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How to lose 20 pounds in a month

Eating to lose weight

Let weight loss be enjoyable

New Interesting Diet Results

Healthy diet plan for summer

Cheating on your diet

Fitness fads that just do not work

Fitness Tips For Life 2008-07-14 02:31:36

Change Can Be Tough

List of 5 exercises deskbound people should avoid

Will Liposuction be better than weight loss?

No I have not disappeared

Andrea on X-Weighted

I received and email yesterday from Andrea. Andrea was on the X-Weighted TV show and it is going to me on TV this Wednesday night for those of us here in Canada. I thought that the email was insightful and asked for if I could post it here, Andrea agreed:

I was reading some of your articles on X-weighted and just wanted to give you a heads up that on the Wednesday July 9th episode, Binge Buddies, you will see my  formerly flabby butt get kicked by Paul Plakas. Paul was absolutely the best thing to ever happen  to me and he is such a great guy.  Carrie and I(my neighbour, and duo on the show) stayed with Paul for a weekend so that we could attend the launch party for the show and he was so good to us!

If you just give yourself over to him, he will brutally tell you what  you have so needed to hear, but, unlike most other’s he takes you by the hand, completely  invests in you and shows you the way.  In general the people who hate Paul are not ready for the  changes they claim to want to make sooo bad.  Carrie and I agreed that if we got this  opportunity that we would NOT waste a minute, we would take full advantage of all the opportunities we  were given and make Paul proud.  So if you want to watch a great episode, tune in on Weds. and  let me know what you think!!!

(more…)

Hot Dog Eating Champion

I can eat a couple of hot dogs. Sure some people like them but not as much as Joey Chesnut how set a record today by eating more hot dogs in 10 minutes than I thought was humanly possible.

July 4th is apparently a great day to eat hot dogs and hamburgers and Joey ate 69 and then 5 more to win an eat off to stay world champion. (more…)

Is Wall-E Anti-fat?

I took my son last weekend to see the movie Wall-e. The movie was really good but one of the jarring parts of the movie was when you see what happens to people in the future. In the future all of the people that we see are living on a flying boat in outer space and are living a life of leisure so much so that they have lost most of their bone mass and have little legs and are very rolly polly.

Well apparently there are some that are saying that the depiction of people in Wall-e is Anti-Fat. In fact one of the writers at the Defamer Web site has found a couple of quotes from critics calling Wall-e anti-fat. (more…)

Myths about Diets and Weight Loss

The presence of so many myths in the weight loss industry surprises me to no end! One example of such a myth is that total elimination of carbs leads to successful weight loss. What surprises me even more is that these myths are taught apparently by ‘weight loss experts’ themselves. In this article I will tell you about three important facts of weight loss that you may not be aware of.

Weight maintenance is more important than weight loss - You know what, since you are now struggling with weight loss, it seems to be the most difficult thing for you, right? What you may not be aware of is the fact that maintaining the weight you’ve ‘lost’ is even more difficult than losing weight. I can give you scores of examples where people have lost weight successfully but gained it later because they fell into old habits! To make sure that you are at your ideal weight at all the times, it is important that you look beyond the scales. You need to know your BMI as well as your fat-to-muscle ratio. The less fat and more muscles you have, the better for you.

Once you are able to lose weight as well as maintain that slim figure, it will enhance your looks. You will not only become more attractive, but also healthier. (more…)

Two part plan to weight loss

These days, how you look is often more important than how talented you are. Your personality and ability is determined by your body’s size and shape. No wonder then that a lot of people are gearing up to lose weight as quickly as possible. The problem is that people take the weight loss steps when it is already too late - that is, they have grown too fat!

Your diet needs to be changed

If you diet consists only of chips, junk fried foods, soda, alcohol, and fizzy drinks, how can you expect to lose weight? These foods are rich in calories and when they enter your body the calories get converted into fat and make you overweight. If you want to lose weight, it is crucial that you change your eating habits first before anything else! (more…)

What Have You Accomplished This Year?

So, have you wasted the first half of the year or has it been a first half filled with accomplishemnets? I know in looking back at the first half of this year it has been so so. I have had big dreams fitness wise and I have had a tough time living up to them but in other areas of my life everything seems to be clicking together quite well.

Think back, or better yet look back at the goals that you set for yourself on New Years Day. We are exactly half way through the year and you should be almost half way to your goals. Whether you are there or not you can easily be honest with yourself in asking the following questions that you asked way back in January when it was cold out but you felt you had a bunch of big plans. (more…)

Post Bariatric Surgery Tips

I think I have probably made it pretty clear on this blog that I am not in favor of Bariatric surgery as a method to lose weight becuase it is dangerous, not always effective, and diet and exercise are not needed to lose theweight which means that your health is not improved as much even though the weight is lost.

The problem is however for the morbidly obese this is sometimes the only options. So here are some post surgery tips

Weight loss surgery can surely help you lose weight, but it won’t help you keep the weight off. What I mean is that if you lose weight today but gain it back sometime later, what is the use of weight loss?

Have yourself checked up - If you are gaining weight in the post-surgery period, you need to visit a doctor to make sure that you are not suffering from any disease that is causing weight gain. Once the possibility of such a disease is ruled out, it is time to follow the next step. (more…)

How to stop binge eating

One of the things that will drive you crazy on a diet is the opportunities to binge on sweets. I know becasue I am very bad with binging myself and have to build some really good coping mechanisms when I find myself gaining a bit of weight. Here is the way that I deal with sweets, something that I always like.

1. When you start the day, start with a good solid meal. A solid meal will consist of lots of protein and carbohydrates. By starting up your metabolism this way you will not have as much trouble with your energy and should have a better bet against urges for sugar.

2. Eat meals often. To avoid those drops in blood sugar and the idea of an interesting treat it is important to eat every couple or three hours. There is a lot of science behind eating often but there are a few important things about eating often and one that is critical is that when you eat often your blood sugar is consistent and you will not have that urge to eat, and hopefully avoid those sugars… (more…)

How best to Prioritize weight loss goals

Often when people want to lose weight they will simply think about losing weight instead of actually doing the hard part which is the doing of the weight loss.

The doing of the weight loss is actually two different things. Deciding how much weight and when you want to lose it is the first part to weight loss , and the second part would be developing the plan to lose the weight.

Make it your priority today to lose weight. You are not going to lose any weight today which means that you will need to plan what you will do over the next weeks and months to lose 2 pounds a week, which is a good ambition although definitely doable. Here is exactly how to get that weight loss started. (more…)

Visualize to succeed on your diet

Anyone that has been on a diet knows that one day there is no easy way to get past the first day of the diet. On the first day of a diet everything is fine and exciting. On the second day of a diet there is no way that all of those great thoughts of the first day will still be carrying you forward.

Here are some cant miss diet tips to help you after the first day of the diet.

Have a great bunch of reasons

Everyone has goals when they start a diet but these goals are usually far out. You know a picture in your mind of you and a bikini in Hawaii or something like that. Well if you have reasons then it will make things a lot easier. How about thinking about how much better your health is today when you are reaching for a cookie. Another great thing is to make a day of how great your day is today. Look back at the day from the beginning and only notice your successes. Keep your head in the sand about the bad things unless you have to and make sure that you dwell on great things so that you can do more of them all of the time. (more…)

Eating lots of carbs at breakfast is good

Just ran across a great bit of research over at Med Page Today that says that eating a high carb breakfast is helpful to a diet in the long term.

Loading up on protein and carbohydrates at breakfast may help obese patients with metabolic syndrome stick to a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet the rest of the day, researchers found.

Such a breakfast was associated with five-fold greater weight loss than was achieved on a low-carb, low-calorie diet alone, reported Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D., of the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela, at the Endocrine Society meeting here.

These 32-week findings from a randomized clinical trial suggested that it’s not enough to simply reduce food intake and increase exercise for effective long-term weight loss, Dr. Jakubowicz said.
Although restrictive, low-carb diets are among the most effective for short-term weight loss, though maintenance is dismal with a success rate of only 5% after two years, she said.

(more…)

Canadas fatest cities

I know most people outside of Canada will not really care about how fat or not different areas of Canada are but there is a new overweightness article that I found on MSN. In the morning I boot up the laptop and sign into MSN Messenger and it pops up a little box with some news stories. One of the stories today was about what area and cities of Canada have the most overweight and obese people. Here is a quote:

Ten years ago, smoking was the national epidemic that had the country talking. Across Canada, anti-smoking campaigns were being implemented. The bar and restaurant industry began to prohibit smoking indoors, and cigarette companies were dropped from sporting events as lead sponsors.

Fast forward to 2008, there is a new national concern, - a more silent, yet equally as deadly epidemic - obesity. Although smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death among Canadians, obesity is a close second. By now, the majority of us are aware of the hazards which extra fat can cause, so why are more than half of Canadians either overweight or obese? According to Statistics Canada, a shocking 59 per cent of Canadians are currently overweight or obese - that’s almost 6 in 10 adults who carry around extra weight every day.

Although the number of Canucks who are overweight or obese is high, some communities are on the right path to a healthier lifestyle - and smaller pant size. We’ve got the lowdown on Canada’s fittest and fattest cities - how do you measure up?

The article is interesting although it does not list my chosen home of Calgary. There is also the BMI info that we are so use to seeing in one of these articles. Have I mentioned enough times how much I hate the inaccuracy of BMI calculations?

There is probably the same kind of info for US cities but I have not seen it myself. The shocking thing about this article is that the number of people in Canada looks to be well over 60% of the entire population.

Taking care in the Sun

I have written before about the best way to suntan and the best ways to get rid of a sunburn but now that Summer is here and I really do get concerned about the people that read my suntanning articles.

I worry that people will get sunburned, I know that people can easily get skin cancer from overexposure to the sun but also I remember how hard I tried in my late teens and twenties to get the best suntan possible with the skin type that I have.

These sun worshipers bake themselves carefully and with proper apparent care. They are careful to turn and twist their bodies in a way best calculated to get an even, rich suntan over as much of their skin as possible. They slather themselves with the latest lotion that promises to keep out harmful sun-ray effects and most importantly guarantees a deep tan.

“Ah, it feels so good,” they say. And I, with a trace of the sun worshiper still in me, agree. The warmth feels like a balm. Vitamin D is brought to the body by the sunlight’s effect on the skin. The pimples of acne can diminish or disappear when the sun’s ultraviolet rays play upon them.

Any teen-ager who winces with pain of sunburn when clapped on the back can testify that the extra time in the sun is never good. For everyone there is an amount and degree of sun beyond which danger lies.

Even a person who tans readily and easily may get harmful changes in his skin if he has too much exposure. (more…)

The History of Pasteurized Milk

All milk is Pasteurized right? The reason for this to me has always been because any bad bacteria could be quickly boiled out of the milk and make it more healthy.

Well today that idea of why milk is Pasteurized has been changed to me. There is a dark history that led to the Pasteurization of milk that Kim at Whole Food Nation has let me know about.

It seems that raw milk (unpasteurized milk) is better for us if it is from a place where the cows are let to roam more freely and allowed also to eat better hay. Watch the video above and find out some great and interesting facts. (more…)

My New Wii Fit

I wrote a while back about the Wii Fit coming out and then again later about how incredibly popular Wii Fit seems to be. Well I heard a rumor last night about the local supermarket getting Wii Fits to put on sale this morning and I was third in line and had my New Wii Fit hooked up by 7:30 this morning.

Wii Fit First Impressions

Well I put the batteries (included) into the Wii Board and started the initial sign-in. I chose my Mii that I have been using on the Wii and it sucked in my birthdate, weighed me, asked me how tall I am and what year I was born and then after a couple quick balance tests gave me some results.

I was not too happy with the results. I am in real life 41 and at 6 feet tall I weigh 193 so the Wii Fit told me that I was overweight by BMI standards and had a Wii Fit age of 52….a bit of a kick to my ego. (more…)

Eczema and Skin Rashes

Eczema is much less frequent in adolescence than in the first years of childhood. In teen-agers it usually causes a thickening, dryness, and redness of the skin. Itching, and at times pain, may accompany the rash. At this age, eczema is most frequently found in the folds of the elbows and knees and on the wrists. Another common location is the back of the neck and ears.

Eczema may bring scaling of the skin. At times there is marked splitting of the skin and sometimes blisters appear, filled with clear fluid or pus.The cause of eczema is usually an allergy. Though in infancy, the allergens (allergy causers) are nearly always foods, in later years the eczema is just as likely to be a reaction to wool, nylon, or other materials. Reactions to various plants can also cause the rash. The reactions may be from touching the plants or from inhaling their pollens.

The emotions can play an important role in eczema. If a person is anxious or tense, he is more likely to scratch and pick at the lesions. This can lead to trouble from secondary bacterial infections, or just from the mechanical irritation and injury to the skin. When the eczema has a nervous or emotional root, the medical term for it is neurodermatitis. (more…)

Jillian Micheals Wii Game

Two of my favorite subjects all in one story.

Jillian Micheals rom the Biggest Loser TV show is working with a company to come out with a Wii Fit type of game. As we all know  Wii Fit has been really popular and I am yet to find one at the stores so apparently there is a big market for more of these games. Kina reminds me of the fight between “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero”. The game will come out in time for Christmas and I am sure we will see lots of competition at Christmas which can only be good for people to get into better shape in the worst weight gain time of the year.

Game publisher Majesco Entertainment has announced a partnership with celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels for an exercise-themed video game for the Nintendo Wii.

“Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009,” slated for a holiday release, leverages the motion-based Wii system and Balance Board accessory to create a title that combines solid game play with a fitness regimen, advice and exercise techniques provided by Michaels, the strength trainer and life coach on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.”

“I truly think this type of product will be instrumental in revolutionizing the fitness industry and will help combat the childhood obesity epidemic in this country,” Michaels said.

Work out this morning

I have been out of town the last couple of days and today I go home. I am really looking forward to seeing my wife Michelle and the kids.

Today the weather in Thunder Bay is wonderful, a bit chilly though. I got up at 7 which is only 5 AM at home and snuck down to the gym for a workout. It always surprises me how people can be so quiet in the hallways and lobby of a hotel but when you go into a hotel gym the one other guy was really friendly. No matter how good or bad shape you are in he and I were both there taking care of ourselves while the rest of the hotel is sleeping I guess.

I always wonder why people do not workot more when out of town? I have my schedule all thrown off, I miss my family but getting a workout in and pushing out those endorphins always really improves my attitude.

Have a great day!

Salmonella in Tomatoes?

Todays news seems to be full of salmonella in tomato stories.Mcdonalds and other fast food restaurants have pulled the tomato off of the menu although most supermarkets do not seem to be doing the same.

The problem with tomato salmonella seems to have been occurring for about two months now and seems to be found in about half of the US state.

I have questioned in the past why we have all of these outbreaks over the last couple of years and apparently the cause is government cutbacks at the FDA. The FDA is supposed to be watching the food supply by checking and testing farms and produce but through cutbacks this testing has been reduced over the last 20 years by up to 80%. With cuts that deep to testing it is no wonder that we are seeing so many problems with our food sources.

Actually one of the ladies on the news was just saying that a meat farm where salmonella is thriving has cows that poop and this can move through the to the neighbors tomato farm and then these tomatoes could have salmonella. this can not be washed off as it can leach into the tomato itself, that description was worth watching as was the reaction from her co-host. (more…)

New Fitness Forums - Started Today

I have today started a fitness forum that I had planned earlier this year but never setup I was inspired by Ken, who emailed me this morning with the following.

Hi Bill just wondering how often you get to answer peoples queries on your website as I see you haven’t been able to for a while now. It’s just that I think it would make a great difference to the new starters like myself to see that there is some support available, however I have been helping a few others with my comments as I do believe that this diet really works so is there any way you could perhaps introduce a forum for all of us, it would be a great help if you have the time of course! Cheers, Ken Rowlands.

Ken of course is referring to the Fat Loss for Idiots review that has gained a life of it’s own over the last few months. People are commenting by asking questions, giving answers, sharing successes and just plain asking a lot of questions. A forum is a much better place for this conversation to happen than in blog commenting.

So the fitness forum is ready for primetime, I think, but I am going to be popping in and out of there a lot over the next couple of days as Bill and Billyboy. If you have any questions you can either comment here or just email me. Also the number of forums is a bit small so let me know what forums are missing, what you want to see and talk about. This is not a forum for me, that would be the blog, the forum is for you to post and talk about.

I look forward to seeing everyone that visits here in the forum and I will answer all of the questions that I can while at the same time look forward to lots of open conversation, much of it I hope by me!

The registering ofr the forum is easy enough. Create a username, password and type in one of those codes (I tried to make it easy to recognize) and youo can go ahead and say what you want on anything to do with health and fitness.

Truth About Six Pack Abs Book Review

The truth about six pack abs. I have never personally cared about getting six pack abs but when I look around I see that most guys and gals really do care about having a great six pack. There is not anything better looking on a beach then a nice firm body oiled up with a tight midsection and ripped abs. OK, so maybe I do lie, I would love to have a six pack and now I think I know how I can indeed pull it off. Well the book that is the most popular in the world of six packs is a $39.95 ebook that details everything important to getting your waist slimmed down and really building the six pack you are looking for.

There is a lie out there in the six pack world as well. Workouts should only take 5-10 minutes at a time not 30 minutes like some trainers would have you believe. The real reason that people will pound out 100s of crunches in long workouts is that they are getting the idea of what exercises to do an how to do them completely wrong. Don’t continue to make that mistake yourself.

OK, so first of all it always drives me crazy when I see an ebook and am supposed to buy it sight unseen (of course there is a 60 day no questions asked refund) and you do not know what you are getting, how long the book is and of course what will work and not.

So lets get into what The Truth About Six PackAbs is all about and why you would consider it.

First of all the book itself is a very full 120 pages plus you will get 3 secret freebies that you will find on page 5 of the book. The book Truth About Abs is a total of 13 Chapters that go into great detail of all the things that matter in getting you that six pack that you have dreamed about. No fluff and I am sure almost all new techniques to you. (more…)

How do muscles get bigger?

Getting bigger muscles is the top priority of anyone working out with weights. Lets look at how your muscles get bigger and then you can figure out what it will take for you to increase your muscle gains.

Muscle hypertrophy

Muscle hypertrophy is when your muscles cells get thicker. You muscle cells will thicken but not lengthen and it is still up in the air as to whether your muscles cell will actually split or divide to get larger. The best way to cause muscle hypertrophy is to put pressure on your muscles so that they expect to need to push more weight.

Another form of muscle building is Muscle Hyperplasia and this is the actual splitting of muscle cells. Anyone that has seen a giant bodybuilder has to wonder if we all have the same number of cells

Resistance training

Resistance training is doing weights. It is just about that simple. What you really want is to make yourself stronger by making your body more able to handle heavier and heavier weight for at least four reps. Power lifters as you have probably seen in the Olympics are not the biggest guys and that is because their goal is to lift the most weight for exactly one rep. To fool your muscles into thinking that they have to be able to lift more weight they will need to do a few reps at the higher weight. Your body will then get used to this higher weight by increading the strength of the individual muscle cells

How big should your workout be?

There are many strategies to get stronger and the idea behind all of these strategies is to be able to lift more weight for a few reps a month from now then your are doing now. You have a few options and they are these

• Number of reps per set
• Number of sets per exercise
• Number of exercises per muscle group
• Amount of rest between workouts

All of these parameters are a little too much to cover in this article so I will cover them later but for now just think about how you are structuring your workouts and frequency of workouts.

I hope that this info helps you understand how to get bigger and better at working out I hope you that if you have any questions then you can of course leave comments here as well.

Kelly from Biggest Loser interviewed

Two days and two Biggest Loser stories. Nurse.com has an interview with Kelly from last seasons Biggest Loser Couples. If you remember Kelly really struggled to take off the weight and make the changes that she needed but ended up coming in third and was a real inspiration.

In the interview Kelly talks about her ex husband Paul and the changes that she had to make. Also very interesting is how her weight loss will change the way she works and how patients can benefit from losing weight.

The article is a very interesting read for everyone interested in how Kelly is doing as well as giving us a bit of an insight into the nursing and healthcare industry.

Buying Contact Lenses Online

I have been a contact lense wearer for a lot of years now, probably over 25 years and have ran into more and more roadblocks to buying contact lenses over the years. What happens is I will wear contacts for 5 years or so and then switch back to glasses for a couple of years. Here is the process that I go through to get contact lenses.

1. Get an eye exam and new prescription

2. Shop around for a cheap place to buy lenses

3. Pay some sort of fitting fee and get a 6 month supply of my contacts lenses

This time around I decided to short circuit the contact lense buying process. I hate having to pay a fitting fee to buy contact lenses and they are all overpriced at the stores anyway. (more…)

Interview with Bob Harper

Biggest Loser coach Bob Harper is great. I just read a great little story about hiw roots and history before he was a coach and trainer on the Biggest Loser. The Globe and Mail newspaper has the story.

Apparently Bob Harper has a new book out, called “Are you ready!” and he may be plugging the book a bit so I am hoping that we will be seeing a few more interesting interviews and insights.

Watch around and see if you can see more Bob Harper sightings in the news and I am sure soon enough we will start seeing commercials on TV for the next season of the Biggest Loser.

Inspiring bike ride to work

There is a really inspiring story on CNN today about a fellow in Tehachapi California that rides to work in Bakersfield.

The ride is 42 miles and I thought initially that they meant the round trip. After checking a map it seems that he is riding 84 miles round trip every day. The idea has always been in his head he says and so he decided to ride for the month of May.

I know of people that ride up to maybe 20 miles to work every day but that is a lot. I myself have ridden anywhere from 15 miles to my latest 4 miles to work.

I love these kinds of stories. Anytime that I think that there are some kinds of limits to fitness and health or am feeling a bit lazy I will seek out stories like these to prove to myself that anything is possible

Motivation Week - what did we learn

Well if you have made it this far then I hope that these articles have done their job.

Over the last few days we have looked at many tools that will help you on your way to building a better life for yourself. All of these articles should have taught you something that will build motivation.

We have looked at how small changes in your life are the key to building your confidence and to at the same time the small changes are key to changing the bigger problems in your life. Setting goals and the importance of having goals gives us a vision of our future and the excitement of that future will help to make you want to move forward.

We have looked at creating habits and especially the habit of exercising first thing in the morning. Getting that morning exercise is going to give you an early success in the day and stop your from having the busyness of your life get in the way of the all important working out that you need to do.

Finally we now have priorities. These priorities are going to help you move forward.

So now we reach the end of this week long article series. I hope that you have seen the point and if not you can go back and reread any or all of the articles. The key to motivation is to have a burning desire, a great reason in your own soul to move forward.

Tomorrow, or next week, or next month you will probably run into some struggles, we all do. The most important thing that you can do to get on track is to use all of the tools that we have discussed this week. You need to look at your priorities, set the ones that will move you forward and drop the rest. You need to remember the reasons for these priorities. And finally you need to take the next steps that will get you closer to reaching new and exciting goals that you want badly enough to sacrifice for.

Rewarding yourself for reaching your goals

OK, we are nearing the end of motivation week and I just want to quickly write about rewarding yourself.

No matter how hard we work and what kind of success we feel it is important to reward ourself as a pause and a recognition to ourselves that we have done the right thing and have been successful.

When you reward yourself it doesn’t unnecessarily mean that you indulge but more so pamper yourself. Some people like the idea of a pizza or ice cream to celebrate a weight loss goal and I think that this is great. If you are on a diet that last thing that you want to do is sacrifice everything that you want in order to lose weight and later be angry that you are missing out on something.

Another way besides food for celebrating success is buying clothes or going to a movie or splurging for a massage. For women often a good celebration reward may be a facial or a pedicure (still don’t understand the pedicure thing but my wife sure likes them). There is no reason to limit yourself at all. About.com has a few more ideas for rewards for reaching your goals (more…)