The Fitness Guru

……that was the first thing out of my mouth when I heard the news. Weight Watchers has put their seal of approval on three McDonald’s meals in New Zealand in preparation for an introduction to the Australian market: the Fillet-O-Fish, with 18g of fat and 380 calories; Chicken McNuggets, with 29g of fat and 485 calories; and Sweet Chilli Seared Chicken Wrap, with 18.8g of fat and 404 calories.

What part of the chicken is the nugget? Any idea how the chickens are raised, fed, and killed? How are they stored? What’s added to them? How are they cooked? 485 calories? What if you are trying to stick to a 1500 calorie meal plan to lose weight? That’s close to a third of all your calories!

And not to mention the studies that state when people go into McDonald’s, they usually end up buying less healthy items, like the fun fries to go with the Nuggets, and the tasty beverage to wash it down. And then the Weight Watchers client– who has entrusted this company with their desire to shed unhealthy pounds– is right back where they were before: headed off to the fast food restaurant to fill themselves.

“This is a noble cause,” the chief executive of McDonald’s New Zealand, Mark Hawthorne, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Noble? Hey, I can’t blame McDonald’s for trying to get out from under the cloud of being unhealthy. They deserve the cloud, but, by all means, try and scamper out from under it.

But this is the final nail in my Weight Watchers coffin. I’ve been stewing over their “techniques” for years and this one takes the Snickers cake. My problem with WW is that, by assigning points to different foods and meals, they remove a needed step: education. One of my clients used to save up all her days points so that she could have a huge dessert at the end of the day. That’s how she used her WW experience.

No doubt WW spokespeople will come forth and say “that is not the intention. We try very hard to educate the masses on eating healthy. Some people will disregard the process and move toward bad habits. Is that our fault?”

When you set out and whore your brand name so that you can get in tight with McDonald’s and the 4 million people they serve in New Zealand every week? You’re damn right it’s your fault.

Shame on you. You’re ridiculous.

(caution: the following video has lots and lots of naughty words and violence. But for some unknown reason, all my anger and fast food, it popped into my head)

As you kick back with your cup of coffe this morning, check out some of these top stories from the week in health and fitness.

Tiny tattoos could help diabetics ditch needles-Scientists are starting to test a kind of high-tech tattoo that changes color with rising blood sugar levels

Buying Cigarettes and Stop-Smoking Aids from the Same Company?- Conflict of interest? Ponzi scheme? What are they up to?

The Best Exercises for Healthy Bones- Where do cycling and running rank?

Would you drink Coke or Pepsi for breakfast?- It’s hard to believe but maybe that glass of juice for breakfast isn’t all that great for you…..

Should Parents of Obese Kids Lose Custody?- Is it reasonable to remove children from parents’ care if the paretns can’t help them maintain reasonable and healthy weight goals?

Tired?
I am.

So is almost everyone I know. Seems to be a trend. When you are tired you a) crave junk food, b) are always in fight-ot-flight, c) have a greatly reduced immune system, and d) are so cranky no one wants to play with you.

Here are some hard stats:

• Sleep problems are reaching epidemic proportions, estimated to be the #1 health related problem in America – (CNN, May 1997.)
• Almost 74% of all Americans do not get enough sleep each night.
• Sleep deprivation costs $150 billion each year in higher stress and reduced worker productivity-(National Commission on Sleep Disorders, 2003.)
• Almost all adults don’t get enough sleep and most struggle to get up in the morning. “If we got enough sleep at night we wouldn’t need an alarm clock to wake us.” (Mayo Clinic). And half of America can’t get up without an alarm clock.
• Recent studies implicate sleep deprivation in diabetes.
• We sleep on average 6.9 hours/day, almost an hour less than a few decades ago.
• 43 percent of respondents reported that daytime sleepiness interfered with their normal daytime activities, including work. (NSF 2000.)
• 30-40% of heavy truck accidents are due to driver fatigue. National Sleep Foundation, 2002 Annual Sleep Survey.
• 51% of adults say they have problems sleeping at least a few nights each week.
• Almost 1/3 has trouble sleeping every night.

Blah blah blah blah…..

All I know is that if I’m tired, I’m probably pretty cranky and definitely useless after 2pm.

And sleeplessness has created a multi-BILLION dollar industry, from mattresses and white noise machines to Ambien and Unisom and fluffy pillows guaranteed to help you doze. You can spend a fortune trying to get to sleep at night. And in the end, there is no guarantee.
Add to that the fact that sleeplessness adds to our national weight issue (for those of you just catching up, 66% of the adult population is overweight or obese. That number is slated to go up to 85% by 2030). Sleeplessness makes you eat more and feel less satisfied. And it elevates levels of a hormone called Visfatin (ironically, “Fat Power”) from belly fat which creates insulin resistance.

Blah blah blah…….

If you have made it this far without dozing off, here’s what you are going to do:

1. Calm your mind
All those voices and noises in your head! How could anyone sleep? Develop a practice through meditation and breathing, or even something as simple as reading quietly. Teach yourself to quiet all that noise so that when it is time to go to bed, you are ready to sleep.

2. Keep you internal clock on time
“Yeah! It’s the weekend! I’ll catch up on sleep!” But that “catch up” is going to be trouble when Monday comes. Set your body to a specific clock and try not to vary it by more than an hour. The habit will pay off in better sleep hours.

3. Eat
Studies have shown that people who cut back on calories in order to lose weight also have problems with sleep. Have a small snack before bed. Try protein, like an egg or cheese. Protein will help the cause far better than fat.

4. Use the bed for sleep
Yes, yes I know. Ha ha ha. Okay now get serious again. No reading, no TV, no late night phone calls or texting. Sleep is your religion and the bed is your church. You must hold the church sacred. Go to bed and go to sleep. Period.

5. Start a bedtime practice of destressing
This can start a few hours before bed time. Find practices that help to calm you, like yoga and stretching; listen to classical music; read something that will focus your mind, like a book as opposed to a trashy magazine that will get your mind flying every which way.

6. Nothing electric for a couple of hours before bed
As a society, we are WAY too plugged in. Unplug. No TV,computer, phone, text– you know the list. It’s anything that stirs your mind and creates even a low level of anxiety. But also watch out for lights, even something as dim as your alarm clock or cell phone. Those little lights can be exptremely distracting.

And, finally, perhaps needless to say, if you sleep with someone who is disruptive, either because of snoring or a love of David Letterman…..well……you know what you have to do.

Now you’ll have to excuse me. My pillow is calling for my mid-afternoon nap.

I must be living in a cave. Either that, or I have been following all the wrong Tweets. I didn’t know until this morning that Oprah had been giving away free coupons for KFC’s new Grilled Chicken Meal.

Let me back up a bit: for those of you like me who are not in on every single twist and turn in the popular culture, KFC has started offering grilled chicken at their restaurants. Forget that some of us remember that the “F” stands for “Fried”. Let’s pretend that Roger Eaton, president of KFC, had a vision that it was time to heal the wounds inflicted on our great nation by fast food by starting to use his grill. And let’s really go out on a limb and suggest that a free coupon was, in fact, a poignant mea culpa.

Even with all this feel-good energy, some problems arise:

1. KFC was completely unprepared for the response and their stores were overwhelmed by people who had downloaded the coupons. Honestly, what are the odds, in this economy, that a free meal will be turned down? And they’re surprised?

2. In an effort to make amends, KFC is offering a rain check– all you have to do is go into the store and fill out the appropriate paper work. Then they will give you a date when you can come back and eat. Oh, and while you are waiting for the paper work to be processed, avoid buying any of the fried chicken……..

So far, none of this bothers me. It is all a fantastic marketing ploy that KFC has engineered to sell their chicken. And that’s the business they are in– chicken sales.

But Oprah? C’mon Oprah, you know better. When last we caught up to you, you were despondent that you had put on so much of the weight you had lost. You cried and we cried with you. I understood completely your frustrations and questioned the advice that you had been given by the professionals in your circle. But KFC? That’s leading people right into the lions’ den.
I’ll quote one study for you: The University of Chicago (Oprah’s town) found that the presence of healthy items on a menu led consumers to purchase unhealthy items. The mere presence of the healthier choices fulfilled the consumers’ health-related eating goals EVEN IF THEY DON”T ORDER THE HEALTHY CHOICE. What’s more, these tendencies are even more pronounced in people with relatively high levels of self-control.

So what will KFC give you when you come in for your rain-check? A free Pepsi.

Oprah is the most powerful person in media. Argue with me if you like, but it is unlikely you will win. Her book choices send publishers into fits of ecstasy, her style choices are equally celebrated. Wouldn’t it be terrific, in this time of economic hardship and declining public health, if she would put her tremendous power behind the small entrepenuers who are trying to help better the health of the nation? KFC doesn’t need her help. And her viewers, who have placed their trust in her, deserve the very best.

It’s not as easy as This Is Why You’re Fat vs. This Is Why You’re Thin.

Two fun studies, both from the Journal of Consumer Research: the first tells us that when we are given nutritional information on a menu, we are more likely to choose the healthier option; the second says that having a healthier option on a menu, like a salad, is more likely to drive us toward the unhealthy, like fries. Apparently, seeing the healthy option displayed before us allows us to lower our guards and reach for something that we know is not as healthy ( 10% of the test subjects from a “no-salad” menu ordered fries, as opposed to 33% who ordered fries when given the option of salad). But if we have the nutritional information in front of us, then we are more likely to make the healthier choice.

I’m not quite sure how that works for me. True story– we took the kids to Five Guys Burgers on Friday because all the reviews say that the burgers are OUT OF CONTROL. And they were kind enough to print calorie counts next to each dish. In the end, I consumed about 2000 calories, which is usually my daily total (funny side note– went home and passed out immediately).

What’s your habit? Will you ask to replace the fries with salad? Does the nutritional information help to guide you? Let us know if the Journal for Consumer Research is really on the money.

Here is a great article straight out of Texas. The faculty and students at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Brownsville have organized a farmers’ market to help fight an obesity epidemic in the community. So we at the Guru salute Belinda Reininger, the organizer of the market, for taking that bull by the horns and creating a healthy alternative to prescription medications for obesity and all its complications.