September 2010 Blog Posts

The abilities and health effects of the popular Pom Wonderful juice (shaped in a round bottle in the produce section), have come under scrutiny this week and topped health headlines nationally. While pomegranate juice is said to have positive health effects, the company that produces the juice is said to have made "false and unsubstantiated claims" in advertisements about just how healthy the juice is, according to ABC News. The ads claim that POM Wonderful can treat heart disease, erectile dysfunction, and prostate cancer. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed the complaint this week against the company claiming these are not...

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen last night's episode, if you read until the end, you will know who went home. It's only Week 2 on the ranch, and already the Biggest Loser has lots of surprises in store for us. For starters, if you caught last week's episode, Jillian, Bob and Allie went city to city to hand pick this season's contestants through a series of challenges. However, they left two slots open so that Jillian and Bob could each pick one contestant to come to the ranch and have another shot at the show. They ended up choosing Aaron and...

We have all seen the many ways weight loss can change a person's life.  Weight loss gives us confidence, happiness, and most importantly, health. But weight loss can also change the lives of the people around us, especially our spouses. When one of the two "better halfs' loses weight, it can have an effect on the marriage as the individual's confidence and attitude can be enhanced. Also, once a person feels more comfortable with him or herself, it is only natural that they would become more comfortable with their partner. But even more strengthening to a marriage is when a couple loses...

Here's an interesting "back to school" story for you: research suggests that having a heavier roommate can actually make college students gain less weight. This seems a little backwards, since in order for one roommate to have success in maintaining their weight, the other roommate would be heavy, but according to the study, which examined 144 Freshman females, found that by witnessing some of the behaviors of the heavier roommate, the other roommate was able to maintain their weight and gain less than their peers. Study co-author Kandice Kapinos, of the University of Michigan, explained this by stating that in college, many...

If you've never checked out WebMD, it may be a good thing. Well, not because it's a bad Web site, because quite the opposite-it's amazing. But once you "WebMD" something, you get hooked and soon, everytime a mosquito bites you, you will be checking WebMD to make sure it's nothing more than a bugbite. Anyway, WebMD posted an article today that claims that individuals who drink milk may have better chances at losing weight than those who do not. This news is contrary to many diets which tell us we should limit our dairy intake. The article is about a study...

In case you guys haven't heard, I wanted to tell you about the upcoming VoIP chats that are going to be happening over the next few days. A VoIP chatroom is a live chat where you can actually hear and talk to other members in the room through WLB and the Internet. This is an exclusive feature of WLB that you should all definitely be taking advantage of! Why? If no other reason, then you should take advantage of it because it's free! Anyways, this is basically like being able to talk to all of your best friends for free about your...

Your mom/dad? Your husband/wife? Your best friend? Your pet? Everyone has their own preference about who they are closest to that they would help push them to lose the most weight. But does it matter who helps you lose it and is there a "best" person to help you lose weight? Well, not really. But it really depends on your relationship with the person. You want to be as comfortable as possible when you're losing weight. You don't want to be concerned about what the other person will think about seeing you sweat or what you look like in your workout clothes. If...

It's no surprise that your brain has a lot to do with your weight loss. But do you know just how much it has to do with it? Well, let me back up. Your brain has a lot to do with every single thing your body. But your brain and your mental and emotional health can have a very serious and direct effect on your weight loss efforts. The more organized your thoughts and energetic your mind feels, the more motivated you will be to lose the weight. You can keep your mind energized by stimulating it with challenges, such as a...

(I attempted to post this last night from my phone! But needless to say, my smartphone just isn't THAT smart yet :) ) As I write this blogpost, I am lying in a big comfy bed at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, relaxing, lounging and enjoying my time in New England. My fiance is on a business trip and got a two-night's stay in the hotel-so I decided to come along for the ride. The only problem is, while he's tied up in conferences from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., I basically have to fend for myself. Entertainment wise, this is no problem as...

I've rarely watched an entire episode of Dr. Oz, mostly because at least once on every episode (it seems), Dr. Oz decides to cut open an organ (it also almost always seems to have to do with the digestive system and "poo") and while I can tolerate open body parts on Nip/Tuck or any of the plastic surgery shows, something about knowing they are real parts freaks me out. I did, however, catch Dr. Oz last week one day and was intrigued by what he described as his "Just 10" Challenge. The challenge is this: everyone in America should lose 10...

As a woman, I am able to say that my hormones are often working against me instead of working in my favor. They make me cry at times, affect my skin, and could possibly be affecting my weight loss efforts. A new study by a Spanish research group found that some people, who have elevated levels of two particular hormones, gherlin and leptin, which affect our appetites, often times regain weight they have lost and have a harder time keeping the weight off. After conducting the study on 104 obese men and women, the results proved that those individuals who naturally possess...

I was lucky enough to have some time today to take a nice long walk with the dog and think about nothing and everything all at once. And while I was reflecting, I thought about my favorite thing about losing weight. Sure, we all like how our clothes fit better (or even better is when they don't fit at all because we're down a whole size and have to go out and get a whole new wardrobe). Or maybe it's the comments people make when they haven't seen you for some time and when they do again, you're 20 lbs lighter...

I love all the weight loss shows that were on tv last year and I'm looking forward to this year's lineup, which will be starting soon for some shows and has already begun for others. My favorite is, of course, the Biggest Loser. Those of you who have been following my blog for the past year know how much I feel that the Biggest Loser is an inspiring and entertaining show that gives us a glimpse into the lives of some of the heaviest people in America trying to do whatever they can to lose weight so that they can continue...

When I'm at the gym I have a hard time deciding whether to watch television or listen to my iPod. When I'm listening to good music and "in the groove" I find myself doing better at the gym. The time of day day in which I go to the gym oftentimes does determine what kind of television programming is on also, making it harder to find tv shows that are gong to get me through my workouts quicker. I used to find that Oprah actually kept me working out longer. I would start watching a show (most episodes are intensely emotional...

My Google alert this morning sent lots of discouraging stories to my inbox. Stories about how people failed at weight loss because they couldn't get their attitudes in the right mindframe to actually continuously want to lose the weight. Personally, I think articles like these hurt the situation. When we read stories of others' despair, people who couldn't conjure up the inspiration and positive attitude to continue with their weight loss journeys, the stories don't inspire us-they make us sad. Well, at least me. Instead, reading a story of someone who kept a positive attitude despite a hard time in their life...

There are three ingredients I look at closely when grocery shopping: calories, carbohydrates and fat. But even though I take notice of the fat in the foods I purchase, I'm not really sure what it means. What I mean is, I know that the fewer calories we eat, the better our chance of burning them and therefore not gain more weight. I know that carbs take a longer time to burn and go straight to my hips. But as for fat, I don't know much of anything about it. For instance, I didn't know if eating fat, literally means that you eat...