Thursday, November 30, 2006

The Knight Rider of Weight Loss

Every now and again it's nice to come across something that is quite humorous, in relation to weight loss, I was looking at various news articles and stories, and this article really caught my eye. A Russian inventor has come up with a novel idea to help you with your weight loss, you have a system that is installed within your car and it acts like a personal coach, when you get in the car there are sensors in the doors and seats.

It seems to have personality as well it will be very frank and honest with you about your efforts, if you're not doing very well it will sound an alarm or display admonishments to you. The inventor said:

''I wanted to put in a warning and a message,'' Mr. Kriger said of the alerts that the system's microcomputer can issue on its touch-screen display. '''You ate too much! Don't do it next time!' It will tell you in a friendly way, 'Oh, you're overweight! What happened?"

Mr Kriger, who invented the device who was brought up in Russia, decided to invent the device after pondering ways of preventing obesity, his ideas were based on a system that would give feedback to people so they wouldn't have to think about it, the system tells you how much you will weigh in three weeks or three months, if you visit somewhere for lunch you can input that information into the device, and the can tell you how much you can eat there.

If by unfortunate circumstances you have either gained weight or on the flipside lost weight the computer will adjust itself to give you better options.

When you first set the system up you can input your doctor's phone number or e-mail address, so it can notify them when you're overweight. It can be fitted to other vehicles as well such as boats or vans. Thinking about it what would happen, if say this technology became so advanced in the future, that say for instance you went to a McDonalds drive-in and because it knew you were there, it would drive the car to a healthier eating establishment. Wouldn't that be the ultimate thing surely.

Via http://query.nytimes.com

Health Benefits of Green Tea

Following on from a article the other day about Enviga, which contains green tea extract, I came across a headline in my RSS feed reader, about a website which has been recently launched around the health benefits of green tea, so I decided to write a post about the site, I've only scratched the surface when it comes to talking about this actual tea before in previous posts so decided to write a bit more in depth about it this time.

So I will include the address in this post so you can make up your own mind as whether or not it would be beneficial to you and your health.

For quite some time now everyone for a long time, including doctors, tea drinkers have all been talking about the health benefits of green tea, amongst its claims are prevention of cancer and heart disease, this is probably due to the high levels of antioxidants that green tea contains which protect cell walls from damage, the antioxidants mop up the free radicals which do the damage.

The problem we have nowadays is over marketing of everything ,and more money is spent on selling foods and beverages that aren't necessarily good, for us so more often than not we tend not to hear about these things, such as green tea and can be quite can be quite dismissive as to whether or not they will be beneficial to our health.

Amongst the health benefits listed on the www.greentealibrary.com are listed here in summary format.
  • Immune system function boost
  • Keeping cholesterol levels in check levels in check
  • Regulation of blood pressure
  • Keeping the levels of plaque down in arteries
  • Messing up the cancer process
  • An aid in weight loss
  • An aid to cut down viruses and bacteria within the body
  • Free radical protection, which will prevent the onset of some diseases
Among the studies listed are:
  • Cholesterol
  • Obesity
  • Green tea antioxidant properties
  • General cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Breast cancer skin cancer
  • Dental problems and cavities
I would say it's in your vested interest to have a look at this site, there is also a accompanying book. Myself I do actually drink green tea at first when I tried it I wasn't sure what to make of it, but now quite enjoy it, in mine I have two sweeteners instead of having sugar. More tea anyone!!!!!

Via http://prweb.com

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Can Tea Aid Weight Loss?

Coca-Cola and Nestle seem to think so in a joint collaboration between the two giants, they say that their new products will help you lose weight. If you consume three cans per day of this said beverage, they say that you will burn between a 60 and 100 calories.

The key ingredient of this new drink is green tea which also claims to be an aid in weight loss. Studies were done at Nestlé's research centre in Switzerland, where the following was noted that during the course of a day if you consume this drink, calorie burning was found to be in effect. If that isn't enough to satisfy you John Hackett of Coca-Cola says this.

"Enviga is a great tasting beverage that invigorates your metabolism to gently burn calories, and it's a positive step people can take as part of a balanced lifestyle -- like taking the stairs." So we can stop taking even that modest amount of exercise"

As regards the amount of people who were actually involved in the research is debatable some sources have said lower than 35 people were involved in the study. So would this be worthwhile in the long run, if you think about it probably not burning that amount calories, would be quite easy to lose by just doing some moderate exercise. Or failing that just eat a hundred calories less in your diet and do it that way.

Via http://www.upi.com

Quick Recipe of The Week

Salad With Pitta Bread

This isn't a recipe as such more something you can put together in a hurry, actually it's becoming something I quite enjoy, even in winter so here it is get some pitta breads wholemeal are better, one’s I tend to eat have five grams of fibre per pitta, which is quite a lot remember the fact that is a good idea to get into the habit of eating 25 grams of fibre per day, so if you eat too of these pitta breads then you will of eaten almost half of your daily requirement of fibre, in one simple meal.

What I have with mine is two wholemeal pitta’s, and a pre-packaged salad which can have anything from, iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, hard-boiled egg sliced in half, sliced new potatoes and what I tend to do is, slice a normal sized tomato and then cut the pitta breads at the top, and put the salad, tomatoes and any other vegetables you may have handy, this is far healthier than buying kebabs from take-away’s, purely and simply because the meal is high in saturated fat. Really the sky's the limit with this just before writing this article, I looked in the fridge at a packet of salad we have bought.

The calorie content of it is 24 calories per half packet so 48 in all, the pitta bread has something like a 100 to a 150 calories per pitta, so we're looking in the region of 350 calories maximum, which for a meal is very low indeed, low-fat and brimming full of goodness. In fact as I'm writing this post it's making me feel hungry just writing about it.

Anyway give it a try it's delicious.

Monday, November 27, 2006

How Sleep May affect Weight Loss

Does the amount of sleep you get affect whether or not you lose weight? Well at first this may seem like a bizarre question but is it as out there as it sounds. Just recently it would seem that some revelations have come to light. About the quality of the sleep that you get and the quantity also, what has come to light is it can affect the hormonal activity within your body.

David Rappoport, who is a director on something called the sleep medicine programme says that having poor sleep patterns, and sleep itself, can change things within the body itself, members of the medical profession have long since known that sleep affects the hormones within body.

The research was based around two hormones ghrelin and leptin, these two hormones tend to affect our appetites, and depending on the amount of sleep you either do or don't get will affect these two hormones. Have you ever had a rough night's sleep, and then the next day no matter how much you eat you still feel unsatisfied if that is the case. Then there is the proof.

Other studies that were done on people the ones, that had less sleep, were found to have higher ghrelin and lower leptin, levels and ate more food as a result of sleep deprivation which lasted over two days. Also people were monitored who had less than eight hours sleep per day, and it was found that these people were overweight as a result of this and had more body fat.

Time to get more sleep me thinks.

Via http://onhealth.webmd.com

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Folic Acid May Stop Heart Attack Risk

According to a study done in the British Medical Journal, incorporating folic acid into your diet may greatly reduce your chance of having a heart attack later on in life, looking at previous studies, done before in the past relating to folic acid.

Scientists have find out that folic acid has an effect on something called homocysteine folic acid works by lowering levels of this particular amino acid, which works to prevent cardiovascular disease. Folic acid is present in leafy green vegetables and liver also, some other studies have found that, eating an abundance of this food may also prevent strokes and possibly also the onset of Alzheimer's disease by a half.

Also folic acid has had other studies done that prove that it may help to lower blood pressure and prevent its onset later on in life

Foods that contain a lot of folic acid are bread wholemeal is more healthy and contains more fibre, brussel sprouts, green beans oranges, dried beans, lentils.

Most foods that are in the leafy green category aid weight loss also so you here have a double effect occurring. So eat more folic acid then and have good health.

Via http://news.xinhuanet.com

Super food of The Week The Pomegranate

The pomegranate is well-deserved the title of the title of a superfood, one pomegranate contains 800 or so seeds, which all have vitamin C, some studies have been done revolving around pomegranate juice, 45 test subjects were given either pomegranate juice or a placebo, and monitored these people had ischemic heart disease, there blood flow was measured during and after exercise, the research found that the test subjects who had been given the juice had had better oxygen deficiency, than those who took the placebo.
Which means increased blood flow to the heart. Quite a few other studies have been done proving that pomegranate juice or eating pomegranate themselves, can reduce LDL cholesterol which is the bad sort.

Also other research suggests that pomegranates may be effective against prostate cancer, pomegranates have also a lot of antioxidant vitamins in them, so much so they have three more times the amount than these three other drinks red wine, green tea and orange juice the role antioxidants have in the body, is they protect the cell walls from free radicals, think of them as spring cleaning for your body, like a little army protecting your cells from damage if it wasn't for the antioxidants then cell damage may occur which would lead to disease. Which in essence means eating foods with antioxidants in will protect your body from damage in the long-term.

Pomegranates contain the following vitamins vitamin C. which I have already mentioned they also contain vitamins A,E potassium and iron.

So here we have yet another all-round super food, if you don't particularly want to have to open a pomegranate up, you could always go for some pomegranate juice instead.

One pomegranate contains 105 calories, which isn't a great deal really when you think about it, so possibly one food that might be able to help in your weight loss programme as well as being a healthy option.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Weekly Weigh In

Hi there it's Friday once again and time to jump on the scales and see where we are now, and even though, I haven't done any real exercise over the past few weeks, I've now managed to drop down to 95 kilograms, or 15 stones, so things are still moving steadily on, about the only change I have made to my diet just recently, is having soup and opted for a vegetable one and then added more vegetables to it to add a bit more bulk to it, I've been adding mushrooms and tomatoes, due to the fact that these contain water anyway they make you feel more full, plus the soup is liquid-based that tends to make you feel full also.

So here's how it looks see you soon.


Thursday, November 23, 2006

Does impatience make you fat?

The society that we live in these days is very much, got to have it now, got to get it done now I need it now. So could this be a reason that makes us overweight, think about this if you think back to how things used to be 10 to 15 years ago or more, things may have not been so hectic as they are now, fast-food restaurants may have not been in existence, the Internet, was very much in its infancy. So in reality there was no way of getting food fast at all, microwave ovens were around but they might not have been so many microwave ready meals, around at the time.
So let's fast forward to where we are now, you get your microwave ready meal, put in the microwave bearing in mind that this might be full of sugar and fat and excess calories
set the timer for eight minutes say, your food is cooked within eight minutes and ready to eat hardly any time waiting in order to eat your food, now think about having three of those within one day, all full of sugar and fat and loaded with calories.

Where as if you think about it, how much is that eight minutes really saving you, in order to lose one pound of fat you need a deficit of approximately 500 calories per day times that by seven and you have the figure of 3500 calories approximately. So in order to lose this weight you now have to spend, time exercising three to four times per week say 30 minutes or more in order to lose the weight that you may have gained eating the food in the first place, now this food could come from anywhere, imagine this you're sitting at home thinking about watching a movie there isn't it much food in the house, so you pick up the phone and order a pizza, or some other take-away food either over the Internet or some other means so in reality, it's very easy to get food within an instant you don't even need to use a microwave if you don't want to.

In fact why bother, when someone else can do it for you so by you can see how the foundations for some eating habits are laid down. But it doesn't stop there it might take longer to prepare a meal using fresh food, but think about this if you haven't had eaten all the food in the first place, none of this would have happened but the problem is, how long does it take to lose all that weight, if you're thin you only need to do a reasonable amount of exercise in order to stay that way, it takes far more effort and time when you're overweight to lose it than if you are not. So the way I see it impatience does cost in the long run.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Japan Diet

There seems to be more and more diets coming out these days, although this is the first time that I've ever heard this one before, so thought it was worth a mention, this way of eating revolves around a 30 day plan. From what they say in this article they say that 20% percent of adults, are obese in the UK.

Which when you compare it to Japan there statistic is very much lower than ours in fact there is 17% in it, there obesity is only 3% which is a big difference to say the least also what is surprising is they tend to live longer and have healthier lifestyles compared with anywhere else in the world.

The Japanese diet doesn't always necessarily mean that you have to eat like that all the time what you do is apply the rules to the way that you eat already more supplementing what you're already doing, after all if you think about it if you get the part of the best parts of every diet you can think of you will have quite a winning formula to say the very least.

The Japan diet in a nutshell revolves around the following;
  • Eating plenty of fish, mainly oily ones such as salmon, sardines and any other oily fish of your own choice
  • Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, in a wide variety
  • Eat consciously, relax when you're eating your food and eat at a slow pace and also in moderation
  • Eat foods low in fat, sugar and salt
  • Have rice namely the wholegrain variety such as brown, have wholegrain types of breads or the next best thing wholemeal.
  • Don't drink fizzy drinks, have low-fat milk unsweetened herbal teas instead of normal run-of-the-mill tea
  • Have breakfast and don't skip meals either
  • Don't say you're on a diet, say your going on a healthy eating plan, think about your food also, think of it more as a pleasurable experience rather than just something you just do,make food a more important part of your life because good food equals good health.
Via http://www.easier.com

Five Ways to Stop Hunger Pangs

Do tasks:

1.Have you ever noticed when you're involved in doing something, whether it be reading a book, or some other very focused activity, you tend to think less about eating food and more about what you're doing other than eating food I've noticed myself that when you tend to be immersed in doing something, foods seems the last thing on your mind but when you're bored you probably notice, that your head may be in the fridge quite a lot I know mine can be when I'm not doing anything in particular so it does work give it a try and see what you notice.

Drink more water:

2. Sometimes when you feel hungry the actual feedback you're getting from your body is drink some water, this is also a good thing to do before you eat a main meal it will feel your stomach up and you will eat far less.

Have some vitamins:


3. Sometimes the reasons you can get hungry is because you're not getting the right amount of vitamins in your diet this can cause hunger pangs for some people, so have a look at your diet and do some research to find out what vitamins you are missing sometimes a supplement is better for some people i.e. vegetarians or vegans.

Prepare snacks:

4. Prepare some healthy food in a small plastic container, so you can take it where ever you go especially when you're out, fill it with foods that contain water like tomatoes, peppers, grapes oranges so if you do get hungry you have something healthy to eat, and are far less likely to eat something bad for you instead.

Eat some protein:


5. This neat little trick will send the " am full signal to the brain" also protein takes longer to break down in the stomach, good sources of protein are eggs, fish, beans and cheese preferably low-fat as we know protein has 4 grams per calories whereas fat has 9 calories per gram.


Via http://diet.ivillage.com

Monday, November 20, 2006

How to Conquer Food Cravings

Here is a great way to conquer cravings, if you suffer from this type of problem opt for a food that has a lot of water in it. This will boost your energy and enable you to feel full for longer and more satisfied, due to the water content of the food.

Things to eat are:
  • Apples
  • Grapes
  • Peppers
  • Green beans
  • Apricots
  • Watercress
  • Tomatoes raw
  • Spinach raw
  • Cucumbers raw
  • Eggplant raw
  • Celery
  • Lettuce head
  • Carrots raw
  • Broccoli
  • Peaches raw
  • Bean sprouts
  • Watermelon
  • Strawberries raw
or tomato or a vegetable soup.

Via http://www.ivillage.com

Does Anything Ever Last ? The Path to Weight Loss

In a report done by the Australian Psychological Society, they talk about unknown roots of unhelpful behaviour, which would stop people from losing weight and exercising more and healthy eating also. People do know that that they should eat healthier and exercise more but sometimes change can be very hard for some people, in the long term.

The APS study was centred around two things eating habits and exercise 1289 people took part in the survey of 751 females and a 129 males. Almost all those involved in the study had suggested that they had attempted at some time to change their eating habits their reasons were as follows 44 percent said change their physical appearance, closely followed by wanting to improve general health, the main ways that they described for changing eating habits was willpower, or joining a gym or sports club as the case maybe.

Surprisingly the results were quite mixed overall in this study around 97%, said they managed to change their eating behaviour, but 98% percent said they had had some degree of success in changing their eating habits, around 22% percent of the participants in this survey, there actual eating habits, didn't last more than a few weeks or months, until old habits re-emerged once again.

39% percent of participants claimed although they felt they had made some changes they to said it didn't last, but however 26% percent of them said that over a period of six months they had managed to maintain the change 12% percent commented that even though that they had only been trying for six months to maintain the changes, has managed to keep on track.

Now something very interesting starts to emerge from these results as you'll see soon,
the four to six month barrier is where things can get a bit wobbly, as to whether or not you may succeed or fail, studies have shown that people who do something for six months or longer are more likely to keep that behaviour over a longer period of time.
This report supports that theory, once the participants were across the six month barrier.

As we look deeper into this some other interesting points crop up, these relate to age the people who were 30 years old and over this age bracket did manage to stick to their plan over the six-month period, but those people under this age bracket were less likely to.

Physical activity was also closely related to the above statistics, the main reasons given for wanting to do the physical activity was to change their physical appearance, followed by improving their overall general health. The way the managed to keep their activity on track was by willpower alone, other strategies used were the same as the eating habits joining a gym or doing some other sport activity.

The participants said that they did not need to consult a professional as regards their exercise regime. As is consistent with the results for the eating habits the participants who kept the exercise programme up for over a period of six months, were far less likely to slip back rather than other people who didn't go past the six-month barrier, and in parallel with the food habits people in the 30 and over age bracket, consistent findings were noted again as in people below 30 years of age were far more likely to follow through their exercise programme rather than their younger counterparts.

Is it possible to keep the behaviour maintained over the six-month period ?

While research in this particular field suggests that what tends to happen is you tend to go through what is called a maintenance stage, it is at this stage that the person wants to bring lasting change to their life, however it is very important to note that even though you may have crossed the six-month barrier, you cannot just assume that now the behaviour is now permanent, some people found that they didn't need a support strategy at all where some did.

Most people in the survey didn't rely heavily on using support type strategies, but people who were in the earlier stages of behaviour change, did tend to use support, moreover those people who made the change were less likely to need any support type network, what this suggests is that people who have once made the change no longer need any kind of support, but nonetheless the findings were leaning towards more having moral support or someone you can share ideas with and exercise with and discuss diets and other things which may or may not work.

Coping strategies:

People's emotional responses and coping mechanisms were recorded to see how individuals coped with the changes, throughout the period.

Here in summary format:
  • People who were obese showed that they were unable to cope less, but people who were in the normal or overweight category, had better coping strategies.
  • People who were obese had more negative emotions, followed by the overweight group and the normal group.
  • Also it was noted that people who where obese had lower self-esteem than the normal or overweight group when it came to doing more physical activity and changing their eating habits.
  • The obese people expected a far less brighter outcome compared to the other two groups.
  • So it would seem that if you're obese you may suffer from mental health problems also.

So to conclude this very interesting study, it would seem you need to do the following:
  • Have support when first starting your eating and physical health programme change.
  • Even after six months, still keep supporting each other, discuss eating habits, and any other ways of keeping motivated and focused on your goal.

In short keep at it for longer than six months, with support from family or friends it doesn't matter who. And ultimately you will succeed and reach your target weight.

You can download the report here Via the Australian Psychological Society

Article source Via diet blog.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Five Ways To Cut your Salt Intake Down

Over quite a long time now salt has been a thrashed, out health concerned for many years, we know we should cut back on our salt intake, but a recent study has somewhat confused the issue, this study published in the March 2006 American Journal of Medicine. said that the people who limited their salt intake were more likely to die of heart disease e.g. a stroke or heart disease, as opposed to those people who consumed more salt.

The American Heart Association says that you should aim for 1500 milligrams per day this also includes, people with high blood pressure also. Everyone else should be less than 2300 milligrams of sodium in a day, which is a teaspoon of salt.


1. Cut down on your processed food intake, a good percentage of salt is in processed food

2. Make sure that you prepare your own sandwiches and or food, without any secondary intervention, so you can choose what you add to your own food, when you're out ask if any salt has been added to the dish.

3. Look at dressings these can contain lots of added salt

4. Use something alternative, you can buy lower sodium salt these days or use some pepper instead

5. Don't eat out at fast-food restaurants, these places have some of the highest salt content in food

Via Web M.D http://onhealth.webmd.com

Friday, November 17, 2006

Weekly Weigh In

Hi the now famous weekly weigh in things haven't altered much from last week still around the 95.kg ish mark, I dare say things will stay there for a while at least, I haven't been able to exercise for a few weeks due to a problem with my knee so need to get that sorted before any more loss will hopefully occur.

See you soon.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Man Loses 20 stone On The Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet does have its criticisms from a lot of people, but a man from the UK using this diet plan has managed to lose an incredible 20 stone his initial weight was a staggering 34 stone, his waist size was an incredible 66 inches, in the end he managed to get his weight down to a more manageable 14 stone seven pounds.

Since Graham Kings has lost all this weight, he now says that he has other goals in mind namely looking for love.

He says:
"I see old pictures now and I just don't recognise myself," said Mr King. "I've got lots more confidence too. And most of all, I'd like to find love. At the age of 39, I've got a lot of catching up to do."


"I didn't have any friends or social life. I was afraid to go out - I knew what people would think of me”.


Via http://www.thisisbasingstoke.co.uk

Must make myself a egg and sausage lunch don't knock it until you've tried it as the saying goes.

Monday, November 13, 2006

High Sugar Shock Study Claims

Having high blood sugar is now one of the top five health threats worldwide on Web MDs website, they say

“High blood sugar is among the world's top five killers, a Harvard study shows.

High blood sugar is one sign that a person is on the road to diabetes. But it kills many people long before they ever get diabetes, note Goodarz Danaei, MD, of Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues”.

Via WebMD full story here http://www.webmd.com

Do You Have a Slow Metabolism?

When it comes to making excuses about why we can't lose weight sometimes the number one excuse must be “my metabolism is slow” but is that really the case, even though you may tend to think that, it's very often not the case, more a case of too much input and not enough output, as in too many calories in and not enough out. The only time you can really blame a slow metabolism on weight gain is when you may have a thyroid problem.
The way that your metabolism works is this so much energy from food is used in keeping your basic bodily functions working, as in keeping organs working breathing, and other bodily functions.

Some is used for eating the food you eat, which is about 10 percent say then some is due,to activity, walking to the shops, store, walking the dog, washing the car, gardening, and any other sports.

What tends to affect your calorific needs on a daily basis is your overall body mass the more you weigh the more energy is needed to carry around you're heavier body, which is why some people do struggle to lose weight, mainly due to the fact that they still eat as they would normally eat instead of making a few simple changes to the amount of calories consumed and those burnt through physical activity.

You do need a deficit somewhere 3500 calories equals one pound of fat; just remember that figure and you can't go far wrong. And as always is the case simple lifestyle changes don't necessarily mean great big one’s, we tend to think I have to go to the gym, or I have too buy the latest keep fit DVD, or equipment which will probably end up somewhere like a garage or stored away somewhere never to be used again.

All you need to do really is make simple changes into your life and they will work wonders if you have a dog, go out with it for regular walks, if you have children go on the park for half an hour, run around like they do.

Concentrate on building muscle rather than fat mass, muscle is active tissue and burns calories even at rest were as fat is just inactive tissue and just sits there.

Work out what your (BMR) basic metabolic rate is you could probably say that many people don't do this, but it's a good idea to know what your basic metabolic rate is, because one of the things that happens when you lose weight is your basic metabolic rate changes it is a lot less than it would be from what you would weigh from the start of your weight loss programme.

If you can start a calorie journal so you actually know how much you are eating and can make the necessary adjustments as you go through your week, things can be so much easier to see when written down in black and white right in front of you.

The moral of the story is simply, doesn't necessarily mean hard as we tend to think sometimes.

To read the full article see the link below.

Via http://www.citynews.ca


Sunday, November 12, 2006

Quick Recipe of The Week

I'm going to do these once a week on a regular basis because our lifestyles tend to be a bit hectic at times, something quick and easy can be great if you're in a rush.
This may well be a recipe you probably heard so many times it's untrue, but I have to say myself, it's something I never used to eat at one time until I tried it a few times maximum time it takes to make this dish is four to five minutes tops, that's including preparation and everything.

Scrambled Eggs:

Pour half a cup of milk into a saucepan you don't need a lot really, then add two eggs and beat the mixture, until it's all mixed together nicely and the milk looks a pale yellow, turn the heat up and with a wooden spoon start to stir the mixture after a while it will start to go fluffy, serve on either whole-meal or whole-wheat bread or one site I came across recently suggested using Ryvita which is something I never thought of before. Add some sauce or pepper which will add a bit more flavour.

Quick and easy just what you need.

Study Shows Findings of Low Carb Diets On Heart Health

A study which ran over a period of 20 years, which was done to see if there were any links between coronary heart disease and a low carb diet. The researchers doing the study found there was no association at all, of having a low carbohydrate diet and (CHD) coronary heart disease, but other findings were.

“Their findings did suggest, however, an association between low-carb diets high in vegetable sources of fat and protein and a low risk of CHD.”

“Advocates of low-carbohydrate diets, such as the popular Atkins diet, claim that those diets may help prevent obesity and coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the long-term safety of those diets has been debated, particularly because they encourage the consumption of animal products, which are high in saturated fats and cholesterol and could potentially increase the risk of CHD. Prevailing dietary recommendations have advocated a contrary approach, recommending diets that are low in fat and high in carbohydrates as the best way to manage weight and reduce the risk of cardiovascular
disease.”

Here we have yet another interesting study on the shall I or shouldn't I eat a low carbohydrate diet.

Read the full story here:

Via http://www.sciencedaily.com

Friday, November 10, 2006

Weekly Weigh In

Hi there readers it's Friday again nothing much to report except things are about the same as last week 96kg or thereabouts, one thing that seems consistent at times is the loss of inches around my waist which is how things go overtime, I can get into clothes that previoisly would have been impossible, anyway on that note see you soon bye now.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Should You Weigh Yourself Every Day?

This is something that has been hotly debated for a long time now over the years as regards whether or not to do it, how about you do you weigh yourself every day I used to at one point but decided once a week was enough, the main reason for doing this was your weight can vary throughout the day so you can weigh more, later on in the day but can be lighter in the morning which is how it happens to me. It would seem however though from a recent study that was done it is a good idea to weigh yourself every day.

A study was done and what it says was quite interesting apparently the benefits are quite profound to say the least.

“Providence, RI -- Most successful dieters regain the weight they lost. But new research shows that stepping on a scale every day, then cutting calories and boosting exercise if the numbers run too high, can significantly help dieters maintain weight loss. The study, conducted by researchers at The Miriam Hospital and Brown Medical School, reports results of the first program designed specifically for weight loss maintenance. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine". "Unlike other obesity studies, which focus on how to lose weight, the clinical trial called STOP Regain tested a method that taught participants how to keep those pounds from coming back - regardless of what method they used to lose the weight in the first place.”

Via http://www.eurekalert.org

Super Food of The Week -The Carrot

Carrots are something that you may associate with rabbit food from your younger years, remember how when you are younger your parents might say eat your carrots as they will help you see in the dark, one of the great weight loss properties of the carrot is soluble fibre, which can help to lower cholesterol levels, carrots are also rich in beta-carotene, which can help in the prevention of some cancers stomach being one, also the uterus.

You’re less likely to suffer from a stroke if you eat plenty of carrots according to some studies, and other great thing about carrots is they have quite a lot of vitamin A which is beneficial to eye health.

Carrots contain cartenoids which can be an aid in the regulation of blood sugar which is good news for people with diabetes.

Also carrots are very low in calories coming in at 52 to 53 calories per one cup, which is another good reason to eat them. They are also very rich in minerals and vitamins namely vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, minerals include potassium which is known for promoting heart health, phosphorus, magnesium and folate.

The carrot therefore in summary is a great all-round superfood great for snacking on in order to stop cravings of other types of foods.

Monday, November 06, 2006

How EFT May Stop Binge Eating

If you have never heard of EFT before it can help in many problems of your life it is a acronym for Emotional Freedom Technique, the way this method works is you tap various parts on your body which realigns the way the energy flows through your body it is a form of acupuncture without needles you can use it for other problems such as phobias and so on.

The technique is quite simple to do and doesn't take that much time either in a nutshell here's how it's done first of all get one finger and tap where your eyebrow meets your nose do this two times, then move to the left of your eye and do the same thing there, then go under your eye, under your nose, under your chin, doing the tapping of all these points as you go along, then go to your collarbone, under your arm, then go to the back of your wrist, from there go to your thumb, index finger next, middle finger, little finger then the edge of your hand or the karate chop as it's called. These two paragraphs are to familiarise you with the technique initially, so you are more aware of how it works and how to use it.

When you have done this rub your sore spot which is just below your collarbone “saying out loud even though I am overweight, I deeply and completely except myself and don't need to binge eat”

Also while doing the tapping when you are near the karate chop part, hum the happy birthday tune whilst doing the tapping.

In fact someone has been practising this very therapy with her clients for quite a few years now and she has this to say “ Dr Solomon says, “ during my dieting years I never thought there was a way out…. an actual alternative to compulsive eating. Through painful determination and willpower, I finally broke my own cycle, but I still struggled with occasional bouts of binging. My binging were very to connected with feelings of overwhelm and overwork. I had to be on alert that I wouldn't fall back into that trap”

Through using EFT she stopped her binging.

Click the below link to read more

Via http://www.emediawire.com

Friday, November 03, 2006

Why a Healthy Liver Aids Weight Loss

Your liver during its lifetime has to do a lot of hard work in relation to digesting food, if overtime because of eating the wrong foods it may become a little bit overworked, this is why it's important to eat the right foods, to enable digestion to become more easy when you eat a lot of fatty foods this can end up in your liver which will cause it to become more sluggish, you may become tired easily have a lack of energy and overtime many other problems can occur, some young adults these days are getting fatty liver because of the diet they tend to eat, fatty liver normally tends to be associated with alcoholism, but that's not the case any more if you have seen the film Supersize Me, in which Morgan Spurlock, ate a fast-food diet for a month and ended up with fatty liver.The liver is paramount when it comes to metabolizeing fat when you eat food bile is mixed in to break down the fat that maybe in the food, but if your liver isn't working very well the overall strength of the bile won't be as effective in breaking down the fats.
So what tends to happen is it ends up in your liver which is where you don't want it to be that is why eating lots of fatty foods can make you feel sluggish because your liver is working so hard to break down the fats also fat has no nutritional content whatsoever your liver needs proper vitamins and minerals in order to do its job properly it literally is like a factory within your body, also it acts as filter for toxins, which may come from pesticides within your food as well as additives within the food even maybe the air that you breathe depending on how bad the pollution may be where you are.

On Extreme Healths Blog they wrote something which ties in with all of this where the author of a book namely the "Fat Flush Plan"by Ann Louise Gittleman , did a experiment involving thirty people, which involved eating two eggs on a daily basis tied in with their normal diet they also had some lemon juice in water, one particular woman lost twenty pounds in total this was over six weeks. via Extreme Health

So it does pay to look after your liver

Weekly Weigh In

Hello there how are you well, Friday again time to break the scales again as I jump onto them off the wardrobe so Im not able to see my weight, but in hindsight it's not that bad not moved at all this week but that can and does happen still at the 96.kg mark so still ok at least there's no gain even if there was it's normal won't lose any sleep over it that's for sure. Stay focused stay positive and things will happen see you shortly watch this space.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Obesity and the Salt Connection

Obesity and the Salt Connection

Great article about salt and weight not written by me:

What follows is a slightly modified version of an article I wrote for the monthly glossy magazine of Mensa, the high IQ society, of which I am a member. It was published in the December 2004 issue. Four months later, the April 2005 issue contained a letter from Joyce Barnard, who has given permission for her name to be used here. She wrote that by following the advice I had given her a few years earlier - i.e. that to lower her high blood pressure and lose weight she simply needed to eat less sodium - she had lost 5 stones in weight (70 pounds) in a year! - All she did was stop sprinkling salt onto her meals and use LoSalt instead of ordinary salt when cooking.

Many years ago I gained a great deal of weight because of taking HRT prescribed by my GPs, mainly on the advice of an endocrinologist. - I did not realise at the time that the weight gain was because of the medication.

I became desperately ill and exhausted and had very high blood pressure for which I took Atenolol, a beta-blocker. I was so fat I could barely walk. Yet I was not overeating. My feet, hands and breasts were exquisitely painful and very red and swollen. I was unable to use my hands for many tasks. I needed a larger size in shoes. My face and neck became beetroot red and very swollen. I developed acne and eczema. I suffered from breathlessness.

Having never sprinkled salt on my food in my life, and never used it in cooking, in 1997 I became aware that there was a lot of salt in bread and cheese and breakfast cereals. Because of the connection between hypertension and salt intake I altered my eating to reduce, and eventually to exclude, all avoidable sodium. This lowered my blood pressure and I no longer needed to take Atenolol.

More spectacularly, and very unexpectedly to me, eating less salt reduced my weight by 51 pounds! - This was nothing to do with calories, fat or sugar. - The weight I lost was clearly water, which I worked out was held in my body by the salt - held in my veins, which had become massively distended and painful since I had embarked on the HRT.

I worked out that it was the oestrogen that had caused the sodium and water retention and this was confirmed when I looked in the British National Formulary for the side-effects of oestrogen. I then realised that oestrogen was a steroid, though it is not normally thought of in that category, and that the sodium and water retention came about because certain steroids and certain other prescribed drugs relax/weaken the walls of the blood vessels so that they take in excess salt and the water which accompanies it. I realised that I was a 'steroid victim'.

For many years I have been providing a free telephone helpline for people in pain in my area and for the last five years have been advising all callers to reduce their salt intake, particularly when they were obese. Their weight loss, too, has been dramatic and swift. One Mensa member whom I helped lost about a stone in a month just by eating less salt. Her dog, too, lost weight when she stopped salting his food!

I firmly believe that the massive rise in the incidence of obesity, especially child obesity, is due to the prevalence of salt in modern diets, mainly from manufactured foods, and that calorie counting and advice about reducing fat and sugar intake and increasing exercise are counter-productive.

But salt causes obesity only in vulnerable people, i.e.

People whose veins are weak because of immaturity (babies, children),

People whose veins are weak because of steroids or HRT or amitriptyline or certain other prescribed drugs, too readily prescribed, often in very high dose,

People whose natural oestrogen levels are higher than normal (e.g. pregnant women).

People whose blood vessel walls have been weakened by 'slimming' � i.e. eating insufficient food.

Inactivity does not cause obesity. Obesity causes inactivity.

In 2001 I wrote to MPs, to medical people, to journalists, to nutritionists and others, explaining that salt sensitivity is what causes obesity, and urging that the facts be made known, particularly to steroid victims. The powerful and influential people to whom I wrote have taken no action to give publicity to the life-saving message. The public is not being told the truth about weight gain and weight loss. The best, the healthiest, the safest way to lose weight is to concentrate on eating less salt (and more potassium).

An Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Oxford, wrote back to me in August 2001 that I was right about steroids causing weight gain because of salt and water retention and that weight can be lost by eating less salt or by taking diuretics. Sadly he seems to be the only medic who knows this! - A book on salt, written by experts on hypertension and brought out in a blaze of publicity a few years ago makes no mention of steroid victims and specifically states, among other errors, that HRT does not cause a salt problem.

A person who gains weight has a higher calorie requirement. There are two reasons for this. Having to carry a greater mass around and service a more massive body uses more calories. And having a bigger surface area means greater heat loss, since heat lost is proportional to surface area. - A greater calorie requirement results in greater appetite/hunger, so, really, overweight people need to eat more than people of normal weight. If the overweight eat insufficient calories (ie if they 'diet') they may lose weight, but it is at the cost of being hungry. There has never been the slightest evidence that the practice of fewer calories in and more calories out by way of exercise reduces obesity! - It is often confidently stated that fat will be lost by doing this. - Sadly, what is more often lost is lean tissue, usually an irreversible adverse effect.

The result of the misunderstanding of the cause of obesity is the well-known fact that over 95% of dieters actually gain weight in the long term! - They cannot be expected to go hungry all the time. - Nor would staying hungry all the time benefit them. - With insufficient calories for the body's needs, the body feeds on itself. - The skin becomes thinner; the bones become less dense; there is some hair loss, etc.

Contrast this with the right way to lose weight - by eating less sodium. - Eating less sodium releases some of the excess water held in the blood stream. This lowers the blood pressure and, significantly, lowers the weight. - Weighing less results in a lower calorie requirement so very gradually less food is eaten and this becomes a virtuous circle because less food eaten results in lower sodium intake.

In societies in which no salt is eaten (what some might describe as undeveloped or uncivilised societies) there is no obesity and no hypertension.

The cavemen and women who were our ancestors lived for millennia without added salt. Our bodies evolved on a low sodium and high potassium intake. The modern diet has reversed this to high sodium and low potassium. The intake of salt has massively increased in recent years - as has the incidence of obesity.

I submit that the universal 'slimming' advice - to eat fewer calories/less fat/sugar - is a major cause of obesity. - All that is necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium. This is a drug-free, cost-free course of action. There are no hunger pangs and no adverse side-effects. It requires no visits to the doctor or to the gym and it WILL work.

Lose weight by eating less salt!-Go on!-Try it! My website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk provides more details and advice.

Margaret Wilde

Anyone is welcome to copy this article in whole or in part, provided only that it is always attributed to me, Margaret Wilde, that the information is provided free, and that my web-site address www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk is always included.

Why You Need To Eat More Eggs

There has been a lot of controversy recently about eggs, so much so recently that people thought they were bad for you, but nothing could be further from the truth recent findings have shown that eggs are in fact very good for you so, much so that some recent studies done have found that they can suppress your appetite later on in the day let's say for instance you have eggs for breakfast, you're far less likely to eat more food at dinner time.

In this particular study done by the Rochester Centre for Obesity, in America, overweight women had an egg-based breakfast; other women had a bagel-based breakfast.
The women who had the egg-based breakfast had eaten far less than the bagel group.

Over the monitoring period of over thirty six hours, the egg eating group consumed four hundred and seventeen less calories, than the bagel group.

And it doesn't stop there eggs have six grams of protein, which is ideal if you're a vegetarian they contain naturally occurring vitamin D, vitamin B1, vitamin B5
plus a abundance of minerals trytopan ,selenium, iodine, phosphorus.

Also may be a aid in heart health, reasons for this are they may help in preventing blood clots, a study which was done in a issue of the biological and pharmaceutical bulletin showed that the egg yolk contains something that prevents platelets forming, it acts as a time delay mechanism in the formation of something called fibrinogen which is a protein that is in blood which gets turned into a fibrin, fibrin lays the foundations for when a blood clot is formed red and white blood cells attach to the fibrin which will become the blood clot, the more yolks eaten the more effect it has.

One egg contains roughly 70 calories eaten with two slices of wholemeal, or wholegrain bread, which roughly worked out two slices, would be 160 calories and two eggs 140 calories, combined 300 calories which for lunch say is ideal and very healthy too.