| 'Super food' here to save the day
Maintaining a healthy diet can be a very difficult task, but doctors are touting the use of certain foods as a way to maintain a healthy diet and prevent chronic health problems.
Often termed "super foods," these foods provide health benefits and have low to moderate calories.
Included on lists of super foods are minimally processed or unprocessed foods such as apples, blueberries, broccoli, skim milk, salmon, brown rice, raspberries and sweet potatoes.
"In general, the more you eat foods that are close to their original form, the healthier the foods. Whole foods provide more satiety and therefore can help you maintain a healthy weight, which is an important step in preventing many chronic diseases," said University Dietician Alice Bender.
"The nutrients also help maintain a healthy immune system which may result in fewer colds, stomach problems and other illnesses," she said.
'Dieting for Dummies'
I'm not normally a fan of "Dummies" books, a bestselling series on such topics as travel, sports, fitness, computers, parenting, religion, careers, personal finance, gardening and pets. Then I saw "Low-Calorie Dieting," by Susan McQuillan, a former food and nutrition editor at several national magazines. As I flipped through the more than 300 pages, I saw lots of helpful, common-sense, very simple information. The book has not just diet advice, but also fitness tips and ways to live a happy, low-calorie lifestyle. McQuillan recommends restricting portion sizes rather than doing individual calorie counts as the best way to lose weight and then keep it off. But she also teaches these lessons: • Understanding your metabolism.
Are You Sugar Coating Your Workout?
NEW YORK, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven out of 10 personal trainers believe that eating less sugar is the most difficult habit for their clients to practice, so it's no wonder that more than half of them (53 percent) rate sugar as the most important item for clients to look for on nutrition labels. However, even fitness professionals don't realize that nutrition bars are not all created equal and that some leading brands are packed with sugars. This was according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 fitness professionals covering nutrition and workout topics commissioned by Atkins Advantage(R) nutrition bars and shakes and conducted by Kelton Research. Most personal trainers surveyed (65 percent) said their clients are fueling their workouts with nutrition bars or shakes. However, both personal trainers and consumers are unaware of the wide range of nutrition content found in popular nutrition bars.
It's A Pain To Gain When You Try To Maintain
Building on the theme of last week's "30-In-30" column, I'd like to discuss that joyous day that everyone who has ever gone on a weight loss plan continually strives for--REACHING YOUR GOAL! WOW, what a feeling it is to reach the pinnacle of your journey and say emphatically that you DID IT! WOO HOO! But in the weeks, months, and years following that whoosh and emotional high that comes from losing weight, especially a SIGNIFICANT amount of weight like I did, something rather odd starts to happen: temptation to overeat still exists, old habits find their way back into your routine, you let your guard down by allowing one too many "indulgences" in your life as a reward for your success, so forth and so on. While there's certainly nothing wrong with having one or two bites of something in a week's time that aren't necessarily low-carb friendly, when you make them a habit during your maintenance program they can consume you to the point that you'll notice your weight start to creep back on again.
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