May
25
2011
The 2011 American Fitness Index (AFI) report was released this week by the American College of Sports Medicine. Meant as a report of the Health and Community Fitness Status of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, the AFI was developed in 2008 as a measure of the fitness of various cities and communities across the United States, using “ a composite of preventive health behaviors, levels of chronic disease conditions, health care access, as well as community resources and polices that support physical activity, “and allows officials, residents and potential residents to see the health statistics in their community. This can help identify ways to improve the health and “quality of life and well-being” of the residents of that particular community. In addition to the fitness components of the community, violent crime statistics are also shown for each community. The index uses the 50 largest metropolitan areas of the United States as determined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (from data supplied by the U.S. Census). High AFI scores indicates “strong community fitness,” and are analogous to an individual’s strong personal commitment to physical fitness. Low scores can be interpreted as the reverse.
So let’s go to the results and see where your city’s fitness ranks:
2011 Rank/ City/ 2010 Rank
1 Minneapolis, MN -3
2 Washington, DC - 1
3 Boston, MA - 2
4 Portland, OR - 5
5 Denver, CO - 6
6 San ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
May
24
2011
Hello my diet fans and welcome to Day 7 of your Best Diet in the Universe diet plan, brought to you by me, your diet guru, Graehm Gray. Yes, I have accepted your mandate. I am there for you! Investigating the hundreds of diet plans out there and formulating my original plan just for you, my loyal followers. Its actually not so dramatic, but I like to write that way! My plan incorporates the essentials of a good Mediterranean style meal plan with a special concern on calorie intake. Its really not a “diet” plan per se, but more like a way of life. Yes, a life style!
So fellow dieter, you have reached the end of the week: week number one-and we are about to climb further up the mountain. By this time, after six diet days, your body is going through changes. Your body is recognizing that it is not getting the usual amount of food that it has received before. In fact, besides seeing a lower quantity, it is seeing a much healthier assortment of calories. Your body is now being called upon to burn fat and carbs more efficiently. It is adding protein to your muscles and burning internal fat. And with the Best Diet in the Universe daily exercise program, your conditioning is improving not to mention the efficiency of your metabolism. Your ability ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
May
10
2011
Hello my fans. Welcome to Day 6 of the Best Diet in the Universe. Day 5 was certainly a leaner day with less food available but with continued exercise. Your body is learning to adjust to the lower amounts of calories. You are getting into the fat burning stages of this diet plan which will result in weight loss. That’s a good thing!
We will follow Day 5 with a detox* day. This will help lower your body fat and get your metabolism to gear up to a steady state of fat and calorie burning.
Let’s begin:
Breakfast: start with a mixture of 2 ounces of "POM"-brand name blueberry/pomegranate juice and 2 ounces of water, followed by 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slices of tomato (1/4 inch thick), 1/2 of a grapefruit sprinkled with cinnamon, coffee/tea, 1 glass of water with lemon (6oz). Calorie goal: 200.
Mid morning snack: 3 handfuls of a combination of roasted unsalted almonds and dried cherries; coffee/tea, one glass water (6 ounce) with lemon. Calorie goal: 50-100.
Lunch: Start with a large salad with either iceberg or Romaine lettuce; add tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, carrots, fresh or frozen broccoli, and a small piece (2 inches thick, by 2 inches wide by 5 inches long) of grilled salmon* (the salmon is grilled with garlic, lemon and olive oil). Dip and taste salad dressing of your choice. Coffee/tea, with 2 glasses ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
May
07
2011
• National Physical Fitness and Sports Month (May 1-31)
• Mother’s Day (May 8th)
• National Physical Education and Sport Week (May 1-7)
• National Women's Health Week (May 8-14)
• Bike-to-Work Week (May 16-20)
• National Employee Health and Fitness Day (May 18)
• National Senior Health Fitness Day (May 25th)
• National Salad Month* (May)
• National Tap Dance Day (May 25th)
• Memorial Day (May 30th)
• United Nations: World No Tobacco Day (May 31st)
My friends, for all of you salad lovers, this is the month to show your support. If you are not a consumer of plant foods, this is the time to give them a try. Salads are an amazingly healthy food item that offers many protective health benefits. And it’s also the month to get out and show your exercise support.
Remember, regular exercise and eating healthy are the best ways to remain physically fit and protect yourself from many medical problems.
Stay fit and healthy The Nerdel Way.
Links:
a. Salad Adventures* 101 and 102 at www.nerdel.com/blog
b. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans: www.health.gov/PAGuidelines/
c. Take the Million PALA Challenge: nerdel.com/blog
d. President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Tool Kit: www.fitness.gov/resources/toolkit/index.html
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
May
01
2011
Hello my fans. Welcome to another day in the life of a dieter. Do you have more pounds to lose? That’s okay! You are in the right place and on the right track. Today's plan is part of the “quick weight loss” plan that is incorporated in the Best Diet in the Universe series. There will be less food today. Yes, less than the previous four days. Today, less is better than more! This will help trigger more fat burning and more calorie loss. If you are on the Best Diet in the Universe plan, you are eating nuts (if you are not allergic), fresh fruits and berries. You are eating less carbohydrates and this is boosting your fat burning. And today, you will eat even less! I know I just said that, but I want to emphasize the “less factor”. Many of you have written in that there is too much food on this plan. You are correct. There are extreme diet plans and less extreme. My plan will allow your body to adjust to the lower amounts of calories and changes in the composition without dramatically affecting your mood or hunger center. But today we will push you a bit! Remember today less is more.
Le Tour de Diet!!! Alez silvous plait. On to Day 5.
Bon Jour! So we have reached day number five of Le Tour de Diet! ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Apr
23
2011
Hello my fans and welcome to Salad Adventures 102- the second part of how to make the best salad choice. I know it seems easy. Just choose the lettuce, throw in a few tomatoes and bing badda bing, you are done. Well, it doesn’t stop there. What about the peppers, or the radishes or the cucumbers? What color tomatoes should you use? Which lettuce- the Romaine or the Radicchio? Do I add grilled chicken or maybe sliced steak? What dressing do I use? You can see the choices and options are endless. And if you are at a salad bar with people behind you waiting for you to make your choices, the pressure is on!
The most important guide to choosing a salad is to keep it healthy and eat the best in each class. Forget the fried anything’s! Grilled chicken is fine- fried is not!! Most salad croutons (you know those crunchy and sometimes soggy pieces of bread that they throw on Caesar and other salads) are baked and fried in oil- so you don’t need those extra carb and fat calories- so forget them. Fresh fruit and dried fruits provide natural sugar sweeteners, fiber, vitamins and antioxidants and are okay in moderation. Just remember that even though they are healthy and natural by themselves, fruit (fresh or dried) still counts for carbohydrate calories and content in the ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Apr
20
2011
Hello my fans and welcome to Salad Adventures 101. Yes, this is part one of a course about how to choose the best salad for you. It seems like an easy question to answer. What could be difficult about picking lettuce and tomato? But as we all know, it’s not your mother’s salad anymore. These days, salads come in lots of varieties, with different lettuces, different color tomatoes and hundreds of items that we add to the basic dish. And if that’s not enough to make your head spin, we can talk about the thousands of salad dressings that are available. So you can see that having a salad guide can be life saving! You never know when you are going to be in a situation like having a football field size salad bar to choose from or a menu that has an entire section of salads! What do you do?
Well my fans, you have come to the right place. I will give you the “what to chose” list that will make your life much easier. You should keep this list with you at all times. Even make you own notes on it. Salads should be a wonderful and necessary part of our daily food curriculum. By making the right choices, you will be eating a healthy meal of nature’s finest products. But on the other hand, by ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Apr
17
2011
Hello my fans and welcome to another installment of the Best Diet in the Universe series. As you can see, this series is composed of terrific diet plans, questions and answers of real life diet issues, recipes and information about foods, nutrition and fitness. It could be a great book. And all of you, my adoring fans, are getting the benefit of reading it here first, for free! Yes, soon it will be at your local book sellers, or online as an e-book. As a side note, I am still hoping that bookstores make a comeback! There is nothing like the feel of a book. Now mind you- I love my e-readers-I have a few types. But I still love the feel of books. I guess I am old fashion. But it seems that we are losing this precious art form. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
I am still receiving lots of wonderful questions and came upon questions related to blueberries and walnuts. These are two wonderful plant based foods and a big part of the Best Diet in the Universe. Remember my fans, this diet plan incorporates the good carbohydrates that you should have in your daily diet plan. By eating more of a plant based diet, you will incorporate more of the "good" complex carbohydrates that have the fiber, vitamins, minerals and protein as well as many ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Apr
10
2011
Hello my fans. This is the second column of a two part series on Metabolism. Metabo what? Yes metabolism- the way life is sustained. Food we consume is converted into energy, which is then utilized for the bodies reactions, which help growth, repair and of course elimination of waste products. I guess you can call metabolism an example of the “circle of life”. Why are we concerned about metabolism? Well you see as we get older (do we have to? Yes we do!), our internal engine slows down. We don’t seem to have the energy we once had as a teenager. Our hair is falling out, our skin is sagging, its harder to straighten up in the morning, our muscles are disappearing and we are gaining weight. We wake up one morning and notice that we now have an additional layer of body fat around our waist. Where did that come from? Who put that there? Its like taking a model of the Earth and placing a 2x2 inch layer of Jello around the equator. OMG! My pants don’t fit any more. That dress-forget it! And the bathing suit-ugh! Cover the mirror! Actually it developed from your steady diet of eating, doing less exercise and your metabolism which slowed down. Yes, our metabolism can slow down by up to 10% every ten years. That’s why our fitness gurus have made ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Apr
07
2011
Hello my fans. I want to tell you about this very cool iPad and iPhone app by my pal Nerdel. It’s called the Nerdel Fruit Cube and it’s available on iTunes*. As you all know, Nerdel is a very cute, loveable, some would definitely say, including Nerdel himself, adorable, little alien that came to the planet Earth by accident. And he has pledged all of his efforts to help kids all over the world learn how to eat healthy, learn all about nutrition and to get fit and exercise. He already has two books out: Nerdel’s ABC Book – a tasty way to learn the alphabet and Counting on Fruit with Nerdel, which teaches basic counting (in Spanish too!), shape recognition and sequencing using lost of colorful and delicious fruits and very cute pictures of you know who-Nerdel!
Well my friends, Nerdel also has an iPad and iPhone app that is super cool too! The Nerdel Fruit Cube is an interactive musical game, which teaches youngsters to recognize fruits and shapes. Your child will love playing the Nerdel Fruit Cube and improve their skills -learning all about a cube, the various shapes like a triangle or rectangle and learn about amazing, colorful and delicious fruits. What better way for a child to incorporate shape recognition with learning about fruits!
The Nerdel Fruit Cube is the first in a series with more ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
