Diet Reviews

Hoodia DEX-L10 Review

So I was at this discount outlet store called Ollies that is popular down in southern Ohio, and I noticed that in the bargain bin there was one leftover bottle of this hoodia product that I had wanted to try since I’ve tried so many others that I liked for appetite control, called Hoodia Gordonii DEX-L10 by a company called Delmar Labs.  It is advertised as pure south african hoodia gordonii, which as you probably know by now is the “miracle” appetite suppressant that is derived by a cactus that grows in Africa.
DEX-L10 Hoodia Gordonii (500mg) Natural Appetite Suppressant, SEE CUSTOMER REVIEWS Capsules, 60 Count

Hoodia, I’ve found is one of the best natural appetite suppressants that I can take when I’m trying to lose a few pounds.  It’s really great because if you are sensitive to stimulants like caffeine and guarana that are in the “thermogenic” formulas, this doesn’t have any of that in it, so you don’ t get the shakes and the crash when it wears off.

This stuff has been really great so far. It does what it claims to, it reduces your cravings and your appetite -although you still get hungry, you just find yourself getting full and more satiated by smaller amounts of food it seems.  I’ve found that it’s done wonders for my sugar cravings, which is great because I almost always crave sugar after my meals to “finish off my meal”.

I have a pretty massive appetite naturally, and I especially love to eat a lot in the PM when it’s dinner time, which is my biggest weight buster.  This helps me to stop at a reasonable portion at night. I’ve been eating a Lean Cuisine at night with a big salad on the side with light dressing, one egg white, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions, and I’m ok after that, and my appetite is satisfied for the rest of the night, which is awesome for me.

The only side effects I’ve noticed for me personally is that it seems to make me more thirsty, and of course because I drink more water, I pee more, which can be a little annoying. This is odd, because hoodia is supposed to curb both hunger and thirst, but it seems to do that opposite for me with thirst.  I don’t care, as long as I’m drinking more and eating less, that’s fine by me.

I take one at about 10:30, an hour and a half before my lunch, then I take another about one and half hours before my dinner. I’ve found this works better than just one hour before meals for me, it seems to set in more with an hour and a half and take the edge off my appetite better in this time frame. I’m down 4 pounds so far and I just need to take off about 4 more or 5 would be great, and I’ll be in my skinny jeans again.

Skinny Bitch Diet Book Review : Part II

I do think the vegan diet has it’s merits, but I think that you have to be careful to still eat the right foods if you choose this lifestyle. You can’t just always be eating veggie burgers and nonstop carbs, you have to make sure that your diet is also rich in fruits and veggies, which are the cornerstone of health and weight loss. One could easily go off the right path if they didn’t know this, but the authors do point this out.

Another point they made, which was a citation from Fit for Life, and one that I’ve used in my own life which I found to be effective, was to try to eat a lot of fruit that is high in natural enzymes, by itself, first thing in the morning, instead of loading your body down with more hard to digest processed food like bagels, cereal and so forth.

The reason being that the morning time til about noon, your body is still supposedly in it’s “elmination phase” where it is still working on getting the stuff out from the day before and bogging it down with more complex digestion is the wrong way to ensure smooth elimination (as the authors say “pooping” – I love it).

The authors also strongly recommend that you go organic whenever possible, and made the point that if you can’t go organic on everything, make sure you at least get organic when it is something that you eat without peeling or removing an outer layer. So for instance, you would always want to buy organic strawberries.

The reason for this is that the peel or outer shell protects the inner fruit somewhat against the pesticides that are sprayed on the fruit to avoid insect infestation, so those are a little safer to consume when non-organic.  They also point out, hilariously, that you shouldn’t be a cheap ass and not buy organic, because look at all the other crap you spend money on.

Overall, I could go on and on about what I like about the basic, albeit crudely delivered messages of this book. It’s a great, quick read, and it leaves you with a refreshing perspective on your food. The messages are good, but not everyone is meant to lead the vegan lifestyle, so if you can even apply some of the principles you will learn in this book, you will be on your way to better health.

I would also highly recommend the book Fit for Life. I believe it was published back in the seventies, but many of it’s messages are still relevant today. Again, it’s not a diet regimen for everyone and Lord knows I couldn’t follow it to a T, but it gives you another perspective on eating and food and health, and I think it’s good to see both sides of the coin.

Skinny Bitch Book Review : Part I

This review is broken up into two installments. Why?  Because I had a lot to say about the book Skinny Bitch, and I just kept going and going and going……well you get the point. I’m not exactly short winded sometimes.  Without further ado, here’s part one of my Skinny Bitch review.

I picked up a copy of the book “Skinny Bitch” when I was at Borders a few weeks ago, and since then, I’ve read it twice. I loved it.  You may have heard of this popular book by now.  The authors are Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, one a self professed “know it all” and the other a former model and nutritionist.

While they site another book which I love and which I happened to read years and years ago a lot called Fit for Life, which advocates food combining and somewhat eschews meat like these authors do, I found the approach refreshing and very entertaining. I blew threw this book quickly. If you are sensitive or don’t like a lot of profanity or potty mouth talk, you may want to avoid this book, but if you tend to have a trucker mouth in your own home, somewhat like I tend to have at times, then this book is for you.

I did find a few one sided opinions though, such as the idea that eating soy ice cream and tons of processed soy products instead of meats and cheeses is ok. I personally think that you need to limit soy products because they have been under scrutiny for causing hormonal imbalances and also for possibly adding to blood sugar issues.  They also may screw up the function of your thyroid gland when consumed too often – this was something I read only recently.

The authors clearly advocate veganism. Veganism is a step harder than the vegetarian diet, because you have to eliminate all animal fats and meats from your diet. This includes eggs, cheese, milk and of course all meats and fish.

This  can be a lot harder than it sounds.  A lot of breads, pastas, and readily accessible foods and restaurant foods have egg or milk products in them. Even foods you may not guess have things like whey, a dairy product, or an egg derivative in them, so you have to become an avid label reader.  I even found out that Veggie Slices cheese and Veggie Shreds shredded cheese, which I thought were purely soy based, contain whey or other milk derived products in them, so they are not strictly speaking, vegan products.

Unfortunately, the truly vegan cheese is pretty hard to melt and I haven’t found any that are extremely flavorful, but I’m sure there something out there I just haven’t found yet.  I’ve been experimenting on and off with the vegan diet since reading the book, so I’ve been exploring the options and trying out some recipes, and I must say that once you open your eyes to the options, there are some very tasty options.

I still don’t think I could be a full time vegan. It’s just too hard, and I do still crave meat once in a while, and cheese and dairy products, or they’re just too hard to avoid if you’re out and about, but I still try to make healthy choices with these too.  Quinoa is one of my favorite vegan foods. It contains the full spectrum of amino acids, so it’s an excellent source of protein and fiber for vegans.

Originally when I read Fit for Life years ago, which advocates a diet very low in meat and never combining the food groups unless it’s a veggie with another food group, I thought that was hard to apply as well, although I found that approach effective as well for weight maintenance.

What is the “Lemonade Diet”?

You may have heard the term “lemonade diet” tossed around with a bit of frequency over this past year.  I’ve often heard it paired with celebrity names, and touted as a very fast weight loss trick if you want to lose a lot of weight, in a very short period of time.  Of course, you know that with any diet that promises fast weight loss, you are going to be giving up quite a bit for losing that weight so quickly, but studies recently have shown that contrary to popular belief that weight lost very quickly comes back on, and more so, people who lose weight rapidly are actually statistically more likely to keep it off for a longer period of time.

That finding really blew some commonly, dearly held myths out of the water. I myself even though that weight that was lost dramatically and quickly would almost always surely come back on, but I think it depends on the situation, and what the events were that surrounded the quick weight loss as well.

The lemonade diet is actually a little different depending on where you look. You can actually purchase kits for the lemonade diet, which make it much easier to stick with and come up with a routine to actually make sure you’re doing it right, or there is a recipe (actually a couple of them) you can find online that involve some organic, often hard to find ingredients that you have to mix up every day on your own.

The lemonade diet, at least the original one, was a phase of the “Master Cleanse” diet, which included imbibing tons of this liquid concoction that was made up of things like cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and organic maple syrup.  This is the one that is so controversial, because you literally only consume this one drink for several days on end. You may have read about Beyonce’s experience with this diet to lose weight fast for her role in Dream Girls. She says that she lost a lot of weight, and very quickly, but she says she also put it right back on.

A lot of people want to lose weight quickly, but there is definitely a price to pay to get there. You either have to cut back on calories dramatically and increase your exercise (which is very hard, because your energy levels are lower and it’s tough to exercise), or you have to go on some sort of more radical diet like the cleanse or the lemonade diet and you should see results as well.

Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet

If someone decides to maintain this decision to be a vegetarian, he mustn’t eat meat at all, including chicken and fish. If so, you need to make sure you have select the proper amount of essential dietary minerals. To be a vegetarian you must avoid animal food, including fish and poultry.

Some vegetarians avoid animal flesh, but do not avoid some other products like eggs, cheese, milk etc. These are called ovo-lacto-vegetarians. The ones who eliminate all animal products are considered to be pure vegetarians. Different people follow different forms of vegetarianism.

The well-planned vegetarian diets are good for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, even pregnancy, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. It is good when a person is has formed a habit to enjoy the vegetarianism from his early age. This diet is well-known for athletes too.

Eating a healthy vegan can provide protection from a number of diseases.
Certain amount of fruit and vegetable can reduce the risk of ischemic heart disease.
Many people today choose the vegetarian diet for a variety of reasons. It is known that vegetarians have a healthy heart, and do not have problems like low blood pressure, diabetes, various cancer forms  etc.

The main reason why every one of us should become a vegan is health benefits. The main benefits this diet offers are: weight loss, lower cholesterol and blood pressure. The ones who are vegetarian suffer less from obesity, heart disease, hypertension, therefore they feel more energized and positive.

A number of studies have shown that those individuals who follow the vegan diet live a longer life. This diet can be a very healthy option for us, but it is important to be sure if it is well balanced.

Protein is appropriate for many body processes, including tissue building and repair.  The key in vegetarian diet is to include adequate amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals, the more you consume it, the more energy you got.

Lately this kind of diet is very popular among the people for health, spiritual and moral reasons. It is recommended mostly to consume plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits the most, then cereals, bread, dairy products. Nuts and seeds can be very healthy for your body and adequate for your nutrition.

These foods and herbs contain of host of cancer-protective phytochemicals such as carotenoids, flavonoids, isothiocyanates, isoflavones, ellagic acid, glucarates, curcurmins, liminoids, lignans, phenolic acids, saponins, phytosterols, sulfide compounds, terpenoids, and tocotrienols.

Atkins Diet Revamped?

We’ve all heard of the uber popular Atkins diet that gained momentum in the late nineties and early 21st century, enjoying a revamped poularity of the book written by the famous Dr. Atkins who advocated losing weight through a high protein, low carb diet regimen where one could enjoy fatty foods like bacon and cheese to their hearts content while they had to eschew any type of carbs, even a lot of types of fruits and veggies because they were simply too high in carbs.

Carbs were king for a while, and this diet fad even arguably lead to the demise of the popularity of Krispy Kreme donuts and other high carb treats.

You saw low carb offerings everywhere. But this diet was  a fad, and while people were losing huge amounts of weight on it and praised it for being able to enjoy a lot of the fatty foods they couldn’t on traditional diets, it also started to receive a lot of backlash for the irritability that often went along with the diet, and people had a hard time going to the bathroom on it, and  a lot of people realized that this diet simply didn’t make them feel healthy if they were on it long term.

Not only that, it’s always been criticized by the medical community as being potentially dangerous to cholesterol levels and blood pressure because of the focus on high fat foods (even though some people went the more health route and chose lower fat foods that were low carb).

In short, the popularity of the Atkins diet did die out, although it still had some avid followers. Now, they are offering a revamped book that offers a wider range of offerings in this low carb diet, but it still focuses on mostly protein, and avoiding a lot of foods that are great for you, but simply don’t fit the profile because they have “too many carbs”.

The new book is called The New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great, and it promises a quick weight loss through carb restriction, but with a few new caveats.

The diet still does not allow any type of healthy whole grains, most fruits and a lot of fiber rich foods that add to your digestive health and ease of elimination (this was the hardest part for me when I tried the diet, like so many others did, years ago, I could never go to the bathroom – it actually HURT).  This is what concerns a lot of people. It does, however, still let you eat a lot of veggies, and expands on that list, so that’s a good thing.  Some still wonder if losing weight this quickly, and on what many consider an unsustainable diet for the long term, is good – I’m with them on that.

Mediterranean Diet May Prevent Dementia and Mental Decline

Well, we’ve been hearing more and more about the mediterranean diet, which is a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables and omega 3 fatty acids, and eschews a lot of animal and dairy protein in favor of plant based proteins and fish.  Just hearing that makes it sound healthy to me.

I think of how much healthier I feel when I’m foregoing a whole lot of red meat and other types of meats, and instead going for plant proteins like hummus, nuts, and whole grains and fish, and it makes total sense to me that this also helps with mental function because when I’m eating a diet that resembles this, I totally feel like I’m on my A game mentally.

Which is why researchers are finding that being on the mediterranean diet actually helps do two things. First, it helps you to stave off mental decline and dementia, and it also helps to increase your mental acuity, your “fastness” and your total brain power, which makes you feel, well just a whole lot smarter and more focused!

People who were on this diet were found to be almost 50% less likely to suffer from dementia and other mental decline symptoms, showing much higher ability to focus and concentrate, and to recall things and think clearly.  This is a huge reason, amongst other benefits like heart disease and stroke prevention and anti cancer properties, that people should really think about trying this type of diet out.

You don’t even have to go 100% on the commercialized version of the mediterranean diet, as long as you follow some semblance of the principles of this type of diet, you should notice a substantial increase in energy, a better ability to focus, accelerated fat loss, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and a whole bushel of great health benefits that are just waiting to be plucked off the tree for your picking.

Fasting Every Other Day Accelerates Weight Loss?

Fasting has often been a controversial method to achieve a variety of things. Some people fast to help cleanse their system, or detoxify, in fact that may be one of the more popular reasons people do it, or they may fast because they are on a special order from a medical doctor before surgery or some other procedure or test, and lastly, and what we are going to talk about fasting for today, is they do it to actually lose weight, or accelerate their weight loss. Critics say that fasting for weight loss only confuses the body, and can actually do more damage than good when it comes to how your metabolism reacts.

Some believe that fasting actually slows the metabolism down, and may do so permanently, because the body is fooled into thinking it is starving, and therefore it tries like crazy to hold onto the food that it is getting by slowing the metabolism down, or in other words, the rate at which they are processing or using the food up as fuel for the body. I personally have tried fasting before, and it just wasn’t for me. While I can see how some people may like it, I simply couldn’t function the same without the proper nutrition that I’m used to, even when I was on a fast that still provided some kind of nutrients, although only in liquid form, I just couldn’t take the deprivation.

On the other hand, some people think that fasting clears their mind and actually helps them to be productive. I can see how that would be too, because although I had a hard time while fasting, I must say that I didn’t waste any energy on thinking about preparing food, actually preparing it, or wasting time with it, so I did seem to be more productive, maybe to take my mind off of it.

Researchers have now found evidence that fasting every other day, then eating between a few select hours on the days between where the patient actually gets to eat food, actually accelerates the weight loss efforts of obese patients. They found that, at least in obese patients, when the did this fast regimen, they lost weight faster, and seemed to like it better than restricting caloric intake every day they eat, because they knew they could eat what they pleased in those few hours the next day.

Researchers presume that the reason it helps to accelerate the weight loss fairly significantly is that it actually shrinks the stomach faster, so on those off days when fasting isn’t practiced, they are eating less because they feel full faster. That’s definitely interesting, and you may want to look into it more if you happen to be overweight and are looking for other alternatives to traditional dieting that may help you to stay within your guidelines and reach your weight loss goals faster without as much perceived effort of feelings of deprivation.

The No Flour and No Sugar Diet

One of the simplest and easy to follow diets out there is the No Flour, No Sugar Diet. The logic behind it is very basic. The foods that are usually high calorie and lower on actual nutrition are the ones with a high content of these two ingredients. By cutting them out of your eating pattern, weight loss is almost always going to follow.

This diet is recommended by Dr. Peter Gott, the newspaper health columnist. With his No Flour, No Sugar Diet, he does not emphasize counting calories specifically, but he does suggest foods to include more plentifully and which foods to limit. Also mentioned in conjunction with the diet is getting one half hour of exercise per day.

Dr. Gott’s book on the No Flour, No Sugar Diet suggests specific meal plans to cover 14 days and a multitude of tasty recipes that avoid flour and sugar. He gives instructions on how to read food labels and what to look for when selecting your dietary needs. The diet is easy to understand and doesn’t require buying expensive food plans or attending meetings. Among the foods to avoid are wheat flour, corn flour and white flour. For a replacement to the avoided flours, use whole grains, barley, oats, corn tortillas or rice flour. Rice pasta is allowed.

To avoid sugar, read your labels. You want to avoid honey, molasses, maple, cane or beet sugars, fructose syrup, cane juice, glucose and sucrose. If these are in the preparation of a food product, keep it off of your shopping list. As a substitute for sugar and to stay on the diet without feeling deprived, use artificial sweeteners or eat some fresh fruit.

Keep the diet balanced by including whole grains, dairy, vegetables, fruit and meat. Do not exclude any food groups and keep your portions limited and healthy. This will ensure your nutrition level is optimal and keep the longevity of the diet feasible. Exercising regularly is recommended to obtain and maintain your health.

The No Flour, No Sugar Diet won’t promise overnight rapid weight loss. Dr. Gott advises slow steady weight loss at a rate of about a pound a week. If you use this diet as a lifestyle dietary change, you should be able to maintain a healthy weight over time. The diet is similar to the low carbohydrate diet but is more simplified. In general, we do know that avoiding refined flour and sugar are important, but it’s tought to do that at all times, however, if you can just do it the majority of the time, this makes a world of difference in your ease of weight loss and maintenance.

New Review : Caralluma Product

Carallluma fimbriata is another one, like the all too popular hoodia, that is a plant who is from the succulent family. Succulents look like cactuses, or cacti, and I supposed you could call them from the cactus family as well.

Caralluma is a plant that, when ground up and turned into a powder, or shoot, if eaten straight in it’s native land, far far away, will curb your appetite, and can even help to curb your thirst. It is another plant that is used by tribesmen to help stave off their hunger and thirst for longer periods of time so they can get more important things done eating.

Leave it to us diet-obsessed Americans to find these types of miracle plants, and use them as ingredients in diet and appetite suppressing products designed to help us lose weight. Well, that’s exactly what’s been done, and the product I’ve reviewed is Caralluma Burn, which is a pure Caralluma diet supplement that does not contain any of those additives that make you feel like you want to jump out of your own skin like caffeine or any other types of harsh stimulants.

The problem with these types of diet aids that use stimulation as their main way to suppress hunger is that they often leave the person hungrier than they ever were when they wear off. This product is unique in that it does not use any stimulants, as a lot of hoodia products do, to aid you in your strike against hunger to help fulfill your weight loss goals, rather it just uses the power of this unique caralluma plant to ward off hunger and help your blood sugar remain stable for hours on end so that you can begin to burn your calorie stores and reduce your overall weight.

After all, weight loss is by it’s very definition a loss of excess calories, and in order to do that, you have to intake less. Caralluma Burn helps you do that by reducing cravings and appetite. Read on for a full review of the Caralluma product.