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Look Good,Feel Good & Live Good Weight Loss Plan

03/18/2013 12:11:00

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Helping Children With Emotional Fears And Violence

08/28/2012 10:37:00

Benefits of Talking to Kids about the Violence

Examples of benefits:

Children feel safer.
They learn that violence isn't their fault.
They learn that violence isn't an OK way to solve problems.
It helps them to feel cared for, and understood.
Children learn that it's OK to talk about feelings.

Child's Emotion: Fear

Fear of those they love in their own home, where they should feel most safe

Child needs to:

Be able to talk to someone they trust about their feelings
Learn ways to keep themselves safe and to know they have a plan for what to do when there is violence
Have a feeling of control in the situation ("I will go over to my neighbors when it happens")

Child's Emotion: Anger

Anger at the abuser, or at the survivor for not leaving the situation

Child needs to:

Know that it is normal and okay to feel angry about this
Be able to talk about the feelings with someone they trust
Express their anger in non-destructive ways

Child's Emotion: Mixture of anger and love

Feeling torn between feelings of anger and love toward the abuser. Feeling guilty for both feelings

Child needs to:

Learn that it's okay to feel both anger and love toward someone
Know it is okay to love their parent even when they hate the behavior they see
Know they are not bad if they love the abuser

Child's Emotion: Confusion about being able to love both parents

Feeling they need to take sides (e.g. "if I love Mom, I can't love Dad" and vice versa)

Child needs to:

To know that it is okay to love both parents at the same time

Child's Emotion: Loss

Loss of a healthy, safe family
Loss of one parent if they leave (or the constant threat of this)
Loss of comfort in the home

Child needs to:

Talk about feelings with someone they trust
Develop a support system of extended family or friends outside the home

Child's Emotion: Guilt/Responsibility

Guilt for causing the violence, or not stopping it somehow
Responsible for preventing the violence, and taking care of Mom and the family

Child needs to:

Understand that the violence is not their fault

15 Hidden Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight

06/04/2012 10:26:00

Reason #1: You Don’t Realize That Sugar Lurks Everywhere

Many foods that we don’t think of as sweet, like pasta, soups, cereal, salad dressings and sauces, contain sugar and often it goes by another name like agave nectar,

high-fructose corn syrup

, evaporated cane juice, fruit juice concentrate(s), glucose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, malt syrup or molasses -- just to name a few!. If your diet is high in sugar you may be missing out on important nutrients and overeating more often than you realize since sugar stimulates taste. A high-sugar diet can also cause a rapid rise and fall in blood sugar, which can zap your energy and make you feel hungry again.

Solution:

Read nutrition labels and steer clear of cereals and sauces that have more than 8 grams of sugar per serving. If you need a sweet fix, choose fresh fruit as often as possible. Skip sodas in favor of water (plain or flavored with a bit of lemon, lime or juice essence) and unsweetened teas.

Reason #2: You Choose “Healthy” Processed Food

Foods labeled “low sugar,” “low sodium,” “multi grain,” “organic,” “natural,” “vitamin-enriched,” “high fiber,” or “sweetened with honey or agave” may be high in calories or hidden sweeteners or unhealthy additives. And if you assume it’s healthy, you may eat more of it. Solution:Switch to whole foods like fresh produce, fish and meat and beans and legumes and limit consumption of processed foods.

Reason #3: You Snack On Nutrition Bars

How often do you eat a nutrition bar as a snack rather than to fuel a workout? If it’s often, you could be downing 400 or more calories without realizing it. Although touted as healthy, many nutrition bars are no better than a candy bar. If you use them for fuel, choose carb-loaded bars for aerobic exercise and protein bars for weight training. If you eat them in the normal course of your day, choose 100-calorie bars for a snack and 350-calorie bars for a meal (and don’t combine with them other high-calorie foods) and avoid bars with trans fats.

Solution: Eat whole- food snacks, like sliced apple and peanut butter, and reserve bars for emergencies.

Reason #4: You Exercise Too Leisurely

If you rely on the calorie counts on machines or the numbers of calories you’ll burn promised to you by instructors you could be exerting too little effort to jump start weight loss. To burn 100 calories an hour, you need to maintain a high level of aerobic activity the entire hour.

Solution: Determineyour target heart rate for optimal exercise then check your pulse several times during workouts (or wear a heart-rate monitor) to make sure you’re consistently in that calorie-burning zone. Try interval training (a mix of fast and slow pace), fun classes (Zumba anyone?) or outdoor exercise to keep you engaged and burning calories at maximal capacity. Choose exercises that offer a challenge or cross train on different equipment to push your body out of weight-loss plateaus.

Reason #5: You Ignore Fiber

Fiber-rich foods are good for weight-loss in two ways: They require more calorie-burning effort during digestion and they are filling and satisfying, which helps curb cravings.

Solution: Aim for 30 grams of fiber a day. Good sources include fruits, vegetables, unprocessed whole grains, beans and legumes and unprocessed nuts.

Reason #6: You're Seduced By "Diet" Foods

Beware of baked chips, whole grain pretzels, low carb dressings, diet sodas, frozen prepared diet en trees and fat-free deli meats. Many of these "diet versions" are actually high in sodium, which can cause fluid retention; or sugar, which can create a rapid rise and fall of blood sugar, triggering another cycle of eating.

Solution:Stick to fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes and nuts, fat-free dairy products, portion-controlled whole grains and a bit of healthy fat. Prepare your own food as often as possible so you know exactly what how much sugar, fat and salt you are eating.

Reason #7: You Skip Breakfast

More and more research shows that breakfast eaters lose weight and keep it off more easily than those who skip the morning meal. And the heartier the breakfast, the better – you'll be less likely to overeat later in the day.

Solution:The ideal breakfast is a combination of protein, carbs and fat, and adds up to 400 or 500 calories. Try whole-grain, high-fiber cereal, with low-fat Greek yogurt, berries and nuts; a whole-grain waffle with homemade peanut butter, banana slices and a skim latte; or two scrambled eggs with peppers and shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese on a whole grain tortilla.

Reason #8: You Forget About Fat

Pizza isn’t the only food that’s high in oil and fat. Muffins are, too. A lot of processed and refined foods have hidden trans fats, which are partially-hydrogenated oils that can clog and damage your arteries. These fats are predominantly found in fried foods and processed baked goods, stick margarines and shortenings.

Solution: Because manufacturers can claim “zero trans fats” if the food contains less than .5 grams of trans fats per serving, read nutrition labels carefully. If you see “partially hydrogenated oil” in the ingredient list, put it back on the shelf.

Reason #9: You Eat Out Too Much

Studies suggest that eating out socially often means eating more. Between bread or chips, appetizers, wine and dessert -- on top of an en tree -- you can consume a lot of calories without realizing it. You may also feel pressure to clean your plate to get the full value of the meal or not waste any food.

Solution: Commit to eating at home more. Invest in cookbooks for beginners or look for simple recipes on line. Plan your meals for the week and create pre-measured snacks ahead of time so you have something healthy to grab on the go. Limit eating out to once or twice a week.

Reason #10: You Eat “Unclaimed” Calories

Do you take candies or treats from bowls at work? Do you sample food from your partner’s plate? Do you nibble and taste as you cook? These unaccounted for calories add up.

Solution: Keep a food journal and jot down everything you eat so you can see how often you nibble, sample and taste. Make a point of cutting back on those unclaimed calories and keep healthy snacks on hand so you’re less likely to munch on empty calories.

Reason #11: Your Environment Encourages Eating

The color of the room, the amount of lighting and whether you listen to music or watch TV can all affect your appetite, according to research by Brian Wan sink in the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. Warm colors like red and yellow stimulate appetite while cool colors like blue and green suppress it. Listening to music and watching TV or reading may cause you to overeat either by increasing your appetite or promoting mindless eating. Bright lighting makes you eat faster while eating outdoors slows consumption.

Solution: Dim the lighting, turn off any distractions like the radio, TV or the computer and eat your meal at a set table as often as possible.

Reason #12: You Drink Alcohol Before or During Meals

If you have a drink or two most nights before dinner, your ability to gauge fullness may be blunted making you more likely to overeat, especially at a buffet. You also need to add those liquid calories to your day’s tally -- at average of 100 calories per drink, it's easy to rack up a few hundred empty calories.

Solution: Drink an occasional glass of wine or wine spritzer, but remember to count those calories and be aware of appetizer, en tree and dessert portions.

Reason #13: You Don’t Discriminate Against Condiments

Calories from condiments like mayonnaise and ketchup, salad dressing and other add-ins like croutons, add up, especially since most of us eat more than one serving. A tablespoon of mayonnaise, which is mostly fat, and one ounce of croutons is 132 calories.

Solution: Choose condiments wisely, substituting lower-calorie mustard, hummus or avocado for mayonnaise, and measure by the teaspoon.

Reason #14: You Graze All Day

Grazing can be healthy but it can also go haywire, if you’re not keeping track of how much you’re eating or paying attention to hunger signals. Solution: Keep a food journal (or download an app) to track how much you eat, how often you eat, the specific amounts or serving sizes of carbohydrates, fats and proteins you are eating daily and be mindful of how often you graze.

Reason #15: You Think Gluten-Free Equals Calorie-Free

Many people who aren’t allergic to gluten are still choosing gluten-free foods because they equate them with lower calories. The same goes for “diabetes-friendly foods” and foods labeled with terms like “low carb” or “low fat.”

Solution:Skip gluten-free foods if you’re not allergic to gluten. They won’t help your waist, wallet or overall health. If you are allergic to gluten, keep track of your carbohydrate consumption and make sure you get enough protein.

Surgical Cure for Type 2 Diabetes

06/01/2012 13:44:00

Cristina Iaboni had the dubious distinction of being not quite obese enough. For all the pounds on her 5'5" frame, she did not meet the criteria for bariatric surgery to help control her Type 2 diabetes.

Yet six years of medications and attempts at healthy living had failed to rein in her blood glucose, leaving Iaboni terrified that she was on course to have her kidneys fail "and my feet cut off" — common consequences of uncontrolled diabetes.

Then the 45-year-old Connecticut wife, mother of two and head of human resources for a Fortune 500 company, lucked out. In 2009 she met with Dr Francisco Rubino of Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. He had just received approval to study experimental surgery on diabetics with a relatively lean weight-to-height ratio, or body-mass index (BMI). Iaboni was among his first subjects.

Three years on, she has dropped 50 pounds to reach a healthy 145 and has normal blood pressure without medication. That isn't too surprising: Weight loss is the purpose of bariatric surgery and often reduces blood pressure. More remarkable, Iaboni no longer has diabetes.

She is not the first patient with diabetes, which can be triggered by obesity, to be cured by weight-loss surgery. But she is a rarity for having it with a BMI well below 35 and over. That's the level at which the American Diabetes Association says surgery "may be considered" and that Medicare and some private insurers cover. And Iaboni's diabetes disappeared months before she shed much weight.

Her experience has raised an intriguing possibility: that some forms of bariatric surgery treat diabetes not by making patients shed pounds. Instead, by rerouting part of the digestive system, they change what signals the gut sends to the brain and the brain sends to the liver, altering the underlying causes of diabetes.

If proven, bariatric surgery may help people with Type 2 diabetes who are less obese, overweight or even of healthy weight. And it might be effective against the currently incurable Type 1, or "juvenile," diabetes, too.

"Every textbook says that diabetes is chronic, irreversible, and progressive," said Rubino. "But we have thousands of patients who once had diabetes and now do not."

"INSUFFICIENT" EVIDENCE

Bariatric surgeons have long been prone to declaring victory against diabetes way too soon, before large-scale, long-term data proved their case. "The evidence for the success of bariatric surgery in patients with a BMI below 35 is not very strong," said Leonid Poretsky, director of the Friedman Diabetes Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. "Most of the studies have been very small and not well controlled."

The American Diabetes Association rates the evidence that bariatric surgery can cure diabetes as "E," the lowest of four grades. It calls data on patients with a BMI below 35 "insufficient," and says the procedure cannot be recommended except as part of research.

The immediate risks of bariatric surgery are small — a 0.3 percent chance of dying within 30 days of the procedure. But a small fraction of patients develop infections, leaking from the stomach into the abdominal cavity, or gallstones, and it can cause nutritional deficiencies: There is less intestine to absorb vitamins and minerals, raising the possibility of osteoporosis and anemia.

Despite these red flags, the surgical option is attracting intense interest because the quest to cure diabetes has become almost desperate. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that moves the glucose in food into cells. In Type 2 diabetes, cells become resistant to insulin. In either case, glucose remains in the blood, damaging cells and blood vessels, sometimes severely enough to cause blindness, kidney failure, or gangrene requiring foot or limb amputations.

In 2010, 8.3 percent of adults worldwide had Type 2 diabetes (11.3 percent did in the United States), resulting in direct medical costs of $376 billion ($116 billion in the United States). By 2030, the global incidence is projected to rise to 9.9 percent, partly because of the rising obesity rate, with costs reaching $490 billion.

The possibility that bariatric surgery could cure diabetes emerged about a decade ago. A long-term study of thousands of patients in Sweden reported in 2004 that both gastric bypass and banding improved diabetes in many subjects. A 2008 study of 55 obese patients found that 73 percent of those who underwent gastric banding saw their diabetes disappear after two years, compared to 13 percent undergoing standard medical treatment such as medication, diet and exercise.

In 2009, surgeons at the University of Minnesota analyzed 621 mostly small studies of bariatric surgery in obese, diabetic patients. Their conclusion, reported in the American Journal of Medicine: 78 percent no longer needed medication to control their blood sugar. They'd been cured. Lap banding had the worst results, worsening diabetes in some patients.

But most patients in these studies were obese, many morbidly so. (The average BMI was 48.) The improvement in glucose control could therefore be credited to the patients' weight loss, which averaged 85 pounds.

CLUES FROM THE PAST

Rubino had a hunch that something else was at work. As a research fellow in diabetes at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in 1999, he was reviewing the medical literature one day for guidance on how to best perform bariatric surgery on a man with a BMI of 80. He found papers from the 1950s and earlier reporting that surgery for peptic ulcers had cured diabetes.

Ulcer surgery removes a portion of the stomach and reconstructs a connection to the intestine, much as gastric bypass does. Few diabetes experts had noticed the old papers; they were published in surgery journals, which endocrinologists seldom read.

His serendipitous find led Rubino to other papers describing operations on the digestive tract that cured diabetes, something that, according to medical textbooks, was unthinkable.

"Within two weeks of surgery and sometimes sooner, these patients were off their insulin, off their diabetes drugs, and with normal blood glucose levels," said Rubino. "That was too fast to explain by weight loss."

Yet that's how experts explained bariatric surgery's effect on diabetes, especially as the procedure took hold in the 1990s. Few surgeons focused on how quickly the condition disappeared, said Rubino, "or they speculated that patients weren't eating much after the surgery, and that's what cured their diabetes."

He began pursuing the idea that surgery might improve diabetes directly, rather than through weight loss. "I was ignorant of diabetes, so I wasn't burdened by too much knowledge," Rubino said. "Something that might have seemed heretical didn't seem impossible to me."

Rubino modified the popular gastric bypass surgery, called Roux-en-Y, to test his idea on diabetic lab rodents. In the classic operation, the stomach is pinched off so it can hold less food. Surgical cuts keep the rest of the stomach and the top of the small intestine, called the duodenum, from receiving any food. Instead, the stomach empties directly into the bottom of the small intestine, the jejunum. In Rubino's variation, called duodenal-jejunal bypass (DJB), the stomach is untouched, but the rest of the procedure is the same.

The rats that Rubino operated on beginning in 2000 were cured of diabetes much more quickly than their weight fell. It was the first rigorous evidence, from a well-controlled study, that gut surgery has an anti-diabetes effect.

In 2006, Rubino was ready to move from rats to people. Two patients, with BMIs of 29 and 30, underwent his procedure. Their blood sugar levels returned to normal within days, though they lost no weight. In his most recent trial, reported in March in the New England Journal of Medicine, Rubino and colleagues at Catholic University in Rome performed standard gastric bypass surgery or a procedure similar to DJB on people with Type 2 diabetes. After two years, 15 of 20 bypass patients and 19 of 20 DJB patients no longer had diabetes.

Curiously, although patients shed pounds, there was no correlation between weight loss and blood glucose, the key marker of diabetes. "Bariatric surgery is more effective on diabetes than obesity," said Rubino. "Patients don't become lean, but they do not have diabetes anymore."

FROM GUT TO BRAIN

Research from the University of Toronto, reported online this month in Nature Medicine, may finally explain why. It examined the effects of bypass surgery on rats with Type 1 diabetes, which is considered even harder to treat than Type 2. Normally the jejunum receives only digested mush, as nutrients have already been absorbed in the duodenum, explained lead researcher Tony Lam.

Bypassing the duodenum allows the jejunum to receive an influx of nutrients for the first time, said Lam. Sensing them, the jejunum sends a "got glucose!" signal to the brain. The brain interprets that as a sign of glucose overabundance and orders the liver to decrease glucose production. Result: The rats no longer have diabetes.

"I believe that similar mechanisms are taking place in surgery for Type 2 diabetes," said Lam. "It strengthens the case for the surgery treating diabetes independent of weight loss."

His rat study shows why lap banding and stomach stapling are less effective against diabetes than gastric bypass. Banding causes diabetes to go into remission in about 50 percent of patients, probably due to weight loss, said endocrinologist Dr Allison Goldfine of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

In contrast, the diabetes-remission rate after Roux-en-Y is 80 to 85 percent. "The improvements in blood glucose with Roux-en-Y appear to occur very early, by day three after surgery, so patients are being discharged with no medication," she said. Something other than weight loss "must be going on."

Goldfine has launched a study of diabetics with BMIs of 30 to 42 to compare outcomes after lap band surgery, Roux-en-Y, and intense medical management.

A year ago, Rubino began the first large study for Type 2 diabetes patients with a BMI as low as 26, where "overweight" begins. The cost of the bypass surgery is covered by a grant from Covidien Plc, which makes laparoscopic instruments and surgical staplers. He aims to enroll at least 50 patients, following them for five years; he has operated on 20 so far.

© 2012 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

6 Rules Of Diet

04/18/2012 14:10:00

Taking Control is for people who want or need to take control over their own lives and weight loss and who want to do things their own way. Everyone is welcome here, so jump right in!

Basic Rules:

1. Pick your own eating and exercise plan.

2. DO NOT judge others for their diet and exercise plans.

3. STOP the negative self-talk. It does nothing to help you.

4. Post as often as you can. More posting equals more success.

5. Support other members.

6. No required weigh-ins or participation. You choose what you want to do. ALWAYS!

Spring Kitchen Cleaning Tips

03/14/2012 11:09:00

Fridge and counter tops: Use a half-and-half solution of water and white distilled vinegar to clean counter tops (not marble) and the inside of the fridge.

Fridge odor: Put two cotton balls soaked with vanilla in a bowl and place in the fridge. Using a small opened box of baking soda also does the trick!

Microwave: Clean by mixing 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar and 1/2 cup water in a microwave-safe bowl. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil inside the microwave. Baked-on food will be loosened, and odors will disappear. Wipe clean.

Windows: Mixing equal parts of vinegar and water in a spray bottle works great as a window cleaner.

Garbage disposal: To keep the blades sharp and deodorize the disposal at the same time, grind a chopped lemon and a tray’s worth of ice cubes once a month.

3 WAYS TO SPEED UP YOUR METABOLISM

06/11/2011 14:42:00

Here are 3 easy ways you can increase your metabolism for more effective weight loss results.

1. Calorie counting - First determine the number of calories you should be consuming in a day for your age, gender and activity level. While counting calories can be tedious, it has been proven effective. Keep a food journal and write out everything you eat including the calories. In the beginning it might take a while to figure out the calories in everything but after a few weeks, you will be able to eyeball it and come up with a fairly accurate estimate.

2. Eat more often - This might seem contrary to most diets that you've followed, but it's true! Eating more often doesn't mean eating more. Divide your calories between 6 - 8 meals a day.

3. Drink plenty of water - We need water for our bodies to carry out all it's complex processes. Aim for at least 6 - 8 glasses of water per day and more if you're active.

Garden Hose Care

06/10/2011 10:48:00

Garden Hose Care

Do not store a hose where the sun will shine down on it. The sun’s heat will dry it out. Also, keep a hose away from any kind of heating source, like a furnace or outdoor barbecue.

If the hose has sprung a little leak, instead of using glue or tape to repair it, try this fix—heat up the tip of an ice pick or Phillips-head screwdriver, and gently touch the rubber around the hole in the hose with the hot tip of the tool. It should seal the hole closed.

Handy Man Pro " News"

05/13/2011 14:22:00

You're probably starting to prepare for hot weather.

Sure, it feels great now when it's all springy and flowers are blooming and you've finally retired your jackets. But in not too long, it's going to be hot. And you'll forget what winter was all about and reach for the A/C.

That is...assuming it works. You've checked that, right?

Our Handy Man says that a well-maintained will be more efficient, use less energy and lower your energy bills. But just because you haven't used it for a year, doesn't mean your system is in tip-top shape. It's time to contact someone to get your AC system inspected to ensure that it works at its best. Trust us, you'll thank us when your A/C turns out effortlessly on that first really hot day.

In the meantime, make sure you clean and replace your air conditioner's filters regularly. It's just going to spew out dust and dirt if you don't and it won't work as well. So unless you're really into sneezing more than you already are with spring allergens in the air, get those switched.

Do these little things, and you'll start the summer as a hero. Just make sure to keep the Popsicles and ice cream sandwiches flowing, cause you'll have a reputation to protect.

E-Mail Our Handy Man Pro Today At: supermadsclean@aol.com

Call Us At:843-735-0751