Can You Safely Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days?

March 3rd, 2009

Spend five minutes doing the research and you’ll quickly see that conventional weight loss thinking says the only safe way to lose weight is at the rate of 2 pounds a week.

If faster weight loss is accomplished using drugs, or chemicals, or harsh stimulants such as ephedra, ma huang and caffeine, then conventional thinking is correct. What good is losing 15 pounds or more in a month if you damage or completely lose the use of your liver or kidneys?

These “miracle” weight loss methods only result in a miracle if you don’t damage your bodily functions, or die in the process.

Having said that, there is at least ONE way you can lose weight quickly, while at the same time improving your overall health.

It involves a combination of a protein-rich diet drink, a common sense approach to “regular” meals, and the use of a Internal Cleanser to remove the buildup of toxins in our bodies.

These toxins are ingested by all of us in a variety of ways: bad air, chemically enhanced public water, pesticide coated foods, etc. These foreign invaders are isolated by our bodies in fat cells, where they do the least damage to our system. These fat cells are then surrounded by water (kind of like the way an old castle used moats to protect against invaders, only in reverse…the invaders are trapped in the Fat Castle, and surrounded by water to keep them there.)

Once the toxins are flushed from our bodies, the fat cells are then burned up as a source of energy, and the excess water is also absorbed and flushed in the same process. This can result is rapid weight loss (I lost 8 pounds in my first 5 days, on the way towards 25 pounds lost in the first 30 days, and 60 pounds lost in 100 days).

The other two factors that play into rapid weight loss is to make sure your body gets enough protein during a 24 hour period. The easiest way to accomplish this is by using a protein supplement (normally in powdered form) which you mix into a drink (or a shake or a soup). Figure about one gram of protein per pound of body weight.

At the same time, you’ll want to limit your intake of bad carbohydrates (think Potato Chips, Popcorn, etc.) and fat. This will cause your body to begin to burn the excess fat you have stored up. You’ll also want to eliminate all your sources of refined sugars. Sodas are the biggest offenders here, but coffee with any form of sweetener will slow down your weight loss as well.

For your normal meals, try and limit your caloric intake to about 600 calories. If you have two protein drinks during the day (breakfast and dinner) with a 600 calorie lunch and little to no snacking (apples and unsalted almonds are okay in small amounts) you’ll be on a 1,200-1,400 calorie diet, and your body will overnight become a fat burning machine.

Toss in a little walking (a mile or so to begin if you are in any reasonable shape, less if you are not) and you are only a month away from dropping as much as 30 pounds, safely.

If you want to know more about this weight loss plan, and get the details on how you can purchase everything you need from one source, download a free copy of my e-book, “How to Lose Up to 30 Pounds in 30 Days” at www.TampaWeightLossCoach.com

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Can You Really Eat More and Lose Weight?

March 3rd, 2009

Recently, someone asked me for my views about the amount of daily calories they should consume, and whether a 800-1000 calories’ intake can help to speed up their weight loss.

I thought this is something you’d be interested in, so I’m going to share my thoughts with you as well.

You’ve probably heard this many times: consuming too many calories makes us overweight. Of course, this is TRUE…

Both eating less or exercising more will most definitely result in weight loss.

It’s a simple matter of arithmatic — if your “calories out” is more than your “calories in”, you will lose weight.

Thus, it becomes very natural of us to think that if cutting calories is such a good thing, then the more you cut, the better, right? Doesn’t this mean that we’ll lose the excess weight faster?

In reality, it is not so.

Making a too-drastic cut in your caloric intake is a very, very bad idea.

If you have been dieting for a while, you would notice that the extremely low-calorie diets have been around for the longest time. But interestingly, most of the time they don’t lead to permanent weight loss.

Nonetheless, I’ve heard people discussing diets that recommend as low as 800 calories a day! I’m here to tell you that this kind of low levels is downright dangerous for your health.

According to weight loss experts, cutting your intake down to, or under, 1000 calories per day sets you up for an inevitable failure.

Why?

Because when you reduce your caloric intake down to this low, you are actually sending your body into “starvation mode” by eating far too little.

In simple terms, your body will start to think that there is a famine. And in order to maintain your weight while it “thinks” you are starving, your body’s metabolism rate will actually slow down. And your body will then start to store the calories into your fat cells instead.

If you want to prevent yourself from falling into this starvation mode “trap”, you must first know how many
calories your body requires everyday to maintain itself. A quick and easy way to do this is to use the tools that are found on our Web site at
http://www.weight-loss-for-women-over-40.com/bmr-calorie-needs.htm
to give you an estimate, or you can check with a dietitian or nutritionist.

Whenever you restrict calories below the level that you body needs to function, your body senses starvation and switches into the “conservation” mode. The more you restrict calories and the longer you diet, your metabolism will slow down further and the more your fat cells will fight back. Don’t forget, you need your metabolism to burn your fat into energy for your body to function properly.

Besides, there is another reason why extreme low-cal diets won’t work — it is not an easy feat to stay on it for long. Dieters who have gone on these extreme low-cal diets would also experience unfavorable side effects such as headaches, weakness, light-headedness and a reduction in their levels of concentration.

Finally, when you experience extreme hunger, the next thing you’ll tend to do is to “binge eat”. And guess what? In the end, after all the initial effort you’ve put into losing the weight, you will actually gain back more weight than you had lost during the diet.

And the worst thing is: The next time you try to go on a diet again, your body gets smarter and the fat cells will expand more to store more calories as they are getting ready to go through another “famine”. Your metabolism will also be reduced tremendously. You’ll find that you are not able to lose the weight as fast or as easy as the previous time. And you’ll get frustrated because you’ve had to deprive yourself of your favorite foods. So what do you do next? You overeat again.

So, stay away from these low-cal diets. They aren’t worth your time!

Copyright 2006 Tracy Lee

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Can You Lose Weight Without A Weight Loss Plan?

March 3rd, 2009

The simple answer to this question is NO! However that is probably not going to leave many readers satisfied with this article that is supposed to be about weight loss plans. So in the next few paragraphs I want to tell you more specifically why it is a good idea to lose weight number one, and then why it is essential that you have a strategy number two.

So why do we lose weight? Well actually much of the time it is because we don’t like how we look. The problem with that is it is such a fickle feeling and doesn’t provide enough incentive to buckle down to a weight loss plan and carry it out. We can get through life fairly unscathed socially when we are fat if we avoid certain situations namely anything having to do with a swimming suit or an athletic event. The major thing that allows us to do this is the fact that everyone else around us is fat and so we fit right in. We all, especially those in the northern climes that don’t benefit from good amounts of sun, use food to elevate our mood and the fact is that it works. What we are starting to understand is that our motivation should be our health rather than our looks, and if we truly new how dangerous obesity is it would scare us enough that we would take losing weight seriously.

The fact that obesity is a killer is plain. The big three killers for the obese would be art disease atherosclerotic disease, diabetes, and cancer. That obesity is a MAJOR risk factor for these killers is plain as day. Think with me for a minute about all the things that go wrong with an obese individual that send them spiraling toward and early death. First atherosclerosis from high fat and cholesterol diets combined with large floppy hearts, and hypertension that is caused by obesity. This just sets a person up for a major cardiac event that if it doesn’t kill them the first time will on subsequent tries unless they get their act together. Now think about diabetes mellitus type II which has is main etiology in the insulin insensitivity that comes with obesity. This contributes to heart disease as well as renal failure, blindness, and neuropathies that result in either unbearable pain or in amputations. Pretty bleak picture? Make you want to hear about the importance of having a weight loss plan?

This should be brief because it deals with life truths that are pretty obvious. You must plan carefully in life to succeed, learning in life from mistakes and capitalizing on opportunities. You must also plan to achieve discipline. These things are just not natural to humans who if left to their own devices become fat, lazy, and fail. So you must have a weight loss plan to: 1) lose weight properly, 2) lose enough weight to make a life prolonging change, and 3) to maintain your new lifestyle. Sounds easy right? No way! But worth it? For sure.

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Can The GI Diet Help You Lose Weight?

March 3rd, 2009

The GI diet, based on the Glycemic Index, has recently become very popular, but the GI ranking system has been around since 1981. There have been several books published on the success of the GI diet, but is it really a diet or a lifestyle change?

The glycemic index

Dr. David Jenkins, from the University of Toronto in Canada, developed the glycemic index to measure the speed at which foods break down in the body to produce glucose. While originally intended to help diabetic patients control their glucose levels, it was soon used to help individuals trying to lose weight to control their eating habits and hunger. The key was to decrease the fast breakdown of foods into glucose. Glucose is the natural source of energy for the body. It produces a rush of energy when the food is broken down, and then when it is burned up, it leaves a feeling of hunger and fatigue.

Depending on how fast they elevate the blood sugar level after eating, foods are considered high, medium and low GI foods. Low GI foods rank less than 55 on the glycemic index scale, medium GI foods go from 55 to 70 and high GI foods rank higher than 70. High GI foods break down very quickly in the body and make you feel hungry again soon after consuming them. Low GI foods are slowly digested and absorbed so you feel fuller for a longer period of time after you eat.

High GI foods include:

  • white flour products like white bread, croissants, doughnuts;
  • heavily processed foods like corn chips, potato chips or pretzels;
  • foods high in sugar like cookies, rice krispies, ice cream;
  • high starch vegetables such as potatoes and parsnips;
  • fruits high in sugar - watermelons, dates and other dried fruits.

Medium GI foods include:

  • most types of pasta;
  • rice;
  • some fruits like mangos, apricots and raisins;
  • some vegetables like baked beans.

Low GI foods include:

  • most fruits and vegetables;
  • legumes;
  • cereals that are high in fibers but low on sugar;
  • dairy products like low fat plain yogurt, whole, low fat or skimmed milk;
  • whole grain breads.

The Low GI Diet

The low GI diet focuses on changing eating habits so that the majority of the foods consumed are from the low GI food group. These foods take longer to break down into glucose in the body. This does two basic things:

  • Produces a more even level of glucose throughout the day to avoid those high glucose times followed by the low glucose slumps.
  • Stops cravings and hunger from occurring as much.

When these two components combine, they allow the dieter to eat a balanced meal and not experience the “energy slumps”. The whole grains and unprocessed foods take more time for the body to convert to glucose and keep the feeling of being full for longer. It also prevents those cravings which tend to cause overeating or consuming foods that are not on the eating plan.

However, the diet should not rely exclusively on the glycemic index as low GI foods aren’t necessarily healthy. Foods should be chosen based on their overall nutritional value. The glycemic index is influenced by a sum of factors like: the nutrient content of the foods, the extent to which they are processed, the cooking method, food combination or ripeness in the case of fruits and vegetables.

Products that are high in fat have a low GI as they don’t break down as easily as the ones high in carbs. That doesn’t mean you should choose to eat high fat foods in order to stick to the index. As an example, whole milk is ranked lower than the fat free or low fat one.

The glycemic index doesn’t rank foods that do not contain carbohydrates, like fresh meat, chicken, fish, eggs and cheese. However, it includes processed foods that include meat and diary products. For a healthy low GI diet you should choose lean or low-fat meats that have been trimmed of visible fat, skinless poultry, fish and low-fat dairy products, even though they aren’t ranked.

The nutrient content is also very important. Between dates or watermelon and a bag of crisps the obvious choice is the fruit even though the watermelon is considered high GI because of the sugar content and the crips are considered low GI as they are high in fat and slow down the absorbtion process.

It is also important to remember that the glycemic index ranks invidual foods only, not whole meals. Depending on how the foods are combined, the overall GI value of the meal can change and cannot be measured accurately, but the main idea is that including low GI foods in your meal will result in lower GI value overall.

The low GI diet does not lead to rapid weight loss; rather it results in a steady and constant decrease in body weight. The individuals who use this plan find that they have more energy and therefore are more likely to exercise.

So is the low GI plan a diet or a lifestyle? Most experts agree that it is a diet plan that leads to changes and becomes a lifestyle. Eating low GI foods just makes good sense for weight control and maintenance, energy levels and healthy eating.

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Can’t Lose Weight? Maybe You Have A Thyroid Disorder

March 3rd, 2009

A thyroid disorder called hypothyroidism means you have an underactive thyroid gland. If you have trouble losing weight no matter what you do, it could be because you are hypothyroid. There are almost 30 million Americans with thyroid disease and women are 7 times more likely than men to have it. Hypothyroid is the most common thyroid disorder and often misdiagnosed by doctors.

You may get this because it is inherited, or because of previous problems, such as nodules, goiter, thyroid cancer, previous thyroid surgery, another autoimmune disease.

This is a condition where the thyroid gland, a small butterfly shaped organ located at the base of the neck, does not produce enough hormone to function properly.

What happens is that it takes in iodine, combines it with tyrosine (an amino acid) and converts it into the hormones T4 and T3. If your thyroid is normal, 80% will be T4 and 20% T3. These hormones travel through the bloodstream, converting oxygen and calories into energy. If this process doesn’t work properly, then the calories and oxygen cannot convert the energy properly and you may gain weight or incapability to lose weight.

The symptoms can include : weight gain, depression, forgetfulness, fatigue, hoarseness, high cholesterol, constipation, feeling cold, hair loss, dry skin, low sex drive, tingling hands or feet, irregular periods, infertility. You may even experience recurrent pregnancy loss, resistant high cholesterol, difficult menopause, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, or mitral valve prolapse.

Do you feel sluggish and fatigued on a regular basis, or do you get bouts of depression and sadness? Are you always feeling cold, especially your hands and feet, or do you have brittle nails? These are just some of the possible signs of the disease. There may be other causes, but at least this may give you a clue as to why you do not feel well. Check with your doctor in all cases to be sure.

When your metabolism doesn’t work right because you have this disorder, you may find that there’s no amount of dieting or exercise that takes the weight off. You may in fact put on extra pounds, even though you are doing just what you are supposed to.

What can you do ? Meet with your doctor and ask if you need a thyroid examination and blood test. These likely will be a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) blood test, along with T4, T3, Free T4 and Free T3 tests.

A drug called levothyroxine (often called Levo-T, Levoxyl, Synthroid, Unithroid) may be prescribed for you. It is usually inexpensive, has minimal side effects, and has uniform potency. However, all thyroid hormone replacement therapies, whether natural or synthetic, have the ability to restore thyroid hormone levels.

Supplements that contain the following might also help:

- L-Tyrosine - is one of the amino acids that your body needs to make thyroid hormones. It is included in some weight control products because it works to stimulate your metabolism. It’s also an element in helping your brain operate more efficiently which makes you feel better.

- Guglipid - an extract from the Indian guggal tree, may improve thyroid function and assist in controlling your weight. Scientists are finding that guglipid lowers bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol, and thus can help somewhat to prevent heart disease.

There is always hope and lots of help out there for you. If you suspect that you have this condition and you are not sure what to do, talk to your physician for guidance and advice.

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Can Paul McKenna Really Make You Thin?

March 3rd, 2009

Will the Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin program really produce results? We will determine if it is so.

I’m sure you can think of a lot of reasons for losing weight. There’s health aspects to being your ideal wight, you look and feel much better without the health damaging body fat and you won’t keep stretching your clothes. Some people have such a problem with their weight that they have been ordered by their doctor to lose weight.

You may be the kind of person who just cannot stay on a diet. Do you have to fight the urge to keep eating? Do you need to lose some weight in a fast yet safe way? Do you find it hard to stay on a diet? Well Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin may be the best thing you every tried!

The great majority of diets and weight-loss pland just do not produce the desired result. Most diets are unsatisfying\The majority of diets bore us and leave you feeling hungry and unfilled after eating your food. These diets leave you with the feeling as though you are depriving yourself of the food you like and this will eventually drive you to eat more of the forbidden things you are trying to avoid. Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin addresses this scenario very efficiently.

As the western world gets increases in weight it would seem that all the fat reducing products just won’t work. There are diets, pills and potions that are the nest best thing today but gone the next only to be replaced by a new fad, pill, diet or weight loss plan. When we consider the inherent danger associated with operations, the lack of studies into many of these recent diets and without real regulations for the diet industry it can be seen that we need a safe, reliable alternative. Enter the Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin system for safe weight loss.

Let us’s forget all the false claims of miracle drugs because the truth is easy to see - if you want to shed fat you have to engage in some changes and put in the effort!

Having said that, there are some fabolous ways to lose weight that don’t involve lacking energy or running a marathon everyday. Some of these methods are even fun to do. One such example is the system that was developed by the world famous hypnosis expert Paul McKenna. McKenna spent 13 years developing an efficient way to lose weight easily, healthily and permanently. The Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin program was even tested on UK television, using the British public as testers, with many people losing massive amounts of weight.

You may expect that Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin system involves some kind of hypnotic trance or mind programming but this is not what it involves. This hypnotist researched the views, beliefs, attitudes and eating and exercise behaviours of naturally thin people over a thirteen year time-span. This was so that he could create a weight loss system that would make you think, feel and act like a person who are naturally thin - those people who eat what they want, when they what and don’t become overweight!

McKenna found that we all have an inbuilt natural weight control ability in our bodies. This is an internal set point which tries to maintain a specific amount of stored fat in the body’s sytem. With just about all diets however we are attempting to quiet this mechanism and force our mind and body to adjust to a new eating regime. With this approach you are trying to ignore the natural, powerful urges that your body has put in place to ensure you have enough energy and fuel to survive. Appetite suppressants and using similar attempts to resist your urge to eat may well be good in reducing some of your natural desires, and if you force yourself to change your daily eating habits you can retrain yourself but your body will still has these desires because they are natural in addition it’s hard work to even get to that stage! This is one of the key areas looked at in Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin.

As well as the natural cravings that our body sends to our brains there are a a great deal of people who eat for emotional reasons because they are bored or to avoid feeling stress. In order to avoid feeling negative emotions they head straight to the pantry cupboard. These are the people who are known as comfort-eaters and they become overweight very quickly with many gaining too much weight until it is a health issue.

The findings, that McKenna got from years spent researching, for the Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin system, clearly show that by allowing yourself to follow the natural rhythm of your body so it tells you when and what to eat you will shed pounds and maintain a healthy, natural slim look. By not pressuring yourself to enter into a strict eating program and by allowing yourself to eat whatever you want, that means anything you desire, and following some very simple but effective rules then you will be be able to lose weight. He found that when people deny themselves specific foods or quantities they resist and they are much more likely to fail their diet and abandon their dietary program. It’s the old case of wanting what you can not have.

The key is to allow yourself all of the things you really like but to take them in moderation. I know this is easier said than done but McKenna has some simple yet powerful methods to guarantee you are succesful. Basically you can eat what you want!

There are 4 fundemental rules to the Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin program.

1. Eat when you are hungry!
2. Eat whetever it is you want to eat!
3. Eat consciously!
4. Stop eating once you are full!

With every one of his 4 golden rules McKenna gives methods and tricks to guarantee you stay the course. Plus he tells you that you should take fifteen mins of additional exercise each day. Such exercise can be comfortably spread over the entire day and split into 5 min periods. By taking method of exercise (which never increase in quantity!) you burn up more fat than you usually do. The long-term affect is fantastic!

Basically in Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin McKenna helps you transform yourself into a a person who is naturally thin. He also includes techniques like craving-buster techniques and ‘Overcoming Emotional Eating’ .

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Can Hoodia Gordonii Help You Lose Weight?

March 3rd, 2009

Hoodia Gordonii is the newest catch phrase in the weight loss industry today. Everyone wants to be in on the secret, and still more are wondering about this miraculous plant. What does it do, how can it help you lose weight, and why wasn’t it heard of before? Well, some of it appears to be true, however there is more to weight loss than just taking a pill.

Hoodia Gordonii has actually been around for quite some time, but was only recently discovered to be an appetite suppressant. According to many reports, including some from well known media, it can make you feel full faster and stay full longer because of it’s apparent ability to stave off hunger.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari deserts have been eating Hoodia for quite some time now, and have been familiar with its thirst and hunger quenching abilities. That’s why, when using hoodia it is important to have adequate hydration on top of a healthy diet. Even though hoodia is natural and may be able to work on its own to help safely curb your appetite, it is essential that you incorporate it into a healthy lifestyle. Allowing it to starve you is not healthy, so remember that.

Speaking with your doctor is essential in assuring you do not get in over your head. As with any weight loss product, your doctor should know what you are taking and how you plan to use Hoodia in your life. While it is not known to cause any unpleasant side effects, it’s not for certain how it will react with any prescription medications you could be taking. For safety reasons, let your physician know you plan on taking Hoodia and they may be able to help devise a diet and exercise plan that will work with the supplement to ensure maximum weight loss potential.

Although this supplement is being toted by many as the newest weight loss miracle, do not let the hype get to you. It is unrealistic to expect a diet pill to do all the work for you and put simply, it will not.

Diet pills like Hoodia Gordonii, Phentermine, Bontril, Adipex, or others, can help you reach your weight loss goals by supressing your appetite, but that’s only part of the solution to keeping the weight off forever. If you want to lose weight and maintain your health, you have to be willing to change your eating habits and exercise.

Eat foods daily that are good for you like :

-Fruits and vegetables, especially leafy green vegetables.
-Lean chicken.
-Fish like Haddock, Cod, or Salmon, that is low in fat and has Omega-3 fatty acids that are good for your heart.
-Replace peanut butter with almond butter or cashew butter.
-Replace white bread with multigrain, rye, or spelt bread.
-Stay away from sugar. Use honey instead. Stay away from artifical sweetners.
-If you must eat deserts, eat low sugar yogurt or plain yogurt mixed with fresh fruit. Or go to a specialty bakery or health food store and buy desserts made without sugar and without preservatives.
-Stay away from caffeine that is in coffee and tea as much as possible. If you suffer from fatique, headaches, or anxiety all the time, this may be part of the reason. Try decafeinated brands instead.
-Reduce your salt consumption. Use No Salt or Half Salt products instead.
-Eat nuts without oil added to them, like pure almonds, cashews and so on, but not that much. They do have a high calorie content.
-Stay away from packaged products, including TV dinners, that are loaded with chemicals and sodium.

*Note: If you are allergic to any of the above, check with your physician for advice.

Exercise :

-Walk at least 20 minutes straight, 3-5 times per week.
-Lift light weights if you can and your doctor approves. A good gym is the best for this because they can put you on a good workout schedule. Strengthening your muscles will help you burn fat faster and will make you feel better.
-Start out slow and build from there.

You’ll succeed and lose the weight you want over time if you follow some or all of these guidelines. Depending on how much you are overweight now, most doctors advise losing no more than 4 pounds a month. You should be able to do that easily.

If you are prone to eating binges, or you have a sweet tooth, or you find that cutting down on how much you eat is too tough, you should consider an appetite suppressant like Hoodia Gordonii or similar, at least for the first few months you’re trying to lose weight. Only taking what is suggested on the bottle or even less at first to see how it affects you. Ask your doctor for guidance if needed.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it and realize you are not on a diet, but you’re changing your lifestyle for the better.

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Can Fasting Help Me To Lose Weight?

March 3rd, 2009

One way to lose weight is to just stop eating. It sounds simple but in reality you have to know what you are doing to get any long term weight loss benefits from fasting. Let’s look at the weakness and strengths of fasting for weight loss.

Like most forms of dieting, fasting can be used to bring about dramatic but temporary reductions of weight. You can go on a long fast, taking nothing but juice or eating grapes or taking some other low calorie meal substitute for several weeks, and while you are on the fast you will certainly lose weight. However, during the fast you may not be able to carry on your normal social interactions. It’s not so easy to sit around sipping carrot juice while the rest of your family is eating a normal meal.

Another problem with long fasting is that your body requires vital nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein) and your favorite juice may not contain them. Long fasting without proper medical supervision can be dangerous.

Finally, a major problem with this kind of fasting is that once you stop fasting and resume eating your normal diet, you are likely to gain back all the weight that you have lost during your crash weight loss fast.

So, does fasting have any place in a weight loss plan? Yes it does. Periodic fasting is one of the secrets of a long and healthy life. Our body’s digestive organs require a rest from time to time, just as we require days off from work. One-day fasting done in a methodical and regular manner provides the kind of rest that helps our digestive system, aids in the elimination of toxins from our body, and, yes, also helps us to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way.

How to Do Proper Fasting

Here is a method of doing one day fasts, taking no food and (if your body is strong) no water in a period from the sunrise of one day to the sunrise of the next day.

Successful fasting has three stages: preparation, the actual fast, and breaking the fast. Each one of these stages is important.

Preparation

If you are not prepared both mentally and physically you will find it difficult to go one day without food. The mental preparation is simple, but very important. The night before the fast you have to take a firm determination that tomorrow you are going to fast, that you are not going to eat any food. If you fix your mind in advance then you will not start deliberating during the fasting day whether you should continue or not to continue. If you are undecided or waffling you can always find a hundred reasons why you should start eating!

Physical preparation is also important. The day before you fast you should eat a normal amount of food and take a good amount of liquids (especially if you are going to be fasting without taking any liquids). If you miss some meals on the day before fasting, then you may start feeling hungry during the fasting period. If you do not take enough liquids, especially during the night before the fast, then you will feel uncomfortable when you are fasting.

If you are physically and mentally prepared you will not feel very hungry while you are fasting. Once you decide to fast, your hunger just “shuts off” for the fasting period. This sounds hard to believe, but if you do it a few times you will see that it is true.

The Fasting Day

It is best to do light physical tasks and concentrate more on intellectual and spiritual work during the fasting period. It is not a good idea to spend your time thinking about what you are going to eat tomorrow! If you have prepared yourself properly this shouldn’t be a problem and you can use the time that you gain by not eating to do some constructive things that you normally don’t get time to do.

Breaking the Fast

One of the benefits of fasting is that it helps to eliminate toxins from the body. However, you can only get this benefit if you break your fast correctly. On the morning following the fasting day, take two glasses of lemon water. Put the juice of have of a lemon in one glass and add a bit of salt. (The drink should taste both lemony and salty). After some time, you can eat your breakfast. The lemon water will help you to flush your digestive system with a strong bowel movement and many toxins will be eliminated.

One day fasts like this can be done twice a month. This kind of fasting will give rest to your digestive organs, help eliminate toxins, build your will power and strength of mind. On top of this, the overall reduction in calories that you get from going two days without food each month, will definitely be one of the elements of a balanced and sustainable weight loss program.

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Can Energy Drinks Help You Lose Weight?

March 3rd, 2009

Energy drinks are liquid soda-style beverages that are boosted by the inclusion of ‘energy boosting’ ingredients including sugar, caffeine and other caffeine-like substances like ephedrine, and guarana. Some energy drinks also have vitamins, “acid stabilizers” or other nutritious-sounding ingredients, too. With all of these ingredients one might well ask whether energy drinks can help you achieve your weight loss goals by giving you the boost you need to exercise consistently.

Red Bull, Jolt, Amp and Hype are four of the more commonly known energy drinks. Energy drinks themselves are classified as “functional beverages” which means that they do not form part of the bigger nutraceutical food or dietary supplement industry. So because energy drinks are not classified as either a food or a dietary supplement, they are not regulated nor monitored by the Food and Drug Administration.

The aim of energy drinks is to boost your energy for physical activity and to improve your ability to concentrate on a specific task. Many believe these drinks can provide the energy they need to perform their exercise routine. But whatever you do, you should not confuse energy drinks with sports drinks. Sports drinks are specially formulated to help provide energy to tired muscles and to help the body absorb water and glucose (sugar) – energy drinks are not designed to do this.

While sports drinks are at their most beneficial if your workout is going to exceed an hour or so, plain water is generally a preferred option for quenching your thirst and replenishing your body fluid. Energy drinks, on the other hand, dehydrate rather than hydrate so this is why they are not designed for assistance with sports, but rather just to give you that quick energy-based pick me up.

While many people might claim that energy drinks are good for you if you are playing sports, the truth is that they are good for short bursts of activity and mental alertness only. It is vital that if you are consuming energy drinks that you know what you are drinking. Energy drinks are not necessarily bad for you, but they shouldn’t be seen as natural substitutes for health supplements either. Some of the marketing for energy drinks claim that they “improve performance” and can be misleading because essentially all you are doing is over stimulating your body with caffeine.

There is not very much that is currently known about energy drinks and the effects that their consumption can have on a person’s overall health and wellbeing. The creators, manufacturers and marketers of energy drinks will tell you about the numerous health effects of their products. Their messages will tell you that these products can increase your physical endurance, improve your reaction times, boost your mental alertness and concentration, increase your overall wellbeing, stimulate and even speed up your metabolism, improve your stamina and help eliminate waste from your body.

Ideally, energy drinks should not be used by someone exercising for a sustained period of time because the combination of fluid loss from sweating and the diuretic quality of the caffeine can leave the drinker feeling severely dehydrated at a time when their body needs to be replenished with fluids.

So, what is the deal with energy drinks and why are they so popular? Well quite simply, if you manage your consumption at only one or two a day, then energy drinks won’t harm you and in fact can help you improve your day-to-day activities. Their super-concentrated stimulating ingredients will indeed wake you up and help you to improve the way that you conduct and perform simple mental tasks. There is plenty of sugar and caffeine in energy drinks though, so you should be sure that you minimize your consumption to one or two drinks a day at the most. Any more and you could well experience side effects.

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Can Eating Certain Foods Help You to Lose Weight?

March 3rd, 2009

The best way to lose weight is by consuming fewer calories than you expend or conversely, by expending more calories than you consume.

Experts have discovered that certain foods can actually help you to lose weight without the stress of dieting or exercise. The down side is that many of us have a tendency to dress these foods up with cheese, sour cream, butter or other calorie-laden flavor enhancers. This causes the weight loss effect to be lost. It may be difficult to not add extra calories to these foods but with a strong will power it can be done.

A negative calorie food can be defined as a food that results in a slimming effect for the body. In other words a carrot (without anything else) will cause your body to use an increased amount of energy when digesting it and other foods, this can lead to an overall reducing effect on the body. This is partly from the amount of energy it takes to digest the carrot or other negative calorie food and partly from the elevation in metabolism that these foods naturally create. The overall effect is a net loss of energy, which is measured in calories. It should be understood that ‘negative calorie’ doesn’t mean that the food has zero calories in it, nor does it have an anti-calorie or a negative calorie.

Here is a partial list of negative calorie foods: apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemon mango, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, asparagus, beets, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, hot Chile peppers, cucumbers, endives, garden cress, garlic, green beans, lettuce, onion, papaya, radishes, spinach, turnips and zucchini. There are more and you can learn about them from a medical doctor’s very popular book.

In his book, Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight, Dr. Neal Barnard explains the effects these foods have on the body. A quote from Dr. Barnard’s book reveals some startling facts, “They found that those who ate foods that were very low in fat and high in carbohydrates, lost weight steadily, without limiting how much they ate. But those on high-fat diets could not effectively lose weight even if they ate skimpy portions.” Dr. Barnard is referring to the published results of an experiment conducted at Cornell University and published in the May 1991 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A book reviewer posted on a website how he lost 30 lbs. utilizing the information from Dr Barnard’s book. It is important to exercise caution when dieting because there are certain things that your body needs to remain healthy including proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are necessary for the body to function at its optimum level. You cannot remain optimally healthy by eating the negative calorie foods alone.

This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. Please consult a doctor before dieting.

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