Horrid horrid weekend.  I binge ate again Friday night  and Saturday.  I have to get a grip on this.

I don’t know what I did wrong.  I ate reasonably.  I exercised 4 days every week.  I walked two of those four days.  I ate around 1200 calories.  I’m ready to throw in the towel.

Last year, author and adventurer Dan Buettner identified four locations where an unusually high number of people live to be 100. These areas–Okinawa; Sardinia; the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, Calif., home of many Seventh-Day Adventists–had a number of things in common. The people live in tight-knit communities, have active lifestyles, and eat a diet rich in vegetables. Now Buettner has found a Greek island, Ikaria, where people are three times more likely to reach age 90 than in the U.S. They will also have about 20 percent less cancer, half the rate of cardiovascular disease, and almost no dementia. We talked to Buettner about what he and his team of researchers learned.

Q:What are these islanders doing right?

A: Ikarians eat a variation of the Mediterranean diet (lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish), which adds about six years of life expectancy. They also eat a lot of wild greens. We found 70 or so types of greens, many with 10 times the level of antioxidants in green tea or red wine. We also discovered five or six regularly consumed herbal teas, many of which are mild diuretics. If you’re diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor’s first line of defense is to prescribe diuretics. It turns out that just by drinking tea morning and night, these people are lowering their blood pressure over time.

PARADE: 7 habits for a longer life

Q:Did anything really surprise you?

A: We found that the Ikarians take naps regularly. People who nap at least five times a week for half an hour have 35 percent less chance of cardiovascular disease. We know that blood chemistry changes when you take a nap–your heart rate drops and stress hormones diminish. It’s good for your brain to get some rest.

Q:What about exercise?

A: The Ikarians don’t run marathons or climb mountains, but physical activity is hard-wired into their lives. The island itself is very hilly. Every time people take off for work or church, they are getting exercise. They burn calories without thinking about it.

PARADE Quiz: How fast are you aging?

Q:What are the most important changes we can make?

A: Find ways to incorporate movement into everyday life. Remove your garage door opener so that you open the door by hand two or three times a day. That will burn about 20 calories. Store the standing mixer and blend by hand–that’s a free mini-workout. Hide the TV remote–every time you get out of the chair, that’s four calories. All those little calories add up. An easy way to cut calories from your diet is to trade your 13- or 14-inch dinner plates for 10-inch ones. Research shows that people who eat off smaller plates eat 20 to 25 percent less food without thinking about it.

Q:How has your research affected your own life?

A: I’ve cut most meat out of my diet. I keep a can of nuts in my office. I spend more time with my kids, and I’ve started to go back to church. I spend less time with toxic people. And also, I’ve grown rather fond of seniors.

#2

Is Your Health Food Really Healthy?

6 healthy-sounding foods that really aren’t.

By By Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., EatingWell.com

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My friend’s husband, Henry, recently bought a huge box of Yogos, confident that these “yogurty-covered, fruit-flavored bits” were a healthy choice for his kids.

“Not exactly,” his wife, a nutritionist, said when he presented her with the box. Sure, Yogos are fortified with 100 percent of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C and some calcium. But the ingredient list begins with sugar and partially hydrogenated oils, and a small pouch (just shy of an ounce) of the pea-sized candies supplies 90 calories, two-thirds of which come from sugars. In fact, Yogos contain very little yogurt or fruit. How did this smart man get fooled into thinking this was health food?

No doubt Henry was deceived by what Brian Wansink, Ph.D., executive director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and an EatingWell Advisory Board member, calls the “health halo” effect. Words like “yogurt” and “fruit” positively glow with such halos, since we consider these foods healthy in their natural state.

In his “McSubway” studies, reported last October in the Journal of Consumer Research, Wansink showed how we let our general impressions of foods mislead us. He asked people who had finished eating at McDonald’s or Subway to estimate the calories in their meals, then compared their guesses to the actual counts. Participants estimated that a Subway meal contained 21 percent fewer calories than a McDonald’s meal with the same calories. Wansink concluded that Subway’s “healthier than fast food” image was biasing customers’ calorie estimations. Today, his advice is, “Take your best estimate of how many calories you think the food contains, and double it!”

Don’t be fooled by health halos. Some of the worst offenders:

Energy bars

Energy bars usually contain protein and fiber—nutrients that help you feel full—but also may be loaded with calories. That’s fine if you occasionally make one a meal, but most of us eat them as snacks. You might as well enjoy a Snickers, which at 280 calories is in the same range as many energy bars.

Lesson learned: If you need something to tide you over until dinner, look for a calorie-controlled bar with about 5 grams of protein (e.g., Balance 100-calorie bar, Promax 70-calorie bar).

Granola

Granola sounds healthy. But it’s often high in fat, sugar and calories. Don’t be fooled by a seemingly reasonable calorie count; portion sizes are usually a skimpy 1⁄4 or 1⁄2 cup. Low-fat versions often just swap sugar for fat and pack as many calories as regular versions.

Lesson learned: Read granola labels carefully and stick with recommended portion sizes (which are teeny), perhaps as a topping on fruit or yogurt.

Salads

“Salads trip up many of my clients,” says my friend Anne Daly, R.D., director of nutrition and diabetes education at the Springfield Diabetes & Endocrine Center in Springfield, Illinois. Most of us could use more vegetables—so what’s not to love? In a word, toppings. The pecans and Gorgonzola cheese on Panera Bread’s Fuji Apple Chicken Salad (580 calories, 30 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat) propel it into double-cheeseburger territory. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger has 440 calories, 23 grams fat, 11 grams saturated fat.

Lesson learned: Before ordering a salad, check its nutrition information plus that of the dressing and all add-ons (often, they’re listed separately).

Smoothies

Smoothies may seem like a tasty way to help get your recommended fruit servings—but studies show that beverages are less filling per calorie than solid foods. And added sugars can make some the equivalent of drinking fruit pie filling: the smallest (16-ounce) serving of Jamba Juice’s Orange Dream Machine weighs in at 340 calories, with 69 grams of sugars that don’t all come from orange juice. You’re better off with fresh-squeezed juices; orange juice has 110 calories per cup.

Lesson learned: Some smoothies pack as many calories as a milkshake. Look for those made with whole fruit, low-fat yogurt and no added sugars.

Yogurts

Yogurt is a great way to meet your calcium needs, but not all are created equally. Some premium whole-milk yogurts can give you a hefty dose of saturated fat. Shop around: many low-fat versions of these products are every bit as creamy. Enjoy a fruit-flavored low-fat yogurt, but understand that the “fruit” is really jam (i.e., mostly sugar). Or opt for low-fat plain and stir in fresh fruit or other sweetener to suit your taste; you’ll probably use less. My favorite, a tablespoon of Vermont maple syrup (52 calories), provides all the sweetness I need.

Lesson learned: Although they are still good sources of calcium, some yogurts can be closer to dessert than to a healthy snack. Don’t let fat and added sugars spoil a good thing.

Sushi rolls

Sushi is big in my family. There is a wide variety of sushi rolls out there and in some the fried tidbits and mayonnaise can really tuck in the calories. The Southern Tsunami sushi bar company, which supplies sushi to supermarkets and restaurants, reports its 12-piece Dragon Roll (eel, crunchy cucumbers, avocado and “special eel sauce”) has almost 500 calories and 16 grams of fat (4 grams saturated).

Lesson learned: Signature sushi rolls often come with a creamy “special sauce”; you should ask what’s in it. Or just order something simple: for example, a 12-piece California roll (imitation crabmeat, avocado and cucumber) or a vegetarian roll with cucumbers, carrots and avocado supplies around 350 calories and 6 or 7 grams of fat, and most of it is the heart-healthy mono unsaturated type.

Despite these precautions, I’m not trying to be a nutrition nanny. In truth, most of these foods can fit into a healthy diet if you know your limits. But do a reality check and read labels first. After all, as my friend told Henry, even if the Yogos package screams yogurt- covered fruit, the ingredients list proves it’s still candy.

Getting ready for T-day!!!  I did awful this weekend.  No more excuses.  Thanksgiving is weeks away.  I have to do this once and for all.

(Health.com) — Nobody wants to get the flu this year. The dreaded, head-pounding, body-aching, feverish, nauseating, cough-fest packs equal parts misery and inconvenience.

But nobody wants to get a shot that might be unnecessary or ineffective, either. So, while some experts worry aloud about a 1918-like flu pandemic, most of us — well aware of the risks of getting the virus, from being sneezed on at the office to living with a toddler — are not lining up to get the shot. In fact, only a third of us even bother.

The truth is, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and most mainstream docs are pushing the flu vaccine, the latest science suggests it just doesn’t work very well. So, should you or shouldn’t you? Here, the answers to your flu-shot questions.

How effective is the shot?
The flu shot is only as good as the educated guesses of a group of vaccine researchers across the globe. Every February, they try to predict which flu viruses will work their evil during the next fall and winter. Their three top choices are put into the vaccine. The CDC claims that vaccine will be 70 to 90 percent effective against just those strains of flu.

“We hope that these smart scientists who get together with the vaccine producers make the right call,” says immunologist Dr. Randy Horwitz, medical director of the University of Arizona’s School for Integrative Medicine. But sometimes they don’t, partly because the virus mutates from year to year. In 2003-2004, the CDC admitted that it completely missed the virulent Fujian flu strain that hit hard that winter.

In the 2005-2006 season, in which the CDC said the match between the vaccine and the virus was good, a strain not included in the vaccine hospitalized 31 children in Houston. Also, two recent studies found that the shot may be less effective for people with weaker immune systems, so its effectiveness can depend on how well your body responds to the vaccine.

Will it make me sick?
Even if it doesn’t work, it can’t hurt to get the shot, right? For most people that may be true. Millions of vaccinations are administered each year, but since 1991, only about 26,000 adverse events have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). Most of those were fever, rash, headaches, hives, or, very rarely, seizures. The most common side effect is swelling at the injection site on your arm.

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And any bad reactions, thought to be your immune system’s way of gearing up after the exposure to dead virus particles in the vaccine, typically ease after a few days. (Manufacturers are required to verify that each batch of vaccine used for injections contains no live flu viruses. But people with egg allergies shouldn’t get the shot because the vaccine is manufactured using eggs.)

Still, some researchers aren’t comfortable with the safety data. Dr. Tom Jefferson, coordinator of the Vaccines Field for the Cochrane Collaborative, an international group of researchers, reported last year in the British Medical Journal that he had found only six limited studies on safety after reviewing 206 studies on the vaccine. That, he says, is a surprisingly small number considering the widespread use of the vaccine and its mixed bag of ingredients.

Osteopathic doctor Sherri Tenpenny, author of “Vaccines — The Risks, the Benefits, the Choices: A Resource Guide for Parents,” cautions that only small populations and short-term info are used to measure safety. Adverse-events reporting, for instance, is done for only 2 to 14 days after an injection and it’s voluntary.

Here’s another concern: Except for about 8 million doses, the flu vaccine contains a preservative, thimerosal, that is 49 percent mercury, a known neurotoxin. While the latest research seems to disprove any link between thimerosal vaccines and autism in children, the debate still rages, and several states have prohibited the use of thimerosal in children’s vaccines. Yet supplies of mercury-free flu vaccine are limited due to manufacturing capacity. If you want to avoid thimerosal, you may have to make a special request to your health-care provider in advance.

Is the nasal vaccine better than the typical shot?
Hard to say, but the latest news on FluMist may leave you skeptical. Earlier this year the manufacturer, MedImmune, had trouble getting an OK to market the vaccine for kids under 5. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found ongoing problems at the company’s plant in Great Britain — bacterial and fungal contamination as well as the use of a disinfectant banned by the European Union. Eventually, the company fixed the problems and, in September, received approval for the under-5 set.

Unlike the shot, this vaccine contains live but weakened viruses. When inhaled, these viruses can survive in the nose and throat long enough to trigger the immune reaction that fights off flu, but will be killed by the higher temperatures in your lower respiratory tract. The CDC does not believe these viruses can mutate into a form that can survive. The nasal vaccine is only approved for healthy children ages 2 to 17 and adults ages 18 to 49 who aren’t pregnant. (Pregnant women and people with chronic conditions can get the shot.) The nasal vaccine does not have any thimerosal. Federal guidelines on who should — and shouldn’t — get vaccinated »

Who really needs a shot?
The flu kills. Each year nearly 40,000 people in the United States die from flu complications like pneumonia and heart failure. And more than 200,000 are hospitalized due to flu. The people at highest risk have lowered defenses: children ages 6 months to 5 years, pregnant women, people older than 50, and anyone with a chronic condition like asthma, diabetes, and heart or blood disorders. The CDC recommends they all get vaccinated.

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But what if you’re healthy and are not in a high-risk group? Should you get vaccinated as a charitable act to help prevent spreading the flu to those who’re less healthy? Or to prevent a few weeks of potential misery? If you live or work with high-risk people, maybe you’ll decide that the shot is worth it.

You can also gauge your other lifestyle risks. We all know that spending a lot of time in busy public places — like the subway or a gym — boosts your risk of catching the flu. Anyone walking around with the virus can breathe it in your direction. And kids in day care or school are more likely to be exposed to the flu than anyone else. Just the simple act of living with them heightens your risk.

Is there a shot shortage?
You may remember the panic over vaccine shortages in 2004, when a major flu-vaccine manufacturer, Chiron, was unable to deliver 50 million doses of the vaccine due to bacterial contamination. Some experts speculate that the shortage encouraged people to stay away from the vaccine in the following years.

But Curtis Allen, spokesperson for the CDC, says a shortage is unlikely this year. Manufacturers are promising a record number of doses (132 million), although they won’t all be available at once.

When’s the best time of year to get vaccinated?
Now, before the flu season really kicks in from December to March, experts say. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for your body to build up enough antibodies to protect you.

Aren’t I more likely to catch a cold than the flu?
For sure. There are more than 200 cold viruses, they mutate a lot, and virtually everybody comes down with one from time to time. Although the worst colds might feel like the flu, lots of people say they have the flu when they really don’t. Two years ago, only 13 percent of people who were tested after reporting flu-like illnesses actually had the real thing.

Should I really worry about a flu epidemic?
Nobody really knows. The 1918 pandemic seemed to start like any old flu season, but within a few months the virus had mutated into a monster that killed healthy adults within a day. Like most flus, it may have originated in birds. That’s why experts worry that today’s avian flu may turn into a global epidemic. But, unlike the 1918 strain, it hasn’t spread readily from person to person. And while the regular flu shot won’t protect you against avian flu (it’s a different strain of the virus), consider this: Researchers are finding that millions of people have been infected with avian flu without suffering serious complications.

Anyone getting flu shots?  My doctor recommend I get one.  But I don’t want to get it.  Advice is appreciated.

I do my own happy dance! LOST 7 LBS!

What are some favorite treats?

I want to dressy up for Halloween but my fat it from happening.  Anyone else dressing up?

I gained the 3 lbs lost recently.  I hate the gain lose gain lose process.  Any ideas on how to keep it off?