You Might Have Seasonal Affective Disorder

You're depressed, moody and just can’t get your butt out of bed.

It’s not time for a visit from your monthly friend, things are great at work and your boyfriend is behaving. So what the hell is going on?
 
Winter Blues

You may be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a form of depression that strikes when Old Man Winter rears his ugly head. SAD affects women more than men, and it can start in the teens or early adulthood. People who live in areas where winter is long and days are short are at greater risk, as are those that have a family history of SAD. Thanks, Mom!

It's rare, but some people even experience SAD in the spring and early summer. (And no, we’re not referring to the sinking feeling you get when you don a bikini for the first time in eight months.)
 
SAD Symptoms

Symptoms of SAD are very similar to those of depression, but they usually build up slowly in the fall and winter months. Common symptoms include:

- Feeling sad, grumpy or anxious
- A constant craving for carbs (and, not suprisingly, weight gain)
- Being tired during the day even after 9-10 hours of sleep
- Losing interest in your usual activities
- Wanting to be alone (which shouldn’t be a problem since you're probably acting like an irritable bitch to your friends and fam)

What Causes SAD?

The answer is that no one really knows. The prevailing theory is that lack of sunlight affects your circadian rhythms, as well as your level of the feel-good hormone, serotonin. Your hormones, sleep-wake cycle and melatonin levels are all affected by winter's longer nights and gray skies.

I Want to be Happy

The good news for SAD sufferers is that a number of treatments can help banish the blues. One easy option is light treatment, which entails sitting in front of a special light box that mimics outdoor light. The only downside to light therapy is that you have to do it every single day for the entire winter season to prevent the depression from returning. Other treatments for SAD include antidepressants, counseling and morning exercise. What else can you do? Eat right, exercise and try to avoid happy hour --  alcohol and other "downers" can send SAD sufferers even further down the depression bunny hole.

SAD can be a serious disorder, so make sure to visit your doc if you can't kick the winter blues with some simple behavioral/lifestyle changes.

Have you ever suffered from seasonal depression? How did you cope? Let us know in the comments section below!

Susan Emmer, FOOD Feature Editor
Susan is an eco-lifestyle expert, certified whole health educator, and refugee from the corporate media world. Earning an environmental studies degree before green was the new black, Susan is the owner of Farmacy Agency, a sustainability marketing, social media, and PR firm. Susan works hard to keep her two dogs in the life they’ve grown accustomed to, and dreams of someday living on a ranch. Follow her on Twitter @wellnewsnetwork.

Related Stories:

Stress and Fat
Have You Seen My Libido?
Renewing Your Resolutions
Organic or Bust

Heal Yourself The Holistic Way

Dr. Steve Bae, medical director of YB Clinic Los Angeles Acupuncture, is proud to help us stay healthy bitches.

We picked his brain for some awesome health tips and remedies, as well as information about holistic healing with acupuncture.  

“Eat locally whenever you can,” says Dr. Bae. “How long a food takes to get from the farm to the table is extremely important. Vital nutrients are lost during a veggie’s journey. More time on the road means less nutrients once it reaches your plate. Eating local, organic foods in conjunction with the holistic healing of acupuncture will increase your energy levels, lower your stress and make you feel terrific overall.”

Stick needles in me, you say?  Attach cups, too?  Don’t run away screaming just yet. Not only can acupuncture and cupping help you lose weight and relieve stress, but it’s also especially helpful for problems associated with back pain, a condition that slows down many of us on a daily basis. If you suffer from chronic back pain, you may have wondered if acupuncture and cupping is an effective (i.e., not hokey) form of therapy. For people just like you, Beverly Hills back pain acupuncture and holistic healing provider YB Clinic aims to educate the public about the connection between acupuncture and pain management.

Following a series of treatments with Dr. Bae and his team, your arthritic pain or other chronic aches should be significantly reduced.

Imagine going about your day without pain making you a tired and cranky mess.

The YB Clinic also accepts many forms of insurance, so the cost to you could be minimal.

And now HBD readers from Los Angeles who “Like” the YB Clinic on Facebook and comment on this post will be entered to win one free cupping therapy and one free liver detox treatment.

The YB Clinic is located in Beverly Hills and Downtown Los Angeles. If you don’t live in Los Angeles, you can “Like” the YB Clinic on Facebook for access to tips and information. Ask Dr. Bae direct questions about Chinese medicine or any issues you’re having!

To learn more about the YB Clinic, visit their website. Los Angeles residents: Be sure to become a fan on Facebook and comment on the post below for your chance to win free treatments!

Make sure to leave a comment below for a chance to win! Contest ends January 31, 2012 at 11:59PM PST.

*Update: We've chosen our winner! Congrats Lora!*

Today’s post is proudly sponsored by

Keep Up With The Latest Trends Without Wasting Your Time

If you’re anything like us, you want to be in the know but are too damn busy to keep up with the latest and greatest.

Well PureWow wants to make sure you’re staying hip without wasting your time on junk you don’t care about. It’s a free daily lifestyle email and website for savvy ladies that cuts through the noise to showcase the very best timely – not trendy – finds. Unlike so many daily lifestyle emails, PureWow makes recommendations with the chic, grown-up woman in mind.

Rest assured, you won’t be bombarded with recipes for crazy cocktails or shopping tips for party-girl fashions. Instead, PureWow's well-curated emails will highlight a wide range of timely subjects - arts and culture, health and fitness, fashion and beauty, home and garden, and (the one we especially love) food and travel - in an effort to keep you informed about the most unique products, experiences and time-savers. It covers everything from healthy new drinks made with chia seeds (a 2012 superfood!), to new books exploring Coco Chanel's secret life (oooo, spicy).

PureWow’s content is unique, exciting and full of inspiration. It truly is written for fabulous women of substance, just like you: Women who want to cut through the crap and get to the good stuff.

Best of all…

Sign up now and you’ll be entered to win $1,000 to Williams-Sonoma!

So PureWow can tell you what’s timely to buy at Williams-Sonoma and then you can use your gift card to snag it all. Bitchin’. 

Don’t look now, but your finger just landed firmly on the pulse of the latest and greatest.

Today’s post is proudly sponsored by

If You Don't Calm Down, You Ain't Gonna Be Skinny

Hormones have a shitty reputation these days.

Try talking about them at a dinner party and watch all of the men clear the room. Relax, guys -- you have them too.

Hormone 411

Besides helping out all your organs with their jobs, your hormones are also dealing with the stuff going on outside your body. The time of day it is, what you’re eating, your emotional reaction to bad news -- all of these things are measured by your endocrine system, which responds and releases hormones to do all kinds of, you know, regulatory stuff. Hormones also control whether your ass gets fat or fit.

Clearly, we need to respect those little bitches.

Fight or Flight

It’s freakin’ tough on your hormones these days, considering that external variables in your life aren’t the same as they were 10,000 years ago. When you’re gearing up for fight or flight (which meant running from a saber-toothed tiger back in the day), cortisol seeks to control your body’s reaction to the danger. Trouble is, there are no more tigers chasing you -- it’s just your shitty boss yelling at you again.

Cortisol Connection

Cortisol on its own is not such a bad dude. Like human growth hormone (HGH), leptin and ghrelin, cortisol is one of the key players in a system of checks and balances that makes sure your metabolism functions properly. But when you get stressed out, that all goes to shit. In high amounts, cortisol will compete with progesterone for receptors on your cells. When you overproduce cortisol, you threaten your healthy progesterone activity, which gets your estrogen out of whack. Hello, crazy.

Other Hormones

If your spiky cortisol levels aren’t enough, your bad sleep habits are messing other shit up, too. Enter leptin and ghrelin. These two ebb and flow before and after meals and have earned the nickname “the hunger hormones” because of it. When they’re all good, ghrelin and leptin peak before meals, signaling hunger, and decline after you’ve eaten, signaling fullness.

You can see how dumb it is to mess with them, huh?

Fat, Much?

Like cortisol, chronically-elevated leptin levels go hand-in-hand with obesity, overeating and inflammation-related diseases. Even though leptin is an appetite-inhibitor, obese people often have high leptin levels in the bloodstream. A stressed-out bod learns to be leptin-resistant in the same way a person can be insulin-resistant. If you’re resistant to the hormone that tells you when you’re full, that's a big freakin’ problem, princess.

Good Ol' Ghrelin

Remember ghrelin? High ghrelin levels are linked with a good night’s sleep. Poor sleep has a direct impact on your food cravings, specifically for carbohydrates. Studies have repeatedly shown that getting less than six hours of sleep for as little as three nights in a row can increase carbohydrate consumption 45 percent. (So yes, there's a reason your ass wolfed down seven donuts for breakfast.) Forty-five percent more carbohydrates a day, cravings from your wacky periods and free radicals zipping around doing damage? Here we have the perfect recipe for weight gain, girls.

Zen Time
 
You’ve heard it before and we’ll say it again: Chill the F out. Tell your boss you’ll work remotely one day a week. Take evening walks with your fam. Enroll in a yoga class. Try meditation, listen to calmer music and watch less TV. Sleep more. Your to-do list can wait, so get a manicure with your friends. They don’t call it “laughing your ass off” for nothing, babe.

Do you gain weight when you're stressed? Let us know how you cope and leave a comment below!


Jennifer St. Germain, Contributing Writer
A long-time health and fitness writer, Jennifer recently moved back to Los Angeles after spending two years writing and teaching English in Japan.  She now writes for several publications on a variety of topics, but veganism and animal rights are her favorite subjects.  When she isn't writing, you can find her drinking a little too much organic coffee, playing with her dogs or photographing her third favorite subject - jellyfish.







Related Stories:

Tips for Healthy Traveling
Practice Makes Perfect
Stress Fightin' Foods
Diet Scams

   
Not Hot and Bothered? Consider These Common Culprits of Low Libido

Even seasoned sex kittens get bored with the same old song and dance.
 
Stress, diet and other factors can take a raging toll on your libido, leaving you with a limp love life and, quite possibly, a guilt complex when you say "no thanks" to nookie.
 
What’s wrong with you when you'd rather knit sweaters than knock boots? Nothing, sweetheart.  But looking at the potential causes of your sluggish sex drive can shed a whole lotta light on the dreaded dry-panty syndrome. Our resident sexpert, Lou Paget, delivers the dirty deets:
 
Stress and Sex
 
We already know that stress makes mommy’s mojo go bye-bye (thanks, 9-5). But here’s the good news: Most stress is temporary. You can often breathe, meditate or drink it away. But if you'd rather not become a raging alcoholic, try an aromatic bath with a few drops of non-toxic jasmine, clary sage or patchouli. These are aphrodisiacal scents that impact the pituitary gland, which helps rev your engine down there while chillaxing your brain. Ahhhhhh.
 
Zzzzzzz…
 
Another amazing libido secret? Sleep, stupid. Just a few nights of uninterrupted slumber can reset your internal monitor, stabilize your hormones and give you the energy you need to bring home the Big O, baby. Make sure you're getting  proper z's, even if it means getting your ass to bed before the second half of "The Bachelor" is over. (You know that shit is addicting.)
 

Med Head
 
Are you taking antidepressants or poppin' pills for anxiety? If so, these bad boys could be responsible for banishing your libido into oblivion. Common side effects? Down-there dryness, inability to orgasm and erection problems for men. Um, we'll pass on that. While you should definitely consult your doc before ditching any prescribed pills, be a shrewd consumer and make sure you really need them. Even improper dosage can cause big-time side effects. Depression is serious, but so is a sad vag. Repeat after me: I deserve happiness and hot sex.
 
Birth Control
 
Oral birth control might seem like God’s gift to modern women, but it could be stealing your va-va-voom. For some women, simply getting off the pill brings sexy back. Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella have all been linked to the disappearing-libido act. Consider what other options might be possible for you. We've come a long way since the rhythm method, ladies.  
 

Hug Therapy
 
Love a good rub down? You’re not the only one. Some studies have shown that men need to be touched two to three times more frequently than women in order to maintain the same level of oxytocin, the sexy bonding hormone.
 
Without frequent touch, your brain’s circuits and receptors can feel starved for dopamine, the feel-good hormone. Hugging and cuddling feed and reinforce those connection circuits, ensuring lovey-dovey feelings and hot romps. Even if you’re not in the mood now, a sensual back rub or loving massage can get you there, pronto.

Turned on? Comment below and tell us your libido-boosting secrets, bitches.

L. Lou Paget, Sexuality & Relationships Expert and Best-Selling Author 
An international best-selling author of five books and AASECT* Certified Sex Educator, Lou Paget has spent the last 15 years traveling the world to set the record straight about sexuality, regardless of age or gender. Best known for her pre-eminent sexuality seminar company, FRANKly Speaking Inc., Lou’s books have been translated in 28 languages in over 60 countries.  When not talking and researching about sexuality and its current trends, Lou can be found golfing, and surfing news and pop culture sites. She lives in Beverly Hills, California.



Related Stories:

Reviewing Your Resolutions
Organic or Bust
Beginner Vegan Essentials
Diet Scams

Committed to Staying Skinny or Eating Less Crap? Here Are Some Ways to Approach Your New Year's Resolutions Like a Smart Girl

It’s January. Sigh.

It’s also the most common time for health and fitness resolutions - until February, of course, when you can’t remember why the hell you gave up carbs.

But it doesn’t have to be hard this year. Your fitness goals should be less like unattainable milestones and more like a daily commitment to being your best, bitchin’ self. Here are some things to consider when you're tempted to ditch your workout for a bag of salty Kettle chips:

You Brush Your Teeth and Shower Daily. (Don't you? If not, that's gross.) Point is, you have time to do these things because they are a necessary part of life. Regular fitness can - and should - be the same.  Think of it as something akin to getting dressed in the morning, not a daunting, must-do task that will result in shame and blame if you don’t complete it.

There is Always Time. Cut the crap, honey. You can stick to a fitness resolution no matter how many emails are sitting in your inbox. Fitness does not have to happen in a gym, with a trainer or in your yoga studio. It can be done anywhere. Walk around the block 10 times, or take the stairs for a day straight. Do push-ups and sit-ups in front of the TV.  Experiment with an audio yoga class or cardio circuit workout on your iPod. As long as you're moving, it counts!

Make Music Your Friend. Music can move, inspire and energize. It also drowns out those annoying, grunting people at the gym. With your favorite tunes, sticking to a fitness resolution will be no problemo. In fact, studies have shown that music can make you work out longer and harder. Feeling like you can’t get your butt off the couch? Drag yourself to your iTunes first, find a beat that inspires you and then get your sweat on. It's an assured way to shift your mood and motivation.

See it as Escape Time. How often do you really get alone, uninterrupted time with yourself these days?  There is always an email, a boss, a child, a partner, a tweet or a “something” that’s clamoring for your attention. Instead of looking at working out as something you have to do, look at it as a precious little slice of time for you. Calm your racing thoughts during a meditative bike ride. Sort out your angry feelings during a turbo-charged Bikram class. Your sweaty time really can be paradise if you let it.

Boredom is Not an Option. The second you let yourself think you're getting bored with a routine, you will be bored. Add more spontaneity to your workout schedule to stay intrigued. Mix up only things you like so that you're doing them one to two times a week and getting in at least three to six workouts. Walking through the woods. Running. Boxing. Yoga. Aerobics. Look at your calendar and then check the schedule at the gyms or studios around you. Make your routine mold to what is available so you have an enticing weekly schedule to - dare I say it - look forward to.

Don’t Psych Yourself Out. Just because you fall off the wagon one day, or even one week, it doesn't mean your resolutions should be thrown away! And just because you have a lazy, ahem, soft workout one day doesn't mean you should give up. Your body changes, and life changes, every single moment of every day. That is what makes both so incredible. So let yourself ride the waves of you and sweat through them, instead of breaking and crashing every time something challenging comes up. It will be fine. I promise. Tomorrow is a new day.

I look forward to my daily sweat time more than anything else. It's a part of my life that allows me special time for me, and me alone. Aren’t you worth it, too? Damn right you are.

What changes do you want to make in 2012? Are you on track? Leave us your feedback in the comments section below!

Have a question for Lauren? Email us and we'll get your questions answered.

Lauren Imparato, Fitness Contributor
In Spring 2009 Lauren resigned her job at Morgan Stanley to launch I.AM.YOU., a lifestyle brand and yoga studio in Little Italy, Manhattan. Lauren teaches intense, fun, and athletic Vinyasa classes, each set to a unique Music Mix designed by I.AM.YOU.'s Resident Mixologist. Lauren graduated with an Advanced Certification from Conquering Lion Yoga and received a secondary Advanced Certification from Kula Yoga School. She also has a Certificate in Advanced Studies Yoga Anatomy, is a graduate of the Institute of Integrated Nutrition and accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She holds an Intermediate Level Certificate from the International Wine Center and a BA from Princeton University in Romance Languages and Literatures. Tweet Lauren @IAMYOUstudio or follow her on Facebook.

Related Stories:

Living With A Carnivore
Practice Makes Perfect
Diet Scams
Organic or Bust

You Already Know Organic = Healthy, But Why Is It So Important?

You’re no dummy.

You count your calories and sweat to your oldies. But now everyone on God’s green earth is touting the virtues of organic, and you’re wondering what the big deal is.

If I trust the brand, isn’t it OK? If it’s locally grown, isn’t it OK? If I can pronounce all the ingredients, isn’t it OK?

Not so much.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, now they’re telling you that you have to buy organic hair and beauty products. Is this just some kind of scam created by corporate giants that’s designed specifically to make you spend more money?

Definitions, Please

You might think organic foods are just foods grown without bug spray, but it goes beyond that. Organic foods are grown in non-chemical fertilizers, without the use of pesticides, without the use of radiation and without genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or chemical food additives. That’s a mouthful.



Fruit Fear

So why is this so important? Well, to prove a point, let’s take our sweet red friend, the strawberry.

Last year, California approved the use of methyl iodide on strawberries as a bug repellent.  Don’t live in California? It doesn’t matter – 80 percent of the nation’s strawberries are grown there.

This nasty pesticide is used in labs to induce cancer in rodents and small animals. Just breathing enough of this chemical causes lung, liver, kidney and central nervous system damage. You might not be breathing it in, but the people who are planting your strawberries are.

Other Intruders

It’s not just the methyl iodide that’ll hurt you, sweetness.  The regular strawberries you buy at the grocery store are loaded with a toxic cocktail mix of eight carcinogens, 24 suspected hormone disruptors, 11 neurotoxins and 12 developmental or reproductive toxins.  Some of these chemicals can hang out in your body for years, so even small doses are an issue.

Organic Meat

While you may be a plant-based beauty, you definitely have those meat-eaters in your life who just won’t give up their carnivorous ways. You’re co-existing as peacefully as possible, but what they don’t know could kill them.

The FDA recently admitted that chicken contains trace amounts of arsenic. Yep, the poison. How is that possible? Well, for one thing, Pfizer, Inc. makes chicken feed. Know what else Pfizer is famous for making? Viagra. What is a company that makes boner-enhancers doing making chicken feed? Freakin’ good question. Regardless, only organic chicken is certified to be arsenic-free.

Home Invasion

So now you know that your fruits and veggies have disgusting, infertility-producing and cancer-causing chemicals all over them. Ready for the bonus round? There are all kinds of nasty parabens (super-strong preservative chemicals that show up later in breast cancer tumors) and sulfates lurking in your beauty and household products. Even products that claim to be “all natural” have enough chemicals in them to make your hubby estrogen-dominant and throw off your fertility big-time.

Uh, Some Advice?

Don’t panic. Educate yourself. Stupid girls are not hot. Read Kim’s book on chemical-proofing your home. It has tons of resources to help you un-scarify your abode and information on organic, healthy makeup or beauty products. When in doubt, check out our very own “What the Hell Do I Buy?” section for tons of great resources on products that won’t make you toxic.

Can't get on board cause organic is expensive? You’re right - it is. But you know what else is expensive? Infertility treatments. Hospital stays. Chemotherapy. Funerals. You get the idea.

Like this article? Leave us a comment below!


Jennifer St. Germain, Contributing Writer
A long-time health and fitness writer, Jennifer recently moved back to Los Angeles after spending two years writing and teaching English in Japan.  She now writes for several publications on a variety of topics, but veganism and animal rights are her favorite subjects.  When she isn't writing, you can find her drinking a little too much organic coffee, playing with her dogs or photographing her third favorite subject - jellyfish.

Related Stories:

Beginner Vegan Essentials
Diet Scams
Tips for Healthy Traveling
Practice Makes Perfect

New at the Vegan Thing? Suck at Cooking? Here Are Some Things To Keep on Hand

You're finally on board with the vegan thing.

Sweet! Whatever your story is, you’re now part of the most badass club on the planet.

But you’re probably wondering what we all wondered when we first went veg: What the hell do I do now?  It’s cool – this is the list of beginner vegan essentials. It has everything you need to know in order to stir a sauce, make something that doesn't taste shitty and not sound dumb when someone asks you what tempeh is.

Already bored cause you're a long-time healthy bitch? Sit still. You might learn something new.

Easy Eats

Look, you’re not gonna survive on the vegetable medley at your local food joint. Vegans can get all of the nutrients (without any of the gastrointestinal yikes-factor) as omnivores. But first you have to know what you’re talking about. What is all that shit I can’t pronounce? Let's review:

Hummus. Hummus is blended beans, usually garbanzo. The beans are blended with garlic, olive oil and often a teaspoon of sesame paste, but many other ingredients can be added or substituted. Hummus is eaten as a kind of dip, often with pita bread or veggies, but it also makes a great spread for sandwiches.

Nutritional Yeast. Grown specifically for healthy folks like you, nutritional yeast comes in powder or in the form of flakes, and it adds a yummy cheesy (without icky dairy) flavor to foods. If you’re jonesing for mac and cheese but don’t want to imagine baby cows ripped away from their mothers to be slaughtered, then nutritional yeast is for you. Bonus? It has tons of vitamin B12 - an essential one for plant-based eaters.

Seitan. Seitan is primarily composed of wheat gluten. Yes, that gluten – so if you have Celiac’s disease or feel that you’re gluten sensitive, you may want to avoid seitan. But if you’ve ever had faux meat that you swore could have been the real thing, you were probably noshing on gluten.

Tempeh. Made from soybeans (that are sometimes mixed with grains) that are fermented, tempeh is a healthy choice that has more nutrients (and less phytoestrogens) than tofu, and it’s also generally more flavorful.

Tofu. Tofu is created by coagulating soymilk and then smooshing the curds. On its own, it doesn’t pack much flavor, but it can be eaten and cooked in so many ways that it’s a very versatile little dude to include in your fridge.

Spices. Girl, get a spice rack. Vegan food depends on the flavors of fresh herbs and spices. No need to be meticulous about what you're throwing in a pot, either. Experiment. Have fun.

Tools and Things

In an ideal world, we’d all have that $400 shiny food processor on our counters, but it’s like, a recession. So we can’t. Here are the bare minimum gadgets and tools to keep on hand:

A good knife. Whether it’s veggies, fruits or tofu, your ass is gonna be a-choppin’. If you can’t afford the foofy Williams Sonoma kind, try going to a restaurant supply store in your ‘hood – they have fantastic knives that are often a third of the price.

A big-ass pot. You need this to make veggie broths, soups, stews and chili. These are hearty and nutritious and will save your ass in the winter months.

A frying pan. Stir fry has endless variations and will keep you from getting bored of eating beans and rice every day. You can also make delicious banana pancakes and other vegan recipes with this simple staple.

A sauce pan. Preferably, get one with the metal steaming attachment so you can steam your veggies too. But if you can’t afford that, you can steam vegetables in the microwave quite easily.

A strainer. This is a “colander” in fancy talk. You’ll drain veggies, pasta and beans like, all the time, so you need one. You can find them at Target for $1.

A blender. The poor person’s food processor, your blender will make you delicious juice, smoothies and veggie dips, and you can get them pretty cheap these days. When in doubt, check Goodwill or garage sales.

The Bottom Line

You can buy expensive stuff if you want to, but your vegan lifestyle will work just fine with the tools you’ve already got in your cabinets. Try not to let the unknown properties of tempeh or juicing freak you out. Just like when you ate animal products, try to eat a delish, balanced diet that will give you tons of energy to get through your day.

And when you get stuck with questions, hit us up in the comments section below!


Jennifer St. Germain, Contributing Writer
A long-time health and fitness writer, Jennifer recently moved back to Los Angeles after spending two years writing and teaching English in Japan.  She now writes for several publications on a variety of topics, but veganism and animal rights are her favorite subjects.  When she isn't writing, you can find her drinking a little too much organic coffee, playing with her dogs or photographing her third favorite subject - jellyfish.

Related Stories:

Tips for Healthy Traveling
Spice World
Stay Away From My Chocolate
Sweet-Scented Doom

Why Pills, Gadgets and Other Crap Won't Make You Skinny

Nothing says "Happy New Year" like a crazy fad diet.

With all the wild creams, patches, gadgets and pills on the market, it's no wonder we think we can eat ourselves into oblivion over the holidays. I'll just use my Shake Weight in January - it's cool.

Where Do You Buy Your Crap?

What we actually purchase when we buy into all this diet nonsense is a false sense of fabulous and lies, lies, lies. We end up more fat, confused and broke than ever before. Americans alone spend over $40 billion a year on weight loss, and the results sure aren't reflected.

So here's the skinny on why the scams are a total waste of your time and what you really need to know before you splurge on something ridiculous.
 
The Creams

If a cream can magically erase your dimples or shed a pound or two off your thigh, we'd all lather up in lieu of a diet. In reality, cellulite is just excess fat. While losing weight may help diminish the appearance of those unsightly dimples, there is no way to 'spot train' the body in one area and no cream will provide long-term results. The active ingredient in most creams is just caffeine, and although it can stimulate the skin enough to show a minor firming effect, it's not there to stay, babe.
 
The Pills

Since the supplement industry is not regulated the same way prescription meds are, often times there aren't even clinical trials to substantiate the wild claims made by most diet pill manufacturers. One of the latest crazes is the hCG diet of no more than 500 calories a day, plus injections. Ouch. Research shows that the super-restrictive diet is what really creates the weight loss, not the shots. Ya think? The FDA never approved hCG as a safe weight loss method, so put down the syringes, sister. Before you ingest any diet pill, do your research. There are entire agencies devoted to consumer awareness, since some pills have led to serious health concerns and even death. Yikes.
 
The Gadgets

Body wraps are the new "it" thing, but what we forget is that the body can hold more than 6 pounds of water. Deplete that water and yes, your skinny jeans suddenly fit. And tomorrow? You're back in those stretchy pants. As for the toning shoes and even the toning pants? (Yes, they make pants with tiny resistance bands sewn right into them.) Those are nonsense too. Remember, you can't lose weight from just one area and the muscle activation created by these fashionable fat shedders is so minimal that, in most cases, the claims are bogus.

The Skinny

The bottom line is that diets don't work - whether they're packaged in cream, pill or gadget form. If your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, start with your diet. Make sure you're getting proper nutrients and come up with a fitness plan that includes tangible goals. It's not brain surgery. Vow to try more vegan recipes if you're not already committed to that lifestyle. Eat a salad and go for a walk.

Diets are trendy. Living healthy is timeless.

Do you have a scary diet scam story? Tell us in the comments section below!


Beth Doane, Contributing Writer
Beth is a fashion designer, author and environmentalist who went from launching high-end European fashion lines to creating her own philanthropic fashion collection, Rain Tees. Her line of tees funds school supplies for children in Central and South America and plants a tree in a tropical rainforest for every item sold. Beth’s consulting agency, Andira International, helps brands build sustainable ideas into products, events and campaigns. Visit raintees.com for more information.

Related Stories:

Tips for Healthy Traveling
Practice Makes Perfect
Living With A Carnivore
Dear Vegan Celebs: Stop Being Lame