That's Fit

Sometimes the motivation to exercise can come from the desire to be a good role model to your kids. Sometimes it comes from wanting to be able to healthy enough to help take care of your community. And sometimes the motivation comes from ... well, something far less altruistic, like wanting to win a daily prize, plus be entered to win the grand-prize trip for two to Mexico, complete with spa treatments and a basket of beauty products.

For you ladies out there who wouldn't mind putting in the extra effort in the gym this year, the payoff can be some serious and much needed R&R. Sign up for the SELF Challenge: a free, easy-to-follow exercise and healthy eating plan that will help you get your best body ever in just three months! See how it works.

Just as the Self.com website says, the best prize of all will be joining the 1.3 million women who have lost weight and toned up with the SELF Challenge.

Even with the best of intentions, as well as an admirable amount of effort, the weight sometimes doesn't come off!! Try as you might to get the needle on that scale to budge even the slightest bit, sometimes it's just not having it. This is especially true for people who have already lost quite a bit of weight and are now trying to take off those last ten pounds or so.

To help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, here is a quick tip from an article titled "Scale Stuck?", which appears in this month's edition of Self magazine. I'll be posting one of them a day for the next 10 days.

Hopefully these tips will help you figure out what's causing those pounds to stick around.

Quick Tip #9

Diet Flub: You have too many food options - When you're surrounded by a wide array of foods, your appetite will suddenly seem bigger. This isn't a scientific fact, of course, merely an astute observation. Don't agree? Think about the last time you ate at a buffet style restaurant. Did you eat more than you usually do? Probably. This same logic applies for your kitchen. If your refrigerator is stuffed to its limits with an assortment of foods (especially snack foods), you'll snack more than if you had fewer options from which to choose. According to the article in Self magazine, a study published in the journal Eating Behaviors validates this, stating that dieters who were allowed to eat whatever snack they wanted consumed more calories each week than those who were restricted to one type.

Fix It: Keep one splurge item in the house at a time. Whatever it is you crave the most, go for it -- but only it. For example, if your weakness happens to be Reese's peanut butter cups, avoid having potato chips, cookies, and brownies lying around, too. Chances are, you'll soon grow a bit tired of eating the peanut butter cups all the time, making you less likely to reach for them when you have an urge to nosh. Having other options, such as the aforementioned brownies and cookies, provide you with unhealthy alternatives. As for eating out, your best bet is to avoid buffets altogether, for the wide variety of food choices tend to lead to overindulgence.

Even with the best of intentions, as well as an admirable amount of effort, the weight sometimes doesn't come off!! Try as you might to get the needle on that scale to budge even the slightest bit, sometimes it's just not having it. This is especially true for people who have already lost quite a bit of weight and are now trying to take off those last ten pounds or so.

To help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, here is a quick tip from an article titled "Scale Stuck?", which appears in this month's edition of Self magazine. I'll be posting one of them a day for the next 10 days.

Hopefully these tips will help you figure out what's causing those pounds to stick around.

Quick Tip #7

Diet Flub: Your wear your comfy clothes - What's wrong with wearing large, baggy clothing? Nothing if you're lounging around the house. Or doing anything else, for that matter. They're your clothes, you can wear whatever you want. BUT, if you're avoiding wearing clothes that fit snugly, you could be missing out on some very obvious clues. Like, oh I don't know, the pants that fit perfectly three months ago are now clinging to you like spandex, or how that favorite polo of yours now looks like a belly shirt. These are obvious signs that you've put on some pounds.

Fix It: Try putting on your jeans once a week. This will help you keep tabs on any sneaky bulge that may be forming around your midsection. The author of the article in Self magazine stridently suggests giving away your larger clothes once you no longer fit in them, helping to ensure that you will not gain the weight back again. You can also avoid wearing clothes that mask what you consider to be your flaws. Granted, nobody wants to flaunt what they may feel somewhat ashamed of, but this can also be used as a motivator to keep you on track. Case in point, I remember reading an article (not in Self, but in a different publication) about a man who felt as though his calf muscles were too small. For years, he would avoid wearing shorts to the gym, even when temperatures reached close to 90 degrees. He hid what he was ashamed of, until one day he decided that he was no longer going to conceal what he considered to be his problem area. From that point forward, he always wore shorts to the gym, knowing full well that people may notice his disproportionately small calves. Instead of allowing his insecurity to hold him back, he instead used it to fuel his workouts. Years later, he finally built his calves up to a point where he was actually proud of the way they looked, so much so that he considered them to be one of the best built parts of his body.

Even with the best of intentions, as well as an admirable amount of effort, the weight sometimes doesn't come off!! Try as you might to get the needle on that scale to budge even the slightest bit, sometimes it's just not having it. This is especially true for people who have already lost quite a bit of weight and are now trying to take off those last ten pounds or so.

To help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, here is a quick tip from an article titled "Scale Stuck?", which appears in this month's edition of Self magazine. I'll be posting one of them a day for the next 10 days.

Hopefully these tips will help you figure out what's causing those pounds to stick around.

Quick Tip #5

Diet Flub: You're an email addict - This serves as a good example of how advances in technology sometimes cause us to be less physically active. Does this sound like you? You work in an office where most of the people with whom you regularly communicate (be it for work-related stuff or just idle chit-chat) are situated within shouting distance. But, since you can't yell over to them, you either send them an email or an instant message. The problem is, you only burn about 5 calories writing an email, whereas actually getting up and walking over to that person would burn eleven. This may seem insignificant, but multiply that difference of 6 calories by the number of times per week you send that email or IM, and you'll see how a simple stroll across the office can add up to some serious calorie burning.

Fix It: Add some movement to your day. In addition to taking that leisurely stroll over to your co-worker's desk, also try standing while talking on the phone, say the folks at Self magazine. Passing along a mere five messages, on foot, to a co-worker can burn as many as 100 calories per day. All said and done, that equals burning off roughly one pound per month!!

Even with the best of intentions, as well as an admirable amount of effort, the weight sometimes doesn't come off!! Try as you might to get the needle on that scale to budge even the slightest bit, sometimes it's just not having it. This is especially true for people who have already lost quite a bit of weight and are now trying to take off those last ten pounds or so.

To help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, here is a quick tip from an article titled "Scale Stuck?", which appears in this month's edition of Self magazine. I'll be posting one of them a day for the next 10 days.

Hopefully these tips will help you figure out what's causing those pounds to stick around.

Quick Tip #4

Diet Flub: You never count calories - You're all about portion size, but you never, ever take calorie count into consideration. A four-inch piece of fudge is pretty small, right? I think you see where I'm going with this.

Fix It: Log your food intake. If you know how many calories you've already consumed, you'll be less apt to eat more calories than you should be. According to the article in Self magazine, a study from the University of Birmingham in England confirmed this. Researchers found that women who were asked to write down what they ate for lunch earlier in the day ate less treats later on than women who did not write down what they had eaten. You don't have to go crazy about counting calories (breaking out the scale at a restaurant and whatnot), but you should at least keep them in mind. Logging what you eat will help you do this.

Even with the best of intentions, as well as an admirable amount of effort, the weight sometimes doesn't come off!! Try as you might to get the needle on that scale to budge even the slightest bit, sometimes it's just not having it. This is especially true for people who have already lost quite a bit of weight and are now trying to take off those last ten pounds or so.

To help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, here is a quick tip from an article titled "Scale Stuck?", which appears in this month's edition of Self magazine. I'll be posting one of them a day for the next 10 days.

Hopefully these tips will help you figure out what's causing those pounds to stick around.

Quick Tip #2

Diet Flub: You work late - Sure, your wallet may be getting fatter as a result of putting in a little O.T., but what's all that added stress and Chinese take-out doing to your waistline? According to the article in Self magazine, a study in the International Journal of Obesity reports that women who worked 40-plus hours a week were more likely to put on some pounds over the course of the year than women who cut out earlier.

Fix It: Take breaks. If you have no choice but to put in those extra hours at the office, take a few times throughout the day to do something that makes you feel good. Something relaxing. Chat with a co-worker, listen to a song, or take a stroll around the office. And most importantly, take some deep breaths. As for keeping your diet in check, plan ahead for long nights at work by preparing a healthy meal you can bring with you, rather than having to resort to ordering out.

Even with the best of intentions, as well as an admirable amount of effort, the weight sometimes doesn't come off!! Try as you might to get the needle on that scale to budge even the slightest bit, sometimes it's just not having it. This is especially true for people who have already lost quite a bit of weight and are now trying to take off those last ten pounds or so.

To help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, here is a quick tip from an article titled "Scale Stuck?", which appears in this month's edition of Self magazine. I'll post one of them a day for the next 10 days, starting today with Quick Tip #1.

Hopefully these tips will help you figure out what's causing those pounds to stick around.

Quick Tip #1

Diet Flub: You Grocery Shop on the Fly - You do your grocery shopping on an empty stomach. Doing so makes you more inclined to succumb to your body's hunger-induced yearning for high-sugar and high-fat foods.

Fix It: Shop online instead. I realize that the majority of people in the U.S. still don't have access to the internet, but my thinking is that if you're reading this now, you're not one of those people. So, skip the checkout line entirely, and instead visit any number of web-based grocery shopping sites (such as Peapod.com, Netgrocer.com, and Freshdirect.com). According to the article in Self, a University of Connecticut study actually found that people who shop for groceries online buy fewer high-fat foods.

I'm a cat when it comes to sleep. I could snooze ten or more hours a day if I didn't have kids and other life responsibilities. Most of us ride a wave of inconsistent sleep. Luckily, Self magazine offers a few tips to wake up feeling more alive than zombie-like.

• Open your shades when you first wake up or leave blinds/shades open at night to welcome in morning sunshine. Daylight triggers serotonin, an energizing hormone. Maybe those blackout shades we're considering are not a good idea, especially if my feline-sleeping self won't reach over to crack the shade at dawn.
• Keep TVs and computers out of the bedroom or at the very least, turn them off before bedtime. Blue light from their screens suppresses melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone.
• Make sure your bed has a view of the window so the sunshine can say good morning to your brain. Lighter colored linens, walls and flooring help spread the hello, too.
• If you need a nightlight so the bedbugs don't bite, use a red or amber hue -- no blue light. Wonder if my daughter's pink princess nightlight is the right color. Luckily, my son's blue rocket special is in the trash -- it started leaking fluid a few weeks ago.

For all you night owls out there, beyond getting ten hours of sleep, any new tips on waking refreshed -- beyond, er, the obvious?

Gorgeous singer Carrie Underwood is gracing the cover of the current issue of SELF Magazine, in an article that supposedly about how she changed her body. However, as the Skinny Website points out, it's really just a short article on her current habits. Here's what she has to say:

• On Fitness: "I try to exercise as much as possible. I work out at home four or five times a week. I do the elliptical in the morning. I do arm weights, but I have the body type that if I do too much, I'll get big. I play basketball, swim or, when I'm on the road, I walk around and see where I'm at. "
  
• On Food: "My healthier habit would be being conscious about what I put in my body. But it's a good to splurge sometimes! My food indulgences are pizza, and I love chocolate, ice cream and cheese. Not many people know that. I have a big problem controlling myself with the cheese."

Sounds like she's a great role model for fitness, and I have to agree with her on the cheese thing -- I am a cheese addict too.

What do you think about Underwood's healthy habits?

A while back, a reader encouraged us to check out the SELF Magazine Challenge. I read SELF reguarly and had seen the challenge, but had been hesitant to sign up because, well, I'm busy and adding my workouts and food to an online diary seemed like more extra work than I wanted to do. But I recently signed up to see what it was all about.

Basically, when you sign up for the SELF Challenge online, you're signing up for an online diary of your eating and exercise habits. So where's the challenge? The fitness experts have put together a workout plan, and when you log in, you see your 'challenges' for the week. For example, this week the challenge is to do 3 30-minute cardio sessions this week and 2 25-minute weight sessions. Done. The program doesn't seem to be customized at all, but then again, I just started.

For me, a nice thing about the program isn't so much the challenges, because as someone who is already active they would actually be a step down for me, but rather that if I actually take the time to record my activity, it gives me a summary. For example, this week I spent 385 minutes working out -- very encouraging.

Have you signed up for the SELF Challenge? What do you think?

How does your city rank? Self magazine recently collected data on 100 major metropolitan areas in the country to find out which cities had the healthiest lifestyles, least environmental concerns, most community resources, and best disease statistics. After compiling their data, they ranked the cities from 1-100. Want to find out how the cities in your state faired? Click here.

The country's healthiest place for women -- according to Self magazine, anyway -- is Honolulu with low obesity and depression rates and good air quality. The city lost points for high property crime rates, low number of health clubs, and long commutes. The unhealthiest is the Motor City. Detroit's high rates of obesity and violent crimes -- twice the national average -- sent it to the bottom of the list. In its defense, however, Detroit scored points for its high number of parks, low drinking rates among women, and good dental health.

I'm not sure exactly how Self developed their ranking scale or if this information even means anything, but it's kind of interesting to look at. If you live in one of the cities on the list, let me know what you think of your ranking and if it seems appropriate.