Worried about “old age” creeping up on you?

Do this for better concentration and memory…

A recent study confirmed that regular aerobic exercise (three hours a week) increases brain volume in older adults, which translates to better concentration and memory. “In younger people, this can help stave off mental decline, which starts in your 20s,” says Arthur Kramer, PhD, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Just Another Drop In The Bucket?

Did you know…

That water is involved in every function of the body, so if you don’t consume enough of it your body won’t run efficiently (yes, that means a slower metabolism)? When you’re properly hydrated, your body is more efficient at burning calories.

Water helps you lose weight in another way, too. You see, when someone is dehydrated, they might mistake that feeling for hunger.

Some studies show that thirst and hunger are triggered together, so you may reach for food when all you need is a glass of water.

Clam Chowder

2 cups potatoes, cubed

1 cup onions, chopped

½ cup celery, chopped

½ cup green pepper, chopped

1 cup carrots, chopped

3 cans (6.5 ounces each) clams, undrained

2 cups tomatoes, chopped

2 packages T&H chicken bouillon supplements

1 cup water

1 cup tomato or V8 juice

½ cup spinach, chopped

¼ cup fresh parsley

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/8 teaspoon hot pepper or Tabasco sauce, or to taste

In a saucepan, over medium heat, sauté the first 5 ingredients in 1/8 cup of broth, adding more broth as needed to prevent sticking, until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.

Serves: 10 Fat grams: less than 1

Phase: 1, 2, 3, 4 Protein: 4.8

You may substitute 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth in place of T&H supplement, although best results are achieved using supplements.

Top 20 Worst Foods in America

OK folks, a colleague of mine passed this onto me and I had to make sure you all saw it as well. Keep in mind, to lose weight the Thin&Healthy plan suggests keeping your fat grams between 20 and 30 a day for women and 40-60 per day for men-that’s per DAY not per meal like some of the choices below which in many cases are three to four times as many fat grams. YIKES! When it comes to the foods listed below the fat and calories outweigh any nutritional value. The next time you find yourself dining out, take a gander at this list before you go just to make sure you don’t sabotage all the hard work you’ve done so far!

The Top 20 Worst Foods in America according to MensHealth.com

20: Worst Fast-Food Chicken Meal – Chicken Selects Premium Breast
Strips from McDonald’s (5 pieces) with cream ranch sauce. 830
Calories, 55 grams fat (4.5 trans fat), 48 carbs. Add a large fries
and regular soda and this seemingly innocuous chicken meal tops out
at 1,710 calories.

19: Worst drink – Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie (30 fl
oz). 900 calories, 10 g fat, 183 carbs, 166 g sugar. Jamba Juice
calls it a smoothie, MSNBC calls it a milk shake. The beverage
contains as much sugar as 8 pints of Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice
cream.

18: Worst supermarket meal - Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie
(whole pie). 1,020 calories, 64 g fat, 86 g carbs. Label may say this
pie serves two, but, who ever divided a small pot pie in half? Once
you crack the crust, there will be no stopping.

17: Worst ‘healthy’ burger – Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. 1,145
calories, 71 g fat, 56 g carbs.

16: Worst Mexican entree – Chipotle Mexican Grill Chicken Burrito.
1,179 calories, 47 g fat, 125 g carbs, 2,656 mg sodium.

15: Worst kids’ meal – Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni ‘n’ Cheese.
1,210 calories, 62 g fat, 3,450 mg sodium. It’s like feeding your kid
1 1/2 boxes of Kraft mac ‘n’ cheese.

14: Worst sandwich – Quiznos Classic Italian (large). 1,528 calories,
92 g fat, 4,604 mg sodium, 110 g carbs. A large homemade sandwich
would more likely provided about 500 calories.

13: Worst salad – On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef.
1,450 calories, 102 g fat, 78 g carbs, 2,410 mg sodium. This isn’t an
anomaly: Five different On the Border salads on the menu contain more
than 1, 100 calories each.

12: Worst burger – Carl’s Jr. (Hardee’s on East Coast) Double Six Dollar Burger. 1,520 calories! 111g fat. Carl’s Jr. brags it’s home to this enormous
sandwich, but the restaurant chain also provides convenient nutrition
info on its Web site — so ignorance is no excuse for eating it.

11: Worst steak – Lonestar 20 oz T-bone. 1,540 calories, 124g fat.
Add a baked potato and Lonestar’s Signature Lettuce Wedge, and this
is a 2,700 calorie blowout.

10: Worst breakfast – Bob Evans Caramel Banana Pecan Cream Stacked
and Stuffed hotcakes. 1,540 calories, 77 g fat (9 g trans fat), 198 g
carbs, 109 g sugar. Five Egg McMuffins yield the same caloric cost as
this stack of sugar-stuffed flapjacks, which is truly a heavy
breakfast, weighing in at a hefty pound and a half.

9: Worst dessert - Chili’s Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla
Ice Cream. 1,600 calories, 78 g fat, 215 g carbs. Would you eat a Big
Mac for dessert? How about three? That’s the calorie equivalent of
this decadent dish. Clearly, Chili’s customers get their money’s worth.

8: Worst chinese entree – P.F. Chang’s Pork Lo Mein. 1,820 calories,
127 g fat,! 95 g carbs. The fat content in this dish alone provides
more than 1,100 calories. And you’d have to eat almost five servings
of pasta to match the number of carbs it contains. Now, do you really
need five servings of pasta?

7: Worst chicken entree – Chili’s Honey Chipotle Crispers with
Chipotle Sauce. 2,040 calories, 99 g fat, 240 g carbs. “Crispers”
refers to an extra thick layer of break crumbs that soak up oil and
adds unnecessary calories and carbs to these glorified chicken strips.

6: Worst fish entree - On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with Rice and
Beans. 2,100 calories, 130 g fat, 169 g carbs, 4,700 mg sodium.
Perhaps the most misleadingly named dish in America : A dozen crunchy
tacos from Taco Bell will saddle you with fewer calories.

5: Worst pizza – Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza.
2,310 calories, 162 g fat, 123 g carbs, 4,470 mg sodium. Downing
this “personal” pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino’s
Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.

4: Worst pasta – Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat
Sauce. 2,430 calories, 128 g fat, 207 g carbs, 5,290 mg sodium. This
meal satisfied your calorie requirements for an entire day.

3: Worst nachos – On the Border Stacked Border Nachos. 2,740
calories, 166 g fat, 191 g carbs, 5,280 sodium.

2: Worst starter – Chili’s Awesome Blossom. 2,710 calories, 203 g
fat, 194 g carbs, 6,360 mg sodium.

1: The worst food in America – Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries
with Ranch Dressing. 2,900 calories, 182 g fat, 240 g carbs. Even if
you split these “starters” with three friends, you’ll have downed a
dinner’s worth of calories before you entree arrives!

Flexibility is Key to Overall Fitness!

Fitness – The state or condition of being physically fit, especially as a result of exercise and proper nutrition. Fitness encompasses several aspects of exercise like cardiovascular, resistance (weight) training and flexibility.

Flexibility – the ability to move joints and use muscles through their full range of motion. If you think about it, you need flexibility to perform most types of physical activity comfortably and to reduce the risk of injury. One easy way to increase flexibility is by stretching. Anyone is capable of stretching and it is easy and convenient to do. You don’t need any equipment, don’t need to join a gym and stretching helps to reduce stress and promote relaxation. You can do stretches before and/or after exercise or do stretching as its own exercise. Just remember stretching should be done slowly and comfortably, if you feel any discomfort or pain, you should stop. Keep in mind there should be no bouncing and don’t lock your joints. Try stretching for 15-20 minutes, 3 times a week and hold the stretches for 20-30 seconds. If you can’t hold the stretch that long, do as much as you can and work your way up.

You Gotta Know Why

Know why you want to lose weight

You may think just shedding those extra pounds would be satisfying. Of course it would be nice to fit into smaller clothes and be able to run without getting out of breath.

But if you want to lose weight for the wrong reasons, like many others before you, there’s a good chance that either your diet will fail or that you will put weight back on after your diet is over.

3 Bad reasons for wanting to lose weight:

• To make a bad relationship good
• To make someone proud of you
• To make someone like you

3 Good reasons for wanting to lose weight

• To get fit
• To avoid health problems
• To improve your self confidence

See the difference? If you want to lose weight for you, you are much more likely to be pleased with the results!

Chips & Salsa!

Nacho Chips

1 package soft fat-free corn tortillas

2 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons chili powder

Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges. Place in bag with remaining ingredients; shake well. Broil on cookie sheet in one layer 6-8 minutes, turning half way through.

Serves: 10 Fat grams: 1.1

Phase: 1, 2, 3, 4 Protein: 3.1

Salsa

¼ cup onion, chopped

8 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped

½ red onion, diced

2 jalapeno peppers, diced

1 clove garlic, chopped

¼ cup fresh coriander

½ teaspoon ground roasted cumin

¼ cup lime juice

Light salt and pepper, to taste

Combine ingredients in a non-aluminum bowl. Cover and let stand several hours at room temperature or overnight in refrigerator.

Serves: 16 Fat grams: less than 1

Phase: Any Protein: less than 1

Jammin’ Out!

Turn on some tunes. Studies show that listening to your favorite music while you work out can boost your mood and make exercise feel easier, so you may work out longer. “Music distracts you from thinking about how hard you’re working,” says study author Robert T. Herdegen, PhD. In his study, 12 people traveled 11 percent farther on exercise bikes while listening to music than when they pedaled in silence so grab your MP3 player and amp up that workout!

Does exercising on an empty stomach really burn more fat?

If only it were that easy. The real deal? When you do aerobic exercise, your body is burning fat as well as carbohydrate stores from food you’ve recently eaten, says Sass. So if you skip your pre-workout meal or snack, you won’t have carb stores to burn. But that doesn’t mean you’ll burn all fat (a physiological impossibility). Instead, your body starts to burn its own muscle for fuel. And less muscle means lower metabolism — not the goal of any dieter. Not to mention that exercising on empty means you’ll probably be too tired to go all out, which translates into burning fewer calories during your workout than if you had properly fueled up beforehand. Ideally, you should have a meal three or four hours before a workout, or a snack one to two hours before exercising.

HIDE THE TV!!!

One of the best ways to avoid overeating and under-exercising is to turn off the TV, says William Dietz, MD, PhD, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies have shown that the more TV people watch, the less they move and the more they weigh. And if Jeopardy or Entertainment Tonight are your nightly dinner companions, you’re probably eating more too. Where your kids watch makes a difference in their weight too: Research also shows that children with TVs in their bedrooms are more likely to be overweight.

Reduce the number of TVs in your home, and don’t watch TV during meals, directs Karen Lewis, program director of the Washington, DC-based TV-Turnoff Network. “If a TV is the focal point of your room, move it to a less prominent location,” she says. Or hide it in an entertainment center that has a door you can close, cover it with a beautiful piece of fabric or a quilt, or put a painting on an easel or a folding screen in front of it. And before you turn it on, check a program guide to see if there’s anything you really want to watch.