March 2015 ~ Best weight loss

Thursday, March 12, 2015

What You Should Know About Waist Training

I'm really obsessed with waist training! Thank you @premadonna87 for my new waist shapers! #whatsawaist

A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Oct 29, 2014 at 9:23am PDT

The Kardashians are “obsessed.” Jessica Alba claims it helped her return to her pre-baby body. But what exactly is “waist training,” and does it work? More importantly, is it safe? We talked with health and fitness experts to get the skinny on Hollywood’s latest must-have accessory: a modern-day corset.

The backstory

Famous sisters Kim and Khloe have fueled plenty of interest in this trend, by posting Instagram photos of themselves in recent months wearing waist-training devices—essentially, bands of material that wrap tightly around the waist and lower rib cage to provide an instantly slimming, hourglass look.

Other models and celebs have touted the benefits of waist trainers, while actresses Brooke Burke-Charvet and Jessica Alba have credited similar products with helping them get back into shape after giving birth. (Alba says she wore an actual corset.)

Burke-Charvet even created her own line of waist wraps; one is designed for new moms and intended to reduce water retention and swelling of the uterus, “all while supporting that unwanted baggy baby skin.” Another product—a sport body wrap made of nylon and neoprene—is meant to be worn around the waist during exercise, with the intention of promoting “intense sweating.”

But do they deliver?

Not if you’re looking for anything more than temporary results, says Caroline Apovian, M.D., professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a spokesperson for The Obesity Society.

“If you’re going out and want to look really thin, I don’t see a problem with wearing one of these for an evening,” she says. In fact, wearing a waist trainer may even help boost some women’s confidence and encourage them to exercise and eat healthy. “If you look in the mirror and like what you see, it can potentially be a good thing.”

But as for the claims that these devices can actually reshape the body or trigger fat loss, there’s no evidence. “In my opinion, that is complete nonsense,” Dr. Apovian says.

In fact, some experts believe that regularly wearing a waist trainer can actually decrease core strength—exactly the opposite of what you want if you’re aiming for a sexy stomach, says celebrity trainer Nicole Glor.

What are the risks?

If a waist trainer is too tight—which many of them appear to be, if recent celeb photos are any indication—it could cause discomfort, interfere with breathing, or contribute to heartburn. “Your stomach might get pushed up beyond the diaphragm, which could cause reflux,” says Dr. Apovian. “If you’re wearing one and you experience those symptoms, that’s a definite sign that you need to loosen it or take it off.”

Wearing a waist-cinching device for a workout isn’t a good idea either, says Glor, especially if it restricts your mobility or your ability to take full, deep breaths. “It can really affect your ability to work hard,” she says. “Plus, I would worry about back acne from the tight apparatus and extra sweat.”

What about for new moms?

Working out with a tight (but not too tight) waist band may help women who recently gave birth feel more comfortable, says Dr. Apovian. “If it helps everything feel a bit tighter and there’s less jiggle around your stomach, it may help you feel better about exercising.”

But having some extra support around the waist shouldn’t be an excuse for new moms to push themselves too hard or too fast, she says. And the devices’ other purported post-baby benefits are much less convincing. “The uterus is going to shrink when it feels like shrinking,” she says, “and you can’t get rid of water weight with a corset—that’s simply not true.”

Glor says she was instructed by a physical therapist to wear a post-natal waist band during certain core exercises after she had a C-section, because she’d developed a condition called diastasis recti that caused her ab muscles to separate and her intestines to push through the abdominal wall.

However, she says the device itself didn’t do much to help her condition. “And if it couldn’t fix the abs that were recently forced to separate, that doesn’t bode well for other women’s waistlines that has been formed over many years,” she points out. “Seems like a lot of pain, no gain.”

The bottom line

Waist trainers won’t have any lasting effect on waist size, shape, or appearance, Dr. Apovian says. They’ll make you look slimmer while you wear them, but you may have to put up with some discomfort—and maybe even some health risks—in return.

If you want tighter abs, Glor says, core exercises like planks (see video below) and twisting crunches can help define those stomach muscles. And to really lose inches around your waist, you have to do it the old-fashioned way: with proper nutrition and hard work, in the form of moderate- to high-intensity exercise. “People are always looking for a way to cheat or a quick fix to fitness, and the answer is there isn’t one.”

Video tip: How to do a perfect plank
It’s all too easy to cheat at this move, and you may not even realize you’re doing it. Here’s how to do a plank perfectly.

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Photo: Getty Images

Isn’t it frustrating when you take the time to make a recipe and it doesn’t come out quite right? You know, it’s edible, but just not great. Well, it’s often easier to fix than you may think.

I started thinking about cooking by feel on a recent night while making salad dressing. It took quite a bit of tweaking to get it just right, but ultimately I got there.

Try these tricks the next time cooking doesn’t go as planned.

Think of a recipe as a guide, not a blueprint

Many of you know this and are already in the habit of starting with a recipe and improvising based on your taste or what you have on hand. But if you’re an exact recipe follower (you know who you are), trust me, you can become a by-feel cook. It’s easier than you think.

For example, here’s what happened with the dressing. I started with this Asian Sesame Dressing recipe (I was just making the dressing, to go on a different salad).

But I realized I didn’t have two key ingredients: shallot or tahini (or the suggested substitute peanut butter). I was skeptical of shallot’s place in the dressing, so I figured I could leave that out. Plus, I had this really interesting sesame seed-seaweed spice mix (Eden Organic Seaweed Gomasio, $3.25, amazon.com), which I’d bought in a food-nerd frenzy (“Think of all the great things I can do with that!” But then I hadn’t done anything with it, of course). That could stand in for tahini, a sesame seed paste, right? So undeterred, I set off.

Rice wine vinegar, pepper, extra Gomasio (which I figured would grind up into a tahini-like paste), a little toasted sesame oil, a splash of mirin (to make up for the lack of sweetness from losing the shallot), a little coconut oil and some olive oil (so the coconut flavor wouldn’t overpower). Wrong wrong wrong. The sesame seeds didn’t fully grind up (apparently the Vitamix was too big for this job), and the flavor was off.

Balance the magic 3 flavors

What you need to know at this point is that if you’re making a dressing—or any sauce, really—and the flavor is off, there are 3 quick things to check. The magic 3 are, in no particular order: Salt, acid, sweetness. If you watch chefs on TV and see them adding a splash of this or a pinch of that and wonder what they’re doing, this is the balance they’re aiming for. Salt, acid, sweet.

For the salad dressing, it took some doing, but between miso paste (for saltiness; you could always use, well, salt), brown rice vinegar (acid; any vinegar would do, or try lemon, lime or orange juice), and mirin (sweetness—but honey, brown or white sugar or maple syrup all work well), I mostly got it.

One thing to remember when balancing salt/acid/sweet: Tread lightly. Don’t pour in ¼ cup vinegar or a tablespoon of salt. Start small—a splash, a pinch—and you can always add more.

Toward the end something was still missing. I realized the shallot would have given the dressing the bite it needed. Grr, I didn’t have a shallot. But, I had garlic, shallot’s less delicate and refined (but equally delicious) cousin. So I smashed a small clove and added it. The fat/acid balance is also crucial in dressings, so as I tweaked the seasoning I occasionally tossed in a splash of toasted sesame oil. In the end, the whole enterprise took around 5 minutes, and the result was a truly delicious salad.

Water is your friend

Do you often burn onions while trying to caramelize them? Water can help with this common problem, and so many other things. If your onions are browning too quickly or unevenly, pour a little water into the pan and lower the heat. Unless the onions are truly burned, the water will cool them down and even them out.

Or, to bump up the flavor in a stir-fry or skillet meal, remove whatever you’ve been cooking to a plate and deglaze the pan with a little water. Sure, you can use wine or broth, but often a bit of water is all you need to pull the tasty browned bits (the “fond,” in cooking parlance) off the bottom of the pan, which will enrich your dish to restaurant-worthiness. Return the cooked stuff to the pan and carry on.

Salt is also your friend

There, I said it: Salt is not the enemy. People who consume too much sodium usually do it in the form of processed foods. The salt shaker in your kitchen is generally not the problem. Chefs know that salt means flavor, not saltiness. It makes whatever you’re cooking taste more like itself, just brighter. Try this: Make a bowl of plain oatmeal and split it in half. Stir a pinch of salt into one and leave the other alone, then taste. The one with salt won’t taste salty, just…oatier. Use too much and all you taste is the salt. Add a pinch to anything else that needs brightening (yes, even sweet things), and you’ll be amazed at the depth of flavor salt can bring.

Do you have any cooking questions I can answer in a future post? Please feel free to email me: beth.lipton@health.com.

Photo: Getty Images

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Kids who think too highly of themselves likely developed their narcissism because their parents put them on a pedestal and doled out unearned praise, a new study claims.

Parents who “overvalue” their children — believing they are “God’s gift to man” — tend to raise youngsters with an overblown sense of their own superiority, researchers report in the March 9 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It comes pretty naturally,” said senior study author Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University. “Most parents think their children are special, and deserve better treatment. But when our children receive special treatment, they become narcissistic and come to believe they deserve more and are superior to others.”

On the other hand, simple parental warmth can provide a child with an appropriate level of self-esteem, but does not lead to narcissism, the researchers found.

“It’s good to be a warm parent and a loving parent, but it’s not OK to treat your children as if they are better than others,” Bushman concluded. “Everyone we meet is better than us at something, and the fact that we’re all human beings makes us equally valuable.”

In the study, researchers evaluated 565 children aged 7 to 11 from middle-class neighborhoods in the Netherlands, along with their parents.

Parents and children answered a series of questions designed to assess a child’s narcissism and self-esteem, as well as a parent’s warmth and overvaluation of their child. Researchers administered the questionnaires four times over a period of 18 months.

The research team found that parents who overvalued their children — reflected in statements such as “my child is more special than other children” — did end up with children who were overly convinced of their own importance.

“I honestly believe one of the most dangerous beliefs that a person can have is that they are [more] superior than others,” Bushman said. “When people think they are superior to others, they behave very badly. It’s much better to treat everybody like we are all part of the human family, and are all worthy of respect.”

However, parents who offered simple warmth — reflected in statements such as “I let my child know I love him/her” — raised kids who had good self-esteem but a more realistic understanding of their place in the world.

“Warmth doesn’t produce narcissism,” Bushman said. “It produces self-esteem, without the egotistical part.”

Interestingly, the researchers found no link between child narcissism and a lack of parental warmth. That’s inconsistent with what psychology experts have long believed, which is that children who have cold parents put themselves on a pedestal to try and obtain from others the approval they didn’t find at home.

Although this study only showed an association between parents putting a child on a pedestal and that child being narcissistic, Bushman said the study shows how parents do their children a disservice by providing too much praise.

“In America, we have it all backward. We assume if we boost our child’s self-esteem, they’ll behave well. We assume self-esteem is the panacea for every ill,” he said. “Rather than boost self-esteem and hope our kids act well, we should wait for good behavior and then give them a pat on the back for that.”

Parents should support their children and praise even failed efforts, but they must make their praise appropriate to the situation, Bushman said.

“Don’t issue blanket praise that’s not contingent on behavior,” he said. “Praise them for trying hard, and encourage them to persist and not give up in the face of failure. But make praise realistic.”

James Garbarino, senior faculty fellow at the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago, warned that parents who treat their children as though they walk on water are setting them up to sink like stones later in life.

“It’s a good investment to temper narcissism, because otherwise you are setting your kids up for a big fall later in life,” Garbarino said. “Eventually, life shows you that you’re not that special. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Time heals all wounds?’ In this case, ‘Time wounds all heels.’ ”

However, Garbarino also pointed out that these findings probably only apply to middle-class kids. Children from poor or lower-class families also can grow up to be narcissistic, but the cause may be different for them.

“Those kids did not end up in this study, so you have to be careful about interpreting it,” he said.

More information

For more on narcissistic personality disorder, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Photo: Getty Images

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 11, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The maker of liquid Tylenol and Motrin for children and infants has agreed to plead guilty Tuesday to selling the over-the-counter medications even though the bottles were contaminated with metal particles.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare will pay $25 million as part of its plea agreement, the Associated Press reported. The Fort Washington, Pa.-based company, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, was facing a federal criminal charge for knowing for nearly a year that metal particles, including nickel, iron and chromium, were getting inside the bottles of medicine during the manufacturing process.

Although no immediate steps were taken to fix the problem, the Fort Washington plant where the contaminations occurred was shut down in 2010 and a new, yet-to-open plant has been built in its stead, the AP reported.

McNeil was first alerted to the problem in 2009 following a customer complaint, but the company kept selling the medications for several months before issuing a recall, according to the AP. At the time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the chances for serious medical problems were unlikely, but it advised consumers to stop taking the medications, the wire service reported.

The health care company is currently in an agreement with the FDA that includes increased inspections and oversights at it manufacturing plants, according to the AP.

The Lip-Plumping Gadget You Definitely Should Not Try

Full lips are having a serious moment. We’re constantly hearing about new ways to inject, plump, or define our pouts for a bigger pucker.

The latest word of mouth: The Fullips Lip Enhancer. The small plastic suction cup draws fluid to your lips as you suck on it, temporarily increasing their size.

Sounds harmless, right? Well, it turns out that all that pursing can cause lips to become dry and cracked. Think about it: Blow up a balloon beyond its size and it’ll eventually pop. Ouch. Plus, with continued use, the vacuum-effect could also lead to fine lines around the mouth, similar to the effects of drinking through straws.

There are easier and more natural ways to create a dramatic pucker a la Angelina Jolie. Try these 6 Makeup Tricks for Fuller Lips instead.

Eek officially 81/2 months… And he's now 5lbs 🐻 #34weeks

A photo posted by 🍔SARAH STAGE🍔 (@sarahstage) on Mar 5, 2015 at 11:48pm PST

If you haven’t seen L.A. model Sarah Stage‘s stomach by now, perhaps the first pregnant belly ever to go viral, here you go. At eight and half months pregnant, she barely looks like she’s carrying a baby. In fact, the 30-year-old is flaunting a pretty impressive six-pack, as she has regularly shown the world on her Instagram feed throughout her pregnancy (and well before).

In return, plenty of people have slammed this very fit mom-to-be, expressing concern about the baby’s health and about her body:

“That is disturbing,” said one commenter. “Does your baby have room to move? Not healthy for your little one.”

“My stomach looks bigger when I eat a meal!” noted another.

Molly Sims jumped into the fray, too, telling Entertainment Tonight, “She’s not normal! It’s not normal!”

To date, Stage says she’s gained about 18 pounds—which is normal and healthy, per Jennifer Ashton, MD, an ob-gyn and an ABC News medical contributor. Stage will likely gain about half a pound a week going forward, notes Dr. Ashton, so her bump should get more sizable. She’ll also inch closer to the recommended 25 to 35 pound weight gain during pregnancy (although that’s an average, and varies depending on a woman’s pre-pregnancy weight).

Stage is unapologetic, as she should be. She does light prenatal training and Pilates, she’s said, and gets healthy meals delivered that typically include quinoa, brown rice, veggies, steak, and chicken. “My doctor says the baby is healthy and that’s all that matters to us,” she told an Australian news site. Meanwhile, people should be more concerned about the fact that nearly half of all pregnant women gain more weight than recommended during pregnancy, per a new study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Fat-shaming has been around forever. Thin-shaming is now a thing, as became painfully obvious a few months ago when DJ and producer Diplo tweeted, “Someone should make a kickstarter to get taylor swift a booty.” And now, the Internet has taken body-shaming to a whole new level: bashing a preggo woman’s body.

Yes, posting lots and lots of selfies of your lingerie-clad self does tend to invite commentary, whether or not you’re packing a baby. Still, the fact is pregnant bellies come in all sorts of glorious shapes and sizes, as is true of women’s bodies in general. Some women carry very small, some balloon out. Some women carry high, some carry low. There’s no one “right” size or shape.

Besides, if there’s one time in life when a belly deserves to be wholly celebrated, it’s pregnancy. When you’re carrying a human being in your body, you deserve good vibes, not bad. Rock on, Sarah Stage. But please, spare us Instagram selfies of the birth.

The final countdown

As race day approaches, take your running to the next level with our secret training weapons

If you’ve got a big race on the horizon (hello, London Marathon runners!), it’s time to make those final tweaks to your training to ensure you cross the line with ease. We’ve put together our top tips for acing the last few weeks of training. Twenty-six point two miles? Easy!

Get drilling
Doing some basic running drills is the key to running efficiency and a better performance come race day. Think arm swings, high knees and running on the spot. ‘The point of these exercises is to wake up the nervous system, warm up all the muscle tissue, and put the joints through their full range of motion,’ says elite running coach Andrew Kastor (coachkastor.com). ‘This allows your body to move more efficiently in the running motion.’

Each exercise has a different purpose. ‘High knees activate the hip flexor muscle tissue, butt kicks activate the hamstrings and provides a subtle stretch in the quadriceps, and movements such as “fast feet” [running on the spot] excite and heighten the nervous system just minutes before you need to perform fast running,’ says Andrew.

Hit the decks
A great soundtrack is a sure-fire way to boost running motivation, but it’s also the secret to giving your all out on the pavement. ‘Music can make runs more interesting, but studies also suggest that music with an upbeat tempo, similar to your stride rate, can actually help you run harder, for longer,’ says personal trainer Jessica Wolny (jessicawolny.com). The best tracks are those that match the pace you’re aiming to stick to, so head to jog.fm for a great selection of music designed for every pace. But do bear in mind that you won’t always be able to rely on music to get you through. ‘It's well worth putting together a running playlist, but don't get entirely reliant on it,’ says Jessica. ‘A lot of marathons and races won’t let you wear headphones.’

Head for the hills
Want to build leg strength and boost your speed? Hill runs are about to become your best bud. ‘Running hill repeats is resistance training in disguise!’ says Andrew. ‘The muscles recruited to run up a hill strengthen as they are the ones with the most amount of stress being applied to them.’ Hills can also help to boost your running form and efficiency when you return to the flat. ‘Running hills helps refine your biomechanics for flat-land running,’ says Andrew. ‘Running uphill is very hard to do with bad mechanics, so the body gradually begins to recruit muscle tissue much more efficiently.’ A more efficient runner is a faster runner.

Fuel up
Get your nutrition right and you’ll give yourself a real head start. But don’t go mad on the pre-run spag bol. ‘There’s no real need to carb-load as a recreational runner, so forget massive bowls of pasta,’ says Jessica. ‘Just eat balanced meals with plenty of protein and veg, and you'll be fine.’

But what if your energy is running low before you even get out there for a session? ‘If you feel like you need a bit more energy pre-run, a slice of toast with a banana can help,’ Jessica says. ‘You’ll get instant energy from the fructose sugars in the banana, and slower-release energy from the toast.’ Plus it’s super-cheap!

On shorter runs you shouldn’t need a snack mid-run to keep going. ‘A good rule of thumb is that you don't need to refuel during any run that’s shorter than an hour,’ Jessica explains. So what about long-haul runs? ‘If you’re planning to run a half marathon (or longer), it’s worth experimenting to see what works for you on some of your training runs.’ But do make sure you’ve tried and tested these in training before using them on the big day, as you never know what effect they might have. ‘Don’t try any gel, drink or pill for the first time on race day,’ tips Jessica.

Turn up the speed
We’re sure you’ve heard that interval training is a super way to boost your fitness. But we’ll bet our bottom dollar it’s not your first thought when it comes to long-distance training. Well, the good news is, interval training can boost your overall running speed. ‘The point of interval training is to challenge both your mind and body while running at an uncomfortable pace,’ says Andrew. ‘The main goal of this kind of workout is to lengthen the repeat distance, and shorten the recovery interval while keeping the same desired pace.’ It’s a gradual process of course, but it can yield great results. You’ll be working towards running further, faster – what’s not to love about that?

Move your butt
If you want that extra advantage on race day, focus on getting your best asset working its hardest. ‘Spending all day sitting down puts most people’s glute muscles to sleep,’ says Jessica. ‘And runners are often no different – if yours aren’t firing properly, you won’t be as efficient as you could be.’ So how do you fire up your backside? ‘Try the wall squat – stand in front of a wall with your toes touching it, and sit backwards into a squat,’ Jessica tips. ‘If you find it impossible, or your knees are touching the wall, your glutes aren’t working properly.’ But don’t worry, it’s easily fixed. ‘Add some glute bridges into your routine: lie on your back with your feet close to your bum, and drive off your heels to push your hips into the air. Too easy? Try with one leg in the air.’

Find the right shoes
A good pair of training shoes is essential if you want to get to race day injury-free. Your best option is to get a gait analysis, where an expert assesses your running style, and a shoe recommendation. Sweatshop (sweatshop.co.uk) offers a great treadmill gait analysis service and can also create insoles moulded to your feet. Most amateur runners can happily race in the same shoes they train in, but if you’re looking to challenge that top 10, it might be worth investing in some lighter, faster racing shoes. ‘It depends on the type and calibre of athlete,’ explains Andrew. ‘Most athletes competing for a place on the podium or racing for personal bests should have a pair of racing shoes to race and train in.’

Make sure you train in your racing shoes from time to time. ‘Speed sessions should be run in the same shoes you’re racing in,’ says Andrew. ‘It’s a good idea to have two to three pairs of shoes on rotation over the week.’

Rest up
Don’t forget to rest and recover. You need to approach your R&R with the same vigour you approach your training. Stretching, massage and foam rolling will all help your muscles to recover in time for your next session. ‘The easiest and best ways to recover from any sort of exercise are with sleep and food,’ says Jessica. ‘Make sure you’re eating plenty of protein, vegetables and fruit, and getting eight hours of sleep a night, and you’ll see the results.’

Don’t just collapse on the floor after a tough run. ‘Grab a foam roller, and do five to 10 rolls each along your bottom, hamstrings, calves, quads and IT bands (the sides of your legs),’ says Jessica. ‘Wherever you find a painful spot, that’s a muscle knot – keep gentle pressure on it until the pain subsides.’

3 ways to get ahead

Try these hot buys for a running start

Tom Tom Runner GPS Watch
It’s lightweight, boasts top-notch GPS functions and will help you keep track of those all-important times.
£149.99, runnersneed.com

Pumatrac
One of the best running apps out there, this nifty little application has everything you need to boost your runs and provides great insights into what motivates you.
Free, iTunes

Yurbuds
These headphones are a firm WF favourite. They’re designed to sit comfortably in your ears and the snug fit means they never fall out.
From £24.99, yurbuds.co.uk

Photo: Getty Images

Isn’t it frustrating when you take the time to make a recipe and it doesn’t come out quite right? You know, it’s edible, but just not great. Well, it’s often easier to fix than you may think.

I started thinking about cooking by feel on a recent night while making salad dressing. It took quite a bit of tweaking to get it just right, but ultimately I got there.

Try these tricks the next time cooking doesn’t go as planned.

Think of a recipe as a guide, not a blueprint

For example, here’s what happened with the dressing. I started with this Asian Sesame Dressing recipe (I was just making the dressing, to go on a different salad).

RELATED: 20 Foods You Should Always Have in Your Kitchen