Lean Cuisine Recall

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All the major news outlets are reporting that Nestle Prepared Foods Company issued a Class I recall of 879,565 pounds of frozen Lean Cuisine chicken meals that may contain small pieces of hard blue plastic.  Only one injury has been reported up to this point (7 complaints overall).  The following meals are impacted:

Cafe Classics Pesto Chicken
Spa Cuisine Chicken Mediterranean
Dinnertime Selects Chicken Tuscan

There are no “bad” foods

The saying goes, “there are no bad foods; only bad diets”.  In other words, there is not a particular food that is bad for you, but if you tend to accumulate several foods a day that are high in fat and/or sodium, low in nutritional value and fiber–then you have a bad diet.

You On a Diet Partners with Yedda (an AOL company)

Have a question you would like answered by a community of people interested in your topic?  You On a Diet has partnered with Yedda (an AOL company) to provide our readers with access to their very powerful Q&A platform.  Yedda has categories that include: health, fitness, life, money, and more.  Click Here to Ask a Question.

What Behaviors Lead to Weight Loss?

One way to predict who will be successful losing weight is to study people who have been successful and see what they have in common. A study in the International Journal of Obesity found some key behaviors people practiced which increased their odds of keeping off the weight.  You might try some of these to increase your own chances of getting the weight off and keeping it off.

Lose Weight By Logging

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Since the 1970’s there have been dozens of studies showing that people who log what they eat end up losing weight.  That’s all they do!  They don’t buy special food, swear off of chocolate, pay loads of money to join diet groups, or start a 1200 calorie meal plan.

It started with a group of researchers who were going to conduct a study on a new diet plan.  The first instruction they gave the participants was to keep a detailed food journal.  The point was to gather information in order to have a good idea of what people were eating on their usual routine, then see what was going to have to change.  But the subjects came back in two weeks and surprised the team: they had already lost weight!

How Many Calories Do You Need?

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One question people ask all the time is “How Many Calories should I be eating in a day?”  Well, it’s a complicated answer because there are so many factors that determine your actual energy needs.  One factor is how much lean body mass you have.  Muscle burns more calories than fat, as you’ve probably heard.  What gives some people more lean body mass than others?  Besides being muscular, being male usually means you have more lean body mass than a female of the same height and weight.  Being taller means you have more lean tissue than a person who is shorter.  And aging usually results in a decrease in lean body mass.  Therefore, tall, young men burn about twice as many calories (about 3000) as short, older women (about 1500).  There are calculations, such as the Harris-Benedict equation, that you can use to find your energy needs pretty accurately by inserting your age, gender, height, and weight.  However, this assumes you are not greatly overweight (once many fat pounds are involved it’s hard to determine the metabolic activity of your total weight) and you also must be able to factor in your activity level; it’s all an estimate!

Lose Twenty Five Pounds Without Dieting

photo credit: VirtualErn

Do you ever think what you eat today doesn’t matter in the long run? Do you believe you’ll just ‘work it off’ tomorrow? Do you hate depriving yourself of a side of fries or a quick candy bar pick-me-up?

Newsflash! All it takes is cutting 250 calories a day to lose half a pound a week. Certainly nothing you’ll notice at the end of the week, but by New Year’s Eve you can lose six pounds, and by this time next year, a whopping 25! You don’t need to go on a diet or start jogging every morning for this to happen. Just start paying attention to those very-high-calorie items and either skip them or replace them with something less fattening.

The Rice and Beans Diet - Inspiried by Dave Ramsey

photo credit: stu_spivack

For the millions of you that are familiar with FPU (Financial Peace University) Dave Ramsey’s rice and beans diet is old news.  With his principles of getting out of debt, this “rice and beans” diet represents exercising self control on several different levels.

Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated radio host and author of the best selling book: The Total Money Makeover that has helped millions eliminate debt, and change the financial future for many families.  If you have the book or listened to the radio show, you have heard both callers and Dave talk about living off of beans and rice. Let’s pretend for a moment that Dave literally meant to eat rice and beans at every meal.

Marijuana and Dieting is like Oil and Water

photo credit: Bug-a-Lug

In 2006, 25 million Americans over the age of 12 abused marijuana according to NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse). With so many adults included in that group, it wasn’t much of a surprise when I received an email from a loyal reader inquiring about a marijuana based diet.

“Smoking marijuana makes you hungry so it must boost the metabolism right? If you can fight through the hunger by drinking more fluids you can lose a ton of weight.”

Are These Calories Worth It?

Taking a moment to think before you eat can save you lots of calories! Becoming aware is the first step to making changes. Try starting a new habit of asking yourself a few questions before you indulge in a treat. The answers may lead you to some relatively easy weight loss!