reality tv recommendation

I don’t usually make reality TV recommendations (well, aside from the Amazing Race on CBS), but I must make a new one: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

Absolutely watch or TiVo this show, which is on Friday nights on ABC.

What’s the show about? British TV-Chef Jamie Oliver is on a campaign to improve school food in the US and Great Britain.  In last week’s shows, he went into a school in West Virginia and worked with the school to try to improve the school lunches.

It didn’t go as well as you might hope, so it made some good TV.  But it was very enlightening to see what is eaten in school the lunch program (pizza for breakfast, pizza for lunch, only flavored milk).  Warning: You might not want to learn how chicken nuggets are made.

A few things did stand out to me:  The children (1st graders, I think) couldn’t identify fresh vegetables, so why would they eat what they don’t know. And kids do try new foods if there are teachers teaching about good food; lunch is learning too.

Check out the show. You won’t be disappointed.  And it looks like he’s selling a book too. I haven’t seen it yet. Have you? Leave a comment.

calorie counters?

Do you use the calorie counters on your treadmill, bike or even sports watch?

Be careful — they may overestimate your calories burned — by a lot!

From ABC’s Good Morning Amercia weekend show:

GMA technology contributor Becky Worley used the VO2 test on a treadmill, stationary bike, stair climber, elliptical machine and fitness watches. She used each for five minutes and, in each case, according to the VO2 test, the number of calories burned was overestimated.

On average, the machines overestimated by 19 percent and the watches overestimated by 28 percent.

Watch the full video here. (sorry, I don’t think I can embed from that site)

Don’t forget:

Machines can’t tell if a user is leaning on the handles, which makes the workout easier. Also, an individual’s body can get used to a machine and exercise, and burn fewer calories because of it.

book recommendation

As it is the new year, you might be taking steps to change the way you look and feel. Perhaps you are looking for a book to help you.

I would like to share with you what I believe is #1 book that can help everyone lose weight. It is the Ultimate Weight Loss Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom.  Best of all, if you buy it used, you can get if for just a penny on Amazon.com. Who is the author? I’ll get back to that.

Why I am I recommending this book? Because it addresses all the roadblocks that you must tackle when you lose weight.  Weight loss is as much about change as it is about nutrition and exercise.

The book is easy to read and has a number of quizzes along the way to make it interactive.  From Chapter 3, Are You Ready, is the following quiz where you must answer either Yes, Undecided or No.

1) I am ready to eat differently even if it hurts my family’s or my friends’ feelings, or causes conflict.

7) I am willing to look at my behavior honestly and answer to myself and other significant people in my life about my problems.

10) I am willing to throw away all the problem food in my house and eat according to the food and behavioral steps and strategies outlined in this book.

Now, there are 20 questions in this particular quiz and you don’t have to answer yes to all to be ready, but you get the idea.  Being ready involve change.

And the book has plenty of real-world examples that you might recognize yourself in.  For example, from Key Four: Mastery Over Food and Impulse Eating:

Teresa would love to weigh 115 pounds again. But today she tips the scales at 200 pounds. She cares about her personal appearance and dresses and grooms herself immaculately, hoping that this will compensate for her unsightly pounds. But most nights, after her kids have gone to sleep, Teresa takes a large bag of potato chips to bed with her and reads a book while munching away.

Could you recognize any of your habits in Teresa? The chapter goes on with multiple, realistic ways to change your behavior. (And other examples, too)

So, who wrote it? Dr Phil McGraw, from TV.  What does Dr Phil know about weight loss? Well, it was focus of his whole practice before moving to TV — weight loss was what he did. (sidebar: ever notice how much time Dr Oz spends talking about weight loss? Taking about weight loss is how you get on Oprah).

So, please, in all seriousness. Test out this book. It’ll only cost a few bucks, but it could have a huge impact on your life.

dr. oz and the “GMA” fitness challenge

Sorry, I just heard about this video. Dr Oz has great healthy tips for men and women.

Video: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6819054

Believe me, this video is worth sitting through the 10-second commercial that it starts off with. (Sorry I don’t know how to embed a video from the ABC news site)

If you don’t have the time to watch the whole video, here are some highlights:

Tip 1: Ease Up on the Stress to Control Eating

“When you have stress, you’ll eat more and things you wouldn’t normally eat,” Oz said. “That’s because we are hard-wired to equate stress to famine.”

Tip 2: Don’t Just Count Calories, Count Exercise

Dr Oz says, “If you don’t have muscle mass you can’t churn through calories. Remember, muscle, when it’s being used, will burn 50 times more calories than fat will. So if you don’t have muscle mass, you’re never going to be able to keep the weight off, especially as you go through menopause.”

Tip 3: Sleep Is the Key to Building Muscle

Along with sleep, Oz said most women have problems building muscle mass because they “don’t work at it.”

“I’m not talking about being a big muscle-bound weightlifter. I’m talking about developing programs that allow you to build that lean muscle, that churns through the calories and gives you a look that you want to have,” he said.

Women should “rev your engines” often, too.

“The body is designed to, to be sped up a little bit. What I’m talking about, literally, is you have to at some point every week run as fast as you can run, jump as high as you can jump,” Oz explained. “You have to push the system and to get your heart rate up, to push the muscle mass, to stretch your limbs out. Do the things you did as a child, and continue to do them into the adulthood and you’ll keep the hormones where they need to be.”

Tip 4: Forgive Yourself for Mistakes and Learn to Feel Better

Tip 5: Make Long-Term Changes You Can Sustain

“None of this is a wind sprint,” Oz said. Dr Oz says there’s no real benefit for people to eat what they hate to eat for the short term.

“Don’t deprive yourself. And you will automatically go back to your playing weight,” he said. “You will only stay there if you build the muscle mass, but at least it’s a head start.”

HT: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Story?id=6818395&page=1

dr. oz’s checklist

Yesterday it was Dr. Oz.  If you are going to listen to any doctor on TV, listen to him.  Back on Oprah’s site he has great list of 10 ways to live healthier in 2009. Check it out here.

How do you do on Step 2?

Step 3 make sense?

Step 9?

oprah: “life took over”

Jen and I just got done watching today’s Oprah show. If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend you watch it.   I think you can watch it here.

This show is exactly why we like Oprah so much. Oprah shares how she got to where she is. Openly and honestly. Oprah says

Life took over…

when explaining how she got where she is.  Nothing specific, just that busyness of everyday life. Work. Kids (well, maybe not in Oprah’s case, but we have 2). Life.

But Oprah has the key. Do the things necessary to make it your own best life.  Like Oprah says,

Schedule time for yourself..

Put yourself back on your own priority list…

And she’s right. You do have to make time for yourself. For a manicure. For exercise.

We can help with the exercise part.  For weight loss, Oprah said she is doing cardio and

…resistance training with weights…

That’s what we do here. So if you want to schedule some time for you, to make exercise a priority,  give us a call.  Tell us your goals. We’ll do all the exercise planning and coach you through your workouts.  Give us 45 minutes of your day.  Life is busy, but take some time for you.

tivo tip: oprah’s best life week

Of course you probably already have seen this all over the net (for example, even amazon.com had a plug on their index page), Oprah’s talking about falling off the wagon — she’s gained 40 pounds the past couple years — along with taking care of your body this week on her show.

If this can happen to Oprah, could it happen to me?

Needless to say, there’s lot’s of good content over at her site here, including healthy recipes and such. Oprah and Bob Greene always have good, healthy and practical advice.