"The Skinny"
on Weight Loss!

December 2009

Editor's Notes:

Welcome to "The Skinny", our "new" monthly newsletter! I guess we're not so new anymore, since we're already on issue #10! We have received excellent feedback about our previous issues and hope you continue to enjoy our monthly e-zine! Our goal is to provide you with tips, tricks, and techniques you can use to help you achieve your wellness goals!

If you like this e-zine, please do a friend (and me) a big favor and share! If a friend did forward this to you, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.

If you have comments, ideas for future issues, or any kind of feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think! You can also reach me through my contact page.

In This Issue:

• Top Tips of the Month
• Featured Product
• Featured Website
• Hot Topics!
• Featured Recipe
• Featured Article
• Share Your Success!
• Did you know?

Top Tips of the Month:

• Don't stress! Create a mental plan prior to each holiday function and stick to your plan.

• If you can get away with it, don't bake holiday goodies this year if weight loss is your goal. Those that love you will understand!

• Always eat something light prior to going to a party. You don't want to show up starving. At the food table, look for lighter items such as steamed shrimp, thinly sliced roast beef or turkey, raw vegetables, olives, and fruit. Fix your plate and move away from the table.

• If sweets are your downfall, scope them all out before choosing, and then allow yourself small portions of only two.

• Research shows that variety stimulates appetite. Only put two things on your plate at one time.
  
  
• Cut alcohol, especially wine and champagne, with diet club soda, diet 7-Up, or seltzer water. Drink a glass of water between every alcoholic drink. Alcohol stimulates appetite, so be very aware throughout the evening.

• If you love eggnog, enjoy it but dilute it with half skim milk. You will still get the wonderful flavor with half the calories.

• While we're on the subject of beverages, be very careful around those holiday coffee drinks and hot chocolates. They can be packed with empty calories.

• Ladies, wear Spanx or tight panty hose--something a little "form-fitting" to remind you not to overindulge. Men, tighten those belts!

• All research agrees that eating slowly and savoring your food results in less overall consumption. Slow down and focus on the conversation.

• Remember that every meal, every day, is a new opportunity to get it right! If you overindulge, start fresh immediately. Remind yourself that you're doing it for your health and your appearance. No one looks good with a puffy face from overeating!

• And finally, as always, exercise is a must! The more active you are over the holidays, the less damage you will do to your "bottom line."

• "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
  (Walt Disney)

Enjoy more inspirational weight loss quotes!

Featured Weight Loss Product:

Sensa is the ONLY weight-loss system based on Dr. Alan Hirsch’s patent-pending Tastant Technology. Developed over the course of 25 years, Sensa Tastants help you to feel full faster so that you will eat less and lose weight.

Contrary to common belief, the urge to eat is not governed by the stomach, but is regulated by a specific portion of the brain called the "satiety center." As you eat, smell and taste receptors send messages to the brain, which releases hormones that trigger your body’s "feel full" signal.

This is a phenomena we call sensory-specific satiety, whereby we crave a food less and less as we eat more and more of it. An example of this would be chocolate. Most of us crave chocolate, but imagine having to eat chocolate, and only chocolate, meal after meal, day after day. After some time, you would lose your "taste" for chocolate altogether.

By enhancing the perception of smell and taste, Sensa Tastants help to speed up the process of sensory-specific satiety so that you are less inclined to overeat.

Check out Sensa Here!

Editor's Note

Featured Websites:

Visitors Share Triumphs and Struggles

Visitors Share Their Favorite Weight Loss Videos

Visitors Share Their Weight Loss Obstacles

Speaking of motivation, I've also added two new pages to help your workout:

Top 40 Workout Music

The Best Workout Songs

I hope you enjoy!

Hot Weight Loss Topic:

When most people think about good health, they think about heart health, or endurance, or strength. All too often, people ignore the importance of good balance! As we age, we take our balance for granted. Chhanda Dutta, chief of the clinical gerontology branch of the National Institute on Aging, states, "It isn't until we lose that ability that we realize how important it is."

More than one-third of people age 65 and older will fall this year! Someone in this age group is treated in the hospital for fall-related injuries every 18 seconds; and every 35 minutes, an older person dies from a fall! Men are 49% more likely to be killed in falls, but women are likely to suffer non-fatal injuries and broken bones.

The ability to remain balanced is a combination of muscle strength, nerve function, visual inputs, the function of the inner ear, and the work of sensors in the soles of the feet that orient us in relation to other objects.

Practicing yoga, karate, tai chi, or other balance training workouts can easily prevent loss of balance. The key is to include balance training in your workouts, regardless of age, and then maintain that balance fitness for the rest of your life! Chhanda Dutta claims that the "earlier you start, the better off you are in adulthood and thereafter."

You can read the article here!

Recipe of the Month:

1 2-pound boneless turkey breast, skinned
1/2 tsp. each of kosher salt and ground pepper
2 tsps. finely shredded lemon peel
3 T. lemon juice
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 T. each of chopped fresh: parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme
6 cloves minced garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 additional T chopped fresh parsley to sprinkle on top before serving.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season turkey breast with salt and pepper and place turkey in a shallow roasting pan.

In a small bowl, combine lemon peel, lemon juice, olive oil, herbs, and garlic. Mix well and rub over turkey.

Roast turkey for 15 minutes. Pour broth and wine over turkey. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and roast for 25 minutes more (turkey should be 170 degrees when done), spooning juices over turkey every 10 minutes.

To serve, slice turkey, spoon juices over slices, and sprinkle with parsley.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals 170 calories, 4 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 71 mg cholesterol, 284 mg sodium, 2 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber, 28 g protein.


Broccoli with Goat Cheese and Walnuts
(from The Sonoma Diet Cookbook)
6 Servings

1 pound broccoli, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 T. Dijon-style mustard
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
2 tsps. extra-virgin olive oil
1 T. chopped, fresh parsley
1 tsp. chopped, fresh thyme
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. ground pepper
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
1 ounce semisoft goat cheese (chevre)or feta cheese, crumbled

Cook broccoli in salted water 6-8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, parsley, mustard, olive oil, thyme, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the broccoli and red onion and stir gently to coat. Top with walnuts and cheese.

Nutritional Analysis:105 calories, 7 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 4 mg cholesterol, 212 mg sodium, 9 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 5 g protein.

Featured Article:

Don't Let the Holidays Derail Your Diet!

Subscribers Share Success Stories!

I had weight problems throughout my teens, but it was never really out of control until I hit around 21 years old. The final straw came when I went to the Doctor's office, and they weighed me in at 190 pounds, and for my height that meant that I was obese. I was devastated. The receptionist looked at my face and saw that and said something like "Yes...it's too much." That day I decided to go on the Weight Watchers program using some books my Mom had, which meant I didn't eat much that day since I had already had a baloney sandwich!

At first it felt impossible to stop eating pizza, cheese, french fries, chocolate, caramels - because I found that even though you can eat a little of those foods, a little triggered a lot. I got rid of all the unhealthy foods I had, bought a whole new stock of food, and that was it!

Another thing I did was find/make recipes that meant I can still tell myself "I'm eating pizza" when it's not take-out pizza. I often made veggie dogs with WW bread and mustard, along with baked vegetable "fries" so that I could say to myself "Hmm, tonight I think I'll have hot dogs and fries."

Substitutions are excellent to help you feel like you're not depriving yourself. Then after a while, you won't even really want to tell yourself you're having hot dogs and fries, or at least for me after a while I like to tell myself I'm eating healthily versus eating comfortably.

My biggest tip is to tell the people who care about you and ask for their support. Tell them that whether they accept you as you are or not, YOU refuse to accept your current situation because it does not make you as happy as you would like, and ask them to support you by not offering to share their foods/drinks, and accepting the answer "no". This was especially important for my roommates and now my boyfriend. They mean well and don't want to exclude you, but they're not the ones trying to lose weight!

I joined Weight Watchers meetings when I found myself stalling at around 40 pounds lost. Weighing myself weekly was SO helpful because the weeks that you don't want to weigh yourself are the weeks that you probably should! I still would like to lose another 15 pounds, but I have reached my goal of being in the healthy weight range, and I cannot believe I have sometimes.

I know it sounds weird, but my life is so much better having lost the weight. I feel like I can go out with people my age and wear what they're wearing, and have people look at me and think positive things instead of being paranoid that if someone looks at me they're thinking "she's so fat!"

It's given me the confidence to feel like I deserve to be treated with respect, and to think respectfully of myself!

Editor's Note:

Cristina isn't comfortable sharing pictures of herself yet, but hopefully, she'll keep us posted about her continued success. Cristina, thank you! Your story will surely inspire someone else to begin their own weight loss journey.

I would love to include a "Subscriber's Success Story" each month. If you would like to be featured here or if you know someone who would, please reply to this email or use my contact page. Pictures aren't imperative, but they sure are inspiring!

Did you know?

• People are more likely to overeat when they are tired? Be sure to get plenty of rest during the busy holiday season. Sleep deprivation definitely has an adverse effect on weight loss!
  
  
• To burn off the calories of a single M&M, you would have to walk the length of a football field.
  
  
• If you want to reduce inflammation and treat pain, eat fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, especially if you have a condition that causes chronic pain.
  
  
• By age 60, most people have lost half of their taste buds.
  
  
• One of the very best diet motivators is to track your food and exercise. Keeping a food and exercise journal may actually double the number of pounds that a dieter loses according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. If writing down every calorie you eat is too labor-intensive, don't despair! Recording your food and the approximate amounts is just as effective as long as you record everything you eat. It's no surprise that those tastes and bites add up! For a convenient way to record this information, see our Easy Weight Loss Tips' 30-Day Food & Exercise Log!

Editor's Notes:

Thank you for subscribing, and I hope you enjoyed this special holiday issue of "The Skinny" on Weight Loss! Please join us again next month for more weight loss fun!

Remember, if you have comments, ideas for future issues, or any kind of feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think! You can also reach me through my contact page.

For comprehensive information about weight loss and wellness, please visit, Easy Weight Loss Tips!

Check out Tweet What You Eat, a cool website that allows you to keep an online food dairy! Hey, speaking of Twitter...follow me at Ezw8losstips. You'll get page updates and weight loss tips!

Have you ever considered working with a personal diet coach? To learn more, visit www.mycoachlaurie.com