Patriotic Picnic Plan & How To Stop Overeating
July 3, 2009
If I could wave my magic fitness wand and sprinkle my make-believe diet dust and change one of your behaviors this weekend, having you eat only when you are seated at a table would have far reaching benefits beyond the final firecracker. You see, having to sit down to eat puts an end to much of the mindless munching that makes picnics notorious for overeating.
This is because a circuit panel in your brain has buttons that stimulate “feel good” feelings and the more we push them (through eating fat, sugar and salt) the more we want to push them. I could go into more detail, but that pretty much sums it all up. When we push buttons in circuit panels, whether it is mental buttons or buttons on the breaker panel in your basement, it is always a good idea to be aware that you are actually pushing them. Can you remember the last time you blew a circuit in your house and how you reset it? Did you go down and start randomly pushing buttons? Probably not.
So sitting down, rather than standing next to the 9 layer dip is a good way to take more conscious control of what goes into your mouth and in the trickle-down theory, what ends up on your tush.
It is such a struggle already to control what we eat. It would be so easy to blame the food industry (or your mom for being such a great Italian cook maybe) because grocery stores, not to mention food manufacturers, do everything imaginable to make foods look, taste, smell and feel melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It occurred to me the other day that there is an inverse relationship between how good a food looks and tastes and how healthy it is for you. The worse it is for you, the harder stores, restaurants and food companies try to make it irresistible. So with such a sensory overload, how do we stop overeating?
We have to have a plan. In technical terms it is called a countermanding action. So especially for risky eating situations like 4th of July Picnics, parties, visiting your mother or being home alone with half of a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies, you have to plan in advance how you will deal with yourself so that you don’t wake up Monday morning with that familiar sense of self-loathing and bloat.
Start by standing away from the food table. Have a healthy snack before. Drink 2 glasses of water before you have anything else to drink. Sit sown to eat. Chew each bite 20 to 30 times. Do all the talking while everyone else eats. Throw out what is on your plate that you don’t want to eat immediately. Don’t drink more than 2 alcoholic drinks and know exactly what non-alcoholic drink you will switch to. Don’t just plan to do these things in your mind. Tell your spouse or whoever you are going to the picnic with your plan. Out loud. So they hear you. Ask them to kindly remind you of your goals.
These tips all bore me to tears from hearing myself say them over and over but there’s a reason I keep saying them over and over. They WORK. But you have to actually implement them. Imagine waking up Monday morning feeling like jumping on the scales and looking forward to seeing what you weigh. Now that’s a star spangled idea.
Where I’ve Been
July 2, 2009
“The governor is hiking along the Appalachian Trail.”-quote from Governor Mark Sanford’s office, June 22
“The Group Exercise Director is relaxing with her family in Ohio.”-quote from Penny Hoff’s Sportsplex cubicle, June 30
I suppose you’ve all been wondering where I’ve been these last several days. I’ve got to say it wasn’t until I just got home today that I realized that my gym members and spinners and yoga students had been left scrambling to locate my whereabouts.
Ok. I’ll tell you the honest truth. But it really was an innocent visit with my family. In Ohio. I decided quite at the last minute that my weekly 10 classes have been tapping my usually high energy and it dawned on me that I needed to relax. To slow down. To chill. To get away with my family. Well, not exactly with all my family. I sort of surprised my husband with the idea. He didn’t know I was going until the last minute. Nor did I bring my 14 year old twins. But I did mention on my last Twitter status post that my 16 year old son was with me. I implied at the time that he was with me. But truthfully, I’m not sure that anyone besides my 16 year old nephew in Ohio could actually vouch for my son’s whereabout during the time that you all’ve been searching for me. But he was there with me. Sort of. I swear.
Anyway, back to my story. My job is the best job in the world but it is physically exhausting. You try spending half your work day in your target heart rate zone and see how energized you feel by happy hour. So I was looking forward to not doing a-n-y thing for four days. As in no exercise-e-moi. Nada.
So when I got to my sisters I was so happy to kick back. Did I miss the tingle in my muscles post-workout or feel the urge to hit the gym pre-dinner? NO.WAY.
So we had dinner at 5 o’clock if I am remembering clearly. And afterwards I thought I’d call my old friend Lindsay Fitzlett. Only by accident I misdialed and called LifeTime Fitness which to my shock, had a facility just down the block! So I hated to be rude when the front desk gal, her name- Lindsay! if you believe in coincidences, well that was one right there, and she offered me a free trial visit while I was visiting in town. Of course I said No Thank You Ma’am, I am taking a few well-earned days of RE laxation! But. You know those health club sales people, they are RE lentless so after five minutes, just to shut her up, I told her I’d stop by and check out their gym. I’d consider it a professional reconnaissance mission, I told myself. At the time, that was my line of reasoning.
Anyhoo, I told my sis I’d be back in a few. Which is why there was some family miscommunication because she thought I meant in a few minutes when I thought she knew I meant a few hours. It really was an honest mistake. Which is why I hustled so much and got back four hours later. Honest.
Where’d I go next? The pool in my sister’s backyard, of course. Where better to kick back than poolside. But the weather, don’t ya just know it, the dang weather was NOT cooperating and so, to pass the time I was just browsing the internet and after only two hours I stumbled upon a yoga studio that, if I hadn’t promised myself to take some time off, I would’ve loved to check out. Plus my muscles could use some yoga, what with the plane flight and all that sitting around the pool for 20 minutes. So I texted my sister-even though she was in the next room, because I thought she was in the shower and I didn’t want to interrupt her. She deserves some peace too. I texted her and said I was going to Starbucks, did she want me to bring her anything. Although in all honesty I don’t know why I offered her coffee, nor do I actually remember this offer. Although there is that text in my “sent” box proving otherwise. Jeez, am I supposed to keep track of every little thing? I’ve been known to forget worse things.
Anyway, back to my whereabouts. Saying I was at Starbucks was an unfortunate ommission. I meant to say that I was at the Yoga Studio NEXT to Starbucks. Turns out I got to Starbucks and remembered I don’t do caffeine after noon and as I didn’t want to waste the gas, when I saw that the Yoga Studio was just next door I felt it was Divine Guidance. God wanted me to stretch.
So when my cell phone rang (which I forgot to turn off, just shoot me) near the end of yoga class but in the middle of relaxation savasana and I had to hiss at my sister, I really didn’t intend to yell. It wasn’t technically yelling although to all of my yoga classmates in corpse pose I suppose it sounded like I was possibly yelling. So yes, those in attendance might have a different impression of me than what is the truth which is that I am one chilled out RE laxed yogini. Ask anyone who knows me. Although they may not be returning your calls right now.
Where did I go next? Of course after the coffee incident, my sister, who I know for a fact did not mean any of the cruel things she said in tags on my Facebook yoga pictures, needed some time to “think about our relationship” as she jokingly (I think) put it. She really is a kidder, that sista-friend sista girl. My sister I mean.
So my only option as I saw it, was to go back the next day to LifeTime Fitness where I knew my new friend Lindsay would let me chill in their lobby because by then I really did need to rest both my mind and my body. Turns out Lindsay misunderstood what I wanted to do, which I tried to explain to my sister later, but I accidentally ended up on the Stairmaster, which I know sounds crazy. But in Ohio, the Stairmasters look quite a bit different. See I thought I was on a really long set of stairs that were leading me to the 2nd floor meditation room and you know me, I wasn’t looking where I was going. An honest mistake, I think. I really do.
So after the stairs (which I now realize was a StairMASTER. The TV monitor should’ve gave it away come to think of it) somehow I ended up not in the Meditation room but in a Zumba dance class. How did I end up dancing when I was said I was going to rest, you ask?
Well, I’d been so distraught about Michael Jackson’s passing and the woman next to me on the stairs (Master!), we got to talking as we watched CNN’s up-to-the-second coverage of MJ’s 911 call, and this woman brought up his killer(no pun intended) dance moves and this made my arms twitch and my legs quiver with the desire to manifest my Inner Michael Jackson. So happens, she told me, there’s a Latin Dance class starting in a few minutes.
So the next part is kind of blurry but you can imagine my own surprise when I found myself in the front row of not the meditation room but can you believe it, the Dance Studio! And even though my typical dance moves are not technically LATIN dance moves, I felt moved to honor the white gloved man in the only way I knew how. By raising the roof (ooo-ah ooo-ah), Donkey kicking( for you dancing idiots out there this is sort of like a cha-cha. Arms are waving in the air while alternating horse hoof kicks. You know, 1-2-3 kick a hoof, 1-2-3 kick the other hoof ) and by of course, Moon Walking.
Ohio girls have no business Moon Walking EVER but by this point I was, well….really even I could feel it, spiraling out of control. The music stopped and for just a beat, I couldn’t stop dancing. Which made me that girl who is just plain nuts.
Well let me just tell you that I was as surprised as my family to realize that I’d accidentally spent most of my time in Ohio exercising rather than relaxing and although this may seem like TMI at least I’m not volunteering this info to The Associated Press.
No matter how revolting you find my behavior, please refrain from calling me a bad relaxer to my face. I’m getting professional help for it. And I’m back at my home gym now. Not really refreshed. But home
June 1st-The Fitness Eclipse
May 31, 2009
Throughout the modern ages and around the country people have paid lip service to that old harp about wanting to lose weight. I have the same general conversation several times a day that goes something like this: “How can I get rid of _______( pointing to or grabbing a body part)” or “How can I lose X number of lbs by (fill in the date)?” And then we all march right back into the same dinner routines that we’ve been doing all along while expecting different results. We pick up the same Spicy Ranch Doritos at the ShopRite every week “because the kids like it” even though that particular combination of tart/salty/spicy/crunchy chip always calls YOUR name in the first commercial break of American Idol. If you keep doing the same thing, you are not going to get a different result.
And it is no accident that I am sending this on a lovely summer Sunday afternoon of the last day of the month. When the Planets of the Diet Universe align so that the first day of the month(tomorrow it happens to be June1st). When the first day of the month falls on the first day of the week, change is begging to occur. And Ladies, if you started your period in the last few days you are especially good-to-go. Tomorrow is the day, Folks, to start. To Just Do It.
Getting on the scale first thing Monday morning is not the most appealing idea but I encourage you, that if you are indeed one of those people saying out loud (or even if you just say it repeatedly in your head)that you want to get fit, lose weight, get in shape, get yourself together, to finally DO IT, then hear me when I say it.
Tomorrow is THE day.
But first, you have to set yourself up for success which requires a plan. Clear out the fridge. If you can’t bear to throw it out have your neighbor keep it in her basement or have your spouse hide it from you. Lay out your workout clothes right next to your bed. Make the meal plan tonight for your 3 meals tomorrow. Even pack it up so it’s ready to eat. Set yourself up specifically to succeed IN ADVANCE and you will.
The Disease More Lethal Than Swine Flu
May 22, 2009
Here’s a quiz that I made up while I was recovering from my overdose earlier this week. My Swine Flu Media Alert Overdose. (The straw that broke the swine’s back was when NBC pre-empted Kathie Lee and Hoda TWO DAYS IN A ROW for TWENTY minutes to listen to NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg shrug his shoulders.)
Answers are at the end of the article.
1. What is more dangerous?
a. Gaining 5 lbs every decade
b. Traveling through airports without a face mask
c. Not washing your hands every time you pee
d. Wearing white before Memorial Day to a Greenwich Polo Match
2.Which of the following events is more likely to happen to you in your lifetime?
a. You win the New York State PowerBall lottery with a dollar ticket you found in the street.
b. You catch H1N1, the new strain of swine flu
c. You die of an obesity-related disease like heart diease, diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer.
d.You become multi-orgasmic as you approach menopause.
3.Your idea of the most horrible way to die is
a. in your sleep at the ripe age of 90 years old after having beaten your 20 year old grandson in tennis that afternoon.
b. In an preparedness shelter with a handful of other survivors from a recent world-wide plague with no private bathroom, cell phone reception or flat screen TV.
c. In bed after several decades of languishing inactivity and pain related to being obese.
d. From full cardiac arrest directly brought on by the shock of becoming multi-orgasmic as a 60 year old grandmother.
Are you in a panic about Swine Flu? I have a better idea. Instead, panic (if panic you must) about the current pandemic of obesity. The CDC and WHO have both thrown up their (freshly washed) hands, shrugged their health shoulders and confessed to not having much of a clue about what to do about this flu. But statistics should reassure us, about swine flu at least. For example, there are 100 confirmed cases of swine flu where I live in Connecticut. That may sound like a lot but with a population of 3.5 million, Connecticuticans (say that three times fast) are more likely to contract the bubonic plague than to contract swine flu, not to mention that it’s spread is largely beyond our control unless you’ve figured out a way to breathe selective air.
Obesity, on the other hand, is totally within our control and is exponentially more widespread (an appropriate term, I think) than this strain of H1N1 flu bug.
Three in ten Americans are obese with a BMI in excess of 30.0, not to mention that six in every ten citizens is on his or her way to obesity by being just overweight. Childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled in the past two decades and according to the U.S. Surgeon General, obesity is responsible for 300,000 deaths every year. This does not include deaths from obesity-related diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Why aren’t we panicked about those extra pounds? Why aren’t we wearing those face masks to keep ourselves from overeating? I think it is because it is not immediate. Dying from diseases related to obesity kills more slowly and is cumulative over the years, unlike H1N1.
It’s only human nature to be more alarmed about what could happen tomorrow (even if the odds are astronomical) than in what is less immediate yet more deadly. But if we could start to view gaining those extra pounds as seriously as we do a flu bug, then we’d all live healthier lives and have a longer, more enjoyable lifespan.
Try this every time you wash your hands and whenever thoughts cross your mind about swine flu; think of one healthy choice you could do right now, like take a walk or plan a healthy dinner.
Then do it. Right now.
SCORING YOUR TEST
1. The correct answer is “a”. Adding gradual pounds as we age is directly related to disease and earlier death
2. The correct answer is “c” although good for you go-getters who answered “d”
3. The correct answer is “c” but at least your family will know where to find you.
KIRSTIE ALLEY’S SECRET WEIGHT GAIN PROGRAM
May 18, 2009
For the love of cheescake can the Jenny Craig staff please assign someone to keep a 24-hour watch on Kirstie Alley to be sure she doesn’t “cut herself some slack” and inadvertently and without realizing it (!!) gain more weight than she initially lost?
In case you haven’t heard, Kirstie Alley is now thinking of developing her own weight loss program to launch later this year. “I’m developing it,” Kirstie said on Oprah’s show. “I want to create something new that will help millions of people end the never-ending fatty roller-coaster ride.” She told an insider that she wants to lose the weight her way and then share her secrets with the world. Supposedly, she’ll be more credible if she starts off bigger, gets skinny and stays skinny.
Wow! Sign me up! I can’t wait until she unveils her secrets! I’m guessing they will look something like this.
1. As soon as you hit your goal, cut yourself some slack. You know the deal, stop measuring portions, don’t plan ahead for meals and definitely do NOT get on the scale. In other words, avoid all weight-loss accountability. “Oh Bartender! Another round, please!”
2. Stop working out, but not forever, just for today. Plan on doing it tomorrow.Or better yet, do what Kirstie did and turn your home gym into a dining room.
3. Replace low-cal, portion-controlled meals with REAL food, like pasta in butter (Yummy!), or maybe Chinese food and don’t forget mac & cheese in REAL sized servings. Think manhole cover-sized plates.
3. Admit you have a problem but just talk about it, don’t actually do anything about it. Tell yourself that you are totally going to do it.Ruminate on whether Michelle Obama got those arms by doing nothing ( I know differently). Take a big bite of ice cream and say “Starting tomorrow.”
4. Make small, bad decisions or better yet, don’t make any decisions. That way, inertia will take over and make life simple so you don’t have to lose all your energy being focused on a goal.
5. Badmouth yourself both in public and to yourself. Grab your thighs and announce to the general public at Starbucks, “God! my thighs are as big as Angelina’s waist!” The worse you feel about yourself, the easier it will be to comfort yourself with food.
6. Forget Valerie Bertinelli’s “One Day At A Time” theory. If you have a bad eating day, stay off the wagon, just throw in the towel for the whole week. Say to yourself, “Whatever. I’ve blown it.”
7. Use the pre-packaged food plan as a crutch so that you never really learn the skills necessary to prepare, cook and control portions independently once your Jenny Craig program ends.
I guess the thing that makes me so irked by Kirstie’s story is that she has so much more support than many of my clients who work full time and have families to take care of and still they cram in the exercise and food planning. The internet alone is filled with helpful info about how to make and stick with a diet/exercise program. Any personal trainer would adore working with her and would probably do it for free. She can afford a chef and has the time to devote herself to exercise. My theory is that Kirstie still does not love herself enough to maintain long-term weight-loss and a healthy lifestyle. It’s her mind that is fat and until she gets her self-esteem out of the oven, we are sure to see her weighing in on the cover of People Magazine before too long.
Fitness Blocks Vs. Fitness Obstacles
May 15, 2009
Often people ask me why they can’t just (damn it) do what they say they want to do. I tell them that there are usually two reasons. One is fitness obstacles and the other is fitness blocks. An obstacle is something that makes it difficult for you, like a busy schedule, low energy or no budget for a gym membership. A block is something that makes it almost impossible, like a limiting injury or an impossible work schedule. So the first step in accomplishing your fitness goals is to determine whether you have blocks or obstacles. Blocks are tough. They sometimes require a new work schedule or healing up an injury. But most people are just obstacled. What do you do when you are obstacled? Figure out a way to get around it. And don’t wait until the moment arrives to figure it out. Make a plan in advance. If you want to get up at 6am to do yoga, don’t count on your morning enthusiasm to get it done. Plan it the night before by making it the last the on your mind before sleep. That’s how it gets done. Trick your mind and you can get it to do just about anything, even things you’ve never been able to do before.
One of the hardest obstacles exercisers face when trying to kick off a new habit is getting started. Taking that initial step, especially when you’re unmotivated and unsuccessful is tough. Taking action means doing something uncomfortable right now, so you end up not doing it. The pain avoidance part of your head finds a million reasons to avoid doing IT.
But you can trick the comfort part of your brain and here’s how.
You take a preparatory action step at an earlier time than when you’re actually going to do the task. For example, the night before you plan to start your yoga regime, lay out your clothes and put your yoga DVD in the DVD player, put your yoga mat on the floor so that NOT doing the morning yoga will almost be harder than doing it.
This is the key to avoiding mental resistance upon awakening. Also, knowing that you don’t actually have to do the yoga while you are preparing for it makes the set-up part even easier. The yoga/work part was still out there in tomorrowland so mental resistance is minimal.
Our brains are hard wired to want to complete tasks that we’ve put some time or money or energy into. Once we get started, we sense that we might as well finish it.
Use this principle to work for you. If you make a plan of action towards a task, your head automatically feels less resistance to continuing because it thinks you’ve already started. This is why I love making to-do lists. My mind, after tasks are written down, thinks I’ve devised a plan and therefore that I might as well finish.
Is there a fitness task you’ve been avoiding? Something you keep talking about doing?
Determine a first step, write it down, lay out your game plan, then take it.
From Uncycling Junkie To Recycling Addict, All In One Short Decade
April 22, 2009
I was raised by parents who were both scared (and scarred) by the Great Depression. My father was the only son of an Ohio farmer who died when he was 17, leaving my dad as the man of the house and man of the farm. My mother was the youngest of a family of eight kids and her father died when she was a baby, leaving my Grandma a widow, to raise and feed, if you can imagine, eight children from the age of 18 years to 18 months, (without Costco!) and amidst the Depression. Both of my parents grew up poor although I never heard them describe it that way. My parents’ childhood activities, to my teenage kids, sound prehistoric. I might as well mention dinosaurs when I talk about how my Dad baled hay, milked cows and tended the hen house and how he spent the 3 hours before and after school, not playing soccer or X-Box, but doing farm chores. As I read that back to myself, it sounds prehistoric to me! My dad really did walk 3 miles to school, as annoying as that was to hear all throughout my own childhood. My mother still talks of homeless people she called hobos, who’d come to their backdoor with their hat in hand and ask for something to eat. Grandma Wilson would leave a sandwich or whatever she could skim from the already limited kitchen supplies for them to eat on the back porch swing. The JC Penney catalog was “recycled”- in the outhouse- in ways I’m sure Mr. Penney never intended and I still remember Grandma eating the core of the apple (!) and preferring the heel of the bread loaf, although I now suspect that she’d eaten the heel, the wing, the burnt piece, for so many decades that it was a reflexive choice. My mother was way ahead of her time when it came to not wasting ANYthing. She was the world’s best recycler before the word “recycle” had ever been invented. Along with my four siblings, I remember that Mom could never throw out an aluminum pie tin (the cupboards avalanched them if you opened a door too fast). She rinsed out baggies for re-use and even folded up gently used tinfoil if it appeared to have some life left. Leftovers were progressively re-served at each meal and stored in smaller and smaller containers even if there were only two bites left. To this day in a restaurant, Mom will ask the waiter for a doggie bag and often has to point to the small bites of left-over food to prove to the waiter there’s actually something on the plate worth taking home; “Here! Wrap up this one bite, here!” Cake batter bowls were barely worth licking after my mother scraped it bare.
Waste was a sin in my parent’s book and this was a permanent part of their psyche as unchangeable as their skin color.
Throughout my 20’s and 30’s, I made a point of what I now recognize as “uncycling”, simply because I’d had enough of my parents’ conservative lifestyle. What for them was a survival mode now appeared to my generation as cheapskate. I never took so much as a sweet-n-low packet from a restaurant (unlike Mom, God bless her) not to mention that doggie bags embarrassed me too much to ask for one.
No tinfoil, bag or baggie survived more than one use in my kitchen and I was proud of it. My not needing to scrimp and save felt better to me and seemed a symbol of my financial stability. The world offered me more, often more than I needed and I greedily (or so it seems now) took it, used it, pitched it.
Fast forward ten years. Our eyes have been opened- Thank you Mr. Gore-and we now know that there are not only Earth-friendly reasons to re-use and use less, but also the recent economic climate has given us more down-to-Earth reasons to spend less and save more. Recycling, either with or without a Depression, is vital. And isn’t it a testament to our (my) human capacity to mentally adapt that we (I) can change our (my) perspective 360 degrees on the subject of recycling. That someone like me can change my thinking in ways I’d never imagined possible- to think like my MOM! -That’s radical! It is encouraging for all humankind.
I chuckle to myself to think that my 20 year old self would be mortified that I now have a corner beside my dryer (same spot as Mom)that is stuffed with more plastic bags than I can use in a decade. I rinse out the bottom of the Tide detergent bottle to get one more load. I scold my kids to take shorter showers. I ask for doggie bags. And I eat the heel. I channel my mother on a regular basis as I refold, re-use and refill. I have to say this: Mom, you were right, even if you weren’t doing it to save the planet. I guess that’s what we call wisdom.
Keeping Your Fitness Wheels on the Road of Life
April 20, 2009
This is what my last few weeks have looked like; I won an Emmy. 
Battled a brush with death in my kitchen with my beloved George Foreman Grill, despite the fact that my two geriatric fire extinguishers refused to ex-ting. Grounded my son. Met Dr. Oz.
Lost my new phone. Found my new phone. Bounced a check. Found a $100 bill. Scored 4 for 4 with family April Fool’s pranks. Waited in line all night at Buffalo Wild Wings Grand Opening so my son could win a year’s worth of free wings. Won a year’s worth of free wings.
Realized the extreme insanity of waiting in line all night in order to spend the next 52 Friday nights at Buffalo Wild Wings. Got $20 in extra bucks on my CVS receipt. Texted my friend and hit send the moment I realized he was sitting two tables away at Starbucks. Washed seven loads of laundry on the first sunny Saturday of the season. Saw three Broadway plays, compliments of my Emmy goodie bag, which also held a netty pot, a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup but no partridge in a pear tree. Peeled 14 potatoes in ten minutes (my previous best time has never been more than one potato per minute, yay me). Burnt my hand (dinner seems to come around every friggin night). Stepped on a pop top, blew out my flip-flop, cut my heel had to cruise on back home. <silence>
Okay, the part about the pop top was an exaggeration but the rest, I swear, is true. Whether I was in sync with the universe or out of sync, my recent past has been filled with high and low moments of grace. Life truly is a highway and it is easy to cruise straight ahead if there are no pot holes to avoid but, just like a driving overcorrection, once you start swerving, it sometimes takes a few miles to get back on the blacktop.
What does this have to do with fitness? Fitness is what keeps me sane when my life starts swerving from one gutter rail to the other. That and God’s grace.
Give me 30 minutes of vigorous movement during which I can quiet the yammering hyenas in my head and I can deal. Without this, without the mental clarity that exercise provides for me, I am not a very nice person, to drive in front of or sleep beside.
Even on days when the coffee kicks in and life is percolating along smoothly, my workout releases me from the grip of “not enoughness” that wakes up with me each morning. Say I’ve had a few too many consecutive nights of ice cream and find myself tugging at my lycra waistband in discomfort. Even if my bloat doesn’t vanish after I exercise, those bloated thoughts do. So I can concentrate on things that really matter. Like what to buy at CVS with my 20 Extra Bucks.
The Science Behind the Snake Oil Hype of Acai Berry
April 7, 2009
If you’ve seen any of the adds on Facebook or Google for the acai berry you probably think it is the latest version A snake oil. I would too if I didn’t know so much about the acai berry already. The real reason there is so much marketing
hype and the real reason it seems like a fake fad is because, even though it is not a miracle berry and will not cure all that ails you, it is an extremely powerful source of antioxidants and one of the
most nutritious fruits on this planet.
Why are antioxidants such a big friggin’ deal? To name a few, antioxidants help maintain good cholesterol (HDL) and therefore they fight heart disease. Essential fatty acids and antioxidants in the acai berry help
fight bad cholesterol (LDL) while at the same time maintaining the good. This helps fight heart disease. Essential fatty acids also help in the absorbency of necessary vitamins like Vitamin A, D, E, and K.
The acai berry can also improve your vision in a roundabout way. It contains a kind of antioxidant called
anthocyanins, which are known to improve vision. During World War II, British pilots ate large amounts of bilberry (which also contains anthocyanins) as they said it improved their night vision.
Also, even though the acai berry is red it is a way for you to go green and support the Rainforest. Before the recent demand for acai berries,
local farmers used to harvest the entire acai tree for palm hearts to use in fancy salads. Luckily, now that the acai berry is becoming more sought after, the natives are paid more to harvest acai berries. This means that Brazilains now want to protect the trees instead of cutting them down.
In addition, the acai berry contains amino acids that relax your muscles and allow for better, more restful sleep. It also contains Vitamin B which
helps to regulate the dopamine and serotonin production in the brain. These are both
neurotransmitters that improve sleep,
To Brazilians, the acai berry is
Locally known as an effective anti-bacterial and anti-viral
agent. To us this means it helps our body fight diseases and boosts our immune system. This is due to the Amazon having some of the richest soil in the world.
So it is no surprise that the acai berry is packed with natural minerals and nutrients that bolster immunity.
Brazilians are some of the most active people in the world. It is not surprising that their high energy and stamina might be connected their diet which is chock full of acai. They also mix it with Guarana, a food derivative found naturally in Brazil that is a potent stimulant, so much so that it is not approved by the FDA, even though it is found in nature.
The internet is full of false claims about acai being a fat burner. Musch of this is based on the truth that this berry’s natural combination of antioxidants, essential
fatty acids, amino acids, phytosterols, and amino acids DO work together in a potent way. This helps your body function better, process food easier,
and burn fat more efficiently.
I chuckled to read about Matt Laurer’s recent trip to the Amazon. He was amused to find that the acai drink he had just finished is referred to as Amazon Rainforest Viagra! Locals swear acai has libido enhancing qualities. Combine those qualities with
the increase in energy, stamina, and better overall body
function and it’s understandable why the acai berry is compared to that Viagra.
There has also been some recent scientific studies on the cellular level (meaning not in the human body, so reaction to this is cautious but still). These studies suggest that the acai berry may fight cancer cells by causing them to self destruct. More studies in the human body are being done right now.
To me, the most exciting benefit of regularly drinking acai juice is it’s effect on the aging process. Free radicals, which are on-the-loose molecules that attack the healthy cells in your body and damage your DNA. Free radicals are the culprits of many age related issues
such as inflammation, cancer, arthritis, , atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s. The antioxidants that I mentioned early are the cellular heroes that come in and stabilize free radicals and the acai berry is absolutely loaded with antioxidants. If you are familiar with the ORAC scale which stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, this is a method of measuring antioxidant capacities of different foods. The acai berry is off the charts with an ORAC rating higher than blueberries, the former queen of antioxidants.
Give it a shot, since that’s all it takes twice a day!
6 Quick Tips to Raise a Sizeist Child
April 6, 2009
How many times have we heard the embarrassing story of a child in a store pointing and blurting out “Mommy, why’s that lady so fat?” Or how about the teenage girls who snicker when another heavier girl walks by in the cafeteria? Or are you one of those moms who looks in the bathroom mirror, grabs her own thighs in disgust or even in a joking manner and says to all within earshot “Look at these fat thighs!”?
Here are 6 quick tips if you want your children to get that way:
1. You act disgusted, using your physical reactions every time you finish an interaction with someone obese. No need to use words. Your kids can pick up your shudder or an eye roll. The message is clear.
“Fat people make my parents feel uncomfortable, therefore
fat people are bad.”
2. You negatively comment on the people on TV shows like The Biggest Loser or while leafing through People magazine. Or you whisper to a friend over coffee how so-and-so has let herself go and is as big as a house! No need to say it too loud. Little ears hear everything!
3. Laugh or agree when your child cracks a fat joke. Or better yet, add your own fat humor. If you laugh, it will tell your child that it’s OK to say demeaning things about obese people.
Or even if you say nothing, it can have the same effect.
4. Brew up some stereotyping as well as sizeism by discriminating. Don’t let heavier kids do things like jump on a trampoline or have second helpings when their thinner siblings can have all they want.
5. Moms, this one’s important. Show your kids that big is bad in the way that you accept yourself. Joke
with your family about needing to
lipo your huge gut. While driving the carpool look in the rearview mirror and bash
your double chin or swear loudly when your skinny jeans don’t fit. This really works. If we don’t accept what makes us who we are, then we can’t expect our kids to
accept themselves. This way, us moms can teach
children to reject features in themselves as well as
in others.
6. Surround your children with sizeist
people who make statements riddled with prejudice. No faster way to influence kids than with family and peers. Grandpas sometimes fill the bill here. Your kids have a better chance of adopting similar prejudices and if Grandpa says it then it must be okay for them too.
OR
You can start to watch your actions and your reactions and teach them tolerance rather than fostering hate and prejudice. Although this is much harder than 6 quick tips.
