Beebleblog

America on the Move (AOM) is a non profit organisation which is dedicated to helping people improve their health and quality of life. AOM has carried out a new nationwide fitness survey in the US which revealed that nearly 40 % of those questioned had been told by their doctor that they needed to lose weight. But the difficulty people found with taking more exercise was lack of time and motivation.

STEPtember

To help overcome this problem America on the Move is launching a month-long campaign in September (known as STEPtember, sponsored by the YMCA of the USA) to try and encourage those who are overweight to make the following changes over a six week period:

•    Move more: take 2,000 more steps every day (about one mile or walking for 15 minutes)
•    Eat more healthily: 100 fewer calories every day (about one tablespoon of butter)

Technorati Tags: , America, americans, lose weight, overweight, steptember, YMCA

According to the website www.celebritystarbucks.com many well-known faces like their cup of coffee: Madonna, Kate Hudson, Heidi Klum and Seal have all been sighted clutching a cup from that famous coffee house chain.

In an article in the Independent last Tuesday August 19th Jane Feinmann outlined some of the many benefits of drinking coffee. She pointed out that a large Starbucks has only 330mg of caffeine and apparently you have to have more than 550mg of caffeine in a single drink before it starts to have a dehydrating effect. This fact was based on a new review of coffee studies carried out by the US Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Coffee and high blood pressure

Technorati Tags: coffee, exercise recovery, high blood pressure, is coffee healthy

British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton had an unswerving belief in herself and her ability to win gold in Beijing, so much so that she was prepared to prove it under the most testing conditions – a polygraph test.

Wired to a polygraph machine

The new campaign is based on the understanding that Kelly is an athlete with ultimate self-belief. To test this she is interviewed on camera by Dr Hilary Witchel, a leading Psycho-Physiologist from Bristol University, while wired to a polygraph machine. The aim is to test whether Kelly’s stated beliefs about her ability and prospects of success in Beijing match her physiological responses. Dr Witchel runs Kelly through a series of leading and testing questions to detect how in sync her body and mind actually are. The questions surround her performance in Beijing and include ‘out of the seven events is javelin your weakest?’ and ‘do you ever hope one of your opponents chokes?’

Technorati Tags: Athletics, Kelly Sotherton, mind over matter, Nike, nike labs, Olympics, positive mental attitude

The Michael Phelps Diet brings in the gold medals

Well, what did you have for breakfast this morning? I know, you felt pretty good having had that plate of muesli, yoghurt and an apple, didn’t you? Well, while you were munching your healthy breakfast Michael Phelps was eating his breakfast and it wasn’t muesli oh no … he has three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise (yes, mayonnaise for breakfast , yuck - Beeble). Then he doesn’t rush off for training, no, he hasn’t finished breakfast yet. He has three chocolate chip pancakes, a five-egg omelette, three sugar coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge) plus two cups of coffee.

… and then after breakfast there’s lunch and then dinner

Technorati Tags: Diet, high calories, Michael Phelps, oplympic diets, sports nutrition

I was interested in an article by Kate Devlin in the Daily Telegraph last Wednesday 13th August. She says that a leading public health expert Professor David Hunter from Durham University believes that fatty foods should carry health warnings to help prevent the growing obesity problem in the UK. He feels that manufacturers should be forced to display warnings on foods that contain excessive amounts of fat, sugar or salt similar to the warnings displayed on cigarette packets.

The financial cost of unhealthy living

Professor Hunter predicts that this problem could make our National Health Service “unaffordable” within decades because it is becoming so expensive treating diseases linked to obesity such as heart conditions and diabetes. The NHS currently spends £750 million a year on drugs that treat health problems that can be directly associated with unhealthy living.

Technorati Tags: fatty foods, unhealthy food