Sugar High: 20 Worst Beverages in America

Sugary drinks are the bane of our diets, and even some “health drinks” and “energy drinks” are full of sweet, empty calories. Men’s Health came up with a jaw-dropping list of the "20 Worst Drinks in America 2010", and created some pretty shocking photos to show just how much sugar you’re sipping. Even if you’ve got a sweet tooth, we don’t know many people would like to get their daily sugar allowance through a straw. Check out the astonishing list by clicking on the link below and learn about the nutrition facts of these super-sugary drinks. It’ll give you the chills.

20 Worst Drink in America 2010

Healthy Fast Food

Tips for Making Healthier Fast Food Choices

Fast food is cheap, convenient, filling, and to many of us it tastes good. If you are eating out, a fast food restaurant is often the cheapest option, but unfortunately not a healthy one. Eating just one fast food meal can pack enough calories, sodium and fat for an entire day or more. Eating fast food on a regular basis can lead to a host of different health problems, both physical and psychological.

Still, in a bad economy the quick-and-cheap temptation can often be hard to resist. As an informed customer, though, you can make healthier choices and still enjoy the price and convenience of fast food restaurants.

When is it healthy to eat fast food?

The short answer is: rarely. Typically, fast food is low in nutrition and high in trans fat, saturated fat, sodium, and calories.

Moderation becomes the key. It’s OK to indulge a craving for French fries every now and then, but to stay healthy you can’t make it a regular habit. Finding a healthy, well-balanced meal in most fast food restaurants can be a challenge, but there are always choices you can make that are healthier than others.

Learning to make healthier choices at fast food restaurants

Making healthier choices at fast food restaurants is easier if you prepare ahead by checking guides that show you the nutritional content of meal choices at your favorite restaurants. If you have a special dietary concern, such as diabetes, heart health or weight loss, the websites of national non-profits provide useful advice. You can also choose to patronize restaurants that focus on natural, high quality food.

If you don’t prepare ahead of time, common sense guidelines help to make your meal healthier. For example, a seemingly healthy salad can be a diet minefield when smothered in dressing and fried toppings, so choose a salad with fresh veggies, grilled toppings and dressing on the side. Portion control is also important, as many fast food restaurants serve enough food for several meals in the guise of a single serving.

Tips for making healthy choices at fast food restaurants

• Make careful menu selections – pay attention to the descriptions on the menu. Dishes labeled deep-fried, pan-fried, basted, batter-dipped, breaded, creamy, crispy, scalloped, Alfredo, au gratin or in cream sauce are usually high in calories, unhealthy fats or sodium. Order items with more vegetables and choose leaner meats.
• Drink water with your meal. Soda is a huge source of hidden calories. One 32-oz Big Gulp with regular cola packs about 425 calories, so one Big Gulp can quickly gulp up a big portion of your daily calorie intake. Try adding a little lemon to your water or ordering unsweetened iced tea.
• “Undress” your food. When choosing items, be aware of calorie-packed salad dressings, spreads, cheese, sour cream, etc. For example, ask for a grilled chicken sandwich without the mayonnaise. You can ask for a packet of ketchup or mustard and add it yourself, controlling how much you put on your sandwich.
• Special order. Many menu items would be healthy if it weren't for the way they were prepared. Ask for your vegetables and main dishes to be served without the sauces. Ask for olive oil and vinegar for your salads or order the dressing "on the side" and spoon only a small amount on at a time. If your food is fried or cooked in oil or butter, ask to have it broiled or steamed.
• Eat mindfully. Pay attention to what you eat and savor each bite. Chew your food more thoroughly and avoid eating on the run. Being mindful also means stopping before you are full. It takes time for our bodies to register that we have eaten. Mindful eating relaxes you, so you digest better, and makes you feel more satisfied.

Click Here to Download your FREE Healthy Fast Food Guide

Your Brain on Exercise

Your Brain on Exercise

By Aubrey Mahanay, (Co-Owner of Accelerate: Health & Fitness Consulting and Director of Health & Wellness)

There was an astonishing article in Newsweek a while back about the benefits of exercise on the brain that just blew my mind/brain/cranium/noggin. Here's what I've learned from this article and further research.

Just 20 minutes of exercise

We all know that working out and exercising do amazing things for our bodies, and the benefits, in addition to weight loss and getting fit, are endless. Most of us know that when our hearts, legs, and lungs get pumping, we feel much better than if we did nothing. Turns out that doing 20 minutes or more of cardiovascular and/or high-paced resistance workouts affects every aspect of our lives.

The science behind the brain magic

The great thing about the Newsweek article is that it really laid out the scientific findings over the last few years. Here's the scoop: When you're forced to pull more oxygen into the body through exercise, you break what's called the blood-brain barrier. It happens when you climb a long flight of stairs, or when you're busting through any kind of workout that gets your heart rate pumping. This oxygen-filled blood makes its way into the temporal lobe of the brain. Inside that temporal lobe is an area called the hippocampus. Inside the hippocampus lies the seahorse-shaped area known as the dentate gyrus. As you exercise, these oxygen-filled blood cells rush into this area of the brain. A chemical/protein called IGF-1 is formed and released inside the dentate gyrus, which ramps up another chemical/molecule called BDNF; both IGF-1 and BDNF are like Miracle-Gro® for the brain.

Benefits for all, from kids to adults

Studies involving people from kids right up to seniors have proven that high-paced works cause the release of the chemicals mentioned above into the brain. Combine this with even more "brain drugs" like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, and you've got yourself a feel-good party in your head. Aerobic physical movement causes the release of these chemicals, and they all help you focus and give you energy when you need it. They also help you relax and rest properly. It's like a homemade chemistry set inside your skull that produces a cocktail that simulates the effects of Prozac® and Ritalin®.
Children who play outdoors more often score better on tests than kids who don't. Regular physical activity improves memory, mood, and problem-solving abilities. Consistent exercise raises self-esteem and decreases anxiety. Study after study has proven that people who exercise 5 to 6 days a week greatly decrease their need for psychotherapeutic drugs. If your brain goes without regular bouts of exercise, the hippocampus will shrink and erode, which can lead to neurological illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease. When the dentate gyrus is stimulated, neurogenesis (the generation of new neurons) or neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to change, also known as cortical remapping) occurs. I'm not talking about just slowing the aging process; I'm telling you that the brain creates new cells through exercise—brand-new cells that assist in the reversal of aging.

If you're looking for the Fountain of Youth, you can find it inside your head every time you exercise for more than 20 minutes.

The Truth Behind Your Scale!

Your Scale Doesn't Tell the Whole Story

When it comes to weight loss, the scale can be a good measure of progress, particularly if you have a lot of weight to lose. But if you place too much emphasis on your weight and not enough on your body composition (the ratio of fat to lean muscle), you’re only getting half the story. Plus, dreading your weigh-in or obsessing over the number on the scale is unproductive and can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as bingeing or starving yourself. Losing pounds doesn’t always mean losing fat. Here’s why the scale can be misleading.

• The scale doesn’t tell you how much fat you have. Your scale does exactly what it’s supposed to—it tells you how much you weigh. But in addition to measuring your weight, the scale weighs bone, water, muscle, organs, and undigested food. When the number on the scale goes up or down, it doesn’t represent only fat loss or muscle gain. It measures fluctuations in glycogen (stored carbohydrates) and water, and it even measures how much that breakfast you ate weighs.
  You may wonder about scales that claim to measure your body fat. These send small electrical currents up one leg, through your pelvis, and down the other leg to determine your body’s density. Then a formula is used to estimate your body fat. The problem with these scales is that they’re notoriously inaccurate. However, they are usually consistent in their readings, so they can be helpful as a measuring tool. Even though the body fat reading might be off by as much as 5 or 10 percent, if the number trends downward over time, you know you’re on the right track.

• The scale can’t tell if you’ve gained muscle. A pound of muscle is like a brick, small and compact. A pound of fat is like a fluffy feather pillow, bulky and lumpy. When you gain muscle and lose fat, your body gets smaller and tighter. Building muscle also makes it possible to drop clothing sizes without a big change in weight. Perhaps after a 90-day fitness program, the scale says you lost 7 pounds, which may not sound like much. But what if you actually lost 12 pounds of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle? That’s a remarkable improvement in your body composition, but you wouldn’t know it if you only used your regular bathroom scale to track your progress.

• You didn’t really gain 5 pounds of fat overnight. You may step on the scale one morning and shriek in disbelief because the number is five digits higher than it was the day before. Stop panicking. Unless you ate an extra 17,500 calories the previous day, you didn’t gain fat (a pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories). Your scale is registering water, stored carbohydrates, and food. Also, cheap bathroom scales may have measurement errors, giving slightly different readings even when you’re at exactly the same weight.

• Your body’s water levels are constantly changing. The scale can move up or down depending on how much water you drink, how much salt you consume, how much you sweat, and how many carbohydrates you eat. An average person can see a daily fluctuation in water weight of about 2 pounds, without any changes to diet or exercise habits. These fluctuations do not signify fat loss, and watching the scale move up and down every day can be frustrating for many dieters.
  If you’re trying to achieve a healthy weight and improve the way you look, you should focus less on what the scale says and more on developing the good habits that will produce results. To get lean and strong, with low body fat and nice muscle tone, there are three things you should do:

1. Resistance training. Cardio workouts raise your heart rate to help you improve your fitness level, burn calories, and shed fat. Resistance training builds muscle, which boosts your metabolism and helps you burn even more calories.
2. Healthy diet. No matter how much you exercise, you’ll never reach your fat-loss goals if you don’t follow a healthy diet consisting of protein, vegetables, and fruit. The right foods in controlled portions will fuel your body as it shrinks.
3. Track your progress. If you don’t use the scale, you need to do something else to check your progress.

• One of the best ways to keep track of your changing body is to use a tape measure. Record your chest, waist, hip, thigh, arm, and wrist measurements in a journal. Update the measurements every 30 days to see how your body changes.

• Pictures are also good indicators of progress. Have someone take front, side, and back photos of you every 30 days and keep these with your body measurements.

• Body fat testers can also be used regularly to track your fat loss. Monitoring your progress with tools other than the scale will give you a more realistic assessment of your weight loss success.

• Notice how your clothes fit. This is a foolproof way to prove that you’re losing weight. If your clothes are getting looser, your body is shrinking, even if you don’t see a big change in the mirror yet.

Too many people are slaves to the scale. They can’t resist weighing themselves, only to feel guilty, angry, or demoralized when the numbers don’t move down quickly enough. If you’re one of those people whose weigh-ins lead to loss of motivation or a feeling of helplessness, then you need to reconsider using the scale for your progress checks. Success is more than just a number!