It’s been awhile since I’ve written about exercising, so I thought I’d write about workout interval timers today and how it can be used to improve your exercise routine.

Recently I was pretty lucky to be sent a complimentary Gymboss digital interval timer to use and I thought I’d write my thoughts and comments on using it. If you’d like to see what it is, you can learn more on their website. Click here for Gymboss.

I was a little nervous at first that it may be a little too complicated for me to use or too bulky to really carry around with me, but as soon as I opened it, gave the short instructions a quick read I found it to be really pretty simple, and being lightweight it easily can clip on to your shirt or a belt loop. The clip may also work for attaching to any home workout gear if you have it, such as a treadmill. Another bonus is it came with the AAA battery it required, so that was a nice surprise also!

The timer has three simple to use buttons, a “Next” a “Change” button and a “Start Button”. To use it for timing intervals, you simply press the Next Buttons and the Change buttons to move from each various setting on the screen. It doesn’t have a lot of complicated settings, just the number of minutes or seconds you want it to count, the number of times you want it to repeat each interval, and then what type of alarm you want to go off (such as a high beep, low beep, or vibration). The timer also has a stop watch feature, which I can’t wait to use on my kids…they for some reason love it when you time them for stuff and they need to “race the clock”.

Now, those of you who are new to exercising and working out might be a little confused as to what an interval timer is and exactly what you would use it for to get in shape. How does it help you to exercise?

If you’re just getting started in working out and taking a walk around the neighborhood is enough of a challenge, then that is great that you are starting to exercise, but you probably don’t need an interval timer for working out. If you’re a longtime LoseFree reader however and have been working out on a regular basis, then this might be something handy to use when exercising, especially if you always liked the idea of a personal trainer but never had one.

When you hire a personal trainer, they usually make you do certain activities for either a certain duration of time or for a certain number of times. For example, you might walk on the treadmill to warm up for five minutes minutes, then quicken the pace for another five, then sprint for five more. With an interval timer, you can set it off to go off every five minutes, which enables you to focus on your workout – without having to worry about counting time or minutes. You can also use it to help you with a number of other activities, such as Tabata Intervals, weight lifting, timing your speeds, and more.

I don’t think an interval timer is an absolute necessity for working out, especially if you’re just getting started. But if you’re serious about getting in shape and training, it can certainly be a useful little gadget for anyone looking to save money and be their own personal trainer.

As a double bonus, I’ve found I can set it as a timer for cooking also, which makes eating healthier a lot easier, too! (I have an old stove from the 1950′s, so I never had a kitchen timer – until now!) I’m sure there are many other little uses I’ll find it helpful for in the upcoming weeks.

If it’s something you think would be helpful for your workouts, you can check it out for yourself here. If not, well, at least you know what a digital interval timer is and how one can be used for workouts!

Our free printable food diary page will help you keep track of all of the different foods you eat. While it may seem like a chore at first to write down and track all of things you eat, having a sheet to keep a record of your diet has many advantages.

Why would you want to track what you eat each day?

See What Foods You Like: Many people struggle coming up with their own diet plan because they think you have to try all new foods or eat things you don’t like. But if you have a food diary, it gets a lot easier to plan a diet, because you can find the things you do like to eat, and then just make a suitable, healthier substitution.

Track Your Mood: The foods you eat can have a huge role in what kind of mood you are in, so it’s nice to see a pattern if you for example eat starchy or sugary foods and then become a grouch – it gives you all the more motivation!

Track Sensitivities: More and more people are finding out they may have food allergies. If you have any chronic or recurring symptoms such as nasal congestion, ear infections, stomach cramping or pain, headaches, dry skin, rashes, acne and others it could actually be related to food. A food diary to print out can help make it much easier to track these types of things.

Assess Your Current Eating Habits: Many of us think we are eating healthy foods, only to find out upon closer inspection that we may not really be keeping up on it as well as we originally thought. It will also help you pinpoint any times of the days that you are more likely to suffer a “snack attack” so you can have healthy snacks prepared rather than grabbing something more convenient and less healthy for you.

Click Here to Download Our Printable Food Diary Sheet.
(Note: It Will Open in a New Window so you can save it and still read the instructions below)

How to Use This Food Diary

To use this food diary, simply download the food diary and print it out. Then start tracking the foods you eat for 1 week. Each section is divided into morning, afternoon, and evening and has a section for notes. You can also write notes, such as “felt energetic” or “felt lethargic” or “didn’t sleep well” or “have really dry skin”. If you’re the calorie counting type, you can also track calories in that section.

Make sure you don’t forget to track the drinks you have, and of course write down everything. If you eat a certain brand of food, you may also want to keep note of that brand, since different brands all have different ingredients.

Once you have finished a week of tracking everything you’ve eaten, look at where your strengths and weaknesses are. Maybe you are skipping breakfast for example and instead eating too much at lunch. Or maybe you notice that you seem to be eating more carbs and grains than vegetables. Whatever the case may be, having a food diary is definitely a great way to see these types of trends and know what to do differently next week.

Make sure you save your pages when finished for any upcoming doctor’s appointments – often times diet records can help your doctor help you better as well.

Do you find it helpful to keep track of all of the foods you eat for a week? If you’ve ever used a printable food diary chart, share your comments about the experience below!

Almost all of us at some point or another have had food cravings. Whether you’re looking for something sweet, salty, or otherwise – those cravings are clues to what your body is doing when processing food and what your body needs.

Ever since I started eating a healthier diet, I’ve been able to pay more attention to my cravings. Most of us just go through life thinking nothing of when the urge to eat a certain food strikes us – but it’s also a way of your body telling you something.

I’ve written a lot about how sugar is addictive – and as you know eating a lot of starchy/sugary foods can often cause those cravings to intensify. This is because eating sugar and starchy foods (ie: white bread) can cause your blood glucose levels to change, and is often responsible for sways in how we feel during the day, going from being tired to wired. Your body craves sugar because it wants it for your blood glucose levels to get back on the right track – though we often eat too much sugar which causes it to go back out of synch.

Sugar’s just one example though. Some people crave things like bread not for the sugar, but possibly because wheat is a decent source of magnesium, which can help with everything from absorption of calcium to how your body deals with the toxins we’re exposed to day in and day out. I have some new feelings about wheat (it may not actually be good for you at all!) but some research may suggest that a craving could also signal an intolerance.

There are other things as well – take pica, for example, a condition which causes people to want to eat non-food items such as dirt, pencils or paint chips. This is usually attributed to an iron deficiency, most common amongst pregnant women as well as children.

So many diets are all about controlling and overcoming cravings – but the solution is not to suppress these cravings – it’s to research and see what, if any, possible dietary issues could be causing them.

Here’s some tips on trying to pinpoint the cause of your craving:

Identify Your Craving: If you’re craving a single food, then it’s easy to say “Oh, I’m craving an apple”. But if you’re craving something that includes multiple ingredients, such as a cheeseburger, then you’ll want to think about what it is of that you are wanting the most. Is it the bun and the meat? The ketchup flavor? The cheese? Maybe it is a little bit of everything – or maybe there’s something specific about it.

List the Ingredients and Nutrients in the Foods You Crave: If you’re asking the question of why we crave certain things, the best place to start is to know what the nutritional properties of the food you are craving are. Every food we eat has different nutritional value or a potential clue into what your body needs. This doesn’t always mean you should eat the thing you want – for example, some believe that those who constantly crave milk may actually have an intolerance to it to some degree. But when you make a list of these things, you can help identify which things are found in the foods your body wants, which can then make you decide what is going to help you.

Research the Food & It’s Nutrients: Thankfully the internet has tons of information on any food you can think of. Type in any food and its health benefits or its nutritional value and you should be able to find some information on it. Obviously, you are going to want to make sure that your research is accurate – so don’t just stop at the first few pages you find in your search results. Dig a little deeper. You may even want to add the word “deficiency” to the food you are searching and see if anything comes up.

Discuss Your Findings With Your Doctor: The occasional craving for a food shouldn’t be too much cause of concern. However, if you’re constantly craving sweets or starches or anything else for that matter, there’s likely a good reason why. Maybe your blood sugar needs to be more regulated, maybe you are deficient in another mineral or vitamin. While it’d be nice if we knew what all this meant in a big picture, most of us haven’t spent years researching food and how it affects our health. Doctors can’t help you determine what is wrong unless they see proof, pattern, and understand the role of diet in health (and what they know about that may even be outdated) – but at the very least they can help you identify any major potential problems such as thyroid disorders, diabetes, food intolerance, and more which could be causing some problems for you and do need professional medical treatment.

Consider Emotional Factors: For some, foods can also mean an emotional attachment – perhaps ice cream is your “comfort food”. But have you ever considered why? If you as a kid and all the way through adulthood were given ice cream anytime something went wrong, then it could possibly be due to habit and environment. But, again, some foods may be a result in a deficiency (or in some cases too much) of a certain nutrient.

Obviously, this is something that a lot more research needs to be conducted on – I’m not a doctor nor a professional nutrition expert by any means. But the next time you have a craving for something – be it sugar or a cheeseburger, rather than fight that craving, take it as a cue from your body that your diet might be missing something. You shouldn’t try to stop food cravings – instead take a look at why they’re there in the first place.

December tends to be the slowest month for Losefree.com traffic. And it’s not surprising – with holiday shopping, holiday cooking, and everything else – losing weight or staying in shape probably isn’t at the top of your priority list.

Recently I have been debating about switching to a gluten free diet however – and while discussing it with a friend decided that it would be silly to try and start it now, before the holidays.

But then I thought more and more about how sometimes I really do feel like I have a gluten intolerance (go down the checklist symptoms and I think I have almost all of them!) and as I looked around at the foods in my house I thought, if I can’t eat this stuff and it is causing my body distress, why wait?

And so, two weeks before Christmas, two weeks of holiday parties, family celebrations, and all that tasty food (resisting those appetizers is not easy!) I decided to start on the gluten free diet.

If I’ve been quiet around here it’s mostly because I’ve been doing a lot of research – not to mention completely learning how to cook again! Gluten intolerance means you can’t eat any wheat, barley, or rye – or anything made with these products – which means just about everything you’re used to no longer applies.

But I couldn’t wait to start the new diet. And I’m honestly so glad that I didn’t. I feel better than I did when I completely gave up sugar the first time – and while if you don’t have a gluten intolerance it likely won’t maje that significant of a difference for you – it does show that you shouldn’t wait to be more healthier.

If you’re waiting until next year to lose weight, or waiting until after xyz time – don’t. I know it’s hard to think about missing out on a lot of foods over the holidays – but you’re missing out on something much more important – your health.

Losefree.com is going to go through some big changes over the next few weeks and I will be completely updating my free ebook that so many of you have already read. While the common principles of combining foods together and cutting out sugar will still apply, I’ll be emphasizing some new things and nutritional discoveries I’ve made over the past few weeks that will hopefully make your weight loss journey an even more successful one!

I hope you all have a great holiday – and if you’re putting off losing weight or staying in shape, you don’t have to wait until next year – you can start right now to living a better and healthier life!

When it comes to losing weight, people are sometimes willing to try anything which is why today I am answering the question: Does Acupuncture Work for Weight Loss?

Most of you are likely somewhat familiar with what acupuncture is, even though you may or may not have tried it. Used for centuries as an ancient Chinese form of medication, acupuncture is the process of inserting needles into the body in certain points and energy channels which is believed to help alleviate certain signs and symptoms. Because poking yourself with needles could potentially get pretty dangerous, it’s recommended that you only use licensed and well established acupuncture clinics to ensure your own personal safety.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no reputable sources or studies which have proven or even suggested that acupuncture could work for weight loss. In the few studies that were done which yielded inconclusive results, subjects also exercised and dieted, which that in itself could be responsible for the outcome. Obviously, a much larger trial group and study with various groups would need to be conducted in order to have a better idea of whether or not acupuncture for losing weight works or not. Ideally you would need a control group of people who only receive acupuncture, a group which only diets and exercises, and a group which receives both in order to have a better understanding of the role of acupuncture and your weight.

Because there is really no conclusive or scientific evidence that shows acupuncture will help you lose weight, then really all you can do is to speak with a practitioner who is experienced in it to see what they think and to assess you as a candidate. Most would agree that while you can certainly try acupuncture to help you, it is likely not a wonder cure or a miracle that will instantly make you skinny. After all, they are only targeting certain different energy channels which relate to how you eat and what your body does with the food – they are not doing anything that would melt the pounds off instantly.

For most, it is probably best to just stick to the boring old routine of trying to lose weight on your own through the tried and proven conventional methods of eating right and staying active. Granted, it’s no quick and easy solution, but in the long run at least you will know you can expect to see solid results and you won’t be spending a lot of money on acupuncture sessions that may end up being a total waste of time and money. Though it sure would be interesting to see if some acupuncture practitioners have any experience or thoughts on this to share!