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Health x Body Wellbeing

Get Rid Of Belly Bloating For Good

Belly bloat. Most women have experienced it at one time or another, even if they don’t need to lose weight. I know I have. It is so frustrating to feel big around the middle or know that your pants are tight because you are bloated. If you are tired of belly bloat, try some of these suggestions to banish the bloat and maybe lose a few pounds at the same time.
Banishing belly bloating is a multi-faceted issue. There is no one magic remedy to feeling and looking bloated.
As an aside, there is a difference between feeling bloated and carrying excess weight around your middle. If you need to lose weight, you cannot simply follow these tips and wake up one morning with a perfectly flat tummy. That type of transformation takes all over weight loss and dedicated exercise. I know, that’s probably not what you wanted to hear.
In any case, you can banish belly bloating by focusing on four areas:

Foods You Eat

The foods you eat have a tremendous impact on bloating. Think about it. When you eat a restaurant meal or large quantities of processed foods don’t you often feel bloated afterward?
You might think it is because you ate too much, and that is definitely a contributing factor. However, these types of foods are also typically high in sodium. Many restaurant meals have over 2,000 mg of sodium. Even a healthier option like Panera’s low-fat vegetarian black bean soup has 1,120 mg of sodium. Sodium causes bloating because of water retention. To combat this, reduce how much you eat out, check the nutrition labels on processed foods you consume, and keep track of how much salt you add to home-cooked meals.
Other foods affecting bloating include those with wheat or gluten, extremely spicy foods, and foods that contribute to constipation, such as low fiber or sugar-filled foods. Choose foods your body can easily digest, such as high-fiber fruits and vegetables and foods with a high water content.

Medical Conditions

To further eliminate belly bloating, talk to your doctor about medical conditions or medications you take that can cause bloating. Your doctor may test you for lactose intolerance, gluten sensitivity, celiac disease, or other conditions. If you test positive for one of these and begin avoiding foods containing lactose or gluten, you will find your belly shrinks and your bloating is relieved.
Other medical conditions sometimes causing belly bloating include irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease, some tumors, and in rare cases, ovarian cancer.

Drinks You Consume

I used to love sodas of all kinds until I realized they were not good for my health. The sugar content in regular sodas and the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas were equally bad for me. You may be surprised that both regular and diet carbonated beverages contribute to belly bloating. The little bubbles that make the drinks fizzy put air in your belly when you drink the liquid. Excess air can lead to a bloated feeling. The fix for this one is easy: quit drinking carbonated beverages.
Good choices for relieving belly bloating include water with lemon juice, green tea, plain water, and green smoothies.

Degree Of Activity

Sitting around on the couch all day is not good for your digestion. When you eat, your body immediately begins breaking down the food into the nutrients it needs. When you sit down right after you eat, you are not giving your body any help in moving the food through your system. Relieve belly bloating by moving around after you eat, staying upright at least 60 minutes after you consume any food, and getting some form of dedicated exercise every day.

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Sweat

Want To Lose Weight? Putting Some Money On It Could Help

Just about anyone over the age of 10 can tell you the dangers of being overweight or obese: increased risk of developing arthritis, breathing problems (such as sleep apnea), cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, and more. Then then there are the quality of life issues: anxiety, depression, shame, guilt, sexual problems, discrimination (including lower salaries), and others.
Given all that, it’s no surprise that at any given moment, tens of millions of people are on some kind of diet. But diets by themselves don’t work. In fact, they may do more harm than good (more on that below). So if the prospect of a longer, healthier life doesn’t motivate people to lose weight—and keep it off—what does? Two words: Carrots and sticks (we’re talking metaphors here, not food groups).

The Carrot: Money and Stuff

“Portion sizes at U.S. restaurants are often two or three times what they were 20 years ago, which is also distorting how much we eat at home,” says Deborah MacInnis, a professor of marketing at the University of Southern California (USC). “The increase in portion size directly parallels the increase we observe in obesity.” Quite a few studies have shown that it’s possible to incentivize people to skip the super-size portions and eat smaller meals by offering them non-food incentives, such as money or products.
For example, MacInnis and her colleagues at USC and the University of Arizona ran several experiments. In one, the team offered sixth-graders a choice between a 9-inch sandwich and a 4.5-inch sandwich plus a pair of earbuds. Most went for the earbuds. In another, they got adults to cut their portions in half by dangling the possibility of winning a $100 Amazon gift card or 10,000 frequent-flyer miles.
In 2011, the British National Health Service started a program called “Pounds for Pounds,” where they flat out bribed people to lose weight. 400 participants enrolled in the program and chose a weight-loss plan based on their target weight. The financial pounds ranged from £70 to £425 (roughly $108 to $650). Nearly half of the participants (44.8 percent) lost more than 5 percent of their starting body weight, and 23.6 percent lost more than 10 percent. The average weight loss was 8.8 pounds and the average payout about 180 pounds ($277).

The Sticks: Pay Up, Buddy

The biggest objection people have to “we’ll-pay-you-to-lose-weight” programs like Pounds for Pounds is the fear that the weight will come rolling back as soon as the payments stop. That could be true. But most people (estimates range from 90 percent to 98 percent) who lose weight on a diet slap the pounds back on for reasons having nothing to do with money. In fact, many dieters end up actually gaining weight.
Here’s how it works: When dieters shed pounds, they’re losing a mix of both fat and muscle, according to Mark Hyman, MD, bestselling author and director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. But when they start putting those pounds back on, it’s nothing but fat. “And since muscle burns seven times as many calories as fat, their metabolism is slower than when they started the diet,” says Hyman. The result? They gain weight more quickly because they aren’t burning it off.
So while throwing money at the problem might get people to stick to their diets—at least in the short term—adding in penalties for not hitting their weight-loss targets might be the most successful approach.
The Mayo Clinic did a fascinating study that proved that exact point. The researchers followed 100 otherwise-healthy-but-obese employees for a full year. Everyone had a goal of losing four pounds per month, monthly weight-loss counseling, and a gym membership, but half also got a financial incentive.
The participants were all weighed every month. The ones in the financial group would receive $20 at each weigh-in if they met the 4-pounds/month target; if they fell short, they’d have to pay $20 into a pool. At the end of the year, everyone who completed the study would be entered into a lottery to win the pool. Here’s how it went:

  • 62 percent of those in the incentive group completed the study compared to only 26 percent of those in the non-incentive group
  • Those in the incentive group lost an average of 9 pounds over the year vs. only 2.6 pounds in the non-incentive group
  • Those who paid any penalties along the way were especially likely to complete the study

Wanna bet that I can lose more than you?

So far, we’ve been talking about individual incentives and penalties. But what would happen if we added in an element of competition? Researchers from the University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pennsylvania decided to find out.
They had two groups of clinically obese subjects (those with a BMI of 30 or more). Each one was given a specific weight-loss goal that was based on their BMI. Then they were assigned to one of two groups. In one, individuals would receive $100 for each month in which they met their weight-loss goals. The other group was divided into subgroups of five. Each person in the subgroup could receive $100 for hitting the monthly target.
But the five were also competing against each other to get up to $500 for the month. For example, if everyone in the group met the goal, each would get $100. But if only three did, they would split the $500 three ways. (None of the group-incentive people knew the identities of any of the others they were competing against. Can you imagine how much sabotaging there would have been otherwise?)
Participants in the individual incentive group lost an average of 3.7 pounds over six months. They put half of that weight back on over the next 12 weeks. The group incentive participants lost an average of 10.6 pounds and kept it off for longer.

Group Support vs. Incentivizing Yourself

One of the reasons so many people fail to lose weight on diets is that they’re trying to go it alone, without support. Having someone in there with you can make those goals a lot easier to reach and a lot more likely to stay reached over time.
If you can’t get anyone in your corner, there are a number of apps and online programs that will pay you for reaching goals you set (whether that’s for weight loss or gym workouts) and penalize you when you fall short. Some also incorporate friendly competition. But if necessary, you can do it yourself.
Rather than set a huge goal of losing 100 pounds, set small ones—maybe losing one pound every week. At the same time, reward yourself along the way with things other than chocolate cake, such as seeing a movie or going fishing.

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Nosh Nutrition x Advice

How Cinnamon Can Aid In Your Weight Loss Goals

When I heard that cinnamon could be good for weight loss I immediately pictured a gooey cinnamon roll with icing. Reality set in when I resigned myself to the fact that although cinnamon is good for weight loss, cinnamon rolls definitely are not. If you are looking for a way to spice up your diet and help yourself lose weight, stock up on cinnamon and use it liberally.
I know it seems inconceivable that a simple spice like cinnamon could be good for weight loss, but there is scientific research supporting the claim. A study published in a 2011 issue of the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism supports the theory. This study, like most studies on cinnamon and weight loss, focuses on the fact that cinnamon seems to play a role in stabilizing blood sugar and insulin levels. When your insulin and blood sugar levels are under control, your body is able to more easily burn fat instead of storing it.
It needs to be said that cinnamon isn’t a magic bullet for weight loss. However, you can add cinnamon to your diet in a way that will actually enhance your dieting efforts.
Fortunately, it’s easy: Add cinnamon to food.
Cinnamon is a unique spice in that it can be used in breakfast foods, main dishes, desserts, and snacks.
Breakfast ideas 
Sprinkle cinnamon on oatmeal, Greek yogurt, or scrambled eggs in the morning. The cinnamon will enhance the flavors of the food without overwhelming your senses.
Main dish ideas 
Include cinnamon in vegetarian chili, in fajitas filled with grilled chicken marinated in lime juice, on sweet potatoes, over brown rice, and in roasted pork dishes.
Dessert ideas
A traditional use of cinnamon, and one of my favorites, is to sprinkle cinnamon on apple or pear slices, warm them in a cast iron skillet with a bit of water, and serve as a dessert. It doesn’t get much better than that. You can also add cinnamon to vanilla-flavored low-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt.
Snack ideas
Roast pecans with a bit of coconut oil and cinnamon. The flavors pair well together and both pecans and coconut oil are good for weight loss. Other snack options that include cinnamon are homemade trail mix, popcorn sprinkled with cinnamon, homemade granola bars, and apple cinnamon fruit bars.

Spice up drinks with cinnamon

Sprinkling cinnamon directly on water is not very appetizing because the cinnamon just sits on top. Instead, I often add a bit of cinnamon to my coffee in the morning to give it a gourmet flavor and reap the health benefits. Other ideas to spice up your drinks with cinnamon are to add cinnamon to hot tea, sprinkle it in a fruit smoothie, mix it with almond or regular milk, or make a cinnamon vanilla yogurt shake.

Take a cinnamon supplement

There are several types of cinnamon, including Ceylon cinnamon and cassia cinnamon. While small amounts of cinnamon will not cause harm to most people, WebMD cautions that excessive amounts of cassia cinnamon can be toxic. If you purchase a cinnamon supplement make certain it is Ceylon cinnamon and do not exceed the recommended dosage.
It is important to understand that while it would be nice, cinnamon is not a magic spice for weight loss. It may marginally help your weight loss efforts, but adding cinnamon to your diet will not automatically cause pounds and inches to melt off.

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Sweat

Should You Really Be Wearing Those Stilettos?

I’m a high-heel addict. Cute styles, mile-long legs. They make you look thinner, cause you to stand a little straighter… what’s not to love? Well, perhaps muscle damage in the foot.

According to a study published this summer in The International Journal of Clinical Practice, researchers conducted a pretty interesting experiment. How do you test the impact of heels on the foot over time? You try to level the playing field, looking at women who must wear them everyday for work in the same context.

Scientists selected students studying to be flight attendants at Hanseo University in South Korea to participate in their research; these women are required to wear heels everyday, in preparation for their eventual careers. With that in mind, they grabbed 10 ladies from each class — freshman, sophomore, junior, senior — measuring ankle strength and balancing abilities on a wobbly board.

Here’s what they found. While sophomores and juniors showed greater ankle strength in some of the muscles when compared to the heel-newbie freshman class, notably on the sides of the joint, seniors started to show a decline in those same muscles after four long years of a stiletto regimen. In addition, the older gals also had weaker muscles along the front and back of the ankle. Ah!

What’s going on? Basically, when you wear heels for a long time, there’s an unnatural, unbalanced amount of strength building sides of the ankles when compared to the front and back. This unevenness leads to unsteady walkin’, as well as increased risk of foot and leg injuries.

And it seems heels are just getting taller and more dangerous, right? They may be cute, but they can be According to a recent report in The Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery, ER visits for high-heel-related injuries has doubled since 2002 in the United States. Young adult females in their 20s, who are the target market for those sky-high stilettos, are most at risk.

While I’ve sufficiently freaked out the faction of heel devotees out there, you shouldn’t worry. You don’t have to give up your favorite pair of sassy stilettos. Here are some tips:

Do heel lifts.

According to the researchers from the South Korean flight attendant study, simple heel lifts and heel drops can help strengthen muscles the right way, according to The New York Times. For the lifts: Stand on a flat surface, rise onto your toes, drop to the flat surface, and repeat. For the drops: Stand on the edge of a stair, drop your heels below the edge, bring them back to stair level, and repeat.

Slip heels off at the office.

The researcher also told the NYT that simply sitting in heels, with feet flat on the floor, isn’t the best idea, because it “can alter the resting length of the muscles and tendons around the ankle.” So, when you’re at your desk at work (or anywhere else you can feasibly remove your shoes), kick ’em off.

Choose comfort (when reasonable).

According to my pal Dr. Darria Long Gillespie, an ER physician at Emory University, the official, foot-surgeon-approved recommendation for heel height is two inches. So, keep some of those kitten heels on standby. And whenever you can, if you’re torn between two sexy shoe choices, choose the ones your feet feel best in. Recent research on running shoes showed that, to stay injury-free, the best choice was always the most-comfortable choice — ignoring other factors that scientists have suggested may reduce damage, like lessening impact force and managing ankle rotation. It’s really that simple: If you’re comfortable, your body can intuitively move in a way that’s natural for its makeup.

So, ladies: you don’t have to ditch your heels! In mean, I would never give up those look-better benefits (wink). That said, follow those few tips to reduce the damage your stilettos impart. Your feet deserve it.

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Sweat

Flexibility: Inherited or Learned?

It is simply a fact that men and women differ athletically, largely due to genetics and hormones. But what about flexibility? Is our ability to touch our toes sealed by genetic fate, or can we overcome tight hamstrings with enough practice?
I’ve pondered this for quite some time. In the days when I occasionally dropped-in at a yoga class, I’d watch in admiration as the flexible yogi types rolled out their mats and began to do a series of poses that I wouldn’t dare attempt. Me? I can’t come close to touching my toes. I never could … even as a kid when I practiced ballet for years and spent lots of time trying to do splits, backbends, and other contorted poses on my own.
The short answer is this — genetics counts for a large part of determining our flexibility. If your inner nerd is dying to know if you’re among those predisposed for inflexibility, the answer may lie in a SNP (or Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) of DNA on your COL5A1 gene — a gene on the ninth chromosome that instructs your body to make a component of collagen.
Dr. Paul Weitzel, an Orthopedic Surgeon at New England Baptist Hospital told the Boston Globe that we all have a baseline level of tightness and flexibility but with some effort we can improve that level by about 20-25 percent.
Why it might not sound like much improvement for the effort required — an effort excruciatingly well-known to those of us who struggle with a simple back bend or toe-touch — it’s important for a number of reasons.
While research suggests that pre-workout stretches are likely not having much of an effect on risk of injury during your workout and a 2011 study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise showed that increased stiffness may actually make you a *better* runner, the large majority of us are not competitive athletes. What we all are is aging humans, and it is a fact that as we age we are prone to increased risk of injury due to decreased range of motion (among other things).
That’s where signing up for a regular stretching routine comes in handy. You know what they say about an ounce of prevention, right? These simple tips from Mayo Clinic will give you the basics you need to safely get your stretch on:
Don’t stretch cold muscles. Stretching is not a warm up, and stretching cold muscles may lead to an injury. Your best bet is to save the stretch for after you exercise when your muscles have significantly warmed up.
Shoot for balance. Thanks to our genes, we don’t all have yogi-level flexibility … and that’s ok. Rather than reaching for the unattainable, make a goal of becoming flexible on both sides (most of us are a little asymmetrical.) This will keep your body in balance and may decrease the likelihood of future injury.
Hit the big guns. Focus on all of the big muscle groups when designing your stretching routine — hamstrings, hips, back, and shoulders — and remember to spend an equal amount of time on both sides of the body for optimal results.
Don’t bounce. Static stretching, where you hold a particular stretch for several seconds is much more gentle on your muscles than bouncing stretches (also known as ballistic stretching) which can put strain on your muscles and even lead to an injury.
Hold it. Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds; I know this sounds brutal to the inflexible, but the longer you can hold a stretch the better the outcome. Don’t forget to breathe while you stretch. Proper breathing drives oxygenated blood to your muscles and helps muscles relax, making it easier to hold and deepen your stretches.
Stop if you feel pain. “No pain, no gain” is NOT an adage to take to heart while stretching. You should feel a little bit of pull or tension when you stretch, but never pain. Pain means you are pushing yourself too far. Back off to a point where the pain goes away and safely hold your stretch.
Keep it up! To maximize benefits, you have to stretch on a regular basis — at least 2-3 times per week. If you don’t stick to it, you’ll most likely lose any benefits you’ve gained. Give yourself a few extra minutes at the end of every workout that you dedicate to stretching. Considering it part of your workout will increase the likelihood that you’ll stick with your program.

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Sweat

What Will the Last 10 Pounds Cost You?

I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve never met someone who successfully lost the last 10 pounds and then told me their life was different because of it.

That’s the big fairy tale. There’s this idea that losing weight changes you in some way other than the obvious physical change. People are tricked into thinking that emotional weight disappears when physical weight disappears. That stress evaporates. That fat cells are replaced by happiness cells.

That’s not how it works. Of all the factors that impact happiness, changing your physical body is one of the least influential. In fact, making that a goal is often detrimental to happiness. There’s an enormous cost to success in that paradigm. Time. Attention. Sacrifice. Obsession.

The reason weight loss slows down as you approach that “last 10 pounds” area is because your weight is normalizing and you’re very close to your body fat set point. This is a body fat percentage that your body is biologically programmed to defend. In other words, it’s not really supposed to go lower than that.

If you want to go lower you have to force it. That’s not something I help people do because it’s antithetical to having a body AND LIFE you love. If you insist on pushing, you can easily end up with a body you love and a life you hate.

Happiness can’t be achieved that way. It can’t be achieved through weight loss at all. It’s achieved through other relevant factors, some of which I talked about in 8 Critical Vitamins You Can’t Afford to Be Deficient In.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s some additional insights into what losing the last 10 pounds can cost you:

– It will require cutting calories when the body doesn’t need to cut calories. This is a huge stressor on the body and will eventually degrade your health.

– It will take away from what you’re able to invest in your spouse, kids, and family. You’re going to have to commit to a large amount of exercise, a no-frills diet, and an unhealthy level of obsession.

– Instead of doing things you love, you’ll have to do things according to a very specific plan. There will be very little spontaneity in your life.

– It depletes your margin—the extra room in your life that keeps you from falling off the edge of the stress cliff. Life without margin is an unhappy life.

– It will affect your social life. You will lose friends. You will lose opportunities to connect. You will have a hard time nurturing relationships.

– You won’t be able to relax. All the work required to lose the last 10 pounds is required to maintain that result. You’ll be stuck in an endless cycle and your worth will be tied up in your weight and the ability to maintain your new persona.

If you change your perspective and let go of this arbitrary goal, you can be happy now. That’s what I want for you and what I hope you want for yourself. Stop obsessing over weight and start focusing on nourishment, health, energy, vibrance, mood, and love.

By changing your perspective, you can stop worrying about the last 10 pounds of physical weight and focus on losing the last 10 pounds of emotional weight. You can dramatically change your relationship with food, body, and self. That’s a mission to be proud of. And that is how you arrive at a place of true happiness.

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Wellbeing

Leslie Michelson And "The Patient's Playbook"

Did you interview your primary care doctor? Do you know which hospitals in your area have a trauma unit? Do you have personal copies of all of your medical records? According to Leslie Michelson, author of The Patient’s Playbook: How to Save Your Life and the Lives of Those You Love, your answers to all of these should be a resounding yes; that is, if you wish to get the best healthcare treatment.
After reading The Patient’s Playbook I knew that I had to share it with others. The advice in it is priceless and as a patient it was advice I wish I’d received years ago. The early chapters alone on finding a good primary care doctor are worth the price of the book. I don’t know anyone who has taken the time to actually interview potential doctors before choosing the one that would handle their health care long term.
But, as Michelson points out we often spend more time and effort buying a new car or hiring a babysitter than we spend finding the doctor who will take care of us for (potentially) the rest of our lives.
Michelson also addresses how to get the best care in an emergency, how to find the best specialists for your needs, and what to do when serious illness strikes, as well as getting copies of your medical records and what to do with them once you get them.

Why did Leslie Michelson become a patient advocate?

Michelson’s background in health advocacy goes back to his high school years. His father was diagnosed with heart problems, and they were told he would require open heart surgery, an operation that was still in its infancy at the time. Michelson took the initiative and not only encouraged his father to get a second opinion from a larger hospital but made the appointment for him. It turned out that he didn’t need that surgery after all. That one call avoided a risky surgery and his father lived another 40 years without a problem. That experience set the stage for a life-long interest in helping others get the best healthcare.
As a young lawyer, Michelson had the opportunity to work at the Department of Health and Human Services. This gave him a chance to learn more about the healthcare system and see where he could make a difference. He says that he learned everything he could about the healthcare system and saw how much it needed to be changed. Seeing how anxious people were when they were sick drove him to focus his career on creating entrepreneurial companies that would improve the healthcare system.
“During that period everyone I knew that had a healthcare issues would call me. Over the years I helped thousands of people at night and on the weekends, gratis.” Michelson says that finally “about seven years ago friends suggested that I build a business to do [patient advocacy] because I’ve figured out what others don’t know. So we did that, it’s called Private Health Management. We get retained by people globally to help them get the best healthcare. The issue is that we have to charge a lot of money because it takes a lot of time and effort.”

So, why write a book?

That last bit is why Michelson decided to write a book. He said he wants to “really help everyone become a more effective healthcare consumer whether they could afford us or not. ” In talking to him I could tell just how important people are to him, and I could understand how he could have given away so many thousands of hours for free. While he’s listed as the CEO of Private Health Management, he’s still directly involved in client care and ensuring that the patients get the best healthcare possible. “Helping you become a more effective healthcare consumer” should really be his tagline.

How do you start?

Being an informed healthcare consumer is all well and good, but how do you get started? If you are asking this question, you aren’t alone. Mr. Michelson said this is the most common question he hears. “The healthcare system seems so intimidating that they don’t know how to begin to put in place the process and find the right physician. Once we get them started things are much better.” In The Patient’s Playbook, Michelson starts at the beginning and walks you through the steps, getting patients and caregivers the map they need to get on the road to the best healthcare possible.

What is the first step?

According to Michelson your first step should be getting copies of your medical records and putting together a complete picture of your health history. This step alone can seem very daunting as many patients have years of medical records to obtain from many different doctors. Michelson says that even if this is the case you can and should still make the effort. He says that you just have to take it little by little.
Michelson says to “just stay on it on a sustained basis. Identify the big most important pieces (the most recent or times when there was meaningful change) and understand that it’s going to take weeks if not months.” Don’t get discouraged and if you have someone else in your life that enjoys the details put them to work to help. This is especially important if you are already seriously ill, because you don’t have the time or energy to worry about the details.

How do doctors feel about informed patients?

He said that most doctors actually do prefer having an informed, prepared patient. A patient who walks in having done the research and says “Doctor I know you are busy and can’t research every little thing so I wanted to share what I’ve found with you,” will have good success with most doctors.
As far as what to do if a doctor isn’t listening? Michelson says “candor and honesty is always the best thing to do. If the doctor doesn’t have time for that it’s time for you to find a new doctor that will engage with you. There are doctors that will engage, you just have to have the courage to find them. Just always be respectful and always be very clear with the physician as to what your expectations and desires are in terms of your relationship.”

How do you form a partnership with your doctor?

He reminds us that the relationship between doctor and patient should be thought of as a partnership. “Ask your doctor for specific suggestions as to how to partner with them. Ask your partner (who happens to have an MD after their name) what’s the best way for me to make it efficient and easy for you to be at the top of your game? We need to take down the wall between doctor and patient, it needs to become a collaboration.”
For those who are scared to “bother” their doctor with what they worry are small things or silly questions, Michelson reminds us “They aren’t small things. Making sure the physician is fully informed as to what your symptoms are, what subtle changes you may have made to your diet, exercise, sleep, medication, and how they relate to changes in symptoms can be the clue to achieving a higher functioning status.”
However, he does remind us that we “need to be respectful to the constraints under which doctors function. They all want to spend more time with their patients but they have constraints. Make sure you are communicating as efficiently and as respectfully as possible.” If your doctor has an online system for communication use it, if not find out how to best communicate and keep the communication concise and to the point.

What to do when dealing with chronic illness?

When it comes to dealing with long-term chronic illness, Michelson points out how important it is to build a team not only with your doctors but also a support team within your friends and family. “Friends relatives, people you may know from your community want to help. One of my favorite sayings is “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” If you’ve been through adversity and have been through it with another human being then you’ve halved that experience.” He encourages those who struggle to ask for help. He says that if you ask you will find it, but he points out that it takes courage to ask for help.
Courage is something that Leslie Michelson emphasized again and again as we talked. It takes courage to get through any healthcare situation, but especially the big ones. He reminds us that “courage isn’t easy but the reward for finding it is extraordinary.”
Courage is something you should have more of after reading The Patient’s Playbook: How to Save Your Life and the Lives of Those You Love, I know that I did. You will likely reassess your doctor patient relationships and question whether you should stay with that doctor that isn’t listening. You will begin the process of chasing down your medical records and putting together a succinct medical summary that tells your story. The next time you have a medical emergency you’ll know you are choosing the right hospital for your needs, and if and when tragedy strikes you’ll be prepared.

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Sweat

Tomorrow is Too Late to Start Your Diet: Start Right Now

There is an old saying that tomorrow holds the promise of a new start. However, you have to start for that saying to hold true.

As a 300 pound woman, tomorrow was my favorite time to restart my diet. I frequently told my friends, family, and myself, “I will start my diet tomorrow.” The sad reality was that hundreds of tomorrows came and went without me taking the steps necessary to drop the 150 pounds that I needed to lose.

Putting off your diet until tomorrow is a common behavior. You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of starting a new weight loss program and make excuses as to why waiting for another day to begin is better.

I’m going to be really honest with you and share my three go-to excuses for not starting a diet. I used these for over a decade until I finally quit waiting until tomorrow to start. I wonder if you can identify with any of them.

1. A Holiday is Near

Holidays were one of my favorite excuses for putting off my diet.  My rationale for waiting until after the holiday had passed is that I did not want to watch what I ate during the celebration. So instead of starting my diet near or on the holiday, I waited until the holiday is over.

Well, I was supposed to start once the holiday was over. Instead, I kept right on eating because another holiday was coming up.

The rebuttal to this excuse is simple. Holidays occur regularly whether it is Christmas, Halloween, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, or Memorial Day. And your birthday? It comes every year on the same day!

If you do not learn how to control your food choices over a holiday while you are successfully losing weight, you will never be able to control you food choices once you reach your goal weight.  

Believe me, I know.

2. I Was Tired of Trying

If you have tried to lose weight before but failed, putting off your diet is understandable. I often felt burned out, frustrated by my utter lack of progress, or just tired of being different than my friends.

I can understand this excuse because I had tried to lose weight hundreds of times before I finally had success. The key to putting this excuse to rest and starting your diet today is to honestly review your reasons for losing weight.

Ask yourself these questions:  

·      Do you feel good about yourself at your current weight?

·      Has your doctor told you to lose weight?

·      Do you have the energy required to do the physical things in your life? (ie: chase after your young children, walk for long periods of time, get things accomplished in your professional life.)

And the most important question:

Are you are more tired of trying or more tired of carrying around extra weight?

Examining your reasons for losing weight can help you get motivated to begin your diet today. Make a list of 10 reasons you want to lose weight and refer to it frequently.

3. Money As an Issue

We never had much money when we were first married. I often used the money excuse as a reason to put off my diet because I wanted to join Weight Watchers or try a commercial program but could not come up with the funds.

Funny how I did not have money for a $9.00 Weight Watcher meeting but I spent the same amount or more each week at McDonald’s. Kinda telling of where my priorities were and that lack of money was an imagined excuse, not a legitimate reason.

Money can be an excuse for not beginning your diet today if you think the only way to lose weight is to pay a program fee or join a group. While those are legitimate ways to lose weight, you do not have to do either. You can lose weight on your own, for free, using information from the Internet, borrowing books from the library, or joining a free program in your community.

Take money out of the equation and you have lost that excuse for putting off your diet until tomorrow. Websites that offer healthy and free weight loss plans include Sparkpeople, MyFitnessPal, and ChooseMyPlate from the United States Department of Agriculture.

For me, it was always tomorrow until the moment when I finally declared that tomorrow was too far away. I started my final weight loss effort in 1997 and lost 158 pounds by the following year. Put your excuses aside and begin your weight loss effort today.

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Sweat

Kinesio Tape: Beneficial or Just Fashionable?

I was at Disney recently on a day they were having a big marathon. I couldn’t get over all the people with Kinesio Tape all over their bodies. People walked around all day long with stripes of vibrant colors on their legs, back, shoulders and arms. Was this crazy colored tape a real treatment or more of a fashion statement I wondered?

Since any type of sport or fitness activity is admired, fitness trends and styles have always been well received. People enjoy identifying with sports. Whether it’s wearing workout clothes or the newest fitness accessory, I really can’t imagine Kinesio Tape being any different.

While Kinesio Tape is supposed to help people with injuries, would it be as popular if it were clear and no one could see you wearing it? Or is it a fun way to show off your fit lifestyle and show everyone just how tough you really are. In a sense, it’s like saying, “I have pain but I’m not letting it stop me”. But, does it really have a purpose besides its Beastmode label appeal?

How It Works

Kinesio tape is basically an elastic tape that is applied to the skin using the Kenesio Taping Method. This therapeutic taping method is supposed to alleviate pain and facilitate lymphatic drainage by microscopically lifting the skin.

Though athletic trainers have been taping people for years to protect joints and prevent injury, this tape is thinner and more elastic than conventional tape. The application, from what I understand, is also different, allowing for greater mobility and skin traction. The skin traction is believed to promote elevation of the epidermis and reduce pressure on the affected area.

You aren’t supposed to just stick the tape wherever you want, however. There is a method to the taping madness. An experienced taper would decide what level of tension would generate an appropriate level of traction on the skin. They would need to know exactly where to place the tape to get the greatest effect.

When I started researching the topic, I called my friend, Dr. Jennifer Stepanek, (who is also my Chiropractor) to ask for her professional opinion. She explained it best saying, “when applied correctly, (key word “correctly”) Kinesio Tape allows for proper movement and provides support in the right direction to prevent injuries in athletes or to lift the skin away from the fascia, allowing for increased circulation.” She also mentioned it could possibly create increased sensory input in injured tissue which can expedite healing. It totally made sense to me and sounded like a pretty reasonable modality.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any real solid scientific evidence Kinesio Tape actually worked. All of the clinical studies I found came up with insufficient evidence to back the theory. Out of the 10 research papers that were published in the journal of Sports Medicine, there wasn’t enough evidence to support the tape’s use for pain relief and there were inconsistent results for range of motion too.

While plenty of people reported positive affects, it seemed unclear if they were founded. Experts have suggested there may be a placebo effect using the tape and they even say we shouldn’t discount that. I mean, if you feel like you have less pain, isn’t that a good thing?

While studies may not have given me the evidence I wanted, my friend did say she got mostly good results in her patients, but like any modality, some feel no benefit. She also said she had personally uses the tape and has experienced pain relief herself.

Pros and Cons

I have to admit, I got some Kinesio tape after I sprained my ankle earlier this year. I had it for about two or three months before I actually used it, simply because I had no clue how to tape an injury.

I had to Google how-to videos to learn how to use the stuff and, even then, I wasn’t really sure if I was doing it right. The guy in the video was clearly very proficient with the tape and moved so fast I really couldn’t follow him.

He also used terminology I wasn’t familiar with. Instead of saying “start by sticking the tape here”, he used clinical KT talk like “place your anchor using no tension at the (insert fancy long anatomical name here)” and continued swiftly through the application. I had to back up the video about 100 times to see if my application looked like his.

I’m sure the point of the short video was to show how fast and easily it could be applied, but I needed a slow-mo version and more clear normal definitions of what the heck he was doing. As a result, I was never really sure if the tension I was using was the “right” tension, or if my placement was accurate as well.

So, for me, the main con is that it takes a certain level of skill and understanding of how to correctly apply the tape to get the most benefit out of it. The pro is, even if you apply it incorrectly, I don’t think it can hurt you. Unlike some fitness trends that may be harmful, there really is no risk with Kinesio Tape that I know of.

Fit or Flop?

This was a hard one for me. I like solid evidence, but after doing my research I came up pretty empty handed. I would be inclined to say the jury is still out on this one, however, some experts made a very valid point that changed my mind saying an effective placebo could make all the difference between success and failure.

Athletes wear it when they aren’t even injured, hoping it may have a preventive or enhancing effect. The fact that athletes think it’s beneficial, could help in a psychological way. Since every one of us feel we need all the help we can get, maybe we are just a little sticky tape away from gaining the confidence we need to keep on keeping on.

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Sweat

Top Fitness Trends of 2015—What's IN And What's OUT

There’s always a new fitness trend that is the talk of the office. In the’70s, it was Jazzercise. In the’80s, everyone was putting on their Reebok pumps and taking aerobics classes—dressed like someone out of Flashdance.
Step aerobics started sweeping the nation in the’90s. Even my husband took step—and eventually started teaching it. He was no dummy. Taking a step class was a great way to meet girls when he was single (and his crush on the instructor kept him coming back for more).
The trends seem to change about every 10 years. TaeBo was the next in line in the’90s, which got bumped out of the top spot in the 2000s for street dancing hip-hop classes. Finally, in 2010, Zumba took the world by storm (but since I have two left feet, I couldn’t tell you why because I never could follow the routines).
What is the trend today? What fitness fads should we expect to see this year? None! The trend in the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) top fitness trends of 2015 seems to not include any fads at all. For the first time in the fitness business, there is no trending fitness gimmick, fitness class or new workout in the top list of fitness trends. On the contrary, the list only includes tried and true traditional fitness training.
Here is a recap of what’s trending in fitness according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

1. Bodyweight Training

Top on the list was bodyweight training. I was stoked to see this since I personally use bodyweight training as a foundational principle with my clients. Bodyweight exercises include pushups, situps, pull-ups, burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, planks, bridges, squats, and lunges. Bodyweight exercise is all about going back to the basics. Plus, they can be done anywhere, and are incredibly effective in both strengthening and burning calories.

2. HIIT

Next on the list, in the number two spot, was high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Basically, HIIT is a method of training that uses a sequence of short bursts of intense activity followed by a short period of rest or recovery (try our at-home HIIT videos here!)
Like bodyweight exercises, HIIT is nothing new either. Even if it’s relatively new to most of the world, this style of training has been around for many years. Athletic coaches started using this training method for sprint drills in the ’70s.
Another popular form of HIIT you may have heard of is Tabata. Professor Izumi Tabata introduced this version of HIIT in 1996, which uses 20 seconds of intense training followed by 10 seconds of rest. Since you can do more work in less time with high-intensity training, no wonder this style of training made it to the top. No one has time for those lengthy 2-hour workouts of the ’90s.

3. Educated, Certified and Experienced Fitness Professionals

People want to make the most of their time or money. Most people are more educated consumers and they expect their fitness professional to be more educated too. Whether they are following a fitness pro online, hiring a trainer or taking a group fitness class, there is a greater demand for qualified fitness professionals, which has held the top three spot for two years running.
It’s no longer enough to just be a fitness enthusiast who likes to teach aerobics and entertain their clients for an hour. People want an educated fitness professional to get them results that last. This means there will be even more educational programs, classes, certifications and courses available for people who want to make fitness more than just a hobby.

4. Strength Training

Strength training has always been top on the list, and it still is today. Strength training is the foundation of fitness. It will forever be used by all types of people at all different fitness levels – from athletes to patients rehabilitating an injury. Strength training, which typically uses weight machines or free weights, has been proven to not only increase muscle strength, but it strengthens the joints and bones as well.
For this reason, strength training is a great way to reduce the risk of injury and improve quality of life. Of course, strength training sculpts pretty muscle and increases the metabolism too, but the benefits to strength training are really too long to even list here, so I doubt very seriously you’ll ever see this drop out of the top 10 list.

5. Personal Training

The next big trend on ACSM’s list is personal training. Why? Look at the top trends so far. You don’t see Zumba or Spinning up there. You don’t see the elliptical on the list either. All the top trends include an endless list of exercises, which require instruction (at least, at first).
Past trends, like Zumba, came with a leader to guide you through the workout. Today’s trends are not a specific workout regimen or routine, they are traditional exercises. It’s about going back to the basics—going back to what is proven. While most people know how to do a squat or a sit up, they don’t really know how to put exercises together to be most effective. That’s where personal trainers come in.
A personal trainer not only makes sure you are doing the workout correctly. They put the exercises together in the right order, at the right weight and at the correct pace for you to get the most benefit. Getting personal training shouldn’t be just about getting a good workout, you should also be getting a good education.

6. Exercise and Weight Loss

The final trend I want to share is the trend of making sure you are not just workout out correctly, but eat correctly too. As I said before, consumers have gotten smart. They realize they can’t get the best results with exercise alone. People understand they can throw away an entire workout on a high-calorie latte. So, as a result, they are more apt to search for a program that includes both fitness training and diet support. As I always say, “it’s not enough to be strong in the gym. If you really want results, you need to learn to be strong in the kitchen too.”
So what are the rest of ACSM’s top trends?
Yoga made the No. 7 spot, followed by fitness programs for older adults at No. 8. Right behind programs for seniors was functional training, finishing with group personal training.
Can you believe it? I just named off the top 10 trends of 2015 and there was no fad workout like Zumba, which plummeted to the No. 34 spot on the list of ACSM’s 39 choices. Other trends that dropped on the list was unmonitored fitness facilities (24-hour access gyms), Pilates, water workouts, stability ball training, online training, mixed martial arts, Bowka and, sadly, physician referrals.
It seems we’ve gone in full circle. We’ve danced, twisted, kicked, punched, stepped, peddled, bounced, jumped and jived our way through the last 50 years, but we’ve returned to pure unadulterated exercise—no gimmicks, no trademarks, no pricey fitness devices, no frills.
While there will always be a fun new fad popping up in every gym, they will always come and go—but the tried and true (and less gimmicky) fitness basics seems to be a trend that is here to stay.