My Daily Wellness Tip

Wii Fit $20

Sorry to mislead you, let me explain:

You know the people that go around dating night after night in search of the right person for them, yet when they find “the one” they are too scared of commitment to make the move? Well the same is true when we look at exercise programs and products on the market.

No one likes commitment yet commitment is the answer to the results. As a business owner I’m often suggested by the industry not to advertise commitment because it would scare people away.  The rule is to promote the lowest commitment available to get more people in the door. The problem is that no commitment equals no result and in essence it’s false advertising and not part of our  values. Goodlife claims $0 sign up fee, boot camps create a 21 day program to show no commitment. The truth is in order to succeed you need to commit to putting in the work, there is no magic pill just consistency of exercise and proper nutrition as a lifestyle.

The Wii fit is a pure example of the effect of no commitment, it’s easy to buy yet it’s hard to play after a few weeks. In my experience I’ve seen so many people trying many solutions yet the best solution is never the NO commitment solution.

Though we may be the more expensive option and we may not have 50 new customers storming our door every week but at least we feel good knowing that what you see is actually what you get.

Knockout Cancer

This book is good for everybody to read. It can help anybody who has cancer or has cancer in their family history and that is pretty much everybody these days.

Susanne Somers' book Knockout is full of interviews of great doctors who choose alternative methods for treating and preventing cancer. Controversial of course as Suzanne always is, but very interesting.

The capital of bad food!!

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Froot Loops as a Healthy Option… I Don’t Think So!

I recently saw a commercial on television advertising Froot Loops as a good source of fiber.  Fruit Loops has also been approved to have the new green checkmark on its boxes indicating to consumers that it is a “smart food” choice.

 

I don’t agree with this at all.  In my opinion, it does not matter if Froot Loops has 2 grams of fiber per serving and a few vitamins.  The fact that it is a highly processed cereal with 12 grams of sugar per serving should deter any parent or caregiver from selecting this cereal as a healthy food option.  Furthermore, take a look at the Froot Loops ingredient list from labelwatch.com and pay special attention to everything highlighted in red.  They are cautionary ingredients that have been shown to be problematic.

Alcohol and dieting during the holidays

 

A common question from clients is what is the best choice when it comes to alcohol during the holidays? Which drink has the less calories/carbs?

The answer is the less you drink the better of course, with none being ideal. But I don't know anybody that hasn't indulged in alcohol over the holidays so in being realistic here is the answer;

Best option is red wine, organic if possible. Red wine has health benefits and is lower in calories than many other options. Another good option is vodka with soda water (lemon and lime added in add flavor). Some flavored vodkas have no sugar in the ingredients, look for those.

The worst options are anything mixed with high calorie and high sugar juices/sodas and pre-made coolers.

Beer is not the worst option as it is relatively low in carbs/sugar.

So watch what you drink, how much and what it is your are consuming and realize that indulging in alcohol will hinder fat loss if this is your goal. But if you will be indulging then at least now you know what are the less of all the evils.

Carbs make you fat

"There's a lot of very solid biochemistry behind why excess carbohydrate calories are fattening," says Lowery. "I debate with certain dieticians who say that excess protein calories 'turn to fat,' but with carbs it's not even up for debate. The evidence is just that clear."

To prove this, Dr. Lowery will often wheel in a metabolic cart when he's teaching class. Students will come in fasted, get hooked up to the cart, and be able to see how they're burning 60 to 90% of all their calories from body fat. He'll then give them a sugary drink (no doubt with an accompanying maniacal laugh, perhaps punctuated with lightening crashes).

Within 20 minutes the students will have halted fat breakdown and started using carbs both for fuel and for lipogenesis or body fat creation. "It completely stops the fat-burning process and begins the fat creation process!" Lowery says.

Natural Fat Burners

Fat burners you buy in the store are no good for you. They almost always contain things that yes will burn fat right at the time you take it but they also ruin your health. They burn out your adrenal glands and when you come off of them you will feel, and actually be, sluggish. Also you will gain fat faster than you normally would. So it's a temporary solution and has negative health consequences.

But there are natural fat burners in terms of foods and spices that work and only have positive health effects.

Those foods are;

-cinnamon

-jalapenos

-grapefruits

-lemons/lines

-chilies and cayenne pepper

-coconuts and coconut oil

-green tea

-water!

Eat/Drink these and you will have that much more boost added to your daily metabolism.

How to avoid dry skin this winter

1. Take omega 3
2. Watch the type of soap and frequency of washing - it extracts the oil that protects the hands.
3. Don't use skin moisturizer that has sodium loral sulphate, parabene or BHT. They are bad for your health.
4. Use coconut oil, aloe vera.

You want something. Go get it. Period.

Weather & Your Health

Taken from www.weather.com

For as long as people have been aware of weather, they've pondered its impact on their health. The Greeks noted the effect of "hot and cold winds" on pain and illness 2,400 years ago. During the Civil War, physicians wrote about amputee soldiers sensing pain in their "phantom" limbs when the weather changed. And folk wisdom tells of people who "feel the weather in their bones."

In modern times, doctors continue to explore the connection between weather and pain, especially in relation to chronic conditions such as migraine headaches and arthritis.

While many people maintain that the weather affects how they feel, scientific studies linking weather to chronic pain don't always agree. Some doctors say it's a matter of perception; patients might feel worse on a rainy day, they say, just because it's gloomy. But others say the pain is very real. Not all people who suffer from chronic pain feel effects from the weather. Among those who do, reactions depend on the individual and can be hard to measure.

For those people who are sensitive to weather, changes in weather are generally more likely to affect them than specific weather conditions. Doctors who specialize in chronic pain sometimes suggest that patients keep a detailed journal of weather conditions to establish a possible relationship to their pain.

In particular, the following weather factors may contribute to aches and pains:

Click here for the full article.

Healthy Eggnog Recipe

Ingredients;

6 cups almond milk (either unsweetened plain or unsweetened vanilla)
1 cup eggwhites (or I like to use at least 1 whole egg in there)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons rum extract
stevia to taste
2 x pinch nutmeg, ground
2 x pinch cinnamon, ground

In a medium saucepan heat the almond milk, eggs and stevia.
You’ll need to remember to stir continuously. Heat & stir until the mixture thickens slightly – enough that it can coat the back of a spoon.
Stir in the vanilla essence, rum extract, one pinch of nutmeg & one pinch of cinnamon.
Remove from heat (or microwave).
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the eggnog has cooled (at least 3 hours).
Just prior to serving, ladle your yummy low fat eggnog into glasses, and garnish each with an extra little sprinkle of ground nutmeg & ground cinnamon.

Serves: 6.

The Renegade Health Top 10 Weight Loss Tips

Prescriptions now biggest cause of fatal drug overdoses

Taken from USA TODAY

Addiction to prescription painkillers — which kill thousands of Americans a year — has become a largely unrecognized epidemic, experts say. In fact, prescription drugs cause most of the more than 26,000 fatal overdoses each year, says Leonard Paulozzi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of overdose deaths from opioid painkillers — opium-like drugs that include morphine and codeine — more than tripled from 1999 to 2006, to 13,800 deaths that year, according to CDC statistics released Wednesday.

In the past, most overdoses were due to illegal narcotics, such as heroin, with most deaths in big cities. Prescription painkillers have now surpassed heroin and cocaine, however, as the leading cause of fatal overdoses, Paulozzi says. And the rate of fatal overdoses is now about as high in rural areas — 7.8 deaths per 100,000 people — as in cities, where the rate is 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a paper he published last year in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

"The biggest and fastest-growing part of America's drug problem is prescription drug abuse," says Robert DuPont, a former White House drug czar and a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The statistics are unmistakable."

Click here for the full article.

Superfood - Pomegranates

Pomegranates are a popular food this time of year AND they are good for you! All while being very tasty.

They are rich in antioxidants that can keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2000). In addition, pomegranate juice, like aspirin, can help keep blood platelets from clumping together to form unwanted clots.

Pomegranate compounds might prevent prostate cancer or slow its growth. In mice, treatment with pomegranate extract delayed the development of tumors and improved survival (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 26, 2005). Other research reports suggest that pomegranate juice might help reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Even arthritis may yield to the power of pomegranates. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University have reported that tissue cultures of human cartilage cells respond to pomegranate extract. Inflammation is reduced and the enzymes that break down cartilage become less active (Journal of Nutrition, Sept. 2005).

Be aware though: Pomegranate juice appears to interfere with certain medications much as grapefruit juice does (Drug Metabolism and Disposition, May 2005).

Also there is enough sugar in them so eat them along with other foods to slow down the absorption of the sugar into your bloodstream.

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