Skinny-fat

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week - Skinny-fat

I learned the term “skinny-fat” recently, referring to people who are skinny but out of shape. Supermodels and actresses fit into this category, as do most men, it seems. “Skinny-fat” probably refers to most of the thin people we see on the street, considering Americans penchant for fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. Fat people hate them for being naturally thin, but they are not necessarily fit. They don’t necessarily have a faster metabolism than the rest of us, just as overweight people don’t necessarily have a slower metabolism than the rest of us. However, “skinny-fat” people succeed in the most important component of maintaining weight: the number of calories consumed equals the number of calories burned.

So the question of the week is: Are “skinny-fat” people living the SWEET Life? Let’s see . . .

Do they get 7-8 hours of Sleep per night? There is a lot of research showing a connection between lack of sleep and weight gain, which is why Sleep is an important aspect of the SWEET Life! Therefore, my guess is that “skinny-fat” people sleep enough.

Do they drink 8-10 cups of Water per day? Dehydration causes the body’s functions to slow down and work inefficiently, including metabolism. Ample hydration helps all the body’s functions run smoothly and efficiently and prevents you from retaining water as a survival mechanism. Therefore, I’d say that “skinny-fat” people drink enough water to keep their metabolisms running smoothly.

Do they Eat a balanced, healthy diet? They may or may not eat well. Most Americans don’t eat a balanced, healthy diet, despite the huge amounts of food available to us. Most importantly though, “skinny-fat” people don’t eat too much; they eat only as many calories as their bodies burn off.

Do they Exercise? “Skinny-fat” people don’t exercise. If they did, they would be “fit” not “fat.”

Do they have Tranquility? Since research shows that chronic stress causes weight gain and slower metabolism, I would say that “skinny-fat” people have their stress under control. They have Tranquility.

In sum:

Sleep – yes

Water – yes

Eating – maybe, maybe not

Exercise – no

Tranquility – yes

Surprisingly, diet and exercise, which most people think of as the keys to weight loss and staying skinny, are the two aspects of the SWEET Life that “skinny-fat” people are least likely to do! I must say, I’m very surprised by these results!

Sources:

· Google search for “lack of sleep and weight”:
http://www.google.com/search?q=lack+of+sleep+and+weight&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

· Google search for “stress and weight”:
http://www.google.com/search?q=stress+and+weight&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

· Inch-aweigh.com: Why drinking water really is the key to weight loss:
http://www.inch-aweigh.com/water.html

· Natural News.com: Healing with Water:
http://www.naturalnews.com/003202.html

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Suzanne
Weekly Encouragement history: http://sweetlifeweekly.blogspot.com/
The SWEET Life of Suzanne blog: http://thesweetlifeofsuzanne.blogspot.com/
Website: http://livingthesweetlife.net/

Copyright © 2008 Suzanne Fong. All rights reserved.

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week– Chocolate’s Health Benefits

Since Valentine’s Day is this week I thought I’d write about chocolate. Besides, I love chocolate! If you love chocolate as much as I do, you know there has been recent research showing that it provides certain health benefits.

Chocolate contains flavanols, which, studies have shown, lower blood pressure, increase blood flow and promote a healthier heart. It’s also high in antioxidants, which attack cancer-causing free radicals. These flavanols are present in higher quantities in dark chocolate than in other types of chocolate. However, processing kills the flavanols, so producers are developing new methods to preserve the flavanols during processing.

Different studies use different types of chocolate and different quantities. For example, one study used one cup of hot cocoa, another used 30 g of dark vs. white chocolate, and yet another used 100 g of dark vs. milk chocolate. A typical American candy bar is about 2 oz. or 60 g. All the studies I read concluded that dark chocolate has more health benefits than milk or white chocolate and that the unhealthy, saturated fat in chocolate candy definitely compensates for any health benefits. However, hot cocoa made with water or skim milk contains almost no saturated fat.

In the end, it goes back to two things I always say: everything in moderation, and if you’re going to eat chocolate, make it good quality chocolate! Although the studies did not discuss the quality of the chocolate, high quality chocolate contains higher quantities of cocoa liquor and cocoa butter, no corn syrup and partially-hydrogenated oil and fewer preservatives and chemicals.

I think you’ll agree that very good quality, dark chocolate in a smaller amount is much better than a lot of cheap chocolate! Make sure your sweetie knows this before buying your Valentine’s chocolates!

At the same time, flowers and a hand-written card are calorie and fat free, and the card lasts forever.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#Chocolate_liquor

http://www.chocolate.org/health/antioxidants.html

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/3464/

http://www.medicationsense.com/articles/july_sept_03/chocolate.html

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Suzanne

Don’t eat the whole SuperBOWL!

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week – Don’t eat the whole SuperBOWL!

Sunday is the Superbowl, which involves football, fantastic commercials, socializing with friends, and lots of food and drinks. The Superbowl has never been equated with healthy eating. Here are some suggestions for living the SWEET Life at a Superbowl party:

If you are giving the party, serve healthier versions of Superbowl classics:

Instead of:	Serve:
A variety of chips	veggies, popcorn and pita chips
Dip	Hummus
cream cheese	cheese or cottage cheese
fried egg rolls	tortilla roll-ups
Hot wings	grilled chicken breast skewers
Salami sandwiches	turkey sandwiches
Beef chili	turkey or vegetarian chili
sausages	chicken drumsticks
pre-made sandwiches	sandwich bar
pulled pork in barbeque sauce	roast pork
potato salad	green salad
Macaroni salad with a mayonnaise-based sauce	Pasta salad with Italian dressing
Waldorf salad or canned fruit cocktail in syrup	Fresh fruit salad

If you are going to a party:

· BYOF: Bring any of the healthy food choices above, so you know there will be at least one healthy thing to eat.

· CHOOSE which foods you will eat and not eat, such as:

· veggies and dip, but not chips and dip

· chili, but not sausages

· mini quiches, but not hot wings

· one of any of the desserts, but only one, etc.

In either case:

· Eat a healthy breakfast & lunch that day; then only eat at halftime (dinner).

· Serve a portion onto a plate or cup, rather than constantly dipping your hand into the bowl.

· After serving your portion, walk away from the food table, sit down and eat. Don’t sit near the bowls of snacks.

· Don’t eat bad-tasting food! Leave it on the plate. Don’t be a garbage disposer!

· Remember the “socializing with friends” aspect of the game and get too busy talking to eat.

· Drink water between each alcoholic drink.

· Don't let your friends drive home drunk.

I read recently that every minute is a chance to change and improve yourself, so if you find yourself at halftime having eaten a lot of junk food, it’s time to stop yourself and decide you’ve eaten enough for the whole game.

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Suzanne

Arguments For & Against Eating Dairy

Appraising Your Success

Here it is the end of the first week of the year! It is a good time to review your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals, then focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently. You need a plan, not a hope, in order to be successful. If your plan isn’t working, it’s time to revise your plan.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? If so, that’s great! Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll continue to experience all of these feelings! If not, know that by living the SWEET Life, you will feel all these great feelings!

Topic of the week –Arguments For & Against Eating Dairy

Nowadays, there seem to be a lot of people, especially women, who are cutting dairy out of their diets. At the same time, the dairy industry’s ads say that drinking milk will help you lose weight. What’s true vs. fiction? Why should you or shouldn’t you consume dairy products? I searched the internet for arguments both for and against dairy products. As with all internet research, I tried to screen carefully for reputable sources of information because there is a lot of unsubstantiated bias out there. The best sources of information I found are listed at the bottom, so check them out.

First, why you should NOT drink milk. There are four main reasons why people don’t drink milk. Some people are concerned about the hormones given to dairy cows in order to supplement their diets and help them produce more milk. I didn’t find evidence that those hormones pass through the milk in sufficient quantities to endanger humans. Perhaps you can find the contrary.

Another reason not to drink milk is the high saturated-fat content and calories. However, low fat dairy products, such as milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. have significantly lower saturated fat content than full-fat versions, and the calorie intake is moderate. Even the dairy industry suggests low fat, rather than full-fat, dairy products.

Some people are lactose intolerant, which is an extremely good reason no to drink milk! However, this problem can often be alleviated by a small, regular introduction of dairy products, like yogurt and some types of cheese, which have lower quantities of lactose than milk does.

The most significant reason for not consuming dairy products is that milk today comes from industrialized factories, just like our cars, computers and Ipods. That means, the goal is to have the highest output in the shortest time. The farmers do everything that modern man has created to achieve their goal. Their cows are not pets; they are factory workers. They are used and abused as long as they produce; then they are “made final use of” and replaced. If all this is appalling enough to make you stop eating dairy, then I completely understand.

Fortunately, for us in California, we do have local dairy farms which are not industrialized factories and which produce organic milk from pastured cows. So then, on the flip side, why should you consume dairy products? First of all, they taste yummy! I love dairy products: milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, ice cream, butter, cream, etc. Besides tasting good, they come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. They combine well with other foods, such as cheese and bread, broccoli and cheddar, yogurt and fruit, ham and cheese, just to name a few. Dairy products have been dietary staples since ancient times.

Nutritionally, dairy products are the best source of calcium, which helps build strong bones and teeth. They are also a good source of protein, second only to meat in protein content. Milk also contains significant amounts of your daily recommended intake of Vitamins A, B-12, D and Phosphorous. That’s a total of six nutritional essentials, in significant quantities, from one dietary source: dairy.

Lastly, studies show consuming dairy helps with weight loss. Consuming the same number of calories, there was increased weight loss on a diet containing diary products compared to one without dairy. It seems that calcium wraps around fat and leads it out the back door without being digested. Studies also show that consuming calcium from food sources is better than calcium supplements, which is no surprise. It is the nature of “supplements” not to be the main source of any nutrient; hence the name” supplement”!

In conclusion, I recommend eating dairy for two reasons: it has important nutritional value, and I don’t support cutting out any major food groups. Plus, it tastes great!

Sources:
http://calag.ucop.edu/0205SO/pdfs/orgmilk.pdf
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/myths.htm#foodmyths
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/calcium.shtml
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_cows_dairy.asp
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/dairy.htm
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040416/dairy-foods-fat-weight-loss

Look for another topic next week!

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

How to Have a SWEET Christmas

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week - How to Have a SWEET Christmas

Here, I expose my religious orientation, which is Christian. If you do not celebrate Christmas, you might be able to apply these ideas to a holiday that you do celebrate. If you do celebrate Christmas, here are some suggestions for how to have a SWEET Merry Christmas.

Sleep
If you have kids, tell them to go to bed early because the earlier they to go sleep, the earlier Santa will come. Also tell them they can’t leave their bedrooms until it’s light outside (~7:00 a.m.). Once it’s light, they should wake you up and only open their stockings before you are there (or whatever other restrictions you want to set). At the same time, you should also have your visit with Santa as early as possible (remember, gifts from Santa aren’t necessarily wrapped) so that you can go to bed early too. And don’t eat Santa’s cookies & milk just before bed because the sugar could give you strange dreams and disrupt your sleep.

Water
It’s easy to forget and to be too busy to drink water on Christmas day. Here are a few suggestions that might help you remember to hydrate yourself:
· Drink water each time you eat
· Drink water between alcoholic drinks
· If you’ll be at your own home, have a cup in the bathroom and drink some water each time you go in there.

Eating
Don’t “save up” and only eat Christmas dinner because of the “interest” that accrues when you starve yourself. You always hear that you’ll eat more at that one meal if you starve yourself beforehand. Well, I always thought that made sense because the extra calories at that one meal make up for not eating breakfast or lunch. However, what actually happens is that you “accrue interest” and end up eating more total daily calories and more fat, salt and sugar calories when you starve yourself then gorge yourself on one meal. Besides that, you will feel stuffed and uncomfortable for several hours after eating a huge meal.

Now that I’ve convinced you not to starve yourself all Christmas day, be conscientious to eat nutritiously during the other meals of the day. Eat small, simple meals of fruits and veggies and whole grains. These foods have a low glycemic index and a high nutrient content, which means they will keep your blood sugar (i.e., energy) level consistent and add the vitamins and minerals that you might miss in your big, Christmas dinner.

At the same time, and most importantly, enjoy your Christmas dinner! Like I said at Thanksgiving, serve yourself just a few bites-worth of each dish. If you don’t like something, don’t waste stomach space and calories by eating it. Just leave the rest, which will only be 1-2 bites-worth anyway. Holiday feasts tend to be high in protein, fat and high-calorie, low-nutrient carbs. Therefore, load up on any fruits and veggies that you can to get some balance in your nutritional load.

Another way to help control your eating is to wear close-fitting clothes with a belt to prevent yourself from eating too much. Remember the Hawaiians: they wore loose-fitting muumuus and weighed 300 lb. Don’t eat like a Hawaiian.

You’ll feel more comfortable and consume fewer calories and more healthy nutrients if you do the above.

Exercise
My first thought is: skip it; it’s Christmas!
However, my husband’s family likes to take a walk together after a noontime Christmas dinner. It’s actually very nice to get out in the fresh air and move around a bit after sitting around and eating so much. If the weather continues as is, we should have a beautiful sunny day for taking a nice family walk.

Tranquility
Tranquility could be an easy, natural part of Christmas.
Or Christmas could be stressful due to family relations, having too much to do, having too much to cook and prepare for the family, etc. If Christmas = stress, then you definitely need to plan some Tranquility into your day. It’s a great Christmas gift to yourself. Tell your family you need ½ hr. (or 1 hr.), so they know to leave you alone. Consider your schedule for the day, and decide if, mentally, you need it before the onslaught of Christmas or after it, in order to unwind from the day. Here are some examples:
· Go to church; ‘tis the reason for the season.
· Morning: take a bath with nice bath oil or salts, a candle, and peaceful Christmas music to start your day.
· Noon: After opening gifts with your immediate family and before your afternoon or evening extended family gathering, take a walk, or have a family “Quiet time” when everyone does something quietly, like read a book, newspaper, or magazine; play with new, quiet toys; watch a football game, etc.
· Evening: If your Christmas celebration ends by the early evening, it’s a good time to take a walk and enjoy the Christmas lights in your neighborhood, watch a Christmas movie, use a Christmas gift (if you received anything relaxing), etc.

Christmas should be a fun, happy celebration. It’s up to you to make sure you have a SWEET, wonderful day.

Merry Christmas!

Suzanne

Conquering Holiday Feasts & Goodies

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week -- Conquering Holiday Feasts & Goodies
The two months between Halloween and New Year’s Day are filled with special foods and sweets. As such, you need to make a plan for how you are going to face all those temptations. Don’t deprive yourself of these special holiday indulgences, but go in with a plan.

One holiday control plan is to enjoy each holiday, but to maintain your regular healthy eating plan, along with the other elements of the SWEET Life, all the other days in between holidays. That makes about four days of being gluttonous, depending on which holidays you celebrate, rather than 60 days! In the scope of 60 days, those four days will be insignificant.

Some “at the moment” ideas for holiday party control are the following:
· Don’t starve yourself all day to “save up” calories. You’ll be so hungry by the time you eat that you’ll eat more than you would have if you’d eaten a regular meal a few hours beforehand.
· Serve or offer to bring “relishes” as an appetizer. Carrot, celery, and cucumber sticks; cherry tomatoes, radishes, bell pepper strips, etc. with hummus for dipping are a healthy way to stave off those hunger pangs while waiting for people to gather and the meal to begin.
· “Select,” don’t “select all,” at the buffet. Make yourself a meal of protein, grains and vegetables, rather than a little bit of everything. Think of a buffet like a deli counter: as much as everything looks good, you only choose a few things to make your meal.
· Only serve yourself 2-3 bites of each food. That way, if you don’t like something, you can leave the rest without wasting a lot of food. It also allows you to try more foods, if you’re so inclined.
· Thanksgiving is typically weak in vegetables, so eat all you can.
· Don’t waste stomach space and calories on bad food. If you have kids, you know that food they don’t like immediately comes back out. As adults, we are polite enough to swallow that bite, but don’t go thinking the second bite will somehow taste better.
· Don’t “eat all you can” (unless it’s veggies).

What about all those sweets people give you when they drop by? Pay them forward: Serve them to guests who drop by or take them to people’s houses that you visit. Just because people give them to you doesn’t mean that you, personally, have to eat them all!

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

Enjoying Halloween without eating all the candy

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.

How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week -- Enjoying Halloween without eating all the candy

As a Personal Trainer, you might expect me to say not to eat any Halloween candy. However, if you know me personally, you know I love chocolate! I always say, “Everything in moderation, with the emphasis on everything.” That includes Halloween candy.

Halloween, however, is merely the beginning of the two-month-long holiday season, ending on New Year’s Day. As such, this is the beginning of making a holiday plan for health maintenance, so that you don’t gain any holiday weight. Making a plan now, and following it for the next two months, will prevent you from having that dreaded feeling on New Year’s Day that you have to start a health kick.

However, this week we are going to focus on Halloween. There are many ways to avoid overindulging on Halloween candy. You don’t need to follow every idea, just decide which idea(s) will work best for you and follow through.

It’s important to consider both the amount of candy you are going to eat and the amount of time you will give yourself to eat it. You might decide that since October 31 is the actual holiday, you will only indulge in candy on that day. At the same time, you can go intensive or extensive, for example, all the candy you want to eat, but only on Halloween day vs. one piece of candy a day for a week following Halloween. Do whatever works for you, but decide on your plan in advance and follow through.

If you’re single and don’t live in an area with kids, you don’t have to worry about Halloween candy, right? No kids come to your door, and you’re probably out at a party where you are more likely drinking than eating candy anyway. Why don’t you have to worry about eating too much candy? Because it’s for the kids.

Remembering that the candy is for the trick-or-treaters might help you avoid eating too much. That being said, don’t steal your kids’ candy! Set a good example, if you have kids, of not eating too much, of sharing, and of not stealing other people’s candy. That means, you ask your child politely for a piece, just like you would want your child to ask, and you don’t sneak into another room to eat some, just like you wouldn’t want your child to do. Those things will definitely prevent you from overindulging!

Another thing to do to avoid eating Halloween candy is to buy candy you don’t like; then there’s no temptation.

November 1, to prevent the temptation of candy at home, many people will take it to the office. That’s a great way to get it out of the house; however, remember that it’s basically someone else’s trash. It’s not there for you to eat; it’s there to prevent someone else from eating it at home. And it’s usually not the good stuff; that’s already saved or gone; it’s the junk candy that no one in the house likes, so don’t eat someone else’s junk. Only eat good Halloween candy.

Finally, probably the best idea is to donate your leftover Halloween candy to hospitalized kids who couldn’t go trick-or-treating. Find out from your local hospital how you can do this. The kids will be thrilled, and you’ll feel good too.

The next two months of holidays are filled with special foods and sweets. Plan now how you are going to face all those temptations. Don’t deprive yourself, but make a plan and follow your plan.
Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne