Super Secrets

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Supposedly, some people lost more weight than others using these super diet secrets (or not so secret, as the case may be):

Cutting out sugary drinks better for weight loss than restricting food - Ask Boots

The people who reduced their 'liquid calories' during the course of the study lost more weight than people who didn't reduce their liquid calories.

Diets That Reduce Calories Lead to Weight Loss, Regardless of Carbohydrate, Protein or Fat Content - February 25, 2009 -2009 Releases - Press Releases - Harvard School of Public Health

Another important finding was that participants who regularly attended counseling sessions lost more weight than those who didn't.

Diabetes Research Summary - People Will Lose More Weight with a Modified Low-carbohydrate Diet than a Low-fat diet - American Diabetes Association

People on the MLC diet lost more weight than the people on the NCEP diet.

Financial Incentives Can Encourage Weight Loss - ABC News

Overweight employees who were paid a small amount lost more weight than those who weren't compensated for their efforts, according to one of the first studies to examine such a strategy at workplaces.

Weight-Loss Drugs More Effective With Lifestyle Change -- Goldfarb 3 (3): 8 -- DOC News

Over a 1-year period, participants who received the combination of medication and group meetings lost more weight than those who had drug or lifestyle changes alone.

Obesity - A Two-Year Randomized Weight Loss Trial Comparing a Vegan Diet to a More Moderate Low-Fat Diet[ast]

Individuals in the vegan group lost more weight than those in the NCEP group at 1 year [ - 4.9 (- 0.5, - 8.0) kg vs. - 1.8 (0.8, - 4.3); p < 0.05] and at 2 years [ - 3.1 (0.0, - 6.0) kg vs. - 0.8 (3.1, - 4.2) kg; p < 0.05] .

Weight Loss - Complementary - Prevention.com

A preliminary study found that people trying to lose weight using a meal-replacement formula containing soy protein lost more weight than a group not using any formula.

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Adrenal Fatigue

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Adrenal Fatigue

Dr. James L. Wilson coined the term "ADRENAL FATIGUE" in 1998 to identify a group of signs and symptoms that people experience as a result of suboptimal adrenal function. This lack of optimal adrenal performance is often associated with the affects of stress on the human body.

Are You Experiencing Adrenal Fatigue?
* Tired for no reason?
* Having trouble getting up in the morning?
* Need coffee, colas, salty or sweet snacks to keep going?
* Feeling run down and stressed?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you may be experiencing adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal fatigue: Is there such a thing? - MayoClinic.com

Adrenal fatigue is a label applied to a collection of nonspecific symptoms, such as body aches, fatigue, nervousness, sleep disturbances and digestive problems. The term often shows up in popular health books and on alternative medicine Web sites, but it isn't an accepted medical diagnosis.

So, what do you think? Fact or Fiction?

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Menu Planning

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Menu Planning - Meal Planning - Meal Plan

Three Menu Planning Methods

• The Night Before: This is the method that takes the least forethought. It provides the most control over waste and the opportunity to use up leftovers. Plan at least the dinner you intend to serve the next day and have a good idea for lunch.
• A Week, Fortnight or Month at a Time: I prefer to plan a fortnight at a time. Others prefer to plan for a week or month. Whichever timespan you choose the process is the same. This method allows you to take good advantage of weekly supermarket sales. It requires you to shop once a week.
• Rotating Menus: When you are seriously pressed for time and your family is very picky, this is the best method to use. You plan out 10 to 20 complete menus and then rotate them, serving a different one every day. It limits variety, but there are no surprises. Since you are so familiar with each meal you are able to prepare it more quickly, or make and freeze several batches at once and spend the least amount of time in the kitchen.

Hillbilly Housewife talks about three different styles of menu planning. I have to admit, we are a "night before" family. It's more convenient for us to to our grocery shopping in the morning for the entire day. Yes, it might waste a little gas, but honestly the grocery store is very close to our house and we would probably waste more money throwing out wasted food that didn't fit in with our "taste" for the day. A common theme at our dinner table is "What do you want for dinner tomorrow night?" at which time many suggestions come up. I try to pick the healthiest of them, but sometimes I give in.

Like tonight. Tonight we are having frozen pizza.

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Calorie Count Recipe Analysis

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Calorie Count Recipe Analysis

Get the nutrition facts on your favorite recipes

This website will allow you to input your recipe into the fields provided and get back a food label that you can analyze just like the food labels in the store. It's a great resource for keeping track of the nutrition values of your favorite recipes as you change them to become healthier.

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Stress Eating

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I realized something not so nice about my eating habits the other day. I was doing the taxes (yay, fun!) and I kept "wanting a snack" even though I wasn't hungry. Eventually I broke down and went to Burger King where, you guessed it, I didn't order the healthiest thing on the menu. (To be fair with myself, I stuck to a kid's meal so I didn't go toooo overboard.) I've realized that stress - particularly stress that stems from finances - triggers what I call "fast food hunger". It's the feeling that I need to go out to eat, or to eat something from a gas station such as a bag of chips. It's obviously an emotional response, and one I was unaware of for quite some time.

I never thought I was an emotional eater because for some reason I associated it with feelings of depression or anger. I am an anxious eater. I eat when the anxiety goes over a comfortable level. Since the recession hit our business very hard, anxiety has been a mainstay in our lives.

Here are some good websites on stress eating that I found interesting.

Stress and Emotional Eating: What Causes Emotional Eating?

Cortisol Cravings: Stress can bring on increased levels of cortisol, known as "the stress hormone." Cortisol has a beneficial function in the body, but excessive levels of cortisol brought on by chronic stress can cause a slew of problems in the body. Among other things, high levels of cortisol can create cravings for salty and sweet foods. In previous centuries, this enabled people to bulk up on foods that would sustain them during times when food is scarce; however, in modern times and industrialized nations, when food is rarely scarce, this previously adaptive mechanism causes excess weight gain.

Stop stress eating and lose more weight

Foods to choose, foods to avoid

In addition to general healthy eating guidelines, Stress Eater Diet offers tips on foods to avoid when feeling stress and foods to eat more of to keep moods more balanced.

For instance it says that when you’re feeling stressed, you shouldn’t turn to things that are probably exactly the foods you’re going for now, such as:

* caffeinated beverages, which can worsen anxiety and boost blood pressure
* junk and fast foods, which lack the nutrition to help you fight stress
* carbonated beverages, which can lead to excess carbon dioxide in the body, weakening the immune system
* high cholesterol foods like egg yolks, cheese and nuts, because stress already boosts the body’s cholesterol levels

On the other hand, there are foods that are great to choose to help limit feelings of stress in your daily life:

* foods with tryptophan, like turkey, bananas, red mead and nuts, which increase serotonin levels, making you feel calmer
* foods rich in B vitamins, like leafy greens, beans and tuna, which can boost mood and relieve stress
* foods with magnesium like dairy products, spinach, sweet potatoes and whole grains can improve depression
* selenium, found in some fish, Brazil nuts and green leafy vegetables, also helps the body produce serotonin

* vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), in beef, eggs, many vegetables and
pork, boosts the immune system, making it easier to deal with stress

Weight-loss help: How to stop emotional eating - MayoClinic.com

• Learn to recognize true hunger.
• Know your triggers.
• Look elsewhere for comfort.
• Don't keep unhealthy foods around.
• Snack healthy.
• Eat a balanced diet.
• Exercise regularly and get adequate rest.

Body Mass Index (BMI) Charts

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Body Mass Index (BMI) Charts

For years, doctors have used height and weight measurements to assess a child's physical growth in relation to other kids the same age. Now they have another tool: body mass index (BMI). BMI is a calculation that uses height and weight to estimate how much body fat someone has. Doctors use it to determine how appropriate a child's weight is for a certain height and age.

I used this helpful website to show my teenage girls that there is a difference in adult BMI and the BMI for children and teenagers. It helped bring body image issues into the light and showed them that they aren't "fat" after all, no matter what the other kids might say.

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NutritionData.com

Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com

On Nutrition Data, you'll find detailed nutrition information, plus unique analysis tools that tell you more about how foods affect your health and make it easier to choose healthy foods.

This website is amazing. You can find the "food labels" for any food, even things like bananas and eggs where you might not purchase the product with a label on it. My favorite part about this website, however, are the tools it offers free to visitors of the site. Today, for example, my diet was low in protein, high in fat, and right on for carbohydrates. I needed a food that was high in protein, low in fat, and somewhat low in carbs. I utilized the Nutrient Search tool to find a list of foods that would round out today's meals. In the top five I noticed nonfat mozarella cheese, and it was easy peasy to add a bit of it to my salad at dinner. Have I said I love this website?

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StillTasty

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StillTasty: Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide - Save Money, Eat Better, Help The Environment

How long will your favorite food or beverage stay safe and tasty? What's the best way to store it? Get the answers for thousands of items!

Have you ever looked in the fridge, saw the boneless, skinless chicken breasts you bought a few days ago, and wondered if you would get sick if you ate it? It still looks good; it smells as good as raw meat can smell. Instead of weighing the odds of getting sick against the loss of money on a product wasted, this website gives the answer to the question: is it still safe to eat?

Searching the website is easy. You can either browse by category or you can do a keyword search from the home page. The answers are clear with a bold graphical interface that is easy to understand.

In the case of the chicken breasts: they last 1-2 days in the fridge. If you bought them three days ago, you should probably throw them out.

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Build a Video Workout

FitnessMagazine.com - Build a Video Workout

It's easy, fast, fun, and best of all, it's FREE! In just 30 seconds you can create your own video workout to target your trouble spots and fit into your schedule. Plus you can use the equipment you already have (or none at all!)

I ran across this website completely by accident and decided to give it a whirl. I set up an account and made my first video in less than 5 minutes. The exercises were well explained even if the music was a bit bland. After the first time or two, I would probably turn off the music to the video and just follow along with the exercises while my own music plays. It's a great tool. Check it out!

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Living and Raw Food Recipes

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A website I stumbled across today titled vegan recipes and vegetarian recipes - living and raw - uncooked! claims they are the "home of the largest collection of Living and Raw Food recipes online". I don't know about that, since I haven't searched the entire internet, but they certainly have a large collection of recipes to choose from.

MyPyramid Tracker

USDA - CNPP - MyPyramid Tracker

MyPyramid Tracker is an online dietary and physical activity assessment tool that provides information on your diet quality, physical activity status, related nutrition messages, and links to nutrient and physical activity information.

This website is not very intuitive and clunky to use, but it's sponsored by the USDA so it has to be factually correct, right? Well, according to the trackers on this website, both my diet and my exercise levels are perfectly fine for the most part. I even scored a perfect score on the exercise scale despite the fact that I sit on my butt for 8-10 hours a day doing office work and have no identifiable exercise plan. Of course, using the potty is an exercise, according to the website. It's a good thing I ate my raisin bran this morning!

As if this weren't bad enough, it is not intuitive to use. To enter food for a different day, you actually have to go to the log in page and change the date there. It took me quite a while to notice this.

While I admire the USDA for trying to educate the population, this tracker is inefficient and not very accurate, in my opinion. If you want a good tracker for diet and exercise, head over to sparkpeople.com.

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Mediterranean Diet For Heart Health

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Mediterranean diet for heart health - MayoClinic.com

The Mediterranean diet is a heart-healthy eating plan combining elements of Mediterranean-style cooking. Here's how to adopt the Mediterranean diet.

This website breaks down the Mediterranean Diet and explains how to use the concepts to improve your health. I like that MayoClinic points out that the success of the Mediterranean Diet might come from factors external to eating habits such as exercise and social habits of the residents of the Mediterranean areas. The article is a good read, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more.

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Workrave

Workrave

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.

If you're like me and don't realize when you've spent too much time on the computer without a break, this little program might be the answer to your problems. I use Workrave daily. I don't use the mini-break feature, because I found that it made me unproductive, but I use the rest break feature extensively. It alerts me when I've spent an hour on the computer and blacks out my screen (at my request) so that I have to get up and do something else for ten minutes. I've gotten a lot of laundry done this way!

I love love love this program. The best part? It's FREE!

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