Magically Delicious?

It's MAGIC! That's what some people would have you believe about certain foods. You've heard of them before I'm sure – food that actually MAKE you lose weight! Everything from grapefruit to celery have been grouped into this category and I suspect many a person have made a pretty penny (or thousands) telling us all about it.

Folks, I'm here to tell you there is no such thing as Negative Calorie Food! That's an oxymoron of the likes of “jumbo shrimp,” “Dodge Ram” and “Holy War.” It just doesn't make sense. Food, by its nature, has calories.

Admittedly, the essence of most of the arguments are somewhat true (if not quite a bit off base). Celery for instance. The argument is that you burn more calories chewing it than are actually in it. Guess what? IT'S TRUE (please keep reading before you go buy a cart load). The net “negative calories” from chewing a stalk of celery is about 10 calories. You can eat yourself skinny? Puh-leeaasse!

Given that there are about 3500 calories in a pound, you'd need to eat 350 stalks to lose 1 lb. But even that probably wouldn't work because of the kind of calories you'd be putting into your system (namely celery calories). We won't go into detail on this one, but your body is not going to thank you for it and it is likely to have an overall negative impact on losing weight (I guess, in that way, it is a “negative” calorie food).

The bottom line is that some of these foods might make good snacks, but quite frankly most fruits and vegetable make good, low calorie snacks. There is nothing magical about certain ones.

Don't look for magic beans (or celery or grapfruit or whatever). Weight loss takes really serious commitment, exercise, and a well planned and monitored diet...and there's nothing magical about that. It is hard work – but it is SO worth it!

Mid-week check in and I've lost another 3 lbs. That's a total of 30 lbs so far. I've gone down one shirt size and lost about 3 inches in my waist.

I'll be on hiatus for a few days. So, in the meantime. Keep at it and use the time to think about what other fitness related topics you want to know about...and then let me hear from you!