Our Blog

What’s the secret to eating healthy at backyard barbeques and picnics? Obviously, the potato chips and brownies are going to set you back a few belt notches. But seemingly healthy foods can spoil your body shaping goals, too, if you aren’t careful! Here are five of the sneakiest party offenders: Store-Bought Guacamole & Salsa Guacamole and salsa seem healthy—after all, they’re full of veggies. But these “fresh” dips aren’t always so fresh. Journalist Melanie Warner discovered that her tub of guacamole stayed eerily preserved at the back of her fridge for months, despite the “fresh” sticker. Why? The store-bought guac contained ascorbic acid, citric acid and xanthan gum, among other preservatives. Premade salsa usually contains these additives too. Because added … Continue reading →

Usually when we tell people that a healthy diet is 3 small meals and 2 healthy snacks throughout the day, the first follow-up question is “What’s a good healthy snack?”   Snacking in most people’s mind means a grab bag of chips or some cookies or making a quick plate of nachos. Those can be snacks…if you want the calories of a full meal and very little of the nutrition.   When looking for a good snack to help keep your weight loss goals on track, mainly what you want to do is keep yourself feeling satisfied so that when you get to the next meal you’re not so hungry that you go overboard on the calories.   This is … Continue reading →

Gone are the days when women were considered the primary purchase decision-makers. Kids, it seems, are the new consumers. Especially when it comes to unhealthy foods. Food marketing to children is now a global phenomenon, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. And “most of this marketing is for foods with a high content of fat, sugar or salt,” they say. The heaviest hitters: sugared cereals, candy, sweets, sodas and snacks. In 2011, the average child (age 6-11) saw 559 TV ads for kid-targeted cereals. Media spending in this area is only increasing in the face of health pressure, according to Ad Age. And of course, there’s fast food. Children as young as age 2 are seeing more fast food ads … Continue reading →

Think your food label vigilance is helping you eat healthier? Don’t get too cozy. Just when we’ve figured out how to be conscientious consumers… marketers get sneakier. It’s not even just the obvious stuff (like unrealistic serving sizes, which we usually fail to notice, according to researchers). No. It gets much trickier than that. Have a look at the following “hidden packaging persuaders.” #1 – Sights and Smells The FTC may regulate what companies can say about their products, but it doesn’t interfere with other elements of the packaging. But scents and pictures of fresh fruits and veggies may influence us unconsciously. Wait, scents? That’s right: companies add scents to food packaging—sometimes dubbed “smellvertising”—to influence customers. Aromas waft from cereal … Continue reading →

We get this question a lot in emails and comments and while the answer is “whenever works for you!” We know that seems like a non-answer, so let’s talk about specifics.   When it comes down to it, if you need to exercise in the morning because that’s your only time available, then that’s when you should be exercising. Always go with whatever time works for your schedule because as we’ve said, any exercise is infinitely better than no exercise.   But, for the sake of argument, we’ll pretend that someone has a schedule that allows them to exercise any hour of the day and that person has no personal preference of when to exercise. Is there a specific time … Continue reading →

“Money can’t buy happiness,” they say. If that is true, it has awkward implications for gift-giving this time of year. Isn’t that the whole reason we flock to stores and brave crowds, clutching wish lists? To buy our loved ones happiness? We gather gifts with visions of their excitement in our minds. We picture them using their gifts throughout the year. It gets us through the madness and mile-long lines. And now we’re told that we can’t purchase cheer, after all? On the hunt for meaningful gifts this year, I’ve been taking this question to heart, and digging up social science research on what sorts of things contribute to happiness. It looks like we really can buy happiness, according to … Continue reading →

There is a pretty big debate on in the health industry right now and it might seem like a semantic argument, but the conclusion could have far reaching consequences. If you hadn't guessed, the question on their minds: Is obesity a disease? The rising number of Americans who are seriously overweight has triggered intense debate among scientists, federal agencies, insurance companies and drug makers about whether obesity should be declared a "disease," a move that seems to have opened up quite the can of worms. Both sides make some good points and there are quite a few benefits and pitfalls to the change that could have an impact on most Americans. While the BMI scale can be fairly flawed, it's … Continue reading →

Getting a proper amount of sleep, definitely helps in those trying to lose weight, but a new study shows that the benefits of sleep may be even more important to those who have a genetic predisposition towards obesity. "After analyzing the sleep habits and body weight of 1,088 pairs of twins, including genetically identical ones, researchers concluded that people who get plenty of sleep -- at least nine hours per night -- have more control over their weight through their behavior than people who sleep less. Among twins who slept less than seven hours per night, genes accounted for 70% of the differences in body mass index (BMI), while so-called environmental factors, such as diet and exercise habits, were responsible … Continue reading →

Family health is a difficult thing to achieve. As parents, getting your kids active is no easy feat. It’s a delicate balance between wanting to get them healthy and not wanting to hurt their emotional growth in the process. We talk to clients a lot about overcoming weight issues that blossomed from events in their childhood. At a young age, our peers are the biggest influence on our emotional development and most of us wanted nothing more than to fit in. As much as we want to let our kids know they are special and different, they want nothing more than to be accepted into the pack. It's an unfortunate truth that being overweight is a huge hindrance to social … Continue reading →

We live in a world where the internet has made it easy to get your questions answered. Better yet, you can do it without the subsequent raise of an eyebrow that follows when you ask "Is it unhealthy to eat my own boogers?" Google has even taken it upon themselves to help you out in this endeavor. When you type the beginning of a question like 'is it unhealthy….' google will guess what you're asking by filling in the blank with their most common searched phrases. So we've compiled a list of weight loss questions that Google (or people using Google) are commonly asking about weight loss. Some of them are great, and some of them, well… 1. Is it … Continue reading →

Is There a "Best" Weight Loss Plan? Are you tired of trying all the latest weight loss products every time they come out or following those crazy diet plans that leave you craving odd foods in the middle of the night? Everyone who has a weight problem is always looking for the best weight loss plan in the hopes of finally being able to lose the extra pounds and feel good about their body. With this in mind, one has to wonder if there really is such a thing as the perfect way to lose weight. Herein lies the crux of the problem: what might be the best weight loss plan for one person may have absolutely no effect for … Continue reading →