Can you relate to this very typical diet story? You start off super-committed and the pounds fly off.  But a few weeks or months later, your enthusiasm and motivation start to peter out, as do the losses on the scale.

If you’re in this boat (or expect to be soon), these weight loss strategies promise to keep things fresh so you don’t lose steam.

Try journaling (not just your food!).  
Keep a special diary to record and process your feelings, challenges, and successes along your weight loss journey. Also jot down the reasons you committed to losing weight in the first place and some of the best “perks” that you’ve experienced so far (maybe it’s an array of complements, or a once-uncomfortable task you can now do with ease).  Re-read your entries often to keep your motivation from stalling.

Micromanage.
Set small goals (i.e., no eating after dinner for a week, or losing 2 pounds this week) and reward yourself after every achievement. Treat yourself to a manicure, a new book, clothes (in your new, smaller size!), a stylish haircut, or another special prize each time you pass another mini-milestone.

Spice up your food. 
If you’re sick to death of oatmeal, tossed salad, and grilled chicken, it’s time for a menu overhaul. Follow these three tips to reignite your taste buds.

• Don’t repeat the same meal two days in a row.
  I can appreciate how easy—and convenient—it is to fall into the same food routine, but that can get old fast. Instead, go out of your way to vary up your breakfast, brown bag lunches, and at-home meals to break through the boredom.
• Buy a healthy cookbook for creative inspiration.
  Work your way through the book one recipe at a time and try all sorts of new, interesting flavors. It’s just like the movie Julie and Julia!
• Experience healthy ethnic cuisine.
  Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, and South American cuisines can be very light and refreshing, and they’re full of delicious flavors and fresh produce. Just choose wisely (no tempura or pasta alfredo, please).

Jazz up your fitness routine.
It may just take some new, high-energy music downloads to rekindle your relationship with exercise. If you belong to a gym but always hit up the same cardio machines, start sampling some of the group fitness classes offered at your club (I promise, you won’t be the only newbie there!).  Or, try taking your workout outside, where you can walk or jog a different route every day. The change of scenery will keep things from getting stale.

Here’s one of my absolute favorite strategies for helping people stick with their exercise routine: buy books on tape (or audiobooks for your iPod) and make a deal with yourself that you’re only allowed to listen to the books while moving (walking outdoors or on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, etc.). As long as you pick interesting books, you’ll be so engaged in the storyline, you’ll actually look forward to working out so you can hear the next chapter unfold!

If all else fails, GO SHOPPING! 
Stand in one of those 180 degree mirrors and really study yourself wearing a smaller pair of jeans. Celebrate your new figure and all the hard work you’ve put into getting to this point.

No doubt about it, losing weight is a struggle at times, but almost every “big loser” will tell you it’s worth the effort. Stay strong and focused…your goal is within reach!

For more info on losing weight and healthy living, visit joybauer.com and follow Joy on Facebook and twitter.

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FROM NYTIMES.COM

It’s no secret that Americans are fatter today than ever before, and not just those unlucky people who are genetically inclined to gain weight or have been overweight all their lives. Many who were lean as young adults have put on lots of unhealthy pounds as they pass into middle age and beyond.

It’s also no secret that the long-recommended advice to eat less and exercise more has done little to curb the inexorable rise in weight. No one likes to feel deprived or leave the table hungry, and the notion that one generally must eat less to control body weight really doesn’t cut it for the typical American.

So the newest findings on what specific foods people should eat less often — and more importantly, more often — to keep from gaining pounds as they age should be of great interest to tens of millions of Americans.

The new research, by five nutrition and public health experts at Harvard University, is by far the most detailed long-term analysis of the factors that influence weight gain, involving 120,877 well-educated men and women who were healthy and not obese at the start of the study. In addition to diet, it has important things to say about exercise, sleep, television watching, smoking and alcohol intake.

The study participants — nurses, doctors, dentists and veterinarians in the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study — were followed for 12 to 20 years. Every two years, they completed very detailed questionnaires about their eating and other habits and current weight. The fascinating results were published in June in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The analysis examined how an array of factors influenced weight gain or loss during each four-year period of the study. The average participant gained 3.35 pounds every four years, for a total weight gain of 16.8 pounds in 20 years.

“This study shows that conventional wisdom — to eat everything in moderation, eat fewer calories and avoid fatty foods — isn’t the best approach,” Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study, said in an interview. “What you eat makes quite a difference. Just counting calories won’t matter much unless you look at the kinds of calories you’re eating.”

Dr. Frank B. Hu, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health and a co-author of the new analysis, said: “In the past, too much emphasis has been put on single factors in the diet. But looking for a magic bullet hasn’t solved the problem of obesity.”

Also untrue, Dr. Mozaffarian said, is the food industry’s claim that there’s no such thing as a bad food.

“There are good foods and bad foods, and the advice should be to eat the good foods more and the bad foods less,” he said. “The notion that it’s O.K. to eat everything in moderation is just an excuse to eat whatever you want.”

The study showed that physical activity had the expected benefits for weight control. Those who exercised less over the course of the study tended to gain weight, while those who increased their activity didn’t. Those with the greatest increase in physical activity gained 1.76 fewer pounds than the rest of the participants within each four-year period.

But the researchers found that the kinds of foods people ate had a larger effect over all than changes in physical activity.

“Both physical activity and diet are important to weight control, but if you are fairly active and ignore diet, you can still gain weight,” said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health and a co-author of the study.

As Dr. Mozaffarian observed, “Physical activity in the United States is poor, but diet is even worse.”

Little Things Mean a Lot

People don’t become overweight overnight.

Rather, the pounds creep up slowly, often unnoticed, until one day nothing in the closet fits the way it used to.

Even more important than its effect on looks and wardrobe, this gradual weight gain harms health. At least six prior studies have found that rising weight increases the risk in women of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and breast cancer, and the risk in men of heart disease, diabetes and colon cancer.

The beauty of the new study is its ability to show, based on real-life experience, how small changes in eating, exercise and other habits can result in large changes in body weight over the years.

On average, study participants gained a pound a year, which added up to 20 pounds in 20 years. Some gained much more, about four pounds a year, while a few managed to stay the same or even lose weight.

Participants who were overweight at the study’s start tended to gain the most weight, which seriously raised their risk of obesity-related diseases, Dr. Hu said. “People who are already overweight have to be particularly careful about what they eat,” he said.

The foods that contributed to the greatest weight gain were not surprising. French fries led the list: Increased consumption of this food alone was linked to an average weight gain of 3.4 pounds in each four-year period. Other important contributors were potato chips (1.7 pounds), sugar-sweetened drinks (1 pound), red meats and processed meats (0.95 and 0.93 pound, respectively), other forms of potatoes (0.57 pound), sweets and desserts (0.41 pound), refined grains (0.39 pound), other fried foods (0.32 pound), 100-percent fruit juice (0.31 pound) and butter (0.3 pound).

Also not too surprising were most of the foods that resulted in weight loss or no gain when consumed in greater amounts during the study: fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Compared with those who gained the most weight, participants in the Nurses’ Health Study who lost weight consumed 3.1 more servings of vegetables each day.

But contrary to what many people believe, an increased intake of dairy products, whether low-fat (milk) or full-fat (milk and cheese), had a neutral effect on weight.

And despite conventional advice to eat less fat, weight loss was greatest among people who ate more yogurt and nuts, including peanut butter, over each four-year period.

Nuts are high in vegetable fat, and previous small studies have shown that eating peanut butter can help people lose weight and keep it off, probably because it slows the return of hunger.

That yogurt, among all foods, was most strongly linked to weight loss was the study’s most surprising dietary finding, the researchers said. Participants who ate more yogurt lost an average of 0.82 pound every four years.

Yogurt contains healthful bacteria that in animal studies increase production of intestinal hormones that enhance satiety and decrease hunger, Dr. Hu said. The bacteria may also raise the body’s metabolic rate, making weight control easier.

But, consistent with the new study’s findings, metabolism takes a hit from refined carbohydrates — sugars and starches stripped of their fiber, like white flour. When Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston compared the effects of refined carbohydrates with the effects of whole grains in both animals and people, he found that metabolism, which determines how many calories are used at rest, slowed with the consumption of refined grains but stayed the same after consumption of whole grains.

Other Influences

As has been suggested by previous smaller studies, how long people slept each night influenced their weight changes. In general, people who slept less than six hours or more than eight hours a night tended to gain the most. Among possible explanations are effects of short nights on satiety hormones, as well as an opportunity to eat more while awake, Dr. Hu said.

He was not surprised by the finding that the more television people watched, the more weight they gained, most likely because they are influenced by a barrage of food ads and snack in front of the TV.

Alcohol intake had an interesting relationship to weight changes. No significant effect was found among those who increased their intake to one glass of wine a day, but increases in other forms of alcohol were likely to bring added pounds.

As expected, changes in smoking habits also influenced weight changes. Compared with people who never smoked, those who had quit smoking within the previous four years gained an average of 5.17 pounds. Subsequent weight gain was minimal — 0.14 pound for each four-year period.

Those who continued smoking lost 0.7 pound in each four-year period, which the researchers surmised may have resulted from undiagnosed underlying disease, especially since those who took up smoking experienced no change in weight.

Why does exercise make us happy and calm? Almost everyone agrees that it generally does, a conclusion supported by research. A survey by Norwegian researchers published this month, for instance, found that those who engaged in any exercise, even a small amount, reported improved mental health compared with Norwegians who, despite the tempting nearness of mountains and fjords, never got out and exercised. A separate study, presented last month at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, showed that six weeks of bicycle riding or weight training eased symptoms in women who’d received a diagnosis of anxiety disorder. The weight training was especially effective at reducing feelings of irritability, perhaps (and this is my own interpretation) because the women felt capable now of pounding whomever or whatever was irritating them.

But just how, at a deep, cellular level, exercise affects anxiety and other moods has been difficult to pin down. The brain is physically inaccessible and dauntingly complex. But a recent animal study from researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health provides some intriguing new clues into how exercise intertwines with emotions, along with the soothing message that it may not require much physical activity to provide lasting emotional resilience.

For the experiment, researchers at the institute gathered two types of male mice. Some were strong and aggressive; the others were less so. The alpha mice got private cages. Male mice in the wild are territorial loners. So when then the punier mice were later slipped into the same cages as the aggressive rodents, separated only by a clear partition, the big mice acted like thugs. They employed every animal intimidation technique and, during daily, five-minute periods when the partition was removed, had to be restrained from harming the smaller mice, which, in the face of such treatment, became predictably twitchy and submissive.

After two weeks of cohabitation, many of these weaker mice were nervous wrecks. When the researchers tested them in a series of stressful situations away from the cages, the mice responded with, as the scientists call it, “anxiety-like behavior.” They froze or ran for dark corners. Everything upset them. “We don’t use words like ‘depressed’ to describe the animals’ condition,” said Michael L. Lehmann, a postdoctoral fellow at the institute and lead author of the study. But in effect, those mice had responded to the repeated stress by becoming depressed.

But that was not true for a subgroup of mice that had been allowed access to running wheels and nifty, explorable tubes in their cages for several weeks before they were housed with the aggressive mice. These mice, although wisely submissive when confronted by the bullies, rallied nicely when away from them. They didn’t freeze or cling to dark spaces in unfamiliar situations. They explored. They appeared to be, Dr. Lehmann said, “stress-resistant.”

“In people, we know that repeated applications of stress can lead to anxiety disorders and depression,” Dr. Lehmann said. “But one of the mysteries” of mental illness “is why some people respond pathologically to stress and some seem to be stress-resistant.”

To discern what was different, physiologically, about the stress-resistant mice, the scientists looked at brain cells using stains and other techniques. They determined that neurons in part of the rodents’ medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved in emotional processing in animals and people, had been firing often and rapidly in recent weeks, as had neurons in other, linked parts of the brain, including the amygdala, which is known to handle feelings of fear and anxiety.

The animals that had not run before moving in with the mean mice showed much less neuronal activity in these portions of the brain.

Dr. Lehmann said that he believed that the running was key to the exercised animals’ ability to bounce back from their unpleasant housing conditions.

Of course, as we all know, mice are not people. But the scientists believe that this particular experiment is a fair representation of human interpersonal relations, Dr. Lehmann said. Hierarchies, marked by bullying and resulting stress,  are found among people all the time. Think of your own most dysfunctional office job. (Interestingly, the same experiment cannot be conducted on female mice, who like being housed together, Dr. Lehmann said, so he and his colleagues are testing a female-centric version, in which “cage mates are swapped out continuously,” to the consternation and grief of the female mice left behind.)

Perhaps best of all, Dr. Lehmann does not believe that hours of daily exercise are needed or desirable to achieve emotional resilience. The mice in his lab ran only when and for as long as they wished, over the course of several weeks. Other animal experiments have intimated that too much exercise could contribute to anxiety, and Dr. Lehmann agrees that that outcome is possible. Moderate levels of exercise seem to provide the most stress-relieving benefits, he said. Dr. Lehmann does not have a car and walks everywhere, and although he lives in Washington, a cauldron of stress induction, he describes himself as a “pretty calm guy.”

You probably read headlines this year that screamed: “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin!” Those stories were based on a controversial Public Library of Science study that showed women who exercised regularly for six months were no more likely to lose weight than women who didn’t work out at all.

How could that be? We all know that exercise burns calories; an hour on the treadmill torches 300 to 500.

Here’s the deal: Much of what was written about the study was misleading, says its lead author, Timothy Church, MD, director of preventive research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The study didn’t focus on calories; all participants followed their regular diets.

What the study showed, Dr. Church says, is that exercise alone, especially if you eat poorly, may not help you lose weight. “Exercise doesn’t give you carte blanche to eat whatever you want,” he says. “People think an hour on a treadmill burns off a whole chocolate cake. In reality, it’s half a slice.”

It’s true that exercising without dieting—or worse, piling on calorie-rich food just because you worked up a sweat—won’t lead to weight-loss success, agrees Susan Roberts, PhD, professor of nutrition at Tufts Univer-sity. But dieting without exercise isn’t the answer, either.

In fact, The National Weight Control Registry, a group that follows how 6,000 people have lost weight and kept it off, found that the most successful participants work out at least 30 minutes every day. The truth: Combining smart dieting and regular exercise offers the best chance to reach your weight-loss goals.

FROM VEGNEWS.COM

Give your cooking the gourmet treatment with this exquisite salad. Spicy, flavorful quinoa and roasted sweet potatoes complement cool slices of avocado, and pan-friend tortilla strips add the perfect crunch.

Serves 4

What You Need:

• 1 cup quinoa, cooked in vegetable stock and cooled to room temperature
• 1/2 jalapeño, minced
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, minced and divided
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 4 tablespoons plus 3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Canola Oil
• 2 corn tortillas, cut into 1/4-inch strips
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• Juice of one lime
• 2 tomatillos in olive oil, skins removed
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon light agave nectar
• 2 avocados, diced
• Microgreens

What You Do:

1. In a medium bowl place quinoa, jalapeño, 1 tablespoon cilantro, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste, and toss to combine.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, toss the sweet potatoes with 2 teaspoons olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes, or until soft in the middle and lightly browned; be careful not to let the sweet potatoes burn.
3. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, toss the tomatillos with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Transfer to a food processor, add the vinegar, 1/4 cup cilantro, and agave nectar, and pulse to combine. With the motor running, pour in the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil in a thin stream. Continue blending until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour 2 inches of canola oil into a small, heavy pot and heat until the oil shimmers. Add the tortilla strips and fry until crisp and browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with Cajun seasoning.
5. Place a 3-inch ring mold in the center of one of 4 salad plates. Fill with 1/4 of the quinoa mixture and press down with a spoon to pack the mold, smoothing the top. Place 1/4 of the sweet potato pieces on top of the quinoa and press down gently. Top with 1/4 of the avocado and press down gently. Carefully remove the mold. Repeat on the remaining salad plates.
6. Carefully place 2 tortilla strips parallel to each other about 1 inch apart on top of each timbale. Place 2 more tortilla strips perpendicular on top of those. Top the timbales with the microgreens and drizzle the dressing around the timbales.

Good luck, healthy girl!

Food Allergies

If you have an over reactive immune system, then you may have allergies. The symptoms will appear after you have eaten something that the immune system thinks is attacking the body. The immune system then goes into a defense mode to stop the attacker, thus causing the symptoms. Symptoms may vary from person to person and may include headaches, abdominal pain, arthritis, hives, nasal congestion, asthma and many more.

The most common foods that cause allergic reactions are dairy products, wheat, corn, soy and peanuts. If you experience any allergy symptoms you should eliminate these foods from your diet for a few weeks and then gradually bring them back into your diet one at a time. This will help you determine which foods you are allergic to. Once you find the culprit, you can eliminate that food from your diet.

Seasonal Allergies and Dairy Products

Seasonal allergies are also the result of the immune system overreacting. But this time the invader is airborne and is usually in the form of pollen, dust or other foreign particles that the system does not recognize. Symptoms usually include sneezing, an itchy and runny nose and difficulty breathing.

One of the biggest reasons that dairy products worsen seasonal allergy symptoms is because dairy contains arachidonic acids, which increase the production of leukotrienes. Leukotrienes restrict the bronchial tubes, thus making it difficult for air to get through. This can bring on the production of phlegm and mucus, which can worsen the symptoms of allergies.

Dairy Products and the Immune System

Dairy and dairy products also play a key role in the weakening of the immune system. When the immune system is weak, it causes an overreaction to certain foods, pollen or dust, and can also make other allergy symptoms worse.

One of the proteins found in dairy that weakens the immune system is casein. Casein in limited quantities is good for you. However, the high amounts of casein found in dairy products is too much for the human body to properly digest. This causes excess proteins to float around the body, which in turn can worsen allergies.

Furthermore, many dairy products contain high amounts of saturated fats, which also contribute to weakening the immune system. These products include milk, butter, cheese and ice cream.

Use lentil or sunflower sprouts, which have a peppery flavor, in this well-textured salad. These sprouts are available in many farmers’ markets but very easy to make yourself (see below). I prefer black or red quinoa in this dish because I like the texture, but regular quinoa works as well.

3/4 cup cooked quinoa, preferably the red or black variety

1 cup sprouted lentils or sunflower seeds

3 ounces wild arugula or baby arugula (4 cups tightly packed)

1/4 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1/4 cup broken walnuts (3/4 ounce)

1/4 cup crumbled feta (1 ounce) (optional)

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs, like dill, tarragon, chives and parsley

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove, puréed with a pinch of salt

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or use half olive oil and half grapeseed oil

1. Combine all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper, mustard and garlic. Whisk in the oil. Toss with the salad, and serve.

To make sprouts: Place 2 to 3 tablespoons lentils or sunflower seeds in a wide-mouthed jar and cover with water. Soak overnight. Place a piece of cheesecloth over the top of the jar, and secure with a rubber band. Drain the lentils and shake them so that they are not in a big pile, but some are adhering to the sides of the jar. Place the jar in a dark place, like underneath the kitchen sink. Water and drain twice a day for two to three days until the lentils have sprouts about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long. Leave in a sunny place for an hour or two, then refrigerate.

Yield: Serves four to six.

Advance preparation: Cooked quinoa will keep for four days in the refrigerator. The dressing can be made several hours ahead of serving.

Nutritional information per serving (four servings): 307 calories; 4 grams saturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams monounsaturated fat; 6 milligrams cholesterol; 14 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 102 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 6 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (six servings): 205 calories; 3 grams saturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 milligrams cholesterol; 10 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 68 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 4 grams protein

When you work out and the pounds still don’t come off, it can be incredibly frustrating. But what you may not know is that certain habits and physical changes can undermine even the most scientifically proven weight loss strategies, especially after you reach age 40. When Australian and UK researchers reviewed nearly 100 studies on exercise and weight loss, they discovered why those extra pounds won’t budge despite your best efforts. These four targeted fat-fighting tips are the key to turning the tide–so your body will finally shed the weight.

Simple Strategies

Lift weights three times a week It’s the fastest way to build muscle and get results when the scale is stuck. “Research shows that regular strength-training can increase your resting metabolic rate by up to 8%,” says Wayne Westcott, PhD, fitness researcher in Quincy, MA, and author of Get Stronger, Feel Younger. In one 8-week study, women and men who did only cardio exercise lost 4 pounds but gained no muscle, while those who did half the amount of cardio and an equal amount of strength-training shed 10 pounds of fat and added 2 pounds of muscle.

Rest less If you already strength-train, shorten the time you linger between sets. “Taking a brief, 20-second break after each set burns extra calories and accelerates metabolism more than waiting the standard 60 to 90 seconds, studies show,” says Westcott.

Do double-duty moves Trade exercises that isolate a single muscle, such as biceps curls, for multijoint, multimuscle moves like chest presses and squats. “The more muscles you engage at once, the more calories you’ll burn,” he says.

Break up your meals If you’re losing weight (and therefore muscle) by cutting calories, eating five small meals instead of three large ones helps keep metabolism high. Spreading calories throughout the day “keeps blood sugar levels even and controls the release of insulin that can cause your body to store more calories as fat,” says Leslie Bonci, RD, MPH, director of sports medicine nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “And every time you eat, your metabolism speeds up to digest the food.”

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It’s a common scenario: The first 10 or 20 pounds come off easily, but then the scale won’t budge. Plateaus can happen in as little as 3 weeks, find Drexel University researchers. As you drop weight, your body doesn’t have to work as hard simply because there’s less of you to move around, says Michele Kettles, MD, medical director of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. That means your workouts produce a smaller calorie burn For example, if you weigh 180 pounds and lose 35, you’ll melt about 100 fewer calories in an hour-long cardio class–which can slow down further weight loss. And as you get older, injuries or arthritis can make it difficult to do vigorous, high-impact activities that help compensate for this calorie deficit.

Simple Strategies

Get your heart rate up Watching TV or reading while you exercise can lower your workout intensity–and your calorie burn. Instead, pay attention to your pulse, suggests Kettles. For best results, stay between 60 and 80% of your maximum heart rate. To estimate your MHR, subtract your age from 220. Then multiply your MHR by 0.6 for the lower end of your target heart rate zone and by 0.8 for the upper end. For example, if you’re 40, aim for 108 to 144 beats per minute. (For easier tracking, invest in a heart rate monitor.)

Diversify The more comfortable you become with a routine, exercise class, or fitness DVD, the less effective it gets. To continue to lose weight, you need to challenge your body in new ways. “Even replacing one exercise can create enough of a surprise to keep results coming,” says Kettles. Try this: The first week of every month, do a new upper-body exercise; the second week, a new lower-body one; the third, a new abs move; and the fourth, a different type of cardio (cycling instead of walking, for example).

3. Be a stealth calorie burner

It may happen subconsciously, but studies show that some people move less after they begin an exercise regimen. When women and men, average age 59, started to work out twice a week, their everyday activity decreased by 22%, according to research from the Netherlands. The reason for the slowdown, experts speculate, may be postworkout fatigue or the perception that if you exercise, you can afford to skimp on the small stuff. Wrong! Little activities such as standing instead of sitting, fidgeting, and walking more throughout the day can add up to an extra 350 calories burned per day, according to Mayo Clinic studies. Other research shows that a decrease in these everyday actions may shut down an enzyme that controls fat metabolism, making weight loss tougher. And even daily half-hour to hour-long workouts aren’t enough to turn it back on.

Simple Strategies

Track nonexercise activity Record your daily step counts with a pedometer on a couple of days when you don’t work out. Then calculate your average (add up your daily totals and divide by the number of days tracked). If you don’t maintain at least this level of activity every day, your fat-burning ability will decline. For instance, if you normally log 5,000 steps a day but skip half of them on days you work out, it could slow weight loss by up to 50%–even though you’re exercising.

Post reminders One study showed that signs encouraging people to take the stairs increased usage by 200%. To motivate yourself, stick notes on your bathroom mirror, microwave, TV remote, steering wheel, and computer that simply say: Move more!

Set up weekly physical outings You’ll be less likely to blow it off if you make a commitment to someone else. Plan a hike or bike ride with your family, help clean out a friend’s garage, or volunteer to walk your neighbor’s dog.

4. Halt hunger hormones

When 35 overweight women and men started exercising, researchers found that some of them compensated for their workouts by eating as much as 270 extra calories a day–negating more than half of the calories they burned, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity. “Some research shows that exercising regularly can trigger the release of ghrelin, an appetite-stimulating hormone meant to protect the body from losing weight too quickly,” says Bonci. To make matters worse, appetite also appears to increase as you approach menopause because of declining estrogen levels, according to animal studies.

Simple Strategies

Snack before you sweat “Exercising on an empty stomach lowers blood sugar, which can increase your appetite and set you up to overeat afterward,” says Bonci. To ward off postexercise hunger, have a light (about 100 calories), carbohydrate-rich snack, such as 4 ounces of yogurt or a banana, 20 to 30 minutes before you work out.

Write before you eat Keeping a food diary is a proven weight loss tool, but don’t wait until after your meal. “When my clients record what they’re going to eat, it puts their dietary habits on pause long enough to decide if their food choices are really worth it,” says Bonci. Time your meals If possible, schedule your workouts before a meal. In studies where meals were served 15 to 30 minutes after exercise, participants ate less than those who had to wait an hour or more to eat.

Sip often People who drink water regularly eat nearly 200 fewer calories daily than those who only consume tea, coffee, or soda, reports a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Bonus: Make it ice-cold water. German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day raised metabolism by about 50 calories daily–possibly because of the work it takes to warm the fluid up to body temperature. And every little bit helps!

Good luck healthy girl!

A FRUIT-and-vegetable-based cleansing product Marie Lebair O’Brient uses about every three months makes her feel like she’s getting her eating habits back on track.

After following the vegan, gluten-free Kaeng Raeng cleanse program for three days, her taste for salty foods diminishes. She feels more “regular” and is motivated to eat more healthfully. The regimen replaces all meals with a shake and all snacks with raw fruits and vegetables. It’s worth the $60 investment each time, she says, to detox and lose a little bit of weight.

“It’s a regimen of a few days where I am eating things that are really good for me,” the Moraga resident says. “I am amazed at how good I feel afterward.”

In the past couple of years, cleanse programs — everything from the do-it-yourself lemon juice and maple syrup Master Cleanse to designer cleanses such as Kaeng Raeng developed by a Stanford grad — have become the rage for people who want to lose weight, eliminate toxins from their bodies and gain some oft-needed eating discipline. Hollywood elites such as Beyoncé Knowles and Ryan Seacrest say they’ve lost weight using them, and Gwyneth Paltrow says a 21-day regimen she regularly follows helps give her “mental clarity.”

Depending on the program — and there are hundreds if not thousands on the market — anecdotal reviews are generally shining. But health professionals warn that people are wasting their money on cleanses and, at worst, they are risking their health.

Unlike some cleanses that promise dramatic weight loss in mere days with the help of starvation fasts or added stimulants, there’s nothing sneaky or nefarious about Lindsay Reinsmith’s Kaeng Raeng cleanse or the CAN CAN Cleanse developed by San Francisco’s Teresa Piro.

Reinsmith’s Kaeng Raeng follows the principles of a raw vegan diet. A cleanser uses her powders — which contain more than a full serving of fruit and fiber, lean protein, probiotic cultures, amino acids and vitamins — in shakes, and supplements those shakes with raw fruits and vegetables for three to six days. And that’s it. No coffee, no alcohol, no cupcakes or french fries. A healthy dose of water is also prescribed.

“What Kaeng Raeng does is help people get on the right track for long-term health,” Reinsmith says. “It gives people the chance to experience plant-based living. When you’re going on a detox, when you’re abstaining from meat, you get a glimpse of how your body feels in that lifestyle.”

Reinsmith says most people turn to Kaeng Raeng when they’ve “jumped off the wagon,” meaning they’ve found themselves consuming too much fast food, too much salt or sugar and not enough fruits and vegetables.

Piro says her $175 CAN CAN Cleanse — a three-day liquid cleanse program that includes organic fresh fruit and vegetable juices, soups and teas — is a tool to reset the mind and body.

Prompting change

“People tend to make some realistic and healthy changes to improve their diets after the cleanse,” she says.

And although Piro says the cleanse is not a weight-loss solution, “this is a great way to jump-start (a weight loss program).”

People report their cleanses have made them feel lighter. Users notice changes in their hair and skin. Sugar and salt cravings subside, and energy levels increase.

Providers of cleansing products, including Kaeng Raeng and CAN CAN Cleanse, say the process eliminates toxins from the body. And some cleansing proponents can be pretty convincing.

“We’re starting to understand the impact that toxins are having on our bodies and their contribution to almost every type of illness that we’re seeing, especially obesity and diabetes and cancers and neurological diseases,” says Cory Reddish, a Mill Valley-based licensed naturopathic physician who offers a two-week personalized cleanse for $395. “When I say toxins, we’re talking not only about chemicals, pesticides and PCBs but also things we are eating.”

Toxins abound

Add the chemicals found in the air and water with chemicals used in home cleaning products, for example, and additives and preservatives in our food, Reddish says, and you’ll find your body is full of toxins. Cleanses, she says, help remove some of those toxins. The people who participate in her Essential Cleanse, which includes classes, herbal supplements and a detox diet, lose weight and feel much better, she says.

“People start thinking more clearly, their energy is better, their mood is better after a cleanse,” she says. “It’s a result of decreasing the total toxic load in the body.”

But is it necessary?

Thomas Hargrave, a doctor with Alta Bates Summit Medical Center who specializes in the gastrointestinal tract, is clear about claims of toxin elimination by cleanse proponents.

“It’s ridiculous voodoo. All the people who are pushing this stuff have no medical training, and they are basing their claims in these phony ads where they show toxic stuff building up in colons,” he says. “There are no toxins in colons. There is no health benefit and no cleansing benefit.”

Although she says that eating a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables is great for you, Keri Gans, registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agrees that cleanses cannot deliver on all the promises their proprietors make.

“Anything will feel better after a couple days of not eating pure junk,” she says. “And I claim that people who feel better do so because of what they’re not eating, and they are not eating food very high in fats and very high in sugar.”

Toxins, she says, are naturally eliminated by bodily functions.

“Our bodies are normally cleansing every day. That’s why we have livers. I encourage people who feel like they need to clean out their system to eat fiber. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains every day,” says Gans, author of “The Small Change Diet” (Gallery, $15).

As for permanent weight loss, Gans has doubts.

Do it yourself

“Quick weight loss usually means you haven’t changed any of your behaviors,” she says. “You will gain all that weight back and then some because you haven’t learned anything from your actions.”

Save your money and make your own fresh fruit juices and smoothies says Joan Frank, director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics at San Francisco State University.

She warns that cleanses should not be used by children or diabetics, and even healthy people should contact their doctors before they use them.

Frank adds it’s best to avoid toxins rather than relying on a cleanse to flush them out. Buy meat with no antibiotics or hormones added. Use the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program (www.montereybayaquarium.org) to find out which types of seafood have high levels of mercury and other toxins. Eat organic fruits and veggies or visit the Environmental Working Group (www.foodnews.org) to find out which produce has the most and least amount of pesticides used in production.

“The other thing to avoid is processed foods,” Frank says. “There are so many benefits to just eating whole foods, fruits and vegetables, lean meats and poultry. It’s nothing dramatic, but it really works.”