It’s funny that there is an idea out there that you gain weight when you hit college. I personally have seen both this happen, and the complete opposite happen, where some of my girlfriends really thinned down when they went away to college. The funny thing is, it was mostly guys that I knew that gained the famous “freshman fifteen” and then some, the girls seemed to actually lose the weight.

Unfortunately that whole “vaccine for weight loss” thing we reported on a while ago hasn’t materialized, otherwise this freshman weight gain wouldn’t be much of a concern

At least that was my own experience with the people around me. It’s easy to either gain or lose weight when you leave the nest for the first time.  There are so many nerves going on about being away from home, trying to succeed in school, and generally being nervous about never knowing where you’re going or how you’re going to eat that day half the time because you’re broke.

Of course, this is how it was for me, I can’t say that’s how it was for everyone else. I had a job in college too, and it was waiting tables, which kept me in great shape. Not only did the constant cardio of being a server shape me, but I also happened to work out at least five days a week back then. Yeah, I was single and I care way too much about what I looked like to the guys back then, but hey, that really kept me in shape, let me tell you!

I sometimes wonder if I should go back to waiting tables, just for the great shape it kept me in through college! And the tips were nice too, because I always had cash on hand of course!

If you go to college, just make sure you don’t only drink beer, and that your only meals are pizza and cheeseburgers. It’s easy to eat a lot of crap food when you’re in college because there are a ton of restaurants open late tha thave delicious food to cater to drunk college students.

Just staying away from eating late at night will save you a boatload of weight gain! Now if only I can get a handle on my Sunday football pigouts, I’ll be good to go.

It’s the big game today – the Super Bowl. Like the last Super Bowl, you’ll see two great teams battle it out, and you’ll be tempted with delicious foods.  Eli Manning New York Giants vs. Tom Brady and the Patriots.  Regardless of who you’re rooting for today (I’m for the NY Giants, Tom Brady bothers me on a personal level for some reason), we all know that today is one of the biggest pig out days of the year.  Not counting Thanksgiving of course.

It is estimated that in one sitting for the game, people probably eat at least an entire day’s worth of calories. So what are you gonna do to make that ok? Are you going to fast all day so that when you finally eat you don’t eat a whole lot since your stomach is smaller? Are you going to just chalk it up ot a losing day on the diet scale?

Or you can plan your day out and make sure you eat nothing but fruits and veggies up unitl the fateful game where you know you’ll be stuffing greasy, salty fatty and maybe even some sugary foods down your throat?  Or you could do neither and eat normally up until game time and just get right back on track on Monday.

I’m doing the latter.  I’ve been really good for the month following the holiday season because I blew it out during the few weeks leading up to Christmas. I just started to fit back into all of my work pants by eating low carb for about one month and really limiting my caloric intake, so I’m not about to blow it by going on a couple day binge.

But one day? One day I’m pretty sure won’t kill me. And I’m not planning on stuffing myself silly. I want to still enjoy myself, and sitting there with a belly full of gurgling and brewing up a storm of problems doesn’t sound like fun to me.

The ticket to enjoying these one day pigouts is to tell yourself it is truly one day. The next day you MUST get back on the wagon and eat well or else you risk making these one day vacations something that you cannot indulge in because you can’t get back on track.

Food is fun, and it should stay that way. And guess what? It’s way more enjoyable if you get to do it for one day – it’s more like a treat if you know it’s a “once in a while” thing. Otherwise, you don’t even enjoy eating these sinful foods if you do it say once a week or twice a week.  The whole key is to look at it as a temporary treat that you can savor and carry into your next few weeks.

If you need to the day after a “treat” day, you can always help suppress your hunger using a natural supplement to help you get through those initial  cravings.

So I know I’m always behind the eight ball on pop culture stuff, but I just noticed that Snookie and JWOWW of Jersey Shore fame have both lost significant portions of their previous body weight lately. Actuall, JWOWW showed her major weight loss on last season of the Shore in Italy. Snookie was still in the process of taking it off at that point, but she definitely still lost some, you could tell.

Snookie has said that she now works out religiously and tries to not drink sugary drinks and eat junk all the time like she did on the first two seasons of the show.  She also has opened up about struggling with anorexia and bulimia (possibly bulimia, definitely anorexia) in high school and getting down to a dangerously low weight.

This could be worrisome, since women who have previously struggled with eating disorders would probably cave in to the immense pressure when they are in the spotlight constantly on a show that got so big like this one did, so I hope she’s keeping the weight off in a healthful way.

My husband and I have only watched the first two episodes of the Italy Jersey Shore, but we can already tell that their eating habits have changed. You don’t see Snookie or JWOWW eating pizza and other fattening things, instead you see a lot of salads and the like.  They made chicken cutlets, but they were very lightly breaded, so it looks like so far they may be doing things the low carb way.

JWOWW has recently come out and said that her face looks so different because she lost a ton of weight, but there is speculation that she has had something done to her face, such as lip injection or Botox. I agree it does look a bit suspicious, but I also do know that losing a lot of weight can radically change the way your face looks for many people, so the weight loss definitely has at least something to do with it.

The two have not come out and endorsed any weight loss supplements or programs that I know of – but I’m sure that deal is in the works somewhere!

Aromatherapy is truly a wonderful gift for many people. Some people really do think that inhaling various aromas from real essential oils (oils that are pressed from various plants or flowers) has real effects on their mood or state of mind.  This may also include appetite as some studies have suggested.

Any why would that really be all that surprising? We know that certain aromas definitely cause stirrings of sexual desire, or make us feel relaxed, or happy, or maybe even sad. So hunger is definitely many times connected to some of these emotions. It’s not really much of a stretch that aromatherapy could help us to lose weight by potentially reducing our appetite, or at least putting our mind on something other than hunger, which is what aromatherapy can often do.

Cinnamon is one of the oils that can be used to help curb appetite.  Just as it curbs appetite when taken (ingested) orally – just a teaspoon is supposed to not only regulate the appetite internally but also balance the blood sugar and stave of cravings – cinnamon also is a scent that makes us not want to eat as much when we inhale it.

Curiously, another herb that has a strong fragrance to it which also works as an appetite suppressant internally has the same effect when inhaled. That is mint. Mint tea is a great way to help reduce the appetite and give one a feeling of satiety without eating much of anything.

Combining the two scents may be even better to help reduce hunger and cravings.  What I would do is buy the essential oils since they are pretty reasonable.  Be careful as cinnamon oil should not be applied to the skin as it can produce a burning sensation, so be careful when letting it come out of the container.

These two essential oils will last you a very long time because a little goes a long way. Heck, you can even try to just inhale right from the jar every time you feel the urge to eat nonsensically. That won’t even cost you much at all since you can use and re-use the jar.

Well I can tell you, I was!  Funny how something you’ve been using for years and never thought twice about tends to seem insidious when you find out it has that all too scary unhealthy buzzword “trans fats” in it.  For me, it was our treasured nondairy coffee creamer we had used in our morning coffee – every morning mind you – for years.

We started using it because it was low carb, and we were your traditional “low carbers” a few years ago when we started using the convenient stuff instead of traditional creamers like milk or liquid creamers that don’t have trans fats in them.

Oh, let’s go over what trans fats are again too. They are regular chained fats that have another fatty chain added to them called hydrogen. This makes them even more dangerous to your heart health and can clog your arteries even worse than other fats that do not have the extra hydrogen added.

So many processed and packaged foods have these trans fats today, although now with public awareness rising, they are being removed from some.  The reason these prepackaged foods have them is because they are both cheap and tasty.

They can literally increase the shelf life of a food product by months or years. That is a warning signal right there. That’s akin to parabens in skin care – you know it’s just not natural for something to have a shelf life of five years.

So, what are some healthier options to trans fat loaded powdered creamers?  Well, you can try finding a powdered creamer that is void of the ingredient “partially hydrogenated” anything, but good luck with that because I haven’t found one yet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated on that front!

However, there are some healthier liquid options.  You can use skim, 2% or whole milk of course.  I prefer organic in milk though because it is void of the toxins that so frequently inhabit dairy products.

There is also full on creamer, or heavy cream. Now this is a truly fattening option, so try to limit the amount you use. You really only need a tiny bit if using heavy cream, that’s the good part, because a little goes a very long way.