February 5th Quick Tip

Trying to save money at the grocery store is like trying to push a rock up a hill. Both are doable, you just have to work at it. My tip for the day is to go to the grocery store with just cash in your pocket. It is hard to keep a budget when it is so easy to swipe some plastic. If you only have cash in your pocket, meaning literally leave all credit/debit cards at home or in the car, then you have to force yourself to really look at what you are buying. Do I really need a name brand food item? Do I really need another box of 100 calorie packs? I have done it now a few times, and I think it works. I still get nutritious food, and I think I save money because I only buy what I really need.

365 Fit for life.

I Want A Super Sized Choice

I love the documentary, Super Size Me. It actually made me want McDonalds more than not after watching it. I know, I know, that sounds sort of sick and anti-everything that I have wrote about, but truth is truth. The point of this post isn't to talk about McDonalds or really even the documentary. I wanted to share a little life experience I had when me and my girlfriend ate some fast food the other day.

My girlfriend was out shopping with her mom and she called up and wanted to know if she should bring home something for dinner. I was like sure. She said she wanted Long John Silvers. I, of course, do not like fish, but there is an A&W attached to it, so it's all good. The funny thing is that they also offer vegetables, like the steamed variety as one of the sides. I have no idea how long they have been offering that at Long John's, nor will I probably ever order it, but I still like the idea.

The reason for the title is that at the end of the documentary during Morgan's monologue, he talked about choices. Fast food is going to be around forever, mostly because the food at McDonalds doesn't decompose. I digress. People are going to always eat fast food and it is only up to them to make a personal choice to eat it or not. The best thing producers can do is make choices for others. Sure go ahead, eat your big mac and your super sized fries. All we can do is give people choices, and let them decide for themselves. I don't have to eat all the fries. I don't have to order the double double burger. I don't have to drink a quart of coke. I can order the steamed vegetables or a broth based soup. I don't have to get the loaded baked potatoe. You get the idea.

365 Fit for Life!

Meat My Only Friend

I love meat. I like hamburgers, hotdogs, steak, chicken, pork, bacon, sausage, pepperoni, is that meat, basically all animals. The problem with this love is that it raises some concerns that I have been reading about.

The inhumane treatment of animals in slaughter houses is crazy. Rotting meat, feces, bugs, all of this crazy stuff is happening in these places and we still eat it. I read in one book that the manager told the workers to mix the obviously rotten meat in with the fresh meat. That is just sick.

I guess the way the process works is that as soon as the animal dies it starts to decompose. That means that you are putting a dead, rotten, carcass in your mouth and swallowing. Which then, since your body has a hard time digesting meat, sits in your stomach and basically rots some more until it passes out of your system. This scenario is kind of like the egg you are eating. An undeveloped baby chicken. Yep, you just ate a dead baby fetus. If you think about it in those terms then we shouldn't eat anything ever.

It is hard to know where the line is between using descriptions to gross you out and having actual information that will be beneficial to you. Is meat good for you, probably. Is meat bad for you, probably. Should we eat meat? Should we not eat meat? Who knows. I think that there is no real consensus on if we should eat meat or not. We can get the same protein and other minerals from plants and supplements. So that means we shouldn't eat meat then right? Again, who knows. If you choose to eat meat then that is what you should do. If you choose to not eat meat, then that is what you should do too. All that I ask is you to think about your food choices and decide which one is the best for you.

365 Fit for life.

Thursday May 22nd Quick Tip

Use a smaller plate. Yep, that's it. Use a smaller plate when you are at home eating your food and you will eat less. If you have a smaller plate it does double duty. One, it will force you to not put as much food on your plate as you would with a larger plate. Two, your plate is smaller thereby giving you that illusion that there is more food on your plate than there really is tricking your mind into thinking that you have enough.

I am not sure how well this one works for me, but it makes sense either way. If nothing else give it a try and if it works for you then keep at it. If it doesn't work, well then you can chalk it up to your list of "you have tried everything".

365 Fit for life.

Ready Made Is Portions Made Easy

I love macaroni and cheese. Particularly the off-brand spiral macaroni and cheese. I like to make two boxes because well I am a glutton for punishment I suppose. When it is all made up I stare down at the contents in the pot. I grab my bowl and keep scooping and scooping never ready to stop. After my bowl is heaped over the top I sit down to enjoy my feast of noodle and cheese. It is very satisfying for the moment but later I usually regret it. If this scenario sounds familiar to you then read on.

Having ready made portions is one of the reasons that lean cuisine or smart ones or healthy choice or whatever brand of "health" food you buy is so popular. Aside from it being already cooked, pre-packaged, and it's ability to be nuked in the microwave, having it already be the portion of food that you need it to be is very helpful. On the diet that I like to be on, eating my six meals a day, I make everything the night before, except breakfast and dinner. I make my two snacks and my lunch and even my breakfast and dinner are made following a recipe that makes exactly what I need to eat. Instead of making a family size pot of spaghetti, I boil my one ounce or two ounces or whatever it calls for and not the whole box. This virtually eliminates any excuse I have to over eat. I know what and when I should eat, I make my food, and just eat what I have made. There isn't anything more to it.

This is a big help for some people. I am sure you have heard this before, and like I have stated previously I am not writing a new book, merely restating what is known in a forum that I hope to be productive. The moral of this story is make only the amount of food that you need to eat. If you have to make more than that, then go to your local store, throw down your 20 bucks or whatever it costs and buy some plastic containers. Measure out your servings and put them in your containers to store and just pull out one when you need to eat.

Information is half the battle, using that information is the other half. I will provide you with as much information as I can, and all I ask is you use it. My question I pose to you is, what do you do to help control your portions? Leave me a comment or an email.

365 Fit for life.

Portion Control Is The Best Control

Like many of you I have read countless articles on health, diet, and fitness. It seems like everyone says different things about how you should go about your exercise and nutrition. The one constant is portion control. I have never seen an expert tell you that you should go and eat a steak the size of your head. Or of course you should get extra heavy gravy on those butter filled potatoes. Moderation is the key to success. I am sure you already knew this, but it never hurts to hear it again.

It is hard sometimes to get the portions you need right. The following are some things that I have found to help you on your way to always getting your portions right.

Portion Distortion Quiz by DiscoveryHealth
This is a quick 5 question test about portion size. After you answer the question it tells you if you are right or wrong, and gives some helpful information about the correct answer.

The Portion Plate
I try to never endorse anything or sell anything or advertise anything on this site. Thankfully I am still not endorsing, selling, or advertising anything. Well maybe advertising if providing a link to something that you can buy is considered advertising, but it's small and I haven't bought the product, so you can call it what you want. Either way this is the portion plate. It looks cool anyways. It's just a simple plate that has the portions of food that you need split up on your plate so when you are dishing up you know what you need to be giving yourself and your family. I am not recommending this product, nor am I telling you that you need to buy it, I am just giving you more resources in your path to being fit.

Readers Digest Portion Size Guide by RD.com
This is a nice PDF file that lists the portions of foods you should be eating in cups and ounces, and also includes a nice every day visual such as a CD or a baseball to help you gauge your portions better.
Portion Size Guide by ChangeOne.com
This is virtually the same thing both provided by Readers Digest. This one is in html form just in case you can't or don't want to view a PDF file.

Size Does Matter - Master Portion Control by AARP.org
Another guide that lists portion sizes and also includes some helpful information about the right portion size for you. At the end there are some helpful tips to help you out.

Food Database by Calorie King
A little more comprehensive then just a portion control sheet it shows calories and serving size of different products.

Food Reflections by University of Nebraska - Lancaster
Shows some good information about how out of proportion or portions are.

Portion Size IQ by WebMD
This has a little quiz you can take, but what is really good is the information it gives to you following the quiz.

I hope these links and information help you to be more aware of the food and the amount of food you are eating. 365 Fit for life.

Why Do We Fall Off The Wagon

Like I stated in my last post, and if you do not know what I am talking about then read my last post, falling off the wagon is easy. So then, what makes it so easy to fall off that wagon and what can we do to stay on it. I hate to inform you that there is no magical solution, a catch all for every individual that will give you the road map to your success. All I can say is that everyone has their own strengths and preferences and you just need to figure them out and play them up.

Being healthy for the first time is always going to be a challenge. For some it will be a challenge for the rest of their lives. For others it will be so easy that you wonder why you weren't always healthy or healthier earlier in your life. It is easy to be lazy and fat because your body seems to want it that way. My body tends to be comfortable at around 190 pounds. The problem is that I am not comfortable being around 190 pounds. I am not obese nor do I have any major health concerns, but my body likes that higher weight then the rest of me does. Everyone is different, but I am sure everyone can relate to that in some way or another. It's like your body gets to a certain level, and will do everything that it can do to stay there. It is very frustrating. Another reason on why it's so easy, is because food tastes good. Let's face it, food that is bad for you, usually tastes the best. Now I know that there are people out there that love all vegetables, eats only lean cuts of meat, and eats fish like it's becoming extinct. To those people, you are probably not reading blogs like these, so we will exclude you for the moment. I know that I love food. I love my hot dogs, cheeseburgers, tacos, pizza, and yada yada yada. This inturn coupled with that your body is usually trying to always be balanced, tends to lead to some problems in the eating department.

The solution to all of this is to simply ignore what your body is telling you, and focus on what you want to happen to your body. Your body is highly adaptable and very flexible if you make it that way. You don't really need 3,000 calories filled with sugar and chemicals. Your body will work just fine on 1,800 or 1,500 or whatever it is that your body needs. One of the greatest things you can do is work on that portion control. I will talk about that more in depth later, but that is where it all has to start. If you are just beginning your jouney to being fit, then that is a good place to start. It is hard to cut out the junk food that you are used to eating. For some it is easiest and best to just go cold turkey. Get a big garbage bag and just throw out all the junk that is in your house. For others that is not the most economical or reasonable way to start things out. With that in mind that is where portion control plays a big part in it. Instead of grabbing that big bag of chips, put a serving into a smaller bag, put up the big bag, and then go about whatever it was you are doing. Eat your serving, and then at the very least wait 20 minutes before getting another. Chances are that one, you will not want to work to get that second serving, or two, you just will not want it.

I hope this post helps a little bit, I think it might have just been ramble, but maybe you can glean some information from it.

365 Fit for life.

Food, The Stuff That Abs Are Made Of

I have been reading information concerning abs and how to get them. It seems like there is a general consensus about how to get them, good nutrition and fat loss, but it also seems like no one can come to one conclusion on how to go about it. Basically the main thing I have learned is that you need to control your calories eaten, and how many calories you can burn doing cardio and other strength work. Simple huh. It's not always that easy. How do we go about getting the proper nutrition and the right kind of workout?

Lot's of protein, a little protein, no fat, some fat, more fat, the possibilities seemingly endless on how to go about it. I have read some articles that swear you should eat no fat whatsoever because you are trying to lose fat after all, why would you want to be eating it? Others have said you need to eat "good" fat from foods such as nuts, avocados, olive oil, and fish. I have also read that you should cut your protein intake as you are trying to not bulk up. On that same note, I have also heard you should get plenty of protein so that you gain muscle faster.

Here are my thoughts. While I am sure that there is some magical formula somewhere that will give you the exact amounts of everything that you should eat and do at all times, but I have failed to find such a formula. My best guess is to do the things that you know are going to benefit you. That means, if you feel good eating 1500 calories instead of 2000 calories and you are feeling better, then go with that. If you want to eat more protein to try to gain muscle and you think that is working for you, then keep doing it. If you think that you need to eat more good fats in your diet, then eat more good fats in your diet. The bottom line is check with yourself, check with someone who is knowledgeable about nutrition, and always eat healthy.

Every person is unique and every person will need a different set of guidelines to follow in order to be fit. Keep reading up on the issue of nutrition, and if you have any specific questions, drop me a line 365fit@gmail.com or leave me a comment.

Good things, 365 Fit, for life.

Water, the legend, the myth, the reality

Water has always been under great debate and scrutiny so I figure I'd get this one out of the way early. There are basically two extremes to this argument with a variety of gray in the spectrum. On one end you have people who think water is the godsend and you should drink as much as humanly possible during the day. On the other end are the ones who shun waters existence and curse the day that water was born and was forced upon us to consume in those unheard of quantities. I hope that most people are going to be somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. I fall into the middle some where though I lean more towards the drinking more water than not side.

I have read through a number of different articles talking about how much water do I need, should I drink eight glasses a day, how much is too much, and is there any benefit to drinking more water. The following is what I got out of the articles.

Drink water.....

Let's start out with some basics. Below are two simple formula's for figuring out how much water you should drink.

Male Drinking Requirement, in fluid ounces:Body Weight x .35
Female Drinking Requirement, in fluid ounces:Body Weight x .31

Those are just general formulas for an average person.

Hydration Calculator
This a series of nine questions that will help you to determine how much water you need. Take it for what it's worth and not as the final word on how much water you should drink.


Water: How much should you drink every day?
This article was posted at the Mayo Clinic site. Among the articles I read it provided a good amount of comprehensive coverage. It lists the health benefits of water which include flushing toxins and bringing nutrients to the body. It goes on to explain three approaches to determining how much water you need, replacement, 8 - 8 ounce glasses a day, and dietary recommendation. All three approaches boils down to this quote taken from the article, "Even apart from the above approaches, if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is probably adequate." Next it discusses different factors, exercise, environment, health conditions, and pregnancy/breast-feeding, that will affect the amount of water you need. Then it continues with other sources of water besides plain water such as fruits and vegetables, milk, juice, and other beverages. Finally it wraps things up with ways to stay safely hydrated, not relying solely on if you feel thirsty before you drink something, and to make sure your water bottle is sanitary.


Benefits of drinking water oversold?
This article from MedicineNet.com was one of a number of sources that had an article about a recent study on benefits of water. I picked this one because it seemed to be the most detailed of them all as it outlines all the claims of water instead of just glossing over them. It covers the five claims of water, Drinking water helps to excrete toxins, Drinking water helps your organs work better, Drinking water reduces food intake and helps you to lose weight, Drinking water improves skin tone, and Drinking water wards off headaches. The general consensus of all the claims on whether or not they are true is that water does not help as much as it has been claimed too.

Basically there is no real benefit of drinking more water. On the same note, there is no real benefit of not drinking more water. It just comes down to personal preference and listening to your body. The article ends with some thoughts on the placebo effect of water. It says that if you think that water is helping you lose weight, have better skin, makes you feel stronger, or any other benefit that you perceive more water consumption is giving you, continue to do it. Like I said before, science hasn't really proven that more water is better, and there is no benefit of not drinking more water. So if you feel good because you just downed your eighth - eight ounce glass of water then drink on.

I like to drink water, most of the time. It does get hard to stomach after large quantities of it, but that goes for most things in life. I am a believer in the placebo effects of water in that I think it makes me feel better, makes my skin look a little better, and it gives me a general feel of being healthier when I drink more water than less.

I hope that this write up covers some questions you might have had about water and how much you need. As always stay fit, listen to your body, and you will be on your way to being 365 fit. Good things.

Friday April 25th Quick Tip

Some time ago I watched a show entitled "I want to look like a high school cheerleader again". It was a version of "The Biggest Loser" as it had multiple "competitors" trying to lose the most weight. The difference, if you can call it a difference, was that they were all former cheerleaders who have lost their form.

During the course of the show it followed the drama and showed the girls working out which was all well and good. I got into the show, and I think I watched all the episodes, though not sure if I should be admitting that or not, but either way, I watched. At the end of the series or it might have been during I forget, they were showing some of the contestants healthy things to do while out to eat.

Everyone seems to struggle with eating out. They smell the food, they see others enjoying themselves by gorging on their meals and you think, why can't I be one of those people? There was one suggestion that stuck out from the rest of them. People think that salad is a healthy alternative to the junk that most will eat while they are out. The problem with this is the creamy dressings that they pile on. The trainers on the show used a simple, common sense solution to solving that problem.

The next time you are out to eat and want or order a salad, get your dressing on the side. Have the server put it on the side, or if it's a salad bar, get a separate dish for your dressing. Once you have your dressing on the side, just dip your fork in the dish to get your dressing. This cuts down immensely on the calories you intake, and you might even find out that you can taste your salad.

I am guilty many times over of drowning my salad in dressing. I have always thought that it would make the salad taste good, and to some degree it does. If you use that simple solution stated above, you will find that your salad will taste better. All the things that make a salad healthy will taste crisp, not soggy, and the flavor will pop like a salad should.

I hope that this dining out tip will help you in your quest for 365 Fit. Use this tip with the previous dining out quick tip, and you will be well on your way to being 365 Fit. I hope this quick tip finds you well. Good things.

Wednesday April 23rd Quick Tip

It seems like more and more people eat out these days. I for one seem to be perpetuating that self made myth quite nicely. The burning question that seems to arise from eating out is, what can I do to be more health conscious. The first thing that comes to mind is, don't eat out. The second is a simple tip that I picked up from somewhere.

Portion control is one of the biggest and easiest things you can do for yourself when trying to control your weight. Restaurants are notorious for giving you enough for yourself, your significant other, and the left side of your family tree. Most will think nothing of this because it looks like you are getting a good deal on food, not that you are eating too much.

So what can you do to help yourself, simple. When you order your meal, just ask the waiter/waitress to box at least half of your food up before it is even brought out to you. Better yet, ask them to not bring out your box until they bring out the check, to stop any temptation of picking at your food. Better still is, split an entree with a friend, and still have them put half of what you ordered in a box. Chances are that your entree, once split into fourths, will still be an adequate meal as part of your six meals a day, and it will save you a few bucks, and that is always a good thing.

No matter what you choose to do, always think smart, think healthy, and do what you need to do to make yourself 365 Fit. Hope this Quick Tip finds you will. Good things.