Don't Let A Number Make or Break You!

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/09/20/why-you-shouldnt-weigh-yourself


This article published in US News shed light on a very real and important issue when it comes to women and fitness. This article discusses how women become obsessed with their weight as it appears on the scale that it actually causes a negative mental state. The author compares the scale to a store window. A woman can be walking down the street in a great mood then suddenly catch a candid glimpse of her reflection in the store window and suddenly her mood is drastically brought down. The scale can have the same effect on a woman's fitness efforts. You can go from feeling on top of the world after a day of successful cardio and calorie watching, to eating a whole box of cookies in despair because the scale did not show a number that made her feel validated.

As a woman I CRINGE at the sight of a scale! It has been so deeply rooted in me that the three digit number that appears somehow equates to my self worth. But...why? Is a 125 pound serial killer a better person than a 190 pound elementary teacher? No. That's nonsense. Not only is that number not a priority, it can be misleading! If you are eating a sensible diet and working out regularly, you can be loosing fat but gaining muscle. Even though your body is shrinking in inches the number on the scale may not move at all.

Being healthy involves so much more than just the physical. Yes it is important to eat healthy and yes it is important to exercise, but your mental/emotional health is just as important! Make choices that make you feel good about yourself day in and day out, and don't look for a number on the scale or anything else to validate you. Hide your scale in the closet and pull it out maybe once a month if even that. Instead, let your body and your mood be a deciding factor in whether or not you are being successful on your journey to better health. I personally gave up weighing myself. I make healthy choices everyday, and some days I make unhealthy choices, but that's why it's considered a fitness journey. I've learned to fall in love with the journey, even on the days where I know I haven't done my best I still acknowledge the fact that I am so far from where I started and that tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities. Instead of relying on the scale to determine my success, I started taking progress pictures and trying on clothes that use to not fit. A number on the scale could never feel as good as finally getting back into a pair of jeans that have hung in your closet for months!

Ditch the scale and let yourself be happy with who you are right now as you continue to work on who you want to be!

Fruit Might Be the Key to Maintaining a Healthy Weight

http://www.thedailymeal.com/news/healthy-eating/eating-more-fruit-secret-healthy-weight-study-says/020116

http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i17

http://www.shape.com/blogs/weight-loss-coach/dried-fruit-fattening


As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed I stumbled upon this article based on a study published in the British Medical Journal. he study showed that individuals who consumed more servings of fruit each day, better maintained their weight or even began loosing weight. This struck me as odd because I had always believed that though fruit has its benefits, you should limit your servings per day due to the amount of natural sugar which occurs in fruit. This study found that Flavonoids, which are plant metabolites which have an antioxidant effect, were found to be the benefiting factor in fruit. This made me wonder if how you indulged in your servings of fruit mattered.

Being on a college campus I am surrounded by junk food ALL the time. This constant temptation can be hard to face. One day I had stared all day long at muffins, Krispy Kreme donuts, and brownies. My sweet tooth was beyond repair so I went on a hunt for something semi-healthy yet still indulgent. I came across a bag of dried tropical mix fruit...at that moment in time it sounded heavenly. It's fruit too so, I mean, how bad could it really be? The answer is...TERRIBLE. It was loaded with sugar and most of the ingredients listed I could not even pronounce. How could something made from a healthy ingredient become so bad for you?!

I found an article in SHAPE magazine that discussed how dried fruit can be health if you choose the correct kind. Drying out fruit is removing all the water and there for shrinking the size. That means that to gain the same nutritional value as a piece of fresh fruit, you would only need to eat a smaller serving size of dried fruit. Also, this article discusses the importance of reading the nutritional labels Though dried fruit still offers the same antioxidants that fresh fruit does, you need to find a brand with no added sugar or preservatives. That is where your healthy snack becomes unhealthy and you may as well have just eaten a brownie. That last statement might be a slight exaggeration but you get what I'm saying.

So take the advice of parents everywhere and start eating more fruits and veggies! :)

BMI...One Big Lie?

http://healthland.time.com/2013/08/26/why-bmi-isnt-the-best-measure-for-weight-or-health/

In this article the idea of BMI was discussed. A BMI, which stands for body mass index, is how doctors measure where someone sits on the spectrum between underweight and obese. Body mass index estimates the amount of body fat that a person carries based on their height and weight. This is the method used by doctors because it is relatively inexpensive and easy to execute. However, it has been argued that the BMI reading can not be considered accurate for a few different reasons.

One of these reasons is that when determining a person’s BMI it is not taken into account that a person’s weight may be heavier due to being more muscular. Since muscle weighs more than fat an individual could weigh a certain amount and be deemed obese even though they have relatively low body fat and are not facing the usual health risks that an obese person would face. Also, during a BMI reading it is not able to be distinguished which type of fat a person is carrying. Belly fat, also known as visceral fat, is more harmful to an individual than fat that is just under the skin. This means that an individual who is relatively small but has a high level of visceral fat could be more at risk for health issues than someone who has a higher number of the scale but a lower level of visceral fat. Though BMI is not the best way to distinguish where someone stands on the weight class spectrum, other ways that would be more accurate are often more expensive and therefore not utilized.

This article stuck out to me because I had a friend recently who called me crying after a doctor’s appointment she had. She just recently had a baby and had went in for a check-up where they took her BMI reading. She was told by her doctor that she was obese. That word alone has so much negativity attached to it that it caused my already stressed and hormonal friend to basically break down. My friend is around 5’5 and though a little chubby she is not what ANYONE would think of when they think of the word obese.

This got me thinking. I too have been discouraged by my own BMI reading but quickly learned to not let it define me. However, many people take being told they are obese as a serious confidence blow and self esteem shot. Some may use it as a tool to start living healthier but to others it just makes them severely depressed, as it did my friend. If doctors and health professionals are going to use a term that makes an individual feel so negatively about themselves, shouldn’t it be based on a more accurate science? If there is a more accurate way to determine an individuals body composition then I believe doctors owe it to their patient to utilize that instead of doing what is easy and has been done for years but may be based on not sound science.

My advice to all you out there, Ignore the BMI reading, ignore the scale, and don’t let your weight class define you. Maintaining a healthy weight is important for living an overall healthy lifestyle, strive to change your health status not the weight class in which you fall!

Introduction

My name is Suzi and for my blog topic I chose Healthy Weight. I chose this topic because I have always struggled with my weight and am currently on my own fitness journey. I am finding my way through workout routines, healthy meals, and learning how to live an overall healthy lifestyle. What better topic to chose than one that I am passionate about! :)