PHC Weight Loss & Wellness Centers

Georgia – 17th Most Obese State…

editor — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:02:04 +0000

Georgia was named the 17th most obese state in the country, according to the seventh annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010 report from the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The state’s adult obesity rate is 28.1 percent, and, in Georgia men are more obese than women at 28.3 percent. Now more than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

The report highlights troubling racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates. For instance, adult obesity rates for Blacks and Latinos were higher than for Whites in at least 40 states and the District of Columbia. In Georgia, the adult obesity rate was 36.5 percent among Blacks and 30.2 percent among Latinos, compared with 25 percent among Whites.

In addition, the report shows regional and income disparities in the obesity epidemic. For example, 10 out of the 11 states with the highest rates of obesity were in the South with Mississippi weighing in with highest rates for all adults (33.8 percent) for the sixth year in a row. More than a third (35.3 percent) of adults earning less than $15,000 per year were obese compared with roughly a quarter (24.5 percent) of adults earning $50,000 or more per year.

“Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges the country has ever faced, and troubling disparities exist based on race, ethnicity, region and income,” said Jeffrey Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. “This report shows that the country has taken bold steps to address the obesity crisis in recent years, but the nation’s response has yet to fully match the magnitude of the problem. Millions of Americans still face barriers – like the high cost of healthy foods and lack of access to safe places to be physically active – that make healthy choices challenging.”

Obesity rates among youths ages 10-17 from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) also were included in the 2009 F as in Fat report; 21.3 percent of children were obese in the state, with the state ranking second out of the 50 states and D.C. for childhood obesity. Data collection for the next NSCH will begin in 2011. Currently, more than 12 million children and adolescents in the United States are considered obese.

The report also included the results of a new poll on childhood obesity conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and American Viewpoint. The poll shows that 80 percent of Americans recognize that childhood obesity is a significant and growing challenge for the country, and 50 percent of Americans believe childhood obesity is such an important issue that we need to invest more to prevent it immediately. The survey also found that 84 percent of parents believe their children are at a healthy weight, but research shows nearly one-third of children and teens are obese or overweight.

“Obesity rates among the current generation of young people are unacceptably high and a very serious problem,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., RWJF President and CEO. “To reverse this national epidemic, we have to make every community a healthy community. Americans are increasingly ready and willing to make that investment.”

Fatty Foods May Be Addicting

editor — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:38:40 +0000

Ever wonder why it’s so hard to change poor eating habits? Health Magazine recently published the following story, which may explain quite a few things:

Scientists have finally confirmed what the rest of us have suspected for years: Bacon, cheesecake, and other delicious yet fattening foods may be addictive.

A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction, the study found.

Doing drugs such as cocaine and eating too much junk food both gradually overload the so-called pleasure centers in the brain, according to Paul J. Kenny, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida. Eventually the pleasure centers “crash,” and achieving the same pleasure–or even just feeling normal–requires increasing amounts of the drug or food, says Kenny, the lead author of the study.

“People know intuitively that there’s more to [overeating] than just willpower,” he says. “There’s a system in the brain that’s been turned on or over-activated, and that’s driving [overeating] at some subconscious level.”

In the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Kenny and his co-author studied three groups of lab rats for 40 days. One of the groups was fed regular rat food. A second was fed bacon, sausage, cheesecake, frosting, and other fattening, high-calorie foods–but only for one hour each day. The third group was allowed to pig out on the unhealthy foods for up to 23 hours a day.

Not surprisingly, the rats that gorged themselves on the human food quickly became obese. But their brains also changed. By monitoring implanted brain electrodes, the researchers found that the rats in the third group gradually developed a tolerance to the pleasure the food gave them and had to eat more to experience a high.

They began to eat compulsively, to the point where they continued to do so in the face of pain. When the researchers applied an electric shock to the rats’ feet in the presence of the food, the rats in the first two groups were frightened away from eating. But the obese rats were not. “Their attention was solely focused on consuming food,” says Kenny.

In previous studies, rats have exhibited similar brain changes when given unlimited access to cocaine or heroin. And rats have similarly ignored punishment to continue consuming cocaine, the researchers note.

The fact that junk food could provoke this response isn’t entirely surprising, says Dr.Gene-Jack Wang, M.D., the chair of the medical department at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York.

“We make our food very similar to cocaine now,” he says.

Why do I have to exercise?

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:36:07 +0000

You don’t unless you want to look younger, live longer, burn stored fat, speed your metabolism, improve muscle tone, increase energy and decrease you appetite. Other than that, there is no good reason.

Seriously, our bodies function best when utilized. If you are currently exercising, Congratulations! If you are beginning a program of activity, begin slowly. Work up to a minimum of 30 minutes most days of the week. If you don’t have 30 minutes, do what you can. The bottom line- you have to MOVE MORE. Walk, dance, swim, use a DVD or Wii Fit, join a gym, take the stairs, do leg lifts while watching TV.

TIP: Use a marker and put a BIG RED STAR on your calendar for days you exercise. Make it a game with yourself to see how many stars you get in a month.

Activity/exercise is one habit that is forever. Can you lose weight without exercise? Yes, but you will lose slower and you may not look or feel as good.

Try some of the following affirmations. Affirmations are positive statements you say to yourself. You can either tell yourself you can never accomplish something or you are not worthy of it OR you can program your mind to know success is coming.

I have the power to choose good health.
I deserve to get fit.
I enjoy the way my body feels when I move it.
I am burning fat when I exercise.

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk over and over again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
- Henry David Thoreau

Chicken, Chicken, Chicken

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:05:01 +0000

Do you get tired of chicken, chicken, and more chicken? Keep an eye on this space for different takes on healthy meals featuring a chicken dishes. We’ll provide the recipes, you just promise to drive by the restaurants and cook dinner at home.

You need protein to lose weight, retain muscle mass, restore energy and burn fat. Chicken or turkey (white meat with no skin only) is a great source of healthy protein. Keep in mind; you can turn a chicken breast into a 600 calorie, heart clogging mess or a 140 calorie healthy dish just by the way you prepare it.

Consider this: a 4 oz. chicken breast (no skin)= 130-140 calories
1 Extra Tasty Crispy Chicken Breast from KFC = 470 calories
Hot and Spicy = 530 calories
then add a biscuit for 200 calories
coleslaw for 114 calories
corn on the cob for 222 calories
potato and gravy for 109 calories
or potato wedges for 192 calories
You could be looking at a 1,115-1,258 calorie meal.
We were excited and relieved when KFC introduced their grilled chicken breast, coming in at 180 calories.

SIMPLE and EASY

Roast Chicken with Lemon

1 whole chicken, approximately 3 lbs. 1 lemon, quartered
salt and freshly ground pepper 1 small onion, quartered
1 garlic clove, split in half

Preheat oven to 350. Rinse chicken inside and out; pat dry. Season inside and out with salt and pepper (go light with the salt). Rub garlic over the skin, and then place it inside the cavity. Stuff lemon and onion inside cavity. Tie legs together. Place chicken breast side up in a roasting pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until the juices run clear.

Serves 4, 160 calories per serving, white meat only-remove skin

Add sides of broccoli and a baked sweet potato and enjoy.

You lose weight and the family is happy and healthy. What more could you want?

It’s All About Perspective

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:05:09 +0000

What’s the best way to lose weight? Exercise? Fasting? Skipping meals? Eating organic? Counting calories? Low carb? Low fat? Prepackaged meals? Surgery? Joining a gym? Taking diet pills?

REQUIREMENT:

You absolutely have to get the food right before you will ever lose weight and keep the weight off. Yes, you need exercise activity but don’t think you can exercise off 50-100 pounds. What happens if you are injured and cannot keep up your exercise routine? Let me repeat- If you do not get the intake quantity and quality of your foods correct, you will not succeed.

Combining REAL foods, prepared properly, in amounts
your body needs, along with accountability, support and
direction is the road to weight loss success.

Now…
add the exercise and you are on your way.

My First PHC Blog Entry

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:05:41 +0000

This is going to be fun! Let me introduce you to our newly designed website. Now perhaps all my emails won’t start with “I saw your website, read it, but can you tell me how your program works?”

Needless to say, we needed some help. To the rescue…Brett Bohannon (you may remember him from the 2008-2009 Augusta’s Biggest Loser contest. He lost 135.8 lbs and came in second for the men). Brett introduced us to Josh Mace, the internet guru, whose work you’ll see on our site. Josh is now a PHC client and so far has lost 24 lbs. So we all win. PHC gets an updated site and Josh gets to goal weight.

The site is much easier to use, even for me. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Me, a blogger! Never thought this would happen. Tune in later for my take on Weight Loss Centers. You’ll be really interested.

Donna Plants
PHC Director and Successful Client