Dec
26
Yes, Christmas is the perfect time to go crazy over calorie-laden, festive food and to put off dieting another day…perhaps during Boxing Day, or when the new year has been welcomed with fireworks and fanfare? This, alas, has been the mentality of most people who, during the rest of the 11 months of the year, are otherwise very disciplined when it comes to maintaining their ideal weight. Come Christmas, and all thoughts of eating healthy fly out the window (or chimney, if we’re to stick with holiday visuals).
A few stanzas from a modern-day Christmas poem called “The Month After Christmas” underline this sentiment:
Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I’d nibbled, the eggnog I’d taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
It goes on and on, bemoaning the fact that one had gorged on one too many lard-smeared bit of Christmas goodie and guiltily wanting to make up for it in a hurry, to wit:
So, away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won’t have a cookie, not even a lick.
I’ll only chew on a long celery stick.
As we keep reiterating in this blog, do not crash diet! That has never helped anyone lose extra poundage in a healthy way. Instead, step up your exercise plans and avoid being bone-idle, and get rid of the mentality that leftover Christmas food will spoil if you don’t eat all of it in one sitting. Most of them will keep for as long as they’re properly refrigerated (especially true with sweets). And for those you simply cannot eat for long stretches of meals, give them away! If you’ve hosted a party and find yourself with much leftover food, by all means, let your guests bring some home to enjoy. Believe me, some festive food taste especially good as leftovers, reheated or otherwise.
More holiday weight-watchers’ tips to come in succeeding articles, but until then:
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!
Sep
29
I Say, Acai!
Filed Under Natural Supplements | Leave a Comment
They’re now being touted as the new “superfood” that aim to help you lose more weight via natural, safe means—which is munching away, as opposed to crunching your abs with tiring repetitive exercises, or going under the knife in an expensive attempt to trim away your excess fat. Eating to lose weight—now there’s the acai promise!
The best news about the acai berry is that it’s bursting with vitamins and nutrients needed to aid you on your road to effective weight reduction. Some quick and proven facts about the acai berry: its rich purple color is the effect of an antioxidant called anthocyanin, which fights free radicals in the body. This, in turn, helps stabilize your energy rate for more effective fat burning. And since it’s a high-fiber fruit, the acai berry also serves as a metabolic booster to help clean out your system much faster.
What’s not to like about this sun-warmed, pulpy fruit of Brazil? You can have it as a smoothie, in liquid form, or even as preserves. It’s got more antioxidants than its close relative, the blueberry. With the acai aiding your sensible diet and exercise plan (it’s not recommended to do away with those altogether!), you can fully expect to “reap” the “fruits” of your weight loss regimen with a much lower cholesterol rate, better-looking and glowing complexion, higher energy levels throughout the day, better digestion, and a stronger immune system as extras!
Jun
9
Kick Out The Jams: One thing to considering before taking weight loss supplements
Filed Under Healthy Living, weight loss | Leave a Comment
The problem of overweight has taken hold of more than half of the adult contingent in America. Of course, almost all of these people wish to trim off a couple of pounds from their body, but most of them want to skip the difficult part of working out and dieting. Hence, it’s not surprising that they opt to use weight loss supplements as a way of shedding off unnecessary pounds. They want someone else to lose weight for them.
Despite the reliance of people on weight loss pills, nobody can deny that the supplements sell very well. Below are some of the factors that people must look into before taking medication to solve their weight issues.
The main objective why people use weight loss is to look attractive and attain a sense of confidence in their physical appearance. It really does help if a person looks in accordance to what society deems as appealing, so losing weight is advantageous in a psychological sense. They won’t have to deal with the prejudice and bias against being called “fat”.
On the other hand, people lose weight for primarily health reasons. Some of these overweight people are obese and need to lose weight fast. Normally, a strict diet and exercise would do them well, but their conditions caused by their obesity needs them to lose weight as fast as possible. Hence, it is best to intake weight loss supplements in this case.
As mentioned above, weight loss pills are easy to use and are relative effective, which is why they are popular and sell pretty well among overweight people. Even a child can pop one in, no problem, but not that they actually should. However, things get a little bit complicated when dealing with the speed and effectiveness of these supplements.
Everybody knows that losing weight requires them to eat and live healthy by consuming the right food and devoting a couple of minutes exercising. But these people have lived life conducive to gaining weight, which is why they are overweight in the first place. They’re probably sneaking off to the store buying a couple of sodas and munching on some greasy chips when they’re supposed to be dedicating their time cutting their food consumption.
Changing one’s lifestyle for the better may be the most difficult thing when it comes to losing weight. Hence, if you’re not up to the challenge of kicking the old habit and changing it for the better, then even the intake of weight loss supplement won’t help you from trimming a couple of inches off your body.
Jun
9
Throughout these past couple of years, green tea has received resurgence in the modern world as a weight-loss brew. This ancient Japanese drink may be all hype, but let’s look at the facts that make green tea such work in losing weight.
According to extensive study as reported by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, green tea is believed to boost up metabolism by 4% within 24 hours after consumption due to the abundance of catechin polyphenols. These polyphenols not only increase the rate at which calories are burned by the body, but also helps in preventing the absorption of fat and regulating glucose levels in the body. With regard to the glucose regulation, green tea debilitates the movement of blood sugar after a full meal, preventing high levels of insulin (responsible for the promotion of fat storage).
Green tea is also healthy way of keeping you away from unnecessary calories. Scientists have discovered that green tea can reduce appetite, after injecting rats with extracts of green tea and seeing them consume food that is 60% less than their regular intake after a week’s worth of regular infection. The effect may be correlated to how green tea regulates blood sugar. Also, green tea works as a capable alternative to coffee. Everybody drinks coffee in order to get their motors running in the morning, but little do they know about the excess calories that they also intake also drinking their favorite brand of frappuccino and what-not. Hence, you can enjoy the vitalizing effects of coffee without the unnecessary junk by drinking green tea regularly.
The amount of green tea consumption ranges from 3-5 cups per day in order to feel its effects. The great thing about this is that people don’t necessary have to follow a strict plan or visit the gym regularly in order to benefit from its weight-loss effects. Just include the consumption of green tea in your regular activities, just like drinking lots of water. Of course, you are mistaken if you think that green tea is the cure for weight problems. It all has something to do with balancing food consumption, so do not rely solely on the green tea. Still, it definitely makes cutting down on weight much easier.
Jun
9
Everybody knows that diet is a part of an effective weight loss program. However, diet is also a bane that actually keeps people from losing unnecessary weight. This is borne from misconceptions regarding dieting, as well as problems inherent in diet programs. Below are four problems with regard to diet programs.
First, a diet program is not a be-all-end-all solution to your weight woes. As mentioned earlier, dieting is simply part of the whole process of losing weight, so relying solely on a diet program to get you in tip-top shape is definitely wrong. Normally, diet methods are accompanied by a fair amount of exercise and workout in order to make the method more effective and efficient. Hence, if your diet program doesn’t come with an exercise plan, then the diet program won’t do you any good in the long run.
Second, diet programs have the risk of backfiring on you, which would also lead you to gain more weight. There are actually a lot of factors that prevent people from being successful in losing weight by following a strict diet program. For one, the demands of a diet program entail the person to cut down on his caloric intake. Once the body has gotten accustomed to the level of calories a person has been consuming, the body begins to stops losing weight. The only way for the body to loss weight is to cut down caloric intake yet again. By continuously doing this, the body will eventually lose muscle which would slow down the actual burning of fat. Simply put, leaning of diet programs to lose weight is not the right way to go.
Third, diet programs could contribute to lowered self-esteem and motivation. The difficulty of maintaining discipline and dedication during a diet regimen is well-documented, and it’s not surprising that most people get off the diet kick as fast as the gain weight from an overnight drinking splurge. Dieting is definitely not for anyone, and people would normally feel incapable of fulfilling their side of the bargain if they can’t keep up with the demands of a particular diet program.
Last, diet programs can actually cause health complications. These programs demand people to eat only a particular food group for a program to be successful. However, once a person limits his food consumption, he is also denying himself of food groups that contain nutrients that the body needs. As an effect, the person will experience a weakened bodily state due to the deficiency in the nutrients and vitamins he receives during the weight program. At the very worst, a diet program can actually cause fatal complications to one’s body.
Now that the truth about diet programs is out, it’s now time to actually look for alternatives on losing weight. A mixture of balanced eating habits and regular exercise is a far better approach than just simply picking out a diet program out of the blue. Therefore, if you want to lose weight without the unnecessary demands and hassles, then a diet program won’t do you any good.
Jun
9
Dieting does not always have to be complicated. You don’t have to exclusively eat a particular group of food while preventing yourself from consuming another group of food, methods that are common in most trendy weight-loss programs. In fact, all effective weight loss programs are supported by scientific explanations that happen to be ignored by most diet regimens. With that said, here are some simple yet effective tips that can guide you in losing weight.
Boosting your metabolism is a sure-fire way of attaining a sustainable weight loss regimen because increased metabolism hastens the burning of fat. One way of achieving such is building your muscles through strength training. This type of training will exercise your muscles by means of using weight plates or resistance bands on a particular muscle group. During the training, you will not only burn energy, but also increase the lean muscles functioning in your body, thus spiking your metabolic rate.
In relation to the first weight loss tip, the development of lean muscles plays a specific role in the process of losing weight and fat. Building lean muscle is correlated to strength training because the muscles get leaner if you get to handle heavier weights. Once the muscles are toned and well-developed, you metabolism will also increase and, as a result, the fat will be burned much easier. Aside from this, muscle development also helps in making you look and feel good.
Aside from working out and exercising, the third tips deals will your regular food consumption. All of us draw a particular amount of calories from the food that we eat, but some of us consume too much for our own good. In this case, it is always good that you should watch out for your caloric intake so that you can keep track of your weight. Some diet programs advise people to quit cold turkey from eating calories, but this is actually bad because preventing yourself from consuming calories would also lower your metabolic rate and would decrease your lean muscles. Therefore, it is ideal that you simply lessen your caloric intake by a couple of hundreds. To make sure that you stick to your food consumption, you must list down all of the meals that you regularly eat for a week and take away some of the unnecessary food that you intake in order to keep track of your consumption.
Walking in the rain (from Freefoto.com)
Lastly, you must perform fast walking for at least half an hour or so. The power of walking is quite undervalue in weight loss due to its simplicity and ease. However, it is because of these reasons, along with being risk- and injury-free, that you must incorporate fast walking in your daily diet regimen. In fact, you can also do it anywhere such as going home from work and taking a stroll at the park, among others. Really now, it doesn’t get any easier than walking to get you back into shape.
There are other ways in getting yourself back into shape, but these four easy-to-do tips will definitely set you in the right direction.
Jun
9
There are countless weight loss programs found in magazines and websites that try to help people lose fat. However, believe it or not, having numerous diet program options to choose from could only confuse people and would get them to accomplish nothing. One of the chief reasons for it is because they do not have the basic knowledge of what makes a weight program very successful.
Losing fat is actually a simple process and it alls starts with two factors that are the grounds where all great diet programs are built upon: proper food consumption and regular exercise. All it takes for a person to do both of these things is to have self-discipline and dedication to lose the unnecessary weight.
From these solid foundations, understanding how these foundations can work according to the favor of the person who wishes to lose weight. Below are three vital keys in burning tough body fat that simply won’t go away.
First, be conscious of the carbohydrates you eat. Carbohydrates are necessary sources of energy that the body uses to keep you going. A meal usually consists of a dish and rice or bread, the latter of which are the carbohydrates. However, these particular carbohydrates, along with pasta, are burnt slowly by the body, and the energy that doesn’t get used by the body turn into fat. Therefore, instead of eating the aforementioned carbs, they could be replaced with vegetables and fruits, both of which are fast burning carbohydrates that do not get converted into fat. These alternative carbohydrates also keep you hydrated because the carbohydrates are 80% water. Lastly, both are high in fiber, keeping the body free from the unnecessary fat. At least ten servings of the alternative carbs are good enough to keep the body fit and true.
Second is the performance of light resistance exercises for at least twenty minutes before engaging in aerobic or cardiovascular activities. For the first twenty minutes of exercise, the body only burns Glycogen or muscle energy. With this in mind, doing light muscle training using small dumbbells or resistance bands leads to things: the body goes beyond the 20-minute mark where it begins burning fat, and metabolic rate rises to 100-200%, allowing the person to burn twice as much fat. Resistance happens to boost metabolism for at least 24 hours, so the body still burns fat even during sleep. One must keep in mind that doing anything more than light weight training could lead to fatigue, causing you to perform poorly during cardio exercise.
Last, but not least, you must drink 16 glasses of purified water everyday. I know this may sound too much, but here me out on this one. Normally, at least 8 glasses of water a day would boost your metabolism, flushes out the toxins, and charge the cells of your body. However, doubling that amount would actually bring an additional benefit to the table. In particular, because the body has been diluted from drinking too much water, the fat is unable to stick to your body. Of course, drinking more than 16 glasses of water doesn’t mean that you won’t accumulate harmful fat in your body, so it’s still best to limit and control the consumption of fat. As much as possible, always drink purified water instead of tap because the former is simply much safer.
Now that you’ve gotten yourself familiarize with the basics of eating and exercising right, it’s time to put them into action. Lots of dedication and passion is to get rid of excess fat, but that’s reserved for another article.