satisfy cravings without overindulging during the holidays

Overeating can get the best of us and often occurs during the holidays. We attend work parties, family parties, big parties and small parties and all of them have a huge variety of drinks, snacks, sides, entrees and desserts to choose from, causing us to over indulge. Here are some ways to satisfy your holiday cravings without overeating.

• Take larger portions of healthy food: When loading up your plate a your big family holiday party, make a conscious effort to stack up on  healthier vegetables, (i.e. more broccoli, less candied yams) before you sit down. It can be difficult to refill your plate when at large dinner parties, so having a large portion of healthy foods from the beginning will help ensure you fill up on the healthy stuff.
• Be aware: When munching on appetizers strewn at a party, don’t just mindlessly eat. Be mindful of the 7 cheese queso dip you are singlehandedly eating with handful upon handful of chips. You don’t have to skip the snacks entirely, but try reaching for vegetables that are most likely laid out to eat with dip, versus chips. This allows you to indulge a bit, but makes it a healthier option.
• Use a small plate. This is a great tactic to use all the time, but is particularly beneficial around the holidays when there is typically a large variety to choose from. If you’re like me, you like to try a little bit of everything. Having a smaller plate will force your portions to be smaller, and having a little bit of a lot of food is much healthier than having a great amount of  a lot of food.
• Do not make anything off limits. Doing this will make it harder to resist and will most likely make you overindulge in something else. Have a sliver of that German chocolate cake your Aunt Sally brings to your family Christmas party every year. Just don’t eat the whole thing!

Making conscious decisions about your food choices before sitting down to eat is important; being aware of your portions and knowing there are certain foods you just can’t go without  is half the battle. Accept that you are going to eat a piece of pie you wouldn’t normally indulge in, but eat moderately and plan ahead; if you know you’re going to have dessert, try skimping on the appetizers.

If you allow yourself to indulge a bit but are smart about how much you eat, you’ll satisfy your belly without looking like Santa at the end of the holidays.

taking breast health into your own hands…part II

The United States Preventive Task Force  recommends toning down the number of trips you take to your gynocologist for mammograms, and recommends doctors not teach their patients how to perform a self-breast exam.

I believe it is an issue you need to take into your own hands.

Literally.

The USPSTF now “recommends against clinicians teaching women how to perform breast self-examination.”

The USPSTF’s statement offers no additional information about why it recommends doctors not teach women how to do these self-breast exams, although it does include what it considers to be the harmful risks women take from receiving mammograms.

Self-breast exams offer none of the potential risks that the USPSTF claims women face from receiving a mamogram, so the reason for discouraging proper self-breast exams is an unclear and new concept.

Personally, each gynecological appointment I’ve had has always included  my gynecologist explaining how to properly perform a self-breast exam. I can’t imagine this information being withheld and having to ask my gynecologist to instruct me, or worse…being a young girl who has never been to the gynecologist, who doesn’t even know she should ask.

Because performing self-breast exams can help save your life: doctors and mammograms can’t pick up everything, and you know your body best.

Being properly taught to examine and be aware of your breasts by your doctor or gynecologist is priceless. It has helped save countless womans lives, such as Dorian Solot, a popular sex and relationship educator for “I <3 Female Orgasm,” and Leigh Hurst, who founded the non-profit “Feel Your Boobies” campaign which promotes breast cancer awareness.

Both Solot and Hurst discovered a lump in their breasts on their own, not during a formal breast exam.

The USPSTF discouraging self-breast exams comes at a strange time.

On Oct. 30th of this year, ABC aired “Touch of Life: The Guide to Self Breast-Examination,” on the 5 o’clock news which documented a breast exam and bared the breasts of Lauren Albright, 28, for the sake of potentially saving womans lives by teaching them how to properly examine their breasts for cancer.

Albright found a “pea size lump” beneath her nipple when performing her monthly self-breast exam, said Albright during the public airing of Touch of Life.

“She is facing the fight of her life, and wants to help show other women how to do this critical exam. So she bravely volunteered to go unclothed so a doctor can show both her and you the proper way to detect breast cancer. 

“I know enough to save my own life, and that was very important to me,” Albright said.” 

-excerpt of article from ABC 7 News Touch of Life Guide to Self-Breast Examination

 To learn how to do a proper self-breast exam, click here.

Albright is living proof that proper self-breast exams can save your life, and just because the USPTF is recommending against teaching women how to perform this potentially life saving exam, it doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t be proactive about your breast health.

The recommendation of the USPTF is the minority; most health organizations encourage teaching women how to understand their breast tissue and explain what to look out for.  

There are many organizations out there that promote understanding breasts, such as the Breast Health Project which explains how to massage the breast in a way that mimics the movements of the lymph nodes  in the body.

So please, take matters…or breasts, into your own hands.

Breast Exam Controversy Part I

The United States Preventive Services Task Force recently released an extremely controversial recommendation for women regarding breast cancer.

Controversial enough for this topic to be split up into two separate blog posts.

The USPSTF recommended that women in their 40s do NOT need to get screened for breast cancer unless they are at high risk, and that women 50 to 74 years old only need to get mammograms every two years rather than annually.

However, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the American College of Radiology still recommend annual mammograms for women over 40.

The USPSTF previously had recommended that women in their 40s receive mammograms and that women over 50 receive mammograms annually.

The USPSTF claims that the harms of receiving a mammogram outweigh the benefits.  

As its scientific basis for the new recommendation, the USPSTF claims mammograms show many abnormalities that turn out to be slow growing cancers which could be non-life threatening.

These cancers are then aggressively treated with chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, which carry risks for patients.

The USPSTF considers these risks to outweigh the benefits that mammograms provide in catching cancer.

However, the problem with the logic behind the USPSTF’s recommendation is that it is nearly impossible to determine which tumors are fast growing and which grow at a slow enough rate to not pose a risk to your life.

Radiation from mammograms is another concern, but the radiation you receive-one time a year- is minimal, ”even less than a standard chest x-ray,” according to BreastCancer.org, which offers information on when to receive a mammogram and 5 important factors regarding mammograms.

Another risk from mammograms is the possibility of a false negative, which is when normal breast tissue hides a cancer. There can also be false positives, which are usually only discovered after a biopsy of the abnormality is performed.

This is one of the overly aggressive treatments that the USPSTF refers to as too much of a risk to justify annual mammograms and mammograms for women in their 40s.

So, while the numbers regarding these benefits and risks may make sense in retrospect, I think women need to remember that hindsight is 20/20.

It’s easy to say that a tumor was slow growing and the choice of treatment was overly aggressive after treatment…after your life has been saved.

Because…what if the tumor was fast-growing and you didn’t pursue treatment? Or it was slow growing but you didn’t catch it until the tumor had slowly grown into a large tumor?

To me, it seems it’s the benefits of a mammogram that outweigh the risks.

How to stop being tired ALL the time

Tiredness affects everyone. It can lead to crankiness and irritability. Being tired causes your productivity and quality of work to decrease.

Everyone gets tired, but you need to figure out why you’re so tired. It may not be just because you aren’t getting enough sleep. Want to stop being so tired? Follow these steps.

1. 1. Understand the type of sleep you need. The body goes through two types of sleep. First there is REM (rapid eye movement-yes, your eyes actually move!) which is where active dreams take place. NREM, or non-REM sleep has four stages of deeper sleep. Reaching this stage of sleep is important for sleep quality.
2. 2. Determine your “quality” of sleep. Is your sleep interrupted? Maybe you wake up in the middle of the night often to go to the bathroom, your husband or roommate snores and it wakes you up, or you simply wake up and can’t fall back to sleep. Once you can pinpoint what is waking you up, you can take steps to prevent it. If your husband or roommate snores, try asking them to use nasal strips to help prevent snoring. For frequent urination at night, you can try avoiding drinking any liquids an hour before going to sleep, and go to the bathroom before you get in bed.If that doesn’t work, you should see your doctor.
3. Are you stressed out? Being stressed can cause you to feel tired, but it can also prevent you from being able to fall asleep. If you find that your mind races with all the things you have to do, or you keep turning an issue over and over in your head, try clearing your mind before climbing into bed. What I have (very recently) discovered to be very effective is writing all the thoughts in your head down in a journal or notebook without censorship. This makes you feel as if you are literally emptying your head and storing those thoughts somewhere other than in your mind.
4. Are you consistent? Some people get up at six a.m. on weekdays and, to catch up on sleep, stay in bed until almost noon on weekends.  Research has been done that shows waking up at the same time everyday (yes, even weekends) keeps the body’s cycle consistent and will prevent feelings of tiredness.
5. Are you addicted to caffeine? It’s a common cycle, to become tired, have coffee to perk yourself up and then crash, going back to being tired. Coffee and alcohol are horrible for you to eat or drink if you are having difficulties sleeping! Limit your intake of alcohol and your  intake of caffeine,  and have your last cup of coffee around 2 p.m.
6. Exercise. I know it’s hard, but a little bit of exercise daily is great for your body and your mind. Exercising releases chemicals that make you feel good and help you to relax. But don’t workout right before you go to sleep; most exercise is vigorous enough to wake you up. Try working out in the morning for the best results.

 

the ABC’s of Vitamins

We all see the commercials and ads for multi-vitamins: vitamins for teenage girls, prenatal vitamins, vitamins for menopausal women. And it can be confusing, trying to figure out what each vitamin supplement does and which ones you would benefit from buying.

 If you don’t like taking vitamins or you feel like you are taking a hundred supplements a day, you can alter your diet to include certain foods that will provide you with these vitamins too. I’ve put together this list to help you decide.

Vitamin A helps maintain healthy bones, teeth, and skin. It is also called retinol, because it produces pigments in the eye. You can find vitamin A in foods such as eggs, cheese, broccoli and carrots (this is why people always say to eat carrots if you want good eyesight!) But watch out, most of these foods are high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Many multi vitamin packets provide too much vitamin A in their tablets, but One a Day gives the appropriate amount.

Vitamin B  helps proteins in the body regulate chemical reactions in the body. It helps produce red blood cells and promotes normal growth and development. Folic acid, a vitamin important to pregnant woman, is a B vitamin; it is very important for pregnant woman to increase their intake of folic acid because it decreases chances for birth defects. You can get vitamin B in most cereals and whole grains, and probably don’t need to take a vitamin supplement if you eat a good amount of starches, such as bread or potatoes.

Vitamin C. Drink orange juice! This vitamin is also helpful because it increases iron absorption in the body.

Vitamin D. See this page  for information-scroll to the bottom!

Vitamin E helps keep a healthy immune system. It also helps protect the vitamin A in your body from being oxidized, preventing the breakdown of body tissues. You can find this in nuts, seeds and vegetable oil. There are ongoing studies about the benefits of vitamin E and the prevention of heart disease.

Iron. Technically, iron is a mineral in our cells which makes oxygen carrying proteins. Women often lack iron in their diets, which can lead to anemia. We can get iron from lean red meat, oysters, salmon and dried fruits, such as prunes or raisins. It is important to pay attention to your iron intake when you have your period, if you recently had a baby or if you just gave blood. About 18 mg is the daily recommended dose of iron, but watch out; some foods, such as black tea or pekoe tea, can reduce the absorption of iron so it can’t be used by the body.

Excessive Sweating

Do you sweat excessively?

When guys drip with sweat, it’s acceptable. But when a girl has sweat stains under her armpits and down her back…people think it’s kind of gross.

While this double standard is a societal construction, the issue of excessive sweating is actually a physical disorder. And it’s not something that we as girls tend to talk about a lot.

But maybe we should.

Hyperhidrosis is a chronic disorder of excessive sweating that can affect any body part, from the soles of your feet to the palms of your hands. It can even affect your face-excessive and uncontrollable facial blushing can be part of this disorder. The excessive sweating can strike at any time, even when you’re not actually hot.

Hyperhidrosis occurs because of a miscommunication between the brain and the sweat glands, which is called primary hyperhidrosis although hyperhidrosis can be caused by an underlying issue: this is known as secondary hyperhidrosis.

This disorder only effects between 1 and 3 percent of the U.S. population, but about 60 percent of those affected do not seek medical help, and the disorder can lead to emotional problems caused by embarrassment of constantly being soaked with sweat. This can lead to withdrawal from social gatherings and decreases a woman’s overall happiness.

There are treatments for hyperhidrosis. The least invasive treatment option is the use of antiperspirants,such as Secret or Sure. These help clog up the sweat gland.

If that doesn’t work, use an antiperspirant with high levels of alcohol and about 15 percent concentration of aluminum chloride hexahydrate, such as Drysol, or go to your doctor and get a prescription deoderant.

Another option is to have a local surgical procedure done (local meaning the surgery is performed at the area that sweats) in which some of the sweat glands are removed or sealed shut. Even Botox or liposuction may be used at the site of excessive sweating.

Another, more controversial surgical option is endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) or ETS-C, endoscopic thoracic sympathectomyby clamping. Both surgical procedures are controversial because they are very invasive, are irreversible, and can possibly cause compensatory sweating, which is usually worse than the original hyperhidrosis.
To find out if you sweat excessively, click here or talk to your physican.

how old is your makeup?

A lot of us have makeup items we don’t want to throw away “just in case,” makeup we use once a year to justify holding on to it.

Or, we buy the perfect shade of lipstick, and then the color is discontinued. So we hold onto the lipstick for a long time-possibly years-until we’re using a Q-tip to scrape the tiny bit of product left on the bottom of the tube.

While these things are understandable (I’ve done them myself) they are certainly not healthy. Have you ever thought about the shelf life of your make up? Or the bacteria that can live on or in your makeup products?

The FDA has a rule of thumb about the shelf life of makeup products, and in very generic terms states that product lives vary in length depending on certain factors. You can read the full statement here.

However, these ‘certain factors’ happen to be the most relevant information to our daily, healthy use of make up!

This clip from the Tyra Banks Show is very entertaining-it has Tyra going through a lot of makeup products and their expiration dates.

Product by product, though, I have broken down the guidelines on the shelf-life of makeup, as well as the risks you take using makeup after it’s expired.

• Mascara. Toss after 3 or 4 months. Of all your makeup, this has the shortest lifespan, despite having an antibacterium (usually PVP or VP) in it that preserves the mascara for up to 6 weeks (look at the ingredients in mascara). You can stretch your mascara to 3 or 4 months, but chances for eye infections from the bacteria increases. To help keep your eyes and mascara healthy, do not pump the mascara wand in and out of the tube when you use it. This creates air bubbles and a breeding ground for bacteria. Also, if your mascara changes texture or smells odd, throw it out!
• Make up sponges. Wash weekly, replace every month! Your makeup sponge picks up any bacteria from your cover up, shares it and spreads it with any bacteria from your face, and then puts it back into your cover up. Sponge replacements are cheap and can be bought in a variety of sizes to fit your cover up compact. You can find them at Target for under $3.
• Make up brushes. Wash every 2 or 3 weeks with a mild soap. Make up brushes collect germs similar to how makeup sponges do. Luckily, they do not collect as many germs as a sponge because makeup brushes can be very expensive.
• Foundation. Replace every 6 to 12 months. If your foundation gets thick or really thin, you have to shake it up before you use it because the oil separated, or it smells funky, throw it out. You put this all over your face, and when it goes bad it will clog your pores! Also, try to keep your fingers away from the lip of the bottle to prevent transferring bacteria to your foundation!
• Powder and Eye shadow. Throw out after 1 to 1 1/2 years. Powder doesn’t contain any water, so it can last a long time. However, to keep bacteria away from your powder, don’t forget to properly care for the applicator you use, whether it be a sponge or a brush! And remember, eye shadow goes near your eyes which are very sensitive to bacteria.
• Lipstick and lipgloss. Throw out after 1 year. If you keep these for more than a year, you increase chances of getting mouth sores. Research shows that women are more likely than men to get canker sores. Using old, bacteria filled lip gloss or lipstick could be why!
• Lip liner and Eye liner. Throw out after 1 year-only if you sharpen it once a week! If the product cracks and crumbles when you sharpen it, it means it’s gone bad. Toss it!

act like a little girl…even when you’re not one

I recently read an article in the Miami Herald that touted what I think is some great advice.
However, I can’t  find the article on the Miami Herald’s website. So you’ll have to take it from me, or find the link and send it to me! The article explained the idealogy behind children’s eating behaviors and adult’s perception of food, two very different views.

Adults view food in many ways: as an art, as a way of being social, as sensual, as a gift and even as decoration.

But children eat when they’re hungry, and they eat until they’re full.

And then they stop.

Pretty simple right?

Wrong.

As adults, we like to indulge. We crave certain dessert items or beef filets cooked mid rare. Which would be fine, if we only ate our fill and stopped there…but we don’t.

Instead, we tend to overeat and give in to our cravings. The definition of crave is “an intense, urgent or abnormal desire or longing” according to Merriam-Webster’s website.

Indulging in  food cravings and overeating unhealthy foods can cause obesity and can have many other negative effects on the female body, including reproductive problems such as infertility. If the habits occur during pregnancy, they can result in birth defects or obese children. Obesity can lead to heart disease in women.

(To compare humans to rats…I found a study which showed pregnant rats who were fed fast food having offspring that craved and were addicted to unhealthy food.)

Food cravings and over eating also give way to what is known as yo-yo dieting, something that many women have experienced.

Yo-yo dieting is when you finally lose weight, and then you gain it all, if not more, back again. Yo-yo dieting is a result of giving into cravings, particularly while you are on a diet  because your body’s metabolism lowers when it recognizes you are taking in less calories (aka not eating as much), and you reach what is known as a plateau in your weight loss.

This plateau is when we struggle to maintain the diet, and this is where cravings and overeating come into play.

One of the healthiest ways to lose weight is to eat multiple, small meals or snacks throughout the day so that you are not hungry.

This helps keep your metabolism up and helps prevent you from going on one of those diets where you eat one large meal a day, which encourages overeating.

Many studies have been done on this subject and the results consistently are, combined with exercise, small meals throughout the day keeps you full and ultimately helps you lose weight.

So get in touch with your inner child.  

Go run around outside, eat some carrots or grapes for a snack, and wash it down with a glass of water or milk.

And if you have to throw a temper tantrum in order to get in touch with that inner child?  So be it.

Anorexia

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that affects a person’s body and mind.

Someone with anorexia has a distorted body image, and sees themselves as fat when truthfully, they are dangerously skinny. I thought this photo was a really powerful representation of a distorted body image, which is why I made it so large.

When a person develops anorexia they are usually searching for some form of control in their life. I say person because men can also be anorexic.

This search for control, the extreme fear of gaining weight, and many other problems, such as body images problems and anxiety, can lead to anorexia.

Although men can become anorexic, the majority of people (9 out of 10) suffering from anorexia are female. It is uncommon for women over the age of 40 to become anorexic;  most women suffering from anorexia are in their mid to late teens.

Because this eating disorder hits at a young age, it can have profoundly negative effects on a women through the rest of her life. Anorexia can result in amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation. If a woman experiences amenorrhea as a young girl, it is likely she will experience it as an older women, and this can hinder a woman’s ability to conceive children.

Other physical consequences include, but are not limited to, abnormal heart rhythms, low blood pressure, osteoperosis, and tiny hemorrhages around the pupils of the eye. 

There are many types of eating disorders and often, anorexia and bulimia are confused. Without detailing this too much, the best way I can describe the difference between anorexia and bulimia is that a person with bulimia will binge on food and purge it later, whereas someone with anorexia will not eat and may exercise excessively.

Within the scope of anorexia, there is anorexia athletica, or obligatory exercise, which is when a person with anorexia feels compelled to exercise and feels guilty and anxious if he or she does not work out. This urge to exercise is a compulsion and quickly surpasses healthy exercise and becomes a dangerous habit that can be life threatening.

 If the disorder goes untreated, which is often the case, hospitalization will most likely be required. Anorexia is a disorder that does not just disappear, and it can not just be grown out of. This requires appropriate medical treatment, nutritional counseling and possibly therapy.  While anorexia can be extremely difficult to overcome, it can be done, but professional medical help will be needed.

This professional help is very important because one of the most common symptoms of anorexia is denial. Denial makes it difficult for family members and friends to judge the severity of what they suspect is an eating disorder: when a daughter or a girlfriend insists she is healthy, and “just not hungry,” it creates a confrontational situation that many people are unsure how to approach. 

There are organizations and websites to provide support for people suffering from anorexia, as well as sources for the loved ones of someone diagnosed with anorexia. These sources are important because often it is family members or significant others who first become aware of the eating disorder.

 Parents and friends are often unsure of how to help, and are nervous approaching the subject with the person they believe is suffering from anorexia. This website aids with these problems and explains options that the family, and the person suffering from anorexia, have.

So if you suspect that someone you love or know may be anorexic, don’t hesitate to reach out. You don’t want that vivacious friend, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, aunt, or girlfriend to suffer like the girls in these pictures did.

When life gives you lemons…

…stick them in your bra to make your boobs look bigger!

We all deal with daily stress differently. I say daily because I know you don’t have to experience something especially tragic to cause extreme stress or anxiety.

Anything can trigger stress, and usually it’s a combination and build up of many small things that cause stress and result in anxiety.

For example, today my cell phone broke, I discovered my room is infested with lady bugs, I realized my nametag that I must wear to work was missing (as I was leaving for work, of course!)  and when I finally got in my car to drive to work, my gas tank read EMPTY.

These are all relatively minor issues, right?
Right.
I can see that now, but at the time, I was ready to have a meltdown.

To help prevent YOU from experiencing a meltdown, I’ve put together a list of relaxation techniques and stress-busters that can calm you down and won’t take up too much of your time (time, you know, that thing there never seems to be enough of?)

• Take long, deep, cleansing breaths. (I know this sounds cliche, but it does really work. Deep breaths have a positive physiological impact.)
• Make a conscious choice to not be upset or angry.
• Get outside. Even a few minutes breathing in some fresh air can improve your attitude and mindset.
• If it’s your boyfriend or husband that is upsetting you, go to this website and have at it! (this helps, trust me you’ll enjoy!)
• Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration, which can exacerbate feelings of anxiety.
• Have sex. That’s right, sex and stress are linked; sex can be a great relaxation technique and can imrove your mood!
• Stretch. When you feel yourself getting stressed, roll your neck and shoulder muscles and stretch out your arms. Relaxing your body will help relax your emotion, too.
• Award yourself at the end of a long, stressful day. Take a bath, read a book, or watch a favorite movie.
• Listen to soothing music
• Buy and use lotions and aromatherapy oils that relax you
• Get a massage, even if its just a quick 15 minute massage at a salon on your lunch break. Click here to find a massage therapist near you.