Diet Mistakes

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Q. Glen, I am on a Diet , Eating Healthy and still not losing weight! Am I doing anything wrong?


A. If you are dieting and not losing weight? More than likely, some common diet mistakes are tripping you up.

The truth, experts say, is that even when you're "on a diet," you may be eating a lot more calories than you think. There's often a disconnect between what we know we should do to lose weight, and what we actually do while trying to diet.
For starters, stop thinking about dieting. Instead, take a look at those everyday habits that could be causing weight gain. Going on a diet can create an obsession with food, heighten cravings, and lead to a "throw-in-the-towel-because-diets-don’t-work" mentality.
You might not realize just how quickly calories can add up. An extra tablespoon of salad dressing can add 75-100 calories, an extra tablespoon of butter adds 102 calories, and that 1-ounce bag of chips with your sandwich at lunch adds 162 calories. Eating while cooking, starting each day with a high-calorie coffee drink, finishing off the kids' plates at dinner, or having one too many glasses of wine -- these are just a few of the sneaky habits that sabotage weight loss efforts.
Yet as quickly as calories can add up, they can be subtracted. Becoming mindful of your diet mistakes -- the subtle ways that calories sneak into your diet throughout the day – can add up to real weight loss.
Check out my list of common diet mistakes people make, and see if any sound familiar to you.
Here are 6 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

Diet Mistake No. 1: Racing to the Finish

There's no reward for finishing your meal in record time -- unless you're a contestant in a hot dog eating contest! Our hectic schedules have led many of us to adopt the unhealthy habit of rapid eating.
"We need to adopt more of the leisurely, European-style eating so that we can savor our food, taste every bite, and get the signal of fullness before overeating," says the American Dietetic Association.

Diet Mistake No. 2: Skipping Meals

Research shows that breakfast skippers weigh more than breakfast eaters. There is a misconception that skipping breakfast -- or any meal -- saves calories. The truth is that most people who eat fewer than three meals usually end up eating more calories during the course of the day.
Strive for three meals a day & three small snacks. Always start your day with a healthy breakfast, but be careful to choose wisely.
"Even a low-fat muffin can have as many as 400 calories and 5 grams fat"
A healthy breakfast should contain both protein and fiber. An egg, a piece of whole-wheat toast, and half a grapefruit has only 250 calories and will keep you feeling full until lunch.

Diet Mistake No. 3: Too Many Liquid Calories

Liquid calories from alcohol, smoothies, coffee with cream and sugar, sweetened juices, teas, and sodas can really contribute to weight gain. One recent study found that Americans get approximately 21% of their calories from beverages.
"When you drink beverages, you don’t tend to compensate by eating less because most beverages satisfy thirst and don’t impact hunger,"
Switch from calorie-laden beverages to water, club soda, skim milk, vegetable juices, and small portions of 100% fruit juice. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation, and choose lighter drink options.
Here are some calorie counts for common beverages:

• 12-ounce light beer: 110 calories
• 12-ounce regular beer: 160 calories
• 8-ounce coffee with cream and sugar: 30 calories
• 5 ounces of wine: 120-130 calories
• 6-ounce wine spritzer: 80 calories
• 16-ounce sweetened tea: 160 calories
• 12-ounce diet soda: 0 calories
• 12-ounce soda: 150 calories
• 20-ounce smoothie: 410 calories

Diet Mistake No. 4: Oversized Portions

"We have gotten used to huge portions at restaurants so when we are at home, we serve up the same size and think it is normal,"
Experts suggest a few tricks to help you trim your portions:

• Leave a few bites on your plate.
• Use smaller plates and bowls.
• Periodically check your portions with measuring cups.

Diet Mistake No. 5: Choosing Unhealthy Add-Ons

Not only have portions crept up in size, we also have a tendency to top off our "diet" salads and other favorite foods with high-fat toppings, like bacon, cheese, croutons, and creamy dressings.
And, at fast-food restaurants, "grilled chicken and salads are not always better than a burger," all depends on the size and the toppings."
For example, the Burger King Tendergrill sandwich with honey mustard dressing has 450 calories while their Whopper Jr., with mustard instead of mayo, has only 290 calories. At McDonald’s, the Caesar salad with crispy chicken and creamy dressing totals 490 calories, while a Quarter Pounder weighs in at 410 calories.

Diet Mistake No. 6: Mindless Eating

"Eating amnesia" is the act of unknowingly putting hand to mouth, usually from a bag or box in front of the television, while reading a book. It can also happen at happy hour, or when you finish the last few bites on your child's plate.
"Resist the temptation to clean yours or anyone else’s plate," "Think about your waistline instead of the food waste."
Consider the calories in small portions of some of our favorite snacks, and see how quickly they can add up when portions are multiplied:

• 1 Twinkie: 150 calories
• 12 peanut M&Ms: 125 calories
• 1 ounce of French fries: 88 calories
• 1.5 donut holes: 100 calories
• 3 Hershey kisses: 75 calories
• 3 Oreo cookies:160 calories
• 15 tortilla chips: 142 calories
• 20 potato chips: 162 calories

And how can you kick the mindless eating habit?
"First, try to get out of the habit of always eating something while you are sitting and relaxing," "Try a cup of tea, glass of water, or chew a piece of sugarless gum. If you want a snack, portion it out of the bag or container.

Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program. Please consult your physician !

My mission is to provide you with "Trusted Advice for a Healthier Life."


Yours in good health

Any questions?


Ask Glen!

Blast Fat in 20 Minutes

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Q. Glen, I love the Elliptical, Do you have a routine the will Blast the Fat?



A. Tone your entire body and torch more than 200 calories with this speedy routine.

Your mission

Turn the elliptical into a total-body firmer. You know you burn more calories when you use your arms during cardio, but sometimes letting your arms rest makes other parts of your body work harder, which is exactly what happens in this routine. During every recovery period, you’ll jog without holding the arm levers, which forces your core muscles to engage to keep you balanced, says Glen Edward Mitchell, owner of The WorkOut GEM, a personal-training studio in Lawrenceville, Georgia, who created this routine. Then you’ll grab the levers, which makes you more stable and gives you extra leverage—key for the high-intensity intervals you’ll be doing. If you’re not crunched for time, repeat this plan and blast double the calories.

How it works

During the first 5 minutes, pump your arms forward and back, as if you were running. Then grab the levers and increase the level and incline. Let go of the levers again whenever you decrease the level to 1 or 2. Adjust the incline and the level throughout the workout to meet the rate of perceived exertion (RPE*). Cool down, then try the must-do move.

your workout plan
Time (minutes)	level	incline	RPE* (1–10)
0:00–5:00	1	6	3
5:00–5:30	6	8	6
5:30–7:00	2	8	5
7:00–7:30	7	8	6-7
7:30–9:00	2	8	5
9:00–9:30	5	8	6
9:30–11:00	2	8	5
11:00–11:30	8	8	7-8
11:30–13:00	2	8	5
13:00–13:30	9	8	8-9
13:30–15:00	2	8	5
15:00–15:30	9	8	8-9
15:30–17:00	2	8	5
17:00–20:00	1	6	4

workout intensity moderate to high machine needed an elliptical with moving handles and an adjustable level and incline total time 20 minutes calories burned 234**


Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program. Please consult your physician !

My mission is to provide you with "Trusted Advice for a Healthier Life."


Yours in good health

Any questions?

Ask Glen!

Flush Out Your GI Tract -- Naturally

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Q. Glen, I cant seem to have a regular Bowel movement! I am always constipated. Any suggestions?


A. Constipation may be more than simply uncomfortable. According to the National Institutes of Health, it may be a symptom of more serious health conditions, including the second-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.: colon cancer. It's important to take constipation seriously and treat it correctly.


The most common recommendations for constipation are to take laxatives and/or to increase fiber and water intake. Laxatives are for short-term relief only, as long-term use can become habit-forming. Turning to increased fiber and water is preferable, but studies have shown that this is often not effective for alleviating constipation and can sometimes create other problems, such as gas and bloating. So what can you do?
Constipation occurs primarily because of decreased peristalsis, the muscular movement of the intestines that promotes digested food through the GI tract. But what causes decreased peristalsis? Decreased bulk in the stool, for one thing. (That's what fiber and water are supposed to do - increase bulk.) But there are other factors that influence peristalsis.
Beneficial gut flora, also known as probiotics, are the helpful bacteria in human intestines that:

• Help digest foods.
• Manufacture vitamins, like biotin and vitamin K.
• Interfere with disease-promoting bacteria.
• Prevent immune system changes that lead to allergies and auto-immunity.
• Help absorption of nutrients.

They also produce organic acids like lactic acid that in turn help stimulate peristalsis. So making sure you have enough gut flora is crucial for many reasons, but it can also help prevent constipation.
Gut flora can be wiped out in the intestines by a number of factors. Antibiotics, corticosteroids, H2 blockers, and oral contraceptives are known to deplete them. So do some lifestyle factors like high stress, increased intake of refined sugars and excessive alcohol intake. So, to keep a good supply we have to get them in adequate quantities through diet or supplements.
Yogurt contains beneficial flora in low amounts, but usually they are not human strains so they may or may not live in human intestines. Supplementing with a good human-strain probiotic product is far better to ensure you are getting enough. We need billions of these bacteria, so I recommend capsules or powders with at least a 15 billion bacteria count per daily dose.
Magnesium is also extremely important. It helps relax the smooth muscle tissue in intestines that is responsible for peristalsis, so it is absolutely critical for keeping bowels moving regularly. The best-absorbed forms are magnesium taurate, citrate, malate and bisglycinate. I recommend supplementing dietary intake with 400 to 800 mg per day.
A good protocol for constipation is to start by taking probiotics and magnesium. Probiotics can help with digestion of dietary fiber and so help people to tolerate it better. And magnesium starts to relax the intestinal muscles. Together with the increased fiber and water, we almost never need to turn to laxatives.
Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program. Please consult your physician !

Yours in Great Health!

Any questions? Ask Glen!

http://www.fitnessbuilders4life.com/

Why Belly Fat Hurts the Heart

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Q. Glen, Is the Fat around my Belly harmful to my Heart?A. Belly Fat, Also Called Visceral Fat, Boosts Inflammation and Atherosclerosis, Say Scientists Studying Mice

Belly fat tucked deep inside your waistline may be worse for your arteries than fat padding the rest of your body.

That's according to University of Michigan scientists studying the health risks of abdominal fat, also called visceral fat.
Here's what Miina Ohman, MD, PhD, and colleagues learned from their lab tests in mice:

• Belly fat appears to boost inflammation.
• Belly fat is linked to worse atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), which makes heart attacks more likely.

In those tests, some mice got a transplant of visceral fat. Other mice got a transplant of subcutaneous fat (which sits directly under the skin, not deep in the belly) or no fat transplant.
The bottom line: Visceral fat brought the most inflammation and the worst atherosclerosis.
After visceral fat transplantation, mice developed less severe atherosclerosis if their chow was laced with the diabetes drug Actos for 10 weeks. But Actos didn't affect atherosclerosis in other mice, and the researchers aren't ready to recommend any drugs for visceral fat.
Don't disregard the study, published online in Circulation, just because the tests were done in mice. Other studies have linked belly fat to health risks in people.
Belly fat does budge, but it takes work. Researchers have found that exercise is a must to get rid of belly fat.
Resource: Web MD

Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program. Please consult your physician !

My mission is to provide you with "Trusted Advice for a Healthier Life."

Yours in good health

Any questions?
Ask Glen!

The Perfect Body Weight

 

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Q. Glen.What's is the Perfect Body Weight?

A.What's your perfect body weight? 125 pounds? 150 pounds? Anything under 200? The truth is, a healthy body is defined by much more than what size jeans you wear, how you look in a bathing suit, or even what the scale says. For example, did you know that the distance around your waist, regardless of your weight, can determine your risk for serious health conditions such as heart disease? So, before you hop on the scale for the umpteenth time this week, consider these two effective ways to assess your body composition, as recommended by the American Heart Association.

Waist Circumference. To measure your waist circumference, place a tape measure around your body at the level of your navel. Your waist circumference is an indirect indicator of intraabdominal fat tissue, often called visceral fat. If your BMI is greater than or equal to 25 kg/m2, your goal for waist circumference is less than 40 inches if you're a man and less than 35 inches if you're a woman. A large waist circumference is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease due to excess abdominal fat.
Body Mass Index (BMI). This measurement assesses your body weight relative to your height. It's a useful way of measuring body composition because it correlates highly with body fat in most people. To calculate your exact BMI value, multiply your weight in pounds by 703, divide by your height in inches, then divide again by your height in inches. For adults, a body mass index:

• Over 40 is defined as extremely obese.
• Over 30 is considered obese. People with BMIs of 30 or more are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. People with BMIs in this range have an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease.
• Between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered a healthy BMI.
• Under 18.5 is consider underweight.

Some people with dense muscle mass may have a high BMI score but very little body fat. For them, it may be more accurate to choose waist circumference or another direct method to measure body fat.
Being overweight or obese also increases your risk of dying from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers determined that overweight and obesity may account for 20 percent of all cancer deaths in U.S. women and 14 percent in U.S. men. Their work also supported previous studies that linked overweight and obesity to cancers of the uterus, kidney, esophagus, gallbladder, colon and rectum, and breast (in postmenopausal women). The researchers also found that many types of cancer that were not previously linked to obesity were, in fact, affected by excess body weight. Those included cancers of the liver, pancreas, prostate, cervix, ovary, and stomach (in men), as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.
To maintain a healthy body composition, the American Cancer Society is recommends balancing calorie intake with physical activity by eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables every day, choosing whole grains over processed grains, and limiting red meat. Individuals should engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days a week or more.
Reference:
American Heart Association
American Cancer Society

Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program. Please consult your physician !

My mission is to provide you with "Trusted Advice for a Healthier Life."
Yours in good health

Any questions?


Ask Glen!

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