There are many fad diets that promise to help you lose weight in almost no time at all. After two or three weeks on the diet you find yourself losing enough to be able to brag to your family and friends about it, and you're so optimistic that this new lifestyle will be your ticket to a smaller waistline that you start to browse the stores for new clothes.
You continue to lose weight for another couple of weeks, and then something happens: you start to feel sluggish, you begin craving something that your diet absolutely forbids you to have, or the general sense of optimism begins to transform itself into a feeling of constriction, frustration, and even dietary imprisonment.
You decide to have just one snack, or spend just one day eating whatever you want with the intention of going back to the diet the following day. What happens then, is that you feel such satisfaction from that treat that the entire effort falls apart and you put the weight back on in practically no time at all.
Does this scenario sound at all familiar?
Diets are very hard, as is the feeling of being overweight. Many of these fad diets may promise instant and significant weight loss results, but most of them rely on depriving your body of certain nutrients and disrupting the natural function of your body's metabolism. Chinese medicine considers obesity to be partly the result of declining function of the metabolic fire of the kidney network and a diet that provides a well-balanced array of nutrients is the key to losing weight in a healthy way. What follows are five foods that will help you restore your body's ability to use energy and help you become your healthy weight.
1. Millet: A well-balanced diet should consist of whole grains instead of refined grains like white rice and pasta, and millet is a beneficial and delicious staple of this category of food. This non-glutinous grain is over 10-percent protein, has high amounts of fiber and B-complex vitamins, and because it isn't an acid forming food, is easy to digest.
2. Asparagus: When losing weight, it's important to favor chlorophyll-rich foods, including asparagus. Asparagus is a nutrient-rich vegetable packed with folate, vitamins A, C, and K, and fiber. Asparagus also contains a carbohydrate known as inulin (not to be confused with insulin) that promotes healthy bacteria in the large intestine - which in turn promotes a healthier digestive function.
3. Pomegranates: Eating a balanced diet to lose weight should include eating fresh fruits, and pomegranates are a wonderful example of a healthy, nutritious fruit that has antioxidant properties and will help prevent cancer. While the benefits of drinking pomegranate juice have gained a lot of attention recently, you will be more likely to lose weight by eating the fruit fresh to increase your fiber intake and keep the calories down.
4. Pine Nuts: Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pine trees and are considered an essential ingredient in the tasty Italian mixture pesto. Chinese medicine uses pine nuts to improve gastrointestinal tract and digestive functions, and pine nut oil is even used for appetite suppression. Pine nuts and other nuts are a tasty part of a well-balanced diet intended for weight loss.
5. Green Tea: It has been found that consuming large amounts of coffee and caffeine can lead to food cravings, increase one's appetite, and induce stress-related eating. Green tea is a wonderful alternative to coffee in that it does provide a little caffeine but also contains beneficial antioxidants. So drink up!
A healthy diet also includes lean proteins like chicken breast, legumes such as lentils, and other whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. While fad diets may promise a large amount of weight loss in a short period of time, there's almost a guarantee that you will put that weight back on-and then some!
Eat five smaller meals a day, avoid processed foods, chew more slowly, and incorporate more healthy foods into your diet-starting with these five.
I hope this article helps you find foods that can aid in your weight loss goals! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.
May you live long, live strong, and live happy!
Dust and grease, like family members we see frequently but don’t always want to deal with, are two culprits lurking around every corner in my house. I prefer using strategic methods in my ongoing battle against them, but time isn’t always on my side. Instead, I pick an hour over the weekend to arm myself with rubber gloves, two cloth rags, a brush and dustpan, and some spray cleaner. Then I choose my worst t-shirt-and-shorts combo from my closet and load up Madonna’s Confessions from a Dance Floor, turning the bass up high. Once my body’s pumping to the music’s beat, I put my ten speed cleaning tips into action, and whip through my house like the Tasmanian Devil with OCD.
1. Let the Sunshine (and Air) In
Before the dust starts to settle, I open the shades and windows to let in the spring sun and air; then I light a candle and let its aroma take over the house.
2. De-Cluttering Dance
When Madonna tells me to “get ready to jump,” I de-clutter the house by making piles of papers and mail. I make one pile of bills to pay and follow-up correspondence; the second pile is for papers to file away. Then I choose a date on the calendar for getting rid of both piles. This simple act frees up my kitchen counters for the space I need to cook, and keeps my table open for entertaining.
3. Trap the Dust Bunnies
Dust bunnies live in my bedroom and under my furniture, and float along the baseboards, trying to hide. I use my dustpan and a garbage bag to catch the bunnies in each room before they hop away.
4. Ragamuffin Maid
I tuck two rags in my waistband and take my natural cleaner on a tour of my house. Using the two rags, I dust wooden surfaces with one and spray clean the kitchen counters with the other.
5. Handles with Care
I clean every door, cabinet, and sink handle in the house, removing whatever residue any hands have left behind.
6. Kitchen Sponge and Soak
After sweeping away the dust bunnies, it’s time to degrease the oven and soak the sink. Since I tend to go through sponges like toilet paper, I purchased a package of cellulose sponges: one for the kitchen, another for the bathroom, and a third for the toilet. They scrub off caked-on grease from the stove, then join my fruit skins in the compost bin (instead of a landfill) once they’ve run their course.
7. Bathroom Break
My bathroom always requires a weekly touch-up. Using Bon Ami, I sprinkle the sink and bathtub, and then wash them clean with hot water. Finally, I take my toilet sponge and run it over the top of the toilet and seat.
8. Fluff the Pillows
Dust and pet hair accumulate in couch and bed pillows, so get outside and do a little shake.
9. Refrigerator Madness
Since my food seems to expire as quickly as I do (by the end of the week), I go through the fridge and see which vegetables are ready to join my sponges in the compost bin.
10. Sweep and Vacuum—and the Mop Alternative
A quick sweep of kitchen and wood floors will catch the rest of the dust bunnies and dirt. I like to mix my favorite essential oil with baking soda to sprinkle in the carpet and on my rugs, for quick deodorizing before the vacuum comes out to play. And since the only small rooms in my house requiring a mop are my kitchen and bathroom, I take a third rag and use the natural cleaner to spray the floor, then I finish up my speed-cleaning frenzy with barefoot dancing to Madonna’s last track, while the rag and I move across the floor.
16 simple yet wildly effective rules to live by for dewy, plump, perfectly smooth skin--no matter what your age.
1. Even if you're sitting in the shade, without sunscreen you're being zapped by aging rays. Sunscreen, (at least SPF30, every day) not only prevents aging, it gives your skin time away from defending itself, so it can actually repair and undo existing damage.
2. There's wet, and then there's wet: If you want any antiager to work better, get your skin very wet. For instance, if you want your face scrub to exfoliate more than usual, do it at the very end of a shower.
3. Always pat eye cream in with your ring finger--it's the weakest, so the most gentle.
Perfect Your Skin: The right regimen makes all the difference, whether you're treating breakouts, wrinkles or redness.
4. Retin-A, Tazorac, Renova: These prescription-only retinoic acid formulas de-age skin like no over-the-counter cream. It takes about six weeks to see results, but the difference in most people is truly spectacular.
5. For some, retinoic acid is too skin-sensitizing. The next strongest thing is available over the counter: retinol. The most powerful retinol we know of is Help Me by Philosophy. If that's too much for you, Healthy Skin by Neutrogena is nonirritating but still extremely effective.
6. Too much sugar in your diet causes glycation--an inflammation and a disruption of collagen production. Avoid eating sweets, and use a product designed to prevent (and undo) the reaction.
7. Your skin does most of its repair-and-refresh work at night. Lack of sleep shows up on your face as dullness initially, graduating to wrinkling, sagging, and even breakouts as you continue to lose sleep.
There are no falsities to this beauty sleep business. A Lucky beauty editor was recently inflicted with mono (and a 1,000 hours of sleep) and reemerged with her most luminous skin ever.
8. Supplements: Who knows if they work? They might, and that's why we take them--especially those with omega-3, -6, and -9 oils. Since none of us can eat as much youthifying salmon as the experts say we should.
9. Cold really does bring down puffiness. Throw your eye cream in the fridge, or use these already-frosty versions.
10. Unanimous editors' rave: More Lucky staffers mentioned Kiehl's when they were queried about their antiaging routines than any other brand. They love the avocado eye cream, the pineapple papaya face scrub, the...
11. Peptides stimulate your cells to produce more collagen. They retexturize--so your skin feels silkier and looks brighter--and minimize lines. And they don't irritate at all.
12. Smoking is even better (and faster) at aging your face than the sun.
13. Wind and cold are dehydrating. Moisturizer plumps up your skin, making it look and feel smoother temporarily. We have never met a makeup artist who doesn't apply moisturizer liberally before makeup--it really makes a difference.
14. If you overdo it on skin treatments, anti-inflammatory products like Dr. Brandt's Laser Relief will calm your skin back to normality overnight.
Been a little overzealous with your skin care routine? One Lucky editor suggests this calendula cream as a cure all.
15. Tinted undereye moisturizer is a genius invention. Use it alone if your trouble is not severe, under concealer if it's more major.
16. If all else fails, keep your sunglasses on--and not solely for the obvious reason of camouflage. You also shield the delicate and first-to-wrinkle-and-sag eye area from future damage. Eye cream with SPF
Environmental and food sensitivities are usually the result of leaky gut syndrome. The prevalence of these sensitivities is more widely recognized today than in the past; 24 percent of American adults claim they have food and environmental sensitivities.
These sensitivities, also called delayed hypersensitivity reactions, differ from true food allergies, also called Type I or immediate hypersensitivity reactions. True food allergies are rare occurrences. They affect 0.3 to 7.5 percent of children and 1 to 2 percent of adults.
The foods that most often trigger these reactions are eggs, cow’s milk, nuts, shellfish, soy, wheat, and white fish. Food allergies trigger reaction of type IgE antibodies that bind to the offending food antigens. The IgE antibodies attach to mast cells that stimulate the release of cytokines and histamines.
This results in closing of the throat, fatigue, tearing, hives, itching, respiratory distress, watery or runny nose, skin rashes, itchy eyes or ears, and sometimes severe reactions of asthma and anaphylactic shock. These symptoms occur within minutes after the food is eaten and people usually know what they are (hives or difficulty breathing).
Physicians diagnose food allergies through the use of patch skin tests and RAST (radioallergosorbent test) blood testing, which are great for testing for food allergies but do not accurately determine food sensitivities. Sensitivity reactions, also called delayed or hidden hypersensitivities, occur when IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies are triggered in response to foods, chemicals, and bacterial toxins.
The most common antibody reactions are IgG to mold and foods; exposure to molds and foods is quite high compared to pollens. For example, in an entire hay-fever season, we might inhale a teaspoon of pollen, but we take pounds of food inside us each day. It is estimated that 95 percent of all food allergy is of this delayed type.
In the past, these delayed allergies were called serum sickness. The sensitivities cause symptoms that are delayed, taking several hours to several days to appear, which makes tracking them down very difficult. Food and environmental sensitivities cause a wide number of symptoms typical of a leaky gut reaction.
Food particles enter the bloodstream through damaged mucosal membranes; the body recognizes them as foreign substances (antigens) and triggers an immune reaction. Prolonged antibody response can overwhelm the liver’s ability to eliminate these food antigens.
Subsequently, the antigens enter the bloodstream and trigger delayed hypersensitivity response, inflammation, cell damage, and disease. Almost any food can cause a reaction, although the most common are beef, citrus, dairy products, egg, pork, and wheat. These foods provoke 80 percent of food sensitivity reactions.
Antibodies and antigens form what is known as immune complexes. If you have many antibodies and few antigens, you have a small immune complex. Conversely, if you have many antigens and only a few antibodies, you also have a small immune complex.
The worst symptoms and cravings appear when you have moderate amounts of both antibodies and antigens—when you have a large immune complex. When you try to eliminate foods while in this state, you are left with enormous cravings for them, and symptoms often worsen before they improve.
It can take seven to ten days to get through this stage. These large immune complexes can cause rashes in the skin and cheeks, as those seen in lupus. Blood testing for IgG or IgG4, IgM, and/or IgA antibody reactions can help determine sensitivities to a variety of foods and environmental substances.
You may want to screen for food allergies with IgE testing at the same time. Some labs test for another indicator of delayed hypersensitivity: white blood cell blastogenesis, where lymphocytes are stimulated and produce protein, DNA, and RNA at a rapid rate.
Environmental screening panels measure antibody reaction to chemicals commonly found in our homes, yards, workplaces, and public places. People often test positive to household cleaning supplies and petroleum-based chemicals. Several laboratories perform antibody testing for foods, dusts, environmental chemicals, heavy metals, molds, and pollens.
Lectins
Lectins that are incompatible with our genetics can also cause negative reactions to foods. We each have a genetically determined blood type—A, B, AB, or O. Our blood types contain specific antibodies that helped our ancestors live successfully in their environment.
We no longer stick to our ancestor’s specific environment and are continually exposed to new substances. When we eat a food that contains lectins that are incompatible to our blood type, they target an organ or tissue and begin to collect blood cells in clumps, a process called agglutination.
Peter D’Adamo, N.D., author of Eat Right 4 Your Type, hypothesized that when we eat foods containing lectins incompatible with our blood type, we experience negative health reactions. For example, if I have type A blood and drink milk, my body will begin to agglutinate and reject that milk.
When I drink milk, the next morning I wake up with a clump of mucus in my throat. I know this and usually avoid uncultured dairy products. The lectins don’t get digested and then cause reactions. According to D’Adamo, the lectin proteins settle somewhere in our bodies and have a magnetic effect on the cells there.
The cells clump together and are targeted for destruction as though they were foreign invaders. This can appear to us as irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, or nearly any inflammatory condition. Lectin reactions mimic food allergies. The digestive system and nervous system are especially sensitive to lectin reactions.
The people whose arthritis responds to elimination of the nightshade family of foods (potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers) probably have lectin sensitivities. If you want to know much more about blood type diets and lectins, read Eat Right 4 Your Type.
Elimination-Provocation Diet
If you wish to determine food and chemical sensitivities on your own, you can use the elimination-provocation challenge. Only eat foods that you are unlikely to be sensitive to for a week and then add back the foods you normally eat to “challenge” your system.
Removal of offending foods calms down symptoms, while careful addition of only one food every two days makes it easier to determine which cause reaction. Although the elimination-provocation challenge sounds simple, it can be tricky.
People usually have no problem with the elimination part—a restricted food plan for a week is easy. Slowly adding foods back into your diet may be more difficult, because recipes and restaurant foods have many ingredients. Sometimes it’s hard to determine which ingredient caused the distress.
Reactions that are delayed for a day or two also complicate the situation. It then becomes necessary to remove all suspected foods for four days and try them again one at a time. If you have the same reaction each time you add the food, you’ve found the culprit.
Unfortunately, if you have sensitivities to one food, you are often sensitive to all foods in the same family. For example, some people who are sensitive to wheat are sensitive to all grains in the grass family. It is common to be sensitive to more than one food or food family.
To cure food and environmental sensitivities, you’ll do best with a holistic approach. Begin by avoiding substances you are sensitive to for a period of six months, and your body will gradually stop reacting to most of them. That will help detoxify the body, especially the liver.
A comprehensive program of nutritional supplements will help in the healing process. The Elisa/Act Patient Handbook, provided by Elisa/Act Biotechnologies, reads, “Persons suffering from immune system dysfunction and overload due to delayed hypersensitivity reactions often have a need for even greater supplementation because of poor functioning of the body’s normal biochemical pathways.”
Organically grown and nutrientrich natural foods also help repair the body. Exercise programs and use of stress-management tools also play a part in recovery. With a holistic program you will find that over time you will become less and less sensitive to foods and the environment.
All you parents out there!
(These includes all 'wanna-be 'and 'could-have-been-but-chose-not-to-be parents'.)
Fifty Five more times than shown here!
I will never complain about MY kids again .
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids a gain ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
(Keep scrolling to see the pictures below)
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again .
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
I will never complain about MY kids aga in ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ..
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again .
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again ...
I will never complain about MY kids again .
Email this to a parent!
Now have a great day!
And be glad this is not your child!!!!!
I was switching channels when I saw this TV show from MAXXX. It was a reality show called "CHEATERS." This show revolves around spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends and fiancées who have sought the help of "Cheaters" private investigation services for free to find out if their significant other is having an affair with someone else. The show was originally hosted by Tommy Grand, it is now hosted by Joey Greico and each week features a new tormented male or female who waits for the results of surveillance done on his/her partner by the "Cheaters" Private Investigator secret cameras.
As expected, the act of infidelity is proven and, after torturing the betrayed guy or gal with grainy, poor quality footage of their sweetheart's unfaithfulness, Greico and the spurned lover go to confront the person in question. It seems to me that the cheating party is usually located in the parking lot of some cheesy bar or restaurant.
The real action of this show begins, when you see the angry, deceived mate running up to bless out the individual who has broken his/her heart, fists and epithets flying. There are, of course, the obligatory scenes of hysterical screaming and in-your-face verbal altercations expected in these types of reality television ventures.