Sugar, sweet sugar—a delightful minute on the tongue in exchange for what feels like a lifetime on the hips. But weight gain isn’t the only consequence of eating too much sugar. Ready for the not-so-sweet truth?

Over-consumption of processed sugar can contribute to a number of conditions, including tooth decay, type 2 diabetes, hormonal imbalances, overgrowth of candida yeast, chronic fatigue, more severe PMS symptoms, anxiety—and yep, even wrinkles. On the other hand, if you start to cut sugar out of your diet, you can shed excess weight, increase your energy, improve your concentration, improve your moods, and possibly steer clear of diabetes. Ready to kick-start your sugar detox? To help you out, I’ll let you in on some reasons why we get addicted and how to read food labels for hidden sugars. I’ll also give you some tips on how to start your sugar detox so you’ll have a much better chance at living a long, vibrant, and disease-free life.

Why we crave sugar. According to AskDrSears.com, “Sweets trigger an increase in the hormone serotonin—a mood-elevating hormone. The body and brain get used to this higher level of serotonin and even depend on it for a sense of well-being. So when our serotonin level dips, (we dip) into the (sweets) to ‘correct’ the situation.” According to the Web site, sweets also “trigger the release of endorphins . . . the brain’s natural narcotics, helping you to relax when stressed.”

You’ve probably noticed that although sugar gives you an initial high (a rapid spike in your blood sugar), you crash several hours later, leaving you wanting more. It’s because sugar takes away more energy than it gives. Eventually, you find yourself exhausted, anxious, and moody. I know I’ve definitely experienced this crash too many times.

Is the sweet taste worth the unpleasant effects? Think gaining weight is the only negative effect of consuming too much sugar? Nancy Appleton, PhD, author of Lick the Sugar Habit, describes some surprising ways sugar intake can negatively affect your health:

• Suppresses the immune system’s defenses against bacterial infections
• Increases the risk of blood clots and strokes
• Contributes to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and difficulty concentrating
• Can lead to hypoglycemia, kidney damage, an elevation in harmful cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, and tooth decay
• Helps speed the aging process, including wrinkles and gray hair

The list goes on . . .

Make the decision to detox from sugar. The first step in breaking a sugar addiction is making the decision to stop eating it completely for at least a few days to start to get it out of your system. While it’s usually best to make dietary changes gradually, sugar has the unique ability to inspire cravings that are refueled every time you give in to them. The only way to break the cycle is to stop feeding the fire. Then your cravings should subside substantially. Continue to resist large amounts of sugar and actively avoid situations that cue you to eat sweets. And whether you’re at work, at home, or at a party, just because a cookie is sitting out on a table in plain sight, that doesn’t mean you have to eat it.

Ask yourself why you’re eating sugar before you put it in your mouth. Are you eating out of habit? Because of circumstance? For a special occasion? Because everyone else is? Watch yourself like a lab rat. Begin to face your truth by keeping a food journal. I like to jot down what drives me to eat sugar, when I crave it, where I eat it, why I want it, and how I get it. For example, do you pop up out of your desk chair in search of cupcakes the second you hear people at the office singing “Happy Birthday”? Journaling can be helpful preparation for stomping out your sugar habit by making you aware of why you’re eating it.

Begin to eliminate sugar from your diet. For thousands of years, people ate whatever sugar occurred naturally in their diets, and it didn’t seem to be a problem; it was a treat. Registered dietician Becky Hand reports that the typical American now eats the equivalent of about 31 teaspoons (124 grams) of added sugar every day (about 25 percent of the average person’s daily caloric intake), and that sugar alone adds up to almost 500 extra calories each day! Our bodies simply weren’t designed to handle this massive load. The American Heart Association recommends that added sugar should be limited to no more than 6 to 7 percent of your total calories (not including naturally occurring sugars found in fruit and dairy products.) To put this in perspective, if you eat 1,200 calories a day, you should limit your intake to 21 grams of sugar per day. That’s the equivalent of about 6 ounces of low-fat fruit-flavored yogurt or one 8-ounce glass of orange juice.

To begin eliminating sugar from your regular diet, simply cut out foods with sugar, white flour, and high fructose corn syrup—including cakes, cookies, pastries, and most desserts. It’s okay to have a dessert or sugary snack on occasion, but make sure it’s not your main dish. Although sugar is generally found in desserts, added sugar can also be found in your main and side dishes, and even sauces. Look closely at the labels of processed foods, cereals, and sauces—like ketchup, barbecue sauce, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, and dressings. You can usually find nutritious alternatives with less sugar that taste just as good.

If you’re a Team Beachbody^® Club member, you can get a personalized, balanced online meal plan to ensure that you’re getting the proper nutrition you need to meet your health goals. You can even use the food analyzer to search for the nutritional makeup of various foods, so you’ll know which ones are high in sugar and should be avoided.

Eliminate hidden sugar. As you begin to decode ingredient labels, it’s really important to know all the other words for sugar and sugar alcohols. Here’s a hint: Look for words that end in “-ose.”

• Agave nectar/syrup
• Cane juice crystals
• Cane sugar
• Caramel
• Corn syrup
• Corn syrup solids
• Carob syrup
• Dextrin
• Dextrose
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrate (apple, grape, or pear)
• Galactose
• Glucose
• High fructose corn syrup
• Honey
• Lactose
• Maltose
• Malt syrup
• Molasses
• Sorbitol
• Sucrose

Trick your taste buds. Using spices and herbs can trick your taste buds into thinking you’re eating something sinfully sweet. Try adding cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, or other sugar-free flavors and spices to your coffee, cereals, or other dishes and drinks that could use an extra kick.

Eat a healthy breakfast. What you eat for breakfast will actually influence your food choices for the next 12 to 15 hours, and influence your energy levels, moods, and overall sense of well-being. Dr. Joe Klemczewski, PhD, explains that eating a healthy breakfast balanced between lean protein (like egg whites) and slower-digesting complex carbohydrates (like oatmeal) will help you have good energy throughout the day, stabilize your blood sugar, reduce cravings, and make wiser food choices. Typically, your blood sugar is at fasting levels when you wake up in the morning. If you start the day off with a muffin and a latte, you’re choosing to ride the roller coaster for the rest of the day. If, on the other hand, you begin your day with a veggie omelet and fruit or some oatmeal, you’re opting for a balance of foods that will be absorbed at a slower rate. Then you’ll have a steadier flow of blood sugar that’s far easier to keep balanced than if it were fueled by a muffin, a bagel, or a cup of coffee dosed with sugar and cream.

Eat throughout the day. The best way to avoid impulse eating when you’re overly hungry is to eat several small meals, spaced throughout the day. This will keep your blood sugar more stable than eating the traditional two or three large meals spaced farther apart from one another. Schedule your meals around your body’s needs rather than around your to-do list if you can. You’ll find it much easier to stop eating once you’re full; to make smart food choices from a rational, calm place; and to maintain even moods and energy levels. Eating balanced meals is essential for getting real satisfaction from what you eat and leaving cravings behind. For most people, this means approximately 50 percent of your meal should be vegetables or fruit, and the rest should be split between protein (beans, meat, dairy, etc.), grains, and a bit of oil or other fat. However, everyone’s a little different, and you should experiment to find what works best for you.

High-fiber foods fill you up—yet they bring less fat to the table, says Barbara J. Rolls, PhD, the Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at Pennsylvania State and author of The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan. Plus, eating high-fiber foods allows you to eat a higher volume of food while ingesting fewer calories. It’s a concept called “energy density”—the number of calories in a specified amount of food, Rolls explains. Some examples of energy-dense foods are: apples (skin on) and bananas, avocados, flax meal, and kidney beans.

Find alternatives for when you have a craving. Make sure you find alternative foods and activities that you actually enjoy. If they aren’t satisfying, you’ll eventually abandon them for your old habits. When I’m craving something sweet yet healthy, I usually go for either low-fat Chocolatey Cats Cookies (for People) from Trader Joe’s^® (only 9.9 grams of sugar per serving) or chocolate Shakeology^® (only 9 grams of sugar)—that’s not bad for a sweet treat. Yep, I’m a sucker for chocolate, but I can still enjoy the taste without overdosing on sugar!художник на икониИкони на светци

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Don’t let these common mistakes become the EXCUSES that you use for why you aren’t getting RESULTS!

1. Large/Infrequent Meals – If you still believe that starving yourself and only eating once or twice a day is going to help you lose weight, you could not be more wrong. When you don’t eat small, frequent meals throughout the day, your metabolism slows down considerably, and your body goes into “starvation mode” – in other words, your body thinks it is not going to get nutrients very often. Then, when you do eat that “well-deserved” meal late in the day, your body stashes away as many calories from that meal as it can in preparation for the next starvation period. Those calories are stored as body fat, usually in your stomach, legs, butt, and any where else your body can find to keep it. Having large, infrequent meals is the opposite of losing body fat.
2. High Sodium Low-fat Foods – The majority of the foods that we eat get their flavor from 1 of 3 things: Fat, Sugar, or Salt (sodium). If you are shopping in the alleged “healthy section” – especially in the frozen foods area – you are probably mesmerized by the Low-Fat labels on everything. What those labels DON’T tell you, however, is that in order to make those foods taste good, they are instead stuffed with carbohydrates and/or sodium, both of which retard your body’s ability to burn body fat and show off the muscles underneath. In addition, since people equate “low fat” as being a low-calorie alternative, they tend to eat more total calories than their bodies need, and those extra calories – despite coming from a low-fat food source – still end up getting stored as body fat. You might as well just eat ice cream and at least enjoy the indulgence, because from a weight loss perspective, those low-fat foods are usually not going to actually help you lose weight.
3. Lack of Challenging Exercise – Are you one of those people who says that they exercise every day because they take a walk after dinner? Or – even worse – do you honestly think that “just 20 minutes a day 3 times a week” is going to help you lose weight? Here’s your Tip of the Day – “If you aren’t sweating and/or exerting yourself beyond your comfort level, you aren’t exercising at an intensity level that is going to get you results.” Yes, any exercise is better than no exercise, but if you want to actually lose weight – rather than just appease your guilty conscious – you need to workout hard, you need to workout frequently, and you need to challenge yourself past your previous limits EVERY time you exercise.
4. Incorrect Reaction to Injuries/Illness – How many times has a cold, a bug, or a minor injury caused you to stop working out altogether? Just because you aren’t at 100% of your normal capabilities does NOT mean that you can just give up and do nothing! Yes, take a few days if you’re sick and then get right back on track afterward. If you’re injured, take as much time as you need to heal the injured part of your body, but you still need to work the rest of your body. Just because you have an upper body injury, doesn’t mean you can’t do cardio or leg workouts. If your lower body is hurt, then do chest, shoulder, arm, ab, and back exercises. Don’t let an injury or illness completely sideline you from the game when all you really need to do is modify your approach.
5. Lifestyle Changes – Life is going to come by and smack you in the face from time to time – it happens. Divorce, drama, loss of a job, health concerns about yourself or someone you care about – these things happen. However, they are NOT an excuse to just give up – to the contrary, actually. The more life is a battle for you, the more you need to be EQUIPPED for that battle. Whether that means losing weight and skyrocketing your self-confidence, or if it means beefing up your body’s defenses by engaging in a consistent, effective exercise program, the bottom line is the same; the tougher your life is, the tougher YOU need to be to handle it. Rough times are not a time to give up – they are a time to RISE up!
6. Poor Planning – Your “best intentions” to really stick to your workout program or your nutrition plan are nothing more than self-indulgent hot air if you don’t back up those intentions with actual, consistent work towards those goals. A lack of planning on your part does not mean that your body is going to forgive you and start releasing body fat even though you forgot to bring a healthy lunch, or because you left your workout towel in the dryer at home. Plan out your day (or your week) in advance to be sure that with regard to your nutritional needs or your workout regimen, you are prepared every single day to do what you need to do to get results. At the end of the day (week, month, year, or decade), your body doesn’t care about your lack of planning. All it cares about is whether or not you did the work.

If any or all of these reasons that your body holds onto body fat are a part of YOUR lifestyle, now is the time to make a change. Don’t beat yourself up because of what you’ve done in the past – just plan and follow through on doing better in the future. At the end of the day, you are either overweight, or you’re not. And YOU are the only person who controls that.

If you are ready to make a positive change in your health or your fitness, check out the home exercises and at home workouts in our Fitness Store. We offer FREE, on-going coaching to all of our customers who are willing to take control over their lives!

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If dieting and nutrition are your biggest weight loss challenges, spaghetti squash is definitely something you should add to your menu in place of pasta. It’s filling and tasty, yet drastically more healthy than actual pasta. Check out this short video and see how easy it is to make.

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Also, you can make it even more filling by simply adding more lettuce, which is all but devoid of calories, but it still fills you up. This is a HIGHLY recommended dish!

Credit for this recipe goes to Mark’s Daily Apple.

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It’s pretty standard health and fitness information that lean meats and healthy, complex carbohydrates should be part of your nutrition plan every single day. Chicken is almost pure, 100% protein, and whole wheat pasta is packed with long-term energy producing complex carbohydrates.

This particular dish was delicious, and it did not take Shanna long at all to whip it up!

For access to more than 200 healthy recipes just like this one, as well as a ton of other benefits, be sure to check out the Beachbody Club Membership.

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Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

If you want long-term weight loss and lifelong health, it’s about making smarter choices and doing everything in moderation. Realistically, most people aren’t going to completely give up some of their bad habits or their favorite foods, so even if fad diets were effective, they were never a long-term solution.

So what is the long-term solution then? Practicing moderation, and getting enough exercise to burn off the excess calories that you consume when you indulge in foods and beverages that have more calories than you actually need.

Watch the video below to learn more:

Programs featured in this Video:

• ChaLEAN Extreme
• P90X
• Team Beachbody Community

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

The whole Team Beachbody® community is abuzz about Shakeology and all the health benefits it provides. Steve Edwards answers some of the most common questions about how best to incorporate it into your diet.

Can Shakeology replace one of the meals in my workout program’s meal plan?

In general, meal replacement shakes are designed so that you drink them instead of a meal in order to lose weight. Of course, Shakeology fits into this mold just fine. In fact, given how nutrient-dense it is, I’d say it’s better than anything on the market. But even though it contains an entire day’s worth of many nutrients, it’s still only 140 calories. So, you’ll want to figure that into the equations.

Can Shakeology replace one of the snacks in my workout program’s meal plan?

This is its wheelhouse. Shakeology is formulated as a ridiculously nutrient-rich snack. Because it doesn’t have much fat, its nutrients are put to use very quickly by your body. This makes it a perfect pick-me-up snack when you’re on the go. Better, in fact, than a lot of energy drinks. It won’t have the up-front punch of, say, a Red Bull, but its sustainability should be much greater because it’s not giving you a quick mental boost; it’s providing nutrients that your body needs to get things done.

Its macronutrient ratio—the amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and fiber—somewhat splits the difference between a sports drink, protein shake, and recovery drink. As you know if you’ve read the label, it’s loaded with micronutrients, which are things like phytonutrients, adaptogens, and other scientific-sounding stuff. We refer to these as “micro,” but, nutritionally, they are anything but small. Many of them are absolutely essential for a healthy existence. Shakeology speeds these micronutrients into your system, which enables you to perform better.

Why don’t we hear more about the importance of micronutrients?

Not to dwell too much on conspiracy theories, but, “Big Food,” as we call the American food industry, doesn’t want us focusing on micronutrients because they’ve been destroyed in most of their foods. Things like food processing and pasteurization kill most of the micronutrients in food. These processed foods are then sprinkled with what have been lobbied to be “important” ingredients, which in reality only provide enough nutrition for survival, as opposed to thriving. This, as you can observe by watching society grow larger, is leading to all sorts of problems.

In nature, food doesn’t come this way. It has a balance of nutrients that help sustain life. It’s possible for food scientists to recreate this balance in processed foods, but this is expensive. Essentially, if it doesn’t fit the numbers that shareholders want to see, it doesn’t happen. So they make cheap food and keep us in the dark about nutrition. This is exactly why we’re in the predicament we’re in today—with obesity—because we can make calorie-rich but nutrient-poor food cheaper than we can produce natural food.

This is why Shakeology is designed the way it is. There is no single food in nature with its abundance of ingredients, but we’ve got a lot of ground to make up in our diets and, at its core, this is what Shakeology is doing.

Can Shakeology substitute for something like the P90X® Results and Recovery Formula™ (RF)?

It’s not an exact swap, but you could do a lot worse. When you’re training very hard, like those times when your body is shaking during, say, P90X Chest & Back, RF is better because your body is bonking—essentially out of glycogen, or blood sugar. Anytime you’re in this state, the quicker you can recharge your glycogen the less damage you’ll do to your muscle cells and, hence, the faster you’ll recover. It’s the one and only time sugar is a preferred nutrient in your diet.

Shakeology doesn’t have nearly as much sugar as RF. It only has a little for nutrient transport. But because its other ingredients support your digestive process also, you have rapid assimilation of nutrients. The science from the ’90s showing a small amount of protein can “piggyback” sugar and be put to use more rapidly, during or post exercise, holds true for Shakeology. It’s not as effective as a sports supplement for your hardest workouts, but at any other time, it’s pretty darn good.

How about as a protein shake?

Shakeology has an ample amount of protein. Not as much as many traditional protein shakes, but it has its advantages over many of those. The knock on protein shakes is that they digest slowly, so you can’t drink them when you’re active. Shakeology uses whey protein, which is one of—if not the—most bioavailable sources of protein there is. That means it absorbs quicker into the system than other proteins. Most proteins, especially when you get them in a whole food, take forever to digest. This means that eating protein before, during, or right after exercise is generally a waste because your body is using energy it could be using to exercise to try to digest something that won’t help you for hours. But when you combine whey protein along with Shakeology’s other nutrients, you have a high-protein shake that can fit into many different nutritional slots in your day—something lacking in a standard protein drink.

Should I still bother taking my other supplements if I’m drinking Shakeology every day?

It’s great to take your supplements along with Shakeology, because they will digest more easily. One of the limiting factors with supplements is how well your body can assimilate them, so adding them to something that you know is broken down easily by your digestive system is a plus.

We get the vitamin question a lot because Shakeology has so many vitamins in it already. However, using my above example of processed foods, most of us only get a fraction of the nutrients that we should consume on any given day, even when we’re eating more calories than we should. This is exactly why we have vitamin supplements in the first place. Throw exercise into the equation, which accelerates your body’s usage of nutrients, and you can see why we recommend so many times the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for many vitamins.

It’s important to mention two other variables here as well. First, many—if not most—of our customers are trying to lose weight. This requires reducing caloric intake while adding exercise, which increases our nutrient requirements. Starting to see an equation where multivitamins and supplements make sense? The body can be a complex organism, but this comes down to simple math. The key to losing weight is not about just reducing calories; it’s about finding a way to reduce your caloric intake and still get enough nutrients to keep your body functioning at its highest level. The key to doing this is to seek out nutrient-dense foods. As I said before, you’d be hard pressed to find something as nutrient-dense as Shakeology.

I should also point out that the RDA for vitamins is for everybody, which likely has little to do with you. Imagine one number for every person on the planet, from a 100-pound computer programmer who sits all day to a 350-pound NFL lineman. How absurd is that? Anybody, no matter how big or small, who is doing P90X is no longer an average individual. So chances are the RDA won’t fit the bill if you want your body to perform to its maximum ability.

Remember the movie Super Size Me? The average American only takes something like 600 steps a day, total! That is horrible. You do more than that warming up for a P90X workout! And then you have to consider that the agency responsible for the RDA is lobbied by those giant food companies who are trying to put as few nutrients in their foods as possible. Anyway, I don’t want to get in trouble for recommending that you consider governmental nutritional standards suspect, but do think about what you’re subjecting your body to during P90X when you make your nutritional choices.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about Shakeology?

Price holds a lot of people back, and I can understand that; it looks expensive on the surface. We tend to look at foods in a cost-to-calorie ratio, instead of a cost-to-nutrient ratio. Sure, you can buy a Big Gulp, and you get 800 calories for a dollar (or something like that). But what good are they? There are no micronutrients. It’s man-made sugar, chemicals, and byproducts of genetically modified corn and soy production—no nutrition whatsoever. Whereas if you tried to find all the nutrients in Shakeology in various foods, you’d spend forty bucks.

If you’re serious about your health, you should consider what you spend your money on. People drop three to four bucks a day on things that are a detriment to their health, without batting an eye. We’re talking the price of a latte or smoothie or any number of things that are much worse than that. The consumer is at war with a lot of corporations that are trying to poison them in order to make a quick buck. The obesity trend will only stop when we take some responsibility for our health and begin to make better food choices.

Get with the Shakeology program and start getting RESULTS!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy. —Anonymous

How much fiber should we be getting? If you believe the television commercials that run during the nightly news, we’re not even coming close to getting what we need. Should we be taking pills or drinks or some other supplements to satisfy our fiber needs? I thought maybe I should be, until I went to the store and saw that a small can of a national brand of fiber costs over $12. $12? For something that is literally going to run right through me? Currently, all my extra disposable income is slated to run through the gas tank of my car, not my body, so I decided to take a look at foods that could beef up my fiber intake.

First off, let’s look at what the big deal about fiber is anyway. I used to think of fiber as stringy, ropy stuff, like the threads in celery or cabbage. But fiber has actually become a catchall term for any indigestible material that we consume, not all of which is actually fibrous. Cellulose, the building block of much of the fleshy part of fruits and veggies, is an example of non-fibrous fiber. There is soluble fiber, which dissolves in water and helps stabilize blood sugar by slowing the rate of digestion. There is also insoluble fiber, which, as its name would suggest, does not dissolve in water—although it does attract water in the intestinal tract and, well, without getting too graphic, is responsible for the trains running on time, keeping the mail moving, releasing the payload, etc. Most importantly, more and more studies are linking a high-fiber diet to a decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

For optimal health, nutritionists recommend 30 to 38 grams of fiber every day for men and 21 to 25 grams of fiber every day for women. You can find the fiber content in labeled food as a subcategory under carbohydrates. If you’re counting carbs, you can always subtract the amount of fiber from the total number of carbs, because the fiber will only be visiting your body for a little while, unlike the sugars, which, if not burned for fuel, will likely end up stored as fat. Most studies indicate that Americans don’t get nearly enough fiber, especially with the proliferation of processed foods filled with white flour, which is made only from the fiber-less endosperm of the grain, with none of the bran and germ parts of the grain that provide the fiber. In fact, if you read labels, it’s pretty rare to find any prepared food that has more than a gram or two of fiber. It can make you despair if you think about having to get to the 25 to 38 grams you need every day. So how can you get your daily dose of fiber without eating yourself into a coma? There are some fiber-rich superfoods that can help get you to your daily recommended allowance, without the coma.

1. Legumes. The humble bean (and also chickpea, lentil, and pea) is chock-full of nutritious fiber. A cup of black beans or lentils contains a whopping 15 grams of fiber—half the daily minimum supply required for a man, and more than half of the minimum required for a woman. Chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, have 13 grams of fiber. A cup of peas has 9 grams of fiber. The big winner is the cranberry bean with 18 grams of fiber and 17 grams of protein. Cranberry beans have a creamy texture and a chestnut-like flavor. And the best news about beans is that they’re supercheap! Most dried beans run less than a dollar a pound. That’s a lot cheaper than those gritty supplements, and much tastier.
2. Bran. While not as great a source of fiber as beans, they’re still pretty fiber-rich, and may not have the unpleasant auditory and olfactory effects associated with excessive bean consumption. A cup of bran flakes has about 7 grams of fiber and a cup of oatmeal has 4 grams of fiber. Substituting whole wheat products for their traditional white-flour counterparts is an easy way of working some fiber into your diet without much hassle. A cup of whole wheat spaghetti has over 6 grams of fiber and whole wheat bread has about 2 grams of fiber per slice.
3. Prunes. Not just for old people anymore. Grandpa and Grandma knew what they were doing when they were suffering from constipation. A cup of prunes contains 8 grams of fiber, and their hydrated counterpart, plums, are also excellent sources of fiber—prunes/plums contain insoluble fiber in the skin and soluble fiber in the pulp. A two-for-one special!
4. Artichokes. One medium artichoke contains 6.5 grams of fiber. One cup of artichoke hearts contains 14 grams of fiber and only 90 calories. One of my favorite snacks or appetizers is to get one of those little jars of marinated artichokes (in vinegar, not in oil) and treat myself to eating the whole jar as an afternoon snack or hors d’oeuvre before dinner. Tasty and filling, you’ll eat less at dinner, and put a serious dent in your daily fiber tally.
5. Brussels sprouts. Yes, they look like the alien heads from Mars Attacks!, but these little powerhouses pack almost 7 grams of fiber into a one-cup serving and only about 60 calories. Not everyone is enamored with their slightly chalky taste. I recommend a generous spritz of lemon juice and maybe a dash of soy sauce or Tabasco to enhance the flavor. A sprinkle of Parmesan cheese is delicious, too.
6. Asian pear. According to the Micronutrient Center of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, the Asian pear is one of their five fiber-rich superfoods (legumes, bran, prunes, and quinoa are the others). One 3-inch diameter fruit contains a whopping 10 grams of fiber, the most of any similarly sized fruit. And because it has a higher water content than its European brethren, it only contains around 100 calories. So you can crunch your way to a cleaner colon.
7. Quinoa. Relatively new to us in the U.S., quinoa has been a South American staple for over 6,000 years. The edible seeds of the quinoa plant have 10 grams of fiber in a one-cup serving and also 8 grams of protein—in fact, quinoa seeds contain many essential amino acids that are missing from rice, proving to be a good substitute for rice. If you check your local health food store, and even some supermarkets, you can find quinoa plain, and as a main ingredient in many cereals, breads, and salads.
8. Nuts. Not just filling, heart-healthy snacks, nuts are great sources of fiber (but highly caloric, so nosh carefully). A quarter-cup of almonds has 4 grams of fiber and about 200 calories. It’s another great snack for between meals. Watch out for the salt content in the hickory-smoked varieties. Also, it’s a good idea to portion out a serving size beforehand, so you don’t absentmindedly munch a thousand or so calories from a big bag.

A high-fiber diet has been found to help prevent many different types of cancer. Check out this Beachbody News Network (BNN) report for other tips to lower your risk.

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

Welcome to the Beachbody News Roundup, where we sit in front of our computers for hours on end seeking out the latest fitness and nutrition news so you don't have to!

Last month, we cited a number of studies showing how important exercise is when it comes to your health and longevity. This month, we're reminded that recovering from that exercise, as well as everything in your stressful lifestyle, is just as vital. Sleep was the headline of five different studies this month! (See the previous article.) And you can bet that none of them encouraged that you get less rest. Before we get to that, let's start with something encouraging—finally!—about the obesity epidemic.

1. Kids getting fitter? We may have finally turned the corner on the obesity epidemic. It looks as though all this yappin' everyone is doing (well, us anyway) is finally getting through. A study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has indicated that the percentage of American children who are obese has leveled off after increasing each year over the last 25 years.

   Even so, across the board, experts warned that it was premature to celebrate.

   "That is a first encouraging finding in what has been unremittingly bad news," said Dr. David Ludwig, director of an obesity clinic at Children's Hospital Boston, to the Associated Press (AP). "But it's too soon to know if this really means we're beginning to make meaningful inroads into this epidemic. It may simply be a statistical fluke."

   According to the study, roughly 32 percent of children were overweight but not obese, 16 percent were obese, and 11 percent were extremely obese. Those levels held steady since 2005–06 after rising without interruption since 1980. CDC data reported last year showed that obesity rates for men also held steady from 2003–04 to 2005–06, at about 33 percent after two decades of increasing. The rate for women, 35 percent, remained at a plateau reached in 2003–04. "Without a substantial decline in prevalence, the full impact of the childhood epidemic will continue to mount in coming years," warned Ludwig. That is because it can take many years for obesity-related complications to translate into life-threatening events, including heart attacks and kidney failure. Dr. Reginald Washington, a children's heart specialist in Denver and member of an American Academy of Pediatrics obesity committee, summed up the situation to the AP, saying, "We still have a long way to go."

   Source: Tanner, L. "Heart Disease Study hints obesity epidemic among US children has peaked." AP News Wire. May 28, 2008. JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org; CDC: http://www.cdc.gov.

2. Breakfast is back! The "most important meal of the day" is back, according to Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, of the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela. She conducted a study showing that those on a "big breakfast" diet lost weight better than those on a low-carb diet. In the study, two groups ate low-calorie diets and lost similar amounts of weight during the initial phase. However, the low-carb group participants gained most of their weight back over time, whereas those who at a large breakfast continued to lose weight.
   And according to Jakubowicz, women who ate a big breakfast reported feeling less hungry, especially before lunch, and having fewer cravings for carbs than women on the low-carb diet. It's important to note that the "big breakfast" was highly nutritious, well balanced, and not "big" by most people's standards, around 600 calories—about half the daily caloric consumption of each participant.

   Source: "Big, Well-Balanced Breakfast Aids Weight Loss." Reuters. June 20, 2008.

3. Fresh news for freshmen. The good news is that the "Freshman 15" is actually the "Freshman 5," according to a study released by the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. The bad news is that those who do gain weight during their freshman year tend to follow this road to obesity.

   "It's still alarming because that happened over six to seven months," Dr. Janis A. Randall Simpson told Reuters Health. "If young women going to university continue to put on weight at that rate it could be very problematic."

   The most interesting aspect to the study was that these women tended to neither overeat nor drink excessive amounts of alcohol. Most of the weight gain seemed to come from reducing their amount of physical activity. Simpson suggested that this may be because most girls play a sport or participate in PE in high school, while in college, they may spend this extra time studying.

   Source: Harding, A. "Freshman 5 may put young women on road to obesity." Reuters. June 16, 2008.

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It's almost summertime, which means you should fire up the grill and enjoy the great outdoors. It all sounds pretty healthy, until somebody shows up with a bowl of mayonnaise and potatoes, which, without a trace of irony, they'll announce as a salad. It's like calling a stick of butter a nutrition bar. A few side dishes like this, combined with some fatty hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, and ice cream, and bathing-suit season can become caftan season before you know it. But if you only invite the neighbors over for celery sticks and tofu kabobs, you can count on getting the stink eye from everyone next time you're out mowing the lawn. The secret to throwing a great barbecue is to find ways of eating healthily without making it seem like last call at fat camp. Fortunately, with so many great foods available during the summer months, it's easy to plan a menu that will taste great and let you keep your figure.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when planning your outdoor culinary excursions, so you can picnic without the pounds, still enjoy good food, and keep you and your family and friends healthy.

1. Veg out. The cookout doesn't need to be a celebration of the weather being so good that we can now eat the unhealthy foods we used to eat in front of the TV in the backyard. It's summer, after all—the time of year when all the best fruits and vegetables peak. And grilling vegetables is a great way to get tons of flavor without adding tons of calories. Delicious on their own or as complements to another dish, grilled veggies are must-haves for a healthy cookout. Use them in salads, on burgers, or by themselves. Check out what's fresh at your local farmers' market.

   Good veggies for grilling include peppers, asparagus, artichokes, eggplant, zucchini, squash, scallions, and onions. Just brush them with a little olive oil, some fresh herbs, and a pinch of salt and pepper, and you're serving something healthy that you and your guests can load up on—guilt free.

2. Herbal remedies. Only the worst chefs need to rely on fat and salt for seasoning. Now's the time to stock up on fresh basil, oregano, tarragon, dill, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, etc. Or even better, grow your own. Oftentimes, a pot of living basil from the nursery costs less than a handful of leaves from your produce section. Use fresh herbs liberally in all of your recipes, and you can replace fat with flavor.

3. Hold the mayo. Nothing lays waste to the best-laid plans for a healthy barbecue like mayonnaise. A main ingredient in such picnic staples as potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw, mayo loads up enough fat and calories to make the fact that the dishes stay out in the sun long enough to cause salmonella poisoning your only hope of weight loss. Try substituting healthier ingredients like yogurt or low-fat ricotta cheese for mayonnaise, and adding fresh herbs and other ingredients. Instead of mayonnaise, use yogurt and fresh dill in your potato salad. Make a whole-grain pasta salad with cherry or grape tomatoes, fresh basil, and balsamic vinaigrette.

4. Don't be so starchy! There's no law that says every picnic "salad" needs to begin with potato or pasta. There are plenty of salad recipes out there that are so delicious, no one will miss their starchy, fatty counterparts. How about making that old-time favorite, three-bean salad? Or if you want something a little heartier, lentils, mixed with a light vinaigrette, a little onion or garlic, some fresh herbs, and a sprinkling of feta cheese, will fill you up and give you enough energy to play more than horseshoes and lawn darts later.

   Make some simple fresh vegetable salads. Slice up some tomatoes or cucumbers, and toss them with a bit of vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh herbs, and onions or garlic. You'll have a refreshing side dish that will fill you up without filling you out.

5. Know your cuts of meat. It's not just a game on Letterman. While of course, substituting your rib eye with skinless chicken or fish would be the BEST nutritional decision, we know you're not made of stone. Sometimes it doesn't feel like a barbecue without the scent of grilled steak or pork in the air. But not all cuts are created equal. For beef, the best rule is to look for cuts with the word loin or round. Other great lean cuts are flank steak, skirt steak, tri-tip, and London broil. With pork, the leanest cuts are the tenderloin and loin chops.

   With both pork and beef, try to avoid anything involving the ribs, which have the fattiest cuts of meat, including rib eyes. And those baby back ribs will make you look like you're having the baby. Because of their low fat content, most of the lean cuts will need to be marinated for a couple of hours before grilling. Read on for marinade ideas.

6. Lay off the (store-bought) sauce. One of the main ingredients in most store-bought barbecue and teriyaki sauces is high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Even the most casual Beachbody® reader knows how we feel about HFCS. Instead, bust out those herbs you bought or grew in tip #2, and make some gourmet marinades and sauces that won't send your blood sugar into a tailspin. By using ingredients like fresh herbs; citrus juices; olive, sesame, and canola oils; wine; low-sodium soy sauce; and various vinegars, you can liven up your meat dishes and save the sugar for dessert. And when you're planning your marinades . . .

7. Go global. Since the U.S. is one of the most obese nations in the world, maybe it's worth checking out what those in slimmer nations are grilling. How about a Cuban marinade with citrus juice and garlic for your chicken or pork? Or Indian tandoori-style skinless chicken thighs marinated in yogurt and spices like turmeric, curry, or cardamom? Try making your own Japanese teriyaki with sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, and honey, and skip the corn syrup of the store brands. Try out Greek kabobs, Korean barbecue, or Jamaican jerk-rubbed meat—whatever catches your eye or your taste buds. And throwing a barbecue with an international theme sounds a lot more appetizing than a barbecue where the recurring theme is "we're watching our weight."

8. Good dogs. Of course, not everyone is going to be keen on vegetables and treats from foreign lands. Kids, for example. So you're probably going to need some kind of hot dog for these less adventurous eaters. Pretty much anything can end up in a hot dog; but in most cases, hot dogs are tubes full of fatty meat and carcinogenic nitrates—yum! This is where it really pays to read the label. A regular hot dog runs over 200 calories and 18 grams of fat. A turkey frank has half of that. The fat, calorie, and sodium contents of numerous brands and types of dogs vary wildly, so choose carefully. For the less fussy, there are also several varieties of chicken and turkey sausages with gourmet ingredients that are delicious and low in fat and calories.

9. Better burgers. A friend of mine who is highly phobic of meat-borne illnesses like E. coli and mad cow disease had a great idea of asking the butcher to grind up a piece of sirloin or top round that she selected from the meat case for hamburgers. This limits your exposure to contaminants, as there's only one cow involved in the making of a steak, where there could be hundreds involved in the making of a package of ground beef. This also allows you to control the fat content that's in your hamburger. If you have a decent food processor, you could even grind your meat at home and blend in spices, garlic, or onion to enhance the flavor.

   If all this talk of cows and contaminants has put you off beef, you might give a turkey burger a try. But again, read the label. Many packages of ground turkey contain ground skin and other fatty pieces, resulting in a fat and calorie content not much better than ground beef. Try looking for extra-lean or all-white-meat ground turkey. And if you're worried about the bird flu, it might be worth giving veggie burgers another try. If you haven't had one in a few years, you may remember them as I do—some sort of reconstituted cardboard patty that smelled like feet. But there have been great strides in veggie burger technology. In fact, there are a couple of brands a vegan friend of mine refuses to eat, because they taste too much like meat. Try a couple of different brands. You may be surprised.

10. Topping it off. When you're putting together the topping trays for your grilled delights, you can also save a few calories. The traditional lettuce, tomatoes, and onions are great, but skip the cheese, mayonnaise, and corn-syrup-laden ketchup. Instead, try using some of those same grilled veggies from #1 on your burger or chicken breast. Or add a slice of avocado if you miss the creaminess of melted cheese. Put out a variety of mustards, hot sauces, and salsas, which are low in calories, fat, and don't usually contain corn syrup. Don't forget to look for whole-grain buns for your dogs or burgers, or try eating them open-faced or bunless, if you're trying to cut carbs.

11. Just desserts. Well, you've behaved admirably during the rest of the barbecue, so you deserve a little summer treat. Have a little bit of ice cream (although frozen yogurt would be even better, and plain yogurt better yet!), but heap a bunch of fruit on it instead of a dollop of fudge or a side of pie. After all, what we said about vegetables goes for fruit too. This is the time of year during which you can get your hands on the best fruit, at the lowest prices. Indulge in berries, peaches, oranges, melons, and all your favorite seasonal fruits. Make a huge fruit salad, or blend fruit with yogurt and ice for a smoothie. Or for those with ambition and an ice-cream maker, try making your own fruit sorbet. You may decide to skip the ice cream after all!

Hopefully, these suggestions will help make your summer barbecue a huge success. And in the worst-case scenario in which you end up being forced to partake in your neighbor's annual Salute to Mayonnaise, you can always use Beachbody's 2-Day Fast Formula® to minimize the damage before the next pool party! And, of course, you can also use Hip Hop Abs®, Turbo Jam®, Slim in 6®, or one of our varied programs to suit your post-mayo pounds.

If you'd like to ask a question or comment on this newsletter article, just email us at mailbag@TeamBeachbody.com.

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!