The Blonde Diaries

Think Thin Thursday - Week 1

I was hoping to get started last week with Think Thin Thursdays but you know how my internet connection at home is going.  The latest prediction is that I should have it up and running tomorrow.  We’ll see about that one.  But nonetheless, I am ready to start Thinking Thin and am super glad Bridgette at The Not-So-Blog Blog has started this weekly check-in and goal setting blog posting.  I am going to write down my weight right now so that I have something to remember my starting point.  Right now I am at 156 which is down from my all-time high of 161 in September (bad vacation eating!).  Writing or blogging your weight is not a requirement to participate in Think Thin Thursdays.

This week’s question we are to answer and blog about is:

Tell us one temptation that you were faced with this week.

How did you overcome it?

Do you think it is appropriate to advertise diet pills in health magazines?

This morning I was flipping through an old edition of Shape magazine looking for some new health tips to include in my blog. I was flipping towards the back and started to hit the advertisement section right before the closing article. You know what I’m talking about because most magazines have this same layout. Anyways I started looking at the ads more closely and noticed there were a lot for diet pills. I thought it was strange that a magazine that prided themselves on healthy lifestyles, healthy diets, and healthy exercises would allow ads for diet pills especially when most if not all are worthless when it comes to losing weight. How many Hydroxycut reviews have you read lately to learn that it is just a waste of money? I know I have come across a few which have been disheartening since I bought the stuff to try.

So what do you think? Should fitness magazines allow diet pills and the likes to advertise or no because most are proven ineffective?

The key to successful weight loss revealed??

Visualizing your weight loss is one thing but actually making it happen is another and guess what? That visual you have of yourself in the smaller size/special dress/special jeans may not be enough motivation for you to lose the weight. In fact the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has found through a study the cold, hard cash is actually one of the best motivators. I can attest to that with the program my company is running now.

The study found that employees who were promised $14 for every 1 percentage drop in body weight shed about a third more pounds than those who received just $7 and more than double those not given any cash at all.

Makes sense doesn’t it? When you have a financial motivator you usually do things you hadn’t thought or wanted to before (as long as they aren’t illegal and immoral in most cases). So how can you transfer that to affect you? Well you can check with your company to see if they have any programs to help motivate you to lose weight and get in shape and join them. You can also start a drive with your friends/coworkers/loved ones where you set some criteria like $1 each time you hit the gym or $5 each time you skip the gym and at the end of a time period that you all set you can split the pot between all participants with the person who did the best or lost the most getting the largest percentage and have it trickle down so everyone gets something for trying.

Health tip #17

One of the disagreements Mike and I frequently have when it comes to going to the gym and exercising revolves around how often you should be doing weight training and ab exercises. I have always heard and believed that abs are a muscle group too and should be treated like all of the others. Meaning, you exercise them and then give them 48 hours to rest. Mike on the other hand just thinks of them similar to cardio equipment and you can exercise them daily. So what do the experts say??

Should you do ab exercises everyday?

NO!!! They are like every other muscle group that need to repair and rebuild between workouts. Do them every other day.

So with that I am going to continue working them out every other day and not every day. I am pretty sure I will get the results I am aiming for without over working them. How often do you do ab exercises?

Healthy tip #16

I am starting to get back into the habit of going to the gym. For some reason, the past three weeks have been very spotty as far as going to the gym and exercising goes. One thing I’ve noticed is that my hamstrings are a little tight with all of my walking and thanks to moving this weekend. I’ve often heard about stretching and how you need to stretch before and after exercising. I’ve often wondered if that will help prevent soreness. Well, according to the healthy tip I want to share with you all tonight, no stretching does not help soreness but it does have the benefits of increasing flexibility and muscle recovery. I think I will continue stretching at least once per workout.

Does stretching prevent soreness?

Stretching increases your range of motion, helps muscles recover after a workout, and just feels good. But British researchers found that stretching has no impact on aches from workouts.