August 2010 Blog Posts

Lately, I've been feeling some stress at my job. Like most jobs, mine has a fair dose of stress that simply comes with the territory. Learning how to manage and deal with that stress is my problem. I've thought a lot about what would help me be less stressed out. For one, losing weight would probably make me feel better, as carrying less weight simply comes with less stress. But also, the act by which I lose it, eating healthier, working out, might actually make me feel better as well. When I'm in a very high stress situation, my first instinct is...

When we're dieting, trying to watch your weight or trying to lose weight, we're typically trying to eat as few calories as possible so that we can drop the pounds. But while we're often trying to eat less calories to lose weight, we often forget that we are supposed to eat a certain number of them to be able to burn the calories and be successful in our workouts. Dr. Martica Heaner says, in this article, there's no exact number that each person should be guided by and that while every body is different, the best we can do is...

I left my last post up a little longer than usual because I thought many buddies would have found the topic of interest-and they did. One of the most interesting things about weight loss is that no matter who you are or where you are, you can usually relate to someone else who's trying to lose weight and some of the methods they are trying. Sometimes, we can relate, that is. Sometimes we cannot. I decided to do a little research and find the 10 craziest diets in history-the diets that might not make sense to you and me, but did...

The very first thing I do when I get home from work every single day, after I walk up the stairs and say hello to the dog is lay down on my bed, even if only for a few minutes. After that, I try to make it to the gym (and unfortunately fail sometimes) and then I get home, eat dinner and usually end up once again laying down on the couch after that. I fall asleep on the couch, then get up only to go lay down in bed. Now, I'm not telling you all this because you need to know...

Last week, I blogged about whether or not drinking water with meals fills you up. It seems I'm blogging quite a bit about water and weight loss lately, but its a topic that probably runs through most of our brains often: does drinking more water help you lose weight? What I determined in my last blog entry is that drinking water during meals can fill you up faster and therefore help you to consume fewer calories, but other than filling up on water instead of food, can drinking more water actually assist in weight loss? According to Time magazine, it can. Time...

I'm sure all of us buddies spend a great deal of time thinking about how quickly we can lose weight. But something we often don't consider is how quickly the weight can catch up to us when we've lost a little bit (or a lotta bit) of weight and how fast we can go right back to where we started. Why does the weight creep back on us so quickly, but leave our bodies so slowly? According to this article, the answer is as simple as you'd think: gaining weight is easy and losing weight is hard. The article explains that eating...

I went to a fair tonight, and while I didn't have very high expectations, I did thing possibly, somewhere, around some corner, I would find something I would want to eat that wasn't unbelievably crazy caloric. I was mistaken. Around every corner was fried dough, or London broil sandwiches, or sausage and peppers, or pizza, or slushies, or ice cream, or candy apples. All delicious things that once upon a time, I probably would have tasted some of all of them and not had to worry about packing on some extra pounds. But now, I can't eat all, or one...

I am a huge fan of energy drinks. I know they are "not healthy" to drink all the time (some say not healthy to drink at all), but when I drink one, I feel awake, alert and ready to go. I do not feel the same, however, when I immediately workout after drinking one. Then I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. Energy drinks' magic ingredient is caffeine, and they typically are loaded with much more caffeine than your regular coffee, and typically tons of sugar also, unless you get the sugar free ones (my favorite is sugar free...

As sad as it is, Summer is almost over and it soon will be time for "back to school" and leaves falling off the trees once again. But hey-let's not jump the gun...there are still a few more weeks of summer. Which means there will still be summer temptations to lead us away from our weight loss goals. The Huffington Post posted this article with a few tips to help you stick to your goals while enjoying your summer. These tips are mostly for spending time on the beach, or traveling during a summer vacation. In both scenarios, people typically pack...

Green tea is hot in the diet world right now and can be found in many products that preach they can help you drop some lbs. in a "healthy" and "natural" way. It does contain caffeine, an ingredient found in many weight loss drugs, which could be why it is popping up in so many products lately. You can get a dose of green tea in so many ways, from gum to powder you put in your drinks, to energy-style bars, to the tea itself. But with all the ways you can eat it, can it really help you lose weight? According to...

We all know water does a body good. It is good for your skin, good for your digestive system-just good all around. And while we are dieting, we are often told that we should drink extra water. But if we drink the extra water, does it fill us up too fast if we are drinking it with meals? According to Dr. Martica Heaner in this MSN article, there is little evidence that suggests that drinking a great amount of water during a meal will have a negative effect on your weight. However, drinking a great deal of water can make you...

I'm pretty addicted to diet soda. I used to be a heavy drinker of regular, and then when I first started my weight loss journey, I quit regular soda and lost 10 lbs. just from switching to diet. It has gotten to the point, though, where I'm drinking diet soda sometimes with three meals a day (sometimes the bubbles wake me up a little bit in the morning), and I was left questioning if diet soda was helping or hurting my weight loss efforts. What I found, after looking at a few different articles, is that many believe that diet...

I think it's fair to say that for most jobs out there, weight is not a factor in whether or not you can perform your job-as long as its not a physical job. Some jobs require you to be a lower weight because they are dependent on your physical appearance, for instance modeling or acting. But when a job depends on neither being physically in shape or appearing a certain way, people are generally appalled when a story comes out about how employers have asked employees to lose weight for their jobs. Today, AOL posted a story about 28 flight attendants that...

Whenever I'm on a diet and I learn a new tip or trick that has helped someone else be successful, I get pretty excited. It's almost like buying a brand new shirt...except way better, because it's the gift that keeps on giving. I, personally, don't have many tips and tricks that I can share with you, unfortunately, but I thought maybe if I write this post, a few people might want to share some of their tips with each other. A few that I know for cutting calories and keeping weight down include: -ripping the inside out of your bread and bagels (thought...

Buddies will now be able to chat over the Internet in VoIP chatrooms through WLB with a new feature that has expert-moderators leading the chats. The chats will be hosted by different moderators, and can even be hosted by you, if you decide you'd like to moderate one. Each chat will be on a topic-some of the topics are offered more than once in case someone misses it. Upcoming topics in August include: losing weight slowly with small changes; preparing yourself mentally for exercise; talking about various food plans; and exploring exercise options. Most of the chats will be hosted at 10...

I think Jennifer Hudson is one of the most inspirational celebrities in recent years. To go through what she has gone through after her family members being murdered and still be out in the spotlight is very brave. She took another brave step this year and faced her weight loss demons. After giving birth to her first child in August of 2009, Jennifer Hudson went on to drop down from a size 16 to a size 6. She is also a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers now. But while she's proud of her weight loss, she says she doesn't want to lose...