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How to Make a Delicious and Healthy Salad to Take to Work – Quinoa Salad Cranberries

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

Did you know you could save time, money and jumpstart your health by packing a lunch for work?

If you didn’t have to score your jaw from dropping onto your keyboard in shock, you’re already fully aware of the benefits of brown-bagging. Now here’s how to actually DO it with the following guide to building a work-ready salad. Throw all but the dressing into some Tupperware the night before and you’re ready to go!

BUILDING BLOCK 1: Spinach — The Essential

I like to buy bagged baby spinach (it’s easy to grab a handful for my salad). Never use frozen spinach. I once tried to preserve my bagged spinach by throwing it in the freezer and I ended up with a waterlogged salad the next day. (Hint: should this happen to you anyway, just dump the whole salad into a frying pan and originate some fajitas!)

BUILDING BLOCK 2: 3+ Vegetables

Fetch creative when piling on the veggies! Some of my favorites include:

1. Tomatoes (Grape or cherry tomatoes are spacious for punctuating a salad.)

2. Mushrooms (Any variety will do; I prefer the heartier baby bellas.)

3. Bell peppers (I just pour them out from a bag of frozen chopped mixed peppers.)

Still unsure where to begin? Get inspired with the following lists:

1. “The World’s Healthiest Foods” from the George Mateljan Foundation: http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

2. The “Fruits and Veggies Matter” site from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC): http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/benefits/nutrient_guide.html

If you’re overwhelmed by the options, challenge yourself to pick just three. You can even rotate through the lists to sight what you hate, tolerate, like and LOVE. You won’t know until you try!

BUILDING BLOCK 3: 1 Protein

Eating nothing but raw veggies screams “rabbit food” – boring. Add another dimension of flavor (and nutrition) with some protein like leftover chicken, canned tuna or quinoa. My top two faves:

1. A Hardboiled Egg: Boiled eggs last in the fridge for a week! Boil five eggs on a Sunday night so they’re ready to add (or even support them in the work fridge for added convenience).

2. Beans: Cook up some dry beans (or drain and rinse the canned variety) and keep those ready either in the morning at home or in the work fridge. Beans last in the fridge for three days.

BUILDING BLOCK 4: 1-2 Extras

Accessorize your salad with 1-2 of the following ingredients to keep things interesting!

1. Edamame (soy beans)Fruit (chopped apples, cranberries, etc.)

2. Nuts (walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)

3. Cheese (shredded mozzarella, feta, etc.)

4. Flaxseed: An alpha when it comes to getting your Omega-3 on, flaxseed is better ground than whole; otherwise, all that nutrition passes right on through, so to speak.

BUILDING BLOCK 5: Dressing

It’s usually best to add dressing right before you chow down (soggy salad, anyone? ). Deem keeping your favorite dressing in the office fridge. I keep balsamic vinegar at my desk on a lower dark and wintry shelf (a desk drawer would also work).

Categorized in Quinoa Salad
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Nighwish Proves They Are Better Than Ever – Amaranth Nightwish

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

Finland’s Nightwish is most famous for their orchestrated soundtrack-like compositions and their operatic female. The power metal group is currently touring the U.S. in support of their latest cd, Dark Passion Play. The album is the group’s first release with new singer Anette Olzon, former Alyson Avenue frontwoman and the tour is the first chance for fans to glance Anette perform some of Nightwish’s older hits made famous by former frontwoman Tarja Turunen. On Friday, October 26, the band visited Detroit’s Harpos Theatre and any uneasiness about Olzon’s abilities was fleet put to rest.

Nightwish performed 17 songs during the band’s two hour set combining some classics with many of their newer songs. They opened with new single “Bye Bye Beautiful”, a song that brainchild and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen wrote for Turunen, who left the group on bad terms. Immediately, it was obvious that although Olzon is not classically trained as Turunen was, she can certainly maintain her own. She has a powerful exclaim that has just enough range to hit the high notes in many of their songs. She is very versatile. Turunen was known for having little stage presence, so it was nice to see that Olzon does not have that problem. Her interaction with her band mates and the audience prove that she has a bright future ahead of her. Because of these differences, many of the band’s newer songs have more of a rock influenced edge to them.

With the band in a experimental phase, this allows bassist Marco Hietala to take a larger vocal role in the group. The band performed his new song “The Islander”, which was done just with twin acoustic guitars. It was very well done with Marco on the lead vocals, singing in a style that has elements of Celtic and Finnish folk music, with Anette doing harmonies.

The highlight of the night was the band’s performance of their epic 13 minute “Poet and the Pendulum”. The song moved from a hard to slow pace and gave the band a chance to shine instrumentally. Classics, “Dark Chest of Wonders” and “Nemo” had the packed crowd jumping and singing along. The place had a frenetic energy throughout the evening. Everyone was having a lot of fun.

The band ended the evening with a new hit and two fan favorites. After briefly leaving the stage, they returned to form the standout track off of Dark Passion Play “7 Days To The Wolves”, “Wishmaster” and their U.S. hit “Wish I Had An Angel”. After the demonstrate was over, the band stayed on to meet and greet their fans. They’ve enjoyed the tour so much that they are already planning a Spring return.

Overall, the show was a huge success. Good performance, very professional musicians, great stage chemistry and lots of fun.

Nightwish Setlist:
Intro
Bye Bye Beautiful
Amaranth
Cadence of Her Last Breath
Dark Chest of Wonders
Ever Dream
Eva
Whoever Brings The Night
Sacrament of Wilderness
The Islander
The Poet and the Pendulum
The Siren
Sahara
Sleeping Sun
Nemo
7 Days to the Wolves
Wishmaster
Wish I Had An Angel
Outro

Categorized in Amaranth
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A Healthy Diet Can Reduce the Harmful Effects of Smoking – Receding Gums Cancer

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

The risks of smoking are well publicized–cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lowered resistance to disease, including colds and flu. What isn’t talked about much is that many of these health problems are connected to the nutritional deficiencies caused by smoking. Smoker’s typically have low levels of essential nutrients like vitamins C and E, zinc, calcium, folate, and the omega-3 essential fatty acid. Making sure you get enough of these nutrients won’t make you immune to the effects of cigarette smoke, but it can wait on keep the damages to a minimum.
Better nutrition for smokers can make a difference.

Vitamin E helps protect the heart
One smoking-related factor that raises the risk of heart attack is atherosclerosis, a hardening and narrowing of the arteries caused by deposits of LDL (“abominable”) cholesterol and other substances. Cigarette smoke contributes to changes in dietary cholesterol that beget it possible for that cholesterol to stick to the artery walls. The anti-oxidant properties of vitamin E help prevent cholesterol from changing in this harmful way. As an anti-oxidant, vitamin E can also sweep up free radicals (reactive molecules that can disrupt cell function) and protect cells from mutations related to cancer and other diseases. For these reasons, it’s often considered the most significant of vitamins for smokers. Good dietary sources of vitamin E include sunflower seeds, almonds, olives and oils made from these foods. Leafy green vegetables like spinach also contain healthy amounts of vitamin E.

The benefits of vitamin C
Deficiency of vitamin C is another problem for smokers. In terms of nutrition for smokers, getting more of this vitamin two main benefits. Vitamin C is needed for superior immune function–something smokers often have concern with–and it also slows down smoking-related loss of vitamin E. Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered that taking 1000 milligrams of vitamin C a day could cut the rate at which smokers lose one form of vitamin E by up to 45%. That put them on par with non-smoker’s. (Study with smokers shows vitamins combine for benefits. Free Radical Biology and Medicine. February 25, 2006). As an additional benefit, vitamin C also helps prevent receding gums, a problem common in smokers.

Zinc and selenium for immune support
Smoking interferes with your body’s ability to consume zinc, a mineral needed for the immune system and male reproductive system. It also has negative effects on the body’s use of selenium, another mineral important for a healthy immune system. Getting enough of two trace minerals can do more than help you avoid colds, though. Researchers studying the effects of zinc, copper and selenium on lung cancer found that smokers who had sufficient amounts of these minerals in their diets had less risk of lung cancer. (Dietary zinc, copper and selenium, and risk of lung cancer. International Journal of Cancer. March 1, 2007. ) Be careful with zinc supplements, though. These can lead to an overload of zinc, which brings its believe problems. Get your zinc from food sources like beef, lamb, oysters, legumes such as lentils and chickpeas (garbanzo beans), eggs, milk, and whole-grain products.

Nutrition for women who smoke
Although it’s not well know, smoking also speeds up the loss of bone mass that occurs as a woman ages. This means women who smoke are at greater risk for osteoporosis, a condition characterized by weak, brittle bones. While eating better won’t completely stop smoking-related loss of bone mass, it can slow it down. For healthy bones, make sure you’re getting enough calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D. Cut down on cookies and soda, which contain levels of phosphorus high enough to interfere with other nutrients. Folate is another concern in nutrition for smokers. Women trying conceive are often advised to take folate supplements to prevent birth defects. This is even more important for women who smoke because smoking depletes folate.

Be careful with beta-carotene
Nutrition for smokers isn’t all anount getting more vitamins and minerals, though. Strange as it may seem, there’s one nutrient that smokers should be careful they don’t get too much of. The results of one study found that smokers getting 20 mg of beta-carotene or more every day for several years actually had an 18% increased the risk of lung cancer. (Effects of alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene supplements on cancer incidence in the Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. July 23, 1995). Smoker or not, your body still the beta-carotene in foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, and dark green vegetables. Although no recommended daily allowance has been set for this nutrient, around 3 to 6 mg a day is generally considered healthy. Just end away from supplements that could boost your levels much above that.

Now the bad news
The benefits of better nutrition for smokers have their limits. Eating a well balanced, nutritious diet can take the edge of the negative effects of smoking, but you’re still better off not smoking at all. What’s more, unless you improve your diet to replace the nutrients smoking destroys, those specially formulated “vitamins for smokers” may not benefit much. One study showed supplements don’t reduce the risk of lung cancer (Supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate does not reduce the risk of lung cancer. American Journal Respiratory and Important Care Medicine. Nov. 7, 2007). Other studies have shown that taking anti-oxidants can improve short term health problems, but the cumulative effects of smoking aren’t changed much.

Of course, there are plenty of health benefits to eating a proper diet and staying away from junk food that aren’t impartial about nutrition for smokers, When it comes to avoiding the harmful effects of cigarette smoke, though, it’s still better to quit smoking.

Categorized in Receding Gums Heart Disease
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Weight Loss – Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

Tips for weight loss

There are several steps you can take true now to achieve your weight loss goals. The fist thing you need is a positive attitude and be ready to make some sacrifices in your daily life to accomplish this goal.

Drink more water

Initiate each day with a glass of water and continue this throughout your day. Water provides the hydration your body needs and most people don’t drink enough water. You should replace all sodas, coffee, and other drinks with plain water. Take water with you when you go out and don’t utilize diet drinks as a substitiute for water.

Throw out the junk

Go through your cupboards and gather kid of all the junk foods. These include cookies, pastries, candy, pop, chips, and frozen meals. Almost all pre-packed food needs to be thrown out, but items like pasta can be kept as well as frozen vegetables. This might seem like a kill of food but you need to do it. If you have some canned goods like pork and beans you could donate these to a food bank. You need to eliminate these foods and replace them with whole food options.

Consume More Whole Foods

The single best way to lose weight and get yourself started on a healthy lifestyle is to buy whole foods. This understanding is actually very easy. If it grows in the ground, or on a tree it is considered real food. Think aid to what your grandparents veteran to eat. they ate things such as vegetables, fruit, grains, seeds, meat, and fish. Exercise your grocery shopping time in the vegetable and fruit section the most and stock up heavily on these items. Any vegetable or fruit eaten whole is better then a packaged meal. You need to replace those empty calories with good quality nutrition which you can only get from plants and other whole food. Don’t be tempted by packaged food that says it has nutrients added. You need to get these nutrients from real food and not from a package. When selecting meat, survey for cuts with less fat and go for lean chicken or fresh fish. Eating this way is a natural and easy way to lose weight and to keep it off. Your body needs proper nutrients to function an optimum levels.

Avoid fast food and quick meals

Most rapid food restaurants serve too much food for the average person. Portions are too big and full calories you don’t need. When trying to lose weight it is vital to stay away from these types of places and manufacture your own meals. If you must eat out try to eat salads or dishes with mostly vegetables and a smaller portion of meat. You can always prefer your meal home and finish the rest the next day. You might be busy but with a little effort you can plan a meal to take with you. This is an important step to take towards your weight loss goals.

Become more active

In addition to a healthier diet you need to commence to move more on a regular basis. This can be as simple as a short walk each day. You can park your car further away at work or the store and promenade. You can make use of the stairs in your office instead of the elevator. Active doesn’t mean running 20 miles a day even a few small steps each day will make you feel better.

Quick Fixes

There is no quick fix to weight problems. Consume real food, get active, and stay positive. You will find that it is not as hard as it seems if you put your mind and heart into it. Many diet pills, potions and powders don’t help you set realistic weight loss goals, they work in the short-term but you don’t know the long-term risks to your health. A healthy lifestyle is what you need to succeed not a pill you saw on T.V. Take it slowly and you will succeed with your weight loss goals.

Categorized in Whole Foods Weight Loss
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Alas, the Year of the Potato is Over – Cooking Amaranth

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

The Year of the Potato has come to an end. Everyone, shed a collective inch. I know, I know, you’ve been waiting with baited breath ever since I first reported on this in January 2008. So here we go….

No, don’t cry because the mighty tuber, with its 8,000 year history of feeding the masses, has given over the year 2009 to… I haven’t found out yet… but I’m looking, trust me. I’m betting it is the Year of Amaranth or some such. (I’ll write amaranth at a later date, it really IS a pretty cool grain).

But the United Nations, like any governmental body of its size, complexity, and spending habits has produced a portray on the massively, wildly, successful campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of the spud as the Food of the Future. Suitable for putting on any smart coffee table to entertain your guests.

Hmm… Food of the Future. But they start the 148 page report (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!) by telling us that it has been a staple for 8,000 YEARS in the Andes, and in Europe since the 18th Century, following a wildfire spread of the slash (okay, wildfire by 17th Century standards, what with the best means of transportation being wind-driven boats, okay? ) once brought there by the Spanish.

And it is grown on 6 continents. Six… and nothing grows on the seventh one except penguins. And they eat fish, so… no need for spuds there.

Any intention, there were festivals. There were cooking events. There were publicly funded lectures, conferences, parties, and nights of wild debauchery. (All proper, I made up the debauchery part.) (Maybe.)

It took the skills and talents of 55 people from around the globe working diligently to tell us about the miraculous tater (I’m not making that up, either – 55 people). I mean, couldn’t they have done the same thing with about a dozen people, a television studio, and a bunch of leprechauns?

The HYPERBOLE in this tome is nothing short of miraculous! You could STRANGLE someone like Tom Wolfe with this thing. Take this one “The International Year of

the Potato has raised awareness of the potato’s fundamental importance as a staple food of humanity.”

I mean, it’s been getting served around the globe for about 300 years. How mighty more AWARE can we GET about the value of the potato as a food?

Categorized in cooking quinoa
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Fighting the Battle Against Gum Disease and Tooth Decay in Teens – Gingivitis Heart Disease

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

As the parent of any teen knows, telling them to do anything during those rebellious adolescent years doesn’t go over very well. When they are babies or even toddlers, it can be easier to glean them to brush their teeth, even if parents have to help with brushing. But once youngsters hit the turbulent teen years. all bets are off. Suddenly that child who made it through dental exams with flying colors is starting to get one, two or even more cavities with alarming frequency!

As surprising – or frustrating – as it may be, the statistical reality shows that eighty four percent of teens have cavities and sixty four percent have gingivitis, the early stages of gum disease, according to the teenshealth section of the kidshealth website at kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/take_care/teeth.html The obedient news? Early gum disease can be turned around if treated aggressively and early.

Gingivitis is almost always caused by plaque buildup. Plaque can be prevented or reduced if teens brush properly. So how do you motivate them to take care of their teeth and prevent tooth decay and gum disease without coming across as a drill sergeant? What are the success secrets for teen dental health? Your dentist could provide some helpful info but here is what has worked best for us:

1. Grab their interest immediately

If you bring up the subject of brushing teeth or dental care and your kids are likely to tune you out, start yawning or become annoyed. But if you score a way to connect dental health with dating, being attractive and other areas that are far more interesting to your teen, you may be surprised at their change in attitude! As odd as it seems, many teens don’t automatically connect abominable breath with poor dental hygiene or plaque buildup.

2. Use the Smell Factor

Before they leave the house, have them cup a hand and breathe into it. If they don’t like the smell, odds are no one else will either. This simple step can do more than all the lectures in the world. If you’ve got the courage, you might even give them a dose of their own medicine by leaning over their shoulder before you’ve brushed your own teeth in the morning. Be sure you know how your teen is likely to react before you do this and do not try this in front of their – or your -friends. Your goal is to teach – not shame – your teen.

3. Do whatever you can to avoid lectures and try to make your point with a minimum of words.

If you feel your teen needs a lecture, leave that to the dentist or someone else. If your teens become more aware of how plaque, tooth decay and poor brushing habits can affect their looks and make them less appealing to others, consider yourself on the road to success.

4. Be Informed so you can provide accurate information.

Here’s what you need to know: most teens should see the dentist a minimum of every six months – or even more often if there is a family history of gum disease and cavities. Your focus should be on preventing cavities, also known as dental caries. It is almost always less expensive to prevent teen cavities and gum disease than to deal with a deeper problem. Realize the symptoms of early gum disease in teens (red, swollen or bleeding gums). Luckily, if caught early, teen gum disease can be turned around and a healthy smile and strong teeth may be maintained.

A tremendous source of information can be found at the colgate website at www.colgate.com and the specific information for teens is at www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/OC/Information/OralHealthAtAnyAge/Teenagers/Teenagers/HowCanTeensKeepTheirSmilesBright
Based on the info there, parents should encourage teens to brush their teeth at least twice daily, floss at least once a day and limit sugary, starch foods, including soda pop – or make sure that they rinse, brush and floss teeth after eating particularly sweet foods.

About one out of every 10 people gets tartar and plaque very easily. Ask your dentist if your teen is one of those and know what needs to be done. Also, ask your dentist about the connection between gum disease, inflammation and heart problems because they are interconnected. Surprised?

You’ll be helping your teen to prevent gum and dental disease by providing popcorn and fresh veggies on hand for snacks instead of brownies and soft drinks. Regular, unsweetened popcorn has less sugar. On the other hand, proper flossing is important to prevent popcorn from remaining stuck between the teeth and in the gums.

Finally, remember this important fact eminent earlier: the majority of teens have cavities or early gum disease. Clearly, more needs to be done to keep them from suffering even worse problems with their teeth later in life, including gum inflammation, diseased roots and root canals – even the premature loss of their teeth!

5. Be upbeat

While you may never convince your teens that brushing, flossing and taking care of their teeth is fun, you can focus on the definite aspects of teen dental care: preventing problems later, being attractive to others, making a good impression, etc. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few teen magazines with images of popular celebrities or role models, all with colorful, healthy smiles. Impartial try to capture someone other than Britney Spears or a younger person who isn’t the role model you’d net ideal.

6. Make certain the estimable dental products and toothbrushes are on hand.

We always keep a few spare and unopened toothbrushes in our bathrooms. I keep them on hand so that our teens don’t run the risk of using frail or ineffective toothbrushes and also to help ensure that teens don’t fragment toothbrushes (yes, this is gross but it can happen). Let visitors know that you have spare toothbrushes. We also maintain a plaque detection product recommended by our dentist on the counter so our teens can see the areas they may have missed. We don’t hover or supervise their brushing unless our dentist indicates that our teens aren’t handling the job well enough on their own.

When it comes to finding the right toothbrush, many dentists recommend a soft-bristled brush, as noted here at sciencedaily.com:
sciencedaily.healthology.com/dental-health/article1115.htm However, patients on certain medications or with other special needs may have to use a different type of toothbrush so I strongly suggest checking with your dental care provider for the best toothbrush, mouthwashes or rinses and toothpastes for you and your teen.

Categorized in bleeding gums heart disease
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Top Weight Loss Tips – Pasta Weight Loss

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

If you are looking to lose weight then chances are you are in need of a few fast tips to help speed along the process. Weight loss does not have to be a difficult thing if you approach it with a positive frame of mind and obtain minor adjustments weekly that you can live with.  If you slowly change what you eat and how you exercise then over time you will start noticing mammoth changes in your body.

Here are some reliable hints to get you started towards your goal of weight loss.

1.  Always drink a glass of water before your meals.

Many people launch to mistake thirst for hunger and eat when they are actually thirsty.  Try drinking a glass of water before your meal or when you are tempted to snack in order to befriend nick the amount of calories you consume and thus lose weight.

2. Each your starchy carbohydrates earlier in the day.

A simple way to promote weight loss when it comes to carbohydrates is to try and eat the more starchy ones such as pasta, bread and rice earlier in the day.  Since these types of carbohydrates are more calorie dense, eating them when you body is more in need of energy is a quick-witted thing to do.  Later on try to consume vegetable sources of carbohydrates as these are quite low calories and will help you lose weight.

3.  Keep healthy snacks at your desk

When hunger strikes while you are at work you do not want to be tempted by the vending machine.  Everything you find there will likely be extremely high calorie and will not be conducive to weight loss at all.  Instead, keep healthy snacks in your desk such as cans of tuna, low fat pretzels or rice chips, whole grain cereals and individual packets of protein powder. This will make winning at weight loss one step easier.

4.  Workout first thing in the morning

Those individuals who choose to workout first thing in the morning are remarkable more likely to stick with their workouts since there are fewer barriers that come into play.  The only factor they will likely need to overcome is their desire for more sleep so once they can get past this they will have no troubles sticking to their workout. Additionally, since exercise helps to increase your metabolism, doing it earlier on is salubrious as it will help you burn calories throughout the rest of the day.

5.  NEVER skip breakfast

If you think skipping this morning meal is a sure way to reduce calories and help you lose weight you are very wrong.  Your body has been fasting overnight and it’s crying for nutrients at this time. If you don’t eat then your metabolism is likely to wearisome down making it even harder for you to lose weight.  Chances are you will be so hungry that you will eat more calories than you normally would at lunch therefore making up and potentially even surpassing what you missed from this morning meal.

6.  Workout with a friend

If sticking to your workouts is your biggest challenge then try and find a friend who has similar fitness goals that you can workout with.  This will really help you stay on track because you know they are counting on you to show up. If you instead settle to skip not only will you let them down but you will feel guilty for not keeping your promise.  You could even place a bet with your friend to see who can lose weight the fastest.

7. Secure alternatives for dessert

Just because your goal is weight loss does not mean that you have to completely give up ever having dessert. You just need to be smarter about the choices you make and ensure that there is plenty of room for them in your diet to accommodate for the excess calories.  Some great options are fruit with low elephantine whipped topping, sugar free jell-o, or a cup of flavoured coffee or tea sweetened with some sugar free syrup.  All of these will not do any damage to your diet and will satisfy your sweet tooth.

8.  Try and reduce how much alcohol you consume

While you working towards weight loss you will want to limit your alcohol consumption as much as possible because it is going to reduce your will-power to stick to your diet and you will be more likely to cheat with foods you don’t even really want.  Also, alcohol itself is quite high in calories so this is not going to make the process of weight loss any easier.  If you feel you must drink than try alternating one alcoholic drink with one non-calorie beverage such as water or diet soda.

9.  Be aware of hidden calories

Sometimes even the most rigorous calorie counters miss certain places where calories are ‘hidden’ and really add up.  This is particularly celebrated in restaurant meals because you may think you are ordering a healthy dish of vegetables and chicken however what you don’t know is that they may have added a great deal of butter to the vegetables before they arrived at the table.  Another source of ’sneaky’ calories are smoothie type drinks.  These are becoming more and more popular and are generally thought of as a healthy meal replacement. However, often because of the amount of food blended into them and their sheer size, their calorie counts are higher than an actual meal.  So be on the lookout for odd places where calories may be a lot higher than you are expecting.

10.  Try to eat frequent meals.

 Eating frequently is going to do two things to help make weight loss easier. First it’s going to encourage you control your hunger levels since you will never be going an extended period of time without eating and secondly it is going to assist keep your metabolism higher.  Every time you eat your body is going to expend some energy in the process of digestion so the more often you can stimulate this the more calories you will burn during the day.

 So try applying a few of these tips to your diet today.  Remember that you do not have to do a complete overhaul of your diet but rather add in new changes as you progress through.  It is much easier psychologically to make a few changes a week then to try and change all your bad habits at once.

Categorized in Couscous Weight Loss
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Swheat Scoop Cat Litter Versus Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with New Odor Eliminating Carbon – Fresh Market

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

Two months ago I downsized and moved into a smaller condo. I brought my two sweet kitties with me and they are having a blast. Meanwhile though, for two months I have been a maniac trying out different cat litters, like Swheat Scoop Cat Litter and Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with New Odor Eliminating Carbon to fight against their somewhat unpleasant deposits. Unfortunately I am one of those pet owners who refuses to stay feeding their cats canned fish flavored cat foods even though I know it will cause their litter to really smell. I have tried about fifteen different cat litters and I have to say I had the highest hope for the Sweat Scoop Cat Litter and the Current Step Scoopable Litter with New Odor Eliminating Carbon when I saw their advertisements. My eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. Sad, but true. I had high hopes for both of these products, but each, like all of the others has its pluses and minus.

Smell is the most important factor I considered while using both the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter and the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter Versus Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with New Odor Eliminating Carbon. I mean how well it hid the smell left by my cats, not how it smelled coming out of the box. In general both the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter and the Fresh Step Scoopable Litter had either no or very little smell coming out of the box. I found that the Sweat Scoop Cat Litter did very well hiding the smell of the cat urine while the Fresh Step Scoopable Litter did a better job of covering the smell of cat feces.

Having realized this I decide to try mixing Swheat Scoop Cat Litter and Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with New Odor Eliminating Carbon together. Under the belief that the urine would decide to the bottom I tried putting a layer of the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter on the Bottom and an inch or two of the Fresh Step Scoopable Litter on top. I thought I had conquered the issue of litter in my small condo once and for all. Then came time to actually scoop out the litter box. To my dismay the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter formed clay like formations the bottom of the litter box that had to be scraped out with the litter scoop. It was heinous. I tried rinsing the cat scoop off in the tub, which did not work. Finally to get the clay like stuff off of the scoop so I could hang it up I had to pull it off with a huge wad of paper towels. Not pleasant at all.

I do have to say that after I mixed the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter and Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with Unusual Odor Eliminating Carbon together they did a great job of keeping the smells to a minimum. After two times of having to predicament the litter scoop well-organized I decided not to mix the Swheat Scoop Cat Litter and the Fresh Step Scoopable Litter together ever again.

Alone the Sweat Scoop Cat Litter just did not do a good enough job covering the feces smell to even warrant buying it. A 14-pound box of Sweat Scoop Cat Litter is very affordable at around $8.99. I have even found it on sale with an attached coupon on the box for $2.00 off. It is definitely less dusty than the Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with Current Odor Eliminating Carbon, but alone I have to say the latter is the better of the two products.

A 14 lb box of Fresh Step Scoopable Litter with Fresh Odor Eliminating Carbon can be bought for about $9.99 and is pretty powerful well worth the investment. Although somewhat dusty it does a great job of providing a clean smelling litter. The box exclaims that you can scoop the same litter for a month without having to change it, but I do not recommend this. I think two weeks is the maximum I have been able to go between dumping out the Fresh Step Scoopable Litter and starting current. I do have two cats though and only one litter box.

Categorized in Whole Foods
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COQ10 for Heart Chakra Magic – Gum Disease Heart

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

COQ10 is a co-enzyme essential to every function in our bodies, as it is found everywhere within our systems. It declines after age 20, and is unusually low in people who have congestive heart failure, strokes, heart attacks, and it helps with gum disease, Parkinson’s Disease, kidney failure, high blood pressure, and much more. Though the medical profession at times like to be ultra cautious and label the studies as being preliminary and controversial, as indeed, there are some studies which don’t confirm everything COQ10 is reputed to do, overall, the effectiveness of COQ10 is so vast, it may pose somewhat of a threat to the medical profession which prescribes Warfarin, Beta-blockers, statins, and other drugs which lower the COQ10 levels in the body, thus causing more destruction of heart tissue, which is what they are supposedly there to end. And the Japanese were showing way back in 1967 that it helped heart failure, and other tests have shown through the years that they were proper.

The liver, skeletal muscles, and heart all become weakened as COQ10 decreases with age, but the heart has the most concentration of it, and so is most affected by its decrease, or supplementation. COQ10 plays a major role in energy and ATP production within the mitochondria. So, if our sense of bringing in energy from the Source has dried up, and we aren’t manufacturing the life-force we want, are feeling drained, feel the need to drain others to pull in the life-force, or want to strengthen our boundaries against others doing that to us, COQ10 can help us manifest with enough energy to effect magic. We can conceptually know how to advance the Source, diagram in Universal energy from the Universe, and within our own inner core. But the ability to do that physically doesn’t always go along with the plan, and sure supplements and health practices are helpful in being a more grand magician.

COQ10 makes a person’s body younger, as well as his disposition more willful, remakes his heart, helps him open again. He doesn’t feel stuck in the aged patterns, having to settle for what he once felt, but can breathe more deeply when taking the supplement, with more endurance, more bioenergetic magnetism. People with heart failure can at times bounce aid from it, their heart muscles improving, and enlarged hearts can sometimes shrink, and even people with AIDs, cancer who are expected to die can often have their lives recovered.

So, if COQ10 can change the future for someone about to die, can rebuild the heart and ability to produce energy, what can it do for the subtle bodies? Our auras both affect our physical bodies, and are affected by them. The aura’s size is very dependent on the amount of energy produced in the body. Taking COQ10 can make the aura larger, more gargantuan, alive, and this is something I have seen personally in people taking it. I have come to recommend it to people when my aura viewing shows me they have some weakening in their heart muscle, but also when they are going into therapy, such as hypnotherapy, because to make changes in our lives, we need to do changes physically, and COQ10 allows the determination and the ability to imagine with feeling what the new self could be like.

I recommend COQ10 for people especially if they are working on releasing old habit patterns around love, anything related to the heart chakra. People literally can damage their heart muscles through romantic woes, and they also can easily get a sense of a burden weighing on their chests because the lymph will congest in between the ribs on the chest. This occurs in order to switch off the overly intense feelings in the meridians, to help numb the feelings. The heart chakra is similar in that it can become torn, porous, going off to one side, congested with astral lymph, whirling too slowly and out of harmony. It becomes hard to have the same feeling of hope about love one had in youth, after having things go wrong more than once in relationships that are meaningful emotionally, whether related to family, sexuality, work or, friendship.

People need to believe a change is possible and put their attention on feeling as if it had already happened, channel energy into that particular quantum parallel future and make it be the one they grow into inhabiting. Taking COQ10 at the same time can help do that to create magical changes.

Because Tantra Yoga has a lot to do with opening the heart chakra to expanded love, to the spirit, to modern transformations, COQ10 may be helpful for people exploring that mystical spiritual path. Tantra Yoga also has to do with increasing the energy in the body, becoming energy itself, cultivating awareness of the Universal Energy and the Source within the self. So COQ10 can help that sensation be more real. Doing the exercises helps make the astral pathways to hold more subtle energies. By working out the nadis, and taking COQ10 at the same time, we can learn to hold more life force energy within the body, and the aura.

Having a stronger aura with more bioelectricity available through the pulsing of the heart, which is the main producer of our life force energy, along with the mitochondria, helps us have stronger boundaries, so we are safer around others who don’t have enough energy, and can, depending on their personalities, especially, vampirize the energy of anyone who will let them. If you are obsolete to being around someone who says statements to bother you, and get you upset, particularly related to matters of the heart, and then you search for yourself being tired, you may well want to start taking some COQ10 and see how you feel. They may not be able to disturb your heart chakra as noteworthy, or poke through the boundaries of your strong aura to drain you.

If you want to gather love, to believe it’s possible, rather than letting yourself be resigned, as your heart muscle grows weaker, your energy levels falling, take COQ10 and see if you feel more optimism, more heart chakra joy that makes you more appealing, broadcasting heart ckakra energy that someone else will want to section.

If you are falling in like and want to really be begin to the full experience, to start over without fear of old patterns or deficiencies, want to be more full-on in your romance, try COQ10 plus the magic of intent, belief, along with hypnotherapy or Tantra or some other body/mind work such as Jin Shin Do, which works with the meridians to change patterns and open up energy flow.

If you want to make magical effects in the world, using your heart to spread quantum love through the cosmos, try some COQ10 to help your heart harmonize and be strong enough to take on the vibrations of the world.

I tend to recommend NuNaturals brain, liquid Max Absorb CoQ10, which is in glycerin and grain alcohol. Any COQ10 should be taken with food containing fat to be better absorbed. NuNaturals Max Absorb CoQ10 is 5 times more bio-available than COQ10 normally sold in gelcaps, tablets, or capsules. http://www.nunaturals.com/products/coq10.html

Any supplement, food, or drink works better when it is charged. Carolyn Christy, who is my partner in our Auric Investigative Team, have seen it work over and over in double blind studies that when anyone charging a substance then takes it, his aura grows suddenly very large, bright, clarified, healthier, and more vibrant. This is very helpful when doing magic, such as giving more energy to the future you want for yourself or someone else.

When partners in love charge COQ10 in the lovely, tasty liquid form it comes in with NuNaturals, for example, and take it together as part of a Tantric exercise, maybe keeping the bottle on their altar, they can easily amplify the harmonics of the heart together to create magical love and expanded transformations. Charging a substance is done by tuning into the energy of the Source–more easily done if you are taking COQ10, and resonating with it, turning your eyes upward to look into your higher chakras, which are more attuned to that energy, and being a conduit for it to come through you, and into the substance in your hands. The substance contains more life-changing, magical energy, and when you ingest it, so do you. More energy to love with.

Categorized in Gum Disease Diabetes
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Fat Burning Diet Plan for Men – Whole Foods Diet Plan

Posted by admin on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

If you are a man who wants to lose weight, any diet will do as long it results in fewer calories being taken in than are expended. However, low-carbohydrate diets like the Atkins Diet (www.atkins.com) that severely limit certain carbohydrates and sugars while allowing unlimited amounts of lean protein, like beef, fish, poultry, pork and soy products, are designed to burn more fat, more quickly.

Many people swear by low-carbohydrate diets as the most effective fat burning diet plans. Others, who crave the breads, pastas, and other carbohydrates not included in or diminutive by these diets, find low-carbohydrate diets difficult to maintain. Some men, especially meat lovers who think a thick slab of steak is the perfect meal, may find low-carbohydrate fat burning diets ideal.

The science behind low-carbohydrate diets is fairly straightforward. When you eat carbohydrates, they are usually turned into energy fairly quickly by the body. If carbohydrate intake is severely miniature, the body must rely on stored stout for energy and, as a result, it begins to burn more fat. In addition, this process produces compounds called ketones that initially make a feeling of well being or euphoria, making it easier to stick to the diet.

There are many ways to structure a low-carbohydrate, fat burning diet for men so that it best suits their preferences and lifestyles. Most simply, the Atkins Diet itself is based on a food pyramid (see www.atkins.com/food-pyramid) with proteins, such as beef, fish, poultry, pork and soy products, at the base. To lose weight, dieters are told to initially eat lean proteins from the dismal of the pyramid, as well as those in the group just above the base, which includes leafy greens, vegetables and healthy oils. As they continue to diet and lose weight, they can move up the pyramid and add other foods to their diets, including certain fruits, seed oils, nuts, legumes, cheese and dairy products and, at the top of the pyramid, whole grain foods.

For men who want a more detailed rotund burning diet conception, the Atkins approach includes four phases, induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and maintenance that roughly coincide with movement up the food pyramid described above. In phase 1, the dieter eats lean proteins and some vegetables while banishing baked goods, breads and pastas, in phases 2 and 3 more “good” carbohydrates are added to the diet until weight stabilizes and the dieter moves on the weight maintenance phase.

One of the keys to the Atkins Diet is counting carbohydrates, or net carbs. Net carbs are the carbohydrate content of a food less its fiber dispute. In this diet plan some carbs are “good” like nutrient-rich vegetables and some are “bad” like refined foods, white bread, white rice, and milk. As carbohydrates are added to the diet, the emphasis is on “gracious” carbs.

Whether you decide to try a low-carbohydrate fat burning diet like the Atkins Diet or another diet understanding, experts say that the most effective weight loss plan for men is one that includes exercise not just a change in eating habits, so men should be sure to develop an exercise plan along with their diet plan.

Sources:

www.shapefit.com, Daily Fat Loss Meal Plans – Fat Burning Foods to Help You Lose Weight

www.atkins.com, Atkins – How Atkins Works

http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/Atkinsdiet_science.htm

Categorized in Whole Foods Weight Loss
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