Sometimes I like to sleep in. Correction – Sometimes I like to set my alarm for 6:30 and hit snooze every 10 minutes until 8. And since I’m a morning-workout person, this tends to cramp my exercise style. But, a new study has opened my eyes to mini morning workouts. It claims that just 10 minutes of brisk exercise (I’m thinking Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred or maybe a little Sweatin' to the Oldies!) triggers a metabolic change in your body lasts at least an hour.

Rich and I, we go way back. I like to call him Slimmons.

I know “metabolic change” sounds a bit coded, but I think it’s a good thing.

Researchers put 70 healthy people on treadmills and found a bunch of their “metabolites” changed during the workout. Some of the metabolites that revved up process fat and some stress-causing metabolites decreased with exercise.

Of course thinner people had greater hikes in a metabolite that's involved in blood-sugar control.* And people who were more fit burned more fat than the less fit.**

"We have a chemical snapshot of what the more fit person looks like. Now we have to see if making someone's metabolism look like that snapshot, whether or not that's going to improve their performance," said Dr. Robert Gerszten of Massachusetts General Hospital.

So, I guess this doesn’t mean we should shrink our hour at the gym to just 10 minutes, but if you’ve got a dime of time to spare, hit up that new workout video, or go for a quick jog.

What’s your favorite mini workout? I’m a fan of the jump rope! Doesn’t take up a lot of space and definitely gets my heart pumping.


Also- I forgot to remind y’all to send me your Weigh In weight loss updates yesterday, so send them along! We’ve got less than 2 weeks before the beginning of summer and the end of our contest. If you haven’t been so successful, don’t give up now! You’ve got 2 weeks to jumpstart your weight loss!


*Damn skinny people.
**Damn fit people.

Labels: 10-minute workout, Jillian Michaels, weigh in

In honor of Weigh In Day* today, here are a few things you can do to grease your metabolic gears.

Some of these suggestions are pretty obvious, but I think it’s a good reminder:

Break your fast
Eat a good breakfast every morning. If you don't, your body goes into starvation mode, slowing your metabolism to a crawl to conserve energy.

Coffee!
A recent study showed the average metabolic rate of people who drank coffee increased 16% over those who drank decaf.

Pick protein
Aim for about 30 grams of protein – one cup of low-fat cottage cheese or four ounces of chicken – at each meal. It builds lean muscle mass, which burns more calories than fat.

Drink your milkshake!
Calcium helps your body metabolize fat more efficiently.

Kick it up a notch

Labels: diet, metabolism, weigh in

While you’re weighing yourself today, consider your goals for this week. Last week I toned down my salt intake. This week I’m on to drinks. According to a recent study, we drink 450 calories a day – that’s amounts to 23 pounds a year. Imagine losing nearly 2 pounds a month simply by cutting out drinks?

Labels: Cold Stone Creamery, drinks, Starbucks, weigh in

Afternoon! It's weigh in day today, so I'll keep this short so you can go bond with your scale.


Attention Challengers: I will be emailing you this week if I don't hear from you! Yes. That's a threat. Are you scared?


It's Shape up for Summer today at work, so I've stolen a few screens from the network to share with you. Let me know if you have any other healthy alternatives to the usual fair weather fare.

(The nutrition information below are rough guestimations. They're just examples of how you can cut fat and calories without depriving yourself.)

What's your trick for surviving grilling season without ODing on potato salad and chips 'n dip?

previous post

Labels: healthy grilling, weigh in, weight loss

It’s weigh in day today. Some of you have been stellar at keeping me in the loop of your weight loss journey. Others, well … you’ve been a bit secretive. The purpose of this virtual weekly weigh in is more for you than for me. (Well, it’s for me, too. I love reading about everyone slimming down!) But I understand how hard it is to tell someone when you haven’t lost as much as you wanted to. I was in the same boat. Except I had to pay $40 a month for my boat. And I recently jumped ship.

I boarded Weight Watchers last fall to lose those last few pounds. Unfortunately, I was lost at sea for …. oh, say, 6 months. It took me 6 months to lose … 6 pounds. That’s right. One lousy pound in one lousy month. The last few months I was so ashamed of my loser losing status that I refused to go to a meeting until I had lost a decent amount of weight. I know, this doesn’t really make sense. Their meetings are for motivation and support to help you lose weight, and I was denying myself this help until I lost weight. (Sometimes I just don’t make sense.) So, I quit.

This doesn’t mean you’re allowed to quit the Weigh In challenge. I’m not charging you $40 a month, so you’ve got nothing to lose by giving this a shot. And even though I was disappointed when I only lost 1 pound in a month, I’m still down 6 pounds. And I could (probably would) be UP 6 pounds if I had never joined Weight Watchers in the first place. So even if you’ve only lost 1 pound during this Weigh In challenge, email me with an update. You still have time to lose some weight before summer’s here. You’ll feel better getting your body in tune for June.

So, go weigh yourself and send me an update at WeighIn@Captivate.com. Tell me how you’re doing, what challenges you’re facing, and what’s motivating you to keep going. I may steal all your ideas and post them here. But, I’ll probably give you credit. Probably.

Labels: diet, weigh in, weight loss

When I was in high school my favorite breakfast was two Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts (sugar) washed down with a Sprite (more sugar). Not Sprite Zero. Regular ol’ Sprite. For a total of 670 calories! (And I wonder why I was not-so-pleasantly plump!).

I think it’s pretty obvious that sugar makes you fat. (I wish those smart NASA people would quit those silly plans to return to the moon and start working on important things … like a sugar that makes you skinny!). But a new study from Princeton University suggests high-fructose corn syrup makes you gain more weight than table sugar.

Researchers fed rats water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for six months. They found the rats on a HFCS diet developed more belly fat and had an increased level of circulating triglycerides, fat's chemical form in the body.

That’s not to say you should you should douse your salad in sugar, it just means natural sugar is a better option over high-fructose corn syrup.

"The debate about which one is better for you is a false debate, because neither of them is good for you," says Elizabeth Abbott, author of the forthcoming "Sugar: A Bittersweet History." "By having cane sugar, you're not doing yourself a great big favor. Not so much sugar is what we should be striving for."

Corn conspiracy
Some experts are debating the merits of this controversial study. Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics, points out researchers did only two experiments comparing the effects of HFCS to sugar, and the results were inconsistent. Their other experiments compared HFCS to a regular diet.

Either way you look at it, sugar is evil. Whether it’s table sugar, HFCS, or maple syrup. They can all make you fat and increase your risk of heart disease.

Americans eat an average of 21.4 teaspoons (359 calories) of added sugars each day. And govt scientists say about 1/3 of that sugar comes from soda. Imagine if you cut out one serving of soda a day (keep in mind that’s 8 ounces … not the 20 oz. bottles you buy). You could lose 1 pound a month – 12 pounds a year. Just by giving soda the cold shoulder.

So what’s your dessert downfall? What rots your sweet tooth?

Labels: high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, weigh in, weight loss

I was terrified that I'd start this challenge ... and gain weight the first week. That's just the kind of sense of humor my body has.

So I was positively giddy when I stepped on the scale this morning and saw I lost 1.5 pounds this week! Starting this weight loss challenge was just the kick in the pants I needed to really hold myself accountable.

How did you do this week? Did you lose weight? Stay the same? ….. Gain?? Email me your results at WeighIn@captivate.com. And if you haven’t joined the Weigh In Challenge, start today. Read my first post, get cracking and start tracking.

If you haven’t seen results, reevaluate what you’ve been doing. Have you really been tracking everything that goes in your mouth? Even the stealth doughnut nibbles in the office kitchen?

And if healthy eating means Caesar salads and a bag* of Baked Lays, check out our guest blogger and registered dietitian Nicole Silva’s blog. She’s got great tips on what foods will properly fuel your body.

And stay tuned. Later this week I’ll share with you my horribly embarrassing “before” picture.



*and I’m not talking a single-serving bag, either

Labels: weigh in, weight loss