09ismine

Much better Monday.  Met all goals.  Exercise consists of 3 mile walk.

Goals:

Eat Breakfast

Drink water 95 oz

Took my vitamins

Ate 2 pieces of fruits

No vegetables though

Ate lunch

Ate dinner

Beware of packaging propaganda: Food-industry health claims can be misleading, say researchers at the University of California, Davis. Case in point: Recently, Dannon settled a false advertising lawsuit—that will pay out up to $35 million—for claims made on the labels of Activia and DanActive yogurts. The suit alleged, among other things, that the company charged a premium for products that haven’t been shown to provide additional health benefits for already healthy people, as claimed. Dannon denies any wrongdoing, but agreed to make several changes to their packaging.

You see, your supermarket’s shelves are packed with overhyped health claims. And while many of these claims may be factual, they may also be giving you the wrong impression about just how healthful a product really is. That’s because marketers highlight what they want you to notice. “Even if a food is fat free, it could be loaded with sugar,” says study author Clare Hasler, Ph.D. “Or a product that’s ‘made with whole grains’ may also contain a high amount of refined flour.” Your best strategy: Use this guide to learn the science behind the sales pitch. Call it the Eat This, Not That crib sheet for helping you to beat Big

The claim: “With Whole Grain”

What you should know: If it’s really “100% whole grain,” it’ll say so on the package. Even in a “whole grain” product, some of the flour can come from refined grains—and probably does. Check the ingredient list: Any flour that doesn’t start with the word “whole” isn’t. And remember, ingredients are listed in descending order of the amount used by weight. Another example: Reese’s Puffs touts “with whole grain” on the label. Of course, the label doesn’t boast that a three-quarter cup serving of the cereal also contains 3 teaspoons of sugar.

Bonus tip: For even more examples of how you’re being tricked by the food industry, check out 30 “healthy” foods that aren’t.

The product: Kellogg’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop-Tarts

The claim: “Good source of 7 vitamins and minerals”

What you should know: Federal regulations require that enriched flour—the first ingredient in this product and the same stuff white bread is made from—contain five of the seven vitamins and minerals the package so proudly touts. That’s right: Load a product with refined flour, and you can distract consumers from the fact that it’s not made with whole grains by simply bragging that it contains all kinds of vitamins and minerals.

The product: Cheetos Puffs

The claim: “0 Grams Trans Fat”

What you should know: To claim “0 grams of trans fat” a product must contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving—so it’s not necessarily trans fat free. The dead giveaway? The words “partially hydrogenated” on the ingredient list. Granted, half a gram is a tiny amount, but don’t assume the product is healthy even it doesn’t contain any trans fat. After all, it could still be packed with an overload of sugar, fat, sodium or additives. Remember, marketers are masters of misdirection.

Bonus tip: If you dare, find out the truth about your food—it could be the most important health story you read this year.

The product: Welch’s 100% Grape Juice

The claims:

• “No sugar added—ever!”
• “Helps support a healthy heart, mind & immune system.”

What you should know: While an 8-ounce serving of this beverage is loaded with healthful antioxidants, it also contains more sugar than a 12-ounce soda. That’s something to keep in mind, since research shows that high-sugar drinks don’t seem to reduce your hunger compared to solid food. As a result, the calories they provide can become excess calories if you’re not careful.

The product: Twizzlers Strawberry Twists

The claim: “As always: a low-fat candy.”

What you should know: Of course Twizzlers are low in fat—more than 90 percent of their calories come from sugar and processed carbs. What’s more, you’ll find “fat free” claims on the labels of such sugar-packed products as Swedish Fish, Mike and Ike, and Good & Plenty. It seems that food manufacturers think you’re stupid. In fact, their marketing strategies rely on that belief. For instance, the makers of the aforementioned candies may be hoping you’ll equate “fat free” with “healthy” or “nonfattening,” so you’ll forget about all the sugar their products contain.

Bonus tip: Losing weight isn’t the only secret to looking younger; find more in this excerpt from Your Best Body at 40-Plus.

Food at its own game—and eat healthier for life.

The product: Quaker Instant Oatmeal Maple & Brown Sugar

The claim: An American Heart Association logo displayed on the product’s box, with fine print below the logo that reads that the food meets the AHA’s “food criteria for saturated fat and cholesterol.”

What you should know: It contains more sugar than a bowl of Froot Loops. Fact is, it could contain a pound of sugar and still meet the AHA’s qualifications. But guess what? Froot Loops meets the AHA’s criteria, too, only no logo is displayed. That’s because companies must pay to be an American Heart Association–certified food. That’s why the AHA checkmark might appear on one product but not on another, even when both meet the guidelines.

The product: Nabisco Honey Teddy Grahams

The claim: “A good source of: calcium, iron, zinc”

What you should know: For a food to be considered a good source of a specific vitamin or mineral, a serving must contain 10 percent of the recommended daily value for that nutrient. In this case, you’d have to eat 10 servings of Teddy Grahams—more than the entire box—to hit the amount of calcium you need for the day. Now think about it: Is that really a good source?

The product: SnackWell’s Devil’s Food Cookie Cakes

The claim: “Sensible snacking: fat-free, no cholesterol, low sodium”

What you should know: The first four ingredients are sugar, enriched flour, high-fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. Is that really sensible snacking? Of course not. Follow these seven snack-smart strategiesinstead.

The product: Kellogg’s Corn Flakes

The claim: There’s a “Diabetes Friendly” logo on the box’s side panel.

What you need to know: Australian researchers have shown that corn flakes raise blood glucose faster and to a greater extent than straight table sugar. (High blood glucose is the primary indicator of diabetes.) Below the logo, the cereal maker does provide a link to its Web site, where general nutrition recommendations are provided for people with diabetes. But these recommendations are authored by Kellogg’s nutritionists—and simply “based on” the guidelines of the American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetes Association.

The product: Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Toasted Oat

The claim: That its content of whole grain oats, antioxidants and potassium, along with the fact that it’s low in sodium, can help lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

What you need to know: Yes, this cereal has plenty of healthful ingredients. However, one serving contains more sugar—17 grams—than a serving of Froot Loops (12 grams). Hey, Froot Loops is an easy target! So before you think you’ve found the ultimate cereal—”It’s healthy and it tastes like candy!”—consider all the nutrition facts, not just the ones they tout on the front of the box.

Whether you’re walking around with a box of tissues or curled up in bed with aches and the shivers, what you feed your cold or flu can speed your recovery. Here’s how to maximize your body’s virus-busting powers.1. Trust Your Body

If you instinctively sip cup after cup of tea with honey and lemon when you’re under the weather, your body knows exactly what it’s doing. While any hot liquid will help loosen clogged nasal passages and soothe sore throats, hot tea also doses you with virus-fighting, inflammation-relieving antioxidants. (In fact, people who drank 5 cups of black tea a day for 2 weeks produced 10 times more interferon — proteins that fight viruses — than those who drank instant coffee. For tea lovers, 5 cups is equal to about 3 full mugs — not that much.)

As for the honey (the darker, the better), it’s also thick with protective antioxidants. And a big squeeze of lemon in every mugful adds a little extra vitamin C to your virus-fighting kit; plus, the tartness stimulates saliva, which makes swallowing easier.

2. Trust Your Grandma

Researchers keep trying to figure out why chicken soup does a sick body good. One finding: cysteine, an amino acid that’s released by cooked chicken. It’s chemically similar to acetylcysteine, a bronchitis drug, and it works with other soup ingredients to reduce inflammation. Salty broth also helps thin mucus.

Chicken soup helps even more if you rev it up with spices: garlic, which has a well-earned reputation for squelching infection, and hot red pepper, which contains capsaicin, a powerful decongestant that intensifies the soup’s sinus-clearing effects. Try this tried-and-true recipe.

3. Trust Your Tummy

Smooth, healthy, comforting — no wonder lots of sickies crave hot cereal or cool yogurt. Again, your body knows what it’s doing. Oatmeal (like other whole-grain cereals) delivers three nutrients known to support your immune system: selenium, zinc, and beta-glucan. Yogurt with active cultures (aka probiotics or live healthy bacteria) helps fend off colds in the first place. One, Lactobacillus reuteri (found in Stonyfield Farm yogurt), seems to be especially protective.

Top your oatmeal or yogurt with strawberries, nuts, and seeds. You’ll get a vitamin C boost from the berries and immunity-enhancement from the vitamin E, zinc, and selenium in the nuts and seeds. Extra selenium may be extra important if you have the flu, since it seems to ward off lung inflammation.

Alternatively, stir lots of cinnamon into oatmeal or yogurt — it smells and tastes wonderful, and it can help reduce fever, relieve pain, and kill germs. If nausea is adding to your misery, add a little ginger, fresh or powdered. It’s a proven tummy tamer and may take antibacterial action against any bad bugs in your respiratory tract.

Once your cold or flu is over (whew), try keeping up some of these habits, especially drinking plenty of antioxidant-packed tea. Not only could it help prevent another bout, but getting the right amount of antioxidants through diet or supplements can make your RealAge 6 years younger, too.

And keep cold and flu bugs from coming back with these simple tactics.

Break-up is hurting a lot.  I ate all night.  Chips, cookies, cookie dough, 4 slices of pizza, the list goes on.   I feel it today.  Food hangover.

Emotionally ate.  Broke up with the boyfriend.

Eating  met my goal

Exercise 1/2 an hour treadmill met my goal

Water 80 oz met my goal

Calories 1450 met my goal

Sleep 9 hours met my goal

I’m tired of restarting this journey every other day.  Will get back to it Monday.

Music is my motivator.  What kind of music do you listen to for motivation?

The truth about bingeing and indulging:

Fifty-five percent of you say you’d feel comfortable telling others about your food indulgences. Which means, you guessed it, 45 percent of you might not be as quick to share information like, say, the fact that you would polish off a whole bag of potato chips in one sitting (27 percent of you have), or that you would eat a whole large pizza or a tub of ice cream (18 percent of you admit to this one).

Taxing as it feels to own up to these things, it can make avoiding them easier and more painless in the future. “When you lie about your indulgences, you’re supporting the misconception that it’s wrong to have ‘treats,’” says Lynn. “Ironically, that can increase your cravings by making those ‘bad’ foods seem even more like forbidden fruit.”

The truth of the matter is that one meal isn’t going to make or break your weight, especially if you steer toward healthy practices overall. While Lynn does not endorse downing tubs of ice cream and whole pizza pies, she notes that people often see success with what’s called the 80/20 rule — when you make healthy choices 80 percent of the time and work some small, portion-controlled amounts of your favorite less-healthy choices in for the rest. If you actively put these foods in your diet in a reasonable way, you’ll save yourself those late-night breakdowns.

What people will and won’t tell about dieting:

If your clothes started to feel snug, 41 percent of you say you’d definitely go on a diet — but keep it secret. Not a bad idea, according to our experts. “While social support is important in dieting, it needs to come in the right context,” says New York dietician Stephanie Middleberg, M.S., R.D. “Losing weight through a program can be good, but from my experience, people don’t want to tell their non-dieting nearest and dearest because they intuitively know that they’ll feel put under a microscope and that will increase their fear of failure. From that perspective, the secrecy is definitely okay.”

Even better, she adds, is to reframe the situation completely and take out the word “diet,” something an impressive 41 percent of you say you’d do. Middleberg points out that by dropping the “d-word” and simply thinking about re-orienting your lifestyle toward health, you’ll still be doing the same things — reducing junk food; eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins; and exercising more — but you’ll take away the pressure, both external and internal.

On the survey, there were also some other creative thoughts worth noting: Six percent of you said you would worry about the extra pounds later, eight percent would tell the world you’re going on a diet then maybe follow through and four percent would find a diet buddy or group to get you going (something that, studies show, can be extremely motivating for certain people). Social support is good if you aren’t shy about personal information and tend to perform well when you’re accountable to a group. Even if you’re a person who does well in those situations, given the stressful and emotional nature of weight-loss, it’s important to look for workout buddies who you think will be supportive and build you up as you push each other forward.

How often weight is actually on people’s minds:

Thirty-three percent of you say you count calories all the time, and an additional 31 say you do it, but only when you’re losing weight. The appeal here is a sense of control, but one that our experts say can sometimes be misplaced. “I wouldn’t recommend counting calories in your head for a few reasons,” says Lynn. “First of all, it’s tough to keep a tally that extends beyond meal-by-meal. Second, we also overlook those ‘hidden’ calories in things like sauces, toppings, and salad dressings, for example.”

More important than the numbers is to strive for healthy choices, practice portion control and stay active. If you feel you need to monitor your intake more strongly, opt for a food diary or online weight-loss program (eight percent of you are already doing it). A 2008 Kaiser Permanente study found that among dieters, those who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t. “A food diary or log of some kind is a real act of commitment,” says Middleberg. “You keep your intake in check because it’s just not fun to list out your vices and have to look at them.” Or, “Better still,” recommends Middleburg, “show it to a group or dietician.”

What to believe about workout feats:

Twenty-six percent of you say you’ve lied about or exaggerated the degree of a previous fitness feat. The reasoning’s pretty obvious is this situation: “People lie to feel important or to save face,” says Lamothe. “If they think — however misguidedly — they’ll look bad by not lying, that’s when they’ll bump up a result or story.” The down sides, of course, are manifold. Once you’ve lied about something, it’s tough to do that activity together with the people you lied to, for example. Further, you’re putting additional pressure on yourself to perform at a level you just haven’t reached yet, making the task that much more onerous. If you tend to fall into this trap frequently, try boosting your resume with, say, a breadth of feats you have achieved rather than focusing on one that you haven’t quite gotten to yet.

Are Americans ready to go public with their weight?

Still, even after all you’re not willing to divulge, 35 percent of you say you’d “weigh in” in front of a group of people or online. Of the 17 percent who’ve actually tried it, you were split about 50/50 as to whether you’d try it again. This makes total sense, our experts say. The approach’s effectiveness is completely dependent on how you react to social support, something you’ll have a sense of given past experiences. “Revealing and knowing others’ weight numbers is an interesting topic,” says Middleberg. “I’ve actually had clients compare themselves and their numbers to those contestants on ‘The Biggest Loser,’ sort of playing along. For some, it’s motivating, but I always tell my clients that 150 pounds on one person looks completely different on someone else. If it’s something you’d like to do, make sure you’re focusing on accountability and not comparison.”

Weight-Loss (Dis)Honesty Survey Results Revealed

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By Sara Reistad-Long

Our recent Weight-Loss (Dis)Honesty Survey challenged you be candid about how much you do and don’t reveal about weight issues. Then, we asked five top diet experts to go over your responses and tell us not just what they might mean, but also which secrets are best told, and which are fine to keep to yourself, when looking to maximize weight-related health and happiness. Read on, for the honest truth about this (often hazy) issue.

When (and how) people lie about their weight:

When it comes to letting friends know how much you weigh, a full 42 percent of the 2,450 survey takers said they wouldn’t tell the truth. (Along the same lines, 39 percent of also said they were willing to shave up to 10 pounds off of the weight reported on their driver’s license.) Surprisingly, our experts say this isn’t such a bad thing. Why? “It’s not anyone else’s business what your weight is,” says Jessica Lynn, Director of Program Development at the Hilton Head Health Center in Hilton Head, North Carolina. “Our society has placed a stigma on weight, and by answering those numbers questions you’re putting yourself at risk of buying into it.” Further, she continues, your numerical weight is such a poor approximation of how fit or unhealthy you may actually be — a whole host of things, from exercise endurance to how much actual body fat you have factor in — that even you yourself shouldn’t look at it out of context.

Interestingly, according to your responses, spouses get a bit more of the straight story. You’re almost 10 percent less likely to lie to your partner than your friends. Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of “10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet” thinks she knows why: “Your spouse sees you without your clothes on, so you’re already not hiding anything.” In addition, the sense of competition may be less with a partner than with a peer. Overall, our panel agreed that your best bet here is probably to not get into the weight conversation at all. If you’re feeling pressured to do so, you can try focusing on your broad, positive health goals.

When (and how) people lie about how they perceive others’ weight:

Only 33 percent of you say you’d be honest with your partner if you thought he or she needed to shed some pounds. By contrast, 25 percent of you would opt for saying nothing at all. The real shocker here, though, may be that an entire 42 percent of you prefer the subtle approach (making healthy meals, offering to exercise together). In this case, while gentle, non-confrontational encouragement might feel like the “nice” thing to do, there’s a chance of backfire.

“Do you really think your partner won’t notice that he or she is suddenly being fed carrots and cottage cheese?” asks Martin Binks, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Duke and Director and CEO of Binks Behavioral Health. The concern, he explains, is that people take what you’re seeing as quiet support as passive-aggressive disapproval. “Obesity is a real risk, so there’s nothing wrong with speaking with a loved one about a genuine concern about their health, particularly if you do it in a kind and honest way,” he says. “Then you can do all those things like offer to work out with them.”

Looking farther down the survey, it turns out that just one more degree of separation makes you even less likely to get involved. When you think a friend or family member looks overweight in an outfit, 58 percent of you would say nothing, while 32 percent of you would put the blame squarely on the outfit. Only one percent of you would suggest diet or exercise.

“Most people fear that if they say something they’ll anger or alienate their friend,” says Denise Lamothe, Ph.D., author of “The Taming of the Chew.” “They’re right in that it’s important to recognize that you can’t make somebody change or lose weight and you absolutely shouldn’t bring up something so sensitive if you think there’s a risk of making them feel bad about themselves.” However, she adds, if it’s somebody really close to you and your concern is great, it is often possible to communicate your concern in a gentle, supportive and caring fashion. It’s important to present your concerns in a low-key way that makes the other person feel like you’re not judging him or her for example.

How people do and don’t measure their weight:

Unsurprisingly, stepping on the scale is the favorite strategy for 72 percent of you when it comes to keeping tabs on how much you’re gaining or losing. However, 12 percent of you say trying on your skinny (or fat) jeans can do the trick. And 14 percent more of you either wait until you go to the doctors’ office or avoid the practice altogether. Further, among those of you who do keep up with your weight, 36 percent of you do it daily while 26 percent opt for a weekly check-up. The numbers go down from there, with five percent of you saying you never, ever check.

While it’s important not to get too caught up in numbers (your weight tends to naturally fluctuate because of water retention and how much food is in your stomach at any given time), research is showing that keeping tabs on them has one distinct advantage. “Years ago, I would have told you to weigh yourself no more than twice a week,” say Somer. “But data from the National Weight Control Registry, which has followed thousands of people who have lost and successfully kept off a significant amount of weight, has found that those people weigh themselves several times a week and start taking action at the first sign of gain.”

A bit more frequency, it turns out, can actually make the process less scary and important-feeling — you’ll tend to have a sense of where you’ll be, eliminating big build-ups and surprises. Binks even suggests plotting your weigh-ins on a graph. While it sounds more intense, it will actually help you put the small fluctuations in perspective in order to see the larger patterns. It’s critical, all the experts interviewed say, to remember that the scale is just one small part of the puzzle. If weighing is consistently frustrating, experts say there’s also nothing wrong with paying extra attention to how your clothes fit — especially jeans, which are designed to follow the figure.