Denise Austin Says:

Diet Saboteurs?
Is someone in your life — your spouse, your mother, or a friend — secretly sabotaging your efforts to lose weight and get fit? There are many reasons it happens, from fearing you'll change if your appearance changes, to wanting to avoid facing their own weight issues, to feelings of jealousy.

If you learn to recognize it when it's happening, you'll be much less likely to derail from your goal! When a coworker who knows you're dieting brings in home-baked cookies, politely (but firmly) say no. When your spouse tries to talk you out of exercising to go get a burger and fries instead, offer to spend time with him or her after your workout — doing something besides eating. When someone makes a derogatory remark about how they think you've changed since losing weight, just chalk it up to envy rather than letting negative comments get you down! Bottom line — even if the changes you're making don't make everyone happy, give yourself permission to make them anyway! You're worth it!

Spark People

Have you herad of this site? I just want to tell you that it is a great site to get support for your weight loss journey. They have teams to join, challenges, nutrition trackers, fitness trackers, weight trackers and goal trackers. Honestly it takes a while to learn everything that is avaialble to you. You can do a little or a lot of tracking on this site. They have diet help, exercise help and just about any support you could need. I think you need to check them out... and guess what it is all FREE.. that's right no charge from them at all. Sparkpeople.com

Ten Walking mistakes to avoid.

Here is an articcle from About.com good reading.:


http://walking.about.com/cs/beginners/a/10mistakes1.htm?nl=1

Weigh in report

I weighed in last night. Only 1/2 pound loss. I was hoping for more. I had such a great loss last week. 4 1/2 pounds. I guess I shouldn't look for those bigger numbers every week. Have you ever made a graph of your weight loss progress? I have been doing that for my TOPS group. There is something to be said about seeing it in black and white over a period of time. I have not been happy with my own progress, but hopefully I am back on track with portion control and journaling. I need to get back to the gym. I missed all last week because of the little guy visiting., but I can't use that as an excuse this week. Fri is my gym day, so my goal is to get back there tomorrow. I have a big Stamp Class to get ready for on Sat, but I am going to make sure I take the time to go to the gym. Have great day everyone, and keep smiling. :)

Should you be drinking all that soda??

I just read an article about soda. I think I will not be drinking any soda anymore. I don't drink it very often but after reading this article I have decided not to drink any. You decide for yourself. : http://www.mindconnection.com/library/health/softdrinks.htm

My grandson has been visiting for the past week. No gym for me :( I will get back to that on Monday. I have really been working on portion sizes and not eating later in the evening. I do better when I keep track, so I will continue with that.

Portion Control

I am always looking for ways to help others lose weight. Tonight at our TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meeting, we talked about portion sizes. When was the last time you weighed and measured your food? I was in the hopital last week for a little heart scare. Everything is fine now, but something really caught my eye. The hospital food portions were a lot smaller than I had been serving myself. I had become a victim of Portion Creep! I thought I was pretty accurate in my servings, but I am not. I thought the suggestion at the end of the article was a good idea. I am going to do that this week and let's see what happens.

Healthy Living Articles
Making Sense of Portion Sizes
Many of us tend to underestimate the amount of food we eat and tend to overestimate the recommended portion sizes for many foods.
For example, try pouring out your usual portion of pasta and measure it! Then, compare it to the label portion size. Chances are, you're eating two, three, four or more times the amount on the label.
Relating the portion size of a serving to everyday items is an easy way to visualize what a true portion size looks like.
Woman's fist or baseball - a serving of vegetables or fruit is about the size of your fist
A rounded handful - about one half cup cooked or raw veggies or cut fruit, a piece of fruit, or ½ cup of cooked rice or pasta - this is a good measure for a snack serving, such as chips or pretzels
Deck of cards - a serving of meat, fish or poultry or the palm of your hand (don't count your fingers!) - for example, one chicken breast, ¼ pound hamburger patty or a medium pork chop
Golf ball or large egg - one quarter cup of dried fruit or nuts
Tennis ball - about one half cup of ice cream
Computer mouse - about the size of a small baked potato
Compact disc - about the size of one serving of pancake or small waffle
Thumb tip - about one teaspoon of peanut butter
Six dice - a serving of cheese
Check book - a serving of fish (approximately 3 oz.)
Eyeball it! - Take a look at the recommended serving sizes on the new USDA MyPyramid Food Guidance System. Get out a measuring cup or a food scale and practice measuring some of your favorite foods onto a plate, so that you can see how much (or how little!) a ½ cup or 3-ounce serving is. This will help you "eyeball" a reasonable serving!

Children need adequate calories to meet their needs for growth. On the other hand, portions that are too large could lead to overeating or seem overwhelming.
Serving small portions to young children is often the best way for them to learn to eat only until satisfied, instead of overeating. Start kids off with less and encourage them to ask for more if they're still hungry.

more from Denise Austin:

Drink Your Daily Water!
If you're not a water drinker — well, tough luck! I know that may sound harsh, but drinking water every day is key to good health. Plus, your body is made up mostly of water — doesn't it make sense to replenish the good old H2O instead of filling up on soda pop or sugary fruit juices? Here's another doozy: Did you know that the brain often mistakes thirst for hunger? Before running to the nearest snack machine, try drinking a few glasses of water first.
So how much water do you really need? Well, a general rule of thumb is about eight ounces of water eight times a day, but there's no scientific evidence to support that recommendation. In fact, some experts actually recommend 13 glasses of H2O for men and nine for women! That may seem like a lot of water, but your body loses about ten glasses of water in the course of a day! And if you're exercising, pregnant, or breastfeeding, or you live in a hot or humid climate, your water loss is increased, so your intake should be upped!

So drink up — it's H2Ohhhh so good for you! Here's a tip: If you're having a hard time getting used to the taste of water, try adding a lemon wedge for a hint of sweetness.