It has taken me a while to warm up to the concept, but I am a new Pilates fanatic. Maybe it’s that I now work from home, after 20 years in the restaurant business. Thankfully, I find myself slowing down enough to be conscious about my body; and consciousness is what Pilates is all about. I did some research, and found out something new and I wanted to share it with you.

I had always heard that Pilates was created as a workout for dancers, but that is simply not the case! According to Wikipedia, the creator, Joseph Pilates, designed the program during WWI to help returning, injured vets regain movement and health. He believed that the mind could control the muscles, and that deep, cleansing breathing was just as important as any exercise.

What I found most interesting is he seemed to articulate the concept of chi, or energy flow, without using the term. He designed his activities to redirect blood flow, which Chinese medicine calls chi or “qi”. It has been my experience that when I am ill, or having trouble losing weight, I look no further than a possible case of stuck “chi”, and with the aid of acupuncture, vitality is restored.

What can cause stuck “chi”? Funny you should ask, because it is usually the mind! Hmmm… Joseph Pilates made the mind-body connection, and the Chinese made it thousands of years before. Westerners are just beginning to wake to the idea. Still need convincing? Check out a diet here that provides some very credible evidence for the mind-weight loss connection.

Hoodia still seems to be the latest “it girl” in the world of diet supplements. From what I have been able to determine through hours of research is the following:

1. Make sure that the manufacturer of the Hoodia product reveals all ingredients. There is some speculation that Hoodia is most effective when taken on its own, so it is important to know what you are taking. Especially if the product is combined with a thermogenic product like green tea.

2. Look for a producer that specifies Hoodia sourced from the stem, and not the root, which is a cheap and ineffective filler for unscrupulous Hoodia makers.

3. If buying online, look for a stamp, or a seal, that shows the Hoodia has been “certified authentic”. One of the main certifiers goes by the acronym C.I.T.I.E.S., and seems to have the most respect of supplement reviewers at this time.

4. Beware of online “free trial” offers that lock you into an auto-ship program. Some of these have been reported as very difficult to get out of, with the shipper continually re-billing and re-shipping, even though you have asked them to stop.

5. Look for a minimum strength level of 750 mg. As long as the Hoodia meets criteria #1, you should see immediate results with this product in appetite suppression and mood enhancement.

If you are looking for an all-natural way to combat cravings and late-night snacking, Hoodia may be just the thing. Is it working for you? Let us know!

As a chef’s wife, I am constantly having to raise the bar on nightly dinners. Not that chefs are hard to please; quite the contrary. A little known secret about fancy-schmancy chefs is that because they spend their day cooking gourmet food, when they come home, really, all they want is a sandwich and a cold beer.

However, I’m competitive, and I like showing off in the kitchen. So imagine my surprise when looking for recipes using pomegranates (which are in season right now and are gorgeous, not to mention full of anti-oxidants), I found a fantastic recipe on Weight Watcher’s website! Using POM pomegranate juice, which I love; fresh beets, which I always want to get but am flummoxed by what to do with them; and citrus (on sale right now-Yes!), this side dish is only 5 points, and extremely satisfying. In fact, I found very little variance from how a chef would prepare this dish, and the recipe, other than that a chef would probably add Extra Virgin Olive oil and some crumbled goat or feta cheese at the finish, for a mediterranean flavor.

Don’t worry about the quality of the port wine that you use in the recipe, just get the least expensive. But do get the Ruby port, and not the Tawny. “Tawny” refers to the winemaking method whereby the port is aged in wood, so when the wine reduces (cooks down) in the recipe, you could be left with some bitter flavors. “Ruby” is always what you want to look for when buying port wine for cooking. And note that cooking wine eliminates the alcohol, which reduces the calories!

I’m off to go have fun in the kitchen! Catch up with you later……

Check out more healthy Weight Watchers recipes here.

Just try and say that five times fast! And when you’re done, start doing it, as all kinds of diet programs vouch for the success that writing down your food intake can bring. Bodybuilders do it, Jenny Craigers and Weight Watchers do it, and now there are programs cropping up that are nothing more than journal support groups. How does writing it down work? Let’s take a look.

When you need to get something done, do you write a note to yourself? Of course you do! So why not put at the top of that list “lose weight” or “maintain weight”? Isn’t that just as important as picking up the dry cleaning? In fact, why bother picking up the dry cleaning at all if you can’t fit into it? Making healthy weight management a “to-do” sets the wheels in motion.

So now you are cruising along, you’ve started your program, and things are going great. You’re motivated, you are feeling lighter, and you are looking forward to reaching your goal. Wanna know a secret? Professional athletes of every sport take the time to write down DAILY what they did that day to develop their skills, how they felt, how they slept, and yes, what they ate. Why do they do this? One, because their trainer teaches them and tells them to, but two, because they know that by writing it down, they are creating awareness for themselves as to what is working and what is not. Even athletes have a strong inner-critic; in fact, that inner critic is probably what drives them to great success. But the difference between you controlling the inner-critic and the inner-critic controlling you, is writing it down, analyzing the situation, and closing the book until the next meal, allowing you to focus on other important areas of your life.

There is a reason why CEOs have an accounts payable department. If every CEO could just write checks willy-nilly, rather than having to ask AP for a check, he/she would easily overspend the cash flow. A successful dieter needs to be their own accounts payable, and before they “spend” their calories on something they are about to eat, they need to ask themselves “can I afford this?” . Use your journal as a “check book”, to keep a check on your food choices. If you don’t like doing it, well, experts say you are probably the person who needs it the most. Need more encouragement? It’s free, and it works.

I’m one of those spring cleaners who get an early start, as in, as soon as the kids are back in school. So there I was cleaning out a tote bag, and lo and behold, I found my iPod! I was afraid I had lost it, so when I found it again, it was like finding a $20 dollar bill in the dryer.

As a 40-year old mother of two, I struggle to find time for physical activity. However, today was a different story. Since I found my iPod two days ago, I put it in my messenger bag, which I take with me everywhere I go. Then this morning, just like every other morning, I took my 8-year old to school via the public bus, dropped him off, and then picked up my morning coffee. As I was paying for the coffee, I saw the iPod, got excited, and put in my earbuds. Immediately, the sweet sounds of Prince filled my head, and my mood lifted. I smiled at a perfect stranger, and had to suppress my urge to dance. As I moved towards the bus stop for the return trip home, I heard a voice in my head say “let’s walk instead!”, and I listened.

Two miles later, made effortless by the dulcid tones of Tom Jones and Sheryl Crow, I’m home and I’m pumped, realizing that had I not had my iPod with me, I would have missed out on the perfect opportunity to burn about 250 calories. To find out how you can rekindle your iPod romance, click here.