BP Wellness Center

creating a culture of wellness...

FAQ

Q: Okay its going on my 7th day - NO Cokes for breakfast. Over the weekend I was tired and had bad headaches.  I cheated with 1/2 sprite and 2 excedrin to relieve the headache. I felt like I had a bad hangover till the excedrin kicked in. I'm wanting a coke……………… I've been drinking water, but I feel like I have to go to the bathroom a zillion times.  Since I'm not a regular water drinker is this normal?

A: Good job on getting rid of the cokes in the morning. I would have had you start out with at least half of one first thing and then switched to water. This would have given you enough caffein to keep the headaches away. Then ween yourself off the coke incrementally throughout the week. It is normal to go to the bathroom alot at first when you start superhydrating. Your body will adjust over the next week. I'd cut the water about 2 hours before bedtime so you are not up going to the bathroom.

Q: I've been been writing down what I eat and it has been a very eye opening experience. How do I figure out how many calories are in a turkey sandwich?

A: You have to look up the ingredients seperately (in the online food database of your choice) and do your best to judge the serving size for the turkey, mayo, lettuce, etc. Put it down in your favorite food list in the front of your diary for quick reference later.

Q: Do you have any information about vitamins, supplements, etc. I may need?

A: We will get into those areas in coming weeks. We anted to get all of you started on the basic fundamentals first.

Q: What do you think of cleanses? Do I need to worry about toxins in my intestines?

A: I saw this response to a similar question in Women's Health magazine an I thought it summed things up nicely:

When it comes to ridding itself of toxins, the body is a beautifully designed machine, says David Ellington, M.D., who runs a family medicine practice in Lexington, Virginia. The liver and kidneys break down and filter toxins (anything from copper to ammonia) out of your bloodstream and intestines and into your waste. So far, no detox diet has been scientifically proven to beat your own natural cleansing process. That said, there is nothing wrong with noshing on more raw fruits and vegetables. Just don't take it to the extreme by, for instance, consuming only raw foods or liquids for days at a time--it could put you at risk for malnutrition, fatigue and a host of other health problems, including a reduced metabolic rate and bad breath.

We had a few questions about various diets. Here is an excellent review article of various diets: Which Diets ar Best?

Tip: Several Dear Diary Folks recommend a couple other helpful website.

Fit Daily - easy to use exercise and workout website

Spark People - free fitness and diet website with nutrition database.

Q: How do I know what the calorie breakdown of the entrees in the cafeteria are?

A: We checked it out and the cafeteria has some nutrition information for its dishes, but not all. Here are a couple of ways of dealing with cafeteria calorie counting:

• Use one of the online food databases for a restaurant equivelant of the cafeteria entree (i.e. lasagna, quiche, taco salad, etc.)
• Take a shot at analysis yourself. Analyze the main 3 ingredients--I bet you could come pretty close.
• Choose simpler foods --let's face it, the more ingredients something has, usually the carbohydrate and fat content is higher. You should be choosing the leanest protein entree you can find, vege salads and broth based soups. Now isn't that simpler?

Q: So far, there are so many diet and nutrition adjustments suggested there is no realistic way I could do them all. It is a little overwhelming. What should I do?

A: You are right, there a lot of things to consider when it comes to diet and exercise. We are not expecting you to do or implement everything. Learn what you can and decide what to implement and what works best for you. We intentially want to give you many different tools, information and perspectives to help open your eyes to healthyeating and lifestyle. Any small change you can make in your everyday living will pay off big in the future.

From one of your fellow Dear Diary buddies:

Hey, I found a nifty way to plot your weight. It is a chart you can add to your google page. Here is a description on it:
Q. I have heard that it is completely normal for a person's weight to vary throughout the day, but by how much does it change? Is it a sign of weight gain if I weigh over three pounds more at the end of a day than at the beginning?
A. A weight fluctuation of three to five pounds over the course of a day is completely normal and doesn't suggest that you've gained weight.  Weight can be temporarily affected by things like the amount of fluids you've consumed, the timing of your last work-out, or (how to put this?) the status of your digestive processes.
It's best to weigh yourself at the same time of day.  If you're in the habit of charting your weight, you might want to start plotting the moving average, as well.  A moving average is a statistical trick that smooths out those daily ups and downs and gives you a much more accurate picture of the overall trend: are you gaining, losing, or maintaining? 
I've been using this nifty little gadget called The Google 15.  Type in your weight every day and it is displayed on a graph.   After 7 days, the graph will also display your moving average. The gadget even gives you encouraging pats or stern little warnings if you drift too far from your goal.
If Google's pending domination of the universe gives you the creeps and you're good with math, here's the formula for calculating a simple moving average yourself. 

SMA= p1 + p2 + .......+ pn / n

 

Another tip:

Josh,
Here is a link to the biggest loser cookbook I mentioned to you. The recipes are easy & have a lot of flavor for little calories.

Also a great calorie counter site that even lists vietnamese or other ethnic foods is http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate .

 

Oatmeal Lovers Alert:

I thought I'd share this with y'all.  There are some really great recipes.  I am an oatmeal-lover, so of course I can't wait to try some of the oatmeal recipes she has on here.

Enjoy!  http://www.katheats.com/

Six Weeks to Success article from a helpful member.

Attention Fat Melters: Fat Melting Cardio You May Not Be Doing.