I’m now venturing into my late 30’s and I feel that it is much harder now to maintain my ideal weight. The last year or so, I have noticed that it is harder to lose the excess weight. I used to be able to eat ‘bad food’ at least 2-3x a week and not gain a single pound but now….oh gawd, all I have to do is look at greasy food and I could feel my hips expanding!

I am on the look out for the right diet programme for me. What can you suggest? I’m currently looking into:

Atkins Diet

I heard that the Atkins diet is quite controversial because of extreme results from those who tried it. I wonder if it has the same carbohydrate restrictions as South Beach Diet?

Weight Watchers. The review from Consumer Research include:

Weight Watchers is reviewed by numerous medical and general-interest publications, including Consumer Reports magazine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, the British Medical Journal, Health magazine and WebMD.com. We also consulted user opinions of this plan on TopDiets.com.

Weight Watchers has been subjected to the most clinical studies of all the weight-loss programs. This program encourages a sensible diet of healthy, ordinary foods, combined with exercise and a positive attitude. Weight Watchers is also flexible, reviewers say, which makes it easier to stick with, and its costs are reasonable. In-person group meetings and weigh-ins are the cornerstone of the Weight Watchers diet plan; the food plan demands strict calorie control, but does not require the purchase of prepackaged food. Critics of the plan say counting “points” doesn’t necessarily encourage healthier eating, but overall, Weight Watchers has a vastly better long-term record than any other diet plan, including Slim-Fast (*est. $40 per week for shakes/bars).

South Beach Diet

I’ve tried the South Beach Diet. I even bought the recipe book. It gave me great results but not sure I want to do it all over again. No carbs for the first 2 weeks of the diet left me really weak. I wonder if I can do it again.

Image: SBD

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In short - the answer is no.

I have heard women lament about how as soon as they got married, 5-20 pounds immediately appeared on their frame, as if a wedding band were a magnet for saddlebags and love handles. The same deflection is heard every Fall when a bunch of kids trot off to college and promptly gain “the freshman fifteen”.

Image: stock.xchng

No, your husband and your marriage are not making you fat. And this is coming from a woman who has probably put on close to twenty pounds since the wedding day! To be fair, the slide downhill probably started a year or two before the actual wedding, but never the less - in the last 18 months or so…the difference is noticeable, as much as I hate to admit it.

Could I just blame Paul? Make it his fault that I don’t eat skimpy salads for dinner? Yeah, probably. He might even absorb that accusation just because who wants to be the guy to say, “Eve, you’re the reason you can’t fit into your favorite jeans anymore, not me.” No one wants to be that guy.

No, it’s not Paul’s fault. It is my concern and my stress, work, life that has caused exercise and moderation to escape my brain completely. The downside of an active childhood is that you can eat whatever you want without a second thought. As soon as that is paired up with an office job and long hours…the pounds are hard to stave off.

Don’t blame your husband if you are battling with your weight. That’s only going to stop you from doing something about it. Making it a consequence of married life only stalls the ability to change and start feeling better about yourself.

Okay, easy part is over. I know who is to blame. (Me.) Now the hard part - actually doing something about it.

I think it’s great that Valerie Bertinelli is coming to Kirstie’s Alley’s defense with her recent weight gain. Alley has joked about seeing Bertinelli on the cover of People in a bikini by saying, “It’s like the student surpassed the teacher, who is now over there in the corner, fat!”

But Bertinelli still says Alley can lose the weight and get back in shape again. She says Alley’s recent 83 pound weight gain is “just a bump in the road. Nothing in life goes smoothly all the time.” She also credits Alley with inspiring her to lose weight and considers her a mentor, and has invited Alley to come work out with her.

Seeing these two celebrities struggle publicly with their weight has been quite a contrast to the people who seem to lose weight like it’s nothing. Think of all the new mothers we see just a few months after giving birth who are in the best shape of their lives. While I think that’s a great thing, it always doesn’t always happen like that. More often than not, people struggle when it comes to weight loss. It’s a livelong change, as Bertinelli says, not just a quick fix. Hopefully seeing Alley and Bertinelli will help the rest of us trying to lose weight and be healthy.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

The Biggest Loser, a reality television show that pushes people to lose weight, is a big hit in North America. But do such shows and competitions help people actually lose weight? I’m not sure about the TV shows, but when it comes to competitions, some researchers are saying “yes.”

In 2007, Rena Wing,professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Waren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and her colleagues evaluated the Shape Up Rhode Island weight-loss competitions.  According to this article, Weight Loss Competitions Produce Encouraging Results, “Shape Up Rhode Island reduced the percentage of patients in the study who were obese from 39 percent to 31 percent. Researchers found that individuals who increased their activity the most achieved the best weight losses.”

Also of interest: “Of the initial participants, 3,311 people or 70.2 percent of participants completed at least 12 weeks of the study. Participants who were heavier at the start of the program lost more weight, as did those who generated greater jumps in their physical activity.”

Many businesses, social groups, and just groups of friends are starting to challenge each other to do certain activities geared towards fitness and weight loss. My husband’s company had a 10,000 steps per day challenge that lasted one work week. All participants were given a pedometer to help measure their progress. And, there’s a prize after for the team (of 5) who made the goal and had the highest total number of steps. Since his work place is a sit down work place, this forced some of the workers who don’t usually move around to be more active.

I know that in my husband’s case, although he’s extremely active as it is (he goes to the gym to run, exercise and do weights several times a week), he found that 10,000 steps was more than he realized. But if it can get others moving a bit more, even 5,000 steps per day, this was worth the effort put into it.

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Image: Stock.xhcng

I just came across this on Medicine.net. It seems that a lot of weight loss products made by Universal ABC Beauty Supply International Inc. are being recalled because the FDA tested them and found that they contained Sibutramine which is the active ingredient of the FDA approved appetite suppressant Miridia .

Image: sxc.hu

The listed products were not approved by the FDA. I think the FDA needs to crack down on a lot of “supplement” companies.  They were recalled because Sibutramine can raise blood pressure and that’s not good for people with heart or stroke problems. Below is the first ten on the list of 34. To see all 34 and to check if you or your significant other may have one of the weight loss supplements vivist Medicine.net for more details.

1. ProSlim Plus, 60 capsules, bottle in box
2. 3 DAYS fit, 60 capsules, bottle in box
3. EIGHT FACTOR DIET, 60 capsules, 3 pouches/box
4. 24hours Diet, 60 capsules
5. Slim 3in1 M-18 ROYAL DIET, 90 capsules, 3 pouches/box
6. 3X SLIMMING POWER, 60 capsules, bottle in box
7. Extrim Plus 24 Hours RE-BURN Formula, 60 capsules
8. Slim 3in1 EXTRA SLIM FORMULA, 90 capsules, 3 pouches/box
9. Slim 3in1 EXTRA SLIM WAIST FORMULA, 90 capsules, 3 pouches/box
10. SLIM EXPRESS 360º C

We all want to get healthier, right? And as a woman, I really enjoyed reading this article about Health Tips Every Woman Should Know. One of the most important tips on here was being specific in our goals. For example, instead of saying “I’ll exercise more” the article suggests saying, “I’ll put my sneakers on when I get home and walk ten blocks.” The second example is much more measurable and seems more manageable too.

Other tips include finding out about your family history, having an annual skin check up, and avoiding salt. My favorite tips overall was simply having a piece of fruit at every meal. How smart!

Image: sxc.hu.

A new drug developed by Novo Nordisk is being considered for approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Members of the FDA are split on the approval because of worries that it may hasten the risk of a “rare thyroid tumor” that usually takes years to develop.

The new drug, called liraglutide, help lower blood sugar levels while also causing weight loss. It’s meant to compete with rival pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly’s drug Byetta. The new drug would be taken once a day, versus the twice a day Byetta.

The thyroid cancer “called medullary thryroid cancer in both mice and rats.” There is no evidence (as yet) to suggest that this cancer would also emerge in humans.

This is a tough decision since the drug could have such positive benefits for diabetics. More research is obviously needed before it can be considered safe for human consumption.

Image: sxc.hu.

I’m amazed at how great Valerie Bertinelli looks on the cover of People, aren’t you? Normally seeing a celebrity in a bikini just bores me to tears… like… who cares? But Valerie really has a likability factor, doesn’t she. And yeah, she wasn’t HUGE…. (172 pounds) but she clearly had body issues that we all can relate to.

In reading her shape up secrets, I saw that to lose the majority of the weight she simply walked 10,000 steps a day. That’s the equivalent of about 5 miles. To give you an idea what the rest of us usually walk, one site says that a “sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day.”

To find out how many steps you usually walk, start wearing a pedometer every day. Do things like park farther away from the store, get up to take a quick walk in between projects, walk over to another person you work with rather than send an email. In short, just move a little bit more. Don’t try to do 10,000 steps right out of the gate if you’re only do a few thousand to start with. Gradually add a few hundred week by week until you get to your target.

It’s also a good idea to go at things slowly. Valerie says she lost the weight in nine months. That’s just over 4 pounds a month! Make slow and steady changes that will last, rather than a quick fix. Remember, you’re aiming for better health, not just a thinner body.

Image: splashnewsonline.com

Man, I really wish I could post on Blog Fabulous today. But, I’m swamped giving away a bunch of prizes elsewhere.

I do have this to say. Fruit makes me gassy and bloaty. Had to stop at the health food store for some enzymes to handle my new eating habits.

I love taking Mondays off my workout routine instead of Sundays. I always have time on Sundays and too much work on Mondays.

Also I’m learning to understand the value of outsourcing.

Photo credit: Newly redesigned and relaunched The Girl Revolution