The shape of things

I saw this article today on Webmd that claims they have the best exercise to lose weight.

So what is it? Well, just any type of exercise that you will actually do! They're all good. Point being, even if running an eight minute mile will burn more calories per minute, if you can't or won't ever do it, that's no good for you. So you need to find the exercise you will do - and DO IT!

If you're really interested in losing pounds you have to create that calorie deficit I talk about so often (calories in have to be less than calories out - 3,500 calories to lose one pound). And the best way to do that is to do cardio/aerobic exercise.

They interviewed a kinesiology professor about strength training and he claims that the idea that building muscle means you burn more calories throughout the day is a MYTH! I was shocked to read that - apparently the only studies that found that you burn more calories with strength training were with weight lifters who were lifting at their max for 60-90 minutes a day!! And they only burned like 5 - 10 more calories per day!

Of course, don't interpret that as you shouldn't strength train - just don't count on your muscles burning that much more calories when you build muscle.

But when you want to burn calories you need to do cardio - vary your intensity and vary your selections of cardio workouts. Read some more weight loss through exercise tips here.

I read this article today about how no states in the U.S. are doing well or even "satisfactory" in terms of women's health. The research looked at 27 measures of women's health (including breast cancer screening, obesity, diabetes, access to health care, etc.) Sadly, every state in America is doing a bad job.

Only three states received a "satisfactory minus" grade - Vermont, Minnesota, and Mass.

Twelve states FAILED: Misssissippi last, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Alabama and Indiana, and the District of Columbia.

Interestingly Colorado has the second lowest rate for obesity (behind Hawaii), the least trouble with high blood pressure, and the lowest diabetes rates. (I hope to one day live in Colorado, FYI).

So what does this mean? In my opinion, it means that us women need to take our health in our own hands. Many of these health measures are situations that are in our hands. You can watch your blood pressure, you can watch your weight, you can ask your doctor to screen for breast and colon cancer, etc.

Click here to see how your state ranked with an interactive map and the full report card.

My state, Louisiana, did terribly in the "Prevention" category. We failed in 4 of the 6 prevention categories (physical activity, smoking, obese and eating five fruits/veggies).

Some of the stats that stood out to me for my state were:

• 42% of black women do not get any physical activity in Louisiana
  
• Only 18% of women 18-44  eat 5 fruits/veggies a day (that means 82% DON'T!)
• The percent of obese women in Louisiana jumped 4.4% in just three years (up to almost 30%)!
• More than 60% of women over 65 in Louisiana have high blood pressure
• Louisiana only received a grade of satisfactory in mammograms and annual dental visits (2 out of 27 categories)

Check out how your state stands up and don't sit back and let our states determine our health - we obviously need to take it in our own hands AND encourage our leaders to make women's health a priority.

Hope everyone had a great and relaxing weekend. Here are some interesting articles I've found in the health-news world that I thought you may be interested in:

Don't use the D word to overweight teens - a new study found that teens who are overweight and are told to "diet" or who are teased by family and friends resort to eating disorder tactics like bingeing and purging. The researchers suggested that parents of overweight children should not tell their kids to diet since it's a stigmatizing word - instead they should promote a balanced lifestyle and start cooking some healthy family meals.

Confused about what to eat to lower cancer risk? Read this! - Self put together a list of tried and true foods that will lower your cancer risk (and won't change every other month with new research). Want to lower your risk? Eat HIGH fiber anything, a lot of Vitamin D and calcium and cruciferous veggies (like broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale).

Which jobs rank highest in rates of depression? Child care workers and elderly-care workers. Coming in at a close second is food-service workers. Another interesting finding was that those people who worked full time (in any industry) were less likely to be depressed. Read the article for some more interesting information.

I started running two years ago around this time of year. When I started running I was just wearing a normal pair of sneakers - nothing special, you're typical cross-trainers. A few months in I decided I'd buy a pair of running shoes. I didn't do any research, I just got in my car and drove to a sporting good store and bought a pair of Asics. They were only $40 and I was psyched.

This spring I was training for a 10K and decided to do some running shoe research. The shoes I had were fine, but I felt like I was missing out. So I read all the articles on runnersworld.com, did all sorts of tests to find out what type of arch I had, etc. As I looked through the results, the prices shocked me - $120 for a pair of shoes that they recommend you change out every year or so. Yikes.

And then I found the pair I ended up buying in the list (buried, of course). They were a pair of Asics and they were $70. I was willing to pay that amount so I went out and bought them. And I love them.

So I read this article today about how researchers found that a running shoe brand's most costly model wasn't any better than their most inexpensive model. Great news, right?

The study was very SMALL - only 43 volunteers - BUT, they did find that in terms of comfort and added features there was little if not NO difference between the $150 pair and the $80 pair.

The second page of the article talks about how to pick out a running shoe and they have great tips if you're in the market.

Hopefully this article will have saved you some money! Happy running. 

We've all heard time and time again about how television watching of young children could be harmful to their behavioral and social skills. A new study in the journal Pediatrics found that children between the ages of 2.5-5.5 years who watch more than 2 hours of television a day were more likely to develop sleep, attention, and aggressive behavior problems than those who watched less.

I believe, even without research findings, that it's common sense that a child should not spend the majority of his time at home in front of the tv. Kids are awake and at home from school for about 4-5 hours and if more than half of that is spent watching television, it leaves little time for homework, dinner, family time, and PLAY! 

That's why when I heard on Saturday Night Live that Nickelodeon is having a turn off the TV and go play outside day I was intrigued (of course the ever-hilarious Seth Myers said "because children need to get their three hours of exercise for the year") 

Regardless, the premise is that Nickelodeon will not air any programming for three hours on Saturday beginning at noon eastern time. It's a part of their fourth annual worldwide day of play.  

I say, "Bravo Nickelodeon." Yes, their never-ending lineup of children programming could be a huge part of this growing childhood obesity epidimic, but even if just for one day a year they give a shout out that says to kids, "TV isn't everything" I find that awesome.  Because, honestly, to Nickelodeon - TV is everything - but by being a socially responsible media company it sends a message that they don't want to sit back and watch the nation get fat.

So this Saturday, take a cue from Nickelodeon. If you have kids or not, starting at about noon get outside and enjoy the cooler weather and spend some time playing. Have fun. 

I found this interesting article today about a study that found the annual checkup to a physician is really not worth our time or the money. This is a study my husband would love. He's always said he doesn't go to the doctor unless he's sick. I thought he was crazy, but now I see that maybe he's on to something.

With the healthcare crisis our country is going through today and the plethora of well-intentioned but flawed "universal health care" ideas and/or solutions, perhaps another facet of your system we need to look at is what we're wasting money on.  

The researchers found that on average the check up costs $116 (including lab costs). The researchers believe that some preventitive measures and tests are necessary (i.e. pap smear and mammogram) but they found that a lot of patients were tested for things that were unnecessary and a waste of money.

So how do they propose we get the necessary preventitive tests without an annual checkup? Well, in this article it isn't clear. The researcher did say that he believes we could get it at another visit, since the average person goes to the doctor at least one other time besides the annual check up.

But another interesting finding was that even when people went for their annual checkup, most of the very necessary tests for preventitive care were not administered at that time. So, I agree, that sounds pretty pointless.  Read the article.

I recently read this post at Fitsugar about PETA's new ad campaign. It features a naked Alicia Silverstone swimming around and exposing her nude butt on national television - and this is supposed to convince us to become vegetarians? Many people commented about the ad and the general consensus (in my mind) was that the ad was more sex and not very much veg. Obviously PETA is trying to imply that if you go vegetarian you can become sexy and skinny like Alicia.

When I saw this research study today about low calorie - vegetarian diets having little difference than a low calorie - omnivorous diet - it reminded me of this advertisement. The study watched obese and overweight people following a low cal veg diet and low cal meat diet to see if either group's diet had a different effect on their health. Interestingly, neither diet had a significant difference. read more. But, both groups did lose weight and had healthy changes in their bodies. 

I'm not for or against either type of diet, but it does aggravate me when people assume that their diet is the high-moral ground, and everyone else is somewhere below them.

Obviously the important thing about staying healthy is having a well-rounded diet, low in calories and fat, high in fiber and getting proper nutrients. So whether you're a meat eater or a veggie, make sure that your food choices are healthy and don't assume that you're way is the only way.  

Sorry for the lack of posts this week so far. I've been busy at work, but promise a few posts today - so you can still get your fill! :)

Tomorrow morning (saturday) at 8:00 a.m. eastern time, turn your TV sets to ESPN2 and watch the U.S. Women's soccer team battle England in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup. We're by far favored to win, but tune in for a great match.

In the spirit of the Women's World Cup  this new research study I read about today finds that soccer is better exercise than jogging. All I can say is that it definitely is more exciting! :) I love both, but soccer beats jogging in the fun category too. (Read the article here).

The researchers found that a friendly game of soccer actually burns more fat and builds more muscle than jogging. So get out your cleats and soccer ball and a few friends and go scrimmage! Have fun and know that you're getting a great workout.

Watch the game tomorrow morning for some great moves to emulate. 

We all know (and have since 1960) that smoking is terrible for you. Not only will you damage your lungs and throat you also have a very very good chance of developing (and dying) of lung cancer. Yet, people still smoke. I find that fascinating.

When I read this article this morning about how 1 in 10 PREGNANT women smoke I was shocked and disgusted. These women know that it's wrong, they know they should quit and they know it's harming their unborn child yet they STILL smoke!

The thing that makes me livid about this is that when you smoke and you're not pregnant your doing the most damage to yourself (unless you're rude and smoking in front of others and therefore are killing them by your secondhand smoke). But when you're pregnant you're harming your child when you smoke.

The study found that the women who smoke while pregnant tend to also be depressed. So the researchers are trying to come up with non-medication depression treatment for pregnant women. That's awesome and I hope they succeed.

Then I read this article about hookahs. Not sure if you've ever tried it or even been exposed to it, but a hookah has flavored tabacco in a water pipe and you inhale and feel relaxed. We had a hookah bar here for a while, it has since closed down.

I've never smoked a cigarette, ever! But I did try hookah, assuming for some reason that it was different from cigarette smokes and not as harmful - boy was I wrong.  Researchers at the world health organization found that the typical hookah smoker inhales hookah 50-200 times in one sitting - which can make one session of hookah smoking much like smoking 100 cigarettes! EEEEK!

Stop smoking hookah and stop smoking while pregnant and just stop smoking!  

Found a couple of interesting articles in the food and diet arena:

1. The Skinny on Spicy Foods: growing up in South Louisiana this article really hit home. It features several reasons why spicy foods are good for you. The good for you spices include red pepper, turmeric, curry and spices in chiles. 

Adding spices to your diet can curb hunger, strengthen muscles, boost your brainpower and improve mood, new research shows. Plus, you get instant big-time flavor for a few calories and nearly zero fat.

 Ready to reap the spicy benefits? Use these recipes that include those spices: Hot Pepper Chicken, Middle Eastern Lamb Burgers, Wolfgang Puck's curried Chicken Satay, and Jambasta.

 

2.  Can Drinking water make you skinny? Nope, sorry. Although it benefits every cell in your body, hydrates your skin, and improves your mood - but it doesn't help you lose weight.

Women's magazines and diet gurus have long promised that if you gulp a lot of water, you'll feel full and eat less, and the pounds will melt away. If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, that's one of the biggest diet myths out there.

But just because it won't make you skinny, still drink it! Especially if you replace water for your sugary-calorie-laden drinks like soda or fruit juice - then it could actually help you lose weight because you'll be taking in less calories.