Get Ready for the Superbowl!

Many NFL football fans will be doing more than watching the big game this Sunday - they'll be loading up on extra calories, as well.

Even though it's only one day out of the year, try not to go overboard with what you eat. Don't go to a party or celebration hungry. Have a healthy snack before you head out so you'll be less likely to overeat. The game is not until the evening so get some exercise in before kick-off.

You can enjoy your favorites whether it's chicken wings, pizza, salty snacks or other treats but do so in moderation. Nutrition experts suggest you put a few of these treats on your plate and then fill the rest with fruits, veggies and whole grains. Try to eat slowly and, if you come back for seconds, opt for more fruits and vegetables.

If there are low calorie dips available, go for those and try dipping with veggies instead of chips.

If you drink alcohol, consider low calorie options such as light beer and drink water between beverages. Alcohol lowers your blood sugar, which can leave you hungry - and more likely to overeat.

Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe

Ingredients:

- 16 oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp pepper

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 8-oz. fat-free cream cheese, softened

- 1/2 cup fat free sour cream

- 1/2 cup Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce

- 2 tbsp low calorie butter ( I used Brummel & Brown)

- 1/2 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Dry Mix

NOTE: If you are feeling lazy, you can use two 9.75oz cans of white chicken meat in water (drained), instead of the grilled chicken, but the taste isn’t nearly as good as using actual grilled chicken breasts.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Rub chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Spray a skillet with non-fat cooking spray, and set on med/high heat. Put in chicken breasts, and cook until brown on both sides and meat is cooked through. Once meat is cooked, cut it up into bite sized shredded chunks. Set aside. In a large, oven safe bowl, stir cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add in chicken and other remaining ingredients, and mix until thoroughly combined. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until dip has heated all the way through.

Serving size is approx 1/2 cup

Each serving = 2 Point Total

Entire recipe makes 12 servings

Read more: http://www.laaloosh.com/2010/02/01/buffalo-chicken-dip-low-calorie-superbowl-recipe/#ixzz2JXHjqisM

Mini Challenge Winners

Our mini challenge yesterday was a one-mile walk. Anyone who completed the walk when they came to weigh-in had their names entered into a drawing for 1 of (10) Biggest Loser Power Walk DVD's. And here are the winners!

Isela Scroggins
Luis Arrizon
Sallie Wright
Shanti Pinedo
Barbara Olave
Nathan Ayala
Katie Contreras
Nancy Nelson
Kris Horn
Laura Willey

Congratulation! You can pick up your DVD's on Monday at weigh-in!

Why Do I Crave Comfort Food?

An insatiable desire for all things cheesy, creamy, and carby may be the sign of a serious health problem. 

Q:  Why do I crave comfort food more in the winter?

A:  Seasonal changes in food cravings are a good example of the tight link between food and our hormones and emotions. If you notice a marked changed in your levels of desire for homemade baked macaroni and cheese (my No. 1 comfort food) as the weather turns colder and darker, it could be due to seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

This condition is characterized by increased anxiety, oversleeping, lethargy, and problems concentrating. Since comfort foods are generally high in fat and carbs, they can increase serotonin production and thus feelings of wellbeing, making them a natural pick for anyone feeling low.

See your doctor, and if it turns out you do have SAD, try some of these treatments to deal with your wintertime blues instead of heading to the kitchen.

Vitamin D
Improvement in blood levels of the “sunshine” vitamin is associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms. I recommend that you get your vitamin D levels checked (this is a simple blood test that your physician should have no problem approving for you), and then supplement with vitamin D according to your test results. If you want to skip the blood test, you can start taking 2,000 to 3,000 IU of vitamin D each day, as this dosage is shown to be safe. I would caution against supplementing with higher levels, however, without having a blood test done.

Light Therapy 
This involves sitting in front of a light box, which simulates natural light, for a predetermined period of time each day. For the most effective treatment, you should look directly into the light box light. As with most things, start out slow with 10- to 15-minute sessions, and work up to longer sessions depending on the severity of your symptoms.

Get Outside
It doesn’t get much easier than a walk outdoors. One study in Denmark found that going for a stroll outside was as effective as light therapy for the treatment of seasonal affective disorder. And there’s no substituting nature photos on your laptop for time spent taking in real nature: In a review of research looking at the impact of nature versus technologically simulated nature (for example, nature scenes projected on HDTVs), researchers found that technologically simulated nature is as effective at improving mood and wellbeing as staring at a brick wall, but a real window to nature improves wellbeing and reduces stress.

By Dr. Mike Roussell, Shape.com 

Is Walking a Mile Good Exercise?

About 60 percent of American adults do not get the recommended amount of exercise, and about 25 percent are not physically active at all, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Exercise need not be strenuous to provide significant health benefits. Physical inactivity is most common in older women, and walking is often an ideal way for them to gain some of the health benefits of physical activity.

Moderate Intensity

Though many athletes and other people get regular vigorous or sustained exercise most days, the actual goal of good exercise is simply to achieve moderate intensity physical activity. The Michigan Surgeon General defines moderate intensity physical activity as that which causes you to feel exertion, but wouldn't prevent you from holding a conversation comfortably. For most people, walking should fall within this category. If you need to walk more than 4 mph in order to feel exertion, use proper speed-walking technique or consider jogging instead.

Duration of Activity

The Michigan Surgeon General places the target for physical activity at 30 to 60 minutes of moderately intense activity at least five times each week. At an average walking speed of 3 to 4 mph, this means the equivalent of walking anywhere from 1.5 to 4 miles. Thus, while walking a mile is good exercise, on its own it is probably insufficient to meet the recommended level of physical activity. Continuing on for at least an extra half mile, however, would probably be sufficient to meet your minimum level of recommended physical activity for the day.

Cumulative Activity

The total amount of cumulative physical exertion you undertake in a day determines whether someone is getting "good exercise." That means you can get the same relative benefit from a longer period of less intense activity as you can from a relative brief period of intense exercise. Thus, 30 minutes of brisk walking is about as useful as 15 to 20 minutes of jogging. And if 30 minutes to an hour is tough to fit into your schedule, break it up into 10- or 20-minute segments. If you are completely sedentary, start by getting just five to 10 minutes of moderate activity daily and gradually build to your desired level of exertion

.

One Mile Could Be Enough

Walking one mile alone could be good and sufficient exercise if it took a full 30 minutes to complete the mile at a moderately intense pace. This would be an average pace of about 2 miles per hour. While it probably wouldn't be true for most people, if at this pace you feel the exertion of the activity, walking one mile would be enough exercise for the day even if you completed it in two or three different periods during the day

.

References

• CDC; Physical Activity and Health; November 17, 1999
• Office of the Surgeon General; Overweight and Obesity: What You Can Do; Jan. 11, 2007
• Michigan Surgeon General; Move More, Adults;
• Fitness Walking Guide; Average Walking Speed for Fitness Walkers

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/397890-is-walking-1-mile-good-exercise/#ixzz2J6P9KE4W

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/397890-is-walking-1-mile-good-exercise/#ixzz2J6OianFx

Help with Hitting Your 5-a-Day Quota

Easy Ways to Eat More Fruits and Veggies

We all know we should be eating our fruits and vegetables. You’ve probably heard the recommendations for meeting a 5-a-day quota, or seen the USDA’s recommendation to fill half of your plate with fruits and veggies during each meal. And you probably already know that eating fruits and vegetables provides a number of important health benefits, like reducing the risk of chronic diseases and heart disease and helping you manage your weight. Eating a diet filled with veggies and fruits might also protect against certain cancers and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

With all of those benefits, you’d think the entire human population would be chowing down on bok choy and snacking on spinach. But not everyone has a built-in love for the produce department. If you struggle to fit in your fruits and vegetables, read on for some tips and tricks to make eating a healthier diet easier than ever!

Tips for Increasing Your Fruit and Vegetable Intake

1. Eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal. If half a plate of fruits and vegetables seems like an overwhelming goal for you right now, start by simply adding one fruit or veggie to each meal. You can eat them as a side—think a cup of green beans with dinner or a banana with breakfast—or simply start adding them to foods you already eat. Fruit is a cinch to add to oatmeal, yogurt and cereal in the morning. Add onions and peppers to meat dishes, or pile a few of your favorite vegetables onto your sandwich. Once you start working them in, you’ll welcome the new additions!

2. Snack smart. Instead of hitting the vending machine for an afternoon pick-me-up, start snacking on fruits and vegetables. Cut veggies and hummus or sliced fruit with yogurt dip will satisfy you more than a candy bar will.

3. Drink up. While you should limit the number of calories you get from beverages, if you have trouble fitting fruits and vegetables into your busy life, work them into a drink that you can take on the go. Try outsmoothie recipes until you find a few you love and work them into your rotation as a breakfast or afternoon snack option. You can easily get several fruit and vegetable servings in a yummy beverage. If you simply want juice, look for 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice for it to count as a serving, but limit yourself to no more than one serving of fruit or vegetable juice per day, as the calories are concentrated and juice removes some of the other benefits of produce (such as fiber).

4. Slurp some soup! Soups and stews can be a nutritious, filling way to get lots of vegetables into a meal. Soup is an easy way to increase the variety of veggies you eat, too, as it can make some of your least favorite options more palatable. If you don’t make your own, make sure you know the healthy soup options at the grocery store.

5. Be ready at all times. Have cut fruits and vegetables in the fridge ready for munching at all times. Whether you buy the pre-cut options in the produce department or take the time to cut and bag it yourself, you’re more likely to eat it if it’s readily and easily available. Have hummus, low-fat ranch or fruit dip on hand, too, if it’ll encourage you to eat up.

6. Keep them in sight, in mind. Just like you keep sweets out of sight to discourage incessant snacking, keeping fruits and veggies in sight will help you think of them as an option for eating. Stock a fruit bowl at work each week and keep a bowl on the kitchen counter at home so you’ll be more likely to eat it when you’re hungry.

7. Bar hop. Next time you’re blanking on a quick, easy place to grab lunch, head to the salad bar at a local grocery store. With an endless variety of vegetables, cut fruit and soups, it’s an easy way to make sure you get a meal rich in nutrients and fiber.

8. Start smart. Make it a habit to order a salad or vegetable-based soup when you’re out at restaurants. These fiber-rich starters may keep you from overeating when your meal comes, in addition to helping you add more vegetables into your day.

9. Bag it up. It may be more expensive to buy pre-chopped lettuce mixes, but they make whipping up a salads a breeze. Throw a few into your shopping cart so you can take salads to work for lunch or have dinner salads ready throughout the week. Just make sure your salad toppings are healthy ones!

10. Use the freezer. If you buy produce in bulk only to have it rot in your refrigerator before you get to it, start using your freezer more frequently (and check here for produce storage tips!). Have a stock of frozen fruits and veggies on hand at all times so you’ll always have them ready for smoothies and easy dinner sides.

11. Chop them up. If you have a hard time crunching into big vegetables, try slicing and dicing them into a more manageable size. Shred carrots and zucchini or finely dice onions, pepper and spinach to hide in pasta sauces, hamburger patties, omelets and casseroles.

12. Pack portable produce. If you’re a snacker who gets hungry when you’re out running errands or on the way home from work in the early evening, carry easy-to-eat fruit and vegetable items for snacking. Spinach and kiwi may not be convenient on the go, but baby carrots, chopped broccoli and celery sticks are great for munching anywhere, as are no-muss, no-fuss bananas, apples and grapes. Dried fruits like raisins and prunes are easy to have on hand for a quick snack, too.

13. Find the ones you love. While you should aim for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet, don’t hesitate to stick to the handful you love if you can only stomach a few. It won’t do you any good to buy the spinach you know you hate if it’s just going to sit in your crisper until it turns into goo. Buy your favorite fruits and vegetables and eat up, while allowing yourself to experiment with new options every now and then. You never know--you might find a new favorite!

The USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both have calculators on their sites to help you calculate how many fruit and vegetable servings you should aim for each day. Everyone’s caloric and dietary needs are different and depend on age and activity level, so see what’s recommended for you and make that your new goal!

  -- By Erin Whitehead, Health and Fitness Writer

Last Week's Mini-Challenge Winners!

Congratulations to the following 10 people who won our mini-challenge last week. The Challenge was to journal your eating habits, your calorie intake or exercise hours for at least 2 full days. If you did, this, your name was put into a drawing and the winners are:
Mike Rich
Odelta Cardoso
Angie Raposo
Shally Vasquez
Alysia Gonzales
Cherie Pettit
Meghann Ryan
Gina Ceja
Donna Geary
Kris Pettit

Great Job! You can pick up your copy of the Biggest Loser Food Journal next Monday at weigh-in! Make sure you all take a look at the column to the right to see what this coming week's mini challenge will be!

Finding Time to Workout

Busting the #1 Exercise Excuse: Lack of Time

What's the No. 1 excuse for not working out? Lack of time. Sure, we're all busy handling multiple priorities and rushing around from here and there every day. However, I promise that no matter how busy you are, someone even busier than you are is working out right now. If you look closer, you'll discover that you do have the time to work out—and you deserve to use that time for yourself.

Squeezing in just a few minutes of physical exercise a day has huge benefits on your health, gives you energy and perks up your mood. In fact, a new study published by The Lancet found that if inactive people increased their physical activity by just 15 minutes per day, they could reduce their risk of premature death by 14% and increase their life expectancy by three years.  Also, remember that "working out" doesn't have to happen in the gym or last for an hour! Short 10-minute bursts of exercise, accumulated over the course of the day, can add up to big fitness and health gains, too.

Still not convinced that you have the time to exercise? Here's how to start fitting fitness into your busy life today!

10 Practical Tips to Fit Fitness into Your Busy Life

1. Wake up earlier. Sleep is definitely important for overall health and weight-loss, but could you hit the sheets just 30 minutes earlier, so that you could get up and work out before your day starts? Working out in the morning has numerous benefits including regulating appetite, boosting energy and—perhaps the biggest benefit of all—an A.M. sweat session ensures that your workout is checked off first thing each day! Because really, how many times have you had the best intentions to exercise in the evening, only to have to work late, help your kids with a project or generally just feel too exhausted to get off the couch? With morning workouts, the time problem is solved!

2. Cut down on media. For just a few days, record how much time you spend surfing the Internet, checking personal email, watching TV and playing video games whether it's on your computer or your phone. You just might be surprised at how much time you spend on Facebook or playing Angry Birds. Just a few minutes here and there can add up to an hour or more each day. Cut out just some of that screen time and, voila, you suddenly have time to squeeze in at least 10 or 15 minutes of exercise into even the busiest day.

3. Be an active TV watcher. It's unrealistic to never watch TV or to shun the Internet forever.  So when you do, try to incorporate some physical activity. When watching TV, make it a point to do some jumping jacks or push-ups during commercials. Doing a little exercise during the commercial breaks can add up to almost 20 minutes of fitness for every hour of TV you watch. And instead of sitting in a chair when on the computer, try sitting on a stability ball or stack your computer up on some books so that you have a standing desk to surf from. No matter how you do it, try not to sit for more than 20 minutes at a time!

4. Try an active commute. One of the best ways to fit exercise into your life is by incorporating it into your school or work transportation routine. If you live close enough, consider biking to work. If you take the bus, walk to a bus stop that's an extra block or two away, or get off the bus a stop sooner than usual and get a few more steps in. And if you drive to work, park as far away as you can—even a few blocks away, if possible.

5.  Make it part of your routine. One reason it's so challenging to fit exercise into a busy schedule is because we're not used to doing it. Heck, it takes time to brush your teeth in the morning, but you do it, don't you? You brush your teeth every day because it's important and because it's almost second nature to get up and do it. Start making some form of exercise—whether it's walking the dog, doing 10 minutes of yoga or going for a bike ride after dinner—a daily tradition, just like showering, brushing your teeth or hitting the coffee shop on the way to work. It's easy to fit in exercise for a few days here or there, but by incorporating it into your daily routine like you would your hygiene, you take the process of working out away from willpower and into habit. Need help getting into the habit? Try SparkGuy's Daily Workout Streak Challenge!

6. Mix socializing with exercising. Do you normally spend time with your family or friends by going to dinner, watching sports on TV or going to movies? Make your social time more active by planning events that get all of you moving. Go for a family hike on a beautiful Saturday morning, play a game of tag football with your buddies during halftime, or make a date with your significant other or best friend on the treadmill. There are so many options for squeezing more activity into your social calendar!

7. Turn chores into exercise. While cleaning might not be the most fun activity, it's something we all have to do, and it can definitely be a workout if you want it to be. Set a kitchen timer for 20 minutes and see how much of the house you can clean. Try to be as efficient and quick-paced as possible, and I guarantee you'll work up a sweat. If you're doing lighter housework that is harder to get your heart rate up (like laundry or organizing), throw in some lunges or push-ups every few minutes to start feeling the burn!

8. Schedule an appointment. If you had scheduled a doctor's appointment, you wouldn't miss it would you? How about that important business meeting? Of course not. Working out is actually as important as going to the doctor or any other obligation that you prioritize, because it helps you perform better as a worker, parent, student or volunteer, and keeps you in tip-top shape. So whether it's scheduling in an hour to go to that group exercise class, investing in personal training sessions or even making a date with yourself to do that workout DVD over your lunch break, write it in pen in your calendar and treat it like any other appointment you can't miss!

9. Find an activity you love. Think of your favorite hobby or pastime. Do you have trouble finding time to do it? Most likely, you make time for it because you enjoy it so much. It's the things we don't enjoy that we put off and don't feel bad about missing. That's why it's best to choose a physical activity that you actually enjoy and look forward to. Not only are you more likely to do it, but it also adds more fun into your life. And we all could use some more fun in our busy lives, right?

10. Say no. If you've gone through this entire list of tips and don't think a single one will work in your life, then it's time to look at your priorities and responsibilities. Do you really have to bake cookies for that fundraiser? Babysit for your sister? Take on that extra project at work? Attend that wedding shower of your second cousin? Remember that there's nothing wrong in saying no. Yes, we all have obligations to others, but don't forget about the obligation you have to yourself to take care of your body and your health!


Remember, exercise gives you energy and keeps you healthy to keep going in that busy life of yours! So don't think of exercise as another to-do to squeeze in on your already busy schedule. Instead, think of it as maintenance for your health and a way to de-stress and do something for you! 

  -- By Jennipher Walters, Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor