1. Eat Breakfast Later and Dinner Earlier

Intermittent fasting continues to be popular, and many protocols exist. However, fasting for an entire day can be difficult for many people. In that case, you may want to consider time-restricted feeding.

In a small pilot study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science, 13 people ate breakfast 90 minutes later than normal and dinner 90 minutes earlier than normal. After 10 weeks, they lost twice as much body fat on average compared with a control group that didn’t change their meal timing.

Again, fasting isn’t for everyone, but if you are interested and need to eat every day to function at your best, this could be a strategy for you.

2. Go Nuts at Snack Time

Don’t shy away from nuts because they are calorically dense. Having nuts rather than chips, fries, or dessert may help you lose weight, researchers shared at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2018. Eating one ounce of nuts or two tablespoons of nut butter daily was associated with less risk of weight gain over four years, as was having nuts instead of a less-healthy snack.

Just be sure you watch your serving size. An ounce of nuts is about 23 almonds, 18 cashews, 49 pistachios, 21 hazelnuts, 8 medium Brazil nuts, 12 macadamia nuts, 14 walnut halves, or 19 pecan halves.

3. Weigh the Pros and Cons of a Low-Carb Diet

How’s this for confusing: Last February, Stanford researchers published a study concluding that a healthy low-fat diet and a healthy low-carbohydrate diet can both lead to about the same amount of weight loss. Then in November, a study published in BMJ concluded that following a low-carb diet (with 20 percent of your calories from carbohydrates) during weight maintenance may help you burn 250 more calories a day, compared to eating a high-carb diet (with 60 percent of your calories from carbs). As a bonus, low-carb diets may help improve artery flexibility—but only in women, University of Missouri scientists discovered.

The bottom line is: Going low-carb may help, but only if you can stick to the plan. If cutting back on carbs makes you sluggish, then you won’t stick to that diet. No matter your carbohydrate intake, focus on nutrient-rich carbs such as sweet potatoes, whole grains, beans, vegetables, and fruit.

Related: Should You Try the Keto Diet?

4. Shift Your Mindset

Before you sit down to have a meal or snack, think about the health effects of what you are about to eat. This pause may help you naturally select less food, according to a Germany study published in the journal Appetite.

Researchers asked participants to focus on the expected pleasure, their intention to stay full until the next meal, or the health effects of the food while choosing the serving size of their lunch. Compared to a control group, the fullness group took larger portions, while those thinking about health helped themselves to smaller servings. That’s the power of mindfulness.

The post The Best New Science for Weight Loss in 2019 appeared first on Sonima.

1. Drink black tea.

Green tea is not the only beverage that may aid in weight loss. According to a study published in the European Journal of Nutrition last September, black tea may help boost metabolism and promote weight loss by changing gut bacteria. It turns out that both green and black tea appear to be prebiotics, substances that good bacteria in your gut feed on and contribute to good health. So drink whichever you like, but keep in mind that drinking tea alone will not melt away excess pounds; you must also subscribe to healthy eating, in general, and regular exercise.

2. Eat eggs after exercise.

University of Illinois researchers recently discovered that the protein found in whole eggs is better than just egg whites at building muscle. In the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in October, men ate 18 grams of protein from either whole eggs or egg whites after completing a resistance workout. Those who ate the equivalent of about three whole large eggs had about 40 percent greater muscle-protein synthesis than those who ate only egg whites. After your next workout, try this healthy recipe from Sonima’s new resident chef Amie Valpone.

Scrambled Egg Lettuce Cups

Ingredients
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 large eggs
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 head Bibb lettuce
1 carrot, peeled and shaved
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped red onion
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, optional

Directions
1. Pour olive oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Crack eggs into a small bowl and beat with a fork. Transfer into the warm skillet. Use a spatula to pull and fold eggs across the pan from side to side until thickened and no visible egg liquid remains. Remove from the heat.
2. Place lettuce leaves on a flat surface. Place scrambled eggs inside the lettuce “cup”. Top with remaining ingredients, fold, and serve immediately.

Yield
2 servings

3. Try intermittent dieting.

You may not need to cut back on calories day-in and day-out to lose weight. In a study published in the journal Nature in August, 51 obese men followed two diets: Half cut their caloric intake by a third for 16 weeks, while the other half cut their calories by the same amount for two weeks, then took a two-week break from the diet. The latter group followed this pattern for a total of 32 weeks, which means they also dieted for 16 weeks total. At the end, the on-again, off-again dieters lost more weight and kept off an average 18 pounds more than the steady dieters six months afterward. The researchers believe intermittent dieting changes your metabolism. If you are interested in intermittent dieting or fasting, talk to your doctor first to be sure it’s right for you. Warning: Fasting is not recommended for those who are hypoglycemic or diabetic.

Related: Is Personalized Nutrition the Future of Dieting?

4. Consider going vegetarian.

If you need another reason to shift to a plant-based diet, consider the results of a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition last June: Seventy-four adults with type 2 diabetes followed either a typical anti-diabetic diet or a vegetarian one. Not only did those on the vegetarian diet lose almost twice as much weight, they also lost subfascial fat and more intramuscular fat. Subfascial fat has been associated with insulin resistance, while intramuscular fat may help improve muscular strength and mobility. Well-balanced vegetarian diets tend to be lower in calories and fat, and higher in filling fiber, all of which may help with weight loss. However, this diet is no guarantee. Vegetarians may struggle to avoid junk food and poor lifestyle habits just as much as omnivores do.

5. Join an online weight-loss community.

Most things tend to be easier when you’re not alone, including weight loss. A study published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing last November found that participating in virtual support communities and posting about both successes and setbacks makes people more likely to reach their weight-loss goals. Sharing your photos and what works for you helps keep you accountable and motivated, and can be particularly helpful if you don’t have friends or loved ones who are also trying to lose weight. Just be sure to join a community where you feel welcomed and encouraged. Any bad feelings are a red flag that the group isn’t right for you.

Photography by Amie Valpone

The post The Best New Science for Weight Loss in 2018 appeared first on Sonima.

Pete Egoscue, alignment expert and author of the Pain Free book series, reveals several 60-second workouts that can be done anywhere and with minimal equipment required. From “rope abs” to “flutter kicks,” these moves are a great way to get a total-body workout and maintain your fitness. “The more in a workout you can engage your entire body, the more stability and strength you will have, the more effective the exercise becomes,” says Egoscue. These creative and simple workouts may only be a minute long, but there’s no doubt they will make you break a sweat!

The post The 60-Second Cardio Workout appeared first on Sonima.

1. Eat plant protein.

Plant protein has been gaining popularity in recent years, and now there’s even more reason to enjoy it. In a study published last fall in Food Nutrition Research, researchers fed 43 men three different breakfasts: a high-protein patty made of legumes, a high-protein patty made of veal and pork, or a low-protein patty made of legumes. The men who ate the first patty reported feeling fuller, and they ate 95 to 105 fewer calories at lunch. Researchers say the combination of fiber and protein in the legumes helped provide those feelings of satiety. This isn’t to say that plants are necessarily “better” than meat, but rest assured, you won’t starve if you eat plant-based meals.

Try this recipe featuring chickpeas that a friend of mine shared with me a decade ago. You can modify it how you like, adding raw onion instead scallions, various of your favorite spices, apple cider vinegar instead of umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums) vinegar—make it your own!

Chickpea Tuna

Ingredients
1 can (15.5 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
1/4-1/3 cup small diced celery stalk
1-2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
1 tablespoon umeboshi vinegar (this makes it taste more like fish)
Spices to taste, optional (black pepper, cayenne, thyme; Himalayan sea salt)

Directions
1. Place chickpeas in a food processor and pulse two or three times to roughly chop. The texture will resemble tuna if you keep the chickpeas in bigger pieces.
2. Add remaining ingredients and pulse two or three times more to incorporate.
3. Serve on bread with lettuce like a tuna sandwich or as a dip with crackers.

Yield
3-4 servings

2. Add probiotics to your diet.

Although a lot has been said about the connection between probiotics and gut health, we’re now learning how they may play a role in weight management, too. A study published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe at the beginning of this year reported that our gut bacteria may help or hamper our diet efforts. Scientists found that people consuming the standard American diet have less diverse gut microbiome. This means that when you switch to a lower-calorie, plant-heavy diet, it may take longer to reap the rewards. So don’t give up if you don’t see the benefits of a better diet right away.

In an unrelated, meta-analysis of 25 studies, Chinese researchers discovered a connection between taking probiotics and reduced BMI and body weight. The best results seem to happen when you take more than one strain of probiotic for more than two months.

The research on probiotics, such as fermented foods and supplement pills, and weight loss is just beginning, but I am an enormous fan of probiotics. Even if you don’t lose weight, what you often will lose is inches. The number on the scale may be the exact same, but suddenly your pants will zip up easier because probiotics improve digestion and reduce gas and bloating. Each person has to experiment with probiotics, as certain strains are good for certain people at certain times. Our needs change, and so should the probiotics we use.

Related: The Profound Health Benefits of Probiotics

3. Embrace healthy fat.

As much as we all keep saying fat doesn’t make you fat, some people still fear this macronutrient. However, in a study published in The Lancet, researchers put more than 7,000 men and women on one of three diets: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a low-fat diet. Everyone lost weight, but those in the olive oil group lost about a pound more than the low-fat dieters. They also gained less belly fat. The researchers say these results show it’s best not to restrict the intake of healthy fats if you are looking to maintain your weight.

Healthy fats are known to balance blood sugar and slow down digestions, which keeps you more satisfied. That can help you eat less overall and lose weight. Include some healthy fat in every meal. Try my go-to vinaigrette. This is another recipe you can customize. You can add Dijon or whole-grain mustard. For those who like sweet dressings, you can add a teaspoon of honey, and you can use lemon in place of vinegar (you’ll need the juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon).

Mason Jar Vinaigrette

Ingredients
1 cup cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic, apple cider vinegar, or red wine vinegar
Seasonings to taste (granulated garlic, fresh thyme, fresh oregano)
Himalayan sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

Directions
Place all ingredients in a mason jar. Shake well. Keep in the refrigerator.

Yield
6-8 servings

4. Keep your metabolism going strong.

The jaw-dropping weight loss results seen on NBC’s hit show “The Biggest Loser” can make it seem like ultra-low-calorie diets and hours of intense exercise is the only way to drop pounds, especially if you want to slim down fast. Don’t believe everything you see on TV: Scientists followed up with 14 “Biggest Loser” contestants and found that, after six years, they had regained 68 to 90 pounds and their metabolic rate (how many calories they burned at rest) had slowed.

It’s proven that the long-lasting, less-stressful way to lose weight is slow and steady. No matter what diet you choose to follow, if you follow it consistently and exercise regularly, rather than doing anything extreme, your metabolism will balance itself out and stay there. So be inspired by “The Biggest Loser”, but don’t try this at home.

5. Don’t worry about your genes.

If you have the fat gene, also known as FTO, it doesn’t mean you are destined to carry excess bodyweight for life, according to a study published in British Medical Journal in September. Newcastle University researchers analyzed eight studies that looked at how effective different weight-loss methods (diet, exercise, drugs) are for people with the FTO gene. They found that the gene didn’t affect how much weight someone lost, no matter what method they used to slim down.

I’m not surprised by this study. Truth is, we can down-regulate many of our genes. That means if you have a healthy lifestyle, you can reduce the production of certain genes. This gives you some power and control over your weight fate—to a degree. No matter what’s in your family medical records, focus on creating good-for-you habits and being the author of your own health history.

The post The Best New Science for Weight Loss appeared first on Sonima.

According to a new study published in the American College of Sport Medicine’s monthly journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, British researchers discovered that working out is an effective way to make you feel less hungry and even encourage you to take in fewer calories. What’s even more surprising is the types of exercise that may work best for appetite control.

“We’ve found that vigorous exercise suppresses appetite while people are exercising and for a short while afterward, about 30 to 60 minutes,” says David Stensel, Ph.D., associate dean of the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, and prominent researcher in exercise metabolism. That means that the hardest workouts you do—such as boot camp classes and never-ending hill sprints—may be doubly good for weight loss. You burn a ton of calories while working out and may be less inclined to binge after.

Related: Are You Eating Enough for Your Workout?

The benefits don’t end when your urge to eat comes back an hour or so later. “When people’s hunger returns, it is normally not any higher than that of those who are just resting,” explains Stensel. In other words, you won’t feel ravenous and ready to inhale an entire pizza in maybe eight bites.

“In the short term, for the average person, it does not appear to be true that exercise makes people hungrier,” Stensel says. “In the longer term—after repeated days or weeks of exercise—people’s hunger and food intake probably does increase, but in most cases this is not sufficient to match the energy expended during exercise.” In layman’s terms, even if you work out regularly, which reduces the appetite-suppressing effects of exercise over time, you probably still won’t be inclined to go hog-wild at a buffet after a workout.

Part of the reason for this self-control may be pride in your work. Feeling a sense of accomplishment from your fitness routine might override thoughts of food. It’s also biological. Stensel’s research measured the amount of ghrelin (an appetite hormone) in the blood after exercise and found that the dial hadn’t moved much from before the workout. However, when the same people ate a restricted diet (eliminating from their meals the same amount of calories they had burned via exercise) ghrelin increased, as did their feelings of hunger. In fact, the test subjects felt so starved when dieting that they ate a third more at the end of the study, taking in 900+ calories after a dieting compared to only 600+ calories after exercising.

The bottom line: Exercise may be a better way to encourage eating less rather than focusing on diet alone. For the best weight-loss results, focus on high-intensity exercise, making sure you reach around 70 percent or higher of maximum aerobic capacity. That includes running, swimming, jumping rope, cycling, or doing any form of cardio, such as intervals, or simply working at a hard intensity. The longer your workout, the longer the appetite suppression lasts, Stensel says. Low-intensity workouts such as walking don’t appear to suppress hunger though they may distract a person from food (if you’re outside in the park, you’re not in your kitchen, right?), thereby, educing caloric intake. Weightlifting also seems to curb craving, at least while people are exercising, but the effects do not seem to be as strong as high intensity cardio, according to Stensel’s work.

The post The Most Effective Method to Curb Cravings appeared first on Sonima.

You may be thinking, “But don’t I hear weight-loss experts tell me to cut out bread?” Yes, you hear that all the time, as cutting out or reducing the amount of starches and grains that you are eating (especially the refined grains) is a simple strategy for reducing both the total calorie and carbohydrate content of your daily diet—but is isn’t the only strategy.

There Are Many Ways to Lose a Pound

If there is one thing that you can learn from research on weight loss it is that there are a lot of different dietary strategies that you can use to lose weight. One of the most famous examples of this was the A to Z Study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005. This study was heralded as the heavyweight (or lightweight?) championship fight between the Atkins diet, Ornish diet, Zone diet, and Weight Watchers. These diets spanned the carbohydrate spectrum with the Atkins diets restricting carbohydrates the most allowing room for only carbohydrates containing foods like asparagus and broccoli. On the high side, the Ornish diet nearly insisted that all the food you ate contain carbohydrates with very little fat and just enough protein so that you wouldn’t be malnourished.

Related: Is Protein Really Better Than Carbohydrates?

160 people were enrolled in this study and placed in one of these four diet treatments. After 1 full year here’s what the researchers had to say about the study participant’s weight loss success: “[The] amount of weight loss was associated with self-reported dietary adherence level but not with diet type.” The amount of weight a person lost during the study didn’t have anything to do with whether or not their diet allowed them to have bacon or bread for breakfast. The determining factor in a person’s weight loss success was if they followed the diet plan or not.

If You Don’t Like Bread, How About Fruity Pebbles?

In 2008 a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition pitted diets containing whole grains against ones that incorporate refined grains, such as those found in many cereals and processed foods, to see which was a more effective component for driving weight loss. You might be surprised to know that there was no difference in weight loss between the two groups. Unlike Oprah’s announcement about eating bread daily while on Weight Watchers, the publication of this study did not cause Fruity Pebbles stock to increase by 20%. However, it did emphasize the point that in many cases, creating a calorie deficit and exercising is all you need to get started losing weight.

Prioritize Your Vices and Eat or Drink What You Love

Now that we’ve stirred up the idea that there are lots of different diets that you can use to go about losing weight, I want to share with you a strategy that I use with clients to emphasize the fact that weight loss doesn’t need to be entirely about restraint and deprivation. It is all too common when I sit down with clients who ask, “What are you going to take away from me?” Are they going to have to give up their morning coffee with cream and sugar or maybe their end of the day glass of pinot noir? When posed with this question, I usually laugh and then insist that they keep those things in their diets.

Related: The Surprising Upsides to Daily Coffee Drinking

We eat and drink for many reasons other than the calories these things contain. We do it out of habit, out of a mini ritual that we’ve created that makes us feel good. So why do we need to strike that from our lives just because we want to lose a couple pounds? We shouldn’t have to. The tablespoon of cream and teaspoon of sugar in your morning coffee isn’t the thing preventing you from losing weight. Taking the time to make my wife a cappuccino and myself a macchiato in the morning isn’t about the calories in the beverages, rather it’s about the creation and giving process to start out the day. Cutting that out of my day in the name of saving calories seems silly. This is why I implore clients to keep the ceremonial foods that they enjoy and find ways to cut out excess calories at other times of the day. Cut the calories that they aren’t really going to miss. If you eventually stop losing weight and have run through several options, then test if removing an evening glass of wine will jumpstart weight loss and you can decide if it is worth it or not.

In her Twitter video Oprah made it abundantly clear that bread makes her very happy (Tom Cruise jumping on the couch happy!) so I’m glad that she is eating it. Think about it for a minute. One slice of bread only contains around 15 grams of carbohydrates. If you picked a good slice it will also have 3 or 4 grams of fiber (bonus!). A slice of bread is going to contain approximately 100 calories. That isn’t very much. A 100-calorie slice of bread isn’t going to make or break your diet.

So if you love bread, you should find a way to get that piece (or two) into your meal plan. Lost in the hype of the “bread video” was the one line where she said, “I’ve learned to manage it.” She’s not eating all the bread she wants. She has learned how to include bread in her diet while still losing weight—that’s progress.

The Magic Behind Oprah’s Weight Loss

This probably doesn’t come to a shock to you but Weight Watchers has not developed a magical diet bread that allows you to eat as much as you like—there is no such thing. What is the magic that has allowed Oprah to lose 26 pounds over the last several months? It is the magic that happens when a human makes a commitment to seeing something through. She has committed to this process and to her credit she has committed in the past to the same process, relapse but still vowed to change again. That’s the magic. Never giving up.

Not only is she committed to her goal, she has made it known to the whole world what she’s doing. She has created an immense amount of peer pressure to drive herself to succeed. If you knew that every major media outlet in the world was going to cover how much weight you gained or lost over the holiday season, you’d be sure they were going to report significant weight loss!

You can do that same thing, just not at the media mogul Oprah level. You can commit to a plan. You can tell your friends and people that you know what will support you about it (don’t bother telling the negative people in your life about it). You can ask them to hold you accountable to your goals and actions. Use the same positive pressure that Oprah is using to drive her success to drive yours and if you want a slice of bread along the way…go for it.

The post Why You Don’t Need to Give Up Bread to Lose Weight appeared first on Sonima.

Related: 4 Things That Affect Weight That Have Little to Do with Food

It all started about a decade ago when Chaudhary’s migraine headaches had worsened around the time she took on her own medical practice in San Diego. She quickly learned that taking prescription medication to solve one problem led to many others, including weight gain, terrible neck pain, exhaustion, and grogginess. While looking for an alternative solution to her ailments, she turned to Ayurvedic medicine—a 3,000-year-old healthcare system that originated from Chaudhary’s native India—and began combining its ancient practices with her knowledge of Western medicine to stop bandaging her symptoms (as well as those of her patients) and fix them through changes to her diet and lifestyle. In the process, she discovered that when the body is in a toxic inflammatory state, it tends to hold onto excess weight.

“What we are finding is that it’s not just the number of calories that you eat that result in weight gain and disease, such as diabetes. It’s the number of toxic calories that you eat from highly processed foods with unnatural ingredients, like artificial sugars. These foods trigger food addictions and reactions in the body that make weight gain and disease more likely,” Chaudhary says. “In other words, artificial foods are ‘talking’ to your body in a way that causes a disruption in the normal messages sent to your endocrine organs that tell the body to add more fat. Part of the ‘toxic inflammatory state’ that I describe [in my book] involves this hormonal disruption.”

Gut health is another central aspect of Chaudhary’s program. “When undigested particles leave the gut prematurely due to gut permeability (leaky gut) and enter the blood stream, the immune system reacts by sending antibodies to these particles that can also cross react with our own organs,” she says. “A disruption in the gut flora favoring more of the ‘bad’ bacteria further aggravates the problem.” All of these connections inspired Chaudhary to devise a unique program to reduce inflammation and toxin load in patients while simultaneously treating their neurological problems. As a result of adopting this plan, patients saw an unexpected side effect of spontaneous, and sometimes dramatic, weight loss.

So is The Prime a diet or a detox? Chaudhary says it’s neither. The plan is not just about eliminating this or cleansing that. It’s about correcting the biochemical processes impeding your body from maintaining a healthy, disease-free equilibrium. Here are six takeaways from the program that may help you curb cravings, amp up your energy, and rejuvenate your body through healthy weight loss.

1. Realize weight loss takes more than willpower.

When most people talk about weight loss, they tend to make it about having the willpower to avoid bad foods. When this willpower fails—as it almost always does—you may feel defeated for not having the mental strength to achieve your goals. “It’s awful when you have that hopelessness,” Chaudhary told us in a recent interview. She recommends looking at it from another angle.

“[Making it a] willpower issue is not appreciating the sophistication of the biochemistry,” she says. “Being overweight is a biochemical issue, not a personality flaw…There’s only one way to fight biochemistry: with biochemistry,” she writes. In other words, it’s about biology and not your ability—or lack thereof—to pass up office birthday cake. Once you understand this, you can start to reallocate energy spent on being self-critical to making positive changes that lead to real results.

Related: A Science-Backed Strategy to Develop Incredible Self-Control

2. To transform your body, start by training your brain.

Stop dieting backwards. What Chaudhary means by this is that it’s important for you to understand that you are fighting an uphill battle against neuroadaptation. “Neuroadaption is the brain’s amazing ability to adapt to whatever you do to your body. Eat a lot of sugar? Your brain adapts, finding a new equilibrium that makes allowances for sugar. Drink a lot of coffee? Your brain adapts,” she writes. “We are at war with the brain—we want one thing (to feel good) and the brain wants something completely different (to create a stable environment so it can function).”

So how do you overcome this? Start by slowly easing your brain out of this adaptive state that you’ve inadvertently created for yourself. One way to do this is to block neuroadaptation with an Ayurvedic herb called ashwagandha (400 to 500 milligrams per day), which Chaudhary calls one of the most powerful tools for calming the brain, and ultimately, your cravings.

A 2011 report published in the African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines echoes Chaudhary’s praises, confirming that ashwagandha is an effective regenerative tonic that offers anti-stress, neuroprotective, and anti-inflammatory properties, which can help combat diseases like Parkinson, dementia, memory loss, stress-induced diseases, and more. In another 2012 study published in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, researchers found that volunteers taking the plant medicine in capsule form for a month saw a decrease in fat percentage and increase in lean body weight although there were no significant changes in their total body weight and BMI.

3. Eat more anti-inflammatory foods.

First thing in the morning, perhaps while brewing your coffee or stirring your oatmeal, combine a half teaspoon of cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds in four to five cups of water. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes, then strain the seeds, pour into a thermos and sip hot throughout the day. This pleasant-tasting recipe for Prime Tea, as Chaudhary refers to it, is just one of her several simple additions to your daily diet (others include homemade recipes for Prime Juices, Prime Broth, Prime Curry Powder, and more). The goal is to improve digestion and reduce inflammation with these blends.

4. Change your relationship to sugar.

Americans are eating more sugar now than ever. “The average person eats 152.4 pounds of sugar and other sweeteners, ” reports Chaudhary from USDA stats that compare eating habits from today to 30 years ago. The problem with this is that studies have linked this boost in sugar consumption with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. The answer isn’t to eliminate sugar altogether, but rather to change your relationship to it.

To reign in your sweet tooth, Chaudhary recommends the herbs ashwagandha as well as brahmi, a popular herb in India that is sold in capsule form in the U.S. Chaudhary refers to brahmi as a “brain tonic” because of its beneficial effects on cognitive function and specifically how it regulates overloaded and exhausted pleasure circuits. “When you put those two [supplements] together, they’re really fighting the underlying neurochemical process of addiction,” she says. Their goal is to try to change the conversation between your brain and your gut, which gets confused by bad gut bacteria that begs for your food addictions that release the neurotransmitters needed for its own survival. “Once you wipe a lot of the bad bacteria and the yeast in your gut—because your addictions are driven in part just by the chemicals they release—it feels miraculous,” she writes.

Related: Change Your Mind, Change Your Body?

5. Meditate.

Chaudhary has been practicing meditation since she was a kid thanks to her progressive parents. She includes this practice in her plan to help people deal with difficult emotions, including mood swings and feelings that may surface during this process.

“We actually carry cellular debris from emotional trauma. What I found is, on this plan, all of this emotional trauma and emotional memories were coming up. That’s when patients were most tempted to sabotage the process by eating foods that were toxic, basically to block the whole process from occurring,” Chaudhary explains. This is where meditation could help you cope with the discomfort.

“Meditation is a way of detoxing the brain, detoxing those emotions, and preventing people from self-sabotaging, in addition to a slew of neurological benefits,” she says. “When something hurts, we look for ways of relief, but the mechanisms that we know of relief, unfortunately, oftentimes involve food addictions or other addictions. Meditation is a way out.”

6. Take your time—you’re in it for the long haul.

Chaudhary is the first to admit that she moved through the four phases of her plan at a very slow pace. “When I got headache-free, I had only done a small fraction of this. It took a couple of years to really embrace everything. I would not have been able to do this plan quickly. I did it over time, and when I got to the end of it, I was exactly where I wanted to be,” she says. Basically, there’s no rush. This is not a quick fix, but a long-term goal to get your body back to working in “prime” condition.

The post 6 Non-Diet Strategies for Healthy Weight Loss appeared first on Sonima.

The following is a series of five exercises that work the entirety of the abdominal wall, including the transverse abdominis and obliques. These exercises are meant to be done one after another, building intense stamina in the core. This series can be included at any point during your exercise routine.

Single-Leg Stretch

Curl head, neck and shoulders off the mat, pull one knee into your chest extend the opposite leg.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Share

Tweet

Pin

Double Leg Stretch

Curl head, neck, and shoulders off the mat. Hold onto your shins and pull legs into chest.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Share

Tweet

Pin

Scissors

Curl head, neck, and shoulders off mat and extend both legs straight in a V shape. Hold the back of the front leg with both hands.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Share

Tweet

Pin

Lower and Lift

Bring the hands behind the head. Extend the legs, and curl head, neck, and shoulders off the mat.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Share

Tweet

Pin

Share

Tweet

Pin

Crisscross

Start with your legs in table top. Curl the head, neck, and shoulders off the mat.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Share

Tweet

Pin

Switch sides. Keep the elbows wide, and make sure you are twisting from the waist. Repeat 20 times to both sides.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Photos by Hailey Wist

The post A Pilates Sequence to Sculpt Your Abs from All Angles appeared first on Sonima.

With each passing month, more research is being published and our understanding of effective means for personalizing diets grows. Last month a study was published in the journal Cell entitled “Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses.” Since then it has been making big waves in the media being touted by some as the diet study that changes everything we know about dieting. While this hyperbolic statement is grossly misleading, the study itself is very interesting, reinforcing things that we already knew about individual diet response and while also shedding light on some new areas. As interesting and useful as this study maybe, it is important to note that this study only looked at individuals’ blood sugar response following meals and throughout the day. This is a good predictor of future health and risk of diabetes, but it is far from a single comprehensive marker of health.

What Does Personalized Nutrition Really Mean?

The Israeli researchers behind this study were intrigued by the fact that when they fed people meals they were not able to predict how each individual’s blood sugar levels would respond. They tried to use carb counting, which is seen as the standard for diet-driven blood sugar control, to predict how people’s blood sugar would change, and that worked okay, but not great. Calorie counting was an even worse, near useless, predictor. What was even more shocking to the researchers was that when different people ate the same meal, their blood sugar levels responded differently, sometimes very differently.

The researchers started digging, quantifying, and classifying differences between individuals in the study in an effort to find out what unique characteristics about different people impacted how their body’s responded to a meal. The researchers collected and assessed more factors than we can discuss in this article, but I have highlighted the three that I think are the most important and useful for you.

Blood Sugar Control: In this study, the speed and magnitude that a person’s blood sugar levels rose in response to a meal was directly related to their body’s ability to process sugar and carbohydrates. There are several factors that physicians and researchers can use to quantify this sugar processing ability and one of the most popular, and reliable, is the Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test.

Hemoglobin is the part of your red blood cells that are responsible for holding onto oxygen molecules as they get transported throughout your bloodstream. As a function of being in the same space in your body (i.e. your blood vessels) sugar molecules can get stuck to your red blood cells; the higher the levels of sugar in your bloodstream, the more sugar molecules are going to be attached to your red blood cells. HbA1c is a measure of the percentage of hemoglobin compounds in your red blood cells have a sugar molecules stuck to them. Since a red blood cell lives for around 90 days, your HbA1c gives you a good long-term measurement of your blood sugar control.

Having a HbA1c of <5.7% is considered good/normal while a HbA1c >6.5% is part of the criteria for a diagnosis of diabetes. In the diet personalization study that we have been discussing, researchers found that a HbA1c of 5.5% was actually the cutpoint for a person having a negative response to a meal. This suggests that we might need to be even more diligent about controlling our blood sugar even if we are in a range that is considered normal. Fortunately HbA1c is a very simple test that most doctors will order without much fuss. Having this test will done arm you with key information about your physiology. If your HbA1c comes in greater than 5.5%, working to reduce your average blood sugar levels would be a prudent goal to take on.

Related: The Truth About How Sugar Really Affects Your Body

You can get started doing this by reducing the overall carbohydrate content of your diet (start with refined and added sugars), increasing your overall activity levels, and losing extraneous body fat.

Digestive Health: The hottest area in nutrition research today is the microbiome. The microbiome refers to the trillions of bacteria cells that reside in our digestive tracts. These bacteria can have a profound impact on different areas of our body’s ranging from immune to and brain function to metabolic health.

In this study specific sub-populations of bacteria were associated with better or worse blood sugar responses to meals. In the latter phases of the study, researchers found that when they put participants on their ideal personalized diets, the sub-populations of bacteria changed for the good, further supporting optimal blood sugar control.

However, you can get proactive with making changes in your gut bacteria without having access to the intricacies of this research study’s proprietary diet customization algorithm. Fermented dairy products like kefir and yogurt are an abundant source of the same bacteria that provide beneficial support in this research study. I have a glass of plain kefir every morning in a ceremonial effort to curate an abundant population of helpful bacteria in my digestive tract. Most research studies also show that high levels of beneficial bacteria are also associated with low levels of unhelpful bacteria. In theory, by constantly augmenting the population of good bacteria in your microbiome, you will be crowding out and evicting the bad ones.

Inflammation: Excessive inflammation is a process that is at the root of nearly all disease processes so it was no surprise to learn that in this study individuals with higher levels of inflammation had a less favorable blood sugar response to their meals. This is not the first study to show a link between inflammation and poor response to diet as there have been numerous studies (including one that I conducted at Pennsylvania State University) which show that people with higher baseline levels of inflammation do not respond as well to heart healthy diets.

Related: How Does Your Diet Contribute to Inflammation?

At a very basic level this suggests that if you have higher levels of inflammation, you may need to be more persistent in your diet and exercise efforts as your body isn’t as eager to change for the good. There are lots of markers of inflammation but the most common blood test you can talk to your physician about getting to measure inflammation in your body is high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). The good news is that reducing C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in your body doesn’t need to be that difficult. Here are three strategies that have been shown to work in reducing CRP:

● Eat more alpha-linolenic acid (ALA): This is the plant-based omega-3 fat found in chia and flax seeds. It is distinctly different from the omega-3 found in oily fish and has been shown to reduce CRP levels.
● Get more sleep: Both short- and long-term sleep deprivation lead to increases in CRP.
● Exercise more regularly: Right after you exercise, you will actually get an increase in CRP but this is a natural response to exercise and it resolves itself very quickly, over the long term, exercise consistently reduces overall CRP levels.

Adapt Yourself to Better Biology

What I found the most interesting about this research study is that it suggests that diet personalization is a moving target. Almost all of the factors that the researchers measured were contextual (e.g. contents of previous meal) or modifiable (e.g. body weight). So unlike the, current pie-in-the-sky promise of gene-based diet personalization which centers on creating a diet based on your personal, yet static, genes, the findings from this study show an appreciation for the ever-changing nature of our bodies. It also provides an optimistic outlook for people who currently have “bad biology.” You can change and modify factors like sleep, the types of bacteria in your digestive tract, your body weight, HbA1c, etc., so that your personal blood sugar biology profile is then structured to work for and not against you.

Normalize Before You Personalize

Everyone is quick to jump at the idea of personalized nutrition but before you can work to personalize your diet, it is important (probably more important) that you normalize your diet. Normalizing your diet or creating a solid nutritional foundation is of the utmost importance as it gives you a solid base to build off of. I have my clients get a lot of blood work done when I first start working with them to measure everything from hormonal profiles to lipid panels to the levels in which their red blood cells are enriched with magnesium and omega-3 fats. Even with all this testing we always work to create a solid nutrition foundation before we get too specific with changes related to their blood work. When we get started in heavy diet personalization I always see this more as fine tuning than the foundation we build their nutrition plan off of.

What is a nutrition foundation? This consists of the nutrition habits that are programmed into your life such as consistently selecting and preparing minimally processed foods to eat throughout the week, drinking ample amounts of water, eating protein at regular intervals during the day to support recovery from exercise and maintain your muscle as the foundation of your healthy body now and as you age. It also includes more behaviorally oriented practices such as eating until satisfied but not stuffed or eating in a slow and deliberate fashion and not in a quick and distracted one.

All of these components are foundational and at some level transcend dietary specifics. Normalize your diet, optimize the bacteria in your digestive tract with fermented foods, and work with your doctor to have some simple blood tests done to fine tune your approach. If you do all these things in a stepwise fashion you will find not just great health but satisfaction and happiness with your diet.

The post Is Personalized Nutrition the Future of Dieting? appeared first on Sonima.

“I have clients who will look at their tracker and get up in the middle of the day to go up and down the stairs twice,” says Kira Stokes, a celebrity trainer and instructor at BFX Studio, a boutique fitness studio in New York City.

“Fitness trackers are great motivators that can hold you accountable to your activity levels, or lack thereof, throughout the day.”

Problem is, once you start monitoring your steps, every single one of them counts.

“‘What’s the point if I’m not getting credit for my miles?’ some people might think when they forget to wear their device,” observes Elizabeth Lyons, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Like many scientists who are scrambling to investigate if fitness trackers indeed promote healthy habits, Lyons is currently working on several studies, including one since 2013 that she plans to publish next year.

“We’re using trackers as facilitators though we don’t want people to rely on them too much,” says Lyons of her test subjects, who range from 55 to 79 years old. For trackers to be effective, goals need to be attainable. “I wouldn’t recommend devices that don’t let you adjust your daily goals. People could hurt themselves trying to get two hours of activities when they are not prepared to do that,” Lyons warns. “It’s helpful for people to use how they feel to change their goals regularly,” she adds. Her subjects generally start out with a goal of 7,000 steps rather than 10,000. For those with mobility issues, she might have them aim for 3,000 and work their way up.

Trackers are meant to support, not dictate. And at best, they can be used as a window into what’s going on inside. “Seeing your heart rate is this low or this high when exercising can really open your eyes as to what’s happening in your body,” says exercise physiologist Robyn Stuhr, the director of the Sports Medicine Program in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of California San Diego Medical Center. “But there are a lot of other variables—fatigue, sleep, diet, hydration, stress—that can affect both how you feel and how your body responds throughout the day,” she adds. Because most trackers are not currently designed to take these external factors into account (i.e., change your daily goals based on your sleep or stress), it’s up to you to make the call how you feel on a daily basis.

Not to mention, these devices aren’t infallible. “Technology isn’t always 100 percent accurate. It’s really just a guideline to create motivation and make it fun,” emphasizes Stokes, who makes it a point to ask clients wearing heart rate monitors during her classes how they feel. “Let it help you notice change in your in body and recognize how you feel for a month, and then maybe take it off for a month to see if you can gauge these things on your own,” she advises.

Related: Change Your Mind, Change Your Body?

In other words, rather than plug in and tune your body out, use your tracker to get to know yourself. That’s how Brian Bilodeu lost 45 pounds. Since working on the development of the Microsoft Band, the general manager of the Microsoft Health platform learned a lot about himself. “One of the things I realized for myself is that I only burn 2,200 calories a day if I’m not working out. That meant I needed to exercise and burn 500 calories a day to put myself in the 2,700 daily caloric range,” says Bilodeu, who began running and strength training.

“On top of that, I was diligent about getting 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep a night and that restorative effect was huge,” he says. Bilodeu also revealed that Microsoft is working on algorithms to connect the dots, such as sleep and heart rate to help predict how you may feel during exercise. “As our service becomes more sophisticated and the consumer becomes more accustomed to tracking their behaviors, we will definitely be lining up richer experiences, where we integrate other pieces of data, like the weather, time of day, number of meetings you have, etc. All of these have an affect on your persona and being. It’s just a matter of time,” he says.

One way to get your tracker and body in sync starting now is to write down your perceived exertion on a scale of 1 (easy breezy) to 10 (all out effort) after any activity, and see how those numbers match up with the stats on your device. “If how you feel corresponds to the heart rate zones from the tracker, then you’re right on. But if there’s a dissonance between how you feel and what the heart rate is, then you may need to take an exercise test to get a more accurate picture of your personal responses to working out,” suggests Stuhr. “Or give yourself permission to go slightly above or slightly below your heart rate zones depending on how you feel.” If you’re truly concerned by the numbers, you may want to talk to your doctor before your next workout. “It’s important to remember that beating yourself up every day to follow a very strict program is not the ultimate goal,” Stuhr says. “This is all about feeling better and being healthier.”

The post The Smartest Way to Use a Fitness Tracker appeared first on Sonima.

Our bodies are incredibly complex. Looking at weight management as a simple caloric equation is almost like enjoying the Mona Lisa through the lens of a magnifying glass: it only allows you to get a really good view of just one part of the entire canvas. Often, in order to get a genuine understanding of what is going on in our bodies (which are all grand masterpieces in their own way), it is important to take a step back and look at the big picture. Our body’s systems are intricately interconnected; there are countless ways that a lack of balance in one area can show up on our waistlines. In fact, difficulty losing weight can be a signal that some area of the body, such as the thyroid, is not functioning optimally. The points that follow provide an overview of a few surprising factors that can make us metabolically more inclined to store body fat.

1. Bacteria

Did you know that we host more foreign bacteria than cells in our bodies? As strange as that might sound, we are now learning that these bacteria play a major role in maintaining health, or alternatively, in pushing us out of a state of balance. The human microbiome, a term that refers to the collective genome of micro-organisms that live within a person’s gut, not only influences digestion as one might expect, but can also affect brain function, immunity, tendencies towards insulin resistance, and a host of other factors. Increasingly, we are learning that gut dysbiosis, a condition of having either too few “good” bacteria or an abundance of “bad” bacteria, appears to play a role in how much body fat we store. In both animal and human studies, it has been shown that an obese person’s (or animal’s) microbiome allows for increased energy harvesting, or the extraction of more calories from the diet. In a study on rats, for example, when the germ-free animals were colonized with “obese” microbiota, their body fat increased significantly as compared to when they were colonized with “lean” gut bacteria.

Although scientists are just beginning to understand the mechanisms by which these little creatures operate inside of us, the implications of the findings are enormous, with the potential to transform the way we think about weight, obesity, and other metabolic disorders. Researchers are concerned about the consequences of a “disappearing microbiota,” where in this age of relative sterility, widespread use of antibiotics, and a diet composed of highly processed foods, the composition of our gut bacteria is far less diverse than that of our ancestors. To help counter this, it can be helpful to consume at least one generous serving of fermented food per day, to eat a whole-foods based diet abundant in prebiotics, and to take a probiotic supplement in consultation with a nutritionist or medical professional.

2. Sleep

Americans are sleeping one and a half to two fewer hours per day than they were 50 years ago. Numerous studies have shown an association between short sleep durations and obesity, both in adults and in our children. Further, sleep deprivation is associated with lower levels of the satiety hormone, leptin, higher levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, and an increase in body mass index (BMI). What this entails is that our shortened sleep cycles are likely increasing our appetites (not to mention that being awake for longer gives us more hours in the day to graze). Moreover, sleep deprivation has a negative effect on our carbohydrate metabolism, glucose tolerance, and overall endocrine function in a manner similar to what is often seen in normal aging. Therefore, sleep debt “may increase the severity of age-related chronic disorders.”

Our shortened sleep cycles are likely increasing our appetites and being awake for longer gives us more hours in the day to graze.

In my personal practice as a functional nutritionist, I have come to learn that coaching clients on sleep habits is just as important as talking about food. Making small shifts in routine to give the body the rest it needs can have far-reaching consequences on energy levels, food cravings, and weight. If you feel like you need a cup of coffee just to get your engines running in the morning, then you should probably reevaluate how well you are resting yourself.

Related: A Natural Guide to Overcoming Sleep Issues

3. Obesogens

There are many chemicals hiding in most mass-produced personal care products, beauty supplies (for example, lead in lipstick!), everyday kitchen items, and furniture. These chemicals affect our health in different ways, and one class of chemicals called phthalates may affect human metabolism and weight, specifically. Phthalates are obesogens, which as the name implies can contribute to weight gain. They do this by acting as synthetic estrogens that serve as endocrine disruptors that mimic or block the transmission of hormone signals in the body.

Phthalates are found in thousands of products from beauty products and personal supplies to soft, malleable plastics such as food packaging, medical supplies, shower curtains, and squishy children’s toys. Phthalates are the reason why you can still smell the “fresh” scent of your deodorant six hours after you’ve applied it, and the towels in your linen closet still smell like the dryer sheets you used while doing the laundry last week. Manufacturers use phthalates to make sure the scents they employ “stick” to their product and linger for hours.

We are exposed to phthalates through inhalation (scented candles, house dust, etc.), ingestion, and skin exposure, which is troubling as these chemicals may put us at risk of developing numerous health conditions including certain cancers, while also increasing the likelihood of obesity. One study demonstrated that phthalate exposure increases the risk of abdominal obesity in women. Furthermore, phthalates may have antiandrogenic effects, decrease sperm motility in men, is associated with increased infant birth weight, and increases adiposity in children.

While it is impossible to avoid phthalates completely, we can drastically decrease our exposure by avoiding plastics to the best of our ability, especially in the kitchen (replace plastic storage containers with glass ones), avoiding synthetic fragrances (assume that any product that lists “fragrance,” “perfume” or “parfum” as an ingredient contains the chemical), purchase phthalate-free makeup, eat organic whenever possible (to avoid phthalates in pesticides), and finally, by avoiding the use of scented candles and air fresheners with synthetic scents (pure essential oils are a healthier alternative).

4. Breastfeeding

This one is for all you mamas out there! And yes, this technically does have something to do with food (the food many of us have eaten decades ago), but it is too important a topic to leave out of this discussion.

The benefits of breastfeeding are many, but did you know that it can also reduce your child’s risk of developing obesity later in life? Children who were breastfed for at least 9 months have a 30% reduced risk of becoming overweight. On the other hand, being fed formula in infancy is associated with a higher risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. There are numerous theories as to why this might be the case, including the role of self-regulation: physiologically, infants who are breast fed have a much easier time controlling their intake of breast milk than babies who are being fed formula in a bottle. This ability (or lack of ability) to control milk volume might play an important role in establishing one’s metabolism very early in life. Furthermore, human milk contains hormones such as leptin, ghrelin, and adiponectin that control appetite and energy balance, and which may play a role in influencing your child’s metabolism into adulthood.

Of course, choosing whether or not to breastfeed is a very personal decision (and sometimes, the ability to do so is beyond a woman’s control), but know that if you are able to breastfeed your child, it is very possible that your little one will continue to reap the benefits far into adulthood.

The post 4 Things That Affect Weight That Have Little to Do with Food appeared first on Sonima.

Exercise, in fact, can be a major wild card in your daily calories-in, calories-out equation, and not always a beneficial one. Breaking a sweat helps the body torch more calories than when you are at rest (i.e., sitting at your desk), and that’s good. Studies show that as you improve your fitness, your body’s basal metabolic rate (basically, the amount of calories you burn per day just by being alive and breathing) increases. That’s also good. But the downside is that exercise can increase your appetite, which explains why some people tend to overeat, specifically high-fat foods, after workouts, reports a 2011 British study published in the Journal of Obesity.

The general consensus from experts, according to the Mayo Clinic, is that cutting calories is more important than exercise for weight loss. However, that doesn’t mean you should toss your gym membership in the trash. Working out is still crucial to getting and staying in shape. Over time, you’ll get to a point where you won’t be so ravenous after a vigorous run or spin class. Studies show that exercise can actually decrease your brain’s responsiveness to food. If you can resist the initial urge to gorge on General Tso’s chicken post-workout, your brain will eventually ignore that “food as reward” signal.

So what approach to exercise will help you whittle down your waistline in the long haul? The best, most effective answer is the one that you’ll do consistently.

Take a look at your schedule and realistically consider how much time you can dedicate a week to this lifestyle change (it’s not a temporary adjustment, but rather a way of life). Think about your willingness to withstand discomfort since some intense forms of training can feel pretty hard. Also, take a moment to review your access to nearby fitness centers, gyms, recreational facilities, and/or parks. If you can’t get to one of these due to time-constraints, proximity, or budget issues, see if you can create a small at-home gym space within your home, like your living room, basement, or backyard.

Below we’ve rated five popular approaches to fitness and weight loss on a scale of 1 (easy breezy) to 10 (all out effort) using the following criteria: Effectiveness in burning calories, sustainability over time, accessibility (whether they require special equipment or a gym membership), and injury risk. See which best fits your lifestyle, fitness level, and overall goals.

1. High-Intensity Interval Training
High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, has become more popular in recent years, and with good reason: Studies show HIIT improves aerobic fitness, cardiovascular health (it decreases blood pressure and improves one’s cholesterol profile), and can reduce abdominal fat while maintaining a person’s muscle mass.

One big benefit of this approach is its impact on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC—basically, the amount of energy (i.e., calories) your body burns after you work out. During the two-hour window immediately following training, HIIT increased the amount of calories used by up to 15 percent, according to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

During a HIIT session, you alternate between periods of intense effort (about an 8 or 9 out of 10) and periods of a more moderate effort (5 or 6) called recovery. The work-to-rest ratio varies based on your goal and fitness level. If you’re just starting out, try three minutes of reasonably intense effort followed by an equal period of recovery (for a 1:1 exercise-recovery ratio).

A big advantage of HIIT is that you can get more results in less training time. A very intense version of HIIT called Tabata has been shown to improve cardiovascular health in training sessions that last only four minutes. The bad news: Those four minutes are awfully hard. The inventor of this interval system, Japanese professor Izumi Tabata, once told The Guardian, “If you feel OK afterwards, you’ve not done it properly.”

Effectiveness Rating: 9
You’ll burn lots of calories during and after HIIT workouts.
Accessibility: 7
You could incorporate HIIT into just about anything, including running or biking.
Sustainability: 5
It bears repeating that HIIT is hard. Start with manageable intervals and build up over time. Allow for an ample rest period after a HIIT training session. One per week is a good place to start for a beginner.
Injury Risk: Varies
Your potential for suffering an injury during HIIT will change depending on which activity (running, cycling, etc.) you perform. People who are overweight, smoke, have been living a sedentary lifestyle, or who have a history of hypertension or diabetes should consult a doctor before attempting HIIT training.

2. Low-Intensity Interval Training

If you’ve been won over by the perks of interval training, but don’t want to feel like your workout will kill you, here’s awesome news: A recent Japanese study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that just by adding some intervals to a walk, you can improve your BMI and increase your long-term health.

The study found that people who alternated between walking briskly for three minutes and strolling casually for another three experienced more significant improvements in their leg strength and aerobic fitness than participants who simply walked at a sustained moderate pace. Researchers noticed these positive differences when people performed as little as 30 minutes of total activity per day, broken up into three 10-minute sessions.

Effectiveness Rating: 5
You’ll make gradual, consistent strides toward shedding pounds.
Accessibility: 8
You can walk just about anywhere, although you might aim to do your intervals somewhere away from the gaze of your neighbors. Speed walking is as sexy as it sounds (not).
Sustainability: 10
As the most basic activity we can do, you should be able to walk all the way into your ripe old rocking-chair-on-the-porch age.
Injury Risk: Negligible
So long as you don’t roll your ankle in a pothole, you’ll be fine. Invest in good footwear that feels comfortable and supportive.

3. Weightlifting
Lifting weights is helpful for reducing fat, but it won’t burn as many calories as cardio like running during the activity, reports the ACSM. However, weightlifting does have a prolonged impact on EPOC—again, the measurement of calories burned during the period after exercise—and that impact is greater than the one produced by running.

What’s more, a recent study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise indicates that weight training could be a major player in helping people succeed in losing weight and keeping it off.

Researchers observed that women who lost a significant amount of weight (25 pounds or more) while performing upper- and lower-body resistance training were more likely to keep the pounds off than women who lost the same amount of weight through either diet and aerobic exercise or diet alone. So weightlifting would seem to be a helpful way to stop “big losers” from becoming “big re-gainers.”

Effectiveness Rating: 6
It’s not as huge of a calorie burner as aerobic cardio, but it delivers a helpful after-burn.
Accessibility: 4
Requires a home gym or membership to a fitness center.
Sustainability: 8
A mounting body of research indicates that you should weightlift, especially if you’re above age 65. Strength training can help prevent the loss of muscle and bone strength as you get older.
Injury Risk: Moderate
Consult with a doctor before starting a weight training regimen, particularly if you have a history of injuries that may restrict your mobility. When you’re starting out, you may want to work with a personal trainer until you feel comfortable that you’re performing the movements on your own with perfect form.

4. Bodyweight Training
Like weightlifting, bodyweight exercises are a form of resistance training, so they convey many of the same benefits: decreasing heart disease risk, lowering cholesterol, and reducing body fat, to name a few. The key differentiator is you use your own body weight rather than dumbbells, barbells, or machines to create the resistance.

There are two big advantages to using this approach. First, you can perform the moves anywhere, anytime since the only equipment you need (your body) will always be at hand. Second, there’s a lower risk that you’ll injure yourself doing bodyweight work than you would lifting weights. For an example, compare the consequences of dropping a heavy barbell during a bench press (broken ribs, broken clavicle, perhaps worse) to what happens if you mess up a push up (you lay down).

The only potential drawback to bodyweight training is that it can be difficult to use progressive resistance (that’s strength-coach speak for “varying the weights over time”), which is helpful for building muscle. But there are solutions—wearing a weight vest can help you kick your workout up a notch, or you can experiment with your sets, reps, and rest intervals to adjust the difficulty of your workout.

One more big plus for bodyweight training: You can combine bodyweight exercises with interval training to create a workout that challenges your muscles and cardiovascular system all at once. The result is a training session that can convey big benefits in a short amount of time. The “7-Minute Workout” that took the internet by storm last year uses this approach. And it’s not just web surfers who love it—it’s endorsed by the ACSM.

Effectiveness Rating: 5 (on it’s own) or 8 (combined with HIIT)
Accessibility: 9
Pretty much the only thing that would prevent you from doing the “7-Minute Workout” would be if you were sharing a hotel room with a judgmental co-worker.
Sustainability: 9
You remember Jack Palance at the 1992 Oscars, right? No?!? Ok, well, if you weren’t watching awards shows back then, what happened is the 73-year-old Palance rifled off 1-armed push-ups at the podium. Suffice it to say: You’ll be able to perform these moves for a long time, provided you stick with them.
Injury Risk: Low

5. Endurance Cardio
This category encompasses what most people probably think of when they hear the word “cardio”—jumping on to a treadmill, bike, or elliptical and maintaining a brisk pace for 20 minutes or more. The amount of calories one expends varies according to the activity, as weight-bearing exercises like running will burn more than non-weight bearing activities like cycling. While the exact total will depend on intensity and duration, generally speaking these activities burn more calories per training session than weightlifting.

One demoralizing trait of steady state workouts, however, is that they can provide diminishing returns over time. As your body gets used to your chosen activity (say, running), it will become more efficient at it, meaning you’ll use less energy when covering the same distance. This is what most people call a fitness plateau or rut. Your options then are to increase the distance or find ways to add new challenges to the workout, such as running hills or adding intervals, which runners affectionately call “fartleks.”

Effectiveness: 7
Improves cardiovascular health and burns fat or calories that might otherwise have been stored as fat had they went unused.
Accessibility: Varies
All you need to run is a pair of sneakers and a safe course. Biking is an easily available (though the gear is pricer) option as well. When riding, you’ll need to be even more aware of the nearby roads or mountain bike trails. Indoor training machines like an elliptical require either a gym membership or an expensive purchase.
Sustainability: 7
You’ll probably be fine, but be aware that performing the same activity over and over, such as running multiple times a week, without performing other activities can put you at risk for a repetitive stress injury (something that gets hurt because of repeated use).
Injury Risk: Moderate
In addition to the previous note about stress-injuries, training out in public—such as taking a run on busy streets—can also subject you to risk. Be aware of your surroundings and wear reflective clothing if running or biking after dark.

The Bottom Line: Try a Balanced Approach
A blend of strength training (whether with weights or just using your body) and aerobic exercise is ideal for getting in shape and staying that way, according to the ACSM. Each method described above offers benefits, so getting a little bit of each into your routine—by, say, performing two weight-training workouts, two endurance cardio workouts, and an interval session per week—will allow you to reap the rewards of all of them. Keep your training sessions at a manageable length (20 to 30 minutes should do it for most), strive for consistency and keep in mind this advice from ACSM: “Regular physical activity will provide more health benefits than sporadic, high-intensity workouts, so choose exercises you are likely to enjoy and that you can incorporate into your schedule.”

The post What Are the Best Fitness Plans for Weight Loss? appeared first on Sonima.

Weight maintenance, a stage that is longed for by chronic dieters, is a glorious position to be in, but it’s a precarious one. According to some gloomy statistics, a whopping 80 to 95 percent of dieters gain back the weight they lost and may even end up a weight higher than when they originally dieted. The National Weight Control Registry, however, shows that it is possible to maintain weight loss. This national database of more than 10,000 people have lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off around 5.5 years.

Long-term success is absolutely feasible, but it almost always takes as much work as losing weight in the first place. When it comes to maintaining weight loss, these two mental strategies are key:

Remain accountable to measurable benchmarks. It’s important to book a regular date with the scale. It doesn’t matter whether you weigh yourself once a day or once a week, just don’t avoid the scale. Although the numbers you see could be elevated owing to fluid retention from eating salty foods, or decreased if you’re dehydrated, weighing yourself helps to keep you responsible. I suggest my clients step on the scale on Fridays and Mondays; Friday gives you an idea about whether splurging is on the menu over the weekend and Monday will tell you how you navigated that time period.

Don’t expect to be “done.” Keeping your weight the same is an active process of consistent lifestyle choices. Those who successful maintain their sweet spot on the scale are usually the ones who lost weight through realistic means, rather than restrictive fads or meager cleansing programs. They know maintenance is a long-term phase with the overarching goal of bringing optimal health and well-being in body and mind. Caring for your health requires a similar mindset. If you are free of illness, that’s a status you’d like to maintain. But you can’t stay in good health without caring for your body through proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep. Weight is no different. The only way to avoid regaining weight is by maintaining a diet that resembles the one you followed to trim down in the first place.

The post Secrets to Maintaining Weight Loss appeared first on Sonima.

The Restriction Paradox
Decades of research into the psychology of eating behaviors have shown us that the more we attempt to rigidly control our eating the more likely we are to lose that control when faced with unpleasant feelings, especially when these feelings arise due to perceived “diet failure.” I call this the restriction paradox because the more strongly and aggressively we work to perfectly control our diet and eating patterns, the easier it is for us to fall off the wagon when things don’t go as planned.

Why would eating a little ice cream drive you to eat the whole pint? Diving into the whole pint is thought to be a defense mechanism. By eating more and focusing on the food you are protecting yourself against the negative self-talk regarding not being able to stick to your plan and long term goals. Researchers call this “cognitive narrowing.” The pleasure and act of eating more ice cream is just a way for your brain to focus on one small thing while ignoring the negative emotions associated with breaking your diet. This effect is not just limited to food. In his research on self-control, Mark Muraven, associate professor of psychology at the University of Albany, observed a similar thought process in people with alcohol dependence: “I feel bad about how much I drank so I will drink more to cope with those feelings.”

Self-Loathing and Snacking
Fortunately research shows us that these behaviors don’t have to be your fate. At Wake Forest University, researchers enlisted a group of diet and body-weight conscious college women to participate in a fake candy taste test. Before the official taste test the participants were brought to a room to watch as short video, designed to be very boring, while waiting their turn. They were also given a glazed or chocolate doughnut to eat and a glass of water to drink.

Next is when the magic happened. After eating the doughnut and drinking the water, half of the women in the study received a message of self-compassion from the researchers. The researchers told the participants:

…Several people have told me that they feel bad about eating doughnuts in this study, so I hope you won’t be too hard on yourself. Everyone eats unhealthily sometimes, and everyone in this study eats this stuff, so I don’t think there’s any reason to feel bad about it. This little amount of food doesn’t matter anyway…

After hearing this message from the researcher about self-compassion and self-forgiveness, the study participants began the taste test, which included eating as much candy from three different bowls and rating the candy. The people who received a message of self-compassion from the researchers ate about 2.5 times less candy during the taste-test portion of the study compared to those who did not receive a message of self-compassion.

From our partner: Learn about the proven healing power of compassion.

Self-Compassion Checklist
How can you be more compassionate to yourself following dietary indiscretions? Here is the simple checklist used by the Wake Forest researchers.

1. Self-Kindness: Don’t be hard on yourself. Eating more of a food that you didn’t plan on eating doesn’t reflect on you as a person.

2. Mindfulness: Be in the moment. Acknowledge your feelings, don’t run from them or try to ignore them via a different behavior. Just experience and notice them.

3. Common Humanity: Remember that everyone eats higher-calorie foods, it is part of the human experience. Being more compassionate to yourself will help reduce many instances of overeating, which compound to frustrating weight re-gain. For lasting success, don’t obsess over calories; be kind to yourself.

Related: Try this guided meditation to cultivate self-compassion.

The post The Surprising Power of Compassion for Weight Loss appeared first on Sonima.

Breakfast

Mason Jar Greek Yogurt & Fruit Parfaits
This cute and convenient breakfast packs layers of filling and flavorful ingredients: Greek yogurt, oats, chia seeds, and frozen fruit.

Oatmeal with Cacao Nibs and Figs
A sweet and crunchy combination, can be made with prepared steel-cut oats or the easier instant variety and topped with cacao nibs and sliced figs.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Soft-Boiled Eggs
Make this the year you master the soft-boiled egg. It’s all about timing—they’re prepared the same way as hard-boiled eggs, just remove from hot water sooner.

Overnight Steel-Cut Oats with Almond Butter and Honey
This simple steel-cut oatmeal is prepared with milk and water in a slow-cooker, then dressed up with nut butter and honey.

Greek Yogurt and Pomegranate
Dress up a cup of Greek yogurt with pomegranate seeds. Get them while they’re in season for maximum sweetness and affordability.

Avocado Toast with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Top toast with mashed avocado, sliced sun-dried tomatoes, and a little salt, pepper, and olive oil for a slightly sweet and savory twist on a classic breakfast.

Vegetarian Meals

Sweet Potato Farro Salad
Roasted sweet potatoes are the star of this hearty salad, but farro, arugula, roasted garlic, and a lemon dressing add layers of flavor and satisfying depth.

California Barley Bowls
Barley is anything but bland when mixed with avocado, arugula, queso fresco cheese, almonds, and zingy lemon yogurt dressing.

Roasted Cauliflower with Olives, Currants, and Tahini
Simple cauliflower is a vehicle for unbelievably bright and savory flavors when dressed up with kalamata olives, dried currants, and a garlic tahini dressing.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Curried Brussels Sprouts with Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes
The secret to making meatless meals satisfying is all about seasoning. This filling combination of Brussels sprouts, chickpeas, and sweet potatoes packs a punch thanks to a five-spice curry sauce.

Quinoa and Spinach Stuffed Acorn Squash
Ricotta cheese adds a satisfying creaminess to the spinach and quinoa mixture stuffed inside roasted acorn squash.

Spinach & Basil Quinoa with Marinara
Skip spaghetti and top cooked quinoa with marinara, spinach, and basil for an easy and nutritious weeknight meal.

Soups

Greek Lemon Soup with Chicken and Orzo
This piquant soup gets its sunny color and richness from egg yolks. If you don’t have chicken on-hand you could also use leftover turkey.

Share

Tweet

Pin

Italian Chickpea Soup
Garbanzo beans and sweet potatoes add wholesome heft to this light vegan soup.

Paleo Tomato Soup
This soup is as simple as it gets with just seven ingredients. If you’re short on time you can use a can of roasted tomatoes instead of preparing your own.

Vegan Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Garlic Kale Drizzle
Mashed cauliflower creates a creamy consistency without dairy. Garlic, onion, lemon, and kale brighten the vegetable’s muted flavor.

Fish

Herb-Roasted Fish
This simple preparation for snapper or cod is quick and easy. Just top fish with salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, thyme, and green olives and bake in a parchment pouch.

Chili Rubbed Salmon
Spice up a salmon fillet with chili powder, oregano, and salt then cook on the stovetop for a few minutes on each side.

Halibut with Artichoke and Tomato Broth
Grilled halibut is dressed with a light and flavorful broth that adds satisfying flavor without sacrificing the healthfulness of the dish.

Paleo Salmon with Lemon and Thyme
This healthy source of protein and omega-3 fat is brightened with lemon, capers, and thyme.

Sicilian Swordfish
Swordfish steaks are simply seasoned with lemon juice, salt, and oregano for a light and versatile main dish.

Meat

Skinny Lemon Chicken Piccata
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are cooked in a garlicky lemon caper sauce with a splash of white wine and a touch of butter.

Moroccan Stuffed Peppers
Prepare this recipe the traditional way with ground lamb, or substitute turkey to cut down on fat. The cinnamon, cumin, mint, and garlic add all the flavor you’ll need.

Crock-Pot Turkey Breast
This slow-cooked preparation of a whole turkey breast can be customized to your flavor preference—try a spice rub, herb blend, or vegetable accents.

Michael Pollan’s Vinegar-Braised Chicken
The red-wine vinegar and tomato sauce leaves chicken juicy and tender. Garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and parsley add a rich depth of flavor.

The post 25 Delicious Clean-Eating Recipes appeared first on Sonima.