VP Health & Fitness

At this time of year, we can use every last tip to help avoid holiday weight gain.

So here are 5 more fat loss tips for beginner & advanced readers.

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By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

1) No liquid calories (with the exception of a post-workout drink).

Get rid of all the juices, the sodas, and the sports drinks. Liquid sugar is the last thing you need when you are trying to lose fat.

You must also limit your alcohol intake - especially if you are adding mix to drinks…that is a double calorie bomb! A single “Jackand Coke” is over 200 calories (100 calories from booze and 100 calories from mix).

2) No fast food.

Do not eat at fast food restaurants. Even if you choose what you think is healthy, remember this:

Fast food restaurants are all about profit.

And in order to profit while giving you cheap, quick, and easy to prepare foods, the quality of the food ingredients will be poor - especially the protein.

Now you might have read that you can still make healthy choices at fast food restaurants. But you know what, that’s just politically-correct opinion. If it’s fast food, it’s poor food.

Walking into a burger joint and grabbing a chicken breast on a white bread bun with a piece of old lettuce and a half-green, half-pink tomato is “barely” healthy eating.

The politically-incorrect truth is that it’s going to take time and effort to eat properly. You will have to plan, shop, and prepare healthy meals. You will have to spend time cleaning, cutting, and cooking your food. That’s the truth.

But believe me, it will taste so much better than fast food, and healthy eating will make you more alert. Eating fast food will make you feel terrible, and will make you want to have an afternoon nap at your desk.

Make one small improvement to your nutrition everyday for the rest of your life.

3) Eat more fruits and vegetables.

If you are eating 2 servings per day, then go up to 4 servings per day by the end of the week. And even if you think you are doing great by having 5 servings per day, you still need to double that (take 2-3 weeks to work your way up to 10 servings per day).

Stick with fiber-rich fruits and vegetables - organic if possible.

4) Eat 1oz of almonds or walnuts per day (1/2 oz in the AM, and the other half in the afternoon).

Most nuts are roasted in oils (possible source of trans fats), so stick to natural or dry-roasted nuts.

Don’t panic…this small amount of nuts won’t make you fat, but will fill you up and help you lose weight.

5) Be consistent with your workouts.

And make sure the workouts are efficient and effective. To make it easy for you to follow, stick with the Turbulence Training fat burning workout system.

It doesn’t matter if you train in the morning before or after breakfast, or at night before or after dinner, or at 1pm on days when the moon is in line with Saturn…don’t worry about the details, just train consistently.

Click here to get Turbulence Training
==> www.TurbulenceTraining.com  

6) BONUS TIP: Go for a walk after lunch or dinner (or anytime you eat a big meal). Research shows this will help you control your cholesterol and triglycerides, plus any movement is better than sitting around watching the TV and snacking.

Improve your lifestyle everyday,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

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via Diet Blog

Ahhh… finally.

I wrote about this a couple of months ago:

http://vphealthandfitness.com/day-37

http://vphealthandfitness.com/quiznos-update

Well… fast food outlet Quiznos has finally listed their nutrition information.

So, I went back to Quizno’s site and had a very difficult time in finding it.  Food Fact Info has detailed instructions to find the data & has also gone through great lengths by posting the nutritional information on one chart.

Back to what I ate on May 01, 2007 - The raspberry chipotle chicken salad:

Raspberry Chipotle Chicken
Chicken breast, bacon, cheddar, tomatoes, red onion, Raspberry Chipotle Dressing

The salad alone is not bad coming in at 290 calories.  It has 14 g of fat, 850 mg of sodium, 9 g of carbs, 4 g of fiber, & 33 g of protein.  Take out some of the bacon & cheese (it will eliminate most fat & sodium) and it makes for a pretty decent last minute emergency meal.

According to my journal that day:

Good thing that I only barely tasted the dressing, took out most of the bacon & only ate 1/2 of the flat bread!

The fatbread alone is 330 calories including 12 g of fat, 610 mg of sodium, 47 g of carbs, 2 g of fiber & 9 g of protein.

The dressing alone is 210 calories including 6 g of fat, 510 mg of sodium, 40 g of carbs & 0g of protein.

If eaten all together this would of come out to: 830 calories, 32 g of fat, 1970 mg of sodium, 96 g of carbs (9 g of fiber) & 42 g of protein.

Yikes! 

But then again, this is the situation with salads in almost all restaurants & fast food joints.  I’m just glad that Quiznos is finally keeping the consumer informed.

Moral of this experience: You can make healthy choices no matter where you go, including Quiznos if you order a smaller portion and be selective about what goes on it.

Happy eating!

~ Vilma

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Hubby & I have been thinking about buying a new computer for while and we have been keeping our eyeballs open for a really good deal. Well… BFAds.net has just found a beauty of a deal! Although i’m still not sure if we are going to take advantage of this deal, here are the details for those that have the $$$ and want to:

It’s a Dell Inspiron 531 Desktop Computer w/ a 24″ Dell Widescreen LCD
Monitor for only $659 w/ a Free $100 Gift Card and Free Shipping!

According to BFAds, there are cheaper computers available on Black Friday however, they are all significantly inferior to this configured Dell Inspiron 531 and none of them have a 24″ Widescreen LCD Monitor included. This will be the cheapest you will be able to get a computer and a 24″ monitor for awhile. The 24″ Dell LCD monitor retails, by itself, for nearly $470, which is like getting the entire computer for only $190. And on top of that, you get free Ground Shipping and a $100 Gift Card! Heck, my current PC cost me about $400 alone without the monitor about 5 years ago, so this is a STEAL!!!!!!!

To get this deal, just follow these simple steps:

- Click here to Start Configuring your Dell Dimension 531 Desktop Computer: http://bfads.net/Link/267

- On the Select My Processor page, choose the option: AMD Athlon=99 64X2 Dual-Core 5000+ [add $70]

- On the Select My Monitor page, choose the option: 24 inch E248WFP Entry Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor [add $290]

- On the Select My Video Card page, choose the option: 128MB NVIDIAGeForce 8300GS [add $50]

- Continue configuring your Dell Inspiron 531 as you please. When you are finished, click on Buy Now and then Add to Shopping Cart

- On the My Cart page, where it says, “Enter coupon number,” enter the coupon code: 4J1M7748R2RRV6 and then hit Apply Coupon

Your cart total should be $659.00 (if you didn’t add any extras) and the following discounts should appear in your cart, “Save $350 on all Inspiron Desktop purchases over $999″ and “Get a $100 Gift Card on systems $999 - $1248 (cards to
arrive in 6-8 weeks)”

* Remember: This coupon expires after 4000 uses, so it will go by fast.

To see the post about this deal, click here:
http://bfads.net/Dell-Dimension-531-w-24-Widescreen-LCD-for-659-w-100-GC

Here is a thourough Cnet.com review from the experts!

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-inspiron-531/4505-3118_7-32486097.html

Happy shopping!!!!

~ Vilma

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“Understand that when keeping your commitment (to yourself) becomes hard, you have two choices: You can change your behavior to match your commitment, or you can lower you values to match your behavior. One choice will strengthen your (self) integrity; the other will deminish it and erode your confidence in your ability to make and keep commitments in the future.”

—Stephen Covey The Speed of Trust

This quote was discussed over at the PNP Forums & blog and it hit really close to home. I have become complacent with my life and where I am, and I find myself lowering my values & standards to adapt to my current behaviors.  This in turn has spilled over into many areas of my life  including my spiritual, educational & fitness areas as well as others. 

I’m tired of being complacent & lowering my values.  I am much better than what I have become.

Today, I am making a commitment to change.  Cold turkey — probably not, it’s not me, but I will be taking baby steps.

I am making a commitment to get healthier & fitter. 

I am making a commitment to grow stronger in my relationship with God. 

I am making a commitment to stick it out & finish school. 

No matter what it takes!  I will do this.

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Where are you,  motivation & determination?  I’ve been looking for you for a while now. 

I must apologize because I haven’t updated on my progress for while. I’ve been under the weather for a good 2 weeks and this cold and these allergies have really put me out of commission.  I’ve also been thinking a lot on my life and my time these days and I’ve come to the conclusion that I have become complacent where I am.   THAT is not good because I still have many more things I would like to accomplish.  I would like to eventually finish school within the next 2 years, I would like to stablize my weight before even trying to get pregnant and I would like to check off a couple of things on my 101 in 1001 project list.

Where do I begin?  It seems like my brain has turned into mush and I cannot concentrate on school.  My stomach has turned into the bottomless pit & I am eating everything in sight and I don’t have the energy or motivation to get my butt back into the gym.

 My birthday is coming up in a little bit more than 1 month, and I would like to have accomplished a couple of things before then.

1.  Lose 5 lbs
2. Get my abdomen/waist measurement at or below 35 inches
3. Start exercising again

That should be a good list for now.  I love lists, but I tend to overcomplicate things a bit & get overwhelmed.  I will be updating/revising my End of 2007 Challenge Goals to reflect these 5 things I want to accomplish as well.

Gosh, I feel so much better getting this out in the open.  I hope to make it a great 2nd part of the week!

Till next time,

~ Vilma

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