As we pass through the “summer midpoint”, I figured some vacation tips might be in order.

Does your upcoming vacation have you worried about your waistline? You should be. The average person gains almost a pound a day while on vacation. (Admittedly, I’m more like 2-3 per day.)
But that doesn’t have to be you. Most of the time extra pounds sneak up on you when you least expect it, so decide right here and now that your vacation will leave you slimmer than when you left. As you embark on your next vacation adventure, use these 7 tips to come home fitter than when you left.

Trick #1: Cut Your Carbs
Vacation days are notorious for carbohydrate rich meals, and it’s a well-known fact that too many carbohydrates will quickly add up to unwanted pounds. Combat this fat-trap by choosing one meal per day to go carb-less.

Breakfast: This may be the most effective meal to use the carb-less trick, since breakfast often involves breads, pastries or pancakes. Skip the toast and fill up on egg whites and lean breakfast meats.
Lunch: A great carb-less lunch is a salad with lean meat. It’s so filling and satisfying that you won’t even miss the bread.
Dinner: Since you’re on vacation, you don’t want to feel deprived, so dinner is the hardest meal to go carb-less. But if you’ve indulged at breakfast and lunch then make it a point to cut the carbs at dinner. Stick with veggies and lean meats.

Trick #2: Be Active
If your travels keep you too busy for a workout, or if your hotel does not have an exercise room, make a conscious effort to be active everyday. Go on a brisk walk after your day’s activities. This is a great way to see a new city, and also a great way to burn off extra calories. Take the stairs instead of elevator in your hotel and any other buildings you visit. Go on a short jog in the mornings or evenings of your stay. If your hotel has a pool, swim a few laps each morning or evening.

Trick #3: Indulge with Control
Eating out is a must while on vacation. Whether you’re visiting 5 star restaurants or fast food diners, you are faced with the same problem: large portions. While the easiest thing to do with a large portioned meal is to simply eat it all – you are on vacation after all…right? – that isn’t the best for your waist.

When you order your meal ask the waiter or waitress to bring you a to-go box. Take half of your meal and place it safely into the box before you even begin to eat. This gives you no choice but to eat a healthy portion. If you would rather not carry around a to-go box then ask that your entrée be made into a smaller portion. If it is dinnertime ask for the lunch-sized entrée.

Trick #4: Don’t Eat Late
One of the easiest tricks for preventing weight loss is to simply stop eating 3 hours before you go to bed. This is especially effective while on vacation. So skip that late night indulgence and wake up looking and feeling great.

Trick #5: Snack Healthy
Have you ever noticed how travel days create the perfect opportunity for snacking? A coffee and muffin before your flight, a snack on the plane and then before you know it – it’s lunch time! Taking a road trip? This opens up even more opportunities for regrettable snacking…rest stop vending machines, gas station quickie marts and of course the never ending string of fast food restaurants along the highway.

This summer cut unhealthy snacking off at the pass by brining along your own healthy options. Dried or fresh fruit, unsalted nuts, health bars, cut veggies and low fat crackers are a good start. By filling up on these healthy snacks between meals you will end up eating less when presented with a less-than-healthy meal.

Trick #6: Avoid Fried Foods
While fast food restaurants are definitely convenient, with their low prices and quick service, this convenience is not worth the additional pounds brought on by chips and fries. As you enjoy your vacation keep this in mind: avoid fried foods. While this is always good advice to follow, it is even more important to abide by while traveling.

While vacationing you will likely burn fewer calories each day than you would burn at home, and you are consuming more calories due to your schedule of eating out. You are walking a fine line, and eating fried foods would throw you right over the edge. A gram of fat contains 9 calories as compared to the 4 calories that proteins and carbohydrates carry – so you can see that consuming fried foods will drastically increase your caloric intake.

Happy New Year! January is an exciting time – you have a fresh start to become who you want and accomplish what you want in the year ahead.

In the fitness world, this time of year means lots of new faces and lives being changed. The New Year magically pulls people to exercise – maybe you’re feeling the pull yourself.

Here are some predictions for the year ahead:

1. 2011 is the year that many will lose weight and regain their health. Times are changing. People are realizing that obesity has gotten out of hand, and exercise is back in the spotlight.

The real food movement is taking the globe by storm as people turn away from fast and processed foods and return to wholesome, nutritious meals.

2011 will be the year that many people adopt a healthier lifestyle and drop the extra weight.

2. 92% of all New Year’s Resolutions will end in failure. While millions will start gung ho in January with lofty goals for massive weight loss, the reality is that most will fail. Here’s why:

They bite off more than they can chew.

In all the excitement of becoming a better person and transforming their life in the New Year, they make the crucial mistake of committing too much. But reality soon sets in and they give up.  A good way to be successful then is to set realistic goals.

Instead of resolving to lose 50 pounds by June, commit to exercise 3-4 times each week.

Instead of resolving to give up all carbs, commit to bring healthy snacks to work instead eating from the vending machine.

Instead of resolving to drop 3 sizes in 3 months, commit to losing 1 pound each week until you reach your desired size.

Instead of resolving to never eat out again, commit to eating healthy all week and reward yourself with one meal out on the weekends.

Remember that the whole point of making a New Year’s Resolution is to become a healthier, happier and more successful person. Small changes done consistently will make a big difference.

We predict that 2011 will be an amazing year!!

Are you one of the millions that make a New Year’s resolution every year to lose weight and you always end up breaking it?  Maybe you need to change the way you approach your resolution.  Instead of thinking that coworker’s birthdaycupcake has broken your resolution, just get back on the wagon.  Think of your resolution as a work in process.  Perfection is not the only way to reach your goal.  Sure, perfection is fabulous. But if you have that cupcake, just get back on the treadmill and eat perfectly the rest of the day and the day after.  One strike does not mean you’re out.  It’s only a small setback.

Here are a few tips, to help you reach your goal.

1# Don’t set your goal too high.  Baby steps.  If your goal is to lose 15 pounds, start with 5.  Once you achieve that, than set your goal to lose 5 more.  The smaller goals are more obtainable in a shorter period of time and you’ll have a lower chance of getting frustrated and quitting.

#2 Don’t make 100 New Year’s resolutions.  It’s hard to concentrate on multiple tasks.  Put all of your energy and focus into meeting one goal.  You’ll have a better success rate if you don’t spread yourself so thin.

#3 Tell everyone about your resolution.  They will help you stay on track by asking you how you are doing with it, encouraging you not to cheat, and scolding you if you do cheat to get back on the wagon.

#4 Reward yourself.  If you are doing a great job, set a time length or mini weight loss goal to treat yourself to something like a hot tea at the local café or a buy yourself a present at the mall.

#5 Choose a better time to start your New Year’s resolution rather than a date dictated by the rest of the world.  Some people tend to make it to the gym more often when it’s not so cold outside and have more chance of success with a Spring start!

A good friend of mine, Dr. Lorraine Johnson of trackmom.com, told me about a really useful technique she like to incorporate. She begins her “New Year’s Resolution” immediately after Labor Day.  At first, I thought this to be an odd practice.  But after studying her concept more deeply, and actually attempting it on my own, I now see the genius.

For most of us, our year doesn’t actually begin in January, rather it begins in September.  I understand what our calendars say, but think about it.  September is when the randomness of summer once again gives way to the routine.  For many of us, September is when the summer camps and  vacations end and our kids school year begins.

In fact, it can be argued that January isn’t a change at all from December, but by comparison, September is a totally new world from the frolic and frenzy of the summer.

So as the world demands you to “get back into your routine”, I challenge you to “get back on the wagon” now!  Why wait 4 more months to do what is probably better suited now?

Think about this…if you started a 90 day fitness program now, say a Body For Life or P90X program, imagine where you would be come December?

BUT I HAVE EVEN A BETTER IDEA!!

Instead of stressing for 90 days, start today and take 10 days off the 9o day program and make it an 80 plan!! If you look at your calendar, that gets you looking and feeling great just in time for Thanksgiving.  Now you can can eat whatever you like over the holidays and not feel at all guilty about it!

If an 80 day commitment sounds too daunting, I have a simple 7 day Solution, that only requires 2 simple steps to jump start your New Resolution.

1.  For 1 week (7 Straight Days) Drink Only Water! This means no soda, no juice, no milk, no coffee/tea, no alcohol.  (If you need something warm, choose an herbal tea.)  I won’t bore you with a lecture about the benefits of clean water, but suffice it to say, this simple step may take a bit of getting used to, but after only 7 short days, you will have no idea how alive and awake you will feel. You can thank me then.

2. Start a solid multivitamin program. Visit your local Whole Foods, health store or give me a call for good suggestions.  Your program should include a multivitamin and preferably an Omega 3 Supplement as well.

Start with these 2 baby steps and then consider introducing another wellness component into your lifestyle.

If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact Dr. William Booker at Dr.Bill.Booker@gmail.com, or visit our website www.CapitolRehabOfArlington.com.

Of course, anytime we talk of consuming alcohol. We have to give the obvious disclaimers of drink responsibly, don’t over consume…

Duly noted.

But here is the good news about drinking beer.  You may have noticed that most of the low-carb diet books tell you how bad beer is high on the glycemic index and therefore it will make you fat.  But here is how the glycemic index is calculated.

A test subject is asked to consume 100 grams of a carbohydrate test food or beverage within 15 minutes.  The blood sugar is measured every 30 minutes for the next 2 hours, and the results are compared against the response to ingesting 100 grams of sugar water.

If an average beer has 10-11 grams of carbs (Heineken 9.8g, Bud 10.6g, Coors 11.3 grams), you would have to ingest 9-10 beers within the 15 minutes.  You would have to consume closer to 20 beers in 15 minutes to accurately test a light beer.

By the way-Beer substitutes, such as wine coolers and hard ciders don’t work in this equation, as their carb values start significantly higher (26g and up).

Essentially, there are 2 lessons to take from beer and the glycemic index:

1. You can’t drink enough beer in 15 minutes to reach the level of a valid glycemic index test, because you would be pissy drunk!
2. If you limit yourself to a couple of beers during the Super Bowl, you simply aren’t going to ingest enough carbs to have a meaningful effect on your blood sugar.

What Beer Makers Have Figured Out

Brewers realize that yeast feeds on the carbs in beer, so if you allow the fermentation process to take longer, the yeast essentially eats more carbs (essentially, the secret behind low carb beer).  Recently Brewers have found ways to manipulate this process that allows yeast to eat almost all of the carbs without watering down the low-cal beer.

Here is a list of popular beer and the carb values.

Enjoy the Super Bowl

Brew                                                                      Carbs

Rock Green Light Low Carb                            2.4g

Michelob Ultra Low Carb                                2.6g

Aspen Edge Low Carb                                       2.6g

Miller Lite                                                              3.2g

Amstel Light                                                         5.0g

Coors Light                                                            5.0g

Bud Light                                                                6.6g

Heineken                                                                9.8g

Budweiser                                                              10.6

Coors                                                                       11.3g

Michelob Light                                                    11.7g

Rolling Rock                                                         13.0g

Miller Genuine Draft                                         13.1g

Guinness                                                                17.6g

Zima                                                                        30.0g