Is Your Company Trying To Send You To Fat Camp?
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Does thin always equal healthy? Not really.
 Every kid can probably remember a schoolmate who was sent away to fat
camp and forced to endure not only the mockery of fellow children, but
also bland, paltry portions of undressed salad and other "diet" foods.
Losing weight was never cool, but with the mercurial rise of reality
shows, even fat camp has been buffed to a high gloss. Shows like The Biggest Loser
and other reality diet shows feature die hard trainers who effectively
supplant the participants' "lack of will" with their own shrill and
uberfit war cries. They harass participants through bootcamp-like
workouts (4-6 hours worth at a pop) and analyze their every bite. The
results are - well - dramatic enough to capture the attention of a rapt
television audience. Corporate wellness programs seem to be
picking up on the trend. Home grown Biggest Loser competitions are
popping up all over in America's offices. Sure, this approach can work.
Particularly when on someone else's dime and exercising 4-6 hours a
day, but for the average working Joe or Josephine, dramatic weight loss
can be a setup for disappointment.
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Healthy Behavior Is What Matters
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Love your diet, your life and yourself at any size
Recess' Health Immersion is coming back this summer so stay tuned. For less than $10 a DAY Health Immersion will change your life. Do you want a total immersion and a lifetime plan for looking good and feeling great?
We focus on the whole person. You will probably lose weight, too, but our aim is to get your health on track for life. Read case studies here.
The Immersion includes:- Pre and post body composition/fitness assessment
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All of our personalized reports
- Seminars on nutrition, cooking, exercise and integrative arts like yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, Budokon, etc.
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A cool group of "campers" and Recess instructors
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Participant-only web portal access
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More questions? Email bootcamp[at]recessfitness.com or call 503-213-3655.
We Sell Out Every Year. Reserve Your Spot Now! >>
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| What Does Cholesterol Do?
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And could it be ruining your love life?!?!?
What's the big deal about cholesterol
and why is there so much confusion around it? What is the difference between
good cholesterol and bad cholesterol? Did you know there is more than
one kind?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that
occurs naturally in all parts of the body. Your body needs some cholesterol to
work properly. But if you have too much in your blood, it can stick to the
walls of your arteries, narrowing or even blocking them. Cholesterol levels
tend to rise, as you get older, especially if you have members of your family
who have high cholesterol levels or if you are overweight or eat a lot of fatty
foods.
One of the most perplexing things about cholesterol is that you don't
necessarily have to be obese to have high levels of it. A perfectly healthy
looking person can have high levels of cholesterol. Only a blood test can tell.
What's more, adults are not the only ones at risk for high cholesterol.
HDL? LDL? What the L?
Cholesterol isn't all bad. It helps naturally produce
vitamin D, hormones like estrogen and testosterone, it helps form cells and
maintain their structure, and it helps us digest fat. The trouble is that our
body naturally produces most of the cholesterol we need for these functions
without the help of additional dietary sources. But who can resist a burger now
and then?
According to the American Heart
Association, good-cholesterol is a high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and makes up one-fourth to one-third of blood
cholesterol. Bad-cholesterol is a low-density lipoprotein (LDL). If too much
LDL circulates in the blood, it can build up on the inner walls of the arteries
that feed the heart and brain. This is called plaque and it leaves a person at
high risk for heart attack or stroke.
There are several ways to lower your
LDL levels. You can limit saturated fat to less than 7 % of your total
calories, avoid hydrogenated oils (trans fats) and increase your intake of
soluble fiber found in things such as: oatmeal, whole grains, barley, beans,
peas, apples, strawberries and psyllium. These soluble fibers essentially block
the LDL from being absorbed into the bloodstream as you digest.
Like Stealing Cheerios from a Baby?
Some cereals, like Cheerios, are made
with whole grains and actually lower your LDL levels. But be careful and read
the box! Not all commercial cereals are made with whole grains. And even when they are
you have to look at serving sizes. Cheerios claims that it can lower your LDL
level 4% in six weeks. But in order to do that you have to eat three cups a day
for that six week period. That's a lot of cereal! Three cups won't even fit in
a normal sized cereal bowl.
You can, however, help raise the level
of good-cholesterols, HDLs, in your blood. You want HDL cholesterol because,
among other things, it transports less-healthy cholesterol away from the heart,
preventing plaque buildup in your arteries. Unfortunately it is more difficult
to raise good cholesterol than it is to lower the bad. But don't worry, there
are a several things that you can do.
Methods For Managing Cholesterol
First you can try losing weight
(particularly the unhealthy fat that accumulates around your midsection);
exercise more often (at least 150 minutes a week); drinking only moderate
amounts of alcohol (or none at all!); and take an omega 3 fatty acid supplement
(1 gram of fish oil per day) or eat fatty fish such as salmon, sardines and
tuna at least twice a week.
Nobody argues that cholesterol-reducing
drugs are ineffective or incredibly dangerous. In fact they have been shown to
have many positive effects, and, as one-study shows, reduce deaths in men with
prostate cancer. But one thing that is becoming increasingly clear as research
comes out to prove it, is that cholesterol lowering drugs may have some nasty
side effects and are over-prescribed.
Statins are the most powerful medicines
for the lowering of cholesterol. Research by an Iowa State University scientist
suggests that these drugs may lessen brain function. The study shows that drugs
that inhibit the liver from making cholesterol may also keep the brain from
making cholesterol, which is vital to efficient brain function.
"If you deprive cholesterol from the
brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of
neurotransmitters," said Yeon-Kyun Shin, a biophysics professor in the
department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.
"Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In
other words -- how smart you are and how well you remember things. If you try
to lower the cholesterol by taking medicine that is attacking the machinery of
cholesterol synthesis in the liver, that medicine goes to the brain too."
What's Good For the Goose....???
Another side effect of these drugs is
that they may affect your sexual performance (yowza). A six-month,
government-funded study that involved more than 1,000 adults with high LDL
levels concluded that the greater the drop in cholesterol from taking statin
drugs, the more sexual pleasure is reduced. Patients who took simvastatin, or
Zocor, had the biggest LDL drop, but men rated their sexual pleasure as sinking
by nearly half over the study period.
Women were somewhat better off.
Pravastatin, or Pravachol, the other statin tested, reduced LDL less and didn't
have a significant effect on orgasms. Some studies have found that statins
improve sexual function, probably because the pills can improve blood flow.But
researchers say that the drugs also may reduce Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that
helps cells convert oxygen, blood and glucose into energy. Sex is a high-energy
activity, so losing the nutrient could weaken sexual pleasure.
Though it's rare statins can also cause
damage to the muscle fibers and liver function. Medical experts agree that a
diet rich in fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and whole grains is the key to
keeping cholesterol low. There are also natural alternatives to statins, such
as niacin supplement and red yeast rice extract, both of which have the dual
benefit of reducing LDL increasing the levels of the healthy HDL.
The National
Institutes of Health recommends reducing fat intake by eating less beef, pork
and lamb; choosing low-fat dairy products; and avoiding coconut and palm oil.
It also helps to reduce cholesterol intake by avoiding egg yolks, organ meats
and sources of animal-derived saturated fat.
Does Your Diet Need A Tune-Up? >> |
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