Suburban Fat

Ever wonder whether suburban life is making you fat?

I feel fortunate with living in the area of Wyandotte Michigan where I have a lot of things within walking distance of my home.

Within about a ten minute walking radius, I have a convenience store, over a dozen different eating establishments, clothing stores, a couple of schools, a couple of playgrounds with baseball fields, volleyball nets set up, three or four churches, a golf course, and a river to drop my kayak in (don’t really have a grocery store but, now that I think about it, there’s one that I could walk to in about 25 minutes if I wanted to).

Unfortunately, I think my situation is more the exception rather than the rule when it comes to suburban life nowadays.

There’s some new studies out that are talking about how living the suburban life is contributing to the fat that we’re putting on in the United States.

Sprawling suburbs make it harder for people to get around without a car may help fuel obesity: Americans who live in the most sprawling counties tend to weigh 6 more pounds than their counterparts in the most compact areas.

This was something that I know I see all the time in new suburbs:

“Look at many new suburbs — there are not any sidewalks at all. ... The result is we just don’t walk,”

A few years ago when I was looking at moving out of the house I had at the time and looking at new ones, as strange as it may seem, if I went into a neighborhood and saw that there weren’t any sidewalks, it really gave me a negative first impression that extended into what I thought of the inside of the house(s) that I was looking at.

When you read a little further into the article, there is a difference between those that live in sprawling suburbs and those that live in more compact areas but, it’s really not a huge difference:

In the 25 most compact counties, 22.8 percent of adults had high blood pressure and 19.2 percent were obese. In the 25 most sprawling counties, those rates were 25.3 percent and 21.2 percent, respectively.

At the same time though, if you’ve ever spent time in a more compact area, your legs most definitely tell you that you’re moving more than you are when you’re back at home in the burbs.

This was probably the most startling stat that was mentioned in the article:

In Europe, people make 33 percent of their trips by foot or bicycle, compared with just 9.4 percent of Americans’ trips.

When I was in the south of France a few years ago, it was great to be able to walk EVERYWHERE. Take a nice walk in the morning to get coffee and a bagel, walk to a nice café in the afternoon for lunch, walk somewhere for dinner, to the “grocery store” for whatever (and most of it fresh), etc. No need for a car whatsoever.

I had a thought a few years ago that it would be great to see new neighborhoods designed almost like very small cities.

The center of the neighborhood would be small stores and shops and some restaurants and pubs that are within a 15-20 minute walk from the furthest house built. Then within the neighborhood you could have a school somewhere on the outskirts of it, and a few different denominational churches in there as well.

Everything would be within walking distance for everyone in the neighborhood. People would be getting their exercise, possibly have stronger relationships with those in the small community, drinking establishments would be within walking distance thus reducing the number of drunk driving incidences.

I know I’m probably dreaming on all of that but, I think it would be a great little simple lifestyle to live with the bonus being that we’d be taking some steps in reducing our suburban fat.

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30 Minute At Home Workout - 5/25/10

Here's today's 30 Minute At Home Workout:

This is more of an intermediate level workout.



2 exercises back to back:

1. Do 10 repetitions of Bodyweight Squats then with no rest,
2. Do 10 repetitions of Kneeling Pushups, then again with no rest,
3. Go back and do 10 more repetitions of Bodyweight Squats followed by
4. Another 10 repetitions of Kneeling Pushups.
5. Continue going back and forth between 10 Bodyweight Squats and 10 Kneeling Pushups with no rest in between exercises for 10 straight minutes.

Then rest for about 4-5 minutes.

Then another 2 exercises back to back:

1. Do 10 repetitions (on each side) of Knee Taps then with no rest,
2. Do 10 repetitions (on each side) of a Stationary Lunge, then again with no rest,
3. Go back and do 10 more repetitions (on each side) of Knee Taps followed by
4. Another 10 repetitions (on each side) of a Stationary Lunge.
5. Continue going back and forth between 10 Knee Taps and 10 Stationary Lunges (on each side) with no rest in between exercises for 10 straight minutes.

Then you're done.

If you want to learn more about the 30 Minute Workout Program, click below:

30 Minute At Home Workout

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The Best Diet Plan

People are always searching for the best diet plan out there.

But here’s a not so secret: they can all be the best diet plan for you.

I’ve talked about how my preferred way of eating is sticking with meats, veggies, fruits, nuts and oils and basically avoiding dairy, whole grains, beans, etc. For the most part, I only eat those foods, twice a day, and eat until I’m full. No counting calories, no measuring, just eat those foods until I don’t feel like eating anymore (although I do tend to be a little more careful with the serving sizes of the nuts and oils since those are higher in calories then the rest). There’s a few other things on the “do” and “don’t” list that I have but for the most part, that’s it.

It’s a simple plan, and makes shopping fairly easy.

But the question is, why do I REALLY like this eating plan?

I tend to always argue that it’s because it’s the way humans have eaten for millions of years and since we’ve survived this long, there must be something to it.

But I think it goes even deeper than that. I tend to gravitate to this style of eating because I’ve always been fascinated with evolution. In other words, I’ve found a style of eating that is healthy, and that I can follow based on my underlying interests. By doing that, it makes it more likely that I will always stick to it.

When I look at other people and the way they eat, those that are successful at weight loss, tend to eat foods in a way that conforms to an underlying interest or lifestyle.

In other words, yes it’s true that in order to start living a healthy lifestyle, you need to make some changes. But, at the same time, that doesn’t mean that you have to make a complete change and throw out everything that you’ve enjoyed eating your entire life.

Don’t like meat or fish? Then don’t eat it.

Do you like to have that morning bagel with your coffee? Then eat it.

The absolute bottom line when it comes to fat loss is: Eat the things that you enjoy, just eat less of it.

There’s a million diets out there that people can follow.



I read one article awhile back where a guy ate his fruits, veggies, lean meats, oatmeal, etc., during the day, but every night before he went to bed, he had a pint of Guinness. He loved Guinness and didn’t want to give it up. So he changed some of his other eating habits, started exercising, had his pint of Guinness every night, and ended up losing a significant amount of weight.

I had also read another article a couple of years ago by a fitness professional who was telling a story about his father’s approach to his own weight management. He asked his dad how he was able to maintain his weight within ten pounds his whole life. His dad simply said “I buckle my belt in the same hole all the time. When it gets too tight, I eat less.”

Which is the simplest take home to fat loss: eat less.

The best diet plan for a healthy lifestyle is the one that you gravitate the most towards AND can stick to it 90% of the time. Sure, you’ll have to make some changes, even some small sacrifices. But it doesn’t mean giving up everything.

So the next time you’re out searching for the best diet plan to follow, first sit down and think about things that you are interested in (food and everything else for that matter), and chances are you can fit that into an eating plan that can work for you.

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Bad Things About Eating Meat

For decades we’ve been told there are bad things about eating meat.

I’ve always kind of wondered why meat gets such a bad rap considering that some form of human has been eating meat for almost 3 million years. If it was so bad for you, how have we survived so long eating it?

I eat meat daily and overall my blood work has always been great. I stay away from (for the most part) the processed meats such as any lunch-meat, bacon, sausage, and hot dogs, just to name a few due to all the other additives in them that I’m not very fond of.

Which leads to an interesting meta analysis of a collection of studies that showed kind of meat being consumed is a better indicator of heart diseases risks rather than just lumping all meat as “bad.”



Specifically, that heart disease risk comes from processed meat (such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, lunch-meat) rather than your non-processed meat such as steaks and hamburgers.

Here’s what the researchers found:

In a report that pooled data from 20 different studies from around the world, the researchers found that daily consumption of about two ounces of processed meat was associated with a 42% increased risk of heart disease and a 19% heightened chance of diabetes. By contrast, a four-ounce daily serving of red meat from beef, hamburger, pork, lamb or game wasn't linked to any increased risk of heart disease.

It’s interesting because both types of meat have “high” levels of saturated fat so it’s believed that there is

the possibility that when it comes to meat, at least, the real bad actor may be salt. Processed meats generally have about four times the amount of salt as non-processed meats.

Since I’ve pretty much dumped salt and products with sodium in them over the last couple of years, when I bite into a piece of meat that is processed, it’s amazing how instantaneous you taste that salt (and more times than not, my stomach doesn’t appreciate it either and let’s me know…).

The article also states that even though non-processed red meat didn’t increase the risk of heart disease, it didn’t lower it either. Okay fine, then the meat producers can’t go out and start making a health claim on meat now but at the same time, I think it adds a bit more evidence that non-processed meat isn’t UN-healthy for you.

The article also mentions a second study that conducted a meta analysis of other studies that that was published earlier this year that

found that intake of saturated fat wasn't linked to a statistically-significant increased risk of heart disease, stroke or cardiovascular disease.

Which then leads to the best quote I think I read all week:

"There is growing evidence that it's not which nutrient we eat, but the type of foods we eat that is important," said Harvard's Dr. Mozaffarian. "We have to get away from trying to micromanage nutrients and look at the health quality of foods."

That last sentence is key. We continue to look at things in this tiny little box and say “that’s the part that is making this whole thing unhealthy” instead of looking at the combination of things that could be resulting in an unhealthy result.

I’ll give an example. When I’m walking through the grocery store, I tend to take notice of people that have their cart pretty full with food. For the most part, 90% of the stuff in those carts is processed junk, very little fruits and vegetables, and maybe a couple of steaks and some hamburger.

It hit me as rather odd that when reading the “bad things about eating meat” studies and looking at this grocery cart full of processed foods that are loaded with sodium, sugar, trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, etc., the least unhealthiest thing in there IS the non-processed meat.

In the end, and I know I keep saying this, I like to stick with eating meats (the non-processed kinds), fruits, veggies, nuts, and oils. Nice and simple to follow and you get to stay away from the processed meat that is looking like is the true villain in the equation of the bad things about eating meat.

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Shake Weight Review

Ever seen that commercial for the Shake Weight or the Shake Weight for Men?



I was out last week and saw in on a TV in a restaurant I was at and I couldn't eat another bite I was laughing so hard. Here's a short (and in some ways almost obscene) video clip of it:




"Dynamic Interia"?? When I googled that term looking for an actual definition, the first page only had links talking about...The Shake Weight.

I know this goes without saying but, don't waste your money on this product.

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Beginner 30 Minute at Home Workout

Want to try out a beginner 30 minute at home workout? Take a look at the video below:



I'm going to try to get these up roughly once a week so keep an eye out for them.

30 Minute Workout

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Uses of BMI

It seems that no matter what health or fitness website you go on, there will always be a BMI calculator and then some information on the uses of the BMI calculation that it came up with.

I won’t bore you with the entire history of the BMI but just a few key points that are worth going over.

The Body Mass Index (BMI) was originally known as the Quetelet Index and was invented (shockingly) by a guy named Quetelet in 1832.

His goal was to:

describe the standard proportions of the human build—the ratio of weight to height in the average adult.

He did this by:

Using data collected from several hundred countrymen, he found that weight varied not in direct proportion to height (such that, say, people 10 percent taller than average were 10 percent heavier, too) but in proportion to the square of height. (People 10 percent taller than average tended to be about 21 percent heavier.)

The interesting part is that Quetelet didn’t intend for this equation to be used as a way to define obesity or define whether someone was more at risk for obesity related diseases.

Maybe even more importantly, he stressed that information obtained from BMI measurements were more reflective of POPULATIONS and not for individual assessments.

In other words, the way the BMI equation is today is not what it was originally intended to look at.

Presently, it’s almost considered the gold standard in how you are assessed, health-wise.

There’s the added issue that someone with a low body fat but with a lot of lean mass could be considered overweight with following the BMI.

I’ve gone back and forth on what I think about the uses of BMI. Although it’s not being used the way it was originally intended, and it might not be accurate for those with a low body fat percentage, for the most part, I think that it is still an fairly accurate assessment of an individuals “fatness” for 98% of the population.

But, there is a “new” health assessment that is getting some fanfare. It’s called the Weight-to-Height Ratio (WHtR).

To determine your WHtR), you simply take your waist measurement, in inches (at the belly button), and divide it by your height, in inches. The link above will give you a breakdown of what your number means.

The reason this might be a better measure of heart disease risk or other risk factors is because abdomen fat has been found to be more of a predictor of cardiovascular health.

"The size of the hips seems to predict a protective effect. In other words, a big waist with comparably big hips does not appear to be as worrisome as a big waist with small hips," said Dexter Canoy, M.Phil., M.D., Ph.D., a research fellow in epidemiology and public health at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

Although I still think that there are uses of the BMI for assessing overall populations and population trend swifts in how the proportions of our bodies change, I’ll be interested to see if the use of the WHtR will be more widespread in the future as it seems like a fairly good, simple measuring tool and seems to have more of a relationship to determine actual health risks.

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Long Term Benefits of Exercise

In a society that tends to focus on the “here and now” sometimes it’s hard to think about and focus on things like the long-term benefits on exercise.

I wrote about my own experiences with how to age well and how even though I’m still fairly young, I can feel the benefits already of exercising and eating right over the last decade than probably someone who hasn’t followed that same healthy lifestyle.

But I came across an interesting article that looked at the true long term benefits of exercise in men that had been taking a bootcamp style class for over 20 years.



The class was 45-minutes in length and involved no exercise equipment, just the use of bodyweight exercises such as pushups and situps.

The results over a 20 year period are pretty staggering:

Among the 20 who continued coming to class -- 3½ times a week for more than 20 years -- low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the bad type, dropped 27 percent after the first year and 60 percent over 20 years. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the good type, increased by 60 percent after the first year and continued to improve for the next 15 years, according to research published in 2009 in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.

Total cholesterol (LDL, HDL and other lipid components) dropped nearly 18 percent after year one and 40 percent over 20 years, the study found. Triglyceride levels decreased every year, including 23 percent after the first year and 61 percent over 20 years.

The men also lost, on average, 27 pounds.

The article goes on to cite other studies that eleven percent of men that exercise five or more times a week developed heart failure compared to 14 percent of men who didn’t exercise.

Another study of women with an average age of 55 found that over the course of eleven years, the women who exercised were 40 percent less likely to have a heart attack then those women that didn’t exercise.

I think this is a great statement in the article:

"The most important organ in an older person's body is their legs," said Dr. Walter Bortz, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. "If your legs stay good, everything else takes care of itself. You don't fall down and break your hip. Your heart stays good. You don't get frail. Your sex stays good, your brain stays good and you cost less money."

Keeping those legs moving is essential. These are some of the strongest muscles in your body working together and the workhorse for any type of fat loss that you want to obtain. It’s also the muscles that are most involved in pushing various hormones out when you stress them that are then used across your entire body.

How much exercise is needed for middle to older age folks?:

So how much should middle-age people or seniors strive for? At least three, 30-minute sessions of exercise a week, though more is better, Bortz said.

Which is interesting because my 30 Minute Workout that I offer is all of this put together: minimal exercise equipment needed, using just your bodyweight, 30 minutes long, three days a week.

Although it’s great to look at the immediate short-term fat loss and health benefits of exercise, don’t underestimate the long term benefits of exercise on what you are doing now and to just stay consistent with it.

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Life Without Food

Could you imagine what life would be like without food?

I’ve talked in the past about low carb diets and specifically the process of ketosis and I’ve talked about my past experiences (and I still follow it today) about intermittent fasting.

The recent trend in health and fitness is that you must eat 5-6 times a day or your body will fall into “starvation mode”, and really that concept is a bit overblown.

But I came across just a very bizarre story about an 83-year-old Indian yogi that claims he has survived without any food or liquid for over 70 years.



A team of military doctors are going to be observing him for 24 hours in a sealed off area of a hospital for a couple of weeks and also conduct medical tests throughout.

"This may help in working out strategies for survival during natural calamities, extreme stressful conditions and extra-terrestrial explorations like future missions to the Moon and Mars by the human race," Ilavazahagan said.

They’re going to be testing brain and heart activity, his electrodes, as well as blood tests which I’m assuming will contain glucose and cholesterol information.

The yogi states that he gets the energy that he needs for his body from meditating and

Jani, who dresses in red and wears a nose ring, grew up in Charod village in the Mehsana district in Gujarat and claims to have been blessed by a goddess aged eight, which has enabled him to survive without sustenance.

It really truly is something that is hard to believe and I guess that with this observation doctors will be able to tell whether this is real or something fraudulent.

At the same time, though, even though I watch what I eat and eat fairly healthy 90% of the time, would I really want to live a life without food? To never be able to enjoy the tastes of the various foods that are out there? I think I would be missing out on a lot.

What about you? If you could live a normal healthy life but it would be a life without food, would you want to live like that?

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Craving for Sugar

We have an incredible craving for sugar in this country. You walk into the grocery store and you can almost smell it.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, we started seeing the beginnings of the low-fat and no- fat products. The problem with this though is that when the food manufacturers took out the fat, all they did was replace it with sugar and other additives. So a food that had fat in it that added up to 200 calories was replaced with a food that didn’t have fat in it but had more sugar (or High Fructose Corn Syrup) that added up to…200 calories.



The whole concept of taking out the fat from products (we were told) is because we wanted to fight heart disease and dietary fat (saturated fat to be specific) was the main culprit.

But now a new problem.

A new study has come out saying that too much sugar can increase a person’s risk of heart disease.

"Just like eating a high-fat diet can increase your levels of triglycerides and high cholesterol, eating sugar can also affect those same lipids," Dr. Miriam Vos of Emory School of Medicine, who worked on the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said in a statement.

The researchers reviewed what 6,000 adults ate and then grouped them by sugar intake and cholesterol levels.

What they found was:

On average, nearly 16 percent of people's daily calories came from added sugar.

The highest-consuming group ate an average of 46 teaspoons of added sugar per day, while the lowest-consuming group ate an average of only about 3 teaspoons daily.

If someone was getting in 2000 calories a day (which honestly, I think the plurality of people are probably consuming way beyond that), 16 percent of that would be about 80 grams of processed sugar a day. That seems like quite a bit to me and that’s on just a 2000-calorie diet.

The conclusion was

...people who ate more added sugar were more likely to have higher risk factors for heart disease, such as higher triglycerides and lower levels of protective high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol.

The article goes on to say that

The association warned last August that Americans need to cut back dramatically on sugar consumption, recommending that women eat no more than 100 calories per day of added processed sugar a day, or six teaspoons (25 grams), while men should keep it to just 150 calories of added processed sugar per said or nine teaspoons (37.5 grams).

Now remember, they are talking about ADDED sugar to any food you are eating. And when I say “added” I’m talking about pretty much any food that is processed and contains the words “sugar” or “high fructose corn syrup” in the ingredient. Don’t think that it only means what sugar YOU might add to a food (like sprinkling sugar on your morning cereal), it’s any added sugar that is not naturally in the food (like fruit).

That’s why I like just keeping it simple when it comes what to eat to the basics of meat, fruits, veggies, some nuts and oils and leave it at that. No processing of foods, no added salt/sodium, no added sugar. It takes the guesswork out trying to figure out whether the other food in the store is actually healthy or not.

When you essentially throw out the processed food with all that sugar in it and focus on getting sugar from fruit, you still have a craving for sugar but, it’s a different kind of craving. The craving is specifically for the sugar in fruit. Might sound strange but, a candy bar just doesn’t satisfy that craving.

Don’t let those cravings for added sugar get a hold of you and your heart will be better off in the long run.

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Jillian Michaels and Pregnancy

I'm not a big fan of Jillian Michaels and I've ranted about her in the past.

I'm a little late to the show on this one but, she got into a bit of controversy over some comments that she made about pregnancy.



She's quoted in Women's Health as saying that she's not going to have biological children of her own and that:

"I'm going to adopt," and, "I can't handle doing that to my body."

Some media outlets took that and misquoted her as saying that she said something along the line that she "Won't ruin my body with pregnancy."

Okay fine. She was misquoted. But quite frankly, I don't think her actual comment is much better.

As someone who is in the spotlight, has had weight issues in the past, and has a rather large following of her weight loss programs from young women that do not have kids yet, she needs to be careful with comments like this that could greatly influence (or terrify) them into wanting to have a child.

Besides, just because you have a child doesn't mean a woman's figure is ruined. In fact I would almost go as far to say that for the most part, women that I know that had great figures before getting pregnant returned to that figure after a little bit of time after they gave birth.

Bottom line, I think she could have easily said "I'm going to adopt" and ended the sentence there and no one would have blinked an eye.

Thoughts?

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Weekend Calories Can Hurt

Weekend calories can absolutely kill any chance of trying to lose weight.

You start off Monday morning and work hard all week on watching what you eat, measure out your serving sizes, count your calories, and do your exercise.

You then get on the scale the following Monday and the scale hasn't moved. You get frustrated and think "Why am I not losing weight? I was good 90% of the time last week but had a little fun on the weekend. I should have seen some change on the scale."

Your problem might have been that "fun" you had on the weekend.



You can put yourself in a calorie deficit all week long but on the weekend you head out for dinner a couple of times, have a few drinks and snack on some "fun" food that you wouldn't normal eat Monday through Thursday.

Maybe you head to a Mexican restaurant, order your food, and then snack on the chips and salsa while you wait. Your meal comes, but you could have very easily chowed down 500 calories from those chips.

Then Sunday comes around and you have a big family dinner that includes snacks beforehand, followed by a nice main meal, some dessert after and some wine or other alcoholic beverages in between.

But in your mind, you're thinking "I was eating as planned during the week so all of this won't cause a problem." But the scale doesn't lie come Monday morning.

There's a recent article about how weekend calories can wreck your diet that talks about a study that pretty much confirms the scenarios above.

A couple of professors reviewed data from 600 men and women that tracked exactly what they ate over a period of two weeks (they were reviewing data collected from a marketing research survey).

What they found was,

...that people tended to eat more on weekends than they did during the week — particularly at breakfast, when they likely had more time to eat than on weekdays

Dietitian and exercise physiologist Kim Gorman, MS, RD, Weight Management Program director at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado at Denver says it perfectly about the effects of these weekend calories:

"Many dieters feels as though they're dieting all the time but not losing weight, when, in fact, they're creating a calorie deficit Monday through Friday but filling it — and more — during the weekend,"

The weekends tend to not have the structure of routine that we have during the weekdays. I don't think that's a bad thing. We need frequent breaks from the normal day in and day out activities that we do. But that doesn't mean we should go off our regular healthy eating habits 100% of the time during the weekend.

The article gives some tips on ways to avoid weekend calories that cause a "two step forward, two step back" to your weight loss goals.

1. Wake up the same time on the weekends that you do on the weekdays. This one can be rather difficult to do, especially if you're up at 5:00 like I am every weekday morning. But if you can do it, go right ahead.

2. Eat Breakfast. But make sure it's not a bigger breakfast than what you're use to having during the week.

3. Weigh in Friday morning and then again Monday morning. This is a great tip and can really be an eye opener as to how much the weekend calories are causing you to be at a standstill. I've done this a number of times after a "bad" weekend and it definitely raises an eyebrow.

4. Keep a log. I find it difficult for people to keep a log as most people tend to fall off with tracking things pretty quickly and they tend to under report how much they actually eat.

5. Watch your alcohol intake. Alcohol can be a big factor on adding to the weekend calorie total due to how alcohol can shut down the natural fat burning mechanisms that we have.

6. Workout on the weekend. If you don't normally include a workout for yourself on the weekend, add a quick one in. Go on a longer walk with the dog than you normally do as well.

The simplest advice that I can give on this is to continue with your healthy choices of meats, fruits, veggies, and some nuts and oils during the weekend like you normally do, but just take one (and only one) meal on the weekend and use it as a cheat meal. Eat what you want but only for that one meal.

Taking and "cheating" for one meal during the weekend is going to go a lot longer in seeing fat loss results and avoiding the extra weekend calories than using all 9-12 meals during the weekend as a cheat meal.

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