How Do You Measure Up?

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I tell people not to put too much emphasis on using the scale as a way of tracking your progress.  The scale is a notorious liar; it can’t tell the difference between fat and muscle, it doesn’t take into account if you’re retaining fluid, and it fluctuates like crazy.  In fact, your scale weight will fluctuate as much as 5 pounds over the course of a single day!

A much better way of tracking the results of your diet and exercise efforts is by taking your measurements.   The thing is, though, that if you’re inconsistent in how you take them, you’ll get fluctuation with them as well.  Here are some tips to help you make sure you are consistent every time:

• Relax — don’t flex or tense up for your measurements
• The tape should be snug, but NOT too tight.  It should not be squeezing your body.
• Don’t suck in your tummy for the waist measurement.  That will give you a false read.
• When measuring any body part from the waist on down, be sure to stand with your feet together.
•  Important — take your waist measurement at the smallest point around
• Also important — when measuring your butt, calves, thighs and  biceps, be sure to measure at the biggest point around.

The last two points are the keys to being consistent whenever you take your measurements.Start today, and take your measurements once a week.  It really is the best way to gauge results, and best of all — it won’t lie to you!

And Now, for the Flip Side

On Sunday, I posted a little rant about the unfair standard of “you must be thin to be beautiful” that our society applies to women. Based on the comments and emails I received, this was an emotional subject for many of us, and one that hits close to home.

Today, I wanted to touch on the other side of the equation; the fact that there many out there who DO feel that beauty has nothing to do with size.

Check out this video that Pasta Queen has on her blog today. It’s the video for a song called, “Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)” by a British recording artist named Mika. The song is awesome, but more importantly it celebrates girls “with curves in all the right place”. 🙂

It’s a lively, fun song and dance, and best of all, it’s not mocking or mean spirited; it appears to be a sincere tribute to plus sized women.

So, here’s your chance to fight back against the awful double standard towards women that we’ve been discussing. Just get yourself to the Butterfly Lounge.

Straight From the Mouth of Some Big Losers

Let me say this right up front: I am a not a fan of “The Biggest Loser” television series.

Why? Because I think it sets unrealistic expectations as far as weight loss goes. First of all, it’s WAY too scale-oriented. It’s nothing for the participants to have a 7, 8, even a 10 pound weight loss in a week. And we watch them get upset if they only lose 3 pounds or so. Most of us would kill for a 3 pound weight loss every week. I’ve also read (and don’t know if it’s true) that the participants work out 4 hours a day, every day they’re in the house.

This is just not the real world of weight loss. And I’m always afraid that there’s people watching it and finally getting motivated to get started eating right and exercising. And then I’m afraid that they’ll be crushed the first time they “only” lose 2 or 3 pounds.

I do have to admit, though, that I get very excited about the success the contestants experience and the fact that these folks are learning, many of them for the first time, how to eat right and exercise. And I get thrilled along side them as the see the benefits of getting fit and thin.

I read an article today with weight loss advice from some of the Biggest Loser contestants, and I have to recommend it to you. You can find it here. The advice in it is AWESOME; it’s very apparent that they have truly been taught how to lose weight. Here’s 10 tips from the article:

10 More Tips From The Biggest Loser

To help keep you moving toward your weight loss goals, Lyons, Alexander and several of the “Biggest Losers” offer these additional tips and tricks:

1. “Eat often — snack often,” says Alexander. While this may seem contrary to traditional dieting advice, the chef says that as long as you keep an eye on calories and portions, eating often will stave off hunger attacks that ultimately sabotage your diet. “When you’re starving, you grab whatever is available — and that’s the quickest way to get off your eating plan,” says Alexander.

2. “Eat your carbs in the morning,” says Biggest Loser contestant Brian Starkey. “It gets your day off to an energetic start.” Lyons adds that carbs are quickly burned with activity, so eating them may help motivate you for that morning walk or bike ride.

3. “Post a picture of yourself on the refrigerator — at your worst,” says Biggest Loser contestant Dana Desilvio. “The next time you’re thinking of grabbing something you shouldn’t from the fridge, you’ll be reminded of what you don’t want to look like!”

4. “Instead of watching the clock during workouts, listen to music,” to make the time go faster,says Erik Chopin, TheBiggest Loser‘s season-three winner. Lyons reminds us that everyday activities, like bike riding, tossing a Frisbee, or walking your dog, count as physical activity, too.

5. “When eating out, always ask for a ‘to-go’ box — at the start of your meal,” says Biggest Loser contestant Bobby Moore. Then, when your food arrives, immediately put half of it in the box, he suggests. This way, you’ll not only get used to eating smaller portions, but you’ll have a snack for later.

6. Learn to cook healthfully. “Cooking healthy doesn’t have to be hard — or take more time,” says Alexander. While many “Biggest Loser” contestants said they thought cooking healthy would be complicated or time-consuming, Alexander says, most found that cooking healthy is actually easier, less expensive, and faster.

7. “Never overlook the power of seasoning,” says Alexander. One way she made even the blandest diet foods grab the contestants’ attention was by using low-sodium seasonings.

“People never realize what a major difference spices can make on even simple dishes like grilled chicken or salmon,” she says.

8. “When it comes to cooking in flavor, it’s never about the oil,” says Alexander. Many dieters believe that unless food is fried in oil, you don’t get much flavor. But, she says, the real secret is pan-browning, which can happen without oil. The trick to getting restaurant-quality taste, she says, is to never overload your pan with food. “If you put too much in the pan, the moisture content causes the foods to steam and not pan-fry,” she says. “By reducing the amount of food in the pan you get that tasty pan-seared browning, without the use of any oils.”

9. Don’t try to do too much exercise, too soon. You not only run the risk of injury, but you’ll also get quickly discouraged. “Don’t try to stare down 45 minutes of exercise,” says Lyons. “Tell yourself it will be OK to quit after 10 minutes, because most of the time once you get going, you’ll keep going.”

10. Remember: Self-esteem feeds on self-esteem. Accomplishing a little something toward your weight loss goal every day will not only get you on the road to success, but help keep you there. “You are not just losing weight, you are changing your life and your lifestyle,” says Alexander. “If you keep that in mind, you come to see that every change, no matter how small, comes together to make a huge difference in not only your weight, but your life,” says Alexander.

See what I mean?

There is some profound wisdom in this article. There’s even a couple of recipes from the Biggest Loser Cookbook that I’m going to try. So do go spend a little time with this article.

You may not lose 10 pounds in a week, but if you take this advice to heart, you can lose weight EVERY week and keep it off. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

They Go Way Over the Line

I may not be the brightest or most observant man on the planet, but I do know that when it comes to weight loss, men seem to have it better than women.

Now, I’m not referring to the fact that it seems like men are able to drop more weight with less effort than women. What I’m referring to here is the pressure that society puts on women to be thin.

I don’t know where or when it first happened, but somewhere along the line, “You must be thin to be beautiful” became an accepted way of thinking. But only for women, as far as I can tell. Men do NOT have this kind of pressure on them. Good lord, you only have to go to a public beach or swimming pool to see evidence of that. In fact, the recent spate of ads on TV promoting an expensive diet plan starring a famous retired football star is the first diet-marketing campaign aimed specifically at men that I can recall.

As unfair as this way of thinking is to women, unfortunately it does exist. But I saw something today that takes this way of thinking to a new, all time low.

 

A Brazilian yogurt company thats’ pushing its “Fit Light Yogurt” has produced a new series of commerials that are running on the tube in Brazil. These commercials parodize scenes from American Beauty, Seven Year Itch and Basic Instinct. But what these jackass marketers do is replace Mena Suvari, Marilyn Monroe and Sharon Stone with plus sized models, and add a tagline that reads:

“Forget about it. Men’s preferences will never change. Fit Light Yogurt”

Frankly, I was appalled. I hope you are, too.

I realize that I don’t need to say it, but I’m going to anyway: beauty is NOT determined by weight. And I hope that none of you reading this, women or men, buy into this hurtful way of thinking.

And Fit Light Yogurt…screw you.

And Speaking of Burning Calories…

Yesterday, I posted about 8 different ways to burn 100 calories. Today, I want to show you a nifty little tool that will help you determine how many calories different activities help you burn off.

The West Virginia Dietetic Association web site has some awesome calculators that will measure how many calories are used in various activities. You can see the calculators here.

Now, the link I just gave goes to the calculator that figures out the calories burned in gym activities. But if you look at the bottom of the page, you ‘ll see links to other calculators. You can determine calories burned by participating in sports, in activities at home, or even at work. You can figure out how many calories you need a day to maintain your body weight (HINT: use this to figure out your calorie needs, then deduct 500 from it to give you a good ballpark figure of how many calories to eat when you want to lose weight), or estimate your Body Mass Index.

There is a lot of information you can learn from these calculators, and I recommend adding the site to your favorites. I certainly did.

By the way, if you know of a good web site or tool pertaining to weight loss, exercising, diets, recipes, nutrition, motivation, etc, be sure to let us know about it!

8 Ways to Burn 100 Calories That You Probably Haven’t Thought Of

As much as I believe in scheduling regular exercise sessions 3 – 6 times a week, I also believe that there’s weight loss benefits in the simple act of moving.  That’s why I always tell people to just get off of the couch and move.

I got an email today that’s been forwarded a billion times, listing dozens of ways to burn calories.  I’m not sure the origin of the list, but I found it really interesting.  I thought that you might, too.  So here’s 8 fun ways you can move to burn 100 calories, and I bet you haven’t thought of most of them:

1. Hula hoop for 22 minutes
2. Cut your lawn with an old push mower for 17 minutes
3. Jump rope hard and fast for 8 minutes
4. Do 780 jumping jacks
5. Ride your bike for 7 minutes at 20 miles per hour
6. Got a WII?  Play WII tennis for 13 minutes
7. Play “Chopsticks” on the piano for 41 minutes
8. Pole-vault for 15 minutes

Of course, none of these will ever replace regular cardio or strength training exercise sessions.  But I think they illustrate what can happen by just getting off of your butt and moving.

So c’mon; grab the hula hoop and meet me outside.

🙂

Time Well Spent

What do you think is worse;  not exercising at all, or performing ineffective exercises that don’t give you any results?

In my humble opinion, I think you’re worse off by performing ineffective exercises that don’t give you results.   If you’re not exercising at all, you have no expectations. You KNOW that you’re not going to get thinner or fitter, because you’re not putting forth any effort.  On the other hand, the person who is performing ineffective exercises has the intent to lose weight or get healthier and is taking action to do so.  Just think of how frustrating it must be to those people who are exercising and not seeing any results.

Yet this is happening every day, all over the world.  I see it every morning when I stroll down to the hotel’s fitness center to work out.  People using bad form, using weights that are too heavy, people using exercise machines that really don’t offer any benefit…I see them all every morning.

While I applaud these folks for at least doing something, I wish they’d take the time to at least educate themselves a little bit, or even spend a little bit of money on a personal trainer for a session or two (not that a personal trainer is necessarily an answer…I’ve seen some “personal trainers” that don’t know diddly about how to help people  achieve their fitness goals).

Here’s an article about 10 ineffective exercises that I urge you to take a few minutes and read.   Hopefully, you’re not wasting your exercise time with any of these.  I want to see you get the most out of the time and effort you’re spending exercising.

Like almost everything in life, you’re going to get more out of exercise if you’re doing it correctly.  Take the time to go to the library and check out a book or a DVD to learn the correct methods to exercise your way to fit and thin. The time that you spend learning how to do it correctly can mean the difference between your success and failure.

Coming Soon to a Drug Store Near You – The Mother of All Side Effects

Have you heard of Alli? If you haven’t, you soon will.

Alli is the first (and only) FDA-approved, over-the-counter weight loss product. It’s manufactured by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, and they’re sinking $150,000,000 into a marketing campaign to make sure you hear about it, and hopefully whip out the wallet to hop on the Alli bandwagon.

Apparently, it works by blocking fat absorption by about 25%. Of course, this fat still has to leave your body, but we’ll talk about that in a minute.

Provided you’re eating a low fat diet, eating less than normal, and are exercising, Alli will help you lose 25% more weight. So, in other words, if you eat low fat, eat less and exercise your way to a 10 pound weight loss, Alli will sky rocket that loss all the way to 12 pounds. Yep…and for only $54 a month.

And oh, by the way, there are a couple of side effects.

Remember, Alli works by blocking fat from being absorbed by your system. But this fat still has to exit your body, and there’s only one way for it to do so. 🙂

Because of the limited exits, the side effects of Alli include loose stools, intestinal gas…and intestinal gas with an “oily discharge”.

An “oily discharge”.

I don’t know about you, but where I come from, that’s called “crapping your pants”.

Personally, that’s a bit more than I’m willing to risk to lose 2 pounds.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see where Alli taken as directed could benefit someone. But the whole thing I want you all to keep in mind is that it only works as a supplement to eating a low fat diet, eating smaller portions and exercising.

So before you run out and spend $54 a month hoping for a magic bullet of weight loss, make sure that you’re taking the basic steps of good nutrition and exercise that we talk about here every day.

And make sure you keep a spare pair of undies in your desk drawer.

6 Reasons Why You Should Start Your Journey to Fit and Thin by Walking

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “I want to start exercising. What’s the best exercise for me to do when I’m so out of shape?”

Without fail, my answer is, “Walking”.

It’s how I started exercising. I was so heavy and so out of shape that when I first started that I couldn’t walk more than 10 minutes. I bet a lot of you are in the same boat.

And you know what? That’s OK. All that matters is that you start MOVING, even if it’s for ten minutes or less.

By all means, I believe walking is the best exercise for you if you are just starting out. Here are 6 reasons why you should start walking tomorrow, IN ADDITION to the fact that it will help you start losing weight:

1. De-stresses you after a busy day – You’ve been cooped up working or running your butt off all day. Take a few minutes to relax and enjoy the scenery.
2. Helps more oxygen to the brain – Walking increases your circulation and helps get more oxygen to your brain. This helps all of your thinking processes.
3. Decreases risk of dementia – There’s evidence that the age groups more prone to dementia and help keep it at bay by walking.
4. Helps fight osteoporosis – The act of putting your weight on your knees and other joints help makes them stronger. This in turn helps you fight off osteoporosis.
5. Requires no special equipment or skills — And you’ve already been doing since you were about 12 months old! 🙂
6. Lets you spend more time with family and friends – Why not spend 30 minutes in the evening enjoying your kids or your spouse instead of in front of the TV?

SPECIAL, NO-COST BONUS 7^TH REASON – It’ll even help you sleep better!

There’s an old saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There is no place where that is as true as in weight loss. So go ahead…put on your tennis shoes and walk to the end of the block and back. It’s a simple start, and the payoff is huge!

7 Ways to Burn More Calories this Week

I hope that you are exercising at least 3 times a week.  It’s essential, not only to lose weight, but to make your weight loss permanent.  Like I’ve said many times, it doesn’t have to be anything intense, especially if you are first starting out.

In addition to any calories you may burn while exercising, you can also start incorporating other calorie-burning activities into your daily life.  That way, you’ll get the cumulative effect of exercise and these activities, and your weight loss should become even more efficient.

Here are 7 things you can do this week to start harnessing this cumulative effect:

1. Pack a picnic and hike to a beautiful picnic spot – burn 238 calories in a half-hour of hiking.
2. Take a self-defense class – GREAT way to burn 340 calories in a half hour.  Take a class 2 or 3 times a week and the weight will melt off!
3. Take your spouse/significant other dancing – dance the night way and burn 105 calories every half hour.
4. Pick your own berries – you know you should be eating more fruit anyway, right?  Why not burn some calories while getting your berries?  About 100 calories in a half hour.
5. Why stop at berries — Heck, why not grow a garden of fresh veggies?  Eat healthy and burn 135 calories every half hour of gardening.
6. Help out your Humane Society – help walk the dogs and burn 100 calories every half hour.  By the way, my wife does this and loves it!
7. Take the kids to the park and climb on the equipment with them – Makes your kids happy AND burns about 160 calories in a half hour.

This list of 7 activities is by no means complete.  Think of it has a start, and let us know what other activities you can do to help burn more calories.

Summer is nearly here, so this is a great time to start doing more, moving more, and getting the cumulative effect of calorie burning!