Category Archives: Staying Fit

Improve exercise sessions by carrying a cold thermos?

Posted on March 20, 2012 | Comments Off

Can holding a cold thermos help you lose weight?

From Joe:  Reporter  Anahad O’Connor reviewed the evidence indicating that you might improve the quality of your exercise sessions by carrying a cold thermos around, especially if you are overweight. You don’t use it for hydration but for cooling purposes!

…the scientists recruited obese women, ages 30 to 45, with no other health problems. The women took part in three group exercise sessions a week for three months, and held special cooling devices in their hands as they walked on treadmills and performed lunges and other exercises.  In one group, the devices circulated cold water, but in the other group, the water was room temperature.

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Chocolate for breakfast? Oh, yeah!

Posted on February 10, 2012 | Comments Off

A new study shows chocolate for breakast may help you keep the weight off.

From Eileen:  Be still my heart! A new study by Tel Aviv University researchers shows that eating sweets after breakfast may help you lose weight in the long run.

The study included 200 non-diabetic patients who were considered obese by clinical definition. Each was randomly assigned to a group who either consumed a 300-calorie breakfast or a 600-calorie breakfast, which always included some sort of sweet treat.

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Is it time to start planning your next vacation?

Posted on September 20, 2011 | Comments Off

From Joe: That looks like an odd question to find at TheFittestLoser. But I recently encountered some information about vacation planning that made me wonder if thinking and planning about vacations might be similar to thinking and planning other journeys – real and metaphorical – we take in life. In a recent “how to” article giving tips for planning vacations, Michelle Higgins summarizes what scientists have found about how your happiness is affected by vacation trips. It turns out that your anticipation of the vacation plays an extremely important role in the effect your vacation will have on your overall happiness. In many cases, the anticipation and planning of the vacation will create more happiness than the vacation itself! Hence, Ms. Higgins advises us to relish the anticipation of the event:

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One more thing to exercise … your willpower

Posted on September 7, 2011 | Comments Off

  From Eileen: The hardest part of any diet and/or exercise program is … staying on the diet and/or exercise program.

 We get tired. We get tempted. We give in. We give up. It happens to us all.

 And then we berate ourselves for our lack of willpower.  A new book called, appropriately enough, “Willpower” by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, examines the mysteries and vagaries of self control. The authors compare willpower to a muscle that needs to be built up.

 In a review in the New York Times, noted author Steven Pinker writes:

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Zumba and yoga on the road

Posted on August 17, 2011 | Comments Off

Walking is a great way to burn off calories while in San Francisco, but it's not the only way.

From Eileen:  We all know how easy it is to fall off the exercise wagon when you are on the road. A trip to San Francisco last week reminded me how hard it is to keep motivated when you are off your regular routine.

 San Francisco is a great walking city and there are plenty of hills to get your cardio in, but  there also are any number of places to pack in the calories!

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Cupcake fantasies = diet disaster

Posted on August 3, 2011 | Comments Off

Dreaming of a cupcake to reward yourself for all that dieting work? Well, you may have to reframe your fantasies.

From Eileen:  A friend of mine started a big-time diet and exercise program last week. She jumped in with her typical gregarious enthusiasm, setting up sessions with a personal trainer, reading food labels, packing her lunch, counting her calories … and telling everyone “This is it, guys! This is it!”

 After the first week, she stayed on course, losing a pound. Not a smashing success, but a great start nonetheless. She was pretty pleased with her progress. Slow is OK because this was it, the real deal.

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Learn to like what you see and, eventually, you will like what you see

Posted on July 29, 2011 | Comments Off

A new study shows improving your self image can help you reach your fitness goals.

From Eileen:  We at the Fittest Loser often talk about how your thinking strongly influences your doing. In other words, how you focus your attention has a lot to do with how you behave.
 
  A new study by the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity shows that if you can improve your body image, you can actually improve your body.  Basically it goes like this:  If you like your body, you are more likely to do right by it.

As reported in Science Daily:

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Is it possible to get fit in six minutes a week?

Posted on July 22, 2011 | Comments Off

What if you could get fit and possibly lose weight in just six minutes a week?

From Eileen:  The biggest excuse everyone has for not exercising, of course, is the “I don’t have enough time” lament.

 I’ve talked about that before in terms of importance … meaning if something is important enough to you, there’s always enough time. (There’s always enough time to eat and sleep and watch TV, right?)

 But here’s another way to attack the time problem:  What if you could get fit in just six minutes a week? Yep, six minutes a week!

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For healthy choices, shop with a cart, not basket

Posted on July 20, 2011 | Comments Off

Will a basket or a cart determine how healthy your grocery choices are?

From Joe:  When you are shopping to eat healthy, does how you hold your items make a difference in the kinds of items you select?

Consumer Reports reporter Maggie Shader would answer “Yes!”

She cites a study which found that carrying your items in a basket leads you to make unwise choices. Carrying items in a basket …

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Wanting Fitness Benefits, Hating Fitness Effort

Posted on June 24, 2011 | Comments Off

If you want to change your life, you have to change yourself. Or, at least part of yourself.

From Joe:  We’ve talked about it before: Converting lifestyle changes into permanent improvements is a major potential stumbling block for everyone who wants to develop better health and fitness practices. That’s why I’m always harping on the importance of framing the issue as one where you change your life by changing your self. Or at least a part of yourself. In the final analysis, that’s the only thing over which you might truly have control.

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