let’s get physical

whatever days you’ve set aside to strength train, really try to go for the burn.  no, i’m not one of those “no pain no gain” advocates, however i do believe in maximizing your potential, and i also must admit, i do enjoy that burning feeling in my muscles, topped with the shakes. this is how i know that i am really working hard. now, for those of you who are frustrated because you can’t seem to shed those last few pounds, remember  your body will naturally hit a plateau in regards to weight loss. so the way to overcome this hurdle is to sensibly push your body (in conjunction with healthy eating, getting plenty of rest, and stress management). now, going for the burn can be as simple as this: take your normal workout routine and crank it up a tad. for instance, say you have a set number of repetitions (reps) that you do per muscle group. take that number and add 2-3 more reps. the trick is that you change the count for the addition reps.  what i mean is this, if you generally do 12 reps of bicep curls for two counts up, and two counts down, when you reach reps 13-15, i want you to take it up for three counts and squeeze your muscle at the top of the movement, and then take it back down for three counts. by doing this, you will get mentally and physically stronger and will be able to really cut into the muscle for more definition. just keep these two things in mind, use a weight that causes fatigue when you’re about two-thirds through the set and please maintain proper form to prevent unnecessary injuries. you’ll gain better results.

kathleen

sweet temptations

can you recall what foods you ate today? let’s see, you probably had some meals that included a common carbohydrate; fructose, (a monosaccharide, a basic unit of carbohydrate or simple sugar), right? although our bodies require carbohydrates to produce energy, the majority of us are eating way too much simple sugars like pasta, bread, rice crackers, cereals, cookies.

now, can you fathom eliminating sugar from your food plan for an entire week? for my coffee drinkers of the world, i am going to make one small, yet painful suggestion; drink your coffee black or just add milk (it’s only for a week). this challenge may seem like an eternity for most of you, but unlike my usual one days, this challenge requires a week in order for you to see a marked difference. believe it or not, you actually have to allow your body to undergo a withdrawal process in order to really see the difference. yes, i did say withdrawal, because sugar causes addiction. recent studies show that sugar produces the same chemical activity in the brain that the drugs heroin and morphine produce. so when we are having “the blues” we crave sugar to feel better. who doesn’t want to feel better? even our brains want to feel good, and whenever you consume sugar you almost immediately feel elated or relieved. there’s an actual physiological effect that causes this reaction to sugar; which is the brain’s pleasure center responds by releasing opioids (deals with pain relief). effects of opioids are due to decreased perception of pain, decreased reaction to pain as well as increased pain tolerance that will fuel a craving for more sugar. sugar makes you feel better, and there’s nothing wrong with that, except that we have sugar laden diets, which makes weight loss a huge hurdle, even if exercise is present in your life. so eliminating this addiction can open the pathway to more healthy living and faster weight loss. unfortunately, like with any addiction, to stop, involves withdrawal symptoms. here are some things you can expect during withdrawal; initially you may feel pumped up and ready to go because you’ve prepared yourself mentally for the challenge, however ultimately, even a positive mental state will not curb what the body needs to go through. then, you’re going to be cranky and sluggish, there’s no avoiding it, just think of the million smokers out there who went through similar symptoms for months (in their effort to quit) this addiction is not nearly as strong, so you can get through it. after your withdrawal symptoms have passed, you will eventually feel amazing because you have managed to overcome the physical, psychological and even emotional dependence on sugar by removing it out of your system.

so for the next week or so, avoid sweetened food, high fructose corn syrup, drinks, fruit including fruit juices and even honey. the best bet would see how you feel and monitor your progress. you may feel as though you are left with nothing to eat, however you can still enjoy your breads pasta and rice as long as it is the whole wheat variety. in addition, let’s not forget that you can still have many other great tasting and satisfying foods like vegetables, legumes, nuts, fish, poultry, and meat during this time. when all goes well you can reintroduce fructose, for instance, fresh fruit and fruit juices and an occasional treat here. keeping in mind that fructose should be eaten in moderation.

kathleen

give thanks

how many times do you find yourself saying that this is the year you will not over-eat during the holidays? only to find that once you sit in front that enormous display of food on the dinner table, you simply can’t resist devouring all of those savory decadent dishes. even those of you are generally disciplined with your eating habits get touched with the glutton fever too. so you eat until you can’t eat another bite and before you know it,you’ve sunken into a stupor, you have absolutely no desire to move or do anything at all. all you’re thinking about is sleep. i’m talking about that hibernating bear type of sleep, and before you can make it to bed your stomach starts orchestrating a symphony of weird noises, gas, followed by flatulence. so i thought with the holiday season upon us, there is no better time to give you the basics when it comes to food combination to help minimize or alleviate the inevitable.

if you’re unable to adhere to the following tips, due to certain family expectations, try to remember that there is a benefit from the following guidelines i am about to lay fourth. avoid drinking while eating, yes drinking includes any and all beverages including alcohol. what’s the holidays without a little  rum eggnog, or wine? i definitely understand that drinking while eating your meal is typical, but even a harmless glass of milk, tea, water or juice will cause your digestive enzymes to weaken. the fact is that during this colossal eating fest your body needs as much digestive fire power as possible, and since everything will be available for a limited time, you don’t want to miss out on auntie’s, mom’s, or grandma’s famous entree. so eat as you will, but avoid the drinking. basically, diminished digestive enzymes will not be strong enough to properly break down food and whatever you eat will end up sitting in your stomach for much longer than it should which will eventually lead to spoilage.

here are some more helpful tips:
don’t consume melons with any other foods
eat fruits alone
don’t eat more than one protein at a time for example, no turkey and shrimp
milk is best taken alone
don’t eat meats and starches together for example turkey with mashed potatoes

in addition, keep in mind the following time frames for digestion (when foods are combined in the manner i’ve previously suggested):
fruits generally take approximately 20-45 minutes to digest on an empty stomach
meat can take up to 4 hours and up
carbohydrates can take 2-3 hours

lastly, for all of my dessert lovers out there, brace yourself, for what i am about to tell you. all of these years you’ve heard that dessert should be eaten at the end of your meal, however this is not the best time to eat it. under normal circumstances it isn’t a good time because it prolongs digestion by several hours.  now considering the feast that awaits you, you can only begin to imagine how many days it will take to digest that food. dessert is weighty and just sits on top of everything else you’ve already eaten. It doesn’t break down right away and actually hinders digestion by causing fermentation and putrefaction which results in rotten food.  now, if you absolutely must have that slice of pie, apple or pumpkin, or chocolate cake, have a slice a few hours before the turkey is ready. this way you can also satisfy your sweet tooth.

by keeping these things in mind you can then create your own action plan to get the best digestion possible, while still enjoying a variety of foods.

so for this holiday season try something new; whether it be the avoidance of drinking during your meal, having dessert first, or simply eating a smaller portion to avoid the sluggish feeling, and see how you feel afterward.   it may very well change the way you approach holiday eating. happy holidays!

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kathleen

vaccines

create

kathleen

jump start

wouldnt you like to have a pep in your step in the morning, instead of feeling sluggish and tired? why not put your best foot forward and start your day off with a nutritious meal? as ive mentioned to you before, eating a heavy breakfast is not the way to go, however having a light, healthy one is.  for those of you, who often skip breakfast, try having a nutritious drink, and im not talking about a glass of oj either.  who says oj is the only nutritious drink that you can have in the morning? how about a tall glass of vegetable juice? although juicing is the best option, if youre unable to do so, you can always buy a bottle of vegetable juice thats made from 100% natural ingredients, no artificial flavors, and definitely no added sugars. since, it is recommended that you have a minimum of four servings of vegetables per day, just by drinking one cup, helps meet half your daily requirement (remember one serving is equivalent to a half of a cup, and if youre a proud owner of one of those super duper mugs, one cup still equals eight ounces. ) finally, if youre trying to cutback on those extra calories, this is a great way to incorporate vegetables into your daily meal plan.

kathleen

mmmm mmmm good

ingredients:
whole corn, corn oil, salt, cheddar cheese (milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), buttermilk solids, whey protein concentrate, whey tomato powder, monosodium glutamate (MSG), romano cheese (part-skim cow’s milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), onion powder, wheat flour, natural and artificial flavor, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, artificial color (including yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6, red 40 lake) sugar, garlic powder, disodium phosphate, dextrose, parmesan cheese (part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), spice, citric acid, lactic acid, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate.
contains: milk and wheat ingredients.

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does this look familiar? it should, then again, like most of us, you probably tear into the bag, eat one chip and keep crunching away until the bag is empty. now what if you found out that your favorite snacks and mostly all processed foods are laced with a chemical that harms your entire body? in addition, that the chemical can be the cause of brain damage, obesity, reproductive disorders, eye damage and a slew of other medical conditions?  the saying “you cant have just one,” commonly used for marketing the salty, greasy snacks we love so much, is no exaggeration. we eat toxic food and we eat it in abundance, unaware that our food is filled with something called msg.

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msg stands for monosodium glutamate, and is a neurotoxin that wreaks havoc on the body. this neurotoxin specifically damages the structures of nerve cells. msg is also referred to as an excitotoxin, which is any substance added (generally to food) that over-excites cells to the point of damage. what does all of this actually mean? unfortunately, it means that msg, found in most of our food, is a form of poison that causes a break down of our cellular structure. in addition, our bodies were not made to ingest mass quantities of any poison let alone this one.

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why is msg  in our food to begin with?

msg is a flavor enhancer used by the food industry to increase the perceived taste of any item. msg is created by altering the natural or bound glutamic acid to free glutamic acid. the break down is done through processes called autolyzed, fermented, hydrolyzed, modified, texturized, and then finally the product is refined to a white powder which  is mixed with salt to enhance the flavor of any food. therefore, by simply adding this drug, food manufacturers and restaurants can take mediocre or poor quality foods and create that extra yummy factor. so ultimately, to mask poor quality and taste msg is added.  sadly, while our taste buds appreciate the flavor, our bodies cannot correctly break down the toxin.

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to avoid confusion be aware that there is actually a naturally occurring msg called l-glutamic acid. this msg is an amino acid (building block of protein) and is found in plants and animals, specifically; tomatoes, mushrooms, dairy products wheat, to name a few. this form of msg  is harmless (as long as it isnt consumed in excess). as it is found in nature, the body is well equipped to safely and properly break down natural msg in order to properly utilize it. it is the processed msg that you must avoid.

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msg  is widely used in thousands of products, and since it isnt always listed as monosodium glutamate, detection is not as easy as you may think. for instance, take another look at the above label. on the second line of the list of ingredients, monosodium glutamate is clearly printed, however contained within this same label are other names for msg. thats right, due to public awareness, food producers and restaurants have deliberately renamed msg to more tasty and natural sounding names for their ingredients. i have provided a list of names commonly used by manufactures.

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the following names will always contain msg;

glutamate
monosodium glutamate
monopotassium glutamate
yeast extract
hydrolyzed protein
glutamic acid
calcium caseinate
sodium caseinate
yeast food
hydrolyzed corn gluten
gelatin
textured protein
yeast nutrient
autolyzed yeast
natrium glutamate

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these often contain msg;

carrageenan
natural pork flavoring
bouillon and broth
natural beef flavoring
stock
whey protein concentrate
whey protein
whey protein isolate
flavors
flavorings
natural flavorings
maltodextrin
citric acid
natural chicken flavoring
ultra-pasteurized
barley malt
protease
protease enzymes
anything enzyme modified
enzymes anything
malt extract
malt flavoring
soy protein isolate
soy sauce
soy sauce extract
soy protein
soy protein concentrate
anything protein fortified
anything fermented
seasonings

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so as you see, mere avoidance of the toxin is not easy due to the efforts of manufacturers. the renaming of msg ensures that no one is spared, whether theyre infants, elderly, or vegetarians alike. so please be vigilant when it comes to reading food labels and when in doubt throw it out!

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kathleen

sugar free

wheres the beef

can you think back to your early twenties, when you felt invincible and the sky was the limit?  now, could you imagine, waking up one day and being unable to move your lower body? it isnt as a result of a terrible accident, but is due to eating a home cooked hamburger. then, shortly thereafter, you begin experiencing stomach pains that progressively worsen, bloody diarrhea, both kidneys shut down, seizures that leave you unconscious, put in a coma to avoid having repeated seizures, and finally, after being in a coma for nine weeks, you wake up paralyzed from the waist down. unfortunately, this is what happened to stephanie smith, a twenty two year old childrens dance instructor.

youre probably wondering ‘how on earth could this happen?’ although ms. smiths condition is extreme (the toxin in e coli 0157:h7 penetrates the colon wall, damaging blood vessels and causing clots that can lead to seizures), each year, thousands of people fall ill from e. coli 0157:h7, and five to ten percent of these people develop infections that lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (a severe life threatening disease, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail). despite a ban on selling beef contaminated with e. coli 0157:h7, (escherichia coli [e. coli] serotype O157:H7 is a rare variety of e. coli that produces large quantities of one or more related, potent toxins that cause severe damage to the lining of the intestines), there has been a surge of outbreaks since 2007 in the meat industry, which brings me to the most recent outbreak involving cargill.

for those of you, who cant live without eating those juicy beef burgers with all of the trimmings (literally), you may want to take a look at this ny times investigative piece on ‘e. coli path shows flaws in beef inspection’.  the ny times conducted its own investigation of ms. smiths story, and while obtaining information through interviews, government and corporate records, they uncovered unsafe practices of slaughterhouses and meat processing plants and also the inability of the u.s. department of agriculture to effectively and safely regulate them.

ive included excerpts of some unsettling findings reported in the article. the u.s. department of agriculture (usda) has not set federal requirements for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen (causes disease) and the usda doesnt require strict adherence to rules and regulations by slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, but merely encourages them to follow good practices. the agriculture department opted to carry out its own tests for e.coli, but acknowledges that its 15,000 spot checks a year at thousands of meat plants and groceries nationwide is not meant to be comprehensive. many slaughterhouses and processors have voluntarily adopted testing regimes, yet they vary greatly in scope from plant to plant.

a significant number of meat plants are failing to follow their own safety procedures in handling ground beef. within weeks of the cargill outbreak in 2007, usda officials swept across the country, conducting spot checks at 224 meat plants to assess their efforts to combat e. coli. although inspectors had been monitoring these plants all along, officials found serious problems at 55, that were failing to follow their own safety plans. ‘every time we look, we find out that things are not what we hoped they would be,’ said loren d. lange, an executive associate in the agriculture departments food safety division. also many large slaughterhouses have unwritten agreements to sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for e.coli because of fear of setting off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

large meat processing plants place onus on suppliers to check for bacteria and when and if the large meat processing plants conduct their own testing it is done only after all of the ingredients are ground together. ground beef is not made from one piece of meat, it contains raw materials from numerous suppliers, therefore this means that various sections of cows and different cows are used to make one pattie. this practice makes it extremely difficult to identify the source of contamination, which makes it virtually impossible for someones hind to be put on the chopping block. these ingredients are typically low-grade and cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with fecal matter, which carries e. coli. as with other slaughterhouses, the potential for contamination is present every step of the way, according to workers and federal inspectors. the cattle often arrive with smears of feedlot feces that harbor the e.coli pathogen, and hide must be removed carefully to keep it off the meat. this is especially critical for trimmings sliced from the outer surface of the carcass.  federal inspectors based at the plant are supposed to monitor the hide removal, but much can go wrong. workers slicing away the hide can inadvertently spread feces, the workers and inspectors say. the meat industry hides its unsafe practices and low-grade ingredients under the guise of trade mark secrets in which the usda guards as secrets too.

although the usda reminded consumers on its website that hamburgers had to be cooked to 160 degrees to be sure any e. coli is killed and urged them to use a thermometer to check the temperature, dr. mansour samadpour, a microbiologist who runs ieh laboratories in seattle, one of the meat industrys largest testing firms said, ‘in a warm kitchen, e. coli cells will double every 45 minutes.’ with the help from his laboratories, the times prepared three pounds of ground beef dosed with a strain of e. coli that is non harmful but acts in many ways like 0157:h7. although the safety instructions on the package were followed, e. coli remained on the cutting board even after it was washed with soap. a towel picked up large amounts of bacteria from the meat.

dr. kenneth petersen, an assistant administrator with the departments food safety and inspection service, said that the department could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers. ‘i have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,’ dr. petersen said.

so to all of my hamburger lovers, if youre still set on eating your beef burgers, think safety first! see if you can buy a whole cut of meat and have your butcher grind it for you, or buy ground beef from costco since theyre one of the few meat processors that actually tests trimmings prior to grinding.  it will cost you a few extra dollars but i think we can agree that it is very well worth it.