I can agree that fast food restaurants are cheaper than other (healthier) restaurants, bit I can not agree that you can not eat healthy without spending a fortune.

Prices of food in the big chain shops are very reasonable and you can shop a tone of healthy food and this will not cost more than $300-$400 per month for 4 member family.

Here is a good article how to buy healthy food on a budget.

Probably the problem is not in the price of food but in laziness. If you cook at home you need to devote from 30 to 60 minutes per day in the kitchen and people don’t like this. Probably if you look at this time like an investment in your health and at the same time you save money in your bank account (because you don’t spent for restaurants) this could raise your motivation.

On 29^th of July 2008, Los Angeles City Council agreed to ban the launching of new fast food shops in South Los Angeles for a year. The reason for this decision is the hope that for this one year the other (non fast food) restaurants will have time to grow and pull the clients from the part of the city where child obesity is 30%. Read the whole story.

I like this, although it is not democratic, sometimes such steps are necessary.

I do your workout videos for 40 mins 5 days a week and the anti-cellulite is included…once a week. I eat quite healthy - 3 healthy meals a day, although I have to admit, I have a sweet tooth!

I weigh 119lbs and am looking to get down to about 111lbs. However, I have already been at 111lbs before and I still have this awful cellulite!! What can I do about it?”

Hi Anna,

I have great news for your. I am working on a project dedicated especially and only to cellulite. It will include anti cellulite diet, many video exercises to melt cellulite along with helpful articles and resources for anti cellulite creams that works and you can test them for free. Probably in a couple of months I will announce it. Till then, take following steps to change your diet:

Cellulite sin foods and drinks – eliminate them:

• Bread
• Coffee
• Sugar – cakes, pudding, chocolate
• Fast food
• Alcohol
• Fat meat

Foods and drinks that help to remove cellulite – eat them often:

• Broccoli
• Lentils
• Avocado
• Nuts
• Milk
• Eggs
• Lean meat
• Fish
• Water
• Vegetables
• Tea

Add some massage

When you have shower, massage vigorously your hips and buttocks. Put some shower gel on your hands, make some lather and apply to your legs, hips and buttocks with vigorous massage. Massage as long as you like it. This will improve the blood circulation and you can see results after 2 weeks. I like to make massage myself with anti cellulite product while I am watching TV. Just lift your legs on a chair, so it will be easy to massage them. You can use any body lotion or anti cellulite product you want, because the skin is more slippery and easy to massage.

Please, post in the comments below your diet, because I think probably this is the reason you can’t successfully treat cellulite. I will try to think of a good diet for you.

All the best,

Rumi

I’m trying to take a new healthier approach, and do not want to do myself any harm. I am 16, about 5″6 and 125 pounds. I’m an active girl in both basketball and football. I do yoga 5-6 times a week.

I vary my workout plan with skipping, running, walking and core work. My eating habits consist of overall healthy food. My parents are big on eating organic foods.

I do tend to over enjoy my sweets. However my thighs and lower stomach are problematic areas for me.

How do I slim upper thighs, and tone my lower abs?

Willow”

Hi Willow,

Congratulations on your healthy approach to keeping yourself in shape! You’re right - going to extremes is not recommended for anyone, and as you’ll no doubt be aware, when you’re a teen, you’ve got to look after yourself that little bit more! Here’s what I would suggest for you to do:

Add to your usual workouts abs exercises (I point you to my core workout site, where I publish pics how to properly do exercises) – don’t do only lower abs (which you define as problematic), do also upper and side abs exercises.

Add thigh exercises – front thigh exercises, inner thigh exercises and back thigh exercises.

To answer your question about healthy weight loss: it is 2 pounds per week, but probably you don’t need this, but some exercises. You are in the age where you are constantly looking for perfection, but be careful to not harm your self - don’t be afraid of asking your parents for advice too, because they know what is best for you.

I wish you nice looking abs and thigh

All the best,

Rumi

Also I wanna know if I buy your workout videos can those be shipped to me in my country India…if so how would the costs be affected? Thanks and keep up the good work.

Preeti”

Hi Preeti,

Thank you for your nice letter

Cardio is one of the best ways to warm up the body. The reason for this is that you start with some pace and slightly increase it after your body adapts to the effort. For example I love treadmill as cardio because:

• It gives you control on the speed from the beginning to the end of the warm up. You can start at very slow speed and slightly increase the sped every 2-3 minutes in order to give the body the chance to adapt to the speed and even asks for more lol

• You can warm up not only your legs (it is obvious legs are the most involved in treadmill cardio), but also your arms, abs, back and buttocks muscles. How this happens? While you walking on the treadmill (I don’t recommend running, fast walking is better) you can move your arms forward-backward and even try to tighten them. The same with your abs – tighten them, but this will happen even without effort of you because abs are responsible for the overall posture of the body and they tighten while you walk or run. And not on the last place – buttocks – walking and running is the best exercise for them too.

• You burn fat – we all beg for this lol

Long story short – you don’t need to warm up after cardio in order to do exercises.

About ordering my exercise DVDs, the shipment is included in the price of $40. I use regular post and it will take from 1 to 3 weeks to come to India (can’t predict the speed of the post services, sometimes they are really fast, sometimes it takes very long to receive the DVD’s).

Until DVDs come, you can workout using my online version of exercise videos.

For 2 people you need a pound of hake fish fillet, seasonings (your choice) and olive oil.

Grease a large baking dish with some olive oil (1 ounce is enough). Then take the hake fillet and seasonings (red pepper, black pepper, salt, fish seasonings that can be found at your food store). Spread seasonings on the fillet and put the hake fish at the baking dish.

It is good to preheat the oven. Bake app. for 30 minutes until the size of the fillet shrinks to the half of the size of the raw hake. Another millstone for baking is the color of the hake – light brown or gold .

I like to eat oven baked hake with oven baked potatoes. If you are on a weight loss diet, than you can afford eating some potatoes, but really small portion.

If you just want to maintain your healthy weight, than you can have a full portion of oven baked potatoes with the baked hake fish.

Look at the pictures below of my oven baked hake fish and potatoes.

Today I happily discover a protein specially developed for women. Of course protein is protein and doesn’t differ by gender, but “Tight Curves” brand has some additives that perfectly match women’s issues, like:

• Increase bone density - concern of women susceptible to osteoporosis.
• Elevate mood - relieve trouble sleeping, mood swings, or memory problems.
• Improve, hair, skin and nails.

In addition to protein “Tight Curves” contains:

• Calcium - reduces the loss of bone density as a woman ages. Calcium helps for better weight loss results when combined with exercises.
• Black Cohosh - Decreases hot flashes in menopausal women.
• St. John’s Wort extract - supports in mild to moderate depression for alleviating symptoms.

How to use “Tight Curves” meal replacement

This protein comes in 1 lbs package with 18 servings of protein in it. Every serving is separately packed and you only have to add some water to a serving and drink it! One serving of “Tight Curves” contains 28 grams of protein and is enough to replace a diet meal. The price of the whole package is app. $35, which is $2 per serving (not bad).

When is good to use meal replacements:

You have busy life, lots of meetings, travel – just put a couple of servings in your purse and you are saved. (it is always better to have a steak of lean meat and fresh salad, but sometimes the hectic life doesn’t allow us to eat, which is sad but true).

• You are on low calorie, low carbs diet.
• To increase muscle strength and endurance.
• Highly recommended to women who workout regularly.
• Reduce water retention
• Increase fat loss.

Check product label of Perfect Protein for Women Only (I found this is the store with the lowest price on the market).

What I really like about Wii Fit is the combination of fun, exercise and weight loss and this without even noticing that you are doing workout and effort.

Wii Fit is good for weight loss because it includes 4 important parts:

• Strength training
• Aerobics
• Yoga
• Balance Games

Read my review of Wii Fit.

A friend of mine lost 10 pounds for 3 weeks playing with Wii Sports (which is different from Wii Fit) - this made me thinking that with Wii Fit weight loss results will be bigger, because it is specially designed to keep you fit and in good shape.

Wii Fit can be used from up to 8 people and is designed for families, but I think that it is also for friends. Unfortunately it is unavailable to purchase in my country (Bulgaria), but if I have a chance to buy it (later this year I expect to have the chance to buy) I would use Wii Fit with my girlfriends.

We are a group of 4 girls who visit high workout class every Sunday, it is fun because after the 60 minutes workout we go to have a coffee and nice chat what every of us did the last week. You know, girlish talks full of laugh, office stories and men .

The first time I saw Wii Fit, I imagined me and my girlfriends doing exercises with it and having fun. You can track you weight loss progress because you can enter your height, weight (Wii Fit takes it automatically after you step over the balance board) and Wii Fit calculates you BMI (body mass index) which is a good indicator for burning fat (the lower BMI, the better weight loss results you achieve).

There is Wii Fit Age – which is the measure of your balance and it is calculated automatically once you start playing balance games.

Get Wii Fit.

Today I was surprised that a friend of mine didn’t know how many carbs the potatoes have. And probably it is not important to know all this information. Calculating carbs, protein and fat in the meals is natural process for me, like breathing. BUT most people don’t know how to do it.

Diet gadgets can solve these issues and calculate the nutrition information you need.

Nutritional scale, how to choose the best:

• Have to handle many foods, more than 500, the more the better.
• Must calculate not only calories, but also carbs, protein, fat, sodium, optional are cholesterol and fiber, but is good to calculate them too.
• Be sure that the diet gadget calculates in your measures, I mean that in USA meals are measured in ounces and pounds but in my country we calculate in grams. So be sure the diet gadget uses your measures.
• The capacity: decide accordingly, I prefer to have a scale that handles from small to big quantities, like from some ounces to 5-6 lbs…

I think this Escali Cibo Nutritional Scale is good, it is for home usage, when you cook only for you or for the family.

How to use the nutritional scale: There is a reference book, where you check the code of the food you want to measure, than put the food on the scale, enter the code and you have all the nutritional information for the food.

Pocket scale is another diet gadget I like. It is like the above scale, but it smaller and you can take it everywhere, like in the office, when you travel, even in a public eating place.

Check this Escali #PR100S Liberta Pocket Scale at reasonable price.

These are results according to the findings of researchers at Temple University’s Gait Study Center.

24 women aged 65 and older participate in the study. After the program finished women can walk faster using longer strides and feel more confident while doing activities.

Imagine if you start practicing yoga now and you are younger than 65? This could change the quality of your life quicker and with more benefits, because the younger you start yoga, more improvements you will feel.

I remember my first yoga class, it was late spring. I was very nervous, tired and nuts because of the hectic life (long working days, lack of rest and exercises). My girlfriend read an article in a new magazine about yoga school in our city.

At the beginning I was reluctant to try yoga because in my mind it was strange and difficult poses with no meaning to me. But my girlfriend insisted and I agreed to go with her. The yoga class was from 10.30 am and I had to call to my office that I will come to job afternoon (it was strange that I made this with absolutely confidence I have the right to go to the office late lol).

Than I met Nadia – my first yoga teacher – she is like an icon of Virgin Marry in my eyes, I was totally bewitched by her calmness and peace. From the moment I saw her, I felt good and I just opened myself to her words.

We did some yoga exercises (not tough at all). There are different levels of yoga and what we see in the movies and magazines is not what you will start to study in yoga class.

Usually at the beginners’ yoga class people study how to stand, how to move, how to bend … simple and easy exercises that significantly improve your flexibility and this happens without even knowing that you do something hard or complicated.

Now back to my first yoga experience. I was impressed not by yoga exercises (which I love now) but from yoga relaxation (later I understood it is a different yoga technique called Yoga Nidra). We lied and Nadia told us how to relax our bodies, what to imagine …I went out of my body and fly. I can’t explain in details this but it was like a very smooth voice leads you and your body disappears and you feel peace. It is also called “yoga sleep” and 1 hour of such yoga sleep is equal to 4-6 hours of regular sleep.

After this yoga relaxation I was a new person, smiled, confident and forget all the issues in the office. Than I continue to practice yoga classes for 2 years. I stopped, because Nadia went to India to recharge her yoga strength. But I still have audio CD with Nadia’s relaxation guide.

Here is a nice selection of yoga classes if you want to try.

There is free downloadable trial, so you can try yoga for free and decide whether yoga is for you or not.

But honestly I believe yoga is for everybody and you can’t dislike it.

No matter what age you are you have to try even once yoga and decide for yourself the benefits and the feeling after.

Food rules to lose winter weight:

1. Eat once a day fish or lean meat.
2. Eat once a day a slice of whole grain bread.
3. Eat once or twice a day salad.
4. Maximum 1 fruit per day.
5. Drink only coffee, water and herb tea.
6. Nothing sweet.
7. Nothing doughy.
8. Food is grilled, no fried food.
9. Only a glass of white or red (better) wine – no more than 3 times per week.
10. Veggie soups are good – because stuff the tummy and are not loaded with calories.

Exercise rules to lose winter weight:

They are not exercises in the meaning of hard workout, just additional things to do to speed up your metabolism:

1. 5 times per week do additional 20 minutes workout. If you usually go to fitness, than add 20 minutes more cardio/aerobics exercises. If you don’t do any workout, than start 20 minutes per day. Download my free exercise videos – they are only 20 minutes of length.
2. Add some walking – even 15 minutes per day can make the difference.

Have fun and enjoy the process:

1. Listen to music while you drive or walk. Almost everybody have iPod and if you don’t have yet, why not buy from Amazon (I like Amazon because of their low prices, easy way to order and secure online shopping and not on the last place, they have huge inventory and I always order other things too and this lower shipment charge).
2. Meet with friends – engrossed in sweet chat you will not think about eating. Positive emotions stimulate weight loss!

What I ate to lose my winter weight:

• I had a diary breakfast – a cup of milk and coffee and a cup of yogurt. When I wake up I make myself milk and coffee, than after an hour, before I go out, I have a cup of yogurt.
• Lunch is grilled fish with lettuce salad.
• Afternoon snack – an apple.
• Dinner – vegetable soup or fish sandwich. Like this one healthy salmon sandwich.

And that’s it! The good thing about this “light” weight loss approach is that everybody burns the needed weight. I burned only 2 pounds for 2 weeks, but I didn’t need to lose more. Even with 2 pounds weightier my friends didn’t notice that I put on weight during the winter, BUT I felt it – which is important, isn’t it .

Losing winter weight is really not hard, just start to follow my approach and you should see some results at the end of the first week and in the end of the second week there will be significant difference in your look.

Wish you luck and success