The perfect little jacket

I think I have found the most perfect running jacket. Do you hear the sound of angels? No? Well, if you get this jacket, you just might. It’s the Sugoi Hydrolite Jacket. It’s translucent & has a tacky, rubbery feel. It’s waterproof, yet breathable, light, wind resistant & has reflective material on both the front & back. Yes, it’s expensive, but if it follows the $1 per wear rule*, and I think it will, then I feel that it’s worth it. And I did get it on sale – so that makes me happier. Getting good gear is so important to exercise adherence. If you don’t have gear that fits well, then you don’t want to put it on, and you won’t exercise for as long as you’d like because it’s not comfortable. Plus, if you’re excited about your exercise clothing, you’re more likely to put it on & want Read More . . .

Bonana fanna fo Fana

Let’s see here… I need to take role of all the stupid diets that don’t work. Grapefruit Diet? Check Cabbage Soup Diet? Check Cookie Diet? Check Maple-Syrup/Lemon Juice/Cayenne Pepper Diet? Check Check Check Banana Diet? What? You haven’t heard of the new Banana Diet that is sweeping Japan like a Giant-Sized Godzilla/PokeMon character? Here are the specifics: A banana (or as many as you want) and room temperature water for breakfast Eat anything you like for lunch and dinner (by 8 p.m.). A three o’clock snack is okay No desserts after meals You have to go to bed before midnight Unsure of what the “room temperature water” is all about for breakfast, the only problem I have with the diet is #2, oh yeah – and #3. So for lunch, I’d like a Bic Mac & a large fry; Dinner, I’d like a whole pizza. And that 3 o’clock snack? Read More . . .

3 pounds

One of my guilty pleasures is that I watch Oprah. No, I'm usually not home at that time of the day, but thank goodness for DVRs so that I can record it; saves a lot of time skipping over commercials, but also, if I'm not interested in the topic being aired that day, I'll just delete it. Yesterday she had Gwyneth Paltrow & Mario Batali on her show to promote a new series that is coming out where Gwyneth & Mario travel around Spain eating their hearts out. The first segment of the show was an interview with Gwyneth about her workout routine (see the video). I can only imagine that they did that so that America wouldn't curse Gwyneth after seeing her eating her way through Spain; giving rise to the fact that no one gets a free ride as far as the calorie formula goes – Calories In Read More . . .

Wii Fit

The Wii Fit (different from WWEE or Absolutely Fit) is a new video game launched from Nintendo to get people to move more. For years now there have been reports of folks who have dropped dramatic weight by using video games such as Dance Dance Revolution or some of the other Wii games. As a wellness professional, my first thought is, "That's great! It's getting people up & moving around — off the couch & that's just fantastic!" But then thinking about it for a bit, I start to get sad because it's a video game. I laugh when I think about my massage therapist, Annie. One of the newest hit video games is Guitar Hero. She says that "By the time one gets good at Guitar Hero, they could actually have learned the guitar!" Which is true. But I think that the Wii Fit is a little different. People Read More . . .

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

It’s not that people lie on purpose; when it comes to weight loss, the most recent statistics show overweight people underreporting daily food intake by 30-40% while normal weight individuals underreport by 16%. Virtually no one over-reports their food intake. Additionally, they’ll overestimate how much they move. The combination of those two little white lies that folks tell themselves is partially to blame the expanding waistline of the American public. I’m not immune to these lies. I feel like I’ve struggled with my weight for years. Well, wait… let me back up there. For most of my life I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. It wasn’t until I was in my first marriage that I used food to emotionally cope with my problems. Although I wasn’t fit when I got married, I was thin, and when I got divorced,I was definitely fat. Here’s my transformation in case you’ve Read More . . .

I don’t think my body is supposed to do that

 On Labor Day, Yoga studios around Austin sponsored “A Free Day of Yoga“. I used that opportunity to try Bikram Yoga. Many people that I had talked to about Bikram Yoga loved it, for various reasons, but mainly because it was a really good workout for a yoga class. Bikram yoga is held in a room at 105 degrees & 40% humidity, and consists of the same 26 postures  performed 2 times, in the same order, for the same duration each class. I was expecting it to be hot. I was expecting it to be difficult. I was expecting not to like it. I was not expecting to leave class. I was not expecting to be the best one in the class. I was expecting to be able to hold my own – and I think I did hold my own. My initial thoughts were “I don’t think that my Read More . . .

alli or enemy?

Alli is a diet drug that is available today over the counter. Alli is a reduced strength version of a prescription only pill called Orlistat. Orlistat works by preventing the body from absorbing all of the fat that a person has consumed (an estimated 50%). That sounds good. Right? If the body doesn't absorb the fat, then it doesn't absorb the calories that you've consumed through fat. Fat is higher in calories than protein or carbohydrates. Each gram of protein or carbohydrates, holds 4 calories. Each gram of fat holds more than twice that at 9 calories. So then by taking alli, consuming fat isn't as calorically expensive. If I eat the same number of calories and take alli, I'll reduce the number of calories that my body absorbs, thus giving me a calorie deficit; which is what is needed in order to lose weight. Well, thinking about it, where Read More . . .

You are what you eat

For Christmas, Gary gave me a book written by Paul Chek, called How to Eat, Move & Be Healthy. First, Paul Check, for those of you who don’t know him, is a leader in the wellness & personal training industry. The man is brilliant in his approach. Last January, a member on another board suggested that I read the Metabolic Typing Diet. I started it, but never finished (I do that quite a bit). Then a couple of months ago, Gary bought Dr. Mercola‘s book: Total Health. Dr. Mercola also uses the Metabolic Typing Diet. Anyway, even though I didn’t finish it, it really made sense to me that everyone is different in how they metabolize food & therefore we each need different macros & food sources to become optimal in our health. The idea behind Metabolic Typing is that depending on where our heritage originated, the food sources that Read More . . .

The Supermarket Diet

I’ll admit that I’m a product of marketing in Magazines. Those headlines are really aluring: “Lose 20 lbs before Christmas” or “Sexy moves he wishes you knew”. And I’m old enough (and have bought enough) to know that the articles in these magazines NEVER live up to the hype. But this time I was intrigued. “The Supermarket Diet” I had to buy it. What could the basis of the Supermarket diet be about? Eating foods from the supermarket will allow you to lose weight as opposed to eating foods at restaurants? Is that only a big DUH to me? or is everyone else clued in on that too? To my surprise, the supermarket diet was more than just “don’t eat out”. It is a diet book written by Good Housekeeping. It has a 2 week initial phase where participants eat a total of 1200 calories spread across 4 “meals”, then Read More . . .