Calories: Should You Be Counting?– Recently I have become very interested in the topic of counting calories. Does everybody need to in order to have success with weight loss and maintenance? I for one know my weight loss would not have been successful without it, I wonder how important are total calories if you are eating the right kind of food? This article is really good at dissecting who should really count calories in order to reach their fitness goals and who should focus their efforts else where.

Should ‘junk food’ companies be sponsoring major sporting events?– This article talks about the correlation between increased consumption on junk food and unhealthy beverages during big athletic/sporting events like the current World Cup or the Olympics recently in England. Should these events let un-healthy food and beverage companies like Coca Cola and McDonald’s sponsor their events? “These events are huge opportunities to educate people about what healthy diets actually look like, instead of implying that world-class athletes get that way by eating fast food and drinking soda.”

Flame Retardants Are Everywhere– “Just over 10 years ago, Dr. Arnold Schecter, a public health researcher in Texas, started finding traces of chemical flame retardants in the breast milk of American women. It appeared that the compounds were carried into the milk from fat in the mothers’ bodies. The real question was how flame retardants were getting into women’s bodies in the first place. One unexpected source turned out to be food. Dr. Schecter surveyed Dallas supermarkets and discovered flame retardants in lipid-heavy items including butter and peanut butter, bacon, salmon, chili with beans, sliced lunch meat and more.”

How Heavy A Weight Should I Use– “Classically, weights that you can lift for 1-5 repetitions will make you stronger, weights that you can lift for 6-12 repetitions will make your muscles grow, and weights that you life for 13 or more reps will train your muscular endurance.”

How to Know When You Have Eaten Enough– This topic is near and dear to my heart as it is something I really struggled with during the beginning of my weight maintenance. Actually if I am being honest I have weeks where I still struggle with this, a great example is this week. Darya’s blog is one of the few blogs I follow pretty religiously and I feel like she has very good, honest, and doable advice and perspectives. I personally found this article helpful, so I wanted to share.

Photo from Huff Post