Print edition: 
The way people talk about their weight-loss plans — to others and to themselves — can make a huge difference in their success or failure, dietitians say.
Avoid "should" and "have to" statements. Saying "I shouldn't eat fries" or "I have to eat some chocolate" will make you feel deprived or out of control. If you're "choosing" not to eat the food, you have more power and less guilt.
Don't say you're "on a diet." Look at good eating as a permanent lifestyle switch: "I've changed my diet." Or tell people, "I'm eating more healthfully now."
Ditch all-or-nothing thoughts. If you eat one cookie, you haven't "blown" your diet. Have a realistic mentality, not a catastrophic one: if you stop at one cookie, it's no big deal.
Share your goals with others. Be proud, not embarrassed, about your drive to be healthier.
—Newport News Daily
Hitting fatigue best for muscle growth
The old teaching that heavy weights build larger muscles and lighter weights are more for muscle toning may need to be tossed out based on a new study conducted by researchers at McMaster University in Canada.
They found that it's not the amount of weight lifted that builds muscle; rather, it's lifting to the point of complete muscular fatigue that builds muscle.
Growing bigger muscles means stimulating muscle to make more muscle proteins and fibers. In their study, the heavier weights were set to 90 percent of a person's best lift and the light weights were set to only 30 percent of the person's best lift. The secret to stimulating muscle growth, they said, is to pump iron until you cannot perform another repetition.
