theskinnybuzz too!  It’s my new website that has much more to offer…the website allows for graphics, videos, podcasts, chat, etc. that I thought you all might enjoy!  Starting this weekend I’ll do my best to post every day, yes I said, every day.  It will cover a lot more content too…including my real life dun dun dun

Coming soon…check it out…TheSkinnyBuzz. 

-Carrie

A breakfast that is 400-500 calories helps you feel full and will skew those 3 p.m. munchies                                       .

Secret ingredient?  Lean protein.  Include about 200 calories worth of protein like low fat turkey sausage, canadian bacon, or eggs (egg whites have less fat).  Protein keeps you full longer than carbs, meaning at the end of the day, you’ll most likely have eaten a lot less.

So don’t skimp on the B-fast – you’re not doing yourself any favors!

Bringing you the SKINNY on health and fitness…one post at a time. - Carrie

My problem is that I don’t snack enough. I’m not talking about grabbing a bag of potato chips from the vending machine, I mean two small snacks throughout the day– healthy foods. Such as nuts, fruits, vegetables, yogurt, etc.

I also started paying for my own gym membership, which is pretty expensive, particularly in a metropolitan area. However, I did have the perk of meeting with a personal trainer. She said I must eat a small snack before lunch and also one before dinner, especially if I work-out before dinner.

My point here, is that everyone basically needs to eat (something) five times a day. Three regular meals and then two small meals, or snacks.

Self Magazine featured a great article outlining five snacking tips to health you slip down.

I have highlighted a few here:

1. Prepare for snack attacks: Keep something in your briefcase or pocketbook. This will help you avoid the dreaded vending machine.

2. Nutritious nibbles: Try an apple with peanut butter or squash and hummus.

3. Liquid calories: Soft drinks and coffees are snacks too. Opt for water instead.

Check the whole article here.

Giving YOU the skinny on health and fitness- one post at a time. -Emily

   For hamstrings, butt, abs

A. Lie face-up with knees bent and right heel on a towel. Extend hands by sides, and reach left leg straight up from hip. Pressing down with your right heel, lift your hips and lower back a few inches off the floor

B. Keeping hips raised, slide right foot out until knee is almost straight. Slide heel back to starting position. Do 10–12 reps, then switch sides and repeat.

Trainer tip: Take this exercise down a notch by placing both heels on towel, hip-width apart, then sliding legs in and out together. 

2.  Dancer’s Rear Strengthener

For outer thighs and butt
Sit with knees bent to 90 degrees and soles of feet together; move bent right leg behind you. Rock forward, placing hands on either side of left knee and lifting right leg 1–2 inches off floor. Press right heel back, then return to bent-knee position, keeping leg lifted. Do 10–15 reps, then switch sides and repeat. 

3. Sliding Side Lunges                                  

For inner thighs, hamstrings, butt

Stand on towel with right foot turned out to side; place left heel in front of arch of right foot. Keeping weight over left leg, bend left knee to 90 degrees and slide right leg out along the side-back diagonal. Straighten left knee, and slide right leg back to starting position. Do 12–15 reps, then switch sides and repeat.

4.  Clean Sweep Lunges                            

For hamstrings, butt, thighs

A. Start with feet together and right foot on towel. Bend left knee to 90 degrees, and slide right leg back to a shallow lunge. Sweep right leg across the body behind you to the left, keeping toes on the floor.

B. Sweep leg right. Lift foot a few inches off floor, then lower it again and sweep back to center. Return to starting position. Do 12–15 reps, then switch sides and repeat. 

Trainer tip: To add a challenge, hold a 5–8 pound dumbbell in each hand.

(Health Magazine)

This could be due to the types of foods people are eating (high-calorie on-the-go options), the lack of structure in their days, or the laid-back mind-set that many of us adopt on our days off. Whatever the explanation, one study done suggests that one reason why people who go on diets often don’t lose weight as fast or as easily as they first predicted is due to overeating on the weekends.

Suggestions to help you control weekend cravings and wiggle into those skinny jeans come Monday morning:

• Weigh yourself twice a week—either Friday and Monday a.m. or Thursday and Monday a.m. There’s nothing better to keep you on track than knowing that you have to face the scale come Monday morning.
• Try to stick with the same meal patterns you follow midweek on the weekend.
• “Bank” calories: If you know you are going out for dinner and will overeat, cut back even more the day before and after to compensate.
• Limit your alcohol consumption. (I know this is a hard one in college, but just like you would bank calories for a saturday night dinner, bank alcohol calories as well, or indulge Friday night a little, but not Saturday)  Alcohol is a diet double-whammy; it’s not only rich in calories itself, but it also reduces inhibitions and increases appetite.
• If you exercise, don’t give in to your raging appetite afterward; it’ll erase the calorie burn (and then some) of your workout. Instead, fill up with lean protein and whole grains.
• Pack fruit and healthy snacks or lunches if you’re going to be out of the house all day, so you don’t have to rely on food-court and concession-stand choices.
• If you need to cheat on the weekend, plan what and when you’re going to cheat, enjoy it, then get back on track. One indiscretion won’t set you back—but a weekend of multiple indulgences will

What is it? It’s actually something that has been part of your diet all of your life, you just didn’t know it!  Resistant starch is a type of dietary fiber naturally found in any carbohydrate-rich foods such as, potatoes, grains, and beans, especially when they are cooked and cooled.

How’d it get its name? Resistant starch RESISTS digestion in the body.  It is bulky so it takes up space in your digestive system.  Because you can’t digest or absorb it, the starch never enters your bloodstream, which means it bypasses the fate of most carbohydrates.  Most carbohydrates get stocked away as body fat when you eat more than you burn.

Benefits:

• Increase the body’s ability to burn fat
• Fills you up and reduces hunger
• Improves blood sugar control: “Because it skips routine digestion, we see lower blood sugar and insulin levels following a resistant starch-rich meal” — Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, CDE, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Blood sugar control = more energy, long-term heart protection (because chronic high levels of blood sugar and insulin cause arteries to become clogged and harden)
• boosts immune system: Boosts the growth of probiotics, the same kind of healthy bacteria found in yogurt that keeps bad bacteria in control
• Reduces cancer risk:  may protect lining of the colon, making it less vulnerable to the DNA damage that triggers disease.  It can create a pH drop inside the colon, boosting the absorption of calcium and blocking the absorption of cancer-causing substances

How can resistant starch help you shed those extra unwanted pounds?

1.  It increases your calorie burn: Unlike some types of fiber, resistant starch gets fermented when it reaches the large intestine.  This process creates beneficial fatty acids, including BUTYRATE, which blocks the body’s ability to burn carbohydrates.

“This can prevent the liver from using carbs as fuel and, instead, stored body fat and recently consumed far are burned.” — Janine Higgins, PhD, nutrition research director for University of Colorado’s Adult and Pediatric General Clinic Research Center

We all know that carbohydrates are the body’s preferred use of fuel, correct?  Butyrate prevents the carbs from getting into your system and then turns to fat as an alternative.

RESEARCH SHOWS:  Replacing 5.4% of total carbohydrate intake with resistant starch creates a 20-30% increase in fat burning after a meal

2.  It shuts down hunger hormones: Studies have shown that resistant starch prompts the body to pump out more satiety-inducing hormones.  A meal full of resistant starch triggers a hormonal response to turn off hunger, so you eat less.

**Research shows that you don’t benefit from other fiber like you do with resistant starch.

6 Best Fat-Burning Foods (Prevention.com)

• Beans
• Bananas (slightly green)
• Potatoes and yams
• Barley
• Brown Rice
• Corn

Visit Prevention Magazine for more information about resistant starch, and ideas on how to incorporate these foods into a meal/snack.  For more delicious recipes including deserts and holiday specials, visit here.
See other related articles for more on this up-and-coming trend.  The video below is a GREAT resource to help you get a better understanding  of how resistant starch really works and why it’s so beneficial.

• Los Angeles Times
• **VIDEO:  Lose Weight, Not Carbs
• SLIDESHOW:  Nature’s Fat-Burner
• Daily Herald
• Tulsa World

Apologies for the slump. I know you are all very happy to hear this

Check out the article in the latest US Weekly.  It reports that Stroup is 5′ 8″ and 100 pounds.  Now I am 5′ 1/2 ” and my recommended lowest weight is 100 pounds.  Something is wrong with this picture.  

Here is other evidence that Jessica definitely has a problem!  I’m sure you all remember Prom Night, a movie that came out merely months ago?  She starred in this film, but you can’t recognize her because she’s at least 30 pounds heavier, a much healthier looking Jessica, that’s for sure. 

What do you all think?  Do many of you buy into the skinniness of hollywood (I know I did for awhile) and think its good motivation to get in shape or do you think it provides an unrealistic goal for young girls and ends up doing more harm than merely serving as innocent entertainment?

Adderall is an amphetamine used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and one of the side effects is appetite suppression. Many pateients benefit tremendously from this drug and would not be able to concentrate without it; however, some people are abusing  ADD.

Allure magazine published an article exposing the truth behind Adderall addiction.  The drug allows people to concentrate, feel creative and avoid eating.

From, Allure.com

“Tamara*, a junior editor at a magazine in L.A., knows how the game is played. She will take Adderall because it makes her feel “intensely creative,” she says. “I can sit down at my computer and just write, write, write when I’m on it.” But in her college days, she relied on it for weight management too. “Everyone told me I looked sickly, but sitting down and not having stomach rolls never gets old,” she explains. She is already svelt, but if she gained a few pounds, “I’d definitely use Adderall right before a bikini vacation.” Not having a prescription is a nonissue. “I have friends who have the script and dole it out like candy. It’s insane,” she says. “Some sell them for $5 to $10 a pill. But mostly I get them for free.”

Most people use adderall for the right reasons, but some people take it for the “high.” Because the drug is a stimulant it can cause a feeling of euphoria. But this drug should only be taken for recommended reasons and given by your physican with a presripstion.

Please think about eating healthy and exercising before you resort to drugs for weight management. It’s only a quick fix.

This is a great artcile and you all should read it.

Also, here is a video clip about the students use ADD to study, which is whole other issue, but interesting still.

Giving YOU the skinny on health and fitness, one post at a time.

Well, Americans can diet, exercise and try to avoid fast foods, but the government has not stepped in. However, in France, officals are considering an increased sales tax on extra sugary, salty or fatty food products.

The AP reported that details of the food tax still need to be determined. It is unclear wheteher fat-rich cheeses in the marketplace will be taxed, or only processed foods.

Whatever the case, can you imagine if foods that were high in salt, sugar or fat were taxed here. We would all go broke or starve.

Let me know what you think!

Giving YOU the skinny on health and fitness- one post at a time.