Still Leading

Congrats to Doug again for winning this weigh-in.  He has lost a total of 22.6 lbs in the past month!

Everyone should give yourself a pat on the back.  As a group we have lost over 110 lbs!  That is more than Kaden weighs! Amazing!

There was a study done on a group of people confined to a  dormitory for 24 hours.  The people were allowed to do whatever they wanted for the 24 hour period.  There were fed the same exact food.  At the end of the study they found that some of the participants burnt less then 1300 calories over the 24 hour period, while others burnt as much as 3600.  Why the difference of 2300 calories?  Fidgeting!  Those who were constantly moving burnt 2300 more calories!  I am not even talking about working out.  Just moving.  Research has shown that fidgeting is a genetic trait.  There are those who are natural fidget-ers.  Those 'good genes' that people talk about could actually be the fidgeting gene.  Natural fidgeters all tend to be naturally lean but eat the same amount of calories that others do.  However, we can all become fidgeters if we think about what we are doing on a daily basis.  Instead of sitting down when talking on the phone: Pace around the room. 

 Stop looking for the closest parking spot.

Get up and doing something during a commercial break. 

Do those things around the house that you know needs to be done.

Kids are a great example of fidgeters!  They are always on the move.  Let's all try to be more child-like.  By just fidgeting alone, you can burn up to an extra 800 calories a day!  MOVE!!

Eating healthy on a budget

One thing I have noticed while grocery shopping lately is that eating healthy is expensive!  I looked up some ideas to help with costs of eating healthy. 

1.)  Eat less meat.  Buy good quality meat, but just eat less of it.

2.)  Emphasize grains and legumes.  This is an inexpensive way to fill up without relying on meat.

3.)  Buy in bulk. This doesn’t mean you have to buy a 25 lb. bag of rice.  It just means to look for the bulk isle in the supermarket.  You can buy as much as you need, and save on the cost of packaging.

4.)  Buy locally.  There are some good farmer’s markets here in the valley.  Look into Bountiful Baskets, which is a co-op for locally grown food.

5.)  Eat seasonally.  It’s cheaper to buy fruits and veggies when they are in season.  Plan ahead.  Freeze or can fruits and veggies in season so  you can have them all year round.

6.)  Forgo processed foods.  It is true that these types of foods are cheaper, but they really aren’t in the long run.  Empty calories leave us hungry for real food.  Not only do we pack on the pounds by eating process food, but we are hungrier in general.  Besides, many of the process foods can be duplicated at home for a much healthier version. 

I know a big issue with eating healthier is cooking for the kids.  As much as I want my kids to love healthy things, there are times, they just won’t eat it.  I read several posts about moms sneaking the healthier versions of the same stuff they like.  It’s sneaky, but I can attest to this.  My mom was notorious for doing this.  We would always had so many squash from our garden.  My mom would shred them up, and freeze them.  Through-out the year, she would put them in our dinners, i.e. spaghetti, lasagna, without us having a clue they were in there.  Many mothers suggested mashing up beans to put with the meat for taco’s and spaghetti, even meatloaf.  I grew up eating like this, and still would pick a nice ripe strawberry over a cupcake any day!  Be creative, be resourceful, and be healthy!  Any other ‘sneaky’ suggestions are welcomed!

The Leader of the Pack....this week!

Congrats Doug for losing 14 lbs in two weeks!

Sorry men, this section is just for the ladies.  Let’s face it, the real incentive for this challenge is not just the money, but also for even hotter wives…so let us have our moment.  I did some research regarding women and losing weight.  This is what I found: In order to lose weight faster, we have to combine a high intensity cardio with a steady-state cardio.   High-intensity is defined as something so intense that you couldn’t keep it up for more than 60 seconds — no matter how badly you wanted to! Steady-state cardio is any cardio that’s done at an intensity low enough such that it can be maintained for a longer period of time.

I will do my best to explain the science behind this: Basically your body uses two kinds of energy-carbs and fat.  We all know that if we don’t use our carbs in our body, it turns to fat.  With steady state cardio workouts, our body uses fat to burn for our energy, which is good.  However, later in the day when our body needs energy, our body will turn the carbs into fat and if we don’t use all of them, they stay as fat.  With a high intensity cardio workout, our body doesn’t have time to turn carbs into fat so it triggers the carbs directly.  We burn off the carbs first, and later when our body needs energy it will burn it from the fat we already have!! You can burn fat TWO TIMES FASTER and in HALF the time by incorporating high intensity cardio into your exercise routine and we will see better results.  These high intensity workouts could just be stepping it up a couple of notches on the elliptical or running as fast as you can for one minute.  Push yourself the hardest you can go in a minute then go back to a steady state cardio.  If we do this several times in a workout it will help trigger those carbs first. (Also I should mention that it’s really important to include toning exercises in our routine as well.  As we build more muscles, the more energy/fat we will burn when we are not working out. )