Will Lots of Red Meat Put You in an Early Grave?

If you turn to red meat as your main source of protein, you could be shortening your life, a new study suggests. Why you might ask. It's because all red meat will also contain animal fat. That's why science tells us to only eat lean meat. Animal fat is saturated fat and while your body can process some saturated fat, it can only process a small amount. 12 to 15 grams at one meal, that's about 1/2 ounce.

People who get more of their protein from plant sources have an overall lower risk of dying early than those who consume a lot of animal protein, the researchers said.

However, not all animal proteins carry the same level of risk, said lead researcher Dr. Mingyang Song. 

"We found protein from red meat, particularly processed red meat, is strongly associated with mortality," he said. "The protein from fish or chicken is not really associated with mortality."

The study findings make a case for including more plant protein in your daily diet:

• For every 3 percent increase in plant protein in their daily diet, participants experienced a 10 percent lower risk of death from all causes and a 12 percent lower risk of heart-related death, the investigators found.
• Participants experienced a 2 percent increased risk of death from all causes and an 8 percent increased risk of heart-related death for every 10 percent increase of animal protein in their total daily calories.
• Swapping 3 percent of calories from animal protein with plant protein lowered overall risk of premature death, based on the type of animal protein being substituted.
• The risk of early death dropped 34 percent if people ate less processed red meat, 12 percent for less unprocessed red meat, and 19 percent for fewer eggs, the findings showed. Processed red meats include items like bacon, sausage and deli meats, Song said.

Processed meats contain loads of sodium and nitrates, which have been linked to heart disease and cancer should be avoided. Fatty cuts of meat, particularly red meat, also contain loads of saturated fat, cholesterol, and extra calories, said White, a spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 

Be careful buying any meat. White meat turkey and chicken, along with seafood is much healthier.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. The book only costs $1.99. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ibooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

The Military Diet, It Might Not be What You Think

The Promise

The plan claims that you may lose up to 10 pounds in a week if you follow it. It’s a very strict, low-calorie diet with some foods that seem healthy and others that don’t. There are set foods to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but that’s it. There are no snacks, and there’s no wiggle room about food choices based on your tastes.

The diet itself only lasts for 3 days. After that, switch to a normal, healthy diet for at least 4 days. If you’d like to lose more weight, you can repeat the program as often as you’d like, as long as you take 4-day breaks every time after you do it.

Never follow the diet longer than 3 days in a row.

What You Can Eat and What You Can’t

Every morsel you’ll eat on this diet has been chosen for you ahead of time. You’ll need to follow the plan completely to get the best results.

It doesn’t include superfoods like salmon, almonds, or quinoa. Instead, you’ll find normal choices, like canned tuna, hard-boiled eggs, and cheddar cheese. Some meals have breads, but they aren’t the healthy whole grains you’d expect. At least one meal includes saltine crackers.

There’s a 3-day menu to follow, with a total of nine different meals. For example:

One breakfast menu requires you to eat:

• 1/2 grapefruit
• 1 slice toast
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1 cup coffee or tea (no cream or sugar)

One Lunch menu includes

•  1 slice of toast
•  1 can of tuna
•  1 apple
• 1 cup of coffee or tea (no creamers or sugar)

One dinner menu includes:

• Two hot dogs without buns
• 1 cup of broccoli
• 1/2 cup of carrots
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream

You can drink water and black coffee or tea, but no soda, milk, juice, or alcohol. Stick to the menu as much as you can. You’re allowed to switch out some foods if you have food allergies or other dietary needs. But only make swaps that the diet approves. For example, you can have sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter or a tofu dog instead of a hot dog. But don’t switch the grapefruit to an orange or the vanilla ice cream to a scoop of mint chip or cookie dough.

So what do you do on the other days, well they have suggestions for that too.

Pick and choose from these menu items for a 4 day off meal plan for the Military Diet. Choose one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner and two snacks for an approximate 1500 calorie per day diet plan.

Breakfast

(Choose ONE of the following per day):

Yogurt Parfait: 1 cup of plain yogurt layered with 1 cup mixed berries, 1/4 cup granola and 1 tablespoon of sliced almonds.

Cheerful morning: 1 cup milk, 1 sliced banana and 1 cup cheerios. You can also eat 1 orange.

Egg on toast: 1 egg scrambled in 1 teaspoon butter on a slice of whole grain toast with tomato slices and 1/4 avocado sliced.

Bagel and lox: 1/2 whole-wheat bagel topped with 1 tablespoon cream cheese and 1 oz smoked salmon. Add thin tomato, cucumber and red onion slices.

Cinnamon Oatmeal: 1/3 cup rolled oats cooked with 2/3 cup milk and 1/2 cup chopped apple. Top with 2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts & cinnamon.

Walnut Waffles and Berries: 2 whole grain waffles topped with 1/4 cup strawberries and 1/4 blueberries and 7 walnuts.

Florentine Egg and English Muffin: scramble 2 eggs and 1 cup fresh spinach and eat on top of a whole wheat toasted English muffin.

Pear and Almond-Butter Toast: one slice of whole wheat toast topped with 1 tablespoon almond butter and 1 pear sliced.

Tomato-Basil Ricotta Toast: one slice of whole wheat toast topped with 1/3 cup ricotta cheese, 4 slices of tomato and fresh basil leaves.

Banana & Honey Smoothie: Blend (in a blender) 1 cup plain soy milk, 1 banana, 1 tablespoon honey, 2 tablespoons oatmeal and 1 tablespoon of flax seeds.

Cheesy Omelet: 2 egg omelette with cheddar cheese.

Protein Power: 2 lean sausages, 1 soft boiled egg and a kiwi fruit

Lunch

(Choose ONE of the following per day)

Tuna Pita: Mix 1/2 can of tuna with 1/4 cup white beans, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of  lemon juice. Serve in a 4-inch whole-wheat pita with 2 leaves lettuce. Eat 1 cup of grapes on the side.

Protein Salad: Toss 2 cups lettuce, 1 cup chopped raw vegetables, 1 hard-boiled egg, 2 teaspoons of raisins and 2 teaspoons of almonds. Top with 2 teaspoons of balsamic dressing.

Mediterranean Plate: 1 piece of whole wheat pita bread stuffed with 1-ounce feta cheese, 1 cup of tomatoes, 6 olives, 1/4 cup hummus and 1 cup raw spinach drizzled with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

Veggie Lunch: 1 cup of lentil soup with 1 slice of toasted whole wheat bread topped with 1 teaspoon pesto, 2 tablespoons shredded mozzarella and 1 tablespoon chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

Vegetarian Quesadilla: 1 whole-wheat tortilla stuffed with 1/3 cup shredded Cheddar, 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup each sliced peppers & mushrooms, sautéed in 1 teaspoon olive oil. Serve with 1/4 avocado, sliced.

Tuna Walnut Greens: Toss 2 cups of spring greens, 3 ounces of tuna, 3 tablespoons of walnuts, and 1 cup of grape tomatoes cut in half. Top with 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Turkey, Pear, and Swiss Sandwich: 2 slices of whole grain bread with 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 5 slices of turkey, 1 pear sliced, and 1 slice of Swiss cheese.

Black-Bean Wrap: Wrap 3/4 cup of black beans, 1/4 avocado, 1 cup of romaine lettuce, 2 tablespoons of salsa inside 2 whole wheat tortillas.

Chicken Salad Pita: Mix together 1 cup diced and cooked chicken, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup chopped scallions, 1 stalk of chopped celery and 1 cup of salad greens. Stuff inside a whole wheat pita.

Dinner

(Choose ONE of the following per day)

BBQ Black Bean Burger and Slaw: 1 black bean burger cooked with 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, served on a whole wheat bun. You can eat the slaw in the burger or on the side. Mix 1.5 cups of shredded cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Shrimp and Zucchini Pasta: Cook 2 ounces frozen or fresh shrimp with 1 clove of garlic, 1 cup chopped zucchini, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Serve one cup of whole wheat pasta noodles of your choice.

Hot Peanut Chicken Wraps: Saute 2/3 cup of sliced chicken, 1/4 cup scallions, 2 tablespoons of peanuts, 1 tablespoon hot sauce and 1 cup of shredded cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot mix in cooking spray. Wrap all this in 2 whole wheat tortillas.

Sushi: 1 cup miso soup, 1 Tuna roll and a small seaweed salad.

Pepper Cilantro Fajitas: Cook 1 cup bell peppers (red, green or orange), 1/2 small onion and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Spread 1/2 cup refried beans on 2 whole wheat tortillas. Top with sauteed vegetables and cilantro.

Black Bean and Zucchini Quesadilla: Saute 1 cup chopped zucchini, 1/2 cup black beans, 2 teaspoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon of cumin. Place mixture on 2 whole wheat tortillas, sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded cheddar. Fold in half and cook in a pan until the cheddar melts. Top with 2 teaspoons of salsa.

Tortilla and Cheese Chili: 1.5 cups of warm vegetarian chili topped with 2 tablespoons of chopped scallions, 8 broken tortilla chips, 2 tablespoons shredded cheddar. Eat with a side salad: 2 cups mixed greens and 1 tablespoon Italian salad dressing.

Florentine Goat Cheese Flatbread: Saute 4 ounces of chicken, 3 cups of baby spinach, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, and 1 garlic clove. Put all this on a piece of whole grain flatbread, topped with 1 ounce goat cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes or so.

Shrimp Fried Brown Rice: Saute 1 cup cooked brown rice, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 garlic clove and 1 tablespoon grated ginger. Then add 3 ounces of precooked shrimp and 2 cups of bok choy. Saute another few minutes.

Cheese and Artichoke Pizza with side salad: Top a whole grain flatbread with 3 tablespoons spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup canned artichoke hearts, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup mozzarella and bake for about 10 minutes. The side salad is 3 cups mixed greens, 2 tablespoons pine nuts and 2 tablespoons of Italian salad dressing.

Stuffed Chili and Cheese Potato: Top a baked potato with 1/2 cup of turkey or vegetarian chili, 1 cup cooked broccoli and 1/4 cup shredded cheddar.

Italian Sausage Pasta: Saute 1 sliced Italian sausage, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1/2 cup chopped zucchini. Add in 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce to warm and serve over 3/4 cup of whole wheat pasta topped with 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese.

Cajun Chicken With Rice: Sprinkle 1 teaspoon dried Cajun seasoning on 4 ounces of chicken breast. Bake or grill. Saute 1 clove of garlic, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1 bell pepper, in 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and a few sprinkles of Tabasco sauce. Add 3/4 cup of precooked brown rice. Serve the chicken on top of the rice.

Snacks

(Choose TWO of the following per day)

Fruit-and-nut bar

1 cup snap peas with 1/4 cup hummus

1 cup of cantaloupe with 1/2 cottage cheese

1 cup carrot sticks with 3 tablespoons of hummus

1 apple and 22 pistachios

12-oz latte and 1 clementine or mandarin orange

10 tortilla chips with 1/4 cup guacamole

1 banana with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter

2 Crispy rye crackers with 2 tablespoons of cream cheese

1 cup plain yogurt with 1 cup mixed berries

1/2 ounce raisins and 2 tablespoons soy nuts
 
14 almonds and an apple

1/2 cup sorbet 

1-ounce chocolate-covered almonds

100-calorie mini bag popcorn

1-ounce string cheese and 4 whole-grain crackers

3 cups air popped popcorn, nothing added

I'm not crazy about the 3-day diet, I think it would encourage bingeing but the suggestions for the other four days look pretty good. If you could stick to that plan 24/7, I think you could lose some fat.You still have to stick to 1500 calories a day, but all your food choices look good.

If you real want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. The book only costs $1.99. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ibooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

The New Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers

The Promise

Pasta, steak, cheese, ice cream... You can eat what you want on Weight Watchers. While the popular weight-loss plan has been revamped, the basic principle of eating what you love remains -- though the program steers you toward healthier foods with its points system.

In its new program, called Beyond the Scale, fitness also takes a bigger role. You'll be encouraged to move more every day.

Weight Watchers isn’t so much a diet as a lifestyle change program. It can help you learn how to eat healthier and get more physical activity, so you lose the weight for good.

You can follow the plan online on your own. You'll track your food choices and exercise, chart progress, and find recipes and workouts. There’s a coaching option if you prefer one-on-one consultations by phone, email, and text. Or you can go to in-person group meetings, where you’ll weigh in.

A Consumer Reports survey found that people who went to meetings were more satisfied with the program and lost more weight than people who used only the online tools.

What You Can Eat and What You Can't

No food is forbidden when you follow this plan, which doesn’t make you buy any prepackaged meals.

Weight Watchers assigns different foods a SmartPoints value, which replaces its long-standing PointsPlus plan. The concept is the same, though. Nutritious foods that fill you up have fewer points than junk with empty calories. But the eating plan now factors sugar, fat, and protein into its points calculations to steer you toward fruits, veggies, and lean protein, and away from stuff that's high in sugar and saturated fat.

You’ll have a SmartPoints target that's set up based on your body and goals. As long as you stay within your daily target, you can spend those SmartPoints, however, you’d like, even on alcohol or dessert.

But healthier, lower-calorie foods cost fewer points.

Look for my Ebook offer, “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, on all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com,  or Gardner Books in the U.K.

Can't Do Yoga? Think Again

If you think you're not the yoga type, think again. Just about anyone can do it, and it's not about bending yourself into a pretzel.

For men and women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities, yoga builds strength and balance. It's also a great way to ease stress.

"In a gym, you're really pushing yourself to go further when you're working out. In yoga, it's the opposite. The poses encourage all the range of motion that the body is designed to do," says Megan Dunne Krouse, a yoga instructor in Chicago.

Doing Yoga When You're Overweight

When Megan Garcia signed up for yoga at Smith College, she felt intimidated because she was the only overweight person in the class. She stuck with it, though, and noticed she started gaining strength, plus feeling and sleeping better, too.

Now she is a plus-sized model and Kripalu-certified yoga instructor who teaches in New York and specializes in teaching yoga to people of all shapes and sizes.

Garcia found that yoga changed her in unexpected ways. "Before I started doing yoga, I really lived life from the neck up," she says. "After yoga, I began to really feel at home in my skin. If I didn't have yoga, I can't imagine feeling so good in my body. Yoga has made it comfortable for me to sit on the floor, to twist, to bend. It grounds me in my body."

RaeAnn Banker, who owns River Yoga in Lahaska, PA, started taking yoga classes on her 42nd birthday as a present to herself.

"I was overweight, and since my mother was morbidly obese, I knew I better do something or I was going to end up just like her," Banker says.

"It took several months of driving by the yoga center before I got up the courage to go in. But once I started, I loved the classes. I was the weakest student in the class, but I kept going," Banker says. "I ended up losing 35 pounds over the next 2 years and becoming a yoga teacher. Yoga literally changed my life."

I personally started yoga at the age of 70. They were offering free classes at the senior center so I thought I'd try. I felt a little out-of-place at first, but after a few weeks, I was getting the hang of it. The instructor was older than me and most of the students were my age. After a few months, I started to lose body fat and build strength. The senior center only offers a class twice a week, but I do Yoga at home on the other days. I'm always trying to do the poses better each time. I don't have to go to class anymore. I know most of the poses but I go anyway, the instructor always adds new poses when she has time to fit them in. 

Today I'm a happier person who has more confidence and strength. I don't care how old I am, it's about how old you feel and I feel 30 years younger. If you're interested in changing your life I wrote a book on the subject.

Look for my Ebook offer, “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, on all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com,  or Gardner Books in the U.K.

Average Americans Are 15 pounds Heavier Than 20 Years Ago.

This post by this author is trying to do the same thing that I'm doing every day.  The average American does know or doesn't care what they are doing to their health when my keep adding body fat. Americans think that because they're older they will automatically  lose their health and that's not true. You will lose your health by neglecting your body. Read the post below and pay heed. Don't become another statistic.

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- There's no doubt about it: Americans are getting heavier and heavier. But new U.S. estimates may still come as a shock -- since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the average American has put on 15 or more additional pounds without getting any taller.

Even 11-year-old kids aren't immune from this weight plague, the study found. Girls are more than seven pounds heavier even though their height is the same. Boys gained an inch in height but also packed on an additional 13.5 pounds compared to two decades ago.

When looked at by race, blacks gained the most on average. Black women added 22 pounds despite staying the same average height. Black men grew about one-fifth of an inch, but added 18 pounds, the study found.

"We are not doing nearly enough to control and reverse the obesity epidemic and doing far too much to propagate it. This is another notice of that sad fact," said Dr. David Katz. He directs the Yale University Prevention Research Center and is president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

The new statistics were released Aug. 3 in a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The statistics for 2011-2014 are based on an analysis of a sample of 19,151 people who underwent medical examinations and were interviewed at home.

According to the report, the average weight of men in the United States rose from 181 pounds to 196 pounds between 1988-1994 and 2011-2014. Their average height remained the same at about 5 feet, 9 inches.

The average woman, meanwhile, expanded from 152 pounds to 169 pounds while her height remained steady at just under 5 feet, 4 inches.

How big of a deal are these weight gains?

"A 15- to 16-pound weight gain is fairly significant and typically would be consistent with a couple of points increase in body mass index," said Anthony Comuzzie. He's an obesity researcher at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio.

Body mass index, or BMI, is a rough estimate of a person's body fat using height and weight measurements. The BMI classifies people into several categories, such as normal, overweight and obese.

"From a practical point," Comuzzie said, the average weight gain "means that someone who was on the high end of normal weight would have likely moved into the overweight category, and those at the high end of the overweight category would have likely moved into the obese category."

This matters because "we know that increasing BMI is a good indicator of overall risk for a variety of diseases, including heart disease and diabetes," he said.

The reasons behind the increase in weight are complex, according to Comuzzie. In part, he suggested, it's related to trends toward less exercise and more access to food that's rich in calories.

Could the U.S. population be getting fatter because it's getting older overall, and developing lower metabolisms?

Both Comuzzie and Katz discounted this explanation since the new report matches age groups for the two time periods.

Comuzzie said the findings reveal that the U.S. population is still gaining weight at "a fairly rapid rate, and such an increase does not bode well for the overall health of the nation. The findings suggest there will likely be an associated increase in chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease in the coming years," he noted.

As for next steps, Katz said there's much to be done. Whether that will happen is another matter.

"There are many active efforts to combat obesity, but our culture at large is in the business of propagating it for profit, from big food to big media to big pharma. It's that simple. We do much more, across the expanse of our culture, to foster obesity than to defend against it," Katz said.

I agree totally with the researchers,  but because our economy depends on making money, and Congress will listen to the Lobbyists first, we will continue to be served this "frankenfood" that fills the shelves in our food stores.

Look for my Ebook offer, “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, on all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ibooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com,  or Gardner Books in the U.K.

Do Diets Really work?

I wrote a similar post a couple weeks ago. So I wanted my readers to see another author who has the same conclusions.  I found this post on WebMD.

Do Diets Really Work?

Men and women have struggled for years, searching endlessly for that magic diet pill to reverse all the bad diet and lifestyle decisions they’ve made in the past. Diet pills come in all shapes, sizes and colors with different fantasies attached to each one. They range from celebrity-endorsed campaigns to more science-based programs that guarantee success. However, the major question still persists as to whether or not all this diet talk is simply a lie.

Don't Fall for Diet Myths and Illusions

People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. To make matters worse, a majority of the confusion about diet myths stems from the fitness and nutrition experts, who cannot seem to agree on anything diet related. 

The Importance of Behavioral Change

I would like to break here and mention that I’m not writing this article to point fingers at diet experts. I want to give the truth, and the truth is that diets don’t work. They are a temporary fix with failure built right into them. The sadness lies in that we as a highly intelligent society continue to fall for the ridiculous and glorified diet trap.

The title of my “diet” plan was  No Diet Plan: Food is just the habit, not the root cause. My aim was to address my client's 'why' or root-cause.  

The idea is to intercept the negative chain of emotions by introducing a new positive point of view instead. This pattern disruption would help redirect lifestyle choices and create environmental changes, which would ultimately result in positive sustainable outcomes. In addition, I created simple nutritional awareness strategies, such as understanding the psychology of the supermarket and combined these easy to follow strategies with moderate exercise.  

Reaching Self-Management

My goal was for my client to self-manage his obesity and chronic conditions by first mastering the ability to self-manage his lifestyle behaviors. I simply drew upon Maslow's Hierarchy, which helped lead me to creating positive momentum at each level of that Hierarchy until my client was able to develop self-management or self-actualization. The levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy from the bottom up are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, which is the goal for self-management. 

Yet, I still needed to address my client's 'why' or reason for whatever or whoever brought him to this point.  I wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t become triggered in the future long after he and I went our separate ways. He might have chosen a habit other than food to suppress his negative emotions. I felt that in order to create a sustainable resolution, I had to have him resolve the trigger that brought him to obesity because it would be very difficult for him to make the needed small consistent changes within his daily eating behaviors if this emotional trigger were to resurface in the future.

Making Eating Habit Changes

Small, consistent behavioral changes can lead to a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Research conducted by Dr. Brian Wansink of the Cornell Food Lab found this:

"Making small easy changes to our eating habits on a consistent basis can lead to sustainable weight loss. The challenge lies in figuring out which changes work for each individual and how to stick with them long enough to make them second nature. 

The No Diet Plan stems from the likes of Maslow and follows the principles implemented by Dr. Brian Winsink. This same kind of program, which I developed along with my colleagues, is now being utilized by the employees of Mt. Sinai Hospital.

There is nothing sexy about this program. It will not get me a book deal. It will not have me on any social media pages posing with my shirt off or plastered throughout the pages of popular fitness magazines. Figuring out your 'why,' disrupting negative patterns, and making small consistent behavior changes is a crucial step towards creating long-term and healthy-lifestyle outcomes. 

Miseducated Equals Misguided

In 2012, Miley Cyrus tweeted, "Gluten is crap anyway!" I'm not about to say that Cyrus started the gluten-free trend. But, with the burgeoning popularity of the gluten-free diet and the almost nine-billion dollar value it has, the marketing of this label is only being fueled by uneducated bloggers, celebrities and social media who are doing more harm than good. 

More than 70 million Americans are trying to cut back on gluten, but only people with celiac disease need to be concerned with gluten. Celiac disease only affects about 1 percent of the population, which makes it hard to explain the popularity of the gluten-free diet. Celiac disease is a serious condition and should be addressed by a physician -- not a blogger, social media nutritionist or your roommate.

Let's Go Food Shopping

The grocery store is set up to have you spend money on food that you do not need. They aim to have you eat from a box, while you live in a box, so you can keep visiting your doctor in a box, telling him/her all about your illnesses that will eventually lead you to dying and being placed in a box.

Studies like the University of Notre Dame's Psychology of the Grocery Store clearly illustrate the clever ways marketers and brands make highly unhealthy foods into attractive choices. They also use a host of colors, smells, and visual imagery ensure that people are fooled into purchasing them time and time again.

Weight Loss Tips

To help find your way to successful weight loss, follow these simple tips:

• Focus on small consistent behavioral steps.
• Surround yourself with friends and loved ones who support your journey.
• Understand that what the food and beverage labels really mean.
• Realize that what people say on social media may not always be the truth. 
• Diets and exercise programs have failure already built into them and will send you down a path to more failure, so don’t fall victim to these typical ploys.
• Give you body a break and stop judging yourself by your weight.

Look for my Ebook offer, “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?”, on all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ibooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com,  or Gardner Books in the U.K.

Lack of Fitness Second Only to Smoking as Predictor of Early Death

By Maureen Salamon
HealthDay Reporter

This post verifies my views on increasing your activity. At some point, people need to take their health seriously. After you lose the ability to exercise and make a change in your life, coming back will become very difficult.

Latest Prevention & Wellness News

WEDNESDAY, July 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Poor physical fitness ranks right behind smoking as leading risk factors for an early death, new long-term research suggests.

Analyzing nearly 800 men starting at midlife, Swedish scientists also found that each measurable increase in fitness levels translated into a 21 percent lower risk of death over 45 years of follow-up.

"Fitness in middle age is of importance for mortality risk for several decades," said study author Per Ladenvall, at the University of Gothenburg. "Persons with low fitness are associated with an increased mortality risk throughout life.""Smoking was the risk factor that was [most strongly] associated with mortality," Ladenvall added. "We were somewhat surprised that the effect of aerobic capacity was even more pronounced than that of high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

"Heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries, also known as ischemic heart disease, is the most common cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Using exercise testing, which is traditionally used to diagnose ischemic heart disease, the study authors set out to determine the impact of physical fitness on early death from all causes. They also looked at established risk factors of heart disease such as smoking, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

The new research analyzed 792 men born in 1913 who performed an exercise test in 1967, at 54 years of age. More than 650 of the healthiest men also did an exercise test measuring maximal oxygen uptake, called VO2 max. The higher a person's VO2 max measurement, the more physically fit they are.

Tracking the men and using information from several physical exams in intervening years, the researchers obtained data on deaths from all causes. To determine the association between predicted VO2 max (physical fitness) and death, study participants were divided into three groups ranging from low to high VO2 max.

Each increase in predicted VO2 max (physical fitness) levels was linked with a 21 percent lower risk of death over 45 years of follow-up, even after adjusting for other risk factors such as smoking, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.

U.S. cardiologists agreed with Ladenvall that the study's long follow-up period strengthens the value of the findings.

But how much exercise is enough to lower a person's risk factors for dying earlier?

This question wasn't addressed in the study, Ladenvall said, "but on a general note, the amount of exercise needed to increase fitness is dependent on the baseline fitness in that individual."

"In people with low fitness, even small increases in activity levels can have beneficial effects," he said.

"It doesn't have to be fast, and people don't have to go out and run marathons," Weintraub said. "We need to think of something on the order of 30 minutes to an hour a day of activity. Get home from work and go for a walk. There's evidence that more activity is better up to a point, but any activity is good."

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