HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone!

First off, let say to everyone Happy New Year! 2009 was a rough year for many people so I'm claiming 2010 to be full of good health, prosperity and happiness for everyone!

So with that said...you know I have new fitness goals and challenges for myself. I'm starting another cycle of P90X on January 4. I'm hoping to drop a dress size by April as well. The last time I did P90X, I did the lean version which has a more cardio focus. However, I've found that I like to run on the treadmill so Im going the "classic" version this go-around. I may not drop the pounds BUT I am looking forward to building muscle mass that will replace the fat.

Speaking of New Year...has anyone noticed the "lack" of weight loss and gym membership commercials this year? Maybe its me, but I always notice the non-stop advertisements of diet pills, machines, and fitness dvds more than ever. Maybe marketers realize that most folks are looking to improve thier financial house this year rather than thier fitness house. But, I am of the belief that physical and health is really all we have in this world so that should always be apart of our lives.

What’s in your TV dinner?

What’s in your TV dinner?

I recently found this article in BlackDoctor.org breaking down the ingredients in frozen foods. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, when I first started on my weight loss journey I did use frozen meals SOLELY for 2 reasons, portion control and I though these foods were seemingly healthier for me. Now, I know much better I only get eat about 10% of processed foods. The 10% mainly comes from sugar free desserts that I like to indulge in. :)



(BlackDoctor.org) -- Have you ever looked at the ingredients that appear on the back of your frozen dinner? Looks more like the components of a chemistry project than a nutritious meal, huh? Ever wonder why so many bizarre additives are in a Salisbury steak? Well, for one, they enable your microwave to transform an icy block into something that looks, smells, and tastes relatively similar to fresh food. Some also ensure that a box of spaghetti and meatballs always tastes the same, whether it was made in Nebraska or North Carolina.

While some ingredients sound scary, they've all been deemed safe to eat by the FDA, to find out exactly what we're eating, we asked a panel of experts to analyze a typical meal of chicken parmesan with a side of broccoli and baked apples for dessert. You'll be as shocked as we were to discover that a few of the items lead double lives – as condom lubricants and explosives.

What you can see…

Chicken Breast
Unless the box reads chicken, rest assured it's a real clucker, one that most likely grew up on a U.S. poultry farm. But that's about all you can know for sure. The chicken probably feasted on conventional grains, and unless the label says otherwise, the bird may have been treated with antibiotics to keep it healthy. The breading and batter contain flour, yeast, and oil – nothing unusual so far. Oleoresin paprika (paprika that's oil-soluble and easily dissolves in sauce) adds flavor and color. And while Grandma's recipe calls for dredging your chicken breast in egg to make the breading stick, the food industry uses guar gum instead. (Eggs can become contaminated easily and are more expensive than guar gum.) Made from the guar bean, a major crop in India and Pakistan, it has thickening properties that also help make paper, oil-drilling fluid, and explosives. Bam!

Pasta and Sauce
Just like most pasta, these noodles are made of semolina flour, water, and egg whites. The sauce contains the usual: diced tomatoes and ­tomato juice, most likely from Ohio, Indiana, or California, which is where many tomato-processing companies are located.

Broccoli
The veggie's birthplace varies depending on when and where it's in season, freshest, and cheapest--if it's July, it could be Maine; September, California; December, South America. Imme­diately after harvest, the produce is blanched and flash-frozen, which preserves nutrients.

Apples
Like broccoli, apples come from wherever they're ripe. Because cooked apples turn a nauseating gray or brown color when frozen, they're treated with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citric acid (the chemical compound that makes a lemon sour). This prevents the apples from reacting with oxygen so they maintain their golden hue.

And now, what you can't…
Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)
This preservative keeps the oil used to fry the chicken from going rancid. The FDA says it's safe, but the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a U.S.-based advocacy group, recommends trying to avoid it because animal studies have produced conflicting results. Some have linked the chemical with increased cancer risk, while others have found a decreased risk.

Cheese Culture
A spin-doctor's way of saying "bacteria." Not the kind that could make you sick, but harmless types of this describes bugs, like lacto­coccus, lactobacillus, and streptococcus, which turn milk into curds, whey, and eventually cheese.

Disodium Inosinate/Guanylate
Flavor enhancers that work like MSG. While they have no flavor on their own, these sodium-based additives stimulate your taste buds, making them more sensitive to meaty and savory flavors.

Ethyl Alcohol
The same stuff in your chardonnay. A minuscule bit dissolves the vanilla flavoring in the apple dessert. (It works a lot like the alcohol in vanilla extract.)

Polysorbate 80
It pops up in shaving cream and cosmetics. In your dinner, it keeps oil-based flavorings from separating so your food doesn't dissolve into greasy slop when you nuke it.

Propylene Glycol
A cousin of antifreeze (yes, antifreeze) that's also found in condom lubricants (yum). But no worries: It's nontoxic, and only a tiny amount is used. This FDA-approved chemical keeps the oils and fats used in frying, as well as other ingredients, from gunking up.

Sodium Aluminosilicate
A white powder mined from rocks such as feldspar and zeolite. It's listed as an ingredient in the dried sweet cream, where it likely is used to stop the powdered cream from getting lumpy, although it's hard to know for sure, as most product recipes are top-secret.

Soy Protein Isolate
A powdered product made from soy flour, it thickens the pasta sauce and enhances the texture so it doesn't turn into a watery mess.

Sugars
Of the 75 different ingredients listed, 12 are a form of sugar: dextrose, molasses, corn syrup, maltodextrin, and high-fructose corn syrup, to name a few. Why so much sweet stuff? Sugar is part of several ingredients--the sauce, the apple crisp, etc., but the form of sugar used may vary, from sucrose to, say, corn syrup: The manufacturers list all of the possible ingredients so they don't have to reprint the box if substitutions are made. For a real sense of how much sugar is in the total meal, look at the nutrition facts label, not the ingredients list.

By Syleena Johnson, BDO Staff Writer

Exercise Protects Black Women From Type 2 Diabetes

Health: You don’t have to be a size 6 but you do have to be healthy!

Black Women and Diabetes. Recently in the Washington Post an article was written about exercise protecting black women from type 2 diabetes.

Exercise Protects Black Women From Type 2 Diabetes

FRIDAY, Dec. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Less TV and more exercise may help reduce incidence of type 2 diabetes, especially among black women, a new report shows.
Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center made that conclusion based on a survey of black women, a high-risk group for the disease. The findings were published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The research linked vigorous activity with a reduced risk of diabetes. Those who walked briskly for at least five hours a week had less chance of developing diabetes than those who didn't walk.

"Our results confirm that vigorous activity is protective against type 2 diabetes in African-American women," study author Julie Palmer, a professor of epidemiology at Boston University's School of Public Health and senior epidemiologist at the Slone Center, said in a university news release. "A key public health finding is that brisk walking reduced risk. That is important, because many women don't have the time or place to engage in 'vigorous' physical activity, but most women can find time to walk.”

Watching an appreciable amount of television, regardless of the women's level of physical activity, was linked to a greater risk of diabetes, the study found.