Change Is In The Air!

Hey fitness fans,

Did you know that research has shown that self-change is a staged process? We move from not thinking about changing a behavior, to thinking about it, to planning to change, and then testing out ways to do it before we actually start.

I started thinking about writing a years ago. I can’t even recall how far back…it’s that far! I would dream up stories in my head for a novel; and I’ve had designs of a book about fitness and food. The words would flow into my mind so effortlessly, but somehow I could never find the courage to put pen to paper. These inspirations would come in waves. For instance, on a three hour bike ride I would have written the outline and first chapter for the novel I’m considering. But because I didn’t take Action when I had the inspiration all those perfect lines of prose would fade away and I’d have to start over… again, and again and again. Well, as you can see I’m now a blogger as of March ’10. But I was in the preparation stage for about three to six months before this; and it seems like I was in the pre contemplation stage forever!!! But now that I’m in the Action stage? I feel great!!

I’m sure this is how many of you feel when you start to think about getting fit, or changing the program your stuck in that’s just not working, or losing weight. So let’s get you to your Action stage for whatever it is you want to change about your fitness and health and wellness.

Here is something I learned of value in my Wellness Coaching certification. http://www.wellcoach.com/

When we think about changing or adopting a behavior, questions we ask ourselves are:

• Why do I really want to change the behavior (the benefits or “pros”)?
• Why shouldn’t’t I try to change the behavior (the obstacles or “cons”)?
• Do my “pros” outweigh my “cons?”
• What would it take for me to change the behavior and overcome my “cons” (what’s my strategy)?

To move forward, our “pros” must outweigh our “cons” and we need realistic strategies overcome our “cons”.

Behavioral scientists recognize 5 stages of readiness to change behavior:

 Precontemplation (I won’t or I can’t in the next six months)
 Contemplation (I may in the next six months)
 Preparation (I will in the next month)
 Action (I’m doing it now)
 Maintenance (I’ve been doing it for at least six months)

A number of techniques can help you move from not thinking, to thinking, to planning, to doing, and to continue doing.

Print out this questionnaire and place it somewhere strategically(like on your fridge, at your computer, maybe your gym bag) where it will be in the forefront of your mind throughout the day.

1. The goal or behavior I want to work on first is:
2. My reasons for wanting to accomplish this goal (same as change this behavior) are:
3. The obstacles standing in the way of my changing this behavior are:
4. The efforts I made toward changing this behavior in the last week are:
5. My goal for next week with respect to this behavior is:
6. My readiness to change this behavior is (type yes beside the level that best describes where you are):

Ø I won’t do it
Ø I can’t do it
Ø I may do it
Ø I will do it
Ø I am doing it
Ø I am still doing it

Good Luck!

Remember, Stay “Fit4theday” with debbyk!

P.S.: Feel free to email me with your progress, make comments, or ask for advice.

Are you lovin’ that fitness feeling?

Hello all my fitness fans,

Ya know?… I JUST LOVE BEING SO FIT. I know and love that feeling, down to my bones and through to my heart. It is truly invigorating. And I know I was born to spread the word and feel the force. Over the years I have honed the skills needed to connect my mind to my body and experience my body down to a cellular level. But this didn’t just happen overnight. I had a vision, put pen to paper, made a commitment, and mapped out my plan to get the body I wanted, along with the high level of fitness and wellness that I have achieved thus far. I’m not going to sugar coat anything. There were some detours along the way and I put in long hours and made what most of you would call ‘sacrifices’. But I guarantee that once you find your path and make that commitment and start making changes-small at first-you will feel powerful. And when fitness and wellness becomes you, you will be none other than intoxicated by the feeling it imparts, and you will never go back to being the unfit YOU.

Embarking on the journey to fitness and wellness is undeniably transformative, a testament to the commitment and unwavering dedication one invests in sculpting both body and mind. As I delved deeper into the realm of well-being, I discovered the profound connection between inner and outer strength. Ageyn, a guiding principle that encapsulates the cyclical nature of personal growth, became an integral part of my wellness philosophy. It is the acknowledgment that this journey is not a linear path; rather, it’s an ongoing evolution that requires adaptability and resilience. Just as seasons change, so does our approach to health. Ageyn, like the rhythm of a heartbeat, pulses through this wellness journey, reminding us that growth is a perpetual dance between dedication and self-discovery.

Are you really ready to change? The questionnaire in my next blog will set you on your way to being the fittest and most powerful you. So, stay tuned for my next blog……

Remember, ‘Stay Fit4theday with Debbyk’

Women’s fitness by Deb Kaplan

HI Everyone!
Every January most of us make some type of commitment towards making our lives better. I’m no different. Although the top resolutions are usually to lose weight and get on a fitness plan, mine was slightly different and I was not living up to my commitment: to write and blog. In fact, that was on the top of my ‘to do’ list: to start my fitness blog. The reason? Well, I have been in this industry for over 25 years. I walk the talk, have experimented on myself with almost every type of exercise routine and trend, including supplements and nutrition, and I was there at the inception of the fitness craze back in the ’80’s. I have truly been a testament and witness to it’s growth and transformation. Not to mention I am considered one of the fittest women around and want to show off my hard fit body! So now I think it’s about time to bring to you my more than 25 plus years of experience in this industry. Yah, I know, New Years was well over 3 months ago. “Where have I been, and where was my blog?”, you are asking. Well, better late than never!. So, I’m up and ‘running’ so to speak!

I will post a bit more about myself in my profile and bio, and as you follow me you will learn more about who I am and what drives me to be my best and how I can help you get to where you want to be in your fitness and wellness program. Stay tuned for great videos, pictures and posts.

Follow my blogs and stay tuned for all sorts of information on Health, Fitness, Motivation, Nutrition, and your general well being.

Happy trails and stay ‘fit4theday with debbyk’

Are chocoholics’ dreams coming true? – CNN

Click on the link to read it at CNN

ALBANY, Georgia (AP) — It’s every chocolate lover’s wish that their favorite indulgence could somehow be healthy for them. Now, chocolate makers claim they have granted that wish.

Mars Inc., maker of Milky Way, Snickers and M&M’s candies, next month plans to launch nationwide a new line of products made with a dark chocolate the company claims has health benefits.

Called CocoaVia, the products are made with a kind of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin and may even lower blood pressure. The snacks also are enriched with vitamins and injected with cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy.

But researchers are skeptical about using chocolate for its medicinal purposes and experts warn it’s no substitute for a healthy diet.

“To suggest that chocolate is a health food is risky,” said Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Recent research has not established a link between flavanols and a reduced risk of cancer or heart disease, she said. And with obesity already a serious health problem, “the last thing we need is for Americans to think they can eat more chocolate.”

A paper published by the American Heart Association concluded that chocolate contains chemicals, including flavanols, that have the potential to reduce heart disease. But it added researchers still don’t know enough about flavanols to make dietary recommendations.

Other major chocolate companies also have started promoting the flavanol content of their dark chocolates, such as Hershey’s Extra Dark, introduced last fall with highlights on its label touting its 60 percent cocoa content and high level of flavanol.

Dark chocolate, which contains more flavanols than regular chocolate, is the fastest growing segment of the $10 billion-a-year chocolate market. Hershey reports that its dark-chocolate sales have grown 11.2 percent over the past four years.

Scientists in food fight over soda – CNN

This is an interesting article from CNN that’s reprinted here with a link to CNN’s website that’s in the title of this post.

Scientists in food fight over soda

Monday, March 6, 2006; Posted: 10:17 a.m. EST (15:17 GMT)

(AP) — Low-fat, low-cal, low-carb. Atkins, South Beach, The Zone. Food fads may be distracting attention from something more insidiously piling on pounds: beverages.

One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid. The nation’s single biggest “food” is soda, and nutrition experts have long demonized it.

Now they are escalating the fight.

In reports to be published in science journals this week, two groups of researchers hope to add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don’t just go hand-in-hand with obesity, but actually cause it. Not that these drinks are the only cause — genetics, exercise and other factors are involved — but that they are one cause, perhaps the leading cause.

A small point? In reality, proving this would be a scientific leap that could help make the case for higher taxes on soda, restrictions on how and where it is sold — maybe even a surgeon general’s warning on labels.

“We’ve done it with cigarettes,” said one scientist advocating this, Barry Popkin at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Comparing soda and obesity to tobacco and lung cancer is a baseless crusade, industry spokesmen say.

“I think that’s laughable,” said Richard Adamson, a senior science consultant to the American Beverage Association. Lack of exercise and poor eating habits are far bigger contributors to America’s weight woes, he said.

“The science is being stretched,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of nutritional sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He owns stock in beverage companies and has done extensive research in the field, much of it financed by industry but also some by government.

However, those making the case against soda include some of the nation’s top obesity researchers at prestigious institutions like Harvard and Yale.

“There are many different lines of evidence, just like smoking,” said Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard pediatrician who wants a “fat tax” on fast food and drinks.

Beverage companies seem worried. Some are making sodas “healthier” by adding calcium and vitamins, and pushing fortified but sugary sports drinks in schools that ban soda. This could help them duck any regulations aimed at “empty calorie” drinks, said Jennifer Follett, a USDA nutritionist at the University of California in Davis.

“Even defining ‘milk’ is getting tough these days,” with so many flavored varieties and sweetened liquid yogurts, she complained. “It tastes like you’re sucking on ice cream.”

Proving that something causes disease is not easy. It took decades with tobacco, asbestos and other substances now known to cause cancer, and met strong industry opposition. It would be especially tough for a disease as complex as obesity.

Diet is hard to study. Most people drink at least some sweetened beverages and also get calories from other drinks like milk and orange juice, diluting the strength of any observations about excess weight from soda alone.

Children are growing and gaining weight naturally, “so we have this added complication” of trying to determine how much extra gain is due to sweet-drink consumption, said Alison Field, a nutrition expert at Harvard-affiliated Children’s Hospital in Boston.

“Given these caveats, it’s amazing the association we do see,” she said.

She was among hundreds of scientists who packed a “mock trial” of such drinks at a conference of the Obesity Society last year in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Here is the “food police” indictment of soda and its sugar-sweetened co-conspirators. You be the judge:

Count One: Guilt by association.
Soft drink consumption rose more than 60 percent among adults and more than doubled in kids from 1977-97. The prevalence of obesity roughly doubled in that time. Scientists say these parallel trends are one criterion for proving cause-and-effect.

Numerous studies link sugary drink consumption with weight gain or obesity. One by Ludwig of 548 Massachusetts schoolchildren found that for each additional sweet drink consumed per day, the odds of obesity increased 60 percent.

Another at Harvard of 51,603 nurses compared two periods, 1991-95 and 1995-99, and found that women whose soda drinking increased had bigger rises in body-mass index than those who drank less or the same.

Count Two: Physical evidence.
Biologically, the calories from sugar-sweetened beverages are fundamentally different in the body than those from food.

The main sweetener in soda — high-fructose corn syrup — can increase fats in the blood called triglycerides, which raises the risk of heart problems, diabetes and other health woes.

This sweetener also doesn’t spur production of insulin to make the body “process” calories, nor does it spur leptin, a substance that tamps down appetite, as other carbohydrates do, explained Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“There’s a lack of fullness or satiety. The brain just seems to add it on,” said Dr. Louis Aronne, a Weill-Cornell Medical College doctor who is president of the Obesity Society.

Two studies by Penn State nutritionist Barbara Rolls illustrate this. One gave 14 men lemonade, diet lemonade, water or no drink and then allowed them to eat as much as they wanted at lunch. Food intake didn’t vary, no matter what they drank.

The second study gave 44 women water, diet soda, regular soda, orange juice, milk or no drink before lunch. Total intake was 104 calories greater for those given caloric beverages than those given diet soda, water or no beverage. Caloric drinks didn’t help women feel any fuller either.

Then there is the “jelly bean study.” Purdue University researchers gave 15 men and women 450 calories a day of either soda or jelly beans for a month, then switched them for the next month and kept track of total consumption. Candy eaters ate less food to compensate for the extra calories. Soda drinkers did not.

Count Three: Bad influence on others.
Sugar-sweetened beverages affect the intake of other foods, such as lowering milk consumption. Popkin contends they also may be psychological triggers of poor eating habits and cravings for fast food.

He examined dietary patterns of 9,500 American adults in a federal study from 1999-2002. Those who drank healthier beverages — water, low-fat milk, unsweetened coffee or tea — were more likely to eat vegetables and less likely to eat fast food.

Conversely, “fast-food consumption was doubled if they were high soda consumers and vegetable consumption was halved,” he said.

Harvard epidemiologist Eric Rimm saw a similar effect in a different federally funded study of more than 5,000 young adults. With high soda consumption, “you see this pattern of less healthy intake across the board,” he said at the obesity meeting.

Count Four: Consistency of evidence.
Many studies of different types link sugary drinks and weight gain or obesity. Some even show a “dose-response” relationship — as consumption rises, so does weight.

Collectively, they meet many criteria for proving cause and effect, Dr. William Dietz, director of nutrition at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in an editorial accompanying a study in February’s Journal of Pediatrics.

In rebuttal, Adamson, the beverage industry spokesman, sees no such consistency. He cites a 2004 Harvard study of more than 10,000 children and teens. Consumption of sugar-added beverages was tied to body-mass index gain in boys but not girls, a gender difference that warrants a “jaundiced eye” to claims that soda is at fault, he said.

He also points to a Harvard study finding no link between weight changes and soda consumption among 1,345 North Dakota children ages 2 to 5 — a group that arguably drinks far less soda than teens and adults.

“Whatever association there is doesn’t seem to be large,” said Richard Forshee, deputy director of the Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy at the University of Maryland who has received research funding from the beverage industry and global sugar producers.

As for soda being linked to poor eating patterns, “you don’t know which is cause and which is effect,” Drewnowski said.

People who consume lots of fresh-squeezed juice, vegetables and fruits are fundamentally not the same as those who subsist on colas and bologna sandwiches, he contends.

“There is a difference: The first group is rich,” Drewnowski said. He thinks government subsidies of fruits and vegetables would be better public policy than taxing a cheap source of calories.

He also disputes the claim that soda calories are not satisfying. He did a study in which 32 men and women were given either colas or fat-free Raspberry Newtons before lunch on four separate occasions.

“There was absolutely no difference in satiety” as measured by how much they ate or how hungry they said they were, he said.

That research was paid for by industry, a factor that can affect study outcomes, said Kelly Brownell, a psychologist and food policy researcher at Yale University and a vocal advocate for curbs on soda and fast food.

When you look at studies according to who footed the bill, “the literature parts like Moses parting the ocean,” he said, referring to the biblical parting of the Red Sea.

Does the evidence add up to a conviction of soda?

One of the nation’s leading epidemiologists who has no firm stake in the debate, the American Cancer Society’s Dr. Michael Thun, thinks it does.

“Caloric imbalance causes obesity, so in the sense that any one part of the diet is contributing excess calories, it’s contributing causally to the obesity,” Thun said. “It doesn’t mean that something is the only cause. It means that in the absence of that factor there would be less of that condition.”

Does it merit a warning on soda cans?

“I think it would be a good candidate for a warning,” Thun said. “It’s something that should be seriously considered.”

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.