That's Fit

How often does this happen: You're watching your favorite show on TV, munching on a snack as you do. Going into this whole situation, your intention was to only eat a small portion of that food, but you instead ended up devouring the whole thing. Are you to blame? Well, yeah. Completely? Mmmm ... pretty much. C'mon, there has to be something else to blame? OK, fine, you can blame the TV show a little bit.

This assignment of blame is not entirely unfounded. Obviously, the TV show itself didn't make you eat more (leaving out the psychological effects of some commercials, of course); rather, it was the distraction the TV show created that may have contributed to your overindulgence. For example, RealAge.com cites a related study, wherein women who ate snack cakes while playing a video game wanted to eat more of the food than the women who ate without any distraction.

Evidently, if you eat the same food for a period of time, your palate essentially becomes bored. You feel full sooner and don't want as much of that food. This is known as sensory-specific satiety, say the folks at RealAge, and it helps keeps your appetite in check. But get distracted for an extended period of time, and this appetite-control mechanism gets turned off.

There are a lot of reasons to turn off the TV. One, if you're watching it, you're probably not moving. Two, if you're watching it, you might be digging face first into a bag of chips (not that I know anyone who does that ... ahem). And three, a recent study found that the dust on your TV screen might contain toxic chemicals.

Flame retardant is used in many household products these days, including TVs, but also in mattresses, carpet padding, and computer products. It also shows up in household dust, for reasons that, previously, experts couldn't explain. But what researchers in this study found was that TV dust contains high levels of flame retardant, leading them to believe that the heat of the television set vaporizes the retardant, allowing it to settle back onto the TV and surrounding furniture.

This is a big deal, environmentally speaking, because as of next February, TV broadcasts are going digital. When old sets get thrown away, the environment will bear the brunt of the additional chemical load. The researchers in this study didn't give any tips for how minimizing the issue in your own home. I'm not sure this is enough information to keep me from watching the season finale of Lost, but it is something to mull over. What do you think?

Last night, I watched in both horror and hysterics as Bear Grylls, one of my past Celebrity Fitzness Report interview guests, devoured "too many" worms in Zambia -- which left him with an atrocious case of diarrhea. Imagine that!!! He cooked and ate a few big, gooey, spiny worms that he found on a tree, then continued to groan in agony throughout the rest of the show due to his "killer diarrhea." The guy is a combination of handsome, athletic, daring, brilliant, and accidentally hysterical all at the same time.

If you've never seen Bear's show Man vs. Wild on Discovery Channel, it's about time you check it out. Bear was a survival expert in the British Special Air Services (21 SAS). He's an elite adventurer and stops at nothing to teach us how to survive if we ever happen to get stranded in the wild. A part of survival is finding safe and energy-filled food sources. Normally I find this disgusting; typically I watch much of Man vs. Wild with my eyes under my blanket. Lately though, I've been peeking out, because Bear's facial expressions in response to his nasty food choices are side-splitting.

Watching him climb up waterfalls and run through the brush agonizing over diarrhea was priceless. My husband and I squirmed as he ate the worms, giggled as Bear grimaced while chewing on them, and then rolled in laughter as he suffered through his tummy troubles.

For the parents out there: do your children spend a lot of time in front of a screen most of the day? If you have teenagers (or happen to be one) then "screen time" is another term for "hobby." I played sports as a kid, but even back then I tried to absorb video games and TV like a sponge. Well according to Canadian researchers, some teenagers spend as much time in front of a screen as it takes to be employed in a full-time job.

That's in the ballpark of 40 hours per week. Over a thousand teens were studied for half a decade beginning in 1999 to assess habits related to watching TV, playing games, and using computers. Collectively, this was known as screen time.

Guys are the big offenders, over half of whom absorbed over 40 hours in total time spent in front of a screen. Only about a quarter of the girls spent that much time soaking up the technology. It's always interesting to see connections like this drawn, even if they refer to teens of a different region. Judging by activities back in the States, things are not drastically dissimilar over here.

What exactly is VirtualGym TV? It's an online gym with a huge variety of top quality instructors, and when you subscribe, you have access to all those instructors and all of their "classes" at your convenience. Oh, and all of this is available at a fraction of the cost of a gym membership. Sound good?

Well, I think it has some good possibilities, but as to their claim of being the future of personal fitness ... I'm not entirely convinced. This is a great option for companies that want to provide fitness opportunities for their employees who are scattered across various locations, making the provision of gym memberships difficult. And, for the motivated but busy individual, it could probably work.

The other day, my Monday evening Ripped class had an unusual addition: A camera man. They were filming a segment for a special on TV, and wanted to capture some of the action from our class. And with the cameras rolling, I had one of the best workouts of my life. Why? I was showing off, of course. Studies show that when you know people are watching you work out, you work out harder.

While it's important to know your own limits, no one wants to be seen as that person who takes too many breaks or who doesn't lift as much as the rest of the class -- especially when you're potentially on TV. But even when the cameras aren't rolling, I find myself working out harder when I'm in the front of the class near the instructor and hard-core regulars because I know people will notice if I put my weight down.

So next time you work out, make yourself visible, or, if you work out alone, pretend someone is watching you. And show off! Give it your all and show people what you can do.

Raise your hand if you want your kids to journey through life on a healthful path. Anyone out there who doesn't want a healthy kid? Probably not. And while there are lists and lists of steps out there you can take to prime your kids for a life of good health, you might want to start by considering these five fascinating kid facts. Take action on what you learn if you can. Your child will one day thank you.

• The Trouble with TV

• Misery from Medicine

• Delectable Dinner Dynamics

• Scary Sleep Signs

• Apple Accolades
  

When it's cold out and there's not much to do beyond hole up in front of the TV with a few good movies, it's important to be aware of what you're putting into your mouth. Mindless eating--done when you're focused on something else--can lead to a lot of excess calorie intake, and you'll wind up putting on extra unwanted pounds.

How to avoid mindless eating? Everyday Health has some great tips:

• Watch the containers. Bring a big bowl of chips to the table and you're likely to eat the whole thing without thinking. Instead, bring a small one and you won't feel bad when you polish it off.
  
• Read the labels and pay attention to serving sizes. Yes, a serving of chocolate rasins might only have 100 calories, but this 'serving' might only be 10 raisins.
• Remind yourself of how much you've eaten. Keep your empty wrappers around -- the guilt of seeing 10 candy bar wrappers on the table might help you keep things in perspective.
  

Want more tips? Click here.

Growing up, I probably spent way too much time in front of a television set than I should have. But nowadays cartoons are out and everything else is in! Personally, I've stopped watching a lot of TV because I just don't feel productive after soaking up all those glorious moving images. If you've been wanting to break the habit of excessive television in your life, this article may be for you.

Here's a really great tip if you like to watch TV during dinner: Turn it off and indulge in the subtleties of food! I know so many people who do this. Whether they want a little entertainment or something to break the silence, television is the jester in the room. But if you turn off all the distractions, you can take in all the aromas, color and taste. Also consider that it's easy to over-eat if you're not concentrating on all that food in front of you. That's two benefits in one!

Another excellent piece of advice is to plan an escape route. If you've got a specific show you always watch, get an idea to do something immediately after. This limits your chances of channel surfing when it's done, wasting time on TV shows you didn't plan on watching anyway. Television is not evil -- especially during college football season. But it's easy to see how it can absorb your attention, free time and health. Check out the other "TV Dieting" tips if you want to learn ways to cut back a little!

With the writer's strike still going on, and with the possibility of an actor's strike taking place around the end of June, what is the American TV watcher to do? How about go to bed.

A University of Leicester study revealed that after spending two weeks without watching television, people tended to go to bed earlier and wake-up feeling more alert and refreshed the next day.

This is not to say that you have to give up the tube in its entirety. Rather, you may want to consider spending at least a few nights a week doing something that will help you get to bed at a more reasonable hour. Research has shown that the average person needs at least 7 hours of sleep to fully recharge their minds and bodies. If reruns of "Three's Company" are keeping you up late and cutting into that 7-hour time allotment, then it may be time to pull the plug on Jack, Chrissy and Janet.

Pick up a copy of the January 2008 issue of Shape magazine, and you'll see a toned and trim Lauren Conrad on the cover. Known for her dramatic antics on The Hills, this reality gal has recently made some dramatic changes to her body.

Conrad, 21, says she used to love fast food but is now eating six small meals per day, mostly consisting of fish, beans, and vegetables. She's also working out in her entirely new fitness wardrobe. Twice-a-week weight training, running, and kickboxing are tops on her exercise menu.

Sounds like Conrad has the right idea. Embrace a healthy diet and a healthy dose of exercise and results will appear.

Padma Lakshmi is an Indian-American supermodel, actress, chef, cookbook author, ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and host of Bravo TVs Top Chef. She can also add "blogger" to her resume because this accomplished one has been recapping snippets from her reality show via her video blog.

Lakshmi, a culinary goddess who features in her cookbooks recipes for a delicious low fat diet, reveals more than critiques of Top Chef contestants on her blog. She also shares tidbits about her own approach to food and drink. Through my own tour of her blog, I learned that she's a big lover of breakfast -- it is the most important meal of the day, you know -- and while she doesn't consider herself a big drinker, she does enjoy white wine, red wine, and single malt Scotch. She also loves green markets and enjoys cooking with items grown by local farmers. Lakshmi likes to take classic recipes, like macaroni and cheese, and add one or two ingredients to add a twist. And she's all for basic cooking. The better the chef, the more simple the cooking gets, she says.

There's quite a lot to learn Lakshmi, whose cookbook Easy Exotic was awarded Best First Book at the 1999 World Cookbook Awards at Versailles. See for yourself what this top chef has to offer by visiting her blog.

TV is addictive and no matter how much I preach about how you should turn off the TV and go to the gym already, I know a few of you won't be willing to give up your favourite shows to go to the gym.

If this is the case for you, it's important to figure out a compromise. How about working out in front of the TV? I'm sure we'd all love to be able to buy an elliptical trainer and place it in front of the TV, but since that ain't going to happen, here's a list of easy exercises you can do in front of the telly. Or take a hint from our friends at Sisters Skinny and hold the ab-sculpting plank while the commercial breaks are on.

How do you stay fit when your favourite shows are on?

I was watching TV last night, flipping at high speed through all the channels with my handy-dandy remote, when I remembered the long-ago days requiring an actual walk to the television set for a little channel surfing. It got me thinking about technology, about how the very thing that is revolutionizing the world in so many ways -- think electronic medical records, on-line banking, the fact that I'm publishing this post in cyberspace for all to read -- is also making us one lazy mass of people.

How about automatic garage door openers? Growing up, I remember hustling out of the car, often on cold and snowy days, to manually lift my family's garage door. Once our car was nestled safely inside, the door had to be yanked back down. These days are long gone. Now, I have a button in my mini-van programmed to shoot that garage door up and down at a moment's notice. I don't think I've ever even touched my garage door with my hand.

Sprinkler systems. Remember watering your lawn with a sprinkler attached to your hose and dragging it from place to place until every blade of grass got a drink? Now we have the luxury of sprinklers running on auto pilot. We also have drive-through and drive-up options at almost every restaurant around. We don't even need to exit our cars to collect our carry-out slop. And riding lawn mowers. We're not talking traditional technology here but still, it illustrates my point. I saw a neighbor plowing through his miniature-sized yard the other day on his big and burly John Deere ride-on. Could the 30 minutes it might take to manicure his entire lot of grass be so difficult?

Michelle Ryan looks great. Well, as the star of the new show Bionic Woman, I guess she kind of has to, but whether it's your job to look good or not, it's still hard work. She recently spoke out about the changes she's had to make to her life in order to prepare for the role. Here are some highlights:

• (On how much time she spends at the gym) "About three and a half hours a day I would say. Two hours of personal training, or two hours of dance, and an hour and a half of circuit training."
• (On her diet) "Just eating more like sushi and fish and fruit... [protein] and vegetables and cutting out -- I've got such a sweet tooth, so cutting out chocolate"
• (On changes to her body as a result) "I'm getting abs and my muscles are getting bigger and I definitely feel like I'm being much more conscious to eat healthier."

Three hours a day of working out? No doubt she looks great. Still, it's not the most realistic plan for us non-Hollywood folks.