First and foremost, let’s think about breakfast. While there are those that will argue that eating breakfast isn’t necessary – at least from a weight-loss standpoint – the majority of health professionals will agree that eating something when you first wake up is necessary for energy, and to keep blood sugar levels stable from the get-go. But, it’s not simply eating that’s important; it’s what you eat, too.

A healthy breakfast that will keep your body in top function will be one that is lower on the glycemic index – meaning, if you are going to have carbs for breakfast, it shouldn’t consist only of simple sugars, or products that contain refined sugar. Whole grains, and fruits rich in fiber are great choices. Plus, if you can incorporate a little protein into your breakfast, that’s even better. Foods that digest slowly are ideal. Making these changes to your breakfast meal will provide sustained, even energy, rather than the highs and lows that your favorite doughnuts, danishes, and high sugar juices will provide.

Aside from avoiding “bad carb” at breakfast, or any other meal, for that matter, you should eat more often. Eating more often keeps your body in feeding mode, rather than shutting down the metabolism to conserve energy and store fat. Part of the reason you get tired during the day is not because you don’t have enough stored energy in the body, but because the body is getting mixed signals as to whether it should be burning or storing fat. If you eat more consistently, your body will function better and stay in a more constant fat-burning state, providing more energy throughout the day regardless of the number of calories actually ingested.

Lastly, it’s important to add more protein into your diet. Protein takes longer to digest, it slows down the digestion of simple carbohydrates, helps to stabilize blood sugar, and it is the building block upon which your muscle feeds and repairs itself. If you are already participating in some form of exercise, eating a significant amount of protein is essential. In addition to helping build muscle, however, protein also other benefits for your overall health. Protein helps build and repair all kinds of body tissues, including cartilage, skin, blood, and bone. In addition, protein is needed to help make hormones and enzymes, and it is key in the transportation of vitamin A from organs to cells.

If you avoid skipping breakfast, eat more often, try to avoid bad carbs, and incorporate more protein into your diet, you will inevitably end up healthier. These changes are easy to implement, so when you do, try to notice how much more energy you end up with.

The post Some Small Changes to Your Eating Habits Can Make a Big Difference in Your Health appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

When it comes to losing weight, the general consensus – after decades of research – is that a person should not skip breakfast. Eating a meal within the first couple hours of waking not only gives your body fuel, but it also reminds your body after a night-long fast that it’s not starving, and that it’s okay to burn some of those fat reserves you have stored on your body. Basically, by eating breakfast you are kicking your metabolism into gear, and setting the fat-burning rhythm for the rest of the day. In fact, a nutrition manager at Duke University Medical School’s Diet and Fitness Center, Elisabetta Politi, was quoted on WebMD with a similar statement, as well as noting that eating breakfast help to prevent “starvation eating” later in the day.

There are those who don’t agree with this, however. Some nutritionists and dieticians who work in the weight loss field believe you can actually skip breakfast. For instance, because many of Weight Watchers’ clients often mention that the cereal they would eat for breakfast actually made them hungrier, Weight Watchers’ philosophy is a little different. Senior nutritionist Maria Walls, RD (Registered Dietitian), is quoted on the Weight Watchers site as stating that you really “can skip breakfast and lose weight successfully.” She also adds: “What’s most important is the total number of PointsPlus® eaten over the course of the day.” This philosophy for weight loss clearly differs from what many others in the weight loss industry believe.

In addition to nutritionists and dieticians, some in the medical community have recently begun to change their course with regard to whether breakfast is actually important as well. A recent study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, set out to challenge the assertion that skipping breakfast was a deterrent for weight loss. What they found was interesting.

While most in the medical community still agree that skipping meals can affect your metabolism, the study at the University of Alabama revealed that it may not be eating a regular breakfast that helps lose weight, as much as regular consumption. Lead author of the study, Emily Dhurandhar, Ph.D., who is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior, stated: “We should try to understand why eating or skipping breakfast did not influence weight loss, despite evidence that breakfast may influence appetite and metabolism.”

So which is it? Which side should you believe? The problem with skipping breakfast lies in the fact that most people’s metabolism will not function as efficiently when meals are skipped – and those who skip breakfast tend to skip other meals on occasion, too. Plus, there is the problem of overeating if you neglect to eat regularly. But when it comes to breakfast alone, think about it: will you lose weight as quickly if you are leaving your body in its starvation mode for extended periods of time? Probably not.

So, if you are wondering whether or not it’s okay to skip breakfast, you are going to have to evaluate your eating habits on your own, as well as whether or not your are working with other health issues, like diabetes or hormonal problems. But as for a broad answer to the question, there are easy solutions that will allow you to keep you metabolism going and prevent overeating during other periods of the day:

1. Eat breakfast. If you are not hungry for breakfast, eat something small; and, if you find that eating cereal or other carbohydrates just makes you hungrier, then simply add a little protein to your breakfast or opt for a no-carb breakfast.

1. Try a no-carb breakfast. No-carb meals leave you full longer and don’t digest as quickly, so you have little chance of going through morning highs and lows. A large boiled egg is an easy on-the-go meal that will only dent your calorie count for about 70 calories.

1. Skip breakfast, but keep your meals regular. If you opt for skipping breakfast, make sure you eat regularly throughout the day to avoid the problem of “starvation eating.”

Regardless of whether you believe in skipping or eating breakfast, nearly everyone agrees that skipping meals can lead to overeating later in the day. So, if you want to skip it, it’s up to you. You should, however, keep other health concerns in mind and talk to your doctor if you have any health issues that might be affected by missing the “most important meal of the day.”

The post Maximizing Weight Loss: Is It Okay to Skip Breakfast in the Morning? appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

 

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Estimated calories consumed for week 42:  (15,955 Calories Total)

Day One, Sept. 15, Monday:   (2280 calories) Breakfast -2 Pepperoni Sticks -1 Slice of Bread 400 calories Lunch -8 Chicken Wings 480 calories Dinner -Big Sausage -1 Slice of Bread 320 calories Snacks -12 Chicken Wings -A&W Regular Fries -4 Jello Cup Packs (low cal) 1080 calories	Day Two, Sept. 16, Tuesday:  (1840 calories) Breakfast -12 Chicken Wings 720 calories Lunch -Rice with Chicken and Veggies 600 calories Dinner -2 Rice Crackers with Chocolate Peanut Butter 270 calories Snacks -Medium Banana -Medium Apple -10 Jello Cups 250 calories	Day Three, Sept. 17, Wednesday:   (2670 calories) Breakfast -Rice with 6 Chicken Wings 900 calories Lunch -Rice with Chicken Soup 700 calories Dinner -3 Italian Sausages 450 calories Snacks -2 Rice Crackers with Chocolate Peanut Butter -4 Chicken Wings -4 packs of Jello -2 Medium Apples 620 calories
Day Four, Sept. 18, Thursday:   (1580 calories) Breakfast -2 Medium Bananas 210 calories Lunch -2 Medium Bananas 210 calories Dinner -Rice with Curry Chicken 750 calories Snacks -3 Medium Bananas -1 Medium Apple 410 calories	Day Five, Sept. 19, Friday:  (2390 calories) Breakfast -2 Small Bananas -Lean Ground Beef with Salad and Salad Dressing 1180 calories Lunch -5 Chicken Wings 300 calories Dinner -Rice with Chicken Soup 750 calories   Snacks -2 Small Apples 160 calories	Day Six, Sept. 20, Saturday:  (1785 calories) Breakfast -Rice Cracker with Chocolate Peanut Butter 135 calories Lunch -Rice Cracker with Chocolate Peanut Butter 135 calories Dinner -Medium Apple -Taquito -Beer Batter Codfish -Chicken Cordon Bleu -Large Hot Chocolate 1180 calories Snacks -3 Small Apples 335 calories
Day Seven, Sept. 21, Sunday:   (3410 calories) Breakfast -1 Whole Chicken excluding half a breast 1800 calories Lunch -2 Medium Bananas 210 calories Dinner -Chinese Food, 2 Items 1000 calories Snacks -Large Hot Chocolate 400 calories

Net Calories Final(includes calories consumed & workout): (15,955 Calories)

Day One, Monday: 2280 calories
Day Two, Tuesday: 1840 calories
Day Three, Wednesday: 2670 calories
Day Four, Thursday: 1580 calories
Day Five, Friday: 2390 calories
Day Six, Saturday: 1785 calories
Day Seven, Sunday: 3410 calories
Weekly average: 2279 calories (On Track-Weight Loss)

Goals Achieved For This Week

I feel happy knowing that I stayed away from a lot of Chinese food this week. I actually almost eliminated all Chinese food if it weren’t for the last day on Sunday. I was really craving for some chow mien with beef and mushroom so I gave in and let my cravings take over. Bad me! However, I chose a two item combo instead of the regular 3 item combo so it was a slight improvement, that’s about 250-300 calories off that meal.

I had no fast food burgers the entire week because I actually defeated my cravings for them. In day 1, on Monday you can see that I had regular fries from A&W for my snack, in that time frame I actually wanted to order a full A&W meal which includes a burger and fries. While at the voice order machine I had a very long thought about the no fast food burger goal I created last week and suddenly became highly motivated to change my order to just regular fries. I won! After that day I was clean from fast food for the rest of the week. (Pats back)

As my goal for plenty of rest and fluids I guess it’s not actually a real goal since I simply achieved it. However it looks like my cold actually got a bit worse, it might actually be a virus.

Eating less was a failure for me as you can see I only consumed under 1800 calories in 2 days out of the week. It’s actually a bad idea to try and lose weight while you are sick, you need as much fluids and nutrition you can get to fight the horrible common cold. Not having enough can prolong the sickness.

My goal for consuming under 2400 calories daily was another failure…kind of. I am sick and I need as much nutrition and vitamins as possible to maintain my weight and to battle the bacteria or virus I have successfully. I needed to consume a maximum of 2400 calories a day which is the mark to maintain my weight but my daily calorie consumption was jumping all over the place. On Thursday I only munched on 1580 calories which is insufficient for the current state of my body. On Sunday I gobbled over 3400 calories which is more than enough to maintain my weight and fight my common cold.

Snack Pack Juicy Gels (Jello Cups)

You probably have heard of this snack before since they sell them everywhere and it’s mainly meant for kids. They are called Juicy Gels and it feels like jello, looks like jello, and tastes like jello and it comes in a small plastic cup. As you can see in my food diary table above and my last week’s food diary I’ve been consuming a lot of these cups. These jello cups have been around for a long time and originally it is full of sugar with bad calories…However a new kind of juicy gels came out, one that contains almost no sugar! Yes, that’s right! Reduced sugar.

The original gel packs contain a whopping 21 grams of sugar and 100 calories. The new gel packs with reduced sugar contains less than 1 grams of sugar and 5 calories! Yes 5 calories, that’s what I said! Instead of using real sugar for the sweet taste, they now use sucralose which is a zero-calorie sugar substitute.

Eating 1 original juicy gel cup is like eating 20 reduced sugar gel cups, and this is the reason why I eat these kinds! Not only do they have almost no sugar and very low calories but they also almost taste as good as the original ones.

Original Juicy Gel Cup	Reduced Sugar Juicy Gel Cup
100 Calories	5 Calories
26g Carbohydrates	1g Carbohydrates
21g Sugar	0g Sugar
0g Sucralose	39mg Sucralose(Low-Calorie Sugar Substitute)

Even if there are no health benefits for these gel cups, it is still a good way to to satisfy your cravings for sugary snacks!

The post Weight Loss Week 42 Results – 0.2 lbs Loss – New Weight: 211 lbs <a href="#text-12">*</a> appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

If you are someone who hasn’t really put in the time to decide if you really love running or not, you should know that it generally takes more that a week or so to be able to truly feel the benefits that running can provide. When you first begin, it’s usually not all that comfortable for those who are out of shape. Even if you are in decent cardiovascular condition, running is a different type of high that can only be appreciated when you’ve given this fantastic exercise option a chance.

Running can give you greater cardiovascular benefits than other forms of exercise, and it burns a significantly higher amount of calories than simply walking. Therefore, it will not only reduce your risk of internal diseases, but it can help you lower your blood pressure and help you lose weight. Still, there are a whole other set of seemly endless benefits that running can provide: namely, that fact that it improves mental attitude, and bone and joint conditions. That’s right, running might not be so bad for your knees after all.

In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), David Felson, a Boston University researcher, revealed that the long-term studies with runners didn’t show that runners produced any more of a risk of developing osteoarthritis that those who didn’t run, and that running didn’t appear to cause additional damage to knees. Felson stated:

“When we look at runners and follow them over time, we don’t find that their risk of developing osteoarthritis is any more than expected.”

Seeing long-term research like this may be a large surprise to many who were told that running is a high-impact pastime that is largely damaging to the knees, back, and joints; however, when exercising properly, the truth is that this isn’t the case for most people at all. In fact, not only is running good for you, but runners are often happier than those who perform minimal exercise. Perhaps this is because runners usually long to be outdoors as much as possible, where they can experience nature and get proper doses of vitamin D from the sun (which only improves mood and attitude even more), or it may just be because of the varying levels of stress relief that running can provide.

Want more relief? Run faster. Looking for a little clarity? A long, sustained, medium-paced run can do double-duty by allowing you to virtually hypnotize yourself with your patterned breathing and the sounds of your footsteps, while providing the endorphins you crave for improved attitude and a lighter mood.

While all exercise can relieve stress, help you lose weight, and help you live longer, there is just something about running that is different from everything else. If you haven’t given running a chance yet, you should. It’s probably one of the most addicting and most perfect exercises around. And,for those who are seeking a little escape while they improve their mental and physical health, this may be just what you have been looking for.

The post The Benefits of Running — It’s More Than Just Exercise appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

I remember this week well in the early summer days, my eczema was getting a bit better and I decided to skip a couple weeks from visiting the photo-therapy booth. From the 14th to the 26th of June. So these photos were taken after no new visits to the photo-therapy booth since June 10th which on that day was my 9th visit with a dose of 532 joules. If you have not seen the week 5 photos yet then you can find them here.

Week 6

(Photos taken on June 20, 2014)

As you can see, the eczema on my fingers has improved significantly compared to last week. The eczema on my pinky finger is actually almost all gone! There’s just a small little rash area on top which you can’t see well because of the dark shadows. I am using my phone camera to shoot this and it’s very hard to take a really good shot. My ring finger has become much better, it isn’t too dried and crusty like last week’s photo. Notice the round peeled skin and the redness on the lines of my finger? That was created due to excessive rubbing to relieve the extreme itchiness from my eczema. I rubbed it so hard to the point where I peeled a bit of skin off by accident, but I couldn’t stand it, it was too itchy, nothing could relieve it, no moisturizers, creams or or lotion. Now why did I rub instead of itch to relieve my finger? You probably guessed it right, I don’t want my fingers skinned! Haha. For my middle finger I had the same feeling of extreme itchiness, but luckily I didn’t rub any skin off.

For the fingers on my left hand you can see that there was a change. Take a look at the previous photo from week 5 and compare. It’s not as dried and flaky as before. The eczema is mostly prominent on the ring finger and on the top of my pinky finger. I never had the extreme itchiness that week compared to my other hand, but it was always fairly itchy.

A bit of an improvement for eczema on my mouth in some areas, however it got worse on the sides of my mouth. I really hate when this happens! Having eczema between the edges of your top and bottom lips. When I open my mouth to talk or eat, the sides would rip and hurt like crazy! No, chap sticks don’t help because it’s eczema! Usually years ago, before the narrowband treatment, the delicate skin on the edges of my lips would be all crusty and flaky which leads to cracked splitting skin, this would happen usually a couple times every month, and when winter comes by…Ouch! Boy, I hope you can imagine. For the skin area, below my bottom lip to the right, it has got a bit more clear. You can see some more clear areas on my chin as well.

For the neck from my week 5 photos notice anything different? A side from shaving my beard off! haha. My neck is more clearer and healthy looking, and If I remember correctly I don’t think I scratched it much

More pictures of my neck in different angles. Most of the flaky areas has disappeared. The neck on my skin actually felt a bit more tough compared to before.

After the 2 weeks away from the machine, let’s see what happens on the next update. If you have any questions, please do ask in the comments or email, I would love to hear from my readers, and don’t forget to share and subscribe!

The post Eczema Treatment Update – Week 6 <a href="#text-12">*</a> appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

Whether you have and Android or the latest iPhone, phone apps like MyFitnessPal (also available for Windows and Blackberry) and and Loseit! (just Android and iPhone) can help you stay on top of your diet plan by allowing you to track calories with ease. Each operates in much the same way. They both have you input the amount of weight you want to lose, and then provide you will a daily calorie amount to help you achieve your goal. From there, you enter everything you consume during the day, and it will basically track the food you enter and deduct it from your pre-determined daily calorie allowance.

If you exercise that day, that’s even better. Simply input your activity and the number of calories burned, and you can add bonus calories back into your allotment. Both apps also feature time-saving benefits, like the ability to scan bar codes for a more accurate calorie count. This means that if you eat a a muffin, you can scan the barcode on the packaging and it automatically enters the number of calories for that serving. When it comes to restaurants and recognizing the calories of menu items, however, MyFitnessPal seems to do a better job there — just search the restaurant of your choice and choose from their pre-loaded menu or individual item selection for fast entry.

Aside from keeping track of your calories, there are other apps available to help you further your weight loss goals. Apps like 7-Min Workout, Fitness Buddy, Cardio Buddy can all help you with your daily workout and fitness routines. The choices are fairly expansive when it comes to these apps, so all you have to do is look around and see what my fit your lifestyle and fitness needs best.

Lastly, you can take advantage of apps like Fooducate, which helps you to distinguish between “real” healthy food and the “healthy food” that seems healthy, but really isn’t. Just like the apps that count calories, Fooducate has a barcode scanning feature that allows you to scan the food and see Fooducate’s rating for that item. When health is paramount, and not just calories are in play, this app can really be an asset.

Although these are just a few apps that are available, they are all free. In fact, nearly all of the most popular apps that have to do with health and weight loss are all free — so there really is no reason not to take advantage of all that your smartphone has to offer. Download your favorite apps, and you will likely achiever your weight loss goals that much faster.

The post Smartphones and Dieting: How Phone Apps Can Help With Weight Loss appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

These photos were taken after my phot0therapy booth Visit #9, the dose was increased by 10% from 484 joules to 532 joules and I was in there for 3:42 minutes.

 Week 5

(Photos taken on June 13, 2014)

As I’m posting this now instead of on June 13th when these photos were taken I don’t remember too much other than my skin being very itchy and irritating. Compared to my week 4 update for my right hand you can see it getting better just a bit on all three fingers excluding the index finger which doesn’t have eczema on it. For my left hand fingers it seems more flaky and dried and you can still see the small little cut on my pinky finger from last week. I get these little cuts a lot from eczema. It’s when your eczema makes your skin very delicate and dry, when you curl your fingers the skin rips as it expands, and it doesn’t bleed but hurts like hell! It gets extremely itchy so band aids are out of the question, I try to moisturize it well as best as I can whenever possible, but even that doesn’t help sometimes since I would rub the lotion right off to relieve my itchy eczema cut.

The eczema on my mouth seems about the same after a week. It is actually a tiny bit better for the inside of my lips compared to the last week‘s photo. Also note that because of the prominent area of eczema on top of my mouth I am unable to grow a normal mustache. You can only see some mustache hair on the left and right side of my top lip.

My neck became worse for week 5. It was very irritating, you can see the irritating redness mostly on the throat and the left and right side of my neck. You can see the red sore area on the right, it shows some of my skin peeled off from all the itching. You can also see some flaky skin on the top right. I should have shaved on these days for a  more clearer look on my eczema. Luckily I do not have any eczema on my small beard so you aren’t missing much.

Here are more angles of the neck with eczema for an alternate view. Notice the new crusty skin that that my eczema turned into compared week 4. I really hated the really hot days when my eczema was active, if you suffer from eczema you would understand why! It stings very badly when the salty sweat covers your eczema cuts, the feeling is almost nearly as painful  as using rubbing alcohol to disinfect a cut from your skin and that hurts! imagine working out in a very hot day! Ouch! In the last pic above the brown mark on the right side of my neck is actually a beauty spot so don’t let it fool you haha.

The post Eczema Treatment Update – Week 5 <a href="#text-12">*</a> appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

For the new readers, I am currently on Narrowband UVB Phototherapy treatment for my eczema and it seems to be the only treatment that works so far after trying other numerous treatments and creams. You can find more information about this treatment from my old post here. I started the treatment in May and I’m still currently on it. Every time I go off the treatment my eczema will slowly come back, so this is unfortunately an ongoing treatment for me.

I have been taking a picture of some spots of my eczema everyday since early May and my plan was to make an update with those photos every week. Since I started the treatment on May and It’s now mid September I’ll do a one week update everyday to catch up.

You can see photos for week 0 & 1 here on May 13 & 19

and photos for week 2 & 3 here on May 23 & 30

Now for week 4 photos which were taken on June 6th.

Week 4

(Photos taken on June 6, 2014)

For week 4 so far I used the photo-therapy booth 8 times since I started the treatment on May.

Visit #7 the dose was increased by 10% from 400 joules to 440 joules and I was in there for 3:03 minutes. (It’s getting hot)

Visit #8 the dose was increased by 10% from 440 joules to 484 joules and the time was 3:22 minutes (It’s getting hotter)

The post Eczema Treatment Update – Week 4 <a href="#text-12">*</a> appeared first on Total Body Transformation.

Week 7 & 8

The post Diabetes Results – Week 7 & 8 – 12.7 mmol/L Overall Average <a href="#text-12">*</a> appeared first on Total Body Transformation.