More Healthy Holiday Meals: This Week on AOL Health
Photo: jupiterimages
Get your game face on. It may be early, but that doesn't mean the feasting hasn't commenced. While some of you don't have the heart to skimp on the fat to make your Thanksgiving recipes any healthier, others may have been taking careful notes while That's Fit's resident nutritionist, Tanya Zuckerbrot, transformed your traditional recipes into low fat, lighter fare (cornbread, pumpkin pie or the whole Thanksgiving feast). If you're still hungry for more healthy holiday meals, AOL Health has got simple swaps, such as shrimp cocktail for deep-fried anything, to keep your calorie count down during the holidays.
Feeling guilty even before the holiday season gets into full-swing? Add this exercise to your workout to keep you lean and toned.
Don't Diet Over the Holidays!
If you switch your focus from dieting to just living a healthy lifestyle during the holidays, you'll actually boost your chances of maintaining your perfect weight.
"Many of us will gain at least five pounds from the middle of October through New Year's Day," said Stefanie Barthmare, a psychotherapist with the Methodist Weight Management Center in Houston. "Because weight gain is gradual, we don't realize the damage of our indulgences right away. But the scale tells all when the holidays are over. That's why 'lose weight' is at the top of our New Year's resolution every year."
So rather than trying to lose weight between Halloween and New Year's Day, focus instead on not gaining weight. That is, make it your goal to maintain your weight.
Dos and Don'ts:
• Don't count every calorie.
• Don't restrict yourself from your favorite holiday foods.
• Do stay active in your everyday life.
"If you can't get to the gym, do whatever it takes to move your body. Walk the dog more, plan a walking coffee break at work, play in the yard with the kids after dinner or throw the football around with your brothers," Barthmare said. "Plan an active, rather than a passive vacation this holiday season. If you normally go somewhere to sit, read and eat, plan a trip where you hike, bike or ski. Learn a new sport just for fun and notice the impact on your waistline."
"Many of us will gain at least five pounds from the middle of October through New Year's Day," said Stefanie Barthmare, a psychotherapist with the Methodist Weight Management Center in Houston. "Because weight gain is gradual, we don't realize the damage of our indulgences right away. But the scale tells all when the holidays are over. That's why 'lose weight' is at the top of our New Year's resolution every year."
So rather than trying to lose weight between Halloween and New Year's Day, focus instead on not gaining weight. That is, make it your goal to maintain your weight.
Dos and Don'ts:
• Don't count every calorie.
• Don't restrict yourself from your favorite holiday foods.
• Do stay active in your everyday life.
"If you can't get to the gym, do whatever it takes to move your body. Walk the dog more, plan a walking coffee break at work, play in the yard with the kids after dinner or throw the football around with your brothers," Barthmare said. "Plan an active, rather than a passive vacation this holiday season. If you normally go somewhere to sit, read and eat, plan a trip where you hike, bike or ski. Learn a new sport just for fun and notice the impact on your waistline."
Gwen Stefani's Fitness Secrets, Forgotten Winter Produce and More
As fabulous as we at That's Fit think this blog is, the truth is there are hundreds of wonderful blogs on healthy living to be seen all over the blogosphere. So in this feature, Fit Links, we'll introduce you to some that have caught our eye.
National Post
Glamour
Thatsfit.ca
Fit Bottomed Girls
Health.com
Read any good Tweets? Give us a shout on Twitter and let us know all about it!
Want to get fit? Your ideal workout buddy has four legs and is covered in fur.
As the holidays approach, here's how to survive with your diet intact.
When it comes to fitness, here are a few reasons why jumping rope is such as great workout.
Speaking of fitness, here are some tips from Gwen Stefani's trainer.
Lamenting the lack of fresh produce now that it's almost winter? Don't fret -- there are plenty of winter veggies you might be forgetting about.
Read any good Tweets? Give us a shout on Twitter and let us know all about it!
Can You Think Yourself Thin?
Photo: jessie.whittle, flickr
The Sudoku Diet -- named after the brain-twisting game that uses numbers and logic, is based on the premise that challenging the mind with difficult puzzles can burn 90 calories an hour. That's 50 percent more than mindless activities like watching TV. Researcher Tim Forrester, from cannyminds.com explained to the Daily Mail, "Our brains require 0.1 calories every minute simply to survive. When we do something challenging such as a puzzle or a quiz we can burn through 1.5 calories every minute."
A British Dietetic Association spokesman added, "'The brain is like any other body part -- if you are working it hard, it will need more calories to work well." There's even a book that has been written about this: "The Sudoku Diet: Creating Your Optimal Health through Logic," which claims it will help you "achieve optimal health by incorporating sudokus as part of your eating routine."
Should BMI Trump GPA as a Graduation Requirement?
Photo: Getty
This brings up a whole slew of questions, the first of which is this: Why are they using BMI as a marker? Studies have shown that BMI is not an accurate indicator of obesity across the board -- it varies by race due to body type. For example, according to the co-author of a recent study in the British Medical Journal of Nutrition, non-Hispanic white women are considered obese with a BMI of 30 or more, which for Hispanic women that number is 28, and for African American women, it's closer to 32.
Also, consider where BMI came from. Theo Pavlidis, author of The (Lack of) Science Behind the Body Mass Index, writes, "I find very disturbing to use a statistical measure derived over 150 years ago, most likely, from a group of young men to determine the proper weight for men and women of any age."
The Biggest Loser: Suze Orman and the Obesity Money Pit
Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment
Suze Orman
Photo: Larry Busacca , Getty Images
Week 11 at "The Biggest Loser" was swimming in sweat as five players attempted to burn off record weight to avoid the last player-controlled elimination. But first, Suze Orman stormed the ranch to teach America why obesity is a major financial drain. Find out why obesity is a rip-off, listen to an NFL Hall of Famer's advice and reflect upon the final five's heartfelt insights on their warm and fuzzy road to thin. Other than early cursing and Week 10's spat between Rudy and Rebecca, Season 8 feels more like The Waltons -- minus the country gravy.
Did Rudy Tell the Truth? When Jillian Michaels confronted the clan about Rebecca being voted off because she was the biggest threat, Rudy didn't budge. He held firm to his claim that it was a lack of trust that sent her home. The real question is will America buy it if Rudy's ever lands in the yellow hot seat? It's probably irrelevant -- he's Season 8's biggest loser to date. And no worries about Rebecca, she's kissing Daniel Wright.
Suze Says Obesity Steals Your Money. You might be wondering what financial wizard Suze Orman has to do with Biggest Loser weight loss. In a creative treadmill trivia contest for cash, contestants discovered obesity is a money pit. For every correct answer, contestants earned $1,000, while wrong answers upped the speed and incline.
Take a spin with these trivia questions, then make a date with a spinning class:
Get Taylor Lautner's Twilight Abs
Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment
Photo: Bauer-Griffin
No one understands fitness quite like Hollywood's hottest trainer Jordan Yuam. The owner of Jordan's Virtual Fit Club, you probably know him better as the man responsible for Twilight star Taylor Lautner's newly transformed physique. But what's impossible to know is just how many creative exercise techniques Yuam has up his sleeve. Techniques that have helped him remake the musculature of Lautner -- and the rest of his celeb clientele -- at an almost record-breaking pace.
Yuam's techniques are so highly unique and innovative that trying to describe them all would fill this entire website, but we did manage to get him to share a portion of his exercise expertise with us. Here are just three of the many methods Yuam regularly uses with Lautner that are guaranteed to make a world of difference in your workouts.
1. Make your muscles multi-task. When Yuam trains clients, he uses a series of highly creative exercises that oftentimes require several pieces of gym equipment to be used at the same time. For example, he will attach stretch bands to dumbbells (or barbells) in order to create two separate forms of resistance in the same exercise.
Why is this so effective? "As you lift, press or curl the weights, your muscles get challenged not just from raising the weights, but also from the tension of stretching the resistance cords simultaneously," said Yuam. It's a one-two combo that helps keep constant stress on your muscles (especially at the top of most exercises, when it can be all-too-easy to lock your elbows and/or knees to give your muscles a breather.) "This simple trick helps you work even more muscle fibers within the same workout, so you achieve more results in even less time," said Yuam.
Beyond Squats and Lunges: Part 1
Fitness, Your Personal Trainer: Joe Dowdell
Photo 1: Model Traci Copeland and photo courtesy of Wilhelmina Models
I'm sick of classic lunges and squats, what else can I do for my legs?
I've decided to break this up into two responses. This week, we'll tackle the lunge portion and next week the squats. That being said, instead of just throwing out either of these exercises, why not try adding some variety to these traditional movements? There are many different forms of the lunge, such as the reverse lunge, lateral lunge, walking lunge, skater's lunge, etc.
In addition, you can also utilize a slide board, especially with the reverse or lateral versions in order to add a different stimulus to the movement pattern. If you don't have a slide board, you can place a small hand towel under your sneaker and perform them on a wood floor.
The Exercise Prescription: Perform three sets of 10-12 reps per side. Make sure you take three seconds to lower yourself, pause slightly in the bottom position and then take one second to return to the start position. Perform all reps on one side and then switch legs.
Here's how to do the moves:
Thanksgiving Gut Buster Workout
One of the more colorful emails to appear in my inbox this month was a compendium of Thanksgiving-themed exercises, courtesy of New York Sports Club (a subset of the Town Sports International gym chain). Assembled by Master Trainer Amy Hoff, the collection promised to "help even the most overindulgent combat the year's biggest holiday meal." Sure, I'll take that.
The team at NYSC had actually taken time to connect the calorie burn of each exercise to a serving of a particular Thanksgiving food. In other words, according to their research, a set of "Jiggle Buster Jumps" could work off two slices of turkey (100 calories a slice). Three sets of "Pumpkin Pie Push Ups" might burn off not (as I'd first assumed) a slice of pie, but rather a half cup of stuffing (250 calories). The pie business (350 calories), it turns out, promises to be taken care of with three sets "Second Serving Squats." Should I want to wind things down with a glass of wine (95 calories), I'd be in for three sets of "Football Runs."
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit I didn't actually eat the foods in question on the day I tested these, but I ate a whole lot of other bad-for-me things. In other words, the will was definitely there.
Roasted Turkey Leg - How Many Calories?
So many family members and only two turkey legs to go around. Before you arm wrestle loved ones for this coveted dark meat prize on Thanksgiving, take a long nutritional look. Just because a NFL lineman celebrates his Thanksgiving Day win with a roasted turkey leg as big as his forearm, doesn't mean you should do the same. You've probably spent the holiday cracking nuts and watching football from the couch, not playing it.
How many calories in an 8.6 ounce roasted turkey leg (thigh and drumstick) with skin on? Keep in mind, we're quizzing you on a more average-sized turkey leg, not the whoppers folks lug around at the summer Renaissance fair. The Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Texas says their Tom Turkey legs are 10 inches long and weigh about 24 ounces when cooked. That's more like three times the size of what grandma is serving. So dark meat fans, let's see how many calories are in that 8.6 oz roasted turkey leg you're silently hoping no one else swipes first.
How many calories in an 8.6 ounce roasted turkey leg (thigh and drumstick) with skin on? Keep in mind, we're quizzing you on a more average-sized turkey leg, not the whoppers folks lug around at the summer Renaissance fair. The Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Texas says their Tom Turkey legs are 10 inches long and weigh about 24 ounces when cooked. That's more like three times the size of what grandma is serving. So dark meat fans, let's see how many calories are in that 8.6 oz roasted turkey leg you're silently hoping no one else swipes first.
