Daily Diet Blog

August 24, 2008

I’m Testing and Reviewing “The 7 Minute Miracle” Spot Fat Reduction Book

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 7:23 am

I was recently at a second hand store and found a book I had never heard of before for a dollar, called “The 7 Minute Miracle” that was about spot reducing problem areas on your body and actually targeting localized fat successfully, which has basically been disputed for years now as an impossibility.  I was intrigued by some before and after shots of people who clearly were able to reduce their body fat since their muscles were showing through in the second picture while they were not in the first.

I have ony tried the prescribed regimen, which includes a once a day meal plan for either breakfast, lunch or dinner, whichever you choose, and then a seven minute exercise program that is to be done before the meal to have an optimum combination effect.  The exercises you do are very simple, and you can choose to spot tone a number of body parts, but can only do one at a time.

The body parts you can target are the arms (lots of women, like me, have problems with upper arm fat, a common fat storage area for women due to hormonal activity), the buttocks, thighs, hips, and abdominal area (belly).  The 7 minutes is a self-imposed intense workout of just that one area, and it’s basically just three very simple exercises that burn out the specified muscles in those 7 minutes, but just enough to target fat cells, not to increase appetite, at least according to the author of the book.

The spot fat reduction meals are specific, in many cases he even gives you brand names of the foods you need to eat.  They even include a little “dessert” after them, which I’m assuming adds to the fat burning capability of the program.  I gotta tell you, after doing it twice now, I thought seven minutes was nothing, but my arms (the second body part I targeted), and my thighs are sore from the 7 minutes of movement. 

I’ll write more on the 7 Minute Miracle and let you know if it is successful in wittling down my thighs and arms! 

June 6, 2008

Where the South Park Diet Goes Wrong

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 12:52 pm

I just read about this new South Park Diet, and unfortunately, what it sounds like is another book and diet regimen that revolves around vanity. In fact, the diet’s author actually emphasizes vanity’s role in losing weight and maintaining what you think is your ideal look through weight control. While I have zero problem with a little vanity, I think that this one may take it a bit too far. It’s akin to saying popping an herbal weight loss pill alone will make you thin, but only it goes in the opposite way and says you need a full on makeover to achieve permanent weight loss.

Hey, if anyone can lose weight by reading something that preaches vanity and surface looks over health, then all the more power to them, however, I think the underlying message that we have to love ourselves enough to want to take care of our bodies, to move around freely and without problems for years to come, and to have good blood pressure, blood sugar and all those other things that have such an immense impact on our health - physical and mental, should take precedence over shallowness and vanity to lose weight and keep it off.

The South Part Diet has a few components to it, and it’s basic premise, from what I gather by reading about it, is that if you approach every facet of your life, your hair, your clothes, your social status and circle, as being the best looking, then you will naturally want to look thinner. Not exactly the deepest theory, is it? I believe it also actually wants to make you over in a way, and who has all the time and money to change their entire look. Furthermore, it sounds like if you’re already happy with everything but your weight, you wouldn’t need this book which seems to preach a total makeover, not just weight loss.

To me, when I lose a few pounds, or if I’ve maintained my ideal weight for a while, I feel great not only because I look better and I can fit into my “skinny” jeans, but I also feel stronger, more flexible, and ready to take on the world. It makes my body feel invincible when I’m active and I can take the stairs without feeling winded, and when my BMI is a healthy standard. It’s not all about the looks and the vanity for me, it’s more about how I feel, which by the way, tends to radiate outwards and yes, make you a more beautiful, confident person.

February 23, 2008

Food Combining Diets

Filed under: Dieting Trends, Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 9:12 am

An interesting method of dieting and keeping slim, trim, healthy and keeping your digestive system harmonious and plugging away is the method of food combining that is sort of catching on, in a cultish kind of way I guess.  This theory has been around a while.  I remember one of the first diet books I ever read called Fit for Life was based on the principle that combining foods properly was key to keeping the digestive system health and clean.

Not only did it advocate proper food combining but it also advocated steering clear of meat, especially red meat, and eating lots and lots of veggies.  The food combining principle seems complicated at first, but the basic principles are that you may only combine meats and dairies and starches with vegetables, never with eachother.  So a well combined meal would be say a piece of chicken, spinach, and green beans, but you should not combine it with any starch like potatoes, pasta or bread, and there should not be any fruits in their either.

Fruits were only supposed to be eaten by themselves, and preferably in the morning before anything else entered the stomach, so they would just be eaten up by the system very quickly, usually 45 minutes or so.  When I followed this diet regimen after reading it when I was young, I must say I felt great and had minimal digestive issues.  Now, I believe that there have been several more books written on the subject, and they may also have some better and newer information on food combining.  It’s a great concept. 

December 9, 2007

Yerba Diet Pill Review Added

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 9:04 pm

I just added my review of this product because it contains a very impressive blend of one of my favorite natural ingredients to not only support weight loss and also promote abundant energy, but also to help make you feel an even sort of energy, without a huge crash when it wears off, so you don’t find yourself suddenly losing all control when the pill wears off.  It’s the yerba mate diet pill, and I’ve reviewed it here so you can figure out if yerba mate, in diet pill form, is the right natural way for you to add a little more incentive into your weight loss by feeling great and energetic - ready to lose that weight! 

December 6, 2007

Master Cleanse Diet : My Review

Filed under: Health News, Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 6:37 am

OK, so as promised, I had run out of time when I was about to spill my Master Cleanser diet review.  As I had previously states in my last post, I didn’t finish the ten day regime that the Master Cleanser diet by Stanley Borroughs recommended, but it was not because I don’t believe in the cleansing and detoxifying powers of the diet, it was because it takes willpower and perseverence, and I couldn’t finish because of too many personal issues right now.  I do intend to do the entire ten days after Christmas though.

Well, I started my first day of the diet by making my freshly “brewed” double batch of the master cleanser lemonade.  The idea behind the lemonade is sort of two fold.  One, it contains enough nutrients and adequate blood sugar boosters in the maple syrup to keep your blood sugar from totally bottoming out as long as you sip it when you feel extremely hungry, and two, the lemon juice helps to alkalize the body, which means to neutralize acid, and also helps to loosen plaque and mucus from the bowels and intestines so they may be flushed out, and then the cayenne also acts as a stimulant to rid the debris from the colon, as well as satiates the appetite a bit and perhaps even causes a mild metabolism boost. 

For the ten days, all you are supposed to drink is the lemonade and your herbal laxative tea.  You are supposed to drink the laxative tea every night and morning, or you have the option of doing the saltwater internal bath in the morning instead of the tea.  Let me tell you, I only did the saltwater bath once in the morning, and it was not pleasant getting a quart (which is a whole 32 ounces) of saltwater down. 

I almost gagged every time I took a gulp.  You are supposed to drink it as much at once as you can, and you are supposed to have several bowel movement in the next half hour to hour after you drink this disgusting concoction.  I had several bowel movements about a half hour after I drank the saltwater. 

I did not get any cramps, rather I was just ready to go all the sudden when the  movements occurred.  I have to say, there were some questionable items in my eliminations, and that makes me think that the cleanse really does remove debris that you probably don’t even remember consuming! I can see why this diet says that it accelerates fat loss, because it is purging you of debris and toxins that most likely may also cause excess fat storage.   

I did end up feeling sick both mornings I woke up, and I had a heavy coating of something on my tongue both mornings as well.  I assume this was the act of my body detoxing, which even though it felt gross, was somehow oddly pleasing since I knew it was working.  After I felt sick and weak in the morning, I felt good and energetic. 

It was very hard to ignore the smells and sights of foods though, and that really does take an iron will the first few days of the diet when you are still experiencing cravings due to your inherent “addiction” to food.  It is almost like an alcoholic who goes through alcohol detox.  You want it and crave it, even though you know your detoxing is doing wonders, your body does rebel against you when you first begin. 

My skin, in the whole two and a half days I was on the diet, did seem to clear up nicely, which was another nice side benefit.  When I try this diet again after the holidays, I plan on keeping a daily or bi-daily journal on this blog of my experience and review of the Master Cleanse diet, so stay tuned! 

December 1, 2007

Common Sense and Dieting

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 4:48 pm

So much is written about weight loss and different diets and diet pills.   A common sense approach is less expensive and easier to follow.  There are certain easy steps you can  take to achieve the goal of weight loss without a lot  of expense and bother.  Start to keep a journal of all of the foods that you consume each day.  You might be surprised at how many times you eat unnecessary calories that offer no nutritional value and don’t fill you up.

The purpose of writing all of your daily consumption down is to make you aware of your calorie intake and your nutritional status.  Don’t skip meals as this will lead to overeating at the next meal.   The most important meal to include and never omit is breakfast.   Skipping breakfast will only leave you hungry, fatigued and more likely to grab a donut and give up on your dietary attempt sooner. 

Skipping meals can work against weight loss also by slowing your metabolism and causing wild shifts in your blood glucose levels.  You can exclude completely the liquid calories that have no nutritional value from your dietary intake.  This would include the sugary pop and alcoholic beverages.  You may be surprised at how many calories this will save you.  If you are keeping a food journal, you can see how fast this adds up.
 Eat slowly and chew your food completely.  Not only is this mode of eating better for your digestive health, but it also gives you time for your brain and body to realize when you are full.  The result will be you will eat less and feel fuller.  Avoid the trigger foods that lead you to binge eating.  Trigger foods will vary from person to person.  For some people these foods may be the salty foods like potato chips while others may find sweets are their weakness.
 Portion control is a necessity for weight loss.  Start to look at the size of your servings and measure what you are putting on your plate if necessary.  Often, people don’t realize what is a normal healthy portion.  You should include servings of milk on a healthy balanced long term dietary plan.  Instead of whole milk, switch to skim only.  For sandwiches, switch to open face sandwiches with one slice of bread.  Salad dressings should be the light low calorie type only and don’t use too much.  These few steps toward calorie cutting should make quite a difference.
 Along with these calorie saving measures, incorporate a healthy realistic exercise program to speed weight loss and improve muscle tone and general energy and health.
Try on some clothes that you haven’t been able to wiggle into once your weight loss is underway.  This should encourage you to keep up the good work and continue with your efforts.

September 6, 2007

Genaslim Review

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 4:29 pm

OK, my boyfriend and I cannot seem to stop eating everything in sight that is bad for us, so I decided to take a proactive step and buy a natural appetite suppressant and try it out.  Since I’m an experimenter at heart, I decided to not go for Hoodia, which usually works very well for me, and try something else.  So I did a little research, and found that there was a different succulent plant that was supposed to be good for natural appetite suppression, so decided to give it a whirl. 

I decided on the natural appetite suppressant pill called Genaslim.  It is a medium priced diet aid that is all natural, and contains a compound called Slimaluma, which is derived from a succulent plant much like Hoodia, but it an entirely different plant in origin.  It comes in capsule form and I actually had a little reflux the first few times I took it, and it is very potent tasting.  I think the potent taste is the ECGG that was added to it.  I wasn’t exactly thrilled that it also had Green Tea (ECGG) in it, but oh well. 

I really wanted something that was completely non-stimulant in nature that would just control my appetite in a natural way that didn’t make me feel all jacked up like stimulants such as ECGG usually do.  I have to say, it’s not giving me heart palpitations, but it is making me feel slightly queasy when I take it. 

This may in fact just be my own system reacting to the substance, or it may be the way it “suppresses” the appetite, by creating a slightly uncomfortable feeling in the stomach so that you eat less not because a chemical is turned off in your brain hunger center, but more so because it creates a little bit of gastrointestinal distress.  This may just be me, again, and I will admit that I can get gastrointestinal distress from things sometimes, but it’s a side effect that I don’t really like. 

You are supposed to take two caplets per day, and take each one of those one hour before lunch and one hour before dinner, respectively.  This is another slight drawback, since I wanted something that I could take any time between meals and achieve the appetite control I wanted all day long.  It did slightly work to curb the amount of food I ate, but I haven’t noticed any weight loss yet. 

I also am noticing that the appetite suppression aspect seems to already be wearing off of me in just a few days, but this could also be due to the fact that I recently went on my period.  I think next time I might opt again to try a hoodia supplement or hoodia gum since this seemed to do the trick more for me personally. 

May 21, 2007

Detox Diets Not So Healthy?

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 10:55 am

I know you’ve all probably read about the exhaltations of detox diets that are so extreme they would have you only consuming liquid foods and pureed fruits and juices (if that) for days on end, as well as taking some sort of herbal laxatives, to help purify the body or, as the diet is named for “detoxify” the body of impurities, excess waste buildup and chemicals.

Basically, these types of diets claim that they will help your complexion, your elimination process, and help to restore health and a healthy weight in no time by starving the body essentially, and cleansing it of any leftovers in the mean time through colon cleansing therapy. Problem is, some specialists are saying that detox diets that are extreme, such as the Master Cleanse, which claims to help detox the body by drinking a lemon and maple syrup/cayenne pepper concoction only for ten days, and also drinking a laxative tea, can actually do more harm than good on some people.

A host of problems may result from these dramatic detox diets, such as bowel irregularities, blood sugar issues, and metabolism tampering. The diets have been given much publicity especially after being linked to skinny celebrities, and also after being touted as a great health restorer. Doctors say that the health benefits claimed are not actually scientifically proven, and that most people will put the weight right back on after a cleansing, because most of the weight lost is water weight, and we all know how easily that stuff comes right back on!

I know someone who has tried the Master Cleanse, and she swears by it. She said the first few days are rough, because you are not allowed any caffeine and she is used to drinking coffee, and also because you are hungry, but after those first few humps, she said that she did not feel hunger at all, and in fact felt more clear headed and creative than ever because her energy was not focused on food or eating whatsoever. If you feel like you’d like to try it, but could never not eat for days, you may want to look into hypnotherpy for weight loss.

She also says she feels the experience is somewhat of a cathartic one, because you are very introspective during this time, and it gives you a chance to really think about things that you normally don’t get a chance to think about. I have tried a detox diet once and it was only for one day, which I feel is perfectly fine because it really can’t mess with your system too much if only for one day. Proactol is a supplement that supposedly binds fat and also helps burn excess fat, and that may be an option too if you’re looking for something to cleanse the body of fat as well as lose weight by helping to speed up metabolism.

I have to say, I felt more energy than I ever had. I had to drink a juice concoction all day made primarily with cranberry juice and ginger and other hot spices, and it tasted good, and I wasn’t hungry after the first part of the day had passed. I’d say if you can perform a detox diet under extreme care and use common sense, than it might be the thing for you to try at least once in your life.

May 13, 2007

Anatrim : The Diet Product Spammer

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 3:27 pm

My gosh, if I get one more spammy email from the makers of this Anatrim diet pill, I feel like smashing my computer! Every day, or at least every other day, it seems I’m getting spam emails from this supposedly new and great diet product that will make “your fat friends envy you” or is “endorsed by celebrities”, so I decided to go and do a little research on what the heck Anatrim is, and why it seems to be infiltrating my inbox every day with emails.

I found out that a lot of people are getting spammed with Anatrim emails, but I looked further to see what Anatrim is, and if it looks like a worthy diet product - I have my doubts, because what reputable diet product would condone such rampant spamming?

Apparently Anatrim is a hoodia gordonii derived diet pill that promotes weight loss by, you guessed it, reducing your appetite and helping to speed up the metabolism with no stimulants. But doesn’t this sound pretty cookie cutter to you?

If you’re interested in hoodia diet pills, then you should check out only high quality ones that contain real hoodia gordonii, which is a succulent cactus we’re all probably too familiar with at this point which possesses a molecule in it that helps reduce our appetite by curbing the control center in the brain which directly affects and controls the level of food and sugars we crave naturally every day.

If you want reviews on real hoodia products, I suggest you check this out instead of getting spam emails that you’re not even sure who the maker of the product is! It’s about a gum breakthrough that contains the hoodia molecule, and is released over a more steady amount of time, releasing a more targeted, time released amount of hoodia to control the appetite on a steady basis instead of just being digested and eliminated and starting over with a pill : Hoodia Gum breakthrough

April 30, 2007

Fat Smash Diet : Back At It

Filed under: Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 12:15 pm

Have you ever heard of the Fat Smash diet?  It’s a diet that’s in a book by “Dr. Ian” who’s on the popular show where celebrities lose weight and are basically recorded in their trials and tribulations on the road to weight loss.  The mood swings, the emotional ups and downs when you find out you’ve hit your target goals and when you find out you haven’t even come close.  All that good stuff, it’s called reality TV, love it or hate it!

Anyways, back to my point.  I actually don’t watch the show, but had heard Dr. Ian talk about his diet on a radio show I listen to, and becamse interested in it because it wasn’t the typical diet where you really eliminate carbs for a while, but rather it focused more on carbs, like brown rice and complex grains, but no meat for the first ten days.  I liked the thought of eating no meat, because meat does tend to be difficult to digest, and I figured since I was a vegetarian for about a year a long time ago, I could definitely do this diet. 

We had just moved to a new home, and we didn’t have any time to work out, plus we were eating junky fast food and eating out at restaurants all the time, and decided it was time to whip our bodies back into shape, as I had put on ten pounds and he had put on about fifteen.  We felt sluggish, heavy and generally pretty disgusted with ourselves.  Forget about the sex life, there was none because neither of us was happy with out bodies.

So, we went on the fat smash, and I can’t say I have one complaint.  I’ve dropped about seven pounds in two weeks, and I feel great.  I’m not eating any meat or cheese, so nothing is really clogging my system up, so I’m in comfort with my digestions issues all the time now.  We are actually thinking about making the fat smash (a modified version) a regular part of our every day diet, we like it so much.

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