Weight Loss Blogger

How To Motivate Yourself to Exercise?

2010-12-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

If you've following this blog and have read my "About Me" page, you'll know that I'm a big believer in addressing the root causes of my weight gain, instead of just dieting and exercise.

I've successfully addressed my root cause of overeating, and feel like I can now control my eating habits. But I still have trouble taking control of my exercise regimen. That is, I still have trouble getting myself motivated.

I've established "rules" for myself where I have to exercise, but there's no one other than myself to enforce those rules. How do you get motivated to enforce rules upon yourself?

There have been times, however, where I actually felt motivated to exercise. That is, I actually wanted to exercise. I assumed that if I continued to exercise, and lose weight, build muscle, I would feel more energetic, and feel ever more motivated to continue.

But it didn't happen that way. There are days when I feel like exercising, and days when I don't. It seems the days that I don't are increasing.

When I do exercise it's largely running through the neighborhood. I do have some hand weights and leg weights I used, and I do some sit-ups, crunches, and push-ups. But should I get a membership to a gym? Will that actually get me excited to exercise?

What do you do to get yourself motivated?

The Acai Berry Weight Loss Myth

2010-12-06T16:43:00.001-08:00

Do acai berries really help you lose weight? Can acai berries help you burn fat more quickly?

The short answer is no.

There is no weight loss magic with acai berries. It's all a myth to get you to buy up acai berry pills, acai berry drink mixes, etc. However, acai berries are still healthy to eat, full of antioxidants, you just won't lose any weight with them.

So how come there so many acai berry products on the market now? It's because of hype. Back in 2008, Oprah Winfrey and her show's physician, Dr. Mehmet Oz, talked about the acai berry, but never said it had weight loss properties, nor did she ever endorse acai berries. Yet several companies selling acai berries used Winfrey as a spokesperson, and that's how acai berry bandwagon took off.

Since then, Oprah Winfrey has sued some 40 companies for falsely using her name as an endorsement.

But the damage has been done. Now we have major brands like V8 Juice and Haagen Dazs, selling acai berry flavored products. We have ads all over the Internet, such as that "1 weird trick to lose belly fat", that tries to sell you acai berry pills.

Let's look at some facts...

100gm of acai berries, which is about 3.5 ounces, contains 533 calories.

100 gm of strawberries, on the other hand, contains 32 calories.

Acai berries are about 90% seed, 10% pulp.

You cannot buy fresh acai berries, only powdered acai. Acai berries are very fatty, about 50% of the berry is fat, and goes rancid within a day after picking.

Acai berries are rich in antioxidants, and are still a very healthy fruit to eat.

But so are strawberries, still rich in antioxidants, but far less costly, and readily available at any grocery store.

	Acai Berry, 100gm powder serving	Strawberries, 100gm fresh fruit
Calories	533	32
Carbs	52gm	8gm
Fiber	44gm	2gm
Protein	8gm	1gm
Fat	33gm	0gm

Source: Wikipedia, USDA Nutrient Database

Acai berries do contain a lot of fiber, and fiber will help burn extra calories in that your digestive system will expend energy trying to break down fiber. But you're also gaining a lot of calories eating acai berry. You're better off spending your money on strawberries, you'll still get a lot of antioxidants, but you won't gain much in calories.

And strawberries won't cost you as much money as acai berry pills.

Calories Burned in a Heart Beat

2010-11-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

How many calories are burned in a single heart beat?

From what data I could find from doing various Google searches, and based on my math, it appears the answer is 0.01 calories per beat.

This is based on data suggesting that a person weighing 150 pounds will burn about 500 calories sleeping in an eight hour period. I subtracted 100 calories from that due to muscles used in breathing, and rolling our bodies around in bed. Then I multiplied the remaining 400 calories by 3 to arrive at a full 24 hour period (1,200 calories).

I divided 1,200 calories by 103,680, which is how many times our heart beats in a day. That's for a healthy human being in a resting state, and is based on the accepted medical average of 72 beats per minute.

Hence, a normal healthy heart in a resting state should burn 1,036 calories per day. Or you could can round that number down to an even 1,000.

The formula I used for calculating how many calories burned in a heart beat...

Calories burned = calories burned by heart in 24 hour period / (pulse rate * 1,440)

"calories burned by heart in 24 hour period" is based on a resting state, and varies on a person's weight. A person weighing 150 pounds will typically burn 500 calories sleeping in an eight hour period. But about 20% of those calories (100) are consumed by breathing and moving around in bed. Hence For a 300 pound person, simply double those calories. For a 225 pound person, increase those calories by 1/2.

"pulse rate" for a normal healthy person is 72 beats per minute. Take your own pulse by touch or by monitor, and enter your figure here.

"1,440" is the number of minutes in a 24 hour period.

The Discipline In Sticking to a Diet

2010-11-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

This morning I posted an article on Beef Jerky Diet about how tough it is to stay the course on my weight loss efforts driven simply by a desire to stay healthy.

I compared myself with that of vegans, who have an ideology and a stable of vegan friends to help them stick to their lifestyle. I mentioned that I'm of the belief that even vegans still desire the smell and look of a rack of BBQ ribs simply because Mother Nature herself planted these triggers deep down inside of us, and is something we cannot rid ourselves of. But vegans seem to use their ideology and friends to convince themselves that eating meat is sinful.

It's like a religion.

But as for myself, I have no religion. I simply have a desire to stay healthy, and that desire is often trumped by another desire, to indulge myself with BBQ ribs, ice cream, beer, and everything else.

When you have two desires pitted against each other, and no ideology and no group of friends to pull you along, how do you make one desire win out over the other?

I think it starts with discipline in our childhood years.

Parents need to teach discipline to their kids. I don't mean by hitting them, but by placing value on good habits. Teaching them the value of work and reward, the value of being fit and trim, eating healthy, spending their time outdoors instead of indoors.

That's needed to build a foundation in people, and maybe that's what we're missing.

Debunking the Junk Food Diet

2010-11-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

The "junk food diet" is in the news recently, started by a professor of nutrition to prove a point that you can lose weight on the worse kinds of foods, but at what cost to your health?

Mark Haub, who teaches at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., told FoxNews.com he has lost 27 pounds in two months eating approximately 1,800 calories a day – and those calories came from foods like snack cakes, candy bars and even potato chips – basically anything he could get from a vending machine.

Source: Fox News

I wrote earlier that an average person weighing 150 pounds, and doing no exercise at all, will burn about 2,000 calories a day.

A 300 pound person will burn double those calories, about 4,000 calories a day, doing no exercise at all.

So obviously, if Mark Haub limits his diet to 1,800 calories, he's going to lose weight guaranteed no matter what he eats.

But some of that weight loss will come at the cost of muscle mass. Anytime, you limit your intake of foods, you also limit your intake of potassium. Potassium is what our cells are made of. Without it, our body cannot regenerate new cells. Hence what it does is rob muscle tissue for potassium to grow new cells for vital organs.

Unless of course, you eat lots of potato chips. Then you'll get plenty of potassium.

Still, eating lots of potato chips denies your body of other badly needed vitamins and minerals. Overall, you have to eat a balanced diet, take a vitamin supplement if you have to, and exercise. Exercise forces your body to retain muscle mass, and burn off fat instead.

Celery & Salsa Instead of Tortilla Chips

2010-11-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

I love salsa! For me, the hotter the better. And because I love salsa, I find myself eating a lot of tortilla chips.

And the important to consider there, is that I've been tortilla chips because I love salsa. That is, it's not that I love chips & salsa, I just love salsa. So, why I am eating the tortilla chips?

Enter celery.

Both celery and tortilla chips have little flavor of their own. The two are almost eaten with some kind of condiment. Chips usually go with salsa, while celery usually goes with ranch dressing or cream cheese.

But celery goes really well with salsa.

Lately, I've stopped buying tortilla chips in favor of celery. I started out buying whole stalks, but now I just get the packaged celery that's pre-cut and packed in water. It costs more to buy it that way, but it's more convenient for snacking.

Here's a comparison between celery and tortilla chips...

Typical Snacking (20 dips into salsa)
Tortilla Chips: 20 chips
Celery: 3 full size stalks, leaves cut off

Calories
20 Tortilla Chips: 490
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 30

Fiber
20 Tortilla Chips: 1gm
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 3gm

Carbohydrates
20 Tortilla Chips: 46gm
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 6gm

Fat
20 Tortilla Chips: 10gm
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 0.3gm

Potassium
20 Tortilla Chips: 171mg
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 499mg

Sodium
20 Tortilla Chips: 599mg
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 154mg

Most salsa contains between 5-7 calories per tablespoon. Each time I dip a tortilla chip or celery into salsa, I'm getting about 3/4 of a tablespoon. With 20 dips in a typical snacking episode, that's about 100 calories.

So if you add the tortilla chips, you're taking in about 600 calories. With celery, it's about 130 calories.

How To Lose a Pooch Belly

2010-10-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

The pooch belly is caused by excess visceral fat. Losing a pooch belly means simply to burn off that fat.

Visceral fat is the fat surrounding your internal organs. It's deep inside your body cavity, and over the years your body slowly adds more and more visceral fat. It's not to be confused with subcutaneous fat, which is the fat between your skin and muscle.

Women tend to accumulate visceral fat in their lower abdomen, hence creating the pooch belly. Men tend to carry it more evenly throughout their abdomen, giving them that bloated look.

The only way to burn off visceral fat is through intense physical activity, on a continuous basis. Moderate activity can prevent visceral fat from growing, but only intense activity will reduce it.

Visceral fat is the energy your body hoards as its last resort, so it's not going to utilize it unless it absolutely has to. You have to convince your body that in order to survive, you must use expend a lot of muscular activity, only then will it burn that fat and grow muscle tissue.

Intense physical activity would be jogging/running for 15-20 miles a week. It could be heavy weight lifting three to four times a week. It could be intense aerobic exercises four to five times a week.

A pooch belly is not just an embarrassing part of your physique, but it's dangerous to your health. It's full of hormones that eventually causes diabetes and cancer as you get older.

Eating in Front of a Computer Helps Cut Calories

2010-09-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

Eating in front of the computer while surfing the Internet seems to help me eat at a more slower, relaxed pace, and thereby actually cause me to eat less.

I've been comparing my eating habits between eating out at a restaurant versus eating in my home office, in front of the computer while I work. I found that sitting in a restaurant at a table, caused me to eat faster.

The reason is because I have nothing else to do, but eat. Also, the hustle and bustle of people walking by, the noise from the people, seemed to create a busy environment, which only created a more hurried frame of mind for me.

By contrast, in my home office, in front of a computer, everything is slower. I tend to take a bite, and then put my fork down and grab the mouse, or type the keyboard. I'll look at a webpage, read some text, and then take another bite. Two to five minutes might go by in between bites. And by the time I'm done with the meal, I feel more full and have no desire to eat more.

At a restaurant, a server might ask you for dessert, or a refill on your beverage, or you might get up to fill a second plate at the buffet.

If you do find yourself at a restaurant, take a newspaper or magazine with you and read while you eat. Or better yet, take the laptop and find a place with Wi-Fi.

Living In A Fat Culture

2010-08-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

The reason why I still find it a challenge to maintain a healthy weight is because I haven't changed my lifestyle.

I'm still in a culture of sedentary activity and high calorie food. That is, I'm having to tell myself to watch my calories and tell myself to exercise. I can't seem to get myself to where eating healthy and exercising regularly is a habit I don't think about.

I mean, the reason why I was able to go from 240 pounds to 150 pounds is because I took weight loss seriously. I took it so seriously, that I pushed myself to stick to a diet and exercise regularly.

But since I reached the 150 pound goal, I find it even more tough to maintain it.

Keeping that sense of seriousness is really hard to do. It took me about five years to go from 240 to 150, and most of that weight loss actually occurred in the last 18 months. But I have to spend the rest of my life maintaining this weight.

How does one keep that level of commitment for that long?

It's like they say, losing weight requires a change in lifestyle.

I think the reason why most people gain all the weight back is because losing the weight was only a temporary goal that satisfied an immediate desire. They were never able to transfer that desire into a lifelong commitment.

You just can't spend the rest of your life telling yourself to exercise. You have to instead turn exercise into a habit that you find too difficult to stop. You have to create a new way of life that breeds healthy eating and exercise.

Debunking the Myth of Detoxification

2010-08-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading an article by Simeon Margolis, M.D., Ph.D. entitled, "Detoxification: A Worthless Scam", in which he identifies several various whole body cleansing products and services and lays them all out as scams...

"Like many others, I believe that the accumulation of toxins in the body is a myth since the human body effectively eliminates "toxins" and waste products through the liver, kidneys, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, skin and immune system. So, I don't believe detox is necessary--or that it works."

This is pretty much what I've been told by two other physicians, including my current physician, as well as a physician I used to work for back in my old healthcare claims processing days.

My current physician told me that he has referred hundreds of people for a colonoscopy and not once did any of them show any layers of old fecal material stuck to their insides. I suppose if anyone knows the truth about colons becoming bloated out over years of sticky festering poop, a gastroenterologist would know.

I would not advise anyone forking over money to get an enema unless you happen to enjoy them, and you know a rather good-looking hydrotherapist. But all that waste material they show you washing out from your body is the just fresh fecal material that would have already passed had you given it time.

But there are certain other mythical body cleansers that don't really cost you big bucks, don't really harm you, and is actually healthy for you...

Lemons are said to cleanse the toxins from your liver. I don't quite believe that's true, but how could it hurt you physically or financially to squeeze some lemon juice into a bottle of water and drink?

Leafy, dark green vegetables are also said to detoxify your liver. If it works, great. If you eat enough of it, you might even fill yourself up with low calorie, high nutritious food, instead of junk.

I've heard that soups and herbal teas will remove toxins from your body. But it seems like all this does make you urinate more, and keep your colon hydrated enough to work efficiently. Yet, there's nothing wrong with a bowl of chicken soup and a cup of green tea.

Walking is also supposed to detoxify the body. But think about this. How many times have you read that exercise is necessary to promote healthy bowel movements? Pooping is just a more common way of saying "detoxification".

Probiotic supplements are said to build up a layer of "good bacteria" in our intestines that actually fight off the bad bugs and prevent toxins from being absorbed into the bloodstream. I can actually believe that, and have read a lot of material on this. But I don't advocate buying up any of the probiotic pills and powders, you'll only spend way too much money than you need to. In fact, this bacteria is already in us. All you have to do is feed it, and it feeds on inulin, a nutrient found in a variety of vegetables and grains. Eat your salads and whole wheat on a daily basis, and you'll have all the probiotics you'll ever need.

And lastly the best way to detoxify is just not consume any toxins in the first place. Stay away from alcohol, don't smoke, and eat all-natural and organic foods. If you can do that, then you're already far less toxic than 90% of the population.

How to Stop Sugar Cravings

2010-08-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned several times on this blog, sugar is the worst thing to consume if you're dieting.

Not only does it add more calories itself, but it slows down, and even stops the body from burning fat, creating a double-negative effect.

Here are my tips on how to stop sugar cravings...

Stopping the sugar craving is a matter of learning to love other foods. If you continue to eat sugary foods, all it will do is pacify the craving, and you'll never learn to control it.

Avoid non-sugar sweeteners like Splenda, Equal, or Sweet'N Low. These might satisfy your craving for sugar, but it will only keep you craving for more. What you want is to stop the craving altogther.

Train yourself to appreciate food for what it tastes like without sweeteners. Enjoy coffee black. Enjoy tea unsweetened. Eat french fries without ketchup.

Use lemon or lime concentrate for flavor. What I do is buy a couple cases of bottled water and squirt some lemon or lime into it for flavor. There's no added sugar or sweeteners in that stuff, just pure juice. I drink a few bottles of that every day.

Fruit for dessert. When that sweet tooth starts acting up reach for fresh fruit. Buy strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, grapefruit, mangoes, cantaloupe. In fact those fruit specifically have lower sugar levels than other fruit. But rely on any fresh fruit you like.

One advantage with fresh fruit is that you don't have to refrigerate them, and they taste just as good room temperature as they do cold. Keep them close to you on your desk, or sitting on the kitchen island to make them more convenient.

The temptation to buy cookies. If you're at the store and you see a package of cookies, or a box of doughnuts, or a pint of ice cream, and you find it too hard to resist buying, then fine buy it. BUT, the rule is that you have to also buy fresh fruit.

For every sugary food you buy, you have to buy a healthy alternative. At least you'll have a package of oranges, or a carton of strawberries there at your house, and if you're honest with yourself, you'll do yourself a favor and eat them.

Dessert at the restaurant. After a meal, always ask for a coffee, black. The coffee will give you something to put into your mouth, and the liquid will fill up whatever space you might have left in your stomach.

If you're with other people, make sure you are the first to order. Otherwise, if you hear your friends ordering an apple pie, or a fudge brownie, it'll only make it more difficult for you.

Use steak seasoning instead of steak sauce. Steak sauces all contain sugar, that's part of the reason why Americans love their steak sauces. Most steak seasonings, on the other hand, don't contain sugar. But always read the ingredients, some of them do.

Keep a bottle of seasoning when you eat a steak, and just sprinkle it on each piece.

If you find that a steak is too dry, then use guacamole, salsa, or hot sauce. These rarely ever contain sugar. If you think guacamole on steak sounds freakish, then imagine guacamole on a hamburger and you realize that it's actually pretty darn good.

Beer instead of wine. Wine contains sugar, and you'll soon realize that the reason why so many people drink wine is because of the sugar. Beer on the other hand contains very little, to absolutely no sugar. Stick with lighter colored beers, they typically have no sugar at all, and you'll actually find that a 12oz bottle of beer is lower in calories than a 5oz glass of wine.

Watch out for salad dressings. Most salad dressings contain sugar! Read the ingredients list and you'll find either sugar, cane juice, or corn syrup. Stick with salsa as a salad dressing. It has the salt that people love on their salads, but with no sugar and no fat.

Snack on pickles. Pickles don't contain sugar. In fact, pickles contain very few calories at all. They are, however, full of salt. But if you have the urge to snack, consider reaching for one.

Let your friends throw away junk food. Invite a friend to come over to your house and throw away all your junk food. Tell him or her to rummage through your pantry and refrigerator and toss out all the cookies, cakes, ice creams, sodas, and any other sugary bad boy they can find. Or if you think you're "man" enough, then toss them all out yourself.

You're first thought is that it's a waste of money to throw away food, even if it's junk food. But it's an even bigger waste of your health, to keep them.

Mission Carb Balance Tortillas

2010-08-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been eating these Mission Carb Balance whole wheat tortillas for breakfast.

They pack a whopping 21g of fiber per tortilla (in the large size), and if you consider that 25g of fiber is what the average person should consume each day, these tortillas pretty much keep your daily fiber intake regular.

They say that breakfast is the more important meal of the day for weight loss purposes. So I eat one of these tortillas for breakfast, plain with nothing on it.

As far as taste is concerned, they're not bad. They actually have a heavier wheat flavor than other whole wheat tortilla brands, and if you're a beer drinker like me, you tend to enjoy the flavor of grains, such as wheat. I don't put anything on these tortillas, just eat them plain.

Fiber is also a key component towards weight loss because it can't be digested. That is, the body still burns calories trying to break down fiber. So the more fiber you consume, the more your body is working, and that keeps your metabolism up.

These whole wheat tortillas are also pretty convenient for commuting to work in your car. Just roll one up and eat it while you drive. You can't do that with a bowl of oatmeal or cereal, and yet you're getting more fiber and whole wheat out of it.

You can pretty much find Mission Carb Balance Tortillas at most grocery stores. Make sure they are "whole wheat" because Mission sells a white flour variety in the Carb Balance line as well.

Hamburgers versus Hot Dogs

2010-08-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you're at a BBQ or picnic, and find yourself deluged with greasy burgers and hot dogs, which do you choose? The hot dog or the hamburger?

From a calorie standpoint, choose the hot dog, it's a little lower.

I did a lookup on the nutritional content of a standard sized pork frankfurter and hamburger patty...

Pork frankfurter, cooked, (3oz): 204 calories, 18g fat
Beef hamburger patty, cooked, (3oz): 251 calories, 19g fat

Hamburger bun: 120 calories
Hot dog bun: 110 calories

Of course you can skip the bun, which is what I typically do.

But from a health standpoint, the beef hamburger patty is better. It's typically free of preservatives and much lower in sodium. The frankfurter is loaded with preservatives and sodium.

Condiments

Stay away from ketchup and relish, they're both high in sugars. My advice is to stick with mustard for the least calorie impact.

If you're eating a hamburger patty without the bun, pour some salsa over it, that too is fat-free, and about as calorie-free as you get with a condiment.

If you're going to add the bun, but skip out on mayonnaise, then add a tomato slice to give it more moisture. Also add pickle slices and onions, if you like those, to give it more juice.

How to Keep Your Metabolism High

2010-08-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

Keeping your metabolism running high all day long will cause you to burn lots of calories. There are ways to do it, and below I've put together some tips that I use for myself...

First, remember that our bodies are constantly burning calories even though we may just be sitting or sleeping. A 150 pound person will burn about 2,000 calories a day doing mostly sitting and sleeping. A 200 pound person will burn about 2,900 calories, while a 300 pound person will burn about 4,000 calories.

Read, "How Many Calories Do You Burn In a Day?"

Eat constantly. But eat low calorie foods. When your digestive system has food to process, it burns calories and keeps your metabolism running high. Focus on fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and fresh meats, to keep the calorie intake down, and eat only small portions.

On the other hand, starving yourself will cause your body to lower its metabolism, and thereby burn fewer calories.

Read, "How to Lose Weight by Constantly Eating"

Do low impact exercises. It's better to walk for two hours than it is to lift heavy weights for 20 minutes. Anytime you exercise, even if its just low impact stuff, your metabolism increases. Therefore, the longer you exercise the longer your metabolism stays high. And even after you finish exercising, your metabolism continues to run high as you recouperate.

Read, "Length of Exercise is More Important".

Take hot baths. From my personal experience, soaking in a tub of hot water causes your heart to beat faster, which in turn causes your metabolism to go up. As your body temperature goes up, the heart works harder to push blood to your sweat glands. The water doesn't have to be scalding hot, just hot enough to break a sweat and get your heart pumping. Soak in the tub for just 30 minutes, and read a book while you're at it.

Read, "Lose Weight by Taking Hot Baths".

Eat more meat. Beef is actually a great weight loss food because it takes much longer to digest than fruit, vegetables, and grains. The longer your body is digesting food, the longer your metabolism stays high. But eat only lean meats, and don't add any steak sauce because most steak sauces and BBQ sauces contain sugar. Use hot sauce, or steak seasoning instead.

Read, "Eating Steak As a Diet Food".

Always eat breakfast. The very first thing you should do when wake up is eat something. It gets your digestive system working, and your metabolism running. Again, stay away from sugary cereals, sweetened oatmeal, or fruit juice. Instead, eat high fiber grains, fresh whole fruit, or eat a steak.

Read, "Eat More Meat for Breakfast".
Stay cold. It may not be comfortable, but when your body temperature drops below normal, your body starts burning calories to generate heat. That means your metabolism is running high. All cold weather animals, like sea otters, polar bears, penguins, all have high running metabolisms to keep their bodies warm, but as a result they have to keep eating. Our bodies work the same way, and you can use cold temperature to your benefit.

Get a full sleep. Sleeping actually burns lots of calories. A 150 pound person can burn about 500 calories in an eight hour sleep. A 300 pound person will burn double that. This is because sleep is when the body generates new cells and repairs damaged tissues. But make sure you get a full night's sleep to take advantage of it.

Read, "How Many Calories Do You Burn Sleeping?"

Drinking Beer Can Help Lose Weight

2010-08-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

A press release issued yesterday by organizers of the Great British Beer Festival says that drinking beer in moderation can help you lose weight, but only as a replacement to wine and other alcoholic drinks.

What constitutes the most calories in alcoholic drinks is the alcohol itself, and beer has the lowest alcohol...

"The major source of calories in any alcoholic drink is the alcohol itself, and because beer is the drinks category with the lowest average alcohol content it is also lowest in calories. Beer also contains no fat or cholesterol and very few free sugars."

Wine, which long has held a reputation that it's healthy to drink, actually contains far more sugars than beer, and far more alcohol.

You can read the press release here...
http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/634

Also read my previous article on this subject...
http://www.weightlossblogger.org/2009/12/losing-weight-with-beer.html

How to Find a Weight Loss Meetup Group

2010-06-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

One of the best tools to help you to stick to your diet and exercise regularly is to join a meetup group focused on weight loss.

Meetup.com is one of my favorite websites because it has thousands of meetup groups focused on a wide variety of topics, including weight loss.

Here's the link to their weight loss meetup groups...
http://weightloss.meetup.com/

Type in your zip code, and see what's close to home.

Find a group that's active, and join it. Most of these groups are free to join. Some of them are actually businesses that offer boot camps, or managed weight loss programs. But others are just folks like you that want to find friends that are willing to help each other.

Show up for the next meetup, and tap into the power of your peers to help you stick to your diet and exercise.

Sushi Diet Tips

2010-06-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

Sushi diet? Well certainly! If you already like sushi, and you can afford to dine out often, then you have a great restaurant option at your disposal that will help you lose some weight.

At it's basic form, sushi takes advantage of the "raw food diet", though still using cooked rice, giving you the full nutrient benefit of eating fish and vegetables.

And most sushi is very low in fat, and very low in sugar. But like with all foods, moderation is the key.

Here are some tips to maximize your sushi diet experience...

Avoid all sushi that incorporates mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is used in certain sushi rolls to create a creamy filling. California rolls are typical.

Avoid any sushi that uses cream cheese.

Avoid any sushi that uses a creamy sauce or condiment.

Avoid sushi containing any kind of sweetened ingredient, such as teriyaki sauce, or sweet bean paste (azuki).

Avoid deep fried sushi, or tempura sushi.

Focus on eating sushi with raw tuna or salmon. These fish are highest in omega-3 fatty acids. Better yet, order tuna or salmon sashimi, these are slices of raw fish without the rice.

Focus on sushi containing only raw ingredients: raw fish, and raw vegetables. Pickled ingredients are fine, such as pickled eggplant, or pickled radish.

Drink green tea with your sushi. Take a drink after eating each piece. Green tea raises your metabolism.

Order nigiri style sushi. This is simply a slice of fish, shrimp, or other seafood, laid on top of a wad of rice. This allows you to avoid eating the rice, or control how much rice you want to eat.

Order more tsukemono. This is just japanese style pickles, usually in the form of sliced cucumber. Eat a few slices after each piece of sushi. It'll help fill you up, it'll slow down your eating pace, and won't cost you anything extra.

Soy sauce and wasabi are excellent condiments for the sushi diet.

Always sit at the sushi bar. This allows you to talk to the sushi chef. Let him know that you want sushi without mayonnaise, without any kind of cream sauce, and without any sweet ingredients. Most sushi chefs have a wide variety of sushi recipes, beyond that which you can see on the menu, and are always happy to improvise something healthy.

Raw Food Diet Tips

2010-06-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

The raw food diet is a popular way to lose weight. You may not realize it, but you're probably already using this diet plan.

Anytime people go on a diet they tend to eat more raw fruits and vegetables. They eat more salads, more grapefruit, more apples.

The fact is that you don't have eat everything raw. It's OK to eat some cooked foods. There are no rules to a raw food diet. It simply means eating more raw foods than you normally do.

Here are some tips to getting used to a raw food diet...

Eat a balance of vegetables and fruit. Putting more emphasis on vegetables will simply make you crave more sugar and eat more fruit. And if you eat too much fruit, you'll only elevate your blood-sugar level, making it difficult to burn off fat.

Raw food doesn't mean avoiding seasoning. I love to eat raw tomatoes with salt. That's still a raw food diet. I also eat my salads with salsa for dressing, that's allowed too. In fact, fresh salsa is raw food.

In fact, use salt. In raw food diets, it's very easy to become sodium deficient. If you feel tired or lethargic, more than likely your blood pressure has become too low. Pour some salt in your hand and lick it up. You'll feel better almost immediately.

Raw food diet also requires protein. You need protein to prevent muscle loss. Eat plenty of nuts. Raw almonds are supposed to be the healthiest nuts for you.

Eat fruits and vegetables high in potassium. Potassium is what our cells are made of, and you need lots of potassium per day (3,500mg for women, 4,700mg for men). Without adequate potassium, your body will strip away muscle tissue and get the potassium from there. Tomatoes and potatoes are very high in potassium.

Avoid fruit juices. Fruit contains sugar, and when you drink 100% pure fruit juice, you end up consuming more fruit than if you were to eat whole fruit. Too much fruit will spike your blood sugar level and make your body stop burning fat.

Eat low sugar fruits. Not all fruits are high in sugar. Some are actually quite low. Strawberries happen to be one of them, and are high in vitamin C. Read my previous article on "Best Fruits for Weight Loss".

Use the USDA Nutrient Database. The USDA Nutrient Database will show you the nutrient content of just about every fruit, vegetable, nut, grain, meat there is. You can find out which foods are highest in fiber, highest in potassium, lowest in sugar, etc. It's been a big help for my weight loss efforts.

Sushi is good too! Technically, sushi contains cooked rice and is not really a raw food. But like I said above, you don't have to eat everything raw. It's ok to eat some cooked foods. So if you love sushi, look for sushi that contains only raw food (minus the rice). Avoid the fancy stuff with cream cheese, or anything fatty.

Debunking Myths of Natural Food Diets

2010-06-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

There are many articles out there suggesting that sticking to a "natural food diet" will make you lose weight more quickly.

In my own experience with dieting and weight loss, I've found this to be true, but not directly due to eating natural foods.

The predominantly accepted theory about natural food dieting is that by eliminating all the artificial ingredients, preservatives, and other man-made chemicals, the body can operate as Mother Nature intended, therefore metabolize more effectively.

In fact, I've listened to some people tell me personally that after they eliminated all the processed foods from their diet, and replaced them with fresh foods and/or organic foods, they lost weight more easily.

But in my case, I have not found this to be true.

In fact, I can't find any impartial studies that suggest this to be true or false.

However, what I've found is that when you eat more natural foods...

You consume less fat and sugar,

You get more vitamins,

You get more fiber,

And you actually exercise more.

Yeah, exercise more. That's because fresh fruits, vegetables and meats have to be prepared and cooked, instead of just microwaved or eaten straight out of the package. And with cooking always comes cleaning.

So, it's not that natural foods contains something magical that makes your body burn fat more quickly, it's just that you're consuming fewer calories, getting more nutrition, and more fiber.

As for processed foods, preservatives, and artificial ingredients? Well, I'm not saying they're totally safe. And I do think if you eliminated them from your diet you'll feel better and will probably find that the things that ailed you are now gone.

But on the question if natural food dieting will actually make you lose weight more quickly, I tend to think that it does not. It's simply the fact that natural foods are just lower in calories overall.

Do You Have To Exercise To Lose Weight?

2010-06-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

Lately there are articles getting published on high-profile news websites asking the question, "Do You Have To Exercise To Lose Weight?"

And they answer they give is that you do not.

Technically speaking, from my experience, that's true.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, "How Many Calories Do You Burn in a Day?" I said that if a 150 pound person spent almost their entire day sitting and sleeping, with no exercise, they will burn about 2,000 calories. And the heavier you are, the more calories you'll burn. A 200 pound person will burn about 2,900 calories.

So obviously if you consume fewer calories than that in a day, and stick to this every single day, you will lose weight guaranteed.

However, losing weight is the easy part. Keeping it off is the hard part.

To keep it off, you have to adopt a healthy lifestyle. You've heard this before.

A healthy lifestyle, of course, involves exercise. I don't need to explain why exercise is important.

All you need to do is walk.

You don't need to lift heavy weights, you don't need to join a gym, and you don't need to purchase expensive exercise equipment. Just some comfortable walking shoes is all you need.

Make it a regular habit to spend two hours walking around your neighborhood. Do this a minimum of twice a week. You have to make it a regular habit or else you will fail to create a healthy lifestyle.

If you take the belief that exercise is unnecessary towards losing weight, then that explains why you're overweight. You simply have the wrong attitude.

If you're serious about slimming down and staying slim, you know what you have to do.

400 Calorie Fix Diet Debunked

2010-06-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

The "400 Calorie Fix" is a diet plan from the editors of Prevention Magazine. The plan itself is revealed in a book that costs you $32.00.

The plan claims you'll lose 11 pounds in two weeks.

It's based on the concept of eating only 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day. They want you to break that up into three or four meals a day, each being about 400 calories each. The book is simply a bunch of recipes that you're supposed to cook and prepare yourself.

And they're calling the 400 Calorie Fix a "scientific breakthrough".

Wow.

I wrote earlier that the average person (weighing at 150 pounds) will burn about 2,000 calories a day, just by doing nothing. That is, if you spent most of your day sitting and sleeping, with just a few hours devoted to doing basic things, like brushing your teeth, taking a shower, cooking some food, you'll actually burn that many calories.

But if you weigh more than 150 pounds, you'll simply burn more calories. For example a 200 pound person will burn about 2,900 calories doing the same things.

So obviously the "400 Calorie Fix" is no miracle diet, and no scientific breakthrough. It's just based on the notion that the body already burns a minimum of 2,000 calories each day. As long as you consume less than that, you'll lose weight no matter what.

What it boils down is if you need to spend $32.00 for a collection of low-calorie recipes.

If you've followed my Beef Jerky Diet blog, you'll know I rely on a combination of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole wheat, and of course beef jerky as my daily diet. I'm not cooking at all. I simply eat the stuff plain largely because it's a lot easier that way, and because I've eaten it enough times that I've grown to love it that way.

That's all you really have to do.

So should buy the "400 Calorie Fix" diet book? In my opinion, no.

I think you'll end up looking through this book and realizing most of the recipes are stuff you won't feel enthusiastic about preparing anyways. I mean, if you're already full of enthusiasm, you would have lost your weight through exercise and eating fresh foods.

If you're like me, who needed an easy, more convenient way to lose weight, take a look at the tips I've written in this blog, that's what they're all designed to address.

Relaxing Your Belly Helps Lose Weight

2010-06-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

A funny thing I've noticed recently, that simply relaxing the muscles in my abdomen helps lose weight.

Over the years I've developed a habit of tightening the muscles in my abdomen anytime I'm standing up because it makes me look more fit and trim. I'm guessing this is true with just about everyone of one us.

But overtime, I find that I continue doing this even when I'm sitting down.

Over the same period I also noticed infrequent bowel movements (constipation), and have tried increasing my fiber intake, increasing my water, increasing exercise, but with little success. Then I noticed myself tightening my abdomen even while sitting.

Today I remind myself to keep my abdomen completely relaxed, at least when sitting down. I find that my digestion improves, and my bowel movements improve. Improved bowel movements of course will aid in weight loss simply because you're getting rid of material.

It doesn't have anything to do with metabolism or calorie burn, but it might help you shrink that belly and improve your overall health.

The Best Jerky For Weight Loss

2010-06-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

We all know that beef jerky makes for an excellent dieting snack because of its low calories, low fat, and low carbs. So what is the best brands of jerky out there to maximize your weight loss efforts?

Here are my picks...

Joe's Beef Jerky (Regular or Spicy) - Joe's comes in at lower 60 calories per serving, and is the lowest sodium jerky on the market, while also listing zero carbs and zero fat. In fact, it has no sugar added, only what trace amounts of sugar found in the worcestershire sauce marinade. And it's free of preservatives, and free of MSG. You'll also find it easy to chew.

Route 66 Beef Jerky (Regular or Green Chile) - Route 66 offers perhaps the most simplest, more purest beef jerky using only two ingredients: beef and salt. Otherwise, it's sugar free and carb free. It's also free of preservatives and free of MSG. It's rather bland tasting, though the Green Chile variety will add a touch more flavor. If you love thin sliced, crispy jerky, you'll like this stuff.

Gourmet Jerky (Turkey) - Gourmet Jerky has perhaps one of the best tasting turkey jerkies I've ever tried, and I've tried many brands. It's lower in calories at 70 per serving, it contains zero fat, and lists only 1 gram of carb per serving. It's also sugar free, preservative free, and no MSG, and lower in sodium than most other brands of turkey jerky.

Believe it or not, I've eaten over 200 brands of jerky (I love eat jerky), and to make it into this small list of "best jerky for weight loss", a jerky had to be sugar-free, low sodium, preservative-free, MSG-free, easy to eat, and still has a decent to good flavor.

Hot Sauce Diet & Weight Loss

2010-06-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

Pouring hot sauce on your food can help you burn more calories.

Specifically, any use of chile peppers to perk up the flavor and heat of your favorite food will give you a short term burst of calorie burn.

That's because chile peppers contains a chemical called "capsaicin". This is what makes chile peppers hot. Capsaicin has the effect of tricking your body into thinking that its temperature has increased, thus causing the heart to beat faster and pushing sweat out from your pores. This raises the metabolism and burns off some extra calories.

But the best thing about hot sauces is that most of them are as close to zero calorie as you can get with condiments. In fact, most hot sauces don't even contain sugar. So not only are you getting a condiment that burns off some calories, but adds no calories as well.

But always check the ingredients list and nutrition label when choosing a hot sauce. Make sure it contains no sugar (brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, honey).

I personally love hot sauce on just about anything. But I recommend it on steaks, eggs, salads, burgers, and even french fries.

Length of Exercise is More Important

2010-05-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

I've found that the amount of time spent exercising is more important than the level of strenuous activity.

That is, spending 120 minutes of low impact, easy exercise is more beneficial than 20 minutes of high impact, strenuous exercise.

The reason is because the longer you keep your metabolism running high, the better. I'm not saying this as a scientific fact, because I haven't studied this as a scientist. But that's been my observation under my own weight loss efforts.

It seems that when you exercise, you're burning calories in two ways. One is from the actual muscle exertion. But the second, is from elevating your metabolism. And that elevated metabolism seems to have a greater impact than the actual physical exertion.

So, once your exercising has stopped, your muscles are no longer expending calories. However, your metabolism is still running high, and will probably continue to run high for several hours afterwards. If you can manage to add more time to the exercise itself, then you're also extending the high metabolism. Hence, it's better to do a low impact exercise for 120 minutes than it is to do a high impact exercise for 20 minutes.

I'll caution you again, I've haven't evaluated this as fact, only as my observation.

Perhaps you can try observing this as well. But I think it makes sense.

If anything, this should at least encourage you to do any kind of exercise, and certainly the more time you spend exercising, the better.