What happens to bands when you exercise?

Just a query really chapettes...?

I have been to the Gym 4 times now with my matey TB. 

Our first day was 28th January. I did my workout while TB had her induction into all things Gym, then we went for a coffee after. We went back to her place and she made em a lunch Broccoli and Stilton soup. Mmmm.

Then I had my fill on Saturday (0.5mls) and my unfill on Sunday (0.2mls).

On Monday we went to the gym again and worked out exactly the same but could not eat lunch - soup - at TB's house.

On Wednesday we went to the gym again and worked out exactly the same but could not eat lunch - soup again or even drink coffee.

Today we went to the gym, did our workout as usual and about 15 to 20 minutes afterward I couldn't drink any more of my juice.

Every time we go I drink whilst I am exercising - Berocca being a favorite as then I know I have had my vitamins, water or squash. There is no problem with that at all. But by the time we have got in the car and driven home about 7 minutes away, I cant drink/eat!

I am wondering if any of you babes have noticed this too?

I am also wondering if it has anything to do with the Power Plate? It says on the notice that you should have drunk plenty of water prior to using it - which I have, but think that's a bit of an odd thing to ask for so wondering what the bearing of drinking water has to do with the Power Plate.

I use the power plate at the end of every workout to massage my back, massage thighs, calves and inner thighs so that I don't ache and it works SO well.

So any of you get that or use the Power plate?

Skinny Stuffed Artichokes

A Calories Bomb Slims Down

We’ve turned stuffed artichokes, the classic fat-packed appetizer, into a hearty, healthy recipe for weight loss.

Serves: 4

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Before: 617 Calories, 44 Grams of fat

After: 345 Calories, 18 Grams of fat

Ingredients for recipe

• 4 large globe artichokes, stems and discard
  
  


• 2 lemons, 1 cut in half, 1 juiced
  
  


• ⅔ cup bulgur
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
  


• 1½ cup low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
  
  


• 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
  
  


• 2 cup spinach, coarsely chopped
  
  


• ½ cup crumbled feta
  
  


• ¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
  
  


• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  
  


• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
  


• 2 tablespoon olive oil
  
  

Preparing

• Bring a large-size pot of water to a boil. Slice off the top inch of 1 artichoke. Cut off the sharp tip of each leaf with kitchen shears. Separate leaves and pull out enough from the center to reveal the fuzzy choke. Scoop out choke with a teaspoon and squeeze some juice from 1 lemon half into the cavity, then use the other lemon half to rub the artichoke all over to prevent discoloration. Repeat with remaining artichokes.
  
  


• Pour lemon juice into the boiling water; add artichokes. Cook until tender (about 25 minutes). Meanwhile, place bulgur and garlic in a heatproof bowl. Bring 1 cup vegetable broth to a boil; pour over bulgur. Cover and let sit until liquid is absorbed (about 30 minutes). Mix carrots, spinach, crumbled feta, pine nuts, oregano, black pepper in bowl.
  
  


• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  
  


• Drain cooked artichokes on paper towels for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking dish. Spoon the bulgur stuffing into each artichoke cavity, then pull the leaves apart and fill the spaces between them. Pour remaining ½ cup broth into bottom of dish.
  
  


• Drizzle oil over artichokes. Bake until heated through (about 20 minutes).
  
  

Nutrition Score per serving:

(1 artichoke; 1½ cups filling):

345 calories, 18 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 40 g carbs, 14 g protein, 163 mg calcium, 4 mg iron, 374 mg sodium

losing weight slowly..... why?

If you notice the advertisements for weight loss, you would see that they all concentrate on how to lose weight fast. This is because all want to lose weight fast—so fast indeed that things like fad diets have been invented just to cater to the “needs” of these people. There are some reasons why a person would want to lose weight fast. It might be because they’re getting married (I’d look so fat in my wedding dress!) or they’re attending a high school reunion (what would my class think?). Let me tell you though that losing weight quickly is never ideal, and here are some reasons why.
IT’S UNHEALTHY
Losing weight quickly such as going through fad diets will cut your system off fat, but also from vitamins and nutrients. When you lose weight, it’s not ideal to just shed the pounds off; you also need to develop your muscles to ensure a healthy and fit body. Some people want to be supermodel- thin, but that may not be the idea. Losing weight without developing your muscles may be too much for your system, and you might end up sick because of being underweight.
KEEPING A FIT BODY TAKES A LIFETIME COMMITMENT
People who goes through fad diets think that they could starve themselves for a few weeks and get to stay sexy forever—there’s no way that this will ever happen. There’s just no way that you can go on a diet for a couple of weeks and stay slim all your life. If you’re serious about having a fit and sexy body, you’d need to work out a few hours per week and follow a healthy eating pattern. It’s about eating right than eating less. Following a healthy eating pattern is a problem for a lot of people, but this is the only way that you’d have a fit body and stay healthy at the same time.
METABOLISM IS A FACTOR
Metabolism is when your body burns off fat. The faster your metabolism is, the faster it is for your body to lose weight. When you rapidly lose weight, your metabolism also slows down. This is a fact, which is why losing weight quickly also means you’d gain the weight back after a few weeks. This is why it’s better to let your metabolism adjust to how your body loses weight rather than shock it and gain the weight you just lost.

Couscous Primavera For Vegetarian

Serve 4

Prep time: 15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients for recipe

• 1¼ cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  
  


• 2 teaspoons butter
  
  


• 1 cup whole-wheat couscous
  
  


• 3 thin stalks rhubarb, cut into ½” pieces (asparagus and rhubarb are top sources of antioxidants)
  
  


• 1 bunch thin asparagus, cut into 1½” pieces
  
  


• 1 tablespoon shallot, minced
  
  


• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  
  


• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  
  


• 2 tablespoon olive oil
  
  


• 1½ tablespoon honey
  
  


• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
  


• ¼ cup toasted slivered almonds
  
  

Preparing

• Preheat oven to 425 degree F. In a medium-size saucepan, bring vegetable broth and butter to a boil. Stir couscous into broth, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for about 5 minutes.
  
  


• In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine rhubarb, asparagus, shallot, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and black pepper. Place mixture on a nonstick baking sheet and roast until asparagus is tender and rhubarb is just about to fall apart (about 6-8 minutes).
  
  


• Fluff couscous with a fork and gently toss with the rhubarb mixture. Divide among 4 plates and top each serving with 1 tablespoon toasted almonds. Garnish with additional lemon zest
  
  

Nutrition score per serving:

(1¾ cups): 389 calories, 13 g fat, 2 g sat fat, 61 g carbs, 12 g protein, 11 g fiber, 117 mg calcium, 4 mg iron, 63 mg sodium

TIP: Chop leftover rhubarb into ½” pieces, seat in plastic zip-top bags, and freeze for up to 6 months.

I'm Freezing! Why are we so cold after weight loss?

Happy Groundhog Day everyone! Temperatures across North America today are ridiculously cold! Are you staying warm? After significant weight loss many of us struggle with body temperature regulation and truly suffer when cold weather hits. There are some very good biological reasons for this - take a look:


I'm Freezing! Why are we so cold after weight loss?
Body temperature is the result of your

A Better Way To Get Your Vitamins

Most women don’t meet their nutritional needs through diet alone, which is why supplementing is key. But with so many options available—tablets, liquids, fizzes, and more—it’s hard to know what to take. We asked top experts for the scoop.

SHOULD YOU POP THEM?

Taking a daily pill is an easy way to get 100 percent of the recommended daily allowance of many disease-fighting vitamins and minerals, like folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin D, and selenium. Tablets are usually the cheapest, but if you have a hard time swallowing them or they upset your stomach, it may be worth spending a little extra on capsules (either soft gel or powder) or enteric tablets, which have a coating designed to break down in the small intestine, not the stomach. Don’t, however, fall for “fast-absorbing” claims. Unlike painkillers or heartburn medication, it doesn’t matter how quickly vitamins and minerals are broken down in the body. In fact, for some nutrients, fast absorption could be a drawback.

     But even the priciest capsules in the world won’t do much good if you don’t take them the right way. “Pair multis and calcium pills with food to fend off possible stomach irritation and, in some cases, enhance absorption,” says Roberta Anding, R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association who is based in Houston. (Other nutrients, such as iron, may be better digested on an empty stomach.)

     If you’re sipping coffee, tea, or wine with your meal, wait 15 minutes before taking your supplement. “These beverages contain compounds called tannins, which can block the uptake of certain nutrients,” explains Duffy MacKay, the vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition in Washington, D.C. Caffeine also speeds up the gastrointestinal tract, so your body may not have a chance to digest all the nutrients.

TIP: When swallowing a pill. Look down your nose instead of tilting your head back. This helps wash it down, so it won’t get stuck in your throat.

SHOULD YOU SIP OR EAT THEM?

From breakfast cereals and energy bars to flavored waters and juices, supermarket and health food store shelves are packed with products fortified with vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, and other nutrients. “You can use these foods and beverages to shore up your diet,” says Anding. And they’re a good choice for people who don’t like taking pills.

     But do keep track of how many fortified foods you eat throughout the day, especially if you’re also taking a multi or another supplement. In that case, you might run the risk of exceeding the upper limits for certain nutrients. For instance, getting more than 2,500 milligrams of calcium a day can lead to kidney stones. Other nutrients you can overdo it on include iron (consume no more than 45 milligrams per day), zinc (40 milligrams), and vitamin A (10,000 international units).

     If you decide to skip the pills entirely and go the fortified food route, read labels carefully and pick products that have nutritional advantages--for example, calcium-enriched orange juice or a whole-grain cereal, like total. Other good choices include PowerBar ProteinPlus Reduced Sugar and vitaminwater zero, which is made with Truvia, a no-calorie stevia-based natural sweetener.

SHOULD YOU CHEW THEM?

Perhaps the sweetest way to meet your daily nutritional needs is with candylike supplements. In addition to the Flintstones chewables your mom used to give you, there are gummies, like Hero Nutritionals Slice of Life; jelly beans, such as Nutrition Now Adult Multi Beans; and caramel or chocolate chews, like Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews.

     “The sweet flavor of these products may make it easier for you to remember to take your vitamins,” says Mackay.

Look for adult formulas, though, since children’s versions won’t provide all the nutrients you need.” One caveat: Since these threats taste like, well, candy, it may be tempting to snack on them—particularly those fudgy chews—yet some may contain 100 calories per dose. “Not only will this affect your waistline, you’ll also up your odds of overdosing on certain vitamins and minerals,” says MacKay.

TIP: Store supplements in your nightstand. Keeping them un your kitchen or bathroom may make them less potent—research reveals heat and humidity can degrade water-soluble vitamins, such as C.

SHOULD YOU POUR THEM?

A spoonful of powder makes the vitamins go down better for some women--and adds an extra glass of H2O to your daily tally. Try stirring a packet of Emergen-C Vitamin C Fizzy Drink Mix or a teaspoonful of the Vitamin & Mineral Powder into water or another beverage. Hate the fishy aftertaste of omega-3 pills? Consider Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Effervescent, which tastes like orange soda.

SHOULD YOU INJECT THEM?

Rumor has it that celebrities, like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, get vitamin shots and even IV drips for an instant boost of energy. But these cocktails, which can include vitamin B12 and C, often contain magadoses. ”There’s no need to get an injection unless you’re seriously deficient in a nutrient,” says Anding—and that can be determined only by your physician through a blood test.

Depending on your levels, your doctor may prescribe a shot or high-dose supplement, or recommend liquid vitamin/mineral drops, which are applied beneath your tongue for direct absorption into the bloodstream..

There's one thing I'm really good at

I've been focusing a lot on the negative aspects of my weight loss journey. I often talk about the things I don't do right. It's a never-ending list. I don't always track my food, I eat too much, sometimes I eat things I shouldn't. I don't do this right and I don't do that right. Blah. Blah. Blah.

However, in spite of all the things I don't do right, there's one thing I excel at doing  when it comes to a healthy lifestyle and that's exercise.

I'm fifty-five years old and throughout my life I've had phases of exercise craziness. I would pick some exercise, such as high-impact aerobics, in my twenties when all my girlfriends were doing it. Or running because I thought that was what all the cool people did and it burned the most calories. Or or weight lifting when I worked at the police department with all the buff police officers and the department had it's own gym. Or whatever exercise struck my fancy, and I'd go full throttle with it.

My problem was that I would only do it for a few weeks or maybe a few months, then I'd completely stop, cold turkey. My reasoning was simple. It hurt. Who wants to do something that hurts? I personally don't like pain and have a rather low threshold for it.

On February 12, 2008 I started Weight Watchers. At the same time I started going to my gym four times a week. I had been a member since 1996 and had rarely used my membership. After about six months I started going five to six times a week. Now I ofte go for fourteen stretches without a day off. Although recently I'm trying to cut back to taking at least one off day a week.

What happened to change me? How did I go from hating to exercise to not hating it so much to almost liking it? How did I go from a couch potato to working out six days a week, 60 to 90 -minute workouts each day?

What happened to snap me out of my inactive lifestyle is something I've written about before. You can read about it here. Basically, I felt like hell at 240 pounds. I thought I might be dying, and I might have died if I didn't do something about my physical condition. Since I really didn't want to die yet, I had to start exercising and lose weight. Let's see...death or exercise? Or perhaps a wheelchair or exercise? It was a pretty easy decision.

How I started
When I started exercising February 12, 2008 at 240 pounds, it was HORRIBLE. I'm talking real pain. I was miserable even just walking on the treadmill. I quickly gave up the treadmill and went to the elliptical. It was still hard, but I could set my own pace without being totally embarrassed. That was my big fear, being embarrassed at the gym. That's so stupid because really, no one gives a damn what you do at the gym. I barely even look at anyone else, because I'm totally focused on myself.

When I absolutely hated going to the gym
For the first two years I had a "five-minute rule". I decided right at the beginning that I would exercise in the morning. I knew if I tried to work out at night I'd find any excuse in the book to miss a workout. So I started getting up at 4:45 a.m. and was at the gym by 5:15 a.m. There were many mornings when I really thought I'd just rather die than go to the gym. The problem was that I probably would die if I didn't exercise. I decided to start my "five-minute rule".

It's really simple, when I would wake up and think "I'm exhausted, I don't want to get up and go to the gym. I don't want to exercise and feel pain! I hate this!", this is what I would tell myself:

"Diana, get up, get dressed. Get in the car. Drive to the gym. Go inside. Get on any piece of equipment you want. Exercise five minutes. If you're so miserable you can't stand it, you have permission to go home. Stop thinking about it and just do it."

Just knowing I could go home if I wanted to, took away a lot of the pressure. I had an out if I needed it. In three years I've only left the gym one time after five minutes. I had bronchitis and really had no business exercising.

The funny thing is that I haven't even thought about my five-minute rule for months. Now I just tell myself to stop thinking about it and go. I rarely give it much thought. I just do it. After three years, it's become a part of my life. I can't imagine ever stopping.

I have more tips for getting into an exercise frame of mind, but it's almost 9:30 p.m. 5:15 a.m. comes really early so I have to go to bed now.  More about exercise tomorrow.