How It Typically Happens

      You just had a grueling, seemingly endless day at school or work, and then you raced across town to your martial arts school, trained to exhaustion, and then raced back across town to your home, where you collapsed onto your sofa in a heap of fatigue and stress. It’s 8:30. After you catch your breath, you have one simple thought: chips and a comfort drink, pop or beer. Since you haven’t had your evening meal, you rationalize that your fatigue and stress entitles you to pork out and, what the heck, enjoy a second comfort drink.

      If all this comfort eating takes place after you have eaten your 2000 calories, you are on your way to Fatville City, but only because you ate more than 2000, not because you gorged it down after 8 PM. Later we discuss the harm such junk food does to your body after a hard workout.

      Don’t allow stress, fatigue, and need for comfort to be an excuse to overeat, whether it’s healthy food or high-fat junk. Don’t listen to that syrupy, evil voice of rationalization: “Come on. You trained like a crazy person. You earned a triple burger and milkshake. And some fudge. ‘Cause you’re a killer.” You must resist, and resist hard because fatigue and stress can weaken your willpower. Use your discipline, the same discipline you use to go to your martial arts school on hot summer days and do 200 punches and 200 kicks when your friends are sitting in the shade at the park. If you do weaken and yield to The Evil Voice, your evening will end with hundreds of excess calories hanging off your gut. Think of them as designer calories, designed to make your belly larger.

      Bottom line: If by bedtime you have taken in more calories than you used during the day, you get a glob of fat somewhere on your body. To phrase this more positively: It doesn’t matter when you eat during a 24-hour period, as long as you eat only the calories you need. Do that and you will be a lean, mean fighting machine.

      Free tip 1: Dinner is often the only hot meal eaten by people with fast-paced lives, food that frequently contains calorie monsters like gravy, casseroles and so on. Know that cold foods often contain fewer calories.

      Free tip 2: Here is an idea that works for some fighters. Plan your daily meals in such a way that your martial arts workout follows the meal with the most calories. You have to have enough energy to train anyway, so combine a big meal (not too big) with a hard training session that burns lots of calories.

      Natural or Herbal Weight-loss Products Are Safe and Effective

      Over the last decade there has been a veritable boon of interest in so-called “natural” products, a movement that is hardly surprising considering the industrialization of the food industry. What we get today on our plate has never been more altered, enriched, colored, processed, tweaked, massaged (in Japan they actually massage cows to improve the meat), and who knows what else. Check out the labels and you find conserving agents, taste enhancers, color additives and all kinds of unpronounceable chemicals.

      Scary fact: Many of the same chemicals added to your food are also found in cleaning agents, dyes and a host of other products found under your sink.

      As interest in health, nutrition and exercise has increased over the years, enlightened consumers are more aware now of the low nutritional value and health risks in many ingredients added to packaged foods. Due to the growing interest in natural foods, virtually every major supermarket today has a “health” section where you can find food products that have not been sprayed, colored or supplemented with chemicals. In the same aisle are rows of herbal products that fall under the same “all natural” label.

      So do such labels as ”health food,” “natural” and “all natural” mean they are safe to use? Not necessarily. Always keep in mind that many companies selling these products are just as motivated to relieve you of your money as are the infomercial people (discussed in a moment), and are often just as quick with half-truths, unsubstantiated claims and just plain verbal rubbish. Yes, some of these products are good for you, but others have no value whatsoever, and those remaining might be downright dangerous. Due to the litigious society we now live in, many companies have started to cover themselves by adding large disclaimers on their products.

      We found one product that has the following script on its label: “The dietary supplement [X] consists of only the finest natural herbs gathered from over 12 countries of the world. All our products are manufactured in the United States at our government-inspected facilities. We are a leader in quality with every product meeting the highest standards of the industry.” Written by the product’s marketing people, these sentences are designed to put your mind at ease as to the product’s safety and effectiveness. You read it and conclude that the product is natural and safe. Maybe it is, but just below the script are these bold-capped words: “READ ENTIRE LABEL WARNING IMMEDIATELY BELOW.” The text that follows, also in caps, warns you against using the product if pregnant, if you have a history or a family history of heart or thyroid disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, recurrent headaches, depression, any psychiatric condition, glaucoma, difficulty urinating, enlarged prostate, and many other medical conditions. Buried deeply in the warning is a further warning that you might experience “serious adverse health effects” if you take the product with caffeine. Surprisingly, people are still buying this, though there has to be a significant percentage who fall into one or more of the at-risk categories.

      The question that needs to be asked is this: If an all-natural product is completely safe, why are there so many conditions that prohibit its use? Should all products labeled “natural” be considered unsafe? Well, we wouldn’t go that far. But since it’s not always easy to tell, it’s best to never use them indiscriminately. Read the labels, adhere to the warnings, and when in doubt, contact your physician.

      Don’t be fooled by the flashy labeling on the products or the finely honed sales