Back from Paris!

For those of you who did not know, ( I thought I told everyone!) Jonathan and I went to Paris for the past couple weeks and besides enjoying the sites, the food and the shopping, I wanted to hang out with the locals to  see for myself if it is true that French Women Don't Get Fat. We really made some wonderful discoveries that I think will help all of us here in the U.S.!

I want to share our observations with you each day this week, so our first observation was: It does seem to be true that French women don't get fat, but...they are not necessarily skinny either. So for us Americans ... my first piece of advice is to change our mindset that if you are not fat, you must be skinny...not true...for each one of us, kids included there is a "healthy weight" a weight that keeps our blood pressure normal levels, cholesterol levels low, our glucose levels in check and energy levels high.  Rule #1 Determine what is a healthy weight for you and each family member.

A healthy weight is one that is right for your body type and height and is based on your body mass index, or BMI and the size of your waist circumference. You can learn more about your BMI on line at www.cdc.gov/healthyweight, or check with your doctor.  Your doctor may want to take another measurement, called a waist-to-hip ratio. This measurement is a comparison of your waist size to your hip size. A higher waist-to-hip ratio means that you are more apple shaped than pear shaped and therefore at a higher risk for weight-related disease. Body fat testing is sometimes used to help find out if a person has a healthy percentage of body fat. But it can be inaccurate. It also costs more than measuring BMI or waist size. So it's rarely used to measure a person's risk for weight-related diseases.  I always fall back on the old "if my favorite pair of jeans are too tight, then I know I have gained weight!"



 

So...au revoir!