"You have to be a light to yourself ... and not follow the light of your professor, the psychiatrist, psychologist or the light of Jesus or the light of the Buddha. You have to be a light to yourself in a world thats utterly becoming dark."
(From: Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition and Weight Control. W. McArdle, F. Katch & V. Katch, Lea & Feblger 1991) NOTE: This is a rough estimate of your calorie needs. You may burn more calories or fewer calories, depending on many factors unique to your body. For example, fidgeters need more calories than mellow folk& A registered dietitian can help you more accurately determine your actual energy needs. Copyright:Nancy Clark, MS,RD; SportsMedicine Brookline, Brookline, MA 02167. Reprint permission granted with proper credit.
If you have excess body fat that you want to lose, you must understand that diets dont work! In order to lose weight healthfully and successfully keep it off, you should look at your eating. After all, eating contributes to weight-problems ...particularly the over-eating that commonly occurs after blowing a strict diet.
Strict diets teach you willpower. Strict diets leave you feeling deprived of one of lifes pleasures - food.
Rather than diet, you should learn how to healthfully eat diet portions of any food that you currently enjoy and would like to eat throughout the rest of your life. Healthful eating offers more long-term success than crash dieting. Healthful eating also ensures adequate vitamins, minerals, protein and carbohydrates the nutrients you need to exercise at your best.
The following eating tips can help you successfully lose weight plus have energy to train hard and exercise at your best. Expect to gradually lose weight at a realistic rate of one-half to three pounds per week depending on your body size and total amount of fat you have to lose.
Twelve Steps for Successful Weight Reduction
#1. Write down what you typically eat in a day, evaluate your meal patterns and eating habits. Do you nibble all afternoon? Devour huge dinners? Munch-out at night? If you eat very few calories during the day but then over-eat at night, experiment with eating a bigger breakfast, lunch and a planned afternoon snack.
Then you will be less hungry at night and better able to eat a smaller dinner. By giving yourself permission to eat more calories during the day, you will not only have more energy to exercise, you will also prevent yourself from getting too hungry. Generally speaking, once people are ravenously hungry, they dont care about what they eat nor how much and can too easily over-eat.
#2. If you over-eat when you are stressed, nervous or lonely, remember that no amount of food will satisfy you. You really need a hug and human comforting. Food is only fuel. It will not resolve your problems.
#3. To lose weight appropriately, you should know your calorie budget. To determine the number of calories for your reduction diet, you first need to estimate your maintenance calories:
Multiply your desired weight by 10 to determine your resting metabolic rate (the amount of calories you need to simply lay in bed all day and breathe). For example, if your target weight is 120 pounds, your resting metabolic rate is about 1,200 calories. You burn off these calories even if you are injured or taking a rest day from exercise.
Add another third to half of that number for your general daily activity excluding your specific training or exercise program. If you are mostly sitting, studying, or working at a desk, you need fewer calories than if you are active during the day (i.e. going up and down stairs, walking around, doing errands).
For example, a 120 pound mother with two children is quite active and burns approximately: 1,200 calories (resting metabolism) + 600 calories (general activity) = 1,800 calories (without exercise).
Next, add on calories burned off during your exercise program. Here is the calorie expenditure for some popular sports, based upon weight and calories burned per minute of activity:
#4. Subtract 20% of your maintenance calories to determine an appropriate calorie target for weight loss.
For example, if you maintain your weight on about 2,000 calories, you should plan to lose weight on about 1,600 calories. Note that petite athletes (i.e. skaters, gymnasts, dancers) will subtract fewer calories than bigger athletes (football players, body builders). If you cut back more than 20%, you will likely become ravenously hungry and put yourself at high risk of blowing your diet.
#5. Organize your eating into a balanced plan. For example, divide your 1,600 calorie diet into three meals plus snacks, such as: breakfast - 500 calories; lunch - 500 calories; afternoon snack - 100 calories; dinner- 500 calories. By eating the majority of your calories during the day, you will have energy to exercise at your best. You will also be able to (easily) diet at night because you will be less hungry.
Remember: you will not gain weight by eating a substantial breakfast or lunch. You will gain weight, however, if you skimp on these meals, get too hungry and then over-eat during the evening...!
#6. Eat slowly. Over-weight people tend to eat faster than their normal-weight counterparts. Your brain needs about 20 minutes to receive the signal that you have eaten your fill. No matter how much you consume during these twenty minutes, the satiety signal wont move any faster. Hence, you should try to pace your eating. Practice chewing slowly, putting down the fork between bites rather than eating nonstop, and tasting and savoring the food.
#7. Once a week, relax and enjoy a piece of birthday cake, a special Sunday breakfast or a planned treat.
This will give you incentive to maintain your reducing program when tempted at other times. When enjoying this treat, be sure to eat it slowly to fully enjoy the taste. After all, the best part about food is the taste.
#8. Keep away from food sources that tempt you. For example, read the newspaper in the living room rather than the kitchen. Avoid jogging past the bakery. Stand away from the buffet table at a party. By keeping the food out of sight, you will be more likely to keep it out of mind -- and out of your mouth!
#9. If you tend to eat because you are bored, stressed, tired or lonely, make a list of ten non-food activi ties that you can do instead of eating: water the plants, take a bath, call a friend, write letters, go for a walk, go to sleep, etc.. If you eat because you are stressed, take steps to resolve the real problem. Recognize that no amount of food will resolve the stress. Learn how to handle stress and anxiety without over-eating.
#10.Think positive. Every morning before you get out of bed, visualize yourself eating appropriately and achieving your nutrition goals. This will help you start the day with a positive attitude. Continually remind yourself that you would rather be leaner than over-eat.
#11. Measure success by looking at yourself naked in the mirror. If you see, and pinch, less fat, you have less fat! If you weigh yourself, do so once a week first thing in the morning, after you have gone to the bathroom and before you have eaten. Dont weigh yourself after a workout or at night -- that gives a false weight! Remember that if you are starting an exercise program, you may gain pounds of muscle while you lose pounds of fat. The scale may read the same weight, but your body will be different.
#12. Be proud of your healthy eating patterns and keep reminding yourself that when you eat well, you not only feel better but you also feel better about yourself. Plus, you have enough energy to exercise and enjoy life.
I do hope you liked this article. Again, wishing you the best of effort in getting back to your best personal fitness shape in 2008!
If you have any questions (About Nutrition, At-Home Training Programs, Private Training, the Cost of Private Training, or Do-It-Yourself-Training), please do give me a call!
It would be my honor and a privilege to answer your questions, to the best I know how to.
Fruits and Veggies..Does More Matter? -Valerie L. Peters MS, RD, LD RAFB
YES, YES, YES!!!!!! If you want to stay healthy, 13 servings per day are now included in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This is a total of 6 1⁄2 cups per day, not hard to reach at all with a little planning.
By eating a piece of fruit with each meal, and a cup of non-starchy veggies at lunch and dinner, you have consumed 7 servings. Next, try some fruit as a snack.
What to shop for in these delectable desserts??
Don't buy more than you can eat in a few days Eight apples, four peaches, three bananas and five apricots may seem sensible at checkout but when they all ripen two days later, you better be prepared to start eating or cooking.
Fruits cook well, either as stand alones or as marinades, salsas, or as condiments.
Fruits and vegetables ripen at room temperature
Ripen fruit on the counter top, not in the refrigerator. It'll take about two days for fruit to soften; eat it then or refrigerate for two to three more days. Cold temperatures slow ripening process.
For optimal flavor, bring to room temperature before eating.
Gently feel your fruit when shopping. Most fruits, with the exception of cherries, are firm; avoid those that are as hard as golf balls. Fruits should yield a bit too slight pressure and soften even more at room temperature.
Color and smell
Avoid fruit with green undertone. These have been picked too early and will not have an abundance of flavor. Fruit should have a fragranced odor. If you can't smell anything, keep shopping. As well, if the smell is too pungent, the fruit has already ripened and should be consumed the same day as purchase.
Health Benefits of increased fruit and vegetable consumption
Studies demonstrate people lose more weight consuming more fruits and vegetables than the others who do not, and are great sources of water and fiber in the diet. Fruits and vegetables provide VOLUME, which makes people feel full and stay full longer than other foods.
Fruits and vegetables also improve gastrointestinal health. Studies in the Polyp Prevention Trial (4-year study done by the NCI April 2000) demonstrated participants who increased their intake of fruits and vegetables and decreased their fat intake lost a significant amount of weight in 1 year.
Yes, fruits and veggies do matter! Source: California Apricot Council July 2006
Comments-Questions, please I would love to hear your voice, your opinion.
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHRAPY, IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY
( 'TRY' , BEING THE KEY WORD)
TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THAT THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY!!
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body.
These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion.
When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in theirbodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritionaldeficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damageshealthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells tospread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by notfeeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells.
Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful.
A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts.
Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour.
Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract.
Cancer feeds on mucus.
By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cellsare being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. Ameat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork.
Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nutsand a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment.
About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are ea sily absorbed and reach down to cellular levelswithin 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.
To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3times a day.
Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine.
Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tapwater.
Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestiveenzymes.
Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering.
By ref raining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack theprotein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's ownkiller cells to destroy cancer cells.
Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.
A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidicenvironment.
Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment.
Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen the rapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL , U. S.- PLEASE READ
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters.
This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.
Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.
Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.
Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.
Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital ,was on a TV program to explain this health hazard.
He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.
He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.
This especially applies to foods that contain fat.
He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body.
Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramiccontainers for heating food.
You get the same results, only without the dioxin.
So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., shouldbe removed from the container and heated in something else.
Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper.
It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc.
He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper.
The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerouswhen placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave.
As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food.
