It’s the big game today – the Super Bowl. Like the last Super Bowl, you’ll see two great teams battle it out, and you’ll be tempted with delicious foods.  Eli Manning New York Giants vs. Tom Brady and the Patriots.  Regardless of who you’re rooting for today (I’m for the NY Giants, Tom Brady bothers me on a personal level for some reason), we all know that today is one of the biggest pig out days of the year.  Not counting Thanksgiving of course.

It is estimated that in one sitting for the game, people probably eat at least an entire day’s worth of calories. So what are you gonna do to make that ok? Are you going to fast all day so that when you finally eat you don’t eat a whole lot since your stomach is smaller? Are you going to just chalk it up ot a losing day on the diet scale?

Or you can plan your day out and make sure you eat nothing but fruits and veggies up unitl the fateful game where you know you’ll be stuffing greasy, salty fatty and maybe even some sugary foods down your throat?  Or you could do neither and eat normally up until game time and just get right back on track on Monday.

I’m doing the latter.  I’ve been really good for the month following the holiday season because I blew it out during the few weeks leading up to Christmas. I just started to fit back into all of my work pants by eating low carb for about one month and really limiting my caloric intake, so I’m not about to blow it by going on a couple day binge.

But one day? One day I’m pretty sure won’t kill me. And I’m not planning on stuffing myself silly. I want to still enjoy myself, and sitting there with a belly full of gurgling and brewing up a storm of problems doesn’t sound like fun to me.

The ticket to enjoying these one day pigouts is to tell yourself it is truly one day. The next day you MUST get back on the wagon and eat well or else you risk making these one day vacations something that you cannot indulge in because you can’t get back on track.

Food is fun, and it should stay that way. And guess what? It’s way more enjoyable if you get to do it for one day – it’s more like a treat if you know it’s a “once in a while” thing. Otherwise, you don’t even enjoy eating these sinful foods if you do it say once a week or twice a week.  The whole key is to look at it as a temporary treat that you can savor and carry into your next few weeks.

If you need to the day after a “treat” day, you can always help suppress your hunger using a natural supplement to help you get through those initial  cravings.

So I know I’m always behind the eight ball on pop culture stuff, but I just noticed that Snookie and JWOWW of Jersey Shore fame have both lost significant portions of their previous body weight lately. Actuall, JWOWW showed her major weight loss on last season of the Shore in Italy. Snookie was still in the process of taking it off at that point, but she definitely still lost some, you could tell.

Snookie has said that she now works out religiously and tries to not drink sugary drinks and eat junk all the time like she did on the first two seasons of the show.  She also has opened up about struggling with anorexia and bulimia (possibly bulimia, definitely anorexia) in high school and getting down to a dangerously low weight.

This could be worrisome, since women who have previously struggled with eating disorders would probably cave in to the immense pressure when they are in the spotlight constantly on a show that got so big like this one did, so I hope she’s keeping the weight off in a healthful way.

My husband and I have only watched the first two episodes of the Italy Jersey Shore, but we can already tell that their eating habits have changed. You don’t see Snookie or JWOWW eating pizza and other fattening things, instead you see a lot of salads and the like.  They made chicken cutlets, but they were very lightly breaded, so it looks like so far they may be doing things the low carb way.

JWOWW has recently come out and said that her face looks so different because she lost a ton of weight, but there is speculation that she has had something done to her face, such as lip injection or Botox. I agree it does look a bit suspicious, but I also do know that losing a lot of weight can radically change the way your face looks for many people, so the weight loss definitely has at least something to do with it.

The two have not come out and endorsed any weight loss supplements or programs that I know of – but I’m sure that deal is in the works somewhere!

Aromatherapy is truly a wonderful gift for many people. Some people really do think that inhaling various aromas from real essential oils (oils that are pressed from various plants or flowers) has real effects on their mood or state of mind.  This may also include appetite as some studies have suggested.

Any why would that really be all that surprising? We know that certain aromas definitely cause stirrings of sexual desire, or make us feel relaxed, or happy, or maybe even sad. So hunger is definitely many times connected to some of these emotions. It’s not really much of a stretch that aromatherapy could help us to lose weight by potentially reducing our appetite, or at least putting our mind on something other than hunger, which is what aromatherapy can often do.

Cinnamon is one of the oils that can be used to help curb appetite.  Just as it curbs appetite when taken (ingested) orally – just a teaspoon is supposed to not only regulate the appetite internally but also balance the blood sugar and stave of cravings – cinnamon also is a scent that makes us not want to eat as much when we inhale it.

Curiously, another herb that has a strong fragrance to it which also works as an appetite suppressant internally has the same effect when inhaled. That is mint. Mint tea is a great way to help reduce the appetite and give one a feeling of satiety without eating much of anything.

Combining the two scents may be even better to help reduce hunger and cravings.  What I would do is buy the essential oils since they are pretty reasonable.  Be careful as cinnamon oil should not be applied to the skin as it can produce a burning sensation, so be careful when letting it come out of the container.

These two essential oils will last you a very long time because a little goes a long way. Heck, you can even try to just inhale right from the jar every time you feel the urge to eat nonsensically. That won’t even cost you much at all since you can use and re-use the jar.

Appetite control patches are quite popular right now because so many people are looking to regain that willpower and control they once had before the holidays seemed to magically rip every ounce of self control out from underneath them. Oh, oops sorry I’m talking more about myself than anyone else!

So is anyone else feeling the serious pain that I am after the holidays putting on their work pants and getting back into the swing of things, only to find that their work pants -even the “bigger” ones aren’t fitting quite right?  Well, that was me. I was in for a very rude awakening after I allowed myself to indulge, indulge again, and then again this holiday season.

Even when I wasn’t hitting a holiday function or having food sitting in front of me at work or taunting me at other gatherings, I seemed to still make poor food choices. I think it’s because in our minds, we often figure why even bother during times when it seems like resistence is futile and we’re going to be tempted at every turn anyway.

It does seem like your body becomes so accustomed to eating fat and sugar and all that stuff that you’re not supposed to be eating that it almost becomes like withdrawing from a drug when you do get back on track and cut this stuff out of your diet.  So in order to get back on track, one of the most popular ways now is to use what is called an appetite control patch.

These little patches are great because you don’t have to remember to take a pill every couple hours, and you can affix the patch in a very well hidden area of your choice. It literally works all day long by slowly time releasing the hunger control ingredients in to the blood stream, effectively reducing your appetite and cravings for things like sugar, carbs and fats.

I like them because they seem to work pretty quickly after you attach them to your skin. I also think that they are more effective than a lot of orally taken supplements because they are more effectively delivered right to their source rather than having to pass through the digestive tract and be digested before they have any effect.

They also work better as an all day controller of the appetite and cravings. If you want to see a couple reviews of some of the more popular brands then see our special page on appetite control patches.

The sad things about most diet pills is that they just about all come with some sort of unsavory side effect.  Especially the heavy hitters, the ones you have to go to a doc to get the prescription for. It seems that almost every big weightloss drug that’s been put on the market is either found to have serious side effects and taken off the market later, or is forced to put huge warnings on the product.

Heck, look at Alli (orlistat), the nonprescription sister of the prescription weightloss drug Xenical.  This one is notorious because of its potentially embarrassing and very uncomfortable side effect. It is known for producing water stool and diarrhea when too much fat is taken in.

People have literally gone in their pants with this stuff and had leakage, so that’s pretty unsavory and has prevented a lot of people from staying on it very long.  Then there are the heavy hitters like Meridia which I believe was finally taken off the market because of potential heart problems.

And who can forget the Phen Fen disaster? People actually lost their lives due to this lethal combination of prescription diet drugs. Heart problems were also associated with the drug, which is a shame because it was actually effective for weight loss. There are of course herbal phentermine options available and the one part of the drug, phentermine I believe is still available on the market for prescription use.

Then you have some problems even with the OTC stuff or stuff you can buy on the internet that’s herbal or all natural. First off, there have been a couple of scandals about “herbal” products actually containing potentially dangerous and interactive prescription drugs.

Second off, there have been scandals about some of the herbs and ingredients themselves. Consider the ephedrine ban. Ephedrine was linked to heart issues such as rapid heartbeat, arrhythmia and other problems associated with the fact that it tended to make the heart beat too fast.

Of course, this is the same reason it kept the appetite down, because it had you on “speed” motion all day long!  I know a lot of the herbal diet pills out there now give me that “shaky” feeling, like I’m going to pass out, or like I just can’t calm down.

Some of them even have made me feel sick, like I’m going to throw up. Sure, they’ve killed my appetite, but at what cost? Making me feel like crap all day?  These are all reasons that I’ve consistently turned to non-stimulant diet aids like carb cutters and hoodia appetite suppressants. They help me to get that extra “willpower” to not eat so much without making me a nervous, jittery mess!