3 Cardio Healthy Ways to Lose Weight Without Going to the Gym in 2012
Posted: January 5, 2012 Filed under: Exercise, New Years Resolution | Tags: cardio health, cardiotabs, health goals for the new year, Joan O'Keefe, new years resolution exercise 6 Comments »How many times have you heard someone say dreadfully, “my diet starts tomorrow,” or “Ugh, my doctor says I have to lose weight?” Stop looking at weight loss as a chore. Get pumped up and excited because your life will soon be defined by feeling good and cardio healthy for life.
I have several clients that let excess weight define and limit them. One client spent her days in misery because she couldn’t do the things she’d like to do because of her weight. On a recent vacation, her family and friends golfed and walked on the beach while she sat watching. Excess weight was killing her spirit. She’s now 18 pounds down and gets a little of her life back every day. Imagine the joyous days she has ahead of her as she continues to shed 180 more pounds of extra weight.
In addition to my usual advice (pick two colors and a protein morning, noon and night), here are some tips for weight loss. Losing weight is more than just “diet.” Follow these tips and you’ll be feeling great in no time!
- Put simply, go to bed! That’s right. You need to sleep at least 7.5 hours a night. When you get at least 7.5 hours of quality sleep every night, you reduce your cortisol levels (stress hormones), which in turn decreases hunger and cravings, making it easier to stick to your plan.
- Cut the sugar substitutes. This means NutraSweet, Sweet and Lo and Splenda. Artificial sweeteners do nothing for you but burn on your sugar cravings, increasing your chances of metabolic syndrome, addiction and weight gain. I have one client who lost 45 pounds simply by eliminating all artificial sweeteners from her diet.
- Use Metamucil. Regularity is fabulous, but there are even more benefits to psyllium fiber. This is a terrific weight loss tip. Before dinner, be it when you get home from work or late afternoon, stir one rounded tablespoon of Metamucil in at least 16-20 ounces of water and drink immediately. Not only is this terrific for your colon health and regularity, it will fill you up so you’ll eat less for dinner. It will also help lower your LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.
Your life can change today. I’m excited for you and for the joy that losing weight is going to bring to your life.
In Good Health,
Joan O’Keefe, RD
For information on health supplements, see cardiotabs.com.
How to Make the Most of Exercising at Home
Posted: January 5, 2012 Filed under: Exercise, New Years Resolution | Tags: cardio health, cardiotabs, exercise goals for 2012, indoor exercises, Joan O'Keefe, new years resolution 2 Comments »I, Joan O’Keefe, hereby admit that I HATE to be cold. However, I’ll be the first to tell you that the weather is NO excuse for not exercising.
I’ve said it before – exercise is vital. You must do something every day. Of course, exercise will help you lose weight, but the benefits of exercise are more than just the calories burned during your workout. Exercise makes you calmer, lowers stress hormones, it blows out the cobwebs, letting you think more clearly and making you a nicer person – Just ask my husband. There are times when he will get this look on his face and say as kindly as can be, “Joan, maybe you need to go exercise.” I am crabby, grumpy and generally unpleasant to be around if I haven’t exercised. He can tell if I need to lower my stress hormones!
Exercise also improves sleep and builds muscle. Building muscle is huge. If you are not exercising and using your muscles, you lose muscle and if you lose it, you’ll have to eat less because you’re not burning calories. Exercise increases your metabolism for the next 24 hours and you’ll burn more calories all day.
So, what’s a girl who hates the cold to do all winter long? Move the workout indoors. You always have a choice. Say you have four kids and you’re stuck indoors in an ice storm with no chance of making it to a gym. What do you do? Run your stairs! Do it for 30 minutes. I’m not talking taking laundry up a couple of times, I want you to put on your sneakers, start in the basement if you have one, and head to the top floor. Go downstairs and repeat – for 30 minutes straight. You’ll know you’ve done something after this.
I also suggest trying new classes. Winter is the perfect time for this. Many gyms run the best promotions of the year in January. Get in there and try a new class – you’re guaranteed to be with other beginners this time of year. Try yoga, pilates, even spinning. Just be sure to shake it up. Do something Tuesday/Thursday and something different the other days. Make it fun. Join an indoor pool. Let the kids play and then swim some laps yourself.
Now, if you don’t mind the cold, options are abound for you. My husband, a North Dakota native, loves the cold. He finds early morning frigid temperatures exhilarating. So, if you’re like James and the cold doesn’t bother you, bundle up, get out there and skate, run or walk, or better yet, try interval training. Walk a block, run two, etc.
Please take my advice and don’t let old man winter keep you from exercising and being the best you can be!
In Good Health,
Joan O’Keefe, RD
For additional information on health supplements, see cardiotabs.com.
The Best Way to Support a Healthy Weight in 2012 | Recording Your Diet and Exercise
Posted: January 5, 2012 Filed under: Exercise, New Years Resolution | Tags: cardio health, cardiotabs, Joan O'Keefe, recording your weight, supporting health weight, weight tips for 2012 Leave a comment »It’s amazing how many people say to me, “I’m doing everything right and just can’t figure out why I’m not losing weight.” Have YOU ever said these words? I have one word for you: honesty.
It’s not that people are lying or trying to cover-up their diet and exercise mistakes, it’s simply that they’re not aware of their dishonesty. The only way to be absolutely honest with yourself about what you’re truly doing for your health is to journal. A diet and exercise journal is a requirement of all of my clients. Journaling forces us to be honest with ourselves, especially when we’re trying to live healthier lifestyles. Studies show that those who journal lose more weight and keep it off better than those who do not. So, what are you waiting for?
A nutrition and exercise journal should be simple. Carry it with you everywhere and every time your fingers go to your lips with food, write it down. Journal everything you eat, drink, sip, or taste-test. Write down your physical activity and how much sleep you’re getting. Then when you say, “I just can’t figure out why I’m not losing weight,” we can go back, look and say, “Oh yeah, I see it now.”
Losing weight: Diet has a lot to do with it. Make sure you’re getting plenty of color and protein in your diet. I recommend CardioWhey and CardioTea daily for all of my weight loss clients. Write down absolutely everything you take in. Record your physical activity. Do something every day. You will not reach your goal if you are not active every day. Even if it’s just 20 minutes going up and down the stairs in your house, make sure it’s something every day.
Sleep: Don’t underestimate the value of sleep. You need 7.5 hours every night. If you’re not sleeping enough, stress hormones will increase and so will your appetite. Record your sleep in your journal and you’ll be able to spot patterns.
The only way to know if you’re on track to reach your goal is to journal. When you don’t lose weight one week, we can say, “there’s the extra cookie and glass of wine, a missed workout, etc…” Journaling is the best way to stay honest with yourself.
In Good Health,
Joan O’Keefe, RD
For additional information on health supplements, see cardiotabs.com.
Halloween Candy for Your Kids While Maintaining a Healthy but Fun Lifestyle.
Posted: October 24, 2011 Filed under: Holiday Health Tips | Tags: halloween health tips Leave a comment »
Although, many kids are eager to indulge in Halloween treats, we need to foster moderation in their Halloween candy intake, while allowing them to enjoy their youth and still uphold an active, healthy lifestyle.
Today, Halloween has become a junk food festival. Of course, we take the kids out on Halloween to collect candy. They come home with buckets full of sweets after they have gotten an evening’s worth of great exercise and fun, running from house to house. But then there are two rules that must be followed. First, the candy is kept in a place where mom can monitor it-like the kitchen, not their bedroom. Second, after a week at the most, the candy mysteriously disappears, usually in the trash. Use these rules not just for Halloween, but also for Valentine’s Day, Easter or any other occasion that involves candy or sweets.
Overall, American children are overfed but undernourished; they consume too many empty calories but not enough beneficial nutrients. A child born in America in 2000 has a 30 to 40 percent chance of developing diabetes during his or her lifetime, largely due to excess weight, poor diet, and too little physical activity. The epidemic of obesity is even reaching down into the sandbox: more than 10 percent of children between the ages two and five are already overweight.
In Good Health,
Joan O’Keefe, RD
For additional health supplement information & health supplement products, visit cardiotabs.com
The Biggest Cardio Health Risk to Our Children
Posted: October 21, 2011 Filed under: Cholesterol Tips, Exercise, Holiday Health Tips | Tags: cardio health, childhood obesity, Dr. James O'Keefe, getting kids to eat healthy, Joan O'Keefe Leave a comment »
To me, children are the joy and the light of the world. Their eyes sparkle with energy and curiosity, and the future belongs to them. By nature, we are hard-wired to worry about the safety and well-being of our children and grandchildren. Yet many parents unwittingly poison their children on a daily basis by giving them drive-through junk food and unlimited access to inactive pastimes like TV, computer games, and spectator sports.
While the world is a dangerous place to grow up, the more insidious dangers that stalk our children are disguised as harmless pleasures: way too little physical play and fresh air, and way too much TV and junk food. Obesity and diabetes increasingly threaten to ruin the health and longevity of the new generation. Obesity among children has risen five-fold in just 25 years, and experts predict that one-third to one-half of all American children born in the new millennium will develop diabetes in their lifetime.
These calamities result from a diet and lifestyle that are increasingly at odds with our genetic identity. Kids were meant to be very physically active. The single best predictor of mood in a long-term study of teenagers was their level of daily physical exercise—inactive kids tended to be depressed, whereas active youngsters tended to be happy. The most important step you can take to ensure the long-term vitality, both emotional and physical, of the children in your life, is by teaching them by example how to eat right and find their fun mostly through physical play.
An English team of researchers recently reported that a 30-minute walk in a park boosted self-esteem and lifted depression, whereas a half-hour stroll in a mall actually increased tension. I can personally attest to the fact that when I want to relax, an indoor mall would be about the last place I would think of going. On the other hand, I find that walking outdoors with the kids through the Plaza in Kansas City, for example, to be invigorating and fun. Even more enjoyable is an outing to Loose Park with the kids and dogs to spend an hour walking, running, skating, climbing trees, or playing Frisbee.
Another British study found that being active outside in nature induces instant relaxation in 84 percent of people, both young and old. When you get out in nature and do something exhilarating, it’s not that you no longer have worries; it’s more like you just can’t remember what you were worried about. Admittedly my kids love TV too, but I have found that rather than just tell them to turn off the screen, if I offer them an active alternative, they will usually jump at the chance to play.
If you could see what was happening in your kid’s or grandkid’s bloodstream arteries right after they gulp down a ‘Happy Meal,’ it would make you cringe. Disturbingly, a fast food meal of a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke will cause dangerous rises in the blood levels of glucose and fats that immediately trigger inflammation, stress hormone release, a rise in blood pressure, and constriction of the blood vessels—even in apparently healthy young people.
Do everything you can to see that the kids in your life eat more natural, unprocessed whole foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries and less of the ubiquitous tasty, but toxic junk food.
In Good Health,
James O’Keefe, MD
For additional health supplement information & health supplement products, visit cardiotabs.com
Vitamin D Supplementation for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Posted: October 13, 2011 Filed under: Vitamin D | Tags: adequate vitamin d levels, good vitamin d levels, institute of medicine vitamin d, IOM vitamin d recommends, IOM vitamin intake, JAMA James O'Keefe Leave a comment »My article below was recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). I hope you enjoy.
We take issue with Drs Shapses and Manson1 in their defense of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendations that the daily allowance of vitamin D be 600 IU/d for individuals 1 to 70 years and 800 IU/d for those older than 70 years. A recent study using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006 analyzed vitamin D levels in 4495 adults and found vitamin D deficiency, defined as a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level 20 ng/mL or less, in 42% of the overall population, 82% of blacks, and 69% of Hispanics individuals.2
Inadequate vitamin D status adversely affects musculoskeletal health. Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are associated with increases in parathyroid hormone levels, activation of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system, worsening of insulin resistance, and predisposition to systemic inflammation, hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, and diabetes.3,4 Epidemiologic studies also consistently find that low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are associated with increased risks for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.3,4
The mean 25-hydroxyvitamin D level for adults is 20 ng/mL.2 A chronic oral daily supplement of 100 IU of vitamin D3 will raise this level by approximately 1 ng/mL.4 Thus, an intake of 600-800 IU daily will leave the average adult’s 25-hydroxyvitamin D level below 30 ng/mL, which is sub-optimal. The Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline recently suggested doses of 1,000 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 to raise an insufficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D level to at least 30 ng/mL, which is well under any threshold for concern regarding vitamin D toxicity.5
Although large randomized trials are in progress, most of these will not be completed for 5 or 6 years; in the meanwhile, clinical decisions must be made based on existing data. If a clinician is uncomfortable prescribing the doses suggested by the Endocrine Society guidelines (1000-2000 IU of vitamin D3 daily),5 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels can be measured and treated appropriately, particularly in those at risk for vitamin D deficiency, such as the elderly, people who live at higher latitudes, and those with darker skin, diabetes, obesity, or minimal sun exposure.5 Screening for vitamin D deficiency may also be warranted for individuals with liver or kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, primary hyperparathyroidism, sarcoidosis, inflammatory bowel disease, prior gastric bypass, osteoporosis, osteopenia, and those taking glucocorticoids or medications for human immunodeficiency virus infection or seizures.5
James H. O’Keefe, MD
Carl J. Lavie, MD
Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD
Author Affiliations: Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute, Kansas City, Missouri (Dr O’Keefe) (jokeefe@saint-lukes.org); John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana (Dr Lavie); and Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Holick).
References:
1. Shapses SA, Manson JE. Vitamin D and prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes: why the evidence falls short. JAMA.2011;305(24):2565-2566.
2. Forrest KY, Stuhldreher WL. Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults. Nutr Res. 2011;31(1):48-54.
3. Anderson JL, May HT, Horne BD, et al. Intermountain Heart Collaborative (IHC) Study Group. Relation of vitamin D deficiency to cardiovascular risk factors, disease status, and incident events in a general healthcare population. Am J Cardiol. 2010;106(7):963-968.
4. Lee JH, O’Keefe JH, Bell D, Hensrud DD, Holick MF. Vitamin D deficiency an important, common, and easily treatable cardiovascular risk factor? JAmColl Cardiol. 2008;52(24):1949-1956.
5. Holick MF, Binkley NC, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, et al. Endocrine Society. Evaluation, treatment, and prevention of vitamin d deficiency: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;96(7):1911-1930.
Photo credit: tambako
Safe Supplement Usage | Reaction to Iowa Women’s Health Study Analysis
Posted: October 13, 2011 Filed under: Health Supplements | Tags: Archives of Internal Medicine, cardio health, Dr. James O'Keefe, health supplement women mortality report, Iowa Women’s Health Study, Jaakko Mursu, Reaction to Iowa Women’s Health Study, Safe Supplement Usage Leave a comment »
With 150 million Americans consuming vitamins and health supplements, studies on their efficacy are always a point of interest and in many instances a point of conflict. A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that taking supplements was associated with a small but statistically significant increased risk of death during follow up of a large group of older women. We would like to take a closer look at this study and try to put it into context.
The study tracked women’s use of supplements including multivitamins, iron, vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium, zinc and copper over nineteen years as they aged from their 60s into their 80s. It appeared that some of these supplements, (particularly iron) were associated with a slightly higher risk of death.
This was an observational study, a notoriously unreliable scientific method from which to draw conclusions. Lead author Jaakko Mursu, of the University of Eastern Finland commented, “We saw an increased risk of total mortality, but we don’t really know what is the reason,” Indeed many individuals choose to take supplements in part because they have health problems and/or chronic diseases in the hope that these over-the-counter nutriceuticals might be helpful. In other words, people with health problems tend to take more supplements as potential remedies of their health issues.
Although most Americans get plenty of calories each day, many do not consume optimal amounts of the essential nutrients. From low vitamin D status to inadequate intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, Americans are lacking in many critically important essential nutrients.
The take-home messages from the latest data on supplements:
- Supplements should not be relied upon as a substitute for eating healthfully: No regimen of supplements can make up for a poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle. On the other hand, a few highly effective and safe nutritional supplements can make a positive impact on health, well-being and longevity when used in conjunction with our recommendations about diet and lifestyle.
- Taking vitamins in high doses can be harmful: In general you want to avoid multivitamins with mega-doses. More is usually not better. These unnaturally high doses have not been shown to improve cardio health and longevity and in some cases, like high dose vitamin E (above 400 IU per day), they may be harmful. Look for a “multi” with about 100% of the Daily Value for most of the essential vitamins and minerals.
- Vitamin D appears to be beneficial: The authors stated vitamin D supplements might be beneficial, especially if supplement users have insufficient vitamin D from their diet and sun exposure. In my experience, at least half of American adults have blood levels of vitamin D that are deficient, and this compromises their cardio-health and predisposes them to a host of other problems. Adequate vitamin D usage promotes healthy blood pressure, healthy glucose levels, and supports a healthy immune system. Most adults need at least 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 or vitamin D2 to just get their vitamin D levels into the low-normal range.
- Avoid iron supplements unless you are low in iron. Iron can be toxic when it accumulates in the body. Menstruating women may need an iron supplement, but most other healthy individuals do not.
When used as recommended by your physician and in conjunction with a healthy diet and lifestyle, the effects of health supplements and vitamins can be quite positive and quite impressive. I feel Duffy MacKay, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition put it nicely when he commented, “Most people cannot get all the needed nutrients from diet alone in the real world.” Supplements are needed when you fall short of ideal nutrition.
In Good Health,
Dr. James O’Keefe
For additional health supplement information & health supplement products, visit cardiotabs.com.
