I’m trying an experiment. I bought a pedometer after hearing that this is one way to gauge whether you are active or inactive. One opinion is that if you take less than 5000 steps per day you are inactive. Another opinion is 3000 steps. However I think we need to just look at where we are personally and make improvements to become more active.  Most things that I have read agree that 10,000 steps a day is a great goal to work towards for weight loss.

So I bought the pedometer and started to see where I was at. Of course my first day was Sunday and I don’t really do a lot of moving on Sunday, unless I have my family over for dinner and I am running back and forth to the kitchen. So because I don’t really feel that I will change that particular habit at this time I have decided instead to reduce my calories on that day since my body is not burning that many calories. How I forgot to tell you the amount of steps I took was around 3000. 

Now the next day I went about my regular routine with the idea of seeing how many extra steps I could add into my day. I determined that I would even resort to  silly things such as jogging in place for 100 steps several times throughout my day. This seemed kind of ridiculous, however it was invigorating as well. Then I got on the treadmill to see how many steps I took in a 5 minute period. I was surprised that I actually take just over 500 steps in 5 minutes. So with that information I concluded that I could add a few 1000 steps just by jumping on the treadmill for 5 minutes when I had some extra time. By the end of the day I had logged in just over 8000 steps, very close to the goal of 10,000. 

If you are stuggling to find time to get in some exercise because of schedules and such, this might be something you can use to become more active and burn some extra calories. We continue to hear that we should get in 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least 5 times per week. This often sounds out of our ability to achieve. Here is another way to become more active on a daily basis. We are always looking for ways to cut down on our work and the time everything takes to do. Perhaps its time to start looking for ways to increase the amount of time and effort our daily tasks take.

Take more opportunities to go to the water fountain at work. Take the stairs (down only if you can’t do the climbing). Park a little further from where you need to go.  Think of some simple things like jogging in place while you are cooking dinner. Walk around while you are waiting for someone. Take 5 minutes walks whenever you can fit them in.

Send me your ideas and let me know if you try this, if it was successful or not. I will keep you posted about my continuing progress with this. I look forward to hearing from you!

Injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) have been claimed to aid
in weight reduction by reducing hunger, and affecting mood as well as aiding
in localized (spot) reduction. We have tested these claims in a double-blind
randomized trial using injections of HCG or placebo. Weight loss was identical
between the two groups, and there was no evidence for differential effects on
hunger, mood or localized body measurements. Placebo injections, therefore,
appear to be as effective as HCG in the treatment of obesity.
This was a study done clear back in December 1977. If there was already evidence that this did not have any effect, why are so many people anxious to go on the HCG diet?
So why do people lose weight on this diet? Because any diet that consist only on 500 calories will produce weight loss. Example: If your body need 2000 calories per day and you are only giving it 500, that is an extreme deficeit. Beware of extreme calorie deficeit diets. They may have long lasting negative effects on your health and your body.

So do you find yourself eating or craving foods at different times and under different situations. Here are some of the things that might bring on our desire for food that is not associated with hunger.
Depression, boredom, loneliness, anger, anxiety, frustration, stress, relationship issues, poor self-esteem. If you can identify what emotions bring on this random eating you can then look to find other ways of dealing with the emotions to bring that comfort.
Perhaps go for a walk, take a hot bath to relax, go shopping (although this could create another problem), call a friend, read a book, watch a favorite movie ( unless you usually eat while watching TV).
Let me know if you have found your emotional eating triggers and what you have done to change the behavior to something more healthy!

So the other day I was watching a young child about 9-12 months old.  He was a bit fussy and didn’t want to sit still with the mother. The mother took out a bottle of milk and laid the child down and gave him the bottle. The child drank the bottle for a few seconds and then got back up and wanted to move around again. The question I thought of was: is it the childs normal eating time or was the bottle to try and comfort the child so he would be content to stay put with the mother? You often see mothers feeding snacks to their small children in lots of different situations, usually when we need them to sit still.Perhaps by trying to help our children to be calm and patient when we need them to, we are started a cycle of relying on food for comfort. Just imagine how many years that could have been going on and being increased over a childs lifetime. If this is the case we have spend years learning this as a behavior. Now we must unlearn or change the behavior if it is contributing to overeating and/or unhealthy eating habits. What do you think?