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  Fat Chance

You start each morning with the promise to be “good” today.

You’ll refuse the baked goods at the office. You’ll speed past that fast food place at lunch. You’ll turn a blind eye to the vending machine in the mid-afternoon. And you’ll pass on the ice cream after dinner.

But… you hadn’t counted on the fact that a box of your favorite donuts would be sitting in the break room. Or that co-workers would invite you to join them for fast food place at lunch. Or that Girl Scouts would come through the office after school with boxes of thin mints. Or that your special someone would come home with a pint of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.

And as you get into bed each night you tell yourself that tomorrow will be different.

Tomorrow you will conquer temptation.

But tomorrow comes with its own set of special circumstances and temptation gets the best of you once again.

Why Does Temptation Always Win?

We live in society where food temptations are everywhere.

• Walk through a store and you’ll see the unhealthy food items displayed front and center.
• Turn on the TV and you’ll be assaulted with commercials for fattening foods.
• Open a magazine and you’ll notice glossy pin-ups of sugary snacks.
• Go down the street and you’ll have restaurant signs clamoring for your attention.

In addition to the abundance of tempting edibles, you also have deeply ingrained positive associations with indulging.

• You treat tempting food as a reward.
• You turn to tempting food for comfort.
• You rely on tempting food as stress relief.
• You allow tempting food to become a habit.

It’s Your Turn to Win

Temptation doesn’t need to have the upper hand on you anymore. It’s time to fight back using your most powerful asset: your brain.

Your mind is an amazing thing. Once it is made up about something it is nearly impossible to change it.

A Matter of Perspective

Imagine for a moment that you’re peacefully floating down a river in an inner tube. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and you are having a wonderful time. You feel great about the river because it is making you feel good.

Now imagine that you are in a plane flying over the river. Your eye is immediately drawn to an enormous rocky waterfall. You look up the river and just around the bend is a person floating in an inner tube, having a wonderful time, headed straight for the treacherous falls.

Do you think that after your plane ride you’d be happy to get an inner tube and float down the river? Of course you wouldn’t. You’ve seen that the river spells disaster.

You now have a negative association (watery death) with the river rather than your initial positive association (relaxing fun).

Overcoming temptation is all about building negative associations in place of existing positive ones. Use the 2 steps below to harness the power of your mind to become stronger than any temptation.

Step One: Create a Strong Negative Association with all the BAD STUFF

• If cookies and chips and burgers are put on a pedestal in your mind as your favorite things to eat, then you will always eat unhealthy and will continue to gain weight.
• What do you dislike about tempting food?
  • It makes you unhealthy.
  • It causes weight gain.
  • It drains your energy.
  • It kills your confidence.
  • It degrades your quality of life.
  • It hurts your love life.
• Every time that you encounter tempting food items focus on your list of negatives. It’s time to kick those cookies off the pedestal and to put something healthy in its place.

Step Two: Create a Strong Positive Association with all the GOOD STUFF

• Now that your mental pedestal has been cleared, put healthy food items on it. Juicy fresh fruit, crispy vegetables and savory lean meats are a great place to start.
• What do you love about healthy food?
  • It makes you healthy.
  • It causes weight loss.
  • It boosts your energy.
  • It builds your confidence.
  • It improves your quality of life.
  • It enhances your love life.
• Immerse yourself into the world of healthy food. Browse the aisles of a natural food store. Walk through a farmer’s market. Bring healthy snacks to work. Clear your kitchen of anything unhealthy.

Using the technique above, you will soon find that healthy food is your favorite food.

And temptation will become a thing of your past.

Travel days create the perfect opportunity for snacking. A mocha and scone before your flight, a salty snack on the plane and then before you know it - it’s lunch time! Road trips open up even more opportunities for regrettable snacking…rest stop vending machines, gas station quickie marts and of course the never ending string of fast food restaurants that line the highway.

This summer avoid unhealthy snacking by packing your own goodies. Try these:

• Dried or fresh fruit
• Unsalted nuts
• Health bars
• Cut veggies
• Low fat crackers or pretzels

Also remember to drink plenty of water throughout the day. It’s easy to become dehydrated while traveling, so always carry a water bottle with you.

Here is a guiltless way to prepare spaghetti that the whole family will love. To create angel hair noodles out of zucchini you simply need a small kitchen gadget called a spiral slicer. This ingenious tool is well worth the small investment – with it you’ll quickly and easily make delicious, fiber-filled noodles.
Yield: 4 servings

Here’s what you need:

• 4 zucchini, ends trimmed and run through a spiral slicer
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (20oz) package lean ground turkey
• 2 cups spaghetti sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the spiral-sliced zucchini in a large bowl and set aside.
2. In a medium sized skillet heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until soft.
3. Add the turkey to the skillet and cook until fully browned. Add the spaghetti sauce and mix until fully incorporated. Remove from heat.
4. Mix the sauce with the zucchini noodles in the large bowl and serve.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 292 calories, 8g fat, 26g carbohydrate, 5g fiber, and 27g protein.

I know a lot of lazy people.

People who would rather spend the day planted on their couch than anywhere else.

People who choose take-out over home cooked, every night of the week.

People who would rather have a root canal than go do a workout.

Sure, I know that we all have our occasional lazy day on the couch, but lately it seems that more and more people are turning laziness into a career.

What about you? Check if the following describe you:

• You are habitually inactive.
• You’d rather be a passive observer than an active participant.
• You’re a master excuse-maker.
• You find shortcuts in order to avoid the long haul.

If that’s you, don’t get down on yourself. There are many legitimate causes of laziness. Here are just a few…

1. Sleep Deprivation: When you’re short on sleep it’s easy to become unmotivated, which quickly turns into laziness. Get a minimum of eight hours of sleep each night in order to maintain enough energy to get you through the day. Some experts even say that ten hours of sleep each night is what you need to function at your best.
2. Caffeine Abuse: Starting your day with a jolt of java may help with your initial alertness, but the dip in energy that takes place a few hours later could be the reason that you become lazy later in the day. Avoid the rush and crash of caffeine and instead rely on your steady supply of natural energy.
3. Bad Habit: At some point being lazy simply becomes a habit. If every night after work you head straight to the couch, it soon becomes automatic and not a conscious decision. Breaking the habit of laziness is actually quite easy. Simply take yourself off of autopilot and make the conscious decision to do something productive instead - like heading to the gym rather than the couch.
4. Inactivity: If your job keeps you in a chair for hours at a time, and you don’t exercise when off the clock, then your body is just accustomed to inactivity. It’s time to wake up your under-used muscles and to reacquaint yourself with the joy of motion. A simple way to get back into the swing of things is to go on a 30 to 60 minute walk either before work or after you return home. Once you’ve broken yourself in with consistent walks, contact me to get started on a fitness program that will quickly get your body back into great shape.

Laziness begins when you ignore that little nagging voice in your head. You know, the one that reminds you when you should take action on something rather than sit by and let the opportunity slip away.

Is today the day that you will kick laziness to the curb?

Is today the day that you will take action toward achieving your goals?

Is today the day that you will listen to that little voice of reason?

Call or email today to schedule your first workout.

Need more convincing that greens should be a regular part of your diet?

People who consume green smoothies report fewer cravings for unhealthy food and tend to snack far less than when they aren’t getting their greens.

So sip your green smoothie with a big smile, knowing that you’re turbo charging your health and expediting your weight loss.

As the second month of 2010 comes to a close, where do you stand with your resolutions?

Have you made progress or did your motivation sizzle out?

Most people wait around for motivation to strike them like a lightning bolt. Well, I’ve got news: motivation isn’t something that happens to you - it’s something that you create for yourself.

If you don’t feel motivated to achieve your goals, it is likely due to mental roadblocks that hold you hostage. Read the following 21 Mindset Tips and prepare your mind for success.

1. Success comes first in the mind, so visualize yourself accomplishing your goals.
2. Remember, you are the only person who can hold you back.
3. Forgive yourself and love yourself despite past failures.
4. Decide what is important in your life, and focus on that.
5. Conquer each negative thought the moment it enters your mind, when it is weakest.
6. Give up the idea that things won’t go right unless you worry about them.
7. If you bring the body of your dreams to the point of resolve, then you’ll soon be living in it.
8. Look towards your future, if you believe the best is yet to come then it will be.
9. You become what you think about most.
10. The margin between success and failure is very small and easily bridged by determination.
11. Start your day by accomplishing your hardest task first.
12. Set small attainable goals, rather than one monumental goal.
13. Convince yourself that exercise is fun, and it will be.
14. Know your big reason why.
15. Create a motivating play list of songs to use as the sound track to your workout sessions.
16. Every decision you make leads you either closer toward achieving your goal, or farther from it.
17. If you think you’re a fat person, then you’ll stay fat. If you think you’re fit, then you soon will be.
18. Once you’ve set your goal, your attitude either pushes you toward accomplishment or failure.
19. If you don’t know exactly where you want to go, you will likely end up someplace else.
20. You can have the body of your dreams, but first you must give up the belief that you can’t.
21. You can only have two things in life: excuses or results.

If you’re sick and tired of making excuses, then contact me today to get started on a results-driven fitness program.

Here’s a real food item for you! If asparagus isn’t a mainstay in your diet, then it’s time you make it one. Asparagus is packed with folic acid, which is necessary for blood cell formation. Fresh squeezed lime makes this dish refreshing and delicious. This recipe only takes 15 minutes, perfect for weekday dinners.
Yield: 2 servings

Here’s what you need…

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 bunch fresh asparagus spears, tough ends trimmed
• Juice from 1/2 lime
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large skillet heat the oil over medium heat. Mix in garlic and shallot, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the asparagus spears, cook until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Squeeze lime juice over asparagus and season with salt and pepper.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 80 calories, 2g fat, 8g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, and 3.5g protein.

How much thought do you put into what you eat?

If you want to get into great shape then you’ll be interested to know that 80% of your fitness results are attributed to your diet.

In our fast-paced society, eating is often done with little or no thought as to what exactly it is being ingested. Excess body fat is a direct outcome of this hurried, poor nutrition. Even if you have the best intentions with your diet, you are likely frustrated and fed up with extra pounds.

I don’t blame you for being confused about what you should eat. The media surely doesn’t help. One day the talking heads want you to give up all fats. The next day carbs are the culprit, and then acai berries become the holy grail of weight loss.

The food manufacturers increase confusion by printing misleading labels and bogus health claims.

Sometimes it seems like the whole system is set up to confuse and frustrate us into buying the latest and greatest packaged food.

The bottom line is that your physique is largely a result of what you eat, so the foods that you put into your body should be carefully selected.

It’s time to re-examine what you eat.

It all starts with reading nutritional labels. The nutritional content and ingredient list will give you everything you need to know about the quality of the food item.

I’ve outlined 5 ingredients that should raise a red flag when you turn over that package and find them listed:

Red Flagged Ingredient #1: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
HFCS is a manmade sugar, derived predominantly from genetically modified corn. The sweet concoction has been shown to promote binges and hysterical hunger, and wrecks havoc on your blood sugar levels, promoting fat storage.

The introduction of HFCS into our food supply directly paralleled a 47% spike in Type 2 Diabetes cases as well as an 80% increase in obesity. Food manufacturers use HFCS in many mainstream products, including the following:

• Sauces (including ketchup)
• Yogurt
• Energy Bars
• Soft Drinks / Fruit Juices
• Processed baked goods
• Cereals
• Crackers
• Ice Cream
• Salad Dressing
• Most packaged snack foods

Red Flagged Ingredient #2: Hydrogenated Fat / Partially Hydrogenated Fat (Trans Fat)
Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats have undergone such extensive processing that the chemical structure has changed from a “cis” shape, which the human body recognizes and utilizes, to a “trans” shape, which is foreign and destructive to human physiology.

Check each food label for the word ‘hydrogenated’ and avoid it diligently. Cutting out hydrogenated fats is a simple set towards looking and feeling your best.

Red Flagged Ingredient #3: Aspartame
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that was denied 8 times by the FDA before being approved in 1973. Many scientists objected the approval, claiming that aspartame hadn’t been proven safe for use as a food additive.

MIT neuroscientist, Richard Wurtman, researched the effects of aspartame and concluded that it promotes cravings for foods high in calories and carbohydrates. Though aspartame is calorie-free it still causes insulin to be released, which job is to stow away sugar – when this sugar is not available, the result is often hypoglycemia and severe hunger. Not exactly a recipe for weight loss.

Red Flagged Ingredient #4: White Sugar
White sugar comes from the juice of a sugar cane plant that has undergone an intensive refining process. In this process all of the enzymes, fiber, vitamins and minerals are destroyed, rendering it nutritionally void. White sugar is also extremely high in calories, which your body loves to store away in fat cells.

Refined sugar has been linked to a weakened immune system, hyperactivity, ADD, mental and emotional disorders, dental cavities, hypoglycemia, enlargement of the liver and kidneys, and an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain. All that and it leads to weight gain.

Red Flagged Ingredient #5: White Flour
White flour comes from natural whole wheat that has been stripped of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. This results in a nutritionally void product that is packed with calories that release quickly into your system, creating a spike in blood sugar. As you know, this promotes fat storage and leads to hysterical hunger and cravings. You don’t need that.

Once you cut these 5 items out of your diet, you’ll be pleased with the results. Expect to lose weight, to have more energy and to feel better than you have in a long time.

If you’re serious about looking and feeling your best through purifying your diet, then focus on eating real food items. Real foods include lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Would you like to expedite your fitness and weight loss results? Call or email today to get started on a fitness program that will quickly transform your body.

Remember, while nutrition is vitally important for weight loss, true results are achieved through a combination of both nutrition and challenging, progressive exercise.

 

 

Ever wonder how much sugar you eat on a daily basis.   Well, the American Heart Association says that the average American adult eats 22 teaspoons a day.   The average American teen is getting 35 a day.

The story below has all the info.  Enjoy…

 

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

 

 

 

The Today Show had a wonderful piece that debunked many common Diet Myths.  Enjoy,

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