Be Careful of Diet Resolutions – Cross Posted at BlogHer Health & Wellness
Welcome to the dawn of a new decade. I would be lying if I said I was sad to see the last one go.
It’s a new year, and once again we will all spend time analyzing our lives. We will wonder if there is something we can change that could make our lives better in the coming year.
Catherine’s 8 Tips For Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain – cross-posted at BlogHer Health & Wellness
Will you be trying to avoid gaining weight this holiday season? If so, you’re not alone. But this is a tough time of year to be watching your weight.
So…What can you do to avoid the dreaded holiday weight gain?
Well, its NOT diet (save that for your New Year’s resolution).
Until then, here are my top 8 tips for avoiding weight gain this holiday season…
Is it possible to eat cookies and lose weight? Well, Dr. Sanford Siegal would certainly like you to think so. After all, at $56 for a week’s supply, Dr. Siegal is going to make an estimated $18 million this year selling his weight-loss cookies. It’s called The Cookie Diet, and if you like cookies it may sound like a great way to lose weight. But is it?
Usually, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. And apparently the first deception about this diet is calling it a cookie. The word “cookie” implies that it’s a yummy treat, but it seems everyone agrees they don’t taste very good. Also, the meal-plan for the cookie diet restricts the dieter to only one meal a day, and less than 1000 calories. Anytime you restrict calories that low, weight-loss is inevitable (with or without the cookie).
Did you ever want to give yoga a try, but it seemed like too much of a commitment? Well if you’re like me, and you’re a bit of an emotional eater, learning a couple of yoga poses may be just what you need. Yoga can help you focus on what your body needs, reduce stress, and curb your emotional eating.
Here is a pose you can do in less than two minutes, it’s called Downward Facing Dog. Give it a try for a couple of days and see if you notice a difference.
Also See:
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*Re-posted from BlogHers Good Health-a-thon and 61 Days 2 Better Health
Here are three easy tips that can help anyone become a healthier version of themselves.
1. You are what you eat, and it is never too late to start eating healthy. Every day, try your very best to put healthy foods and plenty of water into your body. When you have a choice between something healthy and something not healthy, go with the healthy choice. But, don’t be too hard on yourself on the days you fall back into old habits. There is no rule that says, to be healthy you have to be perfect. Even if you are eating healthy 50% of the time, that is still better than none of the time.
If you are one to never go for the healthy choice, then start today with a commitment to eat one thing that is good for you (just one thing that you would normally not eat), and do that for a week. After a week, start eating two things that are good for you, and so on, and so on. Before you know it, you’ll be eating healthy half the time…And that’s a great start.
You can start today, loving yourself and your family enough to stop poisoning your body with unhealthy foods. Heart disease is the number one killer in our country. And 80% of heart disease is due to eating an unhealthy diet that leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Start today, and take a bite in the right direction…Your heart will thank you.
One of the best things about being a contributing editor for BlogHer, is being able to showcase other women bloggers. So today, I thought we could take a look at some blogs about nutrition, weight loss, and fitness.
In no particular order, here are eighteen health and fitness blogs that I think you might like. I hope you enjoy checking them out as much as I did.
Move over Swine Flu…There’s a new health scare in town. Did you know you could be in danger of death from heart disease if your thighs are too thin?
It’s true. Or at least new research says it’s true. And we all know new research is never wrong (except in the case of newer new research).
Seriously. I’m so worried about it, that I’m in my car right now on my way to get myself the sinful Angry Whopper to prevent my thighs from becoming too lean. Well, not really. I’ve finally rid myself of that grease filled spicy delight, and I don’t dare risk getting hooked on it again. But there’s always fries, ice-cream, fettuccine alfredo, or my world famous triple chocolate brownie cake (just to name a few).
Frankly, it’s been a pretty long time since I’ve been in danger of the ill effects of thin thighs (the 80’s). But that being said, we should probably address this breaking health story with the seriousness it deserves. Because if you’re one of those ‘thin thigh’ girls, you’re gonna want to figure out how to fatten those babies up before it’s too late. Or maybe not.
Lets take a look at what other women are saying about this latest research.
Did you know that one in every three adults has high blood pressure? Are you one of them?
I had some good news the other day. It seems that all of my hard work trying to eat healthy and lose weight is finally paying off. For the first time in years my blood pressure is actually normal. Yaaay! This is just the kind of validation I was looking for when I began my journey of weight loss and healthy living.
If you have high blood pressure or know someone who does, here are some tips that can help lower blood pressure naturally.
Tip #1 – Lose 10 Pounds
Did you know that most Americans are overweight (66% are overweight or obese)? It’s true. It’s also true that losing as little as ten pounds can help reduce high blood pressure.
How are you feeling about getting into your bathing suit this summer? Personally, I was hoping to be in a little better shape by now. Even though I’ve been successful at getting closer to my ideal weight, I’ve been playing one step forward and two steps back for the last several weeks.
Since I know I’m not the only mom out there struggling to eat healthy and lose weight, I’m not going to give up. I’m determined to have my Valerie Bertinelli moment, and it would be great if I could get to it sometime this summer. And yes, I do have a plan. It involves a few of the things that have already worked for me, and a couple of new (somewhat unconventional) ideas too.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding alternative modalities of healing, and whether or not they are effective. My feelings on alternative medicine is that mainstream medicine should not be replaced by it, but rather complimented by it. It’s not an all or nothing scenario. All alternative medicine is not good, but it’s also not all bad.
Recently there was an article about parents who withheld medical treatment for their child to treat the child with homeopathy, and the child later died. This is a sad and tragic story, but does it prove homeopathy doesn’t work? I don’t think so. I think this case is more of a reflection on neglect and/or poor choices by the parents, as apposed to the failure of homeopathy. This case is a glaring example of why traditional medicine should not be ignored for alternative medicine.
Even with all the controversy, many medical professionals are now excepting that alternative healing practices can be helpful to patients when used in conjunction with their mainstream treatments.
Stalker Diet Detective Ambushes Overweight Women For Reality TV Show
Yes, you heard right. There is a new show on We-TV that has many women (including myself) up in arms – It’s called I Want To Save Your Life. But what could be so bad about a show that wants to save lives? Well, it gives the impression it is a kind of “intervention” type show…but it’s really an attack on women who are overweight.
This show is wrong on so many levels that I barely know where to start. Below is a promo clip of this pathetic excuse for reality tv.
I did happen to see this show last week, and it was quite shocking. I think the worst part about it is how family members (in the case I saw it was the husband), basically “rat out” the women and allow this guy to stalk them and then confront them about their weight and diet on reality tv. I don’t know who is worse, the stalker nutritionist or the husband who rats out his wife?
This show would be a lot less revolting to me if the women were writing in asking for help on their own. But instead, they are being betrayed by the people that are suppose to love and support them unconditionally. It’s really very sad, not to mention HUMILIATING.
And to call it I Want To Save Your Life, really adds insult to injury. A better title might have been…
Honey, I think you’re FAT…So I’m going to humiliate you into going on a diet.
In the episode I saw, the (so called) lifesaving nutritionist/diet detective made the overweight woman go to the bakery and purchase a slice of her favorite chocolate cake. Then he made her hold it in a box while walking for over two hours in the hot sun. Is he freekin kidding? Not only did she have to walk off the calories in the cake, but she wasn’t even allowed to eat it (before or after the walk). It was more than a little cruel, not to mention totally unnecessary and degrading.
What are the producers of this show thinking?
Kirstie Alley on Oprah Talking About Her Weight Gain
Did you see Kirstie Alley on Oprah? She was on to talk about her weight gain, and her desire to develop her own weight loss program. The interview wasn’t at all what I expected. She talked to Oprah about spending this past year researching weight loss (for her soon to be announced weight loss program), while gaining even more weight than she had lost on Jenny Craig. It was a bit odd.
One of the biggest questions I got from my post on Valerie Bertinelli’s recent weight loss, was about whether or not she will be able to keep it off once she stops the Jenny Craig diet. It seems that if Kirstie Alley is any example, the answer might be no.
Valerie Bertinelli’s Weight Loss: Inspiring or Controversial?
Last week I watched Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond on the Oprah Winfrey Show talking about their personal weight loss success stories, and I found both stories to be very inspirational. As most of you already know, I’ve been struggling with my weight for several years now. And for that reason, I find myself easily able to relate to these two women. After watching that show I felt more motivated then ever to continue eating healthy and losing weight. I don’t think I was alone, but as always, there was also a backlash.
When you hear the word “yoga” what do you think of? You may think you know all there is to know about yoga, but there is a good chance that you don’t. Let’s take a look at some of what women are blogging on the topic of yoga.
Have you heard of Hot Yoga?
Would you like to live to 100 years and beyond? Dr. Oz and other medical experts believe that a calorie restriction diet can help people to live longer with a higher quality of life. The calorie restriction diet also focuses on consuming calories that provide a high nutritional value, not just low calorie.
Are your kids getting enough calcium? Are you?
A recent study shows that calcium may play an even greater role in a woman’s health than we once thought. Apparently, a higher intake of dietary calcium may decrease the risk of a woman developing colorectal cancer. But this isn’t about taking calcium supplements, it’s recommended that we increase our intake of calcium by choosing to eat more calcium rich foods. Yes, it’s another reason to eat healthy. How many more reasons do you need?
Who is to blame for childhood obesity? There certainly seems to be a lot of blame to go around. What do you think? Are the parents to blame? Take this poll and let me know…
A few weeks ago I was flipping through the million channels on my TV trying to find just one thing worth watching (which isn’t an easy task). Luckily I found Dr. Wayne Dyer on PBS.
I read my first book by Dr. Wayne Dyer (Real Magic) about twelve years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So when I watched his seminar on PBS that was based on his latest book, of course I had to run out the next day and buy it. This one is called Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, and it’s his interpretation of the 81 verses of the Tao.
[The Tao Te Ching was written five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and offers advice and guidance for living a balanced life.]
As I read, I came across aspects of this wisdom that are helpful in my quest for better health and weight loss. So, even though I’m no philosopher (obviously), I thought I would share some verses that stood out for me. They offer guidance for healthy living and even weight loss. Here are three.
[Keep in mind that I am only pulling the parts of these verses that I find most relevant to good health, this is by no means a complete look at any of these verses.]
I thought I would take tonight’s post to do a roundup of some of the great fitness blogs on BlogHer. I took some time and surfed the Health and Wellness BlogHer Blogroll (I also used BlogHers new search tool), and here are fourteen of those blogs. Do you blog about fitness? If so, leave you link in comments.
There are many (too many) things in life that are totally out of our control. And, until recently, many believed that we had little control over whether we would develop diseases such as cancer and heart disease. We now know, that lifestyle plays a large role in these diseases, and healthy living can actually prevent or minimize your risk.
Did you know that…
Healthy Living: Can Yoga Help Reduce Symptoms of Chronic Illness? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)
Back in March, I told you about yet another invisible illness that I’ve had the pleasure of being diagnosed with. Fibromalgia. It was also at that appointment where I learned of the 20+ pounds I had put on in less than a year. And it wasn’t like I was at my ideal weight before that time either. For the first time in my life, I actually weighed more than I did when I was pregnant. It was then that I decided I must begin to take eating healthy more seriously. Aside from not being able to fit into my skinny jeans, the extra weight was exacerbating all of my invisible medical problems.
Heart Disease: The Leading Cause of Death. Are You At Risk? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)
What is a heart attack? Why do some people live and others die? Can something be done to help prevent heart disease? Are you at risk?
Three Tips For Living Healthy — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Qvisory)
1. You are what you eat, and it is never too late to start eating healthy. Every day, try your very best to put healthy foods and plenty of water into your body. When you have a choice between something healthy and something not healthy, go with the healthy choice. But, don’t be too hard on yourself on the days you fall back into old habits. There is no rule that says you have to be perfect to be healthy. Even if you are eating healthy 50% of the time, that is still better than not at all.
If you are one to never go for the healthy choice, then start today with a commitment to eat one thing that is good for you (just one thing that you would normally not eat), and do that for a week. After a week, start eating two things that are good for you. Continue to gradually migrate toward healthier options. Before you know it, you’ll be eating healthy half the time. And, that’s a great start.
You can start today, loving yourself and your family enough to stop poisoning your body with unhealthy foods. Heart disease is the number one killer in our country and 80% of heart disease is due to eating an unhealthy diet that leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Start today, and take a bite in the right direction. Your heart will thank you.
BlogHer Health & Wellness Blog Roundup — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)
Tonight I am surfing the BlogHer Health and Wellness Blogroll. So many great blogs, I wish I could tell you about every one…But you could always do a little surfing yourself.
So, in no particular order, here are eleven blogs that are new to me.
Healthy Living: Motivation, Dieting, Yoga, and (hopefully) Success – by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer Health and Wellness)
Successful Healthy Living – How I’ve change my life through motivation, dieting, and yoga.
Well, not really. It sounds like a good plan though. The truth is…I have no motivation, I haven’t been able to stick to a diet in years, and yoga is just another four letter word to me. When if comes to healthy living…I’m slowly but surly becoming the poster child (middle-aged woman) for unhealthy living.
So, I started this post thinking I might find some motivation to stop eating so much ice-cream and cookies. And then I came across this…
Why are so many kids overweight? And, how can we help them? (cross-posted at BlogHer)
I just came across this new study about Why Poor Kids are Heavy, and I decided to do my post on it. It seems that so many more children are overweight today, than I remember were overweight when I was growing up. Childhood obesity has become an epidemic. Why is that? Could it be too much television? Video games? Fast food? Well, there are a lot of theories, and this new study only suggests that more studies need to be done. Typical.
Hydration: Facts and Fiction — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)
When if comes to hydration there are many more facts to report than fiction. I think the most important thing to remember about proper hydration is that, not all hydration is created equal. For example; one cup of coffee is not equal to one cup of water. That’s because coffee is a diuretic – so are many other beverages, such as tea and soda.
Proper hydration is essential to good health, and necessary for the prevention of dehydration…
Signs and symptoms of dehydration include:
- Mild to excessive thirst
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Dry mouth
- Little or no urination
- Muscle weakness
- Dizziness
- Lightheadedness
Mild dehydration rarely results in complications – as long as the fluid is replaced quickly – but more-severe cases can be life-threatening, especially in the very young and the elderly. In extreme situations, fluids or electrolytes may need to be delivered intravenously.
Why is hydration so important for good health?
How do you know if you are drinking enough water? And how much water do you need to drink?
Use this Hydration Calculator from About.com to help figure out how much is right for you.
Obviously, staying hydrated is essential to any good exercise program…I found an interesting recipe for making your own sports drinks at WebMD. It’s as easy as mixing one can of frozen concentrated juice with nine cans of water (instead of three).
Some say hydration is important for a clear complexion, others say this is just a myth.
Poor hydration causes the elimination system to become inefficient. When this happens the body starts eliminating waste and toxins through the skin. This can cause acne.
Poor hydration can also cause the skin oil to become thicker and increase the possibility of it getting trapped in the pores leading to acne.
So…It may be that needing 8 to 10 glasses of water each day isn’t exactly true. However, getting enough water each day is certainly an important part of overall health and wellness.
Healthy Living and The Great American Health Challenge — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)
We’ve been talking a lot about making healthy lifestyle changes since the New Year. If you are one of the millions that wants to become healthier in 2008, you may be interested in this program…
The American Cancer Society is introducing an exciting new program on Thursday, it’s called The Great American Health Challenge. The campaign is designed as a comprehensive prevention and early detection program. It’s a simple program with four interactive tools to provide information and encourage healthy lifestyles.
The Great American Health Challenge is based on four simple things…
1) Check — Take a quick quiz that screens you for potential risk factors, and promotes early detection and treatment.
2) Move — Encouraging exercise by finding activities that are best suited for your lifestyle.
3) Nourish — Maintain a healthy weight, learn about healthy eating and get tips on diet and nutrition.
4) Quit — Information and tools to help you quit smoking.
So that’s it, four easy steps that could help you prevent cancer and heart disease.
You can also participate in BlogHer’s Good Health-A-Thon.
BlogHer’s Good Health-a-thon is all about what we can do, little by little, day by day, week by week and month by month to live healthier. It’s not a matter of saying “I’m going to go to the gym more this year” and then reviewing your progress in January of 2009, only to discover you haven’t actually used your gym card since mid-February.
Instead, the point of the Good Health-a-thon is to have each of us set simple, attainable, health-related goals for ourselves throughout the year. Our goals can be anything we want, but with the idea of broadening our definition of “health” well beyond calorie counting.
See: Week One
Other recent BlogHer Health and Wellness posts you might be interested in…
Body Image, Dieting, and Your New Years Resolution
Weighing In on the New Years Dieting Frenzy
Four Tips That Could Prolong Your Life
Ten Random Tips For Weight Loss
Journey To Physical Fitness and More
Beans Are A Great Choice For Good Health
Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com and The Political Voices of Women
Four Tips To A Long Life — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)
I was surfing the health and wellness news trying to decide what to post on tonight, and I came across this Reuters article… Four Health Changes Can Prolong Life 14 Years. Who wouldn’t want to prolong their life by 14 years?
So, would you make a “resolution” to make four lifestyle changes, if it would increase your life by 14 years? Better than a New Years Resolution, this would be a “Life Resolution”.
What are the four changes to a longer life?
1) Stop Smoking
2) Eat Five Servings of Fruits and Vegetables a Day
3) Exercise
4) Limit Alcohol Consumption
The lifestyle change with the biggest benefit was giving up smoking, which led to an 80 percent improvement in health, the study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables. Moderate drinking and keeping active brought the same benefits…
Well, that seems pretty simple. While we’re on the subject, why not surf around for some other ways to live longer?
Reducing Stress is a good place to start…
There are few things that cause you more stress and worry than your weight. If you gained a few pounds over the holidays, don’t panic…..yet. According to an article (reprinted below) about a study published last November, people who are a little overweight actually live longer.
Could you live longer if you walked faster? Apparently so…
New research following 500 older people for nearly a decade found quicker walkers were less likely to die. Nine years after initial gait speed was measured, 77 percent of slow walkers had died, compared to only 50 percent of medium speed and 27 percent of fast walkers.
Here are Ten Tips For Aging Consciously and Successfully…
As our population ages, our society is finally recognizing that old age is a gift. Despite some of the negative images in the media, it really is possible to embrace our elderhood as a creative and spiritual journey.
People who have aged successfully share common characteristics.
There is no question that most of our lifestyle choices are what will determine whether we age in good physical and mental health or fall prey to sickness and disability. Although it may be a cliché, moderation is the key in everything. By practicing moderation and following these ten tips, you too can be a “long-liver” and, more importantly, enjoy your elder hood in the process.
If those ten tips weren’t good enough for you, here are ten more — 10 Tips on How to Live Longer and Happier
Well, there you have it.
No excuses for not living longer now.
Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com and The Political Voices of Women
Happy New Year everyone! This is one of my most popular posts, and since everyone seems to be talking about dieting and weight loss, I figured now was a good time to re-post. Hope you like it.
THE-ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT DIET PLAN — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Be The Change You Want To See In Yourself)
You heard right. All you can eat. And it’s not a gimmick. How can that be? All you can eat diet? No diet is all you can eat? Well you are right, and wrong. No starvation or quick fix theme diet, is ever going to be an all you can eat diet. And we all know there is no pill or powder that allows you to eat anything you want and still lose weight. So, what exactly is an ALL YOU CAN EAT DIET?
Most diets have you starving, or at least hungry most of the time. If you do happen to lose weight on one of these “fad” diets, you just end up gaining it all back and then some. Worst yet, many of us go on these diets because we know it would be better for our overall health if we lost some of our excess weight. We might want to lower our blood pressure, control sleep apnea, prevent diabetes, just to name a few. But, what we end up doing by following “fad” or starvation type diets, is put ourselves at greater risk for health problems.
So, why do we do it? Why do we spend millions on books, pills, and powders that are generally 100% proven to be ineffective. Well, I don’t know the answer to that. But, it might have something to do with the fact that, “keeping” you at an ideal weight can’t be the goal of these multi-million dollar companies, or there just would be no more money to made.
Not only is this an ALL YOU CAN EAT DIET. But, it is also not going to cost you one penny to get the secrets. Because, I’m going to just tell you. The truth is, you already know it. It’s just that we have been programed to think that dieting is some kind of big deal, and if we don’t do it just right we will fail. Well, that is just wrong.
The one way you will lose weight, without risking your health and in fact becoming a more healthy person. The one way, is to eat healthy foods. That’s it. Two simple words; HEALTHY FOODS. What ones? Any and all of them. What is healthy? Basically, anything that isn’t full of sugar, fat, and sodium. Fruits, vegetables, whole wheats, fish, lean meats, milk, cheese, nuts. The list goes on and on. By now we all know the difference between the healthy foods and the not healthy foods. There is no trick, no gimmick. Just stop eating the processed foods that are full of sugar, fat, and sodium; and start eating healthy foods that aren’t.
Throw away the unhealthy foods and the unhealthy diets, and say hello to healthy foods and healthy living. No need to limit yourself. It will take a bit longer, than starvation, but results will last much longer. Once you start eating healthy foods, you won’t have cravings for sugar and salt, you won’t need to binge eat, and most of all you won’t be hungry all the time. You will be on your way to a leaner, healthier you.
No need to make it complicated, just go shopping and get all the healthy foods you want, and start eating them. You can even use the Internet to look up healthy new recipes for the foods you like. Best of all; it’s ALL YOU CAN EAT, ALL THE TIME.
Yum.
ALSO SEE:
Six Tips To A Healthy Diet Plan
3 Easy Steps To Get Started On Your Diet
My name is Catherine Morgan, and I'm a writer, nurse, and mother. Above are links to my blogs, that also list many of the posts and articles that I've written for them.
I'm also at BlogHer Health & Wellness.
