I ran across this web article today on Yahoo! . It immediately caught my attention since I have long been preaching the good word about avoiding soda or soft drinks. In my recent blog 10 Common Mistakes That Parents Make, I wrote that giving children soda is one of the worst things a parents can do (when it comes to nutrition). So, needless to say, I was interested in reading about a few more reasons to avoid these sugary, nutrition-less beverages.
In this article, Dr. Mao (also author of the book Second Spring - Dr. Mao’s Hundreds of Natural Secrets for Women to Revitalize and Regenerate at Any Age) breaks down a few of the reasons why soda is not a good idea. At the top of the list is — you guessed it — SUGAR. One drink can easily have more than the total daily allotment based on the USDA recommendations (10 teaspoons). Consuming this much sugar at one time raises insulin levels and can have a negative impact on immune levels (leaving you more susceptible to disease). Let us also not forget that any sugar that is not used in the body will turn to fat. And, as this article rightly points out, excess fat leads to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer.
“But I drink diet soda”, you say? Still no good. Dr. Mao contends that fake sugar is not much better for you (and many nutrition experts also agree). Not only are you just replacing sugar with chemicals, but your mind still thinks you are consuming sugar. The problem with that is the more sugar you consume, the more you want to consume, which can lead you to bad food choices - this is the case whether it is real or fake sugar.
So, let’s just face it — soda is not a good idea. Not for adults and not for kids. The next time you find yourself wanting to reach for your current soft drink of choice, choose water or herbal tea instead!
 Fit & Inspired: I know that you were a High School and College athlete – how have you managed to keep yourself in shape after you were done competing?
April: I still enjoy athletics so much. It’s hard to stop working out cold turkey when it’s what you have done while growing up. I continue alternating my cardio workouts and weight lifting workouts. I try to get one or two 30-minute runs in each week and work out each muscle group on weights on the alternating days. It isn’t easy staying consistent without a coach on your back, but I manage to get the workouts in as much as possible.
Fit & Inspired: Do you follow any particular diet plan? What types of food do you eat and what types of food do you avoid?
April: My diet is balanced for the most part. I definitely treat myself to guilty pleasures, but I always limit my intake and balance it by eating plenty of cooked veggies, grilled or baked chicken, fish, salads and fresh fruit. I always know when I’ve indulged too much because I feel lousy on the inside. That feeling is miserable and as soon as I feel it, I straighten up right then and there and flush my system with fresh, natural foods that process well in my system. I always feel refreshed and light when I eat the right things.
The guilty pleasures not to over-indulge in are white (bleached, unnatural) sugars and flour, combining meats, carbs and starches (it is better to eat each one with a veggie…ie., meat and veggies or startches and veggies). I have also learned that ANYTHING with High Fructose Corn Syrup is a big NO NO.
Fit & Inspired: What types of exercises do you do? How often do you work out each week?
April: Here’s my workout:
Legs: leg curls, leg extensions, leg press, calf raises – 1 day/week
Arms/Shoulders: biceps curls, tricep dips, shoulder press – 1 day/week
Back: pull ups, one arm dumbbell rows, seated cable row – 1 day/week
Cardio: 30 minute runs, normally outdoors – 2 days/week
Stretch: 15 minutes – after each workout
Fit & Inspired: I know that you are busy working on building your entertainment career – how do you make time to fit exercising into your schedule?
April: I force it! As with any career, workouts are usually the last thing you want to do after juggling the day’s responsibilities — and some days I do give in and say, “I’m just too drained to go”. Guilt is often times my motivator. If I’ve skipped too many workouts, my conscious starts in on me saying ” You know, it only takes 1 hour” or “Isn’t that why you joined a 24-Hour Fitness club so that you can’t give yourself these excuses” or “You are so lazy, GO FOR A QUICK 30-MIN RUN AND GET OFF YOUR BUTT!”. After all that has set on my brain, I just go on and get it over with to shut up the inner voice in me that makes me feel lousy for not going. The crazy thing is, after all of that, I always feel sooooo good that I overcame my procrastination. The exhilaration of completing a workout sometimes feel as good as sex  .
Fit & Inspired: What advice would you give other women who are trying to maintain a fit lifestyle?
April: MAKE TIME FOR YOU NO MATTER WHAT!!! I truly believe that when you look good, you feel good and by that, I would like to emphasize that the feel-good feeling I’m talking about is so much more rewarding when you’ve worked hard for it every week. When you’ve overcome those temptations to just go home or stop and pick up a crispy chicken sandwich on the way home insted of making a b-line to the gym…the victory on the inside is so satisfying. When you’re working out and feeling good about yourself and looking good in your clothes as a result, you can’t help but to have that extra swag in your step. It’s not just a physical thing, its also spiritual and mental. Trust me girls, it works!
 I had my own “a-ha” moment while reading an article in the October 2009 issue of Experience Life Magazine – Think Healthy by psychologist Marc David, MA. I am very familiar with the concept of positive thinking and how it can literally change your life; however, I had never really linked that concept to what motivates us to eat or not eat certain foods.
David suggests that there is a connection between what motivates us to eat and our metabolism. I found the following section of the article to be the most powerful:
“The most powerful chemicals that we experience are the ones we self-produce inside of our bodies. Whenever we think a thought, positive or negative, we phone in a prescription to our inner pharmacy, and that pharmacy is always open, always powerful.”
He goes on to say that the key to maintaining vitality is “inspired eating”, which is eating certain foods because it feels good or “is in line with your values”. Too often, we worry about not eating certain things because we fear becoming fat or not losing the 2lbs we promised ourselves we were going to lose this week. All of this worry causes stress in the body and actually works against us by slowing down our metabolism.
I must admit that I have fallen into this pattern a time or two. There have definitely been times when I have treated myself to a piece of cake or a cookie and didn’t fully enjoy it because I immediately began to worry about when I would be able to burn off the extra calories. So, after reading this article (and I suggest you also read it in its entirety), I came up with a few ways to make sure your practicing inspired eating:
- Double check your motivation – is your goal to lose weight no matter the cost to your health or to live more healthfully?
- Keep the right focus – focus on all of the foods that taste great and are good for you (if you think about it, the amount of foods that are good for you out-number those that aren’t)
- If you decide to allow yourself a small treat, allow yourself to enjoy it – you will find that if you truly enjoy your eating, you’ll need less of it to feel satisfied
- Get in tune with with your body, particularly the way it feels or responds to healthy eating and exercise, and let that be your motivation what you do or do not choose to eat
Ingredients:
6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 cups of cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 of a medium red onion chopped
1/2 cup diced olives
2 tbsp Feta cheese crumbles
Sallt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. (It doesn’t get any easier than that!)
Michael Jordan was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame yesterday and I found the speech he gave to be pretty entertaining but also very interesting. He started off very emotional, having to wipe away tears. But soon after, he went full force down a list of people and events who inspired him to be great. People who told him he couldn’t do something or hadn’t earned the right to do something — these things lit a fire in him that made him work even harder to become the greatest basketball player to ever play the game.
Whether it was the coach who cut him from the varsity team in high school, or Isiah Thomas who was rumored to have tried to freeze him out of his first all-star game or the media who said he would never be as good as Larry Bird or Magic Johnson…All of these things were “wood in the fire” to motivate him to work so hard to prove that he was the best and that he belonged in the same company as the best.
This, I think, is an interesting lesson in motivation and using what might seem like disadvantages and/or limitations not to beat you down, but to push you on to achieve greatness. This world will never be short on nay-sayers or people who will tell you what you can’t do, what is not possible, where you don’t belong. Don’t listen to them. Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t do, and that includes yourself because sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
What is your motivation?
I was in the mood for something light for dinner tonight so I picked out this soup recipe from my Clean Eating magazine to try.
Spicy Carrot & Ginger Soup by Chef Carla Hall(from Bravo’s Top Chef New York)
Ingredients:
2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup all - natural unsweetened carrot juice
1 cup light coconut water
3 bags lemon ginger tea
1 2-inch piece of ginger cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 dried chiles, halved
1 tbsp olive oil
5 medium carrots
1 leek, white and green parts
1 medium onion roughly chopped
2 stalks celery
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup silken tofu
3/4 cup unsweetened shaved coconut (for topping)
Directions:
1) In a small pot combine broth, juice and coconut water and bring to a boil. Add tea bags ginger and chiles. Reduce heat and allow mixture to simmer for at least 20 minutes. 2) Meanwhile, heat a medium-size pot to medium heat. Add oil, then carrots, leek, onion and celery. Season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook until onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. 3) Strain broth mixture into pot with vegetables. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and allow soup to simmer until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes. In 2 batches, puree soup in blender with half of tofu per bath, until soup is silky smooth. Return pureed soup to pot on medium eat, just to reheat. Adjust seasoning, if necessary. Garnish each bowl of soup with coconut just before serving.
Nutrients per 1 3/4 cup serving: Calories: 190, Total fat: 7g, Sat. Fat: 2g, Carbs 27g, Fiber: 7g, Sugars: 10g, Protein 5g, Sodium 320 mg, Cholesterol: 0g.
Here’s my take on this recipe:
First, I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand, so I had to leave out the carrot juice, chilles, leeks, celery and tofu. For protein, I threw in about 3 ozs of left over Salmon that I had broiled a couple of night ago (that gave me my protein). Since I didn’t include the carrot juice, I eliminated some of the extra sugar.
The soup turned out to be very tasty. The ginger provided some kick without a lot of real heat and the tea gave it a robust flavor. Although I did have to make a few adjustments, I think following the complete recipe would also produce a great tasting soup…my guess is the silken tofu would give it a much smoother texture.
This one’s a keeper!
 I’ve got quite a few pet-peeves related to some of the unhealthy habits parents have when it comes to their children’s diet and nutrition. While at a birthday party yesterday, when the drink choices were Sprite, Coke, Dr. Pepper or water (what’s wrong with lemonade sweetened with good old-fashion sugar?), I decided that I was going to publicize my list of Fit & Inspired “don’t do’s” when it comes to kids.
1. Donuts for breakfast (or any meal for that matter) – not a good idea
2. Soda, especially those with caffeine – I personally think that this is one of the worst things to give a child because they are loaded with sugar (and not just plain sugar but high-fructose corn syrup which I liken to poison) and not one single nutrient. I don’t consider diet soda any better, because they are loaded with chemicals (fake sugar).
3. Fast food – My kids are big fans of McDonalds like any other child, but I try hard to limit fast food to no more than once per week and I try to encourage apple slices instead of fries (full disclosure: I’m not always successful with this )
4. Not enough water – kids need just about as much water as we adults do
5. Fake juice – if it isn’t 100% fruit juice with no added sugar, I’d leave it on the shelf
6. Not enough vegetables – children shouldn’t have the option of not eating their vegetables and if they learn to appreciate them as a child, they won’t forget it when they are grown-ups
7. Not setting a good example – children learn a lot from us based on what they see us do; if they see their parents take their health and fitness seriously then they are more likely to do so when they are out on their own
8. Using the phrase “on a diet”‘ – children shouldn’t have to get caught up in the adult fixation with fad dieting and the unhealthy singular goal of being thin (no matter the cost in terms of health)
9. Candy – again, loaded with sugar and little to no nutrients…every so often is no big deal but every other day is definitely too much
10. Video games – hours and hours of time spent sitting down versus outside running around
Avoid these common mistakes and your kids will thank you (when they are adults and able to appreciate it)!
Let me start off by saying that the Eat-Clean Diet is, in my humble opinion, the best diet plan out there. 
It’s easy to follow (I’ve been doing it for about three weeks now), practical, effective and best of all, sustainable. No wonder The Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno, has become a National Bestseller.
Reno starts off the book by sharing a little bit of her own personal story. Several years ago, she found herself in a failing marriage, nearly 200 pounds and very unhappy. She turned it all around by investing in herself, joining a gym, taking up running and eating more nutritiously. The latter of which, is what the book is devoted to sharing - the concept of eating clean.
What can you expect to find in the book? The principles of the Eat-Clean diet plan can be found in the first Chapter. A few of these principles are:
- Eat 5 or 6 small meals per day
- Eat protein and complex carbs at each meal
- Don’t skip meals
- Avoid chemicals, preservatives, and artificial sugar
- Avoid overly-processed foods, especially white flour and sugar
Reno describes the importance of revving up your metabolism in Chapter 2, explaining how unused fuel is stored as fat in the body. She also introduces the benefits of weight training and points out that muscle not only gives the body shape, it also burns significantly more calories than fat (1lb of fat burns 2 calories per day while 1lb of protein burns 50!). Reno calls white sugar “poison” and describes how it negatively affects the body’s metabolism.
Chapter 4 is one of my favorite parts of the book. It focuses on how to start the day off right with the perfect breakfast – oatmeal. But not just plain old oatmeal…1 cup of cooked oatmeal with fruit, nuts, bee pollen, ground flax seeds and wheat germ, plus egg whites. I know, it sounds like a lot…I have incorporated into my morning routine (sans the wheat germ just because I haven’t bought any yet) and not only does it taste good, but it is also very filling.
As with any eating plan, there is a list of do’s and don’ts (although I will say that with the Eat-Clean plan, the list of do’s is long and easy to remember). On page 78, Reno provides a check list which will come in handy when you head to the grocery store to stock up on clean food.
Another very helpul section is Chapter 6, which is about packing a cooler each day. A key to success (especially if you work outside of the home) for this way of eating.
Chapters 7 through 12 cover several topics – eating clean for men and kids, tips for eating out, cheating, and other tools like shopping lists for families, vegans and those with Celiac disease.
Chapter 13 of The Eat-Clean Diet includes several recipes. It is full of real food options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Full disclosure: I’ve only tried one of the recipes (Stellar Legume Soup) but it was really good and the rest of the recipes seem really good on paper . The last chapter includes a helpful list of FAQs (along with answers).
This book is a worthwhile purchase for anyone who isn’t already eating clean and trying to re-engineer their diet and their body. The expanded edition is 265 pages but it is an easy read since almost every page includes pictures and charts.
Happy reading!
 Have you ever gotten really excited about a new diet or fitness plan that you were about to start? You buy the book and head to the grocery store to get all of the foods the new plan calls for…and, come Monday morning, you are off to a great start. But then, a week or two later, you find yourself back to your old habits? My friend Lisa calls this the “false start” and it is something that stops a lot of us from reaching our fitness and weight goals.
Why do we false start? The reasons for false starts vary. For some, it is attempting to follow an extreme or unsustainable diet plan. I think the Atkins Diet falls into this category because while it is very effective in achieving weight loss, many people cannot sustain this way of eating long term. For others, false starts happen because the goal they’ve set for themselves is superficial. Having a goal to simply ‘lose weight’ is an example of this. This goes hand in hand with extreme diets because if the goal is simply to lose weight, not necessarily to become more healthy, you can easily find yourself following some crazy diet plan. And yet anoother reason people false start is because they really haven’t made maintaining a healthy lifestyle a true priority. It’s is something that they want and desire, but it isn’t necessarily important enough to require any sort of true commitment (which is what is needed some times to avoid consuming that chocolate cake).
Here are some of my tips to preventing another false start:
- Make healthy living a true priority. Remove the junk/highly processed food from your pantry. Make yourself reminders – post notes on your refrigerator, bathroom mirror and computer monitor. Tell your family and friends who will keep you honest.
- Select a maintainable diet and fitness plan. I like the Eat Clean Diet, but there are several good ones out there.
- Be prepared. Make sure you have healthy food choices with you at all times and plan your meals each day. I also like to make sure that I have my workout bag in the car in case I unexpectedly find time to fit in a workout during the day.
- Avoid the “cheat day” until your new plan has become a habit. A lot of plans suggest a day or meal where you eat whatever you want. The problem with this is that if you are not careful, your cheat day will become the beginning of your next false start. This is because once you introduce the additional sugar into your body, it will only crave more…and if you haven’t built up your defenses to this feeling, you will be susceptible to giving in to it. Before you know it, your one cheat day will turn into two or three days of bad eating and you’ll be kissing your new plan goodbye.
- Don’t give up – if you have a bad day, or even a bad week, don’t give up…just work a little bit harder the next day or the next week. Remain positive.
Here’s to making your last false start your LAST false start!
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Are you ready for some football? Whether it’s college or the NFL that keeps you (or your spouse) glued to the TV most Saturday and Sunday afternoons, there is often a whole lot of eating going on as well. I mean, who makes it through a game without popping something salty and crunchy in their mouth? Well, in case you are struggling with finding some tasty but healthy snacks/meals to have for the next game, here are some of my favorites:
. I prefer to have lettuce instead of crackers.
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