Lose that tyre

Last Post On Blogger

2007-08-16T03:41:00.000+01:00

Hi I have my new home now which is at www.losethattyre.co.uk things need doing to it still,but it's up and running so no need to post here anymore see you there I'll get everything sorted in time it's just a matter of when.

Top Ten Weight Loss Foods

2007-08-13T14:49:00.001+01:00

Whilst doing some market research a thought from a keyword made me think about this so hence the post here are what I would consider to be my top then weight loss foods anyway whether they are or not makes difference so here we go.

Something I eat a lot of now especially with it being so hot is salad my number one for this would be.

1. Tomatoes I love them all the goodness they contain and they have water in which fills you up

2. Fish I eat mostly salmon when we have it mostly in sandwiches or with a salad

3. Eggs I eat a fair few eggs two reasons mainly one the protein and two they suppress your appetite.

4. Soup extremely low in calories very filling and studies show that it suppresses your appetite.

5.Apples very low calorie food and contains pectin which is it's own fibre takes quite a while to break down in your stomach plus turns off the hungry signal in your mind.

6. Bananas love the taste of them and there so full of good stuff namely potassium

7.Pears love this fruit and eat it quite a lot

8.Beans full of protein and taste great with some chilli powder added yummy

9.Porridge (Oatmaeal) mostly have this for my breakfast keeps me going to dinner or lunch whichever you prefer.

10.Green Tea full of antioxidants and now Im used to it I find it quite satisfying I know it isn't a food but thought it might make a good addition to the list.

You Are What You Eat

2007-08-13T11:51:00.001+01:00

We all have heard this phrase at some time during our battles with weight loss but did you know that some research as shown that we can be what our friends eat.

A study was performed which had twelve thousand people and there where 2 things that stood by a mile large people have large friends.

And people with big friends become bigger themselves so this raises a few valid points does it hold true for you what happens when you go to a friends house for dinner do you tend to eat more than you would do normally. It certainly is worth thinking about as we can and do become at times like the people we hang around with.

News Flash

2007-08-11T09:15:00.000+01:00

Hi folks well I have pondered doing this for ages now and have finally done it I bought the domain name losethattyre.co.uk so I will be moving from blogger in time over to wordpress hope you will join me there all the very best

Mark.

Weigh In

2007-08-10T10:42:00.000+01:00

Hi folks weigh in time again looks like things are going real good down now to 87.kg on the dot now so here is how it looks.

Free Weight Loss Hypnosis Download

2007-08-10T09:24:00.001+01:00

Hi folks came across this today and thought some people might be interested in it, hypnosis can work for some people and others not,but it's worth trying if anything after all it's free so nothing to lose here is the link enjoy

http://www.free-hypnosisdownloads.com

Funny Video

2007-08-09T11:54:00.000+01:00

Enjoy I did !!!!

Found at Funny Stuff Central, the Home of Funny Video Clips

Ten Ways To Help You Burn More Fat

2007-08-07T12:48:00.001+01:00

Here are some ways to stoke your metabolism up if you are still having problems with losing weight. these are all from the latest research on weight loss.

1. Studies have found that actually water does have an effect on your metabolism,a study which was correlated in Germany showed that by drinking water the participants metabolisms rose by thirty percent which is quite good. water also will suppress your appetite we often mistake from thirst and therefore eat more,try this tip have some water about twenty minutes before your main meal you will probably find that you will eat less.

2. Drink green tea, it has been found from studies that, it has metabolism boosting properties, also green tea is very high in antioxidants and overall it doesn't taste that bad, it probably sounds for worse than it actually is that there is no reason why you shouldn't try it.

3.Have some soup,various studies have been done regarding soup, as well as speeding up your metabolism, it also suppresses your appetite and with it being a liquid type of food it will also feel you up.

4.Eat some grapefruit, studies were done regarding this fruit at a clinic and it was found that the people who ate some grapefruit with their meal lost three point six pounds, within three months, another good thing about grapefruit is it keeps your insulin levels in check which if you have high levels of insulin which can cause you to gain weight, insulin is a fat storage hormone.

5.Eat even more fruit, a few days back now I wrote a post about Apples and how they can help you lose weight, if you eat one Apple before each meal about half an hour roughly this will suppress your appetite and because of the pectin in the Apple, you will eat less food. You could also eat pears as well in conjunction with the apples.

6.Vegetables, get into the habit of eating broccoli lots of studies have shown that this vegetable will help you lose weight in the long run, and it does taste quite nice, not only that broccoli is packed with phytochemicals,which helps prevent disease.

7. Add some yoghurt to your shopping list has been found, that people who eat dairy foods, with calcium in do in fact lose weight. Just make sure it's a low-fat variety of what you are eating.

8. Porridge, one of my favourite breakfasts, oatmeal as its otherwise known has lots of soluble fiber and high in carbohydrates which will keep you feeling full for longer.

9.Turkey or chicken tends to be packed full of protein,another good metabolism booster studies have shown this time after time.

10.Spicy food hot foods such as pepper also have fat burning properties as well, things like chillies etc, these foods stimulate your stress hormones which in turn speed up your metabolism.

Source e-diets

How You Can Burn More Fat By Doing Less

2007-08-06T13:34:00.001+01:00

This poses a rather interesting debate about exercise and the length of it or how much you do or don't as to how much fat you burn, during exercise, a study was done which compared the fat metabolism, of some men who did one bout of exercise and some who did repeated bouts of exercise.

Things were that were done were during the study seven men did the following a single bout of exercise for sixty minutes continuous, and also two single bouts of exercise which lasted thirty minutes each, and had twenty minutes rest between each bout,and then rest.

Measurements were done on the participants of the study and it was found that the group that exercised constantly for sixty minutes burnt less fat than those who exercised for thirty minutes then rested now interestingly enough this is this is exactly how I do my exercise one session in the morning followed by one session in the evening, and do it on alternate days so I have one day of exercise and one day off

Source

The Magnetic Diet

2007-08-03T10:06:00.000+01:00

What does this entail you might ask do you have to put magnets all over your body in order to lose weight well no, you don't have to strap a belt of magnets to yourself so you look like batman with a utility belt on.

It's not as the name implies so don't worry your knives and forks won't be sticking to you just yet :) so read on the great thing about this is the author has put the book on line so you can either buy it or read it for free.

Read the book on line here

Ten Ways To Keep Your Weight Loss On Track

2007-08-02T14:42:00.001+01:00

It can be hard at times when your trying to lose weight to stay focused what with the ups and downs of life hectic life styles and so on.

So I saw a article on the American Chronicles website and thought it would make a good post.

So they say:

1. Don't dive in headfirst into anything there are so many fad diets these days that promise that this and the other and in truth losing weight slowly is more safer than, losing it fast aim for 1 pound a week if possible that's 500 per calories per day.

2. Keep it real everyone either gains or loses weight at different rates no two people are the same, stick to what your doing and don't worry if someone else is or has lost more weight it's not a competition.

3. Don't go hell bent for leather on exercise some people go mad at first going to the gym everyday and the thing is you don't give your muscles time to recover and tired muscles are no use at all, any exercise is better than none, if you have been living a sit about life style for ten years, a week or more on the treadmill won't fix that.

4. Watch the calories but don't slash them down to nothing, if you do that your body will go into starvation mode and will hold on every last ounce of fat, and you won't lose a anything.

5. Whatever you do don't skip meals another common mistake people make eat throughout the day fruit is good for eating in between meals and it keeps your metabolism ticking over.

6. Weighing yourself no need to do it everyday why you ask well your weight can change from day to day it might be more one day,then less the next try weighing once a week or twice a week that way you can get a better reading.

7. Eat with your conscious emotional eating can get the better of you at times when your bored depressed it's all to easy to eat cake or ice cream your mind associates this with the feeling so you tend to do it more often when you feel that way. The only way to deal with this is don't buy it, if it's not there you won't eat it.

8. Going it alone, not always the best idea talk to people who are trying to do the same as you or join a forum based around weight loss where you can get support.

9. Restriction just because you are trying to lose weight doesn't mean you can't have some treats just keep it to a minimum once in a while won't hurt

10. Don't rely on willpower alone keep a record of what you eat everyday and record your progress both these are a good motivator

Source : American Chronicle

Weigh In

2007-07-27T11:20:00.000+01:00

Hello thought it was time to update my progress weight wise so jumped on the scales to see how things where and things are really good still losing weight I'm about the 87.5kg mark now which isn't to bad at all. So alls well on that front.

Heres how it looks 87.5 kg not much point in updating the ticker you can't put in .5 increments in. All for now have a nice weekend.

Weigh In

2007-07-06T11:50:00.000+01:00

Hello it's weigh in time looks like things are on are downward trend I am now at the 88kg point bit of a surprise but none the less it is there so all well and good.

Blood Test Results

2007-07-02T16:16:00.001+01:00

Hello as promised and as mentioned in my last post I said I would divulge my blood test results once they came back.

Well it's a triple whammy right across the board my cholesterol has come normal, blood sugar so no diabetes now looming like before and my liver enzyme's have normalised which had been a problem for a long time.

Being as things have normalised this explains why the weight loss has kicked in your liver plays a crucial role in your fat burning capabilties if your liver becomes out of whack everything slows down.

At one stage my weight had balloned to 18 and a half stone which in pounds is 259 and kilograms is 117. Which to where I am now is a huge difference I have lost four and a half stone up to now. From when I was weighed at my Doctors surgery,I wasn't sure what my results would be at all no idea I just hoped they would be ok but coming back all normal was great to hear, it made all the hard work worth it.

So as long as I eat as I do now things will be ok, words can't describe how I feel as the saying goes over the moon. I Hope some people become inspired by reading this and the positive message it gives. Keep at it and you will win.

Weigh In

2007-06-22T08:35:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone well still the same this fortnight still near the 88-89 mark on our scales so not moved, it's a case of more exercise me thinks so need to ramp it up bit more and see what transpires.

To say where I was and where I am now is a great achievement, to my mind and I'm really pleased with how far I have come on my weight loss journey it's not over just yet just need to keep on fighting a bit more, after all I have a title of a warrior now so I need to uphold that.

And a big thank you to everyone whom has left comments I do read them all and take note of what is being said to me. On a side note I recently went for a fasting blood test and other checks have been incorporated as well, namely cholesterol and blood sugar, both were quite high that was why I needed to lose the weight, not just that though I didn't enjoy being overweight really I felt very tired and sluggish at times and there has been noticeable improvements. But having high blood sugar was a big motivating factor and at the time my diet wasn't that great. When I get the results back I'll post here and let you know how they turned out.

Keep fighting :-)

What I Ate Today

2007-06-20T18:40:00.000+01:00

Here is what I ate today.

So for breakfast had some.

Followed by for Lunch some

For tea or late lunch

Beverages drunk were beer namely

Snacks included were a bar

as well as some crisps

Is Your Microwave Making You Fat ?

2007-06-18T13:50:00.000+01:00

Is this one of those news stories that makes you think it's the radiation that would do this ?. Well in this case it's a no it isn't it's more of a case of what you put in it that matters, mind you everyone probably guessed that anyway. So what's the deal here then well it's down to some research that has done been done in the UK revolving around the causes of obesity.

Jane Wardle who is a professor has noted that obesity in this country shot up about the same time as the microwave oven boom around about 1984, around that time also more ready meals started appearing on our supermarket shelves, the facts speak for themselves about 1980 eight per cent of women were obese and six percent of men were. Now fast forward a lot of years to 20o4 and that figure jumps to twenty four percent for both men and women, that's a huge increase.

The scientists say they blame foods high in calories and less physical exercise, they also say our previous generations had higher calorie intake than we do know but there jobs where more physically demanding and hence they stayed slimmer.

The study came about because it became of interest of when the obesity epidemic started tracing back and it seemed to begin in and around 1984 to 1987

Prof Wardle said

"So then we looked at what changes were going on in the food and activity world at that time and one of the striking changes was there were differences in the speed with which we could prepare a meal as a consequence of the introduction of microwaves."

Also she noted that about this time food became cheaper and ready meals started to appear on our supermarket shelves.

It's not to say that using a microwave is a bad thing but a lot of the food that you buy of the shelves can have a lot of fat and sugar in it, ready meals that is although as in everything there are also healthy alternatives thing is a lot of people don't read the labels when buying these microwave meals there just so convient for busy people.
One of the scientists said supermarkets are to blame people use cars more now than ever before food is everywhere you go it's cheaper, people exercise less now than they used to.

Another scientist comments where that obesity can be tracked after the war 1945to be exact, just before this time there was less food about and in fact people overall where healthier. When new technolgies started to arrive they took the place of doing hard work in both work and pleasure.

We as a nation now have never had so much food in our lives no shortage that's for sure, I suppose in summing up it's all a matter of choice really.

I use our microwave for porridge (oatmeal) in the morning and various other things
source http://news.bbc.co.uk

Posts

2007-06-14T09:23:00.000+01:00

Hello just a quick note about the gaps in posts I have been suffering from depression on and off and lost my steam for posting at present, my mind has gone numb it's probably a delayed reaction from what happened over the holiday period.

I want to get to my target weight and hopefully I will, it might take a bit longer but Im not that far off really, I thought it would be a good idea to post this I am human and things can and do happen and thought it was best to say something rather than nothing.

After all there is real life and there's the virtual world. I read somewhere that it's not a good idea to write posts like this but that's not me. Im more here is what's wrong rather than keep on posting for the sake of it.

Weigh In

2007-06-08T09:13:00.000+01:00

Hi it's two weeks now since I weighed in here not much to tell really still about the same there may be a slight loss but its hard to see call it 88.5 so not a deal to tell really.

Here is how it looks

What I Ate Today

2007-05-25T18:34:00.001+01:00

Hi I thought another what I ate today was due so on todays menu was.

Breakfast: Three weetabix with skimmed milk

Lunch: 2 sausages baked in the oven
with peas and potato chips

Snacks: Cream crackers with some butter x2
apple and a banana

Tea or late lucnch:macaroni cheese low fat option.

Weeky Weigh In

2007-05-25T08:58:00.000+01:00

Hi folks this will be the last weekly weigh in just in case you didn't see my post as in each week as stated it will be now once fortnightly just seems like a better idea to me.

This week shows some gain about 1kg it is hard to see on our scales but I feel better saying around there, perhaps I need some digital scales might make for better readings. The problem with our scales is near a round number say 90kg for instance the indentations are quite cramped it's easier to see when you move further away from the round number.

So here is how it looks

Did You Know ?

2007-05-23T09:45:00.001+01:00

During our lifetime we can eat 35 tonnes of food, makes you think that does.

Weekly Weigh Ins

2007-05-23T07:29:00.000+01:00

Hi I will still be doing these but decided to weigh myself once every two weeks instead, you are probably aware your weight can vary within a week so I felt two weeks would be better on the whole.

Affirmations

2007-05-22T12:23:00.000+01:00

Recently I have been trying something new, you can apply this to almost anything you are doing really it doesn't have to be weight loss or dieting that it's applied to whatever you chose it's up to you.

All they are is simple lines about what you wan't to achieve in your life goals etc, for example here is one about food you could use, I choose to eat healthily and wisely,I eat five portions of vegetables a day you get the general idea anyway.

Or you could use the following for weight loss I will be slimmer more healthier, I will exercise 3-4 time's a week, I can see myself as a slimmer more healthier me.

These are just a few let your imagination run wild there are hundreds you could think of, put them where you can see them everyday day, I have got a small A5 folder with transparent pockets in where I will put mine, there are even programs that compile slideshows from images that you can add music to and then add the affirmation to the image, scenic landscapes work quite well I find.

Have fun and make your positive affirmations.

What I have Learned about Weight Loss

2007-05-21T16:54:00.001+01:00

This post sums up a few things I have learnt along my weight loss journey, when I first started to try and lose weight I never knew how easy or hard it was going to be, but seeing a clip of someone on television who was older than me losing weight started me on my journey.

He was on something called the G.I diet which was something I never heard of before so did some research and bought a book on this and looked at what needed to be done, It's foundation is based on eating foods that release there sugar more slowly so you feel fuller longer and hence lose weight.

Some foods apparently do have these properties whether that is true or not is another matter I neither have the means or the equipment to prove such a theory, but it seemed to work for me, other things that I discovered are eggs have good appetite suppressant properties if eaten at breakfast or for dinner, soup has the same effect and just recently the apples before a meal three a day one before each meal.

Another thing which I learnt is to eat more slowly, instead of eating like a horse at a trough, the reason for this is it takes 20 minutes for your brain to receive the full signal think about how much food you could eat if your plate was full, when you have a big plate of food in front of you it's very easy to eat it all, but try this eat that plate of food blindfolded and see what happens you'll be surprised.

I have smaller plates and use those now to eat my food on I don't even think about using a big plate there is no point. I eat consciously rather than the other way round instead of eating for comfort, I eat when I'm hungry.

Cut foods out that have lots of refined sugar in them like chocolate biscuits,trifles cake and any foods that are high in sugar, eat more fruit now than ever before, fruit I eat are apples, pears ,bananas nectarines, peaches.

Thats about it really hope you find something useful in this I enjoyed writing this post.

Weekly Weigh In

2007-05-18T13:08:00.000+01:00

Hello it's the I speak your weight time of the week again and things are ok, I am now at the 88kg (194 pounds) (13 .857 stones) stage it's hard to see but it is there so here is how it looks.

Does a Apple a Day Keep The Weight Away ?

2007-05-15T15:30:00.000+01:00

Remember when you where young and someone might say a apple a day keeps the doctor away how about a twist on this catch-phrase.

How about three apples a day keeps the weight away yes that's right three apples a day, this is the first time I have heard of this concept before now actually, I was just looking for some information regarding apples and then came across this by accident.

Someone has written a book around this principle of eating, I am always open to new ways of losing weight as each new bit of information helps me understand more about losing weight.

This way of eating was found out by accident by someone who was trying to help someone who was trying to lose weight, Tammi Flynn had some problems with one of her clients losing weight so adding fruit was suggested one of her favourite was apples and a suggestion was made to eat one half an hour before her meals she did this for seven days came back and said to Tammi "look at this my clothes are looser"
she said it must be the apples, she lost a total of one and half pounds of body fat over a week period, at first Tammi was a bit skeptical so more people where told to try the same thing over the same time frame, and results again and again.

So what is the secret that apples hold well they can stop hunger pangs for up to four hours, eating three apples a day ups your fibre intake up to 15 grams per day, researchers have found that by doing this it slashes your calorie consumption by 10%.

Apples contain there own fibre called pectin which is soluble but has the power to suppress your appetite more than normal fibre, pectin creates like a jelly in your stomach, which takes longer to break down also pectin sends a hormone message to your brain to stop eating. So you have a two fold effect in operation also they prevent blood sugar spikes from happening.

Who would think that one fruit had so many hidden weight loss properties glad I started to eat them because I never used to.

Via http://www.3appleplan.com

Five Reasons To Drink Green Tea

2007-05-15T14:54:00.000+01:00

I never knew that green tea was such a benefit to health before now I do drink it but only knew the odd thing about it. On the front of the label on my pack it says it's high in antioxidants.

But looking around it seems there is more it than I first realised here are five reasons to drink it.

It can help with blood sugar stability so keeping your insulin levels in check which as we know is important for losing weight.
May help in lowering your blood pressure
Helps lower cholesterol mainly LDL which is that bad type
Protects your liver from antioxidants which is a valid point the liver is responsible for doing lots of jobs and when it's not working effectively can thwart your weight loss efforts.
Can help with the prevention of cancer.

Are You a Emotional Eater ?

2007-05-14T10:23:00.000+01:00

On problem which crops up quite a lot is when your trying to lose weight, we can tend to comfort eat which sabotages or efforts somewhat, quite a while ago now I wrote about using EFT which one woman used in her battle to lose weight.

Even though you may not realialise it stress for some people will trigger the eat now part of your brain and so you do. Not to long ago I came across this site which is based around EFT and thought if you or anyone else might be having this particular problem would maybe benefit from trying it, There are quite a few free videos on the site and a forum here is the address tapping.com there are 13 videos so plenty to look at.

Did You Know ?

2007-05-11T10:20:00.000+01:00

Apples are a better alternative for staying awake than caffiene.

Weekly Weigh In

2007-05-11T09:06:00.000+01:00

Hello blog readers it's speak your weight time again and now I am at the 89kg
(14 stones) (196 pounds) stage now this week so no gain but a slight loss it is hard to see on our scales but it is there. So onward we go here is how it looks ticker wise no real change there because you don't have 0.5kg increments.

Lower Your Energy Density

2007-05-10T12:06:00.000+01:00

If you may be struggling to lose weight and at times it can be frustrating when the scales don't move then it might be worth looking at your energy density to see if you are eating enough water in your diet not drinking it but eating it. In simplistic terms eating more foods that contain water such as fruits and vegetables and low fat foods.

In a recent study which revolved around "energy density" which is based around calories per gram fat being 9 cal per gram and water having none, foods that contain a lot of water such as fruit and vegetables and soup are more calorie dense so you can eat more but without gaining weight.

Dr Barbara Rolls who commissioned the study said

"Increase the water content of foods you eat and decrease the fat content," Roll said.

This lays the foundation for her diet which is called Volumetrics in this particular study people where studied for six months 658 participants where told to do the following one group had a single counselling session the remaining two had eighteen sessions in total the ones that had the counselling where to told to cut energy intake and exercise more, and on top of that do something called (DASH) which is short for
dietary approaches to stop hypertension.

Which focuses on the consumption of more fruit and vegetables and water based foods and low fat food options, what was found from the study was this all three groups lost weight no great surprise there you might say, but all three groups where then combined to see the differences between all three, those who reduced there energy reduction by the most lost more weight than the others five point nine kilograms (13 pounds) to be exact. Compare that with the ones who didn't reduce there energy density who lost two point three kilograms (5 pounds).

Also eating this way you can eat more food without any worry of any added gain approx 300 grams more, I never used to bother eating soup at one time so glad I did now after readfing this brings it home more.

Via http://www.health24.com

What I Ate Today

2007-05-09T17:31:00.000+01:00

Here is what was on todays menu.

Breakfast: 1 bowl of porridge made with water

Lunch: 1 tin of baked beans with 2 wholemeal pitta bread rather than toast.

Snacks: 1 bag of crisps with salt bag

Tea or late lunch: Macaroni Cheese very low fat option

Did You Know ?

2007-05-09T14:01:00.000+01:00

That the daily recommended amount of dietary fibre you should eat per day is twenty five grams.

Good sources of fibre are:

Breakfast cereals include Weetabix, Porridge Oats and muesli
Brown rice rather than white, wholemeal pasta
Fruits that have the highest fibre content are prunes, raspberries and figs
Good vegetable sources are the ones with green leaves on lettuce, broccoli and spincach.

Have look on this website and see if you are eating enough fibre you might be surprised at what you find link here

Weight Loss Tips

2007-05-09T10:10:00.000+01:00

Have a glass of water about half an hour before a meal the water will fill your stomach and you will eat less food try it and see.

Getting Past The Plateau

2007-05-08T11:01:00.000+01:00

As you may well know I hit a bit of a plateau over the past few weeks but thing's seem to have shifted a bit I seem to have gotten past it now or so it would seem. Be able to tell more on Friday which is my weigh in day.

And on the subject matter of plateaus I thought it would make a post incase you may be at a similar postition yourself.

So here are some ideas or tips which may help you incase your stuck.

Don't worry that this has happened it's quite normal to hit these what tends to happen is when you eat less and start to lose weight your metabolism follows your BMR changes this is what can cause the slowdown. Your body needs so many calories to keep you alive basic body functions etc. But as long as you maintain the 500 cal per day with a combination of exercise and eating the right food then you should be ok.
Eat more protien but keep things in balance step up your intake of fruit ones that aren't full of sugar I eat a lot of apples now they curb hunger for me.
Are you a concious eater or a subconcious eater sometimes we eat food without even thinking about what we are eating this may be something that you may not be even aware of.
Eat a few more calories if you eat less sometimes you body will
go into starvation mode and this will cause a slowdwown.
Start a food log so you exactly know how much you have eaten throughout the day and or week do the same for your exercise as well.
Ask other people how they got through there plateau post on forums or ask on someone else's blog, something someone may say might help everything hasn't or isn't in a book sometimes there are other ways to do things.
Listen to music when you exercise with a portable mp3 player it can make it more enjoyable instead of less boring.
Try eating as many differerant types of foods there is sometimes eating the same foods becomes boring so we tend to go back to how we ate before, we can tend to be creatures of comfort I never used to eat apples but eat them all the time now.
Buy a juicer you might not like eating some vegetables or fruit but juiced they can taste lovely.
Change your exercise routine have a look to see where you have the most fat and work a routine around it make sure you are getting in the fat burning zone.

Im a Fat Slob

2007-05-08T10:22:00.000+01:00

Just been reading a post on Spiders blog about the dark side and such which hits upon sensitivity within males and how you can get upset when people say something like your a fat slob in there comments box well I can see how that might upset some people but in a way when you are fat that's all the more reason to lose the weight.

It's just telling like it is it can be sensitive issue I know being overweight but all the more reason to get angry and deal with the problem itself in the end it's for all our own benefit to get healthier lose more weight and use the things that people say to get where we are going so to summarise.

Im a fat slob ish but getting slimmer please leave as many comments as you can in the comments box so I can read them in fact the more the better also can you be creative when you leave a comment make sure it has maximum impact so much to cause a stop to my posting.

There's only a couple of things really you can say about losing weight it takes determination, focus hard work in a word it's not easy but if you work at it you will get there.

Becoming less slobbier and more slimmer ahmen.

Are We Eating Ourselves ILL

2007-05-07T10:28:00.000+01:00

Us brits are getting fatter that's no great revelation but is what we are eating also doing us any good ?. According to the NHS that doesn't seem to be the case now in Britain there are 3.6 million people who suffer from malnutrition it seems quite a lot of us are addicted to food with no real goodness instead we eat fatty, salty,sugary,laden foods instead of a healthier alternative.

Hospitals are finding more cases of malnutrition than ever before it seems that we are becoming more reliant on pre-packaged foods instead of opting for fresh fruit and vegetables, which is the reason for this paticular problem. The thing is how often do any of us read the labels to see what the calorie content of the food is or even if it has any nutrition in it I know I never used to.

It was a case of it's food so I'll eat it without even thinking obout the affect it was having on my body, foods everywhere these days on the high street on posters on televison on the internet it's never to far away is it any wonder we tend to be swayed by the marketing men as to what we eat instead of making our own minds up.

Since changing my eating habits I feel on the whole a lot better than I used to especially when I think back to what I used to eat that is.

More people are showing up in hospitals these days with bot bellies and wasted limbs just like in third world countries which is something you don't expect not here anyway.

Via http://news.independent.co.uk

Do Diets Make You Fatter ?

2007-05-04T11:50:00.001+01:00

In one of the largest studies on weight loss it has been shown that diets for a lot of people just don't work after a time they end up right back where they first started.
Which in turn makes for more problems in the long run.

In this particular study it highlighted that two thirds of the participants put weight back on yo yo dieting isn't very good for the body as a whole.

The findings which where published in the American Psychologist Journal 2004 found that two and half million Australian people had been on tried a low carb diet.
The scientists concluded from all there data that diets simply don't work
Pooling the results from all the studies showed that people do initially lose weight but in the end gain it all back and in some cases weighed even more than they did before after the diet phase was over.
One of the researchers said you can lose between five and ten percent on any diet but once your out that zone as you might call it the weight piles back on.
A portion of people monitored over a four to five year period gained there weight back and more besides.
Participants where found to put on 5kgafter a few years which is quite a lot.

The conclusion of this study finds that in the long term people can tend to be time poor, want results quickly when this doesn't happen people lose interest and go back to how they where eating before. Look in most gyms after Christmas you will probably find quite a few people in them trying to get rid of there excess pounds eaten over the holiday period then as time goes on the amount goes down gradually.

Some people who where invloved with this study felt good when they had lost there weight but came depressed when they gained it back again hence yo yo dieting.

So many fad diets come out these days it can be overwhelming knowing which one to choose, my advice do what works for you just learn what foods do help with weight loss and eat like that forever it's not how you eat it's what you eat that matters you need to eat that way for life. Forget the word "diet" just eat to lose your weight and stick to it if that's possible.

Via http://www.news.com.au

Weekly Weigh In

2007-05-04T08:45:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone it's check in time again so as I climb up to get on the scales, and see what they are telling me, well not much this week but no gain either, still Im not disappointed really been here before just need to work a bit harder and tweak things here and there is all I think, still hovering around the 89.5 kg mark so no real change, but it won't deter me still want to get to my target weight. I can see it in my mind in the not to distant future. So just need to keep on fat busting as they say. In fact in the not to near distant future I might not have a tyre so might need to change the name.

Here is how it looks for regular readers.

Super Food Of The Week

2007-05-02T07:55:00.000+01:00

The banana with it's lovely yellow outer casing has lots of inner secrets lets have a look at them:

Bananas are a great way to boost your health as well as helping with weight loss with a low glycemic rating of 30 that's great news if your concerned with blood sugar issues. That is the unripened value just quoted.

Main health benefit's of the banana are.

Low in calories 86 or thereabouts per banana which is good from a weight-loss perspective
Good source of potassium which is known for helping lower blood pressure
Can help with digestion so if you have diarrhoea or any other digestion problems eat plenty of banana's
low in sodium and fat
2 grams of fibre per banana
Great for people who have ulcers banana's have antacid properties
May prevent the onset of kidney problems such as kidney cancer, studies have shown which involved women that those who ate banana's four to six time's a week halved there chances of getting kidney cancer to those who didn't.

Here a few banana ideas for you.

Why not freeze a banana great for summer do this with the skin on, have a sliced banana with your cereal to supplement it.

Have a banana sandwich with some wholemeal bread tastes great.

Top Three Foods That Help With Weightloss and Aging

2007-04-30T12:46:00.001+01:00

Came across this gem whilst looking on you tube it's quite interesting enjoy

Did You Know ?

2007-04-30T09:59:00.000+01:00

That the way your fast food is presented may be doctored, have a look at these pictures and it all becomes to clear as to how the picture should show the food and actually reality.

Someone on boing boing who brought the link to light said

"I worked (briefly) in the photogoraphy studio of one of the biggest ad agencies in NYC. They paid a professional "food stylist" around $2000 a day to make the food look like that. Every golden sesame seed or drop of crystaline dew was hand placed. That maoynaise isn't mayo, it's hair gel and that chicken looks so good because aparently everything looks yummier when it's been sprayed with laquer. A lot of that "food" isn't food at all and the stuff that is food has been treated with more chemicals and "tricks of the trade" than most super models."

Via Boston Globe

Weight Loss Tips

2007-04-29T11:36:00.000+01:00

Another new feature so here is todays weight loss tip:

Write down your progress you can see it happening before your eyes then, If your really keen work out your total calories eaten per day and the amount you burn during exercise.

I created a table in word at the top put my goal weight then a field for the date my waist measurement and my weight it's really great seeing the progress over time.

Feedback Needed

2007-04-29T11:22:00.000+01:00

For a while now I have been pondering about buying a domain name and moving over to wordpress and would like to know if my blog is worthy of it I know updates haven't been that good recently but there is always room for improvement I know, any thoughts suggestions would be appreciated do you enjoy my blog ? are there any other things I could be doing or is it ok as it is.

It doesn't matter how critical anyone is feedback is good you need to know if you don't ask you don't get as they say.

Im just wondering where I can take this I really am

Thanks Mark

Thank You

2007-04-28T10:51:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post to say thanks for the people who left me some encouraging words of support in my comments the other day namely Spider69 jfarrlley and also to vegasgirl for her nice comment about did you know.

What I Ate Today

2007-04-27T19:11:00.000+01:00

Well this morning wrote down a few things to make a few features of the blog more interesting for people to read and came up with did you know and also the what I ate today as I should imagine some people will be interested in what I eat.

So here goes:

Breakfast:Weetabix x 3 with warm milk

Lunch: Scrambled Egg with wholemeal bread and some mushrooms boiled in water.

Snacks in between: Banana and a apple

Tea: Lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions later had a cob with some haslet in.

Thats it so far I always tend to eat through out the day rather than gourge on big meals at preset meal times. Plus it keeps your metabolism ticking over.

Did You Know ?

2007-04-27T12:50:00.000+01:00

That if you you slash your fat intake to virtually nothing it can make you feel depressed. Research has shown that if you do this then this will be one of the consequence's

That might lead you to comfort eat thus thwarting your weight loss efforts.

Weekly Weigh In

2007-04-27T10:12:00.000+01:00

Hello how are you all in the blogosphere all good I hope, seems we have had a few visitors who left some nice comments in my post about the countdown to my weight loss goal thanks for those muchly appreciated. Anyway this weeks weigh in still around about the same ish there may be a slight difference but not much round about the 89.5kg mark quite hard to see on our scales but the trend isn't up more down so that's all I am concerned with at this point in time. Onwards and upwards as they say.

It seems quite strange wearing jeans that once I wouldn't be able to get the zipper up at one stage now I need a belt to keep them up like I used to and jumpers that used to fit me when I was bigger now hang off me. Almost like being shrunk in the wash it is.

Here is how it looks now ticker factory won't accept .5kg increments so Iv'e put in 89kg which is near enough.

Weekly Weigh In

2007-04-13T09:15:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone it's that familiar time of the week again, time to get on the scales and see where we are, well it's the same as last week weight wise so not a deal to report if there are any deviations they are quite hard to see on our scales but no gain so that's ok in my book.

So 90kg and no change see you again soon hopefully.

Final Countdown

2007-04-07T07:45:00.000+01:00

Regular readers of my blog if there are any (just joking) may or may not know that I am near my weight loss goal not quite there yet but getting there my target weight is 13 stones or in kg 82 or in pounds 180.

So if anyone has any tips of any kind please feel free to leave them in my comments box at the bottom of this page countdown is commencing.

10......9........8........7......6.......5.......4.......3.......2.........1

Weekly Weigh In

2007-04-06T10:22:00.000+01:00

Hello readers how are you all here is my latest weekly weigh in still no change but Im ok with that, 90kg and no change so here's how it looks.

Weekly Weigh In

2007-03-30T09:11:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone how are you had a jump on the scales today and no real change from last week, but that's good at least there is no gain which is even better so still at 90kg still or 14 stone ish our money. So here's how it looks as illustrated in my ticker.

Here Is The Grape News

2007-03-25T10:47:00.000+01:00

Will grapefruit help you with weight loss ?

From what a study has found just recently, this would seem to be the case, the study done by the medicinal journal of foods, supports the fact grapefruit does help with weight loss. The people who took part in the study, had half a grapefruit just before a meal and this resulted in a weight-loss of between three point six to ten pounds.

This was measured over a three-month period and another group were also monitored and their loss was only a pound, grapefruit has something in it that lowers insulin levels which is important, if you have too much insulin in your body after a meal this will tell your body to store fat which is what you don't want. Lower Insulin levels will tell your body to burn fat which is what you want.

This is good news for people with diabetes, grapefruit also has powerful antioxidant properties which is also good news, some more research was done in Israel, and it was found that by having just one grapefruit a day, this was enough to lower cholesterol levels by quite a significant amount they went down by 15% and triglyceride's went down by 17%.

However there is one thing that you must take to caution if you are on any medications such as statins which lower cholesterol, antidepressants, antibiotics,blockers for calcium, anticoagulants blood thinning medications, if you are unsure about whether you can eat grapefruit or not please consult your doctor or a qualified dietician.

Via http://www.todaystmj4.com

Weekly Weigh In

2007-03-25T09:23:00.000+01:00

Hi folks how are you here is my weekly progress again still on a downward trend as far as my weight is concerned so here is how it looks now.

Weekly Weigh In

2007-02-23T13:30:00.000Z

Hello just going through the motions of my week and decided to do a update on my weight, so here it is I now weigh 91kg or thereabouts, which is 14.33 stones in english money still need to get my waist size down but my leg has started to work better now so Im able to exercise again which is good news so here's how it looks as I say.

Announcement

2007-01-24T07:06:00.000Z

Hi just a quick word to say, that after the initial shock of what happened over the holiday period, Im feeling a bit all over the place at present, but will start posting very soon. Everything will be as it was before superfood of the week, quick recipe of the week and so on weekly weigh ins.

Take Care

Mark.

Bad News

2006-12-26T08:23:00.000Z

On Christmas Day in the afternoon my beloved father passed away, Im a bit of a mess at the moment and all over the place, I know that I'll miss him so much, when I'll be back I don't know but thought that it was best to say what had happened. Just in case anyone was wondering why there might be a lack of posts.

God bless you father Mark. If anyone wants to contact me my e-mail address is markcoruk@gmail.com.

The day before he passed away he said to me "Thanks for your Assistance" those words will never leave me ever.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-23T17:08:00.000Z

Hi everyone it's one day and a bit to Christmas now so, I am closing down Lose That Tyre, for the holidays it's been a great few months and I've really enjoyed doing this blog. Iv'e learnt so much about food nutrition and losing weight thanks to everyone out there who is reading this, thanks to the person down under who subscribes by e-mail, you made my day when I saw that and one last thing, I am still losing weight.

God bless take care see you soon bye now.

Superfood of The Week

2006-12-19T15:48:00.000Z

This weeks super food of the week is the apple, let's take a closer look at this superfood under the microscope see what makes it tick, apples contain soluble fibre and insoluble fibre, which is a good thing as we know one medium apple contains roughly 3 g of fibre, so if you eat four apples within a one-day period that's 12 grams of fibre, just from four apples which is going on for half the daily requirement of fibre you should eat every day.

Apples have excellent cardio health properties as well, they keep in check LDL cholesterol which is the type of cholesterol which tends to bind to your arteries the insoluble type of fibre that apples contain, will attach itself to cholesterol in the stomach thus removing it from the body as waste matter.

Apple's contain something called pectin, which act upon the LDL cholesterol within your liver thus reducing it, also so you have a two fold effect in process research has been done around foods, that are high in fibre such as apple's and it has been proven that they can prevent heart disease due to their high fibre content.

If you really want a really good laxative, or you have problems with constipation than Apple's yet again have a double whammy affect this is because of the fibre they have in them which as we know is insoluble and soluble.

So rather than buying some diarrhoea medication or a constipation remedy it might be worth trying day a apple it will be less expensive as well. Pectin in also is a good free radical remover removing such things as unnecessary metals etc.

If you're diabetic here is some good news apples contain fructose which is a simple sugar, this sugar breaks down slowly rather than quickly which in turn will keep blood sugar levels stable, apples calorie wise contain between 79 and 80 calories per apple which is hardly anything at all.

Myself I'm not really a great apple eater perhaps, I should be the problem, I have is when eating them they make me feel all cold, or what you can do which is which is what I have done is put them in a blender with some other foods and make a smoothie, and drink it like that. So another good all-rounder the apple.

Calcium is There a Connection To Weight Loss?

2006-12-19T13:18:00.000Z

This is something that I had never considered before it's amazing what you can learn by reading articles, in the late 1980's a doctor discovered that there was a connection between calcium and weight loss, the main focus of the study was based around blood pressure not particularly how calcium affected weight loss.

The participants in the study were initially consuming were initially consuming 400 mg of calcium per day, which was then increased to 1000 mg per day over all the participants lost over 10 pounds in weight, which to the doctors was quite baffling to say the least.

Over the passage of time and since that last study was produced, research has found that calcium helps to burn fat and also it is been noted that, it prevents fat cells from generating also.

Good sources of calcium are:

Milk
Yogurt
Cheese
Fish salmon, sardines
Nuts brazil, almonds,
Vegetables, leafy green, Broccoli, spinach, bok choy, spinach

Via http://diet.ivillage.com

Water and Weight Loss the Debate Continues

2006-12-18T11:58:00.000Z

We perhaps know by now that the debate on water has been going on for a very long time, but recently some researchers have found out that it does help you lose weight, research has found that by consuming 4 cups of water a day will help you lose weight, and by not having sugary drinks and drinking water instead.

240 women participated in the study; it was found that the women that drank the water instead of the sugary drink lost three pounds, other women who participated in the study lost 20 pounds, which is quite a lot of weight when you think about it just by drinking water alone. For someone in particular who wanted to say lose one and a half stone this would be an ideal solution and just by drinking water, one particular thing you could try which I read which complements this is by drinking some water about 20 minutes before your main meal, because the water takes up volume in your stomach you will find that you will eat less which will in turn help you with your weight loss.

Via http://cbs5.com

A Souper Way to Lose Weight

2006-12-15T16:50:00.000Z

A great way to keep yourself warm throughout the winter months is having soup, you may not necessarily want to eat something like salad when its so cold at this time of year, the problem is with some soups is they may be lacking in nutritional content, having too much of one thing or another say for instance too much salt or sugar or any other added ingredients.

The thing is soup is very quick to make can be full of nutritional content provided you buy the right type I must admit myself that at one time, that I never used to have soup myself apart from having it on the odd occasion. But now I quite enjoy it what I tend to with my soup is add additional vegetables to it, such as fresh mushrooms, a tomato chopped up you can add as much as you want how certain to find it very filling myself and really enjoy it now.

It has been noted through a study that there are benefits to eating soup, what scientists found was that by giving people a choice what to eat there were some notable differences they gave the participants, three different meal choices all with different calorie content, and also noted what happened at certain times of the day, one such dish contained chicken and rice, and a glass of water was or wasn't consumed also, what was noted from this was that the same amount of calories were consumed throughout the day. But when the participants in the study, used the water to make a casserole something quite interesting happened.

They consumed far fewer calories throughout the day, in a French study they found that adding additional vegetables produced a similar effect, I must say I think I can vouch for this particular effect because when I have had my soup with additional vegetables, I do feel rather full and can tend to eat less.

The great thing about soup there are so many different types of you can have and they are all low in calories.

Via http://www.canada.com

Should You Weigh Yourself Every Day Part II

2006-12-15T13:57:00.000Z

A study has been done based around weighing yourself every day involving teenage girls, what was found in this study was that it affected their weight loss programme, there were far more likely to become involved in unhealthy eating habits and practices, because of what were they were seeing on the scales every day, among the worst of the participants they were far more likely to use more drastic measures in order to lose weight.

They would take laxatives take some sort of diet pills, or make themselves become sick, teenage girls are under far more pressure these days to look stick thin like the famous supermodels on the cat walks, the study involved 2,516 participants when they were asked about their weighing habits they said that, they did weigh themselves quite frequently. The ones in junior high said that they weighed themselves quite often these were the ones that gained weight, whereas the other group who didn't weigh themselves as much didn't gain as much weight.

Another interesting twist on this story is that boys who weighed themselves frequently had no weight gain. Conclusions of this were that young girls are far more self-conscious about their weight than their health, which is where the root of problems can start such as anorexia nervosa and possibly bulimia.

Someone who was an outsider to the study said that she used to weigh herself every day, and then realised it was a waste of time she looked at herself in the mirror and decided that she looked fine, and there was no need to bother any more. When there is so much pressure from outside influences the best thing to do really is just be happy with who you are and not worry about how fat or thin you are.

Via http://www.dogflu.ca

Weekly Weigh In

2006-12-15T13:09:00.000Z

Hi folks once again it's time to face the wrath of the scales see what the damage is as far as my weight is concerned, well this there is no real change so I am quite happy with that as long as there is no gain that is all I'm concerned about. As soon as I am able to exercise again things should hopefully fall into place and all being well I should be able to reach my target weight in time. So for now see you soon.

Does low-fat on the label make you fat ?

2006-12-13T15:47:00.000Z

Is it possible nowadays that having something that is supposedly low-fat can indeed make you fat, some researchers at Cornell University found out that this just may be the case, they noticed that people will tend to eat more calories when they reach for the so-called low-fat type of snacks, which was more noticeable if the person or persons was overweight already.

The study found out that because these particular type of snacks were low-fat ones, that people eating them were far more likely to eat more, the people were not considering the amount of calories contained within the snack itself low-fat doesn't necessarily mean low in calories.

What was documented from the study was the lower fat type of snacks had lower levels of fat 59%, but only had 15% less calories, because the snacks were deemed as being healthy the participants who took place in the study stocked up very well with them, and naturally ate a lot more of these snacks, people who's weight was normal also ate a lot of these snacks but not as much as the overweight group.

The people who conducted the study concluded that the people, when reading the labels thought because it said low-fat, then they would be able to eat more and it would be okay to do so, but as we can see this clearly isn't the case at all, myself I can actually remember once watching a programme about food labelling which said low-fat on the label, but it was noted that the product contained lots of sugar which, if there is too much in the body it will get turned into fat eventually.

All low-fat labels do is encourage us to eat more of the wrong types of foods in a nutshell, it's just clever marketing, the best thing to do to avoid this sort of trap is make sure you read the label and look at the calorie content of said product and compare it with a high fat version of the same product and compare calories.

It's probably far easier to prepare your own food so then you don't have to think about labels at all, myself I tend to look at two things mainly as regards labels
sugar and fat are the two main things I look at and lastly calories.

The best thing to do really if you feel the urge to snack is make some healthy alternatives and put them in the fridge, in a airtight container so if necessary you can take it with you wherever you go work wherever, make healthy little salads from fruit or vegetables, and then you won't be tempted to buy snacks you don't need.

Via http://abcnews.go.com

BMI Fact or Fiction

2006-12-12T15:24:00.000Z

For a long time now BMI has been used as a indicator as regard to health, but now this is being put under question, as to exactly how accurate it is or isn't, a lot of researchers are beginning to think something else may be needed to replace this particular method of measuring people's health, the problem with this method of assessing peoples body mass, is it doesn't take into account people's overall body composition whether they have either more muscle mass or fat mass, without actually measuring these two things it is harder to know if in fact your body mass is correct or not.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic which is in Rochester, saying that BMI is not all it's cracked up to be, they took data from 40 different studies which involved 250 hundred thousand participants who were known to have heart disease, the people who were very obese would have a higher mortality rate.

It was found that people who were overweight as regards to BMI, were far less likely to have heart problems as opposed to those who had a normal BMI. One of the things that was said is it depends where the accumulation of fat is,if it is around the abdominal area and if there is too much fat there, then that is where it needs to be lost most.

If you have a tape measure a good rule of thumb is to measure your waist size, for men if you have a waist size of over 40 inches, and for women 35 inches, then your risk of cardiovascular disease is higher, there is a increased risk of other diseases.

With a waist of over 32 inches for women and 37 inches for men diabetes is probably more likely within this range. The only other thing you can do to yourself is go to your local gym and have your body fat checked with callipers, or another alternative is to get some body fat scales these will send a current through your body when you have muscle that will conduct but fat acts as a resistance this is how the scales workout your overall body fat.

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

Does Inner Fat Mean Inner Danger

2006-12-12T12:59:00.000Z

At one time of day we would say that inside every fat person there was a thin person waiting to get out, but is that necessarily the case now doctors have pioneered a scanning process, which may prove otherwise, it would seem that even though you are thin you could still have inner layers of hidden fat which could be quite dangerous.

Something called magnetic resonance imaging is used to scan your body, and what was found was in a group, of 10 people four of those people could be thin on the outside but fat on the inside, one of the heads of the study group says that this may cause either diabetes or heart related problems, really people need to focus on being healthy but not just thin also, you may tend to think you are healthy but if you have this inner fat, it may affect your health.

Even if you are slim you could have fat around your important organs such as your liver pancreas and heart, or around your muscles as well, when the team were using the MRI scanner they stumbled upon this by accident, they were doing research into Type II diabetes and oddly enough people who were thin also had the foundations for type 2 diabetes which is normally associated with obesity.

It's even being said now that BMI can no longer be relied upon as a indicator of health, the reasons given for this are if your muscle mass is bigger than normal it will weigh more than fat so therefore your BMI will say you're overweight even though you have very little fat mass.

When exercising this internal fat will burn off but, not if you just use diet alone
one of the participants in the study, who was scanned was very outwardly healthy but it was found that his internal body fat was quite high, he has a desk job and due to the demands of his job, wasn't able to go to the gym.

So the moral of this story is even though you may have a thin outside body appearance you may still have problems later on in life.

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

How to Spot Fad Diets

2006-12-11T14:53:00.000Z

1. You would be limited to choices which would be very narrow choices, examples being say one fruit, or one particular type of carbohydrate example being brown rice and no other carbohydrates.

2. Total elimination of one particular food group say protein for instance.

3. Your meals are based around one particular food group in question, say for instance protein and/or carbohydrates,

4. You have no fat at all in your diet

5. You are led to believe that you will lose large quantities of weight in a small space of time, say one or two pounds per day which is very unrealistic

6. The diet in question may be promoted around a pill or some other unrealistic method of losing weight, say some kind of special food or drink

7. The methods of weight loss, have no proven scientific grounding whatsoever, and sales pitch built around glossy pictures plus testimonials, and claim that certain foods will either make you gain or lose weight

8. The people behind the diet, the one's supporting it may and try to manipulate you into thinking that doctors won't know how it works.

9. The promotion also might say things like "lose weight while you sleep"or you can eat lots of fatty food and still manage to lose weight which is totally unrealistic of course.

10. The concept behind how the diet works, is very simple but the promoters fool you into thinking that there is some secret behind it, and only they know what it is.

Via http://onhealth.webmd.com

The New Kid on the Block "The Vice Buster Diet"

2006-12-08T14:40:00.000Z

Julia Griggs Havey, who has wrote this book, says by getting rid of one food vice, will change the way you do things for a very long time as regards your eating habits, many weight loss gurus will say they have done this that or the other, but she is living proof that what she has done really does work.

The only thing that tended to work for her was getting rid of her vices once and for all, the way she puts it is that food controls us rather than the other way round we think we control it, she tried various diets for 15 years, and all the things that she didn't want to eat kept tempting her, the way she describes it is a vice is something you keep doing out of habit when you're eating.

You like eating cake for example at a particular time of day you might have some with a cup of coffee or tea, which you could do at any time of day really it doesn't matter but this is how habits are formed even though you think you are eating healthy you might be putting it to the back of your mind and saying to yourself just once won't matter but sure enough this will without doubt, lay the foundations for a habit. Which if you have said food say every other day or every day soon starts to mount up calorie wise.

Julia says she had lots of many different vices the worst of which was ice cream, she could get through half a gallon of ice cream in a night, this is in its simplest form is reward behaviour but of the wrong type because what tends to happen is your training your brain to become a comfort eater if you're on your own or depressed food becomes a comfort.

It's far better to reward yourself with something else rather than food say for instance a visit to a health spa or some other type of reward. In a survey done on the ediets website, a high percentage of people admitted to having vices one or even more, high content sugar drinks e.g Coca-Cola, or any other soft drink pizza, ice cream were among the top vices that people admitted to having, 70% of people who responded to this survey said that having a particular vice would knock them off course during their dieting efforts, whether it be a weekly or daily occurrence.

Here in summary format are the top three vices:

Ditch the soft drinks, people don't seem to make the association between being overweight and drinking soft drinks, if they see a celebrity drinking it then its very possible they tend to think it's okay to drink them when it's not.

Cut out fast food she says that it was very easy to become hooked on fast-food, then come home and eat more food.

Don't watch television, Julia said that she used to watch four hours a day and was hooked on that also. She then decided to ditch it and do exercise instead and wouldn't watch it until she had done her exercise.

Via http://www.commonvoice.com

Book link http://www.vicebustingdiet.com

Will a Change in Diet Prevent Depression?

2006-12-08T12:50:00.000Z

Being on antidepressants wasn't helping one woman in particular namely, Kim Goldman, it had quite an effect on her life she was unable to function very well at all. She was unable to get out of bed, and couldn't think properly either.

So what was it that changed everything for her? and consequently turned her life around she puts it down to a book entitled The Mood Cure. The contents encourage you to eat a diet which has plenty of protein in and also recommends the use of supplements.

Kim says she felt better after about two weeks of being on the diet. So to supplement her high protein diet she took the supplements 5htp,Gaba,tyrosene and dlpa.

She had before and after brain scans, the first brain scan that she had showed low levels of serotonin, the brain's happy chemical, whereas after the dietary changes were implemented over a one and half year period of time.

A second brain scan showed no deficiency at all whatsoever.

Via http://www.nbc10.com

Book link www.moodcure.com

Weekly Weigh In

2006-12-08T12:21:00.000Z

Hello readers well it's here again nose dive on the scales and see where we are and how things are, any gain or loss time to bare all. Well there is a little bit of a change this week which is good news, down about 0.5kg or thereabouts from last week so all well and good here is how it looks. Bye for now see you soon.

Quick Recipe of The Week

2006-12-06T16:41:00.000Z

Salmon with poached eggs:

The great thing about eggs is the preparation time is very quick a boiled egg say for instance, only takes five minutes to cook roughly.The preparation time for this meal is five minutes and cooking time is roughly 10 minutes, so again ideal if you're in a bit of a rush and don't have much time.

The ingredients are:

Two salmon steaks a hundred grams each, bag of spinach, and two eggs.

Put the salmon steaks in microwaveable dish, cover with film cook on high power for three to four minutes this is based on a 650w oven, turning once during the process, leave this to stand while you poach the eggs, pierce the bag of spinach and cook on high power for two to three minutes, take the spinach out and drain in a sieve.

Fill a large pan with water to 2 inches depth, add some vinegar and some salt, crack the eggs into the water, once the water starts to simmer, cook eggs for two to three minutes, or longer if you prefer depending on how you like then remove the eggs with a spoon.

Put the spinach onto two plates put the salmon on top and put the poached egg on top of the salmon.

That's it done low-calorie quick nutritious meal in less than 15 minutes.

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

Eat Slow Eat Less

2006-12-06T14:44:00.000Z

A recent study has found that eating slower does mean that you will eat less and get far more enjoyment out of the meal, a percentage of women were studied and during the study it was found that they ate 70 calories fewer, if they ate slow, whereas they consumed more when they ate faster and didn't enjoy the meal so much.

The rule of thumb was less calories more enjoyment, the people who conducted the survey had 30 young women, have a meal of tomatoes with ditalini plus some sauce, two methods were used to see what the difference was.

The women had a 400 calorie breakfast, and then they fasted for a four hour period. During the tests the participants were given a large spoon, and were told to keep eating continuously and not stop to pause between spoonfuls, at the other test they were told to chew the food between 15 and 20 times.

In the first test which we will call test number one the findings were:

The participants took in an average of 646 calories during a nine minute period of time.

In the second test two the findings were:

The participants consumed 579 calories during the 29 minute period of time

The participants in test number two said that they felt more full and satisfied after their meal and after a hour had passed also.

The conclusion of this report was if you base this on three meals a day you would consume 210 calories less, than if you eat your meals very quickly. That is getting on for nearly half of a 500 calorie deficit that you need to lose one pound of fat in a week.

Via http://today.reuters.co.uk

Superfood of the Week

2006-12-05T15:15:00.000Z

This week's featured Superfood is broccoli, the nearest thing that broccoli resembles to my mind is it looks like small mushroom clouds, but that's slightly deviating from the subject, if you have never eaten broccoli before it is quite tasty, as long as you cook it for the right amount of time, broccoli has something within it called phytonutrients, these are an antioxidant, which help to protect cell membrane walls from damage against free radicals, which can lead to disease later on in life.

Research has found that the nutrients within broccoli are far more powerful than first perceived, what actually happens is these chemicals tell our genes to produce more natural enzymes which encourage the detoxification process,

In some study findings people who ate less vegetables such as broccoli were far more likely to have risks of cancer rather than those who ate a lot of vegetables over a weekly period.

A study was done in China where one part was quite heavily polluted, and the occupants lungs were somewhat stressed these were non-smokers essentially
it was found that the people who ate more vegetables in their diets were far less likely to contract lung cancer than those who didn't eat lots of vegetables,

When you're buying your broccoli organic is probably the better choice this will contain far more antioxidant properties, than normal ways of growing food will have, and is probably best to steam them lightly. Broccoli also has properties that aid in prevention of heart disease also, can aid in stomach health, also known to improve immune system function, is bursting with essential vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin C.
Vitamin K.
Vitamin a
Iron
Calcium
Zinc
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Protein
Potassium

And many more in a one cup serving broccoli contains only 43 calories so not only do you have you great health benefits, this is a great way to supplement your lifelong healthy eating.

Does Dieting Make You Happy or Not

2006-12-05T13:55:00.000Z

Some psychologists seem to think otherwise, women who were obese were told to exercise, and eat a sensible diet and were told not to try and lose weight, over the period of a year it was found that the women were in fact healthier but there weight hadn't changed that much. The results found that the women were generally happier and didn't suffer from stress so much.

One of the researchers who led the study said:

"People have a natural diversity of body size."

"Dieting is not effective long term and can be very dangerous"

"My take home message is, don't go on a diet, change the way you eat."

The test results after the study had completed showed better heart health lower cholesterol levels, triglycerides better overall respiratory function.

I've wrote about this actually in the past, it would seem it makes far much more sense to just eat healthier rather than keep the diet mantra going instead, all you have to do is focus on the fact that you're just changing the way you eat and ultimately you will lose weight. After all how long can a diet last for two weeks three weeks a month, the best thing to do overall I would say is eat consciously then hopefully you shouldn't have a problem in losing any weight.

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

Can Red Wine Help Prevent Obesity ?

2006-12-05T11:45:00.000Z

Research done at the Harvard Medical School, in conjunction with the National Institute of ageing, have found that a substance contained within red wine called resveratrol, changes the negative effects of eating a diet high in calories.

This particular compound is found within grapes, what was found to be puzzling was that people in France can eat a high-fat diet, and still have less heart problems. The researchers gave mice more calories which came from fat 60 percent to be precise, as time went on due to their high fat diet they developed enlarged livers, plus diabetes as well. Another test group was observed to see what the effect would be when given the resveratrol instead, these mice were also fed a high-fat diet as were the others, it didn't actually stop them from putting on weight, but it did stop their glucose and insulin levels getting high, and also their livers remained normal, also findings were the mice tended to live longer.

As with everything the scientists do say that it is early days as regards these findings but also went on to say that it is also a quite exciting finding nonetheless, people have been saying for a long time about the health benefits of wine, in moderation of course as is the case with everything.

Here is what the scientists say:

''It's a pretty exciting area, but these are early days,'' said Dr. Ronald Kahn, president of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Information about resveratrol's effects on human metabolism should be available a year or so, Dr. Kahn said, adding, ''Have another glass of pinot noir -- that's as far as I'd take it right now.''

Via http://query.nytimes.com

Big Fat Lies

2006-12-04T11:26:00.000Z

This is the name of an e-book written by Tom Venuto who also wrote Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle, it talks about all the things that you may not even thought about when it comes to weight loss, dieting etc.

All the things that you're being told that may be incorrect about the above mentioned, it's a 52 page downloadable free e-book, from global health and fitness's website, all you have to do is put in your details, about what type of plan you would like to follow, it asks you whether you want to lose fat or and or improve muscle tone, as well as what diet plan you would like to follow high-carbohydrate low carbohydrate, high fibre low fibre, low cholesterol, low-fat, once you have inputted all your details, recommendations are given to you.

It is all free as is the e-book, whether you choose to join or not is entirely up to you, I've had a quick skim through the e-book and it does look quite interesting.
It focuses on all the diet scams out there.

Via http://smallchange.typepad.com/thinkslim

Well worth the download.

Google's new Weight Loss Tool

2006-12-01T18:26:00.000Z

Google have just recently set up a online weight tracker, one of the Google engineers namely, Brian W. Fitzpatrick created something called the Google 15. Apparently the reasons behind this are when you work for Google there is a rumour that new starters gain 15 pounds in weight, due to the abundance of food that is offered to them while they are working, this is just a rumour though so it shouldn't be taken as being gospel.

Apparently reasons behind the development of the tool or so that new employees could track their weight. Hence this is how the Google 15 came into being unlike other ways of tracking your weight which can show peaks and troughs if represented as a graph, this works differently it works on more of an average, you weigh yourself on a daily basis, at about the same time on each day and put your information into the tool which is an online tool.

You have a nice graphical picture so you can see where you actually are.

Here are the links so you can look for yourself

The first link will add the tool to my Google if you already have it here

The second link will take you to the tool main page which is here

Via http://www.commonvoice.com

Weekly Weigh In

2006-12-01T14:22:00.000Z

It's Friday once again, time to make the scales groan and see where we are as I suspected not much change since last week, still round about the 15 stone mark but I have noticed that my waist is a little bit smaller than it was last week, so something obviously is happening. But the scales don't necessarily always show it.

Here is how it looks:

Woman loses 12 stone on Cambridge Diet

2006-12-01T12:53:00.000Z

Carrie Hobbs, has managed to lose half her body weight, she used to weigh 23 stones, she says her life has been transformed since he went on something called the Cambridge diet, when she was overweight she was very self-conscious, and used to become very anxious about going outside her house.

She used the think that everyone was looking at her because she was so big her day comprised of having cereal for breakfast, toast three to four slices of, also she ate bread and crisps together, followed by a lunch of a big plateful of spaghetti Bolognese, she also ate chocolate crisps, and drank a lot of cola, her diet was very high carbohydrate rich.

The Cambridge diet revolves around crash dieting, in a nutshell you have soup, a healthy shake, plus a meal bar, also incorporated in this way of dieting you have a councillor who has had training.
She says "When I was bigger I found it difficult to pick my daughter up from school as I knew the other mums would look at me. I even found going to the hairdressers a traumatic experience because I just didn't have any confidence. But now my life has completely changed I go swimming with Amber, I can run now and I can buy clothes from the high street stores now."

Here is a link to the Cambridge diet's website here

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

Low-Fat Dairy Products are They That Bad ?

2006-12-01T11:46:00.000Z

It's been suggested in a study that this possibly now might be the case, scientists aren't exactly sure where the benefit does come from, but have commented that eating some low-fat dairy products in your diet might be of benefit to you.

"If you like to eat dairy products, you may be better off watching the fat content," said Dr. Luc Djousse, lead author of the study and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. "Low-fat dairy products may be better than full dairy products, where the saturated fat especially is high," Djousse said".

In the study that was done in a study that was done, they were looking for, links between blood pressure and low-fat dairy products, 4979 people took part in the survey, which consisted of four groups of people, of which those ate more than three servings per day of said dairy product which included yoghurt, cheese, milk.

The people who were eating the dairy products, blood pressure was lower than those who wasn't, so it would seem that if you eat dairy products that are considerably lower in saturated fat, then they shouldn't be any reason why you shouldn't eat them. It's quite amazing sometimes how these things come to light they don't always make much sense. I dare say a lot of people have no dairy products in there diet whatsoever. So for those people here is some good news indeed.

Via http://health.yahoo.com

The Knight Rider of Weight Loss

2006-11-30T16:11:00.000Z

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

2006-11-30T13:45:00.000Z

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

Can Tea Aid Weight Loss?

2006-11-28T16:33:00.000Z

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

2006-11-28T12:26:00.000Z

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.

How Sleep May affect Weight Loss

2006-11-27T12:09:00.000Z

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

Folic Acid May Stop Heart Attack Risk

2006-11-26T19:31:00.000Z

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

2006-11-26T15:57:00.000Z

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.

Weekly Weigh In

2006-11-24T10:03:00.000Z

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.

Does impatience make you fat?

2006-11-23T10:17:00.000Z

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.

The Japan Diet

2006-11-22T15:09:00.000Z

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

2006-11-22T12:53:00.000Z

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

How to Conquer Food Cravings

2006-11-20T16:02:00.000Z

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

2006-11-20T14:42:00.000Z

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.

Five Ways To Cut your Salt Intake Down

2006-11-19T15:06:00.000Z

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

Weekly Weigh In

2006-11-17T14:52:00.000Z

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.

Man Loses 20 stone On The Atkins Diet

2006-11-14T12:47:00.000Z

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.

High Sugar Shock Study Claims

2006-11-13T15:52:00.000Z

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?

2006-11-13T14:21:00.000Z

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