Today at Titan

Okay, so following the coaching camp that I attended this past weekend, this everybody, is called a “teachable point”.

Jessica, are you listening?? Just kidding…kinda.

For many years, there have been people making millions of dollars off of “fad diets”. What is a fad diet you ask? Well, the Atkins, the Zone, and the South Beach diet are the first ones that come to mind. Do they work? Sure, but do they promote healthy eating habits….no. The simply remove one of the three main components of food which are either carbohydrates, proteins, or fats from your diet. That is why once you quit the “diet”, the weight comes back, sometimes quickly, because when you reintroduce the component of food that you removed, and your body stores it again to restore the balance of the three.

So what is the answer? How do I maintain my current weight? How Do I lose weight safely and effectively? Simple, here are the equations you can burn into your memory:

calories in = calories out = same weight
calories in > calories out = see picture above, left
calories in < calories out = see picture above, right

Get it? Jessica, are you listening?? Just kidding…sorta.

A new study appears in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, was led by Harvard School of Public Health and Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana. Researchers randomly assigned 811 overweight adults to one of four diets, each of which contained different levels of fat, protein and carbohydrates.

Though the diets were twists on commercial plans, the study did not directly compare popular diets. The four diets contained healthy fats, were high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables and were low in cholesterol. Nearly two-thirds of the participants were women. Each dieter was encouraged to slash 750 calories a day from their diet, exercise 90 minutes a week, keep an online food diary and meet regularly with diet counselors to chart their progress. There was no winner among the different diets; reduction in weight and waist size were similar in all groups.

“The hidden secret is it doesn’t matter if you focus on low-fat or low-carb,” said Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the research.
Limiting the calories you consume and burning off more calories with exercise is key, she said.

Yeah, yeah, I know…it’s been more than a month since I put a new post on the blog, but like every other small business owner right now, I’m going the extra mile and burning the candle at both ends just to make the ends meet. Until I came across this article that is linking impending heart trouble with this bad economy. It came as a large dose of my own medicine. Then I ate some fruit, went for a run, went to see my doctor, stayed away from the bar, did yoga, ate a bowl of oatmeal (but not instant), and checked my blood pressure at Target.

“We’ve seen an increase in patients complaining about heart palpitations, anxiety and stress over the past months,” Karol Watson, an associate professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, said in a news release issued by the school. “Much of heart disease can be prevented. That’s why it is so important to follow a healthy lifestyle and to control your cardiovascular risk factors.”

UCLA cardiologists offer these tips for adults and children in these tough economic times:

* Eat better; exercise more. Eat a healthy diet, including five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. By cooking simple fresh foods at home, rather than indulging in restaurant fare or fast foods, you can save money and your health. Maintaining a good diet and exercise program — even if it’s just 30 minutes of walking around the neighborhood — helps you prevent obesity, which adds to the risk of heart attacks, heart failure and diabetes.
* Don’t skimp on health care. Putting off doctor visits, especially when you have symptoms, hurts your health more in the long run, as does skipping medications or splitting pills to cut costs. Maintain regular checkups. Look at pharmaceutical company prescription programs if medication costs are a concern for you.
* Stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke. Smoking is an expensive habit that greatly increases your risk of cardiovascular problems. Quitting smoking quickly reduces the risk to your heart.
* Reduce stress. Find a positive outlet — such as exercise, meditation or the company of others — to ease stress and improve your health.
* Maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Get your levels checked and talk to your physician about the best plan of action to keep your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels low and your HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels high.
* Check your blood pressure. Hypertension is called the “silent killer,” because it exhibits few warning signs. Today, several effective treatments are available for high blood pressure. If your blood pressure is normal, maintain it with a healthy lifestyle.