Wish me luck that the ole cholesterol is good.  I’ll give you the results later…

Time to be a party pooper!  Hard to believe, but some of the stuff you are planning to eat might be bad for you!  (really Chase?  Oh please, tell us more)

A few of the worst things you can eat this weekend (or any weekend).

Dips-Lay’s Creamy Ranch dip is 60 calories for 2 tbsp.

Chex party mix-1 cup is 300 calories.

Light Beer-Bud light has the most calories of all the light beers.  110 calories

Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips-11 chips 160 calories

Papa John’s personal Pan meatlovers pizza-900 calories

Here’s an article thay came from men’s health:

 

Find more 14 Health Foods That Aren’t The 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America 16 Secrets the Restaurant Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

From the produce section to the frozen-food aisle, the modern-day market is loaded with 50,000 food choices, all vying for your hard-earned money. That’s why we created the Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide, the brand-new follow-up to our national bestselling nutrition books that will help you cut through marketing mysteries and food-label lies in order to make the smart choices that lead to fast and permanent weight loss for you and your loved ones.

And there’s no better way to start slimming down in 2009 than by eliminating the most egregious offenders in the supermarket from your shopping cart. Some are conspicuous calorie bombs, others are junk food masquerading as healthy food, but all 20 of these foods have one thing in common: They’ll undermine your efforts to lose weight and feel great. So study up on the list of the Worst Supermarket Foods (and while you’re at it, don’t forget the 20 Worst Restaurant Foods in America), and resolve to master your market in 2009.  

20. WORST CRUNCHY SNACK

Gardetto’s Special Request Roasted Garlic Rye Chips  (1/2 cup, 30 g)

• 160 calories
• 10 g fat (2 g saturated, 2.5 g trans)
• 40 mg sodium

Gardetto extracts the worst part of its Original snack mix and tries to serve it as a gourmet snack—a sneaky move that might have serious repercussions for even casual munchers. Each single serving exceeds the amount of trans fat deemed safe to consume daily by the American Heart Association.

Fat equivalent: 3 strips of bacon

Eat This Instead: Snyder’s of Hanover Sourdough Nibblers (16 pieces, 30 g)

• 120 calories
• 0 g fat
• 200 mg sodium

19. WORST COOKIE

Pillsbury Big Deluxe Classics White Chunk Macadamia Nut (dough; 1 cookie, 38 g)

• 180 calories
• 10 g fat (3 g saturated, 2 g trans)
• 13 g sugars

Stick to Nestlé Toll House when it comes to big-brand cookie dough; the people of Pillsbury have a penchant for scattering trans fats across your market’s refrigerated section. This cookie has one load of dangerous oils mixed into the flour and another blended with sugar and interspersed throughout the dough as “white confectionery chunks.”

Fat equivalent: 5 “fun” size 3 Musketeers bars

Eat This Instead:

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (1 1/2-inch ball, 28 g)

• 130 calories
• 6 g fat (2.5 g saturated)
• 11 g sugars

18. WORST YOGURT

Stonyfield Farm Whole Milk Chocolate Underground (6 oz.)

• 220 calories
• 5 g fat (3 g saturated)
• 36 g sugars

Stonyfield is notorious for being a little too generous with the sugar, but the nearly 3 tablespoons in their Chocolate Underground is bad even by their supersweet standards. Not even Ben & Jerry’s makes a flavor of ice cream with this much sugar. (Check out the rest of America’s Most-Sugar Packed Foods.)

Sugar equivalent: 4 Cherry Popsicles

Eat This Instead:

Breyers Cookies n’Cream YoCrunch Lowfat with Oreo Pieces (6 oz.)

• 120 calories
• 2.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
• 11 g sugars

17. WORST CANDY

Twix (1 package, 2 oz.)

• 280 calories
• 27 g sugars
• 14 g fat (11 g saturated)

Twix takes the already-dubious candy-bar reputation and drags it through a murky pool of saturated fat. With more than half the USDA’s daily consumption recommendation for these dangerous fats in each package, this is one hazardous after-lunch snack.

Saturated fat equivalent: 11 strips of bacon

Eat This Instead:

100 Grand (1 package)

• 190 calories
• 22 g sugars
• 8 g fat (5 g saturated)

16. WORST CONDIMENT

Eggo Original Syrup (1/4 c)

• 240 calories
• 40 g sugars

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but not when this sugar slick hits the table. Excluding water, the first three ingredients are all different forms of sugar. If you want real syrup, make sure it’s 100 percent maple.

Sugar equivalent: Two Häagen-Dazs Vanilla & Almond ice cream bars

Eat This Instead:

Smucker’s Sugar Free Breakfast Syrup (1/4 c)

• 20 calories
• 0 g sugars

15. WORST ICE CREAM

Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter (1/2 c)

• 360 calories
• 24 g sugars
• 24 g fat (11 g saturated)

Häagen-Dazs makes great-tasting ice cream with an impressively short ingredient list, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that their pints are consistently the fattiest in the freezer.

Fat equivalent: 1 McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger

Eat This Instead:

Edy’s Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cup (1/2 c)

• 130 calories
• 13 g sugars
• 6 g fat (3 g saturated)

14. WORST DRINK

AriZona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz. can)

• 353 calories, 0 g fat
• 82 g sugars

It claims to be blended juice, but only 5 percent of this can is any sort of real-fruit derivative. The remaining 95 percent is a blend of water and high-fructose corn syrup. (Believe it or not, this pales in comparison to some of the other Unhealthiest Drinks in America.)

Sugar equivalent: 4 Original Fudgsicle Bars

Drink This Instead:

Tropicana Lime Raspberry Fruit Squeeze (15.2 oz. bottle)

• 35 calories, 0 g fat
• 7 g sugars

13. WORST “HEALTHY” PANTRY ITEM

Pop-Tarts Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon (2 pastries)

• 400 calories
• 14 g fat (4 g saturated)
• 5 g fiber, 28 g sugars

Whole grain ain’t the whole truth. There’s also a glut of vegetable oil and seven types of sugar stuffed inside.

Sugar equivalent: 1 Snickers bar

Eat This Instead:

Sun-Maid Raisin English Muffins with Cinnamon (1 muffin)

• 170 calories
• 0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)
• 2 g fiber, 13 g sugars

12. WORST FROZEN “HEALTHY” ENTRÉE

Healthy Choice Complete Selections Sweet & Sour Chicken (340 g)

• 430 calories
• 9 g fat (1 g saturated)
• 600 mg sodium
• 29 g sugars

Since when has fried chicken been healthy? Certainly not when it’s cloaked in sugar.

Sugar equivalent: 2 scoops Breyers Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream

Eat This Instead:

Kashi Southwest Style Chicken (283 g)

• 240 calories
• 5 g fat (0 g saturated)
• 680 mg sodium

11. WORST CEREAL

Quaker 100% Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisins (1 c)

• 420 calories
• 12 g fat (7 g saturated)
• 6 g fiber, 30 g sugars

Granola, for all its good reputation, is usually weighed down by a deluge of added sugars. In fact, for the same amount of sugar, you could have a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles more than twice the size—and you’d get more fiber and save about 60 calories in fat.

Calorie equivalent: 8 chicken wings

Eat This Instead:

Kashi GOLEAN (1 c)

• 140 calories
• 1 g fat (0 g saturated)
• 10 g fiber/6 g sugars

10. WORST PACKAGED PASTA

Pasta Roni Fettuccine Alfredo (1 c prepared with 2 percent milk and margarine)

• 450 calories
• 25 g fat (7 g saturated, 3.5 g trans)
• 1,140 mg sodium

Once again Alfredo proves itself to be the biggest belt-busting option on the shelf.

This side has a meal’s worth of calories, and if you try to turn it into a meal in itself, expect to top 1,000 calories.

Sodium equivalent: 4 medium orders of McDonald’s French fries

Eat This Instead:

Pasta Roni Nature’s Way Olive Oil & Italian Herb (1 c prepared with water and olive oil)

• 250 calories
• 8 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
• 800 mg sodium

9. WORST BAKED GOOD

Otis Spunkmeyer Banana Nut Muffins (1 muffin, 114 g)

• 460 calories
• 22 g fat (3 g saturated)
• 2 g fiber, 32 g sugars

Despite popular belief, muffins are very rarely healthy. Case in point: The first ingredient in this muffin is sugar. The result is metabolic mayhem: Blood sugar climbs, pancreas goes into overdrive, and the body begins storing sugar as fat. Shortly after, you’ll feel sluggish and crave more sugar.

Sugar equivalent: 3 1/2 Rice Krispies Treats

Eat This Instead:

Vitalicious Apple Berry Muffin (1 muffin)

• 100 calories
• 0 g fat
• 5 g fiber, 10 g sugars

8. WORST FROZEN TREAT

Toll House Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich (1 sandwich)

• 520 calories
• 23 g fat (9 g saturated)
• 44 g sugars

Do you really want more than a quarter of your day’s calories to come from an ice-cream novelty? If you’re going to take in this much fat and calories in one sitting, it better be dinner.

Calorie equivalent: Two slices of hand-tossed pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut

Eat This Instead:

Skinny Cow Low Fat Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich (1 sandwich)

• 140 calories
• 2 g fat (1 g saturated)
• 15 g sugars

7. WORST INDIVIDUAL SNACK

Hostess Chocolate Pudding Pie (1 pie)

• 520 calories
• 45 g sugars
• 24 g fat (14 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)

Skip past the enriched flour and water on the ingredient list and here’s what you get: animal shortening, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, butter, chocolate liqueur, and so on. Any one of these ingredients alone might prompt you to raise an eyebrow, but taken together they should invoke a gag reflex and a sprint for something far healthier.

Saturated fat equivalent: 2 McDonald’s Quarter Pounders

Eat This Instead:

Chocolatey Drizzle Rice Krispies Treat

• 100 calories
• 8 g sugars
• 3 g fat (1 g saturated)

6. WORST PACKAGED LUNCH

Oscar Mayer Maxed Out Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Combo Lunchables (1 package)

• 680 calories
• 61 g sugars
• 22 g fat (9 g saturated, 1 g trans)
• 1,440 mg sodium

Here’s your first clue that this meal has issues: The ingredient list—in its squinty small type—is a full 4 inches long. It includes just about every form of fat and sugar you can imagine. Your child deserves better.

Calorie equivalent: 15 Chicken McNuggets

Eat This Instead:

Oscar Mayer Deli Creations Fajita Beef & Salsa Flatbread (145 g)

• 280 calories
• 9 g fat (4 g saturated)
• 890 mg sodium

5. WORST STIR-FRY

Bertolli Grilled Chicken Alfredo & Fettuccine Complete Skillet Meal for Two (1/2 package, 340 g)

• 710 calories
• 1,370 mg sodium
• 42 g fat (22 g saturated)

A dinner for two should get your blood flowing, not stuff your arteries with more than the entire day’s saturated fat.

Saturated fat equivalent: 22 strips of bacon

Eat This Instead:

Birds Eye Steamfresh Meals for Two Grilled Chicken in Roasted Garlic Sauce (1/2 bag, 340 g)

• 340 calories
• 880 mg sodium
• 13 g fat (5 g saturated)

4. WORST FROZEN BREAKFAST

Jimmy Dean Pancake and Sausage Links Breakfast Bowls

• 710 calories
• 890 mg sodium
• 31 g fat (11 g saturated)

As if the calories, fat, and refined carbohydrates weren’t bad enough, Jimmy D tops the whole thing with two Hershey’s bars’ worth of sugar.

Calorie equivalent: 6 bowls of Froot Loops

Eat This Instead:

Jimmy Dean D-lights Breakfast Bowls Turkey Sausage (198 g)

• 230 calories
• 730 mg sodium
• 7 g fat (3 g saturated)

3. WORST FROZEN PIZZA

DiGiorno for One Garlic Bread Crust Supreme Pizza

• 850 calories
• 1,450 mg sodium
• 44 g fat (15 g saturated, 3.5 g trans)

The bloated crust and the greasy toppings will saddle you with 60 percent of your day’s sodium, 75 percent of your day’s saturated fat, and nearly twice the amount of trans fats you should take in daily.

Calorie equivalent: 6 slices Domino’s Thin’N Crispy Cheese Pizza

Eat This Instead:

South Beach Diet Deluxe Pizza

• 340 calories
• 660 mg sodium
• 11 g fat (4 g saturated)

2. WORST FROZEN ENTRÉE

Hungry-Man Classic Fried Chicken

• 1,020 calories
• 1,570 mg sodium
• 57 g fat (12 g saturated)

They should rename the company Hungry-Men, because there’s no way a single man needs more than a pound of fatty fried chicken, oily potatoes, and a brownie.

Calorie equivalent: 5 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts

Eat This Instead:

Banquet Select Chicken Parmesan

• 350 calories
• 870 mg sodium
• 15 g fat (3.5 g saturated)

1. WORST PACKAGED FOOD IN AMERICA

Marie Callender’s Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie

• 1,060 calories
• 1,440 mg sodium
• 64 g fat (24 g saturated)

Marie Callender’s perpetrates the ultimate sleight of hand here: The nutrition information says this medium-size entrée has two servings, but honestly, when have you ever split a potpie? Lard-strewn pastry tops and cream-based fillings are the lowest common denominators of the nutritionally nefarious potpie, and this one, with an ingredient list that reads like an O-Chem final, beats out dozens of horrendous iterations to earn this special place on our list.

Sodium equivalent: 8 small bags of potato chips

Fat equivalent: 23 strips of bacon

Calorie equivalent: 7 Taco Bell Fresco Beef Tacos

Eat This Instead:

Marie Callender’s Oven Baked Chicken (369 g)

• 320 calories
• 990 mg sodium
• 12 g fat (3 g saturated)

Check out some cool snack food alternatives and join the Chaseschallenge team at activateupstate.org

 

Went to Dr Messer’s office (Riverside Family) and got some blood pulled out of my arm!  I HATE THAT!  When it comes to getting shots, I’m fine.  I just hate when they take the blood.  Erin, my 2 year old daughter, is better at that stuff than I am.  I will know the results on Friday.  The are checking my cholesterol and a few other things.  This will be the first look at my cholesterol in over 4 months.  We’ll see if all the diet and exercise changes have helped bring the bad one down and the good one up!  Wish me luck!  I’ll post the results.

Also, don’t forget to join the Chase’s Challenge team with activate upstate!  I gotta go eat something now, they made me fast for the blood test….

Here’s a sample of the newsletter you’d get if joined activate upstate.  VERY COOL! 

 

ACTIVATE SOUTH CAROLINA
HEALTHY LIVING NEWSLETTER
January 20, 2009
Welcome to Activate South Carolina 2009

Congratulations – you completed your 1^st week of Activate!
Each week, you will receive a short wellness newsletter to help encourage your healthy lifestyle.  

 

Menu of the Week: White Bean & Chicken Chili
Can be made ahead of time and is freezable.
http://www.activatesouthcarolina.org/files/White%20Bean%20and%20Chicken%20Chili.pdf

Physical Activity Record
 While tracking physical activity may seem time consuming; it can dramatically improve your chance of succeeding in this healthy living program. http://www.activatesouthcarolina.org/files/Physical%20Activity%20Record.pdf

How Many Servings Do I Need?
Eat a variety of foods to obtain the nutrients that you need to stay healthy. http://www.activatesouthcarolina.org/files/How%20Many%20Servings%20Do%20I%20Need.pdf

 Weigh-Ins
**Don’t forget the next weigh-in will take place**
Friday, January 23rd
Please visit your local weigh in facility

Contact Us!
Do you have a question for our wellness professionals?  Did you forget your username or password?  Contact us by clicking on the Contact Us button found on the Activate Website.

NEW WEEKLY BLOGS - Visit our Greenville News health blog at: http://greenvilleonline.com/healthandwellness

Steps to a Healthier You! http://www.mypyramid.gov/

 

Join today!  It’s pretty cool!  is http://www.activategreenville.org/

For months I had no idea what was in the building adjacent to the life center in Simpsonville.  Now I know!  Acceleration Sports Institute (ASI).  This is a place where athletes train.  As I’ve said on the air, it’s like an under armour commercial over there!  Big tractor tires, an indoor football field and a bunch of other cool stuff.  It’s pretty cool.  A lot of professional and college level athletes work out at ASI and I’m just amazed that they let a slob like me hang out in the facility! lol

It’s been a fun change to my workout.  I wake up at 5:30am 5 times a week and head over to the gym.  it’s nice to have a change of scenery as well as a workout routine.  In the future, I will post my workouts so you get an idea of what kind of stuff I am doing.  I’m working with DJ, who is also a running back for the arena team here in town.  The other day I put on boxing gloves and hit hand pads…FUN!  This morning I ran on a treadmill that wasn’t turned on…That is not easy!  I have yet to do the same workout twice, but I’ve left there pretty sweaty each time.  More quick muscle type workout and less weights. Here’s some info if you are interested.  http://www.ghs.org/Content.aspx?id=81666

Hopefully this will prepare me for swimsuit season! lol

Next week…I go back to Dr. Messer’s office to get my blood checked.  C’mon low cholesterol!

Join the Chase’s challenge team and get ACTIVE. is http://www.activategreenville.org/

I need more team members than Hawk and Tom! :) 

Seriously, this website will help you eat and live better!  At the very least, please check it out.

Here’s how to Join the Chaseschallenge team!

Follow these easy simple steps to register today for Activate Greenville.

 

Step 1. Go to www.activategreenville.org

Step 2. Click on Register Now button found on left hand side of the screen

Step 3. Fill out registration form

Step 4. On the registration form there is a place to choose Group/Company (optional): Use the drop down menu and select B 93.7 – Chase’s Challenge as your group/company.

Step 5. Click on Submit

Step 6. You will be automatically emailed your username and password.

If  you name is John Doe and the last four digits of your phone number is 1212 then your username would be jdoe1212 and your password will be the last four digits of your SSN or the four digit number you provided on the registration form.

Step 7. Login to the website www.activategreenville.org. Follow the instructions on the How to Guide to begin logging your physical activity. You can back log physical activity for the past 30 days. Access the Healthy Living Guide and try to prepare the Weekly Healthy Living Recipe. New healthy living articles and recipes are uploaded every Monday throughout the year.

I’m hooked.  Something about watching fat people sweat and run up and down hills holds my attention for 2 hours!  You watch it last night?  Amazing!  There are some big people on the show this season and the twist of sending their partners home should make for some interesting TV.  Thoughts?  Feel free to leave me a comment.

Q: I lost 15 pounds and have kept it off for three months. I’m 5 feet 7 inches and now weigh 167 pounds, but my ideal weight is 135 pounds. Is it realistic to try to lose five pounds a month? And what exercise can help keep me from getting flabby?

A: Be careful of getting attached to a specific number when it comes to your “ideal” weight. So many individual factors play a role in determining what your optimal body weight is that’s it’s hard to say exactly what the best weight is for you. And keep in mind that for many women, their ideal weight from a health standpoint may be more than their ideal weight from an aesthetic standpoint. (Women often think skinnier is better, but just as overweight people have higher risks of disease, so do underweight people.)

Although 135 pounds for someone who’s 5 feet 7 inches is not technically underweight, 135 may be too low for you if you are big-boned and muscular. It’s better to shoot for a range, and remember that scale weight alone doesn’t give you an indication of your body composition, or the amount of muscle mass versus body fat that you have. A person can be muscular and have low body fat, but weigh on the heavier end of an “ideal” range, but look great because he or she is lean and firm.

In any case, 30 pounds is a lot to lose, and while it can be done, it requires a commitment and long-term lifestyle changes. You’re right to aim for a slow rate of weight loss, and one or two pounds a week is considered to be a healthy pace. To keep yourself motivated, rather than focusing on the 30 pounds, aim for something smaller, like four or five pounds. Once you’ve reached that first, more easily achieved goal, set a new goal until eventually you reach your target weight.

Keep in mind that a few things may impede your progress. First, the closer you get to your optimum weight, the harder it may be to lose. This is especially true if your body considers your “optimum” weight to be one that’s five or 10 pounds more than the weight you desire.

Also, the fact that you’ve lost a considerable amount of weight already will affect your weight loss now and going forward. You’ve lost fat from fat cells, but the fat cells still remain in your body. These fat cells are programmed to be filled, since fat is the body’s energy supply. So when weight is lost, energy-preservation mechanisms kick in to attempt to restore the lost body fat.

It’s unclear how much weight loss triggers this phenomenon, but it appears that when weight loss starts to plateau, often after about six months of weight loss, some biological triggers try to reverse the loss. Biochemicals are released in your brain and body that may affect your tendency to regain weight in a variety of ways: You may feel less full after eating, you may crave snacks more often, you may crave more fattening foods, and/or you may get hungrier sooner.

This doesn’t mean that you will definitely gain the weight back, but it does mean that you have to continue with the smart eating choices and regular exercise to counteract these influences. The National Weight Control Registry, an ongoing research investigation that monitors people who have lost weight and successfully kept it off, shows that it can be done. And there are some weight-management strategies that most of these successful losers use to stay on the healthy end of the scale. On average, 90 percent of these success stories exercise about one hour per day (mostly walking), 78 percent eat breakfast every day, and 62 percent watch less than 10 hours of TV a week (that clearly gives them more time to be active).

To kick-start your weight loss, evaluate your diet and exercise program. Find ways to eat more healthfully, consuming fewer calories, and find ways to increase the amount of daily activity that you get, aiming to ramp up the amount of vigorous exercise that you do too (try inserting jogging sprints into a walk, or intervals of higher-resistance climbing on a cardio machine). Also incorporate resistance exercises with weights, which will keep you from getting flabby. Look for specific moves that you can do at home on the MSN Fit Zone.

Please feel free to send me your new years resolutions.  I’ll only post them if you want them posted on the site.  Some may be more personal than others.  I’m just curious to see what people want to accomplish and maybe, in my own little way, I can help.

Here are some of my goals for 2009

Goal #1:  Conceive and birth a 2nd child.  Christal and I are currently working on the first part of this goal.  ;) 

Goal #2:  Maintain weight loss and healthy lifestyle.  Perhaps dropping 5 more pounds to give me a little more of a buffer from 200 pounds (I weigh 195)

Goal #3:  To wear a size 34 in pants.  Right now my size 36 pants are a little loose, but not loose enough to go down a size.  I was a 38.

Goal #4:  To run in another 5k and possibly something longer….10k?

Goal #5:  To go shirtless as often as possible this summer!  From mowing the yard to swimmingin the pool!  Still working on the abs to make this happen.  This was one of my original goals when I started this whole thing months ago.  Like many-I look at the magazines at the check out stand that promise great summer abs in just 10 minutes a day.  lol

Good luck on your goals!  Please share them with me!