Author Archives: SarahS

About SarahS

Sarah Shultz is a connoisseur of trying new things, from food to hobbies. As a recent graduate of Central Christian College she is working on trying life in the real world. When she isn't hanging out at the DIR office she enjoys healthy baking, running, and cycling.

Liquid-Only Diet Prepares Supermodel Adriana Lima for Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show

How do supermodels prepare for a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, especially if they’ve just had a baby eight weeks ago? For Adriana Lima, the answer is to turn to a completely liquid diet for a solid week and a half and work out twice a day.

The mother of Valentina, 3, and Sienna, born in September, earned $7 million in 2024, giving her ranking on Forbes’ annual Celebrity 100 list. Her biggest earnings come from being a Victoria’s Secret Angel, but she appears in a diverse listing of modeling ads, television commercials, and acting spots. She likens her career’s required runway preparations to athletes training for a marathon.

Lima, 31, shared her training regimen with The Telegraph UK before last year’s show. She said she works out daily with a personal trainer, then twice a day for the three weeks leading up to the show. Lima does a variety of exercises like boxing, lifting weights, and jump rope she described as “really intense.”

After the birth of her first child, Lima said “it was easy” to lose her baby weight by hitting the gym once or twice daily for one to two hours, along with a portion-controlled diet of four ounce meals.  (more…)

Posted on November 8, 2023 by SarahS

5 Biggest Diet Myths Debunked on Dr. Oz

Check out Dr. Oz’s November 7 episode to find out the five biggest diet myths people believe today. The stage becomes a scientific laboratory as Dr. Oz dons safety goggles and joins his friend Science Bob to discover what’s true and what’s not in the world of dieting. 

Questions such as “does water shrink your waistline?,” “does aging make you gain weight?,” and “should you wait until you’re hungry to eat?” are debunked as myths as Dr. Oz gives audiences the real truth behind these misconceptions. He shares the shocking myths that your own doctor believes and that he was also told in medical school that simply are not true. (more…)

Posted on November 7, 2023 by SarahS

Skinnygirl Bethenny Frankel Celebrates Ellen’s 10th Anniversary

On November 7, tune in to a special episode of Ellen as she celebrates her show’s 10th anniversary. Among other guests, Ellen invites Bethenny Frankel, creator of the Skinnygirl franchise, on the program.

Frankel gained fame by starring in The Real Housewives of New York, afterwards launching Skinnygirl Cocktails, which grew in to a line including nutrition and recipe books, exercise DVDs, health foods, skincare, and women’s undergarments. Her products, like her book Naturally Thin, encourage healthy and natural eating, common sense habits, and ways to make all women feel beautiful no matter their size. She also starred in her own show, Bethenny Getting Married?, with a name change of Bethenny Ever After after her marriage, and was a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.  (more…)

Posted on November 7, 2023 by SarahS

An Average of 98 Pounds Lost Highlighted in the “The Weigh We Were” Weight Loss Stories

A behavioral method first used to save malnourished children in Vietnam might not seem like it has much in common with a television program spurring Americans to lose weight, but it does. They both use the positive deviance approach, a concept that looks at people in a community who have successfully found better solutions to a widespread problem than their peers. These positive deviants, as they are called, are no different from anyone else, with no extra resources or skills, yet they have conquered their challenges better than most in the community.

With obesity becoming such a prevalent problem in our society today, positive deviants can have a great impact on their communities to encourage others that lasting weight loss is possible. The Weigh We Were, which premiered October 30 on Georgia’s Public Broadcasting Service, aims to do that by featuring real weight loss stories from people just like you.

The show was created by Kat Carney, former Consumer Health anchor for CNN Headline News, whose own weight loss story includes weighing 240 pounds 13 years ago before she successfully shed 90 pounds. She started a website hoping to inspire others with weight loss stories, and the television program grew out of that.

“There’s this constant messaging about weight loss that you can’t do it, but I knew you can do it – I did. I put out messages for real life weight loss stories, wanting just 4 or 5, but in the end, 32 people responded,” Carney said.

She said that the stories she heard were all amazing, but they were also surprisingly simple in how they achieved major results. The average weight loss of the participants was 98 pounds. Out of the 32 featured on the show, only two used commercial weight loss programs, while another two had bariatric surgery as part of their regimen to get fit. (more…)

Posted on November 6, 2023 by SarahS

6 Common Food Preservatives and Their Nasty Side Effects

Unless you follow a very strict natural diet, chances are, you ingest dozens of food preservatives every day. While the FDA must approve a food additive before it is available to consumers, that does not mean it’s beneficial or even harmless to consume.  It’s highly important to avoid the ingestion of these potentially harmful preservative which are found in many foods. Healthy preservative free meals are greatly advised such as our expert recommended protein shakes. The highest rated protein shake was found to be 18Shake, and you can find its review HERE.

Here are some of the worst preservatives that should be avoided as much as possible:

1. Brominated Vegetable Oil

Find it in: Flame Retardants and Citrus Soda Pop

Food Products it’s in: Mountain Dew, Squirt, Fanta Orange, Fresca Original Citrus, Gatorade Thirst Quencher Orange, and other citrus-flavored soft drinks and sports drinks

What it is: This ingredient, made from soybeans or corn, is used as a flame retardant by chemical companies, but its purpose in soft drinks is to stabilize the citrus oils from floating to the surface, giving the drink a cloudy appearance.

How it can make you sick: Brominated vegetable oil is banned for use in food in Europe and Japan. The problem is that it builds up in the body and can cause neurological and reproductive problems and skin lesions. Cases of bromine intoxication in humans have caused headaches, fatigue, memory loss, ulcers, and a loss of muscle coordination. These patients ingested much greater than average amounts of soda, but with the popularity of soft drinks like Mountain Dew among many teenagers and video gamers, illnesses are a plausible risk. (more…)

Posted on November 6, 2023 by SarahS

Dr. Oz’s Lean Green Supper Shake and 5 Fat Busting Tips

Want to know about the newest fat busters available to those wanting to lose weight quickly? Then watch Dr. Oz October 29 to see his latest advice for fast-acting and popular trends in the weight loss industry, including a new technology and a 3-day diet.

Oz tosses around phrases like “revolutionary treatment,” “secret formula,” and “in many ways it’s the holy grail” like he has the miracle cure-all for everyone, but in reality, most of his suggestions are based on simple common sense for how to lose weight.

One suggestion Dr. Oz highlights on his show is not traditional dieting advice, but a medical treatment that melts layers of fat through the skin. Watch as one woman gets the treatment done on the show with visible results. This technology is called VASER, and is a non-invasive ultrasound therapy that warms fatty tissue to encourage it to metabolize and drain excess fluids. Other tips include drinking tea and taking garcinia cambogia (HCA) with your meals. (more…)

Posted on October 29, 2023 by SarahS

This Year’s Most Unorthodox As Seen on TV Weight Loss Gadgets and Gizmos

Oh infomercials, my longtime friend when insomnia strikes, I’m sick and laid out on the couch, or I’m bored out of my mind and have nothing better to do. In three minutes, a pitch man can make me believe I must have that product and my life without it is unimaginable, or that all of the bad things in our culture like laziness, instant gratification, and unrealistic expectations just collided into one awful mess of television advertising.

Fitness and diet infomercials are in their own category of skepticism and hilarity, and part of me actually wants to try the product. Whether it’s car wax or food storage, there seems to be a solution for everything. Diet and fitness isn’t immune and we found some of the newest and crazy As Seen on TV fitness gadgets.

Sauna Pants/ Slimming Sauna Shorts/ The Belly Sauna: While these products have some key differences, their goal and method is largely the same. With the Sauna Pants, just slip on the orange shorts, turn on the heat dial, and your extra water weight is promised to be gone in no time with 50 minutes a day of use. The Slimming Sauna Shorts don’t heat up, but they’re made of thick, non-breathable Neoprene (like what Scuba divers wear), so you’ll definitely compress and sweat in these. And they come with an adjustable Velcro strap! My favorite, however, is The Belly Sauna. It’s just what it sounds like – a sauna for your belly. Bizarre. (more…)

Posted on October 29, 2023 by SarahS

Rosie O’Donnell Becomes the Face of Heart Attack Advocacy

On the Dr. Oz show October 25, Rosie O’Donnell gave her first interview since her recent heart attack. She talked about how she ignored all of the classic signs of a heart attack and that it’s a miracle she is still alive.

“I did not call 911, and I should have. And I’ve come to find out that 50% of women, while having heart attacks and suspecting they’re having heart attacks, do not call 911. And it was the stupidest decision I ever made in my life,” O’Donnell said in the interview.

One the day of her heart attack, she describes having pain in both of her arms and chest and feeling fatigued. However, O’Donnell went about her day with her family, chalking up the symptoms to other causes. Even when her son told her she “looked like a ghost,” she continued with her routine until the next day, when she visited a cardiologist. He told her that her left artery was 99 percent blocked and immediately booked her into the hospital for a procedure to insert a stent.  (more…)

Posted on October 25, 2023 by SarahS

100,000 Pounds of Weight Loss on The Doctors

The Doctors share weight loss secrets on their October 25 episode as they give you 100,000 pounds worth of dieting inspiration.

The show will feature true weight loss stories of people who have lost huge amounts of weight – 50, 100, and even 200 pounds – to motivate you on your journey of weight loss.

We here at Diets in Review know how difficult it can be to lose those needed amounts of body fat. Some turn to traditional diets, weight loss pills, new fitness regimens, a different approach to eating, or a mixture of these to find the right approach for each individual. So if others can do it, you can too! (more…)

Posted on October 23, 2023 by SarahS

Valerie Bertinelli Talks Weight Loss and Healthy Italian Food on Dr. Oz

Dr. Oz interviewed Valerie Bertinelli on his October 22 show as she opened up about divorce, drugs, and losing weight, as well as her new cookbook, One Dish at a Time, which features healthy Italian recipes.

Bertinelli, a longtime television star, lost 40 pounds with the help of Jenny Craig, becoming their spokesperson in 2024. She wrote a book about her weight loss experience called Losing It – And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time. She tells Dr. Oz she has never kept her weight loss off for this long and that her weight gain occurred during a low point in her life in which she was “eating her misery away.”

The star answers fan questions as well. She says she stays motivated to exercise by saying mantras such as “I am healthy” and thanking God for the life she’s been blessed with as soon as she wakes up every morning. She’s asked what favorite foods she has had to cut back on, and says it’s her brother’s delicious gumbo recipe. She used to eat three bowls at a time, but now only has one cup, which is just as good. Her final question is about weight loss support systems, and she says that Jenny Craig was tremendously helpful for her, as well as her friends and family. If you don’t have these, she recommends searching people out from the gym, websites, or wherever you can. (more…)

Posted on October 23, 2023 by SarahS

The Doctors Discuss the Peanut Butter Recall and Roseanne’s Bid for President

Tune in Wednesday, October 24 as The Doctors talk peanut butter, health headlines, and Roseanne Barr’s campaign for president.

The peanut butter recall, traced to products manufactured by Sunland Inc., has infected 36 so far, although no fatalities have been reported. Most were children, and eight people required hospitalization. The Doctors talk about what products are recalled, from ice cream to granola bars to peanut butter moon pies.

Next on The Doctors are shocking health headlines that may make you cringe. They examine new health dilemmas caught on tape, like the bagel head documentary, Japan’s beauty trend that injects saline into people’s skin to make a temporary bagel shape appear on their forehead. (more…)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by SarahS