Wednesday Bubble – a little inspiration: Big dietary changes one small step at a time. A guest post by Miz Fit
I’ve been wanting to share a few inspirational thoughts about fitness and healthy eating for some time now. So I thought that there was no better person to do that than my Twitter friend MizFit.
Miz Who?!! MizFit, creator of MizFit Online, whose philosophy reads as follows:
To embrace and love whom you already are.
To be wholly comfortable in your own skin.
To realize that, by virtue of BEING, you are enough.
To be unapologetically yourselves.
I truly admire this woman and know that you will enjoy her post. Show her some love!
This post is all about you.
The collective you.
The greater you who fill my in-box (which I adore) with your questions about health, fitness, tattoos and more.
Recently I’ve been receiving variations on this question a *bunch*:
I’m ready to change my eating habits and don’t want to do a diet (I’ve done WW before and Jenny Craig and South Beach). I want to try and eat intuitively which I know you do. What can I do starting now? Please don’t tell me to read a book 🙂 I’m so busy. What’s the first step in your opinion?
I chose this email because it said “in your opinion.” My apologies to the rest of the emailers but it saved me the dizclaimer yammer. Another reason I chose this email is because of the ‘what can I do starting now’piece.
We all know how easy it is to do the “starting Monday I shall” or “on the first of the month I will…” & yet we all know (in our hearts. where it counts.) that it really is all about starting right.this.moment.
So I give you what I did.
When I finally decided the time had come to shed my freshwoman forty I followed about six steps & they’re the same kind of thing I still do on a daily basis. When I finally decided the time had come to shed my freshwoman forty I had no acronym with which to remember it all.
I give you an acronym to use. STARTING TODAY:
Mini-meals. I’m a believer in spreading the calories through out the day. For the most part none of my meals are bigger than any other (I do often eat more at breakfast out of hunger. Intuitively.) Beyond the fact I think this helps me stay lean—-it definitely helps my blood sugar levels stay even & I have far more energy.
Intuitive eating. Start this one today – slowly Listen to what your body is saying. Pay attention to how you feel after eating certain foods. JOURNAL. For me this isn’t journaling *caloric intake* but feelings. Noting how, when I crave sweets, it’s mainly AFTER I’ve had a high processed carbohydrate meal. That sort of thing. Perhaps you begin by not even CHANGING your foods—just logging your body’s reaction to them.
Zero HARD & FAST RULES. Again, this is just what has always work for me. I’m a rebel. Make a rule that I can not have or do something & it is immediately the ONLY THING I THINK ABOUT.
Fiber, Fiber, Fiber. At this point I think we all know why (want more info? still unclear? desire a list of fiberfoods? please to let me know in the comments.)—be sure you both KNOW and are acting on it.
Invest in YOU. For me this takes the form of spending lots of money on quality foods & less money on (quality) clothing. I love me some sushi grade tuna. I’m happy with clothing from Goodwill-type places. For some this may be an investment in a personal trainer. For others, in a gym membership. I have more than a few non-wealthy friends who invested in cooking lessons in their homes so that they could learn a handful of easy healthy meals.
Which leads me to…
Tried & trues. Always have a few meals which you know you enjoy, which are healthy, & which are easily prepared in your arsenal. I tend to have the T & T’s already prepared and waiting in the fridge for those moments I’m too tired to cook. Other people prefer just to have ingredients on hand. Whatever *you* decide, I’m a firm believer in the fact that these T & T’s help to set us up for food success.
That’s me, People.
What I did starting out (sadly sans-acronym. I love me some acronyms) and, what I do today.
When I’m feeling completely scattered, out of my element and CRAZED I figure if I can stick to these six things Ill re-find my groove in no time.
Now you.
What would you tell the emailers who ask:
What’s the one thing I can do, starting today, to clean up/change my eating habits?
Hit us all up in the comments.
About Miz Fit (AKA Carla Birnberg)...Carla Birnberg is an award-winning author and fitness expert. A onetime personal trainer, she owned a boutique training studio, Head2Heel, in Chapel Hill, N.C. Carla also competes in both bodybuilding and fitness including a third place finish in the 2001 NPC House of Pain bodybuilding show. Her writing can be seen on Yahoo!Shine, in the Atkins Nutritional monthly newsletter, Experience Life Magazine, Austin Monthly Magazine and as a monthly health column in Good Life Magazine.
Carla is also the author of the book, The Whole Megillah: Miztvahs, Matzo Balls & Everything in Between (Bluegrass Publishing, May 2007) Carla’s blog, MizFitOnline, has been selected to serve as part of Oprah’s Virtual Digital Blogging Network and is ranked by Austin Monthly Magazine as one of the top 3 health blogs in the city.
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: Risk
Do data justify routine assessments of breast cancer in older women? According to a study published in the March 10 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the answer is a resounding “yes!”
Researchers from the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco systematically reviewed published literature and meta-analyses of various aspects of breast cancer risk and prevention, including risk assessment models, breast density measurements and lifestyle factors.
While the results showed that measures of breast density (which can be determined in mammograms) were very strong predictors of a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer, risk assessment models, which use medical history and demographics (e.g. race, age, income, socioeconomic status, etc) were only moderately accurate in predicting risk.
Yet, when combined, the risk of developing breast cancer could be determine more accurately in roughly a third of women.
Study Implications
The researchers note that “for women at high risk of developing breast cancer, the findings are very significant.” For example, women who learn that they are at high risk might want to consider more frequent mammograms or digital scans such as MRIs. They also say that treatments such as raloxifene and tamoxifen, when used for five years, confer roughly 15 years of protection. Conversely, women at low risk may be able to reduce the frequency of mammograms.
Importantly, lifestyle factors such as regular exerise, losing weight, a low-fat diet and reducing alcohol intake appeared to lower breast cancer risk in women of all ages. However, eating more fruits and vegetables did not seem to make any difference. This is not to say, however, that women should eliminate fruits and vegetables from their diet as studies do suggest that these foods are protective against other forms of cancer, such as colon cancer.
In a time when evidence is accruing against HRT and its health ramifications, it’s assuring to know that there are ways to determine if we’ve placed ourselves at greater risk of disease and strategies to counteract our missteps.
Read MoreTrifecta
Midsection weight gain is a hard pill to swallow, especially when you’re doing all the things that experts keep telling you to do, like watching your diet, exercising and limiting indulgences. In fact, it’s been reported that women in their midlife years gain as much as 1.1 pounds yearly over a five-year period, which places the odds of gaining weight about twice the average rate. So what gives?
Last week, I wrote a post on the importance of moving your body. Several experts chimed in and added that regular weight training and a change in how and what you eat might help to stave off those pounds. In the particular report cited above, researchers wrote that the one pound a year weight gain equated with only an extra 10 calories a day and suggested that small, sustained changes in daily physical activity and diet can prevent further weight gain. Okay, that sounds reasonable, right?
Another study, published last year in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, showed that weight gain and changes in waist circumference in midlife are associated with both regular aging and changes in ovarian function. The good news in this study was that while waist circumference increased over a 6-year period, the rate of increase slowed one year after the final menstrual period.
BTW, the reason for the buildup of fatty of tissue has to do with balance. That is, as estrogen production declines, the body starts to rely on secondary production sites, such as body fat and skin. So, fatty tissue starts function like an endocrine organ instead of simply a passive vessel for energy storage. The body also struggles to hold onto bone mass and may compensate for its loss by holding on to extra body fat longer.
The news isn’t all bad however.
That ‘Old Black Magic’ has struck again!
Results of an animal study in the journal Maturitas show that black cohosh extract attenuates body weight gain and accumulation of intrabdominal fat and also lowers glucose levels to the same extent as estrogen. The effect on blood fats in this study was a bit more complex; black cohosh extract was associated with higher LDL-cholesterol levels and lower triglyceride levels and estrogen, the exact opposite. The researchers remain uncertain how these effects ultimately influence weight gain as well as associated health risks, such as the metabolic syndrome.
These study results undoubtedly need to be replicated in humans. But they do suggest a potentially viable strategy to battle weight gain: black cohosh.
So, perhaps the trifecta in overcoming menopausal weight gain is diet, exercise and black cohosh. Only time will tell.
Read MoreLike a Heatwave, Burning in My Heart
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7P65KNwVY]
It appears that hot flashes affect more than quality of life.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh report that hot flashes might actually damage the blood vessesls and increase the risk for atherosclerosis, a form of heart disease characterized by hardening of the arteries.
Study partciipants included 492 women, ages 45 to 58 years, who were participating in the community-based Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation.
The findings, which were published in the eary online edition of the journal Circulation, show a significant increase in calcium deposits and buildup (i.e. calcification) in the greater coronary artery and aorta in women with hot flashes. In fact, these women were 1.5 times likely to develop calcification than women not experiencing hot flashes.
The researchers report that hot flashes may indicate underlying adverse vascular changes in women.
So what can you do? Because hot flashes may be signs of subclinical or underlying changes in blood vessels that can lead to heart disease, shutting them down is not enough.
Rather, lifestyle changes that promote heart health, such as a healthy diet, regular exercise, weight maintenance or reduction, quitting smoking and moderate alcohol use, seem like smart choices.
In fact, research confirms that lifestyle interventions that include healthy eating and regular exercise can confer protection against and slow different forms of heart disease, including atherosclerosis, if started during perimenipause.
Read MoreCh Ch Changes
Among the many changes that occur during menopause, one of the most potentially dangerous is actually being attributed to testosterone rather than estrogen.
Results of a 9-year study study published in the July 28th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine show that the key hormonal change associated with developing the metabolic syndrome is the steep and progressive domination of testosterone. What’s more, this increase occurs independently of aging and other potential confounding factor (such as smoking, body mass index, ethnicity, marital status and education).
(Metabolic syndrome is a term used to describe the cluster of risk factors (e.g. abdominal fat, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels and insulin resistance) that increases the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. It affects up to a third of women after age 55.)
Study participants included 949 women recruited from the ongoing Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, which is examining factors that affect health and quality of life in women during their middle years. Women were either premenopausal or in early menopause, and had never used HRT. Overall, women were shown to have a 1.45 times greater risk of developing the metabolic syndrome in perimenopause and a 1.25 greater risk after menopause.
So, let’s do the math.
- Metabolic syndrome is closely associated with high blood pressure, obesity, and insulin resistance.
- Menopausal women are at increased risk for abdominal redistribution and weight gain.
- Regular exercise/physical activity and a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables and whole grains, and low in saturated fats, are essential.
With regards to the predominance of testosterone, well, that’s just one more hurdle to overrcome. In the coming weeks, I’ll see if I can find a few evidence-driven tips to counteract this imbalance. In the meantime, we’ve got yet another reason to keep moving!
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