What You Need To Know About Buying Sneakers..

What You Need To Know About Buying Sneakers..


If you've tried to buy a pair of athletic shoes recently, you probably realize that the canvas sneakers of the past have been replaced by high-tech, state-of-the-art athletic gear of the present and future. Consumers are faced with so many options that the task of choosing a pair of shoes has become increasingly complicated and confusing, not to mention expensive. By attaining a good working knowledge of athletic footwear, you will be less likely to fall for the latest gimmick or be coerced into spending above your budget.

Know What You Need
When shopping for athletic shoes, the most important step is deciding what sport you will be using them for. Most sporting goods stores carry a variety of shoes for activities such as running, walking, tennis, basketball and aerobics. Multi-purpose shoes such as cross trainers may be a good alternative for those who want to combine several sports or activities, such as bicycling and weight training, in a single workout.

Once you have decided on the particular type of shoe you need, it is important to know how to get a good fit. Remember, no matter how popular a shoe is or how good it may look, it won't do you any good if you have blisters after the first week of wearing it.

Guidelines For Buying Shoes
When purchasing shoes for a specific sport or fitness activity, you must consider your foot type. People with high-arched feet tend to require greater shock absorption than those with average feet. High-arched (cavus) feet also suffer from lateral instability and are more prone to ankle sprains. Conversely, people with low-arched ("flat") feet require shoes with less cushioning but greater support and heel control.

After considering the type of shoe needed for a particular activity and evaluating your needs based on your foot type, use the following information to ensure you get the best fit:

Choose an athletic-shoe store or specialty store with a large inventory. They will have a variety of sizes available.
Try to get fitted for footwear at the end of the day, when foot size is at its maximum. It is not unusual for an individual's foot to increase one-half a shoe size during the course of a single day.
Allow 1/2 inch, or the width of your index finger, between the end of your longest toe and the end of the shoe. If one foot is larger than the other, buy the larger size.
The shoe should be as wide as possible across the forefoot without allowing slippage in the heel. If the shoe has variable-width lacing, experiment with the narrow and wide eyelets to achieve a custom fit.
Some Final Considerations
Athletic shoes no longer require a breaking-in period. However, they will lose their cushioning after three to six months of regular use. It is important to be aware of when your shoes need to be replaced because, if they are no longer absorbing the pounding and jarring action of the sport, you are more likely to sustain knee and ankle injuries.

A final consideration when buying athletic shoes is price. It is possible to spend anywhere from $19.99 for no-name brands to more than $170 for Reebok's or Nike's latest technological wonder. Be sure to consider both your budget and your fitness needs before spending a small fortune on shoes.

Finally, though purchasing may be a big investment, it is not a long-term one. If you spend a fortune on the latest style today, a new style will probably replace it tomorrow. It would be more practical, unless you are at a competitive level, to spend a reasonable amount and get the most for your money.

Just Do It Myth????

If you're having trouble getting motivated to exercise more, don't expect to suddenly change your behavior by telling yourself to "just do it". This is a great phrase for those already "doing it" and are feeling a moment of laziness. The phrase backfires, however, with people who aren't in the "action" stage of behavior change.

"It's because change doesn't begin with action", remarks James Prochaska, psychologist and head of the Health Promotion Partnership at the University of Rhode Island. He says that there's more anxiety around change than there needs to be. That's because there's been so much pressure to act-- regardless if someone is ready for it. In his book Changing for Good, Dr. Prochaska outlines the stages of behavior change. "By consciously dealing with change in stages...it's easier to apply appropriate strategies at the appropriate times".

1. Precontemplation
Precontemplators aren't willing to consider making a change ("I've never exercised, and I have no desire to start now").

Strategies: Consciousness-raising activities are important--a doctor's warning about a patients health risks that are due in part to lack of physical activity; a life event such as the birth of a grandchild or one's 50th birthday; reading the Surgeon General's report, Physical Activity and Health.

2. Contemplation
Contemplators know they need to change and begin to think seriously about it. The problem is that people can get stuck in this stage for years. Some people wait for the magic moment (you need to make the moment) or engage in wishful thinking (hoping to get healthier without changing behavior).

Strategies: Write down the benefits you hope to obtain from physical activity. Next list the perceived roadblocks and how to get past each one. More consciousness-raising is in order, not to convince you that you need to change, but to propel you into the next stage.

3. Preparation
Most people in this stage are planning to take action within a month" says Dr. Prochaska. "They think more about the pros of a new behavior than about the cons of the old one."

Strategies: Develop a firm, detailed plan for action. Set a date to begin and make this public. When making your plan, it's important to choose an activity that you'll like and that will fit in your schedule. Time saving tips: record your TV programs. If you watch 2 hours per day, you'll save 1/2 hour in commercials--use this for your physical activity. How about getting more organized with your meal planning and go shopping only once a week--you know what to do with that extra time!

4. Action
People in this stage have begun to make the changes for which they have planned. It's easy to let perceived excuses turn into roadblocks, then to relapses and then a move back to the Contemplation Stage. (See related articles Beating the Dropout Odds and Staying on Track.) It's a good idea to do your physical activity with others, at least until the behavior becomes a habit. Round up co-workers, friends, or relatives and form a walking group (even if it's only you and a partner). Make a ground rule that the only excuses for not attending are being sick or injured. (When traveling, take your walking shoes and walk wherever you are). By the time you are in the Action Stage, the phrase "just do it" will have more meaning for you.

Bad Habits

Bad Habit: You Forget to Floss
You can brush your teeth until they sparkle, but unless you floss, too, bacteria and food particles stay stuck between your pearly whites. Fluoride in water and toothpaste only cleans the surface of our teeth, explains Clark Stanford, DDS, PhD. The leftover bacteria can lead to tooth decay and gum disease. And that could mean more for your health than a cavity or two — a 2011 study presented to the American Heart Association found that periodontal disease boosted heart attack, stroke and heart failure risks.

Break it: Commit to flossing once a day. Morning or night doesn't matter — try whatever time you'll stick to better, says Dr. Stanford. And go gentle on your gums. "Gently bring the floss in between the teeth and do a kind of shoe shine rubbing, front and back, to clean and disrupt the bacteria along the side of the teeth," advises Dr. Stanford. To get your teeth their cleanest, floss before you brush so you can then clean away the debris you work up while flossing. It's okay if you see a little bleeding at first, but talk to your dentist if it doesn’t go away within a few days

Keeping New Years Resolution

The New Year is quickly creeping up on us. Do you have a New Year’s Resolution? Well, if you’re like most Americans (88 percent in 2001 according to a General Nutrition Centers poll), you have at least one resolution. And, if you are like the majority of these promise-makers, your resolution is probably related to health and fitness. In 2001 (according to GNC), 55 percent promised to eat healthier, 50 percent resolved to exercise more, and 38 percent wanted to lose weight.

While resolutions are well-intentioned, unfortunately most people fail at keeping them. With all the hype surrounding these promises, it’s easy to get caught up in them without really taking them seriously.

We live in a throw-away society and even our resolutions, I’m afraid, are not immune. However, especially for promises that include improving our health it’s in our best interest to not take them lightly.

So, what’s the secret to successful resolutions? While you can’t wave a magic wand and make your resolution come true, there are some easy steps to take to make it easier to fulfill your promise to yourself.

• Choose an obtainable goal. Resolving to look like a super model is not realistic for the majority of us, but promising to include daily physical activity in our lives is very possible.

• Avoid choosing a resolution that you’ve been unsuccessful at achieving year after year. This will only set you up for failure, frustration and disappointment. If you are still tempted to make a promise that you’ve made before, then try altering it. For example, instead of stating that you are going to lose 30 pounds, try promising to eat healthier and increase your weekly exercise.

• Create a game plan. At the beginning of January, write a comprehensive plan. All successful businesses start with a business plan that describes their mission and specifics on how they will achieve it. Write your own personal plan and you’ll be more likely to succeed as well.

• Break it down and make it less intimidating. Rather than one BIG end goal, dissect it into smaller pieces. Set several smaller goals to achieve throughout the year that will help you to reach the ultimate goal. Then even if you aren’t able to reach your final goal, you will have many smaller, but still significant, achievements along the way. For example, if your goal is to complete a 10K race, your smaller goals could be running a 5K in less than 30 minutes, adding upper and lower body strength training to increase your muscular endurance, and running 2 miles with a personal best completion time.

• Ask friends and family members to help you so you have someone to be accountable to. Just be sure to set limits so that this doesn’t backfire and become more irritating than helpful. For example, if you resolve to be more positive ask them to gently remind you when you start talking negatively.
Reward yourself with each milestone. If you’ve stuck with your resolution for 2 months, treat yourself to something special. But, be careful of your reward type. If you’ve lost 5 pounds, don’t give yourself a piece of cake as an award. Instead, treat yourself to a something non-food related, like a professional massage.

• Don’t go it alone! Get professional assistance. Everyone needs help and sometimes a friend just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need the help of a trained professional. Don’t feel that seeking help is a way of copping out. Especially when it comes to fitness, research studies have shown that assistance from a fitness professional greatly improves peoples success rate.

• Limit your number of promises. You’ll spread yourself too thin trying to make multiple changes in your life. This will just lead to failure of all of the resolutions.

Tips For Healthy Eating

WATER - Adequate water can actually reverse athrosclerosis (hardening of the arteries due to plaque build-up). It seems that water can actually flush the arteries of plaque.

It also expands blood vessels and makes arteries more elastic, which is essential for healthy hearts.

Most importantly, I believe, is that adequate hydration raises the metabolism and allows for stored fat to be burned more efficiently as well as slowing heart rate, reducing blood pressures and reducing fluid retention.

** Drink enough water to make your urine clear and colourless all day. Limit coffee, tea and pop to three cups a day.

BREAKFAST - Breakfast should include at least four grams of fibre, which in turn reduces cholesterol and fat in the blood. Every 10 gr. of cereal fibre reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes by 30 per cent!

It also reduces cancer and diabetes risk. Good sources of fibre are cereals, dried beans and lentiles.

He also suggests adding nuts and seeds to breakfast cereal and to have a whole piece of fruit as well. Whole wheat toast, a bagel or a bran muff is NOT a good source of fibre.

It's important that one eats breakfast within 30 minutes of waking.

It also reduces the risk of cancers by preventing absorption of carcinogens and reduces cholesterol by preventing its absorption.

He suggests that breakfast should be the heaviest, while lunch should be a little less, and supper even less than that.

He told me that the body adjusts and hunger won't be an issue at the end of the day.

So, in other words, our bodies become more efficient and burn, burn, burn those calories when we eat a good breakfast.

VEGETABLES: Choose at least two different vegetables at lunch AND at supper. Eat a minimum of one cup of vegetables at each meal then eat the rest of your meal. Rice, potato and corn are starches and are NOT counted as vegetables.


MEAT - Eat a maximum of four ounces of meat, pork, chicken or fish a day.

WALKING - Walk for 25 minutes every night after supper. The benefits of walking after supper compared to walking before supper are many. It can lower your blood sugar by 50 per cent, but best of all when one exercises as described above, your body is burning calories the whole time you sleep.

Most North American (95 per cent) eat little through the day relative to their large meals and evening snacks. This raises the blood sugar really high before sleeping. Higher bedtime sugars directly create extra weight and extra cholesterol and lower anti-oxidants which help prevent cancer.

Walking for 25 minutes after supper raises your metabolism, releases growth hormones which suppress appetite for late night snacks and act as a natural fat burner overnight.

He says one can change diet overnight, but allow an average of 3-5 weeks for these changes, as listed above, to impact your metabolism.

REGULAR WEIGH INS - He suggests that if one follows the above, they don't need to weigh in weekly. It has been found, that the stress of weigh-ins create a chemical in our brains which actually retains the fat and thus we reach those dreaded plateaus. He asked me how many stories I had heard about people who only had five or 10 lbs. to lose, but just couldn't do it. According to him, weigh-ins become so stressful that they create these fat-holding chemicals. Now THAT was an interesting thing for me to hear!

He suggests instead, that we take monthly body measurements as a true picture of how we are doing.

These suggestions are based on certain statistics - People with cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol/heart disease, bowel problems, and those who are overweight, generally have five things in common!

They are:
* Small or no breakfast with adequate fiber.
* Inadequate water consumption.
* Inadequate activity after supper.
* Inadequate daily fiber intake.
* Inadequate daily vegetable intake.

Exercise is Very Important

There are 1,440 minutes in every day. Schedule 30 of them for physical activity!

Regular exercise is a critical part of staying healthy. People who are active live longer and feel better. Exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight. It can delay or prevent diabetes, some cancers and heart problems.

Most adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week. Examples include walking briskly, mowing the lawn, dancing, swimming for recreation or bicycling. Stretching and weight training can also strengthen your body and improve your fitness level.

The key is to find the right exercise for you. If it is fun, you are more likely to stay motivated. You may want to walk with a friend, join a class or plan a group bike ride. If you've been inactive for awhile, use a sensible approach and start out slowly.

Women and Strength Training

1. Women can't get as strong. Not true. Women have a potential for developing muscular fitness (particularly in their upper bodies) that often remains untapped. In fact, the average woman gains strength at a slightly faster rate that the average man does.

2. Strength training de-feminizes women. Fortunately, the wide array of potential benefits of strength training (functional, physical, mental, and health) are just as appropriate and available to women as they are to men. Tight, firm, muscles have nothing to do with the objectionable term "de-feminize."

3. Lifting weights will cause women to develop relatively large muscles. In reality, women don't have the genetic potential to develop large muscles because, except in very rare instances, they don't have enough testosterone, which is needed for the development of muscle bulk.

4. Strength training will make a woman muscle-bound. Muscle-bound is a term that connotes lack of flexibility. Not only will proper strength training not make a woman less flexible, in most cases, it will make her more flexible.

5. A woman's muscles will turn to fat when she stops training. Muscles cannot turn into fat. Muscles simply don't have the physiological capacity to change from one type of tissue to another. Muscles have the property of "use it or lose it." If a woman doesn't use a particular muscle, that muscle will literally waste away (atrophy).

6. A woman can take protein supplements to enhance her physique. A woman cannot enhance how her body looks by using protein supplements, because her body can't use the extra protein. An excessive amount of protein is not used to build muscle tissue. Rather, it is converted to fat and stored in the body.

7. Rigorous strength training can help a woman rid her body of fat. Research shows that, although strength training can firm and tone muscles, it does not burn away fat.

8. Strength training increases a woman's need for vitamins. The vitamin needs of a physically active woman are generally no greater than those of a sedentary one. Because vitamins do not contribue significantly to a woman's body structure and do not provider her with a direct source of energy, a woman who engages in strength training receives no benefit from taking an excessive dose of vitamin supplements. Eating a variety of healthful foods will ensure that a woman's intake of vitamins is adequate.

9. Strength training is for young women. It's never too late for a woman to enhance the quality of her life by improving her level of muscular fitness. Proper strength training offers numerous benefits to women of all ages and fitness levels, including the fact that it can help extend a woman's functional life span.

10. Strength training is expensive for a woman. Not true. Muscles respond to the stress applied to them, not to the cost of the machine. All other factors being equal, muscles can't discern 50 pounds of stress on an inexpensive barbell from 50 pounds of stress imposed by a high-tech machine costing thousands of dollars.

The Blues With Exercise

Exercise as an antidote to depression and anxiety is not a new concept. In the 18th century Scotland, doctors in mental hospitals prescribed heavy farm chores as "the best medicine" for their patients and documented marked improvements in mood and behavior. Now scientists are studying the link between exercise and mood changes at close range and coming up with some fascinating results.


One expert in the field says "exercise is clearly associated with mental-health benefits." And moderate exercisers show lowered blood-pressure levels and a resultant positive mood. The key is moderate exercise, performed a minimum of 30 minutes, three or four times a week. Brisk walking, swimming, lifting weights, and bicycling - all achieve good results.


People who exercise regularly, even at something as simple as walking or bicycling, are more flexible. They experience less stress on the muscles and joints when they do bend down the wrong way. Conditioned muscles recover faster, too. It's the couch potato who hauls himself erect one Saturday afternoon to rake the leaves or shovel snow who has trouble.


The big problem we all face these days is living a stressful life. All families seem to be too busy to sit down together and share the joys and pleasures of life. The little things that once mattered are no longer important and now there is a race for more money, more time and more material possessions.


By using simple relaxation techniques, exercising and making changes in our lifestyles, we can manage stress and take control of your lives! Once you have become aware of stress, it's time to relax! There are many techniques for relaxing (and no one method is better than another), but the most basic is deep breathing. One of the body's automatic reactions to stress is rapid, shallow breathing. Breathing slowly and deeply is one of the ways you can "turn off" your stress reaction and "turn on" your relaxation response.


Still another relaxation technique that can help you reduce stress is "clearing your mind." Since your stress response is a physical and emotional interaction, giving yourself a mental "break" can help relax your body as well. When you clear your mind, you try to concentrate on one pleasant thought, work, or image and let the rest of your worries slip away. A short and quiet walk can do wonders and just a walk around the block will clear your head and often give you a new spurt of energy.


Muscle and joint aches and pains are a common complaint for many of us, living as we do in a sedentary, high-stress society. The cliché warning us to "use it or lose it" isn't far off the mark. Our bodies pay the price for long hours slumped at our desks or nestled in a soft chair watching television. And if you think some of our aches and pains are just another consequence of aging, you're wrong - more often, it's a result of inactivity and weaker muscles.


Doctors now say that walking is one of the best exercises. It helps the total circulation of blood throughout the body, and thus has a direct effect on your overall feeling of health. There are things such a aerobics, jogging, swimming and many other exercises which will benefit a person both physically and mentally. Researchers agree that exercise helps to ease anxiety and lift spirits.

OVERWEIGHT: bad for many reasons!!!

The health consequences for having excess body weight are well documented. Five of the most serious consequences of being overweight are described below.

1. Type II diabetes mellitus has been strongly associated with excess weight. Type II diabetes is likely to develop after childhood, is often referred to as “adult onset diabetes” and can usually be treated with diet and/or oral medications. Type II diabetes is a disease of insulin excess and can be deadly if left untreated. Type II diabetes can have genetic origins. If your parents have had it then it is likely that you too have inherited the predisposition to the disease, making prevention an important issue. It is possible to ward off or even reverse the damaging effects of Type II diabetes by following the proper diet and exercise routine.

2. For every six-pound increase in body weight above optimum levels there is a significant increase in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The longer the excess weight remains on the body the greater the possibility of developing hypertension. Hypertension’s relationship with obesity is well documented. However, why hypertension follows from obesity is still unclear. Given that hypertension is more likely in those carrying excess weight it is important to have regular blood pressure screenings.

3. Coronary heart disease, more commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow to an area of the heart is cut off. Some risk factors for heart disease include diabetes and hypertension. American insurance companies have collected data indicating that death rates contributed to heart disease are significantly higher in those who are overweight. As long as the heart is able to provide oxygen-rich blood to the body, it will continue to pump indefinitely. However, build up of plaque in the artery walls reduces blood flow. If the flow is diminished significantly, the heart will be unable to function. Obesity has been linked to the buildup of plaque and heart disease.

4. Medical complications are not the only result one may experience by being overweight. Certain social consequences occur at a much greater rate than the medical consequences previously described. Prejudice toward obese and overweight people has been allowed to run rampant, despite the National Institute of Health declaring such prejudice as a devastating behavior of modern culture. Studies showing pictures of normal weight and obese people indicated that society is more likely to rate overweight people as “lazy”, “stupid”, and “not likeable”.

5. In addition to prejudice, overweight people have to contend with workplace discrimination. When an obese person enters the job market they are likely to experience discrimination, both subtle and overt. A recent study surveyed employers and found that 16% said they would not hire an obese person under any circumstances, and 44% said they would hesitate before hiring an overweight person.

15 Steps on Breaking Through A Plateau

You're exercising, eating well, and steadily losing pounds. Then all of a sudden... BAM! The scale seems stuck, week after week. Yes, the dreaded plateau. Don't think you're the only person this happens to (although most people DO believe this only happens to them) - nearly everyone trying to lose weight experiences a phase when the scale won't budge and there's still 5, 10, 15 pounds to go. So, when this happens, you've got a choice to make. You can either call your diet a success, or keep plugging away. If you've lost quite a bit of weight - even though you still have that last 10 pounds to go - and you're sleeping better, feeling good about yourself, have lots more energy, feeling good about how you look, then maybe you've already achieved your goal. But, if you REALLY have some more pounds to go, here are ten strategies you can use - try one or any combination - to melt the last 10 pounds.

1. Write down everything

This is one of the most powerful tools to help you stay on track or get back on track. Your journal can help you see where you are perhaps going over or under on your number of points for the day, or aren't getting in the Guidelines for Healthy Living requirements. Use your journal as a detective tool: Had a good week? Look over it at the end of the week and try and see what you think contributed to that success. Had a not so good week? Again, look over your journal to see what may have contributed to you playing a little looser with the program. Look at last week's journal for clues too, sometimes it takes a full week before the effects of a blown week show up. Using the journal on a consistent basis is the best way to make sure that you're really eating the amount of food that you think you're eating, which can be two different things sometimes.

2. Eating By the Numbers??

Look at your food choices, are you really getting a wide variety of foods in? Remember, your body needs nutrients from lots of different sources and if you're eating the same things all the time or too much of one type of food, you're probably not getting the proper nutrition your body needs. How is your protein to carb ratio? Look at the Eating by the Numbers chart on page 5 of your Part 1 booklet for suggested guidelines of how to most nutritiously spend your points during the day. There are suggested ranges for someone under and over 200 pounds.

There's a helpful Excel spreadsheet on Rea's homepage: http://www.geocities.com/reamia/ that is called something like 123 Journal Food Groups that she's got set up for 28-35 points per day, but all you've got to do is input your points range and the suggested guidelines from the Eating by the Numbers chart for the various food groups. This can help too if you're one of those WW selection plan people who just don't like the Points system. You can use this to follow the points, but use it for the selections of the various food groups so that you keep a healthy balance in your points.

Take a look at your food choices as sometimes we have the attitude that as long as our points balance at the end of the day we're okay, but if we keep in mind the Guidelines for Healthy Living on page 3 of the Part 1 booklet (with further details explained about the guidelines on pages 54-57), we'll see that we still are asked to do a few steps to ensure we're spending our points in a way that keeps our bodies healthy. Your points might balance if all you ate was 3 hot fudge sundaes a day, but it wouldn't be giving your body the nutrition it needs. Beware of those empty points.

3. Weigh and measure portions

Too many times our portions have gotten bigger without us realizing it, using measuring cups and spoons and weighing out our portions can give us a better idea if our portions have suddenly grown bigger than we're counting. Remember, portion size does matter.

4. Read nutritional facts

Are you counting your points right for the product that you're eating? I remind everyone of my jumbo dinner frank story where the serving size was half a frank! Who eats half a frank? I was counting 4 points when I should have been counting 8 points. If you're eating a bigger serving size than the one listed on the label you're probably eating more points than you calculated.

5. Everything needs to add up

If you're eating one serving of fat free sugar free gelatin for 10 calories, okay, that's zero points, but if you're now eating 4 servings plus 2 tbsp of fat free whipped topping, you've got yourself one point! Beware of those hidden extras where we multiply portions, and beware of BLT's: Bites, Licks, and Tastes that never seem to get counted on any journal. These add up. Also, remember that if a food like high fiber cereal or bread, comes out to zero points according to the PointsFinder, you have to count one point! Trying to rationalize eating a whole box of cereal and saying that you consumed NO points is falling in that diet mentality where certain foods don't count.

6. Too many refined carbs?

Are you eating too many sources of simple and refined carbohydrates, the stuff that's heavily processed and no longer looks like its natural food source. Think of it as the difference between whole grain bread and processed white bread, brown rice vs. white rice, popcorn cakes vs. corn on the cob. Try to include more of the natural sources of carbohydrates in your diet stuff like beans, yams, potatoes, brown rice, and whole wheat anything rather than so many crackers, pretzels, and chips (even low fat chips). This is not to say you can't have any refined carbs, just try to limit the amount of them if you're having trouble losing weight.

7. Not enough fat?

Okay, this sounds counterintuitive, but according to the Eating by the Numbers chart and for good nutrition you should be actively adding in about 2-3 points of fat per day. This is stuff like vegetable oils, margarine, butter, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) salad dressing, avocados, regular or reduced fat (not fat free) mayonnaise, olives, and peanut or soy butter. I have personally met a number of people now who weren't losing and when I suggested they start actively adding in 2-3 points of fat per day they started losing again. Our bodies need enough fat in order to properly function. You think there's enough fat in my food already, right? Not when you're limiting your number of points in order to lose weight. We are often making much lower fat choices than we normally would have, and as a consequence our consumption of fat falls far below the recommended guidelines according to lots of nutrition experts of 30% of your total calories in fat per day. If you are limiting your fat intake to only the fat that's naturally in food and even then you're probably taking the skin off the chicken and drinking skim or 1% milk, then you might only be getting around 10% of your calories in fat per day, not enough for your body. So, the reason our bodies need enough fat in our diets each day as opposed to just feeding off of our body's fat stores is because fat contains an essential fatty acid: linoleic acid, that our body can't produce on its own. That fat is needed for proper metabolic and digestive function. Fat provides essential nutrients our bodies need, it transports fat soluble vitamins that our bodies need, it is needed for proper digestion and metabolic function, it helps us keep fuller longer, keeps our hair and skin nice, and is crucial for proper gallbladder function. If you're on a super low fat diet you can develop gallstones that are no fun and super painful.


8. Drink half your body weight in water each day

According to Barbara Levine, R.D., Ph.D., the Director of the Nutrition Information Center at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and reported in the June 1999 issue of Weight Watchers magazine, she says that overweight people need more water than the typical 8 cups a day rule. "Overweight people tend to need more water, because fat cells hold more water than other fat cells in the body. To determine the number of ounces of water you need per day, divide your weight by two. For example, a person who weighs 140 pounds should consume 70 ounces, or about 9 cups. Of course, this is an estimate. The best way to gauge whether you are getting enough water is to monitor the color of your urine. If you're drinking enough, it should be the color of pale straw. If it is a deeper yellow, you're not getting enough fluids" (page 16, June 1999). Lots of times we misinterpret thirst for hunger, try water first, wait 20 minutes, real hunger will not go away.

9. Make sure you're getting five servings of fruits and vegetables per day

Eating the zero point veggies can often help us to fill up so that we're not eating the other higher points foods instead. If you're hungry, try non-starchy veggies first. Lots of members make the Garden Vegetable Soup recipe in the Part 1 booklet and eat a bowl of that before dinner to fill up a bit so that you can get full on the smaller portions you'll be serving yourself. Try a glass of V8 juice before a meal during the summer when soup sounds too hot. Variety is good here too, try a new fruit or veggie each month to expand your repertoire.

10. Increase your workouts as you go.

Are you exercising? If not, know that you'll be much more successful at losing the weight and keeping it off if you are also physically active. Find something that you enjoy doing and just do it! Start with a five minute walk out of your door, look at your watch after five minutes start heading back, just like that you've done 10 minutes! Next week start adding in a couple of extra minutes, try walking for 7 minutes out of your door, and 7 minutes back, you've now done 14 minutes. Keep adding until you're up to at least 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back.

If you're already active, are you exercising at enough intensity? If you can easily carry on a conversation while exercising (you should be able to speak, but it should take a bit of effort) you're not challenging your body enough. Your body becomes really efficient at adjusting to the amount of physical activity you're doing, so you regularly have to adjust either the intensity of your workouts or the frequency in order to continue to reap the maximum benefit from physical activity.

Try strength training in order to build lean muscle tissue. As we get older we lose lean muscle tissue, which depresses your metabolism; in addition severely restrictive diets where we eat too few calories can cause us to lose weight but lots of it is lean muscle, which also depresses our metabolism. If we build muscle tissue this can help us to reverse that process and to make us trimmer and stronger.

11. Breakfast is the most important meal.

Do you always have your biggest meal at dinner? Try eating your biggest meal for lunch or even for breakfast, with smaller meals for the remaining meals. If you regularly eat most of your points at one meal your body converts the rest of the food into stored energy...fat...so that if you balance your points out throughout the day better you can actually give your metabolism a boost by keeping it revving throughout the day instead of only one spike at dinner. Food actually helps to boost our metabolism, that's why it's important never to skip meals. There's a saying that you could help to lose weight by eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. This gives us the majority of our points early in the day when our bodies can use them because we're active instead of right before bed if we eat them at dinner.

12. Try changing up the points.

Do you always eat at a certain number of points per day? Your body gets very efficient at predicting its intake and adjusts itself accordingly. Keep it guessing. Try mixing up the number of points you have...low one day, middle the next, back to low, then high end of your points.

Special note: If you're very active never eat at the low end of your points, your body may think it's starving, always eat middle to high end of your points and take those extra food points you earn with the PointsBooster (you'll get one after you reach your 10% goal) if you need them...let your hunger be your guide. Remember, you can trade exercise points for food points once you have earned more than 2 points of activity in one day, trade them for food on a one-to-one basis.

13. Take your measurements

Often even when the scale isn't moving, we're still improving our health and our bodies, which will show up in other ways other than the scale. Have your measurements gone down? How are your clothes fitting? Can you climb a flight of stairs without being winded? Has your cholesterol gone down? Can you walk now for 20 minutes when before you were huffing and puffing at 5 minutes? How do you feel? Have you reached your 10% goal? Hold that keychain in your hands as a measure of your success.

14. Are you on an attitude plateau?

Are you just tired of feeling like you're going to be doing this forever? Does that translate into that right now your desire to lose weight is equal to your desire for freedom from counting and having to think about points and healthy food choices? If so, then that mental attitude might be the culprit in that you're following a more relaxed adherence to the program but you think you're still doing it to the letter. Remind yourself of why you started this process, look at how far you've come. Is your goal still the same? Is it that you're scared of success, are okay with how you look right now, have you become complacent? Ask yourself these kind of questions honestly. If you're tired of the weight loss routine or have become complacent, try spicing up your food plan by trying more interesting meals and snacks, adding new foods, trying new recipes or new restaurants. Set new goals, setting a new goal can continue to challenge yourself. Pretend like it's your first week on program all over again, try to recapture that enthusiasm that you had in the beginning! You can do it as long as you don't give up!

15. Consider maintenance

A plateau that lasts a long time can be the practice to show you that you can maintain your weight. Sustaining weight loss is a challenge in itself. Consider doing the maintenance process so as to take a break from weight loss. Taking a break from weight loss and focusing on keeping the weight off can be the best thing to do, especially if a vacation or stressful situation is what is keeping you from continuing on your weight loss journey. It's better to gain some ground, then hold it, then go back and gain more ground than to give up because then you lose all of the ground you've gained (lost!).

Drinking Water

How Much Water Should You Drink?
You have been
jogging for 20 minutes. You are hot and sweaty, and you are beginning to tire.
What is the problem? The most likely answer is that you are beginning to feel
the effects of dehydration. Generally, the average person is not 100 percent
hydrated. Add exercise and a warm climate, and it spells dehydration in a big
way.
Do not depend on
thirst as a signal to avoid dehydration! Your body's drive to drink is not
nearly as powerful as its drive to eat, and the thirst mechanism is even less
powerful during exercise. Therefore, you must plan to drink early and
often.
How Much
Should You Drink?Follow these guidelines:Before
exercise: Drink one to two cups (eight to 16 ounces) of fluid two hours
before exercise to make sure you are well hydrated. Then drink another one-half
to one cup immediately before exercise.
During
exercise: Drink one-half to one cup every 15 to 20 minutes during exercise.
Although this might seem tough at first, once you schedule it into your regular
training routine, you will quickly adapt to having fluid in your stomach. In
fact, the fuller your stomach is, the faster it will empty.
After
exercise: Replace any fluid you have lost. Drink two cups of fluid for every
pound of body weight you lose during exercise.
In hot, humid
weather, you need to drink more than usual. (But do not forget that dehydration
also occurs during cold weather exercise--your body temperature rises, and you
still lose water through perspiration and respiration.)
What Should You
Drink?Should you just reach for the water bottle
when you need to hydrate, or are sports drinks better? The answer to this
question depends on how much and how hard you exercise--and how much you like
water!
The ideal fluid
replacement beverage should encourage fluid consumption and promote fluid
absorption. If you exercise less than one hour, water should be fine. If you
exercise longer than one hour, the fluid should also supply energy to your
working muscles. In this case, drink about two to four cups per hour of fluids
with carbohydrate concentrations of from 4 to 8 percent. (Most sports drinks
fall in this range.)
What about the
sodium in most sports drinks? The average exerciser does not need to replace
sodium or other electrolytes during exercise. Even well trained marathoners will
reserve enough sodium to complete a competition. After heavy exercise, however,
it is best to eat a meal that contains some sodium to replace what you may have
lost. Follow your cravings--do not worry about restricting the sodium in your
food immediately after running a marathon.
If you are
participating in an ultra-endurance event that lasts four hours or more, you
should consume a sports drink that contains sodium. Fifty to 120 milligrams
consumed during exercise should be sufficient. (Sodium content in sports drinks
can range from eight to 116 milligrams. Read the label.)
If you are just
an average exerciser, you might think sodium in drinks is just a waste. However,
sodium may play a different role for you. Sodium helps your body absorb fluid,
and along with sugar, sodium may enhance a drink's taste, which can encourage
you to drink more.
Therefore, if you
are an avid water drinker, you will benefit little from using a sports drink
unless you are exercising for at least one hour. However, if you do not like
water, sports drinks that taste good and contain less than 8 percent
carbohydrate and some sodium might offer you a performance advantage. At the
very least, if they encourage you to drink more, they will have done their
job.

Things That Every Exercise Program Should Have!!

1.
What you should know to design a safe and effective exercise
programA complete fitness program must
include aerobic exercise, muscular strength and endurance conditioning, and
flexibility exercise. Aerobic exercise does good things for your cardiovascular
system and is an important part of weight management. Muscular conditioning can
improve strength and posture, reduce the risk of lower back injury, and is also
an important component of a weight management program. Flexibility exercise is
needed to maintain joint range of motion and reduce the risk of injury and
muscle soreness.
2. Aerobic exercise can be as simple as
walkingWalking is a weight-bearing aerobic exercise. So are
jogging, rope skipping and dance-exercise. Aerobic exercise is any activity that
uses large muscle groups in a continuous, rhythmic fashion for sustained periods
of time. There are also non-weight-bearing aerobic exercises, such as bicycling,
stationary cycling, swimming and rowing.
Keep the pace
comfortable. A very important aspect of your
exercise program is the intensity. You should exercise at a comfortable pace.
You can measure your exercise heart rate to check the intensity of your
exercising, or you can take the 'talk test.'
To measure your
heart rate, take your pulse as soon as you stop exercising. Count your heartbeat
for 10 seconds, then multiply that by six to convert it to a one-minute heart
rate. If you keep your exercise heart rate within a range of 55 percent to 80
percent of an estimated maximum heart rate (220 minus your age), you're doing
well.
The talk test is
easier to accomplish. Just exercise at a pace that allows you to carry on a
conversation while you're exercising.
How often should you exercise?Three to four days of
aerobic activity is fine for general health maintenance. If you're trying to
lose weight, aim for four or more days a week, being sure you take off at least
one day a week.
How long should you exercise?Work up to 20 or more
minutes per session for general health maintenance. For weight loss, gradually
work up to 45 minutes or longer at low to moderate intensities in a low- or
no-impact activity.
3. Strength conditioning gives you a choicePick
calisthenics, free weights or machines. Just be sure that your strength training
includes exercises for every major muscle group, including the muscles of the
arms, chest, back, stomach, hips and legs.
Start with a weight
that's comfortable to handle and keep it up for eight repetitions. Gradually add
more repetitions until you can complete 12 repetitions. For greater strength
conditioning, add more weight and/or more repetitions, in sets of eight to 12,
when the exercise becomes easy.
Stretch for flexibilityProper stretching involves
holding a mild stretch of 10 to 30 seconds while you breathe normally. Always
warm up before you stretch. Like strength conditioning, flexibility exercises
should include stretching for all the major muscle groups.
One last thing to remember . .
. Always check with your doctor
before beginning any exercise program, especially if you're over 40, or have
cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol, diabetes or a family history of heart disease.

Fitness and Health

WORK IN PROGRESS!!!!!!!!!