Get Skinny Faster with This Switch

When it comes to the battle of the bulge, you have a better shot of winning if you make this simple switch: Drink water instead of soda and plain tea instead of sweet coffees.

The results can be dramatic. In fact, research shows that cutting beverage calories resulted in more weight loss than cutting food calories. Suddenly, water sounds grand!

Stop Downing the Soda

People in a study who cut back on sugar-laden beverages like soda, fruit punch, and other sweetened drinks shed more pounds than the folks who kept sipping the sweet stuff during their dieting efforts. Researchers suspect that cutting back on beverage calories does even more good than cutting back on food calories because solid food does a better job of satisfying hunger than liquids do.

Plus, it’s possible that the fructose in sugary drinks may boost fat storage and lead to hormone changes that increase overall food intake. Also, an increase of H2O intake by only 4 cups is all you need to drink to melt away an extra 2 1/2 pounds.

Reasons to Sip Less

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can eat what you want as long as you ditch the soda and fruit punch. The best weight loss diets are heart-healthy ones that cut overall calories in a way you can sustain long term. Try these other weight loss tips to top off your efforts:
■Set goals. Whether you want to drop 10 pounds or 50, setting and tracking your weight loss goals can keep you motivated. Use these goal-tracking tools to get you started.
■Forget the smorgasbord. Learn why reducing variety in your diet can squash cravings better than willpower can.
■Walk this way. To boost weight loss, all you gotta do is walk. Use this tracking tool to keep tabs on every pound-shedding step you take.

RealAge Benefit: Learning to read labels and avoiding foods with saturated and trans fats, simple sugars, or processed grains as one of the first five ingredients can make your RealAge 3.6 years younger.


References Published on 06/29/2009.
Reduction in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with weight loss: the PREMIER trial. Chen, L. et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2009 May;89(5):1299-1306.

EDITOR'S PICK

Summertime means coolers filled with portable drinks, and here’s our favorite: Aqua2Go. This pure box o’ water is great for juice-box loving kids, it stores and stacks easily, and it freezes to do double duty in the cooler. The packaging reduces waste and is aseptic for emergency-kit use.

Courtesy: RealAge Newsletter

EXCESS WEIGHT AND INSULIN PRODUCTION

Hello Jacques,

If you are overweight, the chances are that you are producing
more insulin than the average person. The reason this is important
to know is that insulin determines how quickly and how much food
you store as fat.

Your body can't burn fat while you are producing insulin. All it can
do is store fat.

Another thing.

Insulin fluctuations are directly tied to hunger and
cravings. So if you ever went on a diet only to cheat, you can
thank insulin. You can eat a ton of food and still be hungry all the
time thanks to insulin.

Although my ebook doesn't directly explain insulin, a lot of what
I mention does tie into insulin and how to manage it to lose weight
and keep it off.

There is no better day than today to start losing weight and
becoming more healthy.

Jen
jenjolandiet@yahoo.com

SLIM as you SLEEP

You know the drill: Eat right and exercise to drop weight. It can be a tiring endeavor to find the time to prepare healthy meals and carve out a few minutes to work out. Plus, you've still got work, family and a life to live.

When we get busy, we tend to shave time off our sleep schedule to fit everything in. This may not only be unhealthy, but could also be counterproductive to your weight-loss efforts. Recent research has found a strong relationship between sleep and weight loss.

"The more you sleep, the better your body can regulate the chemicals that control hunger and appetite," according to Michael Breus, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, board certified sleep specialist and author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health.

"Sleep deprivation makes you feel hungry, even if you are full," says Dr. Breus. "Sleep loss has been shown to affect the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake."

The Journal of the American Medical Association has published several studies suggesting that a lack of sleep may increase hunger and affect the body's metabolism, which may make it more difficult to maintain or lose weight.

Research from a study conducted at Columbia University found that, "The more sleep deprived you are, the more likely you are to become obese." Participants between the ages of 32 and 59, who slept four hours or fewer each night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who got between 7-8 hours.

"Sleep loss may interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar," says Dr. Breus. "Excess blood sugar promotes the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance, a critical step into the development of diabetes."

Dr. Breus adds that when someone is sleep deprived, they tend to make poor food choices. People are apt to choose high-sugar, high-caffeine and high-carbohydrate snacks to get a burst of energy, all of which contribute to weight gain.

He breaks it down like this: "Sleep deprivation causes an increase in appetite and a decrease in metabolism, which equals an increase in fat storage and weight gain."

Try getting an extra hour of sleep per night to see how it affects your energy, mood and weight-loss efforts. Dr. Breus says that individual sleep needs vary, but suggests most adults need 6-8 hours per night.

An extra hour of sleep may burn as many as 147 additional calories per night, according to Dr. Breus. The more sleep you get, the more your metabolism speeds up, which could lead to losing as much as 14 pounds a year -- simply from getting a little extra sleep every night.

Now there's a good reason to turn off the TV and hit the sack a little early tonight. If you're having trouble sleeping, check out these 7 tips for better sleep.
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Dear Friends and Readers,

So much for that--and "that" IS Really to be taken very seriously!

This is mainly to let you know that I am alive and well---that I have Not "forgotten" or tuned my back to you!"---that, to stay in frequent touch with you has continued to be one of my top priorities, which is why I feel compelled to bring you up to date as to "why the long silence?".

The fact is: this computer has been playing tricks that even three techie friends of mine (one runs a computer business) could not figure out. So they started forcing me to "get rid of a lot of files, etc." (delete) which they found superfluous. The business owner must have gone wild as, when he returned my "cleaned up" tower, TONS of items of importance (to ME) were gone or inaccessible to this "computer moron" :0(
Not the least of which was my ability to POST to my Blogs!

FINALLY today, a long time Friend stopped ny---MADE the time---patiently and effectively FIXED THE POBLEM! :o)

It Really Feels GREAT to be "Home AGAIN"!LOL---Be back to you SOON!

Jacques