For those of us that view food as a mechanism for coping with our emotions (ie. loneliness, stress, anxiety, and etc), we need to identify what is causing the behaviors in order to change it. We cannot loose weight when we eat to fill a void in our emotional state when we are not hungry.

Identify food and mood
Take a few days (at least one weekday and one weekend) to write down any emotion related eating.…

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Studies have shown that the happiest people are those with lower expectations. Google “happiness + expectation,” and you are bound to find articles talking about lowering expectations to increase your happiness. The people most satisfy with their lives reside in Denmark. What is their secret? You guess it — low expectations. They are always pleasantly surprised when things turn out better than they assumed.

What does all this have to do with weight loss success? The “all or nothing” approach some of…

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Most people procrastinate every now and then when faced with unappealing chores or activities, but the persistent procrastinator regularly allow this habit to get in the way of achieving their goals. When it comes to trying to loose weight, the first step is not trying to find motivation to take action, but to understand how this habit is holding you back from success.

1. Pick one healthy behavior that you keep consistently and consciously avoid.
One of my…

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There are many reasons why we gain weight, usually from overeating and not exercising. But did you know there are other hidden factors such as your friends and credit cards that subconsciously make us eat more? Here are three surprising factors for why we gain weight without even realizing it.

1. Your friends
In a New England Journal of Medicine study, for every 10 pounds a person gained, close friends of the same height gained an average of 1-2 pounds. It…

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Muscles do not know the difference between free weights, machines, or bands. All they understand is load, fatigue, and recovery. Stressing muscles is what makes them stronger. For home workouts, free weights are an essential if you do not have regular access to a gym. You still need to work on strength training even if you prefer to exercise at home. You can get some ideas of how to use free weights here with the cartoon animation.

The Advantages of free weights:

• You…

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A co-worker asked me ‘What is emotional eating? Why does his wife talk about it all the time? Is it just a female thing?’

Emotional eating is when you cannot separate mood from food. Some people eat when they are happy, unhappy, bored, excited, stressed, relaxed, etc. Give me an emotional and there is someone out there who has linked it with food. Those of us with emotional eating issues habitually abuse food because we cannot deal with the emotion. And no,…

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It take an extra 500 calories a day to put on one pound at the end of the week. There is 3,500 calories in a pound of stored fat. Most of us cannot tell that we are storing an extra quarter of a pound. Most scales do not detect that small incremental weight difference. By the time we finally notice it, we are 3-5 pounds overweight already.

Calories breakdown
The energy value of any food items is…

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Ever wonder what it would be like after you loose all the extra padding? Here is a quick glance at that future place we are all striving for:

Your career
Good health and fitness give you more confidence and energy for quick thinking. Whether making a presentation or handling difficult clients, this difference will show. Be prepare to move on up.

Your kids
You move closer to being a perfect parent by getting into shape. Instead of vegging out…

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I had soft tissue damage on my back from my car accident a few years ago. The pain was excruciating. I am not talking about the ache on your back after a day of weeding in your garden. I am talking about 12 OTC ibuprofen pills popping a day type of pain that last for months. I always thought I understand back pain when other people about it. But I never really understood it until I cannot sleep even after…

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Here is an interesting post by Jonathan Fields on blogging on this treadmill. This idea has been around for a while now. Here is an article on it at the New York Times in 2005.

There are probably small ways to include movement in our sedentary activities. It is the small everyday movement that we can squeeze in that is going to determine whether we can keep up this change for a healthy style.

I have a mini pedal bike. It does…

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10 tips on how to stop weight gain at work.


As mentioned in my work environment post, we gain approximately two pounds a year as we age due to the sedentary nature of our lifestyle. What we do at work has an impact on our waistline since we spend so many of our waking hours at work.

According to an article at careerbuilder, “28% of workers report they have gained more than 10 pounds and 13% say they have gained…

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March — the time of year when spring is just around the corner and the crowds starts to thin out. This is the time of year when regulars get their gym back and the New Year Resolution members slowly drop off the bandwagon — again.

Why is there such a big difference between the regulars and the New Year Resolution crowd? The New Year Resolution crowd might start the year with a new nutrition or exercise program with…

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Mineral makeup is popping up every where. There is even a mineral make up blog about it. You can find it at the drugstore for less than $10 or at Macy’s for $50 per item. It claims to be natural, from the earth, and free of dyes, chemicals, and preservatives. It claims to be much better for your skin than traditional makeup. But what is the truth to these these claims?

Sun Protection
The claim to sun protections is mostly due…

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A friend of mine asked me whether or not calorie shifting work. The idea is that calorie shifting is a strategy to reduce the natural slowdown in your metabolism when it thinks it should go on starvation mode when you are trying to loose weight.

Calorie shifting means changing the kinds of food, the components (protein, carbohydrates, and fats), and calories every few days to shock your metabolism to reduce the likelihood of hitting plateaus. The theory is…

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According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE) the top 10 most effective abs exercises are:

1. Bicycle Crunches
2. Knee Lifts on Captain’s Chair
3. Crunches on Ball
4. Crunches with Vertical Legs: This exercise is just like a traditional crunch but with your legs extended up into the air.
5. Torso Track Machine
6. Crunches with Arms Extended: This exercise is just like a traditional crunch but you extend your arms overhead, clasping your hands together, and squeezing your…

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