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Common Diet Sabotages: Part Two

FitSugar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:30:00 PDT

Can't seem to figure out why you can't lose those last few pounds? It may not be the hours you're not spending at the gym or those random fast food runs that are sabotaging your diet, but rather the little things we may not even think about. Women's Health found common culprits for what may actually be keeping you from your goal weight. Here are more highlights:

You're too routine. Nothing is wrong with a schedule, but your body thrives on variety. Especially when it comes to working out and eating. If you eat the same thing and do the same workout every day, you're not doing as much to help your goal than if you were changing it up from time to time.

There's more so

Your recycling bin is always full. Fresh foods do not come in boxes and cans. While there are some healthy prepackaged foods, most are high sodium, high fat, and highly processed.
Your car is littered with wrappers. Spending a lot of time in our cars often leads to eating in our cars, which is not always healthy. Just like watching TV, people tend to overeat when they are multitasking. Save the eating for when you're able to concentrate on how much you're actually putting in your body.

For more information, don't forget to read the Common Diet Sabotages: Part One. Have anything that is sabotaging your diet? Share it below.

Source

Common Diet Sabotages: Part One

FitSugar — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:30:00 PDT

You're using the wrong serving utensils, and I'm not talking about etiquette here. If you find that you're always using big spoons and knives. Knives and spoons often go hand in hand with unhealthy items like mayo, peanut butter, ice cream. Forks, on the other hand, are better served to dig in to foods like salads, steamed fresh vegetables, and chewy lean meats.

There's more so

Your produce is always going bad. Sure you're buying lots of fresh fruits and veggies at the store, but are you actually eating them? A drawer full of rotten produce may mean that you're not eating as healthy as you could be.
You're hungover. You can eat salads until you're green in the face, but splurging on cocktails is not helping your cause. Any drink with alcohol in it is high in calories and not to mention not nutritious at all.
You're always tired. Just like eating healthy and working out, sleep should become a priority. It's not only been proven that folks who get enough sleep have faster metabolisms. When push comes to shove, sleep is more essential than hitting the gym. So in a pickle, choose your bed over pumping iron.

Stay tuned for more common diet sabotages, but in the meantime do you have anything that is sabotaging your diet? Share it below.

Source

Blake Lively Uses Cupcakes to Fatten Up Ryan Reynolds

Michele Foley — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:51:55 PDT

Based on her baked-goods antics, it looks like Blake Lively has a bit of a competitive streak in her. At a press conference for The Green Lantern, Blake joked that she attempted to thwart costar Ryan Reynolds's efforts to bulk up with his weakness - cupcakes. "It was just a way to sabotage Ryan. He was working out as much as he was, and I'm the girl. I'm supposed to look better." Ryan was happy to oblige, but based on the previews I'm seeing of the movie, it looks as if the cupcakes did very little in wrecking his form.

While Blake was definitely joking, this isn't always the case. Have you ever known anyone that was just a little too generous with gifting you baked goods?

How to Snack Right in the Morning

Leta Shy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:33:00 PDT

As we all know, there's a right way and a wrong way to snack. It matters less whether you do it and more about why you snack. If you're hungry, snacking can help you stick to your diet overall, but if you're snacking for other reasons - you're bored or emotional, for example - snacking can be synonymous with diet sabotage.

This is especially true when it comes to midmorning snacking. A recent study found that overweight people who snacked between breakfast and lunch ended up eating more and losing less weight than the participants who didn't snack in the morning, possibly because people who snacked between breakfast and lunch weren't actually doing so because they were hungry.

If you're an early riser or if you don't eat much for breakfast, a midmorning snack can be the difference between staying on track at lunch and gorging on anything in sight. Stop any stomach grumbling with the above midmorning snacks (and more!) after the break.

Link Time: There's No More Marmite in Kiwiland

Susannah Chen — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:45:21 PDT

Marmageddon! There's a shortage of Marmite in New Zealand - HuffPost Food
Predicting the 2012 James Beard Award winners - Nation's Restaurant News
Free foods that could be sabotaging your diet - The FN Dish
Nigella Lawson's husband: covet my wife - Grub Street NY
Researchers have discovered a gene mutation that causes one to eat - The Atlantic Food
Check out California's first alcohol-serving Starbucks - Eater LA
What's next for El Bulli's Ferran Adrià - The Daily Meal

From the Community: Dr. Oz’s Top 10 Healthy Eating Musts

Fit Community — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:51:55 PDT

FitSugar reader JessicaSmithTV posted these healthy eating tips from Dr. Oz in our 10 Pounds Down! community group.

In honor of National Nutrition month, we asked Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and host of the Dr. Oz Show, to share with us his top 10 musts when it comes to eating for better health, weight loss, and overall wellness. We were surprised to learn a few of these!

1) Eat this #1 cancer-fighting, cleansing produce item

What ranks at the head of the class when it comes to the produce department? "Broccoli is the best produce option, because it cleanses the liver and helps to fight cancer," says Dr. Oz.

2) Stay in shape by eating these

Think you’ll stay slim by just sticking to salads and fat-free foods? Think again! "Nuts are the number-one food for staying in shape," says Dr. Oz.

3) Don’t just cut calories to drop lbs.

"Losing weight isn’t all about cutting calories. The brain looks for nutrients, not calories," says Dr. Oz. Yet another reason to focus on whole, unprocessed foods to help speed up weight loss!

See the rest of the tips after the break

4 Ways to Prep a Healthy Dinner Quickly

Leta Shy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:10:51 PST

Just one bad decision - like quieting your rumbling stomach with greasy takeout - can undo a day of healthy eating. If you've been sabotaging your diet because of unhealthy dinner decisions, use these tips to cook a healthy meal without sacrificing time.

Double the amount: Week already looking full? Make extra servings the next time you cook so you can have healthy leftovers for the rest of the week. If you're worried about overeating, separate the leftovers into single-serving containers.

Prep your veggies: Spend time at the beginning of the week washing, cleaning, and cutting veggies, so you always have salad ingredients or something to snack on. Having veggies cut will also encourage you to use them more in your cooking since you know you have them at the ready.

Keep unhealthy food out of the kitchen: When I'm hungry, I reach for the first snack I can find, which usually isn't nutritious and often comes in a bag. If you're the same, stocking the fridge with healthy snacks can help, but not if you're tempted by all the junk food in your pantry. Keep unhealthy foods out of the house or divide your snacks into smaller portions to avoid ravenously going through an entire bag of chips before you even make dinner.

Eat a balanced lunch and snack: A lunch full of fiber and protein from fresh veggies, fruits, and lean meats will keep you full throughout the afternoon much more than a carb bomb or a too-restrictive meal. Following lunch with a healthy snack can lessen the temptation to order takeout once you get home since you'll be feeling full and satisfied. Check out our healthy snack ideas to get started.

Feeling Stuffed vs. Growling Stomach? How to Find the Right Balance

Leta Shy — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:25:07 PST

Like being overly stuffed, skipping meals can be the worst thing you can do for your waistline. Being too hungry signals your metabolism to slow down (and being overly hungry can make you want to eat anything and everything in sight). But here are a few things to remember when it comes to those stomach grumbles.

A little hunger can be good: Missing meals is a bad idea, but those slight hunger pangs are just a sign that it's time to refuel. It means that your metabolism is working, so don't think that a few stomach grumbles are bad. If you find that you're never really hungry while you eat, think about when and how you're eating instead of always sticking to a schedule. Read more tips on how to use a little hunger to your advantage here.

Double-check your motivation: Is it hunger, or are you just bored? Emotional eating can sabotage any healthy diet plans we have. Cravings that cause you to dig into that whole bag of chips can be a sign that you may be emotionally eating instead of actually being hungry. Read our tips for how to distinguish between mind hunger from actual hunger here.

Can Diet Soda Make You Fat?

Shape — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:34:20 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to nutritional consultant Mike Roussell, PhD, for some help!

Q: I'm a Diet Coke junkie. Despite having 0 calories, could this habit be sabotaging my weight-loss efforts?

A: In a word: no. While drinking diet soda every day isn't exactly good for your health, the chances of it sabotaging your weight-loss efforts are slim. The common misconception regarding the role of diet soda and weight gain comes from a couple of studies that received a lot of media attention. One such study looked at more 6,500 participants and found that diet soda drinkers were 67 percent more likely to have diabetes and 37 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome (a combo of symptoms that is basically where pre-diabetes meets heart disease). What's more, data from the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running heart disease study in the US, found a 56-percent increase in metabolic syndrome when people drank one or more diet sodas per day!

Find out how diet soda affects weight gain after the break!

Do You Give High-Calorie Treats For the Holidays?

Leta Shy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:54:15 PST

Spreading holiday cheer often means baking up a storm, and then sharing the fruits of your oven with friends and family. But sometimes giving someone a thoughtful plate of treats may mean you're tempting them with diet-busting treats too good to pass up.

I love to bake, so the holidays are a time when my oven gets a lot of use. And while it may be good for my willpower to give away the goods, I'm sure my well-meaning cookies and cupcakes have sabotaged a healthy resolution or two. Do you make sure you stick to nonedibles (or other healthy alternatives) when you gift treats, or do you give away only the best indulgences?