A Brilliant App to Help Plan Your Trip to Paris

The New York Times briefly mentioned this app produced by Le Pavillon des Lettres in Sunday's Travel section.  I was immediately interested.  I know the hotel well and thought it would do a good job with a digital offering.

I had no idea how thorough it would be.  I have paid for Parisian guide apps that aren't nearly as extensive.

The app has the obligatory hotel information and the weather.  Let's be honest, at the end of the day, it's a marketing tool.

It also had timely suggestions for events going on in the city.  This past Sunday it featured Chinese New Year's celebrations.

It offers fun itineraries for Paris with children featuring various shows and parks like Le Jardin d'Acclimation.  Here are my two cents on what to do in Paris with children.

It also suggested a Golden Age itinerary that can have you experiencing Parisian life like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald did in the 1920's.

This isn't necessarily groundbreaking stuff but it's packaged well, offers a quality offline map and features stunning photography.

If anything, it's a great diversion for times when you're craving a trip across the pond.  Which for me right now, is about once a day.

Diet Tip #21: Make Sure You Eat Enough to Lose Weight

If eating less helps you lose weight, then eating a LOT less will help you lose weight faster, right?

Don't starve in anticipation of a big meal

Not so fast.

When your body doesn't get enough quality nutrition, it switches into starvation and conservation mode.  Meaning, it slows down your metabolism so that when you do eat, your body will burn the calories at a slower pace.  This helps you conserve what energy your body does have.

Additionally, if you are eating next to nothing the likelihood of you bingeing and blowing it all is high.

We've been there haven't we?  We're going out to a big dinner and we decide to eat next to nothing during the day.  Yet when we get to dinner, we devour the bread basket or chips and salsa and make bad food choices.  We end up eating way too much and feeling guilty about it afterwards.  This, in turn, makes the experience unpleasant.

Now, we've all seen the skinny folks who starve themselves.  That's borderline eating disorder and a completely different issue.

I'm focusing on consuming adequate amounts of quality foods, to help you be as healthy as you can be and maintain a good weight that's right for your body.

Diet Tip #20: Check for Sneaky Sugar

Tuesday we focused on snack swaps you can make when you're craving sugar.  Today let's be more proactive.

Sugar can be the devil.  It's a devil I love and battle every day.  Excessive sugar can damage your heart, cause diabetes and much more.  It's not like one cookie killed anyone.  Moderate indulgences are fine but it's hard to be moderate when it comes to the white stuff.

That legal crack is everywhere.

If you start checking nutrition labels you will be shocked when you learn about the amount of sugar in some of your favorite foods that you thought were naturally sugar free.

In fact, among the changes the FDA recently suggested the White House make regarding food labels was to address added sugar.  Most food labels only list "Sugar" which is a combination of added and natural sugars.  One proposed change is that the amount of added sugar be clearly labelled. This will help you determine how much sugar comes from a natural source and how much is added.

Still, it's good to check for what I like to call "sneaky sugars".

Any time you see a word ending in -"ose" that's added sugar.  Dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, glucose?  All forms of sugar.  Beware of other forms such as cane syrup, cane juice, corn syrup, malt syrup, honey, molasses, fruit juice concentrate or brown sugar.

Then there are foods you wouldn't think have much sugar but do:

Fat-free salad dressings, crackers, bread, spaghetti sauce, instant oatmeal (a sugar BOMB), yogurt (another bomb), frozen dinners, cereals, ketchup and barbecue sauce.

Look at these two examples from my cupboard:

On the left is a box of All Bran cereal while on the right is a box of Back to Nature Crispy Wheat crackers, two things you generally wouldn't consider "sweet" food items.  The cereal has six grams of sugar per serving while the crackers have four. 

This barbecue sauce has nine grams of sugar per serving. 

How much should sugar you consume? 

The American Heart Association recommends nine teaspoons for men and six for women per day.  You can blow your wad in a regular 12-ounce soda when you realize it has 10 teaspoons of sugar.  

The thing is, sugar is listed in grams on most nutrition labels.  A gram and teaspoon are two different units of measurement.  A gram measures mass (aka weight) while a teaspoon measures volume.

How do you know how much you're consuming?  In general, there are about four grams of sugar per teaspoon. 

4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon 

The Takeaway

Again, moderate consumption of any of these items won't hurt you.  It's the cumulative effect and overindulgence that does damage.  Just be mindful of your overall sugar consumption each day.

I'll be fighting that battle against the White Devil right along with you.

Diet Tip #18: Brush Your Teeth

If you're fighting a craving, brush your teeth.  Doing this signals your brain that you won't be eating for a while.   Brushing your teeth also gives you that minty fresh breath, something that doesn't mix with chips, candy or whatever it is you might be craving.

Brush those teeth to fight cravings!

I am a nighttime eater.  This trick has worked for me time and again to help fight those evening urges.

Not only does this diet tip give you fresh breath and improve your oral hygiene, it might also help you lose weight.

Try it just once and see how it works.

Diet Tip #17: Check Calorie Counts When Dining Out

Starbucks Cranberry Orange Scone/Courtesy Starbucks.com

This falls under the category of things you don't want to know but should.  Be proactive about learning more about the calorie counts of food items at your favorite dining establishments.  It might make you rethink your food choices.

When I found out my favorite Starbucks cranberry-orange scone had 490 empty calories and 34 grams of sugar I almost choked on my latte.

Confession of a Fitness Fashion Victim

Do you worry about how you look when you work out?  I don't.  You don't either, right?

Turns out, we're in the minority.  Many women equate the yoga studio or pilates class as a bamboo-covered runway to show off their latest workout fashion finds.

Don't believe me?  The popularity of Lululemon and Nike activewear is so lucrative that other fashion designers are getting into fashion/fitness game.  Tory Burch wants to do a golf line while H&M is launching its H&M Sport line.

I realized I was the fitness fashion victim during a yoga class at exhale recently.  I was wearing tattered, 7-year old leggings from Target and an old Texas Rangers t-shirt I had scored during a Rangers/Astros series in 2012. Frankly, working in sports I score so many free t-shirts that I didn't buy workout clothes.

The offensive T-shirt

That is changing.  During this particular class, I felt like I was wearing a plaid shirt and Doc Martens amidst couture clad yogis.

I always equated workout wear as an unnecessary expense, thinking my shorts and t-shirts would do just fine.  I'm wrong.  There is also some functionality to activewear.  Shirts with a banded waist won't ride up and expose my stomach while I'm trying to do a headstand.  Longer pants can help with crow pose to keep sweaty legs from slipping on my forearms.

After doing some legwork, I found adorable and affordable activewear options:

C9 by Champion Women's Mesh Cami Tank

I bought this cami tank top at Target and LOVE it.  It doesn't expose my stomach when I am doing crazy yoga poses and the built-in bra is pretty supportive.  Double bonus?  It's only $18.39! 

C9 by Champion Reversible Capri Tight

C9 by Champion offers some adorable tights that are reversible.  It's like two pairs of leggings in one.

Nike Principle 2.0 Dry-Fit Jacket

Over the years, I have accumulated a nice collection of Nike jackets.  These have a fashionable slim fit and do a good job of keeping you warm.  I have had this pink one going on five years.  It has withstood numerous long runs AND bad t-shirts.  At $58.50, it's a worthwhile investment.

AND you can support a team you love while working out or running around town and look fashionable in the process.  Look at what I found:

Texas Rangers Signature Fleece Hoodie

Dallas Cowboys Fleece Shorts 

I'm still on the hunt for cute Stars & Mavs workout gear.  If you find some, please let me know! 

Diet Tip #16: Learn How Many Calories You Should Be Eating Daily

Even if you hate math and numbers you should have a decent working knowledge of calories and how many calories you should be eating.  It's not that hard.  There are calculators galore to help you.

What is a calorie?
A calorie, technically, is 4.18400 joules, you could round it up to 4.19.  In English?  It's the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius.

As it relates to nutrition, calories refer to energy consumption through eating and drinking and energy usage through physical activity.  Think of it as the amount of energy you get from eating something.

Different types of food have different calorie counts:

• Fats have nine calories per gram 
• Carbohydrates and proteins have four calories per gram 
• Alcohol has seven calories per gram

How many calories should you be eating daily? 
This is different for every person.  It's important to know how many you need so you can plan your eating strategy for the day and week.

Determining how many you need can be a complex formula but there are calculators to help you do it.   Woo-Hoo! Try this one.  It's easy.

For me, I need about 2200 calories per day to maintain my weight.  If you want to lose weight, enter your desired weight in the weight category.  So, if I wanted to lose 10 pounds, I would need about 2100 calories a day to do that.  That's not a big difference.

If I wanted to drop 1-2 pounds per week, I would reduce my calorie consumption by about 500 calories per day.

See?  Easy math!