Bored at work? Here’s some great diet, health and fitness related reading…

I’ve been enjoying some great posts and articles recently, and thought I’d share a few of my favourites with you.

Food diaries and food labels

As someone who lost weight by tracking calorie intake and expenditure, and who regularly advises you all to write a food diary, I was delighted to be proved right by this recent study on keeping a food diary, reported on Diet Blog, that shows strong evidence that food diaries do help people to diet successfully:

A long-term weight loss trial undertaken by Kaiser Permanente has shown how using a food diary can double a person’s weight loss.

Kathryn from Limes & Lycopene has a great, eye-opening look at five ways marketer use food labels trickery to encourage us to buy things that might not be the best choices.

Some aspects of food labelling are heavily regulated. However most of what’s on the label is marketing. And marketing is about selling a product. It’s there to entice you to buy. Marketing emphasises the good parts and downplays the negatives of a product. Which is exactly what happens on food labels.

Fitness humour

Long-term readers know I’m a great fan of the very funny, honest, “tell it like it is” fitness and exercise blog, Cranky Fitness, run by the wonderful Crabby McSlacker. I’m hoping that the rumours of impending fluffy bunnies, unicorns and rainbows are unfounded, but Crabby’s recent post on the joys of after-dinner walks gives all her fans cause for concern…

Merry, also over on Cranky Fitness, brings us a fantastic alternative dictionary of fitness related terms, including gems like:

Marathon: When a TV channel runs several episodes of a television program back to back. Usually occurs over a major holiday when you were hoping to watch something else.

and

Nike: Greek goddess whose devotees are hip, cool, smug, well-shod, and broke.

There are also some great additions in the comments over there, so if you’re stuck in the office looking for something to fill the dragging afternoon, why not make up some of your own definitions for popular fitness terms?

In the newspapers

For anyone who, like me, seems to have a stubborn few pounds of fat clinging round the midriff — despite being at goal weight — this article from The Times, Did spending £3,000 for a flatter stomach really work? is worth a read. I’ve never really given liposuction any consideration, but this account was enough to put me off for life!

Perhaps it is my genes. Anyway, what a silly waste of money; and what a potential risk, having an intrusive procedure done to my healthy body that was deemed necessary because I deemed it thus. I put the experience behind me and resigned myself to loving my tummy.

The Guardian’s advice on How to eat at your desk will probably resonate with anyone who read and agreed with my recent post on the unwritten rules of office food. Giles Morris writes:

So what are the good, the bad and the ugly of desk-top delicacies? Top of the list of pariahs comes smelly food – burgers, kebabs, hot dogs, saveloys and the like. In fact, any food which is normally consumed after four or five stiff drinks is best avoided at your desk.

Great posts to bookmark

I may have linked to this one before, but it’s a brilliant set of images from WiseGeek: What Does 200 Calories Look Like? If you’ve ever thought that 200 calories of one food should fill you up as much as 200 calories of another … this might give you a visual explanation of why it doesn’t. Try comparing the celery with the peanut butter, for example…

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average adult needs to consume about 2000 – 2500 Calories to maintain their weight. In other words, you have a fixed amount of Calories to “spend” each day; based on the following pictures, which would you eat?

And last but far from least, Nursing School Research have put together a fantastic list of 100 Food Blogs to Inspire Your Healthy Eating. The Office Diet is listed there (under “Healthy Snacking”) – check out the rest of the list for tips, ideas and loads of healthy recipes.

These 100 food blogs are maintained by writers who understand that making good meals means incorporating flavor as well as healthy ingredients. This list has something for everybody, from hardcore dieters to gluten-free eaters to natural and organic foodies.

If you have a great post that you think The Office Diet’s readers would enjoy, why not drop me an email (ali@theofficediet.com) with the link?

(Image above by ArTéMiSià )