No, I’m not talking about a new diet from the Kardashian Klan (God, can you even imagine what that would entail?). This DASH Diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, was named the number one diet for the second year in a row by U.S. News. Though it was designed for individuals suffering from hypertension — not those specifically looking to lose weight — the diet is one of the most nutritious and most-well rounded out there.

If you’re looking to kick off 2012 by revamping your healthy eating habits, check and see if the DASH Diet works for your lifestyle.

Processed foods are generally not good for us, regardless of how they are advertised. I’ve lived with roommates who firmly believed that they were on wholesome, perfectly nutritious diets all the while subsisting on Power bars, frozen TV dinners from the health food section of our local grocery store and Gatorade. Just because a product is advertised as a health food does not make it one! A trip to the grocery store quickly confirms this simple, yet often forgotten principle. In fact, many of the foods advertised as “energy bars” or nutrient packed “protein powders” are some of the most dangerous foods you could possibly consume. Take for instance PowerBar’s Triple Threat Chocolate Peanut Butter Crisp. Putting aside the fact that the name of this bar doesn’t sound healthy to begin with (albeit it does sound decadently delicious), let us pretend that we fall for the claim that this bar provides “long lasting energy” as marketed on the packaging. Now, let us begin to become enlightened about why this PowerBar can do no such thing and doesn’t even taste decadently delicious for Pete’s sake. Read More »

I have always been a fan of any quick fix diet plan. If there was a pill that would melt away pounds within a day, I would be first in line to buy it. So when I was perusing the web one day and happened upon the Slim Fast website, I saw an opportunity and ran with it. After all it has ‘fast’ and ‘slim’ in the name, so how bad could it be?

Within the first day I realized this was going to suck.

First let me just explain to you what it entails. Everyday you eat three snacks that are 100 calories, Slim Fast provides snack bars and the website also offers healthy 100 calorie snacks of real food you can make yourself. Then you also eat two 200 calorie meals, both are provided by Slim Fast and  you can choose between a shake or meal bar. Lastly you have one 500 calorie meal. It doesn’t seem too hard, right?

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The weather is finally starting to warm up, and summer will be here before we know it.  While I love summer and I’m excited to have the time off to relax and have fun, just thinking about the fact that sundresses, short-shorts, and bikinis are in my not-too-distant future makes me cringe. The fact of the matter is, my body isn’t quite ready for skimpy summer clothes just yet.  I’ve begun to slack off a bit on the eating and exercise goals I set in the beginning of the year, and it’s time to get back on track.

DailyBurn, a website that tracks your diet and exercise, is helping me do just that.  Once you login and create an account, DailyBurn asks you a few simple questions about your body, activity level, and health and weight loss goals.  It then creates a customized nutrition plan that tells you how many calories and grams of fat, protein, and carbs you should be consuming daily, and users log everything they eat into the database to track their diet.  This has really helped me make smarter eating choices; by logging everything I eat, I can see what I’m eating way too much of (carbs), and likewise what I don’t get enough of (protein).

The site also helps you create customized workout plans to follow. Users also record exercise into the database, which helps track your workout goals as well as shows them how many calories they burn in relation to how many they consume a day. Read More »

Attempting to lose weight can be seriously stressful when you feel like you have to follow a laundry list of rules—don’t eat after 7 pm, banish white flour, etc., etc.—in addition to hitting the dreaded treadmill and the stinky weight-room. According to Women’s Health magazine, however, it’s possible to shed pounds successfully without listening to every piece of diet advice that gets thrown around (or, you know, printed in Women’s Health).

What are the diet rules you can break?

Eat many small meals a day instead of three big meals:

Many people insist that eating small portions throughout the day instead of stuffing your face with three big meals will lead to weight-loss by revving your metabolism and keeping it going from morning until night. But Women’s Health points out that if you’re eating multiple times a day, you’re running the risk of consuming more calories than you might if you stuck to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack. Instead, make sure that mealtimes are defined by fiber-rich foods and lean proteins (those will fill you up without packing in the calorie), and leave the daylong grazing to the farm animals.

Brown rice and whole wheat breads and pastas are better than their evil white flour twins:

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if your pasta is white as long as you’re consuming the recommended six ounces of carbohydrates each day. Women’s Health says that a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that people on high-carb diets were slimmer than their carb-banning counterparts even when they consumed “bad carbs.” While you should make sure that half of your daily carbohydrate intake comes from whole grains, white bread isn’t going to lead to weight gain any more than whole-wheat bread if you keep your portion sizes small.

Don’t eat after dark:

Women’s Health quotes doctor Ann G. Kulze, who explains that the body handles calories in the same exact way no matter what time they’re consumed. Figure out how many calories you should be consuming each day – this number depends on your age, height and activity level – and stick to it. To make sure that you have enough energy to fuel your daily activities, you should spread out caloric intake throughout the day. But if you eat two cookies at 9 p.m., you’re not going to gain any more weight than you would if you ate them at 6.

Ban desserts:

Putting foods on the do-not-touch list only makes you want them more and can lead to binges. Eating dessert is okay as long as you tweak your diet accordingly, which means eating less for dinner and picking desserts like chocolate-dipped fruit and sorbets instead of ice-cream sundaes. Women’s Health points out that restaurant dessert portions are often ridiculously large and high in calories—an Applebee’s chocolate chip cookie sundae, for example, contains 1,620 calories, more than many people should be consuming all day long! The magazine also suggests re-thinking the traditional idea of dessert when you want to indulge. Your after dinner treat doesn’t need to be chocolate; a craving for something sweet can be met in the form of a yogurt and cereal parfait.

Your mind says no, but your body says yes, yes, yes!

About to pop the lid off of that pint of Ben and Jerry’s? Ripping open a huge bag of salty chips? Read this before digging in.

New findings from the University of Texas Southwestern’s Medical Center suggest that the fat found in certain foods actually make their way to your brain before they add the dreaded cellulite to your hips and thighs. Once there, they order the brain to send messages to your body’s cells, telling them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals that stop us from stuffing our faces (well, sometimes).

And the worst part? This only happens when you’re eating good (read: bad) food, so you’ll end up overeating foods high in calories and fat instead of healthy options like fruits or veggies. Read More »

Always looking for new ways to curb your appetite and shed those stubborn pounds? Now that bikini season’s among us (or at least among those of us that don’t live on the East Coast, where it’s been raining for about 10 days now), finding a way to cut calories and look good on the beach is on everyone’s mind. Enter Sensa: tiny edible granules that, when sprinkled on food, are supposed to enhance the smell and taste of your meal and send olfactory messages your brain that make you fuller faster. What’s more, they release hormones that are supposed to suppress your appetite so that you’re not a member of the “clean plate club” at every meal.

A recent article in the New York Times quotes Dr. Alan Hirsch, the maker of Sensa, who says that you become full when your brain senses that you’ve smelled and tasted something. Basically, you’re tricking your body into thinking it’s satisfied before you get the chance to overeat. So I can sniff that glazed donut, maybe take a few bites, and feel no need to eat the rest? No more burrito binges?  No more digging into my pasta face first?

Where do I buy these magical crystals?! Read More »

Summer is almost here and, ideally, we should all be eating lots of fruits and vegetables and hitting the gym every day. But really, who wants to do all of that work? We’re too busy to focus on eating well. We don’t have enough money to buy healthier foods. Sugary cocktails are too good to pass up after a hard day. The list goes on and on.

The point is, in most situations, we will come up with any excuse possible for eating badly. I’ve seen it happen too many times to count, and I also definitely admit to coming up with some pretty lame excuses myself. So, I’ve compiled a list of the most commonly heard excuses. Maybe the next time you’re about to say one, you’ll think about this and make a healthier choice.

1. “Finals are coming up. I’m stressed. Chocolate makes me feel better.” Yes, finals and the end of the semester do cause a ridic amount of stress, and eating chocolate might ease the pain, but while you’re scarfing down that king-sized Snickers bar, consider this: you could possibly be causing yourself more stress. When finals are over, and you look in the mirror and see that you’ve gained about 10 pounds, you will definitely start stressing about wearing that cute new bikini. Don’t let the stress get to you – chew some gum instead. Read More »

A little friendly competition never hurt anyone…And when it comes to shaping up, sometimes it helps to have the motivation of others spurring you on. For me, the most dedicated I have ever been to regular gym-going and eating right was when I either had a goal in mind (running a half-marathon last summer) or when I had others keeping me accountable (during my office’s version of The Biggest Loser).

Well, there’s a website I recently discovered that enables you to form a little fit challenge with your friends: fatbet.net. The premise behind it is that “the declaration of goals, combined with regular tracking and the fear of losing a group ‘Fatbet’” works better than going at it alone. And I have to say, it’s a pretty great idea, not to mention totally free and easy to do.

To start, you can sign up for a free account. After that, set your weight-loss goal, enter dates, and create a Fatbet wager. Then, send people you know a Fatbet challenge (word to the wise: you may want to make sure that they want to lose weight before you send them the invite…). Each day, you can track your personal and Fatbet group progress. When the Fatbet ends, all who reach their weight-loss goals win. Those who don’t pay the Fatbet wager (like streak across campus!). Read More »

When you think about hypnotism, images such as a creepy old guy dangling a gold watch in front of some unsuspecting stranger and making him do crazy stuff like backflips and squawking like a chicken tend to float towards the front of your mind (or if you’re as obsessed with Harry Potter as I am, the Imperius Curse that Moody cast on that poor spider).

But can it help you lose weight?

Hypno-dieting, a new trend that just emerged in the U.S., has been popularized by its celebrity following, including former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and British model Sophie Dahl. Recently, Lily Allen made headlines when she too endorsed this new type of fad diet, claiming that after several sessions she felt more inclined to choose healthy, low-fat meals rather than junk food. All of which made her lose 2 dress sizes! It’s also helped her give up her beloved bottle of booze, a feat in itself (of which many of my dormmates might take note).

Personally, I think all of this is just hyped-up mumbo-jumbo. I do realize that a healthy approach towards food is a key aspect of living a healthy life, and that counseling could help you get there, but a hypnotist? That seems a little extreme. This reminds me of other weird diets that have gone in and out of fashion, like the Breatharian Diet (yes, a diet based on living off of air- so chock full of nutrients, I suppose) or the diet that Emily from The Devil Wears Prada is on, which she describes as: Read More »