Erika Christensen happy with her curves

Erika Christensen, who stars as working mom Julia on NBC's hit show Parentage, is a girl with curves among a galaxy of skinny Hollywood actresses. She hit the big time playing the drug-addicted daughter of Michael Douglas in Traffic. Erika also appeared in teen movies like Swimfan and The Perfect Score, and thrillers like Riding the Bullet and How to Rob a Bank. In an interview with Women's Wear Daily, Erika Christensen talked of her food habits:

"I know lots of people who eat raw, vegetarian or vegan. I'm not into any of those things. I believe in eating enough so your body will actually run," she says, biting into a goat cheese and spinach sandwich. "People look their most beautiful when they're healthy." She then pops a handful of vitamins, which she washes down with plenty of tea.

Erika Christensen is into curvy fashion and says that she likes the designer Roland Mouret: "I love his clothes because he cuts for a woman's body. I'm not straight up and down. I have curves." A quick look at some of Erika's other interviews shows that she does Yoga, works out in gyms, and is into dancing. I'd love to know some more details of how she stays in shape despite being such a happy eater! Oh and Christensen in very Eco-friendly. She does not use disposable plastic bottles for her drinking water, and carries two big gallon-size refillable containers. "People make fun of me because I carry them around. And I ride my bicycle sometimes and I walk."

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Laugh away disease and depression

A study at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine reports that laughter can help you fight heart disease. After watching a comedy film, participants in the study experienced improved circulation and blood flow. A good laugh massages the diaphragm and the internal organs, so that if you laugh too hard on a full stomach you can get a mild form of painful side stitches.

When you smile and laugh the brain releases feel good endorphins, which relieve pain and uplift your mood. Laughter exercises the facial muscles, boosting circulation and making the skin glow. In another study, scientists at Loma Linda University made volunteers watch 20 minutes of a funny movie or a stand-up comedy routine. And the researchers found that laughing along with some light-hearted comedy actually lowered volunteers' blood pressure. And it altered their appetite hormones in the same way that moderate exercise would. There is something called "Laughter Yoga" and there are laughing clubs around the world where people come to laugh together; mostly senior folk. It reduces stress and tackles the symptoms of depression.

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Junk food habit

Many people get into the habit of eating junk food at a young age, which causes health problems like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Junk food is a term used for processed, ready-to-eat stuff, that is high in sugar, salt, saturated fat, and extremely low in fiber and antioxidants. Stuff like greasy burgers, pizza, colas, french fries, desserts, are all unhealthy. But they are easy to make (that's why they're called fast food), there are huge industries (corn, meat, dairy) behind them, and the power of relentless advertising.

In a study, neuropsychopharmacologist Paul J Kenny of the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, found that junk food can become addictive. The sudden spikes in fat, sugar, and salt levels from eating junk food temporarily makes us feel satisfied; but just in a few hours that feeling goes away, driving us to eat more junk. To get out of this unhealthy cycle kids should be eating food that has fiber, protein, and complex carbohydrates. If they start the day with oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit, there will be less temptation to eat junk food. Many studies have shown that when canteens and cafeterias serve healthy food in school, it leads to improved performance, concentration, and overall behavior of the students.

In the UK there is a total ban on advertisements for junk food during TV programs for under-16 year olds. Now there is a demand that such restrictions be extended to cover newspapers, magazines and billboards. Junk food is banned from most public school canteens; other schools are serving healthy foods, high in antioxidants and fiber, on their own initiative. It is a little time consuming to prepare healthy food but ultimately leads to cost savings and more attentive children.

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Work out with a trainer—problems and prospects

Every celebrity works out with a personal fitness trainer, and every athlete or professional sports person, even in peak physical condition, needs a trainer to watch over them. Ideally, fitness instructors are certified and fully qualified, and come with a wealth of knowledge and years of experience in the related fields of nutrition, kinesiology, Yoga, exercise physiology, and basic health studies. But this is the central problem: there is an abundance of people without ANY such qualification posing as fitness trainers. Mostly these are good-looking models, ex-athletes, or gym assistants who picked up bits and pieces of knowledge on the job.

There are websites that offer personal trainer certification after just a few online courses and a small fee. Such unqualified trainers can cause serious health problems for their unsuspecting clients. But why do we need trainers at all?

A fitness instructor for one shows you the proper way of doing an exercise, the form and the correct body posture. This is very important in exercises like weight training and Yoga. A personal fitness trainer will give you the correct appraisal of your body type and prospects for improvements; he or she will keep count of your sets and repetitions and keep you motivated to eke out more. Dietary changes are the more important part of getting in shape, and a qualified fitness professional is best placed to make those changes for you. Once you pay for your workout sessions, you're less likely to take shortcuts and skip on exercise.

What do the statistics say? There are as many people who used fitness trainers to get in shape, as there are people who did it on their own. There is a wealth of information on fitness, proper nutrition, and health available for free. People looking to stay in shape don't need to waste money on fitness instructors. But for those with serious health problems, or those looking to make drastic changes in their physical appearance, should hire a personal trainer....if they can afford one.

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Workout buddy and training partner

Whether you're just working out to be in shape, or in intense training for a sport or athletic event, with a workout buddy or training partner it's a lot easier to stick to a schedule and stay motivated. A training partner appeals to our sense of camaraderie and arouses the inner competitive spirit. Workout sessions become fun, and you push each other to squeeze out a little extra effort. While lifting weights a training partner can potentially save you from hurting yourself. When not exercising, workout buddies can call or text each other to watch their diet, not give in to cravings, or just remind each other to drink water.

It's important to choose a training partner with the same level of fitness, and looking to achieve similar goals. A major downer is when one person improves their fitness levels at a faster pace. Another problem is distraction; if either of you is overly talkative, you can lose precious time and mess up your fitness schedule. Some people become workout buddies without ever actually meeting face-to-face and just check up on each other's individual progress and send each other motivational messages.

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Eating fruit or drinking fruit juice?

Eating fruit is way better. When you squeeze all the juice out of a fruit, you get all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. But you lose out on the fiber and get concentrated amounts of sugar; a double whammy. Even with these drawbacks, freshly-squeezed fruit juice is still better than soda pop or alcopops, which you may be dying to drink on a hot summer day. But not all of us can have freshly-squeezed juice.

And the second choice is 100 percent fruit juice, bought either frozen or otherwise preserved. Any other packaged fruit drink or beverage will have added sugar and additives, and should be avoided. According to studies, 100 percent fruit juice is the ideal drink to wean away children addicted to colas. Once they get hooked on the taste of fruit juice, these kids will start eating fruit, which is the best thing for their health.

Other innovative summer treats using fruit juice are natural popsicles, made by freezing fruit juice in ice trays. Or make nutritious smoothies using fruit juice, low-fat yogurt and fresh-frozen fruit or vegetables.



In terms of calories, fruit juice is not the best drink, because you need to squeeze many fruits to get one glass of juice. "Fruit juice has the same number of calories per ounce as pop, sometimes a little bit more," said Dr. Sarah Jane Schwarzenberg, an obesity researcher and pediatrician at the University of Minnesota. She says fruit juice should be considered a treat and should not be consumed more than once in a day.

Eating fruit is obviously much better, because you get the fiber, which slows down the absorption of sugars in the fruit, and keeps your stomach full. But on a hot day, and after a sweaty workout, who can resist a chilled, tasty glass of fruit juice? Kids who have high metabolism and are skinny can drink fruit juice, but adults would do better if they mixed 3 parts seltzer water and 1 part fruit juice for a healthy summer drink.

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Indoor cardio without equipment

Working out indoors is sometimes convenient for many people; they may be too self-conscious about their appearance, or they may be living in a cold or rainy place, or in crowded and unsafe neighborhoods. Many beginners also prefer to start out with simple at-home cardio exercises, which don't require any expensive equipment. The best of these aerobic workouts that can be done at home is rope jumping, but it needs plenty of headroom for the whirling rope. Another is dance aerobics but not all of us are good dancers.

Jogging in place is another convenient indoor cardio workout. The drawback from regular jogging is that you can't increase the pace and stride to graduate into running and full tilt sprinting. Another problem is that it becomes extremely BORING, because you're just not going anywhere and it's difficult to motivate yourself to keep up the intensity and duration after the first few days. Combine jogging with another activity like watching TV or listening to music. Vary the intensity by mixing it with high knee jogging and jumping jacks, where you jump while throwing your arms and legs out sideways.



Above, this girl is doing modified form of jumping jacks, where the legs jump forward and back instead of sideways. So in an indoor cardio workout without equipment, start with jogging, increase the intensity with knee-high jogging, go back to regular jogging to catch your breath, then do jumping jacks, switch back to regular jogging, then do modified jumping jacks, and so on.

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Eating meat for protein to build muscles?

Most of us eat meat without thinking where it comes from, and we eat it nicely cooked and spiced up. Raw meat is usually bland and tasteless and to make it juicy and succulent salt needs to be added (which is bad for health). All the meat substitutes can match the taste of cooked meat, but not its texture. Most research suggests that at our present population levels, eating meat is harmful for the environment, because of all the greenery and water that is consumed by livestock. Meat eating also has ethical concerns from the way animals are raised and then slaughtered; but most of all, eating meat carries a bunch of health risks:

Heart disease, high cholesterol, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer are the result of excessive meat eating. Girls who eat too much red meat during their teen years have a more than 30% higher risk for getting breast cancer as adults, than girls who are vegetarian or have a balanced diet. Despite all these health risks, the last defense for eating meat is that it provides animal protein, and this is important for building muscle.



Animals get their protein from plants, and the structure of these amino acids does not change too much when they are processed by the animals. What does change are the fatty acids; unsaturated fat (omega oils) is found in plant food and it is essential for human beings. But when digested by animals it is stored in their bodies as saturated fat, which is terrible for us. A 6-ounce piece of steak gives 38 grams of protein, but it also has 44 grams of fat, 16 of them saturated. By comparison a cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein, and 1 gram of unsaturated fat.

The process of building muscle from protein is called muscle protein synthesis. Scientists at the University of Texas found that only the first 30 grams of protein, the equivalent of four ounces of meat or one cup of beans, at any meal contributes to an increased rate of muscle protein synthesis. Eating more meat does not add to the muscle building, as the extra protein is oxidized and could end up as glucose or fat.

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Music releases endorphins

Music is a complex sensory stimulus, which is processed in the brain, and has a beneficial effect on both mind and body. A study at the University of Maryland Hospital found that listening to joyful music is associated with improved endothelial function, which measures arterial health, and a 26 percent increased blood flow. Music makes the brain open up arteries, by sending out endorphins that may react with the vessel walls, causing expansion. Scientists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) tested two groups of patients with Alzheimer’s disease to find that listening to music accompanied by lyrics can help Alzheimer’s patients remember new verbal information. But music is also very important for physical fitness:



The rhythm, timing, pitch, and lyrics of music are great motivation for exercise. They can uplift mood, reduce stress, and make you feel like dancing. Music is an essential part of gyms, aerobics and dance aerobics classes. The endorphins released by music help the body manage pain, so that athletes have a higher pain tolerance and can raise the level and intensity of their workouts.

Researchers find that all kinds of music, from classical to jazz or from pop to heavy metal, has an impact on the listeners. It's a matter of personal taste; the kind of music that most people find creepy or frightening is used for effect in movies. This kind of musical effect increases anxiety levels and thins the blood vessels, making the heart beat faster, and is used most often in horror movies. But all other music which unfolds in a pattern of rhythm, beat, and tempo releases endorphins and has a positive impact on the mind and body.

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Burning calories with pleasure

Physical love between two people is an activity that gives pleasure, but like any physical activity it also burns calories. It is estimated that 30 minutes of such pleasurable activity burns around 150 calories. And it also covers a broad spectrum of workouts for the body like massage (grabbing, squeezing, stroking), muscle building (holding, lifting, pushing, pulling), aerobics (the bump and grind), and Yoga (stretching, bending, and twisting the body into different positions). But it also does other good stuff for the body, like increase the levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A (IgA), which helps fight disease, as well as the hormone DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) which boosts the immune system. The level of the hormone oxytocin also increases by five times, and reduces aches and pains. It lowers stress, reduces one's risk of heart attack, and releases endorphins which help you sleep better.

What about self-pleasure? The only workout here is a gratifying massage, and though the heartbeat and breathing increases rapidly it won't be burning as many calories, but the other benefits remain. Because a climax is required for the release of the hormones and endorphins, so self-pleasure is equally beneficial. One more important reason for indulging in self-pleasure is that it diverts the mind and body from seeking pleasure from food. The major reason why people fail to follow a diet program is because of food cravings; if your body is satisfied and buzzing with a hormone rush from physical pleasure, it will satisfy the food cravings as well.

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Drink Water for the Brain

Drinking water is essential for the body because all the biochemical reactions take place in water, food is dissolved and transported in it, toxins are flushed out and metabolism increases with water. The essential drink also moisturizes the internal organs, joints, and the air in our lungs, which makes breathing easy.

But did you know that water is as important for your brain? Nerve signal transmissions are dependent upon water, and while dehydration makes the body lethargic, it also slows down brain functions. About 80% of the human brain is water!

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Snack on Carrots

Carrots are available the year round and are a ready-to-eat vegetable. Their sweet flavor and crunchy texture make carrots an excellent snack. According to a 2009 survey done by the National Gardening Association in the US, the carrot is among the five most popular vegetables eaten at home.

Carrots are packed with vitamins and anti-oxidants like beta-carotene and falcarinol. Despite their sweet taste, the total carbohydrate content in carrots is low like in most vegetables. To put this in context, a cup of sliced carrots has only 52 calories, while the same sized cup of ice cream has nearly 300 calories, most of which come from fat!

And besides, the high fiber content in carrots slows down the absorption of these natural sugars in the body, and keeps away the hunger pangs. Like most vegetables, carrots have zero cholesterol and saturated fat. Best eaten as a raw snack, carrots can also be boiled, cooked, or marinated, frozen and served as hors d'oeuvres.

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Stomach crunches basic to advanced

Stomach crunches, also known as half sit-ups or mini sit-ups, strengthen the rectus abdominus muscles, commonly known as abs. The abs not only help you in sitting up, but are also used in a range of body movements, such as bending, twisting, throwing and walking. They provide the anchor and stability to the body during these movements. For the same reason, abdominal muscles get a secondary workout when you do exercise like lunges or push-ups. They also support the spine and help your posture.

Doing crunches will NOT make your stomach flat. Just as with lower abs exercises, diet control is all important to lose the layer of fat on the stomach. Next come cardio exercises that burn enough calories for the body to start using up the stored fat on the belly. Crunches can only strengthen the abs. Basic stomach crunches can be done by lying on your back, keeping the knees raised, slowly raising the head and shoulders up and as slowly lowering them back. Keeping the legs raised while doing crunches works out the lower abs a bit more, but beginners can start by resting the legs on the bedside or on a stability ball:



After some time the abdominal muscles will be strong enough to support the raised legs on their own. The proper way to do crunches is to not let the chin sink down into your chest. The hands can be stretched behind and raised up, or locked together behind the head, or resting on your chest.



Advanced form of crunches add twists to workout the transversus abdominus, internal oblique, and external oblique muscles. You can also do crunches while holding a medicine ball or light weight in your hands. Cycling the legs back and forth, while doing the half sit-up, is another form of advanced crunches.



Strengthening these stomach muscles also protects your internal organs, and gives you correct posture, but avoid the temptation of doing too many crunches. Firstly because they will not make your stomach flat, and secondly because overdoing crunches will put stress on your spine.

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Measuring and Weighing Fat

The human body stores excess fat in two main areas: the abdomen, and the hips and thighs. Excess fat comes with health risks like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and all kinds of cancers. Losing that fat will keep you healthy, and as a bonus will make you more energetic and confident....it will also leave you looking good. Once you start on a program to lose that excess fat, measuring the changes in your body can be positive motivation for exercise and eating healthy. Using weighing scales to check your progress is okay if you're an obese person; the greater part of your body weight comes from fat. But what if you're an average sized girl only looking to trim her waist a little?

A measuring tape is more useful to check the fat loss for such people. Women should try to have a waist measurement less than 35 inches; and their waist-to-hip ratio should be less than 0.8 for optimum health. Body Mass Index (BMI) is another useful measure, which evaluates your weight in relation to your height, and the healthy range is a BMI between 20 and 25. But since weight is the sum total of bones, muscles, organs, and fat in the body, most health professionals use a combination of BMI and tape measurements to gauge the health of their patients. Weighing scales are useful only for obese persons.



The bone structure varies from woman to woman, and a tape may not be the best way to measure the hips. Another method for checking your body's fat content if you're a slim person is to pinch the loose skin in different parts of your body to see how thick is the subcutaneous fat. The belief is that this thickness is a good measure for the total body fat. The method is to pinch the skin, shake it loose to exclude muscle tissue, and then measure the thickness. Dieticians and fitness trainers use hand-held calipers to take these measurements from different areas of the body.

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Diverse body types

Crystal Renn, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Brooklyn Decker in swimsuits on the cover of the June 2010 issue of Glamour magazine. The cover story headline declares: "Sexy! We’ve got the best swimsuits for every body...Size 2, Size 12, Whatever!"

Of these diverse body types, Crystal Renn is a plus-sized model, Alessandra Ambrosio is a slim size 2 model, and Brooklyn Decker describes herself as an athletic size 4. "I got successful once I accepted I'm athletic, I have boobs. I set my own standard," Brooklyn Decker tells Glamour. She was the cover girl for this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and she's married to tennis pro Andy Roddick.



Alessandra Ambrosio has always been naturally slim; in the photo above Alessandra is featured in a Brazilian magazine back in 1997 when she was a teenaged girl. People can't stop talking about Ambrosio's body——on how she regained her slim figure just two months after giving birth to daughter Anja Louise in 2008——or whether she's just skinny or has some curves. "It's always a drama. If I know I'm healthy, that's all that matters," Alessandra tells Glamour.

Accepting your body type was hardest for Crystal Renn, who was made to starve herself to look skinny as a young model, but she went back to her natural proportions to work as a plus sized model. In the Glamour swimsuit feature, Crystal Renn does not look plus-sized at all, and seems to have lost weight. "I'm about 60 pounds heavier then the average model....I fluctuate [weight] all the time. We're women, it happens!" she told the Huffington Post. We know that all magazine photos are digitally altered, but even on the runway recently Crystal looked no more than a size 6.

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Daydreaming healthy brain

The human brain never rests. While we're sleeping we get dreams, and when we wake up the brain is refreshed. Dreams are full of information from our unconscious minds, which the brain uses to recharge itself. But dreaming while awake is associated with absent-mindedness, fantasising, and boredom. Excessive daydreaming can cause low concentration, time loss, poor grades, driving accidents, etc. But studies also find that a little daydreaming is good for you.

Creative people and introverts daydream more than others, and a 2009 University of British Columbia study found that we use more parts of the brain while daydreaming than during concentrating. Dr. Avrum Geurin Weiss, a psychologist with Pine River Psychotherapy Associates in Atlanta, says, "Daydreaming is more oriented toward the future whereas most of our daily life is focused on the present.....I intentionally help people to imagine their lives differently." Daydreaming is healthy because it reduces stress, and helps our brain solve problems and plan for the future.

But the key is to know when to daydream and how long? Set aside a time of day when you can be alone with your thoughts. Think positive, imagine yourself feeling and looking good, in a healthy relationship, on a vacation, successful at work. You can even daydream while walking. Daydreaming is the brain taking a break from the immediate task to recharge itself with happy thoughts, so that it can come back to the problem and solve it. In 1862, German chemist Friedrich Kekulé discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule while daydreaming about a snake seizing its own tail!

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