CARTOON OF THE DAY: The Flibber Flabber Diet

Apparently, the pop-culture phenomenon of being thin has invaded the cartoon world: Has anyone tried the Flibber-Flabber diet?

Truffles, the wife of a master chief Mung, decides after knocking over a village that she'll put everyone in her household on a diet after gaining weight from eating Mung's food. Not only does she make it a contest to see who will lose the most weight, she also challenges Mung to make healthier food. My favorite character on the Chowder TV series (I know it's a kid's show, but I'm a big one at heart) is Schnitzel. The cartoon makes fun of the oftentimes fad diets we put ourselves on to see how long we can last at eating healthy.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Ballerina Carmen De Lavallade on Fitness

Looking svelte at 82, the former ballerina, shown here in a gown designed by her husband, Geoffrey Holder, introduced Alvin Ailey to dance. During an appearance at the DuSable Museum, in Chicago, honoring her and Holder's work De Lavallade was asked about keeping fit:

Rather than succumb to the trend of taking exercise classes, she suggested, "Turn on your favor music and just go at it." Dance!

Ms. De Lavallade also listed the following food items she likes to eat:

• Oatmeal – believed to lower cholesterol
• Avocado – a great source of multiple nutrients
• Goat's milk – superior to cow's milk and a great source of protein, as well as vitamins and minerals
• Brown rice – better for you than white rice
• Red meat a couple times a year – great sources of B1 through B12

An Inspiring Fitness Story - What's Yours?

Here's the story of Susan G. She's an Herbalife Independent Distributor, mountain biker, and marathoner. In this video, she talks about how Herbalife24 has impacted her racing, with increased energy and recovery, before and after competitions and trainings.

New Year, Attempting a New Me

Peace and Blessings,

My name is Tiffany and I am a on-and-off dieter.  At the end of each year, I look back and say it's time for a change.  Well, 2012 was no different, except I had a lot more avenues for support in the area of healthy living.  All of a sudden I had Facebook groups and connections on LinkedIn buzzing about healthy living.  I thought, Great, this is my time!!! And I am claiming, This is it.  So here is my lil' introduction on my journey.

I am more than 100 pounds overweight and very tired of carrying all this stuff around, so I'm guessing with this umteenth' try, and I plan on doing things a little differently.  I have always been told that if you write out your journey you have a better chance at succeeding at your goals and this is my journey with the help of +Cindy Barrymore and Herbalife.

Today marks Week 3 and I have started to fall off with my exercise. I am still eating healthy with my shakes twice a day and a healthy dinner. I need to get the gusto up to hit the gym, but that has been my downfall, but I will find a way to work it back in.  So on the foundation of all this......

Just a little background on me, I have been dieting off and on since high school.  When I look back at my pictures I now know I was tripping:

Please don't hate on the 90s' style!

Back then, I was on the cabbage soup and "surgery diet."  I also tried Atkins diet, which I hated the most out of all the ones I have tried.  But I would lose the 5 to 10 pounds per week, then go back to my same old eating habits.  I was thankful for gym class because I had the opportunity to workout daily, which is the only reason I didn't look like I do now.  Whew!

In 2002, after college graduation and really hating my size, my cousins encouraged me to try the Herballife diet, which was great and had wonderful success with my daily visits to Crunch Gym that I miss dearly.  That gym was the bomb and so encouraging.  I hate they left the Chicago area.

*Tip - Make sure you join a gym that fits your needs, not just your pockets.  A variety of classes and helpful staff will make a huge difference in you wanting to go to the gym on a daily basis.

College Years :(

But I worked out four to five days a week, sometimes twice a day and lost 25 pounds in two months!!!

Yay for me.  But as it always goes... the weight came right back.

Quickly moving to today, my goal is to lose 45 pounds by June 2013.  I am now back working with Herbalife armed with knowledge, Coach +Cindy Barrymore  and a membership to XSport Fitness.  It's an ok gym, but they do have some great classes and I love my trainer, who is very encouraging and doesn't let me boss him around which I appreciate.

I have been trying to track my food, but since it's the same thing every day with a small change in fruit I am not consistent, which is my overall diet issue.  But I have found some great websites and love Pinterest with all the healthy meals.  Even my cheating hasn't been to bad.  I had a craving for ice cream the other day so I blended 1 banana,  2 tablespoons of peanut butter, soy milk and ice with pieces of dark chocolate.  It was very tasty and helped cure my craving!!

Well, this is my story and I'm ready for this change.  I've been successful in the past and know it will work going forward.

If you are dieting, here are some good sites I use to help me come up with some different dishes and other sites I use while dieting:

Meal Planning:

• Real Simple - They are sooo easy to search and find good healthy veggie meals
• Fat Secret - All-around great site for anything.
• The Realistic Nutritionist - great recipes that are healthy and good.

Diet Research:

Diet.com

Fitness Program:

• MyFitnesspal.com - Wonderful site to track food from your phone and also has a group feature for you and your friends to encourage each other.
• Fitclick.com - website and app.  I use this to find routines when I need to change it up.
• Cardio Trainer - wonderful android app to help you track food, workout and help you during your workout with a program.
• MyJEFIT - an app I use to track my weight training

Do you have have any sites you use or apps that have helped you?  Please share. I love finding new resources.

My goal is to update you once a week on my progress. Now, off to the healthy living race.......

With Power & Encouragement,

Tiff

This fat ‘gots’ to go: I'm too cute for it!!!

Poll question correction

The question should read:

What's your favorite exercise or piece of equipment?

Great Shakes (and not of the delicious McDonald's persuasion either....)

Right now, I'm drinking a couple different kind of shakes from Herbalife, their protein and healthy-meal in vanilla. Of all the flavors, vanilla is the most neutral in that it mixes well with other flavored products besides dairy.

They are delicious, but not quite as yummy as the nicely fat-infused shakes that McDonald's vanilla shake, a full 530 calories, according to the company's website. Fat is delicious.Although the body requires fat, certain types of fat are not good for our bodies.

Wouldn't that be something if fitness shakes were that good? On their own and not wrapped around a recipe? They're great, but in a healthy way. And I'm customizing them as I go along.

The trouble with the McDonald's shakes (or any of the fast-food restaurant shakes) is if there aren't as many essential vitamins and nutrients, in fact hardly any. So that if you're on, let's say, a 1,500-calorie "healthy" diet (for a female), and you eat three full meals or five small meals throughout the day, where does that leave you when consuming the remaining calories: Well, for starters, 1,000 calories spread throughout the rest of the meals that day.

The Master Your Metabolism Calorie Counter By Michaels, Jillian/ Van A (Google Affiliate Ad)

And you see when you're trying to eat better that that shake has to serve as one meal, albeit an unhealthy one as far as steady nutrients go. I'm assuming in this scenario that you're cheating and enjoying a guilty pleasure.

Regardless,  the rest of your meals have to be nutritious so that, again, you're getting your recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals, which differs among men, women and children.

Most good fitness shakes I've encountered (in addition to those from Herbalife) are not only lesser calories (about 200 when consumed with milk or natural juice), but they're strong on nutrients. Herbalife boasts about 22 essentials. So that you're not enjoying an empty meal. Depending on what fitness goal you're striving for, some fitness buffs I've run into look for shakes with more elevated levels of protein for muscle promotion, as well as in their daily meals. Right now, I opt for no more than about 125 grams a day. Man or woman, bodybuilding requires more protein than other fitness activities, such as when dieting.

Lately, I've grown tired of mixing my shakes with milk, so I've started mixing them with Naked juices. I can't speak for how they taste with shake flavors other than vanilla. Also, shaking the mixture or tossing it in a blender are much better than stirring, which no matter how vigorously you churn never gets all the powder lumps out.

My Fitness Regimen

Right after my grandfather passed away, I decided to get serious about my own health. I'm healthy, but I want to eat and feel better.

Since I don't have a chef (yet) like Oprah, one of my biggest battles is finding time to cook for me and my family. I've never been domestic to begin with because I'm more of a scholar (read: professional student) and (I'm told) an overachiever so time is especially valuable. There are so many things keep me from the kitchen that I had figure out a way to eat better.

I eat out every day, so I can count on eating from the following restaurants:

• Subway
• Jimmy John's
• Panera Bread
• Potbelly's
• Corner Bakery

I'm taking suggestions for other great restaurants.

When I do eat at McDonald's, it's usually an Angus burger (rather than their lesser cuts of beef), a salad, or fish sandwich.

I'm not a vegetarian (and certainly not vegan), as you see, but my consumption of red meat has decreased in the last 10 years. I attribute it a little bit to an interview I had with Karyn Calabrese while writing for the Chicago Tribune. She challenged me to stop eating red meat as a precursor to attempting veganism. I cleared myself of red meat for about three months. I lost my craving somewhat during that time. When I returned to it, I recall purchasing some chili from Wendy's and it made me sick. I couldn't finish the whole container.

I won't say that as I gradually began my return to meat that I lost my desire to eat it entirely, but the compulsion is less. And I now eat better leaner cuts of steak and hamburger a few times a month so that my Vitamin E intake doesn't drop.

I don't drink, smoke, or take aspirin for pain. I've been on a homeopathic kick for about 10 years. Any pain, which is rare, I work through. Right now, my vitamin regimen consists of Herbalife products:

• Healthy Meal twice a day
• Personalized Protein Powder 
• Protein Drink Mix - sometimes drank alone; with 2% milk or natural and fresh-squeezed fruit juice; or mixed with Healthy Meal and protein powder to boost my protein, especially after a vigorous workout. Right now, I'm trying it different ways to see what works and what I like best
• Formula 2 Multivitamin Mineral Complex
• Garden 7 - when taken up as directed provides the daily allowance of up to seven servings of fruits and vegetables

All of these products can be purchased here.

My uncle sells Kyani products, so I also drink Sunrise to boost my fruit intake even more, along following with my Herbalife program. I'm not a huge calorie counter, but I shoot for consuming no more than 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day. Some weeks I'm active at the gym every day. Most times, I hit it three times a week while performing some of my yoga and Pilates at home.

PILATES FOR EVERY BODY BY AUSTIN,DENISE (DVD) (Google Affiliate Ad)

Certainly, I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but since September 2012 to now, I've gone from 23% body fat to between 17% and 18%. My skin looks better and my energy boost enables me to be an "over-overachiever." I work and go to school about 75 hours a week.

My goal to reach 13% is steady but more work than I thought, given my athletic past. I thought I'd have an easier time.

But then I wasn't as calculating in my fitness back then as I am now. Back then, I just trained and at some point my coach measured me and there I was at about 14%. Oh, to be young and spry.

The minimum percentage an athletic woman should reach is 10% to 12%. But I don't want to get there due to the increase in vascularity.