Healthy Lifestyle

The clever acronym PHIT stands for The Personal Health Investment Today Act of 2009. The PHIT Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last spring, and is intended to amend the IRS code to allow fitness-related tax deductions for up to $1,000 for individuals, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly or heads of household.

But, only certain sports and fitness expenses qualify. The PHIT Act defines qualified activities as amounts paid for fitness center memberships, physical exercise programs, and exercise equipment.

Here are some of the expenses that are covered:

It’s almost time for another season of The Biggest Loser. In anticipation, I am dedicating my blogs this week to tips for how you can get The Biggest Loser experience at home. As the experts behind the show explain, one of the reasons the people lose so much weight consistently is because of their new environment. But you can change your environment at home, too. Biggest Loser success is within everyone’s reach. Earlier this week, I blogged about how you can change your nutrition and exercise environments, today I’m going to review a series of important behavior changes that will help you lose weight with the contestants.

Since the first season, experts behind the scenes of the show found the contestants shared many characteristics, which I listed below along with tips for changes you can make along with the contestants:

It’s almost time for another season of The Biggest Loser. One of the things I think makes this show unique is that more people watch it for inspiration rather than entertainment. As a nutrition and fitness expert who tunes in religiously, I get tons of questions about my impressions of the show. My favorite is the epiphanies and “a-ha” moments people experience on camera. You can tell they’ve reached the point of no return. The new behaviors they pick up on the show help them add years to their life and life to their years. Could there be a better “prize” than that?

Between working, everyday life, random mishaps, and trying to find time to lose weight, stress is bound to happen. Well, Chill Out before you give yourself a coronary. Stress may be doing more than just making you feel bad, it can actually be stopping your weight loss, and may even promote weight gain! This problem isn’t just for adults, but for young people as well. According to new research, people are comfort eating more due to stress. Kids who are stressed are more likely to become overweight. Stress is also linked to water retention and that pesky belly fat that we are all trying to get rid of.

It seems to me, the stressors in our lives are affecting just about everything in our lives. If you’re like me, when you are stressed you put the gym on hold, or have a lack-luster workout. All that water retention combined with a bad workout really does not do wonders for the scale.

We all need sleep. It is essential for both your physical and mental health. If you do not get enough sleep you will crave more calories, think more slowly, have trouble with memory, and even experience psychotic symptoms in cases of long-term sleep deprivation.

When you are dieting, getting ample sleep is essential. If your body does not have enough energy, it will tell you that it wants more calories to help keep it going. If you are tired, it is more difficult to fight off temptations, keep a positive frame of mind, and motivate yourself to exercise.