One of my clients gave me this website to check out. This could be a great way to measure how many calories you are taking in when you are making big recipes. Just type in the individual ingredients and calculate. Thanks Kim!
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Correlation Between Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain
We all know the simple math of losing weight. Expending more calories than you're taking in. Why, then, is the scale not moving? Many studies have shown that sleep deprivation can have an enormous effect on your ability to lose weight.
Studies have shown that too little sleep changes the body's secretion of leptin and gherelin hormones, which control your hunger and satiety levels. When you are sleep deprived, your leptin levels are low. This triggers your body into thinking it needs more food, therefore, resulting in an increased consumption of unneccesary calories. Same goes for gherelin, the hormone that tells your body it needs food. After eating a meal, your gherelin levels drop. However, when you are sleep deprived these levels remain high, triggering you to eat more.
A recent review by a team from Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Medical School found that all of the large studies that followed people over time agreed that short sleep duration was associated with future weight gain. This connection was particularly strong in children: all 31 studies in children showed a strong association between short sleep duration and current and future obesity. For example, a study by Susan Redline and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine showed an inverse correlation between sleep duration and obesity in high-school-age students. The shorter the sleep, the higher the likelihood of being overweight, with those getting six to seven hours of sleep more than two and a half times as likely to be overweight as those getting more than eight hours.
The connection between sleep deprivation and obesity comes on top of previous research linking sleep deprivation with increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
You can help reverse your risk simply by increasing your shut eye every night. The University of Chicago study on sleep duration and appetite found that allowing the study subjects to sleep 10 hours for two consecutive nights returned the hormones to normal levels and lowered hunger and appetite ratings by almost 25 percent.
Some strategies for getting to sleep quicker? Avoid bright screens, such as computers, before bed. Try reading a book. Keep the lights dim, which will help trigger your mind into thinking it's tired. Avoid exercise too late at night. Hormones released after exercise have been shown to increase your energy levels and keep you up later than desired. Slowly, increase your sleep time every night by 15 minutes until you have reached 8 hours of sleep. It's a lot easier to prevent weight gain and diabetes by getting enough sleep than it is to treat the problems once they develop.
Studies have shown that too little sleep changes the body's secretion of leptin and gherelin hormones, which control your hunger and satiety levels. When you are sleep deprived, your leptin levels are low. This triggers your body into thinking it needs more food, therefore, resulting in an increased consumption of unneccesary calories. Same goes for gherelin, the hormone that tells your body it needs food. After eating a meal, your gherelin levels drop. However, when you are sleep deprived these levels remain high, triggering you to eat more.
A recent review by a team from Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Medical School found that all of the large studies that followed people over time agreed that short sleep duration was associated with future weight gain. This connection was particularly strong in children: all 31 studies in children showed a strong association between short sleep duration and current and future obesity. For example, a study by Susan Redline and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine showed an inverse correlation between sleep duration and obesity in high-school-age students. The shorter the sleep, the higher the likelihood of being overweight, with those getting six to seven hours of sleep more than two and a half times as likely to be overweight as those getting more than eight hours.
The connection between sleep deprivation and obesity comes on top of previous research linking sleep deprivation with increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
You can help reverse your risk simply by increasing your shut eye every night. The University of Chicago study on sleep duration and appetite found that allowing the study subjects to sleep 10 hours for two consecutive nights returned the hormones to normal levels and lowered hunger and appetite ratings by almost 25 percent.
Some strategies for getting to sleep quicker? Avoid bright screens, such as computers, before bed. Try reading a book. Keep the lights dim, which will help trigger your mind into thinking it's tired. Avoid exercise too late at night. Hormones released after exercise have been shown to increase your energy levels and keep you up later than desired. Slowly, increase your sleep time every night by 15 minutes until you have reached 8 hours of sleep. It's a lot easier to prevent weight gain and diabetes by getting enough sleep than it is to treat the problems once they develop.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Weekly Challenge-push ups
Let's shoot for at least 30 pushups every day this week. Need to break them up in sets of 10s or 5s? Go ahead and do so. Your focus should be on form, not how many you can do at a time. Shoot for perfect form every time, meaning shoulders directly over hands and lowering your body enough that the upper part of your arms are parallel with the ground.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Challenge of the week
I'm going to start having a weekly challenge for you to follow every week. With "dieting" a lot of people tend to cut something out of their diet cold turkey and then eventually crave it, leading to a binge. Instead, take baby steps and try cutting back bad foods or add in healthy foods slowly. This will train your body to know what it needs and eventually your body will crave the healthy stuff and reject the bad.
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:
Pop drinker? Try cutting down by 25%, whether that is removing one can/day from your diet or one can/week. Replace that can with a glass of water.
Not a pop drinker? Try drinking an extra glass of water/day. Most people don't hydrate themselves well enough. Staying hydrated keeps your brain thinking properly, your body working more effectively, and your exercise performace more efficient.
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:
Pop drinker? Try cutting down by 25%, whether that is removing one can/day from your diet or one can/week. Replace that can with a glass of water.
Not a pop drinker? Try drinking an extra glass of water/day. Most people don't hydrate themselves well enough. Staying hydrated keeps your brain thinking properly, your body working more effectively, and your exercise performace more efficient.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Importance of Breakfast
People tend to skip breakfast for many different reasons. "I don't have time in the morning," "I'm not hungry," etc. etc. What people don't always realize is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Just like the word says, you are "breaking the fast" that occurs when you are sleeping. Here are a few important facts to consider when you're thinking about skipping that first meal.
1. Breakfast helps boost your metabolism because your body has to digest the food you eat, just as eating smaller meals throughout the day will boost your metabolism instead of 3 large ones.
2. Children who eat breakfast tend to do better in school, pay better attention, are more creative, and score higer on tests. This can have the same effect for you at work.
3. Eating breakfast prevents binging in the afternoon, and therefore helps with weight management. A lot of people think that if they skip breakfast, they save calories and can afford to eat more later. This usually leads to binging on foods that are most likely unhealthy for you.
Here are some tips for those of you who don't think you "have enough time" in the morning to make breakfast.
1. Lay out what you plan on eating the night before. If it's a bowl of cereal, lay out the bowl, spoon, and cereal box out on the counter.
2. Chop up vegetables the night before so you won't have to when you're making that egg omelette in the morning.
3. Buy individual yogurt containers and wash/cut up fruit in advance. It only takes a few seconds to grab it and go if you're in a rush.
*You wouldn't drive your car without fueling up first would you? Then why would you not fuel up your body? A little bit of breakfast is better than no breakfast.
p.s. Here is a delicious recipe to try that's healthy and quick! Make them the night before and heat them up in the morning. Great combination of healthy carbs and protein!
3/4 cup egg whites
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 tbsp. cottage cheese
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. Sugar free maple syrup (optional)
1/4 cup blueberries (optional)
*Mix all ingredients together and cook like a pancake!
1. Breakfast helps boost your metabolism because your body has to digest the food you eat, just as eating smaller meals throughout the day will boost your metabolism instead of 3 large ones.
2. Children who eat breakfast tend to do better in school, pay better attention, are more creative, and score higer on tests. This can have the same effect for you at work.
3. Eating breakfast prevents binging in the afternoon, and therefore helps with weight management. A lot of people think that if they skip breakfast, they save calories and can afford to eat more later. This usually leads to binging on foods that are most likely unhealthy for you.
Here are some tips for those of you who don't think you "have enough time" in the morning to make breakfast.
1. Lay out what you plan on eating the night before. If it's a bowl of cereal, lay out the bowl, spoon, and cereal box out on the counter.
2. Chop up vegetables the night before so you won't have to when you're making that egg omelette in the morning.
3. Buy individual yogurt containers and wash/cut up fruit in advance. It only takes a few seconds to grab it and go if you're in a rush.
*You wouldn't drive your car without fueling up first would you? Then why would you not fuel up your body? A little bit of breakfast is better than no breakfast.
p.s. Here is a delicious recipe to try that's healthy and quick! Make them the night before and heat them up in the morning. Great combination of healthy carbs and protein!
3/4 cup egg whites
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 tbsp. cottage cheese
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. Sugar free maple syrup (optional)
1/4 cup blueberries (optional)
*Mix all ingredients together and cook like a pancake!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Half Marathon Training
So I'm training for my first half marathon with one of my clients, Jessica. The race is Sunday, October 17th. Anyone have any good tips for the training process?
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