“Many of us will gain at least five pounds from the middle of October through New Year’s Day,” said Stefanie Barthmare, a psychotherapist with the Methodist Weight Management Center in Houston. “Because weight gain is gradual, we don’t realize the damage of our indulgences right away. But the scale tells all when the holidays are over. That’s why “lose weight” is at the top of our New Year’s resolution every year.”

Barthmare says stop counting every calorie and restricting yourself from your holiday favorites and instead try focusing on the core elements of living a healthy lifestyle, i.e. staying active in your everyday life.

“If you can’t get to the gym, do whatever it takes to move your body. Walk the dog more, plan a walking coffee break at work, play in the yard with the kids after dinner, or throw the football around with your brothers,” Barthmare said. “Plan an active, rather than a passive vacation this holiday season. If you normally go somewhere to sit, read and eat, plan a trip where you hike, bike or ski. Learn a new sport just for fun, and notice the impact on your waistline.”

Have a plan for days when there will be high calorie meals and possibly stressful family gatherings that cause you to eat comfort foods. Not planning is what leads to trouble.

“The once-a-year mentality contributes to overindulgence, which eventually leads to weight gain,” Barthmare said. “You can still have a serving of grandma’s stuffing or mom’s apple pie, the stuff you only get once a year, but it’s important to develop a strategy. Filling up on more high fiber, high volume foods earlier in the day will give yourself a better chance of maintaining your weight. Also, then there’s not as much room for the seconds at dessert.”

Another way to avoid overindulgence is to turn the focus of holiday gatherings away from food and to connecting with family and friends. Put more emphasis on finding out what others have been doing, what you have in common and how you can support one another at holiday functions.

“If you’ve been dieting all year long, you’re going to want to cut loose during the holidays and indulge in all your favorite treats,” Barthmare said. “But, this year, try switching the focus. Eat well all year, keep your body moving and make time for connections. Then you can have some guilt free holiday indulgences without sacrificing the goal of maintaining your perfect weight.

Stephen Trenen is trainer in a sport club and he runs his own informative website about Best Diet Plans, check it out to learn more tried-out Diet Plans.

You can’t spot reduce. If you could, people who chewed gum would have skinny faces and Jillian Michaels wouldn’t have “kankles”.

Stop telling us that all fat isn’t bad like you just discovered penicillin. Calories matter: They always have, they still do and they always will. Creatine is still the best performance supplement on the market. The “next creatine” is still creatine.

Dear gym guy: Please stop doing the following; Bicep curls in the squat rack Any exercise other than the bench press on the bench press Resting for 8 minutes between sets and not letting others “work in” Leaving your weights all over the floor The “secret” to fat loss is good nutrition and hard work. That’s it.

Don’t ask me about intermittent fasting, macro-patterning, cyclical ketogenic diets or meal replacements if you aren’t eating enough vegetables. Learn to prioritize if you can do 45 hard minutes on the elliptical while still easily belting out every song on your iPod but crumple under the weight of mauve-colored dumbbells – focus more on weight.

If you can bench press 350lbs (or could in high school) but can’t walk up a flight of stairs without coughing up radial snow tires – mix in a bike ride or a hike in place of your 4th “chest day” of the week.

If you can put your knees in your ears – quit stretching and build some strength and stability. If you are “bench press guy” from above and have posture that would make Quasimodo cringe, add some mobility and postural work. (Sorry to pick on bench press guy again but) if you can bench press small buildings but can’t deadlift your birth weight – try deadlifting. You won’t likely be able to out-exercise a poor diet.

If you are losing weight by diet alone – you will look like a different kind of crap. Your way isn’t the “best way” it just may be the best way for you. You can live a very healthy life eating both vegetarian and Atkins and most things in between provided you are eating healthy, mostly un/minimally processed foods that provide adequate nutrients.

The most likely reason you aren’t getting results: Trying to “fix” something that requires a lifestyle makeover that starts with changing habits. Have a beef about health trends? Rant away!

Stephen Trenen is trainer in a sport club and he runs his own informative website about Best Diet Plans, check it out to learn more tried-out Diet Plans.

Nuts and the Heart

A study of 31000 Seventh Day Adventists that ate nuts more than 4 times per week were half as likely to die of a heart attack than those who ate nuts less than once a week. The Iowa Women’s Health Study came to a similar conclusion: Women who ate nuts or seeds 4 times per week were 40% less likely to die from heart disease than similar women who didn’t eat nuts. The Nurses’ Health Study showed that those who ate at least 140g/week of nuts were 35% less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease than those who ate less than 30g/month. Nuts and Weight

Most studies have shown that adding nuts to the diet does not cause people to gain much weight, if any at all. As an example, researchers gave participants 45-70g of almonds every day (320 calories worth) and gave them no further instructions about food intake. After 6 months, participants gained a very miniscule amount of weight (.2 lbs in women, 1.4 lbs in men). This study was funded by the almond industry.

There aren’t many studies that show nut consumption to help people lose weight, but one study showed that a low calorie diet that included almonds led to greater weight loss than an equal calorie diet that did not include almonds.

The Seventh Day Adventist and Nurses Health Study showed that those who regularly ate nuts weighed less than those who did not.

The Best Nuts

Are some nuts better than others when it comes to health benefits? All nuts contain good fats, fiber and proteins, but different kinds of nuts have different nutrient profiles.

Almonds are richest in vitamin E (35% recommended daily intake) and calcium (8%) per 1 oz. (30g) serving. Brazil nuts are highest in selenium with just 1 supplying a days worth. Cashews are richest in copper and zinc Peanuts (technically a legume) contain the antioxidant resveratrol, and are highest in protein and arginine content Walnuts have the most alpha linolenic acids (plant-based omega-3′s) How much?

Nuts are healthy but are a dense source of calories. 1oz/30g of nuts supply about 170-180 calories. Here is a chart that shows how many nuts are in 30g.

Number of Nuts in 30 grams (1oz)

Almonds: 20-24 Brazil nuts: 6-8 Pecans: 18-20 (halves) Cashews: 16-18 Pine Nuts: 150-157 Pistachios: 45-47 Walnuts: 8-11 Hazelnuts: 18-20

Stephen Trenen is trainer in a sport club and he runs his own informative website about Best Diet Plans, check it out to learn more tried-out Diet Plans.

The global movement toward comfort eating has grown as the economic climate has worsened and many food companies have sought to cash in on the trend by reintroducing discontinued product lines and expanding in categories like frozen foods and desserts.

Market research manager at Leatherhead Chris Brockman told FoodNavigator.com: “The nostalgia trend has intensified this year: People are going back to comfort foods and emotional eating. Canned foods have been doing quite well and sales of things like jellies and frozen desserts are performing well.”

Leatherhead’s UK Food and Drinks Report 2009 covers market information from 2004 to 2008, so although it reports three percent annual sales value growth during this time, the full effects of the recession may not yet be apparent.

“Clearly the recession intensified at the beginning of this year so the figures are likely to get worse,” said Brockman.

Comebacks

However, products that hark back to better times have proved popular with cash-strapped consumers.

Brockman gives the example of Birdseye’s Arctic Roll, a frozen dessert which was popular in the UK during the 1970s and 80s, but lost fans in the early 1990s, leading the company to discontinue the product. It was reintroduced in December.

In addition, he said that consumers are treating themselves to chocolate and confectionery products, even as they are choosing private label products and cutting back on non-food luxuries.

“People are trading down to own label versions but they are always buying treats as well. There is still quite a good market for that,” said Brockman. “We always say that chocolate does very well in a recession, and it has done.”

He said that Mars in particular has done well – and it has also tapped into the trend for nostalgia, by bringing back Treets, its brown-shelled chocolate-covered peanuts, for a limited time, even though it discontinued them in 1988.

Meanwhile, there are marked differences across Europe when it comes to which sections of the food and drink market are doing well.

For example, while the retail sales value of carbonated soft drinks increased in the UK by a modest 5.3 percent from 2004-2008, it shot up in Spain by 22.7 percent. And the sales value of ice cream fell by 10.9 percent in the UK during the period, while it grew by 7.1 percent in Italy.

Stephen Trenen is trainer in a sport club and he runs his own practical website about Best Diet Plans, check it out to learn more really working Diet Plans.

Starting at only $20,525, this new Element is full of features for man’s best friend. The entire cargo area behind the rear seats has been transformed into a pooch’s traveling palace. First of all Fido will be able to effortlessly enter and exit his new perch atop the back bumper via a very sturdy looking ramp that if wide enough could handle a wheelchair. Once inside the pup will ride on a plush foam cushion covered with a neat Dog Friendly Element print. In order to keep Rex cool Honda’s Dog Friendly engineers have built in a ventilation fan and to make sure that he won’t go thirsty they have come up with a trick dog bowl that ensures minimal spillage even around the hairiest of hairpins, guaranteed to keep that extra member of your family comfortable even on the longest of car rides.

The Dog Friendly Element is powered by Honda’s reliable 2.4 Liter i-VTEC four cylinder engine and shifted with a five speed automatic transmission that can send power to either the front wheels or with Honda’s Real Time 4WD power all four. The only thing left for Honda to install is a video monitor so that the passengers can check on the family pet while he is riding in his kennel on wheels. If you have any doubts about how safe this setup is you can rest assured that Honda has chosen the Takata Corporation to design the whole thing. Now you might be asking why is that name so familiar, if you have ever seen a racecar driver strapped in with a really cool looking green racing harness, those are Takatas.

The Honda Element lineup expands for the 2010 model year with an all-new “Dog Friendly” pet accommodation system designed to improve safety, comfort and convenience for dogs and their owners alike, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. The 2010 Honda Element arrives at dealerships nationwide by mid-October. The Dog Friendly Element is set to become available on November 16.

“The Honda Element has long been recognized as an accommodating vehicle for people with active lifestyles involving sports and hobbies,” said Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of Product Planning for American Honda. “The new Dog Friendly Element takes that concept to a whole new level with specially designed features for dogs and their owners.”

Engineered to integrate with factory precision into the Element EX, the Dog Friendly equipment is intended to accommodate the secure transportation of a dog in the cargo area within a nylon-webbed car kennel. In daily operation the car kennel helps prevent a dog from interfering with the driver in traffic by keeping the pet properly restrained and out of reach of the driver. In the event of a frontal collision, the kennel is intended to help restrain the dog behind the rear seats, reducing the chance for the pet to be injured – or to injure human occupants during a crash.

The Dog Friendly equipment enhances pet comfort by providing a soft floor surface for the dog’s legs and paws along with a dedicated fan and a s–resistant water source. Convenience is improved for owners with an integrated ramp, easy to clean surfaces and a full suite of matching Dog Friendly accoutrements.

Check Cristian Truers’s new auto cars buying guide for more information, or visit his interesting auto cars tips.

Step 1 Set a plastic trash can up in the center of an empty parking lot. You want enough room to approach, circle the can in a drift and then pull out of the turn. Make sure there won’t be any random shoppers appearing and wanting to leave their cars there.

Step 2 Drive toward the trash can and keeping to the right, make a 180-degree turn around the can, drive away from the can in the same direction that you drove toward it. Note in your mind the point at which this is at.

Step 3 Drive toward the can again, maintaining a speed of 20 to 25 mph and begin to make the same turn. As soon as you feel the weight of the car begin to shift into the turn, engage the parking brake (literally yank it up and on as fast as you can) and apply slight pressure to the gas pedal, just enough to maintain your speed. Hold your steering wheel steady as you begin to drift into and around the can.

Step 4 Release the parking brake when you begin to feel the weight of the car shift to the outside of the turn. Give your car a little more gas while steering into the direction of the drift (away from the can) until the car catches and you are driving away from the can in the same direction as you drove toward it.

Step 5 Repeat Steps 3 and 4, adjusting your timing for engaging the parking brake and releasing it and learning just how much gas to give your car to control the speed of the drift. When you are comfortable with your ability, repeat Steps 3 and 4 again, only begin to increase your speed each time until you can comfortably handle a drift at 45 mph.

So good look trying to drift, but remember that is very dangerous, and i should suggest that you drive with someone more experienced! And please make sure that you are able to take responsibility for your actions! Take Care Cristian Truers!