7 Tips for Keeping the Winter Weight Off

This was pretty fun.

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It happens to all of us. Once summer is over and we’re able to rug up in layer upon layer of warm, shapeless clothing, we get a little slack with our health regime. Overindulgence at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and everything in between seems forgivable now that there’s no chance of a surprise trip to the beach, but come springtime, we always regret that fifth helping of turkey. Here are a few tips to help manage the holiday backslide.
1) Tea.
Let’s start with something simple. As residents in the tea capital of the world, no one is better situated to take advantage of all the glorious health benefits of tea, be it green, black, red, or white. Leaving aside their cancer-fighting benefits, the catechins (a type of polyphenol) in tea have been shown to induce thermogenesis, meaning it increases our internal heat, thereby boosting our metabolism and helping to burn off fat. Add the lemon wedge, as it helps the catechins bond with the intestinal wall, but ditch the milk: a 2006 German study showed that it prevents tea’s vascular protective effects.

2) Go Green.
A lot of expats don’t know much about Chinese vegetables, but here’s a secret: if it’s edible and comes from the ground, it’s good for you. No matter where they’re from, leafy greens are high in both weight-loss friendly fibre and phytonutrients like indole-3-carbinol. These nutrients are anti-estrogenic, meaning they actually reduce the belly fat we gain from the estrogen in food like beer, wheat, non-organic meat, and some vegetables. Our favourite Chinese leafy greens include water spinach/ kōngxīncài (空心菜), bok choy (小白菜), yóu mài cài (油麦菜, a long Chinese lettuce), and mǐ xiàn (米苋, a green or purple vegetable with round, petal-like leaves)

3) Use less salt and more herbs and spices.
Salt has benefits in small doses, but there are healthier ways to boost a dish’s flavour. All spices have great antioxidant and weight loss benefits, but some of the best are readily available in Shanghai: according to Lisa Guy of the Art of Healing Practice, both ginger and garlic can lower cholesterol and lower blood sugar (high amounts of which cause weight gain), and chili contains capsaicin, which has been shown to increase our metabolism.

4) Intermittent fasting.
Controversial, sure, but worth a try. Try consuming only water and tea for a 24 hour period once a week; the Intermountain Medical Center in Utah found that in addition to improving insulin sensitivity, a day of fasting has the body producing twenty times more growth hormone than normal. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’ll look like Stallone – it means the body starts using more fat for energy, reducing body fat and preserving muscle, all while giving you a massive caloric deficit (read: exercise-free fat loss).

5) Sprint .
Try this alternative to long, boring jogs: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which is a type of anaerobic exercise (as opposed to jogging, which is aerobic). Try sprinting for 30 seconds and jogging for 30 seconds, repeating cycles for 15 minutes, three or four times a week. Though this type of cardio is brief, it keeps the body burning fat for up to 48 hours post-exercise, while also releasing our friend growth hormone.

6) Cut loose the juice.
All the sugar of fruit with none of the fibre? No, thanks. Stick to eating your fruit and vegetables whole, and try to restrict your liquids to water, tea, and low fat milk to keep the blood sugar low and the fat off your stomach.

7) Know your street food.
Despite the olfactory assault of walking past a stinky tofu stand, we put street food in the “Pros” column of living in Shanghai. When navigating the stalls, try to pick one of these options:
Sweet potatoes: A superfood by anyone’s standards, this vegetable is chock full of fibre and vitamins.
Corn on the cob: Surprisingly high in protein, corn is also high in fibre but, like sweet potatoes, has plenty of carbohydrates, so try to eat it before or after exercise.
Rice noodles: If you have to go for street noodles, there’s no reason to not take this gluten free option, as many (albeit controversial) experts believe that gluten increases body fat .
Jian bings: Strictly speaking we should avoid flour, but the egg in a jian bing gives it a high quality protein, while the chili aids the metabolism.

We’re certainly none of us perfect, but remember these tips to help minimize that dreaded winter weight gain. Happy holidays!

Heightened Awareness

Boo, a hundred words of my article got cut for space, so I’m putting the whole thing here. EX-EX-EX-CLUUUSIIIIIVE

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Heightened Awareness
CW looks at the latest figures on the spread of HIV/AIDS in the People’s Republic.

On November 30, the day before World AIDS Day was observed around the globe, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention released their official figures for 2011: forty-eight thousand new cases of HIV were registered in China this year, bringing the total to around 780, 000. Experts recoiled; while the PRC is not yet near what many would consider a widespread AIDS epidemic, the statistics show a tremendous increase in the rate of the disease’s spread, which since 2006 has been closer to thirty thousand per year.

 

The latest numbers have non-governmental organizations like DKT International calling for better coordination between NGOs and the Chinese government. “Too much policy is carried out through government sectors, which I think is inefficient,” says Jimmy Cai, the director of DKT’s Chinese branch. “They need to work more closely with NGOs to reach a wider range of people. We work much more closely with the (HIV/AIDS) community than officials, so we need to be brought into the fold.”

 

Ah Qiang, executive director of P-FLAG China (Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians And Gays), agrees that there is a need for more political involvement with grassroots organizations. With twenty-nine percent of the new infections arising as a result of “homosexual acts,” the issue is a hot button among LGBTs.

 

“We’re part of the LGBT community, so why doesn’t the government ask us what we want?” Qiang asks. “They need to do more outreach and networking with us. We work with and for LGBTs, but we can’t make new regulations; politicians can.”

 

None of this is to say that authorities hasvebeen turning a blind eye to the issue. On the contrary: the CCP’s “Four Free and One Care” strategy, instituted in 2003, is one of many progressive steps made toward improving the situation of HIV/AIDS patients. The policy provides free antiretroviral drugs to the uninsured, free counseling and testing, free medicine for HIV-infected pregnant women, free schooling for AIDS orphans, and care and economic assistance to the households of people living with the disease.

 

But while China’s HIV/AIDS policies are years ahead of other developing countries, more can always be done. “Much of China is still very sexually conservative, but the CCP needs to use their media skills to improve awareness,” Jimmy Cai adds. “We need more condom advertisements on TV and more public dialogue with AIDS patients. It’s only by understanding HIV that we can really prevent it.”

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