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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.)

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.