MSNBC has this article about losing weight as you get older. Thought it would be great info for people that are struggling these days.

While time may adorn you with new lines on your face, a new color hair (gray) and a new waistline, the passing decades are not to blame for all of the changes in your body. Your eating habits, your attitude and your approach to everyday experiences also play key roles.

As we age, our bodies lose muscle and gain fat. Our nutritional needs change, as well. But you don’t necessarily feel these changes on a daily basis. Metabolism gradually slows each decade after age 20, so it’s not as if you suddenly wake up 10 pounds heavier. It creeps up slowly. Fortunately, you do have some control over your changing body and slowing metabolism. Some strategies to help you avoid a midlife diet crisis: Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: American Dietetic Association, At, bone bank, Bonnie Taub-Dix, Columbia, Columbia University Medical Center, crippling disease, D, flushing, food sources, low-or non-fat dairy products, New York City, One, osteoporosis, physician, spokesperson, Vitamin D

Every season it seems there is a new weight loss secret that becomes a great big hype machine. Last year is was Anatrim and Hoodia and right now it is Green Tea. I know that there are a lot of reasons to believe that green tea is very good for you but it is not a wonder drug for losing weight even if you mix it with caffeine and other chemicals as Enviga has. There is no such thing really as negative calories and there is a better way to look at weight loss by increasing your metabolism on a natural basis and reducing your calorie content by eating the right foods. ABC News has exposed this product and I am happy that they have.

The makers of Enviga bill the sparkling, caffeinated green tea as an energy drink designed to promote a healthy lifestyle. According to tests conducted by Switzerland’s University of Lausanne and Nestle, who manufacture the beverage along with Coca-Cola, drinking three 12-ounce cans of Enviga per day burns 50 to 100 calories.

Though it’s only available in New York City and Philadelphia now, early this year, the drink will hit store shelves nationwide.

Enviga gets its calorie-burning power from the combination of caffeine and EGCG, an antioxidant naturally found in green tea. Though its makers stand by the drink’s ability to burn calories, Nestle and Coca-Cola claim they’re not marketing Enviga as a weight loss product.

“This product seems ideal for folks that are exercising regularly, have a balanced diet, and are taking care of themselves. This is one more step. It would be great if the product was inspirational, but it’s not a weight loss product,” Coca-Cola spokesman Ray Crockett said.

Though Enviga is not marketed specifically as a weight loss product, some doctors and consumer advocates say that looking at the ads, it’s hard to think of anything else.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ABC, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, beverage, Center for Science, chemicals, Coca-Cola, contributor and associate professor, Darwin Deen, David Katz, director of sports nutrition, energy drink, Leslie Bonci, Nestle, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Medical Center, Ray Crockett, spokesman, sports nutrition, Switzerland, Switzerland's University of Lausanne, the Public Interest, University of Pittsburgh, weight loss product, Yale University's School of Public Health

I wrote a bit a couple of weeks ago about Trans fats and the fact that New York city was going to be perhaps banning trans fats in restaurants. Well it has happened. I just saw the news break and that means that today there will be stories in the news all about What trans fats are, how they are bad for us, and how much we should consume. I hope that you remember that past article as it seems that there is not healthy amount of trans fats to consume so any amount is to much. It will be interesting to see what happens now as I once heard that there are 20 or so Macdonalds restaurants in Manhattan itself let alone the other outlying boroughs.

As you probably remember trans fats are create by making hydrogenated vegetable oil, that is pumping hydrogen through Vegetable oil to give it a longer shelf life and

The Board of Health has voted to make New York the first city in the nation to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant food. The board is expected to give restaurants a slight break by relaxing what had been considered a tight deadline for compliance.

The board also ordered restaurants to standardize how they display the number of calories in dishes on their menus in an effort to combat obesity. This means that perhaps we will start to get better information on fat and calorie contents of foods everywhere so that we can make better decisions than just picking the “healthy Choice menu item at the local restaurant.

Here is a graph from the Associated Press showing some trans fat facts:

Tags: Associated Press, Board of Health, health, hydrogenated vegetable oil, New York, New York City, obesity, oil, restaurant food

On the eve of the newest season of the Biggest Loser my wife just found a story on the People magazine website that apparently Matt and Suzy from last seasons Biggest Loser just got married this past weekend. Last season I did not remember these guys being together although they were very supportive during the final few months while working out at home and in the studio for the finale.

According to People Magazine:

At the wedding the bride wore a white beach wedding dress by Renée Strauss featuring a sash and a Tacori crystal broach. She also wore her grandmother’s diamond stud earrings and diamond pendant necklace. Hoover dressed in khaki linen pants with a white buttoned-up shirt rolled at the sleeves. Both the bride and groom went barefoot to the ceremony.

The couple, who are both 30, called the wedding’s tropical location “beautiful.” They will also spend their honeymoon in Jamaica. For their reception, instead of a cake, the pair planned to serve homemade cupcakes baked by the bride and a friend.

Matt Hoover, a former wrestling coach from Iowa, popped the question to Seattle-based Suzy Preston, a hairstylist, live on the Today show in March – while both were in their workout gear. (Preston thought they were there for a fitness segment.)

Dropping to his knee in New York City’s Rockefeller Center plaza, Hoover said, “I have gone through a lot of changes in the past year. … I want to keep changing, but I want you to be by my side.”

Taking a ring from Kraiko Diamonds out of his pocket, Matt Hoover continued, “I had this made for you.” Then he told a teary Suzy Preston, “I’d like to ask you to be my wife!”

Suzy Preston answered with an enthusiastic “Yes!”

What a nice story. I am sure that as these two said they have seen each other at their worst and I still remember the two of them last season.

Matt Hoover was really guarded and had problems in his life fighting with the fact that he was a competitive wrestler just a few years ago and let his body go. He wanted to do everything himself and although you felt for him you really wanted to scream at him to lean on everyone else to help support him. Matt ended up winning last season but just barely as he was competing with Suzy Preston who to my wife and I seemed a bit like a whining wimp in the first place. One we got to know Suzy’s character though we did start cheering for her and in the end we cheered for her to win against Matt and Seth..

Tags: coach, competitive wrestler, Dropping, Hoover, Iowa, Jamaica, Matt, Matt Hoover, New York City, Rockefeller Center plaza, Seattle, Suzy Preston, the People, wrestling, wrestling coach

I think most people reading this weblog know that I am a pretty big fan of meditation and because of this I tend to find and post articles about meditation more than I should. I found this article at Psychology today and thought I would post it in its entirety.

In the highlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, people look at life differently. Upon entering the local Buddhist monastery, there is a spectacular sculpture the size of a large oak. The intricate carving of clouds and patterns are painted in powerful colors. But as soon as winter gives way, this magnificent work will melt to nothing. The sculpture, in fact, is made of butter, and it is one of the highland people’s symbols of the transient nature of life.

And life here is not easy. Villagers bicycle to work before dawn and return home long after sunset. Many live with nothing more than dirt floors and rickety outhouses. Upon entering these modest mud-brick homes, you’ll find no tables or chairs — just a long platform bed, which sleeps a family of eight. However, when the people invite you in for tea, their smiles are wide and welcoming. How do they possess such inner calm in conditions we would call less than ideal?

When villagers cook, sew or plow the fields, they do so in a tranquil state. As an approach to life, weaving meditation seamlessly into almost every action throughout the day seems unfamiliar to Western cultures. Is there something we can glean from this way of life that will improve our own? The romantic notion of quitting everything and joining Tibetan monks on a mountaintop is not the only way to meditate. You don’t need to quit your job, give up your possessions and spend 30 years chanting. Recent research indicates that meditating brings about dramatic effects in as little as a 10-minute session. Several studies have demonstrated that subjects who meditated for a short time showed increased alpha waves (the relaxed brain waves) and decreased anxiety and depression.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: alpha waves, atherosclerosis, brain meditation, California, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Chicago, clinical psychologist, depression, Diana Adile Kirschner, energy, Fairfield, fight disease, Harvard Medical School, heart attack, heart disease, Herbert Benson, infertility, Iowa, Irvine, Mark Epstein, meditation, Monterey Park, MRI technology, New York City, pain, Philadelphia, psychiatrist, psychologist, Psychotherapy, Qinghai, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Rob Nairn, Roger Thomson, School of Management, Steven Hendlin, the American Journal of Psychotherapy, tibetan monks, welcome tool

I have run across Susans Weblog which is a nutrition weblog produced by a Vegan in New York City. Although I eat a fair amount of red meat it is interesting to see how others eat and this weblog article tackles one of the big issues of vegitarian eating which is incomplete proteins.

Susan’s Nutrition Weblog: You Complete Me

Technorati tags: nutrition, protein, fitness

Tags: New York City