I’ve been working out hard this month and I hope that you’ve found some time to exercise as well. Eating good healthy food is important, but exercise is vital as well. Your body is an amazing machine, not the least of it that it works better the more you make it work. It grows and adapts to the stresses you place on it.

Of course, you want these stresses to be good ones. Stress from weightlifting, rebuilds your muscles stronger and fitter. Stress from cardio workouts, makes your cardio-vascular system work better and more efficiently. Bad stress from work or worry, wears down your body.

So get out, exercise, walk, run, bike, lift weights, whatever. Get moving and your body will thank you for it!

Barbara

Real health, as I’ve posted about before, is about health that comes naturally, through eating healthy foods, working out, watching what you buy and how you fuel your body. It’s avoiding prescription drugs and food additives that harm your body.

This year has been a good one. I personally have continued learning more and more about how to lose bodyfat, how to get fit, and what to eat for health. The mainstream press is reporting more and more about health issues, particularly the obesity epidemic and its causes.

For 2007, resolve this:

No trans fats, hydrogenated anything, no MSG or autolyzed or hydrolyzed protein of any sort. No aspartame, or splenda or any other chemical sweetener.

Eat more vegetables, especially broccoli and kale and tomatoes. Make fresh food from local, organic ingredients. Eat smaller, more frequent meals, with high quality, low fat protein at each meal. Skinless chicken breast, salmon, tuna, turkey breast, beef bottom roast, and egg whites should be a mainstay in your house.

My personal new favorite is an oldie. Fat free cottage cheese, mixed with peaches in juice. Perfection!

Workout at least 3-4 times a week, preferably more. Make it a priority in your life. This year I have worked out an average of 4 times a week. Next year I am shooting for 5 times a week. Lift weights to build muscle, which burns more calories. Do high intensity cardio for shorter workouts and greater effect on calorie burning for the rest of the day.

You can do it. I have been and will continue to do so. Eat healthy and clean 90% of the time and you will lose weight, exercise and make sure that the weight you lose is body fat and not precious muscle.

Have a great 2007!

Barbara

There are so many foods that parents buy and kids regularly eat, that seem to be good for you. I’ll be posting a series of foods that parents need to pay attention to and just by buying something different, you will help improve the health of your children.

First is peanut butter. I did a little research online. The two biggest sellers in peanut butter are Skippy and Jif. Surprisingly, you can’t get any ingredients list from the Skippy web site. They do offer a natural version (Skippy Natural Creamy). It advertises that you don’t have to stir it. It does this by adding palm oil to the peanut butter. Palm oil is a source of added fat and unnecesary saturated fats. All so you don’t have to stir it. The actual ingredients list is peanuts, sugar, palm oil and salt.

Jif does have listings of ingredients on it’s website. The standard Jif Creamy has:

MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR. CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN), FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES AND SALT.

I have a jar of Trader Joe’s Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. Ingredients: Roasted peanuts. This is the unsalted version.

You should always buy natural peanut butter for your kids. Yes, you need to stir it, because oils collect on the top. But, my experience has been that you need to stir it throughly once. After it’s open, store natural peanut butter in the refrigerator, and I’ve never had to stir it again. You get the real peanut taste. Peanut butters like Jif and Skippy taste like sugar with a little peanut taste.

Natural peanut butter is good for you. There is nothing added and the fats in peanut butter are healthy ones. Of course, you need to not overeat nuts of any sort. But you don’t need sugar, molasses, and added oils in your peanut butter. The fact that the oils added are partially and fully hydrogenated means that they have trans fats and are very bad for your health, particularly heart health.

So, one easy way to make your child’s diet healthier, is to buy peanut butter with one ingredient (roasted peanuts) or maybe two (if you like salted peanut butter). Skip the Skippy and the Jif. Read the labels and see what it is you are buying.

Barbara

I haven’t been able to exercise recently due to an ailing shoulder and it’s really bothered me (both the shoulder and the no exercise). I feel better when I work out, more cheerful and more energetic. I am doing light weights for the shoulder and I’m hoping it will get better soon.

Exercise is a very important part of losing bodyfat and getting fit. You need weight training to build muscle, which increases your metabolism, which helps you burn fat easier. You need cardio to develop your cardiovascular endurance and to help your body burn calories throughout the day.

Find something you like and do it!

Barbara

I came across this great article about how hard it is to change children’s eating habits.

It talks about changes in several Florida schools to try to make the school lunch program healthier. There are struggles with prices, government foodstuffs, and just getting the kids to eat new things. It’s rather long, but worthwhile reading.

When it comes to diet, whether for children or adults, the basics apply: lean protein, vegetables and fruits, whole grains. No junk food, sugar, white flour, soda, or high fat anything. With the obesity problem we have, in both children and adults, we can’t afford to do anything else but keep trying to change people’s diets.

Barbara

I read this article on Salon today called My big fat obnoxious former self, an article by a woman who used to weight 571 pounds and had gastric bypass surgery. At this point, seven months after the surgery, she has lost 180 pounds, which means she’s down to 391. Which is fine.

What gets me is this paragraph, where she talks about what she did to prepare for the surgery.

“I stopped eating fast food and drinking soda pop and made an appointment with a surgeon. I joined the Y and stuffed myself into the world’s ugliest bathing suit — a backless, braless “swim dress” with matching underpants — so I could do water aerobics and swim laps. My Russian surgeon required me to keep a journal of everything I ate, to eat six times a day and to take vitamins. I learned that after surgery I would need to do these things for the rest of my life. I developed a taste for protein bars and grilled chicken.”

Now, if she had just kept doing that, and avoided surgery, she could have lost weight. That is everything you need to do!! Exercise, even a little. Don’t eat junk food, fast food and sugary soda. Eat healthy lean protein like grilled chicken breast. Eat frequent small meals to keep your metabolism working.

If she had just kept doing all that, every day, she would be losing weight. I admit, it wouldn’t be that fast. But at least it would be a healthy way to do it, no dangerous surgery. But it would take longer. And God forbid, we here in America have no patience, we want a cure RIGHT NOW! Much like small children, we want all the bad things in our lives to go away, without us having to work at it.

I personally know four people who have had this surgery. One is doing fine. Two others have constant problems with what they can eat, getting nauseated and sick a lot. The fourth, spent weeks in the hospital afterwards due to complications and she is home now, needing a nurse to help her. Gastric bypass is a bad choice. For more eye-opening articles about the dangers of gastric bypass, check out Newstarget.com.

Barbara