Thursday, April 28, 2011

Did You Know?


Did you know that lack of sleep can cause weight gain and other health problems. Getting good quality sleep each night allows your body to burn 60-65% of its calories, and keeps you from reaching for unhealthy snacks throughout the day.





Check out How? and Why?

http://obesity.ygoy.com/does-lack-of-sleep-cause-weight-gain/

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/lack-of-sleep-weight-gain


**look for my DID YOU KNOW? section each month. I will fill you in a couple times a month with quick and fun nutrition facts to help improve your health.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Skinny Energy
Caffeine is a large part of how most of us make it through each day. With our schedules being so busy, it is easy to put on a few unwelcome pounds. The wrong caffeine choices may be the one factor affecting your weight negatively. Following nutrition fact guidelines can help us avoid drinking to many calories. Making smart decisions about the energy we feed our bodies is an essential step to a slim figure.


Nutrition Facts:
An important practice for everyone is to compare food nutrition fact labels. Lets say you have green tea with 1 gram of sugar compared to an energy drink with 15 grams of sugar for half the can. After comparing the labels the smartest choice would be the tea. If you skip that quick glance at the facts you may skip the healthier option. When reviewing the nutrition fact labels, important areas to look at and compare is . . .

1. Serving Size (How many ounces per serving?)(compare serving size with the following)
2. Calories
3. Sugar
4. Carbohydrate
5. Ingredient list (less ingredients the better!)

Portion Size:
Overdoing caffiene drinks that are full of sugar and calories is enough to simply explain the extra pounds.  When people drink fluids full of sugar they tend to get a short burst of energy and then crash. This leads to us reaching for another sugary beverage. Soon we have doubled and sometimes tripled the drinks which means we did the same with the calories, sugar, and carbohydrates. If you absolutely cannot give up soda or energy drinks try this option. . .

*Allow yourself six to eight ounces of your favorite drink, with a small handful of almonds. This is allowing you some sugar with an all natural snack, jam packed with energy to keep you from crashing.

"Diet" doesn't always mean "Diet":
Be careful, some diet drinks have been know to actually make you gain weight. It may cause you to reach for more drinks than necessary, or even cause you to feel more hungry than you actually are. Instead of looking for labels that say "diet". Look for labels that say "all natural". Your body will respond to the natural foods better and it will quench your bodies real cravings leaving you satisfied; not hungry!

For more information on diet soda research:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight

The Skinniest:
Above all recommendations, replace your usual caffeine beverage with black coffee (meaning don't add anything to it), plain green tea, or plain black tea. With these options you can avoid excess calories and carbohydrates that lead to extra weight. If you have trouble drinking these forms of caffeine, use the above tips to help find the healthiest match.

Also if you have a craving for other forms of caffeine like energy drinks, read this article below. It is very informative and will compare some of the nutrition fact labels from some of your favorite drinks. It will give you a break down of what to look for on the nutrition labels. Also, this will allow you to learn about how they affect your body. Your favorite drink may be on the bad list so please take a look!

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/are-energy-drinks-dangerous