SCORING: None of these questions, as you probably figured out, should be answered with a “yes.” 
They are all indicative of a certain degree of addiction. 
Even so, you probably did answer “yes” to at least one question, because most people have some degree of an addiction to sugar.  The question is, what degree?

The Degree of Your Addiction

If you answered “Yes” to this many questions, your Degree of Addiction is:

• Zero: None – you’re amazing.  You’re far less addicted to sweets than most people are.
• 1-5: Aficionado.  Be careful – sweets have their own agenda.  Right now, they’re not a big problem – but they can become one.
• 6-10: Last Stop in Normal-Land.  You do not have a healthy relationship with sweets, but you’re not yet an addict.  Try to take control now.
• 11-15: Unhealthy.  Check yourself into Sugar Rehab.  You’re well on your way to diabetes or obesity.  Sugar is a drug for you.

SOLUTIONS

1. BE Honest with your self and try to focus all your willpower on overcoming this problem of sugar .
2. Avoid sweets as much as you possibly can.  They feed the fire of your addiction.  Substitute other foods for sweets, even if these foods have more calories.  The fewer sweets you eat, the less you will be physically addicted.
3. Learn to find hidden sugar.  Find  all the various words on labels that mean “sugar" like  Corn Starch  or Dextrose.
4. Eat protein  and good fats . " EFA'S ".  This will help your sugar cravings to begin to subside.
5. Be careful about alcohol.  It’s a form of sugar.  It aggravates sugar addiction.
6. Limit starch as much as you reasonably can, because starch converts into sugar almost instantly, and increases sugar cravings.  When you eat starchy foods, go for the low-starch, high-fiber ones.  For example, eat vegetables instead of bread, or fruit instead of pudding..
7. Eat Cinnamon, a spice that helps stabilize blood sugar levels.  As your blood sugar stabilizes, your cravings will decrease.
8. Limit caffeine, because it causes blood sugar levels to fluctuate excessively.
9. Take other supplements that also help reduce sugar cravings (by leveling blood sugar swings).  These supplements include vitamin E, niacin, magnesium, B-6, and zinc.
10. Exercise, to improve the sensitivity of your cells to insulin.  This will decrease hunger and cravings.
11. Talk to other people about your sugar cravings in a serious way – not like, “Ha-ha, isn’t it cute that I’m addicted to chocolate?”  More people die from food addiction than drug addiction.
12. Don’t expect the problem to go away quickly, or easily.  You have to make it a life style choice.

All the best in health ,

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Nutrition , Quizzes
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Ask Yourself These Questions About Your Body
On a scale of 1 to 5, how well does this describe you?
"1" means it doesn't fit you at all, and "5" means it fits you perfectly.

1. Despite no significant changes in my diet or exercise habits, I have been gradually gaining weight.
1 2 3 4 5

2. My biggest problem areas for fat storage are my hips and thighs. 
1 2 3 4 5

3. I'm prone to bladder infections and uterine fibroids.
1 2 3 4 5

4. I tend to have night sweats, which are not related to any chronic disease.
1 2 3 4 5

5. I seem to crave sugary foods and starchy foods more than I once did.
1 2 3 4 5

6. It feels as if I'm beginning to suffer PMS-type symptoms - such as bloating or mood swings - during times of the month that should be free from PMS-type symptoms.
1 2 3 4 5

7. I've had hot flashes and heart palpitations for more than two months.
1 2 3 4 5

8. I have more food cravings than I used to.
1 2 3 4 5

9. I'm beginning to have insomnia from time to time.
1 2 3 4 5

10. I tend to be more vulnerable to minor illnesses, such as colds and flu, than I was when I was younger.
1 2 3 4 5

11. Something is wrong with my energy level.  I just don't have as much vitality as I once did.
1 2 3 4 5

YOUR SCORE:
50 - 55  Your hormones are significantly imbalanced.  It's quite possible
you have too much estrogen and not enough progesterone.  Consider consulting your doctor.

45 - 49  You may not need medical treatment, but your hormones are not optimally balanced.  See the suggestions at the end of this chapter section "Why Women Have it Harder."

40 - 44  You are on the borderline of significant hormonal imbalance.  (See "Why Women Have it Harder.")

35 - 39  You have the beginning symptoms of moderate hormonal imbalance.  (See "Why Women Have it Harder.")

34 and under  Your hormones are generally well balanced at this point.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Improved Appearance , Quizzes , Weight Control
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SCORE:  If you answered "YES" to even a small number of these questions on yesterday's quiz, such as two or three "YES" answers, it could indicate that you are reactive to specific foods. 
Don’t be too surprised.  Food reactions are much more common than most people realize. 
But now you know - isn't that great?  Now you can start the process of addressing and dealing with this information.  Doing so will, as I mentioned in Tuesday's post, significantly assist you in moving towards your fitness goals.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Nutrition , Quizzes
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Picking up on the topic of the week, here is a related quiz for you:
The goal is to determine whether or not you may have a food reaction.  To obtain your score, ask yourself and answer YES or NO (honestly) to each of the following questions.

1. Certain common foods tend to give me indigestion.
   YES or NO
2. Sometimes I get puffy in the face – or my hands swell up a little – for no apparent reason.
   YES or NO
3. I’m just crazy about certain foods.  I can’t get enough of them.
   YES or NO
4. I occasionally binge eat, but usually on particular foods. 
   YES or NO
5. When I get hungry, I usually focus my hunger on a  particular favorite food.
   YES or NO
6. I eat more or less the same foods most of the time – not much variety.  I like it that way.
   YES or NO
7. I frequently eat foods that I know don’t agree with me.
   YES or NO
8. Sometimes special foods – such as chocolate, or even a glass of cold milk – cheer me up.
   YES or NO
9. Certain foods seem to make me go into almost a trance, and when that happens I tend to eat too much of them.
   YES or NO
10. Sometimes my belly gets bloated even when I don’t eat very much.
    YES or NO
11. Some foods make my nose feel stuffy and congested, as if I have hay fever.
    YES or NO
12. When I’m hungry, even a small amount of one of my very favorite foods picks me up.
    YES or NO

I will post the scoring and some explanations tomorrow.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Nutrition , Quizzes
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Here is a quiz for you - to test your fitness IQ. 
Answer TRUE or FALSE to Each question:

1. As a general rule, the more you exercise, the greater your appetite is and the more you naturally tend to eat. So weight loss from exercise is often slower than many people expect.
   True or False
2. People who try to lose weight from exercise should realize that when you end your exercise program, newly- developed muscle tissue can degenerate into adipose tissue, or fat. This is an excellent reason to never stop exercising.
   True or False
3. Focusing exercise on an overweight problem-area will help concentrate your weight loss on that area. This is not only common sense, but is in accord with the latest research.
   True or False
4. You get the same essential benefits from exercising in four 15-minute segments, spread throughout the day, that you get from exercising for one hour straight.
   True or False
5. The primary reason that women tend to gain weight more readily than men is because, in general, their professional lives and recreational lives are somewhat more sedentary. To blame it on other supposedly uncontrollable forces is a cop-out.
   True or False
6. People lose weight more quickly from exercise that is in the mid-range of exertion than they do from exercise that’s in the high-range of exertion. In other words, jogging is better for weight loss than sprinting.
   True or False
7. Exercise has been demonstrated by research to help prevent cardiovascular disease, but its effects upon other diseases have yet to be scientifically proven, regardless of what faddists may say.
   True or False
8. The old feel-the-burn technique is outdated. Most exercise physiologists now say it’s better to push your muscles to the brink of fatigue, then back off.
   True or False
9. Primarily because of psychological factors, the more quickly you can lose weight, the better off you’ll be - unless you do it so quickly that you become depleted, and harm your health.
   True or False

I will post the answers and some explanations tomorrow.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise , Quizzes , Working Out
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