Weight Loss for Busy People

One of the most common complaints I hear from clients wanting to lose weight is that they have “No time to exercise“.

They have probably no inclination either  I’ve heard all the “reasons” below – from myself as well as my clients, if I’m honest.

• Life is packed enough already
• Losing weight requires consistency, it’s easy to make valid excuses for a few days off – illness, overtime, family visits, holidays – after which we never restart
• Don’t know where to start?
• When you do get started, it’s boring!
• Travelling and getting ready for the gym or swimming etc could add an extra hour to the time you need to set aside for the exercise
• If you miss your targets, it’s easy to give up and become demotivated

The biggest reason for most people is lack of time.

So I have been interested to come across several reports suggesting that fitness and weight loss can be achieved in short bursts of High Intensity exercise. The video below shows one of these reports:

No Time To Exercise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtHZlzlJGE0

If you would like to learn more about the Mobile Minute program, here’s a free ebook about overcoming the 7 most avoidable obstacles to weight-loss.

And if you’d like to hear a more complete presentation, visit the Mobile Minute website.

If you know anyone else who says they have no time to exercise, please share this post with them so they can download the ebook too.

Here are the two previous posts in case you missed them.

Top 10 Healthiest Foods

The Most Unhealthy Foods

But where many people fall down is that despite their best intentions, they are unwittingly turning healthy food into unhealthy food!

Or even more sinister, they are being tricked by food producers because some of their “healthy” foods are nothing of the kind.

Healthy Food and Unhealthy Food

The video below gives an excellent example, relating to sports foods, but the principle also applies to many foods we may select, imagining they are better than average, when in fact they are not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OlbfVzWwC0

As a simple test for yourself, next time you’re out food shopping, pick up some of the “weight loss” versions of foods that have “normal” versions. Check out the calorie count in both. Often you’ll find MORE calories in the low-fat version than in the regular. Yes, it’s  more complicated than just calorie count – but it’s an indication to watch out for.

Read the food labels, as advised in the video – one simple tip was to choose the product with the minimum number of ingredients (often just another word for “chemicals” or additives). Another useful tip was to remember that sugar comes in many different forms – if an ingredient has “ose” at the end of it, there’s a fair chance it’s a sugar.

So, turning to the best sites I found in my searches:

• AskMen – It seems that men in the kitchen and healthy food can be a dangerous combination:-) Their implication not mine. Personally I’m all in favour of men in the kitchen and some of the best cooks I know are men. (Phew!)
• Cracked.com – Well, I go along with most of this except the implication that Linus Pauling dying of prostate cancer discredits vitamin C (although they do concede the vitamin C “is good for you”). If their statement rocks your faith in vitamin C, restore it by reading the discussion about Linus Pauling’s death on the Vitamin C Foundation. As Cracked.com correctly point out the best form of vitamin C is a matter for debate and I don’t plan to get side-tracked – but if you’d like to read more, click here.
• Shape.com is also waging war on healthy foods that are not as healthy as they seem. I had a little smile that they distracted me from their very informative site by a pop-up for an advert inviting me to try a free Wagon Wheel! I resisted and happily it didn’t return next time I visited the site:-)
• Project Swole brings you “foods that you think are healthy, but are actually killing you”.

So to summarise, the common theme through most of these sites is food that has been processed. Either by food manufacturers, or by a well-meaning cook! No real surprise in that, but hopefully you have found some advice to stop you changing healthy food into unhealthy food, and can now spot some of the tricks that “health food” producers use.

It’s a bit of a mine-field really, so if you’d like some guidance about a healthier way of eating, check out Healthy Urban Kitchen. It comes with a 60-day no quibble  money back guarantee.

When looking for a way to quit using tobacco people look for something that is easy to stick to, has mild withdrawal signs and symptoms and that they can easily be successful at. This last factor is more essential than is often realized, as each aborted effort to stop almost always weakens your mind and makes the chances of future success less likely. This really should not induce needless worry into the mind of somebody who would like to give up, but it should make sure that enough effort is put forward to discover those therapies which have the greatest possibility of success. As with countless medical ailments, an integrated approach is needed if the remedy is to be long term.

Just how long to take to quit smoking is typically the very first thing men and women concern themselves with. They wonder whether to ease into stopping progressively or just go cold turkey. While the latter may seem to be the most logical course to adopt, results are always better when the previous, and much more demanding, course is chosen. No matter how little you are smoking cigarettes, if you are using tobacco at all, you are still a smoker and may fall back on it if under emotional stress.

One strategy that can definitely help in the initial stages is to stay away from places and scenarios in which you previously constantly smoked. They’re less likely to be social locations in the current climate as countless jurisdictions have now prohibited smoking cigarettes in public areas, however even sitting in a different seat in your living room area can prevent the mind from making a connection with tobacco. You may find your friends can easily get upset if you avoid them whenever they are using tobacco but your wellbeing is worth it.

Frequently times the programs suggested, like using a hypnotherapist, can easily cost a good deal. Hypnotherapy has had a extremely high success rate and typically you only need 1 or two sessions. However keep in mind a number of folks have been successful without having to pay for any high priced help. When you think of exactly how much dollars is wasted every year through cigarette smoking, you can see that these treatments are actually low cost in comparison.

Today there’s so much help for those who want to quit., Recorded hypnotherapy sessions can be found for individuals who cannot afford to see one face-to-face. A real person can judge from your actions if it really is working and a recording cannot so you have to bear that in mind. An expert can easily grasp a great deal of the situation just by meeting you. The obvious summary is to utilize an expert if possible, but do the very best you can if not.|So, obviously, if you can find the money for an expert go for it however if not do what you can.

Stopping smoking can easily seem a great deal simpler if you’ve got supportive individuals who are around you, but this is often something you’ll have no control over. If you live in a major city, it really is more likely that you will be able to find other people in a group who’re all trying to achieve the same purpose. If you can’t find support in person consider using an Internet group. These can easily help individuals from around the globe achieve the universal target of quitting cigarette smoking.

For an effortless way to quit smoking visit Ways To Stop Smoking.

Why fast food is unhealthy

After yesterday’s post about the top 10 healthy foods, the obvious next question to ask is What is the most unhealthy food?

Well, taking as read the Wiki-answers comment that it would be something that killed you, like a poisonous mushroom, I started hunting.

That set me thinking, how best to explain to you what makes a junk food junk? To answer that question, I found a very informative video below. At 9 minutes, it’s a little longer than I usually include, but it’s well worth the wait.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLFWiL-phT4

So now we know the principles behind it, we move onto….

What is the Most Unhealthy Food?

Here are some of the lists I found near the top of Google, to save you looking:

• AskMen - investigates why 50% of deaths in North America (especially men) are caused by cardiovascular disease.
• TopTenz – Particularly interesting because it shows how easily you can actually ruin some potentially healthy foods.
• Daily Finance – Maybe not where you would first look for nutrition information, but this is very comprehensive and also explains the background to the economics of the fast food evolution.
• it Thing – five of the most unhealthy items many people eat regularly
• X-Ray Technician Schools – A massive list of 100 most unhealthy foods in the American diet

Finally, to end this summary on a positive note,  Nutrition Action has compiled an excellent list of unhealthy foods and also redresses the balance with a parallel list of the best foods. (I found it yesterday, but decided to wait until today to include it.) Their unhealthy list is an interesting (and humorous) read because it compares foods you may think are a “little naughty” with foods that you already know are naughty – and some of the comparisons are really scary. Check out the “little treat” that’s more calories than I should be having in an entire day!  (Happily I’ve never had one of that brand, but I’ve had similar without thinking too much about it.)

Tomorrow, a sinister trick that answers the question What is the Most Unhealthy Food in an unexpected way. So make sure you’re subscribed by email or RSS.

World's Healthiest Foods?

Today I have a “competition” for you. Well, OK, it’s not really a competition, because there isn’t a prize – nor even one consistent answer! But before you read any further, or watch the video, I’d like you to grab a piece of paper (or open up Notepad on your PC) and jot down what you think are the top 10 healthiest foods.

When you’ve made your own list,  check it against these links and the video below where other people share their opinions. Do you agree with them? How closely did your choices match theirs?  Is your personal list chosen because you have a specific health condition?

Top 10 Healthiest Foods….

The video below is probably the closest to my own list of healthiest foods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeoiaFKHIY

Other people have different lists. And in fairness, to be more accurate, you really have to ask the question “Healthiest for what purpose, or for whom?”

• For diabetics?
• For those with cardiovascular issues?
• For eyesight?
• For anti-aging?
• For people suffering from mental health disorders?
• For insomniacs?
• For people taking Warfarin? Who need to be VERY careful!
• For people suffering from IBS?
• And many more…..

The “confusion” is highlighted by the list of foods for IBS sufferers. Because an IBS sufferer I know finds that her condition is exacerbated by precisely the foods that my college training would recommend her to eat.

And when we throw food intolerance into the mix, the whole thing goes out of the window. My speciality is treating migraine without resorting to medication – and my earliest investigations found that some of the foods you might have thought to be healthy are in the top 10 for provoking a migraine! You can subscribe free to read about these unusual migraine triggers.

However, notwithstanding all the above grey areas, there is a lot of commonality, and here are the top “n” foods according to various different sources:

• Fitness Magazine
• FitDay
• Cooking Nook
• Healthier Talk
• Health.com

I’ve watched and read several other sites along the same lines and have to confess some of them held some surprises. There is conflicting information about coffee – which, as we found a day or so ago, was “once upon a time” a nutritional bandit, and is now coming into its own as a good source of antioxidants.

Another “wishful” site included chocolate as one of the most healthy foods you can eat. Hmmmm, well I know that chocolate containing 70% (and more) cocoa solids has high levels of antioxidants – but this site showed some beautifully decorated MILK chocolates – which, I think, rather misses the point.

You may have noticed a food I have missed and that you think should be on the list. Please feel free to add it as a comment below.

What you should spot is that the top 10 healthiest foods are largely natural and unprocessed. A tip that someone gave me once was “Eat foods that spoil, but eat them before they spoil”.

How to Eat More Fruit

Currently many people are trying juicing as a way to improve their health and wellbeing and feel great. Whenever you juice you get all of the advantages of the fruits and veggies with reduced calories, and you get those positive aspects immediately. You’ll find lots of different types of juice related programs, a number of which are made to be followed over a quite short time, and others that are sustainable for the rest of your life.

If you are in pain from a overall health problem juicing can be one way to ease that pain. These programs will work with any condition which has an acidic stomach as 1 of the primary signs or symptoms, as the juice therapy is going to be made to alkalize the body as rapidly as you possibly can. This form of therapy is juice therapy at its most basic, and can easily be very effective. Whilst it can work quickly, if you don’t correct the problem inducing the acidic tummy you are going to have difficulties later. Relying on juice as a painkiller while continuing to indulge in a poor lifestyle is not apt to work for long, and your system might be damaged completely over a long time.

Men and women who are willing to spend money on juicing equipment are generally serious enough to modify their dietary plan in other ways, so this struggle will rarely apply. Juicing will work best in a situation where the normal diet has been overhauled, whether it is being used for short term pain alleviation or as part of a longer illness management program. If juice is being utilize to relieve an acidic condition, you really should need to use progressively less of it over time. Basing the diet around alkalizing foods can give respite from stomach acid and acid reflux conditions, and it can also lay the foundation for recuperation from stomach ulcers.

Bear in mind which if you’re attempting to alkalize the body and it’s very acidic you just can’t juice everything. Orange juice is typically perfectly fine to drink as an element of juice therapy. Even though the OJ is acidic the stomach will produce what is necessary to digest it. Whenever the body is in an extremely acidic condition, this won’t have a chance to occur. The orange juice will go directly to join the acid in the body and will cause a painful reaction. It is essential to utilize the right juice at the proper time.

A sustained juice program can easily have more far reaching effects and be of great benefit to your wellbeing. If you’re presently experiencing heavy symptoms, it might be a case of beginning with the most gentle juices like apple or grape juice, and then increasing the program to include other kinds as you go on. Bu think long-term when you purchase a juicer. You want to be able to juice all kinds of things in it. A good machine is worth the money over the long haul.

Purchasing the proper juicing equipment is one of the keys to getting the very best from your therapy, no matter what its purpose. You do not need a top end twin gear machine for short term juicing. Going with a more economical model is fine in this instance. But a great quality machine is necessary if you are travelling to keep up with it.

To find the most out of the vegetables and fruit you are going to juice you want a twin gear juice machine. It’s a expensive investment however worth it ultimately. A excellent machine will need much less maintenance, and you will not need to continually be replacing parts. And it will be able to handle anything you wish to juice.

There is still debate over precisely what juicing can easily do for you, and there are lots of differences of opinion even among those who’re convinced of its effectiveness. It also has to be borne in mind that every individual body and health is diverse, and not everybody will react to the same routine in the same way. So do your homework and keep track of what works and what does not do the job. You are going to get the very best results but finding what works for you.

To learn more about juicing for health why not look at Juicing for Health.

Coffee and Diabetes ???

For the past few days I’ve been taking an interest in work done by Dr Lina Radzeviciene on lifestyle factors linked with type 2 diabetes. Today I turn to her work on coffee and diabetes. (Check my previous post for more information and help on type 2 diabetes.)

It led me off on an interesting progression.

Coffee and Diabetes

I was initially surprised to find that the conclusion of Dr Radzeviciene’s study was that regularly drinking four or more cups of coffee daily could be related to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Source

I express surprise because my original nutritional training was that coffee consumption would increase blood sugar levels.  (So would smoking, which was in line with the result of yesterday’s post on smoking and diabetes.)

The  study appears to have been well conducted, adjusting for factors such as family history of diabetes, BMI, eating speed, morning exercise, cigarette smoking, educational status, and levels of stress so I was interested as to why coffee affected diabetes risk “differently”.

Of course I didn’t have to look too far to find a 2008 study confirming my original training (reported on Diabetes UK) which found that:

… daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with Type 2 diabetes and could undermine efforts to control the condition.

Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA, monitored the glucose levels of ten people with diabetes, who drank at least two cups of coffee a day and who were trying to manage their condition through diet, exercise and oral medication.

They were monitored for 72 hours and the study found that when they consumed caffeine their glucose levels went up by 8 per cent.  Source

This is what I would have expected, but of course science moves on and Dr Radzeviciene’s study suggesting lower risk came later (2009) than the “raised blood sugar levels study”.

It is known that good coffee contains antioxidant compounds, so my first reaction was to attribute the result to that.

Investigating further, I found more information, including that reported on in 2012 by USA Today. Apparently a possible explanation has been found, based on work with cell cultures. They readily point out this is not proof! Quoted below:

Chinese researchers behind the new study think they may know why that may be so. They found three major compounds in coffee that may provide potentially beneficial effects: caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid and caffeine. Source

There are plenty of references to the coffee and diabetes debate, but some are pretty technical. The most readable one I came across, and suggest you read, was in the Huffington Post, from which I quote below,  reporting on a range of studies, such as:

Women who had four or more cups of coffee per day “had significantly higher adiponectin” than those who did not drink coffee regularly, they discovered. Adiponectin plays an important role inpromoting insulin sensitivity, which protects against Type 2 diabetes.

They pointed out an interesting result from another study showing that drinking five cups of coffee for one week boosted the levels of the important antioxidant glutathione.

And another quote from the same source, about a different study:

In conclusion, the German-Finnish research team said: “Coffee consumption appears to have favorable effects on some markers of subclinical inflammation and oxidative stress.”

So – what does all this prove? Certainly it proves that yesterday’s “nutritional villain” may turn out to be today’s “hero”. Please note my use of the word “may”. But, to be honest I can’t say I’m rushing to “down” 4+ cups of coffee a day, for quite different reasons: I just don’t know that I want the level of “buzz” that so much coffee would give me.

(As an aside, migraine sufferers may be interested to read a post on my other website about migraines and caffeine.)

An interesting experience of my own on coffee consumption happened some years ago when I went out to dinner with friends. Because I was driving, instead of having a second glass of wine after the one I had with the meal, I had a second cup of coffee – thinking I was being “good”. It gave me such an unexpected “buzz” that I wonder if it impaired my driving just as much as the wine would have. (I am NOT advocating wine instead of coffee here, for the avoidance of doubt!)

Obviously anecdotal, and a total digression from coffee and diabetes, but just my warning to be careful of the coffee buzz. It was done in ignorance, but never repeated. Phew, after all that, I’m off to grab my ONE daily coffee

Smoking and Diabetics

Dr Radzeviciene, whose work I have been looking into over the last day or so, has also researched the links between diabetes and smoking (Source).

Unsurprisingly it seems that smoking may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Smoking and diabetics

Here’s information from a different study that suggests the reason. Quoting from Time Healthland (check out the source link below for more information):

Doctors always knew smoking can make diabetes worse, but, Liu says, “now we know why. It’s the nicotine. This study also implies that if you are a smoker, and not diabetic, that your chances of developing diabetes is higher.” Source

So this and other studies showing a link between smoking and diabetes give yet another reason to quit. For more detailed information how and why you should quit smoking, (whether you are diabetic or not) together with a guaranteed program tailored to your own needs, head over to my other website on Quit Smoking Programs where you will find plenty of free advice and tips.

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Eggs and Diabetics

As an interesting follow-up from yesterday’s post about the health problems caused by eating too quickly I looked into some of the other work done by the lead author Dr Lina Radzeviciene. My eye was first caught by a study on eggs and diabetes. (Type 2)

According to Diabetes UK, a helpful resource for sufferers:

Type 2 diabetes develops when the body does not produce enough insulin to maintain a normal blood glucose level, or when the body is unable to effectively use the insulin that is being produced.

Eggs and Diabetes

On PubMed, a free database on which you can access scientific research, I found a study by Dr Radzeviciene reporting on a possible link between consumption of more than 1 egg per week and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Source

Eggs have also received some bad press about containing too much cholesterol. I’d like to address the balance by suggesting you watch the very informative video below from dietician Celynn Erasmus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjShpNNCE5Q

While I can’t  argue with this research on eggs and diabetes, I’d like to spring to the defence of one of my favorite foods by reminding readers that eggs are a great source of protein, being what is known as a complete protein (contains all the essential amino acids needed for body building). Together with grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, eggs can form the basis of a quick healthy snack as an omelette, a boiled, scrambled or poached egg on wholemeal bread. Moderation needed as ever