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There is no end to the evidence that America is headed into a recession. With credit crisis around the world, and spikes in the prices of gas at the pumps, living within our means is becoming more and more difficult.
With fewer dollars to stretch throughout the month, many of us are having to choose cheaper options when buying food. Unfortunately, in many cases, cheaper is not better. Due to a pinched pocket many of us will likely have to replace healthy low carb or whole grain breads with the puffy white carb laden and nutrient devoid breads; will have to wave goodbye to the extra lean ground beef and lean cuts of meat to be replaced with the lesser quality fat-fouled meats; will sadly leave behind the whole grain pastas that are endorsed by the United States Department of Agriculture’s current Dietary Guidelines for Americans and suck up buying the old generic pasta again, just to save a few bucks.
Do we have to choose these lesser quality foods that will make our weight shoot up faster than the price of oil just because we have to afford gas for our cars? What options do we have?
I have been thinking about how to answer this question for myself. I believe that my health should take precedent over most other things in my life and it is times like these that a few sacrifices should be made. Here’s what I’ve decided to do in order to save some extra money so I don’t have to give up healthier food items:
- I will blow the dust off of my bicycle in the garage and bike to local places I need to go (this will be some good exercise too)
- I will take public transportation to work at least 3 times a week (this adds about an hour onto my commute, but at least I won’t have road rage from sitting in traffic)
- I will only eat out at a restaurant once a week (I do this only a couple of times a week right now, so this isn’t a big change)
- I will start buying my fruits and vegetables at the local market instead of at the big chain grocery store (this will add a second stop to my grocery shopping, but I the local fruit and veggie market is about 50% cheaper so I’ll save money)
Personally, I think this is not an unreasonable list and I can make these small changes. It just goes to show that if you keep your health at the forefront of your priorities, you will find many ways to keep you on track, even during the most trying of times.
Green Tea is probably the most popular weight loss beverage other than pure water. Drinking Green Tea has shown to increase thermogenesis (metabolism) and promote fat oxidation in the body, as was found in a study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Because of Green Tea’s fat-burning power it has become a common ingredient in herbal diet pills and as a diet enhancer in many weight loss programs.
In addition to Green Tea, other teas are becoming popular for the supposed belly-shrinking abilities. Wu Long Tea (also known as Oolong Tea) even has its own diet – Wu Long Tea Diet. To follow this diet all you need to do is substitute all of your normal beverages for Oolong Tea. If you do this it is said that the tea will do the rest, including raising your metabolism, reducing carbohydrate absorption, suppress appetite, aid in digestion, and more.
Sounds pretty good, but do tea diets really work? A friend of mine tried the Wu Long Tea diet and called me about a week after starting it, totally excited. “I’ve lost 5 pounds!” she exclaimed. I admit I was pretty impressed. The Wu Long Tea diet appeared to just make the pounds melt away for her. So, with a new hope of a newly found flab cure I rushed out to the grocery store and bought the best Oolong tea I could find. As soon as I got home I brewed myself a big pot and started guzzling that stuff non-stop. I replaced all of my beverages I would normally drink with Oolong tea and you know what….I gained three pounds in a week.
So why do tea diets work so well for some people and terrible for others? Well, there is one theory I have come up with – success of a tea diet will be greatly influenced by what you were drinking before you started. For example, my friend loved to drink butter milk before bed (yes, it is milk with butter melted in it), but when on the Wu Long Tea Diet she just had tea. Just this switch alone may have been enough to account for some of her amazing weight loss. So if you consider how many calories people drink during the day in juices, coffees, sport drinks and carbonated beverages it is not far fetched to imagine that they will lose weight if all they drink is tea because there is almost no calories in it.
Why did I gain weight? Well, I already know not to drink beverages high in calories so drinking Wu Long Tea instead did not make a big difference in my daily calories consumed. What did make a difference was the “Green Light” I gave myself when it came to eating . I didn’t go crazy, but I ate more than usual and had some higher calorie stuff because I thought the tea was going to work miracles for me like it did my friend. The bottom line is that diets and diet products work differently for everyone. There are so many factors to consider before jumping on the band wagon. Your best bet is to stick to what you know works – eat a healthy diet, control your calorie consumption, and get regular exercise.
My co-worker brought in a box of donuts to the office yesterday and placed them on her desk, right behind mine. I sat there for two hours forcing myself not to look at the donut box, but even without the visual of those scruptious donuts, I could still smell them. I could smell their sweet flavour and I got so hungry that I had to ask my co-worker to move them to another part of the office. I felt a bit stupid. People must think I don’t have any self control, but actually I had more self control than they realize. Despite my hunger, I refrained from even snacking that day and waited until dinner to eat. It was a proud moment for myself.
The evolution of the “sweet tooth” is quite fascinating, but even more interesting is how our bodies have evolved to respond to the mere suggestion of incoming calories. Even at the sight or smell of sweets, lets say donuts, our brains trigger a reaction in our bodies called the Cephalic Phase Insulin Response. This response causes body to start producing insulin, the “fat” hormone, which stores sugar in the blood stream, and programs the adipose tissue fat cells (belly fat) to store everything they can. And all of this before even one donut touches your lips.
What happens in your body following a release of insulin that is not met with a stomach full of donut is that your blood sugar drops. Because your brain thrives on the glucose in your blood, and because now there is less of it because your body thought it was going to have a donut but didn’t, your brain tells your body it needs food. This brain hunger further triggers strong cravings for more sweet-tasting items, and high glycemic foods.
So, when I told my co-worker to move the donuts away from my smell range I had a valid point. Even though I hadn’t eaten a donut my insulin was going up, my blood sugar was going down and my craving for food was going through the roof, not because I have poor self-control, but because my brain was saying it didn’t have enough glucose. What a vicious cycle.
There are two articles published about this topic that I learned a great deal from. They can be found at http://www.glycemic.com/ReportH.htm and http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/05/t…e-eat-now.html.
Here’s to not breaking down and eating those bloody donuts .
I have been told over and over again that drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day of water is essential, not only for good health but to aid in weight loss as well. Despite being told this, I continue to struggle with drinking enough water to keep myself hydrated. So, to give myself some extra motivation I decided to find out the real facts about how drinking water can wash away a little extra fat.
Water and Fat Metabolism
Your liver is the organ that metabolizes fat. Here fat is metabolized into usable energy for the body. This is the process of burning fat and is the key process for losing weight. When you don’t drink enough water it is actually your kidneys that suffer. Your kidneys are always busy filtering waste products from your blood and they require good hydration to work properly. When you are dehydrated the kidneys slow down and the liver has to pick up the slack. This means that the liver has to work to rid your body of toxins and is too busy to metabolize fat, thus fat metabolism slows down and you lose less weight.
Cycling Water in Your Body
When you first start drinking more water you will be running to the bathroom all the time. But just because you are peeing all the time does not mean that the water coming out is the same water you just put in. In fact what is happening is your body is ridding itself of water it has been storing for some time. This cycling of old water for new is a very important flushing process and will leave your body rejuvenated. And the good news is that eventually your body adjusts to the new amount of water being consumed and the frequency of bathroom visits goes back to normal.
Water Improves Skin Complexion
Drinking enough water also improves the condition of your skin. Water helps to flush impurities from your skin and keeps the skin cells “plump” so that wrinkles and sagging areas diminish. Who wouldn’t want that ?
How much water do you need to drink?
Well, the minimal amount an average adult should drink in a day is eight 8-ounce glasses. If you are an overweight person you should drink another eight ounces for every 25 pounds of excess weight you carry. You should drink this water throughout the day, not all in one sitting. Some experts have said that cold water is absorbed by the stomach faster and might enhance fat burning, but really as long as you are drinking water it doesn’t matter how warm or cold it is. Also, if you dislike the taste of water try adding a slice of lemon or lime to it for flavoring instead of adding empty calorie drink mixes.
So off I go to get a big glass of refreshing water. After writing and reading all the pros of drinking enough water it just seems like a no-brainer.
Oh, now is that not just the icing on the cake that you can’t eat because you’re on a bloody diet – dieting can cause hair loss.
I was so distraught when I read that if you are losing significant weight you may lose hair. I ran to the bathroom right away. All squinty-eyed in the mirror, I went over my hairline over and over again, looking for any sign of weakness, thinness, recession. OK, none found…yet.
The American Hair Loss Council states on its website:
“Hair loss may also occur due to dieting. Franchised diet programs which are designed or administered under the direction of a physician with prescribed meals, dietary supplements and vitamin ingestion have become popular. Sometimes the client is told that vitamins are a necessary part of the program to prevent hair loss associated with dieting. From a dermatologists’s standpoint, however, the vitamins cannot prevent hair loss associated with rapid, significant weight loss. Furthermore, many of these supplements are high in vitamin A which can magnify the hair loss.”
I am assuming that losing hair while losing weight doesn’t happen to everyone (every model would be bald). Perhaps the key to keeping your locks is to eat a balanced diet. If you are worried about hair loss while dieting, maybe try to limit foods that are high in Vitamin A. These foods include cantaloupe, carrots, spinach, kale, apricots, papaya, mango, beef liver.
On the other side of the coin however, Vitamin A is really good for your body. Vitamin A plays an important role in vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division, and cell differentiation (in which a cell becomes part of the brain, muscle, lungs, blood, or other specialized tissue.). Vitamin A also helps regulate the immune system, which helps prevent or fight off infections by making white blood cells that destroy harmful bacteria and viruses. Vitamin A also may help lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) fight infections more effectively.
After looking around on the web for more evidence of hair loss being related to weight loss, and finding a number of people claiming to have experinced this, I am sure that this isn’t just another weight loss myth. If anyone who reads this post feels they may be experiencing hair loss because of their diet, please seek medical advice from your doctor. Hair loss can be as simple as too much Vitamin A, but it can also be a symptom of more serious health conditions.
Well, this is the best news I’ve heard in a long time…an ingredient in red wine may actually help treat and prevent obesity.
Researchers at the University of Ulm in Germany recently published their findings that Resveratrol, a compound present in grapes and red wine, prevented pre-fat cells from increasing and prevented them from converting into mature fat cells. Resveratrol was also found to have some other positive health benefits including reducing substances in the body that may be linked to the development of obesity-related disorders, such as diabetes and clogged coronary arteries. Resveratrol also stimulated the production of the protein adiponectin, which is known to decrease the risk of heart attack.
If you have ever wondered why the French can eat fattier foods, but remain so healthy, then red wine may be the answer. For example, the typical diet of people in Southern France includes a very high proportion of cheese, butter, eggs, organ meats, and other fatty and cholesterol-laden foods, topped off with red wine at most meals. This type of high fat diet would normally promote heart disease, but the rate at which it occurs in Southern France was discovered to be much lower than in America.
So drinking a glass of red wine with your meals may help prevent all sorts or health problems, including obesity. Of course, it is not recommended to exceed a glass or two as drinking more than this will actually cause more harm than good. Also, drinking red wine with your meal is not a green light to eat whatever you want then expect to lose weight. Wine or not, you still have to consume a healthy diet lower in calories if you are to shed those pesky pounds.
Reference: Fischer-Posovszky P. Red wine’s resveratrol may help battle obesity. Presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. 2008 Jun 17.
It has only been a few days after my proclamation that I will be abstaining from my favorite fast-food chain, McDonald’s, when a news story was released about Chris Colsen, who claims to have lost over 85 pounds by eating McDonald’s for every meal. What was his secret to losing weight while eating fast-food? He only ate McDonald’s salads, with the occasional cheeseburger (without the bun), and snacked on apple slices.
The positive story of Colsen’s weight loss while eating McDonald’s has been compared against the results seen in the documentary “Supersize Me”, written by Morgan Spurlock. In this documentary, Spurlock spends 30 days, three square meals a day, only eating and drinking items from the McDonald’s menu, supersizing his orders when asked. It is estimated that Spurlock consumed an average of 5000 calories a day. At the end of the documentary Spurlock had a 13% body mass increase and had begun experiencing mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight he gained from the documentary.
Of course comparing the experiences of Spurlock to Colsen’s story can’t be done. Colsen claims a french fry never touched his lips and he only chose the healthy options on the McDonald’s menu, such as the salads, wraps and grilled chicken sandwiches. On average, Colsen consumed approximately 1400 calories a day.
Now, I would still say that even Colsen’s McDonald’s Diet, although successful in helping him lose weight, was likely not a nutritionally balanced way to eat. But for some people like Colsen, who struggle with counting calories, eating fast-food may help them to keep their calorie consumption under control. Of course there are other success stories of this type, like Jared who claims he lost 245 pounds eating two Subway sandwiches a day.
The bottom line is that not all fast-food is bad for you. But to avoid gaining a ton of weight and spiking your cholesterol you need to stay away from the fast-food evils – Burgers and Fries.
Proud Americans have lost their world setting record of the fattest country to their friends down under, the Aussies. By a slim 1% to beat out the Americans, 26% of Australians are obese, that’s more than 1 in 4 people. And just to clarify, being obese is not the same as being overweight. The definition of obesity is that of an individual’s weight being 30% or more above what is considered normal.
So why are the koala kissing Aussies becoming so fat? Well, according to the Dieticians Association of Austrialia (DAA), “The average Australian family spends nearly 15% of their food budget on fast food and/or takeaway food”. Combine the Aussie fast-food addiction with a lack of exercise and there you have it, the fattest country in the world.
Sound familiar? It should because it is for the same reasons that North Americans have been plumping on the pounds for years. It’s easy to say, “C’mon everyone, stop eating fast food, you know it makes you fat”. But the truth is fast-food is popular because it is cheap, convenient, and tastes bloody good. Some fast food chains are starting to offer “healthy” alternatives on their menus. Other fast-food places even claim their healthy menu items can help you lose weight, like Subway.
I love my fast-food, I admit it. The thought of a cheese burger makes my mouth salivate, just like Pavlov’s dog and I have fantasies being able to eat all the fast-food I could want and never gaining a pound. But this is reality, and those are my jeans I can’t fit into anymore, and that is the latest reading of my higher than normal blood pressure. Fast-food, I love you, but you are hurting me and so I must let you go. I love you, but I love myself more.
It came as no suprise to me when I saw new fat pictures of Kirstie Alley in the taboids this morning. I guess she went back to her old ways after leaving her post as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, where she claimed to have lost over 70 pounds on the program.
But, then it made me think…does Kirstie Alley have more than just donuts, cakes, pies and her favorite fatty foods contributing to her most recent weight gain? Well, as it just so happens, the former “Fat Actress” star Kirstie Alley has plans to launch her own diet plan in 2009. Yes, Kirstie Alley is attempting to make her ballooning self the biggest cash cow in the diet world.
If Kirstie is gonna sell us all on her diet, she’s going to have to gain a whole bunch of weight before she starts it. She can’t convincingly sell her weight loss program if there’s no dramatic “fat Kirstie” before and “thinner Kirstie” after. So she balloons up, then slims down, and then sells tons of her magic weight loss stuff to us, the desperately seeking skinny.
Please Kirstie, you will not fool me into believing your next amazing weight loss story (or anyone else who reads this I hope). With your new tactics to sell your own diet it is apparent that your gluttony is not just for food, but for money too.
I almost fell off of my oversized office chair the other day when I saw the “Sardine Diet” as a new weight loss option. Well, I say new, but actually the premise behind the Sardine Diet, which is to eat large quantities of foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids, is not a new concept to those of us who have tried almost everything to lose some weight.
Basically the diet goes about giving you recipes that use sardines – those small, oily, stinky little fish neatly packed in a metal box that for some reason always make their way to the hors d’oeuvres platters at special occasions along with their nasty little companions, smoked oysters. That’s right, I bet most special occassion closet sardine lovers didn’t know that the squishy little fish they love to delicately eat from a cracker may actually be undoing some of the weight gain from a night of merry-making.
But why sardines? Well, as it happens the Sardine Diet doesn’t endorse all sardines, but Nordic brisling sardines, which contain among the lowest levels of mercury in seafood, while offering the most concentrated source of Omega-3 fatty acids. The low levels of mercury are particularly important if you are going to be eating these mouthwatering minnows more than a couple of times a week.
What Omega-3 Fatty Acids do for you:
- play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development
- reduce inflammation and help prevent risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis
- reduce health problems such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, thereby lowering the risks of heart disease, diabetes and stroke
- increase fat metabolism by reducing insulin levels, resulting in weight loss
Is the Sardine Diet worth a try? Well, if you like sardines then the Sardine Diet may work well for you. The Sardine Diet provides recipes, along with a complete menu plan that details breakfasts, lunches, dinners, two daily snacks, and special dessert treats (I really hope the dessert treats don’t include sardines too. Mmmm, sardine sunday with chocolate sauce anyone? 100 pregnant women just raised their hands). Just make sure you have a dollar left over after buying the diet book to buy some strong mints, cause there will definitely be something fishy about your breath.
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