Give an Unusual Resolution a Try

So, I've been trying to watch more TV lately, in order to fit in with the rest of America (who averages about 3 hours A DAY). About an hour, 3 times a week.

Oh my goodness, how can you stand it!? The ads for the "Special K" diet (I wouldn't eat a bowl of those dusty chemical-coated flakes once a year, never mind twice a day)! The Jenny Craig ads (that's still around?)! And Jaysus, Murray and Jojo - Paula Deen cooking Thai "food!"

The focus on throw-away resolutions is the same as in the magazines and print media. Lose a dress size in a week! Do a mini-cleanse for the new year!

Let's get real here. What's holding you back from making a real, life-changing decision? Want to go all-out and throw your hat in the ring? Go big with your goals for 2011.

1. Try to find what drives you. Not the good things. The bad things. What emotional issues are standing between you and your health/fitness goals? What are you feeling before you overeat - can you even narrow it down to one or two emotions? When you identify the problem, how are you going to deal with it? Do you need to journal this? Hell, yes. Take it up on Sparkpeople and get some support from folks who aren't at the crux of your problem. Tell your family? Sure, but this isn't their problem. It's yours.

2. Recognize that nothing is truly off-limits. Decide to make one food (or food group) a conscious choice of quality over quantity and take the time to truly enjoy what you love. Since when is it illegal to eat chocolate or sweets? Since FOREVER, according to the diet ads. Of course, say the food ads, it's perfectly okay to indulge/sneak your treats as often as you'd like. When has gulping a slice of pizza down on the go been an earth-moving experience? Never. How awesome does a cookie taste when you're cramming it in on the way to a staff meeting? Like greasy sawdust.

3. Share your time with someone else. I don't mean plopping yourself down on the couch with the kids to watch some cheeseball show. Get a real gig spending time improving another person's life. Even something as simple as packing staple foods for food pantry deliveries can deliver a tremendous amount of happiness that you could never get from a Paula Deen butter cake. (Really.)

Alright, enough with the resolutions. Set a goal, make a plan and keep plugging away at it, day after day. Definitely simple, not always easy, but it's the best start you can get for a new year.

This is Why We're Fat

Something that annoys the crap out of me: Mainstream media articles with headlines that imply it is impossible to maintain a healthy weight or lifestyle as we age.

Case in point: Even daily exercise can't keep middle age chub away (MSNBC)

The gist of the article: People who maintained a healthy level of activity gained less weight with age, with the most active study participants logically gaining the least - about 13 pounds less for women and 6 pounds for men.

A quote from the author of the study: ""The study reinforces that everyone needs to make regular activity part of their lifestyles throughout their lives..."

So why does the headline scream, "Don't bother!"? Why reinforce an attitude which discounts responsibility for personal health and wellness.

Better headline: Daily exercise helps cut risk of middle age creep (Reuters)

Of course, this article is missing a very important caveat: Weight loss is only 20% exercise. The other 80% is nutrition, but why ruin a perfectly good diet & weight-loss story with what works?

That's my rant for the day.

The Art of the Tweak: Protein

I got tipped by my friend Liz to this article, which emphasizes protein's importance to weight loss, especially in women. While it is a good introductory article, it does what most mainstream articles do: puts information out there (good) without a lot of context (bad).

In particular, and this was noted almost immediately in the comments section of the article, was the fact that people's bodies process macronutrients in different ways. Some people can eat a breakfast made almost entirely of protein and have no issues whatsoever. The next, having eaten the mentioned 2 eggs + 1 cup cottage cheese, would find themselves passed out under their desk at half past 9.

There is so much information out there on nutritional ratios, food timing, food combining. The list is endless and mind-numbing, contradictory and seems to undergo a 180-degree shift in thinking every 5-8 years (are eggs good or bad for us right now, I can never remember, but I eat 'em because they are a whole food and that simplifies things for me).

It is discouraging and sometimes scary to have a bad reaction to a dietary change, and hard to figure out what went wrong or what to change first to keep progressing to better eating.

Thus, the art of the tweak.

1. Change only one or two things at a time. This should be the title of every one of my blogs. Trying to change eleventy-billion things at once does you no good if you can't figure out what is working and what is not. If you want to transition to eating more protein, lower your carbohydrate/fat intake slightly and add a little more protein at breakfast. If that works out, do the same with another meal, etc. until you've transitioned to the intake point you want to reach. Increasing your protein intake too quickly can lead to stomach upset and low blood sugar (from cutting carbohydrates too drastically).

2. Take notes. Choose your goal - to get to a specific number of protein grams per day, to simply eat more protein overall, to move to leaner proteins - and keep track of how you feel during the transition. They can be mental notes, yes, but the point is to know if what you're doing is working over time. Anything else is just a guess.

3. Don't give up carbohydrates or healthy fats. Balance your meals with a mix of lean protein, whole-grain carbohydrates and healthy fat. Ratio is up to whatever works for you, but your carbohydrates should not fall below 40% of your daily calories (or you're flirting with Atkins territory and no one likes a gassy, angry dieter). Keep a fast-acting carbohydrate with you until you feel you have found the right combination, in case you end up a little hypoglycemic.

4. Beware processed soy. If you are male, this goes double for you. Unprocessed soy is good for you (tempeh, miso, edamame) but tofu, veggie burgers and TVP are highly concentrated soy foods and are not natural (natural = found in nature or occurring through natural processes).

5. Leave your comfort zone. I know I said in my last blog not to change things if you have never been one for certain types of foods, but let me clarify: Start off with what you know, then consider the options. With protein, there is a lot of variety to be had. Try quinoa or make red beans & rice for complete, lean, vegetarian proteins. Dump the Luna bars (too much processed sugar and soy) and bring along some Greek yogurt with fruit or a PB & J on whole wheat bread. (Oh man, they use the term "extruded" to describe the process of making TVP. My least favorite word. Ew.)

Think it through and make your move, tweak it and twerk it!

Staying on Track When Beginning a Weight-Loss Plan

Losing weight and improving your health does not have to be a discouraging, insurmountable task. Focus on one change at a time and make that change meaningful. Take these things into consideration:

1. Evaluate yourself honestly. If you have never been a fish eater or cannot stomach oatmeal, no matter how nutritious these things are you are not going to eat them. Instead, take the initiative to use Omega-3 supplements and add other sources of fiber to your diet. Be realistic about your habits and lifestyle but open to changing whatever you can to increase your nutritional foundation.
2. Make the most important changes first. Health issues and family history should play a part in deciding your primary focus. An apple-shaped body, pre-diabetes or high cholesterol can provide a starting place for new healthy goals.
3. Do not wait until you have a problem. Ignoring emerging health issues or family history is ignoring your future wellness. Protecting yourself now will help you to live better and longer, and you are more likely to stick with a plan if you consider overall improvement in health rather than focusing on a change in outward appearance.
4. Take stock of how you feel when you begin. You are the best judge of how you feel and how you want that feeling to change over time. If you are not getting the results you seek, take the time to evaluate what is working and what needs to change. Tweak vitamins, food intake, exercise schedules and rest periods until you are satisfied with the results. Keeping track of how you feel is the best way to learn what does (and does not) work.
   
5. Accentuate the positive. Take pictures at specific intervals to document progress. Note when you look and feel your best. Spend time with people who make you feel good about what you are doing. Keep in touch with the reasons to make smart health choices and keep them in the forefront of your mind.
6. Do not forget the negative. No matter how wonderful and healthy the change, side effects can happen. Giving up caffeine, sugar, nicotine and sodium - all good things to get out of your system, but each one has its own set of withdrawal symptoms. Ride them out as best you can, but talk to your doctor if you experience acute illness or severe pain.

Change is a process. Take the time to pick your focus and plan your next great adventure, starting with your first step forward.

Enjoy the Holidays Without Gaining Weight

Photo: quickandsimple.com

Conventional wisdom (not to mention all of those trashy “health” magazines) would lead you to believe that the period of time between early November January 1st is one of sloth & gluttony. We pile on the pounds & skip exercising, emerging from a food coma on New Year’s Day to discover a lumpy, Santa-like body.

Wrong. The average American gains just one pound between Halloween & the New Year. That is it. However, this pound is different. For the average person, this pound doesn’t go away after the holidays. Seems like such a little bit of weight, but it adds up quickly. Ten pounds of perma-fat in a decade, all from holiday overindulgence.

With food always in sight, celebrations & parties every weekend, shopping & wrapping to be done, vigilance against overeating & a focus on taking time for yourself during a stressful and hectic season is a priority. Use the tips below to help guide your holiday socializing.

1. Plan your strategy before you walk out the door. If you know what is being served, create a strategy to avoid high-calorie options or visualize how good it will be to feel happily satisfied rather than uncomfortably full. Stay away from the table & focus on the people nearby.

2. Be the life, not the lush, of the party. Drinking lowers inhibition, so stick with one or two very small servings. Revel in the fact that you'll be able to show your face at the office Monday morning.

3. Ignore the advice to "eat before you go." Stick to your regular meal times, so you don't end up overeating because you're starving & can't resist those cheesy potatoes. If your dinner time is 6 & the party starts at 8, eat a smaller version of your 6pm meal, but don't think you'll be able to turn your nose up at anything if you have not eaten in 8 hours.

4. Make your non-festive meals smaller and healthier. Lowering the calorie content of your other meals (by about 100 calories) will enable you to indulge wisely without becoming over-hungry. Making your foods as nutrient-rich as possible will also help counteract the heart-unhealthiness of those cheesy potatoes in the short term.

5. Have a little bit of everything, even the cheesy potatoes. However, if you are a once-you-start-you-can't-stop personality, leave this one alone. And a "little bit" is a tablespoonful, not a plateful.

6. Deal with the food pushers in your life. They'll live if you don't have a piece of pie.

7. Have a good time without food. Hit up places where food isn't a focus, like an art exhibit, a holiday show or a tubing hill.

Remember, you are in control of your own holiday food choices. Go for quality over quantity and strive to maintain your weight through the holidays.

Start Your Weight Loss Resolutions Before the New Year

This time of year might seem to be the worst to think about healthier choices and losing weight, but it is never too early to start planning resolutions. Take advantage of this busy season to start working toward a “new normal” & jump-start those healthier habits in the New Year.

1. Do some research. Take a minute to scan cookbooks or a cooking website for healthy leftover or winter vegetable options. Find out if your health plan offers a wellness program. Use your downtime to read up on local events that will help you & your family stay active through the winter. Where is the nearest sledding hill? Heading to COSI, Franklin Park Conservatory, one of the city’s museums – all are more stimulating than sitting on the sofa or plunking down extra money (and your butt) for a movie. Many local attractions have reduced admission or free days. Check them out now & plan for those gray mid-winter months.

2. Make an appointment with your doctor. Any changes you make will work best if you know where your starting point is health-wise. Let the scheduler know why you are coming in for a physical exam & if you have firm health goals now, state them so the doctor will be able to tailor your visit to your purpose. Request blood tests appropriate for your age, gender and family history (i.e. all women over 30 should have their thyroid function checked and everyone should have vitamin D, cholesterol and blood fat tests).

3. Write down what you need. Once you have your test results back and know what needs physical improvement, prioritize one or two issues that are easily manageable. It may be taking a daily multi-vitamin or vitamin D supplement or drinking more water throughout the day. Buy the supplements or a water bottle and start incorporating them into your routine, even if holiday craziness is in the mix. That may make new habits easier, the interruption in routine. Write a reminder down and put it where you will see it. Perfection is not the goal but consistency - that new normal - is.

4. Reexamine your cabinets & your shopping list. This includes the refrigerator and pantry. Now is the time to throw away expired medicines and food, remove unhealthy foods from the cupboards and freeze leftovers for quick and healthy dinners later. If you are cooking already, use what’s on the counter (oatmeal, raisins, walnuts) to make some usual food (i.e. breakfast oatmeal). Since it is likely you are adding different foods to your list during the holidays, keep the variety by adding something new and healthy to the list each week. Fresh, whole somethings, of course. Check out the sale items in the produce department & grab an extra can of pumpkin puree for later.

5. Reevaluate & prioritize your gym time. If you are struggling to fit in that hour-long gym session, amp up and shorten your workout with interval training. Fitness can be had in bursts as short as 20 minutes. Sign up for a winter fun run. Grab a couple of DVDs from the library and work up a sweat at home. Go on a hike or Walk with a Doc. Missing a workout here and there will not derail your fitness unless you make it a bad habit – not the kind of new normal to shoot for – but head to the gym the next day and don’t worry about it.

Fight back and Win Against the Sugar Monster

Chocolate is much prettier in the box than on your thighs.

Photo: rd

Kicking cravings can be as tough as any other bad habit. They can be so constant and in some cases nearly impossible to resist. Some people have likened it to quitting smoking cold turkey. It takes time, but if you can strategize and plan for these cravings, the likelihood of success is greater than using a step-down plan. Eliminating most cravings is a matter of situational awareness. How do you get through a craving without waking up face down in an empty jar of Nutella?

1. Wait it out. Take ten minutes and find a distraction. Take a walk. Sweep the floor. Meditate. Stretch. Drink water. Junk food cravings are not real. It will pass, so stay busy until it does.

2. Do not keep trigger foods in the house, not even the single-serving packs. It is harder to give into a craving if it means a trip to the grocery store to get it. Besides, who only eats eight tiny, cardboard-tasting chocolate wafers at a time? Save your money and your waistline.

3. Avoid situations that bring on cravings. If you can manage to go grocery shopping after a meal (I personally cannot lest I come home with only two bananas and a bag of carrots), do that. Pack a healthy snack for work and do not keep change for vending machines available. It is possible to politely turn down offerings from co-workers; tell them it looks wonderful and move away without taking any. Order Chinese take-out and box up half instead of having a meal at the buffet.

4. Find healthier choices. When the mid-afternoon slump hits, eat a healthy snack with a mixture of protein, carbohydrates and fat. Fresh fruit paired with low-fat dairy like yogurt, string cheese or cottage cheese will balance out blood sugar levels and increase alertness through the end of the day.

5. Focus on short and long-term goals. While a couple of Oreos or a handful of Doritos will not blow a meal plan, mindlessly reaching for snack food to take the edge off of fatigue, stress or boredom can add up to hundreds of extra calories each day. Since no one wants to think about working out 30 more minutes a day to counteract a couple of cookies, return to #1 and wait it out.

As always, with any new habit, it will take time and energy for it to become second nature to recognize and hold cravings in check. Anger and guilt are two huge barriers to permanent weight loss so do not give up or feel bad about occasional dietary slip-ups. Resolve and refocus on being as aware and as health-minded as possible.

Hike For Mental and Physical Fitness

Hiking is great way to spend a day outdoors and a rewarding way to get exercise. It is versatile, local and free. You can vary your intensity and build lower body and core strength without spending that time in the gym – with the same positive effects.

In Columbus, many of the Metro parks have hiking trails. The system also offers guided tours, “Walk With a Doc” and group bike rides. Pick one nearby and explore the local diversity.

Within an hour's drive is the Hocking Hills area, arguably some of the most beautiful and accessible hiking in the State, whether you're a new hiker or seasoned climber. Zaleski State Forest offers lake and backpack trails, and west of Columbus is Yellow Springs trails.

Safety is of the first concern. Be sure to follow general safe hiking guidelines so your trip is a fun adventure rather than a trip to the First Aid station or the hospital.

How to get the most from your hike:

1. Make sure you have the proper gear. If nothing else, a solid, broken-in pair of hiking shoes/boots & wicking socks are a must when hitting the trail. Sunscreen, a hat and bug spray are also essentials. Nothing will ruin a hike like walking a couple of miles with heel blisters and nothing will make you less popular at work than looking like a roasted hot dog drenched in aloe & calamine lotion.

2. Take it easy until you are familiar with the trail. Hiking is a moderate-level workout, so take the time to figure out routes, directions & elevations.

3. Bump up the intensity by adding distance or speed. Again, easy does it, but pulling yourself up a hill or adding on an extra half-mile will ramp up your calorie (and quadriceps) burn. If you do decide to run, be diligent about where your feet are going and careful of roots, vines and rocks.

4. Consider a group hike or a trail race. The Buckeye 10K at Highbanks Metro park and the Muddy Feet trail run are held in November. There are numerous hiking groups in the area, like the Central Ohio Hiking Club, Hike Ohio! and the Central Ohio Sierra Club.

5. Leave your iPod at home. Enjoy the sights and sounds of the natural environment, which may include wildlife or other humans who seek to share the same space - be a Boy Scout, and be prepared for whatever may come down the trail.

Three Ways to Ruin Your Metabolism

Weight loss is all about metabolism - making your body work at its most efficient level - but there are a few common things people do that are counter-productive and just plain stupid.

1. Make cardio your only form of exercise. All cardio breaks down muscle tissue to some extent because it is easier for the body to use protein for energy than it is to break down fat stores. Without regular strength training, the body loses its metabolic base – the muscles – and weight loss slows and then stops as the ratio of muscle tissue diminishes. Add in at least two days of strength training per week to keep your metabolism strong.

2. Eat an unbalanced diet. Avoid Atkins (high-protein/fat, low-carb), Ornish (high-carb, low-fat/protein) or any other diet plan that puts an emphasis on consuming any macronutrient in excess. Build a successful weight loss plan around long-term adjustments to diet; no diet plan can last without a balance between carbohydrates, protein and healthy fat. A well-rounded diet is even more important to recovery after physical activity, to prevent illness and to process toxins out of the body. Scary things like ketosis and calcium depletion are not favorable side effects of dieting – they are pathological conditions that are not found in healthy people. Bad breath is gross, no matter how good you look.

Use a food-tracking website like sparkpeople.com to record your intake (it will give you a breakdown of your nutrient ratios in pie chart form) and to help plan meals that are balanced with a healthy ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fats. The accepted ratio for most people is about 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 20% fat. These ratios make it hard to eat things like donuts or porterhouse steaks, but easy to build healthy meals everyday.

3. Drink your calories. Discussions of high-fructose corn syrup aside, sugared drinks do not contain the nutrition or the satiety factor that solid food does. Liquid sugars enter the body extremely quickly, much too quickly to be used immediately (unless you are performing long-range exercise). When you start the day with an iced frappuccino or a big glass of OJ, you start your day ready to crash and burn, the body in a cycle of high and low blood sugar that leaves you alternately sluggish and jittery – and hungry. The body does not recognize this stuff as “food,” only “sugar” and processes it accordingly. Cortisol levels increase in response to this metabolic stress and causes more fat to be stored around the middle. Over time, this cyclical stress can lead to insulin resistance and Type II diabetes. Want whipped cream with that muffin top?

Instead, start the day with a mix of protein, carbs and healthy fat. Oatmeal with walnuts and raisins (add some pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon or ginger for an anti-oxidant boost) with a hard-boiled egg, or an omelet with veggies and whole-wheat toast. Don’t like or eat eggs? Substitute natural peanut butter or low-fat dairy. Have a chicken wrap. Late for work? A slice of pizza from last night will do (but eat a better lunch). On the road? McDonald’s Egg McMuffin is 300 calories and most Starbucks sell oatmeal. Pair it with the house blend coffee and you will have a better chance of eating healthy throughout the day.

Keep Your Weight Loss On Track

You've made the decision to get healthy and lose weight, to firm up those jiggles and lose the beer belly. You quit hitting Subway for lunch and started making time for breakfast. You joined a gym, bought an exercise ball, tried yoga, attempted pilates. You have lazy days and days where you end up face-first in a pint of Ben & Jerry's but overall you're still plugging away at this health thing.

So now what? Even if you're still seeing big results, what's the next step? How do you keep this good thing going for, let's face it - forever?

It is time to develop a healthy skill set, whatever your goals may be - and that takes practice. Like sports, music or learning another language, consistent work toward improvement with specific goals in mind creates a mindset for success.

Use these tips to build momentum:

1. Make your surroundings reflect the success you want to achieve. There is a reason motivational posters are plastered in locker rooms. Find success stories that inspire you and refer to them often. Make a 'Vision Collage' that reflects the values you want to keep in mind. Sure, it might sound hokey at first, but reading a Lance Armstrong quote like, "People ask me what I'm on. I'll tell you what I'm on. I'm on my bike busting my ass for six hours a day. What are you on?" will make it easier to put in the last few minutes on a long workout. Pick your vision of excellence and put it on display.

2. Associate yourself with people who are actively pursuing similar goals. Join a running, walking or biking club. Sign up for a race. Check out the bulletin boards at the gym, YMCA, coffee shop. Use facebook. Buy a "Runner Girl" or "Life is Good" t-shirt - it is surprising how many people you can meet by sharing your interests in a general way.

3. Once again, share your intentions with a few people who you know will encourage you and keep you honest. Give yourself permission to put a few not-so-positive friends on the back burner until you feel more centered in your new reality.

4. Plan ahead for the bumps and stresses of life with a healthy Plan B. Keep a small, healthy snack on hand in the car (apples, almonds and granola bars hold up well for a couple of days); pack an extra change of clothes for the gym in the trunk; fill your water bottle and pack your lunch the night before. Throw away the Ben & Jerry's right now so it isn't a temptation when you've had a terrible day. (Right now. Do it. Now.) Keep your healthy triggers in sight at all times. If you put the elliptical machine in front of the TV, it is less likely to become a clothes rack than in the corner.

5. Enjoy your success. Do not punish yourself for mistakes or slip-ups. Success is based on constructive action over time, not perfection every time. Instead of beating yourself up for a bad day, hit the gym and use the time to think about what caused the issue (like not throwing that Ben & Jerry's away like you should have), create a plan for the next step and move forward. Break your bad mood by contacting one of your positive people or supporting one of your new buddies.

Serving Sizes May be Larger Than They Appear

Serving sizes may be getting an upgrade - on the nutrition labeling, that is.

The Food and Drug Administration is looking at bringing nutrition & serving size information labeling in line with how Americans really eat. Specifically, bringing nutrition labels for foods obviously meant to be one serving into line by forcing packaging to list that information for the entire package rather than splitting it into multiple "serving sizes."

Really, who has purchased a 20oz. Coke or one of those Starbucks cookies with the intention of only having 8oz. of soda or 1/4 of that cookie?

Quick quiz: How many chips are in a serving (150 calories, 1 oz.) of Doritos? Eleven. Yep, not even a dozen chips provides you with 12% of your daily intake of fat. And of course, who eats more than 11 Doritos in a sitting?

The food industry tries hard to keep the real caloric damage their foods do from the public.

For example, the FDA's serving for cookies is 30 grams, but cookies come in discrete units. If a "unit food" weighs at least half of the FDA's serving size, its label can use one unit as a serving. So if a cookie is 15 grams, then they can list one serving (around 80 calories) for one cookie instead of a standard unit (2 cookies - 30 grams) for 160 calories. Pay attention - if you don't, you might get excited, eat 4 cookies and down 320 calories before you can dust the crumbs off your shirt.

Think those little entree dishes are a good caloric value? Maybe, if you're willing to throw away 1/3 of your meal. The FDA uses a 1-cup measurement; most entree meals (like Stouffer's "single-serving" lasagna) are at least 1-1/2 cups. You're reading "370 calories, 7 grams saturated fat and 960mg of sodium," but you're actually eating 480 calories, 11 grams of saturated fat and 1,460mg of sodium (or more than half of your daily allowance for salt). Sneaky. Make your own lasagna instead.

When was the last time you were out to eat and had one cup of cooked pasta as your order? Typical restaurant servings run about 3-1/2 cups (and up to 6 cups at super-eateries like Olive Garden).

The food industry is going to fight this one, tooth and nail, you can be sure. After all, the explosion in sales of "100-calorie packs" has been a huge boon in making even cheaper, less nutritious food more expensive to purchase and easier to consume. The main ingredient in almost every 100-calorie pack? Oh yeah - High Fructose Corn Syrup! White flour, hydrogenated fats, modified corn starches. No protein, no fiber, no healthy fats, no minerals, no vitamins - pure, unadulatered profit. Take charge here by buying healthy snacks in bulk (unsalted almonds, raisins, dried fruit, bulk popcorn, cacao nibs) and portioning them yourself. Use a food scale - your body scale will thank you!

The Media Enemies of Weight Loss

The diet industry. Those shamen, those snake-oil salesmen, always waiting in the wings with the next sure-fire weight loss fix.

They create diet junkies. You know, the people who are constantly on a diet, eating low-carb, following the Ornish plan, taking Alli, fasting, juicing, detoxing and colon cleansing in the hope that they can reverse years of poor health choices in a matter of weeks. They've got a NordicTrack, Ab Roller, Ab Rocker and Thigh Master in the basement, all gathering dust. Bookshelves overflow with titles like Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, The Zone, Eat More, Weigh Less and so on - also gathering dust.

Okay, so we've called out the obvious culprits, and anyone who is committed to permanent weight loss understands that good health does not depend on eliminating entire food groups from the diet or drinking a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for days on end. These claims are easy to ignore, because they have no basis in common sense or longevity.

There are some more insiduous messengers in the media that can make ideas like taking unregulated diet supplements and eating bacon everyday seem almost acceptable. Avoiding these messengers will help filter out the hype and help you focus on what really works.

1. Anyone who refers to him/herself (or is generally referred to) as a "guru." 'Nuff said.

2. Diet plans, exercise equipment/programs or supplements that claim to target certain areas of the body for fat loss. There is no such thing as spot reducing. Overall toning and interval training will reduce overall body fat while firming and shaping your body.

3. Oprah and just about any guest who appears on her show to talk about "health," "weight loss," or "fitness." Surely Oprah would never lead her viewers astray! As we've all witnessed, Oprah is a the quintessential fad dieter; from Bob Greene's Best Life Diet to her latest pet, Dr. Oz, her gurus have had her going vegan, detoxing and promoting colon cleansing. Two words: Dr. Phil. Sadly, even though Oprah is one of the most accomplished women in the world and has had Mr. Greene as her "guru" for almost 20 years, she still struggles with the one thing diet and exercise can't take care of on their own - emotional eating.

4. Jillian Michaels. I can't lie, I liked Jillian Michaels once upon a time. I read her books and thought that some of her ideas about metabolism and the effects of hormones on fat cells were spot-on. Her "don't diet, eat better" and "work hard and get out" ethic was right up my alley. Then I was shopping in a drugstore and came face-to-face with the woman herself - staring out at me from a row of fat-burning pills and cleansing formulas. That proved to me that Jillian & The Biggest Loser franchise are "fat porn" in the same way Paula Deen & FoodTV are "food porn" - if you can't, don't or won't do it yourself, you can always live vicariously through TV shows like The Biggest Loser or Cooking With Paula Deen - the franchise isn't interested in teaching you to lose weight (or to cook), they're interested in taking your money through advertising and jump-off products.

5. Any diet plan or spokesperson who claims you can lose weight without making your own food. Unless you've got unlimited unfunds & a tiny stomach, you're going to have to learn how to cook if you want to lose weight for good. Most of the food in these delivery plans are intensely processed and are full of high-fructose corn syrup, other preservatives/fillers and salt - all the things you want to avoid. Stick to whole, fresh foods and avoid boxed & processed food (especially those with cute labels like Best Life) - you'll save both money and your health. Make the time to cook ahead and have basic meal staples ready to go when you're in a rush.

High-fructose corn syrup: how to fight back against it and other sweeteners

Here is an uncomfortable truth: You cannot completely rid your diet of artificial sweeteners. Sugar? Artificial. "Sugar in the Raw?" Don't let the raw-looking brown color decieve you. Maple syrup? Artificial. The highly-touted (and quite expensive) blue agave syrup? Artificial. Stevia? Don't make me laugh - it comes in packets, people. All of these things have to be chemically treated to become the product that lands on the shelf. They are processed in ways that nature never intended; if you can't pull it out of the ground and get the same sweetness, it's not natural.

Right now the focus is on high-fructose corn syrup. If you haven't heard, it's artificial, it's natural, it's worse than sugar, it's the same as sugar, it causes diabetes, it has no effect on diabetes - depending on whether you're reading sweetscam.com or sweetsurprise.com.

What are the facts right now?

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is chemically similar to other artificial sweeteners, and as such carries the same risk factors. There is no conclusive proof that HFCS is a sole contributor to diabetes, hormonal changes, or other ailments - at least, no more than can be said of sugar in general.

However, HFCS is used differently than most other sweeteners. HFCS is a preservative that adds shelf life to foods it is used in. It also can be used to replace up to a third of the white sugar content in foods. HFCS is used to create a "pleasing, golden-brown crust" on baked goods and provide a smooth-tasting vehicle for other chemical flavorings (i.e. "mouth feel"). A mixture of HFCS & water is typically sprayed on french fries before they are frozen to give that golden, crispy texture we've come to expect from our deep-fried foods. Because of the massive subsidies corn growers receive from the U.S. government, HFCS is an extremely cheap additive for extending food life, creating a visually pleasing product, increasing the flavor of other additives and in general making things taste a little bit "more" than they would otherwise.

Can you imagine eating a white, pasty McDonald's french fry, a bit mushy from being fried in oil? That's what you'd get if it wasn't sprayed with chemicals before it was flash-frozen, bagged, stored, shipped, stored and finally pulled to the fryer. It's unclear which is more disgusting - the "regular" fry or how much has to be done to keep the fries "fresh" before they actually make it to the plastic tray.

Americans in general eat too much sugar and caloric sweeteners. The average American eats about 22 teaspoons of sugar each day. That is roughly 350 calories, or one-fifth of overall calorie consumption, every single day. Much of that comes in the form of added sweeteners, and that is where HFCS becomes the real culprit - because it is in, almost literally, every processed food on the shelf.

How to reduce your consumption of HFCS

Go simple. This is the mantra for getting sugar out of your life. Other than fruit and honey, there is very little unprocessed food that contains an inordinate amount of sweetness. Base your meals around lean protein, whole, fresh vegetables and fruits, 100% whole, unprocessed grains and healthy fats. Get rid of the boxes and bottles, and make your own. Fresh mayonnaise and salad dressings are incredibly flavorful and simple to make; once you've whipped up some garlic aioli on your own, you'll never let Hellmann's cross your lips again.

Learn the code words for HFCS and other added sweeteners. Even if the packaging screams, "NO HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP", check the ingredient list. You will find things like "100% pure cane syrup" (which is the same thing as HFCS, simply sourced from sugarcane), "dextrin", "maltodextrin" and "modified corn starch" - all of which are additives that add viscosity, sweetness & calories.

Remember the above mention that HFCS/sweetners are in nearly everything packaged? It is shocking the places you can find these modified products: Stove Top stuffing mix, soups, cheese sauces, all bottled dressings, mayonnaises & ketchups, many mustards, processed meats and sour cream.

That said, the key is to pick and choose what you can make on your own, what you can live without and how much HFCS you're okay ingesting in a given day - because let's face it, there are few people out there with the time and resources to bake their own bread, make their own ketchup or ferment their own yogurt . It can be done, but to eliminate HFCS & other sweeteners from the diet is a process that requires attention and work. Being choosy about what you buy pre-made and what you make from source ingredients will put a large dent in that 19 teaspoons/day we're all reportedly eating.

3. Best the food makers at their own game. Since you can use 1/3 less sugar in most recipes without sacrificing texture, do it! Substitute unsweetened applesauce in recipes, make fruit purees (which is perfect for freezing fruit, in plain yogurt and as a topping) and make your own juices. This way you control the amount of sweetness you want, save calories and reduce your ingestion of "food-safe" chemicals. Try locally owned bakeries, pastry shops and co-ops - these places often do not have a need to extend their products' shelf life, and can tell you exactly what has gone into the food you're buying.

4. Give up that soda habit, why don't you. That "throwback" crap certainly isn't any better than the stuff next to it, and it's still loaded with sugar and unnatural flavorings.

5. Scale back those meals out. Restaurants, by design, need to have enough food on hand to feed hundreds of people for several days between truckload deliveries. Chain restaurants have an interest in making sure their food tastes the same from day to day and place to place, meaning their food is mass-produced, chemically treated and preserved for "freshness." Do you have to give up your weekly Domino's? If you want to avoid HFCS, you do. But it's all about moderation - if you're eating well the rest of the week (but those bran muffins from Starbucks, those are full of nasties), you can enjoy your favorite fast-food meal once in a while. Or turn over a new leaf and check out locally owned, locally-sourced restaurants in your area. Columbus is full of them!

Eight Huge Weight Loss Myths

"Columbus Mom Loses 35 Pounds Of BELLY FAT By Following This One Simple Rule!"

"Reduce Weight and Inches With an Ultra-Cleanse!"

"Use Maximum Strength Acai Berry to Burn Fat and Block Carbs Too!"

"Chinese Herbal Tea Melts Away Flab!"

Oh, really now. Does anyone buy these pills, supplements, enemas and diet plans with the expectation that they will work? That, if you "cleanse your colon of impurities" (read take some modified Ex-Lax) or take a supplement (which isn't regulated and doesn't have to be scientifically proven to be either bio-available or actually produce the claimed effect), you'll achieve Jillian Michaels' ripped body?

Jillian Michaels, and the rest of the diet industry want you to think so. Why? Because it makes them money. If people didn't buy into scams promising instant results, they'd be out of a job, or have to work a lot harder at it. It's not just obese, middle-aged women who fall for these too-good-to-be-true claims, just open Oxygen Magazine or Muscle and Fitness and you'll see similar ads targeted at their reader demographic.

Most folks are doing the exact opposite of what is needed when it comes to fat loss. It's no secret: the road to weight loss and better health is a journey of trial and error, finding tried and true methods for permanent change and tweaking those methods to personally maximize results.

Here are great 8 fat loss mistakes…

Mistake #1: Just trying to lose weight

It's not all about pounds and the scale when it comes to fat loss and looking great. Fat takes up more space, pound for pound; if you lose weight, your body is going to become a thinner version of itself. Meaning if you don't build any lean muscle you'll still be flabby and won't look good in a bathing suit. This is the definition of "skinny fat." The solution? Incorporate weight resistance training into your workouts, work to create a great nutrition plan and do high intensity interval training. Those are the silver bullets, the "secret" to weight loss.

Yes, it's simple. No, it's not easy. It's what works.

Mistake #2: Starving yourself and then bingeing

80% of success with long-term weight loss comes from diet and nutrition. Cutting calories and eating less junk is a good thing, but going overboard with cutting food quickly leads to a point of total starvation where self-imposed deprivation causes a backlash. This is when the cycle of emotional eating begins and diets fail. The emotional cycle of deprivation, frustration, anger and guilt keep repeating over and over again. The physical toll of deprivation and binge eating is a possibly weakened immune system and eventually a slowdown in metabolism - another cycle that will impede future progress.

Mistake #3: Thinking exercise is all you need

Building from mistake #2, to burn fat and have a toned shaped body you'll need to exercise and lift weights. But if you neglect your nutrition then you might as well throw your workouts out the window. You can't out-train a bad diet.

Go simple. Take a month or two to transition to eating foods that aren't boxed, with ingredients you can pronounce. Build your meals around 3-4 oz. of lean protein, at least 1 cup of non-starchy vegetables, 1/2 to 1 cup (cooked) whole grains or fiber (beans, lentils, etc.) and round out with a small piece of fruit. Eat well 80% of the time and you won't feel so horrible about that Blackstrap Praline you had at Jeni's last week.

When you are gearing up for a workout, be sure to eat a small snack (about 200 calories) with some protein to fuel your body. You wouldn't try to drive your car on an empty gas tank, and not eating before a workout has not been shown to have an effect on fat loss.

Mistake #4: Not having a plan

Many people trying to lose weight go to the gym with no end goal in sight. Not even a short term goal. They grab a magazine and hop on the elliptical machine for an hour, do some bicep curls, check out a yoga class every once in a while. Having goals is essential to getting your body into its best form. It's very much like Mapquest - you put in where you are but you have to put in where you want to go to be able to know the best route to get there. The same goes with weight loss goals.

(Hint: If you can read a magazine while you're working out, you're not doing it correctly!)

Mistake #5: You just do cardio

Doing steady state cardio as a weight-loss plan has to be the biggest mistake when it comes to fat loss. Old school aerobics have been found to not do much when it comes to losing unhealthy weight and burning fat. Unless you're training for a marathon, you shouldn't be running at the same pace on the treadmill for half an hour. High intensity interval training along with total body resistance training burns fat the most effectively and the fastest. It's a one-two punch for that paunch.

Mistake #6: Skipping breakfast

Breakfast has been called the best meal of the day for good reason. Your body is in a catabolic state and not burning many calories, as you've been in a fasting/resting state for the past 8-12 hours. When you skip breakfast, your body isn't burning fat calories - it thinks you may be starving and responds. Studies also found that eating a larger, 600-calorie breakfast will help with weight loss throughout the day.

Mistake #7: Going too hard too fast

When it's time to start a self-improvement project, the all-or-nothing approach is a common pitfall. In the gym, there are always new, pumped up people ready to go all-out everyday, only to disappear 2 weeks later. Going too hard too fast is detrimental in the long run and can lead to rapid burnout (and injury). It's great to be energetic about working out and living healthy, but if you go crazy with it all at once the odds of making it a permanent change dwindle. This explains the rush that occurs at the gym when New Years' rolls around, people are pumped to work out - but a month later the gym has emptied out.

Mistake #8: Surrounding yourself with negativity

This can be a huge barrier to weight loss, especially if you take the things others say to heart. When you embark on a weight-loss journey it is a guaranteed that there are people in your acquaintance who will try to bring you down because they don't want to see you succeed. Other people can be cruel and petty when it comes to others' successes. Do your best not to listen to the negative people in your life and if you can, get rid of them. Everyone deserves the highest praise for their positive lifestyle changes and achieving goals is much easier when you're surrounded with positive and encouraging people.

The Myth of Food Cravings

Food cravings mean that our bodies are trying to tell us we are lacking something, right? If you're craving something salty, you must need salt; if you are simply dying for a piece of Dove chocolate, there must be something in that chocolate that your body needs, surely? However, how often do you have a craving for something truly healthy, like carrots, skim milk or chicken? Many cravings stem from remembering a pleasant memory of eating a particular food or meal rather than a physiological need to ingest mass quantities of butter pecan ice cream.

Diets and cravings

People who are on a diet know all too well that we tend to have strong cravings for foods they are trying to avoid, mainly comfort foods that temporarily take away the feeling of deprivation one feels when attempting to lose weight.

But should you give in to cravings, or should you wait them out?

Giving into cravings

Denying cravings can be tough. It's common to want something you can't have, especially if you've built them up in your mind as "forbidden." If you are trying to be a clean eater, or cutting out processed fats and sugar, you will definitely have cravings in the beginning. Don't feel bad if you give into them. However, you should do your best to cut back on them over time. Often, you'll find that your appetite for items you haven't eaten in a long time wanes significantly, and you can more easily eat a small bit of something rather than a bunch.

Denying cravings

For some people, giving into cravings triggers a cycle of binge eating. One donut isn't enough, or just one slice of pizza turns into three gooey pieces. If you find yourself scarfing ice cream at intervals that are not pre-planned, or you know that you can't eat just a small helping, you may have to throw in the towel on eating that trigger food, at least in the short term. Give it 30 days. Or 60. Or try giving it up altogether. You can do it, really - no one ever died from chocolate malnourishment.

Variety Helps

As your diet becomes healthier, eating foods that aren't processed and full of preservatives and chemicals will make cravings easier to handle. You will have more variety in your meals, learn how to prepare meals differently, and eventually those processed foods will lose their flavor and hopefully, your lust for them. Also, using a healthier substitute may help break your cravings by actually giving your body what it wants in general - nutrition. Try 60%+ cacao dark chocolate (Trader Joe's sells 75% dark chocolate-covered cocoa nibs that are one calorie each, about 140 calories a container) instead of milk chocolate, or air-popped popcorn with garlic salt and onion powder in place of potato chips.

It all takes time but a good way to start is to learn more about cravings, how they work and know what you can do to overcome them.

Have you had a hard time dealing with food cravings? How did you handle it?

More reading: How food cravings work

Healthy Food Choices Made Easier

On October 21, 2009, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration announced they were cracking down on food labeling that makes it appear certain foods have more nutritional value than they really do. Specifically, the crackdown targets the "Smart Choices" label, which food corporations use to rate food products which are "smart food and beverage choices."

What food products qualify as "Smart Choices"?

Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, Corn Pops (General Mills)

Lunchables Chicken and Mozzarella

Hellman's mayonnaise (Kraft)

BAGEL-FULS Bagel Filled with Strawberry Cream Cheese (Kraft)

Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers frozen entrees (Conagra)

Wesson corn, peanut and vegetable oils (Wesson)

There are also two categories of fruits and vegetables - "with additives" and "with no additives."

Scared yet? How about the requirements for a food to be labeled a "Smart Choice"?

• Total fat less than 35% of calories and saturated fat less than 10% of calories (with a stipulation of 'no labeled' trans fat), cholesterol less than 60mg, sodium less than 480mg per serving, added sugars less than 25% of calories
• Must provide 10% or more of one of the following: calcium, potassium, magnesium, fiber, vitamins A, C or E
• Must provide a half-serving of fruit, vegetables, whole grains (not 100% whole grain) or low-fat/fat-free dairy

Are they serious? Eating healthy, balanced meals does not require a PhD. in nutrition, nor does it take hours of poring over nutrition labeling. It can even be done by the color-blind, no need for stickers.

Easy ways to choose healthy food without taxing your brain:

• Pick whole foods. Fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables (skip the additives), lean cuts of meat, low-fat or fat-free dairy (they did get that one right). Rinse canned meats and beans to reduce their sodium (or cook dried beans at home).
• Skip boxed and frozen dinners and make them yourself. You'll save money, sodium, preservatives, colorings, texturizers and excess calories. It's as simple as tossing sliced chicken together with some frozen veggies and a little hoisin or (low-salt, real) soy sauce.
• Put only "100% whole grain" carbs into the cart - breads, cereals, side dishes. The "100%" is a nutritional guideline, while "whole grains" is empty promises.
• Go cheap on protein. Eggs ($0.17 per serving), peanut butter ($0.30 - $0.42), canned salmon ($0.59), canned tuna ($0.35) and dried beans ($0.20) are excellent sources of cheap, healthy nutrition.
• Make oatmeal for breakfast and popcorn for a snack. Huge savings on serving costs, calories and both are excellent sources of natural fiber.
• Avoid any food with more than five ingredients or ingredients that are unpronounceable. If that much science has gone into a food product, it's more product than food.

Use Couch to 5K to Get Fit and Possibly Have Fun Doing It

You want to run a 5K. Really, you do. Lots of people do it, for breast cancer research, for autism, to look cool with a Nike+ sensor - you name a cause, and there's a 5K for it.

Three miles, give or take. Running is not required; you can jog, or walk/run, or walk. Totally doable, whatever your current fitness level. Couch to 5K is a 9-week program to get you to a healthy race-day finish.

So, what's your excuse?

1. I don't have time. Yet, you have time to live blog every episode of Glee, How I Met Your Mother and deconstruct House. You have kids to take care of? Take them with you, or foist them off on a sympathetic friend for half an hour. Seeing a parent work toward a worthwhile goal will save on therapy bills later. Get up half an hour early. You'll survive, and maybe feel better for it.

2. I'm too out of shape. That's what Couch to 5K was made for! It will help build a base level of fitness with a specific goal in mind. It starts out slowly, and while it has a specific timeline, each person can adjust the requirements to their personal needs. Trust the process.

3. I look/feel stupid trying to run. Guess what? So does everyone else! Do you notice the weird way someone else moves when they're running? No? To other people, you'll look tenacious and amazing. Don't want to run, then don't. Work up to what you're comfortable with, then push a little further - that's where growth, both mental and physical, happens. Download a playlist and tune out the world.

4. I don't have anyone to do it with. If you can't recruit your family, friends or neighbors, join one of the Couch to 5K groups in town - Columbus Road Runners, Columbus Running Company - check bulletin boards at the gym, church, school or post up a message yourself. Sign up for a 5K and tell your circle about it - you might be surprised to find willing partners in training. There are several hundred online blogs, forums and pages dedicated to C25K, if you're solitary but social.

5. The idea of formal training seems like a lot of work. It is, but having a tested framework to guide you will prevent injuries from under or over-training. The most common injury when training for a race is increasing mileage too fast. You can have each day's program emailed to you. There is no strict adherence to keeping mileage logs or tracking food intake - but it's an option. Oh yeah, there's an iPhone app for it, too.

So what are you waiting for? In Columbus, there are 5K races every weekend of the year, and from March-November, every weekend day of the month. Start your comeback the easy way.

Avoid the Freshman Fifteen

The Freshman 15. It's real - 25% of college freshman gain ten pounds in their first semester of college.

A combination of dorm living, late-night studying and vending machine raids, all-you-can eat cafeteria food, stress and reduced physical activity means that in order to avoid gaining the dreaded 15 (or 20, or 25, or 50), new habits need to be created to deal with the potential pitfalls of college life.

1. Eat a healthy breakfast. Choose eggs, a whole-grain bread/cereal and a piece of fruit for a well-balanced meal. Avoid high-glycemic foods like muffins or bagels and fat-rich items like cream cheese and breakfast sandwiches. They cause a spike in insulin and will lead to a mid-morning crash. Grab a cup of yogurt or a piece of fruit for a between-meals snack.

2. Use the salad bar wisely. Salads are healthy and filling meals when paired with lean protein, plenty of fresh vegetables and olive-oil based dressings. They are calorie landmines when super-fatted with cheese, nuts, croutons and gobs of ranch dressing. A serving of salad dressing is about the size of a golf ball; ranch dressing has about 160 calories per serving. Get it on the side and dip the fork tines in it before spearing a bite.

3. Eat protein. Lean protein sources can be hard to come by in the evening, when late-night hunger strikes. Keep a stash of flavored almonds (24 almonds = 170 calories) and low-fat yogurt (80 calories) in your room to give a healthy protein boost. No, pepperoni and provolone cheese do not count as a protein source after 8pm or after more than one slice of pizza.

4. Use simple calorie-reducing tips. Avoid hamburgers and hot dogs; eat vegetarian meals when possible, using beans, tofu, tempeh or eggs for protein; use ketchup and mustard instead of mayonnaise; drink skim milk and water. Fill half of the plate with veggies, 1/4 with lean protein and 1/4 with whole grains. Take whole fruits and other portable foods (yogurt cups, almonds, baby carrots, snow peas, leftover pizza) along during the day for snacks and breaks.

5. Stay active and rested. Easy to say when life is controlled by class times, homework and/or a psycho roommate. Use the school rec center, walk around campus, run up and down stairs. Take a short nap in the afternoon if nights run late. Show up for only one party this weekend and keep the hangovers to a minimum.

The Dirty Secrets of Weight Loss

Every person who has lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off gets asked the same question over and over again: "what's your secret?"

No one ever wants to hear the answer to this question, because the answer is simple: there is no secret. Move more, eat less is about as simple as it gets, but of course simple isn't always easy.

However, there are some dirty little secrets about permanent weight loss that "they" - the processed "diet" food makers, fitness & lifestyle magazine publishers, pill pushers, fad diet creators - don't want you to know about.

Calories count, but nutritional value matters more. If you can't immediately point out where major nutrients are coming from in any diet plan (i.,e. calcium, fiber, iron, potassium, antioxidants like vitamin A & C, B vitamins), beware. If a health plan restricts you to specific meal plans with no wiggle room or substitutions, question why. Many nutrition plans used by successful losers play looser with calories but are quite rigid with the kind and quality of food consumed. This is not to say you can take in more calories than you burn, but it is more nutritious to skip the croutons and cheese on your salad and make up those calories and flavor by making a healthy olive oil-based dressing. Those healthy fat calories are more useful to the body overall.

You will have to give up many of the foods you love. There. It has been said. All of those magazine articles where they recommend having a "nibble" or a "small slice" of your favorite foods in order to keep cravings at bay - they lie. When was the last time you ate a third of a Starbucks muffin or split a package of Peanut M&Ms into 100-calorie servings (hint: a vending machine-sized bag of Peanut M&Ms is 2.5 100-calorie servings)? Most food we claim to "love" has been processed, engineered for "mouth feel" and has little to no nutritional value. Blueberries are not at the top of the ingredient list in that Starbucks muffin (it's white flour). Having a "treat" instead of real food leads to hunger and overeating, the mortal enemies of weight loss.

Many favorite foods double as trigger foods; like Pringles, "Once you pop, you can't stop." One small slice ends up being half, one Timbit turns into a three-at-a-time morning binge.

That being said, the flip side of the coin is that you can plan to eat your favorite foods. So long as you work your "cheat" or "treat" into your food plan for a specific day, eating a favorite food or indulging in dessert won't break your willpower. Success with this hinges on balancing calories with hunger. Planning to eat a huge dessert but severely restricting calories before and after is a recipe for binge eating. Cutting a few calories at each meal (about 50) and choosing foods that are rich in fiber, protein and healthy fats will keep your liver and brain from signalling starvation so that chocolate torte is a nice end to a meal rather than the reward for a growling belly.

No amount of exercise can atone for bad eating habits. If it were this easy, we'd all eat like Henry the Eighth, run like Chris McDougall and look like Ryan Kwanten. Alas, nutrition composes about 80% of a successful weight loss endeavor, with exercise making up the other 20%. You spend a lot more time eating, because you're using your time wisely at the gym, right? It makes sense.

You will have to learn to say no. To food. To happy hours. To your grandmere's sweet potato pie. Even more important, you will have to learn to say no to the people and situations in your life that cause you stress and lead you to negativity and overeating. Cut them loose if you need to - their toxic personalities will poison you eventually. Skip your book club when the group busybody is leading the discussion. You may have to hurt your grandmere's feelings by refusing her pie. Give her a hug instead.

Stress Makes and Keeps You Fat

Stress is a well-known cause for many health problems, from heart disease to acne. It also makes weight gain more likely due to several metabolic factors - the fight-or-flight cycle of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol, for example - and can lock us mentally into a cycle of stress eating.

Luckily, this can be overcome. Not by going all new-agey and giving up our modern lives to live among the Yanomamo, but by honing the mind to conquer the body's false survival signals.

It is very easy to give up control to stressful life situations and allow ourselves to be pulled this way and that without purpose of action or intention. We remove the "organism" - the self - from the stimulus-organism-response model of behavior. By focusing on the role of the mind, the body's stress response can be mitigated.

Throw a monkey wrench into your body's fat-producing mechanics by filtering your response to life stress:

1. Plan ahead for stressful situations. Of course, some stresses pop up unexpectedly, but having a plan for dealing with tight deadlines, traffic jams and failed workout attempts means a better ability to control future reactions. Pre-prepare your food and make healthy "on the go" snacks yourself ahead of time so you're not pulling into Wendy's drive-thru between errands at 5:30pm. If you do find yourself in the drive-thru out of necessity, take the time to order a grilled chicken wrap and skip the fries.

2. Understand how you eat when you're stressed. Some folks are mindless eaters, snacking throughout a stressful experience while others pig out once the stress has eased up. Both stressful eaters tend to pick foods with lots of fat & simple sugars - foods that turn off the body's stress hormones - but when there has been no corresponding output of energy (i.e. an actual fight or flight scenario), those calories are deposited around the abdomen where they will be available to the liver for quick processing. People under chronic stress will keep depositing fat around the abdomen because, you guessed it, their stress hormones (specifically cortisol) are working 24/7.

Ignore evolution by thinking wisely. If you can predict a stressful situation coming up, plan to hit the gym afterward rather than head out to happy hour to continue the stress cycle by drinking, eating and bitching about it. Work out & head home for an early bedtime. There will be plenty of time for a rehash on Monday morning (or forget about it; your co-workers may respect you more). Be diligent about bringing healthy food along, eating on time & not keeping treats in that lower desk drawer.

3. Practice turning off and tuning out. Everyone has day to day sensitivities, those little things that burrow under the skin & cause low grade stress. Tune out what you can, take a news break once or twice a week, listen to books on CD in the car, log off the computer an hour before bed, turn the TV off half an hour before bed, whatever it takes. Quit making long lists of inconsquential things that "need" doing; they don't, or you wouldn't need a list to remember them.

4. Stimulate other pleasure centers in your brain. The body loves to relax; it's the mind that races around & never wants to stop. A 30-minute workout will stimulate endorphins. Do yoga. Have some good sex. Laugh out loud. Give yourself a five-minute mini-massage. Focus on something other than the negative & give yourself something to smile about.

5. Don't stress about being stressed. If not making a list is more stressful than looking at it (think about it seriously), then make it. The world will continue to go on if you need to take a mental health day or you don't log into Facebook for 24 hours. Scream at other drivers, but only if it makes you laugh & loosens your grip on the steering wheel. You ate three donuts during that committee meeting this morning? No problem. Make a mental note to be more aware of your eating habits when you're under the gun next time. Give up the uncontrolled guilt and focus on awareness. You are the gatekeeper between stimulus and response.

6. Know when to get help. Chronic, unrelieved stress can lead to depression, atypical depression or cognitive distortions which may need more help than a yoga class can provide.

Breaking a Weight Loss Plateau

Losing weight and getting fit is so much fun during the "honeymoon" phase - you're changing up your routine, sweating it out at the gym, measuring your food intake and watching the scale dial lower each time you step on it.

Then reality hits. A big deadline at work causes you to miss a workout. Friends invite you to happy hour and you find yourself three martinis to the wind, eating Steak and Shake at 2am.

You're going at your program as usual, but when you step on the scale...you stare. Wiggle your toes. Check again. Step off. Step on. Peer down between your feet. Nope, it's not moving. You're at the same weight as last week. No problem, you think. It's water weight. Those blue-cheese olives in the dirty martini - full of salt!

Or, the worst. The scale stops for two weeks, then three. You gain a pound, then lose it. It returns with two friends who mock your feeble attempts to consume only dry salads and crackers. They go away eventually, but the scale refuses to drop below your lowest weight no matter how many hours you spend in the gym.

Depression sets in. How could this happen? You've been faithful! You'd never cheat on your diet! (Fries don't count if they're consumed after midnight, right?) Yet, the proof of betrayal sits between your big toes - you're not losing weight. You've plateaued, and you're devastated. Nothing sounds as good as lying in bed, eating ice cream and watching The Biggest Loser.

The body is amazingly adaptive to environmental stressors; diet and exercise are stressors that the body works around to create a static state. Eventually, doing the same things will not result in gains.

How can you break a plateau?

1. DO honestly analyze your nutritional intake. Are you grazing in the staff lunchroom mid-afternoon? Grabbing a handful of pretzels between meals? Pay more attention to what you're eating and you'll keep those Lindt dark chocolate truffles out of your saddlebags.

If you've not calculated your resting metabolic rate (RMR), do it now. Use a calorie tracking website, if you're not already doing so, to gauge your approximate calorie and nutrient intake. It's a fact - people who record their food intake lose more weight.

Switch up your meals. Eat more vegetables and protein along with healthy fats. Keep up with your water requirements and cut the alcohol.

2. DON'T cut your calories to less than your basal metabolic rate (about 1200 calories/day for women, 1800 calories/day for men). Punishing your body for your transgressions by depriving it of what it needs to maintain its essential functions is called yo-yo dieting. Want to screw up your metabolism and lower your BMR even more? Have a shake for breakfast, one for lunch, then a sensible dinner.

3. DO change your workout routine.

If you're not weight training 2-3 times a week, it's time to start. Working your muscles will strengthen your bones, increase your lean body mass and increase your metabolism. Plus, who doesn't feel awesome after a great lifting session, when your muscles are pumped up? Strong body, strong mind.

Consider adding a session of interval training to your weekly workouts, or take a new class. Sign up for a 5K race, Turkey Trot, bike race and set a training goal. There are dozens of events in Central Ohio this fall - links for a few are listed below.

4. DON'T live in the gym. Give yourself rest days and back off on the self-flagellation. Work with new routines; don't add them onto what you're already doing. Burnout will undercut your efforts and you may end up injured or overtrained, derailing your progress and your motivation, perhaps permanently.

5. DON'T flail. Breaking a plateau will not happen overnight. Make changes that you will be able to maintain for at least one month, and don't alter those changes until that month is up. Flitting from one new plan to another in an attempt to get back on track will make it harder to establish what is working and what needs to be tweaked further. Change that can be maintained for a month have a good chance of being retained as a habit, and the healthier the change, the healthier the potential habit.

Where to find upcoming Columbus fitness events:

Premier Races website

Run Wild Racing

Fat Rabbit Racing

Use Interval Training fo Get Fit, Build Endurance and Get a Life Outside the Gym

There are as many theories on calorie burn as there are calories in a venti double chocolate chip Frappuccino. Do steady-state cardio. Mix cardio and weights with circuit training. Stay in the fat-burning zone.

Will these things help you lose weight? The simple answer is yes, at first. Once your body adapts to the stress placed on it, gains from training level out and a plateau is reached. The body, much like the brain, needs new and different stimuli to perform at an optimal level.

On the surface, it appears that the more fit you are, the harder you have to work (and the longer you have to spend working out) to achieve the same benefits as in the past. This, too, is true, at least on the surface.

Who has time to spend hours in the gym lifting weights, jogging on the treadmill or swimming laps, only to have to spend more time doing it as you build your tolerance for activity? How do you get harder, better, faster, stronger and lose fat when you're on a schedule?

Enter interval training.

Everyone can do it; it's based on an individual's rate of perceived extertion -RPE (i.e. how hard a person feels they are working on a scale of 1 [sitting quietly] to 10 [all-out sustainable effort]). It can be paired with a heart rate monitor to train to targeted heart rate zones.

It's flexible to any type of cardio exercise, indoors or out, and can be used in weight training as well. It can be adapted to train for specific sports.

The time needed to see benefits from interval training can be as low as 20 minutes, and if/when a higher level of intensity is reached, workouts can be had in 15 minutes.

That's a definite benefit if you're looking to squeeze in a good workout before the kids get home, before happy hour on Friday, or when you've slept through your 5:30am workout alarm.

Do the claims surrounding interval training (and specifically high-intensity interval training or HIIT) really stand up? Yes and no. Remember - if it sounds too good to be true, you're probably getting a dose of lies, damn lies and statistics. Will you burn 9x more fat - as many of the HIIT programs claim? That's unrealistic. However, the body will be forced into anaerobic function for short periods of time, releasing more fat-burning enzymes to deal with the hard energy expenditure and depletion of quick-acting glycogen.

Getting started

First, as with any exercise program, you need to assess your abilities. If you have injuries, joint problems, or are sedentary, you will need to establish a base of fitness that will enable you to perform higher-intensity exercise without exacerbating chronic conditions. Definitely talk to your doctor before you take on a high-intensity program; he or she may want to assess your cardiovascular health and readiness.

Second, choose the cardio exercise you prefer. If you are using a treadmill or elliptical machine, note that you will have to tweak your time a little to account for the time it takes to accelerate and decelerate to ensure you get your heart rate/RPE into the upper limit. Again, any cardio exercise can be turned into a higher-intensity workout - stair running, jumping rope, walking, biking, swimming, running, etc.

Choosing an interval plan

Choosing a plan can be as simple as warming up for five minutes, then cycling through 1 minute of moderate-level exercise (RPE 5-6), then 1 minute of all-out effort (RPE 9-1) for 20-30 minutes.

There are sprint and hill intervals to increase endurance in walking, running, and on the elliptical; swimming intervals; interval training for speed; the only limitation to the variations is your personal fitness level. Even if your first interval training session doesn't go as well as you planned, take heart - you will get better with time, and within a month you should notice an increased capacity for work and more endurance.

Risks of interval training

As with any high-intensity exercise, the risk of injury is greater compared to steady-state activities. Proper form should be maintained at all times; if you cannot maintain form, reduce either the intensity or the duration of your intervals until you can. (Remember, you're going to improve over time and rushing will not get you there any faster.) Don't overdo on time - 30 minutes should be the upper limit for intervals - the point is to maximize the cardiovascular and fat-burning benefit in the least amount of time.

Rest between sessions of interval training will keep you from overuse injuries and exhaustion. Most people find 2 interval sessions a week (on non-consecutive days) yield noticeable results.

Resources for interval training

Interval workouts for beginners

Why the "fat burning zone" is a myth

Intervaltraining.net

Interval training: good exercise for all ages (NPR)

Impact of high-intensity exercise on energy expenditure, lipid oxidation and body fatness (study)