Weight Loss & Nutrition

The Letter H. Holistic Health Wellness is more than just your body. Holistic health involves your body, mind and spirit. We are complicated beings with many interconnected aspects.  Enjoy a balanced life.  I’m sure there are lots of different definitions – see if this one suits you. Mind – Your mental, emotional thoughts. Soul – [...]

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“Health – A to Z” -  The Letter G Garlic Low in calories, high in health benefits. Garlic has anti-Inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties. GI Glycemic Index describes this difference by ranking carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. Choosing low GI carbs – the ones that produce only small fluctuations in [...]

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“Health – A to Z” – The Letter F Fiber Yep, we’re back to talking about the colon. Dietary fiber assists in speeding up the transit time of waste through the large intestine, maintaining regular bowel movements without straining. See Flax Seed below. Filter Get a good water filter. A good one will filter out [...]

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“Health – A to Z” – The Letter E Energy We are energy. All life is energy. Our bodies generate electric current. Our cells are like mini batteries. The food we eat is fuel for our energy producing furnace. Energy is used in healing with some practitioners using their “healing hands”. Like all matter, the [...]

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“Health – A to Z” -  The Letter D. detoxify We are subjected to an ever increasing number of chemicals in our daily lives. Think about everything you eat (try to eat organically grown food), drink (get a water purifier) and breathe (get a air purifier for your home). Think about reducing dry-cleaning, using natural [...]

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“Health – A to Z” – The Letter C. Chocolate The higher the percentage of cocoa solids the more antioxidants are present – look for dark chocolate with over 70% cocoa solids. Cleansing I’m talking about elimination of bodily wastes here. If you can’t lose that lower tummy bulge then chances are that you’re carrying [...]

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“Health – A to Z” – The Letter B Beta-Carotene The natural orange color in fruits and vegetables, a sign of high antioxidants. Boost What you need to do to your immune system to ward off illness and disease. Blueberries

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This is Part A of my new Information Series “Health – A to Z”. I don’t focus on problems, I DO focus on solutions and information.  Feel free to join in the conversation and add your own comments and additions on each post under the relevant letter. Absorption We are not what we eat, we [...]

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Part 10 – Be More Active Move more. Even when at home, on the phone or anywhere do whatever you can to move more. Every little bit counts, so move anytime you get the opportunity or better still make your own opportunities.

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Part 9 – Take Advantage of the “After Burn” from Moderate Exercise The Medical Journalist in the BBC TV program hated exercise, but he was tested after exercising on a treadmill (at brisk walking pace).  The test showed he used up a small amount of body fat after the exercise, initially he was disappointed. The [...]

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Part 8 – High Calcium Dairy products Help Excrete Fat This one is interesting as many people cut our dairy products when dieting. According to the science, compared to a low-calcium intake a high calcium intake increases the excretion of fat in the faeces. This means the more dairy calcium you include in your diet [...]

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Part 7 – Variety – Friend or Foe? It seems we are hardwired to prefer variety, if we see lots of choices we like to sample them all.  This can cause us to overeat – so beware the buffet restaurant – you’ll probably overeat by 30% or more. Of course variety in your diet is [...]

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Part 6 – Eat Healthy Soup The BBC program used sophisticated equipment like an ultrasound to demonstrate how eating soup can make you feel fuller for longer, giving a longer period of satisfaction between meals. They gave two groups of Army recruits the same meal consisting of rice, vegetables, chicken and a glass of water [...]

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Part 5 – Eat Lean Protein Including lean protein into your meals satisfies your hunger for longer. You feel full longer and there eat less. Why? When we eat our digestive system produces a hormone called PYY which is released into the bloodstream. This hormone informs a part of our brain that we have eaten [...]

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Part 3 – Count Your Calorie Intake Keep it simple. What do I mean? Take coffee for example, those fancy flavored cappuccinos have lots of things added, flavor, sugar, milk which all add to their calorie count – the worst I have seen is a Coffee, Mocha, White Chocolate, Skimmed, Whip, Tall from Starbucks with [...]

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Part 4 – Don’t Blame Your Metabolism Chances are you have a perfectly normal metabolism  – most of us do. It’s just that we love to blame something we feel is out of our control. Even if you have a healthy diet you may be consuming too many calories due to excessive portion sizes – [...]

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Part 2 – Use Smaller Plates This is part 2 of a series of articles inspired by the BBC1 TV program hosted by Michael Mosely. Using smaller plates seems an extremely simplistic idea. Surely our logic will override the visual? It seems not, the program detailed a study of the popcorn consumption of  people given [...]

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Part 1 – Don’t Skip Meals Recently the BBC produced a TV program with some interesting new insights into how to lose weight.  Their scientific approach helps us understand how our ingrained primitive instincts and natural bodily reactions affect our food choices and eating habits. People think that skipping  a meal means simply because fewer [...]

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Your hunger is probably actually dehydration… Drink lots of water. Pure filtered water is best. I don’t recommend (or buy) bottled water. A large percentage of our body is water. We need water for all our bodily functions to operate properly. Water lubricates our digestive system, water helps us regulate our temperature. Without water we [...]

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Just a little bit… I love chocolate. I get chocolate cravings. Problem is that eating lots of chocolate doesn’t seem to make the cravings go away. So recognizing this, rather than eating a whole heap of chocolate at once, I buy either choc chip cookies or a bar of chocolate and have a single piece [...]

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