Bad weekend

Hello my old fruits. That's what I need to stick to - fruit!

Oh dear, it was a bit of a chocolate frosted weekend. I dunno about you guys but having restriction is GREAT!

O my god did you like EVER think you would hear me say that after 4 years of whinging about how shit this band is?

This weekend I felt like murder. I was post menstrual - goodness only knows why - and in need of shite to eat. I ate two large bags of minstrels (Caroline - we share that passion!), a couple of bottles of wine, 10 packets of quavers, a few packets of crisps, a curry, a Chinese and to top it off - rice and sauce - the yummy fermented bean sauce I love that's like 1000 cals a teaspoon! I was proper bloated on Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Mmmmm Yummy.

So after this spectacular fall from grace I was a little wary of the scales... so I hopped on just for laughs this morning. 117.3kgs HEEE HEEE!!! Exactly the same thank goodness! I am taking that and running with it.

I delved into this conundrum a little more - you know the one:

Eat shit, stay the same weight/lose weight

This is a common thread which I can never seem to grasp. I plugged in all my calories into Livestrong.com and came up with an interesting fact. 

I ate less than 2500 calories each day!

Because of the band, although I wouldn't want to do it all the time, I ate a load of crap and was still under my calorie goal. Before the band before my band was fixed and I had the right restriction I was eating all my meals + CRAP.


I am not going to lie, my eating is pretty shitty sometimes, but I am glad that I now know that Albert is helping me with damage limitation. I went to bed full as a stuffed feather pillow. I could not possibly have eaten anything else. It just wasn't possible for me to over eat at the weekend!

So ladies... this is what it's like to have a lapband huh? I like it!

Anyway, after 3 days of bingeing on shit foods, this morning my mouth feels like Ghandi's flip flop and I am craving salad and water and fruit (some chance!) and water and veg and water. Water mainly! I am off to the gym later so have a great monday everyone!

Exercise and Weight Loss – Getting the Balance Right

When it comes to exercise, it’s often difficult to know where to start. There are many different approaches from ‘do it yourself’ gym memberships, group exercise, personal trainers. The Biggest Loser television program provides an extreme view of exercise and weight loss. Don’t forget contestants are recommended to consume only 1200 calories per day compared to their pre-program intake of 5,000 plus calories per day reminding us that calorie control is the first step in any weight loss journey. Calorie control comes from the quality and quantity of food we consume.

The Goal

There is no right or wrong answer but you need to find a routine that is going to complement your goals. Are you trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or just improve your fitness? Also it needs to be practical for your lifestyle and still allows time for adequate rest. With weight loss, the primary goal of exercise is calorie expenditure from burning fat as the preferred fuel for our muscles. But if your exercise intensity is too high, then your body switches to burning stored sugars for fuel and tiredness and hunger can set in. Going too hard, too early can also lead to soreness and injury and a feeling of it’s not going to work. So working out with a personal trainer can be great for working up a sweat but not so great for weight loss.

Frequency and Consistency

With any form of exercise frequency and consistency are the key. Establishing some form of physical activity that is a regular part of your routine, 4-6 days per week, is ideal. Choosing the right exercise is simple, walking, gym classes, swimming, riding and even the Wii fit are all good options, as long as you are getting your heart rate up for an extended period, preferably 30 mins or more. Increasing your heart rate to the right intensity means you will burn fat as the preferred fuel source, the longer you do it the more you burn.

Enjoyment

When the alarm goes at 5:30am getting out of bed for something we enjoy makes it a lot easier. So think about an activity you will still enjoy on the days when you are lacking motivation or tired? We recommend walking as the best option because walking means putting on some decent shoes and heading out the door for half an hour. It also is the most efficient way to mainly burn fat during exercise. Other exercises like cycling or swimming are also great for elevating your heart rate and what is even better is varying your routine between all three to really add some spice to your routine. Activities you can do with other people give you that motivation not to miss a session.

Burning Fat = Losing Weight

During exercise fats and carbohydrates are metabolized for energy. As exercise intensity increases the fuel mix needed changes from predominantly fat to stored sugars. Our body stores sugars in the liver and muscles but only enough for several hours of intense exercise so when these stores are used they will need to be replenished through diet. That is what marathon runners do during a race. Burning fat stores is what we want to achieve when losing or maintaining weight is our goal. This occurs at lower exercise intensities. Each kg of fat stored has enough stored energy to power us for 25 hours of walking or150 kilometres at a brisk walking speed.

How Hard
Intensity (or heart rate achieved) of exercise is a critical aspect when it comes to weight loss and weight management. Intensity can be broken into ranges from light through to vigorous which is determined by the energy demands placed on the body. As exercise intensity increases so do the body’s responses, including higher respiratory rates, increased blood flow to the large muscle groups and the greater need for nutrients and fuel.

Heart Rate for Burning Fat as the Preferred Fuel Source
Heart rate and age are often used to estimate a target heart rate range for fat burning
Minimum target heart rate = (220 – age) x 65%

Maximum target heart rate = (220 – age) x 75%

For example, a 40 year old person’s minimum target heart rate is calculated as:

(220 – 40) x 0.65 = 180 x 0.65 = 117 beats per minute

Their maximum target heart rate is calculated as:

(220 – 40) x 0.75 = 180 x 0.75 = 135 beats per minute

So in this example keeping our heart rate between 117 and 135 beats per minute will keep us burning fat as our primary fuel source.

Tips

Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs) are an accurate way of recording your exercise intensity. Another rule of thumb is to make sure you can still hold a conversation while exercising. If your breathing rate is so high that you can’t talk, then you are probably burning sugars and not fat.

Routine
Completing your exercise sessions at the same time each day can be very helpful and enable you to stick to routine more effectively as well as eliminating any exercise-related motivational issues you may have. Initially, you may find that your exercise intensity is the component you find the most difficult to keep up, however this will ease over time as your body adapts to the routine and becomes fitter.

GI Find It Hard to Concentrate Lately

The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking given to a carbohydrate food on a scale of 0 to 100 to represent how quickly it is broken down to its simplest form, sugar, and absorbed into your blood stream.

The longer it takes for the body to break down the carbohydrate, the slower the sugar is released into the blood stream, and the longer your energy levels can be sustained.

Foods that are high GI are those which are rapidly digested and absorbed into the blood stream and result in marked fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Low GI foods, by virtue of their slow digestion and absorption, produce gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels, and have proven benefits for health.

Low GI diets have been shown to improve both glucose and lipid levels in people with diabetes (type 1 and type 2). They also have benefits for weight control because they help control appetite and delay hunger.

The glycemic effect of foods depends on a number of factors:

• The type of starch, physical entrapment of the starch molecules within the food
• Fat and protein content of the food and organic acids or their salts in the meal.
• Presence of fat or soluble dietary fibre can slow the gastric emptying rate, thus lowering the GI.

Large amounts of fat in foods tends to slow the rate of stomach emptying and therefore the rate at which foods are digested. The GI value of potato chips or french fries for example is lower than that of baked potatoes, yet the saturated fat in these foods will contribute to a much increased risk of heart disease. So it is therefore important to look at the type of fat in foods as well as GI values.

The glycemic index is important for weight maintenance due to the impact is has on your hunger levels through blood sugar control. As low GI foods maintain low blood sugar levels, you can easily control your hunger levels.

Low GI carbohydrate foods are often more nutritious as they can be higher in fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Beef and Broccoli Noodle Soup

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 chopped green onions
  
  


• 1 finely chopped garlic clove
  
  


• 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
  
  


• 1 tsp sesame oil
  
  


• 8 oz. lean beef, trimmed of excess fat
  
  


• 8 oz. egg noodles, cook according to package instructions
  
  


• 3¾ cups low-sodium beef broth
  
  


• 1 white part of leek, sliced or 1 cup chopped onion
  
  


• 5 chopped baby corns
  
  


• 2 cups broccoli florets
  
  


• ½ tsp chili powder
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine green onions, garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil in a medium bowl.
  
  


• Slice beef into thin strips (Wrap beef in plastic wrap then place in a freezer for about ½ hour to partially freeze to make it easier to slice) then add to soy sauce mixture and stir until well-coated. Cover then marinate in refrigerator for about 45-60 minutes.
  
  


• Pour beef broth in a large saucepan then bring to a boil. Add the beef with the marinade, leek, corns, and broccoli. Cover then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in noodles and chili powder, cover and simmer for an additional 3 minutes then serve.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (401 g)): 440 Calories, 28 g Protein, 63 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 8 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 104 mg cholesterol, 417 mg sodium

Childhood overweight and obesity

The treatment of childhood obesity is not easy, either for medical or family or children. The older the child, more difficult to perform these changes, but not impossible. We must be firm once it has decided not to put a child diet, if not teach him to eat well and have good habits.

The fundamentals of treatment are a combination of a limited (lower numbers) diet, increased physical activity, nutrition education and behavior change.

It is important to know the habits and behavior of the child and family. Knowing what you eat, the ranges of one food to another, the exercise they perform, as well as their leisure habits.

When the child is under 5 years are the parents who must lead the treatment, ie answer for the child all that interested in therapy.

From 5 to 9 years, children have more autonomy in treatment, but the responsibility and supervision is the parents. Only after 10 years is the child who will have more responsibility.

In important that at the same time as making physical activity a child's life, reduce the time the child devotes to television or other sedentary activities.

It has been shown that the use of drugs in the treatment of overweight and obese children is not fully effective.

Make food an enjoyable event should avoid eating in front of the TV, you must create the habit of sharing food, board and company.

Obese and nonobese parents are always an example for the children, parents, children who eat too much is almost certain to acquire the habit.

Cereals, potatoes and vegetables should form the basis of food, so that carbohydrates account for 50-60% of the calories in the diet.

Fats is recommended not exceed 30% of the daily intake should be reduced consumption of saturated fats and fatty acids.

Protein should provide between 10 and 15% of total calories, should combine animal protein and vegetable.

It would need to increase intake of fruit and vegetables, is trying to eat at least 5 servings a day of these foods.

Moderate consumption of simple sugars, like candy, sweets and soft drinks.

Reduce salt intake.

Drink one to one and a half liters of water. Very important to drink sgus.

Never ignore a healthy breakfast consisting of bread, biscuits, cereals, milk ... and spend between 15 and 20 minutes. Thus, it prevents or reduces the need to eat less nutritious mid-morning and improving physical and intellectual performance at school.

The food is not a reward, not punishment, nor should be a relief, food has its place, its time and its control. The major responsible for overweight children are the parents, whether for errors, obsessions, or ignorance, and ignorance of parents, children consume more food than they need, we use a lot of convenience foods, sweets and pastries.

Children should lead a healthy, balanced diet, fresh but not large quantities ie without filling the plate and avoiding repeating a good healthy diet without too many calories

It is very important to exercise daily, which is also very easy to practice for children. You must first make a good warm running about 5-10 minutes.

The perfect combination to counter childhood overweight is: Eat Healthy + Exercise .

What not to do is:

- Forcing the child to eat more than they can.
- Reward your child with candy and other calorie foods.
- Punishing a child without food if you have any unfavorable behavior.
- Celebrate any occasion with junk food.
- Allow the daily consumption of junk food, pastries, soft drinks, ...
- Providing prepared meals.
- Move large amounts of food.

Weight loss pills obsession

If you long to change their old habits into new habits do not think that is impossible, but it will have to give up all their old habits. For some of us it is difficult to change, however, if you take steps to learn ways to change will find reflections of overcoming.

Many people are fooling themselves when they lie and say they are good but ultimately the problems are depressed or filled with stress. This happens because they are plagued by a world full of opinions, philosophy, theories, suspicions, conjectures and conclusions. You must learn to find the truth that can really improve your life.

What are some things you can do to change their bad habits of good manners?

This will be entirely your responsibility. We can only offer tips, short reflections of life that lead you to try new tactics to help you grow. Nobody can change you, but yourself. You can learn to build the inner gifts that are within you. The qualities that have include self-esteem, confidence, self-awareness, self-motivated and well sucesivamente.Hay more qualities that are sure to be discovered but ReflexionesCortas.Net you can find advice and insight necessary life to continue to grow sentimental and emotionally.

On the one hand, you have to decide what you do and find a way to make things right. Sometimes friendships are bad company and perhaps the people of a support group or your church group can help you find ways to change their habits. The first thing you have to do though, stop lying to yourself about what you've ever been right and speak for himself. You must learn to make good decisions by evaluating the consequences.

It's easier than you think. For example, you allow a drunk person drive you home? If you then made a bad decision that could cost you your life, or has thrown in jail. If you are sober, why not drive drunk in the place?

short reflections include family and friends. If members of your family dragged down, or your friends are holding you, you have to take a final decision. The choice may include the removal of these people in your life but what we prefer is to bring in a good way with other people and maybe the people who need the change in his inner life be yourself and not others.

To develop new skills that will guide you to eliminate bad habits, try using your conscious mind. To observe, listen pay attention to things around, you learn more than reading a book. Observation is the key to achieving this. Observation, includes self-awareness. A step back and take a look at you. Do not chase or self-juezgarse, instead look for ways to make your life better.

Happy Saturday!

Silly title to this post. Happy + Saturday goes without saying!

It's a gorgeous day here in the Pacific Northwest. The sun is shining and not a cloud in the sky. It's been raining nonstop for what feels like weeks, wet, cold and gray. I'm thrilled to see the sun and the deep blue of the sky. It makes me smile.

I'm off to Weight Watchers for my 11:15 a.m. meeting. I don't think I lost anything. In fact, I may have gained. I ate an entire bag of frosted animal crackers a few nights ago. I'm not sure what came over me. I was in the store, saw them on the shelf and bought them. It wasn't planned, it just happened. Over 2,000 calories in the bag. I kicked my own butt the next morning when I woke up and remembered what I had done. I don't know why I did it when I know I have the Big Climb in only two weeks. It made me angry with myself, but time to move forward. That stuff happens, I just have to keep going.

Plans for today are not very exciting, Weight Watchers, gym, grocery shopping, house cleaning. In that order. Already started on laundry. Fun times weekend chores. My husband is working on taxes so he's not the most fun guy to be around today. At least it's not pouring down raining so running errands will be slightly more enjoyable. I won't have to worry about a monsoon hitting me running from car to store and store to car.

Hank update
Here's the latest on Hank. I'm so relieved he's safe and in a good foster home. I talked with Jessica several times every day last week about Hank. I was the point person in my neighborhood since he was always spotted a few blocks from my house. One time he was seen two houses down from me. Anyway, Jessica loves this dog to pieces, and she persevered until he was found. Great ending to the story!

Post on Saving Great Animals Facebook page:
We have Hank out of the hospital now. Here he is with our wonderful volunteer Jessica St Germain. Hank is now recouping in a loving foster home who has lots of experience working with dogs in emotional need. We will begin to look at who is the best fit for Hank for his forever home! THANK YOU to everyone who helped save him!