That's Fit

If I were granted one wish for Halloween, I'd wish all the candy would disappear on November 1. Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I hate the pile of candy that lingers past Thanksgiving. Those mini-candy bars whisper my name daily from their plastic pumpkin house.

So I headed over to see what the successful pound-droppage operation, Weight Watchers, had to say on the matter. In their Halloween Help Guide, WW members offer seven tricks to avoid the treats -- here are my favorites:

• Resist the sales: Don't toss those giant five-lb bags of candy in your cart during the pre-Halloween sales. You may save $2.00 buying in bulk, but you're still walking out of the store with 10 lbs of sugar and a likely pile of leftovers. Spend more and you'll gain less.
  
• Buy candy you don't like: Circus peanuts make me gag, how about you?
  
• Buy late, open later: Even though offerings are slim, you'll stay thinner if you shop for candy a few days before Halloween, then refrain from opening 'til the doorbell chimes.
• Walk with a hot drink and a full belly: Trick-or-treat with your kids on a full stomach and bring along a mug of hot tea or coffee. You're less likely to skim off the top or yell "Trick or treat!" yourself.

If you were an overweight woman and had to pick just one, would you prefer Weight Watchers or a gym membership to improve your health? The answer isn't exactly simple.

A recently published study using the Bod Pod, a sophisticated measure of body composition, found there are pros and cons of both programs. Here are highlights to consider:

• Participants sticking with Weight Watchers for 12 weeks lost an average five percent of body weight (nine lbs), however body fat percentages did not improve at all because they lost more lean tissue than actual body fat.
  
• Body composition is more important than what you weigh, stated the lead researcher -- losing lean tissue often slows metabolism.
• The fitness center group hardly lost any weight, but they lost a bunch of abdominal fat around vital organs. Skinnier organ jeans likely lessen the risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Most of the Weight Watchers folks stayed the course for 12 weeks, while many fitness center participants quit.
  
  

Considering it's important for good health to shed pounds and body fat, the best answer is don't pick one, join both! Personally, I dropped those last few post-pregnancy pounds on Weight Watchers, but I was hitting the gym at least twice between weekly weigh-ins.

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 one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Dear Fitz, My mom has learned that if she doesn't get healthier, she'll get diabetes! She wants to lose weight and all that, but her job has her up all night! She has to get some sleep during the day. Are there any really good exercises you can do in a chair, or ones that aren't too tiring for the days? Please help! Jerry

Hi Jerry. What a thoughtful child you are! You're concerned for your mother and you have great reason to be. Diabetes is a very serious disease, and if she has the opportunity to avoid it, she should. The night shift sounds difficult, but to be honest ... so is the day shift. Mom just sleeps and works at opposite times than you do.

What keeps you going to the gym? Is it the burning desire to look and feel fitter? Is it because you hope to run into the good-looking girl or guy you exchanged glances with a month ago on the treadmill? Or is it because you paid for it, so damn it, you're going to use it?!! The way I see it, whatever the reason happens to be, it's a good one if it gets you there.

But paying specific attention to the last of the three motivators (the almighty dollar), Weight Watchers magazine offers a few good tips on how to make cold hard cash your impetus for healthy change.

Pay yourself one dollar every time you make a healthy decision, such as noshing on fruits or veggies instead of a cookie. Keep an envelope on you at all times and make the small deposits as you earn them. Then, after two months, take what's in that fund and spend it on something fun.

Put $20 into a jar every time you skip a workout. This will definitely make you think twice about playing hooky. After one month, either use that money to get a healthy meal at your favorite restaurant or donate it to charity (or both, depending on how many times you flaked out).

The average adult living in the U.S. spent a total of two months watching TV in 2007. So, if there's a goal for this year, let's make it to keep that number down and at the same time increase our outdoor activity time. Here are five reasons why Weight Watchers magazine feels fresh air is a wellness must.

1. Lower Blood Pressure. In a recent New York University study, patients who gardened for just 45 minutes experienced a drop in heart rate and blood pressure.

2. Sunnier Disposition. The American Journal of Psychiatry reports that light therapy works as well at treating depression in some cases as prescribed medication.

The renowned Cleveland Clinic isn't just taking care of its patients, it's also making sure that employees are in good health as well. The hospital banned smoking in 2005, and as of last fall, stopped hiring people who smoked. They've eliminated trans fats not only from patient menus, but also campus cafeterias and vending machines. And now, the hospital is taking their employee wellness program one step further.

The Cleveland Clinic recently partnered with Weight Watchers, which will now be available to any employee free of charge. Weight Watchers is a weight loss program that focuses on portion sizes, making healthy choices, and behavior modification. In November, the hospital plans to add in another wave of their employee health program -- access to fitness centers.

Can you imagine working for the Cleveland Clinic? What an awesome way to support their employees. "When our employees feel healthier and are healthier, they're able to take care of patients better," said Dr. Michael F. Roizen. He also stresses that using the services is purely voluntary. Cleveland Clinic is known for its cardiac care, so this is a great way for the hospital to invest in the heart health of its employees.

How many moms fit into their skinny jeans a year after the birth of baby? I sure didn't. Luckily I wasn't alone. Babycenter surveyed 7,000 new mommies about their bodies. 'New' means these moms had babies just a few days old to 2 years old. Here are a few highlights:

• Weight Loss Expectations: Sixty-five percent of new moms expected to shed pregnancy weight by their baby's first year, but only half of the moms with 1- 2-year-olds had accomplished this feat. It truly is a tough road -- I finally lost it, but had to pay money to hop on the Weight Watchers scale every Saturday morning to pull it off. After that I'd have a big breakfast -- with hashbrowns -- then start counting Points all over again.
• Tummy Woes: Eighty-seven percent of women say their stomach still hasn't returned to normal. My girlfriends across the country consistently report thanks to stretch marks (for some) and pregnancy's final-month-ultra-stretch, their abs are not the same.
• Pregnancy Weight Gain: Forty-two percent of moms surveyed gained more than the recommended limit of 35 pounds. Herein lies a major obstacle to losing the weight -- if you eat wildly during pregnancy and gain too much weight, it'll be tougher to take off later. Only 32 percent of the survey's big gainers lost their pregnancy weight within a year compared to 50 percent of moms who gained less.

Body image wasn't too stellar for survey-takers either. Over half admitted their body image has worsened since motherhood. But there's definitely good news here -- healthy eating and physical fitness is ever-ready to rescue pregnant and new moms. Go for it -- fitness fans everywhere applaud your efforts!

I breastfed both kids -- my firstborn for nearly seven months and my second for 13 months. Why the difference? I had this fantasy that if I stopped breastfeeding I'd lose those last stubborn pounds. So I switched my first bundle of joy to the bottle and watched the pounds simply stay there. It wasn't until I joined Weight Watchers and started eating less and moving more that the pounds came off.

According to this study in the American Journal of Epidemiology cited in Women's Health, I should have been sleeping more. Women who slept five hours a night were three times as likely to retain 11 post-pregnancy pounds as women who slumbered seven heavenly hours each night. Sleep-deprived cells releasing more appetite-stimulating hormones or stress hormones may be the culprit.

Granted, switching to the bottle did allow my husband to help with middle-of-the-night feedings -- our first did not sleep through the night until 11 months. But I do have a bit of regret I stopped breastfeeding so early in hopes of instantly losing the weight. It just didn't work. Diet and exercise ... and maybe more sleep over time did.

Writing is hardly a weight loss activity. Unless you plunked down a wad of cash for a Walkstation combo workstation/treadmill, you just sit on your bum clicking keys. Usually a cup of tea and a carbohydrate-laden snack perches nearby.

But writers out there have new hope in Julia Cameron's book, The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size. Between its pages, Cameron has adapted her creative writing program to target weight loss. The main premise is eating is often used to manage feelings, but writing about feelings is a healthier way to fully face life issues. You don't eat your way around them.

Cameron discovered the weight loss power of writing when she gained 40 pounds after taking mood-stabilizing medication. As a teacher she had been assigning "morning pages" to students for 25 years, and had seen students look healthier as a course progressed. But only through her own frustration with weight gain did she identify writing as an actual weight loss tool.

There are tremendous benefits to journaling feelings and recording your eating habits. I eat much healthier on the days I count calories. I joined Weight Watchers (WW) to lose the weight after each of my kids were born, and tracking food intake via their Points system was insightful. It was during that time I discovered my weight-loss-sabotage-time -- I always reach for high-glycemic carbs in the late afternoon. Although I suspect officially stepping on their scale each week and witnessing the WW staff record my number was even more motivational.

As 2007 gives way to 2008, many people are going to resolve to finally lose weight, and, tired of unsuccessful diets, many of them will sign up for one of the popular dieting plans out there. But diets are expensive. Want to know just how expensive? The Consumerist recently looked into this -- here's what the popular diets cost per month on average:

• Atkins Diet: $402
  
• Diet To Go (1600 Calories): $524
• Diet To Go (1200 Calories): $468
• Dr Siegal Cookie Diet: $224
  
• Dr Sears Zone Diet : $371
  
• Jenny Craig: $551
  
• MediFast: $275
  
• NutriSystem: $294
  
• Ornish Diet: $299
  
• Slim Fast: $310
  
• South Beach Diet: $314
  
• Sonoma Diet: $274
  
• Weight Watchers: $387

Wow -- that's a lot of moola, and some of them don't even include the cost of food. What do you think -- is it worth it? Or are we being ripped off by the diet industry?

My mom did the weight watchers points program a while back and in the interest of research, I took the resources she recieved from the program once she was done with it. They give you some handy stuff, including a small book that explains the points values of many common items from both restaurants and the supermarket. They also give you a slider thing that you can use to calculate the points in the chance that the item you want to eat isn't in the book. It's easy to use, but if you forget it at home, you're hooped.

But now you can calculate points of your food on the internet -- click here for the calculator. You just enter the calories, fat and fibre in the food you're eating and voila, it comes up with the points value for you.

Pretty handy, huh?

(via Fitsugar)

Annoyed at the lack of healthy fare at convenience stores? Yeah, me too. When it comes to snacking, convenience stores don't offer a whole lot -- there might be a battered piece of fruit, some nuts and maybe a selection of questionable sushi, but other than that, it's all slurpees and fake cheese and sugar and fat. Bleh.

But there's good news on the horizon -- As our friends over at Fitsugar pointed out, 7-11 stores will now start offering Weight Watchers snacks at their stores. In particular, expect to see selection of bakes goods that, until now, were only available at national grocery store chains.

I know lots of people who are trying or have tried Weight Watchers at some point in their life. Most have given up on it or lost a few pounds but gained them all back, but some have done really well on the program, including my friend Fran. Promising that you can eat anything in moderation, the weight-loss program is one of the most popular in the world. Is it for you? Here's a brief explanation, courtesy of AOL Body;

The main tenet (of Weight Watchers) is to consume fewer calories than you expend. Instead of counting calories, however, you'll either track your consumption using a POINTS system or use the no-counting Core Plan in which you select foods from a detailed list.

The plan basically follows a low-fat, high-fibre model, and for $12-$14 a month, you have access to materials outlining plan, plus you can attend meetings which help keep you on track. Fitness is encouraged, and you're welcome to eat out -- the POINTS program has an extensive list of the values of popular menu items. The plan is nothing is not flexible, which is one of it's main selling points.

What do you think of Weight Watchers?

At work, I sit next to Fran. Fran is cute, kind and crazy about food. She's a fantastic cook and constantly gets my mouth watering with talk of fresh bread and pies and other delicious things. A little while back, she told us she was going on Weight Watchers and I noticed that she started bringing in healthy foods in individual-sized containers. She didn't go out for lunch as often and though she still talked about deliciously sinful food, she didn't mention eating it anymore. Instead, she swapped healthy brand-names and recipes with other co-workers. Good for her, I thought, I wish I had the willpower to do that.

Fast forward to a little over a year later. Fran looks good, like she's lost 25 pounds or so, but since I see her all the time, I hadn't noticed any huge change--until, that is, I looked at a company photo of her before the diet.

Weight loss programs have traditionally targeted mostly women, and understandably so as women make up most of the market. But the tides are beginning to change and more and more companies are realizing that men are interested in weight loss, too. Weight Watchers and NutriSystem are both changing their approaches to make things more "man friendly." Nutrisystem launched its Silver program designed for older men last year, and just a few months ago Weight Watchers also launched a website specifically geared toward men. As a result, both companies are seeing record numbers of men signing up.

Is this another sign of the increasing obesity problem, or are weight loss companies just finally wising up?