My Diet Meals Reviews and Recipes

Resveratrol For Weight Loss

2010-02-18T01:34:00.000-08:00

One can’t really undermine the fact, that Resveratrol is one of the hot selling food supplements out there in the market today. It has been an instant hit amongst the masses, ever since its introduction. As a matter of fact, it’s already been featured on ABC News, Oprah and New York Times. That being said, most people are immune to the fact that red wine is the actual source of Resveratrol.

It indeed comes as great news for all wine enthusiasts that red wine has truckloads of health benefits in store. Since we all know that red wine also contains alcohol, Resveratrol serves as a great alternative to derive all the health benefits associated with red wine, without the presence of the intoxicated element.

This serves as a strong enough reason to lay your hands on a popular food supplement which has already drawn widespread attention from the media as well as physicians across the world.

If you have been paying attention to the health benefits connected with Resveratrol, then you must have heard several weight loss claims. As such, one can’t really defy the fact, that weight management is one of biggest challenges to live up to.

Also, it’s no secret that you need to watch your diet, if you are serious about losing weight. However, it’s easier than done, considering the fast paced lifestyle we lead today. More than often, we tend to reduce our food intake in the false hope that this would do the trick for us. However, this only leads to energy loss, eventually hampering our quality of life.

Experts reckon that Resveratrol is a potent supplement which can help you reduce weight drastically, while retaining your energy. Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics of Resveratrol that makes it an effective weight loss tool for us.
Resveratrol plays a huge role in improving our body’s metabolism. A faster metabolism implies that your body is burning fat at a faster rate. Individuals with faster metabolisms are often very active and in good shape.

Another major contribution by Resveratrol comes in the form of improvement in our energy level. Regular consumption of Resveratrol supplements shoots up our energy level, which can be used for various productive activities, thus improving our overall lifestyle.

Resveratrol also helps us to reduce our appetite, which means that you will consume lesser calories, thus contributing to your weight loss regime.

Admits the air of exaggerated and unproductive diet supplements, it’s overwhelming to find a high quality product which does the trick for us. Resveratrol is a certain bliss for all individuals who are serious with their weight loss mission.

The problem is, you have to take it regularly to gain its benefit. Sure there may be some immediate health benefits (such as increased energy and increased metabolism) but those who drink it regularly will certainly feel all the touted health benefits (healthier body, losing weight, better sleep etc)

Nowadays there are thousands of websites selling resveratrol capsules, it's hard to know which one is really selling high quality resveratrol. My favorite website to get Resveratrol is Resveratrol Select.

I like it because:

1. They don't exagerrate the weight loss claims. Which is good since usually those who exagerrate the weight loss claims are fake.
2. They focus on the health benefit of Resveratrol instead of the weight loss
3. They ship worldwide :). Well almost worldwide. And they have a good shipping option that I don't have to wait for ages for my order.
4. They have a discount coupon :), try using coupon: WELLNESS during check out.

Click Here to Visit Official Website Resveratrol Select

Phasing Out the Fat in Fast Food

2010-02-16T03:51:00.000-08:00

Over recent years many fast food restaurants have been taking the plunge to offer either healthier food to weight conscious customers.
While not all of them have added what you would call “healthy” choices to their menu, some have taken other avenues such as getting
rid of the trans fatty oil their food is prepared with. KFC and Taco Bell are some of the largely known chains that got rid of trans
fat oils in 2007. Wendy’s beat them to it the year before.

However, two of the largest fast food chains have been slacking - McDonald’s and Burger King. McDonald’s at least started using
trans fatty free oil to prepare their French fries last May. They are supposed to make the change for baked goods, pies, and more by the
end of the year. However, it looks as if Burger King will win the race here. They had planned on doing the same by the end of the year,
but they expected to be completely trans fatty oil free
by the first of November. I’ve not been able to find a newer source of information yet to confirm this has taken place.

As for offering entirely new, healthy choices, many fast foods have done this recently as well. I’m sure you’ve seen the parfaits
and apple slices at McDonald’s by now. They’ve been doing that for a while now. Who would have ever thought a donut shop would
offer healthy choices, though? Did you know Dunkin’ Donuts is doing just that? That’s right, if you’re a sucker for a Dunkin’ Donuts
coffee in the morning, you don’t have to be tempted by the jelly filled, fat crammed donuts anymore. You’ll be able to choose from
things like a turkey sausage, egg white, flatbread sandwich or a multi-grain bagel off their new

If you’re always on the go and live in California, you’ll soon be the lucky few who will be able to make better meal choices
at fast food restaurants. Beginning next July, all chains that have at least 20 location will be required to disclose health information
on standard items (those that are available at least six months out of the year). The information required will be at least
the calories, salt, fat, and carbohydrates in each dish or drink! Hopefully other states will follow suit soon.

Diet advice from a 113 year old man

2009-10-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here we can see an amazing story: diet advice from someone who's lived 113 years, and was around when the X-ray was invented, and when the first Olympics was held. Now of course, some of it is genes, but some of it can be traced to a careful diet with very little overeating, lots of fruit, hard work, low dose aspirin, and plenty of water.

His end message was simple: Don't eat so much! Having lived through the depression, he basically ate what was given to him, and developed a habit of "under eating".

It's a known fact that living until on older age is partially due to a healthier diet, and this man only proves the fact even further. It's simply amazing to read this man's story.

Tips #1:
"You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much."

Tips #2:
"I eat a lot of fruit every day."

Tips #3:
"I drink water all the time," he said, and just a bit of coffee. "I drink a cup and a half of coffee for breakfast and a cup with lunch."

Tips #4:
"Don't Eat Too Much"

Fascinating stuff from someone who has seen and done it all pretty much, and has some habits we could all benefit from.

More on this: Source

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Calories on KFC Chicken

2009-10-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but KFC seriously is my favorite fast food joint. I don't really care about McDonald, Burger King, Domino Pizza and others but I always crave for KFC. “If only KFC had great bargains like Medifast deals often do, which give me a way to work off all those calories after eating it.
Although I limit myself to one or two chicken in a year (for real), I often get bombarded by people asking about how much calories in one KFC chicken, so here it is:

KFC Chicken

ORIGINAL Thigh: 330 calories, 110 cholesterol
ORIGINAL Breast: 360 calories, 120 cholesterol
ORIGINAL Drumstick: 130 calories, 65 cholesterol
ORIGINAL wing: 130 calories, 55 cholesterol

CRISPY Thigh: 370 calories, 85 cholesterol
CRISPY Breast: 440 calories, 105 cholesterol
CRISPY Drumstick: 160 calories, 55 cholesterol
CRISPY Wing: 170 calories, 55 cholesterol

CRISPY Chicken Strips (3 pieces): 350 calories, 70 cholesterol
Hot Wings (5 pieces): 350 calories, 110 cholesterol

How to Measure Middle Age Spread Or Fat

2009-10-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Daily Mail UK is doing an informative piece on Middle Age Fat. Here's a quick way to calculate it.

Place a measure tape just above your belly button and measure it. For women, anything above 32 inches are at greater risk for diabetes and heart disease, for men it's 37 inch.

Now that's just one test, another test which is more accurate is Weight To Hip Ratio Test.

Measure the narrowest part of your waist.

Now take the measure tape again and measure around your hips, just below the point where the top of the thigh bone meets the pelvis.

Divide the 1st measurement to the 2nd measurement. Anything higher than 0.8 for women and 0.9 men then you are unhealthy.

More on this on Daily Mail

Middle Age Stomach Bulge

2009-10-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Middle-Age "spread" may reduce lifespan for women in the long run, new study says

Lots of people think it's fairly normal to add on 10 pounds or so a decade. They say they can't do much about it, and that its a part of aging.

It's commonly called 'middle-age spread'. But, for a woman? It reduces the chance of leading a long, healthy life free of chronic disease, according to a new medical study recently published.

Presented in the British Medical Journal, this latest study tackles the connection between weight gain and life expectancy, and found the more weight a woman gained in the ages 32-45 (middle-age range technically), reduced the chance of living a healthy life after age 70, or even being alive past that age.

The study included data on 17,000 women, and they found after sifting through reams of data and statistics that just under 10% percent of them were considered healthy after age 70.

"Healthy" was defined as being free of one of 11 diseases, mobile, and with good cognitive functioning and still able to be completely active and do everything for themselves.

The really sad number: Only 10% of those in the study maintained a totally healthy weight through the entire study.

The study also showed that gaining weight very early (age 18-25) and gained more than 20 pounds at those ages tended to fare even worse, getting sicker at earlier ages and generally displaying poor health at age 60 or so (and a few didn't make it that far).

It's very clear: gaining weight and that "middle-age spread" hands women a distinct disadvantage when they get older, and that weight and mortality can be pretty closely linked.

Coke's Big Announcement

2009-10-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

Coca-Cola just put out a big press release stating that "they will be printing Calorie information on the front of all their products worldwide by 2011". It's about time they were more up front about their nutrition info.

Many of us know already that Coke isn't necessarily a health drink, and that its loaded with empty calories, but now it'll be right there in big print right on the front, and not on the back in smaller print where many don't really look.

Soda is a known weight trigger for many dieters, and is one of the first things many nutritionists suggest giving up when trying to lose 20 lbs. or more on any diet, or as part of a lifestyle change to maintain weight control.

Coke has already done this in their Europe, Australian and Mexican markets and are currently releasing the newly labeled products in the USA very soon. As if they couldn't have done this sooner?

They know at least a few will stop drinking the product in response, as those markets above don't always tend to be as health-conscious or calorie-counting as Americans are. And Coca-Cola knows this as well as anyone.

Coke plans to have all their products world-wide labeled by mid-2011 or so, based on their published timetable. All we know is: it can't be soon enough.

Doubling Weight Loss May be Possible with New Drug

2009-06-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

For most people, a short term answer to weight loss is not that difficult to find. You can opt for one of the many diet
drugs that are available on the market or choose to go with the trendiest diet plan. In general, any of these will result in weight loss.

These results don’t usually last very long though. If you’re severely over weight then you may have thought about gastric bypass or had it suggested as an option to you.

Gastric bypass does deliver excellent results in many cases. However you may not be one to take such a drastic measure lightly.
There are also some people that this is just medically not possible. So where does that leave them, or you if fall into this category?

Using approved diet pills suggested by your doctor can be an option, but it’s a long term decision. You have to continue using them to keep your results.

Gastric bypass offers greater weight loss, though. There’s good news to share. It’s called Tesofensin, and it’s a new drug that is proving to product double the weight loss as any other diet pill out there today!

Tesofensin could turn out to be a great alternative to gastric bypass surgery. In a study, obese participants were given different doses
of the drug or a placebo, as well as being put on a low energy diet. The highest weight loss was 28 lbs, and was over a 24 week period.
Of course, there are more studies that are probably going to be started next year.

Not only does it appear to be fantastic at helping you to lose weight, but you could also continue to see weight loss long term.
You would have to stay on the drug, though. It isn’t something you do for a few weeks and then forget about it.

Images: Star Jones admit to having Gastric Bypass from Bliss Tree

Quick Tip Diet Hints & Foods that Fight Fat

2008-11-23T02:40:00.000-08:00

You may not think you have time to implement an whole new diet plan. Two good bits of news for you, though – One, you should never try to do a complete diet turn around over night.

This will normally not produce a long term state of mind. Two, there are plenty of small steps you can take that get you on the path to a healthier lifestyle, resulting in weight loss and overall better health.

The first tip is to begin your dieting before you ever think about eating a single bite.

This means being in the right frame of mind when you are at the grocery store. You are faced with literally hundreds of decisions before it’s time to eat. We found a wonderful list of foods that fight which you can add to your shopping list, and here are some my favorites!

Breakfast: Original Shredded Wheat: 80 calories and 2.5 g fiber per biscuit
Frozen, yummy treats: Frozen bars: Creamsicles, Fudgsicles, and Popsicles; any others
Comforting drinks with winter time approaching: Hot cocoa mixes: 20 to 50 calories per serving (you can choose Swiss Miss Diet & Fat-Free or Nestle Carnation Diet & Fat-Free

Of course, you probably aren’t going to be up for switching out a ton of your favorite foods for foods that are included on the complete list. You don’t have to!

Every little change you make for the better will have you one step closer to a healthier diet. A healthy diet is a vital part of any weight loss routine.

In fact, the number one suggestion in 100 smartest diet tips by Prevention magazine was to simply add one fruit or vegetable to your diet each day.

One single fruit or vegetable! You can then slowly keep adding to that until you reach the recommended servings of at least eight per day.

More reading: Fight Fat!

Acai Berry Fruit, What’s the Big Deal?

2008-11-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

If you tend to keep up with health and diet trends at all, then you’ve probably heard of the acai berry fruit (pronounced ah-sigh-ee).

Have you wondered why there is such hype surrounding this little miracle fruit? Whether you’re interested in losing weight or just living healthier, the acai berry fruit is something that you should consider adding into your diet one way or the other. In fact, it was rated as the #1 super food on the Oprah show by Dr. Perricone.

What Benefits Does the Acai Berry Fruit Provide?

The acai berry fruit has been shown to be an antioxidant powerhouse, providing more antioxidants than other fruits that are known to be great sources of antioxidants. It’s believed to provide more than the raspberry, cranberry, blueberry, and strawberry!

There are many suspected benefits of the acai berry fruit, but officially they haven’t been researched and put to the test in studies.

Some of these portrayed benefits are that it increases your energy levels, promotes better sleep, improves your digestive system, cleanses your body of toxins, strengthens your immune system, and improves circulation.

There are even hints that it could be used to fight cancer! A study at the University of Florida, which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry is the source of this hopeful finding.

It showed extracts from the acai berry fruit actually triggered a self-destruction type of activity in over 80% of leukemia cells that were tested. However, this was only in a cell culture model, and they made it clear they don’t want to give false hope. It’s a start, though!

What's In It?

According to Wikipedia, a freeze-dried açaí fruit pulp and skin contained (per 100 g of dry powder) 533.9 calories, 52.2 g carbohydrates, 8.1 g protein, and 32.5 g total fat.

This included 44.2 g of dietary fiber. The powder was also shown to contain (per 100 g): vitamin C, 260 mg calcium, 4.4 mg iron, and 1002 U vitamin A, as well as aspartic acid and glutamic acid; the amino acid content was 7.59% of total dry weight.

Are There Any Side Effects of the Acai Berry to Worry About?

There are no real known, negative side effects of the acai berry fruit. Bear in mind that there has been very little research done on it. It’s difficult to research, because it only grows in Central and South America, and it doesn’t stay ripe for long once plucked from the mother plant (Which is why the pill form and acai juices are very popular).

However, if you know you have allergies to pollen or similar berries it only makes sense to be careful with the use of acai berries.

I've seen Acai being pushed by so many companies as weight loss medicines (yeah the one that put a banner there). But as always, without any change in what you eat, and what you do, this lil magical Acai won't give you any sustainable weight loss.

However since acai is rich in anti oxidant, it's tremendously good for your health. Combining acai with sensible meals plan and exercies can certainly help you to lose weight.

Success Stories

There are plenty of success stories floating in the web. A couple of users post their before/after picture as well.

I noticed that most users claim that they lost around 6 - 8 pounds in a month.

The good news is, most Acai companies are dishing out free bottles and trials so that you don't have to shell a lot of money just to try something you are not sure of.

Click here to get a free sample of Maximum Acai Concentrate. (Special Link Valid for USA)

If you are not from USA then please click here to get your sample.

Hiatus

2008-11-04T12:54:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the VERY VERY LONG HIATUS.
I just didn't have anytime to update this blog due to graduation, my business, love life and I was away on Cambodia for quite some times!

Do you eat more in communal gathering?

2007-11-28T04:49:00.000-08:00

Do you eat more when you are dining in large group? I don’t. In fact I feel awkward when I have to dine in large group or communal gathering even though I already know everybody else there.

Somehow I don’t feel like eating much food when I am in social gathering or some sort. However that's not the case with majority of children according to this research. Children who eat in large group consume 30% more than those who eat in small group.

For most of my friends, I see that they tend to eat faster and much more when they are dining with a group.

According the researchers, the cause of this behavior is the stimulant provided by the sight and sound of others who are engaged in the same activity (eating and talking). Somehow it overrides the satiety signal.

According to their observation, those who eat in large group tend to eat 30% more food, eat faster and don’t pay too much attention to what they eat.

So it’s advisable for children who eat too little to dine more with family and friends to encourage more consumption. While for those who eat too much, it’s advisable to avoid food court and fast food restaurant where the ambient may trigger them to eat more. How about you?

Research from Medical News - Web MD.

Be Fit: Wear a pedometer

2007-11-26T03:14:00.000-08:00

Wearing pedometer can help you to lose more weight and improve your physical fitness according to a research.

This small inexpensive device is mainly sold for $15 and can motivate those who are not so physically active to become more active.

The researchers evaluated studies covering 2767 patients who were not physically active. As a result, those who wear pedometer walked over 2100 more steps compared to those who didn’t.

I guess when you are wearing pedometer then you become motivated to walk more steps and see that little number adds up. This is especially true when you have goal such as walking 10,000 steps everyday.

"Much to my surprise, these little devices were shown to increase physical activity by just over 2,000 steps, or about 1 mile of walking per day." (ref: Medical News)

While 2100 more steps or one more mile may not seem to be a significant improvement, it equals to 27% increase of physical activity according to the researchers. It’s amazing how simple idea can beef up your exercise and your health. Go wear one and aim to walk specific number of steps today!

Research Abstract
Image from: Omron HJ-112 Pedometer - Amazon

Diet Plate for Proper Portion Sizing

2007-11-23T05:13:00.000-08:00

It’s amazing how simple idea can actually becomes the solution of our problem. And it’s even more amazing to see the inventors profit so much just by mass producing simple idea to solve our problem. Portion control plays an important role in our dieting, and many people have problem in applying it. A UK based company decided to monetize on that fact and created simple plate with marked area for different food.

According to a study quoted by BBC, diabetics who used this marked diet plate lost more than 1.75% of their body weight compared to 0.05% (who relied on will power alone).

Sounds like a good product, but there’s one catch. It is expensive. Priced at $30, I think that’s way too expensive for plate.

But you can look it from another point of view too, people have spent A LOT OF money on various dieting products and plans that $30 seems to be insignificant. In fact I like the idea of this marked diet plate better than any drugs or expensive diet food.

Via That's Fit.

Update: Another competitor has sold similar plate for cheaper price here.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T03:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving for those who are celebrating. While there's nothing stopping from overindulging yourself, remember that Thanksgiving doesn't last all season. Rome wasn't built in a day, your diet won't be devastated in a day either. But if you end up indulging on the left over for the next 7 days then chance is you will gain a lot of weight.

Enjoy yourself and celebrate it properly. Just remember to get back on track tomorrow. Remember you still have Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year (for those who celebrate it), so there are more feasts coming ahead.

For Thanksgiving link love:

Dinner on calorie budget
Turkey Trivia
Thanksgiving Prayer
5 Easy Ways to Enjoy Thanksgiving
Move Move! on Thanksgiving

The Health Tips Tags

2007-11-21T04:50:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Shern’s Mom to share few health tips and give my thoughts on the existing tips. I was supposed to only bold the tips that I agree with and add few more pointers but I couldn’t help commenting on the existing tips on the tags.

Here are the existing health tips by previous tags particpants (I am supposed to copy the whole thing):

Copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (check out especially the * starred ones.) Share one of your own health tip (tip on how to be more healthy) with others. Try to make your tip short but informative. Tag at least 2 person.

My response is written in italic below each of the points.

1. Be happy - Everyday health and beauty
Huh?

2. Be contented with what God Bless us – chanelwong
I guess if becoming human with no ambition makes you healthy then so be it.

3. Be faithful – Ruth
While I have nothing against being faithful, I just don’t see how it can help your health if you don’t do something about it anyway.

4. Laugh a lot – Chinnee
Laughing is a good practice to reduce stress, just make sure there’s something to laugh about.

5. Take time out for rest and relaxation – Kiasumum *
Kudos.

6. A real work out for sweating - Dora *
Kudos.

7. Don't worry, worryin is like a rockin chair, it gives you somethin to do, but it gets you nowhere. - shern's mom *
Agree. Better wording is, worrying won’t solve any problem so you need to take action thus solving the problem and making your life somehow a little less stressful.

--
Now it’s my turn:

8. Do your household chores. Doing household chores is a great (although not fun) way to burn additional calories and making your house a little more inhabitable.

9. Can’t stop snacking? Next time eat the snack from the plate instead of the bag.

10. Have enough sleep. It’s vital for your body and health in general. In fact people who sleep less than 4 hours at night are 74% more prone to obesity in the long run (ref).

11. Get a dose of early morning sun daily. It warms you up and it’s great for your skin and body.

12. Sushi is godly.

I am tagging Curry Egg and LifeLongSharing for these tags. Copy the entire list, endorse the one that you like and add some pieces of your thought.

"You can't come here because you are too fat."

2007-11-20T04:01:00.000-08:00

A Welsh woman is banned from entering New Zealand to join her husband who has been hired there. Rowan Trevize’s visa had been denied because the government deemed her as too fat. Her husband has already left to New Zealand after struggling to lose two inches through crash diet in order to meet the requirement.

“When the couple first tried to gain entry to the country they were told that they were both overweight and were a potential burden on the health care system. Reference”

If Rowan still can’t lose weight in December, her husband has already stated that he would abandon the idea of moving to New Zealand and would come back to Wales.

New Zealand officials uses BMI to assess people weight require that immigrants should not be burden for the country’s health care. I completely agree with New Zealand’s policy on this issue, what’s the point of letting migrants enter when they can become potential burden for health care.

Another issue is the usage of BMI as measurement tool. Muscular people with high BMI can potentially fall into the ‘overweight’ category due to high muscular mass. Of course some would say that she should be allowed to enter with the consequence of not receiving any health care and insurance.

What do you think about such policy? Do you think she should be allowed to enter?

5 Things Which Make You Eat More

2007-11-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

1. Refined Carbs

Refined carbohydrates refer to grain based foods where machinery has been used to remove the bran and the germ of the grain.

Examples of these foods are white rice, white bread, noodles and pasta. These foods cause our insulin production to increase and crash our blood sugar. When blood sugar crashes, we’ll crave for more food later on.

2. Boring Food

Often when we have eaten a LARGE meal which consists of just a type of food, we find that we still have place left for ice cream and a little dessert.

This is because our body and mind still craves for sweet. Rather than over eating the dessert, try to have more variety in the meals.

Prepare a small plate of fruit beforehand and eat it during your dinner, if you really need to have dessert, prepare a sensible portion of it beforehand. I find that I tend to eat more dessert if I don't prepare it beforehand.

3. Heat

When temperature drops low, our body sends a signal to our brain that we need to eat in order to increase our body temperature. The colder it is, the more that you want to eat. That’s why a lot of people gain weight during winter, coupled with holiday and a couple of festive dinners, weight can rise significantly during this period.

4. Perception

We often associate bigger plate with more food. Unconsciously we would eat more food if we were given bigger plate to start with. In fact, we also eat more when we eat snack directly from the package, regardless the size of the package. Read about the perception factors here.

5. Suppressed Craving

When you try to banish food that you crave, you will end up eating more of it in the future. At least that’s what a study quoted by BBC suggested. This rebound effect is also imminent in smokers too. The lesson, don’t banish it completely but eat it in controlled portion.

Ham and doughnut soda anyone?

2007-11-16T02:29:00.000-08:00

Holiday season is coming and it’s time for the wacky soda company, Jones Soda Co, to release their holiday pack. Last Christmas they have showcased fine arrays of soda products such as green pea, gravy, and potato soda.

This Christmas their flagship products will be ham, Christmas tree and sugar plum soda. For Hanukkah, dough nut flavored soda seems to be their flagship product.

While it does sound disgusting, out of curiosity I badly want to try ham flavored soda.

There’s even one more flavor that fickle my curiosity, according to CNN they have released dirt flavored soda in the past. Can’t seem to find it in their website though. What about you? Do you think you’ll dare to drink one?

Calories Burned in Household Chores Equals to One Hour Running

2007-11-14T05:07:00.000-08:00

Struggling to do your household chores? Are you lazy to vacuum your house on regular basis?

Try doing your daily household chores diligently and you can burn around 50.261 calories in a year.

In a study involving 3000 respondents, researchers found that people walk more than 22 miles in a year while they are cleaning their houses. In addition, the researchers also concluded that domestic household chores such as vacuuming and ironing translate into 6800 calories burned in a year.

“Keeping the house tidy annually burns the same number of calories found in 603 glasses of wine, 192 bars of chocolate, 369 cans of fizzy drink, 146 cheeseburgers or 394 packs of crisps.” Ref

Although one can’t expect to lose weight simply by doing household chores, a little more movement and extra calories burned can’t hurt either. Here’s a list of household chores which burn the most calories from DailyMail. Don’t ask me how laundry can burn freaking 9000 calories in a year (when all you need to do is to press a button and wait).

Over a year domestic chores were found to provide the same amount of exercise as spending 57 hours running at 8.5 miles an hour. That's about one hour running per week.

DailyMail.co.uk

Thanksgiving Survival Tips: Dinner on Calories Budget

2007-11-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving can be a nightmare for those who are in calorie budget. It’s often touted as the most fattening day in the year beside New Year. Since Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away, here are few tips to help dieters enjoy their Thanksgiving without overindulging themselves.

1. Limit your alcohol intake.
Alcohol calories can add up really fast. Not to mention that many drinks are high in calories. Limit your alcohol intake and stay sober.

2. No Finger Food
Many appetizers are high in calories. Keep in mind that you will be consuming a lot of calories in your main course. It’s harder to limit your portion on appetizer compared to on main course. It’s hard not to grab another appetizer if you have just had your first bite. Exceptions: seafood and vegetables.

3. Don’t starve yourself beforehand
Many people already reckon that since they will be overeating during the party, it’s better to starve themselves prior to the party so that their calories intake won’t soar to the roof. The fact is, if you are starved it’s hard not to have a second or triple helping on anything. Eat a normal breakfast and don’t arrive at the
celebration in starvation.

4. Don’t set yourself an impossible goal
Come to the celebration with the right mindset. It’s a holiday - change your mentality from weight loss to sensible eating.

5. Be selective
There will be plenty of delicious dishes on the table so take a look first on the choices and decide which one and how much that you want to eat beforehand. Prioritize seasonal dishes over everyday dishes.

6. Eat slowly
Take your time and allow your stomach to send signal to your brain whether you are full or not. Eat slowly and savor the food.

7. Portion Sizing
MSNBC has published a guide on how your plate should look like. A serving of turkey no larger than a deck of playing cards and half a cup each of two starches. (A half-cup is about the size of a computer mouse.)

Beer Rehydrates Your Body Better than Water

2007-11-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

Thinking of reaching water after your workout session? Hang on, recent research has just unveiled that beer is actually better than water in replenishing your body following a workout session.

The researcher from Granada University, Spain claimed that the bubbles in beer help quenching the thirst while the carbohydrate can quickly replace lost calories.

Participants were asked to run on treadmill in a hot condition (temperature 40 C) until they were exhausted. The he divided the participants into two groups; the first group was given water while the second group was given beer. The researcher concluded that beer is slightly better than water in rehydrating.

This fact is hard to believe and even harder to practice for me.

First of all if you are maintaining or trying to lose your weight, why waste hours and hours in the gym if you are going to recoup half of the calories your burn by drinking beer immediately?

Second, beer wouldn’t taste very nice on my mouth if I have just exercised for hours and feeling thirsty. Heck drinking beer often makes me thirstier. As a matter of replenishing, there are plenty of electrolytes drinks which taste better than beer after a workout.

Last, I can't tolerate beer on empty stomach. After a workout, chance is my stomach will be empty. Drinking beer on empty stomach will only make it goes straight to my blood. I get nasty stomachache either if I drink beer on empty stomach.

What do you think? Will you consume beer after your workout?

Via Orlando Sentinel Blog.

Related video: Watch the Beer Diet Guide!

Cutlery and Toolware

2007-11-09T01:58:00.000-08:00

Rather than buying cheap plastic lousy diet fork, here’s a cutlery that has dual purpose. Of course what it remains speculative on what we should do with this cutlery.

I guess it can enhance your masculinity, wrench = man, eat food with wrench = uber manly, right? Another use would be as a diet tool. Simply just eat with the tool end and you’ll eat way much slower, harder thus lesser. And of course you won’t chuck it away since it costs $24 each. You will need to pay almost $100 for four pieces of this wrench-cutlery.

Via ToolMonger - by Wrenchware

6 Healthiest Low Glycemic Index Fruits

2007-11-08T04:27:00.000-08:00

It’s no secret that fruit is good to your health, but not all fruits are created equal. Some fruits are high in extra sugar content that you probably don’t need. Sugar content is measured by glycemic index (GI), generally everything under 55 is considered low in GI. Fruits listed here will have GI value less than 45. Here are my top 6 favorite fruits which are low in sugar content and taste delicious also (in no particular order).

1. Avocado

Glycemic index is less than 15. This green, meaty fruit is loaded with oleic acid which has the ability to lower cholesterol.

On top of that, avocado is heart healthy. It’s loaded with folate, an important nutrient to your health. You can literally mix avocado with anything, slice it, dice it, puree it and mix it with your salad, steak or simply make a delicious refreshing avocado juice.

2. Tomato

Glycemic index is less than 15. Lycopene in tomato is a cancer busting anti-oxidant. 100 gram of tomato contains 18 calories according to calorie counter. Similar to avocado, you can literally mix tomato with anything. My favorite is to make quick 5 minutes Gazpacho (cold tomato soup).

3. Grapefruit

Glycemic index is 25. This sour and tangy heaven is rich in vitamin C and lycopene. 100 gram of this pink fruit contains approximately 32 calories.
Other than squeezing the fruit for the juice or topping it with sugar (try low calorie sugar substitute), you can also use the grapefruit to ceviche fish (sprinkling it on fish).

4. Plum

Glycemic index is 24. Plum is rich in phenols, antioxidant substance which protect your cell. Other than that, plum is an excellent source of vitamin C.

Even the dried plum, prune, still yields similar antioxidant and tastes excellent too. Beware of additional sugar content when purchasing packaged prune. 100 gram of fresh plum contains approximately 46 calories.

5. Apples

Glycemic index is 35. This is a great fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth. Apple is an excellent source of fiber, in fact one small apple is estimated to contain 2.5 g of fiber, approximately 10% of our daily recommended fiber intake. Apple juice is also one of the most refreshing and versatile drink that I ever had. Add diced apple to your salad or just take one for snack daily.

6. Cherry

Glycemic index is 22. One cup of cherry contains 74 calories. What I love about this fruit is its sweet but elegant scent.

On top of that, cherry has nice color; you can literally garnish most dishes and drinks with cherry. Be wary of dried cherry since it is often loaded with additional coloring and sugar.

Pet Food vs Fast Food

2007-11-07T03:09:00.000-08:00

A tin of sardine flavored pet food doesn't sound appealing to us, human. But it turns out that pet food isn't only good for your pet's health but also to yours as well, research suggested.

In a test conducted to measure fat, salt and sugar level in 30 human meals versus 15 brands of pet food, pet food scored better in term of healthiness compared to fast food.

Nutrition experts discovered that Gourmet Gold cat food has just 2.9g of fat per 100g ? a mouth-watering EIGHT TIMES less than the percentage found in pieces of KFC. The level of fat was also far lower than a McDonald’s Big Mac and a Pizza Hut meal. (ref)

Gourmet Cat food

Fat: 2.9g
Salt: 0.4g
Sugar: 0.4g
Protein: 7.7g
Fiber: 0.4g

KFC two chicken pieces & fries

Fat: 12g
Salt: 0.7g
Sugar: n/a
Protein: 12.2g
Fiber: n/a

Cesar dog food

Fat: 4.4g
Salt: 0.4
Sugar: 0.5g
Protein: 10.9g
Fiber: 0.7g
(ref)

If pets have the same lifespan as human, would they live longer and healthier than us? But life as pet got to be boring, imagine eating the same food for the rest of your life. Perhaps that's the reason pets die at 10 - 15 years, out of boredom.

Rate dog pictures here.

Food Preference Gene May Affect Your Food Choices

2007-11-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

Do you have a soft spot for certain food? If so, perhaps your gene is the one to blame according to researchers. The researchers at Kings College found a similar eating pattern between twins.

The research itself only analyzed twin as case study, but using the research result, the researchers pointed that genetics play a great part in determining preferred foods. This conclusion challenged the belief that our food preference is formed by our neighborhood. Furthermore, the researchers pinned that 41% - 48% of our food preference is influenced by gene.

The findings, and other similar research, pointed to genetics playing a "moderate" part in the development of preferred foods. She said that it was possible that genes involved with taste, or the "reward" chemicals released by the body in response to certain foods, might play a role. People have always made the assumption that food choices are all due to environmental factors during life, but it now seems this isn't the case. (ref)

While the researchers believe that environmental factors have little effect to food choices, I disagree. Educating children about healthy food can make significant impact in their food choices.

If they live in an environment where junk food is treated as daily staple, then they will grow up thinking the same. Environment still plays a great role regardless of the genetics. This research only means that greater efforts must be placed to influence one’s eating habit and improve self control.

Full story on BBC

Edamame Snack: Healthy Green Beans

2007-11-05T00:40:00.000-08:00

Recently I just got addicted to edamame. The reason was, I just found out that they actually cost very cheap if you know where to buy. Traditionally restaurant here has been selling a handful of edamame for $2 which was expensive for me.

I just found that I could get a bucket for just less than $1. On top of that, edamame tastes better than its soybean compatriots and loaded with tons of health benefit. For instance, edamame is good source of protein, fiber and mineral which actually tastes sweeter than other soybeans.

Here’s the nutritional information of 100g Edamame (from Edamame.com & HS):

Calories 125.0
Protein 12.1
Fiber 9
Carbohydrates 13.1
Fat 3.6
Calcium 9.3
Iron 2.7
Sodium 5.0
Vitamin A 130.0
Vitamin U1 0.31
Vitamin C 40.0

As you can see it’s packed in fiber (you need 4 slices of whole wheat bread to get the same amount of fiber). Adult needs 20 – 35 grams of fiber in a day, simply by snacking edamame can provide you with a boost in fiber.

Some researches suggested that edamame can ward of bad cholesterol and promote good cholesterol as well as reducing insulin resistance (for people with diabetes).Edamame have become a part of my daily snack now. I always have this as a companion snack whenever I am watching DVD or reading book.

To cook edamame into a delicious snack, you just need to boil it with salted water. Then let it cool for a while or just serve it when it’s piping hot. I also love adding edamame into my salad bowl or serve it with sautéed vegetables for a quick and delicious side dish.

Weight Loss Soap - Oh please!

2007-11-02T05:01:00.000-07:00

I believe I’ve seen the worse when I saw caffeine infused pantyhose being marketed as weight loss solution until I saw this slimming soap. The sellers claim that this weight loss soap contains elixirs of various undersea plants (they don’t bother to tell us what various undersea plants are) and seaweed.

The marketers shamelessly plug this seaweed infused soap as magical weight loss soap by describing how seaweed can penetrate to your skin and wash away the fat. If this is true, I am sure I’ll be thin as a rake over a month since I often shower three times in a day during this hot weather.

I have nothing against seaweed at all. In fact, I understand that seaweed has many nutrients and minerals which are beneficial to our body. But if someone comes to me and tells that I can wash away the extra pounds just by applying the soap, well I’ll just regard with upmost skepticism.

This seaweed bar is priced at $7.95 here which is expensive, I’ll choose my ‘magicless’ soap anytime and use the money to buy real edible seaweed!

It’s easy enough to make money these days, just invent something and insert the word diet into the product and voila, your lousy product suddenly becomes premium product which you can sell at higher price.

Read more offbeat diet stories.

Squid Ink Rice

2007-10-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ink black is not an appealing color for rice. At least that’s what I thought when I saw this dish but upon taking a smell on the rice, I instantly fell in love with it. This fried rice was infused with squid ink to make it pitch black. The squid ink gave ‘sea tang’ aroma to the dish and instantly turned the boring fried rice into intriguing dish.

I’ve been digging around the net to find the recipe, but only managed to find the Italian style rice (risotto) instead of the Asian wok fried rice. My fellow diners refused to taste my black rice, apparently they said they have no idea whether squid ink is safe or not. Squid ink is definitely edible and it has been used for coloring in pasta and rice in Spain and Italy. It was their loss since the rice was completely wonderful. It’s quite salty even though the chef admitted that he only added a few pinches of salt.

Squid ink is sold in the fish market and if you don’t have it there, try buying the ink for $0.72 in Amazon. I’d love to get my hand on squid ink fetuccini or spaghetti.

Take a Mid Workout Break to Increase Fat Loss

2007-10-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Taking a breather during your workout may be the thing you need to boost fat burning. Research has found that individuals who took 20 minutes break in 60 minutes of exercise experienced higher fat loss compared to other those who exercised continuously for 60 minutes.

The researchers asked seven healthy men to perform three separate trials. In the first trial, the men were asked to exercise continuously for 60 minutes. In the second trial, they were asked to rest for 20 minutes after exercising for 30 minutes with one hour recovery period. The men were asked to rest for 60 minutes on the third trial.

Result:
The researchers found that taking 20 minute breather during the exercise helped increase fat burning mechanism. Glycerol concentration (chemical which is released when body burns your stored fat) also increased significantly during last 15 minutes of exercise. In addition to it, the respondents also experienced greater fat breakdown in the recovery period.

Similar research has been done in the past by UNSW. Women who cycled vigorously for 8 seconds followed by 12 seconds light cycling burned more fat compared to women who cycled at regular pace for prolonged amount of time.

Read more about the research here.

You Are What You Eat

2007-10-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

People do stereotype others based on what they eat according to this psychology research by University of Toronto. If you happen to be eating fast food, people will stereotype you as less intelligent, less health conscious but also as easy going, fun and more sociable.

Healthy eaters are perceived otherwise as being more intelligent, more responsible but also less humorous and boring. In addition to that, the study also analyzed what makes women more feminine and what makes men more masculine.

In addition of being perceived as fun and sociable, healthy eaters are stereotyped to be more honest than their Big Mac munching counterparts according to this research as published by Canada.com.

“Another experiment found respondents thought a woman who ate a chicken sandwich and salad for lunch would be less likely to cheat at school than one who ate a burger and fries. However, respondents said they would rather socialize with the burger eater” ref

The study also found that women are stereotyped to be more feminine when they eat small portions. That’s why women who are eating with ‘desirable’ male often end up eating much smaller portion than usual.

It’s easy enough for women to be more feminine, just eat less and choose healthy foods and you will become more feminine. On the contrary, men who eat larger and unhealthy meals are often stereotyped as masculine.

The stereotype image which I have in mind is similar to this research. I perceived men who eat in small portion and picky about their food as ‘less manly’. Unconsciously I also eat smaller portion when I am dining with ‘desirable male’.

What about you? Do you have the same stereotype?

Plain Stupid Dumbbell Phone

2007-10-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

Working out during work hours may seem like a wishful thinking. That’s why some Japanese inventors created this stupid fitness phone. Unlike technologically advanced (but aesthetically backward) health conscious phone, the inventors decided that attaching a dumbbell into the phone would work.

Who cares if it would make you appear like a dumb person, as long as you can workout in your office cubicle. Attach this dumbbell phone and hang up your phone for every one minute for maximum result. That will give you more chance to lift the dumbbell phone repeatedly. Of course you will look silly and probably annoy hell a lot of people, but anything for that sexy biceps.

From SmackShopping

If you are in for a laugh, there’s a whole more useless products that you can see here.

Read more offbeat weight loss gadget and story.

Additional Note: This product is a part of chindogu. It is a Japanese art of invention in inventing everyday’s gadget which is not entirely useless but most of the time it’s plain stupid. One of the key factors that makes stupid product a chindogu is, the product needs to be real and exist (apparently it also needs to be useless and plain stupid).

Smoking and Food Craving

2007-10-25T06:18:00.000-07:00

Smokers beware. In addition to lung cancer, it appears that cigarette smoking alters your food taste sensitivity sensor and causes you to crave for starchy food.

A research done by Monell Chemical Senses Center found that women smokers were less sensitive to sweet taste compared to non smokers. Additionally, the researchers concluded that cigarette smoking caused smokers to crave for high fat and starchy foods. The more they smoke, the more they crave.

"We found that food cravings were associated with nicotine dependence ... the more intense the cravings for cigarettes, the more frequent the cravings for foods high in fat and carbohydrates"(ref)

The researchers studied two groups of women, smokers and never-smoker. Some of the participants had a family history of alcoholism.

The research finding stated nicotine dependence and craving was related. The more cigarettes you crave the more high fat and high starchy foods that you crave. In addition to craving, sensory buds on smokers were proven to be duller. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing in relation with weight gain, the researchers didn’t clearly state. Well, I guess if you have difficulty in recognizing sweet taste, then you would need to eat really strong sweet stuffs in order to satisfy your sweet teeth.

In regard of alcoholism history, those with family alcoholism history (both smokers and never smokers) craved more sweet foods and had stronger preference over sweet foods compared to those with no family alcoholism history.

Another reason to quit smoking?

Read the research detail here, news via Yahoo.

Top 9 Dirtiest Foods

2007-10-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Men’s Health has gathered a list of the dirtiest food. Some of the results are no brainer, while some of them are surprising.

9. Oyster
I have never missed eating oyster every time I visit an international seafood restaurant. Raw oysters taste great and they are addictive (and pricey!). Apparently raw oysters are often contaminated with norovirus and bacteria. Cheaper but similar alternative for me is to eat escargot (not sea food but at least it has shell).

8. Cold ham
It’s not the meat which is dirty, it’s the slicer. Ham slicer is often infected with listeria and the bacteria can still grow even though the ham is stored on refrigerator. The article suggested us to move the ham into another package and buy a week stock only.

7. Packaged Salad
They are often contaminated with E Coli according to the magazine. Never mind, they never sell any pre packaged salad here. And fresh salad tastes much nicer I believe.

6. Peach
Ouch, so peach is considered the dirtiest food. They taste nice and they are very expensive here since it has to be shipped from the other half of the globe. It’s considered dangerous since many producers use a lot of chemicals to clear the peach from blemish.

5. Cantaloupe Melon
Do you wash the cantaloupe’s skin before you eat it? I don’t. I don’t eat the skin therefore I just slice it directly. According to the magazine my habit makes cantaloupe become one of the dirtiest food. Cantaloupe skin is often infested with bacteria, and if you cut directly to the center then the bacteria will be transferred into the rind also. Be sure to wash the fruit with soapy water before you consume it.

4. Chicken
40% of the chicken sample they tested is loaded with E Coli. Well improperly cooked chicken is also a serious hazard here due to the bird flu outbreak recently.

3. Ground beef and ground turkey
Heavy processing makes ground beef an ideal spot for E Coli. One from four samples of Ground Turkey also contains bacteria according to the magazine. Make sure you cook them properly.

2. Egg
Raw egg is associated with 600,000 cases of food poisoning each year and more than 300 deaths according to the magazine. Raw egg is a major ingredient of popular local drink here. It is composed of milk, ginger, honey and raw egg. Many bodybuilders and athletes are also big fans of raw egg. Be sure to cook egg properly before you consume it.

1. Spring Onion
Uncooked spring onion is the perfect place for bacteria breeding according to the magazine; this nifty onion is also linked with Hepatitis A. This onion is often served raw with spring roll here. Spring onions are also widely used in soup but the thing is, they usually stay in top and not properly cooked.

Via Netscape

The Eating and Exercising Guide

2007-10-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Eating and exercising have always been closely linked. There are many questions which arose from this topic such as how long do you have to wait after a meal prior a workout session or how soon should you eat after a workout session? What types of food that we should eat after exercise? Does exercise trigger hunger and increase food consumption?

Eating before exercise:

Eating before exercising is important as it will give your body the needed fuel to do your workout session. But you should pay attention to the type of food, the amount of time needed to digest the food and the type of exercise that you will be doing.

What food?

Food which is high in fat will stay longer in your stomach. It can make your stomach uncomfortable during the exercise (cramping). Carbohydrate on the other hand provides instant energy to your body. Complex carbohydrates such as banana, whole grain bread, pasta and oatmeal can boost your energy level. Study published in Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (quoted from MSNBC) even encourages caffeine consumption to enhance your work out.

How long do you have to wait?

While it varies from person to person, GoAskAlice has written a neat general guideline about this.

Less than 1 hour for 200 calories meal or lower
1 – 2 hours for liquid meal
2- 3 hours for 400 calories meal
3 – 4 hours for meals over 500 calories

Type of exercise:

The type of exercise that you will be doing also plays an important role. If you are going to do a light exercise such as brisk walking then you can getaway by eating soon before your workout time. If you are going to do intense exercise then wait longer.

During the exercise:

If your workout is a long and tiring one, eating a piece of fruit or drinking isotonic drink during the exercise can boost your energy temporarily. However, even water is usually adequate in keeping your body replenished. Don’t wait until you are thirsty before you drink since thirst may be a sign for dehydration. If you are sweating lot then compensate by drinking water. Don’t just rely on thirst.

After the exercise:

Some people have reported that exercise make them feel hungry that they want to eat even more food thus negating the effect of exercising. While this is true, people who exercise still end up with negative calorie balance. A study quoted by BBC examined two groups of people and gave them the same breakfast.

The first group was asked to exercise for half an hour while the second group did nothing. Then few hours later both groups were asked to dine.

The group who exercised consumed more calories than the group who sat idly but when the calories burned from exercising was taken into account, the group who exercised still ended up with negative calories balance.

Ideally you should eat within 1 hour or 2 hours after your workout; this is when your body absorbs the nutrients most efficiently and muscles absorb nutrients to recover. Protein and carbs are commonly consumed after workout. For weight loss purpose, try to lower your carbs intake but don't banish it completely as it's also important for our body.

Monster Sized Soda

2007-10-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

Many fast food companies are making a big hit by offering jumbo sized beverages which sell pretty well.

Have we become thirstier than before? Are we accustomed to 'supersize' our drinks so that we get more value for our money? Fast food companies such as McDonalds and Burger King are selling 42 ounces beverages which contain more than 1 liter of soft drink in a glass.

I can’t imagine finishing it in a day, let alone in one meal. Here are some of the ‘hugest’ sized drinks available out there for you who want to gulp tons of calories without eating any food:

1. Hugo Soda

McDonald’s is kicking this item with a sweet deal that most people didn’t want to miss. This 42 ounces drink was available at $0.89 per glass on summer (no idea whether you can still get this at the same price). That’s a steal! This giant contains 410 calories and that’s not including all the meals and fries that people are having with this drink. I was very astonished at this fact, since the biggest cola served here at McD is ‘just’ 400ml which is just one third from the Hugo sized one.

2. Venti sized Starbucks

This big caffeine powerhouse contains 760ml of coffee which is around 300ml lesser than the grande version. And it’s more than just a caffeine powerhouse; it’s also a calorie powerhouse. Peppermint Mocha Venti with whipped cream can hold as much as 800 calories! (CC) (image from Seed of Growth).

3. 7-Eleven 64 ounces soda

This 64 ounces giant is equal to 1.9 liters! Personally I found this fact is shocking. The biggest soda here is only 1.4 liters ($2) and it will last for more than a week since it comes in resealable package. This behemoth is priced around $1.8 which is very cheap in my opinion.

That’s not all though, refill will cost you measly $1. Not surprisingly, they contain almost twice calories compared to the 42 ounces cup. This behemoth piece has already been sold for more than a decade.

Animal and Celebs Weighing Scale

2007-10-19T04:56:00.000-07:00

Numbers can be discouraging. Especially when the number on your weight scale shows that you ate too much during the weekend. That’s why some offbeat folks decided that the world needs a revolutionary weighing scale that doesn’t display number as weighing measure.

Celebrity Weighing Scale compares your weight to famous figures in humankind such as Baby Jesus, Hulk Hogan, Karate Kid, Chuck Norris and many more.

While it still hurts if it shows that you have identical weight with King Kong, at least you can brag to your friends that you have identical weight to world’s richest ape.

That’s not all though, the inventor of this weight scale also invents another version of this weighing scale which uses animal as weight measurement tool.

The animal scale uses various animals such as duck, pig, armadillo, bear and many more. While it also hurts if it shows that your weight is comparable to cow at least it’s a little bit more comforting to see animal picture rather than reading the word King Kong.

These scales are sold by Angry Associates for €35 plus shipping. We’ll let it up to you to choose between animals and celebrities, at least they are less of an insult than number!

Buy the weighing scale at Angry Associates.
Via Gizmodo by way of Diet Blog

More offbeat diet stories!

Six out of Ten Prefer Death over Exercise

2007-10-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

Do you prefer death over exercising? If you do, you are not alone. A survey done by British Heart Foundation has found that six out of ten people in UK would prefer a short life full of beer and happiness instead of a longer life full of exercises and healthy food.

These people know that they are not going to live forever and they plan to get the most out of their life. Sadly, the survey also found that only one third from UK adults do moderate exercise for 30 minutes a day.

The ever demanding career environment has literally stolen plenty of times for exercising. Combined with the availability of fast food chains and sedentary lifestyle, the effect is deadly.

These 6 out of 10 people know that they will be very miserable if they have to live a healthy life far from many things that they love, so they prefer to ‘live life to the fullest’. Sadly most often they die early.

While the word ‘exercise’ is associated with a long strenuous workout at gym, surprisingly it takes much less than that to make your life last longer. Dr. Mike Knapton, director from British Heart Foundation, has said to Daily Mail that even simple activity such as 30 minutes brisk walking, few stairs climbing and house cleaning are already enough to keep our heart in shape.

Surprisingly it’s not as much as I have ever imagined. Sure for some people 30 minutes a day may be hard to squeeze, but surely it’s not impossible. As for myself, I want to live my life to the fullest in my own way.

Sure I may be having much less ‘fun food and drink’ but at least I’ll be happy since I know I am doing something which I want to do. What are your thoughts? Is it hard for you to start a healthier lifestyle and squeeze a little more room for moderate activities?

More on this: The Observer

Five Things Which Can Disrupt Your Weight Loss Diet

2007-10-17T03:22:00.000-07:00

In an essence, weight loss is simple. In order to experience healthy weight loss, you need to maximize your calories output while reducing your calories input in healthy manner. However, things seldom go as planned, there are a lot of things that can cause your diet to crash, from simple thing such as lacking willpower to utterly complex thing such as hidden calories. Here are five habits which may disrupt or fail your diet over time:

1. Not having well stocked pantry

One of the healthiest meals that you can have is the one that you cook yourself. Even if it's a simple salad, you won't be able to cook one if you don't have the necessary basic ingredients. Our pantry often becomes the deciding factor whether we will bother to cook the meals ourselves or to dine outside. Here is a list of basic ingredients that you should have in your pantry.

2. Not having enough sleep

Having enough rest and sleep should your top priority whether you are in weight loss diet or not. A research suggested that person who sleep less than 4 hours is 73% more obese than those who sleeps between 7 to 9 hours. On top of that, sleep can also relieve your body tension and stress. In order to have a quality life, having enough rest is essential.

3. Weighing yourself everyday

Set up a weekly goal rather than a daily goal. Weighing yourself everyday will only make you more and more anxious since our body weight is fluctuating according to many factors. Do yourself a favor and weigh yourself weekly or biweekly.

4. Not having a meal plan

While having a meal plan doesn't sound like a happy plan, you should really write your own daily meal plan if you are serious about losing weight. Measure and plan what you will eat throughout the week. Your meal plan should be feasible and easy enough to get so that there's a less chance that you will violate it. A good meal plan will also take into account unexpected meals. Try to make room for unexpected meals that you will have at restaurant and how you will cope with it.

5. Thinking everything will go as planned

In fact it rarely goes as planned. You will need to prepare for these and set up a reasonable and feasible long term goal for yourself. More importantly, you should take time and find out why you want to do this diet. Focus and remember your purpose and don't be dismayed if things don't go as well as planned.

Role of Water in Curbing Appetite

2007-10-16T03:57:00.000-07:00

Drinking water won’t have any effect in curbing your appetite, a research from Penn State unveiled. Sure, your body needs water in order to perform its metabolism but you won’t get skinny by water, the research suggested.

24 lean women were asked to participate in this research and were asked to spend one day per week for four weeks. The researchers analyzed the effects of these three types of meals to these women. The meals were chicken rice casserole, chicken soup and chicken rice casserole served with a glass of water.

The research result suggested that drinking water didn’t have any significant effect on calories intake while consuming dish with high water content did lower calories intake. Women who ate the chicken soup consumed 100 fewer calories compared to women who ate chicken casserole or chicken casserole with a glass of water.

Although water doesn’t really trim the fat down, but you should still consume a large number of it. In fact, my grandmother always forced me to drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday. During her childhood, medicine was scarce and when she got sick, she was forced to drink a lot of water so that she could heal faster.

But you should be wary of your water intake. Soda and even concentrated juices are packed with additional calories and sugar which may make you even thirstier. As a result you may drink more than you ought to thus packing more additional calories. Plain water is definitely the most ideal choice out there for your fluid intake. The trick of getting the habit of drinking water is to get used to it. Always bring bottled water and consume it whenever you feel thirsty.

Alternatively, if you believe about anything and don't mind spending a lot of money for fabled products, you can try this bottled diet water which promises you a trimmer waist line just by drinking. Of course it comes with a hefty price tag.

Related research: Puffy cereal makes you fuller.

Babyfood diet – just another fad?

2007-10-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

It always amazes me on how people (especially celebrities) are willing to walk off the beaten path to embark on a quirky diet. Many celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon are wolfing on jars and jars of baby food as a resort to maintain their figure!

The idea of baby food diet is to replace a part of your daily meals with baby food. Imagine having to choose between liquidized beef and the real thing, I’ll choose the real thing anytime. Followers of this diet may also replace their snacks with baby food to fend off unhealthy snacking habit.

Isn’t baby food supposed to make baby gain weight and become tougher? It’s often high in protein and carbs therefore it can even put on some weight upon the dieter if consumed excessively. Not to mention that babies and adults have different calories requirement. Adults may have to consume a few jars in order to feel satiated.

And this idea is just bizarre, I just can’t figure out why adult can stand to eat baby food every single day. For me the concoction looks and smells yucky (okay I can possibly stand on the fruit jar but not on the beef jar). I also begin to ponder, what’s the purpose of having teeth if you don’t use it for chewing?

Style guru, Mark Hayes, shared his example of a baby food diet plan on this website:

Breakfast: Porridge pudding or mashed banana.
Snack: Water or juice
Lunch: Chicken country vegetables or other fish jar.
Dinner: Liquidised chicken and potato.
Drank 2 litres of water a day.

An advised normal diet to aid weight-loss:

Breakfast: Porridge with banana
Snack: Protein shake
Lunch: Salad and sandwich with wholemeal bread
Dinner: Thai green curry with brown rice
Has six small meals a day

Some people may think that they aren’t that bad but then they must be missing the feeling of chewing food at the end of the day. Eating them occasionally is one thing but eating them as a routine is way too overboard for me. Well, good luck to Aniston and other people who do this baby food fad I am not jumping to the bandwagon. What about you? Do you enjoy eating baby food?

Flashing Chair as Your Diet Reminder

2007-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a situation where you have a obese friend who doesn’t really care about her weight, let alone her health? You want to tell her that she needs to really start taking care of her health unless she plans to have heart attack, but you just can’t find the way to tell it without hurting her feeling.

Or perhaps are you the type of person who knows that you need to diet but are just too lazy to start it? The new chair invention by Japanese scientists may be just the thing you need.

What does a cute glowing chair has to do with weight loss you ask? Let’s say that this chair will assign you a color based on several factors including your weight.

The inventors described this chair as an ‘interactive’ chair. It can interact with various objects including people who sit on it and assign color accordingly.

"For example, imagine that a heavy person sat on the sofa. The sofa would change its colour from white to red, as if the blood pressure was rising high," says Kanaya.”

Ref

So if you want to tell your fat little friend that she needs to start eating healthily, then just invite her to sit together on this chair set and watch the color changes. Of course this chair won’t save you from having to explain why her chair is flashing in red color.

This chair will do well as your personal diet reminder. Since you will probably need to pay at least $3000 for this chair set, then you would actually love this chair so much that you will sit on it whenever you can.

And if you weight too much, the chair will continuously display a red color, then you will be pissed off since you just waste $3000 on a chair which is supposed to change color but just refuses to do so. Since you don’t want your $3000 to be wasted, then you will probably start working out in hope that the next time you sit on your $3000 chair, it will finally change color and finally makes your investment breaks even.

From Gizmodo, ABC and Inventor Spot.

Sashimi Salmon Tuna Salad Recipe

2007-10-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

Sashimi (fresh raw seafood sliced thin) definitely falls within the healthy category of a food. Regular consumption of sashimi topped with healthy living style has been long touted as Japanese’s secret of longevity. The most common seafood which is used for sashimi is salmon.

Raw salmon has a fine orange-ish color which enthralls eye and can even urge the ‘raw food despiser’ to try it. That was also the case with me. In fact my early encounter with raw fish was in form of salad!

When the orange raw salmon is combined with leafy green, dripping wet fresh salad, the result is a healthy mouth watering colorful salad. I tried to make the same salad on my own and to my delight, it only took a while to prepare and the result was great, here’s the recipe:

The trick here is to get the fresh fishes. If the fish isn’t fresh then the dish will be ruined. Try contacting your favorite grocery to find out when they usually receive the fish from the port. The beauty of this dish is, you can experiment with various fresh vegetables and the result will usually turn out to be ok as long as you have the fresh fish. In my trial, I even added cheese, carrot and Japanese ginger (gari). Make sure you cool most of the ingredients first, it tastes better when it’s chilled.

Ingredients:
-150 gram of Fresh raw salmon (thinly sliced)
-150 gram of Fresh raw tuna (thinly sliced)
- 100 gram of Salad green (chopped)
- 50 gram of Cabbage (chopped)
- Various add-on (you can use tomato, boiled broccoli, cucumber, radish etc, in my case I use carrot, chunk of cheese, Japanese ginger and Japanese mushroom)

Dressing:
- 3 tablespoon of Virgin Olive oil
- 3 tablespoon of Salmon or flying fish roe
- 1/2 tablespoon of Sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Serving: 2

Instruction:
I don’t marinade the raw fish since personally I prefer eating them raw and bland.
1. Mix the olive and sesame oil in a bowl and mix all the vegetables and add on in the serving bowl
2. Put the raw fish on top of the vegetables, arrange neatly
3. Sprinkle the salad with the oil, mix well and splash it with lemon juice
4. Top the salad with the roe (put it neatly)

And that’s it. It takes a couple of minutes and the result is an elegant, healthy and colorful dish. You can serve this to your guest and few will think that it only take such a short time to prepare. Feel free to modify this salad to your preference.

33% Children Are Engaged in Starvation Diet

2007-10-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

What would you do if you know that your 15 years old daughter is on a starvation diet to shed off those ‘invisible’ pounds? If I was the parent then it means that I need to put extra effort in explaining the difference between being slim and being healthy, and I would probably have to spend hours arguing with my daughter too.

That’s the issue that many parents in UK are facing now. Approximately 1 from 3 British teenage girls is currently on starvation diet and insisting that they follow a healthy diet according to a recent story in Yahoo.

Research said that those teenage girls risk themselves on starvation diet in quest to become slim.

“

A national study shows 37% of girls aged 13-18 admit to eating less than 1200 calories a day in a bid to slim, 40% less than they need.
And while fewer boys diet, almost a quarter admit to limiting themselves to fewer than 800 calories

”

800 calories are really way too low for teenage girls who still need tons of nutrition to grow. 800 calories a day means that those girls are on starvation crash diet for fast weight loss result.

I don’t want to sound like sour grapes but in my opinion this is the result of many beauty industries marketing campaign which always feature woman as being beautiful and slender. As a result more and more teenage girls seem to think that if they are not beautiful and slender then they are not woman.

I like the “Dove Onslaught” campaign which bears the tag line: “talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.” Although I don’t believe in Dove’s pure motive to educate young girls (they exist in the beauty industry too), but I like the message which is sent through the campaign.

Parents need to develop a stronger relationship with their daughter so that at least their influence can fend off the beauty industry influence.

via Yahoo

Top Four Creative Weight Loss Ads

2007-10-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

Weight loss business has attracted many companies to invest and market their products aggressively through the use of advertisement. While the advertisements may be exaggerated, some of them are really funny and creative that they caught my attention at once. These four ads are great attention grabber that deliver the product message clearly. Here are four funniest, catchy weight loss ads that I found in Ads of the World. (Hint: Click the picture to enlarge it, use the back button to return to the page)

1. Yogurt Bikini

This advertisement for low fat frozen yogurt uses an unorthodox media for a good effect. It's a surefire attention grabber and yield an honest right on the spot message. "Good men are rare, stay on shape" "Believe me, it's not the bikini that men are looking at". Nuff said :).

2. Weight Watcher Boomerang

Instead of focusing on 'how much can you lose' like other advertisement, this ads brings a different message which focuses on keeping the fat off. The use of boomerang as a symbol is unique and simple.

3. Diet Pepsi and Cat

Easy enough to understand. The cat suddenly becomes thin as a result of drinking diet Pepsi. Instead of showing an image of lean or thin cat (which probably turns people off), it cleverly just shows a cat which can fit into a mouse hole.

4. Diet Coke Curvy Body

This ads is even simpler than all of the ads listed above, it uses the product directly as the medium and cleverly snippets a part of the bottle to give a message "No calories, all curves".

What do you think? Which one is the best among these ads and which one is the worst?

World Unhealthiest Calories Packed Food

2007-10-08T04:41:00.001-07:00

Literally it’s completely okay to occasionally indulge yourself with some ‘sinful’ foods when you are on a diet. In fact, by indulging yourself with such food, you stand a higher chance to succeed in your diet since you will be less likely to break it on a binge ‘sinful’ eating.

But some foods are just way too sinful to be consumed even in moderation, so here are four foods which are very unhealthy yet doesn’t involve any bugs, snakes or monkey brain.

1. Poutine

This dish is a popular dish in Canada. In a nutshell, it consists of deep fried fries served with fresh cheese curds and topped with thick piping hot gravy sauce. One serving of Poutine by Harvey (fast food joint) contains approximately over 600 calories with half of them come from fat (ref: Calories Count).

And if we look at the ingredients, that completely makes sense! Cheese, deep fried potato and liberal amount of gravy. Not to mention that you are likely to eat a second helping.

Read a Poutine recipe by Janet.

2. Deep Fried Mars Bar

If processed sugar sounds bad to your health, what if it’s combined with a batter and drenched in a hot oil to make an oily dish. This Mars Bar was initialy served at Chip Shop in Scotland according to Wikipedia (ref). (although I have seen people selling it occasionally in a food bazaar here).

It consists of a frozen mars bar, covered in a batter and deep fried until the inside has melted. Literally you can use other chocolate bar similar to Mars bar. If this doesn’t sound ‘sinful’ enough

Recipe:
Mars Bar
Baking soda (just half a teaspoon)
All purpose Flour (a cup)
One beaten Egg
A can of beer (you probably won’t need to use them all)
Oil

Mix the flour and the baking soda while continually pour the beer and whisking the concoction slowly. Stop adding the beer when the batter is thick enough, then add the egg and whisk the batter again. Dip the Mars Bar and then fry it until it’s brown.

One mars bar contains approximately 234 calories (tips: pretend that the oil and the beer batter don’t add additional calories, you will feel less guilty). If you are really in for a kick then try serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

3. Chocolate Pork

This weird dish originated from Ukraine (ref). It’s made from, well, pork and chocolate. Since chocolate is a comfort food, adding the pork’s fat will transform it into a euphoria inducing food.

I don’t know how many calories that this dish contains. Just imagine eating a whole pork fat covered in sweet glazy chocolate at once! It’s salty on the inside but sweet on the outside, said one of the diner as quoted by BBC.

Recipe from BBC:
* Cut off a section of pork fat (but avoid the rind unless you are really adventurous.)
*Carve the meat into a shape of your choice.
* Cover in melted chocolate and store in the freezer.
* Once the chocolate has set, eat and enjoy.

4. Cheese Doughnut Burger

Since American think that pork fat is way too unhealthy, the folks from Gateway Grizzlies baseball team comes up with an feeble idea to make a healthier version of such dish. This burger is just your usual cheeseburger with one catch, it uses sweet glazed donut as the hamburger bun!

It contains whooping 1000 calories according to CBS and it tastes pretty good. So next time you are hosting a BBQ party, you know what to serve right?

Two sweet glazed donuts
Meat of your choice
A slice of cheddar cheese
Sauce (BBQ, gravy, mustard etc)

So those are four foods what you may consider to consume regularly if the idea of heart attack doesn’t trigger any unpleasant feeling on you.

Magical Diet Toothpaste: Brush Teeth and Lose Weight

2007-10-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

It's Friday and it's the time that we get some fun by reading the next bizarre diet products.

Do you know that you can literally keep your body slender while pushing down your dental cost at the same time?

A miracle diet product called “Diet Aid Toothpaste” claims to do that for you. In addition to having shiny white teeth (and three ounces of confidence due to your fresh minty breath), you can also lose weight at the same time just by brushing your teeth!

The Diet Aid Toothpaste is toothpaste made from chromium which can reduce your blood sugar level, regulate insulin thus suppressing your appetite.

If you look at the instruction listed at their website, they recommend you to brush your teeth up to FIVE TIMES a day! So whenever you feel like eating you can just brush your teeth and problem’s solved!

A blogger who had tried the toothpaste also said that you are required to brush your tongue, roof of your mouth and your side cheeks for at least TWO MINUTES (bear in mind that you are supposed to brush your teeth whenever you want to snack).

I may be the only one who feel that it hurts a lot to brush your roof of mouth and cheek, I can’t imagine how I would feel if I have to do it for two minutes five times a day.

According to a reviewer on Daily Mail, the Diet Aid Toothpaste claims to be able to trim down 500 calories a day which in turn will reduce your weight by 1 pound per week.

This Diet Aid Toothpaste is priced at £5.99 (around $12) which is expensive! Of course there’s one advantage that you can get by brushing your teeth five times a day using this toothpaste, you can at least be assured that your breath will smell very nice!

I am skeptical to this diet toothpaste. I am sure you will get the same result if you use less ‘magical’ toothpaste such as the toothpaste that you use currently.

If you brush your teeth straight away after you eat then you can literally consume less food. If your teeth are clean and squeaky, then the least thing you want to do is to ‘spoil’ your recently brushed teeth with a bag of chocolate. Not to mention that not all foods taste nice when your mouth is filled with mint fragrance from your toothpaste.

Do this five times a day (provided that you have the time, chance and more importantly, patience) and I am sure you will get result after several months.

PS: Is it just me but why many miracle diet websites are poorly designed, take a look at Diet Fork and this diet aid tooth paste website.

Read about strange diet and gadget here.

Obesity Epidemic Amongst HIV Patients

2007-10-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

We tend to associate people who are infected with serious disease to be thin or at least not obese. According to recent news published in Yahoo, it’s actually the opposite which becomes a norm lately. The news said that almost two thirds of HIV patients are currently struggling with obesity. This news made me think about the effect of obesity toward those who already have immunity deficiency disease. Obesity is linked with various diseases which they could have prevented in the first place.

The researchers studied 663 patients with HIV and found that 63% of them were overweight or obese. The good news was, nobody was thin enough to be called wasted (which was the common thing to happen to HIV patients 20 years ago).

This result came as a surprise since the respondents were from military that tend to be more health conscious than other.

“

"These folks are in more ways than not becoming like everyone else. If they're overeating, they're going to get fat," said Dr. Michael Saag, director of the AIDS Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who had no role in the study."

(ref)

Two decades ago, AIDS patients were encouraged to eat a lot of food in order to prevent wasting. But with the presence of modern drug that keep the immunity deficiency virus at bay, patients become healthier in the first place therefore they are not exposed to wasting as much as their predecessors. This comes with a price though, weight gain.

Obesity itself has been linked with various heart problems, cholesterol and risk of diabetes. And it’d be really distressing if they end up surviving HIV but die on the diseases caused by obesity which actually can be prevented.

Read more

Cholesterol: The Good and the Bad

2007-10-03T02:54:00.000-07:00

These days, it seems like everything is free of some unhealthy ingredient. Sugar-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free; every wants to buy a product that is free of that nagging aspect in their diet.

Check out the products at your local grocery store. You’ll probably find that everything is free of something. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean these kinds of products don’t come at a price.

Now, nobody disagrees that cutting down on some of the unhealthy ingredients in your diet is a bad idea. Still, there is almost no aspect that you can cut out of your diet completely. Almost everything we consume in our diet is useful to our bodies, even necessary, in moderation.

Take cholesterol for instance. Cholesterol is a fatty material that appears in many areas of the body: cell walls, blood, most bodily tissue, etc. Cholesterol usually enters the body through foods that are high in saturated fat.

Cholesterol is a necessary component for certain parts of the body to function, particularly for the membranes of cell walls. Ironically, cholesterol in healthy amounts also helps the body absorb the fat contained in the intestines. Unfortunately, many people maintain diets that are far too high in cholesterol.

When people consume too much cholesterol, their body can no longer use all the cholesterol effectively. Cholesterol gets stuck in the body, as it is difficult to metabolize, just like fat. This can cause injury to blood vessels which is a major cause of heart disease and stroke.

Fortunately, there is a bad kind of cholesterol and good a good kind of cholesterol that can be differentiated. The bad kind is called a low density liboprotein (LDL). This is the form that causes cholesterol to stay present in the blood, which increases the risk of heart disease. The good kind of cholesterol is called high density liboprotein (HDL), and helps bring cholesterol back to the liver where it can be eliminated.

Before you make a decision to purchase only products that are cholesterol-free, make sure you remember that some cholesterol, the right cholesterol, is good for your body. It will build up and maintain cell walls, is used to produce many of the natural hormones in the body, helps the body digest food efficiently, and is a key component of nerve and brain tissue.

In addition to that, About.com has an excellent list on things that can help increase your good cholesterol level, such as:
1. Stop smoking
2. Eat more fiber. It can be gained from nuts such as almond or various vegetables.
3. Reduce your alcohol consumption. (Read on my weekend drinking tips)

Four Visual Factors That Affect Your Appetite

2007-10-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

Beside taste and hunger level, food’s appearance plays a great deal in determining how much that you will eat. There’s a reason why meals at fine dining restaurant are always presented chicly. It’s because we tend to enjoy the food more when the food is presented beautifully. We don’t eat for the sake of our stomach solely; we also eat for our eyes. And sometimes, it’s the eyes which decide how much we eat instead of the stomach. So here are four visual factors which can affect our appetite.

1. Big Plate or Container

When we are given a plate and asked to take whatever food that we like, then we tend to fill the plate. Similarly, people tend to eat more when they are given a bigger container without realizing that they consume more than they usually do. People tend to count calories based on their eyes instead of their stomach.

A study published in Obesity Research asked people to eat their meal until they are full and then someday they were asked to eat blindfolded and they ate 22% less food without feeling less hungry. And no, I am not going to suggest that you eat while being blindfolded but I’ll suggest you to use medium or small sized plates if you haven’t used them.

2. No end signal

We tend to eat and eat until something tells us to stop. And the stop signal is often given by the package of our snacks instead of our stomach. Before we hit the bottom of the bag, we tend not to stop our eating.

In a research from Food and Brand Lab in Cornell University, the researchers carefully prepare two packages of crackers to be given to an entire class. One package consisted of one large bag containing 44 crackers while the other package contained four small bags each contained 11 crackers. The students who were given the large bags consumed 50% more than the one which were given the four small bags. Try to pour your snacks on a plate or bowl which you can measure and see easily and carefully store the leftover for future consumption.

By using bowl or plate, you can determine how much that you will eat and when that you will stop instead of letting the size of the packages decide it.

3. More Colors equals to more consumption

We like colorful food. It’s pleasant to both eye and our brain although they may not taste the same. That’s the reason also why people bother to color chocolate candies with various vivid colors although they don’t taste really different. Another research by Cornell University found that people ate more when they were given more varieties. They gave two groups of people two bowl of candies; the first one contained four colors while the other one contained six colors. The second group with more varieties of candies ate more candies.

4. Leftover

Beside the image of a clean plate after a meal, there’s one more thing which can deter us from overeating. It’s the leftover food. Study done by Cornell University asked two groups of people to eat chicken wings. The first group had the leftover bone stacked in the table while the second group had the leftover thrashed away immediately. As a result the first group ate 27% less. I guess stashing dirty plates may do the trick too if you have no objection whatsoever too uncleanness.

The Baked Beans Diet

2007-09-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Can you imagine how boring your life will be if you just live on a baked beans? Apparently James Skeates didn’t agree with us since this fellow carpenter from Haverhill has lost a considerable amount of weight through his baked beans diet. This diet consists of three things. Baked beans, baked beans and baked beans.

James Skeates was weighed around 266 pounds before he figured that three serving of baked beans could change his life. After six months, his weight has dropped to 190 pounds which constituted as around 60 pounds drop in six months (10 pounds/month on average).

James consumed at least two large cans of baked beans everyday which summed up to around 90 large baked beans cans over 6 months! He ate it for breakfast, he ate it for lunch and he ate it for dinner.

“I was getting through two tins a day, eating them in my breaks at work, then at home with jacket potatoes, wholemeal bread or pasta. I was never hungry, but the weight kept coming off.” Ref.

Although it does sound like a boring diet (more boring than the light and air diet, at least you can still eat McDonalds in the air diet), baked bean is classified as one of the most healthy foods. It’s immensely rich in antioxidants, protein and fiber.

In fact, according to BBC Sport Academy, the nutrients found in many vegetables, fruits, and red wine are also apparent in the skin of beans. The antioxidant which is present in the bean can also protect us from aging and many diseases. As a bonus, they are low in calorie too (a cup of canned beans approximately contains 236 calories according to calorie count).

Although we don’t have (and I don’t think we want to) to pledge allegiance to baked beans for the rest of our life, it’s not a bad idea to include baked bean in your daily meals. You can use the baked beans as a sandwich filling or a toast’s spread or even a side dish to accompany your tenderloin steak. At least this baked beans diet thingy is making more sense than the burrito diet.

Via Ananova.

Weekend Announcement

2007-09-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

I know that there’s usually no post on the weekend over here at Diet Meals Recipes but I want to make this post today to announce that I have joined with payperpost today.

Many people always think that the day a blog joins the evil ring of sponsored reviews as a dooms day. Many people expect the blog to dish out riff raff unrelated sponsored posts for the sake of money.

Although I expect to receive much more sponsored posts enquiries from advertisers, I will retain the same strict criteria that I always use to filter interested advertisers.

First I will see the relevancy of the post itself. If the offers are unrelated then I simply reject it.

Then I’ll see the product itself, I don’t want to endorse shady products and therefore you won’t see any dodgy products being reviewed positively here.

Last I will always balance the quantity of sponsored posts versus un-sponsored posts.

I don’t want Diet Meals Recipes to turn into a kind of advertising blog with tons of sponsored posts therefore the number of un-sponsored posts (or real posts) will outnumber the sponsored posts greatly.

PPP is a great platform; literally you can reach to a wider audience by joining them. So apart from gaining access to more advertisers myself, I am looking forward to increase the popularity of Diet Meals Recipes itself by joining the market place.

Since I don’t plan to accept many opportunities here, then I won’t be getting a lot of money for sure ;). But I can still use the extra money to buy more imported ingredients to try new recipes (which I haven’t done for a long time) or just use the money to indulge myself in a Japanese Restaurant (so I can write better).

Spa Fat Burning Bike

2007-09-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

If you think the idea of spending few hours on the gym is less appealing than spending your life lying on the couch then here’s an invention that may have a soft spot on your heart. The Hypoxi L 250 is an exercise bike which is equipped with a vacuum chamber complete with a comfortable cushion. And the good news is, you can have lower body vacuumed through the vacuum chamber (that sounds pleasant) throughout the exercise while you gently relax and still appear like a man sleeping on his 22nd century bed.

Here’s what the company claims from its webpage:

“The L250 gives skin a rejuvenated appearance and is ideal for those who find it near impossible to reduce body fat on their hips, thighs and buttocks.”

I guess it won’t be impossible again if your hips, thighs and buttocks are exposed to a vacuum chamber while pedaling. I am almost sure that you won’t feel any pain since this chamber is designed to make you feel like you are on a “Spa” rather than on an exercise machine.

“The levels of unsurpassed comfort of this type of exercise; The horizontal position largely relieves the body from its weight, takes pressure off the joints and lowers the client's heart rate so that the gentle therapy can be at its most effective, an experience more liken to a spa therapy than a form of exercise.”

And judging from its look, I bet that this super-comfortable-spa –bike-that-can-burn-fat won’t come cheap. There’s no price tag listed in the website and that probably means that this gadget is expensive.

But again at least this spa-bike sounds more rational than the last week’s light and air diet or the good old caffeine pantyhose, and it's sure way cooler than the Computer Bike. I guess if you find that you always fail in toning down your lower body or just too lazy to move your feet to the gym then this spa-bike may be handy for you.

via Engadget.

Click here to see other weird things in the weight loss scene.

Money is the Root of Weight Loss

2007-09-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

You’ve probably heard and agree that money is the root of all evil; nowadays it seems that money also becomes the root of weight loss. Confirming the move of Mayor of Varallo and Agora Publishing who offered money to people who lose weight, researchers have examined the effect of money incentive to weight loss. The researchers compared money incentive versus healthier cafeteria and onsite fitness center and found out that money incentive is more effective compared to better cafeteria and onsite fitness center.

Unlike the Mayor of Varallo who offered 50 Euro to lose 8 pounds in a month (approx US$ 67) and 200 Euro (approx US$268) to maintain it and Agora who gave US$1000 to the employee who lost the most weight, the researchers only offered meager US$7 – US$14 for participants each time they lost a percent of their weight. So if a person lost one percent of his weight then he would be rewarded with either $7 x 1 or $14 x 1.

Over 200 overweight employees were involved and they were divided into three groups. The first group received no incentive while the second group received $7 for one percent of his weight; the third group received $14 for one percent of his weight. Take note that all of them weren’t given any specific help on how to lose weight.

The first group who received no incentive lost an average of 2 pounds over three months, the second group lost 3 pounds on average and the third group lost 5 pounds.

As conclusion, the researchers agreed that the group who was offered $14 was five times more likely to lose weight and giving financial incentive to their employees to lose weight was a good investment for companies.

In my opinion, companies should also think of a way to reward their employees who are already healthy so that everyone can get their share of the cake. In addition, more emphasis and perhaps more reward should be given to those who manage to maintain their ‘healthy’ weight instead to those who manage to lose the most weight.

Although the result is nothing to write home about, this research has evidently showed that people are more excited when you say “Pals, boss is going to pay us $14 to lose weight” compared to “You will face a serious heart disease risk and cancer if you maintain your unhealthy lifestyle."

I guess the prospect of becoming $100 richer is indeed more lucrative than becoming healthy!

The research overview can be viewed here.

Via Yahoo.

A Cup of Almond A Day Keeps The Fat Away

2007-09-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

Although it’s already widely known that the fat gained from almond is beneficial to your health but few people consume almond as daily snack due to the fact to the fear of weight gain. A recent study published in British Journal of Nutrition challenged that widely known fact by doing a research which proved otherwise. In truth, if consumed regularly, almonds can actually block some fat from being absorbed.

In the study, the researchers involved 20 overweight women to eat two different diet plans. First they divided the women into two groups, the first group was asked to follow a normal diet plan with addition of consuming 56 grams of almonds everyday for 10 weeks while the other group was told do follow their diet plan but wasn’t instructed to eat almonds at all for 10 weeks. Then both groups were asked to break before switching their diet plan.

As a result, the group who consumed almond didn’t experience any weight gain at all and in turn they got some of their dietary nutrition requirements from almonds. While 56 grams of almonds contain around 344 calories, in reality we will only get 77 calories from 56 grams of almonds according to the research.

Here are some conclusions that I gained from the research:
1. A cup of almond decreases total carbohydrate intake in a given day.
2. The fiber structure in almond prevents some fat from being absorbed.
3. Almonds can reduce blood sugar level which often leads people to eat more than they should.

It’s a pity that I can’t easily get almonds here. It seems that the importers don’t import almonds very often and when they do, the price usually skyrockets. I can’t really consume almond as much as I want due to that obstacle. If almonds are plentiful there then by all means start consuming it.

The Healthiest Country

2007-09-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting research from Men’s Health which talked about World’s Healthiest Countries to live in.

This research examined several factors which contributed to the ‘healthiness’ of a guy. Around 20,000 men from worldwide were asked to participate in this research. The conclusions were also very interesting, they came up with 5 categories such as fitness, stress, sex, nutrition and health then they analyzed which countries ranked as the World’s Healthiest for each category.

1. Fitness
Netherlands ranked as the first while Canada came close in the second place. It’s easy enough to predict what made Netherlands touted as the best country in term of fitness, the bicycle!
Most people in Netherlands rely on bicycle to do their activities. And there’s only one outcome which results from hours and hours spent on cycling, sexy abs!

Canada is ranked on second because there is a great number of parks and public spaces in that country. I guess that motivates people to exercise or just to do a great number of walking regularly.

Most sedentary country: Romania

2. Stress
Spain is the country where stress is not too apparent amongst its fellow employees and workers. One of the reasons is the habit of Spanish to take meeting outside their corporate fortress.
They prefer to have their coffee produced in their favorite coffee shop instead of the office’s pantry. Well, I am sure if I can work in this company which allows its employee to exercise during work hours then I’ll wave stress goodbye without hitting Starbucks.

World’s most stressful country: India

3. Nutrition
Portugal ranked in the top spot of this category while Spain ranked as the runner up. People in Portugal eat around one serving of fish a day due to the fact that fish is easy to get there (it’s a coastal county). Fish is rich in Omega 3 (the good fatty acid) which I am too lazy to write about.

Place where diet is the worst: Ukraine.

4. Sex
United Kingdom ranked as number one, followed by Poland. British men know how to use their mouth according to this research. Don’t think dirty, that means British men always communicate with their partner in order to make sex enjoyable for both of them. Sex plays an important rule in our life and also in our diet. Better sex will reduce your stress level thus enabling you to cope with your diet better. Remember that stress mostly lead to overeating and making unwise decisions regarding to food.

Where sex is ugly: Italy.

I seriously think that this research will stir controversies, especially in listed countries. However, I still find this research is highly interesting although it may not be really accurate since the opinions from the respondents may not reflect the actual condition in the particular countries. Just enjoy this as a good read and take the leaves out of all the number one countries listed above.

Read more about the research in Men's Health and MSNBC.

Drinking Beer Can Make You Thin

2007-09-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

Miracle Beer Diet - From MetaCafe

This video is hilarious. It actually tells you the benefit of beer to your diet.

Beer can reverse your body metabolism, instead of pushing the food to your stomach, a large amount of beer can push the food back to your throat (read: vomiting). A large influx of beer can also cause some behavioral changes which are beneficial to your diet:
-Inability to walk, thus keeping you away from refrigerator and fast food joints
-Short term memory loss (forgetting how to eat)
-loss of employment, which makes you poor so that you can't purchase any food at all.

Go watch it!

Freaky Friday: The Light and Air Diet

2007-09-21T02:15:00.000-07:00

Living entirely on burrito for three months (or the rest of your life) may already seem like a bad way to spend our days on earth, but what will you say to the idea of living entirely on sunlight and air? The diet cult claims that the followers only need to breathe the air and feel the sunlight and can survive without any food at all.

It is called Breatharianism and Breatharian just in case you are wondering. One of its notable practitioners has claimed to live entirely on sunlight and air since 1993 while another practitioner has claimed to live on light and air for the past 30 years with the exception of occasional snacking of McDonald and diet coke.

Jasmuheen or Ellen Greve who composed several self penned internet e-books on Breatharianism failed to impress the public when she was challenged by an Australian TV to demonstrate her Breatharianism diet.

The doctor who supervised her during the challenge found out that she has experienced dehydration and other dangerous physical symptoms. She simply reasoned that it was the bad air that deprived her from supreme wellness.

To make things worse, Jasmuheen made further claim which said that her DNA cell had expanded from 2 to 12 strands in order to absorb more hydrogen as a result of her air and light diet. However when she was asked to perform a blood test she refused and said that such spiritual effect won’t be visible on microscope (do we need third eye then?).

Wiley Brooks, the founder of Breatharian Institute of America, is a more interesting figure to discuss.

One of his initial claims was that he had lived entirely on air and light for the past 30 years. And he described the follower of Breatharian is someone who can travel to the 5th dimension (light). Reference.

Wiley Brooks also suggested that we gobble up McDonald’s double quarter pounder with cheese and diet coke in addition to our delicious meals of light and air.

While McDonald’s burger may provide little nutritional value to our body that some may not consider it to be a proper food for human, Brooks has a different reason to endorse Mc Donald’s double quarter pounder and diet coke.

“DO YOU KNOW THE BASE FREQUENCY OF THE DOUBLE-QUARTER-POUNDER WITH CHEESE MEAL FROM MCDONALD AND DIET COKE? The secret in the diet coke is the "LIQUID LIGHT" Duh!!!!”

“This concoction of 5d beef, 5d liquid light from the diet coke, the 5d sweetener aspartame, french fries fried in 5d de-hydrogenated oil and 5d water (5d water contains liquid gold) from the enter-earth oceans, is what makes this 5d catalyst work.”

There is no substitute for the MacDonald's Double-quarter-pounder with cheese meal. But the frequencies of the complete burger is what is very specific. Eating the fries is optional. Drinking the diet coke from MacDonald is OK with the meal. But other times drink it only from the bottles I recommended. This is why its so important to able to feel for yourself what frequencies/feelings are 5D or 3D

He explained eagerly in his website.

For those of you who are so desperate to lose weight, it’s probably worth to give this Breathing thingy a visit. Who knows that you can turn into superhuman as a bonus for losing weight.

Whether you believe this or not, I'll let you to decide. I doubt it will make any difference anyway since since you need $10 million in order to become a true Breatharian.

Brooks wrote a sales-letter to advertise his Breatharian workshop which was probably meant to mimic the infamous get-rich-quick sales letter.

“You will also learn how to become a permanent resident and/or retire in this beautiful world.
The process starts at an initial costs as low as $10,000,000.00 USD
This special offer will last for only 2 months

No Refunds

Sept 1, 2007 the cost will be $15,000,000 USD

November 1, 2007 the cost will be 20,000,000.00 USD

January 1, 2008 the cost will be 25,000,000.00 USD”

That’s a pretty convincing sales letter isn’t it? Hurry! I need to sign up now before the cost is raised!

PS: If you have nothing more important to do on the weekend like me, here are some related articles and references to read:

Walk On My Path Amusing Review of Breatharian
Breatharian on Wikipedia
Breatharian on BoingBoing.

Read Past Edition of Freaky Friday

5 Habits That Can Make You Gain Weight During Ramadan

2007-09-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

Since we are at the holy month of Ramadan at the moment, I want to highlight one of interesting phenomenon that affects many of my Muslim friends. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of Ramadan, here’s a good link that will explain it. In short, it is a holy month where Muslims will practice fasting as well as putting much more emphasis on charity, good deeds and self accountability.

Since there’s fasting involved for the whole month, my Muslim friends always expect that they will end up with lower weight on the end of the month. On the contrary, many of them gained weight instead of losing it although they have always practiced fasting without any absence. Upon a close look at their menu and eating habit, I discovered several habits that can possibly contributed to their weight gain.

1. Not eating meal at dawn
During the Ramadan month, Muslims usually eat their meals twice in a day: one after the sunset and another one before the dawn. Many of my friends occasionally forget to eat something before the dawn. As a result, our body goes into starvation mode and figures out that it needs to store everything into extra fat in order to last until the next meal.

2. Eat a lot of food at once
Because our stomach is empty throughout the day, it’s not wise to consume a large quantity of food at once during the break. When you do that, your stomach will be ‘congested’ since a large quantity of food at once can ‘shock’ the stomach. This can result in digestive problem later on. Break your fast with something small like date (the fruit), or a small cake and water first before continuing with heavier food.

3. Consuming too much carbs
Many of my friends love to eat an excessive amount of carbs during the fasting break. While it’s true that carbs can satiate their hunger quickly, excessive consumption of carbohydrates can contribute to weight gain. Just eat your normal portion of carbs although you have been fasting for the whole day. Eat other types of food to help satiating your hunger. Don’t forget to consume protein too to support you throughout the fasting period. Beside meat, these are some vegetables and nuts that contain a good number of protein.

4. Becoming less active
Fasting is not a reason to become less active! Many of my friends use fasting as an excuse to be lazy yet when it’s times to break the fast, suddenly they become very energetic. Keep doing your activities as you would normally (if you are used to walk to your office, keep on doing so) and don’t use fasting as an excuse to be lazy.

5. Consuming too much sugar
In Ramadan, most family will usually serve traditional cookies and candies which are rich in sugar. While cutting out sugar completely is not a good idea, consuming too much sugar can also endanger your waist line. Don’t excessively consume food which is rich in sugar, spread out your consumption into various types of food. If possible try using sugar substitute such as Splenda instead of sugar.

6. Not having enough sleep
It's common for people to experience lack of sleep during Ramadan. But you should also quickly adjust your schedule so you can have enough rest. Lack of sleep can contribute to the weight gain. Lack of sleep can also trigger dizziness and lack of concentration on the next day.

Those habits are the habits that most of my Muslim friends are showing during the Ramadan month. I believe those habits contribute to their weight gain over a month. While Ramadan itself isn’t about losing weight, you should also eat the ‘right way’ during your fast in order to remain healthy while doing your fasting, prayer and your activities.

The Burrito Diet : Marketing Pitch in Disguise or Not?

2007-09-19T01:34:00.000-07:00

What will you say if I tell you that you can lose 40 pounds within three months just by eating burrito without doing any exercises at all? Unless you are living in a cave, then you probably will regard this fact with skepticism. Well the truth is, Justin Hall, as reported by MyFox has lost 40 pounds on burrito and salad without any exercises at all!

The staggering fact is, he lost 40 pounds without any exercises at all! He planned to continue this diet until the end of the year. My only concern is, I am not sure whether or not the producer of the burrito that he consumed is behind this whole fad diet story (Justin did mention a specific brand in the news).

So a burrito diet consists of eating a burrito, fruit and salad in a day. So you can’t have anything else beside those three things, and take note that you are only allowed one burrito each day. It’s perfectly understandable since the burrito itself contains a whooping 1300 calories! What I don’t understand is how a man can survive on this extremely boring menu for a long time!

Theoretically it should work. By restricting your calories intake to a certain amount, you can literally lose weight (that’s the principle behind sacred heart diet). But it’s quite hard and possibly unhealthy to stick with this kind of starvation diet for a prolonged amount of time. Not to mention that it’s boring as hell.

But I have my skepticism on this kind of thing, especially when the dieter blatantly mentions a specific brand of food that he uses. I

Is this a marketing pitch disguised behind a dieter story or is this a real confession from a dieter with no money involved. What do you think?

Read the news (and video) here.

4 Reasons Why People Fail Diet

2007-09-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

Starting a diet is easy! It doesn’t take you more than a desire to start a diet. But it’s a different ball game there when it comes to maintaining a diet.

Many people have banished sweets from their life, reduce their portion yet still nothing happen. When this bitter truth arises, many dieters start to slack their diet routine and eventually quit. Here are some of the most commons reasons why your diet may not be working for you and how to overcome them.

1. Hidden Calories
We may be consuming more calories than we realize. Even the low fat snacks don’t contain as few calories as you imagine it to be. Be wary when you consume something which is labeled as ‘low’ or ‘free’, they are not as ‘low’ as they appear to be. You may end up consuming much more than you would have to normally and load up a bulk number of calories unconsciously. Coffee is also one of the drinks which are often loaded with additional calories. The coffee itself isn’t waist bulging but the toppings are!

Solution: Be wary when you have that ‘sugar free’ or ‘low fat’ drinks or meals. Don’t over consume them.

2. Expecting an Instant Result
Many people hop on to a diet and expect to see an instant result. When they don’t, they become discouraged. The problem is, a healthy weight loss rate is approximately 2 pounds a week. And this rate doesn’t go on a straight line; it means there will be time when you will gain a part of your weight back; there will be time when your weight will remain unchanged.

Solution: Avoid the temptation to step on the weight scales frequently. Realize that a healthy weight loss is an ongoing process. Your weight won’t be declining in a smooth line. Don’t get discouraged just because you don’t see constant result.

3. Laziness
It’s easier to order Pizza from the delivery man rather than whipping your own meals or go to a healthy restaurant. It’s also easier to say ‘I am tired’ rather than attending the aerobic class you have enrolled to. Many of us don’t want to walk that ‘extra mile’ in order to optimize our diet. Laziness will multiply itself when we slack ourselves. Once we have let laziness make the decision for us, it’ll be harder for us to prevent laziness from ruling our decision again in the future. Substantially this can be a diet destroyer.

Solution: Focus on your goal. Remember that each time you take the ‘easy’ way, you are literally stepping away a step further from your goal.

4. Generalized Diet Plan
People often stick with standardized diet plan without even considering whether their body can handle the diet or not. Many people are blindly following a diet method without any consideration at all. The fact is, human’s body is unique. What works for a person may or may not work for other person. If you have diligently following a diet method but still see no result after a period of time then it’s worth visiting your dietician for a consultation. Similarly, you may need to consult a personal trainer in order to work out a sound exercise schedule which suits your body and metabolism.

Solution: Don’t hesitate to ask for professional advice.

Free and Easy Way to Get Traffic for Your Blog

2007-09-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Getting traffic for your blog has never been an easy job. Sometimes, the lack of visitors can really discourage a blogger from staying in the blogosphere. Here's a new idea of generating traffic for blog which doesn't cost any money (FREE) and may probably work well for you.

Blogrush is a new breakthrough by John Reese. It's a banner exchange system where you display a widget on your blog, and the widget will load relevant or similar posts from other blogs. In return, your latest post will also be displayed in other blog as well every time your page is opened. Sounds cool right?

They also have some sort of impression bonus thingy which I don't bother to read. All I know is, if you refer another blogger then you will get extra impression. Since Blogrush is a new fad, chance is your fellow bloggers won't have known about it. So sign up now and try it for yourself. After all if this thing doesn't work, you can always take it off. No risk involved. (Beware, the link contains my referral, *evil grin*).

Sign Up to Generate More Traffic

Five Fun Sports That Burn A Lot of Calories

2007-09-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

Doing sport is an entertaining way to burn calories while having fun at the same time. Sport, especially game sport provides a great entertainment which we can enjoy doing for hour. Unconsciously we may be burning whole lot more calories than we realize. Here are five doable sports which are fun and burn plenty of calories (the measurement uses 100 pounds person as a basis) at the same time:

1. Badminton
Badminton is exceptionally popular in Asia rather than in America. 30 minutes of moderate Badminton burns approximately 213 calories. The good news about badminton is, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to play it. In fact you don’t even need to rent a special court just to play this game; this sport is playable even in small venue such as a corner in the nearby park.

2. Ice Skating
Ice skating has always been an enjoyable sport for me. I can personally do hours and hours of ice skating without feeling tired. 30 minutes of ice skating burns approximately 138 calories. Take note than if you are skating with friends, chance is you won’t be skating for just 30 minutes.

3. Rafting - Rowing
Rafting is one of my favorite activities to do during a holiday or long weekend. There’s nothing like a getaway rafting trip to unwind and relax after a long busy week. 30 minutes of ‘not too challenging’ rafting will approximately burn around 120 calories. Of course that number will surely add up if you count the occasional swimming when you fall from your raft. If you prefer a less thrilling activity then try rowing. You will burn more calories but perhaps you’ll miss the excitement.

4. Tennis
30 minutes tennis burns approximately 183 calories. But two things that I hate about tennis are that it’s physically demanding and requires a special court. If you are not used to do cardio training or play similar sport then chance is you won’t be able to play tennis for long.

5. Water Polo
Just get a ball and hop on to the nearby swimming pool with a group of friends and you’re set. A real water polo may burn around 240 calories but you will also burn slightly less calories even if you don’t do ‘serious’ water polo. Our body needs extra energy to move in the water. Provided that you stay in the pool long enough, you will have burned a lot of calories by the time you emerge from the water.

Just remember, it’s not how hard you do it but how long you do it. If you do the sports with friends then you will be able to do the sports for considerable amount of time. Keep it fun!

Freaky Friday: Doorknob Exerciser Gadget

2007-09-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

Do you fancy that flashy hula chair exercise gadget but can’t find the space to have it in your home? Do you regularly complain that you never have enough space to put any exercise or fitness gadget? Then here’s a compact and simple exercise gadget sold at Carol Wright Gifts, the door knob exerciser. At first glance, I couldn’t help feeling intrigued since the description listed on the website sounded too good to be true.

“This easy-to-use exerciser loops over any doorknob to give you a total-body workout in minutes. Just follow the simple exercise instructions to trim your waist, tighten your stomach, tone your bust, slim your hips and strengthen your arms, legs, chest and back. Ideal for anyone who doesn't have the time or patience for expensive programs and health clubs.” (ref)

Okay, obviously you can virtually do anything from toning your bust to tighten your stomach using these rubber bands but the possibility of getting strangled in the heaps of rubber bands is also virtually present.

You can call me paranoid but when I looked at the image posted in their website, the picture of someone opening the door from the other side while I am lying on the other side with my hands and knees tied up to the knob keeps floating in my head.

I can also see a lot of other tragic scenarios which can possibly arise by using this device but that's just me. I am sure people won’t mind.

This device can be bought at here.

Past Edition of Freaky Friday

Company Offered $1000 to the Biggest Loser

2007-09-13T02:23:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of excuses for gaining weight once you work in an office such as snacking happy neighboring colleague and boredom. But you’ll find that you have no reason ‘not to work out’ if you are employed by Agora Inc, a Baltimore based company. The company offered a whooping $1000 for each female, male and team who lost the most weight during 12 weeks challenge.

This breakthrough was inspired by a reality show “the biggest loser” by NBC and sure enough, not less than 84 employees lost a total 1,000 pounds by the time the contest ended. Although this contest promotes a slimmer waistline and better health, the effect on productivity is questioned.

The company spent around US$90,000 for 12 weeks to start this contest (that’s not a small amount). Most of the money was spent to hire personal trainer and paying unlimited access to a local gym for the employees.
In the end, two people lost more than 40 pounds over 12 weeks. That’s roughly 3 pounds a week!

What’s good from this contest was, the employees were allowed to workout during their daily work schedules!

The only drawback from this contest was, employees who didn’t need to lose weight had less chances of winning the contest. But that didn’t stop them from participating and taking the kickboxing classes that the company provided, so if I were them I wouldn’t complain.

I hope more companies followed Agora’s lead and started giving incentive for their employees to stay fit and healthy. They should learn from the Mayor of Varallo (a city in Italy). Not only that the Mayor gave bonus for citizen who lost weight, he also gave bonus for them who managed to maintain it! The contest would do little use if the participants ended up as yo-yo dieter.

Via: Ocala

Rising Gasoline Prices Can Make You Lose Weight

2007-09-12T00:17:00.000-07:00

Winter is always associated with rising oil price which lead to rising gasoline prices. In addition to winter, the rising tension in Middle East and hurricane can also trigger higher gasoline prices. While the rising gasoline prices have always been greeted with gloom since it means people should tighten their budget, dieters have the chance to tighten their waist line too.

A study by Courtemanche Charles concluded that each $1/gallon increase in gasoline prices can reduce the obesity rate by 15% over five years. Take note that obesity is deemed as having more than 30 Body Mass Index. Charles based his study over historical data of average state gas prices and health behavioral trends as documented in government surveys from 1984 to 2004. Charles also said that during 1979 and 2004, falling gasoline prices were the cause of 13% obesity rate increase.

Quoted from Washington University: it means that $1 increase in gasoline prices can save 16,000 lives and $17 billion a year.

If we view this logically, rising gasoline prices can indeed force people to use public transportation which needs to be reached by walking. People may also opt to use more traditional form of personal transportation such as bicycle or walking. As a result, people will burn more calories and may end up healthier also.

The rising gasoline prices can ‘force’ people to do more walking and can really help fight the rising obesity rate across the nation.

In addition to that, people will also prefer to prepare their food at home instead of dining out since they want to save their fuel. The food which we prepare ourselves tend to be healthier than the food that we get outside (provided they have the basic ingredients for healthy food), therefore people can make wiser choice regarding what they put inside their bodies.

The study can be viewed here.

The Future of Weight Loss Industry?

2007-09-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

Technology can be helpful and scary at the same time. Technology did always change the way we live and deal with our problems. Perhaps the future of weight loss industry will also be changed in the coming 30 years with this recent research. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that a single gene might be the reason behind your weight gain.

If you ever have a friend who just seem to remain thin although he or she doesn’t really exercise or watch their caloric intake then your friend may be one of few people who have the ‘skinny’ gene in their bodies. The gene is called adipose and it will tell your body whether to store or to burn the fat.

Scientists did some throughout experiments involving cells, flies and mice. First they tried to delete the adipose presence in a cell and the cell quickly became a ‘fat cell’ because the cell accumulated fat droplets. Then the scientists observed flies which have the ‘skinny gene’, and the flies that happened to have the skinny gene were thinner than other flies. Their latest experiment was to try analyzing the effect of this gene in mammals which are very identical to humans in metabolism (mice). The mice which were given adipose stimulant ate same or much more food than the normal mice but they were thinner and had better control on insulin.

Clearly we can see where this research will be heading to. It won’t be long before they are finally able to inject this gene stimulant into human body. When the first appetite suppressant was invented, the idea of artificially suppress your appetite was sickening. But over time, appetite suppressant pills have become very popular.

Perhaps it’s just me but I found the idea of artificially modify our gene is horrible. People are always looking for a quick solution and when this ‘skinny gene’ is ‘available for sale’; I’ve no doubt that it will become a big hit. I hope that technology won’t change much about the way we deal with weight problem. Do you think the idea of injecting your body with gene is revolting?

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center

What People Eat Around the World

2007-09-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

These are interesting photographs which were shot by Peter Menzel for his book, Hungry Planet. Although these photographs stories are a little bit old, but they are still as fascinating as ever. In my opinion the pictures describe clearly the contradiction between expenditure and the freshness of the food. When people spend more money for food, they get more processed food.

Aboubakar family from Chad. They spend $1.23 for a week food supply. We can see that they consume a sack of grain, vegetables and a little fruit.

Ahmed family from Egypt. They spend around $68.53 for their food in a week. Lots of meat, a lot of green vegetables with a little potato.

A family in Mexico. They spend around $189 for food every week.
A lot of USA influence in this family, we can see some bottles of Cola lined up in the background and cornflake. But majority of their food is still composed of vegetables and some processed food.

A family in Mongolia. They spend around $40 per week. We can see a large chunk of mutton meat there accompanied with a lot of bread, eggs and just few vegetables. Too bad they didn't include the goat in the picture.

A Japanese family spend around $317 per week for their food. Basically their table is filled up with fishes and fishes. Few fruits and vegetables are visible. Well they just need nori and rice.

A family in USA spend around $341 per week for their food.
The pizza quickly stole my attention. I am actually surprised to see such large pizza. In here the largest pizza is only 3/4 of the pizza showcased here. We can see dunkin donut beverages and potato chips on the right side too.

From: Boredom is Your Fault via Information Aesthetics.

Freaky Friday: Weight Loss Car

2007-09-07T01:16:00.000-07:00

We have an environment friendly car, we have a car which can park by itself, we have a car which can turn off its engine automatically but do you know that we have a car that can tell you if you have been eating too much?

This idea is invented by a Russian professor from New Haven University called Yefim Krieger. Mr. Kriger's idea of a talking car might not be a big hit but it was surely very interesting and quirky at the same time.

He found a weight censor device which can be installed in your car, this device will find out if you have been eating unhealthy and display a ‘caring’ alert for you.

When you install this device, it will ask you to create a profile first. Through a touch screen display, then you will be prompted to your their doctors’ phone number just in case of emergency.

Then the device would weigh the passengers using the weight responsive units installed below the front seat. It will periodically measure your weight and will alert you where your weight is trending north.

In addition of alerting, it will also display the future projection of your weight and your size with the hope that it will make you start eating healthier. And just when you are confused about what to eat, it will also display a diet and exercise program which is tailored according to your historical data.

It sounds like a great idea with just one tiny drawback. It will be annoying.

Quoted from the NYTimes:

But watch out - the car can be brutally honest. Eat poorly or fail to exercise and the car will sound an alarm or display admonishments.
"You ate too much! Don't do it next time or Oh, you're overweight! What happened?”

I can imagine that this device won’t have too many of these pre-recorded alerts and it will get annoying if we have to listen to the same pattern of voice over and over again. Considering that people averagely use their car for more than three years, driving while listening to this alert in three years can be substantially boring and annoying.

LoseThatTyre.co.uk reckoned that this device can be a prototype of a modern car. Cars which can drive you away from the nearby fast food drive through if you are overweight. Now that would be cool.

Source: NY Times

Past Edition of Freaky Friday

Fail to Lose Weight? Blame it to Your Work Colleagues

2007-09-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

Are you struggling to lose weight in the work place? Instead of those snacks filled vending machines, your colleagues may be the one that cause you to gain weight according to a new survey by HR Zone. The eating habit that your neighboring work colleagues pose can potentially affect your weight, at least that’s what this survey result showed.

In a study involving 2,000 workers, three quarter of them blamed their weight gain to their colleagues sitting in the nearby cubicles. Three quarter of them believed that they gained weight because their work colleagues were spreading unhealthy eating influence. 57% of the participants also admitted that they ate lunch earlier than they wanted to since they saw their colleagues eating theirs. And 10% admitted that they chewed candies and chocolates too when they saw their neighbors eating snacks.

A part of the participants also said that boredom was the culprit of excessive snacking in the office. Well I guess M&Ms and chips are present in a lot of cubicles.

Not surprisingly, this research also highlighted the lack of willpower that the participants possessed. Three quarter of the participants confessed that they have promised to eat healthily on Sunday but this weekend resolution fell apart on Tuesday. To conclude the survey, they said that IT and recruitment workers are on top of the office snacking chart.

I guess it’s easier to blame on somebody else when we gain weight rather than trying to find the solution within ourselves. Moral of the story, you can go ahead and blame everybody for your weight gain and still nothing change or you can start to develop your willpower, sound eating plan and experience a change without blaming it to your surrounding.

Source of this study: HR Zone UK
Similar Study: Your best friend can make you obese.

Healthy Food Encourages Over Consumption

2007-09-05T00:12:00.000-07:00

A new research published recently in the Journal of Consumer Research elaborated that people tend to consume 131% more calories than they would normally do if the foods served to them are labeled as healthy.

One of the most notable examples that the researchers pointed out was the case of Subway sandwich. People generalize Subway sandwiches as healthy sandwiches while in fact, not all Subway sandwiches are low in calories.

In one of the experiment, the researchers asked the participants to guess how many calories each in two meals from two different restaurants. The participants estimated that meals from ‘healthy’ restaurants always contained fewer calories than the ‘normal’ restaurants. The alter effect made people ordered side dishes, beverages and other desserts which summed up to 131% more calories!

"When we see a fast-food restaurant like Subway advertising its low-calorie sandwiches, we think, 'It's OK: I can eat a sandwich there and then have a high-calorie dessert,' when, in fact, some Subway sandwiches contain more calories than a Big Mac." (Medical News)

This research elaborated that people only assess food qualitatively and not quantitatively. Most foods are pictured as either high in calorie or low in calorie. If the food is low in calorie, people compensate by eating another food. Not to mention that some low calorie snacks is not as ‘low’ as people perceive.

You may be interested in these similar posts:
Research unveiled the calories behind the low calorie label.
What does ‘Zero Trans Fat’ mean?

Good Way to Ditch That Sugary Fizzy Drink

2007-09-04T00:46:00.000-07:00

The future looks bright for those who have difficulty in regulating their carbohydrate and sugar intake. If you just seem to have enough of those fizzy sugary drinks or that flavored water bottles then Sony prototype invention may indeed become a useful tool in the coming years. The Japanese technology company has invented a battery which uses carbohydrates and sugar to generate electricity.

Sony was able to generate enough electricity to play a walkman using its sugar and carbohydrates powered battery.

In a demonstration on Thursday, a Sony employee poured a sugary sports drink to power a music player and speakers. (Yahoo)

I should say that this is a damn brilliant breakthrough by Sony. Although it can’t be put into practical use yet but when the time comes it will change the way we treat those fizzy drinks. I always shudder to see those brilliantly colored, sugar laden, low calorie drink. At least people can use those drinks for something else other than making themselves fatter.

Anyway, it’ll be cool if we can just borrow our friend’s strawberry water to power our laptop just in case of emergency. Will this replace the traditional rechargeable battery that we have now?

Weekends May Be the Key for Losing Weight

2007-09-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

Holiday season is often pictured as a gloomy seasons for dieters since many people, dieters and non dieters a like, often gain weight during the holiday season. Although this may be true, people should notice that their biggest threat lies on their weekends instead of their holiday seasons.

For the average people, weekend drinking party or splurge eating may be the culprit of your weight gain. As compensation, people who find that they have overeat during the weekend often ‘punish’ themselves by sticking to a stricter diet regimen during the coming weekdays. Of course we don’t want this to happen since it’s not beneficial in the long run.

If you sum it up, over a year we have around 48 weekends compared to just two major holiday seasons (summer and winter). The calories intake that average people have during weekends is contributed by mainly alcohol and fat. The worst thing is, no matter how much ‘moderation’, healthy snack bar, salad and yogurt we have during the weekdays, we are bound to forget all those damn rules by Friday night. Research published in Obesity Research highlighted that people who are 19 to 50 years old consumed 115 extra calories on weekends which came from alcohol consumption.

While it’s absolutely normal to have fun on weekend, it’s also essential for us to have a little self control handy if we still want to maintain or lose our weight. One of the most sensible things that people can do to minimize the calories intake during the weekend is by reducing the consumption of alcohol. You don’t have to get drunk every weekend! Just drink moderately and save those drinking competition for one or two special occasions.

Another tip is to combine less alcoholic intake with more vigorous physical activities (at least do this before you hit up the club if you have to). Bowling and skating are few examples of good weekend activities before you hit the club later on. Even shopping can bring more good than harm as long as you walk far enough in your shopping venture.

Bottom line, don’t let your weekends habit makes you feel guilty in the coming weekdays. Start by regulating the consumption of alcohol and snacks while increasing your activities during the weekend. Have fun and don’t be wild too often.

Freaky Friday: The Diet Fork

2007-08-31T02:46:00.001-07:00

I often emphasize on the importance of eating slowly. By eating slowly you will give your stomach the necessary time to signal to the brain whether it’s full or not. If you eat in a hurry (whether it’s because you are late or you are hungry) then more often than not, you will end up gobbling much more food than your stomach actually needs. Well, here’s the new invention to aid you folks who have trouble in eating slowly. Lo and behold, here comes the diet fork.

The diet fork is actually errr, a fork. This diet fork has three features, which the inventor boasts in the website:

1. The fork has shorter and duller teeth which results in harder time to grasp food. Well I can imagine my frustration if I have to chop down a steak while using a fork with dull teeth.

2. The diet fork comes up with is the smaller triangular surface area. This will prevent dieter in scooping too much food using the fork. Just in case someone is frustrated because he can’t chop any food and decide to use the fork as a spoon.

3. Last, the diet fork comes with a very uncomfortable grip. This will make dieter uncomfortable when holding the fork too long thus slowing down the eating speed.

If we look at the About Us section of the diet fork, some of the mysteries start to be unveiled. This diet fork is invented by the very same man, Sean Pomper, who invented the flavor spray diet. Although the principle behind this fork diet is sound, I hope Sean Pomper puts more effort in the marketing aspect. I can’t even see A SINGLE picture of the diet fork which is sold at his website. How the heck he expects me to buy something which I don’t even know. Not to mention that his website looks plain messy to me.

Priced at $8.95 for 10 pieces, I can’t tell whether this diet fork is reasonably priced or not. The inventor doesn’t put any information about the material used to manufacture this diet fork, not to mention that the lack of picture (the picture that I put here is the only picture I can find) really puts me off.

“The Diet Fork is my newest invention to help fight the battle of the bulge. Diet Forking is a new way to help lose weight while eating," said Sean Pomper. "I am always looking to develop new products that stay ahead of the curve of what America eats. We are living in a health-conscious society where people are constantly searching for a way to a healthier lifestyle -- and The Diet Fork is going to change they way we eat."

Sure it’s going to change the way we eat. I will end up frustrated and throw away my fork and use my hand instead. The new way of eating!

Disclaimer: This is just a personal opinion, in no way that I discourage or encourage you to buy any products I mention here.

Past Edition of Freaky Friday:
-Ugly Diet Phone
-Diet Lip Balm
-Diet Jar
-Ray of Hope
-Diet Flavor Spray
-Pierce Your Ear to Lose Weight
-Alli: Pooping Sensation
-Not So Edible Chocolate Flower
-Geek-a-Cycle
-Diet Water
-Hula Chair
-Pet Fat
-Caffeine Pantyhose
-Cheese Burger Vacuum
-Sauna Sweat Suit

Nice Matters Award

2007-08-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Thank you for the beautiful mom of Shern who gave me this award over her blog. I met her on a social networking website called MyBlogLog. I remembered we both participated in some kind of social bookmarking exchange. Thanks and good luck for your blogging quest. Good health, good life for you and Shern.

Do a Proper Walking Exercise

2007-08-29T23:10:00.000-07:00

The first exercise that children learn (besides ear-piercing crying, which probably burns a lot of calories), is walking. While walking may seem like a rather pedestrian exercise for adults, it can be a great way to strengthen the heart, legs, and respiratory system. Best of all, it can be a great cheap yet effective addition to a weight loss regimen.

Experts say that the most important aspect of a walking program is distance and not time. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to walk two miles, as long as you walk a full two miles. A person who weighs 160 pounds can burn off over 100 calories simply by walking two miles in an hour (a very slow pace). If you walk faster, you’ll burn off even more calories.

Still, it’s important to increase the strenuousness of your walking program as you continue. A good way to do this is by increasing your pace (you can try to finish a full mile in 13 minutes), or by carrying weights in your arms or backpack as you walk. This will help you improve your health and lose more weight at the same time.

You might wonder whether walking on a treadmill or outside is better exercise. Lots of peoples’ opinions differ, but the truth is that it’s completely up to you and your preferences. Walking outside can be refreshing; with nature, people, and a new environment every time, walking outside can really make you look forward to walking. On the other hand, some people find that the distractions don’t suit them. They would rather have the option to track their distance and speed with a treadmill. Neither option is better as long as it helps you look forward to walking.

While walking is less strenuous than running, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take all the necessary precautions of exercise. Make sure you stretch your legs before beginning. When you do begin, start by walking at a slower, more leisurely pace for the first five to ten minutes. This will ensure that your body is ready for the brisk pace that you’ll be setting during the bulk of the workout. Once you are ready, you should walk at that brisk pace for at least 30 minutes, possibly longer. Afterwards, leave time for five to ten minutes of cool-down walking as well. This will ensure that you get the most out of the time you spend walking.

One of the reasons that walking is a great exercise is that any healthy person can do it. It doesn’t require any training or equipment like other forms of exercise. However, that doesn’t mean that walkers can get relaxed about their exercise regimen. Unlike other forms of cardiovascular exercise that can be done two or three times per week with good results, walking needs to be done five or six days a week to see the best results.

The good news is that once you get in the habit of walking, it will be an easy habit to maintain. You can even make it part of your morning routine by deciding to walk after you wake up or walk to work. Walking in the morning will increase your metabolism which will make your weight goals that much more attainable. Once you start walking regularly, you’ll be amazed at how much better you look and feel after just a few weeks. One of the things that I like to do is to wake up early in the morning to take a brisk walk while breathing the cold but fresh morning air. Even without the health benefit, a morning walk can really be addictive for me.

Spicy Food May Trigger More Weight Loss

2007-08-29T00:48:00.000-07:00

If you like spicy food then there’s good news for you. Research published in British Journal of Nutrition proved that by adding more spices to your food, you can eat less and may become slightly happier. A study published in British Journal of Nutrition found that when women consume their meals with two teaspoon of dried red pepper, they tend to eat less calories and fat in their next meals.

Although this may sound like good news, I am not inclined to try incorporating red pepper in my meals. First of all, the amount of red pepper used is way too much. Two teaspoons of dried red pepper will sure mess up my meals like hell. I prefer to taste my meals without being burned in the mouth.

I couldn’t find the link to the particular study in British Journal of Nutrition which was featured in MSNBC but I found a similar study which used men as respondents to test the effect of red pepper on fat intake here. The finding wasn’t too encouraging either. It says that “The present results indicate that the maximum tolerable dose is necessary to have a suppressive effect of red pepper on fat intake.”

In English that means you need to have the maximum amount of red pepper that you can tolerate in order to experience the fat slashing effect of red pepper. If you intend to fully utilize red pepper to cut your fat intake then it means that you are in for a rough time. You will need to consume a lot of red pepper in your meals in order to have significant effect.

Of course we can take the sensible way by adding a sensible amount of spice on appropriate dishes. For example, I like to add salsa on baked potato, mashed potato, and meat. I also like to add half or one teaspoon of red pepper to sushi and vegetable soup. I don't want the meals to become too hot to taste. A study quoted by USNEWS explained that chili pepper can actually reduce the amount of insulin (read about the relationship of insulin and fat here).

Moral of the story, try to add spice whenever you see it fits. It has tons of benefit and can aid you in maintaining or lowering your weight, but don’t let that spice ruins your delicious food just for the sake of weight loss. You won’t enjoy your diet if all of your meals are composed of ‘spiced up’ foods.

Top 15 Healthy Ingredients You Should Have in Your Pantry

2007-08-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

One reason which makes people eat junk food is the lack of food ingredients which can be quickly turned into meals in their house. When you are terribly hungry, it’s easier to hop down to the nearest Burger King or to order it through delivery service rather than rummaging your lonely pantry for ingredients to cook.

In the morning it’s easier to grab Subway Sandwich on the way rather than preparing a tasteless sandwich from leftover ingredient in your pantry. There’s a saying that goes “one of the healthiest foods that you can eat is the one that you prepare yourself.” The only way to put this saying into reality is by having a well stocked pantry. Here are top 15 ingredients which you should have in your pantry and can be turned EASILY into a quick healthy meal.

1. Tomato
This juicy fruit can be quickly turned into almost anything. Add cantaloupe, bread and olive oil then put it into a blender, voila, instant gazpacho. You can easily chop the tomato to make salad in a minute. Not to mention that tomato juice is also delicious and refreshing. Have a stash of this red fruit handy in your kitchen.

2. Milk
You can also add low fat milk to your juice to make a delicious drink as well. There’s no quicker meal in the morning other than cereal. Just pour the milk and you get your healthy quick breakfast.

3. Carrots
Carrot is another ‘one size fits all’ ingredient. You can literally just shred it to give your salad more vitamins or juice it along with apple. It’s enriched with vitamin A and can last for a long time in your shelf. It never hurt to have a stock ready.

4. Banana
This magic fruit is always welcomed at my pantry anytime. Having a bunch handy isn’t going to hurt at all. When I am hungry I can literally just eat one or two bananas. It’s also sweet and laden with tons of benefit. Alldeaf has compiled a long benefit of banana in this post. Banana can also be easily incorporated into a milkshake, sandwich, cereal or even yogurt. The problem with banana is it can quickly become overripe so buy it accordingly.
5. Yogurt
Yogurt can be used as a low fat salad dressing. You can also use it as a dipping sauce for your favorite meal (I use it for my sandwich). Yogurt isn’t going to make you fat, in fact it’s healthy and it’s refreshing.

6. Olive Oil
Olive oil is considered as healthy oil due to the fact that its high unsaturated fat as opposed to traditional cooking oil. Personally I often use olive oil as salad dressing or as an addition to my sandwich.

7. Lemon
It has many uses; you can add it to your afternoon tea. You can squeeze it to get fresh refreshing lime juice, you can also use it for many quick salad and sandwich dishes.

8. Mustard
Compared to mayonnaise, mustard is lower in fat. A cup of mustard gives around 165 calories (source) while a cup of mayonnaise gives around 917 calories (source). It is kinder to your waist than mayonnaise and you can use mustard instead of mayo on your sandwiches to knock the fat out.

9. Cheese
Cottage cheese should be your choice but if it’s hard to find then normal cheese will do. Cheese can brighten our dull low calorie meal considerably, provided that you don’t eat too much of it.

10. Whole wheat bread
Needless to say that bread is a must have for every household. You can’t make sandwich without bread and even salad will taste better if you add a couple of baked bread inside. Hint: choose the whole wheat one.

11. Canned tuna
Although I am not a fan of food which is laden with preservatives such as canned food, I have to say that canned tuna is the best emergency food for me. It’s a source of high quality protein along with omega 3 essential fatty acid (aka the good fat). You can make a delicious tuna sandwich, tuna pita bread or just drop it to a salad bowl for a quick and delicious fish salad.

12. Whole Wheat Pasta
God sent. Instant spaghetti is always a lifesaver.

13. Nuts
Most nuts are laden with B vitamins which act as fatigue combatants and are essential for hormone growth. Healthierlife has a great post explaining the numerous benefits of nuts. Personally my favorite is almond. I can chop it and put it on top of my yogurt. Of course almond can’t go wrong in my salad either. Don’t consume the one which is already salted though.

14. Cereal
As long as you don’t eat the batty one you’re safe. Cereal act as quick breakfast in the morning (pour the milk and eat it). You can also have the cereal as a snack as opposed to chips. Be wary of colorful cereal or honey flavored one. Colorful cereal is often laden with sugar and food coloring while the honey flavored one may not be composed of 100% honey.

15. Potato
This carbohydrate powerhouse is easier to prepare than rice. Just boil some and eat it with your salad. Or you can roast the potatoes and top it with cheese and tuna. It’s easy to incorporate potato into many dishes and definitely you should have a stock available in your kitchen.

Top 10 Stress Reliever Foods

2007-08-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

Everybody is bound to have a bad day. Whether it’s your romance or your career, you will need something comforting to get through that bad day. Unfortunately, food is one of the most sought things during depression.

This can’t be truer for most cases, we all need a hug but we also need something to gulp down our throat. Regrettably we often blame stress or emotional eating as the culprit behind our growing waist size. Here is the top ten foods list which people often choose to reduce their stress level complete with their impact to our waist:

10. Pizza
This food has always been the people’s favorite, be it a football match or just a stressful night. Pizza is highly laden in carbohydrate which makes use calm. The problem is, it’s also highly laden in fat and the amount of carbohydrate in a pizza is tremendous. Not to mention the giant serving size that people in States have. Your waist will inflate way too soon if you stay long under the pizza’s reign.

9. Coffee
I personally think that it’s strange for people to drink coffee when they are stressed. Caffeine may have a temporary calming effect by alert us but it’s not long until the drawback symptoms happen. In 12 or 24 hours, your body will feel withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and irritability. People don’t find difficulties in dealing with those symptoms though; they simply take another cup of coffee (read about diet coffee pantyhose here).

8. Processed Sugar
Strawberry pop, sugar tart, you name it. These sweet stuffs are highly laden in processed sugar and can temporarily help us relieve stress. It discharges glucose which increases serotonin production. Serotonin is the brain chemical which tranquilizes you. Serotonin production is also triggered by carbohydrates. A little sugar won’t make you fat but the problem is, the tranquilizing effect caused by sugar is not long lasting. It leaves our bloodstream rapidly making you crave for another bite. Add this up and you’ll end up eating more than you want or need to.

7. Ice Cream
Same as sugar, ice cream is craved for its sweet taste. The problem with ice cream is, you will end up eating a large portion of it. It just takes a couple of spoonful to gobble up a scoop of ice cream. To have any noticeable effect, people often eat a large quantity of ice cream which of course threatens your waist dangerously. Try taking sorbet instead. Sorbet is the low fat or non fat version of ice cream and tastes just as great for me.

6. Fries and Burger
Just like pizza, fries and burger are highly laden in carbohydrates which can calm our body. I often see people eat a lot of burgers and fries when they are stressed. In addition to their beer belly, they have Trans fat as a problem too. They also put themselves in serious heart disease risk with an overload of fast food consumption. If you really need to have carbs then try whole wheat pasta based dish.

5. Biscuits
People rarely turn into a whole grain plain salted biscuit when they are stressed. It’s always Oreo or chips. People often justify themselves by taking the low fat version of the biscuits. But most of the times they will end up eating more when they have the low fat version. “Hey it’s low fat, so I can take another extra serving.” Not to mention that most low fat version only contain 20% less calories.

4. Chocolate
This is another orthodox choice. Eating too much of these will obviously threaten your waist size but if nothing else works (or nothing else matters) then at least choose the dark chocolate. They are laden with antioxidants to battle heart disease and cancer. Make sure that it’s composed of mainly dark cocoa. Those colored M&Ms surely won’t do. If the chocolate comes in liquid form then it’s better to drink hot chocolate than coffee.

3. Chamomile Tea
This tea can produce soothing effect and often act as sleep aid for people with sleeping disorder. I love to take this hot tea and sip it slowly. If you use sensible amount of sugar then there’s no risk of weight gain.

2. Yogurt
Yogurt is incredibly refreshing if served cold. They are often laden with fruits which are high in fibre or vitamin C which are stress fighter oxidant. Try to top your yogurt with berries and other fruits of your preferences and serve it cold. You can also get your hand on frozen yogurt which is often considerably sweeter. At least they are better than chocolate ice cream to your waist due to their low calorie number.

1. Sushi
Try to eat sushi which uses fish or crabstick. Fish is laden with B6 and B12 which are the main producers of serotonin. In addition to that, fish such as salmon is laden with omega 3 fatty acid which is the good fat. Sushi which uses crabstick (kani) is also a good choice. Crabstick is also rich in B12. The hand roll sushi which is wrapped in seaweed (nori) is also rich in magnesium which is also another stress buster.

Freaky Friday: Health Conscious Phone

2007-08-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

Mobile phone technology and concepts have evolved dramatically during the past 10 years. During the 2000, a mobile phone with white light background and no other features was already considered cool. But now every mobile phone seems to include various add-ons such as mp3 or camera. The creator of this phone went even further by incorporating a ‘nose’ inside the phone to help you on your diet.

The technologically advanced ‘nose’ will sniff what you have just eaten through a series of complicated process. It will track your food intake and then it will use its cutting edge brain to tell you what you are lacking in your food consumption. Great, exactly what I need, a green avocado which tells me that I should eat more salad.

The phone also has another feature which the designer seemed to be proud of. Users of this phone with similar goals setting can network with each other and motivate each other. The only problem with this is there don’t seem too many people who will use this phone.

Honestly, I think the design is plain ugly. Why does it have to be shaped like a battered mango? Perhaps the designer wanted her phone to be remarkable. She did the job well then, I am not likely going to forget such phone in a hurry. Why did they use plastic green color in the first place? That makes the phone looked like a children’s toy than cutting edge health phone.

The idea behind this phone is nothing phenomenal too. I don’t need a battered mango to tell me that I should be eating fruit instead of chips. Heck I think that most people don’t need this also. We already know that pizza is not good while a salad is. Even if we have this green mango to remind us, that’s not likely going to stop us from consuming what we want to consume. And did I mention that the design is horrible?

Found this horrible phone on Yanko Design.

Past Edition of Freaky Friday:
-Diet Lip Balm
-Diet Jar
-Ray of Hope
-Diet Flavor Spray
-Pierce Your Ear to Lose Weight
-Alli: Pooping Sensation
-Not So Edible Chocolate Flower
-Geek-a-Cycle
-Diet Water
-Hula Chair
-Pet Fat
-Caffeine Pantyhose
-Cheese Burger Vacuum
-Sauna Sweat Suit

Diet Food May Lead to Obesity

2007-08-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking of feeding your children with diet food then you should think over again. At least that’s what the recent study from University of Alberta said. The research suggested that children who are fed with low calorie meals will end up eating much more when they grow up thus increasing the risk of obesity. The good news for parent is, they don’t have to buy those expensive diet foods for children. They can spend the money to buy healthier meals and preparing more outdoor activities for their children.

The research used rats as a media to test the effect of low calorie consumption into overall food consumption over time. Although the test was done on rats, the effect on human is highly similar according to the researchers.

The experiments were done by using young rats, both lean and obese. The experiments’ objective was to prove that substituting a type of food with the same low calorie version of that food will lead to over eating. The low calorie version disrupts body’s ability to recognize calories intake through taste.

David Pierce, a lead author of the paper, concluded the research by saying “Our research has shown that young animals can be made to over eat when low-calorie foods and drinks are given to them on a daily basis, and this subverts their bodies' energy-balance system."

In a nutshell, the research predicted that children who are fed with diet foods are prone to be obese later.

Thankfully such effect is not visible in adult. Maybe perhaps adult tend to read label and can easily differentiate between low calorie and normal food where as children tend to gobble everything that their parents give.

This news isn’t bad news at all. Children should be running around and playing outside to burn calories. Why do they need to be fed diet food at all? Even video games nowadays can help them burn a few calories. Rather than feeding them with diet food, ask the children to do a lot of outdoor activities, play Wii and give them sufficient food with enough calories intake for their daily activities.

Six Tips for Better Eating Habit

2007-08-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Going on a diet is actually simpler than you think. Most people put a lot of emphasizes in how many calories and carbohydrates they have in a meal without realizing there are other factors which are also important in diet. While doing exercises is also critical, many people still have problem in dealing with their eating habit. Here are my 6 list for better eating.

6. Plan your mini meals

If snacking becomes a part of your daily habit then try to have mini meals instead of snacking. Plan your mini meals beforehand so that you don’t end up eating too many of them. A bar of chocolate taken three times a day can easily ruin your diet, so the best bet you have is to plan your snacks and mini meals beforehand. At least you will sit down and think whether you really want to lose weight or not before planning your mini meals.

5. Don’t be a calorie geek

The golden rule of weight loss is that your calorie intake should be less than your outtake. But that doesn’t mean you should bring your calculator and count up your meals. Just do a general research on the internet about your menu and you’ll get the big picture. Diet is already stressing, don’t make things harder by unnecessarily counting up every calories that you are going to have. As long as you maintain a sensible portion then you’ll do fine.

4. Reduce your portion

An easy way to kick start your diet is to reduce your portion slightly. You don’t need to radically reduce your portion unless your current portion is too much. If your friends don’t frown at your current portion then chance is, you only need to reduce your current portion by 10 – 20%. Start small and reduce the first 10% first and give your body time to adapt itself to the new portion. The key is to start slowly and gradually, treat your stomach gently.

3. Calories are supposed to be eaten not drunk.

You already get tons of calories from your meals; you don’t need to add them up by drinking soda or other fizzy drink.

2. Discover your food fetish

Everybody has a fetish of something. For example, I have a fetish for béchamel based dish like this Salmon Doria. Most of the time, the food which you have fetish on is not the type of food which is kind to your waist. Allow yourself to eat things you shouldn't occasionally. You won’t get fat instantly just because you have eaten something that you shouldn’t. In fact, you have just made your diet easier and a whole lot more pleasant by giving yourself an occasional treat.

1. Use your teeth
Chew your food! There’s a reason that you have teeth. Don’t gulp on your food but enjoy it slowly. Don’t eat in haste as you won’t likely to enjoy your food that way. By eating slowly, not only that you get to enjoy your food but you will feel more satisfied in the end.

The Truth Behind 'Trans Fat' Free Label

2007-08-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Stone Age Diet Review: Healthy or Not Healthy?

2007-08-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

The stone age diet (paleolithic diet) is a diet which believes that we will stay healthier if we follow the route of our ancestors. Million years ago, our ancestors haven't recognized agriculture thus still relied on vegetables, lean meat, fish and fruits for staples.

The argument behind this diet is that our body has tuned well for over 2 million years with the foods in the paleolithic era (fish, lean meat). On the other hand, our body has only 10,000 years to tune in with the 'modern' food (grain)after the invention of agriculture. Thus by tuning with the stone age foods, we can be healthier. Let's take a closer look on this caveman diet before we deem this as unhealthy.

This stone age diet advocates the consumption of lean meat, fish, fruits and vegetables which are edibles in raw state. For practical reason, many followers of this diet don't really emphasize on how the foods should be prepared. The only concern is that the food should not be processed using corn oil (olive oil is fine). The consumption of animal's organs such as kidney and liver is also encouraged since our ancestors tend to consume these organs also.

This diet prohibits the consumption of grains (pasta, rice, cereals), alcohol and starchy vegetables such as potatoes. Not only that, this diet even goes further by discouraging the consumption of dairy products (cheese, milk). If you think life is hard for our paleolithic ancestors then it is in fact harder. This diet also discourages the consumption of sugar and salt.

The benefit of this diet is a healthier body. This is further justified through a research done by Lund University. The research compared two groups of people who have diabetes type 2 and coronary heart disease. The first group is fed meals based on paleolithic diet while the second group is fed a diet similar to Mediterranean diet for three months. After three months, the paleolithic group showed a significantly lower blood sugar rise compared to the Mediterranean group. Other benefit of this diet is weight loss as illustrated by L.Cordain in 'The Paleo Diet'.

My first concern is that our meat is not as fresh as it used to be 2 million years ago. Nowadays our meat is probably gathered from hormone injected poultry or chemically enhanced cow. It's not fresh and for sure it's not healthy if your diet involves an extremely high number of meat.

Another concern that I have on this diet is that although we eat like the cavemen, we aren't likely to get the same result if we don't do a lot of physical activities like our ancestors back in the hunting and gathering era.

Our ancestors were used to walk for miles everyday and do rigorous psychical activities such as digging, climbing and hunting. Even though they consumed a large number of meat, organs and vegetables they are sure to burn out a lot of fat that way. They have to do a lot of physical activities everyday just to survive (or to chase other cave women). Compared to our state right now, it's hard to emulate our ancestors. In addition to eating, we need to do tons of exercises also.

Last, life without wine and cheese seems pretty miserable for me so I'll stay off from this diet and just do my 'common sense diet'. Eat in moderation, do proper exercises and indulge yourself occasionally.

Lip Balm Diet: Lose Weight and Stay Fresh

2007-08-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

If you think stapling your ear to curb your appetite is way too overboard then here’s a painless and (cheaper) way for you to curb your appetite. I’ve seen many companies sell lip balm, but a lip balm which can help you lose weight? You can keep your lip glossy and lose weight at the same time, what a great idea. But again I must say that the idea does not sound very convincing for me.

This lip balm is claimed to contain many plant extracts such as peppermint, spearmint, Yerba Mate, and a bunch of other plants which have good names. By applying the lip balm to your lip, the magical extract of those plants will curb your craving and voila, you will lose weight. Glossy lip and sexy hip!

I don’t know about you but for me this lip balm thingy looks very dodgy. If this works as good as it’s advertised then all the appetite suppressant diet pills will go out of business. Why would people swallow those expensive diet pills if they can just apply this lip balm over and over again, rinse and repeat.

There are many companies who produce this lip balm. The cheapest lip balm that I know is sold at Goodtobeyou.com at US$12. This lip balm contains peppermint, grapefruit and spearmint fragrances (just the fragrances then?) and I have no idea how long they last but I assume it should last one month unless you smoke it.

Desoriente sells a slightly more expensive diet lip balm which contains nine ingredients with wonderful names such as grapefruit oil, yerba mate oil and evening primrose oil. This is priced at $12.95 which makes it a lucrative deal. The most expensive diet lip balm which I found is Promise Lip Balm which is sold at whooping $29.95.

I hope they invent a lip balm which can curb shopping, that will become a big hit for sure. Happy weekend.

Past Edition of Freaky Friday:
-Diet Jar
-Ray of Hope
-Diet Flavor Spray
-Pierce Your Ear to Lose Weight
-Alli: Pooping Sensation
-Not So Edible Chocolate Flower
-Geek-a-Cycle
-Diet Water
-Hula Chair
-Pet Fat
-Caffeine Pantyhose
-Cheese Burger Vacuum
-Sauna Sweat Suit

Get Paid to Lose Weight

2007-08-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

Most of us who dwell on the internet must be familiar with the old get paid to read email or get paid to surf offers. While those typical 'get paid to' programs are famous for their lousy pay, a town in Italy is promoting another 'get paid to' program which has lucrative pay.

Residents of Varallo, Italy must be really fired up to lose weight since they will be paid for it. The Mayor announced that men who lose 4 kilograms in a month will be paid 50 Euro (roughly US$67). Women can get the same amount of money by losing just 3 kilograms. And you can get way a lot of more by maintaining your weight loss in 5 months. To encourage people to start a different lifestyle, the mayor announced that those people who manage to lose the initial weight will be rewarded another whooping 200 Euro (around US$ 268) if they can keep their weight in shape for another five months.

The mayor said that the motivation behind this program is to encourage people to do a group diet. It's hard to lose weight alone so it will be easier if they can do it in a group so they can encourage each other. Another growing concern is the healthy Mediterranean diet based foods which was popular in Italy is slowly losing popularity to processed foods. While the amount of money offered is not overly huge, the reward will motivate people to have a healthier lifestyle. Of course pizza may be losing its popularity in its homeland with this get paid to lose weight program.

Full story here.

Dieting for Men

2007-08-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately for men, women have had the dieting market cornered for about a century now. For some reason, dieting is understood as feminine and men who diet are often seen as effeminate. Real men are apparently supposed to eat big steaks and drink lots of beer. The problem is that these habits are unhealthy and will have a negative impact on your life.

If you’re a man and think you need to lose weight, don’t let the stereotypes stop you. Remember, heart attacks are killing men at record rates. Getting healthy is important, and worrying about what uneducated people think is not an excuse for being unhealthy. Trust me; the women in your life will love it if you’re around their whole lives. If the stereotype of dieting bothers you that much, just tell yourself that you’re getting healthy, not dieting.

The good news for men is that being healthy and being attractive line up much more closely than it does for women. For women, being attractive can sometimes mean being underweight and undernourished. For men, being attractive means being a healthy weight, eating right, and having great muscle tone.

Men tend to make three mistakes that, if corrected, will go a long way towards helping them get healthy and lose weight. First, they eat too much fat. Men love their red meat and they love their fast food. Cutting down significantly on red meat will cut down on fat intake and make calories a lot easier to burn. Substitute a nice lean chicken breast for a steak sometimes. Men should also cut out fast food from their diet altogether; it’s unhealthy and expensive and unsatisfying.

Second, men tend to drink too much beer. Women have their chocolate, men have their beer. This isn’t to say that men can’t have a beer once in awhile; if you’re going out with the guys on a Friday night it can be very relaxing to have a few cold ones. But if you’re just thirsty and sitting in front of the TV, grab a glass of water.

Third, and speaking of watching TV, men tend to get less active with age. Once they settle down with a wife, get a full-time job, and have a kid or two, exercise becomes a last priority. Increasing metabolism and building muscle tone are irreplaceable when it comes to losing weight and getting healthy. Getting a nice cardiovascular workout just two or three times a week will make a big difference in your life.

Dieting is not just a woman’s game, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Losing weight could be the single best thing you do this year because it could add many more years to your life. Don’t let the stereotypes about men and women get in the way of getting healthy and feeling good about yourself.

Eating Less Food Won't Make You Thinner

2007-08-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

I am suffering from a heavy fever and influenza right now so forgive me if I haven't dropped by your blog this week, I still need to rest. Perhaps my body suffered a breakdown due to the fact that I haven't had enough sleep again for the past few days.

Today's post will address the common misconception that people have in weight loss. When people gain weight, their initial reaction is usually to eat less food. Gaining weight is caused by eating too much food, right? It would make sense that eating less food would cause weight loss. While diets differ significantly, they never advocate eating more food. They always advocate eating less food. It might be difficult to eat less food than you’re accustomed to. However, if it’s the only way to lose weight, you know it will be worth it.

Unfortunately, the answer is not as simple as just eating less food. In other posts I have mentioned that one major key to weight loss is increasing your caloric expenditure to a level that is greater than your caloric intake. If your net balance of calories is negative, you will lose weight. Eating less does not necessarily accomplish this.

The human body is highly evolved and able to adapt to virtually any environmental change. If you start eating less food, your body will simply start burning fewer calories. Unless you’re intentional about the type of food you eat instead of simply the amount of food you eat, you’re unlikely to see the results that you are hoping for.

Surprisingly, most overweight people and thin people eat about the same amount of food. For instance, a 250 pound person probably does not eat twice as much food as a 125 pound person. The weight difference is probably related to the amount of fat that the 250 pound person eats in relation to the amount of fat the 125 pound person eats.

Fats are hard to metabolize, so eating them means that the calories included in the fat is less likely to be broken down by the body and used or flushed out as waste. The 125 pound person probably eats very little fat and has a diet high in easily-metabolized substances like complex carbohydrates.

Losing weight is a lesson in patience. You did not gain the weight over night and you won’t be able to shed the pounds over night, either. These days everyone is looking for the easy answer when it comes to weight loss. Whether it’s a miracle diet that supposedly doesn’t require any changes in your lifestyle or a diet pill that will make the fat melt away, some of the possibilities can sound very enticing. However, if you’ve tried any of them you probably already know that these are either temporary solutions or just absolute scams.

The best way to lose weight is simply to cut down the unusable calories in your diet by reducing your fat intake and increasing your caloric expenditure with regular exercise. Dieting without exercise is pointless when it comes to losing weight; your body will just compensate for the reduction in calories. You’ll be tired and lethargic, and stepping on the scale will still be a downer. If you’re serious about losing weight, you don’t need to eat less food; you just need to eat the right food and take care of your body. It may not be easy, but it will be effective!

Celebrities Diet: Use Common Sense

2007-08-13T02:52:00.000-07:00

Celebrities are often looked up to as dieting geniuses, since they are the ones that manage to stay fit and healthy despite a lot of stress and long hours of work. The best part about following a celebrity diet is that celebrities pay top dollar for nutrition advice, so keeping up to date on celebrity diets can tell you what works and what doesn’t. Surprisingly, many celebrities who have lovely figures don't adopt weird diets. Their diets are based on common sense, here are some of them:

Our first example is Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer is famous for her curvy body, but the diva still has to diet and exercise to keep fit. Interestingly enough, she isn’t an exercise mogul- instead, she watches what she eats. Jennifer claims to cut out carbohydrates from her diet to lose weight, and also stays away from alcohol or smoking. So far Jennifer’s efforts have not been in vain- she has kept the same curvy body that she has had since she first started in showbiz.
Lesson: Diet journal is handy.

Cutting carbohydrates doesn’t work for everyone, however. Jessica Simpson claims that when she tried the low-carb diet, she kept over eating to replace the lost carbohydrates. For Jessica, the main goal is to stay away from sugar. While it is hard to completely stay away from sugar, replacing sugar with substitutes such as Splenda in recipes makes all the difference for this pop star. As far as exercise goes, Jessica claims to do workout routines which include squats and lunges- certainly nothing too strenuous.
Lesson: Do the SOW.

The women of Hollywood aren’t the only dieters- the men have to adhere to guidelines too. Stars such as Brad Pitt have had to get in shape and lose weight for upcoming movies. Brad Pitt personally practiced a mix between cutting carbohydrates and replacing them with protein. With the added protein, Brad’s workout sessions were maximized in efficiency, and he was able to sculpt a body worthy of Hollywood’s attention. Things such as alcohol, smoking, or junk food were also cut- something Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez have in common.
Lesson: Sounds like a Mediterranean diet.

On the opposite side of the carbohydrate spectrum, we have Usher. Usher has the revered “six-pack” abs that most men try to go for. Instead of cutting carbohydrates, this celebrity actually added them to meals. Interestingly, Usher also does over 1,000 ab crunches each day- and follows a strict workout regimen. In fact, the better part of a day can easily be spent exercising for the popular celebrity- for which he attributes his success.
Lesson: I’d rather watch what I eat rather than doing 1,000 crunches.

From watching celebrities, dieters can get a good idea on what is good and what isn’t. Clearly, this case holds true with Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay is famous for losing a lot of weight over a very short amount of time, something that is considered very dangerous. She claims that she just grew out of the weight, but fans and critics claim that she may suffer from an eating disorder instead. Drugs and diet pills have also been suspected- but whatever the case, it is believed that Lindsay has gone the wrong way in the dieting scene- and it will most likely return to haunt her.
Lesson: Steer clear of diet pills unless you are advised to take it by medical professionals.

Staying on top of Hollywood means keeping the best possible body and appearance- surprisingly those celebrities adored diets are not anything wacky. The general consensus from the described celebrities above is to cut carbohydrates, refrain from smoking or drinking, and to stay away from diet pills. Diet is extremely simple outside Hollywood, just be active, sleep well and use your head when it comes to eating.

Freaky Friday: Diet Jar - No More Tempation

2007-08-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

We know how hard it is to ignore those chocolate bars and fancy candies when we are on a diet. The problem can be easily solved if you are living alone though, just don’t buy any stuffs which can potentially threaten your diet.

That’s not the case for people who are living with their family or worse, children. Surely your kids will scream in protest if you set the zero sugar policy in the house. Having zero calories sugar can be a solution also for some people if there’s any satisfactory zero calories sugar manufacturer who can ship to your area.

Bim Bam Banana has come up with a creative or impractical solution for that problem. This online unique gift shop sells Diet Jar which is intended to aid people with lack of self control. At a first glance, Diet Jar appears to be like a normal jar, but upon second glance you will notice the complicated lid on the top of the jar.

This diet jar has a built in timer the lid which you can set before you stow your precious candies inside. You can set how long you will stow your snacks before you can open it again. The nifty thing is, there will be shocking consequences if you decide to change your mind. Cheaters, be warned!

The website doesn’t list what exactly the consequence is, but my guess is that the jar will be locked for even longer period of time which means that I will achieve the same result by just throwing the snacks into the garbage bin. I have contacted the company to clarify on this matter; I will update this entry once I get any response.

This diet jar is priced at USD $42.00 at Bim Bam Banana. I don’t complain about the price but I do complain about the size. At the size of just a small jar, the diet jar can only hold a few candies or a few chocolate bars. If only they sell a bigger jar then I’d consider buying it. In addition to candies and chocolate bars, bulky chips and sugary biscuits are also the most common snacks found in a house. It would be nice if we can stow those sinful treats into this little jar.

In a nutshell, this diet jar is a good product which can be developed into a really useful product if they can produce bigger jar or compartment. Parents can use this compartment as a lunch box or treat for their children to prevent children from snacking before the specified time. People with lack of self control can use this compartment as a lunch box either. But those are just wishful thinking since at the moment Bim Bam Banana doesn’t sell any bigger diet jar.

Bim Bam Banana Official Website
Diet Jar Information

Past editions of Freaky Friday:
-Ray of Hope
-Diet Flavor Spray
-Pierce Your Ear to Lose Weight
-Alli: Pooping Sensation
-Not So Edible Chocolate Flower
-Geek-a-Cycle
-Diet Water
-Hula Chair
-Pet Fat
-Caffeine Pantyhose
-Cheese Burger Vacuum
-Sauna Sweat Suit

Technorati Tags: diet, jar

100 Mile Diet - Save the Environment

2007-08-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

The 100 Mile Diet has been started in 2005 but the urgency and importance of this diet is becoming more and more apparent in 2007. Alisa Smith and Jason MacKinnon was startled when they heard that the ingredients which average North American eats has traveled 1500 miles.

Both of them responded to this disturbing statistic by opting to buy their food and drink within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of their apartment.

Alisa and Jason have stated 13 purposes of 100 Mile diet in their website. In my opinion, the most important purpose of this diet is to preserve our environment. A typical food which traveled 1500 miles will need a considerable amount of fuel. Until now, the transportation industry still utilizes the limited fossil fuel as a main fuel. In addition to the depleting oil resource, transported food will surely contribute to the amount of pollution in our environment.

Few people took this idea seriously back in 2005 when the most serious threat we faced were hurricane and heat. But with the growing numbers of unusual natural phenomenons recently, we should realize that our environment has been badly damaged. Buenos Aires has the first snow in 90 years recently, Chile suffered a cold wave while Bangladesh had the worst flood in the recent years, South Africa is laden with heavy snowfall in July while people in East Europe suffered from extreme heat wave. The occurrences of unusual natural phenomenons keeps increasing. The chief culprit of these events is the increasing number of carbon dioxide emitted.

Doing the 100 mile diet may appear as insignificant in combating the global warming but if we keep doing it consistently then we will manage to spread the words. With more and more people doing this, the effect will be significant. A regional food in North America consists of 17 times less oil and gas than food transported across the country according to the founders. Just like what the founder said, local eating for a global change. Although I agree wholeheartedly with that tag line, a more suitable tag line for the 100 Mile Diet will be 'local eating for a global and waist change'.

Put it this way, consuming local foods will usually mean lesser processed foods. You will bound to eat fresher foods which are less laden with sugar and preservatives. That means that you will eventually become healthier and possibly thinner if you combine it with proper exercises.

100 Mile Diet is hard for some people and easy for some others. As for me, it's not that difficult since 70% of my foods are already grown and gathered nearby. I live in a city which is very close to the sea and farms, thus most of my foods already comply with the 100 Mile Diet. The only thing I need to do is to stop consuming those organic fruits and vegetables which are imported from China (mostly sold in Supermarket). Do you think 100 Mile Diet will have an impact in preserving our nature?

Technorati Tags: global warming, pollution, diet

100 Mile Diet Website: http://100milediet.org/home/

Kids Are Loving It !

2007-08-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

A recent study done by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in August highlighted the effect of fast food branding to Children's taste preferences. This is a surprising yet sad finding. The study took sixty three 3 - 5 years old children from low income family to test the effect of fast food branding. This study was timed well since it was held in wake of the obesity epidemic which is growing to an alarming rate.

The researchers asked the children to taste five different foods such as hamburger, carrots, milk (from grocery), chicken nuggets and french fries (from McD). Each food was divided into two parts and packaged with different wrappers. One with the brightly colored familiar golden arch wrapper and the others were covered in wrapper without the McDonalds logo.

Although obviously both foods in different wrappers were the same foods, most children said the foods wrapped in McDonalds wrapper tasted better. 77% said that the fries in McDonalds wrapper tasted better than the same fries wrapped in plain wrapper. While 54% children prefer carrot in McDonalds wrapper rather than the one in plain wrapper.

The study concluded that according to children, foods and drinks tasted better if they were from McDonalds. And the effects are greater to children who have television at home and children who were a regular customer in McDonalds.

The job of parents is becoming more tedious. In addition to battling the children from seeing inappropriate television programs, they have to stop children from being exposed excessively to fast food ads. And this can be a losing battle since we have no control over the advertisements displayed in the television. Perhaps the younger generation will be more addicted to fast food in the next 20 years or so. Is McDonalds the guilty party? What do you think?

The study is available in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Technorati Tags: obesity, Mcdonalds, child obesity

Is Wii Fit the Real Deal?

2007-08-07T01:51:00.000-07:00

Nintendo recently announced a new game and accessory to accompany an already impressive array of possibilities on its new Wii game console: Wii Fit. The actual product looks sort of like a scale without any weight display (which might already appeal to people who hate looking down to see that number). With Wii Fit, Nintendo is looking to become even more family-oriented by offering an add-on to a gaming console that has already been said to be lowering body fat in children across the nation.

The product, not slated for release until the beginning of 2008, uses an add-on called the Wii Balance Board. This add-on is pressure-sensitive and calibrated specifically to each individual who uses it. It is normally used by standing on it but can also be used by putting weight on it with different parts of the body. All told, Wii Fit can be used for aerobic exercise, muscle conditioning, yoga, balance games, and to measure key health indicators like BMI and Nintendo’s own Wii Fit Age.

The only concern about Wii Fit is that it may cost too much. Although the price has not been finalized, GameStop lists the product at $69.99. This is a full $20 more expensive than a normal Nintendo Wii game. At least one blogger wonders whether a $70 price tag will keep away the casual consumer.

I disagree. I’m excited for Wii Fit and applaud Nintendo’s health-conscious approach to their new gaming console. Consumers have to remember that Nintendo Wii is considered one of the most affordable gaming consoles available, and that $70 for one game is standard on most consoles even when add-ons need not be included.

Furthermore, the Wii Balance Board is unlike anything that has ever been available for the home consumer. Although I can’t claim a full understanding of Wii technology, it seems to me that the Balance Board is one step beyond the Wii Remote and that it is specifically designed for the health and wellness of the consumer (and the money of the owner of course).

Can you think of any other gaming company that gives two hoots about the health and wellness of their consumers? I didn’t think so. Until then, I’m willing to pay a few extra bucks to Nintendo. Of course I won’t place the responsibility of keeping my weight to Nintendo. Healthy eating and exercises are the main deal, Wii is just a bonus.

Technorati Tags: wii board

Images of the Wii Board are available at Gizmodo.
Source of the lovely image in this post: Go Nintendo

The Winnie Pooh Diet

2007-08-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

There's an old adage which says that the best lesson of life is taught in the children's story. Children’s stories are filled with a lot of memorable characters such as Peter Pan and Donald Duck. Almost all the children stories teach something about the importance of good deed or about caring for each other.

But actually there’s one Children cartoon which teaches something about healthy living. I am an avid fan of Winnie the Pooh since I was 10 years old until now and unconsciously that serial educates me about the importance of healthy living in a way.

1) Don’t Eat Too Much of One Thing
Yes, Winnie the Pooh is a lovable little bear. He’s cute. Basically, there’s nothing not to like about Winnie the Pooh. But let’s face it, he’s a little overweight. He’s probably about as many inches tall as around the waist, and what does his diet consist of? Honey. The only thing Winnie the Pooh eats is honey, and he eats a lot of it.

The truth is, it doesn’t matter how much you eat if you’re not practicing a healthy, balanced diet. You can eliminate all sorts of fat, sugar, and bad carbs from your diet, and you might lose weight. However, if you don’t maintain a healthy diet by eating a variety of foods that give you all the different vitamins and nutrients you need, you’ll be unhealthy no matter how much weight you lose. Don't be tempted by diets which suggest you to eat the same things everyday. You can get thinner, like I did, by consuming a large number of lemonade or cabbage soup everyday but you are in for a serious health risk if you force yourself to do that for a long period of time.

2) Get Energized!
Although not quite as down-trodden as Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh leads a pretty ho-hum lifestyle. He moves pretty slowly. Even when he gets excited, it still takes him awhile to get from one place to another. We don’t need to mention his bulging waist line again. If you’re going to be dieting, you need to get more energized than Pooh. The importance of getting energized is highlighted in the bodyclock diet guide which suggests a few simple steps to optimize our body metabolism so that we can have more energy thus a better life.

Dieting is a lifestyle change. It involves more than just changing what you put into your body, although that’s a huge part of it. It means caring about your future. It means getting excited about healthy living. Getting energized is a sort of renewable fuel for your diet; one day’s energy will multiply into the next day and help you stay motivated. I am still doing my Beer Belly resolution which involves 7 habits to get energized each day. Getting energized is also a great way to burn calories!

3) Get Support
While Pooh’s friends in the 100 Akre (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) Wood may not help him stay trim and fit, they do help him overcome plenty of other problems. Whether he’s out of honey, the weather is bad, or he’s nervous about Heffalumps and Woozles, Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, and Kanga are always there to lend him a helping hand.

You’ll need a support network as you try to stick to your diet as well. The best way to diet is to do it with someone else. They provide encouragement when it gets hard and a sense of accountability when you’re considering that extra helping of ice cream. If you’ve never tried it before, the Partner Diet might be the one that finally works for you.

Technorati Tags: winnie the pooh, diet, daily habit

Image from Wikipedia

Freaky Friday: Appear Skinnier with Sunscreen

2007-08-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

Dieting and exercise are not only two of the least exciting ways to lose weight, but they are also two of the only ways to lose weight safely. The advent of new products such as the “Bliss Ray of Hope” try to bank on the very fact that no one always has motivation to get out to the gym, or to even stick to strict diets. The makers of the product instead try to make weight loss as easy as applying sunscreen lotion.

When most people hear sunscreen lotion, they think of a product that protects the user from harmful ultra-violet rays. The makers of the Bliss Ray of Hope have started putting in certain ingredients, such as caffeine, to help tone your body temporarily while in the sun. For those who are already in the sun a lot, this may be a good application if only the lotion can last a little longer.

The first problem with the product is the guideline one must follow in order for it to work. A full 20 minutes should go by before sun exposure is given to get the best effect. This is itself isn’t much of a problem, but the fact that after every swim the lotion must be reapplied can be very annoying.

Even worse than this, is the fact that even sweating can diminish the effects of the lotion. The guide tells us to reapply this lotion every time we emerge from water or drench ourselves in sweat. Essentially, perfect weather conditions must be present- because who doesn’t sweat in the hot sun? Not to mention that the recommended reapplication is every 2 hours regardless of your body condition. From the looks of things, the bottle of lotion won’t last too long. Great! I will just pop from the water to apply this lotion every time I finish a swimming round.

Next we come to the actual principle of the lotion. The big downfall of the product is the lack of technological information and testing results. The company only gives a short description on how the lotion supposedly works- through tiny molecules that are activated through the sun. This isn’t much of a description, yet the makers of the product didn’t forget to add words such as “unleash”, “radical”, and “seductive” to its descriptions to entice readers nonetheless. I find it hards to understand if such descriptive words are used to explain the technical aspects of a product.

Lastly, it all comes down to the actual testing results of the product. The company gives no indication of what kind of results can be expected (no comparison pictures), or even any test results for that matter. This makes the skeptical wonder if the temporary skin tightening gained through this lotion is either very minimal, or something like the placebo effect. At over $20 per bottle, it’s hard to buy something that has no testimonials unless if you count two testimonials found in the website. One of them only repeat the description of the product without providing sound testimonial.

The Bliss Ray of Hope is a good idea in theory, but it just doesn’t deliver for me. Of course I will stick to the orthodox method of healthy eating and exercises to burn my fat and tighten my skin. The effect is more permanent and more visible compared to this temporary solution. While it is great to think of a product that works at tightening skin while you’re enjoying a little fun in the sun, it just isn’t practical. A good way to sell this stuff is by including this lotion in a bikini. Most people will be delighted to try it on. Of course they need to include a lot of bottles since one just doesn't seem to last long when the guideline tells us to reapply the lotion every two hours and every time the lotion is hampered by water.

Bliss Ray of Hope Site

Past editions of Freaky Friday:
-Diet Flavor Spray
-Pierce Your Ear to Lose Weight
-Alli: Pooping Sensation
-Not So Edible Chocolate Flower
-Geek-a-Cycle
-Diet Water
-Hula Chair
-Pet Fat
-Caffeine Pantyhose
-Cheese Burger Vacuum
-Sauna Sweat Suit

Technorati Tags: diet, sunscreen,
ray of hope

5 Frequently Asked Questions about Weight Loss

2007-08-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

After running this blog for two months, I started to receive a lot of questions about weight loss through my personal email (see contact page). While some of them ask about recipes and fad diets, there are a couple of questions which are asked numerous times. I assume that few people know about these five facts about weight loss since these questions were asked over and over again. Here are top five questions which were asked to me through email:

Question 1: Can you lose weight by cutting fat consumption?

Not necessarily! It’s important to remember that losing weight means reducing the number of calories you consume to a number less than the number of calories you burn. Fat is usually high in calories, and calories from fat are generally harder to burn than other types of calories. However, just because you have cut down on fat doesn’t mean you have cut down on calories. Plenty of low-fat foods that are marketed today are high in calories, and these are still calories you will need to burn off in order to lose weight.

Q 2: Will Increasing Protein Intake Increase Muscle Growth?

No it won't! Protein is an important part of your diet if you are looking to gain muscle, but too much protein will have the same effect as too much fat; the extra calories will be stored as fat. It’s important to remember that too much of anything good (even protein) will inevitably cause weight gain. Furthermore, muscle growth will never occur without an effective strength training program. Nobody ever bulked up just by eating lots of eggs and nuts.

Q 3: Is Walking Effective for Weight Loss?

Yes it is! Like any other physical activity, walking burns calories. Remember, the key to weight loss is reducing caloric intake and increasing caloric expenditure. A one-mile brisk walk (don’t just saunter) will burn as many as 100 calories, and five miles will burn at least 500 calories. It should take just over an hour, and a five mile walk every day will help you lose one pound per week all by itself.

Q 4: Can you lose weight significantly by consuming diet pill?

Some pills will make you lose weight, some won't. You know what they say: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While some weight loss drugs have been approved by the FDA, these drugs often have a number of serious side effects and should only be used for clinical obesity. Most diet drugs work by “tricking” the body into believing it isn’t hungry. You probably don’t like being tricked by others, so why would you want to be tricked by your own body? If you are considering using diet pills, be sure to consult a physician first.

Q 5: Will I Gain Weight if I consume Egg?

This is true! Eggs are high in cholesterol, but they are low in saturated fat and low in calories (75 in a hard-boiled egg). They also contain a wide variety of essential nutrients like vitamins A, D, and especially B12. The American Heart Association recommends consuming one egg every day, but one healthy egg is the key. Cooking eggs with high-fat butter, dousing them with salt, and making other unhealthy additions will offset the nutritional value of the egg.

French Diet: Portion Control is the Key

2007-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Remember a few years ago when that study came out that a glass of red wine every day was healthy? Remember when everyone thought they had suddenly solved the riddle about why French people eat so well and are so fit? That was bogus. Even if a glass of red wine every day is good for you, the answer isn’t that simple. But it isn’t a mystery, either.

Let’s face it; the French appreciate food, especially food that doesn’t seem so healthy. While it seems like this appreciation would make the French fatter, I think it really makes them thinner. Consider an American meal. We heat something up (or just go to the closest fast food joint), shovel it onto our plates, and then shovel it into our mouths before we know whether we’re full yet.

The French take their time preparing their food and they take their time eating it. They savor every bite. Guess what happens when you savor every bite. You realize that you’re full before you’ve stuffed yourself. The French eat smaller, more enjoyed portions. Similarly the Japanese diet also embraces the same issue.

The French also eat more of their food earlier in the day. One study showed that the French consumed as much as 60% of the calories for the day in two meals within the first six hours of the day. They snack less and eat smaller dinners than Americans do. They don’t go to bed with a belly full of food every night after pigging out in front of the TV for a few hours. They’ve already burned off most of the calories they consumed for the day.

Maybe the French have it right. Maybe it’s not about what you eat; maybe it’s about how you eat it. The French break every rule of American dieting. Rich cream sauces, red meat, lots of carbs, chocolate, and wine are everyday staples in a French diet. They’re obsessed with good food, not with the perfectly calibrated diet that could drive anyone crazy. They eat what they like in moderation. Maybe having a healthy relationship with food is actually the secret to losing weight and being healthier. Or maybe I am just trying to find excuse to gobble up this cake :)

The Raw Food Diet:: Start Small and Be Healthy

2007-07-31T06:01:00.000-07:00

Vegans, vegetarians, and organic food lovers are all celebrating the news on raw food diets. Apparently, the same type of food, such as a green pepper, is much healthier and easier to digest when it isn’t cooked. Not only is weight loss a result, but also healthier skin and more energy. The raw food diet is a great way to lose weight, but it can often be hard to stick to.

The problem with cooked food is that helpful enzymes are destroyed when the food is cooked over 116 degrees Fahrenheit. This eliminates most forms of cooking, such as frying or baking. The affected enzymes aid in digestion, keeps nutritional value of food intact, and also helps the absorption of such nutritional value. Not to mention that most processed foods contain food coloring and preservatives.

A study was undertaken that actually found out that the increased benefits of eating a strict diet of raw foods actually helped reduce risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Don’t worry if there are a few withdrawal symptoms when the diet is first started. Nausea or headaches may become common, but an undeniable craving for “real” cooked food is what destroys the diet for most hopeful dieters. This makes consistent use of the diet rather hard, but the diet is effective nonetheless- and getting past the withdrawal symptoms is possible. Once a good track record of only raw foods is eaten, sticking to it will be no problem at all.

The best way to go about enforcing the raw food diet is to know what to eat, and what not to eat. The bulk of foods that are good for the diet will come in the form of vegetables, fruits, and nuts. As for drinks, the same rules apply. Fresh fruit drinks or juices and purified water are great for the raw food dieter- but also more exotic things such as coconut milk, sushi and temaki are applicable. It is important to note that any type of foods bought for the raw food diet plan should be unprocessed, or else the purpose of the diet is ruined.

The human body has come a long way since raw food was the major source of intake- as critics remind all raw food dieters. The inclusion of stronger jaw bones, teeth, larger intestines, and other factors all suggest that cooked food is becoming a way of life for the common human being.

Critics also point out that the human body has its own digestive system, and that the extra enzymes are not necessarily needed that cooking food removes. Other critics claim that the raw food diet plan is largely based on the placebo effect. Whatever the case, many people have seen success from the diet plan that can’t just be ignored.

Deciding whether or not the raw food diet is best for you is as easy as trying it out- it is one of the easiest diet plans to start. No extreme knowledge of carbohydrates, protein, fats, or other factors in other diet plans aren’t necessarily needed.

In fact, it’s as easy as going to the local supermarket and finding fresh fruit, vegetables, beans, breads, or other unprocessed and organic foods. Since a lot of people worldwide have seen success with this diet regimen, it is well worth the try.

The easiest implementation of this diet is by incorporating two raw foods consumption daily. A good choice would be fresh fruits and unprocessed nuts in your daily meals as a start. Both taste quite well and fit into every meals that you usually have. Then gradually increase the consumption of raw fruits and vegetables for the first month. It's inexpensive and unrestrictive, one of the easy way to stay healthy and fit. Heck even if you don't make it, at least you will be tad healthier by consuming fresh fruits and nuts everyday in addition to your meal.