We’re always finding a reason why we can’t be as healthy or as slim as celebrities, saying they have personal trainers and chefs round the clock working with them. But Alison Sweeney isn’t one such celebrity. Between her Days of Our Lives and The Biggest Loser TV shows and being a full-time mom, Alison has picked up a few tricks on how to stay healthy even when life gets a little crazy.

The 33-year-old always keeps healthy snack foods like vegetables at least within an arms’ reach in case she wants a snack. And when she does get the nibbles, she chooses complex carbohydrates. Alison says whole grains keep you feeling fuller and energized for longer than refined carbs like bagels.

Something that’s helped keep the actress on her healthy eating plan is knowing her weaknesses – knowing her cravings.

“I lose sight of my diet when I’m around savoury snacks, like tortilla chips, so I don’t keep them in the house.”

But when she does get those cravings, she satisfies them in a smart way – by taking a small bite of it instead of replacing it with something that’s healthy but that you know isn’t going to satisfy you.

“I’d rather have one small bite of something I’m craving than a fat- and sugar-free version of it,” she says. “My best friend gave me an ice cream maker, so I can whip up a thick, creamy dessert and be satisfied with just a spoonful or two.”

Since being the host of the reality TV weight-loss contest, Alison says she’s started to read food labels and has learned how misleading packing information can be. In her own experience, a ‘personal pizza’ that’s supposedly for one person actually serves eight.

Source

Bethenny Frankel, one of the Real Housewives of New York and author of Naturally Thin and The SkinnyGirl Dish books, may be six months pregnant, but she still knows how to throw a healthy party. She shares some of her tips…

1. Create your own low-calorie cocktails
By mixing up a bowl of your own signature cocktail, you’ll be able to control what your guests are drinking, instead of them drinking with abandon. You’ll also be able to keep the calories down with clear liquors, lots of ice and club soda.

2. Stock up on vegetables
Make sure you’ve got loads of veggies as they make guests feel fuller longer, and are also high in fibre and antioxidants. Bethenny uses sautéed peppers on cheese quesadillas, and blends chopped spinach, tomatoes, mashed peas or fresh herbs into dips.

3. Healthify old favorites
Replace the fatty ingredients in classic appetizers with healthier options – wrap scallops and shrimp in turkey bacon instead of full-fat pork bacon, says Bethenny.

4. Slip in whole grains
Whole grains have a way of making any topping taste decadent. Try sneaking these in wherever you can and your guests will love you for it.

Source

A few weeks ago celebrity trainer Valerie Waters launched her Red Carpet Ready workout videos, and now the trainer who has worked with celebs like Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel has snacking advice for those still in pursuit of the red carpet bodies.

As someone who strongly believes that snacking will keep your blood sugar levels steady, says the best way to stay on the right track is to plan, prep and prepare. Valerie says your snacks should be a mixture of protein (which is filling) and carbohydrates (which give you energy), and suggests keeping an ounce of almonds mixed with two tablespoons of raisins in your bag as your emergency snack.

Also, Valerie stresses the importance of portion control: a snack is not a meal and should be restricted to 150 calories. Other snacks Valerie says are great include a hardboiled egg and an orange, vegetables and hummus, and plain yogurt with berries.

“If you have breakfast at 7am and you’re not going to have lunch until 1pm, have a snack around 10am,” she says. You can apply the same rule if you’re having lunch and then a late dinner; timing is important.

Celeb Diet Doc Says..
Overall good tips. The key here is to pair a protein with unrefined carbs (think fruits and veggies), so no breads, cakes cookies.

A few weeks ago Dr. Oz featured Rocco, a meat-loving cowboy on his talk show. After giving Rocco a televised physical, Dr. Oz was alarmed at how unhealthy the cowboy really was, and concluded that he practically had the heart of an 80-year-old. To save Rocco’s life, the good doctor put him on a 28-day vegan diet, with great results!

Enlisting the help of his friend “The Enforcer”, Dr. Oz helped Rocco replace all the meat in his diet and refrigerator with fruits and vegetables and walking every day.

In the video above, Rocco admits that taking that first step was the hardest, but once he finally realized what it was that he wanted from a healthier life, it became much easier. Having people help you along the way, and maybe even “push you around a little” certainly helped the meat-loving cowboy stick to the vegan diet.

“The thing that surprised me the most is that if I eat the amount of food the size of my palm, I will not be hungry anymore and I will not eat two hours or three hours later,” Rocco says on the show. “I will eat more times than I did before, but I will consume less calories and at the end of the day I would’ve lost weight.”

After 28 days Rocco lost 6 inches off his waist, drop his glucose level from 172 to 99, hemoglobin A1C count from 9 to 7.7, and HDL cholesterol from 33 to 45.

Celeb Diet Doc…
If you thought Atkins was the way to go… check out the amount of arterial plaque Rocco the meat loving cowboy has in his coronary arteries. He’s in the 97% percentile for plaque in his heart arteries.

Source

It’s refreshing when a young Hollywood star shares her diet secrets, and they’re not about starving yourself or religiously counting calories. What’s even more refreshing is when the actress comes from a southern family that knows how to chow down. 90210 actress AnnaLynne McCord says the only reason she’s slim is because she picked up a few diet tips from her mother who lost 45 pounds on Weigh Down Diet a few years ago.

She says “The author studied the habits of thin people and discovered that when they’re done eating, they wrap up their leftovers instead of just finishing whatever they were served.”

The 22-year-old says her mother inspired her to “think thin”, as well as to push her plate away when she’s feeling full – not to wolf down everything on your plate – and allow for splurges, but in moderation.

AnnaLynne’s hectic schedule also helps her diet. Because of her crazy hours, breakfast is the only meal she gets to eat at the same time every day. The rest of the day she picks up small meals like turkey sandwiches or cereal bars or soups to help keep the pounds off.

When it comes to her exercise, AnnaLynne’s says she prefers to keep it fun and not do things that people traditionally think is exercise.

“I love being outdoors, playing beach tennis, going for runs in the sand, or doing a three-hour hike with my best girlfriend, Mieko… we go to Runyon Canyon or some other hiking trail and just walk and talk for hours. It’s our one-on-one time.”

Source

It’s so great to see a celebrity who has lost weight, and then keep it off. Since her stint on the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars, Kelly Osbourne has lost 25 pounds and it looks as if she’s losing more! Kelly, however, credits the show for the healthy change in her eating habits and shared a few of her tips.

A slim-looking Kelly was invited to be part of Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief show at New York Fashion Week recently and looked really happy strutting her stuff in her new shape. She told Life & Style magazine that although she’s been told to never eat anything just before you go to bed, she’s found something that really helps her.

“A trick I’ve learned is to eat just a little bit of something that has no carbs and no sugar in it before you go to sleep because it keeps your metabolism going,” she said. “They say you should never eat before you go to bed, but I’ve found just having a tiny little snack — like half an apple or something like that — before you go to sleep really helps.”’

Well, snacking on apples definitely seems to be working for Kelly!

Celeb Diet Doc Says…
The key is the type of snack you have.. apples are healthy carbs and will help you lose weight. Problem is most people eat junk food (think cakes, cookies, chips) for late night snacks and this obviously packs on the pounds.

Kelly looks great and who’s going to argue with that! nuff said.

Source

The Biggest Loser personal trainer Jillian Michaels may have got things wrong with her quick-fix weight-loss supplements, but at least fans of the show can rely on its host, Alison Sweeney, for sensible advice with a healthy recipe.

Alison Sweeney’s Green Beans with Chicken and Crumbled Feta Cheese
Alison’s biggest tip (or trick if you’d like) is to find recipes that include vegetables into the main course.

Only 360 Calories per serving.. Makes about 4 servings.

1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 to 4 breasts)
1 tbsp olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 lemon
6 oz. fresh green beans (½ cup per person)
½ cup fresh feta cheese, crumbled
1 tomato, chopped
½ avocado (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry chicken with a dash of olive oil and lemon slices on top for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the chicken when it’s halfway cooked, and squeeze the lemon juice over it. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes. When the chicken is almost ready drop the green beans in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes. Strain the green beans, taking them out while they’re still bright green and crispy. Place them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the crumbled feta and the chopped tomato. The green beans must still be warm so the cheese can melt. If you want, slice the avocado and add it. When the chicken is ready, cut it into pieces and add it to the green bean mixture. And viola!

Source

Jillian Michaels has become a household name over the years, whipping some of America’s biggest losers into shape and turning into a reality TV star herself. Recently the 35-year-old health-nut released her own line of dietary supplements, but is now being sued for misleading advertising of her “worthless” product the Jillian Michaels Maximum Strength Calorie Control.

A couple of months ago, the celebrity trainer was crowned America’s Healthiest Body by Health Magazine, while a new season of the hit show The Biggest Loser kicking off at the beginning of the year. But in documents filed in the LA County Superior Court on February 9, Jillian is being held liable for “violation of the consumers legal remedies act”, “violation of unfair competition act”, and “untrue and misleading advertising” of one of her weight-loss supplements.

The class action alleges that after the reputation she’s developed as a hardcore fitness instructor, always stressing the importance of hard work and discipline, for Jillian to now advocate an easy way to drop the pounds by popping two pills is misleading.

“Contrary to everything Ms. Michaels has ever instructed, she and the companies peddling this product suggest it makes weight-loss effortless, falsely claiming ‘Take Two Capsules Before Main Meals And You Lose Weight. That’s It.’,” the lawsuit says. “Ms. Michaels knows better – taking two pills before eating does not miraculously cause weight loss.”

The companies also being sued are Thin Care International and Basic Care Research, both of whom helped Jillian develop and market her supplements.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Julian Michaels seems like a straight shooter so I was more than a little surprised by the fact she came out with her own line of diet pills. Let’s check the ingredients…

Amount Per Serving % DV Fat Burner Proprietary Blend 866.00 mg ** Alpha lipoic acid ** White Willow (bark) Powder (Salix alba) ** Kola Nut (seed) Extract – standardized to 12% caffeine ** Blood Orange (fruit) Extract ** Sweet Orange (fruit) Extract ** Bitter Orange (fruit) Extract ** Grapefruit (fruit) Extract ** Guarana (seed) Extract – standardized to 12% caffeine ** Coffee (bean) Extract – standardized to 70% natural caffeine ** Cocoa (seed) Extract ** Cayenne Pepper (fruit) Powder ** ** Daily Value (DV) not established

These diet pills are a caffeine stimulant type product which can lead to headaches, feeling jittery, heart palpitations and unfortunately little to no weight loss. Sorry Jillian but you sold out.. just calling it like I see it:)

Btw here are some less than stellar comments about Jullian’s diet pills. Granted they are from the GNC website and anonymous so take it for what it’s worth.

This product did nothing i took reg doses and exercised more this was a total waste of money!

Gave me headaches for approximately one week. Did not see any results although I work out one hour a day.

I take two in the morning and it claims to have some caffeine in it, and I feel nothing. I took 3 this morning, still no effect.

Source

Yes, the lovely ladies of Gossip Girl are fit and beautiful. Blake Lively is one of the lucky ones because she doesn’t workout that much but co-stars Jessica Szohr and Kelly Rutherford are both avid exercisers. But when it comes to losing a quick five pounds they aren’t the types of girls that will go try some crazy detox diet plan. According to the show’s costume desginer Eric Damon, he tells them to invest in some good underwear to hide the bumps and lumps. He told Us Magazine,

“I say, just enjoy yourself. If you put on a couple of pounds, then great, buy some Spanx.”

Damon explained that there is a whole ‘architecture system’ on the show to ensure that everyone’s backside and bosoms look great. Spanx is just one of his tools to shape the girls’ figures. He also loves to dress Ed Westwick as his character Chuck Bass is a pink wearing, bourbon drinking American man.

Source

In the January issue of Shape magazine, the Ugly Betty star Vanessa Williams talks fitness and fashion. The mother of four looks flawless but she evidently works hard in order to keep that great body and glowing skin. When asked about her exercise plan Vanessa explained that she has a personal trainer and will try to lift weights once or twice a week. If she’s not in training she will hit the treadmill, do some occasional yoga and also salsa dancing. She advised readers,

“I would definitely recommend salsa for anyone who wants to hang out with friends, have a ball, and lose weight.”

As for her diet Vanessa suggested to eat only fresh food. She said,

“Try to steer away from anything that’s pre-packaged, canned or processed.”

She did admit that she gets tempted sometimes but has to listen to that little voice in her head that reminds her that if she eats too much she’ll be paying for it in a few days time.

Source