No-Diet Ways to Lose Weight

If you shudder at any mention of the “D” word but still need to drop a few pounds, use these tricks to help you slim down sans calorie counters and detox drinks

If sifting through the Google results for “diets that work” makes your head spin, try this trick: Don’t call it a diet. “For most Americans, diet is a dirty word that evokes pain, frustration, and bad memories of diets that went belly up,” says Connie Bennett, a life and health coach and author of Sugar Shock: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life—and How You Can Get Back on Track. So forget trying to overhaul your eating with detox cleanses and flavorless microwave meals. Instead, focus on making small, manageable changes that fit into your life. The following 11 simple strategies will help you slim down without giving up what you love.

The do-it-yourself diet

1) Schedule Sweat Sessions. It’s obvious advice, but it works. Exercise can help you lose weight by burning calories, increasing metabolism, and warding off cravings. Italian researchers found that overweight, sedentary women who made no changes to their eating habits but participated in a 12-week indoor cycling program of three 1-hour sessions per week reported weight loss, fat loss, smaller waist sizes, and increased muscle mass after 24 and 36 sessions. The women also lowered their resting and training heart rates and improved cardio-respiratory fitness, according to a study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness.

Don't give exercise the cold shoulder. Rally with these 40 winter-inspired tips.

2) Pick Petite Plates. “If you can decrease the amount of food you currently eat by 25 percent, you would quickly see the pounds come off,” says Adam Shafran, cohost of the Atlanta-based radio show Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy and coauthor of 35 Things to Know to Raise Active Kids. “Try using smaller plates and taller glasses in order to give the appearance of bigger portions.” When you’ve finished eating, leave your dainty dinnerware where you can see it. Sitting among heaps of dirty dishes helped Cornell University graduate students eat 28 percent less than those whose tables were cleared at a free Super Bowl Sunday chicken wing buffet, according to a study published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills.

3) Take Time-outs. To keep your body moving—and burning calories—throughout the day, Bennett suggests taking a mini break every 15 minutes. “It reminds me to stretch, take care of my back, do some exercise bursts, be present, and have fun,” says Bennett. “You can take as little as 30 seconds or as long as 5 minutes. Just get up off your rear end, stretch, go get some water, pull in your stomach, rearrange something on your desk or in your home, and stand on your tippy toes.” To schedule your breaks, try setting a timer. This free tool from online-stopwatch.com lets you pick your own sound—like a round of applause—to signal that it’s time to get up and move.

4) Don’t Skimp on Sleep. “Sleep deprivation causes fatigue, clumsiness, and weight gain,” says Carrie Wiatt, owner of Diet Designs, a Los Angeles–based nutritional counseling firm. “Getting enough sleep is crucial to proper cognitive function as well as controlling hunger.” Sleep deprivation has the power to slow down your metabolism, increase your appetite, and throw your body’s hunger and satiety hormones out of whack. Of more than 68,000 middle–age women who participated in a Case Western Reserve University study, those who slept for less than 5 hours each night were 32 percent more likely to gain 33 pounds or more over the course of the 16-year study, compared with those who got 7 to 9 hours of shut-eye.

5) When in Doubt, Delay. Here’s one way procrastination can work in your favor. “If carb cravings are haunting you, just delay,” Bennett suggests. “In other words, look at your watch and promise yourself that for the next 10 to 15 minutes, you won’t give in to your cravings. During that time, you could go to the restroom, wash the dishes, or call a friend.” You’ll give yourself a chance to figure out what your body really wants or needs—maybe a glass or water, a protein-rich snack, an energizing walk, or even a laugh.

source: msn health

Top 5 Habits That Harm Your Heart

cording to a centuries-old story, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will announce the end of the world. According to hard data, five harmful habits herald the coming of heart disease. These five are:

1. smoking
2. being inactive
3. carrying too many pounds
4. eating poorly
5. drinking too much alcohol

Alone and together, they set the stage for artery-damaging atherosclerosis and spur it onward. They do this by deranging metabolism and changing how cells and tissues work. They also disturb the markers of health we worry about so much: blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. All too often, the end result of these five habits is a heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease, valve problem, aortic aneurysm, or heart failure. And the damage they cause isn't limited to the cardiovascular system, but extends to the kidneys, bones, and brain.

Premature aging and death

How much do these five habits contribute to a personal health apocalypse? A lot. In a study of 4,900 men and women in England, Wales, and Scotland, researchers tallied up the occurrence of four unhealthy habits — smoking, low intake of fruits and vegetables, little physical activity, and having more than 21 alcoholic drinks a week for men or 14 for women. Compared to participants with none of the habits, those with just one of them were 85 percent more likely to have died during the 20-year study, while the increase among those with all four was 349 percent, or more than threefold higher (Archives of Internal Medicine, April 26, 2010). By the researchers' reckoning, people with all four unhealthy behaviors were physically 12 years older than their chronological ages.

What can making better choices do for health and longevity? Read on for five strategies for change.

Strategies for change: Avoid tobacco

Smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and pipes is as bad for the heart and arteries as it is for the lungs. If you smoke, quitting is the biggest gift of health you can give yourself. Secondhand smoke is also toxic, so avoid it whenever possible.

Strategies for change: Drink alcohol in moderation (if at all)

If you drink alcohol, limit your intake — one to two drinks a day for men, no more than one a day for women.

Strategies for change: Aim for a healthy weight

Carrying extra pounds, especially around the belly, strains the heart and tips you toward diabetes. If you are overweight, losing just 5 percent to 10 percent of your starting weight can make a big difference in your blood pressure and blood sugar.

Strategies for change: Enliven your diet

Add fruits and vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fat, good protein (from beans, nuts, fish, and poultry), and herbs and spices. Subtract processed foods, salt, rapidly digested carbohydrates (from white bread, white rice, potatoes, and the like), red meat, and soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages.

How change can help your heart

Consider this provocative finding from the Nurses' Health Study. Nonsmoking women with a healthy weight who exercised regularly, consumed a healthy diet, and had an alcoholic drink every other day were 83 percent less likely to have had a heart attack or to have died of heart disease over a 14-year period, compared with all the other women in the study (New England Journal of Medicine, July 6, 2000). The results were almost identical in a similar study in men. In these two studies, more than two-thirds of all cardiovascular events could be chalked up to smoking, excess weight, poor diet, and drinking too much.

Set goals and track progress

Give yourself a gold star if you are in the small minority of Americans who follow all five healthy behaviors. You have built yourself a solid foundation for good health.

If you have one or more habits that are working against you, now is as good a time as any to set a course for better health. How? "Just do it" may be catchy advice, but it doesn't often work. Most of us need concrete help to make and sustain lifestyle changes. The American Heart Association recommends "cognitive behavioral strategies for promoting behavior change" (Circulation, July 27, 2010). They aim to help you think more positively about yourself as you make healthy changes. Here are some of those strategies:

Set goals. Having specific, achievable goals is a key strategy for successful change. Goals that involve behaviors ("I will eat three servings of whole grains a day") tend to work better than physiological goals ("I will lower my cholesterol").

Track your progress. With all the things you have to remember each day, it's hard to know whether you are meeting your daily goals. Keeping track of steps taken each day (if you use a pedometer) or pounds lost each week gives important feedback about your progress. Data from dozens of studies show that self-monitoring is an important attribute of successful changers. You can do this with a notebook, a computer, a smartphone, or an invention of your own.

Find your motivation and seek support

Motivation. Changing a habit or behavior is easier if you have a good reason for doing it. Hearing your doctor say "You need to quit smoking" isn't nearly as compelling a reason to stop as having a family member or friend diagnosed with lung cancer. Motivation can be something big, like getting in shape for a walking trip with a grandchild, or small, like fitting into a slimmer suit for a wedding. The more personal the motivator, the better.

Get support. Starting a change isn't nearly as challenging as sticking with it. Support from family, friends, a doctor, or someone else — even from an online community — can provide feedback and encouragement, especially when you are feeling low. Sharing a daily walk or a weight-loss program with an exercise or diet "buddy" makes it more fun and harder to slack off.

Reward yourself and realize you're not perfect

Reward yourself. Change is hard work. So give yourself pats on the back along the way. These can be small things, like a new CD or a vase of flowers, or something bigger, like tickets to a play or a special trip. The pleasure you get from rewards loops back to reinforce the positive changes you are making.

Get back on track. To paraphrase poet Robert Burns, the best laid plans of cigarette quitters or new exercisers often go awry. It's to be expected — no one is perfect, and life can get in the way of even the most meticulous plans. Take a derailment in stride. Instead of berating yourself, summon the motivation and goals that got you started and use them to keep moving forward. It is during these so-called relapses that support is most helpful.

You don't need to aim for a complete transformation all at once. Small changes in diet, exercise, or weight can make a big difference in your health. Setting goals you can realistically achieve, and then meeting them, can snowball into even bigger improveme

from: Harvard Health Publications

Tiny breaks from sitting can whittle a tinier waist

Taking short breaks from sitting, even for only one minute, might whittle your waistline and improve your heart health, according to a new study.

People in the study who took the most breaks from sitting — up to 1,258 short breaks in one week — were about two pant sizes smaller than those who took the fewest, as few as 99 breaks in one week, said study researcher Genevieve Healy, who studies population health at the University of Queensland in Australia.

And a smaller waistline means less abdominal fat and better heart health, Healy said.

"A high waist circumference is associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease," she told MyHealthNewsDaily.

When we stand, the large muscles in our legs and the back are continually contracting to maintain our posture, but when we sit or recline, these muscle groups are basically inactive, Healy said.

"So even short breaks from sitting get these large muscle groups contracting," she said.
The study will be published tomorrow (Jan. 12) in the European Heart Journal.

Swine flu could mix with bird flu, expert warns

Bird flu kills more than 60 percent of its human victims, but doesn't easily pass from person to person. Swine flu can be spread with a sneeze or handshake, but kills only a small fraction of the people it infects.

So what happens if they mix?

This is the scenario that has some scientists worried: The two viruses meet — possibly in Asia, where bird flu is endemic — and combine into a new bug that is both highly contagious and lethal and can spread around the world.

Scientists are unsure how likely this possibility is, but note that the new swine flu strain — a never-before-seen mixture of pig, human and bird viruses — has shown itself to be especially adept at snatching evolutionarily advantageous genetic material from other flu viruses.

"This particular virus seems to have this unique ability to pick up other genes," said leading virologist Dr. Robert Webster, whose team discovered an ancestor of the current flu virus at a North Carolina pig farm in 1998.

The current swine flu strain — known as H1N1 — has sickened more than 2,300 people in 24 countries. While people can catch bird flu from birds, the bird flu virus — H5N1 — does not easily jump from person to person. It has killed at least 258 people worldwide since it began to ravage poultry stocks in Asia in late 2003.

‘Do not drop the ball’

The World Health Organization reported two new human cases of bird flu on Wednesday. One patient is recovering in Egypt, while another died in Vietnam — a reminder that the H5N1 virus is far from gone.

"Do not drop the ball in monitoring H5N1," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told a meeting of Asia's top health officials in Bangkok on Friday by video link. "We have no idea how H5N1 will behave under the pressure of a pandemic."

Experts have long feared that bird flu could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. The past three flu pandemics — the 1918 Spanish flu, the 1957-58 Asian flu and the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 — were all linked to birds, though some scientists believe pigs also played a role in 1918.

Webster, who works at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said bird flu should be a worry now. Bird flu is endemic in parts of Asia and Africa, and cases of swine flu have already been confirmed in South Korea and Hong Kong.

"My great worry is that when this H1N1 virus gets into the epicenters for H5N1 in Indonesia, Egypt and China, we may have real problems," he told The Associated Press. "We have to watch what's going on very diligently now."

Spokesman Dave Daigle said he could not comment specifically on how concerned the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is about the scenario Webster describes, or what it is doing to study such a possibility.

Malik Peiris, a flu expert at Hong Kong University, said the more immediate worry is that swine flu will mix with regular flu viruses, as flu season begins in the Southern Hemisphere. It is unclear what such a combination would produce.

But he said there are indications that scenario is possible. Peiris noted that the swine flu virus jumped from a farmworker in Canada and infected about 220 pigs. The worker and the pigs recovered, but the incident showed how easily the virus can leap to a different species.

"It will get passed back to pigs and then probably go from pigs to humans," Peiris said. "So there would be opportunities for further reassortments to occur with viruses in pigs."

He said so far bird flu hasn't established itself in pigs — but that could change.

"H5N1 itself has not got established in pigs," he said. "If that were to happen and then these two viruses were both established in pigs in Asia, that would be quite a worrying scenario."

No evidence of mixing yet

Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. government on flu preparations, said while flu experts are discussing the scenario, he has yet to see specific evidence causing him to think it will happen.

"Everything with influenza is a huge guessing game because Mother Nature holds all the rules, and we don't even know what they are, so anything's possible," he said. "We don't have any evidence that this particular reassortment is that much more likely to pick up H5N1 than any other reassortment out there."

"We don't have to put these things together," he added. "This is not chocolate and peanut butter running into each other in the dark hallway."

But there is in fact discussion of putting them together — in a high-security laboratory — to see what a combination would look like, according to Webster. Similar tests have been done at the CDC mixing bird flu and seasonal human flu, resulting in a weak product, he said.

Daigle, the CDC spokesman, refused to comment on the prospect of any such experiment.

Infections around the world

Webster has done groundbreaking work on both swine and bird flus in his 40-year career, and has followed the evolution of the current swine flu strain from a virus that sickened a handful of people who worked with North Carolina hogs into a bug that has spread from person to person around the world.

He is closely involved in the global effort to analyze what the virus might do next. It has killed 42 people in Mexico and two in Texas, but so far has not proven very deadly elsewhere, leading to some criticism that the World Health Organization's warnings of a potential pandemic have been overblown.

Webster said underestimating the swine flu virus would be a huge mistake.

"This H1N1 hasn't been overblown. It's a puppy, it's an infant, and it's growing," he said. "This virus has got the whole human population in the world to breed in — it's just happened. What we have to do is to watch it, and it may become a wimp and disappear, or it may become nasty."

source: msn health

Pregnant women often deny smoking

Overall, about one in four women who smoke while pregnant deny it, a new study hints. The numbers could be even higher in certain groups of women, like those in their early 20s.

In the United States, smoking by moms-to-be is one of the most common preventable causes of illness and death among infants, Dr. Patricia Dietz from the division of reproductive health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues note in their report.

In their study, they estimated how many pregnant and nonpregnant smokers aged 20 to 44 years did not disclose their habit on a health questionnaire.

How did they catch the deception? They took blood samples from the women to measure levels of cotinine -- a byproduct of nicotine that serves as a marker of exposure to tobacco smoke. Their analysis included 994 pregnant women and 3,203 nonpregnant women.

Overall, 13 percent of pregnant women and 30 percent of nonpregnant women were active cigarette smokers. The pregnant smokers smoked an average of 11 cigarettes a day, while the nonpregnant smokers averaged close to 14 cigarettes a day.

According to the investigators, far more pregnant than nonpregnant smokers failed to disclose their habit - 23 percent versus nine percent - and were identified by their cotinine concentrations.

For a variety of reasons, such as the fact that pregnant women's bodies break down cotinine faster, the researchers think the results "likely underestimate" the true number of pregnant women who smoke and don't say so.

Among both pregnant and nonpregnant smokers, those most likely to keep this information to themselves were women aged 20 to 24, as well as those with Medicaid or other source of government-funded health insurance and those with less than a high school education.

Race also factored in. Pregnant smokers who failed to report their habit were most likely to be non-Hispanic black. In women who weren't pregnant, nondisclosure was most common among Mexican-American women and non-Hispanic blacks.

Writing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, Dietz and her colleagues say their findings may have important implications for researchers studying how smoking during pregnancy affects the developing baby, as roughly one in four pregnant smokers, and one in 10 nonpregnant smokers, deny smoking.

Studies and surveillance systems that rely on people to accurately state their smoking status may get inaccurate information, "especially among pregnant women," they warn.

SOURCE: http://link.reuters.com/tux34r American Journal of Epidemiology