tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24120667007739756872024-03-12T22:02:32.534-04:00Not a Fat Opera SingerOne Opera Singer's endeavor to beat the stereotype and live a healthy and active lifestyle.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.comBlogger239125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-227916897091249652013-04-25T09:39:00.003-04:002013-04-25T09:39:49.791-04:00The Key to Successful Weightloss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The secret is... hard work and perseverance... That's it! I've lost 6 lbs. this week alone by really busting my butt in the gym and eating "clean". PLUS staying inspired! Find pictures that inspire you...whether it be you at an unflattering weight or at your best shape...or a fitness model or pics of a diseased heart...whatever it is...keep yourself motivated!<br />
<br />
Daily Nutrition & Fitness Log Example:<br />
<br />
Diet<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>7:30 am Coffee w/half & half</li>
<li>9:30 am 2 Egg Whites w/1 cup of raw cabbage & 2 tsp. of Apple Cider Vinegar</li>
<li>12:30 pm Lean Taco Salad (lean ground beef w/spices over romaine lettuce hearts, 0% Greek yogurt, salsa and sprinkle of cheddar cheese)</li>
<li>3:30 pm Protein Shake (Isopure Zero Chocolate)</li>
<li>5:30 pm Lean Pork Steak with Broccoli</li>
<li>7:30 pm 10 Almonds & Decaf Coffee w/half & half</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Exercise<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>7:00 am 15-20 minute walk outside (I live in NYC...it's a walking town)</li>
<li>2:00 pm Upperbody Circuit Training (arms, shoulders, chest, back)</li>
<li>2:30 pm Treadmill on 6.0 Incline at 4.0 speed</li>
<li>4:30 pm 30-45 minute walk outside :)</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Supplements<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>500mg of Calcium w/500 iu of D3 (twice a day)</li>
<li>500mg of Reservatrol (twice a day)</li>
<li>5000 iu of Vitamin D3 (once in the evening for better absorption, I'm D deficient, thus the high level of supplementation)</li>
</ul>
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<br />
Water intake 6-8 12 oz glasses<br />
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While losing weight, I stay away from sugar, alcohol, soda/diet soda/CO2 and empty carbs.<br />
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Hope this is helpful.<br />
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Have a great day!<br />
-Bex<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-28618410524577915972013-02-05T09:53:00.000-05:002013-02-05T09:53:00.491-05:00Back to Life, Back to Reality<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Back to the here and now, oh yeah...<br />
<br />
I've been neglecting my poor blog and myself for quite awhile lately. My projects have taken over my life, and while I give everything to these endeavors, I haven't given enough to myself....thus, I'm going backwards in my health and fitness. No Bueno! So here I am...20 lbs heavier than I was 6 months ago and feeling physically weak and out of control of my body. OK! Time to take back control and do more for myself, because without my health and my functionality, then nothing else can function. A vicious circle, I know! <br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r1ZVjiiX-ZE/UREa_pEEluI/AAAAAAAALgc/iqamz0BvZ-M/s1600/OMlogoNEW-Block.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r1ZVjiiX-ZE/UREa_pEEluI/AAAAAAAALgc/iqamz0BvZ-M/s320/OMlogoNEW-Block.JPG" width="320" /></a>A little background of what's been going on. I am not sorry for all the work I've put into my companies. I've gone from Opera Singer to Opera Producer / Impresario / Director / yadayadayada...add Follies Burlesque Performer / Producer and we've got my current career path. Thus I'd like to introduce you to <a href="http://www.operamoderne.com/">Opera Moderne</a> and <a href="http://www.hotboxgirls.com/">The Hot Box Girls</a>! My two lovely production companies and my babies. As you know with every new baby, there's some baby weight, but now it's time to become a fit mother (in more ways than one).<br />
<br />
As a producer, I'm pretty good at scheduling and making a plan of action. Not only that, but as a successful producer, I have proven that I can carry out said "plan of action" and that's exactly what I plan on doing here!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mik2VUnOMUw/UREccE-jvyI/AAAAAAAALg0/BPZAEo7i07Y/s1600/hot+box+logo-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mik2VUnOMUw/UREccE-jvyI/AAAAAAAALg0/BPZAEo7i07Y/s640/hot+box+logo-001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<b><u>Plan of Action:</u></b><br />
<br />
1. Change mindset from comfort food eating and cheats to wholesome, body healing foods!<br />
2. Eat wholesome, healthy foods.<br />
3. Move more. (Yes it's winter, but get out there...anywhere...just move.)<br />
4. Integrate regular exercise back into your daily life.<br />
5. Log all foods and activities.<br />
6. Get in 8 glasses of water a day.<br />
7. Cut the chemicals (unfortunately, this means my diet soda addiction...eek!)<br />
8. Get in some natural and healthy supplements like fresh green juice and Wellness Formula.<br />
9. Eat more raw veggies!<br />
10. Find a way to stay motivates. (I think this is the hardest for anyone...consistency is key!!!)<br />
<br />
I think that's a pretty good start...did I forget anything? Please feel free to chime in if you have thoughts on keeping motivated. When I blog and log my efforts, it seems to help keep me on track of my goals. <br />
<br />
Today's weight: 161.5 (ugh)<br />
<br />
Breakfast: Egg white Omelet w/spinach, tomato & feta<br />
Coffee w/half & half<br />
<br />
so far so good...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F9om6SGrVVg/UREbS93NbUI/AAAAAAAALgk/7AZlzIYdqqE/s1600/omlete.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F9om6SGrVVg/UREbS93NbUI/AAAAAAAALgk/7AZlzIYdqqE/s320/omlete.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
and yummy!!! <br />
<br />
Have a Great Day and stay motivated!<br />
-Bex</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-62749838352096221682012-06-25T11:53:00.001-04:002012-06-25T11:53:37.377-04:00Invention on Nutrition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u0koywnmxeI/T-iJbap3EJI/AAAAAAAAJg0/GExPVqHr37g/s1600/2012-nutrition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" rca="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u0koywnmxeI/T-iJbap3EJI/AAAAAAAAJg0/GExPVqHr37g/s320/2012-nutrition.jpg" width="320" /></a>After much dieting and experimenting over the years, I've pretty much figured out my body chemistry and what works for me. AND as successful weightloss has been on the Dukan diet, I find myself nutritionally lacking...THUS I'm changing it up, once again.</div>
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<br /></div>
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What seems to work: I have found that protein, green/low glycemic veggies, dairy and a little fruit work great in my diet. I feel fueled, and pretty much satiated throughout the day. Nuts are also a good factor in my body, as long as I keep the daily intake low (10-15 nuts a day).</div>
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<br /></div>
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What does not seem to work: Any gluten based foods, starches, and beans. I have to stay off any legume that is more starch than protein, breads and flour foods are evil and make me bloat and swell within 20 minutes of consumption. And rice, corn and potatoes, don't seem to allow my body to lose any weight. </div>
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<br /></div>
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SO we're gonna try this new eating plan and see what happens.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong>Sample Eating Plan:</strong></div>
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<br /></div>
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7am: Jackie Warner's Shake Recipe (or quick solution, a coffee & a banana)</div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">
<u>Ingredients</u></div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">
1 scoop protein powder</div>
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1 teaspoon Glutamine Powder</div>
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1 teaspoon BCAA powder</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">
1 tablespoon L. Carnitine</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">
1/2 tablespoon Flax Seed Oil</div>
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1 cup of spinach with fruit </div>
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<u>Directions</u></div>
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Mix every thing together in the blender. Blend. Drink<u>.</u></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">
9am: Low-Fat Cottage Cheese w/crudite (celery, raw bell pepper, carrots)</div>
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<br /></div>
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12pm: 10-15 Nuts (Almonds or Walnuts are best) - NO Peanuts, they're a legume</div>
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<br /></div>
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3pm: 1/2 cup of healthy tuna or chicken salad on a bed of greens (made with low-fat mayo & chopped veggies)</div>
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<br /></div>
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6pm: 1/4 Rotisserie Chicken w/side salad or green veggie</div>
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</div>
<br />
<br />
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9pm: NO CALORIES past 9:00pm (2 hours before bed) - if I'm desperately hungry, I'll drink a glass of milk</div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong>Sample Work-Out Plan:</strong></div>
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<br /></div>
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2pm: HIIT Training</div>
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(30 minutes - treadmill)</div>
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<br /></div>
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7pm: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-73560408008083618112012-04-26T16:10:00.001-04:002012-04-26T16:10:39.691-04:00Quickie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just shooting a quick note here today. All is well. Opera Moderne's production of "Turn of the Screw" is of to a great start!<br />
<br />
I've been eating clean all week!!! Yay!<br />
<br />
I gave up diet soda this week...boy this is hard...talk about craving...I'm so addicted! But haven't touched a one since Sunday.<br />
<br />
Went to the gym today and did my HIIT training on the treadmill. NICE to be back!<br />
<br />
All in all a good day :)</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-4152652462386941192012-04-11T14:58:00.000-04:002012-04-11T14:58:31.616-04:00Food Addiction or Overtired<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you fight the good fight, but sometimes it just seems impossible? Are you overtired, over stressed, over... it? Yeah, me too. It's hard to stick to our diet and exercise regiments day in and day out, especially when daily life gets in the way. There are several culprits that could be sabotaging your saintly expedition to a healthy and happy bod.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to women's fitness, we will look at some of the reasons...let's start with the Top 10:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For some women overeating means bingeing and for others it means consuming more or other than planned. Most of us are overeating for a hundred different reasons. We are eating due to stress, irritation and frustration. It may be worry or overwork. We eat because our stomach feels ‘blah’. We are eating out of habit and with no real direction or thoughts about what we are doing with our face in the fridge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's try to identify, the </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ten</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "triggers" for overeating and then try to overcome them:</span></u><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Boredom- </b>You eat <strong>when you're bored </strong>or do not have anything interesting to do or look forward to. TV is a favorite pass time especially when you are alone at home and bored. When food commercials are running 200 images per hour into our cerebral cortex it is difficult not to be draw towards the refrigerator. If food commercials are a trigger, watch nature shows or commercial-free TV.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: purple;"><b><i>Beat it by</i></b><i><b>:</b> If you are just grabbing anything out of the refrigerator, make something healthy like cut veggies and leave them in the fridge.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Feeling Deprived</b>- You feel deprived of the foods which you enjoy and this leaves you craving for them <strong>even more.</strong> Media's attitudes towards emphasizing thinness as ideal has lead to restrictive dieting and avoidance of whole groups of foods. Unfortunately, because the foods being avoided are abundantly available, and food visibility and availability are powerful eating stimuli, the restricter often breaks her "plan" and eats a forbidden food. Once this happens, overwhelming guilt followed by feelings of low self esteem motivate the individual to go on over consuming the avoided food in an attempt to numb these negative feelings.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<i style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beat it by:</b> Focusing on balancing the calorie input to calorie output. Model healthy eating and exercise habits. Do this as a genuine concern for your own well-being. Eating high fat foods in moderation will do no harm.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. </b><b style="line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">Feeling Disgust or Hatred with Your Body- </b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">Check if your</span><strong style="line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"> focus</strong><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">is on the things which you feel are</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"> </span><strong style="line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">wrong </strong><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px; text-align: justify;">with your body. One of the reason women are unable to over come eating triggers is the inability to accept the body in spite of the bombardment on our souls of absurd body ideals.</span></span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Beat it by</i></b><i><b>:</b> seeking professional advice from a dietician or psychologist who will help you overcome the feeling of disgust and hatred. Map out a recovery plan in close consultation and then try to stick with it to develop a positive self-image. Define your own personal values – those that are right for your individual authentic self. Each of you must discover who you are inside, what your innate talents and gifts are and then find the joy and strength to nurture those gifts to their fullest – regardless of anyone else’s opinions.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4. Glucose intolerance- </b>This is a<b> physiological trigger.</b> In a healthy body, carbohydrates are converted to glucose and a blood glucose level of ~60-120mg/dl is maintained without thought to the dietary consumption of carbohydrate. In the glucose intolerant population, carbohydrates are readily converted to glucose and the pancreas responds to this shift in blood sugar by secreting an excessive amount of the hormone, insulin. Insulin’s job is to remove the glucose from the blood stream and help it to enter the body cells. If done properly, the blood glucose level returns to the normal range regardless of the amount of carbohydrate consumed. If this system is not working correctly, a quick rise in blood glucose followed by an over production of insulin occurs. The excessive insulin is not recognized by the body cells so is unable to remove the glucose from the blood stream. The result is an increase in blood insulin levels, which has an appetite stimulating effect. The person is driven to eat and if simple carbohydrates are chosen, the cycle continues.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Beat it by:</b> Spreading the calories out by eating a small amount frequently can help maintain a normal blood gluclose level. This means every ~3 hours. A recommendation is to be slightly hungry before the next eating event. If famished, then the interval between eating events is probably too long or too little was eaten at the last eating event. If one approaches the next eating event full then too much was consumed at the last eating event. The macronutrients, protein and fat, in combination with carbohydrate have the potential to delay the rise in blood glucose. Protein is preferred as fat interferes with the effectiveness of insulin. Complex carbohydrates leave the stomach more slowly than simple carbohydrate and therefore can also help in blood glucose regulation. Complex carbohydrates contain fiber. Soluble fiber is especially beneficial for this condition. If blood glucose levels do not rise rapidly, there is less likelihood of excessive insulin secretion and less appetite stimulation. It’s important to increase water consumption along with an increase in protein or fiber. Water carries nutrients and oxygen to cells and removes waste. Eating a high fiber diet requires extra water to process the additional roughage and to prevent constipation.</i><i><br /></i><b style="font-weight: normal;">5. Habits- </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Your </span><strong style="font-weight: normal;">daily habits</strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"> are not as healthy as they may be and you may not even be aware of some of them. Often, excessive eating, lack of physical activity and stress tips the scales of our otherwise balanced lifestyles. Many women have found that overeating tends to occur in specific places and times, such as in the evening when you're at home and watching television.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Beat it by</i></b><b style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;">:</b><i style="font-weight: normal;"> Turning off the TV off and engaging in a hobby that keeps your mind and hands busy. Another solution to stress-related overeating is to address the sources of stress. Acknowledge and address feelings of depression, anger or anxiety. Do whatever you can to reduce feelings of stress, like writing a journal, talking with a friend, or exercise.</i></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>6. Lack of Energy and Feeling Tired- </b>You are putting up with <strong>so much</strong> in your life that this is <strong>constantly draining</strong> your energy, leaving you feeling tired. "When your energy level is low, you may look for food to pick you up," says Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach. Unfortunately, most women reach for calorie-laden treats instead of an apple or banana.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span><i style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Beat it by:</b> Identifying your low-energy times of day and substitute them with other activities for eating. Take a 10-minute walk or a water-cooler chat break. There are healthier ways of nurturing yourself, such as getting plenty of rest and relaxation, reading a good book, or taking a quiet walk.</span></i><i style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></i><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>7. Needing Love and Comfort- </b>You turn to <strong>food</strong> when you're really needing love and comfort. With the pressure of work both at office as well, at home women tend to be burned out. All this is acceptable if supported with constant appreciation and love. Lack of appreciation, discouraging remarks leave women sad and lonely, who tend to turn towards food to find consolation.<i style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br /></b></i><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: purple;"><b>Beat it by:</b> Taking out some time for yourself and relaxing. Pamper yourself by going out for a facial, manicure or pedicure. Take out the children to a nearby park where you can walk and relax along with the kids.</span></i><i><br /></i><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>8. Feeling Overwhelmed- </b>You have got <strong>so much that you feel you must do</strong> that you find it difficult to take the first step. Pressure of work and deadlines leaves many discouraged, who finally drop-out without giving a try. Take the first step, then the second and third and move on...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Beat it by:</b> Do what can be done. Trust me, you will be amazed with your own capacity of performance. Reinforce the feeling of achievements in you instead of submitting to the pressure. Emotional eating is sometimes considered well within the range of normal behavior. However, problems arise when emotional eating becomes excessive and interferes with lifestyle quality and good health. If you feel emotional eating is a problem, it may be wise to work with a counselor trained in eating disorders.</span></i><i><br /></i><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>9. Feeling Upset and Hurt- </b>You <strong>turn to food</strong> when someone says or does something that feels upsetting or hurtful to you. Anxieties and emotions can also trigger the desire to eat. Some women eat because they are sad or stressed out or even to celebrate when they are happy.<i style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br /></b></i><i style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br /></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple;"><b>Beat it by:</b> Going out in the open air and walk, The mini-blast of oxygen will vanquish tiredness and mental exhaustion. Leave your worries behind and be in the moment. Look at the birds. Be thankful. Let go, breathe deeply and relax. You may discover God has always been with you!</span></i><i><br /></i><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10. Lack of Willpower- </b>Your attitude is shaped by your thoughts, feelings, and actions. It's really easy to feel good when the going is good. The key to vibrant energy and a powerful attitude is to MAKE yourself feel good, ESPECIALLY when the going's tough, and you don't feel good, or you don't want to feel good. Willpower is one of the tools you need to employ in order resist the powerful cravings associated with food. The cravings will attempt to control you. It is your willpower, determination and self-discipline that you will use to fight back.</span><br />
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<i style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beat it by:</b> developing a strong will-power. Every women has the capacity to build up or strengthen her willpower by exercising it in times of need. Lifting weights develops muscles, and exercising willpower makes it stronger. Add self-discipline in your life to become more aware of how you use your willpower in the course of all your daily activities.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another possibility could be a Food Addiction: Look at this great article from WebMD about <a href="http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-food-addiction">Mental Health and Food Addiction</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can also consider low level of serotonin, especially if you're craving carbs: Another article from WebMD discusses <a href="http://www.webmd.com/depression/recognizing-depression-symptoms/craving-carbs">Carbohydrate Cravings and Depression</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AND NOW FOR A BONUS!!! Here's a final article from WebMD, <a href="http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/your-guide-to-never-feeling-tired-again">Your Guide to Never Feeling Tired Again</a>!</span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-42070214853448812952012-04-09T15:25:00.003-04:002012-04-10T10:13:21.040-04:00Toxic Holidays<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vBgvDZTZZFo/T4M3C1o5m7I/AAAAAAAAIHI/1i4UNwtwfug/s1600/easterbread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" nda="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vBgvDZTZZFo/T4M3C1o5m7I/AAAAAAAAIHI/1i4UNwtwfug/s400/easterbread.jpg" width="400" /></a>I think I basically poisoned myself this past Holiday weekend. It all started with an "innocent" Easter Brunch that turned into a wine and pasta-fest later. This past week, I've been detoxing and getting rid of the toxins in my body, and what do I do this weekend? I sabotage the whole enchilada. Starting with a mimosa on Easter morning and ending with way too much wine and Alfredo pasta in the end. I was sick all night with fever and achiness. My body just can not consume alcohol and straight up carbs anymore. I suffer every time. But instead of saying no, I think of food as some type of reward system. My addiction is terrible. I LOVE junk food, breads, cereals, and anything fried. I also love yummy grilled veggies, salads and all kinds of grilled and roasted meats. So WHY do I think one is more rewarding than the other? I enjoy them equally...don't I? The one exception is that while on keeps me satisfied and functioning throughout the day, the other turns me into a whiny mess. Guess which is which...that's right...the yummy grilled proteins and veggies are what my body hums and purrs on whilst the carb/sugar loaded diet makes me go on a insulin roller coaster ride with a side of flu-like symptoms. So uncool!</div>
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Now back to eating clean and to seeing if I can't get my body to forgive my abuse.</div>
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Below is an article I'm reposting from <a href="http://lighterliving.com/">LighterLiving.com</a>...</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Gluten - the most common Protein may be secretly poisoning you</span></strong></div>
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Do you suffer from symptoms of abdominal pain, stomach aches, difficulty losing weight or excessive weight loss, bloating, gas, diarrhea, fatigue, bone or joint pain, skin rashes, mouth ulcers, migraines, difficulty concentrating or irritability? </div>
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You may have Celiac Disease (CD) or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) which leads to malabsorbtion of the nutrients you need to live a symptom free, vibrant life. To find out if a gluten free diet is for you, take our <a href="http://www.lighterliving.com/blog/gluten-survey.asp">Gluten Intolerence Quiz</a>.</div>
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Gluten sensitivity has also been associated with infertility, miscarriage, autoimmune thyroid disease, dermatitis, depression, immune system disorders, developmental brain problems in infants and children, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and autism. These conditions are often treated with medications, when a simple change in diet could really help.<br />
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Gluten is composed of two protein groups; gliadins which give dough its flow characteristics and glutenins, which provide elastic consistency. It is found in the grains of wheat, barley, rye and oats has been hybridized and cultivated to be disease resistant, refined with chemicals and exists in thousands of processed foods. Gluten is also found in every day products such as stamp and envelope adhesive, many different medicines and vitamins.<br />
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Even though the consumption of oats has recently proven to be safe you should try to purchase your oats from companies that only process the oat grain because often farmers grow their oats and wheat in the same field making the possible cross contamination of the two grains virtually impossible. For more information please read our solution article. <br />
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Because the gluten protein is a very large, complex food molecule it is very hard to digest. In a gluten sensitive person, it actually attacks the intestinal lining with a thick mucous, flattening the microvilli that help with absorption, creating inflammation and tearing microscopic holes in the small intestine causing Leaky Gut Syndrome. This allows bacteria and toxins to leak into your blood stream setting causing your immune system to overreact leading to the symptoms mentioned above.<br />
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It is speculated that 50% of the average Western diet includes wheat based bread, cereals, pastries and pasta, making millions of people with undiagnosed gluten sensitivity inexplicably ill.<br />
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While gluten antibodies can damage the bowels, they also cause problems in the nervous system. Dr. M Hadjivassiliou of the UK, a neurologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield tested patients who had "neurological dysfunction" with no obvious cause for gluten sensitivity. He found that more than half tested positive for Celiac Disease and 1/3 of those tested positive never had the typical gut symptoms. In those cases, gluten damaged the cerebellum and the peripheral nervous system.<br />
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Worldwide nearly 1 in 200 people have the most severe form of gluten sensitivity known as Celiac Disease (CD) though it is estimated that more than 90% are undiagnosed! If you have Celiac Disease it is permanent and can not be treated with medications. Diet is the only treatment and it has been reported that as little as 0.1 grams of ingested gluten can trigger irritating yet tolerable symptoms. People who have CD or NCGS also have a very high incidence of lactose intolerance.<br />
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Up to 1 in 7 people have lesser forms of gluten sensitivity (NCGS) and their symptoms can disappear or improve on a 30-90 day gluten free diet. Once the gut has healed from the effects of gluten and your total toxic load is eliminated by internal cleansing, you may slowly reintroduce gluten, using the food log provided in solutions.<br />
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Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease can be genetically inherited.<br />
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<strong>GLUTEN AND WEIGHT GAIN</strong><br />
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Gluten is insulinogenic, meaning it stimulates insulin release, and thereby promotes weight gain and inflammation by abnormal blood sugar control. It has been found that diabetes and Celiac D`isease often go hand in hand and that hundreds of thousands of people with Insulin Resistance Syndrome also have gluten sensitivity. <br />
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<strong>FEEDING YOUR BRAIN? CRAVING BREAD AND BAKED GOODS?</strong><br />
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Is this you? Do you crave bread or baked goods? Once you start eating them you can't stop? Gluten has an effect on the opioid receptors in your brain, which control pain and pleasure. Carbohydrate addiction can be a symptom of NCGS. <br />
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When gluten is broken down it produces opiate like compounds which bind to the opioid receptors in the brain. Initially they make you feel good and satisfied, but over time it can create havoc with your health. These compounds are so strong that when exposed to strong digestive enzymens in the lab, they did not break down! Sometimes when people remove gluten from their diets, they actually have withdrawal symptoms from the removal of the opioids. They have greater cravings, just like drug withdrawal and you will need encouragement to hold the course. <br />
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Exposure of these opiod proteins from food, has shown to be a neurotoxin and destroys brain cells especially in infants and young children. Ongoing research suggests that these proteins also lead to autism, developmental brain and behavior problems. Preliminary data states that the dazed, unfocused look of the autistic child may be due to the opioid effect of gluten and can resemble a look similar to a person who is high on drugs. These opioid proteins can be tested for in urine and are called polypeptides. *PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE PUTTING YOUR CHILD ON A GLUTEN FREE DIET.<br />
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<strong>AUTOIMMUNE CONDITIONS</strong><br />
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The Digestive Diseases and Science Journal NOTED that people with CD and NCGS have a high rate of autoimmune conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Type I diabetes, liver disease, Sjogren's syndrome and thyroid problems. <br />
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A study from Italy showed that the longer gluten sensitive people eat gluten, the more likely they are to develop autoimmune diseases. Various antibodies (i.e. thyroid antibodies) that indicate autoimmune disease can actually disappear after 3-6 months of a gluten-free diet. That is a small price to pay for health.<br />
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<strong>DERMATITIS HERPETIFORMIS</strong><br />
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Caused by allergic reactions to gluten, Dermatitis Herpetiformia was first described in 1884 by dermatologist, Louis Duhring, at the University of Pennsylvania. This type of dermatitis is extremely painful and I have heard people describe the pain as thousands of red ants stinging while sand is being rubbed into the skin at the same time. The typical features are small grouped incredibly itchy blisters, often on red plaques, on the back of the elbows, forearms, buttocks and front of the knees. Other less common sites may be the face, scalp and trunk.<br />
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<strong>CANCER</strong><br />
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A long known fact is that Celiac Disease and Hodgkin's Lymphoma are connected. In the 1960's a study reported 100-fold increase of this cancer in people who have issues with gluten.<br />
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From 1982-2005 1,968 people with CD were followed by a team of researchers. This study found that increased risk of developing cancer (such as small bowel adenocarcinoma) directly corresponds with the age of diagnosis of CD. In this group, the longer a person ate gluten the greater the risk of developing cancer. With 90% of people with CD or gluten sensitivity undiagnosed, the uncovering of this sensitivity can have an impact on the rising rate of lymphatic cancer.<br />
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<strong>OSTEOPOROSIS</strong><br />
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A study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine investigated the link between CD and osteoporosis. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine recruited 840 subjects, 260 of the subjects had been diagnosed with osteoporosis. Blood tests and other diagnostic tools revealed that CD was much more common among subjects with osteoporosis and those with the most severe cases of CD tended to have the most severe cases of osteoporosis.<br />
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Lead researcher, Dr. William Stenson, stated that he and his colleagues believe that the gluten in the diet caused malabsorption and the inability to absorb normal amounts of calcium and vitamin D leading to osteoporosis. When these women were put on a gluten free diet it lead to intestinal healing, better absorption of calcium and vitamin D and a reversal of bone loss!<br />
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<strong>MISCARRIAGE AND INFERTILITY</strong><br />
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Reported in the British journal The Lancet, Dr. Antonio Gasbarrini of Gemelli Hospital, Catholic University, in Rome, studied 44 patients who had a history of spontaneous abortion, 39 patients who had fetuses with intrauterine growth retardation and 50 normal controls. For each group the researchers measured markers for gluten sensitivity and CD. </div>
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According to Dr. Antonio Gasbarrini, the patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion and those with intrauterine fetal growth retardation had a significantly higher frequency of markers of CD and NVGS than the controls.</div>
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A UK study from the Centre for Pregnancy Nutrition, Section of Reproductive Medicine at University of Sheffield found that CD can be a cause of unexplained infertility in women. Studies suggest that dietary treatment of these women with a gluten free diet may result in successful conception.</div>
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<strong>SHORT STATURE</strong></div>
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Short stature or being significantly under the average height is often a repercussion of childhood celiac disease which prevents nutrient absorption during the years when nutrition is critical to a child's normal growth and development. Children who are diagnosed and treated before their growth stops may have a catch-up period.</div>
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In summary, you do not have to be gluten sensitive or have Celiac Disease to go on a gluten free diet. Hundreds of patients benefit from trying this diet for one month or more.</div>
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If you suspect that you may have Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, complete the <a href="http://www.lighterliving.com/blog/gluten-survey.asp">Gluten Intolerence Quiz</a> for your risk index.</div>
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<u>Today's Food Log:</u><br />
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8am - 2 hard boiled eggs w/salt <br />
1pm - Chicken Salad w/real mayo, dill pickle on a bed of lettuce<br />
4pm - Kettle Cooked Peanuts w/sea salt & cracked black pepper<br />
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<u>Weight: 147.5 (up 3 lbs. since last weigh in).</u><br />
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-55567578091054939672012-04-05T10:21:00.002-04:002012-04-06T09:49:20.170-04:00Boiled Eggs & A Flat Belly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h61Xg_9JXLw/T32pj42pwnI/AAAAAAAAIB0/VvLvscokpOA/s1600/eggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nda="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h61Xg_9JXLw/T32pj42pwnI/AAAAAAAAIB0/VvLvscokpOA/s1600/eggs.jpg" /></a>I have found that having boiled eggs, or eggs in general in my diet everyday has helped with my weight loss efforts. Granted I'm on a high protein, low carb diet, so just cutting the crap out of my diet helps. However eggs are a quick and easy way to get good solid protein and fats into the diet AND I like them! </div>
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A study published in the International Journal of Obesity reveals that those who have an egg breakfast, have a waist circumference that is more slender than those who ate the same amount of calories from bagels. But, although it’s good to eat boiled eggs, limit it to six points or less per week. (Read more: How to get a flat stomach naturally at Healthy Living Guide <a href="http://www.al7alem.com/how-to-get-a-flat-stomach-naturally/#ixzz1rAsqYY36">http://www.al7alem.com/how-to-get-a-flat-stomach-naturally/#ixzz1rAsqYY36</a>)</div>
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If you're a cholesterol worrier, you can always do egg whites which are fantastic pure protein with low to no fat. AND by the way, eggs aren't the dietary demons they're cracked up to be. Common misconceptions keep many people, especially those worried about heart disease, from eating eggs. In a July 2006 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, they unscramble the dietary facts and myths about the ever controversial egg.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple;"><strong>Fact:</strong> Eggs are a good source of nutrients. One egg contains 6 grams of protein and some healthful unsaturated fats. Eggs are also a good source of choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple;"><strong>Fact:</strong> Eggs have a lot of cholesterol. The average large egg contains 212 milligrams of cholesterol. As foods go, that’s quite a bit, rivaled only by single servings of liver, shrimp, and duck meat.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple;"><strong>Myth:</strong> All that cholesterol goes straight to your bloodstream and then into your arteries. Not so. For most people, only a small amount of the cholesterol in food passes into the blood. Saturated and trans fats have much bigger effects on blood cholesterol levels.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple;"><strong>Myth:</strong> Eating eggs is bad for your heart. The only large study to look at the impact of egg consumption on heart disease—not on cholesterol levels or other intermediaries—found no connection between the two. In people with diabetes, though, egg-a-day eaters were a bit more likely to have developed heart disease than those who rarely ate eggs.</span></span></blockquote>
If you like eggs, eating one a day should be okay, especially if you cut back on saturated and trans fats. Other ways to enjoy eggs without worrying about cholesterol include not eating the yolk, which contains all the cholesterol, or using pourable egg whites or yolk-free egg substitutes. Personally, I boil mine which cuts down on the extra stuff you need to cook them in, and it makes them easily transportable. :)<br />
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<strong>Now for today's log and the numbers...</strong><br />
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<u>Food Log:</u><br />
8am - coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
11am - 2 hard boiled eggs w/salt <br />
12pm - grilled chicken parm<br />
2pm - iced decaf coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
4pm - 60 calorie Jello Dark Chocolate Temptations<br />
7pm - 4 grilled chicken skewers w/taziki sauce<br />
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<u>Activity Log:</u><br />
15 minutes walking at 3.0 pace<br />
60 minutes walking at 3.0 pace<br />
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Day 4 weight: 145 lbs (down 6 lbs.)<br />
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-49883203174592405822012-04-04T10:57:00.001-04:002012-04-05T09:55:34.580-04:00Day 3 and Detoxing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zS9hSNtIByE/T3xgAEwHHZI/AAAAAAAAH_w/AoQoOG8l594/s1600/LivDTox.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nda="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zS9hSNtIByE/T3xgAEwHHZI/AAAAAAAAH_w/AoQoOG8l594/s1600/LivDTox.gif" /></a>Day 3 and feeling even more tired...wtf? Its not like I've started my hardcore work-outs yet. It must be my body dealing with the detox of getting rid of all the sugar, carbs and gluten. However my liver is feeling happier already. Did you know that there is a very strong theory that a toxic liver can cause arthritis? Well not only a toxic liver, but kidneys and digestive systems fall under this as well. </div>
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In many forms of arthritis (especially RA) pain and inflammation can be caused by an overabundance of circulating cmmune complexes (CIC’s). According to some theorists, CIC’s are formed in the body when larger than normal molecules escape from the gastrointestinal tract due to decreased integrity of the gut lining. Other antigens can be introduced as environmental pollutants that enter the body through various mechanisms. These molecules are recognized by the immune system as a foreign invader, which incites the formation of antibodies, which then couple with the antigen, forming the CIC. <br />
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In a healthy person, CIC's are sequestered and neutralized, but in arthritis(and other diseases) they accumulate and begin to overburden the eliminative organs and initiate allergic and immune responses. When too many CIC's accumulate, the kidneys and liver become overburdened, and cannot break them down. The CIC's are often shunted to the connective tissue (including the joints) to be destroyed by the immune system. White blood cells are summoned by cytokines to destroy the CIC's. However, in this process, normal or 'innocent bystander’ tissue can be attacked and damaged. High levels of antioxidants should be standing ready to regulate and monitor this process, but in all cases of arthritis, regardless of the type, a deficiency of antioxidants is the rule. Pain, inflammation, and stiffness results from these repeated, unregulated attacks. <br />
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I personally know from experience that when I eat clean and stay active, my liver functions properly and most, if not all of my joint pain and stiffness goes away. This is coming from a young 30-something year old female who is relatively active! Take care of your organs people, they mean everything. Healthy living inside and out!<br />
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Interesting article at the following link about the liver and detoxification: <a href="http://www.positivehealth.com/article/detoxification/nutritional-approaches-to-liver-detoxification">http://www.positivehealth.com/article/detoxification/nutritional-approaches-to-liver-detoxification</a><br />
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Now for today's log and the numbers...</div>
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<u>Food Log:</u></div>
8am - coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
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11am - 2 hard boiled eggs w/salt <br />
2pm - Lamb & Salad<br />
3pm - decaf iced coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
6pm - artichoke hearts w/fresh lemon<br />
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<u>Activity Log:</u></div>
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15 minutes walking at 3.0 pace</div>
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45 minutes walking at 3.0 pace<br />
30 minutes walking at 3.0 pace<br />
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Day 3 weight: 146 lbs (<strong>down 5 lbs</strong>)</div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-20457020880716240462012-04-03T08:38:00.004-04:002012-04-04T10:30:21.236-04:00Day 2 and Fructose?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fpuzzts4eEs/T3ru_fhnKLI/AAAAAAAAH9Q/zfs8T7QY4qY/s1600/greenjuice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fpuzzts4eEs/T3ru_fhnKLI/AAAAAAAAH9Q/zfs8T7QY4qY/s320/greenjuice.jpg" width="320" /></a>So it's day 2 of being back on the straight and narrow of shaping up, and boy am I tired. That's the problem, I've been tired for the past 3 weeks or so and unmotivated to eat well or exercise. Thankfully I live in NYC, so you can't help but be active...My commute alone keeps me walking briskly and climbing up and down stairs. I didn't work-out as hard as I had planned yesterday, but I did burn calories by going out of my way and walking at any open moments in my day. Plus I love walking when the weather is sunny and beautiful...NYC in Spring / Summer is great! (Fall's not so bad either).</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My eating was decent yesterday, and I'm happy about the added green juice in there. Micronutrients are so important, and an all green juice is a quick and easy way to introduce them into your diet. Go Green!</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KtOL9_pe_N4/T3ruP0iQZ5I/AAAAAAAAH9A/XEb8z9VLC4M/s1600/fruit_diabetes1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="132" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KtOL9_pe_N4/T3ruP0iQZ5I/AAAAAAAAH9A/XEb8z9VLC4M/s200/fruit_diabetes1.jpg" width="200" /></a>I got a call yesterday and found out that my friend's father, who has been sick for several months, has a fructose allergy. He's not allowed any fruit or products containing fructose and is finally getting better. I know that sugar intolerance is very common, but I didn't know it could be a direct fructose type allergy and intolerance (two different things). I'm going to read up on this and find out more, I find this fascinating (see article at bottom of this post). </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Personally I don't generally have fruit in my diet because I react to all sugars due to my family's history of hypo & hyperglycemia (diabetes). I have found that if I stay away from simple carbs, sugars and glutens, I function well. I have a feeling that the reason I haven't been feeling well this past month has EVERYTHING to do with my crappy diet. I shall continue down the low carb path and see where it takes me.<br />
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I'm also keeping my caffeine intake down, because its been shown in studies to increase excess insulin in the body. Oh and alcohol is out, unless I'm cleaning a wound with it or something : /<br />
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<u>Food Log:</u><br />
8am - decaf coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
10am - 2 hard boilded eggs w/salt <br />
2pm - baked, breadless chicken wings w/buffalo sauce<br />
5pm - decaf coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
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<u>Activity Log:</u><br />
15 minutes walking at 3.0 pace<br />
30 minutes walking at 3.0 pace<br />
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Day 2 weight: 147.5 lbs (down 3.5 lbs)<br />
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<strong><u>ALLERGY TO FRUCTOSE</u></strong> (an article from <a href="http://livingstrong.com/">LivingStrong.com</a>)<br />
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Fructose, or fruit-based sugar, is the most commonly used sugar in food products. Most table sugar is made from cane, which is a plant-based sugar. An allergy to fructose can make it difficult for someone to find foods that are safe to eat without experiencing adverse reactions. According to Allergy Escape, the most common food allergies are to eggs, milk, yeast, wheat, corn, soy and sugar. An allergy to fructose will have similar signs and symptoms to that of other food allergies. Talk with your doctor for a proper diagnosis.<br />
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<strong>Cause</strong><br />
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A fructose allergy is a malfunction of the immune system where the body doesn't recognize certain substances in the sugar. The immune system mistakes fructose as a harmful substance and attacks it with IgE antibodies. The antibodies start a reaction in the body that causes certain cells in soft tissue to produce histamine. The release of histamine in turn results in inflammation and irritation in the nose, throat, lungs, skin and mouth, according to MayoClinic.com.<br />
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<strong>Symptoms</strong><br />
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Symptoms of a fructose allergy appear within minutes after ingesting the sugar. The most common symptoms of a fructose allergy are digestive issues, respiratory complications and skin rashes. Digestive issues include vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and cramping, according to Allergy Escape. Respiratory complications may include asthma, nasal congestion and eye irritation. Common skin rashes that can develop are hives and eczema, causing the skin to swell and become itchy.<br />
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<strong>Diagnosis</strong><br />
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To diagnose a fructose allergy, you will have to see an allergist. An allergist will perform a skin and blood test to determine if the symptoms are from a genuine allergic reaction to fructose. The skin test will show irritation in the skin when the fructose is injected, and the blood test will show increased levels of IgE antibodies when the sugar is consumed.<br />
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<strong>Consideration</strong><br />
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A fructose allergy should not be confused with fructose intolerance. Fructose intolerance does not involve an immune-system reaction. It is the body's inability to properly process the sugar and typically leads to digestive complications, according to Medline Plus. Only a medical doctor can determine if you have a true fructose allergy.<br />
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<strong>Warning</strong><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">MayoClinic.com warns that a severe allergic reaction to fructose can lead to death. Signs and symptoms that are alarming are hives, swelling of the throat, lips or tongue, a sudden drop in blood pressure, dizziness and feeling faint. If these symptoms develop, get immediate medical attention.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>References</strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Allergy Escape: Food Allergy</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">MayoClinic.com: Food Allergy</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Medline Plus: Fructose Intolerance</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em>Article reviewed by Eric Lochridge Last updated on: Nov 1, 2010 </em></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="http://www.livestrong.com/article/293802-allergy-to-fructose/"><strong>http://www.livestrong.com/article/293802-allergy-to-fructose/</strong></a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-8671642327023740042012-04-02T08:11:00.006-04:002012-04-03T11:25:24.296-04:00And We're Back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Life has been a bit crazy lately, what with a busy performing and producing schedule. It's not easy building an empire. ;) <br />
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Today is the first day back to clean living. I've been off the wagon nutrition and activity wise these past 3 weeks and now I have to do damage control. So back on a high protein, low carb diet, and say hello to exercise once again. A friend of mine is a personal trainer and he wants to get me on the CrossFit bandwagon. I'm not sure what that entails, but I hear it's intense...guess I'm going to find out soon enough. Wish me luck! eek!!!<br />
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If I calculate correctly, I can get a good 5 lbs. off this week. I've pretty much gotten weight loss / damage control down to a science. I definitely know that once I pull gluten out of my diet I start to shed the pounds, and with my work-outs, they shed pretty quickly. Knowledge is power.<br />
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Hope all is well with all of you in the world. Drop me a line and let me know how your diet and exercise programs are going. <br />
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Going to start logging food and activity...so updates will be posted throughout the day.<br />
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<u>Food Log:</u><br />
8am - decaf coffee w/half & half and sweet & low<br />
10am - 2 hard boiled eggs<br />
12:30pm - 1 oz beef jerky<br />
2:30pm - 20 oz Green Juice (all greens)<br />
5:30pm - 3 portabella mushroom cap "pizzas" w/turkey pepperoni & part skim mozzerella<br />
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<u>Activity Log:</u><br />
15 minutes of walking 3.0 pace<br />
45 minutes of walking 3.0 pace<br />
30 minutes of walking 3.0 pace<br />
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Starting weight: 151 lbs.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-17106387485641539172011-12-15T11:58:00.000-05:002011-12-15T11:58:22.454-05:00Diets and Work-outs and Hormones, OH MY!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ep-AOCS-DAo/TuoltnwhfsI/AAAAAAAAGW8/i976-0UewWw/s1600/dukan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ep-AOCS-DAo/TuoltnwhfsI/AAAAAAAAGW8/i976-0UewWw/s320/dukan.jpg" width="240" /></a>I've been riding the Dukan diet bandwagon lately and have been seeing pretty good results. Currently in the "Attack Phase", 4.5 lbs have fallen off in less than a week. Not to mention that I've been hitting the "<a href="http://jillianmichaels.shop.sportstoday.com/Product.aspx?pc=JIAM13">30 Day Shred</a>" and the treadmill at the Gym lately. I plan on losing a good 10 lbs. by the time New Years rolls around and to be in pretty decent shape by Jan. 25th for a possible show. THEN I want to be in top "bikini model" shape for this upcoming summer. Once I've droppped the pounds of lovely female insulation, I plan on really toning up the bod before the Spring's end.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Unfortunately, I think the one factor that is working against me is my hormones. I think I'm hitting PMS this week and I'm starting to lose focus. Everything makes me angry, pissed off and sad this week. I seem to hate everyone and cry at commercials on the telly...very possible this is all hormonally based, or I'm just a sad, angry person...I'm going with "sad, angry person" lol! But seriously, it's crazy how hormones can affect our logic, our reason, our desires and our willpower. How many times have you been off "chemically" or "hormonally" and found yourself saying "Ah F#$K it! I'll eat what I want, forget my diet...I'm just too stressed...or tired...or ________ (insert excuse)"? Yeah, that's life, and we have to deal. SO, I'm trying to keep my cool, not lose my mind, deal with crap that the world throws at me and persevere through.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Today I have a gym date to do some guerilla cardio on the treadmill with my girl Kristina. She's been a good gym buddy and has lost 40 lbs. in the past year with diet and exercise. My girl Vicki has lost 28 lbs. so far in the last 2 months (thank you Dr. Dukan) and has about 30-40 more to go before her beach wedding this coming August. I know she'll stick with it and look fantastic for her big day...we won't let her do otherwise ;)</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">All in all, life is good. I'm seeing successes in my diet, my fitness, and my career...my love life on the other hand is a bit strained, which can really throw a wrench in anything you do. Emotional distraction and distress cloud one's judgement and sucks the energy and will right out of you. We just have to trust ourselves, know our strengths and really push forward no matter what...In fact, nothing makes you feel better than a good work-out. Get your anxieties out in the gym, go for a run, pop in a killer work-out DVD or go for a long swim...trust me, you'll feel better afterwards and look great too!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Have a great day!</div>Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-70249511192170019872011-11-28T12:12:00.002-05:002011-11-28T12:15:18.440-05:00Recovery Week<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fh42k1Bbcw0/TtPAGeoRroI/AAAAAAAAGW0/gb8jtFTfb2M/s1600/thanksgivingisover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="204" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fh42k1Bbcw0/TtPAGeoRroI/AAAAAAAAGW0/gb8jtFTfb2M/s320/thanksgivingisover.jpg" width="320" /></a>The Grand Thanksgiving Feast is done, the leftovers consumed, the alcohol in dregs and the dent in the sofa is ever deeper. Now it's time to turn from our glutenous and slothful ways, back to the healthy eating and the frequent visits to the gym...its time for Recovery Week! If you've found yourself plumper than the turkey that was on your table this past Thursday, then it's time to take action.</div><br />
My personal approach is to detox, eat lean, green and healthy, and to not forget those calorie shedding moments in the gym. Today I started back with a mostly lean protein, green veggie diet with a morning fruit/green protein shake in the morning (also great for a pre-workout shake).<br />
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<div> <strong><u>Jackie Warner's Secret Shake:</u></strong></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>1 cup frozen spinach</li>
<li>1 cup frozen berries (I like a higher Strawberry ratio in this)</li>
<li>1/2 tbsp. Flaxseed Oil</li>
<li>1 tbsp. L-Carnitine (<a href="http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=l-carnitine+liquid+raspberry&hl=en&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS371US375&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&ion=1&biw=1024&bih=556&wrapid=tlif132249667743810&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=1347084530293973495&sa=X&ei=0LLTToiTE6fj0QGl_rA-&ved=0CHkQ8wIwAQ#">I like the rasberry liquid version from Vitamin Shoppe</a>)</li>
<li>1 tsp. BCAA</li>
<li>1 tsp. L-Glutamine</li>
<li>1 Scoop of Whey Protein (the lowest carb version you can find...I use <a href="http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS371US375&q=isopure+zero+carb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=1946955111223439548&sa=X&ei=ZrLTTqySFabd0QHn8uWnDw&ved=0CIQBEPICMAA#">Zero Carb Isopure Vanilla</a>)</li>
</ul><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>I would blend the liquids, powders and protein first in the blender, adding a splash of water as needed. Then add your cup of frozen spinach and blend until your shake is green and smooth, then finally adding in the frozen berries until fully blended. Drink immediately.<br />
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<div>This is such a great start to my day, and really gets my metabolism going. I have my shake at 7am and I'm easily hungry again by 9am, so then onto egg whites or 0% Greek yogurt.</div><br />
<div>Here's a sample of my daily nutrition on this lean diet and the work-outs I get in:</div><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>7am - the not so "Secret Shake"</li>
<li>9am - 3 Egg whites (and a nice cup of hot green tea)</li>
<li>11am - 0 % Greek Yogurt</li>
<li>1pm - Chicken Breast and mixed veggies (mostly green and cauliflower)</li>
<li><em>2pm (30 minute Guerrilla Cardio at the gym on the Treadmill)</em></li>
<li>3pm - 10 to 15 raw almonds (maybe another cup of green tea)</li>
<li>6pm - <a href="http://www.atkins.com/Recipes/ShowRecipe398/Portobello-Mushroom-Pizza.aspx">Portabella Mushroom "pizza"</a> with lean ground beef bolognese and <strong>skim</strong> shredded mozzarella (I make my own bolognese because I can control what goes into the sauce, keep the sugar out, add the protein in and keep it low fat.)</li>
<li><em>7pm (<a href="http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&cp=12&gs_id=7&xhr=t&q=30+day+shred&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS371US375&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&ion=1&biw=1024&bih=556&wrapid=tljp1322497663578011&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=13957019723249466887&sa=X&ei=grbTTpadFKPx0gH9mdQX&sqi=2&ved=0CFUQ8wIwAQ#">Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD</a>)</em></li>
</ul><br />
During this phase, I keep my dairy intake low (it contains lactose), drink tons of water (at least 64 oz), cut all sodas (diet, I never drink regular) <strong>out</strong>, drink 1-2 cups of green tea per day, and try to keep the rest of the day low in caffeine and sodium (too much caffeine induces the liver to produce excess insulin plus can increase cortisol, and sodium keeps us puffy).<br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I also like to track my food, water intake, weight and exercise at <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com/">http://www.myfitnesspal.com/</a> ... I've found that if you log it, you're more likely to stick with it.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div>Ok, so now you have the tools to drop the Holiday poundage...go for it. I have found that I average about .5 - 1 pound per day for the first two weeks. It's a great way to shed unwanted bellyfat and bloat. After the first two weeks, I add in more legumes like black beans and kidney beans to keep my energy up with the increase in exercise (the "secret shake" is great for energy as well plus muscle repair).</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div>Feel free to hit me up with any questions or comments.</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div>Have a great day,</div></div>-Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-55152794633227277632011-11-10T11:07:00.001-05:002011-12-14T21:52:20.725-05:00I'm baaack<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bfOuMIYJ7mM/Trv2S2xO0kI/AAAAAAAAGWo/Vofry8faOCc/s1600/OMlogo2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" ida="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bfOuMIYJ7mM/Trv2S2xO0kI/AAAAAAAAGWo/Vofry8faOCc/s320/OMlogo2.JPG" width="320" /></a>Well after a crazy summer of hitting Austria's many wonderful music and dance festivals, a successful launch to a new opera company, a tour with the National Lyric Opera's production of Tosca and an incredible evening of comic opera set in a speakeasy...I finally have one moment to breathe and blog.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><u>Austria</u>: The summer was a whirlwind of events and travel for me. I found myself involved with a great group of artists and Austrians, and thus ended up in Austria this summer for 2 weeks. On my travels I visited Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Carinthia. What a lovely country with lovely people. I can't wait to go back. And the music was sublime. The only downside is that the food is so delicious that I had to do some serious damage control once I got back to the States.</div><br />
<br />
<u>Opera Moderne</u>: My new opera company <a href="http://www.operamoderne.com/">Opera Moderne</a> launched on August 31st...and the New York Times gave us a very favorable <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/arts/music/opera-modernes-modern-tryst-at-the-galapagos-art-space-review.html">review</a> among a few other <a href="http://parterre.com/2011/09/15/mode-and-moderne/#more-22473">reviewers</a>. And just recently we performed the rarely done Wolf-Ferrari comic opera "Le Donne Curiose" to a completely packed house at The Players Club this past Friday. It was a roaring success with everyone dressing in 1920s fashion and enjoying an evening of prohibition cocktails, great jazz & opera singing, and the wonderful <a href="http://www.hotboxgirls.com/">Hot Box Girls</a> who came in and entertained during the intermissions. It was a night not to be missed!<br />
<br />
<u>Diet & Exercise</u>: After my ridiculous eating in Austria, I came back to NYC and found myself a bit chubbier than I like. So my girls and I put ourselves on the <a href="http://mydukandiet.com/dieting/attack-phase.html">Dukan</a> diet. Wow did this work! I lost a good 13 lbs. in a month and was very pleased to take on some performing when it came to me on Oct. 20th (it was a new twist on Musetta, the clothing was minimal). Now I've been slacking off a bit and need to get myself and my mindset back on track. Not to mention, it's time to find myself regularly at the gym, especially with the changing weather coming in (no more beautiful, warm, outside work-outs). I've got no excuse. I've gotta bust my butt...if nothing else than to be in great shape in February for when I go back to Vienna to sing this same Musetta role. I want to look like a freakin' bikini model if I can help it. I guess it's <a href="http://www.dukandiet.com/">Dr. Dukan</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jillian-Michaels-30-Day-Shred/dp/B00127RAJY">Jillian Michaels</a> to the rescue. One thing I have realized on the Dukan diet is that when you have Protein Veggie days, please make sure to get LOTS of green vegetables. I suggest having a pure<span style="color: #38761d;"> <strong><a href="http://juicerrecipesnow.com/15/">green juice</a></strong></span> if you can get it...those micronutrients are so important and your body needs it. I'll stick to Dukan until my goal weight of 20 lbs. down from now, and then I'm switching over to slow carb, because I love me some legumes. I know Paleo works, but I miss my dairy and legumes...so that is the choice I've made.<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><u><span style="color: #38761d;">Simply Green Juice</span></u></strong></div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- 1 cup of spinach</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- 2 cups of kale</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- 2 cups of parsley</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- 1 cucumber</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- 3 celery stalks</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Add a little garlic and/or ginger if you like. Wash thoroughly and juice.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Well, I hope you are all healthy, happy and fulfilling your goals. And if you have any questions on these latest adventures, please feel free to hit me up.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Have a great day!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">-Bex</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-64575542716625934992011-06-21T15:48:00.001-04:002011-06-21T15:49:51.483-04:00My Carb Addiction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Why is it so hard to kick the carb habit? I'm all for moderation, but it's an everyday struggle for me. Once I have those sugary goods, I can't help but want more, no matter how bad it makes me feel. It's sick, really sick that I would want to eat something that makes me feel like crap moments later...why can't I help myself?<br />
<br />
Perhaps the reason is, I'm an addict. And the sooner I realize that and take control, the sooner I get of the stuff that can lead to a sad demise of obesity and diabetes (which happens to run rampant in my family.)<br />
<br />
This article from Details Magazine gives you a pretty good understanding of refined carbs and their addictive properties:<br />
<br />
ARE CARBS MORE ADDICTIVE THAN COCAINE?<br />
<br />
YOUR BODY IS VIRTUALLY DEFENSELESS AGAINST A DEPENDENCY ON CARBOHYDRATES—THE SUBSTANCES THAT REALLY MAKE YOU FAT—AND IT'S TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION.<br />
<br />
BY PAUL JOHN SCOTT,<br />
<br />
MARCH 2011 ISSUE OF DETAILS MAGAZINE<br />
<br />
Photographs by Zachary Zavislak<br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C00HpVIUdNk/TgD0L42aoTI/AAAAAAAAE08/wFJ3Ue7fV7I/s1600/carbs_skull_crossbones_varticle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" i$="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C00HpVIUdNk/TgD0L42aoTI/AAAAAAAAE08/wFJ3Ue7fV7I/s320/carbs_skull_crossbones_varticle.jpg" width="223px" /></a></div>I'm sitting in a comfortable chair, in a tastefully lit, cheerfully decorated drug den, watching a steady line of people approach their dealer. After scoring, they shuffle off to their tables to quietly indulge in what for some could become (if it hasn't already) an addiction that screws up their lives. It's likely you have friends and family members who are suffering from this dependence—and you may be on the same path yourself. But this addiction is not usually apparent to the casual observer. It has no use for the drama and the carnage you associate with cocaine and alcohol. It's slower to show its hand, more socially acceptable—and way more insidious.<br />
<br />
I'm in a Panera Bread outlet. The company is on Fortune's 2010 list of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies and earned more than $1.3 billion in 2009, mainly from selling flour and sugar by the railcar. Last year, Zagat named it the most popular large chain in the United States and ranked it second in the Healthy Options category. The company responded by touting its "wholesome" food. Sure, Panera sells a few salads. But why do the scones, pastries, baguettes, and bear claws get all the good lighting? Why are the grab-and-go packs of cookies and brownies next to the register? What need is fulfilled by serving soup bowls made of bread, with a mound of bread for dipping, and then offering more bread on the side? How come it's noon and the couple behind me are eating bagels while the guy to my right is sawing into a cinnamon roll with a fork and a knife like it's a steak?<br />
<br />
The answer is that fast-burning carbohydrates—just like cocaine—give you a rush. As with blow, this rush can lead to cravings in your brain and intrusive thoughts when you go too long without a fix. But unlike cocaine, this stuff does more than rewire your neurological system. It will short-circuit your body. Your metabolism normally stockpiles energy so you can use it as fuel later. A diet flush with carbohydrates will reprogram your metabolism, locking your food away as unburnable fat. When you get hungry again you won't crave anything but more of the same food that started you down the path to dependency. Think of this stuff as more than a drug—it's like a metabolic parasite, taking over your body and feeding itself.<br />
<br />
You aren't supposed to talk this way about carbohydrates. According to USDA dietary recommendations, they are not only healthy but are supposed to make up the majority of the food we eat—45 to 65 percent of all calories. Carbs, which are classified as starches and sugars, make up the essence of bread, cereal, corn, potatoes, cookies, pasta, fruit, juice, candy, beer, and sweetened drinks—basically anything that isn't protein or fat. Our government's recommendations were established in the 1970s and have since been accompanied by an explosion of obesity and diabetes. The advice came about as early nutrition scientists rallied around a misguided maxim that remains embedded in the fabric of our attitudes toward food to this day: Eating too much fat makes you fat. But science never bore out this pre-Galilean view of nutrition. What is now clear is this: At the center of the obesity universe lie carbohydrates, not fat.<br />
<br />
"You could live your whole life and never eat a single carbohydrate—other than what you get from mother's milk and the tiny amount that comes naturally in meat—and probably be just fine," says Gary Taubes, the award-winning author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, which is helping to reshape the conversation about what makes the American diet so fattening.<br />
<br />
If all you knew about food is what you read in the USDA guidelines, you'd think our bodies conveniently come into the world seeking the one nutrient that is cheap and amenable to commercial mass production: carbohydrates. "Sugars and starches provide energy to the body in the form of glucose, which is the only source of energy for red blood cells and is the preferred energy source for the brain," says the latest edition of the guidelines. Wrong, says Taubes, who just released Why We Get Fat, a layman's version of his influential scientific tome. In the absence of carbs, your body will burn fatty acids for energy. It's how you sleep through the night without eating for eight hours. "The brain does indeed need carbohydrates for fuel," Taubes says, "but the body is perfectly happy to make those out of protein, leafy green vegetables, and the animal fat you're burning." As a pair of Harvard doctors (one an endocrinologist and one an epidemiologist) wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association last summer, carbohydrates are "a nutrient for which humans have no absolute requirement."<br />
<br />
•••<br />
<br />
The Diets That Work<br />
<br />
You wouldn't know it from reading the latest dietary headlines, but all of the popular diets—from Atkins to Dean Ornish (Bill Clinton's weight-loss plan) to the diet-of-the-moment, Paleo—are successful because the most important change they advise is the same: stop eating refined carbohydrates. This only reminds us of what had been the conventional wisdom in medicine for hundreds of years before the USDA stepped in: that sugar, flour, potatoes, and rice are what make a person fat, not meat and milk.<br />
<br />
Forty years into the low-fat, high-carbohydrate way of eating—we can thank it for "diabesity," shorthand for the societal prevalence of type II diabetes paired with obesity—it seems clearer than ever that our problem lies not simply in carbohydrates, but in their fundamental addictiveness. They sidestep our defenses against overeating, activate brain pathways for pleasure, and make us simultaneously fat and malnourished. They keep us coming back for more, even as they induce physical decline and social rejection. They achieve this more effectively than the controlled substances that can get a guy thrown into jail. Maybe the question isn't whether carbohydrates are addictive, but whether they are the most addictive substance of all.<br />
<br />
In 2007, researchers at the University of Bordeaux, France, reported that when rats were allowed to choose between a calorie-free sweetener and intravenous cocaine, 94 percent preferred the sugar substitute. The researchers concluded that "intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward. . . . The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus to lead to addiction." Nicole Avena, an expert in behavioral neuroscience at the University of Florida in Gainesville, has spent many hours analyzing the behavior of rats enticed into sucking up sugar. She says that feeding on sugar can, like snorting coke, lead to bingeing, withdrawal, and craving. It does this by lighting up the same circuitry within the brain triggered by cocaine and amphetamines, the dopamine center.<br />
<br />
But a carbohydrate addiction is potentially more destructive than an 8-ball-a-day habit, because it hijacks your metabolism. If you eat a low-carb diet, you are able to remain satiated between meals, because the body will burn its fat stores. But eating carbs, especially refined varieties like sugar or flour, sweetened drinks, or starches, causes the body to release the hormone insulin. The body secretes insulin as a response to high blood sugar—a serious, even potentially lethal health risk over time. The hormone directs cells to extract sugar from the blood and store it as fat, and what's worse, in order to get sugar out of the blood as efficiently as possible, insulin makes it extremely difficult for the body to burn its fat stores. Over time, the presence of insulin in our carb-heavy diet causes diminishing returns. As our cells become resistant to the effects of insulin, our bodies frequently release even more of it to compensate. The result is a blood-sugar vacuum: The body craves more of what the hormone feeds on and triggers our hunger mechanism, which works subconsciously, to direct us toward the nutrient causing all the problems in the first place—carbohydrates. You get fatter and your body craves even more carbs in order to maintain your increasing weight. Drug cartels can only dream of a narcotic with an addiction cycle this powerful.<br />
<br />
Once hooked, can you quit your carb addiction? It's not like there's a carb-cessation program at Promises, after all. Taubes says it won't be easy, but given the alternatives, you simply have to try. And cold turkey is as good a method as any. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that the craving for carbs will go away after a while," he says, "although whether a while is a few weeks or a few years is hard to say." And frighteningly like an addict in recovery, you're unlikely ever to be totally cured, and you'll always be tempted to relapse when the opportunity arises. Be warned: The number of Panera Bread outlets is 1,421 and counting.<br />
<br />
•••<br />
<br />
How You Get Hooked (Over Time)<br />
<br />
1. When you take in carbs, like Gatorade or whole-wheat bread, you secrete the hormone insulin. Even thinking about carbs causes this to happen.<br />
<br />
2. Refined carbs spike blood sugar, and this is a big problem. The first result is that your body immediately stops burning its existing fat stores.<br />
<br />
3. Too much blood sugar is a dangerous situation, and in response, insulin, a hormone, rips it from your blood and tells the body to store the energy as fat (in men this first happens around the waist).<br />
<br />
4. Normally your liver controls blood sugar, but because you eat so many carbs you have a constant supply of insulin circulating. This turns out to be bad—very bad. This causes you to become resistant to insulin.<br />
<br />
5. Insulin resistance means your body pumps out more insulin to make up for the deficit. Now you're getting fat, but what's worse is that your body desires even more carbs as fodder for the excess insulin.<br />
<br />
6. You get fatter and fatter and your body craves more carbs to feed your increasing girth. This destructive cycle is why Americans are so overweight (the process doesn't happen overnight).<br />
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-21988830116244267862011-06-16T08:50:00.000-04:002011-06-16T08:50:58.732-04:00Toxic Sugar = Cancer?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
I found this article in the NYTimes very interesting, and thought I should share...knowledge is power:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Is Sugar Toxic?</strong></span><br />
<br />
<br />
By GARY TAUBES<br />
<br />
On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology. <br />
<br />
Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, which is one of the best medical schools in the country. He published his first paper on childhood obesity a dozen years ago, and he has been treating patients and doing research on the disorder ever since. <br />
<br />
The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig’s impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes that sugar is a “toxin” or a “poison,” terms he uses together 13 times through the course of the lecture, in addition to the five references to sugar as merely “evil.” And by “sugar,” Lustig means not only the white granulated stuff that we put in coffee and sprinkle on cereal — technically known as sucrose — but also high-fructose corn syrup, which has already become without Lustig’s help what he calls “the most demonized additive known to man.” <br />
<br />
It doesn’t hurt Lustig’s cause that he is a compelling public speaker. His critics argue that what makes him compelling is his practice of taking suggestive evidence and insisting that it’s incontrovertible. Lustig certainly doesn’t dabble in shades of gray. Sugar is not just an empty calorie, he says; its effect on us is much more insidious. “It’s not about the calories,” he says. “It has nothing to do with the calories. It’s a poison by itself.” <br />
<br />
If Lustig is right, then our excessive consumption of sugar is the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years. But his argument implies more than that. If Lustig is right, it would mean that sugar is also the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles — heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers among them. <br />
<br />
The number of viewers Lustig has attracted suggests that people are paying attention to his argument. When I set out to interview public health authorities and researchers for this article, they would often initiate the interview with some variation of the comment “surely you’ve spoken to Robert Lustig,” not because Lustig has done any of the key research on sugar himself, which he hasn’t, but because he’s willing to insist publicly and unambiguously, when most researchers are not, that sugar is a toxic substance that people abuse. In Lustig’s view, sugar should be thought of, like cigarettes and alcohol, as something that’s killing us. <br />
<br />
This brings us to the salient question: Can sugar possibly be as bad as Lustig says it is? <br />
<br />
It’s one thing to suggest, as most nutritionists will, that a healthful diet includes more fruits and vegetables, and maybe less fat, red meat and salt, or less of everything. It’s entirely different to claim that one particularly cherished aspect of our diet might not just be an unhealthful indulgence but actually be toxic, that when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good, despite all the love that goes with it. Suggesting that sugar might kill us is what zealots do. But Lustig, who has genuine expertise, has accumulated and synthesized a mass of evidence, which he finds compelling enough to convict sugar. His critics consider that evidence insufficient, but there’s no way to know who might be right, or what must be done to find out, without discussing it. <br />
<br />
If I didn’t buy this argument myself, I wouldn’t be writing about it here. And I also have a disclaimer to acknowledge. I’ve spent much of the last decade doing journalistic research on diet and chronic disease — some of the more contrarian findings, on dietary fat, appeared in this magazine —– and I have come to conclusions similar to Lustig’s. <br />
<br />
The history of the debate over the health effects of sugar has gone on far longer than you might imagine. It is littered with erroneous statements and conclusions because even the supposed authorities had no true understanding of what they were talking about. They didn’t know, quite literally, what they meant by the word “sugar” and therefore what the implications were. <br />
<br />
So let’s start by clarifying a few issues, beginning with Lustig’s use of the word “sugar” to mean both sucrose — beet and cane sugar, whether white or brown — and high-fructose corn syrup. This is a critical point, particularly because high-fructose corn syrup has indeed become “the flashpoint for everybody’s distrust of processed foods,” says Marion Nestle, a New York University nutritionist and the author of “Food Politics.” <br />
<br />
This development is recent and borders on humorous. In the early 1980s, high-fructose corn syrup replaced sugar in sodas and other products in part because refined sugar then had the reputation as a generally noxious nutrient. (“Villain in Disguise?” asked a headline in this paper in 1977, before answering in the affirmative.) High-fructose corn syrup was portrayed by the food industry as a healthful alternative, and that’s how the public perceived it. It was also cheaper than sugar, which didn’t hurt its commercial prospects. Now the tide is rolling the other way, and refined sugar is making a commercial comeback as the supposedly healthful alternative to this noxious corn-syrup stuff. “Industry after industry is replacing their product with sucrose and advertising it as such — ‘No High-Fructose Corn Syrup,’ ” Nestle notes. <br />
<br />
But marketing aside, the two sweeteners are effectively identical in their biological effects. “High-fructose corn syrup, sugar — no difference,” is how Lustig put it in a lecture that I attended in San Francisco last December. “The point is they’re each bad — equally bad, equally poisonous.” <br />
<br />
Refined sugar (that is, sucrose) is made up of a molecule of the carbohydrate glucose, bonded to a molecule of the carbohydrate fructose — a 50-50 mixture of the two. The fructose, which is almost twice as sweet as glucose, is what distinguishes sugar from other carbohydrate-rich foods like bread or potatoes that break down upon digestion to glucose alone. The more fructose in a substance, the sweeter it will be. High-fructose corn syrup, as it is most commonly consumed, is 55 percent fructose, and the remaining 45 percent is nearly all glucose. It was first marketed in the late 1970s and was created to be indistinguishable from refined sugar when used in soft drinks. Because each of these sugars ends up as glucose and fructose in our guts, our bodies react the same way to both, and the physiological effects are identical. In a 2010 review of the relevant science, Luc Tappy, a researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland who is considered by biochemists who study fructose to be the world’s foremost authority on the subject, said there was “not the single hint” that H.F.C.S. was more deleterious than other sources of sugar. <br />
<br />
The question, then, isn’t whether high-fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar; it’s what do they do to us, and how do they do it? The conventional wisdom has long been that the worst that can be said about sugars of any kind is that they cause tooth decay and represent “empty calories” that we eat in excess because they taste so good. <br />
<br />
By this logic, sugar-sweetened beverages (or H.F.C.S.-sweetened beverages, as the Sugar Association prefers they are called) are bad for us not because there’s anything particularly toxic about the sugar they contain but just because people consume too many of them. <br />
<br />
Those organizations that now advise us to cut down on our sugar consumption — the Department of Agriculture, for instance, in its recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, or the American Heart Association in guidelines released in September 2009 (of which Lustig was a co-author) — do so for this reason. Refined sugar and H.F.C.S. don’t come with any protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants or fiber, and so they either displace other more nutritious elements of our diet or are eaten over and above what we need to sustain our weight, and this is why we get fatter. <br />
<br />
Whether the empty-calories argument is true, it’s certainly convenient. It allows everyone to assign blame for obesity and, by extension, diabetes — two conditions so intimately linked that some authorities have taken to calling them “diabesity” — to overeating of all foods, or underexercising, because a calorie is a calorie. “This isn’t about demonizing any industry,” as Michelle Obama said about her Let’s Move program to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. Instead it’s about getting us — or our children — to move more and eat less, reduce our portion sizes, cut back on snacks. <br />
<br />
Lustig’s argument, however, is not about the consumption of empty calories — and biochemists have made the same case previously, though not so publicly. It is that sugar has unique characteristics, specifically in the way the human body metabolizes the fructose in it, that may make it singularly harmful, at least if consumed in sufficient quantities. <br />
<br />
The phrase Lustig uses when he describes this concept is “isocaloric but not isometabolic.” This means we can eat 100 calories of glucose (from a potato or bread or other starch) or 100 calories of sugar (half glucose and half fructose), and they will be metabolized differently and have a different effect on the body. The calories are the same, but the metabolic consequences are quite different. <br />
<br />
The fructose component of sugar and H.F.C.S. is metabolized primarily by the liver, while the glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized by every cell in the body. Consuming sugar (fructose and glucose) means more work for the liver than if you consumed the same number of calories of starch (glucose). And if you take that sugar in liquid form — soda or fruit juices — the fructose and glucose will hit the liver more quickly than if you consume them, say, in an apple (or several apples, to get what researchers would call the equivalent dose of sugar). The speed with which the liver has to do its work will also affect how it metabolizes the fructose and glucose. <br />
<br />
In animals, or at least in laboratory rats and mice, it’s clear that if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers. <br />
<br />
If what happens in laboratory rodents also happens in humans, and if we are eating enough sugar to make it happen, then we are in trouble. <br />
<br />
The last time an agency of the federal government looked into the question of sugar and health in any detail was in 2005, in a report by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academies. The authors of the report acknowledged that plenty of evidence suggested that sugar could increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes — even raising LDL cholesterol, known as the “bad cholesterol”—– but did not consider the research to be definitive. There was enough ambiguity, they concluded, that they couldn’t even set an upper limit on how much sugar constitutes too much. Referring back to the 2005 report, an Institute of Medicine report released last fall reiterated, “There is a lack of scientific agreement about the amount of sugars that can be consumed in a healthy diet.” This was the same conclusion that the Food and Drug Administration came to when it last assessed the sugar question, back in 1986. The F.D.A. report was perceived as an exoneration of sugar, and that perception influenced the treatment of sugar in the landmark reports on diet and health that came after. <br />
<br />
The Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association have also portrayed the 1986 F.D.A. report as clearing sugar of nutritional crimes, but what it concluded was actually something else entirely. To be precise, the F.D.A. reviewers said that other than its contribution to calories, “no conclusive evidence on sugars demonstrates a hazard to the general public when sugars are consumed at the levels that are now current.” This is another way of saying that the evidence by no means refuted the kinds of claims that Lustig is making now and other researchers were making then, just that it wasn’t definitive or unambiguous. <br />
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What we have to keep in mind, says Walter Glinsmann, the F.D.A. administrator who was the primary author on the 1986 report and who now is an adviser to the Corn Refiners Association, is that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup might be toxic, as Lustig argues, but so might any substance if it’s consumed in ways or in quantities that are unnatural for humans. The question is always at what dose does a substance go from being harmless to harmful? How much do we have to consume before this happens? <br />
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When Glinsmann and his F.D.A. co-authors decided no conclusive evidence demonstrated harm at the levels of sugar then being consumed, they estimated those levels at 40 pounds per person per year beyond what we might get naturally in fruits and vegetables — 40 pounds per person per year of “added sugars” as nutritionists now call them. This is 200 calories per day of sugar, which is less than the amount in a can and a half of Coca-Cola or two cups of apple juice. If that’s indeed all we consume, most nutritionists today would be delighted, including Lustig. <br />
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But 40 pounds per year happened to be 35 pounds less than what Department of Agriculture analysts said we were consuming at the time — 75 pounds per person per year — and the U.S.D.A. estimates are typically considered to be the most reliable. By the early 2000s, according to the U.S.D.A., we had increased our consumption to more than 90 pounds per person per year. <br />
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That this increase happened to coincide with the current epidemics of obesity and diabetes is one reason that it’s tempting to blame sugars — sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup — for the problem. In 1980, roughly one in seven Americans was obese, and almost six million were diabetic, and the obesity rates, at least, hadn’t changed significantly in the 20 years previously. By the early 2000s, when sugar consumption peaked, one in every three Americans was obese, and 14 million were diabetic. <br />
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This correlation between sugar consumption and diabetes is what defense attorneys call circumstantial evidence. It’s more compelling than it otherwise might be, though, because the last time sugar consumption jumped markedly in this country, it was also associated with a diabetes epidemic. <br />
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In the early 20th century, many of the leading authorities on diabetes in North America and Europe (including Frederick Banting, who shared the 1923 Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin) suspected that sugar causes diabetes based on the observation that the disease was rare in populations that didn’t consume refined sugar and widespread in those that did. In 1924, Haven Emerson, director of the institute of public health at Columbia University, reported that diabetes deaths in New York City had increased as much as 15-fold since the Civil War years, and that deaths increased as much as fourfold in some U.S. cities between 1900 and 1920 alone. This coincided, he noted, with an equally significant increase in sugar consumption — almost doubling from 1890 to the early 1920s — with the birth and subsequent growth of the candy and soft-drink industries. <br />
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Emerson’s argument was countered by Elliott Joslin, a leading authority on diabetes, and Joslin won out. But his argument was fundamentally flawed. Simply put, it went like this: The Japanese eat lots of rice, and Japanese diabetics are few and far between; rice is mostly carbohydrate, which suggests that sugar, also a carbohydrate, does not cause diabetes. But sugar and rice are not identical merely because they’re both carbohydrates. Joslin could not know at the time that the fructose content of sugar affects how we metabolize it. <br />
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Joslin was also unaware that the Japanese ate little sugar. In the early 1960s, the Japanese were eating as little sugar as Americans were a century earlier, maybe less, which means that the Japanese experience could have been used to support the idea that sugar causes diabetes. Still, with Joslin arguing in edition after edition of his seminal textbook that sugar played no role in diabetes, it eventually took on the aura of undisputed truth. <br />
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Until Lustig came along, the last time an academic forcefully put forward the sugar-as-toxin thesis was in the 1970s, when John Yudkin, a leading authority on nutrition in the United Kingdom, published a polemic on sugar called “Sweet and Dangerous.” Through the 1960s Yudkin did a series of experiments feeding sugar and starch to rodents, chickens, rabbits, pigs and college students. He found that the sugar invariably raised blood levels of triglycerides (a technical term for fat), which was then, as now, considered a risk factor for heart disease. Sugar also raised insulin levels in Yudkin’s experiments, which linked sugar directly to type 2 diabetes. Few in the medical community took Yudkin’s ideas seriously, largely because he was also arguing that dietary fat and saturated fat were harmless. This set Yudkin’s sugar hypothesis directly against the growing acceptance of the idea, prominent to this day, that dietary fat was the cause of heart disease, a notion championed by the University of Minnesota nutritionist Ancel Keys. <br />
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A common assumption at the time was that if one hypothesis was right, then the other was most likely wrong. Either fat caused heart disease by raising cholesterol, or sugar did by raising triglycerides. “The theory that diets high in sugar are an important cause of atherosclerosis and heart disease does not have wide support among experts in the field, who say that fats and cholesterol are the more likely culprits,” as Jane E. Brody wrote in The Times in 1977. <br />
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At the time, many of the key observations cited to argue that dietary fat caused heart disease actually support the sugar theory as well. During the Korean War, pathologists doing autopsies on American soldiers killed in battle noticed that many had significant plaques in their arteries, even those who were still teenagers, while the Koreans killed in battle did not. The atherosclerotic plaques in the Americans were attributed to the fact that they ate high-fat diets and the Koreans ate low-fat. But the Americans were also eating high-sugar diets, while the Koreans, like the Japanese, were not. <br />
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In 1970, Keys published the results of a landmark study in nutrition known as the Seven Countries Study. Its results were perceived by the medical community and the wider public as compelling evidence that saturated-fat consumption is the best dietary predictor of heart disease. But sugar consumption in the seven countries studied was almost equally predictive. So it was possible that Yudkin was right, and Keys was wrong, or that they could both be right. The evidence has always been able to go either way. <br />
<br />
European clinicians tended to side with Yudkin; Americans with Keys. The situation wasn’t helped, as one of Yudkin’s colleagues later told me, by the fact that “there was quite a bit of loathing” between the two nutritionists themselves. In 1971, Keys published an article attacking Yudkin and describing his evidence against sugar as “flimsy indeed.” He treated Yudkin as a figure of scorn, and Yudkin never managed to shake the portrayal. <br />
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By the end of the 1970s, any scientist who studied the potentially deleterious effects of sugar in the diet, according to Sheldon Reiser, who did just that at the U.S.D.A.’s Carbohydrate Nutrition Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., and talked about it publicly, was endangering his reputation. “Yudkin was so discredited,” Reiser said to me. “He was ridiculed in a way. And anybody else who said something bad about sucrose, they’d say, ‘He’s just like Yudkin.’ ” <br />
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What has changed since then, other than Americans getting fatter and more diabetic? It wasn’t so much that researchers learned anything particularly new about the effects of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup in the human body. Rather the context of the science changed: physicians and medical authorities came to accept the idea that a condition known as metabolic syndrome is a major, if not the major, risk factor for heart disease and diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimate that some 75 million Americans have metabolic syndrome. For those who have heart attacks, metabolic syndrome will very likely be the reason. <br />
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The first symptom doctors are told to look for in diagnosing metabolic syndrome is an expanding waistline. This means that if you’re overweight, there’s a good chance you have metabolic syndrome, and this is why you’re more likely to have a heart attack or become diabetic (or both) than someone who’s not. Although lean individuals, too, can have metabolic syndrome, and they are at greater risk of heart disease and diabetes than lean individuals without it. <br />
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Having metabolic syndrome is another way of saying that the cells in your body are actively ignoring the action of the hormone insulin — a condition known technically as being insulin-resistant. Because insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome still get remarkably little attention in the press (certainly compared with cholesterol), let me explain the basics. <br />
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You secrete insulin in response to the foods you eat — particularly the carbohydrates — to keep blood sugar in control after a meal. When your cells are resistant to insulin, your body (your pancreas, to be precise) responds to rising blood sugar by pumping out more and more insulin. Eventually the pancreas can no longer keep up with the demand or it gives in to what diabetologists call “pancreatic exhaustion.” Now your blood sugar will rise out of control, and you’ve got diabetes. <br />
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Not everyone with insulin resistance becomes diabetic; some continue to secrete enough insulin to overcome their cells’ resistance to the hormone. But having chronically elevated insulin levels has harmful effects of its own — heart disease, for one. A result is higher triglyceride levels and blood pressure, lower levels of HDL cholesterol (the “good cholesterol”), further worsening the insulin resistance — this is metabolic syndrome. <br />
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When physicians assess your risk of heart disease these days, they will take into consideration your LDL cholesterol (the bad kind), but also these symptoms of metabolic syndrome. The idea, according to Scott Grundy, a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center nutritionist and the chairman of the panel that produced the last edition of the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines, is that heart attacks 50 years ago might have been caused by high cholesterol — particularly high LDL cholesterol — but since then we’ve all gotten fatter and more diabetic, and now it’s metabolic syndrome that’s the more conspicuous problem. <br />
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This raises two obvious questions. The first is what sets off metabolic syndrome to begin with, which is another way of asking, What causes the initial insulin resistance? There are several hypotheses, but researchers who study the mechanisms of insulin resistance now think that a likely cause is the accumulation of fat in the liver. When studies have been done trying to answer this question in humans, says Varman Samuel, who studies insulin resistance at Yale School of Medicine, the correlation between liver fat and insulin resistance in patients, lean or obese, is “remarkably strong.” What it looks like, Samuel says, is that “when you deposit fat in the liver, that’s when you become insulin-resistant.” <br />
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That raises the other obvious question: What causes the liver to accumulate fat in humans? A common assumption is that simply getting fatter leads to a fatty liver, but this does not explain fatty liver in lean people. Some of it could be attributed to genetic predisposition. But harking back to Lustig, there’s also the very real possibility that it is caused by sugar. <br />
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As it happens, metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance are the reasons that many of the researchers today studying fructose became interested in the subject to begin with. If you want to cause insulin resistance in laboratory rats, says Gerald Reaven, the Stanford University diabetologist who did much of the pioneering work on the subject, feeding them diets that are mostly fructose is an easy way to do it. It’s a “very obvious, very dramatic” effect, Reaven says. <br />
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By the early 2000s, researchers studying fructose metabolism had established certain findings unambiguously and had well-established biochemical explanations for what was happening. Feed animals enough pure fructose or enough sugar, and their livers convert the fructose into fat — the saturated fatty acid, palmitate, to be precise, that supposedly gives us heart disease when we eat it, by raising LDL cholesterol. The fat accumulates in the liver, and insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome follow. <br />
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Michael Pagliassotti, a Colorado State University biochemist who did many of the relevant animal studies in the late 1990s, says these changes can happen in as little as a week if the animals are fed sugar or fructose in huge amounts — 60 or 70 percent of the calories in their diets. They can take several months if the animals are fed something closer to what humans (in America) actually consume — around 20 percent of the calories in their diet. Stop feeding them the sugar, in either case, and the fatty liver promptly goes away, and with it the insulin resistance. <br />
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Similar effects can be shown in humans, although the researchers doing this work typically did the studies with only fructose — as Luc Tappy did in Switzerland or Peter Havel and Kimber Stanhope did at the University of California, Davis — and pure fructose is not the same thing as sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. When Tappy fed his human subjects the equivalent of the fructose in 8 to 10 cans of Coke or Pepsi a day — a “pretty high dose,” he says —– their livers would start to become insulin-resistant, and their triglycerides would go up in just a few days. With lower doses, Tappy says, just as in the animal research, the same effects would appear, but it would take longer, a month or more. <br />
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Despite the steady accumulation of research, the evidence can still be criticized as falling far short of conclusive. The studies in rodents aren’t necessarily applicable to humans. And the kinds of studies that Tappy, Havel and Stanhope did — having real people drink beverages sweetened with fructose and comparing the effect with what happens when the same people or others drink beverages sweetened with glucose — aren’t applicable to real human experience, because we never naturally consume pure fructose. We always take it with glucose, in the nearly 50-50 combinations of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. And then the amount of fructose or sucrose being fed in these studies, to the rodents or the human subjects, has typically been enormous. <br />
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This is why the research reviews on the subject invariably conclude that more research is necessary to establish at what dose sugar and high-fructose corn syrup start becoming what Lustig calls toxic. “There is clearly a need for intervention studies,” as Tappy recently phrased it in the technical jargon of the field, “in which the fructose intake of high-fructose consumers is reduced to better delineate the possible pathogenic role of fructose. At present, short-term-intervention studies, however, suggest that a high-fructose intake consisting of soft drinks, sweetened juices or bakery products can increase the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.” <br />
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In simpler language, how much of this stuff do we have to eat or drink, and for how long, before it does to us what it does to laboratory rats? And is that amount more than we’re already consuming? <br />
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Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to learn anything conclusive in the near future. As Lustig points out, sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are certainly not “acute toxins” of the kind the F.D.A. typically regulates and the effects of which can be studied over the course of days or months. The question is whether they’re “chronic toxins,” which means “not toxic after one meal, but after 1,000 meals.” This means that what Tappy calls “intervention studies” have to go on for significantly longer than 1,000 meals to be meaningful. <br />
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At the moment, the National Institutes of Health are supporting surprisingly few clinical trials related to sugar and high-fructose corn syrup in the U.S. All are small, and none will last more than a few months. Lustig and his colleagues at U.C.S.F. — including Jean-Marc Schwarz, whom Tappy describes as one of the three best fructose biochemists in the world — are doing one of these studies. It will look at what happens when obese teenagers consume no sugar other than what they might get in fruits and vegetables. Another study will do the same with pregnant women to see if their babies are born healthier and leaner. <br />
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Only one study in this country, by Havel and Stanhope at the University of California, Davis, is directly addressing the question of how much sugar is required to trigger the symptoms of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Havel and Stanhope are having healthy people drink three sugar- or H.F.C.S.-sweetened beverages a day and then seeing what happens. The catch is that their study subjects go through this three-beverage-a-day routine for only two weeks. That doesn’t seem like a very long time — only 42 meals, not 1,000 — but Havel and Stanhope have been studying fructose since the mid-1990s, and they seem confident that two weeks is sufficient to see if these sugars cause at least some of the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. <br />
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So the answer to the question of whether sugar is as bad as Lustig claims is that it certainly could be. It very well may be true that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, because of the unique way in which we metabolize fructose and at the levels we now consume it, cause fat to accumulate in our livers followed by insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, and so trigger the process that leads to heart disease, diabetes and obesity. They could indeed be toxic, but they take years to do their damage. It doesn’t happen overnight. Until long-term studies are done, we won’t know for sure. <br />
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One more question still needs to be asked, and this is what my wife, who has had to live with my journalistic obsession on this subject, calls the Grinch-trying-to-steal-Christmas problem. What are the chances that sugar is actually worse than Lustig says it is? <br />
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One of the diseases that increases in incidence with obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome is cancer. This is why I said earlier that insulin resistance may be a fundamental underlying defect in many cancers, as it is in type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The connection between obesity, diabetes and cancer was first reported in 2004 in large population studies by researchers from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is not controversial. What it means is that you are more likely to get cancer if you’re obese or diabetic than if you’re not, and you’re more likely to get cancer if you have metabolic syndrome than if you don’t. <br />
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This goes along with two other observations that have led to the well-accepted idea that some large percentage of cancers are caused by our Western diets and lifestyles. This means they could actually be prevented if we could pinpoint exactly what the problem is and prevent or avoid that. <br />
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One observation is that death rates from cancer, like those from diabetes, increased significantly in the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th. As with diabetes, this observation was accompanied by a vigorous debate about whether those increases could be explained solely by the aging of the population and the use of new diagnostic techniques or whether it was really the incidence of cancer itself that was increasing. “By the 1930s,” as a 1997 report by the World Cancer Research Fund International and the American Institute for Cancer Research explained, “it was apparent that age-adjusted death rates from cancer were rising in the U.S.A.,” which meant that the likelihood of any particular 60-year-old, for instance, dying from cancer was increasing, even if there were indeed more 60-years-olds with each passing year. <br />
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The second observation was that malignant cancer, like diabetes, was a relatively rare disease in populations that didn’t eat Western diets, and in some of these populations it appeared to be virtually nonexistent. In the 1950s, malignant cancer among the Inuit, for instance, was still deemed sufficiently rare that physicians working in northern Canada would publish case reports in medical journals when they did diagnose a case. <br />
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In 1984, Canadian physicians published an analysis of 30 years of cancer incidence among Inuit in the western and central Arctic. While there had been a “striking increase in the incidence of cancers of modern societies” including lung and cervical cancer, they reported, there were still “conspicuous deficits” in breast-cancer rates. They could not find a single case in an Inuit patient before 1966; they could find only two cases between 1967 and 1980. Since then, as their diet became more like ours, breast cancer incidence has steadily increased among the Inuit, although it’s still significantly lower than it is in other North American ethnic groups. Diabetes rates in the Inuit have also gone from vanishingly low in the mid-20th century to high today. <br />
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Now most researchers will agree that the link between Western diet or lifestyle and cancer manifests itself through this association with obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome — i.e., insulin resistance. This was the conclusion, for instance, of a 2007 report published by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research — “Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer.” <br />
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So how does it work? Cancer researchers now consider that the problem with insulin resistance is that it leads us to secrete more insulin, and insulin (as well as a related hormone known as insulin-like growth factor) actually promotes tumor growth. <br />
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As it was explained to me by Craig Thompson, who has done much of this research and is now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the cells of many human cancers come to depend on insulin to provide the fuel (blood sugar) and materials they need to grow and multiply. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor (and related growth factors) also provide the signal, in effect, to do it. The more insulin, the better they do. Some cancers develop mutations that serve the purpose of increasing the influence of insulin on the cell; others take advantage of the elevated insulin levels that are common to metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Some do both. Thompson believes that many pre-cancerous cells would never acquire the mutations that turn them into malignant tumors if they weren’t being driven by insulin to take up more and more blood sugar and metabolize it. <br />
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What these researchers call elevated insulin (or insulin-like growth factor) signaling appears to be a necessary step in many human cancers, particularly cancers like breast and colon cancer. Lewis Cantley, director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, says that up to 80 percent of all human cancers are driven by either mutations or environmental factors that work to enhance or mimic the effect of insulin on the incipient tumor cells. Cantley is now the leader of one of five scientific “dream teams,” financed by a national coalition called Stand Up to Cancer, to study, in the case of Cantley’s team, precisely this link between a specific insulin-signaling gene (known technically as PI3K) and tumor development in breast and other cancers common to women. <br />
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Most of the researchers studying this insulin/cancer link seem concerned primarily with finding a drug that might work to suppress insulin signaling in incipient cancer cells and so, they hope, inhibit or prevent their growth entirely. Many of the experts writing about the insulin/cancer link from a public health perspective — as in the 2007 report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research — work from the assumption that chronically elevated insulin levels and insulin resistance are both caused by being fat or by getting fatter. They recommend, as the 2007 report did, that we should all work to be lean and more physically active, and that in turn will help us prevent cancer. <br />
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But some researchers will make the case, as Cantley and Thompson do, that if something other than just being fatter is causing insulin resistance to begin with, that’s quite likely the dietary cause of many cancers. If it’s sugar that causes insulin resistance, they say, then the conclusion is hard to avoid that sugar causes cancer — some cancers, at least — radical as this may seem and despite the fact that this suggestion has rarely if ever been voiced before publicly. For just this reason, neither of these men will eat sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, if they can avoid it. <br />
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“I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can,” Thompson told me, “because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to decrease my risk of cancer.” Cantley put it this way: “Sugar scares me.” <br />
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Sugar scares me too, obviously. I’d like to eat it in moderation. I’d certainly like my two sons to be able to eat it in moderation, to not overconsume it, but I don’t actually know what that means, and I’ve been reporting on this subject and studying it for more than a decade. If sugar just makes us fatter, that’s one thing. We start gaining weight, we eat less of it. But we are also talking about things we can’t see — fatty liver, insulin resistance and all that follows. Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do. <br />
<br />
Gary Taubes (gataubes@gmail.com) is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation independent investigator in health policy and the author of “Why We Get Fat.” Editor: Vera Titunik (<a href="mailto:v.titunik-MagGroup@nytimes.com">v.titunik-MagGroup@nytimes.com</a>).</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-2771195914861337032011-06-14T16:11:00.000-04:002011-06-14T16:11:22.382-04:00Walk the Walk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-If7GZ-nSHsE/TffAXkRReGI/AAAAAAAAE00/9JKQtOg2tKM/s1600/Johnny_Cash_I_Walk_The_Line.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-If7GZ-nSHsE/TffAXkRReGI/AAAAAAAAE00/9JKQtOg2tKM/s1600/Johnny_Cash_I_Walk_The_Line.jpg" t8="true" /></a>I was watching a health & fitness report on the news the other morning, and found myself rather annoyed at the "experts" giving advice. The report was about an overweight young man who is pre-diabetic and wanting to get healthy, especially since his mother just past away from diabetes related complications. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Now, I'm ALL for getting healthy...and I totally respect his desire and choice to do so. However the folks that are giving him advice are the one's I'm concerned with. You see, these are diet, exercise and nutrition "experts" that are guiding this young man through his journey...a very slow and long journey, according to his progress report. Why so slow you ask? It can be that he's not necessarily sticking with the plan 100%...but my guess is it has something to do with these so called experts. These middle-aged women who look like the rest of the overweight, unhealthy Americans out there. I'm sorry, but if I'm going to listen to you about a health and weight-loss program, you better be the model of health. Now I know big people who are healthy and can kick butt in so many things. But these ladies were not only overweight, their skin, hair and basic demeanor was unhealthy. I just can't believe they really have the secret to a new and healthy lifestyle...and especially not the way to maintain said lifestyle. I think this young gent would be better off if he went to a normal gym, picked up a well known success program / book or even talked ta a friend who has done the work...heck he may be further along in his goal than his current state. And its SO discouraging when progress is slow, especially at the beginning.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">So I say, look to Tim Ferris, Jillian Michael, or some health guru at your local gym who has done the work, shows and gets results, and really walks the walk. I think your chances at success are better stacked in your favor. Buyer beware.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Have a great day!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Bex</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-83508397040371923922011-05-26T12:19:00.002-04:002011-05-26T15:39:13.060-04:00Quick Tips for 4HB<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Ok...so with The 4 Hour Body, you definitely see results and in reading the material (regarding the fat loss section), all of his methods are reasonable. I've been on almost every diet and have experimented with what works and what doesn't. He too seems to have lab ratted himself out for similar purposes. So let's break it down and discuss what works and why:<br />
<br />
<u>Overview: The Diet</u><br />
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No starches, flours, sugars, alcohol (except 2 glasses of dry red wine), dairy, fruit or basically any white carb (except cauliflower)<br />
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Eat lean proteins, good fats, veggies (preferably green) and BEANS (preferably black & lentils)<br />
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Keep your diet drink and artificial sugar consumption at a bare minimum...no more that 16 oz of diet soda, the chemicals mess with your digestive enzymes and slow weight loss.<br />
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As for the Red Wine, you can have it, but in my experience it slows the weight loss as well.<br />
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And I recommend drinking 100 oz of water to help the weight loss progression...it helped several of my friends get out of their weight plateau.<br />
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Ideally he wants you to have protein in every meal, and to make sure to eat within 30 minutes of waking up...and he's right...it gets the metabolism going.<br />
<br />
He also recommends eating 4 times a day (a meal every 3-4 hours)...another great way to keep the metabolism going.<br />
<br />
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...you're only dieting 6 out of the 7 days in a week. Ya get a cheat day (he recommends to really go hog wild)...not only do you get one...you should take one for many different reasons.<br />
<blockquote>Reason # 1: You're human and you need to allow yourself a day off and a day to eat whatever you like.<br />
Reason #2: If you have a craving or are tempted to cheat, you'll be able to remind yourself that you can have it on your cheat day. OR if you have an event where you know you'll be eating and/or drinking unauthorized things, you can make that event day your cheat day and be good the other 6 surrounding it.<br />
Reason #3: You need the nutrients, sodium and fat that are found in a lot of the crap foods you'll be eating on your cheat day. Moderation is a good thing, thus 1 day out of 6 of eating "bad" is a good thing.<br />
Reason #4: Once you eat all that crap, and feel a bit ill, it's a good reminder as to why eating healthy is the way to go and it helps you stick with it. Plus you're a lot less likely to want the crap the other 6 days a week.</blockquote><br />
Well I hope this is helpful...if you have any adds, questions or comments, please do so. So far I've lost 4 lbs. in a week and everyone keeps commenting that I look like I've lost weight...weird for that to be notice so soon.<br />
<br />
Have a great day!<br />
Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-51226877932368386402011-05-16T12:20:00.001-04:002011-05-16T12:22:29.918-04:004HB<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hziRZ-OpHFE/TdFPOPF6oLI/AAAAAAAAE0U/Y5hGpMkFajw/s1600/the-4-hour-body.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" j8="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hziRZ-OpHFE/TdFPOPF6oLI/AAAAAAAAE0U/Y5hGpMkFajw/s320/the-4-hour-body.jpg" width="260px" /></a></div>Ok...reading the latest in Diet/Excercise books...The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss (author of The 4-Hour Workweek). I will let you know what I think and what I discover as I experiment with this program. Here goes nothing.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-25584227387044739122011-05-10T12:33:00.001-04:002011-05-10T12:34:09.836-04:00Water Logged<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DESqOuNIb3I/Tclopz2aZzI/AAAAAAAAE0M/iZNjH7GkEzk/s1600/bottled-water2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" j8="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DESqOuNIb3I/Tclopz2aZzI/AAAAAAAAE0M/iZNjH7GkEzk/s320/bottled-water2.jpg" width="259px" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I'm trying to drink 100 oz. of water everyday, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Why 100 oz.? Well believe it or not, besides water being so good for you, it turns out that the more water you drink, the less you retain. This is music to my ears, especially when you're trying to get rid of that pesky bloaty feeling...yick! So here I am guzzling water like there's no tomorrow...going to the bathroom every 30 minutes (or so it seems). But it's all good.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Currently I'm producing 3 major projects at one time and working on my own performing career included, and I'm starting to feel a little busy...lol. Not to mention that I just finished doing hair, make-up and wardrobe at Dicapo Opera for their latest opera Gianni Schicchi. However I have found that I'm sticking to the diet and exercise pretty well even though my schedule seems to be very busy. What can I say...I do it to myself. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Today, I'm going to do cardio sculpt with my girl Challis and I fear that it's going to kick my butt due to the fact that I haven't been taking class for a while. My form of exercise over the past month has mainly been guerilla cardio, dance rehearsal, kettle bell swings, and lovely walks outside in the sunshine :) Soooo, yeah, I'm gonna be hurtin' tomorrow.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Well kids, back to the grind. Hope you have a great day.</div>-Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-31828144954723947152011-04-14T09:24:00.001-04:002011-04-14T09:24:52.820-04:00What to Expect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XzCAHDJac5Y/TabxcjewpUI/AAAAAAAAEzU/2vr3e0i9VRM/s1600/no-sugar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XzCAHDJac5Y/TabxcjewpUI/AAAAAAAAEzU/2vr3e0i9VRM/s1600/no-sugar.jpg" /></a></div>The 7 Day Peaking (Shedding the Water Weight) Diet is really a type of Detox Diet. You can find similar plans in other books like South Beach (Phase 1) or the Paleo Diet...however this one is different because of the amounts of water you have to drink and the lack of sodium you can take in...plus very little fats except for what's found in nuts and avocado (no cooking with oils). This is very much a limited diet, and should only be done as recommended. Let me tell you what to expect on this plan.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You will feel lethargic, due to the lack of caffeine and sugars that you are no longer ingesting. Don't worry, you will get over that feeling, but it takes time for your body to adapt. You just have to be patient...I usually adapt after 2 weeks of lean eating with no carbs, caffeine or sugar.</li>
</ul><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">You may feel achy both in the body and the head. Again, don't worry...you're body is resetting itself to healthy levels and getting rid of the residual junk floating around in your system...thus the detox part. It's not the most comfortable of things, but necessary to clean up your insides. Drinking water to flush the system will help and so will sweating it out at the gym.</div></li>
</ul><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">You may feel dizzy...that can be due to several factors: a.) Need of hydration to help flush the toxins from the system, so definitely drink the 100 oz of water recommended. b.) Your blood sugar is trying to balance out...give it time...again I know it usually takes my body about 2 weeks. c.) Are you eating enough and often? Try to stick to the recommended foods and certain amount of meals...I eat 4-5 snack/meals a day...sometime 6 based on how many hours I'm up and functioning...I sometimes work 18 hour days. and/or d.) Sinus pressure in the head, related to the body's detox mode...again hydration will help with this. I have also found that deep cleansing breaths help...the bod needs oxygen.</div></li>
</ul><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Cravings...yeah, you always want what you can't have. It's a mind game...the long term rewards are sooo much better than the momentary lapse. Just think of what you have and can attain by being diligent in your efforts. And if you do slip up, get right back on, DO NOT make an entire binge day out of one little calorie. You're body is going to want caffeine and sugar...it's addicted...but you're stronger and smarter than addiction...it really is mind over matter...so suck it up, and do it!</li>
</ul>That's pretty much all I can think of at the moment...probably has something to do with the lack of sugar in my body...lol.<br />
<br />
I do know and recognize that when I do eat clean and lean with no sugars or empty carbs in the bod, I function so much better. My joints stop hurting, my clothes fit better, and I feel good all over (once I get past the initial phase.)<br />
<br />
Feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have.<br />
<br />
Good luck and have a great day,<br />
Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-31904055878716972862011-04-13T09:12:00.000-04:002011-04-13T09:12:28.244-04:00Water Shedding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2WFWnGGrQIg/TaWgH53vPyI/AAAAAAAAEzQ/u_vPWGYtbXs/s1600/Water-Shed.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2WFWnGGrQIg/TaWgH53vPyI/AAAAAAAAEzQ/u_vPWGYtbXs/s320/Water-Shed.gif" width="320" /></a>4.5 lbs. down in two days! Yep, we have water weight kids...and we're happily getting rid of that empty poundage. Did you know that every 1 pound of weight you carry = 4 pounds of impact on your joints? My plan is to lose as much water weight in 7 days as I can to saves my joints some serious issues. 10 lbs. of water weight gone = 40 lbs. of impact gone...so I can really hit my hardcore work-outs with a little more "ease"...at least joint-wise.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>The "Making the Cut" plan is not for the faint of heart or fitness challenged. You have to pass Jillian's fitness test in the book before you can even start the program. I've had this book for over a year now, and have just now gotten to level of fitness where I believe I can do the whole 30 days.<br />
<br />
I've tried so many different diet and exercise programs in my lifetime. Read hundreds of books on the subject that I should receive an honorary doctorate from Fitness U. And the one thing I've learned from all of it is this: Clean healthy eating, some moderate treats, and constantly changing up your activities (shock the body) is the way to see continuous results. However, your mental mindset is the number one key to unlocking it all. Not only do you need to push through and persevere, but you also need to reaffirm your dedication to the project rather often. For me, it takes a new book or fitness regiment to keep me going. I need to read or re-read certain books to reset the brain and get me into the groove again. This time it's Jillian's "Making the Cut"...a book that I'm finally ready for in my life. I'm at the point where I have my last 20 lbs. to lose to reach my goal weight and I'm so excited that I can already see the victory. I see myself in bikini, running on the beach, swimming in the waves, soaking in the sun (with serious sunblock of course). I see myself taking a tropical vacation and happily showing off my new hot bod. I see myself on stage in my gorgeous, barely there costumes strutting my stuff confidently. I see the best me I can be...and I see the way to continuing that lean, healthy body for the rest of my life. I know how to maintain...it's just the final goal that's always alluded me. But no more, the time is at hand, and I will achieve my heart's desire to be fit and healthy! It's been a long road, but I'm finally on the last leg of this goal's journey, with new goals to be set and achieved. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish. What new fitness levels and heights I can reach. There's so much capability when it comes to the human body and I want to understand how far I can take it. Can you tell I'm excited here people?<br />
<br />
Alright, onward and upward.<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Have a great and productive day.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Best,</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Bex</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-14752829159759645812011-04-12T16:19:00.005-04:002011-04-12T18:01:08.340-04:00Water & Cutting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="border: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cpy5RL93Kno/TaS0DttEhLI/AAAAAAAAEzM/8bgSOctn2MM/s1600/Jillian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cpy5RL93Kno/TaS0DttEhLI/AAAAAAAAEzM/8bgSOctn2MM/s320/Jillian.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>3 lbs. in one day??? Yep, thanks to that lovely thing known as water weight. I'm currently on a regimen that helps rid the bod of excess water weight. Why you ask? Besides the obvious benefits of getting rid of excess bloat, I'm preparing for a serious fitness & nutrition plan. This week is all about getting rid of my water weight so that when I get to my new hardcore fitness/nutrition plan, I can see the real results.<br />
<br />
Water-Weight-Be-Gone Diet (7 days only):<br />
<br />
Lean Green Steamed or Raw Veggies only<br />
Lean Protein (Chicken or Turkey Breast)<br />
Raw Nuts & Nut Butters (no sodium)<br />
Low to NO Sodium (keep it under 500 mg a day)<br />
Absolutely NO Table Salt<br />
Egg Whites<br />
Drink 100 oz of Water per day (distilled preferred)<br />
Decaf Coffees & Teas (very little dairy allowed)<br />
NO Sugar<br />
No Flours<br />
No Starches or Carbs<br />
No Oils<br />
<br />
Then once we've achieved our 7 day water/detox, it on to doing Jillian Michaels "Making the Cut". I'm so excited, this is serious fitness for the serious person. I plan on hitting it hard and reaping the rewards and results. I'm on my way to the bikini bod that I want for the season...and not just beach season, but performance season!<br />
<br />
Onward and upwards my friends.<br />
<br />
Best,<br />
Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-41683245140618397572011-03-30T13:04:00.004-04:002011-03-30T13:27:12.220-04:00Detoxing Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yz4TU4ByI_8/TZNidV-As_I/AAAAAAAAEyw/dfifzj8y6QY/s1600/detox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" r6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yz4TU4ByI_8/TZNidV-As_I/AAAAAAAAEyw/dfifzj8y6QY/s320/detox.jpg" width="320" /></a>So as part of my regular detox, I've decided to detox my life as well...in other words, get rid of not only foreign, processed materials that may enter my body, but my brain, heart and soul as well. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Just recently I decided after much strain and conflict, to resign from one of the major Projects I've been working on for years...that was a huge weight gone off of my shoulders immediately. No need to stress over something you have no control of. Just gracefully decide not to take anymore abuse and know when to walk...that's what I did.<br />
<br />
I have other ventures that are going swimmingly both performance and producer-wise...and the aforementioned resignation has helped me balance my life a little more. <br />
<br />
The detox body-wise, is the attempt to clean my eating up a bit more. I've cut the dairy and added lemon juice & hot water in the morning. So far today I've had 1/2 of a grapefruit with the hot water & lemon and some dried mango with tea. I've now got to figure out what's for lunch.<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Work-outs include 20 minutes of Guerrilla Cardio, and the exciting addition of KettleBells into my regime...plus I'm taking a dance class once a week at night on top of my daily lunch work-outs. <br />
<br />
Something lovely about my lunch work-outs is the fact that I have had a gym buddy for the past 3 months. She's a good friend and it's been like therapy to get together, burn calories and chat about your day to day...it's also been crucial when days are bad or frustrating to have someone to vent to. Plus when you're hurting emotionally, the "pain" from the work-out cancels out everything else...it's scientifically proven that your brain can only recognize one form of pain in the body at a time, including mental versus physical. So stressed, angry and/or hurting...go to the gym...it's the best way to fight off those frustrations.<br />
<br />
AND there's just something about having a regularly scheduled gym buddy...it makes you go to the gym even when you don't feel like it...hello accountability. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">So you can see that my detox is well underway with everything from nutrition and fitness, to mental health for both mind and soul.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">What's your therapy?</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Have a great day,</div>Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-44265670501327143872011-03-08T16:24:00.000-05:002011-03-08T16:24:32.230-05:00Day 2...again...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Work-out...check<br />
Eat healthy/clean...check<br />
Still on the path to wellness...check<br />
<br />
Ok, so I'm at day two again, and it feels good. There was a lot of conversation with myself to get myself to the gym...and guess what...I went...good conversation. The eating has been good today so far, but now the tough part is getting through the evening without caving into temptations and emotional eating. I'm pretty strong and plan on distracting myself with other projects, so I should be ok. <br />
<br />
That's all to report today, I won't get into the drama of my world other than health and fitness today. Let's just say, I'm dealing with a whole mountain of stress, but still I can deal...so no worries. One day at a time.<br />
<br />
Have a great day,<br />
Bex</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2412066700773975687.post-45923481106907597792011-03-07T16:10:00.000-05:002011-03-07T16:10:46.317-05:00The Rant<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Work-Out...check<br />
Eat Clean...check<br />
On Path to a healthy lifestyle...check<br />
Stay on Path...GOD I hope so!!!<br />
<br />
You'd think that the thought of performing practically half-naked infront of crowds & crowds of people would be motivation enough for anyone to get their butts to stay on a healthy regiment of diet and exercise. Right? Hmmm...It currently doesn't seem to scare me half as much as it should...I just can't seem to stay motivated. I find myself always neglecting my health when it gets really busy in my life. For example...my projects picking up, more being added everyday, my mom in the hospital (poor mom has heart and diabetes problems), boy "issues", roommate "issues", money "issues"...boy that's alot of issues. And unfortunately, these "issues" seem to affect my my mindset of staying healthy and determined to work-out. I've got to get it together. I know, breathe and take it on day at a time, but I tell ya, I've been pretty slothful lately and the scale, nor do pictures, lie. Ok. So, here I go again. Back to re-re-committing myself to my healthy, clean, gluten-free eating and to getting myself moving (ie. getting my butt to the gym). Time to take control...heck I control everything else in my life, you'd think I could manage something as simple as what I put in my mouth or if I walk myself over to the gym and climb onto the treadmill. That sounds rather basic and doable... right? SO WHAT THE HECK'S MY PROBLEM!!! <br />
<br />
Now for some self love (not that kind...gutter people).<br />
<br />
I will take care of myself, I will love myself, I will make sure to put good things into my body and keep the bad to the minimum. Sounds like a plan! Now to stick with it.<br />
<br />
Hope you're doing well on whatever endeavors you're on.<br />
<br />
Have a great day,<br />
Bex<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07605836192076744592noreply@blogger.com1