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| Foreword | ix | ||||
| Acknowledgments | x | ||||
| Part One The Art of Body Shaping | |||||
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3 | (4) | |||
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7 | (4) | |||
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11 | (8) | |||
| Part Two Eating Lean | |||||
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19 | (3) | |||
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22 | (87) | |||
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23 | (4) | |||
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27 | (3) | |||
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30 | (3) | |||
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33 | (3) | |||
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36 | (4) | |||
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40 | (4) | |||
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44 | (4) | |||
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48 | (3) | |||
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51 | (4) | |||
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55 | (4) | |||
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59 | (3) | |||
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62 | (4) | |||
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66 | (4) | |||
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86 | (3) | |||
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89 | (4) | |||
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97 | (4) | |||
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101 | (4) | |||
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105 | (4) | |||
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109 | (4) | |||
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113 | (10) | |||
| Part Three Body-Shaping Workouts | |||||
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123 | (27) | |||
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150 | (30) | |||
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180 | (7) | |||
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187 | (10) | |||
| Part Four Aerobics for Overall Slimness | |||||
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197 | (104) | |||
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201 | (4) | |||
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205 | (5) | |||
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210 | (5) | |||
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215 | (4) | |||
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219 | (4) | |||
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223 | (5) | |||
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228 | (4) | |||
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232 | (3) | |||
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235 | (3) | |||
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246 | (5) | |||
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256 | (4) | |||
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260 | (4) | |||
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264 | (5) | |||
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269 | (4) | |||
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273 | (4) | |||
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277 | (5) | |||
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282 | (4) | |||
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286 | (4) | |||
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290 | (4) | |||
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294 | (7) | |||
| Part Five Self-Coaching the New You | |||||
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301 | (7) | |||
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308 | (6) | |||
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314 | (10) | |||
| Photography Credits | 324 | (1) | |||
| Index | 325 |
The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
Chapter One
It's a Lifestyle,
Not a Diet
It's an all too familiar experience: You take your favorite jeans out of the clothes dryer, and you can't zip them. You figure the dryer shrunk them. The next morning, you get dressed for work, and you can't button your skirt. That night, you pull your favorite dress out of the closet, and it pulls across your backside.
You've gained weight. Again. The last diet you tried worked, but you regained all the weight. Worse, it settled just where you least want the extra curves--in your belly, butt, and thighs.
If you're unhappy with your physique, you have lots of company. No doubt you've read the headlines proclaiming that more than half of all Americans over the age of 20 are overweight, and that nearly one out of every four people is clinically obese.
Despite our national obsession with getting thinner, more women (and men) are overweight.
Fad diets don't seem to be helping. Americans spend as much as $40 billion a year on weight-loss treatments, primarily diets and dietary foods. We buy diet books that claim to be the next miracle or revolution with the zeal of a chocoholic attacking a hot fudge sundae. We try high-protein diets, cabbage soup diets--even chewing gum diets.
Still we've become a country of pudgy people with chubby children; one-fourth of our kids are overweight or obese. As other nations inexorably follow our example, their people likewise are gaining in girth. Information is sketchy, but data suggest that the number of obese people in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, and Thailand (among others) is rising.
These trends seem to suggest that we will see a worldwide expansion of waistlines, hips, and thighs rivaling global warming in scope.
It's Not Your Fault
It's not hard to figure out where all this extra weight comes from: supersize portions and mega meals. Everything from candy bars to breakfast cereals comes in bigger packages than in the past. Food portions in many restaurants have mushroomed to the point of becoming gargantuan. The average "serving" per order could feed a family of five.
"There is enormous commercial pressure for people to eat more," says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., professor in the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. "Food companies are competing for the American food dollar in two ways. They want you to eat their product instead of somebody else's. And they want you to eat more. In every possible way, this society is going to conspire to get you to eat more. It's good for business."
The obvious solution? "Eat less," says Dr. Nestle. "Train yourself to stop eating when you feel full. You need to be vigilant."
Granted, this is easier said than done. But it is doable. Dr. Nestle and several colleagues have begun practicing what they preach by eating smaller portions at meals. "The pounds just fall off," she says. "We're astounded."
Developing a general knowledge of the fat and calorie content of foods is useful for planning what to eat, but don't measure and weigh your food to the point of obsession.
If you eat out, calorie counting is impossible because you don't see how the food is prepared, explains Dr. Nestle. She cites an experiment in which she and several other nutritionists were taken to lunch by a newspaper reporter who asked them to estimate the number of calories and grams of fat in what they ate.
"We couldn't do it," she says. "We didn't even come close. It was inconceivable to me that the food we were eating had as much fat and calories as it turned out to have."
Why Dieting Doesn't Work
There are lots of things you can--and should--do, however, in the fight against fat. In part 2, Eating Lean, you'll learn how to shop for the right kind of food prepared in weight-friendly ways and substitute foods that are kind to your waistline and hips. Add new, healthier foods to your repertoire. Keep a food diary. Eat more fiber. Eat small meals throughout the day. You'll find out that you don't need to deny yourself the occasional brownie or slice of pie--just set limits for yourself and stick to them.
In fact, you don't have to limit yourself to cabbage soup or other unusual foods to lose weight.
There is no hard evidence that anybody benefits from dieting per se. In fact, 90 to 95 percent of women who attempt to lose weight via dieting fail. Emerging data suggest that when women diet and then begin to lose and regain weight over and over again, the process may be driving their bodies' normal natural set point for weight upward. Also, this so-called yo-yo dieting can lead to frustration and overeating.
The real weight-loss experts are women just like you who figured out how to pare pounds and pinch inches painlessly. Take Cindi Arvanites, who along with her husband changed the way she cooked meals--and improved her figure in the process. (See page 119.) By substituting lower-fat ingredients for fatty ones or using less of the latter and eating smaller portions, Cindi has eaten healthier and lost weight at the same time. Yet the couple still adds some "caloric luxuries," such as butter, to their recipes--just less of it. You'll find out how Cindi did it and learn some cooking techniques that will help you shape up, too.
Being Active Made Easy
Monitoring what you place in your mouth is half the equation. It will work only if you also burn more calories. Some of you are thinking, "Not me." You feel silly flouncing about in a step aerobics class with young, leotard-clad women who look like they leaped from the pages of a Victoria's Secret catalog. Or the idea of hard exercise appeals to you about as much as 10 hours of labor pains.
But as you'll learn in this book, you don't have to become G.I. Jane in order to become more active. In fact, exercising can be fun. Really.
And you don't have to follow a strict regimen--unless you want to. Experts say that your chances for success are higher if you incorporate aerobic activities into your lifestyle. Take a 30-minute walk during your lunch hour, for example. Like many women, you probably associate the term aerobic with calisthenics done to music in a class. But technically, any sustained activity that gets your heart pumping can contribute to weight loss. And you don't have to huff and puff for hours: 30 minutes of aerobic activity most days of the week may do the trick, says Laurie L. Tis, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of kinesiology and health at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
What's more, there are dozens of ways to work exercise into your lifestyle, including but not limited to aerobics classes.
· If you're a homebody, you can garden or work around the house or yard.
· If you have teenage kids, you can bicycle, skate, or cross-country ski with them.
· If you're competitive, you can play table tennis, badminton, tennis, or racquetball.
· If you like to dance, you can take up dancing. (What better way to work your abs than belly dancing?)
· If you like to work out in the privacy of your own home, or you can't get to a gym, you can skip rope or use a step machine or rowing machine.
· If you have knee or back problems, you can swim.
· If you love to vacation in the tropics, you can snorkel. If you vacation in the mountains, you can hike.
The list goes on.
"When we talk about healthy lifestyle and quality of life issues, we're finding that it's less about that `20-minute, 75 percent of maximum heart rate three times a week,' and more about just being generally active," says Dr. Tis. The idea is to get a minimum of 30 total minutes of moderate activity throughout the day.
On page 229, you will meet Kate Flynn, whose story shows how a change in lifestyle can improve physique. A single mother of two, she enjoyed aerobics classes, but found it hard to make the time or shell out the money for them. Interested in keeping fit, Kate also tried running, but it hurt her knees. She didn't give up, though. Instead, she became an avid gardener who has maintained a firm body and a youthful appearance by weeding, raking, and the like.
Kate illustrates what more and more exercise and weight-loss experts are recommending: Experiment with various forms of physical activity until you find one or more that you like. The advantage of doing so is that you are more likely to keep at it consistently, says Charles Corbin, Ph.D., professor in the department of exercise science and physical education at Arizona State University in Tempe. "The activity doesn't have to be vigorous," he adds. If you work out about as hard as brisk walking, you can exercise for a fair amount of time without getting tired.
"When you were a kid, you enjoyed being active," notes Dr. Corbin. "If you can find that enjoyment again, you may be much better off than if you are a member of four different health clubs, getting on treadmills all the time and doing calisthenics. It's best to find things you really enjoy."
A Little Goes a Long Way
Still skeptical about exercise? There's a wealth of research suggesting that even modest increases in physical activity pay off.
In one study, for example, a group of 40 women who were each 33 pounds or more overweight was divided into two groups. One group participated in structured aerobic exercise for 16 weeks and ate a daily diet of 1,200 calories, while the other group increased their moderate-intensity physical activity by 30 minutes a day, most days of the week, while also eating a 1,200-calorie diet for 16 weeks.
The first group participated in a step aerobics class, reaching a peak of 45 minutes of stepping by the eighth week. The second group was encouraged to walk rather than drive short distances, take the stairs instead of elevators, and the like. After 16 weeks, women in both groups had lost weight, but there were not significant differences between them.
In another, two-year study, 235 sedentary, overweight men and women were divided into groups similar to those in the above study. When it was over, the group that had simply begun living a more physically active lifestyle had lost slightly more weight and a greater percentage of body fat than the group that was in a structured exercise program.
In a third study, Mayo Clinic researchers fed 16 women and men of average weight food containing 1,000 calories per day above what was required to maintain their weight, and limited them to low levels of exercise. Then they measured which participants stored the most and the least amounts of the additional calories as fat.
The study volunteers gained an average of 10 pounds in two months. But those who were most active without actually exercising--they fidgeted, moved around, adjusted their posture, and so forth--gained the least weight. One volunteer burned up an average of 692 calories per day through such mundane movements. Conversely, those participants who moved around the least gained the most weight.
Finally, in yet another study, more than 1,000 women and men who were trying to maintain their weights were monitored for a year. Researchers found that those who spent the most time watching television gained the most weight. Among high-income women, each hour of TV viewed per day equated to an extra half-pound of weight gained over the year.
Television per se is not to blame, of course. But it's a sedentary activity. Getting up during commercial breaks to load the dishwasher, fold clothes, or take a brief exercise break by doing jumping jacks or jogging in place are among the things you can do to break the lethargy cycle, says Dr. Nestle.
Maybe you think vanity is a poor reason to lose weight. Fine, but your appearance isn't the only reason to shake a tail feather. Think about your health. Physically active women have less risk of dying from coronary heart disease and developing high blood pressure, colon cancer, and diabetes. And all that movin' and groovin' may enhance the effect of estrogen-replacement therapy in decreasing bone loss after menopause.
Certainly most of us could improve on this score. More than three out of five women in the United States don't engage in the recommended amount of physical activity. The Surgeon General defines moderate physical activity as activity that uses 150 calories per day, or 1,000 calories per week. You can achieve this rate by gardening or playing table tennis for 30 to 45 minutes six days a week.
While a common stereotype is that of a potbellied guy slumped in front of the television, experts report that women are more apt to be physically inactive than men. True, you may be running around all day and up until all hours taking care of your job and family. But that isn't necessarily the kind of activity that improves your figure.
"But I don't have time to exercise," you might say. Or, "I don't have time to shop for special food--I have to eat what my family eats."
No problem. On page 308, you'll learn how any woman, no matter how busy, can work exercise into her schedule. And in part 2, you'll discover innovative advice from dietitians who specialize in teaching women how to shop for and prepare foods that the whole family will enjoy.
You won't even know you're on a diet. Because you're not. You're living a lifestyle that puts you in control, once and for all.
For stories of how real women lost weight and shaped up using the exercises and eating plan in this book, visit our Web site at www.banishbbt.com.
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