The 17 Day Diet (23 page)

Fattening Factor

The label might say it’s as low as 60 calories for a small cup, but lab tests on these frozen delights say otherwise: around 270 calories is more like it.

Food

11.
Reduced-Fat Cookies

Fattening Factor

Three of these will give you 150 calories. But get this: Three regular chocolate-chip cookies are 160 … just 10 measly calories more.

Food

12.
Energy Bars

Fattening Factor

The average candy bar has 250 calories; so does the average energy bar. Energy bars are candy bars incognito, disguised by a few added vitamins (which you’re better off getting from fruit). Personally, I’d rather have a Snickers.

Food

13.
Energy Drinks

Fattening Factor

The labels say they contain various herbs, minerals and the amino acid taurine, specially designed to boost your energy. But if you look at the ingredients, they’re mostly caffeine and sugar, making them hardly more than high-priced soft drinks.

Food

14.
Diet Drinks

Fattening Factor

The artificial sweeteners they contain make it harder for people to regulate their calorie intake. Sweet tastes tell the brain a lot of calories are about to be consumed. When that doesn’t happen, you eat more to compensate.

Food

15.
Taco Salad

Fattening Factor

One of these can weigh in at more than 900 calories (that’s if you eat the hard-to-resist shell). Try my recipe for taco salad instead.

Food

16.
Trail Mix

Fattening Factor

Just three little tablespoons of this snack packs around 140 calories. Most people gobble down much more than that, making this a very high-calorie snack.

THE 17 MINUTE WORKOUT: 17 Ways to Burn More Calories without Jogging

Activity

1.
Run errands

Effort Expended

Walking briskly while lugging dry cleaning or groceries can burn about 120 calories in 30 minutes.

Activity

2.
Fidget frequently

Effort Expended

Research has shown that fidgeting, such as tapping toes and fussing with hands, blasts off up to 800 extra calories per day.

Activity

3.
Get on top

Effort Expended

Skip the passive missionary position and climb on top. This position decimates 4.5 calories per minute.

Activity

4.
Take the stairs

Effort Expended

Every minute you climb kills seven calories.

Activity

5.
Take two

Effort Expended

Taking the stairs two at a time burns 55 percent more calories than single stepping.

Activity

6.
Rock out

Effort Expended

Studies show that exercisers who tune in to music while exercising work out 25 percent longer.

Activity

7.
Give your lover a massage

Effort Expended

An hour-long massage burns 230 calories.

Activity

9.
Have sex

Effort Expended

An hour of passionate playtime kills 270 calories.

Activity

10.
Pace periodically

Effort Expended

You could burn about 100 extra calories during an eight-hour day if you walk around your office, pace while on your cell phone or otherwise move around.

Activity

11.
Kiss

Effort Expended

Every minute you kiss someone you burn 1 calorie.

Activity

12.
Don’t order out

Effort Expended

Cook at home. Spending an hour cooking burns about 150 calories. You can burn half of what you eat for dinner merely by cooking it yourself!

Activity

12.
Sleep

Effort Expended

You burn up to 200 calories while sleeping for around 7 hours.

Activity

13.
Kick up your heels

Effort Expended

Dancing burns 200 or more calories an hour, depending on the dance.

Activity

14.
Do the hula hoop

Effort Expended

This isn’t just for kids anymore. In just 10 minutes you can burn 44 calories. Plus, you tone your tummy while doing it.

Activity

15.
Jump rope

Effort Expended

Fifteen minutes of jumping rope burns 170 calories.

Activity

16.
Play with your kids

Effort Expended

A game of hopscotch can burn 222 calories over the course of 30 minutes.

Activity

17.
Coach your kids’ sports team

Effort Expended

Coaching burns between 281 and 372 calories an hour.

THE 17 MINUTE WORKOUT: Be a Human Pretzel and Keep Weight Off

T
he slow stretches and meditations of yoga don’t burn calories like a run on the treadmill. But a new study suggests yoga might help people
keep weight off
, especially if you’re in middle age. Middle-age people of normal weight generally put on pounds over 10 years, but those who did yoga gained less weight than those who didn’t practice yoga.

The link between yoga and weight control has nothing to do with burning calories, since with yoga you don’t actually torch much fat. Researchers believe that yoga helps keep people more in tune with their bodies and eating habits and aware of bad habits, such as eating because of stress, boredom or depression. Also, people who practice yoga tend to avoid junk food and overeating because they want to respect their bodies.

Source:
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine

PART II
Special Considerations

7
The 17 Day Cultural Diet

I
look Italian.
People think I am Italian, except of course for Italians who think I’m from Brazil, Spain or Argentina. But my ancestry is Mexican; I was born and raised in the U.S. Because of my origins, I’m able to relate to patients from many different cultures, and of course, because I speak Spanish, I can communicate to my Hispanic patients without an interpreter in the room.

Language issues are important in medicine. A lot of people who seek medical help can’t speak English—and sometimes find themselves getting the wrong treatment, which can turn out to be both costly and embarrassing. We had a man once who was about to be treated for back problems. But he didn’t have back problems, he had constipation. He was trying to refer to his “backside,” but the nurse thought he meant “back.” Or maybe he was too embarrassed to point to that part of his body.

In the nutrition area, I feel strongly that many people, due to their heritage, are not getting adequate nutritional counseling to lose weight. This is a big problem. When people come to the United States from other countries, they leave their traditional foods behind and adopt the Americanized diet that is high in carbohydrates, sugar, and fat—often with life-threatening consequences. Among many Hispanics, for examples, there exists a tendency to develop type 2 diabetes in their thirties and forties, about 10 years earlier than the average population, and it is triggered by weight gain, lack of exercise and smoking. Heart disease is another risk. But many of the dietary recommendations Hispanics in general receive in the United States do not conform to their beliefs about food or their cultural practices. The same is true for many other cultures.

I can’t solve that problem in one chapter, but I’m going to give you a list of foods from your culture that you can eat on all four Cycles of the 17 Day Diet, if your heritage is Hispanic, Asian, Mediterranean, Indian or Persian.

Hispanic Cuisine

As I know from growing up, fried food, grease and salt are common ingredients in the typical Hispanic diet—and the cause of health-threatening disease in men, women and also children.

The good news is that if you are Hispanic, you don’t have to turn your back on your ethnic favorites. You just need to challenge the food ingredients and preparation. Let’s look at the food lists.

Cycle 1: Accelerate

Stick to the lists of approved foods, but add in these cultural selections:

Lean Proteins

Ceviche (white fish marinated in lemon juice with diced tomatoes, onions, chile peppers and cilantro)

Red snapper (huachinango)

Cleansing Vegetables