Eating a More Balanced Diet

Eating a balanced diet is not as tricky as you may think. When planning your diet, think VARIETY!!! Make you meals colorful, choose a variety of fruits and vegetables to "decorate" your plate with. My husband likes to tease me because I have to make everything look pretty when I'm arranging a plate of food, whether it's a platter or individual plates, I enjoy making food look good!


There is a fabulous website mypyramid.gov that helps you plan meals according to your nutritional needs. On the lefthand side of the screen, under Interactive Tools click on Menu Planner then type in your name, age, height, weight and level of physical activity and it tells you the amount of all the nutrients that you need and helps you plan your meals accordingly. You should try out all the interactive tools, they're pretty amazing. After you check that out, if you still have questions, feel free to ask! =)

Acai Berry

Sorry that this one took so long to post about Danielle, I had to do some research! Before this question I didn't know much about the acai berry, besides the rage of it being the "next great superfood" and I've seen the ads for using it for weight loss and such. Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams related to the acai berry. There has been no research that indicates drinking acai berry juice or taking acai supplements will result in weight loss. However, the acai berry is very rich in powerful antioxidants*(It has ten times as many antioxidants as grapes and twice as many as blueberries!) which help protect the body from free radicals (harmful byproducts the body produces) and MAY help prevent heart disease and cancer. The flavor of the acai berry is described as a mixture of red wine and chocolate! While it won't melt away the pounds, it is a healthy addition to a well balanced diet!

As for the claim that the Acai Berry fights hunger, this can be attributed to the high fiber content of the berry and also the healthy fats contained in it. A high fiber diet helps you feel full sooner and for a longer period of time, but you don't HAVE to eat this berry to have a diet high in fiber (it's an uber expensive berry!) You can get your fiber requirement from fruits and vegetables and high fiber cereals.

If you want to learn more about the Acai berry here are some websites you can check out!
http://health.learninginfo.org/herbs/acai-berry.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081006112053.htm
http://www.webmd.com/diet/acai-berries-and-acai-berry-juice-what-are-the-health-benefits

Tips for Drinking MORE Water

1. Carry water with you EVERYWHERE!
2. Always keep a glass of water next to you when you are at the computer, working, studying, etc.
3. Add lemons or limes to your water
4. Eat water rich fruits and vegetables (watermelons are 92% water and a tomato is 95% water!)
5. Keep water at the temperature you prefer, if you like ice cold water keep ice in it! =)
6. Fill up a jug with the amount of water you should be drinking in a day, get your water from this jug and try to empty it by the end of the day.
7. Drink through a straw, you take bigger gulps and drink more water
8. Drink water instead of soda (regular or diet!) Caffeine is a diuretic and will actually make you lose water and will make you make MORE trips to the restroom!
9. When you have a craving for junk food, drink a glass of water, you'll feel more full and the craving will fade
10. Make sure you have a restroom close by (especially if you're prego! =)

Remember if you live in a hot, dry climate your water requirement increases. Also if you are pregnant or nursing your water requirement also increases! Happy drinking! ;)

Water, water, water

Our bodies are approximately 60% water, so as you know, it is vital to our existence. We can only survive a few days without water. Drinking an adequate amount of water has many benefits, besides the obvious, to our body:

-endocrine gland function improves (these glands secrete hormones into the blood stream)
-fluid retention is alleviated (good-bye extra water weight!)
-liver functions improve (which means percentage of fat used for energy increases!)
-natural thirst returns
-appetite decreases significantly
-body temperature regulation improves

and these are just SOME of the benefits! I know what you're thinking, ok Amber, we all know how important water is, but the big question is HOW MUCH are we supposed to drink? Ok, ok, I'm getting to that. It varies depending on where you get your information. All through my education the answer has varied depending who was teaching the class. If you research it you will also find different answers. So here's my answer to that question. The AVERAGE amount of water a person should drink is about 96 ounces (12 cups = 6 pt = 3 qt = 3/4 gal. = 2.84l)(National Academy of Sports Medicine). Susan was right Danielle it's to the point where you are peeing all the time! =) In all seriousness now, if that does seem like too much water for you, especially if you aren't drinking very much water go by the 8x8 rule. Drink 8 eight ounce glasses of water a day (8 oz = 1 cup). So grab a glass and start sippin'!

Free Days

Let me just start this post off by saying that what I am about to write is from my own personal experience with losing weight and not from any textbook/book that I've read. On that note, my husband loves ice cream, so from day one of our marriage we always had ice cream in our freezer. I wasn't used to this, my family never kept ice cream or any kind of sweets in the house, so we only got ice cream on special occasions. Well, we started having ice cream every night after dinner...needless to say I gained 15 lbs in the 1st 6 months of our marriage. It was the most I've ever weighed and as soon as I realized what the numbers were I decided something had to change. I started to change the way I ate and started to refuse the ice cream my husband would offer me. I "saved" the sweet treats for my free day. My free day was the one day a week that I could eat what I wanted and not worry about how healthy it was for me. That is to say, I ate whatever I wanted, but I still watched portion sizes. I lost the 15+ lbs in 2 months, through diet and exercise AND my free day.

An aside about having a free day, for 6 days out of the week you are continuously making healthy choices in your diet, and I found over a period of time that, even on my free day, I started to choose the healthier items, not because I HAD to but because that's what I WANTED. You feel better when you eat better and it makes an impression on you and the choices you make! Good luck! =)

New Year, New You!!!

Now that all the craziness of the holiday festivities, (and in my family the insane number of birthdays, anniversaries, etc that take place in January!) are over and you are starting to settle back to the pre-holiday routine, don't forget about your goals to be hot and healthy! I know a lot of people that the holidays majorly throw them off course from eating healthy and exercising. There's just so much going on and so much to do that healthy habits fall by the wayside. If that sounds like a familiar story, there's no better time than the present to pick those healthy habits back up and put them to good use.

Now I don't know how many of you made New Year's resolutions, but if you did what were they and how are they going? Personally, I don't really make New Year's resolutions. I have things that I work on on a monthly basis, I CAN'T wait for the New Year to roll around because if I saved them all up I would be totally overwhelmed! I have a couple of personal goals this month and one of them is to bring you a better blog! When I decided to do start this blog back in August, my purpose was to help people reach their health goals and see themselves in a new light, with renewed self confidence. That is what I still WANT to do, but I am having a difficult time knowing what to post about. The topics of health and wellness are so broad it's overwhelming to me every time I sit down to post. I have to think, ok, where should I start??? I guess what I'm asking for is more feedback so I can give you all what you want. Topics can be anything health related, including body image, eating disorders, exercising, nutrition, pregnancy, you name it and I will tell you what I know or research it and post what I find. If you don't feel comfortable leaving a comment about what you want to learn more about feel free to e-mail me (just click on view my profile, and then on Email me) . Thanks everybody, and I hope your holidays were fabulous!