Jenn's Losing It

Well. I've decided to give the Standard Process 21 Day Cleanse another shot. My main goal in doing this again is not for weight loss (although I wouldn't be mad if I lost some weight) but to regain healthy eating habits. Even though I've been tracking with weight watchers over the last year or so the scale really hasn't moved. Basically it's because I've been cheating myself. Either not working out or fooling myself on serving sizes. I snack with my kids and don't track it or I eat 5 of something but only track one. Sweets. Oh yummy sweets. These are my downfall. This is where I go when I'm stressed. I'll bake a cake. Eat half. With the promise to myself that I'll do better the next day.  So. Day one was yesterday April 7th. I had 3 shakes with varied ingredients. For food I had 1 egg with 3 egg whites and about 3oz of corned beef. It smelled too good to pass up. I also kept my cup of coffee in the morning with fat free half & half. When I ca...

1. Motivation Mistake: Setting the Bar Too Low "I'll do my best" sounds like a worthy vow to make, but it can actually suck the motivation right out of you. "This type of vow is vague, making you more likely to procrastinate," says Gary Latham, Ph.D., a professor of organizational effectiveness at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The result? A mediocre or disappointing performance. Solution: To step up your game, set attainable goals that are clear and challenging and give yourself a deadline. "Specific goals help focus your attention and increase your effort, which helps you persist longer," says Latham. And since you have a plan of action and a time frame, you're less apt to put things off. Another important point: Concentrate on three to five big goals at a time. "Any more and your eyes glaze over and you burn out," says Latham. 2. Motivation Mistake: Testing Your Willpower We spend three to four hour...

Get a full cardio workout in just 20 minutes with this interval routine.  When you're short on time, your best bet for an efficient and  effective workout  is amping up the intensity of your slow-and-steady pace, which will burn more total calories each minute during your workout—and, some speculate, may also suppress your appetite. Whether you prefer to swim, run, bike, hike, or walk, this cardio intervals workout, created by Todd A. Astorino, Ph.D, an associal professor of kinesiology at California State University at San Marcos, will make sure you get the biggest  calorie burn out of 20 minutes. 0:00-5:00 Warm up, moving at a slow pace. 5:00-6:00 Go all out, pushing yourself as hard and fast as possible. 6:00-7:00 Active recovery: Catch your breath. 7:15-18:30 Repeat minutes 5:00 to 7:15 five times. 18:30-20:00 Cool down. PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 20, 2013  |  BY JESSICA CASSITY, PHOTOGRAPH BY TURE LILLEGRAVEN Women's Health Magazine

New research suggests that sleep is even more important than we thought~ Not getting enough sleep can make you groggy, but can it also make you fat? Researchers at the University of Chicago think it's a strong possibility. In a new study published in the  Annals of Internal Medicine , researchers determined that  four nights of sleep deprivation reduced insulin sensitivity in fat cells by a whopping 30 percent. And the less sensitive your cells are to insulin, the less your body produces the hunger-regulating hormone leptin. "This is one of the first studies to show that a cell outside of the brain—the fat cell—also needs sleep," says study author Matthew Brady, Ph.D., vice-chair of the Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition at the University of Chicago. Brady and a team of researchers put seven young, healthy subjects through two study conditions: First, they spent 8.5 hours in bed for four nights in a row (participants slept for roughly 8 hours each night, the ...

In scary news, a recent report from the CDC found that  women consume an average of 13.2 percent of their total daily calories from added sugars.  Just how bad is that really? Well, the American Heart Association recommends that women limit their sugar intake to no more than 100 calories per day, or less than six percent of your total calories. That’s just 25 grams of sugar. So yeah, you should probably cut back on all those sweets. This study specifically looked at added sugar, which includes any sugar used as an ingredient in processed foods (like white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, etc). Unfortunately, nutrition labels don’t distinguish between this and the naturally occurring stuff—like that in fruit or lactose (found in milk). That said, it’s safe to assume that a soda or muffin that doesn’t contain any fruit or lactose gets  all  of it’s sweetness from added sugar, says Shanthy Bowman, PhD, nutritionist at the USDA Food Services...