I found a great new resource for those trying to lose weight to share helpful tips with each other! Read and learn, or post an article to help someone else. Here is one that will probably hit home with all of you who love eating out!

It’s stocking stuffer season so I thought it very appropriate, and indeed quite clever, to time this particular post about stockings for the very time of year that you are buying small gifts for stockings! And have I got the best idea for you! GOGO hose, tights, and trouser socks are my new favorite undergarment and fitness/health aid!! In colors like Winter White, Black, Cocoa, Coal, Navy - you can’t go wrong!!

It used to be that the only people who knew what compression hose are, were 1) your grandma who used them after surgery or due to an ailing circulatory system to prevent blood pooling in her lower legs, to avoid  swelling and varicose veins. 2. The owner of the home medical supply store who delivered them to her, along with her toilet stabilizing rails, and 3. your mom - the one you turned to everytime her mom came over, and asked, “why does grandma always wear those ugly looking pantyhose?”

Compression hose later evolved and became one of the weapons in many a pregnant woman’s arsenal against varicose veins and swelling. As PDRHealth.com explains, “Swelling in the ankles and legs commonly occurs during the later stages of pregnancy. As the uterus enlarges, it puts pressure on the vena cava, a large vessel that returns blood to the heart from the rest of the body. This pressure then backs up through the circulatory system, causing increased blood pressure in the legs, ankles, and feet. Ultimately, this pressure causes fluid to leak into the surrounding tissue.”

Nowadays though, compression technology has gone mainstream - as it should have! And aren’t we better off for it? I’ll answer that for you. Yes we are!

First of all, who among us doesn’t want to either prevent varicose veins or keep them from getting worse, without throwing away fashion and sex appeal right along with our belief in Santa? Aren’t we all on a quest to hide the fact that all the holiday eating from Halloween on, is making our bellys rival that of Santa’s?

What woman do you know who wouldn’t love hiding her saddle bags a bit more, and having a tighter looking ass underneath her clothes? (Not to be confused with the other kind of ass as seen in my Valentine’s Post). Hell, I’ve worn compression hose or tights on the plane under my clothes ever since I learned several years ago, about the risk of deep vein thrombosis due to long flights!! And for any of you or your friends who perform any kind of athletic activity, compression tights are amazing for improving performance and recovery time.

On Scott Dunlap’s, A Trail Runner’s Blog, he explains the technology like this:  “The concept is that by applying pressure to the surface of the skin with elastic fibers, this compression (along with the muscular pump effect of the muscles in action) aids in the circulation of blood. Athletes and manufacturers looking for an edge found ways to apply this to improve both performance and recovery, and soon companies like Nike, Under Armour, and others turned it into a fashion play as well.”

So why do I think GOGO stockings should go in the stocking of every woman you know? Because it doesn’t matter who she is, what her personality, lifestyle or tastes are, these leggings will please her! Here is my proof:

The Curvy Woman -  Otherwise known as the woman who doesn’t want her junk to jiggle and wiggle, like a bowl full of jelly. It’s cool for Santa, but not her. She’s got a love handle to hold in, or a bit of a Jennifer Aniston baby bump (in other words, a flat stomach to anyone looking but the tabloids which means she’s not pregnant but a rag mag would say she is anyway so she wants to hold it in a bit more in case a camera is near). She’s the gal who may have a few extra pounds and bigger thighs than she wants. Help her feel *f.a.t. not fat - GOGO stockings!

Cold Woman: For the woman who finds winters too cold, but is tired of bitching at her husband that he likes it too cold in the house, while still wanting to be more sexy to him than the Snuggie  allows her to be, the GOGO tights will keep her warm!

The Busier Than God Woman  - Otherwise known as the On Her Feet Way Too Much-gal. You know the one. She never sits for any length of time unless it involves a bowel movement and a toilet. She’s always on her feet, so her legs never get a rest. She commits to bake twelve dozen Christmas cookies for two cookie exchange parties, and one child’s holiday party - all decorated with frosting and sprinkles (5 hours in the kitchen on her feet).

She has 14 family members still to shop for which will require 2 trips to two different malls and lots of standing in long lines at 7 different stores (7.5 hours on her feet); She has to stand in line at the post office (otherwise known as hell’s garden-not quite as bad as hell, but close enough you might as well be there) to mail 6 packages (16.4 hours on her feet), followed by standing in line at the mall Santa to take 44 photos to have just the right one for the holiday card (4.5 hours on her feet), all before singing with the choir in her church Christmas concert (2.2 hours of standing). Her legs and feet are tired. She needs some support! GOGO tights!!

The Jock Woman - Otherwise known as the woman who wants to ensure that she can eat that extra piece of pecan pie on Christmas Eve! You know her: She’s the one who braves sub zero temperatures to do her 6 a.m. two hour run, hits the gym for kickboxing class after work; spends Saturdays on the mountain biking trail with her boyfriend followed by a hike down the Grand Canyon preparing for her tryouts on The Amazing Race.  The girl needs quick muscle recovery. GOGO tights!

The Bit Off More Than She Can Chew Woman - Otherwise known as the Generic Battery-Should Have Used Energizer-Fizzling Too Early In The Day Woman. You know her too. The gal whose heart and inability to say no always trump common sense and and the amount of hours that exist in the day. After a full week of work she volunteers to “man” the angel tree at the mall, organize the the food drive for the homeless shelter, the bake sale for her kid’s school and attend two holiday parties for both her and her husband’s jobs - all in one Saturday. She needs the energy that better circulation will give her with a bonus boost to her booty in her party dress! GoGo Hose!

The Average Working Woman - She’s the everyday gal who sits too much. She’s sitting in her car for the hour drive to work. She’s sitting at her desk at work for 7 hours a day followed by another hour in the car to get to her kid’s basketball game where she sits for another hour on hard bleachers, followed by another 20 minutes in the car - sitting. At which point she returns home to sit with the kids at the dinner table to eat and help with homework! She needs circulation help. GOGO Hose!

Santa’s Woman - Santa swears by them for Mrs. Claus. She wears them and she’s like a thousand years old - and still no varicose veins!

See? I told you they are perfect for any woman’s stocking you have to stuff! (Or any pair of legs you have to stuff in stockings).

After much research and personal experimentation, I am more than convinced that the key to longevity, vitality, and aging gracefully is through the proper balancing of the body’s alkaline and acid pH levels. 

Here are what some of the experts say:

Writer Sang Whang in his book “Reverse Aging” proposed a Theory of Aging: we age because we gradually accumulate organic acid wastes. These wastes show up as uric acid, urate, sulfate, phosphate, kidney stones and other organic wastes often surrounded by cholesterol. Cellulite is a gel-like substance made up of fat in which are trapped acid wastes in pockets below the skin.

Dr Robert Young, author of “The pH Miracle” has been saying for years that “Obesity is an acid problem, the fat is saving our lives.” Why? Because the body creates fat cells to carry acids away from your vital organs, so these acids literally don’t choke your organs to death. Read more here.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that alkalizing diets improve bone density and serum growth hormone concentrations; the acidosis resulting from acidic diets contributes to bone and muscle loss.

Why? Because calcium is the body’s most potent alkalinizing agent. When you drink an acidic soft drink, for example, the body reacts swiftly by drawing huge amounts of organic calcium from the bones and teeth and pouring it into the bloodstream to neutralize the excess acid so that it can quickly restore alkaline balance. 

So how do you change your body’s pH? It’s all in what you eat and drink. Big culprits are things most people consume everyday: coffee and sodas. Here is a list to print out and keep on your refrigerator. It shows which foods have an alkalinizing or an acidifying effect on the body. If you want to stay fit and healthy in your thirties, forties, and beyond, you will do it easily by eating from the left side of this chart as much as possible! And if that list doesn’t seem user friendly to you, here’s another chart.

Bariatric surgery has become very popular among those people with large amounts of weight to lose. A new study out of Sweden now finds that cancer risk among women who do, is lowered by 42%!!! Read the article on HealthNews here.

I keep hearing that not only are chia seeds good for the skin but they are good for overall health. So, in an effort to keep you beautiful at 30 and beyond, I am passing along an article from one of my favorite skin health blogs Highonhealth.com related to Chia Seeds! Who knew the Chia Pet could be eaten? Here’s the article:

I’ve been talking for a while now about the benefits of Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), and in particular flax, fish and evening primrose oils. But some new research is emerging on flax seed oil and its possible link to estrogen dominance, which perhaps makes it a questionable oil to consume on a regular basis.

Estrogen dominance is becoming a huge problem all over the world. We’re consuming way too many estrogens from both obvious and hidden sources which is elevating our estrogen levels by way too much. And it’s not just a female problem either, this is a problem no matter what gender you are because men naturally have the estrogen hormone too.

Before I get onto Chia seeds (which is what this article is supposed to be all about), I’d like to first talk about plastics, because plastics are the biggest culprit of all containing a lot of hidden estrogens. And unfortunately plastic is everywhere and we use so much of it everyday. It may surprise you that all plastic contains estrogens. And the more flexible the plastic the more estrogen it contains.

So if you can, store your food in glass containers, use a glass drinking bottle, and never ever heat your food in a plastic container. I was using those little plastic sandwich bags for a while to store almonds and cashews in my handbag. I’m not going to do that anymore because the flexible plastic bag contains a lot of estrogens. And if you think the estrogens cannot get into your food or liquid, think again because they can.

Why is there estrogen in my flax seed oil?

Since the government so often demonizes Big Pharma, because of high drug costs, which makes treatment sometimes cost prohibitive, especially for seniors, it seems interesting that The White House would “get in bed” with Big Pharma during this Healthcare Reform process. Why cut a deal with Big Pharma lobbyists if Big Pharma supposedly, has been part of the healthcare problem?

This agreement, most agree, is likely to make drugs more expensive. If the purpose of the bill is to save Americans money, what is the logic behind this? A fan of Obama, and Universal Healthcare (ie. government-run healthcare) asks some important questions in this article.

I would like to pass along, a very educated, well written, blog post from Salon.com by an Obama voter who presents her case in a very compelling fashion. Some of you may find it enlightening. 

There is a phrase I’ve always loved in the American language: Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I think this phrase brilliantly applies to the current healthcare reform bills making their way through Congress. No one who is against these bills has ever claimed to think healthcare reform is a bad idea. I for one, think it’s a great idea. However, it doesn’t mean the entire system needs to be overhauled. Just the bad parts. Unfortunately for the government, a good many of Americans, and not just the wealthy among us, think there is a lot of good to the American healthcare system. (ie. getting in to see your doctor in an expedient manner, choice in physician selection, freedom to go to a different doctor if you are not happy with the service of your existing doctor, freedom to fight the payer if they deny your request for a test or refuse to pay a claim (not possible if government is payer), personal health information kept private and out of the hands of “big brother”)

See what you think of this Obama supporter’s take on the current bill proposals.

When I was in sixth or seventh grade, the most popular girl in school, T____ who got all the boys’ attention, started to have to share the limelight when a new, equally pretty girl named N____ came to school mid-year. Feeling the lapse in attention didn’t make T feel good, and in an effort to bring the focus back on herself, she started resorting to extreme, attention-grabbing measures. She’d wear flashy clothes and when that didn’t steal N’s thunder, she’d break out the dramatic makeup look - you know the one- the blue shadow and Tammy Faye mascara.

Before too long, the school’s attention turned to a canned food drive, and with everyone engrossed in their own struggles to get ahead in the contest to win an ice cream party, less attention was payed to the girls. Soon, both girls were desperate to recoup their audience.

It was like a bad episode of The Facts Of Life with dueling popular girls competing for the number one spot on their peers’ radar with Mrs. Garrett playing referee. N would show up Monday with a crazy hair do, and by Friday, T would counter with a half-shaved head. N sported a fake tattoo of a butterfly, T responded with double-pierced ears and big hoop earrings. 

Now, imagine the girls as magazines named Time and Newsweek. The playground is the news stand. The boys’ roving eyes are the diverted attention from magazines onto electronic media. The other peers in the school are all of us, called potential readers. The canned food drive distraction is today’s poor economy (causing attention and expendable income to be drawn away from the dueling mags). Instead of Mrs. Garrett as referee, it is the rest of the media. (Today Show mentions Time magazine article- 2 points! Larry King mentions Newsweek article - 3 points!). And of course, the flashy glitz and glam getups of the dueling girls are equivalent to overblown or sensationalized controversial stories about two of the most popular “kids” (topics) in “school” (America), pushed out by skilled marketing and PR teams. 

Call me a skeptic, but I kind of feel like that’s what is going on with the new Time story with the headline, The Myth About Exercise. Could it be an answer to Newsweek’s attention grabbing story about Ms. Oprah Winfrey a month or so ago, in which they claimed that her show’s health advice was dangerous?

I’m usually not a conspiracy theorist, but what better way for Time to steal some attention (and readers) back from Newsweek, after its hugely popular aforementioned article stole the show a few weeks back, and potentially made an enemy out of Ms. O, the biggest media powerhouse in the world (-100 points). Think about it. Time write’s a story about another health topic close to America’s heart: obesity and weight, a topic that surely Oprah would want to give attention to anyway, (in light of Ms. Winfrey’s professed hatred of exercise, and struggle with weight), and with any luck, she may just want to stick it to Newsweek by helping to bolster sales of its competitor. (Indeed, Gayle King, on Oprah’s radio show, was already touting the story this past week.) (Time….+1000 points… SCORE!) 

I really wasn’t this cynical until I read Time’s exercise vs. diet article, which left me feeling, ironically, a little hungry. No, not for food, but for new information. For good information. I felt like it was nothing more than a series of referenced studies, most, which stated the obvious, about things we’ve all known for quite some time. In fact, I’d venture to say, the majority of average moms and career women have already known all of this stuff for quite some time, from their own trial and error processes with diet and exercise in an effort to stay in shape, get in shape, reduce stress, or gain more energy.

Maybe it’s not Time I am annoyed with. Maybe I’m just frustrated with the fact that there is so much good money being thrown into studies which cause debate over what we already know - weight loss requires consuming fewer calories than you expend. The recap of the article will show you what I mean.

I’m warning you. The main takeaway is anti-climactic. Are you ready? Losing weight requires both the combined efforts of exercising and eating right. Yup, that’s right. Exercising like Madonna only gets you arms like hers if you also eat like….a famine victim. Okay, bad example. None of us want to be as buff as her anyway. But the point is, Madonna’s not topping off her hot yoga session and six mile runs with a burger and fries.

Food matters, people! Tell us something we don’t know, right? Basically, the article reiterates what European women have been doing forever, and what American women used to do: eat healthy, and be moderately active. It’s not all that necessary to train like an Olympic gymnast to keep weight off, and sometimes those that do, eat more.

Other “stunning” discoveries:

*Women often over-estimate how many calories their cardio workouts burn, thus, allowing themselves to splurge and eat more than they might otherwise eat. (All of us girls who have ever stopped at Baskin Robbins for a double scoop (insert me raising my hand) on the way home from the gym are really shocked at this one). 

*Most everyone, including kids in two studies in the U.K., compensate for extra energy expended by conserving energy at other times in the day. In other words, when you work hard, it makes your body tired and you tend to rest it later. Also, people who have short bursts of energy multiple times throughout the day usually end up burning as much energy as those who perform a straight hour of more intense exercise once per day. (All busy moms who stay lean by chasing kids all day know this!)

*The longer you use your willpower the more you’re likely to “cave” in a big way. In other words, other than Posh Spice, no one is very good at eating like a bird for very long, without going on a binge-fest consisting of donuts and Ding Dongs.

More “enlightening” facts from the article:

*Exercise is, indeed, good for your heart and mind, and decreases risk of disease. (Don’t fall over. I know this is riveting news.)

*Burning calories makes the body hungry for more. (If it didn’t, we’d all die of starvation, right?)

*Heavy people expend more energy than skinny people overall, due to lugging around the extra weight. (Shocker, right?)

And the absolute best tid bit out of the whole article? A respected Harvard scholar’s belief that McDonald’s built the play equipment in their restaurants to make kids hungrier thus causing them to eat more. Hmmmm……How ’bout they built it as a way to just keep them in the venue longer, period? How ’bout compete for the children’s birthday party business? How ’bout create a more alluring reason for kids to come there in the first place, once Happy Meals were no longer doing the trick.

I’m no Harvard Scholar, but last time I took kids to McDonald’s, they had little interest in eating more food once they were set free in Playland. Which brings me full circle - back to recess in grade school, with the dainty dueling divas. Once the boys left the cafeteria, and were set free on the playground at lunchtime, they had little interest in the girl rivals, T___ and N____. T and N were pretty girls and all, but they just lacked substance.

Here’s the scene: Boy meets girl. Boy asks girl out. Boy and girl go to a nice Italian restaurant. (Or, since the boy is on a budget or thinks Olive Garden is a nice Italian restaurant, they go to Olive Garden.) They view the menu. Girl really wants to order the creamy, cheese stuffed ravioli and instead, when the waiter arrives to the table, she orders the low calorie chicken marsala. Why? Because she doesn’t want to look like a pig. Or, she at least wants to appear to be somewhat health conscious.

We’ve all done it. Don’t pretend you haven’t. And now there is a study that proves that to be true, and confirms what we already knew about men - they eat whatever the hell they want regardless of who they are with - male or female.

Here’s the study in a nutshell: Meredith Young, PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior, studied students at three universities in natural eating environments in cafeterias. All cafeterias had a wide variety of food and companion options. 

Women who ate with a male companion chose foods of significantly lower caloric value than did women who were observed eating with another woman. In group settings with mixed genders, women also chose lower caloric foods than when they ate with only all women. 

Most likely, either consciously or sub-consciously women believe that smaller, healthier portions are seen as more feminine, and women might feel that if they eat less they will be considered more attractive to men. 

I definitely think this does change a bit though, as we age, because although I can recall some recent girls’ nights in where we used it as our opportunity to gorge on junk food, I can remember far more lunches with girlfriends whose healthy  choices inspired me to choose the salad over the burger, whereas eating with my boyfriend caused me to ditch the salad for the fat-laden pizza. 

Choosing food based on gender of companion in our late twenties and beyond may depend more on many variables such as how badly we are trying to lose weight or improve our health, and how long we’ve known the dining companion. ie. Is it a first date with a guy or have we been dating him awhile. 

What do you gals think? How are  your food choices influenced by your eating companions?

A couple of new studies seem to confirm what has been rumored in the past - that chewing is more than just a mechanical process necessary for satisfying hunger and filling our bellies.

The first study involves gum. And yes, it was funded by Wrigley, but it was done at Baylor University and seems to be legitimate. We’ve all heard that chewing gum may be a good dieting strategy because it can keep you from putting, other, more fattening things in your mouth. But the study seems to prove that it’s not just an issue of keeping the mouth busy, chewing gum seems to actually remove your craving for snacks. 

Here’s what they did: Investigators at Louisiana State University took 115 people who regularly chewed gum and fed them lunch. They measured their cravings before and after lunch. Those subjects who chewed gum three times hourly after lunch, ate fewer high-calorie snacks. The chewers also reported decreased feelings of hunger and cravings for sweet foods. Obviously, gum is sweet, so this could be enough to satisfy the sweet tooth that would otherwise make you go on a Hostess binge.

According to Paula Geiselman, Ph.D, lead researcher and physiological psychologist, ”We decreased overall snack intake by 40 to 60 calories. Having something in the mouth likely calms the appetite.”

Another chewing study involving almonds, not gum, and seems to go even further into the science behind chewing food longer. The study examined how chewing almonds may impact physiology including appetite and hunger, hormone response and the efficiency of fat absorption. It showed that those who chewed two ounces of almonds longer, 25 or 40 times before swallowing, absorbed significantly more good, unsaturated fat, than those who chewed the almonds only 10 times before swallowing.

The study also measured the effects on hormones and hunger. Increased fat in the small intestine often stimulates secretion of several hormones associated with feelings of fullness. Researchers measured these hormones and also required participants to fill out an appetite questionnaire before and after eating almonds. Although overall there were only significant effects on the hormone insulin, subjects who chewed almonds a greater number of times, reported feeling significantly less hungry and more full than when they chewed the almonds less.

“This new almond research indicates that chewing more thoroughly may increase the availability of unsaturated fat and previous research suggests smaller particle size also impacts the availability of other nutrients present in the fat, like vitamin E, to the body,” explained study author Richard Mattes, PhD, RD, at Purdue University. “These findings also emphasize the importance of examining chewing in the context of a weight management plan because participants reported their hunger was suppressed and their fullness was enhanced as a result of increased chewing of the almonds.”

This new study builds on research commissioned by the Almond Board of California and published in 2008 that found thoroughly chewing almonds resulted in an increased release of good, unsaturated fats, and vitamin E.

This gives new meaning to Almond Joy! Happy chewing, everyone!