As energy drinks become more popular, there is growing concern over how they could affect young athletes. Health experts say more high school and college athletes are downing these caffeine-loaded drinks to boost athletic performance or lose weight. But too many energy drinks could lead to dehydration, tremors, heat stroke and heart attacks, the experts warn. They say young athletes should instead drink water while training and playing, especially during hot and humid summer months.

Also see: Energy drinks should come with warnings

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No worries. Just solemnly swear the Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat? way to re-commit:

I {state your name} do swear and recommit to becoming smoking hot or at least short pants eligible by Memorial Day, in the Year of Our Lard 2009.

See the entire 18-step commitment here. Enjoy!

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Could changing something in your diet help you feel better and at the same time help you lose weight? I definitely believe one diet does not fit all. But do you know which foods are best for you? Here’s your chance to find out.

Jennifer Cassetta – the founder of Health and the City - is offering a free one-hour initial nutritional consultation (value of $125)!

Health and the City is all about a holistic approach to health and fitness that looks at your entire life, mind, body, and spirit to come up with just the right program for you. And Jennifer is simply amazing! She’s a holistic health counselor, a personal trainer, a second degree black belt instructor, and more!

Jennifer will talk to you about your health history, your current lifestyle and diet habits, and give you a few suggestions on how to move forward with the way you eat – your very own personal nutritional consultation. Nice, huh?

To enter for a chance to win, head down to the comments and tell me what questions you have about your diet. What would you ask Jennifer?

Remember, there’s a different giveaway every day this week at FFTV to celebrate my B-Day week, so enter them all!

• Get Red Carpet Ready here
• Core Rhythms DVDs here

The contests run through midnight EST this Friday, February 13 and I will announce the winners over the weekend. Also, you have to have a U.S. mailing address to enter… and a random number generator will pick the winners.

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The latest government recommendations on how much we should exercise may not cut it. New exercise guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) say we may need more physical activity to keep from gaining weight, and to help lose weight and keep it off. The ACSM stresses if you’re overweight or obese, you’ll most likely lose more weight and maintain that weight loss if you exercise at least 250 minutes each week – that’s 50 minutes five days a week.

Want more News Nuggets? Follow me on Twitter!

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Want to lose weight and help feed the hungry? The Pound for Pound Challenge can help you do both.

It’s a new program from General Mills, NBC’s The Biggest Loser and Feeding America. For every pound you pledge to lose this year, the campaign will deliver a pound of groceries to a local food bank based on your zip code.

There are three ways to join the Pound For Pound Challenge:

• Pledge to lose weight at PFPChallenge.com or BiggestLoser.com

• Mail-in the Pound For Pound lids and seals from specially-marked General Mills products. For every lid or seal you send, General Mills will donate 10 cents to Feeding America. Brands include Cheerios, Fiber One products, and Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers. Get coupons for some of the products here.

• Donate directly to Feeding America

If you pledge to lose weight, you have until April 27 to record your weight loss. You can mail in lids and seals until December 31, 2009.  The Pound for Pound Challenge hopes to donate up to $775,000 to Feeding America.

And if you’re looking for a healthy breakfast to get you going on your weight loss journey, check out these Mexican Breakfast Wraps from Eat Better America.

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If losing weight was one of your New Year’s resolutions, how’s this for motivation – an “After” photo before you shed those extra pounds.

You’re looking at a digitally altered custom photo, courtesy of WeightView – a FREE service that lets you see how you’d look 5-50 pounds lighter, depending on your weight loss goals – now available on FatFighterTV.

Don’t just imagine what you’d look like if you lost weight – see it!

Just upload a picture of yourself, let WeightView know how many pounds you’d like to lose, and in less than 48 hours, they’ll email you how you’ll look at your target weight.

Use your picture as a screensaver, put it on your fridge, wherever it helps to motivate you!

Upload your picture now right here.

What do you think? Would the power of seeing your “After” picture motivate you to lose weight?

I’d love to know what you think of this service if you decide to use it. And if you feel like sharing your pics here on FFTV, email me at sahar [at] fatfightertv [dot] com

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Want to see yourself thinner? If you could see your “After” picture before you actually lost the weight, would it motivate you to shed those extra pounds?

You’re looking at a digitally altered custom photo, courtesy of WeightView – a FREE service that lets you see how you’d look 5-50 pounds lighter, depending on your target weight – now available on FatFighterTV

Use your picture as a screensaver, put it on your fridge, wherever it helps motivate you!

Get started right here:

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It could be a convenient, relatively cheap way to help people who’ve successfully lost weight keep it off. A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds counseling over the phone seems to be just as effective as face-to-face sessions. Researchers say it could be especially helpful for those who live in rural areas with limited healthcare services.

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Congrats to FFTV members, ladyjay and penguin28 for winning last week’s giveaway – a FREE three-month Weight Watchers membership! Which will it be – the group meetings or the online version? Your choice.

And remember, Weight Watchers’ new Lose for Good campaign runs through October 18. For every pound someone loses with Weight Watchers during this time, the company will donate the cost of one pound of food — up to one million dollars. The money will go to two hunger-fighting organizations: Share Our Strength, which helps make sure children in America don’t grow up hungry, and Action Against Hunger, which helps fight hunger around the world.

Thanks for the free memberships, Weight Watchers!

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Losing weight is about much more than the physical changes – to have permanent weight loss, you may need to make changes on the inside, too.

The mental factor is critical. It’s how Becoming Thin Within Internet Talk Radio show host, Deborah J. Wright, finally lost 60 pounds and has kept it off for over four years now.

Before taking a deep look inside, Deborah says she was a “master yo-yo dieter.”

She tells FatFighterTV why she was holding on to those unhealthy pounds, how she finally let go, and how she’s helping others to do the same.

FFTV welcomes Deborah as a Weight Loss WooHoo! honoree – just our fun way of celebrating healthy weight loss.

Early start to yo-yo dieting
“I think my first diet was at the end of elementary school. I started drinking Tab because that was the diet drink of the time. For a couple of days I did nothing but drink Tab and eat a couple of carrot sticks. I maybe lost three or four pounds because I wasn’t eating anything. Of course I couldn’t maintain that – I had to end up eating. Then I started beating myself up and telling myself what an idiot I am, what a big loser I am – I can’t even lose weight. So I just went to the opposite end and started bingeing and just ate and ate and ate, and then gained more weight and then that just basically started the yo-yo dieting. And I would do the same thing over again.”

Expert dieter
“I was very good at losing the weight – actually exceptional at losing the weight – but not very good at maintaining it. So I was up and down, up and down for years.”

Turning point – pregnancy and motherhood
(Deborah has a little girl) “I can’t tell her, ‘Eat your carrots, eat your broccoli, eat your fruits,’ while I’m scarfing down pizza and cake.”

Healing from the inside out
“When you have a lot of weight and it does not want to let go then it’s there for a reason. It’s trying to tell you something. Once you listen and understand what it’s trying to tell you then you can let go and it can let go.

Part of it was not forgiving myself for overeating in the past, for yo-yo dieting, looking at myself in a whole different way; looking in the mirror and instead of looking at my body and saying, ‘Eww, look at these dimpled thighs,’ really looking at myself in the face and seeing the person inside as opposed to what makes up the outside. It took a lot of work.”

Forgiving others
“The healing also came with regard to other people. That was a big part of it because there were people who had hurt me in my past that I had a hard time letting go of.

That made a big difference in how I approached food because I wasn’t going to the food to deal with the anger and frustration. For instance, if someone had hurt me in the past and I got angry and frustrated, what would I do? I would go get a piece of cake or a cookie while I was cooling off or blowing off steam. But I learned that food is not going to help in that situation. What I need to do is figure out what’s going on. That took a long time – at least a year after I had lost weight to go through that process of really figuring out what was going on.”

Getting emotional
“Weight loss is emotional. We don’t put the pounds on just because we like the food. Because think about it – if you like an apple, and most people do, but they don’t sit in their rooms going, ‘Man, I’ve gotta have an apple. No, I need 50 of them!’ They don’t run in and eat 50, 60 apples. They go to the comfort foods, they go to the sugar – things that make them feel better.”

Using her show to reach others
“When we go to food, if it’s not for hunger, it’s emotionally based. And those emotions are triggering a belief. That’s what we get to during the program – What are those beliefs that are sending you there? What are those beliefs that are telling you you’re not good enough, that are telling you you’ll never amount to anything? All those things we say to ourselves.”

Believe in yourself
“Yeah, I am worth getting up at 5:00 in the morning and doing my exercise. I may not enjoy it, but I need it. I’m worth it. This is what my body requires and that’s good enough for me. And it’s the same with the food – not that there’s anything wrong with having a piece of cake, but when you walk away from the cake feeling guilty and frustrated and angry, then there’s an emotional connection – you’re getting something from that food that you’re not getting from yourself.”

###

Anyone out there who can relate to what Deborah went through? I think it’s awesome that she is finally in control of her health and wants to help others.

Deborah is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, a Nutritional Counselor, and AFAA Certified Personal Trainer. Check out her Internet talk show – Becoming Thin Within – every Thursday morning at 11:00 CST

And here’s a link to Deborah’s interview with FatFighterTV – yours truly – on TalkZone.com

Want to see who else got a Weight Loss WooHoo!? Check out the Wall of Fame!

If you know of someone who deserves this honor, just let me know – send me an email at sahar [at] fatfightertv [dot] com

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