That's Fit

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Ms. Fitzness, I stopped smoking five months ago and have put on about 1.5 stones (21 pounds)! When is the best time to try and diet? I don't want to try and do too many things at once. I exercise regularly as I have my own horse and am always out and about. Thanks in advance, Lisa

A. Hey Lisa. Congratulations on your success getting rid of smoking! Smoking is one of the absolute worst things one can do to themselves, and your decision to quit is one of the best. Hooray! I'm literally doing a little 'happy dance' here at my laptop for you.

Now for your question about when you should begin dieting. Easy answer. NEVER! Never diet, lady! Diets are temporary behavioral changes that only lead to temporary results. Screw that! You are in this for the long term, sister, and no diet can last forever. What to do then? Gradually become more and more deliberate about what you put in your mouth. Seek out low fat, low calorie, high nutrition type food. Before you decide on any meal or snack, ask your self which would be the healthiest choice. Trade french fries for a baked sweet potato. Choose grilled poultry or fish over hamburgers. Find some calorie free beverages you enjoy as well.

FitSpirit explores the mind-body connection and the intangible benefits we gain from our efforts to stay physically fit.

Do you engage in "fat" talk? Many women do. It's the norm, actually, for women to regularly say negative things about their bodies. Research proves it.

A study from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina -- home to great white water rafting, by the way -- reveals that "fat talk" is social currency for women. It goes something like this:

"I'm so fat."

"Oh, no, you look great, but my thighs are HUGE."

"YOUR thighs are huge? Look at MINE!"

And so on.

"Fat" talk is not all bad. It creates a solidarity among females. It allows them to open up. It's a way of sharing, disclosing, and receiving reassurance. But wouldn't it be great if we could bond as women without trashing our bodies in the process?

Let's try to minimize our own "fat" talk and see what happens. I predict we'll boost our moods and may even secure a better chance at making healthy choices, perhaps even trimming down.

A positive attitude can do wonders for mental health. So compliment yourself next time you're about to slip into "fat" talk. Surely, you've got a few redeeming qualities you can acknowledge. I know, it seems like bragging, but give a try. I'll go first. I won't tell you about my least favorite body part, although it's tempting. I'll only tell you this: I like my calf muscles. I consider them my best feature, in fact.

That wasn't so hard. Your turn.

When deciding on a vitamin to make part of your daily supplement routine, do you choose the $4 brand at your local grocer, or the $30 enteric-coated brand at the local health food store?

In proper fashion, 'you get what you pay for' -- and nowhere is this more demonstrated than with the vitamin and supplement industry. Think that all Vitamin E is created the same? No chance -- the synthetic version (read: not real) is found in most bargain vitamins.

Think that calcium is created equal across the board? Nope -- there are several varieties of calcium as well, from citrate to ascorbate. Some are much more bioavailable than others, and others are cheaper (filler) ingredients just meant to give the impression that normally comes along with the term "calcium.

Remember to research the ingredients you put into your body, and always bypass the dollar-store vitamin variety. They're usually not even worth that amount. But hey, you may be a pretty bottle.

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I've ever received -- and now the best I have to offer -- is to give kids choices. Not just any choices, though. Just the choices where each option is a winner from the parent point of view. Take bedtime, for example. In our household, one of our two bundles of joy always resists this dreaded hour. He'd do anything to stay up a few minutes later. He'd also do anything to avoid completing his first-grade homework. So we, his parents, often present him with a choice. First we back up bedtime by 20 or 30 minutes. Then we ask, "Would you like to go to bed right now or would you like to do some homework first?" Homework always wins. And so does everyone involved. Joey gets to make an important decision and postpone bedtime -- kind of -- and we get a more cooperative boy when tucking-in time arrives.

The choice thing works for picky eaters too. For those who beg for cookies and candy snacks, why not head off the sweet request with a question like this:, "Do you want a crunchy apple or a juicy orange?" For the kid who complains about veggies, try this: "Do you think I should make piles of peas or bunches of broccoli for dinner? Let's face it -- kids like power. And if they can use it to arrive at safe and healthy outcomes, I see no problem with a little delegation. In fact, I sometimes leave our weekly menu planning up to Joey -- he fights bedtime and eating -- and he gets to pick the meal for each night of one week. As long as it meets our nutritional standards, it's a go. If he picks it, he eats it. He likes to be in charge.

Next time you're faced with a cranky kid, whip out some options and see where it takes you. Just make sure you're happy with each choice. This way, both you and the kiddo will end up satisfied.

I wrote the other day about employers offering financial incentives to staff members for losing weight. And while washing dishes Tuesday night after eating an experimental homemade pizza with fat-free cheese -- it was pretty good -- I stumbled upon NBC Nightly News and a commentary about this very weight-loss reward system. It went beyond the discussion of monetary prizes for shedding pounds, though. It addressed the fact that some employers are punishing employees for unhealthy lifestyle choices.

It was like listening to a parenting expert discuss rewarding and punishing kids for poor behavior. I'm always stuck on the topic -- do I go overboard with praise and ignore defiant outbursts so my kids realize only positive behavior gets attention? Or do I punish my kiddos for poor choices so they learn not to repeat them? Like my confusion on this topic, I'm not so sure about the workplace health scenario.

So some employers are raising insurance premiums for the overweight, for those who won't consent to health assessments, and for those who choose to smoke. It's all in an attempt to lower health care costs, minimize absenteeism, and promote wellness. The whole punishment approach seems harsh. It makes sense too. See how I'm wavering?

What do you think?

According to a new study, when we want something badly, the power of our desire can sometimes lead us to make strange, uncharacteristic choices. So if you've ever found yourself starving at a restaurant and ordering the double bacon cheeseburger with cheese fries, even though you were originally craving sushi and don't even like burgers, bacon or fries, there's a reason behind it. Your food cravings made you do it.

On the other hand, if you're turned off by food at the moment you decide what you eat, you tend to make more 'safe' choices. This makes sense -- it explains why we turn to comfort foods when we're feeling down.

Still, choosing things that we normally wouldn't isn't necessarily a bad thing ... it's good to add variety to your life every now and then. But take a moment to think about your choices -- especially the big ones.

I think sometimes, or most of the time maybe, we all get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Choices and decisions get rushed and the lines between what we need, what we want, and what we're actually doing start to blur. The truth is that although it's great to have all kinds of different goals in life you have to be careful you're not trying to do too much at once. When is the last time you really thought about your priorities? Not everything can be at the top of the list. Where is your health on that list? Are you really giving your top priorities the most effort and focus? It seems many people say 'health and losing weight' is a top priority, but then they bog themselves down with so many other things they hardly have time to work on it. Whether you like it or not that means it's at the bottom of the list, not the top.

So take a few minutes to think about what's important to you and to make some decisions. Make the choice to choose, and you may be surprised at how much focus, determination, and newfound success you find you suddenly have.

When our kids aren't with us (or even when they are), we want them to choose healthy snacks. Truth is though, if it's not candy or soda they seem to think it's healthy. This means they aren't making wise choices.

Enter: Make Your Calories Count, a new, kid-friendly program from the Food and Drug Administration. This site allows you to download a program (sorry, it doesn't seem to be available for Mac) that makes it easy for kids to decipher key information on nutritional labels.

A cartoon character, Labelman, gives the skinny on everything from serving sizes to salt intake. All the information is linked to pictures of labels, so kids can connect what they're learning with what they'll see in the grocery store or more importantly, the convenient store when they go in with their friends (and you aren't there to guide them.) There are also interactive quizzes that point out discrepancies between what you see and what you get. A quiz on breakfast cereals, for example, shows that a cereal advertising "good source of fiber" on the box cover may actually contain less fiber than a cereal that makes no such claim.

While you may feel that children won't care about these things, I can attest that early education does make a difference. My boys, even though they still choose bad food, are conscious about their decisions and are happy to have the knowledge to make better choices.

The best part: Children who ask their parents to buy more wholesome food, results in the whole family eating better.

I went to the Sasquatch Music Festival at The Gorge in Washington in May, and while the music was fabulous, the food selection left much to be desired. Hot dogs, burgers, nachos, noodles, pretzels and popcorn was pretty much all that was available on site for the entire weekend. There were tight restrictions on bringing your own food in, and patrons couldn't go back to their campsite once entering the festival, meaning what food they did bring had to be carried around all day.

I think Sasquatch and festivals like it should take a hint from the many events starting to provide a much more impressive variety of food options. For example, The Calgary Folk Music Festival's motto is "only the best". A few years ago, organizers realized that many of their artists and volunteers were vegetarian or vegan, and so they began to cater to those who wanted more healthy non-meat, as well meat, options.

Not everything on offer is low-calorie or low-fat, but it's all full of flavor and has a much higher nutritional value than regular festival fare. Visitors can still get hot dogs but they're gourmet, and veggie dogs are also available. Other food choices include everything from sushi to Pad Thai to Caribbean to Indian. Fresh fruit, BBQ, gelato, organic burritos, salads and much more can all be had a pretty reasonable prices too. Even the beer comes from a local brewery rather than a corporation like Budweiser or Molson. Now that's what I call good eating!

Are there any healthy food options available at festivals and fairs near you?

How much of your life do you waste trying to make decisions? Do you go back and forth, maybe even getting stuck and giving up altogether? Much of this is caused by not knowing what will happen if you make a change, and 'fear of the unknown' is a powerful force. But what if you could learn to make smart decisions in 60 seconds or less? And not just by picking a random option, but by really assessing who you are and what you want out of the situation?

Here's an article that claims to have that secret, giving tips and perspective on why we hesitate to make decisions and how we can speed up the process. The author claims he can have you deciding whether to leave a job or not, move to a new city or not, or end a relationship or not in less than one minute. Although I think he's got some good advice, I'm skeptical. It seems some of those are major enough issues to involve more people and more thought than any 60 second brainstorming session can handle. What do you think?


Via Lifehacker

Nickelodeon is the latest to come under fire in the battle against childhood obesity. A recent study showed that more than 80% of the foods and snacks advertised on the network are unhealthy -- including products tied to popular characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer. As a result (and in light of the growing childhood obesity problem), a nutrition advocacy group is asking Nickelodeon to make some changes -- saying they could advertise less junk food and more toys or games.

People for Nickelodeon insist that they have been and remain focused on "balanced messaging," and that currently 10% of the network's airtime is devoted to promoting healthy food choices like fruits and vegetables. They say they will continue to work with advertisers to encourage healthy lifestyle choices for kids.

Sounds like nothing is changing anytime soon.

My husband just told me about his grandfather "Dukie" who was a smoker. Dukie started smoking in his teens and had done so consistently until he got sick with bronchitis at some point in his forties. Because of his temporary illness he couldn't smoke, but when he got well he progressed because of a sharp attitude. Apparently, Dukie had an epiphany that if he could go without smoking completely for that week or so ... he could continue to go without smoking forever. Why make the effort to reintroduce a bad habit? From that point on, he never smoked again.

Dukie hit the RESET button on his habits. What a great way to take lemons and make lemonade. I think we all end up with particular aversions when we come down with something. If you end up in the same boat as Dukie and have gone without your nightly ice cream addiction, smoking habits, or alcohol consumption, take that strange little gift and go with it.

Make a great choices. Choose to become who you want to be.

Do you buy a lot of the same foods week after week at the grocery store? Sure, we switch it up a little, but most of us have quite a few brands and foods that we're faithful to. Researchers are currently working on something I think would be really interesting: they're studying why we choose the foods we do when making selections at the grocery store.

Not only do we buy foods based on our income levels and what we know and/or believe about nutrition and health, but our ethnicity and gender also play a role. This is a pretty interesting article covering everything from how lower incomes mean higher sodium intake, to how men generally eat more fruits and vegetables than women.

Really? That last one surprises me.

I was listening to Shawn Hannity's talk show today while the great debate on fast food continued. Should fast food joints be banned in the USA? Lots of people think so. Others think they should stay, and we should take responsibility for controlling excessive use of the most fat-laden caloric products.

Some believe fried drumsticks and onion rings are a sin to be made. Could it be true that the "evil" folks at KFC and Burger King are purposely trying to poison the American public? Maybe we should all just get a grip and learn to visit these restaurants less frequently or simply order the healthy choices while we're there.

As a fitness pro, I've mixed emotions on the subject. Knowing what horrible repercussions the worst of fast food can do to a person, of course I wish it didn't even exist. I wish the fast food execs would simply have a conscience and resolve to serve super healthy food. That sure would make a "know it all" like me happy.