Do you think that you are hungry because you’re fat, or are you fat because you’re hungry?

Hmmm…. this is no chicken-and-egg question. To some degree, at least, you are hungry because you’re fat. You have more body area and that means greater surface to radiate heat and call for calories.

So, here’s how to put a rein on your appetite starting today:

1. Stop eating while you’re still a little hungry.

2. Revise your eating habits and find something to distract you from thinking about food.

3. Find foods that requires slow chewing such as raw carrots, celery, etc

4. Don’t wash food down with water because drinking water with meals may wash down masses of half-chewed food and thus unconsciously step up your food intake instead.

5. Don’t be tricked by fancy foods such as an ice cream sundae topped off with nuts and whipped cream.

6. Learn to keep a count on calories and read the labels.

7. Place a variety of fruits in a fruit bowl on the coffee table instead of a box of chocolates, candies and pastries.

8. Don’t go without breakfast because that is not a smart move, you will put on weight instead!

With these eight ways you can now learn to take control of your health STARTING NOW…

What made me brought this question up is because of the video I came across which you can watch at the end of this post.

Anyway forward or backwards, walking will still be my favourite form of exercise and I believe it should be easily fit into anyone’s lifestyle. Walking as everyone knows is a low-impact form of exercise and is also one of the safest as it does not aggravate the structures of your lower back.

Why Walking promotes general health and longevity:

* Lowers blood pressure
* Reduces high cholesterol and improves blood lipid profile
* Reduces body fat as it improves metabolism
* Enhances mental well being, elevates good mood
* Increases bone density, hence helping to prevent osteoporosis
* Reduces the risk of cancer of the colon
* Reduces the risk of non insulin dependent diabetes
* Helps to control body weight and maintain it
* Helps osteoarthritis and reduces arthritis pain
* Helps with flexibility and co-ordination hence reducing the risk of falls

Studies have been done extensively and now supports the many benefits of regular walking.

Regular participation in physical activity (like walking) is associated with reduced mortality rates for both older and younger adults (US Dept of Health 1996). In other words, walkers live longer!

In particular, walking has a high impact on cardiovascular disease. Fit and active individuals have around half the risk of cardiovascular disease compared to unfit inactive people. This level of risk is similar to smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol in causing heart disease.

Fit walkers are less likely to fall and suffer injuries such as hip fractures because the bones are strengthened; less likely to sustain injury because joints have a better range of movement and muscles are more flexible; less prone
to depression and anxiety; tend to be good sleepers; and are better able to control body weight.

For general health, experts recommend accumulating a total of 30 minutes of brisk walking on most, preferably all days of the week.

(Sources: US Dept of Health 1996, UK Dept of Health 2000, Health Education Authority 1996)
(Sources: Davison & Grant 1993, US Dept of Health 1996, British Heart Foundation 2000)

In this video, this chap says he does backwalking and encourages it because apparently he claims that backwalking has improved his eyesight which is something new.

Anyone game to give it a try?

Since my last post on my caffeine experienced, a couple of my friends that I met up today, asked me what about drinking tea then?

Tea, I later found is a safer choice for me if I want something hot to drink and a pick-me up. Again which type of tea is taken into consideration. Presently, there are two types of tea I am taking…English Breakfast tea with rice milk or milk and macha green tea.

Since I change to drinking tea, I found I prefer to use loose tea leaves than tea bags. Part of the reason was I found that the tea bags has a sort of bitter chemical taste and was put off by the rusty like colouring floating on my milk. The other reason was I didn’t like the tea after a hot wash for there was no tea taste and flavour.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if these tea bags in the market are using inferior tea leaves because they are so broken up in tiny bits and pieces, and not only that, if the bags used are bleached. I don’t see it with the loose tea leaves and I get a kick when I see the tea leaves swell and open up in my tea pot, at the same time you can also sense the flavour and fragrancy of the tea leaves. I feel I’m drinking real tea as it tastes so much better and I don’t even need to add sugar!
Anyway, I have been wondering if tea bag tea releases more caffeine because the tea leaves have been cut up? Does anyone have any idea?

Many people especially women are looking for easy ways of weight loss. A large proportion of them start soup diet. In doing so, they rely on low fats soup all day. In addition to this, the south beach diet, developed by Miami is very effective for cardiac patients. Other than this you can even take black tea without milk. It burns fats and is also liked by many people.

I suppose it is better to learn to moderate our intake so it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. Sometimes, the best life hack is to hack yourself first :)! If really there isn’t an option, might as well learn to skip it entirely…but can I?

Dr. James D. Lane from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Duke University Medical Center released his findings and stated, “The body acts like it is continuously under stress. If your work day is already stressful, you can take control of it by reducing caffeine. Coffee may temporarily help someone through a work day, but in the long term, heavy coffee drinkers may be damaging their blood vessels or weakening their immune system.”

I drink coffee very, very occasionally now but I still remember the time when I had a hard time weaning off coffee.That was when I learned that my migraines were triggered by the caffeine from coffee. I used to drink about three cups a day, ok…, sometimes more, and I thought it wasn’t much at that time…. when especially it was a must have to start the day going. I was so addicted that if I didn’t have my first cuppa drink by a certain time, I would be moody and headachy, and biting somebody’s poor head off!
The day when I learned that my migraines have started to get worst and in need of more morphine treatment, I decided to quit coffee drinking, that made my GP happy alright. I remembered the terrible effects on me, I had the withdrawal symptoms; blinding headaches, brain fog, depressed, irritable, moody and the feeling of being lousy, to treat all these, I was given more drugs to help me through.

Doctors lay great emphasis on diets considering the non- nutritous food available in markets these days. Fast food and cheese items lead to fat and chubby bodies. Then people try to loose some weight. For this they may use hydroxycut. However if does not suit you, you can even use xenadrine. Other than this, the diet recommended to diabetic patients is known as diabetic diet. It is basically low in fat and high in dietary fiber. For dieting you can even take black coffee. However, the caffeine present in it may affect you as you are not taking any healthy food item. It may cause weakness and you may feel dizzy.

In those days, we have never even heard of detox and we didn’t have the means of reading research papers. With migraines, people used to make comments that it is all in the head…how ignorant people can get.

Now we realize and know what caffeine effects could do to our body:
=> It gives our body STRESS because it stimulates the adrenal glands to produce the classic “fight or flight” syndrome.
=> It is a DIURETIC so your calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and trace minerals, all essential elements necessary for good health are excreted through urine.
=> It DEHYDRATES you and so don’t forget to drink plenty of water
=> It RAISES your cholesterol, homocysteine, increases heart rate therefore elevate blood pressure, gives palpitations
=> It is highly ACIDIC and acidity is a problem in many conditions such as acid reflux, ulcers, and chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
=> Coffee is an IRRITANT to the bowel and the urinary tract causing problems for people who suffer from various conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome, and Interstitial Cystitis.
=> It INHIBITS absorption of some nutrients
=> A recent study has shown that coffee drinking is associated with raising inflammatory markers that are implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease.

By the way, don’t even think of drinking decaffeinated coffee. Its worst! Do you know that to decaffeinate they have to use a chemical called methylene chloride, a solvent used in the paint industry. Although the residue of this chemical is only in trace amounts, it seems to have an effect on the health of sensitive individuals.

But then life is short and the last couple of years, I have started to indulge myself a cuppa once in a blue, blue moon….the feeling?…EXHILARATING!!!

I attended the 3-day Internet Marketing Incubator 2 or IMI2 event at the Singapore Expo last weekend where there were about 400 to 500 attendees. There were about 16 speakers lined up, majority of them were foreigners, where besides pitching their products, they also gave out very good tips on how to be successful in internet marketing. I was most impressed with John Childers and Dr Mel Gill when they came on stage, they were awesome and I even managed to get Dr Gill’s CD on ‘The Wealth Accelerator’.

After the event ended, I decided to pop into Metro and checked what sales they have put on, seeing so many people buying especially the bedding stuff. Never seen so many different brands of standard pillows on sale that I thought of walking out, when one of the carts that displayed Gingko Pillow caught my attention. For many years I have had problems with pillows, either it is too soft or too hard, feather down, latex, foam, whatever material there is, I have tried and must have spent a fortune over the years for my head to rest. So imagine to my delight I have finally found a pillow that is shaped to support my head comfortably for the many nights to come.

Besides that, they have put gingko leaves on both sides of the pillow claiming the benefits of their properties, maybe partly for their marketing gimmick but to me, the importance is the support of the pillow that have the best cut. As we all know…to sleep in comfort with good support is one of the main priorities as it would greatly affect our overall health. So imagine, my past two nights’ sleep was heavenly and I did get to smell those gingko leaves. It helped or not, that am not too sure yet.

Amongst the vitamin world, many are important for health. Especially vitamin C is the most useful one. In addition to this niacin which is basically vitamin B3 plays important role in energy metabolism in the living cell. Blogging will provide you more information on this topic. The most interesting thing is that you will get to know people’s real experiences, not stories as in books.