Archive for the 'Diet' Category

With gas prices topping four dollars a gallon here in the US many people are looking for solutions to an ever increasing fuel budget. Some people are selling their gas guzzling SUV’s and purchasing smaller fuel efficient cars. Others are cutting back on vacation trips and doing more things at home.

I thought I would put together a weekly chart to track my fuel expenses and see how much I was really spending. I drive a pretty fuel efficient vehicle, averaging about 30 mpg on the highway and the low 20’s around town. As I was putting the chart together I decided to track all of my common daily activities on one convenient chart. This included tracking…

1. Calories
2. Fat Grams
3. Meal Cost
4. Exercise Time
5. Trip Destination
6. Trip Mileage
7. Trip Cost

What I quickly realized was that the different items could easily offset each other. If I needed to take a long trip I could cut food costs. For smaller trips I could walk or bike instead of taking the car and save fuel costs.

I created the chart in Microsoft Word and started taking it with me on a daily basis. At the end of the day I would total up the items. Here was a startling finding. By tracking my expenses on this chart, I started to walk more, take my meals with me instead of eating out, and actually found myself saving money over my previous habits.

I also began to eat better and exercise more which led to weight loss. It is funny how a simple chart actually helped me cut costs and get healthier in the process.

You can download the chart here and modify it quickly in Word to meet your needs. I’ve included a Word 2007 version and one for Word 97-2003. Try it for a week (or better yet a full month) and see where your money goes. See if you can cut your trips down and increase your exercise.

If you currently eat out a lot you may see substantial savings by taking meals with you. You won’t have to drive to lunch or dinner and you’ll probably eat cheaper and with less fat and calories than eating in a fast food joint or restaurant.

To really see how many calories you’ll save by not going to that restaurant pick up Eat This-Not That from the editor of Men’s Health magazine. You’ll be amazed (or dismayed) at how many calories are in that signature restaurant meal!

Eat This Not That: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds-or More! by David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding Read more about this book…

I am a big fan of the Five Factor Fitness program by Harley Pasternak. This little book outlines a fitness program that almost anyone can do in 25 minutes per day. This book provides a combination of Aerobic exercise along with weight training in a twenty five minute, interval style workout.

The book provides pictures and diagrams of the exercises and the routines are broken down into 5 minute phases. While I have enjoyed the program, it can get a little complicated at times, and you need to have the book along to follow the routine.

With my hectic schedule I have found that some days I don’t have a 25 minute block of time to exercise. I want to get the benefits, but I have needed a way to break things up. What has worked for me is to create some handy cards with simple exercises that I can do without any equipment. I put a different exercise on each card and put down a number of repetitions that would correspond to a 5 minute interval.

I carry the cards along in my pocket and do the exercises during the day.

Here is an example of how I have used them…

In the morning, I may have a free 15 minute period. I shuffle the cards, turn them upside down, and pick one at a time. The first one turns out to be 50 jumping jacks. I do the exercise and then pick another card. This one is 15 push ups. I do the push ups and then pick a final card. This one is running in place for five minutes. I glance at the clock and do the running for 5 minutes. When I’m done, I have had a great little workout to get the blood flowing, with the added benefit of drawing a random card to make things interesting.

Later in the day at work, I may have a few minutes to spare. I grab the 5 minutes on the stairs card, and run up and down the stairs for 5 minutes. When I’m done, I put this on the bottom of the stack. When I get home at the end of the day I may grab another couple of cards after dinner and work off a few calories with some sit ups and leg lifts.

These cards are simple, fast and fun. They are easily printed out on business card stock in under 5 minutes. They can easily be modified with repetitions and exercises that work for you. They make a great addition to a structured fitness program, when you are limited for time or on the go. As always, be sure to check with your doctor before starting any type of fitness or exercise program.

Instructions for use:

• Download the Five Minute Fitness Template for MS Word
• Open the template(s) and modify as necessary
• Print out on Avery Business Card Stock (10 Card)
• Break cards apart
• For portability, stack cards in order and clip together with mini clip
• Transport easily in pocket or purse
• Keep in a quick access location like a desk drawer or file cabinet
• Optional: Add info cards to your Walleteer organizer

Technorati Tags: fitness, exercise

As I was perusing the aisles of my local Barnes & Noble bookstore at lunch a new book caught my eye. It’s called The Hot Diet, by chemical engineer AJ Djo. I picked it up and started reading. Page after page it drew me in with one simple premise… something in almost everyone’s diet was poison and causing us to gain weight. This poison is right under our noses, front and center at virtually every meal. Yet despite hundreds of diet books, thousands of seminars, and countless hours of research, it has escaped discovery.

I immediately started thinking about this and trying to guess what it might be… the author said it exists in almost all of our meals. Hmmmm….

Could it be Refined Sugar? This seems to be the villain in many diet plans and sugar, even small amounts, seems to be in almost everything we eat and drink. But the author dismissed this idea in the first chapter.

Could it be High Fructose Corn Syrup? This is certainly it. This fat inducing man made concoction has found its way into almost every processed product on the shelves. But AJ dismissed this idea in chapter two.

Could it be Salt? This has got to be it… Salt is in almost everything we eat, whether sweet, spicy, or salty. Pick up any box of sweetened cereal and you’ll find salt as one of the ingredients. Salt is a very popular additive but the author dismisses this as the poison in the first few pages.

Could it be Pepper? With a name like The Hot Diet, I was beginning to think it was a common spice like pepper. Certainly this type of spice was in most common foods and cayenne pepper was used for medicinal purposes. I was really certain this was it, until the whole class of spices was eliminated by an example in the book.

As I read further I was getting a little antsy. I had hoped to find the answer quickly, but the author kept the suspense going for three chapters when he finally revealed the secret. I had stood there reading for almost 15 minutes, unable to put the volume down.

When the item was finally revealed it all started to make sense. This substance was certainly in front of me multiple times a day. But the premise that this could be a reason that so many people find themselves overweight was hard to believe. The answer will certainly be controversial for some time to come.

As I put the volume down, I really started to think… could this be true?

Could this mysterious ingredient really be the culprit in our battle of the waistline?

As I left the store I headed for a nearby restaurant and had lunch.

As the waitress brought they tray of food, there it was staring me in the face.

It was right in front of me, something I had never considered before.

Could the “ice” in my drink really be all that bad?

Could this clear and solid form of water really be sabotaging my diet?

Could the cold that this induces really be slowing my digestion?

I had to go back and find out more…. Could this chemical engineer be on to something?

I stopped back and read on…

I still don’t know about this one…

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: diet, diet books

Could there actually be a difference between doing an action for one second versus five seconds? Could this tiny time period make any difference in your life? If you practice weight training this could be the secret weapon you are looking for. This small difference can turbocharge your results. Here is how it works…

When lifting a weight, instead of counting one-two up and one-two down count slowly to five up and then count slowly to five down.

This simple action causes the muscles to work harder in both directions, but the greatest results come in the five second descent. It ensures that there is a constant load throughout the exercise and that momentum is eliminated. This simple difference can reduce your overall workout time and allow you to achieve much greater results.

Author and adventurer, Tim Ferriss, used this as part of his 4 week workout routine with phenomenal results. In his amazing training experiment, Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in just four short weeks, working out only two times a week for 30 minutes at a time. The results are greater than many people experience in 6 to 12 months of a professional fitness program with the total results coming with just four hours of actual training time.

I have modified my weekly training routine and started using the 5 second rule. Not only do I feel a much greater burn with each repetition, the overall workout can be shorter with similar results.

Try this simple tweak in your next workout and I think you’ll agree… 5 seconds does make a difference. Add in a great slow-carb diet and you will find results coming quickly. This simple technique works well with complete training programs such as Body for Life and Five Factor Fitness.

Remember… Count to five…

I ran into a post a few days ago by one of my favorite writers and adventurers, Tim Ferriss, that really opened my eyes to diet success. In the post Tim explains that he created a meal plan that limited his diet choices to a dozen items. He created similar meals over and over in a six week period. The dozen items were all low glycemic which helps keep blood sugar levels constant throughout the day. The result of his experiment with this “slow-carb” diet was a fifteen pound weight loss and an increase of ten pounds of muscle mass. The total fat loss was 25 pounds over six weeks.

His items consisted of…

Proteins:

Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor

Chicken breast or thigh

Grass-fed organic beef

Pork


Legumes:

Lentils

Black beans

Pinto beans

Vegetables:

Spinach

Asparagus

Peas

Mixed vegetables

Tim also cut out all “white” carbohydrates, drank only zero calorie beverages (water, tea, coffee, etc), and took one day off from the diet each week.

At first I thought this diet would be extremely boring and hard to stick to. I was intrigued by his success so I decided to try to stick to this for a week and see how it went. Here is what I found…

1. When I’ve tried to do any type of low carb diet I would feel extremely lethargic after a day or two. I was never able to stay on this type of diet more than three days. With the addition of the beans and legumes (slow carb items), I have found that I feel more energetic than normal without the highs and lows of most processed carbohydrates. I feel really good on this diet.

2. With the exclusion of bread and white carbohydrates I figured it would be very hard to find meals out that met the requirements of this diet. I was surprised at the variety I could create at places like Chipotle Mexican restaurants, El Pollo Loco, and Panda Express. With their bowl selections I could mix and match ingredients at will to come up with amazing creations. Black beans, pinto beans, and mixed vegetables work very well with chicken and lean beef.

3. At the end of the week, I weighed in with a three pound weight loss. I feel great and have more energy than I’ve had in a while. The meals are tasty enough that I actually look forward to eating them time after time.

4. This meal plan fits very well into my current “Body for Life,” fitness and exercise plan.

Tim Ferriss is the type of person looking for results. Pick up has amazing book, “The Four Hour Workweek,” and you’ll see what I mean. I think he has found a great diet combination here. It is simple, tasty and reasonably easy to stick to. Check out his blog post for more information.

Technorati Tags: diet, exercise, slow carb

In our modern world we are surrounded with an amazing array of beverage choices. From soft drinks, sports drinks and the ever ubiquitous Starbucks latte, we have a huge menu to choose from. The problem is, if you look at the content labels you’ll find a lot of stuff you really don’t want in a healthy diet plan.

Things like HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), massive amounts of refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and the dreaded artificial food coloring. If your diet plan does not include caffeine, you’ll have an even harder time finding something to drink.

Are there beverages available that are healthy and refreshing without all the junk?

I went on a quest in my local supermarket to find out. I picked up cans of many products, only to find that even so called natural beverages have a lot of junk in them. The best products that I found were pure fruit juices. These were devoid of additives and added sugar, but they were so concentrated that the calorie count was sky high per 8oz glass.

Most pure fruit juice has between 120-140 calories per 8 oz glass. If you were to drink a glass at each meal you can easily add over 400 calories per day to your diet plan. If you are limiting calories to 1500-1800 a day like most weight loss plans you can see that this can easily put you over the top.

The other common beverage is tea. In it’s common fresh brewed form it contains no calories but does provide moderate amounts of caffeine. Tea comes in different flavor varieties and some companies offer decaffeinated versions. There is also a wide variety of herbal teas that contain no calories and most contain no caffeine.

Canned tea is a different story, with most varieties boasting huge amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners. For example, a 16 oz can of Lipton Raspberry iced tea comes in at 220 calories. Some of the tea drinks come in large bottles and can easily exceed 300 calories in one drink.

After a lot of experimenting I have found some custom made drinks that are refreshing, contain nothing artificial, and come in under 50 calories apiece. Here are three fast and easy beverages you can make at home.

1. Fruit juice spritzer. Take some club soda and add 20-30 percent by volume of fruit juice. Add ice and enjoy. With fruit juices like cranberry,  blueberry, or even pomegranate, you can make a delicious sparkling drink in minutes. The great thing about this is it is easy to mix flavors and you can top it off with a lemon or lime slice. Fast, easy and it won’t kill your diet.

2. Custom fruit Teas. Brew up a pitcher of your favorite tea and add whole fruit or fruit puree for a great taste. If you pick up a partioned Ice Tea Maker you can make this blend effortlessly in no time at all. Just add hot water to the tea partition and fruit and cold water to the rest of the pitcher. Within minutes your delicious custom tea will be ready.

3. Light Fruit Soothie. Take a handful of your favorite fruit like peaches or mandarin oranges and puree them up in a blender. Add 8 oz of club soda or non-fat milk and reblend for a light and refreshing summertime drink. Top off with a garnish and some ice cubes for a fast and easy low calorie drink. A Hand Blender will make this task faster and make cleanup a snap.

Enjoy a healthy beverage today!

Technorati Tags: diet, tea, beverages