Draining Day...

Yup. You read it right. Draining, not Training. I was not able to go online yesterday for various reasons. The "reasons" were all physically and emotionally draining. Suffice to say I am a 5/10 in terms of being "okay". Anyway, I opened my email a while ago and a day of missing out opening my email account presented me with hundreds of spam emails. A lot of those emails are from companies offering diet pills. Are the claims of these diet pills all true? It's a good thing there is a website that do diet pill reviews. Five things listed in the site's DONT'S regarding diet pills are: buying diet pills without a money back guarantee; falling for those "free" trials; buying proprietary blends unless there are positive reviews about it; buying diet pills without reviews from experts, buying without reading consumer reviews. Are you on the lookout for the best diet pills for you? Check out the site for reviews of various diet pills in the market today. In the meantime, I'd life to put a little spark back in me. I need to recharge. Wouldn't it be something if people could just be recharged as mobile phones?

Painless Lipo Laser

Who does not want to look beautiful? Who does not want to look firm and buff after birthing a bunch of kids, toiling night and day for years of stressful motherhood with the added strain of being a wife, a tutor, a driver, a cook, a counselor, a bread-winner, an event organize, a gardener, a care-taker, etc, etc. You're one big fat liar if you say you don't care how you look once you hit the 40s! Life has changed as it no longer begins at 40. It has transformed to "life begins at whatever age you want it to begin!"

Okay. So I'm having a hard time getting back into the shape and size I was back when the price of gas was 15 PHP per liter. The stubborn extra weight won't come off! Short of getting a knife and cutting off the woobly-jiggly thingy that is my tummy, I researched on a non-surgical way to get rid of the offending err..ahh... fat. Sure, liposuction has been around for years and years now but I don't want that since the procedure is still pretty invasive for me. Zerona might be the answer to my problem. The lipo laser quickly and painlessly breaks down the fat cells of the areas being treated as it stimulates the body to rid itself of the excess fat. A typical treatment course runs for a period of a 40-minute tri weekly sessions for three weeks. How does it work?

The Zerona laser liposuction is a cold laser beam penetrates fat cells making them empty out the fatty cells into the body for normal secretion out of the lymphatic and digestive systems. Great! This is best if one is in a hurry to look ones best for that special occasion in the offing. Count me in!

Doctor's Order

I just had my monthly check-up and suffice it to say that I was not contented with my doctor's consult. He barely did a physical examination! All he did was asked questions that were mostly rhetorical. He kept on fidgeting on his seat for he said the air conditioner was freezing. The ACU was centralized and there was no way for him to control the temperature. Heck! I was wearing short sleeves and I thought the cool air was fantastic. Anyway, I thought that my doctor would request for a complete laboratory and blood chemistry tests before he could decide whether to lower or up my medication dosage. Well, he did not and that troubles me. How can he decide to lower the dosage of my medication without even knowing my present blood chemistry results? So! I told daughter # 1 to get a request for a complete blood test and blood chem. I also told her to ask my doctor if I could take ephedra diet pill for a short time so I could lose some more weight fast. I have two very important events to attend and I definitely want to look my best.

Keep a Healthy Diet

One thing I like about being pregnant is letting go of the notion of losing weight. If you are overweight to begin with, your doctor may actually put you on a reducing diet, but not to the extent of prescribing a type of dietpill. If you are normal in weight, make sure that you have a balanced diet - with proteins like meat, milk, eggs, beancurd, dried peas and beans; carbohydrates like rice, noodles, bread, potatoes and other complex startches; fiber, vitamins and fruits. Do no "eat for two" as that's an old wives' tale dooming you to a staggering weight gain during pregnancy. Lay low on fat, sugar and salt please.

Pregnancy Diet

A well balanced-diet is important at any time of life. It is even more important when you are pregnant because you have to meet your unborn baby's needs as well as your needs. There is really no need to "eat for two" because this concept only leads to excessive weight gain. There are just two simple rules at mealtimes. First, eat a wide variety of food while avoiding too fatty and sugary ones. Second, eat all things in moderation. Most pregnant women eat as if there's no tomorrow thus, they gain a ton and have difficulty giving birth. My OBY-GYN once said that an ideal weight gain during pregnancy is 20 to 25 lbs. I have met some pregnant women who refused to eat for fear of gaining weight. I so wanted to bonked them in the heads. Dieting during pregnancy will impair the development of the fetus. Leave the dieting for later.

Easy Way to Lose 10 lbs.

Got this idea from Real Age. Food fact: you can lose 10 lbs a year by cutting 100 calories in a day. Genius! It's staring us right smack in our faces and we didn't have an inkling whatsoever. Or, we just don't know how much is 100 calories and how does it look like. Well, I know for a fact that 1 cup of rice is 150 calories and 1 slice of white loaf bread is 75 calories. Here's a list on how to save 100 calories per day and lose 10 lbs. in a year.

From Lisa Young, RD.
Eat only half a candy bar or energy bar (both pack a lot of calories).
Use 1 tablespoon of salad dressing instead of 2 (toss the salad really well and you won't even notice the difference).
Choose small 1-ounce pitas instead of the larger 2-ounce size.
Spread 1 tablespoon of peanut butter instead of 2 on bread or crackers

Leave the last few bites of pasta on your plate.
Use one pat of butter instead of three on a baked potato.
Order a tall cappuccino instead of a grande the next time you visit Starbucks.

More ideas from RealAge

Scramble one egg for yourself, not two.
Make all your sandwiches open-faced -- omit the top slice of bread.
Skip the last three bites of any main course.
Snack on one fist-sized bunch of grapes, not two.
Grab five Hershey's dark chocolate Kisses instead of ten.
Choose a white wine spritzer over a 5-ounce glass of wine.
Have a 6-inch Roast Beef sandwich at Subway instead of a 6-inch Classic Steak & Cheese.
Order a small cup at Dairy Queen instead of a small cone.

Can you think of your own o how to save 100 calories a day? I have one. Take diet pop instead of the regular soda. Another one is, scrape off the mayo in your sandwich. Eat plain popcorn instead of buttered. There are several ways to cut down 100 calories a day. Put them to use so you may look and feel slimmer.

Egg: for Weight Lost

I have associated egg with dieting. As a matter of fact, I eat eggs when I'm on a low-calorie weight loss diet. Why? Egg is a quite filling food low in calorie. A boiled or poached egg contains only about 75 calories. A recent study indicated that egg is a real "friendly" choice for those in a low-calorie diet. A study of people on a low-calorie weight loss plan who ate two eggs and unbuttered toast with jelly lost 65% more weight than dieters on bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. It's not hard to figure out why. Eggs are more filling and keeps you more satisfied longer than carbs do. You tend to eat less later too. Have your fill of eggs in the morning. However, make sure that you don't overdo it. Keep in mind that the study included a low-calorie diet meaning eating eggs for breakfast helps if you watch what and how much you eat for the rest of the day.

Fat - Burning Food: Chicken a la King

Here's a wonderful mouth-watering fat-burning main dish. If you're wondering what the heck is a fat-burning meal or food, scroll down or click here and here.

Chicken a la King

1/3 cup water
1 cup frozen green peas
1/4 cup chopped green peppers
2 T finely chopped onions
2/3 cup APF
1 cup cold skim milk
2 cups chicken broth
2 t salt
pepper to taste
2 cups diced cooked chicken or turkey
a can (4 oz) mushroom stems and pieces, drained and coarsely chopped
1 T chopped piminetos
toast, biscuits or cooked rice

In medium saucepan over medium heat, place water,peas, peppers and onions. Cover and cook 5 minutes, or until peas are tender. Drain, saving liquid.

In same saucepan. blend flour and milk until well blended: stir in reserved cooking liquid, broth or bouillon, salt, and pepper. Bring to boil stirring constantly. cook 1 minute. Add cooked vegetables, chicken ot turkey, mushrooms and pimientos. Heat through. Serve over rice, toast or biscuits. Makes 6 serving.

Nutritional values per serving: 178 calories, 17 g. protein, 3 g fat, 18% calories from fat, 39 mg cholesterol, 18 g carbohydrates, 1113 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.

Fat - Burning Foods 1

I took to tidying up my mini-library cum work area last night. I just realized how much books I have not counting the more than 2 big boxes of books that I just have to throw out because they got wet in a freak flood incident in my basement years ago. Wow! how's that for a running a sentence. Anyway, I found this book about Fat-Burning Foods by Judy Jameson. Umm...and I never even realized I have this book. The book says that food high in complex carbohydrates and low in fat are natural fat-burners. Why?

Scientist aren't really sure why but your body seems to handle complex carbohydrate differently than other types of food. Food high in complex carbohydrates seem to raise the metabolism of overweight people. Studies show that the body easily converts complex carbohydrates into energy while dietary fat are converted into, well, body fat. Aside from raising your metabolism complex carbohydrates also serves as your fuel or energy for they break down into glucose. So what are the food high in complex carbohydrates? Here is list of the 30- fat burning foods.

apples, corn, peas, bananas, cranberries, peppers, beans (all), grains and grain products pineapple, bread (plain), grapes, potatoes, broccoli, jam (sugar-free), root vegetables, cabbage ,leeks, spinach, cauliflower, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, melons, waffles and pancakes (lowfat), citrus fruits, mushrooms, pasta (Low-fat), zucchini.

There you go. Enjoy eating these fat-burning foods. Burn, baby, burn!

What to Eat

What do we eat then? Eat a balanced diet - from the three food groups- as much as possible. Under carbohydrates we have noodles, rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, cereals and other starchy food. My son loves to eat pasta with rice and mashed potato. I keep telling him that he's overloaded with carbo to which he replied, that's the point mom. He needs carbo loading on occasions because of his varsity training. Be sure to include protein in your daily diet. Protein being beef, pork, mutton, beancurd, dried peas and beans, fish, poultry, milk and eggs. Ethan does not like to eat pork, beef and chicken. He only eats fish, which is fine by me. The third food group that you should be included in your daily diet are vitamins and minerals- fruits, vegetables. Since my son, daughter #2 and Ethan do not eat most vegetables, I make sure they take their daily dosage of multi-vitamins. The important thing is you should eat a wide variety of foods for a healthier eating choices - makes eating a lot more interesting too.

Diet for Life

It has been an old-age practice and mistake to go on a starvation diet when trying to lose weight. The most common mistake is skipping breakfast and eating the first meal of the day at lunch. By lunch time or close to it, the large intestine is eating the small intestine or vice-versa. Or, gastric juices are freely flowing in your tummy causing a lot of gurgling sound and a lot of gnawing hunger pangs. By lunch time, you are so hungry you actually eat more than you usually eat - breakfast and lunch combined. The point is: avoid crash dieting no matter what. Rapid weight loss is almost always followed by a more rapid weight gain plus extra. Sudden gains and losses in weight are disruptive to the body's metabolism. Therefore, use a diet plan that you can maintain and stick to even after you've reached your long-term weight goal.

Eating Man's Diet

Back when Robert Redford was the hottest male star, I found a diet book on sale at National Bookstore. The book was titled Eating Man's Diet. Of course I bought it for I was intrigued by its title. Ever the perpetual dieter, the book held a lot of promise for me. Eat and Diet at the same time sounds really promising. The book was written by Thomas Sharkey. I Googled the name and found a Thomas Starkey who is a boxer, a biochemist, an artist, a sailor and one who has been missing since 1999. So there. I cannot say for sure the who and the what of the book's author. One thing, there is actually a used copy of Eating Man's Diet on sale at Amazon.com for $1.77. The book helped me to lose weight. How?

The basic principle of Sharkey's book is that you can eat anything, as in anything that you like to eat. There are no restrictions. Of course, knowing full well that fat and empty calories are not good, it is well if consumption of these food is limited. Anyway, Sharkey's diet plan goes like this. First you have to set a weight goal. Let's say a small framed 30 year old woman stands at 5'3" and weighs 150 lbs. Based on the the height and weight table for women her ideal weight is from 111-124 lbs. Let's say her target weight is 115 lbs - meaning she has to lose 35 lbs. The daily caloric requirement of a woman that age, frame and height is from 1,800 to 2,000 calories.

To lose a pound of weight you have to burn 3,000 calories. Here's the regimen. The woman has to eat 1,800 - 2,000 calories every other day: say Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, her caloric intake must not exceed 900. On Sunday, she starts again with 1,800-2,000 calories and so on. On the low-calorie-intake days, the subject saves or burns 900-1100 calories or more. If she exercises on top of her dieting, then more calories would be saved. Losing a pound per week is attainable with this regimen. Work your eating days to coincide with parties or events so you would not feel cheated. If you fail in your non-eating days, cheer up! Start all over again. This diet works. I should know. It worked for me.