Do Something Unexpected Today!

The JK Wedding Video - watch more funny videos

Oh Lulu!

Lululemon's annual Barefoot in the Park event in NYC
via, New York Magazine

The yoga brand Lululemon has become a statement these days. Its devotees are fiercely loyal and they have even been dubbed as a "cult." Bryan Urstadt of the New York Magazine penned a great article on the phenomenon that is Lululemon, so this morning I decided to check out the website.

Okay... I get it. The charm of inspirational quotes ("Creativity is maximized when you're living in the moment."), the adorable (albeit pricey!) yogawear, and the strong sense of Lululemon community that seeps through every particle of the energetic website.

It was then when I came across the Goaltender website. You see, Lululemon believes in setting goals. Not only do they endorse it, they practice the credo with such passion that it is, well, impressive. The Lulu "educators" (sales employee) are requested to make a goal board on the day they were hired - The board then would be posted in the employee area where the educators would then assist each other accomplish these goals.

So, yes, that inspired me. I'm not a Luluhead (as these ladies and gents are called) but, what a lovely idea! Make your goals, meet them, and do it all over again - after all, as Lululemon would put on one of those bags, do one thing everyday that scares you.

Happy Tuesday Get Fit-ters!

Emotional Eating

image by jennipenni

I define emotional overeating as using food to distract from emotions. Emotional overeating can be conscious or unconscious eating and used to fill a void or distract from something else.

Emotional overeating is associated with stress, anxiety or sadness, but people can also overeat during times of extreme happiness. For example, holidays tend to be large factors that contribute to overeating. We see an increase in clients overall between Thanksgiving and New Years, but national holidays, birthdays, vacations and weddings, etc. are all occasions that people can find themselves eating more than necessary.

The American way tends to attach food to major holidays and there are more opportunities to overeat. While on vacation, people not only take a break from the day to day, but often their diets as well.

The first step is to determine what the overeating triggers are. We call these triggers fat traps and they are the people, places and things that tend to enable a person to overeat. After we have identified the triggers, we come up with a realistic action plan to help the person prevent ahead of time the tendency to overeat when faced with each of their fat traps.

Awareness of the who, what, when and where factors that make a person want to overeat is critical and the first step in a weight management program. Talking through these factors often leads to a simple solution to address each of the triggers.

It’s important that people are mindful of what they are eating. Pay attention to the Bites, Licks and Tastes (BLT’s). It’s also important to pay attention to your internal body cues. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 signifying absolute hunter, shaking, low blood sugar and 10 signifying absolute fullness from eating too much, you want to be between a 3 and 7. Five is ideal. We recommend people start eating at a 3 and end at 7. Eating when a person is at a 1 will almost ensure they finish eating at a 10. If you pass 7, then you are overeating. You’ll need to ask yourself why you are overeating. Is it mindless eating, too many BLT’s, is it emotional eating? By paying attention to what you eat, and a food journal can be beneficial here, and paying attention to your body cues, a person will end up taking in just the right amount of calories assuming the food choices they are making are healthy.

It's Wednesday

image by Horst, via a Cup of Jo

Was browsing one of my favorite blogs, a Cup of Jo, when I came across these stunning images. Thanks for posting Joanna! This made my Wednesday and thank you Horst for being amazing!

All the Shades of Pink

Brenda Lide's new book, "The Dating Woman's Workbook" was the inspiration behind last Saturday's event. Our HEs, Sara and Jennifer joined in the fun and spoke as one of the panel contributors. The free event was for women who believe in surviving beautifully in life.


Local experts in finance, beauty, fitness, body image, relationship therapy and career were available on-site to talk about their respected areas of expertise. That of course included our lovely Health Educators.

Thank you for an awesome event, Brenda!

Reading & Understanding Food Labels

image by tom fishburne

Reading and understanding food labels can be confusing and we are often rushed for time while grocery shopping. Understanding what you are looking for can make reading nutritional labels easier and allow you to choose foods that are healthier for you and your family.

Serving Size and Servings per Container: The serving size on the food package influences the number of calories and nutrient amount listed on the label. Be realistic about what you would actually consume as a serving size to determine actual calories and fat per your serving.

Calories and Calories from Fat: Calories provide a measure of how much energy you get from a serving of this food. Based on a 2,000 calorie diet, the general guidelines for calories are 40 calories = low, 100 calories = moderate and 400 or more calories = high.

Calories from fat are the calories in the food that are purely from fat. You want to choose foods with a small amount of fat calories.

Percent Daily Value: The % Daily Values (%DVs) is based on the daily value recommendations for key nutrients based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. Your caloric intake may be more or less depending on your nutritional needs. However, even if you don’t know how many calories you consume per day, you can still use the %DV as a guideline.

The %DV helps you determine if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient. Each nutrient is based on 100% of the daily requirements for that nutrient (for a 2,000 calorie diet).

A good guide to go by is 5%DV or less is low for nutrients you want to limit (i.e. fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium). 20%DV or more is high for nutrients you want to consume in greater amounts (i.e. fiber, calcium, etc).

For example, look at the amount of total fat in one serving on a nutrition label. Let’s say it was 18%DV. 18%DV is not yet high, but what if you ate two servings? You would be eating 36% of your daily allowance for total fat. That leaves you with only 64% left of your fat allowance for all of the other foods you eat that day, including snacks and drinks.

Carbohydrates: There are actually two categories: complex carbohydrates (dietary fiber) and simple carbohydrates (sugars). You want to eat more complex carbohydrates and fewer simple carbohydrates. Diets high in complex carbohydrates have been shown to fight cancer and heart disease. Simple carbohydrates break down quickly in your bloodstream causing peaks and dips in your blood sugar. They usually make you crave more and are not very satisfying.
Vitamins and Minerals: The FDA requires only Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron and Calcium on this label, although food companies can voluntarily list others. The FDA feels these four vitamins and minerals are particularly important in order to maintain a healthy diet. Try and get 100 percent of each every day.

Sugars: No daily reference value has been established for sugars because no recommendations have been made for the total amount to consume per day. Ideally you want to keep sugar intake to a minimum. However, because the nutrition facts include naturally occurring sugars found in fruit and dairy products you need to check the ingredients to see what type of sugar is in that product. Sugars have been added to a product if you see words such as high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey and maple syrup.

Nervous Wreck

image papertissue, via loveisnotavictorymarch

Recently, an interesting question was posed upon us on the 411Fitness website, "How to Help a Nervous Eater?" I left it to Jodi Peckich, the Health Educator specializing in holistic nutrition, to answer the question.

Individual levels vary, though stress affects all of us. Worried about the possibility of negative reviews, Jessica Simpson pointed to nervous eating as the cause of her weight gain in September 2008. And whether you consider yourself an “Average Joe” or “Not-So-Average Jessica”, reacting to stress in less-than-optimal ways such as nervous eating can impact one’s health in negative ways.

When enough links form a chain: Nervous eating is not necessarily an isolated behavior, but rather, may be a sign of an underlying (emotional) challenge. When an individual’s perception of stress results in anxiety, food may serve as a coping mechanism. One may crave crunchy foods like potato chips to “gnaw away” his aggression, or perhaps creamy foods such as ice cream to “melt away” her stress. Unfortunately, as the scale creeps upward, the resulting weight gain provides another – you guessed it – source of stress. And added pounds may eventually lead to the threat of chronic diseases such as insulin resistance or diabetes. So until a healthier habit takes the place of nervous eating, the negative pattern continues.

Set the Scene: From a holistic perspective, recognizing that food is not an isolated “compartment” of our lives, but rather, linked to our overall health and wellness. One solution involves addressing nervous eating through the five senses. For instance:

- Sight: Red reflects energy often stimulates the appetite and fosters social interaction, while blue has a more calming effect; therefore, choose calming colors for your dining environment. Similarly, choose a subdued environment over one cluttered with loud noises, visual distractions, and general “busyness;”

- Smell: Before diving in, take a moment to enjoy the aroma of your food and appreciate that you’re granting yourself the chance to enjoy it.

- Taste: Resolve to savor each bite and chew your food thoroughly; fully focus on your meal. Devote your full attention to your plate, raher than your computer screen or trade magazine. In other words, have a meal to remember! (Ever been unable to recall whether you ate a meal or not?)

- Touch: Have you considered why you chose a particular texture of food? Do you frequently crave the same type of food? The answers to questions like these may offer a connection between your food selections and possible roots of your nervous eating.

- “Listen” to Your Food: We can listen on a few levels when . First, other than a bowl of Rice Krispies, it isn’t often that food “speaks” to us! However, you can listen to what your body may (or may not) be telling you. Before you plow into your pantry, pick your brain with the question, “Am I physically hungry?” If the answer is a no, make a pact to wait it out. Choose an alternative activity that doesn’t involve calories, such as giving yourself a manicure…while also saving yourself the cost of extra calories.

Therefore, by tapping into one or more of these avenues of sensory perception, we may strike the source of our nervous eating in favor of healthier stress management.

Vacation Planning

image pristine cove - jamaica, via @erinapindar

Just got back from a great long weekend with husband and the kids, then I got to thinking... Summer is such a prime traveling time and for some, any kind of motivation dies away the moment you go into "vaca mode."

I've put together five of my favorite tips to make sure that you get your exercise in during these traveling months.

• Make up your mind to be disciplined and to plan ahead - because good planning will get you everywhere.
• When you get to your hotel, cruise ship, villa in the sky, check out the gym/spa area. Most properties like the Mandarin Oriental in London provides guests with running routes through the gorgeous Hyde Park and the city.
• If you're a huge spa lover. make this your reward! The gym at the Ritz-Carlton Cancun has a great sauna (with teak loungers!), eucalyptus steam room, gorgeous Bvlgari products, and amazing showers.
  
• Take advantage of the local cuisine but still keep some options that are healthy to consume.
  
• Most of all remember that vacationing is not a vacation from eating healthy! So, don't go overboard, but enjoy yourselves!

Here's the 411

Oh! Happy after Fourth of July, hope your was as lovely as mine! Exciting news, I've been asked to guest blog on University of North Carolina brand new 411 Fitness website, check them out.

411 is an app that was designed for people who share interests in improving their overall health. The great thing is anybody can use 411 and its free to use.

More to come later on this week, I'm excited and I hope you're able to take a look at their website.

The Wild and Wily Ways

i've got a perfect body, but sometimes i forget,
i've got a perfect body 'cause my eyelashes catch my sweat,
yes they do.

-R.S., Folding Chair

I just discovered a lovely blog authored by Juilliard graduate, Meg Fee - The Wild and Wily Ways of a Brunette Bombshell. Megs last entry really caught my attention, she quoted Regina Spektor's new song, Folding Chair (from the most amazing album, by the way) and proposed "the perfect body initiative," she asked her readers: Why is your body perfect?

The answers she received from her wonderful readers are overwhelming, and naturally one resonates with me more than the others. The Girl in the Yellow Shoes said, I love my body because it carried a child and allowed me to give birth. And that was a miracle. Her answer makes me smile.

So, I ask you to think about what you love about your body, in our quest of perfection we sometimes forget that we are in possesion of functioning, healthy bodies - this is something that we should truly be celebrating for. And, thank you, Meg for starting The Perfect Body Initiative!

Superfoods, Empowered, Improved

image via timeinc

What you're putting into your body isn't as important as how often or how you're consuming them. I love superfoods, you know, the acai berries of the world, the crazy anti-oxidant super power food that does wonder to your body.

This article talks about the prep of superfoods and how something as simple a taking milk out of your tea and replacing it with a squirt of lemon juice would help your body absorbing these amazing anti-oxidants that are just so good for you.