deprived herself of desserts, she craved them even more and ended up binging later.  Laura desperately wanted to eat healthy, but her inability to conquer her sweet tooth kept getting in the way and had her extremely frustrated. She hoped that this time she would be able to make it work.

Is Laura on the right path?
Laura shouldn’t beat herself up about her sweet tooth.  You don’t have to give up desserts entirely to be healthy.  It is okay to allow yourself a small dessert, once in a while.  The key is moderation because, for many people, trying to eliminate sweets will cause irresistible urges that result in binging later.  That will result in the consumption of a higher amount of calories and fat than if an occasional sweet was allowed.  Those binges can make weight control very difficult.

Part of the practice of eating sweets in moderation is realizing that your favorite desserts don’t have to be super unhealthy.  You can create a tasty version that is lower in calories, fat and sugar!  You just need to tweak the ingredients a little bit, so that you satisfy your cravings, in a healthier way.

How do I make my desserts healthier?
Many desserts are made with unhealthy ingredients, such as butter, margarine, sugar, shortening, heavy cream, whipping cream, sour cream or cream cheese. That means that they are loaded with sugar, saturated fats and empty calories.  If you want to make your desserts healthier, here are 8 ingredient substitution suggestions to help you make that a reality.

1. Whole Eggs: Substitute either 2 large egg whites or ¼ cup of egg whites (or egg substitute) for 1 whole egg.
2. Whole or 2% Milk: Substitute 1% or skim milk for 2% or whole milk.
3. Cream: Instead of using heavy cream, use light cream or half and half.
4. Buttermilk: Substitute 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice plus enough milk to make 1 cup for 1 cup of buttermilk.  Or substitute 1/2 cup plain yogurt plus 1/2 cup milk.
5. Sour cream: Substitute 1 cup plain yogurt for 1 cup sour cream.
6. Butter or oil: Substitute applesauce for butter or oil in a 1:1 ratio. However, work your way up to that.  For a recipe that calls for 1 cup of oil or butter, start out with ½ cup of applesauce and ½ cup of oil or butter. Increase the ratio of applesauce to oil or butter each time you make the recipe, until you feel you no longer need to use any oil or butter.  Of course this is a substitution for an ingredient, not a cooking oil.
7. Sugar: Use half of the sugar listed in most recipes.  You’ll be surprised to notice that most times, the recipe will be plenty sweet.
8. White flour: Substitute whole wheat flour for half the flour in the recipe.

The bottom line:
Many recipes call for inordinate amounts of fat and sugar.  But these components are not always essential for a delicious dessert.  So, with a few minor adjustments, you can still eat reasonable portions of your favorite dessert, from time to time, without taking in so many calories.  Plus, it will satisfy your cravings, reducing your chance of binging and consuming more calories than you need.  So, don’t cut out all of your sweets, if it makes you crave them even more.  Just make good choices on what’s in your sweets, how often you eat them and the portion size when you do eat them.  You only live once, so you need to strike the right balance between fun and health!

Since summer is here, I thought it would be fitting to cover a popular warm weather goal: Getting a flat belly.  My goal in this show is to teach you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about how to achieve a flat, trim stomach.  This is important because many people are not completely happy with their bodies, especially their stomachs.  If it is not as flat as they would like, they are often self conscious about showing it in public, like when they go to the beach.  So, sit back and enjoy the show!

If you haven’t yet please subscribe through iTunes.

I have some exciting news to share with you today!  I am taking my passion for health and helping others to the next level.  In June I will be coming out with a weekly video podcast in addition to the weekly audio podcast. The video promo will be coming out this Sunday, so look for it and enjoy.  I am very excited to bring Being Healthy TV to you this year!

This is going to be a great year for Being Healthy TV, so make sure to partake of the new video goodness.  I promise you won’t regret it!  Now on to the show!

When many of us think about losing weight, we automatically think that we need to shun carbohydrates in favor of high protein foods because we heard that sugar is fattening.  But do carbohydrates actually make you fat?

Since carbohydrates have so often been debated when it comes to health, I thought it would be helpful to clear a few things up today.  In this show, I am going to discuss exactly what a carbohydrate is, what types of carbohydrates are best and whether carbohydrates will make you fat.

As promised, here is show 26 for those that are interested in listening to my journey to being healthier.

Some references I used while researching this show are The New Wellness Encyclopedia, Mayo Clinic and about.com.

The blog posts for this week are:

1. Oatmeal: The Breakfast of Champions!
2. Granola Bar: Healthy Treat or Sugary Sweet?

If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review.  It’s a great way to give me some good exposure and can help me get more listeners.  Thanks for listening, everyone!

Do you constantly think about food, find yourself eating when you aren’t hungry or when you are depressed?  Do you eat in secret or eat much healthier in the company of others than when you are alone?  Do you feel guilty right after eating?  Do you continue to go to the all you can eat buffets even though the reading on the scale keeps rising?  If you said yes to any of these these, you may have a food addiction.

Since many people have some degree of food addiction, in this show I thought it would be useful to go over what makes a person a food addict, and give some tips and strategies to help break the addiction.

Some references I used while researching this show are WebMD, allaboutlifechallenges.org and weightloss.com.

I also answered Bill Janin’s questions regarding hydration during cross-training and the anaerobic phase in exercise. The primary references used while researching these questions are sparkpeople.com and chemistry.about.com.

The blog posts for this week are:

1. Drive Safe, Not Drowsy!
2. You’re Full of It. I Mean You’re Constipated!

If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review. It’s a great way to give me some good exposure and can help me get more listeners. Thanks for listening, everyone!

Our culture is obsessed with weight.  It seems that every person has a bathroom scale in their house and many people weigh themselves as part of their daily routine.  Any weight gain is perceived as a change for the worse.  And the media doesn’t make it any better. They’re constantly bombarding us with their images of the ideal body.  And when we are unable to reach that image, we get depressed.

But we need to change the way we think about our bodies.  It is important to make weight loss goals reasonable.  The most important thing is to be healthy, not to look like a model.  Those models might look healthy, but on the inside, many of them are not really that healthy.

In this show, I discuss the health risks of being overweight, why crash diets don’t work and tips and strategies for losing and maintaining weight.

Some references I used while researching this show are The New Wellness Encyclopedia and WebMD.

If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review.  It’s a great way to give me some good exposure and can help me get more listeners.  Thanks for listening, everyone!

As we ring in the New Year, many of us look at the coming year as the chance for a new beginning.  It’s a time to set new goals to achieve.  A time to begin making our dreams a reality.  A time for a new life journey!

For many people, the goal is to lose weight and get back into that outfit they haven’t worn in years.  For others, it’s to eat healthier or spend more time with their families.  Whatever the goal may be, it will take effort to achieve it.  Even though we are bound and determined to make our goals a reality, as the year goes by, many of us get derailed and our goals fall by the wayside.  But, with careful planning and focus it doesn’t have to be that way.

Tips to keep you on track
Setting goals is a process that takes some thought and preparation.  Here are four tips to keep you on track this year:

1. Make your goals reasonable and manageable: That way you will be able to achieve them.  For example, losing 150 pounds in a year (I’m exaggerating on purpose.) is not a reasonable goal and you will end up getting frustrated and quit.  But, losing a half a pound to a pound a week, could be a healthy, attainable goal depending on how much weight you have to lose.
2. Make your goals measurable and objective: You need to have some way to determine whether or not you are on track with your goal.  Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time achieving it.  So, numbers or dates can be good.  One good example is to decide to cut the amount of soda you drink in half rather than just saying you’ll drink less soda.
3. Make sub-goals: Sometimes the main goal can feel so overwhelming that it becomes hard to achieve.  So, break your goal into smaller components.  For example, if your goal this year is to lose 30 pounds, make sub-goals to lose about 5 pounds every 2 months.  This does two things.  It prevents the goal from feeling so distant that you feel you can put off starting for awhile.  Plus, it is easier to tackle a smaller task.  After all, it’s easier to focus on running a mile than on running a whole marathon.
4. Determine how you will achieve your goal: It is not enough to say that your goal is to be healthier this year or that you’re going to lose 30 pounds.  How are you going to achieve it?  Are you going to eat better, exercise more or longer, join a weekly yoga class, etc.?  If you don’t have a plan, you might do things that might delay or even prevent you from achieving your goal.

So, this year let’s all make goals that are achievable in the time frame that we set and make plans that will help us to achieve them.  If you are determined and put enough effort into it, you will achieve your goals. Happy New Year everyone!  May this year be a goal achieving year for you!

You read that headline correctly.  I said it’s what’s inside that counts.  Now I know you’re all thinking I’m talking about beauty.  I’m not.  I’m talking about health.  People spend a lot of time trying to look better, but not necessarily to be healthier.  Let me make an example.  Most people agree that if you are overweight, losing some pounds will help you to be healthier.  When people talk about losing weight though, they’re usually motivated by improving their looks.  Mixed in with those nods I’m seeing, I see some skeptical looks from people who don’t believe me.  Let me give an example.

Beauty is not synonymous with health
Tiffany is 125 lbs overweight.  She says that she wants to be healthier.  So, she says she wants to lose weight.  Tiffany decides that the best way to do this is to take lots of diet pills and only eat on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  She also decides that she is too busy to exercise at all.  Does she lose weight?  Yes, she does.  In fact, she manages to lose a lot.  In the process, she could also become anemic, start losing her hair, start developing heart problems related to the pills and lose muscle mass, further contributing to future osteoporosis.

Now I hear people saying that she needed to lose the weight.  I agree, but I think she went about it in a way that showed that she was more motivated by looks than health.  If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t sacrifice her health to lose the weight.  I can come up with many ways to lose weight.  Just because they are effective, doesn’t mean they are appropriate.  Let me give an extreme example.  If you just look at weight loss as “the” measure of success, she could just cut off her legs.   That would bring her close to her weight goal.  Anyone who did that though, would have to be insane!

Don’t sacrifice your health
The important thing to do is to find a weight loss program that supports your health goals.  Don’t sacrifice your health to lose weight.  Here are a few tips:

1. Reduce calories, but don’t starve yourself. This drastic measure is proven to be ineffectual for weight loss.  After a while the pounds creep back and often even more than before.
2. Replace unhealthy foods with healthier foods. For example, eat more broccoli and less potato chips.  If you need some tips, read some of my other blog posts.
3. Stay away from weight loss pills unless prescribed by a doctor. There is no evidence that that they can promote long term weight loss by themselves and some of them can result in heart issues or other medical complications.
4. Increase your activity. If you don’t have time to go to the gym, walk more every day or walk up stairs instead of using escalators and elevators.
5. Build muscle. Muscle helps to burn more fat, even when you’re not exercising.  It also helps to prevent osteoporosis.
6. Be consistent with your plan. If you’re inconsistent, you’ll be ineffective.
7. Don’t cheat regularly. If you need a treat occasionally, make it a small one and have a set time that you can have it.  For example, maybe you have a piece of chocolate on Friday nights.  Don’t keep adding in more treats.  Stick to your plan.
8. Recognize your achievements. Celebrate them, but not with food.  See how much better you look in your clothes.  Feel how much lighter your step is and how much easier it is to climb those stairs.  Don’t minimize your successes.
9. Don’t try to lose the weight all at once. Your weight should drop consistently, but not rapidly. Losing weight too quickly puts strain on the body. 1-2 pounds a week is the most you should be shooting for.  If you’re not very overweight, the weight should come off even slower.

If you lose weight slowly, don’t despair.  If you’re exercising, building muscle, eating healthier, and getting some cardiovascular activity, you’re getting healthier.  You’ll have a reduced chance of heart disease, osteoporosis and other diseases.  And remember, if you were gaining weight before, losing weight slowly now is already a huge improvement.  It’s what’s inside that counts!  That’s a healthy heart and body.

So, you went to a restaurant the other day.  When they brought your dinner out, it was huge. By the time you finished half of it, you were full.  You wanted to stop eating, but subconsciously you remembered what your dear old mom always said about finishing everything on your plate.  Think about those poor starving kids in Africa, or was it India?  I can never remember.  The only thing that I can remember was that you were supposed to keep stuffing yourself like a pig because someone else was starving on the other side of the world.  Now how does that make sense?

Stop eating when full
The answer is, it doesn’t make sense.  The point is that we’ve been trained to continue eating even after we’re full.  I’m advocating exactly the opposite.  As soon as you start to feel slightly full, stop eating.  You’re not hungry anymore, so you don’t need anymore food.  But what you are going to do with all the leftover food, you ask?  Well, you have a few options:

1. You can throw the food away: Of course that would be a waste of perfectly good food and your mom would be upset.  So, that might not be the best choice.  But, at least you wouldn’t be damaging your health to assuage your guilt at having enough food to eat while others are starving.
2. You can have it as leftovers: Pack up the remaining food and put it in your refrigerator and save it for another meal.  You can always eat it the next day for lunch.  This is especially good if you had a healthy meal.
3. Eat it the same day as a snack: No, don’t go making it an additional snack during your day.  You’re trying to eat sensibly, remember?  But, if you normally have a snack later in the day and you could replace it with the leftovers without increasing your normal snack size or its nutritional benefit, then why not?  Just don’t ruin your health by eating more calories during the day than you would have otherwise.

Now that you’ve dealt with that extra food at the end of the meal, don’t you feel better?  What about those starving children, you ask?  If you’re still feeling guilty, instead of stuffing yourself to bursting when you go to a restaurant, try ordering less and take the money you saved by ordering less and send a donation to a charity that will feed them.  Besides, if you eat the rest of those fries, they won’t be any less hungry, but you will be less healthy.  And don’t worry, I won’t tell your mom that you’re “wasting” food.

Having a hard time losing weight?  Feel like no matter what you do the pounds never come off?  If the answer is yes, then maybe it’s time to start a food journal.

People have the best intentions. They work hard to reduce their calories and improve the quality of the food they eat, but sometimes they just can’t seem to lose the weight they need to be healthier. Many times that is due to the fact that they are not truly aware of how many calories they consume in a day or how  poorly they may be eating.

Become aware of what you’re really eating
So, how can you combat this problem? Research has shown that the act of writing everything down in a journal makes us less likely to overeat.  What do I mean when I say “everything?”  I mean everything no matter how big or small. If you are having coffee, write down the amount of cream and sugar that you put in.  If you ate two small pieces of candy you took off Sally’s desk at work, write that down also. The more rigorous you are in writing everything you eat in the journal, the more successful you will be with your weight loss.

Getting started with journaling:

1. Get a pocket-sized, spiral-bound notebook. Your journal should be small enough to be easy to carry wherever you go. Otherwise, you won’t bring it.
2. Each page represents one day, so put the date at the top of the page.
3. Divide the page into two columns, one for food and the other for calories.
4. At the beginning of the day, write your goal at the bottom of the page.
5. Write down everything you eat all day long in the left -hand column and the calories in the right hand column. If you don’t know how many calories something is, you can check nutritiondata.com. They have a very extensive nutritional data database and probably have what you’re looking for.
6. At the end of every day, total up your calories and put it at the bottom of the page next to your goal.
7. If you didn’t meet your daily goal, assess where you went wrong and plan ways to meet it the following day.

Over time, you’ll be surprised how much healthier you’ll eat when you know you have to write each item down and track the calories for it.  Some things that you once ate without thinking will become more trouble than they’re worth and you’ll stop eating them. Others, will have more calories than you thought and you’ll find yourself dropping them for healthier items that you like just as much.  Journals are a great tool to help you build a habit of thinking about what you eat before you eat. So, get writing and get healthier!

If someone asks if you’re hungry and you have to think about it before answering, you’re probably not truly hungry. You’re not asking your stomach if it needs more food. You’re thinking about whether it can fit any more food. This happens to us all too often in our modern lifestyles where food is plentiful and easily accessible wherever we are.

Are you really hungry?
For example, when you’re sitting on the couch watching television and you think, “Hey a candy bar and a soda sound good right now,” you’re probably not really hungry. What’s  happening is that your mind is telling you that the candy bar and soda would taste really good and would make watching your show more enjoyable, not that you’re really hungry and need nourishment. This happens to all of us, especially if we associate certain activities, such as watching television, with snacking. We have to separate activities that trigger the desire to eat, from the foods they make us want to eat.  This is especially important for activities we do a lot or do for long periods of time when we do them.

What you can do to prevent overeating
Overeating is a bad habit, which can be broken if you’re aware of why you’re doing it and implement simple strategies to overcome it. Here are some tips to combat overeating.

1. Eat slowly: When we eat quickly, we often eat more than we need before the stomach registers how full it is.  Set time aside to sit down and slowly eat your meals. Make sure to savor each bite. When you eat slowly your stomach will feel fuller with less food and you will be less likely to overeat.
2. Take a break: If you take a 2 minute break when you’re half way through your meal, it gives your body time to register how full you are. That will make you less likely to eat after you’re physically full.
3. Stand up: We’ve all experienced the sensation after a big meal where we feel full and then when we stand up, we feel overly full.  So, if you stand up for a moment near the end of the meal, you can see if you’re still truly hungry before polishing off the rest of your food.
4. Combat negative emotions and conflicts: If you are feeling bored, angry, having conflicts at home or are frustrated don’t turn to food to make you feel better. Find an alternate way to combat these emotions. Maybe go for a walk or run instead. It’s healthier for you, releases endorphins that make you feel better, helps to work off the energy that negative emotions create and burns calories instead of adding them.
5. Keep a food diary: Since you have to write everything down, you will think twice about eating more than you need.
6. Don’t reward yourself with food: Instead of rewarding yourself with cake or ice cream, reward yourself with non-food items such as a massage, a new outfit, a new houseplant, etc.. It’s healthier for you and doesn’t set back your goals at all.  Besides, shopping or a spa treatment can be fun and more motivating to work towards.
7. Say no to temptation: Plan strategies to cope with situations that might tempt you. If there is always cake and cookies at work, find ways to avoid them when they’re there or learn to wait out the urge.  If you are not really hungry the urge to eat them will subside. In case you really are hungry, make sure you have a tasty, healthier snack available to eat instead.

Remember, if your stomach isn’t telling you that you’re hungry, then you’re not really hungry. Your stomach should feel empty and possibly even be growling. If not, you’re adding food before your body needs more. The secret to maintaining your weight is eating the same amount of calories as your body burns. Nothing mysterious there, but it’s something that can be hard for many people to do. Often it’s because they eat when their mind says they’re hungry even though their stomach isn’t in agreement.

So, what am I saying here? It might be time to reevaluate when we eat. Next time you think you’re hungry, have your mind ask your stomach. If your stomach agrees, then you’re really hungry and it’s probably a good time to have something to eat. Give your stomach a second to answer before you start in on that snack, even if it’s just a bag of sliced carrots.

Next, I jump right into the show.  A lot of us are trying to lose weight and are looking for ways to help us lose those excess pounds. But, some of the things that we believe are helpful, actually don’t work at all. In this show, I discuss 15 common myths related to weight loss in depth. Some references that I used were webmd.com and abclocal.go.com.

For those of you that want to hear a little different side of me or who want to listen to a great personal podcast, I was interviewed on Tuesday, October 14th by Erk for the Erk Pod podcast. I really enjoyed being on the show and had a fun time being interviewed by Erk and discussing health issues with him. A couple of times we had a little trouble understanding each other because of Skype, but it is a really good listen. For anyone who is interested I recommend you check it out at erkpod.com.au.

Finally, if you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review. It’s a great way to give me some good exposure and can help me get more listeners. For those of you that have already, thank you so much!.  Thanks for listening everyone!

I end the show by addressing some questions from Beth from NY and HR Meadors from Seattle.

If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give me a nice review. It’s a great way to give me some nice exposure and can help me get more listeners. Thanks for listening everyone!

Then I head into the meat of the show and discuss a new popular fad diet, called the Flat Belly Diet. This diet was created by the editors of Prevention Magazine. I cover an article from medicine.net that discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this diet.

Finally, I end the show by analyzing an article from webmd.com that looks at ways to lose belly fat.

In the second portion, I discuss the effectiveness of diet pills.  I reference an article from msnbc.com that covers diet pills.

After that I jump into the meat of the show and discuss the article “Overeating On The Job” from hotjobs.yahoo.com. This article talks about six ways to combat unhealthy items in the workplace environment.

Finally, I look at the article “Student Loses 180 Pounds” from cnn.com. I discuss how this student, Brandon Hollas, lost the weight and how he has become inspirational to others looking to change their lifestyle to a healthier one.