Eat Regularly and Less as the Day Goes on	
Most of us have been raised to eat three meals a day, progressively
increasing the amount of food as the day goes on.  The typical American has
a small breakfast (if at all), a medium-sized lunch, and a large dinner,
which usually includes dessert.  Many of us still have the idea that
snacking is bad--we were taught it would ruin our appetite.  Unfortunately,
these eating patterns make it very difficult to manage our weight.
	
The frequency of how often we eat per day has been shown to greatly affect
how fat we are.  Many studies have concluded that those who eat four to six
smaller meals per day have less body fat than those eating two or three
meals a day, despite the fact that both groups eat about the same amount of
calories.  In addition, eating patterns of three or more meals a day may
also have a positive effect on blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels,
which are usually lower than levels from one or two meals a day.  A calorie
is not the same calorie at different times of the day; calories consumed at
dinner and later are more likely to be stored than those consumed in the
morning or mid-day, simply because we are less active at night.
	
Eating only three times a day requires us to go too long without eating. 
By the time lunch or dinner rolls around, we are so famished we eat
anything easily available.  Eating small, healthy snacks in between meals
not only prevents you from gorging; it increases your metabolism and helps
you feel energized and satisfied throughout the day.
	
It is also important not to eat too much at each of these snacks and meals
but rather just enough to feel satisfied and energized.  However, if you do
eat too much (beyond being pleasantly full), don't feel guilty; focus on
the present moment rather than the past.  And certainly don't eat again
just because it is dinner time--eat only when you feel the need to eat.  If
you are not as hungry at dinner time, eat a smaller portion than you are
used to--eat according to your level of hunger--not just because "it is
time" or "that is how much I usually eat at dinner."  Likewise, it is
important not to eat snacks if you are not physically hungry.  Always pay
attention to your internal signals of hunger.  It is crucial that you
experience comfortable hunger.  If you are constantly eating just to eat,
you will never experience true hunger and not learn to respond to your
internal hunger signals.  If you have been dieting, you are probably out of
touch with what true hunger is.
	
Food high in fat can mask physiological hunger signals because the emptying
of the stomach is delayed due to the high fat content.  Making small
changes and decreasing the amount of fat you eat in foods will help you
attend to physiological hunger.  In time, your food choices will reflect
new preferences that are lower in fat, allowing you to acknowledge more
accurate hunger signals.
	
Eating a large meal increases the opportunity for fat cells to extract fat
from the blood and, therefore, grow bigger.  Fat cells can actually adapt
to a pattern of large, infrequent meals by becoming more efficient at
storing fat.
	
In addition, a two-to-three-meal a day pattern causes the body to face long
stretches without food.  This eating pattern actually tricks the body into
thinking it's in a starvation state, initiating physiological changes that
actually slow down your body's resting metabolic rate, the number of
calories "burned" at rest.  This occurs because your body is trying to
conserve energy for fear of starvation.  A reduction in metabolic rate
slows fat loss.  This is another reason why diets do not work.  Our body
responds to the reduction in calories as if it were starving and your
metabolism slows down.  Once again, if you are trying to lose fat by
decreasing your caloric intake, it is  best to eat small meals and snacks
four to six times a day so your metabolic rate will stay "revved" up
throughout the day, making fat loss and/or maintenance a much easier and
healthier task.  Of course, be sure that the meals are nutritious,
well-balanced, and low in fats and simple sugars.  If you eat four to six
meals a day and don't eat healthy, low-fat foods, you are missing the big
picture.
	
In addition to eating smaller meals more frequently, try to plan so that
you don't eat your largest meal of the day late at night.  The body's
metabolic rate has a natural cycle of highs and lows, peaking late in the
day and dropping to its lowest level during sleep.  It makes sense to avoid
putting a large meal into your system after 8:00 at night when your
metabolic rate is beginning to slow down.  If you do feel hungry after this
time, you don't need to go to bed hungry, just try to eat something
especially healthy and in small portions.  If it is not possible to avoid a
later dinner, eat a snack around 6:00 p.m. so you won't be so hungry later.
 I hope this helps and you have the opportunity to enjoy all the wonderful
benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle.





Diets Don't Work!
Many Americans view a healthy lifestyle as something difficult to
attain--and something that's not much fun. Traditional diets have taught us
that to lose weight, we must count calories, keep track of everything we
eat, and deprive ourselves by limiting the amount--and kinds--of foods we
eat.  Diets tell us exactly what and how much food to eat, regardless of
our preferences and individual relationships with hunger and satiety.
Dieting can help us lose weight (fat, muscle, and water) in the short term
but is so unnatural and so unrealistic that it can never become a lifestyle
that we can live with, let alone enjoy!
 
While very few diets teach healthy low-fat shopping, cooking, and
dining-out strategies, many offer unrealistic recommendations and encourage
health-threatening restrictions. Even more important, diets don't teach us
the safest, most effective ways to exercise; they don't teach us how to
deal with our cravings and our desires, or how to attend to our feelings of
hunger and fullness. Eventually, we become tired of the complexity, the
hunger, the lack of flavor, the lack of flexibility, the lack of energy,
and the feeling of deprivation. We quit our diets and gain back the weight
we've lost; sometimes we gain even more!

Each time we go on another diet of deprivation, the weight becomes more
difficult to lose, and we become even more frustrated and discouraged. Then
we eat more and exercise less, causing ourselves more frustration,
discouragement, depression. Soon we are in a vicious cycle. We begin to ask
ourselves, "Why bother?" We begin to blame ourselves for having no will
power when what we really need is clear, scientifically-based information
that will help us develop a healthier lifestyle we can live with for the
rest of our lives.

Deliberate restriction of food intake in order to lose weight or to prevent
weight gain, known as dieting, is the path that millions of people all over
the world are taking in order to reach a desired body weight or appearance.
Preoccupation with body shape, size, and weight creates an unhealthy
lifestyle of emotional and physical deprivation. Diets take control away
from us. 

Many of us who diet get caught in a "yo-yo" cycle that begins with low
self-acceptance and results in structured eating and living because we lack
trust in our body and are unwilling to listen and adhere to our body's
signals of hunger and fullness. On diets, we distrust and ignore internal
signs of appetite, hunger, and our need to be physically and
psychologically satisfied. Instead, we depend on diet plans, measured
portions, and a prescribed frequency for eating.

As a result, many of us have lost the ability to eat in response to our
physical needs; we experience feelings of deprivation, then binge, and
finally terminate our "health" program. This in turn leads to guilt,
defeat, weight gain, low self-esteem, and then we're back to the beginning
of the yo-yo diet cycle. Rather than making us feel better about ourselves,
diets set us up for failure and erode our self-esteem.

The attitudes and practices acquired through years of dieting are likely to
result in a body weight and size obsession, low self-esteem, poor nutrition
and excessive or inadequate exercise. Weight loss from following a rigid
diet is usually temporary. Most diets are too drastic to maintain; they are
unrealistic and unpleasant; they are physically and emotionally stressful.
And most of us just resume our old eating and activity patterns. Diets
control us; we are not in control. People who try to live by diet lists and
rules learn little or nothing about proper nutrition and how to enjoy their
meals, physical activity, and a healthy lifestyle. No one can realistically
live in the diet mode for the rest of their life, depriving themselves of
the true pleasures of healthy eating and activity.

We Don't Fail Diets; They Fail Us!
Decades of research have shown that diets, both self-initiated and
professionally-led, are ineffective at producing long-term health and
weight loss (or weight control). When your diet fails to keep the weight
off, you may say to yourself, "If only I didn't love food so much . . . If
I could just exercise more often . . . If I just had more will power." The
problem is not personal weakness or lack of will power. Only 5 percent of
people who go on diets are successful. Please understand that we are not
failing diets; diets are failing us.

The reason 95 percent of all traditional diets fail is simple. When you go
on a low-calorie diet, your body thinks you are starving; it actually
becomes more efficient at storing fat by slowing down your metabolism. When
you stop this unrealistic eating plan, your metabolism is still slow and
inefficient  that you gain the weight back even faster, even though you may
still be eating less than you were before you went on the diet. 

In addition, low-calorie diets cause you to lose both muscle and fat in
equal amounts. However, when you eventually gain back the weight, it is all
fat and not muscle, causing your metabolism to slow down even more. Now you
have extra weight, a less healthy body composition, and a less attractive
physique.

Diets require you to sacrifice by being hungry; they don't allow you to
enjoy the foods you love. This does not teach you habits which you can
maintain after the diet is over. Most diet programs force you to lower your
caloric intake to dangerously low levels. The common theory is that if you
eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But when you eat
fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its life-sustaining
activities, you're actually losing muscle in addition to fat. Your body
breaks down its own muscles to provide the needed energy for survival.

Traditional diets which use calorie restriction to produce weight loss are
no longer appropriate. Most weight-loss programs measure success solely in
terms of the number of pounds lost per weight loss attempt. Diets don't
take into account the quality of the process used to achieve that weight
loss or the very small likelihood of sustained weight loss. For long-term
good health, you need to move away from low-calorie diets and focus on
enjoyable physical activity and good nutrition. Exercising regularly and
eating lean-supporting calories, protein  and carbohydrates, and reducing
fat-supporting calories will not only help you look and feel better, it
will also significantly reduce your risk of disease. 

America spends billions of dollars on different ways to fix people. If we
focused more on prevention and on improving our day-to-day behaviors, we
could cut health care costs in half. Contrary to popular belief, leading a
healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be difficult; it doesn't have to painful
or time-consuming. Making gradual, simple changes in your diet and physical
activity will make great improvements in your health and well-being, and
they can drastically reduce your risk of disease.

If your weight management program is to be a success, everything you eat
and every exercise you do must be a pleasurable experience. If you're not
enjoying yourself, it is unlikely that you'll continue your program. It's
that simple.  These small, gradual changes are not painful or overwhelming
but rather the core of an exciting lifestyle that you will look forward to.
 
Take the frustration, guilt, and deprivation out of weight management, and
allow yourself  to adopt gradual, realistic changes into your life that
will make healthy eating and physical activity a permanent pleasure. You
will soon discover what your body is capable of and begin to look, act, and
feel your very best.  Good luck and enjoy all the wonderful benefits of a
healthy, active lifestyle.


  *******Fit Tips***********

A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found
nonsmokers are more susceptible to heart damage from secondhand smoke than
smokers because their bodies haven't built up defenses against the
carcinogens found in smoke.  It is estimated that 47,000 Americans die
annually from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke.

Exercising outdoors in hot weather can lead to foot blisters.  To prevent
blisters, rub petroleum jelly on the bottom of your feet and between your
toes before working out.

If left untreated, high blood pressure can double your risk of a heart
attack and triple your risk of a stroke.  Because the condition produces no
symptoms, you should have your blood pressure checked at least every two
years.

If you have a general question concerning proper nutrition, the Consumer
Nutrition Hotline staffed by members of the American Dietetic Association's
National Center for Nutrition and Dietetics can provide the answer.  Call
1-800-366-1655.

Studies show children of active parents are more likely to exercise as
adults than children with inactive parents.

Use caution when exercising outdoors in hot, humid weather, especially if
you're taking over-the-counter drugs such as diet pills, decongestants, and
pain relievers.  These drugs can cause increased fluid loss, which can lead
to dehydration.

If you eat a slice of raisin bread instead of a croissant, you save 94
calories and 10 gm. fat.  If you drink an 8-oz. glass of skim milk instead
of whole milk, you save 59 calories and 8 gm. fat.

Be wary of the "finger-stick" cholesterol tests commonly used in mass
screenings (e.g., at shopping malls).  They tend not to be very accurate. 
Tests using blood drawn from your arm are more accurate.

People who burn at least 1,000 calories a week through exercise cut their
colon-cancer risk in half.  That's equivalent to exercising at a moderate
intensity four to five times per week.

Cigarette smoking appears to raise the pain threshold, making smokers less
likely to feel early warning signs of heart disease.


     This months' Fit Tips were provided by Global Health and Fitness(GHF).

     Visit GHF http://www.global-fitness.com and you'll find easy to follow
     fitness recommendations, hundreds of exercise instructions and video
     demonstrations, customised programmes, healthy recipes and
     cooking/shopping strategies, health club/personal trainer directories,
and
     much more!