A Brief History Of Fad Diets

Image via Wellcome Trust

Perhaps it's because I have a tried a slew of fad diets (and failed) but I love diets. I enjoyed learning the history of them, the science behind them, the failure rate behind them. You get the idea. There's even a fun, new book by New York magazine writer Rebecca Harrington chronicling her adventures in celebrity dieting titled "I'll Have What She's Having, My Adventures In Celebrity Dieting". This book is heaven for a diet lover like me.

The History Of Fad Diets
The LA Times had a great feature this weekend on the history of fad diets, starting all the way back in 1825 when French gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin introduced a low-carb regime called "The Physiology of Taste".

Since then fad diets have included eating all caribou and whale blubber (GAG), bananas and skim milk, food combining, the grapefruit diet and the Drinking Man's Diet (which is exactly what you think it is). They also include more popular ones like the Paleo Diet, the South Beach Diet and the Zone Diet.

The thing is that many of these so-called "fad diets" don't work because it's almost impossible to adopt these habits permanently. Think about it: can you eat only grapefruit forever? Or caribou? Can you go Paleo in perpetuity? Probably not.

You can do almost anything for a few days. That's why many of these fad diets take off initially. You drop a few pounds at the start and start feeling like a million bucks.

Then, reality sets in and you realize you can't eat only skim milk and bananas or diet bars or cabbage soup for the rest of your life. That's why "diets" don't work. 

If you read this blog, you know how I feel about dieting: eat well, mostly real food (produce and lean meats), get moving most days of the week and enjoy it. That's a recipe for success. As for dietary approaches, I love the Mediterranean philosophy which emphasizes plant-based food, replaces butter with healthy fats like olive oil, uses herbs and spices to flavor foods, limits red meat, advocated red wine and dark chocolate in moderation.

Your Fad Diet Experiments
Have you experimented with fad diets? I would love to learn about your crazy diet experiences, what worked and what didn't. Please share your diet disasters and success stories in the comments section. Don't worry. This is a judgement-free zone.

When I was fat, I tried the Zone & Atkins (hated them both).  It wasn't until I made permanent changes, like closing the kitchen after dinner, that I experienced real weight loss. Want to learn how I did it? Get my free guide "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours when you sign up for the The Real Skinny, my weekly newsletter that features simple diet and fitness tips designed for busy people who live in the real world, not fantasy-diet-land.

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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Rangers Spring Training But Are Too Afraid To Ask

Do you have a trip planned to Surprise, AZ for Rangers Spring Training? Wondering about the Rangers schedule? How to meet players? Where to stay, eat and play?

So many questions! I got your answers.

Check out "Everything You Wanted To Know About Rangers Spring Training But Were Too Afraid To Ask Hangout".

I cover anything and everything Rangers Spring Training.

Press PLAY to watch the Hangout HERE

How To Watch The Hangout
There two ways to watch the hangout:

1. Click THIS link to watch on YouTube. 
2. Simply watch from the video box in the blog post.

Click HERE to download my Rangers Spring Training cheat sheet featured in the video.

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Is Our Breakfast Cereal Is Making Us Fat? Maybe.

There are few things I love more than a huge bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Seriously. The cinnamon-y sugar goodness on top of those little squares is better than, well...you know...a lot of things.

The thing is, a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (or just about any other cereal, for that matter) can do more diet damage than good.

Here are 3 reasons why cereal makes us fat:

1. 1. We don't stick to one serving size. Who does? I don't. A serving of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is only 3/4 of a cup. Really? NO ONE eats only 3/4 of a cup. It's more like two cups. That's serious damage: 325 empty calories and 22 (!) grams of sugar, without even adding the milk. Try eating your cereal with a teaspoon, instead of a tablespoon and out of a coffee cup instead of a bowl to trick your mind you're eating more. (Tweet this).
2. 2. We add too much dried fruit and other crap. Craisins, raisins, dried apricots and the like can all be fat pills. They have barely any water which means they're dense in calories. While nuts are great, don't go too far. Add a few, not a handful. Use fresh fruit to get the benefit of more fiber and water content to help fill you up. Try higher-fiber and lower calorie berries. Half a cup of raspberries, for example, have 4 grams of fiber. 
3. 3. We eat kids cereal. There's a reason I don't keep Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the house: I would eat the whole box. These children's cereals provide a ton of sugar but little nutritional value. Kinda scary, actually. Look for cereals with fewer than 5 grams of sugar. Or make this oatmeal with peanut butter, apples and cinnamon. Delicious. 

Why I Gave Up Breakfast Cereal 
I gave up breakfast cereal about 15 years ago. Not coincidentally, I believe, I lost weight. I have no "off button" when it comes to breakfast cereal. I can't stop eating it, that's why I rarely eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Even when I'm trying to be "healthy" and have something like Fiber 1 or Kashi Go Lean, I usually end up eating two bowls of it and, you know what, I'm hungry a few hours later. Cereal is not a satiating food. In my opinion, it's a fat pill (Tweet this).

When you're eating breakfast, get some protein in the mix, whether it's eggs, whey protein powder, nut butter, low-sugar/high-protein yogurt or lean meat. Protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates and keeps you full longer. 

I love two scrambled eggs with salsa and spinach with a side of berries or a green smoothie with whey protein powder (make it with two handfuls of spinach or kale, half a banana and whatever berries you or other fruit you have on hand). When all else fails, I'll grab a few hard boiled eggs (boil a half dozen of them at the beginning of the week).  If you can't give up your cereal, here are some low-sugar cereal options.

Do you like cereal or are you like me and try to keep out of the house? I'd love to know what your favorite breakfast is. Let me know in the comments section. 

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More Coffee & Eggs, Please! The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Explained

Eggs and coffee can be part of a healthy diet. Whoo-Hoo!

Coffee and eggs are hip. In a big, fat healthy way.

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services assemble experts every five years to study and recommend dietary guidelines. Why? Because it's a dynamic thing. Scientists and experts are continually studying and learning new data. New dietary guidelines will be released at the end of 2015 but preliminary recommendations were released on Thursday.

Among the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations:

• Eggs Are Ok - experts say that dietary cholesterol is "not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption". In English - don't be so worried about the cholesterol in egg yolks or shrimp, for that matter. 
• Coffee Is Cool - between 3-5 cups of coffee per day can be a part of a healthy diet and can actually reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Don't add extra calories with tons of milk, cream or sugar. Out on coffee? Drink green tea. 
• Watch Added Sugar - added sugar should be no more than 200 calories a day. Average Americans are getting about 268 calories from added sugar right now. These are completely empty calories.
• While You're At It, Watch The Salt - stay under 2300 milligrams per day. This can add up quickly. 
• Eat A Plant-Based Diet - duh. We know we need to do this. 

Read the full 571-page 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report HERE.

So much of what they are promoting is good, old-fashioned common sense: eat more produce and lean protein, enjoy saturated fats and sugar in moderation. The news on cholesterol in eggs is a reversal of what the government told us for years.

Sounds A Bit Like The Mediterranean Diet, Doesn't It? 
Their recommendations sound strikingly similar to the principles that make up the Mediterranean Diet which focuses on produce, lean protein (fish primarily), nuts, olive oil, wine and chocolate. Learn more about the Mediterranean approach to eating (and why it's my favorite) HERE.

Want Smart, Simple Diet Tips?

Get my free guide HERE.

Get my free guide, "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours free when you sign up for The Real Skinny, my weekly newsletter that shares super simple diet and fitness tips like this one about the wonders of, what else, coffee.

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As always, take all this advice to heart but check with a trusted medical professional if you plan on making significant dietary changes.

Image via Justin Leibow

10 Mistakes To Avoid Making During Your Internship

From jocksniffing to dawdling and donkeyjacking (the art of doing nothing when you should be doing something), I have seen interns do it all. Too often, we see interns doing things they shouldn't be. It's not solely their fault. Many times young professionals come into an internship without a solid understanding what is and isn't acceptable behavior. While we don't want to dwell on negative experiences, it bears discussing.

Whether you're a first-time intern or a seasoned, internship pro like Suzi Mellano (click HERE to read Suzi's story), here are important things to consider during your internship.

Dermaplaning Facial Review: A Simple Way To Get Glowing Skin With No Downtime

What Is Dermaplaning?
Dermaplaning is a fancy name for shaving your face with a scalpel blade. It takes off superficial layers of dead skin cells while also removing hair. It leaves your skin baby-bottom soft.

Every time you shave your legs don't they feel super soft? You're dermaplaning them! That's because you just shaved off superficial layers of skin.

But just how well does it work on your face?

How To Diet On A Date

If you are dieting and happen to have an avid dater (first of all, Lucky You!), the marriage of the two can be a bitch, though. You don't want to be that person who orders a salad with no dressing or pulls out your Weight Watchers app to calculate your point total for the day.

So how can you date while you're on a diet? It's not that difficult. You can still find love without losing control over your eating habits. Here are a few tips:

4 Tips To Diet While Dating & NOT Be High Maintenance

1. Don't Hesitate To Recommend The Restaurant - pick a place whose menu you know and trust.
2. Plan Ahead - when you know where you will be dining, check out the menu online so you can  figure out what to order and what works within your diet.
3. Give Yourself A Break - this is perhaps my favorite tip. When you eat a quality, well-balanced diet, you don't have to be that high maintenance chick on a diet. There are so many ways to incorporate dining out into an overall healthy eating strategy.
My Bonus Tip: Order two appetizers for dinner: select the smaller one as a starter and the larger one as your main course. The portions are smaller while the options are generally more interesting. Plus you can always nibble on your date's dish.

U.S. News & World Report has more. 

Want More Simple Diet Tips?
Get my free guide, "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simple Secrets To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours free when you sign up for The Real Skinny, my newsletter sharing diet and fitness tips designed for the real world.

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