Common Diet Mistakes

You are eating light, frequent meals. You stay away from unhealthy snacks and alcohol. Yet you are still gaining weight or you haven’t lost a pound with all your diet efforts. This must be so because you are committing diet mistakes without realizing it.

The following are common diet traps that you should be aware of:

1. It’s okay to skip meals. If you think skipping meals can help you lose a few pounds, think again. You will only end up binge eating if you continue skipping meals, especially during the day.

2. Feed on appetizers. Avoid munching on too much appetizers. You’ll be shocked to realize just how much cereals or pretzels you have already eaten even before your real lunch or dinner.

3. Be a mad eater. It is not healthy to overeat, especially if you are already full. Eating until your stomach can’t take in anymore food will only lead to constipation, indigestion, or bloating.

4. Practice selective reading. If you always ignore the “Serving Size” on labels when shopping for groceries, you are bound to consume more than what is recommended, hence, you’ll gain more instead of losing weight.

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Bogus Diets That Really Don’t Work

With obesity as one of our top killers, it is no surprise that Americans are scrambling for any kind of weight loss help. Unfortunately, in this eternal struggle to be thin and healthy, people end up looking for salvation in all the wrong places. Instead of relying on exercise and following the credo “everything in moderation,” we turn to miracle solutions, diet supplements, and calorie deprivation. The results are the following bogus diets that may work in the short term, but may also cause severe harm to your body over time.

1. The Cabbage Soup Diet
The title is self explanatory: the dieter’s survival is based on a constant intake of cabbage soup. Even on the Cabbage Soup Diet website, red flags are evident. The first being the opening words on the homepage, warning that the diet should not be used long term and that followers of the Cabbage Soup Diet have felt light-headed, weak, and have suffered a lack in concentration. The second red flag appears in the suggested seven day menu. Each day, the dieter is instructed to “stuff themselves” with a different food group. How about a little “moderation?” The third warning lies in the “Health” section of the website, warning the dieter that the diet lacks “complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals,” all of which are necessary for your body to function properly.

2. The Grapefruit Diet
The Grapefruit Diet functions the same way as the Cabbage Soup Diet; both are only successful because they deprive the body of calories, but at the same time leave out essential nutrients that keep you alive and healthy. The Grapefruit Diet claims to allow the dieter to eat a wide array of foods that they would not think possible, but as long as you follow your meal with half a grapefruit, you will lose weight. This claim is both startling and far-fetched. As predicted, and mentioned on the website, the Grapefruit Diet is dangerous. The Grapefruit Diet website suggests that the diet may lead to dehydration due to the low amount of calories and high levels of caffeine involved. The restrictions in this diet also make it an incredibly difficult and unlikely regimen to follow.

3. The Hallelujah Diet
Developed by Rev. George Malkmus, the Hallelujah Diet is mainly comprised of organic raw fruits and vegetables, and the miracle worker of this diet: barley juice. Because the Hallelujah Diet strictly prohibits meat and dairy, the barley juice is meant to fill that vitamin and protein void with its high nutrition content. While not necessarily depriving the dieter of essential nutrients, the Hallelujah Diet’s highly restrictive nature makes this diet hard to live on and therefore, not ideal.

4. The Martha’s Vineyard Detox Diet
The regimen alone explains why this diet is both dangerous and bogus. The diet is meant for the short term, “lose 21 pounds in 21 days,” where the dieter survives on highly nutritious cocktails, a short list of raw vegetables, and soup. According to the itinerary for the Martha’s Vineyard Detox Diet Retreat, dieters enjoy a breakfast of “detoxification cocktails.” Hourly cocktails follow until lunch when an assortment of raw juices are available. Dinner is slightly more filling, with the option of nutritious soup. The bottom line is that surviving on nutritious cocktails and juices will only deprive your body of the nutrients it needs. Also, the minute you begin to eat normally again, the weight will pack back on.

5. The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
Once used as a cure for Scurvy amongst American soldiers, apple cider vinegar is now used as an appetite suppressant amongst dieters. According to various evaluations of the Apple Cider Vinegar Diet, the diet touches that fine line between a dangerous and regular diet. The most dangerous part is the apple cider vinegar itself, which when taken in the recommended doses of 3 tbsp gets dangerously close to the point of damaging your stomach due to its high acidity. However, the diet’s regimen includes eating in moderation and daily exercise, which is most likely why people lose weight on this diet, not the apple cider vinegar. It is still unclear as to whether or not the vinegar actually assists you in losing weight at all, apart from making you so sick that you don’t want to eat anything at all.?

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Ten Pounds Can Change Your Life

Fitting into our skinny jeans is definitely a priority. But, just for a second let’s put our fragile egos aside and think beyond our seam-bursting thighs. Dropping ten pounds has the potential to impact your life beyond your looks. We’re talking a serious self-confidence facelift, improved health, and maybe even a few extra years to your life. It may not seem like much, but a measly 10 pounds can change your life – short and long term. So regardless of if your goal is to get rid of the saddlebags or harness your diabetes, it’s time to make your diet and workout regimen a priority. Burning off 10 pounds can:

1. Minimize your chances of developing type-2 diabetes by half.
2. Help prevent osteoarthritis by reducing the load on your knees (every pound of weight lost translates to a 4-pound reduction on the load bearing down on your knees).
3. Decrease your risk of heart disease (you reduce your chance of heart disease by 1-2 percent for every percent of weight you drop).
4. Cut your chances of developing certain cancers.
5. Improve your sex life.
6. Increase your immune function, therefore keeping you well, not sick.
7. Up your energy all day (yes, even if you have to get up early to get your workout in).
8. Give you a confidence boost.
9. Help you sleep better.
10. Add years to your life.

Suddenly, those skinny jeans don’t seem so important in comparison.
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Foods That Ease Flu Symptoms

When you have the flu, there are some foods that can help ease your flu symptoms. Read on below to know more:

* Popsicle
Since popsicles are cold, these can help soothe swollen and dry throat. And since it is a must for the body to stay hydrated when you have a flu, you’ll have no problem with this as you eat popsicles.

* Turkey Sandwhich
Feed yourself with turkey sandwiches when the flu hits you. You see, turkey is a good source of protein. Eating turkey sandwiches will help your body get enough energy to fend off illnesses or diseases.

* Vegetable Juice
Munching on vegetables is the last thing you want to do when you are down with flu. So instead of eating a dreary salad, drink a glass of low-sodium fresh vegetable juice. Apart from keeping you hydrated, vegetable juice will definitely help load up your body with immune-boosting antioxidants.

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Dealing With Fatigue

In my previous post, I talked about my problem with recurring fatigue in college. And as promised, I’ll now share how I was able to manage fatigue back then.

* I balanced activity and rest. Even though my days at school were always jam-packed, I managed to squeeze in time for short breaks during class, especially when our professors were absent. This way, my body had the chance to rest before I got too tired.

* I lightened up my load at school and at work. To make my work easier, I eliminated unnecessary tasks at school and at work. This strategy gave me more time to rest, thus, preventing over-exhaustion. Also, I learned how to de-clutter my work areas. This way, I was able to do more tasks with less energy spent.

* I made sure to get enough sleep. It was in college when I realized the importance of sleep to my body. Getting things done by not sleeping at night did not help me at all. Hence, no matter how hectic college days were for me, I made sure to sleep at least six hours at night to restore my energy and be ready for another day at school and at work.
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Beauty Rituals That Can Harm You

There is nothing wrong in wanting to be clean and beautiful everyday. But be careful, for your daily beauty rituals might bring you more harm than good. The following are beauty rituals that are not good for your health if practiced or done regularly:

* Always wearing tight clothes. Avoid wearing tight pants such as skinny jeans and capris everyday, for these rub the skin, causing itch to your intimate area. Schedule your weekly wardrobe instead to avoid wearing tight clothes everyday.

* Frequent lipstick touch ups. Too much lipstick touch up is not good for your lips, for some lipstick products can cause lip dryness. So when shopping for cosmetics, opt for lipsticks that contain moisturizers.

* Excessive washing of hair. You may think that daily washing of hair is hygienic. But truth is, it’s not. This ritual will only strip your hair as well as your scalp their natural moisturizing oils. Better wash your hair every other day instead to prevent damaged brittle hair due to excessive washing.
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Drink Your Way To Better Health

You may be eating right, but are you sure that what you are drinking is good for your health as well? Fact is, you may be getting a lot of calories from the beverages you drink everyday.

See, the liquid you take in your body can greatly affect your metabolism, your appetite, as well as your calorie count. Hence, if you don’t watch what you are drinking, you may be gaining instead of losing weight.

One of the big no-no beverages is the soda. Drinking a can of soda everyday is like consuming loads of empty calories. Soda should not be your daily thirst quencher. Instead, drink water as this is cheaper and so much healthier than soda.

Fruit juice is another beverage that you need to watch out when it comes to calorie content, for these generally contain just as much calories as sodas in cans and bottles. Fruit juices may contain nutrients, but you don’t need the extra sugar from these beverages. To enjoy your fave fruit juice without worrying about the extra calories, just make sure that you are consuming 100 percent fruit juice.

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What Causes Fatigue

Way back in college, I experienced recurring fatigue as I was a working and studying at the same time. There were days when I was so exhausted from my student assistant duty, I slept during class. I may have enjoyed free tuition in college, but I was not learning much at class for I was always sleeping.

So what were the triggers of my frequent exhaustion? One was I had too little sleep. Back then, I go home late and I sleep late because I still need to study and do some homework from school.

Another one was eating the wrong foods, especially during breakfast. I was always in a hurry so my usual breakfast then was coffee and sometimes a doughnut. Yes, only coffee and doughnut until lunchtime. This routine of mine always resulted to sluggish mornings at work or at class.

Lack of exercise was also another trigger of my fatigue issue back then. With so much time spent at school and at work, I totally ignored the thought of exercising at that time.

What I did to cope with recurring fatigue on my next post.

Quick Tips to Beat Acidity (Heartburn)

One might feel that acidity and acidic reflux or heartburn is caused only by consuming a heavy meal rich in fat and spices especially late in the night. But recently, I have been seeing a surge in the number of clients approaching me for diet counselling who also suffer from chronic acidity. These people are from varied occupations- busy executives, housewives, young men and women (age less than 30) and even adolescents!

Acidity is caused due to excess production, decreased utilization of the digestive juices (which are acidic in nature) in our stomach. This predominantly happens when there are long gaps between two meal times, the meal consumed is heavy in fat sugar and spices, when a person leads a very stressful lifestyle and due to lack of exercise. As a result, one gets a burning sensation in the stomach, throat and can often have an acidic reflux on lying down. Acidity is common in pregnant women as well, but that is because of the hormonal surge in pregnancy.

- The trick to managing acidity is to keep the stomach neither too full nor too empty. So the best way is to break down your breakfast, lunch and dinner into smaller portions and eat that food at an hourly interval.
- Another method is having sipfuls of cold milk every now and then- it helps stabilize the gastric acids. But beware, eating icecream is not equivalent to drinking plain cold milk as the fat (cream) and sugar in the icecream can actually aggravate your acidity.
- The most common tip, avoid spicy, oily, deep fried and fatty foods as they are a sure shot way of increasing the reflux.
- Increase the amount of fibre in your diet by increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Fibre absorbs the extra acid in the stomach and helps to discard it out of the body. The salts that one gets from the fruits also help in neutralizing the acidity.
-Start the morning with half a cup of cold milk and a couple of digestive fibre rich crackers.
- When sleeping, elevate your head by adding an extra pillow under your head so that the acid remains low down and does not come up to your throat once you sleep.
- Drink atleast three litres of water every single day, it dilutes the acid.
- Drinking tender coconut water is also known to be beneficial.
- Advance your dinner time by atleast a couple of hours; dinner should be done by 8 pm so that you still have a couple of hours before you go to sleep.
- Practice yoga or meditation techniques which can help you relax- stress is the biggest lifestyle trigger to acidity.
- And of course, Exercise, Exercise, Exercise- EVERYDAY!

Bring into practice all of these points and I am sure you won’t be stuck in the cycle of acidity and antacids.

Take care!

Quick Salad: Cucumber with a Lemon and Peanut Dressing

Cucumber Salad with lemon and peanut dressing

Here’s a quick post and an even quicker salad to make! I love cucumber as a salad vegetable as its very refreshing, takes up flavors easily and is always available! Just chop it, sprinkle some salt and pepper or chaat masala and you are done! This salad, or rather ‘koshimbir’ as Maharashtrian salads are known, is typically also flavored with a ‘tadka’ or tempering of oil/ghee, cumin seeds, green chilli. But I opt out of the tempering a lot of times when making this salad just for myself, to cut back on the fat calories. Only pointer- don’t make this salad in advance as then all the water from the cucumber will leach out and the salad will be no fun. There are loads of tips where they ask you to drain out water from cucumber but I would strongly advise against it, as that’s how you also lose out on the micro-nutrients in the vegetable. Here’s how I make it!

You will need:

2 fresh cucumbers, chopped or grated
1 tbsp roasted and coarsely ground peanuts (you can add more peanuts but just keep in mind that it adds to the fat calories too! )
1/2 green chilli, chopped fine
1 tsp toasted cumin seeds or cumin powder
1/2 tsp sugar (to balance the tang of the lemon)
2 tsp lemon juice (you can add more if you like your salad tangier)
salt to taste
some chopped coriander to garnish (I tend to add more as it adds to my salad)

Method:

- To the chopped/grated cucumber add all of the above ingredients, give it a good toss. Taste it, adjust seasoning. Garnish with coriander and serve!