My #1 rule for weight loss...

Loosing weight & excess fat is an exhilarating process! The first time you step on the scale and see a lower weight it produces such excitement that the happy dance is always done and your motivation & determinatio are strengthened! This cycle continues until, life happens! Life happens to everyone! Injury, illness, a vacation void of workouts & filled with high fat foods, visiting company & the loss of routines, emotional or financial hurdles that dry up your well of determination.

The most important rule for a healthier, happier life is to get back on the path! Time & time again life will happen. That's why we try to be healthy! We want to live longer to experience life in all it's glories, adventures, misfortunes, and relationships! When life happens or you make bad choices always, always, always get back as quickly as you can.

I have not recorded the number of times I've backtracked or been sidetracked in my two year weight loss adventure. The one thing I always tell myself, "Well, at least I never give up!" The fight is worth fighting, Friends! No matter what happens, or how long it happens, get back up! How do you get back up?

I keep fitness magazines in my home so I can stumble across them and absorb their energy! What is more motivating than reading an excellent article or seeing a beautifully scuplted athlete?! I post quotes around my fridge that inspire me & help direct me to better things than eating when I'm bored. I never buy bigger clothes. If I'm starting to gain weight & my pants get tight I know choices are to get back on track or to suffer the concequences because I am NOT buying a size I just worked so hard to get out of! Set your eye on an adventure like a mini triathalon, 5K, hike, etc. There are so many wonderful adventures out there to get in shape for! Live life & let it inspire you to being active! Remember, life happens. Your job is to get back on track!

"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th." - Julie Andrews

What is emotional eating & 3 tools to help you!

When you're at your weakest point emotionally, the strongest cravings for food often happen. Food has become a temporary escape from stress, worry, difficult problems, deadlines, and frustrations in relationships. Sometimes, you're just looking to keep yourself occupied! Your emotions heighten and you turn, consciously or unconsciously, to food for comfort & relief.

Your weight-loss efforts will be sabotaged by emotional eating. Emotional eating leads to eating too much, especially too much of high-calorie, sweet, fatty foods. There is good news! You can learn & follow the steps to regain control of your habits and achieve your weight-loss goals!

For me, learning about emotional eating & how to regain control has taken a year. It was challenging to realize that my weight-loss journey had come to a stand still because I was giving in to emotional triggers. What do you do if you find yourself at a party & even though you appear to be enjoying the party & mingling with friends the majority of your focus is on the dessert table. You can be smiling happily at a friend, laughing at their wit, while thinking of the moist, warm, chewy texture of those chocolate chip cookies, or velvet chocolate cake! Can you tell I'm a chocolate girl? The strong emotions of the party, a feeling of celebration & joy can be enough to trigger your emotional eating.

What if you're at home, frustrations are high because the house is a war zone, dinner is boiling over, and your children are not behaving like in Leave it to Beaver! Sometimes, without ever consciously choosing to do so, I've found myself in the freezer, spoon in hand, drowning my woes in that carton of ice cream!

The first thing I recommend for you is to get your hands on "the End of Overeating" by David Kessler. Here is MY experience! This book will help you understand what is going on inside your brain, and for me that has been a priceless lesson!

My second recommendation is for you to realize that nine times out of ten getting caught in a "mind storm" is what leads to emotional eating. Dean Anderson, Behavioral Psychology Expert describes it as "getting caught in a "mind storm" of worst-case scenarios, projections, misinterpretations, and all the emotional overreactions that come with these thoughts. This "storm" turns a manageable challenge into something that makes you feel helpless, overwhelmed, ashamed or afraid—and sends you to the kitchen to find something to stuff those extreme feelings."
Anderson says staying grounded during moments of stress presents you with options.

Here's how to stay grounded & in the present.
BREATHE! Calm yourself down mentally & physically with a trick I learned from a counselor, Rita Cowen. Breathe in while you silently, slowly count to a certain number. Exhale slowly as you count to the same number. Do this several times until you have calmed down. Stress & anxiety reside in the frontal lobe of the brain. She explained that counting uses the left side of your brain which pulls the focus from that frontal lobe. When we are stressed our breathing automatically becomes very shallow which naturally increases our anxiety. Breathing will calm us down physically & help you return to the moment.

NOTICE! Notice the physical sensation you are experiencing. Oh, how this has helped me! Recognizing specifically what I'm feeling and realizing that food cannot solve my problem or take away the sensation I'm struggling with aborts my mission to the pantry. In fact, I'm quite turned away from food when I remember that if I indulge I'll have the additional problem of knowing that I've acted against my goals, and strengthened the habit of emotional eating. Not good!

PERSPECTIVE! Whenever you feel overwhelmed, break the daunting task down from the mountain to manageable molehills you can handle one at a time. Anderson suggests asking yourself, "Will any bad things happen if I postpone thinking about this until I have more time to figure things out?" I love this suggestion! When I am calm, collected, & out of the kitchen I can sit down & evaluate the task & conceive solutions. I love that feeling of accomplishment & victory! I'm solving my problems effectively instead of turning to food to temporarily escape.

These are just a few tools for your emotional eating tool belt. Most importantly, do not give up or give in to discouragement! Victory will be yours! Of course, you'll occasionally stumble. The important thing is to get back up!! Everyone falls, everyone fails sometimes. Victory comes from getting back up & learning from your falls!

Congratulations on stepping aboard the weight-loss train! It's definitely an adventure! And, it's definitely, 100% worth it! I'm here to help you every step of the way!
Here's to your health & happiness!

Emotional eating in check!

Emotional eating is the most common & difficult challenge among weight loss hopefuls. I am preparing some posts specifically about emotional eating & tools that have helped me. Tonight I would just like to share with you that I am doing very well. I've realized achieving your goal physique is similar to putting a puzzle together. I've enjoyed success with each new puzzle piece and sometimes temporary frustration when another piece can't be found or doesn't fit. But with persistence all puzzles can be completed & enjoyed!

Our lives move at an unprecedented speed. The stresses, demands, ambitions, needs, responsibilities, etc all play havoc on our emotional state. When we are so worn down by the mere speed of life and something delicious enters our view we feel grateful for the reward! "I need this!" and "I deserve a treat!" runs through our mind as we begin to enjoy the mere anticipation of such pleasure!

I admit most of the times I've over eaten or over rewarded myself have been in moments of frustation related to parenting. When it feels like all hell is breaking loose a carton of ice cream can be so satisfying, until my escape is over & I feel worse than before. Brian Tracy, one of my new favorite authors, says that bad choices are easy to make, but hard to live with. Successful choices are hard to make yet easy to live with. How true this is! It is so easy to choose to throw caution to the wind & go out to Chili's, ordering whatever our appetites demand! But, when the scale won't lie to you, you feel sluggish & unproductive, and those pants are cutting of your air supply, life is harder & you're frustrated with yourself for making that choice.

I support the occasional trip to a restaurant or bowl of your favorite frozen flavor. However, those of us who have to jump the hurdle of emotional eating have to discover tools to help us navigate these opportunities. My friends, never stop working on your puzzle. Each mistake is a valuable lesson to learn about yourself! I promise life is much easier to live when the right choices are made. We can achieve our goals and we'll be healthier & happier in the process! Here's to your health & happiness!

What is the Bodybugg?

This is a fantastic time to be alive and on the quest for weight loss! If your goal is weight loss you've probably read or heard enough to know that cabbage & water is not the effective trick to try. You may also have learned that counting the calories you eat can be a powerful instrument in your weight loss tool belt. Here's a quick review of facts.

Calories is another word for energy. We eat to fuel our bodies. When we consume more fuel than our bodies can use that extra fuel is kept in a fat reserve. That fat reserve was helpful to cavemen & nomads who couldn't foresee with certainty when their next meal would be. The way to rid your frame of this extra burden is to consume less calories than your body uses, which allows your body to use the stored fat for the extra energy it needs. Those are the facts.

Apex has designed the Bodybugg to help weight loss participants gain a better estimate of how many calories their body is using. Through many different sensors it estimates how many calories you are burning. By wearing the bugg & keeping a food journal you can easily make sure your calories expended & calories consumed stay within the desired ratio.

My six month experience with the Bodybugg was a great personal education. I am a fitness instructor by trade. I love to workout as hard as I can, even though I wasn't always that type of dedicated exercise enthusiasts. I lost 45 pounds with the help of a life changing company called, Beachbody. This process brought with it the realization that we are all capable of experiencing our own physical transformation! We truly can achieve weight loss & realize our fitness goals! Since fitness has become my passion & profession my goal is to achieve the physique that is a singing business card, to surpass average and become unique. The bugg was intended to aid my progress.

The Beachbody trainer I love, adore, and aspire to emulate is the lovely & unique Chalene Johnson! Her review of the bodybugg was so exciting I got online, credit card in hand, and went shopping! I waited in the front window, nosed pressed against the glass, straining my ears for the deep rumble of the delivery truck. I met him at the mailbox, ripped open the package, flew through the easy set up, and was off to count my calories. The bugg includes 6 months free of the online subscription. You simply plug the bugg into your PC, log on to the bugg website, and suddenly you have access to personal graphs, reports, meal plans, fitness plans, etc. It's a beautiful masterpiece of individualize information. Like my own, personal fitness & nutrition Bible! How could success not be realized with such a tool?!

The next six months were filled with unrealized goals, mounting frustration & panic, and a personal realization. I was not in the correct frame of mind to count calories. I could tell I was reaching that unhealthy obsession with the numbers. I knew my problem was emotional eating and until I solved that equation the bodybugg was helpless to help me. I carefully boxed it & sold it on ebay. The bodybugg is an innovative tool & has helped thousands, but it wasn't a weight loss tool that fit with my unique situation.

My present hurdle of emotion eating is the most common problem weight loss hopefuls encounter. Look forward to future posts on that! There definitely are tools to help us happily clear that hurdle! With emotional eating counting calories was ineffective. I have since adopted Tosca Reno's opinion that focusing on appropriate portion sizes is the way to fuel my body. I'm happy to report I am healthier, both physically & mentally with this practice.

Thank you for reading! Your weight loss quest is a fabulous puzzle with the pieces strewn across the living room! You walk through the process picking up different tools that work for you and discarding ones that don't. There is joy in putting the puzzle together, not just in admiring the finished masterpiece! Feel that hope and keep your thoughts positive!

Surviving the Desk Job: How to Stay Healthy at Work

Extra calories can be burned just by being creative! Challenge yourself by seeing how many extra steps you can take each day. Take the stairs - not the elevator! Park as far as possible from the office door or supermarket! Between phone calls hit the cubical floor & give me 10 push ups! You're energy will be replenished & your concentration will also be restored!

Surviving the Desk Job: How to Stay Healthy at Work
By Stephanie S. Saunders

When we started school, oh so many years ago, no one had to explain to us that the human body was not designed to sit in a chair for 8 hours at a time. Somehow, we inherently knew that we needed recess, physical education, lunch, and even naptime. Even that walk uphill, both ways, in the snow, barefoot, was just part of what we needed to do. So we worked all of those years, graduated to our dream job, and ended up sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours without moving. Sure, we use the facilities, maybe go out to lunch, but mostly we sit on our backsides with horrible posture and stare at a computer screen. At around 4 PM, we begin to search for a pick-me-up, and end up eating candy and soda from the break room. Sure, at age 12, we thought free junk food was like winning the lottery. But as adults, we end up feeling flat-out yucky. We vow that tomorrow will be different, but we are so exhausted from a sedentary lifestyle, that change seems impossible.

The good news is that a desk job does not have to be so stagnant. If something in motion stays in motion, then we need to find ways to keep moving. And with a bit of food preparation, we can actually avoid the Snickers^® bar. Let's look at some ways to stay healthy at work.

Get Out of that Chair

Sometimes it seems impossible to step away from your desk. People in Hollywood get fired for missing a call, an email, or taking too long a lunch. Here is the deal: They cannot fire you for standing up, going to the bathroom, or getting more water from the cooler. If your workplace is not completely rigid, switching your chair out for a Swiss ball a few times a day can make a huge difference in your posture. Even just standing up next to your desk can give your back the break from compressing that it desperately needs. So stand up, roll your shoulders back a few times, and breathe deeply. Go fill up a water bottle, which will give you even more reasons to stand up, as you will need the restroom. And set a timer to go off once an hour, so that you remember to do it. Sometimes that Excel^® spreadsheet is so fascinating, we forget about everything else. (Yeah, right.)

Speaker or Tweaker?

Did you realize your phone can be dangerous? No, this is not a lecture on driving with cell phones. Cradling a phone to your shoulder for extended periods of time can actually lead to misalignment, strains, and slipped discs. They still make fancy phones with a cradle for your shoulder, but they don't extend quite high enough. Try a wireless or corded variety of headset, which sometimes can be less expensive than their Bluetooth^® cousins. Forty bucks on a headset is better than multiple trips to the chiropractor. Or if what you are discussing is not sensitive, put the person on speakerphone. The coworker next to you might not appreciate it, but your neck will.

Stretch

You can stretch your entire body in a cubicle—a lot of it while sitting down. Here are some stretching options, which will release lactic acid buildup and help with structural alignment.

• Neck: Lean right ear to right shoulder until you feel a stretch along the left side of your neck, hold for 10 seconds, switch to the other side. Lower chin to chest until you feel a stretch along the back of your neck, hold for 10 seconds. Lift chin toward ceiling, until you feel a stretch along the front of your throat, hold for 10 seconds. Look over your right shoulder, hold for 10 seconds and then over your left.
• Shoulders: Extend both arms over head, interlace fingers, turn palms, and push up. Then interlace fingers with palms up behind back, lean forward slightly from waist, and lift arms away from your body.
• Arms: Extend arm straight across your body, grasp forearm, and pull extended arm toward your body. Repeat with other arm. Then sit up in your chair, open your knees, and place your palms flat on the chair between them, with your fingertips facing you, and thumbs toward your knees. Push down on your flat palms.
• Chest: Lift both arms out to the side, creating a "T" with them. Bend at the elbows, so your hands are going straight up to the ceiling, and you resemble a football goalpost. Pull your elbows back and hold.
• Back: Sit up as tall as you can, and pull in your stomach muscles to your spine. Extend one arm across to the opposite arm of the chair, and twist. Hold for 10 seconds, and switch to the other side.
• Quadriceps/Hamstrings: Stand at your desk. Bend one knee behind you, lifting your foot off the floor and catching it with the same hand. Don't lock your supporting leg; hips tucked under, and both knees together. Switch to other leg. Then place one foot on the desk in front of you, keeping the foot flexed and the knee straight. Put fingertips on leg, or desk, and with a flat spine, lean forward. If that isn't possible, flex one foot on floor in front of you, and lean forward with a flat spine.
• Calves: Stand arms' length away from your desk, both toes facing the desk. Step forward with one foot, and bending the knee, keeping the back knee straight and pushing down in the heel. Switch.
• Feet: Remove shoes if possible. Stand in front of desk. Form a "V" with your feet, heels together and toes pointed out at slight angles. Bend knees first, then lift up your heels, and hold for 5 seconds. Straighten knees and lower heels. Repeat 5 times.

Exercise Your Options

The following office exercise options are chair-based exercises for our more modest readers. If you are less aware of the stare, try adding some push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, dips, and squats to this routine. If you have an office with a door that closes, get yourself INSANITY^® right now and skip this entire section. For the following exercises, you'll need an exercise band, like the flat Thera-Band^® variety, which can easily be stored in your desk. And if your chair wheels easily, put the brake on now.

• Chest press: Place band around back of chair, looping the ends of the band in each hand. Sit on the edge of your chair with abs pulled in tight, and straight posture. Press arms straight out in front of you, keeping them parallel to the ground. Hold for 2 counts. Fold elbows in and bring back of hands to chest. Repeat 10 times. Can also be used as chest fly, by slightly bending elbows and bringing hands together in front of you, like you are hugging a tree.
• Row: Wrap resistance band around the leg of your desk. Sit facing it, both feet on ground, and abs pulled in. Grab one end of band in each hand; bend your arms and slide your elbows back, grazing the sides of your body. Hold for 2 counts, and return your arms to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.
• Lateral raises: Sit on the edge of your chair, place both feet on the center of the band, and take an end of the band in each hand. Keeping a very slight bend in the elbow joint, bring both arms out to your sides creating a "T" with them. Hold for 2 counts, and lower your arms back to the sides of your legs. Repeat 10 times.
• Posterior deltoid exercise: Hold band, hands 9 to 12 inches apart. Extend arms straight out in front of you, chest level, rolling shoulders back and down, keeping elbows as straight as possible. Open up arms to your sides, hold for 2 counts, and return your arms to the straight position. Repeat 10 times.
• Curls: Sit on edge of chair and place both feet in center of band, or wrap band under the legs of the chair. Grab one end of band in each hand. Keeping elbows glued to your sides, bend both elbows and bring hands up toward shoulders. Hold for 2 counts, and lower your hands. Repeat 10 times.
• Tricep extensions: Wrap band low around desk leg, and face away from it. Reach behind you, grab ends of band in each hand, and extend both hands to ceiling, with thumbs facing behind you. Hold for 2 counts. Keeping your elbows exactly where they are, let elbows bend slowly until hands reach ears. Extend arms straight toward ceiling again. Repeat 10 times.
• Knee abs: Sit on edge of chair, tuck pelvis under slightly, and draw abs deeply into your spine. Lift your heels off the ground, and lift one knee at a time. For a super challenge, lift both knees at the same time, making sure to maintain a C-curve in your spine (keep your abs firmly tucked in). Repeat 10 times.
• Leg extensions: Tie one end of band around the base of your chair. Tie the opposing end around your ankle. Sit firmly on chair, keeping backs of legs pressed into the chair. Extend wrapped leg out in front of you until knee is straight. Hold for 2 counts, and lower your leg. Repeat 10 times for each leg.
• Hamstring curl: Wrap one end of band under leg of desk, up as high as it can go with other end of band tied to your ankle. Sit facing desk, on edge of chair, and extend leg toward desk. Bend knee and pull foot underneath you. Hold for 2 counts, and return to straight leg position. Repeat 10 times, and switch to other leg.

Chew on This

An ounce of prevention might be a pound of cure, but 4 ounces of carrot sticks will never be as tempting as that bowl of M&M's^® on your coworker's desk. So how do we avoid it? A handful of nuts, a protein bar, or some low-fat trail mix might not remove the craving, but they'll make your hunger dissipate until your next meal, and they don't require refrigeration. You can keep them in your desk at all times. So instead of the bowl, five M&M's might be enough.

Keep Water on Desk

Besides the previously mentioned reason to drink water (getting you out of your chair), hydration in an office setting is sorely overlooked. Your body requires a lot of water, even if you're stuck in a chair. Being well hydrated keeps you mentally alert, flushes out toxins from air conditioning, and will sometimes help with food cravings. So drink up.

Get out

This next tip totally depends on your employer. Most offices have at least a few smokers in them. How come they get to go outside and talk about their weekend, in the sunshine, several times a day? Just because you don't spend 8 dollars a day on cigarettes doesn't mean you can't take a moment and get some fresh air in your lungs. If your boss complains, scream discrimination against nonsmokers. Or you could pick up some candy cigarettes and pretend, as long as you avoid eating them.

It is no surprise that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 67 percent of the population as being unhappy with their career choices. Is this because we all have chosen the wrong careers? Or is it simply that most office workers would rather be outside playing tetherball? As you are well aware, it's difficult to pay the mortgage unless you go to work. But there are many things you can do, while remaining at work, that will keep you feeling better than a Snickers will. Maybe if we all take a few minutes a day to take care of ourselves, that workplace contentment statistic might drop a little. And if that doesn't work, at least we can avoid the horizontal spread of our back ends. Now that is something to be happy about.

How I Overcame Compulsive Overeating

One thing I LOVE, LOVE about Beachbody is they truly are here to help us learn what we need to learn to become healthier & happier! Their products are phenomenal, and so are all the educational articles they write. This article is written by one of their famous trainers, Debbie Siebers. We are all struggles. This happens to also be mine! But, with education & encouragement we can all overcome whatever our hurdles are!
"Eating words has never given me indigestion." Winston Churchill

How I Overcame Compulsive Overeating

By Debbie Siebers, creator of Slim in 6^®

My biggest challenge in life so far has been conquering my compulsive eating habit. I remember so clearly the hopelessness I felt because I had no control over my impulses. I would literally sit down to a pint of Häagen-Dazs^® every day and swear that tomorrow I would start my diet. There are also vivid memories of me downing an entire bag of Chips Ahoy!^® chocolate chip cookies and an entire big bag of Doritos^®! I had those moments of sitting in my car, opening a jar of peanut butter, and polishing off almost half of it, and then driving to a fast food place for a burger and fries. And let's not forget the CHEESE! I am a Cheesehead, after all, and I would eat blocks of it at a time.

When I think of that now, it truly makes me sick to my stomach. How could my poor body handle that? No wonder my digestion was so screwed up and I have cellulite so bad—even now. You can't possibly expect to abuse your body like that and put such demands on your digestive system and not have major issues. I remember jogging around my block at 4:00 AM, desperate to burn off those calories, and then dropping down to the ground into a heap of tears praying for control and the strength to get my life on track. I do know that I was eating out of emotion—not knowing how to cope with certain feelings I was having.

I knew I had to confront my demons head on and figure it out. I'm not sure of the exact moment I decided to change. It was an accumulation of emotion and just being fed up with feeling and looking bad. Enough was enough! So, I joined a support group and through that program I learned how to eat properly. I learned about portion control.

Growing up, I was never taught any of those things. My mother had been severely overweight when I was growing up, and she loved to bake. And I mean BAKE EVERYTHING you can possibly think of. I would wake up every Saturday morning to hot chocolate chip cookies, gooey brownies, pies, homemade bread, you name it. I would stuff myself until I couldn't eat another bite. Having that support group made me accountable and got me on track. The first 12 pounds came off pretty easily. Then, it was a bit slower, but because I stuck with the program, it consistently came off.

When I moved to Los Angeles at 21, I was on my way to better health and felt more in control. I was a secretary at that time, so I sat most of the day. I definitely had bumps and challenges along the way, but I was determined to get the once lean, fit body back that I had when I was in high school as a cheerleader, gymnast, and sprinter! It was when I joined a gym and began working out with weights that I really started to see the changes. Unfortunately, I made a lot of the mistakes that many women do when they don't really understand how to exercise properly. I worked with heavy weights and didn't do enough cardio. So I got really strong, but I was very bulky! Also, I still was in the bad habit of eating three big meals a day instead of small little mini-meals throughout the day. It really wasn't until I was in my late thirties that I figured it out.

The last thing I needed to get control of was my love for sweets, and it wasn't easy . . . I decided to just starve myself of all carbs and sugars for about 2 weeks. It was truly amazing what happened. I sincerely didn't crave them anymore! I would never have believed in a million years that I would actually desire a delicious piece of fish with vegetables over a pizza!

I think having so much energy and feeling my body toned and lean also gave me extra incentive. Then, when I became a personal trainer at the gym I was working out at, I was literally exercising with my clients all day long doing ab and midsection routines with them. Before I knew it, my waist was tiny and my abs were ripped. I had a six-pack for the first time, and I was pumped!

Now if I really want to have a chocolate chip cookie, I'll have one . . . but only one. And sometimes, I don't even eat the whole thing. I am satisfied with a bite or two. For me, it was a major shift in the way I associated and looked at food. Also, the more educated and aware I became, the easier it was to treat my body with respect. I got into "right-thinking" mode and didn't want to sabotage myself anymore. Some of the tools that helped me along the way were thought-provoking, motivational, and inspirational books and tapes that would put me in the present moment. Now, there is such a wealth of extra support at your fingertips. Beachbody^® has developed such an amazing community that you're crazy if you don't take advantage of it.

Get involved in the live chats and the Message Boards. Join the WOWY SuperGym^®. Keep that journal every day to help you stay accountable. Empower yourself with knowledge and invest in YOU! You deserve it. You deserve to be happy and healthy! I know if I could do it, you can, too . . . we are all here to help cheer you on and support you to live your best life!

Now . . . GO PUSH PLAY!!

XXOO,
Debbie

The first 8 Eat-Clean Principles can change your life!

I wanted to share/review some clean eating principles. By clean eating I'm talking about God provided foods, non-man "enhanced" or processed.
Principles:
1. Eat 5 to 6 small meals every day. This is the best way to provide fuel for your body. It takes a bit to get used to eating smaller meals! You're used to seeing a large plate that is full of food. I really like to use smaller plates/bowls, that way it still seems full!
2. Eat every 2-3 hours. This keeps your blood sugar levels stable. When your blood sugar levels drop you get too hungry & almost always eat more than your body needs.
3. Combine lean protein & complex carbs at every meal! They go together like spring & rain, Houston & humidity, and Utah & Mormons! They are the optimal combination so your belly gets the perfect fuel & the food gets digested the slowest possible, which is awesome! It gives you energy for longer periods of time & keeps you full.
4. Consume adequate healthy fats each day. Your body, especially your brain needs essential fats. Sources of healthy fats are: almonds, avocados, cashews, flax seed, hazelnut oil, olive oil, pecans, pumpkinseed oil, safflower oil, sunflower seeds, and walnuts. About 15% of your diet should come from healthy fats from fish, nuts, seeds & healthy oils. This works out to be about 25% of your daily calories. TIP - when reading nutrition labels remember the word "hydrogenated" means trans fat, so stay away!
5. Drink at least 2 liters or 8 cups of water each day. Many times when your brain sends a craving or a signal to eat, we are miss reading that signal. The body is really just needing water. When your belly is full of water you will eat far less each day & still feel wonderful satisfied!
6. Never miss a meal, especially breakfast!
7. Carry a cooler loaded w/Eat-Clean foods to get through the day. There are many stylish coolers nowadays that look like purses. I love to carry a cooler!
8. Avoid all over-processed, refined foods, especially white flour & sugar. You'll discover these foods often make you feel gross, unmotivated, moody, irritable, and lethargic shortly after eating them. And, may I mention they are addictive.
Love to hear your thoughts!

You Asked and I Answered!

by my girl, Tosca Reno

Today I’m answering one of the most common questions I’ve received over the years: "What should I eat before and after a workout to optimize performance and enhance muscle growth and recovery?"

Before a Workout

Think about this: when you are working out you want enough energy to last your whole workout. No one wants to tire out before they’ve pushed their muscles to the max, so you need a meal that will keep you energized. A meal containing complex carbohydrates is exactly what you need for your workout because they release energy at a steady rate. Some good pre-workout complex carb choices include bananas, melon and sweet potatoes.

I avoid heavy grains such as brown rice or pasta within an hour of working out because I feel so full after I eat them.

Pre-Workout Meal Options

• Banana and a glass of almond milk
• Apple with a handful of nuts
• Nonfat plain yogurt with berries

After a Workout

Your post-workout meal should be eaten within an hour of ending your workout to replenish your glycogen and potassium stores and feed your body the protein it needs to repair muscle tissue. Ideally, you want to choose lean proteins and carbohydrates that are metabolized easily, so your body can quickly deliver nutrients where they have to go. Chicken, fish, eggs and whey are all good post-workout protein sources, and bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and raisins are rich in both potassium and glycogen.


Post-Workout Meal Options

• Grilled chicken breast with sweet potato
• Egg whites with tomato and steamed spinach
• Protein shake with fresh fruit

Finally, don’t forget to rehydrate! An essential part of your pre- and post-workout meals is water. The AARP recommends that you drink about one cup of water for each 15 minutes of exercise you perform.

Have a Great Week!

Sugar for dummies...

Sugar! Why sugar is so bad for us is this, it is instantly dissolved in the blood which spikes your blood sugar levels. Your body then releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin is a fat storing hormone. Too much insulin in your blood stream causes your body to store energy as fat. Sugar is also addicting & hard to resists. It really helped me understand the roller coaster that is going on inside my body while I'm eating something sweet to help me not want it. It isn't about depriving yourself. It's about doing your body a favor and putting the sugar away!

Sugar isn't a good source of energy. Good sources of energy are dissolved slowly, keeping your blood sugar levels stable. When your levels get all out of whack it can make you moody, sad, irrational, etc. Keeping your levels stable is a great emotional blessing! Sugary foods are not satisfying & the leave you craving more! For some reason, your brain likes the stimulation it receives from eating something sweet. You choose a soda at lunch and your brain likes the stimulation so when the sugar in your blood stream is back to normal it will start a craving for more high sugar stimulation. The great news is that it takes a few days for sugar to get out of your system & then you won't crave it! When your system is clean you will crave good energy, healthy foods. It's so great!!

Your body treats white flour, white rice, white anything like sugar. It is dissolved immediately & you get that spike. That's why whole grains are so cool! Brown rice, whole grain bread, whole grains like oatmeal (or corn meal mush! ;) are awesome because it is the "whole grain" all the nutrients, fiber, etc in still included. Man takes these whole grains & takes everything out of the grain & then bleaches it white... that's how we get white bread, white rice, etc.
Whole grains are digested nice & slowly & provide lots of things your body really needs to run properly. When you buy bread it has to say 100% whole wheat or it's just like 1 teaspoon wheat & some food coloring. Play around. Usually, the cheap, cheap breads are nasty! It may take a little getting used to some new tastes. Usually, we don't like the 1st or 2nd exposure, but after that we're used to the texture/taste being different. Healthy food is actually delicious. Sometimes, our taste buds are so used to the high sugar in everything that it takes several trys to discover that it is new & delish!

That's today's lesson. Your homework, start thinking about sugar. If you have it pay attention to how you feel immediately afterward. Most people can tell a spike in their blood sugar & then a crash... low energy, tired feeling. Let me know what you think!

What to do when your "fire" dissipates!

You've felt that fire or spark of determination & hope when you decide on a plan or program you are going to begin. It could be a workout program, nutritional life style, or other self improvement goal. The anticipation of success & the relief of finally having a plan is intoxicating! You feel the excitement of being at a cross road in your life! You've decided to make a change & fight to be better, to live better.

I'm here to help you when that feeling dissolves, as it surely will with time. The first step is to make the most of that emotion, that feeling! Let it help you establish patterns & habits. When my alarm goes off at 5am each morning I don't lay in bed asking myself if I "feel" like getting up or working out. The radio starts playing & I get up out of bed before my thoughts even begin. I keep my mind quiet and blank until I'm in my workout clothes, pushing play on my dvd player. You choose what to let roll through your head! Push all negative, self defeating thoughts OUT!

With those habits in place, you are better prepared to continue on your chosen path when the feeling of motivation subsides. Those habits will keep you successful and while you notice the loss of that spark it will be regenerated by your continued efforts. My fire, as I affectionately call it, comes & goes. When I fall off the wagon & wait for it to spontaneously reappear I am always disappointed! However, when I continue with my established habits that spark returns as a result of my continued success & as a natural reward for persevering! It always returns! You may also need to improve or tweak your plan. Have you reached your goals and now need to set higher ones? Do you need a need challenge?

When your spark is dim what you need more than anything is that awesome post workout high! The powerful feeling of accomplishment, personal worth, and joy is my main source of motivation. If only I could bottle that feeling and drink it throughout the day!

Elbert Hubbard defines self discipline as "the ability to make yourself do what you SHOULD do, WHEN you should do it, whether you FEEL like it or not." Write that on a note card and pin it to your wall! Success isn't had by letting emotions & feelings drive our choices! Success takes self discipline and learning to use those emotions for your cause, but definitely not driving the process.

P90X... where's the music?!

Three weeks of P90X w/Tony Horton & I sit here in the recovery week, week 4. Today as I was attempting core synergistics I had the thought, "where is the music?!" Music is one of the aspects of working out that I look forward to. When I push play on a Turbo Jam dvd or hit Turbo Kick at my gym, I don't have the mental tug of war that can otherwise begin. "What should I do today? Do I really feel like jumping around? Maybe instead I should do the laundry & I can workout later." See the picture? Instead, there is blissful silence in my mind & enthusiasm in my feet. The music takes me to a happier place & I'm in heaven! In Chalene's AMAZING resistance program, ChaLean Extreme, the music fits very well w/the speed of our repetitions. LOVE it!

Well, Tony does has some back ground music, but nothing inspiring. I remind myself, this is Tony NOT the lovely Chalene! Chalene & I are like musical sisters! She understands the power & motivation attached to amazing music! P90X is fantastic & I am loving the challenge! If I could meet Tony today I'd say, "Dude, where's the music?!"

8 Misleading Fitness "Facts"

By Steve Edwards

When it comes to your well-being, not much pricks up your ears like the word miracle. But when referring to health and fitness, the word miracle is generally synonymous with the word scam. That is, unless finding yourself suddenly motivated to exercise and eat better is something you would consider a miracle. Other than that, miracles don't exist.

At Beachbody®, we're always on the lookout for the next great thing. We analyze every diet, every workout, and every medical breakthrough that promises to reverse the obesity epidemic and make the real world look like, well, the set of The Real World. Without fail, what we find is that the only "miracle" breakthroughs are those that expand on what we already know—that only through exercise and diet will you effectively change your body and your health for good. Let's take a look at eight marketing miracles that fail to do much more considered miraculous than make their creators rich. We'll interpret each one and let you know how each claim may have a positive effect on your life.

1. You can get thin with a supplement. One of the most common questions we get is whether or not our programs will work without the supplements. Given how many claims there are about miracle cures involving a pill, this question makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that when we tell people that diet and exercise are the major components of our programs, they often become skeptical. We've been led to believe by advertisers that the reason we're overweight or out of shape is because there's a secret ingredient in some supplement that we've been missing. This, to put it a noninflammatory way, is not how it works. The obesity epidemic is the result of two rather simple numbers: we eat about 5 percent more calories than we once did, and we exercise about 20 percent less than we once did.
   
   This in no way means that supplements are worthless. While there are many shady supplement manufacturers in the marketplace, the reason we have supplements at all is because they can be effective in keeping us healthy. The use of supplements goes back thousands of years. Traditional medicines were the original supplements. There have been many advancements in the modern world, but basically, those same herbs and nutrients that aided people's health once upon a time have the same effects today. But they weren't miracle cures in the old days, and they still aren't. This is the reason we refer to our programs as being supplement-assisted exercises.
   
   
2. Medicine can make you healthy. Medicine can make you not sick, but it can't make you healthy. Along with curing diseases and injuries, doctors now inject, alter, and prescribe us into becoming healthier-appearing beings. Cosmetic medical advancements are indeed impressive, but let's not lose sight of the facts. The human body needs exercise and nutrients to run smoothly. There is no way to chemically change this. There are certainly medical alterations that can be done to change our bodies once they've been misused and started to fall apart. And there are drugs and other chemical alterations that can reverse certain conditions. But try as they might, scientists have yet to come up with a way for us not to need to exercise and eat properly so we can perform to the best of our abilities. We may be able to increase our natural abilities using medicine, but without the fundamental groundwork that is exercise and what we eat, no amount of medical help will allow us to live long and vibrant lives.
   
   
3. You can get ripped with the right diet. With Flat Belly Diet on the bestseller list and Abs Diet on the cover of Men's Health, it may be hard to believe that no diet alone is going to land you on the cover of a Joe Weider publication. Dieting can help you lose weight and greatly improve your health. But since that isn't what marketers like to spin, it's generally not what they pitch. The only diet that will give you ripped abs is a starvation diet. And that one comes with a lot of undesirable side effects.
   
   Many of these diets, including Flat Belly Diet and Abs Diet, are basically very healthy. But if you want your body to look ripped, you need to exercise and diet. A healthy body can look lean but rarely ripped. A muscular body with too much fat won't look ripped either. Only a healthy and muscular body can allow you to both look ripped and perform well. A starved body will be both lean and ripped in appearance, but this is not due to your body being healthy—rather, it's due to the catabolic state you enter as your body feeds on its muscle for survival.
   
   
4. You can have a six-pack by only working out your abs. Ab work will make your abdominal muscles strong, but you won't be able to see them unless your diet is in line with your exercise regimen. The easiest and quickest way to see your abs is to work your entire body intensely and eat well. The more muscle you add to your frame—your entire frame—the more your metabolism will increase, the more fat your body will burn while you're at rest, and the sooner your ab muscles will appear. And of course, the cleaner you eat, the faster you will make this happen.
   
   Six-pack abs—like most things used to gauge fitness—are a function of one's overall health and condition. They won't pop up on their own.¹ But you're also not wasting your time working on them. Your core, which is in part your abs, is the foundation that all of your movements are based on. Having a strong core is the single most important aspect of being physically fit.
   
   
5. One supplement can make up for a bad diet. We love miracles, especially when they don't require much work on our part. That's why we're always looking for a pill we can take that will make up for our bad habits. Supposed muscle-enhancing supplements have been available since Jack LaLanne invented the Universal Gym, but in the last decade, we've also been bombarded with things promising the opposite. Fat blockers, carb blockers, diet pills, cleansing pills, and so on all promise to rid us of something we wished we hadn't eaten in the first place. Unfortunately, this can't be done.
   
   There are many good dietary supplements, but heed the word "dietary." Supplements work along with the other factors of your diet. Nothing can even hint at offsetting a poor diet. In fact, one of the main advantages of supplements is exactly the opposite: they make the biggest difference when you're dieting already. Basically, supplements are condensed nutrients. When you're exercising and also attempting to lose weight, it becomes difficult to get all of the nutrients your body requires to recover from exercise. This is the realm of the highly effective supplement. Proper supplementation can allow you to eat fewer calories than you normally could and still allow you to recover from hard workouts, which greatly enhances your results. Beachbody's ActiVit® Multivitamin is a great way to make sure you get the nutrients you need each day to get the most out of your fitness program.
   
   
6. Cardio is the only exercise you need. Cardio isn't even a scientific term for a type of exercise, yet it's still often trumpeted as the be-all and end-all for exercise effectiveness. In my experience, this is often a cop-out by medical practitioners who feel the need to recommend exercise but don't want to risk being specific. Cardio as a general term means anything affecting the heart. The problem with interpreting the term is that everything you do has an effect on your heart. And although intense exercise works the heart much more than easy aerobic exercise does, it seems that most people define cardio as aerobic, meaning low-level movement. And low-level movement is not the only exercise you need, unless your physical state inhibits you from doing something more intense.
   
   The key to changing your body composition, staying young, and remaining healthy is to do short bouts of high-intensity exercise. If done correctly, this is all the "cardio" you need. It also promotes muscle breakdown and hormonal releases that have a pronounced effect on your health. All "cardio" training is good, including low-level aerobic training. However, it just shouldn't be the only exercise you do.
   
   
7. You can plug in and get ripped. Remember the old exercise machine that had a strap you placed around your butt that would vibrate like a washing machine? Back in the '60s, this odd contraption filled fitness centers worldwide and undoubtedly made someone a lot of money. It also never shed a pound off of anyone. And even though it's used in many gimmick jokes, we just can't stop trying to replicate it. If you ever see an advertisement for something that does all the work for you and claims you'll look better because of it, start searching for the remote. The calories you burn looking for it will exceed any amount you'll burn using the device.
   
   As is the case with most gimmicks, there is a scientific example at their root somewhere. Most of these modern contraptions are some type of electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) device. These machines use electrodes to contract your muscles while you do nothing. They were designed for physical therapy and work well within this application of keeping your muscle tissue from atrophying when you can't work your muscles naturally. So, yes, these machines do build muscle. But they lack the ability to stimulate anything near what you would do naturally. To keep the type of physique you would acquire in a round of P90X® would require you to be plugged in for most of any given 24-hour period. And if you're going to go to this much trouble, you'll save yourself a lot of effort by doing any 30-minute exercise video—shoot, one 10-Minute Trainer® workout will do a lot more for you than a full night on an EMS machine!
   
   
8. A single type of workout will make you fit. Beware of any exercise that promises to be "the only workout you'll ever need." Even if one workout did cover all of your energy systems using each workout modality, it still would not be all you need. The reasons are many, but primarily, it's because your body adapts over time to any exercise regimen. To achieve continued progress, you need to alter what you do from time to time. The more planned out this is the better.
   
   There is a reason Beachbody designs fitness programs. For best results, you should train your body progressively and periodizationally. That is to say that you need to progressively overload your system as it becomes used to any one thing. Then, you should change the focus of your program to target various energy systems. By doing this, you keep your body stimulated and your progress curve will continually ascend.
   
   

¹Actually, there is a medical procedure that removes the fat from your abdominals to make them visible. It does nothing for the rest of your body, does not help your fitness, and has potentially damaging effects over time.

Does Exercise Matter for Weight Loss?

By Beachbody Nutritionist, Steve Edwards

I'm sure by now many of you have seen the recent cover of TIME magazine stating that exercise doesn't matter for weight loss. As you might imagine, we at Beachbody are a little incredulous at this premise. After all, we have files filled with thousands of individuals who've used exercise to dramatically change their bodies. Could we be the ones who are mistaken? Could all of those transformations have happened from dietary change alone? Today, let's take an analytical look at how we lose weight.

This article is going to deviate from our usual approach. As a person who has spent most of his life altering human physiques, I'm going to deconstruct the TIME article from top to bottom and try to make some sense out of what seems like a very unlikely premise. Let's begin with the tagline:

" . . . because exercise makes us hungry or because we want to reward ourselves, many people eat more—and eat more junk food, like doughnuts—after going to the gym."

Could it be true? After all, exercise not only makes you want to eat more, but it requires that your body consume more calories to recover from a breakdown of body tissue. What's unclear at this point is where the "junk food, like doughnuts" came from. My experience with Beachbody customers (and others over the last 25 years) is exactly the opposite; exercise actually leads to better eating habits because a body in tune with its needs craves healthier foods. But this is the tag line of an article that's going to circulate worldwide. Certainly, the author is about to present some compelling evidence for his argument. John Cloud proceeds to inform us:

"One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. But I exercise all the time, and since I ended that relationship and cut most of those desserts, my weight has returned to the same 163 lb. it has been most of my adult life."

His personal example of how exercise has not helped him lose weight seems to have left him rather bitter. "I have exercised like this—obsessively, a bit grimly—for years," he states. "But recently I began to wonder: Why am I doing this?" To me it revived memories of Gina Kolata's best-selling drivel from last year blaming the obesity epidemic on our genes, where her entire argument was based around her brother training for a marathon and losing only 3 pounds. But certainly, the cover story of TIME wasn't going to be based on one man's personal weight loss odyssey.

If only Cloud and Kolata were members of the Message Boards, we could have told them how to break plateaus using a simple periodizational approach. Of course, this may have hurt their bank accounts, but at least they'd be less disenfranchised with the fitness industry, as well as a lot healthier.

But I digress. Next, Cloud states:

"Still, as one major study—the Minnesota Heart Survey—found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly. The survey ran from 1980, when only 47% of respondents said they engaged in regular exercise, to 2000, when the figure had grown to 57%."

At least he used "at least say," because other studies don't back this up. In fact, numerous studies published this decade show that children exercise somewhere between 20 percent and 25 percent less than they did in the 1970s, while only eating approximately 3 percent more calories. Statistics tell us that childhood obesity rates are over 30 percent nationwide, and over 40 percent in some demographics. Obese children are 99 percent more likely to wind up as obese adults than non-obese children. In fact, we don't need statistics to tell us this at all. We just need to be observant. The absence of children playing in the streets, the empty bike racks at schools, the prevalence of video games, and the increase in things to watch on TV should make it easy to draw this conclusion sans further input. Using this background, Cloud gets down to the nitty-gritty:

"In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,'" says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher."

This seems like a pretty bold statement. The physiological response by the body to exercise is to increase its metabolism. All other things being equal, this leads to weight loss, and there is no scientific evidence to rebuke it. The only scenario when it would not help is one where an individual consumed more calories than they burned off. But not only would they have to exceed the actual caloric burn of the exercise, they'd have to eat beyond the additional physiological changes the body makes to recover from exercise. And while it feels as though we're getting to the point of the article, caloric consumption in Cloud's view is always only weighed against calories burned during exercise. Furthermore, this premise dismisses the findings of at least three long-term studies done between 1997 and 2008 that show exercise is extremely important for maintaining a goal weight after weight loss.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Cloud goes on to tell us:

"Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases—those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses."

So he's advocating exercise, apparently, just not for weight loss. Odd, when two of the diseases listed above are directly related to obesity. Regardless, this dubious setup allows Cloud to drop his bomb, which is based on spotty science and conjecture:

"That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder."

For scientific evidence, Cloud uses a study out of Louisiana State University [LSU] that showed women on an exercise program didn't lose much more weight than a group who wasn't on an exercise program when their diets weren't monitored. Of course, the women on an exercise program still lost more weight; it just wasn't very significant. But without factoring in diet, it's hard to say what went on within this group. Surely, the dietary component of a weight loss program is important, but stating that exercise is making weight loss harder seems like a stretch, especially when citing a study where the group that exercised still lost more weight. This extrapolation was summed up well in Denis Faye's blog The Real Fitness Nerd:

"Claiming that exercise isn't effective because people use it as an excuse to otherwise misbehave is like claiming a medication isn't effective because patients don't follow the directions properly."

The conjecture continues, as Cloud continues mentioning cravings for various junk foods whenever the topic of exercise comes up. For example:

"In 2007 the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association issued new guidelines stating that 'to lose weight . . . 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary.' That's 60 to 90 minutes on most days of the week, a level that not only is unrealistic for those of us trying to keep or find a job but also could easily produce, on the basis of Church's data, ravenous compensatory eating."

But physical activity is defined as any type of movement that increases your heart rate over time, so he's using the American College of Sports Medicine's guidelines for undefined exercise, making a jump to suggest this should happen at intensities that cause us to pig out, assuming those exist in the first place. This is in contrast to studies that show compensatory eating happens more regularly among sedentary groups. Regardless, it's virtually impossible to prove that moving our bodies more will make us "ravenous," especially when Cloud's still only referencing the LSU study.

His next leap of illogic jumps the shark:

"If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza."

Cloud provides no rationale for this. Maybe he would opt for pizza, as we can only assume. But no evidence is presented as to why someone would do this other than a paper published in Psychological Bulletin in 2000 that claims self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. How he came to the conclusion that this would lead someone to eat pizza as a post-workout snack is anyone's guess because, unfortunately, he doesn't attempt to explain it. It's just his opinion.

Next, he attempts to make his point using some science:

"Yes, although the muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle—a major achievement—you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that."

Cloud's flippant dismissal at the end of this paragraph could be taken as self-mockery because no one can convert fat to muscle. The physiological process does not exist. You can lose fat (atrophy) and gain muscle (hypertrophy), but you can't convert one type of body tissue into another. Furthermore, the Columbia research has not been proven conclusive. Brad Schoenfeld, in an in-depth review of the TIME article on his blog Workout 911, cites two studies showing far greater differences in metabolic properties.

"In a study done at Tufts University, Campbell and colleagues reported an increase in lean body weight of 3.1 pounds after 12 weeks of strength training increased resting metabolic rate by approximately 6.8%. This translated into an additional 105 calories burned per day. Do the math, and that equates to approximately 35 calories burned for each pound of added muscle. A study by Pratley and colleagues came to a similar conclusion on the topic. A similar four month strength training protocol resulted in a gain of 3.5 pounds of lean muscle. Metabolic rate showed a resulting 7.7% increase, correlating to a metabolic-heightening effect of muscle of approximately 34 calories."

Cloud does manage to quote a lot of credentialed people, but he does so in a way where he either uses their quotes out of context or he interprets them in a way that's just plain wrong. For example, let's use his analysis of why running could be worse for weight loss than "sitting on the sofa knitting."

"Some of us can will ourselves to overcome our basic psychology, but most of us won't be very successful. 'The most powerful determinant of your dietary intake is your energy expenditure,' says Steven Gortmaker, who heads Harvard's Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. 'If you're more physically active, you're going to get hungry and eat more.'"

True, you will be hungry and might eat more. What he leaves out is that not only can you eat more, but at some point, you need to eat more to lose weight. At Beachbody, this is one of the most difficult principles we have to teach our customers. At the beginning of an exercise-induced weight loss program, we restrict calories. As a person's body composition changes, so does that person's need for caloric consumption. It's not uncommon for our customers to double the amount of food they need to eat to keep their weight loss moving once they get into good shape. This simple physiological fact renders Cloud's argument moot.

And not only do individual caloric needs change, but so do nutrient needs. In my experience, the need for more nutrient-dense foods seems to create cravings for healthier foods that are nutrient dense. And since these foods tend to be less calorically dense (because they are often plant based and contain fiber), the most common scenario among our customer base is that people become less hungry over time because they're eating foods which keep them full longer.

Cloud follows this with an about-face, making a point that if people moved more, they could exercise less. Ignoring the fact that all movement is considered some form of exercise, Cloud uses some studies that showed kids who got less recess time spent more personal time exercising, and thus stayed on par with their weight loss, than those who got more recess—not exactly a damnation of exercise.

Then he actually champions exercise with the following statement:

"In addition to enhancing heart health and helping prevent disease, exercise improves your mental health and cognitive ability. A study published in June in the journal Neurology found that older people who exercise at least once a week are 30% more likely to maintain cognitive function than those who exercise less. Another study, released by the University of Alberta a few weeks ago, found that people with chronic back pain who exercise four days a week have 36% less disability than those who exercise only two or three days a week."

This seems like a strong testament from an article that began as anti-exercise. He further drives home the need to exercise with the following paragraph:

"But there's some confusion about whether it is exercise—sweaty, exhausting, hunger-producing bursts of activity done exclusively to benefit our health—that leads to all these benefits or something far simpler: Regularly moving during our waking hours. We all need to move more—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says our leisure-time physical activity (including things like golfing, gardening and walking) has decreased since the late 1980s, right around the time the gym boom really exploded. But do we need to stress our bodies at the gym?"

Huh? Who defined exercise as the need to "stress our bodies at the gym"? Wasn't this the same guy who had just told me that I'd be better off knitting than going for a run? It seems like the entire point of the article was for Cloud to publish an excuse so he wouldn't have to go to the gym anymore. He then proceeds to ask himself this exact question.

"This explains why exercise could make you heavier—or at least why even my wretched four hours of exercise a week aren't eliminating all my fat. It's likely that I am more sedentary during my nonexercise hours than I would be if I didn't exercise with such Puritan fury. If I exercised less, I might feel like walking more instead of hopping into a cab; I might have enough energy to shop for food, cook and then clean instead of ordering a satisfyingly greasy burrito."

The funny thing is that over the course of the article he actually seems to have convinced himself that he should exercise, only differently. He simply became befuddled on the type of exercise that he should be doing to get rid of his belly. It's more like an article to promote periodizational exercise, even though he doesn't mention it. He admits his confusion:

"Actually, it's not clear that vigorous exercise like running carries more benefits than a moderately strenuous activity like walking while carrying groceries."

Here we would agree, as it is unclear, especially without defining the intensity of the run or the amount of weight in groceries being carried. Not to mention the duration or the way you structured your daily tasks. What's become clear to me, by this point, is that the author needs a personal trainer. But he doesn't need one who takes him through workouts; he needs one who would plan an effective program for him. Cloud sums it up:

"In short, it's what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight. You should exercise to improve your health, but be warned: fiery spurts of vigorous exercise could lead to weight gain."

Again, he has it wrong. He's admitted a need to eat better and to exercise; he just simply doesn't understand the process. All his self-flagellation reminds me of the colloquial definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result." What this author really needs, if he wants to lose his belly, is a Beachbody program.

References: W. Campbell, M. Crim, V. Young, and W. Evans. "Increased energy requirements and changes in body composition with resistance training in older adults." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 60: 167–175, 1994.; T.P. Ballard, C.L. Melby, H. Camus, M. Cianciulli, J. Pitts, S. Schmidt, and M.S. Hickey. "Effect of resistance exercise, with or without carbohydrate supplementation, on plasma ghrelin concentrations and postexercise hunger and food intake." Metabolism. 2009 Aug; 58 (8): 1191–9.; D.L. Ballor, et al. "Resistance weight training during caloric restriction enhances lean body weight maintenance." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1988 Jan; 47 (1): 19–25.; R.W. Bryner, et al. "Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate." Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 1999 Apr; 18 (2): 115–21.; C.C. Curioni and P.M. Lourenco. "Long term weight loss after diet and exercise: a systematic review." International Journal of Obesity (Lond). 2005 Oct; 29 (10): 1168–74.; J.E. Donnelly, et al. "Muscle hypertrophy with large-scale weight loss and resistance training. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1993 Oct; 58 (4): 561–5.; D. Faye. "Time Magazines Lame Excuse Not To Exercise." The Real Fitness Nerd. August 10, 2009. http://thefitnessnerd.blogspot.com/2009/08/time-magazines-lame-excuse-not-to.html.; G.R. Hunter, N.M. Byrne, B. Sirikul, J.R. Fernández, P.A. Zuckerman, B.E. Darnell, and B.A. Gower. "Resistance training conserves fat-free mass and resting energy expenditure following weight loss." Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008 May; 16 (5): 1045–51.; N.A. King, M. Hopkins, P. Caudwell, R.J. Stubbs, and J.E. Blundell. "Individual variability following 12 weeks of supervised exercise: identification and characterization of compensation for exercise-induced weight loss." International Journal of Obesity (Lond). 2008 Jan; 32 (1): 177–84.; C. Martins, L.M. Morgan, S.R. Bloom, and M.D. Robertson. "Effects of exercise on gut peptides, energy intake and appetite." Journal of Endocrinology. 2007 May; 193 (2): 251–8.; W.C. Miller, D.M. Koceja, and E.J. Hamilton. "A meta-analysis of the past 25 years of weight loss research using diet, exercise or diet plus exercise intervention." International Journal of Obesity. 1997; 21: 941–947.; R. Pratley, B. Nicklas, M. Rubin, J. Miller, A. Smith, M. Smith, B. Hurley, and A. Goldberg. "Strength training increases resting metabolic rate and norepinephrine levels in healthy 50- to 65-year-old men." Journal of Applied Physiology. Jan; 76 (1): 133–7.; A.S. Ryan, R.E. Pratley, D. Elahi, and A.P. Goldberg. "Resistive training increases fat-free mass and maintains RMR despite weight loss in postmenopausal women." Journal of Applied Physiology. 1995 Sep; 79 (3): 818–23.; B. Schoenfeld. "Is Exercise Derailing Your Efforts to Lose Weight?" Workout 911. August 12, 2009. http://workout911.com/?p=347.; X. Wang, M.F. Lyles, T. You, M.J. Berry, W.J. Rejeski, and B.J. Nicklas. "Weight regain is related to decreases in physical activity during weight loss." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2008 Oct; 40 (10): 1781–8.

9 Foods That Can Fool You

By Denis Faye

During my South Dakota, 1970s childhood, my mom used to order something called the "Diet Plate." Common in most Sioux Falls-area and greater-Minnesota region restaurants, it consisted of a scoop of cottage cheese; a couple canned peach halves, still dripping syrup; a hamburger patty; iceberg lettuce; and a sprig of parsley.

While delicious by mid-20th-century, Midwestern standards, it was about as calorie restrictive as the chicken-fried steak and baked potato my dad was eating across the table. Still, the perception was that this was diet food, most likely because each element in the "Diet Plate" had a vague resemblance to another, healthier, foodstuff—except the hamburger, that is. But that had to be there because this was South Dakota and any other meat would be deemed un-American.

It'd be nice to think that we've transcended the Diet Plate. Sadly, this isn't the case. Even today, there are dozens of foods we fool ourselves into thinking are healthful when, in truth, they do nothing but pad our hips and arteries. Here are nine of the worst offenders on your grocery store shelves.

1. Yogurt. It starts out as good stuff. Fat aside, there's the calcium and protein you find in all milk products, along with probiotics, which make it easier to digest for those with lactose issues. The only problem is, straight yogurt can be pretty bitter, so manufacturers load the stuff with sugar to make it more palatable and masquerade those carbs as fruit. Have a look at most flavored yogurt, and you'll find the second ingredient to be sugar or high fructose corn syrup. One container of Yoplait^® Original Strawberry is 170 calories with 5 grams of protein and 33 grams of carbohydrates, 27 of which are sugar. Oddly enough, these are the exact same nutrition facts for Yoplait's other, less healthy-sounding flavors, including Key Lime Pie and White Chocolate Raspberry.

   Solution: Buy plain yogurt and flavor it yourself. You'd be amazed at how far a handful of raspberries or a tablespoon of honey will go to cut the bitter taste. And while you're at it, choose the low-fat or fat-free stuff. You'll still get all the nutritional benefits.

2. Wheat Bread. If you're reading this, you probably know enough about nutrition to understand that whole-grain wheat is better for you than refined wheat. By keeping the bran and germ, you maintain the naturally occurring nutrients and fiber.

   But for some reason, manufacturers constantly come up with new chicanery to lead you back to the refined stuff. One of their latest tricks is to refer to refined flour as "wheat flour" because, obviously, it's made of wheat. But just because it's wheat-based doesn't mean it's not refined. The distracted shopper can mistake this label for "whole wheat flour" and throw it in his cart. Another loaf of cruddy, refined, fiber-less bread has a new home.

   Solution: Slow down when you read the label. That word "whole" is an important one.

3. Chicken. Just because you made the switch from red meat doesn't mean you're in the clear. If you opt for dark meat—the wings, thighs, and legs—you're losing protein and gaining fat. Three ounces of raw chicken breast, meat only, is 93 calories, 19.5 grams of protein, and 1.2 grams of fat. Three ounces of dark meat, meat only, is 105 calories, 18 grams of protein, and 3.6 grams of fat. It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up.

   Solution: Go for the breast, and while you're at it, ditch the skin. It's nothing but fat.

4. Frozen or canned fruit. Any food swimming in juice or "light syrup" isn't going to work in your favor on the scale. Furthermore, most canned fruit is peeled, meaning you're being robbed of a valuable source of fiber.

   Frozen fruit is a little trickier. While freezing preserves the fruit itself, adding sugar during the freezing process preserves color and taste; so many store-bought frozen fruits add it in.

   Solution: Read that ingredients list! You want it to say fruit, water—and that's it.

5. Canned veggies. "What?" you declare. "There's light syrup in canned string beans, too?" No, actually, they add salt to preserve this produce. A half-cup serving of canned string beans has approximately 300 to 400 milligrams of sodium.

   Solution: Many companies offer "no salt added" options. If you can't find one to your liking, go frozen instead—no salt (or light syrup).

6. Peanut butter. Squish up peanuts, maybe add a little salt. How hard is it to make that taste good?

   Apparently, it's so incredibly difficult that many companies feel compelled to add sugar or high fructose corn syrup into the mix. Why? I do not know. Some manufacturers, such as Skippy®, are up front enough to admit this and call their product "Peanut Butter Spread," but many others still refer to their sugary concoction as good old "peanut butter."

   Solution: Read the label. (There's a theme emerging here.) Considering real peanut butter has one ingredient, two ingredients max, it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out.

7. Juice. The range in the nutritional value of store-bought juices is massive. On one end, you have "fruit drinks" with just a modicum of actual juice in them. On the other end, you have fresh-squeezed, 100% preservative-free juice such as Odwalla^® and Naked Juice^®. But no matter which one you choose, it's important to remember that it's never going to be as healthy as whole fruit. And if you're trying to lose weight, it's a flat-out bad idea. First off, it's been stripped of fiber, so you absorb it faster, which makes it more likely to induce blood-sugar spikes. Secondly, you consume it faster and it's less filling, so you're more likely to drink more.

   Solution: If you must buy it, go fresh squeezed, but you're usually better off just skipping it entirely.

8. Canned soup. As is also the case with canned veggies, you're entering a sodium minefield. Half a cup of Campbell's^® Chicken Noodle Soup has 890 milligrams of sodium. That's 37 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA)*—and who eats half a cup?

   Solution: Read those labels carefully. Most companies make low-sodium versions.

9. Fat-free salad dressing: Dressing, by definition, is supposed to be fatty, thus highly caloric. You use a little bit of it and in doing so, you get a healthy hit of the fats you need for a nutritionally balanced diet. Unfortunately, people prefer to buy fat-free versions so that they can drown their greens yet avoid excess fat.

   Nothing's for free. All this stuff does is replace the fat with carbs and salt, so you've basically gone from pouring a little healthy, unsaturated fat on your salad to dumping on a pile of sugar. For example, Wish-Bone^® Fat Free Chunky Blue Cheese is 7 grams of pure carbs and 270 milligrams of sodium for 2 tablespoons, which you'll never stop at anyway. Also, given that there's no fat or protein in this particular dressing, one can only imagine what makes it "chunky."

   Solution: Make your own salad dressing. One part vinegar and one part olive oil with a blob of Dijon mustard makes an awesome vinaigrette. And here's another trick: Make your salad in a seal-able container, add a tiny bit of dressing, and shake it up. It'll coat so much more than tossing will.

   And finally, make that salad with romaine or spinach or some other nutrient-rich leafy green. As far as we're concerned, nutrient-poor iceberg lettuce should have gone the way of the South Dakota Diet Plate.

Are you up for a Challenge?

Biggest Loser
Challenge
JUMP START 2010
Hosted By: Caryn Rasmussen
www.beachbodycoach.com/CoachCaryn

Everyone can use some motivation to get fit, I know I do. I found my motivation by being a Beachbody Coach and I love it! I have come up with an idea that might help you get motivated. I am starting a Biggest Loser Challenge that will start on January 25th 2010 and run through February 25th 2010 (30 days). I am personally doing ChaLEAN Extreme and I am LOVING it! If you need help picking out a workout program or deciding what flavor of Shakeology you want let me know and I will help you out. We can all get in shape this year so let's start 2010 out right and stick to it!

The person who has highest percentage of weight loss will win a prize.

The goal of this is challenge is to get you motivated to get active and help you continue to stay motivated with the prize you will win.

What you need to do:
1. Be a TeamBeachBody Member (free or paid doesn't matter). If you already are one cool, just make sure I'm set up as your coach. Send an email to coachrelations@teambeachbody.com and tell them you want Caryn Rasmussen (my screen name is CoachCaryn) as your coach. If you are not a member already go to www.beachbodycoach.com/CoachCaryn click “join” and decided which type of member you would like to be and sign up.
2. You will NEED to purchase a workout program (at over a $30 value or more), or one month of Shakeology, from me at my site click shop OR pay $30 to join the challenge.
3. Starting January 25th 2010, just like The Biggest Loser you will need to "weigh in" and send me your weight before midnight on 1/25/10. I will need your weight in pounds.
4. If you miss more than one weigh in you will be disqualified.
5. This contest is depending heavily on the honor system, since most of you I won't see on a daily basis I'm taking your word for it. Remember this is to help YOU to get motivated and start changing your life.

WINNER will get one of the following Workout Programs free (Turbo Jam Maximum Results or Turbo Jam Fat Burning Elite package, Hip Hop Abs, Yoga Booty Ballet, Slim in 6, Rockin' Body, Power 90) or a free month of Shakeology.

Now that you know what you need to do and what the prizes are,
Please place your order at my site with enough time to get
Your program before January 25th 2010 (we do offer 2 day shipping)
And send me an email at carynrasmussen@gmail.com by
January 25th with your starting weight so let me know you are interested
and I will send you the game plan and tools to use!

LETS GET FIT TOGETHER
To purchase products view online catalog at www.beachbodycoach.com/CoachCaryn