LoveToKnow Diet

21 Day Challenge November

2009-10-29T12:48:40-08:00

It is said that it takes 21 days to establish a new habit. That means we can establish a new habit before summer gets here. The goal here is to work toward healthy lifestyle habits.

If you want to take steps to a healthier lifestyle whether it involves losing weight or not, I encourage you to join us on November 1. Post your goals here in this forum and lets spur one another on to healthy living. Let’s keep those extra holiday pounds off this year!

Donna

Carbohydrate Addicts Diet

2009-10-30T05:02:00-08:00

Hi everyone,

Until now I’ve steered away from low carb diets because I didn’t think they were healthy…and some of them aren’t. However, I watched my daughter-in-law drop 50 pounds following a low carb plan and that stuck with me. So I’ve reached the fed-up point and started investigating. I didn’t want a diet devoid of vegetables and fruit.

I found an older diet called the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. It was an easy read even though it is written by a couple of scientists who are themselves carb addicts. They did a lot of research and helped thousands of people while studying the effects of the diet for like 7 years.

Long story short, I started yesterday. I just announced in the November 21 Day Challenge that this is my plan for November.

Has anyone else tried this diet or another low carb?

Donna

21 Day Challenge

2009-05-24T16:01:25-08:00

It is said that it takes 21 days to establish a new habit. That means we can establish a new habit before summer gets here. The goal here is to work toward healthy lifestyle habits.

If you want to take steps to a healthier lifestyle whether it involves losing weight or not, I encourage you to join us on June 1. Post your goals here in this forum and lets spur one another on to healthy living.

Donna

Jump Start 7 Day Weight Loss Program

2009-11-10T23:28:37-08:00

This is a juice diet program by Brendan McCarthy. Has anyone heard or tried this program? Please let me know if this really works.

Cheers!

25 Tips to Order Healthy Choices At Any Restaurant

2009-11-09T22:10:30-08:00

25 Tips to Order Healthy Choices At Any Restaurant

4 quick tips to ordering in any restaurant
1. Learn to order better.
2. Be careful where you eat. No all-you-can-eat buffets or steakhouses with enormous portions
3. Make friends with the waitperson. She can tell you about any dish.
4. Order Creatively. Soup, salad and an appetizer can stand in for a full meal. Extra vegetables can replace french fries.

6 tips to ordering Chinese
5. Ask for brown rice.
6. Start your meal with wonton, egg drop, or hot-and-sour soup.
7. When it comes to entrées, order from the “health” menu.
8. Make sure you order plenty of vegetables.
9. Take advantage of the bean curd (tofu).
10. Plan to take home leftovers.

4 tips to ordering Italian
11. Ask the waitperson not to bring the breadbasket.
12. If you want pasta, order a dish from the appetizer section of the menu, or share.
13. If it’s on the menu, order simple grilled beef, veal, pork, chicken, fish, or shellfish.
14. For dessert, ask for fresh berries or fruit ice, if it’s available, or a small plate of cookies to share.

6 tips to ordering Mexican
15. Ask the waitperson to take away the tortilla chips.
16. Order a healthy starter instead.
17. For an entrée, look to fajitas.
18. Order tacos or burritos without high-fat sour cream.
19. As a side dish, go for rice and beans instead of Mexican rice.
20. Have dessert at home.

5 tips to ordering fast food
21. Opt for simple grilled fare, if you can find it.
22. A simple hamburger isn’t bad either—if you order the smallest one without cheese or mayonnaise.
23. Order a la carte.
24. Take advantage of the salads but watch for fried chicken and fatty dressings.
25. Have yogurt.

Cheers!

Five (5) Foods That Sabotage Your Sleep

2009-10-28T22:47:12-08:00

If you’re having trouble sleeping, what about a midnight snack? Think twice—here are five foods that can prevent you from getting a good night’s rest:

Preserved and Smoked Meats
Slap your hand away when it reaches to make a ham sandwich as an evening snack. Ham, bacon, sausages, and smoked meats contain high levels of the amino acid tyramine, which triggers the brain to release norepinephrine, a brain stimulant that makes us feel alert and wired.

Chocolate
Love an evening cup of cocoa? That sundae in front of the TV? Be careful of chocolate in all its disguises. Many people are increasingly sensitive to caffeine as they get older, and even the little chocolate chunks in chocolate chip ice cream could zap you just enough to prevent ZZZZs. Chocolate also contains tyrosine, a stimulating amino acid.

Energy Drinks
Red Bull and other energy drinks are high in caffeine as well as the amino acid taurine, which boosts alertness and adrenaline. Recent studies have shown that even if you drink energy drinks early in the day, the combined high dosage of taurine and caffeine can make it hard to sleep, or to sleep well, later on.

Tomato Sauce, Chili, Pizza, and Spicy Foods
Digestive disturbances are a common source of sleep problems, but many people fail to make the connection. Acidic and spicy foods can cause reflux, heartburn, and other symptoms that interrupt sleep.

The Nightcap
A drink or two may make you feel more relaxed after dinner, but it comes back to haunt you—literally—a few hours later, by preventing you from achieving deep sleep. And because alcohol both dehydrates you and makes you have to pee, it wakes you up, too. Wine is high in the stimulant tyrosine as well.

Cheers!

The Cookie Diet

2009-10-19T11:42:15-08:00

The cookie diet has been in the media a lot lately. I think this is good and bad. It is great that it is working for people. Unfortunately, my daughter saw it on the news. She said, “Look,Mommy, she tried different ways to lose weight and the only thing that worked was to eat cookies.” Okay, so we had to have a little chat about healthy eating and body image. I also turned the channel to a more age appropriate show.

I would like to know what everyone thinks of the cookie diet and why it is the next big thing.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots

2009-10-19T20:12:01-08:00

This is another very popular diet plan that works pretty fast. They take the same approach as strip that fat. Only their weight loss guide is about 45 pages long.

They advise you to eat four meals a day which works very well. You don’t have as much freedom as the strip that fat diet because you are advised to eat in cycles. For example one day you would mostly eat carbs while the next day you would eat more protein and fats.

Carb cycling is actually a smart way to lose weight fast. It is great because it keeps your body guessing for more weight loss.

Both of these diets also have a diet generator. The way a diet generator works is that you have to enter in the foods that you want to eat and then it gives you an extremely easy to follow diet plan for you.

Five (5) Foods That Help You Sleep

2009-10-26T23:11:33-08:00

Should you let yourself have that midnight snack if you’re having trouble sleeping and you think hunger might be part of the problem? Here are five foods that can actually help you drift off:

Cherries
Fresh and dried cherries are one of the only natural food sources of melatonin, the chemical that controls the body’s internal clock to regulate sleep. Researchers who tested tart cherries and found high levels of melatonin recommend eating them an hour before bedtime or before a trip when you want to sleep on the plane.

Bananas
Potassium and magnesium are natural muscle relaxants, and bananas are a good source of both. They also contain the amino acid L-tryptophan, which gets converted to 5-HTP in the brain. The 5-HTP in turn is converted to serotonin (a relaxing neurotransmitter) and melatonin.

Toast
Carbohydrate-rich foods trigger insulin production, which induces sleep. Bring on sleepiness by speeding up the release of tryptophan and serotonin, two brain chemicals that relax you and send you to sleep.

Oatmeal
Like toast, a bowl of oatmeal will trigger insulin production, raising blood sugar naturally and making you feel sleepy. Oats are also rich in melatonin, which many people take as a sleep aid.

Warm milk
Like bananas, milk contains the amino acid L-tryptophan, which turns to 5-HTP and releases relaxing serotonin. It’s also high in calcium, which promotes sleep.

Cheers!

21 Day Challenge October

2009-09-30T05:28:41-08:00

How the 21 Day Challenge works:

It is said that it takes 21 days to establish a new habit. That means we can establish a new habit in a month. The purpose of the 21 Day Challenge is to work toward healthier lifestyle habits. What those habits are will be up to you. We are not promoting one type of diet or specific habits. Instead we are encouraging each one to take steps toward healthy eating.

If you want to establish a healthier lifestyle, whether it involves losing weight or not, I encourage you to join us on October 1. Post your goals here in this forum and let’s spur one another on to healthy living. The October 21 Day Challenge will go from October 1-21. Feel free to post before then, introduce yourself and discuss what habits and goals you are considering.

Donna