I went shopping for healthy food today WITHOUT A LIST!!! Jesus! I am crazy! Before I knew what happened I had Cranraisins, canned soups, canned vegetables and three bottles of fruit juice and three boxes of lo-cal (tree bark) cereal and fresh veggies and fruits for days! Lordy, my cart could have been mistaken for a farmer's market and what does the cashiere say to me? "Would you like a bag of Cheetos today? They are on sale for a dollar." I was soo delirious from my total that I can't remember it very clearly, but I'm pretty sure I gave him the look of death followed by "With all this healthy food??" Followed by awkward nervous laughing he hehe he. No, thanks.

Excersize tip:
Back feeling sore after exercising? Take our tip to relieve tension. If back muscles become tight and sore after exercise -- a common feeling -- a great way to relieve this stress is to lie on the floor with a tennis ball between your back and the floor and give yourself a massage.

Fitness Myths:
Myth #1: You can lose fat from specific parts of your body by exercising those spots.

Truth: There's no such thing as "spot reduction." When you exercise, you use energy produced by burning fat in all parts of your body - not just around the muscles that are doing most of the work. In fact, your genes may dictate that fat disappears from, say, your face or arms before your belly, even if you do endless abdominal exercises. However, working a specific region like the belly can have one site-specific benefit: Strengthening the muscles can make you look thinner by helping you hold in your gut.
+++I have also heard that the first place you start losing weight is the last place you put it on.

Myth #2: The more you sweat during exercise, the more fat you lose.

Truth: The harder you work out, the more calories you'll burn within a given period and thus the more fat you stand to lose. But how much you sweat does not necessarily reflect how hard you're working. Some people tend to sweat profusely due to heavy body weight, poor conditioning, or heredity. And everyone sweats more in hot, dry weather or dense clothing than in cool, humid weather or porous clothing. (You may feel as if you're sweating more in humid weather; but that's because moist air slows the evaporation of sweat.) In short all you lose is water weight and as soon as you drink a glass of water you will put it back on.

Myth #3: Sports drinks can help you exercise more safely and effectively.

Truth: Sports drinks contain two main ingredients that are theoretically beneficial for exercisers: sodium, which helps the body retain water, and sugar, which the body burns for energy. But very few people exercise hard enough to sweat away much sodium or to use up their carbohydrate reserves, which the body converts to sugar. You'd have to jog for at least two hours, for example, before your carbohydrate stores would start to run low. So unless you're doing a marathon or other exhaustive exercise, plain water is all you need.

Myth #4: Aerobic exercise tends to make you hungry, so it actually undermines your efforts to lose weight.

Truth: Aerobic exercise, such as jogging or brisk walking, may indeed increase your appetite - but only, it seems, if you need extra calories. Studies suggest that lean individuals do get hungrier after such exercise; that helps prevent them from getting too thin. In contrast, working out does not seem to boost appetite in obese individuals; so exercise should help them slim down.

Myth #5: When you stop exercising, your muscles turn to fat.

Truth: Lack of exercise does make the muscles shrink, reducing the body's calorie-burning rate. The lack of activity itself further reduces the number of calories you burn. So people who stop working out are indeed in danger of getting flabby.

But that doesn't mean that muscle actually turns to fat - they're totally different types of tissue. Nor does it mean you're doomed to gain fat around the muscles after you stop exercising; you just need to cut back on the calories you consume. (Of course, the best way to stay slim is to eat a lean diet and continue to exercise regularly.)

Myth #6: “I just like to eat.”

Reality: Look where there may be a denial of fulfillment in other areas. Lack of creative, personal, economic and spiritual fulfillment can make one have a disproportionate desire to seek fulfillment in the food arena.

Myth #7 - Fat free means no calories
Some foods contain very little or no fat. But all foods contain calories. Just because a food suggests that the fat content is low - less than 5% - this may not mean that the food itself is good for you or low in calories.

e.g. Low fat snack foods are usually loaded with extra sugar - this compensates for a lack of taste left behind when the fat is either extracted or not added. Extra sugar may mean that snacks which are low in fat are actual calorie dense.

Myth #8 - You burn more fat if you exercise on an empty stomach.
Exercising on an empty stomach does not affect how you lose weight. In fact, it may hinder it if you don't have the energy to exercise. You should at least drink a glass of juice prior to your workout if you're exercising in the morning.

Other tips:
When dining out, make sure youre not eating two servings
It's easy to consume a meals worth of calories before your entree ever arrives. Eat a small healthy snack before you get to the restaurant to keep you from getting hungry. Ask the waiter to serve the salad before you even order. If no one at the table objects, ask the server not to bring bread to the table until he serves the food.

---Sue