Archive for January, 2010

An Apple a Day Takes on a New Meaning If You’re Dieting

I have to admit, I have a love/hate relationship with apples.  I usually have to be in a very specific mood to actually want to consume an apple.  When I am, they taste delicious, and nothing else but their taut, firm skin and juicy inside will do to suppress your hunger.  However, if I’m not in the mood, and more specifically, if the apple is nor organic and of a variety that I really like, then I pretty much have to force myself to gag the apple down, knowing that it’s one of the healthiest, most portable snacks I can possibly put in my body.

That’s why it’s so challenging to eat healthy all the time though. Our bodies naturally crave crap, to put it simply. And, when we’ve been on a crap bender, eating whatever we want for days or weeks at a time, and then have to get back in the habit of eating healthy snacks like apples instead of something like say, chips and dip, then our bodies naturally rebel. Quite simply, we have grown used to the chemicals, the fats and sugars in all the processed and fattening foods, and our bodies go through nothing other than what I can describe as withdrawal.

These are the times when it’s all the much more important to reaquaint yourself with the apple. Not only does it help cleanse out all the bad stuff you were eating, but it gradually gets your body used to the natural sugars again, and how wonderful they can taste once you’ve gotten all the processed cravings out of your system.

Apples contain so many good things for you body, but I will tell you that I only recommend the organic variety. Apples are sprayed with chemical pesticides a lot if they are not organic. They are also irradiated to preserve freshness longer. I can tell you that both of these processes not only rob the apple of some of it’s nutrients, but they also completely ruin it’s flavor, in my opinion. If you don’t believe me, try a fresh, organic apple as opposed to a regular old grocery store produce section non organic apple, and you tell me.  You should notice quite a difference in texture and flavor that will leave you appreciation the apples’ naturally light sweetness and delicate flavor much more fervently!

Apples contain tons of fiber. Wanna get regular?  Eat apples!  They contain a special fiber called pectin that has been thought to really help dieters even more because it is so filling and cleansing to the digestive tract.  Apples have actually been pegged as an excellent food to eat in the morning because they supposedly help you to wake up!  They are low calorie, with a larger apple clocking in at about 60 to 80 calories, every bit usable and beneficial to your body.

Apples also contain some powerful antioxidants that not only help to fight free radicals but also help in the anti aging fight by keeping cells healthy longer and tissues more supple and healthy.  They also contain flavanoids, which are excellent for the body.  I like them most because they are super filling. I can eat a half an apple after dinner and it totally makes me full for hours longer than if I had just eaten dinner with no apple “dessert”.  They are truly the dieters friend – and the person who watches their weight would be smart to add these to their repertoire.

Do Vitamin B12 Shots Help You Lose Weight?

I happened across this information, because, as usual, I was actually surfing the web for a completely unrelated reason to B12 and how it may help people lose weight. In fact, what I was searching for was information on how light may destroy certain vitamins, and the importance of keeping certain ones out of the sunlight and in the darkest places possible in the house.  But I was intrigued when I saw some information on B12 shots, which I’ve always been intrigued by to begin with, and how some people on a forum were swearing that gettin B12 shots helped to accelerate, or even initiate their weight loss.

Of course, anyone would be interested to know that something that already has a great reputation for giving people excellent energy levels and even putting them ina  great mood, and happened to also help some people lose weight.

So I looked a little further into it, and there is of course, no documented research other than anecdotal stories and testimonials from some people, that B12 in itself would help you lose weight. The side effects of this vitamin injection especially (it also comes in a sublingual formula, pill form, and even nasal sprays), probably help people to have the energy to work out hard and therefore, the increased energy levels may improve the ability for people to get up, move around and burn more calories.

A lot of times, when a product give s you extra energy, it tends to also give you an edge when it comes to suppressing hunger because as you all know, when you already have energy, your body really doesn’t find as much reason to eat, since you actually eat for energy. That’s right, that thing we all do now here in the US as a pastime, called eating, is actually a biological function that is designed to impart energy to the human body so that we may function, think, and move around like we need to efficiently.

You can go get vitamin B12 shots, which is supposed to still be the most superior way to deliver the vitamin to the blood stream for maximum results and the best energy levles and mood enhancement as well. The shots of B12 will run you around $10 to $20 per shot, depending on your geographical location (prices vary everywhere for services like this), and also depending on where you are going. 

As I understand it, certain doctors will give these shots, and also some weight loss centers offer this shot as well.  Vitamin B12 has shown to be somewhat effective as well, when delivered via a sublingual (under the tongue) formula where the vitamin solution is held under the tongue for several minutes and delivered to the body that way, and it is also thought to be somewhat effective when delivered via a nasal spray, where it is absorbed through the epithelial cells that line the nose, and delivered to the blood stream that way.

Intrigued?  I know I am, because I know that B vitamins are very effective for my energy levels, just when taken in an energy drink, so I wonder how a week long vitamin B12 shot would affect my energy and mood levels (B12 also enhances my mood, not sure if this is typical or unusual).

Obesity Up, Not Down in Last Decade

Apparently health organizations (I believe commissioned by the US government), gauge Americans success on several different scales, as it relates to things like premature and underweight births of children, blood pressure, obesity, dental care, diabetes, and basically anything you can think of that is one of the bigger health concerns here in the US, or happens to be at near epidemic levels.

Actually, the news isn’t as good as you’d think it might be with all the advances in medical technology and increased awareness of what it actually takes to be a healthy person these days. In fact, it’s gotten worse, which to me is alarming when we are supposed to be advancing as the human race becomes more and more evolved.

For one thing, children who are born underweight have actually increased. This fact stunned me, especially with the advances in prenatal care we have today. I wondered if it was because we cannot afford to give the poor and disadvantages the same prenatal care, or that they don’t have the proper coverage, and hence their babies don’t receive the same attention that those with coverage would?

This wasn’t the only fact that stunned me.  The other one had to do with obesity, which it seems like we never get good news about any more.  Instead of going down, as was predicted and was the goal for the health organizations tracking our various progress on vital health issues, obesity numbers went up as follows. A decade ago, about 25% of all adults were considered in the obese weight range.  That number in itself was pretty staggering for me to look at.  The goal was to have the obesity rate for adults at 15% by the end of the decade, aka 2010.  Well, we did not make that mark, in fact, we back pedaled to the tune of about 9%.

About 34% of all adults are now considered obese.  This is a huge problem, and one that needs to be addressed as part of preventive health care and education, because not only are too many adults obese, but too many also suffer from obesity related illnesses, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.  These obesity related health issues could take a dramatic drop if we just made sure that not so goshdarn many of us fell into the heavy category.

However, if the past is any indication, it looks like these numbers just may keep increasing over the subsequent decades. Unless we really put a stop to people eating tons of processed, highly salted, fatted and sugared foods, which is pretty darn near impossible since it’s been ingrained in our culture and our very being.

In Dieting, It’s Better to Have a Partner

I’m writing this, thinking about how much easier it is for me, personally, to diet and lose weight, when my husband is 100% on board with me.  The reason is that I do a lot of the cooking in the house, but we both do the grocery shopping, and it’s awfully hard to keep the cupboards free of non weight friendly items like tons of processed, starchy, sugary and fatty foods, when your partner is not on the same wavelength as you, and you find yourself staring at the fruits of his shopping endeavors, drooling and tempted to take a cookie instead of an apple, or something like that.

I find that when we’re both on board, we foster almost a friendly competition as well, and although when he is laser focused on losing weight, since he’s a man, he tends to drop the weight a lot quicker than I do (damn him!), I find it really fun when we are comparing notes on what the scale said and whether or not we worked out that day, and having that little bit of friendly competition going on, especially when I’m winning – hey  didn’t say I was always the best sport, did I!?

At any rate, it’s so easy to fall prey to the group mentality. For example, if he says “oh screw it, let’s order pizza for dinner”, I’m apt to think the same way and dismiss it as “well, if he’s willing to not lose the weight as quickly, then it’s ok if I do the same”.  I mean, after all, we’re married, and I suppose that growing heavier or thinner together is ok, but that’s not really what my mind tells me, it tells me that we should both be healthy and live as long as we can for eachother.  However, as we all know, your belly’s cravings can often win out over your mind’s power of persuasion.

However, don’t let me fool you into thinking I’m always the angel. There are plenty of times where I just don’t feel like cooking, or maybe I’ve been PMS’ing and really want McDonalds and chocolate, and so I bring that home or suggest it. And he rarely refuses me either, so there we are both setting eachother back. But when we’re on a real weightloss jag, we spur eachother on, and we don’t let the other one go when they’ve screwed up, so it’s kind of an incentive to not screw up and to lose the weight quickly, otherwise, you are kind of embarrassed at getting reprimanded about messing up and eating the wrong thing or falling off the wagon. See, marriage is good for dieting – but you both have to be on the same page with the goals!

How Long Before Your Appetite Switches Off?

When you are eating your food, you’ve probably heard this advice before, you should know that it’s always better to try to eat your food slowly and chew your food thoroughly.  Why is it though, that this sage dieting and weightloss advice has been given for decades now? Well, it’s not just so that you can savor every moment of your eating and enjoy the savory nuances that your delish cooking has to offer, although that is definitely a side benefit of chewing your food thoroughly and making it last.

The reason behind this advice in dieting and weight loss is that your brain actually switches the appetite switch to “off” after about ten minutes of eating.  This means that if you prolong your eating by chewing more thoroughly and consciously slowing down when swallowing, especially if you happen to be a naturally faster eater, you will eat less because your appetite will have switched to “off” and you will have consumed less food by that point and feel satisfied so that you don’t feel you have to shove more calorie laden food down your gullet to reach that point of satiation.

It’s literally been proven that the appetite signals shut off in tests that do a brain scan when people are eating. The centers that control the appetite go dormant after about ten minutes, signaling the stomach and the rest of the body that you’ve had plenty to eat and you should stop now. It’s your body’s own natural weight control mechanism, if you want to look at it that way.

You can also help your own natural appetite control by taking things like Hoodia diet aids which help to shut down this part of the appetite control center as well, and you can make sure that you are consuming water in between each bite to not only help expand the stomach so that it feels fuller, but also to help prolong the eating experience so that your appeitte can shut itself off. These have always been great ways to restrict calories in the diet, and you don’t even feel deprived which is the best part about it.

Can a “Cheat Day” Help You Attain Weight Loss Goals?

More and more diet plans and weight loss programs are calling for the infamous “one day cheat” allowance, which allows the dieter to have one single day where they can cheat and eat whatever they want. Many people choose to make this day a Saturday or Sunday, simply because that may have been their worst eating day to begin with.

I know that the Body for Life plan calls for a cheat day, and I’ve been hearing more and more of the diet plans that are out there allowing this as well, most notably in my recent diet book history being the Fat Smash Diet, where you eat a lot of whole grains and a little bit of protein during the week with lots of veggies and fiber, and then you get your one cheat day on the weekend.

I remember how much my then boyfriend, now husband, and I used to look forward to those once a week luxuries. We reveled in it actually. The funny thing is, you’d think we would stuff ourselves to the gills and sabotage our weight loss goals, but we really didn’t over do it, we just made sure we got to eat what we really felt like eating.

So say if I had a nasty craving for pizza with the works, or maybe for a big greasy cheeseburger and french fries or onion rings, I would make sure I had that on my one cheat day, and that made me feel like I could always go for one week – heck, what’s one week – before I got to eat what my heart’s desire was for that previous week. When you think about it that way, dieting feels less like deprivation and more like something that mere mortals are not only perfectly capable of, but that in the end, we actually may enjoy our bad food even more.

As long as you don’t totally go overboard and consume five thousand calories or something like that, and you make sure you don’t let the bad eating spill over into the next day, or that nex and the next and so on and so forth, then you are perfectly ok to do one cheat day a week when following a diet. I think it actually helps you stick to the diet more readily, and it definitely makes life a little more interesting on the weekends.

The really cool part is that you almost forget how good really tasty, fattening or sugar foods taste, and when you do finally taste them again, it’s like a flavor explosion in your mouth, it’s like tasting food for the first time again, and that gives you a whole new appreciation for good food.

Is Eggnog Fattening?

Gosh, eggnog is really SOOOOO good. I haven’t had it in a few years, but I remember the first time I ever had it (the non alcoholic kind) at my aunt and uncle’s house at Christmas time, and I remember thinking that it was one of the most scrumptious things I had ever tasted. Even at that ripe young age of probably ten years old or so, I thought eggnog was the bee’s knees.  Usually you think that stuff that tastes wonderful as an adult is gross as a kid, but not this, it was divine, even as a kid.

But is eggnog fattening, and what is it made of that makes it so bad for you if it is? Well, eggnog is pretty fattening if it is made the way it is supposed to be, without reducing the fat by using lower fat ingredients. Which you can do by the way, but it doesn’t taste nearly as good as the full fat stuff, trust me!

Oh boy, yes, eggnog is quite the “heart attack in a glass” to be morbid. It contains eggs, milk, heavy cream, bourbon in the alcoholic version, brandy as well, and sugar – lots of sugar, fat and salt – and liquor to top it off – oh my!  Quite the recipe for weight gain, but nonetheless a wonderful, traditional Christmas little slice of heaven if you ask me. 

There are of course many variations of the eggnog drink, however, this is the most basic one that has been out there for a while.  The eggs, cream and milk make a lovely, thick, creamy and very tasty concoction that is a holiday favorite that is definitely something you can write home about with it’s stiff, creamy texture.  I’ve actually had coffee drinks made this way and they are also divine, if not calorie laden and ridiculously rich. 

But, the holidays are for fattening up, right? As long as it’s only five pounds or so, then you can take it off right away, and it’s all fun and games!

Going to Try Emergen-C for Energy, Appetite, Immunity

So, I’ve been interested in trying out this Emergen-C stuff for a while, it’s just one of those things I haven’t quite gotten around to buying yet, with all the other things going on right now. 

It’s a little packet of powder that you mix in with a glass of water that is supposed to be a good mixture of vitamin C (1,000 mg to be precise, which is several times what you need per day, but that’s ok because Vitamin C is a vitamin that is flushed out of your system on a daily basis, so it never builds up to toxic levels in your body anyways), and also has chromium picolinate, which actually helps regulate your blood sugar and also may help control your appetite as well.

It also contains calcium manganese and magnesium, all of which are important minerals which women in particular can benefit from. I became really interested when I read that a lot of people think this little bag of powder daily helps them to keep from getting colds and the flu, and they rarely feel run down, which can be very common in the winter time. 

Also, many people think that it helps their energy levels due to the B vitamins it contains. To be honest, I rely a lot on boosts from a product called 5 Hour Energy right now during the day at work, so something that wasn’t actually caffeinated  would be good, so that I didn’t have to drink caffeinated products to get my energy, especially since I tend to break out from it. 

Vitamin C is great to take in combination with calcium too, because it actually helps your calcium to absorb and be absorbed much better than it would be alone as well. So, if you’re a woman, or a man, you may want to consider taking it for energy boost, possible reduction in appetite, which would probably be mild, and also boost your immunity. I’m buying some tonight at Target and I’ll let you know how it works and how I like it a few days after I start taking it – hopefully it’s good stuff!

Do You Think Brittany Murphy Had Eating Disorder?

When I consider the tragic news of Brittany Murphy dying at such a terrible young age of 32 years old from a seemingly incomprehensible cardiac accident, which is normally reserved only for those with either older hearts or extremely taxed and perhaps pre existing conditions, I do wonder if she had an eating disorder because of her rather frail and slight appearance the many times I’ve seen pictures of the doe eyed beauty.

She was a lovely young woman, and very talented, but when I see her now compared to when she first was in the hit movie Clueless years ago when she bounced onto the acting scene, I can’t help but see the disparity in her weight from then to now. Naturally slim people tend to be naturally slim their whole lives, so it does make one wonder how her metabolism could have magically sped up so much as she got older, and more suspiciously, as she undoubtedly started to realize the pressures of Hollywood women to keep themselves thin to a fault to get movie roles and be considered “beautiful”. It really is sad if you think about it, that societal pressure could have helped lead to her way too early demise.

Some friends and colleagues, incidentally, have voiced their concern that she appeared to be losing quite a bit of weight lately and appeared emaciated and even more frail recently when seen out and about.  Apparently she had acknowledged that she needed to put weight on as well, which makes one wonder if she did have anorexia, or even perhaps bulimia, since her grieving husband has insisted that she had a healthy appetite and ate like a horse, refuting rumors of anorexia.

However, the one thing that doesn’t add up there is that bulimics usually aren’t excruciatingly think like anorexic people are, because they do retain enough of the calories to keep some fat on their body. Hmm….that’s just my observation, not that I’m an expert by any means, that’s just what I’ve read.

No matter what the reason or reasons are behind Brittany Murphy’s death are, it does need to be addressed that women in Hollywood and the entertainment industry in general are under ridiculous pressures to maintain virtually fat free physiques.  Women are supposed to have body fat, that’s how our bodies were designed so that we may give birth to babies without losing too much weight and so that we may bear children in the first place. It’s a darn shame that we have to feel bad about how our bodies were meant to be.

New Diet Product for the New Year

I decided to talk to you about a newer diet product that we recently decided to start promoting here at Diet Blog because we really believe it is the best hoodia diet pill out there today. It’s called Unique Hoodia, and it’s the only one I’ve found that is actually a high dosage of pure, unadulterated hoodia gordonii powder.  Hoodia, of course, is that plant from Africa that was used by the San bushmen to go on long hunting excursions so they could substantially curb both their hunger and their thirst. It works off of what’s called a P57 molecule, which is what is thought to be responsible for the significant hunger suppression.

I’ve tried it and it does reduce hunger significantly, because I am usually one hungry girl, however I went hours without getting cravings or hunger pains, whereas I normally am hungry pretty much 24/7.  I also noticed that it seemed my blood sugar was much more even, i could focus and concentrate whereas with other hoodia diet pills that had a lot of caffeine added to them, I would lose focus, shake, and become totally discombobulated (ok, I don’t even think that is a word, but I just used it even though I admittedly hate it) after it kicked in.

With Unique Hoodia, there are no shakes or side effects because all it contains is 100% hoodia extract, which is what is the ticket to getting that hunger suppression with out the shaky, nervous and brainless feeling you get with many stimulant diet drugs and supplements.

Ok, enough on that one. Of course, there is also Proactol, which is still supposedly selling like hotcakes as well. I expect to see all the sales of diet products go up in January, but not really as much as they have in the past since we are still in a recession and anything that’s not a necessity pretty much falls by the wayside on people’s priority lists, including and especially diet and well being products like diet pills.